It was a hint from Rousseau that suggested to Schiller, during his last
year in the academy, the idea of dramatizing this episode of Genoese
history. In the German 'Memoirs of Rousseau' by H.P. Sturz, referred to
in the preceding chapter, he found Rousseau quoted as follows:

The reason why Plutarch wrote such noble biographies is that he
never selected half-great men, such as exist by the thousands in
quiet states, but grand exemplars of virtue or sublime criminals. In
modern history there is a man deserving of his brush, and that is
Count Fiesco, whose training made him the very man to liberate his
country from the rule of the Dorias.... There was no other thought
in his soul than to dethrone the usurper.[42]

Here was a tempting theme for a young dramatist who had fed his own soul
upon Plutarch, was enamored of 'greatness' in whatever form, and had
already tried his hand upon a 'sublime criminal.' What could be better
for his purpose than a daring conspiracy, led by a Plutarchian hero who
was at the same time a single-minded patriot? In his earliest musings it
is probable that Schiller accepted Rousseau's view of Fiesco at its face
value, and when he began to consult the historians he found at first
some support for his preconception. Among his sources was the
'Conjuration du Comte de Fiesque', by De Retz; a book which was written,
according to a somewhat doubtful tradition, when its author was but
eighteen years old, and which, by its clever perversion of history and
its subtle insinuation of revolutionary ideas, is said to have drawn
from Richelieu the comment: 'There is a dangerous man!'[43] In the
sophisticated narrative of De Retz Fiesco appears as a modern Brutus,
whose thought of personal aggrandizement was altogether subordinate to
the thought of his country's welfare. He is made much better than he