Published by BROWN BROTHERS
THE AWAKENING OF SPRING.
A Tragedy of Childhood
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SUCH IS LIFE. A Play in Five Acts
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RABBI EZRA AND THE VICTIM.
Two Stories
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THE GRISLEY SUITOR. A Story
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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
That it is a fatal error to bring up children, eitherboys or girls, in ignorance of their sexual natureis the thesis of Frank Wedekind's drama “FrühlingsErwachen.” From its title one might suppose it apeaceful little idyl of the youth of the year. No ideaa could be more mistaken. It is a tragedy of frightfulimport, and its action is concerned with the developmentof natural instincts in the adolescent of bothsexes.
The playwright has attacked his theme with Europeanfrankness; but of plot, in the usual acceptance of theterm, there is little. Instead of the coherent drama ofconventional type, Wedekind has given us a series ofloosely connected scenes illuminative of character—sceneswhich surely have profound significance for alloccupied in the training of the young. He sets beforeus a group of school children, lads and lassies just pastthe age of puberty, and shows logically that death anddegradation may be their lot as the outcome of parentalreticence. They are not vicious children, but little onessuch as we meet every day, imaginative beings living ina world of youthful ideals and speculating about themysteries which surround them. Wendla, sent to hergrave by the abortive administered with the connivanceof her affectionate but mistaken mother, is a most lovablecreature, while Melchior, the father of her unborn[Pg vi]child, is a high type of boy whose downfall is due to aphilosophic temperament, which leads him to inquireinto the nature of life and to impart his knowledge toothers; a temperament which, under proper guidance,would make him a useful, intelligent man. It is Melchior'svery excellence of character which proves hisundoing. That he should be imprisoned as a moral degenerateonly serves to illustrate the stupidity of hisparents and teachers. As for the suicide of Moritz, theimaginative youth who kills himself because he hasfailed in his examinations, that is another crime forwhich the dramatist makes false educational methodsresponsible.
A grim vein of humor is exhibited now and then, aswhen we are introduced to the conference room inwhich the members of a gymnasium faculty, met toconsider the regulation of their pupils' morals, sit beneaththe portraits of Pestalozzi and J. J. Rousseaudisputing with considerable acrimony about the openingand shutting of a window. The exchange of unpleasantpersonalities is interrupted only by the entrance of theaccused student, to whose defense the faculty refuses tolisten, having marked the boy for expulsion prior to theformal farce of his trial.
Wedekind has been accused of depicting his adultsas too ignora