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after a weary period of suspense, hoping to have the drama of "Fiesko," the second of his productions, accepted for the stage-a piece of good fortune which would have filled their exhausted purse

formed; but the Duke regarded with ignorance - he fled by night from Stutthorror not only its sentiments but its gard under cover of the festivities which composition, in which all unities were celebrated a royal visit. To the credit ruthlessly disregarded. He was, how-of the Duke, however, it must be added ever, we are told, kind enough to offer that, though keeping up all his life a his own services as critic to the young show of displeasure against the poet, poet, and was, on the whole, not too hard who no doubt had sadly disappointed as upon him to begin with, recommending well as thwarted him, he neither athim to confine himself to medical sub- tempted to visit that displeasure upon his jects, or at least to consult his gracious father, nor even took any steps against patron before writing any more poetry. the deserter himself. All the sufferings There scarcely seems in this sufficient of the melancholy interval that followed ground to warrant the panic with which were brought about by pure panic on Schiller was seized somewhat later, and Schiller's side, not by any actual unkindwhich impelled his flight to Mannheim, ness on the part of the Duke, who where he was attracted by delusive hopes henceforward never really appears in the of court patronage, and an open field for poet's history again. his dramatic powers. To be sure, the The story of his wanderings in discritic duke had by this time come to may, and poverty, and fright, for some sterner orders, forbidding the poet, un-time after, is told by a faithful compander pain of military imprisonment, either ion called Streicher, a young musician to write anything poetic, or to communi- who accompanied him, and seems to cate the same to foreign persons." The have been to Schiller the most devoted of latter stipulation referred to the produc- friends. They went to Mannheim, where, tion on the stage at Mannheim of "The Robbers." This tyrannical order gave the last crown to Schiller's fears and grievances. Yet, hard as was such usage on the poor young poet, the reader can scarcely refrain from a certain whimsical sympathy with the Duke, thus deprived of the delight of possessing a poet of his own to criticize and command, and drive into the ways that We are told that, during this pleased him-just at the moment, too, miserable interval, poor Schiller, now when Karl August at Weimar had his calling himself Dr. Schmidt, now Dr. Goethe in leash, and when a poet began Ritter, could not, nevertheless, resist the to be a thing which it was the fashion to temptation of asking at the booksellers' have about a court! If Schiller had shops about the popularity of "The been a little more complaisant and per- Robbers;" and when he heard it apsuadable, what might not the result have plauded, naïvely confessing himself to be been for the glory of Würtemburg, the the author, notwithstanding that it was Karls-schule, and royal Karl himself, the the cause of his present evil plight! patron of the same? We cannot but The friends were often reduced almost feel that this poor duke had a grievance to desperation, and now and then driven on his side. Schiller's position, how- wild with panic, as when mysterious ruever, became gradually more and more mours reached them of a Würtemberger painful, and, in his own eyes, untenable. who had been seen making inquiries He made various applications to be dis- after the poet, and whom imagination charged from the service, but without immediately concluded to be an emissary effect. He had before his eyes the ex- of the Duke, though he turned out to be ample of the poet Schubart, who had lan- a most innocent acquaintance, anxious guished for years in prison in conse- to be of use to Schiller. The poet's quence of literary offences; and a mix-misery was brought to a climax, however, ture of exasperation and panic wound by the rejection of "Fiesko," which left him up at last to an important step. In the pair of friends at once penniless and sadness and poverty, and much fright for hopeless, stranded in a strange place, the possible consequences, he resolved and with no apparent resource left open to make his escape from Würtemburg; to them. The only refuge left for Schiland after a sad secret parting from his ter was in the absolute retirement of the mother and sisters the poor old father, country-house of one of his friends, from prudential motives, being kept in where he accordingly went in November,

the two fugitives, still in terror of being pursued, wandered about the country, lurking under false names, and waiting wearily for the good news that never came.

