Faksimile

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2. Cut
box 38/1
#tings
T.P.’s Werker ron Aucesr 3, 1929
dOr
of a nudé figure flitting far off among the
trees. As he wondered over this, the story
of" Fraulein Else,'’ which was published in
he Doctor as Literary Man
English a few years ago, gradually devel¬
oped in his mind. In this story, the life and
mind of a young girl are expressed in a few
Arthur Schnitzler’s Diagnoses in Drama and Fiction
hours of delirium, and the impressionistic
and analytic method is characteristic of his
practised medieine without acquiring them,
work. A parallel with this method will be
vou know. Oue docsn't look at a patient
found in the work of Mr. James Joyce,
with a desire to play a röle, to aet a part,
whose“ Ulysses'' records a single day in a
get inevitably. no sooner is one a physician
man's lise.
than the eyes sccmto adapt themselves toa
Frivolities of Old Vienna
new function. They do get sharper than
The famous dramatist lives alone in a
ordinary. After all, theg are the diagnosti¬
cian's first tool.“
villaat Dobling, the famous Viennese suburb
where Schubert lived and Beethoven was
Dramatist’s Scientific Notes
born. At one period of his life, disappointed
In his literarg methods, Schnitzler shows
both as a doctor and as a man of letters
the patience and caution of the scientist.
who had failed to convey his message, he
Always he has jotted down notes for future
flung himself into the brilliant and fashion¬
novels and characters. He experimented in
able world of Vienna, its gaiety and pas¬
hypnosis and jotted down suggestions
times. His experiences as man about town
which materialize in Anatol' and in
werc to be of value to him later, and with
* Paracelsus.“ Ile followed Freud and intro¬
clear, analytic gaze he examined, in
duced his ideas into his data, and lter
brilliant books, the hectie world of society
used them in the short“ Hour of Recogni¬
with all its follies and disillusion. In that
tion,' Which won Freud’s praise. Sometimes
gay life, which vanished with the War, ho
the characters, noted by Schnitzler, arc
found his Anatol, that care-frec and joyons
capable of several possible developments.
character who expresses the soul of Vienna,
Tle will take the first onc of these possible
and the beautiful Countess Mizzi.
To-day, evergwhere in that changed
variations, write a little sketch or story,
Which he will publish in order to see how
Vienna, Sehnitzler discovers his old haunts
his characters behave themselves in print.
and hisold associates, The very walters are
nis friends and know his favourite dishes
mang gears, as Mr. Smyser points out.
Trom old times. That is the other sidc of
D##ill go back to his dusty little sketch,
Arthur Schnitzler
Phvsician, playwright and novelist; born in Vienna in
Schnitzler, the man about town whom a
consider the characters under the light of
1862 He began writing in the 'nineties, and his style,
desperately adopted hedonism drove from
the other possible situations, and make
though analytic, charms by its quality of poetic
another storg over a hundred pages long,
party to party, before, looking over
realism. His latest novel“ Theresa“ is published by
Constable.
his memories and analyzing his notes,
where the original iden is almost lost and
FEDICINE and literature have been
the emphasis quite different. Schnitzler is a
hie suddenly found that he might be
master of technique, and his last develop¬
better spending his time in industrious
rarelg combined, for patients lack
+v Aconfidenee in a physician with the
ment of a sketch or storg is more artistic
retirement.?
and ecohomical in its means and effects.
conventional rolling poctic eye. Goldsmith
Love as Scientific Theme
onlg preseribed once and with remarkable
Open-Air Ideas
Schnitzler’s use of psycho-analysis in tho
results! Beddoes, that strange and morbid
novel has had an increasing influence on
poet, never practised. Sir Arthur Conan
Although his analytie studies of men and
other writers. Love is no longer a matter
Doyle abandoned medicine for fiction. The
Women maz be regarded by some as morbid
of romance, but almost of biology. As Mr.
coming of psycho-analysis, however, has
in their unerring pursuit of the subcon¬
Smysersars:" Schnitzler sees love in terms
lessened the gulf between medieine and
scions sources of human actions, Schnitzler
of seduction, passion flaring or waning,
literature, for the modern doctor searches
is a passionate lover of open-air life, and
matricide or suicide. This is the stuff of
the springs of character und conduct.
mang of bis ideas are worked out as he
the laboratory, or of the melodrama, or
Arthur Schnitzler, the famous Viennese
tramps the countryside. Many of his best¬
of literature, Schnitzler commands all
plagwright and novelist, is the most striking
known tales have sprung from a single or
three, for he is scientist, plazwright, man¬
example of a modern practising doctor
remarkable ineident. Once as he walked“
in the Dolomites he suddenlg caught sighyl about-town, recluse and novelist.?
who has combined analysis with poctie
sentiment.
Furore Over Medical Hero
Arthur Schnitzler’s father was a Jew br¬
THE APOLOGY OF BOTTOM THE WEAVER
race, and a doctor by profession. The
dramatist himself did not neglect his
By G. K. Chesterton
medical career While analyzing souls in his
books. He is a specialist in neurosis and
And he, for all his after weaving,
Once when an honest weaver slept,
psychopathology. Ie wrotc a Dook upon
Drew up from that abysmal dream
And Puck passed by, a kindly traitor,
English elinics and studied in London the
Immortal art, that proves by secming
And on his shoulders set the head
methods of English specialists in their
Allthings more real than they sccm.
Of a Shakespearean commentator.
treatment of diseases of the larynx. The
The dancing moth was in his shuttle,
The man had walked proverbial ways,
elder Schnitzler opposed his son’s literary
The pea'’s pink blossom in his woof,
Fair Science frowned not on his birth,
proclivities, and objected to the light and
Vour thriving schools, your dying hamlets,
Nor lost in long and tangled dreams,
brilliant sketches which he. published over
Gothrough them all and find the proof—
The mother-wit of mother-carth.
his ow'n name in Viennese magazines.
That you, wherc’er the old crafts linger,
Schnitzler’scelebrated play,“ Dr. Bernbardi?
Elaborate surgeons had not found
Draw in their webs like nets of gold,
—in Which conlliet between the medical
The cobweb made the cure too brief.
Hang up like banners for a pattern,
Nor vegetarians taught the rule
profession and the priesthood is presented
The lcavings of the looms of old.
Of eating mustard without beef.
was to a large extent based on the
character of his father. The play, Which
And even as this home-made rhyme
Only in that green night of growih
Drags but the speech of Shakespeare down,
was regarded as an attack on his pro¬
Came to hi, splendid, without scorn,
These home-made patterns but repeat
fession, created a furoreand has never
The lady of the drcams of men;
The traceries of an ancient clown.
been performéd in England.
The rival of all women born.
The Viennese dramatist, in habit and
And while the modern fashions fade,
appearance, is the professional doctor. Mr.
And while the ancient standards stream,
William Leon Smyser, in the“New Vork
No psycho-analyst has knocked
Hlerald Tribune,? quotes Dr Schnitzler’s
The bottom out of Bottom’s dream.
admission:"! have gone into literature
with a doctor’s eges. Oue cannot have