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The life of Schiller, 
 
 3 1924 031 450 129 
 olin.anx 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031450129 
 

 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 27, 
 
 line 36. For beside read besides. 
 
 „ 44, 
 
 ,, 31. Yqx GlaottixtsA Galotti. 
 
 „ 127, 
 
 ,, 9. For Schloszlatz read Schloszplatz 
 
 „ 174, 
 
 „ 2. For Kahrsdorf x&zA Kahnsdorf. 
 
 „ 185, 
 
 For Axton read Anton. 
 
 „ 262, 
 
 ,, 24. For Karl read Kalb. 
 
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 seven- 
 teenth century, lived John Caspar Schiller, by trade a baker, 
 but also holding legal office; he migrated thither, it is thought, 
 from the village of Groszheppach, which lies to the south-east 
 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- singeiJ^One 
 Jdrg 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 farne, 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 
 mayor. On the 30th of October 1708, at the age of twenty- 
 eight, he married; and on the 27th of October 1723 was born 
 to him his eighth and youngest child, John Caspar, the father 
 of our poet It was intended that he should enter the Church, 
 
4 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. i. ch. i. 
 
 his elder brothei' 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 education ; his parent was but 
 of slender fortune, and had to leave many of his children with- 
 out 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 appren- 
 ticed him to a monastery barber of the hamlet of Denkendorf, 
 with whom he was to study surgery. Nor 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 with a barber at Backnang, in 
 this way to earn for himself means of travel. At length, after 
 journeying about, he found employment at a surgeon's in 
 Lindau, on the lake of Constance. Soon, however, his master 
 died, when he went to Nbrdlingen, 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 Nord- 
 lingen 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 pro- 
 vender, he managed to save somewhat ; the fees for two suc- 
 cessful cures served to support him while in Brussels. Between 
 that place and Charleroi he fell into the hands of the invading 
 French. Being fortunate 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 arid 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 surrounding villages. Fortunately, while thus en- 
 
I723-59-] LIFE AT HOME AND AT SCHOOL. s 
 
 gaged, 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 disastrous battle of 
 Rocoux. Nov? at length, after many a misadventure, the post 
 . for which he had longed became his ; he was appointed regi- 
 mental 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 re- 
 lates, "led me on to ask official permission whether, in common 
 with the sergeants, I might conduct different expeditions and 
 reconnaissances. Under the command of an officer, this was 
 accorded to me, and many were the rides I had, often return- 
 ing 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. " 
 
 The Rittmeister of his troop became so attached to the 
 brave and 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-Chg,pelle. Schiller, then at Oudenbosch 
 with the so-called Little Army, was afterwards quartered with 
 his Rittmeister at Borckel. They came to London 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 dis- 
 banded ; 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 
 
THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. 
 
 [BK. I. CH. I. 
 
 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 Mar- 
 gareta Stolpp. He put up at the sign of the " Golden Lion," 
 an inn near the Niklasthor, now No. 260 Niklasthorstrasse. 
 
 
 i^^ 
 
 4- 
 
 ■*■, ': 
 
 Schiller's Father, from a portrait don 
 
 witz in 179J. 
 
 Georg Friedrich Kodweis, the landlord, a man of fifty sum- 
 mers, followed the trade of his fathers ; he was a baker, but like- 
 wise held the appointment of overseer on the ducal estate. 
 His wife was still living ; EUzabeth 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, 
 
1 723-59-] LIFE AT HOME AND AT SCHOOL. 7 
 
 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 soldierUke bearing, his downright, decided manner, the 
 
 ^ ■ .If 
 
 f 
 
 .'»» 
 
 yv ' 
 
 Schiller's Mother, from a portrait done by Frau Simanowitz in 1793. 
 
 evident honesty of purpose with which he sought civil employ- 
 ment — 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 dis- 
 creet daughter of the innkeeper — who seemingly was most 
 
8 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. i. ch. i. 
 
 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 nth 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 i88 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 reserved 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 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 T3n:ol ; 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 in- 
 tended for laurel -leaves, one might almost believe that the Rems 
 Schillers retained the cr6st of theij ancest(3r 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 " Erkennt- 
 niss sein selbst " and a Wiirtemberg Hymnal, while the list of 
 his surgical instruments includes a tin basin for shaving pur- 
 poses, four good razors, a pair of tweezers with which to (h-aw 
 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 j nevertheless he kept " the Hungarian saddle 
 with saddle-cloth and trappings." Among his clothes we 
 
I723-S9-] LIFE AT HOME AND AT SCHOOL. 
 
 notice a wedding coat made of " steel -coloured cloth," an 
 entire suit, less new, of the same material, a pair of silk stock- 
 ings, 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 citizen. All too soon 
 it came about that, owing to improvident 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 became public. Schiller purchased 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 wouldbeno easy 
 task, half in despair, and being merely anxious to get quit of the 
 place, he joined the newly-formed battalion of the Prince Louis 
 infantry regiment, under Colonel Camaigre, as quartermaster. 
 This was in the early part of 1753. Thus, though continuing 
 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 twofold 
 thirst for power and plunder, in a treaty concluded on March 
 3ij i757> with France, offered 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 
 
10 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. i. ch. i. 
 
 his allegiance to the Duke, although it was against his co- 
 religionists that he had to fight. The Duke's mainstay was 
 one Colonel Rieger, Privy Councillor of War, and son of the 
 once so favourite Stuttgart divine — a hard, inflexible man. 
 Already on August lo, under the Duke's guidance, the 
 troops left their encampments between Ludwigsburg and Pflug- 
 felden, which they had occupied for more than a month. 
 While here, Schiller had had easy opportunity of visiting his 
 wife. Risen by this time to the rank of ensign and adjutant, 
 the parting was of added bitterness 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 that 
 people dreaded. On September 6, signs of revolt were again 
 manifest at Linz, whither Ensign Schiller was gone with a 
 section of the troops. His wife, two days before, had given 
 birth to a daughter, named Christophin^ Friderika after her 
 father's comrade, Christoph Friedrich Gerstner, and Elizabeth 
 after her mother. Burgomaster Hartmann, Justice of Mar- 
 bach, stood godfather ; as godmothers, the infant had the 
 widow of Ehrenmann, the collaborateur, and a Fxaulein Som- 
 mer of Stuttgart. 
 
 From Linz the march lay in the direction of Silesia. At 
 the storming of Schweidnitz on November 12, the Bavarians 
 and the Wiirtembergers won for themselves distinction. After 
 atriumphant encounter, Breslau capitulated. Not so at Leuthen, 
 however, where Frederick himself attacked his enemy's left 
 wing, composed of the Wiirtemberg, Bavarian, and Wtirzburg 
 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. Wellnigh 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 
 
'723-59-] LIFE AT HOME AND AT SCHOOL. ii 
 
 dint of great moderation in diet, as also by taking continual 
 exercise, he guarded himself against infection. Shortly pre- 
 vious to the army's retreat on April i he was promoted 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 hundred were left. Vainly had the States 
 meanwhile protested against universal conscription; Rieger and 
 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 powerful 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 daughter. 
 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 Schblkopf, 
 beyond the Niklasthor (now 256 Niklasthorstrasse). Here 
 the street widens into a small quadrangle that, with its fountain 
 surmounted by the figure of a fabulous wild man, almost 
 gains the dignity of a Square. We give an illustration of 
 the house, which, on the side facing the street, has six win- 
 dows, three on the ground floor and three on the first storey, 
 Schiller's wife occupied 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 Niirnberg as reward for his services. She bade the Wiir- 
 tembergers turn to the French. They encamped at Kornwest- 
 heim, 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 
 9, 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 
 
I723-S9-] LIFE AT HOME AND AT SCHOOL. 13 
 
 von Oberg's defeat at Lutternberg, on October 10, the troops 
 went into quarters for the winter. Schiller accompanied the 
 Staff 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 I, 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 2 8 ; among 
 their ranks was Lieutenant Schiller, heavy-hearted yet still 
 hopeful, having secured 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 Mar- 
 bach, being the son of Johann Caspar Schiller, a baker, who 
 had come from Waiblingen, where his father Johann Georg — 
 probably the. lieutenant's uncle — had followed the same trade. 
 Johann Friedrich had with his parents been early removed to 
 Steinheim on the Murr. Despite his eight and twenty years, 
 he at the time professed to be studying 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 
 Holland's Indian possessions, as we find this same philosophic 
 studiosus writing to a friend in Halle that since 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 Stutt- 
 
14 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER.' [bk. i. ch. i. 
 
 gart 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 honourable, 
 and so far those of a man who had succeeded without the 
 help of cabals, albeit that men of standing 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 I ith of November the Duke led his troops across 
 the Maine 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 certificates, November 
 1 1 was always looked upon as the poet's day of birth. Not 
 until 1787 do we find it changed to the loth, 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 contrary from 
 those at home. Certainly, in his Autobiography of May 1789, 
 the father mentions the loth ; 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." 
 
I723-S9-] LIFE AT HOME AND "AT SCHOOL. 15 
 
 Again, on the other hand, we shall find the poet's eldest sister 
 Christophine with her husband celebrating the event on the 
 loth. 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 midnight 
 on the loth, while its birth, in error, was registered as occur- 
 ring on the I ith. 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 confidently 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, more- 
 over, additionally honoured when, later on, the great and 
 powerful Colonel Rieger announced his wish to stand god- 
 father to the boy. When the birth-news reached 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 might attain to that which was 
 denied to him ; yet, how could he have guessed that, by paths, 
 like his own, toilsome, perilous, and still so wholly different, 
 nay, so . utterly at variance, his Fritz should reach a higher, a 
 sublimer goal 1 How could he foresee that fiis son was to be- 
 come great 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, maybe, through 
 an innate sense of conservatism, he himself had courted ! 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 FROM 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 unexpectedly; and, though the Wiir- 
 tembergers made a gallant defence, most of them, after a 
 protracted struggle, 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 mou;itains. Karl Eugene, 
 who was not remiss in publishing victorious news, quarrelled- 
 with the other generals respecting 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. Being loth to submit to Broglie's leadership, the 
 Duke, on May 15, withdrew his troops; and Schiller, with the 
 Staff, was transferred to Vaihingen, which 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, feel- 
 ing more keenly than ever before, the anguish of parting, of 
 being compelled to leave his wife and two children behind in 
 increasingly distressful circumstances. Fritz, too, was a weakly, 
 delicate infant, liable to convulsive seizures now and again. 
 With troops and baggage the Duke moved leisurely and 
 
1759-66.] LIFE AT HOME AND AT SCHOOL. 17 
 
 at ease through a land' groaning beneath his cruel oppression. 
 While on the inarch to Hohenstein, through Meiningen, 
 Gotha, and Langensalza, he spent five weeks in the Harz, 
 until compelled by the Imperial Court to turn thence towards 
 the rich meadowlands of the Saale. The Prussians retreated 
 before the superior strength of the allied 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 25, routed a section of the Wiir- 
 temberg 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 
 Reutlingen. In February 1761, by moving to Cannstadt, 
 he was first brought somewhat nearer to his home. As the 
 French would have no further dealings with the Duke, who 
 had proffered them a force ten thousand strong, he was obliged 
 to forego his projected sale of the Wiirtemberg troops. For 
 Schiller this was no slight advantage, who had on August 17 
 '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 com- 
 modious apartments in a house now occupied by Aufrecht, the 
 baker. No. 192. In 1762 Captain Schiller came still nearer 
 home ; his regiment moved to Ludwigsburg, and thence, for 
 a time, to Stuttgart, being at length permanently quartered at 
 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 earnestness, 
 an undaunted perseverance that for ever keeps its goal in 
 view, a strength, an inflexibiUty of will, pushed to the verge of 
 
 c 
 
i8 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. i. ch. II. 
 
 harshness, righteous honesty, .great desire for action and for 
 self-improvement, unchanging 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 Offering, of which he each day read 
 a portion, is in no way a peculiar one. Public worship, how- 
 ever, was so deeply a matter of the heart with him that in his _ 
 own house family prayer was made a special and a permanent 
 institution. Fritz inherited his father's indefatigable 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 house- 
 ' wife, 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 freedomj lofty idealism 
 joined to great depth and penetration 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 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 Rieger, his son's godfather, who, untried, unjudged, 
 suffered barbarous imprisonment at Hohentwiel, where Moset, 
 by a like tyranny, still languished — this utter abuse of justice 
 made the boy's heart throb with indignation. Montmartin 
 
1759-66.] LIFE AT HOME AND AT SCHOOL. 19 
 
 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 mourn- 
 ful business, this, upon which he and his two subalterns welre 
 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 affair. Schiller's pay was to be three 
 gulden daily for board and lodging, and the two subalterns 
 living with him were each to receive a third of that sum. But, 
 in consequence of the terrible monetary panic then prevailing, 
 nothing was paid to them. Schiller asked leave to transfer his 
 quarters from Gmiind to Lorch, the former town being too ex- 
 pensive a place for him. At Lorch, which is situated on the 
 Wiirtemberg frontier, lived Bailie Scheinemann, an old friend 
 of SchUler's, who was delighted to see again his quondam 
 comrade in arms. ' They established themselves at the " Sun " 
 tavern. Beside Scheinemann, in the two clerics Moser and 
 KapfF, the rector and curate of th^^ parish, Schiller found firm 
 friends. It was here, at Lorch, that his son's mental qualities 
 first found development. For the boy, just past the early 
 stage of childhood, felt the influence of nature and of friend- 
 ship with all a first keenness, and showed strong desire for the 
 learning and understanding of things. Here he could watch 
 the Rems, 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 
 
20 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. i. ch. ii. 
 
 vanished days of chivalry and song — sad records, as they were, 
 of the ruin of a noble Une 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, belike, 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, towards 
 which twelve stations of the' cross led up, where Catholic 
 pilgrims were wont lo offer prayer. Family worship was held 
 both morning and evening, in which the boy took an earnest 
 part ; on each occasion portions from the Bible or from some 
 devotional work were read. Attendance at church on Sundays 
 was strictly enforced. Fritz did not only receive religious, in- 
 struction ; Rector 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 individuality of the worthy Moser, strict though he was, 
 so deeply stamped itself upon his memory that, in the Robbers, 
 the youth has paid his teacher a graceful 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 liked 
 playing at being clergyman, dressing up in cap and cloak and 
 mounting a chair as pulpit, this was but a childish pastime, 
 albeit he was serious enough over the matter, running oiF in- 
 dignantly if any one presumed to laugh at him. More note- 
 worthy, however, were his great love of truth — a love fostered 
 by his parents, and which led him to make voluntary fconfession 
 to his mother of all his wrong-doings — and his exceeding gene- 
 rosity, 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 transferred to the Von Stein foot- 
 regiment, and busied himself 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- 
 
1759-66.] LIFE AT HOME AND AT SCHOOL. 21 
 
 reminiscences had doubtless been more to his taste. In Janu- 
 ary 1766 a daughter was added to the family, named Doro- 
 thea after her mother, and Louise Catherine after one of her 
 sponsors. As godparents the child had also Redtor Moser, 
 the wife of Kapff the curate, and Frau Ehrenraann. Later 
 on, the boy formed a friendship with the son of Deputy-Clerk 
 Conz, his junior by nearly three years, who in a subsequent 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. During the spring 
 of 1764, in a manner quite unheard of and totally without re- 
 gard to the States, a poll-tax after the Austrian system was 
 imposed. When the representatives of Tubingen made com- 
 , plaint to the Duke of this injustice, and sought to lay before 
 him the utter destitution of the country, he angrily exclaimed, 
 "Bah! Fatherland, Fatherland — lam the Fatherland!" The 
 tax was enforced at the sword's point, and Chief Bailie Huber 
 and the leading burgesses of Tubingen were, by their opposition, 
 brought to the Hohenasperg. At length, indeed, the voice of 
 Frederick 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 kind- 
 ness, he having been surrendered by the States ; towards these 
 latter, however, Duke Karl still showed insolence; he even 
 broke oif all connection with the ambassadors who sought to 
 remind him of the State Council's decree. He transferred his 
 quarters to Ludwigsburg, in order to punish Stuttgart, that had 
 likewise risen in opposition to the tax. Yet, despite all extor- 
 tion, despite the most shameless sale of ofiSces, money was still 
 always, wanting 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 despair he turned to the Duke with the request 
 ifor payment of the two thousand gulden due to him ; he also 
 asked for leave to resign. Regarding the former, he was referred 
 
22 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. i. ch. ii. 
 
 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 governed. 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 and 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, issu^d>in four parts, 
 entitled Reflections on Agricultural Mattel's in the Duchy of 
 Wurtemberg, 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, 
 which with quite special zeal he converted into a nursery 
 garden. So he himself tells us, hitherto he dared not indulge 
 his passion for agriculture, without in a way lowering his 
 position as officer in the eyes of a certain clique. Now, how- 
 ever, this garden of his gave him a pursuit which none surely 
 could condemn. He had likewise special cause for content- 
 ment when at length, in the September of 1770, he was 
 appointed to his own company. 
 
24 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER, [bk. i. ch. hi. 
 
 For three years Fritz attended the classical school at 
 Ludwigsburg, preparatory to entering a so-called lower monas- 
 tery 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 alike 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 propre was fostered, 
 heightened. Although for his father's sake he showed great 
 diligence, 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 sufficiently 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 respected 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 endurance. 
 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 Christophine his sister. 
 
 Each of the three classes had one master only, who 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 
 
1767-72.] .LIFE AT HOME AND AT SCHOOL. 25 
 
 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 oh. 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 
 familiar 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 ignorant of any 
 more worthy one, albeit he could find scant spiritual refresh- 
 ment in the arid, soulless formulse by which religious instruc- 
 tors then sought to inculcate the doctrines of Protestantism. 
 How far more grateful 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 disciples ! 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 quondam timber-merchant had been forced 
 to accept the post of gate-keeper 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 dwelling from the street ; he crept 
 in at the back-door, across a ditch. One Easter Monday, as 
 towards Marbach, 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, 
 
26 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. i. ch. hi. 
 
 the lad must have been singularly impressed with the sparkle 
 and movement of life at Ludwigsburg. Justinus 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 officers in glittering uniform. The splendid castle, 
 with its spacious squares and gardens, the adjacent park, whose 
 shady groves led down in many lines towards the town, the 
 broad market-place, with its arcades — all these were frequently 
 the scene of gaiety and merriment" On a lake near hyf^ies 
 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 distin- 
 guished actors and singers helped to heighten its grandeur 
 and magnificence. 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, like 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 powerfully 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 card-board figures, dramatic per- 
 formances 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 card-board 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. 
 
1767-72.] LIFE ATJHOME AND AT SCHOOL. 27 
 
 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 expound- 
 ing 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 27 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 " Solitude," 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 mili- 
 tary orphanage. Yet the Duke, delighting 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 nth 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 Professor there? Besides 
 him, Fritz lost his friend Hoven, who, against his father's wish, 
 was obliged to enter the Military College. Upon those officers 
 
28 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. i. ch. hi. 
 
 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 incau- 
 tiously 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 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 unfor- 
 tunate father to his bewilderment, 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 himself and his school- 
 fellows, 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 certainly irritated his master by contradiction, said 
 nothing 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 holi- 
 days 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 pass- 
 ing his second examination at Easter, he was informed that, 
 though he had worked well and profitably at the necessary 
 subjects, he must be pronounced inferior in general know- 
 ledge 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 
 
1767-72.] LIFE AT HOME AND AT SCHOOL. 29 
 
 the enchanting plantations of Ludwigsburg, or wandered at 
 will in the delightful country surrounding 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, hatd 
 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 confir- 
 mation. The formal, frigid process of preparation, 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, startling his parents 
 shortly afterwards by. a poem in German, in which the rehgious 
 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 on- 
 ward towards 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, Schiller 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. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 FROM 1773 TO 1775. 
 
 Ambition gave the Duke no rest ; his establishment was now 
 to have many departments of study. "Military 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 promis- 
 ing 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 kidiiap- 
 ping, though without any external show of violence. 
 
 On January r6, 1773, Captain Schiller brought his son to 
 SoUtude 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 preliminary examination, the credit for translating 
 the Collectio Autorum Latinoncm 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 following 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 
 
34 
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. 
 
 [BK. II. CH. I. 
 
 forty-seven. In this " Military Academy " of the Duke's all 
 hoUdays were unknown ; the pupils might never visit their 
 homes, and fathers could never see their sons except by special 
 
 .#Vs;-- I'^i^ 
 
 Duke Karl Eugene von Wurtemberg, from a painting in the 
 Royal Palace at Stuttgart. 
 
 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 
 
I773-75-] 
 
 THE DUKE'S PUPIL. 
 
 35 
 
 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 
 
 Francislca, Countess Hohenheii 
 
 parent and to child : home letters brimmed over with eulogy 
 and admiration for the Duke ; at Solitude this was the strain 
 in which all joined ; nay, on certain occasions such homage 
 
36 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. ii. ch. i. 
 
 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 whpse joy had been 
 in the love of mpther 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 liberty; 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 bourgeoisie; this latter class was again divided into 
 the sons of officers 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 distinguish- 
 ing mark ; they were privileged as regarded their sleeping 
 apartments, and dined in common at a horse shoe -shaped 
 table set apart for therti 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 like way. 
 
 The scholars, all of them, wore a military 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. Boot's 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 propor- 
 tion to the want of skill that he had in button-polishing and 
 wig-curling, a failing that often brought upon him harsh reproof. 
 
 Then how narrow, how cramped, how dismally monotonous 
 
I773-75-] THE DUKE'S PUPIL. 
 
 37 
 
 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 buildirlg 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 inain structure in which the 
 masters and officials lived. Behind the castle in crescent, shape 
 
 Silhouette of Schiller, belonging to his sister Christophine. 
 
 stood twenty buildings ; 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 a while, a section of the scholars was trans- 
 ferred to another building, at the back of which was an exten- 
 sive garden, where each pupil had a small space of ground 
 allotted to him for cultivation. Here, in this house, was the 
 
38- 
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. 
 
 [BK. IJ. CH. I. 
 
 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, accordihg to height, to the dining-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 
 
 Solitude Castle. 
 
 lesson-time one could wear what clothes one liked. After this 
 the Dijke himself or the Chief of the College held an inspection 
 of the entire scholars. Those who had been guilty of any mis- 
 demeanour had then to produce the so-called note or ticket 
 wherewith in each case the master had furnished them ; here- 
 upon the Duke or his deputy administered reproof and fixed 
 punishment. Then, at' the word of comrnand, the pupils 
 marched to the large hall, where they dined. His august 
 majesty the Duke was generally present duping the meal, talk- 
 ing and chatting with the chief officer and ushers ; sometimes, 
 too, with the pupils, who afterwards filed past him on their 
 way to the dormitory, where they changed into their clothes 
 
•773-7S-] THE DUKE'S PUPIL. 39 
 
 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 gariien, 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. 
 Lessons were resumed at two o'clock ; they lasted until seven. 
 At this hour uniform had again to be put on, and a repetition 
 of the formal meal-parade of the forenoon took place. In the 
 dormitories, lit by three lamps only, the scholars were obliged 
 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 military 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 Aca- 
 demy.'' 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 condescension 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 revelred. 
 
 At times, leaning upon his arm, there appeared the Baron- 
 ess 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, showing her taste asfemme de mode by her varied 
 and brilliant toilettes. 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. 
 
40 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. il. CH. i. 
 
 Franciska came to Solitude Castle as his recognised mistress. 
 It is true, she distinguished 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 ; nevertheless, 
 his lawful 5vife still lived, who had left him many years before. 
 He founded for Franciska at Solitude an Ecole des Dames, tor- 
 responding in arrangement to his own Academy ; of this insti- 
 tution she was the lady superintendent. Thus the Duke did 
 everything possible 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 attended 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 Solitude 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 pro- 
 perly cooked or prepared 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 .earthenware, 
 the spoons of lead. For dinner there was soup, beef, and vege- 
 tables, 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 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 
 
I773-7S-] THE DUKE'S PUPIL. 41 
 
 fourth year he had always been sound and strong in health. 
 The lack of proper exercise, 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 distinguished 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, 177 1, together with twenty-two com- 
 patriots, 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 com- 
 rades 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 periodi- 
 cally added to and modified its strength. Thus, to the sub- 
 jects 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 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. 
 Tfiat year Hoven 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, Rittmeister Faber said — "Schiller has abund- 
 ance of good-will, and shows great desire to learn ; his negli- 
 gence 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, 
 
42 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. ii. ch. i. 
 
 a disgust which he dared not display ; in addition to this, he 
 was ailing in body. Whilst on the sick list he gave reins to 
 his poetic fancy. His father asserts the Ode to the Sufi 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 description of the heroic self-sacrifice of the first professor of 
 the Christian faith must have been of powerful attraction to the 
 young poet. On December 15 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 
 philosophical 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 friend- 
 ship existing between Schiller and his Ludwigsburg acquaint- 
 ance Elwert, who entered the college some two tnonths later. 
 
 In 1774 the Academy was enriched by a legal department, 
 to which Schiller, with the most of those who had taken up 
 scientific lines of study, was accordingly 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 proficiency (in Greek alone he 
 was usually fourth) : he was more prone to indulge in poetic 
 reveries; and for this his ill-health may stand as excuse. 
 Before Jahn returned to Ludwigsburg in November, he cate- 
 gorised 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 
 
I773-7S-] THE DUKE'S PUPIL. 
 
 43 
 
 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 abilities ; has been seven times on the sick- 
 list — the last time, from September 2 to October 7. It is 
 owing to these repeated illnesses that, despite all his diligence 
 in comparison with others, he seems to stand fairly far behind." 
 'Two of Schiller's works remain to us which were com- 
 pleted 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 inten- 
 tion 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 to write himself 
 ' guilty in his own mother-tongue, asking 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 flattering praise 
 given by Schiller to the Duke's gracious care and benevolence, 
 we can plainly detect the inevitable tone of an Academy 
 student. During that autumn each pupil of the first division 
 had to write a statement of the characteristics of himself and 
 of his companions, making particular mention of their disposi- 
 tion towards God and the Duke — of their contentment with 
 their position — of their industry and cleanliness. From 
 Schiller's fulfilment of this strange task we may gain a glimpse 
 of the boy's mind and feelings, which were well beyond his 
 years. Despite occasional clumsiness, his verses show a note- 
 worthy 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 exaggeration, 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. 
 
44 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [BK. il. CH. i. 
 
 What must not his feelings have been when writing as follows : 
 "I see before me the father of my parents, whose graciousness 
 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 reli- 
 gious standard," he further argues,, that the Duke should judge 
 of him. "Often," says he, "you will find 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 ques- 
 tion his companions about him, they would answer that he was 
 obstinate, hot-tempered, and impatient; yet his uprightness, 
 liis ■ honesty, his good heart they would praise. Further, he 
 admits that he has not made right use of his good abilities, 
 and that this causes him dissatisfaction ; yet in some degree 
 his ill-health must serve as an excuse. He would own to a 
 fault ^r which he had often been blamed--— rthat of a neglect 
 of personal neatness ; the polishing 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 Holler and of 
 Goetz ; in Lessing's Emilia Glaotti he also found intense 
 delight. At this time, too, he had become familiar with 
 Sha^spere, 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 confidants 
 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 
 
1773-75] THE DUKE'S PUPIL. 45 
 
 Absalom as his first drama; and before this he had essayed 
 to produce an epic poem entitled Moses. Nor was there lack 
 of lyrical effusions at this period. 
 
 Already, in September, at the Duke's request, Schiller'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 consulted 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 period- 
 ical 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. QxO&'Cs\€% 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 unnatural brother — a tale that seemed well fitted for 
 dramatic treatment. Schiller at once seized the idea, but ere 
 long another and more powerful one came to him afte? read- 
 ing an account of the suicide of a student at Nassau. He at 
 once resolved to immortalise this new Werther in a drania, 
 and accordingly he wrote his Student of Nassau, which, how- 
 ever, 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. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 FROM 1775 TO 1779. 
 
 Schiller had just reached the age of sixteen, having been 
 three years at the Academy, when it was transferred to Stuttgart. 
 For long past the drawbacks of distance from the capital, as 
 also the need of sufficient 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 Academy, 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 
 building, on the i8th of November, the cadets, some three 
 hundred and thirty 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 acclama- 
 tion. 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 bed- 
 room and in dining-hall. Many of the parents were present, 
 and Captain Schiller was, doubtless, ^mong their number. He 
 had. left the service, receiving the appointment of Intendant at 
 Castle Solitude. Thither, from his own well-stocked and well- 
 tended orchard, he transplanted some four thousand apple and 
 
I77S-79-] THE DUKE'S PUPIL. , 47 
 
 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 ta 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 building ; 
 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 like- 
 wise into closer contact with the life 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 professor, was most 
 adroit in escaping from class by the window, and in fetching 
 things for the others. Schiller dubbed him "The Omni- 
 potent." 
 
 Six faculties were now formally instituted — the legal, the 
 philosophical, the military, and the financial, together with a 
 department for the fine arts and another 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, Von Hoven, Elwert, and six others gave in their 
 names. To this resolve the first two were specially helped by 
 the fact that they were backward in their present branches of 
 study. New and nearer relation to nature, and to human life, 
 would serve, so they thought, to shape and 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 medicine 
 attended with great diligence. The intimacy between the 
 poetry-loving friends grew closer than before ; each enthusias- 
 tically seeking to outrival one another in original composition, 
 
48 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. ii. ch. ii. 
 
 and in the choosing of fresh themes for poetic treatment. For 
 Schiller, Kliiiger's Zwillinge and Leisewitz's Julius 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 meditated upon a novel in the 
 Werther style ; Petersen was busy with a soul-stirring tragedy ; 
 Scharffenstein, with a drama of chivalry. But lyrical poetry 
 was not wanting. In this Klopstock was their model ; Biirger, 
 Holty, Miller, Vosz, and the Counts Stolberg won also their 
 admiration. Schiller was linked to Scharffenstein by enthu- 
 siastic friendship ; this had been specially fostered by the 
 courageous way in which Scharffenstein had refuted an unjust 
 irhputation of Intendant von Seeger. Schiller, mightily stirred 
 with a thirst for liberty, celebrated Scharffenstein's action in a 
 high-flown ode. From that time he loved his friend ardently, 
 passionately, 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 : — 
 
 " Sapgir loved his Selim tenderly, 
 
 As thou lovest me, dear Scharffenstein ; 
 Selim loved his Sangir tenderly, 
 
 Even as I love thee, dear Scharffenstein." 
 
 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 myself set higher in this eyes of men, 
 but in the eyes of a more lofty world, towards which 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 pre- 
 sence 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 
 
I77S-79-] THE DUKE'S PUPIL. 49 
 
 make me like you. You can easily recollect how in this 
 foretaste of a blissful time I breathed naught else but friendship ; 
 how all, all, even my poetry, was lit up and vivified by the 
 spirit of friendship. Oh ! a friendship formed as ours was 
 forrned, 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 evening walk ! We two were the sole ones whose char- 
 acters were alike; believe me, in our friendship there were 
 glimpses the most glorious of heaven ; its basis was of the 
 firmest, the noblest; it foretold for both 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 ; because, 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. Haug 
 was a friend of Schubart's, to whom, for the October number 
 of his magazine, he sent Schiller's poem Evening, a pen- 
 dant 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 influence of Klopstock and Haller is but too plainly per- 
 ceptible; it is more than influence; it becomes imita:tion.' 
 But Schiller had not yet conquered the technical difficulties 
 'of the ode; faulty rhymes abound throughout; the editor 
 note's more than one grammatical 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 
 
50 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. ii. ch. ii. 
 
 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 3, 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 joining 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 Demoiselles, Franciska 
 is termed the gentlest, worthiest, best of mothers, a "very 
 pattern for youth," whom to imitate it is their "ardent" 
 desire. The sole times that the cadets met this 'Ecole were at 
 public 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 nth 
 of February 1777, that Schiller wrote his little play, entitled 
 The Fair, which was acted by some of his companions. Ac- 
 cording 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 Stuttgart 
 fair. // 
 
 The frieti^s pursued their' poetic studies, continued their 
 poetic effusions until Scharffenstein, less gifted than the rest, 
 was led to the utterance of a frank, unsparing 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 verdict 
 
I775-79-] THE DUKE'S PUPIL. 51 
 
 Boigeol, another friend, concurred. Scharffenstein's unsparing 
 judgment made Schiller so unhappy that at length he would 
 have nothing more to say to him. Scharifenstein 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 1 7 7 7. Scharffenstein'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 will read it in your face — will not ques- 
 tion you; let 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 feelings : — 
 
 "Why aril I grown 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 qualities 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 concep- 
 tions of .God, of religion, 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 like (Kleist's Amynt, for instance), you used 
 
52 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. ii. ch. ii. 
 
 to say that it certainly wanted swing, it lacked idyllic charm ; 
 yet it contained sentiment, a sentiment different from that found 
 in my poems, while in the workmanship there was none of my 
 colouring ; it was heart that /had, or words to that effect.'' 
 
 To the charge that in his odes everything was traceable to 
 Klopstock, he answered that he had certainly much to thank 
 Tiim 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 ! H6w 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 senseless 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 recol- 
 lect 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 astonish- 
 ment by saying : ' 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 thought of soon seeing me nearer to 
 you in school rank. Forgive me, Scharffenstein, if in this 
 moment I prayed God to grant me the very opposite of that ; 
 
I77S-79-] THE DUKE'S PUPIL. 53 
 
 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 woiild 
 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 Sangir ; 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 outward bearing towards 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 indifference, of pride, and 
 hate. With Boigeol he had never been on so intimate a foot- 
 ing, and his mode of study, his sensibilities were of anothet 
 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. 
 
 " I am one of finer stuff than most ; it was seldom that I 
 struck the right mark-soften, 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 acquaintances, 
 his soul-felt grief soon lost its first poignancy. Among these 
 were Dannecker the sculptor, Heideloff the painter, and 
 Zumsteeg the musician. 
 
54 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. ii. ch. ii. 
 
 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 Klopstock. 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 Nouvelli Helo'ise; 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 effect upon him; and a collec- 
 tion by Ursinus of Ballads and Songs in the Old English 
 and Old Scotch Style {t-Tji) was notably prized by the friends. 
 
 Scharffenstein's place was ere long filled by Haug's son, 
 who, at the close of 1775, had gained entry to the circle 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 "Rosalind 
 at the Bath." Schiller's ode The Triumph Chant of Hell 
 and another 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 Schu- 
 bart 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, ad- 
 mitting her son into the Academy and her daughter into the 
 
I77S-79-] THE DUKE'S PUPIL.. 55 
 
 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 provision had been made. 
 Here again all the young student's noble sense of liberty must 
 have been roused at the Duke's cruel revenge. 
 
 Schiller gave less attention to medicine and was more dili- 
 gent in the study of philosophy and the liberal sciences, for 
 the young poet diviped that, to gain perfection in his art, it 
 behoved him to master their laws, while from history and from 
 the works of great poets and sages he must widen his know- 
 ledge of human nature. He became deeply absorbed in Fer- 
 guson's Moral Philosophy, with Garve's shrew,d annotations, 
 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 
 in durance by grand ducal grace. Ferguson remained his 
 text-book and manual of philosophy, just as Schlozer's broadly- 
 written General History served to shape his historical views. 
 Plutarch's Lives, bepraised by Rousseau^ gave strength to his 
 sense of liberty and freedom. 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 himself to his 
 studies with greater zeal. Five years was the term fixed for 
 those studying medicine ; by special diligence this inight 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 Councillor Ernest von 
 Wolzogen, whose death occurred in 1774. He was the only 
 pupil of rank — i.e. "Cavalier" — 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 became 
 
56 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. ii. ch. ii. , 
 
 even more closely drawn by the remarkable talent, particularly 
 for philosophy, possessed by another pupil, one Albrecht Fried- 
 rich 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 birth- 
 day, and read aloud from every pulpit, could make but little 
 •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 remaining 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 
 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 3000 men. Whether Schiller ever read Schubart's 
 German Chronicle, aflame with the love of fatherland and 
 freedom, we do not know. Sickness 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 con- 
 fided 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 fascina- 
 
I775-79-: 
 
 THE DUKE'S PUPIL. 
 
 57 
 
 tion. 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 Wertha; Clavigo, and of Goetz, in com- 
 pany with the Duke of Weimar, visited the Academy, 
 where they received high honours at the hands of " The 
 Anointed," 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 following 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 Wei- 
 mar on his right and 
 Goethe on his left. At 
 farther distance from 
 " The Anointed " were 
 four other guests of 
 
 high rank, among them. Chamberlain von Wedel and Wolfgang 
 Hexibert, Reichsfreiherr von Dalberg, director 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 importance 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 favourite of the muses receiving 
 such homage, though it was not for his poetic fame that 
 
 Goethe, from the paintiiiji by Maj', done in 1779. 
 
58 
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. 
 
 [BK. II. CH. II. 
 
 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 
 
 his 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-heim 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 practi- 
 cal medicine, in . materia 
 ■medica and in 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 extra- 
 ordinary 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 this pupil would rise- to be a gifted 
 poet of his country ; Schiller, on the other hand, must 
 have drawn deep, encouragement and inspiration 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 life. 
 
 Wolfgang Hexibert, Baron Dalberg. 
 
CK^APTER III. 
 
 FROM 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 his own; while the sketches of the villains, the old 
 father, the lover, and others came from plays familiar to him, 
 figures whose identity he had seized with singular acumen. 
 Often he would put himself on the sick-list, in order that he 
 might the better court his muse ; specially at night-time, when 
 his imagination was most vivid, he could write down his 
 thoughts, patients being allowed a light. If ushers or even 
 the Duke himself surprised him, the paper was instantly hiddqn 
 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. While composing or reading his 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 
 
6o THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. ■ [bk. ii. ch. hi. 
 
 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 pursued 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 existence. While in this 
 state he lost his friend and companion Von Hoven the 
 younger, whose death occurred on June 13. During the last 
 two years he had developed " into a frank, intelHgent, 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 
 naught 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, " biit I tell yoii 
 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 win from me a smile. With each step 
 that I advance, in age I ever lose something of my content- 
 ment ; 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, without 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 
 
1779-80.] ,; THE DUKE'S PUPIL. 6i 
 
 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 hap- 
 pen, be wise, take comfort, and console my parents. . . . 
 Unlike a thousand others, I have the fortune, the unmerited 
 fortune of possessing the best of fathers; and Jiere 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 dependant 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 melancholy 
 resolve to throw aside life's burden ; yet now, as often after, 
 he \yas 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 subject 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 
 
62 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER, [bk. ii. ch. in. 
 
 anguish of the father following the bier are described with 
 great licence and intense exaggeration. It was set to music 
 and printed. 
 
 On the 20th Professor Abel reported Grammont's con- 
 dition to the Duke, who gave orders to use every means 
 possible for the restoration of the patient, whose state "bor- 
 dered slightly on insanity." The elder medical 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 despairingly unhappy was 
 the poet's own state. Grammont 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 
 expressed to the Duke, besides boldly justifying his conduct 
 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 his charge in August, 
 when Grammont went to the baths. Schiller's tcedium vita 
 having somewhat subsided, he devoted himself anew, heart 
 and soul, to his Robbers ; he likewise commenced a translation 
 of the ^neid into Latin hexameters. Yet, ere long, his 
 medical studies claimed all his attention. 
 
 For his German thesis he proposed to take two subjects 
 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 
 
1779-80.] THE DUKE'S PUPIL.- 63 
 
 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 furnish 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 surmount So much the rnore did the Duke shower 
 bounties 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 merry- 
 making ; 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 paragon 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 which 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 medical examination. 
 His German essay followed in the main the same lines as the 
 one of last year ; the necessary 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 
 
64 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. ii. ch. hi. 
 
 extracts from the poets, in especial from Shakspere, besides 
 quotations from Addison's Cato, Goetz von Berlichingen, 
 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' 
 annotated edition of Ferguson is his sole authority in philo- 
 sophy; from Schlozer's History he also quotes; from Herder, 
 nothing. No judgment is passed upon the physiognomy 
 theory, although he condemns Lavater's extravagant ideas. 
 On November i6 the examining committee ordered the 
 essay to be printed, even though there were points of ob- 
 jection in it, a chief fault being that the writer so 
 frequently gave rein to his imagination. Abel, who, as pro- 
 fessor of philosophy, had to state his verdict, found several 
 passages of excellence in the paper, although the philosophy 
 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 composition ; 
 it would consequently need almost total revision, a process 
 occupying some considerable time. Schiller revised his manu- 
 script, 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, moreover, 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 Cotta in Stuttgart. At, ex- 
 amination-time,' Schiller is said, to have raised a discussion 
 concerning Professor Drlick'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 
 aside. He cherished deep admiration for Virgil; he had him- 
 self produced a spirited rendering of some of the jEneid, and 
 
1779-80.] THE DUKE'S PUPIL. 65 
 
 the Schwdbische Magazin had but lately printed his version of 
 the "Storm upon the Tyrrhenian Sea" \^n. i. 38-160), that 
 led the editor to term it " the essay of a youth of decided 
 promise, giving proof of spirit and of great, great poetic 
 fire." Streicher tells us that "the inbent knees, the eyes, 
 blinking rapidly when in the heat of debate, the frequent 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, alive, and speaking 
 under the influence of emotion ; Streicher will not mar it for 
 us by any allusion to red hair. Schiller's nose, according to 
 Scharffenstein, is thin, white, and bony, shooting out at a 
 sharp angle, and hooked like the beak of a parrot. Schiller 
 used himself humorously 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 writing, 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. Their colour, Scharf- 
 fenstein 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 pro- 
 fessor. 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 14 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 grown much while at the Academy ; he measured 
 nearly five feet, nine 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 underlip 
 
 F 
 
Schiller^ 
 
 from a painting by Guibal (about 1780). 
 
