THE PICCOLOMINI

By Frederich Schiller



Translated by S. T. Coleridge.



"Upon the whole there can be no doubt that this trilogy forms, in its
original tongue, one of the most splendid specimens of tragic art the
world has witnessed; and none at all, that the execution of the version
from which we have quoted so largely, places Mr. Coleridge in the very
first rank of poetical translators. He is, perhaps, the solitary example
of a man of very great original genius submitting to all the labors, and
reaping all the honors of this species of literary exertion."--Blackwood,
1823.




PREFACE.

The two dramas,--PICCOLOMINI, or the first part of WALLENSTEIN, and the
DEATH OF WALLENSTEIN, are introduced in the original manuscript by a
prelude in one act, entitled WALLENSTEIN'S CAMP. This is written in
rhyme, and in nine-syllable verse, in the same lilting metre (if that
expression may be permitted), with the second Eclogue of Spenser's
Shepherd's Calendar.