Chapter I: Preface

I have wished to give a trustworthy account of Schiller and his works on a scale large enough to permit the doing of something like justice to his great name, but not so large as in itself to kill all hope and chance of readableness. By a trustworthy account I mean one that is accurate in the matters of fact and sane in the matters of judgment. That there is room for an English book thus conceived will be readily granted, I imagine, by all those who know. At any rate Schiller is one of those writers of whom a new appreciation, from time to time, will always be in order.

I have thought it important that my work, while taking due note of recent German scholarship, should rest throughout on fresh and independent study. Accordingly, among all the many books that have aided me more or less, I have had in hand most often, next to the works of Schiller, the collection of his letters, as admirably edited by Jonas. Among the German biographers I owe the most to Minor, Weltrich and Brahm, for the period covered by their several works; for the later years, to Wychgram and Harnack. Earlier biographers, notably Hoffmeister and Palleske, have also been found helpful here and there.

Of course I have not flattered myself, in writing of a man whose uneventful career has repeatedly been explored in every nook and cranny, with any hope of adding materially to the tale of mere fact. One who gleans after Minor and Weltrich and Wychgram will find little but chaff, and I have tried to avoid the garnering of chaff. One of my chief perplexities, accordingly, has been to decide what to omit. If there shall be those who look for what they do not find, or find what they did not expect, I can only say that the question of perspective, of the relative importance of things, has all along received my careful attention. Thoroughness is very alluring, but life is short and some things must be taken for granted or treated as negligible. Otherwise one runs a risk, as German experience proves, of beginning and never finishing.

My great concern has been with the works of Schiller--to interpret them as the expression of an interesting individuality and an interesting epoch. It is now some twenty years since I first came under the Weimarian spell, and during that time my feeling for Schiller has undergone vicissitudes not unlike those described by Brahm in a passage quoted at the very end of this volume. At no time, indeed, could I truthfully have called myself a "Schiller-hater", but there was a time, certainly, when it seemed to me that he was very much overestimated by his countrymen; when my mind was very hospitable to demonstrations of his artistic shortcoming. Time has brought a different temper, and this book is the child of what I deem the wiser disposition.

For the poet who wins the heart of a great people and holds it for a century is right; there is nothing more to be said, so far as concerns his title to renown. The creative achievement is far more precious and important than any possible criticism of it. This does not mean that in dealing with such a poet the critic is in duty bound to abdicate his lower function and to let his scruples melt away in the warm water of a friendly partisanship; it means only that he will be best occupied, speaking generally, in a conscientious attempt to see the man as he was, to "experience the savor of him", and to understand the national temperament to which he has endeared himself.

This, I hope, defines sufficiently the spirit in which I have written. In discussing the plays I have endeavored to deal with them in a large way, laying hold of each where it is most interesting, and not caring to be either systematic or exhaustive. Questions of minute and technical scholarship, such as have their proper place in a learned monograph, or in the introduction and notes to an edition of the text, have been avoided on principle. Everywhere--even in the difficult thirteenth chapter--my aim has been to disengage and bring clearly into view the essential, distinctive character of Schiller's work; and where I have had to fear either that the professional scholar would frown at my sins of omission, or that the mere lover of literature would yawn at my sins of commission, I have boldly accepted the first-named horn of the dilemma.

New York, Nov. 6, 1901.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

Parentage and Schooling

Captain Schiller and his wife--Sojourn at Lorch--Traits of Friedrich's childhood--Removal to Ludwigsburg--Karl Eugen, Duke of Württemberg--Impressions from court, theater and school--Poetic beginnings--Duke Karl's change of heart--Franziska von Hohenheim--The Academy at Solitude--Schiller at the Academy--School exercises--From law to medicine--Early poems and orations--An ardent friend--Books read and their effect--Dramatic plans--Dissertation rejected--Genesis of 'The Robbers'--Morbid melancholy--Release from the Academy--Value of the education received.

CHAPTER II

The Robbers

General characterization--The Schubart story--Schiller and Schubart--The contrasted brothers--Comparison with Klinger and Leisewitz--Influence of Rousseau and Goethe--Unlike earlier attacks on the social order--Outlawry in the eighteenth century--The noble bandit in literature--Karl Moor's crazy ambition--His sentimentalism--Schiller's sympathy with his hero--Character of Franz--Influence of Shakespeare--Ethical attitude of Franz--A dull villain--Character of Amalia--The subordinate outlaws--A powerful stage-play--Defects and merits.

CHAPTER III

The Stuttgart Medicus

Schiller's position at Stuttgart--Personal appearance--Convivial pleasures--Visits at Solitude--Revision of 'The Robbers' for publication--The two prefaces--Reception of 'The Robbers'--A stage-version prepared for Dalberg--Changes in the stage-version--Popularity of the play--Medicus and poet--The 'Anthology' of 1782--Character of Schiller's youthful verse--Various poems considered--The songs to Laura--Poetic promise of the 'Anthology'--Journalistic enterprises--Schiller as a critic of himself--Quarrel with Duke Karl--The Swiss imbroglio--The duke implacable--Flight from Stuttgart.

