Henrik Ibsen

“ It is your fault that my life has come to nothing.
Helmer. Why, Nora, how unreasonable and ungrateful you are! Have you not been happy here?
Nora. No, never. I thought I was; but I never was.
Helmer. Not—not happy!
Nora. No; only merry. And you have always been so kind to me. But our house has been nothing but a play-room. Here I have been your doll-wife, just as at home I used to be papa’s doll-child. And the children, in their turn, have been my dolls. I thought it fun when you played with me, just as the children did when I played with them. That has been our marriage, Torvald.
Helmer. ”

“ MANDERS. But, merciful God—!
REGINA. I can't help it, sir.
OSWALD. Or she'll stay here, if I stay.
REGINA. [Involuntarily.] Here!
MANDERS. I am thunderstruck at your conduct, Mrs. Alving.
MRS. ALVING. They will do neither one thing nor the other; for now I can speak out plainly.
MANDERS. You surely will not do that! No, no, no!
MRS. ALVING. Yes, I can speak and I will. And no ideals shall suffer after all.
OSWALD. Mother—what is it you are hiding from me?
REGINA. [Listening.] Oh, ma'am, listen! Don't you hear shouts outside. [She goes into the conservatory and looks out.] ”

“ RAGNAR.
There is no one else.
HILDA.
Yes, there is one he is striving with.
RAGNAR.
You are mistaken.
HILDA.
Then do you hear no song in the air, either?
RAGNAR.
It must be the wind in the tree-tops.
HILDA.
I hear a song—a mighty song! [Shouts in wild jubilation and glee.] Look, look! Now he is waving his hat! He is waving it to us down here! Oh, wave, wave back to him! For now it is finished! [Snatches the white shawl from the Doctor, waves it, and shouts up to SOLNESS.] Hurrah for Master Builder Solness!
DR. HERDAL.
Stop! Stop! For God's sake—! ”

“ Julian. Maximus!
Maximus. There is One who ever reappears, at certain intervals, in the course of human history. He is like a rider taming a wild horse in the arena. Again and yet again it throws him. A moment, and he is in the saddle again, each time more secure and more expert; but off he has had to go, in all his varying incarnations, until this day. Off he had to go as the god-created man in Eden’s grove; off he had to go as the founder of the world-empire;—off he must go as the prince of the empire of God. Who knows how often he has wandered among us when none have recognised him? ”

“ Örnulf. I praise all good wights that Thorolf came not with us; for if he too—nay, strong though I be, that had been too heavy for me to bear. But why comes he not? He was ever the first to meet his father; for to both of us it seemed we could not live apart a single day.
Gunnar. Örnulf, Örnulf!
Örnulf. [With growing uneasiness.] Ye stand all silent, I mark it now. What ails you? Where is Thorolf?
Dagny. Sigurd, Sigurd—this will be the sorest blow to him!
Gunnar. [Struggling with himself.] Old man!—No——and yet, it cannot be hid——
Örnulf. ”

“ You mistake, Elina—’tis no outlaw I look for.
Elina. [Rises.] Then I have understood you ill indeed.
Lady Inger. Listen to me, my child; but think as you listen; if indeed you can tame that wild spirit of yours.
Elina. I am tame, till you have spoken.
Lady Inger. Attend, then, to what I have to tell you.—I have sought, so far as lay in my power, to keep you in ignorance of all our griefs and miseries. What could it avail to fill your young heart with wrath and care? ’Tis not women’s weeping and wailing that can deliver us; we need the courage and strength of men. ”

“ HEDDA.
Can I not help you in any way?
MISS TESMAN.
Oh, you must not think of it! Hedda Tesman must have no hand in such mournful work. Nor let her thought dwell on it either—not at this time.
HEDDA.
One is not always mistress of one's thoughts—
MISS TESMAN.
[Continuing.] Ah yes, it is the way of the world. At home we shall be sewing a shroud; and here there will soon be sewing too, I suppose—but of another sort, thank God!
GEORGE TESMAN enters by the hall door.
HEDDA.
Ah, you have come at last!
TESMAN.
You here, Aunt Julia? With Hedda? Fancy that! ”

“ LADY INGER. I know my reckoning, and I fear it not.
ELINA. Your reckoning ends not here. Where is Lucia, your second child?
LADY INGER. Ask God, who took her.
ELINA. It is you I ask; it is you that must answer for her young life. She was glad as a bird in spring when she sailed from Ostrat to be Merete's guest. A year passed, and she stood in this room once more; but her cheeks were white, and death had gnawed deep into her breast. Ah, you wonder at me, my mother! You thought that the ugly secret was buried with her;—but she told me all. A courtly knight had won her heart. ”

