; ; THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OE CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE THE WORKS OF HENRIK IBSEN THE VIKING EDITION VOLUME I pT Ctipi/rit/hf Jiff, by Jfiis Gudo HENRIK IBSEN LADY INGER OF OSTRAT THE FEAST AT SOLHOUG LOVE'S COMEDY WITH INTRODUCTIONS BY WILLIAM ARCHER AND C. H. HERFORD, Litt.D., M.A. NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1911 Copyright, 1911, by Charles Scribner's Sons CONTENTS PAGE GENERAL PREFACE vii INTRODUCTION TO " LADY INGER OF OSTrIt" . . 3 "lady INGER OF OSTRAt" 19 Translated by Charles Archer INTRODUCTION TO "THE FEAST AT SOLHOUG " . . 191 author's PREFACE TO "THE FEAST AT SOLHOUG " . 196 " THE FEAST AT SOLHOUG " 205 Translated by William Archer and Mary Morrison INTRODUCTION TO "love's comedy" 293 <( love's comedy" 305 Translated by C. H. Herford ILLUSTRATIONS HENRiK IBSEN Froutispiece FACING PAGE THE PHARMACY AT GRIMSTAD, WHERE IBSEN WAS CLERK FROM 1845 TO 1848 150 HENRIK IBSEN AT THE AGE OF THIRTY .... 296 GENERAL PREFACE The eleven volumes of this edition contain all, save one, of the dramas which Henrik Ibsen himself admitted to the canon of his works. The one exception is his earliest, and very immature, tragedy, Catilina, first pub- lished in 1850, and republished in 1875. This play is interesting in the light reflected from the poet's later achievements, but has little or no inherent value. A great part of its interest lies in the very crudities of its style, which it would be a thankless task to reproduce in translation. Moreover, the poet impaired even its biographical value by largely rewriting it before its re- publication. He did not make it, or attempt to make it, a better play, but he in some measure corrected its juve- nility of expression. Which version, then, should a trans- lator choose ? To go back to the original would seem a deliberate disregard of the poet's wishes; while, on the other hand, the retouched version is clearly of far in- ferior interest. It seemed advisable, therefore, to leave the play alone, so far as this edition was concerned. Still more clearly did it appear unnecessary to include the early plays which were never admitted to any edition prepared by the poet himself. They are four in number. The Warrior's Barroio and Olaf Liliekrans were included in a supplementary volume of the Norwegian collected edition, issued in 1902, when Ibsen's life-work was over. ix X GENERAL PREFACE The other two — The Ptarmigan ofJustedal and St. John*s Night — were not published till 1909, when they were included, with an operatic fragment of small account, in the first volume of the poet's Literary Remains. With two exceptions, the plays appear in their chron- ological order. The exceptions are Love's Comedy, which ought by rights to come between Tlie Vikings and The Pretenders, and Emperor and Galilean, which ought to follow The League of Youth instead of preceding it. The reasons of convenience which prompted these departures from the exact order are pretty obvious. It seemed highly desirable to bring the two Saga plays, if I may so call them, into one volume; while as for Emperor and Galilean it could not have been placed between The League of Youth and Pillars of Society save by separating its two parts, and assigning Coesars Apostasy to Volume V., The Emperor Julian to Volume VI. For the translations of all the plays in this edition, ex- cept Love's Comedy and Brand, I am ultimately responsi- ble, in the sense that I have exercised an unrestricted right of revision. This means, of course, that, in plays originally translated by others, the merits of the English version belong for the most part to the original trans- lator, while the faults may have been introduced, and must have been sanctioned, by me. The revision, whether fortunate or otherwise, has in all cases been very thor- ough. In their unrevised form, these translations have met with a good deal of praise and with some blame. I trust that the revision has rendered them more praiseworthy, but I can scarcely hope that it has met all the objections GENERAL PREFACE xi of those critics who have found them blameworthy. For, in some cases at any rate, these objections proceeded from theories of the translator's function widely diver- gent from my own — theories of which nothing, probably, could disabuse the critic's mind, save a little experience of the difficulties of translating (as distinct from adapt- ing) dramatic prose. Ibsen is at once extremely easy, and extremely difficult to translate. It is extremely easy, in his prose plays, to realise his meaning; it is often ex- tremely difficult to convey it in natural, colloquial, and yet not too colloquial, English. He is especially fond of laying barbed-wire entanglements for the translator's feet, in the shape of recurrent phrases for which it is ab- solutely impossible to find an equivalent that will fit in all the different contexts. But this is only one of many classes of obstacles which encountered us on almost every page. I think, indeed, that my collaborators and I may take it as no small compliment that some of our critics have apparently not realised the difficulties of our task, or divined the laborious hours which have often gone to the turning of a single phrase. And, in not a few cases, the difficulties have proved sheer impossibilities. I will cite only one instance. Writing of TJie Master Builder, a very competent, and indeed generous, critic finds in it "a curious example of perhaps inevitable inadequacy. . . . 