August Strindberg

“ Good-night, Falk! Are you coming with me, Olle?"
"Good night."
"Poor Falk!" said Sellén to Olle. "Now it's his turn to go through the mill. But there's no help for it; it's like changing one's teeth; a man is not grown up until he has had his experience." ”

“ And I am expecting a telegram from him—any moment. [Goes to the right] I'll be back at once.
ALICE. There you see him as he is! Can he be called human?
CURT. When you asked that question once before, I answered no. Now I believe him to be the commonest kind of human being of the sort that possess the earth. Perhaps we, too, are of the same kind—making use of other people and of favourable opportunities?
ALICE. He has eaten you and yours alive—and you defend him?
CURT. I have suffered worse things. And this man-eater has left my soul unharmed—that he couldn't swallow! ”

“ August Strindberg is one of the most wonderful and perfect examples of a type which, in our vacillating age, frequently rises to the surface and endeavours to make its mark everywhere; a type full of aggressiveness and impatience, seldom made after a pattern and frequently full of imperfections, but with touches of real genius as well [Pg 147] as barren wastes, full of lapses, but full of promises for the future. It is a mixed type. The strange combinations in his character, the seeming contradictions and the flaws in his education make it a very difficult study for the average person. ”

“ These quotations should be read in conjunction with still another, taken from Strindberg's latest play, "The Great Highway," which, while being a sort of symbolical summary of his life experience, yet pierces the magic circle of self-concern within which too often he has remained a captive. There The Hermit asks: "You do not love your fellow-men?" And Strindberg, masquerading as The Hunter, cries in answer: "Yes, far too much, and fear them for that reason, too."
August Strindberg was born at Stockholm, Sweden, on January 22, 1849. ”

“ AGDA. If your lordship commands, I must talk, of course, but....
ERIC. Give me the love that I have begged for so long!
AGDA. What one does not have one cannot give away.
ERIC. Alas!
AGDA. Not loving your lordship, I cannot give you any love.
ERIC. Diantre!—Give me your favour, then!
AGDA. Favours are not given away, but sold.
ERIC. Listen to that! It is as if I heard my wise Jacob himself philosophising. [To JORGHEN] Did you ever hear anything like it?
JORGHEN. All wenches learn that kind of patter from their lovers.
ERIC. Don't talk like that! This girl has won my heart. ”

“ BISKRA. Lie down on the floor.
GUIMARD lies down unwillingly.
BISKRA. What do you hear?
GUIMARD. I hear the murmuring of a spring.
BISKRA. There you see! God is one, and there is no other God but He, the Merciful and Compassionate One!—What do you see?
GUIMARD. I can hear a spring murmur—I can see the light of a lamp—in a window with green shutters—on a white street——
BISKRA. Who is sitting at the window?
GUIMARD. My wife—Elise!
BISKRA. Who is standing behind the curtain with his arm around her neck?
GUIMARD. That's my son, George.
BISKRA. How old is your son? ”

“ August Strindberg has left a remarkably rich record of his life in various works, especially in his autobiographical series of novels. He was born in 1849 in Stockholm. His was a sad childhood passed in extreme poverty. He succeeded in entering the University of Upsala in 1867, but was forced for a time on account of lack of means to interrupt his studies. He tried his fortune as schoolmaster, actor, and journalist and made an attempt to study medicine. ”

“ AUGUST STRINDBERG "I seek God and find the Devil."
"My hate is boundless as the wastes, burning as the sun, and stronger than my love."
The above quotations give some idea of that black pessimism which is, at any rate, the most patent characteristic of Strindberg. Yet neither quotation, motto, nor catch-word can do justice to the multifarious life and character of this man. For Strindberg, more than any other European author of our age, has boxed the whole compass of our modernity with its tumults, its aspirations, its perversities ”

