The life of Schiller

Chapter I

If we would have knowledge of the ancestry of our ideal poet of freedom, we must, for the first, turn to Bittenfeld, a parish of some importance, situate north-east of where the Neckar is joined by the Rems. There, in the latter half of the seventeenth century, lived John Caspar Schiller, by trade a baker, but also holding legal office; he migrated thither, it is thought, from the village of Groszheppach, which lies to the south-east of Bittenfeld, on the vine-clad banks of the Rems. It may be that he was son to Ulrich Schiller, whose father, James George, was born at Groszheppach in 1587. The name Schiller was a widely -spread one. In South Germany, at the beginning of the fifteenth century, a master- singeiJ^One Jdrg Schiller (Schilher, Schilcher), won himself a name ; his so-called "notes" or "tones" were specially admired. The name literally signifies squint-eyed, squinting. Farther on we shall see that the Rems Schillers were probably related to a Tyrolese family of rank. John Caspar Schiller, of Bittenfeld farne, died in 1687, aged thirty-eight. John, his son, who keeping to old custom, had followed in his father's trade, rose to the rank of mayor. On the 30th of October 1708, at the age of twenty-eight, he married; and on the 27th of October 1723 was born to him his eighth and youngest child, John Caspar, the father of our poet It was intended that he should enter the Church,

4 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. i. ch. i.

his elder brothei' succeeding to the business. From a private tutor he had already gained a first knowledge of Latin, when, at the age of ten, his father died. This event robbed him of all hope of receiving a scholarly education ; his parent was but of slender fortune, and had to leave many of his children without provision. The boy's mother would have made a farmer of him, but his aims being once set on something higher, he did not rest until, at, the end of five years, she had apprenticed him to a monastery barber of the hamlet of Denkendorf, with whom he was to study surgery. Nor could the most menial duties crush out his love of learning; contact with the pupils of the lower monastery school brought what little Latin he knew into use, and from the provost himself he gained no slight acquaintance with botany. At the close of his apprenticeship, he took service with a barber at Backnang, in this way to earn for himself means of travel. At length, after journeying about, he found employment at a surgeon's in Lindau, on the lake of Constance. Soon, however, his master died, when he went to Nbrdlingen, where he became apprentice to one Cramer, a surgeon of the town ; together with the son of his employer, he studied French, and also took lessons in fencing.

When, upon the death of that unfortunate monarch Charles the Seventh, the Frangipani Hussars passed through Nordlingen on their way to the Netherlands, Schiller was suddenly seized with a desire to join their ranks as regimental surgeon. No vacancy offered itself; nevertheless he was permitted to accompany the regiment. Of the money paid to him for provender, he managed to save somewhat ; the fees for two successful cures served to support him while in Brussels. Between that place and Charleroi he fell into the hands of the invading French. Being fortunate enough to escape execution as a spy, he was forced at Ghent to enter their ranks as a private soldier. Thus he once more came to Brussels ; upon the cession of Antwerp arid Bergen, he was among those who advanced on Charleroi. So far had he won the trust and confidence of his superiors, that to him was allotted the duty of collecting rations from the surrounding villages. Fortunately, while thus en-

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gaged, the Austrians took him prisoner; they at once gave him a free pass to his regiment, which, after much peril and hardship, he reached, shortly before the disastrous battle of Rocoux. Nov? at length, after many a misadventure, the post . for which he had longed became his ; he was appointed regimental surgeon, with a salary of thirty gulden, besides two ducats medicine-money. At the outset, however, the cost of horse and uniform necessitated an expenditure of two hundred gulden, a loan that he was able to repay with the proceeds derived from extraneous practice.

In April 1747 the regiment was again under orders.

