On the other hand, among the Emperor's pleasant experiences may be reckoned the visit of Mr. Beerbohm Tree and his English company to the German capital. Their repertory of Shakespearean drama greatly delighted the Emperor, who expressed his pleasure to Mr. Tree and his fellow-players personally, and did not dismiss them without substantial tokens of his appreciation.
Earlier in the year the French actress, Suzanne Deprès, visited Berlin and appealed strongly to the Emperor's taste for the "classical" in music and drama. Inviting the actress to the royal box, he said to her:
"You have shown us such a natural, living Phædra that we were all strongly moved. How fine a part it is! As a youngster I used to learn verses from 'Phædra' by heart. I am told that in France devotion to classical tradition is growing weaker, and that Molière and Racine are more and more seldom played. What a pity! Our people, on the contrary, remain faithful to their great poets and enjoy their works. After school comes college, and after college--the theatre. It should elevate and expand the soul. The people do not need any representation of reality--they are well acquainted with that in their daily lives. One must put something greater and nobler before them, something superior to 'La Dame aux Camélias.'"
A month later, however, he made one of his extremely rare visits to an ordinary Berlin theatre to see--"The Hound of the Baskervilles"!
Meanwhile in domestic politics Chancellor von Bülow's famous "bloc" continued to work satisfactorily, notwithstanding difficulties arising from the conflicting interests of industry and agriculture, Free Trade and Protection and differences of creed and race. At the end of this year it was near falling asunder in connection with the question of judicial reform, but Prince von Bülow kept it together for a while by an impassioned appeal to the patriotism of both parties. In the course of the speech he told the House how, when he was standing at Bismarck's death-bed, he noticed on the wall the portrait of a man, Ludwig Uhland, who had said "no head could rule over Germany that was not well anointed with democratic oil," and drew the conclusion from the contrast between the dying man of action and the poet that only the union of old Prussian conservative energy and discipline with German broad-hearted, liberal spirit could secure a happy future for the nation. The "bloc," as we shall see, broke up in 1909 and Prince von Bülow resigned. The Chancellor afterwards attributed his fall entirely to the Conservatives, but it is possible, even probable, that it was in at least some measure due to the events of the _annus mirabilis_, 1908, which now opened.