Page:Poet Lore, volume 31, 1920.djvu/163

Rh Lind-af-Hageby has characterized as "a new conception and a new art . . . a play written for a stage not yet built." (40 p. 315)

Strindberg calls The Dream Play a Buddhistic and proto-Christian drama. It is more than that, says Lind-af-Hageby, it is pre-cosmic.

The Blue Books (Zones of the Spirit), constitute, according to Strindberg himself the synthesis of his life. Of this remarkable work Nils Kjäer wrote in Verdens Gang:

To this admirable characterization of the book I would add that taken all in all it is an apology for his conversion to the new life. Like many of his works of the post-Inferno period it is a safety and defence mechanism. This is evident from the way in which he cites precedents from history, ancient and modern. A large number of great men, poets and philosophers grew wise like himself in old age and became mystics. He has, therefore, lost nothing by renouncing his former self with all its worldly vanity and foolish speculations inspired by the arch-enemy of man—the devil—but made positive gains; he has written to the very summit of the Alpine regions of pure life and communication with God, whence his way led onward to the verdant plains and the calm waters of Felicity. From this commanding height he surveyed the world below where he formerly dwelt and the landscape is alternately lit up with sunshine or draped in dark mists or drowned in rainstorms. But he, the poet, the redeemed one, who has been snatched, as it were, from the jaws of death, has escaped alike from dark and bright days. He is above it all, reconciled with Fate and the past.

But Strindberg’s faith was far from that of the ordinary orthodox Christian. He writes (70 p. 113):