1 779-80-] THE DUKE'S PUPIL, 67 
 
 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 
 moments 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 por- 
 trait 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 intellectual 
 ■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 train- 
 ing that the Duke gave to each and all alike, regardless of 
 individual talent or of individual need ; he wished but to bring 
 up for himself a set of well-drilled subjects, content to revere 
 him as their sovereign lord, content to feel themselves depend- 
 ent 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 detestable. His father wrote to the Duke 
 asking permission 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. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 FROM DECEMBER 1780 TO JANUARY 1 7 82. 
 
 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 delight- 
 ful 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 
 surgeon 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 scare- 
 crows. In any important case he could consult Dr. 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 ugUer, stiffer look ; his 
 little military hat barely covered his crown, behind which hung 
 a long queue, while round his neck was screwed a horse-hair 
 stock 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 
 
72 
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. 
 
 [BK. III. CH. I. 
 
 thigh. Moving stiffly about in these blacking-stained gaiters, 
 with knees rigid and unbent, he reminded one irresistibly of a 
 stork." 
 
 Lieutenant Scharffenstein longed to see his comrade once 
 
 Christophine Schiller, from an oil painting. 
 
 more ; immediately after parade they met and revived 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, imaginative youth ; fresh qualities were his, of clear 
 
1780-82.] ARMY SURGEON AND POET. 73 
 
 ness, of judgment, of determination. Scharffenstein, as he 
 himself tells us, gave in to the lofty superiority of the poet's 
 mind, that from the sources of history and philosophy had 
 drawn its lifelong sustenance. 
 
 Before aU 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 occasion- 
 ally 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 6 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 powerfully was 
 Schiller moved by his comrade's death, as yet so young and 
 so full of hfe, that he felt urged to invoke the general sym- 
 pathy of his medical companions in a poem which they unani- 
 mously resolved to print at their own expense. Von Hoven and 
 Dr. 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 paradise," 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 laughing at the result of his 
 
74 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. hi. ch. i. 
 
 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 slight 
 was his care, his interest for professional advancement; he 
 gave no thought to promotion, nor to the examination that, 
 before obtaining a private practice, he must needs undergo ; 
 the sole medical 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 Shakspere. His other wants 
 in literature could be easily satisfied from the vast shelves of 
 the ducal library, to which, through his friends Petersen and 
 Reichenbach, he had access. 
 
 During January he took other lodgings in a street now 
 known as the Eberhardtstrasse ; his sitting-room on the ground 
 floor was a small one ; its scanty furniture consisted but of a 
 table and two benches. Professor 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 econ- 
 omy that led Schiller to make his acquaintance. His landlady, 
 Louise Dorothea Vischer, a little, fair, blue-eyed woman, was, 
 so Scharffenstein tells us, a good-tempered person, who, although 
 without either beauty or intellect, yet possessed qualities 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 
 living in the town. Dr. Reichenbach's house was among those 
 at which Schiller found welcome, where Christophine's bosom 
 friend, Ludovike Reichenbach lived, the doctor's niece, devoted, 
 like Schiller's sister, to painting and art She had, however, 
 but slight hold upon the poet's wild, tempestuous imagination. 
 In order to increase his slender income, as also to find employ- 
 
1780-82.] ARMY SURGEON AND POET. 75 
 
 ment, 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 and daily prints wherefirom 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, Ham- 
 burg, Liibeck, Schwerin, and Brunswick. The " pure silver 
 notes of glad rejoicing" were so forced, so shrill, that otlier 
 princes, it was feared, might take umbrage thereat. Did not 
 the bard bid- all Germany glance in envy at Wiirtemberg^s 
 " blissful abode "? Did he not invite the republics (those of 
 Hamburg and Liibeck) cheerfully to bear the yoke of such a 
 ruler ? This ode, however, was just a mere poet's-corner wel- 
 come of the commonest type ; any one who looked a little 
 closer must readily have seen the jest it cloaked. 
 
 In his professional practice Schiller had recourse to violent 
 remedies, which led him at times into differences with Elwert, 
 who, it is said, was obliged 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. 
 Kapfs little room and his own bore witness to their gay 
 carousals, when many a quip and many a jest was bandied 
 over knackwurste, potato-salad, and beer, wine being a luxury 
 rarely enjoyed. Sometimes he would join Reichenbach 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 Petersen and 
 no Reichenbach ! Sacre diable ! What about our manille 
 to-day ? Deuce take you all ! If you want me, you'll find 
 me at home. Adieu ! • Schiller." 
 
76 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. in. ch. i. 
 
 Besides the then popular card-game, manille, Schiller was 
 very fond of bowls. He and Petersen often played together 
 at a little tavern on the Hauptstadterstrasse, to the sign of 
 "The Bull." Here Dr. 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 afford to give much care to his dress. Kronenbitter, his 
 soldier-servant, helped little to increase the comfort or the 
 order of his bachelor establishment; yet Schiller would but 
 repay the worthy fellow's blundering negligence by some 
 imprecation in which the humour was blent with the 
 abuse. 
 
 At the beginning of April Schiller stated his much-revised, 
 much-altered play The Robbers to be complete. Following 
 Petersen's suggestion, he had added largely to it, and it was 
 now to be published anonymously. 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 for- 
 tunate did it win notice from some Roscius of his fatherland. 
 He spoke most slightingly of actors and of the general theatre- 
 going public, albeit that he knew so very little of either class. 
 Hoven having failed to find him a publisher, 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 ver- 
 dict of a wider public for his poetry, he hoped likewise to gain 
 money by it. In an extraordinary letter to Petersen, while 
 with his brother at Speier, he urgently begs him when at Mann- 
 heim to find a publisher willing to buy the copyright. His 
 first and foremost aim in asking this he confessed to be " mam- 
 mon, 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 himself these 
 would just now be of real service. He should be quite con- 
 tent to get fifty gulden for his manuscript, and anything above 
 ■that amount would in all right and honesty go to Petersen. 
 
1780-82.] ARMY SURGEON AND POET, 77 
 
 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 physiology. 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 reflection, 
 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, coming 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 
 ardently set 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 ! 
 
 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 forthcoming 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. 
 Christian Friedrich Schwan was born in 1733 at Prenzlau. 
 After studying theology at Halle and Jena, he went to Russia. 
 
78 , THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. m. ch. i. 
 
 Upon the death of the Empress EUzabeth he lost his patron 
 in that country. Some stir was caused by a volume of his, 
 published in Holland, entitled Anecdotes Russes ; ou, Lettres 
 d'un Officier Allemand. In 1764 he started a weekly literary 
 journal at Frankfort-on-the-Main ; and the year following, hav- 
 ing married the daughter of his pubhsher 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, likewise, to make the newly-built 
 play-house a home for national dramatic art. He himself took 
 a journey to Lessing, in order to gain that writer's help for the 
 JVIannheim 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 goodwill were the more of value. 
 And Schwan, he to whom fortune had been thus bountiful, 
 was it not likely that he would gladly recognise talent of such 
 a stamp? Fully sensible of their merit, he read to Dalberg 
 the proofs he had received, 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 moralist 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 
 
1780-82.] ARMY SURGEON AND POET. 79 
 
 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 ac- 
 quaintance, whose humble lodging formed but a poor recep- 
 tion-room. Scharffenstein tells us that it contained, besides 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. StreicKer, 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 : 
 
 " The most spiritual, most unassuming of countenances 
 smiled in friendly greeting upon the new comer. All com- 
 pliment was passed over and evaded in a winningly modest 
 way. When conversing, not a word was uttered that could 
 have wounded the most sensitive. 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 
 individuality, 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 un- 
 feigned 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, 
 
8o THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. hi. ch. i. 
 
 unmindful 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 limited incortie, he did but lead a loose, unsettled 
 hfe. 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. Scharffenstein has 
 given special ' praise to Frau Schiller's great cordiality. 
 With kind-hearted Christophine, Fritz had thorough sympathy; 
 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 
 lyric muse; her voice now rose upon the air, wherein were 
 mingled notes of scorn and tenderness, of insult and un- 
 bounded passion. We hear them in the lyrics addressed to 
 Laura,' a name that occurs constantly in Klopstock's fantastic 
 love-songs. He had yet high esteem for Klopstock, although, 
 ere this, he had seen that iji many of his odes there was 
 more of rhapsody than real feeling. According to Scharffen- 
 stein, " Laura " was none other than the young widow land- 
 lady ; 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 Mannheimi Theatre. Dalberg secured the 
 copyright for himself and offered to accept other plays that 
 Schiller might write later on. On August 17 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 
 
1780-82.] 
 
 ARMY SURGEON AND POET. 
 
 81 
 
 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 re-arrangement 
 took up more time than he expected. An outbreak of illness 
 in his regiment formed one cause of delay ; another was his 
 acquaintance with the 
 mother of Wolzogen. 
 Henrietta, Baroness 
 Wolzogen, had also sent 
 her youngest son to 
 the Military Academy. 
 Three of her children 
 were now at Solitude, 
 and she determined to 
 place her daughter in 
 the Pension there, and 
 next year to settle in 
 Stuttgart, where Fran- 
 ciska took a great in- 
 terest in her family. 
 The Baroness had sought 
 to be introduced to her 
 son's friend, the speedily 
 famous author of The 
 Robbers. 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 dis- 
 agreeables 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 
 pere, Uttle as he might approve of his son's career, had to hide his 
 discontent, now that Dalberg had laid open to Fritz so pro- 
 mising a future. Conz, one of Schiller's playmates at Lorch, 
 
 G 
 
 Henrietta, Baroness Wolzogen. 
 
82 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. hi. ch. i. 
 
 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 hon- 
 orary post at Tiibingen. 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 written 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 per- 
 haps 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 
 narrowed and humble circumstances, his life was cheered by 
 intercourse with so many friends and acquaintances. 
 
 On September 21 Schiller, first of all, sent the acting 
 version of his play to Petersen, asking him freely 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 6 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 im- 
 prisoned at Asberg. 
 
 It was not until the close of 1780 that Schubart was 
 allowed greater liberty ; he might now receive visits from 
 friends. Von Rieger, 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 i ; Rieger begged . him often to come there, and 
 asked him to bring his godson, the famous author of The 
 Robbers with him. Hoven assented, and the General accord- 
 ingly bade Schubart embody in a critique, his opinion of the 
 play that in so brief a time had gained such great success. 
 Schiller came. They introduced him to Schubart as a certain 
 Dr. Fischer, a special friend of the dramatist. Ere long they 
 began to talk of the play, and " Dr. Fischer " desiring to hear 
 
1780-82.] ARMY SURGEON AND POET. 83 
 
 Schubart's verdict, Rieger got him to read his. critique aloud, 
 that closed with the wish to make the illustrious poet's personal 
 acquaintance. "Your wish is granted," struck in Rieger, 
 patting him on the shoulder. " There he stands before you." 
 "Is it possible?" cried Schubart in glee — "that, then, is the 
 .author of The Robbers." Falling in joy upon his neck, he 
 embraced him warmly and i gave him his blessing. They met 
 each other several times after this occurrence. 
 
 From another of Suabia's famous poets, from Wieland, to 
 "whom he had sent his drama, Schiller won words of encourage- 
 ment and praise. In his own enthusiastic way, Wieland 
 recognised the qualities of strangeness, 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 3 Schiller proceeds to reply to his 
 ■criticisms. He was surprised that Dalberg should so totally 
 have missed the play's poetic side ; in a drama this was dis- 
 tinctly 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 post- 
 ponement of the performance until after the war. He also 
 agreed to write a short prologue, headed " The Author to the 
 Pubhc," that was to be printed on the play-bill. His imagina- 
 tion was already at work upon another theme for dramatic 
 treatment, that of Fiesco, the Genoese. Rousseau had led 
 Hm 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 Military Academy. He 
 now went on to master the subject in its details, to famiharise 
 himself with the early history and constitution 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 necessary, which Loffler undertook 
 to publish. A newly-added vignette of a lion rampant, with 
 the motto " in Tirannos," gave proof of the republican tendency 
 
84 THE LIFE OF' SCHILLER. [bk. in. ch. i. 
 
 of the work. In the preface, dated January 5, 1782, it is 
 promised that the printing shall be marked by accuracy, and 
 that all phrases of double-meaning, offensive, perhaps, to a more 
 refined section of readers, shall be left away. iSfevertheless, 
 here and there only a coarse expression was excised, while, 
 to the many gross typographical blunders, fresh ones were 
 added. 
 
 Dalberg announced that the piece would be performed on 
 the loth 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 perform- 
 ance of his drama, it was postponed until the 13 th. Kapf, 
 Schiller's fellow-lodger, had left hirti 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 Waghausel on its way to 
 Schwetzingen. 
 
 On Sunday, January 13, 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 hand- 
 some National Theatre at Mannheim. 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 bonA-fide 
 German play ; for in Stuttgart, besides Italian opera, farces 
 and vaudevilles were all that was 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 Eckhofs most 
 talented pupils, besides other artists having sound and 
 thorough training. By strange fortune the actors Beck, Beil, 
 
1780-82.] 
 
 ARMY SURGEON AND POET. 
 
 85 
 
 and Iffland, firm in their friendship and devoted to their art, 
 were all three included in the cast. It had been found 
 necessary 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 Maximilian had given to Germany 
 perpetual peace." The opening scenes failed of their looked- 
 for effect ; the four last acts, however, were received with 
 thunders of applause. 
 The chief honours of 
 the night fell to Iffland, 
 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 mas- 
 terful study in psychol- 
 ogy, no less than in 
 elocution, it must have 
 had its lesson for the 
 dramatist also. Schiller, 
 who had pictured his 
 hero tall and gaunt, felt 
 at the first some disap- 
 pointment when Bock's 
 little wizened figure 
 
 trod the boards. This drawback was, however, soon for- 
 gotten 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 respects the gallant Kosinsky; and with Meyer's read- 
 ing of Hermann, Schiller was exceptionally pleased. The 
 other role for which he had feared was that of Amalia. But 
 
 Iffland, from the engraving by Verheltz. 
 
86 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. m. ch. i. 
 
 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 conception 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 Mannheim 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 success. What 
 an impression must the glowing congratulations from the 
 three brother-artists have made upon Schiller ! He held long 
 and detailed conversation with Schwan and Dalberg upon 
 dramatic art, and was firm in his resQlve to follow the career 
 of playwright. 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 provide 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 Mann- 
 heim, 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 1 7 82, 
 
 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 
 cyphers 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 Solitude. This alone filled 
 over forty pages of the book. Only iu one instance did he 
 sign himself as "Author of The Robbers.'' Varied, uneven as 
 are these productions in style and in tone, they yet give proof 
 of great power, of singular skill in versification ; side by side 
 
S8 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. in. ch. ii. 
 
 with these qualities we have, nevertheless, much that is high- 
 iiown 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 Tke Infanticide, 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 officer supposed to have been present. There 
 is a bitter dash of scorn in the Evil Monarch, while the frag- 
 ment To a Moralist verges on the gross. In The Mus^s 
 Revenge, and the humorous 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 proclaimed 
 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 because 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 person- 
 ality, can but speak to you in his own voice. Great offence, 
 ■too, was given by the poet's allusion to Wiirtemberg as " a 
 very Siberia for the intellect," and the Anthology was gener- 
 ally 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 
 welcome. The former, in his words of praise, falls into sheer 
 rhapsody. Rewrites to his wife : " Schiller's a great fellow; 
 I love him ardently. Greet him from me." Outside Wiirtem- 
 berg, the Anthology was scarcely known. 
 
 Not content with, eclipsing Staudlin, he sought to take 
 over the editorship of the Suabian 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 
 
1782.] ARMY SURGEON AND POET. 89 
 
 and move in the world of letters, to have a voice, an influ- 
 ence therein as well. Certainly there was another reason 
 — the wish to increase his income by a stipend however 
 meagre. In all haste he determined, with the joint aid of 
 Petersen and Abel, to issue a quarterly journal, of which the 
 first number, entitled The Wiirtemberg Repertory, stated to 
 be " printed at the Editor's cost," was at once to appear. Be- 
 sides original essays and tales, critiques of current literature 
 were to be published 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 
 reason, 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 lihe 
 public merely sought amusement, it was vain to pretend that 
 the national theatre was also a school" of morals. The Ger- 
 man dramatist, like the English, had the faculty of seizing 
 Nature at her very heart's core ; what he lacked was the 
 humanising touch, the art of bringing her grandeur home to 
 man. Actors fall under the charge of self-consciousness ; 
 they do not utterly sink themselves in their part. Certainly, 
 when writing this, Schiller's knowledge of the stage and its 
 requirements was quite an insufficient one. In a dialogue, 
 called A Walk under the Lindens, two temperaments are 
 contrasted : the one bright, gay, and finding enjoyment in 
 nature and in life; 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 attacks 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 by 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 
 
90 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. hi. ch. ii. 
 
 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 astheticis ; I would 
 liefer give him ten horses to cure than my wife." He takes 
 great exception to the character 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 over-wrought imagination could form 
 the only excuse. The dialogue altogether is most unequal ; 
 from the lyrical manner we pass to the metaphysical ; 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, 
 presurnably written by a native of Worms. This also is not 
 wanting 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 reviewer admits that here and 
 there amid the flood of mediocrity, " above the frogscroak of 
 mere doggerel," one could catch the true notes of Melpo- 
 mene'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 nth 
 to the 17th of February Stuttgart was en fite, on the occasion 
 of the Military Academy being changed into an Imperial Uni- 
 versity. On the nth, the Duke's birthday, Schiller, with all 
 his brother-officers, had to offer "The Anointed One" their 
 formal congratulations. After public 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 Tiibingen University. Among those who forthwith 
 
1782.] ARMY SURGEON AND POET. 91 
 
 came forward was Von Hoven, who had already partially pre- 
 pared himself for passing. And Schiller, not to add further 
 to the Duke's displeasure, was obliged 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 moreover as one so deeply 
 hostile to the recognised omnipotence of prinqes, 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 Solitude, called Sophie ; or, The Just 
 Prince, he thought he paid full tribute to an art towards which 
 he was so utterly indifferent. 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 allusions to 
 t)rrannical 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 promise'd 
 dramatic work, he was obliged 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 
 Repertorium, under the title " A Generous Deed in Latter-Day 
 History," an incident told to him by the Baroness Wolzogen ; 
 
92 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. hi. ch. ii. 
 
 besides making some Latin epitaphs upon Luther, Kepler, 
 Haller, and Klopstock the subject of an essay. At ScharfFen- 
 stein'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 carreer towards which I 
 press," says one passage. " By my manifold longings I shall 
 steal forth amid the spirit-crowd that moves ever onward to 
 God." 
 
 The sudden death on May 15 of his godiather Rieger 
 revived his lyric muse. In a Funeral Ode he praises the 
 grandeur of the deceased, who, instead of "truckling to 
 earthly deities," instead of " buying the goodwill 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 him— 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 
 personal 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. Accordingly, 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 Robbeis. 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 
 the night of the 28th. Hoven was also invited to join the 
 
1782.] ARMY SURGEON AND POET. 
 
 93 
 
 party, that at one o'clock on the 25 th 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 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 him- 
 self 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, dedicated to himself; also St. Real'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 gener 
 osity, imploring him to help him in his need by means of one 
 or two letters addressed 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 protige and nurs- 
 ling — brought up, instructed at his matchless institution. It 
 were also well to fix some period during which he wished 
 Schiller 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 to such a request, and how easily he might 
 fall from favour by making it. So, in all courtesy, he declined 
 to interfere. 
 
94 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. hi. ch. ii. 
 
 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 discipline on the part of the army surgeon, wh6 had thus 
 disregarded duty for the following out of presumptuous theories 
 of his own. He sent for Schiller, whom he severely repri- 
 manded, charging him with gross neglect of the duties of his 
 profession. -For fourteen days he was to consider himself 
 under arrest. The Duke was informed that the poet's absence 
 had been known to his colonel in command, Oberst von Rau. 
 Sclyller, however, absolutely denied this, for he wished to save 
 the kind-hearted man from disgrace. Rau 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 command 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 live 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 son's promotion, 
 Madame von Wolzogen's deep interest in Schiller led her to 
 offer him refuge at Bauerbach, a lonely hamlet near Meiningen. 
 From her house there he could easily escape to Leipzig or 
 Berlin. As a final bait for Dalberg'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 Robbers to Graubiinden as the 
 Athens of latter-day thieves called forth vigorous objection in 
 
1782.] ARMY SURGEON AND POET. 95 
 
 several German prints. One editor, all zealous for redress, 
 commissioned a friend of his in Ludwigsburg, one Walter, to 
 extort from the poet personal withdrawal of the offending phrase. 
 Walter, good, worthy soul, thinking to do his ruler a service, 
 goes in hot haste to tell him of the whole affair. The Duke, 
 whom public 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 27, an 
 official mandate, by which " all further literary work or com- 
 munication with other countries " was distinctly vetoed. Dis- 
 obedience to so despotic an order would of a certainty result 
 in imprisonment at the fortress ; Schiller's only safety lay in 
 flight j yet how to flee he saw not. He felt surer, more certain 
 than ever, of his poetic talent ; Staudlin's cheap sarcasm about 
 a colossal genius, a second Shakspere, 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 Wiirtemberg service ? If Karl 
 Eugene did not exact payment for the eight years' maintenance 
 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, would 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 resource was to try and remain in 
 Stuttgart. He therefore 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 con- 
 tinue his course of study, or rightly to reach the end that he 
 had in view. Some of his literary efforts, as he was humbly 
 prepared to show, had met with general acceptance and ap- 
 
96 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. hi. ch. ii. 
 
 proval 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 re- 
 gard. 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 licence 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 
 Aug6 was instructed to forbid Schiller, on pain of arrest, to 
 address any further letter to his Grace. Flight, that was the 
 only remedy left to him; for this it remained to choose a fitting 
 time. An opportunity offered itself during the festivities that 
 took place on the 17 th, 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 accompany 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 Em- 
 manuel Bach, the musical director there. 
 
 Dalberg was among the Duke's guests. He and Schiller 
 met, but neither came to any nearer explanation. 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 
 2 1 St, the day before that fixed for his escape. Next night a 
 brilliant f^U was to be held at Solitude, and the Duke and his 
 high-born guests would grace it by their presence. Schiller 
 fSlt 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 6nly son. At length, in deep emotion. 
 
ir82.] ARMY SURGEON AND POET. 97 
 
 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 Scharifenstein, whose turn it was for duty. At parting 
 he commended Lempp, another old schoolfellow, to the 
 lieutenant's care. On this same evening 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 morning 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. Whilst 
 packing away the volume, 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 imaginative beauty, in verbal charm, Schiller's work 
 seemed to him the 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 lights, 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 
 Eszlingen gate, where Scharffenstein was on guard. To • the 
 inquiring sentry Schiller gave the names of Dr. Ritter and 
 Dr. Wolf, both travelling to Eszlingen. By midnight the lights 
 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 !" While halting 
 at Entzweihingen he read Streicher the MS. poems that 
 Schubart had given to him, among others The Vault of 
 
 H 
 
98 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. hi. ch. ii. 
 
 Princes. At eight o'clock they reached the frontier, where 
 Schiller felt as though freed from a crushing load. Wiirtem- 
 berg lay behind him — Wiirtemberg, his fatherland, his prison. 
 "See," cried he to Streicher, "see how pleasant the posts and 
 rails look, in their blue and white paint. The soul of govern- 
 ment has just such pleasantness." In sooth, he knew nothing 
 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, arid with a loving wife at his side. 
 
BOOK IV. 
 
 THE FUGITIVE. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 FROM SEPTEMBER TO DECEMBER 1 782. 
 
 The carriage had only been hired as far as Bretten. Thence 
 they tra;velled 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 rtgisseur. 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 
 towards him. All his hopes, all his prospects would be dashed 
 by denial, "if he might not come back to his regiment with 
 leave to devote himself to literature, so that with the profits 
 derived therefrom 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, who was to use his influence in his favour. 
 The answer was to be forwarded to him at Meyer's address. 
 Schiller saw no other means to postpone being tracked as a 
 
102 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk, iv. ch. i. 
 
 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 become known, and that there 
 was general talk of pursuit and capture. By a strange irony 
 of fate, the piece played before the distinguished guests at 
 Solitude on the night of Schiller's escape had been Will-d-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 exemption 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 fersonce. He was listened to 
 coldly and in silence. Beil left the room after the first act j 
 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 com- 
 pliment — quite stunned him. Meyer took Streicher aside 
 into another room, where he told him that he thought 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 highflown, nonsensical rubbish. Iffland 
 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 
 
1782.] THE FUGITIVE. 103 
 
 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 Meyerj_who received him with the joyful 
 news that Fiesco was a iiiasterpiece. It had been Schiller's 
 provincial accent, his detestable trick of reading everything, 
 even the stage directions, in the same high-pitched sing-song 
 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. Dalberg, 
 unluckily, was still at Stuttgart. The fites 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. y^ 
 
 The 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 towards 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. Warner. 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 
 
104 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. iv. ch. i. 
 
 to make him notice. After twelve hours on foot, they reached 
 Darmstadt at six in the evening. Schiller, next day, felt some- 
 what unwell ; yet he resolved 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 faintness 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 Sachsenhausen, the suburb of Frank- 
 fort, without difficulty. They took humble lodging at an inn 
 on the Mainbriicke, 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 flight, 
 he had been forced to leave debts behind him in Stuttgart, and 
 to come away without money sufficient 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 life, he 
 stood in need. He owed about two hundred gulden in 
 Stuttgart, and this caused him 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 lightened 
 his heart of this, to him, specially painful task, his gaiety and 
 fire returned. The stir and movement of a great commercial 
 city had good effect upon his spirits. Now he could more 
 entirely devote himself to his Luise Miller. 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 book-shop 
 to ask for a copy of The Robbers. When 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 
 
.1782.] THE FUGITIVE. 105 
 
 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 service 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 help- 
 ing the need -stricken, despairing poet for a moment crossed 
 the mind of his Excellency von Dalberg. Schiller was too 
 proud to complain of such treatment, bitterly though it pained 
 him to have been led to trust to the cold-blooded courtier's 
 sense of humanity, 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 excep- 
 tionally good. The work has been lost to us ; probably it was 
 based on a translation by Meyer of Gazette'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 \yant of 
 the money. Streicher'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 homewards. 
 They reached Mainz by boat, going thence on foot to 
 Worms. But Schiller became so exhausted that it was neces- 
 sary to drive for a part of the distance. At Worms he got a 
 letter from Meyer, promising to meet him at an inn at Oggers- 
 heim, a village near Mannheim. Here Schiller found him, with 
 his wife and two friends, admirers of the poet. The accept- 
 ance of Fiesco was certain, Meyer said, if it underwent altera- 
 tion, and if an effective ending were added. To do this three 
 
io6 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. iv. ch. i. 
 
 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 storey. As in letters from 
 Stuttgart there was still talk of arrest, he sought to avoid detec- 
 tion by caUing himself Dr. Schmidt. His new subject Luise 
 Miller so fascinated him that he worked at 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 
 favourable to poetic inspiration. He sent several letters to 
 Stuttgart and to Solitude; to foil inquiry he dated them from 
 I,eipzig. 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 understanding 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 i6th 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 before, a Wiirtem- 
 
1782.] THE FUGITIVE. 10; 
 
 berg officer had called at the house asking for Schiller. They 
 suspected that he was a messenger from the Duke, and their 
 fears were heightened by the statements of other neighbours, 
 who brought news that this officer had continued his inquiries 
 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 guardianship. 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, ^hile 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 27 th Iffland had given detailed 
 criticism 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 straitened cir- 
 cumstances, 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. 
 Perhaps this was quite in the baronial manner; nevertheless, 
 it was hardly humane. His Excellency could not 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 baseness ; 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 /^to. 
 
io8 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. iv. ch. i. 
 
 Schiller's only alternative was to oifer his play to Schwan, the 
 publisher. 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 were to leave that place at the begin- 
 ning 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 
 forthwith 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 Rhenish 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 1 
 With little clothing to ward off the cold of that winter night, 
 Schiller stepped into the post-chaise which was to take him to 
 Meiningen. 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 com- 
 forts of family and home — he it was who, in Schiller's flight, 
 discerned the resistless might of genius. 
 
CHAPTER 11. 
 
 FROM DECEMBER 1782 TO JULY I783. 
 
 Schiller reached Meiningen on the morning of December 7. 
 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 traveller from Stuttgart, whom, perhaps, he knew, 
 was anxious for the pleasure of an interview. Fears for per- 
 sonal 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 govern- 
 ment at Meiningen, was at this time in his forty -sixth year. 
 He had studied law ; but likewise took keen interest in music, 
 philology, and delles 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 library, 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 deep sympathy for art and science ; he had pub- 
 lished several poems and essays ; and a volume from his pen. 
 Poetic Fancies, Tales, letters, and Miscellanea, had just appeared. 
 
THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. 
 
 [KK. IV. CH. 
 
 I'o 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 village 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 neigh- 
 
 Frau von Wolzogen's House at Bauerbach. 
 
 bouring 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, intro- 
 duced as Dr. Ritter, with much cordiality, and brought him 
 to the Baroness' house, that stood close by, a plain build- 
 ing, with spacious grounds. Upstairs 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 
 
1782-83.] THE FUGITIVE. in 
 
 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 sympathies 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 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 Wiirtemberg 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 
 fortnight you shall have postscript and preface." He further 
 adds that, for a speedier settlement of his affairs, he must that 
 winter take to poetry ; afterwards he would sink himself in the 
 study of medicine — in his profession. Towards gaining his 
 own livelihood, towards realising the hopes placed in him by 
 his family, it seemed best to do this ; yet genius swept him 
 forwards 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. Per- 
 haps, too, at this time his mind may have been at work upon 
 an original theme, upon his Friedrich Imhof, in which Jesuit- 
 ism 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 
 
112 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. iv. ch. ii. 
 
 nourish his riiind ; thus, the very second day of his arrival he 
 sent Reinwald a list of works he wished to have. On this, 
 besides philosophical treatises by Garve, Mendelssohn, Smith, 
 and Sulzer, with others of a critical and aesthetic nature 
 by Gerard, Home, Lessing and R^mler, he had put down 
 Shakspere's Romeo and Juliet (a help to the last scene in 
 Luise Miller), Wieland's Agathon, St. Real's History of Don 
 Carlos, 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 pro- 
 gress ; he left this to write the dedication of Fiesco to his old 
 master Abel. It was a pleasure in his dreary loneliness, 
 while pining half morbidly for human intercourse, when Rein- 
 wald 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 Charlotte 
 to Bauerbach. Now for the first time love touched 
 his heart with all its fire and force. Perhaps while still 
 a school-girl 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 atmosphere of her own home. The 
 thought flashed upon him that, having her companion- 
 ship, 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, 
 
I782-S3-] 
 
 THE FUGITIVE. 
 
 113 
 
 1 
 
 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 has 
 robbed me of what was myself; my state is one 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 destroythe 
 
 charm of such illusion." 
 He only ventures to 
 send " sincere regards '' 
 to Lotte, besides a 
 complimentary message 
 to the Baroness' brother. 
 He had promised to 
 write a letter on her be- 
 half to the Duchess of 
 Gotha, Charlotte's god- 
 mother, about school- 
 expenses, and to com- 
 pose a poem anent the 
 betrothal of her foster- 
 daughter, Henrietta 
 Sturm, with a bailiff at 
 Waldorf. 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 live apart from humanity, 
 without some sympathising soul ; yet no less fearful is it to 
 cling to some kindred heart from which, sooner or later, in a 
 
 I 
 
 Charlotte von Wolzogen, from a family portrait. 
 
114 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. iv. ch. ii. 
 
 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 withheld. Four months afterwards he 
 reflects upon the fate of his missive. To mislead all who 
 might be on his track, he gave Frau von Wolzogen 
 another letter dated from Hanover, in which he spoke of 
 going 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 discountenanced his 
 staying longer under her roof. He w;as therefore going to 
 Herr von Wurmb, with whom he had 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 Lidse Miller, because of 
 the money it would bring him, the subject of Don Carlos now 
 laid mighty grasp upon his mind. Nevertheless, Reinwald 
 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 nam 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 
 
1782-83.] THE FUGITIVE. 115 
 
 bland, wanted to have the piece at once ; nay, its very faults 
 were merits, from a dramatic standpoint. Instead, therefore, 
 of continuing Don Carlos, Schiller was led to finish his other 
 and earlier play first, which he intended to offer for publica- 
 tion 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, a little 
 drama for children was to be acted in his honour on that day. 
 For this, Reinwald asked the poet to compose either a pro- 
 logue 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 Meiningen, 
 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 liege-man, the renowned author of The 
 Robbers. 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 spring-like 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 solitude of his 
 "caged cell," to which in general he saw himself doomed, 
 that often he would gladly have exchanged it for the com- 
 panionship of some rational human being. He deeply felt 
 that genius needs a spur, an impulse derived from contact with 
 other minds. 
 
 " Laboriously, and often while quite against the grain," says 
 
u6 THE LIFE OF SQPILLER. [bk. iv. ch. ii. 
 
 lie, " I have to work myself up iftto a mood, a key for poetry 
 that otherwise I could reach after ten minutes' intellectual talk 
 with a friend, after readipg 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 Meiningen as he returned by way of Gotha. He had 
 been to Jena and to Weimar ; visiting Goethe, whom he had 
 already known at Stuttgart, yet neglecting- to notice another 
 great poet of his country, Wieland. 
 
 Luise Miller had been gleefully accepted by Weygand, 
 though at the outset he soughf 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 outline of the 
 stOry. But Schiller declined to do this. He promised, 
 however, to give him his Maria Stuart when complete, for 
 which Reinwald was getting him further historical references. 
 27?^ Robbers 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 Shakspere of 
 Germany. Meanwhile he made little progress with Maria 
 Stuart ; he wavered between working at that or at his Imhof; 
 and with Weygand he could not agree about the payment for 
 Luise Miller. Then the news reached him that one of his 
 old fellow-cadets, a Lieutenant yon Winkelmann, was going 
 to accompany the Baroness back to Meiningen. He con- 
 sequently 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 would find a successful 
 rival for the hand of Charlotte. 
 
 Before answer came to this passionate outburst, he at 
 length wrote an ariswer to Dalberg. He stimulates his 
 
1782-83.] THE FUGITIVE. 117 
 
 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, irresist- 
 ibly 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 Reinwald and called upon Rasche, 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 anr" 
 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 exhausted. 
 In his need he turned to Reinwald, 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 Fiesco 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. 
 
 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 
 Reinwald, 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 shat- 
 tered virtues. " I might perhaps have been great," he remarks, 
 "but fate fought against me all too soon." As he conceived it, 
 
ii8 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. iv. ch. ii. 
 
 all poems were but inspired by enthusiastic friendship, or by 
 Platonic love. The poet's attitude towards 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 Lessing'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 Leisewitz, while he himself 
 would give it pulse and life. Through his description of the 
 Inquisition and its iniquities, 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 a while, 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 uneasiness 
 was the news of Lotte's engagement to a Herr von Pfaffen- 
 rath, a report which proved to be unfounded when the 
 Baroness, according to promise, came to Bauerbach about 
 the 20th of May. On the loth Schiller had been to Mein- 
 ingen, 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 arrange- 
 ment himself; but he had his reward in the pleasure that his 
 exertions gave to his benefactress. 
 
 Writing to Reinwald, he says: — "I had an avenue of May- 
 blossom 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 
 
1782-83.] THE FUGITIVE. 
 
 119 
 
 went from here to the church, that was decorated throughout 
 with sprigs of May. We had some nice music, with wind 
 instruments, and the rector of Bibra preached a sermon for 
 the occasion, etc. etc." He grew now ever increasingly inti- 
 mate 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 rela- 
 tions 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 life 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 
 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 hazarding a wretched 
 hundred thalers, while for 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 when 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 affectionate sympathy 
 more than I do now ; from far, from near no one has come to 
 soothe me in my wild, disordered frenzy. What shall I, what can 
 I do to distract my thoughts? I know of nothing but to write to 
 you ; yet, in my letters, even, I am afraid of myself" Further 
 
i20 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. iv. ch. ii. 
 
 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 "Dr. Ritter" 
 was. The news, though without confirmation, deeply agitated 
 him. He begs the Baroness to aid him in tracing the betrayer, 
 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 imperti- 
 nencies 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 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 bmuf h 
 la mode — would let you have my tragic muse as milkmaid if 
 you happened to keep cows ! How dwarfed is the highest 
 point in a poet's fame when set against the prospect of a 
 happy hfe ! " And then he quotes Leonore's extravagant 
 appeal to Fiesco to fling aside all that is vanity and a sham, 
 and in romantic regions lead with her a life of perfect friend- 
 ship. 
 
 "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 question is : How can I, near you, find a lasting basis 
 for my life-long 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 pro- 
 claim 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 
 
1782-83,] THE FUGITIVE. 121 
 
 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 Weimar. 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 own. For 
 what would become of her Lotte, linked 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 ? Warriings, exhortations from 
 father and sister were alike 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 noblewoman whose income 
 was far from a large one. Reinwald, 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 hereafter 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 relatives living. He wished to intro- 
 duce him to Gotter and Wieland, perhaps even to Goethe. 
 The plan promised 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 
 
122 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. iv. ch. ii. 
 
 less and less possible for him to leave Bauerbach. At Whit- 
 suntide she came, with her aunt, the Baroness' 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; and, what was more delightful, he could 
 enjoy her society without restraint. " In truth she is a study," 
 he tells Reinwald ; rarely 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 Reinwald ; " 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 difference 
 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 Lidse 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 inclination to work at the play? 
 
 Lotte did not leave Bauerbach until after the Baroness' 
 birthday, on the i8th of June. Hearing through her brother 
 that Winkelmann had spoken of Lotte in terms of great dis- 
 courtesy, 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 dis- 
 missal. Things fell out in far other fashion, however. 
 
 Frau von Wolzogen grew at length so concerned at her 
 
1782-83.] THE FUGITIVE. 
 
 123 
 
 guest's fit of dreamy idleness, which quite threatened 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 towards securing a theatrical 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 promises of payment against 
 his return. 
 
 Already on the loth 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 wherefore 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 
 repeats this again to his friend before starting. For six weeks 
 or so he was going either to Frankfort or to the Wiirtem- 
 berg 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 ; 
 
124 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. iv. ch. ii. 
 
 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 Wilhelm 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 Baroness' 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 know- 
 ledge 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 live through 
 without our Lotte; but the day and evening of my return 
 shall requite you for such sorrow." Fearing 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 experience ; 
 there he would fall into fresh grooves, and after many a keen 
 fight with fortune, would be entangled in such a mesh of 
 difEculties 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 unseasonable time. 
 Dalberg was to be absent for another fortnight 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 sultriness. Schiller chafed, too, under his 
 self-imposed economy. Yet at Meyer's house he found warm 
 welcome, and pleasant lodgings were taken for him in the 
 Schloszlatz, 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 affectionate reception from the 
 inn-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 twentieth 
 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 possessed that breadth of 
 view which culture gives, and from her large eyes there 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 
 its author a letter from Wieland, expressing warm feeling to- 
 wards him, and prophesying great things for him in the future. 
 
128 
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. 
 
 [EK. V. CH. I. 
 
 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 
 
 Wargareta Schwaii. 
 
 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 copies of his plays to diff"erent 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 
 
1783-84.] THE PLAYWRIGHT. 129 
 
 been yaur 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 towards 
 the right way one who, if given over to evil, would have had 
 opportunity to ruin thousands." 
 
 Frau von Wolzogen had warned him not to trust over- 
 much 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 herself, 
 and not without cares for the future, wa,s gladdened by the 
 poet's words of gratitude. To her his 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 nth 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 like me to stay here, pro- 
 vided it caused him no sacrifice. My Fiesco is to be given 
 here ; they've actually asked me to annotate the piece. Per- 
 haps I shall re-cast it and go through with the represen- 
 tation. 
 
 " 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. Dalberg, to please me, pro- 
 mised to giye a performance of my Robbers and other important 
 plays. For this would test the strength of the company, and 
 it would set me a-flame. I should be pleased if my Robbers 
 could be acted." 
 
130 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. v. ch. i. 
 
