653 Foreign Classics. SCHILLER'S WALLENSTEIN. NEW EDITION. WITH ENGLISH NOTES, ARGUMENTS, AND AN HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. BY DR. A. BUCHHEIM, LECTURER ON MODERN AND ANCIENT LANGUAGES AT THE MEDICAL COLLEGES OF THE LONDON AND LONDON: WHITTAKER AND CO. AVE MARIA LANE; 1862. PREFACE. THE masterpiece of Schiller, and the most brilliant production of German dramatic literature, has hitherto had the fewest readers in this country. The reason is obvious. None of his other works offer the same difficulties both with regard to the language and the historical allusions. Some have, indeed, had the courage and perseverance to read through the “Piccolomini" and "Wallensteins Tod," but the "Lager" was generally neglected on account of its insurmountable difficulties. And still the "Lager" has been declared "the gem of Schiller's Muse, and his only dramatic production in which he has displayed true Shakesperian genius." Nobody, therefore, will deny that Schiller's "Wallenstein " requires a commentary; and that it deserves one will, I think, readily be acknowledged by all. The present commentary is the result of several years' study and labour. I have read nearly everything that has been written on the trilogy, and I have carefully perused the most important historical works on the Thirty Years' War, from the quaint little pamphlets of the year of Wallenstein's death down to the most recent historical writings. These studies and researches have enabled me to make the |