'Duty! Duty! Duty!' Hilda once exqlaims in a scornful outburst. 'What a short, sharp, stinging word!' The epithets do not seem specially apt. But in the original she cries out 'Pligt! Pligt! Pligt!' and the very word stings and snaps." I submit that in this criticism there is one superfluous word — to wit, the "per- xii GENERAL PREFACE haps" which qualifies "inevitable." For the term used by Hilda, and for the idea in her mind, there is only one possible English equivalent: "Duty." The actress can speak it so as more or less to justify Hilda's feeling tow- ards it; and, for the rest, the audience must "piece out our imperfections Avith their thoughts" and assume that the Norwegian word has rather more of a sting in its sound. It might be possible, no doubt, to adapt Hilda's phrase to the English word, and say, "It sounds like the swish of a whip-lash," or something to that effect. But this is a sort of freedom which, rightly or wrongly, I hold inadmissible. Once grant the right of adaptation, even in small particulars, and it would be impossible to say where it should stop. The versions here presented (of the prose plays, at any rate) are translations, not para- phrases. If we have ever dropped into paraphrase, it is a dereliction of principle; and I do not remember an instance. For stage purposes, no doubt, a little paring of rough edges is here and there allowable; but even that, I think, should seldom go beyond the omission of lines which manifestly lose their force in translation, or are incomprehensible without a footnote. In the Introductions to previous editions, I have al- ways confined myself to the statement of biographical and historic facts, holding criticism no part of my busi- ness. Now that Henrik Ibsen has passed away, and his works have taken a practically uncontested place in world-literature, this reticence seemed no longer im- posed upon me. I have consequently made a few critical remarks on each play, chiefly directed towards tracing the course of the poet's technical development. Never- GENERAL PREFACE xiii theless, the Introductions are still mainly biographical, and full advantage has been taken of the stores of new information contained in Ibsen's Letters, and in the books and articles about him that have appeared since his death. I have prefixed to Lady Inger of Ostr&t a sketch of the poet's life down to the date of that play; so that the Introductions, read in sequence, will be found to form a pretty full record of a career which, save for frequent changes of domicile, and the issuing of play after plav, was singularly uneventful. The Introductions to Love's Comedy and Brand, as well as the translations, are entirely the work of Professor Herford. A point of typography perhaps deserves remark. The Norwegian (and German) method of indicating empha- sis by spacing the letters of a word, thus, has been adopted in this edition. It is preferable for various rea- sons to the use of italics. In dramatic work, for one thing, emphases have sometimes to be indicated so fre- quently that the peppering of the page with italics would produce a very ugly effect. But a more important point is this: the italic fount suggests a stronger emphasis than the author, as a rule, intends. The spacing of a word, especially if it be short, will often escape the eye which does not look very closely; and this is as it should be. Spacing, as Ibsen employs it, does not generally indicate any obtrusive stress, but is merely a guide to the reader in case a doubt should arise in his mind as to which of two words is intended to be the more emphatic. When such a doubt occurs, the reader, by looking closely at the text, will often find in the spacing an indication which xiv GENERAL PREFACE may at first have escaped him. In almost all cases, a spaced word in the translation represents a spaced word in the original. I have very seldom used spacing to in- dicate an emphasis peculiar to the English phraseology. The system was first introduced in 1897, in the transla- tion of John Gabriel Borkman. It has no longer even the disadvantage of unfamiliarity, since it has been adopted by Mr. Bernard Shaw in his printed plays, and, I believe, by other dramatists. Just thirty years^ have passed since I first put pen to paper in a translation of Ibsen. In October, 1877, Pil- lars of Society reached me hot from the press; and, hav- ing devoured it, I dashed off a translation of it in less than a week. It has since cost me five or six times as much work in revision as it originallv did in transla- tion. The manuscript was punctually returned to me by more than one publisher; and something like ten years elapsed before it slowly dawned on me that the translat- ing and editing of Ibsen's works was to be one of the chief labours, as it has certainly been one of the greatest privileges, of my life. Since 1887 or thereabouts, not many months have passed in which a considerable por- tion of my time has not been devoted to acting, in one form or another, as intermediary between Ibsen and the English-speaking public. The larger part of the work, in actual bulk, I have myself done; but I have had in- valuable aid from many quarters, and not merely from those fellow-workers who are named in the following pages as the original translators of certain of the plays. ' Written in 1907. GENERAL PREFACE xv These "helpers and servers," as Solness would say, are too many to be individually mentioned; but to all of them, and chiefly to one who has devoted to the service of Ibsen a good deal of the hard-won leisure of