 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 longer 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. Dalberg 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 disper- 
 sion of that order he had filled posts as professor of poetry 
 and philosophy, and as mana.ging secretary to the Teutonic 
 Society. His place, his power, made him a man of mark. 
 Besides several dramas, he had translated Metastasio's Death 
 of Dido, and had worked not a little ' in the field of letters. 
 His chief subjects of interest were folk-lore aiid philology. 
 To remain on friendly terms with one so sagacious and so 
 influential was, of course, for Schiller a matter of high import- 
 ance. The Robbers 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. When sending back a copy of the amended 
 agreement, he regretted that hitherto he had lost all power of 
 mental concentration, 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 produce another drama 
 for the stage — only, during the hot summer months it would 
 
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1783-84.] THE PLAYWRIGHT. 131 
 
 be necessary for him to live elsewhere. Besides a yearly 
 salary of 300 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 hundred gulden, of which 
 four or five would go towards paying off debts. He straight- 
 way tells his family of his new appointment. We subjoin a 
 facsimile of the 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 him ; also 
 another ex-Jesuit named Trunk. Schiller made friends with 
 him ; he was " a living instance of how much evil the parsons 
 can set a-foot." 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 2 1 St September he could inform the Baroness that 
 thrice successively the fever had kept off ; each hour he 
 -seemed to feel easier. He assured his benefactress 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 Fiasco, and 
 asked for his judgment upon Spiesz' play General 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 fiirst needed, Fiesco or Luise Miller. The revision 
 
132 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. v. ch. i. 
 
 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-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 
 'criticising Kkin's Skkingm. Wheh his brain was quite clear, 
 again, he promised to express a conscientious opinion there- 
 upon, although he considered it presumption 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 distinguished hostess. 
 A week later Von Hoven gladdened him by a visit, bringing 
 a friend and fellow-student from Ludwigsburg, named Christ- 
 mann, 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 isth of October he attended a meeting of the 
 theatrical committee, when lifland reported upon Pliimicke's 
 amended version of The Robbers. Spiesz' Maria Stuart was 
 also discussed. Three days after, Clearing that Pliimicke was 
 sending round an adaptation 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 h,e would have to re-touch it here and there before it 
 could be put in rehearsal. He advertised this notice a 
 month later in the Gothaische Gelehrte Zeitungen, but Grosz- 
 mann of Frankfort was the only one who seems to have 
 given it any attention. Then came a fresh 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 
 
1783-84.]' THE PLAYWRIGHT. 133 
 
 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 composed, could 
 never bear to see them acted afterwards, so bitter were the 
 recollections which they revived. Despite every attempt at 
 economy, Schiller found himself 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 invalid, 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 " (holde Leichtsinri), 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 experi- 
 ence, 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 150 or 200. 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 
 attachments were not made lightly nor all at once." 
 
134 ■ THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. v. ch. i. 
 
 "As regards ladies here, I may as well tell you that they 
 count for verj' little ; with the exception of one of the 
 actresses, Fraulein Schwan {die Schwaniii) 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. Iftland. 
 speaking of her, writes : — 
 
 " Her reading was marked by great taste, and the sense 
 for things beautiful grew rapidly within her. Rare suscepti- 
 bility of feeling, without any tendency to vapid gush, stamped 
 each artistic effort with a supreme simplicity." 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, sub- 
 lime." Schiller was greatly fascinated by a talent so unique, 
 so unassuming ; albeit her love for her future husband made 
 any deeper feeling on his part impossible. 
 
 As Schiller sat writing his letter to Frau von Wolzogen, 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 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. 
 
1783-84.] THE PLAYWRIGHT. 135 
 
 Dalberg asked Schiller at this time to furnish some con- 
 gratulatory lines 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 Kur- 
 fiirstin had to go without her lines of welcome, to Schiller's 
 intense amusement. 
 
 His Fiesco was not finished until the end of the month. 
 JHe had made many alterations, had re-written 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 m'ake 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, him- 
 self undertook the tedious task of preparing a fair copy of the 
 text, which he afterwards 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 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^ 
 liberty he had taken with history, he urged that a dramatist 
 must think more of his influence upon the public 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 pub- 
 
136 THE LIFE, OF SCHILLER. [bk. v. ch. i. 
 
 lie to which I shall dedicate all future efforts in dramatic 
 literature." 
 
 The poet was not over-sanguine about his work; despite 
 many amendments, he felt how much it lost of grandeur, of 
 ■completeness. While 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 pro- 
 spect of getting free from debt. The Baroness sent his letters 
 no answer ; his father was not sparing in words of warning 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 per- 
 mission 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 mptives which drove 
 him to it, would be termed a mere piece of childish bravado 
 — a Mtise; 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 
 inexorable, such an affront to his parent were best resented by 
 bold continuance in his folly. 
 
 On the loth 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 Frau- 
 lein Ziegler's marriage with Beck had taken place; she was to 
 act Leonore, and her husband Bourgognino. The first per- 
 
1783-84.] THE PLAYWRIGHT. 137 
 
 ^ 
 
 formance lasted four hours. Despite elaborate mounting, 
 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 
 republican conspiracy. Bell's portrait of Mohr was a charac- 
 teristic one, and full of spirit ; as Fiesco and Verrina, Bock and 
 Iffland were each excellent ; so, too^ was Frau Rennschiib 
 as the Contessa Imperiali. But the success was a far less 
 triumphant one than that of The Robbers. At a committee 
 meeting held on the 14th, Dalberg, in Schiller's presence, 
 pointed out some of the reasons 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 under- 
 stand or to enjoy. It takes too long to act. There are scenes 
 — there are passages which could be, nay, which must be con- 
 densed. The stage machinery is too complex. The Contessa 
 Impferiali'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 Beil as 
 M^hr, 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 mannerisms, and by occasional overacting, gave 
 to the part a certain unreality. 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 therfe 
 were scenes in it which upon the stage woud have their effect. 
 
 At the second performance o{ Fiesco, on the i8th, it met 
 with more marked approval. Schwan was meanwhile printing 
 the Luise Miller, as before that a piece by Iffland 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 1 5 ; then it was shelved ; 
 while of The Robbers, on the contrary, three further representa- 
 tions were given in that year. 
 
138 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. v. ch. i. 
 
 Another cause for chagrin, besides the failure of his play, 
 was Fran von Wolzogen's silence ; naturally she had little wish 
 to entrust her daughter's happiness to one in such precarious 
 circumstances. But he had now given up any idea of union 
 with Lotte. Marriage, so he then wrote to Zumsteeg, would 
 draw him off the road to fortune; and though with all his 
 many caprices he might fail of reaching high renown, he was 
 too vehement iij 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 a while, 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 ptre, 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 absolute need of the money, he 
 would raise it by hook or by crook. A day ago he had had 
 
i783-84>] THE PLAYWRIGHT. 139 
 
 to send fifty gulden to Stuttgart. On the gth of March his 
 father made bitter complaint that this promised sum had not 
 yet been sent ; Schiller, under protest, was thus compelled to 
 forward it. Besides other work,, he was now chiefly occupied 
 with the rehearsals oiLuise Miller. The title had been changed 
 to Plot and Passion. Such success had attended IfiSand'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 sim- 
 plicity 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 piay's " high moral tone," 
 the Kurficrstliche Deutsche Gesellschaft awarded its author a 
 gold medal. Schroder of Vienna, 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 Robbers 
 was being acted in the very town to which he dared not corne, 
 in Stuttgart. Iffland had been summoned thither to play 
 Franz Moor. "It has been given again," writes the father, 
 on April 4, "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 Stutt- 
 gart 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 isth, after much careful rehearsal, wearisome 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 eclipse Iffland's tame little 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 fol- 
 
140 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. v. ch. i. 
 
 lowing one, and notably its closing scene, were rendered with 
 such fire that, as the drop fell, the whole au,dience 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 maintaiiied its enthusiasm until the end. Beck 
 and his young wife played the lovers to perfection ; Frau 
 Rennschiib was Lady Milford, Iffland taking the part of 
 Wurm, with Bock as the President. Groszmann had produced 
 the piece, two days before, in Frankfort; here, as also in 
 Berlin, Fiesco had been given and had met with more success. 
 Goethe's mother was among its admirers. In the Prussian 
 capital it had received stirring 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 Iffland 
 to Frankfort, where Groszmann had offered them engagements. 
 Schiller was to report upon their dkb.ut, 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 Rennschiib, the r'egisseur : — 
 
 " To a packed house, and amid breathless silence, Herr 
 Iffland's drama was played last night ; both Iffland and Beil 
 were called before the curtain, and vociferously applauded. 
 There is general enthusiasm for the Mannheim actors ; Grosz- 
 mann's corffpany^ — 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 Vengeance, was 
 given, and then on the 3d of April, Plot and Passion. . Remem- 
 bering the excellence of the Mannheim performance, Schiller 
 feared somewhat for the success of this one ; yet with Beil 
 and Iffland, 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 Iffland's drama, being of the con- 
 
1783-84.] THE PLAYWRIGHT. 141 
 
 ventional 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 Dr. Albrecht, who 
 held 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 passionate love 
 she showed for her art and for all that was beautiful and 
 eiinobling. 
 
 " Already in the first few hours we became firmly, closely 
 linked to each other ; between our souls there was a mutual 
 understanding." He writes thus to Reinwald soon after his 
 return. 
 
 " It is my joy, my pride that she is attached to me, and 
 that maybe she draws some happiness from my acquaintance. 
 Hers , is a heart formed but for sympathy. 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 Reinwald to dissuade her from 
 following a theatrical life, as he himself had done ; that per- 
 haps they might win for mankind a noble soul, even though 
 they robbed the world of a great actress. In his jealous affec- 
 tion he would not suffer one so full of spirituality and charm 
 to mix with the cominon green-room throng — to vie with that 
 for the favour of the mass. Reinwald, no doubt, looked closer 
 
142 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. v. ch. i. 
 
 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 success. 
 His last play was a triumph, while Fiesco and The Robbers 
 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 instalments 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 Reinwald he says : — 
 
 " My wants in the great world are many, and exhaustless 
 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 report 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, goad- 
 ing 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 1 7 85. 
 
 On the morning of the gth 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 seXj and is a warm admirer of your 
 writings, as she cherishes deep enthusiasm for what is beauti- 
 ful 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 re-name the character ; 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 176 1, 
 Eleonore on the 5th of January 1764, at Waltershausen ia 
 Franconia. Their natures were widely different. If her sister 
 was gentler and more feminine, Charlotte had more force of 
 intellect and will ; her soul had touched greater depths of ' 
 melancholy and passion. Naturally of morbid, gloomy dis- 
 
144 
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. 
 
 [bk. v. CH. II. 
 
 position, family sorrows had done much to heighten this gloom. 
 To her the swift and sudden loss of both parents was a crush- 
 ing 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 
 
 _^^ 
 
 Charlotte von Kalb. 
 
 this temporary absence trom brother and sisters only strength- 
 ened her love for them. Wilhelmine, at nineteen, married 
 against her will a Freiherr 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 
 
1784-85.] THE PLAYWRIGHT. 145 
 
 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 Dankenfeld 
 there came that autumn the ex-President's younger brother, 
 Major Heinrich JuUus 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 
 hirh sole and undivided right to all the estates. And she, 
 despairing of all earthly happiness, was brought to con- 
 sent. But marriage 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 garrison 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 eye? 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 manner 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 nth the Major and his wife took their 
 leave amid many assurances that they would repeat their 
 visit. 
 
146 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. v. ch. ii. 
 
 With his third tragedy, promised for the end of August, 
 Schiller unfortunately could make no satisfactory 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 Schwan, 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 time, his debts, and a fresh attack of 
 ague, were causes which jointly helped to deepen his depres- 
 sion. While in this gloomy state he was surprised by the 
 arrival of a packet from Leipzig, sent anonymously by four 
 persons, who had thus sought to show to him their gratitude 
 and respect. The letter accompanying it ran thus : — 
 
 "At a time when Art ever more degrades herself by 
 becoming the paid hireling 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, 
 towards a worthy goal. Then, then it would fain grasp its- 
 benefactor's hand, would show him its tears of joy and trans- 
 port, 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 o 
 Amalia's song, " Fair as an angel ; " he declined 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 Gottfried Korner, born on the 2d of July 1756, at 
 
1784-85.] 
 
 THE PLAYWRIGHT. 
 
 147 
 
 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, travelling after 
 a while to England, Holland, and Switzerland, when he made 
 
 Christian Gottfried Kurner. From a drawing by Dura Stock. 
 
 the acquaintance of Schiller's godparent. In 1781 he ex- 
 changed his academical duties for the more practical ones 
 of a Konsistorial 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 slight fame by his 
 
148 
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. 
 
 [BK. V. CH. 11. 
 
 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 
 
 /— — 
 
 ~ ^^ 
 
 / 
 
 /— — -l{ 
 
 wJr^'' 
 
 m- ^--^ 
 
 h 
 
 
 
 Minna Stock. From a drawing by her sister. 
 
 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 
 
I784-S5.] 
 
 THE PLAYWRIGHT, 
 
 149 
 
 Others. These we here reproduce from careful photographs 
 of the originals. 
 
 "Such a gift," said Schiller, writing to Bauerbach, "is to 
 
 Dora Stock. From a drawing done by herself- 
 
 me greater reward than the world's loud note of praise ; it is; 
 the one sweet guerdon for a thousand moments of sadness. 
 And if I go farther, if I reflect that maybe there are like 
 circles in the world, where, though unknown, I still am loved, 
 and where my presence would be welcome ; when I think 
 
ISO 
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. 
 
 [BK. V. CH. II. 
 
 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, dearest 
 
 Ludwig Ferdinand Huber. From a drawing by Minna Stock. 
 
 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 admirers how depressed was his 
 state ; he could tell them of no fresh work achieved ; this, 
 therefore, kept him from sending them any thanks. Shortly 
 
1784-85.] 
 
 THE PLAYWRIGHT. 
 
 •SI 
 
 afterwards it chanced that Frau von Lengenfeld, with her two 
 daughters, came to see him from Rudolstadt. Caroline, 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 into his life. While on the journey she had 
 seen his parents at Solitude. The Lengenfelds had read The 
 Robbers, as well as some of his poetry, so they were pleased to 
 know the family, although, of course, the acquaintance was but 
 a slight 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 their 
 hotel. 
 
 He was ever hoping that, be- 
 fore 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 2 : — 
 
 " Could I but find a maiden 
 dear enough to my heart ! Or 
 would that I could take you at 
 your word, and become your son ! 
 
 Riches your Lotte would certainly 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 
 
 Silhouette of 
 Charlotte von Lengenfeld. 
 
152 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. v. ch. ii. 
 
 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 20 his 
 Robbers 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 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 6 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 religion 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 dis- 
 tracts, 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 mankind. 
 
 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 sub- 
 mitted to Dalberg, at his request, the prospectus of a Mann- 
 heim 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 strengthen- 
 ing 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 management 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 answer, 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 i6th his sister, with Reinwald, arrived. 
 
1784-85-] THE PLAYWRIGHT. 153 
 
 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. 
 Reinwald had 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 them 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 concus- 
 sion 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 fortnight, he writes 
 to his father that " 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 Robbers 
 was what now harassed him. The person who had stood 
 surety for payment, and who hitherto had been able to ap- 
 pease 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 demanded ; 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 Mannheim, 
 where she was expecting her confinement. Her husband, the 
 Major, came thither three times in the week. Schiller grew 
 now more intimate with Charlotte, who, while at Landau, had 
 given him various commissions to execute. Both were fas- 
 cinated by a performance of King Lear, given on the 19th 
 with IfHand in the title-part, which he played in masterly 
 
IS4 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. v. CH. ii. 
 
 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 undfiir Deutschland. 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 Mannheim public. 
 Goethe's farce of The Black Man had been given on August 3. 
 The character in it of a playwright, which IfHand acted, was 
 supposed to be a travesty of our poet. Iffland himself wrote 
 to Dalberg 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 public by whom he is 
 but partially understood. I scrupulously avoided making the 
 portrait a close one [he wore a blue steel-buttoned overcoat, 
 dirty white stockings, and buckle-shoes], yet everybody eagerly 
 accepted 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. 
 
 Dalberg was not expected in Mannheim until the 29th ; 
 Schiller did his utmost to propitiate him. He tells him on 
 the 24th 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 
 
1784-850 THE PLAYWRIGHT. 155 
 
 French dramatists, not only to widen his knowledge and to 
 enrich his imagination, but also as an aid towards 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 Germany 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 biassed against 
 him, found it passing strange that Schiller, while he tells him 
 all this, should at the same time announce his resolve to 
 become a doctor, for which profession he was already pre- 
 paring himself In such a case what help could he expect 
 from him for the theatre ? Decidedly, the contract could not 
 be renewed. And so, before his return, which was delayed 
 beyond the time, he expressed through Dr. 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 services. If in this time he should succeed in estab- 
 lishing himself at Mannheim as a physician, he could easily 
 make amends for his idleness, and Dalberg would hold the 
 sole copyright of all that he might write. 
 
 " As I could not so suddenly renounce play-writing and 
 the drama, I can always vouch to produce one 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 Dalberg, with an eye to himself and his own 
 needs, was not inclined 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 
 
iS6 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. v. ch. ir. 
 
 more efficient Thus Schiller found himself cut adrift with- 
 out either place or pay, at a time when he should have had 
 complete and untroubled leisure in which to work at Don 
 Carlos. Though plunged in the very depths of depression, 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. Iffland 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 Shakspere's 
 Timon, begun by Schiller since his dismissal. It is true that 
 Iffland had advised Dalberg not to produce The Robbers and 
 Fiesco during the coming winter. But this was because the 
 public disliked these plays, and because successive perform- 
 ances of this kind would prove too great a tax upon the com- 
 pany's powers. 
 
 On the 8th of September Frau von Kalb gave birth to a 
 son. Two days later her husband arrived at Landau, and in 
 the next night a dreadful vision well-nigh caused her death, 
 Schiller, hearing this, is said to 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 parfent the utmost anxiety, who, notwith- 
 standing, took comfort 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 reproach. 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,. 
 
1784-85.] THE PLAYWRIGHT. 157 
 
 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 goodwill. 
 When writing this, the father had Schwan and Dalberg 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 Christophine 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 linked him to others 
 grew proportionately weaker. For Dalberg had cruelly dis- 
 appointed 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 he 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 pla)rwright, now that he saw 
 himself so clearly forsaken by the theatre -going public, it 
 behoved him to take fresh courage, to strike out a new road 
 towards success. He would become a journalist. He had 
 thoughts of going to Berlin, where he was sure of wide sym- 
 pathy ; but in his present miserable circumstances 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 inability to 
 discharge it. His illness, lasting almost a year, had hindered 
 him from keeping his word. But now his plans were ripe, and. 
 
iSS THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. v. ch. ii. 
 
 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 
 journkl 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 looo florins. 
 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 falling due at different 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 i ith of 
 November, his birthday. It appeared as an advertisement in 
 the December number of the Deutsches Museum. At Mann- 
 heim there was already a Pfdlzisches Museum ; for Schiller's 
 paper the more comprehensive title of Die Rheinische Thalia 
 was chosen. All that was refining to the moral sense, all that 
 lay within the realm of the beautiful, all that could purify 
 passion, 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, 
 biographical 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, un- 
 prejudiced ; fifthly, poetry, lyrical and elegiac, also detached 
 scenes from dramas ; sixthly, critical reviews of leading men 
 and of important books ; seventhly, personal (f.e. editorial) 
 confessions ; eighthly, correspondence, advertisements, mis- 
 cellanea. Every two months a number of some 190 pages 
 was to appear. The subscribers' names were to be printed in 
 
1784-85.] THE PLAYWRIGHT. 159 
 
 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 schoolfellows, 
 such as Winkelmann, was this asked ; Reinwald'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 
 Reichspost, not by Schwan's publishing house, which had no 
 interest in the sale of the journal. While Schiller thus anx- 
 iously 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 fea- 
 ture 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 help- 
 ful to his poetic powers had been this intercourse with Char- 
 lotte 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. Afterwards, when he had found his heart's darling, 
 he deemed Charlotte quite incapable of genuine feeling, being 
 merely stirred at times to momentary warmth. He bids one 
 ever guard against her wary intellect, against her cold, calcu- 
 lating 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 feee 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 
 2 2d of this month, in spite of Moritz's adverse criticism in the 
 Voszische Zeitung, his Plot and Passion had met with extra- 
 ordinary success at Berlin, where it had been given five times 
 
i6o THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. v. ch. ii. 
 
 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 re- 
 arrangement of some of Shakspere's dramas, and had himself 
 undertaken to finish the adaptation of Julius CcRsar, upon 
 which Schiller had first been working. His adversaries at 
 Mannheim likewise found food for satire in the weak points of 
 his grandiloquent prospectus. 
 
 And though this was lifting, this companionship of Char- 
 lotte and her husband, neither from her nor from anothei-- 
 could he gain that rest which is so grateful to the heart ; good 
 Streicher, even, had little power to calm his restless, troubled 
 soul. One December evening, 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 pleasures 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 
 Thalia, to which he meant to devote his whole powers ; were it 
 not for pecuniary reasons, his talent would most certainly find 
 employment in a higher sphere of action than in mere journalism. 
 
 That winter Frau von Laroche, Charlotte's friend, was 
 also at Mannheim. She failed to attract Schiller ; she could 
 have but little 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 Frank- 
 fort he went on to Darmstadt, where he was to stay for some 
 
1784-85.] THE PLAYWRIGHT. 161 
 
 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 Darm- 
 stadt 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 
 admired by the Hereditary Princess. In her Schiller found a 
 noblewoman without equal. The distinguished 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. Schiller 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. 
 
 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 instru- 
 mentality the Deutsche Gesellschaft agreed 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 
 dependent (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 
 
 M 
 
1 62 ' THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. v. ch. ii. 
 
 his kind interest. The money might be given to the bearer, 
 whose honesty and stupidity were on a: par. Twelve days 
 later, he makes vehement protest to Dalberg against the 
 slovenly and inaccurate way in which J'loi 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. Fraulein Baumann alone, whom 
 IfHand 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 
 subject at greater length, he thus ends : — " A poet whose 
 three dramas have been put upon the stage, among them a 
 Robbers, 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 criticism had not spared his last two 
 works. Nevertheless, their genius had won for them a place 
 upon the stage. In the Poets' Almanac iox 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 Robbers, 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 man- 
 liness 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 arrange- 
 ment. To his essay upon the stage was appended a "Mar- 
 
1784-85.] THE PLAYWRIGHT. 163 
 
 vellous Instance of a Woman's Revenge." This was an excit- 
 ing tale about Madame de Pommeray that Schiller had trans- 
 lated 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. 
 
 This intimacy with Charlotte only heightened his excite- 
 ment 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 evening — it 
 was that of the i oth — 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 affec- 
 tionate letter he had left nearly a month unanswered. He con- 
 fessed 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 revolu- 
 tion 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, exaggerating 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 repugnant 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 
 
1 64 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. v. ch. ii. 
 
 to me " (here Charlotte is meant) " I am shut off by my posi- 
 tion 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 there. " Oh, my soul thirsts for fresh sustenance, for 
 better men, for friendship, attachment, love. I must come to 
 you, must in closer converse, in the firmest bonds of amity, 
 learn again to draw gladness frbm the heart within me, to 
 bring my whole being into life 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 declaration 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 towards 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 Thalia ; all the petty letter-writing 
 and account -keeping worried him extremely ; he meant to 
 transfer the journal to a publisher, 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 
 
1784-85.] THE PLAYWRIGHT. 165 
 
 the least a hundred ducats ; and, beyond the sale of the first 
 number of Thalia, which would scarcely 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 ? Myplan is as follows : every two 
 months I would repay fifty 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 calcula- 
 tions, my yearly income from Thalia, after deducting expenses, 
 would be from eight to nine hundred thalers." When speak- 
 ing 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 Charlotte's husband 
 to whom he referred. 
 
 While Schiller was thus anxiously waiting for a favourable 
 answer to his request, the printing of Thalia reached comple- 
 tion. 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 " Repertorium " of the theatre 
 there, from the ist of January to the 3d of March, together 
 with critical notices upon subjects connected with the play- 
 house and its management. At the close were printed words 
 of apology that many of the articles promised in the pros- 
 pectus had in the present number unavoidably been left away. 
 The dedication of Don Carlos to the Duke of Weimar is dated 
 the 1 4th of March. 
 
 Meanwhile Korner, at his father's death, on 5 th 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 sending Schiller the needed money, Korner 
 used Goeschen 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 Thalia. 
 
i66 . THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. v. ch. ii. 
 
 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 TMlia. 
 Thus delicately did he give Schiller help in his distress, who 
 looked upon publishers as a mere race of lucre-loving Jews. 
 
 Already, on Tuesday the 8th, Charlotte, writing to Christo- 
 phine, 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 Thalia might succeed, and that it might draw out in equal 
 measure his energy, his sincerity, 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 published 
 when Bock and Madame Rennschiib met the poet's criticism of 
 their acting by indignant abuse. On the 1 9th he makes com- 
 plaint 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, however, to 
 speak with him upon the subject, much to the poet's mortifica- 
 tion. With his Leipzig friends, on the other hand, his rela- 
 tions grew ever more hopeful. Not only was the needed 
 money promised to him ; Goeschen hkewise 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 wish. It cost him greater pains, he 
 
1784-85.] THE PLAYWRIGHT. 167 
 
 said, to straighten his domestic difficulties than to plan out 
 some state conspiracy ; home had no happiness for him with- 
 out some dear and intimate 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. Necessary furniture 
 to me would be a good chest of drawers, a writing-table, bed, 
 and sofa ; also another table and some chairs. If I had these, 
 nothing else were wanting to my comfort. I can't live on the 
 ground floor nor in the top storey ; and above all things, my 
 windows must not look out upon a graveyard. Loving 
 humanity, I love likewise its turmoil. If I can't compass it 
 thus that we (i.e. the five-petalled clover-leaf) can have our 
 meals together, I shall dine at the table d'hote of the inn ; for 
 I'd rather fast than not eat with company large, or else spe- 
 cially excellent. . . . No doubt there is a desperate naivete 
 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 31st. 
 Dalberg, in a letter of the 27 th, had expressed regret that 
 Schiller should seemingly have taken offence at his last re- 
 marks ; 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 Lessing with his Dramaturgy had exactly experi- 
 enced' that concerning which Schiller now made complaint 
 We may infer that Dalberg wished to see him before his de- 
 parture 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 fascinated 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. 
 
i68 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [BK. v. ch. ii. 
 
 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 Mann- 
 heim. 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 IfHand, 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. 
 
 In such way, after nearly two years, did he leave Mann- 
 heim — 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 Leip- 
 zig who had thus found him means of escape. His long con- 
 nection 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 Char- 
 lotte von Kalb ; there he had had sight of that ungoverned 
 soul, consumed by its passion, warped by its excess of senti- 
 ment ; and the picture had been helpful to him when planning 
 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 life and to make it fair. 
 
BOOK VI. 
 IN FRIENDSHIP'S LAP. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 FROM APRIL TO SEPTEMBER 1 7 85. 
 
 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. Rigid surveillance had made him 
 shy and irresolute in manner ; his betrpthed, 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 cafi, 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 irtiagined. With many a face which passed 'him 
 he was familiar. 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 Aris. 
 Then, too, he saw the celebrated Capellmeister Hiller, Pro- 
 fessor Oeser, the artist who was on close terms of friendship 
 with Goethe and the Court at Weimar ; Reinecke, the rtgisseur 
 
172 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. vi. ch. i. 
 
 of the Dresden-Leipzig theatre; and Jiinger, the comedy writer. 
 With the last-named, a jovial, merry young fellow, some few 
 months his senior, he grew more intimate. Here also he found 
 Sophie Albrecht and her husband ; his urgent warning to her 
 to leave the stage had been 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 ■vtelcome a comrade. 
 
 But yet amid all this mighty whirl he soon felt solitary and 
 alone, for he had a goal in life towards 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 he 
 intended to go to Gohlis, where he would work with great 
 diligence at Don Carlos and the journal Thalia, at the same 
 time continuing his medical studies unobserved. " The goal 
 once clear for me, I shall press towards it with every effort of 
 my being. Judge yourself whether I be likely to reach it when 
 my zeal is strengthened by a most deUghtful wish. Two years 
 yet, and then my whole fortune will be decided." He felt already 
 so sure of Schwan's compliance that he wrote 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 daughter's character was not stiited 
 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 she was 
 powerless to explain. He, in the meantime, was ever more 
 closely circled by a band of loving friends. 
 
 Towards 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 
 coHiplete happiness in the knowledge that he was doing all 
 the good that lay within his power. He should feel this happi- 
 
1785.] IN FRIENDSHIP'S LAP. 173 
 
 ness, he said, when he had his Schiller at his side ; they would 
 mutually spur each other on to strive unflinchingly towards 
 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 proffered such place at his side ! What 
 joy to be certain that Korner, in " this faithful, brotherly 
 fashion," would " join him in his romantic voyage towards 
 truth and fame and fortune ! " He longed for the autumn, 
 when, after Korner's marriage in Dresden, he would live with 
 Huber, and enjoy in his society the pleasures of close friend- 
 ship 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 physician ; 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. Mean- 
 while Schiller had moved to Gohlis, some little distance out of 
 Leipzig. Here he lodged at the first with Endner and his two 
 step-sisters. 
 
 Goeschen returned from Vienna at the close of May ; he 
 had come back by way of Weimar, transacting business there 
 with Wieland, Bode, and Musseus. Schiller also formed 
 friendship with him, and they lived together in the little house 
 standing next to Endner's, which was afterwards 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 hfe in Schiller's company. Reinhart 
 joined them frequently, a young landscape painter of great 
 promise, and with him the poet was glad to become intimate. 
 Of course Schiller often went into Leipzig, where he had 
 dealings with Kunze, a merchant there, a great friend of 
 Korner's. 
 
 On the I St of July Korner, his bride and her sister, Schil- 
 
174 
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. 
 
 [BK. VI. CH. I. 
 
 ler, Huber, and Goeschen all met at Professor Ernesti's 
 house in Kahrsdorf, 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 after- 
 noon, 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, 
 _:~--^a;i _-, Schiller felt thrilled at the 
 
 _2^3l~" - ~ "Ss?- thought of his happiness 
 
 .'^^-"~-- :-^~- - ^ among such friends. 
 
 " My heart glowed again," 
 he wTites to Korner. " It 
 was no flight of imagination, 
 this ; it was firm, philosophi- 
 cal certainty of that which lay 
 before me in the glorious per- 
 spective of the after days. 
 Shame-struck, yet not wholly 
 crushed, I glanced back at 
 the past, at the life which 
 I had thus hopelessly squand- 
 5 1-,, ,1 . r- tr IT 1 ^ £''sd- I felt how dauntless 
 
 Schiller s house at Gohlis. From a sketch. 
 
 were my powers, how abortive 
 the designs (great ones, may be) which nature cherished 
 respecting me. Half had been ruined by the senseless 
 system of my bringing up and by the sullenness of Fate; 
 the other, and more important part, by myself" While 
 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 Huber's eyes he read Kor- 
 ner's name, which at that instant rose involuntarily to his 
 lips. From their meeting glance sprang forth the high resolve 
 in turn to help each other for\vard towards one glorious goal. 
 He was filled, he said, with the sense of their close union, 
 
1785.] IN FRIENDSHIP'S LAP. 175 
 
 with the thought that through mutual aid alone they could 
 reach greatness, goodness, fortune. They stopped to take 
 breakfast 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 burning cheek 
 Huber told us that he had never tasted wine of like excel- 
 lence ; and I thought of how the sacrament had been insti- 
 tuted, 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 towards one great 
 end, towards 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 utter- 
 ance 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 celebration 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 sub- 
 scriptions, payable through the Mannheim Postal Agency, if 
 indeed he were not cheated of these altogether. Then, too, he 
 wished to aid Huber, whose 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 Schiller 
 would make over to him an amended edition of his three 
 dramas. He was under no obligation to Schwan, who, with- 
 out saying a word, had published the pieces in fresh form. A 
 thoroughly revised edition of The Robbers 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, writ- 
 
176 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. vi. ch. i. 
 
 ing 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 living ; it was a 
 pleasure which cost him, pecuniarily, no sacrifice whatever; 
 when the poet in a few years should have reaped his golden 
 harvest, he might, if he would, repay him with interest. 
 Korner hoped great things of the Don Carlos, which Schiller 
 must finish completely 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. These tears that here, on the thres- 
 hold 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 
 emotidn ; and in the grave you will softly slumber thereon." 
 
 . How sharp the contrast between this morbid enthusiasm 
 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 his 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 public. The first 
 
1785.] IN FRIENDSHIP'S LAP. 177 
 
 number was to be reprinted. Tlie Mannheim Postal Agency- 
 still withheld, the subscription's 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 acknowledged 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 Schiller 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 and Passion. This was 
 Professor Moritz, a friend of Iffland's and the author of Anton 
 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, changing 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 companion 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 per- 
 formed 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, Schiller and 
 Huber accompanied them on horseback as far as the village 
 
 N 
 
178 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. vi. ch. i. 
 
 of Stauchitz. While riding back, the poet sHpped 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 Komer, 
 the friend for whom he longed. If some slight mark upon 
 his hand were always to remain, he said that he would heartily 
 welcome it, as a lasting remembrance of his friend's joyful 
 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 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. Dr. 
 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 morning of September ii, he sets out in 
 feverish excitement. On repassing the places where he had 
 lately been in company with the bride and bridegroom, 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 resemblance 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 dwell- 
 ing of his bosom friend. But for a night, at least, an inn must 
 give him shelter ; and at the Golden Angel, No 4 Wilsdruffer- 
 strasse, he rested after his long day of travel. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 FROM SEPTEMBER 1 7 85 TO FEBRUARY 1 787. 
 
 Rain fell in torrents next morning as Schiller, in a chair 
 borne by two porters in canary-coloured livery, was carried 
 to Fraulein Faust's house. No. 14 Kohlenmarkt, now No. 4 
 Kornerstrasse. Here both the ladies welcomed him warmly; 
 and Korner, coming home at one o'clock from the Kon- 
 sistorium, met his be- 
 loved friend with open 
 arms. Huber's health 
 was drunk in a bumper 
 of good Rhenish ; and 
 after dinner Korner 
 played on the harpsi- 
 chord so touchingly that 
 Schiller saw in his music 
 a source of lofty inspira- 
 tion. 
 
 At five in the after- 
 noon they drove to Kor- 
 ner's seat near Loschwitz, 
 a village within Uttle dis- 
 tance of Dresden 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 Switzer- 
 
 Kurner's house at Loschwitz. From a sketch. 
 
i8o THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. vi. ch. ii. 
 
 land. 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 unmindful 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 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 operations 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 humorous peti- 
 tion, addressed by a dilapidated tragedy writer " to the Kor- 
 nerian 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 5, 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 little, feeling much, plan- 
 ning less, and. working all the more iruitfully." And this was, 
 in truth, the mark towards which Schiller and Korner spurred 
 each other onward. The latter, with his wider philosophical 
 knowledge, had most helpful influence upon the poet. After 
 reading Watson's Life of_ Philip fh? Second, Schiller saw that 
 there was.inuch to change in his own conceptions of Philip 
 
1785-87.] IN FRIENDSHIP'S LAP. 181 
 
 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 
 Shakspere ! 
 
 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 greater 
 attraction for him than the famous art-collections. At mid- 
 day and evening he was regularly at Korner's house, where, 
 though he may have had. long and grave philosophical dis- 
 cussions with its owner, the family was but enlivened by his. 
 pleasant company. He was also fond of a game at whist. 
 Among Korner's acquaintances there were Professor Wilhelm 
 GottUeb Becker, Capellmeister Naumann, Graff the artist, 
 Reinhard the court chaplain, Archenholz, 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 fur- 
 nished 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 — Resignation, a Phantasy, and The 
 Free Thought of P,assion, which bore this addition, " When 
 Laura was wedded, in the year 1782." Then came a trifling 
 aubade 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 censure from the 
 Leipzig press authorities.: Therefore he begged Goeschen, for 
 
1 82 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. vi. ch. ii. 
 
 the sake of their friendship and for the honour of Thalia to 
 get these sheets printed in Dessau ; Korner had also suggested 
 this. There were most weighty reasons for his wishing to 
 publish 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. Goeschen 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 probably the 
 words, "When Laura was wedded, in the year 1782," and 
 " A Phantasy," which were originally absent. The poems are 
 both signed with the cipher D, just as were the odes to Laura 
 in the Anthology. Immediately afterwards 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 
 lie believed, for a whole year. But things could not be thus 
 Tiastened 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 Philosophic 
 Letters between Julius and Raphael. Korner 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 firiends. The correspondence — not con- 
 tinued, alas ! — sought to show that assertions such as were 
 here made, " assertions, narrow, exaggerated, and often contra- 
 dictory, find at last their solution, are fused into one universal, 
 clear, and firmly-founded truth." Raphael, 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 his friend has 
 
1785-87-] IN FRIENDSHIP'S LAP. 183 
 
 spoiled for him his fail 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 
 subhmest 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 writing a novel in the form of 
 letters exchanged by Julius and Raphael; and in this the 
 poem Friendship was to have place. 
 
 When, on April 9, Korner with his family and Huber 
 went to Leipzig, Schiller stayed behind in Dresden, to work 
 with all diligence at his drama. But unfortunately 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 hindrance 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 pros- 
 pect 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 necessary, for he had still an amazing deal to learn. 
 Besides Korner's library, he could use that of the Kurfurst. 
 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 tempera- 
 ment of the poet. His love for history now grew ever deeper. 
 A translation by Rambach 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 
 
1 84 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. vi. ch. ii. 
 
 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 believe I should be quite another fellow if 
 
 1 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 continuation of these Philo- 
 sophic Letters the question for discussion should be whether 
 a political or an ideal system of culture were the more excel- 
 lent ; no subject, said he, gave them better chance to blend 
 history and philosophy with their eloquence. In his lone- 
 liness he wrote in friendly fashion to Reinwald, his future 
 brother-in-law, using the familiar thou in his letter, which con- 
 tained an enclosure for Frau von Wolzogen, whose loan he 
 had never yet been able to repay. 
 
 At length the Kbrners came back from Meiszen on the 
 
 2 6th, but still his depression did not end ; it specially irked 
 him that Huber wished to stop in Leipzig during May. On 
 the ist of that month he complains 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 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 towards work of 
 another kind, to be achieved when holding a sure and honour- 
 able position. 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 timcj 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 
 
Schiller, from the painting by Axton Graff. 
 
l36 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. vi. CH. II. 
 
 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. We here 
 give the portrait, completed by Graff in 1791, and afterwards 
 engraved by J. G. Miiller; ours is taken from the only cor- 
 rect engraving of the original. 
 
 On the afternoon of May 16 Schwan with his two daugh- 
 ters reached Dresden. By nine the next morning he had not 
 yet visited Schiller, who, failing to see him before evening, 
 intended to call upon him at his hotel. Though offended 
 with Schwan, he still felt gratitude towards him, as being the 
 first who, outside Wiirtemberg, had told him of his ability, 
 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. Whether he called on Schiller first is 
 not known to us ; it is certain, though, that they met as good 
 friends, and Schiller introduced his publisher to the Komers. 
 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. Schwan afterwards 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 esteemed 
 his talent, to whom the poet sent a letter,, as Schwan was 
 travelling back by way of Weimar. This spoke of his un- 
 settled 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 publi- 
 cation. Schiller was thinking of Weimar, of forming a con- 
 nection there. He writes to Goeschen on June i, to send him 
 
1785-87.] IN FRIENDSHIPS LAP. 187 
 
 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 outline of which he had already 
 planned when in Mannheim. Then, too, he was dreaming of a 
 romance. The Ghostseer, where his original scheme for Friedrich 
 Imhofwas 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, setting forth Korner's 
 good-humoured weaknesses. Huber supplied droll explana- 
 tions for these, which bore the title " Adventures of the New 
 Telemachus ; or. The Life and Labours of Korner the Decent, 
 the Consequential, the Piquant, etc. etc., set forth in fine illu- 
 minated plates by Mr. Hogarth, with appropriate explanations 
 by Winckelmann. . . . Rome, 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 Christophine's marriage, but which, it is 
 true, contained allusion 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. 
 ^/Dnce more he sought to succeed in drama, and accord- 
 ingly began to prepare his Don Carlos for the' stage. He had 
 heard through Beck of the interest taken by Schroder in the 
 fragments hitherto published of the play ; and this strengthened 
 his resolve. Schroder was at that time the Director of the 
 Hamburg Theatre ; on September 1 2 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 incom- 
 
1 88 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. vl ch. ii. 
 
 petent artist; and these the genius -of a great actor and thinker 
 overleaps. But I would wish to be free from such limits ; 
 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 re-cast 
 his Carlos in dramatic form. Next January, too, The Man- 
 hater would be finished ; the chief 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 
 Ghostseer (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 
 Remarkable Conspiracies and Rebellions, 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 Berlin 
 showed him little favour. On the other hand, he advised 
 Frau von Wolzogen, 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 i8th of October Schroder had already asked him 
 upon what conditions he would come to Hamburg as play- 
 wright. There was no need at his theatre to fear such treat- 
 ment as he had received in Mannheim; 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 
 
178,5-87..] , IN FRIENDSHIP'S. LAP. 189 
 
 he did not a second time turn playwright, but that he left work 
 in this field until his powers had grown riper. 
 
 He arranged with Goeschen for the publication of Don 
 Carlos, which was to appear at Easter. He was paid at the 
 rate of ten thalers the sheet. The sale of 7%a/«« 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 Bibliothek der 
 Schonen Wissenschaften 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 accepted the piece for the 
 Berlin National Theatre. 
 
