132 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
As “Spielt” alone can take the object “Vater,” so can also 
(( Es spielt sick,” which stands for action unattended in the 
mind by any actor or actee—attended at the most by empty 
categories of the two. A mind like that of Schiller surely did 
not put in “Vater” in a place which he regarded as already 
filled. 
Rare in northern languages, linguistic operation of this sort 
is less unfrequent further southward—common in both Spanish 
and Italian. I quote from the last pages of my reading in the 
former language (1) “Se ha estranglado a los sacerdotes,” (2) 
“Los dioses que se adoraba.” 
The interpretation of “Se” in either case as the equivalent 
of “Man” or “On,” I must abandon to whoever can make use 
of it. (Let such a one experiment with “Se llueve” etc.) Re¬ 
garding usage as hereditary, and adhering to analogy of other 
languages, I render “Se” by “itself.” As usual in Spanish I 
supply a subject—the on^ly one compatible with“se” (“itself”)— 
the precisely correspondent “It.” 
The personal object -noun (direct) in Spanish is identified 
by an attendant “a.” Accordingly the following translation 
(1): “(It) has strangled (itself, or for itself) the priests.” In 
other words “(There) has occurred a strangling (of) the 
priests.” 
In (2) the use of “a” would not extend to a pronominal ob¬ 
ject. “Que” accordingly is not by such means indicated as the 
object of the verb. As obviously pronoun relative however, 
“que” can only be “referred” to “los dioses,” being thus es¬ 
tablished as of plural value—therefore not presumably the sub¬ 
ject of the singular verb—therefore of necessity its object. As 
before, accordingly, I render “se” by “itself,” supply as sub¬ 
ject “it”, and then translate the whole expression by “The 
gods whom (it) adored (itself).” In other words, “The gods, 
an adoring whom occurred.” 
Analogously let “Es spielt sich” be reduced to “Spielt”—a 
one-word sentence (of the “Pluit,” “Piove” type) which also 
indicates no actor or actee. This and “Wird gespielt,” as 1 
already have contended (p. 2) will be found to name the same 
