The Robbers

Count Maximilian von Moor has two sons. The younger, Franz, ugly, envious and coldly rational, uses forged letters to turn their father against the elder, Karl, a generous, passionate student. Believing himself disowned, Karl becomes leader of a band of robbers in the Bohemian forests, a rebel against a corrupt society, while at home Franz seizes power, imprisons his father and tries to win Karl's beloved, Amalia. But Karl's band is full of real criminals, and his revolt soon turns into tragedy.

Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) wrote the play as a young army doctor, and its first performance in Mannheim in 1782 caused a sensation, with spectators said to have fainted and strangers to have embraced in tears. It is a landmark of the Sturm und Drang movement, and Verdi made it into an opera. Compare Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther.