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 VOLUME XXII. 
 LIFE OF SCHILLER
 
 // was, not till July 21 si that Goethe was able to visit 
 ' — Jena ' ' 
 
 Photogravure from the drawing by W. Friedrich
 
 i
 
 %ift of ^ci^tlUr 
 
 BY 
 
 Heinrich Duntzer 
 
 Translated by 
 
 Percy E. Pinkerton 
 
 «*^- 
 
 Edited bv Nathan Haskell Dole 
 
 Boston *^ Francis A. Niccolls 
 & Company ^ Publishers
 
 lEtiition ©f (Sranti Huxr 
 
 This Ediiio7i is Limiled to Two Hundred and Fifty 
 Copies, of which this is copy 
 
 No. 54 
 
 Copyright, igo2 
 By Francis A. Niccoi.ls & Co. 
 
 Colonial ^rc8s 
 
 Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co. 
 
 Boston, Mass., U. S. A.
 
 n 
 
 Contents , a ^ ^ 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 Book I. Life at Home and at School 
 
 I. From 1723 to 1759 3 
 
 II. From 1759 to 1766 16 
 
 III. From 1767 to 1772 24 
 
 Book II. The Duke's Pupil 
 
 I. From 1773 to 1775 35 
 
 II. From 1775 to 1779 47 
 
 III. From 1779 to 1780 62 
 
 Book III. Army Surgeon and Poet 
 I. From December, 1780, to January, 1782 . . 75 
 
 II. From January to September, 1782 .... 92 
 
 Book IV. The Fugitive 
 I. From September to December, 1782 . . . 109 
 II. From December, 1782, to July, 1783 . . .119 
 
 Book V. The Playwright 
 I. From July, 1783, to May, 1784 . . . .139 
 II. From May, 1784, to April, 1785 . . . .157 
 
 Book VI. In Friendship's Lap 
 
 I. From April to September, 1785 .... 185 
 
 II. From September, 1785, to February, 1787 . . 194 
 
 III. From February to July, 1787 206 
 
 Book VII. Fresh Fields of Action 
 
 I. From July, 1787, to January, 1788 . . . 219 
 
 II. From February to November, 1788 . . . 235 
 III. From November, 1788, to May, 1789 . . . 256 
 
 vii
 
 viii CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 Book VIII. The Professorship 
 
 I. From May, 1789, to February, 1790 . . .271 
 
 II. From February, 1790, to October, 1791 . , 299 
 
 III. Froji October, 1791, to August, 1793 . . . 317 
 
 Book IX. Visiting Home 
 I. From August, 1793, to May, 1794 .... 341 
 
 Book X. On the Height 
 
 I. From May, 1794, to April, 1796 . . . ,357 
 
 II. From April, 1796, to April, 1799 . . . .386 
 
 III. From April, 1799, to March. 1804. . . .425 
 
 IV. From April, 1804, to May, 1805 , . . .479 
 
 The Life of Schiller.
 
 List of Illustrations 
 
 PAGE 
 
 "It was not till July 21st that Goethe was able to 
 VISIT Jena" {See page 362) . . . Frontispiece 
 
 Schiller Eeading the "Robbers" 62 
 
 Schiller in Loschwitz 194 
 
 Schiller in Stuttgart, 1794 349 
 
 Portrait of Schiller 426 
 
 Life of Schiller
 
 Book I. 
 Life at Home and at School
 
 The Life of Schiller 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 FROM 1723 TO 1759. 
 
 If we would have knowledge of the ancestry of our 
 ideal poet of freedom, we must, for the first, turn to 
 Bittenfeld, a parish of some importance, situate north- 
 east of where the Neckar is joined by the Rems. 
 There, in the latter half of the seventeenth century, 
 lived John Caspar Schiller, by trade a baker, but also 
 holding legal othce ; he migrated thither, it is thought, 
 from the village of Groszheppach, which lies to the 
 southeast of Bittenfeld, on the vine-clad banks of 
 the Rems. It may be that he was son to Ulrich 
 Schiller, whose father, James George, was born at 
 Groszheppach in 1587. The name Schiller was a 
 widely spread one. In South Germany, at the beginning 
 of the fifteenth century, a master-singer, one Jorg 
 Schiller (Schilher, Schilcher) won himself a name ; his 
 so-called " notes " or " tones " were specially admired. 
 The name literally signifies squint-eyed, squinting. 
 Farther on we shall see that the Rems Schillers were 
 probably related to a Tyrolese family of rank. John 
 Caspar Schiller, of Bittenfeld fame, died in 1687, aged 
 thirty-eight. John, his son, who, keeping to old custom, 
 had followed in his father's trade, rose to the rank of 
 
 3
 
 4 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 mayor. On the 30th of October, 1708, at the age 
 of twenty-eight, he niairied ; and on the 27th of 
 October, 1728, was born to him his eighth and young- 
 est child, John Caspar, the father of our poet. It was 
 intended tliat he should enter the Church, his elder 
 brother succeeding to the business. From a private 
 tutor he had already gained a first knowledge of Latin, 
 when, at the age of ten, his father died. This event 
 robbed him of all hope of receiving a scholarly educa- 
 tion ; his parent was but of slender fortune, and had 
 to leave many of his children without provision. The 
 boy's mother would have made a farmer of him, but 
 his aims being once set on something higher, he did 
 not rest until, at the end of five years, she had ap- 
 prenticed him to a monastery barber of the hamlet 
 of Denkendorf, with whom he was to study surgery. 
 Xor could the most menial duties crush out his love 
 of learning; contact with the pupils of the lower 
 monastery school brought what little Latin he knew 
 into use, and from the provost himself he gained no 
 slight acquaintance with botany. At the close of his 
 apprenticeship, he took service wdth a barber at Back- 
 nang, in this way to earn for himself means of travel. 
 At length, after journeying about, he found employ- 
 ment at a surgeon's in Lindau, on the Lake of Con- 
 stance. Soon, however, his master died, when he went 
 to Nordlingen, where he became apprentice to one 
 Cramer, a surgeon of the town ; together with the son 
 of his employer, he studied French, and also took 
 lessons in fencing. 
 
 When, upon the death of that unfortunate monarch, 
 Charles the Seventh, the Frangipani Hussars passed 
 through Nordliugen on their way to the Netherlands, 
 Schiller was suddenly seized with a desire to join their 
 ranks as regimental surgeon. No vacancy offered 
 itself ; nevertheless he was permitted to accompany 
 the regiment. Of the money paid to him for prov-
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER S 
 
 ender, he managed to save somewhat ; the fees for 
 two successful cures served to support him while in 
 Brussels. Between that place and Charleroi he fell 
 into the hands of the invading French. Being fortu- 
 nate enough to escape execution as a spy, he was forced 
 at Ghent to enter their ranks as a private soldier. 
 Thus he once more came to Brussels ; upon the cession 
 of Antwerp and Bergen, he was among those who 
 advanced on Charleroi. So far had he won the trust 
 and confidence of his superiors, that to him was 
 allotted the duty of collecting rations from the sur- 
 rounding villages. Fortunately, while thus engaged, 
 the Austrians took him prisoner ; they at once gave 
 him a free pass to his regiment, which, after much 
 peril and hardship, he reached, shortly before the dis- 
 astrous battle of Eocoux. Now at length, after many 
 a misadventure, the post for which he had longed 
 became his; he was appointed regimental surgeon 
 with a salary of thirty gulden, besides two ducats 
 medicine-money. At the outset, however, the cost of 
 horse and uniform necessitated an expenditure of two 
 hundred gulden, a loan that he was able to repay with 
 the proceeds derived from extraneous practice. 
 
 In April, 1747, the regiment was again under orders. 
 
 " My inborn love of incessant activity," he himself 
 relates, " led me on to ask ofl&cial permission whether, 
 in common with the sergeants, I might conduct differ- 
 ent expeditions and reconnaissances. Under the com- 
 mand of an officer, this was accorded to me, and many 
 were the rides I had, often returning with booty, of 
 which, however, I was now and again despoiled." 
 
 Once, when the regiment was attacked, Schiller's 
 horse was shot from under him. He remarks : 
 " Wounds received in action or in single combat, if 
 they do not prevent the use of one's limbs, should not 
 be heeded, much less bragged of ; the case is simply 
 one of give and take."
 
 6 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 The llittmeister of his troop became so attached to 
 the brave aud enterprising surgeon, that he would not 
 part from him, even making him his companion on 
 a visit to The Hague. Maastricht was at that time 
 closely besieged by the French, when, on 30th of 
 April, 1748, the peace preliminaries were published 
 at Aix-la-Chapelle. Schiller, then at Oudenbosch with 
 the so-called Little Army, was afterward quartered 
 with his Eittmeister at Borckel. They came to Lon- 
 don together, returning whence, they spent a short 
 time at Amsterdam, at The Hague. In this way John 
 Caspar managed to see a good bit of the world. Most 
 of his regiment was now disbanded ; he felt a longing 
 for home, where in Neckarrems his sister was anxious 
 he should marry the daughter of the resident surgeon 
 there. 
 
 On the 4th of March, 1749, riding his own horse, 
 he left Borckel, and ten days later reached Marbach, 
 a pretty little town situate on the vine-clad slopes 
 that stretch down to the Neckar. It was here that 
 his married sister lived, Eva Margareta Stolpp. He 
 put up at the sign of the " Golden Lion," an inn near 
 the Niklasthor, now No. 260 Niklasthorstrasse. Georg 
 Friedrich Kodweis, the landlord, a man of fifty sum- 
 mers, followed the trade of his fathers ; he was a baker, 
 but likewise held the appointment of overseer on the 
 ducal estate. His wife was still Hving; Elizabeth 
 Dorothea, their sole remaining daughter, born on 
 December 13, 1732, was then a slim yet sturdy 
 damsel, as active as she was vivacious. Her hair was 
 red in colour ; she had a broad forehead, with large, 
 soft eyes ; nor could freckles rob her countenance of 
 the charm that lay in its expression of gentle, kindly 
 benevolence. The army surgeon, now in his twenty- 
 sixth year, was strong and stalwart, with eyes that 
 sparkled beneath a lofty brow ; his soldierhke bearing, 
 his downright, decided manner, the evident honesty
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 7 
 
 of purpose with which he sought civil employment — 
 all this could not but tell in the young man's favour. 
 After a visit to his mother in Murr, his brother in 
 Bittenfeld, and his sister in Neckarrems, and finding 
 that the bride chosen for him was already another's, 
 John Caspar determined to settle in Marbach, where 
 a marriage with the gentle and discreet daughter of 
 the innkeeper — who seemingly was most thriving and 
 well-to-do — offered every prospect of a happy future. 
 Shortly before his wedding, which, as one of deter- 
 mined mind who forbears to trifle with his feelings but 
 presses to his goal, he made every effort to hasten on, 
 he went to Ludwigsburg. On the 11th of July he 
 successfully passed a government medical examination 
 held in that place. Eleven days later he was married. 
 His wife brought him no money as her dower — 
 merely property to the value of 188 gulden. In hard 
 cash John Caspar possessed 215 gulden, 24 kreuzer; 
 this sum he made over to his father-in-law. As 
 among the silver ornaments of his household he re- 
 served those given to him by his mother, — a silver- 
 mounted walking-stick, a silver scarf-ring and seal. 
 Upon this latter was engraved the family crest and 
 coat of arms. In the left field above the helmet is 
 an arrow pointing upwards ; in the right, a unicorn, 
 beneath which is a bar. To the right and left of the 
 coat of arms are some leaves, which, judging from 
 the berries, are intended for laurel-leaves. When 
 Schiller had his crest engraved after that of his father, 
 many laurels of quite another kind were added to both 
 sides of the shield, as also to the helmet. We find 
 that a coat of arms precisely similar to this was 
 possessed by the Schiller von Herdern family, of the 
 Tyrol ; their name figures in the peerage as far back 
 as 1601 ; possibly, therefore, the two Schiller families 
 were in some way related. Indeed, if the leaves 
 engraved on the seal belonging to Schiller's father are
 
 8 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 intended for laurel-leaves, one might almost believe 
 that the Hems Schillers retained the crest of their 
 ancestor the master-singer, who, naturally enough, 
 could have had laurels on his scutcheon. 
 
 But to return to the poet's father. Among the nine 
 books he possessed, most of them medical ones, are 
 cited " Erkenntniss sein selbst " and a Wiirtemberg 
 Hymnal, while the hst of his surgical instruments 
 includes a tin basin for shaving purposes, four good 
 razors, a pair of tweezers with which to draw teeth, 
 and two lancets. The spirits of wine, tinctures, and 
 other " specie," together with the bottles and phials 
 containing them, were valued at seven gulden, thirty 
 kreuzer. He had sold his horse ; nevertheless he kept 
 " the Hungarian saddle, with saddle-cloth and trap- 
 pings." Among his clothes we notice a wedding-coat 
 made of " steel-coloured cloth," an entire suit, less new, 
 of the same material, a pair of silk stockings, a hat for 
 best, besides an old one with edging round it. 
 
 He took up his residence at the innkeeper's house, 
 where he practised as a surgeon ; but it was not until 
 the end of September that he became a Marbach citi- 
 zen. All too soon it came about that, owing to improv- 
 ident speculation and expenditure in connection with 
 the ducal property, his father-in-law contracted debts 
 that his entire fortune scarcely sufficed to discharge. 
 By various small loans, as also from his son-in-law's 
 small capital, he for a time was helped. But within 
 three months the affair become public. Schiller pur- 
 chased part of the house, in such way lessening the 
 amount owing to him. Yet matters grew from bad to 
 worse, and residence in Marbach became for him, 
 as a man of honour, less and less tolerable. Since the 
 finding of a post as regimental surgeon would be no 
 easy task, half in despair, and being merely anxious to 
 get quit of the place, he joined the newly formed bat- 
 talion of the Prince Louis infantry regiment, under
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 9 
 
 Colonel Camaigi-e, as quartermaster. This was in the 
 early part of 1753. Thus, though contmuing to keep 
 a home for his wife under her father's roof, he was 
 mostly away from it himself. But before long the inn 
 had to be sold, and Kodweis, with his daughter, took 
 lodgings at a baker's named Pressel ; the house they 
 occupied is now No. 280 Niklasthorstrasse. It was 
 soon Schiller's lot to be driven far from family and 
 home. 
 
 The dissolute Duke Karl Eugene, swayed by a two- 
 fold thirst for power and plunder, in a treaty concluded 
 on March 31, 1757, \vith France, otfered to put five 
 regiments at her disposal, wherewith to oppose Prussia, 
 whose great king had once shown for the duke such 
 friendly feeling. In vain did the States implore him 
 not to lead their soldiery against the Frederick whom 
 they held in honour ; prayers went up in the churches 
 for the prince's enlightenment ; it was sought to spur 
 on the troops to open rebellion. On the 20th of June, 
 at Stuttgart, they mutinied during parade ; of three 
 thousand recruits there remained but four hundred. 
 Schiller, being solely bent upon advancement in the 
 service, remained firm in his allegiance to the duke, 
 although it was against his coreligionists that he had 
 to fight. The duke's mainstay was one Colonel Eieger, 
 Privy Councillor of War, and son of the once so favour- 
 ite Stuttgart divine — a hard, inflexible man. Already 
 on August 10th, under the duke's guidance, the troops 
 left their encampments between Ludwigsburg and 
 Pflugfelden, which they had occupied for more than a 
 month. While here, Schiller had had easy opportunity 
 of visiting his wife. Ptisen by this time to the rank of 
 ensign and adjutant, the parting was of added bitter- 
 ness to the earnest man, now that first, after many a 
 year, he could look forward to the joy of fatherhood. 
 Disturbances took place already on the 14th, between 
 Plochingen and Geistingen, as it was a religious war
 
 lo THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 that people dreaded. On September 6th, signs of revolt 
 were again manifest at Linz, wliither Ensign Schiller 
 was gone with a section of the troops. His wife, two 
 days before, had given birth to a daughter, named 
 Christophina Friderika after her father's comrade, 
 Christoph Friedrich Gerstner, and Elizabeth after her 
 mother. Burgomaster Harmann, Justice of Marbach, 
 stood godfather ; as godmothers, the infant had the 
 widow of Ehrenmann, the collaborateur, and a Friiulein 
 Sommer of Stuttgart. 
 
 From Linz the march lay in the direction of Silesia. 
 At the storming of Schweidnitz on November 12th, the 
 Bavarians and the Wiirtembergers won for themselves 
 distinction. After a triumpliant encounter, Breslau 
 capitulated. Not so at Leuthen, however, where 
 Frederick himself ^ attacked his enemy's left wing, 
 composed of the Wlirtemberg, Bavarian, and Wurz- 
 burg troops. The Wiirtembergers made but a sorry 
 stand ; all fled ; Schiller lost his horse, and was like to 
 have lost his life in a swamp near Breslau, in which, 
 on awaking at early morning, he found himself frozen 
 above the knee. Well-nigh half of the troops had 
 perished ere they took up their winter quarters in 
 Bohemia, where soon a fearful pestilence broke out. 
 Here, in Leonberg, Schiller filled the post vacant by 
 the decease of the regimental surgeon ; and, chaplains 
 being scarce, he likewise undertook, by order of the 
 general, the reading of certain prayers, and the singing 
 of such hymns as were suitable. By dint of great 
 moderation in diet, as also by taking continual exer- 
 cise, he guarded himself against infection. Shortly 
 previous to the army's retreat on April 1st, he was pro- 
 moted to the rank of lieutenant, in recognition of his 
 faithful services. It was a gloomy home-coming for 
 the soldiers ; of six thousand men but nineteen hun- 
 dred were left. Vainly had the States meanwhile 
 protested against universal conscription ; Rieger and
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER ii 
 
 Count Montmartin, the newly made Cabinet minister 
 carried through their measure by sheer force. That, 
 the duke had broken solemn treaties gave but slight 
 concern to Lieutenant Schiller ; nor did the country's 
 distress trouble him ; he failed not to serve his power- 
 ful leader faithfully and unswervingly, thanking God, 
 who had brought him home in safety from the fight, 
 and who had blessed him, likewise, with a little daugh- 
 ter. With his father-in-law, however, things grew 
 worse and worse ; and Frau Schiller must needs suffer 
 bitterly thereby. Their abode was again changed to a 
 house owned by one Scholkopf, beyond the Niklasthor 
 (now 256 Mklasthorstrasse). Here the street widens 
 into a small quadrangle that, with its fountain sur- 
 mounted by the figure of a fabulous wild man, almost 
 gains the dignity of a square. The house, on the side 
 facing the street, had six windows, three on the ground 
 floor and three on the first story. Scliiller's wife occu- 
 pied the lower room. 
 
 Only for a short time could the lieutenant enjoy 
 sight and speech of those he loved. The duke had 
 been hoping that the empress would entrust him with 
 the supreme command ; but she refused all dealings 
 with the mutinous, heretical troops of one who, in 
 default of an electorship, would claim Ulm and Nurn- 
 berg as reward for his services. She bade the Wiir- 
 tembergers turn to the French. They encamped at 
 Kornwestheim, near Ludwigsburg ; this made it easier 
 for Schiller to visit Marbach. Meanwhile he had been 
 transferred to another regiment — to that commanded 
 by General Romann. On July 9th, the duke, who, 
 shortly before, by his brutal treatment of States-Consul 
 Moser, had given terrible proof of his abuse of justice, 
 led the first brigade from the encampments, which fell 
 in with the French, under Soubise, near Cassel. After 
 General von Oberg's defeat at Lutternberg, on October 
 10th, the troops went into quarters for the winter.
 
 12 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 Schiller accompanied the stall to Winnenden, and 
 from this town he frequently came over to Marbach. 
 The country hoped — but in vain — now, at last, to be 
 freed from the burden of taxation for fresh levies. 
 Though the treaty with France had come to nothing, 
 the duke nevertheless doubled the number of his forces, 
 believing that a day was not far distant when they 
 would be wanted in the field. And, after the battle 
 of Minden, on August 1st, this actually was the case. 
 The troops, on the 20th, encamped at Ludwigsburg, 
 whither Schiller's wife and child came now and again. 
 The duke had reserved for himself the supreme 
 command of those twelve thousand men, who were to 
 be led into the Fulda district. His troops left camp 
 on October 28th ; among their ranks was Lieutenant 
 Schiller, heavy-hearted yet still hopeful, having se- 
 cured distinguished godfathers for the son that would 
 soon be his. One of them was the commander of his 
 regiment, and a chamberlain as well. Colonel Christoph 
 Friedrich von der Gabelentz. Learning likewise found 
 its representative in the lieutenant's cousin, Johann 
 Friedrich Schiller, with whom during that year he had 
 first become acquainted. This cousin was born on 
 July 15, 1731, at Marbach, being the son of Johann 
 Caspar Schiller, a baker, who had come from Waiblin- 
 gen, where his father Johann Georg — probably the 
 lieutenant's uncle — had followed the same trade. 
 Johann Friedrich had with liis parents been early 
 removed to Steinheim on the Murr. Despite his eight 
 and twenty years, he at the time professed to be study- 
 ing philosophy at Halle. He also busied himself much 
 with the science of history and of finance ; moreover, 
 he had won the duke's confidence to such an extent 
 as to be employed by him in a diplomatic capacity.. 
 The duke, so it seems, had to furnish troops for Hol- 
 land's Indian possessions, as we find this same philoso- 
 phicG studiosus writing to a friend in Halle that since
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 13 
 
 the autumn vacation he had been in Holland, whence 
 he had been sent " on the Duke's affairs to Hessen, 
 thence to Stuttgart, and then back again to Hessen, 
 returning a second time to Stuttgart at his Grace's 
 request." He adds that in a day or two he will know 
 whether he is to leave that place or to remain there. 
 He speaks of the Duke as " our dearest Karl," whose 
 schemes if all too daring were still upright and honour- 
 able, and so far those of a man who had succeeded 
 without the help of cabals, albeit that men of stand- 
 ing had felt afraid to make him their foe. Lieutenant 
 Schiller set great store by this cousin of his in the 
 diplomatic service, with whom he, too, corresponded. 
 Yet, in speaking of him, we are losing sight of the son 
 and heir whose birth is soon to be. Among the child's 
 godparents we shall find the Burgomaster of Marbach 
 and Vaihingen, the daughters of the ex-Prefect of 
 Marbach, with those of the warden of Vaihingen — a 
 goodly list of sponsors to figure at the baptism of 
 a lieutenant's son. 
 
 On the 1 1th of November the duke led his troops 
 across the Main in order to join the French. At 
 early morning on this day, or on the one before it, 
 great good fortune came to Germany, for in that 
 ground-floor room at Marbach village a son was born 
 to the lieutenant, christened Johann after his father, 
 and Christoph Friedrich after his chief sponsor. The 
 name he would be called by was that of the great 
 king, against whom his father with the duke was now 
 about to fight. Dating from the summer of 1755, the 
 parish register at Marbach, with but rare exception, 
 notifies the days on which christenings took place. 
 But in the poet's certificates of baptism of the years 
 1773 and 1792 (the oldest one of 1769 states the day 
 merely) it is specially remarked that the child had 
 been born upon the same day. According to the cer- 
 tificates, November 11th was always looked upon as
 
 14 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 the poet's day of birth. Not until 1787 do we find it 
 changed to the 10th, which date Schiller, on coming 
 to Saxony in April, 1785, must have stated to his 
 friends as the correct one, although no proof exists of 
 his having in the meantime learnt aught to the con- 
 trary from those at home. Certainly, in his " Auto- 
 biography " of May, 1789, the father mentions the 
 10th ; but then he is also mistaken as to the birthday 
 of his second daughter and of his wife. Louise, the 
 sister, writing a letter dated November 11, 1796, in 
 her mother's presence speaks of " my dear brother's 
 birthday." Again, on the other hand, we shall find 
 the poet's eldest sister Christophine with her husband 
 celebrating the event on the 10th. As christening 
 regularly took place either on the day of birth or on 
 the one immediately following, there is always the 
 possibility that the child was really born before mid- 
 night on the 10th, while its birth, in error, was regis- 
 tered as occurring on the 11th. Schiller himself, when 
 at the summit of his fame, was wont to celebrate 
 Luther's birthday as being also that of his own ; and, 
 considering the existing uncertainty, we may con- 
 fidently follow his example. Despite the father's 
 absence, and although the chief sponsors were not 
 present, the babe's christening was yet a notable one. 
 Fritz was, moreover, additionally honoured when, later 
 on, the great and powerful Colonel llieger announced 
 his wish to stand godfather to the boy. When the 
 birth-news readied Lieutenant Schiller amid the ranks, 
 he besought God to bestow upon his son " those gifts 
 of mind and soul to which he himself through lack of 
 education had never attained." This he did with firm 
 trust in God's goodness, who " had suffered him to rise 
 from low and needy station to the rank of officer, who 
 had ever given him food in abundance, and who had 
 saved him from many perils." His most ardent wish 
 was that, as herald of the Protestant faith, his son
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 15 
 
 might attain to that which was denied to him ; yet, 
 how could he have guessed that, by paths, Hke his 
 own, toilsome, perilous, and still so wholly different, 
 nay, so utterly at variance, his Fritz should reach a 
 higher, a sublimer goal ! How could he foresee that 
 his son was to become gi-eat Germany's favourite bard, 
 an enthusiastic combatant against the base despotism 
 that crushed him, a despotism that, partly through 
 need of a livelihood, and partly, may be, through an 
 innate sense of conservatism, he himself had courted !
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 FKOM 1759 TO 1766. 
 
 During this same November in which our poet was 
 born, the duke had won for himself no laurels. At 
 early morning on the 30th, as he was giving a ball at 
 Fulda, the Prince of Brunswick attacked him unex- 
 pectedly ; and, though the Wiirtembergers made a 
 gallant defence, most of them, after a protracted strug- 
 gle, were driven back across the Fulda, the remaining 
 companies being taken prisoner. Schiller and the 
 duke got away with other fugitives, who, by devious 
 routes, found union behind the Rhone mountains. 
 Karl Eugene, who was not remiss in publishing vic- 
 torious news, quarrelled with the other generals re- 
 specting the winter quarters. On 13th of January 
 orders were given to occupy those in the Wiirzburg 
 district, but so disgraceful was the conduct of the 
 troops as even to provoke complaint from the French. 
 So it came that discord was brought about at the very 
 outset of the campaign. P)eing loth to submit to 
 Broglie's leadership, the duke, on May 15th, withdrew 
 his troops ; and Schiller, with the staff, was transferred 
 to Yaihingen, wliich is close to Marbach. Now first 
 could his heart rejoice at the sight of his little son, 
 whose deep blue eyes looked forth upon the world ; 
 yet it was brief, this joy. He had to quit Vaihingen 
 on the 20th, feeling more keenly than ever before the 
 anguish of parting, of being compelled to leave his 
 wife and two children behind in increasingly distress- 
 
 i6
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 17 
 
 ful circumstances. Fritz, too, was a weakly, delicate 
 infaut, liable to convulsive seizures now and again. 
 
 With troops and baggage the duke moved leisurely 
 and at ease through a land groaning beneath his 
 cruel oppression. Wliile on the march to Hohenstein, 
 through Meiningen, Gotha, and Langensalza, he spent 
 five weeks in the Harz, until compelled by the imperial 
 court to turn thence toward the rich meadow-lands of 
 the Saale. The Prussians retreated before the superior 
 strength of the aUied armies ; Torgau and Leipzig were 
 evacuated ; before this latter city Schiller was now 
 stationed. At the news of the king's approach the 
 duke, who, as a rule, acted merely in accordance with 
 his own wishes, removed to Anhalt ; thither his brother, 
 Friedrich Eugene, fighting on the king's side, despatched 
 Colonel von Kleist, who, at Kothen, on October 25th, 
 routed a section of the Wiirtemberg troops. Hereupon 
 the duke left the imperial army and withdrew through 
 Thuringia to the winter quarters. Schiller, with the 
 staff, was now transferred to Urach, near Eeutlingen. 
 In February, 1761, by moving to Cannstadt, he was 
 first brought somewhat nearer to his home. As the 
 French would have no further deahngs with the duke, 
 who had proffered them a force ten thousand strong, 
 he was obhged to forego his projected sale of the Wiir- 
 temberg troops. For Schiller this was no slight advan- 
 tage, who had on August 1 7th received his captaincy, 
 a rank equal to that possessed by those of noble birth. 
 He was now able to stay near his children, and to 
 exercise some influence upon their education. His 
 leisure he devoted to mathematics, at the prompting of 
 his cousin, the student. The family took other and 
 more commodious apartments in a house now occu- 
 pied by Aufrecht, the baker, No. 192. In 1762 Cap- 
 tain Schiller came still nearer home ; his regiment 
 moved to Ludwigsburg, and thence, for a time, to 
 Stuttgart, being at length permanently quartered at
 
 i8 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 Ludwigsburg. To this town, therefore, he brought his 
 family. Now first could the parent, with his deep 
 sense of duty, have influence upon the early character 
 of his child, whose talents gladdened him the more, 
 the greater his hopes grew respecting this long wished- 
 for son. 
 
 The father's main characteristics were a strict ear- 
 nestness, an undaunted perseverance that for ever keeps 
 its goal in view, a strength, an inflexibility of will, 
 pushed to the verge of harshness, righteous honesty, 
 great desire for action and for self -improvement, un- 
 changing zeal and fidelity in the service of his master 
 the duke, and a sincere and humble trust in a Being 
 set above earthly effort, at whose hands he calmly bore 
 all ills, holding them as those trials through which we 
 must pass in the attainment of eternal welfare. The 
 prayers for family use drawn up by him testify to his 
 strict piety, prayers that are plain and conventional 
 withal. Even his hymnal, too, the so-called " Morning 
 ( )frering," of which he each day read a portion, is in no 
 way a peculiar one. Pubhc worship, however, was so 
 deeply a matter of the heart with him that in his own 
 house family prayer was made a special and a perma- 
 nent institution. Fritz inherited his father's inde- 
 fatigable energy, thorough earnestness, and ceaseless 
 endurance, his integrity and dauntless determination 
 to get on in life ; from his gentle, sweet-tempered 
 mother, pattern as she was of a good housewife, he 
 gained his thoughtful temperament, his kindly heart 
 and generous warmth of feeling. But in addition to 
 these qualities nature had endowed him with the germs 
 of a keen self-consciousness, an ardent passion for free- 
 dom, lofty idealism joined to great depth and penetra- 
 tion of thought — gifts which, despite the opposing 
 pressure from without, reached their very highest 
 development. Yet for him it was great fortune that 
 in his early years he had had the guidance of his
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 19 
 
 mother's love, his gentle, tender, pious, patient mother, 
 who brought all her children up in obedience, in virtue, 
 and in the fear of God. So, too, he gained in having 
 an elder sister, with her kindly good humour, at his 
 side, while not until later was brought to bear upon 
 him the stern influence of his father, whose military- 
 rigour made him more feared than loved. Though 
 as faithful vassal of the duke he suffered no word 
 of blame to be spoken against his lord and leader, 
 he could still not shut out his family from a knowledge 
 of the country's suffering and woe ; and the abominable 
 treatment of the once powerful Eieger, his son's god- 
 father, who, untried, unjudged, suffered barbarous 
 imprisonment at Hohentwiel, where Moser, by a like 
 tyranny, still languished — this utter abuse of justice 
 made the boy's heart throb with indignation. Mont- 
 martin played the despot in a land wherein the States 
 were listened to no longer, while the duke heeded 
 nought save the gratification of his own desires, so 
 that, despite all oppression, money was still wanting. 
 However, a sale of the subjects of the realm would 
 always form a rich source of revenue. 
 
 At Christmastide, in 1763, Captain Schiller was 
 sent on conscription duty to the Catholic town of 
 Gmiind in Suabia. He did not bring his family until 
 the spring. It was a mournful business, this, upon 
 which he and his two subalterns were now engaged ; 
 the duke, being anxious to have it done thoroughly 
 and efficiently, was careful to make use of all those 
 who could serve him well. At the time it was not 
 known that these levies were intended for Holland's 
 Indian colonies ; no doubt that cousin of the captain's, 
 Fritz's godfather, had had the arrangement of the af- 
 fair. SchiUer's pay was to be three gulden daily for 
 board and lodging, and the two subalterns hving with 
 him were each to receive a third of that sum. But, in 
 consequence of the terrible monetary panic then pre-
 
 20 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 vailing, nothing was paid to them. Schiller asked 
 leave to transfer his quarters from Gmiind to Lorch, 
 the former town being too expensive a place for him. 
 At Lorch, which is situated on the Wurtemberg frontier, 
 Uved Bailie Scheinemaun, an old friend of Schiller's, 
 who was delighted to see again his quondam comrade 
 iu arms. They estabhshed themselves at the " Sun " 
 tavern. Beside Scheinemaun, in the two clerics, Moser 
 and Kapff, the rector and curate of the parish, Schiller 
 fouud firm friends. It was here, at Lorch, that his son's 
 mental quahties first found development. For the 
 boy, just past the early stage of childhood, felt the 
 influence of nature and of friendship with all a first 
 keenness, and showed strong desire for the learning 
 and understanding of things. Here he could watch the 
 Eems, winding its way past gloomy woods of oak and 
 pine. On a hill hard by stood the convent with its 
 time-honoured linden-tree, its ancient Suabian ruins, 
 its grand old portraits of the Hohenstaufen, its sad 
 mortuary chapel. Before him stood Rechberg, topped 
 by a shattered castle ; from the meadows around there 
 rose majestically the Hohenstaufen Kegel or cone, 
 whose relics spoke so powerfully to him of Suabia's 
 long vanished days of chivalry and song — sad records, 
 as they were, of the ruin of a noble line of princes. 
 Although history had small attraction for the father, 
 he could not wholly avoid those questions touching 
 bygone history put to him by his son, upon whose 
 imagination, behke, full many an old legend and folk- 
 ballad may already have strangely wrought. Keen 
 was the impression made on his religious sense by the 
 so-called Mount Calvary, near Gmiind, with its chapel 
 at the summit, toward which twelve stations of the 
 cross led up, where Catholic pilgrims were wont to 
 offer prayer. Family worship was held both morning 
 and evening, iu which the boy took an earnest part ; 
 on each occasion portions from the Bible or from some
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 21 
 
 devotional work were read. Attendance at church on 
 Sundays was strictly enforced. Fritz did not only 
 receive religious instruction ; Eector Moser also taught 
 him together with his own son the rudiments of Latin. 
 Even Greek was to be commenced by this clever lad 
 of seven. Joined to him by study and by play, Fritz 
 grew more closely linked to his graver comrade, who 
 formed the first object of his boyish friendship. The 
 individuahty of the worthy Moser, strict though he 
 was, so deeply stamped itself upon his memory that, 
 in the " Eobbers " the youth has paid his teacher a grace- 
 ful and a lasting tribute. His parents' wish that he 
 should enter the Church, in which Moser filled such an 
 honoured place, seemed to him at this age the ideal 
 of all possible desires. If the little fellow hked play- 
 ing at being clergyman, dressing up in cap and cloak, 
 and mounting a chair as pulpit, this was but a child- 
 ish pastime, albeit he was serious enough over the 
 matter, running off indignantly if any one presumed 
 to laugh at him. More noteworthy, however, were 
 his great love of truth — a love fostered by his parents, 
 and which led him to make voluntary confession to 
 his mother of all his wrong-doings — and his exceeding 
 generosity, a quality that he possessed in common with 
 his sister, and to which his father was forced to set 
 bounds. Captain Schiller had been meantime trans- 
 ferred to the Von Stein foot-regiment, and busied him- 
 self much with agricultural matters in the cause of 
 Wiirtemberg's weal ; of these things the boy learned 
 somewhat, although to have heard some of his parent's 
 war reminiscences had doubtless been more to his 
 taste. In January, 1766, a daughter was added to the 
 family, named Dorothea after her mother, and Louise 
 Catherine after one of her sponsors. As godparents 
 the child had also Eector Moser, the wife of Kapff the 
 curate, and Frau Ehrenmann. Later on, the boy 
 formed a friendship with the son of Deputy Clerk
 
 22 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 Conz, his junior by Dearly three years, who in a sub- 
 sequent ode addressed to Schiller mentions that they 
 had already at that time enjoyed much of nature's 
 loveliness together. 
 
 Meanwhile, with Montmartin, the new premier, and 
 his gang, the duke pursued his reckless course. Dur- 
 ing the spring of 1764, in a manner quite unheard of 
 and totally without regard to the States, a poll-tax 
 after the Austrian system was imposed. "WTien the 
 representatives of Tubingen made complaint to the 
 duke of this injustice, and sought to lay before him 
 the utter destitution of the country, he angrily ex- 
 claimed, " Bah ! Fatherland, Fatherland — / am the 
 Fatherland ! " The tax was enforced at the sword's 
 point, and Chief Bailie Huber and the leading burgesses 
 of Tiibingen were, by their opposition, brought to the 
 Hohenasperg. At length, indeed, the voice of Freder- 
 ick the Great prevailed at Vienna ; the Council of State 
 gave orders for Moser's release, and called upon the 
 duke to make his peace with the States within 
 two months. Moser was set free, and the duke now 
 treated him with the utmost kindness, he having been 
 surrendered by the States ; toward these latter, how- 
 ever, Duke Karl still showed insolence ; he even broke 
 off all connection with the ambassadors who sought to 
 remind him of the State Council's decree. He trans- 
 ferred his quarters to Ludwigsburg, in order to punish 
 Stuttgart, that had likewise risen in opposition to the 
 tax. Yet, despite all extortion, despite the most 
 shameless sale of offices, money was still always want- 
 ing wherewith to pay his functionaries. Among these 
 Captain Schiller was also a sufferer, not only receiving 
 no stipend himself, but having to support subalterns as 
 well, thus frittering away over this thankless business 
 the slender fortune that was his. In despau' he turned 
 to the duke with the request for payment of the two 
 thousand gulden due to him ; he also asked for leave
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 23 
 
 to resign. Eegarding the former, he was referred to the 
 army funds, which, however, were at so low an ebb 
 that nine years went by before he obtained all that was 
 due to him. Nor could the need into which the family 
 thus fell long remain hidden from Fritz ; he must have 
 had a good idea of how the country was being gov- 
 erned. After three years his father received permission 
 to resign, who accordingly, at Christmas, 1766, rejoined 
 his regiment then stationed at Ludwigsburg.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 FROM 1767 TO 1772. 
 
 Captain Schiller took up his dwelling in the house 
 of Cotta & Co., the publishers and printers ; this 
 brought him into closer connection with the owner of 
 the business, Christoph Friedrich Cotta, who himself, 
 under Laudon, had likewise trod a soldier's path. 
 Cotta published during the years 1767 to 1769 his 
 anonymous work, issued in four parts, entitled " Reflec- 
 tions on Agricultural Matters in the Duchy of Wlirtem- 
 burg, by an Officer in the Ducal Service," a work that 
 the editor twenty years later stigmatises as extremely 
 imperfect, yet which was nevertheless well received, 
 partly through its style, and partly from its being a 
 strange production to have fallen from an officer's pen. 
 Thus the publishing house through which Schiller was 
 to reach world-wide fame had already brought out his 
 father's writings. Cotta was among the sponsors of 
 Maria Charlotte, the daughter born on December 21, 
 1768, together with a Captain von Hoven and several 
 friends from Lorch and Marbach. It was no small 
 delight to the father to have a large plot of ground at 
 the back of his house, wliich with quite special zeal he 
 converted into a nursery garden. So he himself tells 
 us, hitherto he dared not indulge his passion for agri- 
 culture, without in a way lowering his position as 
 officer in the eyes of a certain chque. Now, however, 
 this garden of his gave him a pursuit which none 
 surely could condemn. He had lil^ewise special cause 
 
 24
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 25 
 
 for contentment when at length, in the September of 
 1770, he was appointed to his own company. 
 
 For three years Fritz attended the classical school at 
 Ludwigsburg, preparatory to entering a so-called lower 
 monastery school for those students of theology only 
 who had already passed a threefold examination at the 
 Stuttgart gymnasium. In this school he got to know 
 Captain von Hoven's son, Friedrich William, who was 
 also intended for the Church. Fritz grew increasingly 
 intimate with him, particularly as they both lived under 
 one roof. The fathers were ahke anxious that their 
 sons should devote themselves to study as a help to 
 future fame. Upon this they both set great count, 
 Hoven being anxious that through his son honour 
 might be regained for his family, an old and noble one ; 
 while Schiller longed for Fritz's brilliant achievement 
 of what through domestic trouble had been denied to 
 him. The lad's ambition was thus fired anew ; in this 
 way his amour jpropre was fostered, heightened. Al- 
 though for his father's sake he showed great dihgence, 
 giving to his masters such satisfaction that he ranked 
 beside the best of their scholars, his strict, unbending 
 parent was still of opinion that he did not work suf- 
 ficiently hard. He thought the merry, reckless boy 
 was too much given to play. Hoven tells us that it 
 was Fritz who generally gave a tone, an impetus to the 
 ofttimes boisterous games of his schoolfellows. The 
 younger boys were afraid of him ; the elder ones re- 
 spected him for his pluck and fearlessness. The strict 
 discipline of his father, who sought to make him hardy 
 and well used to self-denial, aroused his powers of en- 
 durance. Yet it must have saddened the boy that his 
 parent should be little more to him than just a chill 
 preceptor of morals. For this he found amends in his 
 mother's deep affection, in the tender love of Christo- 
 phine his sister. 
 
 Each of the three classes had one master only, who
 
 26 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 was called preceptor. Over the lowest presided a 
 tutor, who, if strict, took much interest in such of his 
 pupils as were diligent. Latin was the sole subject 
 taught, except on Fridays, which was devoted to the 
 study of the mother-tongue. Lessons, lasting in the 
 morning four, in the afternoon three, hours, were always 
 prefaced by prayer ; and on Sundays the scholars 
 attended church, and were likewise required to repeat 
 their catechism. Fritz, in the autumn of 1768, was 
 removed to the second form ; and here, too, Latin was 
 the chief subject of instruction ; translation from this 
 tongue into literary German was, however, also largely 
 insisted on. On these Fridays the master, a man of 
 puritanical notions, suffered only the reading of strictly 
 evangelical works, and the repetition of psalms and 
 hymns ; he even improved the occasion by catechising 
 the scholars after his own pedantic fashion. 
 
 We still possess a New Year's greeting in German 
 verse written by the boy for his father in 1769. The 
 hymn-books, containing writings by Gellert and Uz, 
 must have made him famiUar with rhyme in its simple 
 form. To show his skill in the foreign language, he 
 added to his lines a translation into Latin prose. At 
 Easter he passed his preliminary examination, winning 
 the assurance that he was a lad of promise, whom 
 nothing debarred from reaching success. He accepted 
 his clerical calling as a matter of course, being igno- 
 rant of any more worthy one, albeit he could find scant 
 spiritual refreshment in the arid, soulless formuke by 
 which religious instructors then sought to inculcate 
 the doctrines of Protestantism. How far more grate- 
 ful to him was the gentle fervour with which his 
 mother would bring home to her children the gospel 
 lessons and the stories of our Saviour and his dis- 
 ciples ! We have good proof of this in an anecdote 
 told to us by his elder sister. At Marbach the 
 grandparents were sunk to such poverty that the quon-
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 27 
 
 dam timber-merchant had been forced to accept the 
 post of gatekeeper at the Niklasthor, a small cottage 
 being granted to him to live in. Schiller's mother 
 failed not to visit her parents now and again, taking 
 the children with her ; and Fritz, at these visits, could 
 not stay his feelings of compassion. It is said, too, 
 that he was ashamed to enter the humble little dwell- 
 ing from the street ; he crept in at the back door, 
 across a ditch. One Easter Monday, as toward Mar- 
 bach, she told them the story of the gospel for that 
 day, how Jesus appeared to his disciples at Emmaus. 
 So vividly did she put it before the children, that 
 with tearful eyes they knelt down upon the ground 
 to pray. 
 
 Brought up hitherto in the quiet seclusion of Lorch, 
 the lad must have been singularly impressed with the 
 sparkle and movement of life at Ludwigsburg. Jus- 
 tinus Kerner, writing of his own young days, says : 
 
 " The broad streets, the alleys of chestnut-trees and 
 lindens, were filled with silken-coated courtiers wearing 
 sword and periwig, and othcers in glittering uniform. 
 The splendid castle, with its spacious squares and 
 gardens, the adjacent park, whose shady groves led 
 down in many Hues toward the town, the broad 
 market-place, with its arcades — all these were fre- 
 quently the scene of gaiety and merriment." On 
 a lake near by fetes were held, and fair damsels from 
 Ludwigsburg competed for the honour of being " Lady 
 of the Lake." At Shrovetide a Venetian Carnival was 
 held, at which all — even children — had to appear 
 masked. Of special attraction was the opera-house, 
 built within the castle precincts, the largest and 
 handsomest in all Germany, its boxes and walls beset 
 with mirrors, which, when lit up at night, had a most 
 dazzling effect. The elaborate machinery, the gorgeous 
 scenery and costumes, the distinguished actors and 
 singers, helped to heighten its grandeur and mag-
 
 28 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 nificence. The duke made it a point that the officers 
 with their families should regularly attend the opera ; 
 so that Captain Schiller, although well aware of the 
 ensnaring effect of such sights upon his son, who was 
 intended for the Church, could yet, hke Hoven his 
 friend, not refrain from sometimes taking the children 
 there as a treat. Italian opera and ballets, it is true, 
 were all that were performed there, so that the boy 
 understood nothing of the language ; still, the scenery, 
 the dresses, the music, and the acting worked power- 
 fully upon his mind ; he was all eyes, all ears, for the 
 stage. In this way, with his sister's help, he was led 
 to make a mimic theatre of his own, where, with tiny 
 cardboard figures, dramatic performances were given to 
 an audience of empty chairs. Schiller himself has 
 confirmed his sister-in-law's statement that he used 
 to play with these cardboard figures until he was 
 fourteen, when he left Ludwigsburg. If his sense 
 for the stage and for things theatrical was less keen 
 than Goethe's, this was owing to his stern parent, who 
 put a rigid check upon what he deemed childish waste 
 of time. 
 
 At Easter, 1770, Fritz passed a second examination 
 with success ; he seemed to be making good progress 
 along the road of learning. That autumn he was 
 transferred to the first class, under the tutorship of 
 the principal, Johann Friedrich Jahn — a sound and 
 thorough philologist, and a distinguished scholar. In 
 this form, besides Latin, pupils were taught both 
 Hebrew and Greek. Though Jahn was in orders, he 
 never chose to fill the pulpit ; he devoted himself to 
 the study of those languages of which he had mastery, 
 as also to the exposition of the old writers. It was his 
 method of teaching and his regard for the peculiarities 
 of his scholars that enabled him to bring them on 
 further in their studies than the pupils of any other 
 classical school in Wiirtemberg. When expounding
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 29 
 
 the Greek and Latin authors he gave to his hearers 
 many a piece of geographical, historical, or technical 
 knowledge. He also taught them Latin verse-making ; 
 and for this Fritz soon showed great skill. Hardly 
 had Fritz passed his third examination when Jahn 
 accepted a professorship at the newly founded military 
 school in connection with the ducal residence. Solitude 
 Castle. 
 
 On February 27th the duke had at last established 
 a sort of amity with the States ; Montmartin had been 
 dismissed as well, although continuing to stand in 
 high favour with the duke. Shortly before he had 
 established on the estate of his chateau " Sohtude," 
 some few miles from Ludwigsburg, a training-home or 
 institution for the sons of gardeners and artisans, under 
 the superintendence of a Captain Seeger, son of a 
 clergyman, and who, before entering the army, had 
 visited the monastery school. This establishment, 
 owing to the pressure of famine, was that same year 
 converted into a mihtary orphanage. Yet the duke, 
 dehghting as he did to stand in close relation to the 
 youth of the land growing up beneath his eye, rested 
 not until, on his next birthday, the 11th of February, 
 the "Military College for the Sons of Officers" had 
 been established, with three classes now, where before 
 there had been but two. Jahn was appointed profes- 
 sor there. Besides him, Fritz lost his friend Hoven, 
 who, against his father's wish, was obliged to enter the 
 Military College. Upon those officers having several 
 sons the duke made it incumbent to send one of them 
 to this institution. To avoid displeasing his Grace, 
 Captain von Hoven resolved to give in his youngest 
 son's name as a candidate ; but, when taking him to 
 the college, he incautiously brought his eldest son also. 
 When Duke Karl heard of this he asked to see the 
 boy. He was in great glee at the lad's answer 
 to the question as to whether he too wished to enter
 
 30 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 the college. " Oh, yes, very much, if I were not going 
 to be a clergyman ! " " There," quoth his Grace, " the 
 boy has distinctly said what he would like ; so he can 
 stay with his brother, can he not ? " And with this 
 speech he left the unfortunate father to his bewilder- 
 ment, who, after long consultation with Professor Jahn, 
 had to yield to the duke's will. 
 
 Fritz greeted Winter, the new head master, with 
 Latin distichs, in which he made playful allusion to the 
 principal's name, by expressing the hope that, for him- 
 self and his schoolfellows, the new Winter might prove 
 a beauteous spring. Winter was a good-natured man, 
 though of violent temper ; once, under misapprehension, 
 he was led to requite poor Fritz's lines of welcome by 
 thrashing him with a stick. The boy, who had cer- 
 tainly irritated his master by contradiction, said noth- 
 ing of the matter at home, fearing his father's anger ; 
 but after some days Winter came to apologise for 
 having beaten his son without cause. That autumn 
 Fritz, in Latin distichs, expressed to Principal Zilling 
 the thanks of the school for holidays granted by him. 
 In this art of verse-writing he had already become 
 wonderfully skilful. And thus early, in a foreign 
 tongue, did his great talent for form and style undergo 
 development. Yet in other work besides this, his 
 performance ranked as first-rate. Nevertheless, on 
 passing his second examination at Easter, he was in- 
 formed that, though he had worked well and profitably 
 at the necessary subjects, he must be pronounced in- 
 ferior in general knowledge to the other candidates who 
 stood before him on the list. This, of course, his father 
 was ill able to brook. According to Petersen, who 
 shared his friendship later on, he had then already lost 
 all taste for boyish sports and pastimes. " In his 
 leisure time, with some chosen companion, he strolled 
 about the enchanting plantations of Ludwigsburg, or 
 wandered at will in the delightful country surrounding
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 31 
 
 the town. Laments at fate, at destiny, speculations as 
 to the thickly shrouded future, plans for his later life 
 as citizen, these were his favourite and his usual 
 topics of conversation." Thus early, then, had he 
 been touched by a sense of the seriousness of life ; 
 thus early did he have foretaste of his coming sorrow. 
 
 In this year, too — in 1772 — we have to record his 
 confirmation. The formal, frigid process of prepara- 
 tion, before renewing his baptismal vows, served but 
 to chill him. When upbraided by his mother for his 
 indifference to an act of such solemnity, he withdrew 
 himself in silence, starthng his parents shortly after- 
 ward by a poem in German, in which the religious 
 sentiments within him found utterance in all their 
 depth. " Fritz, are you crazy ? " cried his father, 
 wondering. If we except those trifling rhymes for 
 New Year, this was his first German poem, the first 
 in which he summoned the forces of his mind to give 
 vivid portraiture of his feelings. 
 
 It was in this autumn that Fritz, after successfully 
 passing his further examination, was to enter the lower 
 monastery school at Blaubeuren ; for this institution, 
 alternately with that of Denkendorf, was wont yearly 
 to admit twenty or five and twenty pupils, of whom 
 the guarantee was demanded that they would accept 
 such posts, either clerical or scholastic, as might be 
 offered to them. But Providence had already mapped 
 out the roads along which, after keen trials, he was to 
 move onward toward the calling that was his. And 
 even had he held on to this monkish life, becowled 
 and buried as he was in the seclusion of a convent 
 school ; even had he pursued the path of a Tiibingen 
 theologian, SchiUer must at some date have broken 
 with his profession. Yet the yoke of despotism and 
 the consequent struggle with external misery — these 
 were still needed to rouse his dramatic powers in all 
 their depth and fire.
 
 Book II. 
 
 The Duke's Pupil
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 FROM 1773 TO 1775. 
 
 Ambition gave the duke no rest ; his establishment 
 was now to have many departments of study. " Mih- 
 tary Academy," was the name he had fixed for this 
 now enlarged institution. As it had need of apt and 
 clever students, the classical schools were called upon 
 to furnish lists of their best and most promising 
 scholars. And so it came that Captain Schiller's son 
 was mentioned by Winter, who acted, probably, upon 
 a hint of Jahn's. The father's excuse that Fritz was 
 destined for the Church helped as little as in the case 
 of young Hoven ; against the duke's will his faithful 
 servant had not the right to raise a voice. Fritz now 
 first had personal knowledge of the duke's despotic 
 arbitrariness ; the case was one of kidnapping, though 
 without any external show of violence. 
 
 On January 16, 1773, Captain Schiller brought his 
 son to Solitude Castle. He was just turned fourteen, 
 this red-haired ex-theologian standing nigh five feet 
 in height, dressed simply and plainly in " a blue jacket 
 and sleeveless camisol," and carrying fifteen Latin 
 books and forty-three kreuzers, which latter he had 
 at once to give up. Jahn, his former tutor, gave Fritz, 
 after a prehminary examination, the credit for trans- 
 lating the " Collectio Autorum Latinorum " and the 
 Greek New Testament with fair skill ; he also declared 
 him to be well grounded in Latin verse, though his 
 handwriting was none of the best. The day follow- 
 
 35
 
 36 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 ing he was formally admitted, after the list of rules 
 had been read out to him, of which each scholar had 
 to have a copy. The number allotted to him was four 
 hundred and forty-seven. In this " Military Acad- 
 emy " of the duke's all holidays were unknown ; the 
 pupils might never visit their homes, and fathers 
 could never see their sons except by special permission 
 from the duke. Such interviews always took place 
 in the presence of an attendant, and parents could only 
 obtain them at the close of the annual examinations. 
 All letters addressed to or written by the pupils were 
 invariably read through ; if anything objectionable 
 were found therein they were withheld. Thus all 
 free speech was forbidden, both to parent and to child : 
 home letters brimmed over with eulogy and admira- 
 tion for the duke ; at Solitude this was the strain in 
 which all joined ; nay, on certain occasions such hom- 
 age was enforced. How sad must all this have been 
 for poor little Fritz, torn thus cruelly from his family, 
 pressed into a service quite new and strange to him, 
 he whose joy had been in the love of mother and of 
 sister, who had delighted to roam at will through the 
 fair fields and woods that circled his home. 
 
 His father's severity had only served to heighten 
 his love for hberty ; now, together with the bitter 
 prospect of total isolation from his home was joined 
 the irksomeness of rigid military discipline. Those of 
 the students who intended to enter the service were 
 arranged in two sections — the gentry and the bour- 
 geoisie ; this latter class was again divided into the 
 sons of oflScers and those children whose parents paid 
 less (Honoratiorensohne). Among this latter class 
 were included many scholars of humble birth. The 
 silver shoulder-straps of the " gentry " or Cavaliersohne 
 were not their sole distinguishing mark ; they were 
 privileged as regarded their sleeping apartments, and 
 dined in common at a horseshoe-shaped table set
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 37 
 
 apart for them in the upper part of the hall. More 
 exasperating even was the arrangement by which, at 
 the annual distribution of prizes, the " Cavaliersohne " 
 were suffered to kiss the duke's hand, while the rest 
 might only salute the hem of his coat in a hke way. 
 
 The scholars, all of them, wore a mihtary uniform. 
 This consisted of a short light blue cloth coat with 
 black facings, silver buttons, and white shoulder-straps, 
 a waistcoat and hose of white cloth, and a three- 
 cornered hat bound with white cord. To this was 
 added a black leathern stock, white woollen stockings, 
 and silver-buckled shoes. Boots were worn only in 
 winter, together with woollen stockings drawn up over 
 the breeches. The hair was cropped from the centre 
 of the head and curled on each side with a queue 
 behind ; the " gentry " wore theirs powdered ; and on 
 high days and holidays they had a more elaborate 
 coiffure. Young Schiller must have felt the more 
 uncomfortable in this strange costume in proportion to 
 the want of skill that he had in button-polishing and 
 wig-curling, a failure that often brought upon him 
 harsh reproof. 
 
 Then how narrow, how cramped, how dismally mo- 
 notonous was the whole routine of the college ! Each 
 dormitory was occupied by fifteen scholars, together 
 with an officer and four ushers. Solitude Castle was 
 a building oval in the centre and flanked by two wings 
 and circled by an arcade ; above were galleries up to 
 which two splendid staircases led. On each side six 
 little houses adjoined the main structure in which the 
 masters and officials lived. Behind the castle in 
 crescent shape stood twenty buildiugs ; among these 
 were the ducal residence, his theatre and chapel. The 
 so-called " Hall of Laurels," of which use was made on 
 festive occasions, was also a separate building. At 
 the rear of all these houses was a garden of some 
 nine acres. After awhile, a section of the scholars
 
 38 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 was transferred to another building, at the back of 
 which was an extensive garden, where each pupil had 
 a small space of ground allotted to him for cultivation. 
 Here, in this house, was the dormitory of the first 
 division of the pupils, to which Fritz belonged. The 
 beds were ranged in order round the walls, and by 
 each bed stood a little stool and table, above which 
 was a book-shelf. The hour of rising in summer was 
 five, in winter, six o'clock ; and after washing and 
 dressing, the pupils marched in pairs, according to 
 height, to the diniug-hall, where they breakfasted, 
 after grace had been said by one of the scholars. 
 Thence they went in to class, where lessons lasted 
 until eleven. Then the dormitories were revisited ; 
 beds were made and uniforms donned, for at breakfast 
 and during lesson-time one could wear what clothes 
 one liked. After this the duke himself or the chief 
 of the college held an inspection of the entire scholars. 
 Those who had been guilty of any misdemeanour had 
 then to produce the so-called note or ticket wherewith 
 in each case the master had furnished them ; hereupon 
 the duke or his deputy administered reproof and fixed 
 punishment. Then, at the word of command, the 
 pupils marched to the large hall, where they dined. 
 His august Majesty the duke was generally present 
 during the meal, talking and chatting with the chief 
 ofhcer and ushers; sometimes, too, with the pupils, 
 who afterward filed past him on their way to the 
 dormitory, where they changed into their clothes of 
 the morning. Only those stayed behind who had some 
 punishment to undergo. In fine weather, they were 
 taken out in twos for a walk, or else they went into 
 the garden, where each boy could busy himself in 
 cultivating his own little plot of ground. Fritz took 
 no delight in his scrappy piece. In bad and rainy 
 weather the pupils remained in the building, where 
 gymnastics and drilling offered them amusement. Les-
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 39 
 
 sons were resumed at two o'clock ; they lasted imtil 
 seven. At this hour uniform had again to be put on, 
 and a repetition of the formal meal-parade of the fore- 
 noon took place. In the dormitories, lit by three lamps 
 only, the scholars were obhged at once to go to bed, 
 silence being strictly enforced. On some nights the 
 duke himself came hither and paced up and down the 
 room. 
 
 And to this monotonous mihtary life, begetting in 
 many a disgust for all discipline — to this, one was 
 obliged to submit, simply because it happened to be 
 the duke's " Military Academy." If he took a keen 
 personal interest in the scholars, if he posed as a 
 loving father among loving sons, he was yet to most 
 but a hard taskmaster, not averse to dispensing grand 
 ducal boxes-on-the-ear now and again ; his condescen- 
 sion was felt to be condescension and nothing more ; 
 it was powerless to impress noble natures, who saw 
 that he sought merely to be admired and revered 
 
 At times, leaning upon his arm, there appeared the 
 Baroness Leutrum zu Hohenheim, a lady of high grace 
 and charm. She was tall and shapely, of dazzlingly 
 fair complexion, with luxuriant blonde tresses and 
 handsome neck and arms which she wore bare, show- 
 ing her taste as femme de mode by her varied and 
 brilhant toilets. The pupils knew well enough, 
 though, in what unlawful relation Franciska stood to 
 the duke. After suffering bitter treatment at the 
 hands of the rich yet cross-grained Baron Leutrum, 
 whom at the age of sixteen she had been forced to 
 marry, the Duke Karl Eugene told her of his love, and 
 by his declaration drove the jealous husband to yet 
 grosser violence, which caused her to flee from his 
 roof. The duke, hearing from her how matters stood, 
 himself took steps to effect her divorce, and when this 
 had been legally decreed, Franciska came to Solitude 
 Castle as his recognised mistress. It is true, she dis-
 
 40 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 tingiiished herself from the many who had preceded 
 her by conduct in every way more worthy of respect ; 
 she had also a good influence upon the duke ; neverthe- 
 less, his lawful wife still lived, who had left him many 
 years before. He founded for Franciska at Solitude 
 an Ecole des Dames, corresponding in arrangement to 
 his own academy ; of this institution she was the lady 
 superintendent. Thus the duke did everything possi- 
 ble to raise her position, but the stain of her unlawful 
 relations with him could not but repel such as were 
 not dazzled by outside glitter, even though many were 
 glad at her presence among them. Sunday formed a 
 break to the eternal monotony, when the pupils at- 
 tended church, receiving the sacrament every three 
 months. On this day they had to occupy themselves 
 with the reading of pious and edifying works ; and, if 
 the weather allowed, they were taken out walking in 
 the evening. It is true that from the heights of Soli- 
 tude they could enjoy a most magnificent view of the 
 many hamlets and villages round about, nor was there 
 any lack of charming spots within easy reach ; yet, in 
 looking upon the vast expanse of country, the boys 
 were but reminded of how dismally they were shut 
 out from the world ; nor, with an usher ever at their 
 elbow, could they rightly and thoroughly enjoy God's 
 air and the beauty of fields and woods. In summer- 
 time, on some days in the week, they were taken to 
 bathe. They were not stinted in the matter of diet, 
 yet the food was not always properly cooked or pre- 
 pared with cleanliness ; small matter for wonder, this, 
 in the absence of a good kitchen and of those to work 
 in it. Breakfast consisted of soup, served in tureens 
 holding enough for six boys ; the plates were of earthen- 
 ware, the spoons of lead. For dinner there was soup, 
 beef, and vegetables, and twice a week a ragout of 
 game, the so-called " extra," much loathed by all. The 
 first and second divisions were served with half a pint
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 41 
 
 of wine, and at the close of dinner each boy received 
 a piece of bread to be eaten during the afternoon. 
 Soup and a milk pudding, or else ragout and bread, 
 formed their supper, water being their only drink. On 
 this fare Schiller did not thrive ; he became sickly, 
 whereas since his fourth year he had always been 
 sound and strong in health. The lack of proper ex- 
 ercise, the unwonted diet, the wearisome monotony, 
 the chills caught from bathing, the longing for home, 
 all worked together in a most unfavourable way. The 
 more he pined for a mother's and a sister's love, the 
 closer became his attachment to some few comrades. 
 In the academy he found his friend Wilhelm von 
 Hoven, who had already been there a year and a half, 
 and whose younger brother, also a pupil, was dis- 
 tinguished by extreme industry and talent. At this 
 time, too, he grew intimate with George Frederick 
 Scharffenstein, son of a goldsmith at Mont-beillard, to 
 whom, on August 29, 1771, together with twenty-two 
 compatriots, the duke had given admission. Despite his 
 taste for art, he had been forced to follow a military 
 calling. Seemingly it was their utter difference in 
 character that drew Fritz to make Scharffenstein his 
 friend, who but slowly responded to his companion's 
 advances, and who in behaviour was such a paragon 
 as always to gain the foremost prize for conduct. 
 
 Besides the advantage of daily life among so many 
 comrades of different character, all smarting under a 
 like yoke, the best to be gained from this academy 
 was the tuition, it being the more effective from the 
 fact that the duke periodically added to and modified 
 its strength. Thus, to the subjects with which 
 Schiller was already familiar, were in brief time added 
 geography, history, mathematics, and French. In 
 Greek he stood higher than most of the others, so 
 that at the end of the year he took the first prize, 
 owing, as was stated, to his " excellent abilities " in
 
 42 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 this branch of study. But this prize was the sole one 
 that he gained in six years, although annually a goodly 
 proportion of rewards was distributed. That year 
 Huven took three prizes, among these the second one 
 for Greek. In a school report, dated November 16, 
 1773, speaking of the " conduct and general behaviour " 
 of the first division, Kittmeister Faber said : " Schiller 
 has abundance of good-will, and shows great desire to 
 learn ; his negligence and lack of alertness, however, 
 call for repeated reproof. He is sensible of his faults, 
 and strives to correct them." A certain unconquerable 
 disgust for study had crept over him, a disgust which 
 he dared not display ; in addition to this, he was ailing 
 in body. Wliilst on the sick hst he gave reins to 
 his poetic fancy. His father asserts the " Ode to the 
 Suu " to have been written during this year, a poem 
 that appeared later on in an amended form. Also 
 " The Christians," a drama, composed, so his parent 
 tells us, at the age of thirteen, may at this time have 
 had its beginning. We can but surmise that a de- 
 scription of the heroic self-sacrifice of the first pro- 
 fessor of the Christian faith must have been of powerful 
 attraction to the young poet. On December 15th there 
 came to the academy John William Petersen, a lad of 
 sixteen, son of a clergyman at Bergzabern. Schiller's 
 intimacy with him soon ripened into friendship. 
 Petersen had special leaning to literature and philo- 
 sophical meditation. Through him Fritz first made 
 acquaintance with Gerstenberg's " Ugoline," a work 
 which, despite its ghastliness, has won by its power 
 the admiration of Lessing, Herder, and Goethe. Less 
 close was the friendship existing between Schiller and 
 his Ludwigsburg acquaintance Elwert, who entered 
 the college some two months later. 
 
 In 1774 the academy was enriched by a legal de- 
 partment, to which Schiller, witli the most of those 
 who had taken up scientific lines of study, was ac-
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 43 
 
 cordingly transferred. But the law students had also 
 to occupy themselves with the general sciences ; only 
 eight hours per week were allotted to them for special 
 study : three for common law, as many for the history 
 of law, and two for Roman antiquities — a subject 
 begun by them two years previously. Neither in law 
 nor in the other subjects did Schiller show any pro- 
 ficiency (in Greek alone he was usually fourth) : he 
 was more prone to indulge in poetic reveries ; and for 
 this his iU-health may stand as excuse. Before Jahn 
 returned to Ludwigsburg in November, he categorised 
 Schiller, Von Hoven, and two others as " second-rate 
 geniuses ; " excelling only in languages, but failing to 
 make any great progress in the general subjects, wherein, 
 with the exception of Hoven, they none of them had 
 had previous teaching ; in Schiller's case, too, illness 
 had served to keep him back. Praise was given to 
 their industry and general conduct. Rittmeister Faber's 
 report of Schiller, written in December, runs thus : 
 " He has grown three inches of late ; is devout in his 
 religion, dutiful and respectful to his superiors ; nor 
 is he less sociable and friendly with his schoolfellows ; 
 is possessed of good abihties ; has been seven times on 
 the sick-list — the last time, from September 2d to 
 October 7th. It is owing to these repeated illnesses 
 that, despite all his dihgence in comparison with 
 others, he seems to stand fairly far behind." 
 
 Two of Schiller's works remain to us which were 
 completed in this year. That January the duke had 
 demanded of the first division of the pupils a written 
 reply to the question as to who was the most inferior 
 among them all. The intention was, not only that 
 such an one should confess to the title, but also that 
 it should be given to him by all his companions. The 
 majority acquitted themselves of this most disagreeable 
 and thankless task by more or less brief answers in 
 French or in Latin prose ; the scholar in question had
 
 44 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 to write himself guilty in his own mother tongue, ask- 
 ing at the same time for pardon. Schiller chose to 
 express himself in the form of Latin distichs. If 
 these verses show strong repugnance to the practice of 
 informing against others, in the Hatteriug praise given 
 by Schiller to the duke's gracious care and benevolence 
 we can plainly detect the inevitable tone of an acad- 
 emy student. During that autumn each pupil of the 
 first division had to write a statement of the char- 
 acteristics of himself and of his companions, making 
 particular mention of their disposition toward God and 
 the duke — of their contentment with their position 
 — of their industry and cleanhness. From Schiller's 
 fulfilment of this strange task we may gain a glimpse 
 of the boy's mind and feehngs, which were well beyond 
 his years. Despite occasional clumsiness, his verses 
 show a noteworthy sense for diction and for form ; 
 there is the sweep, the glow of rhetoric in them as 
 well. If he expresses the deepest reverence and 
 admiration for the " sublime " prince, the source and 
 founder of all their happiness and well-being; if his 
 epithets are strongly stamped by youthful exaggera- 
 tion, it was from his father that he got this manner 
 of speech — his father, throughout whose writings, 
 whether official or private, there reigned that tone of 
 ultra-loyalty, of hyper-devotion. What must not his 
 feelings have been when writing as follows : " I see 
 before me the father of my parents, whose gracious- 
 ness and bounty I can never repay. And as I look 
 upon him, I sigh. This prince, who has set my 
 parents in a position to do me good — this prince, 
 through whom God is minded to work his will with 
 me — this father, who aims at my happiness, is, and 
 must be, far, far dearer to me than my parents, who 
 wholly depend upon his grace, his favour." It is by 
 " a religious standard," he further argues, that the duke 
 should judge of him. " Often," says he, " you will find
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 45 
 
 me rash and often thoughtless ; yet why need faults 
 and errors cancel that which has been built up by a 
 trust in, and a love for, God, and which forms the 
 fundamental law of a naturally sensitive heart ? " 
 From these his own words the duke might judge 
 whether he did not love, honour, adore him. Was 
 there any need to declare this upon oath ? Were the 
 duke to question his companions about him, they 
 would answer that he was obstinate, hot-tempered, 
 and impatient; yet his uprightness, his honesty, his 
 good heart they would praise. Further, he admits 
 that he has not made right use of his good abiUties, 
 and that this causes him dissatisfaction ; yet in some 
 degree his ill-health must serve as an excuse. He 
 would own to a fault for which he had often been 
 blamed — that of a neglect of personal neatness ; the 
 pohshing of buttons, buckles, and shoes, the cleaning 
 of clothes, the elaborate hair-dressing — all this was 
 alike repugnant to him. 
 
 As Schiller was often confined to the sick-room, he 
 had abundance of time to devote to reading poetry and 
 to the forming of poetic schemes. Klopstock stood 
 first among the poets of his choice, yet he was very 
 fond of Haller and of Goetz; in Lessiug's " Emiha 
 Galotti " he also found intense delight. At this time, 
 too, he had become familiar with Shakespeare, whose 
 stupendous power amazed him, though it was revolting 
 to his sympathies that the poet, in moments of the 
 sublimest pathos, should be able to jest. The confi- 
 dants of his muse were Petersen and Von Hoven ; 
 through him they too felt drawn to poesy. Like his 
 master Klopstock, Schiller at the first kept to Biblical 
 subjects. Later on he himself cites " Absalom " as his 
 first drama; and before this he had essayed to pro- 
 duce an epic poem entitled " Moses." Nor was there 
 lack of lyrical effusions at this period. 
 
 Already, in September, at the duke's request, Schil-
 
 46 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 ler's parents had signed the formula which obliged 
 their son to devote himself wholly and entirely to the 
 service of the ducal house, not quitting it unless 
 allowed to do so. Naturally enough, he was not con- 
 sulted in the matter ; of what avail, forsooth, would 
 his dissent have been ! At first he had to study law, 
 for which he had small liking. In 1775 nine hours 
 were set apart for this, while fifteen more in the week 
 were allotted to philosophy and rhetoric. According 
 to the periodical reports, Schiller's progress in these 
 subjects was but middling ; in Latin, however, and in 
 Greek he stood high. And if it was only in subjects 
 begun at Ludwigsburg that he made advance, the 
 cause, among others, lay in the fact that the new 
 ones had slight attraction for him, and that poetry had 
 seized him with all her force. Goethe's " Clavigo " and 
 " Werther" — these filled his soul, his imagination, which 
 was brooding withal upon creations of its own. His 
 friend Hoven drew his attention to a magazine article 
 containing the story of an unnatiiral brother — a tale 
 that seemed well fitted for dramatic treatment. Schil- 
 ler at once seized the idea, but ere long another and 
 more powerful one came to him after reading an account 
 of the suicide of a student at Nassau. He at once re- 
 solved to immortalise this new Werther in a drama, and 
 accordingly he wrote his " Student of Nassau," which, 
 however, on completion did not content him. Later on 
 he was sorry to have destroyed the play, as many of 
 the situations in it, conceived and worked out with all 
 the fire of youth, might perhaps in later years have 
 been useful to him. Doubtless, he also produced many 
 lyrics at this time, flung off hastily, in competition 
 with his poet friends. He had to take care, indeed, 
 that the books he read and the verses he wrote were 
 not discovered when the ushers and masters made 
 their periodical visits of search and inspection of the 
 private belongings of each pupil.
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 FROM 1775 TO 1779. 
 
 ScHiLLEK had just reached the age of sixteen, having 
 been three years at the academy, when it was trans- 
 ferred to Stuttgart. For long past the drawbacks of 
 distance from the capital, as also the need of sufhcient 
 accommodation, had been subjects of annoyance to 
 the duke, who, however, while spending all upon 
 the Hohenheim estate, never thought of adding to or 
 of enlarging the building at Solitude. The offer made 
 to him by the town of Stuttgart, of excellent and 
 capacious premises, in every way fitted for his acad- 
 emy, was therefore a highly desirable one. Since the 
 court had left Stuttgart, the new barracks at the back 
 of the castle had remained tenantless. To this build- 
 ing, on the 18th of November, the cadets, some 330 
 in number, marched, together with their principals, 
 masters, and ushers. At ten o'clock on that day the 
 duke betook himself to the Hasenberg, where he held 
 a parade of the town soldiery ; here, too, he received 
 the pupils, and rode into Stuttgart at their head, amid 
 universal acclamation. Outside the academy he was 
 welcomed by the scholars' parents ; within it, by the 
 masters and professors. After a short service, he, in 
 person, led the several divisions to their respective 
 dormitories, showing to each boy his place in bedroom 
 and in dining-hall. Many of the parents were present, 
 and Captain Schiller was, doubtless, among their num- 
 ber. He had left the service, receiving the appoint- 
 
 47
 
 48 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 meut of intendant at Castle Solitude. Tliither, from 
 his own well - stocked and well - tended orchard, he 
 transplanted some four thousand apple and pear-trees ; 
 as a recompense, he for three years claimed the profit 
 derived from all the adjacent grass-land. This brought 
 him in the sum of a thousand gulden. Owing to his 
 most careful treatment of the soil, the forest school, 
 that hitherto had failed to thrive, was carried by him 
 to its highest point of excellence. Meanwhile, another 
 daughter had been born to him, while he had had to 
 mourn the loss of his second child. Fritz, alas ! could 
 but share at far distance in both these family events. 
 
 The final examinations were held in the new build- 
 ing; but the prizes were distributed at the duke's 
 chateau, as the hall intended for that purpose was not 
 yet finished. Their removal to Stuttgart gave to the 
 pupils not only healthier rooms to live in and better 
 food to eat ; it brought them likewise into closer con- 
 tact with the Kfe of a town. In particular, they found 
 it easier to smuggle in forbidden articles, especially 
 tobacco. As a consequence, Schiller began to take 
 snuff ; and later on he learnt to smoke. There was a 
 cadet, who, during lessons with a short-sighted pro- 
 fessor, was most adroit in escaping from class by the 
 window, and in fetching tilings for the others. Schiller 
 dubbed him " The Omnipotent." 
 
 Six faculties were now formally instituted — the 
 legal, the philosophical, the military, and the financial, 
 together with a department for the fine arts and an- 
 other for medicine. As one was rather at a loss to 
 find students for this last-named subject, the duke 
 asked which of his pupils had a mind to take it up — 
 Schiller, Yon Hoven, Elwert, and six others gave in 
 their names. To this resolve the first two were spe- 
 cially helped by the fact that they were backward in 
 their present branches of study. New and nearer rela- 
 tion to nature, and to human life, would serve, so they
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 49 
 
 thought, to shape aud strengthen their poetic tastes. 
 The duke notably approved of Schiller's choice, as he 
 seemed to him to have special aptness for the science. 
 Anatomy was zealously studied, and lectures in medi- 
 cine attended with great diligence. The intimacy be- 
 tween the poetry-loving friends grew closer than before ; 
 each enthusiastically seeking to outrival one another 
 in original composition, and in the choosing of fresh 
 themes for poetic treatment. For Schiller Klinger's 
 " ZwiUinge " and Leisewitz's " Juhus von Tarent " were 
 of powerful interest. In his enthusiasm he formed the 
 project of dramatising the grim story of the Grand 
 Duke Cosmo de Medici and his two sons, Garsias and 
 John. It never struck him that this was in effect the 
 basis of plays by Klinger and Leisewitz. Hoven medi- 
 tated upon a novel in the Werther style; Petersen 
 was busy with a soul-stirring tragedy ; Scharff en stein, 
 with a drama of chivalry. But lyrical poetry was not 
 wanting. In this Klopstock Vv^as their model ; Biirger, 
 Hcilty, Miller, Vosz, and the Counts Stolberg won also 
 their admiration. Schiller was linked to Scharffen- 
 stein by enthusiastic friendship ; this had been specially 
 fostered by the courageous way in which Scharff enstein 
 had refuted an unjust imputation of Intendant von 
 Seeger. Schiller, mightily stirred with a thirst for lib- 
 erty, celebrated Scharffenstein's action in a high-flown 
 ode. From that time he loved his friend ardently, pas- 
 sionately, in whom he had found his other self, the com- 
 pletion of his identity. Vows of eternal amity were 
 exchanged, and besung by Schiller in many a line of 
 verse. One ballad of the friendship between Selim 
 and Sangir ended thus : 
 
 " Sangir loved his Selim tenderly, 
 
 As thou lovest me, dear Scharffenstein ; 
 Selim loved his Sangir tenderly, 
 
 Even as I love thee, dear Scharffenstein.'
 
 50 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 And after these two Eastern friends they accordingly 
 named themselves. 
 
 " God knows it, I forgot everything, everything, 
 when with you," writes Schiller, later on. "I was 
 proud of your friendship, not because by it I felt my- 
 self set higher in the eyes of men, but in the eyes 
 of a more lofty world, toward wliich my heart so 
 glowed, that beckoned me, as it were, saying : ' 'Tis he, 
 he alone whom thou canst love ! ' As I was saying, 
 in your presence I expanded, yet I was never so 
 humbled as when my eyes were on you, when I heard 
 you speak, and saw how you felt what language could 
 not utter ; then a sense of my unusual littleness came 
 over me ; then I likewise besought God to make me 
 hke you. You can easily recollect how in this fore- 
 taste of a blissful time I breathed nought else but 
 friendship ; how all, all, even my poetry, was lit up and 
 \avified by the spirit of friendship. Oh ! a friendship 
 formed as ours was formed, had been able to outlast 
 eternity ! Where could you have found another to feel 
 with you that which our eyes told us we felt on quiet 
 starlit nights, when at my window or during the even- 
 ing walk ! We two were the sole ones whose charac- 
 ters were alike ; believe me, in our friendship there 
 were gHmpses the most glorious of heaven ; its basis 
 was of the firmest, the noblest ; it foretold for botli of 
 us but one paradise. Had you or had I died ten times 
 over, death should not have tricked us of a single 
 hour. I chose you for my friend because you have 
 more sagacity, more experience, more ballast than I ; 
 because, before all others, you have come wholly close 
 to my heart's feelings, and have equalled them ; be- 
 cause, other than you, I have no friend ! This, too, I 
 told you in the hour when first our friendship had 
 birth." 
 
 With Haug Schiller soon became more intimate. 
 Hang was a friend of Schubart's, to whom, for the Octo-
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 51 
 
 ber number of his magazine, he sent Schiller's poem 
 " Evening," a pendant to Haller's " Morning Thoughts." 
 It was signed with the letters " Sch." Haug spoke of 
 the author as a youth of sixteen, who, as it seemed to 
 him, was already versed in the writings of good authors 
 (poets, of course, he meant), and who might with time 
 possess OS 'magna sonaturum. In this poem the in- 
 fluence of Klopstock and HaUer is but too plainly 
 perceptible ; it is more than influence ; it becomes imi- 
 tation. But Schiller had not yet conquered the tech- 
 nical difficulties of the ode ; faulty rhymes abound 
 throughout ; the editor notes more than one grammati- 
 cal error as well. The young bard rejoices at the 
 " blissful emotion " known only to the lowly born, 
 being of small worth to princes and the great : 
 
 " O God, 'tis Nature that thou gavest me ; 
 Part worlds among them — only, Father, yield me song." 
 
 Quite in the Klopstock manner is his ending, with the 
 wish that in the great hereafter he may come to a 
 clearer, juster judgment of things : 
 
 " No evening there, no darkness, no obscurity ; 
 There the Lord God holds reign eternally." 
 
 On October 3d, the anniversary of the Countess Hohen- 
 heim, Schiller, in fulfilment of a task set by the duke 
 to the pupils, presented her with two congratulatory 
 addresses, the one in the name of the academy, the 
 other in that of the Ecole des Demoiselles. In the first 
 of these he makes a point with Franciska's name-day, 
 a feast, as he puts it, ordained by Nature for the join- 
 ing together of the virtues and the graces. Her he 
 celebrates as Virtue radiant with the lustre of a thou- 
 sand righteous deeds, the benefactress of the sick and 
 needy. In the other poem of the Ecole des Demoi- 
 selles, Franciska is termed the gentlest, worthiest, best
 
 52 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 of mothers, a " very pattern for youth," whom to imi- 
 tate it is their " ardent " desire. The sole times that 
 the cadets met this EcoU were at pubUc theatricals 
 and dances, which both schools were ordered to attend. 
 For Schiller such enforced amusement was all the less 
 amusing from his being a bad dancer ; in the school 
 reports his dancing was always mentioned as being 
 bad ; once only is it styled " middling." 
 
 Probably it was for the duke's next birthday, for 
 the 11th of February, 1777, that Schiller wrote his 
 little play, entitled " The Fair," which was acted by 
 some of his companions. According to Petersen, "it 
 already gave evidence of the genial brain that, with 
 the magical force of a Proteus, knew how to transform 
 itself into all and every shape." A year before this 
 the duke had permitted the pupils to attend the Stutt- 
 gart fair. 
 
 The friends pursued their poetic studies, continued 
 their poetic effusions until Scharffenstein, less gifted 
 than the rest, was led to the utterance of a frank, un- 
 sparing criticism of Schiller's work, that, while leaving 
 his talent unnoted, touched merely upon his faults. 
 His poetry was stigmatised as hollow and fantastic, as. 
 imitation in its crudest form, lacking the soul, the 
 core that alone constituted the real poet. In this ver- 
 dict Boigeol, another friend, concurred. Scharffenstein's 
 unsparing judgment made Schiller so unhappy that at 
 length he would have nothing more to say to him, 
 Scharffenstein taxed his friend with indifference — 
 charged him with having fallen from his allegiance. 
 We still possess Schiller's reply, written in the utmost 
 agitation during the early part of 1777. Scharffen- 
 stein's later statement, that their estrangement took 
 place at the close of 1778, when he left the academy, 
 is contradicted by what Schiller says in a later letter 
 to Boigeol, written a few days after : " Farewell ! I 
 vdll read it in your face — will not question you ; let
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 53 
 
 US not embitter our few remaining years of durance." 
 Judging from the context, " the few remaining years 
 of durance" can but be those spent at the academy 
 in seclusion from the world ; Boigeol, however, was to 
 quit the college at the end of 1778. 
 
 Listen how Schiller, in the following passionate 
 letter, that ever harks back to the same point, sets 
 forth his feeliners : 
 
 " Why am I gi-own indifferent ? Because I loved 
 you, because I was your friend and saw that you were 
 not mine ; is it for this that the thought has seized 
 you ? You were not my friend ! You must have had 
 respect for me, as I for you ; for in a friend there are 
 traits that make you respect him ; but, but — may it 
 not strike your heart like a thunderbolt ! — in me you 
 found nothing to value, no quahties that could help to 
 cement our friendship. In me you found nothing to 
 value ! How often (yet only when you were angered : 
 at other times you simulated reverence, admiration), 
 how often, often have I had to hear from you and 
 from that Boigeol, that my whole existence was just 
 one poem ; my sensibilities, my conceptions of God, of 
 rehgion, of friendship, of the imagination, according to 
 you, sprang, one and all, from the poet, not from the 
 Christian, not from the friend. Ah, me ! ah, me ! how 
 my heart was seized by all that you said ! You told 
 me this — God knows it, and is witness — you told 
 me this with deceit written upon your features, with 
 the gravest, the most earnest mien — ah, me ! ah, me ! 
 How it pains me, this that you, you did ! Do you still 
 remember how, if I found fault with some book, some 
 poem, or the hke (Kleist's ' Amynt,' for instance), you 
 used to say that it certainly wanted swing, it lacked 
 idyllic charm ; yet it contained sentiment, a sentiment 
 different from that found in m?/ poems, while in the 
 workmanship there was none of my colouring ; it was 
 heart that / had, or words to that effect."
 
 54 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 To the charge that in his odes everything was trace- 
 able to Klopstock, he answered that he had certainly 
 much to thank him for, but that it had sunk deep into 
 his soul — had become his own property ; in death this 
 would serve to comfort him. 
 
 " My faults caused you merriment," he continues. 
 " You knew my self-love. Oh, Heavenly Father, I feel 
 that of vices this is one of the most odious ; oh, root it 
 from my heart. Heavenly Father, I confess to it, I 
 repent me of it — and you, you knew my self-love ; 
 now, before God let me say it to you, you laughed at, 
 you ridiculed it ; you, my friend, put me to shame in 
 others' eyes, you who in secret hid it from me and 
 were silent ! How often (yet once let me add it), how 
 often have you given glowing praise to my poems — 
 how often have you raised up my soul to heaven — 
 how often, when we sat together upon my bed, have 
 you lent ear in truly marvellous fashion to my sense- 
 less self-glorification, saying no word that in warmth 
 might have escaped you, or that Boigeol could have 
 whispered to you ; yet you never chid me for this. 
 Do you still recollect how we were once standing by 
 Gegel's bed, and how you asked me to measure my 
 height with yours, and when I did so, with a wicked 
 smile you showed to others your astonishment by say- 
 ing : ' He waxes both in body and in mind,' etc., and 
 then turning to me you said, ' Clever fellow ! ' Oh, 
 saw you not, too, how I reddened then ? Did you 
 note nothing else ? When you snubbed me thus, 
 making my egotism the laughing-stock of all, when I 
 stood there — God, what feelings were mine ! Heaven 
 knows it, I was penitent for my great sin of self-love ; 
 yet such scorn, — such a moment, — from you, — in 
 the eyes of — Oh ! I could not weep ; I had to turn 
 aside ; rather destruction than another such instant 
 from you ! Oh that this tear may not fall hot upon 
 your soul ! Then, too, you never showed pleasure at
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 55 
 
 the thought of soon seeing me nearer to you in school 
 rank. Forgive me, Scharfieustein, if in this moment I 
 prayed God to gi-ant me the very opposite of that ; 
 yes, and there were times when it was my one, my 
 only wish to advance until I should stand near to 
 you." 
 
 It had grieved him, too, that Scharffenstein was 
 become intimate with one Grub, whom he could not 
 abide, being a youth of bad, petty disposition. At the 
 close of his letter he remarks that after long unrest he 
 had now found a source that could fill his heart and 
 bring it blessing — a grand, grand, noble friend ; and 
 for this reason he pardoned him, and would ever show 
 him kindness ; only, for many a day he must turn 
 aside his face from him that the tears be hidden. 
 
 " See, just now in the Bible I have been reading the 
 story of David's life. He and Jonathan loved each 
 other as my Selim and Saugir ; in heaven, too, I shall 
 be loved by them, because I love them ! There have 
 been noble friends in the world ; and I — I sought 
 myself one for eternity — But in heaven above, there 
 I shall find hearts that are noble and true ! " 
 
 In vain did Scharffenstein attempt to convince his 
 friend, wounded as he was to the quick, that the whole 
 matter rested on a misunderstanding ; for Schiller, any 
 closer friendship was impossible, even though in out- 
 ward bearing toward him he remained unchanged. 
 And Boigeol, stung by Schiller's frigid reference to 
 him in his letter as " that Boigeol," was still less 
 successful in making him think otherwise. Not till 
 three days after did he reply to his charge of indif- 
 ference, of pride, and hate. With Boigeol he had never 
 been on so intimate a footing, and his mode of study, 
 his sensibihties were of another order ; he had never 
 trusted him frankly and nobly, as one would trust a 
 real friend ; nay, Boigeol had injured him by acts that 
 bring torture to the undying soul.
 
 56 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 " I am one of finer stuff than most ; it was seldom 
 that I struck the right mark — often, often I missed 
 doing so, as latterly in this instance ; yet here — here 
 I have the right mark ; God will be with me and will 
 guide me." 
 
 In lively intercourse with other friends and ac- 
 quaintances, his soul-felt grief soon lost its first poign- 
 ancy. Among these were Dannecker the sculptor, 
 Heideloff the painter, and Zumsteeg the musician. 
 
 In the meantime Haug had inserted Schiller's ode 
 " The Conqueror," signed with the letters " Sch.," in the 
 March number of his magazine. When accepting it, 
 he remarked that the lines were by a youth who to all 
 appearance read, felt, and almost thought as did Klop- 
 stock. He would on no account damp his ardour, yet, 
 when rid of all nonsense, incoherence, and exaggerated 
 metaphor, he might some day rise to full excellence — 
 might with time take a place among the great, and 
 bring honour to his country. In the choice of subject 
 alone, yet even more in the execution of the poem, 
 we are led to recognise Klopstock's influence. Haug 
 rightly laid his finger upon its blemishes. Yet despite 
 exaggeration and want of finish, it plainly shows poetic 
 strength and an effort to work in accordance with a 
 definite theory. But besides Klopstock, there were 
 other authors from whom Schiller received powerful 
 impressions. He read Rousseau's " Nouvelle Heloise ; " 
 he wept over Miller's " Siegwart ; " too readily, too 
 easily were all his heart-strings set vibrating. Both 
 these books formed his favourite reading; he had, 
 besides, Wieland's " Agathon," " Idris," even his " Comic 
 Tales," together with other volumes. Ossian's mist- 
 creations left, likewise, their eflect upon liim ; and a 
 collection by Ursinus of " Ballads and Songs in the 
 Old English and Old Scotch Style" (1777) was nota- 
 bly prized by the friends. 
 
 Scharffenstein's place was ere long filled by Hang's
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 57 
 
 son, who, at the close of 1775, had gained entry to the 
 cn-cle of poets. Born epigrammatist as he was, he 
 brought to it life and spirit; he helped greatly to 
 counterbalance the rhapsodical element. The band of 
 bards strove with each other in the composition of a 
 truly ethereal poem about one " Kosaliud at the Bath." 
 Schiller's ode " The Triumph Chant of Hell " and an- 
 other poem in the Klopstock manner were likewise 
 produced at this time. Schiller also grew intimate 
 with the son of Schubart the poet. The duke having 
 enticed Schubart to Wiirtemberg, forthwith put him 
 under arrest without trial, without justification. On 
 the day of his imprisonment, about which Franciska 
 was quite callous, the duke granted the unfortunate 
 wife an annuity of two hundred gulden, admitting^her 
 sou into the academy and her daughter into the Ecole 
 des Demoiselles. But to the noble dame's petition for 
 the release of her husband his Grace replied that she 
 might go her ways, as for her and the children pro- 
 vision had been made. Here again all the young 
 student's noble sense of hberty must have been roused 
 at the duke's cruel revenge. 
 
 Schiller gave less attention to medicine and was 
 more diligent in the study of philosophy and the lib- 
 eral sciences, for the young poet divined that, to gain 
 perfection in his art, it behooved him to master their 
 laws, while from history and from the works of great 
 poets and sages he must widen his knowledge of 
 human nature. He became deeply absorbed in Fer- 
 guson's " Moral Philosophy," with Garve's shrewd anno- 
 tations, besides the writings of Mendelssohn and other 
 psychological works. Ferguson's axiom that morality 
 does not depend upon religion, but forms part of the 
 essence of humanity, which therein alone can find its 
 end and solace — this ever took firmer root in his 
 mind. The doctrine, too, that man's highest aim is 
 self-distinction worked powerfully upon the cadet, put
 
 58 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 in durance by grand ducal grace. Ferguson remained 
 his text-book and manual of philosophy, just as Schlo- 
 zer's broadly written " General History " served to shape 
 his historical views. Plutarch's " Lives," bepraised liy 
 Rousseau, gave strength to his sense of liberty and free- 
 dom. Thus it grew ever less tolerable to him to be 
 shut off from the world ; and yet, if he would soon 
 reach that world, he well saw that he must apply him- 
 self to his studies with greater zeal. Five years was 
 the term fixed for those studying medicine ; by special 
 diligence this might be reduced to four ; the others, 
 however, were far in advance of Schiller and Hoven. 
 So these two mutually resolved to devote themselves 
 wholly to their work, in order that at the end of four 
 years they might escape from their academical prison. 
 
 Wilhelm von Wolzogen now became one of Schiller's 
 more intimate friends, the second son of Privy Coun- 
 cillor Ernest von Wolzogen, whose death occurred in 
 1774. He was the only pupil of rank — i.e. "cava- 
 lier " — to whom Schiller was attached ; Hoven, on 
 the other hand, had many with whom he was on terms 
 of close friendship. To Wolzogen, by many years his 
 junior, Schiller's relation was a brotherly one ; he be- 
 came even more closely drawn by the remarkable 
 talent, particularly for philosophy, possessed by an- 
 other pupil, one Albrecht Friedrich Lempp, who came 
 from Stuttgart, and on the 4th of April, 1778, had 
 joined the other law students. 
 
 The duke's famous manifesto, issued on his fiftieth 
 birthday, and read aloud from every pulpit, could make 
 but Httle impression upon Schiller, however much Karl 
 Eugene might pride himself upon candid confession of 
 regret at any act of injustice, while promising his 
 " faithful and beloved " subjects to devote his remain- 
 ing years of life to their real welfare. Yet Schubart 
 still languished in confinement, and Schiller yearned 
 for his deliverance. He was little touched by the
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 59 
 
 world-stirring conflict between the North American 
 colonies and England, although Schubart had sided 
 vigorously with the colonists, had denounced the base 
 sale of German subjects to England by their own 
 princes, and had, moreover, spread the report that the 
 Duke of Wiirtemberg had in this manner disposed of 
 three thousand men. Whether Schiller ever read 
 Schubart's " German Chronicle," aflame with the love 
 of fatherland and freedom, we do not know. Sick- 
 ness having broken out in the academy, some of the 
 elder of the medical students were appointed to wait 
 upon patients. Naturally enough Schiller here gladly 
 spoke of what lay at his heart ; and to Heideloff, who 
 was much busied with theatrical scene-painting, he 
 confided his close-cherished dramatic scheme. 
 
 At the last examination Schiller had taken no prize, 
 although in anatomy he ranked in equal merit with 
 three others. The lot fell to Elwert ; Hoven also 
 gained two prizes. As, however, Schiller's progress 
 satisfied his superiors, he was commissioned to prepare 
 a competition essay for the following autumn, which, 
 if successful, would, so he hoped, secure his dismissal. 
 The subject he chose was one dear to him — The 
 Influence of the Body upon the Soul. Nevertheless, 
 neither he nor his comrades were suffered to leave the 
 academy in that year ; the duke decreed that they 
 should remain there for another twelve months. It 
 was soon after this mandate of the duke's had been 
 issued that the academy was honoured by a visit that, 
 for Schiller, could have had no greater fascination. 
 He had certainly felt keen pleasure when, on April 7, 
 1777, the Emperor Joseph came to see the college 
 while travelling to Paris, assisting at the prize awards 
 and conversing with some of the scholars. It was the 
 first great man that he had ever seen ; how, then, must 
 it have rejoiced his heart when the famed author of 
 " Werther," " Clavigo," and of " Goetz," in company
 
 6o THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 with the Duke of Weimar, visited the academy, where 
 they received high honours at the hauds of " The 
 Anoiuted," as Karl Eugene loved to term himself. 
 They appeared in the dining-hall one evening, where 
 the duke, in the course of his usual post-examination 
 speech, made allusion to the distinguished guests. On 
 the follo^viug night, when the prizes were given away 
 in the salon, his Grace stood as usual under a gorgeous 
 canopy of crimson and gold, with the Duke of Weimar 
 on his right and Goethe on his left. At farther dis- 
 tance from " The Anointed " were four other guests of 
 higli rank, among them, Chamberlain von Wedel and 
 Wolfgang Hexibert, Reichsfreiherr von Dalberg, direc- 
 tor of the national theatre at Mannheim, he who, later, 
 was to be so remarkably connected with the events of 
 Schiller's later life. He seemed a man of high impor- 
 tance to the young poet, full of keen passion for the 
 stage, even though he dared not dream to see his 
 " Robbers " put upon the boards. Schiller's heart 
 swelled within him at the sight of Goethe, the fa- 
 vourite of the Muses, receiving such homage, though 
 it was not for his poetic fame that it was shown to 
 him, for Karl was far from having either acquaintance 
 or sympathy with poetry ; it was because Goethe had 
 risen to be the friend and confidant of his prince. The 
 names of the prize-winners were read out from the 
 chair, and each pupil advanced in turn to the table 
 before the duke, on which were the sceptre of office 
 and a row of silver medals. These the intendant 
 handed to Ids Grace, who as rector magnificentissimus 
 bestowed them upon the fortunate scholars, whereupon 
 those of rank were suffered to kiss his hand, and the 
 rest his coat-hem in sign of thanks. There, at that 
 time, Goethe must have seen a tall, red-haired lad of 
 twenty, well set up, and in slovenly dress, pass thrice 
 near him to kiss " The Anointed's " coat for three prizes 
 gained in practical medicine, in materia medica, and in
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 6i 
 
 surgery. For the fourth, the " German language and 
 composition " prize, Schiller had to draw lots with 
 Elwert, Hoven, and two others ; in this fortune did 
 not favour him. There was nothing extraordinary in 
 getting three prizes ; yet during the past five years 
 Schiller had not received even one. Goethe himself 
 saw how others had carried off five or six. The great 
 man could not foretell that tliis pupil would rise to be 
 a gifted poet of his country ; Schiller, on the other 
 hand, must have drawn deep encouragement and inspi- 
 ration on seeing the man whose voice had rung so 
 stirringly in the cause of liberty and the pure instincts 
 of humanity, yet who had thus early reached so high 
 and honoured a place in hfe.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 FEOM 1779 TO 1780. 
 
 With fresh zeal our poet again took to dramatic 
 composition, which for two years he had laid aside. 
 From the materials of an unfinished play begun at 
 Solitude he now produced his " Robbers." The plan of 
 the piece was rapidly sketched out ; Karl, his hero, 
 must live and die like a noble robber. Some of the 
 scenes most interesting to him he worked out in wild 
 haste, repeating them to his schoolfellows at evening 
 time or when out for a walk. Thus in Bopser Wood 
 he is once said to have treated them to a grim recital 
 of the famous scene between Karl and his father. For 
 some of his portraits he was indebted to fellow pupils : 
 Karl's character was modelled upon liis own ; while the 
 sketches of the villains, the old fatlier, the lover, and 
 others came from plays famihar to him, figures whose 
 identity he had seized with singular acumen. Often 
 he would put himself on the sick-hst, in order that he 
 might the better court his muse ; specially at night 
 time, when his imagination was most \dvid, he could 
 write down his thoughts, patients being allowed a light. 
 If ushers or even the duke himself surprised him, the 
 paper was instantly hidden beneath a medical book 
 kept ever at hand. As student of practical medicine, 
 he had often to visit and attend upon other patients, 
 and on these occasions many a scene would be read 
 out or declaimed. Wliile composing or reading his 
 
 62
 
 ^^ zeal our p< 
 
 Schiller .reading " The. koclyis" 
 
 Photogravure from the drawing by Junker
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 63 
 
 poetry he was always at a high level of excitement ; 
 there were times even when he would stamp and rage 
 in frenzy. His medical duties did not debar him from 
 taking an interest in literature and in the general 
 sciences. During this year, besides Virgil, with the 
 aid of Biirger's translation, he read Nast's Homer ; he 
 also attended Abel's philosophical lectures. He pur- 
 sued his studies relating to the influence of the body 
 upon the soul ; the paramount question for him was 
 that of man's mental and spiritual freedom, he feeling 
 himself to be in such thorough thrall. When reading 
 the poets, and notably the dramatists, he took accurate 
 note as to how characters were developed and passions 
 portrayed ; in his " Robbers " this proved of great service 
 to him. 
 
 Yet despite all effort to render bearable his dismal 
 life of seclusion, he grew ever more melancholy, more 
 disconsolate, until he at last felt utterly weary of exist- 
 ence. While in this state he lost his friend and com- 
 panion, Von Hoven the younger, whose death occurred 
 on June 13th. During the last two years he had de- 
 veloped " into a frank, intelligent, sensitive youth, such 
 as are rarely found." In his letter of condolence to 
 the bereaved father, Schiller points out that his son 
 had left the world all soon, bearing none of its stain, 
 and was come to a place which those following after 
 would reach later in life, when more heavily burdened 
 by sin ; for him there had been nought to lose, but 
 everything to gain. A thousand times he had envied 
 him struggling with death, that he himself would have 
 met as peacefully, as calmly as were he going to his 
 bed. 
 