Indian official life, I hereby convey my heartfelt thanks. The task is now ended. Though it has involved not a httle sheer drudgery, it has, on the whole, been of ab- sorbing interest. And I should have been ungrateful indeed had I shrunk from drudgery in the cause of an author who had meant so much to me. I have experienced no other literary emotion at all comparable to the eager- ness with which, ever since 1877, I awaited each new play of Ibsen's, or the excitement with which I tore off the wrapper of the postal packets in which the little paper-covered books arrived from Copenhagen. People who are old enough to remember the appearance of the monthly parts of David Copperfield or Pendennis may have some inkling of my sensations; but they were all the intenser as they recurred at intervals, not of one month, but of two years. And it was not Ibsen the man of ideas or doctrines that meant so much to me; it was Ibsen the pure poet, the creator of men and women, the searcher of hearts, the weaver of strange webs of destiny. I can only trust that, by diligence in seeking for the best interpretation of his thoughts, I have paid some part of my debt to that great spirit, and to the glorious country that gave him birth. William Archer. P. S. — To the present (1911) edition is added a sup- plementary volume containing all that is of general in- xvi GENERAL PREFACE terest in Ibsen's first drafts and sketches for his plays, from Pillars of Society onwards. These documents appeared in the Literary Remains (1909) and are now translated for the first time. LADY INGER OF OSTRAT LADY INGER OF OSTRAT INTRODUCTION* Henrik Johan Ibsen was born on March 20, 1828, at the little seaport of Skien, situated at the head of a long fiord on the south coast of Norway. His great-great- grandfather was a Dane who settled in Bergen about 1720. His great-grandmother, Wenche Dischington, was the daughter of a Scotchman, who had settled and be- come naturalised in Norway; and Ibsen himself was inclined to ascribe some of his characteristics to the Scottish strain in his blood. Both his grandmother (Plesner by name) and his mother, Maria Cornelia Altenburg, were of German descent. It has been said that there was not a drop of Norwegian blood in Ibsen's composition; but it is doubtful whether this statement can be substantiated. Most of his male ancestors were sailors; but his father, Knud Ibsen, was a merchant. When Henrik (his first child) was born, he seems to have been prosperous, and to have led a very social and perhaps rather extravagant life. But when the poet was eight years old, financial disaster overtook the family, and they had to withdraw to a comparatively small farm- house on the outskirts of the little town, where they lived in poverty and retirement. As a boy, Ibsen appears to have been lacking in ani- mal spirits and the ordinary childish taste for games. * Copyright, 1908, by Charles Scribner's Sons. 3 4 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT Our chief glimpses of his home life are due to his sister Hedvig, the only one of his family with whom, in after years, he maintained any intercourse, and whose name he gave to one of his most beautiful creations.^ She re- lates that the only outdoor amusement he cared for was "building" — in what material does not appear. Among indoor diversions, that to which he was most addicted was conjuring, a yoimger brother serving as his confed- erate. We also hear of his cutting out fantastically- dressed figures in paste-board, attaching them to wooden blocks, and ranging them in groups or tableaux. He may be said, in short, to have had a toy theatre without the stage. In all these amusements, it is possible, with a little goodwill, to divine the coming dramatist — the constructive faculty, the taste for technical legerdemain, (which made him in his youth so apt a disciple of Scribe), and the fundamental passion for manipulating fictitious characters. The education he received was of the most ordinary, but included a little Latin. The subjects which chiefly interested him were history and religion. He showed no special literary proclivities, though a dream which he narrated in a school composition so impressed his master that he accused him (much to the boy's indignation) of having copied it out of some book. His chief taste was for drawing, and he was anxious to become an artist, but his father could not afford to pay for his training.^ At the age of fifteen, therefore, 1 See Introduction to The Wild Duck. =» He continued to dabble in painting until he was thirty, or thereabouts. INTRODUCTION 5 he kad to s-et about earning his living, and was ap- prenticed to an apothecarr in Grimstad, a toTrn on the south-west coast of Norway, between Arendal and Chris- tianssand. He was here in even narrower social sur- roundings than at Siden. His birthplace numbered some 3,000 inhabitants, Grimstad about 800. That he was contented with his lot cannot be supposed; and the short, dark, taciturn youth seems to have made an un- sympathetic and rather uncanny impression upon the burghers of the httle township. His popularity- was not heightened by a talent which he presently developed for drawing caricatures and writing personal lampoons. He found, however, two admiring friends in Christopher Lorentz Due, a custom-house clerk, and a law student named Ole Schulerad. The first political event which aroused his interest and stirred him to literary expression was the French Revolution of 1848. He himself writes:^ "The times were much disturbed. The February revolution, the rising in Hungary and elsewhere, the Slesvig War — all this had a strong and ripening effect on my develop- ment, immature though it remained both then and long afterwards. I wrote clangorous poems of encourage- ment to the ]SIagyars, adjuring them, for the sake of freedom and humanitv. not to falter in their ricjhteous war against *the tyrants': and I composed a long series of sonnets to Kin^ Oscar, mainly, so far as I remem- ber, urging him to set aside all petty considerations, and march without delay, at the head of his army, to the assistance of our Danish brothers on the Slesvig ^ Preface to the second edition of Catilina. 