 It was a sad December for Korner and his household. 
 The infant died on the loth, 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 engagement 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 re-write 
 it in prose, and if the play may last three hours. In Korner's 
 absence he grew depressed, suffering at times from deep 
 melancholy ; his letters contained self-reproaches 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 moving scenes he 
 lacked fire ; here and there, only, under the ashes, one might 
 detect a spark. Korner urgently besought him not to finish the 
 play in a hurry ; it would be far better to postpone its issue. 
 
igo THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. vi. ch. ii. 
 
 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 discus- 
 sions, the same serious ponderings with Korner upon life. 
 Schiller gladly hailed Reineke's offer of a hundred thalers for 
 a prose version of the Don Carlos 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 
 playhouse, 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 ver- 
 sion 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. 
 
CHAPTER 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 Elizabeth 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 Mademoiselle 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 introduc- 
 tion to her family. The mother was not averse to see the 
 famous poet among her daughter'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 
 I)ortrait, and received one of hers in return; he could not 
 enough admire its heavenly beauty. Vain were all the warn- 
 ings 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 part ready, 
 needed still thorough revision, and the closing metres would 
 have to be amended. Wieland had spoken admiringly of 
 
192 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. vi. ch. hi. 
 
 Schiller's genius in his Mercur when reviewing the three last 
 numbers of Thalia; 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 Wieland'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 Riga 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 burnt-out 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 beloved filled him with unrest ; all poetic energy, all in- 
 terest in life, flagged. Then Korner and his wife determined 
 tdbring him away from Dresden ; they took him on April 1 7 
 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 pro- 
 saic for him ; it seemed like exile on some barren island. 
 Unfortunately 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 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 Weiniiar,. where- she longed for his presence, and that she 
 
1 787-] IN FRIENDSHIP'S LAP, " 193 
 
 had given a landscape-painter introductions 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 2 2d, 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." During 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 Korner, who was to get three acting copies ma!de 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. 
 Korner felt annoyed that by this the Carlos was once more 
 likely to be neglected ; but Schiller consoled him by saying 
 that there were thirteen sheets at the printer's, and that he was 
 not pressed for time ; he had thoughts of writing an additional 
 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, telling her of his early love epi- 
 sodes, informing her, too, of his intimacy 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 senti- 
 ment; 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 excep- 
 
 o 
 
194 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. vi. ch. uu 
 
 tions. 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 confess, 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 ventured, 
 she said, to confess all this fy him, from which he could judge 
 how deeply she loved him. That which Schiller told her of 
 his intimacy with his friend Charlotte 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 con- 
 firmed 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, even though she now wished Schiller to effect 
 her conversion. Perhaps in this letter he saw her mother's 
 influencing hand. He was still too troubled in naind for 
 any work at his play ; the pain at finding that Jettchen was. 
 not she for whom his heart craved, tortured him. And 
 though he might throw all blame_ upon her mother, and try 
 to respect Jettchen's warm-hearted, noble sentiment, there 
 could be no longer thought of heart -unity between them,, 
 as she could never yield him that rest of soul for which he 
 yearned. 
 
 The actual ending-^we might almost say the breaking ofl 
 of this love episode — was made by some charming verses which . 
 Schiller sent to Jettchen on May 2. 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. 
 
1787.] IN FRIENDSHIP'a LAP. 195 
 
 True friendship, this is all that I can bring thee ; 
 
 And what I earn will be my heart alone ; 
 For ever will I strive how I may win thee ; 
 
 Thy heart I 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. Madame 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.' 
 
 " Does it flatter you to feel that you have roused senti- 
 ments which you cannot return ? " he writes. Further, he in- 
 sinuates 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 letfer 
 showed, it 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 pretended 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 sub- 
 lime 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 affec- 
 tion, that means, of course, a great deal more." She ends 
 with the news that her mother intends to visit him to-morrow, 
 Sunday, at Tharand, if he were not expecting other and better 
 company — some more intellectual friends — with whom such 
 homely everyday 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 n^ver expect to spend a quiet life ^ 
 
10 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. vi. ch. hi. 
 
 with Jettchenj 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 portion' of Don Carlos. 
 As Goeschen had promised to bring out the piece at Easter- 
 tide, which was now over, he only let the first section of the 
 play appear, with 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 relations with the Duke of Weimar, 
 and to become connected with some of the leading men of 
 Ilmathen. He does not regret that Goethe was away, travel- 
 ling in Italy, for he had little 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 de cceur, 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. " Ah ! that I might now reap 
 the fruits of my toil, that I might revel in the sight of my 
 Carlos put upon your stage. ... 1 shall see you, and my 
 sense for drama, well-nigh extinct, will wake anew within me. 
 To you I look for this reconciliation 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, before I start, you could send me some 
 
1787.] IN FRIENDSHIP'S LAP. 197 
 
 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 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 special confession of the now 
 vanished passion for the bewitching Mademoiselle 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 melan- 
 choly 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 little farce he now wrote,, 
 called Korner's Forenoon, shows how strangely merry he then 
 was. Many a comic situation, many a droll event, was here 
 pictured with great skill; ho^v, 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 humorously immortalised. The 
 poet himself had four different rdles 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 ior Doft Carlos, and for a 'translation- 
 by. Huber of a short French comedy. The letter of acknow- 
 ledgment said that now he could start for Weimar unhindered,, 
 and after a few weeks spent there he should come on to Ham- 
 burg. 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 life — that he was 
 taking a step whose importance lay far ahead in the gloom of 
 the future. Resolved at last, he at once wrote to Charlotte, 
 for whose answer to a former letter he had vainly looked. 
 He then discussed the question of his departure at great length. 
 
198 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. vi. ch. hi. 
 
 with Korner 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 the 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 
 Thalia, 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 to- 
 gether at Loschwitz, walking to a little coppice which 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 
 Avife 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 rearrange- 
 ment the play may have lost something of poetic unity. 
 • Beside that and The Manhater, he had been planning another 
 drama, jj^uUan the Apostate. In this last the beauty of 
 Greek mythology was to be set in sharp contrast to the stern 
 asceticism of Christianity. 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, 
 Reinwald, and others, three only had appeared. But he had 
 l^egun upon another work, The Ghostseer, 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 
 Netherlands. Korner's society and influence had, moreover. 
 
lySy.] IN FRIENDSHIP'S LAP. 199 
 
 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 reaching Naumburg, Schiller found that the Duke of 
 Weimar had just passed through the town on his way to Pots- 
 dam. He was sorry to have missed seeing him, although his 
 Grace, then absorbed in politics, 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 Erb- 
 prinzen, and instantly went to see Charlotte. " Our first 
 meeting," 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 afterwards, he tells his friend the whole 
 truth. 
 
 " She had been expecting me with keen anxiety and im- 
 patience. 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 benumbing in its effect" This was his explana- 
 tion 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. 
 
 " Charlotte is a great and an extraordinary being — a real 
 
204 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. vii. ch. i. 
 
 Study for me, and one who could cause trouble to a mind 
 greater than mine. As our intimacy deepens I gradually dis- 
 cover 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 soirk, 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 goodwill, Wieland, then in his fifty-fourth 
 year, was deeply engaged upon a translation of Lucian. He 
 gave the young poet a most genial welcome, 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 en- 
 thusiasm 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 two emotions — ^hate and love. He loves 
 Goethe passionately — 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 literature. Schiller believed that 
 
1787-8S.] FRESH FIELDS OF ACTION. 205 
 
 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 obliged to ac- 
 cept a secretaryship at Niirnberg. We feel some pity for the ^ 
 poor crooked little 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 27 th 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 Vent next even- 
 ing a second time to Tiefurt, to a concert and a supper, at 
 which Wieland and Count Solms were also present. Char- 
 lotte 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 Cotter there, the , poet, with 
 Ettinger, the Gotha publisher. He was much discouraged by 
 Cotter's strictures upon the Don Carlos, who then first gave 
 him a notion of how Weimar would receive the play he him- 
 self 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 
 
2o6 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. vii. ch. i. 
 
 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 anxiously awaited. He 
 met Herder again in August, and he also promised an opinion. 
 Then he went to Erfurt to carry out the Arnims' commission. 
 He was shown over the convent, where, of course, he was 
 sufficiently stared ^t. On learning at the hotel who he was, 
 he met with great attention — was treated "like a Christian;" 
 the members of an amateur dramatic club met together before 
 the door, though none ventured to deliver an address. Gover- 
 nor 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 get- 
 ting back to Weimar, Gotter told him, to his annoyance, that 
 he had read aloud the acting version of Don Carlos at Tiefurt, 
 Wieland listening with the rest, and that a portion, the first 
 half only, had 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 Wolzogen's house or elsewhere. For this 
 reason he wrote to the Baroness on August i. He made 
 excuse for having, through adverse fortunes, let four years pass 
 without yet paying his debt ; the thought of this had often 
 tortured him. Perhaps in a few months, he said, his circum- 
 stances 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 ' 
 
I787-S8.] 
 
 FRESH FIELDS OF ACTION. 
 
 207 
 
 and character. She had, at least, a more equable temperament, 
 although she was more capricious in mood ; long solitude and 
 persistent attachment to her being had fixed her image deeper 
 in his heart than his in hers. Korner hoped that this quiet 
 Hfe together would help to cement their friendship. But 
 Schiller needed a calming influence which Charlotte, con- 
 
 Frau von Stein. From a photograph of her own drawing. 
 
 sumed as she was by nervous excitement and the distress of 
 circumstances, could never exercise. 
 
 Wieland still held back, while Herder, on the other hand, 
 spoke publicly in Schiller's favour at the Duchess's table. Her- 
 der 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 D071 Carlos, his favourable impressions were 
 confirmed. Schiller at this time met Frau von Stein, Goethe's 
 
2o8 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER, [bk. vii, ch. i. 
 
 friend, whom he held to be the best of them all, terming her 
 "truly singular and interesting." But such was not his judg- 
 ment 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 appoint- 
 ment Charlotte would probably not stay there any longer ; 
 this was to be decided at the end of September, when her hus- 
 band had promised to come to Kalbsried. From his answer 
 Schiller perceived that Kalb's friendship for him was un- 
 changed, 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 Revolt 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 d'ebut in history, 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 Reinhold, 
 was staying at this time with Charlotte, who, on the 20thj took 
 her to Jena. Schiller joined them, intending to stay for a 
 day or two with Professor Reinhold. With this enthusiastic 
 apostle of the Kantian philosophy he sympathised much, 
 although he must have felt that Reinhold, to whom the realm , 
 of fancy was as a sealed book, could never be his friend. 
 Charlotte 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, 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 Schiitz and Haseland, the editors 
 of the Allgemeine Literatur Zeitung. He was pleased that 
 
1787-88.] FRESH FIELDS OF ACTION. 209 
 
 Schutz, a man of taste in literature, should approve of the Don 
 Carlos ; in Haseland, so - he thought, there lay the makings of 
 a great man. While here he also met Doderlein and Griess- 
 , bach, the theologians. He spent the evening previous to his 
 departure at the latter's house, where Charlotte, Reinhold, and 
 many more were assembled. Reinhold assured the poet that 
 before spring came he could certainly get some appointment 
 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 Rhenish. He little thinks, in Italy, that 
 he has me among his] guests, but Fate brings wondrous 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-look- 
 ing. Charlotte had told him that with the Duchess he might 
 be completely himself; that he would find her full of sym- 
 pathy for the beautiful ; she described her even as a zealous 
 admirer of his writings. But Charlotte had often 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 de- 
 clined all advancement 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 
 
210 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. vii. ch. i. 
 
 defects which comparison with others shows me I possess, and 
 then the joy of pure and perfect 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 unre- 
 mittingly at the Revolt of the Netherlands. Even the extra- 
 ordinary success which the Carlos had met with in Schroder's 
 hands did not incline 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 Charlotte ; on other days he 
 called in turn iipon 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 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 meditating here upon that I avoid be- 
 stowing 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 plea- 
 sures. Since the ist, a weekly Wednesday gathering of the 
 townsfolk had been organised, when they all dined together. 
 
1787-88.]- FRESH FIELDS OF ACTION. 211 
 
 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, Caroline Schmidt, Haseland, and Riedel. 
 Their rubber was always played at the Wednesday club meet- 
 ing. His other evenings were spent with Charlotte, or at 
 Frau von Imhof s, where card-playing also went on. Made- 
 moiselle 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 ot 
 others, we may take the fact that he also gave a copy of the 
 Carlos, together with a most graceful dedication, to Caroline 
 Schmidt, whom he had formerly spoken of only in a jocose, 
 contemptuous manner. 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 expected 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 publisher, 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. Korner 
 would have to pay the interest thereon up 1p 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 Merctcr, 
 and they intended to convert it into a leading national organ, 
 concerning which Reinhold had to be consulted. Schiller 
 already looked upon himself as "heir presumptive" to the paper. 
 He saw, too, a possibility 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 neighbourhood recom- 
 mended by Mademoiselle Schroder. At this time, too, he 
 
212 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. vii. ch. t. 
 
 made his appearance as a Weimar poet, by writing a prologue 
 which, at the opening of the Bellomo Theatre, was spoken by 
 the little 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 fascitiated 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 birthday at Jena, whither he had travelled with 
 Wieland'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 consulted 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 over-apt 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 17 th of November Charlotte had gone to 
 meet her husband at Kalbsried, with whom she returned after 
 twelve days. During her absence Schiller received, through 
 his sister, a renewed invitation from Frau von Wolzogen, who 
 was then entertaining her son Wilhelm and her daughter's 
 betrothed, Councillor von Lilienstern. In spite of Schiller's 
 many unfulfilled promises to repay her loan, this noble woman 
 still regarded him as a member of the family, and as a faith- 
 ful, trusted 'friend. She thus wished him to make Lilien- 
 stern'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 Meiningen, 
 Bauerbach, and in that neighbourhood were full of enjoyment. 
 
I7S7-SS.] 
 
 FRESH FIELDS OF ACTION. 
 
 -'3 
 
 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 discover little that was remarkable. On the other hand 
 it delighted him to find here Reinhard, the artist, who drew 
 
 Caroline von Lleulwltz. From n nrinialure. 
 
 his portrait, which proved a fairly successful likeness. Rein- 
 hard also promised to give him one of his landscapes of the 
 surrounding country. 
 
 His return journey he made on horseback with Wilhelm 
 von Wolzogen, who induced him to go by way of Rudolstadt 
 to visit relations there, Frau von Lengenfeld and her two 
 daughters. Schiller had met them once before at Mannheim, 
 Caroline, the elder, was married to a Herr von Beulwitz, a 
 
214 
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. 
 
 [BK. vn. CH. I. 
 
 cultivated and intellectual 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 delicate in shape, and 
 her fiery soul shone through deep-set eyes, while her voice 
 was strangely musical. Her conversation showed that she had 
 
 Charlotte von Lencienfeld. 
 
 intellect and sentiment, and her warmth and sincerity of man- 
 ner was 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 saddening influence upon her life. She was tenderly 
 attached to Wilhelm von Wolzogen ; and the Tugendbund, a 
 benevolent society in Berlin, for the spread of moral and 
 mental culture, and at the head of which stood the beautiful 
 
1787-88.] FRESH FIELDS OF ACTION. 215 
 
 Henrietta Herz, the wife of a famous doctor, claimed her as 
 an associate. Her sister Charlotte, just turned twenty-one, 
 was tall and svelte, a blue-eyed brunette, who, although with- 
 out ' positive beauty, was charming if only by reason of her 
 youthful grace. Less self-reliant and with less originality 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 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 opportunity of discussing the glowing description found 
 therein of friendship and of love. They had not yet read the 
 Carlos, it seems. Schiller, on leaving, announced his intention 
 of spending the ensuing summer in this most dehghtful 
 neighbourhood. Wilhelm accompanied him to Weimar, and 
 returned thence after a couple of days; to Rudolstadt. 
 
 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 Rudolstadt visit. " A Fra'u 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 inter- 
 esting maiden even than Fraulein Wieland, saying that what 
 
2i6 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [BK. vii. ch. i. 
 
 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 
 inclination 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 towards Charlotte the husband had changed, 
 and that this change might increase. He went oftenest to 
 Wieland's house. He was deeply occupied with his Revolt, 
 which forced him to wade through many a musty folio ; this 
 kept him from accepting Wilhelm's invitation to come again 
 to Rudolstadt 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 surround- 
 ings at Rudolstadt. Commend me. heartily to them." Lotte 
 also had ardently expected him ; and she applied the poet's 
 message to herself 
 
 Wieland was to print the opening portion of the Revolt in 
 the January number oiMercur. He announced 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 expectations, 
 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 Kbrner, who watched with 
 growing anxiety Schiller's well-nigh exclusive attachment to 
 Wieland. The poet was happy in his present tranquil yet 
 most active life ; he had never felt more industrious ; each 
 day had its 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 
 
1 787-88.] FRESH FIELDS OF ACTION. 217 
 
 were now constantly at court or elsewhere. Besides Wieland, 
 there were other acquaintances whom he often visited ; occa- 
 sionally, 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 per- 
 petual 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 life, 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 
 appointment in Jena, although the low salary offered , (two 
 hundred thalers, a stipend which Reinhold had with difficulty 
 secured for his friend) would probably prevent 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 wife was a possession that he now considered 
 absolutely necessary. " I need a being about me and belong- 
 ing to me, whom I can and must 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 
 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 \\i%. He would never be fit to enjoy this, so Korner 
 
2i8 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. vii. ch. f. 
 
 thought, for some years to come, when he should be pos- 
 sessed 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 inseparable 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 Rudolstadt, and later on accepted a professorship without 
 any emolument, merely in order to obtain a position. 
 
CHAPTER 11. 
 
 FROM FEBRUARY TO NOVEMBER 1 7 88. 
 
 On the ist February a public /l/'^ was held in honour 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 commencement of the carnival, on 
 the Sth, 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 
 inkling of this attachment. The remembrance of his Dresden 
 ball-room 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 Lengenfeld'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 in the morning, 
 he writes to Korner : " The masked balls here and some other 
 .igatherings have served to distract me a little this week ; and 
 I have consequently had to make up for lost time. . . . The 
 
220 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. vii. ch. ii. 
 
 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 publisher hearty welcome, and as 
 Schiller was often with these, he had to join their merry meet- 
 ings. He gleefully 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 Revolt, promised to bring out the fifth number of 
 the Thalia at Easter, which should contain the long-expected 
 continuation c^ The Ghosfseer. Schiller thought of finishing it 
 with the sixth number ; as, now that he had the Mercur, he 
 could no't 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 him to postpone his visit to 
 Frau von Imhof until the next day, that lady being extremely 
 busy. He had sent her once before a letter on pink paper, 
 , very stifily, 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 Thalia, Frau von Wolzogen told him of 
 his debt to her, suggesting that it be repaid at stated periods. 
 On 6th March he sent her four drafts payable at the Book- 
 3'ellers' Fair next Michaelmas. Unfortunately, he was just 
 
1788.] FRESH FIELDS OF ACTION. 221 
 
 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 printing the 
 Revolt of the Netherlands ; Wielahd was asking also for a 
 contribution, poetical if possible, to the third number of the 
 Mercui: Korner, it seems, had received trustworthy informa- 
 tion 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 
 d(5wn 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 life, will be the first in whom I 
 shall confide." 
 
 Charlotte at this time was soon to travel to Waltershausen 
 with her husband. Schiller worked steadily on, and, in spite 
 of all hindrances, he in a few days produced the stirring 
 poem, The Gods of Greece. Speaking of this, iie is rejoiced 
 to find that his muse has not deserted Kim. Wieland 
 was struck with the poem's correctness and finish, and he 
 drew Schiller's att&ntion 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 mechanical 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 
 
222 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. vii. ch. ii. 
 
 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 13 th 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, excepting, 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 
 rnade within limits, for Lotte's gossiping friend then staying 
 there might else have told tales. About the 15th Lotte, 
 whom he still always formally addressed as gnadiges 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 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 23 d, 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 child- 
 hood, and such souvenir of the fair giver. When sending her 
 Robertson'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 sympathies. 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 
 
1788.] FRESH FIELDS OF ACTION. 223 
 
 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 difficulty strangely enough by affirming that all Lotte's 
 friends, who had taken to themselves something of her youth- 
 ful 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 h0.ve seen her so seldom, hoping to enjoy her society 
 at Rudolstadt, 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 Rudolstadt. 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 5 th, 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 
 Rudolstadt, and asked for the other volumes of Fielding's 
 romance.' His companionship (as friendship was a word he 
 did not like) had given her much pleasure; he must soon 
 come to Rudolstadt; 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 feelings expression. 
 " Let but the little seedling come up " (the seedling of friend- 
 ship, he meant), " and when the suns of spring shine thereon, 
 we shall know what flower it will 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 
 
 .^^4 I 
 
 A 
 
 
 ^^■^2j4:|4^^^ 
 
1788.] FRESH FIELDS OF ACTION. 225 
 
 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 Rudolstadt that he had thought of 
 taking. Other than this, there was no more definite way of 
 confessing to her his new-born love. And Lotte also held 
 back her affection ; she hardly realised that something 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 Huber'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 Schiller remain 
 there longer himself. He wrote to Lotte immediately upon 
 liis return, assuring her of his faithful 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 mind, 
 the fateful meeting of two brothers who are enemies. It was 
 worked out many years later, when he wrote his Bride of 
 Messina. At this period he contributed a few critiques to the 
 Allgemeine Liieratur Zeifung, 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 forward 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, 
 
 Q 
 
226 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. vii. ch. ii. 
 
 for the first edition of his plays, should go on reprinting them 
 wholesale, without offering him the 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 with 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 courtesy, 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 own 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 plea- 
 sant house at Volkstadt, a little 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 coinpletion 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 made a great 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 
 
I78S,] 
 
 FRESH FIELDS OF ACTION. 
 
 cover some thirty sheets of letterpress, he looked to complete, 
 while at Rudolstadt the first portion of his Rei'olf, and also to 
 write its sequel. Then, too, he must finish The Manhater, or 
 work out his plot for The Hostile Brothers, besides sending 
 contributions to the Alercur iaxA. the Litcratur Zeitung. More- 
 over, he hoped to have leisure for reading and study. 
 
 Hardly had the weather improved when, on the iSth or 
 
 Schiller's House at Volkstadt. 
 
 1 9th, he hastens to Rudolstadt, staying overnight at the hotel 
 there. Next day 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 charming valley, through 
 which the Saale flows between gently-sloping hills. From 
 
228 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. vii. ch. ii. 
 
 these I get a most delightful 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 footpath, which runs along the river through 
 gardens and cornfields." The house where Schiller lived is 
 now wholly changed ; yet the wild mountain-top, covered with 
 rugged stone and brushwood, 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 Lengen- 
 felds 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 afifection 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 inmates ; 
 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 even- 
 ing 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 him- 
 self had more work to finish. He long kept recollection of the 
 road from his house to theirs. When crossing the bridge over 
 the Schaalbach, he could see the mountains beyond the Saale 
 in the red light of evening ; Rudolstadt lay in the foreground ; 
 and, from afar, he could descry the green pavilion of the Len- 
 genfeld's 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 
 
1788.] FRESH FIELDS OF ACTION. 229 
 
 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. 
 
 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 nickname — "The Bear." 
 Lotte from her prudence and forethought was playfully chris- 
 tened " Wisdom ; '' while Caroline, 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 re- 
 bound to the humorous and absurd." As Schiller hid his feel- 
 ings 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 English, 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 Revolt. He might speak, too, as he liked about re- 
 ligious matters. One morning, when Lotte with her mother 
 
230 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. vii. ch. ii. 
 
 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 Enghsh Bible 
 in which he had dared to copy some lines from his elegy upon 
 Weckerlin, 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 Lengen- 
 felds 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 delight for Schiller when his friend Wolzogen 
 arrived at Rudolstadt 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 her- 
 self. Soon after she went back to Weimar, where, to Schiller's 
 annoyance, people were already speaking of his relations with 
 Fraulein von Lengenfeld. This he had discovered from one 
 ■of Wieland'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 still, to come to him speedily, for he needed a friend 
 in his distress. 
 
 But Schiller proposed that Wilhelm should visit Rudol- 
 stadt, 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 
 
1788.] FRESH FIELDS OF ACTION. 231 
 
 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 unfortunately 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 in- 
 tended. On 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 Manhater, but its plot must be thoroughly 
 worked out ere he should put pen to paper. Yet this was 
 never done, though he looked forward with pleasure to its per- 
 formance at Hamburg during the coming autumn. Nor had 
 he satisfactorily finished the first volume of his history, while 
 with Tke Ghostseer no progress was made. The greater part 
 of this was to appear in Thalia, and he would complete it 
 afterwards 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 humorous 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. 
 
 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 loneliness, and he longed passionately for 
 Lotte. Fearing to be hindered all too often froni seeing her 
 family, he determined 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 
 
232 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. vii. ch. ii. 
 
 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 always ; 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 
 depression caused by hopeless passion for Lotte, a passion 
 which hindered all serious literary work, which robbed him of 
 all intellectual power. "My history," he complains, "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 Manhater, 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 simplicity counted 
 for all to him now. For some time 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 hexameters, 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 Ghostseer ; 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 Caroline's 
 momentary absence what had occurred, and of the bitter in- 
 justice she had suffered. Schiller 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 
 
1788.] FRESH FIELDS OF ACTION. 233 
 
 gratitude for his sympathy. It was then that he first thought 
 she loved him, but with CaroUne's return the chance to make 
 confession of his own feeUngs 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 neighbourhood, when Jena 
 among other places was suggested. 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 delightful days. 
 
 "Ah! could I do something towards 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 
 bpautiful soul to enjoy its own beauty, and for me what thing 
 more desirable than to 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 disclose his love. On the 5th of Septem- 
 ber Lotte returned, telling them that Goethe had been staying 
 at Kochberg with Frau von Schardt, and that he and some 
 other guests were coming on to Rudolstadt in a couple of days, 
 So Schiller was now to meet the great and famous poet, whom 
 all admired, whom some envied, and whom vulgar flattery had 
 not spared. Before 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 hid- 
 ing 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 descrip- 
 
234 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. vii. ch. ii. 
 
 tions of his stay in Italy. On the table lay a number of the 
 Mercur, containing 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 un- 
 gainly in 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 towards him, that 
 he was anxious to find cause for their mutual want of sym- 
 pathy, 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-s^o outside himself to take interest in others ; 
 thus the two failed to come nearer each to each. That their 
 views were at varialK^ respecting dramatic poetry was clear to 
 Goethe when reading\^oon 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 cla=s. 
 The writer afterwards 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 contribu- 
 tions 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 
 encouraged to this by Wieland, he let the matter rest. 
 
 The lengthy absence of Lotte and her family made him 
 very melancholy. Towards the middle of the month he was 
 
1788.] FRESH FIELDS OF ACTION. 235 
 
 laid up for a fortnight with rheumatic fever, suffering also 
 acutely from toothache, which made all mental effort impos- 
 sible. By the ist of October he was so far restored as to be 
 able to write to Korner. He tells him that his spirit has kept 
 all its buoyancy, despite the trouble and 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 ele- 
 ment with him ; he scarcely dared confess this even to himself. 
 He had determined not to leave Rudolstadt, now so dear a 
 spot to him, until after ■ his birthday, and Charlotte'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 recovered 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 Thalia with the title In October 
 1788. The Ai-tists 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, you must keep this note. Maybe, it is 
 presentiment, but to-day I have no wish to think more about 
 it." When she goes to spend a week with Frau von Stein at 
 
236 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. vii. ch. ii. 
 
 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." During 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 Rebellion 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 judgment 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 charm- 
 ing 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 (which now amounted to 280 thalers) until the 
 New Year. " If each month you can pay off something before- 
 hand," 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 everyday necessities. 
 This shows, then, how little his impecuniosity could oblige 
 him to write. In the course of the year three more 
 numbers of the Thalia might probably be issued; he was 
 also to complete a newly-begun translation of the Jphigeneia 
 in Aulis of Euripides. This would exercise his powers as 
 dramatist, 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 
 
1788.] FRESH FIELDS OF ACTION. 237 
 
 says in answer to Korner's warning. " 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 some- 
 thing for eternity. This from the first has been my concep- 
 tion 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 saddened them all. The sisters were also leaving 
 Rudolstadt 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 w'ere 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 you 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 
 
238 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. vii. ch. ii. 
 
 am on the road. . . . The prospect of our re-union 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 1 7 88 TO MAY 1 7 89. 
 
 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 towards bettering his life, towards changing 
 his position in the world. He first made arrangements with 
 Wieland about the Mercur, and the proposed issue of that 
 journal in altered form was again discussed,; Schiller should 
 receive loo Carolines for supplying 24 sheets of matter to it per 
 annum ; payment was also to be derived from articles he had 
 already furnished. Then he 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 firiends now parted from him, it was easier to lead 
 a life of seclusion. " There is much still enjoyment in this exist- 
 ence," he tells Korner. "Specially I like the evenings which 
 once I used sinfully to waste in society. 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 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 distress had 
 
240 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. vii. ch. iii. 
 
 moved her to tears, it seemed a necessity in her life 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 selfishly 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 Lengenfelds, 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 2 2d November, Lotte's birthday, 
 he wrote to tell her how agreeably he had spent it. " Since I 
 came back here I had been harassed, crushed down by work 
 for which I lacked thorough 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 
 re-lit 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 his 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. Besides the 
 Iphigeneia, he had begun to translate the Phoenicians of Euri- 
 pides, and was also working, though with little interest, at The 
 Ghostseer. 
 
 During the unusually cold weather of that December 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 Ramler, in spite of their opposition, had been 
 obliged by royal command to put the play in rehearsal. The 
 
1788-89.] FRESH FIELDS OF ACTION. 241 
 
 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 ^Slschylus' Agamemnon, a real bonne bouche 
 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 Ghostseer, and of making addition 
 to the Philosophic Letters ; 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 Eichhorn, who was gone to Gottingen. Goethe 
 quite agreed to the plan, asking Voigt to inquire whether the 
 poet were willing to accept a supernumerary professorship, 
 which for the first might be without emolument. Voigt's kind 
 words of persuasion led Schiller to comply. On 30th Novem- 
 ber Goethe had gone with the Duke to Gotha, and Voigt 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 the matter before 
 the Privy Council without delay, which he accordingly did 
 upon his return on 7 th December. The Pro Memoria sub- 
 mitted to the Council ran thus : — " Herr Friedrich Schiller, 
 upon whom some years ago His Serene Highness conferred 
 the title of Councillor, and who for some time past has resided 
 in the neighbourhood, has won a name for himself by his writ- 
 ings, 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 hini, 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, Mein- 
 
 R 
 
242 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER, [bk. vii. ch. hi. 
 
 ingen, and Hildburghausen. On the 1 2th Schiller made his 
 long-postponed visit to Goethe, who, alluding to the Jena ap- 
 pointment, calmed the poet's fear as to thorough qualification 
 for the post by the trite remark that, in teaching, one learns ; 
 and he expressed his conviction that Schiller would bring 
 benefit to the Academy and to himself. By the isth 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 appoint- 
 ment was as good as decided upon. 
 
 The suddenness of such reply threw him into great per- 
 plexity, for it lessened all hope of a speedy discharge 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 
 professor will entail various fresh expenses, not counting the 
 cost of a lecture-room, etc. I must also take my degree as 
 magister philosophies, 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-fpr stay at Rudolstadt 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 Thalia ; there were to 
 be two more instalments of this, which should appear in rapid 
 succession, 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 receiving 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 sur- 
 prise " 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 
 
1788-89.] FRESH FIELDS OF ACTION. ' 343 
 
 to the Lengenfelds. His fondest wish, he said, was that, in 
 that summer they might break in upon him as some " heavenly 
 vision." How gladdening 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 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 advance of two or three 
 hundred thalers which, through Goethe, he could easily have 
 secured. How overjoyed were his parents to hear of their 
 son's appointment, and what esteem it won for him in Wiirtem- 
 berg ! Even the Duke was flattered that a pupil of his 
 had reached such a noteworthy post. But Schiller must now 
 prepare himself for that post. Thus, for during the last days 
 of the year he sank himself into deep study of the works of 
 Schmidt and Putter, and looked forward 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, ff he put his name on the title-page, furnishing each 
 volume with a separate essay, would pay him at the rate of a 
 Caroline for every sheet. In this way he could earn a liveli- 
 hood 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 
 sufficient for his needs, sufficient, moreover, to help him to 
 pay off the debts that embittered his life, and formed a bar to 
 quiet literary work. Lotte sought to smooth over the diffi- 
 
244 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER, [bk. vii. ch. hi. 
 
 culties of his new calling, though it pained her to hear him 
 speak of taking a post in some other university afterwards ; 
 she liked to believe such plans lay buried in the iuture. Just 
 at this momentous 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 
 feelings are absent." 
 
 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 publication of 
 the memoirs, so that by them alone he could earn a living. 
 There were several expenses, however, in connection with his 
 new office which he must necessarily meet. The extreme 
 cold during that January had obliged 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 regretted having made sacrifice of time and freedom 
 merely for the sake of his prospect, and without the slightest 
 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 veiy 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 greatly im- 
 pressed 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. 
 
i788-8g.] FRESH FIELDS OF ACTION. 245 
 
 On I St February Moritz continued his journey with the 
 Duke. Schiller 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 dislike of Schiller's Plot and Passion. Moritz had 
 mercilessly 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 afterwards joyfully 
 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 
 Merciir, by whose helpful criticism he hoped greatly to profit. 
 With a view to continuing The Ghostseer, he also asked 
 Wieland for a few volumes of the BibliotKeque de la Campagne. 
 
 While giving to the world in this new poem his conception 
 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 impossible then, both by reason of their 
 widely-opposed natures, as by the thorough difference of their 
 training. 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 
 happiness in consummate egoism and self-love. Then it 
 rankled him that Goethe seemed ever to have been fortune's 
 favourite, while anguishing poverty had wrecked his own 
 life. So there were moments when in his excitement he hated 
 Goethe as a man, when he 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 
 
246 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER, [bk. vii. ch. hi. 
 
 once writes to Korner, adding, it is true, in a later letter that 
 his friend will have detected his weakness in what he had 
 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 sacrificed to Fate. 
 But I am yet of good courage ; and I have faith in a lucky 
 revolution hereafter." While 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 unsympathetic. 
 But Schiller peevishly rejoined that one had too little bare 
 life to be able to spend time and pains in deciphering men 
 who were difficult to decipher. " There is a speech under- 
 stood 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 perhaps 
 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 fellowman, or all social inter- 
 course would cease. 
 
 Schiller had a lively discussion with Korner about his 
 gifts as a poet. All through the winter he said it teased him 
 to be unable to make progress with The Hostile JBrothers, 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 distant from the goal of his abilities and his leanings, 
 he was yet convinced that this would have happy influence 
 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 
 
1788-89.] FRESH FIELDS OF ACTION. 247 
 
 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 measure 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. Before 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 
 Fridericiade, 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 must be finished were 
 a yoke that still crushed him down. He still longed with 
 all his heart for Rudolstadt, 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 Httle daughters of the Hereditary 
 Prince. On the loth of March, already she went to live at 
 the Castle. Five days later Schiller rode over to Rudolstadt, 
 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 
 advertised 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 Nether- 
 
248 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. vii. ch. iii. 
 
 lands. Schiitz, Hufeland, and Reinhold were very helpful in 
 smoothing the difficulties of his new position. He took 
 lodgings with the sisters Schramm, at the comer 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 convenient 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 Griesbach's 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 Abbe Millot, a translation of 
 Gibbon, Spittler's Church History and Herder's Ideas. Bos- 
 suet, Robertson, and Schroeckh would also serve him in the 
 preparation of his 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 
 Ghostseer and a description of Egmont's Life and Death. 
 
 His heavy debt to Beit, the money-lender, forced him to 
 offer Crusius a collection in three volumes of miscellaneous 
 essays, for which he should receive the fee of a Caroline the 
 sheet. The manuscript should be delivered at once, but set 
 up in type a year later, after fresh revision. To Schiller's 
 delight the publisher consented, the terms being that two 
 hundred thalers should be paid at Michaelmas and twenty-four 
 Carolines 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 Philo- 
 sophicB. 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 audience 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 
 
1788-89.] FRESH FIELDS OF ACTION. 249 
 
 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 perhaps in Jena too ; he 
 even thought of taking him to Rudolstadt, to be introduced to 
 the Lengenfelds. 
 
 Towards 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. Biirger's poems were 
 just published in a second edition. Schiller found this simple 
 man "a straightforward noble fellow;" his nationality, certainly, 
 disappeared on knowing him, a nationality that in his poetry 
 was pushed to dulness ; the spring-time 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 transla- 
 tion of the Iphigeneia. They planned to translate a piece of 
 the j^neid 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 offended 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 
 little good to say of Goethe, owing to the rupture with Frau von 
 Stein. Schiller parted in all friendship with Wieland, promising 
 to send to the Neue 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 Caroline 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 need- 
 ful to the leading German colleges. Fate's rude hand, alas 1 
 was to crush his fondest hopes but all too early. 
 
BOOK VIII. 
 
 THE PROFESSORSHIP. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 FROM MAY 1789 TO FEBRUARY 1 7 90. 
 
 On May the nth Schiller moved into his lodgings at Jena, 
 and they proved far more comfortable ones than he had ex- 
 pected. "To look on such pleasant surroundings," he tells 
 Komer, "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 
 preservation. 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 important piece of furniture, by which I have always had 
 to help myself. ' Another advantage of my lodging is the floor- 
 ing, which is polished, 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 groschen." 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 
 paying off his debts and in setting himself straight. For the 
 Memoirs he thought of translating the French version of Prin- 
 cess Anna Comnena's Alexias, and Otto von Freising's history 
 (in Latin) of Frederick the First. He would also prepare an 
 historical treatise upon the Crusades. 
 
254 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. viii. ch. i. 
 
 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 certainly 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 daughter, the pretti- 
 est 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 pervading 
 spirit of jealousy and clique which is never absent from such 
 circles. 
 
 There was so much to distract him, that the beginning 
 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 Thursday 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 26 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 Robbers, lecture upon history, yet to 
 choose a larger hall would have looked like presumption. 
 
 " By half-past five the auditorium was full," wrote Schiller 
 to his friend ; " from Reinhold'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 myself into a certain firmness, 
 not a little helped in this by the thought that my lecture need 
 shun no comparison with any other delivered in Jena, and, 
 
1789:90.] THE PROFESSORSHIP. 255 
 
 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. Grieszbach'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 Grieszbach'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 Grieszbach'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 matter ? ' was 
 asked by all. Then came the cry, ' The new professor is 
 going to lecture.' . . . After a Httle while I followed with 
 Reinhold ; passing down the streets of the town I felt as 
 though I were running the gauntlet Grieszbach'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 ante- 
 room 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 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 bear- 
 able, for all the windows were open, and I got fresh air. At 
 the first ten words that I could repeat in finn 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 grace 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 super- 
 
256 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. vin. ch. i. 
 
 numerary one. Grieszbach 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 be- 
 queathed 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 Rudolstadt. 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 
 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 greater 
 under my hand — greater than is needed for the moment, 
 though I am loth to let the thoughts go past." He soon gave 
 up the Alexias translation, and made it over to a student, 
 probably to Berling, 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 him 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 
 
1789-90.] THE PROFESSORSHIP. 257 
 
 secret. At length, on Friday the 1 9th he rode over to Rudol- 
 stadt, where he stayed until Sunday, a day longer than he 
 had intended. Many a plan was here mooted ; among other 
 things, his visit to Lauchstadt and meeting with Korner were 
 talked of. He went bacE 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 loth July, 
 where they were to stop at Grieszbach'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 Griesz- 
 bach'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 
 remembered 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 afterwards to Lotte, he says : 
 " Your last stay in Jena was to me but a dream — and not all 
 a delightful 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 believe 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 
 Burgorner, near Hettstadt, she there encountered Laroche and 
 Wilhelm von Humboldt, then in his three-and-twentieth year. 
 Schiller had seen Laroche at Rudolstadt ; he and Humboldt 
 had in that January come thither from Gottingen to make 
 Caroline's acquaintance. Caroline saw that her suffering 
 friend, "wrapped in her feelings," had liking for them both, 
 
 s 
 
258 
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. viii. ch. i. 
 
 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 preferred. Schiller thought 
 that maybe she would also undertake to " unravel " his own 
 love-affair. 
 
 On the I St 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 Korner at Leipzig, 
 he confided the secret of his love to Caroline. She listened 
 
 Schiller's House at Lauchstadt. From a drawiug by his \ 
 
 kindly, sympathisingly, 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 
 live 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 deter- 
 mined at all 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 
 
1789-90-] THE PROFESSORSHIP. 259 
 
 again before starting, he left a note for her. In this he spoke 
 of what Caroline 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 hisintention 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 he and his bosom 
 friend would be living together in Jena. Lotte and Caro- 
 line should choose Friday the 7 th for their visit to Leipzig, 
 as on that afternoon Korner 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 towards me you need only use truth, and we 
 can put all formalities 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 find expression. Caroline has read my soul, and has 
 answered for my heart. The thought of adding to your happi- 
 ness stands clear and bright before me. If deep, true love 
 
26o THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. viii. ch. i. 
 
