Die Jungfrau von Orleans

(The Maid of Orleans) by Friedrich Schiller.

   Premiered 1801. Schiller subtitled his play in verse about Joan of Arc A Romantic Tragedy, though it contains many of the other traits found in his historical dramas. Chief among them is the idea of a character who achieves "sublimity" in the swirl of historical forces. Here Joan is caught up in romantic feelings for her English adversary, which ultimately results in French defeat. When she returns to Reims for the coronation of the Dauphin, her passions have not yet cooled; her own father accuses her of witchcraft, which she interprets as a justifiable sign of God's wrath. She returns to battle against the English and is captured, but somehow escapes. She returns to the battle yet again and is mortally wounded. The French troops under her command recognize in her a great national heroine, and a rose-tinted hue fills the sky, presumably as her soul floats heavenward from the battlefield.

   The Maid of Orleans proved extraordinarily popular in August Wilhelm Iffland's production at the Royal Theater in Berlin. It remained in the repertoire for years, and the play was the most frequently performed of any by Schiller throughout the 19th century.