5 SSOTNAT
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4 Play By Schnitzler.
Arthur Schnitzler’s. Viennese com¬
edy öfProfessor Bernhardi,“ trans¬
lated and adapted by Mrs. Emil Pohll,
would scarcely bear the name of com¬
edy on our English stage. Ineiden¬
tally, it deals with a problem which
seldom arises among us, and is thus
not very interesting to us. Professor
Bernhardi is chief of a small Vienna
hospital, and when the play starts one
of his patients, a young girl, is dying.
But she has no knowledge of her doom
pand-fs consequently very happy, and
he wants to kcep that bitter krowl¬
edge from her. Accordingly, he re¬
fuses admittance to a clergyman who
comes to offer her the last consola¬
tions of the church. As a result he be¬
comes the storm centre of a religious
persecution, largely inspired by the
fact that he is a Jew, and in the end
he goes to Jjail and loses his license to
practice.
The play made a considerable im¬
pression in Vienna, but American au¬
Idiences would probably yawn over it.
The dying patient is never seen onthe
stage, and there is but one other wom¬
ancharacter—a nurse—who appears
in the first act only. Mrs. Pohli has
taken the rather unusual liberty of re¬
ducing the length ofthe play by about
Vone-half. The characters lose vivid¬
ness thereby, and most of their discus¬
sions seem trivial and ineffectlve, but
it is doubtful that Americans would
be interested by what has been left
out.
The small book is beautifully print¬
ed and bound. There is not the slight¬
est hint of ostentation, and yet the
hand of a master of typography in
visible on every page.
PROFESSOR BERNHARDl. By Arthur
Schnitzler. Translated and adapted by
Mrs. Emil Pohlt. (Boards, pp. 04. 81)
Published by Paul Elder & Co., San Fran¬
eisco.
1884