Schiller returned to dramatic work after more than a decade's silence as a playwright, a decade that had shaken the stability of Europe and the assumptions of its inhabitants. These words from the Prologue to Wallenstein, spoken on the occasion of the first performance of Wallensteins Lager (Wallenstein's Camp) on 12 October 1798, are a fitting prologue to the series of plays, all but one historical dramas, that flowed rapidly from Schiller's pen until his death in 1805. Though each marks another experiment in dramatic form, they all explore the realm of public action. All of them, with the possible exception of Die Braut von Messina, tackle through the historical subject-matter the vital themes of the decade – power, liberty, the relationship between morality and politics, the problem of legitimacy of government, the conflict between private idylls and public realities.