after a dreary suspense of more than three of these earliest friends; and the other months. He was twenty-three. His life Charlotte, afterwards Madame von Kalb, was cut short and interrupted in all its who was for a long time his inspiration, former channels. He was separated was also closely connected with the famfrom his home, his family, his associa- ily at Bauerbach. Before, however, be tions, all that was dear to him, with debts had entered this magic circle, one or two behind him, penury and solitude and passing inclinations had already flitted semi-dependence before him, and noth- across his firmament. The Frau Vischer ing to console him but the poetry for of Stuttgard had supplied his verses which he suffered, and those fanciful with a Laura, and Margarette Schwann, companions of whom his brain was full. the daughter of the Mannheim bookseller, He was eight months in this solitude of led him to the length of a proposal. Bauerbach, where he arrived half frozen Other vagrant loves came and went like in the middle of a hard German winter, doves to the open windows of the poet's a fugitive and exile. Poor melancholy heart. He was always ready, it would youth the fantastical and apparently seem, to acknowledge the attractions of unnecessary character of this self-ban- a new heroine; but a certain admixture ishment does not diminish the painful- of friendship, real if somewhat sentiness of it. But he had the tragedy of mental, in all these little episodes, seems "Kabale und Liebe" in hands, and thus to have given safety to both the worshiphad a consolation beyond the power of pers and the worshipped; for the poet was deeply tender and affectionate, rather than impassioned. The running accompaniment of these tender friendships sustained his life, but no woman seems to have owed either scathe or scorn to Schiller. No fatal quarrels or embittered hearts marked his gentle progress through this troublesome world.

Fate.

His consolation was turned into joy when the lady of the house, the Frau von Wolzogen, and her beautiful young daughter, arrived at Bauerbach. Then a new and delightful domestic circle was formed for the young poet. Here was his first Lotte-if not his first, yet one of his first loves; indeed, en tout bien During his stay in Bauerbach the third et tout honneur, Schiller, it is evident, of his youthful dramas, "Luise Millerin,” was gently and delightfully in love, not or, as it was afterwards entitled," Kabale only with the daughter, but with the und Liebe," was finished. It was a not mother, an accomplished and tender- unfitting completion to this part of his hearted woman. It seems to have life. The master-note of conflict against continued to be his lot through life to the injustices and inequalities of life, conceive a certain enthusiasm for every which had been struck so strongly in gracious and graceful lady with whom he "The Robbers," and which had run was thrown into close intercourse. through the historical plot of “ Fiesko,” Nothing, however, could be more un- vibrated perhaps more warmly than ever like the Goethe fashion of love than in the domestic tale of "Luise Millerin," these gentle and delicate relations. The in which a reflection of his own personal society of women appears to have been troubles is to be found. The story is that a first necessity of life to Schiller, as it of a young noble who loves the humble is to all men of sensitive organizations; daughter of a musician, and for her is and he had the good fortune to interest a ready to sacrifice everything. This youth succession of women, whose companion- is destined by his noble and ambitious ship was elevating and profitable. The father to build up his fortunes by marryWolzogens made him very happy at ing the mistress of the reigning highness. Bauerbach, though not without episodes By the inconceivable baseness of this of that extreme misery which is in itself, ambition Schiller hurled his worst thunwhen we are young, a species of enjoy- derbolt at the Highnesses and Wellborn ment; for indeed he was compelled after Barons, who had wrought him mickle a time to allow himself to be convinced woe. There is much that is touching in that the pretty young Lotte had fixed her the picture of the lover's despair, espe thoughts upon some one else, and that cially when we look upon it as inspired by not for him was that tear of farewell the young poet's own sense of the gulf which he had so joyfully appropriated as which separated from him one sweet a symptom of dawning love. The Wal- Lotte and another, high well-born maidzogens, however, never ceased to influ- ens, above a poet's rank, who was but the ence and effect him. His future wife, son of poor old Captain Schiller, and had Charlotte von Lengefeld, was a relation as yet no scrap of nobility to wrap him

