Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/707

SCHILLEB. 6;57 SCHILLER. duce the classic Schiller. But first came the great ballad year (1707). While arranging ma- terials for Wiillcitsltiii, on whieli eoiiiposition was not begun till November, Seliillcr wrote Dcr Tauchcr, Die Kraniche dcs Ibylcus, Uer Hand- schiih, Dcr Ring des I'olykratcs, Hitler Tugyen- burg, and Der (Jang ntwli dcin h'i.scnkummcr, all familiar to every German schoolboy, and re- markable for deiJth and intensity. In 17U7 Seliiller began also that most prized of German lyriis, IJds Lied von dcr (Jlucke (17"jy), and in IVilS added to the list Die Bilrgschaft and Dcr Knmj)f mil dcm Draclien. In November, 1797, led by Goethe's coinisel, he began to cast some- what in its present form n'allcnsteins Lager, the introduction to the Piccolomini. and ^yallcn.'itcins Tod, and by New Year he told Goethe that he had surpassed his best former self as "the fruit of our intercourse." It was not, however, till September. 179S, that he saw his way clear to the present trilogy, again during a visit to Goethe, and WaUcnsteins Lager, with the Prolog, was acted at Weimar, October 12, 1708, with great enthusiasm. Die Piccolomini, the trilogy's second part, was forwarded also by Goethe at every turn, and so eflfeetively that it was finished by Christmas and acted on .Jan- uary 30, 1799, to a public which seemed awed by a loftier spirit than had yet crossed the German stage. Again Schiller visited Goethe for three weeks in Weimar, and before the end of March Wallcnsteins Tod was completed. The drama was presented in its complete form April 15, 17, and 20, 1799, ever memorable days in the annals of Weimar and of the German stage. As an acting play ^yaUcnstein has never been sur- passed in Germany. It revealed a new Schiller to the world and to himself. Wallcnstein was a drama of the Thirty Years' War, of the inevitable conflict between the old order and the new, be- tween genius and duty, between love and loyalty. Schiller left Weimar resolved to put on the stage the tragedy of Mary of Scotland. Maria Stuart was elaborated during a visit to Goethe, in May, 1799, and acted in June, 1800. His work suffered constant interruption from ill health, but he had never shown such mastery of the technique of his craft as in llaria Stuart. The versification is smoother than in Wallcnstein, the arrangement moje artistic, the story more dramatically imfolded, but the conception is in- ferior and the ch.icf characters lack tragic depth. It is the pathos of Mary's fate more than its tragic necessity that impresses the spectator. Schiller now occasionally replaced Goethe in the management of the Weimar Court Theatre, and thus found occasion to adapt Shakespeare's Mac- beth to its needs. Traces of this work are ob- vious in his next 'romantic tragedy.' Die Jung- frau ron Orleans, an idealization of .loan of .rc, first acted in Leipzig, September 18, 1801. It was an unparalleled popular triumph, for it ac- corded with the romantic taste. It is now less admired. In the autumn of 1801 Schiller visited Dresden and was so attracted to ideals of classic art, by what he saw in its nniseums. that his nejrt drama. Die Brant ron Messina, was severely classical in sti'ucture and conception. It was not completed until 1S0.3. Herein relentless Nemesis appears in awful simplicity. In stateliness and dignity of diction, in classic irony, the drama is supreme in Germany, but it did not win popular applause. Uefore Die Braut von .Messina had been acted, M'ilbclm Tell, Schiller's last drama, was already well advanced, and two plays had been adapted from the French of Picard ( /v'licorc des .l/< «r<7i- nics as Der Xeffe als Unlcel and .Mediocre et Warn- pant as Dcr Parasit). Meantime Schiller had been ennobled. He was glad of it "for I.olo's and the children's sake." Work on the final form of Tell was begun in August. 1803, and the play was finished in February. 1804, after nuich study for effects of "local color' and interruptions from the insatiable, inquisitive Madame dc Stael, whose society, he told (ioethe, was 'sun'oeating.' Her departure from Weimar made him feel "as though he had recovered from a severe illness." Tell is sharply differentiated from all that goes before. Here success crowns a .sane activity, fate yields to will, the visionary reformer of Die Riiuber and Don Carlos has become a [jractical realist. This growing serenity well befits the poet's last work and crowning achievement. The story of the Swiss hero struck a patriotic chord, for Germany was then on the eve of her deepest humiliation. No German drama had before nor has since produced so deep or enduring an im- pression. Schiller was invited to Berlin and royally Avelcomed. Prosb"ated by illness on his return, he did little during some months of suf- fering but sketch out Demetrius, a drama taken from Russian history, showing that his power of tragic conception and dramatic execution was at its highest at his untimely death in Weimar, May 9, 1805. Bibliography. Schiller's complete works have been best edited by Goedeke (Stuttgart, 1807-76), and by Boxberger and Birlinger in Kiirsehner's Deutsche Xational-Litteratur (Berlin. 1S82-91). Useful also is the Hempel edition Ijy Boxberger and Von Maltzahn (Berlin. lSOS-74) ; the poems are edited by Viehoff i lith ed., Stuttgart, 1887). An English translation appeared in Bohn'a Li- brary (London, 1846-49). Consult the biog- raphies bv Karoline von Wolzogcn (Stuttgart and Tubingen, 1830). Viehoff (Stuttgart, 1875), Diintzer (Leipzig, 1881; Eng. trans., London, 1883), Brahm (Berlin, 1888), Minor (Berlin, 1890) ; and those in English by Carlyle (London, 1825), Bulwer-Lytton (ib.. 1844), Sime in Foreign Classics (Edinburgh, 1885), Ncvinson in Great Writers Series (ib., 1889), Thomas (London, 1902). Consult also Schiller's corre- spondence with Goethe (Stuttgart, 1881), Hum- boldt (ib.. 1876), his wife, Charlotte von Schil- ler, and her sister (ib.. 1879). Kiirner (new ed., ib., 1895-90). For critical studies, see Kuno Fischer, Schiller, Drei Vorlesungen (Frankfort, 1858-61): id., Friedrich Schiller: Akademisclte Festrede (Leipzig. 1860) ; the curious collection of contemporary criticisms in Braun. Schiller und Goethe, Vrlheilc ihrcr Zeitiicnossen ( Berlin, 1882) ; and the following monographs: Belling, Die Metrik Schillers (Breslau. 1883) : Ueberweg, Schiller als Uistoriker und Philosoph (Leipzig, 1SS4): Fielitz, Studien xu Schillers Dramen (ib.. ISSfil : Koster, Schiller als Dramalurg (ib.. IMIO); Bellerman. Schillers Dramen (2d ed.. Berlin. 1897-98) : Bulthaupt. Dramaturgic (9th ed.. Oldenburg. 1902). Translations of Schiller's lyrics by IMerivale (London, 1844), Bowring (ib., 1851). and Lytton (ib.. 1887) are note- worthy, as is Coleridge's condensed version of