September 28 Wednesday – Gribben writes on Alfred von Berger’s Habsburg. Marchenspiel in drei Acten (Vienna 1898):

Berger is mentioned in Notebook 42 while Mark Twain was in Vienna in December 1897 (TS p. 52). Berger’s verses are mentioned in September 1898 (NB 40 TS p.40) Mark Twain translated fifteen lines of verse from Habsburg into English for Joseph H. Twichell on 28 September 1898 so that Twichell could sample Berger’s “recent fairy-drama” (Yale). “The Memorable Assassination” (1898) closes with eight of these lines “to convey the spirit of the verses” [60].