The

self in. When his Ferdinand demands | Less than a year after his arrival there, indignantly, if his "patent of nobility is he received a bundle of letters and presmore ancient or of more authority than ents which had, a little later, a great the primeval scheme of the universe," it effect upon his life. "Some days ago," is clear that all Schiller's indignant he writes, "I met with a very flattering young soul speaks in him. Thus, after and agreeable surprise. There came to he has struck wildly at the inequalities me, out of Lepizig, from unknown hands, of ordinary existence, the "spurns which four parcels and as many letters, written patient merit from the unworthy takes," with the highest enthusiasm towards me, the suffering of the poor and the tyran- and overflowing with poetical devotion. nies of the rich, the bitter disappoint- They were accompanied by four miniament of those who rely upon the compre- ture portraits, two of which are of very hension of their fellows, in the first beautiful young ladies, and by a pocketwork; and upon the horrors of tyranny, book sewed in the finest taste." and self-deceptions of ambition in the writers of these letters and originals of second; he comes to those social diffi- the portraits were two pairs of betrothed culties which give to all distinctions of lovers in Lepizig, one couple of whom class their sharpest pang, in the drama were the future parents of the poet which brings the first youthful chapter of Körner. They were all young, overflowhis history to a conclusion. It is in this ing with German sentimentality and enepisode that the reader will have most sym-thusiasm, and their chance offerings of pathy with the young poet; for, indeed, youthful admiration laid the ground of a it is always hard upon a young man when solid and life-long friendship. Schiller cruel fate separates him from his Lotte made no immediate reply; but he was - and minds which have little patience with the vague struggle of youthful rebellion against constituted authority and the force of circumstance, may yet feel the misery of the separated lovers, who can be united only by death. At the same time, Schiller never made a more tremendous assault upon the depravity of his age than when he opposed to his fine and beautiful plebeian heroine the ambitious project of Ferdinand's father, and the shameful marriage which was to form the foundation of the young noble's fortune. "The Robbers" itself contains no such trenchant blow.

These two tragedies so far confirmed the poet's fame that his retirement at Bauerbach ended by a call to Mannheim, where, in September 1783, he was settled as theatre-poet, a post he had long aspired to, and in which he had a small but certain income, and a position befitting his fame. His terrors in respect of his ancient sovereign were set at naught by his naturalization as a subject of the Elector-Palatine, and also by his election as a member of the German Society, which included many of the most inflential personages in Germany. He was thus placed in the position of all others best adapted, one would suppose, for the cultivation of poetry and an intellectual life. But he was poor-and he was alone, which was worse and, notwithstanding that his dramas were produced under his own superintendence, and his life full of mental activity, he seems to have languished in the intellectual city.

charmed and touched by the frank homage and offer of affection; and when, some months later, some of the disgusts of life took hold of his visionary soul, he suddenly fell back upon his unknown friends, as it is so great a relief and comfort to do, and answered them with full response of the heart, accepting their overtures and throwing himself upon their friendship. A few months after this, in March 1785, he followed his letters, and appeared in the midst of this band of friends in Lepizig, whither a short time after he followed Körner and his bride to Dresden. For the four or five following years he lived in their constant society, finding in it all his pleasure; nor was it until in one of his summer wanderings he had met with his future wife that he ceased almost to belong to the Körner family. His friendship for them continued without intermission all his life; and though warmer individual ties and final establishment in life removed him from the constant intercourse and unity of those youthful years, the bond of affection was never broken. The following letter, written to Huber, who was the fourth of his correspondents, before his arrival in Dresden, gives an amusing glimpse into the domestic details of the poet's existence :

In my new establishment at Leipzig I purpose to avoid one error which has plagued me a great deal here in Mannheim. It is this: no longer to conduct my own housekeeping, and also no longer to live alone. The former is not by any means a business I excel in. It

costs me less to execute a whole conspiracy in | gathered about the tender and gentle soul five acts, than to settle my domestic arrange- wherever he went. ments for a week; and poetry, you yourself know, is but a dangerous assistant in calculations of economy. My mind is drawn different ways; I fall headlong out of my ideal

world if a holed stocking reminds me of the real world.