CHAPTER IV

The Conspiracy of Fiesco at Genoa

General characterization--The historical Fiesco--Influence of Rousseau--The conflicting authorities--Fact and fiction in the play--Not really a republican tragedy--Character of Fiesco--Of Verrina--Schiller's vacillation--Fiesco's inconsistency--Lack of historical lucidity--The changed conclusion--Weak and strong points--Fiesco and the Moor--The female characters--Extravagant diction.

CHAPTER V

The Fugitive in Hiding

Reception at Mannheim--An elocutionary failure--'Fiesco' rejected by Dalberg--Refuge sought in Bauerbach--A new friend--Relations with outside world--Interest in Lotte von Wolzogen--Literary projects and employments--Beginnings of 'Don Carlos'--Friendly overtures from Dalberg--Work upon 'Louise Miller'--Jealousy and resignation--Flutterings of the heart--Departure from Bauerbach with new play completed.

CHAPTER VI

Cabal and Love

General characterization--English Beginnings of bourgeois tragedy--'Miss Sara Sampson'--Development of the tragedy of social conflict--Love in the age of sentimentalism--Rousseau and the social conflict--Wagner and Lenz--Diderot's 'Father of the Family'--Gemmingen's 'Head of the House'--Evolution of Schiller's plan--Debt to predecessors--Hints from Wagner and Lessing and 'Siegwart'--Weakness of the tragic conclusion--Character of Louise--Her religious sentimentalism--Fearsomeness--Lack of mother-wit--A cold heroine--Character of Ferdinand--Sentimental extravagance--Father and son--Prototypes of President von Walter.

CHAPTER VII

Theater poet in Mannheim

Mannheim in 1783--Dalberg and his theater--The situation on Schiller's arrival--Letter to Frau von Wolzogen--Contract with Dalberg--Illness and disappointments--Pecuniary troubles--'Fiesco' on the stage--Triumph of 'Cabal and Love'--Critical notices--Discourse on the theater--Contract with Dalberg not renewed--Disappointments and distractions--Relations to women--Charlotte von Kalb--The poems 'Resignation' and 'Radicalism of Passion'--A friendly message from Leipzig--Project of the _Rhenish Thalia_--Honored by the Duke of Weimar--Unhappiness and longing for friendship--Escape from Mannheim.

CHAPTER VIII

The Boon of Friendship

Gottfried Körner and the Stock sisters--Huber--Schiller's arrival in Leipzig--A proposal of marriage--Sojourn at Gohlis--Schiller and Körner--An enthusiastic letter--Körner's helpfulness--With the new friends in Dresden--Influence of Körner--A poetic 'Petition'--The 'Song to Joy'--Contributions to the _Thalia_--Quickened interest in history--Letters of Julius and Raphael--'The Ghostseer' begun--Unwillingness to leave Dresden--A dramatic skit--Affair with Henriette von Arnim--From Dresden to Weimar.

CHAPTER IX

Don Carlos

Poetic merit of 'Don Carlos'--Its slow genesis--Schiller's explanation--St. Réal's 'Dom Carlos'--The original plan--Ripening influences--Decision in favor of verse--Change of attitude toward Carlos and Philip--Influence of Körner--Completion of the play--Character of Prince Carlos--The Marquis of Posa--Posa and the king--Posa's heroics in the last two acts--Character of Philip--General estimate.

CHAPTER X

Anchored in Thuringia

Weimar in Schiller's time--Renewal of relations with Charlotte von Kalb--First meeting with Herder and Wieland--Visit to Jena--Pleased with Weimar--New literary pursuits--Visit to Meiningen and introduction to the Lengefeld family--Charlotte von Lengefeld--A summer idyl--Awakening interest in the Greeks--First meeting with Goethe--Appointed professor at Jena--Bitterness toward Goethe--Love, betrothal and marriage--'The Gods of Greece'--'The Artists'--'The Ghostseer'--The 'Letters on Don Carlos'--Review of 'Egmont'--'The Misanthrope'--Translations from Euripides and other minor writings.

CHAPTER XI

Historical Writings

Schiller's merit as a historian--Genesis of 'The Defection of the Netherlands'--The author's self-confidence--His readableness--Freedom the animating idea--Attitude toward past and present--Position as a historian--Too little regard for the fact--First lecture at Jena--Influence of Kant--Theory of the Fall--The 'Historical Memoirs'--Inchoate Romanticism--'History of the Thirty Years' War'--Skill in narrating--Conception of the war as a struggle for freedom--View of Gustav Adolf.

CHAPTER XII

Dark Days Within and Without

A happy year--Disastrous illness in January, 1791--Feud with Bürger--Interest in epic poetry--Second illness and desperate plight--Help from Denmark--Resolution to master Kant's philosophy--Visit to Suabia--Enterprise of the _Horen_--Attitude toward the Revolution--Sympathy for Louis XVI.--Prediction of Napoleon--Made a citizen of the French Republic--Disgust with politics--Program of the _Horen_--Genius and vocation.

