Los Angeles herald., 1907-04-28
KAISER'S PLAY
A Love STORY
NEW DRAMA FROM HIS PEN
ATTRACTS ATTENTION
II Was Originally Written by Fred
erick the Great, but II Has
Been Touched Up by
Wilhelm
speoial cable to The Herald.

Special Cable to The Herald.
BERLIN, April 2.-Emperor William
is much interested in the coming pro-
duction of a play written by his famous
ancestor Frederick the Great, entitled
"The School of the World" The play
has only lately seen the light, and is
said to have been touched up by the
kaiser himself before 1t was given into
the hands Of the manager of the Royal
theater here.
1t is full of expressions which the
great Frederick must have learned
from his bosom friend, Voltaire. In
fact, it is believed to be that play of
Frederick's which Voltaire declined to
revise on the ground that he would not
wash the dirty linen of even king.
The story is laid chiefly in Berlin and
is supposed to satirize the follies OF
FredericlS's time, especially the Ger
man weakness for admiring everything
foreign. Herr Barbur is a well to do
Berlin citizen, a bit of a scholar, who
sends his ne'er do well son to the uni
versity of Halle, where he is to study
philosophy. Bilvese, as the youth is
called returns home, but his father
discovers that he has been mainly oc-
cupied with the study of women, wine
and cards. His father had wished him
to be scholar and marry Julie, the
daughter of his friend Argan. But
Julie had long loved the modest poet
Mandor, as poor as a church mouse,
and scoffed at by jules mother, the
type of the ambitious German frau.
The wedding between Julie and Bill
vese is as good as arranged when
jules chambermaid proves that the
young man is a very sad dog indeed
and the engagement is broken off.
Meanwhile Mandor's worth is brought
to the notice of the prince, who is sup
posed to be Frederick himself, and the
prince of course honors him with his
regard and orders lots of poetry from
him. Mandor is a made man and mar
ries his Julie.
There are said to be number of ad-
miral scenes in the play, but for the
present all details are kept secret.
The emperor has a special fondness
for dramas which have to do with his
Hohenzollern ancestors. His leading
dramatist in this line is Maj. Joseph
Lauff-a man absolutely lacking in
literary skill and as a playwright be-
meath criticism-who' has written al
number of plays about more or lessI
obscure Hohenzollern princes, all dedi-
Gated to the emperor and regarded by
his majesty as first rate works of art
The worst of it is that the emperor
seems to be alone in this opinion.
There is a good deal of criticism in
secret of the favor shown by the en-
peror and the crown prince to inferior
dramatic works produced in Berlin.
They are accused of bestowing their
patronage on men who have done moth
ing for real and valuable dramatic art,
who are nothing more than sensation
mongers, seeking to tickle the vulgar
taste with claptrap of an inferior order.
Lately the emperor has shown great
interest in an actor named Ferdinand
Bonn the lessee of the Berliner theater.
This man has been producing drama
tized versions of Sherlock Holmes"
and of the Hound of the Baskervilles"
without the sanction of Conan Doyle. |
They are put on the stage with crude
realism which only appeals to the most
vulgar of tastes, and yet the emperor
has attended these things more than
once. After the performances he has
had Bonn in his box and congratulated
him on his enterprise. The result isl
that Bonn is rapidly filing his treasury.
"Charleys Aunt" has been declared
by the emperor an admirable play ''for
the people," dictum which is highly
resented; for if there is on thing in
which the German prides himself more
than another it is on his lofty sense of
dramatic art.
It is remarkable that the emperor has
no liberation for the drama, either of
Sudermann or Hauptmann. He has
never seen any of theirs and they are
all vigorously excluded from the stages
of the royal theaters.
AS for the crown prince, he also is a
warm admirer of the detective plays of
Herr Bonn, and frequently attends their
performance. Another of his great
fsvorites is a comic opera entitled "The
Merry Widow" of which he seems never
to tire. The other night he ordered
every available box for himself and his
suite. 1t is a piece without either moral
or morality, but the heir to the German
throne is enchanted with it,