1806.3 
Farewel.”?> With him. Schiller had con- 
cluded a friendfhip in life and death, ar- 
dent and glowing as that which the Let- 
ters from Julius to Raphael difplay, bold 
as that which Carlos defires. 
If he before felt difgult of his f ftuation, 
it now became infupportable to him. ‘He 
never tafted happinefs when abfent fiom 
his friend, excepting in the few moments 
of his folitude, which always flew too 
{wiftly away ; for images and ideas 
crowded like a zifing world upon his foul, 
and he was at length unable to refift the 
almighty impulfe to delineate what lived, 
what glowed with fuch ardour, within is 
bofom. He preduced nis. “« Robbers,” in 
which his foul, panting for libert (Ys gives 
full {cope to the fentiments with which 
it was.impreffed. 
What exquifite delight would not an en- 
lightened preceptor have experienced to 
fee {uch a produ&tion from a pupil who 
had not yet completed his twentieth year ! 
What hopes would he nct have formed of 
him! What exertions would he not have 
made to render him an ornament to his 
nation ! Wety different were the fenti- 
ments of the infpectors of the military 
academy.. Would they have it {aid that a 
youth had left their inftitution tainted 
with the moft dangerous of all vices,— 
with a proud, independent, and ambitious 
mind, who was. the author of a perfor- 
_ mance by which all kind of fubordimation 
was trampled under foot ?—a youth who, 
diffatisfied with the government of things, 
might, for what they knew, be hatching 
the moft terrible of crimes—in a word, a 
youth of fuch an extremely dangerous cha- 
raster? They determined that. this 
fhould not be faid ; and it was refolved nao 
Jorger to nowrith the f-rpent mn the maier- 
nal bofom of the mihtution ; ae who 
could know whether the ardent mind that 
glowed within the boy, might not once be 
unfolded into another Charles Moor ; and, 
if the fame were communicated to others, 
who could forefee what confequences 
might refult from it. 
Perfons in high ftations are {sid te have 
taken confiderable insereft in this bufnefs, 
for there was a certain paflage in che Rob- 
bers which appeared buc too fufpicious.— 
it is the following: <¢ This re by I drew 
from the finger of a minifter, whom I 
threw down at the feet of his fovercign in 
the chace. By adulation he hed raifed 
himfelf from tne loweft rank to be the fa- 
vourite of the prince: the fall of his 
neighbour was the mean of his greatne! Sy 
and the tears of orphans affifted in his ele- 
yation. This diamond I took frem an- 
Memurs of Schiller, the German Dramat if. 7 
43 
other of the crew, who fold’ honours and 
offices to the higheft bidder, and pufhed. 
from his door the dejeéted pater iota: 
I: will be recollected that Schiller lived 
in the fame country where Schubart lan- 
guifhed for eight years of horrer in the 
fortrefs of Hohenafpeye. Schiller, there-. 
fore, did not think it advifeable to await 
the decifion of his own fate, efpecially as he 
, had inferted an obnoxious poem on tyrane 
ny in Schubart’s Chronicle :—he fied. 
The houfelefs wanderer found at Mann- 
heim patrons and friends. Heat firft had 
recourfe for a fubfiftence to his furgical at. 
tainments. He was appointed furgcon to 
a regiment, the dutics of which @ation he 
performed, till, in the fegrel, his friends, 
among whom a Daiherg and a Klein de- 
ferve to be ditinguithed, opened for him 
a career more adapted to his wifhes and 
his talents, and procured him the poft of » 
dramatift to the theatre of Mannheim—a ~ 
theatre which was at that time one of thie | 
moft brilliant, aod hed in its fervice an- 
Iffiand, a Bock, a Beil, a Caroline Beck, 
&c. The fruits of this appceintinest are, 
s¢ The Confpiracy of Ficfko,? and “ In. 
trigue and Love.” The ‘Ruenifh Thalia’? 
likewile deferves to be mentioned 
On occafion of the latter, a document of 
importance to a biography of Schiller ap- 
peared in the German Muftum of 1784. 
It was the announcement of the Rhenith 
Thaia ae an early period oe che 
author) I loft my country, and exchanved 
it for the oy ‘wor! id, with whica I was 
acqueinted only from d.ftant obfervation. 
A fingular caprice of nature had, in my 
native place, dcftined méfor apoet. Alove 
ef poctry was a violationof the laws of the 
infticution in which Twas eduz a and ja 
direét apeofition to tbe plan of its founder, 
Esghe years my enthufialm diinadied with 
military difey plise j but a paffion for poz. 
try isardent and powertul as the firit love, 
The means ex ipluyed to ftifle it only ine 
creafea the flame. ‘To efcape from ob- 
jecis which filled me with oe my 
heart indulged imthe contemple ion ef an 
ideal world, but, unacquainted with that 
which attaally exis, fromy which I wag 
feparated by reds of iron, unacquainted - 
with mankind=icr the tour hundred who 
furrounded me were but a fingle being, 
true catts from one and the fame model, 
which piattic Nature tad folemaly re- 
noi unced-—unacquainted with the paffioss 
o: independent beings, at’ liberty to fol. 
low their own inclinations ; for there only 
one atrived at maturity, oi ne, which Pwil 
not here name; ail she orher energics of 
the will were paralyicd whike one of them 
er was 
