letter is as follows:

[No date.]

'The proud judgment, passed upon me in the flattering letter
which I had the honour to receive from your Excellency, is
enough to set the prudence of an Author on a very slippery
eminence. The authority of the quarter it proceeds from,
would almost communicate to that sentence the stamp of
infallibility, if I could regard it as anything but a mere
encouragement of my Muse. More than this a deep feeling of my
weakness will not let me think it; but if my strength shall
ever climb to the height of a masterpiece, I certainly shall
have this warm approval of your Excellency alone to thank for
it, and so will the world. For several years I have had the
happiness to know you from the public papers: long ago the
splendour of the Mannheim theatre attracted my attention.
And, I confess, ever since I felt any touch of dramatic
talent in myself, it has been among my darling projects some
time or other to remove to Mannheim, the true temple of
Thalia; a project, however, which my _closer_ connection with
Wuertemberg might possibly impede.

'Your Excellency's very kind proposal on the subject of the
_Robbers_, and such other pieces as I may produce in future,
is infinitely precious to me; the maturing of it well
deserves a narrower investigation of your Excellency's
theatre, its special mode of management, its actors, the _non
plus ultra_ of its machinery; in a word, a full conception of
it, such as I shall never get while my only scale of
estimation is this Stuttgard theatre of ours, an
establishment still in its minority. Unhappily my
_economical_ circumstances render it impossible for me to
travel much; though I could travel now with the greater
happiness and confidence, as I have still some _pregnant
ideas_ for the Mannheim theatre, which I could wish to have
the honour of communicating to your Excellency. For the rest,
I remain,' &c.

From the second letter we learn that Schiller had engaged to
_theatrilise_ his original edition of the _Robbers_, and still wished
much to be connected in some shape with Mannheim. The third explains
itself:

'Stuttgard, 6th October 1781.

'Here then at last returns the luckless prodigal, the
remodelled _Robbers_! I am sorry that I have not kept the
time, appoi