II, Theaterstücke 25, Professor Bernhardi. Komödie in fünf Akten (Ärztestück, Junggesellenstück), Seite 394

104
CURRENT OPINION
asking Bernhardi’s permission, for a
priest, who arrives usom the scene pre¬
pared to nöhnmster extreme unction.
Bernhardi bars his way to the sick¬
room; but the patient dies from
fright, without receiving the last sane¬
tion, when the priest is announced to
her.
The incident grows into a scandal
and is made the sübject of an inter¬
pellation in the Reichsrath by the anri¬
Semitic parties. Intrigucs among the
members of the faculty are spun. The
aristocratic patrons of the hospital re¬
sign from the committee. Oue by one,
Bernhardi’s false friends desert him.
He still can escape the consequence of
his action if he supports the protégé of
PROFESSOR BERNHIARDI RESIGNS
a certain parliamentarian instead of
The hiery hero of Schnitzler’s womanless play, a part interpreted hy Ieinrich Marlow,
the man whom he has chosen to la
resigns when he sees that the faculty of his hospital will not unanimously support him in the
vacancy, who is unhappily also a Jew.
battle with the bigots. The play, after making a tremendous hit in Europe, is now running with
equal success at the German Irving Place Theater in New Vork.
Bernhardi steadfastly refuses. He is
accused of the crime of “interrupting
institution, a specialist of European
appears for about two minutes on the
a religious ceremony,“ and sentenced
reputation. Bernhardi is a Jew. He
stage, and is not scen again after the
to two months in jail. He prefers not
is not only a Jew but a freethinker,
first of the five acts.
to save himself by pulling political and
There are twenty male characters in His assistants are partly Gentiles, partly
social wires; he gladly goes to prison
men of his own race. Here rests the
the play. Each of these is limned in a
for his principle. The priest, whose
germ of the ensuing conflict.
few masterful strokes. Both treatment
testimony has docmed him to incar¬
One of Bernhardi’s patients is dying,
and theme, as Dr. Arthur Pulver¬
ceration, asks for a word with him.
a voung girl of the people, who is suc¬
macher, the able critic ofthe New Vork
He confesses to him that, on mature
cumbing to the consequences of a erim¬
Staats-Zeitung, points out, is unique,
consideration, he has come to the con¬
inal operation. She does not know that
The curtain rises on a hospital. The
clusion that Bernhardi was right in
her hours on carth are numbered. In
action, however, halts short ofthe sick¬
this individual instance." But why did
fact, in the rallying of the vital powers
room. We are introduced, so to speak,
von not say so in court?' Bernhardi
that sometimes immediately precedes
tothe brains of the institution, its med¬
sternly questions. The priest replies
death, she imagines that she is getting
ical faculty. We find here the same
well, and believes that her lover will that the Church as an institution would
jealousies as among the faculty of the
shortly take her away. Professor have suffered thereby. To him the
average American university. There
Bernhardi does not wish to destroy her Church means more than individual
are strong men and weak men, men of
justice or human logic. Realizing the
illusion; he regards it as his duty as a
high moral integrity and mere climbers.
physicianto make her last hour on carth incommensurability of their standards,
Politics and society are brought into
as happy and tranquil as possible. One the two men, both strong, both fighters,
play. The Church takes a part in the
of the nurses, a deeply religious woman, shake hands over the gulf that must
game. The figure that overlooms all
thinks otherwise. She sends, without divide them forever.
others is Dr. Bernhardi, head of the
WIIIMSICAL TRIBUTE 70 THE
BARRIE'S
ETERNAL FEMININE
N HIS new play for Maude Was Leonora a murderess? Did she the man wouldn't shut the window. He
simply refused.
Adams, written in a somewhat really push the man out of the win¬
So we must not be surprised, when
Gilbertian vein, J. M. Barrie pays dow? Was there really any window
Lconora is put on trial for pushing him
or any man or any train at all? These,
a whimsical tribute to woman. It
out, if the judge and lawyers and jury,
Mr. Ruhl goes on to say, are of course
is doubtful, Mr. Klauber remarks
who look quite ordinary on the outside,
rather impossible questions, because we
do what appear, at first sight, as very
in the New Vork Times, whether Mr.
extraordinary things.
are dealing here with a Barrie fantasy,
Barrie has ever been more extrava¬
and Preality“ is merely a relative term.
gant than in certain portions of The
*The learned judge and the lawyers
and jury all fall in love with Leonora,
Legend of Lconora.' Equally certain
"Here, as elsewhere, Mr. Barrie is in- and the attorney for the defense, when
it is that he has never been more whim¬
terested in human nature, which is more asked if he wishes to put any questions
sical and more humorous than in other
tothe witness, carnestly answers that he
or less the same in all times and seasons,
portions of it. The play given in Lon¬
has but one, and, on being told to state
and not in the outsides of things whose
don under the namc of“ The Adored
it, quite naturally gets up and asks
fashions change with every sun. The
One'' is one of Barrie’s most charm¬
Leonora if she won't be his wise.“'
things that his people do may appear
ing tributes to the eternal feminine.
fantastic and absurd, but the things they
Leonora, as Mr. Barrie explains, is
Leonora’s little girl has a cold. The
think and feel are real.
a play written only for people who have
man in the railway carriage insisted on
ever had a mother. By far the most
'In this case he is thinking of a
opening the window. Leonora asked
mother’s love for her children—and you
delightful and the most ingenious scenes
him to shut it, but he wouldn't. Tler
must remember that Leonora’s little girl
ofthe play, according to Rennold Wolf,
child has a cold, so Leonora pushed
had a cold. It was only one of those
writing in the Morning Telegraph, are
him out of the window of the moving
'sniffy' little colds, but colds pulled this
those in the first act, where Leonora is
train. This, as Arthur Ruhl summa¬
one—Leonora was an enchanting little
made to represent à variety of women,
rizes it in the New Vork Tpihune, is
widow and she had seven jewels—pulled
the nominal basis of Mr. Barrie’s play. this one down more than the others. And and yet mere woman: