OCroßER 27, 1010.
THE NEW AGE
612
as it was upon the first evening; inwardly everything is
pastors are Protestant. Hauptmann’s legendary plays
changed. The man must be free. Conversation grows
are built of German mythology, and even his Silesian
lame. At last the explanation comes, and the woman
peasant dramas gravitate naturally towards the
departs; sometimes with frankly outstretched hand and
Northern capital. Wedekind’s laborious introspection
a glance of understanding, sometimes helplessly in tears
and substantial satire are German to the core.
or riotously in a storm of indignation. For these latter
Schnitzler is just as distinctively Austrian. Dramati¬
types the man has only a shrug of the shoulders as he
lights a cigarette. They offend his sense of decorum
cally Berlin belongs to the bourgeoisie; Vienna is a ciy
and compel him to regard them as inferiors. For the
of the aristocrats. Schnitzler, like most of the modern
others he bears a touch of melancholy as a sign of
Viennese playwrights, is content to take as his theme
mourning. He will think of them in future twilight
only a few scenes from life, and even in those few¬
moods. But a few weeks later he will hire a new
scenes he recurs continually to a single passage. No
room in another by-way (not the same room, for that
wind instruments for him; he is a master of the strings.
would be unbeautiful) for the reception of another mis¬
Tothe Northern playwrights he leaves the wild barbaric
tress, and the old light o’ love will pass to a new lover.
march, tothe Maeterlinckian symbolists the tone-poem.
There are the Schnitzler hero and the Schnitzler heroine.
His dramatic method is the intellectualisation, the re¬
They have most of the vices of their city and the quint¬
finement of the Viennese waltz. The most famous of
essence of its charm; frivolity tinged with regret and
intrigue with grace.
his plays is Liebelei?’ (in the English version“ Light
But in reality they
I have touched here especially upon the types and
o' Love, literally" Flirtation'').
are all Liebelei, from Anatol'' to the“ Komtesse
the setting of the one act cycle Anatol'’ because they
Mizzi.' The moralist will find“ flirtation?' a euphemism,
convey the Schnitzler atmosphere most clearly. The
but Schnitzler has nothing to do with moralists or
situations are not literally rendered; thev change just
morality. His subject is always the samenthe lover
as moods change, and are woven into different forms.
and a mistress or two. It is treated gracefully enough,
Anatol'' represents the comedy of the lover-mistress
with little passion and much gentle melancholy, little
motive,“ Liebelei?' the tragedy. In the former the#
humour and much wit. His power lies chiefly in the
man is the central figure; in the latter the woman. In
creation of an atmosphere—a dim twilight atmosphere
Liebelei?' Christine meets her philanderer, and makes
as of autumn evenings, crowded with reminiscence. It is
a hero of him. She becomes his mistress, and lives on
indescribably charming and completely aimless; a dream
in a dream-world of her own. Her hero is killed in a
world as magical as that of any symbolist, yet un¬
duel fought on behalf of another woman—and that is
symbolic. Tragic problems arise from time to time, as
all. Of Christine it can only be said that she is as
in" Der einsame Weg'' or" Der Ruf des Lebens,' but
great a woman as is possible in the Schnitzler world;
for the most part Schnitzler moves upon the plane of
a world devised for men as surely as that of Strindberg,
comedy. The crisis arrives, the catastrophe occurs;
and in effect, although unconsciously, as contemptuous
but it is an intimately personal catastrophe, accepted
of women. The misogynist, indeed, is a lesser
with ironical resignation by the aristocrat-hero, and
enemy of feminism than the philanderer. He is only
added with a sigh to his repertory of experience. That
the mouthpiecc of ideas, not the arbiter of fates.
aristocrat-hero is Schnitzler’s most characteristic figure.
was followed by the longer plays
Liebelei'
" New mistresses for old' is his eternal problem, and an
Freiwild“ and" Das Vermächtnis.?' They represent
imp is ever at his elbow whispering that the old were
the ncarest approach that Austrian drama has made
better. Still he must obey the law of his own nature,
to the social problem play and the modernity movement
and he accepts the necessity of change as he accepts all
of other countries. In social problems, however,
The women come and
else in his life, good naturedly.
