He mainly wrote ballads, which were based on legendary or mythological subjects - they are what give his works brightness and originality. The poem “The Glove” was no exception. Schiller described the era of brave, strong knights and beautiful ladies, and although these times are long gone, the themes of the works still remain relevant and interesting for readers.
All the poet’s ballads are filled with a special drama that hides deep knowledge. The heroes in them must constantly prove to society their courage and devotion to their homeland, show nobility, courage, fearlessness and selflessness. In many of Schiller's works there are similarities with the works of Shakespeare, the great English playwright. It can be said with all confidence that Frederick became his faithful follower.
Schiller based the ballad “The Glove” on a real historical fact. The plot takes us to the times of the knights and it may seem rather banal and unremarkable, but the author managed to show the real deep meaning of the work, made the reader think about the situation, find out who is right and who is wrong. Schiller talks about the events that happened at the court of the French king in the 15th century in his ballad “The Glove”.
The summary of the work can be divided into several scenes. Initially, the king and nobles gathered for the performance to watch the fight between wild animals. The first to be released into the arena was a huge lion, which soon lay down to the side. Then a brave tiger came out, but, seeing a stronger opponent, did not get involved in trouble. Two leopards ran out after them and attacked the striped animal, but the menacing roar of the lion forced them to step aside. But the nobility wanted the bloody spectacle to continue... By creating the ballad “The Glove,” Schiller wanted to emphasize human cruelty and heartlessness.
Among the spectators, the young beauty Kinigunda shone, wanting to test the sincerity of the knight Delorge’s feelings for her, and at the same time have fun. The lady deliberately threw her glove into the arena, which fell right between the predators. Kinigund turns to the knight with an innocent request to bring the dropped item and thereby prove his devotion. Delorge understands that the beauty did this on purpose, but cannot refuse the request, because refusal would undermine his reputation. With the help of the ballad “The Glove,” Schiller wanted to draw the reader’s attention to how valuable human life is.
The animals did not touch Delorge - he brought the glove to his lady, but he did not want her praise and recognition, because he realized that Kinigunda did not love him and did not appreciate his actions. Moreover, the glove flew into the arrogant beauty's face.
The main meaning of the work is that nothing can be more valuable than a person’s life, and it is stupid to risk it for the whim of a spoiled girl. Despite the fact that so much time has passed, the ballad still attracts attention and makes you think about the meaning - Schiller created an eternal work... The glove (Zhukovsky's translation is the most accurate and understandable for the reader) as a symbolic detail - the embodiment of someone else's will, requiring absurd victims and meaningless evidence of feelings... Reading the ballad, you involuntarily think about the true value of love and life.
Year of writing: 1797
Genre of the work: ballad
Main characters: Delorge- knight, Kinigunda- lady.
The ballad tells about medieval entertainment. Spectators of different ranks gather to watch the battle of wild animals in the arena. First the lion comes out, then the tiger. Next, two leopards appear in the arena. Animals are careful. Then the brilliant lady Kinigunda decides to have even more fun. She throws down the gauntlet directly to the animals. And he asks the knight Delorge to bring it as a sign of love. He cannot refuse, as this would discredit him. Therefore, the young man went down to the animals and picked up the glove unharmed. They felt the character of Delorge. The glove was delivered to the lady, and she was extremely happy. But the knight refused to accept the reward - a kiss - and threw the glove in Kinigunda's face.
Human life should be highly valued. The capricious beauty did not understand this. For her, her loved one was not important, but fun and her own ego were more important. So she showed that she does not experience true love. It is important to value the feelings of people close to us.
Lydia Charskaya
Living glove
Once upon a time there lived a knight, fierce and cruel. So ferocious that everyone was afraid of him, everyone - both his own and strangers. When he appeared on a horse in the middle of the street or in the city square, people ran away in different directions, the streets and squares became empty. And the people had something to fear from the knight! As soon as someone got caught on his road at an unkind hour, accidentally crossed his path, and in the blink of an eye the ferocious knight would trample the unfortunate man to death under the hooves of his horse or pierce him through with his heavy, sharp sword.
