dramatic workshop of Hans
Sachs in Nuremberg, had been recommended to Schiller, and had recently
been treated in Hungarian by Joseph Katona. Grillparzer knew neither of
the plays of his predecessors. In connection with this subject he
thought rather of Shakespeare's _King Lear_ and _Othello_, of Byron's
_Marino Faliero_--he had early experimented with this hero himself--and
this was the time of his first thorough study of Lope de Vega. In
November and December, 1826, he wrote _A Faithful Servant of His
Master._ This is a drama of character triumphant in the severest test to
which the sense of duty can be put. Bancbanus, appointed regent while
his sovereign goes to war, promises to preserve peace in the kingdom,
and keeps his promise even when his own relatives rise in arms against
the queen's brother who has insulted Bancbanus' wife and, they think,
has killed her. We have to do, however, not merely with a brilliant
example of unselfish loyalty; we have a highly special case of
individualized persons. Bancbanus is a little, pedantic old man, almost
ridiculous in his personal appearance and in his over-conscientiousness.
Erny, his wife, is a childlike creature, not displeased by flattery, too
innocent to be circumspect, but faithful unto death. And Otto von Meran,
the princely profligate, is one of Grillparzer's boldest creations--not
bad by nature, but utterly irresponsible; crafty, resourceful, proud as
a peacock and, like a monkey in the forest, wishing always to be
noticed. He cannot bear disregard; contempt makes him furious; and a
sense of disgrace which would drive a moral being to insanity reduces
him to a state of stupidity in which, doing good deeds for the first
time and unconsciously, he gradually acquires consciousness of right and
wrong. It is Bancbanus who brings about this transformation in the
character of Otto, who holds rebellious nobles and populace in check,
who teaches his master how to be a servant of the State, and who, by
saving the heir to the throne and praying that he may deserve the
loyalty shown his father, points forward to the better day when
feudalism shall give way to unselfish enlightened monarchy.

[Illustration: GRILLPARZER'S ROOM IN THE HOUSE OF THE SISTERS FROeHLICH]

This play, a glorification of patriotic devotion and, in spite of the
self-repressive character of the hero, as full of stirring action as any
German historical play whatever, was presented on the twenty-eighth of
Feb