" My inborn love of incessant activity," he himself relates, "led me on to ask official permission whether, in common with the sergeants, I might conduct different expeditions and reconnaissances. Under the command of an officer, this was accorded to me, and many were the rides I had, often returning with booty, of which, however, I was now and again despoiled"

Once, when the regiment was attacked, Schiller's horse was shot from under him. He remarks : " Wounds received in action or in single combat, if they do not prevent the use of one's limbs, should not be heeded, much less bragged of; the case is simply one of give and take. "

The Rittmeister of his troop became so attached to the brave and enterprising surgeon, that he would not part from him, even making him his companion on a visit to the Hague. Maastricht was at that time closely besieged by the French, when, on 30th of April 1748, the peace -preliminaries were published at Aix-la-Chg,pelle. Schiller, then at Oudenbosch with the so-called Little Army, was afterwards quartered with his Rittmeister at Borckel. They came to London together, returning whence, they spent a short time at _Amsterdam, at the Hague. In this way John Caspar managed to see a good bit of the world. Most of his regiment was now disbanded ; he felt a longing for home, where in Neckarrems his sister was anxious he should marry the daughter of the resident surgeon there.

On the 4th of March 1749, riding his own horse, he left

THE LIFE OF SCHILLER.

[BK. I. CH. I.

Borckel, and ten days later reached Marbach, a pretty little town situate on the vine-clad slopes that stretch down to the Neckar. It was here that his married sister lived, Eva Margareta Stolpp. He put up at the sign of the " Golden Lion," an inn near the Niklasthor, now No. 260 Niklasthorstrasse.

Schiller's Father, from a portrait don witz in 179J.

Georg Friedrich Kodweis, the landlord, a man of fifty summers, followed the trade of his fathers ; he was a baker, but likewise held the appointment of overseer on the ducal estate. His wife was still living ; EUzabeth Dorothea, their sole remaining daughter, born on December 13, 1732, was then a slim yet sturdy damsel, as active as she was vivacious. Her hair was red in colour; she had a broad forehead, with large, soft eyes ; nor could freckles rob her countenance of the charm that lay in its expression of gentle, kindly benevolence. The army surgeon, now in his twenty-sixth year, was strong and stalwart, with eyes that sparkled beneath a lofty brow; his soldierUke bearing, his downright, decided manner, the f yv '

Schiller's Mother, from a portrait done by Frau Simanowitz in 1793.

evident honesty of purpose with which he sought civil employment — all this could not but tell in the young man's favour. After a visit to his mother in Murr, his brother in Bittenfeld, and his sister in Neckarrems, and finding that the bride chosen for him was already another's, John Caspar determined to settle in Marbach, where a marriage with the gentle and discreet daughter of the innkeeper — who seemingly was most

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thriving and well-to-do — offered every prospect of a happy future. Shortly before his wedding, which, as one of determined mind who forbears to trifle with his feelings but presses to his goal, he made every effort to hasten on, he went to Ludwigsburg. On the nth of July he successfully passed a government medical examination held in that place. Eleven days later he was married. His wife brought him no money as' her dower — merely property to the value of i88 gulden. In hard cash John Caspar possessed 215 gulden, 24 kreuzer; this sum he made over to his father-in-law. As among the silver ornaments of his household he reserved those given to him by his mother — a silver-mounted walking-stick, a silver scarfring and seal. Upon this latter was engraved the family crest and coat of arms. In the left field above the helmet is an arrow pointing upwards ; in the right, a unicorn, beneath which, is a bar. To right and left of the coat of arms are some leaves, which, judging from the berries, are intended for laurel -leaves. When Schiller had his crest engraved after that of his father, many laurels of quite another kind were added to both sides of the shield, as also to the helmet. We find that a coat of arms precisely similar to this was possessed by the Schiller von Herdern family, of the T3n:ol ; their name figures in the peerage as far back as 1601 ; possibly, therefore, the two Schiller families were in some way related. Indeed, if the leaves engraved on the seal belonging to Schiller's father are intended for laurel -leaves, one might almost believe that the Rems Schillers retained the cr6st of theij ancest(3r the master-singer, who, naturally enough,' could have had laurels on his scutcheon. But to return to the poet's father. Among the nine books he possessed, most of them medical ones, are cited " Erkenntniss sein selbst " and a Wiirtemberg Hymnal, while the list of his surgical instruments includes a tin basin for shaving purposes, four good razors, a pair of tweezers with which to (h-aw teeth, and two lancets. The spirits of wine, tinctures, and other " specie," together with the bottles and phials containing them, were valued at seven gulden thirty kreuzer. He had sold his horse j nevertheless he kept " the Hungarian saddle with saddle-cloth and trappings." Among his clothes we

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notice a wedding coat made of " steel -coloured cloth," an entire suit, less new, of the same material, a pair of silk stockings, a hat for best, besides an old one with edging round it.

