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1781 |
The publication of the 'Elegy on the early death of Christian Weckherlin' had made Schiller, in his own words (in a letter) 'more infamous than twenty years of (medical) practice'.
Schiller's friend Scharffenstein described Schiller's lodgings as "a hole that stank of tobacco and other things which, besides a large table, two benches, two military-style cots and a small wardrobe that was attached to the wall, held not much more than heaps of printed material that formed part of Schiller's Robbers, and in the adjacent room a heap of potatoes and empty plates, bottles, etc" (Goethe und seine Zeit 124).
Schiller's having been carried home in the Ducal sedan after the officers' banquet made of him, in the, with a population of only 22,000, still small town-Stuttgart, an 'alcoholic'.
None of his own writings appear to have been published in the news magazine Schiller edited.
While Schiller was getting his own publications of the 'Robbers' ready, he also sent seven sheets of it to the Mannheim bookseller Schwan who refused to print it as, in his opinion, people would not be able to understand this work. Therefore, Schiller even made changes to his own publication while it was still underway.
The first review of this work which had praised Schiller as a possible German Skakespeare, had appeared in the 'Erfurtischen Gelehrten Zeitung'. It was that same paper that made his name known publicly on October 22nd.
For the revision von Dalberg ordered from Schiller, the latter was able to convince the writer to transpose the action from 18th-century present day into the Middle Ages.
That Schiller had somewhat easier access to visiting Schubart at the Hohenasperg fortress may have been due to the fact that his God-uncle von Rieger was the commander of this fortress. (Schiller would describe this man's life in his 1792 story 'Spiel des Schicksals').