of the poet's life can here have no value. His criticism of the dramas too is of the most fragmentary sort. In fact nothing except The Robbers is treated with any detail. That criticism is for De Quincey eminently fair. It is not a new criticism; it is the common one, but nevertheless true. The characters are "mere impossibilities". They have not the internal coherence which are found even in Shakespeare's preternatural creations. As a work of art the play is "indefensible"; nevertheless there are great beauties, "terrific sublimities" existing "on that basis of the visionary". That contains in the germ the most that is to be said of Schiller's Robbers. But when De Quincey states that none of the subsequent dramas from Fiesco to Marie Stuart are so far free from the faults of the Robbers as to merit a separate notice,1 he shows either a lack of knowledge, or the categorical style of judgment to which he often yielded too easily. In another connection, however, De Quincey speaks of the "close unity in the incidents, the personality in the moving characters, the fine dramatic contrasts" in Fiesco. Upon Wallenstein he rests the greatness of Schiller. It is ranked as the one of all modern dramas nearest to Shakespeare; nothing in the modern English drama can be compared with it.3 One thing impresses him particularly; the

lyle gives only a phrase (cf. IV, 432 with Carlyle's Life of Schiller. Chapman and Hall, London 1873, p. 7), (2) Schiller's opinion of The Robbers, quoted by Carlyle, is given by De Quincey with changes of wording (cf. ib. p. 436, Carlyle p. 22). (3) Even Carlyle's description of Schiller's appearance is reproduced with slight changes. (cf. ib. 439, Carlyle p. 223).

1 "With less power they are almost equally licentious", is De Quincey's only criticism.

2 Works VII, 369.

3 Works X, 200.

2

position of Max and Thekla against the dark and threatening scenes in which they move. It is again noteworthy that to De Quincey the most striking thing should be this noble form of the picturesque. Certainly it is not the chief significance of Wallenstein. How unconsciously De Quincey betrays his love of formal beauty, of classic arrangement and repose! De Quincey speaks with admiration of Wallenstein's speech to his sister, where he decribes the sense of death which hung over Henry IV. of France. (cf. Wallenstein's Tod, Akt V, Sc. 4. "Der König fühlte das Gespenst des Messers, etc.") In concluding he names Schiller the greatest of German writers. No other mind commanding enough to levy the homage of foreign peoples had arisen before him; no other writer of modern Germany has the same right to reverence as a man.3 That is after all the secret of De Quincey's love for Schiller. More than any other of the German poets Schiller corresponds to De Quincey's literary idol, Milton. De Quincey found in him the same dignity and elevation, the same "nobility and aspiring grandeur", that he reverenced in the "moral king of authors".

1 Ib. XI, 376; a note (VI, 227) shows that De Quincey knew Wallenstein's Lager.

De Quincey refers also (X, 452, note), 1, to Schiller's Aesthestic Education of Men. cf. Über die aesthätische Erziehung des Menschen in einer Reyhe von Briefen; 2, to his models of hexameter and pentameter; cf. Posth. Works II, 33 with Schiller's Kleinigkeiten ; No. 96. 3, to a line by Schiller describing a cannon-ball, "shattering what it reaches and shattering that it may reach". cf. Works IX, 251. For references to Schiller in connection with Goethe see pp. 61, 62 note.

2 Works VIII, 446.

3 Ib. XI, 262, 272.

IX. DE QUINCEY AND KANT.

De Quincey's first study of Kant was in 1805, when he was but twenty years old. In 1812 we find him reading Kant, once more in 1814, and it is safe to say that from that time on he returned to Kant again and again. He read no other German author so closely; his translations from Kant are more numerous than those from all the rest of German literature. He assures us, with exaggeration of course, that there were thousands of commentaries on Kant's philosophy, all, almost without exception, wretched. He knew Kant even in Latin translations, and followed the study of his philosophy not only in Germany and England, but also in France. How carefully he had read Kant may be seen from a list of his magazine contributions:

Kant on National Character in Relation to the Sense of the Sublime and Beautiful. London Magazine, April 1824. Not reprinted by De Quincey, Works XIV, 46 ff. A translation of Von den nationalen Charakteren, in so ferne sie auf dem unterschiedlichen Gefühl des Erhabenen und Schönen beruhen; in Kritik der Urtheilskraft; cf. Kant's sämmtliche Werke, IV, 466 ff. De Quincey calls this paper shallow and trivial cf. Works VIII, 91.

