Dramaturgie_ first revolted against the French domination, the
strength of which may be judged from the list there given of works
performed in the Hamburg theatre from April to July 1767. Of the
fifty-two plays there enumerated, fifteen were German, thirty-five
French, and two from other languages--only one being English. In
itself the French influence was not altogether for evil; what was bad
was the unlimited sway of a foreign art. The French sense for elegance
of form is far more acute than that of either Germans or Englishmen,
but with the Louis Quatorze dramatists it had degenerated into
pedantry. The "Unities," rightly understood, are a very important
feature of every drama. Aristotle has treated this much vexed question
with his customary Hellenic moderation. Inner unity is an
indispensable qualification of every work of art; dramatic unity is
technically called Unity of Action, that is, the mind must be able to
receive the work as a whole, and it must have a beginning, a middle,
and an end. Only nature is at once varied and eternal. Out of this
_may_ proceed the Unities of Time and Place, but so far from
being obligatory they were not even always observed in the Greek
tragic drama itself, where they seem specially called for by the
presence of the chorus and where the fact that a dramatic performance
was always a competition made some restrictions binding upon all
competitors necessary. Aristotle's only rule about time is that the
length must be such that it can be easily comprehended (_Poet._,
vii. 1450_b_), and he adds in a general way that in his day
tragedy generally tried as far as possible to keep within one
revolution of the sun, or thereabouts (_Ib._, v. 1449_b_).
Of the third Unity, that of Place, he says nothing at all.

Aristotle's eminently practical generalizations of the features of the
drama as it existed in Athens in his day were exalted by the French