October 0, 1015
THE NEW REPUBLIC
264
spend a week or two in the Dolomites? He is evasive. She
convenience. In Schnitzler at his best those scenes which
insists upon knowing the meaning of his journey. Is he
seem irrelevant from the mere understanding’s point of
going to the Dolomites or away from her? Well, since
view do give the spectator’s mood che color which will
she will have it, Friedrich admits that he wants to be away
change most easily into the color right for the significant
from her for a while. The feeling that she is trying, how¬
moments. It is a waste of time, when the time is Schnitz¬
ever unconsciously, to make Korsakow'’s suicide count as
ler’s, to create for us the atmosphere of a Dolomite hotel.
proof of a love of Friedrich which entitles her to something
Contrast there must be, of course, but in for example“ Der
from him, the feeling that so comparatively unimportant a
Einsame Weg' the contrast is between Schnitzler and
thing as her virtue should have caused the irreparable fact
Schnitzler, not between Schnitzler and such common co.nic
of death—these feelings have made her more alien to him
relief as is furnished by Paul Kreindl and by the German
than before. All this she forces him to put with such dis¬
who cannot get his clean clothes from the laundress. Did
tinctness that as soon as he has said it, he tells her, it has
Schnitzler really write such parts? Did he do it on pur¬
become almost not true. Genia disagrees. She thinks it
pose?
has staid true. Friedrich leaves her without knowing he
has revealed his unconscious wish to have her take a lover.
How odd to find oneself saying, à propos of a play by
We spend the third act with him in the Dolomites, where
Schnitzler, that nearly all the cuts have been intelligently
he, who had not climbed for seven years, not since a friend
made! Yet it’s truc of“ Das Weite Land“’ as given in
was killed while they were alone together on a dangerous
Irving Place. One of the cuts, by the way, shows that
peak, renews his youth by conquering this same peak's
the stage director either hasn't read Theodor Reik’s won¬
dangers.
derful book about Schnitzler (Arthur Schnitzler als Psy¬
cholog, J. C. C. Bruns, Minden, 1913) or else doesn't
Neither Friedrich’s nor her own simpler case is clear to
accept Reik’s interpretation of the Aignerturm, the moun¬
Genia. She belicves that his infidelitics, which in her first
tain scaled in the third act. Rhon, a playwright, says to
knowledge of them gave her thoughts of suicide, flight, re¬
Aigner, who made the first ascension twenty years before,
venge, have become matters of something like unimportance
and who has now given up climbing: “ Das muss doch ein
to her. Very quietly she proposes a long absence from him,
recht eigenthümliches Gefühl sein, so zu Füssen eines
a long visit to England where their boy is at school, but
Turmes zu sitzen, den man als erster bestiegen hat und
when he proposes to leave for the Dolomites she is deeply
selbst nicht mehr in der Lage zu sein.
Man
disturbed. So her fidelity, her resistance, her virtue have
könnte hier einen Vergleich wagen
den ich aber
lengthened the distance between them? Very well, she will
lieber unterlassen will.“ Atthe Irving Place the italicized
put an end to these things. She chooses a young naval
words are not spoken. For their symbolic reference, and
oflicer, Otto von Aigner, who loves her and whom she dees
for other passages on which Reik throws a Freudian light,
not love, care less for, one would say, than she cared for
I must refer readers to his book. What he says deepens
Korsakow, and becomes his mist. s. He is on the point
one’s understanding of Schnitzler, but a remembrance of
of starting for a three-year voyage in the South Seas, and
it, at the moment of seeing and hearing“ Das Weite
when he has gone she will tell Friedrich. When Friedrich
Land,“ gives to parts of the play an emphasis which isn't
returns we see him preoccupied, excited, more nervous and
Schnitzler’s own, and the result is a slight distortion. Ex¬
restless than ever. He has little attention to spare for the
cept, I hasten to add, in the cases of Korsakow, who killed
new mistress he won in the Dolomites. And the explana¬
himself just after a game of billiards with Friedrich, and
tion is that he has found out by accident the relation of
of Bernhaupt, killed by a mountain accident seven years
Genia to Otto, whom he insults quietly and publicly, and
ago, while he and Friedrich were climbing the Aignerturm.
who challenges him. At the moment of the insult Fried¬
About the second of these deaths the most sinister rumors
rich was not bent on murder, but when they are face to
are afloat, and one feels that things as sinister were once
face, when he sees youth itself glitter and laugh in insolent
rumored about Bernhaupt’s fall. One death was really an
cold eyes, jealousy of youth darkens his other jealousy into
accident, the other really a suicide, yet to Friedrich, as
hate, and he shoots Otto dead. The hatred is over then,
Reik explains him, both deaths have seemed fulfillments of
but Genia sees Friedrich ar last as she had not seen him,
his wishes. He cannot be certain that his wishes did not
as malevolent in his egotism and cruel, and we realize, as
kill his two friends.
she goes away to tell Otto’s mother, that in her heart she
has already broken with Friedrich.
