ABSTRACT
The growth of the theatre in Weimar under the influence first of Goethe, then of Goethe and Schiller, from the amusement of a small circle to an institution of great importance in the history of German culture. The Weimar Theatre was seen at its best in the first and perhaps greatest of Schiller’s later plays, Wallenstein. None of the plays following Wallenstein cost Schiller so much trouble as it had done. He had thought of Maria Stuart as a subject soon after writing Kabale und Liebe but his actual work on it lasted little over a year. Die Jungfrau von Orleans was written still more quickly and easily than Maria Stuart. If Die Braut von Messina is almost without roots in the culture of Schiller’s time and country, Wilhelm Tell is a ‘Volksstiick’ and expressed perhaps better than any other German play except Faust the native culture of a German-speaking country.
