Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/418

Rh 396 SCHILLER a dramatist. By and by lie was persuaded to go again to Mannheim without leave ; and for this offence, of which the duke of Wiirtemberg was informed, he was condemned to two weeks' arrest. Shortly afterwards he was per- emptorily forbidden to write books, or to hold communica- tion with persons who did not reside in Wiirtemberg. This tyrannical order filled him with so much indignation that he resolved at all costs to secure freedom, and on the 17th September 1782, accompanied by his friend Streicher, a young musician, he fled from Stuttgart. Schiller had now before him a time of much distress and anxiety. In the course of a few weeks he finished Fiesco, a play which he had begun at Stuttgart; but Dalberg, the director of the Mannheim theatre, declined to put it on the stage, and the unfortunate poet knew not how he was to obtain the means of living. At the same time it was thought probable that a request for his extradition might be addressed to the elector of the Palatinate. In this perplexity Schiller wrote to Frau von Wolzogen, a friend at Stuttgart, asking to be allowed to take refuge in her house at Bauerbach, a village in the Thuringian Forest, within two hours' walk of Meiningen. This request was granted, and at Bauerbach Schiller remained for nearly seven months, working chiefly at the play which he ultimately called Cabale und Liebe and at Don Carlos. In July 1783 Schiller returned to Mannheim, and this time he obtained from Dalberg a definite appointment as dramatic poet of the Mannheim theatre. Fiesco, which was soon represented, was received rather coldly, but for this disappointment Schiller was amply compensated by the admiration excited by Cabale und Liebe. These two plays express essentially the same mood as that which prevails in Die Rduber, but they indicate a striking advance in the mastery of dramatic methods. This is especially true of Cabale und Liebe, which still ranks as one of the most effective acting plays in German literature. In addition to his dramas Schiller wrote a good many lyrical poems, both before and during his residence at Mannheim. Few of these pieces rise to the level of his early plays. For the most part they are excessively crude in sentiment and style, while in some his ideas are so vague as to be barely intelligible. Perhaps the best of them are the poems entitled Die Freundschaft and Rousseau, both of which have the merit of expressing thoughts and feelings that were within the range of the writer's personal experience. Schiller's engagement with Dalberg was cancelled in August 1784, and, as he had now a heavy burden of debt, he thought for some time of resuming the practice of his profession, but in the end he decided to try whether he could not improve his circumstances by issuing a periodi- cal, Thalia, to be written wholly by himself. This plan he accomplished, the first number being published in the spring of 1785. It contained the first act of Don Carlos and a paper on "The Theatre as a Moral Institution," which he had read on the occasion of his being admitted a member of the German Society, a literary body in Mannheim, of which the elector palatine was the patron. Meanwhile, he had been corresponding with four admirers who had written from Leipsic to thank him for the pleasure they had derived from his writings. These friends were C. G. Korner, L. F. Huber, and Minna and Dora Stock. Weary of incessant struggle, Schiller pro- posed to visit them ; and Kbrner, the leading member of the party, not only encouraged him in this design, but readily lent him money. Accordingly, in April 1785 Schiller left Mannheim, and for some months he lived at Oohlis, a village in the Rosenthal, near Leipsic. In the summer of the same year Korner and Minna Stock were married, and settled in Dresden, taking with them Dora, Minna's sister. Schiller and Huber also went to Dresden, and Schiller remained there nearly two years. Almost every day he spent the afternoon and evening at Korner's house, and he derived permanent benefit from this in- timate intercourse with the kindest and most thoughtful friends he had ever had. While in Dresden, he published in T/ialia several prose writings, among others Philoso- phische Briefe, in which he set forth with enthusiasm some of his opinions about religion, and a part of the Geister- seher, a romance, which, although written in a brilliant style, was so imperfectly planned that he was never able to finish it. He also issued Don Carlos, which he completed early in 1787. A considerable interval having passed between the writing of the earlier and that of the later parts of this play, Don Carlos represents two different stages of intel- lectual and moral growth. It lacks, therefore, unity of design and sentiment. But it has high imaginative quali- ties, and the Marquis Posa, through whom Schiller gave utterance to his ideas regarding social and political progress, is one of the most original and fascinating of his creations. Posa is not less revolutionary than Karl Moor, the hero of Die Rduber, but, while the latter is a purely destructive force, the former represents all the best reconstructive energies of the 18th century. In July 1787 Schiller went to Weimar, where he was cordially welcomed by Herder and Wieland. For several years after this time he devoted himself almost exclusively to the study of history, and in 1788 he published his Geschichte des Abfalls der vereinigten Niederlande von der Spanischen Regierung. This was followed by a number of minor historical essays (published in Thalia], and by his Geschichte des dreissigjdhrigen Krieges, which appeared in 1792. These writings secured for Schiller a high place among the historians of his own time. In every instance he derived his materials from original authorities, and they were presented with a freedom, boldness, and energy which made them attractive to all classes of readers. One result of the publication of his history of the revolt of the Netherlands was his appointment to a professorship at the university of Jena, where he delivered his introductory lecture in May 1789. He lived in Jena for about ten years, and during that time frequently met Fichte, Schel- ling, the two Schlegels, Wilhelm von Humboldt, and many other writers eminent in science, philosophy, and literature. On the 22d of February 1790 Schiller married Char- lotte von Lengefeld, whom he had met at Rudolstadt about two years before. She was of a tender and affectionate nature, bright and intelligent, and Schiller found in her love and sympathy a constant source of strength and happiness. They had four children, the eldest of whom was born in 1793. About a year after his marriage he was attacked by a dangerous illness, and from this time he was always in delicate health, suffering frequently from paroxysms of almost intolerable pain. In the autumn of 1793 he went with his wife to Wiirtemberg in the hope that his native air might do him good ; and he did not return to Jena until the spring of the following year. He was enabled to obtain this period of rest through the kindness of the hereditary prince of Augiistenburg and the minister Count von Schimmelmann, who had jointly begged to be allowed to place 3000 thalers at his disposal, to be paid in yearly instalments of 1000 thalers. Schiller heartily enjoyed his visit to his native state, where he had much pleasant inter- course with his father, mother, and sisters, and with some of b is early friends. He did not again see his father and m other, the former of whom died in 1796, the latter in 1802. The Geschichte des dreissigjdhrigen Krieges was the last