Schiller, the most beloved of German poets, was a native of the Duchy of Würtemberg. Abandoning the study of the law for that of medicine, he gave vent to his literary powers by writing the romantic drama of "The Robbers," produced in 1782. Meanwhile he had become regimental surgeon and was obliged to leave his regiment without permission in order to witness the performance. As a result he was put under arrest and involved in further trouble, fleeing at last into hiding, under a false name.
Drifting through the literary centers of Germany, studying history and writing drama the while, he came in 1787 to Weimar, where he was received kindly by the duke, Goethe's patron and friend, and soon after met Goethe himself. Through the latter's influence Schiller received a post at the University of Jena as professor of history, and devoted himself to that subject; his "History of the Thirty Years' War" belongs to this period.
By 1795 he had become intimate with Goethe and renewed his poetic work, his principal dramas and "The Song of the Bell," all belonging to this period. Of the former, "Maria Stuart" and "The Maid of Orleans" deserve high praise beside his masterpieces, the "Wallenstein" trilogy, and "Wilhelm Tell," his last and most popular play.
His character was noble and lovable, and his work possesses a high finish in style and a lofty vein of idealism which gives it a resemblance to those passages and plays of Shakespeare in which princes and potentates appear. He was a lover of the Bard of Avon and translated several of his plays into German. But Schiller did not attempt the many-sided portrayal of life that was Shakespeare's forte; for him the presentation of high ideals and a majestic plot involving the great motives of human action was sufficient.
Yet his thought is not so profound as Goethe's, and its expression, on the other hand, is not so simple. The story of Margaret's tragedy, in "Faust," is bare as compared with the plots of "Tell" or "Maria Stuart" and the character development therein; but the lesson which Goethe drove home to the hearts of men was more forcible than any of Schiller's.
THE MAN
1. What terms of intimacy existed between Goethe and Schiller? VIII, 182.
2. Was his education calculated to fit him for the calling of a poet?
3. Was Jean Paul Richter right in supposing Schiller to be of a strong nature? VIII, 175.
4. What was the nature of his connection with Jena?