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THE AWAKENING OF SPRING




      BOOKS BY FRANK WEDEKIND

      _Published by_ BROWN BROTHERS


      THE AWAKENING OF SPRING.
      A Tragedy of Childhood
      Net, $1.25. By mail, $1.35

      SUCH IS LIFE. A Play in Five Acts
      Net, $1.25. By mail, $1.34

      RABBI EZRA AND THE VICTIM.
      Two Stories
      Net, 25c. By mail, 29c

      THE GRISLEY SUITOR. A Story
      Net, 25c. By mail, 29c.




      The Awakening of Spring


      A TRAGEDY OF CHILDHOOD
      BY
      FRANK WEDEKIND

      _Translated from the German by Francis J. Ziegler_

      THIRD EDITION

      PHILADELPHIA
      BROWN BROTHERS
      1912

      _Copyright, 1910_
      BY
      BROWN BROTHERS




A PROEM FOR PRUDES


That it is a fatal error to bring up children, either boys or girls,
in ignorance of their sexual nature is the thesis of Frank Wedekind's
drama aEurooeFrA1/4hlings Erwachen.aEuro From its title one might suppose it a
peaceful little idyl of the youth of the year. No idea a could be
more mistaken. It is a tragedy of frightful import, and its action is
concerned with the development of natural instincts in the adolescent
of both sexes.

The playwright has attacked his theme with European frankness; but of
plot, in the usual acceptance of the term, there is little. Instead
of the coherent drama of conventional type, Wedekind has given us a
series of loosely connected scenes illuminative of character--scenes
which surely have profound significance for all occupied in the
training of the young. He sets before us a group of school children,
lads and lassies just past the age of puberty, and shows logically
that death and degradation may be their lot as the outcome of
parental reticence. They are not vicious children, but little ones
such as we meet every day, imaginative beings living in a world of
youthful ideals and speculating about the mysteries which surround
them. Wendla, sent to her grave by the abortive administered with the
connivance of her affectionate but mistaken mother, is a most lovable
creature, while Melchior, the father of her unborn child, is a high
type of boy whose downfall is due to a philosophic temperament, which
leads him to inquire into the nature of life and to impart his
knowledge to others; a temperament which, under proper guidance,
would make him a useful, intelligent man. It is Melchior's very
excellence of character which proves his undoing. That he should be
imprisoned as a moral degenerate only serves to illustrate the
stupidity of his parents and teachers. As for the suicide of Moritz,
the imaginative youth who kills himself because he has failed in his
examinations, that is another crime for which the dramatist makes
false educational methods responsible.

A grim vein of humor is exhibited now and then, as when we are
introduced to the conference room in which the members of a gymnasium
faculty, met to consider the regulation of their pupils' morals, sit
beneath the portraits of Pestalozzi and J. J. Rousseau disputing with
considerable acrimony about the opening and shutting of a window. The
exchange of unpleasant personalities is interrupted only by the
entrance of the accused student, to whose defense the faculty refuses
to listen, having marked the boy for expulsion prior to the formal
farce of his trial.

Wedekind has been accused of depicting his adults as too ignorant and
too indifferent to the needs of the younger generation. But most of
us will have to admit that the majority of his scenes and characters
seem very true to life.

aEurooeFrA1/4hlings ErwachenaEuro may not be pleasant reading exactly, but there
is no forgetting it after one has perused it; there is an elemental
strength about it which grips the intellect. As a play it stands
unique in the annals of dramatic art. That it has succeeded in
attracting much attention abroad is shown by the fact that this drama
in book form has gone through twenty-six editions in its original
version and has been translated into several European tongues,
Russian included, while stage performances of the work have been
given in France as well as in Germany.

The Teutonic grimness of the work puzzled the Parisians, who are not
used to having philosophy thrust at them over the footlights; but in
Germany aEurooeFrA1/4hlings ErwachenaEuro proved much more successful. In Berlin,
indeed, it has become part of the regular stock of plays acted at
aEurooeDas Neue Theater,aEuro where it is said to be certain of drawing a
crowded audience. That the play is radically different from anything
given on the American stage is undoubtedly true. It must be
remembered, however, that the Continental European playwright regards
the stage as a medium of instruction, as well as a place of
amusement. The dictum of the Swedish dramatist, August Strindberg,
that the playwright should be a lay priest preaching on vital topics
of the day in a way to make them intelligible to mediocre intellects,
is not appreciated in this country as it should be; but once admit
the kinship of dramatist and priest, and the position taken by
Wedekind in writing aEurooeFrA1/4hlings ErwachenaEuro becomes self-evident. There
should be no question concerning the