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The only explanation of association between the poem and its title is that Schubart shared the one-sided German estimate of Sterne’s character and hence represented him as a sympathetic messenger bringing to heaven on his death some tidings of human weakness.
The relation is quite characteristic of Schubart in its gruesomeness, its insistence upon all-surrounding death and dissolution; but it contains no suggestion of Sterne’s manner, or point of view.
The starting-point of Schiller's invention was the conception of the two hostile brothers, and this he had from Schubart, although other writers, notably Klinger and Leisewitz, had already made use of it in dramatic productions. In the Schubart story we hear of a nobleman with two sons, of whom the elder, Karl, is high-minded but dissolute, while the younger, Wilhelm, is a hypocritical zealot.
Schiller took the hint and began to write, his interest being no doubt increased by the miserable fate of Schubart, who was then languishing in the Hohenasperg as the helpless victim of Karl Eugen's pusillanimous tyranny.
Rousseau's influence, the ideas of universal reform, the example of England, proud and free, but still more, the enthusiasm excited by the American war of independence, inflamed many heads in Germany and raised a poetical opposition, which began with the bold-spirited Schubart, whose liberal opinions threw him into a prison, but whose spirit still breathed in his songs and roused that of his great countryman, Schiller.
The duke of Wuertemberg paid special attention to education; he promoted the views of Schubart, and founded the school in which Schiller was educated. Hanover offered a home to Zimmermann, and encouraged the development of Schlegel. Darmstadt was especially fortunate. Caroline, the wife of the landgrave, had surrounded herself with a literary circle, of which Merck was the moving spirit.
Finally, in the year 1777, his friend Hoven drew his attention to a story by Schubart that had lately been published in the Suabian Magazine, a story of a father and his two dissimilar sons, one of them frank and noble-minded but wild, the other a plausible moralist but at heart a scoundrel.
C. F. D. Schubart wrote a poem entitled “Yorick,” beginning “Als Yorik starb, da flog Sein Seelchen auf den Himmel So leicht wie ein Seufzerchen.” The angels ask him for news of earth, and the greater part of the poem is occupied with his account of human fate.
"British versus German Imperium," by an Irish-American. Introduction by Sir Roger Casement. "Lousyhead goes on Lying." The latest war news of Messrs. "England and Germany," by Houston Stewart Chamberlain. "Cable Warfare and the Campaign of Lies," by Dr. Meister, Professor in Münster University. "England and Continental Interests," by Captain H. Schubart.
It turns out that the instigator of the murder was no other than Wilhelm. When the plot is discovered the magnanimous Karl entreats pardon for his vile brother. His prayer is granted, Wilhelm receives a share of the estate and all ends in happy tears. In publishing the sketch Schubart recommended it to the geniuses of the day as an excellent foundation for a novel or a comedy.
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