esperately hard she worked with her mangle in
the Konigstrasse. Then one day, when things seemed at their blackest,
Romance, with its multi-coloured finger, poked a hole in the bubble of
her existence. The King of Prussia drove along the Konigstrasse, bowing
to right and left. Gretchen stepped lightly over her mangle and dropped
a curtsey. The King was immediately captivated, and a few hours later
the happy girl found herself in the Royal Palace. After that events
moved rapidly. At the lax German Court Gretchen soon forgot her austere
upbringing, and entered into the round games and charades with untold
abandon! Alas! the fickle heart of the King was soon turned from her.
Realising this Gretchen seized upon a noble much enamoured of her, Furst
Lieberwurst zu Schweinen-Kalber, and married him one spring morning in
the Chapel Royal. For three months they lived together in the Austrian
Tyrol; then Gretchen, heeding at last the persistent call of her art,
left him, and fled back to Berlin, where she obtained an engagement to
play Juliet. It was from that moment that her real passion for her part
developed. It grew to be an obsession--she was feted, lauded, mentioned
in several public speeches. For sixty-five years she played it all over
Germany, never tiring, never weakening. People gibbered over her; then
came her tragic death at the age of ninety-two in the balcony scene. She
stumbled forward, Grundelheim says, then backward, then forward, then
backward again, and then forward for the last time. The balcony gave
way, and she fell at Romeo's feet (it was the great Fritz Schnotter,
with whom she had been playing for two years: in private life he was, of
course, her lover--she always insisted on that).

History tells us that he caught her in his arms--Bottiburgen contests
that he caught her in the middle of his chest; anyhow, the house is said
to have risen and cheered, thinking it was a new scene suddenly
interpolated. Then the curtain slowly fell, and they realised the
truth--they would never see their idolised Gretchen again.

In passing, it would perhaps be as well to mention some of the famous
Romeos who played opposite this bewitcher of all sexes. There was
Reginald Bug, a young Englishman, who loved her passionately for a few
years; then the renowned Pierre Dentifrice from the Comedie Francaise;
then Angelo Carlini, and Basto Caballero (founder of the Shakespearean
Theatre in Barcelona); then Dimitri Chuggski, a very