Page:Strindberg the Man (1920).djvu/66

IT does not seem improbable that Strindberg began what he calls his Inferno-wandering—the “pathological crisis” of his physicians—during his honeymoon at Gravesend.

Several times during our conversation he reverted to one of the experiences of that period. It is also discussed in some of his autobiographical works, probably in some of the Blue Books.

One Sunday morning he left Gravesend for London. On one of the morning trains he had arrived at the station just south of London Bridge. From this point he continued on foot, crossing at this early morning hour the long, deserted bridge.

But suddenly the bridge is no longer deserted. Towards him there comes like a wave an endless procession of mystic penitents, all with hoods over their heads, so that only the gray beards or the chins are visible, advancing slowly and with silent steps.

Strindberg would always revert to these phantoms of London Bridge. If they were real, then, through the deep impression they made upon him, they aided in bringing about the crisis which was being fanned to life within him. If, on the other hand, they were not real but mere visions, then they formed the introduction to the “pathological crisis”.