relates that on the night of the uprising Fiesco went to take leave of
his wife, "whom he loved with tender affection." He found her "in all
the anguish of uncertainty and fear"; and her terror was increased when
she learned what was on foot. She endeavored by her tears and entreaties
and her despair to divert him from his purpose. But in vain; he left her
with the exclamation: "Farewell! You shall either never see me more, or
you shall behold to-morrow everything in Genoa subject to your power."
On the other hand, the intrigue of Fiesco and Julia, the sister of
Gianettino, is unhistorical. It was invented by Schiller as a part of
the general scheme of duplicity and frivolity by which Fiesco should
seek to quiet the suspicion of the Dorias. If this particular invention
was upon the whole unfortunate--the matter will be discussed further
on,--the same cannot be said of the Moor Hassan, who becomes Fiesco's
factotum and ends his career on the gallows. The rascally Moor is the
most picturesque figure and the most telling role in the whole piece.

Schiller introduces Fiesco as a seemingly frivolous _roue_, flirting
desperately with the Countess Julia, to the great torment of his wife
Leonora. We soon see, however, that the frivolity is only a mask: he has
a serious purpose and that purpose is to make himself master of Genoa.
At first, indeed, he toys with the idea of a nobler fame. In a soliloquy
at the end of the second act he exclaims: 'To conquer a diadem is grand;
to throw it away is divine. Down, tyrant! Let Genoa be free and me be
its happiest citizen!' But this mood does not long withstand the
intoxication of power. To rule, to rule alone, to feel that Genoa owes
everything to him only,--this soon becomes his all-absorbing ambition.
At the last, when the revolution has succeeded, he puts on the ducal
purple and the people are ready to acquiesce in the new regime. But old
Verrina is not so tractable. When he cannot prevail upon Fiesco to doff
the hateful insignia, he pushes him into the sea and exclaims in