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THE NEW REPUBLIC
October 0, 1015
horizons as few can learn upon the American stage. These
After the Play
difficulties will be overcome, however, and Schnitzler will
TF we had a national theatre in this country“ The New
be given often in the United States, not long after the
4 York Idea, by Langdon Mitchell, would before now
many scattered Americans who love him have invented a
have found a place in its repertory. Miss Grace George
way of turning themselves into a demand-making public.
has done our stage a service by reviving this comedy at the
A deep-soul explorer with the subtlety of a kleinmeister,
Playhouse, where it glitters as brightly as when it was
an ironist revealing obscurest secrets, a profound discoverer
new, nine years ago. It is no older now. Comedy, I call
who reports his discoveries lightly—I meet somebody who
the play, but Mr. Mitchell’s aim was not comedy in its
sees Schnitzler so almost as often as I meet a self-observer
pure form. He aimed at the situations of farce and the
who has read him. Assuming that rny acquaintances are
spirit of comic observation. Hence his indifference to one
good average Americans, am I not justified in guessing that
kind of probability, hence the gay negligence with which
he has „nough admirers here, if one could only assemble
he brings his divorced husbands and wives into the very
them,to keep a Schnitzler play on the stage for perhabs a
rooms where they would be least likely to meet. No, what
forfhight in every year?
he cared to make us accept as probable was his abundance of
wit, his happy convention of modish manners. He dees
Opportunities of hearing Schnitzler in German do not yet
make us accept them.
occur very often." Das Weite Land,'’ given at the Irving
Place Theatre this week and last, is his latest play but one,
Hardness is the brilliant dramatist’s danger. „Mr.
coming between“ Der Junge Medardus'’ and“ Professor
Mitchell's first act glitters and is hard. To scratch its sur¬
Bernhardi,’ given at the same theatre a season or two ago.
face you would need a diamond. Later in the play the
A man may love a woman and also be untrue to her: you
glitter changes to a glow, a genuine feeling steals in on
can imagine a play written to prove it with the only kind
light feet, we are in the midst of a love story, we are a
of proof possible on the stage. Where such a play would
little moved, we want Cynthia, that racing amoureuse, to
come to a stop“ Das Weite Land'’ begins. It reveals the
get what she wants, her divorced husband. But it is casy
contradictory feelings composing a jealousy which in its
to move us, in the thea re, by a love story? No doubt,
manifestations is unusual. By the strange words, strange
but it wasn't easy to put a love story into such a play as
acts, strange decisions of his characters, Schnitzler makes us
* The New York Idea?’ without cracking its surface, not
aware of a strangeness which is common to us all, and
casy to give to the little picture of love and the rest of the
which without his help most of us are conscious of at mo¬
play the same comedic brightness, to envelop the whole in
ments only, only when we surprise an impulse in conscious¬
the same atmosphere of intellectual gaiety. Although the
ness and drive it away. With Schnitzler’s men and women,
hardness has gone the sparkle remains.
whose moral code is not ours, fewer of these impulses and
feelings are driven under. More of them stay and change
Every painter of smart manners is in danger of seeming
into speech and other deeds. This change is most mo¬
snobbish. Gyp, with her scorn of persons who when speak¬
mentously audible and visible in the case of a man who has
ing to a countess don't know enough to call her madame,
not only this general Viennese freedom but also the neu¬
makes me feel that if Gyp’s social position were just out¬
rotic’s special freedom to follow impulses into acts against
side her world, instead of well inside, she would be a little
the code of his own place and time.
in awe of the insiders. And I have casually met insiders
who seemed to live in awe of themselves. Here was an¬
At the beginning of“ Das Weite Land? Friedrich
other danger for Mr. Mitchell to escape. He has escaped
Hofreiter, a manufacturer nearing middle age, is incapable
it. He seems amused by the ritual he knows how to
of admitting to himself that he loves his wife, Genia, or
make his characters observe. To his detached eye smart
that he is jealous of her. Nor would he admit either of
manners are just one department of manners. He treats
these things at any time. Are they true! Let us sec. Kor¬
fashion as one of the dialects of behavior.
Mr.
sakow, an intimate friend of the Hofreiters, has just com¬
Mitchell has made no changes in his play: I wish he had
mitted suicide. Why? Friedrich questions Genia. Was
made onc. The wedding scene, at the end of the third
she Korsakow's mistress? No harm can come to Korsa¬
act, for a reason I’ve never been able to discover, somehow
kow now by her avowal, and of course no harm would have
misses firc. It does not count for so much as it should, does
come to him in any case, for Friedrich’s own infidelities, he
not have the value for the spectator that it had for Mr.
admits, have ieft her free. She may lie if she prefers, he
Mitchell.
Gratitude is due to Miss Grace
tells her, but at least she must answer. And at last she
George for reviving“ The New York Idea, for playing
does answer. No, she was not Korsakow's mistress, she is
Cynthia so well, for choosing a company that is mostly
sorry to say. Sorry? Friedrich catches at the word. So
good.
it is true? And Korsakow killed himself because she had
broken with him? This time Genia answers by producing
Of Arthur Schnitzler’s plays only three or four have
a letter from Korsakow, who wrote that he was going to
been given in the United States in English. I recall“ Lie¬
kill himself because she would not be his mistress, because
belei," Der Grüne Kakadu and“ Komtesse Mizzi.?
he realized that she loved not him but her husband. Fried¬
I am not certain about“ Das Vermächtnis. To this we
rich questions her further. Would she have become Kor¬
must add Granville Barker’s paraphrase of" Anatol,' a
sakow’s mistress to save his life? If she could raise him
series of scenes between one man and different women.
from the dead by becoming his mistress would she do it?
Since it is our national habit to neglect most of the other
The scene makes one feel, though one cannot fix the sug¬
important living dramatists of continental Europe, we
gestion upon any speech of Friedrich’s, that he is sorry
needn't be surprised at the degree to which we have
Genia was true to him.
neglected Schnitzler, who exacts of his translators some¬
thing different from fidelity to his literal meaning, and of
A fortnight later, in the second act, it is Genia’s turn to
his actors and actresses such an ease among overtones and
question Friedrich. Why has he sc suddenly resolved to