At the Irving Place Friedrich is played with fine intelli¬
gence and dexterous nerves by Arnold Korff. Friedrich's
Profound and illuminating as a study of Friedrich’s
impulsive amiability, impulsive malice, impulsive irony, his
jealousy and neurosis, perfect as a representation of Genia’s
abiding restlessness, his energy and his mind—Mr. Korff
state of mind, true-Schnitzler in Erna, the unafraid young
renders all these sharply when he chooses, and when he
woman who is Friedrich’s mistress for so short a time, true¬
chooses blends onc of them with another. Quite admirable
Schnitzler again in Otto's father, a subordinate and essential
acting this, worth seeing again and again by anybody in¬
figure, Das Weite Land' sounds as if Schnitzler might have
terested in acting as an art, marred at the end by the
written it when he was tired of hearing his people called
violence of Mr. Korff’s emotional outburst, which strikes
charming. Friedrich has had many forerunners—Anatol,
me as not justified by his acting in earlier scenes, or by
Stephan von Sala, Prince Egon, Georg von Wergenthin—
anything in the dialogue or stage directions of the printed
but his nerves are more exasperated, his cruelty is malign
play. Anni Rub-Foerster made me realize how stupid
and self-pleasing, his creator doesn't like him so well. This
I’d been about Genia. Until I saw this impersonation,
is surprising in a dramatist whose love of his lovers has been
sincere and deeply felt, I had quite failed to understand
so faithful, though less surprising, to one accustomed to the
what a solitary life Genia lives with her preoccupation—.
unencumbered ease of Schnitzler’s scenes, than the presence
when she is most a hostess, when she is most diverted,
of certain clumsinesses, of a clatter of exits and entrances, of
always.
goings and comings with little motive except the author’s
2
THE NEW REPUBLIC
264
spend a week or two in the Dolomites? He is evasive. She
convenience. In Schnitzler at his best those scenes which
insists upon knowing the meaning of his journey. Is he
seem irrelevant from the mere understanding’s point of
going to the Dolomites or away from her? Well, since
view do give the spectator’s mood che color which will
she will have it, Friedrich admits that he wants to be away
change most easily into the color right for the significant
from her for a while. The feeling that she is trying, how¬
moments. It is a waste of time, when the time is Schnitz¬
ever unconsciously, to make Korsakow'’s suicide count as
ler’s, to create for us the atmosphere of a Dolomite hotel.
proof of a love of Friedrich which entitles her to something
Contrast there must be, of course, but in for example“ Der
from him, the feeling that so comparatively unimportant a
Einsame Weg' the contrast is between Schnitzler and
thing as her virtue should have caused the irreparable fact
Schnitzler, not between Schnitzler and such common co.nic
of death—these feelings have made her more alien to him
relief as is furnished by Paul Kreindl and by the German
than before. All this she forces him to put with such dis¬
who cannot get his clean clothes from the laundress. Did
tinctness that as soon as he has said it, he tells her, it has
Schnitzler really write such parts? Did he do it on pur¬
become almost not true. Genia disagrees. She thinks it
pose?
has staid true. Friedrich leaves her without knowing he
has revealed his unconscious wish to have her take a lover.
How odd to find oneself saying, à propos of a play by
We spend the third act with him in the Dolomites, where
Schnitzler, that nearly all the cuts have been intelligently
he, who had not climbed for seven years, not since a friend
made! Yet it’s truc of“ Das Weite Land“’ as given in
was killed while they were alone together on a dangerous
Irving Place. One of the cuts, by the way, shows that
peak, renews his youth by conquering this same peak's
the stage director either hasn't read Theodor Reik’s won¬
dangers.
derful book about Schnitzler (Arthur Schnitzler als Psy¬
cholog, J. C. C. Bruns, Minden, 1913) or else doesn't
Neither Friedrich’s nor her own simpler case is clear to
accept Reik’s interpretation of the Aignerturm, the moun¬
Genia. She belicves that his infidelitics, which in her first
tain scaled in the third act. Rhon, a playwright, says to
knowledge of them gave her thoughts of suicide, flight, re¬
Aigner, who made the first ascension twenty years before,
venge, have become matters of something like unimportance
and who has now given up climbing: “ Das muss doch ein
to her. Very quietly she proposes a long absence from him,
recht eigenthümliches Gefühl sein, so zu Füssen eines
a long visit to England where their boy is at school, but
Turmes zu sitzen, den man als erster bestiegen hat und
when he proposes to leave for the Dolomites she is deeply
selbst nicht mehr in der Lage zu sein.