1875. 6 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT frontier." The series of sonnets, and one of the poems "To Hungary!" have been published in the poet's Lit- erary Remains. About the same time he was reading for his matriculation examination at Christiania Uni- versity, where he proposed to study medicine; and it happened that the Latin books prescribed were Sallust's Catiline and Cicero's Catilinarian Orations. "I de- voured these documents," says Ibsen, "and a few months later my drama [Catilina] was finished." His friend Schulerud took it to Christiania, to offer it to the theatre and to the publishers. By both it was declined. Schule- rud, however, had it printed at his own expense; and soon after its appearance, in the early spring of 1850, Ibsen himself came to Christiania.^ For the most part written in blank verse, Catilina towards the close breaks into rhyming trochaic lines of thirteen and fifteen syllables. It is an extremely youth- ful production, very interesting from the biographical point of view, but of small substantive merit. What is chiefly notable in it, perhaps, is the fact that it already shows Ibsen occupied with the theme which was to run through so many of his works — the contrast be- tween two types of womanhood, one strong and reso- lute, even to criminality, the other comparatively weak, clinging, and "feminine" in the conventional sense of the word. In Christiania Ibsen shared Schulerud 's lodgings, and his poverty. There is a significant sentence in his pref- ' This is his own statement of the order of events. According to Halvdan Koht {Samlede Voerker, vol. x, p. i) he arrived in Chris- tiania in March, 1850, and Catilina did not ai)pear until April. INTRODUCTION 7 ace to the re-written CatiUna, in which he tells how the bulk of the first edition was sold as waste paper, and adds: "In the days immediately following we lacked none of the first necessities of life." He went to a "student- factory," or, as we should say, a "crammer's," managed by one Heltberg; and there he fell in with several of the leading spirits of his generation — notably with Bjcirnson, A. O. Vinje, and Jonas Lie. In the early summer of 1850 he wrote a one-act play, Kiwmpehoien (The War- rior's Barrow) , entirely in the sentimental and somewhat verbose manner of the Danish poet Oehlenschlager. It was accepted by the Christiania Theatre, and performed three times, but cannot have put much money in the poet's purse. With Paul Botten-Hansen and A. O. Vinje he co-operated in the production of a weekly satirical paper, at first entitled Manden {The Man), but after- wards Andhrimjier, after the cook of the gods in Val- halla. To this journal, which lasted only from January to September, 1851, he contributed, among other things, a satirical "music-tragedy," entitled Norma, or a Politi- ciayi's Love} As the circulation of the paper is said to have been something under a hundred, it cannot have paid its contributors very lavishly. About this time, too, he narrowly escaped arrest on account of some politi- cal agitation, in which, however, he had not been very deeply concerned. Meanwhile a movement had been going forward in the capital of Western Norway, Bergen, which was to have a determining influence on Ibsen's destinies. * The whole three acts are comprised in eight pages of the Literary Remains (vol. i). 8 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT Up to 1850 there had been practically no Norwegian drama. The two great poets of the first half of the cen- tury, Wergeland and Welhaven, had nothing dramatic in their composition, though Wergeland more than once essayed the dramatic form. Danish actors and Danish plays held entire possession of the Christiania Theatre; and, though amateur performances were not uncommon in provincial tow^ns, it was generally held that the Nor- wegians, as a nation, were devoid of all talent for acting. The very sound of Norwegian (as distinct from Danish) was held bv Norwegians themselves to be ridiculous on the stage. Fortunately Ole Bull, the great violinist, was not of that opinion. AVith the insight of genius, he saw that the time had come for the development of a national drama; he set forth this view in a masterly argument addressed to the Storthing; and he gave practical effect to it by establishing, at his own risk, a Norwegian the- atre in Bergen. How rightly he had judged the situa- tion may be estimated from the fact that among the raw lads who first presented themselves for employment was Johannes Brun, afterwards one of the greatest of come- dians; while the first "theatre-poet " engaged by the man- agement was none other than Henrik Ibsen. The theatre was opened on January 2, 1850; Ibsen entered upon his duties (at a salary of less than £70 a year) in November, 1851.