THE chief defect in this Tragedy is that it is written in an explanatory, colloquial, and prosaic style ; but this is what may be almost called the mortal sin of German literature ; it has never yet attained that laconic indication of the passions, which is best calculated to express their rapid, confused, and desperate course.
In other respects, Emilia Galotti is a masterpiece: the progress of the plot is truly dramatic, the contrast of the characters is finely imagined, and the feelings excited are among the noblest within the province of the tragic Muse. This piece only requires a master hand to lop away its superfluities, preserve its beauties, and link them in a quick and poetical succession, to render it perhaps the finest modern tragedy known to the stage.
Thomas Holcroft
quoted in The Mirror of Taste and Dramatic Censor, 1810
