may suggest, tends to
substantiate the claim that Frank Wedekind is not only an
uncompromising destroyer of antiquated sentiment and a fanatic of
positive life, but a grim moralist. It is easy to recognize him in some
of his characters, and these figures, like the banished king in _Thus
is Life_, the secretary Hetman in _Hidalla_, the author Lindekuh in
_Musik_, and others, are always the tragic moralists in an immoral
world. There is something pathetic in the perseverance with which he is
ever harping on the one string.

For although he is now one of the more popular writers of his
generation, his attitude has not changed much in the course of his
career. The man who hurled into the world _Spring's Awakening_, is
still behind the social satirist who has become a favorite with theatre
audiences through his clever portrayal of a crook in _The Marquis of
Keith_ and of the popular stage favorite in _The Court Singer_. He is
little concerned with the probability of the plot; his situations will
not bear the test of serious scrutiny. They are only the background
from which the figure of the hero stands out in strong relief. The
popular tenor, who is an amusing combination of the artist and the
businessman, is one of the characters in the plays of Wedekind that
have little or no trace in them of the author himself. He is seen with
astonishing objectivity and presented with delectable sarcasm. The
story of the famous singer, who between packing his valise to take the
train for his next engagement, studying a new role, running over
numerous letters from admirers, makes love to the one caller he cannot
get rid of, a woman who chooses that inopportune moment to shoot
herself before his eyes, is a typical product of his manner, and a
grotesque satire upon the cult of histrionic stars practised by both
sexes.

While the initiative in the literary revolution of which Halbe and
Wedekind are such striking examples was taken by Northern Germany and
centred in Berlin, Austria was not slow in adding a note of its own by
giving the German drama of the period two of its most interesting
individualities. Both Arthur Schnitzler and Hugo von Hofmannsthal--to
whom might be added the clever and versatile Hermann Bahr--reflect the
complex soul of their native city, Vienna; for if Austria is
acknowledged to be a most curious racial composite, Vienna contains its
very essence. Situated at the parting of the ways for the South and the
Orient, i