 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 friend- 
 ship, and to have true and certain conviction of mine, dear 
 friend." 
 
 On the 7 th Lotte and Caroline came to Leipzig with 
 Privy Councillor von Barckhausen. They were introduced 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 Lauch- 
 stadt. Here it was agreed to keep the engagement secret, 
 until Schiller should receive a salary, however slight, from the 
 Duke. He left Lauchstadt on the loth, meeting Korner and 
 his family on the road, who travelled to Jena with him, where 
 they stayed at his house. The friends had no chance for con- 
 fidential talk ; Schiller was wrapped up in his newly-found 
 happiness, and Korner felt himself in the background. Visits 
 and excursions formed another hindrance. They went to 
 Weimar, where Korner called upon Privy Councillor Voigt, 
 and explained 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 i6th or 17 th he attended 
 the address upon Lycurgus, 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 i8th, disappointed at this longed-for 
 meeting with his friend, which, so far from bringing them 
 closer, had rather estranged them. Two days afterwards the 
 sisters left Lauchstadt and came back to Jena, where they once 
 more stayed at Grieszbach's. So Schiller saw them again, to 
 
1789-90.] THE PROFESSORSHIP. 261 
 
 his great delight, and they laid plans for the future, and spoke 
 of his projected 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 
 like 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 will and the enthusiasm to use such 
 power. I will look into your beautiful soul, will understand 
 and give response to your fine sensibilities ; yet if I be out of 
 tune, that must neither sadden nor surprise you. Then be- 
 lieve, 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 ist 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 certainly 
 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 pro- 
 mised for the opening volume, nor complete the first part of 
 The Ghostseer. His whole existence, his whole sympathies, 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 ! " 
 
262 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. viii. ch. i. 
 
 Already, on the ist of September, he had engaged his old 
 lodgings at Volkstadt. To prevent any feeling 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 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. 
 
 Frau von Kalb and her domestic troubles now disturbed 
 his happiness. He was thoroughly glad that she had not come 
 to Rudolstadt, 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 feelings of 
 our friendship through all the strange labyrinths 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 
 Karl asked Schiller on the loth to come to her at Weimar 
 to consult 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 isth he ended his course of lectures, but he could 
 not start until the 1 8th, as the expected money from Mauke, 
 his publisher, did not arrive in time. At Rudolstadt he used 
 to visit the sisters on afternoons, but sometimes in the morn- 
 ing too, as he generally chose a time when their mother was 
 absent at the court. During his first week he suffered acutely 
 with toothache. In this time he re -cast his two opening 
 
1789-90.] THE PROFESSORSHIP. 263 
 
 lectures for the Mercur, wrote the conclusion to the first 
 volume of The Ghostseer, and prepared himself for the winter 
 course of lectures. At Volkstadt he felt some fresh touch of 
 the old passion for Charlotte von Kalb. This is seen from 
 his remark to Korner on the 28th that a strange matter about 
 which he disliked writing strongly absorbed him ; it had refer- 
 ence to Frau von Kalb and his new relationship to Lotte. 
 Caroline wrote a month later, saying that she thanked Heaven 
 that Charlotte was not going to be his wife. While at Rudol- 
 stadt 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 com- 
 pletely recover health. Her mother attributed this to her stay 
 at Lauchstadt, whence' Caroline had returned in a greatly 
 agitated state. The more she suffered, 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. CaroUne liked 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 Dachero- 
 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 Caroline 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 him- 
 self be kept back in Rudolstadt until the 2 2d, and this hindered 
 him not a little in the preparation arid arrangement of his 
 lectures. Then there was delay in the printing of his pro- 
 spectus, which was not distributed among the students until 
 the majority had already subscribed to other series. This time 
 he lectured six times in the week, five times — from five o'clock 
 to six — upon general history, from the Prankish monarchy 
 down to Frederick II.; and once — every Thursday from six to 
 seven — on Roman history. That the number of his hearers 
 did not exceed thirty was, of course, grievously disappointing, 
 
264 
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. viii. ch. i. 
 
 but another cause for this, besides the delay in advertising, 
 was, that his lectures were given simultaneously with others that 
 
 o 
 
 Karl Theodor Anton Maria von Dalberg. 
 From an old engraving. 
 
 O 
 
 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 
 
1789-90.] THE PROFESSORSHIP. 265 
 
 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 publication. 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 aiight else took his atten- 
 tion, 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 unfinished, as he 
 reserved its sequel for another volume. He now grew discon- 
 tented with his position, in proportion 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 down here, in Jena ? 
 I have gained nothing, absolutely nothing, thereby, but have 
 lost an immeasurable deal. If I were not here, I could live 
 where I liked, could try to carry out plans for settling myself 
 in life with far greater ease than 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 Berlin 
 or Vienna. At this time he had singular dealings with the 
 Jena senate. It seems that on the title-page of his printed 
 Introductory Lecture he had styled himself 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 bookshop to be torn down 
 by a college servant, thus making himself for ever ridiculous 
 by such petty show of insolence towarc^ genius. The senate. 
 
266 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. viii. ch. i. 
 
 however, had of course to declare the Professor historiaru?n 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 position 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, " Caroline 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 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 un- 
 likely. He sighed for the soft spring days to come on ; he 
 longed for the time when he should be at Rudolstadt 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 un- 
 disturbed 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 
 
1789-90.] THE PROFESSORSHIP. 267 
 
 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 November shows. Yet, four days 
 afterwards, 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 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 
 400 thalers, so that his yearly income might be estimated at 
 700 thalers. On this they might manage to live 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 Rudolstadt ; 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 
 Grieszbach's house until just before starting 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 brimming love at his heart. 
 On the 4th the Duke came to Jena, with Goethe and the 
 Koadjutor, and was introduced to the professors. The 
 
268 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [BK. viii. CH. i. 
 
 Koadjutor showed himself very friendly to Schiller, question- 
 ing 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 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 President, and his wife also came. A 
 divorce was talked of and arrangements made for the division 
 of their property, 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 h\s fiancee against Charlotte : she was unfair 
 towards 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 sympathising with his love. Frau von Kalb 
 invited Lotte to her house, and in manner towards her was 
 composed and friendly ; Caroline also had to pay her a visit. 
 But just this interest which Charlotte showed for the Lengen- 
 felds made Schiller suspect that she was weaving some new 
 plot or other, and that she had not wholly renounced him. 
 
 On the 1 2th he arrived at Weimar, where he lodged close 
 to the Lengenfelds, at " The 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, accord- 
 
1789-90.] THE PROFESSORSHIP. 269 
 
 ing to which, all help from the Duke should be refused, and 
 Frau von Lengenfeld 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 300 thalers, while Lotte was to have another 200 
 from her mother. He needed about 200 for himself, and 
 the Thalia alone would bring him in the requisite 500 for 
 housekeeping. He had quite given 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 
 this were refused, 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 Netherlands. He could only stay a 
 night at Weimar, and rode back to Jena early the next morn- 
 ing. The sisters drove to Erfurt on the 14th, and while here 
 they suddenly 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 Koadjutor, 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 i8th did 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 Kaufimgen. He 
 
270 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. viii. ch. i. 
 
 learnt that the Duke had called that afternoon upon Frau 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 metamor- 
 phosis 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 towards Korner was once more established, who 
 was overjoyed ; Schiller too felt as though freed from a 
 nightmare. 
 
 On the 2 2d he got the mother's answer, who declared 
 herself ready to give him her best and dearest possession, as 
 Lotte's love and his own noble-mindedness were sufficient 
 surety for her daughter's happiness ; she wished only to feel 
 at ease as to his means of livelihood, 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 200 thalers, his yearly 
 income might safely be reckoned at 800 thalers. He would 
 write to the Duke next day, and if his Grace put him off 
 with promises until 1 791, for 1790 he had a proposal to make 
 that perhaps she would not dislike. Simultaneously with this 
 letter he sent one to the Duke of Meiningen, asking him to 
 confer upon him the title of Count Councillor (Hofrath). For 
 Lotte, by marrying him, sacrificed her rank, and Schiller 
 .wished to make up in some measure for such loss. He hope- 
 fully 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 Ladiei 
 Calendar. The fee offered was four hundred thalers. The 
 subject had long attracted him, and the task seemed an easy 
 
1789-90.] THE PROFESSORSHIP. 271 
 
 one, as he had only to content dilettanti — 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 Fraulein Dacheroden 
 with h&x fiand 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 
 engravings, 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 
 Humboldt too flighty, 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. 
 
 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 The 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 hini to use every 
 effort towards 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, ^aid the Duke, to show his 
 
272 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. vm. ch. i. 
 
 regard ; yet unfortunately, added he, with lowered voice and 
 in some confusion, unfortunately he could not afford to give 
 more than two hundred 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 play-goers should have sunk so low. The author, 
 a native of Weimar, who had risen under the Russian Govern- 
 ment to be President of the Magistracy of Esthonia (in virtue 
 of which office he put the von before his name), scored a 
 triumph with this most affecting drama. Through the very dis- 
 taste 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 dis- 
 approved, owing to the poet's ill health. The Duke himself 
 came to her house, and declared, with a droll air of self-satis- 
 faction, that he had given the best thing towards the marriage, 
 namely, the money. Instead of the expected reply from Frau 
 von Lengenfeld, 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 reports. Lotte's 
 mother still delayed sending her decision, for which Schiller 
 
1789-90.] THE PROFESSORSHIP. 273 
 
 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 12 th, the mother-in-law's consent reached him, 
 who promised Lotte an annuity of 1 5 o thalers so long as she 
 remained his wife. In a few weeks Frau von Lengenfeld 
 would come to Jena, and the wedding could take place on 
 the day following her arrival, either there, or at a neigh- 
 bouring village. 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 Literatur 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 line 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 Lotte's mother hesitated to let the marriage be 
 fixed for a day before Easter, Schiller, in his disappointment, 
 excitedly begged the sisters to write less often, as their corre- 
 spondence 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 character as one day helpfully to 
 influence his ; her disposition, her way of looking at things, 
 would never jar upon him, she said. Wishing to do all that 
 
 T 
 
274 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [BK. vill. CH. I. 
 
 was possible for his amusement, she was now taking' great 
 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 pleasantly by. An 
 active Ufe 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 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 ball, held annually in 
 honour of the Grand Duchess's birthday. 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 Lengenfeld 
 had fixed to come on the loth 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 Fraulein von Seegners',. 
 close by, at the " not very cheap " rate of fifteen thalers the 
 half-year. But unfortunately the mother's coming was- 
 postponed. 
 
 Meanwhile, he gave Korner explanation as tp 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 deliberation, 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 intoxicat- 
 ing sense of your own superiority, still the need of loving and 
 of being loved soon comes back to you. I know, I understand 
 the pulses of your friendship and how fitful they are. Yet 
 they do not set me at a distance from you ; they are essential 
 
1789-90.] THE PROFESSORSHIP. 275 
 
 to your character, are joined to other qualities that 1 would 
 not wish changed. So, with your love, it will not be other- 
 wise ; 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 Korner 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 feelings with a heart full of 
 charity. And so, she hoped that Schiller, 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 
 established between the friends, Frau von Kalb showed 
 increasing bitterness towards 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 ungracious " 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 th^ past. Schiller then 
 assured her that, as bygones were wiped out from her 
 memory, he was at last able to speak frankly of all his 
 coming happiness, which in the fulness of his heart h.e then 
 described. Care was really necessary, he said, in writing the 
 address, as some letters sent by him to Weimar had actually 
 
276 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. viii. ch. i. 
 
 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 myself 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 complet- 
 ing 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 bringing 
 €ach to its highest perfection. . . Love alone, without this 
 inward bent for work, would soon withdraw 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." 
 
 Frau von Lengenfeld was now to arrive on the 2 2d, the 
 marriage taking place on the following day. Schiller 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 
 
1789-90.] 
 
 THE PROFESSORSHIP. 
 
 277 
 
 task that he found extremely disagreeable, and after sending 
 back at her request all Frau von Kalb's letters, Schiller drove 
 to Erfurt on Thursday evening, the i8th, after his lecture. 
 He stayed with the sisters at their hotel. The Koadjutor 
 showed him warm sympathy; so soon as he should be 
 Kurfiirst, SchiUer must come to him at Mainz, where 
 he would quickly find him a good post. The sisters and 
 
 The Church at Weiiigen-Jena. From a sketch by Schiller's wife. 
 
 Friiulein von Dacheroden raved about the Koadjutor, calling 
 him their " gold-mine ; " they pictured themselves already at 
 Mainz, living together as on some happy island. And 
 Schiller too was charmed by his company ; through him he 
 felt mentally quickened ; his sparkling talk was delightful to 
 hear ; although perhaps there was something willowy, some- 
 thing irresolute about him. Goethe had likewise enjoyed the 
 " ceaseless " conversation of this kind-hearted and sagacious 
 
278 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. viii. ch. i. 
 
 man of the world. The bridegroom spent three pleasant 
 days at Erfurt where the highest circles gave him their con- 
 gratulations. On the 2 1 St 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, leaving there at two o'clock, three hours later they reached 
 the little village church of Wenigen-Jena. Here a clergyman, 
 one Gottlieb Friedrich Schmid, being commissioned by 
 Superintendent Oemler 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 little church where heaven's blessing had con- 
 secrated 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 1 79 1. 
 
 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 husband's worth • in raising, in 
 beautifying his life, she found at. once her holiest duty and her 
 sweetest pleasure. 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. Besides her 
 drawing, she made diligent progress with her singing and 
 playing, for Schiller was cheered by music, whose charm 
 Goethe too had found helpful towards calming the soul, and 
 towards 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 house- 
 hold 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 baire bright visions for them in the future, and 
 there was much hoping that the old Kurfiirst, "the Papa," 
 would soon shuffle off this mortal coil, and even droll surmis- 
 ing as to how, while yet living, he might forfeit his rank. 
 
 The first week of their honeymoon was disturbed by 
 
28o THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. viii. ch. ii. 
 
 visits from the mother-in-law and Frau von Stein. At the 
 beginning of March Schiller returned to active work. The 
 lectures in particular took up much of his time ; he had been 
 over-careless 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 Manhater. 
 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 translating 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 holidays at Rudolstadt, where he was everywhere most 
 cordially received. But he was obliged to continue working 
 at his lectures and for the publishers. 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 like 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 comer 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 giving the 
 illustrious Schiller and his amiable wife pleasure." Schiller, 
 like the sisters, thought the picture 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 
 
I790-9I-] THE PROFESSORSHIP. 281 
 
 had to get his History of the Thirty Year^ War ready for 
 Goeschen by August. Certainly this last was not such a 
 strain to him as the Revolt of the Netherlands, for he only 
 made free use of such histories as could be had upon the 
 subject when working 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 delighting 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 burdened by all this work, to which were 
 given up fourteen 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 a had a cheering 
 hour in a place where cheering hours could scarcely be 
 sought. "I disclose many experiences," 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 experiences, that thus insensibly range them- 
 selves 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 lying round Jena. 
 Weimar was also visited, where Herder's praise of Schiller's 
 General Survey was most gratifying to its author. In Jena 
 he knew no one intimately, 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 Rudolstadt, 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 
 
282 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. viii. ch. ii. 
 
 liberty. Being very pressed for time to finish the Thirty 
 Years' War, he resolved to postpone some of his lectures by 
 pleading ill health. But, as if in punishment, he was suddenly 
 seized by violent toothache, suffering also with a swollen face. 
 One of his most passionate admirers now visited him, the 
 young Danish poet, Jens Baggesen, who shortly before had 
 married a granddaughter of the famous Haller. Baggesen, 
 full of enthusiasm and reverence for Kant, Schiller, and 
 Reinhold, 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 hindered 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 loth August, the poet's lyric is termed the fairest crown ' 
 of his deservings. 
 
 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 
 towards himself the Duke had grown far more gracious. 
 When Lotte and Caroline went to Rudolstadt 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 
 
1790-91.] THE PROFESSORSHIP. 283 
 
 the reign of Frederick the First. The materials for another 
 " Summary," 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 
 Grieszbach'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 df 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 
 foster in my bosom, finding it exhaustless and ever new." 
 On the afternoon of the i ith, 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 humorously confesses 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 
 birthday, vi;hich 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 courteously 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 particular interest for the Duchess, and Frau von 
 Stein had read it a second time to her aloud. On the 
 
284 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. viii. ch. ii. 
 
 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 
 
 /xBo/is-y,:,- 
 
 Goethe. From the portrait by Lips. 
 
 he had spent a pleasant time in Dresden. " The talk soon 
 turned upon Kant," says Schiller, writing 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 
 
1790-91] THE PROFESSORSHIP. 285 
 
 should not care to argue with 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 argument alike 
 cease. Nor do I wholly approve his philosophy ; 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 senses for me. But his whole nature is 
 at work, and explores in every direction, striving to build up 
 for itself a systematic whole — that is what makes him great 
 in my eyes." Another theme for their talk may have been 
 Goethe's Metamorphosis of Plants, which Schiller looked upon 
 as a mere theory. He must have felt repugnance at Goethe's 
 relationship to Christiane Vulpius, though, so little did he 
 understand its nature, that he believed the poet's final piece 
 of extravagance would be to marry her. Korner tried to 
 make him conquer this dislike 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 difference in their present employments 
 was another cause to make him stand aloof Schiller believed 
 that,- working 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 solid, 
 more even, more balanced ; 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 
 mastered 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 look into the 
 future gladly, hopefully. It was in the brightest of moocjs 
 
286 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. viii. ch. ii. 
 
 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. Schiller, 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 Behaghel- 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 
 student of medicine, had come from ■ Niirnberg to make 
 Schiller's acquaintance, who thought his intellect 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 
 jnusician. Schiller also got to know Baron von Herbert, 
 who, on Reinhold's account, had come from I\lagenfurt to 
 Jena, and also the young law-student Friedrich von Harden- 
 berg, another ardent admirer. 
 
 Huber and his friend Professor Georg Forster' wished to 
 get Schiller to settle in Mainz, but he shrank from the difficult 
 and unwelcome task of securing an appointment at the aged 
 Kurfiirst's hands. . Nor would he part with his independence 
 except in exchange for a substantial salary, say of 1200 thalers; 
 as in Jena, where he was his own master, he earned 500 
 thalers by the professorship, independently of his lecture-fees. 
 " My relations to Dalberg grow ever stronger, closer," he tells 
 
1790-91.] THE PROFESSORSHIP. 287 
 
 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 Wiirtemberg, 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; reconcihation was 
 impossible yet, impossible until his growing fame should make 
 Karl Eugen 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 towards 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 
 " Rheinischer Hof." Caroline was also there with her husband. 
 The Koadjutor, 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 Kurfiirst of Mainz's birthday, he attended a 
 meeting of the Electoral 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 Kurfiirst, " 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. Scliiller kept his bed for one day 
 
2 88 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. viii. ch. ii. 
 
 only, and his room for several more. The Koadjutor, a con- 
 stant 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. Caro- 
 line 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 uneventful. 
 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 supplement to his works, were published, the editor re- 
 marking that he had received the lines from a " Countess von 
 K . . . nie von A . . ., to whom they were addressed." 
 Henriette afterwards married the uncle of her first husband, 
 Erhard Alexander, Count von Kunheim, who owned the fine 
 estate Kloschenen-on-the-AUer, near Friedland. He died on 
 November 1 5 th, 1 8 1 5 . Professor Reusch of Konigsberg in May 
 182 1 made the acquaintance of the widow, living 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 debut. Other friends were 
 visited, among these Voigt, Wieland, Emilie von Berlepsch and 
 
I790-9I-] ~ THE PROFESSORSHIP. 289 
 
 Frau von Kalb. We do not fitid that he went to see Goethe. 
 On the nth 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 sufifered from 
 pains in the side, accompanied by blood -spitting. On the 
 15 th 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 Carohne 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 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 Korner, "and it lessened 
 the weariness of being ill not a little, to see such attention and 
 such active sympathy shown towards me by my listeners 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 Jiis lectures; 
 as soon as health allowed it, he would go to Rudolstadt and 
 quietly make progress with the Thirty Years' War. When 
 winter came, he proposed to deliver a course of assthetic 
 lectures, more in the form of conversations, at his own house. 
 As the patient's state forbade all exertion of speaking or think- 
 ing, means were sought to drive away ennui, and cards proved 
 a great 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 previous 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 
 
 u 
 
290 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER, [bk. viii. ch. ii. 
 
 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 thought- 
 ful contents so absorbed him, that he felt wishful to make 
 thorough study of the writer's philosophy. Before going to 
 Rudolstadt, on 2d April, he had the painful and difficult 
 task of sending Burger a rejoinder. The latter, 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 
 practised 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 beyond the pale of human a;ttainment, 
 he quoted as examples, Wieland, Goethe, Geszner, Lessing, 
 and others too of lesser fame. 
 
 At Rudolstadt 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 trans- 
 lation lOriginally begun in competition with Biirger, of the 
 seco|®^ook of the ^eneid. This for some time had been 
 left-*TOtouched, but now he completed thirty stanzas' or more 
 of it, besides writing a lyric ; he thought, too, of composing 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 
 
1790-91.] ' THE PROFESSORSHIP. 291 
 
 his poetic powers. On the 8th of May he had an attack, 
 more violenf 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 a short sentence in 
 farewell to those around : " Take care of health ! without this, 
 one can never be at ease ! " He also sent a few words to 
 Korner. Dr. Stark, his physician, was summoned from Jena 
 that night, who, on arriving, found the patient somewhat better. 
 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-increasing 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 Rudolstadt 
 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 attachment. But circumstances unluckily 
 would not let him make longer stay in Jena ; he went thence 
 to Stuttgart, and on the 26th of May entered the Karls- 
 academie. Erhard came to Rudolstadt, where he passed some 
 delightful days ; Reinhold and Goeschen were also there at 
 the same time as he. 
 
 By the 2 1 St Schiller had already written to Goeschen 
 about a fresh edition of his Don Carlos, smaller in bulk, and 
 to be published dtiring 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 
 made, to look death more than once in the face; and my 
 
292 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. viii. ch. ii. 
 
 courage has thus been strengthened. . . . My spirit was un- 
 troubled] arid 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 little drive even had had its 
 harmful consequences. Lotte, on the 12th of June, speaks 
 of another violent attack of crainp, 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 to me and that I felt, seems just as fresh in my 
 memory as had it happened yesterday." And again, after 
 the poet's death, he calls back another never-to-be-forgotten 
 scene to Lotte's mind. " I was in his room, and, as I .stood 
 at the window, reading, the sufferer's features in all their 
 greatness and nobleness became deeply fixed in my memory. 
 
I790-9I-] THE PROFESSORSHIP. 293 
 
 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 yEneid 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 anyone was in the room. Then the fainting sufferer 
 awoke, wherl, 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 Pachhabel's house, where the 
 great general fell. His life at 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 Wagensperg, of Gratz, who knew Goethe 
 intimately, took great interest in the poet. Recovery was 
 very tedious. It was impossible for him to think of work; 
 but still he could meditate upon the way to continue his 
 Ghosiseer, 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 Rudolstadt on the 
 ,5 th of August, when the newly-married Hereditary Prince was 
 
294 
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. viii. ch. 
 
 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 
 
 Schiller at Karlsbad, from a drawing. 
 
 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. Fraulein von Dacheroden, 
 now Frau von Humboldt, was travelling with her husband ; 
 but to Schiller's delight he met his old friend Wilhelm von 
 
1790-91.] THE PROFESSORSHIP. 295 
 
 Wolzogen. Caroline also came to Erfurt. Without great 
 effort he could manage to spend five hours daily in dictat- 
 ing 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 rdle of Domingo, as he had no 
 longer any inclination to play villain's parts. Fiesco was given 
 on the following night by another company, the " National 
 Gesellschaft." 
 
 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 a hundred and 
 twenty 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 livelihood 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 
 BerHn. 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 sufferiiig state found residence in a strange 
 place both uncomfortable and costly, as, too, he longed to be 
 back among his Jena friends, on the ist 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 afterwards wrote Lyre and Sword. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 FROM OCTOBER 1 79 1 TO AUGUST 1 7 93- 
 
 ; 
 
 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, offering 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 Fichard, 
 Magister Goritz of Wiirtemberg, and Bartolomaus Fischenich 
 of Bonn. But, as Fritz liked to be always with Schiller, his 
 companions proposed that they too might be allowed to board 
 with the poet So during meal-time the sick man was fortun- 
 ate in always having society both amusing and intellectual. 
 Goritz, it is true, had no remarkable talent, and Fichard, des- 
 tined 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 Fischenich delighted in philo- 
 sophy, and especially in Kant, whom he had thoroughly studied. 
 And if their somewhat frugal meal was often disturbed by 
 Schiller's illness, still the young fellows felt the better for 
 associating 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 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 
 
I79I-93-] THE PROFESSORSHIP. 297 
 
 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 c^rds, 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 lie down when Schiller lies down and 
 awake when he awakes?" Lotte's letter to Fritz shows us some- 
 thing of their raillery and banter. " Fichard, who is just here 
 reading, wishes particularly to be remembered to you. He 
 sleeps comme h V ordinaire, and chatters just about the same. 
 Fischenich and we have lately guessed the reason for his hav- 
 ing struck up such hearty friendship with you when he was 
 here ; for, after all, there are not many points of resemblance 
 between your character 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 zeal- 
 ously. It strikes us that on the strength of this accomplish- 
 ment 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 amuse- 
 ment. 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 Reinhold 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, unfortunately, this wish had to be 
 given up. 
 
 Cheerful society and his bent for occupation, " that never 
 wearies," made Schiller at times forget his distressful state. 
 The performance of Don Carlos at Erfurt had suggested several 
 alterations to him that he wished to make before the play 
 was given at Weimar. 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 consented to put off 
 
298 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER, [bk. viii. ch. in. 
 
 the performance until the last day of the year. Nevertheless, 
 it did not take place before the end of February. Schiller 
 promised to send Crusius at Easter, the first volume of his 
 shorter prose essays, which he was now engaged in revising. , 
 But there was the continuation of the Thalia to be thought of, 
 too. Therefore he again began to work at the ^neid transla- 
 tion, and with such swift success, that, to his delight, the 103 
 strophes needed to finish it were written in nine days. He 
 now intended to set about translating the Agamemnon, which, 
 beside being a supplement to the Thalia, 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 affec- 
 tion, 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 Thalia an important source of income, 
 as Goeschen was to issue a number every two 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 circum- 
 stances had forced to take to literature. To him Schiller en- 
 trusted the translation of Vertot's History of the Maltese Order, 
 and De Garsault's version of Pitaval's Remarkable Lawsuits. 
 Niethammer also undertoot the correction of the Thalia proofs. 
 He joined those who sat now at Schiller's table in the evenings. 
 As a thorough disciple of Kant, Niethammer took a vigorous 
 part in philosophical discussions. With him and Fisch'enich 
 the poet was able to speak upon the subject of tragedy, which 
 
'791-93'] THE PROFESSORSHIP. 299 
 
 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 Ufe a torture, 
 and Lotte was ever racked by the dread of losing her darling 
 husband. Then, all at once, their care was changed into re- 
 joicing. Baggesen had written about the funeral celebration 
 at Hellebek to Reinhold, 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 sym- 
 pathy. When at Karlsbad, 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 
 commissioned Baggesen to ask the minister. Count Ernst 
 Heinrich von Schimmelmann, whether during a course of 
 years he would contribute something towards Schiller's support. 
 Schimmelmann, 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 
 27 th November, in a letter full of delicacy and kindly feeling, 
 the Hereditary Prince and Count von Schimmelmann 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 
 lives 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 great, 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 
 
300 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER, [bk. viii. ch. in. 
 
 the only ones to know and love him; and, when he had 
 regained health, a government post there should not be lack- 
 ing 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 Reinhold, 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 Komer. " That for which all 
 my life 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 know- 
 ledge, and to work for all time. Within three years I can 
 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 Copenhagen was not expedient, he said, see- 
 irlg 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. 
 Evei: 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 living by literature while still inexperi- 
 enced, 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 firom my dream. 
 At a time when life had begun to show me all its worth, death 
 approached me. The dg-nger, it is true, passed over, but I 
 only awoke to a fresh existence, 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 common 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 
 
I79I-93-] THE PROFESSORSHIP. 301 
 
 thoroughly to study the Kantian philosophy, even though he 
 spent the whole three years in doing this ; for he was deeply, 
 conscious of his great need of a sound philosophical training. 
 On the 1 6th, already, he ordered a copy of the Critique of 
 Pure Reason, together with Garves' Miscellaneous Writings. 
 He also'intended to read Hume, Locke, and Leibnitz, Kant's 
 predecessors. At Christmas he was gladdened 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 Thalia, an essay On the Tragic Art 
 had been finished, the Ghosiseer was to be revised, and he 
 intended going' on with the Thirty Year^ War, forgetting, 
 maybe, amid these plans, that the alterations 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 afterwards had recourse. Nevertheless there 
 came a severe attack on the 1 9th, yet he quickly recovered 
 from it. Bad weather and extreme cold unfortunately pre- 
 vented him from taking 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 surprised 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. How- 
 ever, Schiller managed to refund his friend in full for the sum 
 paid to Beit. Brefaces had to be written against the Easter 
 Book Fair for two volumes of translations, while the intro- 
 duction to a volume of the Memoirs must be continued. Pro- 
 gress 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 
 
302 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER, [bk. viii. ch.' hi. 
 
 the mighty drama Wallenstein. " I am and I remain but a 
 poet, and as a poet I shall die." H? 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, Schiller 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 loth of April that he could start, when, 
 with Lotte, Fischenich, and two servants,' he drove to Dresden, 
 staying at Korner's house there. The friends had, of course, 
 much to tell each other. Schiller spoke of his projected 
 tragedy and of the issue of a compendious journal, for which 
 the leading men in literature 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 Korner'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 rakish life ; 
 and his presumption, his instability, 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 together 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 
 towards 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 under- 
 stand that all his love was extinct. It was only as editor that 
 Schiller had had relations with him, Huber having contributed 
 essays to the Memoirs and to Thalia. 
 
 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 
 
I79I-93-] THE PROFESSORSHIP. 303 
 
 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 Art of Bowls, by Friedrich von 
 Stein, Chamberlain to the Ducal Houses of Saxony and Weimar, 
 ' Bivdhusar' and ' Kiifnmeltiirken,'" these last being humorous 
 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 .Schiller 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 Korner, he read Kant's Critique of Reasoning 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 engrossed 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 
 always torment myself with principles ; there I am only a 
 dilettante. But for practice' sake I like philosophising 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 living glow, that I had before ever I 
 knew a single rule, is wanting to me for many years past. . . 
 Yet if 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 carriage, and in the early 
 part of June drove to Erfurt with his wife. Although too late 
 to attend the christening of the Humboldts' little 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 enthusiastic attachment 
 
304 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER, [bk. viii. ch. hi. 
 
 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 Thalia, 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 traveUing home, he invited his 
 mother to stay with him. To his great delight 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 Karlsacademie, but the sick 
 man was little edified 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 ; among the Germans so 
 distinguished were Campe, Pestalozzi, and Klopstock. Later 
 on, at the request of a member, "le sieur Gille, publiciste 
 allem^nd," also obtained this honour. 
 
 On reading the announcement in the Moniteur, 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 
 Revolution. 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, 
 unlike 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 tha.t 
 could give her happiness, although it must needs have saddened, 
 her to find the once strong and healthy son changed to such 
 
I79I-93-] THE PROFESSORSHIP. 305 
 
 a picture of distressful 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 education 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 
 
 
 
 Nanette Schiller. From a painting by Frau Simanowitz. 
 
 writes to Korner, "and I will always remain so. No more 
 work shall be imposed upon me by others. Nothing shall be 
 done except out of sheer fondness or inclination. 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 towards mending my health." With this end in 
 view he went with his relations to Rudolstadt, and spent a merry 
 
 X 
 
3o6 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER, [bk. viii. ch. hi. 
 
 time, although the question of Caroline's intended divorce was 
 still a grief to them all. They came back to Jena on the 4th 
 of October. Soon afterwards his mother and sister left, taking 
 with them letters to Elwert and Hoven, 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 Korner on the isth. "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 Thalia, 
 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 here- 
 after in producing some work of art. There were literary 
 plans, besides, made partly with regard to Korner, who, dis- 
 appointed now, after long waiting, of a rich inheritance, would 
 have to count largely upon literature as a means of liveli- 
 hood. 
 
 Meanwhile the French, pushing onwards, were at the 
 Rhine. 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. Frankfort, too, was set in 
 flames, and all seemed wavering in the balance. It was now, 
 only, afler the Allies had been driven from France, that 
 Schiller felt greater confidence in the energy of the French, 
 and in their new republic. 
 
 He eagerly read of the Convention's doings in the Moni- 
 teur, and herefrom judged of their weakness or their strength. 
 Germany seemed bound to lose the Rhine provinces, and 
 there was no doubt but that great limits would be put to the 
 Kurfiirst of Mainz' power. " If the French destroy my 
 
I79I-93-] THE PROFESSORSHIP. 307 
 
 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 believed he had solved Kant's problem as to the objective 
 basis of taste, and, in his fiery, impetuous way, was for em- 
 bodying his thoughts in a dialogue to be called Kallias ; or. 
 Of Beauty. Fischenich 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 quarrelled 
 with his pupil, was now come to study law at Jena, Schiller 
 spoke well of him to Fischenich, praising 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 feelings to such 
 ■depth that he determined to stand forth publicly as the king's 
 ■defender. Writing to Korner on the 21st of December, he 
 ^ays : " 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 
 ■eloquence, might possibly make some sort of impression upon 
 these misguided mortals." In such crises it behoved one 
 not to remain indolent and inactive. Had every liberal 
 thinker among men kept silence, no steps would have been 
 taken towards human improvement ; it was just in times like 
 these that one ought to speak out. Nor would he omit to 
 blame the "brutality" of German governments, and in doing 
 this he 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 How- 
 ever, 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. 
 
3o8 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER, [bk. vm. ch. hi. 
 
 Towards the close of the year Caroline again came to 
 Jena, to make a longer stay. She suffered much, and busied 
 herself now with various literary 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, hfts me 
 above all bodily torment," he writes on the nth of January; 
 " I often wish that my health might only stay with me until 
 this Kallias were finished." He was immeasurably dehghted 
 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 fort- 
 night 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 this system solely by reason of a preconceived 
 notion of his own. When spring came Schiller suffered from 
 fresh attacks of illness; notwithstanding, his mental power 
 never flagged, but he worked on with restless energy. To 
 Korner he sent detailed accounts of his sesthetic researches. 
 He read with keen interest the proofs of Kant's remarkable 
 essay, entitled Jieltgion within the Bounds of Mere Reason. 
 And he was now thinking over two philosophic poems; the one 
 was to be a Theodicy, and the other should have even more 
 success. He had taken a little 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 
 
I79I-93-] THE PROFESSORSHIP. 309 
 
 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 Hereditary 
 Prince, who was present, joined in the general applause. But 
 the aristocracy, who came in for sharp criticism, had com- 
 plained 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 issuing 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 Tree-growing on a Large Scale, and Schiller 
 on receiving 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 Literatur 
 Zeitung. Schiller was glad that little opportunity occurred for 
 meeting his 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 intimate 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 2 6th he finished his course of 
 lectures, and soon afterwards, 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 
 
310 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER, [bk. viii. ch. iir. 
 
 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 Schiller for criticism an essay of his upon " the Greeks." 
 Now, when they both met, this and like matters were dis- 
 cussed. Schiller's mental gifts made such stirring impression 
 upon Humboldt, that in order to benefit by his society he pro- 
 mised to come and stay in Jena during the following year. 
 
 On April the 7 th 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 ; perhaps this was the preface to a new 
 volume of the Memoirs. He was overjoyed both at the 
 prospect of a visit from Komer, 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 doubtful 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 abandoned the Kallias 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. 
 
I79I-93-] THE PROFESSORSHIP. 311 
 
 He counted greatly upon the professional skill of Dr. 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 Heilbronn. We here give 
 a facsimile of the postscript added by Schiller's father to - a 
 letter of the isth of July. Christophine wished to come and 
 see him with her husband, and he was delighted at the thought. 
 When Reinwald wrote asking him to forgive his gloominess 
 and depression, he answered : " No business and no sickness 
 shall, as I hope, keep me from feeling hearty joy at your com- 
 ing. Bring your whole set of moods with you, dear Reinwald ; 
 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 that Louise's journey had been 
 given up], and shall be able to show my good Reinwald that, 
 despite Heaven knows how many slights on my part, the love 
 and the hearty respect I feel for him has ever remained the 
 same." 
 
 At midday, on the 2Sth, he drove as far as Erfurt to meet 
 his friends, takirig leave of the Koadjutor on the following day. 
 Schiller was now gladdened by the prospect of becoming a 
 father. Writing to Korner, 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 him, 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 disappointment 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, 
 
» ^ Am ''a 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 Postscript written by Schiller's father to a letter of July 15th 1793. 
 
I791-93-] THE PROFESSORSHIP. 313 
 
 and she appears to be more excitable than ever ; but the 
 surface is calmer." 
 
 A visit from Baggesen now delighted him. He was 
 travelling to Switzerland with his wife, and passed through 
 Jena en route. During his stay, Schiller wrote a second letter 
 to the Hereditary Prince of Augustenburg, 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 momen- 
 tous questions of the hour. "This effort of the French 
 people to establish their sacred rights of humanity and to gain 
 political freedom has only brought to light their unworthiness • 
 and impotence ; and, not this ill-fated nation alone, but with 
 it a considerable 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 genera- 
 tion, 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 civil liberty, to the 
 attainment of whose human liberty so much is still miss- 
 ing. . . . Freedom, political 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 constituted." 
 Speaking of the spirit of the age, he said that it urgently 
 needed refining, ennobling, quite independently of any reform 
 in politics. Art and Taste must help towards this end. But 
 Art must have ideals, and ever hold before hgr 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 
 alike from the tyranny of a local and one-sided taste and from 
 the anarchy of a lawless one — from barbarism. Ideals she 
 
314 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER, [bk. viii. ch. in. 
 
 already partly possesses in the imperishable models to which 
 Greek genius and the kindred genius of a few modems have 
 given birth, and which for ever unsurpassed will 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 development 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 lead- 
 ing 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 circum- 
 stances. 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 comes 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 son 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 
 thought I had entirely doffed, is stirring vigorously. But 
 then I have been parted froni 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. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 AUGUST 1793 TO MAY 1 7 94. 
 
 Passing through Niirnberg, where Schiller 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 land 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 Rueff's, by the Sulmerthor. From Heilbronn, 
 he ventured once without leave to visit his friend Hoven at 
 Ludwigsburg, and his parents at Solitude. 
 
 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, who considered the magnetic 
 cure was not the thing for him, he found a very "fidele 
 
3i8 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. ix. ch. i. 
 
 Patron " and a sagacious 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 Ludwigs- 
 burg, of which he cherished kindly youthful recollections. 
 This he previously notified to the Duke, but he happened to 
 be on a journey down the Rhine. In Heilbronn, too, he 
 found Margareta Schwan again, but in what changed circum- 
 stances ! — 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 oif. 
 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 
 Schwan's caprice, met again. Poor Margareta ! she only 
 lived a few years longer, dying on January 7th, 1796. 
 
 On the 8th of September Schiller moved to Ludwigs- 
 burg. Here he found in Hoven a faithful friend of his 
 youth, who, indeed, like all his acquaintances, seemed to him 
 to have grown somewhat boorish. Still, he got on very well 
 with him, in hearty recollections 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. SchiUer specially prized him as a skilful surgeon, 
 whose aid Lotte very soon required. The mother and 
 Nanette came on a visit to Ludwigsburg ; Caroline, too, and 
 her sister-in-law Ulrike von Beulwitz arrived from Cannstadt, 
 to stay in the house. The confinement took place sooner 
 than was expected, on the night of 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 ^ance 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 life. 
 
I793-94.] VISITING HOME. 319 
 
 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 grandparents, 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 Ludwigsburg. 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 
 application, 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 dreadfbl 
 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 Holderlin 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 
 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 Koriier. 
 "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 Thalia he planned writing an essay on the Naive. 
 His uncertain condition was the more deplorable, as he 
 
320 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. ix. ch. i. 
 
 believed there was a good prospect of the Duke and Duchess 
 of Weimar, with whom he stood well, entrusting 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 tlie visits of his Stuttgart friends. 
 There came the wine-loving Librarian Petersen, and the jolly 
 epigrammatist Secretary Haug, who brought with him his fat 
 assistant Conz, from Vaihingen. 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 at- 
 tracted by Conz, a good Grecian, whose translations from 
 Greek, then just published under the name of Analecta, con- 
 tained many good things. He thought Conz had made great 
 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 misunder- 
 standing. 
 
 While Schiller grew more and more depressed and feeble, 
 the Duke, who had never been able to get over his ill-will 
 against him, died at Hohenheim 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 Komer he called him " old Herod," whose successor 
 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 Wiirtem- 
 berg; 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 
 
I793-94-] VISITING HOME. 321 
 
 in his thirtieth year — who six years before had taken over his 
 father's bookselling business at Tubingen — tried to form a 
 connection with the renowned countryman whom once he had 
 ridiculed in Staudlin's Blumenlese. Schiller replied that he 
 would be glad, if only for Haug'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 presence at 
 his own, for they were kept away by indisposition. 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 1 1 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 
 religion 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 statement 
 somewhat startled the Hereditary Prince and his circle of 
 acquaintances who used to devour the letters when communi- 
 cated 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.'— Af«7i(o«." 
 Y 
 
322 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. ix. ch. i. 
 