“ ELLA RENTHEIM. It is you who have sinned. You have done to death all the gladness of my life in me.
BORKMAN.
[Anxiously.] Do not say that, Ella!
ELLA RENTHEIM. All a woman's gladness at any rate. From the day when your image began to dwindle in my mind, I have lived my life as though under an eclipse. During all these years it has grown harder and harder for me—and at last utterly impossible—to love any living creature. Human beings, animals, plants: I shrank from all—from all but one——
BORKMAN.
What one?
ELLA RENTHEIM.
Erhart, of course. ”

“ Wangel. Something quite simple. We are going away.
Ellida. Going away?
Wangel. Yes. Somewhere by the open sea—a place where you can find a true home, after your own heart.
Ellida. Oh, dear, do not think of that! That is quite impossible. You can live happily nowhere on earth but here!
Wangel. That must be as it may. And, besides, do you think I can live happily here—without you?
Ellida. But I am here. And I will stay here. You have me.
Wangel. Have I, Ellida?
Ellida. Oh! don't speak of all this. Why, here you have all that you love and strive for. All your life's work lies here. ”

“ INGEBORG. Good; then I shall.
INGEBORG. [Aloud.] Hemming shall not go to the altar with Alfhild;—he is too good to marry another man's darling!
OLAF. [With a cry.] For shame!
THE GUESTS. Darling!
ARNE. [To INGEBORG.] What are you saying?
LADY KIRSTEN. Heaven protect us!
OLAF. Cursed be my soul! She is put to shame!
INGEBORG. Yes, loudly I proclaim it: she is another man's darling. Let him gainsay it who dares.
ARNE. Ingeborg!
ARNE. [Aside.] What is the matter with her?
LADY KIRSTEN. [Softly.] So that's the way it is! She then,—she it is who cares for Hemming! ”

“ It is delightful to be at home by ourselves again, to be all alone with you—you fascinating, charming little darling!
NORA.
Don’t look at me like that, Torvald.
HELMER.
Why shouldn’t I look at my dearest treasure?—at all the beauty that is mine, all my very own?
NORA.
[going to the other side of the table] . You mustn’t say things like that to me tonight.
HELMER.
[following her] . You have still got the Tarantella in your blood, I see. And it makes you more captivating than ever. Listen—the guests are beginning to go now. [In a lower voice.] Nora—soon the whole house will be quiet. ”

“ I think it might be done. What happiness it would be to live one's life, then! No more hateful strife—only emulation; every eye fixed on the same goal; every man's will, every man's thoughts moving forward-upward—each in its own inevitable path Happiness for all—and through the efforts of all! (Looks out of the window as he speaks, then gives a start and says gloomily:) Ah! not through me.
Rebecca. Not—not through you?
Rosmer. Nor for me, either.
Rebecca. Oh, John, have no such doubts.
Rosmer. Happiness, dear Rebecca, means first and foremost the calm, joyous sense of innocence. ”

“ HIORDIS. That was the only time; never, never again! I deemed I was bewitched; for that Gunnar could clasp a woman—— (Stops and looks at DAGNY.) What ails thee? Methinks thou turnest pale and red!
DARNY. Nay, nay!
HIORDIS (without noticing her) . The merry viking-raid should have been my lot; it had been better for me, and—mayhap for all of us. That were life, full and rich life! Dost thou not wonder, Dagny, to find me here alive? Art not afraid to be alone with me in the hall? Deem'st thou not that I must have died in all these years, and that it is my ghost that stands at thy side? ”

“ Håkon. Accuse not heaven, Bishop Nicholas! You have hated much.
Bishop Nicholas. Ay, I have hated much; hated every head in this land that raised itself above the crowd. But I hated because I could not love. Fair women,—oh, I could devour them even now with glistening eyes! I have lived eighty years, and yet do I yearn to kill men and clasp women;—but my lot in love was as my lot in war: nought but an itching will, my strength sapped from my birth; dowered with seething desire—and yet a weakling! So I became a priest: king or priest must that man be who would have all might in his hands. ”

