and had the satisfaction of hearing it highly praised in influential
quarters. He had never enjoyed such happiness as now, his only sorrow
in the early months of his marriage arising from a brief separation
from his wife, who had to go to Rudolstadt for her mother's birthday.

[Illustration: Schiller presented to the Princess of Saxe-weimar.]

In one of his letters to her he says, "Your dear picture is ever
before me; all seems to speak to me of where the little wife walked,
and My Lady Comfort" (Lotte's sister, Caroline) "sat enthroned. And to
feel that my hand can always reach what my heart would have near it,
to feel that we are inseparable, _that_ is a sense which I unceasingly
foster in my bosom, finding it exhaustless and ever new." Recognition
of his genius came from all sides, from Goethe, Wieland, Koerner; and
by the press he was hailed as the Shakespeare of Germany. He needed
some such encouragement, for he was attacked by a dangerous illness,
which was aggravated by pecuniary troubles; had it not been for his
wife's tender care he could scarcely have recovered, and it was well
for him and for his country that there came to him at this crisis an
offer from the Hereditary Prince and Count von Schimmelmann, of a
thousand thalers per annum for three years, in order that he might
obtain the rest needed for his restoration to health. "I am freed for
a long time," he wrote joyfully to his dear friend Koerner, "perhaps
forever, from all care." To the generous donor he said, "I have to pay
my debt, not to you, but to mankind. That is the common altar where
you lay down your gifts and I my gratitude." The method he adopted to
recruit his health was to begin to work again. The French National
Assembly conferred upon several celebrated foreigners the right of
citizenship, and at this distance of time it is strange to read the
name of the German Schiller among them. Though seldom free from
suffering, which was frequently so acute that he spoke of it as
torture, it was a proof of his indomitable spirit that during his last
decade he achieved his most memorable triumphs; and yet, in the height
of his powers, his youthful dread returned to him, and he expressed
a doubt whether he had not mistaken his vocation. The encouragement of
Goethe went far to sustain him; between these two great poets existed
a warm friendship, and Goethe showed his confidence in Schiller by
asking him to correct "Egmont" for the stage. But still he