Word: madnesses
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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Perhaps there seem to drum in imagination's ear those feverish midnight hoofbeats which so often heralded (in winter or summer, snow or clear) the approach of the mad yet somehow great King Ludwig II of Bavaria (1845-1886). The hoofbeats become a roar, and then the gilded coach or sleigh is seen. In the darkness its powerful interior lighting reveals the King, often in his golden crown, lolling at ease yet disconsolate. A robe of rich stuff lies across his knees and those of the young officer who is always beside him?for Ludwig will have none of women...
...gravely with the empty chair in which is supposed to sit Louis XVI. To Marie Antoinette the sly Ludwig pays less attention. He must not rouse the husband's suspicions ?clever Ludwig! She will slip away soon enough to the great bed, large enough for six, on which mad Ludwig lies beneath a gold embroidered coverlet which cost 2,000,000 gold marks...
Such a madman, such a King, could touch the Bavarian heart, fire imaginations, make the very enormity of his follies a .source of national pride. "What country but Bavaria could produce a king so mad as ours?" asked contented tradespeople as they grew rich supplying his luxuries. Even today, Ludwig II, who drowned himself in a fury at last, seems a hero to Bavaria...
...opened with wonder at their gay, flowing robes, their merry whirl about the gleaming rod, pendent by their teeth. I, on the contrary was filled with worry. Once such a trapeze artist had broken that bridge, and out had come filling, artist and all. How sad and bad and mad it was, and yet . . I got some message out of it. For did not a lion tamer carry the poor artist from the arena amid cries of applauding multitudes who thought this a part of the show...
Thus Author Hamsun begins his examination of a mad, melancholy Dane, Johan Nagel, and the heap of odd things he did. He fell in love with Dagny Kielland, who was engaged to marry a naval officer. He made friends with pauperish Minutten. He mystified the townspeople by never explaining his visit...