Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, historian, and dramatist. He was born in Württemberg, as the only son, besides ten sisters. In 1790 Schiller married Charlotte von Lagerfeld. With Charlotte he had four children. Because of pneumonia and pleurisy, Schiller was forced to give up his professional duties in 1791. He wrote in the 1790s philosophical poems and studies about philosophy and aesthetics. A poet of human freedom, Schiller first greeted the French Revolution with enthusiasm, but then became horrified by the wave of violence and planned to write a book or pamphlet in defence of the king. When he was made an honorary citizen of the French Republic by the Jacobines, he rejected the homage. "These two weeks past," he wrote in a letter in February 1793, "I can read no more French papers, so disgusted am I with these wretched executioners." Schiller died in Weimar on May 9, 1805, at the age of 46. His last drama, DEMETRIUS (1815), was left unfinished.
Schiller is considered by most Germans to be Germany's most important classical playwright.
Following the remarkable performance of The Robbers in Mannheim, in 1781, he was arrested and forbidden by Karl Eugene himself from publishing any further works. He fled Stuttgart, in 1783, coming via Leipzig and Dresden to Weimar, in 1787. In 1789, he was appointed professor of History and Philosophy in Jena, where he wrote only historical works. He returned to Weimar, in 1799, where Goethe convinced him to return to playwriting. He and Goethe founded the Weimar Theater which became the leading theater in Germany, leading to a dramatic renaissance. He remained in Weimar, Saxe-Weimar until his death at 45 from tuberculosis.
The Robbers: The language of The Robbers is highly emotional and the depiction of physical violence in the play marks it as a quintessential work of Germany's Romantic 'Storm and Stress' movement. The Robbers is considered by critics to be the first European melodrama. The play pits two brothers against each other in alternating scenes, as one quest for money and power, while the other attempts to create a revolutionary anarchy in the Bohemian Forest. The play strongly criticizes the hypocrisies of class and religion and the economic inequities of German society; it also conducts a complicated inquiry into the nature of evil.
Schiller died in Weimar on May 9, 1805, at the age of 46. For this Goethe was extremely grieved. He said “I lost Schiller, also lost half of my life .”
英文,谢谢