Next in order came _The Maid of Orleans_, expressly called by its
author a romantic tragedy. It is a "rescue" of the Maid's character.
Shakespeare had depicted her as a witch, Voltaire as a vulgar fraud.
Schiller conceives her as a genuine ambassadress of God, or rather of
the Holy Virgin. Not only does he accept at its face value the
tradition of her "voices," her miraculous clairvoyance, her magic
influence on the French troops; but he makes her fight in the ranks
with men and gives to her a terrible avenging sword, before which no
Englishman can stand. But she, too, had to have her tragic guilt. So
Schiller makes her supernatural power depend--by the Virgin's express
command--on her renunciation of the love of man. A fleeting passion
for the English general Lionel, conceived on the battle-field in the
fury of combat, fills her with remorse and the sense of treason to her
high mission. For a while she is deprived of her self-confidence, and
with it of her supernatural power. There follow scenes of bitter
humiliation, until her expiation is complete. At last, purified by
suffering, she recovers her divine strength, breaks her fetters,
brings victory once more to the disheartened French soldiers, and dies
in glory on the field of battle. One sees that it is not at all the
real Jeanne d'Arc that Schiller depicts, but a glorified heroine
invested with divine power and called to be the savior of her country.
Here, for the first time in German drama, the passion of patriotism
plays an important part.

After the completion of _The Maid of Orleans_ Schiller was minded to
try his hand on a tragedy "in the strictest Greek form." He had been
deeply impressed by the art of Sophocles and wished to create
something which should produce on the modern mind the effect of a
Greek tragedy, with its simple structure, its few characters, and
above all its chorus. But the choice of a subject was not easy, and
for several months he occupied himself with other matters. He made a
German version of Gozzi's _Turandot_ and took notes for a tragedy
about Perkin Warbeck. In the summer of 1802 he decided definitely to
carry out his plan of vying with the Greeks. _The Bride of Messina_
was finished in February, 1803. While he was working at it there
arrived one day--it was in November, 1802--a patent of nobility from
the chancelry of the Holy Roman Empire. It may be noted in passing
that several years before he had been made an honorary citizen o