One could, if it were worth while, trace scene for scene, word for word, from some passage in Shakespeare. In the _Princesse Maleine_ we find in succession the fearfully stormy night from _Julius Cæsar_ (Act I., Scene 3); the entrance of King Lear into the palace of Albany (Act I., Scene 4 ... ‘LEAR: Let me not stay a jot for dinner; go, get it ready,’ etc.); the night scene in _Macbeth_, where Lady Macbeth induces her husband to commit murder; the thrice-repeated ‘Oh! oh! oh!’ of Othello which Queen Anne here utters; Hamlet’s conversation with Horatio, etc. The death of the Princess Maleine has been inspired by memories both of Desdemona suffocated and of Cordelia hanged. All this is jumbled up in the craziest manner, and often distorted almost beyond recognition, or given the opposite meaning; but, with a little attention, one can always find one’s way. Let us imagine a child, at the age when he is able to follow the conversation of grown-up people, attending a performance or a reading of _Hamlet_, _Lear_, _Macbeth_, _Romeo and Juliet_ and _Richard II._, and who on his return to the nursery should relate in his own way to his little brothers and sisters what he had heard. We should in this way get a correct idea of the composition of _Princesse Maleine_. Maeterlinck has crammed himself with Shakespeare, and reproduces the pieces undigested, yet repulsively altered and with the beginnings of foul decomposition. This is an unappetizing picture, but it alone can serve to illustrate the mental process which goes on in the so-called ‘creations’ of the degenerate. They read greedily, receive a very strong impression in consequence of their emotionalism; this pursues them with the force of an ‘obsession,’ and they do not rest till they have reproduced, sadly travestied, what they have read. Thus their works resemble the coins of the barbarians, which are imitations of Roman and Greek models, while betraying that their artificers could not read or understand the letters and symbols inscribed on them. Maeterlinck’s _Princesse Maleine_ is a Shakespearian anthology for children or Tierra del Fuegians. The characters of the British poet have gone to make parts for the actors in a theatre of monkeys. They still remind us more or less of the attitudes and movements of the persons whom they ape, but they have not a human brain in their heads, and cannot say two connected and rational words. Here are a few examples of the manner in which Maeterlinck’s people converse: King Marcellus in the First Act (Scene 2) endeavours to dissuade the Princess Maleine from loving Hjalmar. MARCELLUS. Well, Maleine! MALEINE. My lord? MARCELLUS. Do you not understand? MALEINE. What, my lord? MARCELLUS. Will you promise me to forget Hjalmar? MALEINE. My lord!... MARCELLUS. What say you? Do you still love Hjalmar? MALEINE. Ay, my lord.