Henrik Ibsen

“ After the success of Hedda Gabler, which overpowered all adverse comment, Ibsen began to long to be in Norway again, and this feeling was combined, in a curious way, with a very powerful emotion which now entered into his life. He had lived a retired and peaceful existence, mainly a spectator at the feast, as little occupied in helping himself to the dishes which he saw others enjoy as is an eremite in the desert in plucking the grape-clusters of his dreams. No adventure, of any prominent kind, had ever been seen to diversify Ibsen's perfectly decorous and domestic career. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ It may even be held, without fear of paradox, that this was the turning-point of Ibsen's life, that this blind step in the dark, taken in the magnificent freedom of youth, was what made him what he became. No Bergen in 1851, we may say, and no Doll's House or Hedda Gabler ultimately to follow. For what it did was to force this stubborn genius, which might so easily have slipped into sinister and abnormal paths, and have missed the real humanity of the stage, to take the tastes of the vulgar into due consideration and to acquaint himself with the necessary laws of play-composition. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A mind of great depth, a soul of prophetic vision has passed away; yet not without leaving its powerful impress—for Henrik Ibsen stood upon the heights, and from their loftiest peaks we beheld, with him, the heavy fogs of the present, and through the rifts we saw the bright rays of a new sun, the promise of the dawn of a freer, stronger Humanity. ”

“ ALFHILD. Have you chords in your bosom that you can command? It seems so; your voice sounds so pleasant and sweet; Pleasant—though blended it is with deceit. Have you chords in your breast, then go round in the land And sing of Alfhild a plaintive lay To the village girls you meet on the way: Only yesterday I was so little a roe, I roamed in the green groves around; They came to the forest with arrow and bow, And chased me with falcon and hound! Only yesterday I was a bird so forlorn, I sat 'neath the linden alone ”

“ His heated brow sweet evening breezes cool, As weary-limbed he rests himself in slumber; Each sorrow-laden cloud they drive away; A restful calm his weary mind assuages;— There he finds shelter and prolongs his stay And soon forgets the sorry by-gone ages. The distant echo of the world's unrest Alone can reach his dwelling unfrequented. It does not break the calm within his breast;— It makes his soul more happy and contented ”

“ ARNE. You lie in your throat; there is no one dares make a lampoon about Arne of Guldvik. I have power; I can oust him from house and home whenever I please. Lampoon! And what do you know about lampoons!—If they have composed any songs, it is to the honor of the bride and her father!
ARNE. [Flaring up.] But it is a wretched bit of verse nevertheless, really a wretched bit of verse, I tell you. It is no man skilled in the art of poetry who has put it together, and if I once get hold of him, then—
HEMMING. Aha, master! then you know it too? Is there some one who has dared sing it to you? ”

“ On the boards at Bergen, The Feast at Solhoug was a success, while Olaf Liljekrans was a failure; but neither incident could have meant very much to Ibsen, who, if there ever was a poet who lived in the future, was waiting and watching for the development of his own genius. Slowly, without precocity, without even that joy in strength of maturity which comes to most great writers before the age of thirty, he toiled on in a sort of vacuum. ”

“ The king's court within stand the steeds so fair; The suitor who lacks not the courage to dare,— He shoes the yellow, he shoes the gray, The swiftest he saddles before it is day! He places his bride on the steed behind, She follows him safe, she follows him blind. He rides with her off, to the sea they hie, With him she would willingly live and die!
HEMMING. [As though beside himself.] Ingeborg! Ingeborg! then nothing shall henceforth terrify me! Not that you have a betrothed, not that you are my master's daughter;—yea, as sure as I live, I shall steal you tonight! ”

“ My bosom is filled with joy and with song; Wherever I wander in field or at home, They shine on my path, they light me along,— Like stars at night in the heavenly dome! You said the whole world would be asked to the feast, And foremost should ride the minstrel and priest, Knights should go forward and guide my steed, And roses should blossom on every side, Each lily we met should bow like a weed, The flowers should curtsy before the bride! OLAF. Have I said— ALFHILD. Olaf, you surely recall! All things have followed your every desire; The lindens stand yonder so green and so tall ”

“ Lady Kirsten and her kinsmen are high-born people—
ARNE. You art stupid, Hemming! High-born, high-born! Much good that will do,—it neither feeds nor enriches a man. If Lady Kirsten is high-born, then I am rich; I have gold in my chests and silver in my coffers.
HEMMING. Yes, but your neighbors make merry over the agreement you have concluded with her.
ARNE. Ah, let them, let them; it is all because they wish me ill.
HEMMING. They say that you have surrendered your legal right in order to have Ingeborg married to Olaf Liljekrans ”

“ HEMMING AND INGEBORG. O, thanks, thanks!
SCENE X
[The Preceding. THORGJERD with a harp in his hand has during the foregoing mingled with the people.]
THORGJERD. Aye, see, see! A multitude of people in the valley today!
THE PEASANTS. Thorgjerd, the fiddler!
ALFHILD. [Throws herself in his arms.] My father!
ALL. Her father!
OLAF. Yes, yes, old man! There are people and merriment in here today, and hereafter it shall always be thus. It is your daughter's wedding we are celebrating; for love has she chosen her betrothed, of love have you sung for her,—you will not stand in our way! ”

