108. “Herostrat”

Drama in five acts by Ludwig Fulda
Performance at the Burgtheater, Vienna

Now Fulda's "Herostrat" has also laid its temple in ashes in Vienna; otherwise, however, it did not have much of a sparkling effect. The tragedy didn't really want to work. For the large audience it was too motionless, too monotonous and sluggish, for the select audience its psychology was too petty. To draw the terrible deed of Herostratus from a series of small, bourgeois motifs is no longer an option for modern people. Herostratus is a grandiose embodiment of the destructive instinct, i.e. a completely primary, sovereign spiritual force. The problem of a Herostrat tragedy would be to grasp and portray its essence. So all the art of representation, which was rightly praised in the performances of Mrs. Hohenfels and Mr. Robert, was of no use; if the Herostrat had not had the good idea to set fire to the Ephesian temple - through Mr. Fulda alone he would hardly have come to posterity.