Plays: The Father; Countess Julie; The Outlaw; The Stronger | Page 5

the motto of which he made Voltaire's
words "Rien n'est si désagréable que s'etre pendu obscurément."
Hardly more than mention can be made of the important work of this
dramatist, poet, novelist, historian, scientist and philosopher. In 1888
he left Sweden, as the atmosphere there had become too disagreeable
for him through controversy after controversy in which lie became
involved. He joined a group of painters and writers of all nationalities
in it little village in France. There he wrote "La France," setting forth
the relations between France and Sweden in olden times. This was
published in Paris and the French government, tendered him the
decoration of the legion of honor which, however, he refused very
politely, explaining that he never wore a frock coat! The episode ends
amusingly with the publisher, a Swede, receiving the decoration instead.
In 1884 the first volume of his famous short stories, called "Marriages"
appeared. It was aimed at the cult that had sprung up from Ibsen's "A
Doll's House," which was threatening the peace of all households. A
few days after the publication of "Marriages" the first edition was
literally swallowed up. As the book dealt frankly with the physical facts
of sex relations, it was confiscated by the Swedish government a month
after its publication, and Strindberg was obliged to go to Stockholm to
defend his cause in the courts, which he won, and in another month
"Marriages" was again on the market.
The next year, 1885, his "Real Utopias" was written in Switzerland, an
attack, in the form of four short stories, on over-civilization, which won
him much applause in Germany. He went to Italy as a special
correspondent for the "Daily News" of Stockholm.
In 1886 the much anticipated second volume of "Marriages" appeared.
These were the short stories, satisfying to the simplest as well as to the
most discriminating minds, that attracted Nietzsche's attention to
Strindberg. A correspondence sprung up between the two men,

referring to which in a letter to Peter Gast, Nietzsche said, "Strindberg
has written to me, and for the first time I sense an answering note of
universality." The mutual admiration and intellectual sympathies of
these two conspicuous creative geniuses has led a number of critics,
including Edmund Gosse, into the error of attributing to Nietzsche a
dominating influence over Strindberg. It should be remembered,
however, the "Countess Julie" and "The Father," which are cited its the
most obvious examples of that supposed influence, were completed
before Strindberg's acquaintance with Nietzsche's philosophy, and that
among others, the late John Davidson, is also charged with having
drawn largely from Nietzsche. The fact is, that, during the last quarter
of the nineteenth century, the most original thinkers of many countries
were quite independently, though less clearly, evolving the same
philosophic principals that the master mind of Nietzsche was radiating
in the almost blinding flashes of his genius.
Then came the period during which Strindberg attained the highest
peaks of his work, the years 1886-90, with his autobiography, "The
Servant Woman's Son," the tragedies, "The Father," and "Countess
Julie," the comedies, "Comrades," and "The Stronger," and the
tragi-comedies, "The Creditors" and "Simoon." Of these, "The Father"
and "Countess Julie" soon made Strindberg's name known and honored
throughout Europe, except in his home country.
In "The Father" perhaps his biggest vision is felt. It was published in
French soon after it appeared in Sweden, with an introduction by Zola
in which he says, "To be brief, you have written a mighty and
capitvating work. It is one of the few dramas that have had the power to
stir me to the depths."
Of his choice of theme in "Countess Julie," Strindberg says: "When I
took this motive from life, as it was related to me a few years ago, it
made a strong impression on me. I found it suitable for tragedy, and it
still makes a sorrowful impression on me to see an individual to whom
happiness has been allotted go under, much more, to see a line become
extinct." And in defence of his realism he has said further in his preface
to "Countess Julie": "The theatre has for a long time seemed to me the

Biblia pauperum in the fine arts, a bible with pictures for those who can
neither read nor write, and the dramatist is the revivalist, and the
revivalist dishes tap the ideas of the day in popular form, so popular
that the middle class, of whom the bulk of theatre-goers is comprised,
can without burdening their brains understand what it is all about. The
theatre therefore has always been a grammar school for the young, the
half-educated, and women, who still possess the primitive power of
being able to delude themselves and of allowing themselves to be
deluded, that is to say, receive illusions