^' To further his conception of all life
as an expression of the body, either for
brutality or beauty, he has sacrificed
not alone casual characters and types
in ordinary human society, but most
of the actual men and women whom he
has known in the flesh. There is hardly
a play of his that has not some gross,
hideous version of a real and well-
known personage. What makes all
this the more frightful is that some
truth is in even the most brutal of
Wedekind's apparent distortions. Have



xxvi Introduction

we not heard, for many years, the
sententious: ^In the most civilized, the
most sophisticated of us, dwells still
the primal brute, the savage. But no
man dares proclaim the real thoughts
and words of that brute part of us.'
That is just what Wedekind has dared
to do: he has laid bare all the brute
in normal, as well as in abnormal man-
kind. If he has gone to the other
extreme — has refused to see that in
us human creatures there is also some-
thing beside the brute — he has none
the less perfectly fulfilled the old artistic
law that you must always, to bring
your point home, teU not only the
truth but more than the truth: you
must exaggerate. Wedekind has exag-
gerated the brutal qualities in us, until
he has made us shudder. He is eccen-
tric and perverse; the tragic comedian
of the abnormal; whether he is genius
of psychology or only genius of chaos,
he has gashed the irremediable savagery
of our time, surviving through centuries
of so-called civilization, so deeply upon



Frank Wedekmd xxvii

the theatre and upon literature that
he may survive when time serving
photographers, or complaining idealists,
are forgotten/^



EXCERPTS FROM WEDEKIND'S
PREFACE ON EROTICISM



EXCERPTS FROM WEDEKIND'S '
PREFACE ON EROTICISM

Most people divide their fellow men into
two large classes: Their friends and their
foes; those who speak their tongue, and those
who speak different languages; those who try
to help them in their development, and
those who try to hinder this development.

And I should like to divide my fellow
men into two large classes. The one
class has, since creation, championed the
adage: FLESH REMAINS FLESH — AS
OPPOSED TO SPIRIT.

Naturally, here the spirit is the higher ele-
ment, the sovereign absolute, which severely
punishes every revolutionary utterance of
the flesh.

But the flesh has never submitted itself
to this contempt and degradation for any
length of time, and has over and over
again played the maddest pranks on the
champions of the adage: FLESH RE-
MAINS FLESH— AS OPPOSED TO SPIRIT.

As a result of these everlasting pranks a



xxxii On Eroticism

new party has appeared which, after many
ripe experiences, has promulgated the adage:
THE FLESH HAS ITS OWN SPIRIT.

And it is with the champions of this
new theory in mind that the stories con-
tained in this volume have been written.
All of their problems center around the
spirit of the flesh, which we usually term
eroticism. And here allow me to state
that it is not only in Germany that this
eroticism has been looked upon with fearful
dread; and it is for this reason that I am
taking it upon myself to say a few impar-
tial words on this subject.

As a result of all sorts of accidents the
problem of sex education has been coming
into the foreground for many years past.

The duty of the home is to inform
maturing children that there are no in-
decent happenings in nature, but that
there are only good and evil, sensible
and unsensible occurrences. Furthermore,
that there are indecent people who do not
know how to talk about or behave decently
in connection with nature^ s functions.

Why is this? It is because such people



On Eroticism xxxiii

lack culture and spiritual freedom.

The youth of today does not grow up
in natural blindness and stupidity ^ and
it is mad folly to try to blind them in
regard to sex questions.

And still this folly has saturated our
homes and schools for the last century.
And why? For fear that a serious con-
sideration of eroticism would do harm
rather than good.

This fear is the result of self-deception.
Parents have not, as they thought, placed
a ban on such subjects for fear of harming
their offspring, but because they have never
been able to talk among themselves on
eroticism for the very reason that they them-
selves had never been taught to consider it
seriously.

And why? Why has this subject al-
ways been banned as indecent?

Because very often, and without any
reason, these discussions have led to the
most serious kind of quarrels. And the
reason for these quarrels is that such dis-
cussions lead into sensitive channels in
which husband or wife, especially when



xxxiv On Eroticism

they live together, become hurt at the
slightest provocation; sensitive channels in
which women do not care to justify them-
selves to any one, and least of all to their
husbands. To cite an example of such
a sensitive channel let me mention: the
bodily charm of woman, or the bodily
health of man.