“ Whenever he had attempted the smallest familiarity, her cold looks had chilled his ardour. But he loved her as a man loves a woman, with body and soul.
They fidgeted about the drawing-room and tried to make conversation. But an obstinate silence again and again reasserted itself. The candles in the chandelier had burnt low and the wax fell in greasy drops on the carpet. The atmosphere was heavy with the smell of food and the fumes of the wines which mingled with the voluptuous perfume of carnations and heliotrope, exhaled by Helena’s bridal bouquet that lay on a side-table. ”

“ As the Norwegian hesitated, there came a sharp "Now!" like the crack of a whip over a horse. It was quite clear to him what he had to do now; he pressed his mother-in-law's hand and went. His firm steps must have shown that they were the opposite to those leading to the lion's cave, [2] going out and away but never returning, for he heard immediately the old man's voice in a caressing, lamenting tone: "Axel!"
It felt like a stab in the departer's breast, but he had begun to move, and went on without looking round. ”

“ LAURA. Give me your hand, friend.
CAPTAIN. My band! The hand that you have bound! Omphale! Omphale!-- But I feel your shawl against my mouth; it is as warm and soft as your arm, and it smells of vanilla, like your hair when you were young! Laura, when you were young, and we walked in the birch woods, with the primroses and the thrushes--glorious, glorious! Think how beautiful life was, and what it is now. You didn't want to have it like this, nor did I, and yet it happened. Who then rules over life?
LAURA. God alone rules--
CAPTAIN. The God of strife then! ”

“ He had dreamt that he held the gardener’s daughter in his arms. He could not remember the circumstances, for he was quite dazed, and fell asleep again directly.
On the following morning he was depressed and had a headache. He brooded over the future which loomed before him threateningly and filled him with dread. He realised with a pang how quickly the summer was passing, for the end of the summer meant the degradation of school-life. Every thought of his own would be stifled by the thoughts of others; there was no advantage in being able to think independently ”

“ AGDA. No, I don't. [JORGHEN looks offended] Not unless you try to be good.
JORGHEN. How the devil is that to be done?
AGDA. Shame! Shame!
JORGHEN. If you never see anything good, how can you believe in it?
AGDA. Tell me, secretary, did the Prince mean what he said about the Hanseatic people and what they are doing in that house?
JORGHEN. No, child! That was only a cruel jest. But no Swedish authority can interfere with what they are doing in there. That much you should know, if you are worrying about your Jacob.
AGDA. Will you do me a favour? It won't cost you anything. ”

“ The elder men sat in their chairs and nodded; their wives sat by the fire which blazed so brightly that it dispelled the darkness, and chatted about weaving and baking. Mats and Karin had seated themselves on a box and whispered about their affairs. Olle the shop-boy had his arm round Lisa and Jöns his round the maid-servant; they sat on the ground and guessed riddles whose solution caused little Sven great difficulty. But the glow on the hearth became more subdued, the talk became more intermittent; the elders snored, the women nodded, and Mats and Karin nestled closer together ”

“ As he descended the narrow attic stairs it seemed to him as though an enormous gimlet were screwing him deeper and deeper into the earth. He entered the garden and looked at the apple trees in blossom. Who would pluck the fruits of these trees which he had cultivated and tended for years? He looked at the empty stable; all his horses were gone except a sorry nag, which he had never thought worth riding. He went into the dog-house and saw only ten empty leash-straps. Then his heart grew heavy, for he felt that he had been parted from the only living creatures who loved him. ”

“ JUDITH. Didn't you see that I had made my bicycle point toward the oak, and not away from it?
ALLAN. Yes, I saw it.
JUDITH. Well, what does it mean?
ALLAN. It means—that you want me to come and play tennis—but my duty—I have some problems to work out—and your father is a rather exacting teacher——
JUDITH. Do you like him?
ALLAN. Yes, I do. He takes such interest in all his pupils——
JUDITH. He takes an interest in everything and everybody. Won't you come?
ALLAN. You know I should like to—but I must not!
JUDITH. I'll ask papa to give you leave.
ALLAN. Don't do that. It will only cause talk. ”