Man
disturbed. So her fidelity, her resistance, her virtue have
könnte hier einen Vergleich wagen
den ich aber
lengthened the distance between them? Very well, she will
lieber unterlassen will.“ Atthe Irving Place the italicized
put an end to these things. She chooses a young naval
words are not spoken. For their symbolic reference, and
oflicer, Otto von Aigner, who loves her and whom she dees
for other passages on which Reik throws a Freudian light,
not love, care less for, one would say, than she cared for
I must refer readers to his book. What he says deepens
Korsakow, and becomes his mist. s. He is on the point
one’s understanding of Schnitzler, but a remembrance of
of starting for a three-year voyage in the South Seas, and
it, at the moment of seeing and hearing“ Das Weite
when he has gone she will tell Friedrich. When Friedrich
Land,“ gives to parts of the play an emphasis which isn't
returns we see him preoccupied, excited, more nervous and
Schnitzler’s own, and the result is a slight distortion. Ex¬
restless than ever. He has little attention to spare for the
cept, I hasten to add, in the cases of Korsakow, who killed
new mistress he won in the Dolomites. And the explana¬
himself just after a game of billiards with Friedrich, and
tion is that he has found out by accident the relation of
of Bernhaupt, killed by a mountain accident seven years
Genia to Otto, whom he insults quietly and publicly, and
ago, while he and Friedrich were climbing the Aignerturm.
who challenges him. At the moment of the insult Fried¬
About the second of these deaths the most sinister rumors
rich was not bent on murder, but when they are face to
are afloat, and one feels that things as sinister were once
face, when he sees youth itself glitter and laugh in insolent
rumored about Bernhaupt’s fall. One death was really an
cold eyes, jealousy of youth darkens his other jealousy into
accident, the other really a suicide, yet to Friedrich, as
hate, and he shoots Otto dead. The hatred is over then,
Reik explains him, both deaths have seemed fulfillments of
but Genia sees Friedrich ar last as she had not seen him,
his wishes. He cannot be certain that his wishes did not
as malevolent in his egotism and cruel, and we realize, as
kill his two friends.
she goes away to tell Otto’s mother, that in her heart she
has already broken with Friedrich.
At the Irving Place Friedrich is played with fine intelli¬
gence and dexterous nerves by Arnold Korff. Friedrich's
Profound and illuminating as a study of Friedrich’s
impulsive amiability, impulsive malice, impulsive irony, his
jealousy and neurosis, perfect as a representation of Genia’s
abiding restlessness, his energy and his mind—Mr. Korff
state of mind, true-Schnitzler in Erna, the unafraid young
renders all these sharply when he chooses, and when he
woman who is Friedrich’s mistress for so short a time, true¬
chooses blends onc of them with another. Quite admirable
Schnitzler again in Otto's father, a subordinate and essential
acting this, worth seeing again and again by anybody in¬
figure, Das Weite Land' sounds as if Schnitzler might have
terested in acting as an art, marred at the end by the
written it when he was tired of hearing his people called
violence of Mr. Korff’s emotional outburst, which strikes
charming. Friedrich has had many forerunners—Anatol,
me as not justified by his acting in earlier scenes, or by
Stephan von Sala, Prince Egon, Georg von Wergenthin—
anything in the dialogue or stage directions of the printed
but his nerves are more exasperated, his cruelty is malign
play. Anni Rub-Foerster made me realize how stupid
and self-pleasing, his creator doesn't like him so well. This
I’d been about Genia. Until I saw this impersonation,
is surprising in a dramatist whose love of his lovers has been
sincere and deeply felt, I had quite failed to understand
so faithful, though less surprising, to one accustomed to the
what a solitary life Genia lives with her preoccupation—.
unencumbered ease of Schnitzler’s scenes, than the presence
when she is most a hostess, when she is most diverted,
of certain clumsinesses, of a clatter of exits and entrances, of
always.
goings and comings with little motive except the author’s
2