t as the particular mouthpieces of the author. In a play
like "The Lonely Way," for instance, the life shown is the life lived
by men and women observed by Schnitzler. The opinions expressed are the
opinions of that sort of men and women under the given circumstances.
The author neither approves nor disapproves when he makes each
character speak in accordance with his own nature. But like most
creative artists, he has felt the need of stating his own view of the
surrounding throng. This he seems usually to do through the mouth of
men like _Dr. Reumann_ in the play just mentioned, or _Dr. Mauer_ in
"The Vast Country." And the attitude of those men shows a strange
mingling of disapproval and forbearance, which undoubtedly comes very
near being Schnitzler's own.

The little one-act play "The Life Partner" (_Die Gefaehrtin_) is
significant mainly as a study for bigger canvases developing the same
theme: the veil that hides the true life of man and woman alike from
the partner. And the play should really be named "The Life Partner That
Was Not." Another one-act play, "The Green Cockatoo," is laid at Paris.
Its action takes place on the evening of July 14, 1789--the fall of the
Bastille and the birth of the Revolution. It presents a wonderful
picture of social life at the time--of the average human being's
unconsciousness of the great events taking place right under his nose.

"The Veil of Beatrice," a verse play in five acts, takes us to Bologna
in the year 1500, when Cesare Borgia was preparing to invest the city
in order to oust its tyrant, Giovanni Bentivoglio (named Lionardo in
the play), and add it to the Papal possessions. All the acts take place
in one night. The fundamental theme is one dear to Schnitzler--the
flaming up of passion under the shadow of impending death. The whole
city, with the duke leading, surrenders to this outburst, the spirit of
which finds its symbol in a ravishingly beautiful girl, _Beatrice
Nardi_, who seems fated to spread desire and death wherever she
appears. With her own death at dawn, the city seems to wake as from a
nightmare to face the enemy already at the gates. The play holds much
that is beautiful and much that is disappointing. To me its chief
importance lies in the fact that it marks a breaking-point between the
period when Schnitzler was trying to write "with a purpose," and that
later and greater period when he has learned how to treat life
sincerely and seriously without other