FREDERICK SCHILLER
DON KARLOS
A Dramatic Poem
1st ed.
Warsaw 1954, State Publishing Institute, p. 359, format: 13x19 cm
Don Carlos—a five-act verse drama by Friedrich Schiller, written between 1783 and 1787.
The title character is Don Carlos, Prince of Asturias, son of King Philip II of Spain, who reigned in the second half of the 16th century. The drama is based very loosely on historical events—the real Don Carlos was a deranged wretch whose mental health had been ravaged by centuries of marriages among the closely related Habsburgs (for example, he had only six great-great-grandparents instead of the maximum of sixteen)—rather than an idealist tormented by the court and in love with a fiancée taken from him by his father. Nevertheless, most of the characters in the drama are historical figures —of the more significant ones, only the Marquis of Posa was invented by Schiller; initially an insignificant friend of the infante, he turns out in the end to be perhaps the most important character in *Don Carlos*, serving as an intelligent and altruistic voice for the author’s liberal views.
Several operas have been based on the play, the best known of which is *Don Carlos*, a French opera by Giuseppe Verdi.
SOFTCOVER
Condition: BDB-/ NICE PIECE
