“ Bastide knew the face, it was that of the false witness Clarissa; with snake-like glistening eyes she gazed at him, always only at him. All the men followed her glance and they hurled themselves upon him. "You must die! You must die!" resounded from hoarse throats, but while they were still shouting their voices died away, the shadowy arms of the false witness stretched themselves out and divided one of the walls, exposing to view a blooming garden, in the centre of which stood a scaffold hung with branches laden with ripe fruit. ”

“ Gerardo (nervously) . Why, Helen, don't you see, I want to give back your life to you! I want to give back to you what you have sacrificed to me. Take it, I implore you! Don't make more of it than it is! Helen, how can a woman so disgracefully humiliate herself! What has become of your pride? With what contempt would you have shown me my proper place if I had fallen in love with you, if it had occurred to me to be jealous! What am I in the eyes of the society in which you move! A man who makes a clown of himself! ”

“ Don't be inhuman, Hella!
Hella. But you surely realize the relations that obtain between you and me, doctor. You are my co-worker, my friend!
Glyszinski. Is that all, Hella?
Hella. Why, do you demand more? Beyond friendship I can give you nothing! No, it will be better for you to help me plan how we can get him away most readily. Rather today than tomorrow.
Glyszinski. Even if I were willing; why he pays no attention to me. Sometimes he strikes the pose of the man of thirty and treats me like a schoolboy. If it were not for you, Hella! ”

“ Art thou some faithless lover barred from Heav'n
And Hell eternally, whose punishment
It is to wander restless through the world
Forever begging love from women's hearts?
Did God permit that thou shouldst know what none,
Save only Tristram and myself have known?
That thou shouldst taste of bitter torment still
By thinking thou art Tristram and shouldst thus
Make greater expiation for thy sins?
Str. Jester.
I am a faithless lover who has loved
Most faithfully, Iseult, belovèd one!
Iseult.
Why criest thou my name unceasingly,
As scream enhungered owls, thou pallid fool? ”

“ My judgment in such matters, don't doubt that for a moment, Sir, counts the less, the more I am recognized and esteemed as a singer.
Dühring. My dear Mr. Gerardo, you may rest assured, I don't believe in your judgment either. What do I care for your judgment! I think I know what to expect of a tenor. I am playing this opera to you to make you say: I'll sing your Hermann! I'll sing your Hermann!
Gerardo. It won't avail you anything. I must do what I am asked to do; I am bound by my contracts. You can afford to stand down in the street for a week. A day more or less makes no difference to you. ”

“ Hella. You knew it beforehand, Paul!
Paul. Because I was blinded!
Hella, And yet I tell you, say what you please, leave me for instance, but you will not find another woman who can satisfy you after you have had me! I know it and will stake my life on it!
Paul. Do you rate yourself so highly?
Hella. I am rating you highly, Paul!
Paul (wavering) . Do you mean to say I am ruined for happiness?... Possibly you are right.
Hella. Whoever has once become accustomed to the heights of life, will never again descend.
Paul (repeats to himself) . Will never again descend. ”

“ And he shouted into the ear of the sufferer, unnecessarily loud: "I will speak with the Doctor, Friend Engelhardt. This is the Doctor's business. In one way or another he will get you a soul!"
But the little lawyer suddenly wrapped himself closer in his shawl. He was as cold as ice. Ordinarily very few impressions remained in his memory, but he still remembered clearly the death of the attendant Schwindt—and how Michael Petroff had come to his room and whispered mysteriously in his ear: "The attendant is dead. Engelhardt has taken his soul, don't you see!" ”

“ I have never striven for anything out of the ordinary; but, Sir, I can assure you of one thing: that since my earliest childhood days I have never had enough time left to stand out in the street for a whole week. And if I were to think that in my old days I might be compelled to do that very thing—Sir, I am speaking only for myself now—but I cannot imagine how I could still muster the courage to look people in the face.
Dühring. What? With such an opera in your hands! Remember, I am not doing it for my own sake; I am doing it for art's sake.
Gerardo. You overestimate art. ”

