THE MORALITY OF ROBBERS (SCHILLER'S DIE RÄUBER)

For reasons that will become apparent, we may appropriately begin our survey of theatrical scandals with the 1782 premiere of Friedrich Schiller's Die Räuber (The Robbers).

A Franconian count, Maximilian von Moor, has two sons, Karl and Franz. Karl, the fundamentally decent older son, goes off to the university in Leipzig, where he falls in with a group of reprobates, becomes involved in scandal and burdened with debt, and is forced to flee the city. Overcome by remorse, he writes to his father and promises, in a genuine conversion, to return home and settle down to a decent life. Franz, feeling cursed by nature for his ugliness and consumed by envy and malice, conceals Karl's letters and, by bearing false reports, succeeds in turning his father against his brother. He writes to Karl with the news that their father has cursed and disinherited him. Karl, completely undone by this unexpected turn of events, flees with his companions to the Bohemian forests, where he soon becomes leader of a notorious band of brigands.

Back in Franconia, meanwhile, Franz tries to win Karl's beloved Amalia, who steadfastly maintains Karl's innocence to his father. Unsuccessful in his machinations, Franz persuades a henchman to appear before the father with a false report of Karl's death. Shattered by the news, Maximilian falls into a deathlike coma.