 " I am not yet one and twenty," wrote he, " but I 
 tell you frankly that for me the world has no further 
 charm ; it yields me no gladness, and the day on which 
 I leave the academy, a day that, but few years ago, 
 would have been to me a joyful festival, will not even
 
 64 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 win from me a smile. With each step that I advance 
 in age I ever lose something of my contentment ; the 
 more I approach riper years, the more I would that I 
 had died when a child. If my life were my own, a death 
 such as your beloved son's is what I should covet ; yet 
 it belongs to my mother and to three sisters who, with- 
 out me, were helpless ; for I am an only son, and my 
 father's hair begins to grow gray." 
 
 On September 7, 1777, Schiller's family was increased 
 by the advent of a daughter, who had Professor Abel 
 and the sisters Elwert as godparents. More decided 
 is the note struck later, in this letter to his sister 
 Christophine : " Life was and is to me a burden. I 
 long for it, a thousand times I long for it [i. e. to die 
 before leaving the academy] : I find no longer any 
 pleasure in the world ; and I should gain all if I could 
 quit it before the time. Pray, sister, if this should 
 happen, be wise, take comfort, and console my parents. 
 . . . UnHke a thousand others, I have the fortune, 
 the unmerited fortune of possessing the best of fathers ; 
 and here there is another excellent man to call me son 
 [this was Professor Haug]. I have many friends 
 in the academy, who love me much. I have you, 
 dear sister ; and yet all this can bring no lasting 
 gladness to my soul. You know not how great is the 
 change, the wreck within me. Nor indeed shall you 
 ever learn what it is that saps the forces of my 
 soul." 
 
 In this one is reminded of Werther's lament : " My 
 heart is undermined by the devouring power that lies 
 hidden in the universe of Nature," Yet this was not 
 the cause of Schiller's unhappiness ; it was the dread 
 reflection that throughout his life he must be the 
 dependent of a despotic prince. This was a thought 
 that he dared not reveal to his parents. One can see 
 that he was not far from adopting Werther's melan- 
 choly resolve to throw aside life's burden ; yet now, as
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 65 
 
 often after, he was held back by his genius from the 
 chasm's brink. 
 
 Two days before the death of Hoven, with altered 
 voice and manner, and " a mien of fearful calmness," 
 Schiller's friend Grammont had come to him to ask 
 him for a sleeping-draught. On closer questioning he 
 confessed that he wished to quit the world, in which 
 he could not have happiness. As already before this 
 he had vainly disputed with Grammont upon the sub- 
 ject of suicide, he saw no better way to arrest matters 
 than by counselling his friend to speak first to Pro- 
 fessor Abel, and in the meanwhile to go to the sick- 
 room, where he could more fully state his reasons to 
 him. Thus things were delayed, while Schiller, owing 
 to Von Hoven's death, was himself seized by desperate 
 weariness and disgust of life. At this time the awful 
 poem " Leichenphantasie " must have been written, in 
 which the burial and notably the fearful anguish of 
 the father following the bier are described with great 
 license and intense exaggeration. It was set to music 
 and printed. 
 
 On the 20th Professor Abel reported Grammont's 
 condition to the duke, who gave orders to use every 
 means possible for the restoration of the patient, whose 
 state " bordered slightly on insanity." The elder medi- 
 cal students had to visit him in turn, reporting the state 
 of his health to the duke. According to Schiller's first 
 "daily bulletin" of the 26th, the patient, by dint of 
 persuasion and medical advice, was so calmed about his 
 condition that he consented to all that was asked of 
 him. The duke permitted his temporary removal to 
 Hohenheim, accompanied by one or more of his fellow 
 students. His Grace suspected Schiller of secretly 
 encouraging the patient's wish to leave the academy, 
 where for him recovery was impossible ; it was natural 
 that he should think this, knowing as he did how de- 
 spairingly unhappy was the poet's own state. Gram-
 
 66 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 mont after a short time came back, uncured. Schiller 
 was appointed his companion and attendant, yet he was 
 seldom left alone with the sick man ; it was plain to 
 him, therefore, that they feared his harmful influence 
 upon the patient. His pain at such suspicion he ex- 
 pressed to the duke, besides boldly justifying his con- 
 duct in a long letter addressed to the intendant. For 
 nearly eight years, he said, it had been his good fortune 
 to live in the academy, during which time none had 
 ever had cause to call him slanderer. He was relieved 
 of liis charge in August, when Grammont went to the 
 baths. Schiller's tccdium vitce having somewhat sub- 
 sided, he devoted himself anew, heart and soul, to his 
 " Robbers ; " he hkewise commenced a translation of 
 the v^neid into Latin hexameters. Yet, ere long, his 
 medical studies claimed all his attention. 
 
 For his German thesis he proposed to take two sub- 
 jects from the provinces of philosophy and physiology 
 respectively. The first was the close affinity between 
 man's physical and mental nature ; the second, the 
 freedom and the ethics of humanity. As throughout 
 the year his whole studies had centred round these 
 subjects, he could promise to speak about them to some 
 purpose. The first was chosen for him, one at which 
 Schiller had worked last year. His second theme was 
 too purely philosophical ; it was feared that he might 
 put forth views all too high-flown, too startling respect- 
 ing man's moral freedom. In medicine he had to fur- 
 nish a Latin essay upon the difference existing between 
 two kinds of fever. 
 
 In the midst of such work, the 3d of October came 
 round, Franciska's name-day, that this time was to be 
 celebrated with special splendour. For the duchess 
 had at length gone to her rest, and Karl Eugene was 
 able to offer Franciska his hand, albeit his wish that 
 their religion should be one and the same formed an 
 obstacle that for the Catholic faith was hard to sur-
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 67 
 
 mount. So much the more did the duke shower boun- 
 ties upon his beloved one, so much the greater was the 
 brilliance of her festival. Several of the students 
 offered their congratulations, and one of them delivered 
 a complimentary address. In " the village " there was 
 great stir and merrymaking ; half the college flocked 
 thither. The students had to distribute gifts to the 
 three hundred and twenty poor, who on this occasion 
 received food and alms. Schubart, however, still 
 languished in prison ; neither wife nor child might 
 see him or write to him ; for him, Franciska, the para- 
 gon of virtue, the benefactress of the needy, had no 
 pleading word. Schiller loathed all this hollow parade 
 of charity and benevolence ; he was sickened by the 
 vanity, the sham of such fulsome rejoicing and praise- 
 giving, in wliich so often he had had to join. How he 
 longed for the day that should set him free ! Most of 
 his time was now taken up in preparing for his medi- 
 cal examination. His German essay followed in the 
 main the same Hues as the one of last year ; the neces- 
 sary affinity between physical and mental perceptions 
 was, however, now pointed out with greater clearness. 
 As he stated it, the soul after death " passed on to other 
 realms, where it could exercise its mental energies, and 
 whence it could gain other aspects of the universe." 
 In conception and in treatment this second essay 
 showed far more of freedom and of calm, albeit that 
 it abounded in daring metaphor and bold assertion. 
 There were many extracts from the poets, in especial 
 from Shakespeare, besides quotations from Addison's 
 « Cato," " Goetz von Berhchingen," " Ugolino," Haller, 
 Virgil, and Ovid. He even ventures to make more than 
 one reference to his own play " The Robbers," that he 
 here cites as (sic) " Life of Moor : Tragedy by Krake." 
 Garves's annotated edition of Ferguson is his sole 
 authority in philosophy; from Scholzer's history he 
 also quotes; from Herder, nothing. No judgment is
 
 68 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 passed upon the physioguomy theory, although he con- 
 demns Lavater's extravagant ideas. On November 16th 
 the examining committee ordered the essay to be 
 printed, even though there were points of objection 
 in it, a chief fault being that the writer so frequently 
 gave rein to his imagination. Abel, who, as professor 
 of philosophy, had to state his verdict, found several 
 passages of excellence in the paper, although the phi- 
 losophy here and there was far from being either logical 
 or sound. Subject to correction, however, the essay 
 seemed to him worth printing. The medical portion 
 was also in many respects commendable ; yet that, too, 
 must undergo great alteration before sending to press. 
 The duke left it to the examiners to fix whether the 
 essay should be printed or not, and they stated that 
 the author had taken but scant pains with its compo- 
 sition ; it would consequently need almost total revision, 
 a process occupying some considerable time. Schiller 
 revised his manuscript, altering and cancelling passages 
 throughout ; he also added a dedication to the duke, in 
 which he spoke of his good fortune in having been 
 educated at so excellent an institution, where, more- 
 over, he had enjoyed personal instruction from the 
 prince himself, whose greatness lay in his having chosen 
 to be as a master among his pupils, as a father among 
 his sons. The essay, together with eleven others, was 
 printed at the expense of the academy by the firm of 
 Gotta in Stuttgart. At examination-time, Schiller is 
 said to have raised a discussion concerning Professor 
 Driick's paper, that dealt with the merits and demerits 
 of Homer and Virgil as judged by the spirit of their 
 epoch. In such a question, Schiller may well have 
 taken a side. He cherished deep admiration for Vir- 
 gil ; he had himself produced a spirited rendering of 
 some of the -^neid, and the Schwahische Magazin had 
 but lately printed his version of the " Storm upon the 
 Tyrrhenian Sea" (^n. i. 38-160), that led the editor
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 69 
 
 to term it " the essay of a youth of decided promise, 
 giving proof of spirit and of great, gi-eat poetic fire." 
 Streicher tells us that " the inbent knees, the eyes, 
 blinking rapidly when in the heat of debate, the fre- 
 quent smile while speaking, yet specially the well- 
 shaped nose, and the keen, bold eagle-glance, shot 
 forth from beneath lofty brows," made a lasting, an 
 ineffaceable impression upon him. Here we have the 
 picture of the whole man, aUve, and speaking under 
 the influence of emotion ; Streicher will not mar it for 
 us by any illusion to red hair. Schiller's nose, accord- 
 ing to Scharffenstein, is thin, wliite, and bony, shoot- 
 ing out at a sharp angle, and hooked like the beak of 
 a parrot. Schiller used himself humourously to relate 
 that at the academy, in order to make his nose one 
 fitting for a great man, he tugged constantly at it when 
 reading or wiiting, and that this gave to it a sharp 
 downward curve. The " keen, bold eagle-glance " was 
 owing to the deep-set position of his eyes, which in 
 moments of excitement gleamed again. The colour, 
 Schraffenstein tells us, was dark gray, although many 
 assert that they were blue ; his sister-in-law says they 
 were half blue, half hazel. 
 
 Streicher was present with the scholars that evening 
 in the hall, where the duke, as usual, made his closing 
 speech. He saw here how his Grace, leaning over 
 Schiller's chair, spoke with him at length. While 
 talking the pupil smiled, and his eyes kindled just 
 as they had done in debate with the professor. One 
 could almost believe that upon these candid con- 
 fessions to the duke his destiny would in a measure 
 hang. 
 
 With the evening of December 14th the festivities 
 ended. That same day Schiller was released as army 
 surgeon. His friends also obtained their dismissal ; 
 Von Hoven, after passing a final examination, was to 
 take the degree of medicus practicus. Schiller had
 
 70 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 grown much while at the academy ; he measured 
 nearly five feet, uine inches. His features, too, had 
 gained a more intellectual stamp. Scharffenstein states 
 the closely meeting eyes and the mouth to have been 
 full of expression, in which there was something of 
 pathos ; the thin uuderlip showed great energy, the 
 chin was determined, the cheeks pale, freckled, and 
 somewhat hollow, the hair bushy and dark red in colour. 
 When in repose his countenance, intellectual rather 
 than manly, was full of energy and meaning ; in mo- 
 ments of emotion it seemed aflame with passion ; while 
 his voice, as little under control as were his features, 
 grew at these times harsh and shrill. His head was 
 particularly well shaped ; the brow being considerably 
 broader than Goethe's, whose forehead was a more 
 prominent one. To complete our portrait of the ex- 
 student, we must bethink us of his tall, upright figure, 
 his broad chest and shoulders, long arms, small body, 
 and stiff, ungraceful bearing. 
 
 Extraordinary, indeed, had been Schiller's intellec- 
 tual development during these eight years. By all that 
 he had read, all that he had written, all that he had 
 thought, his poetic fire, so far from being quenched, 
 had but been fanned and cherished. 
 
 What feelings were those of the youthful poet when 
 visiting, as was usual, the duke's castle to thank his 
 Grace for the many benefits enjoyed at the academy, 
 and to kiss his august hand ! Of a truth Schiller had 
 gained a thorough education — a training that the 
 duke gave to each and all alike, regardless of individ- 
 ual talent or of individual need ; he wished but to 
 bring up for himself a set of well-drilled subjects, con- 
 tent to revere him as their sovereign lord, content to 
 feel themselves dependent upon his bounty. Nor, after 
 these eight years, was Schiller's term of bondage over ; 
 he must serve his time as regimental surgeon, must 
 wear perpetually a uniform at once disfiguring and
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 71 
 
 detestable. His father wrote to the duke asking per- 
 missiou for his son to dress in mufti when exempt from 
 regimental duty " in the hope of getting either a town 
 or country practice." This was the blunt reply : " Your 
 son is to wear his uniform."
 
 Book III. 
 Army Surgeon and Poet
 
 y 
 
 '()
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 FROM DECEMBEK, 1780, TO JANUARY, 1782. 
 
 While in a wholly despairing frame of mind, it was 
 but for few days that the young surgeon could visit 
 his family, now in their new home at Solitude, and 
 enjoy sight of those from whom he had been parted 
 for eight years. It was delightful to greet again his 
 beloved mother and sisters. Of these, Christophine 
 had been the faithful playmate of his childhood ; but 
 the other two were unknown to him. Everything had 
 been got ready for his outfit, besides a little sum of 
 money for future need ; albeit that 320 gulden was the 
 limit of his father's income, who now no longer drew 
 support from the sale of the grass. At a monthly 
 salary of eighteen gulden, Schiller was appointed sur- 
 geon to the Aug^ regiment of grenadiers, consisting of 
 some 240 time-expired men, who, in their patched 
 scarlet uniforms and tall busbies, wandered about like 
 so many meagre scarecrows. In any important case 
 he could consult Doctor Elwert, who, fortunately, was 
 on friendly terms with his family. He had to visit 
 the hospital daily, appearing also regularly at parade. 
 Scharffenstein tells us the impression that the poet- 
 surgeon made upon him when, after two years, the 
 friends met again. " He was cramped into a uniform 
 of the old Prussian cut, that on army surgeons had an 
 even uglier, stiffer look ; his little mihtary hat barely 
 covered his crown, behind which hung a long queue, 
 while round his neck was screwed a horse-hair stock 
 
 75
 
 o 
 
 76 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 several sizes too small. More wondrous, however, was 
 the nether part of him. Owing to the padding of his 
 long, white gaiters, his legs seemed thicker at the calf 
 than at the thigh. Moving stihiy about in these black- 
 ing stained gaiters, with knees rigid and unbent, he re- 
 minded one irresistibly of a stork." 
 
 Lieutenant Scharffenstein longed to see his comrade 
 once more ; immediately after parade they met and re- 
 vived their friendship. Sangir marvelled to find how 
 great had been his Selim's intellectual advance since 
 their parting. The author of " The Robbers " — now 
 all but completed — was no longer a dreamy, imagi- 
 native youth ; fresh qualities were his, of clearness, of 
 judgment, of determination. Scharffenstein, as he him- 
 self tells us, gave in to the lofty superiority of the 
 poet's mind, that from the sources of history and phi- 
 losophy had drawn its lifelong sustenance. 
 
 Before all things Schiller sought to impress this 
 upon his friend — that happiness can but be won from 
 within, and not from without us. With his " Robbers," 
 that struck a note of combat and defiance to existing 
 oppression, he hoped to shake the world as Rousseau 
 had shaken it with " Emile." But he little thought 
 that it would ever be played upon the stage. 
 
 He found another school-friend in Petersen, who for 
 a year past had filled the post of sub-librarian. With 
 him, Scharffenstein, his old master Abel, and Hoven, who 
 occasionally came over from Ludwigsburg, there was 
 busy talk and much planning about the play, many 
 a scene being altered or excised. Yet, ere he launched 
 this bomb into the world, it was by a touching funeral 
 ode that he drew the eyes of the town upon himself, 
 the much ridiculed, quaintly clothed army surgeon. 
 On January 1 6th his friend Weckerlin died — a youth 
 of twenty, the son of a Stuttgart chemist. He had left 
 the academy some two years before the poet. So power- 
 fully was Schiller moved by his comrade's death, as yet
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 77 
 
 SO young and so full of life, that he felt urged to invoke 
 the general sympathy of his medical companions in 
 a poem which they unanimously resolved to print at 
 their own expense, Von Hoven and Doctor Elwert 
 secretly contributing to the cost. By this burst of 
 passionate feeling Schiller not only gave keen utterance 
 to all his bitter and despairing views touching the 
 worthlessness and the vanity of existence; it bore 
 a tinge, too, of his disbelief in the vulgar conception of 
 heaven ; while above it towers supreme the conviction 
 that true love can alone outlast the grave, can alone 
 join us again to hearts we have held dear. Despite its 
 extravagance, the poem was full of power. Stuttgart, 
 pietistic Stuttgart, must have been deeply scandalised 
 by such scathing allusions as these to " the mob's para- 
 dise," or to "roaring Pharisees, ripe for hell." The 
 author's identity was soon no secret. Writing in 
 February to a friend at Ludwigsburg, Schiller says he 
 could die with laugliing at the result of his poem. 
 " At length my activity would seem to have begun, and 
 a wretched little thing like that has brought me more 
 fame among my neighbours than twenty years of 
 practice. Yet it's a name like that one for which the 
 temple of Ephesus was set in cinders. May God have 
 mercy on me ! " Thus shght was his care, his interest 
 for professional advancement ; he gave no thought to 
 promotion, nor to examination that, before obtaining a 
 private practice, he needs must undergo ; the sole medi- 
 cal work in which he invested was an " Apothecary's 
 Almanac," buying at the same time a copy of Plutarch's 
 " Lives," and an expensive translation of Shakespeare. 
 His other wants in literature could be easily satisfied 
 from the vast shelves of the ducal library, to which, 
 through his friends Petersen and Eeichenbach, he had 
 access. 
 
 During January he took Other lodgings in a street 
 now known as the Eberhardtstrasse ; his sitting-room
 
 78 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 on the ground floor was a small one ; its scanty furni- 
 ture consisted but of a table and two benches. Pro- 
 fessor Haug, who lived close by, owned the house, and 
 used the second floor as a lecture-room ; the rest was 
 let to the widow of a Captain Vischer. Besides Schiller, 
 Lieutenant Kapf, another fellow cadet, lodged there 
 also. He was the son of an officer at Mindelheim, 
 talented enough, if all too boisterous and passionate in 
 temper. Yet, though wild, he was not a spendthrift, 
 and perhaps it was economy that led Schiller to make 
 his acquaintance. His landlady, Louise Dorothea 
 Vischer, a httle, fair, blue-eyed woman, was, so 
 Scharffenstein tells us, a good-tempered person, who, 
 although without either beauty or intellect, yet 
 possessed quahties of kindliness and charm. Her 
 character was generally deemed above reproach ; the 
 greater, therefore, was the surprise when four years 
 subsequently she eloped with a Viennese student of 
 rank, a mere lad of nineteen, who for a year past 
 had been hving in the town. Doctor Eeichenbach's 
 house was among those at which Schiller found wel- 
 come, where Christophine's bosom friend, Ludovike 
 Reichenbach, hved, the doctor's niece, devoted, hke 
 Schiller's sister, to painting and art. She had, how- 
 ever, but slight hold upon the poet's wild, tempestuous 
 imagination. In order to increase his slender income, 
 as also to find employment, however humble, Schiller, 
 in March, undertook the anonymous editorship of a 
 journal called News for Pleasure and Profit, issued by 
 one Mantler, a printer. In its pages the Emperor 
 Joseph and Prussia's great king were held up to praise 
 and honour ; regarding the American campaign, its 
 sympathies were with those then fighting for their 
 freedom ; its " Science Column " contained little that was 
 new or out-of-the-way ; here and there a chance phrase 
 pointed to the profession of the editor. In his new 
 capacity Schiller had to read through many magazines
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 79 
 
 and daily prints wherefrom he took his news. An ode 
 by him is the chief thing of interest that the paper 
 ever contained, written to celebrate the duke's home- 
 coming, after a journey made with Franciska to 
 Cassel, Hanover, Hamburg, Liibeck, Schwerin, and 
 Brunswick. The " pure silver notes of glad rejoicing " 
 were so forced, so shrill, that other princes, it was 
 feared, might take umbrage thereat. Did not the bard 
 bid all Germany glance in envy at Wiirtemberg's 
 " bhssful abode " ? Did he not invite the repubhcs 
 (those of Hamburg and Liibeck) cheerfully to bear the 
 yoke of such a ruler ? This ode, however, was just a 
 mere poet's-corner welcome of the commonest type ; 
 any one who looked a httle closer might readily have 
 seen the jest it cloaked. 
 
 In his professional practice Schiller had recourse to 
 violent remedies, which led him at times into differ- 
 ences with Elwert, who, it is said, was obHged to forbid 
 chemists to make up any prescription furnished by his 
 subordinate unless it had previously been passed by 
 him. Merry were the days of freedom now spent by 
 Schiller with his student-friends. Kapf's little room 
 and his own bore witness to their gay carousals, when 
 many a quip and many a jest was bandied over knack- 
 wurste, potato salad, and beer, wine being a luxury 
 rarely enjoyed. Sometimes he would join Eeichenbach 
 and Petersen at a game of cards in the parlour of the 
 Eagle Inn. Here are some immortal lines anent one 
 of these meetings : 
 
 " You're a fine set ! I go there, and find no Peter- 
 sen and no Eeichenbach ! Sacre diable ! What about 
 our manille to-day ? Deuce take you all ! If you 
 want me, you'U find me at home. Adieu ! 
 
 " Schiller." 
 
 Besides the then popular card game, manille, Schiller 
 was very fond of bowls. He and Petersen often played
 
 8o THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 together at a little tavern on the Hauptstadterstrasse, 
 to the sign of "The BuU." Here Doctor Schiller, as 
 by himself and by others he was generally styled, used 
 often to indulge in a lunch of ham and salad, with, 
 maybe, half a pint or a pint of wine. The best snuff 
 — he had learnt to like this at the academy — the 
 best snuff, forsooth, was a luxury outside his means, 
 nor could he aflbrd to give much care to his dress. 
 Kronenbitter, his soldier-servant, helped little to in- 
 crease the comfort or the order of his bachelor estabhsh- 
 ment ; yet Schiller would but repay the worthy fellow's 
 blundering negligence by some imprecation in w^hich 
 the humour was blent with the abuse. 
 
 At the beginning of April Schiller stated his much 
 revised, much altered play " The Robbers," to be com- 
 plete. Following Petersen's suggestion, he had added 
 largely to it, and it was now to be published anony- 
 mously. The preface had been written some time 
 before. His piece, so it put forth, was not meant for 
 the stage, even though the author would feel fortunate 
 did it win notice from some Roscius of his fatherland. 
 He spoke most slightingly of actors and of the general 
 theatregoing pubhc, albeit that he knew so very little 
 of either class. Hoven having failed to find him a 
 pubhsher, Petersen was deputed to do so, who, however, 
 thought the matter not void of risk. If Schiller was 
 anxious to secure the ear and the verdict of a wider 
 public for his poetry, he hoped hkewise to gain money 
 by it. In an extraordinary letter to Petersen, while 
 with his brother at Speier, he urgently begs him when 
 at Mannheim to find a pubhsher wilhng to buy the 
 copyright. His first and foremost aim in asking this 
 he confessed to be " mammon, omnipotent mammon." 
 So great was his need of money that he requests 
 Petersen to send him the sum derived from various 
 books he had commissioned him to sell ; they would 
 surely fetch four or five gulden ; and to Kapf and
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 8i 
 
 himself these would just now be of real service. He 
 should be quite content to get fifty gulden for his 
 manuscript, and anything above that amount would 
 in all right and honesty go to Petersen. His second 
 reason he states to be a wish to try " his fortune as 
 author, as dramatist ; " the expectation, the hope, the 
 curiosity attending the venture, would shorten and 
 make sweet his days of probation, would work a cure 
 for his melancholy. In strange contrast to the other 
 two, we learn the third reason, " a purely genuine one " 
 — namely, that in his present position he would like 
 to gather up and put from him all his essays in poetic 
 and dramatic literature, as they could but hinder his 
 project of becoming professor of medicine and physi- 
 ology. Placed as he now was, it became incumbent 
 upon him to work at one thing, and at one only ; he 
 meant, therefore, to find fortune and advancement in a 
 post that would allow him yet further to prosecute 
 his physiological and philosophical studies. By his 
 soul he felt driven to poetry, yet his father's warnings, 
 as also his circumstances, led him, after mature reflec- 
 tion, to choose a profession akin to his scientific bent, 
 and one that would allow him to be of support to his 
 relations. Somewhat singular, this last utterance, com- 
 ing as it does immediately after the wish to see his 
 " Robbers " in type. Success would surely only 
 heighten his passion for the muse ; neglect or censure 
 could alone turn him from her charms. No, his heart 
 was set ardently on the play's publication. We see this 
 in the touch : " Look here, my boy, if it succeeds, I mean 
 to treat myself to a couple of bottles of Burgundy ! " We 
 are shown it at the letter's end, that closes with the 
 wild belief that none would divine the author's name, 
 albeit so many of his friends had already heard about 
 the play. To this is joined the yet more singular 
 suggestion, that Petersen should in this case give out 
 that one of his brothers was the author !
 
 82 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 However, Petersen could find no one to publish the 
 play, so, in spite of the risk of being known as a poet, 
 Schiller resolved to issue it in Stuttgart at his own 
 cost. The printer required surety for the payment 
 of his bill ; how this was forthconiiug we have no 
 means of knowing. In very short time the play passed 
 through the press. Schiller sent the first seven sheets 
 of proofs to Councillor Schwan, at Mannheim. Chris- 
 tian Friedrich Schwan was born in 1733 at Prenzlau. 
 After studying theology at Halle and Jena, he went to 
 Russia. Upon the death of the Empress Elizabeth, 
 he lost his patron in that country. Some stir was 
 caused by a volume of his, pubhshed in Holland, 
 entitled " Anecdotes Russes ; ou, Lettres d'un Officier 
 Allemand." In 1764 he started a w^eekly literary 
 journal at Fraukfort-on-the-Main ; and the year follow- 
 ing, having married the daughter of his publisher 
 Esslinger, he went to Mannheim, to manage his father- 
 in-law's business there. Here, by his efforts to advance 
 the national taste in literature, he soon won regard. 
 He translated several pieces from the French, and 
 gave his aid and support to a newly formed society 
 for purifying the German tongue and for raising the 
 public taste. He strove, likwise, to make the newly 
 built playhouse a home for national dramatic art. He 
 himself took a journey to Lessiug, in order to gain 
 that writer's help for the Mannheim Theatre. And 
 Lessing gave it ; yet the matter came to nothing. 
 Schwan had great influence with the director of the 
 Mannheim National Theatre, that had been opened in 
 the autumn of 1779 ; besides this his large publishing 
 business brought him a wide connection, so to Schiller 
 his interest and good-will were the more of value 
 And Schwan, he to whom fortune had been thus 
 bountiful, was it not likely that he would gladly recog- 
 nise talent of sucli a stamp? Fully sensible of tlieir 
 merit, he read to Dalberg the proofs he had received,
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 83 
 
 expressing to the author his interest and sympathy. 
 Schiller hastened on the printing with the utmost 
 despatch; he made sundry corrections, and altered the 
 preface, that, in its original form, might have been 
 damaging to him in the eyes of a class upon which 
 must depend his future success. Thus in the new 
 preface he terms his hero " a quaint Don Quixote," and 
 claims for his work a place among moral writings ; 
 for, said he, if readers were careful to give him their 
 attention, and did they wholly grasp his meaning, it 
 would be the morahst rather than the poet whom they 
 would praise. This was, in truth, reversing the whole 
 standpoint of the piece, was putting it upon another 
 level ; however, it did duty as a kind of apology for so 
 powerful a drama of ruin and revolt. 
 
 The first edition of eight hundred copies was ready 
 in July. In Stuttgart, where the poet's name was 
 soon on every lip, the piece created large stir. Who 
 could have looked to a mere academy student for so 
 trenchant a homily upon the condition of citizens and 
 the state ! who could have expected this from him, a 
 simple army doctor, even though his " Funeral Ode " 
 had shown him to be possessed of liberal ideas ' There 
 was a general wish to make the poet's acquaintance, 
 whose humble lodging formed but a poor reception- 
 room. Scharffenstein tells us that it contained, be- 
 sides a large table, two benches and a wardrobe, while, 
 strewn about, in one corner lay quires upon quires 
 of manuscript verse, and in the other piles of potatoes, 
 bottles, and plates. Of all those who now sought the 
 poet's friendship, no one was more welcome to him 
 than the kind-hearted Streicher, who, to his surprise, 
 recognised in the wild, impetuous dramatist an ex- 
 pupil of the academy. This he knew by the rapid 
 eye-blinking, by the oft-recurring smile. Schiller was 
 at once conscious of the other's true and heartfelt 
 sympathy. Streicher writes:
 
 84 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 " The most spiritual, most unassuming of counte- 
 nances smiled in friendly greeting upon the newcomer. 
 All compliment was passed over and evaded in a win- 
 ningly modest way. When conversing, not a word 
 was uttered that could have wounded the most sensi- 
 tive. The pale complexion, that as he spoke grew 
 somewhat flushed, the weakly eyes, the hair flung 
 loosely from his forehead, the white bared throat — 
 all helped to impress one with the poet's strange indi- 
 viduality, to make one feel that he stood as far above 
 the mere forms of society as were his strictures upon 
 its laws." Thus soon did Schiller show his savoir 
 vivre, in adapting his manner to that of those he met. 
 Just as he was merry and jocular with his student 
 friends, just as he could show an unfeigned interest 
 in the worthy Zumsteeg, whose musical talent he did 
 all to encourage — so to Streicher, an enthusiastic 
 admirer, he held out all the affection, all the sympathy 
 of his nature; and there was soon close intimacy 
 between them both. His relation with Solitude was 
 somewhat embittered by his father's displeasure, to 
 whom it was no slight annoyance that Fritz, unmind- 
 ful of success in his profession, should busy himself 
 with other matters from which he would get more harm 
 than help ; and that, while fancying himself on the 
 road to renown, in spite of his hmited income, he did 
 but lead a loose, unsettled life. From his mother and 
 Christophine, on the other hand, he ever got hearty 
 welcome each time that he came there to visit them, 
 either alone or with friends. Scharff en stein has given 
 special praise to Frau Schiller's great cordiality. With 
 kind-hearted Christophine, Fritz had thorough sym- 
 pathy ; she took deep interest in his poems, and copied 
 out several for him. It was with her that he revisited 
 his beloved Lorch, where first he had felt his soul 
 astir within him. 
 
 Nor, though the drama engaged him, did he forsake
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 85 
 
 the lyric muse ; her voice now rose upon the air, 
 wherein were mingled notes of scorn and tenderness, 
 of insult and unbounded passion. We hear them in 
 the lyrics addressed to Laura, a name that occurs con- 
 stantly in Klopstock's fantastic love-songs. He had yet 
 high esteem for Klopstock, although, ere this, he had 
 seen that in many of his odes there was more of 
 rhapsody than real feeling. According to Scharffen- 
 stein, " Laura " was none other than the young widow 
 landlady ; a purely Platonic attachment, this, and 
 nothing more. For just to these odes is lacking the 
 sensuousness, the zest, the abandon of early love. 
 Schiller does but celebrate a gentle, kindly matron, 
 with whose children he loved to play ; she who 
 showed him such interest, whose music soothed him 
 in moments of sorrow, it is she whom he makes the 
 ideal of his fantastic affection. This was what he 
 himself termed it two years later, comparing it to that 
 of Don Quixote for his Dulcinea. 
 
 Dalberg and Schwan, to whom he had sent his 
 " Robbers," commissioned him to prepare it for the 
 stage. Either Schwan was to publish it, or it could 
 appear in a collection of dramas arranged for the 
 Mannheim Theatre. Dalberg secured the copyright 
 for himself and offered to accept other plays that 
 Schiller might write later on. On August 17th the poet 
 had hopes of finishing his work in a couple of weeks. 
 " As yet I am free and untrammelled," he writes to 
 Dalberg, " and I shall deem it high fortune if, with all 
 that is in me, I may share your Excellency's ardent 
 love for literature." With so distinguished a patron, 
 he believed his future to be assured ; not a thought 
 was given any longer to the professorship of physiology 
 and medicine. But this work of rearrangement took 
 up more time than he expected. An outbreak of ill- 
 ness in his regiment formed one cause of delay ; another 
 was his acquaintance with the mother of Wolzogen.
 
 86 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 Henrietta, Baroness Wolzogen, had also sent her young- 
 est son to the Military Academy. Three of her chil- 
 dren were now at Solitude, and she determined to 
 place her daughter in the " Pension " there, and next 
 year to settle in Stuttgart, where Franciska took a 
 great interest in her family. The baroness had sought 
 to be introduced to her son's friend, the speedily famous 
 author of " The Eobbers." She took a great liking to 
 him. Schiller also became sincerely attached to her, 
 who had his good so deeply at heart, and who knew 
 the disagreeables connected with his position. As he 
 himself tells us, she was the sole woman who, besides 
 his mother, had a deep hold upon his sympathies. He 
 took her also to Solitude, where the high-born lady 
 was received with every honour. Schiller fere, little 
 as he might approve of his son's career, had to hide his 
 discontent, now that Dalberg had laid open to Fritz so 
 promising a future. Conz, one of Schiller's playmates 
 at Lorch, was staying for a time in Stuttgart, and he 
 came to renew their friendship. He had actually gone 
 through that course of study from which the duke had 
 held Schiller back. Although not yet twenty, he had 
 taken his degree, and filled an honorary post at Tubin- 
 gen. The poet must, in sooth, have been thankful to 
 have escaped a like fate ; moreover, such a career would 
 have been impossible to him. Conz, like Petersen, had 
 WTitten a drama upon the last of the Hohenstaufen, 
 and there was much that made the meeting of genuine 
 pleasure to both. Some of the impetuous surgeon's 
 utterances may perhaps have shocked Conz somewhat, 
 who looked on terror-struck, as the poet, when Kapf 
 had taken the key of his room, broke open the door 
 with a tremendous kick. Thus, though still in nar- 
 rowed and humble circumstances, his life was cheered 
 by intercourse with so many friends and acquaintances. 
 On September 21st Schiller, first of all, sent the act- 
 ing version of his play to Petersen, asking him freely
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 87 
 
 and impartially to alter and criticise both dialogue, 
 characters, and plot. The longer, the more detailed 
 such criticism was, the better he should like it. Not 
 until October 6th could he send Dalberg the play, that, 
 after following Petersen's suggestions, had been turned 
 into a tragedy. During the interval, while awaiting 
 answer, he renewed his acquaintance with the poet still 
 imprisoned at Asberg. 
 
 It was not until the close of 1780 that Schubart 
 was allowed greater liberty ; he might now receive 
 visits from friends. Von Eieger, the commandant of 
 the fortress, made him manager of the theatre there, 
 at which prisoners and soldiers used to act. It so 
 happened that Hoven was present at a performance 
 given in honour of the general's birthday, on October 
 1st; Rieger begged him often to come there, and asked 
 him to bring his godson, the famous author of " The 
 Eobbers " with him. Hoven assented, and the general 
 accordingly bade Schubart embody in a critique his 
 opinion of the play that in so brief a time had gair.c^d 
 such great success. Schiller came. They introduced 
 him to Schubart as a certain Doctor Fischer, a special 
 friend of the dramatist. Ere long they began to talk 
 of the play, and " Doctor Fischer " desiring to hear 
 Schubart's verdict, Rieger got him to read his critique 
 aloud, that closed with the wish to make the illus- 
 trious poet's personal acquaintance. " Your wish is 
 granted," struck in Rieger, patting him on the shoul- 
 der. " There he stands before you." " Is it possible ? " 
 cried Schubart in glee " Tliat, then, is the author of 
 ' The Robbers.' " Falling in joy upon his neck, he 
 embraced him warmly and gave him his blessing. 
 They met each other several times after this occur- 
 rence. 
 
 From another of Suabia's famous poets, from Wie- 
 land, to whom he had sent his drama, Schiller won 
 words of encouragement and praise. In his own enthu-
 
 88 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 siastic way, Wieland recognised the qualities of strange- 
 ness, of originality, in this powerful work, wherewith 
 the poet should have closed his career, not begun it. 
 But he had no intention of noticing the play in his 
 journal, Mercur, for, despite its power, it was thoroughly 
 against all his own sympathies. 
 
 Dalberg's illness served to delay his much-looked- 
 for answer. On November 3d Schiller proceeds to 
 reply to his criticisms. He was surprised that Dal- 
 berg should so totally have missed the play's poetic 
 side ; in a drama this was distinctly a gain, so he 
 thought. For the rest, the impatient author had to 
 yield in all points to the wishes of his Excellency the 
 intendant. He consented even to the unreasonable 
 postponement of the performance until after the war. 
 He also agreed to write a short prologue, headed " The 
 Author to the Public," that was to be printed on the 
 play-bill. His imagination was already at work upon 
 another theme for dramatic treatment, that of Fiesco, 
 the Genoese. Rousseau had led him to this choice ; 
 the historical facts connected with the conspiracy he 
 had got from Robertson's " History of Charles V." when 
 preparing his prize essay at the IMilitary Academy. 
 He now went on to master the subject in its details, 
 to familiarise himself with the early history and con- 
 stitution of Genoa. 
 
 " The Robbers " had meantime become out of print, 
 as Schiller had sold the remaining copies to a second- 
 hand bookseller. Another edition was therefore neces- 
 sary, wliich Loffler undertook to publish. A newly 
 added vignette of a lion rampant, with the motto " In 
 Tirannos," gave proof of the republican tendency of 
 the work. In the preface, dated January 5, 1782, it 
 is promised that the printing shall be marked by accu- 
 racy, and that all phrases of double meaning, offensive, 
 perhaps, to a more refined section of readers, shall be 
 left away. Nevertheless, here and there only a coarse
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 89 
 
 expression was excised, while, to the many gross typo- 
 graphical blunders, fresh ones were added. 
 
 Dalberg announced that the piece would be per- 
 formed on the 10th or 12th of January. Franciska's 
 birthday, however, fell on the first of these dates. 
 This time it was to be kept with special grandeur, 
 and Schiller must necessarily be there. So, in order 
 that the poet might witness the first performance of 
 his drama, it was postponed until the 13th. Kapf, 
 Schiller's fellow lodger, had left him during this time, 
 having received an appointment as military instructor 
 at a school. 
 
 Without obtaining official leave, but having informed 
 the colonel of his intended absence, Schiller set out for 
 Mannheim with Petersen, who was about to visit his 
 brother at Speier. This journey was the longest he 
 had as yet made. What feelings must have been his 
 as he first set eyes upon the frontier of the Kurpfalz ! 
 Their carriage passed through Bretten, Melancthon's 
 home, and Wagahusel on its way to Schwetzingen. 
 
 On Sunday, January 13th, at five o'clock p.m. (the 
 length of the piece made such early commencement 
 necessary), Schiller found himself seated next to 
 Petersen in the handsome National Theatre at Mann- 
 heim. The house was filled to overflowing with an 
 audience from far and near ; there were some, even, 
 who had driven from Frankfort and Mainz in order to 
 see the much talked-of piece. Up till now, Schiller 
 had never witnessed the performance of a hond-jide 
 German play ; for in Stuttgart, besides Italian opera, 
 farces and vaudevilles were all that were acted, the 
 performers being drawn from the ranks of the academy 
 and the ecole. As Schiller says, the theatre there was 
 as yet in its teens ; here, on the other hand, he was 
 to see three of Eckhof's most talented pupils, besides 
 other artists having sound and thorough training. By 
 strange fortune the actors Beck, Beil, and Iffland, firm
 
 90 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 in their friendship and devoted to their art, were all 
 three included in the cast. It had been found neces- 
 sary to divide the play into seven acts. In the bill, 
 the time of action was preposterously enough fixed as 
 being " the year in which Emperor Maximihan had 
 given to Germany perpetual peace." The opening 
 scenes failed of their looked-for eh'ect ; the four last 
 acts, however, were received with thunders of ap- 
 plause. The chief honours of the night fell to If Hand, 
 then in his three and twentieth year, who played Franz, 
 a part for the success of which Schiller had been most 
 anxious. The actor gave a vivid, finished, and deeply 
 impressive picture of the thorough-paced villain ; as a 
 masterful study in psychology, no less than in elocu- 
 tion, it must have had its lesson for the dramatist also. 
 Schiller, who had pictured his hero tall and gaunt, felt 
 at the first some disappointment when Bock's little 
 wizened figure trod the boards. This drawback was, 
 however, soon forgotten as he watched his splendid 
 acting, full of fire and passion, and showing such a 
 thorough grasp of the author's meaning. Beil, young, 
 handsome, and enthusiastic, was an ideal type of the 
 brave, true-hearted Switzer. Beck looked in all re- 
 spects the gallant Kosinsky ; and with Meyer's reading 
 of Hermann, Schiller was exceptionally pleased. The 
 other r81e for which he had feared was that of Amalia. 
 But Madame Toscani played it with great feeling and 
 charm, if at times she was a trifle too lachrymose. 
 For Iffland, Bock, and Beil the author had most praise, 
 even though he did not entirely agree with their con- 
 ception of the characters. Dalberg had given special 
 care and attention to the dresses, scenery, and general 
 mounting of the play, and never before on the Mann- 
 heim stage had a piece produced such an effect. After 
 the performance Schiller and Petersen joined the actors 
 at supper, who were one and all elated by their suc- 
 cess. What an impression must the glowing con-
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 91 
 
 gratulations from the three brother-artists have made 
 upon Schiller! He held long and detailed conversa- 
 tion with Schwan and Dalberg upon dramatic art, and 
 was firm in his resolve to follow the career of play- 
 wright. He made mention about his " Fiesco " to 
 Dalberg, who proposed that he should prepare a stage 
 version of Goethe's " Goetz." He wished also to pro- 
 vide him with fresh material for another play. Yet, 
 friendly as were his offers, he said no word that could 
 in the least have compromised him. Schiller received 
 four Carolines for his travelling expenses ; he had 
 stipulated for this sum. Overjoyed, the poet quitted 
 Mannheim, where he had taken note of much that he 
 determined should serve him in work to be produced 
 hereafter.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 FROM JANUARY TO SEPTEMBER, 1782. 
 
 Fortunately, his absence from his regiment, where 
 officially he was on the sick list, had not been noticed. 
 The duties to which he now returned had never 
 seemed more irksome to him. He meditated writing 
 a detailed criticism upon the Mannheim performance, 
 wherein he intended to point out certain shortcomings 
 in the conception of some of the scenes. His new 
 play, " Fiesco," likewise engaged him, and the historical 
 nature of the subject presented to him no slight diffi- 
 culty. He found it easier to invoke his lyric muse in 
 the task of extinguishing Staudlin, a local poetaster, 
 who, in his vanity, aimed at wielding the national 
 lyre. To the verse written while at the academy, and 
 for the most part needing merely revision, much had 
 been added during the past year ; and now the lyric 
 vein flowed anew within him. His little " Anthology 
 for the Year 1782" was soon got together; Haug, 
 Petersen, and Von Hoven contributed to the volume. 
 The poems had ciphers as their only signature ; under 
 twenty-two of them, together with the preface and 
 dedication, stood Schiller's initial ; yet it is likely that 
 he was the author of many more ; probably two-thirds 
 of them were from his pen. Among these must be 
 counted the lyrical operetta " Semele," that he and his 
 sister had once acted at Sohtude. This alone filled 
 over forty pages of the book. Only in one instance 
 did he sign himself as " Author of ' The Robbers.' " 
 
 92
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 93 
 
 Varied, uneven as are these productions in style and 
 in tone, they yet give proof of great power, of singu- 
 lar skill in versification ; side by side vdth these 
 qualities we have, nevertheless, much that is high- 
 flown and disappointing and coarse. A national war- 
 song celebrating one of Wiirtemberg's heroes, Count 
 Eberhard the Grumbler, is marked by great freshness ; 
 another poem, and one of the best, entitled " The In- 
 fanticide," may have had fact for its basis. Besides 
 the odes to Laura, there were many love-lyrics ; not 
 one, however, seems to have been inspired by actual 
 passion. The ease with which he could realise scenes 
 unfamiliar to him is best shown in the description of 
 a battle narrated by an oificer supposed to have been 
 present. There is a bitter dash of scorn in the " Evil 
 Monarch," while the fragment " To a Moralist " verges 
 on the gross. In "The Muse's Revenge," and the 
 humourous dream entitled " Minos and the Journalists," 
 the irony is aimed at Staudlin, his rival. Rousseau is 
 held up as a martyr ; in one epigram, Spinoza's zealous 
 champions are ridiculed; in another, Wieland is pro- 
 claimed the poet of this world, Klopstock being the 
 bard of the next. The volume was in all points worthy 
 of the author of " The Robbers ; " like the play, it was 
 full of unbridled force and energy. But if this poetry 
 achieved a less wide, less notable success, it was be- 
 cause the interest in a drama where characters of 
 different type live and move for us must always be 
 keener and more genuine than that given to lyric 
 verse, wherein the author can but show you his own 
 personality, can but speak to you in his ov^i voice. 
 Great offence, too, was given by the poet's allusion to 
 Wlirtemberg as " a very Siberia for the intellect," and 
 the "Anthology" was generally looked upon as a 
 boyish attempt to take the wind out of Staudlin's 
 sails. Still it was gratifying to Schiller that Schubart 
 and Rieger should give the volume such enthusiastic
 
 94 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 welcome. The former, in his words of praise, falls 
 into sheer rhapsody. He writes to his wife : " Schiller's 
 a great fellow ; I love him ardently. Greet him from 
 me." Outside Wiirtemberg, the " Anthology " was 
 scarcely known. 
 
 Not content with eclipsing Staudlin, he sought to 
 take over the editorship of the Suahian Magazine that 
 Haug had relinquished the year before, and to continue 
 its issue in a more important form. He ever felt deep 
 desire to live and move in the world of letters, to have 
 a voice, an influence therein as well. Certainly there 
 was another reason — the wish to increase his income 
 by a stipend however meagre. In all haste he deter- 
 mined, with the joint aid of Petersen and Abel, to 
 issue a quarterly journal, of which the first number, 
 entitled TJie Wilrtcmhcrg Repertory, stated to be 
 " printed at the editor's cost," was at once to appear. 
 Besides original essays and tales, critiques of current 
 literature were to be pubUshed in its pages, critiques 
 unsparingly candid and severe, to judge from the lines 
 of Virgil taken as a motto. Schiller wrote under 
 various initials. His opening essay was upon the 
 " Present Condition of the German Stage." The rea- 
 son, he said, that it failed to have good influence 
 upon morals was owing to the three powers concerned 
 in its support — the public, the playwrights, and the 
 actors. So long as the public merely sought amuse- 
 ment, it was vain to pretend that the national theatre 
 was also a school of morals. The German dramatist, 
 like the English, had the faculty of seizing Nature at 
 her very heart's core ; what he lacked was the human- 
 ising touch, the art of bringing her grandeur home to 
 man. Actors fall under the charge of self-conscious- 
 ness ; they do not utterly sink themselves in their 
 part. Certainly, when writing this, Schiller's knowl- 
 edge of the stage and its requirements was quite an 
 insuflBcient one. In a dialogue called " A Walk under
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 95 
 
 the Lindens," two temperaments are contrasted : the 
 one bright, gay, and finding enjoyment in nature and in 
 hfe ; the other self-torturing and pessimistic. Among 
 the critiques from Schiller's pen there is one on the 
 acting edition of his own drama. He ruthlessly at- 
 tacks the weak points of the play, and so little does 
 he spare himself that this is the grim allusion to the 
 author with which the paper ends : 
 
 " Turning to the back of a picture, one naturally 
 looks for the author's name. Unfortunately, all his 
 learning would seem to have been got hy intuition. 
 He is little read in critical literature, choosing maybe 
 to hold his own opinions ; this one may see by the 
 beauties in his work, no less than by its egregious 
 faults. The author is said to be a surgeon attached to 
 a battalion of Wiirtemberg grenadiers ; if this be so, it 
 does high credit to the sagacity of his prince. In so 
 far as I understand his work, he would seem to have 
 as great a liking for strong doses in emeticis as in 
 cestheticis ; I would liefer give him ten horses to cure 
 than my wife." He takes great exception to the char- 
 acter of Franz, " the villain," who, in his cold-blooded 
 calculation, would be the last to use such flowery 
 phrases as those set down for him by the author. For 
 such language an overwrought imagination could form 
 the only excuse. The dialogue altogether is most un- 
 equal ; from the lyrical manner we pass to the meta- 
 physical ; the style in one place is Biblical, in another, 
 tame and bald. Nor, under this mask, could Schiller 
 refrain from condemning Dalberg's absurd alteration 
 respecting the action of the piece. In an appendix he 
 prints a notice of the opening performance, presumably 
 written by a native of Worms. This also is not want- 
 ing in words of censure for the poet, who is told that 
 from his play three others could reasonably have been 
 made, each one producing a greater effect. Staudlin's 
 "Anthology" is sharply dealt with, although the re-
 
 96 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 viewer admits that here and there, amid the flood of 
 mediocrity, " above the frogscroak of mere doggerel," 
 one could catch the true notes of Melpomene's 
 lyre. 
 
 Side by side with this journalistic work Schiller 
 busied himself with his " Fiesco," and several of its 
 most important scenes were already complete. But 
 his poetry writing was now to be threatened with long 
 interruption. From the 11th to the 17th of February 
 Stuttgart was cii fete, on the occasion of the Military 
 Academy being changed into an Imperial University. 
 On the 11th, the duke's birthday, Schiller, with all 
 his brother-officers, had to offer " The Anointed One " 
 their formal congratulations. After pubHc reading 
 of their theses, three of the academy's former pupils 
 were awarded degrees, in law, in medicine, and in 
 philosophy. The duke, once opposed to the study 
 of medicine, was anxious that many of his academy 
 pupils should take the opportunity of getting their 
 doctor's degree at his newly founded college instead of 
 at the Tubingen University. Among those who forth- 
 with came forward was Von Hoven, who had already 
 partially prepared himself for passing. And Schiller, 
 not to add further to the duke's displeasure, was 
 obhged to follow his friend's example. Karl Eugene 
 had meant to make a doctor of him, and a doctor he 
 would have to be, although he himself openly declared 
 that he looked upon his profession, not as a mere aid 
 to money-getting, but rather as a philosophical theory. 
 Accordingly, he must pass his examination and take 
 his degree. Schiller's appearance as a poet, and more- 
 over as one so deeply hostile to the recognised omnipo- 
 tence of princes, had been vastly displeasing to the 
 duke. In commissioning the captive Schubart to 
 write a prologue and epilogue to a play then about 
 to be acted at Sohtude, called " Sophie ; or, the Just 
 Prince," he thought he paid full tribute to an art
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 97 
 
 toward which he was so utterly indiffcreut. And 
 though it was ever clearer to him that he harmed 
 himself by such injustice, obstinacy would not allow 
 him to grant the poet his freedom. He would guard, 
 however, against giving the world fresh cause to blame 
 his violent treatment of a disciple of the Muses ; so he 
 took no steps to hinder Schiller, whose scathing allu- 
 sions to tyrannical and immoral princes must have 
 struck him to the quick. Nor did his father, much 
 grieved as he was at all his son's republican writings, 
 fail to give him urgent warning, begging him to act 
 with regard to his future and to the welfare of the 
 family that would hereafter look to him for support. 
 And so Schiller finally decided upon this, to him, 
 repugnant step. To Dalberg, who had put him in 
 mind of his promised dramatic work, he was obhged 
 to explain that circumstances compelled him to attend 
 the ducal university, where, before taking his degree, 
 he must prepare a medical dissertation. Thus, before 
 six months were past he had little hope of being able 
 to indulge his taste for dramatic composition, or of 
 making fresh progress in an art that formed so large 
 a portion of his earthly happiness. However, genius 
 proved stronger than professional zeal ; instead of 
 writing his medical dissertation, he devoted his time 
 to " Fiesco." He also contributed to the Bepertorium, 
 under the title, "A Generous Deed in Latter-day 
 History," an incident told to him by the Baroness 
 Wolzogen ; besides making some Latin epitaphs upon 
 Luther, Kepler, Haller, and Klopstock the subject of 
 an essay. At Scharffenstein's suggestion he composed 
 a strange dialogue between a youth and an old man, in 
 which the former affirms the soul's condition to be one 
 of ceaseless struggle, that the root of pleasure lay alone 
 in its anticipation, that enjoyment was lost in the 
 realisation. " Eternity is the career toward which I 
 press," says one passage. " By my manifold longings
 
 98 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 I shall steal forth amid the spirit-crowd that moves 
 ever onward to God." 
 
 The sudden death on May 15th of his godfather 
 Kieger revived his lyric muse. In a I'uneral Ode he 
 praises the grandeur of the deceased, who, instead of 
 " truckling to earthly deities," instead of " buying the 
 good will of magnates with a people's curse," had pleaded 
 the cause of the innocent, had loved humanity above the 
 " tinselled sham of greatness," so that, in the blessings of 
 those beyond the grave, he would gain more than from a 
 duke's favour or cross of chivalry. The less that 
 Rieger merited such praise — he who in his day had 
 basely oppressed the subjects under liim — so far more 
 biting seemed the scorn that the poet hurled at the 
 " childish conceit " of " earthly deities," at the yearned- 
 for smiles of princes, at all the vanity and pomp of 
 those in power. The whole poem must needs give 
 bitter offence to the duke. When it appeared, he was 
 absent from Stuttgart, having gone on the 20th to 
 Vienna with Franciska, where he stayed for ten days. 
 During his absence Schiller profited by the chance to 
 visit Mannheim, where he could give Dalberg a per- 
 sonal explanation. Thither he resolved to go with the 
 Baroness Wolzogen and Madame Vischer, to whom he 
 had told much of the performance of his drama. Ac- 
 cordingly, he informed Dalberg on the 24th that next 
 day he would start for Mannheim, bringing with him 
 some ladies and friends, in order, if possible, to be 
 present at another and more complete representation 
 of " The Eobbers." To have seen this would be all 
 the greater gain to him when at work upon the piece 
 he had in hand. He must, however, leave Mannheim 
 again on tlie night of the 28th. Hoven was also invited 
 to join the party, that at one o'clock on the 25th 
 drove out of Stuttgart in a four post-chaise. This 
 second successful performance of his tragedy filled 
 Schiller with fresh dramatic ardour. At the same time
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 99 
 
 he revived his genial intimacy with the actors ; Meyer, 
 one of the older of these, received him with special 
 friendliness. He had a long talk with Dalberg, during 
 which he frankly told him of his great longing to 
 devote himself entirely to the drama. Dalberg pointed 
 out the difficulty of obtaining the duke's consent, yet 
 promised to help him so far as it lay within his power. 
 He gave him a copy of H. L. Wagner's dramas, dedi- 
 cated to himself ; also St. E^al's romance of " Don 
 Carlos." He wished to have his opinion upon the 
 one book ; the other might possibly yield matter for 
 an effective drama. 
 
 Immediately upon his return Schiller was seized 
 with an attack of influenza, which in Germany that 
 season had been widely prevalent. Hardly had he 
 recovered when he writes to Dalberg complaining that 
 no one could be more unfortunate than he ; sensible 
 of his melancholy position — sensible, too, that he 
 deserved a better lot ; and yet but one prospect 
 stared him in the face ! He makes passionate appeal 
 to Dalberg's generosity, imploring him to help him 
 in his need by means of one or two letters ad- 
 dressed to the duke, and written with a due regard for 
 his crotchets. To win his favour, one had but to 
 flatter his vanity respecting the academy. So Dalberg 
 must say that he considered Schiller as the duke's 
 'proUgi and nursling — brought up, instructed at his 
 matchless institution. It were also well to fix some 
 period during which he wished SchiUer to be with him 
 at Mannheim ; thus his absence would seem the rather 
 a temporary one, instead of an escape for good and 
 all. And to meet the possible objection that such a 
 course would be against Schiller s own good, it could 
 be urged that he meant at Mannheim to pursue his 
 medical studies, just as before. All this was cleverly 
 enough planned, maybe, but Dalberg only saw the 
 clearer how vain it was to hope for the duke's consent
 
 loo THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 to such a request, and how easily he might fall from 
 favour by making it. So, in all courtesy, he decUned 
 to interfere. 
 
 And now fresh misfortune was at hand. The story 
 of his journey into " foreign parts " had got abroad ; it 
 reached the ears of the duke. He was highly wroth 
 at so flagrant a breach of disciphne on the part of the 
 army surgeon, who had thus disregarded duty for the 
 following out of presumptuous theories of his own. 
 He sent for Schiller, whom he severely reprimanded, 
 charging him with gross neglect of the duties of his 
 profession. For fourteen days he was to consider him- 
 self under arrest. The duke was informed that the 
 poet's absence had been known to his colonel in com- 
 mand, Oberst von Eau. Schiller, however, absolutely 
 denied this, for he wished to save the kind-hearted 
 man from disgrace. Eau had such fear that the truth 
 might eventually be known, that he studiously avoided 
 encountering Schiller in public ; they met privately 
 at night-time, when the prisoner used to assure his 
 superior that he would never betray him. While 
 under arrest he worked at " Fiesco." It was told to his 
 father that he had been gambling, and had lost heavily. 
 Directly he is free, he writes to Dalberg an account of 
 what had occurred, urging him to procure him the 
 suggested appointment without delay. He could not 
 venture in a letter to state the reason that now made 
 him doubly anxious for this change ; the duke's com- 
 mand was that he should devote himself wholly to his 
 profession. 
 
 " Only this much I can tell you for certain, that if, 
 by good luck, I do not come to you within few months, 
 there will be no further chance that I can ever Hve 
 with you. I shall then be forced to take a step that 
 will make it impossible for me to stay in Mannheim." 
 It was a yet further flight that he had in view. Although 
 she looked to the duke for her sou's promotion,
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER lOl 
 
 Madame von Wolzogen's deep interest in Schiller led 
 her to offer him refuge at Bauerbach, a lonely hamlet 
 near Meiningeu. From her house there he could easily 
 escape to Leipzig or Berhn. As a final bait for Dal- 
 bero's favour, Schiller states that " Fiesco " is to be 
 ready by the middle of August, and that " Don Carlos " 
 will probably form one of his next subjects. 
 
 But his misfortunes were to be yet further increased. 
 Spiegelberg's allusion in " The Eobbers " to Graubunden 
 as the Athens of latter-day thieves called forth vigorous 
 objection in several German prints. One editor, all 
 zealous for redress, commissioned a friend of his in 
 Ludwigsburg, one Walter, to extort from the poet per- 
 sonal withdrawal of the offending phrase. Walter, 
 good, worthy soul, thmking to do his ruler a service, 
 goes in hot haste to tell him of the whole affair. The 
 duke, whom pubhc attacks upon his academy and 
 disputes with the States had already angered, was 
 highly incensed at this insult offered by one of his 
 ex-pupils to a neighbouring province. He determined 
 to prevent the recurrence of what threatened to harm 
 his own supreme authority. Not deigning to grant 
 Schiller a personal interview, he sent him, on August 
 27th, an official mandate, by which " all further literary 
 work or communication with other countries" was 
 distinctly vetoed. Disobedience to so despotic an 
 order would of a certainty result in imprisonment at 
 the fortress ; Schiller's only safety lay in flight ; yet 
 how to flee he saw not. He felt surer, more certain 
 than ever, of his poetic talent ; Stiiudlin's cheap sar- 
 casm about a colossal genius, a second Shakespeare, 
 passed him unheeded. The thought of his father's 
 anger at his flight, this was all that troubled him ; 
 moreover, it might cause disagreeables between his 
 parent and the duke. Had not the elder Schiller 
 sworn that his son should stay in the WUrtemberg 
 service ? If Karl Eugene did not exact payment for
 
 I02 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 the eight years' luaintenance at the academy, there 
 was yet fear that he might withdraw his favour. 
 Moreover, Schiller had made debts in Stuttgart; the 
 creditors, in especial a Captain von Schade and Madame 
 von HoU, w^ould assuredly come down upon his father 
 for payment. 
 
 Despite all that troubled him, he ceased not to work 
 at " Fiesco." While escaping, it was just this play 
 that proved his first means of help. Unfortunately, 
 Dalberg gave him no answer whatever. His last re- 
 source was to try and remain in Stuttgart. He there- 
 fore petitioned the duke for a mitigation of sentence. 
 His writings had hitherto brought him in an annual 
 sum of 550 gulden, and, if deprived of this means of 
 income, it would be impossible for him systematically 
 to continue his course of study, or rightly to reach the 
 end that he had in view. Some of his hterary efforts, as 
 he was humbly prepared to show, had met with gen- 
 eral acceptance and approval throughout all Germany. 
 Of all the academy pupils, he could boast to be the 
 first who had drawn upon him the notice of the world, 
 who had wrung from it some meed of regard. Such 
 honour reflected wholly and entirely upon him to 
 whom he owed his training. He was ready publicly 
 to give account for any undue literary license that he 
 had taken, and he made solemn promise that all his 
 future writings should undergo strict revision. It was 
 hardly conceivable that the duke would consent to 
 this request. He would assuredly hear nothing about 
 a poet, educated, forsooth, at his military academy ; 
 again, it would hardly please him to know that his 
 army surgeon could not live upon his pay. But the 
 answer was other than Schiller had expected. " The 
 Anointed One " went so far as to refuse to accept 
 the petition, and General Aug^ was instructed to forbid 
 Schiller, on pain of arrest, to address any further letter 
 to his Grace. Flight, that was the only remedy left
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 103 
 
 to him ; for this it remained to choose a fitting time. 
 An opportunity offered itself during the festivities that 
 took place on the 17th, in honour of Prince Paul of 
 Russia and his wife, Maria Feodorowna, the duke's 
 niece. During the last days, while brooding over his 
 desperate resolve, he paid a farewell visit to Schubart, 
 still a prisoner at the Asberg, who gave him several of 
 his manuscript poems. Streicher had offered to ac- 
 company him in his flight. It was he who, through 
 love for Schiller, hastened on his own journey to 
 Hamburg, fixed for the coming spring, when he was 
 to visit Karl Emmanuel Bach, the musical director 
 there. 
 
 Dalberg was among the duke's guests. He and 
 Schiller met, but neither came to any nearer explana- 
 tion. With Frau Meyer, the actor's wife, and Streicher 
 he went one afternoon to Solitude, to take leave of 
 mother and sister, who already knew of his inevitable 
 resolve. This was on the 21st, the day before that 
 fixed for his escape. Next night a brilliant fete was 
 to be held at Solitude, and the duke and his high-born 
 guests would grace it by their presence. Schiller felt 
 bitterly the grief of parting. For over an hour he 
 stayed with his mother, who was nigh heart-broken at 
 the threatened loss of her only son. At length in 
 deep emotion, and with eyes reddened by weeping, 
 he came back. His father, noticing their condition, 
 was told that it was due to a malady from which he 
 often suffered. The elder Schiller could talk of 
 nothing but of the rejoicings to take place upon the 
 morrow. That night Schiller stopped at the guard- 
 house with S char ff en stein, whose turn it was for duty. 
 At parting he commended Lempp, another old school- 
 fellow, to the lieutenant's care. On this same even- 
 ing " The Robbers " was being acted for the first time 
 at Hamburg, to a crowded house ; in Leipzig, too, it 
 had been given with great success. Early next morn-
 
 104 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 ing he went his hospital rounds for the last time. By- 
 ten o'clock all was to be got in readiness for the 
 journey, and Streicher accordingly came to him at 
 this hour. He found him engaged upon an ode, a 
 counterpart to one of Klopstock's, that had for long 
 past fascinated him. Wliilst packing away the vol- 
 ume, it had worked with fresh force upon his mind. 
 Probably this was the ode " Our Princes." Streicher 
 had to hear both poems, and give judgment upon 
 them. In imagmtive beauty, in a verbal charm, Schil- 
 ler's work seemed to him finer. It needed all Streicher's 
 care and forethought to keep the poet from leaving 
 anything that was necessary behind. In the evening, 
 at nine o'clock, as already the castle-panes blazed with 
 a thousand Hghts, the fugitive met his friend. Under 
 his cloak he carried two pistols, both of them old and 
 useless. One of these they packed up; the other, 
 broken-locked but still possessing a flint, was put in 
 the carriage that already held two boxes and a small 
 harpsichord. Schiller had only twenty-three gulden 
 in cash ; and Streicher's mother in such haste had 
 not been able to collect for him more than twenty- 
 eight. They drove out through the gloomy EszHngen 
 gate, where Scharffenstein was on guard. To the 
 inquiring sentry Schiller gave the names of Doctor 
 liitter and Doctor "Wolf, both travelling to Eszhngen. 
 By midnight the hghts of Solitude could still be seen, 
 and Schiller turned to show his friend the point where 
 lay his home ; then there broke from him the sigh, 
 " My mother ! oh, my mother ! " Wliile halting at 
 Entzweihingen, he read Streicher the MS. poems that 
 Schubart had given to him, among others " The Vault 
 of Princes." At eight o'clock they reached the frontier, 
 where Schiller felt as though freed from a crushing 
 load. Wlirtemberg lay behind him — Wiirtemberg, 
 his fatherland, his prison. " See," cried he to Streicher, 
 " see how pleasant the posts and rails look, in their
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 105 
 
 blue and white paint. The soul of government has 
 just such pleasantness." In sooth, he knew notliing 
 of the hardship to which he was going, nor with what 
 grief he would soon be leaving the fair land that he 
 had just reached. He could not foresee that eleven 
 years must pass ere he should again set foot in his 
 fatherland, ere he should come back to it, broken in 
 health, and with a loving wife at his side.
 
 Book IV. 
 
 The Fugitive
 
 CHAPTEK I. 
 
 FKOM SEPTEMBER TO DECEMBER, 1782. 
 
 The carriage had only been hired as far as Bretten. 
 Thence they travelled by mail-coach, and reached 
 Schwetzingen at nine p. m., where they had to stop the 
 night, as Mannheim, being a fortified town, shut its 
 gates at an early hour. Next morning the friends 
 drove thither, gay and joyous of heart ; for with them 
 they brought " Fiesco," now all but completed. They 
 at once called upon Meyer, the regisseur. He was 
 much astonished to see Schiller before him in the 
 character of a runaway, and courteously invited him 
 and his companion to dinner. After the meal Schiller 
 wrote a letter to the duke, in which he repeated the 
 plea that before had been refused acceptance. Dread 
 of punishment if he did this in Stuttgart had forced 
 him to flee, albeit he was convinced that, might he 
 but humbly state his case, the heart of his ruler 
 would soften toward him. All his hopes, all his pros- 
 pects would be dashed by denial, "if he might not 
 come back to his regiment with leave to devote him- 
 self to literature, so that with the profits derived there- 
 from he could travel at times and gain knowledge of 
 the world and of its great men ; moreover, civilian's 
 dress would be helpful to him in his profession. 
 Otherwise he would be the most wretched of men, 
 driven, banished from kindred and home ; he must 
 needs wander forth into the world, an outcast ! " This 
 letter he sent to his father's friend Colonel von Seeger, 
 
 109
 
 no THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 who was to use his iufluence in his favour. The 
 answer was to be forwarded to him at Mayer's address. 
 Schiller saw no other means to postpone being tracked 
 as a deserter, but he could hardly hope that the duke 
 would grant his wish. 
 
 Meyer took rooms hard by for the friends ; and 
 next day his wife returned from Stuttgart with the 
 news that Schiller's disappearance had instantly be- 
 come known, and that there was general talk of pur- 
 suit and capture. By a strange irony of fate, the piece 
 played before tlie distmguished guests at Solitude on 
 the night of Schiller's escape had been " Will-o'-the- 
 Wisp." Schiller thought to have warded off all danger 
 by his one letter ; however, he wrote a second, to his 
 father, pointing out the necessity there had been for 
 such a step, and asking to be informed of all that he 
 might have heard about it. 
 
 Soon Seeger's answer arrived. The duke, whom the 
 visit of his high-born relatives had made specially 
 gracious, desired him immediately to return. The 
 most to be looked for from this was a possible exemp- 
 tion from punishment ; Schiller therefore declared that, 
 without some further parley, he could not come back. 
 He also made appeal to his general and other friends, 
 although by this time all chance of compromise had 
 vanished. " Fiesco," that was his only hope. At four 
 o'clock one afternoon, seated at Meyer's round table, he 
 began to read the play aloud to an eager audience of 
 actors, saying beforehand a few introductory words upon 
 the history of the time and of the dramatis personam. 
 He was listened to coldly and in silence. Beil left the 
 room after the first act ; at the close of the second all 
 except Iffland followed his example. Schiller ceased 
 reading further. Such a reception of his piece — it 
 had hardly provoked a single formal compliment — 
 quite stunned him. Meyer took Streicher aside into 
 another room, where he told him that he thought
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER iix 
 
 " Fiesco " the very worst play to which he had ever 
 listened ; and he expressed his belief that Schiller 
 must have exhausted his entire powers in writing " The 
 Robbers," and that hereafter he would but produce 
 high-flown, nonsensical rubbish. Ifflaud stayed till 
 eight o'clock, but all conversation on the subject 
 flagged. Meyer, before they separated, out of courtesy 
 asked Schiller to lend him the manuscript until next 
 morning, as he had only heard the first two acts. On 
 reaching his lodging, the poet's chagrin vented itself 
 in bitter complaint, touching the envy of actors and 
 their silly spirit of clique ; in his despair he even 
 thought of treading the boards himself, if his play 
 were not accepted ; for, in sooth, they could none of 
 them declaim it like himself. How terrible a night, 
 this one, for the poor fugitive ! Streicher, at early 
 morning, while Schiller still slept, went to Meyer, who 
 received him with the joyful news that " Fiesco " was 
 a masterpiece. It had been Schiller's provincial ac- 
 cent, his detestable trick of reading everything, even 
 the stage directions, in the same higli-pitched singsong 
 voice, it had been this that had damned the piece, and 
 had made one think it so thoroughly execrable. The 
 so-called committee would at once give it a second 
 hearing and it should be put upon the stage without 
 delay. Dal berg, unluckily, was still at Stuttgart. 
 The fetes were over, the great guests had gone, yet he 
 sent no news of his return ; it seemed as though he 
 wished to absent himself until Schiller should have 
 quitted Mannheim. As without Dalberg, no decision 
 upon the play could be given, and as it was feared 
 that the duke would insist upon his being given up 
 to him, Schiller, following his friend's advice, resolved 
 in the early part of October to visit Frankfort, and 
 while there it would be seen if there were still any 
 danger ; Dalberg's verdict would by that time also 
 have been pronounced.
 
 112 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 Tlie two friends, musician and poet, owing to their 
 narrow means had to make their journey upon foot. 
 Streicher wrote, before starting, to his mother, bidding 
 her to send him some money, addressed to Frankfort, 
 as he could not forsake his friend in the hour of need. 
 One fine afternoon they crossed the Neckar bridge to 
 go toward Sandhofen ; the village where they stopped 
 for the night was probably Sandtorf. Already, while 
 on this journey, a new theme for dramatic treatment 
 suggested itself to Schiller — a tragedy of bourgeois 
 life in contrast to, and with more of background in it 
 than those of H. L. Wagner. He began to sketch the 
 first outlines of his " Luise Miller." All next day he 
 thought upon this while passing along the beautiful 
 route across the mountains ; he had but half an eye 
 for the charms of landscape that from time to time his 
 friend sought to make him notice. After twelve hours 
 on foot, they reached Darmstadt at six in the evening. 
 Schiller, next day, felt somewhat unwell ; yet he re- 
 solved to push on to Frankfort. From there he meant 
 to write to Dalberg. At one village they drank 
 " kirschwasser " to strengthen them ; at another they 
 tried, though in vain, to get some rest. Schiller's faint- 
 ness and exhaustion increased, and he at last lay down 
 in a coppice near the roadside. Here he fell asleep. 
 A passer-by asked them who they were. Streicher took 
 the man for a recruiting officer, and answered roughly, 
 " Travellers." His voice roused Schiller, who, thus 
 startled, gave the stranger so searching a look that, 
 without a word, he turned away and went on. This 
 rest helped the poet to reach Sachsenhauseu, the suburb 
 of Frankfort, without difficulty. They took humble 
 lodging at an inn on the Mainbrucke, to the sign of 
 the "Three Oxen," and made arrangements with the 
 landlord to board there so long as their little money 
 should last. Early next day Schiller, in his sorrow, 
 wrote to Dalberg. Driven by the duke to such sudden
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 113 
 
 flight, he had been forced to leave debts behind him 
 in Stuttgart, and to come away without money suffi- 
 cient for his needs. In three weeks he hoped to have 
 " Fiesco " ready and fit for the stage. This emboldened 
 him to ask for a partial advance of the sum due to 
 him, of which, more than ever before in his hfe, he 
 stood in need. He owed about two hundred gulden 
 in Stuttgart, and this caused liim the greatest anxiety. 
 If Dalberg could kindly lend him for a time a hundred 
 gulden, it would be of the utmost assistance to him. 
 Speedy help, that was all of which he thought, for 
 which he wished. Having hghtened his heart of this, 
 to him, specially painful task, his gaiety and fire re- 
 turned. The stir and movement of a great commer- 
 cial city had good effect upon his spirits. Now he 
 could more entirely devote himself to his " Luise Mil- 
 ler." He withdrew quite, as it were, within his shell ; 
 and Streicher, knowing his habit, left him to his 
 thoughts, undisturbed. Next morning, during a stroll 
 through the town, they went into a bookshop to ask 
 for a copy of " The Eobbers." Wlien the bookseller 
 spoke of the wide fame which the play had gained, 
 Schiller, in the fulness of his heart, confessed to being 
 its author. He gave up that afternoon and evening to 
 his new drama ; after supper he told Streicher how he 
 was now at work upon a tragedy of bourgeois life ; he 
 was going to try if he could lower himself to such a 
 level. All the next day was spent in writing. On 
 the following morning a letter from Meyer brought the 
 crushing news that Dalberg refused to advance any 
 money. The piece in its existing form was of no ser- 
 vice to him ; until it had been altered he could say 
 nothing definite in the matter. Schiller's only fee for 
 " The Robbers " had been his travelling expenses ; yet 
 the play's success was a lasting one. But no thought 
 of helping the need-stricken, despairing poet for a 
 moment crossed the mind of his Excellency von Dal-
 
 114 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 berg. Schiller was too proud to complain of such treat- 
 ment, bitterly though it pained him to have been led 
 to trust to the cold-blooded courtier's sense of human- 
 ity, and to open out to him, unchecked, all the anguish 
 at his heart. He quickly determined to return to the 
 environs of Mannheim, in order to get his piece ready 
 for the stage; they had only to wait for the money 
 expected from Streicher's mother. Meantime Schiller 
 would try and sell his poem " Love, the Devil," that he 
 had brought away among his MSS., and which both he 
 and his friend considered exceptionally good. The 
 work has been lost to us ; probably it was based on a 
 translation by Meyer of Cazotte's " Diable Boiteux." 
 Instead, however, of the twenty-five gulden that he 
 asked, the publisher would only give eighteen ; so 
 Schiller, vexed at such niggardliness, refused to sell it 
 at all, though sorely in want of the money. Streich- 
 er's thirty gulden came by the next day's post ; they 
 were for his journey to Hamburg. How, though, could 
 he leave his friend when in such a plight ? With this 
 sum, all insufficient for two, they began travelling home- 
 wards. They reach Mainz by boat, going thence on 
 foot to Worms. But Schiller became so exhausted 
 that it was necessary to drive for a part of the distance. 
 At Worms he got a letter from Meyer, promising to 
 meet him at an inn at Oggersheim, a village near Mann- 
 heim. Here Schiller found him, with his wife and 
 two friends, admirers of the poet. The acceptance of 
 " Fiesco " was certain, Meyer said, if it underwent altera- 
 tion, aud if an effective ending were added. To do 
 this three weeks were necessary, Schiller thought; so 
 Meyer advised him to share lodging with Streicher at 
 the Oggersheim Inn. They accordingly hired a room 
 in the top story. As in letters from Stuttgart there 
 was still talk of arrest, he sought to avoid detection by 
 calling himself Doctor Schmidt. His new subject 
 " Luise Miller " so fascinated him that he worked at
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 115 
 
 that instead of at the much-needed "Fiesco;" some 
 of the characters in the former drama were designed 
 to suit certain of the Mannheim actors. The hours of 
 twilight, when he paced the room, and Streicher sat 
 playing at the piano — these were the ones most fa- 
 vourable to poetic inspiration. He sent several letters 
 to Stuttgart and to Solitude ; to foil inquiry he dated 
 them from Leipzig. Even his parents and sister must 
 believe him to be far away. He needed nothing, so he 
 wrote ; he would pay his debts as soon as an under- 
 standing were come to with the duke. If he did not 
 return, they might sell his things and pay off his debt 
 to Landau. He often went out at nightfall to the 
 town, where he visited Schwan and Meyer, sometimes 
 stopping there till morning. On these occasions he 
 used to lodge with a builder named Holzel. No sense 
 of any danger troubled him, though the duke had sent 
 him strict injunction to return. Not until after a 
 fortnight, when " Luise Miller" was all but entirely 
 planned out, did he busy himself with ■' Fiesco," which 
 he sent to Dalberg the second week in November. On 
 the 6th he told his sister he was en route for Berlin. 
 Success was certain, for he had an introduction to 
 Nicolai, the publisher there. To soothe his father he 
 puts in that in less than six months he expects to get 
 his medical degree. Ere finding fortune he must be 
 quit of debt; this was his first duty. He also hints 
 at the possibility of a visit to St. Petersburg. He 
 had to wait long for Dalberg's answer, and this year 
 his birthday was passed amid deep anxiety. Kind- 
 hearted Streicher wrote for' the last instalment of the 
 money intended for his journey to Hamburg. On the 
 16th Schiller complained to Dalberg that eight days 
 were over, yet he had got no reply so far ; if no decision 
 could as yet be given, he would like, at least, to have 
 his opinion. Going one evening to Meyer, he found 
 both him and his wife in great consternation. Shortly
 
 ii6 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 before, a Wiirtemberg officer had called at the house 
 askiug for Schiller. They suspected that he was a 
 messenger from the duke, and their fears were height- 
 ened by the statements of other neighbours, who 
 brought news that this officer had continued his in- 
 quiries at a coffee-house near by. Schiller caught 
 the prevailing panic, and accepted Madame Curioni's 
 friendly offer to give him and Streicher hiding in the 
 Prince of Baden's palace, of which she had the guard- 
 ianship. Next morning, however, Meyer found out 
 that the stranger had left Mannheim on the preceding 
 evening ; he had come on no errand of search ; he was 
 a Lieutenant Koseritz, one of Schiller's friends, who 
 wanted to see him. Still, it was evident that he ran 
 much risk by staying in Mannheim, and as soon as 
 " Fiesco " should be accepted, his friends advised him 
 to quit the place. He therefore wrote to Frau von 
 Wolzogen, asking leave to make her house at Bauer- 
 bach a refuge, although in Meiningen he could have 
 lived in equal safety, and with greater ease. What he 
 wanted was to work on quietly and undisturbed, wliile 
 gaining for himself fresh ties. The close of the month 
 brought Dalberg's answer, as curt as it was pitiable. 
 The tragedy, he said, was useless in its present shape ; 
 therefore he could neither accept it nor offer any sum 
 for it. On the 27th Iffland had given detailed criti- 
 cism of the piece ; and, while instancing its faults, he 
 pointed out its high poetical worth, and the rare power 
 of many of its scenes. Considering the author's strait- 
 ened circumstances, he recommended that he should 
 at least be paid a sum equal to that ordinarily given 
 for hack work, or for translations of the common stamp. 
 Despite such advice, this almighty magnate of the 
 stage — he who well knew of Schiller's straits — 
 decreed that no sum could be offered for his play. Per- 
 haps this was quite in the baronial manner ; neverthe- 
 less, it was hardly humane. His Excellency could not
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 117 
 
 risk the loss of a duke's favour ; rather than forego it, 
 a genius might starve ! Time has veiled from us 
 many an act no whit less mean ; we have to thank the 
 Nemesis of history for hiding much of Dalberg's base- 
 ness ; yet we can never forget that it was he who left 
 a poet to struggle on in penury, rather than lose the 
 enjoyment gained by attendance at grand-ducal fetes. 
 Schiller's only alternative was to offer his play to 
 Schwan, the pubhsher. He, poor man, was sorry not 
 to be able to give more than a louis d'or per sheet ; but 
 at least he paid him this modest fee in advance, for 
 ten sheets to begin with, as it was uncertain how many 
 there might be in all. Schwan treated him like a 
 friend ; he gave him introductions to Ettinger, another 
 publisher at Gotha. Schiller was forced to pawn his 
 watch, and after buying some of the barest necessaries, 
 he had just enough left for his journey, and for the 
 defrayal of expenses at Oggersheim. They w^ere to 
 leave that place at the beginning of December. When 
 Meyer and other friends came to bear him company as 
 far as Worms, they found him in the act of packing 
 his portmanteau ; matters of most urgency were forth- 
 with discussed over a bottle of wine. At the post- 
 house at Worms they saw a strolling company play, 
 in execrable fashion, Gerstenberg and Benda's " Ariadne 
 in Naxos." The others found this a rich theme for 
 laughter; but Schiller watched the performance with 
 deep earnestness. Not until supper-time, when Ehen- 
 ish wine went round, did he get back his spirits. Meyer 
 and his friends were profuse in farewell wishes ; but 
 Schiller and his Pylades could say nothing — no kiss, 
 no embrace, only a lengthened pressure of the hand set 
 seal upon the bond of friendship between two faithful 
 hearts. All honour and eternal gratitude be to Streicher, 
 that true and sterling soul before whom Dalberg's 
 baronial lustre pales ! With little clothing to ward 
 off the cold of that winter night, Schiller stepped into
 
 n8 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 the post-chaise which was to take him to Meiningeu. 
 Besides Streicher there was but one of Schiller's friends 
 who could fully appreciate this act of his, this forcible 
 self-severance from all the ties that bound him. It 
 was Iffland, whom passion for his art had driven to the 
 boards, who, while yet a mere boy of eighteen, had 
 chosen to forsake the comforts of family and home — 
 he it was who, in Schiller's flight, discerned the resist- 
 less might of genius.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 FROM DECEMBER, 1782, TO JULY, 1783. 
 
 Schiller reached Meiningen on the morning of 
 December 7th. He halted at the " Stag " there — an 
 inn still in existence — whence he at once wrote to the 
 sub-librarian, Reinwald, to whom Frau von Wolzogen 
 had given him recommendation. He said that a trav- 
 eller from Stuttgart, whom, perhaps, he knew, was 
 anxious for the pleasure of an interview. Fears for 
 personal safety obliged him to maintain an incognito, 
 but he begged for the pleasure of his company at 
 dinner. Wilhelm Friedrich Hermann Reinwald, whose 
 father held a post under government at Meiningen, was 
 at this time in his forty-sixth year. He had studied 
 law; but likewise took keen interest in music, phi- 
 lology, and helles lettres. The death of Duke Anton 
 Ulrich, who had sent him as privy councillor to 
 Vienna, robbed him of the prospect of a successful 
 future. All higher outlook vanished in his acceptance 
 of a paltry secretaryship. In 1776 he undertook the 
 management of the ducal hbrary, then in a state of 
 thorough disorder. Overwork, and residence in chilly, 
 unheated rooms, affected his eyes and broke his health, 
 thus heightening the melancholy from which he already 
 suffered. When, after four years, his arduous task was 
 ended, another was preferred before him. The head 
 librarianship was given to one Walch. Yet, though 
 thus slighted, he continued to devote himself, heart 
 and soul, to the library under his care. He cherished 
 
 119
 
 I20 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 deep sympathy for art and science ; he had published 
 several poems and essays ; and a volume from his pen, 
 " Poetic Fancies, Tales, Letters, and Miscellanea," had 
 just appeared. To render a service to the author of 
 " The Robbers," and to Frau von Wolzogen, gave him 
 great pleasure. 
 
 Shortly ere nightfall Schiller reached the little vil- 
 lage of Bauerbach, lying to the south of Meiningen, 
 amid dark, pine-clad hills that part the rivers Werra 
 and Main. It was a mere hamlet of some thirty 
 houses, and Jews formed a third of the population. 
 With its ruined church, it belonged to the neighbour- 
 ing parish of Bibra. Snow had fallen, and all was 
 wrapped in white, while here and there from the 
 scattered houses lights gleamed. Schiller was taken to 
 the local justice, who already had knowledge of his 
 coming. He welcomed the poet, introduced as Doctor 
 Ritter, with much cordiality, and brought him to the 
 baroness's house, that stood close by, a plain building, 
 with spacious grounds. Up-stairs he found a large 
 stove alight, and all in readiness for his arrival. Even 
 now one may see in that low-roofed room the identical 
 chair which was put at the fugitive's disposal ; there, 
 too, is the. round table at which he wrote ; there, too, 
 the old family portraits that looked down gravely at 
 him from their frames. The villagers were but poor 
 peasant-folk, who earned a livelihood by husbandry 
 and tar-burning. In the loneliness to which he soon 
 grew accustomed, all that he needed was a friend — 
 some one of culture with whom to exchange sympa- 
 thies and thoughts. At first the bad weather kept 
 him indoors ; and there he merely met servants, and 
 occasionally the local justice, who, for private ends, 
 treated his tenant's guest with profuse civility. Later 
 on he made acquaintance with the vicar of Bibra and 
 his son, both men of high education. 
 
 He first endeavoured, although vainly, to get his
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 121 
 
 " Fiesco " printed. " You know," writes he to Schwan 
 on the 8th, " you know that it was but the prohibition 
 to follow literature which drove me from the Wiirtem- 
 berg service. If, therefore, in this field I do not soon 
 let the land hear my voice, it will be thought that the 
 step I took was without purpose, and in vain. Pray 
 urge on the printing as soon as you can. In a fort- 
 night you shall have postscript and preface." He 
 further adds that, for a speedier settlement of his 
 affairs, he must that winter take to poetry ; afterward 
 he would sink himself in the study of medicine — in 
 his profession. Toward gaining his own livelihood, 
 toward reaUsing the hopes placed in him by his family, 
 it seemed best to do this ; yet genius swept him 
 forward along her path. His heart was heavy on 
 Streicher's account ; alas ! he could do nothing but 
 recommend him to Schwan. Besides the new piece 
 that he soon hoped to finish, there were other dramatic 
 schemes that busied him ; he had a " Mary Stuart," a 
 " Don Carlos " in project. Perhaps, too, at this time 
 his mind may have been at work upon an original 
 theme, upon his " Friedrich Imhof," in which Jesuitism 
 is treated in the same fashion as in his " Ghostseer." 
 Imhof was supposed to be a freethinker ; thus he gave 
 him his own Christian name. More likely, however, 
 the title was suggested by the name of an old fellow 
 cadet. 
 
 As his imagination grew ever more and more active, 
 Schiller had need before all things of books whereon to 
 nourish his mind ; thus, the very second day of his 
 arrival, he sent Eeinwald a hst of works he wished to 
 have. On this, besides philosophical treatises by Garve, 
 Mendelssohn, Smith, and Sulzer, with others of a criti- 
 cal and sesthetic nature by Gerard, Home, Lessing, and 
 Ramler, he had put down Shakespeare's " Eomeo and 
 Juliet " (a help to the last scene in " Luise Miller "), Wie- 
 land's " Agathon," St. E^al's " History of Don Carlos,"
 
 123 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 histories of Scotland and of England by Robertson and 
 Hume (these, perhaps, for " Mary Stuart "), some books 
 of travel, and, last of all, Zimmermann on " Experience 
 in Medicine." With his " Luise Miller " he did not 
 make rapid progress ; he left this to write the dedica- 
 tion of " Fiesco " to his old master Abel. It was a 
 pleasure in his dreary loneliness, while pining half 
 morbidly for human intercourse, when Keinwald with 
 some friends came to see him. But his promised visit 
 in return at Christmastide never took place, as " he had 
 not adequate equipment to show himself on Sundays 
 in the town." 
 
 Into his life a fair star now rose when, at the New 
 Year, Frau von Wolzogen brought her daughter Char- 
 lotte to Bauerbach. Now for the first time love 
 touched his heart with all its fire and force. Perhaps 
 while still a schoolgirl at Stuttgart she may have 
 charmed him ; yet the feeling then was no deep one. 
 Now, in the height of youth and maidenly beauty, she 
 stood before the poet's wondering gaze ; he saw her, 
 not in the vortex of society, but in the natural atmos- 
 phere of her own home. The thought flashed upon 
 him that, having her companionship, he would find the 
 full meed of earthly happiness. Though void of all 
 prospect of success in the future, he scarcely saw how 
 vain must be any hope of marriage with a dowerless 
 lady of rank. He yearned only for the rest that now 
 at last seemed found for his despairing soul ; this 
 blinded him to every hindrance. 
 
 On the 3d of January, 1783, he accompanied Frau 
 von Wolzogen and Lotte to Waldorf, some three 
 leagues distant, where her brother Dietrich Marschalk 
 von Ostheim had an estate. Schiller had the pleasure 
 of making his acquaintance, besides that of the vicar of 
 the parish. In the afternoon he took leave of the 
 baroness, promising soon to return. 
 
 Writing next day to her, he says : " Your absence
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 123 
 
 has robbed me of what was myself ; my state is oue 
 of mighty transport ; I am as one who has looked long 
 upon the sun, which stays before the vision long after 
 the eyes are turned therefrom ; they are blind to 
 any lesser ray. But I shall be careful not to destroy 
 the charm of such illusion." He only ventures to send 
 "sincere regards" to Lotte, besides a complimentary 
 message to the baroness's brother. He had promised 
 to write a letter on her behalf to the Duchess of 
 Goth?., Charlotte's godmother, about school expenses, 
 and to compose a poem anent the betrothal of her 
 foster-daughter, Heinietta Sturm, with a bailiff at Wal- 
 dorf. In this last, his lyric muse, long silent, again 
 spoke forth, with new fervour, with deeper zeal. The 
 bulk of his praise falls to Henrietta's foster-mother ; 
 hers was a nobility of life, far higher than that of 
 birth, which he detested. In describing the bliss that 
 love brings to the heart, he may have wished to reveal 
 to Lotte how he himself longed for such joy. After 
 his second visit to Waldorf, he told his benefactress 
 the dread he felt at their threatened separation. 
 
 " It is fearful," he writes, " to hve apart from human- 
 ity, without some sympathising soul ; yet no less fear- 
 ful is it to chng to some kindred heart from which, 
 sooner or later, in a world where nothing stands sure, 
 one must wrench one's self, bleeding, away." 
 
 The following week they met at Meiningen, and then 
 again at Waldorf before her departure on the 24th. 
 Shortly previous to this, Lotte had been placed under 
 the care of a bailiffs wife ; later on, it being fixed that 
 she should go back to Stuttgart with her mother. 
 While she was here, he must have written her a letter, 
 which, however, was opened by other hands and with- 
 held. Four months afterward he reflects upon the 
 fate of his missive. To mislead all who might be on 
 his track, he gave Frau von Wolzogeu another letter 
 dated from Hanover, in which he spoke of going
 
 124 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 to England, perhaps even to North America, if that 
 were a free country. To Streicher he sent the news 
 that, on account of the duke, the baroness discounte- 
 nanced his staying longer under her roof. He was 
 therefore going to Herr von Wurmb, with whom he 
 hud become fast friends, and who had invited him to 
 his estate in the Thiiringen Forest. He knew that 
 many would ask Streicher about him ; this, therefore, 
 seemed the easiest way to spread a false report — one, 
 by the way, that scarcely tallied with the letter given 
 to the baroness. 
 
 Although he was anxious to finish *' Luise Miller " 
 because of the money it would bring him, the subject 
 of " Don Carlos " now laid mighty gi-asp upon his mind. 
 Nevertheless, Eeinwald prevailed upon him to write, 
 at the Duke of Meiningen's suggestion, a satire in 
 verse upon the impromptu military arrangements made 
 by the Coburg court when, during his Grace's illness, 
 it moved to Meiningen. This Reinwald printed in the 
 local paper — of course, under a nom de plume. " Simon 
 Crabseye, B. A.," such was the signature that Schiller 
 chose. Then, wonderful to tell, Dalberg turns to 
 Schiller, whom he had so shabbily treated, to ask 
 what progress he had made with " Luise Miller," about 
 which, through the actors, he had heard. Schiller had 
 not forgotten how arbitrarily his " Fiesco " had been 
 rejected ; there was some spice of scorn in his answer 
 to the effect that the play was choked with errors. 
 But Dalberg, changed on a sudden to all that was 
 courteous and bland, wanted to have the piece at once ; 
 nay, its very faults were merits, fi-om a dramatic stand- 
 point. Instead, therefore, of continuing " Don Carlos," 
 Schiller was led to finish his other and earlier play 
 first, which he intended to offer for publication to the 
 well-known firm of Weygand in Leipzig. 
 
 The Duke of Meiningen's birthday was on the 4th 
 of February, and to celebrate his restoration to health,
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 125 
 
 a little drama for children was to be acted in his hon- 
 our on that day. For this, Keinwald asked the poet 
 to compose either a prologue or an epilogue. And he 
 did not refuse compliance with so strange a request, 
 albeit that it obliged him to leave weightier work 
 aside. By writing poetry for his Grace of Meiningeu, 
 Schiller thought to ensure that nobleman's protection, 
 if Karl Eugene should be told where he was hidden. 
 Just then the duke was in Saxony. While at Leipzig, 
 Weygand spoke to him admiringly of his liegeman, the 
 renowned author of " The Eobbers." For Weygand knew 
 nothing about the poet's flight. 
 
 Frau von Wolzogen had fixed to be absent for four- 
 teen weeks. On the first of February he tells her of 
 his joy that one of them is past. She had gone hence 
 with his good wishes, his tears ; they would follow her 
 everywhere. He is glad that Lotte can travel with 
 her, though, had she stayed behind, he would have 
 gained. He ardently looks forward to spending the 
 following summer in their society. 
 
 " So lovely, so springlike is the weather to-day," he 
 writes, " that it conjures up visions of all that pleasant 
 time which is to come. How precious, then, must those 
 days to us be that take their colouring from friendship. 
 I am going on a shooting expedition to the mountain 
 and the coppice. Perhaps I may have some sport." 
 
 But all too soon winter returned, making every road 
 and path impassable. So irksome to him was the soli- 
 tude of his " caged cell," to which in general he saw 
 himself doomed, that often he would gladly have ex- 
 changed it for the companionship of some rational 
 human being. He deeply felt that genius needs a 
 spur, an impulse derived from contact with other 
 mmds. 
 
 " Laboriously, and often while quite against the 
 grain," says he, " I have to work myself up into a 
 mood, a key for poetry that otherwise I could reach
 
 126 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 after ten minutes' intellectual talk with a friend, after 
 reading some excellent book, or after a sight of the 
 broad heavens. It would seem that thoughts can but 
 be called forth by thoughts, and that our ideas, like 
 the strings of some instrument, need to be played upon 
 by other minds." 
 
 He had undertaken to teach Lotte chess ; while 
 playing at times for practice with the justice, maybe 
 he thought of her and of his promise. Just in these 
 days Duke Karl passed near Meiniugen as he returned 
 by way of Gotha. He had been to Jena and Weimar ; 
 visiting Goethe, whom he had already known at Stutt- 
 gart, yet neglecting to notice another great poet of his 
 country, Wieland. 
 
 " Luise Miller " had been gleefully accepted by Wey- 
 gand, though at the outset he sought to profit by the 
 poet's good nature. As the work could not be printed 
 until Easter, he asked Schiller to append thereto a 
 prose outhne of the story. But Schiller declined to 
 do this. He promised, however, to give him his 
 " Maria Stuart " when complete, for which Eeinwald 
 was getting him further historical references. " The 
 Eobbers " had been played at Berlin before his Majesty 
 the king with tumultuous applause ; in one of the 
 journals an ode appeared celebrating the author as the 
 Shakespeare of Germany. Meanwhile he made httle 
 progress with " Maria Stuart ; " he wavered between 
 working at that or at his " Imhof ; " and with Weygaud 
 he could not agree about the payment for " Luise 
 IVIiller." Then the news reached him that one of his 
 old fellow cadets, a Lieutenant von Winkelmann, was 
 going to accompany the baroness back to Meiniugen. 
 He consequently wrote to her to express his keen 
 regret at being forced, under the circumstances, to keep 
 away, for if he came, detection would be inevitable. 
 Fears on this head, however, were not his sole motive ; 
 more probably he dreaded that in the lieutenant he
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 127 
 
 would find a successful rival for the hand of Char- 
 lotte. 
 
 Before answer came to this passionate outburst, he 
 at length wrote an answer to Dalberg. He stimulates 
 his curiosity respecting the new piece, which he is 
 already arranging to publish, and throws out hints 
 about " Don Carlos " and a tragedy of Prince Conrad, 
 leaving him to judge whether all his dramatic force 
 has failed him. Pressed though he was for money, 
 matters were left unsettled ; and " Luise Miller," that 
 he had been all too eager to see in type, was set aside 
 for the " Don Carlos," which now mightily, irresistibly 
 absorbed him. 
 
 At spring's outset he had suffered from an attack 
 of vertigo ; blood-letting had been necessary. News 
 of his mother's illness also caused him alarm. He 
 roamed about the neighbourhood, often visiting his 
 clerical friends at Bibra, staying often until nightfall 
 to finish some pleasant discussion. At Untermaszfeld, 
 a village between Bauerbach and Meiningen, he met 
 Eeinwald and called upon Easche, the vicar there, 
 well known as a numismatist. At Ritschenhausen he 
 was also known to the clergyman of the parish. He 
 grew more intimate with the village folk, especially 
 with the innkeeper. While looking forward to the 
 coming of his benefactress and her daughter, he busied 
 himself with gardening ; the summer-house formed a 
 favourite retreat, and he also made a skittle-ground. 
 
 Meanwhile his slender money store became ex- 
 hausted. In his need he turned to Eeinwald, who was 
 greatly sorry that, placed as he was, he could not offer 
 him help. Schiller sought to soothe his distress by 
 pointing out that he was only in such sudden straits 
 owing to a pecuniary disagreement with Weygand, and 
 because moneys due to him on " Piesco " and on a watch 
 left behind him at Mannheim had not yet been paid. 
 He had therefore to go to the justice and borrow of him.
 
 128 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 With the approach of spring the poet's breast 
 glowed with fresher and more fervent fire. Absorbed 
 in " Don Carlos," he writes on April 14th, while sitting 
 in the summer-house, to Ileinwald, who, in the ardour 
 of his enthusiasm, he takes to be the noble-minded 
 being for which he so long had sought, who had entire 
 possession of him with all his failings, all his shattered 
 virtues. " I might perhaps have been great," he re- 
 marks, " but fate fought against me all too soon." As 
 he conceived it, all poems were but inspired by enthu- 
 siastic friendship, or by Platonic love. The poet's at- 
 titude toward his hero should be less that of an artist 
 than of a lover, a friend. For this cause, Leisewitz's 
 " Julius von Tarent " had touched him more than Les- 
 sing's " Emilia." And so " Don Carlos " was for him 
 much as some living object might be ; it filled his heart, 
 his brain ; it was with him in every place, at every 
 season. Possessing something of the soul of " Hamlet," 
 his piece would borrow blood and nerve from Leise- 
 witz, while he himself would give it pulse and life. 
 Through his description of the Inquisition and its in- 
 iquities, he hoped to avenge the miseries it had brought 
 to suffering humanity. 
 
 To his joy " Fiesco " was at last printed, and he was 
 very anxious to see the early notices of it. Frau von 
 Wolzogen set his mind at rest about Winkelmann's 
 coming. Leaving his " Carlos " for awhile, he went 
 back to " Luise Miller," which he was desirous to finish, 
 and thereby satisfy Dalberg, who had grown clamorous. 
 But progress was not as rapid with it as he thought ; 
 he had in especial much to alter in order to fit it for 
 the stage, and this enforced haste seemed, as he said, 
 " quite to clip his wings." Another cause for uneasi- 
 ness was the news of Lotte's engagement to a Herr 
 von Pfaffenrath, a report which proved to be un- 
 founded when the baroness, according to promise, 
 came to Bauerbach about the 20th of May. On the
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 129 
 
 10th Schiller had been to Meiningen, principally to 
 confer with Reinwald about " Luise Miller." Next 
 morning, without bidding him farewell, he hurried 
 back to Bauerbach; for it was on Sunday that the 
 baroness would arrive, and he must get all in readiness 
 to give her festal welcome. All literary work was for 
 a time abandoned. He had much upon his hands ; for 
 the village folk were a clumsy set, and he had to give 
 orders and make every arrangement himself ; but he 
 had his reward in the pleasure that his exertions gave 
 to his benefactress. 
 
 Writing to Eeinwald, he says : " I had an avenue 
 of Mayblossom set up, which reached from the utmost 
 end of the village until her house. At the entrance 
 was a triumphal arch made of pine-branches. To the 
 sound of guns the procession went from here to the 
 church, that was decorated throughout with sprigs of 
 May. We had some nice music, with wind-instru- 
 ments, and the rector of Bibra preached a sermon 
 for the occasion," etc. He grew now ever increas- 
 ingly intimate with Frau von Wolzogen and her 
 daughter ; and games at chess with the latter were 
 more and more to his taste. The mother had told 
 him frankly about Lotte's romantic relations with 
 Lieutenant von Winkelmann ; he loved her too much 
 to oppose a match that might increase her welfare, 
 deep though his own loss would be. To her brother, 
 Wilhelm, his friend, when speaking of the subject, he 
 remarked that he envied him so lovable a sister. 
 
