details, _Fiesco_ lacks artistic finality and is the least interesting
of Schiller's early plays. Much more important is _Cabal and Love_, a
domestic tragedy that has held the stage to this day and is generally
regarded as the best of its kind in the eighteenth-century German
drama. Class conflict is the tragic element. A maid of low degree and
her high-minded, aristocratic lover are done to death by a miserable
court intrigue. Far more than in _The Robbers_ Schiller was here
writing with his eye on the facts. Much Württemberg history is thinly
disguised in this drastic comment on the crimes, follies and
banalities of German court life under the Old Régime.

Notwithstanding his success as a playwright and his receipt of the
honorable title of Councilor from the Duke of Weimar, Schiller was
unhappy at Mannheim. Sickness, debt and loneliness oppressed him,
making creative work well-nigh impossible. In June, 1784, when the sky
was looking very black, he received a heartening letter from a quartet
of unknown admirers in Leipzig, one of whom was Gottfried Körner.
Schiller was deeply touched. In his hunger for sympathy and friendship
he resolved to leave Mannheim and seek out these good people who had
shown such a kindly interest in him. Fortunately Körner was a man of
some means and was able to help not only with words but with cash. So
it came about that in the spring of 1785 Schiller forsook Mannheim,
which had become as a prison to him, and went to Leipzig. Thence,
after a short sojourn, he followed Körner to Dresden. The relation
between the two men developed into a warm and mutually inspiring
friendship. A feeling of jubilant happiness took possession of
Schiller and soon found expression in the _Song to Joy_, wherein a
kiss of love and sympathy is offered to all mankind.

[Illustration: 1. SCHILLER'S HOUSE IN WEIMAR]