Carlyle on Schiller's ill health and endless wanderings

Chris R. Vanden Bossche, Professor of English, University of Notre Dame

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[Chapter 2, note 3, of the author's Carlyle and the Search for Authority, which the Ohio State University Press published in 1991. It appears in the Victorian web with the kind permission of the author, who of course retains copyright. not in print version indicates a link to material not in the original print version. GPL]

Carlyle represents the long course of ill health that began in 1790 and continued until his early death (at age forty-five) in 1805 as a correlative of Schiller's endless wanderings. just as Schiller wandered in search of rest from wandering, so his "unceasing toil" in quest of emotional health produced illness (105). The relationship between Carlyle's own dyspepsia and his quest for psychic health will be discussed in chapter 3.

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Last modified 5 October 2001