 " Just as if fresh from the Creator's hand, innocent, 
 and with a soul the fairest, gentlest, and most sensitive, 
 without as yet a breath of universal corruption upon 
 the spotless mirror of her mind — such is your Lotte, 
 as I know her, and woe betide him who should bring 
 clouds across the Hfe of one so guileless ! You may 
 rely upon my care for her mental culture. I am only 
 half-fearful to show it, because one so quickly steps
 
 130 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 from respect and warm sympathy to sentiments of 
 another kind." 
 
 When Lotte and her mother went to Meiningen to 
 speak about school-money to the Duchess of Gotha, he 
 wrote to the baroness : " Think that you are but hazard- 
 ing a wretched hundred thalers, while fur yourself, for 
 Lotte, and also for me (by staying oftener in Bauerbach), 
 you have everything to win. If you will waive all 
 claim to the money, I promise each year to write a 
 new play and put upon the title-page, ' A Tragedy for 
 Lotte.' " Thus did love's power stir and heighten his 
 creative faculties. In this letter he enclosed flowers 
 for Lotte. He grew half-desperate w^hen the baroness 
 delayed her home-coming for two days beyond the 
 appointed time. 
 
 " Oh, best of friends, when in an urgent strait you 
 have forsaken me ! I have never needed your affec- 
 tionate sympathy more than I do now ; from far, from 
 near, no one has come to soothe me in my wild, disor- 
 dered frenzy. What shall I, what can I, do to dis- 
 tract my thoughts ? I know of nothing but to write 
 to you ; yet, in my letters, even, I am afraid of myself." 
 Further passages show the vehemence of his passion, 
 that has quite shaken his whole existence. Frau von 
 Wolzogen had told him that in Meiningen people 
 knew who her friend " Doctor Kitter " was. The news, 
 though without confirmation, deeply agitated him. 
 He begs the baroness to aid him in tracing the be- 
 trayer, whom he vows to hate, though it were his best 
 friend. It would henceforth be ridiculous to keep up 
 his incognito ; he must go into society under his own 
 name and mouth impertinencies to all the blockheads 
 who had thus aspired to hear him, for he would have 
 to maintain the respect due to his name. 
 
 "Yet I'm a fool," he suddenly jerks out, "for all 
 this too has now no value for me. Time was when I 
 was as greatly tickled with the prospect of undying
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 131 
 
 fame as a woman is tickled by some intrigue. Now 
 'tis all one to me ; I would make you a present of my 
 laurels in the next dish of hceuf a la mode — would 
 let you have my tragic muse as milkmaid if you hap- 
 pened to keep cows! How dwarfed is the highest 
 point in a poet's fame when set against the prospect of 
 a happy life ! " And then he quotes Leonore's extrava- 
 gant appeal to Fiesco to fling aside all that is vanity 
 and a sham, and in romantic regions lead with her a 
 life of perfect friendship. 
 
 " All my former plans have collapsed, dearest friend, 
 and woe is me if such be also the fate of my present 
 ones. Of course, I mean to stay where you are — to 
 be buried, if it is possible, near you ! Nor is there 
 fear that I shall quit you, when even three days of 
 separation seem to me so intolerable. The sole ques- 
 tion is : How can I, near you, find a lasting basis for 
 my lifelong prosperity ? And find this basis I will, 
 or die ; at present I pit my heart and my strength against 
 the very hugest obstacles, and I know withal that I 
 can conquer them." 
 
 Although having re-read his letter, he is conscious 
 of the madness in it, he sends it all the same ; if his 
 tongue proclaim him insane, his pen will scarcely give 
 him credit for greater wisdom. Then he hears that 
 some one from Stuttgart (it was Chamberlain von 
 Kiinsberg) had arrived at Meiningen in a carriage and 
 four, and was asking for the baroness. His jealousy 
 told him that it was either Pfaffenrath or Winkel- 
 mann. If it were the latter, would she send him 
 instant word ? For in that case he would go to Wei- 
 mar. And in spite of this, he begs her to bring him 
 Klopstock's " Messias," to lift him upwards to clearer 
 atmosphere ; he also asks for a copy of " Ossian," the 
 melancholy bard. Madame von Wolzogen was struck 
 with fear at passion so tremendous in its force ; it 
 threatened to wreck his happiness no less than her
 
 132 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 own. For what would become of her Lotte, Hnked to 
 a poet whom passion robbed of all reason, causing him 
 to forget not merely his own high calling, for which 
 all her enthusiasm had been roused, but also to ignore 
 all duties to his family, who placed their entire hopes 
 upon him ? Warnings, exhortations from father and 
 sister were alilce fruitless ; he had written to them 
 shortly before of his brilliant prospects as a man of 
 letters, and they in answer urged him not to squander 
 time in dreamy inactivity, being burdensome to a noble- 
 woman whose income was far from a large one. Rein- 
 wald, too, wished Schiller to quit his benefactress, who, 
 in her heart's kindness, had given him shelter ; he 
 ought to go to some large town, where there was a 
 good German playhouse. For, said Reinwald, though 
 the loss of such a friend would be to him an infinite 
 one, he would far rather sacrifice all personal pleasure 
 for the gain and advancement of one who was here- 
 after to be so great. Thus he wrote to Christophine, 
 after reading a letter from her to Fritz ; he said he had 
 found therein " such ripe thought, so much affectionate 
 solicitude," that he made a copy of it, and had felt bound 
 to tell her his views regarding her brother's position. 
 
 Lotte still remained with her female guardian, and 
 she was expected to visit her home about the 8th of 
 June. Reinwald proposed that Schiller should come 
 with him to Gotha and Weimar, where he had rela- 
 tives living. He wished to introduce him to Gotter 
 and Wieland, perhaps even to Goethe. The plan prom- 
 ised much, and Schiller at first agreed to it, although, 
 ere the baroness arrived, he had already altered his 
 mind ; and now, with the prospect of seeing Lotte, it 
 seemed less and less possible for him to leave Bauer- 
 bach. At Wliitsuntide she came, with her aunt, the 
 baroness's eldest sister, a person of cultivated literary 
 taste. For Schiller these were right joyful days. He 
 and Lotte could play unlimited games of chess together ;
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 133 
 
 and, what was more delightful, he could enjoy her 
 society without restraint. "In truth she is a study," 
 he tells Eeinwald ; rarelv has he found such virtue and 
 such innocence. It was a merry Whit-Tuesday, that, 
 for the villagers, when ale-barrels were emptied, and 
 dancing was kept up until well into the night, even old 
 men footing it in the absence of younger swains. 
 
 " 'Tis certainly not a barbarous place, Bauerbach," 
 writes he to Eeinwald ; " I have detected in its people 
 more than one touch of politeness, all the rarer to me 
 the less I believed it to lurk in natures so coarse and 
 rough. Perhaps the diiference between these men and 
 those who think themselves superior is the same as that 
 between a painting and a plaster-cast." 
 
 He had promised to lend Reinwald his " Luise Miller," 
 to read upon the journey, when he would give him his 
 opinion. But was it likely that in these blissful days 
 spent with Lotte he would have either time or inchna- 
 tion to work at the play ? 
 
 Lotte did not leave Bauerbach until after the bar- 
 oness's birthday, on the 18th of June. Hearing through 
 her brother that Winkelmann had spoken of Lotte in 
 terms of great discourtesy, Schiller to his joy discovered 
 that " a goodly portion " of her heart was, so far, her 
 own, and " not by inheritance the property of this idol." 
 Thus his love was strengthened by fresh hope, a love 
 which he dared not reveal to the baroness, although 
 he had not wholly hidden it from her son. He still 
 kept to his intention of remaining at Bauerbach ; he 
 could work better there, so he thought, although, in his 
 excitement, this was far from being really the case. 
 His only torment, in addition to home reproaches, was 
 the fear that the duke might know where he was in 
 hiding. This would bring down vials of wrath upon 
 his benefactress. And so he wished by means of a letter 
 dated from Frankfort to renew his petition for dismissal. 
 Things fell out in far other fashion, however.
 
 134 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 Frau von Wolzogen grew at length so concerned at 
 her guest's fit of dreamy idleness, which quite threat- 
 ened to rob him of all energy, that one day, as they 
 were walking in the wood, she suggested that he should 
 go and see Dalberg at Mannheim, with whom he must 
 make arrangements about the " Luise Miller," and other 
 plays, if possible, Schiller could not deny that to have 
 such an outward incentive would be to him of profit ; 
 only he stipulated that his absence should but last 
 over a few weeks, and that if Dalberg offered to keep 
 him at the theatre, he should return in the following 
 spring. To the baroness, to her who had his weal so 
 earnestly at heart, he gave his word of honour that he 
 would not take the first step toward securing a theatri- 
 cal appointment. He had firmly resolved to stay ever 
 and always at Bauerbach. From this, too, Frau von 
 Wolzogen joyfully saw how noble a nature was his ; 
 and if she did not believe he could reasonably keep 
 such a promise, made though it was in all sincerity, 
 she would not spoil the charm of his dreams by any 
 remonstrance. Neither of them reflected, however, 
 that Dalberg would not be at Mannheim during that 
 summer. Money had now before all things to be 
 collected for the journey, and this Schiller, by using 
 the name of his patroness, was able to borrow. One 
 Israel, a Jew, lent him the modest sum required. But 
 he had other creditors — the village schoolmaster and 
 the landlord ; these the poet had to put off with prom- 
 ises of payment against his return. 
 
 Already on the 10th of July he told Reinwald of the 
 journey that he had decided to take, which would 
 prevent his showing him the manuscript of " Luise 
 Miller ; " yet he did not venture to say whither or where- 
 fore he was going. His letter states that he is to meet 
 his cousin (from London) at the Suabian frontier. 
 This was his godfather, J. Christian Schiller ; through 
 him he hopes to become known in England. He
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 135 
 
 repeats this again to his friend before starting. For six 
 weeks or so he was going either to Frankfort or to the 
 Wiirtemberg frontier, as there were a thousand reasons 
 for his not wishing to miss an interview with the so- 
 called " cousin from England." Through him, perhaps, 
 he might gain a recognised footing upon the London 
 stage, at the Drury Lane Theatre ; for his dramas, by 
 reason of their form, would be Likelier to please an 
 English than a German public. Schiller's sponsor 
 seems actually to have come back to Suabia at this 
 time. Two years later he was in business as a printer 
 at Mainz. The poet writes another letter, one to Wil- 
 helm von Wolzogen, by which he seeks to make people 
 believe that he is on his way to America. He dates it 
 from Frankfort, for which city he started in the bar- 
 oness's carriage at early morning on the 24th. He lost 
 no time in sending her word of himself. 
 
 " Believe me, dearest friend," he wrote, " as my knowl- 
 edge of the world grows wider, the more I mix among 
 men, so much the deeper do you engrave yourself upon 
 my heart, so much more precious do you become to me. 
 You will have had a sad day and a sadder evening to 
 hve through without our Lotte ; but the day and evening 
 of my return shall requite you for such sorrow." Fear- 
 ing the expense of living at Frankfort, he at once pushed 
 on to Mannheim, where, by sudden arrival that night 
 at the theatre, he thought pleasantly to surprise his 
 friends the actors. He reached this place with fifteen 
 thalers in his pocket. Five he put aside for the return 
 journey, and by dint of economy — by going without 
 breakfast, even — he made the other ten last for three 
 weeks or so. Yet fate was to keep him longer in 
 Mannheim. There he would gain theatrical experi- 
 ence ; there he would fall into fresh grooves, and, after 
 many a keen fight with fortune, would be entangled in 
 such a mesh of difficulties as to have need of some 
 delivering arm.
 
 Book V. 
 
 The Playwright
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 FROM JULY, 1783, TO MAY, 1784. 
 
 Schiller could not have chosen a more unseason- 
 able time. Dalberg was to be absent for another fort- 
 night at his country-seat, Hernsheim ; Iffland and other 
 leading actors had taken a holiday ; at the theatre only 
 stale pieces of a worthless class were being played. 
 Moreover, the weather was now intolerable in its sul- 
 triness. Schiller chafed, too, under his self-imposed 
 economy. Yet at Meyer's house he found warm wel- 
 come, and pleasant lodgings were taken for him in the 
 Schloszplatz, commanding a fine view of the square. 
 The fee for room and board was two thalers a month. 
 Here in Mannheim, to his joy, he saw Streicher, who 
 was heartily delighted to meet his friend unexpectedly 
 at Meyer's. It was also a pleasure to get such affec- 
 tionate reception from the iuu-people at Oggersheim. 
 What served him most was the friendly treatment of 
 his publisher Schwan, at whose house, to which he had 
 free entrance, he could make many acquaintances. 
 Margareta, Schwan's eldest daughter, then in her twen- 
 tieth year, met him most cordially. Since her mother's 
 death it was she who managed household affairs. She 
 had charms not only of person but of mind; she pos- 
 sessed that breadth of view which culture gives, and 
 from her large eyes their spoke forth soul and feeling. 
 She felt deep sympathy for the poet, whose youthful 
 ardour outweighed all singularity of conduct. Schwan 
 was much pleased with the " Luise Miller ; " he showed 
 
 139
 
 140 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 its author a letter from Wieland, expressing warm feel- 
 ing toward him, and prophesying great things for him 
 in the future. 
 
 Dalberg had offered him the receipts taken after a 
 first performance of his plays ; and then from " Fiesco " 
 and his new drama (in six months' time he could print 
 this latter) he would earn from four to five hundred 
 gulden. Schiller would certainly have been contented 
 with the half of such a sum ; his wishes were, in sooth, 
 most modest ones regarding money ; he longed for no 
 greater fortune than to live always at Bauerbach, where 
 all his joy was centred, upon an annual income of four 
 hundred gulden. Schwan counselled him to send cop- 
 ies of his plays to different stage-managers at Berlin, 
 Hamburg, and Vienna, who would probably offer him 
 a price for them. A fortnight after his arrival he 
 writes to the baroness : " How great, how infinitely 
 great already has been your improving influence upon 
 my heart ! Rejoice with me that thereby it has borne 
 more than one perilous test. Do but be fully conscious 
 of helping and of having helped toward the right way 
 one who, if given over to evil, would have had oppor- 
 tunity to ruin thousands." 
 
 Frau von Wolzogen had warned him not to trust 
 overmuch in others, but simply to follow the still small 
 voice within him. He tells her that he has torn up a 
 letter to Lotte, for he could not make it a cold, formal 
 one, and if it had warmth her guardian would never 
 countenance it. 
 
 " Give greeting from me to every spot in Bauerbach," 
 says he at the close, " and let me use the title which 
 you have conferred upon me, a title which no grander 
 one shall ever supplant. Let me, dearest mother, let 
 me call myself your most affectionate son." 
 
 She, noble woman, in straitened circumstances her- 
 self, and not without cares for the future, was glad- 
 dened by the poet's words of gratitude. To her his
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 141 
 
 heart was no less dear, less precious than his might of 
 soul, yet she hoped that he would be caught by the 
 world's eddying current, and that he would thus put 
 aside all thought of marriage with her child. 
 
 Dalberg, who came back on the 11th of August, 
 received Schiller with great friendliness. The day 
 following they had a long interview. 
 
 " The man is a mass of fire," he writes, " but alas ! 
 it is fire of the gunpowder order, all blaze and bang ! 
 Yet I thoroughly believe that he would hke me to stay 
 here, provided it caused him no sacrifice. My ' Fiesco ' 
 is to be given here ; they've actually asked me to anno- 
 tate the piece. Perhaps I shall recast it and go through 
 with the representation. 
 
 " To-morrow, before a large assembly, with Dalberg 
 in the chair, my ' Luise Miller ' is to be read, and they 
 will then decide whether it can be acted or not. Dal- 
 berg, to please me, promised to give a performance of my 
 ' Eobbers ' and other important plays. For this would 
 test the strength of the company, and it would set me 
 aflame. I should be pleased if my ' Eobbers ' could be 
 acted." 
 
 Dalberg saw how useful the poet would be to him 
 at his theatre ; moreover, he knew that if he gave him 
 employment there, the duke would now no louger 
 object. From Mannheim Schiller made excursions 
 to Heidelberg and Schwetzingen. Schwan and Dalberg 
 frequently invited him to their house, and one Sunday, 
 while dining with the latter, an agreement was read 
 over to him respecting his engagement as a paid writer 
 of plays for the theatre, the appointment being fixed to 
 last twelve months. A letter from Bauerbach had just 
 told him that Winkelmann was coming there to stay 
 for two months. It was quite impossible for them to 
 meet, so Schiller willingly accepted Dalberg's proposal, 
 after making some alterations and having stipulated for 
 the immediate advance of two hundred gulden. Dal-
 
 142 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 berg asked him in addition to pass judgment upon 
 Klein's drama " Sickingen," sent in for acceptance, and 
 also to write a notice of that night's performance of 
 " The Robbers." Anton Klein, Schiller's senior by eleven 
 years, had been a Jesuit. Upon the dispersion of that 
 order he had filled posts as professor of poetry and 
 philosophy, and as managing secretary to the Teutonic 
 Society. His place, his power, made him a man of 
 mark. Besides several dramas, he had translated Me- 
 tastasio's " Death of Dido," and had worked not a little 
 in the field of letters. His chief subjects of interest were 
 folk-lore and philology. To remain on friendly terms 
 with one so sagacious and so influential was, of course, 
 for Schiller a matter of high importance. " The Rob- 
 bers " was played that evening to a crowded house ; the 
 author was more than content at such success. But 
 next day, alas! ague seized him — a kind of marsh 
 fever which during that tremendous heat made havoc 
 in the town. It was a ghastly fiend, this, risen up to 
 ruin all his fairest prospects. Wlien sending back a 
 copy of the amended agreement, he regretted that 
 hitherto he had lost all power of mental concentra- 
 tion, for by the attacks of fever his brain had greatly 
 suffered. He undertook to remain in Mannheim as 
 playwright for a year from the first of September. 
 Besides " Fiesco " and " Luise Miller," he engaged to pro- 
 duce another drama for the stage — only, during the hot 
 summer months it would be necessary for him to live 
 elsewhere. Besides a yearly salary of three hundred 
 gulden, he was to have three benefit nights, one for 
 each piece ; the copyright was also to be at his dis- 
 posal. Yet, according to this, he largely overestimates 
 his earnings from that time until next August, when 
 supposing them to be from twelve to fourteen hun- 
 dred gulden, of which four or five would go toward 
 paying off debts. He straightway tells his family of 
 his new appointment. We subjoin a facsimile of the
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER i43 
 
 sister's letter of reply, to which his mother added a 
 postscript. During his long illness he had the very 
 best of nurses in Frau Meyer, whose husband lay also 
 sick of the same disease. But one cause to hinder his 
 getting well was that his room was constantly filled 
 with visitors. Schwan, Dalberg, Klein, and many of 
 the actors came to see liim ; also another ex-Jesuit 
 named Trunk. Schiller made friends with him ; he 
 was " a living instance of how much evil the parsons 
 can set afoot." Among other strangers, there came to 
 him a freemason, who pointed out the gain that would 
 be his if he joined their newly founded order. 
 
 On 21st September he could inform the baroness 
 that thrice successively the fever had kept off; each 
 hour he seemed to feel easier. He assured his bene- 
 factress that his undying friendship for her would 
 be an all-powerful check upon outward temptation ; 
 being parted from her he would regain that peace of 
 mind, which, through his unsettled position he had 
 lost. He meant to continue the study of medicine, in 
 order to have a juster claim to future happiness ; his 
 heart, it seems, could never lose hope of Lotte. He 
 will certainly write to her, he says, in the next letter ; 
 though now, with Winkelmann there, they would 
 hardly give a thought to the poor absent one. 
 
 Dalberg told him the remarks passed upon " Fiesco," 
 and asked for his judgment upon Spiesz's play " Gen- 
 eral Schlenzheim " and Klein's " Sickingen." He also 
 expressed a wish that he would attend the committee 
 meetings appointed to discuss theatrical questions ; in 
 his new capacity this was expected of him. Schiller 
 wrote back asking which of the two plays would be 
 first needed, " Fiesco " or " Luise Miller." The revision 
 and amendment of both might take up a month's time. 
 On the whole, the criticisms on " Fiesco " were very 
 just, and he intended to profit by them. Besides the 
 flowery language, Julia, as a character, and her quarrel-
 
 144 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 scene with Leonore had been objected to ; the play's 
 climax, too, would have no effect upon the stage. 
 Schiller had sufficient discretion to keep from criti- 
 cising Klein's " Sickingen," Wlien his brain was quite 
 clear again, he promised to express a conscientious 
 opinion thereupon, although he considered it pre- 
 sumption for a young head to pass judgment upon 
 the labours of an experienced senior, more especially 
 as they were both workers in the same field. 
 
 Soon after the poet found himself so far restored as 
 to be able to travel with Schwan and his daughter to 
 Speier. Here lived Frau von Laroche, the authoress, 
 who had long wished to make Schiller's acquaintance. 
 He dined at her house ; but, among so much company, 
 no chance offered itself of gaining closer acquaintance 
 with his distinguised hostess. A week later Von Hoven 
 gladdened him by a visit, bringing a friend and fellow 
 student from Ludwigsburg, named Christmanu, who 
 had great musical talent. He and Schiller talked 
 much upon favourite subjects, upon human happiness 
 and human perfection. They went to see Frau von 
 Laroche, and in her friend, Herr von Hohenfelden, 
 Schiller found a noble model from which to draw his 
 character of Posa in " Don Carlos." 
 
 On the 15th of October he attended a meeting of 
 the theatrical committee, when Iffland reported upon 
 Pliimicke's amended version of " The Piobbers." Spiesz's 
 " Maria Stuart " was also discussed. Three days after, 
 hearing that Pliimicke was sending round an adapta- 
 tion of his " Fiesco " to different stage-managers, he 
 drew up a notice publicly charging them to apply to 
 him personally, if they wished to produce his play. 
 For he would have to retouch it here and there before 
 it could be put in rehearsal. He advertised this notice 
 a month later in the Gothaische Gelehrtc ZciUingen, but 
 Groszmann of Frankfort was the only one who seems 
 to have given it any attention. Then came a fresh
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 14S 
 
 attack of ague ; yet, violent though this was, he had 
 to work at " Fiesco," sacrificing much of its beauty to 
 meet stage requirements. The sooner to free himself 
 from his insidious disease, he took large doses of bark, 
 eating it "like bread." A ruinous effect, this, upon 
 his digestion, the more so as his diet was perforce a 
 most meagre one. Streicher, who knew in what hours 
 of strait and suffering these two dramas had been com- 
 posed, could never bear to see them acted afterward, 
 so bitter were the recollections which they revived. 
 Despite every attempt at economy, Schiller found him- 
 self yet unable to pay off his debts in Bauerbach and 
 Stuttgart. It tortured him to feel that his family still 
 suffered anxiety on his account, that his mother had 
 through him become a chronic invahd, that his father 
 still bitterly reproached him with having foiled their 
 hopes ; they could only look for his support and aid, if he 
 went back to the profession that he had abandoned. All 
 this was in the highest degree crushing to Schiller's 
 sensitive temperament ; he only mastered it by virtue 
 of that faculty of " happy buoyancy " {Iwlde Leichtsinn), 
 which, according to Goethe's " Tasso," helps mortals to 
 endure the unendurable. This faculty he had in large 
 degree. And now he left his lodgings and went into 
 others which Streicher, from experience, could greatly 
 recommend. As servant to wait upon him he had a 
 drummer. His appetite continued as failing as before ; 
 a dinner costing twelve kreuzers would be brought to 
 him in a tin trencher, and he kept what remained of 
 this for supper. A bread-roll formed his breakfast. 
 On his birthday, a friend made him a present of four 
 bottles of Burgundy, and he drank a glass or so of this 
 at times. Soon he poured out his heart afresh to his 
 loving patroness, telling her how pushed he is for 
 money, though ere the close of January he expects to 
 receive at least four hundred gulden, of which he will 
 send her either one hundred and fifty or two hundred.
 
 146 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 The only houses to which he went were Schwan's and 
 Dalberg's. He was on " affable and courteous " terms 
 with the actors, but in other ways quite a recluse ; 
 Bock had the greatest share of his confidence of them 
 all ; his heart and mind were, so he thought, the best ; 
 he had real solidity, real ballast. Many men of art 
 and science had visited him, he said, but " his attach- 
 ments were not made lightly nor all at once." 
 
 " As regards ladies here, I may as well tell you that 
 they count for very little ; with the exception of one 
 of the actresses, Fraulein Schwan {die Schwanin) is 
 almost the only person with claim to excellence. She 
 and some others cause me at times an agreeable hour ; 
 for I readily confess that to me the society of the fair 
 sex, as society, is far from distasteful." 
 
 Charmed though he might have been by Margareta's 
 grace and accomplishments, his heart still clung to 
 Lotte. The actress alluded to was a friend of Fraulein 
 Schwan's, Caroline Ziegler. Two years before she had 
 gone upon the stage, and now, in her eighteenth year, 
 was engaged to marry the actor Beck. Her father was 
 in court employ. Iffiand, speaking of her, writes : 
 
 " Her reading was marked by great taste, and the 
 sense for things beautiful grew rapidly within her. 
 Bare susceptibility of feeling, without any tendency to 
 vapid gush, stamped each artistic effort with a supreme 
 simphcity." He goes on to praise her happy sense for 
 fitness and measure, when swept away by the fire of 
 passion ; he terms her genius " real, sublime." Schiller 
 was greatly fascinated by a talent so unique, so unas- 
 suming ; albeit her love for her future husband made 
 any deeper feehng on his part impossible. 
 
 As Schiller sat writing his letter to Frau von Wol- 
 zogen, to his joy there broke in upon him Abel, his 
 beloved master, with Batz, an old fellow pupil. He 
 was mightily surprised to see them stalk in, in student- 
 dress, with spurs and sword, on their way back from a
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 147 
 
 trip to Frankfort. All cares were at once forgotten. 
 He soon sends the baroness a joyful account of the 
 visit. " How delightful was the time passed with my 
 bosom friends and countrymen ! They dined and 
 supped with me (you see I'm already a fellow that 
 keeps his table), and my bottles of Burgundy proved a 
 veritable godsend. I went out both yesterday and 
 to-day, just to show them about a bit. No matter if I 
 take longer to get well ; at least I've had an indescribable 
 pleasure ! " He cannot write to Lotte yet, he says at 
 the letter's end ; but he means to pay them a flying 
 visit before long ; meanwhile, to her and to her 
 " literary " aunt he sends messages of regard. 
 
 Dalberg asked Schiller at this time to furnish some 
 congratulatory hues in honour of the Kurfiirstin. Her 
 name-day was on the 19th, when he intended them 
 to be spoken from the stage. But Schiller threw such 
 biting satire into what he wrote, that of praise or 
 homage his verses had nothing ; they were little short 
 of a lampoon. Dalberg, delighted, was for printing 
 them then and there ; however, to have them recited 
 at his theatre was, of course, impossible. And so the 
 Kurfiirstin had to go without her lines of welcome, 
 to Schiller's intense amusement. 
 
 His " Fiesco " was not finished until the end of the 
 month. He had made many alterations, had rewritten 
 several passages, and even whole acts ; in so suffering a 
 state this was a double strain upon his powers. There 
 was a certain quartermaster whom he tried to make his 
 amanuensis, dictating the play to him while walking 
 up and down the room. But the man's spelling was 
 so outrageously bad, that Schiller, in despair, himself 
 undertook the tedious task of preparing a fair copy 
 of the text, which he afterward had transcribed for 
 the stage. By the middle of December he was able 
 to put his work into Dalberg's hands, who at once paid 
 him the last hundred gulden for the year ending with 
 
 /
 
 148 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 the August of 1784. Schiller took keen interest in 
 the rehearsals ; if they caused him annoyance, they 
 served to distract and even to amuse him ; he was 
 specially pleased with Fraulein Ziegler's enchanting 
 presentment of Leonore. At Dalberg's request he 
 wrote some words " To the Public," which, as before, 
 when " The Robbers " was given, were to be printed 
 on the playbill. In justification of the Uberty he had 
 taken with history, he urged that a dramatist must 
 think more of his influence upon the pubhc than of 
 the matter which helps him to such influence ; one 
 felt more drawn to learn of a great man than of a 
 criminal. " Fiesco " here stood before them in the 
 former light. The moral of the piece was the grandest 
 one could find in life ; each might learn therefrom to 
 fling aside his highest gains for his country's weal. 
 After generalising thus oddly, he ends with the phrase, 
 " I could not well say less to a public that by its 
 friendly reception of my ' Robbers ' has quickened my 
 passion for the stage — a public to which I shall dedi- 
 cate all future efforts in dramatic literature." 
 
 The poet was not oversanguine about his work ; 
 despite many amendments, he felt how much it lost of 
 grandeur, of completeness. Wliile busied with " Fiesco," 
 he at the same time revised his " Luise Miller," which 
 was to be printed before being put on the stage. 
 It had need of far less alteration — only a touch here 
 and there. Dalberg was now endeavouring to secure 
 Schiller's enrolment as a member of the KurfUrstliche 
 Deutsche Gesellschaft ; for this the poet was most 
 anxious, as it put him under the Kurfiirst's protection, 
 even if it did not make him a subject of the Pfalz. 
 As the year ended there was little to bring him cheer 
 or comfort ; eight months before his whole income had 
 been spent, and there seemed no prospect of getting 
 free from debt. The baroness sent his letters no 
 answer ; his father was not sparing in words of warn-
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 149 
 
 ing and rebuke. Just at the close of December there 
 had come a letter from his sister. It distressed him 
 greatly, for it told of his mother's continued suffering. 
 Christophine reminded him of his father's injunction 
 to come back to Solitude. This would help to soothe 
 the mother, and he could prepare to pass his medical 
 examination, although, of course, the duke's permission 
 must be asked. But Schiller firmly refused to make 
 any such request ; it was against his honour. What 
 would the world say ? His flight, and the high motives 
 which drove him to it, would be termed a mere piece 
 of childish bravado — a hetise ; people would declare 
 that, being unable to find means of living, he had 
 penitently returned. Even were his father to procure 
 permission, he could never come back with any blot 
 upon his character. Again, if the duke proved inex- 
 orable, such an affront to his parent were best resented 
 by bold continuance in his folly. 
 
 On the 1 0th of January Schiller, " well-known 
 through his poetry," was elected an ordinary member 
 of the Deutsche Gesellschaft. Such a choice required 
 the Kurfiirst's sanction. Next day " Fiesco " was put 
 upon the stage. In that week Fraulein Ziegler's 
 marriage with Beck had taken place ; she was to act 
 Leonore, and her husband Bourgognino. The first per- 
 formance lasted four hours. Despite elaborate mount- 
 ing, although most of the parts were filled to perfection, 
 and many a scene won loud applause, the play as a 
 whole fell flat; the Mannheim public failed to wax 
 enthusiastic over a tale of repubhcan conspiracy. Beil's 
 portrait of Mohr was a characteristic one, and full of 
 spirit ; as Fiesco and Verrina, Bock and Iffland were 
 each excellent ; so, too, was Frau Eennschub as the 
 Contessa Imperiali. But the success was a far less 
 triumphant one than that of " The Bobbers." At 
 a committee meeting held on the 14th, Dalberg, in 
 Schiller's presence, pointed out some of the reasons
 
 150 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 for this. " There are too many beauties in the piece," 
 he said ; " the dialogue is pitched in too high a key for 
 the public at a first hearing either to understand or to 
 enjoy. It takes too long to act. There are scenes — 
 there are passages which could be, nay, which must 
 be condensed. The stage machinery is too complex. 
 The Contessa Imperiali's peroration at the close of the 
 fourth act, and the subsequent love-scene for Leonore, 
 are too spun out ; they began to bore one in spite of 
 the excellent acting. Moreover, the scene with the 
 painter would bear pruning also." 
 
 Most of the actors were commended, especially Bell 
 as Mohr, Bock as Fiesco (he ought not, however, to 
 have come on in ball dress at the close of Act iv.), 
 and Iffland as Verrina. But the latter, by his manner- 
 isms, and by occasional overacting, gave to the part 
 a certain unreahty. Schiller, at this same committee 
 meeting, reported upon a drama produced in Vienna, 
 called " Kronau and Albertine," which had been given 
 him to criticise. It did not pass the line of mediocrity, 
 though certainly there were scenes in it which upon 
 the stage would have their effect. 
 
 At the second performance of " Fiesco," on the 18th, 
 it met with more marked approval. Schwan was 
 meanw^hile printing the " Luise Miller," as before that 
 a piece by IfHand was to be played. At present 
 Schiller preferred to postpone his benefit night, for 
 snow and frost and floods blocked up the roadways, 
 and but few strangers could come to the town. The 
 piece was only acted once more, on February 15th; 
 then it was shelved ; while of " The Robbers," on the 
 contrary, three further representations were given in 
 that year. 
 
 Another cause for chagrin, besides the failure of his 
 play, was Frau von Wolzogen's silence ; naturally she 
 had little wish to entrust her daughter's happiness 
 to one in such precarious circumstances. But he had
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 151 
 
 now given up any idea of union with Lotte. Marriage, 
 so he then wrote to Zumsteeg, would draw him oft' 
 the road to fortune ; and though with all his many 
 caprices he might fail of reaching high renown, he 
 was too vehement in temper and too warm-hearted 
 ever to make any woman happy. Yet his soul longed, 
 and longed deeply, for the order, the tranquillity of 
 home ; he needed some spot to lift him above the 
 vulgar cares of existence ; he needed the gladdening 
 influence of a wife's affection. 
 
 It was a pleasure for him finally to receive the 
 Kurfiirst's tardy consent to his election. But he was 
 in debt. This thought troubled him, this cramped his 
 powers, this kept him back from working at a third 
 play which he had promised to have ready in August. 
 Yet at times many a likely scheme would cross his 
 mind ; he still studied the history of Carlos, and 
 brooded thereupon. Perhaps, too, he had the project 
 of writing a sequel to his " Robbers," in which a ghost 
 should give the turn to events ; after awhile, however, 
 this seemed to him at variance with the dignity of drama. 
 
 He now made frank confession of his debts to his 
 father, proposing, with his help, to pay them off by 
 instalment. Schiller pire, while consenting, vigorously 
 urged him to economise, even advising him to find 
 some thrifty wife to save him in his distress. To our 
 poet, battling with poverty, such counsel was gall 
 indeed. Nay more, the father went so far as to ask 
 Dalberg to keep an eye upon his spendthrift son, to 
 find him some mentor who might teach him how 
 to live within his income. 
 
 Then there was the baroness ; Schiller had to pacify 
 her. The season had been too bad a one, he said, to 
 ask for a benefit night ; he had thus lost a hundred 
 gulden. At Eastertide he pledged his word of honour 
 to pay her the sum of eight Carolines, and to settle 
 with his other creditors at Bauerbach. Were she in
 
 152 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 absolute need of the money, he would raise it by hook 
 or by crook. A day ago he had had to send fifty 
 i£ulden to Stuttorart. On the 9 th of March his father 
 made bitter complaint that this promised sum had not 
 yet been sent ; Schiller, under protest, was thus com- 
 pelled to forward it. Besides other work, he was now 
 chiefly occupied with the rehearsals of " Luise Miller." 
 The title had been changed to " Plot and Passion." 
 Such success had attended Iffland's " Crime through 
 Ambition," that Schiller and his friends feared that it 
 might throw his play into the shade, Dalberg, in 
 committee, spoke rapturously of the " reality, the 
 grandeur " of Iffland's " fresco," praising its splendid 
 situations, the simplicity of its plot, its easy, natural 
 language, its high moral tone. These were merits, he 
 said, that " Fiesco " had lacked. And so, chiefly on the 
 score of the play's "high moral tone," the Kurfiirst- 
 liche Deutsche Gesellschaft awarded its author a gold 
 medal. Schroder of A^ienna, in answer to Dalberg's 
 strictures on " Fiesco," wrote back that the writer had 
 chosen a path which must inevitably lead to the ruin 
 of the drama and the stage ; therefore, for his very 
 talent's sake, he hated him. Upon Dalberg such words 
 were not void of their effect. Still, Schiller had the 
 secret satisfaction of knowing that his " Eobbers " was 
 being acted in the very town to which he dared not 
 come, in Stuttgart. I Aland had been summoned 
 thither to play Franz Moor. " It has been given 
 again," writes the father, on April 4th, " amid great 
 applause; the receipts reached 220 gulden — a very 
 large sum for Stuttgart. They say, too, that the other 
 plays are in course of preparation." In Stuttgart the 
 legend was already afloat that Schiller had married 
 Margareta Schwan, whose father had at last published 
 " Plot and Passion," which appeared without either 
 dedication or preface. 
 
 On the 15th, after much careful rehearsal, weari-
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 153 
 
 some alike to author and to actor, Schiller's " tragedy 
 of bourgeois life " was put upon the boards ; its very- 
 genius carried it through, and made it echpse Iffland's 
 tame httle sketch of domestic morals. Schiller hoped 
 much from the first performance ; he and Streicher 
 were at the theatre in a private box. He anxiously 
 watched the piece's progress, his face and features 
 changing at every point the players made or missed. 
 At the end of the first act he only said, " It's going 
 well." The following one, and notably its closing 
 scene, were rendered with such fire that, as the drop 
 fell, the whole audience rose to its feet amid a storm 
 of applause. Such triumph moved the poet greatly, 
 and he came forward to bow his acknowledgments. 
 The house maintained its enthusiasm until the end. 
 Beck and his young wife played the lovers to per- 
 fection ; Frau Rennschlib was Lady Milford, Iffiand 
 taking the part of Wurm, with Bcick as the President. 
 Groszmann had produced the piece, two days before, 
 in Frankfort ; here, as also in Berhn, " Fiesco " had 
 been given and had met with more success. Goethe's 
 mother was among its admirers. In the Prussian 
 capital it had received stu-ring welcome, and soon 
 after the Mannheim performance it was acted at the 
 Karnthner Theatre, in Vienna. 
 
 At this time Schiller would gladly have gone to 
 Bauerbach to thank his benefactress and to make with 
 her his peace. But he had not the money. However, 
 to his great delight, at the end of April he was able 
 to accompany Beil and Iffiand to Frankfort, where 
 Groszmann had offered them engagements. Schiller 
 was to report upon their debut, and upon the state of 
 theatrical matters in that city. The opening piece was 
 Iffland's " Crime through Ambition," which was acted 
 on the 30th. The next day Schiller writes to Eenn- 
 schiib, the regisseur : 
 
 " To a packed house, and amid breathless silence,
 
 154 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 HeiT Iffland's drama was played last night ; both 
 Ittlaud aud Beil were called before the curtain, and 
 vociferously applauded. There is general enthusiasm 
 for the Mannheim actors ; Groszmann's company — 
 which yesterday, they say, outshone itself — dwindles 
 to nothing by the side of ours. We're dragged about 
 from one banquet to another." 
 
 That night Schroder's comedy, " A Father's Ven- 
 geance," was given, and then on the 3d of April, 
 " Plot and Passion." Remembering the excellence of 
 the Mannheim performance, Schiller feared somewhat 
 for the success of this one ; yet with Beil and Ittland, 
 and by being present himself, they might secure an 
 effect greater than could be hoped for from such a 
 company of actors. Each did his utmost, and there 
 was no want of genuine approval, although IfHand's 
 drama, being of the conventional type, was better 
 suited to the performers' powers than a play so poetic, 
 so full of genius as Schiller's. 
 
 One actress, however, the Luise of the piece, made 
 deep impression upon Schiller's heart and mind. It 
 was Sophie Albrecht, daughter of Professor Baumer, of 
 Erfurt. Her father dying when she was sixteen, she 
 married a Doctor Albrecht, who hold an appointment 
 as physician-in-ordinary to a wealthy nobleman at 
 Reval. She was possessed of exceptional talent, and 
 being bent upon becoming an actress, she made a first 
 trial of her powers at Erfurt, and in October, 1783, she 
 joined Groszmann's company with a view to maturing 
 them. Schiller was quite carried away by the passion- 
 ate love she showed for her art and for all that was 
 beautiful and ennobling. 
 
 " Already in the first few hours we became firmly, 
 closely linked to each other ; between our souls there 
 was a mutual understandmg." He writes thus to 
 Reiuwald soon after his return. 
 
 " It is my joy, my pride, that she is attached to me.
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLEB 155 
 
 and that maybe she draws some happiness from my 
 acquaintance. Hers is a heart formed but for sym- 
 pathy. Set high above the petty spirit of common 
 circles, she is full of a pure and noble sense for truth 
 and honour, winning even respect for qualities not 
 found in her sex. I promise myself blissful days 
 in her society [i.e. if she comes to Mannheim). . . . 
 She is a poet, too, full of feeling and tenderness. True, 
 as an actress her talent is great ; but among a company 
 such as this she can never cultivate it ; along such a 
 path she will make no speedy advance, nay, though it 
 be at the risk of her heart — her heart so beauteous, 
 so unique. . . . The doctor is also a dear and valued 
 friend of mine." 
 
 He passionately implored Reiuwald to dissuade her 
 from following a theatrical life, as he himself had 
 done ; that perhaps they might win for mankind a 
 noble soul, even though they robbed the world of a 
 great actress. In his jealous affection he would not 
 suffer one so full of spirituality and charm to mix 
 with the common greenroom throng — to vie with 
 that for the favour of the mass. Reinwald, no doubt, 
 looked closer and judged with clearer eye, when he 
 remarked in her both affectation and false sentiment. 
 
 Schiller in this hour stood at the summit of his suc- 
 cess. His last play was a triumph, while " Fiesco " 
 and " The Eobbers " both held the stage, although the 
 former had met with much adverse criticism. In lieu 
 of his two benefit performances, he agreed to accept 
 the sum of two hundred gulden, to be paid in instal- 
 ments every four months. Besides " Don Carlos," his 
 thoughts were set on the issue of a dramatic journal, 
 which he was hoping to publish on behalf of the 
 Kurfiirstliche Deutsche Gesellschaft. Yet while anxious 
 to be active, and to do great work in the world, he 
 still longs for a life of quiet and seclusion. To Eein- 
 wald he says :
 
 156 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 " My wants in the great world are many, and ex- 
 haustless as my ambition, yet how all this shrinks to 
 nothing beside my passion for a joy more restful, more 
 calm ! " 
 
 He maybe was dreaming then of happy union with 
 Schwan's captivating daughter — she upon whom re- 
 port had already fixed as his own. But soon he saw 
 himself stranded farther than ever from a life of calm 
 enjoyment ; his affairs caused him new and deeper 
 embarrassment. Two friends were now to be his ; 
 the one was to set his brain awhirl, goading him to 
 frenzy — the other was to bring gladness to his heart, 
 standing at the last as saving angel by his side.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 FROM MAY, 1784, TO APRIL, 1785. 
 
 On the morning of the 9th of May Major von Kalb 
 and his wife visited him ; the latter brought a note 
 from Reinwald. He, introducing her, says : " She 
 is greatly distinguished from among others of her sex, 
 and is a warm admirer of your writings, as she 
 cherishes deep enthusiasm for what is beautiful and 
 good," Already, at the beginning of 1783, he had 
 heard of the family through Frau von Wolzogen, and 
 now he is able to tell her of the pleasant days spent 
 with Frau von Kalb and her husband. He remarks 
 that the former has much intellect ; she is not of the 
 common stamp of women. That very evening " Plot 
 and Passion " was to be acted a second time ; and what 
 was his consternation as he remembered that in the 
 piece there was a fussy, vulgar-minded courtier called 
 by the very name Kalb, that he now held in such high 
 respect ! Nor was he able to hide his perplexity from 
 the major ; yet it was impossible to rename the char- 
 acter ; such an alteration would inevitably point one 
 to seek its cause, more especially as the playbills were 
 already printed. 
 
 Charlotte Marschalk von Ostheim and her sister 
 Eleonore rank among the most luckless of Germany's 
 heroines during the last century. Charlotte was born 
 on the 25th of July, 1761, Eleonore on the 5th of 
 January, 1764, at Waltershausen in Franconia. Their 
 natures were widely different. If her sister was gentler 
 
 157
 
 158 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 and more feminine, Charlotte had more force of intel- 
 lect and will ; her soul had touched greater depths of 
 melancholy and passion. Naturally of morbid, gloomy 
 disposition, family sorrows had done nmch to heighten 
 this gloom. To her the swift and sudden loss of Loth 
 parents was a crushing blow ; she longed ever to be 
 left alone with her grief ; they had to part her from 
 the other children. Yet change of scene and study 
 failed to cheer her ; she grew ever more thoughtful, 
 more reserved, living but in a dreamland of her own, 
 although this temporary absence from brother and 
 sisters only strengthened her love for them. Williel- 
 mine, at nineteen, married against her will a F'reiherr 
 Waldner von Freundstein of Alsace, and Charlotte felt 
 this parting keenly. Her only brother, a student in 
 Gottingen, had promised to take her next year to her 
 married sister, but in that November he died from the 
 effects of an accident. Three weeks before he had 
 written to her that his friend Kalb would soon visit 
 them to pay his respects to Eleonore. Kalb had been 
 dismissed by the Duke of Weimar from the post of 
 President of the Chamber ; he had brought the state 
 finances into great disorder. Eleonore, on the very day 
 of her brother's death, was persuaded by an uncle to 
 give this repulsive, heartless man her hand ; he had 
 now a fresh field for distinction. In that December, 
 while yet grieving for the lost brother, her wedding 
 took place at Nordheim. Then, on the 6th of January, 
 Wilhelmine died in giving birth to a child. Kalb 
 undertook the management of the property remaining 
 to the sisters, but wasted much of their income in 
 needless litigation. While living together at Danken- 
 feld there came that autumn the ex-president's younger 
 brother, Major Heinrich Julius von Kalb, who had 
 seen service in America and elsewhere. Eleonore's 
 husband was overjoyed at this. Charlotte must marry 
 his brother; this would give him sole and undivided
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 159 
 
 right to all the estates. And she, despairing of all 
 earthly happiness, was brought to consent. But mar- 
 riage only increased her reserve, and life at Baireuth 
 that winter was sad enough. At length the sisters 
 met in Waltershausen. Charlotte, not wishing to be 
 parted from her husband, went with him to the garri- 
 son at Landau. She had a strange craving to see more 
 of the world, to make fresh associations. Thus, in 
 May, she again left her sister. 
 
 In this youthful bride, with her large dark eyes and 
 raven hair, our poet must have felt deep interest, for 
 all that she said gave proof of intense individuality 
 and passion. Yet she failed to charm him ; her man- 
 ner was forced ; it wanted naturalness, ease. In " The 
 Robbers " Charlotte found much to admire, although 
 the play so shocked her as a whole that she had no 
 wish to see it acted. The performance of " Plot and 
 Passion " deeply affected her. Next day they went to 
 see the Museum of Antiquities, the Jesuit Church, and 
 the pretty park of Waldheim, lying on the other side 
 of the Rhine. On the evening of the 11th the major 
 and his wife took their leave amid many assurances 
 that they would repeat their visit. 
 
 With his third tragedy, promised for the end of 
 August, Schiller unfortunately could make no satis- 
 factory advance. Acting on Wieland's hint, that a 
 drama, properly to deserve that name, must be in verse 
 and not in prose, he had begun to write " Don Carlos " 
 in five-footed iambics. It was in truth a tremendous 
 task. Then he had still a dramatic journal in project, 
 to be published under the auspices of the Deutsche 
 Gesellschaft. But here he was hampered by unlooked- 
 for obstacles ; the one party would know nothing of 
 theatrical news or criticism ; others — like Scliwan, 
 for instance — thought that in such a periodical there 
 should certainly be space allotted to this. Disputes of 
 this kind, the impossibility of finishing his play in
 
 i6o THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 time, his debts, and a fresh attack of ague, were causes 
 which jointly helped to deepen his depression. While 
 in this gloomy state he was surprised by the arrival of 
 a packet from Leipzig, sent anonymously by four per- 
 sons, who had thus sought to show to him their grati- 
 tude and respect. The letter accompanying it ran 
 thus : 
 
 " At a time when Art ever more degrades herself by 
 becoming the paid hirehng of the rich and powerful, it 
 is good when a great man stands forth to show what 
 may yet be done by human hand. The better portion 
 of mankind, sickened with its epoch, pining amid a 
 maze of puppets for something really great, here slakes 
 its thirst, hereby feels itself swept to a level higher 
 than that of its fellows, and draws fresh strength 
 wherewith to press onward, by paths the most toilsome, 
 toward a worthy goal. Then, then it would fain grasp 
 its benefactor's hand, would show him its tears of joy 
 and transport, that he too might take heart in any 
 hour of despair, if ever burdened by the thought, ' Of 
 what good, this, that I am doing for my fellow 
 men ? ' " 
 
 Words such as these touched Schiller's heart at its 
 core ; they could not have come to him at fitter season. 
 The writer had added a composition of his own — a 
 setting of Amalia's song, "Fair as an angel;" he de- 
 clined to reveal his name until, by winning distinction 
 in another field, he should prove that he, too, was 
 among the salt of the earth. He was Christian Gott- 
 fried Korner, born on the 2d of July, 1756, at Leipzig, 
 where his father held an appointment as professor. 
 Having completed a course of legal study at Gottingen 
 and Leipzig, he became attached to the university, trav- 
 elhng after awhile to England, Holland, and Switzer- 
 land, when he made the acquaintance of Schiller's 
 godparent. In 1781 he exchanged his academical 
 duties for the more practical ones of a Konsistorial
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER l6i 
 
 advocat. Two years later he had gone to Dresden as 
 member of the Upper Consistory there. The second 
 anonymous friend, a warm admirer of our poet, was 
 Ludwig Ferdinand Huber, whose father was French 
 Lector at the Leipzig University, and had earned no 
 shght fame by his French translations of German 
 poetry. Huber, the son, had also done work in this 
 way ; he chiefly occupied himself with English and 
 French literature. It seems to have been he who sent 
 off the packet, and who gave the address whence it 
 came. The friends loved two sisters, Minna and Dora 
 Stock, daughters of a well-known engraver. Minna 
 had worked for the poet a costly letter-case, while Dora 
 had etched portraits on parchment of herself and of the 
 three others. 
 
 " Such a gift," said Schiller, writing to Bauerbach, 
 " is to me greater reward than the world's loud note of 
 praise ; it is the one sweet guerdon for a thousand mo- 
 ments of sadness. And if I go farther, if I reflect that 
 maybe there are hke circles in the world, where, though 
 unknown, I still am loved, and where my presence 
 would be welcome ; when I think that after a century 
 and more, e'en though I am long turned to dust, men 
 will bless my memory, and, though in the grave, I still 
 shall have their tears and their esteem, then, oh, dear- 
 est one, then I am glad to be a poet ; I am reconciled 
 with God — am content to bear the many ills that are 
 my lot." Yet he had no wish to show his admir- 
 ers how depressed was his state ; he could tell them 
 of no fresh work achieved ; this, therefore, kept him 
 from sending them any thanks. Shortly afterward it 
 chanced that Frau von Lengenfeld, with her two 
 daughters, came to see him from Eudolstadt. Caro- 
 line, the elder, was engaged to a Herr von Beulwitz ; 
 Charlotte was to be one of the Duchess of Weimar's 
 ladies-in-waiting. Perhaps Schiller may then have 
 thought that it was she who would bring happiness
 
 i62 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 iuto his life. While on the journey she had seen his 
 parents at Solitude. The Lengeufelds had read " The 
 Eobbers," as well as some of liis poetry, so they were 
 pleased to know the family, altliough, of course, the 
 acquaintance was but a shght one. In Lotte's journal 
 there is no mention whatever of the visit. Schiller 
 was from home when they called, and he went to see 
 them in return at tlieir hotel. 
 
 He was ever hoping that, before September came, 
 Dalberg would renew his contract with him. He 
 thought, too, of marriage, of making Margareta Schwan 
 his wife. That this or the like was in his mind may 
 be gathered from what he wrote to the baroness on 
 June 2d : 
 
 " Could I but tiiid a maiden dear enough to m j 
 heart ! Or would that I could take you at your word, 
 and become your son ! Eiches your Lotte would cer- 
 tainly never have, but in truth she would be happy." 
 
 This seems to imply a withdrawal rather than an 
 advance of any claims upon Lotte's love. He leaves 
 the letter unsealed for a week, and then laughs at his 
 stupidity, which he begs the baroness will excuse. Of 
 course, too, he is now no longer jealous of Winkelmann ; 
 if travelling to Meiningen, he says he would be very 
 pleased to spend some days with him. 
 
 In sending Dalberg an account of the performances, 
 he makes double resolve to devote himself heart and 
 soul to " Carlos." For this was to be on bolder, grander 
 scale ; to him the author, as also to the theatre for 
 which he wrote, it would bring fame swifter, surer, than 
 any earned by his three " domestic tragedies." Yet he 
 leaves it to Dalberg to say which subject he shall now 
 choose ; by this, perhaps, he seeks to calm all fear as 
 to the completion of " Don Carlos." On June 20th his 
 " Itobbers " was again played, but to an empty house, 
 while both the other pieces were completely shelved. He 
 was still deeply intent upon bringing out a dramatic
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 163 
 
 journal ; one of the first things to fill its pages would 
 be the essay upon the stage in its relation to morals, 
 read on June 6th before the Deutsche Gesellschaft. It 
 had more of rhetoric than of argument, this attempt to 
 show that the drama might rank with the law and with 
 rehgion in its influence upon morals. If ever Germany, 
 so he said, should acquire a really national theatre, she 
 would become a nation. He ends by calling the stage 
 that, among other institutions, which educates while it 
 amuses, which distracts, and yet attracts the mind, 
 which is at once a pastime and a school for culture, 
 having but one aim, one end — the perfection of man- 
 kind. 
 
 He entered hopefully upon the last half of the year ; 
 fate seemed to have brighter things in store for him. 
 In addition to the duties that bound him, he even 
 looked to find time to pass his medical examination 
 at Heidelberg, and to settle down at Mannheim as a 
 doctor. On the 2d of July, he submitted to Dalberg, 
 at his request, the prospectus of a Mannheim dramatic 
 journal. Being modelled on that of Lessing, it was to 
 aim at immortalising the Mannheim stage ; it was 
 to complete the great work of making it supreme, of 
 strengthening its national fame. In order to conduct 
 the undertaking worthily, and, as he said, " with the 
 full measure of his powers," he proposed that the man- 
 agement should pay him a yearly salary of fifty ducats, 
 while he would furnish the committee with a certain 
 number of gratis copies. He begged for an early an- 
 swer, in order to make the necessary arrangements 
 without delay. The first number was to appear in 
 August. But Dalberg's refusal crushed all his fair 
 prospects at a stroke. On the 16th his sister, with 
 Eeinwald, arrived. They were the last he could have 
 wished to witness his state of depression and gloom ; 
 still he gave them welcome, and in their company 
 revisited Heidelberg and Schwetzingen. Eeinwald had
 
 i64 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 intentions of marrying Christophine ; this Schiller, who 
 knew how slender were his means and how feeble his 
 health, could only deplore. These days were sad ones 
 for thorn all ; Reinwald can but look back upon them 
 " with dislike and dread." After he had gone, the 
 sister stayed on for a time with her brother. His 
 landlady took charge of her, the good Frau Holzel, 
 who well knew of her lodger's despairing state. While 
 here, too, Christophine was able to grow more intimate 
 with Margareta Schwan. On a sudden, all Mannheim 
 was stunned by the dreadful news of Caroline Beck's 
 death. While acting in " Emilia Galotti," she had 
 met with an accident. She died soon after, from 
 concussion of the brain, having given birth to a 
 daughter. 
 
 As the month ended, the poet's state of perplexity 
 grew more and more terrible. Within the next fort- 
 night, he writes to his father tliat " all lay in the 
 balance." If no help came, he must seize upon some 
 desperate remedy. According to Streicher, the long- 
 standing debt to the printer of his " Eobbers " was 
 what now harassed him. The person who had stood 
 surety for payment, and who hitherto had been able to 
 appease the duns, was now at last forced to escape. 
 Fleeing to Mannheim, he had there been arrested. 
 Schiller must in common honesty pay the sum de- 
 manded ; it was lent to him by Holzel, his landlord, 
 who was in easy circumstances. Yet this only saved 
 him from the strait of the moment; his debts were 
 numerous ; he had no money ; and what if Dalberg 
 should decline to renew his contract ? Such a thing 
 was but too possible. 
 
 In these days Frau von Kalb had moved to Mann- 
 heim, where she was expecting her confinement. Her 
 husband, the major, came thither three times in the 
 week. Schiller grew now more intimate with Char- 
 lotte, who, while at Landau, had given him various
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 165 
 
 commissions to execute. Both were fascinated by a 
 performance of " King Lear," given on the 19th with 
 Iffland in the title-part, which he played in masterly 
 fashion. Schiller praised him in a stirring critique 
 which he sent to the poet Gockingk for insertion in his 
 journal. He offered his services as contributor to this 
 paper, the Journal von und fur Beutschland. Thus the 
 critique ends : 
 
 " There is nothing to remind us that this Lear is the 
 identical Franz Moor who, two months ago, thrilled us 
 with awe and wonder. In sooth, it rests with him 
 alone to fix the lines by which he means to reach 
 greatness ; maybe he needs but a discerning public in 
 order to call back the shade of Garrick, the unmatched." 
 
 There was at that time a strong prejudice against 
 Schiller personally among a large section of the Mann- 
 heim public. Goethe's farce of " The Black Man " had 
 beeu given on August 3d. The character in it of a 
 playwright, which Iffland acted, was supposed to be 
 a travesty of our poet. Iffland himself wrote to Dal- 
 berg about this. 
 
 " We ought never to have produced the piece," he 
 says, " out of respect for Schiller's feelings. It is we, 
 we who have cast the first stone at him, before a pubhc 
 by whom he is but partially understood. I scrupu- 
 lously avoided making the portrait a close one [he 
 wore a blue steel-buttoned overcoat, dirty white stock- 
 ings, and buckle-shoes], yet everybody eagerly ac- 
 cepted it as Schiller's. From this alone we may see 
 how sure, how unerring is his art, from the utter 
 invulnerability of this great man. Yet how can he 
 now stand forth with his works ? How shall the 
 people single him out for praise, now that a road 
 seems open to cover him with ridicule ? " 
 
 Even Mai, the doctor in attendance at the theatre, 
 had written an essay denouncing pieces like " The 
 Robbers " as ruinous to those who acted in them.
 
 i66 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 Dalberg was not expected in Mannheim until the 
 29th ; Schiller did his utmost to propitiate hiin. He 
 tells him on the 24tli how anxiously he is waiting for 
 his return. In " Carlos " he considers that he has got 
 a splendid subject. Tragedy was probably the form 
 of drama in which he would excel ; in other branches 
 he might be surpassed. He was now more a master 
 of the verse, and this would give to the play much 
 worth and much effect. He had been reading the 
 French dramatists, not only to widen his knowledge 
 and to enrich his imagination, but also as an aid 
 toward seizing the juste milieu between French and 
 English art. With time, too, he hoped to transplant 
 the best of such plays to native soil, and for G-ermany 
 this would be of high benefit. He had now got back 
 his full power for work, and would make up for the 
 long time — almost a year — that he had lost. Albeit 
 ill-health and ill-humour had often fought, and fought 
 successfully, against his best will and intention, he was 
 no mere shadow-chaser, no builder of empty schemes ; 
 this was not in his character. Still Dalberg, already 
 biased against him, found it passing strange that Schil- 
 ler, while he tells him all this, should at the same time 
 announce his resolve to become a doctor, for which 
 profession he was already preparing himself. In such 
 a case what help could he expect from him for the 
 theatre ? Decidedly, the contract could not be re- 
 newed. And so, before his return, which was delayed 
 beyond the time, he expressed through Doctor Mai his 
 approval of the poet's resolve. Schiller trusted in 
 Dalberg so implicitly that he only took this to be a 
 sign of sincere and deep interest. He therefore asks 
 him point-blank to continue paying him his salary for 
 the next year, although he could not, as before, give 
 him his ser^dces. If in this time he should succeed 
 in establisliing himself at Mannheim as a physician, 
 he could easily make amends for his idleness, and
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 167 
 
 Dalberg would hold the sole copyright of all that he 
 might write. 
 
 " As I could uot so suddenly renounce play- writing 
 and the drama, I can always vouch to produce ooie 
 important work (i. e. in every year) ; and my plan 
 with regard to a dramatic journal shall be carried out 
 in complete accordance with your wishes." But Dal- 
 berg, with an eye to himself and his own needs, was 
 not inchned to put much faith in a poet oscillating 
 between medicine and the drama ; probably he would 
 fail no less in the one branch than in the other ; his 
 powers were all spent ; he deemed him a genius of the 
 unstable, ne'er-do-weel order. What he wanted for his 
 theatre was a writer of fertility and strength ; and this 
 he believed he possessed in Iffland, who, having less 
 genius, might for that very reason be the more efficient. 
 Thus Schuler found himself cut adrift without either 
 place or pay, at a time when he should have had com- 
 plete and untroubled leisure in which to work at " Don 
 Carlos." Though plunged in the very depths of de- 
 pression, he yet did not venture to show his distress 
 either to Frau von Kalb, to Schwan, or to any of his 
 friends at Leipzig. His pride forbade this. Ifflaud 
 kept staunch to him ; he believed that " Don Carlos " 
 would prove to be of high excellence ; and that success 
 was also in store for an adaptation of Shakespeare's 
 " Timon," begun by Schiller since his dismissal. It is 
 true that Iffland had advised Dalberg not to produce 
 " The Eobbers " and " Fiesco " during the coming win- 
 ter. But this was because the public disliked these 
 plays, and because successive performances of this kind 
 would prove too great a tax upon the company's 
 powers. 
 
 On the 8th of September Frau von Kalb gave birth 
 to a son. Two days later her husband arrived at Lan- 
 dau, and in the next night a dreadful vision well-nigh 
 caused her death. Schiller, hearing this, is said to
 
 i68 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 have speedily despatched a doctor to the house, as all 
 in waiting on the patient had quite lost their presence 
 of mind. During her convalescence the major brought 
 Schiller to his wife's bedside. Again the poet made 
 appeal to his father, who proposed that he should 
 return to Solitude and prepare for his examination. 
 But Schiller could not possibly consent to this. His 
 announcement that he had immediate need of two 
 hundred or three hundred gulden caused his parejit 
 the utmost anxiety, who, notwithstanding, took com- 
 fort from the thought that God in his wisdom and 
 goodness had chosen this means of convincing Fritz 
 that all our own power, our own knowledge, our own 
 hope in others and in fortune's favour, is at best vanity 
 and folly, as he gives help to those alone who ask 
 him for it patiently, sincerely. " Alas for him who 
 has no God to whom he may flee in the day of need ! " 
 Thus writes the father, in a letter full of bitter re- 
 proach. Yet to show his son how keenly he felt for 
 him, he sent him two louis d'or. These he had had to 
 borrow ; it was positively the last help he could give. 
 But Fritz must not lose heart ; he must work and 
 wait, submitting to God's rule, and looking humbly to 
 him for aid. Instead of shunning his creditors, he 
 should ask them to grant him yet further patience ; 
 and in particular he must not let any false pride keep 
 him from those of his friends who might relieve him, 
 — he must try to win their favour and good-will. 
 When writing this, the father had Schwan and I)al- 
 berg in his mind ; he was always hoping that Fritz 
 would marry Margareta, of whose good qualities his 
 son had often spoken, and who had welcomed Christo- 
 phine as a friend. 
 
 How Schiller found help in this dire extremity is 
 not known. Just at this time his friendship with 
 Charlotte became a closer one, and the ties that Hnked 
 him to others grew proportionately weaker. For Dal-
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 169 
 
 berg had cruelly disappointed him ; he could not expect 
 much from Schwan ; even Margareta had for a time 
 caused him annoyance. Of course he could not wholly 
 break with them ; their mutual connection with the 
 theatre and with the Deutsche Gesellschaft forbade this. 
 Nor did he cease to have friendly dealings with Klein. 
 
 Though he worked on, and with good result, at 
 " Don Carlos," he could not quickly finish the piece, 
 which lie found ever more difficult to cramp within 
 the narrow limits of an average stage-play. And yet 
 the wish to give to friends fresh and worthy proof of 
 his powers urged him to persevere. Now that he had 
 lost his office as paid playwright, now that he saw him- 
 self so clearly forsaken by the theatre-going public, it 
 behoved him to take fresh courage, to strike out a new 
 road toward success. He would become a journahst. 
 He had thoughts of going to Berlin, where he was sure 
 of wide sympathy ; but in his present miserable cir- 
 cumstances this was impossible. Perhaps it was at 
 this time that he changed his lodging. Pichler tells 
 us that finally he moved to the house marked D 4, 
 No. 5 ; it has since been rebuilt. 
 
 Frau von Wolzogen was now in such straits herself 
 that, at the beginning of that November, she was forced 
 to remind Schiller of his debt. He, alas ! declared his 
 utter inabihty to discharge it. His illness, lasting 
 almost a year, had hindered him from keeping his 
 word. But now his plans were ripe, and, if nothing 
 blocked his path, his future was assured ; to cripple 
 him now Would be to cripple him for good and all. 
 
 " This week," he writes, " I shall announce the issue 
 of a journal to be published by subscription. Help 
 has been offered to me from various quarters, and I 
 feel sanguine of success. If I can get five hundred 
 subscribers — and with the excellent measures adopted, 
 I shall hardly fail to do this — my certain profit, after 
 deducting all expenses, will be one thousand florins.
 
 lyo THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 Besides this, I shall continue to receive the money 
 which my plays bring me in ; all depends upon my 
 industry and my health." 
 
 However, not wishing merely to restrict himself to 
 promises, he enclosed three bills falhng due at differ- 
 ent dates ; these would completely clear off his debt 
 by the end of 1785 ; God would assuredly "keep him 
 in health for the achievement of this high end." 
 
 The prospectus of the new journal is dated the 11th 
 of November, his birthday. It appeared as an adver- 
 tisement in the December number of the Deutsches 
 Museum. At Mannheim there was already a Pfdl- 
 zisches Museum ; for Schiller's paper the more compre- 
 hensive title of Die Rlieinische Thalia was chosen. All 
 that was refining to the moral sense, all that lay within 
 the realm of the beautiful, all that could purify pas- 
 sion, raise the taste, and ennoble the heart — this all 
 was to find place in his paper, which had the culture 
 of a people as its aim. The contents were to be 
 divided as follows. Firstly, biograpliical sketches of 
 remarkable men and essays ; secondly, philosophy of 
 the kind needed in the work-a-day world ; thirdly, 
 studies of nature and of fine art in the Pfalz ; fourthly, 
 the drama of Germany, and especially a history and 
 chronicle of the Mannheim stage ; as his connection 
 with this latter had now ceased, his judgment would 
 be untrammelled, unprejudiced ; fifthly, poetry, lyrical 
 and elegiac, also detached scenes from dramas ; sixthly, 
 critical reviews of leading men and of important books ; 
 seventhly, personal (i. c. editorial) confessions ; eighthly, 
 correspondence, advertisements, miscellanea. Every 
 two months a number of some 190 pages was to 
 appear. The subscribers' names were to be printed in 
 full ; this was a means of expressing gratitude to them 
 for their sympathy and help. 
 
 Many prospectuses were now sent out to win the aid 
 of writers of note. Not only from old friends and
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 171 
 
 schoolfellows, such as Winkeluiauu, was this asked; 
 Eeinwald's services were also secured, with those of 
 Jacobi, Gockingk, and others whom Schiller merely 
 knew by name. Wieland alone was not of their 
 number. In Weimar, one Neumann, an actor, had 
 promised help. Subscriptions were to be received by 
 the Eeichspost, not by Schwan's publishing house, 
 which had no interest in the sale of the journal. 
 While Schiller thus anxiously awaited the result of 
 this printed announcement, he sedulously strove to 
 finish the first act of his new drama. It was set 
 in a higher key, and must form the most brilliant 
 feature of the opening number. On the one hand, 
 Frau von Kalb's enthusiastic praise stimulated him ; 
 on the other, the ambition to come to the front with 
 work that should be worthy of his name. In later 
 years he liked to remember how helpful to his poetic 
 powers had been this intercourse with Charlotte von 
 Kalb, and how the character of the queen in " Don 
 Carlos " had in a measure been suggested by her own. 
 But he was soon to discover that her influence brought 
 him small benefit. Afterward, when he had found his 
 heart's darling, he deemed Charlotte quite incapable of 
 genuine feeling, being merely stirred at times to mo- 
 mentary warmth. He bids one ever guard against her 
 wary intellect, against her cold, calculating worldly 
 wisdom, which severed the closest, tenderest ties that 
 might bind her to others. She always misunderstood 
 him, he says ; and from these bitter words of passion 
 we learn the result of his own painful experience. 
 Charlotte joined him in dissuading his parents from 
 consent to Christophine's marriage with Reinwald. 
 We may see this from the father's answer to a letter 
 of the poet's, dated 21st of November — a letter which 
 shows him to be still in deep agitation, if yet more 
 hopeful than before. It greatly gladdened him that, 
 on the 22d of this month, in spite of Moritz's adverse
 
 172 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 criticism in the Voszische Zeitung, his " Plot and Pas- 
 sion " had met with extraordinary success at Berhu, 
 where it had been given five times within the month. 
 And this was the more gratifying, now that at the 
 Mannheim theatre his plays were set aside in favour 
 of others. Dalberg even had dispensed with his aid 
 in the rearrangement of some of Shakespeare's dramas, 
 and had himself undertaken to finish the adaptation of 
 " Julius Ctesar," upon which Schiller had first been 
 working. His adversaries at Mannheim hkewise found 
 food for satire in the weak points of his grandiloquent 
 prospectus. 
 
 And though this was lifting, this companionship of 
 Charlotte and her husband, neither from her nor from 
 another could he gain that rest which is so grateful 
 to the heart ; good Streicher, even, had httle power to 
 calm his restless, troubled soul. One December even- 
 ing, when exceptionally low and dispirited, he thought 
 of those friends at Leipzig, whom he had never yet 
 thanked for their gift sent to him more than six 
 months ago. A sudden impulse prompted him to 
 write an apology for his neglect. In bitter days, 
 most anguishing to look back upon, he had been kept 
 from his resolve to reply at the right hour to their 
 kindness. But it was the resolve alone which had 
 faded from his heart — not his gratitude. Only close 
 knowledge of him and of his ways could serve to give 
 them some faint idea of the regard that friends had 
 once cherished for him. " I have enjoyed few pleas- 
 ures on earth ; but — and it is my proudest boast, this 
 — for these few I have to thank my heart." He sends 
 them the prospectus of the TJialia, to which he meant 
 to devote his whole powers ; were it not for pecuniary 
 reasons, his talent would most certainly find employ- 
 ment in a higher sphere of action than in mere 
 journalism. 
 
 That winter Frau von Laroche, Charlotte's friend,
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 173 
 
 was also at Mannheim. She failed to attract Schiller ; 
 she could have but httle knowledge of all that filled 
 his soul. Although her conversation had ease, charm, 
 her way of toying with moral things, as Charlotte 
 phrased it, was to him detestable. She says nothing 
 of Schiller in her letters of this epoch. The Duke of 
 Weimar, when returning from Switzerland, had visited 
 Laroche and his wife at Mannheim, and had invited 
 them both to the court. Passing through Mainz and 
 Frankfort, he went on to Darmstadt, where he was to 
 stay for some time. Charlotte then seized upon the 
 plan of bringing Schiller into closer relation with 
 the duke. An acquaintance of hers, a certain Fraulein 
 von Wolzogen, governess to the Princess Louise of 
 Mecklenburg, was then at Darmstadt with her parents. 
 Charlotte gave Schiller a letter of introduction to this 
 lady, who was to help in getting him presented at 
 court, where he should recite his " Don Carlos." He 
 reached Darmstadt on the 23d of December, and lodged 
 at the Sun Inn, i.e. No. 9 Schirmstrasse. Through 
 Fraulein von Wolzogen he was received at court, and 
 gained closer acquaintance with the sons of Prince 
 Frederick Louis. On the evening of the 26th, before 
 the duke and his court, he read out the opening portion 
 of " Don Carlos." He kept his manuscript in Minna 
 Stock's embroidered letter-case, which was much ad- 
 mired by the hereditary princess. In her SchiUer 
 found a noblewoman without equal. The distin- 
 guished company received the play very warmly, and 
 the duke passed several shrewd criticisms upon it. 
 Karl August took great interest in the young genius, 
 and asked graciously as to his aims and wishes for the 
 future. SchiUer was thus emboldened to confess to 
 him how valuable he would hold any titular honour ; 
 he even disclosed his love for Margareta Schwan. 
 That very next morning the duke appointed him a 
 councillor of Weimar in sign of his regard.
 
 174 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 On the 29th Schiller, thus distinguished, returned to 
 Mannheim, where the printing of Thalia was now 
 to begin. He must also finish the last act of " Don 
 Carlos." He was at that time on friendly footing with 
 Klein, through whose instrumentality the Deutsche 
 Gesellschaft agi-eed to advance him 132 gulden, a sum 
 which he promised to repay in six months. After 
 witnessing a performance of Klein's " Gunther," an 
 operetta then very popular, he writes to him next 
 morning : " Bon jour. Well, my dearest friend, how 
 did you sleep after your ' Gunther ? ' It made my 
 evening a very pleasant one. Would to God that our 
 fancy and imagination were not thus miserably depend- 
 ent (for expression) upon the pencil of actors and of 
 singers ! Still, the poor wretches did their best." 
 Enclosing with the letter a promissory note, he thanks 
 Klein warmly for his kind interest. The money might 
 be given to the bearer, w^hose honesty and stupidity 
 were on a par. Twelve days later, he makes vehement 
 protest to Dalberg against the slovenly and inaccurate 
 way in which " Plot and Passion " was being acted at 
 the theatre. With the exception of Beck and of the 
 actresses, all played in an excessively careless manner. 
 Through faulty rehearsals, his piece had been " utterly 
 mangled to shreds ; " in place of his own lines, not 
 seldom he had been obliged to hear nonsense. Frau- 
 lein Baumann alone, whom Iffland had drilled in 
 the part, carried him away by her acting ; after the 
 performance he expressed to her his sincere thanks. 
 His feverish self-consciousness betrays itself in the 
 words : " To me, indeed, the thing is of little moment, 
 for I think I may say that hitherto the theatre has 
 gained more by my plays than my plays have gained 
 by the theatre. I shall never let the value of my work 
 depend upon this last." After telling him that in his 
 Thalia he intends to vent his opinion upon the sub- 
 ject at gi-eater length, he thus ends : " A poet whose
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 175 
 
 three dramas have been put upon the stage, among 
 them a ' Eobbers,' has, as I hope and believe, some 
 right to resent the want of proper respect." And well 
 might he set store by his fame, albeit that public criti- 
 cism had not spared his last two works. Nevertheless, 
 their genius had won for them a place upon the stage. 
 In the Foets' Almanac for 1785 there were words in 
 high praise of him. "The Robbers," so it said, had 
 more glow, more fancy, more of the force of genius, 
 than Goethe's " Goetz." " In this sham sentimental 
 age we never looked to have a ' Eobbers,' a ' Fiesco,' 
 a ' Plot and Passion.' Hail to Schiller, the fiery 
 Teuton ! May Apollo and the Muses be with him, 
 that we may right soon have fresh work from his pen. 
 He, Goethe, Stolberg, and others — a few — could, so 
 we think, restore manliness to our countrymen, could 
 make them more capable of deeper feeling." Of course 
 from this date none of his plays were performed in 
 Mannheim. " The Robbers " had been last acted there 
 on the 26th of December, 
 
 The printing of the Thalia now rapidly progressed, 
 although he could not wholly keep to the original 
 scheme of arrangement. To his essay upon the stage 
 was appended a " Marvellous Instance of a Woman's 
 Revenge." This was an exciting tale about Madame 
 de Pommeray that Schiller had translated from the 
 manuscript of Diderot's " Jacques le Fataliste," with 
 which Dalberg had furnished him. Third in order 
 came the first act of " Don Carlos." He asked all 
 readers, and in especial the great authors of Germany, 
 whose pupil he was, for their opinion to be given with 
 the utmost candour ; it would help him, this, when 
 writing the conclusion. If critics called this first 
 portion morbid, unhealthy, then " the whole sketch 
 would find its way into the fire." He sent Klein the 
 proofs of the first number, asking for his candid 
 criticism.
 
 176 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 This intimacy with Charlotte ouly heightened his 
 excitement and unrest. At heart he ever yearned 
 for the closer, deeper friendship of some soul that 
 thoroughly understood his nature. Margareta alone 
 attracted him, yet, in such a position, how could he 
 dare to offer her marriage ? One evenuig — it was 
 that of the 10th — when all his acquaintances had 
 flocked to the playhouse, where Klein's " Gunther " 
 was being given, he felt impelled to write to those 
 Leipzig friends, whose affectionate letter he had left 
 nearly a month unanswered. He confessed how deeply 
 he longed for their society ; how, since their last letter, 
 the thought had stayed ever in his mind : " These 
 beings belong to you, as you to them ; " how, too, his 
 heart had told him that their friendship would work 
 the long-looked-for change in his career. But, as it 
 chanced, he was kept from finishing the letter by an 
 unexpected visit. Seemingly it was of no very pleasant 
 nature, for twelve days passed ere he again took up his 
 pen, while " without and within him revolution reigned." 
 
 " I can stay no longer here " (i. e. in Mannheim). 
 Thus he writes in the depth of his despair, seeing all 
 things in their gloomiest light, magnifying, exaggerat- 
 ing his misfortunes. " For twelve days I have carried 
 this at my heart, this, and the resolve to go out of the 
 world. Men, circumstances, earth, heaven, are repug- 
 nant to me. I have no soul here, not one, even, to 
 fill the void at my heart — no friend, nor man nor 
 woman ; while from that which perchance might be 
 dear to me " (here Charlotte is meant) " I am shut off 
 by my position and by les convenances." 
 
 He was freed from the theatre ; it was necessary, 
 too, that he should "negotiate" personally with the 
 Duke of Weimar ; the main thing, however, was that 
 he must see Leipzig and his friends tliere. " Oh, my 
 soul thirsts for frcsli sustenance, for letter men, for 
 friendship, attachment, love. I must come to you,
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 177 
 
 must in closer converse, in the firmest bonds of amity, 
 learn again to draw gladness from the heart within me, 
 to bring my whole being into hfe and action. My 
 poetic vein stagnates, just as my heart has grown 
 parched, among those with whom until now I have 
 lived. It is you who must give it warmth again. 
 With you I would be, I shall be, all that and double 
 — three times — what I once was; more than this, 
 my beloved ones, I shall be — happy." Ay, and as 
 though afraid that the friends might deter him, he 
 remarks that he has already made irrevocable declara- 
 tion of his resolve to quit Mannheim, going thence in 
 three or four weeks to Leipzig. In explanation of the 
 " paroxysm of joy " into which the very thought of 
 Leipzig threw him, he further confesses that : " Hitherto 
 Fate has cramped my projects ; my heart and my muse 
 have had at the same time to be ruled by necessity. 
 It needs but this revolution of my destiny to make me 
 quite another man, to let me begin to be a poet." 
 Should fortune show him but the faintest favour, he 
 meant to make Leipzig a lasting place of abode. A 
 single moment might serve to divert his schemes into 
 a new channel leading toward success. Despite this 
 enthusiasm about his future as a poet, seemingly what 
 he here had in view was to settle in Leipzig as a doctor, 
 with Margareta, maybe, as helpmate. Before answer 
 could reach him from Leipzig, he tells Huber of his 
 embarrassed state, and of his need for pecuniary help. 
 He could no longer continue to edit the Tlialia ; all the 
 petty letter-writing and account-keeping worried him 
 extremely ; he meant to transfer the journal to a pub- 
 lisher, even though by so doing he should lose a few 
 hundred thalers annually. Helped by the Duke of 
 Weimar, he hoped to get his formal degree as doctor 
 of medicine. But in order to leave Mannheim he 
 needed at the least a hundred ducats ; and, beyond the 
 sale of the first number of TJialia, which would scarcely
 
 178 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 bring him in more than a hundred thalers, he had no 
 means of raising such a sum. He could not appeal 
 to his friends and acquaintances in Mannheim ; the 
 best of these were unable to give him help. His father 
 depended upon the money that he was earning, " Is it 
 not possible," he asks, " on your own or on my note of 
 hand, to borrow some three hundred thalers or so from 
 the booksellers or the Jews ? My plan is as follows : 
 every two months I would repay tifty thalers from the 
 profits of Thalia until the debt were cleared. But this 
 payment could only begin with the third number. 
 According to my entire calculations, my yearly income 
 from Thalia, after deducting expenses, would be from 
 eight to nine hundred thalers." When speaking after 
 this of a friend upon whom he had counted, and who 
 was now in great monetary embarrassment, owing to 
 a loss of fortune, it must undoubtedly have been Char- 
 lotte's husband to whom he referred. 
 
 While Schiller was thus anxiously waiting for a 
 favourable answer to his request, the printing of 
 Thalia reached completion. After the " Don Carlos " 
 extract came a letter by a Danish traveller upon the 
 Cabinet of Antiquities at Mannheim ; and this was 
 followed by a short " Kepertorium " of the theatre 
 there, from the 1st of January to the 3d of March, 
 together with critical notices upon subjects connected 
 with the playhouse and its management. At the 
 close were printed words of apology that many of the 
 articles promised in the prospectus had in the present 
 number unavoidably been left away. The dedication 
 of " Don Carlos " to the Duke of Weimar is dated the 
 14th of March. 
 
 Meanwhile Korner, at his father's death, on 5th 
 January, had inherited a small fortune. Part of this 
 he invested in the publishing business of his friend, 
 George Joachim Goeschen, who, coming from Bremen, 
 had recently established himself in Leipzig. When
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 179 
 
 sending Schiller the needed money, Korner used Goe- 
 schen as his agent in the matter, writing to him that 
 he wished to lend this sum to the poet, yet it must 
 seem as though offered by the publishers in aid of the 
 issue of Tlialia. He, Korner, would write to Schiller 
 that Goeschen, who had money of his, would advance 
 the sum in exchange for a bill ; and this amount would 
 be charged to his account in case they should not 
 agree as to the conditions respecting the Tlialia. 
 Thus delicately did he give Schiller help in his dis- 
 tress, who looked upon pubhshers as a mere race of 
 lucre-loving Jews. 
 
 Already, on .Tuesday the 8th, Charlotte, writing 
 to Christophine, tells her that the first number of 
 Thalia is to appear in that week. Some of its 
 matter she had read ; specially the scenes from " Don 
 Carlos " deserved the regard and the praise of all those 
 who could think or who could feel. Great changes, 
 she said, had been wrought in the poet's temperament 
 by fate and by experience. Her only wish was that 
 this venture of the Tlialia might succeed, and that it 
 might draw out in equal measure his energy, his sin- 
 cerity, and his genius. She had never ceased to hope 
 great and good things of him, for she had his welfare 
 most thoroughly at heart. It never seems to have 
 crossed her mind that he really meant to leave 
 Mannheim. 
 
 The first number of Thalia had scarcely been pub- 
 lished when Bock and Madame Eennschiib met the 
 poet's criticism of their acting by indignant abuse. 
 On the 19th he makes complaint of this to Dalberg. 
 Bock, he writes, had unblushingly attacked him from 
 the stage, had loudly vilified him in the most plebeian 
 fashion. He asked Dalberg to grant him a personal 
 interview of half an hour. The director wrote back 
 to express his regret that by such cutting remarks 
 Schiller should have irritated the actors ; he declined,
 
 l8o THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 however, to speak with him upon the subject, much to 
 the poet's mortiticatiou. With his Leipzig friends, on 
 the other hand, his relations grew ever more hopeful. 
 Not only was the needed money promised to him ; 
 Goeschen likewise offered to publish the Thalia upon 
 favourable terms. Unfortunately, these three hundred 
 thalers now borrowed did not help him to keep faith 
 with Frau von Wolzogen, nor would they cover the 
 cost of a journey to Heilbronn, where he could bid 
 farewell to those at home before setting out for 
 Saxony. 
 
 In a letter to Huber, who was expecting him at 
 Leipzig, he now fully stated his vdsh. It cost him 
 gi'eater pains, he said, to straighten his domestic diffi- 
 culties than to plan out some state conspiracy ; home 
 had no happiness for him without some dear and inti- 
 mate friend, who was ever at hand, who had not to be 
 sought for in the outside world. If he could share a 
 lodging with Huber, who must recommend respectable 
 people to him, all would be right and well. 
 
 " I merely need a bedroom, which at the same time 
 might be my study ; and then a sitting-room. Neces- 
 sary furniture to me would be a good chest of drawers, 
 a wiiting-table, bed, and sofa ; also another table and 
 some chairs. If I had these, nothing else were want- 
 ing to my comfort. I can't hve on the ground floor 
 nor in the top story ; and above all things, my win- 
 dows must not look out upon a graveyard. Loving 
 humanity, I love likewise its turmoil. If I can't com- 
 pass it thus that we {i. e. the five-petalled clover-leaf) 
 can have our meals together, I shall dine at the tahle 
 d'hote of the inn : for I'd rather fast than not eat with 
 company large, or else specially excellent. . . . No 
 doubt there is a desperate naivetS about all this that 
 I'm expecting; it's your indulgence, though, that has 
 spoilt me." The needed money just reached him in 
 time; it came in the form of a bill falling due upon
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER i8i 
 
 the 31st. Dalberg, in a letter of the 27th, had ex- 
 pressed regret that Schiller should seemingly have 
 taken offence at his last remarks ; they did but 
 embody his firm conviction that written criticism of 
 actors or of singers was of necessity harmful to a 
 theatre, and must eventually work its ruin. He had 
 pointed out, too, how Lessiug with his " Dramaturgy " 
 had exactly experienced that concerning which Scliil- 
 ler now made complaint. We may infer that Dalberg 
 wished to see him before his departure from the words 
 — " However, more by word of mouth." The parting 
 with Charlotte was a painful one. For long past her 
 morbid, highly strung temperament had strongly fas- 
 cinated him, had raised him by its contact ; but it had 
 destroyed his peace of mind and of soul. He must 
 have been strangely moved at this time to hear that 
 Laura, his early love, had let herself be led astray by 
 a young student of rank. Again, it was a grief and 
 shame to him that he could neither answer Frau von 
 Wolzogen's urgent request for payment, nor yet visit 
 her at Heilbronn. His father had to beg him to write 
 to her, at least, if quite unable to return any portion 
 of the loan. He took affectionate leave of Margareta, 
 who as a parting gift presented him with a letter-case 
 of her own making. They agreed to establish a corre- 
 spondence ; and it was already Schiller's intention to 
 ask from Leipzig for her father's consent to their union. 
 His sense of courtesy alone made him visit Dalberg 
 before quitting Mannheim. Klein was about to go 
 at this time to Vienna ; they parted in tears. In 
 Beck Schiller left behind him a valuable friend ; his 
 relations with Iflfland, however, were less cordial than 
 before. On his last evening he stayed with faithful 
 Streicher until midnight, at which hour they sadly 
 bade each other farewell, not without dim forebodings 
 that fate held brighter days for both of them in the 
 future.
 
 i82 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 In such way, after nearly two years, did he leave 
 Mannheim — to him a hateful place enough, where he 
 had but known new trouble, and fallen deeper into 
 debt. He left it with " Don Carlos " in his brain, 
 with Margareta at his heart, filled full of longing to 
 give greeting to those friends at Leipzig who had thus 
 found him means of escape. His long connectioa 
 with actors and the stage had given him very thorough 
 insight into the claims and needs of drama. Such 
 experience, moreover, had its useful side, even though 
 for the first it set him against all things theatrical. In 
 Mannheim many a bitter disappointment had been his ; 
 still, there he had found a Charlotte von Kalb ; there 
 he had had sight of that ungoverned soul, consumed 
 by its passion, "warped by its excess of sentiment; 
 and the picture had been helpful to him when plan- 
 ning out " Don Carlos." Nor did he go from the 
 town without some hope that it was gentle Margareta, 
 maybe, who was destined to bring gladness into his 
 hfe and to make it fair.
 
 Book VI. 
 In Friendship's Lap
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 FEOM APRIL TO SEPTEMBER, 1785. 
 
 After a journey made sadly tedious by " snow and 
 bog and rain," Schiller, on Sunday, the 17th of April, 
 reached Leipzig, " shattered and broken," stopping here 
 at the sign of the Blue Angel. And yet his spirits had 
 not deserted him, for we find him playfully trying to 
 mystify the two sisters, Minna and Dora Stock, when 
 introducing himself to them. Korner was at that time 
 in Dresden. In Huber he gained knowledge of a fine 
 nature ; but the poor fellow, under the rule of an over- 
 strict mother, had been kept from reaching any manly 
 self-dependence. Eigid surveillance had made him 
 shy and irresolute in manner ; his betrothed, too, some 
 five years older than himself, and gifted with much 
 talent both for art and raillery, had only helped to 
 unsettle his character. Schiller at first took lodgings 
 at the Joachimsthal cafe, in the Hainstrasse. He 
 needed change, distraction, after the strain of those 
 last days at Mannheim, and all the fatigues of his 
 journey. For this reason he plunged straightway into 
 the throng and bustle of the Leipzig Fair, although 
 this time, forsooth, there was less of commotion there 
 than he had imagined. With many a face which 
 passed him he was famihar. Besides Huber's father 
 he met Weisze, who, having ceased to write poetry, was 
 now editing children's books, and had issued a " New 
 Library of the Fine Arts." Then, too, he saw the cele- 
 brated Capellmeister Hiller, Professor Oeser, the artist 
 
 i8s
 
 i86 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 who was on close terms of friendship with Goethe and 
 the court at Weimar ; Reinecke, the regisseur of the 
 Dresden-Leipzig theatre ; and Jiiuger, the comedy- 
 writer. With the last-named, a jovial, merry young 
 fellow, some few months his senior, he grew more inti- 
 mate. Here also he found Sophie Albrecht and her 
 husband ; liis urgent warning to her to leave the stage 
 had heen seemingly given in vain. It amused him 
 most to stay^ at Richter's coffee-house, where many a 
 citizen and stranger met together, although he must 
 soon have wearied of being stared at like some wild 
 animal for having written " The Robbers," of being 
 hailed and greeted at every turn by countless literary 
 men, who felt it their privilege to welcome a comrade. 
 But yet amid all this mighty whirl he soon felt soli- 
 tary and alone, for he had a goal in life toward which 
 he strove. He told Schwan on the 24th of his heart's 
 desire, of the wish that he had cherished for more than 
 a year, and that he had already confided to the Duke 
 of Weimar. In a short time lie intended to go to 
 GohHs, where he would work ^nth great diligence at 
 " Don Carlos " and the journal Jlialia, at the same time 
 continuing his medical studies unobserved. " The goal 
 once clear for me, I shall press toward it with every 
 effort of my being. Judge yourself whether I be 
 hkely to reach it when my zeal is strengthened by a 
 most delightful wish. Two years yet, and then my 
 wliole fortune will be decided." He felt already so 
 sure of Schwan's comphance that he wTote to his father 
 on 4th May that a piece of news from Mannheim 
 was in store for them both. But Schwan considerately 
 avoided giving a refusal by pointing out that his daugh- 
 ter's character was not suited to that of the poet whom 
 he so highly honoured. . Thus, too, did this day-dream 
 vanish. Schwan, it is said, told nothing to Margareta 
 of the proposal. Of course Schiller could no longer 
 write to her, while she, again, grew uneasy at a silence
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 187 
 
 she was powerless to explain. He, in the meantime, 
 was ever more closely circled by a band of loving 
 friends. 
 
 Toward Korner he was drawn by all the force of 
 that noble, brave, and affectionate soul. Already his 
 first letter showed him something of that within his 
 heart, which felt only complete happiness in the knowl- 
 edge that he was doing all the good that lay within 
 his power. He should feel this happiness, he said, 
 when he had his Schiller at his side ; they would 
 mutually spur each other on to strive unflinchingly 
 toward their high ideal. Such a voice as this touched 
 Schiller strangely ; he had never heard its like before. 
 How worthy of reverence seemed to him a man who, 
 enabled to enjoy the gifts of fortune, was all athirst 
 for deeds ! How proud to feel that he had been prof- 
 fered such place at his side ! What joy to be certain 
 that Korner, in " this faithful, brotherly fashion," 
 would " join him in his romantic voyage toward truth 
 and fame and fortune ! " He longed for the autumn, 
 when, after Korner's marriage in Dresden, he would 
 hve with Huber, and enjoy in his society the pleasures 
 of close friendship and of deep mutual sympathy. 
 Then he meant to divide his time into three portions : 
 one to be set apart for the poet ; the other for the phy- 
 sician ; the third for the individual. He had not yet 
 abandoned medicine, albeit Schwan's evasive answer 
 had already reached him. He told his new friend 
 nothing of this Margareta episode, now to be wholly 
 swept from his memory. Korner gave warm assent to 
 the proposals in his soul-filled letter ; he sealed their 
 bond of friendship by using the familiar " thou," in 
 sign that they were as brothers. Meanwhile Schiller 
 had moved to Gohlis, some little distance out of Leip- 
 zig. Here he lodged at the first with Endner and his 
 two stepsisters, 
 
 Goeschen returned from Vienna at the close of May ;
 
 i88 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 he had come back by way of Weimar, transacting busi- 
 ness there with Wieland, Bode, and Musteus. Schiller 
 also formed friendship with him, and they lived to- 
 gether in the little house standing next to Endner's, 
 which was afterward bought in 1856 by the Schiller 
 Society, in loving remembrance of the poet. Jiinger 
 also was at Gohlis, where he spent one of the merriest 
 days of his life in Schiller's company. Eeinhart 
 joined them frequently, a young landscape painter of 
 great promise, and with him the poet was glad to be- 
 come intimate. Of course Schiller often went into 
 Leipzig, where he had dealings with Kunze, a mer- 
 chant there, a great friend of Korner's. 
 
 On the 1st of July Korner, his bride and her sister, 
 Schiller, Huber, and Goeschen all met at Professor 
 Ernesti's house in Kahnsdorf, a manor some five miles 
 out of Leipzig, on the left bank of the Pleisze. Hearty 
 as was the greeting between the two friends, bound 
 each to each for life, they could at such a time find no 
 chance for confidential talk, as Korner specially was 
 in so large request. Next morning Goeschen, Schiller, 
 and Huber had to take their leave, promising, however, 
 to meet the ladies that following afternoon, whom 
 Korner was to conduct for part of the way. While 
 returning to Leipzig, as the three spoke of their hopes 
 and schemes for the future, Schiller felt thrilled at the 
 thought of his happiness among such friends. 
 
 " My heart glowed again," he writes to Korner. " It 
 was no flight of imagination this ; it was firm, philo- 
 sophical certainty of that which lay before me in the 
 glorious perspective of the after days. Shame-struck, 
 yet not wholly crushed, I glanced back at the past, 
 at the life which I had thus hopelessly squandered. I 
 felt how dauntless were my powers, how abortive the 
 designs (great ones, maybe) which nature cherished 
 respecting me. Half had been ruined by the senseless 
 system of my bringing up and by the sullenness of Fate ;
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 189 
 
 the other, and more important part, by myself." Wliile 
 in this glow and ferment of emotion, he had sworn to 
 redeem the past; and his enthusiasm had passed to 
 the others with electric speed. In Hiiber's eyes he 
 read Korner's name, which at that instant rose invol- 
 untarily to his lips. From their meeting glance sprang 
 forth the high resolve in turn to help each other for- 
 ward toward one glorious goal. He was filled, he said, 
 with the sense of their close union, with the thought 
 that through mutual aid alone they could reach great- 
 ness, goodness, fortune. They stopped to take break- 
 fast at a tavern on the way, drinking to Korner's health 
 with tears in their eyes. " Goeschen declared that his 
 glass of wine felt as fire in the veins, while with burn- 
 ing cheek Huber told us that he had never tasted wine 
 of like excellence ; and I thought of how the sacra- 
 ment had been instituted, and of those words ' Do this, 
 as oft as ye shall drink it, in remembrance of me.' I 
 heard the peal of organ ; I stood before the altar. 
 And now first it flashed upon us that the day was 
 your birthday." 
 
 This was the kind of extravagant rhapsody into which 
 he fell, through thinking of their joint efforts toward 
 one great end, toward the fulfilment of those duties 
 marked out for them by nature. He had never yet 
 found a friend so true, so high-principled as Korner ; 
 and his heart longed to give utterance of its joy. 
 
 As their projected excursion was hindered by the 
 weather, Schiller could not keep from at once sending 
 detailed account to his Korner of that memorable cele- 
 bration of July the 2d. But there was another cause 
 for his writing : he needed money ; for his funds were 
 exhausted ; and before three months were past he 
 could not look to draw any help from the Thalia 
 subscriptions, payable through the Mannheim Postal 
 Agency, if indeed he were not cheated of these alto- 
 gether. Then, too, he wished to aid Huber, whose
 
 190 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 parents, fearing the cost of his outfit, were for giving 
 up the idea of his entrance into the diplomatic service. 
 Korner was but to advance the money, and Scliiller 
 would make over to him an amended edition of his 
 three dramas. He was under no obligation to Schwan, 
 who, without saying a word, had published the pieces 
 in fresh form. A thoroughly revised edition of " The 
 Eobbers " and of " Fiesco " would, he felt sure, be 
 acceptable to the public, and would do much to raise 
 his fame. He meant to give new effect to the first 
 named play by an appendix, in the form of a one-act 
 piece, to be called " The Robbers' Doom." 
 
 Korner's generosity seemed to Schiller without its 
 parallel, unequalled in all the history of friendship. 
 The former, writing back, reproached him gently for 
 hesitating to show him all his trouble, and for not 
 frankly stating the sum of which he stood in need. 
 What he in that moment could spare he at once sent ; 
 if more were wanted, he would quickly furnish it. 
 Schiller must let him enjoy the pleasure of saving him 
 for a year at least from the necessity of earning a liv- 
 ing ; it was a pleasure which cost him, pecuniarily, no 
 sacrifice whatever ; when tlie j)()et in a few years should 
 have reaped his golden harvest, he might, if he w^ould, 
 repay him with interest. Korner hoped great things 
 of the " Don Carlos," which Schiller must finish com- 
 pletely at his ease ; as to the new edition of his plays, 
 the venture seemed a likely one, if it only did not keep 
 him from present work. It were best for his own 
 benefit to publish in commission with Goeschen ; he, 
 Korner, would meet the expenses of printing. Schiller 
 answering to this letter, writes : 
 
 " Your friendship and your kindness open up to me 
 an Elysium. Through you, beloved Korner, I may 
 perhaps yet become what I despaired of ever being. 
 As my powers ripen, so will my happiness increase ; 
 and near you, through you, I look to develop them.
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 191 
 
 These tears that here, on the threshold of my new 
 career, I shed in gratitude, in honour to you, these 
 tears will fall again when that career is ended. If I 
 should become that of which I now dream, who, then, 
 happier than you? A friendship having such an aim 
 in view is a friendship that can know no ending. Do 
 not destroy this letter. Ten years hence, maybe, you 
 will read it with strange emotion ; and in the grave 
 you will softly slumber thereon." 
 
 How sharp the contrast between this morbid en- 
 thusiasm and Korner's calm, sure conviction that it 
 behoved him to support a talent, harassed by outward 
 cares, as that in Schiller he had found a friend who 
 would quicken liis own zeal for action ! 
 
 Following Korner's wish, the poet for the first kept 
 on working solely at " Don Carlos," and there was no 
 further thought of a new edition of his other plays. 
 However, he promised Goeschen to carry on the 
 Thalia until the close of September, for he must 
 keep faith with the pubhc. The first number was to 
 be reprinted. The Mannheim Postal Agency still with- 
 held the subscriptions which had been paid to it for 
 him. Goeschen's fee was to be at the rate of two louis 
 d'or per sheet. The Duke of Weimar had not ac- 
 knowledged the receipt of the first number, but 
 Wieland had written back his judgment of the " Don 
 Carlos " excerpt. In a long critique, dated the 8th of 
 May, he recognised Schiller's very great gifts, though 
 he saw in his work an immaturity, a want of balance. 
 Much he blamed rightly ; yet often, too, he failed to 
 seize the author's meaning. It was not his intention, 
 however, to notice the Thalia in his Mercur, while 
 the duke wished to wait for the succeeding portion 
 of the play before sending SchiUer his thanks. 
 
 It was at this time that Goeschen one evening 
 brought to him a literary man who had once keenly 
 wounded him by a virulent critique of his drama, " Plot
 
 192 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 and Passion." This was Professor Moritz, a friend of 
 IfHand's and the author of " Antou Reiser." Schiller 
 gave him no very cordial welcome ; but when the first 
 heat of his resentment had cooled, and when Moritz, 
 whose objections the prodigious applause of a Berlin 
 public had long since extinguished, made frank apology 
 for so intemperate an attack, without, however, chang- 
 ing his original opinions, then Schiller held out the 
 hand of reconciliation. Moritz was a man of mind, 
 fallen, though, on evil days ; one who had grappled 
 more terribly even than Schiller with an adverse fate. 
 They passed a happy evening together, and the next 
 morning was given to enthusiastic converse upon the 
 art they each loved. Schiller read out to his com- 
 panion portions of the " Don Carlos," to which his 
 whole heart and being clove. 
 