Schnitzler is rcally ouf öf his element TIe has Sätir¬
go. They arrive timidly, half-conscious only of their
ised the duel a thousand times more subtly than Suder¬
power. They yield, and for a while some tiny raftered
mann in Die Ehre?'; he has ridiculed militarism,
room with latticed windows, discreetly hidden in a
semitism and anti-semitism, the government and the
narrow by-way of the city, is made the meeting-place.
revolutionary parties. But his interests are not pri¬
Freshly gathered flowers are arranged upon the table,
marily political or social, any more than they are
set for two. The lamp is lit, the curtains are drawn.
domestic. In“ Reigen?' he returns to the drama of
The old housekeeper, discrecter even than her dwelling,
personal moods. Anatol'’ consists of seven scenes,
moves noiselessly to serve the dishes and withdraws.
Reigen?' of ten, a complete cyele of duologucs, each
The two are left together; a gentleman of upper-class
between a man and a woman. More than duologues,
Vienna, a lady of any class or none.“ We have seen
however; scenes from life. They pass consecutively:
#
It is
this comedy before,?’ vou say at first.
A prostitute and a soldier. The soldier and a par¬
sordid, sensuous, contemptible. It is none of
lourmaid. The parlourmaid and a voung gentleman.
these, for Schnitzler is a magician. An honourable
The young gentleman and a young lady. The youtig
magician, moreover. His work is never ugly. He
ladv and her husband. The husband and a girl. The
avoids sensuality by his honesty as an artist. There is
girl and a poet. The poet and an actress. The
nothing unnatural, nothing immoral, nothing even furtive
actress and a nobleman. The nobleman and the prös¬
for him in the relationship of lover and mistress. A
titute.
certain discretion is preserved—that is all. He traces
There is the chain, stripped of the romance of
1
the psychology of the intimacy. Within the limits he
Anatol' and reduced to a vivisection of sex instinct,
has chosen for himself, he tells everything that can be
a post-mortem examination of passion. It is the work
told, and much that the lesser artist is afraid to tell.
of an artist weary of many adventures, and disposed
Details of circumstance are nothing to him, moods every¬
to regard life as nothing but a round of stupid intrigue
thing. His drama depends upon a crisis in the lives of
and cynical reaction.
two people; the inevitable passing from old relationships
For the rest, Schnitzler has gone no further dra¬
to new. No flash of thought escapes him. He records
matically than Anatol' and “ Liebelei.? The one
every motive. In the crisis itself there can be no com¬
act cycles“ Lebendige Stunden'' and“ Marionetten?'
promise. The break must come when one of the lovers
are new versions of the old story.“ Komtesse Mizzi?
desires it, however faintly. As long as Romance spreads
(rooo) has all the old charm and nothing more. One
her wings, the intimacy lasts; the instant they are
can have too much of the twilight mood, the Viennese
folded it must come to an endat whatever cost of suffer¬
lover and his mistress, the melancholy and the grace.
ing. That is the first condition of equality between men
Everything that Schnitzler has written or imagined is
and women; a brutal condition, but one which must be
summed up in the six hundred pages of his novel“ Der
faced. Inthe moment of parting pity is a dishonourable
Weg ins Freie.' There is the search for the “path of
emotion, chivalry the grossest form of patronage, senti¬
freedom'' that he has never found. He has never made
mentality a nauseous drug. Even the most cynical
his way out ofthe half-world into the real world. But
frankness is fairer, and that is Schnitzler’s weapon. He
among the dramatists of the half-world he is supreme.
analyses the transition moment in scenes such as those
(ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)
of" Anatol.“ Outwardly, between the lovers, all is just