s kind, his first, and then almost his
only benefactor. His letters to this gentleman have been preserved,
and lately published; they exhibit a lively picture of Schiller's
painful situation at Stuttgard, and of his unskilful as well as eager
anxiety to be delivered from it.[10] His darling project was that
Dalberg should bring him to Mannheim, as theatrical poet, by
permission of the Duke: at one time he even thought of turning player.

[Footnote 10: See Appendix I., No. 2.]

Neither of these projects could take immediate effect, and Schiller's
embarrassments became more pressing than ever. With the natural
feeling of a young author, he had ventured to go in secret, and
witness the first representation of his tragedy, at Mannheim. His
incognito did not conceal him; he was put under arrest during a week,
for this offence: and as the punishment did not deter him from again
transgressing in a similar manner, he learned that it was in
contemplation to try more rigorous measures with him. Dark hints were
given to him of some exemplary as well as imminent severity: and
Dalberg's aid, the sole hope of averting it by quiet means, was
distant and dubious. Schiller saw himself reduced to extremities.
Beleaguered with present distresses, and the most horrible
forebodings, on every side; roused to the highest pitch of
indignation, yet forced to keep silence, and wear the face of
patience, he could endure this maddening constraint no longer. He
resolved to be free, at whatever risk; to abandon advantages which he
could not buy at such a price; to quit his step-dame home, and go
forth, though friendless and alone, to seek his fortune in the great
market of life. Some foreign Duke or Prince was arriving at Stuttgard;
and all the people were in movement, occupied with seeing the
spectacle of his entrance: Schiller seized this opportunity of
retiring from the city, careless whither he went, so he got beyond the
reach of turnkeys, and Grand Dukes, and commanding officers. It was in
the month of October 1782.

This last step forms the catastrophe of the publication of the
_Robbers_: it completed the deliverance of Schiller from the grating
thraldom under which his youth had been passed, and decided his
destiny for life. Schiller was in his twenty-third year when he left
Stuttgard. He says 'he went empty away,--empty in purse and hope.' The
future was indeed sufficiently dark before him. Without patrons,
connexions, or country, he