THE GOOD AND THE BEAUTIFUL

If the title of my Schiller entry reads like a name of some daytime soap opera on American TV, rest assured that this effect is largely coincidental, although the thought of such a coincidence has indeed occurred in my mind. What the title represents, however, is the essence of Schiller’s philosophy, his Spieltrieb principle, in which ethics and aesthetics, the good and the beautiful, are morphed in one wholesome whole.

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Before I do anything else, here is the large Schiller entry in my Webster’s Biographical Dictionary quoted here mostly for formal reference.---

“Schiller, Johann Christoff Friedrich von. 1759-1805. German poet and playwright, b. Marbach, Württemberg. Surgeon in a Württemberg regiment (1780); went absent without leave to witness performance of his first play, Die Räuber (1781), was arrested by duke of Württemberg, and condemned to publish nothing except medical treatises. Escaped from Württemberg and spent years outside of the country (the Wanderjahre, 1782-1791); in Mannheim (1783-85), where his drama Kabale und Liebe was successfully produced (1784); in Weimar (1787), where his blank verse Don Carlos appeared, as well as his historical work Geschichte des Abfals der Vereinigten Niederlande. Professor of history, Jena (1789), where he completed his Geschichte des Dreissigjährigen Krieges (1791-93) and published several philosophical essays; formed a friendship with Goethe and was inspired thereby to produce more poetry; with Johann Friedrich Gotta, founded (1795) literary journal Die Horen; founded (1796) Musenalmanach and contributed to it Das Ideal und des Leben, Die Macht des Gesanges, Würde der Frauen, Der Spaziergang, Der Ring des Polykrates, Das Lied von der Glocke, Der Handschuh, Der Taucher; also, completed his trilogy Wallenstein. Settled in Weimar (1799-1805) to be near Goethe and to devote himself completely to writing; during this last period of life wrote the dramas Maria Stuart (1800); Die Jungfrau von Orleans (1801); Die Braut von Messina (1803); Wilhelm Tell (1804); and translated Macbeth, Gozzi’s Turandot, and Racine’s Phèdre. During later years worked under the handicap of continuous ill health. Regarded as second only to Goethe in field of German literature, and as first among German dramatists.”

It is unthinkable to relinquish the previous Goethe entry without next paying tribute to the name so closely associated with Goethe that they are very frequently said in one breath. Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) was a close friend of Goethe, their correspondence is a classic, and, according to Goethe’s wish, they shared the tomb in Weimar, which is perhaps the most convincing testimony to their lifelong friendship, transferred to eternity.

Schiller was a great poet, and as a playwright of genius he is deemed second only to Shakespeare. His plays have been turned into operas by Rossini, Verdi, Donizetti, and Tchaikovsky. Curiously, at the time he died, he started working on the historical play Demetrius,--- a harbinger of Pushkin’s drama Boris Godunov and Mussorgsky’s subsequent eponymous opera. Of his poems, Ode an die Freude has become the centerpiece of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and as a separate segment, the official anthem of the European Union,  in modern times. A number of other Schiller poems were turned into songs by Schubert, and in Zhukovsky’s translations became staples of Russian art song repertoire.

Having thus established Schiller’s eminence as a playwright and a poet, we now return to his importance as a philosopher. As I said before, to Schiller belongs the concept of Spieltrieb (see my Wishful Thinking entry Spieltrieb), derived from the Kantian vocabulary. Schiller unites ethics and aesthetics in a dazzling fusion, where goodness and beauty become one. Thus, man’s animal instinct, his passion for violence is tamed by reason, which, in turn, has been enlightened by the Muses, enthroning peace on earth and happiness of all.

Schiller cannot be easily dismissed as a hopeless romantic, blithely building his meaningless castles in the thin air. Herbert Marcuse for instance, does take Schiller’s philosophy quite seriously, giving him full credit for it. To him, Schiller’s Spieltrieb is a useful alternative to social alienation. In Marcuse’s words, Schiller's Letters aim at remaking of civilization by virtue of the liberating force of the aesthetic function envisaged as containing the possibility of a new reality principle.

It is only appropriate to conclude this entry with two memorable phrases from Schiller, which I have found in particular harmony with my own thinking;

(1). Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens.

(2). Die Weltgeschichte is das Weltgericht.

To my reader I leave the pleasurable task to decipher both sentences and of course to figure them out.