He took up his residence at the innkeeper's house, where he practised as a surgeon ; but it was not until the end of September that he became a Marbach citizen. All too soon it came about that, owing to improvident speculation and expenditure in connection with the ducal property, his father-in-law contracted debts that his entire fortune scarcely sufficed to discharge. By various small loans, as also from his son-inlaw's small capital, he for a time was helped. But within three months the affair became public. Schiller purchased part of the house, in such way lessening the amount owing to him. Yet matters grew from bad to worse, and residence in Marbach became for him, as a man of honour, less and less tolerable. Since the finding of a post as regimental surgeon wouldbeno easy task, half in despair, and being merely anxious to get quit of the place, he joined the newly-formed battalion of the Prince Louis infantry regiment, under Colonel Camaigre, as quartermaster. This was in the early part of 1753. Thus, though continuing to keep a home for his wife under her father's roof, he was mostly away from it himself. But before long the inn had to be sold, and Kodweis, with his daughter, took lodgings at a baker's named Pressel ; the house they occupied is now No. 280 Niklasthorstrasse. It was soon Schiller's lot to be driven far from family and home.

The dissolute Duke Karl Eugene, swayed by a twofold thirst for power and plunder, in a treaty concluded on March 3ij i757> with France, offered to put five regiments at her disposal, wherewith to oppose Prussia, whose great King had once shown for the Duke such friendly feeling. In vain did the States implore him not to lead their soldiery against the Frederick, whom they held in honour ; prayers went up in the churches for the Prince's enlightenment ; it was sought to spur on the troops to open rebellion. On the 20th of June, at Stuttgart, they mutinied during parade ; of three thousand recruits there remained but four hundred. Schiller, being solely bent upon advancement in the service, remained firm in

10 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. i. ch. i.

his allegiance to the Duke, although it was against his coreligionists that he had to fight. The Duke's mainstay was one Colonel Rieger, Privy Councillor of War, and son of the once so favourite Stuttgart divine — a hard, inflexible man. Already on August lo, under the Duke's guidance, the troops left their encampments between Ludwigsburg and Pflugfelden, which they had occupied for more than a month. While here, Schiller had had easy opportunity of visiting his wife. Risen by this time to the rank of ensign and adjutant, the parting was of added bitterness to the earnest man, now that first, after many a year, he could look forward to the joy of fatherhood. Disturbances took place already on the 14th, between Plochingen and Geistingen, as it was a religious war that people dreaded. On September 6, signs of revolt were again manifest at Linz, whither Ensign Schiller was gone with a section of the troops. His wife, two days before, had given birth to a daughter, named Christophin^ Friderika after her father's comrade, Christoph Friedrich Gerstner, and Elizabeth after her mother. Burgomaster Hartmann, Justice of Marbach, stood godfather ; as godmothers, the infant had the widow of Ehrenmann, the collaborateur, and a Fxaulein Sommer of Stuttgart.

From Linz the march lay in the direction of Silesia. At the storming of Schweidnitz on November 12, the Bavarians and the Wiirtembergers won for themselves distinction. After atriumphant encounter, Breslau capitulated. Not so at Leuthen, however, where Frederick himself attacked his enemy's left wing, composed of the Wiirtemberg, Bavarian, and Wtirzburg troops. The Wiirtembergers made but a sorry stand ; all fled ; Schiller lost his horse, and was like to have lost his life in a swamp near Breslau, in which, on awaking at early morning, he found himself frozen above the knee. Wellnigh half of the troops had perished ere they took up their winter quarters in Bohemia, where soon a fearful pestilence broke out. Here, in Leonberg, Schiller filled the post vacant by the decease of the regimental surgeon ; and, chaplains being scarce, he likewise undertook, by order of the general, the reading of certain prayers, and the singing of such hymns as were suitable. By