“ You may go. [Exit Valet. ]
Helen (lays her muff on a chair) . I can no longer live without you. Either you will take me along or I shall kill myself.
Gerardo. Helen!
Helen. I shall kill myself! You cut asunder my vital nerve if you insist on our separation. You leave me without either heart or brain. To live through another day like yesterday, a whole day without seeing you,—I simply cannot do it. I am not strong enough for it. I implore you, Oscar, take me along! I am pleading for my life!
Gerardo. It is impossible.
Helen. Nothing is impossible if you are but willing! ”

“ Helen. I think I know better by this time, Oscar, what is the highest law.
Gerardo. Well, what is it? Not your love, I hope? That's what every woman says! Whatever a woman wants to carry through she calls good, and if anybody refuses to yield to her then he is bad. That's what our fool playwrights have done for us. In order to draw full houses they put the world upside down and call it great-souled if a woman sacrifices her children and her family to indulge her senses. I should like to live like a turtledove, too. ”

“ Paul. But not mine. I want more, Hella! I am at an age when fine words no longer avail me. And see, here is a world in which I have what I need, what I am seeking, here at last I can follow myself up, can see what is really in me and not what has merely been imposed upon me. I am on the crest of my life, Hella. ”

“ In the evening the President entertained a number of his friends. In the course of the meal the door opened and Clarissa made her appearance. Monsieur Seguret sprang from his chair, rage robbing him of speech. "Do not dare," he stammered hoarsely, "do not dare!"
Regardless of that, Clarissa advanced to the edge of the table. A radiant, bewitching expression lit up her countenance. She turned her full gaze upon her father, so that he dropped his glance as if dazzled. "Do not revile me, father," she said gently in a tone of captivating entreaty. ”

“ Do you expect me to give up my life work, simply because you cannot break away from your clod, on account of a stupid loyalty?
Paul (controlling himself) . It seems to me, Hella, that we have a career in common. You are acting as if you alone had a career.
Hella. We have had, up to this day. You are the one who is retreating! Not I!
Paul (becoming excited) . Hella! You have been my friend! My comrade in stress and tribulation, I may say. We have builded our life on our own resources, our new life, when the old life had renounced us. We have stood together in the combat, for ten years! ”

“ But my experience of yesterday has left me in a state of mind which no woman can endure. If I did not love you so madly, Oscar, you would think more of me. That is so terrible in you that you must despise the woman whose whole world you are. Of what I formerly was to myself there is not a trace left. And now that your passion has left me a burned-out shell, would you leave me here? You are taking my life with you, Oscar! Then take with you as well this flesh and blood which has been yours, or it will perish!
Gerardo. Helen ...! ”

“ I don't mean to play the whole opera to you now.
Gerardo. I haven't the time left ...
Dühring. You haven't the time left! How about me! You are thirty. You have attained success in your art. You can continue following your bent through the whole long life that still is before you. I will ask you to listen only to your own part in my opera. You promised to do so when you came to town.
Gerardo. It's to no purpose, Sir. I am not my own master ...
Dühring. Please, Mr. Gerardo! Please, please! Look at me, here's an old man lying before you on his knees who has known only one thing in life: his art. ”

“ While the initiative in the literary revolution of which Halbe and Wedekind are such striking examples was taken by Northern Germany and centred in Berlin, Austria was not slow in adding a note of its own by giving the German drama of the period two of its most interesting individualities. Both Arthur Schnitzler and Hugo von Hofmannsthal—to whom might be added the clever and versatile Hermann Bahr—reflect the complex soul of their native city, Vienna; for if Austria is acknowledged to be a most curious racial composite, Vienna contains its very essence. ”

“ Bastide Grammont had lived at La Morne for five years. He was perhaps the only man in the entire district who never concerned himself about politics, and kept aloof from all party activity, and this proud independence exposed him to the ill will, nay, the hatred, of his fellow-citizens. When upon one occasion a demonstration in favor of the Bourbons was to take place in Rodez, and the streets were filled with an excited crowd, he rode with grave coolness on his dapple-gray horse through the inflamed throng and returned the wild, angry glances directed at him with a supercilious smile. ”

