The group of characters in _The Rats_ is unusually large and varied. The phantastic note is somewhat strained perhaps in Quaquaro and Mrs. Knobbe. But the convincingness and earth-rooted humanity of the others is once more beyond cavil or dispute. The Hassenreuter family, Alice Ruetterbusch, the Spittas, Paul John and Bruno Mechelke, Mrs. Kielbacke and even the policeman Schierke--all are superbly alive, vigorous and racy in speech and action. The language of the plays in this volume is again almost wholly dialectic. The linguistic difficulties are especially great in _The Rats_ where the members of the Berlin populace speak an extraordinarily degraded jargon. In the translation I have sought, so far as possible, to differentiate the savour and quaintness of the Silesian dialect from the coarseness of that of Berlin. But all such attempts must, from their very nature, achieve only a partial success. The succeeding volumes of this edition, presenting the plays written in normal literary German, will offer a fairer if not more fascinating field of interpretation. LUDWIG LEWISOHN. DRAYMAN HENSCHEL _LIST OF PERSONS_ DRAYMAN HENSCHEL. MRS. HENSCHEL. HANNE SCHAeL (_later MRS. HENSCHEL_). BERTHA. HORSE DEALER WALTHER. SIEBENHAAR. KARLCHEN. WERMELSKIRCH. MRS. WERMELSKIRCH. FRANZISKA WERMELSKIRCH. HAUFFE. FRANZ. GEORGE. FABIG. HILDEBRANT. VETERINARIAN GRUNERT. FIREMAN. Time: Toward the end of the eighteen sixties. Scene: The "Gray Swan" hotel in a Silesian watering place. THE FIRST ACT