The Robbers

The Robbers, by Frederich
Schiller

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Title: The Robbers A Tragedy
Author: Frederich Schiller
Release Date: October 25, 2006 [EBook #6782]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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ROBBERS ***

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THE ROBBERS.
By Frederich Schiller

SCHILLER'S PREFACE.
AS PREFIXED TO THE FIRST EDITION OF THE ROBBERS
PUBLISHED IN 1781.
Now first translated into English.
This play is to be regarded merely as a dramatic narrative in which, for
the purpose of tracing out the innermost workings of the soul,
advantage has been taken of the dramatic method, without otherwise
conforming to the stringent rules of theatrical composition, or seeking
the dubious advantage of stage adaptation. It must be admitted as
somewhat inconsistent that three very remarkable people, whose acts
are dependent on perhaps a thousand contingencies, should be
completely developed within three hours, considering that it would
scarcely be possible, in the ordinary course of events, that three such
remarkable people should, even in twenty-four hours, fully reveal their
characters to the most penetrating inquirer. A greater amount of
incident is here crowded together than it was possible for me to confine
within the narrow limits prescribed by Aristotle and Batteux.
It is, however, not so much the bulk of my play as its contents which
banish it from the stage. Its scheme and economy require that several
characters should appear who would offend the finer feelings of virtue
and shock the delicacy of our manners. Every delineator of human
character is placed in the same dilemma if he proposes to give a faithful
picture of the world as it really is, and not an ideal phantasy, a mere
creation of his own. It is the course of mortal things that the good
should be shadowed by the bad, and virtue shine the brightest when
contrasted with vice. Whoever proposes to discourage vice and to
vindicate religion, morality, and social order against their enemies,
must unveil crime in all its deformity, and place it before the eyes of
men in its colossal magnitude; he must diligently explore its dark
mazes, and make himself familiar with sentiments at the wickedness of
which his soul revolts.
Vice is here exposed in its innermost workings. In Francis it resolves

all the confused terrors of conscience into wild abstractions, destroys
virtuous sentiments by dissecting them, and holds up the earnest voice
of religion to mockery and scorn. He who has gone so far (a distinction
by no means enviable) as to quicken his understanding at the expense
of his soul--to him the holiest things are no longer holy; to him God
and man are alike indifferent, and both worlds are as nothing. Of such a
monster I have endeavored to sketch a striking and lifelike portrait, to
hold up to abhorrence all the machinery of his scheme of vice, and to
test its strength by contrasting it with truth. How far my narrative is
successful in accomplishing these objects the reader is left to judge. My
conviction is that I have painted nature to the life.
Next to this man (Francis) stands another who would perhaps puzzle
not a few of my readers. A mind for which the greatest crimes have
only charms through the glory which attaches to them, the energy
which their perpetration requires, and the dangers which attend them. A
remarkable and important personage, abundantly endowed with the
power of becoming either a Brutus or a Catiline, according as that
power is directed. An unhappy conjunction of circumstances
determines him to choose the latter for, his example, and it is only after
a fearful straying that he is recalled to emulate the former. Erroneous
notions of activity and power, an exuberance of strength which bursts
through all the barriers of law, must of necessity conflict with the rules
of social life. To these enthusiast dreams of greatness and efficiency it
needed but a sarcastic bitterness against the unpoetic spirit of the age to
complete the strange Don Quixote whom, in the Robber Moor, we at
once detest and love, admire and pity. It is, I hope, unnecessary to
remark that I no more hold up this picture as a warning exclusively to
robbers than the greatest Spanish satire was levelled exclusively at
knight-errants.
It is nowadays so much the fashion to be witty at the expense of
religion that a man will hardly pass for a genius if he does not allow his
impious satire to