tedious eight years of durance
in the fortress of Asperg, because he had been 'a rock of offence to
the powers that were.' The fate of this unfortunate author appeared to
Schiller a type of his own. His free spirit shrank at the prospect of
wasting its strength in strife against the pitiful constraints, the
minute and endless persecutions of men who knew him not, yet had his
fortune in their hands; the idea of dungeons and jailors haunted and
tortured his mind; and the means of escaping them, the renunciation
of poetry, the source of all his joy, if likewise of many woes, the
radiant guiding-star of his turbid and obscure existence, seemed a
sentence of death to all that was dignified, and delightful, and worth
retaining, in his character. Totally ignorant of what is called the
world; conscious too of the might that slumbered in his soul, and
proud of it, as kings are of their sceptres; impetuous when roused,
and spurning unjust restraint; yet wavering and timid from the
delicacy of his nature, and still more restricted in the freedom of
his movements by the circumstances of his father, whose all depended
on the pleasure of the court, Schiller felt himself embarrassed, and
agitated, and tormented in no common degree. Urged this way and that
by the most powerful and conflicting impulses; driven to despair by
the paltry shackles that chained him, yet forbidden by the most sacred
considerations to break them, he knew not on what he should resolve;
he reckoned himself 'the most unfortunate of men.'

[Footnote 9: See Appendix I., No. 1.]

Time at length gave him the solution; circumstances occurred which
forced him to decide. The popularity of the _Robbers_ had brought him
into correspondence with several friends of literature, who wished to
patronise the author, or engage him in new undertakings. Among this
number was the Freiherr von Dalberg, superintendent of the theatre at
Mannheim, under whose encouragement and countenance Schiller
remodelled the _Robbers_, altered it in some parts, and had it brought
upon the stage in 1781. The correspondence with Dalberg began in
literary discussions, but gradually elevated itself into the
expression of more interesting sentiments. Dalberg loved and
sympathised with the generous enthusiast, involved in troubles and
perplexities which his inexperience was so little adequate to thread:
he gave him advice and assistance; and Schiller repaid this favour
with the gratitude due to hi