Rightly or wrongly, Hebbel regarded himself as the creator of a new form of drama, setting in at a step beyond Shakespeare and Schiller, and attacking problems in the manner suggested, but not fully developed, by Goethe. Shakespeare and Schiller, he said, locate the conflict in the breast of the hero: shall he, or shall he not, endeavor to attain the object of his desire, against forces which oppose him from without, and which have their allies in his own conscience, in his own sense of right and wrong? He desires the wrong, or neglects the right, and for his tragic fault atones with death. We pity the unfortunate individuals, console ourselves, however, with the inviolability of the moral law, and profit by his example: only those are free whose will choose to be moral. But Goethe, in the dramatically conceived Elective Affinities, focuses attention not upon the doings of individuals, but upon the sanctions of the law, which a power superior to their wills forces them to break. And so Hebbel, passing over the individuals, as one of myriads, directs inquiry into the causes that make him what he is, that make him do what he does, that prevent him to attempt; and he reveals, back of the individual typical phenomenon, an irreconcilable conflict in the very condition and definition of its existence. This conflict has roots in the dualism of all being. FRIEDRICH HEBBEL (Pages 22-267) “The Life of Friedrich Hebbel.” “Maria Magdalena.” “Siegfried’s Death.” “Anna.” “On Theodor Korner and Heinrich von Kleist.” “Ludolf Wienbarg’s The Dramatists of the Present Day.” “Review of Heinrich von Kleist’s Play The Prince of Homburg, or The Battle of Fehrbellin.” “Recollections of My Childhood.” “Extracts from the Journal of Friedrich Hebbel.” In his Hereditary Forester Ludwig produced one of the best middle-class tragedies of modern literature, combining in it, as indeed he set out do, highest literary merit with impelling effectiveness upon the stage. “It is exceedingly easy, “ he said “ to write a poetic drama if one does not care to keep an eye upon the stage, or one that is a successful stage play, but without poetry. I shall do what I can to help create that really healthy condition of the drama, which consists in the intimate union of poetry and the stage. Ludwig’s next drama, The Maccabeaus, was of radically different mold. From prose was passed to verse, from humble middle-class life to the traditional grandeur of classical tragedy, from the narrow circle of domestic happenings to a Shakespearean canvas of broad historical associations, from contemporary Germany to those heroic struggles in which, in the second century, B.C., the Jews under the leadership of Judas Maccabeaus defended their national and religious freedom against Syrian oppression. In this drama also, certain faults of construction are evident. There is a lack of central unity of interest, in part due, no doubt, to the long processes of development, which the play underwent before completion. But again, there is the same masterly technique in all matters of detail, a wonderful strength and beauty of language, subtle and convincing character-portrayal and a splendid realization of that ethnic atmosphere of Jewish life and character in which the drama moves and from which its conflicts spring. OTTO LUDWIG (Pages 268-528) “The Life of Otto Ludwig.” “The Hereditary Forester.” “Between Heaven and Earth.” Keywords: The German Classics Volume 9, Friedrich Hebbel, Maria Magdalena, Forester Ludwig, Maccabeaus, Otto Ludwig, Theodor Korner, Homburg, Fehrbellin,

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