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THEATREWORKS ADDENDA MARY STUART by FriedrichSchiller List of Sources Berlin, Isaiah. The Roots of Romanticism (Princeton, 1999). Brockett, Oscar. History of the Theatre (Boston, 1974). Brown, John Russell, ed. The Oxford Illustrated History of the Theatre (Oxford, 1995). Fraser, Antonia. Mary Queen of Scots (new York, 1969). Guy, John. Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart (new York, 2004). Nagler, A. M, ed. A Source Book in Theatrical History (New York, 1952). Unger, Frederick, ed. Friedrich Schiller: An Anthology for Our Time (New York, 1959). FRIEDRICH SCHILLER Friedrich Schiller was born on November 10, 1759,in the town of Marbach am Neckar in Germany. The son of an army officer, at sixteen he was forced by the Duke of Wurttemberg to enter military school. He entered the department of medicine, and began to write poetry, and then plays. In 1781 his play The Robbers became the talk of Germany. After its staged performance, Schiller was arrested and sentenced to 14 days in prison, and forbidden to publish and further work by the Duke. Schiller fled to Mannheim, where he became the resident dramatist to the state theater. Between 1787-1798 he wrote no plays, concentrating instead on historical studies, and writing books on the revolt of the Netherlands and the Thirty Years War. The books won him an appointment as professor of history at Jena, only five miles away from Weimar, the home of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The two men eventually became friends, and in 1798 Schiller moved to Weimar, where he wrote Mary Stuart and his most mature plays. In 1802 he was enobled by the Duke of Weimar, adding the “von” to his name. He died of tuberculosis in 1805, at the age of 45. STORM & STRESS During the 1770’s German Dramatists revolted again the rationalism of their neoclassical past, writing plays of rhapsodic emotionalism, and discarding the constraints of formal structure. Shakespeare became their dramatic model, and Shakespearomanie [“Shakespeare mania”] swept away classical rules in favor of wider historical themes, with multiple settings and a wide range of characters. The Sturm und Drang [“Storm and Stress’] school reached its height with The Robbers, a play Schiller began at school. The play is about two brothers, one of whom convinces his father that his other son is not worthy of parental love. The rejected son, Karl Moor, defiantly forms a band of robbers who have wild times in the forests of Bohemia, and then finally returns home to find his father imprisoned by the wicked brother. Karl is reconciled with his father who dies in his arms, then he murders his fiancée from a perverted sense of honor, and finally he leaves, looking for a poor man who will benefit from the reward for his capture. When the sprawling play was premiered on stage in January, 1782, an eye witness reported: “The theatre resembled a madhouse: rolling eyes, clenched fists, stamping feet, hoarse shouts in the auditorium! Complete strangers embraced each other in tears, women staggered almost fainting towards the exits. It was a general dissolution as in the time of chaos, from whose mists, a new creation springs forth.” THE THEATRE AT WEIMAR By the time Schiller arrived in Weimar to collaborate with Goethe at the state theatre there, both men had moved away from the excesses of Sturm und Drang, with the goal of reconciling form and passion, thought and feeling in a new theatre. They returned to writing in verse and more restrained formal structures, proposing to create a theatre that would lead spectators into a realm of ideal truth and beauty. The movement became known as “Weimar Classicism.” Goethe took charge of productions, and assumed the position of artistic director--a position which allowed him to become Weimar’s aesthetic dictator. FINDING THE ACTORS In a journal, Goethe explains how he went about auditioning an actor: “If his appearance and deportment pleased me, I made him read, in order to test the power and extent of his voice, as well as the capabilities of his mind. I gave him some sublime passage from a great poet, to see whether he was capable of feeling and expressing what was really great; then something passionate and wild, to prove his power. I then went to something marked by sense and smartness, something ironical and witty, to see how he treated such things, and whether he possessed sufficient freedom. Then I gave him something in which was represented the pain of a wounded heart, the suffering of a great soul, that I might leartn whether he had in his power to express pathos. If he satisfied me in all these numerous particulars, I had a well grounded hope of making him a very important actor.” THE RULES FOR ACTORS Goethe aimed to create a series of graceful idealized pictures on the proscenium stage of the Weimar theatre, paying great attention to how the actors spoke and moved, seeking a style that went beyond realism to serve poetic drama. Two of the actors he coached kept a record of his instructions, which were later assembled into a series of maxims. Here are a few: #35 First of all, the player must consider that he should not only imitate nature but also portray it ideally, thereby, in his presentation, uniting the true with the beautiful. #41 It is an important point that when two are acting together, the speaker should always move upstage, while the one who has stopped speaking should move slightly downstage. If this advantageous shifting is carried out with skill--and through practice it can be done with great ease-then the best effect is achieved for the eye as well as for the intelligibility of the declamation. An actor who masters this will produce a very beautiful effect when acting with others who are equally trained. #45 To be avoided: the newfangled fashion of hiding one hand behind the lapel of the coat. #48 The two middle fingers should always stay together; the thumb, the index and little finger should be somewhat bent. In this manner the hand is in its proper position and ready for movement. #67 The actor, especially the one who has to play lovers and light parts, should keep a pair of slippers on stage in which to rehearse, and he will soon notice the good results. #82 The stage and the auditorium, the actors and the spectators, together represent the theatrical entity. #83 The stage is to be regarded as a figureless tableau for which the actor supplies the figure. AN IDEAL AUDIENCE According to Goethe, a great theatre needs a great audience, and in Weimar he found one: “Here more than anywhere else is the drama loved and the theater very well