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LITERATURE, CONTINENTAL, IN 1881. 



"Hexe" of Arthur Fittger, or the tragedy 

 "King Eric," by Joseph Weilen. "Clytem- 

 nestra," a tragedy by G. Siegert, written ten 

 years ago, has only been acted this year. 

 The object of the writer has been to reconcile 

 the ancient theme to the modern conscience ; 

 and for this reason he has abandoned the no- 

 tion of the destiny awaiting the heroine, and 

 discarded the matricide of Orestes as repug- 

 nant to human feelings. While the writer 

 of this play has converted a noble tragedy 

 into a family drama, the more gifted author 

 of " Die Patricierin," Richard Voss, has turned 

 the historical struggle between tyrannical mas- 

 ters and avenging slaves into a tragical love- 

 duet between the proud spouse of the trium- 

 vir Crassus and the gladiator Spartacus. This 

 drama is full of color and energy ; and, al- 

 though its construction betrays the hand of a 

 beginner, it gives a far truer picture of the Ro- 

 man world than the tragedy mentioned above 

 does of the antique spirit. A third tragedy, 

 " The Carlovingians," by E. von Wildenbruch, 

 depicts the contest between the pious son of 

 Charlemagne and his impious grandsons Lo- 

 thaire and Louis. The author has taken great 

 liberties with facts. In "Harold" the same 

 writer treats the subject of Tennyson's tragedy 

 of that name, but the development of motives 

 is less studied than multiplicity of incidents. A 

 subject well fitted for comedy has been used by 

 Paul Heyse in his " Weiber von Schorndorf." 

 In handling this amusing historical incident, 

 the writer has depicted the contest between 

 man and wife, in which the former represents 

 the shrewd but anxious brain, the latter the 

 vehement but generous heart. H. Kruse deals 

 in his tragedy " Raven Barnekow " with a 

 theme belonging to the Fatherland, the contest 

 between the arbitrary but loyal bailiff and the 

 burghers panting after freedom. German com- 

 edy has found a second Kotzebne in G. von 

 Moser. None of his older works, nor the com- 

 edy which he has brought out this year in 

 conjunction with Schonthan, " War in Peace," 

 equal the vigorous caricature of "Deutsche 

 Kleinstadter," or such a genteel comedy as the 

 genial "Beide Klingsberg." A specific Ger- 

 man type of dramaturgy is the village play. 

 Since Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer dramatized Au- 

 erbach's " Dorfgeschichten," and Mosenthal's 

 " Deborah " brought the subject of Jewish 

 emancipation on the boards, village life has 

 been made fashionable by L. Anzengruber. 

 This year a daughter of Madame Birch-Pfeiffer, 

 Wilhelmine von Hillern, has made a successful 

 attempt in the latter direction and surpassed 

 her mother. " Die Geierwally " is an ably con- 

 densed dramatic version of her village tale of 

 the same name. 



The fresh, roguish, hearty tone which suits 

 the fairy tale has not been so happily caught, 

 since the days of Jacob Grimm, as in the 

 " Sommermarchen *' of Rudolf Baumbach. In 

 these stories the old German mythology, which 

 like the Greek peopled hill and wood and spring 



with gnomes and elfs, wakes to life figures 

 full of spirit in the glades of the Thuringian 

 Forest. 



Among the few original novels of the year 

 the first place is due to Conrad Ferdinand 

 Meyer's tales of "Georg Jenatsch," "The 

 Saint," a pilgrim's tale, and " Das Brigittchen 

 von Trogen." Paul Heyse has printed in the 

 magazines a story of the troubadours of Pro- 

 vence, notable for subtilty and coloring, called 

 " The Lame Angel," and under the title of 

 " The Ass," a humorous picture of pessimistic 

 philosophy in the ruinous huts of poverty. 

 Louise von Frangois, in her humorous story, 

 "Phosphorus Hollunder," has furnished a de- 

 scription of a refined character confined in a 

 small town, after the manner of Jean Paul. 

 Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, in her " Newly 

 Collected Tales," hns supplied characteristic 

 pictures from the stratum bordering between 

 art and handicraft. Rosegger, her fellow- 

 countryman, whose collected works have been 

 published this year, gives graphic descriptions 

 of life among the Austrian Alps. A third 

 Austrian writer, Leopold Kompert, known 

 from his novelettes, "From the Ghetto," as an 

 able delineator of the Jewish popular spirit, 

 has in his " Heini and Franzi " presented a 

 psychological and exciting story of school life. 

 The hero in the last volume of Freytag's 

 " Ahnen " (the descendant of Ingo, King of 

 the Vandals) condescended to settle down, as 

 a Dr. Konig, in the humble position of editor 

 of a small weekly paper in a Silesian village. 

 The solution of the historical problem, which 

 had been anxiously awaited for eight years, and 

 followed through six volumes, seems to be that 

 Europe, according to the dictum of Gervinus, 

 is ripening for republics. While Freytag has 

 thus descended to every-day life, Felix Dahn, 

 the historian of the Western Goths and the 

 glorifier of the Ostrogoths, has ascended in 

 " Sind Gotter ? " to the gods of the Walhalla, 

 where the father of the gods, Odin, finds com- 

 fort in a pantheistico-pessimistic view of life, 

 which he seems to have learned from Schopen- 

 .hauer. Georg Ebers is the Alma-Tadema of 

 novelists ; his last novel, " The Emperor," 

 carries the reader back to the days of the 

 Egyptian Renaissance under Hadrian. The 

 learned author has this time not been content 

 with exhibiting his stupendous knowledge of 

 the detail of archeology, but, as in his best 

 work, " Homo Sum," has devoted his strength 

 mainly to delineating the contradictory char- 

 acter of his chief figure, which is a marvelous 

 mixture of brilliant and dangerous qualities. 



A most interesting epistolary collection, and 

 one not merely historical, but full of human 

 interest, is that of the letters of Maria Theresa 

 to her children and friends published by the 

 historian Alfred von Arneth. Another set of 

 letters, those of a brother of the great Swiss 

 historian Johannes Muller from " Herder's 

 House in Weimar," written toward the dawn 

 of the golden age of German literature, are a 