 Sunday, the 7th of August, was Korner's wedding- 
 day, and Schiller's gift was a pair of urns, the emblem 
 and memento of perpetuity. He also wrote some lines 
 in honour of the bride and bridegroom ; but these were 
 of small poetic worth. At five o'clock that afternoon 
 the marriage ceremony was performed at Korner's 
 country-seat, where his most intimate friends had 
 joyfully assembled. After a few days, when Dora 
 and her husband started for their wedding tour, Schil- 
 ler and Huber accompanied them on horseback as far as 
 the village of Stauchitz. While riding back, the poet 
 slipped from the saddle, crushing his right hand in the 
 fall. This so disabled him that more than three weeks 
 went by before he could tremblingly put pen to paper, 
 when he first wrote to Korner, the friend for whom he 
 longed. If some slight mark upon his hand were 
 always to remain, he said that he would heartily wel- 
 come it, as a lasting remembrance of his friend's joy- 
 ful entry into Dresden. His own life at Gohlis was 
 now " hermit-hke, sad and empty," particularly as the 
 bleak autumn weather had set in before its time. He
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 193 
 
 felt powerless to do any fresh work. It caused him 
 some distraction, however, to dictate the acting version 
 of " Fiesco " to an amanuensis, as the play was soon to 
 be given at Leipzig. The rest, the leisure, the mood 
 which must absolutely be his, if he would produce 
 work, were alone to be found when with friends at 
 Dresden. He asks if he may come thither, and 
 Korner at once invites him. Doctor Albrecht was 
 then starting for Dresden, and at his suggestion 
 they agreed to travel together by the extra post. 
 Schiller is glad to leave Gohlis thus hurriedly, for it 
 will spare him " the trying situation of bidding several 
 good souls farewell." At four o'clock on the morn- 
 ing of September 11th, he sets out in feverish excite- 
 ment. On repassing the places where he had lately 
 been in company with the bride and bridegoom, he 
 greets them " with all a pilgrim's reverential awe." 
 He cries aloud in rapture at first sight of the Elbe 
 emerging from the mountains. The scenery around 
 this river had the more charm for him from its resem- 
 blance to the " wrestling-ground of his early poetic 
 childhood." At midnight, crossing the great bridge, 
 he drove into Elbflorenz ; and amid the many build- 
 ings his heart, so it seemed, would needs point out the 
 dwelling of his bosom friend. But for a night, at least, 
 an inn must give him shelter ; and at the Golden Angel, 
 No. 4 Wilsdrufferstrasse, he rested after his long day 
 of travel.
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 FROM SEPTEMBEK, 1785, TO FEBRUARY, 1787. 
 
 Rain fell in torrents next morning, as Schiller, in a 
 chair borne by two porters in canary-coloured livery, 
 was carried to Friiulein Faust's house. No 14 Kohlen- 
 markt, now No. 4 Kornerstrasse. Here both the 
 ladies welcomed hiiu warmly ; and Korner, coming 
 home at one o'clock from the Konsistorium, met his 
 beloved friend with open arms. Huber's health was 
 drunk in a bumper of good Rhenish ; and after dinner 
 Korner played on the harpsichord so touchingly that 
 Schiller saw in his music a source of lofty inspiration. 
 
 At five in the afternoon they drove to Korner's seat 
 near Loschwitz, a village within little distance of Dres- 
 den on the banks of the Elbe. Here they spent the 
 beautiful autumn days together. The house was a 
 spacious one, standing in a pretty little garden at the 
 foot of the mountain, while at the top was a summer- 
 house, which commanded a magnificent view of Blase- 
 witz opposite, and of the far heights of the Saxon 
 Switzerland. Already on that first evening the talk 
 turned upon philosophy. Korner felt an impulse for 
 work in the sphere of science, while Schiller gave all 
 his care to " Don Carlos," though he was not unmind- 
 ful of continuing the Thalia. At Loschwitz he heard 
 from Christophine that, after mature thought, she had 
 given Reinwald her hand. In the same straightforward 
 way that he had disapproved of the match, he now 
 sent to her his brotherly blessing. And with it goes 
 the regret that his parent will not admit that his son in 
 
 194

 
 Schiller w Loschwit{ 
 
 Photogravure from the paintinc by F Kirchbach
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 195 
 
 losing fatherland has really won all, and three years of 
 youth alone had been the price of a fame that was now 
 general ; he looked back joyfully to his past life ; he 
 felt full of courage for the future. Serious though the 
 step, it had been worth taking if only for the gain of 
 so many noble, grand men. During building oper- 
 ations at the house, he went into a little one close by, 
 where the gossip of some neighbouring washerwomen 
 disturbed him while writing the scene between Carlos 
 and the Princess Eboli. He vented his irritation in a 
 humourous petition addressed by a dilapidated tragedy 
 writer " to the Kornerian Konsistorial Deputation of 
 Ladies of the Lavatory at Loschwitz." Perhaps, here, 
 too, the stirring poem entitled " To Joy " was composed, 
 the outcome of Schiller's gladsome heart, a lyric which 
 in later years touched Beethoven's soul with its fire. 
 His Leipzig friends had no knowledge of it until that 
 November ; probably it was produced in that month. 
 
 At the beginning of October Schiller felt somewhat 
 depressed ; he yearned for one absent from their trio, 
 for Huber, who had long been kept from those who 
 loved him. In a letter to him of October 5th, Schiller 
 writes : " The boyhood of our souls is now ended, as I 
 imagine it ; so, too, the honeymoon of our friendship. 
 Let, then, our hearts cling valiantly each to each, 
 dreaming httle, feehng much, planning less, and work- 
 ing all the more faithfully." And this was, in truth, 
 the mark toward which Schiller and Korner spurred 
 each other onward. The latter, with his wider phil- 
 osophical knowledge, had most helpful influence upon 
 the poet. After reading Watson's " Life of Philip the 
 Second," Schiller saw that there was much to change 
 in his own conceptions of Philip and of Alba. The 
 last three acts of " Don Carlos " were before him, 
 a chaotic mass, that disheartened him, and from which 
 he shrank. How feeble he seemed when set against 
 the giant Shakespeare !
 
 196 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 At last, in the middle of this month, he moved into 
 the lodgings taken for Huber and himself on the first 
 floor of a house opposite Korner's, No. 16 Kohlenmarkt, 
 now No. 6. Huber also came thither to prepare for 
 his diplomatic career under Minister Stutterheim. 
 And now the three friends worked joyfully in concert. 
 They kept out of the common circles of society as 
 much as possible. Schiller felt himself free, and grew 
 glad of heart ; he saw at this time a good deal of his 
 old friend, Sophie Albrecht. The stage had gieater 
 attraction for him than the famous art-collections. At 
 midday and evening he was regularly at Korner's house, 
 w^here, though he may have had long and grave phil- 
 osophical discussions with its owner, the family was 
 but enlivened by his pleasant company. He was also 
 fond of a game at whist. Among Korner's acquaint- 
 ances were Professor Wilhelm Gottlieb Becker, Capell- 
 meister Naumanu, Graft, the artist, Keinhard, the court 
 chaplain, Archeuholz, a writer, Neumann, the war 
 secretary, Wagner, a minister of finance, and others 
 with whom Schiller also had relation. It was on the 
 29th of November that he was first able to send 
 Goeschen some MS. for the second number of Thalia, 
 which included the lyric " To Joy," an essay by Huber 
 on " Modern Greatness," and the Wiirtemberg tale of 
 the Sonnenwirth, for which Abel had furnished the 
 details, and that bore unmistakable marks of Diderot's 
 influence. Before printing the second act of the " Don 
 Carlos," he wished to submit it to several critics. 
 When the first four sheets of proofs came to hand, to 
 fill up space, he sent a couple of poems, — " Eesig- 
 nation, a Phantasy," and " The Free Thought of Pas- 
 sion," which bore this addition, " When Laura was 
 wedded, in the year 1782." Then came a trifling 
 auhadc by Sophie Albrecht. These two poems of his 
 spoke forth such vehement antagonism to moral law 
 and Christian faith that the writer was fearful of sharp
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 197 
 
 censure from the Leipzig press authorities. Therefore 
 he begged Goescheu, for the sake of their friendship 
 and for the honour of Tlialia to get these sheets 
 printed in Dessau ; Korner had also suggested this. 
 There were most weighty reasons for his wishing to 
 pubhsh them ; he only states one, however, viz., that in 
 another poem he means to confute what he had now 
 written. For the fire, the glow that he had breathed 
 into these poems, just for this he valued them. Goe- 
 schen submitted them to the Leipzig censorship, which 
 received them more leniently than Schiller expected, 
 asking only that some explanatory note be appended 
 for the benefit of the intolerant. Schiller agreed to 
 this, and changed the titles somewhat, adding prob- 
 ably the words, " When Laura was wedded, in the year 
 1782," and "A Phantasy," which were originally ab- 
 sent. The poems are both signed with the cipher n, 
 just as were the odes to Laura in the " Anthology." 
 Immediately afterward he sent Goeschen a translation 
 of Mercier's description of the character of Philip the 
 Second, and finally a small portion of the second act 
 of " Don Carlos," keeping back the greater half for the 
 third number. And the third number, he said, could 
 be published in a few weeks or even at once, as he 
 had matter enough, so he believed, for a whole year. 
 But things could not be thus hastened on, as Schiller 
 found, to his annoyance. He was most desirous to see 
 the whole of the second act of his play in the public's 
 hands, yet Goeschen in January declared that, despite 
 every effort, before Easter it was impossible to issue 
 more than one number. Schiller now began his " Phil- 
 osophic Letters " between Julius and Eaphael. Kor- 
 ner wrote one of the short ones by Raphael. It was 
 hard work, however, to get him to compose it, and for 
 this reason there was much joking between the friends. 
 The correspondence — not continued, alas ! — sought 
 to show that assertions such as were here made, " as-
 
 198 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 sertions narrow, exaggerated, and often contradictory, 
 find at last their solution, are fused into one universal, 
 clear, and firmly founded truth." Eaphael, to turn his 
 younger friend from fantastic theories as to God and 
 the world, points out to him the worth of self-analysis, 
 while he subjects these theories to strict and searching 
 criticism, showing their fallacy. Julius, in Raphael's 
 absence, complains that liis friend has spoiled for him 
 his fair world of ideas ; but the latter retorts that he 
 has but hastened on a crisis which Julius needs must 
 reach, and that, on the contrary, he has proffered him 
 the sublimest pleasures of the reason. Most of the 
 letters of Julius take us back to Schiller's youth ; 
 already in the days of the " Anthology " he had planned 
 wT-iting a novel in the form of letters exchanged by 
 Julius and Eaphael ; and in this the poem " Friend- 
 ship " was to have place. 
 
 When, on April 9th, Korner with his family and Huber 
 went to Leipzig, Schiller stayed behind in Dresden, to 
 work with all diligence at his drama. But unfor- 
 tunately he could make no proper progress. The 
 censors of the press had taken umbrage at one passage 
 in it ; this threw him out of mood ; a far graver hin- 
 drance was his unwonted solitude, which robbed him of 
 all gaiety. Then his position, shifting, uncertain as it 
 was, formed a source of trouble. It was a whole year 
 since he had left Mannheim, and had been living upon 
 Korner's generosity, yet sure though his purpose and 
 zealous though his efforts, there lay, so far, no desirable 
 prospect in view. 
 
 He heard from Charlotte that, by her husband's wish, 
 she was to leave Mannheim and go to Thiiringen ; 
 Beck believed she would probably surprise him by an 
 unlooked for visit at Dresden. Failing to rouse his 
 energies for any kind of poetic work, he spent much 
 time in reading ; this seemed to him absolutely neces- 
 sary, for he had still an amazing deal to learn. Besides
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 199 
 
 Korner's library, he could use that of the Kurfiirst. 
 He accordingly buried himself in Abbt's dissertation 
 " On Merit ; " he felt a kind of kinship with its author, 
 who had died young some twenty years back ; hke 
 him, he fancied he had the same medley in his mind of 
 fiery thoughts and vague speculations ; only that while 
 Abbt came nearer to being a clear-sighted philosopher, 
 he, Schiller, shared more the sensuous temperament of 
 the poet. His love for history now grew ever deeper. 
 A translation by Eambach of Bougeant's " History of the 
 Thirty Years' War " greatly stirred him. Writing to 
 Korner, he says : " Strange that epochs where national 
 woe is at its height should be the most brilliant epochs 
 in the annals of human power ! How many great men 
 stood forth from this gloom ! I wish that for ten 
 years running I had only read history, I beheve I 
 should be quite another fellow if I had. Do you think 
 I shall yet be able to retrieve the time lost ? " 
 
 Here a new and fruitful field for work seemed open 
 to him, where was needed none of that nerve-wasting 
 strain which poetry writing caused. In the continua- 
 tion of these " Philosophic Letters " the question for 
 discussion should be whether a political or an ideal sys- 
 tem of culture were the more excellent ; no subject, 
 said he, gave them better chance to blend history and 
 philosophy with their eloquence. In his lonehness 
 he wrote in friendly fashion to Reinwald, his future 
 brother-in-law, using the famihar thou in his letter, 
 which contained an enclosure for Frau von Wolzogen, 
 whose loan he had never yet been able to repay. 
 
 At length the Korners came back from Meiszen on 
 the 26th, but still his depression did not end; it 
 specially irked him that Huber wished to stop in Leip- 
 zig during May. On the 1st of that month he com- 
 plains to him of moroseness and of sheer discontent ; 
 that his heart was cramped, deadened, and that fancy's 
 flame had gone out in utter darkness. " Strange that
 
 200 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 each awaking and each downlying, almost, brings me 
 nearer to a resolution, to the resolve to go one step 
 farther ; that already seems to me half taken. I need 
 a crisis. Nature prepares for destruction that she may 
 thereby bring forth afresh. It may well be that you 
 do not understand me ; but I understand myself. I 
 could weary of existence if it were worth while to die." 
 He felt an impulse toward work of another kind, to be 
 achieved when holding a sure and honourable posi- 
 tion. Franzel, a musician of his acquaintance, had come 
 to Dresden for a week, and Schiller says he is going to 
 write him the words for two arias and a terzett in his 
 operetta. He means to compose them while having his 
 hair dressed, just to learn how to scribble. But scribble 
 he could not. At this time, too, in compliance with 
 the wishes of Korner and his wife, he gave sittings to 
 his friend Graff. They had chosen the pose in which 
 to place him ; he was to sit as they had watched him 
 sit for hours when alone ; thus they would get him 
 to remain in a natural, easy position — not his usual 
 one, with head tossed somewhat defiantly backwards. 
 Schiller sat only four times ; the hands and head were 
 at once finished, the rest of the picture being merely 
 sketched in. 
 
 On the afternoon of May 16th Schwan with his two 
 daughters reached Dresden. By nine the next morning 
 he had not yet visited Schiller, who, failing to see him 
 before evening, intended to caU upon him at liis hotel. 
 Though offended with Schwan, he still felt gratitude 
 toward him, as being the first who, outside Wurtem- 
 berg, had told him of his abiUty, and who had taken 
 a more than trifling interest in his literary progress. 
 And Schwan, after his own fashion, felt real attach- 
 ment to the poet, though he was hardly sensible how 
 deep such attachment was. Wliether he called on 
 Schiller first is not known to us ; it is certain, though, 
 that they met as good friends, and Schiller introduced
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 201 
 
 his publisher to the Korners. Since her father's 
 refusal he was far from wishing to revive in Margareta 
 any of the old tenderness she might once have cherished. 
 He is said to have walked with the two sisters on the 
 Briihler Terrace, while their father sat with Graff the 
 painter. Schwau afterward wrote from Leipzig his 
 thanks to the " dearest friend " who had made their 
 short stay in Dresden one " ever to be remembered," 
 nor would they forget the cordial welcome given to 
 them by Schiller's friends there. 
 
 Schwan had told the poet how highly Wieland es- 
 teemed his talent, to whom the poet sent a letter, as 
 Schwan was travelling back by way of Weimar. This 
 spoke of his unsettled position ; it deplored his present 
 state of enforced independence, which otherwise he 
 held to be of all lots the most enviable. He wished 
 for Wieland's judgment upon the Thalia when more 
 of its matter should be complete for publication. 
 Schiller was thinking of Weimar, of forming a connec- 
 tion there. He writes to Goeschen on June 1st, to send 
 him without delay a nice copy of the first number of 
 the Thalia which he wished to present to " His 
 Grace of Weimar." 
 
 He made no advance with the journal, however, 
 while his " Carlos " was put aside for another dramatic 
 poem in prose, " The Manhater Appeased," a first out- 
 line of which he had already planned when in Mann- 
 heim. Then, too, he was dreaming of a romance, " The 
 Ghostseer," where his original scheme for " Friedrich 
 Imhof " was to be developed in quite another fashion. 
 
 By way of merrily celebrating Korner's birthday, the 
 2d of July, Schiller, with the help of Dora's paint-box, 
 prepared a series of thirteen grotesque caricatures, set- 
 ting forth Korner's good-humoured weaknesses. Huber 
 supphed droll explanations for these, which bore the 
 title, " Adventures of the New Telemachus ; or. The 
 Life and Labours of Kbrner the Decent, the Consequen-
 
 202 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 tial, the Piquant, etc., set forth in fine ilhiminated 
 plates by Mr. Hogarth, with appropriate explanations 
 by Wiuckelmaun. . . . liome, 1786." 
 
 Minna's expected lying-in was now a cause of grave 
 anxiety to all. On the 24th of this month she gave 
 birth to a son, but her continued illness threw a gloom 
 over the whole circle. Schiller was too distressed to 
 answer his father's letter, which told him of Christo- 
 phine's marriage, but which, it is true, contained allu- 
 sion to Margareta and to studying medicine. Even 
 the kind inquiries of Charlotte von Wolzogen, once so 
 dear to him, gained not a word of acknowledgment. 
 
 Once more he sought to succeed in drama, and ac- 
 cordingly began to prepare his " Don Carlos " for the 
 stage. He had heard through Beck of the interest 
 taken by Schroder in the fragments hitherto pub- 
 lished of the play ; and this strengthened his resolve. 
 Schroder was at that time the director of the Ham- 
 burg Theatre; on September 12th Schiller applies to 
 him by letter, saying that the zeal for drama-writing, 
 half lost to him when in Mannheim, had now revived, 
 yet that he dreaded the awful maltreatment which 
 plays received at the German theatres. " By this time 
 I have thoroughly got to learn the bounds imposed 
 upon the poet by stage scenery, and by all the other 
 requisites of a theatre ; there are other and closer 
 limits, however, fixed by the small-mindedness of the 
 incompetent artist; and these the genius of a great 
 actor and thinker overleaps. But I would wish to be 
 free from such Hmits ; thus I the readier hail the 
 thought of realising by my closer relation to you an 
 ideal which without you I should have hopelessly to 
 abandon." Schroder was to have all his plays, who, by 
 revising them, would make him write with greater 
 enthusiasm. By the end of the year he hoped to have 
 recast his " Carlos " in dramatic form. Next January, 
 too, "The Manhater" would be finished; the chief
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 203 
 
 character in it could only be acted by one who had 
 already created for Germany the parts of Lear and 
 Hamlet. While waiting in eagerness for Schroder's 
 answer, he finished the opening portion of " The Ghost- 
 seer" (to be inserted in the fourth number of Thalia), 
 and worked on at " Don Carlos." He also announced 
 the issue of a work to which various authors would 
 contribute, " A History of Eemarkable Conspiracies and 
 Eebellions, from the Middle Ages down to the Present 
 Day." For this he hoped to furnish his " Fall of the 
 Netherlands." 
 
 The accession of a new king to the throne of Prussia 
 brought our poet no hope, for those in authority at 
 Berhn showed him httle favour. On the other hand, 
 he advised Frau von Wolzogeu, who was in distress as 
 to her two youngest sons, to apply to his Majesty, then 
 in a bountiful mood ; he offered even to write a letter 
 on her behalf that the king should never callously 
 reject. He tells her, besides, that she shall certainly 
 receive money from him at Easter. 
 
 By the 18th of October Schroder had already asked 
 him upon what conditions he would come to Ham- 
 burg as playwright. There was no need at his theatre 
 to fear such treatment as he had received in Mann- 
 heim ; in any case Schroder wished the plays to be 
 sent to him. But Schiller hesitated, wavered ; he 
 would not bind himself. Parting with Korner was a 
 bitter thought ; and he was daily expecting Charlotte's 
 answer, who, staying then for her health's sake with 
 relations at Gotha, designed to draw him to herself. 
 Moreover, it was not possible to appear at Hamburg 
 before " Don Carlos " was completed. Thus he delayed 
 giving reply for nearly two whole months. And it 
 was fortunate for him that he did so, that he did not 
 a second time turn playwright, but tliat he left work in 
 this field until his powers had grown riper. 
 
 He arranged with Goeschen for the publication of
 
 204 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 " Don Carlos," which was to appear at Easter. He 
 was paid at the rate of ten thalers the sheet. The sale 
 of Thalia was such a bad one, that the publisher 
 wished to issue the numbers in volume form under 
 another title. Schiller was nettled by what he termed 
 a stupid critique in the Neue Bihliothek der Schonen 
 Wissenschaftcn of his " Carlos ; " its blunt vehemence 
 showed it to have been written with a motive ; the 
 form in which the complete play would appear, should 
 be his only answer. Director Dobbelin had just ac- 
 cepted the piece for the Berlin National Theatre. 
 
 It was a sad December for Korner and his house- 
 hold. The infant died on the 10th, while Minna's 
 health still caused them anxiety. Her husband went 
 to Leipzig during the middle of the month to consult 
 a physician there, and Schiller with Huber took up his 
 quarters at Korner's house. He now gave answer to 
 Schroder ; it was impossible to come, he said, for he 
 was living in the bosom of a family that had need of 
 him. Circumstances made it necessary for him to stay 
 in Dresden, and he must first arrange matters formally 
 with the Duke of Weimar, as it was a regular engage- 
 ment which took him to Hamburg. He was still ever 
 hoping for some sort of intercession on the duke's part, 
 little though the gift of just a councillor's title helped 
 to strengthen such hope. Next year perhaps he would 
 come. As to the " Carlos," which would be ready in 
 six weeks' time, he asks whether he ought to rewrite 
 it in prose, and if the play may last three hours. In 
 Korner's absence he grew depressed, sufiering at times 
 from deep melancholy ; his letters contained self-re- 
 proaches that he was of such little use to his friends, 
 that he had not yet been able to requite their kindness. 
 He was working at " Carlos," as he must keep his 
 promise to Goeschen, yet he was not in the vein for 
 writing. He felt how in the most mo\dng scenes he 
 lacked fire ; here and there, only, under the ashes, one
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 205 
 
 might detect a spark. Korner urgently besought liini 
 not to finish the play in a hurry ; it would be far 
 better to postpone its issue. Schiller was also uneasy 
 at Charlotte's silence, who from Weimar had gone to 
 Kalbsried, although it pleased him to feel that he had 
 not to leave his friends for some time to come. When, 
 after three weeks, Korner at length returned, their 
 circle won back its old gaiety, for Minna was now on 
 the road to health. There were the same philosophical 
 discussions, the same serious ponderings with Korner 
 upon life. Schiller gladly hailed Eeineke's offer of a 
 hundred thalers for a prose version of the " Don Car- 
 los " which was needed for the Dresden theatre. But 
 Dobbelin, on the other hand, now that Engel and 
 Ramler had the joint management of the Berlin play- 
 house, was obliged, in their name, to retract his former 
 promise to accept the piece. Engel found that Schiller's 
 dramas conformed too little to usual rules. The prose 
 version was quickly thrown off, and the closing scene 
 completed; yet with the edition for press but slow 
 progress was made. And into the poet's life of work 
 and enjoyment now suddenly came another influence, 
 the influence of love, which lit, which wholly wrapped 
 his heart and soul in its resistless flame.
 
 CHAPTEPt III. 
 
 FROM FEBRUARY TO JULY, 1787. 
 
 At a masked ball to which he went with the Korners 
 and Huber, Schiller was accosted by a pretty fortune- 
 telling gipsy maid. She thoroughly captivated him, 
 and after Minna, wearied by the crowd, had gone home 
 with her husband, he stayed behind with Huber for a 
 long while. The fair fortune-teller proved to be EHza- 
 beth Henrietta von Arnim, a lovely damsel of nineteen, 
 the second of three sisters. Their mother, an officer's 
 widow, was attached to the court. Schiller was 
 irresistibly fascinated by Mile, von Arnim's beauty 
 of face and archness of manner. He often met her 
 after this at Sophie Albrecht's house, and in time he 
 obtained an introduction to her family. The mother 
 was not averse to see the famous poet among her daugh- 
 ter's adorers, among whom were a Count Waldstein- 
 Dux and a rich Jewish banker. On many an evening 
 now Schiller's place at the tea-table was vacant ; Minna 
 quickly guessed what the magnet was that attracted 
 him ; and he did not deny that by winning Jettchen 
 he looked to reach the zenith of his earthly happiness. 
 He gave her his portrait, and received one of hers in 
 return; he could not enough admire its heavenly 
 beauty. Vain were all the warnings of Korner, Minna, 
 or Dora ; his whole heart was filled by the maiden's 
 unequalled loveliness of person and of character. 
 
 Early in March the second act of his play had gone 
 to the printer ; the remaining one, though for the most 
 
 206
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 207 
 
 part ready, needed still thorough revision, and the clos- 
 ing metres would have to be amended. Wieland had 
 spoken admiringly of Schiller's genius in liis Mcrcur, 
 when reviewing the three last numbers of Tluilia ; and 
 though he found less evidence in the " Carlos " than 
 elsewhere of the writer's poetic force, Schiller hoped 
 that the play when entirely revised would gain Wie- 
 land's unstinted praise. He was also planning out his 
 exciting novel, " The Ghostseer," and had begun upon 
 the " History of the Revolt of the Netherlands." 
 
 Koch, the director of the Eiga Theatre, visited him 
 in Leipzig, and wished for the prose version of the 
 forthcoming play. Groszmann of Frankfort also asked 
 for it, but upon moderate terms, as he had suffered 
 heavy loss by fire. " You shall have it," wrote Schiller, 
 who just then wanted money. " The terms shall be 
 those asked by one hurnt-oiU man of another, never 
 built up at all. Twelve ducats is a sum that, for you 
 and for me, I hold to be cheap." Love in all its joy 
 and teen had overwhelmed him ; to see his fair, to 
 gladden her by speech or gifts, was his one desire. On 
 some evenings he was often hindered from entering 
 her house, and though they told him that this was 
 done with Jettchen's consent, it only fanned the flame. 
 When the Arnims left Dresden for a time, at Easter, 
 he stayed behind ; all the many memories of his be- 
 loved filled him with unrest ; all poetic energy, all 
 interest in life, flagged. Then Korner and his wife 
 determined to bring him away from Dresden ; they 
 took him on April 17th to Tharand, a pretty little town 
 some two miles distant. By such rest his heart might 
 here win back its mirth, and his mind, its bent for 
 poetry. But life at an inn was all too prosaic for him ; 
 it seemed like exile on some barren island. Unfor- 
 tunately, rain fell for several days together, so that he 
 could not leave the house. " I have been working, 
 though," he says on the 20th. " How ? No matter
 
 2o8 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 about that." He wrote a letter to Jettchen, which 
 Dora was to deliver at her house and receive its answer. 
 But if she had not come home from her journey it 
 must be brought back. On the 21st he gets three 
 delightful letters. The first from Jettchen, who had 
 fixed her home arrival for that evening. The second 
 was from Charlotte, saying that she intended to spend 
 the summer in Weimar, where she longed for his pres- 
 ence, and that she had given a landscape-painter intro- 
 ductions to him. The third letter was from Dalberg, 
 who agreed to accept the " Carlos " for the sum of one 
 hundred thalers. He wished for it in its verse form, 
 in iambics, as he had already had some success with a 
 piece written in like metre. On the 22d, the first day 
 of tolerable weather, Schiller roamed over the hills, for 
 he had absolute need of exercise. He fitted together 
 the fragments of his " Carlos " and recast the prose 
 scenes ; one fine week of spring should now see all 
 completed, so he thought. Of course such tremendous 
 haste had obliged him to reject many a happy idea, 
 many a suggestion made by the higher part of him ; 
 but that was good, he said, for his piece was already 
 overcharged, and these germs of thought should " bring 
 forth splendid fruit in a time of ripe perfection." Dur- 
 ing the same day Jettchen's little brother came to 
 Tharand. On Sunday, the 23d, he sent the re-revised 
 prose version of " Don Carlos " to Kbrner, who was to 
 get three acting copies made of it. He promised to 
 forward next day the continuation for press. That 
 afternoon he had a visit from Jettchen and her mother ; 
 unfortunately Count Waldstein also arrived at Tharand, 
 and this exasperated Schiller no less than Jettchen, 
 especially as he saw how her mother encouraged the 
 nobleman's suit. Koruer felt annoyed that by this 
 the " Carlos " was once more likely to be neglected ; 
 but Schiller consoled him by saying that there w^ere 
 thirteen sheets at the printer's, and that he was not
 
   THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 209 
 
 pressed for time ; he had thoughts of writing an addi- 
 tional scene ; perhaps of completing the third act also. 
 But his passion disquieted him and kept him from this. 
 He lost no time in writing to Jettchen, telhng her of 
 his early love episodes, informing her, too, of his inti- 
 macy with Charlotte. Jettchen's answer of the 28th 
 ran thus : 
 
 " I had firmly resolved never to love again," she 
 confesses ; " never to believe myself loved ; I meant 
 to be as fickle as are most men, and to guard against 
 all that could awaken sentiment; still, I wished to 
 keep a troop of adorers about me, listening to each, 
 and putting faith in none. But here I erred, for 
 I judged all men by the standard of one whom I had 
 judged all too well ; I did not think that there were 
 exceptions. Hardly had I spoken twice with you, 
 when I speedily discovered that, in counting to keep 
 all love away from my heart, I had erred. True, I con- 
 fess, that before this I had already felt affection, but in 
 a far less degree than now, for my first passion was 
 prompted by vanity ; I was surprised, without the 
 power of analysing my real feelings." She only ven- 
 tured, she said, to confess all this to him, from which 
 he could judge how deeply she loved him. That which 
 SchiUer told her of his intimacy with his friend Char- 
 lotte had made her most curious ; it would hardly seem 
 to be altogether a proper friendship, since he was so 
 terribly mysterious about it. She therefore asked if he 
 would or could be more explicit. Every letter of his, 
 even the smallest, she had preserved ; hers, again, were 
 not worth the reading — full of huge blunders, and with 
 all the fine, high-flown passages manifestly clipped from 
 some old romance. Just these remarks of Jettchen 
 must have confirmed the opinion of Schiller's friends 
 about her, and must have served to cool his ardour ; 
 here she frankly confesses to have loved some one else 
 through vanity, and to have coquetted with many more,
 
 2IO THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 even though she now wished Schiller to effect her con- 
 version. Perhaps in this letter he saw her mother's 
 influencing hand. He was still too troubled in mind 
 for any work at his play; the pain at tinding that 
 Jettchen was not she for whom his heart craved, tor- 
 tured him. And though he might throw all blame 
 upon her mother, and try to respect Jettclien's warm- 
 hearted, noble sentiment, there could be no longer 
 thought of heart-unity between them, and she could 
 never yield him that rest of soul for which he 
 yearned. 
 
 The actual ending — we might almost say the 
 breaking off of this love episode — was made by some 
 charming verses which Schiller sent to Jettchen on 
 May 2d. He here speaks but of " sympathy of hearts," 
 of " friendship," " whose rare and lovely lot " she shared. 
 The lines closed thus : 
 
 " For me, too, be there kept this name so splendid, 
 Oh, guard a place for me within thy heart ! 
 Fate made us meet when youth was almost ended, 
 And yet our bond the ages shall not part. 
 
 " True friendship, this is all that I can bring thee ; 
 And what 1 earn will be my heart alone ; 
 For ever will I strive how I may win thee ; 
 
 Thy heart T hold, didst thou "but know mine own." 
 
 We have no knowledge whether a letter went with 
 these lines, but from them alone Jettchen must have 
 seen that he was changed ; and if she failed to do this, 
 her mother would have brought it to her notice. Ma- 
 dame von Arnim counselled her daughter for the first 
 to make no reply ; it was the only way, she said, to 
 win back the poet. Schiller, after two days of vain 
 expectancy, then vented his rancour in a letter, taxing 
 Jettchen with indifference, and in which he stated his 
 resolve to stay another week at Tharand by way of 
 revenge.
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 211 
 
 " Does it flatter you to feel that you have roused 
 sentimeuts which you cannot return ? " he writes. 
 Further, he insinuates that by her feigned affection she 
 probably had only wished to yoke him to her car 
 of triumph. To this, next day, there came back a curt 
 rejoinder, in which we seem to hear the mother's voice 
 rather than the daughter's. His letter showed, it 
 is said, that pride had far stronger sway over him 
 than love. 
 
 " You know this but too well, that you first awoke 
 love within me, and perhaps out of courtesy you pre- 
 tended to feel something also ; but now it wearies you 
 to waste your time over so wretched a mortal (as in 
 your eyes I must be), so by degrees you beat a retreat, 
 though gallant enough to inform me, by way of sparing 
 my vanity, that I am to blame for your indifference. 
 . . . But must I then be nothing short of a sublime 
 creature in order to gain your love ? Is what I count 
 in of no merit in your sight, namely, to love you above 
 all things ? To do that, you think, is easy enough, but 
 to win your affection, that means, of course, a great 
 deal more." She ends with the news that her mother 
 intends to \isit him to-morrow, Sunday, at Tharand, if 
 he were not expecting other and better company — 
 some more intellectual friends — with whom such 
 homely every-day folk as they would form but a sorry 
 contrast. Schiller could only see the clearer from all 
 this that with such a mother-in-law he could never 
 expect to spend a quiet life with Jettchen ; thus he 
 the readier gave up all claim to her hand, though his 
 own future was still blank and hopeless. Love's fire 
 cooled down to the even temperature of friendship. 
 
 Before the middle of May he at last returned to 
 Dresden, where he earnestly worked at the final por- 
 tion of " Don Carlos." As Goeschen had promised to 
 bring out the piece at Eastertide, which was now over, 
 he only let the first section of the play appear, with
 
 2 12 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 the note that the second part, together with plate and 
 title-page, should follow in a fortnight. 
 
 Schiller now firmly resolved to visit Charlotte as 
 soon as possible in Weimar, who was longing to see 
 him again, for it was her deepest desire to live where 
 he lived. He thought, too, to revive his friendly rela- 
 tions with the Duke of Weimar, and to become con- 
 nected with some of the leading men of Ilmathen. He 
 does not regret that Goethe was away, travelling in 
 Italy, for he had httle wish to put himself forward in 
 Weimar at the side of so great a man. When " Carlos " 
 should be completed, he believed he might contentedly 
 let it stand upon its own merit. 
 
 The prose version of this for the stage had been 
 submitted ; but that in iambics must also be prepared. 
 When he finally sent this last to Schroder on the 23d 
 of June, he said that many matters, and one hindrance 
 stronger than all, in that it was an affaire du cmur, had 
 kept him from finishing sooner the version promised 
 for January. With the other acting editions (now for 
 the most part sent out) he had made all possible haste ; 
 Schroder, however, must be furnished with riper and 
 more thoughtful work. " All ! that I might now reap 
 the fruits of my toil, that I might revel in the sight of 
 my ' Carlos ' put upon your stage. ... I shall see 
 you, and my sense for drama, well-nigh extinct, will 
 wake anew within me. To you I look for this recon- 
 ciliation of my muse with the stage, which most of 
 the theatres that hitherto I have seen have dis- 
 couraged rather than helped. Perhaps by the end of 
 the summer you'll have me at Hamburg. In two or 
 three weeks I shall set out on a journey that is to end 
 with Hamburg. I am going to bring you a new piece 
 (' The Manhater '). Now, to descend to prose. If, be- 
 fore I start, you could send me some money, it would 
 be very welcome. I need it to travel with, and I think 
 it would be ridiculous on my part to make a secret
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 213 
 
 to you of such a thing. I have thoughts of leaving 
 Dresden at the end of this month." He informed 
 Charlotte of his intention to go to Weimar, in a letter 
 wherein he opened out his heart to her, making spe- 
 cial confession of the now vanished passion for the 
 bewitching Mile. Arnim. This letter, Charlotte tells 
 us, having reached her at midnight, she kept unread 
 till the next day. But when morning came she could 
 not find it, and this seemed so strange to her that she 
 believed it all to be a dream, and lived through many 
 melancholy days while waiting for the poet's answer. 
 He, again, was surprised at her silence. 
 
 Schiller found it impossible to leave his friend before 
 the 2d of July, Korner's birthday, that two years since 
 had been to both such a notable feast. The Httle farce 
 he now wrote, called " Korner's Forenoon," shows how 
 strangely merry he then was. Many a comic situa- 
 tion, many a droll event, was here pictured with great 
 skUl ; how, for instance, Korner loses a whole morning 
 through numberless petty interruptions, so that he is 
 finally driven to send an apology to the Consistorium 
 for his absence. All the free, unconventional style of 
 living in the Korner household is here humourously 
 immortahsed. The poet himself had four different 
 r61es to play besides his own ; the costume for this last 
 was to include " summer overcoat, yellow slippers, and 
 a snuff-box." 
 
 By the 4th Schiller was able to thank Schroder for 
 twenty-one louis d'or in payment for " Don Carlos," and 
 for a translation by Huber of a short French comedy. 
 The letter of acknowledgment said that now he could 
 start for Weimar unhindered, and after a few weeks 
 spent there he should come on to Hamburg. Still he 
 wavered. He could not bring himself to leave his 
 friends even for a short time ; a dread came over him 
 that he was standing at a turning-point in his hf e — 
 that he was taking a step whose importance lay far
 
 2 14 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 ahead in the gloom of the future. Eesolved at last, he 
 at once wrote to Charlotte, for whose answer to a 
 former letter he had vamly looked. He then discussed 
 the question of his departure at great length with 
 Komer and Huber. He procured himself a court dress, 
 which, however, he never used, as his plain evening 
 clothes were enough for the visit he had to make. 
 Korner jestingly proposed to him the daughter of Privy 
 Councillor Schmidt as a rich heiress to espouse. He 
 parted with the Arnims on friendly terms — some of 
 tlie old affection for Jettchen lingered still in his heart. 
 He undertook a message for her younger sister, who 
 was then in a convent at Erfurt. Notwithstanding 
 Korner's help, at whose table he was treated as a 
 guest, in spite of the sums gained by " Don Carlos " 
 and the journal Tlialia, his love episode had made 
 him extravagant in the matter of gifts, and he had 
 fallen into debt. Korner, after knowing the amount 
 he owed, helped him to pay off' the most urgent debts 
 by standing surety for his friend, who could thus 
 borrow the loan of three hundred and ten thalers from 
 one Beit, a Jew. On the 19th they spent their last 
 evening together at Loschwitz, walking to a little cop- 
 pice wliich crowned a hill close by, where the time 
 passed mirthfully amid clink of glasses and song. 
 Next day the poet had Dresden behind him ; he 
 travelled to Leipzig with an old acquaintance, the wife 
 of Schneider, the publisher. 
 
 The chief intellectual result of Schiller's stay at 
 Dresden had been before all things the " Don Carlos," 
 which was in many ways a great advance upon his 
 other dramas, although the poet had not wholly kept 
 his immense power in check. Perhaps through the 
 lengthy process of transformation and rearrangement 
 the play may have lost something of poetic unity. 
 Beside that and " The Manhater," he had been plan- 
 ning another drama, " Juhan the Apostate." In this
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 215 
 
 last the beauty of Greek mythology was to be set 
 in sharp contrast to the stern asceticism of Chris- 
 tianity. He had promised to issue six numbers 
 annually of the Thalia, yet during these two years 
 spent at Leipzig and Dresden, in spite of help from 
 Huber, Eeinwald, and others, three only had appeared. 
 But he had begun upon another work, " The Ghost- 
 seer," which was hereafter to prove of high importance 
 to him ; he had turned to history as well, and was 
 preparing a description of the revolt in the Nether- 
 lands. Korner's society and influence had, moreover, 
 led him to take interest in philosophy. Here, sharing 
 the pleasures of this cheerful family circle (the first he 
 had ever known of domestic enjoyment, for he had 
 met nothing like it in his own dismal home), his 
 sympathies were one and all quickened. Korner's 
 noble, manly friendship had raised him, and the first 
 rays of real affection had touched his soul and left 
 upon it their abiding trace.
 
 Book VII. 
 Fresh Fields of Action
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 FROM JULY, 1787, TO JANUARY, 1788. 
 
 On reachiug Naumburg, Schiller found that the 
 Duke of Weimar had just passed through the town 
 on his way to Potsdam. He was sorry to have missed 
 seeing him, although his Grace, then absorbed in poli- 
 tics, would scarcely have taken closer interest in the 
 poet. Arriving at Weimar that evening, Schiller put 
 up at the hotel in the market-place, Zum Erbprinzen, 
 and instantly went to see Charlotte. " Our first meet- 
 ing," he writes to Korner, two days later, " was so 
 hurried, so bewildering, that I am at a loss to describe 
 it to you. Charlotte has remained all that she always 
 was, even with some slight marks of ill-health, which, 
 hidden from me by the excitement of our meeting, I 
 had not noticed until to-day." A fortnight afterward, 
 he tells his friend the whole truth. 
 
 " She had been expecting me with keen anxiety and 
 impatience. My last letter, assuring her of my coming, 
 caused her such uneasiness that her health suffered 
 thereby. She had clung but to this thought, and, 
 having me, her capacity for gladness was gone. Such 
 lengthy waiting had exhausted her ; joy was benumb- 
 ing in its effect." This was his explanation of the 
 chilly welcome given to him by his old friend, as 
 morbid, as unhealthy in mind as ever, and only more 
 sickly, more full of repining than before. He too 
 was changed, and looked for consolation where he had 
 to console. Strange, the confession he makes on the 
 23d. 
 
 219
 
 220 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 " Charlotte is a great and an extraordinary being — 
 a real study for me, and one who could cause trouble 
 to a mind greater than mine. As our intimacy deepens 
 I gradually discover new points in her character, 
 which, like lovely portions of some vast landscape, 
 astonish and delight me." She, clever woman, filled 
 as she was with enthusiasm for the poet's genius, drew 
 him again within her toils. Already, on the first day, 
 he was introduced to Frau von Imhof, Frau von 
 Stein's sister, who was also living in separation from 
 her husband. She instantly spread the news, at a 
 large soiree, that she had met the author of " Don 
 Carlos." Another of Charlotte's visitors was the young 
 and talented Count Solms, then resident for a time in 
 Weimar ; Schiller and he had much pleasant converse 
 together. 
 
 The poet lost no time in calling upon different 
 people. Charlotte, after her fashion, had told him 
 those persons of note whose acquaintance he must 
 make, strongly urging him to hold his own against the 
 magnates of Weimar. He first announced himself to 
 the veteran poet Wieland in a few lines, saying that 
 all his best pleasure in after-life would depend upon 
 his love and good-will. Wieland, then in his fifty- 
 fourth year, was deeply engaged upon a translation of 
 Lucian. He gave the young poet a most genial wel- 
 come, who had turned more than once to him for 
 counsel, and of whom he had heard much through 
 Schwan. After two hours' conversation, they parted 
 as the best of friends. Wieland spoke with enthusi- 
 asm of their mutual influence, for he counted upon 
 Schiller's staying a long time in Weimar, and the poet 
 had said no word of his prospects nor of the scheme 
 which he had in view. Herder was the next celebrity 
 to be visited. He had much to attract Schiller and to 
 call forth his sympathies. " His conversation," he says, 
 " is full of soul, full of force and fire ; but he has but
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 221 
 
 two emotions — hate and love. He loves Goethe pas- 
 sionately — half idolatrously." They talked much 
 of Goethe ; also of philosophy and politics ; of Weimar, 
 of Schubart, now finally set free, and of Schiller's own 
 quarrel with the Duke of Wiirtemberg, a tyrant whom 
 Herder hated. ^He asked the poet to come often and 
 see him. Neither spoke of the other's work in litera- 
 ture. Schiller believed that Herder had never yet read 
 any of his poetry, though he must, at least, have heard 
 of his early plays, which, one and all, had been given 
 at Weimar. Schiller also called upon Einsiedel, a man 
 of musical and literary attainments, who was chamber- 
 lain to the dowager duchess. They spoke together of 
 the confederacy of German princes which the duke 
 was so zealous to have established. 
 
 Charlotte, who well saw Schiller's agitated state, 
 first feigned a vivacity that bordered upon pertness, 
 and he caught something of her hilarious tone. While 
 the merry mood was still on him, he got amusement 
 from a visit paid to him by Vulpius, the Weimar poet, 
 who, after striving to support his sisters and himself 
 by novel- writing, had been obhged to accept a secre- 
 taryship at Niirnberg. We feel some pity for the 
 poor crooked Httle man " in white coat and yellow- 
 green vest," whom Schiller thus summarily dismissed 
 without a single friendly word, for Vulpius worked 
 earnestly at his craft, and wrote only because he had 
 to write. 
 
 On the 27th Schiller, with Wieland, accepted the 
 dowager duchess's invitation to Tiefurt, where he was 
 most graciously received. But the duchess made no 
 favourable impression upon our poet; he thought her 
 narrow-minded, interested only in the sensuous, which 
 explained her taste for music, painting, and the like. 
 Perhaps Charlotte helped him to form this hasty and 
 unsparing judgment. With her he went next evening 
 a second time to Tiefurt, to a concert and a supper, at
 
 222 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 which Wieland and Count Solms were also present. 
 Charlotte had assured him that everywhere in Weimar 
 his manners would go down. Thus she was to blame 
 when Schiller so far forgot himself as to address his 
 answer to her instead of to the duchess, who had asked 
 him a question. Returning that night to his hotel, he 
 found Gotter there, the poet, with Ettinger, the Gotha 
 publisher. He was much discouraged by Cotter's stric- 
 tures upon the " Don Carlos," who then first gave him 
 a notion of how Weimar would receive the play he 
 himself so highly rated. Charlotte relapsed into her 
 former nervous, weakly state, and this troubled him 
 also. He had just taken lodgings for three months 
 in a house formerly owned by Charlotte ; for two 
 rooms and a bedroom he had to pay seventeen thalers 
 and a half — " a deal of money," as he called it. Then 
 he must keep a servant at six thalers a month, who, 
 if needed, could do copying work for him also. 
 
 He dined on the 30th with Wieland at his club, 
 whose verdict respecting the "Don Carlos" he anx- 
 iously awaited. He met Herder again in August, and 
 he also promised an opinion. Then he went to Erfurt 
 to carry out the Aruims' commission. He was shown 
 over the convent, where, of course, he was sufficiently 
 stared at. On learning at the hotel who he was, he 
 met with great attention — was treated " like a Chris- 
 tian ; " the members of an amateur dramatic club met 
 together before the door, though none ventured to 
 deliver an address. Governor von Dalberg had been 
 for a long time absent from Erfurt, being kept away 
 by his new appointment at Mainz. Schiller informed 
 Jettchen that he had executed her commission, and 
 expressed hope of receiving a letter from her soon. 
 On getting back to Weimar, Gotter told him, to his 
 annoyance, that he had read aloud the acting version 
 of "Don Carlos" at Tiefurt, Wieland listeniug with 
 the rest, and that a portion, the first half only, had
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 223 
 
 produced an impression, the remainder finding little 
 favour. This explained Wieland's silence. Schiller 
 had already decided to spend some time at Meiningen, 
 where his brother-in-law could secure lodgings for him 
 either in Frau von Wolzogeu's house or elsewhere. 
 For this reason he wrote to the baroness on August 
 1st. He made excuse for having, through adverse 
 fortunes, let four years pass without yet paying his 
 debt ; the thouglit of this had often tortured him. 
 Perhaps in a few months, he said, his circumstances 
 might change for the better, when probably he would 
 find a friend willing to advance him the money. This 
 was but one of the many transient schemes he was 
 for ever forming. 
 
 Fortunately Charlotte made speedy recovery ; she 
 grew easier in mind, though their life together was 
 not all that Schiller had fancied it would be. He 
 wrote to Korner that the formation of unalterable 
 friendship between Charlotte and himself depended 
 only upon his own development of mind and char- 
 acter. She had, at least, a more equable temperament, 
 although she was more capricious in mood ; long soli- 
 tude and persistent attachment to her being had fixed 
 her image deeper in his heart than his in hers. Korner 
 hoped that this quiet life together would help to 
 cement their friendship. But Schiller needed a calm- 
 ing influence which Charlotte, consumed as she was 
 by nervous excitement and the distress of circum- 
 stances, could never exercise. 
 
 Wieland still held back, while Herder, on the other 
 hand, ' spoke publicly in Schiller's favour at the 
 duchess's table. Herder at the first had formed no 
 very high opinion of Schiller, but he took now an 
 interest in the young poet, and after reading the 
 instalments of "Don Carlos," his favourable impres- 
 sions were confirmed. Schiller at this time met Frau 
 von Stein, Goethe's friends whom he held to be the
 
 224 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 best of them all, termiug her " truly singular and 
 interesting." But such was not his judgment of Major 
 von Knebel, Goethe's most intimate friend. Weimar 
 became distasteful to him, for it took too much of his 
 money and too much of his time ; he had also given 
 up all hope that the duke would provide him with 
 some appointment. Charlotte would probably not stay 
 there any longer ; this was to be decided at the end of 
 September, when her husband had promised to come 
 to Kalbsried. From his answer Schiller perceived that 
 Kalb's friendship for him was unchanged, although the 
 husband loved his wife, and must have seen through 
 her intimacy with the poet. But he trusted Charlotte 
 implicitly ; it was the world's opinion alone which 
 caused him fear, which made it the harder for him to 
 say nothing. 
 
 Anxiety about the future now forced Schiller to 
 take up his pen, and he began to work at the " Eevolt 
 of the Netherlands." "I am full of my subject, and 
 work with a will," he writes, four weeks after reaching 
 Weimar. " This will be, as it were, my delmt in his- 
 tory, and I hope to produce something really readable." 
 He believed that he would find the necessary rest for 
 this at Meiningen. But he wished first to visit Jena. 
 Wieland's daughter, Sophie, married to Professor Eein- 
 hold, was staying at this time with Charlotte, who, on 
 the 20th, took her to Jena. Schiller joined them, 
 intending to stay for a day or two with Professor Piciu- 
 hold. With this enthusiastic apostle of the Kantian 
 philosophy he sympathised much, although he must 
 have felt that Eeinhold, to whom the realm of fancy 
 was as a sealed book, could never be his friend. Char- 
 lotte returned the same evening, but Schiller remained 
 there six days ; he had felt nowhere so comfortable 
 and at his ease. Writing to Korner, he says, " I could 
 never be perfectly happy at any time or in any spot ; 
 that you know ; for I can never, while in the present,
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 225 
 
 lose thought of the future. I spent six idle days at 
 Jena ; yet they alone were enough to poison genuine 
 gladness for me." It was in this town that he made 
 the acquaintance of Schiltz and Haseland, the editors 
 of the Allgemeine Literatur Zeitung. He was pleased 
 that Schiitz, a man of taste in literature, should ap- 
 prove of the " Don Carlos ; " in Haseland, so he thought, 
 there lay the makings of a great man. While here he 
 also met Doderlein and Grieshach, the theologians. 
 He spent the evening previous to his departure at the 
 latter's house, where Charlotte, Eeinhold, and many 
 more were assembled. Eeinhold assured the poet that 
 before spring came he could certainly get some ap- 
 pointment at Jena. But Schiller was not tempted by 
 such a prospect. He wished to live independently, 
 but undivided from his friends, if it were possible to 
 earn a comfortable livelihood by authorship, a question 
 which would be answered within a year's time. It 
 was in these days that he sent his version in iambics 
 of the " Don Carlos " to Mannheim. 
 
 He celebrated Goethe's birthday, the 28th, with 
 Charlotte, Frau von Imhof, Frau von Schardt, and the 
 two eldest sons of Voigt and Herder. They spent 
 the day in the grounds of an estate owned by Goethe, 
 where Knebel was now living. Herder was absent 
 through illness, and Frau von Stein was at Kochberg. 
 " We ate heartily," wrote Schiller, " and I drank to 
 Goethe's health in Ehenish. He little thinks, in Italy, 
 that he has me among his guests, but Fate brings won- 
 drous things to pass." While taking Charlotte thither 
 they met the duchess, with whom, however, only bows 
 were exchanged. Schiller thought her without beauty, 
 yet, in figure, tall and noble-looking. Charlotte had 
 told him that with the duchess he might be completely 
 himself ; that he would find her full of sympathy for 
 the beautiful ; she described her even as a zealous 
 admirer of his writings. But Charlotte had often
 
 226 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 misinformed him upon such subjects, and from other 
 quarters he had heard that the duchess was very proud 
 and reticent, approachable only by entrance into her 
 select circle. He had already declined all advance- 
 ment from the court ; he wished to rely solely upon 
 himself; to try what he might, by his own strength, 
 achieve. On the morning of Goethe's birthday he had 
 just written as follows to Huber : 
 
 " The result of my experiences here is that I know 
 my weakness, while my soul, however, strikes at higher 
 summits than before. By industry and by study I 
 can remedy the defects which comparison with others 
 shows me I possess, and then the joy of pure and per- 
 fect knowledge of my own entity will be mine. . . . 
 Believe me, an immense deal lies within our might ; 
 we have not measured our powers ; it is in time that 
 these powers lie. To use our time conscientiously, 
 carefully, may work wonderfully for us all. . . . What 
 right have we to call fate or Heaven to account if we 
 are less favoured than others in the world ? Time 
 was given to us ; a capital which, when possessed of 
 understanding and zeal of purpose, we have to employ 
 to the best advantage." And accordingly, from this 
 time forth, he worked earnestly to qualify himself for 
 earning " a competency " within the year. The project 
 of a journey to Meiningen was abandoned, and he 
 worked unremittingly at the " Eevolt of the Nether- 
 lands." Even the extraordinary success which the 
 "Carlos" had met with in Schroder's hands did 
 not inchne him to make any fresh efforts in play- 
 writing ; and for a time, at all events, he gave up all 
 intention of visiting Hamburg. He worked now for 
 ten hours every day. Twice a week he visited Char- 
 lotte ; on other days he called in turn upon Herder, 
 Voigt, Bode, or Bertuch, while each Monday evening 
 was spent at the club. Of course so much work 
 affected his health and " racked " his brain, but even
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 227 
 
 in this state of " hypochondriacal despondency " he did 
 not lose heart. As the coming of Charlotte's husband 
 was delayed, her distressful condition did not change. 
 " What was the point of my coming here ? " he writes 
 gloomily to Korner. " I am so worn out with medi- 
 tating here upon that, I avoid bestowing thought upon 
 the matter, and until my present work be finished I 
 have wholly given up thinking about myself." 
 
 At the beginning of October the duke returned to 
 Weimar. He left again for Holland on the evening 
 of the 5th, before Schiller could have audience of him. 
 The duke had himself asked for an interview, but 
 when Knebel told him this, Schiller must have seen 
 that it was for no very special reason that his Grace 
 wished to speak with him. 
 
 The poet was not able entirely to renounce all social 
 pleasures. Since the 1 st, a weekly Wednesday gather- 
 ing of the townsfolk had been organised, when they 
 all dined together, and their amusements were cards 
 and dancing. Schiller, who craved for distraction, 
 gladly joined them, and even made one of a whist 
 party comprising the court singer, Corona Schroder, a 
 friend of Goethe's, Carohne Schmidt, Haseland, and 
 Riedel. Their rubber was always played at the 
 Wednesday club meeting. His other evenings were 
 spent with Charlotte, or at Frau von Imhof's, where 
 card-playing also went on. Mile. Schroder pleased 
 him by her naturalness. She gave him a volume 
 of her own songs, while he, in return, begged her to 
 keep as a souvenir the copy of " Don Carlos " that 
 he had lent her to read. They often met, and 
 Schiller found her society most congenial. 
 
 As a proof of his present more temperate judgment 
 of others, we may take the fact that he also gave a 
 copy of the " Carlos," together with a most graceful 
 dedication, to Carohne Schmidt, whom he had formerly 
 spoken of only in a jocose, contemptuous manner.
 
 228 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 But still he complains to Huber that, among so many 
 acquaintances, he had no friend to love, for a female 
 friend could not be reckoned as one. 
 
 He was still sorely pinched for money. The ex- 
 pected fee from Dalberg for his " Carlos " was not 
 forthcoming, as the play's production had been delayed. 
 His need drove him to ask Crusius, his pubhsher, for 
 twelve louis d'or on account of his history of the 
 " Revolt of the Netherlands." It was almost finished, 
 he said, and he was just transcribing it ; he wished to 
 receive the rest of the sum due to him on the work at 
 the New Year. Of course he could not take up Beit's 
 bill. Kbrner would have to pay the interest thereon 
 up to Easter, when it must be renewed. Fortunately 
 for him, he now became reconciled with Wieland, who 
 had reviewed the " Don Carlos " favourably. Schiller 
 joined the staff of his journal, the Mercur, and they 
 intended to convert it into a leading national organ, 
 concerning which Eeinhold had to be consulted. 
 Schiller already looked upon himself as " heir pre- 
 sumptive " to the paper. He saw, too, a possibihty of 
 drawing Korner to Weimar. 
 
 He went into a new house at the end of the quarter. 
 We are not sure if it was the one in his neighbour- 
 hood recommended by Mile. Schroder. At this time, 
 too, he made his appearance as a Weimar poet, by 
 writing a prologue which, at the opening of the Bel- 
 lomo Theatre, was spoken by the httle daughter of 
 Neumann, an old Mannheim friend. She was a pupil 
 of Schroder's and only nine years old. Korner tried, 
 but in vain, to draw him back to Dresden, saying that 
 he greatly wished for him, and that it was unnecessary 
 for him to await the uncertain arrival of Charlotte's 
 husband. The poet was now quite fascinated by the 
 pleasant Wieland circle, although, as a man of the 
 world, he thought himself out of place among such 
 simple, inexperienced people. This year he spent his
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 229 
 
 birthday at Jena, whither he had travelled with Wie- 
 land's second daughter. They found Reinhold ill ; so 
 Schiller was obliged to visit him continually in his 
 sick-room, and could only write to Korner that he had 
 much weighty matter to impart to him. The fact of 
 his having completed his twenty-eighth year set him 
 musing. Immediately upon his return, Schiller con- 
 sulted Korner as to whether he should take a wife — 
 whether he should choose a woman in all points so 
 opposite to himself — one so innocent as was Wieland's 
 second daughter. Korner counselled him to wait for 
 some years, as his vivid imagination was overapt to 
 lift a passing fancy into a serious passion. When they 
 were all come safely into port, they would rejoice to 
 welcome in his wife a new friend and a helpmeet 
 worthy of him. 
 
 This well-meant advice no longer reached the poet 
 in Weimar. On the 17th of November Charlotte had 
 sone to meet her husband at Kalbsried, with whom 
 she returned after twelve days. During her absence 
 Schiller received, through his sister, a renewed invita- 
 tion from Frau von Wolzogen, who was then entertain- 
 ing her son Wilhelm and her daughter's betrothed, 
 Councillor von Lilieustern. In spite of Schiller's 
 many unfulfilled promises to repay her loan, this 
 noble woman stiU regarded him as a member of the 
 family, and as a faithful, trusted friend. She thus 
 wished him to make Lihenstern's acquaintance. This 
 time he halted not in coming to a decision, for he 
 wished greatly to see his sister again, and in a few 
 hours he was on his way. The days spent at Meinin- 
 gen, Bauerbach, and in that neighbourhood were full 
 of enjoyment, although none of the places which, in 
 his hermit period, had so strongly influenced him, held 
 any special interest for him now. He was able to 
 make the acquaintance of several noble families besides 
 that of the Duke of Meiningen, in whom he could dis-
 
 230 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 cover little that was remarkable. On the other 
 haud it delighted him to find here Eeinhard, the 
 artist, who drew his portrait, which proved a fairly 
 successful likeness. Reiuhard also promised to give 
 him one of his landscapes of the surrounding 
 country. 
 
 His return journey he made on horseback with Wil- 
 helm von Wolzogen, who induced him to go by way of 
 liudolstadt to visit relations there, Frau von Lengen- 
 feld and her two daughters. Schiller had met them 
 once before at Mannheim. Caroline, the elder, was 
 married to a Herr von Beulwitz, a cultivated and intel- 
 lectual man, full of spirit, but whose whims and crotchets 
 threw a shadow over their childless union. She was a 
 blonde, without grace of form, or beauty of feature, but 
 her hands were small and dehcate in shape, and her 
 fiery soul shone through deep-set eyes, while her voice 
 was strangely musical. Her conversation showed that 
 she had intellect and sentiment, and her warmth and 
 sincerity of manner were the more charming by being 
 tempered with a certain melancholy. She suffered 
 with her nerves, and believed she would die at an early 
 age; her unhappy marriage had, of course, a sadden- 
 ing influence upon her life. She was tenderly attached 
 to Wilhelm von Wolzogen; and the Tugenbund, a 
 benevolent society in Berhn, for the spread of moral 
 and mental culture, and at the head of which stood 
 the beautiful Henrietta Herz, the wife of a famous 
 doctor, claimed her as an associate. Her sister, Char- 
 lotte, just turned twenty-one, was tall and svelte, a 
 blue-eyed brunette, who, although without positive 
 beauty, was charming if only by reason of her youth- 
 ful grace. Less self-reliant and with less originahty 
 than her sister, she sought to have influence in society 
 by her talents and by a certain quiet charm of manner ; 
 she liked laughing at the foibles of others, though 
 always most calm and gentle in mood, with strict
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 231 
 
 regard for the convenances. In speaking she adopted 
 the fashionable court-lisp. 
 
 On a rainy winter's day, the 6th of December, the 
 sisters saw two horsemen, wrapped in cloaks, riding up 
 the lonely road. In one of them they soon recognised 
 their cousin Wilhelm. The two dismounted at an inn 
 close by, and Wilhelm shortly appeared, to ask if, in 
 the evening, he might bring in his fellow traveller. 
 He came, and among much else the talk turned upon 
 the "Philosophic Letters," which gave the ladies op- 
 portunity of discussing the glowing description found 
 therein of friendship and of love. They had not yet 
 read the " Carlos," it seems. Schiller, on leaving, an- 
 nounced his intention of spending the ensuing summer 
 in this most delightfvd neighbourhood. Wilhelm ac- 
 companied him to Weimar, and returned thence after 
 a couple of days, to Eudolstadt. 
 
 Schiller, in a letter to the sisters two years later, 
 says : " Your presence went with me to Weimar, but 
 it did not yet bid me hope." On the 9th he wrote to 
 Korner about this journey and mentioned his Eu- 
 dolstadt visit. " A Frau von Lengenfeld \sic'\ lives 
 there with her two daughters, of whom one is married 
 and the other still single. Without being beautiful, 
 both are attractive, and please me much. I find them 
 well acquainted with all the new literature ; they are 
 refined, and have both intellect and sensibility. They 
 play the piano well, which made my evening a very 
 pleasant one." 
 
 Korner could never guess that his friend's heart had 
 been touched when Schiller further hinted that in six 
 or eight years perhaps the Fates would suffer him to 
 find some more interesting maiden even than Fraulein 
 Wieland, saying that what he had written about her 
 was just a mere passing thought, and should only be 
 taken as such. " After my 30th [35th ?] year I shall 
 not marry," he adds. " I have already lost the in-
 
 232 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 clination for wedlock ; I spoke in favour of it from 
 motives of necessity. I could never have happiness 
 with any woman of mark, or else I do not know 
 myself." 
 
 In Weimar he found Charlotte and her husband. 
 After their first meeting, which was at dinner there, 
 with Wilhelm, he seems to think that the major is 
 the same as ever ; but he could see that toward Char- 
 lotte the husband had changed, and that this change 
 might increase. He went oftenest to Wieland's house. 
 He was deeply occupied with his " Eevolt," which 
 forced him to wade through many a musty foho ; this 
 kept him from accepting Wilhelm's invitation to come 
 again to Eudolstadt before Christmas. " Every hour, 
 every minute, is taken up until the holidays. Bitter 
 necessity, dear friend, compels me to this sacrifice. . . . 
 Next spring, I hope, will see the fulfilment of the 
 fondest of my present desires, which is to enjoy a 
 lengthened visit to you and to your dear surroundings 
 at Rudolstadt. Commend me heartily to them." 
 Lotte also had ardently expected him; and she ap- 
 plied the poet's message to herself. 
 
 Wieland was to print the opening portion of the 
 " Eevolt " in the January number of Mercur. He an- 
 nounced in December that henceforth Schiller would 
 contribute to the journal, and that possibly each 
 monthly issue would be graced by work from his 
 hand, the hand which already in its earliest essays had 
 betrayed the master. Now, therefore, when the poet's 
 genius had touched a point of maturity, those expecta- 
 tions, roused by " Fiesco " and " Don Carlos," would 
 here be justified. Wieland also urged him to turn his 
 " Oberon " into an opera, a proposal strongly condemned 
 by Korner, who watched with growing anxiety Schiller's 
 well-nigh exclusive attachment to Wieland. The poet 
 was happy in his present tranquil yet most active hfe ; 
 he had never felt more industrious ; each day had its
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 233 
 
 twelve hours of work for him, sometimes even more. 
 It was not until evening, generally at six o'clock, that 
 he went out, to the Kalbs, three or four times weekly, 
 who were now constantly at court or elsewhere. 
 Besides Wieland, there were other acquaintances whom 
 he often visited ; occasionally, too, he was at the 
 theatre or the club. 
 
 But this incessant application of the mind to one 
 subject affected his health ; he also grew dispirited. 
 " This mental overwork wearies me," he writes ; " I am 
 weakened by a perpetual warfare of my emotions. . . . 
 My present labours are probably in part to blame for 
 this. I have to contend with heterogeneous, often with 
 strange and ungrateful matter, to which I must give 
 Hfe, bloom ; but from which I draw none of the needed 
 inspiration. The aims to which this work will bring 
 me are what feed my zeal, are what forbid me to halt 
 midway." He looked to win wider regard by his 
 historical, than by his dramatic works ; this was plain 
 to him from the very unappreciative way in which 
 the " Carlos " had been received. Perhaps in six 
 months, through his history, he might get an appoint- 
 ment in Jena, although the low salary offered (two 
 hundred thalers, a stipend which Eeinhold had with 
 difficulty secured for his friend) would probably pre- 
 vent his accepting it. But neither should he wholly 
 decline it, for he wished first to see whether his share 
 in the Mercur would allow him to marry ; and a v^ife 
 was a possession that he now considered absolutely 
 necessary. " I need a being about me and belonging 
 to me, whom I can and rmist make happy, and in 
 whose existence I can refresh my own. You cannot 
 know how wrecked is my temperament, how darkened 
 my brain, and all this, not through outside misfortune 
 (for in that respect I am really comfortable here), but 
 through the wear and stress of the feelings within me." 
 
 The prospect of gaining this happiness by his works
 
 234 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 helped him to bear all with patience ; by them he 
 hoped to do real service to others ; and, in giving 
 charm to dull science, in providing pleasure where toil 
 was the only outlook, he believed he would earn for 
 himself a great and an honoured name. Korner and 
 he had many discussions about this, but Schiller was 
 not to be turned from his present desire for work, nor 
 convinced that his despondency sprang from no need 
 of domestic life. He would never be fit to enjoy this, 
 so Korner thought, for some years to come, when he 
 should be possessed of a certain calmness, a certain 
 equability of mood. For Schiller was assuredly destined 
 to become a great poet, and to this all the cares in- 
 separable from matrimony were thoroughly opposed. 
 Nor could Korner refrain from hoping that his friend 
 would wisely consent to spend the summer with him. 
 All things, however, happened quite contrary to his 
 expectation. One only of the six volumes of the 
 history was, after long waiting, completed ; Schiller 
 felt himself chained to Eudolstadt, and later on ac- 
 cepted a professorship without any emolument, merely 
 in order to obtain a position.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 FROM FEBRUARY TO NOVEMBER, 1788. 
 
 On the first February a public fete was held in hon- 
 our of the duchess's birthday. Schiller had composed 
 a poem for the occasion. There was to be a masked 
 procession, and one of a band of priestesses of the Sun 
 should present his verses to the duchess. At the com- 
 mencement of the carnival, on the 5th, he had the 
 pleasant surprise of meeting Lotte von Lengenfeld, who 
 had arrived shortly before. He was highly delighted 
 to find her here, amid the glittering masqueraders, and 
 to be able by right of acquaintanceship, to spend many 
 happy hours at her side. He was also allowed to 
 visit her at Frau von Imhof's, where she was staying. 
 But these meetings could only occur rarely ; and as 
 he had no introduction to the society in which she 
 moved, he saw her but seldom. He was specially 
 anxious that Charlotte von Kalb should have no ink- 
 ling of this attachment. The remembrance of his 
 Dresden ballroom acquaintance probably made him 
 wary as to any fresh infatuation, which, as before, 
 would lead to nothing. Crowded assemblies were least 
 of all the place where he could enjoy Fraulein Len- 
 genfeld's society ; and besides he was at this time so 
 deeply occupied with his " Revolt," that he never even 
 had leisure to visit the theatre. On one occasion he 
 was obliged to work all night in order to send some 
 " copy " to the printer. After finishing this, at three 
 
 235
 
 236 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 in the morning, he writes to Kdrner : " The masked 
 balls here and some other gatherings have served to 
 distract rae a little this week ; and I have conse- 
 quently had to make up for lost time. . . . The 
 masked balls are really pretty, — less vulgar than those 
 Dresden ones, as many of the aristocracy attend them. 
 I regularly enjoyed myself at them ; probably because 
 of my numerous acquaintances there." Soon after he 
 tells his friend that he has not yet got a wife; and 
 when he playfully asks them all to pray that he be 
 kept out of any serious scrape, it was probably because 
 he felt this growing attachment, and knew that he 
 must subdue it. Although he seldom saw Lotte, to be 
 near her was happiness. 
 
 He now took such pleasure in the writing of history 
 that he deemed himself less a poet than a politician. 
 Then Goeschen came to Weimar for a week, with whom 
 Korner was displeased, as he had left his first love for 
 another. Wieland, Bode, and Bertuch gave the pub- 
 lisher hearty welcome, and as Schiller was often with 
 these, he had to join their merry meetings. He glee- 
 fully learnt that the edition of " Don Carlos," in spite 
 of a reprint for the Vienna market, was nearly out of 
 print. 
 
 Goeschen, hearing that Crusius was about to begin 
 printing the " Eevolt," promised to bring out the fifth 
 number of the TJialia at Easter, which should contain 
 the long-expected continuation of " The Ghostseer." 
 Schiller thought of finishing it with the sixth number ; 
 as, now that he had the Mercur he could not find time 
 to carry on the other journal. He rarely had sight of 
 Lotte ; he was shy of interviews, and saw little chance 
 of ever making her his wife. He liked most to meet 
 her at Frau von Imhof's, though they also saw each 
 other at Charlotte's house, where he used to go in the 
 evenings, after eight o'clock. How greatly Lotte cared 
 for his society is seen from a little note of hers, asking
 
 THE LIFE OF. SCHILLER 237 
 
 him to postpone his visit to Frau von Irahof until the 
 next day, that lady being extremely busy. He had 
 sent her once before a letter on pink paper, very stiffly, 
 formally worded ; and often in later days Lotte used 
 in banter to remind him of this pink billet. 
 
 While busily employed at his " Ghostseer," as he had 
 need of money from the Tlialia, Frau von Wolzogen 
 told him of his debt to her, suggesting that it be re- 
 paid at stated periods. On 6th March he sent her four 
 drafts payable at the Bookseller's Fair next Michael- 
 mas. Unfortunately, he was just then very pressed 
 for money ; yet he hoped by Easter to be able to send 
 her the interest. He was at that time so hard-worked 
 that he found no opportunity for letter-writing. It 
 surprised him to hear that Crusius was rapidly print- 
 ing the " Revolt of the Netherlands ; " Wieland was 
 asking also for a contribution, poetical if possible, to 
 the third number of the Mercur. Korner, it seems, had 
 received trustworthy information about Schiller's new 
 love-affair, so the poet wrote to him on the 6th of 
 March, saying he was " as far off such a thing as ever 
 he was in Dresden ; " only then comes the statement : 
 " 'Tis true that I lately let fall certain words which 
 might have led you to form some conclusion ; but this 
 slumbers deep down in my heart, and even Charlotte, 
 who sees through me and narrowly watches me, has as 
 yet no inkling of it. If the affair should draw me on 
 farther, rest assured that you, as in all the serious 
 events of my hfe, will be the first in whom I shall 
 confide." 
 
 Charlotte at this time was soon to travel to Walters- 
 hausen with her husband. Schiller worked steadily 
 on, and, in spite of all liindrances, he in a few days 
 produced the stirring poem, " The Gods of Greece." 
 Speaking of this, he is rejoiced to find that his muse 
 has not deserted him. Wieland was struck with the 
 poem's correctness and finish, and he drew Schiller's
 
 238 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 attention to every little blemish which he thought 
 could mar its effect. 
 
 From this vivid picture of a world of deities, with 
 their joy in existence and in things sensuous, set as it 
 is in contrast to Christian asceticism and a purely me- 
 chanical conception of nature, we may see that love 
 was astir in the writer's heart. Of course, he was quite 
 out of sympathy with his other work, " The Ghostseer," 
 and could make no progress with it. Again, it needed 
 much thought, he said, " to create a plot where plot 
 there was none, and to knit together so many broken 
 threads." He was rejoiced to find his zeal for history 
 waxing deeper. Despite his limited means, he bought 
 Schmidt's compendious " German History," Putter's 
 three volumes on the " Historical Development of the 
 Constitution of the German Realm," and Montesquieu's 
 " Esprit des Lois ; " for they were works that he must 
 needs possess. Writing to Korner, he says : " The 
 prospect of fields vast and unworked has such a 
 charm for me. With each step I advance in ideas, 
 and my soul's horizon widens." 
 
 After Charlotte's departure on the 13th of March, 
 he felt lonely in the evenings, as his work kept him 
 from going out until after eight o'clock. He tells 
 Korner that " Wieland's house, and at all events one 
 other, are at present my only spots of refuge, except- 
 ing, of course, the clubs ; I hardly ever go to the 
 comedy." This " one other " house to which he alludes 
 happened to be Frau von Imhof's, and his visits there 
 grew more and more frequent, although necessarily 
 they were made within hmits, for Lotte's gossiping 
 friend then staying there might else have told tales. 
 About the 15th Lotte, whom he still always formally 
 addressed as gnddiges Fraulein, sent him her album. 
 He replied by promising to write in it next day, saying 
 too that an engagement to play chess at Madame von 
 Koppenfels alone kept him from coming to her. He
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 239 
 
 much hopes that Lotte might feel constrained to pay 
 a call there also. " Days have a fairer light for me on 
 which I can hope to see you ; and the prospect of such 
 days helps me to endure gloomy ones." 
 
 On the 23d, Easter Day, he writes to Wolzogen that 
 Fraulein von Lengenfeld is his favourite companion ; 
 he means to spend the greater part of the summer at 
 Rudolstadt ; if his visits there are too frequent, it is 
 Wilhelm who is to blame. When at Frau von Imhof's, 
 Easter eggs are given to him, which in the excitement 
 of conversation he forgets to bring away ; pleasant, 
 though, is such recollection of his childhood, and such 
 souvenir of the fair giver. When sending her Robert- 
 son's " History of Mary Stuart's Times," he tells Lotte 
 that the work is only lent, not given. To this he adds 
 Bode's translation of " Tom Jones," wherein the story 
 of Sophia Western would surely move her tender sym- 
 pathies. He kept working on incessantly at " The 
 Ghostseer." He tells Korner that " few employments, 
 not excepting my correspondence with Fraulein von 
 Arnim, have ever seemed to me such a sinful waste of 
 time as the writing of this scribble. But it'll be paid 
 for at last ; and really, in the whole thing, I have had 
 Goeschen's advantage in view." 
 
 Writing in Lotte's album was no easy task, for he 
 dared not give even the faintest expression to his love. 
 He solved the difhculty strangely enough by affirming 
 that all Lotte's friends, who had taken to themselves 
 something of her youthful beauty and innocence, were 
 viewed by her in the light of her own pure spirit ; but 
 that they were one and all unworthy. These ultra- 
 gallant sentiments — in sooth, a sorry compliment to 
 the young lady's friends — he wrote on the back of a 
 page where Frau von Kalb had expressed her joy at 
 finding, late though in life, so fair a flower as Lotte. 
 When returning the album, on 3d April, he sent a 
 note with it, saying how sorry he felt to have seen
 
 240 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 her so seldom, hoping to enjoy her society at Rudol- 
 stadt, and wishing to meet her yet once more that 
 evening. Lotte in answer assured him that she made 
 no distinction between new friends and old ones ; she 
 was beset, alas ! by a maze of difficulties from which 
 there was no escape, but she felt all the gladder at the 
 prospect of his stay with them at Eudolstadt. He 
 must come and see her early in the afternoon, as she 
 was going that evening to Frau von Stein's. So he 
 had his wish ; he met her once more and could hope 
 even that she would remain for a few days longer. 
 He was asked to Frau von Schardt's on the 5th, but 
 excused himself from going, as he knew Lotte would 
 not be there. She wrote to him that same night that 
 she was to return next day to Eudolstadt, and asked 
 for the other volumes of Fielding's romance. His com- 
 panionship (as friendship was a word he did not like) 
 had given her much pleasure ; he must soon come to 
 Eudolstadt ; the prospect of his visit made this parting 
 easier. As he did not wish to disturb her in all the 
 bustle of preparation for the journey, he took his leave 
 in writing; it was the fitter mode of giving his feel- 
 ings expression. " Let but the little seedling come 
 up " (the seedling of friendship, he meant), "and when 
 the suns of spring shine thereon, we shall know what 
 flower it wiQ bear. . . . Your soul, dear lady, I shall 
 one day read, and I rejoice beforehand at the thought 
 of the beauteous discoveries in store for me. Perhaps 
 I shall find that we sympathise on many points ; and 
 that were for me a discovery of infinite worth." He 
 begged her in all friendship to let him tell her now 
 and again when his fancy was busied with her image ; 
 he absolved her from any answer to his letters, yet 
 she must inform him if he could or could not obtain 
 the house at Eudolstadt that he had thought of taking. 
 Other than this, there was no more definite way of con- 
 fessing to her his new-born love. And Lotte also held
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 241 
 
 back her affection ; she hardly realised that some- 
 thing stronger than mere admiration and respect drew 
 her to this gifted poet. 
 
 Three days after her departure Huber arrived, who 
 had been appointed secretary to the ambassador, Herr 
 von Biinau, at Mainz. Schiller rode with him next 
 morning as far as Erfurt, From that place he hastened 
 to Gotha, to tell Charlotte of Ruber's coming, as he 
 wished her to meet him. He called at her house, but 
 she could not see him, as she was giving a dinner to 
 twelve starched dignitaries whom Schiller did not 
 know. Huber was unable to make any stay, so this 
 wished-for meeting never took place ; nor could Schil- 
 ler remain there longer himself. He wrote to Lotte 
 immediately upon his return, assuring her of his faith- 
 ful attachment. With the fine weather, his spirits 
 grew gay ; he specially liked walking in the Welsch 
 garden to hear the nightingale's song, which reminded 
 him of the love he carried at his heart. But besides 
 " The Manhater," he had now another original plot in 
 his min d, the fateful meeting of two brothers who are 
 enemies. It was worked out many years later, when 
 he wrote Ms " Bride of Messina." At this period he 
 contributed a few critiques to the Allgemeine Literatur 
 ZeitiLug, which were gratefully accepted by Hufeland, 
 who invited him to continue giving such help. 
 
 He now resolved more zealously than ever to free 
 himself by degrees from every debt ; the thought of 
 this made him glad and hopeful, and he looked for- 
 ward with eagerness to the profits to be reaped from 
 the second edition of his " Rebellion," from a complete 
 version of his dramas, from a collection of essays and 
 poems, as well as from the theatre payments. He was 
 the more annoyed that the Schwan-Gotz publishing- 
 house in Mannheim, which had only paid him, and that 
 but shabbily, for the first edition of his plays, should go 
 on reprinting them wholesale, without offering him the
 
 242 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 slightest indemnity, but exacting payment even for the 
 copies supplied to him. He asked Korner whether he 
 were not in need of the sums which he had generously 
 advanced, and Korner satisfied him on that point, 
 telling him, besides, of his wife's successful accouche- 
 ment. Meantime Charlotte had returned from Gotha, 
 where she soon became so suffering that she could not 
 receive Schiller when he called. It was her intention 
 to move to Kalbsried vpith her relatives at an early 
 date. 
 
 About this time Schwan, who had long kept silence, 
 sent the poet his portrait, and observed in his letter 
 that Margareta still remembered him. Schiller's 
 whole answer to this was written with a rare cour- 
 tesy, behind which there lurked a certain humour, as 
 he gave his quondam friend a sketch of his present 
 life of comfort and ease. He speaks quite temperately 
 of the unfavourable reception at Mannheim of " Don 
 Carlos," which Dalberg had arbitrarily revised and 
 altered. His tone is that of a man conscious of his 
 o^vn powers, who hints plainly enough that if there 
 has been failure, the blame rests for the most with 
 others. He learnt, though, that the play had found 
 greater favour upon its second performance, when even 
 further abridged. 
 
 Lotte had meanwhile taken rooms for Schiller in a 
 pleasant house at Volkstiidt, a httle village some short 
 distance from Rudolstadt, and she had told him of the 
 pleasure she foresaw from his companionship. He 
 only waited for fine weather and for the completion of 
 various petty affairs, before following the wish of his 
 heart. Ere leaving he was to make the veteran Glein's 
 acquaintance, who for several days had been the guest 
 of Herder. Thus he again came into closer contact 
 with that poet, and was drawn afresh into social and 
 literary circles. The number of the Thalia had just 
 appeared, containing a part of his " Ghostseer." It
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 243 
 
 made a gi'eat stir. All spoke of it, and the poet was 
 covered with praise. He would profit by the public 
 interest this story had aroused, and determined to make 
 it as long as possible, thereby earning the more money. 
 Besides going on with " The Ghostseer," which would 
 probably cover some thirty sheets of letterpress, he 
 looked to complete, while at Rudolstadt the first por- 
 tion of his " Revolt," and also to write its sequel. 
 Then, too, he must finish " The Manhater," or work 
 out his plot for " The Hostile Brothers," besides send- 
 ing contributions to the Mercur and the Liter atur 
 Zeitung. Moreover, he hoped to have leisure for read- 
 ing and study. 
 
 Hardly had the weather improved when, on the 18th 
 or 19th, he hastens to Rudolstadt, staying overnight at 
 the hotel there. Next he sends to ask Lotte for the 
 address of his landlord, and to know at what hour he 
 might call upon them. He could then forward his 
 luggage without delay and get into the rooms before 
 noon. 
 
 Writing to Korner a week later, he describes his 
 pleasant home. " The village is in a small but charm- 
 ing valley, through which the Saale flows between 
 gently sloping hills. From these I get a most delight- 
 ful view of the town, which lies curled at the foot of a 
 mountain ; one may sight it from afar by its princely 
 castle, set high upon the rock's summit, and I am led 
 to it by a pretty foot-path, which runs along the river 
 through gardens and corn-fields." The house where 
 Schiller lived is now wholly changed ; yet the wild 
 mountain-top, covered with rugged stone and brush- 
 wood, whither he often used to wander, was jealously 
 guarded for a quarter of a century after his death by 
 Chamberlain Werlich, in affectionate remembrance of 
 the great poet. And now the " Schiller's Height " is 
 under princely care. 
 
 He had no other acquaintances here besides the
 
 244 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 Lengenfelds and the Beulwitzes. Frau von Lengenfeld 
 and her son-in-law, Herr von Beulwitz, lived in houses 
 adjoining each other in the New Street, behind which 
 a garden stretched westwards. Schiller confided to 
 Korner his affection for Lotte ; his friend had already 
 divined it. But, said the poet, he would most earnestly 
 seek to avoid becoming very closely attached to the 
 house, or too exclusively devoted to any one of its in- 
 mates; such a thing might happen if he were wholly 
 to let himself go. " For it would be about the very 
 worst time if, through such a distraction, I were now 
 to destroy all the little order into which, by dint of 
 labour, I had got my head, my heart, and my affairs." 
 It behoved him first of all to earn all that he possibly 
 could by his pen, so as to free himself by degrees from 
 debt. 
 
 Schiller used to go to the Lengenfelds regularly each 
 evening at six o'clock. Sometimes he came earlier, 
 when invited to do so, or later if the family were out 
 on a visit, or if he himself had more work to finish. 
 He long kept recollection of the road from his house 
 to theirs. When crossing the bridge over the Schaal- 
 bach, he could see the mountains beyond the Saale in 
 the red light of evening ; Rudolstadt lay in the fore- 
 ground ; and, from afar, he could descry the green 
 pavilion of the Lengenfelds' garden. The two sisters 
 would often come to meet him as far as this bridge. 
 On Fridays only he used generally to absent himself, 
 for then the Lengenfelds had company and the two 
 young princes were among their guests. Everybody 
 spoke French on these occasions, yet Schiller used to 
 come if there was to be a French comedy acted in the 
 garden. He took several pleasant excursions with 
 the family to various parts of the neighbourhood. For 
 him it was best when alone with the two sisters, but 
 the mother and her son-in-law, Von Beulwitz, were 
 generally present.
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 245 
 
 Beulwitz was an enthusiastic admirer of Schiller's ; 
 his crotchets, however, and his ill-humour did much to 
 damp the spirits of the circle, and earned him a nick- 
 name — " The Bear." Lotte from her prudence and 
 forethought was playfully christened " Wisdom ; " while 
 Carohne, who liked tranquillity, they called " Comfort." 
 In her, a woman of intellect and culture, Schiller found 
 much to attract him, yet the simpler grace and charm 
 of her sister had won his affections. He might not 
 show this, however, but discreetly sought to give each 
 an equal share of his attention. 
 
 " Both sisters have a touch of rhapsody," he tells 
 Korner, " but in each this is kept under by intellect 
 and tempered by mental culture. The younger sister 
 is not wholly free from a certain coquetterie d'esprit, but 
 there is a discretion, a measure in such vivacity which 
 is more pleasing than otherwise. I like to talk of 
 serious things, of mind-workings, of impressions ; here, 
 I can do this to my heart's content, and can as easily 
 rebound to the humourous and absurd." As Schiller 
 hid his feelings thus, and seemed equally intimate with 
 the one sister as with the other — nay, as Caroline 
 from her superior intellect appeared, if anything, to 
 attract him the more, Lotte hesitated also, wavering 
 between the sweet joy of believing herself loved and 
 the doubt as to whether he felt any real affection for 
 her. Schiller, again, thought her reserve was due to 
 indifference. 
 
 Lotte was a skilful draughtswoman, and both the 
 sisters delighted the poet by their musical talent. The 
 chief source of their entertainment was reading; 
 French and English works had place in their library. 
 Schiller was but slightly familiar with Enghsh, but 
 neither Shaftesbury nor Bacon even could terrify his 
 fair companions. They discussed, among much else, 
 his " Philosophic Letters " and those portions already 
 printed of the " Eevolt." He might speak, too, as he
 
 246 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 liked about religious matters. One morning, when 
 Lotte with her mother and sister had gone to confession, 
 she told Schiller that he would have laughed at her, for 
 she looked as venerable and saintly as a nun ; it was 
 only her dress, though, that seemed so. Schiller gave 
 her strictly pious mother an English Bible in which he 
 had dared to copy some lines from his elegy upon Wecker- 
 lin, saying that they would certainly meet hereafter 
 though maybe not in the dreamland of wiseacres, not 
 in the paradise of the mass. She might see from this 
 at least that he was not an atheist. Now and again 
 the poet could not help showing Lotte signs of his 
 affection, but she took it for mere gallantry on his 
 part. 
 
 Among the acquaintances he had made through the 
 Lengenfelds were the hereditary prince's two sons and 
 Minister von Ketelhodt. The last named, ever eager 
 to know celebrities, put his rich library at the poet's 
 disposal, entertained him at supper, and sent a servant 
 to escort him back to Volkstadt. It was a great de- 
 light for Schiller when his friend Wolzogen arrived at 
 Kudolstadt on a visit. He asked Frau von Kalb to 
 come thither also, but she, who saw not without 
 jealousy how rootedly attached he was to the place, 
 simply excused herself. Soon after she went back to 
 Weimar, where, to Schiller's annoyance, people were 
 already speaking of his relations with Friiulein von 
 Lengenfeld. This he had discovered from one of Wie- 
 land's letters. Frau von Kalb contemptuously stated 
 that Lotte could not enslave him for long. 
 
 It was a sad blow to Schiller when the news reached 
 him that his kind friend,, the Baroness Wolzogen, had 
 died suddenly on the 5 th of August, after a successful 
 operation. Her son besought him to write some verses 
 upon the deceased, or, better stni, to come to him 
 speedily, for he needed a friend in his distress. 
 
 But Schiller proposed that Wilhelm should visit
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 247 
 
 Rudolstadt, and promised to ride as far as Ilmenau to 
 meet him. It was too late now, he said, for a poem, 
 but he had thought of another way in which to show 
 honour to the memory of her who was gone, who had 
 been as a mother to him. " For long past," he wrote, 
 " we have already been linked together by the bond of 
 tenderest friendship ; let us, then, in all brotherly 
 affection, strengthen, cement even closer, if possible, 
 this bond. We will be as brothers to each other. . . . 
 You need sympathy, comfort, distraction. Come, then, 
 and find this with us ! " But Wolzogen was imfor- 
 tunately so pressed for time that he found it impossible 
 to visit Rudolstadt before travelling to Paris, nor could 
 Schiller at the moment get away. 
 
 During the eleven weeks spent at Volkstadt, he had 
 certainly made far less progress with his work than he 
 had intended. On the 5th July we hear that the 
 first part of the " Revolt " will be finished in ten days' 
 time ; he had worked so hard at it, though, that he 
 would absolutely need a pause. He felt afresh his 
 power for dramatic composition. He was sure of the 
 success of his " Man-hater," but its plot must be thor- 
 oughly worked out ere he should put pen to paper. 
 Yet this was never done, though he looked forward 
 with pleasure to its performance at Hamburg during 
 the coming autumn. Nor had he satisfactorily finished 
 the first volume of his history, while with " The Ghost- 
 seer " no progress was made. The greater part of this 
 was to appear in Tlialia, and he would complete it 
 afterward in separate form. He only wrote the first 
 four of a series of letters upon Posa's character in " Don 
 Carlos," which he had promised to Wieland for the 
 Mercur, and to Pandora he contributed a humour- 
 ous poem, entitled " The Famous Woman." Of the 
 twenty critiques for the Literatur Zeitung, not a line 
 was written, except perhaps the introduction to an 
 essay on Goethe's " Egmont."
 
 248 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 He had already been suffering frequently from colds, 
 so as to be sometimes compelled to go in a chaise to 
 Rudolstadt. In the early part of August a more 
 serious attack made him more sensible of his loneli- 
 ness, and he longed passionately for Lotte. Fearing to 
 be hindered all too often from seeing her family, he de- 
 termined to take up his quarters at Rudolstadt before 
 the shooting season should begin on the 19th. His 
 lodging was quite close to the Lengenfelds' house. 
 On the 19th he dined with them, but kept away from 
 the prince's ball given that next night, to which Lotte 
 had greatly looked forward. In a note of his, written 
 on the following morning, there was a tone of jealousy 
 and discontent. He was vexed, too, at the thought 
 of Lotte's projected visit to Kochberg, and the news of 
 Korner's ill-health also troubled him. While in such 
 a frame of mind, he warned his friend that he would 
 gain little benefit from his society. 
 
 " Heart and head throb ever and alwavs : I can at no 
 moment call myself happy, at no moment say that I 
 have joy in living. . . . There have been many social 
 pleasures for me here, but now, when I must break 
 away again from them, present enjoyment is spoiled 
 for me by thoughts of the future. Were my blood but 
 a little less heated, I should be a happy man." This 
 was but one of those sudden and frequent fits of de- 
 pression caused by hopeless passion for Lotte, a passion 
 which hindered all serious literary work, which robbed 
 him of aU intellectual power. " My history," he com- 
 plains, " has destroyed much of the poetry within me, 
 and this journalism is all too unsettling work. The 
 time is no more when I could bring all my mental 
 force to bear upon one subject only." Leaving aside 
 " The Man-hater," he got interested in the plot of " The 
 Hostile Brothers," which might be treated in " the 
 Greek manner," for the classic style in its grand sim- 
 plicity counted for all to him now. For some time
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 249 
 
 past he had read only Homer, the Iliad in Stolberg's 
 prose translation, and Voss's version of the Odyssey, 
 with which latter, despite the, to him, detestable hex- 
 ameters, he was greatly charmed. He only found 
 delight in the ancients now, and felt how thoroughly 
 he needed their writings to refine his taste, which had 
 become vulgarised by tricks, by mannerisms, by tawdry 
 wit. He had lost all interest in his story, " The Ghost- 
 seer ; " it repelled him ; yet, on account of the Thalia, 
 he must continue with it. At this time he became 
 acquainted with Rudolph Zacharias Becker, a literary 
 man whose qualities seemed to Schiller of high worth. 
 
 He ever yet lacked the courage to declare his love. 
 One evening he found Lotte in deep agitation, owing 
 to some disagreement with her mother. She told him 
 in CaroHne's momentary absence what had occurred, 
 and of the bitter injustice she had suffered. SchUler 
 affectionately comforted her, and begged her not to 
 take the matter overmuch to heart. In her emotion 
 she warmly pressed his hand to show her gratitude for 
 his sympathy. It was then that he first thought she 
 loved him, but with Caroline's return the chance to 
 make confession of his own feelings had been lost. 
 
 On the last day of August, Lotte went to Kochberg 
 to stay for some days with Frau von Stein. Her absence 
 was to Schiller intolerable. He consulted her mother 
 and sister as to how he might remain in their neigh- 
 bourhood, when Jena, among other places, was sug- 
 gested. Lotte still wrote too coldly, he thought ; 
 albeit, it was prettily said, her wish that Fate might 
 permit him to stay near her home, and give them 
 happy and dehghtful days. 
 
 " Ah ! could I do something toward beautifying your 
 life," he answers, " I believe that my own would be 
 dearer to me, then. What is there nobler and more 
 pleasant than to help a beautiful soul to enjoy its own 
 beauty, and for me what thing more desirable than to
 
 250 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 watch your mind in all its varied aspects, and to feel 
 it near me and about me for evermore ! When you are 
 happy it is not you alone who are so. I cannot thus 
 easily yield to necessity, as you — as, indeed, all your 
 sex can. I always feel that I must vanquish the fate 
 that would snatch me from your circle." Schiller, 
 grown bolder now on paper, was in a fair way to dis- 
 close his love. On the 5th of September Lotte re- 
 turned, telling them that Goethe had been staying at 
 Kochberg with Frau von Schardt, and that he and 
 some other guests were coming on to Kudolstadt in a 
 couple of days. So Scliiller was now to meet the 
 great and famous poet, whom all admired, whom some 
 envied, and whom vulgar flattery had not spared. Be- 
 fore this they had exchanged polite greetings ; Goethe 
 had even courteously informed Schiller that he would 
 have visited him upon the return journey, had he 
 known that the poet lived so close to his route. There 
 was warfare at this time within Goethe's soul — he 
 was playing a part ; he was hiding from others the love 
 which gladdened him ; Frau von Stein was wrathful 
 with him, and her presence must have been galling ; 
 yet of all this Schiller could know nothing. Goethe 
 was most affable to every one, and during an excursion 
 to the Saale he walked at Schiller's side. But they 
 found no opportunity for closer converse. All were 
 charmed by Goethe's vivid descriptions of his stay in 
 Italy. On the table lay a number of the Mercur, con- 
 taining " The Gods of Greece ; " glancing at it, he asked 
 permission to take it away with him. When the com- 
 pany dispersed that night, Schiller, who instead of 
 kindly patronage had expected a far heartier display 
 of sympathy, assured himself that they would never 
 grow more intimate. He was disappointed even in 
 Goethe's outward appearance, who, shorter somewhat 
 than our poet, walked very straight, with shoulders 
 thrown back. Schiller, who himself was ungainly in
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 251 
 
 carriage, thought this stiff, and there were many who 
 agreed with him. Goethe's face wore a look of reserve, 
 it seemed, though his eyes were full of expression and 
 vivacity, and his features, if grave, benevolent and 
 kindly. But though this meeting in no way lessened 
 the high esteem which Schiller had for Goethe, he 
 still felt so little drawn toward him, that he was 
 anxious to find cause for their mutual want of 
 sympathy, though this was certainly not to be ascribed 
 to their personal acquaintanceship. Goethe saw in 
 Schiller a man of pleasant manners, and he was not 
 slow to notice the marked impression that he had 
 made upon the Lengenfelds. But Goethe, as we have 
 said, was absorbed by his own emotions ; he could not 
 go outside himself to take interest in others ; thus the 
 two failed to come nearer each to each. That their 
 views were at variance respecting dramatic poetry was 
 clear to Goethe when reading soon after a critique upon 
 his "Egmont" from Schiller's pen, who found the 
 morale of the play quite excellent, though, in poetry, 
 it stood behind others of its class. The writer after- 
 ward heard that Goethe had thought most highly of 
 this essay. 
 
 Schiller found it still impossible to summon up full 
 energy for work ; he managed to send Wieland some 
 trifling contributions for the Mercur, who thanked him 
 heartily for them, and the letters upon " Don Carlos " 
 were also to be continued. In the first heat of temper 
 he had meditated upon a retort to Stolberg's foolish 
 criticism of " The Gods of Greece ; " but though en- 
 couraged to this by Wieland, he let the matter rest. 
 
 The lengthy absence of Lotte and her family made 
 him very melancholy. Toward the middle of the 
 mouth he was laid up for a fortnight with rheumatic 
 fever, suffering also acutely from toothache, which made 
 all mental effort impossible. By the 1st of October he 
 was so far restored as to be able to write to Kdrner.
 
 252 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 He tells him that his spirit has kept all its buoyancy, 
 despite the trouble aud pain through which it has 
 passed. He would ever strive to shake himself free 
 from every trivial annoyance, so as to save for his own 
 enjoyment all his time and the whole force of his 
 being ; he would return to Weimar calm in mind, and 
 with the resolutions of a man. He had to hide from 
 his friend that love was the disquieting element with 
 him ; he scarcely dared confess this even to himself. 
 He had determined not to leave Eudolstadt, now so 
 dear a spot to him, until after his birthday, and Char- 
 lotte's entreaties to come back to Weimar were made 
 in vain. 
 
 During his time of ill health, Frau von Laroche's 
 son arrived on a visit, to make Caroline's acquaintance. 
 He much interested the sisters by his account of a stay 
 made with his mother in England. Her religious 
 writings, however, edified him as little as they did 
 Schiller and the others. Hardly had the poet recov- 
 ered health, when he chose the first beautiful autumn 
 day to go to Volkstadt, to arrange what papers had 
 been left there, and to get calm enjoyment from the 
 fair landscape around him. He stayed there until the 
 next day. It was then that his hymn to Nature was 
 composed, which was later printed in TJialia with the 
 title " In October, 1788." " The Artists " was probably 
 also begun here, or at least the idea originated for its 
 after-development. 
 
 In a letter to Lotte he says that this beautiful day 
 had made him think of their parting, now near at hand. 
 
 " It is gone by, this beautiful summer, and with it 
 much of my joy. You are going back there, in a short 
 time [he means to Kochberg], and in one respect it is 
 a good thing for me. Yet see that you soon return — 
 that I may at least be able to bid you farewell. I 
 know not, but I have no great faith in the future. Is 
 this a presentiment ? Or is it only low spirits ? Now,
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 253 
 
 you must keep this note. Maybe it is presentimeut, 
 but to-day I have no wish to think more about it," 
 When she goes to spend a week with Frau von Stein 
 at Kochberg, he finds the days most tedious without 
 her, yet he cares not to meet her there, surrounded by 
 strange faces in society, where they could be but as 
 nothing, the one to the other. He rejoices to know 
 that she thinks of him. He says : " Men better than I 
 you will find everywhere ; but I challenge all to say 
 that they have kindlier feeling for you than I." Dur- 
 ing Lotte's absence, he at length sent his publisher 
 the conclusion of Volume I. of the " Revolt of the 
 Netherlands," and a line of news about the first volume 
 of the " History of the RebelHon," for which he had 
 not yet been able to furnish a preface ; neither had he 
 completed his sketch of the Fiesco conspiracy. 
 
 When, on the 17th, Lotte came back, he spent some 
 pleasant days with the sisters. Frau von Kalb was 
 annoyed that he did not come to her, in spite of such 
 urgent request. " I will not unsay my former judg- 
 ment of her," he writes to Korner, " she is noble and 
 full of intellect, but her influence upon me has not 
 been for good." 
 
 He felt this the more, now, in the society of these 
 charming sisters, who, it must be confessed, had kept 
 him idle, so that his literary earnings were considerably 
 lessened. From Korner came reminders about Beit's 
 bill and a tailor's account. Seeing that Schiller could 
 not pay, and wishing to save the expense which another 
 delay would cause, he discharged the debt himself, while 
 letting his friend believe that he had only renewed the 
 bill (wliich now amounted to 280 thalers) until the 
 New Year. " If each month you can pay off something 
 beforehand," wrote he, " you gain five per cent." But 
 Schiller had to tell him that he had been obliged to 
 borrow of Wieland or Goeschen, merely in order to get 
 every-day necessities. This shows, then, how little his
 
 254 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 impecuniosity could oblige him to write. In the course 
 of tlie year three more numbers of the Thalia might 
 probably be issued ; he was also to complete a newly 
 begAiu translation of tlie " Iphigenia in Aulis " of 
 Euripides. This would exercise his powers as drama- 
 tist, it would show him more of the spirit of the 
 Greeks, and insensibly he would catch something of 
 their manner. " I am economising greatly, and shall 
 do so even more," he says in answer to Korner's warn- 
 ing. " I am deeply anxious to set my affairs straight 
 in some degree. Perhaps Goeschen will advance me 
 all the money." He has intentions of paying the sum 
 owing to the deceased baroness to Wolzogen's lawyers, 
 and " with God's help, at Easter to make a thoroughly 
 fresh start." 
 
