——
box 36/3
1. Pamphlets offprints
THE NEW QUARTERLY
594
means to tell Weihgast what a poor deceived creature he
had been: that Weihgast’s wife was his“ Geliebte.
* But I was poor and she was a coward, and so she
remained with you and played you false! It was more
Yet, when Weihgast himself
convenient for all of us !
appears, nothing of all this is said. Instead, the successful
writer, partly to cover the embarrassment of seeing his
old friend in such poor case, partly from irrepressible
egoism, pours out his own grievances. He confesses he
is outshone and even despised by the young generation of
writers; he would forego that calling, at any rate, if he
werc to begin again. So Rademacher sces himself revenged
without effort of his own, but in the presence of death he
finds no sweetness in revenge. Weihgast’s wife is her
husband’s best friend and only comfort; ves—it is better
he should be left in credulous happiness. There are several
possible interpretations of this piece. It is open to us to
believe that the love story is itself part of Rademacher’s
Grossenwahn; for, as in the Grüne Kakadu, the staginess
of much that passes for deep emotion, and the difficulty,
even for the person himself, of distinguishing what is
sincere in his own feelings from what is fictitious, is the
main theme of the play.
A verse - drama with historical setting, Der Schleier
der Beatrice (1oor), which has not, I believe, been acted,
is in every respect Schnitzler’s most ambitious attempt.
The beauty of Beatrice, the daughter of poor Bolognese
parents, causes the poct Filippo Loschi to forsake his
betrothed, Teresina, brings another lover to his death, and
induces Duke Bentivoglio to make her his wife. The duke
celebrates his wedding on the last night before a crucial
combat with Cesar Borgia, at a feast to which the only
passport for women is their beauty. Beatrice steals from
this festival to visit Filippo. But though she has resolved
to die with him that night, she finds that life is, after all,
more desirable, and flying in terror from her dead lover,
box 36/3
1. Pamphlets offprints
THE NEW QUARTERLY
594
means to tell Weihgast what a poor deceived creature he
had been: that Weihgast’s wife was his“ Geliebte.
* But I was poor and she was a coward, and so she
remained with you and played you false! It was more
Yet, when Weihgast himself
convenient for all of us !
appears, nothing of all this is said. Instead, the successful
writer, partly to cover the embarrassment of seeing his
old friend in such poor case, partly from irrepressible
egoism, pours out his own grievances. He confesses he
is outshone and even despised by the young generation of
writers; he would forego that calling, at any rate, if he
werc to begin again. So Rademacher sces himself revenged
without effort of his own, but in the presence of death he
finds no sweetness in revenge. Weihgast’s wife is her
husband’s best friend and only comfort; ves—it is better
he should be left in credulous happiness. There are several
possible interpretations of this piece. It is open to us to
believe that the love story is itself part of Rademacher’s
Grossenwahn; for, as in the Grüne Kakadu, the staginess
of much that passes for deep emotion, and the difficulty,
even for the person himself, of distinguishing what is
sincere in his own feelings from what is fictitious, is the
main theme of the play.
A verse - drama with historical setting, Der Schleier
der Beatrice (1oor), which has not, I believe, been acted,
is in every respect Schnitzler’s most ambitious attempt.
The beauty of Beatrice, the daughter of poor Bolognese
parents, causes the poct Filippo Loschi to forsake his
betrothed, Teresina, brings another lover to his death, and
induces Duke Bentivoglio to make her his wife. The duke
celebrates his wedding on the last night before a crucial
combat with Cesar Borgia, at a feast to which the only
passport for women is their beauty. Beatrice steals from
this festival to visit Filippo. But though she has resolved
to die with him that night, she finds that life is, after all,
more desirable, and flying in terror from her dead lover,