 Copies of the corresponding sheets of the Thalia were also 
 published with this title. His object was to show to 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 this old and faithful 
 friend, so that to him also he felt totally silent. Not till 
 December loth had he got so far the better of his feelings that 
 he 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 constancy 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 intellectuar 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 
 together 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 
 imagined 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 encouragement 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 
 
I793-94-] VISITING HOME. 323 
 
 cheering up rather than casting down ; over-confidence 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 Ludwigsburg pinched him too, he was for 
 coming away in the middle of winter; but from this 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 per- 
 mitted, he would leave Suabia at the beginning of March. 
 " My wife is still in very tolerable health," he writes to Korner 
 after an eight weeks' silence, "and the baby is life 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 production 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 Wallenstein 
 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 transferred. 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 Ludwigs- 
 burg were to dine in the common room with them. Schiller 
 was delighted with his good old master, who had been of such 
 service to him. He called upon Cotta on the ssyne occasion. 
 
 At the news that an imperial infirmary 'was coming to 
 Ludwigsburg, the fear that patients would be quartered in it 
 threw the poet, then abnormally excitable, into such distress 
 that he wanted to move in all haste to Stuttgart, although on 
 
324 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. ix. ch. i. 
 
 account of painful memories he had purposed not to set foot 
 in that city. But the removal was delayed. Beside 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 pulling down the palace 
 and all the buildings, of destrosdng the gardens and plea- 
 sure-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 SchiUer was for leaving Suabia all in a 
 hurry, and wished to take leave of his parents on the following 
 Sunday, March i oth. His father with a heavy heart consented, 
 moved chiefly by the fear that his Fritz might catch the 
 prevailing jpestilence. Happily Schiller on a sudden changed 
 his purpose ; he went to Stuttgart, where the fine and whole- 
 some air was soon to benefit his health, and a more intel- 
 lectual life to surround him. 
 
 On the 17 th 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 probably to his son's connection with Haug, 
 who was private 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 
 Reinsburg-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 
 Wallenstetn ; that once settled, he thought he could fill up 
 the scenes in three weeks. " Here the arts flourish to an 
 uncommon degree for South Germany," he wrote to Korner, 
 " the number of artists, some 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 
 1300 gulden a year to get what is newest in literature and 
 politics. 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 
 
Schiller, from a Painting by Frnu Simanowitz, 1794. 
 
 To /'ace f-ai^e -525. 
 
1 793-94-] VISITING HOME. - 325 
 
 cultivated by a four years' residence in Rome. His society 
 was very pleasant to. him, and he learned many things from 
 him that proved useful in his aesthetic 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 com- 
 paring 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 mer- 
 chant Rapp,' who was practising landscape-drawing, and his 
 remarks on the treatment of landscape were particularly inter- 
 esting 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 Miiller was just then 
 at work on his portrait of Graff. His friend, the female 
 painter Simanowitz, bom a Reichenbach, painted him, and 
 afterwards his wife. He associated besides with Petersen, 
 Haug, and the Hartmann family, especially Professor Johann 
 Georg August Hartmann, whom the suppression of the Karls- 
 academie at Easter had left at leisure. That this institution, 
 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-Rhein until after 
 Schiller's departure. 
 
 He now came into closer contact with Cotta, first on the 
 subject of accepting a bill of 200 thalers on Goeschen. Soon 
 
326 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. ix. ch. i. 
 
 after he offered him the copyright of a new Theatre of the 
 Greeks in about seven volumes, 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 composition. The 
 matter fell through, as Cotta would have no new translations, 
 but only Schiller's critical disquisitions, 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 hfe which he needed for working; beside, 
 he had steps to take about his x>wn 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 hurrying 
 back to Jena ; but his good fortune kept postponing the time 
 of departure. For it was during those last days that he formed 
 a connection with Cotta, which proved of the utmost conse- 
 quence to his future career. 
 
 He felt drawn once more to Tiibingen, where his friends 
 were full of plans to secure the services of their countr3Tnan 
 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 Reinhold, and 
 who knew Cotta also. Fichte, first by his Essay towards a 
 Critique of all Inspiration written on Kantian principles, and 
 then by his Aids to the Correction of Popular Opinions on the 
 French Revolution, had roused Schiller's interest. He had 
 told Komer the October before that the author would be " a 
 great acquisition " to Jena, one who would more than replace 
 Reinhold, at least in point of intellect. Personal contact with 
 
1793-94.] VISITING HOME. 327 
 
 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 aesthe- 
 tics. He would gladly have travelled to Jena with him, but 
 Fichte's way led him through Mainz. After that Cotta came to 
 Stuttgart, 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 afterwards discuss more 
 fully. From Kahlenstein they drove on to Untertiirkheim. 
 On their way back Schiller unfolded to the enterprising pub- 
 lisher his own ideas of a great journal of literature, on which 
 he had long before expressed his views to Wieland, Goeschen, 
 and Korner. Two days after the poet quitted Stuttgart. His 
 parents 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 towards purchasing the horse for his last 
 long ride to the north. Dr. Erhard, who had been visiting 
 Italy with Baron Herbert, found him still at Stuttgart. This 
 friend, who was anxious about his own prospects, having just 
 been fleeced by a swindler, was to accompany him to Niirn- 
 berg, when on the 6th he and his family left the Suabian 
 capital never to see it again. They came by way of Niirnberg 
 to Mainz, and there spent three glorious days, enjoying in par- 
 ticular the lovely garden that Reinwald had laid out upon a 
 hill. On the 15 th they reached home. 
 
BOOK X. 
 
 ON THE HEIGHT. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 FROM 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 perfect domestic happiness without 
 grinding cares, what though that energy never flagged, which, 
 was both indispensable to himself and towards insuring 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 colUsions, unavoidable coUisions, 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 wife and child meant to stay at Jena tilb the 
 autumn, chiefly on Schiller's account. All this while he had 
 been getting more than ever absorbed with the Greeks, the 
 
,332 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. i. 
 
 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 aesthetic investigations. Korner, writing to Schiller, had 
 praised Hupiboldt's rare familiarity with ancient literature, his 
 feeling for excellence in all departments, and his pleasant 
 society, to which a certain frankness and bonhomie lent peculiar 
 charm. That winter Humboldt had been hard at work on 
 ■ Kant, whose system he thought incontrovertible, but to him 
 also the Critique 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 straight- 
 way 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 un- 
 locked Schiller's heart. He writes to his Dresden friend : — 
 " Humboldt is an acquaintance wonderfully pleasant and like- 
 wise profitable to me ; in converse with him 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 attainments, and often 
 take an unexpected even jocular turn ; but amid its smooth, 
 complacent flow, Schiller 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 Griesz- 
 bach fell more and more into the background. 
 
 Cotta, who on the 27 th called at Jena on his way back 
 from Leipzig, discussed the details of an agreement touching 
 
1794-96.] ON THE HEIGHT. 333 
 
 the Universal Journal of European States and the monthly 
 journal of literature, Die Horen (The Hours), both to be under 
 Schiller's management. For the first he was to receive 2000 
 gulden a year, another 1500 if the sale exceeded six thousand 
 copies, and 2000 m^ore for every additional thousand copies ; 
 in case of his death, a respectable income was assured to his 
 widow. The sum of 900 gulden would be paid in advance in 
 two equal portions, the coming June and September. The 
 salary for editing the Horen was fixed at 100 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 discretion ; here also compensation was 
 granted to widows. Thus Schiller's future seemed to be pro- 
 vided 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 political paper, which had pre- 
 viously 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 con- 
 sultation with several men of weight, he felt compelled to 
 dissuade him from the political journal as too perilous an enter- 
 prise ; he, at all events, in his uncertain state of health, would 
 not take the management; on the other hand, the setting 
 up of the literary paper was unanimously approved. With- 
 out 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 aUies he had 
 already secured, Fichte, Humboldt, and young Woltmann, 
 who at the age of twenty-five had been invited from Gottingen 
 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 
 
334 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. i. 
 
 gladly submit to any conditions that he might impose, and feel 
 infinitely obliged if he would join the inner committee. The 
 same day Schiller applied to Kant, thankfully 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 Cotta, 
 exhorting him to give up the political paper and concentrate 
 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. 
 Cotta 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 to bring out three more numbers (Nos. 4, 5, 6) of 
 the Thalia, 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, uncommunicative 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, distin- 
 guished 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 invitation. 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 communicate. He hoped 
 
1794-96.] ON THE HEIGHT. 335 
 
 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 Biirger died, to 
 whom his trenchant review had given such infinite pain. 
 Matthisson, who had seen the poet a little 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 Olympic style." He was rejoiced to hear that 
 he had never worked with brisker courage or brighter energy ; 
 he talked of his Knights of Malta which he was thinking out, 
 and the new scheme of the Horen. Matthisson's Poems had 
 been sent him to review for the Literatur Zdtung. In his 
 room stood casts from antiques ; on his table was spread out 
 a map of Rome. Soon after Biirger's death, Schiller wrote to 
 the publisher of the Gottingen Musenalmanach, 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 solicit his aid until July 4th, after the other two had 
 joined. 
 
 As he purposed re-writing for the Horen his Letters to the 
 Hereditary Prince of Augustenburg, he buried himself once 
 more in Kant ; and here the conversation 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 
 
336 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. i. 
 
 neutralised by a journey which Goethe had to take in 
 company with the Duke to Dessau, Leipzig, and Dresden. 
 Schiller's health was so bad that for the iirst three weeks in 
 August he could not leave the house. As the publisher of 
 the Gottingen Musenalmanach had already fixed on another 
 editor, it gave Schiller the more pleasure, when a young 
 bookseller, Michaelis of Neu-Strelitz, who was at Jena looking 
 about for good copyrights, undertook a new Musenalmanach, 
 to come out yearly under his, Schiller's, direction, commencing 
 with the autumn of 1795. According to their agreement of 
 August isth, Schiller was to get 300 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 require- 
 ments in the depicting of landscape. At the same time he 
 did justice to his attempts in other provinces of poetic art. 
 This encomium, overflowing with the kindliest appreciation, 
 stood in sharp contrast with his severe critique of Biirger, 
 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 neces- 
 sary 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 little 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 definition 
 
I794-96-] ON THE HEIGHT. 337 
 
 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 con- 
 ditions 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. Per- 
 suaded 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 invitation, 
 as kind as it was unexpected, Schiller gladly accepted. His 
 wife was away at Rudolstadt. Caroline'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 topoetic composition. 
 In re-writing 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 27 th the newly-allied 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 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 
 
 z 
 
338 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. i. 
 
 out ia 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 over-decent, 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 probably repay his expenses only after a sale of 
 1300 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. 
 
 During this time Schiller had been producing nothing, 
 but he had been gathering courage and zest for a stirring life, 
 being assured of Goethe's hearty and harmonious co-operation, 
 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, full notices of every article 
 
1 794-96-] ON THE HEIGHT. 339 
 
 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 
 induced to pass scandalously unfair judgments ; he was there- 
 fore 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 afterwards modified. A correspondence 
 of the highest interest 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 1 6th, 
 under Goethe's most careful superintendence. 
 
 On November 2d Goethe hastened to Jena for a few days 
 with his art-loving friend Meyer : many arrangements were 
 made about the Horen, Goethe promising his Entertainments, 
 Meyer his Notes on Ancient Art. A month later Schiller drew 
 up his ofiScial prospectus of the Horen. It stated that the new 
 journal, while forbidding all reference to the present 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 beliefs, purer principles, nobler manners, 
 on which any true amelioration of our social state must ulti- 
 mately 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 enduring 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 liberty 
 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 
 
340 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. i. 
 
 always lacked, and could not but lack because such a number 
 and such a choice of contributors 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 prospectus 
 came trouble. Schiller himself was not quite satisfied with 
 the opening piece, excellent in its kind, of Goethe's Entertain- 
 ments. 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 ap- 
 proached 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 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 little fellow's first attempts at speech. 
 " As soon as I am up, I receive a visit firom 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 Wilhelm Meisier, his old 
 passion for poetry revived. The poet, he said, was after all 
 the one real man ; even the best philosopher was but a cari- 
 cature to him. It was only when Goethe and Meyer, on 
 January nth, 1795, came to Jena, and seemed vehemently 
 carried away by his reading of the Letters, that he felt com 
 forted 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 Almanack. 
 The Literatur Zeitung promptly enough brought out a review 
 
1794-96.] ON THE HEIGHT. 341 
 
 of the first article by Schiitz himself, which Schiller thought 
 passable, but wofully wanting in insight; he even fancied 
 Schiitz had a spite against him. 
 
 In February he zealously devoted himself to reviewing the 
 still unprinted third and fourth volumes of Goethe's Wilhelm 
 Meister. Repeated attacks of his malady forbade his accept- 
 ing the author's invitation to Weiimar. As the need of variety 
 called for something in the way of narrative in the Horen, and 
 no interesting article had been sent in from any other quarter, 
 he left the jEsthetic Letters, at which he was working with 
 such relish, to do a description of the Siege of Antwerp, which 
 would come easy to him. In the meantime, friend Abel of 
 Tubingen had been commissioned to sound him as to whether 
 he would accept the professorship of Higher Philology and 
 Esthetics there. Upon his refusal, Abel, on March 3d, held 
 out the prospect of a chair of History and Esthetics : he 
 should be at liberty 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 
 literary work. Then, on April 3d, he for the second time 
 declined the flattering offer, with the remark that he would 
 have given them too little in return for the 1000 gulden, 
 under which he could not live at Tubingen. And how could 
 he now have parted with Goethe and Humboldt ! 
 
 Goethe had now returned to Jena, where for five weeks 
 he lived in the closest intimacy with Schiller, coming to see 
 him every evening. On April 13th Schiller moved into' more 
 spacious lodgings in Grieszbach's large house on the Stadt- 
 graben ; 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 
 over-officious landlady, Lotte always kept her at arm's length ; 
 and Grieszbach 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 con- 
 tributions to the Horen and the Almanach that should come 
 
342 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. i. 
 
 out in the autumn, furnished fruitful topics of the most 
 quickening conversation. 
 
 Cotta brought the best of news from Leipzig fair; the 
 circulation of the Horen was not far short of 1800, and he 
 testified his acknowledgments to 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 productions, which present, said he, 
 the whole Man, in whom sensuous enjoyment is but a neces- 
 sary complement of his being, not a low craving of sensuaUty. 
 The same number contained, in continuation of the JE-sthetic 
 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. Unfortun- 
 ately, 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 delicate and graceful, nay dramatic re-writing 
 of the Letters, Schiller had for the present done his share of 
 work in the Horen. With convincing 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-Impulse, 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 un- 
 strung; that Esthetic culture brings Moral with it, and that 
 he alone needs the Moral who is incapable of the .Esthetic. 
 Though, in doing this, he had broken alike with the Empirical 
 
1794-96.] ON THE HEIGHT. 343 
 
 and with the Rational school, Kant had declared himself quite 
 satisfied with the first part of the Letters ; and Schiller him- 
 self 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 Almanack ; 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 staying 
 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 absurdities had been drained 
 dry." He had always missed in him the due degree of 
 worldly wisdom. At his pressing request, Fichte sent the 
 first part of his three Letters On the Spirit and the Letter in 
 Philosophy. Schiller, thinking he saw in it an attack upon 
 his own ySsthetic Letters, felt bitterly provoked, and, after a 
 hurried reading, sent it back with the rudest comments, as 
 unfit for his monthly journal. He objected to the dry, heavy, 
 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 Schiller's own philoso- 
 phical works, he maintained that they wearied the reader, 
 because he would compel the imagination, which ought to be 
 free, to think ; 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 beginning 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 Korner : " I am living quite cavalilrement, 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 20th, he had not finished the third poem for 
 
344 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. i. 
 
 the Almanack ; 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 suffering, something had been achieved that gave 
 him confidence. " '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, per- 
 haps the whole winter, in the poetic field." In addition to 
 several Spruche or Apophthegms, he had finished his Might 
 of Song, his humorous 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 
 mindj as a letter for which I have lying before me some 
 remarkable notes (of August 3 or 4) 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 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, lies 
 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 under- 
 standing, were these never so precious, will with time grow 
 valueless, in proportion as the understanding grows indifferent 
 to those results, or finds shorter roads to them ; on the con- 
 trary, writings that, apart from their logical import, produce 
 an (artistic) effect, that bear the living impress of an indi- 
 
1794-96.] ''ON THE HEIGHT. 34S 
 
 vidual, 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 exhausted." 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 in- 
 telligible 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 flight, first of all in his 
 Realm of Shadows, afterwards, in a considerably altered shape, 
 entitled The Ideal and Life. In this he believed he had 
 reached the utmost limit of thought-poetry. He joyfully 
 recognised how immensely 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 affected his health. On the 
 29th he writes to Goethe: "My health does not get on 
 much better yet. I fear 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 Copen- 
 hagen pension, which had stood over from the previous year ; 
 he received four hundred thalers vi& Hamburg. 
 
 As the Almanack 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 with- 
 drawing it and of using the poems for the Horen, when in the 
 nick of time the publisher made his appearance. Though 
 Schiller had already assigned a portion of the poems to his 
 monthly, there was yet a considerable number left for the 
 Almanack. Goethe, in addition to his batch of Venetian 
 Epigrams, had contributed some stray pieces ; Herder, a 
 good many under various signatures, and other poets, other 
 things ; so that the new Almanack stood very notably con- 
 
346 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. i. 
 
 spicuous among its three rivals, the Gottingen, 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 appealing to 
 its intrinsic worth and his approving conscience. Nevertheless 
 he determined now to adopt as intelligible 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 of the Beautiful, especially in 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 enter- 
 prise 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 falling off in the sale. No, Schiller must on no 
 account lose his liking 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 Naive, ■ 
 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 altera- 
 tion. His exposition of the Naive 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, afterwards 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 
 
1794-96.] ON THE HEIGHT. 347 
 
 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 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 commissioned 
 Korner to say to what department of poetry he should now 
 attach himself While Humboldt's, Korner'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 loth. Before 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 general 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 5 th 
 to the nth, 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 
 
348 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. i. 
 
 architecture in preparation 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 
 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 conversation 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 Reflection ; for, accord- 
 ing to the two modes of feeling. Naive and Reflective, he 
 divided the whole field of poesy into these two provinces. 
 The Naive poet can only stand in one single relation to his 
 subject; not so the Reflective. 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' Naive a main characteristic 
 of the classic and antique, the Reflective of the romantic and 
 modern, though the notions by no means exactly coincide. 
 Thus Shakspere is naive. 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 living 
 form, outside the domain of individuality, 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 pro- 
 nounced 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 2gth, in sending back the essay, said laughingly that 
 of course he must approve the principles of a theory that 
 treated him so kindly ; he thought that the corollaries were 
 quite correct From too great a partiality to ancient poetry, 
 
1794-96.] ON THE HEIGHT. 349 
 
 he had often been unjust to the modern ; now, after Schiller'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 Over- 
 straining, the two rocks ahead of the Naive 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 : 
 "Molifere'sMaid chatters on, up and down our ca>i\c?i\.BibUotheks, 
 philosophical 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 theReflective poet, who 
 has here to produce the greatest poetical effect without having 
 recourse to pathos. He seriously purposed composing such a 
 one : the subject was to be the marriage of Hercules to Hebe. 
 He writes to Humboldt : " 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 idyll would 
 treat of True, the leading personages would be gods already, 
 but through Hercules I can link 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 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 Appendix to his essay grew bulkier 
 under his hands 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 
 
350 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. i. 
 
 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 Harm, in which my fellows have 
 left me shamefully in the lurch. It is an unexpected 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 faggots. Then, a little before the year ended, he 
 imparted to Schiller the happy thought of making epigrams 
 on all the journals, 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 Almanack. It was not until three 
 days after, when he sent a dozen couplets by way of specimen, 
 that Schiller took up the idea heartily ; and then in his ardour 
 he at once extended 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 epigram." 
 Foy 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 Camoenae on the Seine and the Elbe 
 
1794-96.] ON THE HEIGHT. 351 
 
 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 Biirger's poems, and who was a poetic genius, they 
 are fighting their own battle;" his rebuke of the "spiritless, 
 ignoble utterance" of pa§^ion on our tragic stage, where 
 Kotzebue, after a silence of three years, was showing himself 
 very busy again ; and lastly, the " paltriness of our humorous 
 novels," with a sneering hit at Nicolai's Stoict Maris Story, 
 all this must bitterly provoke his adversaries. 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 grown 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 Horen, as Schiller wanted for the present to be left wholly 
 to the workings of his fancy. New Xenien would of them- 
 selves take shape as they talked, often a joint product, one 
 contributing the thought, another the language. 
 
 Schiller 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 Almanack, 
 which after vexatious delay had come at last. They wished 
 to bring up the numbers of the Xenien to 600, if not a round 
 1000. 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 Copenhagen 
 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 
 
352 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. I. 
 
 kept coming in so. thick, that Cotta feared the loss would 
 amount to a good third: there remained a bare looo, with 
 which they could just hold out. 
 
 About February i oth 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 i6th Goethe man- 
 aged to tear himself away from the distractions of Weimar. 
 The lonelier he felt in that capital, where he had fallen out 
 with the Court on the score of its sheltering French emigrh, 
 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, notwithstanding 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 counteracting 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 Almanack; 
 but he believed it would be some weeks before he could pro- 
 ceed 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 stem demands upon 
 himself. As things turned out, prolonged ill health and 
 countless 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 Thuringia 
 the year before, although Fritz had procured him a good 
 price for his book. None of the fears entertained about his 
 position had come true, any more than the dreams that he was 
 to be commandant of Tubingen ; on the contrary, the Treasury 
 
1794-96.] ON THE HEIGHT. 353 
 
 had, in recognition 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, expressing his deep sympathy ; he 
 also sent a cheque to defray 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 Almanack for that year; instead of which the 
 Xenien were to come out in the type of the edition de luxe 
 of AVieland's works, embellished by several engravings after 
 Roman paintings. But the execution of this plan, though 
 taken up resolutely by Cotta, was hindered by outward 
 obstacles. 
 
 When Goethe was leaving on the i6th Schiller promised 
 to visit him at Weimar on the occasion of IfHand's "star" 
 performances, which were to begin on Good Friday, the 25 th, 
 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 
 2ist 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 phenomenon. His old notes soon made him 
 at home again in the materials. He writes to Korner : " I 
 advance to this new mode of life with much pleasure and 
 tolerable courage. Of my former manner and art there is little 
 
 ' ■ 2 A 
 
354 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. i. 
 
 that can avail me here, but I trust I 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 anything like what I 
 demand of myself, I shall nevertheless do more than I have 
 ever yet done in this line." 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 advancing years 
 bring with them, and how much persistent converse with 
 Goethe and study of the ancients have by degrees 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 posterity 
 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 family to Weimar, where Lotte and Karl were to stay 
 at Frau von Stein's house. On this occasion 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 hun, as the theatre 
 had none. People might laugh at Schiller, caged up in it like 
 some pet bird, but no greater honour could be done to the 
 poet whose youthful dramas had taken the German stage by 
 storm ; Goethe was always hoping from him, should his life be 
 spared, the highest success in the scenic art. Schiller was 
 glad, after so many years, to meet Iffland 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 little ruthlessly, 
 passages being added, left out, or transposed. These pleasant 
 days were darkened by the terrible news that poor Nanette 
 was no more. Happily there were many distractions that did 
 
1794-96.] ON THE HEIGHT. 355 
 
 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 JSgmont. But before that, he received 
 •such afflicting news from SoHtude, where not only had the 
 father's condition grown worse, but sister Louise, too, had 
 sickened, that he wrote entreating Christophine to go there at 
 his expense. The evening after an effective representation of 
 Egmont was spent with the friend to whom he ever felt more 
 closely drawn, and who promised 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 
 prolonged researches in history, philosophy, aesthetics, 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 1 7 99- 
 
 Although from this time Schiller's work in the Horen was 
 confined to the duties of an editor, and these were more a 
 recreation to him than real exertion, nevertheless the comple- 
 tion 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 Almanack, 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 differ- 
 ence between epic and dramatic form. 
 
 Korner spent three whole weeks in the most intimate con- 
 verse 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 Almanack, but, to avoid delay, it should be 
 printed at Jena and sent out from that place. Meanwhile 
 among the Xenien, most of them sarcastic enough, some tender 
 and serious ones had been produced, and these, if put in the 
 Almanack, would make its value a lasting one. Korner was 
 charmed with this motley throng of epigrams, admiring their 
 dignity and their apt humour. Goethe came, according to 
 promise, directly he could escape from work, to finish the last 
 book of his romance in his favourite room at the old castle 
 
I796-99-] ON THE HEIGHT. 357 
 
 And then the four friends had many a spirited discussion upon 
 life, or literature, 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 was the 
 children ; one of them, hereafter the soldier-poet, Theodor 
 Korner, was then just five years old. Korner 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 whole 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 
 politely 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 Almanack, 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 more than help with money and induce Reinwald 
 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 Korner's departure, Goethe stayed nearly three weeks 
 longer, during which he composed several things for the 
 Almanack. 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 
 
3S8 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. ii. 
 
 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 Mig- 
 non'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. 
 
 When Lotte had on July nth been safely delivered of a 
 son, courage and hope came back to Schiller's heart. The 
 godfathers chosen were Count Schimmelmann (after whom 
 the child was named Ernst), Voigt, and Paulus ; the god- 
 mothers, the Countess, Frau von Kalb, landlady Grieszbach, 
 Korner's wife, and Schiller's mother. The second name — 
 Friedrich — was taken from Schiller himself, that of Wilhelm, 
 no doubt, from 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 aifairs, 
 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. Communi- 
 cation with Suabia was wholly interrupted. 
 
 At this time W. Schlegel brought his newly-wedded wife 
 to Jena; they immediately called on Schiller. Carohne 
 Schlegel, then in her thirtieth year, had already been much 
 
1796-99.] ON THE HEIGHT. 359 
 
 talked about. She was the daughter 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 Foster. She shared his republican views and zeal- 
 ously worked for thera ; but having left the city when it was 
 besieged by the Allies, 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, 
 accompanied 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 Brunswick. Here came 
 Schlegel, too, not without views upon Ebert's vacant chair at 
 the Carolinuin, 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, quick-witted, 
 but self-willed and artful woman thought Schiller handsomer 
 than she had imagined him ; she appeared exceedingly friendly, 
 but he did not altogether trust her. Only twelve days later 
 he wrote that one could associate pleasantly with Schlegel's 
 wife, who had great 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 Wiirtemberg, 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 
 
36o THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. ii. 
 
 poet some articles by Friedrich for the Thalia, but they were 
 condemned as too crude. Yet in a letter of June 12 th, Schiller 
 asked if young Schlegel had anything available for the JTOren. 
 Komer 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 lacke'd 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 
 Almanack which appeared under Schlegel's name in Deutsch- 
 land, Reichardt's paper. Shortly before he came to Jena he 
 sent Schiller an essay on Alexander and Csesar, which to 
 himself seemed highly valuable, and whose acceptance he 
 confidently reckoned on. But though Schiller was pleased 
 with him personally, and thought he promised much for the 
 future, and though Korner and Wilhelm interceded, he went 
 so far as to disoblige the sharp critic, whose connection with 
 Reichardt 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 Grsecomania, 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, Caroline even 
 poetically 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 nobility, freedom, and bold- 
 
1796-99-] ON THE HEIGHT. 361 
 
 ness. Luckily the outbreak of war in Italy had delayed 
 Goethe's departure for that land of the fine arts ; and on the 
 1 8th 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 Almanack. Cleverly as Schiller 
 had succeeded in arranging them as a whole, he may have felt 
 a tinge of reluctance at flinging abroad these pungent couplets 
 which would set half the world in arms against his Almanach. 
 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 moonlight 
 landscapes ; but what lent those evenings their greatest charm 
 was Goethe's readings from his newly-begun poem, Hermann 
 und Dorothea. 
 
 The printing of the Almanack was just completed, when 
 on the 19th (the house then full of guests) 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 life 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 brilliant 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 live, — 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 
 
362 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. ii. 
 
 trials, the evening of your life ought to be made bright, or at 
 any rate, peaceful, and I hope that 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 Reinwald, who had long been 
 looking impatiently for his sick wife's return, to let her remain 
 yet a little 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. Writing 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 thetn. 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 him. 
 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 Almanack, which Schiller had taken upon 
 himself, gave him a great deal of trouble : the first delivery 
 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 Reichardt's 
 Deutschland kept making spiteful allusion to the Horen, which 
 had rejected his article. To be sure, he was liberally rewarded 
 for this in the Xenien. 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 literary world in 
 
1796-99] ON THE HEIGHT. 363 
 
 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. 
 
 I 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 ist Humboldt 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 fro tent, a gratuity of 75 gulden from the 
 Duke : a fixed pension lay in prospect. The good woman 
 was beside herself with joy at the 30 gulden per quarter set 
 aside for her by her son : only under absolute necessity 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 
 beginning of December a new edition of the Almanack should 
 be called for. Schiller had the second one, of 500 copies, 
 rapidly printed at Jena on fine paper, and Cotta prepared a 
 third one at Tiibingen in January. But the poet felt it a 
 point of honour now to keep up the Horen too : if the sale 
 fell oif, they must lower the fees to contributors : for the last 
 numbers of the year, on which orders for the new year would 
 greatly depend, it was important to secure attractive matter ; 
 and happily there was no lack of that. He could not help 
 being peculiarly affected by a letter from the Countess 
 Schimmelmann who could not entirely hide her dislike of the 
 Xenien, which in Copenhagen had enfuriated every one. And 
 she particularly regretted Schiller's connection with Goethe. 
 
364 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. ii. 
 
 It is true the authors had not spared Schiller's benefactor 
 Baggesen, 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 25 th Schiller received from 
 Hamburg the final remittance of his Copenhagen pension in 
 the shape of ten ducats. Though he felt rather humiUated, 
 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 frequent 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 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 published then, for the piece, he thought, would fall 
 upon a time ill fitted for its good reception. He feared per- 
 haps that the express mention in it of Goethe's " wife " and 
 " boy " might provoke fresh sallies of abuse. Personally, he 
 was most offended at Reichardt's language in the Deutschland, 
 where he expressed "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 
 
I796-99.] ON THE HEIGHT. 365 
 
 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 manoeuvre of dividing them by showing a united front, 
 and he enclosed his 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 " de- 
 manded 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,'' sophistic piece 
 of raillery, recalling 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 dispute. Thus they would harass the enemy 
 exceedingly 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 public would grow indifferent, 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 Wolzogen 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 Lilien. 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 advan- 
 tage of the Horen, looked forward to with general impatience. 
 
 Even in the bad days of January, Schiller could keep at 
 work upon the Walknstein, much as he pined for clearer air 
 and freer movement. After giving up his plan of going to 
 
366 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. ii. 
 
 Weimar in the spring, he determined to buy the garden of the 
 deceased Professor Schmidt, pleasantly and healthily placed 
 on a height overlooking the Leutra between the Engelgatter- 
 thor 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 unintermittingly, the play 
 had to pass through another severe crisis in its plot. He had 
 written to Cotta on the ist, 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. 
 He asked the same payment as for the 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 suffice 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 philo- 
 sopher recognised 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 trans- 
 lation of .^schylus's Agamemnon, took a lively part. Schiller 
 now read Sophocles and Shakspere, whose Julius Ccesar Wil- 
 helm Schlegel was translating. The deeper insight he then 
 gained into the nature of dramatic art, suggested many modifi- 
 cations in the plot of his Wallenstein, though without shaking 
 its foundation. The next Almanack 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 Magician's Apprentice and the 
 Bride of Corinth. The excitement about the attacks on the 
 Xenien, over which Wieland and Nicolai had also maundered 
 
1 796-99-] ON THE HEIGHT. 367 
 
 after their manner, had now subsided ; even Reichardt 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 opportunity 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 with 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 between 
 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 theoreti- 
 cally 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 regarded as closed : two years, 
 so differently spent, cannot but alter much in us, and there- 
 fore between us." Alas ! the preliminary peace just then con- 
 cluded, 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 evening 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 Almanack, 
 and for that purpose wished to see the libretto of Don Juan. 
 The next day he asked for the German translation of Aris- 
 totle's Poetics, which Goethe had spoken of with so high 
 
368 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. ii. 
 
 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 wrote 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 Schiller's house, who 
 the first few days was a good deal disturbed by visitors. 
 While he composed some things for the Almanach, Schiller 
 was finishing the rhymed prologue to his play, i.e. Wallensteiii s 
 Camp, which was afterwards made half as long again. Goethe 
 was greatly pleased with it when Schiller read it out to him 
 on the 27 th. 
 
 The way in which Friedrich Schlegel kept falling foul of 
 the Horen, specially twitting it with dealing so largely in 
 translation, had so exasperated Schiller, that on the 31st, in 
 writing to the elder brother Wilhelm, 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 
 inserting your translations from Dante and Shakspere, to give 
 you the opportunity of earning a remuneration (30 thalers a 
 sheet) that is not to be had everywhere. But as I cannot 
 help knowing that at the very time when I am procuring you 
 this benefit, Herr Fr. 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 disposition and deli- 
 cate 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." 
 
T 796-99-] ON THE HEIGHT. 369 
 
 Wilhelm, not a little astonished, replied that he himself dis- 
 approved 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 in 
 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 leagufe 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 
 complicated 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 : " Con- 
 sidering the strong reasons for dissatisfaction that your brother 
 has given, and still continues to give me, mutual trust cannot 
 subsist between you and me. A connection rendered im- 
 possible 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 con- 
 fidence ; 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 to myself, for no one can com- 
 prehend how I can be at once the friend of your house and 
 the object of your brother's insults. Assure Frau Schlegel 
 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 Almanack, for 
 which he wrote a few shorter poems. On June 5 th he began 
 his first ballad. The Diver, not completing it until the 14th. 
 In those beautiful summer evenings he had many deep talks 
 with Goethe. This friend carried on what slight communica- 
 
 2 B 
 
370 THE LIFE OF ^CHILLER. , [bk. x. ch. ii. 
 
 tion there was with Wilhelm Schlegel, whose treatise on Romea 
 and Juliet he obtained for the Horen, and discussed with the 
 author such amendments as seemed needful. He also asked 
 fiim 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 
 Ring of Polycrates ; he busied himself also with Vieilleville's 
 Memoirs, which Wolzogen was to work up for the Horen. 
 Fortunately his brother-in-law dissuaded him from at once 
 beginning fresh buildings in the garden. Though again 
 suffering from spasms, he could still occasionally devote him- 
 self to the Almanach, which offered a wholesome change of 
 occupation. Many contributions were sent in for it, and for 
 the Horen, 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 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 ta 
 his great frieiid, 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 
 refusal. The Duchess listened delightedly to his reading of 
 the Prologue and the Ballads. The friends associated much 
 with Hirt, who had been invited from Rome to Berlin, and 
 was deeply versed in the plastic art of the ancients ; also with 
 Bottiger, by whose literary 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 
 
1 796-99-] ON THE HEIGHT. 371 
 
 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 feel- 
 ing. The noblest and fruitfullest way I can utilise our mutual 
 communications, and make them my own, is to apply them at 
 lOnce to the tasks of the time being, and turn them to imme- 
 diate profit. . . . And so I hope that my Wallenstein, and any- 
 thing 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 commerciuvi. ... I shall 
 now strive first of all to get those songs done for the Almanack, 
 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 
 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 going 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 Almanack and the Horen, 
 as well as an edition of Agnes von Lilien which Unger of 
 Berlin had undertaken. He also wrote a new mediaeval 
 ballad. Knight Toggenburg. With August began the printing 
 of the Almanack, but during the next six weeks he fell 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 which Goethe was often consulted. These letters of 
 his friend were infinitely cheering to him in his loneliness ; 
 and they were the more welcome when from time to time 
 they contained lyrics which should enrich the forthcoming 
 Almanack. He was glad, too, that Goethe and Cotta had 
 grown more intimate ; this might probably lead to a business 
 
372 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. ii. 
 
 connection. At length, in mid-September, though his cough 
 never left him, Schiller felt a return of hfe and vigour. Then, 
 just before the Almanacfi -was finished, there came into his 
 hands a highly-promising legendary theme, which with astonish- 
 ing 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 Almanack would be ballads by the 
 two allied poets. Oberoiis Golden Wedding, in which Goethe 
 had ridiculed some false tendencies of the time, Schiller, from 
 a love of peace, left out. 
 
 When the Almanack was complete he turned again to 
 Wallenstein, and was delighted to find that he had converted 
 ttlie 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 Wei- 
 mar before winter. Schiller himself 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 
 Wallenstein in blank verse. On November 4th he began re- 
 casting the scenes previously done in prose, and now, thanks 
 to the poetic form, thijQgs 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 particular they would try and effect 
 something for the theatre, even if nobody grew the wiser by it 
 but themselves. Before this, Schiller had offered to supply 
 Unger, the Berlin 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 
 
1796-99-] ON THE HEIGHT. 373 
 
 demanded solitary seclusion, 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 : 
 " 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 I usually have to pay for one day of happy attune- 
 ment 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 immedi- 
 ately after this a severe attack made him for some time inca- 
 pable 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 Wallen- 
 stein. 
 
 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 5, " that I have gone beyond myself; and this is the 
 fruit of our intercourse. For nothing but frequent and con- 
 tinuous converse with a nature so objective and opposite to 
 mine, together with my own vehement yearning after it and 
 the accompanying 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 thoughtfulness which 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 regularly 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, pleased 
 him well ; it would set him free, from many teasing cares, and 
 
374 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [BK. x. CH. ii. 
 
 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 Wallenstein 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 Wallenstein 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 uninterrupted 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, Dikd, and 
 Iren6 [the Horen\. Dedicate to these noble Dead a pious 
 Christian tear ; but condolence is forbidden." He had just 
 sent Gotta a manifesto on the cessation of the Horen, which 
 that publisher should make use of in a circular on the subject 
 addressed to the trade. February, alas ! brought back the 
 catarrhal complaint and spasms, which unfitted him for any 
 exertion, and made him the more impatient, as inquiries for 
 Wallenstein began to pour in upon him 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 denouement 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 summer-houses, a pavilion and the addition of a new 
 storey 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 Gotta to advance him 500 
 
I796-99-] ON THE HEIGHT. 375 
 
 thalers at the beginning of April. " But to get our account 
 perfectly balanced this year," so he wrote on March sth, " as 
 soon as Walletisieih and the new Musen Almanack 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 able 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 Roland, 
 ■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 before ; 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 
 library. 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 astonish- 
 ing, only he saw no possibility of confining them within stage 
 limits. The chief subject of conversation was the Disquisi- 
 tions 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 with- 
 hold his contributions from the Almanack. 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 like to know, for 
 
376 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. ii. 
 
 he was expected to act as mediator. There would be a 
 capital opportunity now, if Schlegel were to call with Tisch- 
 bein '; as he would be away all the summer, no intrusiveness 
 need be dreaded from him. But Schiller, who looked -for 
 no good thing at the hands of Schlegel, or of the wife that 
 ruled him, did not care, for the sake of a few articles in the 
 Almanack, 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 I ith 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 performance of his play ; 
 even if Schroder came, three of the leading characters would 
 be spoiled for want of good actors. Goethe offered no contra- 
 diction, as he despaired of the play being made actable. 
 
 In spite of unsettled weather, Schiller moved to his garden 
 on May 7 th, 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 thunderstorm that overtook him on his homeward 
 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 con- 
 ductor constructed on the best principles, " as a sign of his 
 undying gratitude." 
 
 On the 2 oth came Goethe, who, with a brief interruption, 
 remained a month. At the stone table in the arbour there 
 
1 796-99-] ON THE HEIGHT. 377 
 
 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 Achillas ; he also carried on the 
 negotiation with Gotta, which much interested Goethe, con- 
 cerning his work on Art and Science. He suggested that it be 
 named The Artist, but Meyer's title of Propylma was preferred. 
 Humboldt's manuscript 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 ex- 
 periments 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 cover and frontispiece to the Almanack He 
 finished some splendid poems for it during the last days of 
 this visit, while Schiller grew ever more distressed over the 
 Wallenstein, which would keep expanding, and changing form. 
 On June isth he writes in depression to Korner : " One ought 
 to be careful how one ever takes up such a complicated, end- 
 less, thankless task as my Wallenstein, where the writer has to 
 squander all his poetic resources to put some life into a stub- 
 born 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 Almanack 
 
 This he took up three days after Goethe's departure, yet 
 he could not fall into the proper mood. He had some exqui- 
 site pieces of Goethe's, while much that was available had 
 come in from others. From BerHn, 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 
 Almanack But Schiller thought he could not accept them 
 unless Schlegel sent another contribution, expressly for the 
 Horeh. " I have met with so little civility at the hands of 
 
378 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. ii. 
 
