Author: SCHILLER, Friedrich
Biography:
SCHILLER, Friedrich (1759: ODGL)
The life and works of the great German poet and dramatist Johann Christian Friedrich Schiller are so well known that only a condensed outline is required here, followed by brief biographies of the eight translators (out of a total of 19) who do not have separate headnotes. Born in Mahrbach, he wrote his first play, The Robbers (1781), when he was still a medical student. After a brief period in practice at Stuttgart, he worked as a playwright in Mannheim (1783), Leipzig (1785), and Weimar (1787). Several of his plays (see below) were on historical themes and he also wrote histories, among them a book about a war between Spain and the Netherlands that earned him a position as Professor of History at Jena (1789). In 1790 he married Charlotte von Lengefeld at Weimar; they had four children. Despite deteriorating health, Schiller launched a critical monthly (1795), produced poems for periodicals, and collaborated with Goethe (q.v.) in a collection of ballads. (Goethe and Schiller also co-founded a theatre in Weimar.) His engagement with the philosophy of Kant led to the composition of important treatises on aesthetics and literature. Schiller died at Weimar on 9 May 1805. Of the English translators without individual headnotes, W. E. Frye is identified under A. G. A. Müllner and R. Salvin under J. M. Pando. Frederick Page (1769-1834), author of treatises on poverty and the poor laws in the 1820s, was a Deputy Lieutenant of his county, Berkshire, and a commissioner on inland navigation. George Moir (1800-1870), born in Aberdeen, Scotland, was an advocate and man of letters in Edinburgh. Constable published his anthology of table-talk from French, English, Italian, and German sources in 1827 and his translations of Schiller’s historical works in 1828. He was later appointed Regius Professor of Rhetoric (1835-40) and Professor of Scots Law (1864-5) at Edinburgh University. Samuel Robinson (1794-1884), a Manchester textile manufacturer with literary interests, is known for his translations from Persian. Thomas Charles Banfield (1794-1880), an economist, published on agriculture in the Rhineland (1846) and delivered lectures on “the organization of industry” at Cambridge University. John Elliot Drinkwater, afterwards Bethune (1801-51), a lawyer, became a civil servant and a colonial administrator in India. Major-General Sir George Charles D’Aguilar (1784-1855) published also a translation of Napoleon’s battleground maxims (1831). (ODGL; NBG 43, cols. 516-26; ODNB [D’Aguilar, Moir, Robinson, Drinkwater]; findmypast.com 9 Mar. 2025) HJ
Other Names:
- F. Schiller
- Frederick Schiller
- Schiller
- Frederic Schiller