being produced. About this time he heard of the commotion that
"Countess Julie" had created in Paris, where it had been produced
by Antoine. During these victorious times Strindberg met a young
Austrian writer, Frida Uhl, to whom he was married in April 1898.
Although the literary giant of the hour, he was nevertheless in
very straightened pecuniary circumstances, which led to his
allowing the publication of "A Fool's Confession," written in
French, and later, with out his permission or knowledge, issued in
German and Swedish, which entangled him in a lawsuit, as the
subject matter contained much of his marital miseries. Interest in
chemistry had long been stirring in Strindberg's mind; it now began
to deepen. About this time also he passed through that religious
crisis which swept artistic Europe, awakened nearly a century after
his death by that Swedenborgian poet and artist, William Blake. To
this period belongs "To Damascus," a play of deepest soul probing,
which was not finished however until 1904.

Going to Paris in the fall of 1894, to pursue chemical research
most seriously, he ran into his own success at the theatres there.
"The Creditors" had been produced and Strindberg was induced to
undertake the direction of "The Father" at the Theatre de l'Oeuvre,
where it was a tremendous success. A Norwegian correspondent was
forced to send word home that with "The Father" Strindberg had
overreached Ibsen in Paris, because what it had never been possible
to do with an Ibsen play, have a run in Paris, they were now doing
with Strindberg. At the same time the Theatre des Ecaliers put on
"The Link," the Odean produced "The Secret of the Guild," and the
Chat Noir "The Kings of Heaven," and translations of his novels
were running in French periodicals. But Strindberg turned his back
on all this success and shut himself up in his laboratory to delve