“ Say not that you long for death, Julian!
Julian. What you slavishly hope for after death, ’tis the aim of the great mystery to win for all the initiated, here in our earthly life. ’Tis regeneration that Maximus and his disciples seek,—’tis our lost likeness to the godhead. Wherefore so full of doubt, my brothers? Why do you stand there as though before something insurmountable? I know what I know. In each successive generation there has been one soul wherein the pure Adam has been born again; he was strong in Moses the lawgiver; in the Macedonian Alexander he had power to subdue the world ”

“ He is not afraid of robbing others of their happiness—as he has done both for my father and me. But when it comes to climbing up a paltry bit of scaffolding—he will do anything rather than that.
HILDA.
Oh, you should just have seen him high, high up—at the dizzy height where I once saw him.
RAGNAR.
Did you see that?
HILDA.
Yes, indeed I did. How free and great he looked as he stood and fastened the wreath to the church vane!
RAGNAR.
I know that he ventured that, once in his life—one solitary time. It is a legend among us younger men. ”

“ BLANKA. No, you must live!
GANDALF. I live? No, to the gods I must be true, I cannot break with them.
BLANKA. Your oath is bloody, Balder hates it.
GANDALF. Yes, But Balder lives no longer with us now!
BLANKA. For you he lives; your soul is gentleness.
GANDALF. Yes, to my ruin! It became my task As king to keep intact our great ideal,— But I lack strength enough! Come, Asgaut, you Shall take the kingly sceptre from my hand; You are a warrior of the truest steel; On me the Southern plague has been at work. But if I cannot for my people live, I now can die for them. ”

“ DAGNY (to ORNULF) . Oh, do not hear him!
KARE. Hiordis has declared me an outlaw; with cunning will she seek to take my life; do thou swear to see me scatheless, and this night will I burn Gunnar's hall and all within it. Is that to thy mind?
SIGURD. Dastard!
ORNULF (quietly) . To my mind? Knowest thou, Kare, what were more to my mind? (In a voice of thunder.) To hew off thy nose and ears, thou vile thrall. Little dost thou know old Ornulf if thou thinkest to have his help in such a deed of shame!
KARE (who has shrunk backwards) . If thou fall not upon Gunnar he will surely fall upon thee. ”

“ You haven’t any idea how many expenses we skylarks and squirrels have, Torvald.
HELMER.
You are an odd little soul. Very like your father. You always find some new way of wheedling money out of me, and, as soon as you have got it, it seems to melt in your hands. You never know where it has gone. Still, one must take you as you are. It is in the blood; for indeed it is true that you can inherit these things, Nora.
NORA.
Ah, I wish I had inherited many of papa’s qualities.
HELMER.
And I would not wish you to be anything but just what you are, my sweet little skylark. ”

“ You think ’tis the Lord’s calling that draws you toward the throne; you see not that ’tis nought but pride of heart. What is it that allures you? The royal circlet, the purple-bordered mantle, the right to be seated three steps above the floor;—pitiful, pitiful: Were that kingship, I would cast it into your hat, as I cast a groat to a beggar.
Duke Skule. You have known me since your childhood, and you judge me thus!
Håkon. You have wisdom and courage and all noble gifts of the mind; you are born to stand nearest a king, but not to be a king yourself. ”

“ OSWALD. Not even one who is so near to you?
REGINA. No, that I can't. A poor girl must make the best of her young days, or she'll be left out in the cold before she knows where she is. And I, too, have the joy of life in me, Mrs. Alving!
MRS. ALVING. Unfortunately, you leave. But don't throw yourself away, Regina.
REGINA. Oh, what must be, must be. If Oswald takes after his father, I take after my mother, I daresay.—May I ask, ma'am, if Pastor Manders knows all this about me?
MRS. ALVING. Pastor Manders knows all about it. ”

“ SOLNESS.
Open the door?
HILDA.
Yes. Let them come in to you on friendly terms, as it were.
SOLNESS.
No, no, no! The younger generation—it means retribution, you see. It comes, as if under a new banner, heralding the turn of fortune.
HILDA.
[Rises, looks at him, and says with a quivering twitch of her lips.] Can I be of any use to you, Mr. Solness?
SOLNESS.
Yes, you can indeed! For you, too, come—under a new banner it seems to me. You marshalled against youth—!
DR. HERDAL comes in by the hall-door. DR. HERDAL.
What—you and Miss Wangel here still? ”

