Friedrich Schiller, Mary Stuart (1800)

Mary Queen of Scots (1542-87) is a figure who has proved endlessly fascinating. Her life fell into three sections: her time as Queen of France, her very turbulent time as Queen of Scotland and the final nearly two decades of her life as a prisoner in England of Queen Elizabeth, which ended in her execution.
Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) was one of the two great authors of late eighteenth-century Germany, along with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832). His play Mary Stuart (1800) covers the last days of the queen and is an intense and passionate drama of loyalty, love, jealousy, power and betrayal. Queen Mary struggles to remain alive, while not betraying her principles and not knowing whom to trust. Meanwhile, her cousin Queen Elizabeth, fearful for her own position and of the threat that Mary’s perhaps stronger claim on the English throne poses, struggles with the decision to have Mary executed while trying to avoid blame for that decision both in her own eyes and in those of others.
The text of the play can be found here: https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/id/57c85050-0bd3-4683-9af1-a71e5a258cfb/9781783749836.pdf It is not necessary to have read the play to take part in the meeting. All are welcome.