 Schiller's last days at Rudolstadt were of course 
 saddened by the thoughts of parting. He wrote to 
 Lotte at this time : " Let this fair hope gladden us, 
 that we have founded something for eternity. This 
 from the first has been my conception of our friendship, 
 and each day has made it a clearer, a more certain 
 one." 
 
 When Lotte sent him, as keepsake, a little sketch, 
 he told her that it should hang before his writing-table, 
 to remind him on many a lonely evening of the kindly 
 influence of one who had passed thus swiftly across his 
 life. It often seemed to him that he had said much, 
 overmuch, yet again he felt that he could and would 
 have said more ; time, however, would bring all things 
 to ripeness. On the eve of his birthday he read his 
 poem, " The Artists," to the sisters, which they greatly 
 appreciated. Next day they sent him their good 
 wishes and congratulations in writing. He did not 
 arrive at their house until five in the afternoon, and 
 Lotte then presented him with a bouquet. They spent 
 a pleasant evening, enlivened by music, although the 
 thought of his departure during that same week sad-
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 255 
 
 dened them all. The sisters were also leaving Eudol- 
 stadt for a time, having been invited to stay with 
 friends at Erfurt. The next morning they sent Schiller 
 a fragrant bunch of flowers, with a note, telling him 
 that they were to leave home on the morrow. He wept 
 at the bitter news, but could not bring himself to see 
 them once again. So he wrote his adieux and his 
 thanks for their kindness. Lotte replied that evening 
 to his letter, adding next day affectionate words of 
 farewell, and the hope of speedy meeting. She sent 
 him also a geranium which she herself had tended. 
 Then he wrote again thus : " I would fain see vou once 
 more to-day, were it only from afar and for a moment. 
 The preparations for the journey stupefy me ; I shall 
 not come to myself until I am on the road. . . . The 
 prospect of our reunion stands clear and fair before 
 me. Everything shall and will lead me back to that. 
 . . . Yes, dearest ones, you are part of my soul, and I 
 shall never lose you. ..." 
 
 Yet, though he felt such inseparable attachment to 
 Lotte, he could not muster courage sufficient to declare 
 this to her ; indeed he hardly dared hope to possess 
 her, when in such straits himself, and when help 
 seemed so far away.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 FROM NOVEMBER, 1788, TO MAY, 1789. 
 
 Upon his return from Rudolstadt, Schiller fell a 
 prey to gloomy reflections; he firmly determined to 
 shun society, and to use all time and energy toward 
 bettering his life, toward changing his position in the 
 world. He first made arrangements with Wieland 
 about the Mercur, and the proposed issue of that jour- 
 nal in altered form was again discussed ; Schiller 
 should receive one hundred Carolines for supplying 
 twenty -four sheets of matter to it per annum ; pay- 
 ment was also to be derived from articles he had 
 already furnished. Then lie was to join other writers 
 in the issue of a series of select memoirs, and this was 
 work both easy and remunerative. The Thalia should 
 be pushed forward with all speed. Left thus alone, 
 with the sad remembrance of his Rudolstadt friends 
 now parted from him, it was easier to lead a life of 
 seclusion- " There is much still enjoyment in this 
 existence," he tells Korner. " Specially I hke the 
 evenings which once I used sinfully to waste in soci- 
 ety. Now I sit over my tea and a pipe, and one can 
 think and work splendidly." Probably it was Korner 
 who had taught him to smoke. Schiller, however, had 
 not confided to his friend the story of his love, but 
 gave out that he was heart-whole. It is true that he 
 had not, as in Dresden, blindly abandoned himself to 
 his passion ; he had not compromised himself in any 
 way, but his whole heart was now Lotte's ; she alone 
 
 256
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 257 
 
 could bring him happiness ; and for her sister, too, he 
 had deep regard. Lotte confessed to him that no 
 one had ever touched her inmost sympathies as he had 
 done ; his tender words of comfort to her when in dis- 
 tress had moved her to tears, it seemed a necessity in 
 her hfe to look forward to days of coming happiness 
 spent together with him. A nobler attachment, this, 
 than Frau von Kalb's professed affection, who only 
 selfislily aimed at keeping him close to her side. 
 Schiller had been to see her, but did not find her 
 alone ; at his second visit, she seemed in good health 
 and spirits. They came to no explanation ; still less 
 did any passionate correspondence pass between them. 
 Charlotte felt certain of his intimacy with the Lengen- 
 felds, and she now treated him with indifference, trying 
 to seem gay and vivacious, and giving a ball at which 
 she herself danced and sang. Schiller also went once 
 to Frau von Stein's, for whom he felt real attachment, 
 particularly as she was the warm friend of Lotte and 
 Caroline. 
 
 Correspondence with the two sisters formed his chief 
 delight. On the evening of 22d November, Lotte's 
 birthday, he wrote to tell her how agreeably he had 
 spent it. " Since I came back here I had been har- 
 assed, crushed down by work for which I lacked thor- 
 ough sympathy, and this was the first day that my 
 faculties seemed to have got life again. I gave myself 
 up to sweet, poetic reveries ; all the glow of fancy was 
 relit within me. And for this pleasure let me thank 
 you. You are the saint of this day, and my delight is 
 great at having so precious a source of inspiration." 
 He continues to tell the friends of all that happens to 
 him. He calms their anxiety as to liis health with 
 the assurance that he got benefit from fresh air and 
 exercise, and that he felt really well ; Bertuch, too, 
 showed him " much careful sympathy," he said. Be- 
 sides the " Iphigeueia," he had begun to translate the
 
 258 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 " Phoenicians " of Euripides, and was also working, 
 though with little interest, at " The Ghostseer." 
 
 During the unusually cold weather of that Decem- 
 ber he never left the house. It was pleasant for him 
 to be visited by Schubart the younger and also by 
 Moritz, who on his return from Rome was staying with 
 Goethe. The former, who was travelling from Berlin 
 to Mainz, told Schiller of the great effect produced by 
 " Don Carlos " at the Berlin National Theatre ; for 
 Engel and Eamler, in spite of their opposition, had 
 been obliged by royal command to put the play in 
 rehearsal. The scene between Philip and Posa had 
 made a deep impression upon his Majesty. Schiller 
 felt thoroughly happy at being thus busily employed. 
 After the translation from Euripides, he meant to go 
 on to ^schylus's " Agamemnon," a real lonne louche 
 for him, he said. And in a year his style would show 
 the rich benefit it had gained from his study of the 
 Greeks. He still thought of continuing " The Ghost- 
 seer," and of making addition to the " Philosophic Let- 
 ters ; " " The Artists," another work, was also unfinished. 
 
 In the meanwhile, at Weimar, his " Revolt of the 
 Netherlands" had created much stir. Voigt, who had 
 always felt interest in Schiller, hereupon thought of 
 calling him to Jena, in the room of Professor Eich- 
 horn, who was gone to Gottingen. Goethe quite 
 agreed to the plan, asking Voigt to inquire whether 
 the poet were willing to accept a supernumerary pro- 
 fessorship, which for the first might be without emolu- 
 ment. Voigt's kind words of persuasion led Schiller 
 to comply. On 80tli November Goethe had gone 
 with the duke to Gotha, and A^'oigt at once informed 
 him of the result of his inquiry. He asked him to 
 mention the matter to the Dukes of Gotha and Weimar, 
 and to Minister von Frankenberg. These gave willing 
 consent, and Karl August instructed Goethe to lay tliie 
 matter before tlie Privy Council without delay, which
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 259 
 
 he accordingly did upon his return on 7th December. 
 The pro memoria submitted to the Council ran thus : 
 " Herr Friedrich Schiller, upon whom some years 
 ago his Serene Highness conferred the title of council- 
 lor, and who for some time past has resided in the 
 neighbourhood, has won a name for himself by his 
 writings, and especially of late, by a history of the 
 revolt of the Netherlands under Spanish rule, has 
 given promise of success as a historian. ... By those 
 who know him, he is described as being of excellent 
 character ; his conduct is serious and his manners 
 pleasing, so that one may trust him to exercise great 
 influence upon the young. . . . He would seek to 
 master the subject of history, and in this field to be 
 helpful to the academy." 
 
 Two days later the official letter of appointment was 
 sent round for confirmation to the Dukes of Gotha, 
 Coburg, Meiningen, and Hildburghausen. On the 12th 
 Schiller made his long-postponed visit to Goethe, who, 
 alluding to the Jena appointment, calmed the poet's 
 fear as to thorough qualification for the post by the 
 trite remark that, in teaching, one learns ; and he ex- 
 pressed his conviction that Schiller would bring benefit 
 to the academy and to himself. By the 15th already, 
 Goethe, whose sympathy was most grateful to him, 
 forwarded Schiller the official note he had received 
 from the government, bidding him make ready for 
 removal to Jena, as his appointment was as good as 
 decided upon. 
 
 The suddenness of such reply threw him into great 
 perplexity, for it lessened all hope of a speedy dis- 
 charge of his debts. He wrote in his excited way to 
 Korner on the 15th, complaining that Voigt had " taken 
 him in." " I am in fearful straits," he said, " as, owing 
 to the many, many works which for pecuniary reasons 
 must positively be finished this winter, I can but make 
 hasty preparation. Then again, my position as profes-
 
 26o THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 sor will entail various fresh expenses, not counting the 
 cost of a lecture-room, etc. I must also take my de- 
 gree as magister philosojjhicc, a thing not to be done 
 without money ; and this year I can least of all spare 
 the necessary time for study. Certainly, after this 
 gloomy period my future will be a brighter one, for 
 now at last my lot seems fixed." It also grieved him 
 at heart that this professorship would hinder his long- 
 wished-for stay at Kudolstadt during the summer ; yet 
 he might count it a piece of fortune to be still so near 
 that beloved place, nay, he might now look to realise 
 his fondest wish, to wed his beloved. First of all he 
 must continue " The Ghostseer," so as to complete the 
 sixth number of Tlialia ; there were to be two more 
 instalments of this, which should appear in rapid suc- 
 cession, as he was in sore need of money. When at 
 his wits' end, with only pence sufficient to pay the 
 postage of his manuscript, he was overjoyed at receiv- 
 ing a sum due to him from the Literatur Zeitung, 
 money that he had not expected. Seven years later 
 he has vivid recollection of the " glad surprise " this 
 caused him. 
 
 It was on the night of the 2 2d, having returned from 
 a supper, that he sat down to write the news of his 
 appointment to the Lengenfelds. His fondest wish, he 
 said, was that in that summer they might break in 
 upon him as some " heavenly vision." How gladden- 
 ing to him the prospect of seeing them often, now ! 
 
 He made little of the fact that the appointment was 
 an unsalaried one. To accept such a beggarly pittance 
 as that offered to Reinhold would have been degrading 
 rather than a help to him. " My whole object in this 
 affair is to step into a position that is honourable, and 
 which will give me the connections of a citizen, so that 
 through these I may find other and better employ." 
 This he wrote to Korner, who considered that he 
 should secure a good salary. " Jena, of all places I
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 261 
 
 know, is, to my mind, the only fitting one. With four 
 hundred thalers I can easily live ; for a year I shall be 
 pressed into academical work, and in a way it gives me 
 a learned name, which is needful to me in order to be 
 sought after." So nominal a stipend would only have 
 laid him under an obligation, just as would an ad- 
 vance of two or three hundred thalers which, through 
 Goethe, he could easily have secured. How overjoyed 
 were his parents to hear of their sou's appointment, and 
 what esteem it won for him in Wiirtemberg ! Even 
 the duke was flattered that a pupil of his had reached 
 such a noteworthy post. But Schiller must now pre- 
 pare himself for that post. Thus, during the last days 
 of the year he sank himself into deep study of the 
 works of Schmidt and Piitter, and looked foward to 
 getting thorough knowledge of the sources of German 
 history. 
 
 It was a great relief to him when Bertuch, on New 
 Year's Day, 1789, promised to find him a publisher for 
 his memoirs, who, if he put his name on the title-page, 
 furnishing each volume with a separate essay, would 
 pay him at the rate of a carohne for every sheet. In 
 this way he could earn a livelihood by three hours' 
 work in the day, while nine more gave him ample time 
 wherein to study history and to prepare his lecture. 
 In two years he hoped to be earning an income suffi- 
 cient for his needs, sufiicient, moreover, to help him to 
 pay oft' the debts that embittered his life, and formed 
 a bar to quiet literary work. Lotte sought to smooth 
 over the difficulties of his new calhng, though it 
 pained her to hear him speak of taking a post in some 
 other univer.sity afterward ; she liked to beheve such 
 plans lay buried in the future. Just at this momen- 
 tous time in his life he saw nothing of Frau von Kalb. 
 "The circle to which she belongs is not mine," he 
 writes, " and traces of her influence on my thoughts 
 and feehngs are absent."
 
 262 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 While busily wading through many a dry volume of 
 history, he continued to work at " The Ghostseer," in 
 which he finally grew interested, as he had to make 
 the prince in it a pronounced freethinker before his 
 conversion to the Romish Church. Then changes 
 must be made in " The Artists ; " and he felt strong 
 inclination to begin upon a new drama, perhaps " The 
 Hostile Brothers." He was very glad that Bertuch 
 had arranged so successfully with Mauke for the pub- 
 hcation of the memoirs, so that by them alone he 
 could earn a hving. There were several expenses, how- 
 ever, in connection with his new office which he must 
 necessarily meet. The extreme cold during that Jan- 
 uary had obhged him to keep his room for a fortnight. 
 Upon regaining health, he felt his mental energies braced 
 and strengthened for his new work, though he still 
 resfretted having made sacrifice of time and freedom 
 merely for the sake of his prospect, and without the 
 shghtest pecuniary gain. Depression did not hinder 
 him, however, from attending the public ball given on 
 3d January, where, as he jestingly said, he should find 
 an ideal for the lovely Greek in his " Ghostseer," who 
 must be no less an arch-deceiver. In his conception 
 of this bewitching character, he had before all others 
 Henriette's portrait in his mind ; yet to him she was 
 far from being a jilt — nay, she was of all persons the 
 very last to convert him to her Catholic faith. He 
 well remembered last year's masquerade, where he had 
 so unexpectedly met Lotte. Next evening for the 
 first time in nine months he went to the theatre, 
 where the unnaturalness of opera gi-eatly impressed 
 him. He was glad to hear that in May Beulwitz was 
 to travel with the prince, and that then, in the summer, 
 the sisters would have greater liberty ; Lotte even 
 dreamed of meeting Schiller and Korner at the baths 
 of Lauchstadt. 
 
 On 1st February Moritz continued his journey with
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 263 
 
 the duke. Scliiller had found his society " droll and 
 interesting." He deemed him a noble-minded man, a 
 deep thinker, with full sense of what is beautiful in 
 life, despite his idolatry of Goethe, his contempt for 
 all poetry not perfect in finish, and his fervid dishke 
 of Schiller's " Plot and Passion." Moritz had merci- 
 lessly bantered such of the Weimar ladies as professed 
 themselves touched by this play. But he gave warm 
 praise to the " Revolt of the Netherlands," and Schiller 
 and he found much for mutual sympathy. 
 
 On the 3d (Caroline's birthday, as he afterward joy- 
 fully learnt), perhaps spurred thereto by Moritz, he at 
 last completed his " Artists," which he held to be the 
 most finished piece of work that he had yet done. He 
 sent it to Wieland for the Mercur, by whose helpful crit- 
 icism he hoped greatly to profit. With a view to con- 
 tinuing " The Ghostseer," he also asked Wieland for a 
 few volumes of the " Bibliotheque de la Campagne." 
 
 While giving to the world in this new poem his con- 
 ception of an ideal artist, he grew filled with bitter 
 resentment against Goethe. As minister, Goethe had 
 shown himself friendly, and as poet, Schiller expected 
 their relations to become closer also, — a thing impos- 
 sible then, both by reason of their widely opposed 
 natures, as by the thorough difference of their train- 
 ing. Goethe had sufficient to engross and to content 
 him in his intimacy with Frau von Stein and Christiane 
 Vulpius, and also in his deep attachment to Moritz, 
 about whom there yet lingered something more than 
 a breath of that Italy for which he so passionately 
 longed. Though Schiller very rarely saw him, and 
 could only go by the sayings of other ladies, stung to 
 jealousy by the poet's preference for Frau von Stein, 
 he took him to be a man who sought his ideal of hap- 
 piness in consummate egoism and self-love. Then it 
 rankled him that Goethe seemed ever to have been 
 fortune's favourite, while anguishing poverty had
 
 264 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 wrecked his own life. So there were moments when 
 in his excitement he hated Goethe as a man, when 
 lie gave vent to bursts of most passionate invective 
 against him. " I could destroy his spirit, and could 
 love him again with all my heart." Thus he once 
 writes to Korner, adding, it is true, in a later letter 
 that his friend will have detected his weakness in what 
 he liad said about Goethe. Then follows the passage : 
 " This man, this Goethe, is in my way, ever reminding 
 me how hardly I have been dealt with by fate. How 
 easily his genius triumphed over his destiny, and see, 
 how to this moment / have to fight on ! There is 
 now no retrieving all that has been lost (after thirty, a 
 change of career is impossible) ; and I myself could 
 not attempt such a change until three or four years 
 were over, for at least four years must be still sacri- 
 ficed to Fate. But I am yet of good courage ; and I 
 have faith in a lucky revolution hereafter." "V\Tiile 
 Lotte, who formed her mind more and more on 
 Schiller's, regretfully gave her judgment of Goethe, 
 Caroline spoke in defence of the friend she honoured, 
 who, as she said, only seemed to be cold and unsympa- 
 thetic. But Schiller peevishly rejoined that one had 
 too little hare life to be able to spend time and pains 
 in deciphering men who were difficult to decipher. 
 " There is a speech understood by all ; and it is this : 
 use your powers ! If each labours with all his force, 
 he cannot rest hidden from others. This is my plan. 
 Once in a position to let all my energies have play, he 
 and others too will get to know me, just as now I 
 know his spirit." Caroline admitted that she had per- 
 haps a false picture of Goethe, though personally she 
 knew him more thoroughly than Schiller did ; for his 
 genius' sake, however, he should be forgiven much ; 
 and, she sagely remarks, man must forgive his fellow 
 man, or all social intercourse would cease. 
 
 Schiller had a lively discussion with Korner about
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 265 
 
 his gifts as a poet. All through the winter he said it 
 teased him to be unable to make progress with " The 
 Hostile Brothers," the play that he had begun in 
 Rudolstadt. Yet though it was irksome to have to 
 busy himself for years, maybe, with things so far dis- 
 tant from the goal of his abilities and his leanings, he 
 was yet convinced that this would have happy influ- 
 ence upon his first dramatic work, and that, despite all 
 alien checks and hindrances, his talent would find and 
 fix its rightful bent. Korner had pointed to lyric 
 verse as a field in which he excelled, being alone ; 
 whereas, in drama, Goethe proved a dangerous rival ; 
 but Schiller was so little of this opinion that he 
 deemed lyric-writing the most petty, the most thank- 
 less of arts, a land of bondage rather than a newly 
 won province. He meant to make fresh essays in 
 drama ; for though of course he could in no way meas- 
 ure himself with Goethe at his strongest and his best, 
 though in the natural drama he stood behind him and 
 many an earlier poet, yet Schiller believed that he had 
 originated a special school of drama in which he would 
 excel, just because it was of his own making. Korner 
 would not have it said that Goethe was the greater 
 genius ; in certain branches, perhaps, he possessed finer 
 skill, a skill that Schiller could gain with time. Be- 
 fore this he had proposed as subject an epic upon 
 Frederick the Great, and as model the Horatian ode ; 
 now, Korner suggested high comedy. Schiller was 
 irritated at such hints, and most at this, that Korner, 
 while thoroughly admiring " The Artists," denied it 
 rank as a poem. 
 
 " If," says Schiller, " if within a year you could get me 
 a wife with twelve thousand thalers, a wife with whom 
 I could live, to whom I could cleave, in five years I'd 
 write you a Fridericade, a classic tragedy, and, as you 
 are so set upon them, half a dozen fine odes into the 
 bargain." Alas ! his debts and the load of work which
 
 266 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 must be finished were a yoke that still crushed him 
 down. He still longed with all his heart for Eudol- 
 stadt, and for the friends he had left there. The close 
 intimacy with Frau von Kalb had dwindled to easy 
 familiarity ; she went her own way now. He heard 
 from Rudolstadt that Frau von Lengenfeld had accepted 
 the offer of instructress to the two little daughters of 
 the hereditary prince. On the 10th of March, already 
 she went to live at the castle. Five days later Schiller 
 rode over to Eudolstadt, and his presence gave great 
 delight to the sisters. He could make no stay, but 
 travelled on to Jena, where he had to get settled in 
 his new home. Among the lecture-notices he adver- 
 tised his own lectures, to be given twice weekly, an 
 " Introduction to Universal History," Schiitz having 
 discouraged the plan of lecturing privately upon the 
 Revolt of the Netherlands. Schiitz, Hiifelaud, and 
 Reinhold were very helpful in smoothing the diffi- 
 culties of his new position. He took lodgings with the 
 sisters Schramm, at the corner of the market-place, 
 and dined with Schiitz, whose coquettish wife " besieged 
 him with attentions." He joined the Professors' Club, 
 which counted a few students among its members. 
 " One pays eight thalers every half-year," he told 
 Korner ; " for which one sups five and twenty times ; 
 but of course wine is extra." Though he foresaw little 
 enjoyment from belonging to this club, it was con- 
 venient for many reasons to have a place for finishing 
 work which must else be got through at home. Jena 
 could yield him nothing in the way of society, society 
 refined by the presence of ladies ; not even at the 
 Griesbachs' house could he look for this. 
 
 Returning on the 20th to Weimar, the study of 
 history absorbed all his attention, and to this end he 
 hastened to procure works by Beck and Abb^ Millot, a 
 translation of Gibbon, Spittler's " Church History " and 
 Herder's " Ideas." Bossuet, Robertson, and Schroeckh
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 267 
 
 would also serve him in the preparation of nis lecture. 
 He had finished the eighth number of the Thalia, which, 
 besides his translation of the " Phoenicians," contained an 
 exciting passage from the second volume of " The Ghost- 
 seer " and a description of Egmout's " Life and Death." 
 
 His heavy debt to Beit, the money-lender, forced him 
 to offer Crusius a collection in three volumes of miscel- 
 laneous essays, for which he should receive the fee of a 
 Caroline the sheet. The manuscript should be dehvered 
 at once, but set up in type a year later, after fresh re- 
 vision. To Schiller's delight the publisher consented, 
 the terms being that two hundred thalers should be 
 paid at Michaelmas and twenty-four carohnes at the 
 following Easter, though a year's interest must be 
 deducted from this sum. It was galling to be obliged 
 to pay fifty thalers to the faculty for the degree of 
 Doctor Philosophim. Otherwise Schiller had good hopes 
 of success ; if only a fifth of the nine hundred students 
 formed his audience, and if but the half of that audi- 
 ence paid fees, he would receive annually a hundred 
 louis d'or ; he had no rival lecturer to fear, and his 
 subject was a subject of interest to all. It was true 
 that at first his lectures were to be given gratis, but, 
 through the summer, his "Memoirs" would support him. 
 In August he hoped to meet Korner at Leipzig, or per- 
 haps in Jena too ; he even thought of taking him to 
 Kudolstadt, to be introduced to the Lengenfelds. 
 
 Toward the close of April he became acquainted 
 with Burger the poet, who, by the injustice of party 
 faction, had still been debarred from a professorship. 
 Burger's poems were just published in a second edition. 
 Schiller found this simple man " a straightforward, noble 
 fellow ; " his nationahty, certainly, disappeared on know- 
 ing him, a nationality that in his poetry was pushed to 
 dulness ; the springtime of his genius was past now. 
 Schiller talked with him of the poem " The Gods of 
 Greece," and of its ignorant critics, and he praised the
 
 268 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 translation of the " Iphigeneia." They planned to trans- 
 late a piece of the " iEneid " in a metre that each should 
 fix. Schiller also got to know Reichardt the musician, 
 whose overbearing, arrogant manner greatly repelled 
 him. Like many more in Weimar, he felt most of- 
 fended that Goethe should live with such a man and 
 give him his confidence just because he had written the 
 music for his " Claudine." The Weimar ladies at this 
 time had httle good to say of Goethe, owing to the 
 rupture with Frau von Stein. Schiller parted in all 
 friendship with Wielaud, promising to send to the Neuc 
 Mercur of 1790 a yearly contribution of twelve sheets 
 of letterpress, the matter to be mostly historical. 
 
 His emigration to Jena was delayed. He felt glad 
 to go; at Jena he was nearer to Rudolstadt, and he 
 looked forward to a new life full of promise for the 
 future. Two years ago Charlotte, she whom he thought 
 of introducing to the Dresden circle, had drawn him to 
 Weimar ; now, she and he were estranged, and, with 
 Lotte and Carohne as his friends, a new, happier, 
 brighter life lay spread before him. In that past time 
 he had hoped for some mark, however slight, of the 
 duke's favour. Now, by his writings, by his talent, he 
 had reached a professor's post ; one which for the first 
 brought him no money, it is true, but he had touched a 
 point whence he could advance to larger things and 
 could make himself needful to the leading German 
 colleges. Fate's rude hand, alas ! was to crush his 
 fondest hopes but all too early.
 
 Book VIII. 
 
 The Professorship
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 FROM MAY, 1789, TO FEBRUARY, 1790. 
 
 On May the 11th Schiller moved into his lodgings 
 at Jena, and they proved far more comfortable ones 
 than he had expected. " To look on such pleasant 
 surroundings," he tells Korner, " makes my life very 
 agreeable. There are three rooms adjoining each other, 
 fairly high up, with light-coloured carpeting, many 
 windows, and everything either new or in good preser- 
 vation. I am amply and handsomely supplied with 
 furniture ; two sofas, a card-table, three chests of 
 drawers, and a dozen and a half of chairs covered with 
 red plush. I have had my writing-desk made for me, 
 which cost two Carolines ; in Dresden you would have 
 had to pay three for it. This is what I've long been 
 trying for, as a writing-table is, to me, the most impor- 
 tant piece of furniture, by which I have always had to 
 help myself. Another advantage of my lodging is the 
 flooring, which is pohshed, clean, and spacious. ... I 
 have, as landladies, two old maids, very willing workers, 
 and very zealous talkers to boot. They serve my meals 
 in my room, — dinner costing two groschen, for which 
 I get the same that in Weimar used to cost four gro- 
 schen." As he hardly had need of more than 450 
 thalers, a sum that the " Memoirs " would bring him 
 in, he intended to use any additional earnings in pay- 
 ing off his debts and in setting himself straight. For 
 the "Memoirs" he thought of translating the French 
 version of Princess Anna Comnena's " Alexias," and 
 
 271
 
 272 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 Otto von Freising's history (in Latin) of Frederick the 
 First. He would also prepare an historical treatise 
 upon the Crusades. 
 
 It was pleasurable to him now to feel that he formed 
 part of a distinguished body, and that from his present 
 position he could step to one higher in honour and in 
 gains, which would allow him to ask Lotte for her 
 hand. He soon got used to life at Jena, though cer- 
 tainly not without some " sinful " waste of time. A 
 public ball showed him the grace and beauty of the 
 Jena ladies, but they impressed him so little that he 
 spent his evening at the card-table. A cleric's daugh- 
 ter, the prettiest of them all, was at the same time the 
 emptiest and most soulless ; in point of character, 
 Dorette Seidler pleased him best, the daughter of a 
 late Weimar councillor. To Schiller the prospect of 
 associating with so many scientific and literary men 
 was most agreeable, though he shrank from the per- 
 vading spirit of jealousy and clique which is never 
 absent from such circles. 
 
 There was so much to distract him, that the begin- 
 ning of the lecture-season almost took him by surprise. 
 By his " Introduction to Universal History," a course 
 of addresses to be delivered on Wednesday and Thurs- 
 day evenings at six o'clock, he meant to review the 
 historical development of mankind, and in doing this 
 he had not clearly determined down to what epoch he 
 should carry such revision. The first lecture upon the 
 difference between the philosopher's mind and the 
 pedant's showed his standpoint to be opposed to that 
 of a mere specialist. May 26th was the date fixed for 
 his opening address. He had chosen Reinhold's lecture- 
 hall, which held about a hundred people. Of course 
 the students might be expected to come in a body to 
 hear the author of their favourite play, " The Eobbers," 
 lecture upon history, yet to choose a larger hall would 
 have looked like presumption.
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 273 
 
 " By half-past five the auditorium was full," wrote 
 Schiller to his friend ; " from Keinhold's window I saw 
 troop after troop coming up the street, as if they would 
 never end. Though not wholly free from nervousness, 
 I was pleased to see the growing numbers, and it rather 
 strengthened my courage. I had indeed steeled my- 
 self into a certain firmness, not a little helped in this 
 by the thought that my lecture need shun no compari- 
 son with any other delivered in Jena, and, above all, 
 by the consciousness that all my hearers would avow 
 my superiority. But when the throng grew ever 
 greater, so that hall and stairs were crammed, and 
 many turned back from the door, some one near me 
 suggested that for this lecture I should make use of 
 another hall. Griesbach's brother-in-law (Schiitz of 
 Biickeburg) happened to be among the students, so I 
 let the proposal be made to them that I should lecture 
 at Griesbach's, and they joyfully accepted it. Then 
 there was a droll scene. Everybody rushed out, helter- 
 skelter, down the street, and the Johannisstrasse, one 
 of the largest in Jena, was quite filled with students. 
 As they thus ran, with might and main, to get a good 
 place in Griesbach's lecture-hall, there was alarm in 
 all the street, and bustling at every window. At first 
 people thought it was a fire, and the castle-guard shared 
 in the common stir. ' What is it ? ' ' What's the mat- 
 ter ? ' was asked by all. Then came the cry, ' The 
 new professor is going to lecture.' . . . After a little 
 while I followed with Eeinhold ; passing down the 
 streets of the town, I felt as though I were running 
 the gauntlet. Griesbach's hall is the largest one, 
 and, when filled, it can hold between three or four 
 hundred people. This time it was full, so full that 
 an anteroom and the passage leading to the front 
 entrance were both blocked up, while in the auditorium 
 many stood on the side stairs. So I walked in along 
 an avenue of spectators and listeners, and could hardly
 
 274 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 find the chair, which I took amid loud knocking, that 
 here counts for applause. . . . Though the atmosphere 
 of the hall was close, in the chair it was bearable, for 
 all the windows were open, and I got fresh air. At 
 the first ten words that I could repeat in firm tone, I 
 had thorough control over my countenance ; and I read 
 on with a strength and a sureness of voice that was 
 surprising even to myself. Right back at the door I 
 could be heard quite distinctly." 
 
 Though Schiller read and did not recite his lecture, 
 its wealth of thought, its gi-ace and vigour of language, 
 made most strong impression. That night all Jena 
 spoke of it. The students serenaded him, an unheard- 
 of honour to be paid to a new professor, whose post 
 was, moreover, a supernumerary one. Griesbach gladly 
 gave up his hall for the other lectures. There were 
 480 persons at the next one, and fifty more who found 
 no place. Schiller spoke somewhat extempore on this 
 occasion, setting forth his conception of the philosophy 
 of history. His closing remark had wonderful effect, 
 where he told his listeners that each, who to clearness 
 of mind joined tenderness of heart, should desire to 
 pay to posterity the debt he owed and could not give 
 back to a bygone generation for the many precious 
 benefits it had bequeathed him. Despite all applause, 
 Schiller felt no thorough taste for lecturing; he was 
 not sure of his hearers' sympathies, and he could not 
 easily descend to bald simplicity. He feared, too, that 
 his success might make others jealous. 
 
 During the short Whitsuntide holiday, he found no 
 time to see those he loved at liudolstadt. A hope of 
 meeting them at Lobeda proved vain ; their journey 
 through Jena to the baths of Lauchstadt was also 
 delayed, Korner, however, gladdened him with the 
 promise of meeting him at Leipzig in August, whence 
 they would travel in company to Jena and "Weimar. 
 In the second week after Whitsuntide, Schiller gave
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 275 
 
 his third and fourth lecture upon man's primitive social 
 life as shown in Mosaic record. The crowd of listeners 
 was as great as before, yet to maintain his hold of such 
 as had hitherto been caught merely by the newness and 
 the sparkle of his lectures, he felt he must make them 
 more generally easy to understand ; though this would 
 cost him more pains, and might result in failure. " My 
 lectures now cost me an astonishing amount of time 
 and trouble," he tells Korner, " as it behoves me first 
 to learn; and then, too, the matter grows gi^eater 
 under my hand — greater than is needed for the mo- 
 ment, though I am loath to let the thoughts go past." 
 He soon gave up the " Alexias " translation and made 
 it over to a student, probably to Berliug, the poor 
 Swede, whom Schiller helped to support. He longed 
 for Lotte, tortured still by doubts if she would ever 
 be his, hoping least of all that such joy could come to 
 liim now. His state was the more distressful that he 
 must hide all his heartache from the world. He even 
 led faithful Korner astray, who, so he feared, might 
 speak to others of his secret. At length, on Friday 
 the 19th he rode over to Rudolstadt, where he stayed 
 until Sunday, a day longer than he had intended. 
 Many a plan was here mooted ; among other things, 
 his visit to Lauchstiidt and meeting with Korner were 
 talked of. He went back to Jena in high spirits. In 
 his lectures he had now reached the Babel epoch, the 
 confusion of tongues and of peoples. 
 
 The Lengenfeld sisters travelled to Jena on 10th 
 July, where they were to stop at Griesbach's, and 
 Schiller should meet them outside the town, under the 
 tall elder-trees on the banks of the Saale. The pleasure 
 of their meeting was, alas! somewhat marred. That 
 evening there was a party at Griesbach's, and Schiller, 
 Professor Paulus and his wife, were among the guests 
 invited. Unfortunately, however, Schiller was detained, 
 only arriving at the last moment. Lotte long remem-
 
 276 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 bered how anxiously she had waited for his coming, as 
 she paced restlessly through the rooms; Paulus and 
 his wife, being Schiller's compatriots, she found the 
 most endurable. Next morning the poet went with 
 his friends for some part of the way to Naumburg. 
 Writing afterward to Lotte, he says : " Your last stay 
 in Jena was to me but a dream — and not all a delight- 
 ful dream, for never had I wished to say so much to 
 you as then, and never did I say less. What I was 
 forced to keep in, weighed me down ; I got no joy 
 from seeing you. I have so often found this ; outward 
 hindrances were not always to blame for it. One can 
 hardly beheve that people, wholly at one in sympathies, 
 and who so easily, so rapidly, understand each other, 
 have yet so long a road between them. So near and 
 yet so far ! " This showed plainly enough his cherished 
 secret, and Caroline, with her characteristic love of 
 action, determined to put an end to all this bashful 
 silence. 
 
 On her way to Lauchstadt, to meet an invalid 
 friend at Burgcirner, near Hettstiidt, she there encoun- 
 tered Laroche and Wilhelm von Humboldt, then in 
 his three and twentieth year, Schiller had seen Laroche 
 at Eudolstadt ; he and Humboldt had in that January 
 come thither from Grittingen to make Caroline's ac- 
 quaintance. Caroline saw that her suffering friend, 
 " wrapped in her feelings," had liking for them both, 
 and, as she told Schiller, she was resolved to " unravel " 
 the plot. Her remark to him that Humboldt was 
 worth far more than Laroche showed whom she pre- 
 ferred. Schiller thought that maybe she would also 
 undertake to " unravel " his own love-afi'air. 
 
 On the 1st or 2d of August, at their pressing request, 
 he followed the sisters to Lauchstadt. They were 
 living with their friend at Kiichler's, a carpenter in 
 the Armenhausgasse. Before Schiller started, on the 
 3d, to meet Kdrner at Leipzig, he confided the secret
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 277 
 
 of his love to Caroline. She listened kindly, sympa- 
 thisingly, telling him that Lotte loved him heartily, 
 and was wholly his ; yet this should not loosen their 
 own close bond of friendship. Caroline the rather 
 hoped to hve with the young couple, as she could not 
 be parted from Lotte, nor give up the pleasure of 
 Schiller's society. Her relations with her husband 
 were as sad as ever; his roughness and caprice had 
 long embittered her life, and she now determined at 
 aU hazards to get a divorce. Schiller was delighted 
 at knowing that Lotte was his own, and that he would 
 still have Caroline's helpful influence. Not wishing to 
 see Lotte again before starting, he left a note for her. 
 In this he spoke of what Carohne had told him, stating 
 the reason for such long silence, and offering her all 
 that he was, all that he owned. 
 
 " Is it true, dearest Lotte ; dare I hope that Caroline 
 has read your soul, and has given me its answer — the 
 answer that I dared not give myself? Tell me that 
 you will be mine, and that my happiness costs you no 
 sacrifice. Oh ! make me sure of that, and with a single 
 word. Our hearts have long been near to each other. 
 And now let all that is yet estranging, all that until 
 now stood between us, fall away, that nothing, nothing 
 trouble the free communion of our souls." This was 
 the first time that he ventured to call her by her 
 Christian name. 
 
 On his arrival that evening at Leipzig, he had the 
 joy of meeting faithful Korner, whom luckily he found 
 alone, and who told him of his intention to move 
 to Jena within the year. And Schiller had news for 
 his friend as well, which, in the gladness of meeting, 
 he could no longer conceal. It came as a thorough 
 surprise to Korner, yet this was no time to show the 
 enthusiastic poet what actual imprudence there lay in 
 such a step. Schiller at once wrote to the sisters that 
 he had told Korner his secret, and that within a year
 
 278 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 he aud his bosom friend would be living together in 
 Jeua. Lotte and Caroline should choose Friday, the 
 7th, for their visit to Leipzig, as on that afternoon 
 Koruer was at liberty. " You must see my friends," 
 he said, " and I must soon see you." They were to 
 tell him in writing that Lotte would be his, and that 
 he was able to make her happy. " I still mistrust a 
 hope, a joy, of which hitherto I have no experience; 
 let my delight soon be wholly freed from this fear. 
 You cannot act as ordinary people act, so toward me 
 you need only use truth, and we can put all formahties 
 aside, and freely, plainly, lay bare our hearts to each 
 other." 
 
 Lotte answered both his letters thus: "I have 
 twice begun writing to you, but my feelings were each 
 time too great to tind expression. Caroline has read 
 my soul, and has answered for my heart. The thought 
 of adding to your happiness stands clear and bright 
 before me. If deep, true love and friendship may do 
 this, then my heart's fervent wish is gained, to see you 
 happy. — For to-day, no more ; on Friday we shall 
 meet. What delight to see our Korner, and to let 
 you, love, read in my heart how much you are to me. 
 Here is the letter I was just going to send you. Adieu. 
 Ever your faithful Lotte." In the letter enclosed, of 
 the 27th July, she had written, "I should ever wish 
 you to remember our friendship, and to have true and 
 certain conviction of mine, dear friend." 
 
 On the 7th Lotte and Caroline came to Leipzig with 
 Privy Councillor von Barckhausen. They were intro- 
 duced to Korner and his family, but the lovers had so 
 much to say to each other, that they were left almost 
 entirely alone, and Korner found little opportunity of 
 growing intimate with Lotte. Next morning Schiller 
 went back with the sisters to Lauchstadt. Here it was 
 agreed to keep the engagement secret, until Schiller 
 should receive a salary, however slight, from the duke.
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 279 
 
 He left Lauchstadt on the 10th, meeting Korner and 
 his family on the road, wlio travelled to Jena with 
 him, where they stayed at his house. The friends had 
 no chance for confidential talk ; Schiller was wrapped 
 up in his newly found happiness, and Korner felt him- 
 self in the background. Visits and excursions formed 
 another hindrance. They went to Weimar, where 
 Korner called upon Privy Councillor Voigt, and ex- 
 plained his wish to enter the ducal service. Schiller 
 also took him to Frau von Kalb, who was then most 
 unhappy at hearing nothing of her husband, to whom 
 she had now proposed a legal separation. Schiller had 
 not lectured for a fortnight, so, before leaving, Korner 
 was able to hear him in his capacity of professor. On 
 the 16th or 17th he attended the address upon Lycur- 
 gus, where Schiller followed the lines laid down by 
 Nast. This lecture was the ninth of the series ; the 
 foregoing one had treated of Moses and his mission. 
 
 Korner left on the 18th, disappointed at this longed- 
 for meeting with his friend, which, so far from bringing 
 them closer, had rather estranged them. Two days 
 afterward the sisters left Lauchstadt and came back 
 to Jena, where they once more stayed at Griesbach's. 
 So Schiller saw them again, to his great delight, and 
 they laid plans for the future, and spoke of his pro- 
 jected stay at Volkstadt during the vacation. After 
 they were gone, he felt perpetual craving to be with 
 them again. To him the three weeks which still 
 parted them seemed Uke an eternity. Preoccupied as 
 he was, those many startling events in the world's 
 history, of which rumours came across from Paris, and 
 which Wolzogen witnessed and described, made far 
 slighter impression upon him than upon others, who 
 hailed the breaking of a new day, bringing with it 
 freedom to the people. He thus answered one of 
 Caroline's glowing letters : " Prepare, noble being, to 
 find nothing in me but the power to excel, and the
 
 28o THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 will and the enthusiasm to use such power. I will 
 look into your beautiful soul, will understand and give 
 response to your tine sensibilities ; yet if I be out 
 of tune, that must neither sadden nor surprise you. 
 Then believe, and firmly, that this strange influence 
 upon my mind has come to it from without. The 
 traces of such influence, working upon me from youth 
 until now, my better self could never quite shake off. 
 But you trust in my soul, and I build upon that faith. 
 With all my shortcomings (for, finally, you will get 
 to know them all), that which you once liked in 
 me, you will always find. You will love me for my 
 affection. ..." 
 
 Schiller intended to finish his course of lectures 
 about the middle of September with Alexander the 
 Great. " I am hurrying along now tremendously," he 
 writes on 1st September, " and my students are right 
 glad at the rate we go ; whole centuries fly past us. 
 To-morrow I shall have done with Alcibiades, and 
 then I go on to Alexander, with whom I end. Our 
 Plutarch stands me now in good stead, though cer- 
 tainly I've now more occasion to get irritated over 
 him." He revised the translation of Anna Comnena's 
 work for the " Memoirs," and sent it to press, but 
 he could neither prepare an essay promised for the 
 opening volume, nor complete the first part of " The 
 Ghostseer." His whole existence, his whole sympa- 
 tliies, were centred in Lotte and Caroline; Korner, 
 even, must be content with a short, hasty letter. " For 
 a time much joy is taken from me," he tells the sisters, 
 " so that I cannot let my heart speak against him 
 [Korner] ; but how much you make me forget ! " 
 
 Already, on the 1st of September, he had engaged 
 his old lodgings at Volkstadt. To prevent any feehng 
 of ill-will or of suspicion on the mother's part as to 
 his visit, he sent a letter stating his resolve to the 
 sisters, which they should show their parent. For our
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 281 
 
 poet everything fell from sight in the radiant joy of 
 his love. Nature and all her beauties had nothing for 
 him now ; he seemed to think that she charmed only 
 with that lent to her by man. Even when Lotte 
 spoke of her heartfelt satisfaction at the revolution in 
 France, he said not a word in answer. For all society 
 such as Jena offered he felt very strong distaste. 
 
 Fran von Kalb and her domestic troubles now dis- 
 turbed his happiness. He was thoroughly glad that 
 she had not come to Eudolstadt, as intended, for her 
 presence would have put restraint upon Lotte and 
 himself, and, with her suspicious nature, she must 
 readily have guessed all. " She has the justest claims 
 upon my friendship," he tells the sisters, " and I must 
 admire her for having kept pure and true the first feel- 
 ings of our friendship through all the strange laby- 
 rinths in which we have rambled together." He was 
 on excellent terms with her still, and he hoped these 
 might last as long as could be, especially as Charlotte, 
 being then in contention with her husband, had need 
 of his advice and support. Frau von Kalb asked 
 Schiller on the 10th to come to her at Weimar to con- 
 sult him as to how she should act ; but he could not 
 leave his duties. However, to prevent her taking 
 offence at his stopping on at Volkstadt, he invited her 
 to meet him with Corona Schroder in Jena. In her 
 present position she felt bound to decline such a 
 proposal ; and he, in making it, believed he had done 
 all that could be expected of him. 
 
 On the 15th he ended his course of lectures, but he 
 could not start until the 18th, as the expected money 
 from Mauke, his publisher, did not arrive in time. 
 At Eudolstadt he used to visit the sisters on after- 
 noons, but sometimes in the morning, too, as he gen- 
 erally chose a time when their mother was absent 
 at the court. During his first week he suffered acutely 
 with toothache. In this time he recast his two open-
 
 282 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 ing lectures for the Mercur, wrote the conclusion to 
 the first volume of " The Ghostseer," and prepared him- 
 self for the winter course of lectures. At Volkstiidt 
 he felt some fresh touch of the old passion for Charlotte 
 von Kalb. This is seen from' his remark to Koruer on 
 the 28th, that a strange matter about which he dis- 
 liked writing strongly absorbed him ; it had reference 
 to Frau von Kalb and his new relationship to Lotte. 
 Carohne wrote a month later, saying that she thanked 
 Heaven that Charlotte was not going to be his wife. 
 While at Eudolstadt it had been a trying task for him 
 and for the sisters to keep their mother in ignorance of 
 the secret. Caroline grew seriously unwell, and it was 
 feared that she would never completely recover health. 
 Her mother attributed this to her stay at Lauchstiidt, 
 whence Caroline had returned in a gi-eatly agitated 
 state. The more she sufiered, the more Schiller showed 
 for her his tender care, so that Lotte sometimes feared 
 that he loved her less than her sister, and that he 
 might repent him of his choice. But in his gay society 
 all such fears were dispelled. Caroline hked specially 
 to dream of all the good fortune that the Koadjutor of 
 the Kurfiirst of Mainz should bring them. Freiherr 
 Karl Theodor von Dalberg, brother to the director of 
 the Mannheim Theatre, was then in his forty-fifth year. 
 Governor of Erfurt, and a firm friend of the Dacherb- 
 dens, he was known to be an enthusiastic patron of the 
 arts and sciences, and he had spoken in high praise of 
 Schiller's poetical gifts. Lotte and Carohne were to 
 come to Weimar in the winter ; the " great matter," 
 the breaking of the secret to their mother, should rest 
 for the present. Schiller let himself be kept back in 
 Eudolstadt until the 2 2d, and this hindered him not a 
 little in the preparation and arrangement of his lec- 
 tures. Then there was delay in the printing of his 
 prospectus, which was not distributed among the stu- 
 dents until the majority had already subscribed to
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 283 
 
 other series. This time he lectured six times in the 
 week, five times — from five o'clock to six — upon 
 general history, from the Frankish monarchy down to 
 Frederick II. ; and once — every Thursday from six 
 to seven — on Eoman history. That the number of his 
 hearers did not exceed thirty was, of course, grievously 
 disappointing, but another cause for this, besides the 
 delay in advertising, was, that his lectures were given 
 simultaneously with others that had to be attended. 
 His whole receipts amounted to sixty thalers. Despite 
 such scanty attendance, he would prepare his lectures 
 as carefully as if he had a hundred hsteners. At his 
 free lectures the hall was " fairly full," although, owing 
 to their subject, these could not have such charm for 
 the mass as those delivered during the summer. The 
 first volume of the "Memoirs" was printed at such 
 speed that by the end of October it lay ready for pub- 
 lication. Still he found neither time nor humour to 
 write the promised essay for this. 
 
 This daily lecturing, so far from being a strain, 
 rather quickened his zeal for work. Yet, if aught else 
 took his attention, the lectures were put aside. He 
 twice postponed them at the beginning of November 
 when writing an " Historical Survey " of the Crusades. 
 Composed when in a happy moment of inspiration, 
 this grew under his pen to such lofty form that he 
 believed never before to have put so much thought 
 in so beautiful a shape, never more fitly to have joined 
 intellect with imagination. But this too remained un- 
 finished, as he reserved its sequel for another volume. 
 He now grew discontented with his position, in pro- 
 portion as it seemed to have brought him farther from, 
 instead of nearer to, her he loved. Writing on his 
 birthday, he exclaims : " What evil genius could have 
 prompted me to tie myself dovm here, in Jena ? I 
 have gained nothing, absolutely nothing, thereby, but 
 have lost an immeasurable deal. If I were not here,
 
 284 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 I could live where I liked, could try to carry out plans 
 for settling myself in life with far greater ease thau 
 at present, as all my time would be my own." He 
 was still hoping that his friend, the Koadjutor of the 
 Kurfiirst of Mainz, would get him some appointment 
 in that town ; he thought, too, of going to Berhn or 
 Vienna. At this time he had singular dealings witli 
 the Jena senate. It seems that on the title-page of 
 his printed " Introductory Lecture " he had styled him- 
 self professor of history. But this touched the rights 
 of Professor Heinrich, who, properly speaking, was 
 the real professor of history at Jena. Heinrich, in 
 a miserable spirit of wounded vanity, insisted that the 
 title should be changed, that Schiller should call him- 
 self what he was, professor of philosophy. He even 
 caused the advertisement exposed at the book-shop to 
 be torn down by a college servant, thus making him- 
 self for ever ridiculous by such petty show of insolence 
 toward genius. The senate, however, had of course to 
 declare the Professor historiarum in the right. 
 
 The Koadjutor's friendly reply unfortunately gave 
 Schiller no immediate ground for hope. Did it depend 
 on him, he said, he would put the poet in such a posi- 
 tion at Mainz or Erfurt as would let him give pinions 
 to his muse unchecked. But it was the Kurfiirst who 
 ruled matters, and who, justly enough, wished that 
 . men of such merit should apply directly to him. By 
 staying in Jena, Schiller deemed it impossible to 
 hasten on his marriage with Lotte or to bring her 
 sister to his side, for, being still in debt, the receipt 
 from his lectures yielded him no sure income. 
 
 Lotte still feared that one day she might cease to 
 be to him all that she was now. In a letter to the 
 sisters, he calms such fear. " Caroline," he says, " Caro- 
 line is nearer to me in age, and thus her thoughts, her 
 feelings, are more on a level with mine ; she has worked 
 more upon my sense for utterance than you, Lotte
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 285 
 
 mine, — but for all the world I would not have you 
 other than you are. Those advantages which Caroline 
 has, you must get from me ; in my love your being 
 must develop itself, you must be my creation, your 
 season of blossoming must fall in the springtime of 
 my love. Had we found each other later, you would 
 have robbed me of this delight of watching you bloom 
 to perfect beauty — for me." 
 
 He now looked forward to the 2d of December, the 
 date fixed for his journey to Weimar. While there he 
 hoped to see Lotte sometimes ; even occasional visits to 
 Jena were not unlikely. He sighed for the soft spring 
 days to come on ; he longed for the time when he 
 should be at Eudolstadt with her. The pleasantest 
 time for him now was when the lectures were over 
 on Friday evenings, and he had a few days to spend 
 undisturbed in thinking of his beloved ones. Lotte 
 asked him to come to Rudolstadt at the end of each 
 week, but, to his grief, he was obliged to decline this 
 invitation. For to others these visits might seem 
 strange, and neither of them would rightly enjoy such 
 hasty meetings. He dare not even show himself in 
 Weimar until Christmas, if he would avoid notice. In 
 the early part of the year he intended to ask the Duke 
 of Weimar for a stipend which at the most would not 
 exceed two hundred thalers, but he still despaired of 
 soon marrying, as his letter to Korner of 23d Novem- 
 ber shows. Yet, four days afterward, he tells the 
 sisters that Lotte must as soon as possible share his 
 life with him at Jena, where he meant to remain for 
 some years longer. 
 
 " I know not how else I could bear it ! No bright 
 outlook for me in the future, and this restless longing 
 at my heart ! . . . Head and heart will not support 
 so long and violent a strain, and even as an aid to 
 work, it is needful that after mental exhaustion I 
 should be refreshed by pleasures of the heart. This
 
 286 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 unrest of mind hinders me from bettering, so far as 
 possible, my prospects, for it keeps me from all work. 
 I have no gladdening genius at hand, without which 
 all striving is vain." He calculates that if, at Easter, 
 the duke should grant him 150 thalers, and if the 
 lectures only brought him in as much, his literary 
 earnings at the least amounted to four hundred 
 thalers, so that his yearly income might be estimated 
 at seven hundred thalers. On this they might manage 
 to hve, even if Lotte's mother did not contribute, 
 though she had done so in Caroline's case. But they 
 would not settle in Jena, where he had no intention 
 of remaining. For in two years he might go to Mainz, 
 or receive some post at the Berlin Academy. Caroline 
 would of course have to stay in Eudolstadt ; there was 
 no help for this. Lotte gleefully agreed to all. 
 
 Early in the afternoon of 2d December the sisters 
 reached Jena. They at once sent for Schiller and 
 spent a couple of hours with him in confidential talk, 
 not going to Griesbach's house until just before start- 
 ing on their journey. Schiller had to lecture from 
 five to six. Shortly before six the ladies drove off 
 with their maid and a man servant. Directly after his 
 lecture Schiller followed them on horseback, and rode 
 for a long way in the moonlight beside their carriage. 
 While returning he tortured himself by the thought 
 that perhaps he had shown them too little care, that, 
 in this haste, he had not given vent to all the brim- 
 ming love at his heart. On the 4th the duke came 
 to Jena, with Goethe and the Koadjutor, and was 
 introduced to the professors. The Koadjutor showed 
 himself very friendly to Schiller, questioning him as 
 to his position in the town, as to his writings and 
 present literary employment, though in doing this he 
 was often interrupted by the duke. All Schiller's 
 thoughts were now set upon hastening his and Lotte's 
 " entire union." In Weimar people spoke already of
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 287 
 
 their engagement ; at all cost they must prevent the 
 mother from hearing about it through strangers. As 
 Goethe at court had shown such politeness to Lotte, 
 and was not unversed in such matters, Schiller thought 
 she should entrust him with their secret, so that, if 
 possible, Goethe might further their plan of getting 
 married in the spring. Most singular was Frau von 
 Kalb's conduct. In the beginning of November she 
 had written her faithless swain a " strange " letter, for 
 she found it so hard to give him up. There was bitter 
 recrimination with her husband, who had accompanied 
 her to Weimar, whither her brother-in-law, the presi- 
 dent, and his wife also came. A divorce was talked of 
 and arrangements made for the division of their prop- 
 erty, but all was thwarted by Caroline's refusal to give 
 up the guardianship of her son. She fell ill herself, 
 but was soon so far convalescent that Lotte could visit 
 her. Schiller cautioned his fiancee, against Charlotte : 
 she was unfair toward her, he said, and took a cold, 
 biassed view of their love ; she felt offended at his not 
 coming to see her, but his presence would wound her 
 even more, for she was in no way capable of sympa- 
 thising with his love. Frau von Kalb invited Lotte 
 to her house, and in manner toward her was composed 
 and friendly ; Caroline also had to pay her- a visit.' 
 But just this interest which Charlotte showed for the 
 Lengenfelds made Schiller suspect that she was weav- 
 ing some new plot or other, and that .she had not 
 wholly renounced him. 
 
 On the 12tli he arrived at Weimar, where he lodged 
 close to the Lengenfelds, at " Tlie Elephant," on the 
 south side of the market-place. Ostensibly he had 
 come hither to attend a performance of Goethe's 
 " Claudine," though on the evening of his arrival 
 another play, Weisze's tragedy, " Fanaticism ; or, Jean 
 Calas," was given. This time Schiller surprised the 
 sisters by proposing a totally different plan of action,
 
 288 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 according to which, all help from the duke should be 
 refused, and Frau von Leugeufeld spared the pain of 
 parting with her daughter. For he meditated living 
 with Lotte at Rudolstadt in a house adjoining her 
 present home. His income would amount to three 
 hundred thalers, while Lotte was to have another two 
 hundred from her mother. He needed about two hun- 
 dred for himself, and the Thalia alone would brhig 
 him in the requisite five hundred for housekeeping. 
 He had quite giveu up his connection with Wieland's 
 Mercur, issued now in altered form, as the only 
 actual change was that Wieland should write more 
 for it and give special attention to the newest German 
 literature. Helped by a few able writers, he hoped 
 with very little labour on his part to earn from three 
 to four hundred thalers by the " Memoirs." At Easter 
 he would ask for a fixed salary, and, if tliis were re- 
 fused, he should resign the professorship and spend four 
 or five years in study, in training and strengthening 
 his mental powers before giving public proof of them. 
 It occurred to him later that he might take a year's 
 holiday in which to finish his " Revolt of the Nether- 
 lands." He could only stay a night at Weimar, and 
 rode back to Jena early the next morning. The sisters 
 drove to Erfurt on the 14th, and while here they sud- 
 denly decided to tell their mother of the engagement. 
 Not a word of this had been said when Schiller met 
 them at Weimar. They called upon the Koad jutor ; he 
 was most amiable, and told them that Goethe was also 
 in the secret. Caroline now helped to bring about the 
 engagement of her friend Fraulein von Dacheroden 
 with Wilhelm von Humboldt, and obtained permission 
 from that lady's father to take her to Weimar. Frau 
 von Lengenfeld, on receiving her daughter's letter, was 
 so surprised, so agitated, as to be unable to send a word 
 in answer, only Lotte must feel assured that she only 
 wished for her happiness. Not until the 18th did
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 289 
 
 Schiller write, asking for Lotte's hand, saying that if 
 love could make her happy, such love was his to give. 
 
 In the afternoon of the 19th he came with the 
 Paulus family to Weimar, where he met his beloved, 
 and spent a happy time with her ; he was at the 
 theatre, too, to see an act of his friend Neumann's 
 play, "Kunz von Kaufungen." He learnt that the 
 duke had called that afternoon upon Fiau von Stein, 
 and had asked her about Lotte's engagement. His 
 Grace approved of it, and seemed not unwilling to 
 grant the wished-for salary. Schiller, so soon as he 
 had the mother's consent, intended to tell the duke 
 everything, asking only for a year's leave of absence, 
 not for a salary, which the duke for his merits' sake 
 might offer him later. He returned to Jena that 
 night. Lotte next day was sharply upbraided at the 
 court by Frau von Kalb, who complained that Schiller 
 had not visited her. Goethe was away at this time, 
 in Jena, wholly taken up in completing his treatise on 
 the metamorphosis of plants. Schiller did not see 
 him, but wrote in a letter, " I should be glad, could I 
 be more to him." The old frankness toward Korner 
 was once more established, who was overjoyed : Schil- 
 ler, too, felt as though freed from a nightmare. 
 
 On the 2 2d he got the mother's answer, who de- 
 clared herself ready to give him her best and dearest 
 possession, as Lotte's love and his own noble-minded- 
 ness were sufficient surety for her daughter's happi- 
 ness ; she wished only to feel at ease as to his means of 
 Kvelihood, for without an adequate income there could 
 be no happiness in the home. Schiller, in grateful 
 joy, at once replied to this letter. If the duke, he said, 
 were to grant him 150 or two hundred thalers, his 
 yearly income might safely be reckoned at eight hun- 
 dred thalers. He would write to the duke next day, 
 and if his Grace put him off with promises until 1791, 
 for 1790 he had a proposal to make that perhaps she
 
 290 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 would not dislike. Simultaneously with this letter he 
 sent one to the Duke of Meiuingen, asking him to con- 
 fer upon him the title of Count Councillor (Hofiath ). 
 For Lotte, by marrying him, sacrificed her rank, and 
 Schiller wished to make up in some measure for such 
 loss. He hopefully awaited the request made on the 
 23d to the Duke of Weimar ; yet, be it what it might, 
 he felt quite easy as to his income. Just then 
 Goeschen asked him to furnish an article on the 
 " Thirty Years' War " for his Historical Ladies' Cal- 
 endar. The fee offered was four hundred thalers. 
 The subject had long attracted him, and the task 
 seemed an easy one, as he had only to content dilet- 
 tanti — not students of history. So this commission 
 came to him as a veritable marriage portion. The 
 wedding was to take place at Easter ; he intended to 
 hire the other rooms on the same floor as his present 
 lodging; and there was no need to trouble about 
 furnishing them. 
 
 Full of his joy, he hastened to spend Christmas Eve 
 at Weimar. There he found Laroche and FrJiulein 
 Dacheroden with her fiancS, Wilhelm von Humboldt, 
 whose acquaintance he now made. He returned on 
 the 26th. Lotte and Humboldt visited Goethe on the 
 28th, to whom on Christmas Day a son — his first — 
 had been born. The poet had invited them to come 
 to him that morning ; he showed them choice engrav- 
 ings, and was most friendly and confidential. On that 
 or on the following day Humboldt arrived at Jena, 
 where he stayed with Schiller, and they visited the 
 neighbourhood in company. Schiller, wholly absorbed 
 in his love, thought Humljoldt too liiglity, his identity 
 too broken up ; knowledge had enriched his mind and 
 set it working ; but he needed depth. His heart was 
 a noble one, but there was wanting to him the rest, the 
 calm of a soul which fondly cherishes its object, and 
 which keeps staunchly to its most loved creation.
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 291 
 
 Humboldt was Schiller's junior by some seven 
 years. Versed not only in law and politics, but also 
 in philosophy and the modern languages, he had mixed 
 much in good society, and belonged to Henriette Herz's 
 circle of intellectual acquaintances, having Jacobi and 
 Forster as his most intimate friends. He felt very 
 wishful to know the famous poet and historian who 
 had given " Tha Robbers " and the " Revolt of the 
 Netherlands " to an admiring world ; but Schiller was 
 then in no temper to understand him. Humboldt well 
 saw how deeply the poet loved Lotte, and he urged 
 him to use every effort toward hastening on the 
 marriage. 
 
 On the last day of the year Schiller felt driven to 
 return to Weimar. The duke no sooner knew of his 
 arrival than he sent for him to give his request a 
 personal answer. He would gladly do something, said 
 the duke, to show his regard ; yet unfortunately, added 
 he, with lowered voice and in some confusion, unfortu- 
 nately he could not afford to give more than two hun- 
 dred thalers. Schiller expressed himself completely 
 satisfied with such a salary, and gave the duke his 
 warmest thanks, who then questioned him as to the 
 date fixed for the wedding. 
 
 Fraulein Dacheroden, Laroche, and Humboldt were 
 still in Weimar, so Schiller met them again. On the 
 first evening they went to the theatre, where he saw 
 Kotzebue's immensely successful play, " Human Hatred 
 and Remorse," which Korner had told him was a 
 wretchedly feeble piece. Still, he wanted to see it, 
 and though the friends made merry over its false 
 sentiment and want of power, he felt genuinely 
 aggrieved that the taste of playgoers should have 
 sunk so low. The author, a native of Weimar, who 
 had risen under the Russian government to be Presi- 
 dent of the Magistracy of Esthonia (in virtue of which 
 office he put the von before his name), scored a triumph
 
 292 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 with this most affecting drama. Through the very 
 distaste with which Europe received his work, he grew 
 famous ; and it marks the beginning of that flood of 
 Kotzebue-plays, poured forth as an antidote to Iffland's 
 domestic pictures and to Schiller's dramas, at a time 
 when that poet's genius was turned to history and the 
 philosophical side of art. But let us go back to our 
 friends. They spent pleasant evenings together at a gay 
 cafe, for Humboldt liked such distraction. On New 
 Year's Day Schiller dined with the sisters at Frau von 
 Stein's, who now encouraged the match of which she 
 had before disapproved, owing to the poet's ill health. 
 The duke himself came to her house, and declared, 
 with a droll air of self-satisfaction, that he had given 
 the best thing toward the marriage, namely, the money. 
 Instead of the expected reply from Frau von Lengen- 
 feld, the poet while at Weimar received news of the 
 serious illness of his mother, and this greatly dulled 
 his happiness. 
 
 When at Jena, a letter came from Christophine, 
 stating Frau Schiller's condition to be hopeless, but it 
 was soon followed by other and more comforting re- 
 ports. Lotte's mother still delayed sending her deci- 
 sion, for which Schiller now clamoured. Their speedy 
 union was necessary to him amid so much work, for 
 this waiting and longing did but disturb and unsettle 
 his mind. He confessed to the sisters : " I have never 
 seemed so poor, so small to myself, as now, at the 
 approach of my most blissful happiness. The present 
 is no more anything to me ; the joys of hope are no 
 longer mine ; and still you are yet far from me. I 
 gladly lose identity to take it again, enriched and 
 beautified, from the hands of love, from your 
 hands." 
 
 On the 12th, the mother-in-law's consent reached 
 him, who promised Lotte an annuity of 150 thalers so 
 long as she remained his wife. In a few weeks Frau
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 293 
 
 von Lengenfeld would come to Jena, and the wedding 
 could take place on the day following her arrival, 
 either there, or at a neighbouring \T.llage. Directly 
 after this Schiller received patents from the Duke of 
 Meiningen, conferring on him the title of Hofrath 
 without cost, and this was specially pleasing to the 
 mother of his bride. He at once let notice of his 
 new rank be published in the Liter atur Zeitung. In 
 this exciting time he found the six weekly lectures 
 very tedious. It is true, he no longer worked them 
 out carefully, but delivered them extempore, which 
 saved him the time spent in writing them down, but 
 the facts and the hue to follow in each lecture had 
 for this cause to be fixed firmer in his mind. 
 
 A separation of more than a fortnight was intolerable 
 to the lovers. During the two delightful days Schiller 
 spent with the sisters they planned the arrangement 
 of their home. But when Lotto's mother hesitated to 
 let the marriage be fixed for a day before Easter, 
 SchiUer, in his disappointment, excitedly begged the 
 sisters to wiite less often, as their correspondence now 
 agitated him overmuch. " Otherwise," said he, " I lose 
 fitness for all work, and my existence becomes un- 
 bearable ; how this attempt will succeed, I know not ; 
 but I must try to rouse my interest in something 
 scientific." Lotte felt all the happier, fully convinced, 
 now, that some good genius had so formed her char- 
 acter as one day helpfully to influence his ; her dis- 
 position, her way of looking at things, would never 
 jar upon him, she said. Wishing to do all that was 
 possible for his amusement, she was now taking gi'eat 
 pains with her music, in which she had already made 
 a good start ; besides this, she means to draw and read 
 much, so that their evenings may always pass pleas- 
 antly by. An active life of retirement, she observed, 
 would help to give her that peace which abides ; she 
 must live for her soul, her heart ; and this she could
 
 294 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 most fitly do in the time that lay before her, spent in 
 the sunlight of a husband's love. 
 
 After lecturing, on the evening of the 29th, Schiller 
 drove with Paulus and his wife to the masked liall, 
 held annually in honour of the grand duchess's birth- 
 day. Here, at this ball, three years ago, he had had 
 the joyful surprise of meeting Lotte. The sisters 
 came to it also, and he stayed with them until five 
 o'clock next afternoon, managing to spend much of 
 the time alone with his betrothed. Frau von Lengen- 
 feld had fixed to come on the 10th or 12th of February. 
 As there was not sufficient room in Schiller's house for 
 the reception of Caroline and her mother, spacious and 
 well-furnished apartments were taken for them at 
 Frauleiu von Seegners', close by, at the " not very 
 cheap " rate of fifteen thalers the half-year. But un- 
 fortunately the mother's coming was postponed. 
 
 Meanwhile, he gave Korner explanation as to his 
 choice, saying that, in taking a wife for himself, happily 
 he had won a heart that was noble, a nature that was 
 finely touched. 
 
 " I rejoice at your present joy," wrote Korner, in 
 reply, " but from this union, too, I believe I may hope 
 great things for your after life. Without paltry de- 
 liberation, you have chosen a wife suited to your 
 individual need, and by no other road could you have 
 found the treasure wanting to you — a happy home. 
 You are not fitted to live as an isolated being, just 
 for selfish enjoyment ; though some luminous idea may 
 flash on you, blotting out for a time all else save an 
 intoxicating sense of your own superiority, still the 
 need of loving and of being loved soon comes back to 
 you. 1 know, I understand, the pulses of your friend- 
 ship and how fitful they are. Yet they do not set me 
 at a distance from you ; they are essential to your 
 character, are joined to other qualities that T would 
 not wish changed. So, with your love, it will not
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 295 
 
 be otherwise ; and were I sufficiently intimate with 
 your wife, to venture it, I would wish her no better 
 thing on her wedding-day than to have the tact not to 
 misunderstand you in such moments." 
 
 Schiller let Lotte see the letter, who thought Kcirner 
 was perfectly right. Love, she said was not the 
 sketching-out for oneself of some immaculate hero ; 
 it was to love men, just as they were, and to treat 
 their feehngs with a heart full of charity. And so, 
 she hoped that Scliiller, too, would forgive her, if by 
 a too great show of zeal or calm, or by a proneness 
 to melancholy, she should at times dull for him the 
 brightness of her love. 
 
 While now the old frank footing had once more 
 been estabhshed between the friends, Frau von Kalb 
 showed increasing bitterness toward the happy lovers. 
 She held Schiller guilty of faithlessness as base as that 
 with which Frau von Stein in her fury charged Goethe. 
 She wrote him, after her vehement way, a " most un- 
 gracious " letter, warning him among other things 
 against " poisonous tongues," that he " never should 
 have suffered to speak truth." When sending an 
 answer, she begged him to write her address accurately, 
 that the letter might not fall into her sister's hands. 
 Schiller had already twice avoided seeing her, once, 
 when she spoke of something highly important that 
 she had to tell him. And when, dreading a scene, he 
 positively refused to meet her, she mentioned, as reason 
 for the interview, a matter that could well have been 
 discussed on paper. In reply to his judgment that she 
 was hardly in a fit mood to make their meeting an 
 agreeable one, she said that he erred in connecting her 
 present conduct with " that madness," " that grotesque 
 and long-forgotten dream," meaning the past. Schiller 
 then assured her that, as bygones were vriped out 
 from her memory, he was at last able to speak frankly 
 of all his coming happiness, which in the fulness of
 
 296 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 his heart he then described. Care was really necessary, 
 he said, in writing the address, as some letters sent 
 by him to Weimar had actually fallen into strange 
 hands. The sisters suspected Frau von Kalb of having 
 intercepted one of their letters to Schiller, which, 
 after some delay, reached him with only one wrapper 
 round it. They also believed her to be the author of 
 an anonymous letter sent to Lotte, telling her to try 
 and become a good housewife, instead of hunting after 
 poets. It was she, so Lotte thought, who had spread 
 the rumour that Schiller was in love with Caroline and 
 not with her. They met soon after at Frau von Stein's, 
 when Charlotte was icy in manner and seemed warring 
 with inward grief. 
 
 Schiller's bliss is shown in the words : " I can now 
 scarcely survey all my beautiful possessions. How 
 much that is noble and excellent am I taking to my- 
 self and calling mine ! My heart is fused into one 
 great and glorious sensation." And, to fulfil his cup 
 of happiness, the voice of genius now spoke forth 
 again, after long silence. He succeeded in completing 
 Hutton's monologue in " The Manhater." " Love and 
 the poet's genius are not jealous of each other," he 
 says ; " it is rather to their advantage (in my case, at 
 least) to keep friends. I can in no way describe to 
 you, my dearest ones, how glad I feel at the prospect 
 of working at poetry in your midst. To blend the 
 fullest meed of artistic enjoyment "with that of the 
 heart had always been my highest ideal of life, and in 
 joining both these pleasures I have the surest way of 
 l)ringing each to its highest perfection. . . . Love alone, 
 without this inward bent for work, would soon with- 
 draw from me its fairest delights. If I am to be 
 abidingly happy, I must have a sense of my [poetic] 
 powers — must feel worthy of the bliss that is mine ; 
 and this can only come by seeing myself reflected in 
 some work of art."
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 297 
 
 Frau von Lengenfeld was now to arrive on the 2 2d, 
 the marriage taking place on the following day. Schil- 
 ler should fetch Lotte and Caroline from Erfurt, and 
 pay a visit there to the Koadjutor, who had been most 
 friendly to them all, offering to defray the wedding 
 expenses, which of course Frau von Lengenfeld could 
 not allow. He had talent as a painter, and began 
 upon a picture of Hymen, intended for the bride. 
 Having made the necessary clerical arrangements, a 
 task that he found extremely disagreeable, and after 
 sending back at her request all Frau von Kalb's let- 
 ters, Schiller drove to Erfurt on Thursday evening, the 
 18th, after his lecture. He stayed with the sisters at 
 their hotel. The Koadjutor showed him warm sym- 
 pathy ; so soon as he should be Kurfiirst, Schiller 
 must come to him at Mainz, where he would quickly 
 find him a good post. The sisters and Fraulein von 
 Dacherciden raved about the Koadjutor, calling him 
 their " gold-mine ; " they pictured themselves already 
 at Mainz, hving together as on some happy island. 
 And Schiller, too, was charmed by his company ; 
 through him he felt mentally quickened ; his spark- 
 ling talk was delightful to hear ; although perhaps 
 there was something willowy, something irresolute 
 about him. Goethe had likewise enjoyed the " cease- 
 less " conversation of this kind-hearted and sagacious 
 man of the world. The bridegroom spent three pleas- 
 ant days at Erfurt, where the highest circles gave him 
 their congratulations. On the 21st he drove with the 
 Lengenfelds through Weimar to Jena ; unfortunately 
 Frau von Stein could not accompany them, as her 
 husband was suffering from a fresh paralytic seizure. 
 At Jena, Herder's wife sent them her good wishes, and 
 they stayed, as before, at the Seegners' house. Next 
 morning they drove to meet the mother-in-law at 
 Kahla, and, leading there at two o'clock, three hours 
 later they reached the little village church of Wenigen-
 
 298 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 Jena. Here a clergyman, one Gottlieb Friedrich 
 Schmid, being commissioned by Superintendent Oem- 
 ler of Jena, privately married them. Schiller told 
 Korner that " the scene was a very short one," for to 
 him the whole ceremony seemed but an empty form, 
 that, however, he had to go through. Lotte could not 
 resist sketching the httle church where Heaven's bless- 
 ing had consecrated their marriage vows. 
 
 " We spent the evening in quiet talk over our tea," 
 wrote she, in her widowhood, sixteen years later. 
 Without any show, the poet brought his wife to their 
 modest yet well-appointed home, where his highest 
 happiness was now centred. All attempts to surprise 
 him on the part of the students or their professors he 
 had fortunately escaped.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 FROM FEBRUARY, 1790, TO OCTOBER, 1791. 
 
 Ten joyful months, among the gladdest in all his 
 life, were now, after long waiting, in store for our poet. 
 All his most fervent hopes for happy wedlock were 
 realised to the full. Lotte had deep sense of her hus- 
 band's worth ; in raising, in beautifying his life, she 
 found at once her holiest duty and her sweetest pleas- 
 ure. She seemed destined to ward off all his cares, to 
 give him all her heart's sympathy and attachment, a 
 close sharer of his mental life, moulding herself upon 
 his pattern, and aiming ever to make him glad. Be- 
 sides her drawing, she made diligent progress with her 
 singing and playing, for Schiller was cheered by music, 
 whose charm Goethe too had found helpful toward 
 calming the soul, and toward kindling the fires of 
 poesy. Italian also formed another subject for study. 
 As a husband, Schiller was tenderness itself, freely 
 yielding back to his wife, his " little mouse," as he 
 called her, all the affection which she lavished upon 
 him. 
 
 The landlady saved Lotte all trouble as regarded 
 household matters ; they were well waited on by two 
 servants, and their home had all that pleasant neatness 
 which was needed to make it comfortable and tranquil. 
 The Koadjutor's promises laid bare bright visions for 
 them in the future, and there was much hoping that 
 the old Kurfiirst, " the papa," would soon shufHe off 
 this mortal coil, and even droll surmising as to how, 
 while yet living, he might forfeit his rank. 
 
 299
 
 300 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 The first week of their honeymoon was disturbed by 
 visits from the mother-iu-law and Frau von Stein, At 
 the beginning of March Schiller returned to active 
 work. The lectures in particular took up much of liis 
 time; he had been overcareless with them, and had 
 often missed lecturing, so that now he must hasten 
 to recover what was lost ; then, too, his second volume 
 of " Memoirs " needed revision. Goeschen clamoured 
 for the tenth number of Thalia^ and Schiller was 
 still busied with scenes to appear in it from " The 
 Mauhater." Amid all this crush of work he longed to 
 find some congenial subject of a poetic kind on which 
 to spend pains. He seized anew the idea of writing 
 an epic upon Frederick the Great, and set about trans- 
 lating the second book of the ^neid, as a training 
 for the correct form of verse he should use. But in 
 this he failed to succeed. 
 
 Early in April he went with Lotte and Caroline to 
 spend the hohdays at liudolstadt, where he was every- 
 where most cordially received. Bvit he was obliged to 
 continue working at his lectures and for the pubhshers. 
 This time he had announced the first part of his history 
 up to the founding of the Frankish monarchy, but also 
 a lecture of one hour upon the theory of tragedy, to 
 give play to his thoughts upon a favourite subject. 
 He also began to take serious interest in politics, now 
 that the peace he deemed so needful was hke to be 
 endangered by a rupture between Prussia and Austria. 
 " I tremble at the thought of war," he tells Korner, 
 " for we shall feel it in every corner of Germany." 
 Just then the Koadjutor had sent Lotte his painting 
 of Hymen writing the names Lengenfeld and Schiller 
 upon a tree, beside which were Hippocrene, the Muses' 
 spring, and the emblems of Tragedy and History. 
 When sending it, he wrote : 
 
 " My daubing is for me generally a rest, a pastime 
 for leisure hours. This time I love and value it for
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 301 
 
 giving the illustrious Schiller and his amiable wife 
 pleasure." Schiller, hke the sisters, thought the pic- 
 ture a skilful piece of work, even if in idea it had little 
 that was original. 
 
 When April ended he came back with Lotte to Jena ; 
 Caroline stayed on at Rudolstadt for a few weeks. It 
 was an unusually wearying summer for him ; besides 
 the lectures he had to get his " History of the Thirty 
 Years' War " ready for Goeschen by August. Certainly 
 this last was not such a strain to him as the " Eevolt 
 of the Netherlands," for he only made free use of such 
 histories as could be had upon the subject w^hen work- 
 ing out his conception of the nature of this war. As 
 a chain of brilliant pictures of the battles and their 
 leaders, his work should aim at instructing and de- 
 lighting a wide circle. The book gained by being 
 written at such enforced speed, carrying its readers 
 away by the freshness and the fire of its descriptions, 
 as by its searching flashes of thought. While bur- 
 dened by all this work, to which were given up four- 
 teen hours of each day, he thoroughly valued the joys 
 of home ; he had long felt the need of them. The 
 lectures on Tragedy deeply interested him, exhausting 
 though they were ; the keen sympathy of his audience 
 inspirited him ; so that, as he told Caroline, each week 
 he had a cheering hour in a place where cheering hours 
 could scarcely be sought. " I disclose many experi- 
 ences," said he, " gained already by my practice in the 
 art of tragedy, and which I myself never knew that I 
 possessed. I seek the philosophic basis for these experi- 
 ences, that thus insensibly range themselves into one 
 luminous and coherent whole." He was amused once 
 when, during the lecture, Lotte made tea for him in a 
 side-room, and listened to him for two hours. Yet 
 with all this business there was still time for pleasure 
 and for excursions to the many lovely places Ijing 
 around Jena. Weimar was also visited, where Herder's
 
 302 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 praise of Schiller's " General Survey " was most grati- 
 fying to its author. In Jena he knew no one inti- 
 mately, except his countryman Paulus, whose young 
 wife attracted him by her sweet singing and charming 
 gaiety of manner. 
 
 It was grievous, his first parting with Lotte, when, 
 on 26th July, she went to Eudolstadt, to join in the 
 festivities of her mother's birthday. She was also to 
 comfort Caroline, unable as yet to come to any friendly 
 understanding with her husband. For their mother's 
 sake, they had to keep silent as to a divorce. Schiller 
 urged Caroline to profit by her husband's present lenient 
 mood, and obtain a greater share of liberty. Being 
 very pressed for time to finish the " Thirty Years' War," 
 he resolved to postpone some of his lectures by plead- 
 ing ill health. But, as if in punishment, he was sud- 
 denly seized by violent toothache, suffering also with 
 a swollen face. One of his most passionate admirers 
 now visited him, the young Danish poet, Jens Bagge- 
 sen, who shortly before had married a gi-anddaughter 
 of the famous Haller. Baggesen, full of enthusiasm 
 and reverence for Kant, Schiller, and Eeinhold, his 
 cherished trinity of great writers, had come to Weimar 
 to make Wieland's acquaintance. Wieland most warmly 
 received him, entertained him for a long while as his 
 guest, and took him to Jena, to meet Reinhold, with 
 whom Baggesen was equally charmed. Lotte showed 
 the strangers every courtesy, and Schiller, though hin- 
 dered by physical pain, would not let them go without 
 his greeting. But they were of course unable to have 
 any talk together. All that Baggesen heard from others 
 could but have given him a very false impression of 
 Schiller, and this impression was probably strengthened 
 by Reinhold, then vexed with the poet. 
 
 In the ten verses that Schiller wrote in Baggesen's 
 album on 10th August, the poet's lyric is termed the 
 fairest crown of his deservings.
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 303 
 
 September began ere the " History of the Thirty 
 Years' War " was brought to temporary conclusion with 
 the battle of Breitenfeld. On the 28th Schiller had 
 got his free-copies of the " Ladies' Calendar," adorned 
 by twelve engravings. Before taking his holiday, he 
 must finish the third volume of the " Memoirs," and the 
 eleventh number of Thalia. Yet despite this press 
 of work, having domestic happiness, he felt thoroughly 
 content. From home, too, came most cheering news. 
 The father wrote gleefully to say that all in Stuttgart 
 were reading his son's works with enthusiasm, and that 
 toward himself the duke had grown far more gracious. 
 When Lotte and Caroline went to Eudolstadt on 3d 
 October, Schiller stayed behind, as he had to write a 
 dialogue, half historical, half philosophical, for the 
 " Memoirs." Yet so little inclined was he for the task 
 that in its place he sent a " poor and flimsy " sketch of 
 the most notable political events during the reign of 
 Frederick the First. The materials for another " Sum- 
 mary," ending with the crusade of Conrad III., were 
 mainly drawn from Schmidt's " German History." 
 When on the 6th the duke, returning from Silesia, 
 was welcomed in Griesbach's garden by the deputies 
 and students, the university sent no representative, and 
 Schiller also kept away. He heard that his Grace had 
 taken " The Ghostseer " with him, and that Goethe, 
 who accompanied him, intended shortly to pay a long 
 visit to Jena. 
 
 Our poet had never felt greater need of rest and 
 change than after these months of exhausting work. 
 And how he longed to be with those he loved ! " Your 
 dear picture is ever before me," he tells the sisters on 
 the 8th ; " all seems to speak to me of where the little 
 wife [Lotte] walked, and My Lady Comfort [Caroline] 
 sat enthroned. And to feel that my hand can always 
 reach what my heart would have near it, to feel that 
 we are inseparable, that is a sense which I unceasingly
 
 304 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 foster in my bosom, finding it exhaustless and ever 
 new." On the afternoon of the 11th, having finished 
 his work that morning, attended by a servant, he rode 
 to Rudolstadt. 
 
 He kept firmly to the plan of spending all his time 
 with his wife and her sister ; writing to Korner, who 
 now was made Appellationsrath, he humourously con- 
 fesses that twelve days had been devoted to eating, 
 drinking, blindman's buff, and chess. Lotte and he 
 returned to Jena on the 28th, where good news from 
 his father, together with a present of wine, caused him 
 pleasure. Shortly after this was the old man's birth- 
 day, which they gaily celebrated. He at once began 
 his professional duties, that were more agreeable to 
 him than before. 
 
 He had advertised two private lectures on general 
 and political history, and another public one, upon the 
 Crusades. He felt elated at the great success of his 
 "Thirty Years' War." The duke thanked him cour- 
 teously for so charming and remarkable a work sent 
 to him through Voigt ; he told Schiller that he had 
 forwarded it to the Duke of Brunswick. It had par- 
 ticular interest for the duchess, and Frau von Stein 
 had read it a second time to her aloud. On the 31st 
 Goethe, with Lips the painter, came to see him ; the 
 two were attending Loder's lectures on myology for a 
 few weeks. Goethe brought greetings from Korner, 
 with whom he had spent a pleasant time in Dresden. 
 " The talk soon turned upon Kant," says Schiller, writ- 
 ing to his friend. " It's interesting how he clothes 
 everything in his own individual fashion, and suddenly 
 brings out all that he has read ; still, I should not care 
 to argue wdth him upon subjects that interest me very 
 closely. He completely lacks whole-heartedness in 
 any profession of creed ; all philosophy with him is, 
 so to speak, subjective ; and thus conviction and argu- 
 ment alike cease. Nor do I wholly approve his phi-
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 305 
 
 losophy ; it draws too largely upon the sensuous world, 
 where I draw upon the spiritual. Moreover, his whole 
 method of theorising is too much a matter of the sense 
 for me. But his whole nature is at work, and explores 
 in every direction, striving to build up for itself a sys- 
 tematic whole — that is what makes him great in my 
 eyes." Another theme for their talk may have been 
 Goethe's " Metamorphosis of Plants," which SchiUer 
 looked upon as a mere theory. He must have felt 
 repugnance at Goethe's relationship to Christiane Vul- 
 pius, though, so little did he understand its nature, 
 that he believed the poet's final piece of extrava- 
 gance would be to marry her. Korner tried to make 
 him conquer this dishke to Goethe, saying it was good 
 to have a brush with him so as to make them wary of 
 going too far in their intellectual discussions ; if Goethe 
 loved the girl, there was no reason why he should not 
 make his life more bearable by marriage. Goethe, who 
 reverenced Nature, failed not to see that Schiller had 
 no sympathy for such reverence, and the total differ- 
 ence in their present employments was another cause 
 to make him stand aloof. Schiller believed that, work- 
 ing earnestly, he could become the first of Germany's 
 historians ; then, prospects must certainly open out to 
 him. For some time past, he had planned the issue 
 of a " German Plutarch," of which two volumes should 
 appear annually. By such work, to be paid at the rate 
 of not less than three louis d'or the sheet, his literary 
 powers would grow more sohd, more even, more bal- 
 anced; and so, too, his lectures would cease to be a 
 needless and superfluous distraction. He would not 
 set his hand upon drama until he had thoroughly mas- 
 tered the principles of Greek tragedy, until his dim 
 ideas as to the rules of the art were changed into sound 
 convictions. 
 
 He had never spent a happier birthday than this 
 one ; the crown of his joy was reached, and he could
 
 3o6 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 look into the future gladly, hopefully. It was in the 
 brightest of moods that he wrote a review of Burger's 
 poems, which the Literatur Zeitung had commissioned 
 him to prepare eighteen months ago. While praising 
 the author's work, he showed that it wanted art ; and 
 so failed in giving to some the finest pleasure. Schil- 
 ler, of course, had " joined the partisans of Art ; " but 
 in his heat to preach its doctrines, he missed seeing 
 how ill would be their influence upon one of Germany's 
 worthiest, if most luckless poets, for whom it was too 
 late to strike out a fresh and unfamiliar path ; and 
 moreover, how such criticism would lead him to kill 
 all the natural charm of his poetry in an endeavour to 
 give it polish. 
 
 During this winter some of Schiller's most talented 
 pupils formed closer friendship with him. Of these 
 we may first name the young Livonian, Gustav Beha- 
 ghel von Adlerskron, a Rittmeister's son, who had left 
 the Russian army, his mother having refused him any 
 allowance, and now, under the name of Le Bon, was 
 studying philosophy and history in Jena with great 
 zeal. Schiller's friendliness, and that of Lotte and 
 Caroline, gave the young student, so he said, new life, 
 and put fire into a heart hitherto cold as the snows of 
 his own bleak fatherland. Johann Benjamine Erhard, 
 a young studeut of medicine, had come from Niirnberg 
 to make Schiller's acquaintance, who thought his intel- 
 lect the richest and most comprehensive he had ever 
 known. Versed in mathematics and medicine, he was 
 a shrewd student of the Kantian philosophy and an 
 excellent draughtsman and musician. Schiller also 
 got to know Baron von Herbert, who, on Reinhold's 
 account, had come from Klagenfurt to Jena, and also 
 the young law-student Friedrich von Hardenberg, 
 another ardent admirer. 
 
 Huber and his friend, Professor Georg Forster, wished 
 to get Schiller to settle in Mainz, but he shrank from
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 307 
 
 the difficult and unwelcome task of securing an appoint- 
 ment at the aged Kurfiirst's hands. Nor would he part 
 with his independence except in exchange for a sub- 
 stantial salary, say of twelve hundred thalers ; as in 
 Jena, where he was his own master, he earned five 
 hundred thalers by the professorship, independently 
 of his lecture-fees. " My relations to Dalberg grow 
 ever stronger, closer," he tells Korner, " and I promise 
 myself an endless deal from nearer intimacy with him. 
 I know few so pure, so noble, so high-souled as he ; 
 wholly above everything petty ; full of warm sympathy 
 for the beautiful, the true, the good ; and yet free from 
 rhapsody — grown free from this, for he was not always 
 thus." An appointment at Wlirtemberg, which his 
 father wished him to take, did not tempt him ; least 
 of all could he bring himself to apply for this to the 
 duke ; reconciliation was impossible yet, impossible 
 until his growing fame should make Karl Eugene more 
 disposed to forgive. For this reason Schiller was glad 
 to know that the " Thirty Years' War " was also being 
 widely read in his own home. His father, with just 
 pride, could tell him that over seven thousand copies 
 were sold ; for many years past no work had had even 
 half such a vogue. He looked hopefully on toward 
 the coming year, the opening days of which he was to 
 spend with the Koadjutor at Erfurt. 
 
 On 31st December Schiller and Lotte started for 
 Erfurt, passing through Weimar, where they stayed 
 some hours with Frau von Stein. At Erfurt their 
 inn was the " Schlehdorn," now the " Eheinischer Hof." 
 Caroline was also there with her husband. The Koad- 
 jutor, who had already pointed to drama as Schiller's 
 proper field, now recommended him to write a play 
 founded on the history of Wallenstein. On 2d January 
 the poet was present at some amateur theatricals at the 
 Koadjutor's, the first piece being Zschokke's tragedy, 
 " Count Monaldeschi." Next day, the Kurfurst of
 
 3o8 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 Mainz's birthday, he attended a meeting of the Electo- 
 ral Academy of Useful Research, of which he was 
 made a member. In the evening there was a concert 
 in the assembly rooms, given by the singer Haszler. 
 Many people from Weimar came to it, and one of the 
 pieces executed was in special honour of the Kurfih'st, 
 " the people's darling." It happened, strangely enough, 
 that, just at this concert, Schiller became so unwell 
 that he had to be carried in a sedan-chair to his home. 
 He was seized by rheumatic fever, and so severe was 
 the attack that he did not believe he could recover. 
 The doctor sought to allay the symptoms instead of 
 thoroughly curing the malady, so that his patient might 
 the sooner rejoin his friends. Schiller kept his bed for 
 one day only, and his room for several more. The 
 Koadjutor, a constant visitor, made him "statements 
 of the most positive and welcome kind." Schiller was 
 to be his guest during the Easter vacation. 
 
 Among those in Erfurt who felt alarm at Schiller's 
 illness was an old love of his, Henriette von Arnim, 
 who had come thither with her younger sister in the 
 previous October. Carohne von Dacheroden had heard 
 that they had arrived there with a certain count, whom 
 the younger sister was going to marry ; they plumed 
 themselves not a little upon knowing Schiller. This 
 is the last time in our poet's life that we meet with the 
 fascinating Dresden beauty. Fate held strange things 
 in store for her, but until now her life had been une- 
 ventful. We know that she was first married to Count 
 Ernst Wilhelm Alexander Friedrich von Kunheim, 
 whose death took place in 1810. That same year 
 Schiller's verses to Henriette, included in the supple- 
 ment to his works, were published, the editor remark- 
 ing that he had received the lines from a " Countess 
 von K nSe von A , to whom they were ad- 
 dressed." Henriette afterward married the uncle of 
 her first husband, Erhard Alexander, Count von Kun-
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 309 
 
 heim, who owned the fine estate Kloschenen-on-the- 
 AUer, near Friedland. He died on November 15, 
 1815. Professor Eeusch, of Konigsberg, in May, 1821, 
 made the acquaintance of the widow, hving childless 
 and alone at her enchanting country-seat. In manner 
 she seemed to him both dignified and charming; her 
 features had still their beauty, and her eyes their fire. 
 On the walls of her room hung Schiller's portrait. Not 
 until long after did she go back to Dresden, dying 
 there on the 12th of January, 1847. Her grave is in 
 the Catholic churchyard, with not a stone even to 
 mark the name of one so beautiful and so distinguished, 
 and whom a great poet loved. 
 
 On their return journey Schiller and Lotte stayed 
 three days at Weimar, where for the first time he was 
 presented at court. Frau von Stein received him as 
 her guest. While here he was pleased to meet Beck, 
 the Mannheim actor, and his wife, who had made 
 a successful dehut. Other friends were visited, among 
 these Voigt, Wieland, Emilie von Berlepsch and Frau 
 von Kalb. We do not find that he went to see Goethe. 
 On the 11th he returned to Jena alone, commencing 
 his lectures the next day. But immediately after his 
 first lecture, the fever came back with fresh violence ; 
 he suffered from pains in the side, accompanied by 
 blood-spitting. On the 15th he writes asking Lotte 
 to come, as he can no longer bear her absence ; yet 
 there was no danger, he said. However, his state grew 
 more and more alarming, and Lotte felt terribly anxious. 
 After a few days her sister Caroline arrived, whose help 
 and comfort she deeply needed. It was not until the 
 end of the month that a decided change for the better 
 set in. In Jena and in Weimar wide sympathy was 
 shown for the sufferer, and many students, Adlerskron 
 in particular, offered to help in nursing and in night- 
 watching. The duke sent a present of wine. Schiller 
 on February 2 2d still felt pain and tightness at the
 
 3IO THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 chest, and he despaired of ever getting wholly cured 
 of the disease ; his strength came back very slowly 
 indeed. 
 
 " I had excellent nursing," he tells Ktirner, " and it 
 lessened the weariness of being ill not a Uttle, to see 
 such attention and such active sympathy shown toward 
 me by my hsteners and friends ; they disputed among 
 themselves as to who should watch at my bedside, 
 some staying there three times in the week." There 
 could be no thought of continuing his lectures ; as soon 
 as health allowed it, he would go to Eudolstadt and 
 quietly make progress with the " Thirty Years' War." 
 When winter came, he proposed to deliver a course of 
 aesthetic lectures, more in the form of conversations, 
 at his own house. As the patient's state forbade all 
 exertion of speaking or thinking, means were sought 
 to drive away ermui, and cards proved a gieat resource. 
 Not being able to sleep until a late hour, he used to 
 spend half the night in play, the servants sometimes 
 joining in the game. There was a preface to be written 
 for the new volume of the "Memoirs," to which 
 Schiller gave no great pains ; for the three following 
 years of his history of the French disturbances pre- 
 vious to the reign of Henry IV., he took his materials 
 mainly from Anquetil's " L'Esprit de la Ligue." 
 
 Just as he fell ill, the critique of Biirger's poems 
 had appeared, and many spoke of it in Weimar, not 
 knowing, not even imagining, that he was its author. 
 Goethe had declared that he would be pleased to have 
 written it; and since then it was universally counted 
 excellent. During convalescence, besides working at 
 the " Thirty Years' War," Schiller read Kant's " Critique 
 of the Judgment," and its lucid and thoughtful contents 
 so absorbed him, that he felt wishful to make thorough 
 study of the writer's philosophy. Before going to 
 Eudolstadt, on 2d April, he had the painful and dif- 
 ficult task of sending Burger a rejoinder. The latter.
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 311 
 
 in a so-called " preliminary counter-criticism " that 
 appeared in the Literatur Zeitung, expressed his 
 amusement at hearing people term the review of his 
 poems a masterpiece, assuredly written by none but a 
 Schiller. Yet, said he, no craftsman, no really prac- 
 tised man of letters, could have indulged in theories so 
 empty and so fantastic ; though securely masked, he 
 doubted not but that the writer would find courage 
 sufficient to lift his visor. All this was very agitating 
 to Schiller ; and he was specially anxious to show the 
 groundlessness of some of Burger's counter-charges. 
 By way of proving that those qualities of ripeness and 
 sustained excellence which he asked for in a poet were 
 not be3''ond the pale of human attainment, he quoted 
 as examples, Wieland, Goethe, Geszner, Lessing, and 
 others too of lesser fame. 
 
 At Eudolstadt every means was tried to raise the 
 sufferer's spirits and bring him back to health ; he took 
 horse exercise, now, three or four times in the week. 
 Curiously enough, the literary work to which he now 
 turned was the metrical translation, originally begun in 
 competition with Burger, of the second book of the 
 ^neid. This for some time had been left un- 
 touched, but now he completed thirty stanzas or more 
 of it, besides writing a lyric ; he thought, too, of com- 
 posing a " Hymn to Light." Though still troubled 
 with chest pains and the fear that his malady might 
 again assail him, he kept as cheerful as ever. " I shall 
 not want for courage, even if the worst come to the 
 worst," he says in a letter to Korner. Yet this was 
 but a momentary struggle against losing heart ; he 
 was really overwhelmed with anguish at the thought 
 of leaving Lotte alone, and of being hindered from full 
 use of his poetic powers. On the 8th of May he had 
 an attack, more violent than any, and this was followed 
 two days later by one of such severity that suffocation 
 seemed certain. Unable to speak, he wrote on a paper
 
 312 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 a short sentence in farewell to those around : " Take 
 care of health ! without this, one can never he at ease ! " 
 He also sent a few words to Korner. Doctor Stark, 
 his physician, was summoned from Jena that night, 
 who, on arriving, found the patient somewhat hetter. 
 He calmed Schiller with the assurance that his lungs 
 were not affected, the suffering being caused by cramp 
 in the bowels and diaphragm. 
 
 But if the more fearful attacks kept off, the patient 
 was still seized by spasms, to relieve which he made 
 great use of opium ; there was, besides, an ever-increas- 
 ing loss of strength. Lotte, though in dreadful distress, 
 fought bravely to conceal her grief, knowing that 
 Schiller took pleasure in seeing her mirthful and 
 " archly playing the little coquette." His young student 
 friends at Jena were in deep consternation at the grave 
 news of his illness. Adlerskron hastened to Eudol- 
 stadt to nurse the patient and to help in amusing him ; 
 he did this with loving and tender care. The sisters 
 named him " The Satellite." He grew passionately 
 fond of Caroline ; her own impulsive nature and her 
 warm affection for Schiller strengthened this attach- 
 ment. But circumstances unluckily would not let him 
 make longer stay in Jena; he went thence to Stutt- 
 gart, and on the 26th of May entered the Karlsacad- 
 emie. Erhard came to Rudolstadt, where he passed 
 some delightful days ; Eeiuhold and Goeschen were 
 also there at the same time as he. 
 
 By the 21st Schiller had already written to Goeschen 
 about a fresh edition of his " Don Carlos," smaller in 
 bulk, and to be published during the coming year. 
 Three days later he tells Korner that he has nearly 
 recovered health, though the racking pain in the right 
 side of his chest still continues. " What may come of 
 this, I cannot say ; but I am less afraid than I was 
 four weeks ago. For the rest, this fearful attack has 
 done me much good, morally ; I have, through it, been
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 313 
 
 made to look death more than once in the face ; and 
 my courage has thus been strengthened. . . . My spirit 
 was untroubled ; and all the pain that I felt at that 
 moment was caused by the thought of my darling 
 Lotte, and that she would never have got over the 
 blow." Korner urged him to take care of himself, 
 and to spare no expense for the recovery of health. 
 Goeschen, he said, had told him that he kept over 
 a thousand thalers every year at Schiller's disposal, 
 even though he should not furnish the two volumes 
 stipulated for. A few sheets would suffice for the 
 Ladies' Calendar. As to going to the baths, the doctor 
 had to decide that — not the minister of finance. " My 
 financial position," adds Korner, " is now better than of 
 yore ; and if you won't make use of Goeschen, why, 
 I'm there to devise ways and means." And again he 
 earnestly begs Schiller to accept his offer. But the 
 sufferer was still so enfeebled, that for the first there 
 could be no thought of travelling; a httle drive even 
 had had its harmful consequences. Lotte, on the 12th 
 of June, speaks of another violent attack of cramp, 
 though this did not last so long. The papers had 
 already announced the poet's death ; and the shocking 
 rumour reached Solitude also. Baggesen, in Denmark, 
 was preparing with Count Schimmelmann to hold a 
 festival in Schiller's honour, when the news came that 
 turned all their mirth to mourning. 
 
