WorkFriedrich Schiller

“[Historisch-kritische Schriften — scholarly context, Schiller]”

Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) · various, 1787–1801

TranslatedExcerptedAnalyzedQuotedReadMentioned

Documented 1825–1847

Additional passages preserved in the Memoirs (1852)

Letters • Books • Essays • Notebooks • Manuscripts

Selected engagements, in chronological order.

Totals count documented engagements, once at the earliest witness. How we count →

Reprints, Memoirs passages, and repeat notes within a single manuscript are shown but never counted twice. Evidence for this work is selective, not exhaustive. Methodology →

When Fuller engaged with this work

I. Childhood

II. Adolescence1record

III. Self-Directed4records

IV. Transcendentalist

V. New York

VI. Europe4records

✦. Memoirs (1852)1record

1810

1820

1832

1836

1844

1846

1850

1825—

Reading Notebook 1825–1827

p. 63

excerpted · quoted · readSearch Digital Fuller (page unverified)

“Bethink we duly, then what 'vantage / From conflux of weak efforts springs … The glory 'tis of man's estate / Thereto the boon he did receive / That he in mind should contemplate / What with his hands he doth achieve.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Reading Notebook 1825–1827." Houghton Library, Harvard University.

Fuller copies verses and attributes them to 'a miserable translation of Schiller.' The specific Schiller work is not identified in the notebook.

1833—

Letter to James F. Clarke

read2 selected passages

“while reading them believed them to be translated from Schiller”

Inferred Fuller's ability to mistake Clarke's verses for translations from Schiller demonstrates her familiarity with Schiller's poetic style, indicating she read German literature extensively in this period.

“There is no freedom save in the hope of a better existence?- And in believing this I trust I do not sin against thy creed 0 Schiller.”

Inferred Fuller directly addresses Schiller with the invocation 'thy creed O Schiller,' associating him with an idealist philosophy of freedom and hope in a better existence. No specific work is cited; this is an author-only reference drawing on Schiller's philosophical reputation.

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. VI. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988.

1833—

Letter to James F. Clarke

p192

analyzed · read2 selected passages

“the faith which a Schiller could never attain,—a faith in the power of the human will.”

“What would you have? If you want sympathy read Schiller.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Vol. I: 1817-1838. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.

1834—

Letter to Amelia Greenwood

p201

read

“the hist and critical works of Goethe and Schiller”

Fuller, Margaret. "To Amelia Greenwood, 10 March 1834." In The Letters of Margaret Fuller, Vol. I: 1817–1838, edited by Robert N. Hudspeth, 201–202. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.

Inferred Fuller names 'the hist and critical works of Goethe and Schiller' as part of her winter study course, referring to Schiller's histories of the Netherlands and the Thirty Years' War as well as his critical aesthetic writings.

1834—

Letter to Amelia

readManuscript page

“The hist and critical works of Goethe and Schiller, and the outlines of history of our own country.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Letter to Amelia." Houghton Library, Harvard University; bMS Am 1086.

Inferred Author plain (not 'Inferred') because Fuller explicitly names Schiller.

1834—

Fragmentary Reading Notes and Autobiographical Reflections

p28

quoted · readManuscript page

“With Schiller / O venture thou on earth to dream and rove / Deep meaning often lies in childish play! - / O Friedrich why did you not cultivate that high acquirement.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Fragmentary Reading Notes and Autobiographical Reflections." Houghton Library, Harvard University.

Two lines beginning 'O venture thou on earth to dream and rove / Deep meaning often lies in childish play!' attributed to Schiller, followed by a direct address to 'O Friedrich.' Specific lyric not identified.

1846—

Papers on Literature and Art

p89

quoted · read

“enough to realize with Schiller, that "to be truly immortal one...”

Fuller, Margaret. Papers on Literature and Art. New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1846.

Inferred Fuller quotes Schiller: 'to be truly immortal one...' — source work unidentified without further research. Fuller attributes a quotation to Schiller about immortality

1846—

Things and Thoughts in Europe . . . IV.

“Things and Thoughts in Europe . . . IV.”

mentioned

“Monuments that have risen from the same ideas and in such quick succession, to Schiller, to Goethe, to Beethoven and to Scott”

Fuller, Margaret. "Things and Thoughts in Europe . . . IV." New-York Daily Tribune, 5 November 1846. · 5 November 1846

1847—

The Letters of Margaret Fuller, Vol. IV: 1845-1847

p283

quoted · read

“Live for thy faith and thou shalt yet behold it living," is with me, as it hath been, a maxim.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. IV. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987.

Inferred Hudspeth identified that Fuller attributes an otherwise unidentified saying to Schiller, having cited it in a Tribune essay.

The phrase is set in quotation marks by Fuller, who treats it as a maxim she has long held, but the specific source text within Schiller's corpus remains unidentified.

1847—

Things and Thoughts in Europe . . . IX.

“Things and Thoughts in Europe . . . IX.”

quoted · read

“for, with Schiller, he is sure that “Those who live for their faith shall behold it living.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Things and Thoughts in Europe . . . IX." New-York Daily Tribune, 19 February 1847. · 19 February 1847

Undated

Pieces with no legible date. They are part of the record but cannot be placed on the lifeline.

n.d.—

Letter to unknown

p[appendix]

analyzed · read

“I don't like Goethe so well as Schiller now... those seducing pictures of forms more beautiful than truth.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. VI. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988.

Inferred Fuller names Schiller in contrast to Goethe, expressing her preference for Schiller's "seducing pictures of forms more beautiful than truth" at the time of writing. No specific Schiller work is named; the reference indicates she has read a range of both authors' works without citing particular titles.

n.d.—

Verses on Infancy

analyzedManuscript page

“Then she draws the moral too close into our life as Schiller might have done, as the poet does not. - I omit these verses.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Verses on Infancy." Boston Public Library Archives & Special Collections; MS Am 1450; Box: 3, Folder: 142.

Inferred Fuller names 'Schiller' by surname only without specifying a work; title inferred as his body of poetry/drama, referenced as a stylistic type.

Preserved in the Memoirs (1852)

1852—

Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli

p107

read3 selected passages

“the faith which a Schiller could never attain, — a faith in the power of the human will”

Inferred Margaret Fuller invokes Friedrich Schiller, referencing his known philosophical focus on the human will and a faith therein, which she posits he himself "could never attain." While no specific work is cited, this allusion reflects Fuller's considered engagement with Schiller's broader intellectual contributions, particularly prevalent during her Cambridge years and her intensive study of his writings.

“the historical and critical works of Goethe and Schiller”

Inferred In March 1834, Margaret Fuller outlined a rigorous winter study plan that included Friedrich Schiller's "historical and critical works." While no specific title by Schiller is identified within this passage, Fuller's inclusion of these writings signals her engagement with the influential German poet and philosopher's intellectual contributions as part of her systematic intellectual development.

“she had read German books, and for the three years before I knew her, almost exclusively, — Lessing, Schiller, Richter, Tieck, Novalis, and, above all, Goethe.”

Inferred Margaret Fuller engaged with the works of German authors, including Friedrich Schiller, whom she read extensively in the years preceding her acquaintance with Emerson. This passage suggests a deep immersion in the German literary tradition, highlighting Schiller as a significant figure among her preferred authors alongside Goethe, Lessing, Richter, Tieck, and Novalis.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, William Henry Channing, and James Freeman Clarke, eds. Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli. 2 vols. Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, 1852.