Inger

“ You sent me a hare—I'll pay you for that."
"Hare again?" says Oline. "If I'd no more guilt in anything than I have about that hare. What was it like?"
"What was it like? Why, what's a hare always like?"
"Like you. The very image."
"Out with you—get out!" shrieks Inger.
"'Twas you sent Os-Anders with that hare. I'll have you punished; I'll have you put in prison for that."
"Prison—was it prison you said?"
"Oh, you're jealous and envious of all you see; you hate me for all the good things I've got," says Inger again. "You've lain awake with envy since I got Isak and all that's here. ”

“ Lady Inger!
Lady Inger. Be calm, Sir Councillor! Your life is safe. But you come not outside the gates of Östråt before victory is ours.
Nils Lykke. Death and destruction!
Lady Inger. It boots not to resist. You come not from this place. So rest you quiet; ’tis your wisest course.
Nils Lykke. [To himself.] Ah,—I am overreached. She has been craftier than I. [A thought strikes him.] But if I yet——?
Lady Inger. [To Olaf Skaktavl.] Ride with Count Sture’s troops to the frontier; then without pause to Peter Kanzler, and bring me back my child. ”

“ Lady Inger. I know it even too well, Olaf Skaktavl! But times there be when my thoughts are manifold and strange. I cannot impart them fully either to you or to any one else. Often I know not the right course to choose. And yet—a second time to make a Danish lord my son-in-law,—nought but the uttermost need could drive me to that resource; and heaven be praised—things have not yet come to that!
117Olaf Skaktavl. I am no wiser than before, Lady Inger;—why would you keep Nils Lykke at Östråt? ”

“ LADY INGER. Till to-morrow, and longer still. No armed man shall go forth from Ostrat yet awhile.
(Signs of displeasure from the crowd.)
SOME OF THE PEASANTS. We will go all the same, Lady Inger!
THE CRY SPREADS. Yes, yes; we will go!
LADY INGER (advancing a step towards them) . Who dares to move? (A silence. After a moment's pause, she adds:) I have thought for you. What do you common folk know of the country's needs? How dare you judge of such things? You must even bear your oppressions and burdens yet awhile. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The fault of the drama lies in the uncertain conception of the characters, and particularly of that of the Matriarch herself. Inger is described to us as the Mother of the Norwegian People, as the one strong, inflexible and implacable brain moving in a world of depressed and irritated men. "Now there is no knight left in our land," says Finn, but—and this is the point from which the play starts—there is Inger Gyldenlöve. We have approached the moment of crisis when the fortunes and the fates of Norway rest upon the firmness of this majestic woman. ”

“ The last two or three letters show that Thinka is quieter."
"Thinka is horribly meek," exclaimed Inger-Johanna with flashing eyes. "I believe they could pickle her and put her down and tie up the jar; she would not grumble. If Uncle Birger had done so to me, I would not have stayed there a day longer."
"Inger-Johanna! Inger-Johanna!" Ma shook her head. "You have a dangerous, spoiled temper. It is only the very, very smallest number of us women who are able to do what they would like to." ”

“ First and foremost, I must tell you that Inger-Johanna is a lady in every respect, but still with more substance to her, if I may express myself so, and stronger will than our poor Eleonore. It is certain that she in many ways overawes, not to say domineers over, your sister-in-law, strict and domineering as she otherwise has the reputation of being. And, therefore, she must resort to underhand means in many things, when she finds that it won't do to play the game openly before Inger-Johanna, which, according to my best convictions, has been the case with regard to the captain. ”

“ We will join them! We will help. We will free ourselves!
Lady Inger. [To herself.] Can the time be come?
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?
Biörn. [Softly and imploringly to Lady Inger.] Count the cost to the Danes if King Gustav’s men should lose. ”

