and the oppressed renders him an outcast to society; in fine he is the martyr of his own perfections. While the popularity of this work was dazzling with the masses, its reversion among another class was intense. The Grand Duke forbade him to write any more poetry, and attend to medicine, (he had recently been appointed surgeon to a regiment,) or, if he must write, submit his productions to the revision of a critic. Imagine the indignation of Schiller! He writes to a young friend, Karl Moser:-"So long as my spirit can raise itself to be free, it shall bow to no yoke." Accordingly he wrote to Freiherr von Dalberg, a noble man intrusted with the superintendence of the theatre at Manheim, and the play was to be remodelled for the stage. Some of hisfriends at the same time assisted him in publishing a volume of lyrics and minor poems, many of which had been composed some time since.

The success of the Robbers when it appeared on the stage was immense. The play lasted five hours. His audience was drawn from far. They gathered from distant cities, for the fiery rebellion of thought had woke an echo which could not be suppressed. By stealth, in an obscure corner of the house, he witnessed the living embodiment of his own. thoughts and passions, and from that time was confirmed in his determination to adopt the vocation to which his genius and his inclinations pointed. Another severe repri

mand from the Duke determined him to leave his home; to fly from Stuttgard and throw himself on the world. He confided to his mother the plans for his escape. Fortified by her blessings and her prayers, accompanied by one faithful friend, at the midnight hour he fled from the Capital of Wurtemberg.

The city was illuminated, it was the eve of a 'grand fete, and by the brilliancy he could distinctly point out the home of his parents. "O, meine mutter!" burst from his lips as they wended their lonely way. From this time forward his fame as a dramatic poet con. tinued to increase; he found many difficulties in the way of his advancement, it is true; for some time the Grand Duke continued a show of hostility that prevented Dalberg from affording him his patronage; but this at length was conquered; his manly but respectful independence, his growing fame, the sobering influences of time secured for him an unmo lested future.

He added to the Robbers, Fiesco, Cabal and Love, Marie Stuart, Joan of Arc, and other dramas of less thrilling interest. IIe was received with much distinction at court,

and the dignity of councillor was conferred upon him by the Duke. At the early age of twenty-six his name had become a household word in Europe. The very misfortunes of his early life had had an ennobling effect upon his manhood, and had served to aug ment the genius of his soul. In his fortunate marriage with the beautiful Charlotte von Lengefeld, every desire of his heart was satisfied. To borrow her sister's pen, (Madame von Wolzogen), "she was highly prepossessing, both in form and face, an expression of the purest goodness of heart animated her features, and her eye beamed only truth and innocence."

A few months after his marriage, he describes his happiness thus: "Life is quite a different thing by the side of a beloved wife than so forsaken and alone, even in summer

I think my very youth will be renewed; an inward poetic life will give it me again." At this time. when he felt the pressing necessity for renewed exertion, to enhance the comforts of his beloved wife, and when his health seemed unequal to the demands which he made upon it, came a letter from Prince von Augustenburg and Count Schimmelman, from which the following is extracted: "We entreat you to receive for three years an annual gift of a thousand dollars. We hear that your health suffers from too severe an application. Do not grudge us the pleasure of contributing to your relief." The effect of this letter on the high-minded Schiller may be imagined. The title of Hofrath, a distinction much coveted, had been bestowed upon him some time before. He was no longer the friendless stripling the exiled wanderer.