402 
Magazine, if not with an analysis, at 
least with some account of it, and par- 
ticularly with the names of the wit- 
nesses, and the opinions of the counsel. 
Oxford; April 8. C.S. 
—_—— 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
HE GERMAN STUDENT. 
NO. XXIV. 
SCHILLER concluded. 
HE “Maid of Orleans” was pro- 
bably the next theatrical work 
of Schiller ; at least it is printed imme- 
diately after “ Don Carlos,” in the 
collective edition of his plays. The 
catastrophe of this tragedy departs too 
widely from the historical one; for, 
although the heroine is at first the 
liberatress of her king and country, 
and then accused of witchcraft, and 
abandoned to the English by her coun- 
trymen, yet she is made to incur a 
wound in battle, and is brought home 
to the royal camp, to be buried with 
furicral honours. Here is her dying 
speech :— 
See you the rainbow glittering in the air? 
Of heaven the golden portals now unfold. 
Amid the choir of angels there she stands, 
And to her bosom clasps th’ eternal Son, 
While with one hand she beckons me, and 
smiles. 
I feel as if light clouds uplifted me— 
The heavy armour seems a coat of wings— 
Thither, on high—earth drops beneath my 
feet. 
Transient is woe, but everlasting, bliss. 
Wallenstein, an historical tragedy 
in three parts, is well known to Eng- 
lish readers, by the excellent transla- 
tion of Mr. Coleridge. “ Mary Stuart” 
has been rendered with no less felicity 
by Mr. Mellish. These were his next 
productions; and to them succeeded 
the “Bride of Messina,” a sort of 
opera or chorus-drama, in which a 
symmetry of plot and dialogue has 
been adopted nearly as improbable as 
in Dryden’s Tempest. The versifica- 
tion, however, is strikingly noble ; and 
the number of fine moral passages and 
maxims which are interspersed recall 
the best choruses of the Greek trage- 
dians; indeed Schiller had recently 
translated Aischylus, when he com- 
posed this dramatic poem, and has 
studiously copied the manner of the 
ancients: his allusions to classical my- 
thology are too numerous eyen for 
probability of costume. 
The fable of the piece is this. A 
Duke of Messina is recently dead, who 
The German Student, No. XXIV, 
[Junet, 
leaves.two sons, both of age, but sepa- 
rated from each other by  factious 
rivalry. Isabella, their. widowed ,mo- 
ther, endeavours to produce a xreconci- 
liation, and succeeds in brmging them 
together. They have both: fallen: in 
love with Beatrice, a beautiful woman, 
of unknown parentage, resident im a 
convent near Mount Etna.’ In’ her 
presence they unexpectedly meet, and 
Don Ceasar, the younger brother, ina 
fit of jealousy kills Don Manuel, the 
elder brother, who was preferred by 
Beatrice. Meanwhile it appears ‘that 
Isabella had once a younger daughter, 
of whom it was prophesied that she 
should occasion the extinction of the 
whole house, and whom the father had 
therefore ordered to be drowned ; but 
the mother had secretly preserved the 
girl, and caused her to be reared ina 
convent of nuns on Mount Etna: This 
is the Beatrice for whom both the bro- 
thers have formed an incestuous pas- 
sion. The successive discoveries of 
the relationships between the parties 
give occasion to terrible situations ; ‘at 
length Don Cesar, to atone’ for the 
murder of his brother, and to terminate 
a remediless disappointment of love, 
closes the play with a deliberate ‘sui- 
cide. ‘Two chorusses of armed: parti- 
zans, belonging to the respective bro- 
thers, contribute to the pageantry and 
to the morality of the drama, 
The following is perhaps the most 
sublime of the choral odes :— 
Athwart the city’s streets, 
With wailing in her train, 
Misfortune strides; 
Watchful she marks 
The homes of men: 
To-day at this, 
To-morrow at yon other door, she knocks, 
But misses none. 
Sooner or later comes 
Some messenger of woe 
To every threshold, where the living dwell. 
When at the seasons fall 
The leaves decay, 
When to the grave is borne 
The hoary head, 
Calm nature but obeys 
Her ancient law, 
And man respects her everlasting march. 
But man must also learn, 
To expect in earthly life 
Unusual strokes of fate. 
Murder, with violent hand, 
May tear the holiest bond, 
And in his Stygian boat 
Death may bear off the blooming form of 
youth. ; 
When 