We know the mechanism of a motor,
and of an airship, but we know nothing
of the mechanism of the marriage.
Thousands of cultured people believe that
they will be inseparably united once the
marriage ceremony is over. No account
is taken of the real reason for the bond
between man and wife. Is it any wonder
then that this error leads so often to divorce?

In our present-day society we speak
more guardedly about politics than we do
about religion. During the Reformation
the case, of course, was the opposite. And
it is in just such a manner that we are
more guarded today in speaking about sex
questions than we are about politics. Once,
however, a general understanding of this
subjectjhas been arrived at there will prob-
ably be a great change.



PRINCESS RUSSALKA



PRINCESS RUSSALKA.

^^You are wondering how I happened
to become a ^Social Democrat' and
marry a SociaUst leader?' ' asked Prin-
cess Russalka of her friend, the re-
cently married Baroness Hohenwart.
^^The reason was/' she continued, ^'that
my marriage with the Duke of Galliera
left me childless."

^'But is that a reason?" asked the
baroness, blushing.

'' Perhaps my whole youth is to
blame," said the princess. ^^It's a
rather hard story to tell. As a child
I was greatly taken up with my own
importance. I knew nothing higher in
the world than myself. I looked at
myself in the mirror as at something
holy. Yet with all I was merry and
bold, though I always failed to see any
humor in certain things. My inner
pride revolted itself then. And this
pride later on proved to be my fate.
When my sister AmeUa began talking



2 Princess Russalka

to me one evening about the way in
which people came into the world, I
could have almost strangled her. I
was very religious, and often conversed
in persona with God for hours at a
time. I had the firm behef that God
had created me. I told myself that
what man made had no spirit. Amelia
and I grew up in the castle of
Schwarzeneck in Bohemia, cut off from
the rest of the world. The only com-
panions we had were a dried-up, old
major domo, and a very cold-blooded
governess. I do not know where Amelia
got her knowledge. She was, it is true,
two years older than I, and was phleg-
matic and lazy. One evening she told
me that the miller^s daughter in the
village had a child. I was furious, and
told her that what she was saying was
impossible. Our parents had been mar-
ried in a church and that was why
God had given them children, not be-
cause they had lived together during
the first few years of their married life.
It seemed to me as if Amelia were



Princess Russalka 3

trying to deprive me of my right of
living. In the middle of the night I
prayed to God that He might show me
that I was right, and not Amelia; and
I distinctly heard a voice say, ^^ You are
right, Russalka, you are quite right."
And when my sister, a few days later,
again began talking about such things,
I swore by God and all that there
were no illegitimate children in the
world. Amelia laughed, but I was
so serious in my convictions, I felt
such a proselytism in myself, that day
and night I yearned for the opportunity
to prove my convictions.

^'At Christmas time my father always
brought a great many friends from
Vienna for hunting. And every winter
he brought the duke of Galliera with
him. I was then sixteen years old.
On the very first day I took him as my
cavalier. He was twenty-eight, very
clever and attentive, and he eased my
mad resolution in every conceivable
manner. Amelia and a young lieuten-
ant from Budapest always kept near



4 Princess Russalka

us. In three days the catastrophe had
happened. I told her about it that very
evening. She turned pale as death and
fainted. Then she wept and sobbed
the whole night through, beat her breast
and tore her hair, so that I had to use
every atom of love and power I had
to console her. Of course it did not do
much good, but I still was so con-
fident of myself that she, as if impelled
by some higher force, knelt down before
me and clutched my knees.

^'After New Year's all the guests left.
Since I had shown Amelia my absolute
confidence in the whole affair I hardly
looked at the duke any more. He
accepted my disregard in a very graceful
manner.

^'Then came the spring, and at times
I became frightened. I prayed to God
that He might not let my belief in
Him vaccilate. But I did not have
the least reason for it. And finally,
one September evening, I said to my
sister, "You see, I was right. And
from now on please do not give me your



Princess Russalka 5

opinion about things/^ She had said
nothing more about it. Now she looked
at me with big eyes, fell on my neck
and kissed me.