“ ACT SECOND. (The room at Ostrat, as in the first Act.)
(LADY INGER GYLDENLOVE is seated at the table on the right, by the window. OLAF SKAKTAVL is standing a little way from her. Their faces show that they have been engaged in an animated discussion.)
OLAF SKAKTAVL. For the last time, Inger Gyldenlove—you are not to be moved from your purpose?
LADY INGER. I can do nought else. And my counsel to you is: do as I do. If it be heaven's will that Norway perish utterly, perish it must, for all we may do to save it. ”

“ It is spread abroad that the young Count Sture has been at Ostrat,—that a Danish envoy has had audience of Lady Inger—that thereupon the young Count Nils has been snapped up by King Gustav's men-at-arms a mile from the castle—— —— Let Inger Gyldenlove's name among the people stand never so high—it will scarce recover from such a blow. ”

“ All the same, the question still lay and writhed like a worm in his stomach.
"Inger-Johanna!" said Thinka out on the stairs, "notice father, how unnerved he looks now, he is walking down there by the garden fence—and he is all the time forgetting his pipe; it is not halfsmoked up before it goes out."
"So you think he is changed," said Inger-Johanna, musing and resuming the conversation, up in their room in the evening. "Poor father; it is so absolutely impossible for him to get over it ”

“ Lady Inger. Can you see him? Look, look! ’Tis the King. It is Inger Gyldenlöve’s son! I know him by the crown and by Sten Sture’s ring that he wears round his neck. Hark, what a joyful sound! He is coming! Soon will he be in my arms! Ha-ha!—who conquers, God or I?
[The Men-at-Arms come out with the coffin.
179Lady Inger. [Clutches at her head and shrieks.] The corpse! [Whispers.] Pah! ’Tis a hideous dream. [Sinks back into the high-seat.
Jens Bielke. [Who has come in from the right, stops and cries in astonishment.] Dead! Then after all——
One of the Men-at-Arms. ”

“ A relation of perfect trust and harmony is that of Isak and Inger in "Growth of the Soil." From their elemental community of interest develops a really beautiful affection, which Inger's straying from the straight path can not long disturb. It is almost as though the author would say: So simple and so primitive must people be in order to make a success of marriage for the complex and the sophisticated there is no such thing as happiness in love. ”

“ Lady Inger. He is the guest I look for to-night.
Elina. He comes hither? And to-night?
Lady Inger. A trading ship brought him to Trondhiem yesterday. News has just reached me of his approach; he may be here within the hour.
Elina. And you do not bethink you, my mother, how ’twill endanger your fame thus to receive the Danish envoy? Do not the people already look on you with distrustful eyes? How can you hope that, when the time comes, they will let you rule and guide them, if it be known that ”

“ The whole rabble crowds into the room. At the same moment Lady Inger appears in the doorway of the hall. A sudden silence.
Lady Inger. What would you with me?
Einar Huk. We sought you, noble lady, to——
Lady Inger. Well—say on!
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——
18Lady Inger. ”

“ A closer inspection of the documents, and further analysis of the condition of Norway in 1528, destroyed the fair illusion, and showed Ibsen in the light of an indulgent idealist.
Here is what Jaeger [Note: In En literaert Livsbillede] has to give us of the disconcerting results of research:
In real life Lady Inger was not a woman formed upon so grand a plan. She was the descendant of an old and noble family which had preserved its dignity, and she consequently was the wealthiest landowner in the country. ”

“ Lady Inger. And what then?
Elina. I know well that many a high-born knight is hunted through the woods like a hungry wolf. No hearth has he to rest by, no bread to eat——
Lady Inger. [Coldly.] Enough! Now I understand you.
Elina. [Continuing.] And that is why the gates of Östråt must stand open by night! That is why he must remain a stranger to all, this guest of whom none must know whence he comes or 30whither he goes! You are setting at naught the harsh decree that forbids you to harbour or succour the outlaw——
Lady Inger. ”

