But in all his work his style is his greatest
achievement. It is of a rare spontaneity, vivacity and grace--qualities
that make his dialogue appear an impromptu performance rather than a
carefully planned structure. It abounds in paradoxes that do not blind
the vision, but reveal vistas, and that do not impress as high lights
added for effect, but as organic parts of the whole. It scintillates
with wit, though it lacks humor. It is the just medium of expression
for his characters, those types of modern intellectuals, affected by
the corrosive skepticism of the period and in turn buoyed by the
light-hearted temperament and depressed by the passive melancholy that
are indigenous to Vienna. It is this literary excellence that renders
works like _Literature_ (1902) and _The Green Cockatoo_ (1899)
enjoyable to readers to whom their spirit may be absolutely foreign. It
is their polish that robs their cynicism of its sting and brings into
relief only their formal beauty. _Literature_ deals effectively with
the literary exploitation of intimate personal experience: it presents
characters which with due local modification can be found in every
intellectual centre and is a little masterpiece of irony. In _The Green
Cockatoo_ the poet has seen his theme in a sort of phantasmagorical
perspective; he plays with reality and appearance in a play within a
play which is unique in literature. He makes his spectators feel the
hot breath of the French Revolution without burdening them with the
ideas that were back of it. It is the most solidly constructed of his
works and the one most sure of success on any stage. Exquisite as is
the art of Schnitzler, it is deeply rooted in life and does not
approach that art for art's sake which was one of the striking
phenomena of that period.

Yet the atmosphere of Vienna and the leisurely pace of its life seem to
favor the development of an art that has little or no connection with
the pressing realities of the day and is bent upon seeking the beauty
of the word rather than the truth of its message. Such a movement had
been inaugurated in German letters in 1890 by Stefan George, who
gathered about him a small group of collaborators in the privately
circulated magazine _Blaetter fuer die Kunst_. It stood for a remoteness
from reality which formed a strong contrast to the naturalistic creed
and for a formal craftsmanship which set out to counteract the grooving
tendency to break away from the fetters of