“ This is the first time the Chevalier has been in Paris.
Duke. Yes, you are incredibly young. How old, if I may ask?
Albin. I only look so young; I am already seventeen.
Duke. Seventeen!—how much is still in front of you! I am already four-and-twenty!... I am beginning to regret how much of my youth I have missed!
François (laughs) . That is good. You, Duke—you count every day lost in which you have not conquered a woman or killed a man.
Duke. Only the unfortunate thing is that one never makes a conquest of the right woman, and always kills the wrong man. ”

“ Could one overcome this case-hardened Doctor with that? What? Oh, no, no. Surely not. The title must smell of fire and brimstone. It must be like the stroke of a sword, like the muzzle of a gun aimed at the Doctor—for Dr. März must be startled when he reads the title! And after much reflection, Michael Petroff decided that this time he would call his paper The Sword of the Archangel. He could plainly see this Archangel sweeping obliquely forward, with terrible fluttering garments and an appalling and angry mien, holding his sword with both hands somewhat backward above his head. ”

“ Gerardo. If I sell myself, they are at least dealing with an honest man!
Helen (smiling) . Then one who loves is not honest!
Gerardo. No!—Love is a distinctly philistine virtue. Love is sought by those who do not venture out into the world, who fear a comparison with others, who haven't the courage to face a fair trial of strength. Love is sought by every miserable rhymester who cannot live without being idolized by some one. Love is sought by the peasant who yokes his wife together with his ox to his plow. ”

“ When in the imagination of the multitude the lady with the green feathers grew steadily more distinct, along with the other figures implicated in the brutal slaughter of poor Fualdes, Clarissa was thrown into a consternation with which she only trifled at first, as if to test herself in a probability or balance herself upon a possibility, like a lad who with a pleasing shudder ventures upon the frozen surface of a stream to test its firmness. ”

“ You girls of today! you have no sap, no vim! A girl as strong as a bear, and afraid of going to pieces.
Lene (admiring the chandelier) . Oh my, but now it's beautiful, Miss Clara! The young master will be pleased when he comes.
[Aunt Clara stands before the chandelier with folded hands, engrossed in thought. The hall is now brightly illumined. Only the remotest corners remain in a shadow.]
Inspector Zindel (comes in again from the right with a lighted lantern, stops in astonishment) . The deuce, Miss Clara! You're up to the business. I do say, the world must come to an end, in grand style! ”

“ But first of all one must be at peace himself! Must have become calm and clear about the matters that concern one. Know what one wants to do and is expected to do and what one is here for in this world.
Aunt Clara. But every one knows that, Paul.
Paul (without listening to her, rather to himself) . Uncanny, this silence all around one. Doubly and three-fold one feels, how it seethes and boils within, without one's getting anywhere. One can hear himself think! (He stops, then in a changed voice, as he looks up.) No no, Aunt Clara, people who have closed their account, belong in the country. ”

“ Gerardo (soothingly) . I have given you all that's in my power to give. Even to a princess I could not be more than I have been to you. If there is one thing further our relations, if continued, might mean to you, it could only be the utter ruin of your life. Now release me, Helen! I understand how hard you find it, but—one often fears one is going to die. I myself often tremble for my life—art as a profession is so likely to unstring one's nerves. It's astonishing how soon one will get over that kind of thing. Resign yourself to the fortuitousness of life. ”

“ Suffer yourself to be cast out by all the world! Have them point their fingers at you! That is the absconded wife who is living with a run-away husband! Take that ban upon you! Do you see now? I should. I should scorn the whole world! Can you do the same?
[Antoinette bows her head and is silent.]
Hella (triumphantly) . You can't do that! I knew it very well.
Antoinette (composed) . What I can and what I cannot do is in the hand of God. That is all that I have to say to you.
Hella. That is all I need to know! I wish you a happy life!
Paul (has been restraining himself, steps up to Hella) . ”

“ The thought of your youth should make you happy. How glad the rest of us would be—even if one lives the life of an artist like myself—to start over again from the very beginning. Please be not ungrateful for hearing me yesterday. Spare me this disconcerting sequel. Am I to blame for your falling in love with me? You are only one of many. My manager insists on my assuming this august manner on the stage. You see there's more to it than mere singing. I simply have to play the part of Tannhäuser that way. Now be good, my child. I have only a few moments left. ”