“ ALFHILD. And where is the home, the house of God, Where the dead dream only of mirth? OLAF. Behold! Now they place him beneath the sod And cover him over with earth. ALFHILD. [Quiet and thoughtful, after a pause.] Not so was death in the song—not so. OLAF. 'Tis true; but no such joy and pleasure Has any one felt here below.— Have you never heard of the mountain king's treasure, Which night after night like gold would glow; But if you would seize the gold in your hand, You nothing would find save gravel and sand; And listen, Alfhild! it often is true That life turns out in the selfsame way ”

“ HIORDIS. So be it; but thou canst not. Thou wilt seek to hinder me, but in vain; ere evening falls, Gunnar and Dagny shall know all.
SIGURD. Ha, that wilt thou never do!
HIORDIS. That will I do!
SIGURD. Then must I know thee ill; high-souled have I ever deemed thee.
HIORDIS. Evil days breed evil thoughts; too great has been thy trust in me. I will, I must, go forth by thy side—forth to face life and strife; Gunnar's roof-tree is too low for me.
SIGURD (with emphasis) . But honour between man and man hast thou highly prized. There lack not grounds for strife between me and Gunnar ”

“ Hiördis. Nay, we must not. I love thee, that may I now say unashamed; for my love is no mere dalliance, like a weak woman’s; were I a man—by all the Mighty Ones, I could still love thee, even as now I do! Up then, Sigurd! Happiness is worth a daring deed; we are both free if we but will it, and then the game is won.
Sigurd. Free? What meanest thou?
Hiördis. What is Dagny to thee? What can she be to thee? No more than I count Gunnar in my secret heart. What matter though two worthless lives be wrecked? ”

“ CATILINE. I must! Inexorable fate decrees it!
FURIA. Your fate? Why were you given a hero's strength,— If not to struggle with what you call fate?
CATILINE. Oh, I have fought enough! Was not my life A constant battle? What are my rewards? Disgrace and scorn—!
FURIA. Ah, you are fallen low! You struggle towards a high and daring goal, Are eager to attain it; yet you fear Each trifling hindrance.
CATILINE. Fear is not the reason. The goal I sought is unattainable;— The whole was but a fleeting dream of youth.
FURIA. Now you deceive yourself, my Catiline! ”

“ HIORDIS. Nay, why should I not tell it? Is it true, Thorolf, that for three nights thy father sat in woman's weed, doing sorceries with the witch of Smalserhorn, ere he dared face Jokul in fight.
(All rise; violent excitement among the guests.)
GUNNAR, SIGURD, AND DAGNY. Hiordis!
THOROLF (bitterly exasperated) . So base a lie has no man spoken of Ornulf of the Fiords! Thou thyself hast made it, for no one less venomous than thou could dream of such a thing. The blackest crime a man can do hast thou laid at my father's door. (Throwing the sword away.) There, Gunnar, take thy gift again ”

“ INGEBORG. Away, then! Up to the valley which Alfhild has told of!
HEMMING. Yes, up there! There no one will seek us!
[They rush out to the left.—ALFHILD continues to lie motionless for some time. Suddenly cries and commotion are hear in the bridal house; the flames break out through the roof.]
ALFHILD. [Jumps up in despair.]
It burns!—Aha,—I remember! 'T was here Too dark for my soul—it filled me with fear! Olaf, before it was you who smiled, Now it is Alfhild, so gay and so wild!— In the bridal house there is anguish and gloom, The bride is burning on the arm of the groom! ”

“ ORNULF (in rising wrath) . And who has the right to crave atonement for Jokul? Where are his kinsmen? There is none alive! Where is his lawful avenger?
HIORDIS. That is Gunnar, on my behalf.
ORNULF. Gunnar! Ay, hadst thou been betrothed to him with thy foster-father's good-will, or had he made atonement for carrying thee away, then were he thy father's lawful avenger; but——
DAGNY (apprehensive and imploring) . Father, father!
SIGURD (quickly) . Do not speak it!
ORNULF (raising his voice) . Nay, loudly shall it be spoken! A woman wedded by force has no lawful husband! ”

“ OLAF. [Deeply moved.] Alas, that I lay in the grave below. Lulled in eternal rest! Your every word is a steel-made bow That strikes with an arrow my breast! ALFHILD. [Jumps up with childlike joy.] Just so it shall be,—'tis rightfully so! Yes, truly, indeed, have you chords in your breast! So let it be sung; they easily show That you are yourself by my sorrow oppressed. They show that your own grief is just as strong As the one that you voice in your plaintive song! [She stops and looks sorrowfully at him.] ALFHILD. Yet no,—you shall not sing of Alfhild's lament ”

