1 6 Emily Gertrude Moore 



auch das noch lernen, was sie mir verschwieg ! 

 Sagt niemand, dass ich noch von Kindern lerne, 

 hort Ihr? sagt ihnen : unser Konig Karl 

 weiss nicht, was Irrtum ist ! sagt ihnen, er 

 sei hart wie Diamant und weine niemals. 

 Seht Ihr den Mann, der jener Toten nachfolgt? 

 die Menge weiss von diesem Manne nichts ! 

 lasst ihn — verratet nichts ! — lasst ihn nur gehen ! 

 Was er nicht kannte, wird dem Volke nun 

 nicht f ehlen : und ein Greis bleibt ihm zuriick." 



Kaiser Karl is, in my opinion, the finest man that Hauptmann 

 has ever given us. Yet I feel that the title was rightly chosen, 

 and that the drama was really written for the sake of Gersuind. 

 In her Hauptmann has presented a perfectly natural and unarti- 

 ficial personality. Viewed in this light all that is perplexing and 

 contradictory about her character becomes perfectly explicable. 

 She is utterly free from the whole body of moral principles, con- 

 ventions and traditions built by society through thousands of 

 years of evolution. As she truly says of herself : 



" Ich bin ein Kind von eurer Eva nicht 

 und eurem Adam : meine Ureltern 

 assen von eurem Siindenapfel nicht! 

 drum weiss ich also nicht, was gut und bose." 



In spite of her Saxon parentage she is no no way representative 

 of the tribal standards. She is not a Saxon ; she is the spirit of 

 paganism. 



I do not think that Hauptmann presented her as an ideal to 

 show by contrast the degradations brought about by civilization. 

 Yet when she is placed in the midst of a relatively complex and 

 artificial society, she does make certain things stand out very 

 sharply. Ercambald, who wrought her death, shrinks into insig- 

 nificance beside her. She utterly silences scholasticism, even as 

 represented by so noble a type as Alcuin. But Rorico and the 

 Oberin seem larger and finer at the end than at the beginning. 

 Karl gains immeasurably by the contrast. Whatever is false or 

 artificial cannot stand the test of her presence, but simplicity and 

 sincerity shine the brighter for it. 



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