In 1787 Schiller made another change. He went to Weimar with the completed drama of "Don Carlos," and — varying the monotony by summer expeditions in the country and long sojournings in RuAs to the other point, I require for my dolstadt, sometimes prolonged beyond private happiness to have a true warm friend the summer, for the society of his final that would be ever at my hand, like my better and permanent Lotte, his future wife — angel, to whom I could communicate my new-remained between Weimar and Jena for est ideas in the very act of conceiving them, almost all the remainder of his life. not waiting to transmit them, as at present, by Weimar was not the abode of the Muses, letters or long visits. Nay, when this friend which it had been and afterwards was, at of mine lives beyond the four corners of my that unpropitious moment. The royal house; the trifling circumstance that in order Mæcenas was absent, Goethe was in to reach him I must cross the street, dress myself, and so forth, will of itself destroy the Italy, and the new poet received but a enjoyment of the moment, and the train of my doubtful reception from the lesser lumithoughts is torn to pieces before I see him. naries in that literary heaven. Finally, Schiller obtained a professorship at Jena and settled there; and in the beginning of 1790, having acquired an income as well as a chair, (which was not the case immediately on his appointment), he was made happy by his marriage with Malle. von Lengefeld, whom he had sought for three years, and for whose society he had gladly abandoned that of duchesses and poets. A happier marriage, it is apparent, never was. Lotte seems to have possessed all the tender sentimentalism of the German character, along with a fine and cultivated intelligence; and in no point could there be a greater contrast between the two great German poe s than that which might be drawn between the I want nothing but a bedroom, which might noble and sweet wife who dignified and also be my working-room, and another cham-made happy the home of Schiller, and the ber for receiving visits. The house-gear commonplace termagant who succeeded necessary for me are: a good chest of drawers, to all that was left of Goethe's well-worn a desk, a bed and sofa, a table, and a few affections. The Egoist fared according chairs. With these conveniences my accom-to the nature of such-the true and modation were sufficiently provided for.

Observe you, my good fellow, these are petty matters; but petty matters often have the weightiest result in the management of life. I know myself better than perhaps a thousand mothers' sons know themselves: I understand how much, and frequently how little, I require to be completely happy. The question therefore is: Have I got this wish of my heart fulfilled in Leipzig?

If it were possible that I could make a lodgment with you, all my cares on that head will be removed. I am no bad neighbour, as perhaps you imagine. I have pliancy enough to suit myself to another, and here and there, withal, a certain knack, as Yorick says, at helping to make lives merrier and better. Failing this, if you find me any person that would undertake my small economy, everything would still be well.

I cannot live on the ground-floor, nor close by the ridge-tile; also my windows positively

must not look into the churchyard. I love men, and therefore like their bustle. If I cannot so arrange it that we (meaning the quintuple alliance) shall mess together, I would engage at the table d'hôte of the inn: for I had rather fast than eat without company, large, or else particularly good.

Thus homely, sociable, and friendly was the poet's notion of life no solemnity of gloomy abstraction found a place in him. He who would "rather fast than eat without company," and whose happiness depends upon "a true warm friend ever at hand," is, coldhearted as this world may be, little likely to be left without the fellowship he loves; and accordingly, friends seemed to have

gentle lover won at last a prize worthy of him. And henceforward Schiller's heart, heretofore perhaps slightly volage and given to general admiration, went no more astray. He was at length thoroughly and steadily happy, so far as the inner circle of the affections was concerned.

