Henrik Ibsen

“ FINN. So Knut Alfson was the last of our knighthood? And now he's dead and gone! (Holds up the helmet.) Well then, hang thou scoured and bright in the Banquet Hall; for what art thou now but an empty nut-shell? The kernel—the worms have eaten that many a winter agone. What say you, Biorn—may not one call Norway's land an empty nut- shell, even like the helmet here; bright without, worm-eaten within?
BIORN. Hold your peace, and mind your work!—Is the helmet ready?
FINN. It shines like silver in the moonlight. ”

“ 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. ”

“ ELINA. —— ——And then he gathered up the fragments of the crown of Denmark—no, 'twas the flowers—and: "God's holy blood, but she is proud and fair!" Had he whispered the words in the remotest corner, long leagues from Ostrat,—still had I heard them! How I hate him! How I have always hated him,—this Nils Lykke!— There lives not another man like him, 'tis said. He plays with women—and treads them under his feet. And it was to him my mother thought to offer me!—How I hate him! They say Nils Lykke is unlike all other men. ”

“ You deceived yourself;—a maiden so young as you has other food for musing—— —— Elina Gyldenlove! Have you never had visions of an unknown power—a strong mysterious might, that binds together the destinies of mortals? When you dreamed of knightly jousts and joyous festivals—saw you never in your dreams a knight, who stood in the midst of the gayest rout, with a smile on his lips and with bitterness in his heart,—a knight that had once dreamed a dream as fair as yours, of a woman noble and stately, for whom he went ever seeking, and in vain? ”

“ NILS LYKKE. Hide the ring, man! Hide it, I say! You mistake me. Lady Inger doubts not at all that you are her child; but—ay, look about you; look at all this wealth; look at these mighty ancestors and kinsmen whose pictures deck the walls both high and low; look lastly at herself, the haughty dame, used to bear sway as the first noblewoman in the kingdom. Think you it can be to her mind to take a poor ignorant youth by the hand before all men's eyes and say: Behold my son!
NILS STENSSON. Ay, you are right, I am poor and ignorant. I have nought to offer her in return for what I crave. ”

“ Knights and nobles sang your praise in the feast-hall, and the peasants, far and near, called you the country's pillar and its hope. All thought that through you the good times were to come again! All thought that through you a new day was to dawn over the land! The night is still here; and I no longer know if I dare look for any morning to come through you.
LADY INGER. It is easy to see whence you have learnt such venomous words. You have let yourself give ear to what the thoughtless rabble mutters and murmurs about things it can little judge of. ”

“ For this I believe: a woman is the mightiest power in the world, and in her hand it lies to guide a man whither God Almighty would have him go.
ELINA (to herself) . Can it be as he says? Nay nay; there is falsehood in his eyes and deceit on his lips. And yet—no song is sweeter than his words.
NILS LYKKE (coming closer, speaks low and more intimately) . How often, when you have been sitting here at Ostrat, alone with your changeful thoughts, have you felt your bosom stifling; how often have the roof and walls seemed to shrink together till they crushed your very soul. ”

“ Were I to choose, I would rest me at Ostrat at least the winter through; I have seldom led aught but a soldier's life—— (Interrupts himself suddenly, fills a goblet, and drinks.) Your health, Sir!
NILS LYKKE. A soldier's life? Hm!
NILS STENSSON. Nay, what I would have said is this: I have been eager to see Lady Inger Gyldenlove, whose fame has spread so wide. She must be a queenly woman,—is't not so?—The one thing I like not in her, is that she shrinks so cursedly from open action. ”

“ ELINA. I am tame, till you have spoken.
LADY INGER. Then hear what I have to say—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? It is not weeping and wailing of women that can free us from our evil lot; we need the courage and strength of men.
ELINA. Who has told you that, when courage and strength are indeed needed, I shall be found wanting? ”

“ OLAF SKAKTAVL (shakes her by the hand) . Thanks for those words! I am loath indeed to think evil of you.—Yet, touching your design towards this knight, methinks 'tis a dangerous game you would play. What if you had misreckoned? What if your daughter——? 'Tis said no woman can stand against this subtle devil.
LADY INGER. My daughter? Think you that she——? Nay, have no fear of that; I know Elina better. All she has heard of his renown has but made her hate him the more. You saw with your own eyes——
OLAF SKAKTAVL. Ay, but—a woman's mind is shifting ground to build on. ”

