Maria Stuart in Never too Late to Read Classics

Jun 04, 2020 Manybooks rated it liked it

Shelves: drama, german-literature, classics, history, book-reviews

So yes, with Friedrich von Schiller's 1800 grand historical drama Maria Stuart, readers (or indeed watchers since Maria Stuart is, of course, a play) kind of already know full well and also right from the beginning of the presented action that Mary Queen of Scots is most definitely going to be executed, that she is to be decapitated for high treason (and both from the factual and historic truth of the matter that Mary Queen of Scots was indeed executed by her cousin Queen Elizabeth I of England So yes, with Friedrich von Schiller's 1800 grand historical drama Maria Stuart, readers (or indeed watchers since Maria Stuart is, of course, a play) kind of already know full well and also right from the beginning of the presented action that Mary Queen of Scots is most definitely going to be executed, that she is to be decapitated for high treason (and both from the factual and historic truth of the matter that Mary Queen of Scots was indeed executed by her cousin Queen Elizabeth I of England but in fact also from the play itself, since in the very first act of Maria Stuart we are already being categorically informed that Mary Stuart has received a death sentence and therefore, throughout Maria Stuart, the only real and naggingly frustrating question is simply and basically exactly when Elizabeth I will have her royal executioners carry out the death sentence of having her cousin's head chopped off).

And while there of course and expectantly is in Maria Stuart the necessary (and always required in classic drama) personal conflicts between Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots, in many ways and albeit that as queen of England, Elizabeth I is the one who wields the most political power and can therefore also rather single-handedly decide on her rebellious cousin's fate, well, despite all of that earned and presented might, Elizabeth I is in Maria Suart far more often being shown by Friedrich Schiller to be reactionary, unreasonable, sometimes even ragingly angry, like a young child with a temper tantrum (and indeed often also rather majorly unsure of herself to boot).

Generally rather majorly ahistoric, which I do know and more than well realise, but I also have to admit that especially when I read Maria Stuart for my first university German literature course (on Goethe and Schiller) in 1987 (and when I was also barely twenty years of age), I certainly and definitely massively enjoyed seeing in Maria Stuart Queen Elizabeth I being cast by Friedrich Schiller as mostly the main villain and Mary Stuart, and Mary Queen of Scots as the accepting of her fate tragic victim of both fate and of her birth, of her Catholic religion and dogma (although that yes, the more I have over the years reread Maria Stuart, the more I do tend to now find Mary Queen of Scots' often quite in one's proverbial face depicted passion and her staunchly Catholic at all costs faith rather draggingly tedious, even as I do still tend to find Friedrich Schiller's characterisation of Elizabeth I as really massively cold and as weirdly over-calculating, that for her, that for Elizabeth I, retaining her power, retaining ALL of her might and glory is obviously more important and more personally essential and necessary than acting humane and caring, that yes indeed, in Maria Stuart Elizabeth I rather much too willingly abandons and rejects her nobility of spirit for political expediency and for retaining her inherited crown undefeated). ...more

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