The Providence Journal, And Town And Country Advertiser

A letter from Berlin, inserted in one of our late London papers, gives the following brief Sketch of the History of Kotzebue, the German dramatist.

Kotzebue was born at Weimar. His father was private Secretary to the Duke. Having lost his father at a very early age, he went to Petersburg to the Prussian Ambassador, Count De Goertz, to whom he was related. The Count recommended him to the governor of Revel, as a person capable of superintending the education of his son. But Kotzebue's attention was occupied in a much greater degree by the daughter. The governor was at first highly incensed on discovering that he had seduced her affections: but finding no remedy for the evil he consented to their marriage; obtained for him the reversion of his own situation, and a diploma, conferring on him the dignity of Baron of the Roman Empire. His wife having died a few years after, Kotzebue honoured her memory with a superb elegy, and consoled himself with her loss by paying his addresses to a married woman, for whom he undertook to procure a divorce. In consequence of this transaction, he was obliged to fly from Revel, and take refuge at Vienna, where he was appointed sub-director of the national Theatre.