1

1 Herausgegeben von Rosenkranz und Schubart. 12 Bände. 1838-1842.

Kant's Abstract of Swedenborgianism, London Magazine, May 1824. Not reprinted by De Quincey, Works XIV, 61 ff. A translation with slight omissions from Träume eines Geistersehers, cf. K's. Werke VII, 2. Theil, 2. Hauptstück, 88-98.

Kant's Idea of a Universal History on a Cosmo-political Plan. London Magazine, Oct. 1824. Reprinted by De Quincey, Works IX, 428 ff. A translation, with very slight omissions, of Kant's Idee zu einer allgemeinen Geschichte in weltbürgerlicher Absicht, cf. K's. Werke VII, 315 ff.

The Last Days of Immanuel Kant. Blackwood's Magazine, Feb. 1827. Reprinted by De Quincey, Works IV, 323 ff. For the most part a reproduction of Wasianski's Kant in seinen letzten Lebensjahren; with reference also to Borowski's Darstellung des Lebens und Charakters Kant's; Jachmann's Immanuel Kant geschildert in Briefen; and Rink's Ansichten aus Immanuel Kant's Leben. De Quincey refers also to Reichhardt.

Kant in his Miscellaneous Essays. Blackwood's Magazine, Aug. 1830. Criticism of Kant and abstracts or partial translations of 1, Zum ewigen Frieden,' cf. K's. Werke VII, 229 ff.; 2, Ueber den Gemeinspruch: Das mag in der Theorie richtig seyn, taugt aber nicht für die Praxis, K's. Werke VII, 175 ff. Not reprinted by De Quincey, Works VIII, 84 ff. The same essay by Kant is treated in a posthumous paper, a fragment, under the title: Theory and Practice: Review of Kant's Essay on the common saying that such and such a thing may be true in theory but does not hold good in practice. Posthumous Works, II, 182 ff.

1 This paper referred to again, Works VIII, 388.

Kant on the age of the Earth. Tait's Magazine, Nov. 1833. Not reprinted by De Quincey, Works XIV, 69 ff. A translation of Kant's Die Frage ob die Erde veralte? cf. K's. Werke VI, 13.1

German Studies and Kant in Particular; Tait's Magazine, June 1836. Not reprinted De Quincey. Works II, 80 ff. Also in Uncollected Writings, I, 91 ff. under the title: The German Language and Philosophy of Kant.

There are also somewhat extended notices of Kant in the "Letters to a Young Man whose Education has been Neglected," (London Magazine, Jan., Feb., March, May, July 1823; reprinted by De Quincey, Works X, 64 ff.); in the essay on Style (Blackwood's Magazine, July, Sept., Oct. 1840, Feb. 1841; reprinted by De Quincey, Works X, 160 ff.); and in the essay on Rhetoric (Blackwood's Magazine, Dec. 1828; reprinted by De Quincey, Works X, 122 ff.).

References in his writings show that. De Quincey was also acquainted with the following works of Kant: Versuch den Begriff der negativen Grössen in die Weltweisheit einzuführen. cf. Works VIII, 196; XI, 12, note, 288.

Von den verschiedenen Racen der Menschen. cf. Works VIII, 125.

Allgemeine Naturgeschichte und Theorie des Himmels. cf. Works IV, 334, note; VIII, 125; Kant's Werke VI, 89; Works X1, 260; Kant's Werke, VI, 206 f.

Streit der Facultäten. cf. Works VIII, 96.

1 De Quincey refers twice to his translation; cf. Works VIII, 7. De Quincey and his Friends, 308.