Schon hoer' ich--Tod und Hoelle!
Was hoer' ich--einen nassen Strumpf
Geworfen in die Welle."]

The story of Don Carlos seems peculiarly adapted for dramatists. The
spectacle of a royal youth condemned to death by his father, of which
happily our European annals furnish but another example, is among the
most tragical that can be figured; the character of that youth, the
intermixture of bigotry and jealousy, and love, with the other strong
passions, which brought on his fate, afford a combination of
circumstances, affecting in themselves, and well calculated for the
basis of deeply interesting fiction. Accordingly they have not been
neglected: Carlos has often been the theme of poets; particularly
since the time when his history, recorded by the Abbe St. Real, was
exposed in more brilliant colours to the inspection of every writer,
and almost of every reader.

The Abbe St. Real was a dexterous artist in that half-illicit species
of composition, the historic novel: in the course of his operations,
he lighted on these incidents; and, by filling-up according to his
fancy, what historians had only sketched to him, by amplifying,
beautifying, suppressing, and arranging, he worked the whole into a
striking little narrative, distinguished by all the symmetry, the
sparkling graces, the vigorous description, and keen thought, which
characterise his other writings. This French Sallust, as his
countrymen have named him, has been of use to many dramatists. His
_Conjuraison contre Venise_ furnished Otway with the outline of his
best tragedy; _Epicaris_ has more than once appeared upon the stage;
and _Don Carlos_ has been dramatised in almost all the languages of
Europe. Besides Otway's _Carlos_ so famous at its first appearance,
many tragedies on this subject have been written: most of them are
gathered to their final rest; some are fast going thither; two bid
fair to last for ages. Schiller and Alfieri have both drawn their plot
from St. Real; the former has expanded and added; the latter has
compressed and abbreviated.

Schiller's _Carlos_ is the first of his plays that bears the stamp of
anything like full maturity. The opportunities he had enjoyed for
extending his knowledge of men and things, the sedulous practice of
the art of composition, the study of purer models, had not been
without their full effect. Increase of years had done something for
him; diligence had done much more. The ebullience of youth is no