“ It is in my power to make them rise as one man. They look to me for the signal; and if I give it not now—— it may never be given. To delay? To sacrifice the many for the sake of one?—Were it not better if I could—— ——? No, no, no—I will not! I cannot! (Steals a glance towards the Banquet Hall, but turns away again as if in dread, and whispers:) I can see them in there now. Pale spectres—dead ancestors— fallen kinsfolk.—Ah, those eyes that pierce me from every corner! (Makes a backward gesture with her hand, and cries:) Sten Sture! Knut Alfson! Olaf Skaktavl! ”

“ The lord whom Lucia met in Bergen was a Dane——
ELINA. That too I know.
LADY INGER. And his love was a lie. With guile and soft speeches he had ensnared her.
ELINA. I know it; but nevertheless she loved him; and had you had a mother's heart, your daughter's honour had been more to you than all.
LADY INGER. Not more than her happiness. Do you think that, with Merete's lot before my eyes, I could sacrifice my second child to a man that loved her not? ”

“ NILS STENSSON. Where are the Swedes?
OLAF SKAKTAVL. At our heels. They are breaking open the gate——
NILS STENSSON. Oh, Jesus! No, no! I cannot—I will not
die.
OLAF SKAKTAVL. A hiding-place, Lady Inger! Is there no corner
where we can hide him?
LADY INGER. But if they search the castle——?
NILS STENSSON. Ay, ay; they will find me! And then to be dragged to prison, or strung up——! Oh no, Inger Gyldenlove,— I know full well,—you will never suffer that to be!
OLAF SKAKTAVL (listening) . There burst the lock.
LADY INGER (at the window) . Many men rush in at the gateway. ”

“ LADY INGER. Well, speak out!
EINAR HUK. Why, we are not ashamed of our errand. In one word, we come to pray you for weapons and leave——
LADY INGER. Weapons and leave——? And for what?
EINAR HUK. There has come a rumour from Sweden that the people of the Dales have risen against King Gustav——
LADY INGER. The people of the Dales?
EINAR HUK. Ay, so the tidings run, and they seem sure enough.
LADY INGER. Well, if it were so, what have you to do with the
Dale-folk's rising?
THE PEASANTS. We will join them! We will help! We will free
ourselves!
LADY INGER (aside) . Can the time be come? ”

“ OLAF SKAKTAVL. Ostrat is no place of safety for an outlaw? That I have long known. But you forget that an outlaw is unsafe wheresoever he may wander.
LADY INGER. Speak then; I will not hinder you.
OLAF SKAKTAVL. It is nigh on thirty years now since first I saw you. It was at Akershus* in the house of Knut Alfson and his wife. You were scarce more than a child then; yet you were bold as the soaring falcon, and wild and headstrong too at times. Many were the wooers around you. I too held you dear—dear as no woman before or since. ”

“ LADY INGER. Your sword is rusted, Olaf Skaktavl! All the swords in Norway are rusted.
OLAF SKAKTAVL. That is doubtless why some folk fight only with their tongues.—Inger Gyldenlove—great is the change in you. Time was when the heart of a man beat in your breast. ”

“ NILS LYKKE. Fortune has never failed me in a war with women.
Haste you now!
(JENS BIELKE goes out to the right.)
NILS LYKKE (stands still for a while; then walks about the room, looking round him; at last he says softly) . So I am at Ostrat at last—the ancient seat that a child, two years ago, told me so much of. Lucia. Ay, two years ago she was still a child. And now—now she is dead. (Hums with a half-smile.) "Blossoms plucked are blossoms withered—— ——" (Looks round him again.) Ostrat. 'Tis as though I had seen it all before; as though I were at home here.—In there is the Banquet Hall. ”

“ Count the cost
to the Danes if King Gustav's men should lose.
LADY INGER (evasively) . That reckoning is not for me to make.
(Turns to the people) .
You know that King Gustav is sure of help from Denmark. King
Frederick is his friend, and will never leave him in the lurch——
EINAR HUK. But if the people were now to rise all over Norway's land?—if we all rose as one man, nobles and peasants together?— ay, Lady Inger Gyldenlove, the time we have waited for is surely come. We have but to rise now to drive the strangers from the land.
THE PEASANTS. Ay, out with the Danish sheriffs! ”

“ JENS BIELKE. Look you, I have never loved digging at a badger's earth. I look for quite other sport. Here have I ridden all the way from the Jaemteland with my horsemen, and have got me a warrant from the Trondhiem commandant to search for the rebel wheresoever I please. All his tracks point towards Ostrat——
NILS LYKKE. He is here! He is here, I tell you!
JENS BIELKE. If that were so, should we not have found the gate barred and well guarded? Would that we had; then could I have found use for my men-at-arms——
NILS LYKKE. But instead, the gate is opened for us in hospitality. ”

