he
thought that the process of growth into full self-government was likely
to be slower among the Germanic than among the Latin races. In the
deeply moving play now to be considered, we have, in the character of
the titular king, an extraordinary piece of psychological analysis.
The king, is young, physically delicate, and of highly sensitive
organization. When he comes to the throne he realizes the hollowness
and the hypocrisy of the existence that prescription has marked out for
him; he realizes also that the very ideal of monarchy, under the
conditions of modern European civilization, is a gigantic falsehood.
For a time after his accession, he leads a life of pleasure seeking and
revelry, hoping that he may dull his sense of the sharp contrast that
exists between his station and his ideals. But his conscience will
give him no peace, and he turns to deliberate contemplation of the
thought, not indeed of abdicating his, false position, but of
transforming it into something more consonant with truth and the
demands of the age. He will become a citizen king, and take for wife a
daughter of the people; he will do away with the pomp and circumstance
of his court, and attempt to lead a simple and natural life, in which
the interests of the people shall be paramount in his attention. But
in this attempt he is thwarted at every step. All the forces of
selfishness and prejudice and ignorance combine against him; even the
people whom he seeks to benefit are so wedded to their idols that their
attitude is one of suspicion rather than of sympathy. He loves a young
woman of strong and noble character, and wins her love in return, but
she dies on the very eve of their union. His oldest and most
confidential friend, the wealthiest man in the kingdom, but a
republican, is murdered by a radical associate of the _intransigeant_
type, and the king is left utterly bereaved by his twofold loss. This
brings us to the closing scene of the drama, in which the king, his
nerves strained to the breaking point, confronts the group of officials
and others who bring to him the empty phrases of a conventional
condolence:--

The King. Hush! Have a little respect for the truth that should
follow death! Understand me rightly: I do not mean that any of you
would lie. But the very air about a king is infected. It was of
that-a word or two. My time is short. But a testament. ...

The Priest. Testament.

The King. Neither the Old nor t