 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 Almanack, 
 but that I had pounced upon the two printed poems just to 
 give it a lift." About this time he wrote thanking Humboldt 
 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 the line between Epic and 
 Dramatic poetry in a simpler way than your method permitted 
 you, and we do not make the difference anything lite 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 Epopasia as Sculp- 
 ture 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 con- 
 ceptions in sesthetic 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 Biirger, and Matthisson, 
 and especially in my Horen articles." So frankly did he con- 
 fess 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 Almanack, towards 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 ex- 
 pressed a desire for her personal acquaintance. On the 
 afternoon of the i ith (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 storey, being short of 
 workmen ; however, on the 1 8th he was safe under shelter 
 
1796-99.] ON THE HEIGHT. 379 
 
 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- 
 storey pavilion built for himself ; on the 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 downstairs. 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 1 8 14. 
 
 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 Almanack had now 
 begun. The Athendum of the two Schlegels having just come 
 out, their " pert, dictatorial, slashing, one-sided manner," 
 gave Schiller almost physical pain, though a certain earnest- 
 ness and somewhat deep penetration were not wanting, 
 especially to the younger; merits, as he said, alloyed with 
 many egotistic and repulsive ingredients. In their esthetic 
 judgments there was a great baldness, barrenness ; stress of 
 words, with little of matter. This style, he thought, would 
 retard rather than hasten the advent of a healthy public 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 com- 
 mend the poem Wilhelm had sent to the Almanack ; at the 
 same time he hoped to induce him to re -write 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. 
 
 At last Schiller felt in the key for lyric-writing. He had 
 
38o THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. ii. 
 
 composed his Hymn on the Power of Fortune, 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 Almanack once more harassed 
 him, and he now resolved to give it up entirely after the next 
 year. Writing to Korner, he says : " The indiiference of the 
 public to lyric poetry, and its cold reception of my Almanack, 
 which merited something better, do not make me particularly 
 anxious to continue it ; therefore, when Wallenstein is done, 
 
 1 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 produced in the course of three 
 weeks two ballads that again struck a quite original key, the 
 Figkt witk tke Dragon, and the Suretyshif. He also com- 
 pleted his Citizen-song (from the Eleusinian Feast). During the 
 same time occurred his house-warming, on a terribly stormy 
 
 2 5th of August, when he was gladdened by a visit from Fichte, 
 with whom he was now desirous to try and keep on at least 
 good-humoured and pleasant terms. 
 
 By September 8th he was back at his Wallenstein, meaning 
 to utiUse the remainder of the mild season for the love-scenes, 
 to which winter supplied no stirhulus, seeing that he was not 
 so happily constituted as Jean Paul, who could draw his 
 inspiration from the cofifee-pot His residence in Goethe's 
 house from the loth to the 15th determined the fate of 
 Wallenstein. It was there that he resolved to have the Pro- 
 logue or Prelude ready for thS 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 performance before 
 the winter was out. , For this solution 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 Wallensteiri s Camp from 
 
1 796-99-] ON THE HEIGHT. 381 
 
 Schiller's hesitating hand ; ay, and even made him write a 
 Prologue bearing upon it for the re-opening 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 acquaintance, 
 which sufficiently surprised him, in the person of Johann 
 Baptist Lacher, a young fellow-countryman. Born at Wurz- 
 ach in 1776, and the son of a needy musician, he had got 
 the notion fixed in his head that Germany, 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. Failing 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 thfe 
 warmest sympathy of Fichte, Herder, and his two compatriots 
 Wieland and Paulus to cheer him on. The contest for a 
 college bursary having 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 intro- 
 duction 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 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 kindli- 
 ness.'' Schiller listened smiling while the young dreamer in 
 innocent, 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 possibility 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 
 
382 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. ii. 
 
 strange revolutionary found both the " right amiable " hostess 
 and Professor Niethammer ; for Schiller wished to " celebrate 
 a feast of Suabians." Lotte could not help laughing heartily 
 at the simple, frank way in which the patriot, warmed some- 
 what 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 all the minor princes, and bring 
 Germany to unity, and thereby to political independence 
 abroad and prosperity at home, Schiller cried out : " O me 1 
 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, an^ 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 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 remarkable 
 Suabian, Schelling, whose recent appointment to the Uni- 
 versity had been obtained partly with Schiller's help. He 
 immediately called on the poet, and showed towards him great 
 warmth of feeling. Wilhelm Schlegel also was at this time 
 appointed Professor. 
 
 The two poets were zealously pushing forward the com- 
 pletion of Wallensteiiis Camp, and its Prologue for their pro- 
 duction on the stage. Schiller had appended the latter to his 
 already finished Almanack, wherein was announced the publi- 
 cation by Cotta of all three parts of Wallenstein, 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 nth, to which several friends came. All were highly 
 
1796-99-] ON THE HEIGHT. 383 
 
 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 re- 
 opened with the Prologue 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 
 afterwards 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 Wallenstein's world. Caroline 
 might sneer at will about Goethe's pupil having come out more 
 "Goethesque" than ever, achieving 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 realist 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 ap- 
 plause. 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, intelligible, 
 speakable stage language " went out slowly; and there was much 
 both to add and to alter. Yet Schiller was already think- 
 ing of selling Wallenstein for translation to Bell, the London 
 publisher; Cotta should offer it to him for £,(io. He had 
 indeed offered it the year before to the tutor Nohden, who 
 had already turned Fiesco into English 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 trans- 
 lations and adaptations of Kotzebue's plays, Cotta was likely 
 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 
 
384 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. ii. 
 
 when in the garden-house, inspired by the beauties of Nature 
 about him. Goethe was delighted with the two acts sent tp 
 him, and thought the first one almost ready for the stage. On 
 the nth, 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 frequently came in for philosophical 
 discussion. And now, to Schiller's joy, even Kotzebue was 
 asking to have the Wallenstein plays for the Vienna theatre. 
 
 When Goethe was absent, our poet often felt the loneli- 
 ness 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 publi- 
 cation 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 4th, 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 himself 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 ball-room, 
 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 
 
i,79.6-99-] ON THE HEIGHT. 38S 
 
 poets, he associated without collision whenever he chanced to 
 meet him in society. Fichte, who had 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 Fichte ; but the latter by his public 
 Appeal had placed the Weimar Government in an awkward 
 predicament. The Ficcolomini, after many reading- lessons 
 given at Goethe's house, followed up by partial, and then by 
 full rehearsals, was, at last performed on the Duchess' birthday, 
 the 30th. The Norwegian natural philosopher Steffens, aged 
 twenty-seven, who with the assistance of Count Schimmelmann 
 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 immense 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 
 oif just when you were in suspense for the catastrophe ; but 
 the majority of spectators, surrendering their whole soul to the 
 impression, felt that a superior spirit breathed around them. 
 A most beautiful echo of the performance 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 ist; the chief players, Graff and 
 Vohs, received gratuities from him and the Duchess. A 
 second performance on the 2d of^the 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 
 
 2 c 
 
386 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. ii. 
 
 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 Schelling 
 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 Zeitung ; then 
 Wallensteiii 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 -list for 
 establishing a private theatre, Schiller declared that the sum 
 subscribed ought to be spent on the improvement of the 
 Weimar theatre : amateur performances 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 will- 
 ing 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 Goethe stepped up to him and said : " Pray choose some 
 •other passages; our good friend Schiller we would rather 
 leave out of the play." When the theatricals at Schiitz's house 
 were suppressed soon after, by order from Weimar, it raised a 
 feeling 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 Holzel at Mannheim, whom the 
 bad times had brought into bitter distress. "My Holz's hoary 
 head appeals to your benevolent heart, and so do I," she wrote 
 
1 796-99-] ON THE HEIGHT. 387 
 
 at the end. He immediately sent her a sympathising Jetter, 
 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 gra.ti- 
 tude 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 on so rapidly that on March 17 th he was able 
 to send the last three acts to his friend, who thought the new 
 motives in them very fine and well-chosen ; if Schiller could 
 -afterwards 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, Schiller 
 had already fixed on a new dramatic subject and that a ficti- 
 tious one, though previously he had forsworn such ; it was his 
 old plot of The Hostile Brothers. That he might not be dis- 
 turbed in its execution, he wished this time in place of the 
 Almanach to bring out an epic poem. The Sisters of Lesbos, by 
 
388 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x, ch. ii. 
 
 Frau von Stein's niece, Amalie von Imhoff, in whose endow- 
 ment 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 succession. 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 loth with Schiller, 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 isth, 17 th, 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 ineffective, and Herder 
 would have nothing to say to these grand historical dramas, in 
 whch he missed the purification of passion. Him Schiller 
 had just then offended by expressing an unfavourable opinion 
 (so he was informed) of the crusade he had opened in the 
 Meta-kritik against Kant. The performance of Wallensteiri 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 himself an 
 iftimortal name. After the splendid success of this historical 
 drama, Schiller at once decided to drop his fictitious theme ; 
 he resolved to follow up the Wallenstein 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. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 APRIL 1799 TO MARCH 1804. 
 
 Knowing now what he could do, on ground that he had con- 
 quered, 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 adaptation of several foreign plays had to serve 
 him for rest and re-invigoration, 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 con- 
 nection 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 im- 
 proved, though he never glutted himself, like 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, notwithstanding all the illnesses that often 
 grievously hindered him, and even brought him to death's 
 door. 
 
 When Goethe came to Jena on May ist he found Schiller 
 deep in the historical sources of his Mary. This time they 
 not only spent the eveiiings in their customary converse, but 
 as Goethe had brought a carriage with him, they drove out 
 
390 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. hi. 
 
 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 
 Englishman Mellish in his summer residence at Dornburg, 
 having made his acquaintance when at Weimar. On the i oth 
 he moved- to his garden. Here the essays for the Propylcea 
 were looked and talked over ; Schiller was willing even to 
 spend a few months himself 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 perfection 
 in art, were preparing an onslaught on the chaos of Dilettant- 
 ism, about which Goethe was drawing up a plan. They also 
 thought 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 Dilet- 
 tantism : the ofiended poetess wished to withdraw her work. 
 
 When Goethe left him on the 27th, Schiller felt quite 
 isolated ; he associated indeed with the philosophers Nietham- 
 mer and Schelling, but these were getting more identified with 
 the Schlegel group. Kotzebue, who had been roughly 
 handled in the Xenien, and had retired from his office at Vienna 
 with a handsome 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 Dr. 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 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 solicit through Cotta a bargain with Bell the London 
 publisher. The Wallenstein plays had once more been per- 
 formed at Weimar. Kotzebue having begged to see the MS., 
 Schiller promised 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 
 
1799-1804.] ON THE HEIGHT. 391 
 
 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 Reinwald. The latter, harassed 
 and pinched in circumstances, was now still more bowed down 
 by his hypochondriac 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 Reinwald, 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 
 accommodation. The King had purposely abstained from see- 
 ing Wallenstein' s Death acted at Berlin that he might drink 
 it in first at the fountainhead. 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 that Schiller saw but little of him. Not to 
 disturb his friend's enjoyment of these days of triumph, he 
 withheld from him the sorry news he had just received from 
 Cotta, that, of the Propylcsa, for which both poets had counted 
 on a marked success, barely 450 copies had gone off. When 
 Schiller on returning home learnt the fact by a letter from 
 Cotta, he felt angered at the shabby conduct of the public, 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 
 
392 THE- LIFE OF SCHILLER. [kk. x. ch. in. 
 
 receiving a proportionate surn 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 2 4tb, 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 philosophers, you know, one can only play at 
 cards.'* It was at this time that Tieck came to Jena for a 
 fortnight, 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 rdle, that of an ultimate re- 
 conciler 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 intercourse with 
 him at Jena. With Tieck, the true poet of the Romantic, 
 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 Reich- 
 ardt 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 iresolution he confided to 
 Korner, that for the "next six years " he would confine him- 
 self to the drama. Alas ! before the six years had run their 
 course ; he was gone. He had now determined for the future 
 to live 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 
 
1 799-1804.] ON THE HEIGHT. 393 
 
 Goethe, unable to leave Weimar, had retired to his garden 
 house, and sent his family to Jena. " Pray make August wel- 
 come 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 woiild bring the mother upon 
 them too ; and she was her abomination. When informed by 
 Schiller that he is studying ways and means for spending 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." ■ Schiller mentioned 
 his determination 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 doubt, if 
 he could make his presence useful to the theatre. Goethe 
 would willingly on the part of the theatre have aided his friend 
 to live at Weimar, had he come over at the commencement of 
 the acting season, but that was hindered by Lotte's approach- 
 ing 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 apart- 
 ments 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 wigmaker. It was the first- 
 floor, well known to Lotte, of the house A7 1 in the Windischen- 
 gasse, and the rent came to 122 thalers. Frau von Kalb ex- 
 pressed her willingness to leave some of her furniture in the 
 rooms. 
 
 Goethe, who directed the printing of the Almanack, required 
 some more poems for it, as the epic of the Lesbian Sisters alone 
 would not furnish sufficient matter. Through Meyer's inter- 
 vention he obtained a good number of pieces from Herder ; 
 he himself could contribute nothing. On the 26th, Schiller, 
 having finished the second act of Mary Stuart, wished to try 
 
394 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. hi. 
 
 something lyrical, but succeeded so ill, that he betook himself 
 the very next day to the third act, in which he made use of 
 lyric metres. The Almanack, 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 something in the lyric 
 manner again. On the 4th he set out with his family for 
 Rudolstadt, of which he had seen nothing for seven years, in- 
 tending to recreate himself 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 establishment had occasioned, by a 
 rise in his salary. He reminded 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 granted him an additional 200 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 desire 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 feeling 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 
 
1799-1804.] ON THE HEIGHT. 395 
 
 Wilhelm's vast knowledge, his cultivated taste, and particu- 
 larly his talent for , language and versification, as well as 
 Friedrich's philosophic mind, which Schiller never disputed ; 
 to their failings he was far from being blind. He had written 
 to Schiller a month before, "It is a pity that both the brothers 
 lack a certain solid 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 philo- 
 sophy 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 admirers 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 glorious Song, with which the 
 Almanack was to end, he sent to the press on September 30th. 
 He went back at once to Mary, beside which- he was meditat- 
 ing two other dramatic fables, the pretender Warbeck and his 
 old Knights of Malta, of which he meant to submit the outline 
 to the Duke. When he moved into the town on October 5 th, 
 he was looking forward with intense anxiety to his wife's con- 
 finement, which took place with difficulty but safely about 
 eleven o'clock on the night of the i ith. He was excessively 
 overjoyed at Lotte's safety and the birth of a strong and healthy 
 daughter. Baptized on the morning of the isth, she received, 
 the names of Caroline Henriette Luise, of which only the last 
 could have been taken from one of the three sponsors, Frau 
 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 
 
396 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. Hi. 
 
 slow recovery made Schiller uneasy ; and he could not escape 
 many domestic cares, though the presence of his imother-in-law 
 was a great comfort. During this time he had his poems and 
 a second part of his prose writings copied for the press, offered 
 the publisher a new, improved, and eiilarged edition of his 
 Revolt of the Netherlands, and saw to the forwarding of his 
 Wallenstein to the English publisher Bell, who agreed' to pay 
 ;^6o for the right of translation. On the 2 2d he took up the 
 plot of his Knights again. But the very next night Lotte was 
 attacked by a nervous fever attended with violent delirium. 
 She would have no one about her but himself, her own mother, 
 and the landlady, and Schiller 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 improvement 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 convalescence 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. Friedrich Schlegel 
 had by this time brought in his Dorothea 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 Schiller, hav- 
 ing Ernst with him, managed with the help of his sister-in-law 
 the fitting up of his new residence, 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 written 
 by Schiller to Lotte on the 7th. The " Schwenkin " was a 
 faithful servant of Dame Wolzogen (the " Frau "), viz. Wil- 
 helmine Schwenke, who afterwards nursed Schiller in his last 
 hours; the "Oper," Salieri's Ciphered. Casket On the 8th 
 
J: ^ 
 
 1^ '«Vj 
 
 'CJ-^ ,/^-C^ mi^ fY «*vt/J^ 
 
 
 
 
 *tt-. 
 
1799-1804.] ON THE HEIGHT. 397 
 
 Goethe came home to Weimar, and now the closest communion 
 recommenced between them. Schiller was able to take part 
 in society, though he suffered once from the spasms again. 
 On Monday the 1 6th 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 Rudolstadt, was a source of the liveliest plea- 
 sure to them all. The rooms below were inhabited by Frau 
 von Stein's brother. Privy Councillor von Schardt, who, with 
 his graceful, refined, poetically -gifted wife proved most kind 
 and obliging. 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 
 evening of the year in the most familiar friendship. Schiller 
 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 Goethe's heart ; and this 
 brought him into closer contact 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 over-full 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 Wallensteiff'hdA just begun, when on February i6th he was 
 seized with a nervous fever which fell upon his chest. A 
 young physician, Dr. 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 
 
398 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. hi. 
 
 up, when the stimulating remedies applied 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, r 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 house- 
 maid 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 Wallenstein 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 re- 
 covered all his vigour of mind, and was meditating a journey 
 to Berlin. He felt in such happy tune for dramatic composi- 
 tion that he offered the publisher Unger of Berlin a drama of 
 his own in lieu of the Theater 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 infatuation, 
 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 off their chairs with 
 laughing at it: it was "k la Voss, \ la Tieck, k la Diable." 
 Schelling called on Schiller before leaving for Bamberg, to 
 commend 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 Allgemeine Literatur Zeitung, for which that 
 
1799-1804.] ON THE HEIGHT. 399 
 
 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 philo- 
 sopher, tarred on by Caroline, had left many weak points in 
 his argument, which were exposed in Schiitz's reply. Schelhng, 
 like all the Romanticists, was unjust to Schiller as a poet ; as 
 a philosopher he valued him more highly. 
 
 After finishing Macbeth, Schiller returned with all his soul 
 to Mary Stuart ; at the same tiine he took charge of the 
 theatre, both during Goethe's illness, and still more when at 
 the end of April he accompanied the Duke to Leipzig Fair. 
 He bestowed particular pains on the rehearsals of Macbeth, 
 which he had already offered to the Berlin and Frankfort 
 theatres, though in the first case without success. Free move- 
 ment 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 willing to continue the 
 Almanack. Cotta took down a copy of his Words of Illusion, 
 and there was again talk of the Knights. On the nth 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 Rudolf retired to the Ducal castle 
 at Ettersburg, 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 i6th, but could 
 not go to see him, and Meyer went instead ; the Duke him- 
 self paid him a visit, being now as kindly disposed toward him, 
 as the Duchess was on intimate terms with Lotte. The read- 
 ing rehearsals of his new drama brought him up to Weimar on 
 the 23 d, where he received Cotta on his way through from 
 
400 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. hi. 
 
 Leipzig. On the evening of the zsth he returned to Etters- 
 burg. Four days later the players who were to act Mary, 
 Mortimer, Burleigh, and Melvil came down for a rehearsal, but 
 there was more chatting than rehearsing done. Then Schiller, 
 beginning after all to find his solitude tedious, left Ettersburg 
 on June zd. In another week the fifth act of Mary was com- 
 plete, 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, how- 
 ever much the play might suffer by the omission. The drarna 
 was given with great effect on the 14th, and repeated two days 
 after. Beside the excellence of individual renderings, the per- 
 formance 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 dramatic 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 con- 
 trast 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 100 or 1000 possible forms." But his first business was 
 to furnish copies of Mary to the BerUn and Leipzig theatres. 
 
 The whole of Wallenstein was now at last in print. The 
 impression was of 4000 copies in three different editions, 
 respectively on vellum, writing, and printing paper. His plan 
 of making the theatres bid for the use of the MS. had broken 
 down miserably ; Berlin alone paid anything ; at Vienna the 
 performance was prohibited by the censorship; at Stuttgart, 
 where his earlier plays were then under interdict, they would 
 not venture on Wallenstein for fear of the Imperialists; Frank- 
 fort and Magdeburg were frightened at the price. In England 
 
1799-1804.] ON THE HEIGHT. 401 
 
 the poet fared worst of all. The London publisher, after sell- 
 ing 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 Narbonne wished to undertake while living at 
 Eisenach, never appeared; the 400 or 500 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 Almanack promised to Cotta, for his 
 whole soul impelled him to drama. By July ist 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 
 Rudolstadt, 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 Warbeck float- 
 ing 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 
 greater 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 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 Oberweimar, 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 appeared 
 since 1795, newly revised, and some considerably 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 September 3d 
 to get a month's quiet work, that Schiller actually commenced 
 
 2 D 
 
402 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. hi. 
 
 his Jungfrau, but he could not get well into it, even then. 
 " With so poor a stock of outward scenes and experiences to 
 fallback upon," says he, writing to Goethe, "each work costs 
 me a method of its own and much 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 advis- 
 able to express his opinion only in a letter to the editor of the 
 Propylcea. He went with Meyer on the 21st to see Goethe, 
 who read to him the beginning of his Helena, written in tri- 
 meter. 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 Lauch- 
 stadt and Rudolstadt; it brought him in 150 thalers from the 
 theatre. He was still more pleased at the rapid sale of Wal- 
 lenstein. As early as September Gotta had to prepare a new 
 edition, though to prevent pirating the price was lowered. An 
 edition of all his dramatic works, which the publisher had asked 
 for, he would not begin before Easter 1802. On the other 
 hand he urged Cotta to print an English version of Mary by 
 his friend MeUish. Unfortunately 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. 
 
 When Goethe returned to Weimar on October 4th, the 
 theatre made extraordinary demands on the attention of the two 
 poets. In vain did Cotta repeatedly ask for the new Almanack ; 
 Schiller 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 Unger, however, on November 6th, for an 
 Annual, though suppressing its name, at the price of 100 
 Carolines, being bound thereto by a previous promise ; which 
 
1799^1804.] ON THE HEIGHT. 403 
 
 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 Palceophron and 
 Neoterpe, 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 Christiane Vulpius. Schiller's repug- 
 nance, 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 feel- 
 ing, in nature, truth, and high artistic merit ; one more richly 
 endowed than any since Shakespeare. Nor to the gifts bestowed 
 by nature had any man added more than he by untiring research 
 and study. He had explored Nature in all her kingdoms and 
 dived into her depths. Even his Theory of Colours he con- 
 sidered the only correct one. And as a man, he set him above 
 all he had ever known. " I think I may say," so he wrote to 
 Countess Schimmelmann, "that during the six years I have 
 lived with him, I have not for one moment doubted his cha- 
 racter. 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 satis- 
 fied : he saw why Goethe would not break with them, though 
 he knew that in their deification 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 Garheb 
 Merkel, kept ignorantly running .him down together with the 
 Romanticists could not disturb Schiller, though he was vexed 
 that the Schlegel apotheosis of Goethe was the very thing that 
 occasioned 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 
 
404 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. hi. 
 
 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 our- 
 selves in our poetics ; let us try producing from within, as pro- 
 duction 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 office nor any particular privilege beyond 
 a free pass and writing materials, appears from the fact that 
 when he went back to Jena after December i oth, he entrusted 
 to him the rehearsals of Gluck's Iphtgenie, 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 im- 
 pression 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 significant 
 passages, and their correct delivery. He also had to conduct 
 the rehearsals of Odavia, 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 Schelling ; and now Schiller could work hard at his own 
 tragedy. The translation of the Tancred was talked over 
 between them. SchelUng'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 processional per- 
 formance. After midnight the two poets with Schelling 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 
 
1799-1804.] ON THE HEIGHT. 405 
 
 came welling forth from his 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 12 th, 
 when the decisive crisis was expected. Still more deeply must 
 Schiller have been affected, who possessed in him the noblest 
 ally in Hfe and literary 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 danger- 
 ous to him. Mental disquiet 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), andhealso put the last touches XoMacbeth and toMary 
 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. ,0n the 19th Schiller, the 
 Duke, and Herder all happened to meet at his house ; a three- 
 fold 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 re-organised 
 there, and soon after named Goethe, Herder, Schiller, and 
 Wieland honorary 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 immediately 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, 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 rehearsals 
 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 
 
4o6 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. hi. 
 
 few months her cousin, Christiana von Wurmb of the Rudol- 
 stadt 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 he found 
 himself in worse distraction than ever, being in great request 
 on all hands. During this time in a dispute between the 
 actresses Jagemann 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 because 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 
 Grieszbach'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 uncomfortable 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 accom- 
 plished, but was so weakened 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 conduct 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. Rewrote 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 
 
i799-l8o4.] ON THE HEIGHT. 407 
 
 am willing to pass on to other work." They were the pieces 
 he had intended for the Weimar theatre long before, The 
 Knights of Malta 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 
 great 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 judging 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 oif his 
 hands, and also thought the difficulties of performance 
 were not insuperable; but Schiller, firmly convinced of the 
 effectiveness of his play, was determined that the Duke's 
 scruples, which really had their origin in the situation of his 
 favourite Jagemann, 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 communicated 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 characters, stood quite complete ; but notwithstanding 
 Goethe's approval, Schiller did not as yet feel the due degree 
 of inclination for it. Two other subjects, Warbeck for one, 
 he had not succeeded hitherto in reducing to proper form. 
 Beside some other materials lying still more shapeless, he 
 entertained the idea of a comedy; 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 
 
4o8 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [BK. x. CH. iii. 
 
 him long. In the meantime, Mary, Macbeth, and a third part 
 of his prose writings had left the press. 
 
 When Cotta, returning from Leipzig, stopped at Weimar 
 on May i6th, Wallenstdn' 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 honour of the guest from Stuttgart. How merrily 
 things went at such meals in the Town-hall comes out in a 
 humorous poem that Goethe afterwards 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 Cotta 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 P}nrmont, to take the waters, he tried his 
 luck once more in lyric poetry. Goschen 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 thinking of a poem on Germany's great- 
 ness, outlasting the German Empire's fall, a country that in 
 the Reformation had won spiritual freedom for all Europe, and 
 was destined yet, when its day should dawn, to shine resplend- 
 ent 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 New Century, his three stanzas based upon the 
 Jtmgfrau, 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 Almanack 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 eiid 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 
 
1799-1804.] ON THE HEIGHT. 409 
 
 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 performances, 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 departure was delayed, and it seemed too late then 
 for the seaside, he at last made up his mind to a mere stay of 
 three or four weeks in the neighbourhood of Dresden. To 
 his joy, the Leipzig and Hamburg theatres were now asking 
 for the Jimgfrau. There was also a prospect of its acceptance 
 at Berlin, 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 5 th the Schiller family set out, accompanied 
 by Frau von Wolzogen, whose husband, in two visits to Peters- 
 burg, 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 Septem- 
 ber I St 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 powerful impression 
 on him. Frau von Wolzogen stayed behind at Dresden, when 
 Schiller, accompanied by Korner, went to Leipzig on the 15 th. 
 On their way Goschen was greeted at his country-seat at 
 Hohenstedt, and the old friendship heartily renewed. At 
 Leipzig Schiller attended the representation of his Jimgfrau. 
 
410 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. hi. 
 
 On entering his box he was received with kettledrums and 
 trumpets. After the first act the house rang with repeated 
 shouts of " Long hve Friedrich Schiller ! " and he had to 
 testify his thanks by stepping forward. As he left the theatre, 
 all drew back reverently with bared heads ; they cried, " Long 
 live 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 impudent as he 
 was shallow, should set Kotzebue's Odavia 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, Goschen, 
 and Crusius that he came back with more than he went. 
 
 At Weimar he felt better than he had done all the summer. 
 Goethe had also come back in good health, but had his hands 
 quite full with the Art Exhibition, the theatre, and the arrange- 
 ment 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 intelligence 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 pos- 
 sible 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 pubUc cared for, he was in some doubt whether he ought 
 not rather to write his plays in prose ; but the feeUng 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 difficulties showed themselves greater, though 
 these only heightened Schiller's interest. Mindful of Korner's 
 advice, he wrote to Unger, saying he must have a good round 
 
1 799-1804.] ON THE HEIGHT. 411 
 
 sum for a new Theater-Kalender ; the result was an offer of 
 1000 thalers. To Cotta's inquiry, what drama he might 
 expect from him at Easter, he plainly declared on October 
 1 3th, that having 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 endeavour 
 to impart a higher intrinsic yalue to his compositions. 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 larger 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 i8th, went to Jena for a time, 
 Schiller, though still a sufferer, undertook the management 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 something 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 a cheerful Wednesday assembly 
 at his house once a fortnight, in which seven ladies and six 
 gentlemen beside himself should take part, the divorced 
 countess Henriette von Egloffstein to be Goethe's partner, 
 then Lotte, Caroline von Wolzogen, Amalie von Imhoff, the 
 court-ladies von Gochhausen and von Wolfskeel, Meyer, 
 Wolzogen, Voigt and Captain von Wolfskeel, the Duke, the 
 Princes and Princess Caroline, were also to be invited. And 
 he meant there should be no lack of festal songs. On 
 
412 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. hi. 
 
 Schiller's birthday Goethe returned to Weimar. The same 
 evening he congratulated his friend by letter, and invited him 
 to the first Wednesday 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 occasions 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 27 th. 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 attend 
 the performance, got up by Goethe, of Wilhelm Schlegel's Ion, 
 a masterpiece of pedantry of verse -construction (for beside 
 trimeters it contained some difficult Greek metres), and of 
 theatric arrangement. But with the play itself Schiller was 
 not quite satisfied, 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 17 th, 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, 
 
1799-1804.] ON THE HEIGHT. 413 
 
 however ill-wishers might spend their wit upon it. It was 
 repeated on February 2d, with the addition of some new 
 enigmas. Goethe contributed one on " Leap - day," and 
 Schiller 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 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 lodg- 
 ings, 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 south- 
 ward front, formerly inhabited by Countess von Bachoff, and 
 last by Mellish; which, like the street itself, now bears the 
 name of Schiller, and is eternally hallowed to his memory. 
 He, therefore, on February 5 th, requested of Cotta the loan of 
 2600 gulden, offering to pay 4 per cent interest. He also 
 begged Goschen 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 continuing 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 
 
I799-IS04.] 
 
 ON THE HEIGHT. 
 
 415 
 
 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 pleasure 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 complaint, and there met with the kindest reception 
 
 Schiller'5 House in Weimar. 
 
 from the widow of Lieutenant Stoll, and the most careful 
 treatment from Schiller's friend, Jacobi. Fritz had a special 
 twenty-five gulden conveyed to her through Cotta, and warml}- 
 sympathised in her incurable malady, 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 subject in 
 Wilhelm Tell, which Goethe had once designed for epic treat- 
 ment. A rumour had spread a year before, that he was work- 
 ing at a drama on the Swiss hero ; and now the subject struck 
 him as a highly significant one after his Jungfrau ; yet he 
 worked it out but languidly, for a multiplicity of cares unfitted 
 
4i6 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. hi. 
 
 him for any vigorous effort He only felt in the key for lyric 
 composition ; and then it was that he brought out, beside 
 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 Cota's 
 Damen-Kalender, and for the Recreations 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 Collegiate Coun- 
 cillor, and, when relieved of his post as manager of the German 
 Court-Player's 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 him- 
 self. 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, and gauged his shallow super- 
 ficiality. 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 liked 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 
 
1 799-1804.] ON THE HEIGHT, 417 
 
 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 licence of comedy is large, and sportive humour may 
 take many liberties; only passion must be shut out." But 
 Schiller's advising him to concession, 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 between 
 Goethe, Kotzebue, and his wife. Before this, Kotzebue had 
 set up, in opposition to Goethe's Wednesday 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 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 pleasantly. Soon after 
 this. Professor Hufeland brought up to Weimar the master- 
 mason and musician Zelter, who had set many of the songs 
 in the Almanack, 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 keeping 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 prejudiced against his plays by her governess, 
 whose nerves could not endure "those long Schillerian things." 
 Goethe accompanied Zelter back to Jena. 
 
4i8 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk, x. ch. hi. 
 
 In the meantime Kotzebue had devised a master-stroke. 
 He proposed to celebrate the evening of Schiller's name-day, 
 March 5 th, 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 
 Elizabeth 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 pasteboard 
 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 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 participants, while 
 Goethe all the while stayed quietly at Jena, and Schiller and 
 Lotte had royal fun over the failure. When the Countess Egloff- 
 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 2 he Hostile Brothers, 
 which might be finished in autumn, and come on the boards 
 about New Year; he was so bent on making up the long 
 arrears of the winter that he would dispense with any travel- 
 ling. 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 pro- 
 nounced against it, Schiller ^wished to have it played at Lauch- 
 

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I799tI§04.]. on the HEIGHT. 419 
 
 stadt first. Goethe told him he ought now, especially, with a 
 view to Lauchstadt, where they 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 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 2600 gulden advanced by Cotta, a fortnight 
 later 600 dollars received from Lotte's mother, and the 
 remainder by two instalments in May, for which he borrowed 
 2200 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 communi- 
 cations from sister Luise and friend Hoven, which left him 
 no hope. He replied on the loth, 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 incap- 
 able 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 management 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 letter from Luise, received 
 
420 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. ni. 
 
 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 Suabian 
 Mercury, On being told by Lotte, Schiller answered with 
 composure; yet when she received the explicit information 
 from his brother-in-law, she dared not renew his grief by hand- 
 ing it to him at once. "I saw him sit so peaceful at his 
 work this morning," she writes on the loth, "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 Morike 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 Solitude, are no 
 longer to be found. 
 
 During Goethe's absence, Schiller conducted the rehearsals 
 of Iphigenia and Alarms. 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; hi? 
 friend maintained 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 isth, Goethe drove up to 
 the playhouse as an outsider, and saw his own drama, as 
 adapted and carefully practised by Schiller, produce a serious 
 and noble effect, He himself then took the most extraor- 
 dinary 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 had arrived at Schiller's the same day. 
 Goethe, having visitors himself that evening, could not accept 
 an invitation 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 
 
i799-i8o4.] ON THE HEIGHT, 421 
 
 Appendix; he even declared there was no good bargain to be 
 made with Goethe, who rated himself so high, and had never 
 been satisfied with any publisher, and some of them perhaps 
 as little with him. Yet, in fact, Goethe had never fallen out 
 with any but Goschen, 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 
 contactwith Cotta. It is true, Goethe had no favourable opinion 
 of publishers in general, but Schiller can only have been sur- 
 prised 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 visitors 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 
 Berlin which he had been planning, came to nothing ; nay, he 
 felt so out of sorts, that he did not even comply 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 com- 
 plains 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 he and his family were seized 
 with a violent, convulsive cough, which hindered him in 
 speaking. At Goethe's long-looked for return from Lauch- 
 stadt 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 
 
422 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. in. 
 
 was most fully developed and could soonest be finished, The 
 Hostile Brothers, which, re-christened 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 Maintz 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 
 Dalbefg, now wrote on August 6th to congratulate him on his 
 elevation. But the maintenance of an Electorate of Maintz 
 was highly problematic : the decision was supposed to rest 
 with the Deputies of the Empire summoned the same day to 
 Regensburg ; in reality it lay at Paris. The new Elector 
 Arch -Chancellor was in the very thick of troubles, when on 
 the 28 th he replied to Schiller that his sublime and chaste 
 muse had often waked in him a love of the morally beautiful 
 and good, and prompted 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, because . 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 Reinwald's 
 peevishness and parsimony : to his own share fell by agree- 
 ment 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 frona 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 
 
i799-i8o4.] • ON THE HEIGHT. 423 
 
 composition was now going on so well that he hoped to have 
 done by the middle of November ; in no other work , had he 
 learned so much, he writes to Goethe. On October 36th, the 
 poet Voss and his wife, who had moved from Eutin to Jena, 
 came over to Weimar in company with the Grieszbaqh family, and 
 called on Schiller ; they occupied the same rooms in Griesz- 
 bach'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 something 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 ennobling of 
 Schiller in September ; the patent and escutcheon arrived only 
 on November i6th, together with some friendly lines from the 
 Duke and from Voigt, who at the last moment had passed a 
 sprig of laurel 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 inter- 
 ested him more than this " barren honour " was the turn things 
 were taking at Regensburg, for his future finances were involved 
 in it ; thus far the Elector's cause had got on very tolerably, 
 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 Korner, " 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 con- 
 demn them to sitting still. For a couple of years a young man 
 named Eisert, who taught Goethe's August, had also been giv- 
 ing Karl lessons 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 
 
424 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. hi. 
 
 resources, appears from his setting them down in his almanack 
 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 pay- 
 ments 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 dis- 
 ordered, unstrung, and saddened, especially when, to his 
 bitter sorrow, a little girl with whom Christiane presented him 
 died shortly after 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 towafd 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. Schiller almost alone had access; 
 he found him slacker, less sympathetic, nay, more reserved, 
 of which he little 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 7 th an anonymous remittance 
 of 650 dollars from Frankfort, evidently coming from Dalberg, 
 to whom accordingly he expressed his thanks. He now pur- 
 posed 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 ist 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 Meiningen, whose birth- 
 
I799-I804-] ON THE HEIGHT. 425 
 
 day 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 
 5 th, and Goethe another, whom Schiller consulted about its 
 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 nth 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 pay- 
 ments by publishers and managers, and in spite of Goethe's 
 friendly sympathy, Schiller felt irritated and depressed. Writ- 
 ing on February 17 th 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 astonish- 
 ment 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 line. At all events, some- 
 thing 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 tolerable place anywhere, I would go." Happily 
 this ill temper did not last long (even before the letter was dis- 
 patched on March 3d, he acknowledged that it was written in a 
 melancholy mood); but the 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 public wavered 
 between the Tieck and Schlegel school, which daily grew more 
 hollow and fantastic, and their matter-of-fact opponents, who 
 got increasingly dull and contemptible. 
 
426 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. iii. 
 
 When Kotzebue had made one good last effort to wean the 
 Court from Goethe, and had roused against him the artists of 
 BerHn, he removed to that capital, so hostile to the Ideal tend- 
 ency, where, on January 27 th, 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 Freimuthige, " 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 connecting link between poets and poetasters, and who, by his 
 want of modesty and respect for the public and his own good 
 name, had missed his high vocation as the first of German 
 writers. His management of the Weimar theatre and his wor- 
 shippers, the Romanticists, 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 Freimuthige, but his 
 articles were distinguished by taste, judgment, and just apprecia- 
 tion. Merkel struck the same note of arrogance in his journal 
 Ernst und Scherz. 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 ^€\r proteges ; nevertheless, their 
 impudent opposition deeply galled him. 
 
 While diligently conducting the rehearsals of The Bride, he 
 was seized with a passing inclination to work on at his Knights 
 of Malta. On March i gth 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 con- 
 cert with a large number of other students who had come over 
 from the university, raised a hurrah for Schiller, in which the 
 
i799-J8o4.] on THE HEIGHT. 427 
 
 spectators enthusiastically joined. Unfortunately 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 teiid to make those fancies happy." 
 This is what she confides to - Fritz von Stein. The perform- 
 ance 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 translating French 
 comedies. Then, also, favoured by the spring, he attempted 
 something lyric again, among other things his Rudolf von 
 -Habsburg, which he finished on April 25 th. 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 great fun to me," he writes to Korner, "to be set down 
 among such a lot of the miUtary; there were about 100 officers 
 together, of whom the old majors and colonels who had seen 
 service interested me most." 
 
 Two French comedies were ready by May 7 th ; one, The 
 Nephew as Uncle, was immediately studied, and by the 1 8th 
 
42S THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. hi. 
 
 the public 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 Heidel- 
 berg 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 
 set 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 manifesto against the Kotzebue tendency, whose pro- 
 ductions even the Weimar stage could not exclude. Schiller 
 finished 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 con- 
 demned 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 somewhat 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, 
 having got a uniform made for the occasion; 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 
 
i799-i8o4.] ON THE HEIGHT. 429 
 
 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 
 lopking 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 greeted him with music. 
 The representation of the play was disturbed, but its effect 
 partly heightened, by a thunderstorm. On the nth the. Jung- 
 frau was given. Previously, on the 6th, Schiller had written : 
 " The sight of a new public has, given me many new glimpses 
 into theatrical matters, and I feel pretty sure that in future 1 
 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 Rektor 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 Pro- 
 fessor Thibaut. Alas ! the University there was all on the 
 decUne, 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 hfe, 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 
 
430 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x, CH. hi. 
 
 hurried off to Schiller's in the evening, to persuade him to co- 
 operate., He there found Frau von Stein, Lieutenant-Colonel 
 von Helvig and his young wife, the authoress 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, where they stood and discussed the matter over a bottle 
 of wine. Schiller 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 Heredi- 
 tary Prince to the Russian Grand-Duchess. When Wolzogen 
 informed him that the Empress had begged of him The Bride 
 of Messina, Schiller answered 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 Shakspeare's 
 Julius Ccesar on October ist had an inspiring effect. When 
 Schiller was at Jena from the 2d to the 7th, he called on Voss, 
 who took a great interest in him as a man, though he could 
 not swallow his plays. The hours of delightful talk they then 
 had with Schiller, were always remembered with peculiar plea- 
 sure by Ernestine Voss. While at Jena he allowed himself to 
 be prejudiced against Goethe's new Literatur Zeitung : he 
 even thought they had gone the wrong way to work, that 
 nothing could come of it, and he did not want to have much 
 to do with the paper. He cared more for the interests of the 
 University. He writes : "I have not been altogether idle 
 
1 799-1804.1 ON THE HEIGHT. 431 
 
 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 University 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 
 200 thalers and some other privileges; but he had not 
 succeeded in keeping him either. Personally, Schiller was 
 delighted to receive 620 thalers sent anonymously from 
 Regensburg, which was Dalberg'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. Tell, 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 adapta- 
 tion 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 Expectorations, which, 
 with his usual honesty, he afterwards disclaimed. Merkel 
 carried on the Freimiithige, to which its founder still contri- 
 buted largely ; Schiller was now set by the side of Wieland, 
 Klopstock, and Herder, against Goethe ; the Oberons and 
 Messiads were cried up, and the crusade against Goethe was 
 continued with equal malice, flippancy, and infatuation. 
 
