The Robbers

---

Also by Friedrich Schiller. See all books by Friedrich Schiller. About Friedrich Schiller Friedrich Schiller — ranks alongside Goethe as a central figure in the golden age of German literature.

Inspired by Your Browsing History. Looking for More Great Reads? Download our Spring Fiction Sampler Now. LitFlash The eBooks you want at the lowest prices. Any disposition to poetry did violence to the laws of the institution where I was educated, and contradicted the plan of its founder. For eight years my enthusiasm struggled with military discipline; but the passion for poetry is vehement and fiery as a first love.

What discipline was meant to extinguish, it blew into a flame. To escape from arrangements that tortured me, my heart sought refuge in the world of ideas, when as yet I was unacquainted with the world of realities, from which iron bars excluded me. I was unacquainted with men; for the four hundred that lived with me were but repetitions of the same creature, true casts of one single mould, and of that very mould which plastic nature solemnly disclaimed Thus circumstanced, a stranger to human characters and human fortunes, to hit the medium line between angels and devils was an enterprise in which I necessarily failed.

In attempting it, my pencil necessarily brought out a monster, for which by good fortune the world had no original, and which I would not wish to be immortal, except to perpetuate an example of the offspring which Genius in its unnatural union with Thraldom may give to the world.

The Robbers and Wallenstein

I allude to The Robbers. Yet with all these excrescences and defects the unbounded popularity of The Robbers is not difficult to account for. To every reader, the excitement of emotion must be a chief consideration; to the mass of readers it is the sole one: We have seen how well Schiller's temper and circumstances qualified him to fulfil this condition: Perhaps more than abundance: It is in vain that we rebel against the inconsistences and crudities of the work: We may exclaim against the blind madness of the hero; but there is a towering grandeur about him, a whirlwind force of passion and of will, which catches our hearts, and puts the scruples of criticism to silence.

The most delirious of enterprizes is that of Moor, but the vastness of his mind renders even that interesting.

We see him leagued with desperadoes directing their savage strength to actions more and more audacious; he is in arms against the conventions of men and the everlasting laws of Fate: Nor amid all his frightful aberrations do we ever cease to love him: When he pours forth his wild recollections, or still wilder forebodings, there is a terrible vehemence in his expressions, which overpowers us, in spite both of his and their extravagance. The scene on the hills beside the Danube, where he looks at the setting sun, and thinks of old hopes, and times, "when he could not sleep if his evening prayer had been forgotten," is one, with all its improprieties, that ever clings to the memory.

That all should be so happy, all so married together by the spirit of peace!

Download This eBook

Encircled with murderers; serpents hissing around me; riveted to vice with iron bonds; leaning on the bending reed of vice over the gulph of perdition; amid the flowers of the glad world, a howling Abaddon! O that I might return into my mother's womb--that I might be born a beggar!

I would never more--O Heaven, that I could be as one of these day laborers! I would toil till the blood ran down from my temples, to buy myself the pleasure of one noon-tide sleep, the blessing of a single tear.

There was a time too, when I could weep--O ye days of peace, thou castle of my father, ye green lovely valleys! Mourn with me Nature! They will never come again, never cool my burning bosom with their balmy sighing. No less striking is the soliloquy where Moor, with the instrument of self-destruction in his hands, the "dread key that is to shut behind him the prison of life, and to unbolt before him the dwelling of eternal night," --meditates on the gloomy enigmas of his future destiny.

Soliloquies on this subject are numerous--from the time of Hamlet , of Cato , and downwards. Perhaps the worst of them has more ingenuity, perhaps the best of them has less awfulness than the present. Dominick himself might shudder at such a question, with such an answer, as this: I would people the silent wilderness with my fantasies; I should have Eternity for leisure to examine the perplexed image of the universal woe.

Strength, wild impassioned strength, is the distinguishing quality of Moor. All his history shows it; and his death is of a piece with the fierce splendor of his life.

Having finished the bloody work of crime, and magnanimity, and horror, he thinks that, for himself, suicide would be too easy an exit. He has noticed a poor man toiling by the way-side, for eleven children; a great reward has been promised for the head of the Robber; the gold will nourish that poor drudge and his boys, and Moor goes forth to give it them. Depicting the deep corruption caused by constant fighting between Protestants and Catholics, it is at once a meditation on the unbounded possible strength of humanity, and a tragic recognition of what can happen when men allow themselves to be weak.

Paperback , pages. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about The Robbers and Wallenstein , please sign up. Be the first to ask a question about The Robbers and Wallenstein. Lists with This Book. Oct 22, Sara T rated it really liked it. Wallenstein's camp was translated to rhyme and was in the exact same meter as "The Night Before Christmas" which was super-distracting. I kept expecting Count Terzky to settle down for a long winter's nap. In a kerchief and cap. But seriously, this isn't a bad translation as far as translations go.

Aug 22, Daniel rated it it was amazing. The Wallenstein trilogy is good, too.

Navigation menu

Jun 07, Lucinda Elliot rated it really liked it. Intensely meolodramatic, extremely gloomy in tone, totally lacking in humour - but as critics say, full of energy and certainly compelling. I think if Amalia had represented the 'loving kindness and forgiveness' aspect of Christianity as against the pastor's depiction of a Deity of wrath, then it would have brought the play together more excuse the pun, Robber Moor.

Her despair and killing at the end is most unpleasant. I was outraged that the Pastor says that there are two heinous sins - patr Intensely meolodramatic, extremely gloomy in tone, totally lacking in humour - but as critics say, full of energy and certainly compelling.

I was outraged that the Pastor says that there are two heinous sins - patricide and fratricide. So matricide or soroicide are of no particular account??????!!!!!! View all 4 comments. Mar 09, James Violand rated it really liked it Recommends it for: Drama and history lovers.

The Robbers A well-written, incredibly depressing tragedy. Wallenstein This is a series of three plays concerning a principle player in the Thirty Years War. Schiller is at his b The Robbers A well-written, incredibly depressing tragedy. Schiller is at his best. It is unfortunate that this series is not performed in English.

How brutal war has cursed Europe from peasants to clergy, farmsteads to provinces, soldiers to mercenaries, and their shifting loyalties, has seldom been so effectively exposed on stage. The final part again 5 Acts The Death of Wallenstein is about how his plans come undone. Throughout, Wallenstein is painted with fine strokes, his charismatic figure is juxtaposed with his ruthless ambition. He may know each soldier under his command after meeting him but once, yet, he sacrifices everyone for his quest to command a kingdom, even his most loyal including his daughter.

Rarely have I encountered so rounded a character that you can both admire and loath. Nov 06, Will rated it liked it. I enjoyed The Robbers. When rhyming verse is translated and forced into the same meter and rhyme scheme, I have a hard time staying interested undistracted may be a better description. I appreciate the talent required of the translator, but maybe some things should just be left to the native speakers.

May 15, Robin rated it liked it. This book contains two plays- The Robbers, and the trilogy Wallenstein. I enjoyed The Robbers more than I thought I would.

• Gull Rock (Book 1 of the Wish You Were Here Series)
• Au dessus des lois : Mes 12 années de procédure contre Ségolène Royal (French Edition)
• Lesson Plans Drown
• A Borboleta Encantada (Portuguese Edition)
• Vie de la Sainte Vierge (Illustré) (French Edition)
• More George W. Bushisms: More of Slates Accidental Wit and Wisdom of Our 43rd President