^ Incredibly, pathetically small, according to our ideas, were the material resources of Bull's gallant enterprise. ' The history of Ibsen's connection with the Bergen Theatre is written at some length in an article by me, entitled " Ibsen's Ap- prenticeship," published in the Fortnightly Review for January, 1904. From that article I quote freely in the following pages. INTRODUCTION 9 The town of Bergen numbered only 25,000 inhabitants. Performances were given only twice, or, at the outside, three times, a week; and the highest price of admission was two shillings. What can have been attempted in the way of scenery or costumes it is hard to imagine. Of a three-act play, produced in 1852, we read that "the mounting, which cost .£22 10.9., left nothing to be de- sired." Ibsen's connection with the Bergen Theatre lasted from November 6, 1851, until the summer of 1857 — that is to sav, from his twentv-fourth to his thirtieth year. He was engaged in the first instance "to assist the the- atre as dramatic author," but in the following; vear he received from the management a "travelling stipend" of £45 to enable him to study the art of theatrical produc- tion in Denmark and Germany, with the stipulation that, on his return, he should undertake the duties of "scene instructor" — that is to say, stage-manager or producer. In this function he seems to have been — as, indeed, he always was — extremely conscientious. A book exists in the Bergen Public Library containing (it is said) careful designs by him for every scene in the plays he produced, and full notes as to entrances, exits, groupings, costumes, accessories, etc. But he was not an animating or in- spiring producer. He had none of the histrionic vivid- ness of his successor in the post, Bjornstjerne Bjornson, who, like all great producers, could not only tell the act- ors what to do, but show them how to do it. Perhaps it was a sense of his lack of impulse that induced the management to give him a colleague, one Herman Lad- ing, with whom his relations were none of the happiest. 10 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT Ibsen is even said, on one occasion, to have challenged Lading to a duel. One of the duties of the "theatre-poet" was to have a new play ready for each recurrence of the "Foundation Day" of the theatre, January 2. On that date, in 1853, Ibsen produced a romantic comedy, St. Johns Night, which was first printed in the Literary Remains (1909). It is an exceedingly immature work, confused and triv- ial in intrigue, and for the most part conventional in characterization. Nevertheless it is interesting, inas- much as it contains the germs of many ideas to which he afterwards returned in his maturer works. In the personage of Julian Paulsen, for example — Ibsen's first essay in satirical character-drawing — we find some traits which reappear in Stensgard, and others which fore- shadow Hialmar Ekdal. But it is principally of the Troll-scenes in Peer Gynt that we are reminded. One of the poet's aims, it would seem, was to point the con- trast between true and false — between sincere and in- sincere — romanticism. To this end, he shows us a fairy revel on St. John's Night, which is seen in its true colors by the hero and heroine, while the ridiculous Paulsen and his affected inamorata mistake it for a dance of peas- ants around a bonfire. Moreover, Paulsen, who is really an amusing character, confesses that he was consumed by an ideal passion for the "huldra" or dryad of North- ern mythology, until he learned that she was provided with a tail, which shocked his aesthetic sensibilities. Thus at many points we find the poet's mind already moving upon the plane of fantasy to which it was to re- turn fourteen years later in the second and third acts of INTRODUCTION 11 Peer Gynt. The play had no success, and was per- formed only twice. For the next Foundation Day, Jan- uary 2, 1854, Ibsen prepared a revised version of The Warrior's Barrow, ah-eady produced in Christiania. A year later, January 2, 1855, Lady Inger of Ostrat was produced — a work still immature, indeed, but giving, for the first time, no uncertain promise of the master dram- atist to come. In an autobiographical letter to the Danish critic, Peter Hansen, written from Dresden in 1870, Ibsen says: "Lady Inger of Ostrat is the result of a love-affair — hastily entered into and violently broken off — to which several of my minor poems may also be attributed, such as Wild-flowers and Pot-plajits, A Bird-Song, etc." The heroine of this love-affair can now be identified as a lady named Henrikke Hoist, who seems to have preserved through a long life the fresh, bright spirit, the overflow- ing joyousness, which attracted Ibsen when she was only in her seventeenth year. Their relation was of the most innocent. It went no further than a few surreptitious rambles in the romantic surroundings of Bergen, usu- ally with a somewhat older girl to play propriety, and with a bag of sugar-plums to fill up pauses in the con- versation. The "violent" ending seems to have come when the young lady's father discovered the secret of these excursions, and doubtless placed her under more careful control. What there was in this episode to sug- gest, or in any way influence. Lady Inger, I cannot under- stand. Nevertheless the identification seems quite cer- tain. The aftair had a charming little sequel. During 12 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT the days of their love's young dream, Ibsen treated the "wild- flower" with a sort of shy and distant chivalry at which the wood-gods must have smiled. He avoided even