2. Schiller's Development

Chapters I-VIII missing

IX.

This clearly shows what attracted the poet and primarily occupied him.

When he set about his robbers in 1777, it may therefore have been the following factors that influenced him. 1. A degenerate time - the idea of something better, of freedom and natural morality, gave the piece its content. 2. His suffering, which he had to endure from society, gave the piece the character of the energetic. 3. His reading led him to endow everything with a certain Titanismus. For it is precisely the works of the Sturm und Drang period that are characterized by that last trait, by that Titanismus, which manifests itself in curses and imprecations. 4. Finally, something else influenced the character of his early works. That was his medical studies. Although it is certain that Schiller never achieved anything in law, if these assertions are also extended to his medical studies, then Schiller is very much wronged; he had even studied medicine very diligently. Indeed, he once made a firm resolution to study nothing but medicine for two years and to completely renounce poetry during that time.

Even if we didn't know that, Schiller's striving in relation to medicine is evident in his essay, which he defended upon his release from the Karlsschule in 1780: “On the Connection of Man's Animal Nature with His Spiritual Nature”. This essay had already been written by Schiller a year earlier under the title “Philosophy of Physiology”, but had been unfavorably assessed by one of his superiors at the time; however, in the end the same superior had to admit that “incidentally, the fiery execution of a completely new plan gives unmistakable proofs of the author's good and striking soul powers, and his all-searching spirit promises a truly enterprising [useful] scholar after the ended youthful fermentations.” The duke thought that in order to achieve the last expressed purpose, it would be good if Schiller would remain in the Karlsschule for another year.

After this somewhat longer excursion, the

[ breaks off, missing manuscript part]

storm howls your names of the rejected.

A feverish urge to picture out precisely that which the sense of beauty strives to withdraw from view. But even more striking is the imperfect command of expression; almost everywhere where the poet [tries] to present the thought sensually to the eye, he lapses into bombast; his sensuality is confused by brooding, his thought by medical notions.

It is a well-known fact that the destructive urge, the discomfort in poetic feeling, occurs long before agreement with the world. And so our young poet is always looking for destruction first.

In one of his earliest poetic attempts, still from 1775, it says:

We hardly slip out of our casket
Into this great wide madhouse
We greet the sun with a howl,
We feel all the misery ahead.

His first poem to be printed dates back to 1776. It is a beautiful presentation of beautiful thoughts, but where do they lead us? They lead us to that moment when there is no more time, when there is no more thing.

In 1777, Schiller imitated his beloved Schubart, who had quarreled with the conquerors in The Eternal Jew, and also worked these down, which Schubart was not a little delighted about.

Hell had its triumphal song, and Schiller was able to put curses and gruesome words into the mouths of the devils, in which he was so strong. The despotic monarchs were also properly belittled.

But soon something else would follow this destructive urge; after all, great poetic genius never reveals itself in the mere art of destruction. The poetry of love follows. Not of individual love for any person, but of a philosophical principle that he called love. A principle that holds the universe together, worlds with worlds, hope with despair, virtue and vice.

With love's wings, the future rushes
into the arms of the past,
Long seeks the fleeing Saturnus
His bride - eternity.

In his essay “On Naive and Sentimental Poetry”, he sought to enlighten himself theoretically through the theoretical presentation. The idea expressed in it is as follows. The poet either represents nature directly around him, in which case he is a naive poet, or he represents the opposition between nature and idea, in which case he is a sentimental poet. If he is more interested in nature, then he is a satirist, and either pathos-laden satire when he is critical, when he is serious; or, if he is cheerful, more in the realm of understanding than of will, then he is a jesting satirist. If the poet is more interested in the ideal, his poetry is elegiac. If he mourns the ideal, he is elegiac in the proper sense of the word; if he rejoices in the ideal, he is an idyllic poet. This is preceded by a philosophical consideration of the naive.

What is required of the naive is that nature should triumph over art, whether this happens against the knowledge and will of the person or with their full awareness. In the first case, it is the naive nature of surprise and amuses; in the second case, it is the naive nature of attitude and touches.

In an essay “On the Moral Utility of Aesthetic Customs,” he seeks to excuse himself for the earlier, too strongly expressed idea against aesthetic customs “in which taste, if not of genuine morality, is nevertheless beneficial to the legality of our behavior” - and these are [necessary] to consolidate the social classes.

In his treatise on the sublime, he suggests how man should behave in the sensual world without having to come into conflict with his morality.

XXVIII.

At the beginning of this epoch, Schiller had also been led to the study of antiquity. In fact, in his earlier years he had even wanted to learn Greek in order to be able to enjoy the art of this primitive people at the source, but Körner dissuaded him from this. The fruits of this work are translations – namely from the 2nd and 4th books of the Aeneid [and] Iphigenia in Aulis.

But it was also during this time that the artist created works that gave a poetic form to the thoughts expressed in his aesthetic writings.

In 1793, Schiller went to his homeland, where he stayed for several months.

He met Cotta and agreed with him on the magazine Die Horen – it was now the Horen that provided the opportunity for the iron alliance with Goethe. Humboldt had also become close friends with Schiller, and it was for this very reason that he had moved with his wife to Jena.

What Schiller sought in his aesthetic studies, he found in them, namely, where the bridge lies between the world of ideas and reality, in poetry. And to this he decided to return. —

His association with Goethe also contributed to this, and as early as 1795 Schiller wrote to Goethe, “the poet is the only true human being, and the best philosopher is only a caricature compared to him”. He saw Wilhelm Meister emerging before his eyes, and a decisive return to poetry followed. When he began Wallenstein in 1796, the publication of the Horen became a burden to him, and he gave it up in 1797. But he had already been concerned with the publication of a “Musenalmanach” in 1795 and had contacted the most important poets for this purpose. Schiller took charge of five volumes of it, but when he had completed Wallenstein in 1799, he also gave that up, seeing it as nothing more than a disruptive sideline. The Xenien by the two poets appeared in the Musenalmanach, along with Schiller's ballads, which surprised the world in 1797. In 1799, Schiller moved to Weimar to be closer to Goethe and the theater. In 1802, at the instigation of the Duke, he was ennobled by the Emperor.

Let us consider Schiller's shorter poems from the last period.

They were opened with the Reich der Schatten (The Empire of Shadows). This marked the beginning of a large series of poems that have been called philosophical poems. His philosophical research is also laid out in these poems.

But he also set down his historical research in a series of poems called the cultural-historical ones.

The latter include, for example, the walk. Here the poet skillfully manages to hide the fact that he starts from an idea. And we really see a whole series of magnificent landscape paintings in front of us. At the same time, however, we have also wandered through the course of humanity, initially in a united alliance with nature, then degraded by a false culture, and through a revolution, it restores its rights.

The Poem of the Four Ages of Man belongs here, and from there, quite nicely, a few others of Schiller's shorter poems. The third age takes us to the artificially formed Hellas, which is also the subject of the Greek gods. Similarly, only the Knights of St. John follow the Eleusinian Mysteries.