“ ENGSTRAND. Yes, I trust I am. And so I'll say good-bye, ma'am, and thank you kindly; and take good care of Regina for me— [Wipes a tear from his eye] —poor Johanna's child. Well, it's a queer thing, now; but it's just like as if she'd growd into the very apple of my eye. It is, indeed. [He bows and goes out through the hall.]
MANDERS. Well, what do you say of that man now, Mrs. Alving? That was a very different account of matters, was it not?
MRS. ALVING. Yes, it certainly was.
MANDERS. It only shows how excessively careful one ought to be in judging one's fellow creatures. ”

“ Knut Gesling dares whatever he will. No, 'tis another matter. You know that here in the district, I am held to be a wild, unruly companion—
GUDMUND. Aye, and if rumour lies not—
KNUT. Why no, much that it reports may be true enough. But now, I must tell you—
[They go, conversing, up towards the back.
SIGNE. [To MARGIT, as they come forward beside the house.] I understand you not. You speak as though an unlooked-for happiness had befallen you. What is in your mind?
MARGIT. Signe—you are still a child; you know not what it means to have ever in your heart the dread of— [Suddenly breaking off.] ”

“ DAGNY (with a cry) . Thou!
SIGURD. When the men left the feast-hall, Gunnar prayed me to come with him alone to our sleeping-place. Then said he: "Hiordis is dearer to me than all women; without her I cannot live." I answered him: "Then go to her bower; thou knowest the vow she hath sworn." But he said: "Life is dear to him that loves; if I should assail the bear, the end were doubtful, and I am loath to lose my life, for then should I lose Hiordis too." Long did we talk, and the end was that Gunnar made ready his ship, while I drew my sword, donned Gunnar's harness, and went to the bower. ”

“ Up in the gloomy, ice-bound North, where men dream about God and drink strong liquor, another teacher was engaged in undermining bourgeois morality, and raising a storm of controversy about his head. The name of Henrik Ibsen brings before us a grim-faced old man with set mouth and large spectacles and a fringe of defiant white whiskers. He was a fighting man, a dogmatic antidogmatist, a propagandist if ever there was one in the field of art. ”

“ HIORDIS. No one, that I wot of, has such a thought.
SIGURD. Say not that; I could almost find it in me to think that
thou hadst bidden us hither to stir up strife.
HIORDIS. That is like thee, Sigurd; now art thou wroth that thou
may'st not be held the mightiest man at the feast-board.
SIGURD. I have ever esteemed Gunnar more highly than myself.
HIORDIS. Well, well—second to Gunnar is still a good place, and—— (with a side-glance at THOROLF) had Ornulf been here, he could have had the third seat.
THOROLF. Then would Jokul, thy father, find a low place indeed ”

“ Hemming! it is well that the wedding is to be held tonight. Tomorrow I go home; yes, that I will. Not a day longer will I remain in Lady Kirsten's house.
HEMMING. Why, master! is there enmity again between you?
ARNE. Is it not enough, do you think, that she and all her superior relatives look down on me; at supper they laughed and jested among themselves because I could not bring myself to eat of all those ungodly, outlandish dishes. And what was it that we got to drink? Sweet wine and cider that will stay in my stomach for eight days. No, the good old homebrewed ale for me. ”

“ To extricate the race from "Böjgen's" stifling embrace, to capture the spirit of compromise, force it into a casket and hurl it into the deepest part of the sea,—this is the goal at which Ibsen, as a poet, has aimed. This extrication of the individual from compromise, and from the mighty "Böjgen," is the revolution that is his own.
I once asked Henrik Ibsen, "Is there among all the Danish poets a single one about whom, in your present stage of development (1871) , you concern yourself in the least." ”

“ That Henrik Ibsen is a poet of great verve and power is not for a moment to be denied. He is extraordinarily emotive, and has the gift of depicting in an exceptionally lifelike and impressive manner that which has excited his feelings. ”

“ My God! my God! behold, I abase myself before thee, and stand as the least of all men.
Peter. Take me from the earth, O Lord! Punish me for all my sin; but take me from the earth; for here am I homeless now!
[Sinks down upon the church steps.
King Skule. I had a friend who bled for me at Oslo. He said: A man can die for another’s life-work; but if he is to go on living, he must live for his own.—I have no life-work to live for, neither can I live for Håkon’s,—but I can die for it.
Margrete. Nay, nay, that shall you never do!
King Skule. [Takes her hand, and looks at her tenderly.] ”

“ 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.] ”

“ SCENE IV [OLAF. ALFHILD from the church.] ALFHILD. [Runs eagerly to meet him.] Olaf! Olaf! You have led me to the land Where I walk amid flowers, where before I trod on sand. In truth you have here so pleasant an isle, O here I can live without worry or guile! So much I would question, so little I know, The riddles must you explain as we go.— Is it green here always in summer and spring? OLAF. Alfhild! ALFHILD. Your answer delay! You see yon house with its spire and wing? There went I this morning to play; Without there was joy, there was laughter and mirth ”