touching her hand, and always addressed her by the "De" (you) of formal politeness. But when they met again after many years, he a famous poet and she a middle-aged matron, he instinctively adopted the "Du" (thou) of affectionate intimacy, and she responded in kind. He asked her whether she had recognised her- self in any of his works, and she replied: "I really don't know, unless it be in the parson's wife in Love's Com- edy, with her eight children and her perpetual knitting." "Ibsen protested," says Herr Paulsen, in whose Samliv med Ibsen a full account of the episode may be read. It is interesting to note that the lady did not recognise her- self in Elina Gyldenlove, any more than we can. It must have been less than a year after the produc- tion of Lady higer that Ibsen made the acquaintance of the lady who was to be his wife. Susanna Dae Thore- sen was a daughter (by his second marriage) of Pro- vost^ Thoresen, of Bergen, whose third wife, Magdalene Krag, afterwards became an authoress of some celebrity. It is recorded that Ibsen's first visit to the Thoresen household took place on January 7, 1856,^ and that on that occasion, speaking to Susanna Thoresen, he was suddenly moved to say to her: "You are now Elina, but 'Provost ("Provst") is an ecclesiastical title, roughly equivalent to Dean. 2 See article by Dr. Julius Elias in Die neue Rundschau, December, 190G, p. 1463. Dr. Brahm, in the same magazine (p. 1414), writes as though this were Ibsen's first meeting with his wife; and a note by Halvdan Koht, in the Norwegian edition of Ibsen's Letters, INTRODUCTION 13 in time you will become Lady Inger." Twenty years later, at Christmas, 1876, he gave his wife a copy of the German translation of Lady Inger, with the following inscription on the fly-leaf: "This book is by right indefeasible thine, "Who in spirit art born of the Ostrat line." In Lady Inger Ibsen has chosen a theme from the very darkest hour of Norwegian history. King Sverre's democratic monarchy, dating from the beginning of the thirteenth century, had paralysed the old Norwegian no- bility. One by one the great families died out, their possessions being concentrated in the hands of the few survivors, who regarded their wealth as a privilege un- hampered by obligations. At the beginning of the six- teenth century, then, patriotism and public spirit were almost dead among the nobles, while the monarchy, be- fore which the old aristocracy had fallen, was itself dead, or rather merged (since 1380) in the Crown of Denmark. The peasantry, too, had long ago lost all effective voice in political affairs; so that Norway lay prone and inert at the mercy of her Danish rulers. It is at the moment of deepest national degradation that Ibsen has placed his tragedy; and the degradation was, in fact, even deep- er than he represents it, for the longings for freedom, the seems to bear out this view. But it would appear that what Fni Ibsen told Dr. Elias was that on the date mentioned Ibsen "for the first time visited at her father's house." The terms of the anecdote almost compel us to assume that he had previously met her else- where. It seems almost inconceivable that Ibsen, of all people, should have made such a speech to a lady on their very first meeting. 14 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT stirrings of revolt, which form the motive-power of the action, are invented, or at any rate ideaUsed, by the poet. Fru Inger Ottisdatter Gyldenldve was, in fact, the greatest personage of her day in Norway. She was the best-born, the wealthiest, and probably the ablest woman in the land. At the time when Ibsen wrote, lit- tle more than this seems to have been known of her; so that in making her the victim of a struggle between pa- triotic duty and maternal love, he was perhaps poetising in the absence of positive evidence, rather than in oppo- sition to it. Subsequent research, unfortunately, has shown that Fru Inger was but little troubled with patri- otic aspirations. She was a hard and grasping woman, ambitious of social power and predominance, but inac- cessible, or nearly so, to national feeling. It was from sheer social ambition, and with no qualms of patriotic conscience, that she married her daughters to Danish noblemen. True, she lent some support to the insur- rection of the so-called "Dale-junker," a peasant who gave himself out as the heir of Sten Sture, a former re- gent of Sweden; but there is not a tittle of ground for making this pretender her son. He might, indeed, have become her son-in-law, for, speculating on his chances of success, she had betrothed one of her daughters to him. Thus the Fru Inger of Ibsen's play is, in her char- acter and circumstances, as much a creation of the poet's as though no historic personage of that name had ever existed. Olaf Skaktavl, Nils Lykke, and Elina Gylden- love are also historic names; but with them, too, Ibsen has dealt with the utmost freedom. The real Nils Lykke was married in 1528 to the real Elina Gylden- INTRODUCTION 15 love. She died four years later, leaving him two chil- dren; and thereupon he would fain have married her sister Lucia. Such a union, however, was regarded as incestuous, and the lovers failed in their effort to obtain a special dispensation. Lucia then became her brother- in-law's mistress, and bore him a son. But the ecclesi- astical law was in those days not to be trifled with; Nils Lykke was thrown into prison for his crime, con- demned, and killed in his dungeon, in the year of grace 1535. Thus there was a tragedy ready-made in Ibsen's material, though it was not the tragedy he chose to write. The Bergen public did not greatly take to Lady Inger, and it was performed, in its novelty, only twice. Nor is the reason far to seek. The extreme complexity of the intrigue, and the lack of clear guidance through its mazes, probably left the Bergen audiences no less puz- zled than the London audiences who saw the play at the Scala Theatre in 1906.