As  a  portrayer  of  female  character  the  author  of
'  Fiesco  '  has  clearly  made  some  progress  since  his  first
lame  attempt  in  *  The  Robbers  ',  but  the  improvement
is  by  no  means  dazzling.  Both  Leonora  and  Julia  are
singular  creatures,  and  their  unaccountableness  is  not
of  the  right  feminine  kind  that  offers  an  attractive  role
to  a  good  actress.  Why  should  the  Countess  Fiesco,
herself  an  aristocrat  and  a  woman  with  heroic  blood  in
her  veins,  submit  so  meekly  in  her  own  house  to  the
coarse  effrontery  of  the  woman  who  has  wronged  her  .■"
We  get  the  impression  that  she  is  only  a  crushed
flower, — a  helpless,  wan-cheeked  thing,  with  nothing
womanly  about  her  except  her  jealousy.  And  then,
at    the    end,    she    suddenly   develops   into   a  heroine.
6       The  Conspiracy  of  FiescO  at  Genoa

i.nd  what  a  strange  heroine!  No  one  will  chide  her
)r  resorting  on  the  fatal  night  to  the  protection  of  male
ttire, — a  good  enough  Shaksperian  device, — but  how
smarkable  that  a  woman  wandering  crazily  in  the
ark,  and  already  sufficiently  disguised,  should  borrow
tell-tale  cloak  and  a  worse  than  useless  sword  from
corpse  that  she  happens  to  stumble  upon !  No
wonder  that  Schiller  in  revising  for  the  stage  decided
D  let  Leonora  live  rather  than  provide  for  her  death
y  such  a  stagy  tour  de  force.  In  the  stage  version,
owever,  she  does  not  reappear  after-^he  parting  scene,
nd  so  we  are  left  to  wonder  why  she  was  introduced
tall.
