Ibsen's "Emperor and Galilean" and Hauptmann's "Kaiser Karls 



Gels el" 



BY EMILY GERTRUDE MOORE 



Kaiser wid Galilaer 1 



Ibsen, writing to his friends in reference to Kaiser und Galilaer, 

 spoke of wrestling, year after year, with the "Ungeheuer Julian." 

 One feels that he chose his term wisely ; the work is " ungeheuer." 

 It consists of two five-act dramas, " Casars Abfall " and " Kaiser 

 Julian." The central figure is Julian the apostate ; the action 

 deals, as is suggested by the title, with his conflict against 

 Christianity. 



The first drama, " Casars Abfall," is the stronger and more con- 

 vincing of the two. Ibsen has gone skillfully to work to make 

 clear all the forces that have moulded Julian. We are made to 

 see why and how this lad, once possessed of a fervor of belief 

 that made him a missionary among his playfellows, should reject 

 his boyhood faith and turn to the religion of the past and the 

 doctrines of pre-Christian philosophers. 



His uncle, Constantios, is the official champion of Christianity. 

 Yet he shrinks in terror from the sacramental wine ; " it sparkles 

 in the golden goblet like serpents' eyes — bloody eyes ! " He is 

 haunted by eleven shadows — Julian's father and mother, with 

 nine others of his race, who were murdered in a single night, that 

 Constantios might be secure upon the throne. 



All around him Julian sees doctrinal bickerings, bigotry and 

 self-righteousness. Moreover Christianity is, to him, a religion 

 of fear, opposing a stern " thou shalt not " between man and every 

 natural impulse ; a religion that shuts out all joy and beauty from 

 this world and bids man build all his hopes upon the world to 

 come. 



1 The author's references are all to Paul Hermann's German translation 

 of the play which forms Vol. 5 of Ibsen's Samtliche Werke in dcutschcr 

 Sprachc. Ten vols., Berlin [1898-19x14]. * 



University Studies, Vol. X, No. 3, July 1910. 



243 



