ction of plays, the
dramatic literature of Europe in innumerable volumes, which was one of
my favorite studies in my father's library.

I am not, however, at all of your opinion, that "Fiesco" is the best of
Schiller's plays. I think "Don Carlos," and "William Tell," and
especially "Wallenstein," finer; the last, indeed, finest of them all.
My own especial favorite, however, for many years (though I do not at
all think it his best play) was "Joan of Arc." As for his violation of
history in "Wallenstein" and "Mary Stuart," I think little of that
compared with the singular insensibility he has shown to the glory of
the French heroine's death, which is the more remarkable because he
generally, above most poets, especially recognizes the sublimity of
moral greatness; and how far does the red pile of the religious and
patriotic martyr, surrounded by her terrified and cowardly English
enemies and her more basely cowardly and ungrateful French friends,
transcend in glory, the rose-colored battle-field apotheosis Schiller
has awarded her! Joan of Arc seems to me never yet to have been done
justice to by either poet or historian, and yet what a subject for both!
The treatment of the character of Joan of Arc in "Henry VI." is one
reason why I do not believe it to be wholly Shakespeare's. He never, it
is true, writes out of the spirit of his time, neither was he ever
absolutely and servilely subject to it--for example, giving in Shylock
the delineation of the typical Jew as conceived in his day, think of
that fine fierce vindication of their common humanity with which he
challenges the Christian Venetians, Solanio and Solarino--"Hath not a
Jew eyes?" etc.

By-the-by, did you ever hear a whisper of a suggestion that Joan of Arc
was _not_ burned? There is such a tradition, that she was rescued,
reprieved, and lived to a fine old age, though rather scorched.

And now, at the fag end of my paper, to answer your question about
Leonora Lavagna. I think, beyond all doubt, the sentiment Schiller makes
her express as occurring to her at the altar perfectly natural. When the
character and position of Leonora are considered, her love for
Fiesco--however, chiefly composed of admiration for his person and more
amiable and brilliant personal qualities--must inevitably have derived
some of its strength from her generous patriotism and insulted family
pride; and nothing, in my opinion, can be more probable than that she
should have see in him