 Another of the poet's student friends, Karl Grasz, 
 hastened to his bedside on returning from Switzerland, 
 and stayed faithfully with him in these dark days of 
 suffering. Four years later Grasz wrote : " Every single 
 moment of that time stands clear and plain before me. 
 How and what we read to you, sitting on the bed ; how 
 we showed you the landscape in the moonlight ; then, 
 again, how your wife knelt by the bed, hiding her tears 
 as your arms enfolded her ; how she drank with me to 
 our next happier meeting; all this, all that you said
 
 314 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 to me aud that I felt, seems just as fresh in my mem- 
 ory as had it happened yesterday." And again, after 
 the poet's death, he calls back another never-to-be-for- 
 gotten scene to Lotte's mind. " I was in liis room, and, 
 as I stood at the window, reading, the sufferer's fea- 
 tures in all their greatness and nobleness became deeply 
 fixed in my memory. He had, if I mistake not, taken 
 some opium to still the violent spasms, and he lay there, 
 lightly sleeping, as some marble statue. You were in 
 the side-room, where I had been reading his ^ueid 
 translation to you ; and at times you came to the door 
 to watch if he should want you. Seeing him lie there, 
 you gently approached and knelt down with folded 
 hands at his bed. All your dark hair fell loosely over 
 your shoulders, as the tears came into your eyes. You 
 had scarcely noticed that any one was in the room. 
 Then the fainting sufferer awoke, when, seeing you, he 
 passionately threw his arms about your head, and so lay 
 resting on your neck as strength again went from him." 
 
 On July 3d Hardenberg also went to Rudolstadt, 
 whom Grasz had got to know shortly before. He 
 brought the poet letters from Grasz and Professor 
 Schmidt. The latter begged him in the name of 
 Hardenberg's father to make the young man take 
 serious interest in the study of law% and to help in 
 thoroughly preparing him for a commercial career, 
 which should be of benefit to him and to his family. 
 And Schiller did this so kindly, so persuasively, that 
 the young would-be poet recognised obedience to his 
 father as a solemn duty, and determined to ' spend all 
 his energies upon work which he certainly found 
 distasteful. 
 
 Schiller's health had soon so far mended that by the 
 9th of July he was able to start for Karlsbad with his 
 wife and her sister. At Eger he visited the town hall 
 and saw there a portrait of Wallenstein and Pachhii- 
 bel's house, where the great general fell. His life at
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 315 
 
 the baths was very secluded, yet he liked the society 
 of some Austrian officers of mark, who gave him an 
 insight into military life. The Countess Lanthieri von 
 Wagensberg, of Gratz, who knew Goethe intimately, 
 took great interest in the poet. Recovery was very 
 tedious. It was impossible for him to tliink of work ; 
 but still he could meditate upon the way to continue 
 his " Ghostseer," that should be worked out on a larger 
 scale. Unfortunately, his cure was interrupted all too 
 soon, as Lotte could not be absent from the festivities 
 at Eudolstadt on the 5th of August, when the newly 
 married hereditary prince was to enter the town. So, 
 to complete his cure, Schiller went on to Erfurt, which 
 already at Easter he had wanted to visit. Here he 
 stayed at No. 36 Langebriicke, in Widow Beyer's house, 
 and there, on a pane in the little bow-windowed room 
 of the first floor, his name will be found written. At 
 this time he took the Eger waters, and they did him 
 much good. Talks with the Koadjutor, whom he visited 
 each evening, formed his pleasant amusement. Friiu- 
 lein von Dacheroden, now Frau von Humboldt, was 
 travelling with her husband ; but to Schiller's delight 
 he met his old friend Wilhelm von Wolzogen. Caro- 
 line also came to Erfurt. Without great effort he 
 could manage to spend five hours daily in dictating his 
 " Thirty Years' War," so as to complete the requisite 
 amount of " copy." He also swiftly revised his version 
 in iambics of the " Don Carlos," as, at the Koadjutor's 
 wish, some Weimar players, now in Erfurt, were to 
 give a performance of the piece. They were members 
 of a company under Goethe's own direction, and they 
 asked leave to act the play in Weimar also. There 
 was quite a contest among them for the parts, and one 
 actor refused the role of Domingo, as he had no longer 
 any inclination to play villains' parts. " Fiesco " was 
 given on the following night by another company, the 
 " National Gesellschaft."
 
 3i6 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 This year of illness had been a very expensive one 
 for Schiller, and his uncertain position caused him great 
 anxiety. Besides an old debt of ninety thalers and 
 120 more paid by him as surety for another, he had 
 spent fourteen hundred thalers ; and now that his 
 health was so broken, the prospects of making a live- 
 lihood seemed less and less hopeful. The Koadjutor 
 was unable himself to give pecuniary help, but, acting 
 on his advice, Schiller applied to the duke for a stipend 
 upon which he might count in extremity. Should this 
 request prove unsuccessful, if driven to it, he would 
 seek his fortune either in Mainz, in Vienna, Gottingen, 
 or Berlin. The duke, shortly before leaving, sent 
 Lotte 250 thalers, assuring her that if in a year her 
 husband were still unable to work, he would think 
 over some means to help them. As Schiller in his 
 suffering state found residence in a strange place both 
 uncomfortable and costly, as, too, he longed to be back 
 among his Jena friends, on the 1st of October he set 
 out for his dear home. Korner had just then sent him 
 news of the birth of a son, and Lotte was among the 
 sponsors of him who afterward wrote " Lyre and 
 Sword."
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 FROM OCTOBER, 1791, TO AUGUST, 1793. 
 
 Already when at Erfurt Lotte had asked an old 
 friend of her childhood, Fritz von Stein, who was 
 studying in Jena, to come and stay with them, offer- 
 ing him the vacant room in her house ; for Schiller 
 was now obliged to live in the larger one that last 
 winter had remained unoccupied. She also invited 
 Stein to dine at their table. He had first arranged to 
 have his meals with some other Jena students, Johann 
 Carl von Eichard, Magister Gciritz of Wiu-temberg, and 
 Bartolomaus Fischenich of Bonn. But, as Fritz liked 
 to be always with Schiller, liis companions proposed 
 that they, too, might be allowed to board with the 
 poet. So during meal-time the sick man was fortunate 
 in always having society both amusing and intellectual. 
 Goritz, it is true, had no remarkable talent, and Fichard, 
 destined for a diplomatic career, was not yet past the 
 raw stage ; but Fritz von Stein's fresh and noble nature 
 had got breadth from contact with Goethe, while Fische- 
 nich delighted in philosophy, and especially in Kant, 
 whom he had thoroughly studied. And if their some- 
 what frugal meal was often disturbed by Schiller's 
 illness, still the young fellows felt the better for asso- 
 ciating with one so witty, so courteous, and so good- 
 humoured. On most occasions the . poet let others 
 talk, remaining silent himself, but at times he would 
 lead the fun and pleasantry, and when some subject 
 seized his interest, he spoke with great eloquence and 
 
 317
 
 3i8 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 warmth. In his presence no one could feel constraint ; 
 on days when he was better, all were as merry as the 
 merriest of students. But he was often exhausted and 
 depressed by pain, and his companions strove to do all 
 that was possible for his amusement. Thus they spent 
 many an afternoon at cards, of which Schiller was very 
 fond. Fischenich, soon after leaving Jena, wrote : 
 " When shall we be joking together again over some 
 merry meal ? When again shall I he down when 
 Schiller lies down and awake when he awakes ? " 
 Lotte's letter to Fritz shows us something of their 
 raillery and banter. " Fichard, who is just here read- 
 ing, wishes particularly to be remembered to you. He 
 sleeps comme a Vordinaire, and chatters just about the 
 same. Fischenich and we have lately guessed the 
 reason for his having struck up such hearty friendship 
 with you when he was here; for, after all, there are 
 not many points of resemblance between your char- 
 acter and his. First, it's because of your rank and 
 because you're at the court, and he has such a liking 
 for courts. Fischenich is also well, and pares his nails 
 zealously. It strikes us that on the strength of this 
 accomplishment he might travel about, and offer his 
 services just as dentists do. Ladies would soon think 
 it as indispensable to have pretty nails as pretty teeth." 
 Once even the fun went so far, that blowing soap- 
 bubbles formed their general amusement. Then, again, 
 there were very sad and gloomy times, clouded by the 
 poet's suffering. Yet his illness did not keep him 
 from taking part at the social meetings of two friends 
 — probably Eeinhold and Paulus — nor from inviting 
 three or four persons twice in the week to have tea 
 with him. He looked upon these little distractions as 
 necessary to his health. To get the air and exercise 
 he needed, he would have liked a carriage ; but, un- 
 fortunately, this \vish had to be given up. 
 
 Cheerful society and his bent for occupation " that
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 319 
 
 never wearies," made Schiller at times forget his dis- 
 tressful state. The performance of " Don Carlos " at 
 Erfurt had suggested several alterations to him that 
 he vdshed to make before the play was given at Wei- 
 mar. For this purpose Wieland should ask Goethe to 
 allow him six weeks' time. And though Goethe was 
 averse to such postponement and to the altering of 
 parts already learned and in rehearsal, he still con- 
 sented to put off the performance until the last day 
 of the year. Nevertheless, it did not take place before 
 the end of February. Schiller promised to send Cru- 
 sius at Easter the first volume of his shorter prose 
 essays, which he was now engaged in revising. But 
 there was the continuation of the Tlialia to be thought 
 of, too. Therefore he again began to work at the ^neid 
 translation, and with such swift success, that, to his de- 
 light, the 103 strophes needed to finish it were written 
 in nine days. He now intended to set about trans- 
 lating the " Agamemnon," which, besides being a supple- 
 ment to the Tlialia, should form the first volume of 
 his " Greek Dramas," and should give him completer 
 mastery of the classic style. The ease with which he 
 had translated Virgil's lines led him again to think of 
 writing an epic, for which this metre seemed to him 
 most fit. Korner wished him to choose a subject not 
 merely of national, but of world-wide interest, where 
 to philosophy he could join brilliance of description 
 and splendour of language. But a national theme 
 could alone rouse Schiller's enthusiasm, and as in the 
 late King of Prussia's character there was little to 
 inspire afi'ection, he felt drawn to another monarch, to 
 Gustav Adolph, round whose figure centred interest 
 both national, political, and romantic. Yet in this 
 suffering state, and with so much to weigh upon his 
 mind, it was impossible to begin a poem. Schiller 
 thought of making the Tlialia an important source of 
 income, as Goeschen was to issue a number every two
 
 320 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 months. Next year the title would be changed to 
 the New Thalia. Besides, the " Memoirs," translations 
 for which he only wrote the preface, should also be a 
 means of earning money. In October he had become 
 acquainted with Friedrich Immanuel Niethammer, a 
 clever young student of theology at Jena, and whom 
 circumstances had forced to take to Uterature. To him 
 Schiller entrusted the translation of Vertot's " History 
 of the Maltese Order," and De Garsault's version of 
 Pitaval's " Eemarkable Lawsuits." Niethammer also 
 undertook the correction of the TJialia proofs. He 
 joined those who sat now at Schiller's table in the 
 evenings. As a thorough disciple of Kant, Nietham- 
 mer took a vigorous part in philosophical discussions. 
 With him and Fischenich the poet was able to speak 
 upon the subject of tragedy, which now engaged him ; 
 for since the past December he had been working at an 
 essay " Upon the Cause of Pleasure in Things Tragic." 
 But spasms and difficulty in breathing made life a 
 torture, and Lotte was ever racked by the dread of los- 
 ing her darling husband. Then, all at once, their care 
 was changed into rejoicing. Baggesen had written 
 about the funeral celebration at Hellebek to Keinhold, 
 who, in answer, said that Schiller might possibly 
 recover if he were not teased by pecuniary troubles. 
 " We have both of us two hundred thalers, and if we 
 fall ill we don't know whether to spend them over the 
 kitchen or at the chemist's." Baggesen read out this 
 extract to the hereditary prince, Frederick Christian 
 of Schleswig Holstein von Augustenburg, whose early 
 prejudices against Schiller had been changed by the 
 " Don Carlos " into warm sympathy. When at Karls- 
 bad, Korner's sister-in-law had given him nearer details 
 of the poet's suffering condition, and the prince resolved 
 to come to his aid. After due deliberation he com- 
 missioned Baggesen to ask the minister. Count Ernst 
 Heinrich von Schimmelmann, whether during a course
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 321 
 
 of years he would contribute something toward Schil- 
 ler's support. Schiinmelmann, the poet's senior by- 
 twelve years, was born in Dresden, where his father, a 
 native of Pomerania, had acquired a large fortune 
 during the Seven Years' War, thus setting the basis to 
 the wealth and rank which came to him later. On 
 27th November, in a letter full of delicacy and kindly 
 feeling, the hereditary prince and Count von Schim- 
 melmann made Schiller the joint offer of a thousand 
 thalers per annum for three years, so that he might 
 obtain that rest so needed for his recovery. " Accept 
 this gift, noble man ! " they wrote, " do not let our 
 rank incline you to refuse it ; we know what value to 
 set upon that. We are proud of nothing save of being 
 men, citizens of the great republic that includes more 
 than the hves of a single generation, more than the 
 confines of a single globe. They are but men, they 
 are but brothers that here speak to you — not the 
 vain, not the gxeat, who by such use of their wealth 
 only indulge in a somewhat higher form of arrogance." 
 They would gladly see him established at Copenhagen, 
 the great capital and seat of commerce, where they 
 would not be the only ones to know and love him ; 
 and, when he had regained health, a government post 
 there should not be lacking to him ; yet they were not 
 so selfish, they said, as to make these the conditions 
 upon which their gift should be accepted. The letter 
 was sent through Baggesen to Eeinhold, who came 
 with it to his suffering friend like some rescuing angel. 
 In truth, it was a new birthday for Schiller. He at 
 once wrote the joyful news to his friend Kcirner. 
 " That for which all my hfe I have ardently longed is 
 now come to pass," he said, " I am freed for a long 
 time, perhaps for ever, from all care ; I have got the 
 long-wished-for independence of mind. ... At length 
 I have leisure in which to learn, to collect knowledge, 
 and to work for all time. Within three years I can
 
 322 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 find an appointment in Denmark, or perhaps there will 
 be some opening at Mainz, and then I am set up for 
 life." To settle himself in Cogenhagen was not expe- 
 dient, he said, seeing that his relations with the Duke 
 of Weimar were as yet so new ; but he meant to travel 
 thither in a year or so. Three days after this letter he 
 sent Baggesen his warmest thanks. Ever since he had 
 learned to appreciate freedom of mind, he had been 
 doomed to forego its enjoyment. A rash step had 
 forced him to make a hving by literature while still 
 inexperienced, and before his powers were ripe. He 
 had paid the price of those ten years of struggle and 
 effort to earn his bread while yet doing honour to his 
 art. He had paid it with his health. " Interest in my 
 work, a few fair flowers strewn across my life's path 
 by fate, kept me from perceiving my loss until as this 
 year began — you know how ? — I awoke from my 
 dream. At a time when hfe had begun to show me 
 all its worth, death approached me. The danger, it is 
 true, passed over, but I only awoke to a fresh exist- 
 ence, and, with weakened powers, to renew my fight 
 with Fate. In such a state the letters from Denmark 
 found me." Three days after this he sent thanks to 
 the generous givers. " I have to pay my debt, not 
 to you but to mankind," he wrote ; " that is the com- 
 mon altar where you lay down your gifts, and I, my 
 gratitude." 
 
 Besides giving care to his health and attention to 
 work which needed completion, he felt that his next 
 duty was thoroughly to study the Kantian philosophy, 
 even though he spent the whole three years in doing 
 this ; for he was deeply conscious of liis great need of 
 a sound philosophical training. On the 16th, already, 
 he ordered a copy of the " Critique of Pure Reason," 
 together with Garves's " Miscellaneous Writings." He 
 also intended to read Hume, Locke, and Leibnitz, 
 Kant's predecessors. At Christmas he was gladdened
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 323 
 
 by a visit from his devoted pupil, Hardenberg, and the 
 new year, 1792, opened happily. Though far from 
 having regained health, his brain was still perfectly 
 clear, and there was little to hinder literary work. 
 For the Tlialia, an essay " On the Tragic Art " had 
 been finished, " The Ghostseer " was to be revised, and 
 he intended going on with the " Thirty Years' War," 
 forgetting, maybe, amid these plans, that the alter- 
 ations to be made in " Don Carlos " would probably 
 take up two months of his time. 
 
 At the beginning of January he was bled, a remedy 
 to which he ever afterward had recourse. Nevertheless, 
 there came a severe attack on the 19th, yet he quickly 
 recovered from it. Bad weather and extreme cold unfor- 
 tunately prevented him from taldng all the exercise 
 his health required, though he passed the time 
 pleasantly enough in working and in seeing friends. 
 The gift from Copenhagen permitted him to pay off all 
 debts this year, except the amount advanced to him by 
 Korner, which without pinching could be restored, 
 later. To his question about Beit's bill, Korner sur- 
 prised him by the news that he had discharged it long 
 ago. Schiller was to let the matter rest if other and 
 more pressing claims needed settling. " I think we 
 understand one another upon this head," adds Korner 
 in his generous, true-hearted way. However, Schiller 
 managed to refund his friend in full for the sum 
 paid to Beit. Prefaces had to be written against the 
 Easter Book Fair for two volumes of translations, while 
 the introduction to a volume of the " Memoirs " must 
 be continued. Progress had also to be made with his 
 " Thirty Years' War," while he meditated working at 
 " something more sensible," something of which he will 
 speak to Korner by mouth. This was a tragedy in the 
 Greek manner, with choruses suggested by Vertot's 
 book on the Maltese, and from it there shaped itself the 
 mighty drama " Wallenstein." " I am and I remain
 
 324 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 but a poet, and as a poet I shall die." He had written 
 thus to Korner shortly before. 
 
 While waiting with impatience for the milder season 
 to come on, when he and Lotte would visit Korner, Schil- 
 ler hired a horse, but the terribly cold weather kept him 
 from making any use of it. Indeed the dreadful cramps 
 again attacked him, and his journey had continually 
 to be postponed. It was not until about the 10th of 
 April that he could start, when, with Lotte, Fischenich, 
 and two servants, he drove to Dresden, staying at 
 Kcirner's house there. The friends had, of course, 
 much to tell each other. Schiller spoke of his pro- 
 jected tragedy and of the issue of a compendious journal, 
 for which the leading men in hterature should write. 
 The principles of aesthetics formed another subject for 
 discussion, as well as the efficacy of magnetism with 
 regard to the poet's malady. Schiller was glad to 
 make the acquaintance of Count Geszler, the Prussian 
 ambassador, one of Kcirner's friends. 
 
 He also met young Friedrich Schlegel, then spending 
 the vacation with his sister. If in Leipzig he affected 
 to study art and philosophy, it did not keep him from 
 leading a raki.sh life ; and his presumption, his insta- 
 bility, and want of character made a most disagreeable 
 impression upon Schiller. As he was for ever asking 
 questions, they dubbed him "the querist." These 
 three weeks which the two friends could spend to- 
 gether were sadly interrupted by the illness of the 
 one and by the business engagements of the other, yet 
 they had met this time with more affection than 
 before, and had been able to enjoy many a tranquil, 
 pleasant hour. Unfortunately, their friendly feeling 
 toward Huber was growing weaker, for he not only 
 chose to prolong, in a most unaccountable way, his 
 lengthy engagement to Dora, but from the tone of his 
 letters he gave her to understand that all his love was 
 extinct. It was only as editor that Schiller had had
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 325 
 
 relations with him, Huber having contributed essays to 
 the " Memoirs " and to TJialia. 
 
 At Leipzig, also, whither Fischenich accompanied 
 him, the poet was seized by a fit of spasms ; but when 
 in Jena he felt so much better that he could join his 
 young friends in a game at bowls. They played in 
 Fichard's garden, and from time to time he fell into 
 merry dispute with Fritz von Stein. Goritz had a 
 title written out by Schiller which ran as follows: 
 " Treatise upon the Ai^t of Boids, hy Friedridi von Stein, 
 Chamberlain to the Ducal Houses of Saxony and 
 Weimar, ' Brodhusar ' and ' JCummeltiirken,' " these last 
 being humourous names given to those students whose 
 homes were not far from Jena. This time Schiller 
 gave no lectures. He was working, and with such 
 ease, at the " Thirty Years' War," that in six hours of 
 each day, two of these spent in revising, he could write 
 a quarter of a sheet — that is, four pages. This was 
 certainly a strange way of giving his brain rest. But 
 Schdler with his merry disposition found it unusually 
 hard to rest, and he often neglected to obey the 
 physician's orders, which, of course, increased his 
 malady. For the Esthetic Letters, planned with 
 Kcirner, he read Kant's " Critique of Seasoning Power ; " 
 he also intended to master Baumgarten's work on 
 Esthetics. At the same time he felt impatient to 
 do fresh work in poetry. " Wallenstein " chiefly en- 
 grossed him, and the " Hymn to Light " also took up 
 a part of his time. " It is really only in art that I feel 
 my power," he tells Korner ; " in theorising I must al- 
 ways torment myself with principles ; there I am only 
 a dilettante. But for practise' sake I like philoso- 
 phising about theories ; and now criticism must itself 
 make amends to me for the harm it has done me. 
 And harmed me it really has ; for the fearlessness, the 
 hvuig glow, that I had before ever I knew a single 
 rule, is wanting to me for many years past. . . . Yet if
 
 326 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 I get so far that Art becomes Nature for me, just as 
 good breeding becomes habitual to a well-mannered 
 man, then my imagination will regain her former 
 freedom." 
 
 Although the food was ill suited to his delicate 
 health, for the sake of company, Schiller took his meals 
 with the rest. He now really managed to get a car- 
 riage, and in the early part of June drove to Erfurt 
 with his wife. Although too late to attend the christen- 
 ing of the Humboldts' httle daughter, he was able to 
 greet these old friends. While in Erfurt he also met 
 Caroline von Beulwitz. More bent than ever upon 
 getting a divorce, she had formed a strangely enthu- 
 siastic attachment for the Koadjutor, in whom she saw 
 every good and noble quality. While Lotte and 
 Schiller were thus in great concern about their sister 
 and her difficulties, she felt equally anxious on their 
 account, as Schiller, it was feared, could but live few 
 years longer. 
 
 So far as the ever-recurring attacks of spasms allowed 
 him, the poet worked on from sheer necessity at his 
 " Thirty Years' War." But he could write nothing for 
 the next three numbers of TJialia, which proved very 
 weak ones, owing to the lack of good contributions. 
 On July 30th he complained of the continued stress of 
 work, and that spasms still tormented him, so that he 
 often hardly knew what to do. As in such a state 
 there could be no thought of travelling home, he 
 invited his mother to stay with him. To his great de- 
 light, she promised to come, and to bring with her his 
 youngest sister, Nanette. At this time Schiller's old 
 playmate, Conz, visited him, who had become a preacher 
 at the Karlsacadamie, but the sick man was little edi- 
 fied by this meeting. 
 
 On the 26th the French National Assembly conferred 
 the right of citizenship upon several foreigners, whose 
 writings or whose views had made them notable ;
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 327 
 
 among the Germans so distinguished were Campe, 
 Pestalozzi, and Klopstock. Later on, at the request of 
 a member, " le sieur Gille, publiciste allemand," also 
 . obtained this honour. 
 
 On reading the announcement in the Moniteitr, the 
 duchess wrote to Frau von Stein, expressing her hope 
 that Schiller would refuse the rights of citizenship, 
 given to him as one of those foreigners who had 
 written in support of the Ee volution. But he, as yet, 
 knew nothing of the whole matter. It was not until 
 October that the diploma, together with a copy of 
 the regulation, was in readiness to be sent off to him. 
 However, he never received it then ; and thus, unhke 
 Klopstock, had no opportunity of returning it. 
 
 To his glad surprise, mother and sister came two 
 days sooner than he expected. He was delighted to 
 have his beloved parent safe and well at his side, and 
 to do all that could give her happiness, although it 
 must needs have saddened her to find the once strong 
 and healthy son changed to such a picture of distress- 
 ful suffering. Nanette, his sister, had still all the 
 naturalness of a child. This pleased him ; and he 
 hoped that, under his guidance, she might get the edu- 
 cation which was denied her at home. Fortunately, he 
 had now at last brought his '• Thirty Years' War " to 
 its close, and on the 21st he sent the final pages to the 
 printer. " Now I am free," he writes to Korner, " and 
 I will always remain so. No more work shall be im- 
 posed upon me by others. Nothing shall be done 
 except out of sheer fondness or inchnation. For the 
 next week or ten days I mean to do nothing, and see 
 what perfect rest of the brain, fresh air, exercise, and 
 society small-talk can do toward mending my health." 
 With this end in view he went with his relations to 
 Eudolstadt, and spent a merry time, although the ques- 
 tion of CaroHne's intended divorce was stUl a grief to 
 them all. They came back to Jena on the 4th of
 
 328 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 October. Soon afterward his mother and sister left, 
 taking with them letters to Ehvert and Hoveu, the old 
 friends of his boyhood. He promised to visit home in 
 the coming year. 
 
 The lecture season being now at hand, all hopes of 
 doing fresh work in poetry were balked. For he had 
 arranged to give a series of private lectures during the 
 winter upon aesthetics. " I am now up to my ears in 
 Kant's ' Urtheils Kraft,' " he tells Ktirner on the 15th. 
 " I shall never rest until I have fathomed this, and 
 until it grows to something in my hands. It is also 
 necessary that at all hazard I should completely think 
 out and exhaust a lecture, so as to be in a thorough 
 state of readiness, and easily able, moreover, to write 
 upon emergency something readable for the Tlialia, 
 without spending either time or pains." 
 
 Of the twenty-four students who wished to attend 
 his private lectures, eighteen paid fees. Thus, as 
 Schiller put it, he earned a hundred thalers simply by 
 collecting for self-use a rich store of thoughts and ideas 
 that might help him hereafter in producing some work 
 of art. There were literary plans, besides, made partly 
 wdth regard to Korner, who, disappointed now, after 
 long waiting, of a rich inheritance, would have to count 
 largely upon hterature as a means of livelihood. 
 
 Meanwhile the French, pushing onward, were at the 
 Ehine. On the 14th Mainz fell into their hands, 
 Mainz, where, through the Koadjutor's influence, our 
 poet had once hoped to gain an agreeable post. Frank- 
 fort, too, was set in flames, and all seemed wavering in 
 the balance. It was now, only, after the Allies had 
 been driven from France, that Schiller felt greater con- 
 fidence in the energy of the French, and in their new 
 republic. 
 
 He eagerly read of the Convention's doings in the 
 Monitcur, and herefrom judged of their weakness or 
 their strength. Germany seemed bound to lose the
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 329 
 
 Lhine provinces, and there was no doubt but that 
 great limits would be put to the Kurfiirst of Mainz's 
 power. " If the French destroy my prospects," wrote 
 Schiller in his excitement, " I may feel inclined to go 
 to the French themselves for better ones." He took 
 pleasure in continuing his lectures on aesthetics, 
 although sleepless nights often compelled him to 
 keep in bed until noon, when he would stay up until 
 long past midnight. He beheved he had solved Kant's 
 problem as to the objective basis of taste, and in his fiery, 
 impetuous way, was for embodying his thoughts in a 
 dialogue to be called " Kallias ; or. Of Beauty." Fisch- 
 enich had meanwhile gone back to Bonn, and his place, 
 as Schiller's companion, was filled by the theologian, 
 Magister Karl Heinrich Gros of Suabia, formerly tutor 
 to the Prince of Wiirtemberg, but who, having quar- 
 relled with his pupil, was now come to study law at 
 Jena. Schiller spoke well of him to Fischenich, prais- 
 ing his clear intellect and sound judgment, and saying 
 that he was particularly well versed in the Kantian 
 philosophy. 
 
 The growing despotism in France, and particularly 
 the impeachment of Louis Seize, stirred Schiller's feel- 
 ings to such depth that he determined to stand forth 
 publicly as the king's defender. Writing to Kcirner on 
 the 21st of December, he says: "This undertaking 
 seems to me weighty enough to employ the pen of a 
 man of sense ; and a German writer, who should state 
 his views upon this question with freedom and elo- 
 quence, might possibly make some sort of impression 
 upon these misguided mortals." In such crises it 
 behooved one not to remain indolent and inactive. 
 Had every liberal thinker among men kept silence, no 
 steps would have been taken toward human improve- 
 ment ; it was just in times like these that one ought to 
 speak out. Nor would he omit to blame the " brutal- 
 ity" of German governments, and in doing this he
 
 330 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 would refer to the more liberal feeling which prevailed 
 in Weimar. Through the Duke of Weimar's influence 
 he hoped to circulate many copies of his book in Paris, 
 and Zacharias Becker was already engaged to translate 
 it into French ; but the matter must for a time be kept 
 secret. However, Schiller turned ill over his work ; 
 the subject was all too powerful in its influence upon 
 him ; and, leaving it, he resumed with fresh zeal his 
 aesthetic researches. 
 
 Toward the close of the year CaroHne again came to 
 Jena, to make a longer stay. She suffered much, and 
 busied herself now with various Hterary work, hoping 
 to earn money thereby, and to provide against the dark 
 days which seemed at hand. Some of her stories met 
 with great praise from Schiller. "An employment 
 that deeply interests me lifts me above all bodily 
 torment," he writes on the 11th of January; "I often 
 wish that my health might only stay with me until 
 this ' Kallias ' were finished." He was immeasurably 
 delighted at having discovered an objective definition 
 of the beautiful ; but the subject needed very deep and 
 thorough investigation, and he must wholly master it 
 before attempting this, before producing satisfactory 
 work. 
 
 Then the news reached him of the execution of the 
 ill-fated Louis Seize. On February 8th he writes: 
 " For a fortnight I can look at no French paper, so 
 sickened am I with these wretched knacker's men." 
 In the same letter he states to Korner his conviction 
 that Beauty is nothing but Freedom in visible form. 
 On the next day he asks the Prince of Augustenburg 
 for permission to put before his Highness in a series of 
 letters his ideas upon the philosophy of beauty. The 
 Kantian philosophy, he said, also furnished rules for 
 a system of Esthetics, and its originator had missed 
 the merit of expounding tliis system solely by reason 
 of a preconceived notion of his own. When spring
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 331 
 
 came Schiller suffered from fresh attacks of illness; 
 notwithstauding, his mental power never flagged, but 
 he worked on with restless energy. To Korner he sent 
 detailed accounts of his aesthetic researches. He read 
 with keen interest the proofs of Kant's remarkable 
 essay, entitled " Eeligion within the Bounds of Mere 
 Keason." And he was now thinking over two philo- 
 sophic poems ; the one was to be a Theodicy, and the 
 other should have even more success. He had taken a 
 httle garden-house for the summer, as Lotte was unwell, 
 and shunned the noise of their common dinner-table ; 
 his second sister Louise was to come and manage 
 household affairs. Whether he travelled to Suabia in 
 the summer or the autumn would depend upon the 
 state of his health. He had twice asked the Duke of 
 Wiirtemberg for leave to visit his home in order to take 
 the baths there ; but he was still without an answer. 
 Writing at the end of January, his mother said that 
 probably the duke felt vexed at the performance in 
 Stuttgart of " Plot and Passion " a fortnight since. 
 This would explain his silence. The play, she said, 
 had in truth been very warmly received, and the hered- 
 itary prince, who was present, joined in the general 
 applause. But the aristocracy, who came in for sharp 
 criticism, had complained to the duke of the play, who 
 forbade its further performance. His Grace had also 
 refused the petition of Schiller's father for an increase 
 of salary, giving him, it is true, the barren assurance 
 that he would show him favour in another way. Then 
 in his seventieth year, this faithful servant still only 
 received four hundred gulden, although he knew that 
 he was entitled to a thousand. It was this great 
 injustice that made him resolve to get a name by issu- 
 ing a book that should show his mastery of some 
 particular subject, and thus the duke, not liking to let 
 him go, would be induced to give him a higher salary. 
 The work in question was called " Thoughts About
 
 332 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 Tree-gromng on a Large Scale," and Schiller, on re- 
 ceiving a copy from his father, asked Goeschen to 
 publish it. 
 
 About the middle of March the attacks of spasms 
 returned. In these days Huber came to Jena, staying 
 with Professor Schiitz there, and working assiduously 
 for the Litcratur Zeitung. SchiUer was glad that little 
 opportunity occurred for meeting liis quondam friend 
 alone, who had treated Dora Stock so heartlessly, and 
 had basely tricked Forster, his friend. Huber spoke of 
 his circumstances, but they could not have any inti- 
 mate talk together, for Schiller no longer cherished 
 respect for the man that once he had heartily loved. 
 On the 2 2d, while lecturing, the poet was seized by an 
 attack of his malady. " My life is so rent by these 
 wretched seizures, that I can make no real progress in 
 anything." So he writes, lamentingly, to Korner. On 
 the 26tli he finished his course of lectures, and, soon 
 afterward, Humboldt came from Erfurt to Jena for 
 a few days, wishing to see Schiller before he went back 
 to his home. The poet had recently inserted part of 
 an historical work by Humboldt in the Thalia, though 
 he failed in an endeavour to make Goeschen publish 
 the whole. Humboldt had then turned to the study of 
 Greek hterature, and submitted to Scliiller for criticism 
 an essay of his upon " The Greeks." Now, when they 
 both met, this and like matters were discussed. Schil- 
 ler's mental gifts made such stirring impression upon 
 Humboldt, that in order to benefit by his society he 
 promised to come and stay in Jena during the follow- 
 ing year. 
 
 On April the 7th Schiller was able to get out into 
 the garden and enjoy again the sight of fields and sky ; 
 for all through that winter he had hardly been five 
 times beyond the doors. He speaks in his letters of 
 disagreeable work which now took up his time ; per- 
 haps this was the preface to a new volume of the
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER S33 
 
 "Memoirs." He was overjoyed both at the prospect 
 of a visit from Korner, and of his own journey to 
 Suabia. There was still no answer from the Duke 
 Karl Eugene, yet he did not like to venture sending 
 a third petition, particularly as it was still very doubt- 
 ful whether his health could allow him to travel. 
 
 Then came fresh attacks of spasms, which quite 
 robbed him of all power to write or think ; Lotte fell 
 ill also, and this added to his distress. He had aban- 
 doned the " Kalhas " and wished to publish his views 
 upon Esthetics in a series of papers. He set eagerly 
 to work upon an essay on " Grace and Dignity," that, 
 illness notwithstanding, was finished in six weeks. Its 
 style has an unusual tone of vivacity and happiness 
 about it, which would never let one guess in what 
 a time of gloom and sorrow it was composed. The 
 essay at once appeared in Thalia and gained general 
 praise. In it he seeks to confute Kant's rigid laws of 
 conduct, by the doctrine that man should seek to bring 
 his physical and moral impulses into thorough harmony, 
 so that he may freely and gladly follow the dictates of 
 reason. As an ideal of human beauty he points to 
 that blending of grace and dignity which we see in the 
 ancients. Immediately after this success he began to 
 write another essay upon the Pathetic. 
 
 In June it was fixed that for the first he should go 
 to Heilbronn; from that place he intended to write 
 to the duke. He counted greatly upon the professional 
 skni of Doctor Gmelin, a physician there, widely known 
 through cures effected by means of magnetism. Money 
 had already been sent by him to his sister Louise to 
 defray the expenses of her coming to Jena ; but this 
 plan of making her his housekeeper was given up, 
 partly because of the mother's indisposition and partly 
 on account of his proposed journey to HeUbronn. We 
 here give a facsimile of the postscript added by Schil- 
 ler's father to a letter of the 15th of July. Christo-
 
 334 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 phine wished to come and see liim with her husband, 
 and he was dehghted at the thought. WTien Eeinwald 
 wrote asking him to forgive his gloominess and depres- 
 sion, he answered : " No business and no sickness shall, 
 as I hope, keep me from feeling hearty joy at your 
 coming. Bring your whole set of moods with you, 
 dear Keinwald ; one hypochondriac will have patience 
 with another. 
 
 " We shall not let you go so soon, this time. And 
 so during this happy summer I shall bring my two 
 dear sisters together [he did not know tliat Louise's 
 journey had been given up], and shall be able to show 
 my good Eeinwald that, despite Heaven knows how 
 many slights on my part, the love and the hearty 
 respect I feel for him have ever remained the same." 
 
 At midday, on the 25th, he drove as far as Erfurt 
 to meet his friends, taking leave of the Koadjutor on 
 the following day. Schiller was now gladdened by the 
 prospect of becoming a father. Writiug to Kcirner, he 
 says : " I feel freed from half my suffering now. It is 
 as if I saw the waning torch of my own life rekindled 
 in another ; and I have made my peace with Fate." 
 The gift of money from Denmark having now reached 
 hira, he was delighted to begin discharging his debt 
 to Korner ; but in view of the expenses which his 
 journey would entail, and as fees from Goeschen were 
 still unpaid, he could only send his friend a remittance 
 of sixteen louis d'or. It was a very great disappoint- 
 ment that, on account of this journey he was about to 
 make, Korner could not visit him. Frequent letters 
 now passed between the poet and Frau von Kalb, who 
 in May had written to him about a tutor. He tells 
 Korner that " her head seems still not quite sound, and 
 she appears to be more excitable than ever ; but the 
 surface is calmer." 
 
 A visit from Baggesen now dehghted him. He was 
 travelhng to Switzerland with his wife, and passed
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 335 
 
 through Jena en route. During his stay, Schiller wrote 
 a second letter to the Hereditary Prince of Augusten- 
 burg, who had replied in a most friendly way to the 
 first, assuring him how warmly he would welcome the 
 series of letters which Schiller proposed to address to 
 him. This time Schiller set forth his reasons for 
 choosing such a subject so far removed from all the 
 momentous questions of the hour. " This effort of 
 the French people to estal^lish their sacred rights of 
 humanity and to gain pohtical freedom has only 
 brought to light their unworthiness and impotence ; 
 and, not this ill-fated nation alone, but with it a con- 
 siderable part of Europe, and a whole century, have 
 been hurled back into barbarism and servitude. Of 
 moments, this was the most propitious ; but it came to 
 a corrupt generation, unworthy to seize it, unworthy 
 to profit by it. The use which this generation makes 
 and has made of so great a gift of chance, incontestably 
 shows that the human race cannot yet dispense with 
 the guardianship of might ; that reason steps in too 
 soon where the bondage of brute force has hardly been 
 shaken off ; and that he is not yet ripe for ciml liberty, 
 to the attainment of whose human liberty so much is 
 still missing. . . . Freedom, pohtical and civil, remains 
 ever and always the holiest of all possessions, the 
 worthiest goal of all striving, the great rallying-point 
 of all culture ; but this glorious structure can only be 
 raised upon the firm basis of an ennobled character; 
 and, before a citizen can be given a constitution, one 
 must see that the citizen be himself soundly consti- 
 tuted." Speaking of the spirit of the age, he said that 
 it urgently needed refining, ennobling, quite independ- 
 ently of any reform in politics. Art and Taste must 
 help toward this end. But Art must have ideals, and 
 ever hold before her the image of the highest form 
 of beauty, however much the age may rob itself of 
 dignity ; Art must " by a code of her own be protected
 
 336 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 alike from the tyranny cf a local and one-sided taste 
 and from the anarchy of a lawless one — from bar- 
 barism. Ideals she already partly possesses in the 
 imperishable models to which Greek genius and the 
 kindred genius of a few moderns have given birth, and 
 which for ever unsurpassed wiU outlive all passing 
 whims of fashionable taste. But a code is what she 
 has never had yet, and to supply her with this is one 
 of the hardest problems that philosophising reason can 
 set itself. For what can be harder than to bring the 
 workings of genius under rules, to reconcile Freedom 
 with Necessity ? " 
 
 With this letter was enclosed the essay on " Grace 
 and Dignity," in which he said he had announced and 
 put forth some of those ideas on whose fuller develop- 
 ment he would now employ himself. The subsequent 
 letters were to be matured under his native sky. 
 Schiller had, besides, as a further development of 
 certain Kantian ideas, completed for the Thalia his 
 essay " On the Sublime," at the end of which he 
 deduces from the nature of the Pathetic-Sublime 
 the two leading principles of all Tragic Art. Shortly 
 before setting out, he, at the same time with Goethe, 
 Herder, and Wieland, was named Honorary Member 
 of the Scientific Society, founded by his friend Professor 
 Batsch, who, firm in character and free in thought, 
 was fighting his way under adverse circumstances. 
 He was also cheered by a brief intercourse with Voigt, 
 and with his lady, a lover of poetry and art. 
 
 All the longing and delight with which he yearned 
 for the home of his childhood come out in what he 
 writes to Korner. " The delightful prospect I have 
 before me brightens my heart. I shall taste the joys 
 at once of a sou and of a father ; and between these 
 two sentiments of nature, my inmost being will be 
 supremely blest. . . . Love to my native land has 
 grown very lively in me, and the Suabian, which I
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 337 
 
 thought I had entirely doffed, is stirring vigorously. 
 But then I have been parted from it for eleven years ; 
 and Thuringia is not the country to make one forget 
 Suabia." And so, on the 2d of August he quitted that 
 pleasant Athens on the Saale, after a professorial career 
 of over four years, which had been interrupted and 
 greatly hindered by severe and continuous suffering, 
 and which he was never to resume.
 
 Book IX. 
 
 Visiting Home
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 , AUGUST, 1793, TO MAY, 1794. 
 
 Passing through Niirnberg, where SchiUer visited 
 his friend Erhard, now settled there as a physician, 
 and also met Baggesen, he and Frau Schiller, after a 
 toilsome journey in a conveyance of their own, reached 
 Heilbronn on the 8th of August. Here, having in the 
 first instance put up at the Sun Hotel, he had the 
 happiness of embracing again, after so long a separation, 
 his father, now almost seventy, yet the picture of a 
 green old age, kept in health by constant activity, and 
 his sister Louise, who was eighteen. It was agreed 
 that the father should ask the duke's permission to 
 visit his son occasionally at Heilbronn, and should at 
 the same time insinuate the wish of the latter to use 
 the waters at Cannstadt. Their hope that Karl Eugene 
 would be induced by this, and by a hint at the great 
 expense of the journey, to accord to his runaway pupil 
 and ex-regimental surgeon a free return to the laud 
 of his birth, was never fulfilled. Schiller had therefore 
 to settle down at Heilbronn, to which place his parents 
 sent him beds. He lodged at the merchant Eueffs, by 
 the Sulmerthor. From Heilbronn, he ventured once 
 without leave to visit his friend Hoven at Ludwigsburg, 
 and his parents at SoHtude. 
 
 As everything but the good Neckar wine was very 
 dear at Heilbronn, he set up housekeeping for himself, 
 but failed to secure the desired domestic comfort and 
 enlivening society for himself and Lotte. In Gmelin, 
 
 341
 
 342 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 who considered the magnetic cure was not the thing 
 for him, he found a very " fidele Patron " and a saga- 
 cious doctor, and with Senator Schiiller he maintained 
 friendly intercourse, but they never grew very intimate ; 
 and, as for any interest in art, so dear to Schiller, there 
 was not a trace. As the continual marching of troops 
 through the town caused great disturbance, and the 
 ten leagues' distance from Solitude made it difficult to 
 visit his relations, he determined to move his quarters 
 to Ludwigsburg, of which he cherished kindly youthful 
 recollections. This he previously notified to the duke, 
 but he happened to be on a journey down the Ehine. 
 In Heilbronn, too, he found Margareta Schwan again, 
 but in what changed circumstances ! — as the wife of 
 a clerk and pettifogger, one Treffz, of that place. Her 
 father had been so enraged at her throwing herself 
 away on this man that he had cast her o£f. Not until 
 she had been in actual want, would he help her, and 
 that scantily, out of his abundance. Lotte was witness 
 of the deep emotion with which the pair, severed by 
 old Schwau's caprice, met again. Poor Margareta ! she 
 only lived a few years longer, dying on January 7, 
 1796. 
 
 On the 8th of September Schiller moved to Ludwigs- 
 burg. Here he found in Hoven a faithful friend of 
 his youth, who, indeed, hke all his acquaintances, 
 seemed to him to have grown somewhat boorish. 
 Still, he got on very well wdth him, in hearty recol- 
 lections of the halcyon days of youth ; and they 
 carried on much thoughtful talk, though Hoven also 
 showed no taste for art, and no effort in that direction. 
 Schiller specially prized him as a skilful surgeon, whose 
 aid Lotte very soon required. The mother and Nanette 
 came on a visit to Ludwigsburg ; Carohne, too, and 
 her sister-in-law, Ubike von Beulwitz, arrived from 
 Cannstadt, to stay in the house. The confinement 
 took place sooner than was expected, on the night of
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 343 
 
 the 14th. Lotte had suffered long, and Schiller went 
 to bed in great anxiety. Hoven's wife brought the 
 boy to the sleeping father; her coming awoke him, 
 when his first glance fell on the pledge of faithful love. 
 His joy at Lotte's safety and the new happiness of 
 fatherhood stirred up the poet's soul ; fervently he 
 thanked destiny, which chained him by a new tie 
 to Hfe. The baptism took place ten days after, in 
 the presence of his parents and sisters. Sponsors to 
 the little " Karl Friedrich Ludwig " were the Duchess 
 Louise, the Koadjutor, Frau von Lengenfeld, the grand- 
 parents, and Hoven's wife and father. The boy took 
 his first two names from the Koadjutor^ and Schiller, 
 the third was doubtless to be a memento of Ludwigs- 
 burg. It was touching to see the old couple bless 
 their grandchild, especially the grandmother, who 
 officiated in a black dress, which is still preserved in 
 the family. Schiller took care to report the birth of 
 his son to the Duke of Weimar. At Ludwigsburg, 
 Karl Eugene left him unmolested ; he had made no 
 reply even to the third apphcation, though he had 
 allowed the father to use the Cannstadt baths for the 
 pains in his limbs. Schiller made some trips with 
 Hoven to the neighbouring towns, though he still 
 suffered much from the spasms ; he had a dreadful 
 attack of them one evening on his way home. About 
 this time he had the satisfaction of seeing his old 
 opponent Staudlin come cringing to him and begging 
 him to recommend the Magister Holderhn of Stuttgart 
 to the place of steward with Frau von Kalb. Holderlin 
 waited upon Schiller, and, on his report, was engaged 
 by the Frau, though the poet told her that, from his 
 half-hour's acquaintance, he hardly thought him quite 
 steady yet in his principles, and did not expect 
 anything very solid from his attainments or his 
 manners. 
 
 Schiller's sufferings increased with the beginning of
 
 344 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 October ; he was seldom able to brace himself for work, 
 and for days together he loathed desk and pen. 
 
 " So stubborn a complaint, free intervals so sparingly- 
 doled out, often depress me sorely," he writes to 
 Korner. " Never was I so rich in projects of literary 
 labour, never so little able to hold out ; and that, 
 owing to the most wretched of all hindrances, bodily 
 suffering. Of larger compositions I dare not think at 
 all, now ; and I am glad if only from time to time I 
 can finish a small whole." Thus a work on Esthetic 
 intercourse gave him much pleasure at this time ; for 
 the Tlicdia he planned writing an essay on the Naive. 
 His uncertain condition was the more deplorable, as he 
 believed there was a good prospect of the Duke and 
 Duchess of Weimar, with whom he stood well, entrust- 
 ing him with the education of the hereditary prince, 
 then ten years old. 
 
 While he kept himself very retired at Ludwigsburg, 
 he could not altogether escape the visits of his Stutt- 
 gart friends. There came the wine-loving Librarian 
 Petersen and the jolly epigrammatist Secretary Haug, 
 who brought with him his fat assistant Conz, from 
 Vailiingen. Schiller, when in a merry mood, was 
 tempted to try and make Petersen drunk, but the 
 attempt ended in his own discomfiture. He felt most 
 attracted by Conz, a good Grecian, whose translations 
 from Greek, then just published under the name of 
 " Analecta," contained many good things. He thought 
 Conz had made gi'eat advances since he met him at 
 Jena. Of strangers, Schiller received a visit from 
 Matthisson, then travelling to Switzerland, who found 
 him deadly pale and wasting away. Caroline, the 
 sister-in-law, who lived with the Schillers, was in very 
 bad health, and the divorce which she was constantly 
 urging, and which the mother disapproved, occasioned 
 many a misunderstanding. 
 
 While Schiller grew more and more depressed and
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 345 
 
 feeble, the duke, who had never been able to get over 
 his ill-will against him, died at Hoheuheim on the 
 24th, after a lengthy illness. Startled as Schiller may- 
 have been for the moment by the death of his quondam 
 " Pater " and persecutor, he shed for him no tear. He 
 could calmly see the prince, who never would forgive 
 him, entombed in the palace church of Ludwigsburg. 
 
 To Korner he called him " old Herod," whose suc- 
 cessor was at all events a man ; in challenging Haug 
 to a walk to Ludwigsburg, he added, sarcastically : 
 " Were it only as a pilgrimage to the precious remains 
 of a master who deserved so well of you." He did not 
 exult over his death — nay, he recognised the duke's 
 great services to education in Wlirtemberg; but the 
 remembrance of his unbending rigour always awakened 
 bitter resentment — the old scar smarted anew at every 
 touch. 
 
 It was through Haug that Johann Christoph Cotta, 
 then in his thirtieth year — who six years before had 
 taken over his father's bookselling business at Tiibiugen 
 — tried to form a connection with the renowned coun- 
 tryman whom once he had ridiculed in Staudlin's 
 Blumenlese. Schiller replied that he would be glad, 
 if only for Hang's sake, to give Cotta some work to 
 publish, but Goeschen had the first right to the 
 " Theory of Esthetic Intercourse," on which he was 
 then engaged. His tragedy, " The Knights of St. 
 John" (of Malta), should it ever come to anything, 
 was more at his own disposal, but he could not let 
 him have it under thirty Carolines, for it cost him 
 three or four times as much labour as the best of his 
 philosophical or historical writings. But how could 
 he at that time have collected and raised his powers to 
 the level of a great dramatic poem ? 
 
 After keeping his father's birthday with his relatives 
 at Solitude, he had to forego the pleasure of their pres- 
 ence at his own, for they were kept away by indisposi-
 
 346 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 tion. Shortly before this he had struck off his third 
 letter to the Hereditary Prince of Augustenburg, in 
 which he pointed out the influence of aesthetic on 
 moral culture. By November 11th he finished the 
 fourth letter, and in the next three weeks followed it 
 up by three more, in which the most fruitful ideas of 
 his " Kunstler " were more fully carried out. And 
 here he did not conceal from the prince that taste is 
 to the refined man what religion is to the animal man ; 
 that it does for our ordinary life what reUgion does at 
 the point where sensation ceases. " On one of these 
 two props, if not rather on both, we must lean," says 
 he, " so long as we are not gods." No doubt the state- 
 ment somewhat startled the hereditary prince and his 
 circle of acquaintances who used to devour the letters 
 when communicated to them. About this time he had 
 a special reprint made of his treatise on " Grace and 
 Dignity" (of which Schiitz sent him some passages 
 done into Latin), with the dedication on the title-page : 
 
 " To Karl von Dalberg. 
 
 « What here thou seest, great spirit, 
 Thou art thyself.' — Milton." 
 
 Copies of the corresponding sheets of the Thalia were 
 also published with this title. His object was to 
 show to the Koadjutor that, despite the unhappy times, 
 he trusted him still. 
 
 The letters to the prince were, alas ! but gleams of 
 light amid a gloomy time for Schiller in spite of his 
 domestic bliss; a time when such a trifling thing as 
 Korner's difference of opinion as to the definition of 
 the Beautiful and Sublime caused him to be bitterly 
 offended with his old and faithful friend, so that to 
 him also he felt totally silent. Not till December 10th 
 had he got so far the better of his feelings that he
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 347 
 
 could open his heart to him again. And still he 
 writes with irritation : " Since my last letter (October 
 4th) so many things have combined to shake my con- 
 stancy of mind. An illness of my httle one, from 
 which he has quite recovered now ; my own ailments, 
 which leave me very few free hours ; the vagueness of 
 my outlooks for the future, for the Mainz prospects 
 are quite overcast again ; doubts of my own genius, 
 unstrengthened, uncheered as it is by any healthful 
 contact from without, the total absence of intellectual 
 conversation, such as has become a necessity to me. 
 . . . My nervous sufferings have made my feelings 
 more irritable, more sensitive to all that is crooked, 
 hard, coarse, and tasteless. I demand more of men 
 than before, and have the ill hap to be thrown to- 
 gether with such as are wholly unprovided in that 
 respect. . . . Heaven grant that my patience do not 
 break down, and that a life so often interrupted by 
 a real death may still hold some value for me. . . . 
 This long while it is my activity alone that has made 
 life endurable to me ; and in such a situation it may 
 have chanced that I took this subjective worth, which 
 my labours have to myself, for objective, and thought 
 better of them than perhaps they deserved. In short, 
 I imagine that both in my letters of last winter and in 
 some later printed essays I had thrown out ideas that 
 deserved a warmer reception than they met with at 
 your hands. With this drought all around me, it 
 would really have done me good to receive some en- 
 couragement from you ; and with the opinion I have 
 of you, I could only interpret your silence or coldness 
 to my own disadvantage. But in truth I needed cheer- 
 ing up rather than casting down ; overconfidence in 
 self has never been my failing." He was then hoping 
 to get the first volume of his Letters to the prince 
 printed before Easter. Unfortunately the distemper 
 lasted longer ; and as the ever-increasing dearth at
 
 348 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 Ludwigsburg pinched him too, he was for coming 
 away in the middle of winter ; but fi'om thi.s his 
 mother-in-law, in forwarding her yearly remittance of 
 two hundred thalers, earnestly dissuaded him. 
 
 When the dreaded first half of January was over he 
 felt a good deal better, yet longed to be back at Jena 
 and among his friends ; if he continued as well, and if 
 the weather permitted, he would leave Suabia at the 
 beginning of March. " My wife is still in very toler- 
 able health," he writes to Kcirner after an eight weeks' 
 silence, " and the baby is hfe itself. He is a very great 
 joy to me already, and his vivacity gives me hopes that 
 in another six or eight months he will be at all sorts 
 of mad pranks." His Letters he now means to keep in 
 his desk another four months at least, though they 
 would already fill about fourteen sheets in print. From 
 the " Influence of the Beautiful on Man " he had gone 
 on to the effect of the theory on appreciation and pro- 
 duction of the Beautiful, and was just then at the 
 production, independent of all theory, of the Original 
 Beautiful. Here he stopped to turn to his " Wallen- 
 stein " again. Hoven says that he read some complete 
 scenes of the play, even then. 
 
 He and Schiller went over to Tiibingen for three 
 days, to which place the veteran Abel had been trans- 
 ferred. They had got down at the hotel, but Abel 
 would not rest until their trunk was brought to his 
 residence, the Bursch, as it was called, where he had 
 the oversight of the theological students, maintained 
 there free of cost. And his guests from Ludwigsburg 
 were to dine in the common room with them. Schil- 
 ler was delighted with his good old master, who had 
 been of such service to him. He called upon Cotta on 
 the same occasion. 
 
 At the news that an imperial infirmary was coming 
 to Ludwigsburg, the fear that patients would be quar- 
 tered in it threw the poet, then abnormally excitable.
 
 Schiller in Shittgart, ij()4 
 
 Photogravure after the paintinp bv H. Gaiipp
 
 r •
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 349 
 
 into such distress that he wanted to move in all haste 
 to Stuttgart, although on account of painful memories 
 he had purposed not to set foot in that city. But the 
 removal was delayed. Besides this, the future of his 
 father made him anxious, for the new duke hated 
 Solitude no less than the academy, and thought of 
 suppressing them both ; there was even a talk of pull- 
 ing down the palace and all the buildings, of destroying 
 the gardens and pleasure-grounds, of transplanting the 
 orangery and removing the nursery. The mother was 
 beside herself at the thought, while her husband firmly 
 trusted in God to direct matters. Three weeks after 
 this Schiller was for leaving Suabia all in a hurry, and 
 wished to take leave of his parents on the following 
 Sunday, March 10th. His father with a heavy heart 
 consented, moved chiefly by the fear that his Fritz 
 might catch the prevailing pestilence. Happily Schil- 
 ler on a sudden changed his purpose ; he went to Stutt- 
 gart, where the fine and wholesome air was soon to 
 benefit his health, and a more intellectual life to sur- 
 round him. 
 
 On the 17th he informs Korner that he thinks of 
 spending a few weeks pleasantly in Stuttgart, and 
 hopes meanwhile to be of some service to his father. 
 And, in fact, it was arranged that the old man should 
 be left in peace at Solitude ; beside which, owing prob- 
 ably to his son's connection with Haug, who was pri- 
 vate secretary to the new duke, he was promoted on 
 the 26th to the rank of Oberwachtmeister. In Stuttgart 
 the poet lodged at the court gardener's house, behind the 
 Eeinsburg-strasse. The early bright and beautiful spring 
 revived him wonderfully ; he had not felt so well for 
 a long time. Briskly, cheerily, he worked away at the 
 plot of his " Wallenstein ; " that once settled, he thought 
 he could fill up the scenes in three weeks. " Here the 
 arts flourish to an uncommon degree for South Ger- 
 many," he wrote to Korner, " the number of artists, some
 
 350 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 of them not inferior to any of yours, has greatly refined 
 the taste in matters of painting, sculpture, and music. 
 There is a book society that spends thirteen hundred 
 gulden a year to get what is newest in literature and 
 pohtics. Also a tolerable theatre, with a first-rate 
 orchestra and very good ballet." In Dannecker, a friend 
 of his youthful days, he found a true genius for art, 
 which had been nobly cultivated by a four years' resi- 
 dence in Kome. His society was very pleasant to him, 
 and he learned many things from him that proved use- 
 ful in his cGsthetic studies. Dannecker would not be 
 refused the pleasure of modelling his bust. Intercourse 
 with an artist so full of ideas, with such command over 
 form, and so warm-hearted as well, was in the highest 
 degree quickening and enjoyable. It is said that once 
 when Dannecker came to Schiller's to continue the 
 almost finished work, he found the poet asleep, and 
 took the opportunity to measure every part of the head 
 with compasses, and on comparing them with those of 
 the model, found the agreement exact. Caroline relates 
 that after finishing the model he came to her in the 
 adjoining room and exclaimed, with tears in his eyes, 
 " Ah ! it is not quite what I meant it to be, after all ! " 
 Dannecker introduced Schiller to his brother-in-law, 
 the merchant Eapp, who was practising landscape- 
 drawing, and his remarks on the treatment of land- 
 scape were particularly interesting to the poet. He 
 also got on pleasantly with Hetsch and Scheffauer, 
 and no less with good Zumsteeg, the leading musician 
 of the place, though in him he found more genius than 
 cultivation. One of the most notable scholars, the 
 court-chaplain Werkmeister, he prized especially for 
 his leaning to the Kantian philosophy. The engraver 
 MuUer was just then at work on his portrait of Graff. 
 His friend, the female painter Simanowitz, born a 
 Eeichenbach, painted him, and afterward his wife. 
 He associated besides with Petersen, Haug, and the
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 351 
 
 Hart man n family, especially Professor Johann Georg 
 August Hartmann, whom the suppression of the Karls- 
 academie at Easter had left at leisure. That this insti- 
 tution, which had done Schiller himself good service in 
 many ways, should come to an end just while he was 
 there, touched him deeply. At that very moment, too, 
 Wilhelm von Wolzogen came back to Stuttgart, and, 
 to the excessive annoyance of Frau von Lengenfeld, 
 carried off his old love Caroline to Switzerland ; there 
 they stayed at Stein-am-Ehein until after Schiller's 
 departure. 
 
 He now came into closer contact with Cotta, first on 
 the subject of accepting a bill of two hundred thalers 
 on Goeschen. Soon after he offered him the copyright 
 of a new " Theatre of the Greeks " in about seven vol- 
 umes, which he meditated bringing out in conjunction 
 with Professor Nast of Stuttgart and Diaconus Conz. 
 Each volume was to contain a critique from his hand 
 of the pieces translated in it, which would give him an 
 opportunity of setting forth the leading excellency of 
 Greek tragedy, and the whole theory of tragic composi- 
 tion. The matter fell through, as Cotta would have no 
 new translations, but only Schiller's critical disquisi- 
 tions, and to get all of these ready to come out together 
 would certainly have demanded much time and toil. 
 
 In Stuttgart, though the spasms did not spare him 
 altogether, Schiller felt a great deal freer and stronger ; 
 yet by degrees there stole over him a longing for friends 
 in the north, and for the quiet, regular life which he 
 needed for working ; besides, he had steps to take about 
 his own future. Through Frau von Stein, Lotte had 
 applied to the duchess for Schiller's appointment to the 
 office of tutor to the hereditary prince ; but, glad as her 
 Grace would have been to secure a quiet situation for 
 the poet she loved and honoured, his broken health 
 forbade her holding out any hopes. He wished to leave 
 Stuttgart as early as the 23d with Paulus, who was
 
 352 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 hurrying back to Jena ; but his good fortune kept post- 
 poning the time of departure. For it was during those 
 last days that he formed a connection with Cotta, which 
 proved of the utmost consequence to his future career. 
 He felt drawn once more to Tiibingen, where his 
 friends were full of plans to secure the services of 
 their countryman for their high school. This time he 
 alighted, by previous invitation, at Cotta's house. Here 
 he was visited by Fichte, who had been appointed to 
 Jena in the place of Reiuhold, and who knew Cotta 
 also. Fichte, first by his " Essay toward a Critique 
 of All Inspiration," written on Kantian principles, and 
 then by his " Aids to the Correction of Popular Opin- 
 ions on the French Eevolution," had roused Schiller's 
 interest. He had told Korner the October before that 
 the author would be " a great acquisition " to Jena, one 
 who would more than replace Eeinhold, at least in 
 point of intellect. Personal contact with this fresh 
 and vigorous spirit, just then at work in remodelling 
 philosophy on a new principle which raised it to the 
 rank of a positive science, was the more refreshingly 
 welcome to Schiller, as he himself was contemplating 
 a similar transformation of aesthetics. He would gladly 
 have travelled to Jena with him, but Fichte's way led 
 him through Mainz. After that Cotta came to Stutt- 
 gart, when, on 4th May, he made an excursion with 
 our poet to the Kahlenstein, a moderate elevation near 
 Cannstadt, presenting one of the loveliest views on 
 which, thirty years after. King Wilhelm built the 
 Castle of Rosenstein. Here he laid before Schiller 
 his scheme of a " Universal Journal of European 
 States," which they could afterward discuss more 
 fully. From Kahlenstein they drove on to Unter- 
 tiirkheim. On their way back Schiller unfolded to 
 the enterprising publisher his own ideas of a great 
 journal of literature, on which he had long before 
 expressed his views to Wieland, Goeschen, and Korner.
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 353 
 
 Two days after the poet quitted Stuttgart. His par- 
 ents were in such health that he might venture to hope 
 he was not seeing them for the last time. His father 
 talked of making a journey on horseback to Meiningen 
 and Jena the following year. The beginning of the 
 MS. of his new work on tree-growing, Schiller took 
 away with him ; whatever sum it realised should go 
 toward purchasing the horse for his last long ride to 
 the north. Doctor Erhard, who had been visiting Italy 
 with Baron Herbert, found him still at Stuttgart. This 
 friend, who was anxious about his own prospects, hav- 
 ing just been fleeced by a swindler, was to accompany 
 him to Nurnberg, when on the 6th he and his family 
 left the Suabian capital never to see it again. They 
 came by way of Nurnberg to Mainz, and there spent 
 three glorious days, enjoying in particular the lovely 
 garden that Eeinwald had laid out upon a hill. On 
 the 15th they reached home.
 
 Book X. 
 
 On the Height
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 FKOM MAY, 1794, TO APRIL, 1796. 
 
 We now stand on the threshold of the last eleven 
 years allotted to our poet. During these years, though 
 a constant sufferer, supported and helped by Korner 
 and by three new and most important friendships, he 
 was destined to carry out fully his aesthetic researches ; 
 to cultivate his lyric and dramatic poetry in close 
 connection with a theatre which Goethe's taste guided ; 
 to win the grandest triumphs on the German stage ; to 
 receive homage from that Prussian capital, for which 
 he once longed ; to earn the love and reverence of our 
 nation and its noblest minds ; to meet with the fullest 
 recognition from kings and princes ; and to enjoy per- 
 fect domestic happiness without grinding cares, what 
 though that energy never flagged, which was both in- 
 dispensable to himself and toward ensuring a future 
 for his family. Battles there might be for him still, 
 but he no longer stood alone ; he fought at the side 
 of the great poet toward whom the whole current of 
 his life had drifted him. There were collisions, un- 
 avoidable collisions, but they could not disturb him ; 
 they rather braced the energies of a spirit dauntlessly 
 striving after its ideal. 
 
 Schiller went into lodgings which had been hired 
 during his absence, and he had to get settled down in 
 them first. The house opposite, viz. that of Court 
 Commissary Voigt, had been inhabited ever since 
 February by Wilhelm von Humboldt, who with his 
 
 357
 
 358 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 wife and child meant to stay at Jena till the autumn, 
 chiefly on Schiller's account. All this while he had 
 been getting more than ever absorbed with the Greeks, 
 the only people, he said, in which we encounter the 
 complete man attuned to harmonious action. Even 
 his wife had in their rural retirement come to know 
 Homer and Herodotus in the original — nay, she had 
 ventured on ^schylus. During a stay at Dresden in 
 the preceding autumn Humboldt had grown intimate 
 with Korner, and had taken warm interest in his 
 a3sthetic investigations. Korner, writing to Schiller, 
 had praised Humboldt's rare familiarity with ancient 
 literature, his feeling for excellence in all departments, 
 and his pleasant society, to which a certain frankness 
 and honhomie lent pecuhar charm. That winter Hum- 
 boldt had been hard at work on Kant, whose system 
 he thought incontrovertible, but to him also the " Cri- 
 tique of the Judgment" seemed to need not only 
 corrections of detail, but an expansion of its whole 
 scheme. Beauty he explained as the form of the 
 understanding in phenomena ; he was eager to know 
 Schiller's present view and its demonstration. Schiller 
 could not help falling straightway into the closest 
 intimacy with one who revered his intellect, who was 
 finely gifted, finely cultured, rich in ideas, and touched 
 with the breath of Greek genius. Add to this that 
 Humboldt spoke of Korner with a genuine enthusiasm 
 that always unlocked Schiller's heart. He writes to 
 his Dresden friend : " Humboldt is an acquaintance 
 wonderfully pleasant and likewise profitable to me ; 
 in converse with liim my ideas unfold themselves more 
 rapidly and ripely. There is a wholeness about him 
 that I have rarely seen, and which I have found in 
 none but you." The stream of Humboldt's eloquence 
 would well out of his rich store of ideas and attain- 
 ments, and often take an unexpected, even jocular 
 turn ; but amid its smooth, complacent flow, Schiller
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 359 
 
 would throw in a shrewd counter-observation which 
 laid bare what to his own deep apprehension was the 
 heart of the matter and had been overlooked. 
 
 Humboldt, whom Schiller now thought much quieter 
 and gentler, was his most valuable, almost his only 
 friend at Jena ; for his connection with Paulus, Schiitz, 
 Hufeland, and Griesbach fell more and more into the 
 background. 
 
 Cotta, who on the 27th called at Jena on his way 
 back from Leipzig, discussed the details of an agreement 
 touching the Universal Journal of European States 
 and the monthly journal of literature, Die Horcn (The 
 Hours), both to be under Schiller's management. For 
 the first he was to receive two thousand gulden a year, 
 another fifteen hundred if the sale exceeded six thou- 
 sand copies, and two thousand more for every additional 
 thousand copies; in case of his death, a respectable 
 income was assured to his widow. The sum of nine 
 hundred gulden would be paid in advance in two 
 equal portions, the coming June and September. The 
 salary for editing the Horen was fixed at one hundred 
 ducats ; each member of the critical committee of five 
 was to receive ten louis d'or, and those on the staff 
 eight, five, or three louis d'or at the committee's discre- 
 tion ; here also compensation was granted to widows. 
 Thus Schiller's future seemed to be provided for, even 
 if the Copenhagen pension should cease to come in, 
 as it actually did, no doubt in consequence of the fire 
 that levelled the Castle of Christiansburg where the 
 Duke of Augustenburg lived, destroying all Schiller's 
 letters to the hereditary prince. No sooner was Cotta 
 gone, than the poet's scruples about undertaking a 
 pohtical paper, which had previously arisen in his 
 mind but had been dissipated by the publisher's 
 friendly exhortations and liberal offers, revived with 
 fresh force. On June 4th he wrote to Cotta that, upon 
 consultation with several men of weight, he felt com-
 
 360 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 pelled to dissuade him from the political journal as too 
 perilous an enterprise ; he, at all events, in his uncer- 
 tain state of health, would not take the management; 
 on the other hand, the setting up of the literary paper 
 was unanimously approved. Without waiting for an 
 answer, he had a notice printed for his fellow workers, 
 dated the 13th, saying that the Horen would commence 
 with the following year. Three allies he had already 
 secured, Fichte, Humboldt, and young Woltmann, who 
 at the age of twenty-five had been invited from Gtittin- 
 gen to succeed Schiller in the chair of history. He 
 was deeply impressed with Fichte's importance, though 
 in his friendship it was more the substance than the 
 form that attracted him. To Goethe the notice was 
 sent with a letter from Schiller, couched in terms of 
 the deepest reverence, and terming his support a sure 
 pledge of their success. The company would gladly 
 submit to any conditions that he might impose, and 
 feel infinitely obliged if he would join the inner com- 
 mittee. The same day Schiller applied to Kant, thank- 
 fully expressing his joy that in the second edition of 
 his work on Religion he had spoken so handsomely 
 of his essay on " Grace and Dignity " as " written 
 with a master-hand." He sent the notice to Gotta, 
 exhorting him to give up the political paper and con- 
 centrate his strength upon the Horen : this journal 
 would be infinitely more honourable to them both, 
 incomparably less perilous, and quite as promising. 
 In this province he, Schiller, was a recognised authority, 
 and amply furnished with materials ; even in a low 
 state of health he could labour at this task, for it 
 coincided with the bent of his mind, with his inner 
 vocation. Gotta zealously entered into Schiller's plan, 
 only he would have liked Wieland to join them and 
 give up his Mercur ; but that periodical was to him 
 an easy source of income, and he did not care to 
 relinquish the editorial chair. Schiller himself had
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 361 
 
 to bring out three more numbers (!N'os. 4, 5, 6) of 
 the TJicdia, and with those he would wind up; No. 
 4 included the continuation of his treatise on the 
 Sublime. 
 
 Goethe had become acquainted with Fichte and 
 was mightily pleased with his robust and vigorous 
 nature. What a different man from the shy, uncom- 
 municative Reinhold ! As he found himself more and 
 more lonely at Weimar, where he had only Meyer and 
 Voigt for intimate friends, and was repelled by Herder's 
 too exclusive advocacy of the moral standpoint, he 
 felt himself drawn to pleasant Jena, distinguished as 
 it was by rich culture and beautiful recollections, and 
 thus favourable to poetic composition. Nothing, there- 
 fore, could be more welcome to him than association 
 with a man of Schiller's undisputed talent. However, 
 he took time before replying to the flattering invita- 
 tion. After ten days — Fichte had in the interval 
 been to see him — he declared his joyful and most 
 hearty wish to stand by them in their literary venture. 
 A closer union with such superior men would be sure 
 to bring much that had come to a halt with him into 
 lively flow again ; any of his unpublished things that 
 might suit such a journal, he would gladly communi- 
 cate. He hoped soon to confer orally with Schiller 
 and his valued associates on the principles that should 
 guide them in the choice both of matter and form, so 
 as to give the journal a standing above all others, and 
 by its superiority ensure its living for at least a series 
 of years. 
 
 Three weeks after Schiller's return, poor Burger died, 
 to whom his trenchant review had given such infinite 
 pain. Matthisson, who had seen the poet a httle 
 before his end, now visited Schiller. The man he had 
 left wasted away six months before, he found " fresh 
 and blooming, like a Greek hero arming for the Olym- 
 pic style." He was rejoiced to hear that he had never
 
 362 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 worked with brisker courage or brighter energy ; he 
 talked of his " Knights of Malta " which he was think- 
 ing out, and the new scheme of the Uorcn. Mat- 
 thisson's poems had been sent him to review for the 
 LiUratur Zeitung. In his room stood casts from an- 
 tiques ; on his table was spread out a map of Eome. 
 Soon after Burger's death, Schiller wrote to the pub- 
 lisher of the " Gottingen Museualmauach," offering to 
 take the editorship. On behalf of the Horen he applied 
 first to Engel and Garve, as Herder was away on a 
 journey ; he did not sohcit his aid until July 4th, after 
 the other two had joined. 
 
 As he purposed rewriting for the Horen his " Letters 
 to the Hereditary Prince of Augustenburg," he buried 
 himself once more in Kant ; and here the conversa- 
 tion of Humboldt and of Fichte, who was carrying his 
 " Doctrine of Science " through the press, proved of 
 the greatest service. Even when the spasms brought 
 on by the great heat deprived him of sleep and almost 
 unfitted him for work, he toiled manfully on with Kant, 
 and had the pleasure of finding it grow clearer to him 
 every day. 
 
 It was not till July 21st that Goethe was able to 
 visit Jena, where the new friends found an agreement 
 in their ideas on Art, all the more the unexpected as 
 they had set out from such different points of view. 
 " Each of us could give the other something that he 
 lacked and get something in return," was Schiller's 
 report to Korner ; and Goethe told Meyer that he had 
 not for a long time had such an intellectual treat. The 
 hopes held out of a speedy repetition of the visit were 
 neutralised by a journey which Goethe had to take in 
 company with the duke to Dessau, Leipzig, and Dres- 
 den. Schiller's health was so bad that for the first 
 three weeks in August he could not leave the house. 
 As the pubhsher of the " Gottingen Musenalmanach " 
 had already fixed on another editor, it gave Schiller the
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 363 
 
 more pleasure, when a young bookseller, Michaelis of 
 Neu-Strelitz, who was at Jena looking about for good 
 copyrights, undertook a new " Museualmanach," to come 
 out yearly under his, Schiller's direction, commencing 
 with the autumn of 1795. According to their agree- 
 ment of August 15th, Schiller was to get three hun- 
 dred thalers; the price of all the poems was not to 
 exceed 150 thalers. The continuance of his spasms 
 compelled him to decline a meeting with Korner at 
 Leipzig ; he could only venture as far as Weiszenfels. 
 He first wound up the Thalia (the last two numbers 
 had nothing of his but " Stray Thoughts on Sundry 
 Subjects in Esthetics"), and finished his review of 
 " Matthisson's Poems." Here, starting from the nature 
 of painting and poetry, he assigned to the landscape- 
 painter and landscape-poet their exact position, and 
 showed how happily Matthisson satisfied the three 
 requirements in the depicting of landscape. At the 
 same time he did justice to his attempts in other prov- 
 inces of poetic art. This encomium, overflowing with 
 the kindliest appreciation, stood in sharp contrast with 
 his severe critique of Burger, though Schiller took care 
 to mention that Matthisson has as yet but proved his 
 pinions within a modest circle. The author was now 
 formally invited to join the staff of the Horen. Before 
 setting out, Schiller wrote a letter to Goethe, dictated 
 by heartfelt reverence and the need there was of their 
 intimate union and joint action. 
 
 The day and a half at Weiszenfels showed the 
 friends anew how well they understood one another, 
 and how necessary each was to the other. Schiller, 
 on his return, found a most cordial letter from Goethe, 
 who wished to be enlightened on the stages of thought 
 that Schiller had passed through during those last few 
 years : so httle had he kept pace with his aesthetic 
 labours. And he sent his new confederate an early 
 essay of his own, in which he had applied his defini-
 
 364 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 tion of Beauty as " Perfection with Freedom " to organic 
 nature. Schiller transmitted to him his MS. researches 
 on Beauty in which he had fixed upon Freedom and 
 law in Art as conditions of the Beautiful; but his 
 ideas had since acquired a better foundation and greater 
 distinctness which could hardly fail to bring them ever 
 so much nearer to Goethe's. Persuaded that on all 
 essential points they were at one, Goethe begged him 
 during the fortnight that the court was away, to come 
 and stay at his house : he should follow his own mode 
 of life entirely and make himself at home. This invi- 
 tation, as kind as it was unexpected, Schiller gladly 
 accepted. His wife was away at Eudolstadt. Caro- 
 Hne's divorce had at last been effected, and her union 
 with Wolzogen was to follow ; at this Schiller was very 
 much put out, for he did not believe their characters 
 were suited to each other. He was then thinking 
 over his development of the Naive ; he also wanted to 
 go on with the plot of " Wallenstein." But over this 
 he fell into dreadful anxiety and fear; he even began 
 to doubt his vocation as a poet ; this, however, proved 
 but a passing mood. That very essay on the Naive, 
 written with full relish and from the heart, he came to 
 regard as a bridge to poetic composition. In rewriting 
 his Letter to the Hereditary Prince, he tried to give it 
 the utmost perfection, and thought he succeeded. 
 Goethe, through Frau von Stein, caused a writing-desk 
 to be conveyed to Schiller, who was to place it in the 
 apartment of his absent wife. " A kind friend to both 
 of you entrusted me with the commission " was what 
 the lady wrote, in sending it on. Goethe took this 
 graceful way of showing how much he desired a union 
 of real friendship with Schiller. 
 
 From September 14th to the 27th the newly alhed 
 poets luxuriated in the freest interchange of thoughts. 
 Even in body Schiller felt a great deal better. Whereas 
 at home he could not rest at night for the spasms, here
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 365 
 
 he slept well, which he ascribed to his total abstinence 
 from coffee, tea, and fruit, and to good suppers, at 
 which he drank wine instead of beer ; even vegetables 
 he ate for dinner and supper, and felt none the worse. 
 He was not indeed free from spasms in the daytime, 
 and therefore could pay no visits ; he only walked out 
 in the park with Goethe. Once he missed seeing 
 Frau von Stein, being hardly able to get back to 
 Goethe's house for the pain. He spent the greater 
 part of each day in the society of his one friend, once 
 from half-past eleven in the morning until eleven at 
 night. All that either of them contemplated doing 
 was discussed in detail without any reserve. Goethe 
 put him into such good humour with his " Knights of 
 Malta" again, that he thought it possible to bring it 
 on the stage by the next birthday of the duchess. 
 *' He read me his ' Elegies,' which are somewhat wanton 
 and not overdecent, and yet are among the finest 
 things he ever did," writes Schiller to his wife. " He 
 has asked me to correct his ' Egmont ' for the Weimar 
 theatre, because he dare not do it himself ; and so I 
 shall. He advised me, too, to put some touches to 
 my ' Fiesco ' and ' Plot and Passion,' so that they 
 may keep lasting hold of the stage." Humboldt, who 
 had gone with him to Goethe's, now paid them a visit. 
 Herder had invited Schiller, but, as illness kept him 
 back, came himself to see him. It was at Weimar, 
 too, that he received a reminder from Cotta to have 
 everything in readiness for the punctual appearance 
 of the announcement and the first number of the Horen, 
 for Schiller had once more been seriously urging on 
 him the great cost of the venture, which would prob- 
 ably repay his expenses only after a sale of thirteen 
 hundred copies. So little was Cotta alarmed at this, 
 that he was in treaty with Professor Posselt to take up 
 the political paper also. His proposal to Schiller to take 
 at least some part in it was now decidedly rejected.
 
 366 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 During tliis time Schiller had been producing noth- 
 ing, but he had been gathering courage and zest for a 
 stirring life, being assured of Goethe's hearty and har- 
 monious cooperation, not only in the Horen — about 
 which he was more enthusiastic, almost, than Schiller 
 himself — but in every work and effort. His boldest 
 dreams were realised ; the poet whose greatness had 
 once reduced him to envying despair stood by his side 
 as truest ally in the contest for ideal perfection in Art. 
 On returning home, having apparently talked it over 
 with Goethe, he tried to induce Schiitz to insert 
 promptly in his Literatur Zeitung, by some of his own 
 staff, fuU notices of every article in the Horen. Goethe 
 knew but too well how malice, once raising its voice 
 in so important a periodical, could damage the best 
 enterprise, and how easily literary men might be in- 
 duced to pass scandalously unfair judgments ; he was 
 therefore anxious at once to stop this sorry business at 
 the source. As Schiller could not go out for the bad 
 weather, Schiitz himself called upon him, and they 
 came to an understanding which, it is true, was after- 
 ward modified. A correspondence of the highest in- 
 terest united the new friends. Goethe sent what 
 matter he had by him and promised more. Schiller 
 kept on at his letters " On the Esthetic Education of 
 Man," with which the Horen was to open ; what 
 Goethe saw of them he thought exquisite. Unhappily, 
 Schiller was prevented from coming over to see the 
 performance of his "Don Carlos," on the 16th, under 
 Goethe's most careful superintendence. 
 
 On November 2d Goethe hastened to Jena for a few 
 days with his art-loving friend Meyer : many arrange- 
 ments were made about the Horen, Goethe promising 
 his " Entertainments," Meyer his " Notes on Ancient 
 Art." A month later Schiller drew up his official 
 prospectus of the Horen. It stated that the new 
 journal, while forbidding all reference to the present
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 367 
 
 course of events or the immediate expectations of 
 mankind, would question History on the past of the 
 world and Philosophy on the future ; it would labour 
 with all its might at the silent building up of better 
 beUefs, purer principles, nobler manners, on which any 
 true amehoration of our social state must ultimately 
 hang. In sport as well as earnest, it would pursue 
 one single aim, that of making Beauty mediatress of 
 Truth, and through Truth securing to Beauty an en- 
 during basis and a higher dignity. It would, so far as 
 no dearer interest suffered by it, aim at variety and 
 novelty, but would set its face against the frivolous 
 taste that sought the new for novelty's sake alone ; at 
 the same time it would claim every hberty compatible 
 with good and fine morals. The editor felt a patriotic 
 joy that he should have succeeded at length in uniting 
 several of the worthiest writers of Germany in the 
 performance of one continuous task ; a thing which 
 the nation, notwithstanding all attempts hitherto made 
 by individuals, had always lacked, and could not but 
 lack because such a number and such a choice of con- 
 tributors was the one thing needed to combine, in 
 a work coming out at stated times, excellence in parts 
 with variety in the whole. The number of the con- 
 tributors named was twenty-five ; among them were 
 Gleim, Pfeffel, and Biirger's friend, A. W. Schlegel, 
 then Hofmeister at Amsterdam. 
 
 Alas ! directly on the back of this high-flown pro- 
 spectus came trouble. Schiller himself was not quite 
 satisfied with the opening piece, excellent in its kind, 
 of Goethe's " Entertainments." And his own " Letters," 
 he was forced to acknowledge, were " not altogether 
 easy to understand," though he thought much of their 
 scientific value, as, in them, his system approached 
 a ripeness and inner consistency that would make it 
 enduring ; and a simplicity reigned through the whole, 
 of which he himself found evidence in the increased
 
 368 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 facility of execution. In spite of his perpetual spasms, 
 he had seldom felt so well in heart and mind. Then, 
 in his home, his lot was of the happiest. His Karl 
 was, to his joy, both hearty and healthy, racing merrily 
 round the room. He was delighted with the httle 
 fellow's first attempts at speech. " As soon as I am 
 up, I receive a visit from him. He dines at the same 
 table with us, and we have a good time together of 
 an evening. I cannot express how much the child 
 is to me." 
 
 His " Esthetic Letters," as they went on, seemed to 
 him the best thing he had done or ever could produce. 
 But when he read the first volume of Goethe's " Wil- 
 helm Meister," his old passion for poetry revived. The 
 poet, he said, was after all the one real man ; even the 
 best philosopher was but a caricature to him. It was 
 only when Goethe and Meyer, on January 11, 1795, 
 came to Jena, and seemed vehemently carried away 
 by his reading of the " Letters," that he felt comforted 
 and encouraged to go on. In January, to his great 
 delight, about a thousand orders for the Horen had 
 come in. He now meant to give himself up to it 
 entirely, only devoting some six weeks to writing two 
 or three poems for the " Almanach." The Litcratur 
 Zeihmg promptly enough brought out a review of the 
 first article by Schutz himself, which Schiller thought 
 passable, but wofully wanting in insight ; he even 
 fancied Schutz had a spite against him. 
 
 In February he zealously devoted himself to review- 
 ing the still unprinted third and fourth volumes of 
 Goethe's " Willielm Meister." Repeated attacks of his 
 malady forbade his accepting the author's invitation 
 to Weimar. As the need of variety called for some- 
 thing in the way of narrative in the Horen, and no 
 interesting article had been sent in from any other 
 quarter, he left the " /Esthetic Letters," at which he 
 was working with such relish, to do a description of
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 369 
 
 the siege of Antwerp, which would come easy to him. 
 In the meantime, friend Abel of Tiibingen had been 
 commissioned to sound him as to whether he would 
 accept the professorship of higher philology and es- 
 thetics there. Upon his refusal, Abel, on March 3d, 
 held out the prospect of a chair of history and 
 sesthetics : he should be at hberty to lecture in his 
 own house, and be exempt from all public business. 
 Of this renewed offer Schiller availed himself to obtain 
 from his own duke a promise to double his salary in 
 case he became unfit for hterary work. Then, on 
 April 3d, he for the second time declined the flatter- 
 ing offer, with the remark that he would have given 
 them too little in return for the thousand gulden, 
 under which he could not hve at Tubingen. And how 
 could he now have parted with Goethe and Hum- 
 boldt ! 
 
 Goethe had now returned to Jena, where for five 
 weeks he hved in the closest intimacy with Schiller, 
 coming to see him every evening. On April 13th 
 Schiller moved into more spacious lodgings in Gries- 
 bach's large house on the Stadtgraben ; but there he 
 immediately took violent cold. During this time, 
 when Lotte too was ailing, Goethe's presence was as 
 an elixir to him. Humboldt's had been almost the 
 only society he greatly cared for ; as to their well- 
 meaning but overofficious landlady, Lotte always kept 
 her at arm's length ; and Griesbach himself lived in 
 another mental sphere. The continuation of " Wilhelm 
 Meister," the " Prometheus Unbound," which Goethe 
 had just begun in the old Greek style, the contribu- 
 tions to the Horen and the " Almanach " that should 
 come out in the autumn, furnished fruitful topics of 
 the most quickening conversation. 
 
 Gotta brought the best of news from Leipzig fair ; the 
 circulation of the Horen was not far short of eighteen 
 hundred, and he testified his acknowledgments to
 
 370 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 Schiller by a gift of thirty-one Carolines. He asked 
 indeed for more variety in the articles, and did not 
 conceal how people grumbled at the abstruseness of 
 the subjects ; but Goethe thought they should just give 
 what they could, and snap their fingers at the public. 
 Schiller now ventured to insert even Goethe's Roman 
 " Elegies " (leaving out two), though he could not but 
 foresee that they would give a great deal of offence. 
 His own aesthetic feeling feasted on these finished pro- 
 ductions, which present, said he, the whole Man, in 
 whom sensuous enjoyment is but a necessary comple- 
 ment of his being, not a low craving of sensuality. 
 The same number contained, in continuation of the 
 " Esthetic Letters," a treatise on " Beauty That Melts ; " 
 its counterpart, on " Beauty That Braces," was reserved 
 for a separate and choicely printed edition of this, his 
 master-work. Unfortunately, during the bad weather 
 in the second week of May, he suffered severely, and 
 the preparation of the " Letters " distressed him. Then, 
 too, Lotte was taken ill with measles, by which he 
 saw himself cut off from Humboldt and his house. 
 The more delightful was a visit of eleven days from 
 Goethe ; but at the end of it he was seized with a 
 fever which prostrated him for some considerable 
 time. 
 
 With his dehcate and graceful, nay dramatic re- 
 writing of the " Letters," Sehdler had for the present 
 done his share of work in the Horcn. With convinc- 
 ing clearness he unfolded the thought which had 
 dawned on him so brightly : that Beauty is the highest 
 and last satisfaction of what he called the Play-im- 
 pulse, and that the ^Esthetic temper of mind consists 
 in freedom of determination ; that Beauty helps out 
 the imperfection of human nature, calms, soothes, and 
 melts us when highly strung, raising and animating 
 us when unstrung ; that ^Esthetic culture brings Moral 
 with it, and that he alone needs the Moral who is
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 371 
 
 incapable of the Esthetic. Though, in doing this, he 
 had broken alike with the Empirical and with the 
 Rational school, Kant had declared himself quite satis- 
 fied with the first part of the " Letters ; " and Schiller 
 himself felt that he had made a great advance ; he 
 even thought his view was strictly demonstrated. He 
 found it hard, now, to turn from philosophic to poetic 
 composition, of a kind needed by the " Almanach ; " and 
 his ill-health aggravated the difficulty. He tried his 
 hand on a rhymed epistle ; then he threw it aside as 
 not up to the mark. To supply the needs of the 
 Horen, he had had recourse to Fichte, who was stay- 
 ing that summer at Osmannstadt, hard by. Personally 
 he was no admirer of the great " I of Osmannstadt," 
 with whom, he said, " the richest fountain of absurdi- 
 ties had been drained dry." He had always missed 
 in him the due degree of worldly wdsdom. At his 
 pressing request, Fichte sent the first part of his three 
 Letters " On the Spu'it and the Letter in Philosophy." 
 Schiller, thinking he saw in it an attack upon his own 
 " ^Esthetic Letters," felt bitterly provoked, and, after a 
 hurried reading, sent it back with the rudest com- 
 ments, as unfit for his monthly journal. He objected 
 to the dry, heavyj often confused style of exposition, 
 declared he was neither satisfied with the matter nor 
 with the dress, and even tried to show that, being 
 worked on an eccentric plan, it wanted clearness and 
 point. Fichte, whom such schoolboy treatment could 
 not but offend, calmly but decidedly repelled the 
 charges of shallowness and unintelligibility. Of Schil- 
 ler's own philosophical works, he maintained that they 
 wearied the reader, because he would compel the 
 imagination, which ought to be free, to tliiiik ; men 
 admired them, stared at them, but did not understand 
 them. Between the dates of their two letters, came 
 Goethe's brief sojourn at Jena, on his way to Karlsbad. 
 Humboldt had been called away to Berhn at the begin-
 
 372 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 niiig of July, to see his sick mother ; and by the 
 absence of these two, Schiller found himself isolated 
 for a good while. He writes to Kcirner : " I am h\dng 
 quite cavcdierement, for I am making poems for my 
 ' Musenalmanach ;' and I seem stupid enough over 
 it." And the worst was, his spasms came on with 
 such violence that he could hardly set pen to paper. 
 As late as the 20 th, he had not finished the third 
 poem for the " Almanach ; " yet, in spite of suffering, he 
 was soon to feel strong stimulus for poetry, for at the 
 very times when his body was racked, his mind was 
 most active, whereas, when in a comfortable state of 
 health, he took things easily. On August 3d he was 
 able to inform Korner that, in spite of physical suffer- 
 ing, something had been achieved that gave him confi- 
 dence. " 'Tis true, my time for this work being cut 
 too close, I have not ventured out on the high seas, 
 but have been skirting the coasts of philosophy ; yet 
 I have thereby achieved the transition at least to freer 
 invention. To all appearance I am likely to remain 
 the rest of the year, perhaps the whole winter, in 
 the poetic field." In addition to several SpriicJie or 
 Apophthegms, he had finished his " Might of Song," his 
 humourous " Pegasus in Harness," and the " Dance " 
 so distinguished by imitative rhythm. 
 
 At the same time he was trying to vindicate his 
 " Esthetic Letters " from Fichte's depreciation, were it 
 only to his own mind ; as a letter for which I have 
 lying before me some remarkable notes (of August 3d 
 or 4th) seems never to have been sent. In these he 
 remarks, that while it cannot be indifferent to an 
 author whether a large public buys him or a small, 
 he ought not to enlist readers by cringing to the spirit 
 of the age, but ought by bold assertion of his own 
 views to startle them, put them on the stretch, give 
 them a shaking. To Fichte's appeal to what the public 
 verdict on them both would be in ten years' time, he
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 373 
 
 answers : " That in a hundred or two hundred years' 
 time, when new revolutions have passed over philosophic 
 thought, your writings may be quoted and appraised 
 at their worth, but will no longer be read hes just as 
 much in the nature of the case as it does that mine 
 will then be read, not more, it may be, but also not 
 less, than now. And what may the reason be ? This : 
 that writings whose only value lies in the results they 
 yield to the understanding, were these never so pre- 
 cious, will with time grow valueless, in proportion as 
 the understanding grows indifferent to those results, or 
 finds shorter roads to them ; on the contrary, writings 
 that, apart from their logical import, produce an 
 (artistic) effect, that bear the Hving impress of an 
 individual, these can never lose their value, but have 
 in them an indestructible principle of life, because an 
 individual is unique, unreplaceable, and not to be ex- 
 hausted." Of his own style of statement he says : 
 " My constant endeavour is, in conjunction with the 
 act of research, to employ the whole of the mental 
 powers and as far as may be, to work upon them 
 all alike. I want, therefore, not only to make my 
 thoughts intelligible to another, but to impart to him 
 my whole soul and work upon his sensuous no less 
 than his spiritual powers." 
 
 His lyric muse now took a higher fhght, first of all 
 in his " Kealm of Shadows," afterward, in a consider- 
 ably altered shape, entitled " The Ideal and Life." In 
 this he beheved he had reached the utmost hmit 
 of thought-poetry. He joyfully recognised how im- 
 mensely precision of thought aids the action of the 
 imagination. The same August was to yield him 
 quite a rich crop of other poems besides, some of 
 them important ; for instance, the infinitely touching 
 " Ideals." But the passionate pursuit of poetry af- 
 fected his health. On the 29th he writes to Goethe : 
 " My health does not get on much better yet. I fear
 
 374 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 I have to do penance for the violent commotions into 
 which my poetising threw me. Half the man is 
 enough for philosophising, and the other half can be 
 resting ; but your muses suck one dry." Directly 
 after this he was gladdened by the second remittance 
 of his Copenhagen pension, which had stood over from 
 the previous year ; he received four hundred thalers 
 vid Hamburg. 
 
 As the " Almanach " was to be printed at Berlin, 
 Schiller had sent his MS. there, to Humboldt ; but 
 to his vexation the publisher could not be heard of. 
 In his first zeal he wished to have it printed, all the 
 same ; then he thought of withdrawing it and of using 
 the poems for the Horen, when in the nick of time the 
 publisher made his appearance. Though Schiller liad 
 already assigned a portion of the poems to his monthly, 
 there was yet a considerable number left for the 
 " Almanach." Goethe, in addition to his batch of Ve- 
 netian Epigrams, had contributed some stray pieces ; 
 Herder, a good many under various signatures, and 
 other poets, other things ; so that the new " Almanach " 
 stood very notably conspicuous among its three rivals, 
 the Gcittingen, the Berlin, and Voss's. 
 
 But now Schiller had to devote all his energy to 
 the Horen again, especially to the last numbers in the 
 year, in order, by attractive matter, to retain wavering 
 subscribers, if possible to catch new ones, or at all 
 events, in the worst case, to finish with credit. The 
 jaded taste of the reading world, ever craving light 
 and amusing matter, made the Horen such a burden 
 to him that he often lost heart altogether ; and then 
 Humboldt and Goethe would cheer him up by appeal- 
 ing to its intrinsic worth and his approving conscience. 
 Nevertheless he determined now to adopt as intelhgible 
 a style as possible, and he tried to induce the best of 
 his fellow workers to do the same. In that spirit he 
 wrote for No. 9 the essay " On the Necessary Limits
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 375 
 
 of the Beautiful," especially iu propounding philosophic 
 truth, prompted apparently by his quarrel with Fichte. 
 " But if," he writes to Cotta, " but if, notwithstanding 
 all these efforts, the public voice be against us, then 
 the enterprise must be given up. It is impossible for 
 me to keep fencing long with stupidity and bad taste ; 
 the pleasure and the confidence I feel in my work 
 is the very soul of it." His correspondent would not 
 hear a word of giving up, even if the next year showed, 
 what there was no great reason to fear, a marked fall- 
 ing off in the sale. No, Schiller must on no account 
 lose his hking for the monthly. And for money he 
 was to draw on Cotta whenever he pleased. In the 
 beginning of September Schiller wrote an important 
 essay on the " Nai've," a subject he had already 
 handled two years before when in Suabia ; and a 
 work written at that earlier date on the Dangers of 
 -Esthetic Manners was now printed with hardly any 
 alteration. His exposition of the Na'ive he wrote with 
 more freedom and ease than the Esthetic Letters. 
 But while so engaged, he was seized anew with the 
 spirit of poetry, and wrote the elegy, afterward known 
 as " The Walk," which of all his poems he considered 
 the most poetical, and likewise a distinct advance 
 in poetic power. He then thought of attempting a 
 romantic tale, so as to complete the whole round of 
 poetic modes and forms, since the public seemed struck 
 with the vast variety of his compositions, as one of 
 the distinctive attributes of his genius. He took his 
 materials from a love-affair of Chancellor Schlick with 
 a fair Sienese, in the Italian campaign of Sigismund, 
 though he was obliged to give the story a different 
 turn. But a restless longing drove him to his 
 " Knights of Malta " again : he thought that in the 
 four months, beginning with December, during which 
 he hoped to be free from the Horen, he might get far 
 on with it, if he did not finish it. "At times I feel
 
 376 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 rather sanguine about it," he writes to Humboldt, " and 
 with such a subject, too, I ought least of all to fail. 
 As the parts are linked together by choruses, it fits all 
 the better with my present lyric mood. The action is 
 simple and heroic, the characters to match, and those 
 all male ; it is, moreover, the embodiment of a sublime 
 idea, such as I love." Let Humboldt thoroughly sift 
 the question once more whether he ought to decide for 
 epic or dramatic poetry. Not long before he had com- 
 missioned Ktirner to say to what department of poetry 
 he should now attach himself. While Humboldt's, 
 Kcirner's, Goethe's, and Herder's verdicts on his recent 
 poems roused and elevated him, he was wishing all the 
 while to hear his friends echo his own feeling that 
 the true field for him was tragedy. 
 
 Kept a prisoner all through the summer, he felt 
 fresh life in the soft autumn days of mid -October, 
 and he drove out for the first time on the 10 th. Be- 
 fore he could turn to his " Knights," there were six 
 weeks to be given up to the Horen. Just then the 
 journal suffered several sharp attacks ; and on the 
 30th, while his resentment was fresh, he wrote to 
 Cotta that in the next number he would give a gen- 
 eral reply to all the wretched criticisms. But the very 
 next day he thought, in opposition to Goethe, that 
 there was still room for question whether they ought 
 to take any notice of these platitudes : he would rather 
 make a conspicuous display of his indifference to them. 
 A visit from Goethe, who stayed from November 5th 
 to the 11th, was most refreshing to him; it was the 
 first time he had kept his birthday with him. " We 
 sit together talking from five in the evening till twelve, 
 and even one," he tells Humboldt. Goethe was then 
 making a particular study of architecture in prepara- 
 tion for his journey to Italy, intending the next year 
 to follow Meyer, who had recently started for the 
 south. This was very painful to Schiller, but the stay
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 377 
 
 should not last longer than a year. Goethe's solid 
 method of taking the law from the concrete object, 
 and from the nature of the case deducing the rules, 
 made it easy for Schiller to grasp his view of building 
 as a fine art. His theory of colours, too, his views of 
 natural science, were on the same lines. His conver- 
 sation on Greek literature and art had such stirring 
 effect upon Schiller that he seriously determined to 
 study Greek. Yet to this it never came. He threw 
 himself, heart and soul, into what was a sequel to his 
 essay on the Naive, viz. his treatise on the Poets of 
 Eefiection ; for, according to the two modes of feeling. 
 Naive and Eeflective, he divided the whole field of poesy 
 into these two provinces. The Na'ive poet can only 
 stand in one single relation to his subject; not so the 
 Eeflective. Accordingly, Schiller made out that there 
 were three distinct modes of composition, the satiric, 
 elegiac, and idyllic, by which he did not at all mean 
 to set aside the ordinary classification according to 
 form of composition. Schiller makes the Na'ive a main 
 characteristic of the classic and antique, the Eeflective 
 of the romantic and modern, though the notions by no 
 means exactly coincide. Thus Shakespeare is na'ive. 
 He even ventures to form an estimate in this respect of 
 the most eminent poets of modern Germany. What is 
 attainable outside the limits of hving form, outside the 
 domain of individuahty, on the field of ideality, has 
 been achieved by Klopstock. In Goethe, nature works 
 more faithfully, more unmixed, than in any other poet ; 
 of moderns perhaps he is the least removed from the 
 sensuous reality of things. Even his " Elegies," as 
 works of art, are pronounced naive, uniting intellect 
 and heart ; whilst in the voluptuous descriptions of 
 the " immortal author " of " Agathon," " Oberon," etc., 
 the Naive is felt to be absent. Goethe on November 
 29th, in sending back the essay, said laughingly that 
 of course he must approve the principles of a theory
 
 378 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 that treated him so kindly ; he thought that the corol- 
 laries were quite correct. From too great a partiality 
 to ancient poetry, he had often been unjust to the mod- 
 ern ; now, after Scliiller's doctrine, he could be friends 
 with himself again. On the same day Schiller finished 
 the latter part of the essay, the treatment of the Idyll. 
 An appendix, on " Platitude and Overstraining," the 
 two rocks ahead of the Na'ive and the Reflective, he 
 was reserving for the first article in the New Year's 
 Horen, where he meant to "get up a little hare-hunt 
 through our literature and particularly give certain 
 good friends like Nicolai and company a treat." The 
 essay itself had said in a note : " Moliere's Maid chat- 
 ters on, up and down our critical ' Bibliotheks,' philo- 
 sophical and literary Annals and books of travel, about 
 poetry, art, and the like, only, as is fair, rather more 
 absurdly on German soil than on French, just the stuff 
 suitable to that servants' hall of German literature." 
 Humboldt was right in wishing this note left out. The 
 Idyll, which Schiller defined as the ideal of beauty 
 applied to real life, he now regarded as the highest, 
 and also the hardest problem for the Reflective poet, 
 who has here to produce the greatest poetical effect 
 without having recourse to pathos. He seriously pur- 
 posed composing such a one : the subject was to be 
 the marriage of Hercules to Hebe. He writes to Hum- 
 boldt : " There could not be better stuff for the poet 
 than this ; a poet dare not leave human nature, and 
 the stride from man to God is the very thing the idyU 
 would treat of. True, the leading personages would be 
 gods already, but through Hercules I can hnk them to 
 humanity still and bring a movement into the picture. 
 Were I to accomplish this task, I might hope thereby 
 to have gained for Reflective poetry a triumph over 
 Naive itself." 
 
