General characterization--Preparatory studies--Difficulties of the subject--Study of Sophocles and Aristotle--Decision in favor of verse--Completion of the play--'Wallenstein's Camp'--The historical Wallenstein--Schiller's artistic achievement--Character of the hero--His impressiveness--Effect of contrast--Octavio Piccolomini--Max Piccolomini--Max and Thekla--Lyrical passages--Absence of humor and irony.
Genesis of the play--Schiller's removal to Weimar--'Mary Stuart' characterized--The fundamental difficulty--Unhistorical inventions--Effect of these--The meeting of the queens--Character of Elizabeth--Romantic tendencies--Mary conceived as a purified sufferer--Pathos of the conclusion--Ugly portrait of Elizabeth accounted for--The historical background--Dramatic qualities--Character of Mortimer.
Variety in Schiller's work--Genesis of 'The Maid of Orleans'--Schiller's Johanna--Miraculous elements--Attitude of the critics--Difficulty of the subject--Johanna's tragic guilt--Her supernatural power--The scene with Lionel--Schiller's poetic intention--A drama of patriotism--The subordinate characters--Excellence of the composition.
Genesis of the play--General characterization--Disagreement of the critics--Relation to Sophocles--Substance of the plot--Ancients and moderns--Fate and responsibility--Schiller's invention--Unnaturalness of the action--Strange conduct of Don Manuel, Beatrice and the mother--Lavish use of silence--Schiller's contempt of realism--Don Cesar's expiatory death the real tragedy--Use of the fate idea--Apologia for the chorus--Poetic splendor.
'Tell' and 'The Robbers'--General characterization--Genesis--Attention to local color--An interruption--Success on the stage--The theme of 'Tell'--A drama of freedom--The play intensely human--Goodness of the exposition--Departures from usual method--Character of Tell--The apple-shooting scene--The scene in the 'hollow way'--Tell's long soliloquy--Introduction of Parricida--Bertha and Rudenz.
The End.--Unfinished Plays and Adaptations
A Russian theme chosen--Berlin negotiations--Work on 'Demetrius'--'The Homage of the Arts'--Last illness and death--The unfinished 'Demetrius'--The historical Dmitri--The original plan modified--Character of the hero--Poetic promise of 'Demetrius'--'Warbeck'--'The Princess of Celle'--'The Knights of Malta'--Other unfinished plays--Adaptation of 'Egmont'--Of 'Nathan the Wise'--Of 'Macbeth'--Of 'Turandot'--Interest in the French drama--Adaptations from the French.