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dint of great moderation in diet, as also by taking continual exercise, he guarded himself against infection. Shortly previous to the army's retreat on April i he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, in recognition of his faithful services. It was a gloomy home-coming for the soldiers ; of six thousand men but nineteen hundred were left. Vainly had the States meanwhile protested against universal conscription; Rieger and Count Montmartin, the newly-made Cabinet Minister, carried through their measure by sheer force. That the Duke had broken solemn treaties gave but slight concern to Lieutenant Schiller ; nor did the country's distress trouble him ; he failed not to serve his powerful leader faithfully and unswervingly, thanking God, who had brought him home in safety from the fight, and who had blessed him, likewise, with a little daughter. With his father-in-law, however, things grew worse and worse ; and Frau Schiller must needs suffer bitterly thereby. Their abode was again changed to a house owned by one Schblkopf, beyond the Niklasthor (now 256 Niklasthorstrasse). Here the street widens into a small quadrangle that, with its fountain surmounted by the figure of a fabulous wild man, almost gains the dignity of a Square. We give an illustration of the house, which, on the side facing the street, has six windows, three on the ground floor and three on the first storey, Schiller's wife occupied the lower room.

Only for a short time could the lieutenant enjoy sight and speech of those he loved. The Duke had been hoping that the Empress would entrust him with the supreme command ; but she refused all dealings with the mutinous, heretical troops of one who, in default of an electorship, would claim Ulm and Niirnberg as reward for his services. She bade the Wiirtembergers turn to the French. They encamped at Kornwestheim, near Ludwigsburg ; this made it easier for Schiller to visit Marbach. Meanwhile he had been transferred to another regiment — to that commanded by General Romann. On July 9, the Duke, who, shortly before, by his brutal treatment of States-Consul Moser, had given terrible proof of his abuse of justice, led the first brigade from the encampments, which fell in with the French, under Soubise, near Cassel. After General

I723-S9-] LIFE AT HOME AND AT SCHOOL. 13

von Oberg's defeat at Lutternberg, on October 10, the troops went into quarters for the winter. Schiller accompanied the Staff to Winnenden, and from this town he frequently came over to Marbach. The country hoped — but in vain — now, at last, to be freed from the burden of taxation for fresh levies. Though the treaty with France had come to nothing, the Duke nevertheless doubled the number of his forces, believing that a day was not far distant when they would be wanted in the field. And, after the battle of Minden, on August I, this actually was the case. The troops, on the 20th, encamped at Ludwigsburg, whither Schiller's wife and child came now and again.

The Duke had reserved for himself the supreme command of those twelve thousand men, who were to be led into the Fulda district. His troops left camp on October 2 8 ; among their ranks was Lieutenant Schiller, heavy-hearted yet still hopeful, having secured distinguished godfathers for the son that would soon be his. One of them was the commander of his regiment, and a chamberlain as well. Colonel Christoph Friedrich von der Gabelentz. Learning likewise found its representative in the lieutenant's cousin, Johann Friedrich Schiller, with whom during that year he had first become acquainted. This cousin was born on July 15, 1731, at Marbach, being the son of Johann Caspar Schiller, a baker, who had come from Waiblingen, where his father Johann Georg — probably the. lieutenant's uncle — had followed the same trade. Johann Friedrich had with his parents been early removed to Steinheim on the Murr. Despite his eight and twenty years, he at the time professed to be studying philosophy at Halle. He also busied himself much with the science of history and of finance ; moreover, he had won the Duke's confidence to such an extent, as to be employed by him in a diplomatic capacity. The Duke, so it seems, had to furnish troops for Holland's Indian possessions, as we find this same philosophic studiosus writing to a friend in Halle that since the autumn vacation he had been in Holland, whence he had been sent " on the Duke's affairs to- Hessen, thence to Stuttgart, and then back again to Hessen, returning a second time to Stutt-

14 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER.' [bk. i. ch. i.

gart at his Grace's request." He adds that in a day or two he will know whether he is to leave that place or to remain there. He speaks of the Duke as " our dearest Karl," whose schemes if all too daring were still upright and honourable, and so far those of a man who had succeeded without the help of cabals, albeit that men of standing had felt afraid to make him their foe. Lieutenant Schiller set great store by this cousin of his in the diplomatic service, with whom he, too, corresponded. Yet, in speaking of him, we are losing sight of the son and heir whose birth is soon to be. Among the child's godparents we shall find the Burgomaster of Marbach and Vaihingen, the daughters of the Ex-Prefect of Marbach, with those of the warden of Vaihingen — a goodly list of sponsors to figure at the baptism of a lieutenant's son.

