PR EFA"E THE aim of this essay is to give to the English ’ r eader an introduction to Hauptmann s works his t in their relation to life and char ac er . My wish is that it may act as a stimulus to r ead Hauptmann and to see productions of ta his plays on the s ge . For an author of the eminence of Gerhart Hauptmann , surely , ought to be more widely known in England than he actually is . If the style of the study is not hopelessly un- English it is no merit of mine , but the result of the kind assistance I obtained in its revision by my friends the Hon . Mrs . l o . Cha oner D wdall and Professor D J Sloss , and of the valuable suggestions of Professor Oliver Elton and Dr . Graham Brown . Mr . W . G . Jones most kindly read the proofs . I am indebted to Professor H . G . Fiedler for kindly supplying me with some biographical x Preface s R note , and to my friend Professor Petsch for lending me a copy of the rare Pro methidenlos and for freely offering his valu able advice . To all of them I express my heartfelt thanks . Part of this study was first delivered as an ’ address to the Liverpool Playgoers Soc iety on ’ the eve of Hauptmann s fiftieth birthday , and 6 was repeated to the Leeds Playgoers on March , 1 . 1 9 3. K . H "ON T EN T S "HAPTER A ’ G E RHART HA U PT MA N N S LIF E F ROM 1 862 —1 889 "HAP TER B L I T ERAR Y T ENDEN"IES OF HIS T IM E "HAPT ER " ’ G ERHART H AU PT MANN S WOR K F ROM 1 889- 1 9 I2 S I . DRAMA I S "I L D S . O A RAMA F ILY S 2 . AM DRAMA F D S 3. AI R Y RAMA ’ S U VEY OF H AUPT MANN S D T I"ART 4 . R RAMA NOVELS II . T HE Y III . OR "ON"LUSIO N "HA PTER D BI BLIOG RA PHY "HAPTER E T ABLE OF WOR K S G ER HART x HAU PT MAN N CHAPTER A ' * GERHART HAU PTMANN S LIFE FROM 1 862 —1 889 GERHART HAU PTMANN is not unknown in l England ' Several of his plays have been — translated into English , some of “them as , for example , Lonely Lives and Hannele S have been produced on the stage . A early as 1 90 5 the University of Oxford— even prior to that of Leip zic— conferred upon him the distinction of the honorary degree of Doctor of Literature . And yet the general public is hardly aware of the range of his writings and of the distinguishing characteristics of his personality . Since this paper wa s written Haup tmann h as a n d t in ular b u t - rv onou r o f t g i e he s g , well dese ed , h he o l riz in Nov m r 1 1 2 N be P e , e be , 9 . B 2 Gerhart Hauptmann 1 1 1 2 On November 5 , 9 , Gerhart Hauptmann his celebrated fiftieth birthday, in the midst of l his beloved fami y , near Obersalzbrunn in the o Silesian mountains , where he was b rn and where he Spent the tru ly happy days of his ' AS youth . the youngest of three sons he 1 862 1 8 passed his first years , from to 74, in his home at Obersalzbrunn , where his father , an upright earnest man , kept an hotel . The elder Hauptmann came from a modest family who in a few generations , by their own labour , had come to comfortable circum ’ stances . Gerhart s mild and devout mother , bred up in the fear of God and love of ‘ l duty , was the daughter of a worthy fami y f of Government o ficials . Hauptmann might repeat the words of Goethe " ’ u e Vom Vater hab ich die Stat r , des Leb ns ernstes Fiihr en Miitter chen die zu Vom die Frohnatur, Lust fabulieren . But it is always hard to fit individuals to preconceived epigrams , much harder than to His Life from 1 8 6 2 -4 8 8 9 3 he fit epigrams to persons . It would certainly going too far to conclude in an yt hing more than a general way that in Gerhar t the boy was ” the father of the man . He grew up lustily r l and chee ful y , though his temper was much ’ quieter than his brothers . Although he loved books,probably an inheritance from his self - " taught , but well read father , he apparently loved nature more . He