g to some kindred
heart from which, sooner or later, in a world where nothing stands
sure, one must wrench oneself, bleeding, away." On January 10, 1784,
he was elected a member of the Deutsche Gesellschaft, and on the
following day "Fiesco" was produced. Its first representation was but
a partial success. It met with more favor on its second performance on
the 18th. Its third representation was less favorable, and then it was
quietly laid aside. His suit with Charlotte did not prosper, and he
relinquished the hope of winning her. He was despondent and in debt.
He owed money to Charlotte's mother and to his father; but he
struggled on, and in the latter part of the year he issued a
prospectus of a new journal, "Thalia," which was to make his
fortune--an anticipation which was not realized. The journal was to be
published six times a year; philosophy, biography, literary reviews,
and dramatic criticisms were to be its leading features; and he threw
himself into the task with enthusiasm. The difficulties he encountered
were tremendous; these, with his love affairs (for Charlotte von
Wolzogen was not the only woman upon whom he set his affections), the
labor entailed by "Thalia," and the numberless ideas for fresh
romance with which his brain was teeming, would have broken down most
men; but though he repined at reverses, he rose continually superior
to them. Long before "Don Carlos" was finished he commenced "The
Ghostseer," in which he intended to develop an idea which had
originally formed the scheme of "Friedrich Imhof." His life was a kind
of fever; with his ardent friendships, his susceptible passions, his
pecuniary anxieties, and his fertile brain forever at work, he knew no
rest. He had removed to Jena, the capital of Saxe-Weimar, and at that
time the literary centre of Germany. The Prince Charles Augustus and
his famous mother, the Princess Amalia, made him welcome and
encouraged him. A gleam of sunshine now shone upon him; and he saw a
prospect of domestic happiness. He fell in love with Charlotte von
Lengenfeld, and in 1789 they were engaged. On February 22, 1790, the
fond couple were married at the little village church of Wenigen-Jena.
It was a simple wedding. "We spent the evening in quiet talk over our
tea," wrote Lotte, sixteen years after, when she was a widow. It was a
happy union, and the honeymoon was short, for Schiller had no time for
idleness. This year he wrote his "History of the Thirty Years' War,"