^^But at Christmas time, when the
duke again came with my father, I was
overcome with emotions that I had
never felt before. My father sur-
prised us and the duke asked for my
hand in marriage.

^'We spent our honeymoon in Naples.
I was very, very happy. Then we
went to the castle of Egersdorf, where
we could live just for our happiness,
shut off from the rest of the world.
I yearned for a child as only a young
married woman can. It seemed in-
credible that this joy should now be
denied to me. During the first year
I spoke of it daily, as of something that
was as certain to come as winter and
spring. But I had no child. I prayed
for whole nights at a time; I knelt
and prayed that God might let me die
rather than deny us His blessing. But
I had no child. And besides, my hus-



6 Princess Russalka

band began to gaze at me queerly,
and I noticed that his love for me was
growing cooler. We were bored.

^^Then my cousin, the countess Telecky
came from Vienna to visit us. My
husband loathed her, but for me she
was a new world. She had read every-
thing: Ibsen, Tolstoy, Zola, Dostoyev-
sky, Nietzsche, and Sudermann; she
was a human circulating library. With-
in six months she had changed me into
as fanatical an atheist as I had before
been a Catholic. And when finally
I did not feel one more atom of faith,
of confidence in myseK; when I had
lost all that could have helped me bear
up under a misfortune, then I found
that she had won over my husband in
the meantime, and was already bearing
a child by him.

^^I was taken, unconscious, to Vienna.
For weeks I lay in a high fever. After
my convalescence I went to my father
to ask him to help me procure a di-
vorce. At the word ^^ divorce'^ he told



Princess Russalka 7

me to leave his home. Then I came
here, to BerUn, to secure a lawyer,
but I instantly saw that in whatever
society I might go I would only meet
the sort of people of which the countess
Telecky was a type. I appeared to
myself like a remnant from the Middle
Ages, which happened to remain un-
noticed in a secluded spot. I yearned
for all that was modern. I cut off
my lovely hair, went in men's clothes
to the artists' ball, and wrote about the
woman questioh. Before a year had
passed I appeared publicly at meetings.
^^I met Doctor Rappart at the ^first
night' of 'Hedda Gabler.' A few
days later, I heard him speak at a
Social Democratic meeting. Then he
visited me. His first words were a
sincere appeal that, on account of the
feminine in me, on account of the high
calling of making a good wife, I should
give up this mad existence. He told
me that I was acting against my nature;
it might be all right for others, but not



8 Princess Russalka

for me. At first I defended myself on
the ground of service to my cause, but
he had fathomed me so clearly that I
sat there like a child who was being
punished. The third time he called
he asked me to become his wife. I
refused, although I had learned to love
him. Wherever I went they spoke of
him; all Berlin raved about him, the
tribune of the people, the future ruler.
I watched, at a parade on Unter den
Linden, how the crowd cheered him.
I heard some workingmen telling each
other that there was nothing dearer
to this man than his life's work, and
I knew what was next dearest to him.
But I did not have the courage any
more; I felt myself divorced from all
worldly happiness, because I doubted
whether I could ever bear a man any
children.

^'Then came the most terrible days
I have ever lived through. I decided
to die, and took morphine. They took
me to a hospital. When I regained



Princess Russalka 9

consciousness, I wept because I had
done all in vain. But there he stood
at my bedside and leaned over me.
The doctors left us alone, and then —
then all my strength gave way. I
wept and wept on his breast, and told
him everything.

^^I begged him to let me go away, but
he was with me every day. He told
me things, which he himself doubted,
only to console me. And finally — I
knew that if there was any happiness in
this world for me it was he who could
give it. Then I fell on his neck and
let him cover me with kisses, while
I, through it all, felt entirely unworthy
of him.

*^We were married. He insisted that
we be also married by the Church.
And now . . .'^

The princess arose quickly, went into
the next room and brought out the
rosy, little, blue-eyed Social Demo-
crat, who measured the baroness with
a deep, stern look.



10 Princess Russalka

'^Now conceive my happiness !''
The baroness smiled. ^^I should

much prefer a little baron — or even

a baroness/'



THE GRISLY SUITOR.