^ It is a play which can be ap- preciated only by spectators who know it beforehand. Such audiences it has often found in Norway, where it was revived at the Christiania Theatre in 1875; but in Denmark and Germany, though it has been produced several times, it has never been very successful. We need go no further than the end of the first act to under- stand the reason. On an audience which knows noth- ing of the play, the sudden appearance of a "Stranger," to whose identity it has not the slightest clue, can pro- 1 Stage Society performances, January 28 and 29, 1906. Lady Inger was played by Miss Edyth Olive, Elina by Miss Alice Craw- ford, Nils Lykke by Mr. Henry Ainley, Olaf Skaktavl by Mr. Alfred Brydone, and Nils Stensson by Mr. Harcourt Williams. 16 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT duce no effect save one of bewilderment. To rely on such an incident for what was evidently intended to be a thrilling "curtain," was to betray extreme inexperi- ence; and this single trait is typical of much in the play. Nevertheless Lady Inger marks a decisive advance in Ibsen's development. It marks, one may say, the birth of his power of invention. He did not as yet know how to restrain or clarify his invention, and he made clumsy use of the stock devices of a bad school. But he had once for all entered upon that course of technical training which it took him five-and-twenty years to complete. He was learning much that he was after- wards to unlearn; but had he not undergone this ap- prenticeship, he would never have been the master he ultimately became. When Ibsen entered upon his duties at the Bergen Theatre, the influence of Eugene Scribe and his imita- tors was at its very height. Of the one hundred and forty-five plays produced during his tenure of office, more than half (seventy-five) were French, twenty-one being by Scribe himself, and at least half the remainder by adepts of his school, Bayard, Dumanoir, Melesville, etc. It is to this school that Ibsen, in Lady Inger, proclaims his adherence; and he did not finally shake off its in- fluence until he wrote the Third Act of A DolVs House in 1879. Although the romantic environment of the play, and the tragic intensity of the leading character, tend to disguise the relationship, there can be no doubt that Lady Inger is, in essence, simply a French drama of intrigue, constructed after the method of Scribe, as ex- emplified in Adrienne Lecouvreur, Les Conies de la Reine INTRODUCTION 17 de Navarre,^ and a dozen other French plays, with the staging of which the poet was then occupied. It might seem that the figure of EHna, brooding over the thought of her dead sister, coflSned in the vault below the ban- queting-hall, belonged rather to German romanticism; but there are plenty of traces of German romanticism even in the French plays with which the good people of Bergen were regaled. For the suggestion of grave- vaults and coffined heroines, for example, Ibsen need have gone no further than Dumas's Catherine Howard, which he produced in March, 1853. I do not, however, pretend that his romantic colouring came to him from France. It came to him, doubtless, from Germany, by way of Denmark. My point is that the conduct of the intrigue in Lady Inger shows the most unmistakable marks of his study of the great French plot-manipulators. Its dexterity and its artificiality alike are neither Ger- man nor Danish, but French. Ibsen had learnt the great secret of Scribe — the secret of dramatic movement. The play is full of those ingenious complications, mis- takes of identity, and rapid turns of fortune by which Scribe enchained the interest of his audiences. Its cen- tral theme — a mother plunging into intrigue and crime for the advancement of her son, only to find that her son himself has been her victim — is as old as Greek tragedy. The secondary story, too — that of Elina's wild infatua- tion for the betrayer and practically the murderer of her sister — could probably be paralleled in the ballad litera- * These two plays were produced, respectively, in March and October, 1854, at the very time when Ibsen must have been plan- ning and composing Lady Inger. 18 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT ture of Scotland, Germany, or Denmark, and might, in- deed, have been told, in verse or prose, by Sir Walter Scott. But these very un-Parisian elements are handled in a fundamentally Parisian fashion, and Ibsen is clearly fascinated, for the time, by the ideal of what was after- wards to be known as the "well-made play." The fact that the result is in reality an ill-made play in no way in- validates this theory. It is perhaps the final condemna- tion of the well-made play that in nine cases out of ten — and even in the hands of far more experienced play- wrights than the young Bergen "theatre-poet" — it is apt to prove ill-made after all. Far be it from me, however, to speak in pure dispar- agement of Lady Inger. With all its defects, it seems to me manifestly the work of a great poet — the only one of Ibsen's plays prior to The Vikings at Helgeland of which this can be said. It