Schiller, (Johann Christoph) Friedrich von (1759–1805), outstanding German poet and dramatist. He was only 22 when his first play
Die Räuber, about the hostility between two brothers, was accepted for the theatre at
Mannheim, where it was produced in 1782 with immediate success. Schiller was appointed official dramatist to the theatre, writing for it
Fiesco (1783) and
Kabale und Liebe (1784). He was heavily in debt, however, having taken refuge in Mannheim, where he was living under an assumed name, from his duties as an army doctor. After the production of his first historical tragedy,
Don Carlos (1787), he published two books, one of which, on the Thirty Years War, provided him with the material for his great dramatic trilogy
Wallenstein, completed in 1799 and translated into English by
Coleridge. Schiller's last years, before his early death from tuberculosis, were spent in
Weimar, where he enjoyed the friendship and collaboration of
Goethe, who staged some of his best works, notably
Maria Stuart (1800);
Die Jungfrau von Orleans (1801), his most operatic play;
Die Braut von Messina (1803), written in the form of ancient drama in chiselled verse, with lyrically beautiful choruses; and his last play
Wilhelm Tell (1804). All Schiller's plays were translated into English, at first for reading rather than for the stage. The most influential was
Die Räuber, which reinforced the
Sturm und Drang movement unleashed by Goethe's
Götz von Berlichingen (1773). As
The Red-Cross Knights it was seen at the Haymarket in 1799 and as
The Robbers at
Drury Lane in 1851.
Kabale und Liebe as
The Harper's Daughter was seen at
Covent Garden in 1803 and as
Power and Principle at the
Strand in 1850. It was seen in German in London during the
World Theatre Season of 1964.
Maria Stuart, which brings together Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots, who in real life never met, was staged at Covent Garden in 1819, the Court Theatre in 1880, and the
Old Vic in 1958.