“ GUNNAR (to SIGURD) . Thou hast been my friend where'er we fared;
thou wilt not stand against me now.
DAGNY. And to depart from the land, leaving Hiordis with hate in
her heart—no, no, that must we not!
GUNNAR. I have done Ornulf a great wrong; until it is made good, I
cannot be at peace with myself.
SIGURD (vehemently) . All else will I do for thee, Gunnar, but not stay here! (Mastering himself.) I am in King AEthelstan's service, and I must be with him in England ere the winter is out.
DAGNY. But that thou canst be, nevertheless.
GUNNAR. No man can know what lot awaits him ”

“ Jealous was ever Rome of her great power. And bear in mind, this proud and haughty realm Is not by chieftains ruled, as is our land. At home the wise man or the warrior reigns,— The first in wisdom and in war the foremost; Him choose we as the leader of our people, As arbiter and ruler of our tribe. But here— CATILINE. [Calls down to them.] —Here might and selfishness hold sway;— Intrigue and craft are here the keys to power. OLLOVICO. Woe to us, brethren, woe! He spies upon us. AMBIORIX. [To CATILINE.] Is such the practice of the high-born Roman? A woman's trick we hold it in our nation. ”

“ SIGURD. Hear me out, Ornulf; the day shall never dawn that shall see thee and me at strife. There is honourable peace between us, Dagny is dearer to me than weapons or gold, and never shall I forget that thou art her nearest kinsman.
ORNULF. There I know thee again, brave Sigurd!
SIGURD. But Gunnar is my foster-brother; faith and friendship have we sworn each other. Both in war and peace have we faced fortune together, and of all men he is dearest to me. Stout though he be, he loves not war;—but as for me, ye know, all of you, that I shrink not from strife ”

“ ARNE. [To LADY KIRSTEN.] He lies! Do not believe him!
HEMMING. But it is nevertheless true,—the tale of the bride who disappeared on the eve of her wedding.
ARNE. Aye, that was many years ago; nowadays such things never happen. But we'll all help to find him.
INGEBORG. It was not sung at my cradle that I should run about in forest and field to find my bridegroom.
ARNE. Be still!
INGEBORG. If he is enthralled in the mountain, then let her take him who has done it; I don't propose to share my betrothed's heart and soul. ”

“ SIGURD (standing forward) . Well met, Gunnar!
GUNNAR (gladly) . Sigurd—foster-brother! (Shakes his hand.) Now truly, since thou art here, I know that Ornulf comes in peace. (To ORNULF.) Give me thy hand, greybeard! Thy errand here in the north is lightly guessed: it has to do with Hiordis, thy foster-daughter.
ORNULF. As thou sayest; great wrong was done me when thou didst bear her away from Iceland without my will.
GUNNAR. Thy claim is just; what youth has marred, the man must mend. Long have I looked for thee, Ornulf, for this cause; and if amends content thee, we shall soon be at one. ”

“ OLAF. Alfhild! There she is! In her wedding garments she has fled up here. Here then shall you awaken after the bridal night; so sorry a day to you was my day of honor. You wished to go out into life, you said; you wanted to learn to know all the love in the world. So sorry a journey you had, but I swear it shall all be well again. She moves; it is as if she were writhing in sorrow and anguish;—when you awaken, it shall be to joy and delight!
ALFHILD. [Still half in dreams.]
It burns! Oh, save him,—he is within! He must not die! Life anew he must win! ”

“ SIGURD. What has befallen thee?
HIORDIS. What has befallen? That know I not; but true was it what thou said'st to-day, that Gunnar and Dagny stand between us; we must away from them and from life: then can we be together!
SIGURD. We? Ha, thou meanest——!
HIORDIS (with dignity) . I have been homeless in this world from that day thou didst take another to wife. That was ill done of thee! All good gifts may a man give his faithful friend—all, save the woman he loves; for if he do that, he rends the Norn's secret web, and two lives are wrecked. ”

“ Olaf, behold! A corpse they carry, to the grave they creep; But no mother is there, no children who weep, No pillows are there of blue or of red,— Alfhild on shavings and straw lies dead! I shall never ride now to the heaven above, And awake in the arms of the God of love. No mother have I whose heart will break, No one who follows and weeps for my sake; No person have I in the world so wide, Who weeps for me at the bier,— No angels to scatter on every side Blue pearls in the heavenly sphere; And ne'er shall I reach the dwelling of God, Where the dead dream only of mirth! OLAF. Alfhild! ”