The Life and Works of Friedrich Schiller by Calvin Thomas

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THE END

APPENDIX

A Survey of Schiller Literature

The mass of literature pertaining to Schiller has now grown so great
that an exhaustive bibliography would fill a good-sized volume. All that
can be attempted here is a selection of the more important works. The
fullest bibliography thus far is that contained in the fifth volume of
Goedeke's Grundrisz zur Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung, 2nd edition,
Dresden, 1893. Annual reviews of Schiller literature appear in the
Jahresberichte fuer neuere deutsche Litteraturgeschichte and in the
Berichte des Freien Deutschen Hochstiftes. Valuable especially for its
English titles is the bibliography compiled by John P. Anderson for
Nevinson's Life of Schiller, London, 1889.

EDITIONS

During the lifetime of Schiller his writings were printed in different
forms by different publishers, and owing to the absence of copyright
unauthorized reprints were numerous. He himself undertook no complete
and final redaction of all his works, though in his later years he
revised and arranged a selection of his poems. 'Don Carlos' and some of
the prose writings also underwent revision at the hands of their author.

The first edition calling itself complete was that of Koerner, which was
published in 1812-15, in twelve volumes, by Cotta of Stuttgart. Koerner
divided the poems into three periods,--a division which has since been
extensively copied. Koerner's edition became the basis of the later Cotta
editions (down to 1868), which were reprinted in various forms and
degrees of completeness, but without important changes or additions.
With the expiration of Cotta's monopoly and the opening of the
philological era, the works of Schiller began to be deemed worthy of the
same scrupulous editorial care that had long been bestowed on the Greek
and Latin classics. The mid-century researches of Hoffmeister and
others, particularly Hoffmeister's Supplemente zu Schillers Werken,
1840-1, had brought to light much new material not usually printed with
the works of Schiller, and the received text, even of the more important
works, was known to be more or less faulty and uncertain. To meet the
new demand a historico-critical edition was undertaken by Goedeke, with
the assistance of several sub-editors. The result was Schillers,
Saemmtliche Schriften, Historisch-kritische Ausgabe, 15 vols., Cotta,
Stuttgart, 1868-76. This edition aimed at completeness, arranged the
works chronologically and went deeply into the matter of variant
readings. It is still indispensable to the scholar, though not free from
pedantries.

Contemporaneous with this work of critical scholarship was the cheaper
and more popular edition of Boxberger and Maltzahn, published by Hempel
in Berlin--Schillers Werke, nach den vorzueglichsten Quellen revidierte
Ausgabe, 16 parts in 6 vols., 1868-74,--which, though unsightly, is
valuable for its introductions and notes. In more recent years several
good editions have appeared, the most noteworthy being (1) that of
Boxberger and Birlinger, published as a part of Kuerschner's Deutsche
National-Litteratur, 12 vols., Stuttgart, 1882-91; (2) that of L.
Bellermann, Kritisch durchgesehene und erlaeuterte Ausgabe, 14 vols.,
Leipzig, 1895 ff., and (3) the latest of the critical Cotta editions,
completed in 16 vols. in 1894.

The dramatic fragments have been twice edited by Kettner, Schillers
Dramatischer Nachlasz nach den Handschriften herausgegeben, Weimar,
1895, and Schillers Dramatische Entwuerfe und Fragmente aus dem Nachlasz
zusammengestellt, Stuttgart, 1899. The Xenia have recently been edited
by Schmidt and Suphan, Xenien 1796, nach den Handschriften des
Goethe-Schiller Archivs herausgegeben, Weimar, 1893.

As is well known the later plays of Schiller, to a certain extent also
some of his prose writings, are familiar school classics wherever German
is studied. The school editions, many of them meritorious works of
scholarship, are very numerous. They are not mentioned here because a
mere list of names and dates would be of no use, while a selection with
discriminative or critical comment would be a difficult and invidious
task to which the compiler of this survey has no inclination. Any of the
scholarly editions published in recent years, in Germany, the United
States or England, will usually be found to contain a sufficient
bibliography of the particular work under consideration.