CHAPTER XIII

Aesthetic Writings

Value of philosophy to a poet--Goethe's opinion--Schiller's early philosophizing--The essays on Tragedy--Plan of 'Kallias'--Kant's aesthetics--Schiller's divergence from Kant--Beauty identified with freedom-in-the-appearance--Explication of the theory--Essay on 'Winsomeness and Dignity'--Essay on 'The Sublime'--Remarks on Schiller's general method--Letters to the Duke of Augustenburg--The 'Letters on Aesthetic Education'--Some minor papers--Essay on 'Naïve and Sentimental Poetry'.

CHAPTER XIV

The Great Duumvirate

Goethe and Schiller--Six years of aloofness--Beginning of intimacy--The 'happy event'--Campaign for the conquest of Goethe---Schiller, on Goethe's genius--A friendly relation established--Comparison of the duumvirs--Fortunes of the _Horen_--Return to poetry--Significance of the essay on 'Naive and Sentimental Poetry'--Goethe on Schiller's theory--Enemies assail the _Horen_--The Xenia planned in retaliation--A militant league formed--The fusillade of the Xenia--Effect of the Xenia--Return to the drama--Further relations of Goethe and Schiller.

CHAPTER XV

Later Poems

General character of Schiller's poetry--'The Veiled Image at Sais'--'The Ideal and Life'--Idealism of Goethe and Schiller--'The Walk'--Poems of 1796--'Dignity of Women'--'The Eleusinian Festival'--The ballads--Attitude toward the present--Lyrics of thought--'The Maiden's Lament'--Popularity of Schiller's cultural poems--'The Song of the Bell'--Latest poems.

CHAPTER XVI

Wallenstein

General characterization--Preparatory studies--Difficulties of the subject--Study of Sophocles and Aristotle--Decision in favor of verse--Completion of the play--'Wallenstein's Camp'--The historical Wallenstein--Schiller's artistic achievement--Character of the hero--His impressiveness--Effect of contrast--Octavio Piccolomini--Max Piccolomini--Max and Thekla--Lyrical passages--Absence of humor and irony.

CHAPTER XVII

Mary Stuart

Genesis of the play--Schiller's removal to Weimar--'Mary Stuart' characterized--The fundamental difficulty--Unhistorical inventions--Effect of these--The meeting of the queens--Character of Elizabeth--Romantic tendencies--Mary conceived as a purified sufferer--Pathos of the conclusion--Ugly portrait of Elizabeth accounted for--The historical background--Dramatic qualities--Character of Mortimer.

CHAPTER XVIII

The Maid of Orleans

Variety in Schiller's work--Genesis of 'The Maid of Orleans'--Schiller's Johanna--Miraculous elements--Attitude of the critics--Difficulty of the subject--Johanna's tragic guilt--Her supernatural power--The scene with Lionel--Schiller's poetic intention--A drama of patriotism--The subordinate characters--Excellence of the composition.

CHAPTER XIX

The Bride of Messina

Genesis of the play--General characterization--Disagreement of the critics--Relation to Sophocles--Substance of the plot--Ancients and moderns--Fate and responsibility--Schiller's invention--Unnaturalness of the action--Strange conduct of Don Manuel, Beatrice and the mother--Lavish use of silence--Schiller's contempt of realism--Don Cesar's expiatory death the real tragedy--Use of the fate idea--Apologia for the chorus--Poetic splendor.

CHAPTER XX

William Tell

'Tell' and 'The Robbers'--General characterization--Genesis--Attention to local color--An interruption--Success on the stage--The theme of 'Tell'--A drama of freedom--The play intensely human--Goodness of the exposition--Departures from usual method--Character of Tell--The apple-shooting scene--The scene in the 'hollow way'--Tell's long soliloquy--Introduction of Parricida--Bertha and Rudenz.

CHAPTER XXI

The End.--Unfinished Plays and Adaptations

A Russian theme chosen--Berlin negotiations--Work on 'Demetrius'--'The Homage of the Arts'--Last illness and death--The unfinished 'Demetrius'--The historical Dmitri--The original plan modified--Character of the hero--Poetic promise of 'Demetrius'--'Warbeck'--'The Princess of Celle'--'The Knights of Malta'--Other unfinished plays--Adaptation of 'Egmont'--Of 'Nathan the Wise'--Of 'Macbeth'--Of 'Turandot'--Interest in the French drama--Adaptations from the French.

CHAPTER XXII

The Verdict of Posterity

Schiller a national poet--His idealized personality--Estimate of Dannecker--Of Madame de Staël--Goethe's 'Epilogue'--Controversy over Goethe and Schiller--Attitude of Schlegel--Of Menzel--Goethe's loyalty to his friend--The mid-century epoch--Unreasonable criticism--Interesting prophecy of Gervinus--Schiller's aesthetic idealism often misunderstood--Schiller as a friend of the people--Partisan misconceptions--The enthusiasm of 1859--Epoch of the philologers--Present opinion of Schiller--Conclusion.

LIVE AND WORKS OF SCHILLER