TRAGEDIES OF SEX TRAGEDIES OF SEX BY FRANK WEDEKIND Translation and Introduction by SAMUEL A ELIOT, JR. Spring’s Awakening (Frühlings Erwachen) Earth-Spirit (Erdgeist) Pandora’s Box (Die Büchse der Pandora) Damnation! (Tod und Teufel) [Illustration] _ BONI AND LIVERIGHT PUBLISHERS :: :: NEW YORK _Copyright, 1914_ _Copyright, 1921_ _Copyright, 1923_ BY BONI & LIVERIGHT, INC. CAUTION.--All persons are hereby warned that the plays published in this volume are fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States and all foreign countries, and are subject to royalty, and any one presenting any of said plays without the consent of the Author or his recognized agents, will be liable to the penalties by law provided. Both theatrical and motion picture rights are reserved. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION vii SPRING’S AWAKENING (FRÜHLINGSERWACHEN) 1 EARTH-SPIRIT (ERDGEIST) 111 PANDORA’S BOX (BÜCHSE DER PANDORA) 217 DAMNATION! (TOD UND TEUFEL) 305 INTRODUCTION Frank Wedekind’s name is widely, if vaguely, known by now, outside of Germany, and at least five of his plays have been available in English form for quite some years, yet a résumé of biographical facts and critical opinions seems necessary as introduction to this--I will not say authoritative, but more careful--book. The task is genial, since Wedekind was my special study at Munich in 1913, and I translated his two Lulu tragedies the year after. The timidity or disapprobation betrayed in this respect by our professional critics of foreign drama makes my duty the more imperative. James Huneker merely called him “a naughty boy!” Percival Pollard tiptoed around him, pointing out a trait here and a trait there, like a menagerie-keeper with a prize tiger. Viereck once waxed rapturous over Reinhardt’s production of _Spring’s Awakening_ (that gave me my own first inkling of what Wedekind might mean for me), but my friend Moderwell tossed him off in less than a page of _The Theatre of Today_ as an immoral joker out of _Simplicissimus_. It is true that Wedekind is by no means easy to grasp or tabulate, true that greater men, such as Strindberg, have suffered from similar slighting and ill-considered estimates here, before they were suitably interpreted; but Wedekind has been dead five years, and the time for a fair and thoughtful, if very inexhaustive, judgment of him has surely come.