sugary letter from Dalberg. What led him to make fresh overtures to the
man whom, a few months before, he had treated so shabbily, is not
difficult to make out. He had become convinced that there was after all
nothing to be feared from the Duke of Wuerttemberg. Moreover, since the
peremptory rejection of 'Fiesco' the Mannheim theater had been doing a
very poor business. What more natural than that the shrewd intendant,
with an eye to better houses, should bethink him of the pen that had
written 'The Robbers'? From Schwan and from Streicher, who had remained
in Mannheim, he knew of Schiller's address and occupation. So he wrote
him a gracious letter, inquiring after his welfare and expressing
particular interest in the new play. It was now Schiller's turn to be
foxy. He replied that he was very well, and that as for the play,
'Louise Miller', it was a tragedy with a copious admixture of satirical
and comic elements that would probably render it quite unfit for the
stage. Dalberg replied that the specified defects were merits,--he would
like to see the manuscript. The upshot of the correspondence was that
Schiller, who had been negotiating with a Leipzig publisher but had been
unable to make an acceptable bargain for the publication of 'Louise
Miller', now determined to revise it for the stage and meet the views of
Dalberg if possible. So about the middle of April he laid aside 'Don
Carlos' and, for the third time in his life, devoted himself to the
irksome task of converting a literary drama into a stage-play. On the
3rd of May he wrote to Reinwald:

My L.M. drives me out of bed at five o'clock in the morning. Here I
sit now, sharpening pens and chewing thoughts. It is certain and
true that compulsion clips the wings of the spirit. To write with
such solicitude for the theater, so hastily because I am pressed for
time, and yet without fault, is an art. But I feel that my 'Louise'
is a gainer.... My Lady [Lady Milford in the play] interests me