posthumous pieces, _Brothers' Quarrels in the House of
Habsburg_ and _Libussa_, undoubtedly reveal the advancing years of their
author, in a good and in a bad sense. They lack the theatrical
self-evidence of the earlier dramas. But on the other hand, they are
rich in the ripest wisdom of their creator, and in significance of
characterization as well as in profundity of idea they amply atone for
absence of the more superficial qualities. Kaiser Rudolf II. in
_Brothers' Quarrels_ is one of the most human of the men who in the face
of inevitable calamity have pursued a Fabian policy. Even to personal
predilections, like fondness for the dramas of Lope, he is a replica of
the mature Grillparzer himself. _Libussa_ presents in Primislaus a
somewhat colorless but nevertheless thoroughly masculine representative
of practical cooeperation and progress, and in Libussa, the heroine, a
typical feminine martyr to duty.

[Illustration: FRANZ GRILLPARZER In his Sixtieth Year]

The third of the posthumous pieces, however, _The Jewess of Toledo_, may
perhaps be said to mark the climax of Grillparzer's productive activity.
It is an eminently modern drama of passion in classical dignity of form.
Grillparzer noted the subject as early as 1813. In 1824 he read Lope de
Vega's play on it, and wrote in trochees two scenes of his own; in
1848-49--perhaps with Lola Montez and the king of Bavaria in mind--he
worked further on it, and about 1855 brought the work to an end. The
play is properly called _The Jewess of Toledo_; for Rachel, the Jewess,
is at the centre of the action, and is a marvelous creation--"a mere
woman, nothing but her sex"; but the king, though relatively passive, is
the most important character. He is attracted to Rachel by a charm that
he has never known in his coldly virtuous English consort, and, after an
error forgivable because made comprehensible, is taught the duty of
personal sacrifice to morality and to the state. In doctrine and in
inner form this drama is comparable to Hebbel's _Agnes Bernauer_; it is
a companion piece to _A Faithful Servant of his Master_, and the
sensuality of Rachel contrasts instructively with the spirituality of
Hero. The genuine dramatic collision of antithetical forces produces,
furthermore, a new synthesis, the effect of which is to make us wish
morality less austere and the sense of obligation stronger than they at
first are in two persons good by nature but caused to err by
circumstances.