The Life and Works of Friedrich Schiller | Page 8

very modestly in the year 1770 by gathering a
few boys, the sons of officers, at his castle called Solitude, and
undertaking to provide for their instruction in gardening and forestry.
This Castle Solitude was itself an outcome of the same lordly mood
that had led to the removal of the court to Ludwigsburg. It was situated
on a wooded height some six miles west of Stuttgart. Here, by means of
forced labor and at enormous expense,--and this was only one of many
similar building enterprises,--he had cleared a site in the forest and
erected a huge palace which, according to the inscription over the door,
was to be 'devoted to tranquillity'. But how was a prince to enjoy
tranquillity without the necessaries of life? In a short time a score of
other buildings, including an opera-house and a barracks, had sprung
up about the castle in the woods, while an immense outlying tract had
been converted into a park with exotic attractions in the style of the
time. Here, then, was need of expert forestry--whence the opening of
the school as aforesaid. Once started, it became the duke's special pet
and pride. His immense energy had found a new fad--that of the
schoolmaster. He was bent on having a model training-school for the
public service. In his own house, under his own eye, he proposed to
mould the future servants of the state like potter's clay. In this way he
would have them as he wanted them. To provide the clay for his
experiment he began to look around for promising boys, and thus his
eye fell on Friedrich Schiller. Summoning the father and making some
gracious inquiries, he offered to provide for the boy's education at the
new school. The anxious captain, knowing that divinity was not to be
on the program at Castle Solitude, sought to evade his sovereign's
kindness by pleading that Fritz had set his heart upon the service of the
church. The reply was that something else, law for example, would no
doubt do as well. Resistance to the earthly Providence was not to be

thought of by a man in Captain Schiller's position; and so the step was
taken which deprived some Suabian flock of a shepherd and gave the
world instead a great poet.
It was on the 17th of January, 1773, that schoolboy Schiller, with
disappointment in his heart, said farewell to his tearful mother and took
his cold way up the long avenue which led from Ludwigsburg to Castle
Solitude. According to the official record he arrived there with a
chillblain, an eruption of the scalp, fourteen Latin books, and
forty-three kreutzers in money. Soon afterwards his father signed a
document whereby he renounced all control of the boy and left him in
the hands of his prince.
The school at Solitude had now come to be known as the Military
Academy, and well it deserved its name. The duke himself was the
supreme authority in large matters and in small. The nominal head,
called the intendant, was a high military officer who had a sufficient
detail of majors, captains and lower officers to assist him in
maintaining discipline. Under the eye of these military potentates the
_élèves_, as they were called,--for the official language of the school
was French,--lived and moved in accordance with a rigid routine. They
rose at six and marched to the breakfast-room, where an overseer gave
them their orders to pray, to eat, to pray again, and then to march back.
Then there were lessons until one o'clock, when they prepared for the
solemn function of dinner. Dressed in the prescribed uniform,--a blue
coat with white breeches and waistcoat, a leather stock and a
three-cornered hat, with pendent queue and at each temple four little
puffs,--they marched to the dining-room and countermarched to their
places. When his Highness gave the command, _Dinez, messieurs_,
they fell to and ate. From two to four there were lessons again, then
exercise and study hours. At nine they were required to go to bed.
There were no vacations and few holidays. Visits to and from parents
were prohibited, and letters sent or received had to be submitted to the
Intendant. Books of a stirring character were proscribed, along with
tobacco and toothsome edibles, and quarters were often searched for
contraband articles. Whoso transgressed received a 'billet', which he
took to headquarters. Punishments were numerous, if not very severe,

and were sometimes administered by his Highness in person. The duke
wished his protégés to regard him as their father, but his system tended
to the encouragement not so much of honest gratitude as of rank
sycophancy. On occasion he could be very gracious and
condescending,--would take the youngsters into his carriage, give them
fatherly counsel, box their ears, suggest subjects for essays,