 From this rather singular poetic speculation, which 
 he dared not reveal to Goethe, he was debarred by
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 379 
 
 having to prepare the January number of the Horen, 
 and by the bad weather, which, by bringing on bodily 
 suffering, robbed him of all rest at night. The Appen- 
 dix to his essay grew bulkier under his liands than he 
 had intended, but in the thick of the contemplated 
 " hare-hunt," he soon was longing to get back to 
 poetry. On December 17th he writes to Goethe: " It 
 is long since I felt so prosaic as I have the last few 
 days, and it is high time I shut up the philosophic 
 shop : the heart pines for a tangible object." Four 
 days after he confided to Korner : " You can't imagine 
 what unceasing tension of mind I have to endure : 
 partly to keep myself competent for the projects I 
 have once for all undertaken, partly to satisfy the 
 monthly needs of the Horen, in which my fellows 
 have left me shamefully in the lurch. It is an unex- 
 pected gift of Heaven that physically I am equal to 
 the strain, and, on the whole, despite the continuance 
 and frequent aggravation of my old complaints, I have 
 lost none of my cheerfulness of spirit, or strength of 
 resolution, though all the outward incentives fail that 
 might keep me in heart." 
 
 In the middle of September Goethe had started the 
 notion that by the end of the year they should spread 
 hope and fear amid the ranks of authors and reviewers ; 
 and when several more attacks followed on the Horen, 
 he opened the question whether they should not pass 
 judgment on them all together, for, said he, this kind 
 of stuff burns better when tied up in fagots. Then, 
 a little before the year ended, he imparted to Schiller 
 the happy thought of making epigrams on all the jour- 
 nals, each to consist of a couplet in the manner of 
 Martial's " Xenia " (benefits) ; and a selection of the best 
 should be inserted in the " Almanach." It was not 
 until three days after, when he sent a dozen couplets 
 by way of specimen, that Scliiller took up the idea 
 heartily ; and then in his ardour he at once extended
 
 380 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 the plan, so that they should come down upon single 
 works as well, nay, if they did not spare their own 
 feelings, they could attack things sacred and profane. 
 This made him the more glad at the prospect of a visit 
 from Goethe. " Now we'll have a thoroughly good 
 talk over everything," says he, writing in the best of 
 moods, " and once more the word will be. Never a day 
 without its epic/ram." For the moment the completion 
 of his article for the Horen was pressing him ; and 
 here he gave full play to his indignant humour. " The 
 ineffable platitudes which the Germans get sung to 
 them under the name of naive and facetious ditties, 
 and over which they will make no end of mirth at a 
 well-spread table ; " the " mournful choir of the Muses 
 on the Pleisse, to which the Camoense on the Seine and 
 the Elbe make answer in no better chords ; " the fury 
 of those " good folks who fancy that, in kicking against 
 the pricks of his severe verdict on Burger's poems, and 
 who was a poetic genius, they are fighting their own 
 battle ; " his rebuke of the " spiritless, ignoble utter- 
 ance" of passion on our tragic stage, where Kotzebue, 
 after a silence of three years, was showing himself very 
 busy again ; and lastly, the " paltriness of our humour- 
 ous novels," with a sneering hit at Nicolai's " Stout 
 Man's Story," all this must bitterly provoke his adver- 
 saries. But what cared Schiller for that, on his ideal 
 height ? 
 
 From January 3d to 14th, 1796, he enjoyed once 
 the presence of his equal ally. Goethe came in mostly 
 of an evening, when he showed himself most kind and 
 cheerful. There was some drawing done with Lotte, 
 and many moments given up to the little Karl. 
 " Goethe is quite taken with him," writes Schiller, 
 " and to me, existing only in the narrowest life-circle, 
 the child is gi-own such a necessity, that many a time 
 I tremble at having permitted Fortune to get such a 
 purchase over me." Goethe promised many things for
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 381 
 
 the Rorcn, as Schiller wanted for the present to be 
 left wholly to the workings of his fancy. New " Xenien " 
 would of themselves take shape as they talked, often a 
 joint product, one contributing the thought, another 
 the language. 
 
 Scliiller purposely did no other work, that he might 
 have the needful relaxation after all his exertion. He 
 only attended to the sending out of copies of the Horen 
 and the " Almanach," which after vexatious delay had 
 come at last. They wished to bring up the numbers 
 of the " Xenien " to six hundred, if not a round one thou- 
 sand. Schiller was thinking of attractive settings to 
 connect whole batches of them into little wholes, and 
 he set himself to make parodies of passages in Homer, 
 such as the slaughter of the suitors and the visit to 
 Hades, and even a comedy in epigrams. 
 
 Meanwhile he got the first instalment of his Copen- 
 hagen pension for the third year in the shape of 667 
 thalers. Then a eulogistic review of Nos. 2 to 10 of 
 the Horen, in which W. Schlegel had undertaken the 
 poetical part, appeared at last in the Literatur Zeitung ; 
 but countermands of the journal now kept coming in 
 so thick, that Cotta feared the loss would amount to a 
 good third : there remained a bare one thousand, with 
 which they could just hold out. 
 
 About February 10th Schiller had such an attack of 
 spasms that he felt quite unable to continue working. 
 For the Horen he could only throw off or rewrite a 
 short essay " On the Moral Advantage of Esthetic 
 Manners." On the 16th Goethe managed to tear him- 
 self away from the distractions of Weimar. The lone- 
 lier he felt in that capital, where he had fallen out 
 with the court on the score of its sheltering French 
 emigres, and where Herder had retired in a tiff, the 
 closer did he cling to his suffering friend. He wrote 
 to Meyer : " I only wish we may stay long on this 
 earthly ball together; and I hope Schiller, too, not-
 
 382 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 withstanding his apparent sickliness, will hold out with 
 us." They usually spent the evenings together. There 
 was much deliberating on " Wilhelm Meister," much 
 zealous epigram writing. They talked, too, of all the 
 false tendencies that had arisen, especially among 
 German artists at Rome, and of the means of counter- 
 acting them. As Goethe promised large contributions 
 to the Horen and other fellow labourers were by no 
 means slack, Schiller thought to give up all his time 
 to the romantic poem in stanzas which he designed for 
 the " Almanach ; " but he believed it would be some 
 weeks before he could proceed to the plot, which 
 required deep thought ; not before August did he hope 
 to finish it, for he had done nothing in this kind before, 
 and he laid specially stern demands upon himself. 
 As things turned out, prolonged ill health and count- 
 less distraction kept him from ever making a beginning. 
 On March 8th he still feared that nothing would be 
 settled before Korner's visit, who at the end of April 
 was to come with his family to Jena, staying there 
 with Schiller for a couple of weeks. 
 
 Melancholy news now reached him from his home. 
 His father had never kept the promise to ride down to 
 Thuriugia the year before, although Fritz had procured 
 him a good price for his book. None of the fears en- 
 tertained about his position had come true, any more 
 than the dreams that he was to be commandant of 
 Tubingen ; on the contrary, the Treasury had, in recog- 
 nition of his services, assigned him four acres of land, 
 to be laid out in new nursery grounds. To this task 
 the old man, ambitious as he was assiduous, gave himself 
 up with such ardour, that he worked from four in the 
 morning until late at night, neglecting his family almost 
 entirely. But in the beginning of February he fell ill, 
 and violent pains forced him to keep his bed. When 
 Schiller heard the sad tidings he wrote at once, express- 
 ing his deep sympathy ; he also sent a cheque to defray
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 383 
 
 expenses. There came an answer to this on March 
 7th in his father's own hand, but evidently written 
 under great suffering. On the 14th he was shocked 
 by the news of the dangerous illness of his youngest 
 and favourite sister, Nanette, she whom he intended to 
 have with him at Jena, to improve her education. 
 
 By this time he had given up the romantic poem and 
 with it even the " Almanach " for that year ; instead of 
 which the " Xenien " were to come out in the type 
 of the edition de luxe of Wieland's works, embellished 
 by several engravings after Eoman paintings. But the 
 execution of this plan, though taken up resolutely by 
 Cotta, was hiudered by outward obstacles. 
 
 When Goethe was leaving on the 16th, Schiller 
 promised to visit him at Weimar on the occasion of 
 Iffland's " star " performances, which were to begin on 
 Good Friday, the 25th, and last a few weeks. Though 
 there seemed little hope of his being able to attend the 
 theatre, the presence of Schiller would heighten the 
 attractiveness of the parties that Goethe was going to 
 give at his own house during Iffland's stay. Some 
 fine days which followed tempted Schiller out into the 
 open air; by the 21st he had already enjoyed two 
 drives. 
 
 The spring had also ripened a great purpose in his 
 soul; he had decided for dramatic poetry, and that, 
 not commencing with the easier task of " The Knights," 
 but with the colossal one of " Wallenstein," his first 
 drama should be an altogether new and dazzling phe- 
 nomenon. His old notes soon made him at home again 
 in the materials. He writes to Kbrner : " I advance to 
 this new mode of life with much pleasure and tolerable 
 courage. Of my former manner and art there is little 
 that can avail me here, but I trust T am far enough on 
 with the new to make the venture. This much I know, 
 that I am in a fair way, and if I do not achieve any- 
 thing hke what I demand of myself, I shall neverthe-
 
 384 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 less do more than I have ever yet done in this hne." 
 If hitherto he had laid the stress mainly on the 
 Plurality of the detail, he would now weigh everything 
 by its effect on the Unity of the whole. His ideas 
 about realism and idealism would guide him here. " It 
 is astonishing how much of the realistic mere advanc- 
 ing years bring with them, and how much persistent 
 converse with Goethe and study of the ancients have by 
 degi-ees developed in me." True, he would thereby 
 get into Goethe's province, and lose by comparison 
 with him ; yet something would be left that was his 
 own, something that Goethe never could attain. And 
 so he flatters himself in sanguine moments that pos- 
 terity will not subordinate their styles the one to the 
 other, but class them under a higher, ideal generic-term. 
 In sore anxiety about Nanette, Schiller on the 23d 
 went with his famOy to Weimar, where Lotte and Karl 
 were to stay at Frau von Stein's house. On this oc- 
 casion Goethe's August, seven years old, found his way 
 into the house of his father's indignant friend, and soon 
 got intimate with little Karl, nearly four years his 
 junior. Schiller felt so well at Weimar that he was 
 able to go to the play ; Goethe arranged so that he 
 could drive there and back, and fitted up a box for 
 him, as the theatre had none. People miglit laugh at 
 Schiller, caged up in it like some pet bird, but no 
 greater honour could be done to the poet whose youth- 
 ful dramas had taken the German stage by storm; 
 Goethe was ahvays hoping from him, should his life 
 be spared, the highest success in the scenic art. Schiller 
 was glad, after so many years, to meet Ifliand again, 
 and to witness his finished acting, though it wanted the 
 charm of his youth. To the plot of his new drama 
 these performances were of great value. At Goethe's 
 long-expressed desire he was altering his "Egmont" 
 for the stage, which indeed was done a httle ruthlessly, 
 passages being added, left out, or transposed. These
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 385 
 
 pleasant days were darkened by the terrible news that 
 poor Nanette was no more. Happily there were many 
 distractions that did much to turn his thoughts from 
 this grievous loss. He went home on the 20th, to return 
 again on the evening of the 26th to the performance 
 of " Egmont." But before that, he received such afflict- 
 ing news from Solitude, where not only had the father's 
 condition grown worse, but sister Louise, too, had sick- 
 ened, that he wrote entreating Christophine to go there 
 at his expense. The evening after an effective repre- 
 sentation of " Egmont " was spent with the friend to 
 whom he ever felt more closely drawn, and who prom- 
 ised to see him again soon at Jena. Next morning he 
 hastened home, as he expected Korner to arrive that 
 afternoon. Schiller was now altogether in that path 
 of fiction which he was never again to quit ; his pro- 
 longed researches in history, philosophy, testhetics, were 
 but preliminaries to an artistic perfecting of his poetic 
 power, which in drama touched its highest point.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 FROM APRIL, 1796, TO APRIL, 1799. 
 
 Although from this time Schiller's work in the 
 Horen was coulined to the duties of an editor, and 
 these were more a recreation to him than real exertion, 
 nevertheless the completion of a great drama of a 
 period so painful to Germany, yet so fertile of heroic 
 characters, taxed his powers for nearly a good three 
 years more. For two years he employed the bright 
 spring and summer time on the " Almanach," while 
 the late autumn and winter were chiefly taken up 
 with inventing the plot, which became materially 
 altered in accordance with the results he had gathered 
 from continual study and from the interchange of 
 thoughts, especially with Goethe, on the difference 
 between epic and dramatic form. 
 
 Kcirner spent three whole weeks in the most inti- 
 mate converse with Schiller, and their families felt 
 closely, inseparably linked to each other. Count 
 Gessler, too, a common friend of both, was a most 
 pleasant companion. Cotta and his wife, on their way 
 home from Leipzig Fair, paid them a visit. He was to 
 publish the " Almanach," but, to avoid delay, it should 
 be printed at Jena and sent out from that place. 
 Meanwhile among the " Xenien," most of them sarcas- 
 tic enough, some tender and serious ones had been 
 produced, and these, if put in the " Almanach," would 
 make its value a lasting one. Korner was charmed 
 with this motley throng of epigrams, admiring their 
 
 386
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 387 
 
 dignity and their apt humour. Goethe came, accord- 
 ing to promise, directly he could escape from work, to 
 finish the last book of his romance in his favourite 
 room at the old castle. And then the four friends had 
 many a spirited discussion upon hfe, or hterature, or 
 art. In these the ladies joined also, and Dora Stock, 
 so clever with her brush, amused every one by her 
 skill at repartee. Another great source of interest were 
 the children ; one of them, hereafter the soldier-poet, 
 Theodor Korner, was then just five years old. Kcirner 
 now grew far more intimate with Goethe, who showed 
 all the sweetness and kindliness of his nature. When 
 Dora Stock once asked him why he urged Gessler to 
 marry and did not follow so wise a precept himself, 
 Goethe answered, gravely, " I am married, only without 
 a ceremony." He would gladly have brought Schiller 
 and his friends to form an unprejudiced judgment of 
 his connection with Christiane Vulpius, but Schiller 
 took Lotte's view of the wdiole affair. His antipathy 
 for Christiane was carried so far, that in his letters 
 to Goethe, when he could not help alluding to her, he 
 simply put a dash, or spoke of Goethe's " house." A 
 kind invitation to let his Karl come to him, he pohtely 
 declined. Schlegel was now at Jena, and often took 
 part in the conversations. The two poets looked upon 
 a man of such knowledge and taste, their valued fellow 
 worker in the Horen, as an ally, though Goethe was 
 in doubt about his democratic leanings. The latter 
 was already turning out some exquisite pieces for the 
 " Almanach," while Schiller could not rightly get into 
 the poetic mood. His fears for Lotte's health were 
 lessened on knowing that he was to taste for a second 
 time the joys of fatherhood. But then there came 
 sad and grievous news from home. His mother felt 
 utterly miserable ; his father's condition would not 
 improve ; and Louise's illness made them dread the 
 worst. It deeply pained him that he could do no
 
 388 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 more tlian help with money and induce Eeinwald not 
 to call Christophine away ; all the while he had to 
 hide this sorrow from his friend, lest it should mar the 
 pleasure of their social intercourse. 
 
 After Kcirner's departure, Goethe stayed nearly three 
 weeks longer, during which he composed several things 
 for the " Almanach." Schiller felt much better, and 
 on fine days he could go out walking. He had had a 
 standing-desk made for him so as to spare his chest. 
 Fortunately he soon received more comforting accounts 
 of his kinsfolk, but Lotte's approaching confinement 
 filled him with anxious fear. The " Almanach " ought 
 to be in the printer's hands soon ; and he bestirred 
 himself to finish it. After writing a good many more 
 serious " Xenien," he began that glorious " Plaint of 
 Ceres," which, suggested by Goethe's observations on 
 the influence of light upon the forms and colours 
 of plants, received a poetic transfiguration from his 
 own tender, melancholy mood. The " Almanach " and 
 a searching critical estimate of the eighth book of 
 " Wilhelm Meister" occupied the whole of his time ; 
 the story had taken such a hold of him, that he wrote 
 to Korner, he was but a poetic dwarf to Goethe. He 
 was specially charmed by Mignon's song, " So lasst 
 mich scheinen, bis ich werde." He wished to make 
 his review of the work his real business for a time, as 
 the " Almanach " was quite sufficiently provided for. 
 The arranging of the " Xenien," however, entailed 
 much labour. 
 
 Wlien Lotte had on July 11th been safely dehvered 
 of a son, courage and hope came back to Schiller's 
 heart. The godfathers chosen were Count Schimmel- 
 mann (after whom the child was named Ernst), Voigt, 
 and Paulus ; the godmothers, the Countess, Frau von 
 Kalb, landlady Griesbach, Korner's wife, and Schiller's 
 mother. The second name — Friedrich — was taken 
 from Schiller himself, that of Wilhelm, no doubt, from
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 389 
 
 the hero of Goethe's romance. Schiller had hardly 
 liked to invite his author-friend to the christening, but 
 hinted that Frau von Kalb was surprised not to see 
 him there; He would have walked in without waiting 
 to be asked, rejoined Goethe, but these ceremonies 
 were really too much for him. He came soon after 
 and stayed some days, when they talked of the 
 " Almanach " in which the " Xenien " were to appear, 
 and of Schiller's comments upon " Wilhelm Meister." 
 Political affairs, which he had always gladly avoided, 
 now began to disquiet him in earnest, now that his 
 native land was overrun by the French, and even 
 Thuringia seemed threatened. Communication with 
 Suabia was wholly interrupted. 
 
 At this time W. Schlegel brought his newly wedded 
 wife to Jena ; they immediately called on Schiller. 
 Caroline Schlegel, then in her thirtieth year, had 
 already been much talked about. She was the daugh- 
 ter of the Oriental scholar J. D. Michaelis of Gottingen. 
 On the early death of her first husband, Bohmer, at 
 Nausthal, she had gone to Mainz, where Therese 
 Heyne, a friend of her girlish days, was now the 
 wife of Georg Forster. She shared his republican 
 views and zealously worked for them ; but having left 
 the city when it was besieged by the Alhes, she was 
 taken prisoner and not set at liberty for three months. 
 Schlegel, who had known her from the Gottingen 
 days, and had always remained her friend, accom- 
 panied her to Leipzig, leaving her near there, under 
 the care of his younger brother Friedrich. Soon after 
 this she joined her mother, who had removed to Bruns- 
 wick. Here came Schlegel, too, not without views 
 upon Ebert's vacant chair at the Carolinum, though he 
 was still more attracted by the Jena professorship, of 
 which Schiller gave hints. The marriage took place 
 on July 6th, and three days after, Schlegel brought 
 Caroline to his home at Jena. This agreeable,
 
 390 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 quick-witted, but self-willed and artful woman thought 
 Schiller handsomer than she had imagined him ; she 
 appeared exceedingly friendly, but he did not alto- 
 gether trust her. Only twelve days later he wrote 
 that one could associate pleasantly with Schlegel's 
 wife, who had gi-eat powers of conversation, but the 
 question was whether a longer acquaintance, especially 
 if it ripened into intimacy, would not reveal some 
 thorn. 
 
 Directly after there came Schiller's sister-in-law with 
 her new husband, his old friend Legationsrath von 
 Wolzogen, who had thrown up his situation in Wlir- 
 temberg and was looking out for another in Thuringia. 
 At the same time Friedrich Schlegel, now in his twenty- 
 fifth year, and " crisp, and curled inside and out," as his 
 sister-in-law expressed it, felt drawn to Jena, where he 
 hoped to be on pleasant terms with Schiller. Caroline 
 had exerted such a sobering influence on him, that he 
 felt himself a changed man. He then resolved to 
 abandon the study of law, to which his parents had 
 constrained him, and devote himself to antiquities and 
 art. With that view he went and settled at Dresden, 
 where Schiller found him at Korner's house. He 
 attached himself to the latter, as the intimate friend 
 of his revered Schiller. Korner offered the poet some 
 articles by Friedrich for the TJialia, but they were 
 condemned as too crude. Yet in a letter of June 12th, 
 Schiller asked if young Schlegel had anything available 
 for the Horen. Korner spoke warmly in his praise, but 
 Schiller, after reading an article of his in the Mercur on 
 the limits of the Beautiful, was afraid he had no gift as 
 a writer, for he lacked clearness and ease of expression. 
 Schlegel now wrote in his own behoof, but Schiller felt 
 a good deal hurt at a cutting notice of his " Almanach," 
 which appeared under Schlegel's name in Deutschland, 
 Reichardt's paper. Shortly before he came to Jena he 
 sent Schnier an essay on Alexander and Ciesar, which
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 391 
 
 to himself seemed highly valuable, and whose accept- 
 ance he confidently reckoned on. But though Schiller 
 was pleased with him personally and thought he prom- 
 ised much for the future, and though Kcirner and 
 Wilhelm interceded, he went so far as to disobHge the 
 sharp critic, whose connection with Eeichardt nettled 
 him, by rejecting the slashing onslaught upon Caesar, 
 which had more merit than many things in the Horen. 
 Then again in the " Xenien," he came down bitterly on 
 Schlegel's self-appreciation, and on his Graecomania, 
 which, as Schiller thought, kept him from rightly 
 understanding or valuing the Greeks. By the coming 
 and settling of Caroline von Beulwitz and her husband, 
 Schiller gained a welcome addition to his family circle. 
 They were both highly cultivated, Carohne even poet- 
 ically gifted, but her precarious position hindered her 
 from ever getting to feel quite at her ease. Frau 
 Schlegel found the talented Caroline tedious, while the 
 latter looked upon her as a snake. 
 
 At length communication with Suabia, about which 
 country the most disquieting rumours had prevailed, 
 was once more declared open. Then Schiller heard 
 how Solitude had been surprised by a band of soldiers, 
 who carried off everything they could find, seizing the 
 snuff-box and silver buckles of his sick father. What 
 grieved him more deeply was to know that his parent 
 lay in agonising pain, longing for death. At this time 
 Schiller wrote " The Votive Tablets," those glorious 
 apophthegms in which, to use Goethe's phrase, the 
 great relations of human nature are set forth with such 
 nobihty, freedom, and boldness. Luckily, the outbreak 
 of war in Italy had delayed Goethe's departure for that 
 land of the fine arts ; and on the 18th he came to spend 
 a few weeks at Jena. During this visit they finished 
 printing those satirical epigrams chosen as " Xenien " for 
 the close of the " Almanach." Cleverly as Schiller had 
 succeeded in arranging them as a whole, he may have
 
 392 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 felt a tiuge of reluctance at flinging abroad these pun- 
 gent couplets which would set half the world in arms 
 against his " Almauach." But he and his noble comrade, 
 Germany's greatest poet, were fighting a good fight, to 
 the annihilation of well-meaning, mutually deferential 
 mediocrity, and to the setting up of high thoroughness 
 in life, in science, in art. The evenings which Goethe 
 spent at Schiller's with Wolzogen and his wife were 
 full of interest and delight. There was much talk with 
 Wolzogen about architecture, much sketching of moon- 
 light landscapes ; but what lent those evenings their 
 gi'eatest charm was Goethe's readings from his newly 
 begun poem, " Hermann und Dorothea." 
 
 The printing of the " Almanach " was just completed, 
 when on the 19tli (the house then full of gnests) there 
 came the tidings of his father's death, which had taken 
 place twelve days before. What trouble and anxiety 
 Fritz had given the good old man, who with such 
 energy and uprightness had walked through a hfe 
 beset with thorns ! What a crushing blow, this, to his 
 dear mother, whose days had been one chain of endless 
 trouble and care ! How terrible for Schiller the thought 
 that he never could do aught again for him who was 
 gone, never again cause him pleasure, not even by the 
 most finely wrought masterpiece, nor by the most bril- 
 liant poetic fame ! He at once sent his mother a letter 
 full of tender sympathy. " You, dearest mother," he 
 wrote, " must now choose your lot entirely for yourself, 
 and let no anxiety influence you in the choice. Ask 
 yourself where you would like best to hve, — here, at 
 my house, or at Christophine's, or at home with Louise. 
 Whichever way your choice may fall, we will provide 
 the means. . . . Best of mothers, anything you need 
 for an easy life shall be yours ; henceforth it is my 
 care that no care oppress you more. After so many 
 grievous trials, the evening of your life ought to be 
 made bright, or, at any rate, peaceful, and I hope that
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER » 393 
 
 you are yet to enjoy many a happy day in the bosom 
 of your children and grandchildren. ... I wish my 
 good Louise much joy of her happy outlook with the 
 brave young man [Vicarius Frankh] who offers her his 
 hand, and whose generous behaviour by the sick-bed of 
 our father shows his good feeling. A thousand times 
 let her commend me to him as my future brother-in- 
 law, and assure him beforehand of my friendship and 
 my heart's devotion." He begged his brother-in-law 
 Keinwald, who had long been looking impatiently for 
 his sick wife's return, to let her remain yet a httle 
 while at her mother's side. Goethe showed himself 
 most kind to Schiller in this time of bereavement, and 
 remained at Jena beyond the time he had fixed. Writ- 
 ing to Voigt on the 30th, to excuse his absence to the 
 duke, he says : " I dare say I shall be here some time 
 longer ; I have not the heart to leave poor Schiller in the 
 state he is in. His father died lately, and his youngest 
 boy seems as if he would soon be taken from them. He 
 bears all with unshaken spirit, but his bodily ailments 
 break out the more fiercely, and I fear much that this 
 crisis will excessively weaken him, all the more because 
 now, as ever, he cannot be induced to go out ; so that 
 he never sees society, and, in return, few people visit 
 liim. I tell you this in confidence, as I don't exactly 
 care to speak openly of this state of things." 
 
 By October 4th he thought he might leave him. 
 The distribution of the " Almanach," which Schiller 
 had taken upon himself, gave him a great deal of 
 trouble : the first dehvery was packed in his own 
 house. Not before the middle of the month was he 
 altogether rid of the tiresome job. At Jena Frau 
 Schlegel had managed to get sight of the proof-sheets. 
 Though she was treated as a guest by Schiller she still 
 bore him a secret grudge ; so did her brother-in-law, 
 who in Eeichardt's Deutschland kept making spiteful 
 allusion to the Horen, which had rejected his article
 
 394 • THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 To be sure, he was liberally rewarded for this in the 
 " Xeuien." The satire levelled at him did not escape 
 Frau Schlegel's notice ; and it increased her dislike of 
 these couplets that were now putting all the hterary 
 world in a ferment. And so she vented her wrath 
 upon Schiller, trying, like Friedrich, to patronise him, 
 by admitting that perhaps he had some sort of talent, 
 but no genius. Five-sixths of the " Xenien " were by 
 him, she said, for Goethe had only written the good- 
 humoured, inoffensive ones, and thus Schiller should 
 alone smart for it ; one could touch him at all points, 
 and he was very sensitive. 
 
 With great gusto Schiller on the 2 2d began working 
 at his " Wallenstein " again, which he had promised 
 Cotta for the following summer. Yet he was hindered 
 from making advance with it. Parting with Goethe 
 was more painful than ever. On November 1st, Hum- 
 boldt at last came back with his family to stop at 
 Jena till the spring ; and it was delightful for Schiller 
 to have this friend with him. The fears about his 
 infant son had passed, and he was reassured as to his 
 mother's position. She had pretty apartments in the 
 Castle of Leonberg placed at her service, and, pro tern., 
 a gratuity of seventy-five gulden from the duke : a 
 fixed pension lay in prospect. The good woman was 
 beside herself with joy at the thirty gulden per quarter 
 set aside for her by her son : only under absolute neces- 
 sity would she avail herself of it. But if Schiller was 
 soothed for the moment, the strong excitement of the 
 preceding months had set his nerves upon the stretch. 
 He was watching for attacks upon the " Xenien." 
 True, he thought it " worth a great deal to win this 
 triumph over revilers and enviers," viz. that in the be- 
 ginning of December a new edition of the " Almanach " 
 sliould be called for. Schiller had the second one, of 
 five hundred copies, rapidly printed at Jena on fine 
 paper, and Cotta prepared a third one at Tiibingen in
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 395 
 
 January. But the poet felt it a point of honour now 
 to keep up the Horen, too : if the sale fell off, they 
 must lower the fees to contributors : for the last num- 
 bers of the year, on which orders for the new year 
 would greatly depend, it was important to secure at- 
 tractive matter ; and happily there was no lack of that. 
 He could not help being pecuharly affected by a letter 
 from the Countess Schimmelmann who could not en- 
 tirely hide her dishke of the " Xenien," which in Copen- 
 hagen had infuriated every one. And she particularly 
 regretted Schiller's connection with Goethe. It is true 
 the authors had not spared Schiller's benefactor, Bagge- 
 sen, and they had hit the two Stolbergs hard, but it was 
 their principle to combat all mistaken tendencies with- 
 out respect of persons. On the 25th Schiller received 
 from Hamburg the final remittance of his Copenhagen 
 pension in the shape of ten ducats. Though he felt 
 rather humiliated, he hastened to reply in a friendly 
 tone, and especially to set before the countess a truer 
 estimate of Goethe ; Lotte also added words in praise 
 of their noble friend. 
 
 The materials of his " Wallenstein " were still in 
 their crude form ; they would not fit into the narrow 
 limits of one drama. But Schiller felt himself a match 
 for them notwithstanding. He already ventured to 
 fix with Cotta the number of the sheets, and was 
 going to send him a picture of Nemesis for the vignette 
 to symbolise the central point of the drama. His fre- 
 quent ill health could only disturb, not hinder him. 
 As soon as he had obtained a sure view of the action, 
 without waiting to complete the plot, he proceeded 
 to fill in the first act, which on Humboldt's advice 
 he wrote in prose, as being more convenient for actors 
 and more pleasing to spectators. This act, the longest 
 of all, he hoped to finish in three weeks. 
 
 Of all the coarse and scurrilous attacks made upon 
 the "Xenien," none were so painful to Schiller as
 
 396 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 those aimed at Goethe's " natural " marriage. The 
 latter met these rude efforts to soil his good name 
 with that beautiful elegy prefixed to his " Hermann 
 und Dorothea," with which he wished to begin the 
 New Year's number of the Horen. Schiller did not 
 want it to be pubhshed then, for the piece, he thought, 
 would fall upon a time ill fitted for its good reception. 
 He feared, perhaps, that the express mention in it of 
 Goethe's " wife " and " boy " might provoke fresh 
 sallies of abuse. Personally, he was most offended at 
 Eeichardt's language in the Deutschland, where he ex- 
 pressed " his hearty contempt for Schiller's mean and 
 disreputable conduct," a contempt the more unmixed 
 as his " literary powers and efforts " by no means stood 
 in the same rank with that true genius (Goethe), which, 
 though stained by immorality, had still some title to 
 respect. If Schiller could not name the author of his 
 calumnies or prove his accusations, he was to be held 
 devoid of honour. Schiller at once wrote to Goethe 
 (it was Christmas Day) that they must foil this ma- 
 noeuvre of dividing them by showing a united front, 
 and he enclosed liis sketch of a reply. If Goethe 
 would do something too, so much the better. But 
 Goethe was about to start for Leipzig in two days 
 with the duke, and he managed adroitly to shirk the 
 " swift decisive retort " demanded by Schiller. He 
 considered the reply sent for his inspection too serious, 
 too good-natured : it ought to be as aesthetic as possible, 
 " a rhetorical, forensic," sopliistic piece of raillery, re- 
 calling, by its freedom and calm survey of the case, the 
 " Xenien " themselves. Instead of descending to an 
 arena convenient for the antagonist, as Schiller was 
 doing, they should avail themselves of the shifts and 
 the evasions that lay so ready to their hands, to 
 demand of the editor that he should give his name 
 in his journals and print copies of the poems in dis- 
 pute. Thus they would harass the enemy exceedingly
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 397 
 
 and find occasion to ridicule him ; the matter would 
 turn to merriment and time would be gained. Occa- 
 sionally some fresh opponent might start up, whom 
 they could lash in passing ; the pubhc would grow in- 
 different, and they would get advantage in every way. 
 On the journey he would be sure to find the time and 
 the mood for such a composition ; besides, he wished 
 to consult some friends about it. And Schiller felt 
 this might content him for the moment. 
 
 The closing year had a special pleasure in store for 
 him. The appointment of his brother-in-law, Wol- 
 zogen, as privy councillor at Weimar was, after long 
 suspense, decided upon through the intervention of 
 Goethe and Voigt. He was also dehghted at the great 
 success of his sister-in-law's novel, " Agnes von Lihen." 
 Even Caroline Schlegel, who piqued herself on her 
 sagacity, declared, like many others, that it was by 
 Goethe, and even he had never created so pure and 
 perfect a female character before. Its continuation 
 was, to the no small advantage of the Horen, looked 
 forward to with general impatience. 
 
 Even in the bad days of January, Schiller could keep 
 at work upon the " Wallenstein," much as he pined for 
 clearer air and freer movement. After giving up his 
 plan of going to Weimar in the spring, he determined 
 to buy the garden of the deceased Professor Schmidt, 
 pleasantly and healthily placed on a height overlook- 
 ing the Leutra between the Engelgatterthor and the 
 Neuthor. The small house in it, with some little 
 alterations, would serve as a residence, even in winter. 
 But the affair was delayed. Before he could go on 
 with the " Wallenstein," at which he had toiled unin- 
 termittingly, the play had to pass through another 
 severe crisis in its plot. He had written to Gotta on 
 the 1st that the book must be printed at Jena, by 
 which he would gain three or four weeks. The whole, 
 including a dramatic prelude, would fill fifteen sheets.
 
 398 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 He asked the same payment as for tlie Horen, six 
 louis d'or per sheet. Cotta consented to everything 
 without hesitation, but the work of composition would 
 not advance. On the 2 2d came Goethe, on a visit to 
 Jena. Alexander von Humboldt was spending the 
 winter there with his younger brother. Goethe said 
 of him that his deep knowledge of all natural things 
 would of itself sutlice to fill with interest a whole 
 period of one's life. Schiller treated him in the 
 friendliest way, but never got very near to him ; he 
 thought there was something vehement and bitter 
 about him, while the great natural philosopher recog- 
 nised the poet's worth. 
 
 As Goethe during his stay at Jena nearly finished 
 " Hermann und Dorothea," and also talked over with 
 his friend the plot of a new epic poem, their evening 
 conversations often led them to the nature of this kind 
 of poetry and of its opposite, the dramatic ; in these 
 talks Humboldt, then at work on a translation of 
 ^schylus's "Agamemnon," took a lively part. Schiller 
 now read Sophocles and Shakespeare, whose " Julius 
 Ccfisar " Wilham Schlegel was translating. The deeper 
 insight he then gained into the nature of dramatic art 
 suggested many modifications in the plot of his " "\Val- 
 lenstein," though without shaking its foundation. The 
 next " Almanach " was discussed, and Goethe held out a 
 prospect of some ballads for it. The " Hero and 
 Leander," begun the year before, he had laid aside ; 
 those that now floated in his mind were the " Magi- 
 cian's Apprentice " and the " Bride of Corinth." The 
 excitement about the attacks on the " Xenien," over 
 which Wieland and Nicolai had also maundered after 
 their manner, had now subsided ; even Eeichardt was 
 not honoured with a reply. Several visits from relatives 
 divided the poet's attention. 
 
 The solitude into which Schiller saw himself 
 plunged at the beginning of April gave him oppor-
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 399 
 
 timity to think out his " Wallenstein." Having at 
 this time unexpectedly received a diploma from the 
 Academy of Sciences at Stockholm, he was glad to 
 find himself " extending his roots, and his own exist- 
 ence having influence upon others." The remembrance 
 of the hours passed vsdth Goethe did his heart good. 
 He writes to him : " Fare you right well, my friend, 
 growing ever dearer to me. I am still surrounded by 
 the fair spirits you have left behind you, and hope to 
 get better and better acquainted with them." In his 
 garden, the purchase of which was at length concluded, 
 he hoped soon to make up for the delays of the last 
 three months. Deep researches on the difference be- 
 tween epic and dramatic poetry were carried on by 
 letter with Goethe, who put together a little treatise 
 out of them and begged Schiller still further to work 
 out a subject, now both theoretically and practically 
 the most important for each of them. 
 
 When Humboldt left Jena to go to Italy for a 
 couple of years, Schiller wrote despondingly to Goethe. 
 " Here, then, is another connection that must be re- 
 garded as closed : two years, so differently spent, can- 
 not but alter much in u.s, and therefore between us." 
 Alas ! the prehminary peace just then concluded, for 
 which Schiller was heartily thankful, threatened also 
 to rob him for a considerable time of his Weimar 
 friend and brother in art. It was not until May 2d 
 that Schiller took possession of his garden. Tired 
 with the work of moving, he wrote the same even- 
 ing to Goethe : " A lovely landscape lies around me ; 
 the sun goes kindly down ; the nightingales warble. 
 Everything about me cheers, and the first evening on 
 my own freehold is of the happiest omen. . . . To- 
 morrow I hope to set to work [" on Wallenstein "] with 
 real zest, and keep to it." At the same time he was 
 thinking of a ballad for the " Almauach," and for that 
 purpose wished to see the libretto of "Don Juan."
 
 400 THH LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 The next day he asked for the German translation of 
 Aristotle's Poetics, which Goethe had spoken of with so 
 high esteem ; he was so gratified with it that he 
 wanted to get the book for himself. In his new 
 quarters he felt remarkably well, pacing the garden 
 by the hour, even in wind and rain. To be sure, the 
 inclement weather robbed him of the real charm of a 
 country residence. Goethe, ever since the peace 
 opened to him the prospect of Italy, had felt himself 
 in a wonderfully clear frame of mind. " Let us," he 
 wi'ote to his one friend, " let us, as long as we remain 
 together, be bringing our duality more and more into 
 unison, and then even a long separation can in no way 
 harm our mutual relationship." He had in his mind 
 Schiller's expression on being parted from Humboldt. 
 
 At length on May 20th he came over to stay some 
 time. Again the evenings were mostly spent at Schil- 
 ler's house, who the first few days was a good deal 
 disturbed by visitors. While he composed some things 
 for the " Almanach," SchiUer was finishing the rhymed 
 prologue to his play, i. e. " Wallenstein's Camp," which 
 was afterward made half as long again. Goethe was 
 greatly pleased with it when Schiller read it out to 
 him on the 27th. 
 
 The way in which Friedrich Schlegel kept falling 
 foul of the Iforen, specially twitting it with dealing 
 so largely in translation, had so exasperated Schiller, 
 that on the 31st, in writing to the elder brother Wil- 
 helm, then just returned from a journey to Dresden, 
 he enclosed the small arrears due to him for literary 
 work, and broke off all friendly connection with him. 
 " It has been a pleasure to me," he wrote, " by insert- 
 ing your translations from Dante and Shakespeare, to 
 give you the opportunity of earning a remuneration 
 (thirty thalers a sheet) that is not to be had every- 
 where. But as I cannot help knowing that at the 
 very time when I am procuring you this benefit, Herr
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 401 
 
 Tr. Schlegel censures me for it, and finds too many 
 translations in the Horen, you will for the future 
 excuse me. And once for all, to relieve you from a 
 position that cannot but be irksome to a candid dis- 
 position and dehcate sentiments, allow me to break off 
 entirely a connection that under the circumstances is 
 really too painful, and has already too often exposed 
 my confidence to misconstruction." Wilhelm, not a 
 little astonished, replied that he himself disapproved 
 his brother's conduct, and would have wished him to 
 leave the ridicule of the " Xenien " unanswered. The 
 report circulated by Woltmann that his wife had had 
 a hand ia reviewing the Horen, was a slander. He 
 himself had never abused Schiller's confidence, nor 
 acted inconsistently with a due sense of gratitude. 
 But to his request that he might be allowed in person 
 to prove his innocence Schiller could not consent, as 
 he knew that his wife's sharp tongue (whom he used 
 to call Dame Lucifer, or Mischief) did not spare him 
 or his house, and that she was in league with her 
 brother-in-law against him. It is true she had added 
 a postscript, declaring she had not seen that review 
 yet, and did not mix herself up in such comphcated 
 affairs ; nay, she gave an assurance of her sincere love 
 and respect, her honest and unalterable sentiments. 
 But Schiller was not to be misled by this. He 
 answered : " Considering the strong reasons for dissat- 
 isfaction that your brother has given, and still con- 
 tinues to give me, mutual trust cannot subsist between 
 you and me. A connection rendered impossible by a 
 natural combination of circumstances will not be kept 
 up with the best of wills. In my narrow circle of 
 acquaintance there must be full security and unlimited 
 confidence ; and this, after what has happened, cannot 
 have place in our connection. Better, then, that we 
 dissolve it ; it is an unpleasant necessity to which we, 
 both blameless as I hope, must give way. This I owe
 
 402 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 to myself, for no one can comprehend how I can be at 
 once the friend of your house and the object of your 
 brother's insults. Assure Frau Schlegol that I have 
 never taken any heed of the silly report that she was 
 the author of that review, and that I consider her quite 
 too sensible to mix herself up with such matters." 
 Caroline felt the sting, and the sternness with which 
 Schiller exercised his domestic right. 
 
 The " Prologue " finished, he turned to his " Alma- 
 nach," for which he wrote a few shorter poems. On 
 June 5th he began his first ballad, " The Diver," not 
 completing it until the 14th. In those beautiful sum- 
 mer eveuiugs he had many deep talks with Goethe. 
 This friend carried on what slight communication 
 there was with Wilhelm Schlegel, whose treatise on 
 " Romeo and Juliet " he obtained for the Horen, and 
 discussed with the author such amendments as seemed 
 needful. He also asked him for contributions to the 
 " Almanach." Besides Goethe and Herder, Schlegel 
 was the only one who received money for his poems. 
 
 After Goethe's departure Schiller wrote " The Glove," 
 and " The Eing of Polycrates ; " he busied himself also 
 with Vieilleville's Memoirs, which Wolzogen was to 
 work up for the Horcn. Fortunately, his brother-in- 
 law dissuaded him from at once beginning fresh build- 
 ings in the garden. Though again suffering from 
 spasms, he could still occasionally devote himself to 
 the " Almanach," which offered a wholesome change 
 of occupation. Many contributions were sent in for 
 it, and for the Horcn, that taxed his critical taste. 
 Empty poems he often made tolerable by a stroke of 
 the pen through several stanzas. 
 
 As Wilhelm Schlegel all this time had sent him 
 nothing for the " Almanach," he wrote asking him to 
 do so. And now he himself ventured to work out a 
 long-cherished idea; it was the "Bell-Founder's Song," 
 intended for music. But little advance was made with
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 403 
 
 this ere he felt drawn to Weimar, to enjoy all he could 
 of Goethe's society before his departure to Italy, and 
 to read his latest writings to the Duchess and Frau 
 von Stein. Indeed, Schiller was always wishful to live 
 at Weimar, close to his great friend, to the theatre, his 
 relations, and the court. But unhappily the duke had 
 so little confidence in Schiller's capacity to direct the 
 theatre, that when Goethe proposed his appointment 
 during his own absence, he received an emphatic re- 
 fusal. The duchess listened delightedly to his reading 
 of the " Prologue " and the Ballads. The friends 
 associated much with Hht, who had been invited from 
 Eome to Berlin, and was deeply versed in the plastic 
 art of the ancients ; also with Bottiger, by whose lit- 
 erary and antiquarian lore they could profit. Goethe 
 left with his friend the materials for a ballad, " The 
 Cranes of Ibycus;" it should be the talisman of their 
 long separation. This delightful week brought them 
 much closer to each other. Goethe's influence on 
 Schiller betrays itself in the expressions used by the 
 latter, writing from Jena : " I may well hope that we 
 shall gradually get to see alike in everything of which 
 an account can be given, and that in what by its very 
 nature passes comprehension we shall remain united by 
 feehug. The noblest and fruitfullest way I can utilise 
 our mutual communications, and make them my own, 
 is to apply them at once to the tasks of the time being, 
 and turn them to immediate profit. . . . And so I hope 
 that my ' Wallen stein,' and anything I may produce 
 hereafter of importance, is destined to exhibit and 
 preserve in concreto the whole range of what has 
 passed into my nature during our commercmm. . . . 
 I shall now strive first of all to get those songs done 
 for the ' Almanach,' as the composers [Zumsteeg and 
 Zelter] are so urgent ; then try my luck on the 
 ' Cranes,' and with September return to tragedy." 
 How gladly he would have kept Goethe back, he
 
 404 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 dared not betray to the friend, who was longing for 
 Italy, for it would have damped his pleasure. But in 
 a letter to Meyer Schiller frankly declared that Goethe, 
 at the height he had now reached, ought rather to 
 think of bringing into full view the beauty of form he 
 had realised, than of gomg in quest of new material ; 
 he ought now to live entirely for the practice of 
 poetry ; whatever he might gain in Italy for certain 
 objects was so much lost to his highest and ultimate end. 
 While Goethe's departure was delayed till July 30th, 
 Schiller had his hands full with editing the " Alma- 
 nach " and the Horen, as weU as an edition of " Agnes 
 von Lihen " which Unger of Berlin had undertaken. 
 He also wrote a new mediaeval ballad, " Knight Toggen- 
 burg." With August began the printing of the "Al- 
 manach," but during the next six weeks he feU ill again, 
 suffering more perhaps than ever before. He could 
 not succeed with the " Songs " he had planned writing, 
 but on the other hand he put all his powers into " The 
 Cranes of Ibycus," about whicli Goethe was often con- 
 sulted. These letters of his friend were infinitely cheer- 
 ing to him in his loneliness ; and they were the more 
 welcome when from time to time they contained lyrics 
 which should enrich the forthcoming " Almanach." He 
 was glad, too, that Goethe and Cotta had grown more in- 
 timate ; this might probably lead to a business connec- 
 tion. At length, in mid-September, though his cough 
 never left him, Schiller felt a return of life and vigour. 
 Then, just before the " Almanach " was finished, there 
 came into his hands a highly promising legendary 
 theme, which with astonishing facility, considering the 
 kind was quite new to him, he worked up into his 
 " Walk to the Iron Foundry." This time the strongest 
 things in the " Almanach " would be ballads by the 
 two aUied poets. " Oberon's Golden Wedding," in 
 which Goethe had ridiculed some false tendencies of 
 the time, Schiller, from a love of peace, left out.
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 405 
 
 When the " Alinanach " was complete, he turned 
 again to " Wallenstein," and was dehghted to find that 
 he had converted the historical material into a purely 
 tragic fable, whose action hurried with a continuous 
 and increasingly rapid movement to its end. There 
 was a baldness about some of the scenes already 
 written out which he hoped to remove, but he feared 
 that the play could not be finished until the end of 
 May. He felt infinitely cheered by Goethe's resolution 
 to return to Weimar before winter. Schiller him- 
 self thought of spending some time there and attending 
 the theatre. Before the month was out he had moved 
 into the town. He was unspeakably charmed with 
 Goethe's " Epos," and he determined to write " Wal- 
 lenstein " in blank verse. On November 4th he began 
 recasting the scenes previously done in prose, and now, 
 thanks to the poetic form, things began to wear quite 
 another look. 
 
 On the 20th Goethe and Meyer halted at Jena for a 
 couple of hours on their way home. Schiller promised 
 to come with the opening year to Weimar, where he 
 hoped to pass an entertaining and instructive winter 
 with Goethe, who had brought home from his travels 
 such a store of new ideas and objects of art. In partic- 
 ular they would try and effect something for the theatre, 
 even if nobody grew the vriser by it but themselves. 
 Before this, Schiller had offered to supply linger, the 
 Berhn publisher, with a " Theater-Kalender," which 
 should concern itself with everything that theoretically 
 or practically pertained to dramatic and theatric art. 
 But his fluctuating health, the cramped lodgings to 
 which he was going at Weimar, and above all the 
 " Wallenstein " work, which demanded solitary seclu- 
 sion, kept him back at Jena. And there Goethe meant 
 to visit him at the beginning of the year, for at Weimar 
 he could not get his thoughts settled and his powers 
 collected. Schiller writes to him, December 8th :
 
 4o6 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 " Happily my infirm health does not affect my [mental] 
 mood ; what it does is this, that when I throw my soul 
 into anything, it exhausts me sooner and deranges my 
 system. Hence 1 usually have to pay for one day 
 of happy attunement with five or six of oppression and 
 suffering." But nothing could daunt his cheerful 
 courage ; he still hoped to see " Wallenstein " played 
 the next summer, and immediately after he would go 
 on with his " Knights." About the love-scenes, indeed, 
 he had strong misgivings when he thought of the 
 theatric destination of the piece; for love, such as 
 it had to appear there, was anything but theatrical. 
 When immediately after this a severe attack made him 
 for some time incapable of all strenuous effort, he 
 employed the leisure left him from the editing of the 
 Horen in revising his " Ghostseer " for a new edition. 
 It was only at the end of the year that, in spite of 
 the terrible weather afflicting him, he went back to 
 " Wallenstein." 
 
 On New Year's Day, 1798, it was a great joy to him 
 to see the first two acts lying before him, copied fair in 
 another's handwriting. " It is clear as day to me," he 
 tells Goethe on January 5th, " that I have gone beyond 
 myself ; and this is the fruit of our intercourse. For 
 nothing but frequent and continuous converse with 
 a nature so objective and opposite to mine, together 
 with my own vehement yearning after it and the accom- 
 panying effort to look upon it and think it, could have 
 enabled me so to widen out my subjective limits. I 
 find that the clearness, the though tfulness wliich is the 
 fruit of a later period, has cost me none of the warmth 
 of an earlier." If he had succeeded, which he did not 
 at all doubt, in winning the favour of the public by his 
 dramas, he would like for once " to do something regu- 
 larly bad," and bring, as he had once intended, his 
 " Julian the Apostate " on the stage. The plan of 
 giving up the Horen, which Cotta pressed upon him,
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 407 
 
 pleased him well ; it would set him free from many 
 teasiug cares, and he could then devote himself entirely 
 to his drama. Goethe delayed his coming, but letters 
 passed the brisker between them, especially as the 
 Weimar poet had now won Schiller's sympathy for his 
 experiments in natural science. When half the month 
 was gone, and just as his " Walleu stein " was in excellent 
 train, the poet was taken with a violent sore throat, 
 then going the round of the house. " How I shall 
 thank Heaven," he writes to Korner, " when this 
 ' Walleustein ' is off my hands and clear of my desk ! 
 It is a [very] sea to be drunk up, and many a time I 
 do not see to the end of it. Had I ten weeks of unin- 
 terrupted health it would be done." But soon his 
 better mood set in again. On the 26th he notified to 
 Goethe : " I have just signed in due form the death- 
 warrant of the three goddesses Eunomia, Dike, and 
 Irene [the Horeii\. Dedicate to these noble Dead 
 a pious Christian tear ; but condolence is forbidden." 
 He had just sent Cotta a manifesto on the cessation of 
 the Horcn, which that publisher should make use of in 
 a circular on the subject addressed to the trade. Feb- 
 ruary, alas ! brought back the catarrhal complaint and 
 spasms, which unfitted him for any exertion, and made 
 him the more impatient, as inquiries for " Walleustein " 
 began to pour in upon liim from without. Schroder, it 
 appeared, was willing to play the part of the hero upon 
 the Weimar boards, and the Berlin theatre offered to 
 pay any sum in order to get the piece before it was 
 printed. With characteristic strength of will, Schiller 
 gathered his powers together. By the end of February 
 he was already " in the deepest vortex of the action," 
 and the dSnouement of the last act. The fine days that 
 followed drew him for the first time out into the air, 
 which did him good. A vehement longing seized him 
 for his garden residence ; he was already planning 
 buildings to be set up there, a nice bath in one of the
 
 4o8 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 summer-houses, a pavilion and the addition of a new 
 story to the house from which (for there he meant to 
 live himself) he would have a lovely view of the Leutra 
 valley. He had already had a commodious kitchen 
 built, the autumn before, on the site of the northern 
 summer-house. To pay for the new buildings he 
 begged Cotta to advance him five hundred thalers at 
 the beginning of April. " But to get our account per- 
 fectly balanced this year," so he wrote on March 5th, 
 " as soon as ' Wallenstein ' and the new ' Musen Alma- 
 nach' are done with, I shall immediately set about 
 the revision of ' Fiesco,' the ' Robbers,' and ' Plot 
 and Passion.' The ' Wallenstein ' itself will, as far 
 as I am al)le to judge at present, take up nearly twenty 
 sheets." An edition of his " Dramatic Works," in which 
 the youthful plays were to be newly worked up, was 
 what he had promised to Cotta long before. At this 
 time also there fell to him, if somewhat late in the day, 
 two tokens of honour. Campe, on behalf of the French 
 government, sent him the Citizen Franchise, which had 
 been issued actually by Koland, and transmitted to 
 Custine to be forwarded, but had lain at Strasburg ever 
 since. The Coburg government had just issued its 
 Rescript (withheld by it for two years and now extorted 
 by the Duke of Weimar) touching the nomination of 
 Schiller as honorary professor in ordinary, which 
 Meiningen, Gotha, and Weimar had granted long be- 
 fore ; so now at last the senate was able to send him 
 the diploma. The Patent of Citizenship he at the 
 duke's request presented to the Weimar hbrary. He 
 now had himself entered in the directory as a citizen of 
 the French Republic. 
 
 Three-fourths of " Wallenstein " were complete when 
 Goethe at length came to Jena on March 20th, and 
 stayed until April 6th. He thought the three acts 
 excellent, in some passages astonishing, only he saw 
 no possibihty of confining them within stage limits.
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 409 
 
 The chief subject of conversation was the Disquisitions 
 on Art and Science, which Goethe was going to bring 
 out jointly with Meyer, and in which Schiller also 
 had a share assigned to him, Friedrich Schlegel was 
 away at Berlin, and his brother was soon to set out 
 for Dresden. Goethe, while yet at Weimar, had written 
 to Schiller, that when he came over, he would propose 
 to him to see Wilhelm Schlegel twice or thrice before 
 he started, lest in displeasure he should withhold his 
 contributions from the " Almanach." He now asked 
 if Schiller was still bent on keeping him under the 
 ban. As he himself had to see both Schlegel and 
 the painter Tischbein, who wished to call upon Schiller, 
 he would hke to know, for he was expected to act as 
 mediator. There would be a capital opportunity now, 
 if Schlegel were to call with Tischbein ; as he would 
 be away all the summer, no iutrusiveness need be 
 dreaded from him. But Schiller, who looked for no 
 good thing at the hands of Schlegel, or of the vdfe that 
 ruled him, did not care, for the sake of a few articles 
 in the "Almanach," to renew the acquaintanceship. 
 Both he and Lotte had long felt a hearty dislike to 
 the two brothers, whom he thought devoid of right 
 feeling. 
 
 After Goethe's departure, Schiller was going to bend 
 all his powers to the " Wallenstein," in which he now 
 hoped to conquer even the theatrical difficulties. But 
 as early as April 11th he had an attack of catarrhal 
 fever which lasted a fortnight, and brought him so low 
 that he was forced to miss Iffland's " star " performance 
 on the Weimar stage. These would have been a great 
 stimulus to him just now, although in Iffland he did 
 not see an artist of genius. Schroder had far greater 
 qualities as an actor, but he was keeping silence, to 
 Schiller's growing vexation. In vain did Goethe rally 
 him : " You write ' Wallenstein,' and Schroder will 
 come." Schiller now would not hear a word of any
 
 4IO THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 performance of his play ; even if Schroder came, three 
 of the leading characters would be spoiled for want of 
 good actors. Goethe offered no contradiction, as he 
 despaired of the play being made actable. 
 
 In spite of unsettled weather, Schiller moved to his 
 garden on May 7th, hoping there to catch the mood 
 for composition. The pleasant day he spent with 
 Cotta on his way home from Leipzig drew him still 
 nearer to that friend. Cotta's loving care for the poet, 
 whose friendship he regarded as his greatest good 
 fortune, showed itself in the anxiety he felt during a 
 violent thunder-storm that overtook him on his home- 
 ward journey, when he pictured to himself the poet in 
 his lonely garden house. He immediately begged 
 Wolzogen to erect in it, at his cost, and as quickly as 
 possible, a lightning conductor constructed on the best 
 principles, " as a sign of his undying gratitude." 
 
 On the 20th came Goethe, who, with a brief inter- 
 ruption, remained a month. At the stone table in 
 the arbour there was many a good and great word 
 exchanged between the notable pair, as Goethe told 
 Eckermann thirty years after. Only when the north 
 wind would blow sometimes on the finest of evenings, 
 scattering the kitchen-smoke all across the garden, it 
 often drove Goethe to despair. Schiller took a lively 
 interest in his friend's " Achilleis ; " he also carried on 
 the negotiation with Cotta, which much interested 
 Goethe, concerning his work on Art and Science. He 
 suggested that it be named " The Artist," but Meyer's 
 title of " Propyla^a " was preferred. Humboldt's manu- 
 script work on " Hermann und Dorothea," which 
 Schiller was to get printed for him, prompted many 
 aesthetic meditations. And in Goethe's " Theory of 
 Colours" and his experiments on Magnetism both 
 Schiller and Lotte took an eager interest. To them 
 indeed he was the most intimate and entertaining of 
 family friends. He undertook with Meyer to design
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 411 
 
 the cover and frontispiece to the " Almanach," He 
 finished some splendid poems for it during the last 
 days of this visit, while Schiller grew ever more 
 distressed over the " Wallensteiu," which would keep 
 expanding, and changing form. On June 15th he 
 writes in depression to Korner : " One ought to be 
 careful how one ever takes up such a compli- 
 cated, endless, thankless task as my ' Wallenstein,' 
 where the writer has to squander all his poetic re- 
 sources to put some life into a stubborn material. 
 This labour robs me of all the comfort of my life ; it 
 pins me tightly down to one point, and leaves me no 
 chance of taking in other impressions, for I am also 
 haunted by the thought of getting done by a certain 
 time." And now, as a climax, he had once more 
 to put his drama aside, and give attention to the 
 " Almanach." 
 
 This he took up three days after Goethe's departure, 
 yet he could not fall into the proper mood. He had 
 some exquisite pieces of Goethe's, while much that 
 was available had come in from others. From Berlin, 
 Wilhelm Schlegel had sent Goethe a couple of short 
 " Occasional Poems," with the remark that at any rate 
 they would deserve a place in the " Almanach." But 
 Schiller thought he could not accept them unless 
 Schlegel sent another contribution, expressly for the 
 Horen. " I have met with so little civility at the 
 hands of that family," he remarked, " that I must really 
 guard against giving them an opportunity of assuming 
 any consequence ; the very least I should risk would 
 be, that Frau S. would assure everybody that her 
 husband did not work for the ' Almanach,' but that I 
 had pounced upon the two printed poems just to give 
 it a hft." About this time he wrote thanking Hum- 
 boldt in a highly appreciative tone for the book he 
 had sent, though he did not hide the divergence of 
 their views. " Goethe and I," said he, " have drawn
 
 412 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 the line between Epic and Dramatic poetry in a simpler 
 way than your method permitted you, and we do not 
 make the difference anything hke so great. Thus we 
 cannot allow that Tragedy shades off so much into 
 the Lyric; it is absolutely plastic, like the Epos. 
 Goethe is even of opinion that it stands related to 
 Epopteia as Sculpture does to Painting." In the error 
 that he notices in Humboldt's view, he believes he 
 can trace his own influence. " In fact, our common 
 endeavour to form elementary conceptions in aesthetic 
 things led us to apply the metaphysic of art too 
 immediately to objects, and to handle it as a practical 
 tool, for which it is far from being fitted. This has 
 often happened to myself, as in the case of Burger 
 and Matthisson, and especially in my Horen articles." 
 So frankly did he confess how far the influence of 
 Goethe's realistic views had carried him. 
 
 This friend came back to Jena on July 4th, but 
 only a week had passed when his affairs drew him 
 away again to Weimar. He left his August behind, 
 and the boy often came to play with the children in 
 Schiller's garden. The poet now busied himself with 
 revising " The Ghostseer," and with editing the " Alma- 
 nach," toward which Matthisson had given much, while 
 Herder, in dudgeon with the Dioscuri, held aloof. He 
 was pleased with the contributions of Luise Brachmann, 
 whom Hardenberg had recommended to him, so that 
 he even expressed a desire for her personal acquaint- 
 ance. On the afternoon of the 11th (it was Ernst's 
 birthday) the little house in the garden was being set 
 straight. He got on very slowly, however, with the 
 building of the new story, being short of workmen ; 
 however, on the 18th he was safe under shelter again. 
 Unfortunately the spasms returned, but he fought 
 against the suffering, helped in this by the pleasure of 
 seeing his family comfortably housed. He had already 
 had a one-story pavilion built for himself; on the
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 413 
 
 second floor of the house were one large and two 
 smaller rooms fitted up for him, while Lotte occupied 
 the first floor, and the children and servants lived 
 down-stairs. He had in his service the trusty Christine 
 Wezel of Neckarrems, who had come with him from 
 Suabia, her younger sister, and Gottfried Rudolf, his 
 devoted henchman, of whom a life of the poet must 
 needs give grateful mention. On Schiller's death he 
 took service with Cotta, though he could not forget 
 Weimar ; and for many years he was employed by the 
 hereditary princess. Christine, whom they looked 
 upon as one of the family, died in Lotte's service in 
 1814. 
 
 As he had not even yet achieved anything in the 
 lyrical way, Schiller fell back upon " "Wallenstein," but 
 this also he had soon to lay aside. The printing of 
 the " Almanach " had now begun. The " Athenaum " 
 of the two Schlegels having just come out, their " pert, 
 dictatorial, slashing, one-sided manner," gave Schiller 
 almost physical pain, though a certain earnestness and 
 somewhat deep penetration were not wanting, espe- 
 cially to the younger ; merits, as he said, alloyed with 
 many egotistic and repulsive ingi'edients. In their 
 aesthetic judgments there was a great baldness, barren- 
 ness ; stress of words, with httle of matter. This style, 
 he thought, would retard rather than hasten the advent 
 of a healthy pubhc taste for the good and the right in 
 poetry. Goethe would not give up his sense of the 
 importance of the Schlegels in promoting a purer taste 
 as compared with the common run of soulless critics ; 
 however, he reserved what he had to say in their 
 defence for a personal interview. He could not much 
 commend the poem Wilhelm had sent to the " Alma- 
 nach ; " at the same time he hoped to induce him to 
 rewrite it. That Schiller might so speed with the 
 " Wallenstein " that the newly restored theatre could 
 be opened with it, proved, alas ! but a futile wish.
 
 414 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 At last Schiller felt in the key for lyric-writing. 
 He had composed his "Hymn on the Power of For- 
 tune," and was at work upon another poem, when 
 Goethe's arrival, on the evening of July 31st, led him 
 back to " Wallenstein," and the day before he left 
 (August 15th) he was able to read to him the last two 
 acts. But then work at the " Almanach " once more 
 harassed him, and he now resolved to give it up 
 entirely after the next year. Writing to Korner, he 
 says : " The indifference of the public to lyric poetry, 
 and its cold reception of my ' Almanach,' which 
 merited something better, do not make me particularly 
 anxious to continue it; therefore, when 'Wallenstein' 
 is done, I shall keep to drama, and in leisure hours 
 carry on critical and theoretical labours." Despite his 
 discontent and the bad weather, which made a sojourn 
 in his rickety garden-house almost intolerable, he pro- 
 duced in the course of three weeks two ballads that 
 again struck a quite original key, the " Fight with the 
 Dragon," and the " Suretyship." He also completed 
 his Citizen-song (from the " Eleusinian Feast "). Dur- 
 ing the same time occurred his house-warming, on a 
 terrible stormy 25th of August, when he was gladdened 
 by a visit from Fichte, with whom he was now desir- 
 ous to try and keep on at least good-humoured and 
 pleasant terms. 
 
 By September 8th he was back at his " Wallen- 
 stein," meaning to utilise the remainder of the mild 
 season for the love-scenes, to which winter supplied no 
 stimulus, seeing that he was not so happily constituted 
 as Jean Paul, who could draw his inspiration from the 
 coffee-pot. His residence in Goethe's house from the 
 10th to the 15th determined the fate of "Wallenstein." 
 It was there that he resolved to have the " Prologue " or 
 " Prelude " ready for the opening of the restored theatre 
 in four weeks' time from then, and to cut the drama 
 itself into two parts, which should be ready for per-
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 415 
 
 formance before the winter was out. For this solu- 
 tion of the Gordian knot, and for what followed out 
 of it, we have to thank Goethe, who kept insisting 
 that what a man wills to do he can do. There was 
 no time to lose, indeed, for the " Prelude," to stand by 
 itself, had to be considerably enlarged. Goethe did 
 not let him want for encouragement ; he came to Jena 
 himself, where on Michaelmas Day he snatched the 
 " Wallenstein's Camp " from Schiller's hesitating hand ; 
 ay, and even made him write a " Prologue " bearing 
 upon it for the reopening of the theatre. And by the 
 4th of October Schiller actually was able to send this 
 to his friend, then gone back again to Weimar. 
 
 The evening before, our poet had formed an acquaint- 
 ance which sufficiently surprised him, in the person 
 of Johann Baptist Lacher, a young fellow countryman. 
 Born at Wurzach in 1776, and the son of a needy musi- 
 cian, he had g6t the notion fixed in his head that Ger- 
 many, like France, ought to achieve Unity and Civil 
 Equality. Attracted by Fichte's summons, he had 
 hastened in the previous October to Jena, to gather a 
 band of like-minded men, and turn his country upside 
 down. Faihng that, he was resolved to commence in 
 the ranks of the French army his training for his 
 future career. Of course the plan came to nothing, 
 though he had the warmest sympathy of Fichte, Her- 
 der, and his two compatriots, Wieland and Paulus, to 
 cheer him on. The contest for a college bursary hav- 
 ing gone against him, he was now starting for Paris. 
 Before leaving Jena, where the sale of his chattels had 
 realised fifty gulden in cash, he presented himself as a 
 Suabian wishing to revolutionise Germany, and with 
 an introduction from Paulus, before his favourite poet 
 and countryman, who had " played such bewitching 
 music on his heart's most hidden chords." Lacher 
 himself, ten years after, related the interview. " A tall, 
 thin but muscular man stood in the middle of the
 
 4i6 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 room ; a drab overcoat covered his body, though the 
 shirt-collar was open. Yellow hair, cut short, waved 
 about his high, broad forehead ; the eyes are blue, 
 soft, and serious ; the nose somewhat aquiline, with a 
 crease where it joins the forehead ; his countenance is 
 pale ; an extremely fascinating, honest mouth ; and the 
 whole man instinct with zeal and kindliness." Schil- 
 ler listened smihng while the young dreamer in in- 
 nocent, blunt fashion unfolded his plan. The advice, 
 that he should first acquire some knowledge at least of 
 French and of the military profession, he would not 
 accept, even when Schiller hinted at the possibihty of 
 providing for his immediate maintenance. As he was 
 determined to set out on the 5th, Schiller invited him 
 to supper the next evening, at which the strange revo- 
 lutionary found both the " right amiable " hostess and 
 Professor Niethammer ; for Schiller wished to " cele- 
 brate a feast of Suabians." Lotte could not help laugh- 
 ing heartily at the simple, frank way in which the 
 patriot, warmed somewhat by wine, recounted to them 
 the story of his life. When he spoke of his former 
 fantastic scheme of rousing the nation to assert itself, 
 to suppress aU the minor princes, and bring Germany 
 to unity, and thereby to political independence abroad 
 and prosperity at home, Schiller cried out : "0 me ! 
 for goodness' sake leave me my poor little garden- 
 house standing ! " Nor were more serious warnings 
 wanting on his part; yet they failed to touch the 
 young enthusiast, as noble-hearted as he was wrong- 
 headed, who forgot supper, everything, in the heat of 
 his outpourings. It had grown late, and little Karl 
 was asleep on his father's knee, when Lacher thought 
 of withdrawing. Schiller, light in hand, went with 
 him to the steps, and spoke the parting words, which 
 he never forgot : " Come back to your country some 
 day with your French blouse and your German heart." 
 He introduced him to Cotta, and permitted him to
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 417 
 
 correspond with himself. Writing to Goethe, Schiller 
 speaks of this " quaint original of a politico-moral 
 enthusiast" as a man full of good intention, of great 
 ability, and indomitable physical energy. 
 
 At the same time there came to Jena another re- 
 markable Suabian, Schelling, whose recent appoint- 
 ment to the University had been obtained partly with 
 Schiller's help. He immediately called on the poet, 
 and showed toward him great warmth of feeling. 
 Wilhelm Schlegel also was at this time appointed 
 professor. 
 
 The two poets were zealously pushing forward the 
 completion of " Wallenstein's Camp," and its " Pro- 
 logue," for their production on the stage. Schiller had 
 appended the latter to his already finished " Almanach," 
 wherein was announced the publication by Cotta of 
 all three parts of " Walleustein," and also of a select, 
 improved, and enlarged collection of the " Poems." 
 Goethe, with infinite patience and good humour, directed 
 the rehearsals. Schiller brought Lotte to the dress 
 rehearsal on the 11th, to wliich several friends came. 
 All were highly delighted, and Goethe showed the 
 warmest interest, while Schiller was much moved, both 
 by the fine effect of the play and by Goethe's sympathy. 
 On the next night the theatre reopened with the " Pro- 
 logue " and the " Prelude ; " these were followed by 
 the " Corsicans " of the Saxe-Weimar poet, Kotzebue. 
 Schiller's box had necessarily been removed during the 
 alterations, and he sat in the open balcony, first by the 
 side of Goethe, and afterward next the ducal box. 
 Even Caroline Schlegel was obliged to admit that the 
 acting was excellent, and also that everything was 
 pleasing to the eye. It was truly a triumph for the 
 author of " Don Carlos," that by his wholly realistic 
 " Prelude " he had led the audience away into Wallen- 
 stein's world. Caroline might sneer at will about 
 Goethe's pupil having come out more " Goethesque "
 
 4i8 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 than ever, acliieving after years of labour what Goethe 
 could have thrown off in an afternoon ; her husband 
 might joke about his having sold himself to the Evil 
 One, to play the reahst and fend off sentiment. But 
 all Jena, so far as it had any poetic sense, was witness 
 of its poet's triumph. The performance was repeated 
 the next day with great applause. On the 14th Goethe 
 came to Jena for a week ; here he finished his report 
 of the opening of the Weimar theatre, and urged the 
 speedy completion of the " Piccolomini." But the 
 transcription of the play into a " serviceable, intelligi- 
 ble, speakable stage language " went out slowly ; and 
 there was much both to add and to alter. Yet Schiller 
 was already thinking of selling " Wallenstein " for 
 translation to Bell, the London pubhsher; Cotta sliould 
 offer it to him for £60. He had indeed offered it the 
 year before to the tutor Nohden, who had already 
 turned " Fiesco " into Enghsh jointly with Stoddart ; 
 but a prose version of the " Carlos " by the latter had 
 proved anything but satisfactory, and of remuneration 
 not a word had been said. Bell had brought out a 
 translation of " Plot and Passion," and from him, as 
 the principal publisher of the translations and adapta- 
 tions of Kotzebue's plays, Cotta was hkely to obtain 
 the most acceptable terms. 
 
 Not till he had moved into the town again, on 
 November 6th, did Schiller begin the love-scenes which 
 he had kept apart from the political action, and which 
 he had intended to finish when in the garden-house, 
 inspired by the beauties of Nature about him. Goethe 
 was dehghted with the two acts sent to him, and 
 thought the first one almost ready for the stage. On 
 the 11th he managed to come to Jena for a couple of 
 weeks, and again regularly spent his evenings at 
 Schiller's. During the bad weather Schelling fre- 
 quently came in for philosophical discussion. And 
 now, to Schiller's joy, even Kotzebue was asking to
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 419 
 
 have the " Wallenstein " plays for the Vienna theatre. 
 When Goethe was absent, our poet often felt the 
 lonehness and monotony of his life ; but he made an 
 honest use of his time, and worked at his play with 
 success. He was resolved to finish the " Piccolomini " 
 by the end of the year. Hearing that most of the 
 theatres were waiting for the publication of the play, 
 before bringing it on the stage, he put off the printing 
 of it, that he might not miss advantageous offers. 
 Pressure from Iffland on the 24th impelled him to 
 summon up all his strength, so that the complete 
 copy, except of one single scene, was sent off that 
 very day. "Hardly another for thirty miles round 
 has spent such a Holy Eve," said he, writing to Goethe, 
 " so baited and so racked with the fear of not getting 
 done." His friend, in joyful surprise, answers : " You 
 will see yourself, when this affair is blown over, what 
 a gain it has been to you. I look upon it as something 
 infinite." 
 
 On January 4, 1799, Schiller went with his family 
 to Weimar for five weeks. Goethe had secured him 
 a small set of rooms in the castle, which had recently 
 been occupied by the Stuttgart court architect, Thouret. 
 During the winter months, most dangerous to Schiller, 
 he was not entirely exempt from little ailments. Yet 
 the mingling in society and being drawn out of him- 
 self were so beneficial, he could live so much more of 
 a human life again, that in those five weeks, when he 
 attended not only the theatre, but the court and the 
 ballroom, he did more like other men than for years 
 past. Most of his time was spent with Goethe, though 
 visits were paid to Frau von Stein, Frau von Kalb, 
 Herder, Wieland, and Voigt ; even with Jean Paul, 
 now settled at Weimar, who had attached himself to 
 Herder, and opposed the ideal tendency of the two 
 poets, he associated without collision whenever he 
 chanced to meet him in society. Fichte, w^ho had
 
 420 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 been accused of atheism, sent him his " Appeal to the 
 Public." Now Schiller himself was on the side of 
 liberty, and so he expressed himself to the duke on 
 this matter of Ficlite ; but the latter by his public 
 " Appeal " had placed the Weimar government in an 
 awkward predicament. The " Piccolomini," after many 
 reading-lessons given at Goethe's house, followed up 
 by partial, and then by full rehearsals, was at last per- 
 formed on the duchess's birthday, the 30th. The 
 Norwegian natural philosopher, Stetiens, aged twenty- 
 seven, who with the assistance of Count Schimmel- 
 mann had come to Jena to confer with Schelling, 
 happened to get a seat next to Schiller, whose personal 
 acquaintance he now made for the first time, having 
 been kept away from the poet by the hostile Schlegel 
 clique. He was neither inspired by the acting nor by 
 the poetry, and must have cut a sorry figure by the 
 side of the poet enjoying his work. As a whole the 
 performance was a brilliant success. The actors, though 
 there was not a genius among them, did their very 
 utmost, and Goethe was richly rewarded for the im- 
 mense pains he had bestowed on the correct utterance 
 of blank verse, a thing altogether new to them. Yet 
 there were not wanting some censorious voices. It 
 was complained that the action broke off just when 
 you were in suspense for the catastrophe ; but the 
 majority of spectators, surrendering their w^hole soul 
 to the impression, felt that a superior spirit breathed 
 around them. A most beautiful echo of the per- 
 formance reached the poet in a letter from Frau von 
 Kalb, who gave warm utterance to the impression 
 made upon her soul. He replied : " You found me 
 [in the play] ; I am glad of that, for I spoke out my 
 own being all through." The duke invited both the 
 poets to dinner on February 1st; the chief players, 
 Grafif and Vohs, received gratuities from him and the 
 duchess. A second performance on the 2d of the
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 421 
 
 month went off even better than the first. Schiller 
 thanked Graff by letter for his rendering of the part 
 of Wallenstein, in which it would be hard to find any 
 one to follow him. On the 4th Schiller dined with 
 the duke in his private room. He returned to Jena 
 two days after, accompanied by Goethe ; he must be 
 quick in finishing the Third Part, for it was to be acted 
 in April. The three weeks that Goethe spent at Jena 
 again yielded evening conversations full of interest ; 
 with Schelhng and other philosophers Schiller might 
 play I'hombre, but Goethe cared as little as did Korner 
 for such idle pastime. " When you hear Schiller and 
 Goethe talk," says Lotte, " your mind is full of ways 
 of using your days and your life, without the need of 
 idle chat." A report of the " Piccolomini " performance 
 was despatched to the Allgemeine Zcitung ; then 
 " Wallenstein's Death " and the " Theory of Colours " 
 were much discussed. Goethe tried to keep his friend 
 up to the habit acquired at Weimar of going out, and 
 actually got him to dine with him at the castle several 
 times. 
 
 When Schiitz's wife sent round a subscription hst 
 for establishing a private theatre, Schiller declared 
 that the sum subscribed ought to be spent on the 
 improvement of the Weimar theatre : amateur perform- 
 ances would only hinder that, without bringing any 
 gain. This was quite in accord with Goethe's feeling : 
 he might let pass little actings at family celebrations, 
 but he had no patience with dilettantism, even in the 
 histrionic art. When they were getting up theatricals 
 for his friend Loder's birthday, he showed himself 
 quite willing to assist at the general rehearsal, that he 
 might by his comments raise the character of the 
 performance. On this occasion Steffens, in Kotzebue's 
 " Play-actor Against His Will," had recited two high- 
 flown passages out of Schiller's early dramas in the 
 most ranting style, to turn them to ridicule, when
 
 422 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 Goethe stepped up to him and said : " Pray choose 
 some other passages ; our good friend Schiller we 
 would rather leave out of the play." Wlien the theat- 
 ricals at Schiitz's house were suppressed soon after, by 
 order from Weimar, it raised a feehng against Schiller, 
 who was supposed to have had a hand in it. 
 
 During this period he received a letter urgently 
 praying for help from his old landlady Hcilzel at Mann- 
 heim, whom the bad times had brought into bitter 
 distress. " My Hcilz's hoary head appeals to your 
 benevolent heart, and so do I," she wrote at the end. 
 He immediately sent her a sympathising letter, and an 
 order for five Carolines on Cotta, who was to forward 
 the same sum again in September. " Dear friends," 
 he wrote, " in any future trouble turn to me ; I will 
 help with heart and hand to the utmost of my power." 
 The good woman's gratitude was touchingly expressed 
 in the words, " I weep at this moment, and you will 
 weep with me in my misery, when I tell you that with 
 your money I was able for the first time to burn a 
 light again of an evening." When they were in trouble 
 again three years after, Schiller obtained for her son 
 Adolf a place as scene-shifter and decorator. 
 
 To his friend, who had returned to Weimar, he 
 writes : " I seem to be looking back on days much 
 more distant than they really are ; the fact is, the 
 theatre world and my seeing more of society, and our 
 unbroken intercourse, have wrought an immense change 
 in my condition, and when once I am rid of this huge 
 ' Wallenstein ' business, I shall feel myself quite a new 
 being." By the preparations for the hero's murder hav- 
 ing a greater amplitude and more theatric prominence 
 given them, " Wallenstein's Death " soon reached the 
 dimensions of the indispensable five acts. When the 
 first two were sent to Goethe, he read them with real 
 interest : one might rest assured of their effect on the 
 stage. Encouraged by this good word, the poet pushed
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 423 
 
 on so rapidly that on March 17th he was able to send 
 the last three acts to his friend, who thought the new 
 motives in them very tine and well-chosen ; if Schiller 
 could afterward diminish somewhat the bulk of the 
 " Piccolomini " (it had once included even the first two 
 acts of the " Death "), the two parts would then be a 
 priceless boon to the German stage ; the last part had 
 indeed this great advantage, that it dealt merely with 
 the heart of man, the historical element being only as 
 a thin veil over the purely human. 
 
 When Goethe came to Jena again on the 21st, Schil- 
 ler had already fixed on a new dramatic subject and 
 that a fictitious one, though previously he had forsworn 
 such ; it was his old plot of " The Hostile Brothers." 
 That he might not be disturbed in its execution, he 
 wished this time in place of the " Almanach " to bring 
 out an epic poem, " The Sisters of Lesbos," by Frau von 
 Stein's niece, Amalie von Imhoff, in whose endowment 
 as a poet and painter Schiller took a warm interest. 
 Goethe promised an elegy by way of introduction ; just 
 then he was at work on his " Achilleis," with the most 
 active sympathy on Schiller's part. In April all three 
 parts of " Wallenstein " were to be given in quick suc- 
 cession. On March 26th the first two acts of the 
 " Death " were sent to the theatre, the other three on 
 the 29th. Goethe came up on April 10th with Schil- 
 ler, and preliminary rehearsals took up the next few 
 days. Then the three parts were played all in one 
 week, on the Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday (April 
 15th, 17th, 20th), and the "Death" given again the 
 Monday after. The effect of this last was astonishing, 
 even the least susceptible found themselves carried 
 away ; the play had exceeded all expectations, though 
 ill-wishers like Caroline Schlegel found the magnificent 
 poem wanting in instinct, and its conclusion ineffect- 
 ive, and Herder would have nothing to say to these 
 grand historical dramas, in which he missed the purifi-
 
 424 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 cation of passion. Him Schiller had just then offended 
 by expressing an unfavourable opinion (so he was 
 informed) of the crusade he had opened in tlie Meta- 
 Icritik against Kant. The performance of " Wallen- 
 stein's Death " was the first complete triumph of a 
 dramatist who had ripened to such perfection in his 
 art that he had in truth, despite Dame Lucifer's cheap 
 mockery, made for liimself an immortal name. After 
 the splendid success of this historical drama, Schiller 
 at once decided to drop his fictitious theme ; he re- 
 solved to follow up the " Wallcnstein " with a " Mary 
 Stuart," a subject he had proposed to himself many years 
 before. On the 25th he quitted Weimar, where the 
 ceaseless chatter about his play had at last bored him, 
 and returned to Jena.
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 APRIL, 1799, TO MARCH, 1804. 
 
 Knowing now what he could do, on ground that he 
 had conquered, Schiller strode from victory to victory. 
 Four great dramas, each worked on a different pattern, 
 placed among a different people, in a different century, 
 and all illumined by his lofty spirit, were accomplished, 
 though not without intervals between, as the adapta- 
 tion of several foreign plays had to serve him for rest 
 and reinvigoration, and the lyric vein, too, yielded now 
 and then some glorious songs and ballads. He led a 
 more sociable life, especially after his removal to 
 Weimar, which brought him to Goethe's side and 
 into immediate connection with the theatre ; nay, the 
 court, after giving him a title of nobility, as it had to 
 Goethe twenty years before, drew him into its own 
 circles with the more marked distinction as the other 
 held more aloof. His outward circumstances improved, 
 though he never glutted himself, Hke Kotzebue, with 
 pensions, prebends, and rich sinecures ; and so he might 
 hope to leave his increasing family not without means. 
 But what rejoiced him more than all was the fairest 
 fruit of his alliance with Goethe, viz., the full and 
 varied development of his vast dramatic powers, not- 
 withstanding all the illnesses that often grievously 
 hindered him, and even brought him to death's door. 
 
 When Goethe came to Jena on May 1st he found 
 Schiller deep in the historical sources of his " Mary." 
 This time they not only spent the evenings in their 
 
 425
 
 426 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 customary converse, but as Goethe had brought a car- 
 riage with him, they drove out together nearly every 
 day. Cotta returning from Leipzig called on the 2d ; 
 he handed over the sum promised by the Berlin theatre. 
 Schiller felt so- well that he was able to visit the Eng- 
 lishman Mellish in his summer residence at Dornburg, 
 having made his acquaintance when at Weimar, On 
 the 10th he moved to his garden. Here the essays 
 for the " Propylffia " were looked and talked over ; 
 Schiller was willing even to spend a few months him- 
 self on contributions to it, though the completion of 
 " Mary Stuart " would be delayed by it until the end 
 of winter. The friends, aiming at the highest perfec- 
 tion in art, were preparing an onslaught on the chaos 
 of Dilettantism, about which Goethe was drawing up a 
 plan. They also thouglit of publishing a " German 
 Theatre," an adaptation of our elder dramas to the 
 modern stage. With Amalie von Imhoff they held 
 personal conferences on her " Sisters of Lesbos," and 
 here they had to battle with the narrow wilfulness of 
 Dilettantism : the offended poetess wished to withdraw 
 her work. 
 
 When Goethe left him on the 27th, Schiller felt 
 quite isolated ; he associated indeed with the philos- 
 ophers Niethammer and Schelliug, but these were 
 getting more identified with the Schlegel group. Kot- 
 zebue, who had been roughly handled in the " Xenien," 
 and had retired from his office at Vienna with a hand- 
 some sinecure salary, now settled at Jena, where he 
 occupied a garden in the so-called Paradise ; Schiller 
 declined any close connection with him. He must 
 have been a shifty fellow, whom, notwithstanding the 
 moral contempt he had drawn upon himself by first 
 writing and then disowning his grovelling " Doctor 
 Bahrdt of the Brazen Brow," the folks at Vienna and 
 Berlin found more the man for their money, whose 
 shallow but clever manufactures deluged the theatres
 
 
 i 

 
 I that 
 
 ha\Tj' 
 
 the 1 . . , 
 
 for t' • ^ , ,1 " W( 
 
 Si. .vas willing e \ 
 
 self on contributions to it, the col 
 
 "Mary Stuart" would be dela^^ed by it v 
 
 of winter. The fr: ^   - at the b- 
 
 of 
 
 , who. had been rou ndled in the " Xenien," 
 
 and had from ' ma with a ha 
 
 Sf ' now "^ ' ' 
 
 d( 
 
 have been a shifty fellow, whom, standing the 
 
 '- he had drawn upon himself by fir 
 
 iL vi lilt; :M,i.i'u iv'i.'Vij lju; l'hi-..> ii 
 
 frmnrl morn th^. Tnnn f^">r thri'* ■; 
 For/tiH/ of ScJiilh') 
 
 Photogravure from an eiigraviny liy Massol

 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 427 
 
 at home and abroad, and were highly paid for even in 
 England. To Schiller, on the other hand, no one made 
 an offer, and he was driven to sohcit through Cotta a 
 bargain with Bell, the London publisher. The Wallen- 
 stein plays had once more been performed at Weimar. 
 Kotzebue having begged to see the MS., Schiller prom- 
 ised it him, because (as he wrote to Goethe) this favour 
 cost him less than a call or a supper would have done. 
 Kotzebue wanted to have a closer look at it, that he 
 might himself make similar attempts at historical plays 
 in blank verse. 
 
 With " Mary Stuart," begun on June 4th, Schiller 
 made slow advance ; to open the subject was hard work, 
 and he was hindered by many visitors, especially by a 
 visit of a week from his sister and brother-in-law 
 Eeinwald. The latter, harassed and pinched in cir- 
 cumstances, was now still more bowed down by his 
 hypochrondriac infirmity ; he offered him few, and 
 those not the pleasantest, points of contact, being a 
 type of the ordinary " imperfectible, narrow way of 
 thinking," which might drive one to despair, if one 
 expected anything of it. The more did Schiller enjoy 
 the fond affection of his sister, who had so much to 
 bear from Eeinwald, and who was the passionately 
 devoted companion of his early youth. On the 30th 
 he went on with her to Weimar, where during the 
 presence of their Prussian Majesties he stayed at 
 Goethe's. The court being pressed for room, the poet 
 had had to take the crown prince into his house, and 
 could only offer his friend very makeshift accommoda- 
 tion. The king had purposely abstained from seeing 
 " Wallenstein's Death " acted at Berlin that he might 
 drink it in first at the f ountainhead. Here it was given 
 with great applause on July 2d. The author had to 
 pay his respects to the royal pair ; he found Queen 
 Louisa " very kindly, and of an extremely obliging 
 deportment." All this time Goethe was in such request
 
 428 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 that Schiller saw but little of him. Not to disturb his 
 friend's enjoyment of these days of triumph, he with- 
 held from him the sorry news he had just received from 
 Cotta, that, of the " Propylsea," for which both poets 
 had counted on a marked success, barely 450 copies 
 had gone off. When Schiller on returning home learnt 
 tlie fact by a letter from Cotta, he felt angered at the 
 shabby conduct of the pubhc, in valuing so slightly a 
 work in which an artistic genius of the highest order 
 was giving out the rich results of his lifelong study. 
 If the gracious Majesties honoured the poet with no 
 sensible token of their favour, he was the more pleased 
 at the duchess presenting him with an elegant silver 
 coffee-service. The ducal theatre paid nothing for 
 Schiller's dramas ; on the other hand, he insisted, with 
 Goethe's hearty approval, on receiving a proportionate 
 sum out of the Weimar Company's performances in 
 other places. 
 
 Notwithstanding the great heat of July, Schiller 
 finished the first act of his " Mary " on the 24th, and 
 began the second the next day. To his sorrow, as 
 Goethe was detained at Weimar, he missed his best 
 external stimulus. He wrote to him, " With the phi- 
 losophers, you know, one can only play at cards." It 
 was at this tin)e that Tieck came to Jena for a fort- 
 night, where he made friends with Hardenberg, now 
 entirely estranged from Schiller. The latter, while at 
 Leipzig, had become a passionate admirer of Friedrich 
 Schlegel, to whom he assigned a most distinguished 
 role, that of an ultimate reconciler of all philosophies, 
 and Caroline did what lay in her power to lower Schiller 
 in his estimation. Goethe, whom he considered the 
 most remarkable physicist of the age, also passed with 
 him for the only poet. This Hardenberg, who wished 
 to see all the sciences poetised, had not a point left of 
 mental sympathy with Schiller, though personally he 
 wished him well all the while, and kept up a friendly
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 429 
 
 intercourse with him at Jena. With Tieck, the true 
 poet of the Eomautic, Schiller was not ill-pleased ; his 
 style, if not remarkable for strength, was refined, 
 thoughtful, suggestive, and there was nothing of the 
 flippant in him. Schiller drew his attention to Spanish 
 literature, which he thought likely to suit him with 
 his turn for the fantastic and romantic. But Dame 
 Lucifer set him against Schiller the more easily as his 
 brother-in-law Eeichardt was still his inveterate enemy. 
 She also got hold of Schelling and Niethammer, and 
 even Paulus and his wife donned her livery. Thus all 
 the Suabians in Jena fell away from Schiller. Happily 
 his health was now stronger, and he was comforted by 
 the assurance that he had not mistaken his vocation. 
 It is affecting to read the resolution he confided to 
 Kdrner, that for the " next six years " he would con- 
 fine himself to the drama. Alas ! before the six years 
 had run their course he was gone. He had now de- 
 termined for the future to hve the whole winter at 
 Weimar ; to study the stage with his own eyes made 
 work much easier for him, and lent the imagination a 
 suitable stimulus from without. 
 
 Goethe, unable to leave Weimar, had retired to his 
 garden-house, and sent his family to Jena. " Pray 
 make August welcome at your house now and then," 
 he asks of Schiller. It is probably not accidental that 
 Schiller left this unanswered ; no doubt Lotte was 
 afraid the boy would bring the mother upon them, too ; 
 and she was her abomination. When informed by 
 Schiller that he is studying ways and means for spend- 
 ing the winter months at Weimar, because he feels 
 more strongly every day his need of attendances at 
 the theatre, Goethe replies : " We will gladly do our 
 best to further it." SchiUer mentioned his determina- 
 tion to petition the duke for that increase of salary 
 of which hopes had been held out to him five years 
 before, yet the matter would be much simplified, no
 
 43° THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 doubt, if he could make his presence useful to the 
 theatre. Goethe would williugly on the part of the 
 theatre have aided his friend to live at Weimar, had 
 he come over at the commencement of the acting sea- 
 son, but that was hindered by Lotte's approaching 
 confinement. He heard, however, that Frau von 
 Kalb's apartments would be empty, and at once sent 
 Schiller word ; to be sure, the lodgings would only let 
 by the year, but then the theatre had every reason to 
 make the remove easy to him. Otherwise, he offered 
 him for himself the same rooms at the castle that he 
 had occupied in January, as he had not the space in 
 his own house to make a convenient winter residence. 
 But Schiller made up his mind to rent Frau von Kalb's 
 apartments for a year. Goethe then persuaded him to 
 take them on a lease of several years, and himself made 
 the agreement for him with the owner, Miiller the wig- 
 maker. It was the first floor, well known to Lotte, of 
 the house A 71 in the Windischengasse, and the rent 
 came to 122 thalers. Frau von Kalb expressed her 
 willingness to leave some of her furniture in the 
 rooms. 
 
 Goethe, who directed the printing of the " Almauach," 
 required some more poems for it, as the epic of the 
 " Lesbian Sisters " alone would not furnish sufficient 
 matter. Through Meyer's intervention he obtained 
 a good number of pieces from Herder; he himself 
 could contribute nothing. On the 26th, Schiller, hav- 
 ing finished the second act of "Mary Stuart," wished 
 to try something lyrical, but succeeded so ill, that he 
 betook himself the very next day to the third act, in 
 which he made use of Ivric metres. The " Almanach," 
 which mixed him up with twenty or thirty metre- 
 mongers, was become so hateful to him that he wanted 
 to throw it up for good. Yet on September 3d, having 
 got to the scene in " Mary " between the two queens, 
 he broke off; he wished, if possible, to produce some-
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 43^ 
 
 thing in the lyric manner again. On the 4th he set 
 out with his family for Ruclolstadt, of which he had 
 seen nothing for seven years, intending to recreate him- 
 self thoroughly there, Lotte, too, was suffering from 
 spasms, and needed rest. Here they led, as before, a 
 life of cheerful ease, in the circle of their kindred and 
 friends. He had already laid before the duke his 
 request that he would lessen the increase of expense 
 which his removal to Weimar and a double establish- 
 ment had occasioned, by a rise in his salary. He re- 
 minded him of the gracious advice given by himself at 
 the beginning of the year, to attend the theatre more 
 frequently. He desired to draw nearer to his gracious 
 master and their S. H. the duchesses, and, by zealously 
 striving for his approval, to perfect himself yet further 
 in his art, and thereby possibly contribute some little 
 to the duke's own amusement. Coming up to Weimar 
 on the 13th, he learned that the duke had gi-anted him 
 an additional two hundred dollars, to commence with 
 Michaelmas ; further, he had four loads of firewood 
 and other small privileges placed in prospect. 
 
 On the 15th he returned to Jena, whither Goethe 
 followed him the very next day, intending there to 
 execute a translation of Voltaire's " Mahomet " by de- 
 sire of the duke, and to revise with Wilhelm Schlegel 
 the prosody of his poems in hexameters and elegiacs, 
 for his new " Collection," then coming out. Friedrich 
 also had come home. Goethe often went to their 
 house, but, as a rule, Wilhelm called on him at the 
 castle, and walked out with him for several hours. 
 Goethe's clinging to the Schlegels was not at all to 
 Schiller's taste ; they wanted right feehng and heart, 
 the pair of them, and their reckless onslaught even on 
 Humboldt, who had always kept on good terms with 
 them, showed they were " rotten to the core." How 
 hostile they were to himself, he knew but too well. 
 But Goethe valued Wilhelm's vast knowledge, his cul-
 
 432 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 tivated taste, and particularly his talent for language 
 and versification, as well as Friedrich's pliilosophic 
 mind, which Schiller never disputed ; to their failiugs 
 he was far from being bhnd. He had written to Schiller 
 a month before : " It is a pity that both the brothers 
 lack a certain sohd core to give them steadfastness and 
 solidity. Then again, in personal relationship you can't 
 be sure at all of getting off without a drubbing from 
 them at some time or other. Yet I will more readily 
 forgive them a hard rap, than the infamous manner of 
 the masters in journalism." Did not they stand up for 
 the principles of the new school of philosophy and art, 
 though they were so unjust to Schiller as to deny him 
 any true poetic talent ? Goethe's close alliance with 
 Schiller showed the brothers how highly he prized 
 him ; neither of them was bold enough to utter a 
 word against him in his presence, or even to print 
 one. He just used them for his own ends, and avoided 
 anything that might have changed his devoted ad- 
 mirers into declared enemies, of whom he had enough 
 already. 
 
 Goethe's evenings were given up almost to Schiller 
 alone, who was then busy with his great " Song of the 
 Bell " and the " Collection " of his poems. That glori- 
 ous Song, with which the " Almanach " was to end, he 
 sent to the press on September 30th. He went back 
 at once to " Mary," besides which he was meditating 
 two other dramatic fables, the pretender Warbeck and 
 his old " Knights of Malta," of which he meant to sub- 
 mit the outline to the duke. When he moved into the 
 town on October 5th, he was looking forward with 
 intense anxiety to his wife's confinement, which took 
 place with difficulty but safely about eleven o'clock on 
 the night of the 11th. He was excessively overjoyed 
 at Lotte's safety and the birth of a strong and healthy 
 daughter. Baptised on the morning of the 15th, she 
 received the names of Caroline Henriette Luise, of
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 433 
 
 which only the last could have been taken from one 
 of the three sponsors, Fran von Lengenfeld ; the parish 
 register mentions as such J. W. Goethe, who had left 
 on the 13th, Lotte's mother, and her Rudolstadt friend, 
 Friederike von Gleichen. The last two names were 
 given to Schiller's second daughter as well. Lotte's 
 slow recovery made Schiller uneasy ; and he could not 
 escape many domestic cares, though the presence of his 
 mother-in-law was a great comfort. During this time 
 he had his poems and a second part of his prose writ- 
 ings copied for the press, offered the publisher a new, 
 improved, and enlarged edition of his " Eevolt of the 
 Netherlands," and saw to the forwarding of his " Wal- 
 lenstein " to the English publisher. Bell, who agreed 
 to pay X60 for the right of translation. On the 22d 
 he took up the plot of his " Knights " again. But the 
 very next night Lotte was attacked by a nervous fever, 
 attended with violent dehrium. She would have no 
 one about her but himself, her own mother, and the 
 landlady, and Scliiller was in perpetual excitement. 
 He sat up the second night with the sufferer, whose 
 ravings were anguishing to him. It was not till the 
 30th that the physician pronounced her out of danger, 
 though even then she had not recovered the possession 
 of her senses. At length, on November 5th, an im- 
 provement set in, and Schiller was able the next day 
 for his recreation to drive over to Weimar for a few 
 hours with Karl, and this time he actually left the boy 
 behind at Goethe's house. Unhappily the convales- 
 cence did not continue. Goethe came on the 9th to 
 stay. It was twelve days more before Lotte was so 
 far restored that she was able to write a letter. With 
 a lightened heart Schiller now gave himself up to 
 Goethe's society, who had finished his " Mahomet " 
 and was chiefly occupied with his " Theory of Colours." 
 On December 3d he and his went from Jena. Fried- 
 rich Schlegel had by this time brought in his Dorothea
 
 434 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 Veit ; Tieck and his family were settled at Jena ; and 
 Hardenberg often came over. 
 
 At Weimar, Lotte with Karl and little Caroline took 
 up her temporary abode at Frau von Stein's; while 
 Scliiller, having Ernst witli him, managed with the 
 help of his sister-in-law the fitting up of his new resi- 
 dence, and also looked after many delayed letters and 
 parcels. He waited on the duke, and was kindly 
 received. We here give the facsimile of a note writ- 
 ten by Schiller to Lotte on the 7th. The " Schwenkin " 
 was a faithful servant of Dame Wolzogen (the " Frau "), 
 viz. Wilhelmiue Schwenke, who afterward nursed Schil- 
 ler in his last hours ; the " Oper," Salieri's " Ciphered 
 Casket." On the 8th Goethe came home to Weimar, 
 and now the closest communion recommenced between 
 them. Scliiller was able to take part in society, though 
 he suffered once from the spasms again. On Monday, 
 the 16th, Lotte took possession of her new and well- 
 appointed home. The two boys were in high spirits 
 and health, and the baby daughter, with her pleasing, 
 delicate features, and a look full of expression that 
 reminded Lotte of the Princess of Kudolstadt, was a 
 source of the liveliest pleasure to them all. The rooms 
 below were inhabited by Frau von Stein's brother. 
 Privy Councillor von Schardt, who, with his gi-aceful, 
 refined, poetically gifted wife, proved most kind and 
 obhging. Frau von Stein and the brother and sister- 
 in-law offered the friendliest society; then the court 
 and many social circles were open to them at Weimar. 
 On the evening of the 17th Schiller was at Goethe's 
 house, and heard his translation of " Mahomet " read 
 before the duke and duchess. Ten days after both 
 poets dined with the duke. They spent the last even- 
 ing of the year in the most familiar friendship. Schil- 
 ler had by this time finished the third act of his " Mary," 
 and was now to have a share in the management of 
 the theatre, the improvement of which lay so near to
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 435 
 
 Goethe's heart ; and this brought him into closer con- 
 tact with the players. To drive Kotzebue entirely off 
 the boards was more than they could do, as he was 
 a favourite with the dowager-duchess ; they had to give 
 his " Gustavus Vasa," written in blank verse in imitation 
 of Schiller, and overfull of action. 
 