LETTERS AND MEMOIRS

It was the opinion of Goethe that Schiller's style was at its best in
his letters (see Eckermann's Gespraeche, 14. April, 1824). Letters of
Schiller, including some forged ones to Karl Moser, began to get into
print in the early years of the nineteenth century, and as interest
increased the publications became exceedingly numerous (see the
extensive bibliography in Goedeke's Grundrisz, V. 98 ff.). So far as the
authentic letters of Schiller himself are concerned, these separate
publications have now been superseded by the admirable work of F. Jonas,
Schillers Briefe, Kritische Gesamtausgabe, 7 vols., Stuttgart, 1892 ff.
It only remains, therefore, to make note of the more important
publications that contain correspondence, or reminiscences having a
biographical value. They are as follows:

Briefwechsel zwischen Schiller und Goethe, mit einer Einleitung von F.
Muncker, Stuttgart, 1893. The correspondence is also to be had, edited
by Vollmer, in Cotta's Bibliothek der Weltlitteratur. It was first
published in 1828-9 in 6 vols.

Briefwechsel zwischen Schiller und Wilhelm von Humboldt, dritte
vermehrte Ausgabe mit Anmerkungen von A. Leitzmann, Stuttgart, 1900.
First published in 1830, with a Vorerinnerung by Von Humboldt.

Schillers Briefwechsel mit Koerner, herausgegeben von K. Goedeke,
Leipzig, 1874; also a later edition by L. Geiger, Stuttgart, 1893. The
correspondence was first published in 1847 and soon after translated
into English by Simpson, 3 vols., London, 1849.

Schiller und Lotte, dritte, den ganzen Briefwechsel umfassende Ausgabe,
von W. Fielitz, Stuttgart, 1879; later edition, also by Fielitz, 1893.
First published in 1856.

Karl Augusts erstes Anknuepfen mit Schiller, Stuttgart, 1857, edited by
Schiller's daughter, Emilie von Gleichen.

Schillers Beziehungen zu Eltern, Geschwistern und der Familie von
Wolzogen, herausgegeben von A. von Wolzogen, Stuttgart, 1859.

Charlotte von Schiller und ihre Freunde, herausgegeben von L. Urlichs, 3
vols., Stuttgart, 1860-5.

Briefwechsel zwischen Schiller and Iffland, herausgegeben von F.
Dingelstedt, Stuttgart, 1863.

Briefwechsel zwischen Schiller und seiner Schwester Christophine,
herausgegeben von W. von Maltzahn, Leipzig, 1875.

Schillers Briefwechsel mit dem Herzog von Augustenburg, herausgegeben
von Max Mueller, Berlin, 1875.

Geschaeftsbriefe Schillers, gesammelt, erlaeutert und herausgegeben von K.
Goedeke, Leipzig, 1875.

Briefwechsel zwischen Schiller und Cotta, herausgegeben von W. Vollmer,
Stuttgart, 1876.

To these may be added--here better than elsewhere:

Charlotte von Kalb und ihre Beziehungen zu Goethe und Schiller, von E.
Koepke, Berlin, 1843, and The Diary, Reminiscences and Correspondence of
Henry Crabbe Robinson, edited by Th. Sadler, London, 1869.

BIOGRAPHY

The first account of Schiller by a conscientious and competent writer
was that by Koerner, which accompanied his edition of 1812-15. This,
however, was a mere sketch.

In 1825 Carlyle published his Life of Schiller at London, and a few
years later the book was translated into German and supplied with an
introduction by Goethe. It was based on very imperfect information, but
was an inspiring work of genius nevertheless. It is now more valuable as
a Carlyle document than as a Schiller-document.

In 1830 Karoline von Wolzogen, Schiller's sister-in-law, published her
memoir of the poet, which is now to be had in Cotta's Bibliothek der
Weltlitteratur. It contained a large number of authentic letters and
was based upon an intimate personal acquaintance dating from the year
1787. For the earlier years data were furnished by friends and
relatives. The little book has many excellencies, but the portrait of
Schiller, as it came from the hands of the talented but aging Baroness,
is a shade too idealistic and sentimental. Of his virile youth one gets
hardly an inkling.

The year 1836 brought a valuable contribution to the knowledge of
Schiller's youth in Schillers Flucht von Stuttgart, by Andreas
Streicher.