Tall, thin, with eyes that threw out flames, with sullenly knitted eyebrows and a face twisted with anger, he terrified everyone. In moments of anger, he knew no mercy, became terrible and invented the most severe punishments both for those who were the cause of his anger and for those who accidentally caught his eye at that time. But it was useless to complain to the king about the fierce knight: the king valued his fierce knight because he was a skilled commander, more than once at the head of the royal troops he won victories over enemies and conquered many lands. That is why the king highly valued the fierce knight and allowed him something that he would not allow to anyone else. And other knights and warriors, although they did not love the fierce knight, appreciated his courage, intelligence and devotion to the king and country...
The battle was nearing its end.
A fierce knight, clad in golden armor, rode on horseback between the ranks of troops, inspiring his tired and exhausted warriors.
This time the battle was very hard and difficult. The warriors fought for the third day under the command of a fierce knight, but victory was not given to them. The enemies who attacked the royal lands had more troops. Another minute or two, and the enemy would undoubtedly have prevailed and burst straight into the royal castle.
In vain the ferocious knight appeared here and there on the battlefield and, with threats and entreaties, tried to force his warriors to gather their last strength to drive away the enemies.
Suddenly the knight's horse darted to the side, noticing an iron glove on the ground, the kind that almost all knights wore at that time. The fierce knight gave spurs to his horse, wanting to force him to jump over the gauntlet, but the horse did not move. Then the knight ordered the young squire to pick up the glove and give it to himself. But as soon as the knight touched it, the glove, as if alive, jumped out of his hand and fell to the ground again.
The knight ordered it to be served again - and the same thing happened again. Not only that: falling to the ground, the iron glove moved like a living hand; her fingers moved convulsively and unclenched again. The knight ordered it to be raised from the ground again and this time, holding it tightly in his hand, he rushed to the front ranks of his troops, shaking his glove in the air. And every time he raised his glove high, the fingers of the glove either clenched or unclenched again, and at that very moment, as if on a signal, the troops rushed at the enemy with renewed vigor. And wherever the knight appeared with his glove, his tired and exhausted warriors seemed to come to life and rush at the enemy with redoubled force. Only a few minutes passed, and the enemies fled, and the messengers of the fierce knight began to trumpet victory...
Proud and triumphant, the knight now circled the ranks of his tired, exhausted fighters, asking who owned the strange glove, but no one had seen such a glove before, no one knew where it came from...
At any cost, the fierce knight decided to find out who the strange glove belonged to, and began to travel around all the cities, all the villages and villages, shaking his find in the air, asking whose glove it was. The owner of the living glove was nowhere to be found. In one city a little boy came across a fierce knight and said:
I heard from my grandfather that old Maab lives in the forest. She knows all the secrets of the world and will probably be able to tell you the meaning of the living glove, knight.
Let's go to her! - was a stern order, and, spurring his horse, the fierce knight rushed towards the forest. The obedient retinue rushed after him.
The old woman Maab lived in the thicket of a deep, dark forest. She could barely move from decrepitude. When she saw the glove, her eyes lit up, like bright torches in the darkness of the night, and she turned purple with delight.
“Great happiness has fallen into your hands, noble knight,” she said in a dull voice. - Not all people come across such a treasure! This living glove is the glove of victory... Fate deliberately threw it in your path. You just have to put it on your hand, and victory will always be yours!
The fierce knight beamed with happiness, put a glove on his hand, generously rewarded Maab with gold and rushed out of the dense forest to the royal capital.
A week has passed.
We don’t hear anything about the knight’s usual cruel tricks, we don’t hear that he executed anyone in a fit of anger, we don’t hear that he offended anyone.
Blood still flowed so clumsily around the fierce knight like a river, groans were heard, and crying was heard. And now?
True, a week ago a knight tried to hit one of the passers-by with his sword. But suddenly his hand, convulsively clenched by the living fingers of the glove, dropped, and the heavy sword fell to the ground with a ringing sound.
The knight wanted to throw off the annoying glove from his hand, but he remembered in time that it would give him victory, and he held on.