On the I ith of November the Duke led his troops across the Maine in order to join the French. At early morning on this day, or on the one before it, great good fortune came to Germany, for in that ground-floor room at Marbach village a son was born to the lieutenant, christened Johann after his father, and Christoph Friedrich after his chief sponsor. The name he would be called by was that of the great king, against whom his father with the Duke was now about to fight. Dating from the summer of 1755, the parish register at Marbach, with but rare exception, notifies the days on which christenings took place. But in the poet's certificates of baptism of the years 1773 and 1792 (the oldest one of 1769 states the day merely) it is specially remarked that the child had been born upon the same day. According to the certificates, November 1 1 was always looked upon as the poet's day of birth. Not until 1787 do we find it changed to the loth, which date Schiller, on coming to Saxony in April 1785, must have stated to his friends as the correct one, although no proof exists of his having in the meantime learnt aught to the contrary from those at home. Certainly, in his Autobiography of May 1789, the father mentions the loth ; but then he is also mistaken as to the birthday of his second daughter and of his wife. Louise the sister, writing a letter dated November 11, 1796, in her mother's presence _speaks of "my dear brother's birthday."

I723-S9-] LIFE AT HOME AND "AT SCHOOL. 15

Again, on the other hand, we shall find the poet's eldest sister Christophine with her husband celebrating the event on the loth. As christening regularly took place either on the day of birth or on the one immediately following, there is always the possibility that the child was really born before midnight on the loth, while its birth, in error, was registered as occurring on the I ith. Schiller himself, when at the summit of his fame, was wont to celebrate Luther's birthday as being also that of his own ; and, considering the existing uncertainty, we may confidently follow his example. Despite the father's absence, and although the chief sponsors were not present, the babe's christening was yet a notable one. Fritz was, moreover, additionally honoured when, later on, the great and powerful Colonel Rieger announced his wish to stand godfather to the boy. When the birth-news reached Lieutenant Schiller amid the ranks, he besought God to bestow upon his son " those gifts of mind and soul to which he himself through lack of education had never attained." This he did with firm trust in God's goodness, who " had suffered him to rise from low and needy station to the rank of officer, who had ever given him food in abundance, and who had saved him from many perils." His most ardent wish was that, as herald of the Protestant faith, his son might attain to that which was denied to him ; yet, how could he have guessed that, by paths, like his own, toilsome, perilous, and still so wholly different, nay, so . utterly at variance, his Fritz should reach a higher, a sublimer goal 1 How could he foresee that fiis son was to become great Germany's favourite bard, an enthusiastic combatant against the base despotism that crushed him, a despotism that, partly through need of a livelihood, and partly, maybe, through an innate sense of conservatism, he himself had courted !

Chapter II

During this same November in which our poet was born, the Duke had won for himself no laurels. At early morning on the 30th, as he was giving a ball at Fulda, the Prince of Brunswick attacked him unexpectedly; and, though the Wiirtembergers made a gallant defence, most of them, after a protracted struggle, were driven back across the Fulda, the remaining companies being taken prisoner. Schiller and the Duke got away with other fugitives, who, by devious routes, found union behind the Rhone mou;itains. Karl Eugene, who was not remiss in publishing victorious news, quarrelledwith the other generals respecting the winter quarters. On 13th of January orders were given to occupy those in the Wiirzburg district, but so disgraceful was, the conduct of the troops as even to provoke complaint from the French. So it came that discord was brought about at the very outset of the campaign. Being loth to submit to Broglie's leadership, the Duke, on May 15, withdrew his troops; and Schiller, with the Staff, was transferred to Vaihingen, which is close to Marbach. Now first could his heart rejoice at the sight of his little son, whose deep-blue eyes looked forth upon the world ; yet it was brief, this joy. He had to quit Vaihingen on the 20th, feeling more keenly than ever before, the anguish of parting, of being compelled to leave his wife and two children behind in increasingly distressful circumstances. Fritz, too, was a weakly, delicate infant, liable to convulsive seizures now and again.

