Maid of Orleans (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

Excerpt from Maid of Orleans: Translated, With an Introduction, Appendix, and Notes, by Major-General Maxwell

On turning to the drama it will be perceived that Schiller has in several essential particulars departed from the lines of historic fact as traced in the Appendix to this volume. He has presented to the world a far too favour able picture of the weak and frivolous, if not positively base and pusillanimous, Charles the Seventh. He repte sents that prince as a chivalrous and noble character, and places in his mouth sentiments of a generous and lofty tone. Then again he portrays Joan as a fierce combatant, delighting in personal conflict and sanguinary scenes of battle; whereas history records that, though insensible to fear, and at all times urgent for the vigorous prosecution of the war, she was yet by disposition gentle; shrank from scenes of blood; and lamented the horrors and sufferings inseparable from war. He likewise represents her as having gained a victory over the English and Burgundians prior to her earliest interview with Charles; and he makes that victory the cause and occasion of her first introduction to him. But this point is perhaps not so material as some of his other divergences from history.

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Written by Schiller in the years 1800-1801, when he was forty-one years old, and in the plenitude and maturity of his powers, although under the stress of severe illness, the Maid of Orleans has always ranked as one of the finest creations of his genius. It was peculiarly successful on the stage; and always enjoyed a prodigious popularity with the play-going community in his native country. His Don Carlos, published in 1786, and his Wallenstein, produced in 1799, with all their great beauties, are yet so different from this composition in their conception and treatment, that comparison between those works and the Maid of Orleans is unprofitable, if not practically impossible. His Mary Stuart which immediately preceded the Maid, was, from sundry inherent defects, comparatively a failure; but, as Lord Lytton wrote, from this single fall Schillers genius recovered itself in the Maid of Orleans with the bound of a Titan. Carlyle pronounced Joan to be the most noble being in tragedy.
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