21.
in 1912. This drama brought forth a blood of disoussions about
the Semitio question which, however, did not figure very promised
ly in the more or less conservative periodical literature forming
the basis of this study. KarlFrenzel said of it: "Das Stück,
das ganz in der Wirklichkeit und Unmittelbarkeit des Lebens
wurzelt und von der Kunst nur einen leisen Anhauch hat, war der
litarische und theatralische Treffer der Spielzeit. Bescheiden
aber nachhaltig." (86)
From this point on, however, Schnitzler no longer produced
powerful dramas like Der Schleier der Bestrice and Der Junge
Medardus. His journalistic comedy, Flink und Fliederbush,
Die Schwestern, and Die Komödie der Verführung all show a weak-
ening of his dramatie powers. On the other hand, since his
fiftieth birthday (1912), he has turned his attention more and
more to the novelette and has produced such masterpieces in this
literary genre as Doktor Grässler, Badearzt, Casanovas Heimfahrt,
Fräulein else. Traumnovelle, and Therese, works for which it is
difficult to find equals in contemporary German estérature.
There remains one more work of Schnitzler's that was pro-
duced in Berlin in the year before the outbreak of the war. The
Deutsches Opernhaus in Charlottenburg staged a pantomine. Der
Schleier der Pierette, in April 1913. (87) Arthur Schnitzler
furnished the libretto and Ernst von Dohnanyi wrote the music.
This pantomine, which rents on the plot of the renaissance drama,
86. Deutsche Rundschau, CLVI, 152. July 1913.
87.
It had previously been produced at the Opernhaus in Dresden
on January 22, 1910.