August Strindberg's Antibarbarus

[Paul Ferguson]

"Strindberg was greatly interested in monkeys, and had a theory that the gorilla was descended from the union of a shipwrecked sailor and a female monkey. He was also occupied with alchemy at that time and claimed to have extracted gold from earth which he had collected in the Cimitière Montparnasse. He showed me pebbles entirely coated with the precious metal and asked me to have one of these samples analysed by an eminent chemist of my acquaintance. My friend examined it and found it to be covered with pure gold. He was hugely interested and expressed the desire to make Strindberg's acquaintance. So I arranged a meeting in my rooms for a certain Wednesday afternoon at three o'clock."

From "Frederick Delius" by Peter Warlock, page 50, available here:

https://ia600302.us.archive.org/21/items...00warl.pdf