The Life and Works of Friedrich Schiller

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 sc...

General characterization--The Schubart story--Schiller and Schubart--The contrasted brothers--Comparison with Klinger and Leisewitz--Influence of Rousseau and Goethe--Unlike ear...

Schiller's position at Stuttgart--Personal appearance--Convivial pleasures--Visits at Solitude--Revision of 'The Robbers' for publication--The two prefaces--Reception of 'The Ro...

General characterization--The historical Fiesco--Influence of Rousseau--The conflicting authorities--Fact and fiction in the play--Not really a republican tragedy--Character of...

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 Wolzo...

General characterization--English Beginnings of bourgeois tragedy--'Miss Sara Sampson'--Development of the tragedy of social conflict--Love in the age of sentimentalism--Roussea...

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 troubl...

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 he...

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 at...

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...

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...

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...

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--B...

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 es...

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 El...

General characterization--Preparatory studies--Difficulties of the subject--Study of Sophocles and Aristotle--Decision in favor of verse--Completion of the play--'Wallenstein's...

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--...

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...

Genesis of the play--General characterization--Disagreement of the critics--Relation to Sophocles--Substance of the plot--Ancients and moderns--Fate and responsibility--Schiller...

'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 i...

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 origin...

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--...

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 withou...

After leaving the academy Schiller soon began to look about for a publisher of his precious manuscript. Not finding one he presently decided to borrow money and print the play a...

So gewisz ich sein Werk verstehe, so musz er starke Dosen in Emeticis ebenso lieben als in Aestheticis, und ich möchte ihm lieber zehen Pferde als meine Frau zur Kur übergeben.-...

As we have seen, 'Fiesco' was written during the summer and fall of 1782. The following winter, having been rejected by the Mannheim stage, it was published as a literary drama....

When Schiller arrived at Mannheim, in the latter part of September, 1782, he was soon made aware that he had reckoned badly on the 'Greek climate of the Palatinate'. The friends...

Ich bin ein Edelmann--Lasz doch sehen, ob mein Adelbrief älter ist als der Risz zum unendlichen Weltall; oder mein Wappen gültiger ist als die Handschrift des Himmels in Louisen...

Die Schaubühne ist mehr als jede andere öffentliche Anstalt des Staats eine Schule der praktischen Weisheit, ein Wegweiser, durch das bürgerliche Leben, ein unfehlbarer Schlüsse...

Gottfried Körner, father of the more famous Theodor, was some three years older than Schiller and belonged to an opulent and distinguished family. His father was a high church d...

With the publication of 'Don Carlos' Schiller's literary reputation entered upon a new phase. Hitherto he had been known as a playwright in whom the passion for strong effects o...

The Weimar of Schiller's first acquaintance--arrived there July 21, 1787--consisted of a petty provincial court plus an unsightly village. The inhabitants numbered about six tho...

Der Mensch verwandelt sich und flieht von der Bühne, seine Meinungen verwandeln sich und fliehen mit ihm; die Geschichte allein bleibt unausgesetzt auf der Bühne, eine unsterbli...

Zu einer Zeit, wo das Leben anfing, mir seinen ganzen Wert zu zeigen, wo ich nahe dabei war, zwischen Vernunft und Phantasie in mir ein zartes und ewiges Band zu knüpfen,... nah...

From a quotation in the preceding chapter we have seen what Schiller hoped for when he resolved to grapple with the Kantian philosophy. He was in pursuit of that which would hel...

Nun kann ich aber hoffen, dasz wir, so viel von dem Wege noch übrig sein mag, in Gemeinschaft durchwandeln werden, und mit um so gröszerem Gewinn, da die letzten Gefährten auf e...

So führt zu seiner Jugend Hütten, Zu seiner Unschuld reinem Glück, Vom fernen Ausland fremder Sitten Den Flüchtling der Gesang zurück, In der Natur getreuen Armen Von kalten Reg...

The great play which signalizes the return of Schiller to dramatic poetry must be accounted upon the whole his masterpiece. To be sure it is less popular than 'Tell' and less im...

After the completion of 'Wallenstein', in the spring of 1799, Schiller was not long in selecting a new dramatic theme. The unwonted leisure was irksome to him, so that he felt l...

It was well observed by Wilhelm von Humboldt that Schiller's plays are not repetitions of the same thing, such as talent is wont to produce when it has once met with a success,...

After the completion of 'The Maid of Orleans', in the spring of 1801, Schiller found himself once more the unhappy victim of leisure. A new task was needed to make life tolerabl...

Schiller's last play, like his first, was inspired by the Goddess of Freedom, but what a difference between the wild-eyed bacchante of the earlier day and the decorous muse of '...

Our story of Schiller's life draws to a close. After the completion of 'William Tell' his tireless energy of production found its next theme in the story of Dmitri, the reputed...

Rather more than in other countries it is the fashion in Germany to regard literature under a national aspect, and to judge of writers not so much according to their power of ti...