Leonie Fisher had a fine nature.
The charm of her features, which were
rather sweet than pretty, lay in the
expression of the eyes and of the some-
what drawn-up hps. The judge of
human nature who saw her had to
confess that Leonie's attractions were
not perishable, and that a woman with
the same charms would be just as
alluring as the young girl. The shape
of her head, and the line of smooth
closely coifed black hair, were perfect.
She was rather plump, but her hips
were a little too thin; her foot was
small, and her hands also would prob-
ably have been pretty if she had not
been keeping house ever since the end
of her school days. She did the sweep-
ing, cooking, cleaning and washing.

Leonie Fisher was of that type which
is at ease in all kinds of society, a
type which is never offensive, thanks
to an inborn tact and unselfish mind;



12 The Grisly Suitor

a type which always sympathizes with
others.

Since her fifth year Leonie had had
no mother and had never been outside
of the httle town of Lenzburg. Her
father was in his shop all day long, and
in the evenings would sit with some
sullen old men around a poorly lighted
table, in one of the innumerable inns,
and never came home before eleven
o'clock. Since her older sister had died
Leonie had spent almost every evening
at home alone, doing some fine crochet-
ing or reading a book from the town
library. And she had always been
satisfied. When she was only seventeen
she could have married well. Her father
was furious at the time that she had
refused the offer. But she had smiled
quietly to herself; she would wait until
the right one came along; she did not
believe in trying out. And when the
right man did appear she wasted no
time in deliberating. He was of me-
dium height, about thirty-five years
old, and he had a profitable business.



The Grisly Suitor 13

But what attracted her most was that
he could be serious, and when she
wanted to she could talk to him about
things that did not concern either his
business or her father's shop.

The young couple spent their honey-
moon at the Gar da See. There they
sat in the afternoon sun on the veran-
dah, spoke but little, and were thankful
for the beautiful world about them.
Leonie smiled whenever she caught her
husband's eyes. Then he would glance
at her earnestly so that she blushed
up to the roots of her hair, but im-
mediately he would look at her in a
supplicating and helpless manner as if
he were begging her pardon. It always
ended when she laid her hand in his
and let him fondle it. And thus it
went every day from dawn to sunset.
Leonie enjoyed her happiness without
affectation, in absolute abandon, but
without any judgment, and without
any consideration of her person. She
loved love above all, and but seldom
was she happy at the thought of



14 The Grisly Suitor

having found such a kind, good man
to share her future Ufe with her. And
it was as she had dreamed during the
many long evenings that she sat at
home alone. At the altar she had
promised herself never to hold any
one responsible for her marriage but
herself. And besides, she had prayed
to heaven to spare her and hers from
all unlooked for sorrows.

Quiet reigned in the large hotel. The
door to their room was locked and the
heavy, green curtains were drawn.
There was a night lamp burning on the
table. It was long past midnight but
the young couple could not sleep. It
was probably because they had such
little exercise during the daytime, and
becailse they always drank black coffee
after their dinner.

^'How does it happen," asked the
young man in a whisper, ^^that a young
girl of your age, with so much emotion,
is always so quiet. The way you talk
and act among people makes one believe
that you have lived before. Other






The Grisly Suitor 15

girls of your age are always out, but
you grow quieter and more sedate from
day to day.

^^ Perhaps it is on account of what
I went through in my youth/ ^ answered
the young woman. Her eyes glowed
in the black night that lay about them.
What did you go through? '^
Why, when my sister died. Didn^t
I ever tell you about it?''

^^No. That is, I don't remember that
you did."

^^You have seen her picture. She
was nearly a head taller than I am,
and she had a much stronger consti-
tution. Her arms were so large that
I could hardly get my two hands
around them. But with all of it she
was neither fat nor clumsy. She was
more supple than I, and when she
walked the earth seemed to bend with
her steps. Perhaps it was on account
of her large, well rounded hips. But
her neck was the most beautiful part
of her body. When I think^of?her|now
the first thing I see is her beautifully



16 The Grisly Suitor

molded neck and her lovely, sloping
shoulders. She was so strong and healthy
that no one would have ever im-
agined that she would die. Only she
herself used to have the most terrible
thoughts; one could almost see them
in her eyes. When one looked at her
one thought that she was going to weep
the next moment. She used to tell
long stories about a catastrophe that
had occurred or that was going to
happen in the future; and when later
on one would think over what she had
said, one would realize that there was
nothing in it. She was always excited
and also bashful. From the mere fear
of unhappiness and death she never
really went out into the world until the
very end; but then it was different.
And that was the very thing that
never gave her any peace of mind.
From the very day that she put on
long skirts and was confirmed, she
thought of one thing only :| how and
when she would get married.^^Andfwith
it all she had a presentiment, I'T^don't



The Grisly Suitor 17

know where from, that it would never
happen — that she would die before
it. And that was the basis of what
finally happened.

