In this paper I offer a reconstruction and defence of a neglected theory of the pleasure we take in tragedy, that of Friedrich Schiller. Schiller held that our pleasure in tragedy is an instance of our pleasure in the sublime, which in turn he characterized as a revelation of human freedom through suffering. I show how many of the pretheoretically important characteristics of tragedy can be understood as making tragedy sublime in this sense, and that, accordingly, it is plausible that we do indeed take Schiller’s pleasure in it. I go on to argue that this sensitivity to what is important about tragedy constitutes an important advantage of Schiller’s account vis-à-vis its more famous successors in the post-Kantian tradition, those of Schopenhauer and Hegel.