Elegant places to hear all the other dogs bark.

The making of these more or less caustic epigrams amused them.
Sometimes one would suggest the topic and the other write the distich;
again, one would do the hexameter, the other the pentameter. They
agreed that neither should ever claim separate property in the
_Xenia_, as they were called. The number grew apace, until it reached
nearly a thousand. About half the number on hand were published in
1797 in Schiller's _Musenalmanach_ and had the effect of setting all
Germany agog with curiosity, rage or solemn glee. Some of those hit
replied in kind or in vicious attacks, and for a little while there
was great excitement. But having discharged their broadside Goethe and
Schiller did not further pursue the ignoble warfare. They wisely came
to the conclusion that the best way to elevate the public taste was
not to assail the bad in mordant personal epigrams, but to exemplify
the good in creative work.

After his nine years of fruitful wandering in other fields Schiller
returned at last, in 1796, to dramatic poetry. Once more it came in
his way to write for the stage, since Goethe was now director of the
Weimar theatre. After some hesitation between _Wallenstein_ and _The
Knights of Malta_, both of which had long haunted his thoughts, he
decided in favor of the former. It occupied him for three years and
finally left his hands as a long affair in three parts. Yet it is not
a trilogy in the proper sense, but a play in ten acts, preceded by a
dramatic prelude. At first Schiller found the material refractory. The
actual Wallenstein had never exhibited truly heroic qualities of any
kind, and his history involved only the cold passions of ambition,
envy, and vindictiveness. Whether he was really guilty of treason was
a moot question which admitted of no partisan treatment. But