During this period he produced few great poetical works. His activity was ceaseless, and necessarily so, for he had not so far conquered Fortune as to command the necessary Enough without countless and diversified labours. He had his "Thalia"-a dramatic journal which gave him more trouble than payand a share in other periodical labours; he wrote much admirable prose - Philosophical Letters, the "Geisterseher," and his History of the Netherlands - besides

reviews and many another piece of lite-death called forth immense sympathy and rary work, such as in these days we call actual aid, which was of the greatest pot-boilers; as every man who makes service to him. In Denmark a few of literature his profession must calculate his devoted admirers had been about to upon doing; but, except his "Carlos" hold a fête in his honour, which was conand a few of his shorter poems, produced verted, when the mistaken message of no notable work in his proper medium of evil arrived, into "obsequies for the poetry. In addition to all this toil he dead," performed by "shepherds and had his lectures to prepare, which he shepherdesses in procession, bearing commenced in an altogether ambitious garlands of flowers," and by horns and way by an introduction bearing the title, flutes softly performing symphonies, "What is universal history, and with while his " Hymn to Joy" was sung; what views should it be studied?" "Per- with a great many other sentimental haps," says Carlyle, "there has never fooleries of enthusiasm. This poetical been in Europe another course of history carnival of tears and song lasted three sketched out on principles so magnificent days, the quaintest serio-comic performand philosophical." The study of history ance — though the actors in it seem to seems at this time to have attracted him have been deliciously unconscious of its strongly, as did also that of philosophy absurdity. But the foolish celebration under the inspiration of Kant, whose had a good issue, in an annual tribute of system laid a strong hold upon the poet's a thousand gulden offered by two of the imaginative and sensitive soul; and he poetical rioters to the resuscitated poet, followed out with delight many specula- which secured him leisure and comfort tions upon the principles of art and its for three years. His own Duke, the Mæmoral influences, the aesthetical branch of cenas of Weimar, came to his aid in a the Kantian philosophy, and produced similar way at a later period; and though various essays on these subjects which, the income thus secured to him was as matters not essential to his fame as a small, according to our estimate, it was poet, or especially belonging to our pres- enough to lift him beyond the necessity ent subject, we need not dwell upon. of enforced labour, a blessed freedom for These speculations, if they did not injure the man of genius without either health his genius, at least retarded his poetical or fortune, with so much yet to do in this work. They made him less ready to world, and so little time to do it. But engage in that process of composition for this generous and timely aid, the which he had anatomized. He himself heavenly vision of the Maid of Orleans, admits that "the boldness, the living the noble figure of Wallenstein, might glow which I felt before a rule was known never have been added to the possessions

to me, have for several years been want- of the world. ing. I now see myself," he adds, "create His great work "Wallenstein" origiand form: I watch the play of inspira-nated in this tranquil period after his illtion; and my fancy, knowing she is not without a witness of her movements, no longer moves with equal freedom." Had it not been that Schiller's greatest works were produced after this philosophical | check had been put to the free stream of his imagination, we should have said that the effect must have been evil; but in face of the facts no such assertion can be made.

These studies, however, and the immense flood of general work in which he was plunged, were brought to a sudden pause by a severe illness which he had very shortly after his marriage, and by which the seeds of permanent disease were sown in him. He never seems to have been perfectly well after, though he had still some fifteen years of noble exertion to go through, and all his finest works were yet unwritten. His illness, however. and the false rumour of his

ness, when pecuniary ease was his for the first time in his life, and when, after long trial and banishment, he was at last able to return to his native district and refresh himself by renewed intercourse with all that he loved. It is pleasant to think that this new baptism of the fresh Swabian air, the sight of his old father, his longing and patient mother, and his little sisters who had grown during his long absence into women, strengthened the poet for labour worthy of him. His historical studies had led him to seek a subject in the real annals of his country, and his philosophical tastes had drawn him towards a hero of such character and position as should call forth all his knowledge of human motives and principles. The young paladin of romance was no longer in Schiller's way; his tender poetical hero, torn asunder by a melancholy love, struggling against parental in