 The year 1800 opened so favourably, that Schiller 
 could not only frequent the theatre but the club, and 
 take Lotte to the ball. Most evenings he was with 
 Goethe, who persuaded him to make a prologue for the 
 performance of his " Mahomet," and an adaptation of 
 " Macbeth ; " in the meantime his own play stood still. 
 After the rehearsals of " Mahomet," he gave the actors 
 an entertainment. Everything was going on well ; the 
 printing of " Wallenstein " had just begun, when on 
 February 16th he was seized with a nervous fever 
 which fell upon his chest. A young physician, Doctor 
 Harbaur, who had formed his friendship while at Jena, 
 offered to attend him, and devoted himself to him with 
 self-denying love. The poet's friends had given him 
 up, when the stimulating remedies apphed just saved 
 his life. In ten days the fever had given way, but he 
 still suffered from cough and a stitch in the side, and 
 felt extremely exhausted. All Weimar showed the 
 most anxious sympathy ; and Goethe and Meyer proved 
 most faithful friends, whose visits were as a cordial to 
 the worn-out sufferer. On March 23d Schiller was 
 able to call on Goethe, who was then himself ill, and 
 sorely longing for him. The meeting was a delightful 
 one for each. Though the air and the climbing of stairs, 
 especially at his own house, affected Schiller a good 
 deal, afflicted as he still was with the cough, yet he 
 was able to repeat the visit, and soon even to venture 
 to the theatre again. The mild spring air completed 
 his recovery. And Lotte was in good spirits, too ; she 
 had soon adapted herself to the social life of Weimar. 
 As she now had to spend more on her attire, the second
 
 436 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 housemaid was replaced by a more showy lady's maid. 
 Schiller had quite given up the intention of passing 
 the summer at Jena ; his garden there was put up to 
 let, and at the end of March was taken by Professor 
 Hufeland. While attending to the printing of " Wal- 
 lenstein " and of the prose works, he finished translating 
 " Macbeth," and also took an active part in revising 
 Goethe's Collection of Poems. With his health he also 
 recovered all his vigour of mind, and was meditating 
 a journey to Berlin. He felt in such happy tune for 
 dramatic composition that he offered the pubhsher 
 Unger, of Berlin, a drama of his in lieu of the " The- 
 ater Kalendar " he had proposed before. He could now 
 put up with Goethe's unwillingness to break with the 
 Schlegels ; their ill-will toward him did not trouble 
 him, though it was carried to such a pitch of infatua- 
 tion, that Caroline Schlegel had the mad arrogance to 
 write to her little spoiled daughter about Schiller's 
 imperishable " Song of the Bell," saying that at dinner 
 they nearly fell ofl' their chairs with laughing at it : 
 it was " d la Voss, d la Tieck, 4 la Diable." Schelliug 
 called on Schiller before leaving for Bamberg, to com- 
 mend himself to his continued friendship, and handed 
 to him his " System of Transcendental Idealism." He 
 wrote soon after and asked what they thought at 
 Weimar of his too fierce attack on the AUgcmeiiu 
 Literatur Zeitung, for which that journal threatened 
 him with an action. Schiller closed his reply with 
 the wish : " As you yourself in your system weave so 
 close a bond between poet and philosopher, let the 
 same inseparably bind our friendship." Unfortunately 
 the philosopher, tarred on by Caroline, had left many 
 weak points in his argument, which were exposed in 
 Schiitz's reply. Schelling, like all the Eomanticists, 
 was unjust to Schiller as a poet ; as a philosopher he 
 valued him more highly. 
 
 After finishing "Macbeth," Schiller returned with
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 437 
 
 all his soul to " Mary Stuart ; " at the same time he 
 took charge of the theatre, both during Goethe's illness, 
 and still more when at the end of April he accom- 
 panied the duke to Leipzig Fair. He bestowed par- 
 ticular pains on the rehearsals of " Macbeth," which 
 he had already offered to the Berlia and Frankfort 
 theatres, though in the first case without success. 
 Free movement in the fresh air during his walks 
 with Meyer, and the pleasure he took in his work, 
 had alike a good effect on his health, for he never felt 
 so well as when he lived wholly in his poetry. Cotta, 
 in passing through with his wife, stayed at Weimar on 
 the 3d and 4th of May. The remembrance of the 
 goodness and kindness they had met with in Schiller's 
 household made them both wish they could spend 
 their lives near these friends. Schiller now felt will- 
 ing to continue the "Almanach." Cotta took down 
 a copy of his "Words of Illusion," and there was 
 again talk of the "Knights." On the 11th Schiller 
 had the players at his house from five o'clock until 
 eleven to read the first four acts of his " Mary." 
 " Macbeth " was played for the first time on the 14th 
 and with great applause. The next day Schiller, with 
 his man Eudolf, retired to the ducal castle at Etters- 
 burg, a league and a half from Weimar, to finish his 
 fifth act ; for the bustle of the street and the children's 
 noise disturbed him. 
 
 Goethe was home from his journey on the 16th, 
 but could not go to see him, and Meyer went instead ; 
 the duke himself paid him a visit, being now as kindly 
 disposed toward him, as the duchess was on intimate 
 terms with Lotte. The reading rehearsals of his new 
 drama brought him up to Weimar on the 23d, where 
 he received Cotta on his way through from Leipzig. 
 On the evening of the 25th he returned to Ettersburg. 
 Four days later the players who were to act Mary, 
 Mortimer, Burleigh, and Melvil came down for a
 
 438 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 rehearsal, but there was more chatting than rehearsing 
 done. Then Schiller, beginning after all to find his 
 solitude tedious, left Ettersburg on June 2d. In 
 another week the fifth act of " Mary " was complete, 
 and its performance was being got up with the greatest 
 care. The duke having heard through the actress 
 Jagemann that in the last act Mary was to take the 
 Sacrament, he urged Goethe to prevent its being done. 
 Of course Schiller had no choice but to submit to the 
 express will of the sovereign, however much the play 
 might suffer by the omission. The drama was given 
 with great effect on the 14th, and repeated two days 
 after. Besides the excellence of individual renderings, 
 the performance was marked by that perfect balance 
 and harmony of the whole to which Goethe had 
 trained his company. Schiller's confidence in his 
 dramatic power was much strengthened by the great 
 success of this play, whose completion had been kept 
 back by two serious illnesses. He writes to Korner: 
 " I am beginning at last to get a control over the dra- 
 matic organ, and to understand my trade." He had 
 already set his heart on a new subject, the treatment 
 of which was to form a perfect contrast to that of 
 " Mary," viz. the visionary maid who wrested France 
 from England's grasp. " Every subject wants a shape 
 of its own," says he to Korner, " and Art consists in 
 finding the fittest. The idea of a tragedy should be 
 always mobile and in the state of getting-to-be, and 
 only virtualiter be embodied in the one hundred or 
 one thousand possible forms." But his first business 
 was to furnish copies of " Mary " to the Berlin and 
 Leipzig theatres. 
 
 The whole of " Wallenstein " was now in print. The 
 impression was of four thousand copies in three differ- 
 ent editions, respectively on vellum, wi'iting, and print- 
 ing paper. His plan of making the theatres bid for 
 the use of the MS. had broken down miserably ; Berlin
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 439 
 
 alone paid anything ; at Vienna the performance was 
 prohibited by the censorship ; at Stuttgart, where his 
 earher plays were then under interdict, they would not 
 venture on " Wallenstein " fur fear of the Imperialists ; 
 Frankfort and Magdeburg were frightened at the price. 
 In England the poet fared worst of all. The London 
 publisher, after selling the MS. to another, who had it 
 translated by Coleridge, refused payment ; it was only 
 obtained in the course of the next two years in four 
 instalments. A French translation, which Count Nar- 
 bonne wished to undertake while living at Eisenach, 
 never appeared ; the four or five hundred livres that 
 Schiller asked for the MS. seem to have stood in the 
 way. 
 
 A source of the purest invigoration of mind and 
 heart to the poet was his continued intimacy with 
 Goethe, whose boy, too, was little Karl's most constant 
 playmate. He now found it impossible to produce the 
 " Almanach '' promised to Cotta, for his whole soul 
 impelled him to drama. By July 1st he was getting 
 more into his subject, of which he said nothing even 
 to Goethe. On the 4th he informs his wife, who had 
 then been a week at Eudolstadt, that the plot of 
 his new tragedy would soon be ready. And during 
 Goethe's absence, from July 2 2d until August 4th, he 
 was incessantly at his drama, carefully getting up the 
 authorities, though at the same time he had " War- 
 beck " floating in his mind too. " A demon pursues 
 me," he declares on July 28th, " till I can see the two 
 pieces I have next my mind fairly written out." If 
 he got his " Mary " done in seven months and a half, 
 he thinks that now, with increased practice and gi-eater 
 certainty in execution, he can turn out a play in six 
 months. "At that rate I hope to make up for past 
 delay, and, if I live to be fifty, to earn a place yet 
 among prolific writers for the stage." Alas ! the 
 spasms were already tormenting him again, and at
 
 440 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 Goethe's return the ground-plan of the "Maid of 
 Orleans" was still unfinished. Though he went on 
 August 14th to the neighbouring village of Oberwei- 
 niar, he could not get on much in the oppressive heat, 
 and soon returned to town ; but even there he made 
 no material progress with the play. The first volume 
 of his " Poems," which, together with a few of the 
 earlier period, contained most of those that had ap- 
 peared since 1795, newly revised, and some consider- 
 ably shortened, left the press about this time. Among 
 many other things he thought of working up a Chinese 
 novel from an old translation. 
 
 It was only when Goethe retired to Jena on Sep- 
 tember 3d, to get a month's quiet work, that Schiller 
 actually commenced his " Jungfrau," but he could not 
 get well into it, even then. " With so poor a stock of 
 outward scenes and experiences to fall back upon," says 
 he, w^riting to Goethe, " each work costs m"e a method 
 of its own and nuich waste of time to put life into 
 the subject. And my present subject is none of the 
 easiest, nor one that comes natural to me." It was 
 always, of course, a great trouble to him to transport 
 himself into a past time, a strange land, and among 
 strange people. At Goethe's request he associated 
 himself with Meyer in adjudicating the prizes at the 
 Weimar Art Exhibition, but he thought it advisable 
 to express his opinion only in a letter to the editor of 
 the "Propylaea." He went with Meyer on the 21st 
 to see Goethe, who read to him the beginning of his 
 " Helena," written in trimeter. The unusual form of 
 verse so attracted Schiller that he wanted to study 
 it more minutely, and thought he would use it in a 
 scene of his play which was to have a tinge of the 
 antique. The Weimar Company, who returned soon 
 after from an acting tour, had had great success with 
 his " Mary," at Lauchstadt and Paidolstadt ; it brought 
 him in 150 thalers from the theatre. He was still
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 441 
 
 more pleased at the rapid sale of " Wallenstein." As 
 early as September Cotta had to prepare a new edition, 
 though to prevent pirating the price was lowered. An 
 edition of all his dramatic works, which the pubhsher 
 had asked for, he would not begin before Easter, 1802. 
 On the other hand, he urged Cotta to print an Enghsh 
 version of " Mary " by his friend Melhsh. Unfortu- 
 nately, in England they looked with little favour on 
 a translation issued by a German publisher in his own 
 country, and made by an Englishman who lived in 
 Germany ; and the efforts made to suppress the sale 
 proved but too effectual. 
 
 Wlien Goethe returned to Weimar on October 4th, 
 the theatre made extraordinary demands on the atten- 
 tion of the two poets. In vain did Cotta repeatedly 
 ask for the new " Almanach ; " Scliiller had to give all 
 his strength to his tragedy, which even then he dared 
 not hope to finish before the end of winter. He offered 
 it to linger, however, on November 6th, for an Annual, 
 though suppressing its name, at the price of one hun- 
 dred Carolines, being bound thereto by a previous 
 promise ; which seems surprising, considering the terms 
 he was on with Cotta. His intimate union with the 
 mighty master, who had once again shown his high 
 quality in the festal play of " Palseophron and Neo- 
 terpe," was a source of the highest joy. He found but 
 one failing in him, that he was too weak and soft- 
 hearted to shake off his connection with Christiana 
 Vulpius. Schiller's repugnance, fostered by Lotte, to 
 the partner of Goethe's life — whom all the ladies of 
 Weimar shunned, especially those of rank — led him 
 to overlook that the word and troth of a man forbade 
 Goethe to dissolve a union which from the first had 
 been regarded as wedlock. But he looked upon him 
 as the first of poets, whom none approached in depth 
 and tenderness of feehng, in nature, truth, and high 
 artistic merit ; one more richly endowed than any since
 
 442 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 Shakespeare. Nor to the gifts bestowed by nature 
 had any inau added more than he by untiring research 
 and study. He had explored Nature in all her king- 
 doms and dived into her depths. Even his " Theory 
 of Colours " he considered the only correct one. And 
 as a man, he set him above all he had ever know^n. 
 " I think I may say," so he w^rote to Countess Schim- 
 melmann, " that during the six years I have lived with 
 him, I have not for one moment doubted his character. 
 There is a high sincerity, a sterlingness in his nature, 
 and the loftiest zeal for the right and good." Even 
 on Goethe's connection with the two Schlegels he was 
 now perfectly satisfied : he saw why Goethe would not 
 break with them, though he knew that in their deifica- 
 tion of him they had their own ends in view. To feel 
 that he was the bosom friend of this incomparable 
 man, how it must have raised him, strengthened him, 
 and made him happy ! That the malicious " Letters 
 to a Lady," just then started by Kotzebue's Livonian 
 friend Garlieb Merkel, kept ignorantly running him 
 dovm together with the Eomanticists could not dis- 
 turb Schiller, though he was vexed that the Schlegel 
 apotheosis of Goethe was the very thing that occa- 
 sioned it. He scorned such abject voices, which no 
 doubt were great obstacles to the culture of taste 
 aimed at by him and Goethe. 
 
 The confederates wished to celebrate the opening 
 of a new century [1801] by theatric festivities, for 
 which Schiller was particularly active. After the 
 middle of November, Goethe, anxious to finish his 
 translation of Voltaire's " Tancred," sought his old 
 familiar lodging in Jena Castle again. Here he was 
 disagreeably surprised by Schiller's intimation that 
 the duke had declared against the Centenary, which 
 they had taken up without consulting the Directory 
 of theatres. Schiller drew back in disgust : " In the 
 name of goodness let us bury ourselves in our poetics ;
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 443 
 
 let US try producing from within, as production from 
 without has sped so ill." How much Goethe regarded 
 him as his right-hand man in matters of the stage, in 
 which he had neither oifice nor any particular privi- 
 lege beyond a free pass and writing materials, appears 
 from the fact that when he went back to Jena after 
 December 10th, he entrusted to him the rehearsals of 
 Gluck's " Ipliigenie," though, as he freely avowed, he 
 understood nothing of music. " From three to five 
 in the afternoons I will with pleasure be present at 
 the rehearsals, but bodily presence is all I have in me 
 to give," was his reply. Gluck's opera made a most 
 pure and beautiful impression on him ; he thought the 
 master might fairly be placed at the side of Mozart. 
 Schiller worked with marked effect at the reading 
 practices, where with fine discrimination he led the 
 actors into the spirit of their parts, the sense of signifi- 
 cant passages, and their correct dehvery. He also had 
 to conduct the rehearsals of " Octavia," which Kotzebue 
 had written in rivalry of him. As Iffland wished to 
 play "Tancred" at the approaching coronation feast, 
 Goethe was obliged to hurry on the work with all his 
 might. When it was done he came up to Weimar 
 again with Schelhng; and now Schiller could work 
 hard at his own tragedy. The translation of the 
 " Tancred " was talked over between them. Schelling's 
 presence in Goethe's house led to some interesting 
 evening conferences. On the last evening of the year 
 and century they met at the masquerade got up by 
 the court, for which Goethe had arranged a proces- 
 sional performance. After midnight the two poets 
 with Schelliug and Steffens retired into the side-rooms, 
 and had a pleasant talk over champagne. Schiller 
 still liked to be gay among the gay. 
 
 At the very beginning of the century he was 
 doomed in the saddest way to be disturbed in the 
 poetry that now at last came welling forth from his
 
 444 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 heart. On January 3d Goethe was taken so violently- 
 ill that the worst was to be feared. It was during 
 these anxious days that Kotzebue's " Octavia " came 
 upon the stage. " The Schillers and I have shed many 
 a tear over Goethe the last few days," writes Frau von 
 Stein on the 12th, when the decisive crisis was ex- 
 pected. Still more deeply must Schiller have been 
 affected, who possessed in him the noblest ally in life 
 and hterary pursuit. The next day, however, he was 
 able to report that things were in a good way. He 
 was himself suffering with a violent catarrh, and had 
 to be extremely careful, as January and February 
 had three times proved dangerous to him. Mental 
 disqmet unfitting him for composition, he revised his 
 " Carlos " and " Thirty Years' War " for new illustrated 
 editions (there were several got up, one an edition de 
 luxe of the " Carlos," for which Schiller examined only 
 the first six scenes minutely), and he also put the last 
 touches to "Macbeth" and to "Mary Stuart." At 
 the same time he conducted rehearsals, particularly 
 of "Tancred." Not till the 15th was Goethe out of 
 danger ; then his recovery proceeded rapidly. On the 
 19 th Schiller, the duke, and Herder all happened to 
 meet at his house ; a threefold chord that jarred upon 
 the last named. The same day Schiller spent over 
 sixteen dollars at the town hall, probably on some 
 entertainment; the old club had been reorganised 
 there, and soon after named Goethe, Herder, Schiller, 
 and Wieland honourary members. The evening of 
 the 29th, after rehearsal, Schiller was at Goethe's, and 
 on the 30th at the masked ball ; on the 31st came the 
 performance of " Tancred," whose success he immedi- 
 ately announced to his friend. He went every day 
 to Goethe, who to his joy had set to work on his 
 " Faust " again. On the evening of February 8th he 
 explained to him the intended conclusion of his new 
 play. Goethe after mature deliberation approved it,
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 445 
 
 but now he wanted to know the plan of the whole 
 from the beginning. Schiller read him the first three 
 acts, and their sympathetic reception spurred him on 
 to persevere. Goethe was soon able to conduct re- 
 hearsals himself, though some nervous irritability still 
 hung about him. In Schiller's home all were in health 
 and spirits ; his " wife felt happy and attached to 
 society, but not dependent." For a few months her 
 cousin, Christiane von Wurmb of the Eudolstadt court, 
 was with her on a visit, and took singing lessons from 
 the actress Jagemann. Schiller himself enjoyed the 
 society of the intelligent girl. 
 
 Finding the rapid progress of his work hindered by 
 the bustle in his house and manifold distractions, he 
 fled on March 5th to the solitude of his garden-house 
 at Jena. Here ho found himself in worse distraction 
 than ever, being in great request on all hands. Dur- 
 ing this time in a dispute between the actresses Jage- 
 mann and Vohs for the part of Thekla, Lotte, with a 
 view to her husband not losing the duchess's favour, 
 took sides with extraordinary ardour against Goethe, 
 and had nearly dissolved the league between the poets ; 
 but Schiller managed to steer matters round, not only 
 out of regard for his friend's still convalescent state, 
 but becavise he saw that Goethe, as manager of the 
 theatre, had a right to decide. At Jena he associated 
 much with Niethammer and Schelling, and once, at 
 Griesbach's house, he was very merry with some of 
 the students. Then violent winds set in, which not 
 only made the slightly built garden-house uncomfort- 
 able to live in, but for many days kept him from going 
 out. When Lotte on April 1st fetched him away from 
 Jena, he had ended the last act but one of the " Maid 
 of Orleans." As Goethe was gone to his country-seat, 
 Schiller on coming home kept himself entirely secluded, 
 that he might get the last act done in a fortnight. This 
 by main force he accomplished, but was so weakened
 
 446 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 by the work that, on his friend's return, he could not 
 go to see him. Goethe found the play incomparably 
 fine, good, and beautiful, and had even arranged all 
 about the distribution of parts. And now Schiller 
 was to adapt Lessing's " Nathan " for the stage and con- 
 duct the rehearsals, as Goethe on the 21st retired to 
 his country-house again. His own happily completed 
 drama was immediately sent to the press. 
 
 Instead of rejoicing over his success, Schiller longed 
 for more of poetic production, which alone made life 
 endurable to him. He wrote to Goethe on the 28th : 
 " Just now I have my whole mind engrossed by two 
 fresh dramatic subjects ; when I have thought out and 
 thoroughly proved these two, I am willing to pass on 
 to other work." They wore the pieces he had intended 
 for the Weimar theatre long before, " The Knights of 
 IVIalta " and " The Hostile Brothers," each capable of 
 being treated in the simpler manner of the Greeks. 
 He was now to have another disagreeable experience 
 of the duke's despotic caprice. The latter opposed the 
 performance of the "Maid," because for particular 
 reasons he did not wish Jagemann to appear in it, 
 and to her the leading part of Johanna had been 
 assigned. He asked Schiller to let him see the MS., 
 and gave his opinion against the exhibition, which 
 would do gi'eat detriment to the high beauty of the 
 poetry. Schiller well knew the motive of this 
 encroachment, so injurious to Goethe as well, and he 
 at once assumed a calm attitude. The duke must of 
 course be in the right (so he wrote to Goethe) in judg- 
 ing that the piece could not be acted. It would be 
 doing a kindness to the publisher, too, and he himself 
 would be saved the labour and annoyances of the 
 learning by heart and rehearsing. Goethe was willing 
 to take these off his hands, and also thought the diffi- 
 culties of performance were not insuperable ; but Schil- 
 ler, firmly convinced of the effectiveness of his play,
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 447 
 
 was determined that the diike's scruples, which really- 
 had their origin in the situation of his favourite Jage- 
 mann, should be disproved by its success at other 
 theatres. 
 
 He had not yet decided for either of his two plans, 
 when Goethe returned, to whom he at once communi- 
 cated them. For one of them, the " Knights," all he 
 wanted now was the central dramatic deed, which the 
 whole plot leads up to, and is unravelled by ; the other, 
 the fictitious one, consisting, with the chorus, of only 
 twenty scenes, and numbering no more than five char- 
 acters, stood quite complete ; but notwithstanding 
 Goethe's approval, Schiller did not as yet feel the due 
 degree of inclination for it. Two other subjects, " War- 
 beck " for one, he had not succeeded hitherto in reduc- 
 ing to proper form. Besides some other materials lying 
 still more shapeless, he entertained the idea of a com- 
 edy ; but on deeper reflection he felt that this kind 
 was foreign to him, that his nature was of too serious 
 a cast, and what had no depth did not interest him 
 long. In the meantime, "Mary," "Macbeth," and a 
 third part of his prose writings had left the press. 
 
 When Gotta, returning from Leipzig, stopped at 
 Weimar on May 16th, " Wallenstein's Death" was 
 performed at his request; and Goethe and Schelling 
 met him at Schiller's to supper. The next day the 
 two poets got up a banquet at the town hall in hon- 
 our of the guest from Stuttgart. How merrily things 
 went at such meals in the town hall comes out in a 
 humourous poem that Goethe afterward addressed to 
 a former actress, who, though she had not drunk so 
 much " as Schiller and I and all," yet " champagne- 
 fuddled on my neck didst fall." This time Schiller 
 promised Gotta a treatise on the female characters of 
 the Greeks. But he could not get to it, any more than 
 to dramatic composition. When Goethe set out, on 
 June 5th, for Pyrmont, to take the waters, he tried his
 
 448 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 luck once more in lyric poetry. Goeschen had asked 
 him in January for a Song on the Peace, which he 
 refused, with the remark that Germany had little 
 reason to rejoice at such a peace. He was now think- 
 ing of a poem on Germany's greatness, outlasting the 
 German empire's fall, a country that in the Eeforma- 
 tion had won spiritual freedom for all Europe, and was 
 destined yet, when its day should dawn, to shine re- 
 splendent above all nations. Though nearly all of it 
 was already sketched out in prose, and a part even 
 composed, the poem was never finished ; on the other 
 hand, he now achieved his Lament on Freedom's 
 disappearance from the world, entitled "Advent of 
 the Xew Century," his three stanzas based upon the 
 " Jungfrau," and his gorgeous ancient ballad of " Hero 
 and Leander." He intended them for Cotta's " Damen- 
 Kalender," but he had no objection to the publisher's 
 inserting the middle poem in the " Almanach " he was 
 bringing out for W. Schlegel and Tieck, a poet whom, 
 without jealousy, he left to take his own path. 
 
 Cold weather setting in in the middle of June 
 brought on the spasms again ; yet at the end of the 
 month he thought he might get his " Hostile Brothers " 
 ready to be played in a week's time. Instead of which, 
 on July 4th, he took up the plan of a romantic chivalry- 
 play on a Countess of Flanders. Within three weeks he 
 meant to go to Dobberan on the Baltic, and return thence 
 by way of Berlin and Dresden. He wrote to Goethe : 
 " I dread some days of torture at Berhn, but I must see 
 new objects, I must make a decisive experiment on my 
 health ; I wish to see some good theatrical perform- 
 ances, at least some few celebrities, and also, as it 
 involves no great detour, to meet old friends again." 
 Frequent attacks of spasms soon made him limit the 
 journey to visiting the watering-place ; but, as his de- 
 parture was delayed, and it seemed too late then for 
 the 'seaside, he at last made up his mind to a mere
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 449 
 
 stay of three or four weeks in the neighbourhood of 
 Dresden. To his joy, the Leipzig and Hamburg thea- 
 tres were now asking for the " Jungfrau." There was 
 also a prospect of its acceptance at Berhn, though the 
 author was horrified by a declaration of Schroder, to 
 whom he had given the MS., and who was then at 
 Weimar, namely, that the miracles, on which the whole 
 action rests, would have to be taken out. This could 
 be done easily enough, only the catastrophe would 
 require to be altered. 
 
 On August 5th the Schiller family set out, accom- 
 panied by Frau von Wolzogen, whose husband, in two 
 visits to Petersburg, had arranged the betrothal of the 
 Hereditary Prince of Weimar to the Grand Duchess 
 Maria Paulovna. They travelled through Leipzig to 
 Dresden, arrived there on the 9th, and at once moved 
 into the house at Loschwitz. Here Korner came to 
 see them every evening. The two friends poured out 
 their hearts with the old trustfulness, talked over all 
 their plans, and cheered each other to renewed activity. 
 Even here Schiller had attacks of his malady, but 
 Korner rejoiced to see the health and vigour of his 
 wonderful mind. He particularly pressed him to get 
 better paid by the publishers. On September 1st 
 Schiller went up to Dresden, where the inspection of 
 the antiques, in the light of the higher insight gained 
 from the teachings of Goethe and Meyer, made a pow- 
 erful impression on him. Frau von Wolzogen stayed 
 behind at Dresden, when Schiller, accompanied by 
 Korner, went to Leipzig on the 15th. On their way 
 Goeschen was greeted at his country-seat at Hohenstedt, 
 and the old friendship heartily renewed. At Leipzig 
 Schiller attended the representation of his " Jungfrau." 
 On entering his box he was received with kettle-drums 
 and trumpets. After the first act the house rang with 
 repeated shouts of " Long live Friedrich Schiller ! " and 
 he had to testify his thanks by stepping forward. As
 
 4SO THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 he left the theatre, all drew back reverently with bared 
 heads ; they cried, " Long hve Schiller, the great man ! " 
 and parents pointed him out to their children. By way 
 of drawback, the performance had given him a low 
 opinion of the Leipzig company. He found, to his 
 joyful surprise, that new editions were already wanted 
 of his " Mary " and " Macbeth." That Merkel, as impu- 
 dent as he was shallow, should set Kotzebue's " Oc- 
 tavia " above " Wallenstein " and " Mary " was no more 
 than he expected ; why, Goethe was treated a great deal 
 worse, and not the vaguest sense of artistic finish was 
 to be looked for in such vulgar minds. During this 
 journey he had sent his " Jungfrau " to the Berlin and 
 Vienna theatres, and had received so much money 
 from Cotta, Goeschen, and Crusius that he came back 
 with more than he went. 
 
 At Weimar he felt better than he had done all the sum- 
 mer. Goethe had also come back in good health, but had 
 his hands quite full with the Art Exhibition, the thea- 
 tre, and the arrangement of parties given at his house 
 to the actress Unzelmann, who had come on a starring 
 tour from Berlin. On the 21st she appeared in " Mary ; " 
 but with all the refined tenderness and great intelli- 
 gence of her acting, Schiller missed in it the high tragic 
 style, as indeed this was wanting to all the Iffland 
 school, who aimed at an ordinary colloquial tone and 
 the greatest possible naturalness. On the 30th he 
 began to work out the plot of his " Warbeck." Having 
 observed at Leipzig how the actors mangled the verse, 
 and that good commonplace nature was all the public 
 cared for, he was in some doubt whether he ought not 
 rather to write his plays in prose ; but the feeling that 
 with a prose setting he could not have combined that 
 delight in his theme without which he never could 
 compose, was enough to warn him off. Unluckily, a 
 catarrh soon debarred him from any prolonged exertion. 
 The " Warbeck " could make the less progress, as the
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 451 
 
 difficulties showed themselves gi-eater, though these only 
 heightened Schiller's interest. Mindful of Korner's 
 advice, he wrote to Unger, saying that he must have 
 a good round sum for a new " Theater-Kalender ; " the 
 result was an offer of one thousand thalers. To Cotta's 
 inquiry, what drama he might expect from him at 
 Easter, he plainly declared on October 13th, that hav- 
 ing now reached that point of swift and decided success 
 which he had aimed at for years, he must raise the 
 price of his labours ; to this he was driven by the en- 
 deavour to impart a higher intrinsic value to his com- 
 positions. With his wavering health he could write 
 only one important play in a year ; the higher pay 
 should improve not his circumstances, but his works. 
 To his demand of three hundred ducats for every new 
 original work of the largest sort, Cotta consented with 
 a good grace, and even added that he would gladly do 
 what more he could besides. At this time Unger 
 brought out the " Maid of Orleans " in the form of an 
 annual, and that unaccompanied by any other piece. 
 A little before that the news had come upon him like 
 a blow that the performance of the play was prohibited 
 at Vienna. 
 
 When Goethe, on the 18th, went to Jena for a time, 
 Schiller, though still a sufferer, undertook the manage- 
 ment of the theatre. Again he found he made but 
 little headway with the " Warbeck ; " not to lose his 
 time altogether, he tried his hand on what he had long 
 had in his mind, an adaptation to the stage of Gozzi's 
 " Turandot," to which he hoped to lend a higher worth 
 by giving to it sometliing of poetic spirit. Goethe 
 strove at that time to educate both players and public 
 by putting dramas on the stage of the most different 
 nations and styles. Coming up to Weimar for the 
 duchess-dowager's birthday, which was celebrated with 
 a play of Terence acted in masks, he imparted to his 
 friend his intention in mid-November to begin holding
 
 452 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 a cheerful Wednesday assembly at his house once a 
 fortnight, in wliich seven ladies and six gentlemen 
 beside himself should take part, the divorced countess 
 Heuriette von EglofCstein to be Goethe's partner, then 
 Lotte, Carohne von Wolzogen, Amalie von Imhoff, the 
 court ladies Von Gijchhausen and Von Wolfskeel, Meyer, 
 Wolzogen, Voigt, and Captain von Wolfskeel ; the duke, 
 the princes, and Princess Carohne were also to be in- 
 vited. And he meant there should be no lack of festal 
 songs. On Schiller's birthday Goethe returned to 
 Weimar. The same evening he congratulated his 
 friend by letter, and invited him to the first Wednes- 
 day Assembly on the morrow, as the " second day of 
 the feast," thereby associating these meetings with 
 Schiller's birthday. The first Assembly, for which 
 Goethe composed an " Inauguration Ode," passed off 
 very pleasantly. Schiller was glad to have such oc- 
 casions to prompt him to write songs, though he meant 
 to give them a loftier tone. But he soon felt too ill 
 to go out to Goethe's in the evenings. Nevertheless, 
 they both joined in conducting the rehearsals of 
 " Nathan the Wise," which was brought on the stage 
 with great success on the 28th, and thereupon was 
 asked for at Berlin also. The measles, then prevalent 
 at Weimar, prevented the second Assembly from being 
 held. At the beginning of December, Schiller's Ernst 
 was seized with them, and then the other children, 
 while Lotte had bad coughs, and when all seemed in a 
 good way again, she suffered from a very severe attack 
 of the epidemic, so that their small habitation became 
 a hospital. Notwithstanding all, Schiller, who was 
 obliged to keep the house, completed "Turandot" on 
 the 27th. But directly after, he found himself so 
 weakened by an attack of cholera, that he had to miss 
 the second Assembly, held on the last day of the year, 
 for which he had begun a couple of songs. 
 
 The second day of the New Year he was able to
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 453 
 
 attend the performance, got up by Goethe, of Wilhelm 
 Schlegel's " Ion," a masterpiece of pedantry of verse- 
 construction (for besides trimeters it contained some 
 difficult Greek metres) and of theatric arrangement. 
 But with the play itself Schiller was not quite satis- 
 fied, and the enemies of the Schlegels (for it had come 
 out that Wilhelm was the author) tried in every way 
 to cry it down. Schiller, who had again begun visiting 
 his friend regularly, did not keep back his own opinion. 
 Goethe, before leaving for Jena on the 17th, talked 
 over with him all the affairs of the theatre, particularly 
 that of bringing out " Turandot." He came back on 
 the 28th, and superintended the show he had planned 
 for the birthday masquerade of the 29th. The next 
 day " Turandot " met with great applause, however ill 
 wishers might spend their wit upon it. It was repeated 
 on February 2d, with the addition of some new enig- 
 mas. Goethe contributed one on " Leap-day," and 
 SchiUer put the answer into poetry. 
 
 We here give a translation of Goethe's enigma : 
 
 "A brother, he, of many brothers, 
 And like them all in everything, 
 A needful member to the others, 
 All children of one mighty king. 
 And yet he's seldom seen in fact, 
 Like th' alien child in nursery fable, 
 The rest will never let him act. 
 Save where they find themselves unable." 
 
 In the meantime, the duchess had expressed through 
 Frau von Stein her desire that Schiller would in future 
 show himself more at court. Not without bitterness 
 did he reply to his lady friend : " Now that I have 
 lived here two years without being invited to court 
 (for even at the duchess dowager's court I never was 
 in high company), I should wish for the future also to 
 remain excluded from it, on account of my feeble
 
 454 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 health. For myself I am not, as you know, desirous 
 of any distinction but what is personal ; and to deserve 
 and receive the favour of my gracious master and the 
 gracious duchess is all that I aim at." The narrow 
 limits of his lodgings, where he could not get the 
 quiet needful for his labours, had made him resolve 
 some months before to buy a certain house : it was the 
 one on the Esplanade with a pleasant southward front, 
 formerly inhabited l:)y Countess von Bachoff, and last 
 by MelUsh ; which, like the street itself, now bears 
 the name of Schiller, and is eternally hallowed to his 
 memory. He, therefore, on February 5th, requested of 
 Cotta the loan of twenty-six hundred gulden, offering 
 to pay four per cent, interest. He also begged Goeschen 
 to let him have in May the price of his newly revised 
 edition, altered only in style, of the " Thirty Years' 
 War," as all he could raise was wanted for the purchase 
 of the house. Accordingly, he could not think of con- 
 tinuing his payments to Korner. His Jena garden he 
 offered for sale to Hufeland, but they could not agree 
 about the price. For some time his mother's illness 
 had caused him anxiety. The good woman, who, with 
 her narrow means, was always cheerful, contented, and 
 most grateful for the smallest kindness, had kept on 
 her lodging at Leonberg, even after her daughter 
 Luise, in October, 1799, married Parson Frankh, of 
 Clever-Sulzbach in the Neckar circle, and had only 
 visited her daughter occasionally. Her greatest pleas- 
 ure was to send her own homespun linen to her Fritz 
 and his family, and to receive a kindly word and good 
 news from the loved ones. The preceding December 
 she had repaired to Stuttgart for the cure of her com- 
 plaint, and there met with the kindest reception from 
 the widow of Lieutenant Stoll, and the most careful 
 treatment from Schiller's friend, JacobL Fritz had 
 a special twenty-five gulden conveyed to her through 
 Cotta, and warmly sympathised in her incurable mal-
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 455 
 
 ady, which soon grew so much worse that Luise took 
 her to herself. Nothing was omitted that could 
 alleviate her sufferings. 
 
 Schiller, meanwhile, had found a new dramatic sub- 
 ject in " Wilhelm Tell," which Goethe had once 
 designed for epic treatment. A rumour had spread 
 a year before, that he was working at a drama on the 
 Swiss hero ; and now the subject struck him as a 
 highly significant one after his " Juugfrau ; " yet he 
 worked it out but languidly, for a multiplicity of cares 
 unfitted him for any vigorous effort. He only felt in 
 the key for lyric composition ; and then it was that he 
 brought out, besides many smaller poems, mostly begun 
 before, his splendid ballad of " Cassandra." And being 
 once in train, he gave himself up to the lyric impulse 
 that seized him at the first foretokenings of spring, 
 especially as he had promised a few things for Cotta's 
 " Damen-Kalender," and for the " Kecreations " of 
 Becker of Dresden. 
 
 Schiller kept pressing Goethe, who still lingered at 
 Jena, to give a parting Assembly to the hereditary 
 prince, who, on February 24th, was leaving with 
 Wolzogen for Paris, to be presented to Napoleon ; else 
 Kotzebue would cut in before him, and the prince 
 himself was anxious to avoid the intruder. This 
 nimble playwright, who, on the assassination of Paul 
 I., had come away from Petersburg an Imperial Col- 
 legiate Councillor, and, when relieved of his post as 
 manager of the German Court Players' Company, had 
 retained the whole salary, was now settled at Weimar, 
 where he intended to oust Goethe from the favour of 
 the court, and set up for a great poet himseK. In the 
 meanwhile he treated Schiller with civility by way of 
 contrast. Goethe had, indeed, returned his visit, and 
 admitted his plays, for which he charged nothing, to 
 the stage; but there could be no friendship between 
 them, as Goethe at once saw through his purpose.
 
 45^ THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 and gauged his shallow superficiahty. With Goethe's 
 opponents he stood on the best of terms, particularly 
 with the artists of the Prussian capital, on whom he 
 kept his eye, for the poet had offended them by 
 declaring that the prosaic spirit of the age seemed to 
 have revealed itself most at Berlin. Matters came 
 to a breach when Goethe, following his invariable rule, 
 struck out of Kotzebue's " German Provincials " all the 
 personal hits aimed at Weimar and Jena, and at 
 the Schlegels above all, who were at feud with the 
 author. Thereupon Kotzebue appealed to Schiller, 
 who had no official connection with the management, 
 and whom he would have hked to estrange from 
 Goethe. But he declared that Goethe was right in 
 letting nothing pass that would provoke party spirit. 
 " For my own part," he wrote, " I assure you once 
 more, there is nothing in your play that I take to 
 myself ; though I feel sure that all those whom it may 
 concern to breed strife betwixt us will not fail to see 
 an attack upon me in that verse with which you close 
 one act, but which you can scarcely have meant for me 
 alone. And even if it were so, I should not go to war 
 with you about it ; the hcense of comedy is large, and 
 sportive humour may take many hberties ; only passion 
 must be shut out." But Schiller's advising him to con- 
 cession, which would only redound to his credit, as 
 the piece would lose none of its theatric value by the 
 omissions, was all thrown away ; Kotzebue withdrew 
 the piece in a rage, nay, there is said to have been 
 an unlovely scene over it at the dowager duchess's be- 
 tween Goethe, Kotzebue, and his wife. Before this 
 Kotzebue had set up, in opposition to Goethe's Wednes- 
 day meetings, a more showy Thursday party, at which 
 theatricals and all sorts of amusements delighted the 
 aristocratic company ; even the ducal family had taken 
 part in it, seeing that Herr von Kotzebue kept open 
 house and cut a figure. His intention of preparing
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 457 
 
 a farewell feast to the departing prince was happily 
 defeated by Goethe's coming home in time ; and 
 the Assembly, where two festal songs by Goethe, 
 and one by Schiller, were sung, passed off right pleas- 
 antly. Soon after this, Professor Hufeland brought up 
 to Weimar the master-mason and musician Zelter, who 
 had set many of the songs in the " Almanach," and 
 just lately Schiller's " Diver." Goethe sent him to 
 Schiller's, whom he was to bring back to dinner. 
 When Schiller was gone to dress, Zelter struck a few 
 notes on the piano, and then sang his " Diver " to 
 himself. Before the first stanza was over, Schiller 
 came softly into the room, only half-dressed, and 
 began uttering his joy in the words : " That's it ! just 
 how it should be ! " Lotte, however, besought him to 
 dress and have done with it, for Goethe could not 
 bear to wait. Schiller got on capitally with the jolly, 
 sturdy man, whose gay court attire was little in keep- 
 ing with his nature. He introduced him to Princess 
 Caroline, too, who had only recently been presented at 
 court, and was fond of Schiller, though she was preju- 
 diced against his plays by her governess, whose nerves 
 could not endure " those long Schillerian things." 
 Goethe accompanied Zelter back to Jena. 
 
 In the meantime Kotzebue had devised a master- 
 stroke. He proposed to celebrate the evening of 
 Schiller's name-day, March 5th, magnificently at the 
 town hall, with performances out of his works. The 
 Countess von Egloffstein was to figure as the Maid of 
 Orleans, Amalie von Imhoff as Queen Ehzabeth of 
 Spain, Kotzebue himself as old Thibaut ; the poetess 
 Mereau of Jena was to declaim the " Bell," and when 
 Kotzebue as Master Bell-founder smashed the paste- 
 board mould, out of it was to come Dannecker's bust 
 of Schiller, and the poet himself be crowned by ladies' 
 hands. Schiller had felt unable to refuse his presence, 
 Princess Caroline was to be there, and old Wieland
 
 458 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 was invited, too. But the cunningly devised farce 
 went miserably to pieces on the burgomaster's refusal 
 to give up the keys of the new saloon, as the stage 
 they had brought over from Ettersburg must not be 
 set up in it. The library, too, had refused to lend the 
 bust. Terrible was the outcry of the intended partic- 
 ipants, while Goethe all the while stayed quietly at Jena, 
 and Schiller and Lotte had royal fun over the failure. 
 When the Countess Egloft'stein informed him by letter 
 of the sad disappointment, Schiller, as though he really 
 deplored it, expressed his hope that the pleasure he 
 had anticipated from the exhibition was only delayed, 
 and he was grateful for the kindly sentiments of such 
 dear and honoured friends. If it had actually come 
 off, he would very likely have pleaded indisposition. 
 The great dramatist, whom by this sinister adulation 
 they had hoped to separate from Goethe, was then 
 working at his " Tell," with a vigour and absorption 
 that he had not felt for long. At the same time he 
 thought of writing out " The Hostile Brothers," which 
 might be finished in autunm, and come on the boards 
 about New Year ; he was so bent on making up the 
 long arrears of the wanter that he would dispense with 
 any travelling. That " Tell " was a bold undertaking 
 he was well aware, but he thought the subject worth 
 doing anything for. 
 
 As the " Maid of Orleans " had been much applauded 
 at other theatres, especially in Berlin, people were 
 asking now to see it at Weimar ; but as the duke had 
 decidedly pronounced against it, Schiller wished to 
 have it played at Lauchstadt first. Goethe told him 
 he ought now, especially with a view to Lauchstadt, 
 where tliey were raising a new building for the theatre, 
 to do something for his older pieces ; but he could find 
 all the less time for that, as he had undertaken at 
 Goethe's wish the adaptation of his " Iphigenia." Of 
 his own works he only revised " Don Carlos " for
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 459 
 
 that purpose. It was then he first ventured to let 
 Domingo come on the stage as a Dominican friar ; till 
 then the stage edition had put in his place a secretary 
 of state, Perez. To explain the plot he inserted the 
 partly rhymed monologue which we give here in 
 facsimile. 
 
 On the 24th, Goethe having returned the day before, 
 another Assembly was held, at which all were present 
 but the Wolzogens, then absent from Weimar. The 
 purchase of the house had been concluded a week 
 earlier: on the 26th were paid down the twenty-six 
 hundred gulden advanced by Cotta, a fortnight later 
 six hundred dollars received from Lotte's mother, and 
 the remainder by two instalments in May, for which 
 he borrowed twenty-two hundred dollars from farmer 
 Weidner of Nieder-rossla. But just as his heart was 
 rejoicing over the new house, he received sorrowful 
 tidings of his mother : to begin with, a last letter from 
 herself, in which she said very calmly that there was 
 no getting better for her, and she took leave of him 
 with gratitude for God's goodness and her son's love ; 
 then further communications from sister Luise and 
 friend Hoven, which left him no hope. He replied on 
 the 10th, thanking his sister for all that she and her 
 husband had done for the good mother, and promising 
 to' forward through Cotta the money requisite for 
 reimbursement of expenses. 
 
 A violent and prolonged catarrh now rendered him 
 incapable of any poetic labour. To this was added his 
 vexation that Goethe was not to be dissuaded from 
 bringing on the stage, in spite of all opponents, that 
 singular work, the " Alarcos " of Friedrich Schlegel. 
 He went back to Jena, and Schiller took the manage- 
 ment of the theatre. Under painful anxiety for his 
 mother, he moved into his new dwelling on April 
 29th, little dreaming that on that very day she was 
 released from her sufferings by a tranquil death. A
 
 460 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 letter from Luise, received May 3d, held out a prospect 
 of her speedy dissolution. On the 8th, Cotta, passing 
 through to Leipzig, confided to Lotte that he had seen 
 an announcement of the death in the Suahian Mercury. 
 On being told by Lotte, Schiller answered with com- 
 posure ; yet when she received the explicit information 
 from his brother-in-law, she dared not renew his grief 
 by handing it to him at once. " I saw him sit so 
 peaceful at his work this morning," she writes on the 
 10th, "that I could not possibly have the heart to let 
 him know the certainty. He must see the letter 
 to-morrow." The deceased rests in Clever-Sulzbach 
 churchyard ; the poet Moricke had a plain stone cross 
 set up over her with the inscription, " Here lies Schiller's 
 mother." The graves of the father and Nanette, in the 
 now disused burial-ground at Gerlingen, near the Sol- 
 itude, are no longer to be found. 
 
 During Goethe's absence, Schiller conducted the 
 rehearsals of " Iphigenia " and " Alarcos." In vain he 
 protested that with the second they would certainly 
 suffer a total defeat, and thereby ensure a triumph to 
 the wretched matter-of-fact party ; his friend main- 
 tained that with outward success or non-success they 
 had nothing to do ; they would gain by its performance 
 the advantage of having its intricate metres, which 
 were part of its very essence, spoken and heard on 
 the stage. The evening his " Iphigenia " was acted, 
 the 15th, Goethe drove up to the playhouse as an out- 
 sider, and saw his own drama, as adapted and carefully 
 practised by Schiller, produce a serious and noble 
 effect. He himself then took the most extraordinary 
 pains with that unfortunate " Alarcos," which, when 
 played on the 29th, raised such a storm of opposition 
 and even of hooting, that he never dared to bring it on 
 again. Schiller sat by the duke, who kept abusing it 
 dreadfully, so that against his own conviction he had 
 to defend Goethe's design in the representation. Cotta
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 461 
 
 had arrived at Schiller's the same day. Goethe, having 
 visitors himself that evening, could not accept an invi- 
 tation to meet him. Schiller was so heartily devoted 
 to Cotta, that he warned him against publishing 
 Goethe's complete translation of Cellini, not being 
 aware of the high importance he had managed to 
 impart to it by a valuable appendix ; he even declared 
 there was no good bargain to be made with Goethe, 
 who rated himself so high, and had never been satis- 
 fied with any pubhsher, and some of them perhaps as 
 little with him. Yet, in fact, Goethe had never fallen 
 out with any but Goeschen, who had treated him both 
 dishonestly and shamefully, and Unger, who had by no 
 means broken with him : and it was Schiller himself 
 that had brought him into contact with Cotta. It is 
 true, Goethe had no favourable opinion of publishers ia 
 general, but Schiller can only have been surprised into 
 such a statement by excessive care for Cotta's interest, 
 and a passing fit of ill-humour. 
 
 Unhappily the first few months that Schiller lived 
 in a house of his own proved not so favourable to his 
 poetry as he had hoped. New arrangements, large 
 repairs unexpectedly found necessary, and then visi- 
 tors coming up to Weimar fair, would not let him 
 settle down to work, and this threw him into the 
 worst of moods. A stay of some three months at 
 Berhn, which he had been planning, came to nothing; 
 nay, he felt so out of sorts, that he did not even com- 
 ply with Goethe's invitation to Lauchstadt. Even the 
 news that the duke was applying at Vienna for a title 
 of nobility, to be bestowed on Schiller free of cost, 
 could scarcely cheer him up. He complains on June 
 24th : " Ever since my Dresden journey I have not 
 succeeded in settling down, or in getting the better of 
 a spirit of distraction which has taken possession of 
 me. I have a good many things stored up too, but 
 they still wait a happy unloading." Two days after
 
 462 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 he and his family were seized with a violent, convul- 
 sive cough, which hindered him in speaking. At 
 Goethe's long-looked-for return from Lauchstadt he 
 was not quite rid of the cough yet, and had to avoid 
 the evening air. On learning through Voigt that he 
 was ennobled, and receiving from him his coat of arms, 
 designed after that of the Schillers of the Tirol, as well 
 as a sketch of his life to be sent up to Vienna, he felt 
 vexed, as fearing he might be drawn out of his quiet 
 position into the whirl of court life. All this time 
 he had not decided for any one of his three dramatic 
 plans, till, at length, in mid-August, shortly before the 
 completion of the house repairs, he snatched up the 
 one that was most fully developed and could soonest 
 be finished, " The Hostile Brothers," which, rechris- 
 tened as " Bride of Messina," he hoped to bring on the 
 stage in time for the duchess's birthday. After that 
 he intended to go to his " Warbeck," and lastly to 
 " Tell," which might be a " confounded task," but he 
 had already translated the material out of history into 
 poetry, and the main pillars of the edifice stood firm. 
 
 Meanwhile an event had occurred, which had been 
 so earnestly desired by him and his family twelve 
 years before, but could hardly be of much consequence 
 now. The Elector of Mainz had died on July 25th, 
 and the Koadjutor had arrived at that dignity at last. 
 Schiller, who after sending him his " Wallenstein " had 
 not once addressed himself to Dalberg, now wrote on 
 August 6th to congratulate him on his elevation. But 
 tlie maintenance of an Electorate of Mainz was highly 
 problematic : the decision was supposed to rest with 
 the Deputies of the Empire summoned the same day 
 to Regensburg; in reahty it lay at Paris. The new 
 elector arch-chancellor was in the very thick of 
 troubles when on the 28th he replied to Schiller that 
 his sublime and cliaste muse had often waked in him 
 a love of the morally beautiful and good, and prompted
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 463 
 
 the desire some day to discharge Germany's debt of 
 thanks to the first of German poets ; he was now 
 nearer the goal, but not yet certain of its attainment. 
 So now Schiller could not but look intently to the 
 issue of the long drawn-out negotiations. About the 
 same time the division of his mother's inheritance was 
 settled, which Schiller could not afford to lose, be- 
 cause of his children and the precarious state of his 
 health, glad as he would have been to hand it over 
 to his sister, who had much to bear from Eeinwald's 
 peevishness and parsimony ; to his own share fell by 
 agreement the sum of 880 gulden. 
 
 He was now giving his whole mind to the new 
 drama that had lived so long within him, in which for 
 the first time he was to fashion a chorus in the manner 
 of the ancients, and that a very different affair from 
 the one in Kotzebue's " Hussites before Naumburg ; " 
 for in this long-cherished design, too, the deft-handed 
 play-manufacturer had forestalled him. With Schiller 
 composition was now going on so well that ho hoped 
 to have done by the middle of November ; in no other 
 work had he learned so much, he writes to Goethe. 
 On October 30th, the poet Voss and his wife, who had 
 moved from Eutin to Jena, came over to Weimar in 
 company with the Griesbach family, and called on 
 Schiller ; they occupied the same rooms in Griesbach's 
 house that Schiller had once inhabited. Schiller gave 
 them a hearty reception as they alighted at his front 
 door ; in his kindly, pale countenance there was some- 
 thing pathetic. They stayed to dinner, and a most 
 genial intercourse sprang up between them, which led 
 Voss to foresee cordial intimacy in the future. 
 
 The newspapers had already announced the enno- 
 bling of Schiller in September ; the patent and escutch- 
 eon arrived only on November 16th, together with 
 some friendly lines from the duke and from Voigt, 
 who at the last moment had passed a sprig of laurel
 
 464 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 through the helmet's decorations. To the poet this 
 ennobling had no meaning ; he was only glad that 
 Lotte thereby recovered her nobility, and was made 
 free of the court ; his children, too, might reap some 
 benefit from it. What interested him more than this 
 "barren honour" was the turn things were taking at 
 Eegensburg, for his future finances were involved in 
 it ; thus far the elector's cause had got on very toler- 
 ably, so that he could do much even as a private man. 
 He was not aware yet that Dalberg had also destined 
 that third of the late elector's property which fell to 
 the state for the aiding of meritorious artists and 
 scholars. " The main thing is industry," he writes to 
 Kdrner, " for it not only lends the means of living, but 
 gives to life its only value." And he sought to train 
 his children to it, though he did not suppress their 
 youthful mirth, and would rather be disturbed by 
 their noise himself, than condemn them to sitting still. 
 For a couple of years a young man named Eisert, who 
 taught Goethe's August, had also been giving Karl les- 
 sons in Latin, on which Schiller set a high value. His 
 children and Goethe's boys were sworn comrades ; they 
 had even founded a small order among themselves, 
 whose badges they bestowed on some older persons 
 too. With what thoughtful care Schiller as a good 
 family man calculated his resources, appears from his 
 setting them down in his almanac for 1802 up to 
 1809 (he did not expect to survive his fiftieth year), 
 reckoning one or two new plays and two volumes of 
 his collected dramas for each year, and 275 or 550 
 dollars in payments from theatres. 
 
 Interrupted by frequent returns of his malady, he 
 now hoped at all events to finish his drama at the 
 beginning of February. At the end of the year Goethe 
 was utterly disordered, unstrung, and saddened, es- 
 pecially when, to his bitter sorrow, a little girl with 
 whom Christiana presented him died shortly after
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 465 
 
 birth, as three others had done. Schiller took a warm 
 interest in his grief; indeed, the deep emotion with 
 which he spoke of his Christiane's anguish, was the 
 first thing that made Schiller feel more justly toward 
 her. Goethe, seeing himself also neglected by the 
 court, grew more and more depressed about his whole 
 surroundings, and shut himself away from the outer 
 world. Schnier almost alone had access; he found 
 him slacker, less sympathetic, nay, more reserved, of 
 which he httle divined the cause; he was giving 
 his whole mind to the composition of his " Natural 
 Daughter," which he felt bound to keep a secret even 
 from Schiller ; and that very circumstance was a load 
 on his mind. And then for a week he lay dangerously 
 ill with inflammation of the lungs. Though Schiller 
 during the rough months of winter kept tolerably 
 well in body, he nevertheless felt out of tune and tone. 
 It gave him pleasure to receive on January 7th an 
 anonymous remittance of 650 dollars from Frankfort, 
 evidently coming from Dalberg, to whom accordingly 
 he expressed his thanks. He now purposed visiting 
 his native district in the summer, and perhaps even to 
 make a pilgrimage to the haunts of his Swiss hero. 
 He worked with great zest at the tragedy then in 
 hand, and would have liked to send it to the elector 
 on his birthday. Simultaneously he read some of the 
 later French comedies at the request of the duke, who 
 said he would like to see two or three of them adapted 
 by him. On February 1st "The Bride" was finished, 
 Schiller having at the last moment decided to make 
 the end a much shorter one. Three days later he 
 read it at his own house before the Duke of Meinin- 
 gen, whose birthday it was, and a fairly large audience, 
 when all were much affected by it. The Duke of 
 Weimar, whose taste indeed was not flattered by the 
 piece, received a copy of the MS. on the 5th, and 
 Goethe another, whom Schiller consulted about its
 
 466 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 performance, particularly the naming of the characters 
 in the chorus. At noon of the 8th he drove out with 
 his wife in Goethe's sledge, and after the concert they, 
 with their sister and brother-in-law, who to their joy 
 had at last returned to Weimar, were at Goethe's to 
 supper. On the 11th he read the piece to the 
 duchess, and sent it to the elector ; copies were also 
 made out for the theatres of Berlin, Hamburg, and 
 Leipzig. But amidst all the cheering success of the 
 new play, as well as of the older ones, which kept 
 appearing in new editions and had made a conquest 
 of the stage ; in spite of handsome payments by pub- 
 lishers and managers, and in spite of Goethe's friendly 
 sympathy, Schiller felt irritated and depressed. Writ- 
 ing on February 17th to announce the completion of 
 his piece to Humboldt, who was gone as ambassador 
 to Rome, and whom he had seen at Weimar for three 
 days in October, he complains of Goethe's aimless 
 dawdling, that he takes up everything by turns and 
 never concentrates himself vigorously on anything, 
 that he makes a perfect monk of himself. Nay, to 
 our astonishment we read : " If Goethe had any faith 
 left in the possibility of something good being done, 
 and any continuity in what he does, many things 
 might yet be realised here at Weimar, both in Art 
 generally and in the dramatic hue. At all events, 
 something might spring into existence, and this dreary 
 state of block be broken up. Alone, I can do nothing ; 
 I often feel impelled to look round the world for some 
 other seat and sphere of action ; if there were a toler- 
 able place anywhere, I would go." Happily this ill 
 temper did not last long (even before the letter was 
 despatched, on March 3d, he acknowledged that it was 
 WTitten in a melancholy mood) ; but tlie longing for a 
 wider sphere of action kept often rising in him still. 
 Then the condition of German literature looked to him 
 most deplorable ; the pubhc wavered between the Tieck
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 467 
 
 and Schlegel school, which daily grew more hollow and 
 fantastic, and their matter-of-fact opponents, who got 
 increasingly dull and contemptible. 
 
 When Kotzebue had made one good last effort to 
 wean the court from Goethe, and had roused against 
 him the artists of Berlin, he removed to that capital, 
 so hostile to the Ideal tendency, where, on January 
 27th, as the most famous German poet, he was named 
 full member of the Academy of Sciences, whose doors 
 were closed to Schiller and Goethe. His dignity was 
 quickly trumpeted in the journal he had started at 
 the beginning of the year, the Freimiithige, " a Berlin 
 newspaper for educated and unprejudiced readers." 
 The new periodical assumed the most flippant airs 
 toward Goethe, as one who had made himself the con- 
 necting link between poets and poetasters, and who, 
 by his want of modesty and respect for the pubhc and 
 his own good name, had missed his high vocation as 
 the first of German writers. His management of the 
 Weimar theatre and his worshippers, the Eomanticists, 
 were attacked in the most vulgar way, and Wieland, 
 Klopstock, Engel, and others were set up against him 
 as the pride of Germany. Schiller's former friend, 
 Huber, amongst others, had joined the Freimiithige, but 
 his articles were distinguished by taste, judgment, and 
 just appreciation. Merkel struck the same note of 
 arrogance in his journal Ernst und Sclierz. If Schiller 
 was not fiercely persecuted, he was treated coldly, and 
 denied the possession of genius as much as by the 
 Romanticists. In free and bright moments he could 
 easily set himself above it all, as his shining successes 
 stood so clear in the light of day, and he felt himself 
 raised high above the presumptuous critics and their 
 l^roteges ; nevertheless, their impudent opposition deeply 
 galled him. 
 
 While diligently conducting the rehearsals of " The 
 Bride," he was seized with a passing inchnation to
 
 468 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 work on at his "Knights of Malta." On March 19th 
 the new drama came on the boards with great effect. 
 Schiller thought he had never before taken in the 
 impression of a true tragedy. Goethe felt the floor of 
 the theatre consecrated by it to something higher. 
 That many people could not at once lay aside their 
 prosaic craving for the Natural, troubled the poets not 
 at all. At the conclusion of the play, the son of 
 Professor Schiitz of Jena, by previous concert with a 
 large number of other students who had come over 
 from the university, raised a hurrah for Schiller, in 
 which the spectators enthusiastically joined. Un- 
 fortunately, Goethe could not let such a violation of 
 standing rules pass unrebuked, and the commandant 
 of Jena received orders to make known in the proper 
 quarter the official displeasure at the noisy ovation. 
 By this time the actors' parts for a performance of 
 the " Jungfrau " were written out. At the same time 
 Goethe was holding at his own house rehearsals of his 
 " Natural Daughter," of which until its performance 
 not even his truest ally was told more than the title 
 and the unnamed characters that appear in it. Schiller 
 had contracted a violent sciatica during a visit at the 
 castle. On the 31st we still learn from his wife that 
 he is affected by the severe winter, "galled by the 
 circumstances in which his friends are placed, and not 
 yet quite comfortable again in his mental condition." 
 It is true, Lotte herself was so out of humour, that 
 she could see nothing to please her anywhere, and 
 this heightened Schiller's depression. " My noisy 
 family that every now and then disturbs me in my 
 ideal fancies, the home of my feelings, does not always 
 tend to make those fancies happy." This is what she 
 confides to Fritz von Stein. The performance of " The 
 Natural Daughter," on April 2d, made a profound 
 impression on Schiller. Finding himself still incapable 
 of any dramatic composition, he set to work at trans-
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 469 
 
 lating French comedies. Then, also, favoured by the 
 spring, he attempted something lyric again, among 
 other things his " Eudolf von Habsburg," which he 
 finished on April 25th. Two days before, every one 
 had been electrified by the first performance of the 
 " Jungfrau," on whose rehearsals he had bestowed 
 uncommon care. As Cotta was passing through to 
 Leipzig on the 26th, Schiller gave him a punch supper 
 at the town hall, intending on his return to travel to 
 Suabia with him. He felt so well that on the 30th 
 he accepted an invitation from the officers at Erfurt, 
 which had been occupied by Prussia from the year 
 before. " It was gi'eat fun to me," he writes to Korner, 
 " to be set down among such a lot of the mihtary ; 
 there were about one hundred officers together, of 
 whom the old majors and colonels who had seen 
 service interested me most." 
 
 Two French comedies were ready by May 7th ; one, 
 " The Nephew as Uncle," was immediately studied, and 
 by the 18th the pubhc were laughing over it. Goethe, 
 before going to Jena on the 13th, had agreed with 
 Schiller about managing the theatre in his absence. 
 On Cotta's return both Schiller and Lotte were unwell, 
 and gave up the thought of accompanying him to 
 Suabia, but they held out hopes of their going in the 
 course of the summer, when he would come as far as 
 Heidelberg to meet them. For the moment Schiller 
 threw himself with ardour into his preface to " The 
 Bride," where he wished to utter his views on the 
 use of the Chorus in Tragedy. In it he declared 
 emphatically against the common view of the Natural, 
 which would simply abolish and annihilate all poetry. 
 It was not the public that lowered Art, but the artists ; 
 these should see the worthiest as a goal before them, 
 should aim at an Ideal ; let executive art then suit 
 itself to the circumstances as it may. It was a mani- 
 festo against the Kotzebue tendency, whose productions
 
 470 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 even the "VVeimar stage could uot exclude. Schiller 
 fiuished for Cotta's Annual " The Feast of Victory," 
 which he had begun early in the preceding year. 
 The second part of his " Poems " came out a little 
 before, in which only two or three are new, the 
 majority being of the youthful period, though some 
 are altered and considerably shortened. The continued 
 sale of these " wild products of youthful Dilettantism " 
 he excuses by saying they had " become a prescriptive 
 possession of the reader," and " even the faulty in 
 them was at all events a step in the author's mental 
 growth." How unjustly he had condemned the same 
 proceeding in Burger! At the beginning of June he 
 was a good deal with Zelter, then staying at Goethe's, 
 whose ballads and song-melodies, delivered by him 
 expressively, simply, and touchingly, though in a some- 
 what broken voice, Schiller thought excellent. He 
 gave him some of his poems to take with him, and 
 commended him to Korner as a man of culture and 
 solid grain and grit, such as are seldom to be found. 
 He felt so well at that time that he even appeared at 
 court once, ha\dng got a uniform made for the occa- 
 sion ; till then he had only attended at the birthdays 
 of the duchess and the hereditary prince. All his 
 thoughts were now turned upon " Tell." 
 
 But Goethe drove him to Lauchstadt, where he had 
 been so eagerly expected the year before, especially by 
 the young students. His stay at that cheerful and 
 to him memorable watering-place, from the 2d to the 
 14th July, was as exciting as it was agreeable. His 
 rooms there were on a ground floor looking on to a 
 garden. Students from Halle and Leipzig, drawn to 
 Lauchstadt by the performance of his " Bride," sang 
 him a serenade, and in the morning gi-eeted him with 
 music. The representation of the play was disturbed, 
 but its effect partly heightened, by a thunder-storm. 
 On the 11th the " Jungfrau " was given. Previously,
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 471 
 
 ou the 6th, Schiller had written : " The sight of a new 
 public has given me many new ghmpses into theatrical 
 matters, and I feel pretty sure that in future I shall 
 write much more definitely and suitably for the theatre, 
 without in the slightest sacrificing the poetry." He 
 also gathered more confidence in his health, since he 
 could feel so easy and happy amidst a great, bustling 
 crowd. The Prince of Wiirtemburg, who was there, 
 showed him great cordiality. But idleness could never 
 please him for long, and he must needs be gone, though 
 he first accepted for a day an invitation to Halle from 
 Eektor Niemeyer. 
 
 The moving of the ducal family into their new castle 
 on August 1st threw all Weimar into commotion. 
 Schiller could not keep out of the festivities, and had 
 to present himself at the court levee every Sunday. 
 On the 6th he for once visited Jena, where his garden- 
 house had long ago been sold to Professor Thibaut. 
 Alas ! the university there was all on the decline, as 
 the most eminent professors were tempted away by 
 more brilliant offers. He on this occasion spoke to 
 Paulus, who had likewise received a call, and found 
 him not disinclined to remain if his salary were raised. 
 Goethe did all in his power to remedy the evil, though 
 he saw very well that with such limited resources 
 little could be done. But when the news got about 
 that even the Literatur Zeitung, so bound up with the 
 university's life, was about to remove to Halle with 
 Schiitz, he resolved with all his might to save it for 
 Jena ; let them set up a new one at Halle if they 
 pleased. In the first place he obtained a patent for a 
 company to be formed with that object. The man 
 chosen for editor, Professor Eichstadt, handed him on 
 the 27th a prospectus, on reading which Goethe hurried 
 off to Schiller's in the evening, to persuade him to 
 cooperate. He there found Frau von Stein, Lieutenant- 
 Colonel von Helvig and his young wife, the authoress
 
 472 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 of " The Lesbian Sisters," seated at tea, but his business 
 was so pressing that he could not join the company ; 
 he drew his friend into a side-room, wliere they stood 
 and discussed the matter over a bottle of wine. Schil- 
 ler in a sanguine mood promised his help, though he 
 had begun his " Tell " two days before, in which he 
 hoped to give the world an altogether unique national 
 drama, in sympathy with all the liberal tendencies of 
 the age. A few days later the King of Sweden, who 
 was passing through, spoke to him at court, thanked 
 him for his " History of the Thirty Years' War," in 
 which he had shed such lustre on the Swedish names, 
 and presented him with a costly ring set in brilliants. 
 
 Early in September arrived the tidings so momentous 
 to Weimar of the happily accomplished betrothal of 
 the hereditary prince to the Kussian grand duchess. 
 When Wolzogen informed him that the empress had 
 begged of him " The Bride of Messina," Schiller an- 
 swered that it would be a great spur to him in doing 
 " Tell," to think that he could have it acted for the 
 first time in the presence of the prince and grand 
 duchess, whose advent was expected in the spring. 
 All absorbed in his theme, which compelled him to 
 get an accurate knowledge of the Swiss land and nation, 
 he thus expressed himself to Korner : " If the gods 
 grant me to put into shape what I have in my head, it 
 shall be a thing of might, and shake the theatres of 
 Germany." A representation of Shakespeare's " Julius 
 Caesar" on October 1st had an inspiring effect. When 
 Schiller was at Jena from the 2d to the 7th, he called 
 on Voss, who took a gi'eat interest in him as a man, 
 though he could not swallow his plays. The hours of 
 dehghtful talk they then had with Schiller were always 
 remembered with peculiar pleasure by Ernestine Voss. 
 While at Jena he allowed himself to be prejudiced 
 against Goethe's new Literatitr Zeitung : he even 
 thought they had gone the wrong way to work, that
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 473 
 
 nothing could come of it, and he did not want to have 
 much to do with the paper. He cared more for the in- 
 terests of the university. He writes : " I have not been 
 altogether idle about moving our ministry and the duke 
 to more decided steps, but there is an evil spirit haunts 
 the house here, and thwarts every good measure." 
 More ardent champions than Goethe and Voigt the uni- 
 versity could not have, but the duke had long been 
 against it, because it had too small means and too 
 many masters, and nobody would guarantee its future. 
 Schiller himself had spoken to the duke on behalf 
 of Paulus, and had been authorised to offer him an 
 additional two hundred thalers and some other privi- 
 leges ; but he had not succeeded in keeping him either. 
 Personally, Schiller was delighted to receive 620 thalers 
 sent anonymously from Regensburg, which was Dal- 
 berg's response to the account he had sent him a few 
 days before of his new play. It was clear to him now 
 that his patron would not bind himself to anything 
 definite, but would only assist him from time to time ; 
 he therefore made a point of keeping up his connection 
 with him. At the same time he looked hopefully to 
 the future hereditary princess, having to his great joy 
 heard from Wolzogen that the Russian empress and 
 her daughter had listened with high approval to the 
 reading of his dramas. " TeU," it is true, made slow 
 progress ; not only did the subject demand the most 
 minute acquaintance with a country and a people he 
 had never seen, but the time of year was much against 
 him. The cordial reception of his adaptation of " The 
 Parasite " on the stage pleased him much, especially as 
 he had obliged the duke by it. Kotzebue by this time 
 was gone from Berlin, but not until he had thrown off 
 a sorry skit against Goethe, under the name of " Expec- 
 torations," which, with his usual honesty, he afterward 
 disclaimed. Merkel carried on the Freimiithige, to 
 which its founder still contributed largely ; Schiller
 
 474 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 was now set by the side of Wieland, Klopstock, and 
 Herder, against Goethe ; the " Oberons " and " Messiads " 
 were cried up, and the erusade against Goethe was 
 continued with equal mahce, flippancy, and infatuation. 
 
 When he, whose vigorous interposition on behalf of 
 the Literatur Zcitung was making its prospects look 
 more and more encouraging, went to Jena on the same 
 business to stay some time, Schiller felt the more 
 lonely, as his sister and brother-in-law were also away. 
 He seldom went to the Sunday levees at court, and sel- 
 domer still accepted invitations from the dowager duch- 
 ess, though he prized her now as a " right noble woman." 
 He was much in earnest about the education of his two 
 boys. It was arranged that they should now be under 
 Eisert five or six hours a day ; Karl was to do geometry 
 and natural history in addition to Latin, while Ernst, 
 in whom Lotte then thought she could see a poetic 
 bias, went on with his reading and writing. 
 
 When it was rumoured that Madame de Stael, on her 
 way to BerHn, would pay a visit to the Court of the 
 Muses at Weimar, Schiller thought that if only she 
 understood German, they might well be a match for 
 her ; but it was too much to expect of them to expound 
 to her in French phrases the faith that was in them, 
 and hold their own against her French volubility. 
 Goethe declared he could not get away from Jena, and 
 begged Schiller to represent him. On December 14th 
 came Necker's gifted daughter, about whom all minds 
 were on the stretch ; and the following day she dined 
 at court. In the evening Schiller and his wife came in 
 to tea and supper. She was much surprised when the 
 tall man in court-dress was presented to her as Schil- 
 ler; she would sooner have taken him for a general. 
 They were soon involved in a warm philosophical 
 debate, which Schiller could not battle out for want 
 of fluency in French. He and Wieland called the next 
 morning on the ready-witted lady, and met her the
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 475 
 
 same evening at the dowager duchess's. Schiller 
 found her exactly what he had imagined her, without 
 a spark of poetry or of ideality, and yet her clearness, 
 decision, and nimble play of wit did one a world of 
 good, only her extraordinary ghbness of tongue de- 
 manded the most unflagging attention. However, he 
 gave not an inch of ground to the arrogating French- 
 woman, who fancied she possessed the only true taste. 
 At last Goethe made up his mind to come to Weimar 
 after all. He wrote from Jena inviting Madame de 
 Stael and Schiller and his wife to dinner at his house 
 on the 24th. He also, with all due politeness, adroitly 
 managed to keep at a distance the Frenchwoman's 
 exacting importunities ; he went to see her the next 
 day, but after that he declared himself too unwell to 
 receive strange visitors. All the more had Schiller to 
 contribute to the entertainment of this inquisitive 
 woman with her endless questions, whose presence was 
 baneful enough to him at a time when he wished to 
 work wholly at his " Tell," yet whom he admired for 
 her intellect and her rare eloquence. On January 7th, 
 1804, he was at a dinner given by Madame de Stael to 
 the " Literary Men " of Weimar, among whom were 
 Wieland and the fawning Bottiger, a worthy confederate 
 of Kotzebue and Merkel. She had always the same 
 way with her — that insatiable craving to display her 
 wit, to amend the German want of taste, and to widen 
 her knowledge and understanding of the world ; and all 
 the while, anything strange to her she quietly set aside 
 as not to the purpose. An utter absence, too, of femi- 
 nine reserve gave one a disagreeable shock. On the 
 12th she was at Schiller's, who, in spite of all hin- 
 drances and the care he had to bestow on rehearsals, 
 was able on the 13th to send Goethe the first act of his 
 " Tell." His friend's approval gave him great comfort, 
 of which he stood in special need " in the present suf- 
 focating air." Alas ! Madame de Stael threatened to
 
 476 THE LI-FE OF SCHILLER 
 
 stay another three weeks. Directly after that Schiller 
 had to keep his house for a couple of days, yet he was 
 able to conduct the trial-reading for Bode's adaptation 
 of Eacine's " Mithridates," which for want of something 
 better was to be played on the duchess's birthday. In 
 spite of the more and more conspicuous " hollowness, 
 halfness, woodenness " of the whole style, he had to 
 carry it through somehow. Immediately after he 
 pleased Goethe amazingly with the second act of his 
 " Tell." Having promised IfHand the play for the end 
 of February, he worked sturdily on, though the pres- 
 ence of JMadame de Stael, who would keep on discus- 
 sing all things with Trench superficiality, gi-ew daily 
 more oppressive. 
 
 It was a great -joy to him to make the acquaintance 
 of the historian of Switzerland, Johannes von Miiller, 
 who was travelling to Berlin, but who stayed at 
 Weimar from January 22d to February 7th. About 
 the same time Voss came to Weimar to promote the 
 appointment of his son Heinrich, aged then twenty- 
 four, to the Gymnasium. Toward this young man 
 especially, who from the 10th stayed more than a 
 week at Goethe's, a cordial attachment was formed by 
 both the poets. On the 16th Schiller felt obliged to 
 decline the invitation to a supper given by Goethe 
 to Madame de Stael and her friend Benjamin Constant 
 (who knew German well), because he had carefully to 
 guard against everything that might dispel or darken 
 the happy mood he needed at the last, and particularly 
 against French friends. In two days more he sent 
 Goethe the entire play, with a distribution of the 
 parts, for the Weimar theatre ; but the stress of work 
 and the weather had so affected him that for a few 
 days he had to keep at home. On the 20th he sent 
 the concluding part of " Tell " to Iffland ; the next day 
 he mixed in society again, and the evening after supped 
 at Madame de Stael's with Goethe and Constant. At
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 477 
 
 last, on the 29th, this singular woman went on her 
 way to Berhu. Schiller, writing to introduce her to 
 Iffland, says : " Though we plain Germans are radically 
 and hopelessly at variance with her French way of 
 thinking, yet she judges more worthily of the German 
 genius than any of her countrymen, and has an earnest, 
 even passionate, striving toward the good and right." 
 
 The first reading-rehearsal of " Tell " was held at 
 Goethe's house on March 1st, the next on the 6th ; 
 the first two acts were tried at the theatre on the 8th, 
 the last three on the 9th. And the very next day 
 Schiller resolved on a new drama, " Demetrius ; or. 
 The Bloody Bridal of Moscow." He had once before, 
 in " Warbeck," selected a false Pretender for dramatic 
 handling ; but having lately, in view of the shortly 
 expected grand duchess, looked about for a subject in 
 Eussian history, he had found it in the history of the 
 false Demetrius, which now, on closer inspection, he 
 thought extremely suitable for a gi-and play. On 
 March 17th his " Tell " came on the stage, and pro- 
 duced even a greater effect than any of his former 
 dramas. He felt, so he wrote to Kcirner, that he was 
 gradually getting to be master of theatrical matters. 
 Thus he struggled toward higher and higher perfection 
 in art, while his rival, of whose " Hussites " the Weimar 
 theatre had lately given a most finished performance, 
 only aimed at coarse effects, and at distancing all that 
 had been done. The new play was repeated on the 
 19th and 24th with the same success. And yet 
 Schiller found himself in a bitter mood. On the 20th 
 he wrote to his brother-in-law Wolzogen, at Petersburg, 
 that Weimar pleased him worse every day ; anywhere 
 was better than there ; if his health allowed it, he 
 would joyfully move to the north. He adds : " My 
 occupation is my dearest delight ; it makes me happy 
 in myself and outwardly independent ; and if I can 
 only reach my fiftieth year with mental powers unim-
 
 478 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 paired, I hope to save euough to make my children 
 independent. This year I get my house clear of debt, 
 and look to have something over as well." A melan- 
 choly that sometimes seized him inspired these words, 
 though he might fairly count upon the grand duchess, 
 who was expected soon, for an improvement in his 
 circumstances ; and he stood on the most intimate 
 footing with the three most eminent councillors of the 
 duke, with the duke himself, and the court. What 
 oppressed him was, that he had not a free sphere of 
 action, that he was Httle better than a pensioner ; his 
 spirit longed for hving activity, on a wider scene than 
 Weimar, with its limited means, could be. His whole 
 heart was fixed upon this, and on his art. The political 
 world troubled him not ; what was there to be had 
 from it, when in France, mighty France that ruled the 
 world, and that had shattered the German Empire, an 
 omnipotent despotic Imperiahsm was coming on !
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FROM APRIL, 1804, TO MAY, 1805. 
 
 But few gleams of light brightened the brief remain- 
 der of life allotted to our poet. At Berlin he met with 
 a brilliant reception, and had flattering offers made 
 him ; at Weimar he was happy in the favour of the 
 grand duchess, who captivated all ; but a cold which 
 he caught a little before Lotte's last confinement shook 
 his long-enfeebled health to its foundations ; and he 
 was never well again. At times, indeed, he roused 
 himself up, but his love of life and the overexertion 
 increased his weakness and provoked ever-renewed 
 attacks, which at last overpowered him. 
 
 In the early part of April, while his wife and chil- 
 dren suffered from whooping-cough, he was tolerably 
 well himself ; he could go to court and to parties, and 
 his " Demetrius " was well in train. When it became 
 apparent that in August Lotte would present him with 
 another child, he resolved to undertake no journey 
 that year, but to work the more steadily, that he might 
 the sooner begin to pay off by degrees the debt he 
 owed to Korner. But when Pauli, secretary to the 
 Berlin theatre, whom Iffland had sent to him about 
 some needful alterations m " Tell," opened to him the 
 prospect of a call to the same theatre, Schiller, after 
 sending his " Tell " to the arch-chancellor, with a 
 couple of stanzas to guard against misconstruction of 
 the play, set out on the 26th with Lotte and the boys 
 for the Prussian capital. At Leipzig he passed two or 
 
 479
 
 480 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 three delightful days with Cotta and his wife; the 
 faithful old friend showed his kindness in ways that 
 touched him. At noon of May 1st they arrived at Ber- 
 lin, and put up at the large HOtel de Kussie. Ifflaud, 
 Hufeland, Zelter, the Von Hagen family, linger, 
 Fichte, and others, vied with one another to make his 
 stay a pleasant one. He called on Henriette Herz, a 
 friend of Frau von Wolzogen and of Humboldt. She 
 thought the poet quite a man of the world, he was so 
 particularly cautious in expressing opinions on persons. 
 Though his pale complexion and reddish hair (she 
 informs us) took away from the noble effect of his 
 features, all that disappeared when in hvely conversa- 
 tion ; a faint blush came into his cheeks, and enhanced 
 the brilliance of his blue eyes. At the performance of 
 his " Bride," on the 4th, his entrance into the box was 
 hailed again and again with shouts of joy. He supped 
 the next day with the fiery German-hearted Prince 
 Louis Ferdinand. For a time he was ill tlirough over- 
 excitement, but on the 12th he could dine at Hufe- 
 land's and was present the same evening at a splendid 
 performance of his " Maid." He had access to the 
 court also: on the 13th he was received by the queen. 
 The boys met the two eldest princes, and the crown 
 prince struck up a friendship with Karl, who was two 
 years older. On the 14th Schiller saw " Wallenstein's 
 Death," and the following evening went to Zelter's 
 singing-school. The splendour and rich resources of 
 the Berlin stage strongly attracted the dramatic poet, 
 and though the naturalism prevailing here, in contrast 
 with Weimar, could not delight him, he was too wise to 
 utter a single disagreeable word. This much is said 
 to have been elicited from Lotte in an underhand way, 
 that the player of Thekla was not to his taste. Iftland 
 gave the poet delightful fetes at his charming garden 
 residence in the Thiergarten-strasse, but he had to 
 leave for Hanover on the 16th, and he informed the
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 481 
 
 Cabinet Privy Councillor von Beyme at Potsdam that 
 Schiller, hearing from Pauh that they would like to 
 get him to Berhn, had remarked that in that case they 
 must procure him admission at Potsdam, or some kind 
 of opening. So upon this Iffland founded the question 
 whether they could not install him as academician 
 with a salary, that he might work for the national stage. 
 Schiller was equally prepared (he said), in case Miiller, 
 who had been appointed historiographer and academi- 
 cian, did not come, to instruct the crown prince in his- 
 tory. And he need not break off his connection with 
 Weimar ; he might there obtain leave of a few years' 
 residence at Berlin to secure a fortune for his children. 
 On the morning of the 16th Schiller drove to Potsdam 
 in company with Hofrath Greichen. He dined with 
 Beyme, who confided to him that the king would hke 
 to draw him to Berlin, and put him in the position 
 most favourable to his mental activity ; let him there- 
 fore state in writing the conditions on which he 
 thought he could hve there. In the evening he saw 
 Kotzebue's " Fanchon " acted, and then visited the hot- 
 blooded Colonel von Massenbach ; the next morning 
 he left Potsdam. He was so ardent for Berlin, that 
 he utterly disregarded his wife's objections to the dis- 
 mal scenery, the (to her) disagreeable tone and social 
 conditions of Berlin. " There is a large personal free- 
 dom there," he states to Korner, " and an unconstrain- 
 edness in the civic life; music and theatre offer 
 manifold enjoyment, though both are far from being 
 worth what they cost. Besides, at Berlin I am more 
 likely to find openings for my children ; and when 
 once I am there, I can go on improving myself in 
 many ways." Considering the higher scale of prices, 
 and that in so large a city he must keep a carriage, he 
 thought he could not make ends meet at Berlin with 
 less than six hundred friedrichsd'or ; he needed thir- 
 teen hundred thalers at Weimar.
 
 482 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 When he got back to Weimar on the 21st, all the 
 advantages of the little familiar place came vividly 
 before him, his obligations to the duke, the high value 
 of his intercourse with Goethe ; then again, his wife, 
 who looked forward anxiously to her confinement, 
 could not conceal her repugnance to a totally new 
 position. Goethe, now restored to his old serenity, was 
 deeply interested in the matter ; and urged Schiller to 
 weigh calmly the conditions on both sides ; he only 
 wished him to take no step until the approaching 
 return of the duke. Schiller also found at Weimar 
 the genial young Voss, who had by this time been in- 
 stalled professor there, and who attached himself closely 
 to him and to Goethe. On the 28th he had already 
 made up his mind to remain at Weimar, in consider- 
 ation of some substantial compensation. During a 
 delightful four days' visit from his sister Christophine 
 with Eeinwald, he made application to the duke, who 
 kindly begged him to suggest the means by which he 
 could make his remaining at Weimar tolerable, and 
 then at once consented to the desired doubling of 
 his salary; nay, he even expressed a hope that his 
 temporary stay at Berlin might lead to his receiving 
 acceptable terms from there also. Not till June 18th 
 did Schiller inform Beyme that he could not leave 
 Weimar altogether, but was prepared to live at Berlin 
 several months in the year, for the purpose of making 
 progress in his art, and of having good influence upon 
 the whole of the theatrical arrangements there, which 
 a salary of two thousand thalers would enable him to 
 do. To this letter Schiller Tiever received an answer, 
 although before the end of the mouth the queen had 
 seen his " Tell " at Lauchstadt, and praised it highly, 
 and he himself had saluted the king at court-parade in 
 Weimar, while his new drama had been played at 
 Berlin in July with such marked success that even 
 the Freimuthige spoke rapturously of it. Meanwhile
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 483 
 
 Dalberg, the arch-chancellor, had decHned Schiller's 
 dedication of it to himself with the words : " Let Schil- 
 ler's lofty Muse do homage to Virtue, not to mortal 
 man ; " and had once more signified his good-will by an 
 anonymous remittance, this time of 1,085 Viennese 
 florins. 
 
 Dalberg was at that time an enthusiastic admirer of 
 Napoleon, then risen to be emperor, and whose foot was 
 upon Germany's neck. Feeling well and contented, 
 our poet set to work at his " Demetrius," besides ar- 
 ranging for the issue of his poems in an edition de luxe, 
 and for the printing of "Tell." All that disquieted 
 him now was Lotte's expected confinement. A week 
 later he moved with his family to Niethammer's house 
 in Jena, where they could be near Stark, the physi- 
 cian. And here Fate's hand was upon him. Being 
 too thinly clad, he took cold after a drive at evening 
 through the pleasant Dornburg valley. Attacks of 
 colic came on, and so violent were they that more than 
 once the doctor feared that his patient could not live 
 through them. While Schiller thus lay suffering 
 agonies in the room above, his wife below awaited her 
 hour of trial. On the second day of his sickness, they 
 brought him the new-born daughter, to his great 
 delight. The malady passed over, but his strength 
 would not come back, and in that sultry weather such a 
 seizure had been doubly weakening in its effect ; he felt 
 thoroughly broken up. His complexion had grown 
 ash-coloured ; his fire and vivacity were gone ; he 
 seemed far quieter and gentler, taking still a friendly 
 part in all conversation, and showing more than ever 
 his love and interest for the children. Besides his old 
 and faithful friends at Jena, whose society gladdened 
 him, he was especially pleased to meet good-humoured 
 Voss and Count Geszler, who had come there solely on 
 his account. The infant was baptised on the 7th of 
 August, receiving the names Emilie Henriette Louise ;
 
 484 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 and among the sponsors were the Princesses Eudolstadt 
 and Sondershauseu, Count Geszler, and Voss. Goethe 
 arrived there to stay for a few days, and comfort his 
 suffering friend. By the 19th Schiller had gone back 
 to Weimar, whither in four days his wife followed 
 him ; both of them were still seriously out of health. 
 But at length, on the 11th of October, Schiller felt 
 better and could believe in his recovery. 
 
 " Inchnation for work and power to do it have come 
 back again," he tells Korner, " and this will help me to 
 achieve my cure ; for when I can employ myself, I 
 always feel well." He still thought over his two 
 dramatic themes, but without being able to reach any 
 decision as to them. Despite the cold from which he 
 suffered, he could not bear to remain in the house, but 
 went to the court assemblies on Sundays, and showed 
 himself in society and at the theatre. There, for the 
 birthday of the dowager duchess, they had mounted 
 another Kotzebue effusion, his hideous "Johanna von 
 Moutfaucon," which should rival Schiller's " Maid of 
 Orleans." Voss's friendship for the poet grew ever 
 stronger. When it had to be decided whether he 
 should join his parents at Wurzburg, and he seemed 
 willing enough to make this sacrifice for them, Schiller 
 told him : " No ; for your parents' sake you ought to stop 
 on ; for if your position at Wurzburg failed to please 
 you, your father will deeply rue having led you to 
 take it." 
 
 Weimar was now eagerly expecting the hereditary 
 princess, whose wealth, it was hoped, would bring on 
 a golden age for all. As Goethe felt in no mood for 
 writing poetry, Schiller accepted his commission to 
 compose a " Prologue " for the theatre. This he began 
 on the 3d of November, and by the 8th, the day before 
 the princess' coming, he had finished his skilfully con- 
 ceived and skilfully written " Homage to the Arts." 
 He was presented to the hereditary princess at court,
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 485 
 
 and thought her of remarkable cliarm ; to the greatest 
 kindhness she joined much dignity, which kept down 
 any attempt at familiarity, while, with all the merri- 
 ment of youth, she had a character that was firm, and 
 a mind that took interest in serious things, and in all 
 that was right and true. She spoke German with 
 difficulty, but she understood the language perfectly, 
 " Heaven grant that she do something for the arts," he 
 wrote, "which, here, especially music, are in a right 
 bad way." 
 
 Wolzogen had brought Schiller a costly diamond 
 ring from the empress, to whom he had presented a 
 copy of the " Don Carlos." After a conversation with 
 the hereditary princess, he tells Wolzogen how fasci- 
 nated he is : "I could see her and hear her speak ; 
 everything that she says is full of mind and soul. 
 And how fortunate that she understands German ! 
 For only in that tongue one can show one's self to 
 her just as one is; and, with her, one wants to be 
 thoroughly sincere." Next morning he sent her 
 through Wolzogen the MS. of his " Prologue," which 
 in the evening she saw acted at the theatre ; and when 
 the words were spoken, — 
 
 " Swift grow the links that form Affection's band ; 
 Where thou shedd'st blessing, there's thy Fatherland," — 
 
 the tears came into her eyes, as the audience thundered 
 its applause. Schiller attended the court-ball on the 
 following night, where, in gay company, he felt so 
 merry that, despite Lotte's entreaty, he stopped on 
 until the small hours, returning at three in the morn- 
 ing amid the cheers of enthusiastic friends. Just six 
 months later, at midnight, he was carried by Voss and 
 all the flower of Weimar youth, sadly, silently, to his 
 grave. 
 
 Instead of nursing the cold from which he suffered, 
 Schiller went to the ball, the theatre, and the court.
 
 486 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 until at length he was forced to stay in the house for 
 three weeks. " My health, alas, is so feeble," he writes 
 on December 10th, "that every spell of enjoy juent has 
 at once to be paid for by weeks of suffering ! And thus, 
 despite the best of wills, my work is also brought to a 
 halt ! " 
 
 But he had shortened the " Tell," leaving out the 
 whole of the last act, as the emperor's murder could 
 not be mentioned before the grand duchess, who on 
 the very eve of Napoleon's coronation witnessed this 
 splendid play, with its grand doctrines of freedom. 
 Besides pushing forward the printing of the second 
 portion of his " Poems " in another edition, he urged on 
 the issue of a first volume of " Dramas," that Cotta 
 years ago desired to publish, and which was to open 
 with the " Homage to the Arts." No piece was forth- 
 coming for the gala performance on the duchess's 
 birthday, and Schiller, feeling unfit for original work, 
 determined to make an adaptation of Racine's " Phedre." 
 On the 17th he began upon this, and in twenty -six 
 days it was ready. Writing to Goethe on the 14th, 
 who was kept at home by a cold, he says : " Alas ! we 
 are all unwell, and he's the best off who, perforce, has 
 learned to put up with being sick." If not absolutely 
 obhged to do so, he could never stop indoors. The 
 " Demetrius " took up his thoughts, now, but if it did 
 not succeed, he was going to turn to some work of a 
 mechanical kind. It is true, on the 20th we hear that, 
 with the thaw, his thinking powers have come back, 
 but still he cannot make the effort to do any work ; 
 liis cold still torments him, and well-nigh crushes out 
 all vitality. Shortly before this, the news of Ruber's 
 death on Christmas Eve had so shaken him, that he 
 dared not bring himself to think of it. He tells 
 Korner that Huber " only hved for us, and he was 
 bound up with times too beautiful in our life for us 
 ever to think of him with indifference."
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 487 
 
 While Goethe was still kept at home by ill health, 
 Schiller attended the theatre and directed the re- 
 hearsals. Wishing to gi'atify the duke, he sent him 
 his translation of " Phedre," and his Grace was pleased 
 at being able to make some remarks upon it. The 
 performance, o\wg to the careful and thorough re- 
 hearsals, proved in every way a triumph. But, alas ! 
 there was fresh trouble in the poet's home at this 
 time, for his whole family had been taken ill with 
 chicken-pox. He himself strove to keep up his 
 strength, but on the 9th of February he was pros- 
 trate with fever, which two days later again attacked 
 him, and its effects were the more baneful on account 
 of his weak and ailing state. Just before this Goethe 
 lay seriously ill, and young Voss, their friend, watched 
 alternately at the iDedside of each of the poets. The 
 painful nature of Goethe's malady may have helped to 
 make him somewhat impatient, but Schiller was most 
 calm, most gentle, always trying to hide his suffering, 
 so that those about him, especially Lotte, might not 
 be distressed ; he even sought to cheer her by little 
 humourous speeches, and by making all sorts of brilliant 
 plans for the future. He was delighted that Voss liked 
 his darling boys ; true, they had not a spark of poetry 
 in them ; as he put it, they were regular Philistines by 
 nature ; still, he loved them passionately for all that. 
 By the 2 2d Goethe was able to write to him, and his 
 touching letter revived in Schiller the hope that the 
 old times might come back, though he had often 
 despaired of this. Goethe now drove out ; but he 
 feared to visit his friend, as the meeting might agitate 
 them both too highly. Yet in the first days of March 
 Schiller could no longer restrain his longing for Goethe, 
 to whom Voss was to announce his coming, so that 
 the surprise might not prove harmful. And when the 
 two sufferers met, they fell upon one another's neck and 
 spoke, not of all their bygone pain, but " of sensible
 
 488 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 things," as each rejoiced to possess the other still. It 
 was a great delight for Schiller when he was once more 
 able to visit the theatre, for then he gained fresh hope 
 that his life would be spared. 
 
 Goethe now suft'ered from periodical attacks of his 
 disease, which brought him to death's door, while 
 Schiller for the most part felt moderately well, and, 
 as before, went out to the court and the play. At this 
 time a meeting with Mecheln, the engraver and art 
 collector, gave him pleasure. Mecheln was a native of 
 Switzerland, and an engraving of some Swiss scenery 
 set them both talking with zest of the beauties of that 
 country. In the " worthy veteran's " album he wrote 
 two distichs where Nature and Art are shown to be 
 exhaustless, giving eternal youth to those who love 
 them. He intended to make up now for the time lost 
 during that winter, and was going to work with greater 
 energy at the " Demetrius," which should form a con- 
 trast to the " Maid of Orleans." But he never suc- 
 ceeded in doing this. On March 27th he tells Goethe, 
 whom, owing to the bitter north winds, he had not 
 seen for some considerable time, that at last he had 
 buckled to his work in thorough earnest, and that he 
 did not believe he would be easily led away from it. 
 On the 2d of April he writes three letters to Eome, 
 which are carried tliither by a traveller going to Italy ; 
 one of these was to Humboldt, the last he ever sent. 
 He confessed that in " Tell " and the " Maid of Orleans " 
 he had perhaps conceded somewhat to the demands of 
 the world and of the present epoch, and while making 
 a sensation with his plays at all the German theatres, 
 he had from these theatres also gained knowledge and 
 experience. As he had made good contracts with 
 Cotta and the managers, he could secure something 
 for his children, and at fifty he would have got them 
 that independence which in his own youth he had so 
 grievously needed. In Weimar his relations were most
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 489 
 
 agreeable, he said, and he had never for a moment re- 
 gretted having chosen to stay on there instead of mov- 
 ing to Berlin. Whatever mortification he might have 
 felt at Beyme's unwarrantable silence had now wholly 
 passed ; all that tormented Mm was his ruined health, 
 and the deplorable state of German hterature, for no 
 new writer had stood forth in whom one could take 
 pleasure or pride. 
 
 As Schiller put no great strain upon his physical 
 powers, his health at this time was tolerable. He had 
 still the delight of meeting Goethe, and Voss would 
 visit him on afternoons, who, at Schiller's suggestion, 
 was adapting " Othello " for the German stage. On 
 those evenings when he did not go to the theatre, he 
 used to work. Goethe had a most serious attack of 
 his malady on the 10th; nevertheless, in two days 
 he was out of danger. Schiller sent his " Homage " 
 and the " Phedre " translation to Dalberg, who mean- 
 while at Mainz had been showing all honour to the 
 newly crowned Napoleon. By the middle of the month 
 Goethe, following the doctor's orders, took horse exer- 
 cise, and thus he and Schiller missed driving out 
 together. As long as Goethe rode every day he felt 
 well, but so soon as he discontinued doing so, he 
 became ill. The work that then occupied him was 
 his " Winckelmann " and the " Notes " to Diderot's 
 " Neveu de Eameau," and he was eagerly hoping to 
 have news of Schiller's "Demetrius." 
 
 At length, on the 25th, the elder of the friends 
 visited the younger. Goethe now felt in a fair way 
 to health, and he spoke of staying at Dresden in the 
 summer, though Schiller knew that the doctor had 
 doubts as to his complete recovery. Schiller was 
 anxious, too, about his own state. Though the milder 
 season should bring him fresh courage, he wrote to 
 Kcirner, still traces would remain, he feared, of these 
 last terrible attacks; if life and moderate health did
 
 490 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 but hold out until his fiftieth year, he would be con- 
 tent. Weakness and his long enforced idleness were 
 causes to hinder any swift progi-ess with the " Deme- 
 trius." On the afternoon of the 28th, before Schiller 
 attended the Sunday court assembly, Voss came in 
 as usual, and helped him to dress, saying how well he 
 looked in his green court dress, which was now a more 
 elaborate one. Goethe, who was feeling unwell, came 
 next evening as Schiller was about to start for the 
 theatre, where Spiesz's " Clara von Hoheneichen " was 
 to be given. Before the front door the two friends 
 parted ; and they never met again. On this day, three 
 years since, Schiller had moved into his house. At the 
 end of the play, when Voss went into Schiller's box, he 
 found him in a high fever, with chattering teeth. On 
 reaching home they brewed some punch, wliich the 
 poet used occasionally to take as a restorative. But 
 this time it was of no avail ; he never again sat up at 
 his writing-table, where after his death they found the 
 fair copy of " Marfa's Monologue," the last thing, per- 
 haps, that he ever wrote. We here give the facsimile 
 of this. 
 
 Next day Voss found him lying strengthless upon 
 a couch. " Here I lie again," was all he could say, 
 in a faint, hollow voice ; even to the caresses of his 
 children he gave no response. He could take no nour- 
 ishment, and his weakness increased so rapidly that 
 a bed had to be brought into his study. Travelling 
 through to Leipzig, Gotta visited the sick man, and left 
 with sad forebodings. Violent attacks of spasms now 
 came on, and during the sleepless nights Schiller lay 
 troubled vdth bitter thoughts as to his suffering wife 
 and the children. He would not allow Voss to watch 
 at his bedside, but only kept faithful Piudolf as his 
 attendant. As ill luck would have it. Stark, his doctor, 
 and Wolzogen were both of them away, ha\dng gone 
 with the court to Leipzig. On the afternoon of the
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 49^ 
 
 5th, after a herbal bath, he felt easier ; ouce more hope 
 of hving revived in him, and he at once told Cotta and 
 Wolzogen of his improved state. But that night his 
 brain was again attacked ; and after this he was mostly 
 delirious. In quiet moments it was a pleasure for him 
 to have his dear wife and her sister close at hand ; but 
 he never asked to see the children. During his delirium 
 he repeated passages from the " Demetrius," and once, 
 before waking from sleep, he called out : " Is that your 
 hell ? Is that your heaven ? " and then looked upwards 
 with a calm smile. He had dreamt that they were 
 plying him with religious exhortations. When in the 
 night sharp pains seized him, he cried out with fer- 
 vour : " O thou who art above, save me from suffering 
 long!" When asked how he felt, he rephed that it 
 was all so serene, that it all seemed so fair to him. 
 Thus to the weary one there came bright \dsions at his 
 journey's close, and the present had no place in his 
 thoughts. He never asked for Goethe, who was also 
 at that time stretched upon a sick-bed. In the last 
 days, he took Lotte's hand in his, and said, affection- 
 ately, " Dear, good one ; " then, with a rarely beautiful 
 smile, he kissed her as she smoothed the pillows about 
 his head. He had fallen into calm sleep, and Lotte, 
 who, trusting to his good constitution, had again taken 
 hope, was sitting in the side-room. Suddenly they 
 called her, for a violent convulsion had seized the 
 sufferer ; his face was distorted and his hands cold. 
 Then, lightning-quick, came a change over his features ; 
 the head fell back, and the noble heart had for ever 
 ceased to beat. This was before six o'clock on the 
 evening of the 9th of May, the month of blossoms, 
 which that year had opened in wintry gloom. Schil- 
 ler's spirit had battled fiercely with the shattered body 
 that held it, until at last his vital power succumbed. 
 Yet one might almost deem him fortunate to die thus, 
 gone from earth without long and painful languishing.
 
 492 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER 
 
 in the zenith of his powers, when, as dramatic poet, his 
 genius had won its most glorious triumphs. In the 
 short span of hfe allotted to him his heart had enjoyed 
 the supremest pleasures of love and of friendship, and, 
 when at the summit of his fame, he was upborne by 
 the consciousness that through his own energy and 
 perseverance, undaunted by circumstance, and with 
 never a stain upon his honour, he had reached a nota- 
 ble place in the world, and had earned the love and 
 gratitude of the German nation, which was to draw 
 such benefit from the writings he had bequeathed to 
 them, writings whose worth must ever increase, the 
 more we learn to know ourselves, the more we learn 
 to honour what is really excellent in poetry and in 
 human life. 
 
 THE END.
 
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