For art, too, like all other achievements of human culture, according to Ludwig, must render service unto life. It is its function to furnish insight into life, mastery over life. "Rather no poetry at all," he exclaims, "than a poetry that robs us of the joy of living, that makes us unproductive in life, that, instead of nerving us for life, unnerves us for it." In German literature Ludwig thus occupies a not unimportant place. Far more penetrating and far more artistic than "realists" like Auerbach or Spielhagen he paved the way for the coming of Anzengruber who, in turn, anticipated the realism of the moderns in more, ways than is generally recognized. Ludwig will always be a figure of prominence in the history of the modern middle-class tragedy, in the development of the story dealing with village life, in the efforts to emphasize the value of a literature close to the native soil, in the attempts of German criticism to fathom the secret of Shakespearean art. More than that, however. When the final account of the gradual evolution of nineteenth century realism will some time be written from another than a one-sidedly French point of view, a place of honorable recognition will be due to the thoughtful and forceful author of the _Studies_ and _Between Heaven and Earth_. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 6: The extracts from _The Prince of Homburg_ are taken from Mr. Hagedorn's translation, Volume IV of THE GERMAN CLASSICS.] * * * * * OTTO LUDWIG * * * * * THE HEREDITARY FORESTER A TRAGEDY IN FIVE ACTS * * * * * DRAMATIS PERSONÆ STEIN, _a rich manufacturer and country gentleman_. ROBERT, _his son_. CHRISTIAN ULRICH, _forester on the estate of Düsterwalde, called "The Hereditary Forester_." SOPHY, _his wife_. ANDREW, _forester's assistant _} MARY } _their children_. WILLIAM } WILKENS, _a wealthy farmer, uncle of_ SOPHY. _The Pastor of Waldenrode_. MÖLLER, _Stein's bookkeeper_. GODFREY, _a hunter_. WEILER, _keeper in Ulrich's forest_. _The proprietor of the "Boundary Inn."_ FREI } LINDENSCHMIED} _Poachers_. KATHARINE } BASTIAN, _Stein's valet_. _Two porters._ _The scene is alternately the forester's house at Düsterwalde and Stein's mansion at Waldenrode; once, in Act III, the Frontier Inn and the Dell._ THE HEREDITARY FORESTER (1850) TRANSLATED BY ALFRED REMY, A.M. Professor of Modern Languages, Brooklyn Commercial High School. ACT I _The_ FORESTER'S _house at Düsterwalde_. _In the back of the room a folding door and a closet; at either side ordinary doors. On the right, a window; on the left, in the rear, the stove; more to the front a cuckoo-clock; then a rack where several rifles are hanging, among them two double-barreled ones, hunter's bags and similar utensils; and a book shelf on which are a Bible and hymn-books._ SCENE I