Re: Schiller's Posa appealing to Philip this way - well, I think there's enough leaveway in the play that you can have a production in which Posa goes from thinking "At last I can speak truth to power! Must not squander this chance!" (When being summoned to the King in the first place) to at the very least being touched by Philip's incredible loneliness and the fact that the two people who in should be in theory close to Philip - his wife and son - are in reality estranged from him (and not just because of the romance situation) and both closer to Posa himself. (In the big monologue, he does speak about the incredible isolation and distance between King and subjects the monarchy under Philip has reached, and I don't think he's faking it when speaking about the tragic aspect this has for Philip as well as his subjects.) I mean, one problem Posa has is that while he's hoped for years to affect Spanish politics in the Netherlands (and elsewhere) via Carlos in a Spain that can start anew with a new ruler, the posssibility that current ruler Philip could actually change presumably this late in life and rule never occured to him before.
Now Philip later in his rage thinks Posa simply picked the rising sun over the setting sun when choosing Carlos, to use a metaphor Elizabeth I. employed when talking about lessons she learned during the rule of her older sister Mary (she referenced this in a conversation with the Venetian amabassador, explaining why she won't name an heir - in the last year of her sister's reign, she said, people came flocking to her, Elizabeth because "people will always prefer the rising over the setting sun", and she would never forget it), who, of course, was married to Philip of Spain. But I think Philip is wrong there, in that if Posa was just acting out of coldly pragmatic motives he'd have ditched his relationship with Carlos (and Carlos) and would have embraced being the King's new favorite. But Posa has lived with the idea of Philip as a tyrannical monarch for so many years, and the idea of Philip as a human being is relatively new, whereas his relationship with Carlos, however much it's entwined in his political hopes, has had the time to grow as a human bond which a few days with Philip just can't compete with.
The tale of Fritz and Katte: my not so serious thoughts about why a tv show based on Friedrich II would be fannish catnip.
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Otoh, I finally found something in English! Two students staging the Queen & Eboli scene, here!
Re: Schiller's Posa appealing to Philip this way - well, I think there's enough leaveway in the play that you can have a production in which Posa goes from thinking "At last I can speak truth to power! Must not squander this chance!" (When being summoned to the King in the first place) to at the very least being touched by Philip's incredible loneliness and the fact that the two people who in should be in theory close to Philip - his wife and son - are in reality estranged from him (and not just because of the romance situation) and both closer to Posa himself. (In the big monologue, he does speak about the incredible isolation and distance between King and subjects the monarchy under Philip has reached, and I don't think he's faking it when speaking about the tragic aspect this has for Philip as well as his subjects.) I mean, one problem Posa has is that while he's hoped for years to affect Spanish politics in the Netherlands (and elsewhere) via Carlos in a Spain that can start anew with a new ruler, the posssibility that current ruler Philip could actually change presumably this late in life and rule never occured to him before.
Now Philip later in his rage thinks Posa simply picked the rising sun over the setting sun when choosing Carlos, to use a metaphor Elizabeth I. employed when talking about lessons she learned during the rule of her older sister Mary (she referenced this in a conversation with the Venetian amabassador, explaining why she won't name an heir - in the last year of her sister's reign, she said, people came flocking to her, Elizabeth because "people will always prefer the rising over the setting sun", and she would never forget it), who, of course, was married to Philip of Spain. But I think Philip is wrong there, in that if Posa was just acting out of coldly pragmatic motives he'd have ditched his relationship with Carlos (and Carlos) and would have embraced being the King's new favorite. But Posa has lived with the idea of Philip as a tyrannical monarch for so many years, and the idea of Philip as a human being is relatively new, whereas his relationship with Carlos, however much it's entwined in his political hopes, has had the time to grow as a human bond which a few days with Philip just can't compete with.
The tale of Fritz and Katte: my not so serious thoughts about why a tv show based on Friedrich II would be fannish catnip.