Page:Poet Lore, volume 27, 1916.djvu/386

 This, the lack of wide recognition of Hilbert’s works is due to his style and the choice of his subjects. In his plays he introduces an innovation, which departs from the cardinal rules of the drama, but his treatment of the innovation is not sufficiently consistent and strong. In describing the action of a character, he goes into the psychological cause of the action so that his play becomes not only dramatic, but a psychological study as well. Again in describing silences or lack of reply of a person or persons, he mentions the reasons for such silences. Essentially a prose writer, Hilbert was somewhat carried away by his two stage success “Blame” (Vina) produced at the National Theatre in 1896, and the other, “For God’s Sake}}” (O Boha) in 1898. Criticism of the last play was so severe and gave rise to such extended comment by the press and the critics that the author was obliged to change it somewhat and later published it under a different title, "The Fist" (Pest). In 1903 Hilbert published two plays, the first a one-act, called “Baited Ones,” is a very poor production in dialogue, plot and construction. The second, however “Falkenstein” published in 1903, a historical drama, is his best-known work and has achieved some success. Falkenstein is considered by most of the Bohemian critics (notably by Prof. Arne Novak) as the representative play of Hilbert. “The Comedy of 1866,” was written in 1909 and produced that year in Prague.

In spite of all the light shed by the great humanitarians such as Zola and Tolstoy on the subject of modern warfare the popular demand for heroism is as great as in mediaeval times. We read of iron crosses, Decorations of the Legion of Honor and all the inducements offered to those who braved death or plentifully inflicted it upon their fellowmen.

(With no desire to minimize the horrifying misfortunes of the Moloch of Annihilation, the following is offered as an illustration of military heroism). Much more than physical destruction matters the lasting and pernicious result of the war which stamps religion a lie, calls art a fraud, and scatters to the winds the established facts of social science. Ours are the days when to hold aloof from the hue and cry of the maddening crowds is an angelic virtue. No one ever realized how potent and all absorbing was the mob spirit dormant even in the minds of those who condemned it. The author of