The Life and Works of Friedrich Schiller | Page 3

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 'Na?ve 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 Sta?l--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
CHAPTER I
Parentage and Schooling
Nur, Vater, mir Ges?nge.
_From the poem 'Evening', 1776._
When the Austrian War of Succession came to an end, in the year 1748, a certain young Suabian who had been campaigning in the Lowlands as army doctor was left temporarily without employment. The man's name was Johann Kaspar Schiller; he was of good plebeian stock and had lately been a barber's apprentice,--a lot that he had accepted reluctantly when the poverty of a widowed mother compelled him to shift for himself at an early age. Having served his time and learned the trade of the barber-surgeon, he had joined a Bavarian regiment of hussars. Finding himself now suddenly at leisure, after the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, he mounted his horse and rode away to the land of his birth to visit his relations. Reaching Marbach--it was now the spring of 1749--he put up at the 'Golden Lion', an inn kept by a then prosperous baker named Kodweis. Here he fell in love with his landlord's daughter Dorothea, a girl of sixteen, and in the course of the summer married her. He was at this time about twenty-six years old. He now settled down In Marbach to practice his crude art, but the practice came to little and Kodweis soon lost his property in foolish speculation. So the quondam soldier fell