Schiller  introduces  Fiesco  as  a  seemingly  frivolous
roue,  flirting  desperately  with  the  Countess  Julia,  to
the  great  torment  of  his  wife  Leonora.  We  soon  see,
however,  that  the  frivolity  is  only  a  mask:  he  has  a
serious  purpose  and  that  purpose  is  to  make  himself
master  of  Genoa.  At  first,  indeed,  he  toys  with  the
idea  of  a  nobler  fame.  In  a  soliloquy  at  the  end  of  the
second  act  he  exclaims :  '  To  conquer  a  diadem  is
grand;  to  throw  it  away  is  divine.  Down,  tyrant!
Let  Genoa  be  free  and  me  be  its  happiest  citizen ! '
But  this  mood  does  not  long  withstand  the  intoxication
of  power.  To  rule,  to  rule  alone,  to  feel  that  Genoa
owes  everything  to -him  only, — this  soon  becomes  his


^86       The  Conspiracy  of  Fiesco  at  Genoa

all-absorbing  ambition.  At  the  last,  when  the  revolu-
tion has  succeeded,  he  puts  on  the  ducal  purple  and
the  people  are  ready  to  acquiesce  in  the  new  regime.
