Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/704

* SCHILLEB. 636 SCHILLER. gliown 1)T a poem on the ilcatli of liis fncnd Wcckcrlin, ii bitter ileiianoe of society and its conventional creed. Die mtibei; printed at his own expense (1781), made an ininicdiatc and deep iiunression. In a somewhat weakened form it was i.rodueed (.January 13, 1782) with great applause, though its style was in part as rough and unpolished as its plot was unnatural. Schil- ler, who had gone surreptitiously to iMannlieim to witness it, was sentenced to two weeks' arrest and forbidden to publish anytliing whatever. He es- caped from Wiirttemlierg (September. 1782) with a romantic friend. Streielier. and fur eight months remained in retirement with a generous pa- troness, Frau von Wol/.ogen, at Bauerbaeh. An historical drama, Firsco, was nearly completed at the time of Schiller's escape. This he sold to the Mannheim theatre for ten louis, and began with fresh enthusiasm a third, Luisc Millerin, later called Kahale iind Liebe, on local political conditions, and a fourth on Don Carlos, son of Philip II. of Spain, in whose tragic fate Schiller's cordial; Goethe, however, was in Italy. Schiller now turned from the drama to history, and in 1788 won scholarly consideration by the first volume of a study of the revolt of the Ncther- lands from Spain (Qesvhichte des AhfiiUs der Niederlande). He completed also as much as lie ever wrote of the treisterseher, and publislied two short poems. Die Kiinstler and Die Uijller (Innh- cnlunds, significant because they mark the be- ginning of the classical influence that was soon to change the whole character of his work. He akso did critical work on Wieland's Deulscher Merlcur, studied Euripides and Homer, and found new joy of life in the acquaintance of Char- lotte von Lengenfeld (born November 22, 1760), whom he afterwards married. With this inspira- tion he set to work to write himself out of debt, in the course of which he exasperated Goethe by criticism of Egmont. But, though their rela- tions for si.K years after their first meeting (Sep- tember 7, 1788) were those of distant courtesy, Goethe procured Schiller an appointment as ad- letters show that 'he had been for some years junct professor of history, without pay, at .Jena interested. He also made love to his patroness's daughter, which induced the mother to help him to establish himself at JIannheim (.July, 1783), where he had an ofVer of permanent engagement as dramaturgist, which, however, he was soon compelled to cancel because of illness. Fiesko was produced in January. 1784. and failed. It was a disguised political manifesto, more radical and democratic than the JIannheim public would tolerate, and it lacked intrinsic value; but it is of interest as Schiller's introduction to historical drama, in which his greatest dramatic successes were later to be achieved. Kabule und Liebe, which was en- thusiastically received at Mannheim in April, 1784, was political also, but it was genuinely national and became immediately popular, touch- ing the grander passions of human nature, and being recognized as the best German drama of contemporary life. Under the influence of Wieland (q.v.), Schiller now began to turn Don Carlos into blank verse. He left Alaniilicim (April, 178.5), in debt, but famous, and passed nearly two years in Gohlis, near Leipzig, and in Dresden, in close association with Kilrner, father of the patriotic poet, and himself a Msecenas, who lent Schiller money. Here .Schiller's morbid spirit yielded to the ex- cessive hopefulness voiced in his Ode to Joy {An die Freude), and in some declamatory passages of Don Carlos, which was not finished until May, 1787, for work on it had been interrupted by historical and philosophic studies, as well as by an unfinished attempt at prose romance. Der Geistcrseher. A brief passion for Henriette von Arnim was not allowed to interrupt a platonic afTeetion for the fascinating and emancipated Charlotte von Kalb, and this affection contrib- uted not a little toward Schiller's choice of then the chief university centre of German cul- ture. Here his first lectures were sensationally successful, but his financial embarrassments con- tinued, till relieved by a salary of 200 thalers, procured through the friendly offices of Fran von Stein (q.v.). Soon afterwards he married (Feb- ruary, 1790). In the next year overwork brought on illness, from which Schiller never wholly re- covered, but a magnanimous gift from Prince Frederick Christian of Holstein-Augustenburg, of 1000 thalers annually for three years, relieved him from pressing burdens. He completed a history of the Thirty Years' War (1793), and drew from the ^Esthetics of Kant inspiration for essays on that subject in the literary journals TJialia and Die Horen, that contributed essential- ly to the development of taste and criticism in Germany. The most remarkable of these. On the A'oVre and Sentimental in Poetry (1790), was written after Schiller had formed with (Joethe the friendship that was to guide and inspire Schiller's later years. This period of prose composition had been in- terrupted in 1793 by illness. Schiller gave up his lectures at Jena and spent a year wandering in search of health. He had now become men- tally ripe for intellectual communion with Goethe. Their meeting, by a prearranged chance, was a mutual surprise. Their acquaintance grew almost immediately to a friendship of roimded completeness. Their correspondence extends to more than 1000 letters and is a monument to literary unselfishness. They were constantly to- gether, and talked unreservedly of their work and plans. Together they edited Die Horen, and soon, through his Wilhelm Meister. Goethe W'on Schiller back to poetry. Die Ideale, Das Ideal und das Leben, Der Spazierqang (1705), are witnesses to this new spirit and mark the high- Weimar as his next place of abode (.July, 1787). est reach of Schiller's philosophic muse. Their The sensational success of Don Carlos was Schiller's sufficient passport to the German Athens, whose Duke had already given him a title. Its genuine, heartfelt, and pathetically preposterous enthusiasm for 'humanity' fell in with the spirit of the French Revolution and earned its author, in August, 1792, the honor of French citizenship. Schiller was warmly received common part in the literary controversy of the day is marked also by the 400 Xenieii. "part- ing gifts" of epigram in the Musenalmanach (1796). And now Schiller was ready for the loftiest flights of his dramatic genius. For ten years this talent had lain fallow, but they were years of aesthetic ripening. The realistic spirit of in literary Weimar. Herder and Wieland were Goethe inspiring a great idealist was now to pro