Another time the knight wanted to direct his horse towards the crowd of people surrounding him, and again the living fingers of the glove squeezed his hand painfully, and he could not move them to control the horse. From that very moment the knight realized that it was useless to go against the living glove, that it, this glove, kept him from the most cruel acts. And he stopped drawing the sword from its sheath to kill innocent people.
And people were no longer afraid to go out of their houses into the streets while a fierce knight was passing through them.
They now appeared on his path without fear and praised the knight for his victories over his enemies.
The war broke out again...
For a long time now, the king’s distant neighbor, the ruler of a rich country, had captivated the knight’s eyes. And he said to his king:
Look! Your distant neighbor is richer than you, and although you swore to him eternal friendship and peace, if you defeat him and appropriate his possessions, you will become the most powerful and richest king in the world.
The king obeyed the words of his favorite. “The knight is right,” thought the king, “I will conquer my neighbor’s country and become rich from his wealth!” And he ordered the trumpet to sound for a new campaign.
Charskaya L A
Living glove
Lidiya Alekseevna Charskaya
Living glove
Once upon a time there lived a knight, fierce and cruel. So ferocious that everyone was afraid of him, everyone - both his own and strangers. When he appeared on a horse in the middle of the street or in the city square, people ran away in different directions, the streets and squares became empty. And the people had something to fear from the knight! As soon as someone got caught on his road at an unkind hour, accidentally crossed his path, and in the blink of an eye the ferocious knight would trample the unfortunate man to death under the hooves of his horse or pierce him through with his heavy, sharp sword.
Tall, thin, with eyes that threw out flames, with sullenly knitted eyebrows and a face twisted with anger, he terrified everyone. In moments of anger, he knew no mercy, became terrible and invented the most severe punishments both for those who were the cause of his anger and for those who accidentally caught his eye at that time. But it was useless to complain to the king about the fierce knight: the king valued his fierce knight because he was a skilled commander, more than once at the head of the royal troops he won victories over enemies and conquered many lands. That is why the king highly valued the fierce knight and allowed him something that he would not allow anyone else. And other knights and warriors, although they did not love the fierce knight, appreciated his courage, intelligence and devotion to the king and country...
The battle was nearing its end.
A fierce knight, clad in golden armor, rode on horseback between the ranks of troops, inspiring his tired and exhausted warriors.
This time the battle was very hard and difficult. The warriors fought for the third day under the command of a fierce knight, but victory was not given to them. The enemies who attacked the royal lands had more troops. Another minute or two, and the enemy would undoubtedly have prevailed and burst straight into the royal castle.
In vain the ferocious knight appeared here and there on the battlefield and, with threats and entreaties, tried to force his warriors to gather their last strength to drive away the enemies.
Suddenly the knight's horse darted to the side, noticing an iron glove on the ground, the kind that almost all knights wore at that time. The fierce knight gave spurs to his horse, wanting to force him to jump over the gauntlet, but the horse did not move. Then the knight ordered the young squire to pick up the glove and give it to himself. But as soon as the knight touched it, the glove, as if alive, jumped out of his hand and fell to the ground again.
The knight ordered it to be served again - and the same thing happened again. Not only that: falling to the ground, the iron glove moved like a living hand; her fingers moved convulsively and unclenched again. The knight ordered it to be raised from the ground again and this time, holding it tightly in his hand, he rushed to the front ranks of his troops, shaking his glove in the air. And every time he raised his glove high, the fingers of the glove either clenched or unclenched again, and at that very moment, as if on a signal, the troops rushed at the enemy with renewed vigor. And wherever the knight appeared with his glove, his tired and exhausted warriors seemed to come to life and rush at the enemy with redoubled force. Only a few minutes passed, and the enemies fled, and the messengers of the fierce knight began to trumpet victory...
Proud and triumphant, the knight now circled the ranks of his tired, exhausted fighters, asking who owned the strange glove, but no one had seen such a glove until then, no one knew where it came from...
At any cost, the fierce knight decided to find out who the strange glove belonged to, and began to travel around all the cities, all the villages and villages, shaking his find in the air, asking whose glove it was. The owner of the living glove was nowhere to be found. In one city a little boy came across a fierce knight and said:
I heard from my grandfather that old Maab lives in the forest. She knows all the secrets of the world and will probably be able to tell you the meaning of the living glove, knight.
