that its author was too independent a dramatist to allow himself to be hemmed in by a narrow theory of realism.

1895.

Der Biberpelz (1893), "eine Diebskomödie," is a slighter play, and wholly realistic in style. The characters are clear cut and drawn with the same genial humour that distinguished College Crampton. Florian Geyer (1895), Haupt- Florian mann's next tragedy, is an effort to break down the prejudice Geyer, which hinders a modern writer from handling historical themes. Florian Geyer is a historical drama in so far as it deals with the Peasants' War in the stormy times of Götz von Berlichingen; but Hauptmann's art and method remain the same as in Die Weber-in its technique, in fact, Florian Geyer is only Die Weber repeated on a grander scale. Moreover, the subject, as Hauptmann wished to treat it, was too unwieldy, the personages were too numerous, and where clear outlines and bold strokes were required, his minute workmanship was naturally ineffectual.

Glocke,

With the exception of Die Ehre, Die versunkene Glocke Die ver(1897) has been the most popular drama of the present sunkene + period. Still another side of its author's talent is revealed 1897. in this "Märchendrama"; poetry, imagination, and fairy-lore take the place of the sordid realities of his early plays. A bellfounder has made a church-bell, which he regards as his best achievement, but, as it is being borne to the church, the waggon is overturned by a "Waldschrat" or faun, the bell sinks into a lake, and Heinrich the bellfounder almost loses his life. He falls under the spell of an elf, Rautendelein, who tempts him away from wife and home. High up in the mountains, free from earthly cares and lowly aspirations, he lives for his work alone, until the tones of the sunken bell rise from the lake and drag him down to earth again. The symbolism and allegory of the poem are not difficult to understand; it is the tragedy of the artist's life in a new form. When more closely examined, however, Die versunkene Glocke has many realistic features: the human personages are, it is true, indefinite and shadowy types compared with Hauptmann's earlier characters, but the supernatural figures, the Waldschrat, the Nickelmann, and even Rautendelein are thoroughly realistic and bear witness to the literary influence of Germany's greatest modern artist, Arnold Böcklin (1827-1901). Thus when, in his next work, Haupt

mann returned to the milieu of his first dramas, the step Fuhrmann was not so great as at first appeared. Fuhrmann Henschel

Henschel,

1898.

Minor

(1898) is a tragedy of village life. The carrier of a Silesian "Badeort," whose wife dies at the beginning of the play, marries Hanna Schäl, his servant, who has made herself indispensable in his household; but the words with which his dying wife has warned him against Hanna haunt him like the Furies of the ancient drama; his second marriage brings nothing but misery upon him, and ultimately, in despair, he hangs himself. While Fuhrmann Henschel thus conformed to the traditional methods of tragedy, Schluck und Jau (1900) was a fantastic comedy on original lines, the subject having been suggested by the prologue to The Taming of the Shrew; the hero of the piece is a vagabond who is made to believe that he is a prince. In 1900, Hauptmann also wrote Michael Kramer, a drama of artist-life, in which the interesting characters hardly compensated for the want of dramatic action, and in 1901, Der rote Hahn, a sequel to Der Biberpels.

Beside Sudermann and Hauptmann, a number of minor dramatists. writers have helped to give the German stage that prominence as a literary institution, for which it was admirably fitted by its technical and artistic organisation. With plays like Alexandra (1888) and Eva (1889), Richard Voss (born 1851) was, to some extent, a forerunner of the new school of dramatists. Max Halbe (born 1865) is the author of one or two skilful dramas, such as Jugend (1893) and Mutter Erde (1898); and interesting plays have also been written by W. Kirchbach (born 1857), O. E. Hartleben (born 1864), and Ernst Rosmer (pseudonym for Elsa Bernstein, born 1866). Comedy is still what it has always been, the weak side of the German drama; mention has, however, to be made of the work of Max Dreyer (born 1862), while Ludwig Fulda (born 1862) has employed to good advantage his talent for writing graceful verse by translating Molière's masterpieces (1892). Fulda's original plays, the most successful of which was Der Talisman (1893), are built upon conventional motives and deficient in seriousness of aim. In Austria, the most gifted of the younger dramatists is Arthur Schnitzler (born 1862), whose finely pointed dialogues (Anatol, 1893) reveal a talent that is more French than German; his plays (Liebelei, 1895; Das Vermächtnis, 1898; Der grüne Kakadu, 1899;

Austrian writers.