“ NILS LYKKE. Not on your side, mayhap. I have never been your enemy,—though as a subject of the King of Denmark I lacked not good cause.
LADY INGER. I understand you. I have not been pliant enough. It has not proved so easy as some of you hoped to lure me over into your camp.— Yet methinks you have nought to complain of. My daughter Merete's husband is your countryman—further I cannot go. My position is no easy one, Nils Lykke!
NILS LYKKE. That I can well believe. Both nobles and people here in Norway think they have an ancient claim on you—a claim, 'tis said, you have but half fulfilled. ”

“ Good—now manage to slip out. Let none see you. The Swedes are in ambush two miles hence. Tell the commander that Count Sture is dead. The young man you see there must not be touched. Tell the commander so. Tell him the boy's life is worth thousands to me.
FINN. It shall be done.
LADY INGER (who has meanwhile been watching NILS LYKKE) . And now go, all of you; go with God! (Points to NILS LYKKE.) This noble knight cannot find it in his heart to leave his friends at Ostrat so hastily. He will abide here with me till the tidings of your victory arrive.
NILS LYKKE (to himself) . Devil! ”

“ LADY INGER. No; we must gain breathing-time. The Council is now sitting in Copenhagen, considering how best to aim the blow. Most of them are said to hold that there can be no end to dissensions till Norway and Denmark are one; for if we should still have our rights as a free land when the time comes to choose the next king, it is most like that the feud will break out openly. Now the Danish Councillors would hinder this——
ELINA. Ay, they would hinder it——! But are we to endure such things? Are we to look on quietly while——? ”

“ LADY INGER. Let me see! (opening the letter) . From Trondhiem? What can it be? (Runs through the letter.) Help, Christ! From him! and here in Norway——
(Reads on with strong emotion, while the men go on bringing out arms from the hall.)
LADY INGER (to herself) . He is coming here. He is coming to- night!—Ay, then 'tis with our wits we must fight, not with the sword.
EINAR HUK. Enough, enough, good fellows; we are well armed now,
and can set forth on our way.
LADY INGER (with a sudden change of tone) . No man shall leave
my house to-night! ”

“ In the mountains of Jaemteland my hair has grown grey. My dwelling has been with wolves and bears.—You see, Lady Inger—I need you not; but both nobles and people stand in sore need of you.
LADY INGER. The old burden.
OLAF SKAKTAVL. Ay, it sounds but ill in your ears, I know; yet hear it you must for all that. In brief, then: I come from Sweden: troubles are at hand: the Dales are ready to rise.
LADY INGER. I know it.
OLAF SKAKTAVL. Peter Kanzler is with us—secretly, you understand.
LADY INGER (starting) . Peter Kanzler?
OLAF SKAKTAVL. It is he that has sent me to Ostrat. ”

“ LADY INGER. Fled.
NILS STENSSON. Fled? Then God help me; for he only can unseal my lips.—But what is a promise against a life! When the Swedish captain comes——
LADY INGER. What then? What will you do?
NILS STENSSON. Purchase life and freedom;—tell him all.
LADY INGER. Oh no, no;—be merciful!
NILS STENSSON. Nought else can save me. ”

“ But after all, 'tis not much to say. Now this present errand I hold for the crowning proof of my policy; for here I have to outwit a woman——
JENS BIELKE. Ha-ha-ha! In that art you have long since given crowning proofs of your skill, dear brother. Think you we in Sweden know not the song—
Fair maidens a-many they sigh and they pine; "Ah God, that Nils Lykke were mine, mine, mine!"
NILS LYKKE. Alas, it is women of twenty and thereabouts that ditty speaks of. Lady Inger Gyldenlove is nigh on fifty, and wily to boot beyond all women. It will be no light matter to overcome her. ”

“ Banquet Hall—and there's many a good weapon on the walls—you are
the masters at Ostrat to-night. You must do as seems good to you.
Good-night!
(Loud cries of joy from the multitude. Candles are lighted;
the retainers bring weapons of different kinds from the hall.)
BIORN (seizes LADY INGER'S hand as she is going) . Thanks, my noble and high-souled mistress! I, that have known you from childhood up—I have never doubted you.
LADY INGER. Hush, Biorn. It is a dangerous game that I have ventured this night. The others stake only their lives; but I, trust me, a thousandfold more! ”

“ EINAR HUK. From all our borderlands the peasants are pouring across to the Dales. Even outlaws that have wandered for years in the mountains are venturing down to the homesteads again, and drawing men together, and whetting their rusty swords.
LADY INGER (after a pause) . Tell me, men, have you thought well of this? Have you counted the cost, if King Gustav's men should win? ”