S C II I L L K H 



Schiller, time, he dreaded more rigorous measures, and he wa 

 . " ' therefore induced to quit Stutgnrd in ( > -tol.er i 



Afraid of rcMdin-; so near to Stutgard or MnnhdlBHi 

 went to Franconia, and was living principally at Og- 

 ger*heim tinder the name of Schmidt, when Madame 

 Von Woll/.ogen, whose sons had been hi* fellow stu- 

 dents at Stutgard, invited him to their country- house 

 at Haurrbach, near Meinungen. Heneath her h<>-pita 

 ble roof he resumed his poetical labours, and in the 

 course of a year he brought out his tragedies of Vert- 

 chworitng des Fiesco, ^Conspiracy < / / '/< ><.,) and A'a- 

 Imlc und Liebe, (Court Intriguing and Love.) During 

 his arrest at Stutgard he had begun Fiesco, which was 

 published along with another piece in 178J, and soon 

 after brought out on the lilanheim stage. 



Schiller had long been ambitious of being appointed 

 theatric*! poet at Blanheim; and his friend Dalber; 

 was now able to assist him in procuring that appoint- 

 ment, which he obtained in Sept. 17S.J, and which, 

 while it gave him a situation of respectability, held out 

 to him the prospect of a seasonable remuneration. He 

 was soon after elected a member of the German Society 

 at Manheim, and acknowledged a subject of the Elec- 

 tor Palatine. 



Schiller now engaged himself in bringing out a pe- 

 riodical work devoted to the concerns of the stage, 

 the main purpose of which was to advance the dramatic 

 art. The first number of this work, entitled the Rhein- 

 ische Thalia, enriched with three acts of his Don Carlos, 

 appeared in 1785, and with the exception of one short 

 interruption was continued till 179-1. This work, be- 

 sides his dramatic speculations and performances, con- 

 tains several of his poems. 



About this period Schiller composed his Philosophi- 

 cal Letters, a short and unfinished fragment, which is 

 interesting only as containing the speculations of its 

 author on various metaphysical subjects, which must 

 always possess a deep interest to every reflecting 

 mind. 



The first number of his Thalia had obtained Schiller 

 such favour from the Duke of Sachsen Weimar, that 

 this prince transmitted to him the title of a counsellor, 

 and about the same time he received from Leipsig four 

 miniature portraits, two of which were of very beauti- 

 ful young ladies, who had admired his writings, and 

 sent him this hidden mark of their esteem. This little 

 incident is supposed to have induced him to remove to 

 Leipsig, which he did in the end of March 1785. In 

 this city, however, he did not long remain, and having 

 received pressing invitations to Dresden, he followed 

 the new impulse, and went to that capital at the end 

 of summer. Here he took up his residence with the 

 Apellationsrath Korner, who lived at Loschwitz, near 

 Dresden ; and he completed his Don Carlos, which was 

 published in 1786. It is written in blank verse, and is 

 the first of Schiller's plays that bears the marks of ma- 

 tured genius. 



Schiller seems now to have taken a distaste at the 

 drama, and to have occupied himself with the compo- 

 sition of various lyrical productions. Some of these 

 have been mentioned by his biographer as among the 

 most finished efforts of his genius, viz. the Walk t the 

 Song of the Bell, his Hitter Toggcnburg, his Cranes of 

 Ibycus, and his Hero and Leander. Another poem, 

 written about this time, and entitled The Freethinking 

 of Passion, is said to have originated in a real but hope- 

 less attachment to one of the first beauties of Dresden, 

 who is said to have sat for the picture of the princess 

 Eboli in Don Carlos. The celebrity of the thauma- 

 turgic exploits of the conjuror Cagliostro at Paris, seems 

 to have given rise to a novel which Schiller now pro- 



duced, under the title of Geitterseher, or the GJiott Sttr, 

 two volumes of which were published. 



The composition of this work seems to have given 

 its author a dislike to fictitious writing, and IK 

 reuohcd to devote his mind to ti.e study of hit 

 The composition of Don Carlos had led him to 

 the all in - of Spain under Philip II. and he was thiit 

 induced to take the Revolt if the Netherlands as tlu- 

 >ul)jcct of his first history. While engaged in this 

 work he projected a more extended one under the 

 title of a llnt'iry <>j the motl rrmarkablf Consult 

 und Revolution* in the Middle and letter A%et, of which 

 he published the first volume in 1787, but it is little 

 more than a translation of St. Real's Conspiracy of Bed' 

 mar again&t Venice. 



Our author had long contemplated a visit to Wei- 

 mar, which he at last effected in 1787- In thi literary 

 city resided Gottlie, Under and Wieland. With 

 the two last he became extremely intimate ; but Goethe, 

 from his dislike of the Robbers, avoided an introduc- 

 tion to Schiller. In the midst of the best society in 

 Germany, and occupied with his historical work, he 

 continued his residence at Weimar. His old patroness 

 Madame Von Wollzogen again invited him to Bauer- 

 bach ; and at Rudolstadt, where he staid during apart 

 of that visit, he first saw the Fraulein Lengefeld, a lady 

 who made a deep impression on his heart, and who 

 entertained for him a reciprocal feeling. 



The first volume of his History of the Revolt of the 

 Netherlands appeared in 1788, and while it added 

 greatly to his reputation, it obtained for him the more 

 solid advantage of a permanent settlement in life. 



A vacancy having taken place in the professorship 

 of history in the university of Jena, by the resigna- 

 tion of Professor Eichorn, Goethe (whose dislike to 

 Schiller terminated in a warm friendship) recommend- 

 ed him to Amelia, the regent of Sachsen- Weimar, and 

 along with Voigt, the head chaplain of the court, he 

 solicited for him the vacant chair. This application 

 having been seconded by the general voice, Schiller 

 received the appointment and went to Jena in 1789* 

 In the February following he married the Fraulein 

 Lengefeld, and entered upon a new era in his life. 



Thus occupied with the study of history as his pro- 

 fession, he devoted himself to the composition of a 

 History of the Thirty Years War, which he published 

 in 17JJI, and which is deemed in Germany his chef- 

 d'oeuvre in history. Soon after the appearance of this 

 work Schiller was seized with a disorder in the chest, 

 which, though its violence was overcome, never quitted 

 him during the rest of his life. The duties of his 

 class were discharged by proxy, and he was obliged 

 to abandon all his historical studies. In this distress- 

 ing condition a ray of benevolence shone upon him 

 from an unexpected quarter. The hereditary prince, 

 now reigning Duke of Holstein Augustenburg, con- 

 junctly with the Count Von Scbimmelman, conferred 

 on him a pension of a thousand crowns for three years. 

 under no other condition than that he should be careful 

 of his health, and make every exertion for its recovery. 

 The delicacy and politeness with which this act of ge- 

 nerosity was profered, touched ScLiller more than even 

 the gift itself. 



When the violence of his disease had abated, Schil- 

 ler turned his thoughts into a new channel of specu- 

 lation, the study of the Kantian philosophy, a subject 

 which had agitated all Germany. The views which 

 he was led to take of this subject have been published 

 in various treatises, the most elaborate of which are 

 the essays on Grace and Dignity, on Naive 1 and Senti- 

 mental Poetry; the Letters on the ^Esthetic Culture o 



ft :,ltr. 