^^I remember/^ continued Leonie, ^^I
was perhaps ten years old and we slept
in the same bed. Next to the bed
stood the crib in which my doll slept;
and in the other bed slept our old
nurse Lisbeth. Lisbeth snored so loud
that we often woke up in the middle
of the night. Then we would talk
very quietly in the dark just as we
are talking now; only then we did not
have a four-post bed. Once Clara
asked me what sort of a man I was
going to marry. I had never thought
about it, so I said that I did not know.
Then she told me that hers would have
to have broad shoulders and be large
and well built; that his nose must be
straight and that he would have to
wear a small black moustache and have
pearly teeth. His hair would be short
and his ears small, while he must have
well formed legs and wear large boots



18 The Grisly Suitor

with spurs. It took her half of the
night to tell me about him. We thought
of all of our acquaintances, but there
was not one among them who was
stately enough. . . . And finally she
said, with her head against my breast
and in a sobbing voice: ^I think that
I will have to marry a man of fifty or
sixty years, who has lost all of his
teeth and who coughs and sputters
at every word he utters. Oh, Leonie,
Leonie, if you only knew how much I
fear and dread it'/ All the blood had
gone to her head and her arms were
as hot as fire.

'^And on another night when Lisbeth
was again snoring loudly Clara told me
all about Hfe, why one marries, and
why women dress differently than men.
I found it all very natural, but she
made a dismal story of it. She could
hardly speak and I could hear her heart
beating. I had never known anything
about all she told me, but I had never
imagined anything unnatural either.

'^When she came back from Italy



The Grisly Suitor 19

three years later — she had by this
time become a truly beautiful girl,
aside from her corpulence — imme-
diately an old man, a trembling old
court recorder, proposed marriage to
her. For four weeks she did not get
over the shock. She did not go out, she
did not speak; her eyes were always on
the ground so that she never looked
at any one any more. It seemed almost
as if she were losing her mind. The
recorder was a very much respected
man; but of course I could never have
loved him either. He told my father
that he would like to marry Clara
because her lips were never firmly
closed, which, he felt, implied that she
had a good heart. And he was right.
At first she received him in quite a
friendly manner. But when she real-
ized what his intentions were, she
shrieked aloud and had terrible cramps.
We had to make cold applications for
her all day.

^^In the following summer Rudolf
Eisner came to Lenzburg. And it was



20 The Grisly Suitor

as if heaven had sent him, for he and
Clara seemed to have been made just
for each other, as no couple ever had
been before. She met him for the
first time when she was going bathing;
and immediately it seemed as if some
one had come into her life. She could
hardly go on walking. That evening
when we were alone she told me about
it; she had felt the blood rushing
through all of her veins she said. When
she came home to supper that evening
she complained of the tepidness of the
water, and in reality it was only fifty-
two degrees.

^'It was very hard for her to avoid
showing her feeling, but it was just
the same with him. The very next
day he came to the store to buy cigars.
Clara was watching from the window.
He was a veritable Hercules. His chest
was so well developed that a heavy
wagon could have passed over it; he
had no moustache yet — he was only
twenty-three years old; his mouth was
broad and full, while his lips were thin



The Grisly Suitor 21

but full of expression. When he was
going out of the lower gate he bent
his head unconsciously; he wore his
hat on the back of his head — that
was the only untidy thing about him.
His head was firm, but dignified and
graceful; he did not carry it lowered
like a steer, but high like a lion. He
had just served in the army — he was
in the artillery, I think — and now he
was agent for a metal company. I
trembled from pure delight when I
saw Clara standing next to me breath-
ing fast and oblivious of all that was
passing around her. I was still a per-