gave himself up to lonely fanciful dreamings . But he was by no means merely an imaginative , fantastic lad ; he could be the wildest amongst his playmates , r imus i nter ar es and was p p in the little village . When seven years old he welcomed his returning brothers , after a lengthy separation , by a dance of his own invention , designed to represent a whirlwind . His days were happy . The first as O w sorrows came , they ften do , ith school 1 8 life , when in Easter , 74, he was sent to a Secondary school at Breslau . Gerhart was no scholar to the country lad , town seemed but a prison . He hated school with its regime of cramming . He was distin guished only by his skill in essay-writing and 4 G erhart Hauptmann * . was drawing His young brother , Carl , the only one of his associates to recognize the ability his r e of early lyrical exultations . Soon Fate lieved hi s the boy . His father , by no neglect of own , suffered adverse circumstances , and was obliged to realize his assets . He left his paternal home with little besides an unstained character , having paid all his creditors to the last penny . Gerhart had to be taken from school , much to his delight , and was sent to a small estate belonging to his uncle , where he took the place of his cousin , who had died young . Here H nn n H in n "arl auptma is a scie tist . e studied Je a H d n fi r ic h T w k a n i Z . ith aec el . with Forel he fruit of his ‘ studies is a va lua ble p ublic a tio n o n Die Metaphysik in der " rn n l 1 8 H n a n mode e Physio ogic , 9 3. e the beg to follow the x n o n e ample ofhis you ger br ther , Gerhart , by writi g dramas . N wa s nc n aturally, he at o e co sidered as a mere imitator of r Y e t a n n his greater b other. he is artistic p erso ality with n H n in n real i dividuality . is special tale t seems to lie arra B u t in f n tive . lyrical poetry he is gi ted , eve more so ” n H w k — " M n n 1 8 tha Gerhart . is or s are Plays aria e , 94 “ ” W 1 8 E B 1 8 8 Die B aldleute, 95 ; phraims reite , 9 ; erg " 1 0 2 KOni s H r 1 0 schmiede , 9 ; Des g a fe , 9 3 Die ” A n 1 0 M 1 0 6 Pa n s ie le 1 0 ustreibu g, 9 5 oses , 9 ; p , 9 9 . " L " So nn e n wa nde r e r 1 8 6 A n yrics , 9 ; us mei em Tage " 1 0 0 n " A Hiitte n a m B 1 0 2 buch , 9 . Fictio us erge , 9 " " M 1 0 2 M n n 1 0 a nd his lat t n athilde , 9 i iature , 9 4 ; es ovel ” E n a t Lac hle r 1 1 I i h r der , 9 . His Life from 1 8 6 2 — 1 8 89 5 again he could breathe the healthy country air . His childish mind received impressions which have remained constant throughout his life . A r a pious , implicit Ch isti n faith ruled the house , l not fanatically , but sti l with that singleness of object peculiar to the Moravian sect . Bach and Handel , but also Beethoven , were the geniuses who hovered round the Simple house . Music and Nature enraptured the soul of the nu conscious poet , who , having escaped from the confinement of town life , enj oyed the free life of th ‘ t e coun r . y His soul grew strong again , and he felt the emotions for which , long years after was in 1 0 wards , when he Greece , in 9 7, he found ’ expression The peasant s soul was strong ” i i his . and na ve . Strong and na ve were Gods Here we notice the change from boy to youth , here also he finds his first pure love . Again in his Greek diary he is reminded of his ' - his first love scene in uncle s orchard , where he paces up and down at the side of a seventeen -Old year maiden . The love idyll is suddenly interrupted by urchi ns popping over the fence and throwing stones . The hero gets violent , but 6 G er hart Hauptm ann the lovely maiden mildly appeases him as well as the intruders . One feels in his later writing how happy he felt then— thirty years ago " But again Gerhart di d not stay here .