THE MAIDEN of ORLEANS Die Jungfrau Von Orleans FRIEDRICH SCHILLER Schiller Wrote His Publisher That This Play, Subtitled a Roman
THE MAIDEN OF ORLEANS Die Jungfrau von Orleans FRIEDRICH SCHILLER Schiller wrote his publisher that this play, subtitled A Romantic Tragedy, “came from the heart and should appeal to the heart.” Apparently he felt that feeling and intuition should dominate reason and historical veracity; Schiller consciously departed from the facts about Joan, not only as we know them now, but as he knew them, in order to emphasize the dramatically effective aspects of her struggle with her conscience. The playwright’s imagination has created a mystic world of miraculous and supernatural occurrence which he feels is implicit in the original story. Schiller’s deviations were not just fanciful; he deliberately exalted Joan in order to repudiate the rationalistic image created by Voltaire in his LA Times Pucelle d’Orleans, which Schiller felt reduced Joan below the commonplace. The caricature by Voltaire was so notorious that the duke of Weimar opposed the production of Schiller’s play, fearing that the audience would not take it seriously. Schiller persisted elsewhere and succeeded with the premiere at Leipzig in 1801. The Jungfrau became, and for a long time remained, the most popular stage character for German audiences. John T. Krumpelmann has followed in his translation the verse forms of the original German. DRAMATIC PERSONAE CHARLES THE SEVENTH, King of France TALBOT, an English General QUEEN ISABEAU, his Mother LIONEL and FASTOLF, English Officers AGNES SOREL, his Beloved MONTGOMERY, a Welshman PHILIP, THE GOOD, Duke of Burgundy COUNCILMEN OF ORLEANS COUNT DUNOIS, Bastard of Orleans AN ENGLISH HERALD LA HIRE and DU CHATEL, Royal Officers THIBAUT D’ARC, a wealthy Countryman ARCHBISHOP OF RHEIMS MARGOT, LOUISON, JOHANNA, his CHATILLON, a Burgundian Knight Daughters RAOUL, a Knight of Lorraine BERTRAND, another Countryman ETIENNE, CLAUDE MARIE, and THE APPARITION OF A BLACK RAIMOND, their Suitors KNIGHT CHARCOAL-BURNER, HIS WIFE AND SON SOLDIERS AND PEOPLE.
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