The Life of Friedrich Schiller

Life of Friedrich Schiller, by Thomas Carlyle

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Title: The Life of Friedrich Schiller Comprehending an Examination of His Works
Author: Thomas Carlyle
Release Date: October 27, 2007 [EBook #23209]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THOMAS CARLYLE'S
COLLECTED WORKS.
LIBRARY EDITION.
IN THIRTY VOLUMES.
VOL. V.
LIFE OF FRIEDRICH SCHILLER.
LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL (LIMITED), 11 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN.
[Illustration:
From a Miniature in the Possession of the Hofdame Fr?ulein von Kalb, in Berlin, taken while Schiller lived with the K?rners in Dresden.
London. Chapman & Hall.]

THE
LIFE OF FRIEDRICH SCHILLER
COMPREHENDING
AN EXAMINATION OF HIS WORKS.
BY
THOMAS CARLYLE.
Quique pii vates et Phoebo digna locuti. VIRGIL.
[1825.]
WITH SUPPLEMENT OF 1872.
LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL (LIMITED).

CONTENTS.
PAGE
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION vii
PART I. SCHILLER'S YOUTH. (1759-1784) 1
PART II. FROM HIS SETTLEMENT AT MANNHEIM TO HIS SETTLEMENT AT JENA. (1784-1790.) 49
PART III. FROM HIS SETTLEMENT AT JENA TO HIS DEATH. (1790-1805.) 117
SUPPLEMENT OF 1872. SCHILLER'S PARENTAGE, BOYHOOD, AND YOUTH 241
APPENDIX I. NO. 1. DANIEL SCHUBART 341 2. LETTERS OF SCHILLER 354 3. FRIENDSHIP WITH GOETHE 371 4. DEATH OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS 375
APPENDIX II. GOETHE'S INTRODUCTION TO GERMAN TRANSLATION OF THIS LIFE OF SCHILLER 379
SUMMARY AND INDEX 417

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.
[1845.]
The excuse for reprinting this somewhat insignificant Book is, that certain parties, of the pirate species, were preparing to reprint it for me. There are books, as there are horses, which a judicious owner, on fair survey of them, might prefer to adjust by at once shooting through the head: but in the case of books, owing to the pirate species, that is not possible. Remains therefore that at least dirty paper and errors of the press be guarded against; that a poor Book, which has still to walk this world, do walk in clean linen, so to speak, and pass its few and evil days with no blotches but its own adhering to it.
There have been various new Lives of Schiller since this one first saw the light;--great changes in our notions, informations, in our relations to the Life of Schiller, and to other things connected therewith, during that long time! Into which I could not in the least enter on the present occasion. Such errors, one or two, as lay corrigible on the surface, I have pointed out by here and there a Note as I read; but of errors that lay deeper there could no charge be taken: to break the surface, to tear-up the old substance, and model it anew, was a task that lay far from me,--that would have been frightful to me. What was written remains written; and the Reader, by way of constant commentary, when needed, has to say to himself, "It was written Twenty years ago." For newer instruction on Schiller's Biography he can consult the Schillers Leben of Madame von Wolzogen, which Goethe once called a Schiller Redivivus; the Briefwechsel zwischen Schiller und Goethe;--or, as a summary of the whole, and the readiest inlet to the general subject for an English reader, Sir Edward Bulwer's Sketch of Schiller's Life, a vigorous and lively piece of writing, prefixed to his Translations from Schiller.
The present little Book is very imperfect:--but it pretends also to be very harmless; it can innocently instruct those who are more ignorant than itself! To which ingenuous class, according to their wants and tastes, let it, with all good wishes, and hopes to meet afterwards in fruitfuler provinces, be heartily commended.
T. CARLYLE.
London, 7th May 1845.

PART I.
SCHILLER'S YOUTH (1759-1784).

PART FIRST.
[1759-1784.]
Among the writers of the concluding part of the last century there is none more deserving of our notice than Friedrich Schiller. Distinguished alike for the splendour of his intellectual faculties, and the elevation of his tastes and feelings, he has left behind him in his works a noble emblem of these great qualities: and the reputation which he thus enjoys, and has merited, excites our attention the more, on considering the circumstances under which it was acquired. Schiller had peculiar difficulties to strive with, and his success has likewise been peculiar. Much of his life was deformed by inquietude and disease, and it terminated at middle age; he composed in a language then scarcely settled into form, or admitted to a rank among the cultivated languages of Europe: yet his writings are remarkable for their extent and variety as well as their intrinsic excellence; and his own countrymen are not his only, or perhaps his principal admirers. It is difficult to collect or interpret the