From this time on the biographies are numerous. A mediocre one
by Doering, first published in 1832, was often reprinted in
subsequent years. Between 1838 and 1842 appeared Schillers Leben,
Geistesentwickelung und Werke im Zusammenhang, von Karl Hoffmeister.
This monumental work of scholarship, in five volumes, has been
indispensable to later biographers, however they might differ with
Hoffmeister in matters of critical estimate. Hoffmeister's learned
work was made the basis of a more popular biography by H. Viehoff,
which appeared first in 1846. A new and revised edition was published
in 1875. Of the shorter and more popular biographies which appeared
down to 1859, it may suffice to mention those by G. Schwab (1840) and
J.W. Schaefer (1853). The sketch by Bulwer, which accompanied his
translation of Schiller's poems, London, 1844, was based mainly on
Hoffmeister and Schwab.

The great Schiller-festival of 1859 called forth a mass of literature
of which the titles fill ten octavo pages in Goedeke's Grundrisz. Of
the longer biographies dating from this period the most important are
that by J. Scherr, Schiller and seine Zeit, Leipzig, 1859 (English
translation by Elizabeth MacLellan, Philadelphia, 1881), and that by E.
Palleske, Schillers Leben und Werke, Berlin, 1858-9. Palleske's work,
of which an English translation by Lady Wallace appeared in London in
1860, soon attained a remarkable popularity, which it still enjoys with
some abatement. It is the work of a conscientious Schiller enthusiast,
written with great warmth of feeling and great fulness of biographical
detail, but not strong on the critical side. A twelfth edition,
somewhat popularized by H. Fischer, appeared in 1886, a fifteenth
edition in 1900.

For some twenty years Palleske and Scherr held the field in Germany
without serious competition, and then a new crop of biographies began to
appear. That of H. Duentzer, Schillers Leben, mit 46 Illustrationen und 5
Beilagen, Leipzig, 1881 (English translation by Pinkerton, London,
1883), retold the familiar story in a style less attractive than that of
Palleske, and without adding anything of great importance in the way of
critical appreciation. The same may be said of the biography by C. Hepp,
Leipzig, 1885.

Of an entirely different character are the contributions of Weltrich,
Minor, and Brahm, which are essentially works of historico-critical
interpretation. Unfortunately, however, they were begun on a scale of
such magnitude, and with such an uncompromising respect for the
infinitely little, that there is small prospect of their completion.

Of the work of Weltrich, Friedrich Schiller, Geschichte seines Lebens
und Charakteristik seiner Werke, unter kritischem Nachweis der
biographischen Quellen, the first installment appeared in 1885, the
second in 1891, and the third (completing the first volume) in 1899.

The work of Minor, Schiller, sein Leben und seine Werke, of which two
volumes appeared in 1890, ends with a discussion of 'Don Carlos'. More
readable, but proportionally less thorough than either of these, is the
work of Brahm, of which the second volume, first part, appeared in 1892,
bringing the story down through Schiller's Kantian period.

The learnedly philological character of the works just mentioned,
together with their incompleteness, left room enough for further
attempts at a popular biography of Schiller. This demand has been met in
recent years by Wychgram, whose well-written and handsomely illustrated
Schiller, Leipzig, 1891, is worthy of high commendation; and also by the
little book of Harnack, Berlin, 1898 (one of the 'Geisteshelden'
series), which is admirable within the limits set. Of the short
biographies in English the best are those of Boyesen, Goethe and
Schiller, New York, 1882, and Sime, Schiller, London, 1882. That of
Nevinson, London, 1889 (one of the 'Great Writers' series), contains,
along with much sound criticism, a good deal that is rather too
peremptory and unsympathetic.

CRITICISM

The following notes take no account of criticism contained in the
general histories of German literature and philosophy, nor of the
multitudinous articles, essays, reviews, programs and dissertations
relating to particular works.