With troops and baggage the Duke moved leisurely and at ease through a land' groaning beneath his cruel oppression. While on the inarch to Hohenstein, through Meiningen, Gotha, and Langensalza, he spent five weeks in the Harz, until compelled by the Imperial Court to turn thence towards the rich meadowlands of the Saale. The Prussians retreated before the superior strength of the allied armies ; Torgau and Leipzig were evacuated; before this latter city Schiller was now stationed. At the news of the King's approach the Duke, who, as a rule, acted merely in accordance with his own wishes, removed to Anhalt; thither his brother, Friedrich Eugene, fighting on the King's side, despatched Colonel von Kleist, who, at Kothen, on October 25, routed a section of the Wiirtemberg troops. Hereupon the Duke left the Imperial army and withdrew through Thuringia to the winter quarters. Schiller, with the Staff, was now transferred to Urach, near Reutlingen. In February 1761, by moving to Cannstadt, he was first brought somewhat nearer to his home. As the French would have no further dealings with the Duke, who had proffered them a force ten thousand strong, he was obliged to forego his projected sale of the Wiirtemberg troops. For Schiller this was no slight advantage, who had on August 17 'received his captaincy, a rank equal to that possessed by those of noble birth. He was now able to stay near his children, and to exercise some influence upon their education. His leisure he devoted to mathematics, at the prompting of his cousin, the student. The family took other and more commodious apartments in a house now occupied by Aufrecht, the baker. No. 192. In 1762 Captain Schiller came still nearer home ; his regiment moved to Ludwigsburg, and thence, for a time, to Stuttgart, being at length permanently quartered at Ludwigsburg. To this town, therefore, he brought his family. Now first could the parent, with his deep sense of duty, have influence upon the early character of his child, whose talents gladdened him the more, the greater his hopes grew respecting this long wished-for son.

The father's main characteristics were a strict earnestness, an undaunted perseverance that for ever keeps its goal in view, a strength, an inflexibiUty of will, pushed to the verge of

c i8 THE LIFE OF SCHILLER. [bk. i. ch. II.

harshness, righteous honesty, .great desire for action and for self-improvement, unchanging zeal and fidelity in the service of his master the Duke, and a sincere and humble trust in a Being set above earthly effort, at whose hands he calmly bore ■ all ills, holding them as those' trials through which we must pass in the attainment of eternal welfare. The prayers for family use drawn up by him testify to his strict piety, prayers that are plain and conventional withal. Even his hymnal, too, the so-called Morning Offering, of which he each day read a portion, is in no way a peculiar one. Public worship, however, was so deeply a matter of the heart with him that in his _ own house family prayer was made a special and a permanent institution. Fritz inherited his father's indefatigable energy, ' thorough earnestness and ceaseless endurance, his integrity and dauntless determination to get on in life ; from his gentle, sweet-tempered mother, pattern as she was of a good house- ' wife, he gained his thoughtful temperament, his kindly heart , and generous warmth of feeling. But in addition to these qualities nature had endowed him with the germs of a keen self-consciousness, an ardent passion for freedomj lofty idealism joined to great depth and penetration of thought — gifts which, despite the opposing pressure from without, reached their very highest development. Yet for him it was great fortune that in his early years he had had the guidance of his mother's love, his gentle, tender, pious, patient mother, who brought all her children up in obedience, in virtue, and in the fear of God. So, too, he gained in having an elder sister, with her kindly good-humour, at his side, while not until later was brought to bear upon him the stern influence of his father, whose military rigour made him more feared than loved. Though as faithful vassal of the Duke he suffered no word of blame to be spoken against his lord and leader, he could still not shut out his family from a knowledge of the country's suffering and woe ; and the abominable treatment of the once powerful Rieger, his son's godfather, who, untried, unjudged, suffered barbarous imprisonment at Hohentwiel, where Moset, by a like tyranny, still languished — this utter abuse of justice made the boy's heart throb with indignation. Montmartin played the despot in a land wherein the States were listened to no longer, while the Duke heeded nought save the gratification of his own desires, so that, despite all oppression, money was still wanting. However, a sale of the subjects of the realm would always form a rich source of revenue.