waking after a nightmare of deceits and crimes that were the
stepping stones to success, is warned of the dangers that beset
enterprise and taught to prefer the simple life in union with a rustic
maiden. There are two actions, corresponding to the waking and sleeping
states, the actors in the latter being those of real life fantastically
transformed; but there is no magic or anything else super-natural, and
the most fascinating quality in the drama is the skill with which the
transformation is made in accordance with the irrational logic of
dreams. Accompanied by the weird music of Gyrowetz and exquisitely
staged, this is the most popular of Grillparzer's plays in Vienna. But
it is by no means merely theatrical. There is profound truth in the
theory upon which it is constructed: a dream is the awakening of the
soul; dreams do not create wishes, they reveal them, and the actions of
a dreamer are the potentialities of his character. Moreover, the
quietistic note of renunciation for the sake of peace to the soul and
integrity of personality is the final note of _The Golden Fleece_ no
less than of this fantasmagoria. _Waves of the Sea and of Love_ is a
far-fetched and sentimental title for a dramatization of the story of
Hero and Leander. Grillparzer chose the title, he said, because he
wished to suggest a romantic treatment that should humanize the matter.
The play really centres in the character of Hero and might much better
be called by her name. In it Grillparzer's experiences with Charlotte
von Paumgarten and Marie Daeffinger are poetically fructified, and his
capacity for tracing the incalculable course of feminine instincts
attains to the utmost of refinement and delicacy. The theme is the
conflict between duty to a solemn vow of sacerdotal chastity and the
disposition to satisfy the natural desire for love. But Grillparzer has
represented no such conflict in the breast of Hero. Her antagonist is
not her own conscience but the representative of divine law in the
temple of which she is priestess. The action of the play therefore takes
the form of an intrigue on the part of this representative to thwart the
intrigue of Hero and Leander. This external collision is, however, far
from supplying the chief interest in a drama unquestionably dramatic,
although its main action is internal. Hero is at the beginning a Greek
counterpart to the barbarian Medea. She has the same pride of station
and self-assurance. Foreordained to a