plunged into this demimonde in person, experienced much, and actually undermined, instead of strengthening, his artistic creative power. In ’90-91, when he wrote _Spring’s Awakening_, the 26-year-old pioneer playwright was still close to adolescent tumult, doubt and rapture. He writes a fluent, subtly interconnected, almost musical suite of scenes utterly real when dealing with the children and youthfully satirical when caricaturing the adults. He has no literary by-end, no preoccupation with form or naturalism as such, and while he has a moral, or rather an anti-moral, purpose, and evidently seeks to include in his play the ontogeny of all the more common sex-perversions, his chief interest is in Melchior, Moritz and Wendla--the vividness and promise of the life awakening in them, the cruelty and tragedy of its extinguishment, for which the adult world must take full blame. Whether the play was produced at all in the 1890’s I do not know. Reinhardt, who had had marked success with _Earth-Spirit_ among his very first independent productions, in 1902-03, gave a very notable interpretation of _Spring’s Awakening_ in 1906 which attained 390 performances; and it has been widely acted since then, and in book form has far outstripped the popularity of any other Wedekind work. A very imperfect translation appeared in this country about 1909, and a private production was later attempted in New York, with ludicrous inartistry. The “lesson” of the play--“Parents, respect the possibilities of puberty, and give it enlightenment and guidance”--is an old story with us now. We must not forget the date on Wendla’s tombstone: the play transpires in 1892. But the multifarious, teeming life, the lovableness and universal naturalness of the chief characters, and the free, ardent expression of the young author,--these are of no specific time, and will keep Wedekind’s name alive for generations of adolescent readers.