Of  the  remaining  characters  the  queen  is  the  most
interesting.  In.  her  Schiller  for  the  first  time  depicts
a  woman  convincingly.  His  Elizabeth  is  perhaps  a
shade  too  angelic, — she  is  an  ideal  figure  like  all  his
women, — but  winsome  she  certainly  is.  One  is  a  little
startled  by  the  readiness  with  which  she  approves
Posa's  treasonable  plan  of  a  revolution  to  be  headed
by  Don  Carlos,  but  in  this  play  the  sentiment  of  patriot-
ism cuts  no  figure  anywhere.  The  principal  characters
are  all  occupied  with  the  idea  of  '  humanity ',  and  are
not  troubled  by  any  scruples  arising  out  of  national
feeling.
Taken  as  a  whole  '  Don  Carlos '  is  too  complicated  ,
to  yield  an  unalloyed  artistic  pleasure.  It  suffers  from
a  lack  of  simplicity  and  concentration.  There  is
material  in  it  for  two  or  three  plays.  The  double  in-  ,
trigue  of  love  and  politics  becomes  toward  the  end
very  confusing.  The  confusion  is  increased  by  the
unexpected  turn  given  to  the  character  of  Posa,  and
reaches  a  climax  when  we  learn  from  the  Grand  In-
quisitor that  he  has  been  pulling  all  the  strings  froni


200  Don  Carlos

first  to  last,  and  that  the  entire  tragedy  was  fore-
ordained in  the  secret  archives  of  the  Holy  Office.
