Schiller, too, had an ambivalent relationship with Lessing; like Goethe, his literary work constitutes a break in literary history. What Schiller seeks is pathos – he is the poet of the sublime. Already in his early dramas, he combines the intimacy of the chamber play, following Lessing’s tradition, with the grand gesture of the opera stage, which had fascinated him since his youth. He ties in with Lessing, but goes beyond him, shaping our understanding of tragedy in a way that would also impact our understanding of Lessing’s work to this day.