public taste was
not to assail the bad in mordant personal epigrams, but to exemplify
the good in creative work.

After his nine years of fruitful wandering in other fields Schiller
returned at last, in 1796, to dramatic poetry. Once more it came in
his way to write for the stage, since Goethe was now director of the
Weimar theatre. After some hesitation between _Wallenstein_ and _The
Knights of Malta_, both of which had long haunted his thoughts, he
decided in favor of the former. It occupied him for three years and
finally left his hands as a long affair in three parts. Yet it is not
a trilogy in the proper sense, but a play in ten acts, preceded by a
dramatic prelude. At first Schiller found the material refractory. The
actual Wallenstein had never exhibited truly heroic qualities of any
kind, and his history involved only the cold passions of ambition,
envy, and vindictiveness. Whether he was really guilty of treason was
a moot question which admitted of no partisan treatment. But
Schiller's genius triumphed splendidly over the difficulties inherent
in the subject. In the _Camp_ we get a picturesque view of the motley
soldatesca which was the basis of Wallenstein's power and prestige. In
_The Piccolomini_ we see the nature of the dangerous game he is
playing, and in _Wallenstein's Death_ the unheroic hero becomes very
impressive in his final discomfiture and his pitiable taking-off. The
love-tragedy of Max and Thekla casts a mellow light of romance over
the otherwise austere political action.

[Illustration: 1. THE MILITARY ACADEMY IN STUTTGART WHERE SCHILLER WAS
EDUCATED]

[Illustration: 2. THE THEATRE IN MANNHEIM IN 1782 WHERE SCHILLER'S
"THE ROBBERS," "FIESCO," AND "LOVE AND INTRIGUE" WERE FIRST PLAYED]

During the years 1795-1800 Schiller wrote a large number of short
poems in which he gave expression to his matured philosophy of life.
His best ballads also belong to this period. Pure song he did not
often attempt, his philosophic bent predisposing him to what the
Germans call the lyric of thought. Perhaps his invalidism had
something to do with it; at any rate the total number of his singable
lyrics, such as _The Maiden's Lament_, is but small. As a poet of
reflection he is at his best in _The Ideal and Life, The Walk, The
Eleusinian Festival_, and the more popular _Song of the Bell_. The
first-named of these four, at first called _The Realm of Shades_, is a
masterpiece of high thinking, charged with warm