 When he, whose vigorous interposition on behalf of the 
 Literatur Zeitung 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- 
 
432 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. m. 
 
 law were also away. He seldom went to the Sunday levees 
 at Court, and seldomer still accepted invitations from the 
 Dowager-Duchess, 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 Berlin, 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 volu- 
 bility. 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 Schiller; she would sooner have taken 
 him for a general. They were soon involved in a warm philo- 
 sophical 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 same even- 
 ing at the Dowager-Duchess'. 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 glibness of tongue 
 demanded the most unflagging attention. However, he gave 
 not an inch of ground to the arrogating Frenchwoman, 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 French- 
 woman's exacting importunities ; he went to see her the next 
 
1799-1804.] ON THE HEIGHT. 433 
 
 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 feminine reserve gave one a disagreeable 
 shock. On the 1 2th she was at Schiller's, who, in spite of all 
 hindrances and the care he had to bestow on rehearsals, was 
 able on the 13 th 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 suffocating air." Alas! 
 Madame de Stael threatened to 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 Racine's Mithridates, which for want of some- 
 thing better was to be played on the Duchess's birthday. In 
 spite of the more and more conspicuous " hoUowness, 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 Iffland the 
 play for the end of February, he worked sturdily on, though 
 the presence of Madame de Stael, who would keep on dis- 
 cussing all things with French superficiality, grew 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 
 2 2d to February 7th. About the same time Voss came to 
 Weimar to promote the appointment of his son Heinrich aged 
 
 2 F 
 
434 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. hi. 
 
 then twenty-four, to the Gymnasium. Toward this young 
 man especially, who from the loth stayed more than a week 
 at Goethe's, a cordial attachment was formed by both the 
 poets. On the i6th Schiller felt obliged to decline the invita- 
 tion 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 particu- 
 larly against Fftnch 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 
 last, on the 29th, this singular woman went on her way to 
 Berlin. Schiller, writing to introduce her to IflBand, 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 towards the good 
 and right." 
 
 The first reading-rehearsal of Tell was held at Goethe's 
 house on March ist, 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 Russian history, 
 he had found it in the history of the false Demetrius, which 
 now, on closer inspection, he thought extremely suitable for a 
 grand play. On March 1 7th his Tell came on the stage, and 
 produced even a greater effect than any of his former dramas. 
 He felt, so he wrote to Korner, 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 
 
I799-IS04.] 
 
 ON THE HEIGHT. 
 
 435 
 
 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 WTote to his 
 brother-in-law Wolzogen, at Petersburg, that Weimar pleased 
 
 Schiller, from a drawing by F. Bolt, done in the year 1804. 
 
 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 powens unimpaired, I 
 hope to save enough to make my children independent. This 
 
436 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. hi. 
 
 year I get my house clear of debt, and look to have something 
 over as well." A melancholy 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 foot- 
 ing 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 little better 
 than a pensioner; his spirit longed for living 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 
 Imperialism was coming on ! 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FROM APRIL 1804 TO MAY 1805. 
 
 But few gleams of light brightened the brief remainder of life 
 allotted to our poet. At Berlin he met with a brilliant recep- 
 tion, 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 confine- 
 ment 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 over -exertion increased his 
 weakness and provoked ever-renewed attacks, which at last 
 overpowered him. 
 
 In the early part of April, while his wife and children 
 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 Ififiand had sent to him about some needful alterations 
 in 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 three delightful 
 days with Cotta and his wife ; the faithful old friend showed 
 his kindness in ways that touched him. At noon of May ist 
 
438 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. iv. 
 
 they arrived at Berlin, and put up at the large Hoiel de Russie. 
 Iffland, Hufeland, Zelter, the Von Hagen family, Unger, 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 lively conversation ; 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 through 
 over-excitement, but on the 12 th he could dine at Hufeland'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. Iffland gave the poet delightful fHes at his charming 
 garden residence in the Thiergarten-strasse, but he had to 
 leave for Hanover on the i6th, and he informed the Cabinet, 
 Privy Councillor von Beyme at Potsdam that Schiller, hearing 
 from Pauli that they would like to get him to Berlin, 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 academician, did 
 
1804-5.] ON THE HEIGHT. 439 
 
 not come, to instruct the Crown Prince in history. And he need 
 not break off his connection with Weimar ; he might there ob- 
 tain leave of a few years' residence at Berlin to secure a fortune 
 for his children. On the morning of the i6th Schiller drove 
 to Potsdam in company with Hofrath Greichen. He dined 
 with Beyme, who confided to him that the King would like 
 to draw him to Berlin, and put him in the position most 
 favourable to his mental activity; let him therefore state in 
 writing the conditions on which he thought he could live 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 dismal 
 scenery, the (to her) disagreeable tone and social conditions 
 of Berlin. "There is a large personal freedom there," he 
 states to Korner, " and an unconstrainedness 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 600 friedrichsd'or ; he 
 needed 1300 thalers at Weimar. 
 
 When he got back to Weimar on the 21st, all the advan- 
 tages 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 installed 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 considera- 
 tion of some substantial compensation. During a delightful 
 
440 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. iv. 
 
 four days' visit from his sister Christophine with Reinwald, 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 accept- 
 able terms from there also. Not till June i8th 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 2000 thalers would enable him to do. To 
 this letter Schiller never received an answer, although before 
 the end of the month the Queen had seen his Tell at Lauch- 
 stadt, 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 Freimiithige spoke rapturously of it. Meanwhile 
 Dalberg, the Arch-Chancellor, had declined Schiller's dedication 
 of it to himself with the words : " Let Schiller's lofty Muse do 
 homage to Virtue, not to mortal man ; " and had once more 
 signified his goodwill by an anonymous remittance, this time 
 of 1085 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 arranging 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 physician. 
 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 
 
i804-S.] ON THE HEIGHT. 441 
 
 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 baptized 
 on the 7 th of August, receiving the names Emilie Henriette 
 Louise; and among the sponsorswere the Princesses Rudolstadt 
 and Sondershausen, Count Geszler, and Voss. Goethe arrived 
 there to stay for a few days, and comfort his suffering friend. 
 By the 1 9th 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 nth of October, Schiller 
 felt better and could believe in his recovery. 
 
 " Inclination 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 Montfaucon, 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 Wiirzburg, and he seemed wiUing 
 enough to make this sacrifice for them, Schiller told him : 
 " No ; for your parents' sake, you ought stop on ; for if your 
 position at Wiirzburg 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 
 
442 THE LIFE OP SCHILLER. {bk. x. ch. iv. 
 
 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- 
 conceived and skilfully-written Homage to the Arts. He was 
 presented to the Hereditary Princess at Court, and thought 
 her of remarkable charm ; to the greatest kindUness she joined 
 much dignity, which kept down any attempt at familiarity, 
 while, with all the merriment 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 
 difificulty, 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 fascinated he is : "I could see her and 
 hear her speak ; everything that she says is/ull 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 morning 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, until at 
 length he was forced to stay in the house for three weeks. 
 " My health, alas, is so feeble," he writes on December loth, 
 
i8o4-S.] ON THE HEIGHT. 443 
 
 " that every spell of enjoyment 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 doc- 
 trines 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 forthcoming for the gala performance 
 on the Duchess's birthday, and Schiller, feeling unfit for original 
 work, determined to make an adaptation of Racine's Phidre. 
 On the 17 th 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 obliged to do so, he could never stop in 
 doors. 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 ; his cold still torments 
 him, and wellnigh crushes out all vitality. Shortly before 
 this, the news of Huber'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 lived for us, and he was 
 bound up with times too beautiful in our life for us ever to 
 think of him with indifference." 
 
 While Goethe was still kept at home by ill health, Schiller 
 attended the theatre and directed the rehearsals. Wishing 
 to gratify the Duke, he sent him his translation of Phidre, and 
 his Grace was pleased at being able to make some remarks 
 upon it. The performance, owing to the careful and thorough 
 rehearsals, 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 
 
444 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. iv. 
 
 was prostrate 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 bed- 
 side 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 
 humorous 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 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 suffered 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 
 
i8o4-S.] ON THE HEIGHT. 445 
 
 contrast to the Maid of Orleans. But he never succeeded in 
 doing this. On March 27 th 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 
 Rome, which are carried thither 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 some- 
 thing 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 agreeable, he 
 said, and he had never for a moment regretted having chosen 
 to stay on there instead of moving to Berlin. Whatever 
 mortification he might have felt at Beyme's unwarrantable 
 silence had now wholly passed ; all that tormented him was 
 his ruined health, and the deplorable state of German litera- 
 ture, 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 loth; nevertheless, in two days 
 he was out of danger. Schiller sent his Homage and the 
 Phtdre translation to Dalberg, who meanwhile 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 exercise, 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 
 
446 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. x. ch. iv. 
 
 and the Notes to Diderot's Neveu de Rameau, and he was 
 eagerly hoping to have news of Schiller's Demetrius. 
 
 At length, on the 25 th, 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 
 Korner, still traces would remain, he feared, of these last 
 terrible attacks ; if life and moderate health did but hold out 
 until his fiftieth year, he would be content. Weakness and 
 his long enforced idleness were causes to hinder any swift 
 progress with the Demetrius. 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 elabo- 
 rate 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, which the poet used occasion- 
 ally 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, 
 perhaps, 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 nourishment, and his weakness 
 increased so rapidly that a bed had to be brought into his 
 study. Travelling through to Leipzig, Cotta visited the 
 sick man, and left with sad forebodings. Violent attacks of 
 spasms now came on, and during the sleepless nights Schiller 
 lay troubled with bitter thoughts as to his suffering wife and the 
 children. He would not allow Voss to watch at his bedside, 
 

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1804-5.] ON THE HEIGHT. 447 
 
 but only kept faithful Rudolf as his attendant. As ill luck 
 would have it, Stark, his doctor, and Wolzogen were both 
 of them away, having gone with the Court to Leipzig. On 
 the afternoon of the sth, after a herbal bath, he felt easier ; 
 once more hope of living 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 fervour ; 
 "O thou who art above, save me from suffering long!" When 
 asked how he felt, he replied that it was all so serene, that it 
 all seemed so fair to him. Thus to the weary one there came 
 bright visions 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 affectionately, " 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 constitu- 
 tion, 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 cease^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. Schiller'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, in the zenith 
 of his powers, when, as dramatic poet, his genius had won its 
 most glorious triumphs. In the short span of life allotted to 
 him his heart had enjoyed the supremest pleasures of love and 
 
448 
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. 
 
 [bK. X. CH. IV. 
 
 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 notable place in the 
 
 Schiller after death. 
 
 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. 
 
^UJ JuJ^A ^dii^ fi^, ^ f^ 
 
 Facsimile of a note written to Schiller by Lotte on 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Abbt, work on Merit by, 183 
 Abel, Professor, 60, 61, 62, 73 
 
 Schiller's meeting with Professor, 134 
 
 welcomes Schiller at Tubingen, 323 
 Absalom, Schiller's drama, 45 
 Addison, the Cato of, 64 
 Adlerskron, Gustav Behaghel von, 286, 291 
 Esthetic Letters^ Schiller's, 303, 321, 340 
 Alarcos, Goethe's, failure of, 420 
 Albrecht, Sophie, Schiller and, 141, i8i 
 Allgetneine Ldteratur Zeitungi 208, 225 
 Ahnanack, Schiller's, 345 
 Amsterdam, Schiller's father at, 5 
 Anhalt, Duke Karl Eugene at, 17 
 Anthology /or zjZi, Schiller's, 87, 88 
 Ariadne in Naxos, Schiller sees perform- 
 ance of, iroS 
 Arnim, Henrietta von, 191, 193, 197 
 
 Schiller's lines to, 194 
 
 marriage and death of, 288 
 Ariists, The, Schiller's, 235, 237, 244, 245 
 Athendum, The, Schlegels' journal, 379 
 Augustenbergj, Hereditary Prince of, Schil- 
 ler's sesthetic letters to, 313 
 Austrians, Schiller's father taken prisoner 
 by, 5 
 
 B 
 
 Each, Karl Emmanuel, 96 
 
 Baggesen, Jens, Schiller and, 282, 299 
 
 visits Schiller, 313 
 Batsch, Professor, 314 
 Bauerbach, 94 
 
 Schiller arrives at, no 
 Baumann, Fraulein, 162 
 Beck, the actor, 162 
 
 Schiller and, 288 
 Becker, Rudolph Zacharias, 232 
 
 Professor Wilhelm, 181 
 Bell, Song of the, Schiller's, 370, 393 
 
 Caroline Schlegel's disparagement of, 
 398 
 
 Berlin, Don Carlos played at, 240 
 
 Schiller's proposed appointment at, 438 
 
 Schiller's reception at, 438 
 Beulwitz, Caroline von, 151, 213 
 
 Herr von, 229 
 Sibliothek, Neue, der SchSnen Wissen- 
 
 scha/ten, critique in, 189 
 Bittenfeld, 3, 7 
 
 Black Man, The, Goethe's farce, 154 
 Blaubeuren, monastery school of, 29 
 BOck, the actor, 85, 137 
 
 Schiller's opinion of, 133 
 
 abuse of Schiller by, 166 
 Bohemia, pestilence among troops in, 10 
 Boigeol, Schiller and, 51, 53 
 Borckel, 5 
 Bougeant, history of Thirty Years' War 
 
 by, 183 
 Brachmann, Luise, 378 
 Bride 0/ Messina, Schiller's, 225, 425-6 
 
 performance of, 429 
 Broglie, Duke Karl Eugene and, 16 
 Brussels, Schiller's father at, 4 
 Biinau, Herr von, 225 
 Biirger, Schiller and, 249 
 
 his criticism of, 286, 289 
 
 death of, 335 
 
 C^amaigre, Col., Schiller's father takes ser- 
 vice under, 9 
 
 Carlos, Don, see Don 
 
 Cassandra, Schiller's, 416 
 
 Ceres, Plaint of, Schiller's, 358 
 
 Coburg, Schiller's satire upon the Court 
 at, 114 
 
 Conqueror, The, Haug prints Schiller's 
 ode, 54 
 
 Conz, Schiller's early friendship with, 21 
 81, 82, 304, 320 
 
 Cotta, Johann Christoph, 320 
 
 Schiller's connection with, 325-6 
 
 Cranes of Ibycns, Schiller's, 370-1 
 
 2 G 
 
4S0 
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. 
 
 Dacheroden, Fraulein von, 269, 271, 277 
 Dalberg, Wolfgang Hexibert, Baron, 57 
 
 Schiller's letter to, 80, 81 
 
 The Robbers criticised by, 83 
 
 Schiller appeals to, 93, 94 
 
 rejects Fiesco, 107 
 Karl Theodor Anton Maria von, 206 
 ■' Karl Theodor von, 263-4, 277 
 
 painting by, presented to Schiller, 280 
 
 Schiller and, 287, 440 
 
 becomes Elector of Mainz, 442 
 Dannecker, Schiller and, 52, 324-5 
 Demetrius, Schiller's, 434, 440, 443, 446 
 Denkendorf, hamlet of, 4 
 Deutsche Gesellsckaft^ 139, is^j i57i 161 
 Diderot, Jacques le FataMsie of, 163 
 Divert fhe^ Schiller writes, 369 
 Dobbelin, Director, 189, 190 
 DSderlein, Schiller meets, 209 
 Don Carlos, 
 
 first schemes for writing, i%j._^^- 
 Schiller absorbed in, 117, 146, 176 
 
 frose version of, igo 
 >alberg accepts, 193 
 Schroder and^ 197 
 effect at Berlin of, 240 
 St. Rdal's romance of, 93 
 Dragon^ Fight with the, Schiller's, 380 
 Dresden, Schiller at, 179, 183 
 stay at, 198 
 Schwan in, 186 ' 
 
 E 
 
 Ecole des Dames at Solitude, 40 
 
 J^te at, 50 
 Eger, Schiller at, 293-4 
 Eichstadt, Professor, 429 
 
 Schiller and, 205 
 Elwert, Schiller and, 75 
 Engel, 190 
 
 Ermrt, Schiller at, 206, 287, 294 
 Erhard, Johann B., 286 
 Emesti, Professor, 174 
 Euripides' Iphigeiteia in Aulis, Schiller's 
 translation of, 236-7 
 Phoenicians, Schiller's translation of, 
 240, 248 
 
 F 
 
 Fair, The^ Schiller's little play, 50 
 Feast of Victory, Schiller's, 428 
 Ferguson, Moral Philosophy of, its influ- 
 ence upon Schiller, 55 
 Fichard, Johann Carl von, 296 
 Fichte, Schiller and, 327, 333 
 
 Schiller's quarrel with, 343 
 
 Goethe and, 334 
 Fielding, Tovt Jones of, 222 
 
 Fiesco, go, 91, 178 
 
 Schiller plans writing, 83 
 
 progress with, 94 
 
 publication of, 118 
 
 condemnatory judgment of, 102 
 
 criticism on, 132, 137 
 
 first performance of, 137 
 
 Schiller employs amanuensis for, 135 
 
 Plumicke's adaptation of, 137 
 
 Dalberg rejects, 107 
 
 Schwan offers to publish, 108 
 Fischenich, Bartolomaus, 296 
 Franciska, see Hohenheim 
 Frangipani Hussars, Schiller's father enlists 
 
 in, 4 
 Frankfort, the French at, 306 
 Franzel, the musician, 184 
 Free Thought 0/ Passion, Schiller^s, 181 ■ 
 Freimiiihige, Die, Kotzebue's paper, 426 
 Freundstein, Waldner von, 144 
 Fulda district, Duke Karl leads troops to, 
 
 13 
 
 is repulsed at, 16 
 
 Gabelentz, Colonel von der, 13 
 Geistingen, disturbance at, 10 
 Gesellschafi Deutsche, see Deutsche 
 Gessler, Count, 302, 356 
 Ghent, Schiller's father at, 4 
 Ghostseer, The, Schiller's, iii, 187, 192, 
 198, 221, 244 
 
 appearance of, 226 
 Gluck, the Iphigenie of, 404 
 Gmelin, Dr., 311, 317 
 Gmiind, Schiller's father at, 19 
 Gockingk, the poet, 154, 159 
 Gods of Greece, Schiller's, 221, 234 
 Goeschen, George Joachim, the publisher, 
 165, 166, 174, 175 
 
 Schiller and, 182 
 
 at Weimar, 220 
 Goethe, visits Solitude Castle, 57 
 -^ Schiller meets, 233 
 
 his first impression of, 234 
 
 his early dislike of, 243, 246 
 
 celebration of birthday of, 209 
 
 growth of intimacy between Schiller 
 and, 336, 337 
 
 Schiller's regard for, 403 
 
 death of the child of, 424 
 
 Schiller's opinion of, 2S5 
 
 last meeting of Schiller and, 446 
 Gohlis, 172, 173 
 
 Schiller leaves, 178 
 Goritz, Magister, 296 
 Gotter, the poet, 205, 206 
 Grace and Dignity, Schiller's essay on, 310 
 
 reprint of, 321 
 Graff, Anton, 181 
 
 Schiller's portrait taken by, 184 
 Grammont, Schiller and, 61, 62 
 
INDEX. 
 
 4SI 
 
 Grasz, Schiller and, 292, 293 
 
 Greek style, Schiller's admiration for the, 
 
 232 
 Griessbach, Schiller meets, 209 
 Gros, Karl Heinrich, 307 
 Groszheppach, 3 
 
 Groszmann, the impresario, 192, 140 
 Guntker^ Klein's, 161, 163 
 
 H 
 
 Harbaur, Dr., 397 
 Hardenberg, Friedrich von, 286 
 Harz, Duke Karl Eugene in the, 17 
 Haug, Schiller and, 49, 54, 320 
 Heideloff, Schiller and, 53, 56 
 Heilbronn, 311 
 
 Schiller at, 317 
 Heinrich, Professor, Schiller and, 265 
 Herbert, Baron von, 286 
 Herder, Schiller and, 204 
 Hero and Leander^ Schiller's, 40B 
 Hiller, Capellmeister, 171 
 History of Remarkable Conspiracies^ etc., 
 Schiller's, 1S8 
 
 Schiller's first lecture on, 253 
 Hohenheim, Franciska Baroness, 39 
 
 her relation to Duke Karl Eugene, 40 
 
 Schiller's flattering address to, 50 
 
 name-day of, 63 
 Hohenstein, march to, 17 
 Hohentwiel, Rieger's imprisonment at, 18 
 Holzel, Frau Schiller's kindness to, 386 
 Horen^ Die^ the literary journal, 333 
 
 prospectus of, 339 
 
 Friedrich Schlegel and, 368 
 
 cessation of, 374 
 Hostile Brothers, Schiller's, 226, 232, 244, 
 
 408 
 Hoven, Friedrich Wilhelm von, Schiller's 
 early intimacy with, 24 
 
 enters Military Academy, 28 
 
 death of his younger brother, 60 
 
 takes medical degree, 65 
 Huber, Ludwig Ferdinand, 147, 171, iSo, 
 225 
 
 Schiller's letter to, 167 
 
 comes to Dresden, 181 
 
 comes to Jena, 309 
 Humboldt, Alexander von, 366 
 
 Wilhelm von, 257, 269, 271 
 
 Schiller and, 310, 332 
 Hymn to Lights Schiller's, 303 
 
 Iffland^ the actor, 85 
 
 criticises Fiesco-, 107 
 
 tlays King Lear, 153 
 chiller and, 16B, 438 
 Jmhof, Friedrich^ Schiller's, in, ir6 
 
 Fran von, 204, 219-22 
 Iphigeneia in Aulis, see Euripides 
 
 Ipktgenia, Goethe's, 420 
 
 fphigenie, Giuck's, 404 
 
 Iron Foundry J Walk to the, Schiller's, 372 
 
 Jacobi, 159 
 
 Jagemann, Caroline, 406-7 
 
 Jahn, Principal, 27 
 
 Jena, Schiller's professorship at, 241-2 
 
 Schiller's preparations for appointment 
 at, 248 
 
 Schiller's first lecture at, 254-256 
 
 Goethe atj 267 
 
 Schiller's illness at, 289 
 
 Schiller's literary work at, 298 
 
 Huber at, 309 
 
 Schiller leaves, 314 
 
 Schiller returns to, 331 
 Junger, Schiller and, 172, 173 
 Julian the Apostate, Schiller's, 198 
 Julius Casar, Schiller and Shakspere's, 
 160 
 
 K 
 
 Kahlenstein, Schiller at, 327 
 Kahnsdorf, manor of, 174 
 Kalb, Charlotte von {ji£e Marschalk von 
 Ostheim), 143, 145, 166 
 
 at Mannheim, 153 
 
 illness of, 156 
 
 Schiller's opinion of, 159 
 
 Schiller and, 205, 207, 262-3 
 
 her projected divorce, 268 
 
 jealousy shown by, 275 
 
 Eleonore von, 143, 145 
 
 Major von, 143, 145, 208 
 Kant, Schiller resolves to study, 301 
 Kapf, Lieutenant, 74, 75 
 Karl Eugene, Duke, see Wurtemberg 
 Karlsbad, Schiller at, 293-4 
 Klein, Anton, 130, 168 
 
 Gunther, an operetta by, 161 
 Knebel, Major von, 208-10 
 Knights of Malta, Schiller's, 335j 347* 4^6 
 Koadjutor, The, see Dalberg, Karl Theo- 
 
 dor von 
 Koch, the impresario, 192 
 
 Elizabeth D., 6 
 Kodweisj Georg F., 6 
 
 unwise speculations of, 9 
 Komer, Christian Gottfried, 146, 165 
 
 Schiller and, 172, 173, 175, 176 
 
 marriage of, 177 
 
 his house at LoschwitZj 179 
 
 Forenoon, Schiller's farce of, 197 
 
 his letter to Schiller, 274 
 
 Schiller's letter to, 322 
 Koseritz, Lieutenant, Schiller and, 107 
 Kotzebue, 272, 390 
 
 his skit upon Goethe, 431 
 
 Schiller and, 416-18 
 Kronenbitter, Schiller's servant, 76 
 Kunheim, Counts, 288 
 
452 
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. 
 
 Lacher, Johann Baptist, Schiller and, 381 
 Landau, 145 
 
 Lanthieri von Wagensperg, Countess, 293 
 Laroche, Frau von, 13a 
 
 Schiller's opinion of, t6o 
 Lauchstadt, Schiller at, 258- 
 Laura, Schiller's, 80, 167 
 Lear^ Iffland as King^ 153 
 Leichenphaniasie, Schiller's, 61 
 Leipzig, Schiller in, 171, 173 
 Lempp, Albrecht Friedricn, 56 
 Lengenfeld, Charlotte (Lotte) von, 151, 
 215, 219, 222, 229, 232 
 
 Schiller's lines on album of, 223 
 
 Schiller declares his love to, 259 
 
 Schiller marries, 278 
 
 Frau von, 151 
 Leonberg, Schiller's father at, 10 
 Lessing, 78 
 
 Leuthen, Wiirtembergers defeated at, 10 
 Lindau, 4 
 
 Linz, signs of revolt at, 10^ 
 Lorch, poet's early education at, 20 
 Loschwitz, KSmer's seat at, 179, 198 
 Love, the Devil-, Schiller's, 1&5 
 Ludwigsburg, Schiller's father at, 8, 10, 13 
 
 life at, 26 
 
 Schiller attends school at, 24-5 
 Luise Miller, Schiller's, 103-5, 112 
 
 Reinwald and, 118, 122 
 
 Weygand accepts, 116 
 
 title changed of, 139 
 
 M 
 Maastricht, French besiege, 5 
 Mai, Dr., 154, 155 
 Maid 0/ Orleans, Schiller's, 401 
 
 performance of, 409 
 Mainz, Schiller at, 105, 327 
 
 French at, 306 
 Manhater^ The, Schiller's, 187, 188, 196, 
 
 225, 2^1 
 Mannheim, Schiller at, 84, 92, 124 
 
 his engagement at, 130 
 
 scheme for dramatic journal at, 152 
 
 Frau von Kalb at, 153 
 
 Schiller quits, 168 
 
 Postal Agency of, 175, 177 
 Marbach, town of, 6, 7 
 
 Schiller's father settles in, p, 13 
 Marschaik, Dietrich von Ostheim, 112 
 Mary Stuari, Schiller's, iii, 116, 388, 391 
 
 rehearsals of, 400 
 
 English version of, 402 
 Matthisson, Schiller and, 336 
 Mecheln, Schiller and, 444 
 Mecklenburg, Princess Louise of, 161 
 Meiningen, Schiller at, 108, 114 
 
 Duke of, Schiller and, 273 
 Mercur, Die^ Wieland and, 211 
 
 Schiller and, 211, 239 
 
 he gives up his connection with, 269 
 
 Meyer, the rdgisseur, loi 
 
 Schiller reads Fiesco to, 102 
 
 Frau, g6 
 
 nurses Schiller, 131 
 
 Minden, Battle of, 13 
 
 Montesquieu's Esprit des Lois^ 22r 
 
 Montmartin, Count, despotic conduct of, 
 II, 19, 21 
 
 Moritz, Professor, Schiller and, 177, 240, 
 
 24s 
 Moser, States-Consul, 11 
 imprisonment of, 18 
 MuUer, Johannes von, the historian, 433 
 
 N 
 
 Natural Daughter, Goethe's, 424, 427 
 
 Naumann, Capellmeister, 181 
 
 Neckar, 3 
 
 Neckarrems, 5, 7 
 
 Netherlands, Revolt of, see Revolt 
 
 Niethammer, Friedrich, 298 
 
 Niklasthor, house of Schiller's father in 
 
 the, II 
 Nordlingen, 4 
 
 Oberg, General von, defeat of, 13 
 Octobert In, Schiller's poem, 235 
 Oeser, Professor, 171 
 Oggersheim, Schiller at, 105, 106, 127 
 
 he leaves, 108 
 Ossian, Schiller wishes to read, 121 
 Ostheim, Dietrich Marschaik von, see Mar- 
 schaik 
 Oudenbosch, 5 
 Our Princes f Schiller's ode, 97 
 
 Faulus, Professor, 257, 274, 281, 429 
 Petersen, John William, 42 
 
 Schiller and, 73, 74 
 
 his letter to, 76-7 
 
 sends Robbers to, 82 
 Pflugfelden, troops leave, 10 
 Philosophic Letters, Schiller's, 182, 184, 
 
 215 
 
 Plochingen, disturbances at, 10 
 Plot and Passion, 139 
 
 success in Berlin of, 159 
 see also Luise Miller 
 Pliimicke, version of the Robbers by, 132 
 Poetry, Schiller's remarks on, 348 
 Poll-tax, Tubingen resents, 21 
 Polycraiesy Ring of, Schiller writes, 370 
 Potsdam, Schiller at, 439 
 Piitter, HistoHcal Development of Ger- 
 viany by, 221 
 
INDEX, 
 
 453 
 
 R 
 
 Reichardt, Schiller meets, 249 
 Reichenbach, Dr., 74, 249 
 
 Ludovike, 249 
 Reinecke, 171 
 
 Schiller and, igo 
 Reinhald, Professor, 208, 209 
 Reinwald, Wilhelm Friedrich, 109 
 
 Schiller's letters to, 118, 122, 141-2 
 
 Christophine Schiller and, 153, 180 
 Rams, 3 
 
 Rennschiib, Madame, 166 
 Reperiorium, Schiller's contribution to, 91 
 ResignaHon, Schiller's poem, 181 
 Revolt of the Netherlands, Schiller's, 188, 
 192, 208, 2ZO, 211, 281 
 
 completion of first vol. of, 236 
 
 interest in Weimar for, 241 
 Rieger, Colonel, 10, u 
 
 offers to stand godfather to the poet, 15 
 
 imprisonment at Hohentwiel of, 18 
 
 death of, 92 
 Robbers, The, Schiller writes, 59 
 
 completion of, 76 
 
 publication of, 79 
 
 Wieland's oijinion of, 83 
 
 Dalberg's criticism of, 83 
 
 iirst performance of, 84 
 
 its success, 86 
 
 second successful performance of, 93 
 
 irritation caused by, 95 
 
 performance at Hamburg of, 97 
 
 performance at Berlin of, 116 
 Robertson, History of the Times of Mary 
 
 Stuart, 222 
 Rocoux, Battle of, 5 
 Romann, General, 11 
 Rousseau, Schiller reads the Nouvelle 
 
 Heloise of, 54 
 Rudolf, Gottfried, 379 
 Rudolstadt, Schiller at, 231, 237, 280 
 
 his illness at, 290 
 Russia, Princess Maria of, 96 
 
 Prince Paul of, 96 
 
 Grand Duchess of, 43°? 434» 437 
 her reception at Weimar, 442 
 
 St. R^al, History oi Don Carlos by, 112 
 Schardt, Privy Councillor von,_ 397 
 Scharffenstein, George Frederick, 41 
 Schiller's ballad about, 48 
 his letter to, 48 
 his rupture withj 51 
 second letter to, 51 
 description of Schiller by, 65, 71 
 Schiller meets, 72 
 Schelling, Schiller and, 398-9 
 Schiller, Johann Caspar, the poet's father, 3 
 and following 
 receives captaincy, 17 
 moves to Ludwigsburg, 17 
 
 Schiller, Jnhann Casper— continued. 
 his character, 17 
 sent to Gmiind, 19 
 care for agricultural matters, 20 
 wishes to resign commission, 22 
 publishes work on Agriculture, 23 
 death of, 561 
 Johann Christoph Friedrich, the poet, 
 family crest of, 8 
 birth at Marbach, 14 
 christening, 15 
 his moral qualities, 17 
 advantages of his early training, 17 
 education at Lorch, 20 
 early friendship with Conz, 21 
 skill in Latin verse-making, 28 
 at monastery school of Blaubeuren, 
 
 confirmation, 29 
 first German poem, 29 
 brought to Solitude, 33 
 school reports of his conduct, 41, 42 
 early poems, 42 
 Latm djstichs by, 43 
 first reads Shakspere, 44 _ 
 commences to study medicine, 47 
 intimacy with Haug, 49 
 rupture with Scharffenstein, 51 
 friendship with Wilhelm von Wol- 
 zogen, 55 
 . first sees Goethe, S7 
 writes his Robbers, 59 
 letter to Von Haven's father, 60 
 writes Leichenpkantasie, 61 
 dislike of his profession, 62 
 early philosophical essays, 63-4 
 admiration for Virgil, 64 
 translates jSneid, 64 
 Streicher describes, 65 
 appointed army-surgeon, 72 
 poem about Weckerlin, 73 
 funeral ode for Rieger, 92 
 determines to escape from Solitude, 
 
 96 
 
 escapes, 97 
 * reads Fiesco to the actors, 102 
 leaves Oggersheim, 108 
 reaches Bauerbach, no 
 meets Charlotte von Wolzogen, 132 
 engagement at Mannheim, 130 
 essay upon The Stage, 152 
 made Councillor of Weimar, 161 
 lines to Henriette von Arnim, 194 
 benefit of his life at Dresden, 198 
 meeting with Goethe, 233 
 first impressions of Goethe, 234 
 appointed Professor at Jena, 241 
 early dislike of Goethe, 245-6 
 his marriage, 278 
 births of his children, 318, 358, 395, 
 
 441 
 his quarrel with Fichte, 343 
 title of nobility conferred upon, 421, 
 
 423.. „ ,. 
 
 , reception at Berlin, 437 
 
454 
 
 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. 
 
 Schiller — continued. 
 
 firoposed appointment there, 43S 
 ast sickness and death, 446-8 
 Dorothea Louise, birth of^ 21 
 Christophine, 10, 80 
 Reinwald and, 153 
 accepts Reinwald, 180 
 Nanette, 304-5 
 
 illness and death of, 3S3-4 
 Elizabeth Dorothea^ the poet's mother, 
 6 and following, 415 
 illness of, 272 
 death of, 419 
 Schimmelmann, Count Ernst von, 299 
 Schlegel, August Wilhelm, 340, 375-77 
 Goethe and, 395 
 his play lon^ 412 
 Friedrich, Schiller and, 302, 359-60 
 
 his attacks upon the Horen^ 368-9 
 Caroline, 358-9 
 her anger at Schiller, 363 
 Schleswig - Holstein von Augnstenberg, 
 
 Prince Frederic of, 299 
 Schmidt, Caroline, 2x1 
 Schmidt's German History^ 221 
 SchrSder, Corona, 211 
 SchrSder, the impresario, 187-189, 196-197, 
 
 Schubart, imprisonment of, 541 56 
 
 Schiller's introduction to, 83 
 
 Duke Karl Eugene and, 91 
 
 Schiller's farewell visit to, 96 
 
 the younger Schiller and, 54, 240 
 Schwan, Christian Friedrich, 77, 78, So, 172 
 accepts FiescOi 108 
 Luise Miller and, 127 
 in Dresden, 186 
 Schiller and, 226 
 
 Margareta, 127, 151, 318 
 Schiller parts with, 168 
 Schweidnitz stormed, 10 
 Schwenke, Wilhelmine, 396 
 Schwetzingen, Schiller at, loi, 130 
 Semeie^ Schiller's operetta, 87 
 Shakspere, Schiller first reads, 44 
 
 Schiller buys translation of, 74 
 
 Schiller and the Romeo and Juliet of, 
 112 
 Solitude Castle, Military Academy of, 27 
 
 life at, 36-40 
 
 transferred to Stuttgart, 46 
 
 Emperor Joseph visits, 57 
 
 Goethe at, 57 
 
 Schiller escapes from, 97 
 Solms, Count, 204, 205 
 Soubise, French army under, 11 
 Speier, Schiller at, 132 
 Stael, Madame de, Schiller and, 432-3 
 Stark, Dr., 291 
 Staudlin, 87, 88, go, 95 
 StefFens, the Norwegian philosopher, 385 
 Stein, Frau von, 207, 240, 288 
 
 Fritz von, 296 
 Stock, Dora, 148, 171 
 
 Minna, 148, 171 
 
 Stoipp, Eva, 6 
 
 Streicher describes Schiller, 65, 79 
 
 offers to accompany Schiller, g6 
 
 Schiller parts with, -108 
 
 Schiller meets, 127 \ 
 Student of Nassau, Schiller writes, 45 
 Stutterheim, Minister, i8z 
 Stuttgart, 73 
 
 success of The Robbers at, 139 
 
 Schiller at, 324 
 Suabian Magazine., Schiller and the, 88, 
 Sweden, King of, Schiller and the, 430 
 
 Tablets, Votive^ Schiller writes the, 360 
 Tetl, William, Schiller's, 415, 418, 430 
 
 ^-pfoductiop of, 434 
 Thalia, Die Rheinisckey 158, 161, 162-66, 
 
 Tharand, Schiller at, 192-3, 195 
 Theater Kalender, the, 372 
 Thirty Years' War, Histoty of the, 
 Schiller's, 271, 282 
 
 success of, 283 
 
 completion of, 305 
 Thoughts about Tree-growing^ the elder 
 
 Schiller's book, 309 
 Tieck, Schiller and, 392 
 Tiefurt, Schiller at, 205 
 Time, Schiller and the worth of, 210 
 To/ciyt Schiller's poem, 180, 181 
 Torgau, elder Schiller at, 17 
 Triumph Chant of Hell., Schiller's ode, 54 
 Tubingen, poll-tax in, 21 
 
 Schiller at, 323, 326 
 
 Abel offers Schiller professorship at, 341 
 Turandotj Schiller's, 411-12 
 
 U 
 
 Universal Journal of European States., 
 
 Cotta's scheme for, 327, 333 
 Untermaszfeld, Schiller at, 117 
 Unzelmann, Friedrike, the actress, 410 
 Urach, Schiller's father at, 17 
 
 Vaihingen, 14, 16 
 
 Vault of Princes, Schiller reads Schubart's, 
 
 97 
 Virgil, Schiller's admiration for, 64 
 Vischer, Louise Dorothea, 74 
 Voigt, Schiller and, 241 
 Volkstadt, Schiller at, 227, 262 
 Voltaire's Tancred, Goethe's version of, 404 
 Voss, the poet, Schiller and, 423, 430, 439, 
 
 441, 444, 446 
 Voszische Zeitungy Montz's criticism in, 159 
 Vulpius, the poet, 205 
 
 Christiane, Goethe and, 245 
 Schiller's dislike of, 357 
 
INDEX. 
 
 455 
 
 w 
 
 Waldorf, Schiller at, 112, 113 
 Waldstein-Diix, Count, igi, 193 
 JVa/A, The, Schiller's poem, 346 
 Walk to the Iron Foundry, Schiller's, 372 
 Wallensiein, Schiller's, 302, 323, 324, 353, 
 364-S . , 
 
 progress with, 372-4 
 
 first performance of, 383 
 
 pubhcation of, 400 
 Waltershausen, 145 
 
 Watson's Li/e of Philip the Second^ 180 
 Weekerlin, effect of Schiller's poem about, 
 
 73 
 Wedel, Chamberlain von, 57 
 Weimar, Duke of, 160, 161, 164, 177, 196, 
 203 
 Schiller and, 271-2 
 Duchess of, 209 
 Goeschen at, 220 
 Schiller at, 203 and following 
 made Councillor of, x6i 
 he visits, 384 
 his house m, 415 
 WMSze, Schiller meets, 171 
 Wenigen-Jena, church at, 277 
 Weygand, the publisher, 115 
 
 accepts Luise Miller^ 116 
 Wieland, 83, 177, 191 
 
 his opinion of The Robbers^ 83 
 Agathon of, 112 
 the Thalia axid, 186 
 , Schiller visits, 204 
 Winkelmann, Lieutenant von, 116, 159 
 
 Wiimenden, the elder Schiller at, 13 
 Winter, Schiller's master, 28 
 Wolzogen, Baroness, 81, 92 
 
 her attachment to Schiller, 81 
 
 his letters to, 113, 1x5, 119, 120, 124, 
 
 129 
 death of, 230 
 Charlotte von, 112, Z19 
 Wilhelm von, 55, 213-15, 230-1, 442 
 Fraulein von, 161 
 Worms, Schiller at, 105 
 Wurmb, Christiane von, 406 
 Wurtemberg, Duke Karl Eugene of, 6, 11, 
 16, 17 
 his manifesto, 56 
 punishes Schiller, 94 
 Schiller's father and, 309 
 death of, 320 
 
 Xenien, the, by Goethe and Schiller, 350-1 
 ill-feeling caused by, 363 
 
 Zelter, the musician, 417, 428 
 Ziegler, Caroline, 134-6 
 
 death of, 153 
 Zxmxa&rmaiivCsExperience in Medicine J 112 
 Zumsteeg, Joh. Rudolf, 79, 325 
 
 Schiller and, 53, 138 
 
 Printed dy R. & R. Clark, Edinburgh.