“ Then he went to sleep again thinking of the weighing-house and of a tender farewell to the velvet jacket, with a firm resolve to earn bread, first for one month, and then for two.
The beautiful month of May did not keep its promises; snow fell while the apple trees were in blossom, and the sun did not appear for fourteen days. For fourteen dreadful days had Sten, the last scion of the family of Ulffot at Wäringe, Hofsta and Löfsala, stood at his post in the draughty, unwarmed factory by the harbour. ”

“ MARCUS and DAVID go quietly out to the left.
ERIC. A man from Småland who is full of sensible ideas.—Do you still need to have your forehead bandaged?
JACOB. Do you think I wear the bandage as an ornament, or as a souvenir of the city mob?
ERIC. You should not bear a grudge against the good folk because some scamp has misbehaved himself.
JACOB. I don't, my friend, and I know perfectly well what a stranger must expect in a hostile country. If you come to Luebeck, you will see how they stone Swedes.
ERIC. You talk just like Jorghen Persson. Do you know him? ”

“ Ten years later Strindberg heard that he had been wrongfully accused of writing defamatory verses about the King.
He decided to leave Upsala and to seek work in Stockholm as a journalist. At a valedictory gathering of the old friends he thanked them for their contributions to his self, "for a personality is not developed out of itself; out of each soul with which it comes in contact it sucks a drop, like the bee collecting its honey from millions of flowers, transforming it and passing it on as its own." ”

“ You—that you—oh, I saw that, when you were kind, another Judith appeared—and she's mine!—But if you don't keep faith with me now, then I shall die!
JUDITH. I think I am dying even now—Oh, that I might die now, just now, when I am so happy——
ALLAN. Somebody is coming!
JUDITH. Let them come! I fear nothing in the world hereafter. But I wish you could take me along under your cloak. [She hides herself in play under his cloak] And then I should fly with you to Norrland. What are we to do in Norrland? Become a Fusilier—one of those that wear plumes on their hats? ”

“ She has already laid aside the handle-bars. Now she lets down the bicycle skirt and twists her braid into a knot which she fastens on top of her head with a hair-pin taken out of her mother's hair.
ALICE. It is not proper to make your toilet in a strange place.
JUDITH. Am I all right this way? Then I am ready. Come now who dares!
ALICE. Now at last you look decent. And leave Allan in peace after this.
JUDITH. I don't understand what you mean?
ALICE. Can't you see that he is suffering?
JUDITH. Yes, I think I have noticed it, but I don't know why. I don't suffer!
ALICE. That is your strength. ”

“ THE ECCENTRICITY OF AUGUST STRINDBERG One cannot speak of August Strindberg with much gusto. The most broadminded critic will find himself under necessity to disapprove of him as a man and to condemn so many features of his production that almost one might question his fitness as a subject of literary discussion. ”

“ The difficulty was not that he would not or could not study. He studied too much; his mind absorbed with intuitive and lightning quickness knowledge from men and books. But he refused to take opinions on trust; he individualised everything that was assimilated by his receptive and turbulent mind, and scorned academical routine.
[Pg 52]
In the autumn of 1867 August Strindberg went to Upsala to equip himself with the powers and graces which accompany a "university education." He possessed the sum of 80 kronor (1 krona = 1s. 2d.) , laboriously earned by private lessons ”

“ When Justin McCarthy spoke of the real Strindberg, as revealed in The Father, Lady Julie and Comrades, he ignored, not only the volumes of essays, stories and novels which preceded the plays mentioned, but those which were published at the same time. Strindberg has been described as a man who had no interest to spare for social problems, or politics, or the great movements of his time—as a dramatist whose knife was forever delving in the pathological tissue of passions, and whose eyes saw nothing but the broad and sombre outlines of inevitable tragedy. ”

“ Her fingers clutched the paper, rolled it into a ball and flung it into the underwood. Then she stared, fascinated, at the ball of white, glimmering through the green undergrowth. For the first time in her life she had received an insult. She was completely unnerved. This unknown journalist had dared what nobody had dared before: he had been rude to her. She had come out from behind her trenches into the arena where high birth counts for nothing, but where victory belongs to that wonderful natural endowment which we call talent, and before which all powers bow when it can no longer be denied. ”