_Plays_.--The best treatise on the plays as a whole is that of
Bellermann, Schillers Dramen, 2nd edition, 2 vols., Berlin, 1898-9.
Bellermann's point of view is that of a learned dramatic critic and
expounder. He writes as a warm admirer of Schiller and is at his best
when defending him against ill-grounded censures. Occasionally his
friendly partisanship carries him a little too far.--A good discussion
from the dramatic and histrionic point of view is contained in
Bulthaupt, Dramaturgie des Schauspiels, 5th edition, Oldenburg,
1891.--The Studien zu Schillers Dramen, by W. Fielitz, Leipzig, 1876,
are excellent, but relate only to 'Wallenstein', 'Maria Stuart' and 'The
Maid of Orleans'.--Suggestive and eminently readable is Werder,
Vorlesungen ueber Wallenstein, Berlin, 1889.--Rather more valuable for
facts than for criticism are the Schiller volumes of Duentzers
Erlaeuterungen zu den deutschen Klassikern (beginning in
1876).--References to Schiller are numerous in Freytag, Die Technik des
Dramas (first edition in 1859), and also in the Shakespeare-Studien of
Otto Ludwig (edited by Heyderich, 1872).--On the work of Schiller as
translator and adapter consult A. Koester, Schiller als Dramaturg,
Berlin, 1891.--An up-to-date French treatise on the early plays is that
of Kontz, Les drames de la jeunesse de Schiller, Paris, 1899.

_Poems_.--Viehoff, Schillers Gedichte erlaeutert, und auf ihre
Veranlassungen, Quellen und Vorbilder zurueckgefuehrt, 7th edition,
Stuttgart, 1895.--Hauff, Schillerstudien, Stuttgart, 1880.--Philippi,
Schillers Lyrische Gedankendichtung in ihrem ideellen Zusammenhange
beleuchtet, Augsburg, 1888.--Helene Lange, Schillers Philosophische
Gedichte, sechs Vortraege, Berlin, 1887.--Schiller als Lyrischer Dichter
in Duentzers Erlaeuterungen.--Considerable commentary is contained in The
Poems and Ballads of Schiller translated by Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton,
1st edition, London, 1844.--On the Xenia consult, in addition to the
edition by Schmidt and Suphan, Boas, Schiller und Goethe im Xenienkampf,
Stuttgart, 1851.

_Historical Writings_.--Tomaschek, Schiller in seinem Verhaeltnisse zur
Wissenschaft; von der kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Wien
gekroente Preisschrift, Wien, 1862.--Janssen, Schiller als Historiker,
2nd edition, Freiburg, 1879.--Ueberweg, Schiller als Historiker und
Philosoph, Leipzig, 1884 (written, however, in 1859 in competition for
the prize of the Vienna Academy, which was won by Tomaschek).

_Philosophical Writings._--Harnack, Die klassische Aesthetik der
Deutschen, Wuerdigung der kunsttheoretischen Arbeiten Schillers, Goethes
und ihrer Freunde, Leipzig, 1892.--Berger, K. (pseudonym for Adolf
Wechssler), Die Entwickelung von Schillers Aesthetik, Weimar,
1894.--Kuehnemann, Die Kantischen Studien Schillers und die Komposition
des 'Wallenstein', Marburg, 1889.--Gneisse, Schillers Lehre von der
aesthetischen Wahrnehmung, Berlin, 1893. Zimmermann, Schiller als
Denker, 1859.--The works of Tomaschek and Ueberweg (see above under
'Historical Writings') deal also with Schiller as a philosophic thinker.

_Miscellaneous._--Fischer, Schiller-Schriften, Heidelberg, 1891 (revised
edition of earlier studies comprising Schillers Jugend- und Wanderjahre
in Selbstbekenntnissen, Schiller als Komiker, and Schiller als
Philosoph).--Belling, Die Metrik Schillers, Breslau, 1883.--Rudolph,
Schiller-Lexikon, Erlaeuterndes Woerterbuch zu Schillers Dichterwerken, 2
vols., Berlin, 1890.--Rieger, Schillers Verhaeltnis zur franzoesischen
Revolution, Wien, 1885.--Pietsch, Schiller als Kritiker, Koenigsberg,
1898.--Mauerhof, Schiller und Heinrich von Kleist, Zuerich und Leipzig
(no date).--Ehrlich, Goethe und Schiller, Berlin, 1897.--Portig,
Schiller in seinem Verhaeltnis zur Freundschaft und Liebe, sowie in
seinem inneren Verhaeltnis zu Goethe, Hamburg, 1894 (long-winded and
amorphous, but useful in places).

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