WALLENSTEIN. This work of Schiller
is a massive drama in 10 acts artificially so
divided that the first part, called the “Piccolomini,” with the introductory poem called “The Camp,” is about as long as the second part called “The Death of Wallenstein.” It is often wrongly called a trilogy, nor is it strictly right to speak of a “Piccolomini” tragedy. Its central theme is the revolt of the imperial general-in-chief against Kaiser Ferdinand II which led to the defection of his troops and his assassination on the night of 25 Feb. 1634. The tragedy was the outgrowth of studies for Schiller's
‘History of the Thirty Years' War,’ the first
part of which appeared in 1791, but the mass
of historical detail was so enormous that it
was not completed till 12 Oct 1798, after two
years of intensive work. It is the first, perhaps
the greatest, work of the mature Schiller, whose study of æsthetic principles and the philosophy of Kant, of Shakespeare's dramas, of which he translated Macbeth, along with the counsel of his new friend Goethe, made him realize in contrast with his earlier subjective work that strict objectivity is the fundamental law of the highest art. He no longer identifies himself with his favorite character and the hero becomes a stern, though intensely human, inordinately ambitious character of the Napoleonic type, yet lacking the Corsican's impetuous initiative.
Although Schiller was not a scientific
historian he divined the nature of the real
Wallenstein in spite of prejudiced and defective
sources. The general who had conquered
Protestant Germany and laid it prostrate at the feet
of the kaiser, only to be supinely dismissed by
his weak master, has been recalled from private
life to save Ferdinand's throne from the
successful Swedes. He is beaten at Lützen by
Gustavus Adolphus, who loses his life. Retiring
to Bohemia he wastes valuable time in
negotiations pointing to the end of the war, until
the emperor, alarmed at the capture of Regensburg, orders and implores his stubborn, perhaps already disloyal, general to drive back the enemy. It is winter and Wallenstein refuses. He summons his generals, who pledge him their support, which action is misconstrued at Vienna. Secret orders relieving the soldiers of their obedience are sent to Octavio Piccolomini and amid the general defection Wallenstein flees to Eger, where he is assassinated.
Wallenstein was a realist without faith in
the noble side of human nature. For him
every man has a price. Originally faithful to
the kaiser, he learns to despise him after the
disgrace of his dismissal and transfers his
allegiance, as Schiller makes it, to an ideal of
Germany; but his enemies claimed he sought
the crown of Bohemia. His dictator's power
and his negotiations with the Protestant states
caused him to toy with the idea of treason but
he lacked the resolution to cross his Rubicon
and vacillated; this Schiller has finely delineated
in Wallenstein's devotion to astrology and
his waiting for the right conjunction of the
stars. He underestimates the power of the
ideal to which Schiller gave concrete expression
in his creation of the roles of the lovers, Max
Piccolomini and the general's daughter, Thekla, neither of whom ever existed. In a certain sense the ideality of these two pure souls destroys Wallenstein at the critical moment when it is thinkable that Max's example would have saved the general. Some critics have condemned the Max and Thekla scenes, but unjustly, for they represent a part of the moral force by which even the elder Piccolomini was undoubtedly animated even though he too is urged on by motives of ambition and a disloyalty to his trusting friend, strongly suggestive of Judas Iscariot. However, it would be wrong to regard Piccolomini merely as a stage villain. He is the living representative of the opposition, of those forces which are concretely expressed by Kaiser Ferdinand, his ministers and
the imperial state. Another remarkable
creation of Schiller's is the Gräfin Terzky, whose
admiration for her brother-in-law is more nearly
love and whose intrigues as a sort of female
Mephistopheles or Lady Macbeth reveal the
ambitious and treasonable side of Wallenstein's
character as in a mirror.