 In 1796, Schiller’s intensive period of philosophical output ended and he returned to playwriting. For his first dramatic work in ten years, the tragic trilogy Wallenstein, Schiller chose a historical topic with the explicit goal of shifting his writing from the sentimental towards the naïve (Berman 1986; Moland 2011). The plays were widely hailed as a success and were followed by four other major dramas, among them Maria Stuart and Wilhelm Tell. Schiller continued to write poetry and intensified his collaborations with Goethe, including the co-production of a series of epigrams, entitled Xenien, whose sardonic critique of their contemporaries ignited a widespread literary feud (Mohr 2007: 217). This extraordinarily productive period, however, lasted less than a decade, at which point Schiller’s always weak health failed him, and he died at the age of forty-five.