The Robbers | Page 2

run a tilt at its most sacred truths. The noble simplicity
of holy writ must needs be abused and turned into ridicule at the daily
assemblies of the so-called wits; for what is there so holy and serious
that will not raise a laugh if a false sense be attached to it? Let me hope

that I shall have rendered no inconsiderable service to the cause of true
religion and morality in holding up these wanton misbelievers to the
detestation of society, under the form of the most despicable robbers.
But still more. I have made these said immoral characters to stand out
favorably in particular points, and even in some measure to compensate
by qualities of the head for what they are deficient in those of the heart.
Herein I have done no more than literally copy nature. Every man, even
the most depraved, bears in some degree the impress of the Almighty's
image, and perhaps the greatest villain is not farther removed from the
most upright man than the petty offender; for the moral forces keep
even pace with the powers of the mind, and the greater the capacity
bestowed on man, the greater and more enormous becomes his
misapplication of it; the more responsible is he for his errors.
The "Adramelech" of Klopstock (in his Messiah) awakens in us a
feeling in which admiration is blended with detestation. We follow
Milton's Satan with shuddering wonder through the pathless realms of
chaos. The Medea of the old dramatists is, in spite of all her crimes, a
great and wondrous woman, and Shakespeare's Richard III. is sure to
excite the admiration of the reader, much as he would hate the reality.
If it is to be my task to portray men as they are, I must at the same time
include their good qualities, of which even the most vicious are never
totally destitute. If I would warn mankind against the tiger, I must not
omit to describe his glossy, beautifully-marked skin, lest, owing to this
omission, the ferocious animal should not be recognized till too late.
Besides this, a man who is so utterly depraved as to be without a single
redeeming point is no meet subject for art, and would disgust rather
than excite the interest of the reader; who would turn over with
impatience the pages which concern him. A noble soul can no more
endure a succession of moral discords than the musical ear the grating
of knives upon glass.
And for this reason I should have been ill-advised in attempting to
bring my drama on the stage. A certain strength of mind is required
both on the part of the poet and the reader; in the former that he may
not disguise vice, in the latter that he may not suffer brilliant qualities

to beguile him into admiration of what is essentially detestable.
Whether the author has fulfilled his duty he leaves others to judge, that
his readers will perform theirs he by no means feels assured. The
vulgar--among whom I would not be understood to mean merely the
rabble--the vulgar I say (between ourselves) extend their influence far
around, and unfortunately--set the fashion. Too shortsighted to reach
my full meaning, too narrow-minded to comprehend the largeness of
my views, too disingenuous to admit my moral aim--they will, I fear,
almost frustrate my good intentions, and pretend to discover in my
work an apology for the very vice which it has been my object to
condemn, and will perhaps make the poor poet, to whom anything
rather than justice is usually accorded, responsible for his simplicity.
Thus we have a Da capo of the old story of Democritus and the
Abderitans, and our worthy Hippocrates would needs exhaust whole
plantations of hellebore, were it proposed to remedy this mischief by a
healing decoction.
[This alludes to the fable amusingly recorded by Wieland in his
Geschichte der Abderiten. The Abderitans, who were a byword among
the ancients for their extreme simplicity, are said to have sent express
for Hipocrates to cure their great townsman Democritus, whom they
believed to be out of his senses, because his sayings were beyond their
comprehension. Hippocrates, on conversing with Democritus, having at
once discovered that the cause lay with themselves, assembled the
senate and principal inhabitants in the market-place with the promise of
instructing them in the cure of Democritus. He then banteringly advised
them to import six shiploads of hellebore of the very best quality, and
on its arrival to distribute it among the citizens, at least seven pounds
per head, but to the senators double that quantity, as they were bound to
have an extra supply of sense. By the time these worthies discovered
that they had been laughed at, Hippocrates was out of their reach. The
story in