INTRODUCTION. I. COMPOSITION AND PRODUCTION. THE year 1800, the last of the century and the last but four of the poet's life, found Schiller living in Weimar, whither he had moved from Jena in December, 1799, in order to be near his friend Goethe and to devote himself wholly to his literary work. A succession of dramas from his pen had won him the position of Germany's greatest dramatist. On the earlier plays, Die Räuber (1781), Fiesko (1783), Kabale und Liebe (1784), Don Karlos (1787), had followed the masterpieces of Wallenstein (1800), and Maria Stuart, the manuscript of which last had been completed in June, 1800. Schiller at once turned his attention to a new theme, also drawn from history, that of the Jungfrau von Orleans. Schiller's correspondence with Goethe, who Inception. was temporarily absent from Weimar, and with his friend Christian Gottfried Körner of Dresden, the father of the poet Theodor Körner, affords interesting details concerning the inception and progress of the play, which went forward steadily in spite of the interruptions caused by the poet's frail health. He writes to Körner under date of July 9, 1800: "My new piece will rouse great interest by its subject-matter. It has one chief personage, beside whom, as far as interest goes, all the other characters which are not few in number. -are *The main outlines of Schiller's life can be found in any encyclopedia or the student may read Carlyle's Life of Friedrich Schiller, or in German, that of Viehoff, or of Düntzer (also translated). Those of Brahm, Minor and Weltrich are not yet finished. ་ scarcely to be considered. But the subject is worthy of pure tragedy, and if I can lend it by my treatment as much as I was able to lend Maria Stuart, it will be a great success. Be so good as to get me, if you can, some witch trials and books on this topic. In my new piece I touch on this subject, and must draw some of my main motives from it." * Three weeks later, July 28, he writes: "I will not keep my new plan a secret from you, but I beg you to make mention of it to no one, because public talk of work which is not yet finished robs me of my inclination for it. The Maid of Orleans is the subject on which I am at work. The plan is almost finished and I hope within a fortnight to be able to begin the carrying of it out. The subject is poetic in an eminent degree, that is, in the shape in which I have conceived it, and pathetic in a high degree. But I am anxious about the execution just because I lay great emphasis on this, and am afraid of not being able to realize my own ideal. In six weeks I shall know how I am coming out. I shall have little to do with witchcraft, and as far as I need it I hope that my own fancy will suffice. In books one finds almost nothing that would be at all poetic. ... The Maid of Orleans cannot be crowded into so snug a dress as Maria Stuart. It will, it is true, be less in number of pages than this latter piece; but the dramatic action is of larger scope and moves with greater boldness and freedom. Each subject demands its own form, and art consists in finding the proper one for each." *Schiller took from the Weimar library two works on witchcraft, the Malleus Maleficarum, a 15th century authority, and Doepleri theatrum poenarum. It is not certain on what authorities he drew for his historical facts. He probably turned to Rapin de Thoyras' Histoire d'Angleterre, translated by Baumgarten, which he had used for his Maria Stuart, possibly also to Hume's History of England. He probably used De l'Averdy's Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque du Roi in a German translation, the third volume of which contained the documents relating to the trial and rehabilitation of Joan. On August 2, he took from the library works on the troubadours and minnesinger, and on the reigns of Charles VI. and Charles VII., and several accounts of Joan and of the siege of Orleans. The list is given by Düntzer, Erläuterungen, 14. He knew Shakespere's 1 Henry VI., probably in Eschenburg's translation. He writes to Goethe of the difficulties he meets with in introducing artistic unity into Progress. his material (July 29); of his reading concerning the troubadours (August 2); and of the obstacle which his limited experience of life offers to a vivid objective presentation of his characters (September 13). He warms to his work, however, and writes to Körner, January 5, 1801: "I have ended the old century in an industrious fashion, and my tragedy, although it goes somewhat slowly, is taking good shape. The theme alone keeps me warm; my whole heart is in it, and it comes, too, more from the heart than my preceding pieces, in which the intellect had to struggle with the subject-matter.” By February 11 his work is sufficiently advanced for him. to ask Goethe, who had returned to Weimar, to listen to the first three acts; his friendly interest and criticism will, he hopes, inspire him in his further activity. On March 5 he goes for quiet to his house in Jena, where, however, he suffers much from the harsh March winds. The 16th of April sees the play finished. Two days later he sends the manuscript to Goethe, who returns it with the words of warm appreciation: "It is so honest a piece of work, so good and beautiful, that I do not know with what to compare it." Publication. Schiller offered the drama, without disclosing its theme, to Unger, a Berlin publisher, for his Annual for 1802, and received for it a hundred carolus d'or, about five hundred dollars. The Prologue was first published by itself, in 1801, in Irene, a magazine issued by Unger. The whole play followed, October 12, in the Kalender auf das Jahr 1802, with an engraved head of Pallas Athene. It was not yet divided into scenes. A singular obstacle presented itself to the production of the Jungfrau on the stage. Production on the Stage. The Maid of Orleans was known to Schiller's generation chiefly through the distorting medium of Voltaire's Pucelle. In this work Voltaire had used all the ingenuity of his dissolute wit to picture Joan as the vile tool of a vile court. It is fair to remember that in his warfare with the corrupt social order of his day, Voltaire believed himself compelled to fight the devil with fire. But a result of this prostitution of one of the noblest characters of history was, that it was hard for Schiller's contemporaries to conceive of Joan as an heroic figure. Schiller's drama was, in fact, a literary rehabilitation of Joan, such as the reopening of her trial had been ecclesiastically. He wrote and sent to Cotta, for publication in his Taschenbuch für Damen for 1802, the following defense of his heroine : Das Mädchen von Orleans. Das edle Bild der Menschheit zu verhöhnen, Krieg führt der Witz auf ewig mit dem Schönen, Doch wie du selbst, aus kindlichem Geschlechte, Es liebt die Welt, das Strahlende zu schwärzen Den lauten Markt mag Momus unterhalten; But even his friends doubted the wisdom of the attempt, fearing that with such dubious associations the Maid would be ridiculous on the stage. Moreover, in Weimar, where the play would naturally have been first brought out, there was the further complication that Caroline Jagemann, the leading actress, was, for special reasons, unavailable for the title rôle, and, inasmuch as she was the Duke's favorite, he would not allow the affront to be done her of assigning the rôle to another. In the face of these difficulties the production in Weimar was postponed, and the play was first presented in Leipzig, September 18, 1801, where Schiller saw it with his wife and Körner. It was a complete justification of the poet. After the first act the audience broke into shouts of applause, and when Schiller left the theatre the people stood silently with uncovered heads as he passed. It was produced in Berlin with brilliant stage effects (to which, it is interesting to note, Schiller took exception), and was repeated thirteen times within a month. It was played in Schwerin in January, 1802, in Dresden, February 16, though in a modified form to avoid offense to the French, and in Vienna, where for similar reasons it had at first been prohibited, toward the end of the year. It was not seen on the Weimar stage until April 23, 1803. Contemporary criticism can be found collected in Braun's Schiller im Urteile seiner Zeitgenossen (Leipzig, 1882). The following are the important MSS. and Texts. editions: A. The Prologue, published in Irene, 1801, cf. above. A. Unger's Kalender auf das Jahr 1802, cf. above. It is in 12mo, in Roman type. The text of 260 pages is preceded by the calendar and followed by genealogies of the reigning families. |