228 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE -XIX 



in the promotion of morals, but it should also present in 

 carnations of elegance, of beauty, of the highest concep 

 tions of art; it should not discourage us with sad pictures 

 of the past, with bitter awakenings from illusions, but 

 be purified, elevated, strengthened for presenting the ideal. 

 . . . Our ordinary life gives us every day the most 

 mournful realities, and the modern authors whose plea 

 sure it is to bring these before us upon the stage have 

 accepted an unhealthy mission and accomplish a discour 

 aging work.&quot; 



In his desire to see the theater aid in developing Ger 

 man ideals and in enriching German life, he has pro 

 moted presentations of the great episodes and person 

 ages in German history. Some of these, by Wildenbruch 

 and Lauff, permeated with veins of true poetry, are at 

 tractive and ennobling. Of course not all were entirely 

 successful. I recall one which glorified especially a great 

 epoch in the history of the house of Hohenzollern, the 

 comical effect of which on one of my diplomatic colleagues 

 I have mentioned elsewhere ; but this, so far as my expe 

 rience goes, was an exception. 



There seems much reason for the Emperor s strenu 

 ous endeavors in this field. The German theater still re 

 mains more wholesome than that of any other country, 

 but I feel bound to say that, since my earlier acquaintance 

 with it, from 1854 to 1856 and from 1879 to 1881, there 

 has come some deterioration, and this is especially shown 

 in various dramas which have been held up as triumphs. 

 In these, an inoculation from the French drama seems 

 to have resulted in destruction of the nobler characteris 

 tics of the German stage. One detects the cant of Dumas, 

 fils, but not his genius; and, when this cant is mingled 

 with German pessimism, it becomes at times unspeakably 

 repulsive. The zeal for this new drama seems to me a 

 fad, and rather a slimy fad. With all my heart I wish the 

 Emperor success in his effort to keep the German stage 

 upon the higher planes. 



Another subject which came up from time to time was 



