Faksimile

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box 36/6
Panphlets Offorints
The Germanic Revien
170
overjoyed and wishes to try the song at once. Irsil is to
accompany her and they retire to the music room. King
Assad having meanwhile entered prefers to hear the music
from afar. He reclines on the sofa, falls asleep and dreams.
The visual presentation of this dream forms the second scene.
Seeing Maja paying homage to Alkandi’s statue, the king realizes
that it is this dead singer who is his rival for her love:
Nun weiß ich’s doch, wer eurer Küsse Glut
Seit Monden mir zu rauben sich vermessen,
Ich fühlt' es ja, ich fühlt’ es allzugut—
In meinen Armen hast du mich vergessen!
Dieweil, von deines Atems Duft umwallt,
Ich dich umfing in seligem Vertrauen—
Sah ich dein Auge matt ins Leere schauen,
Es blieb dein Mund an meinen Lippen kalt.
Nie ward ein Mann mit ärg’rer List betrogen!?
In his jealous rage he hurls the statue to the ground and vows,
not merely to have every image of Alkandi throughout his land
destroyed, but to banish even the memory of him by making
the singing of his songs a capital offence. Incognito he sets
out personally to assure himself that his orders have been
carried out. Months later he unexpectedly returns at night
only to find Irsil in his wife’s bedchamber. He wreaks ven¬
geance upon her lover by hurling him down to the multitude
below. Upon awaking, the king realizes it was only a dream,
but he is sufficiently impressed to heed the warning contained
in it. Under the pretext of conferring a great boon upon him,
he banishes Irsil from his court.
The moral to be derived from this play is formulated by
Körner as follows: Man lasse der Frau eine ideale Untreue
gerne hingehen; wird diese durch allzu große Eifersucht be¬
hindert, so treibt man die Frau, zu deren Wesen Treulosigkeit
nun einmal gehört, in die reale Untreue.' 25
Alkandis Lied' reminds Specht“ of Grillparzer, and we
shall probably not go far astray if we assume a certain influence
on the part of this dramatist. Not only have we here the same
2 Op. cit., 59.
* Op. Cil., 12.
18
Early Wa
Oriental fairy-tale atm
occupies the same pron
Der Traum, ein Leben an
on his actions afterward.
The subject of dream
throughout his career an
prominent position.2
invention and elaborati
grafted upon the actid
naturally from a given
subconscious elements
most other writers seem
son. Reik? has devote
in the approved Freudia
dreams and he finds th
actual dreams of living
interesting to note how
the mechanism of drea
dream begins by taking
waking state, but soon
surface: his latent jeale
hn
27 It is
C68
(Ges. W., Th.
(Ges. W., Ers.
(Ges. W., Ers. Sch.,
pp. 83ff.
9 Op. cil., 217-265.