“ Were his power once gone, the Danes cannot long hold this land——
Lady Inger. And then?
Einar Huk. Then we shall be free. We shall have no more foreign masters, and can choose ourselves a king, as the Swedes have done before us.
Lady Inger. [With animation.] A king for ourselves! Are you thinking of the Sture [13] stock?
Einar Huk. King Christiern and others after him have swept bare our ancient houses. The best of our nobles are outlaws on the mountain paths, if so be they still live. Nevertheless, it might still be possible to find one or other shoot of the old stems——
Lady Inger. ”

“ Lady Inger. ——I should be right glad to know him outside my gates?
Olaf Skaktavl. Ay; and that as soon as may be.
115Lady Inger. [Smiling.] Nay—the case is just the contrary, Olaf Skaktavl!
Olaf Skaktavl. How mean you?
Lady Inger. If things be as we both think, Nils Lykke must in nowise depart from Östråt yet awhile.
Olaf Skaktavl. [Looks at her with disapproval.] Are you again embarked on crooked courses, Lady Inger? What guile are you now devising? Something that may increase your own power at the cost of our——
Lady Inger. ”

“ But a new king of Sweden, who had the people with him, and who owed his throne to the help of Denmark—— —— Well, you begin to understand me? Then we could safely say to you Norwegians: "Take back your old ancestral rights; choose you a ruler after your own mind; be our friends in need, as we will be in yours!"—Mark you well, Lady Inger, herein is our generosity less than it may seem; for you must see that, far from weakening, 'twill rather strengthen us. ”

“ From Trondhiem? What can it be? [Runs through 23the letter.] O God! 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 here 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. Set we forth now on our way!
Lady Inger. [With a sudden change of tone.] No man shall leave my house to-night!
Einar Huk. But the wind is fair, noble lady; ’twill take us quickly up the fiord, and——
Lady Inger. ”

“ John Ingerfield, oil and tallow refiner, of Lavender Wharf, Limehouse, comes of a hard-headed, hard-fisted stock. The first of the race that the eye of Record, piercing the deepening mists upon the centuries behind her, is able to discern with any clearness is a long-haired, sea-bronzed personage, whom men call variously Inge or Unger. ”

“ Drost Peter distinguished Jomfru Ingé's clear and mellow voice, and in the middle singer he now plainly recognised her tall and noble form. He started up and clasped her in his arms. "Ingé, dearest Ingé!" he whispered, "what daring is this? Are you come hither to dance to the death with me? If so, then joyfully for Denmark and our young king! But unriddle to me this mystery."
"My knight follows me to the royal castle and to victory," whispered Ingé: "if our leader deceive us not, we shall succeed." ”

“ The Inje-inje represent the Stone Age, both in their tools and language. They come out of inaccessible hiding-places to perform their primeval rites by full moon and are the least known of all the savage tribes. This small tribe of the Inje-inje, whose name is the sum of their language, need only a word to steer their craft through life. As has been said, the development of language from the primitive Inje-inje to the somewhat developed Aguaruna can be studied in this mysterious place. No tribe can count further than ten; most of them use only a movement of the fingers. ”

“ Ingrova answered in this wise: “He was, O papalagi, the great witch-singer of these lands. It was in that little skull-hole where flamed the magic that sang unto us, telling the sorrow of the dying moons, and of the voices of wandering rivers and ocean caves. He looked through those holes” (here the chief pointed to the empty eye-sockets) , “where stare the light of the stars, the sunsets and moonsets, when he did once stand beneath these very palms, by that doorway, and say to my tribe: ‘Man am no long to live, and, too, his love and joy oft depart ere his body go its way. ”

“ The rearing of indigo was not this young girl’s only industry. I will quote from various [Pg 81] letters written by her in 1741 and 1742 before her marriage, to show her many duties, her intelligence, her versatility:—
Wrote my father on the pains I had taken to bring the Indigo, Ginger, Cotton, Lucern, and Casada to perfection and had greater hopes from the Indigo, if I could have the seed earlier, than any of ye rest of ye things I had tried. ”