Let's go to her! - was a stern order, and, spurring his horse, the fierce knight rushed towards the forest. The obedient retinue rushed after him.
The old woman Maab lived in the thicket of a deep, dark forest. She could barely move from decrepitude. When she saw the glove, her eyes lit up, like bright torches in the darkness of the night, and she turned purple with delight.
“Great happiness has fallen into your hands, noble knight,” she said in a dull voice. - Not all people come across such a treasure! This living glove is the glove of victory... Fate deliberately threw it in your path. You just have to put it on your hand, and victory will always be yours!
The fierce knight beamed with happiness, put a glove on his hand, generously rewarded Maab with gold and rushed out of the dense forest to the royal capital.
A week has passed.
We don’t hear anything about the knight’s usual cruel tricks, we don’t hear that he executed anyone in a fit of anger, we don’t hear that he offended anyone.
Blood still flowed so clumsily around the fierce knight like a river, groans were heard, and crying was heard. And now?
True, a week ago a knight tried to hit one of the passers-by with his sword. But suddenly his hand, convulsively clenched by the living fingers of the glove, dropped, and the heavy sword fell to the ground with a ringing sound.
The knight wanted to throw off the annoying glove from his hand, but he remembered in time that it would give him victory, and he held on.
Another time the knight wanted to direct his horse towards the crowd of people surrounding him, and again the living fingers of the glove squeezed his hand painfully, and he could not move them to control the horse. From that very moment the knight realized that it was useless to go against the living glove, that it, this glove, kept him from the most cruel acts. And he stopped drawing the sword from its sheath to kill innocent people.
And people were no longer afraid to go out of their houses into the streets while a fierce knight was passing through them.
They now appeared on his path without fear and praised the knight for his victories over his enemies.
The war broke out again...
For a long time now, the king’s distant neighbor, the ruler of a rich country, had captivated the knight’s eyes. And he said to his king:
Look! Your distant neighbor is richer than you, and although you swore to him eternal friendship and peace, if you defeat him and appropriate his possessions, you will become the most powerful and richest king in the world.
The king obeyed the words of his favorite. “The knight is right,” thought the king, “I will conquer my neighbor’s country and become rich from his wealth!” And he ordered the trumpet to sound for a new campaign.
Two armies met on the battlefield.
The knight's squads met with the squads of the distant king.
The knight was quite calm and confident in advance of the outcome of the battle.
He knew: the glove of victory was on his hand.
The sun rose and set again. The moon shone and faded and shone again. The birds sang, died down and sang again, and the people fought and fought endlessly.
It was a long battle.
Long and persistent as ever.
The fierce knight stood to the side, directing the battle, confident in advance of the victory of his squads.
Suddenly an unprecedented sight struck his eyes: the enemies were winning, and his warriors fled.
Enraged, he rushed into battle himself. And... was forced to retreat. Enemies surrounded him on all sides.
Without remembering himself, he gave spurs to his horse and drove him from the battlefield.
A knight galloped to the capital, covered in blood, and fell at the feet of the king.
Don't blame me, king! - he cried. “It’s not me, but the old woman Maab who is responsible for the death of your army.” She deceived me into putting on the glove of death and defeat. Order her to be executed, king, to be executed with the cruel, terrible death that you can imagine!
With the first rays of sun the whole city poured out onto the square. At this early morning hour, the execution of the old woman Maab, who had been brought from the forest the day before, was decided. It was decided to burn Maab at the stake so that in the future she would not deceive people and would not pass off the glove of death as the glove of victory.
They brought him to Maab Square, took him off the chariot, and led him onto a raised platform where the wood piled up for the fire lay.
They placed Maab on them and tied them to a post with ropes. A fierce knight stood right in front of the pillar and shouted with an evil laugh in Maab’s very face:
You deceived me, Maab! For this you will die a cruel death! And I will give the sign for execution with the very glove that, according to you, was supposed to bring me victory.
