Faksimile

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er den
ing, moves noiselessly to serve the
dishes and withdraws. The two are
left togethera gentleman upper¬
class Vienna, a lady of any class, or
none.
"We have seen this comedy before,
you say at first. It is sensuous, base.
It is none of these, for Schnitzel is a
magician. An honorable magician,
moreover. His work is never ugly. He
avoids sensuality by his honesty as an
artist. There is nothing unnatural.
nothing immoral, nothing even furtive
for him in the relationship of lover
and mistress. A certain discretion is
preserved that is all.
He traces the psychology of the in¬
timacy. Within the limits he has
chosen for himself he teils everything
that can be told, and much that the
lesser artist is afraid to tell. Details of
circumstances are nothing to him,
moods everything. His drama depends
upon a crisis in the lives of two peo¬
ple the inevitable passing from old
relationships to new. No flash of
thought escapes him. He records every
motive. In the crisis itself there can
be no compromise. The break must
come when one of the lovers desires it,
however faintly.
As long as romance spreads her wings
the intimacy last; the instant they are
folded it must come to an end at what¬
ever cost of suffering. That is the first
condition of equality between men and
women; a brutal condition, but one
which must be faced. In the moment
of party pity is a dishonorable emo¬
tion, chivalry the grossest form of pat-
ronage, sentimentality a nauseous drug.
Even the most cynical frankness is
fairer, and that is Schnitzlers weapon.
He analyzes the transition moment
Angele as he looks, he is a storm center in the forces particulari¬
in the scenes of Anatol. Outwardly,
in the trial scenes
between the lovers, all is just as it was
upon the first evening; inwardly every¬
thing is changed. The man must be
Schnitzler’s Affairs of Anatol
free. Conversation grows lame. At
last the explanation comes, and the
woman departs; sometimes with frankly
As Summed up by Ashley Dukes
outstretched hand and a glance of un¬
derstanding, sometimes helplessly in
tears or riotously in a storm of indig¬
COLLEGE freshman was asked Dramatiste, that are used as an intro¬
once to make up sentences, duction to the Modern Library edition nation. For these latter types the man
has only a shug of the shoulders as
using certain names in such a of Anatol.
The most famous of Schnitzlers he lights a cigarette. They offend his
way that they would show he knew who
sense of decorum and compel him to
or what they were. He used the name plays, wrote Mr. Dukes, is "Lebel¬
regard them as inferiors.
Loti by saying that "The Loti are in the English version Flitation")
For the others he bears a touch of
tribe of Indians in Wyoming," and But in reality they are all Liebelei,
melancholy as a sign of mourning. He
Schnitzler was identified as a brand of from "Anatole to the "Countes, Mitzi
The moralis will und ration will think of them in future twilight
beer in Germany.
While such egregious ignorance is uphemism, but Schnitzler has nothing moods. But a few weeks later he will
rare, it remains true that Schnitzler is to do with moralists or morality. His hire a new room in another side street
known to only a small group in America subject is always the same the lover (not the same room, for that would be
as compared with his extensive follow and a mistress or two. It is treated unbeautiful) for the reception of an¬
ing throughout Europe. Only during gracefully enough, with little passion other mistress, and the old light of love
the last few years have his novels and much gentle melancholy, little will pass to a new lover.
There is Anatol, the Schnitzler hero,
gained popularity here. And few are humor and much wit. His power lies
familiar with his plays. However, in chiefly in the creation of an atmos¬ and there are the Schnitzler heroines
central Europe and especially in his phere in twilight atmosphere as one finds in his company. They have
native Vienna Anatol and his other of autumn evenings crowded with most of the vices of their city and the
quintessence of its charm; frivolity
plays are regularly revived every season reminiscence. It is indescribably
charming and completely aimless. A tinged with regret and intrigue with
or so,
His fame in the United States has crisis arrives, a catastrophe occurs; but grace.
he to await the development that has it is an intimately personal catastrophe.
now come about, of a sophisticated au¬ accepted with ironical resignation by
dience. For his dramatic method, ac¬ aristocrather, and added with a
cording to the English critic Ashley sigh to his repertory of experience.
The aristocrat-hero, exemplified by
Dukes, is the intellectualization, the
refinement, of the Viennese waltz, a Anatol, is Schnitzlers most charm¬
method that requires a cultured and ing characteristic figure. New mis¬
tresses for old" is his eternal problem
worldly audience for its appreciation.
In view of the production by Bela and an imp is ever at his elbow whis¬
Blau of Schnitzlers Anatole that is pering that the old were better. Still,
opening at the Lyceum Theater next he must obey the law of his own na¬
Friday evening with Joseph Schildkraut ture and the women come and go.
in the central role the first appearance They arrive timidly, half-conscious
of a Schnitzler work in English in New only of their power. They yield, and
York in many years the casual play for a while some tiny raftered room
goer can profitably be reintroduced to with latticed windows, discretly hid¬
the playwright with the remarks of den in a narrow by way of the city, is
Anley Dukes in his book, Modern made the meeting place. Frey