Der Schleier der Beatrice, 1900) are, despite a fondness for morbid problems and motives, characteristically Austrian in tone and style. Hermann Bahr (born 1863), who is, at the same time, the leading Austrian critic of the new school, has also written dramas (Das Tschaperl, 1898; Der Apostel, 1901) which have been popular in Vienna. Most promising of all the younger Austrians is Hugo von Hofmannsthal (born 1874), who has learnt much from the Italian writer, D'Annunzio. None of the lyric poets of the time has written verses so full of music and subtle imagery as are to be found in Hofmannsthal's poetic plays, Der Thor und der Tod (1894), Die Hochzeit der Sobeide and Der Abenteurer und die Sängerin (1899).

tic novel.

Almost contemporaneous with the dramatic revival, the The realisnovel, under the influence of French and Russian models, entered upon a new stage of its development. We have already traced the inroads of modern realism in the work of Fontane, and have seen how Sudermann's novels benefited by the stimulus of foreign writers. Realistic novels, in the restricted sense of that word, have been written by H. Conradi (1862-90), M. Kretzer (born 1854), M. G. Conrad (born 1846), Karl Bleibtreu (born 1859), and K. Alberti (born 1862). In spite, however, of the enthusiasm with which French naturalism was greeted in Germany about 1880, neither novel nor drama long remained faithful to the principles of the movement. Just as Hauptmann turned from Die Weber to Hanneles Himmelfahrt, a writer like Kretzer followed up the undiluted naturalism of Meister Timpe (1888) with the supernaturalism and naturalism of Das Gesicht Christi (1897). Characteristic of the latest development of German fiction is the large number of good novels written by women. Besides fine poetic talents like Ricarda Huch (born 1864) and Isolde Kurz (born 1863), who have published mainly short stories and verse, Helene Böhlau (born 1859), Gabriele Reuter (born 1859), and Clara Viebig (born 1860) may also be mentioned as representative novelists.

The criterion of an outstanding epoch in literature has always been not so much great poetry as great personalities, and, with the exception of Richard Wagner, whose work only partly belongs to literature, all Germany's prominent literary personalities-Lessing and Herder, Schiller and Goethe—were men of the eighteenth, not the nineteenth century. Thus although

the latter century, by virtue of the extraordinary richness and variety of its literature, occupies a larger space in a history of German letters than any preceding period of the same duration, it has not been as decisive an epoch for the national life as that which culminated with the year 1800. The general movement of the nineteenth century has been a gradual descent from the "Blütezeit" with which the century opened, but a descent full of interesting episodes and pauses, as well as occasional recoveries of lost ground. At the beginning of the period, Germany was, as we have seen, at the zenith of her literary greatness; Schiller was writing his chief dramas, Goethe completing Faust; the Romantic Movement was rapidly extending its influence over every literature in Europe; under the stimulus of Romanticism, Kleist and Grillparzer were fitting themselves to be Schiller's successors, while lyric poetry flowed more freely and abundantly than at any time since the heyday of the Minnesang. With Goethe's death and the July Revolution came a pause; the political era in German literature set in; French influence asserted itself as it had not done since the middle of the eighteenth century. After the Revolution of 1848, which extinguished the political hopes of a whole generation, pessimism settled down over German literature, and national writers, like Hebbel and Keller, were little heeded until their day was over, or nearly over. Then came the war with France, and the German national spirit awakened anew. Wagner's dramatic work roused the German theatre from its lethargy and indifferentism, and the novel and the lyric shook themselves free from the burdens of mid-century tradition. In how far this revived activity of the close of the nineteenth century will leave a permanent mark upon the development of German literature, it is for the future to decide.

INDEX.