And I smiled as I thought of
R. Nielsen and his pupils always speaking as if they stood on the most
intimate footing with the "central point" of existence, and pouring
contempt on others who, it was to be supposed, could not approach it.
I was very unfavourably impressed in Hamburg by German drama and German
dramatic art.
At the town theatre, Hebbel's _Judith_ was being performed, with
Clara Ziegler in the leading part. At that time this lady enjoyed a
considerable reputation in Germany, and was, too, a tall, splendid-
looking female, with a powerful voice, a good mimic, and all the rest of
it, but a mere word-machine. The acting showed up the want of taste in
the piece. Holofernes weltered knee-deep in gore and bragged
incessantly; Judith fell in love with his "virility," and when he had
made her "the guardian of his slumbers" murdered him, from a long
disremembered loyalty to the God of Israel.
At the Thalia Theatre, Raupach's _The School of Life_ was being
produced, a lot of silly stuff, the theme of it, for that matter, allied
to the one dealt with later by Drachmann in _Once upon a Time_. A
Princess is hard-hearted and capricious. To punish her, the King, her
father, shuts a man into her bedroom, makes a feigned accusation against
her, and actually drives her out of the castle.
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