attended. . . the more cultured part of the population had developed a really good and solid taste, which gradually spread to the lower classes. Consequently a very poor company could achieve success nowhere less than here. For although it would be assured against the danger of being hooted off the stage--since such license was never allowed here--yet in a very short time the attendance would fall off considerably. Nowhere, however, can a better company develop from a poor one in a shorter time than in Weimar. For, aside from the fact that an actor must exert all his powers while playing before a crowd of people who have seen the best in Germany, he also has to fear the criticisms of the experts whose opinions carry great weight with the public of Weimar, as well as with that in all Germany.” THE STAGE AS A MORAL INSTITUTION Goethe and Schiller shared a common vision of theatre as moral and social force. In his defense of the stage, Schiller says the wise legislator has “selected the stage as the best means of opening an endless sphere to the spirit thirsting for action, of feeding all spiritual powers without straining any, and of combining with the cultivation of the mind and emotions with the noblest entertainment.” Schiller thought that theatre belonged with religion and law as instrumental in bringing perfection to human culture. He says, “in the dreams of this artificial world, we can forget the real one. We find ourselves once more. Our feeling reawakens. Wholesome passions stir our slumbering nature and the blood begins to circulate in our veins with renewed vigor.” FREEDOM & TRAGEDY Isaiah Berlin writes: “Schiller is constantly harping upon the fact that the only thing which makes man human is the fact that he is able to rise above nature and mould her, crush her, subjugate her to his beautiful, unfettered, morally directed will. . . He constantly speaks of spiritual freedom: freedom of reason, the kingdom of freedom, freedom of mind, moral freedom, the free intelligence--a favorite very phrase--holy freedom, the impregnable citadel of freedom . . . Schiller’s theory of tragedy is founded upon this notion of freedom . . . Tragedy does not consist in the mere spectacle of suffering. . .The only thing which can be regarded as properly tragic is resistance, resistance on the part of a man to whatever it is that oppresses him.” MARY STUART Goethe’s many productions in Weimar were praised extravagantly by some, and criticized as too uniform by others. Though widely regarded as the “universal” genius of his country, his own plays were not theatrically successful. It was Schiller who became the great theatrical genius of Weimar Classicism, in a series of late, complex, historically grounded plays which proved to be both philosophically engaging and dramatically thrilling. Mary Stuart, written in 1800, is one of the masterpieces of this brief period. Schiller borrowed from history for his plot and characters. HISTORY + FICTION: THE CHARACTERS OF THE PLAY Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots (1542-1587). She was the only legitimate child of James V of Scotland, and her father died six days after she was born. She was crowned nine days later. At 16, she married the French Dauphin, who then became Francis I, King of France before dying a year later. Mary returned to Scotland, and married her first cousin, Lord Darnley, in 1561. The marriage was an unhappy one, and Darnley murdered her personal secretary, Rizzio, before being murdered himself in 1567. Mary then married the Earl of Bothwell, who orchestrated her husband’s murder. She was imprisoned in Lochleven Castle after a Scottish uprising, and forced to abdicate in favor of her infant son James. She escaped in 1568, seeking refuge in England, but was seen as a threat to the throne on account of her royal birth and Catholicism. She was detained in noble houses, and never allowed to see her cousin, Queen Elizabeth. She was tried and found guilty for conspiring with Thomas Babington, who planned to rescue Mary and assassinate Queen Elizabeth, and executed 1587. Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603). The daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth was declared illegitimate when she was two years old, after her mother was tried and beheaded on charges of adultery. She was restored to the throne after the death of Queen Mary I, whose Catholicism had drenched England with religious persecution. She established the English Protestant Church, with herself as supreme governor, but under her reign religious persecution decreased. She remained a virgin all her life, while being courted by most of the crowned heads of Europe. She survived at least fifteen assassination attempts while on the throne. One year after Mary’s execution, England defeated the Spanish Armada, crowning a reign noted for its stability and forging of national identity. William Cecil, Baron Burleigh (1522-1598). Chief advisor to Queen Elizabeth, twice Secretary of State and Lord High Treasurer after 1572. A leader of the Protestant faction in England, and a known supporter of fiery Scottish preachers like John Knox. Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester (1532-1588). A nobleman, Elizabeth’s childhood friend and personal favorite-often considered her lover. He was a suggested husband for Mary Stuart, but refused to consider the proposal. He remained sympathetic to Mary’s plight, but finally turned against her and argued for her execution. Intelligent, educated dashing, an excellent tennis player and skilled in arms, he was known as the master courtier. He and Burleigh spent fortunes in their estate gardens, competing for Elizabeth’s attention and favor. George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury (1522-1590). A nobleman and loyal advisor to Queen Elizabeth, who entrusted him with Mary Stuart’s keeping in 1569. Sir Amias Paulet (1532-1588). A diplomat and strong Puritan, known for his harsh character. He was assigned to keep Mary Stuart at Fotheringhay. He tore down Mary’s regalia, opened her letters, and subjected her to random searches, suspecting everyone and everything. William Davison (1541-1608). Secretary to Queen Elizabeth, and entrusted with Mary’s execution warrant. She later charged him with disobedience for having the warrant carried out. He was imprisoned, fined, and never re-employed by the Queen Mortimer. The one major character in Schiller’s play who is not historical. He is compounded in part from the many Catholic young men, like the conspirator Thomas Babington, who risked their lives in efforts to rescue Mary and assassinate the Protestant Queen Elizabeth.