Wallenstein was followed in 1800 by Maria Stuart, a tragedy, which, in spite of its great popularity in and outside of Germany, is not one of his best. Finer in every way is the "romantic tragedy," Die Jungfrau von Orleans 0800. The resplendent mediaeval colouring of the subject, the heroic character of Joan of Arc, gave Schiller an admirable opportunity for the display of his rich imagination and rhetorical gifts; and by an ingenious altera tion of the historical tradition he was able to make the drama a vehicle for his own moral idealism. Between this drama and its successor, Die Braut von Messina, Schiller translated and adapted to his classic ideals Shakespeare's Macbeth (I8oi ) and Gozzi's Turandot (1802). With Die Braut von Messina (1803) he ex perimented with a tragedy on purely Greek lines, this drama being as close an approximation to ancient tragedy as its mediaeval and Christian milieu permitted. The introduction of a chorus detracted from the value of the tragedy for the theatre, but it appealed par ticularly to Schiller's genius. In the poet's last completed drama, Wilhelm Tell (1804), he once more, as in Wallenstein, chose a historical subject involving wide issues. Wilhelm Tell is the drama of the Swiss people; its subject is less the personal fate of its hero than the struggle of a nation to free itself from tyranny. It was an attempt to win for the German drama a new field, to widen the domain of dramatic poetry. Besides writing Tell, Schil ler had found time in 1803 and 1804 to translate two French com edies by Picard, and to prepare a German version of Racine's Phedre ; and in the last months of his life he began a new tragedy, Demetrius, which gave promise of being another step forward in his poetic achievement. But Demetrius remains a fragment of hardly two acts.
Schiller died at Weimar on May 9, 1805. His last years were darkened by constant ill-health; and indeed it is marvellous that he was able to achieve so much. A visit to Leipzig in 1801, and to Berlin in 1804, were the chief outward events of his later years. He was ennobled in 1802. Schiller's art, with its broad, clear lines, its unambiguous moral issues, and its enthusiastic optimism, has appealed with peculiar force to the German people, especially in periods of political despondency. But since the re-establishment
of the German empire in 1871 there has been a certain waning of his popularity, the Germans of to-day realizing that Goethe more fully represents the aspirations of the nation. In point of fact, Schiller's genius lacks that universality which characterizes Goethe's; as a dramatist, a philosopher, an historian, and a lyric poet, he was the exponent of ideas which belong essentially to the Europe of the period before the French revolution.
first edition of Schiller's Sdmtliche Werke appeared in 1812-15 in 12 vols. Of the countless subsequent editions mention need only be made here of the Historisch-kritische Ausgabe by K. Goedeke (15 vols., 1867-76). Good modern editions are the Sakularausgabe, edited by E. von der Hellen and others (17 vols., 1904-05) and that edited by 0. GUntter and G. Witkowsky (2o vols., 1904-11). A critical edition of Schiller's Briefe was published by F. Jonas (7 vols. 1892-96).
The chief biographies of Schiller are the following: T. Carlyle, Life of Friedrich Schiller (1824, German translation with an introduction by Goethe, 2830) ; E. Palleske, Schillers Leben and Werke (1858-59, 14th ed. 1894, Eng. trans. 1885) ; H. Viehoff, Schillers Leben (1875, new ed. 1888) ; J. Sime, Schiller (1882) ; R. Weltrich, F. Schiller (vol. i., 1890) ; 0. Brahm, Schiller (vols. i. ii., 1888-92) ; J. Minor, Schiller, sein Leben und seine Werke (vols. i.–ii., 1890) ; 0. Harnack, Schiller (1898, 2nd ed. 1905) ; C. Thomas, Life and Works of Schiller (19oi) ; K. Berger, Schiller (1905-09: 9th ed., 1917) ; E. Kiihnemann, Schiller (1905: Eng. transl., 1912). See further: V. Basch, La Poetique de Schiller (1902) ; L. Bellermann, Schillers Dramen: Beitriige zu ihrem Verstdndnis (2 vols., 1888-91; 4th ed., 1908) ; A. Koster, Schiller als Dramaturg (1891) ; K. Fischer, Schiller-Schriften (1891-92) ; J. W. Braun, Schiller im Urteile seiner Zeitgenossen (3 vols., 1882) ; J. G. Robertson, Schiller after a Century (1905) ; Schiller's Gespreiche, ed. by J. Petersen 0910 ; M. Hecker and J. Petersen, Schillers Perstinlichkeit, 3 vols. (1907-09) ; A. Ludwig, Schiller und Die Deutsche Nachwelt (1909). For a complete bibliography see Goedeke's Grundriss, vol. v.
(J. G. R.)