7 „ „ —„
-5-
Geschichte der anderen abgeschlossen ist. Ein hoher Reiz geht von der
Sprache aus, von diesen klaren Sätzen, diesen immer in den Kern tref-
fenden Adjoktiven, aber das Beste ist doch, dass, wie bei Fontane, die
Gestalt des Dichters durchleuchtet, klug, klar, weich und bescheiden."
Schnitzler's play Professor Bernhardi (1912) created a wild
sensation throughout the whole of Austria and Germany. It is believed
that some of the author's own or his father's experiences have entered
directly into the situation dramatized. The chief figure of the play
is the noble minded dew, Professor Bernhardi, head of a large hos-
pital and a specialist of world-wide reputation. One of Bernhardi's
patients, a young girl of the people is dying from the consequence
of a criminal operation. But she does not know that her hours are
numbered. She imagines that she is getting well and that her lower
is coming to take her away. Professor Bernhardi, who considers it
his duty as a physical to make her last hours on earth as happy as
possible, bara the priest who has come to administer the supreme
unction from the sick room in order not to disturb the dying sinner.
The patient, however, dies of night when the priest is announced
to her without receiving the supreme unction. The incident grows into
a scandel. The church takes a hand in the matter. Intrigues among
the faculty and politics and society are brought into play. Finally
Dr. Bernhardi is actused of having inturrupted a religious ceremony
and sentenced to two months in fail. He accepta the tragic consequence
of his deed asisevitable in such a society and refuses to make use
of political or social pull to save himself. He goes to prison for
his principles insisting that the consequences are absolutely without
effect upon his real self. Even after his release he refuses to
avail himself of the Hrportunities that the press and IJn-palticians