With these words, he raised his hand to signal the executioners to light the fire, and cried out in fear. The hand didn't move. As if filled with lead, it hung lifelessly along the body. Then he opened his mouth, wanting to give the order to begin the execution, but at that same moment a living glove rose along with his hand and, pressing closely to his mouth, almost strangled him.
Maddened with horror, the knight cried out:
Save me, Maab! Save!
Maab slowly came down from the fire, breaking the ropes without any effort, and, approaching the knight, said:
I didn't lie to you. The living glove is truly the glove of victory. In every just cause, she will give you victory anywhere and everywhere. And in the last unsuccessful battle it would have given you victory if you had not gone against the neighboring king with selfish goals to take possession of his wealth, but defended your king, your homeland, your honor.
Ballads are not only a fairy-tale story about fatal love or personal drama. This genre often describes legends and curious incidents - anecdotes. One of the most famous works of this kind is Schiller’s “The Glove,” which was very popular among Russian poets and translators of the 19th century. V.A. Zhukovsky, who had a great interest in German ballads, also did not ignore this poem.
The plot of the ballad is based on a historical fact. King Francis I, who ruled in France, loved to entertain his subjects with bloody entertainment. On one of these evenings, the court lady Cunegonde, famous for her beauty and cruel heart, drops her gauntlet into the arena with wild animals in order to test her faithful knight Delorge. This anecdote attracted Schiller at the end of the 18th century.
Translations of ballads of German poets V.A. Zhukovsky was engaged in the mature period of his work, in particular, this ballad was first published in 1831. Zhukovsky’s text is as close as possible to the original, although it has compositional and rhythmic differences, and V.K. Kuchelbecker considered this interpretation an “exemplary translation,” which is fully proven by the analysis of the poem “The Glove.”
The peculiarities of speech in different languages cannot but affect the translation. What looks colloquial and narrative in German sounds better in iambic on Russian soil. So Zhukovsky chooses for his translation a free iambic with a varying number of feet in verse.
The definition of the “Gloves” genre causes a lot of controversy. The original author gave the subtitle “story,” perhaps trying to indicate the authenticity of the events described. Zhukovsky drew attention to the narrative nature of the work and gave an appropriate definition of the genre.
There are few direct references specifically to the ballad in “The Glove.” There are no traditional mystical motives here, there is only a love conflict and unusual circumstances under which the action takes place. Rather, this is an anecdote in its literary, rather than generally accepted, meaning, since there is an interesting short story told in a special manner.
The era of romanticism awakens interest not only in folk art, but also in the development of existing historical sketches and legends. So in 1797, Schiller created the ballad “The Diver,” which is based on the legend of Nikolaus Pesce, a Sicilian diver. A little later he writes “The Glove,” which, according to Goethe, is “a successful parallel and antithesis” to “The Diver.” V.A. Zhukovsky translated both of these ballads into Russian; “Diver” in his interpretation was called “Cup”.
The ballad “The Glove” occupies a special place in Russian literature. In addition to Zhukovsky, it was translated by M. Zagorsky, N. Devite, but the adaptation by M.Yu. deserves special attention. Lermontov. In his version, the conflict is presented much more sharply, the name of the fatal beauty is not omitted, and the characters’ characters are written out more clearly.
Comparing the translation of Zhukovsky’s “The Glove” with Lermontov’s interpretation allows us to more deeply understand the characters of the main characters. For example, if Zhukovsky’s character just throws down the gauntlet with the words “I don’t demand a reward,” then in Lermontov the wounded knight “immediately” leaves the narcissistic Cunegonde.
The debunking of courtly ideals was relevant even in the era of classicism. Romanticism has a completely different idea of love, does not tolerate oppression of the individual and tyranny of rulers, so such a plot was very attractive to V.A. Zhukovsky and other poets. The idea of heroism for the sake of love is presented here in a completely different way. Delorge is not able to disinterestedly, as in the code of chivalry, have a platonic feeling for Cunegonde and endure all her whims. The incident in "The Glove" is viewed from the perspective of romanticism. For the hero, there is a risk for the sake of love, and there is the satisfaction of an eccentric lady who does not even value human life. Cunegonde remained defeated and disgraced in the eyes of the world - it is difficult to imagine a more cruel punishment for her.