The first volume of his History of the Revolt of the .Netherlands appeared in 1788, and added greatly to his reputation, it obtained for him the more solid advantage of a permanent settlement in life.
A vacancy having taken place in the professorship of history in the university of Jena, by the resignation of Professor Eichorn, Goethe (whose dislike to Schil ler terminated in a warm friendship) recommended him to Amelia, the regent of and along with Voigt, the head chaplain of the court, he solicited for him the vacant chair. This application having been seconded by the general voice, Schiller received the appointment and went to Jena in 1789. In the February following he married the Fraulein Lengefeld, and entered upon a new era in his life.
Thus occupied with the study of history as his pro fession, he devoted himself to the composition of a History of the Thirty Years War, which he published in 1791, and which is deemed in Germany his chef d'ceuvre in history. Soon after the appearance of this work Schiller was seized with a disorder in the chest, which, though its violence was overcome, never quitted him during the rest of his life. The duties of his class were discharged by proxy, and he was obliged to abandon all his historical studies. In this distressing condition a ray of benevolence shone upon him from an unexpected quarter. The hereditary prince, now reigning Duke of Holstein Augustenburg, conjunctly with the Count Von Schimmelman, conferred on him a pension of a thousand crowns for three years, under no other condition than that he should be careful of his health, and make every exertion I'M' its recovery. The delicacy and politeness with which this act of ge nerosity was proferred, touched Schiller more than even the gift itself.
When the violence of his disease had abated, Schil ler turned his thoughts into a new channel of specula tion,—the study of the Kantian philosophy, a subject which had agitated all Germany. The views which he was led to take of this subject have been published in various treatises, the most elaborate of which are the essays on Grace and Dignity, on Naive and Senti mental Poetry; the Letters on the .Esthetic Culture of Man; on Magic .drt; ou the'Pathetic; on the Cause of our Delight in Tragic Objects; on Employing the Lou! and C0712712071 in .drt.
After conceiving and abandoning a design of writing an epic poem, of which Gustavus Adolphus was to be the subject, he again returned to the drama, and re solved to compose his Wallenstcin. In 1793 he gave up his Thalia, and, with the assistance of Goethe, he began a new periodical work, under the title of Horen. He also undertook the superintendence of the Musen .12lnzailach, a kind of work very common in Germany, the object of which is to preserve and publish annual ly a series of short poetical effusions collected from va rious quarters. The was celebrated by a collection of epigrams called the Xenien or Xenia, a sort of German Dunciad, directed against the bad taste, dulness, and affectation, of a set of inferior au thors who had viewed with a jealous eye the union of two such men as Goethe and Schiller. Although the Xenia were never completed, yet the part which did ap pear excited a great commotion among the dull malig nants against whom they were directed. The Musen
.121manach, in which they appeared in 1797, was con tinued till Schiller left Jena, and the Horen ceased some months before.
The great work of IVallenstein, at which, he had been busy for seven years, at last appeared in 1797, and is considered by competent judges to be the best performance that he had yet produced. It is regarded indeed by some as the greatest dramatic work of the eighteenth century. It has been translated into French by Benjamin Constant, and the last two parts of it into English by Mr. Coleridge.
After the publication of Wallenstein, Schiller re moved to Weimar in quest of a milder winter climate; and on this occasion the pension which he enjoyed from the Duke of Weimar was increased, as it had been four years before when he received an invitation to the university of Tubingen. He shared along with Goethe the task of superintending the affairs of the stage. He remodelled, in conjunction with Goethe, his Don Carlos; and he now composed his 'Wary Stew art, a tragedy of much beauty, which appeared in 1800. In 1801 was published his Maid of Orleans, which is considered as one of the finest of modern dramas, and is supposed to evince more genius than any of the other productions of its author. It was highly popu lar on the stage, and added greatly to his reputation.
In 1803 he published his Bride of Messina, in which he has introduced the ancient chorus; but though it contains many fine pieces of lyrical poetry, yet it has found no imitator, and few admirers.
In the following year appeared his Wilhelm Tell, which is considered by his biographer as one of his very finest dramas, and "as exhibiting some of the highest triumphs which his genius, combined with his art, ever realised." "Less comprehensive and ambi tious than Wallenstein, less ethereal than the Maid of Orleans, it has a look of nature and substantial truth -which neither of its rivals can boast of." In 1804, when Schiller was returning from Berlin, where he had been witnessing the exhibition of Wil helm Tell, he experienced a violent attack of his former complaint; but he escaped its fury, and again resumed his labours. He executed various translations from the French and Italian, sketched a tragedy on the his tory of Perkin \Varbeck, and finished two acts on Di mitri of Russia; but in the midst of these. occupations he was again arrested by disease. The cold spring of 1805 brought back his complaint, and notwithstanding all the assistance which medical skill could give, he expired on the evening of the 9th of May, in the 46th year of his age, leaving behind him a widow, two sons and two daughters.
There were found among his papers his letters to Dalberg, which were published at Carlsruce in a small duodecimo in 1819. For the preceding facts respect ing the life of Schiller, we have been indebted to The Life of Frederick Schiller, comprehending an exanzina lion of his Works, which appeared in London in 1825. It is an able and well-written piece of biography, which will be read with the deepest interest.