may be that early impressions mis- lead me; but I still cannot help seeing in Lady Inger a figure of truly tragic grandeur; in Nils Lykke one of the few really seductive seducers in literature; and in many passages of the dialogue, the touch of a master hand. W. A. LADY INGER OF OSTRAT (1855) CHARACTERS Lady Inger Ottisdaughter Romer, widow of High Steward Nils Gyldenlove. Elina Gyldenlove, her daughter. Nils Lykke, Danish knight and councillor. Olaf Skaktavl, an outlawed Norwegian noble. Nils Stensson. Jens Bielke, Swedish commander. BiORN, majordomo at Ostrat. Finn, a servant. EiNAR HuK, bailiff at Ostrat. Servants, peasants, and Sivedish men-at-arms. The action takes place at Ostrat Manor, on the Trondhiem Fiord, in the year 1528. [Pronunciation of Names. — Ostrat = Ostrot; Elina (Nor- wegian, Eline) = Eleena; Stensson = Staynson; Biorn = Byorn; Jens Bielke = Yens Byelke; Huk = Hook. The g's in "Inger" and in "Gyldenlove" are, of course, hard. The final e's and the o's pronounced much as in German.] 20 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT DRAMA IN FIVE ACTS ACT FIRST A room at Ostrat. Through an open door in the hack, the Banquet Hall is seen in faint moonlight, ivhich shines fitfully through a deep boto-window in the opposite wall. To the right, an entrance-door; further for- ward, a curtained windoio. On tJie left, a door lead- ing to the inner rooms; further forward a large open fireplace, which casts a glow over tJie room. It is a stormy evening. BioRN and Finn are sitting by the fireplace. The latter is occupied in polishing a helmet. Several pieces of armour lie near them, along with a sword and shield. Finn. \After a pause.] Who was Knut^ Alfson ? BlORN. My Lady says he was the last of Norway's knighthood. Finn. And the Danes killed him at Oslo-fiord .' * Pronounce Knoot. 21 22 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act i BlORN. If you know not that, ask any child of five. Finn. So Knut Alfson was the last of our knighthood ? And now he's dead and gone! [Holds up the helmet.] Well, thou must e'en be content to hang 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 task! — Is the helmet ready ? Finn. It shines like silver in the moonlight. Biorn. Then put it by. — See here; scrape the rust off the sword. Finn. [Turning the sword over and examining it.] Is it worth while ? Biorn. What mean you ? Finn. The edge is gone. ACT I] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 23 BlORN. What's that to you? Give it me.— Here, take the shield. Finn. [As before.] There is no grip to it! BlORN. [Mutters.] Let me get a grip on y o u [Finn hums to himself for a while. BlORN. What now ? Finn. An empty helmet, a sword with no edge, a shield with no grip — so it has all come to that. Who can blame Lady Inger if she leaves such weapons to hang scoured and polished on the walls, instead of rusting them in Danish blood ? BlORN. Folly ! Is there not peace in the land ? Finn. Peace ? Ay, when the peasant has shot away his last arrow, and the wolf has reft the last lamb from the fold, then is there peace between them. But 'tis a strange friendship. Well, well; let that pass. 'Tis fitting, as I said, that the harness hang bright in the hall; for you know the old saw: "Call none a man but the knightly man." So now that we have never a knight in the land. 24 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act i we have never a man; and where no man is, there must women order things; therefore BlORN, Therefore — therefore I bid you hold your foul prate! [Rises. The evening wears on. Enough; you may hang the helmet and armour in the hall again. Finn. [I71 a low voice.] Nay, best let it be till to-morrow. BlORN. What, do you fear the dark ? Finn. Not by day. And if so be I fear it at even, I am not the only one. Ah, you may look; I tell you in the house- folk's room there is talk of many things. [Lower.] They say that, night by night, a tall figure, clad in black, walks the Banquet Hall. Biorn. Old wives' tales! Finn. Ah, but they all swear 'tis true. Biorn. That I well believe. Finn. The strangest of all is that Lady Inger thinks the same ACT I] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 25 BlORN. [Starting.] Lady Inger? What does she think? Finn. What Lady Inger thinks? I warrant few can tell that. But sure it is that she has no rest in her. See you not how day by day she grows thinner and paler? [Looks keenly at him.] They say she never sleeps — and that it is because of the black figure [While he is sfeaking, Elina Gyldenlove has ap- peared in the half-open door on the left. She stops and listens, unobserved. Biorn. And you believe such follies ? Finn. Well, half and half. There be folk, too, that read things another way. But that is pure malice, I'll be bound. — Hearken, Biorn — know you the song that is going round the country ? Biorn. A song? Finn. Ay, 'tis on all folks' lips. 'Tis a shameful scurril thing, for sure; yet it goes prettily. Just listen: [Sings in a low voice. Dame Inger sitteth in Ostrat fair, She wraps her in costly furs — 26 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act i She decks her in velvet and ermine and vair, Red gold are the beads that she twines in her hair — But small peace in that soul of hers. Dame Inger hath sold her to Denmark's lord. She bringeth her folk 'neath the stranger's yoke — In guerdon whereof [BioRN enraged, seizes him hy the throat. Elina Gyldenlove withdraws without having been seen. BlORN. I will send you guerdonless to the foul fiend, if you prate of Lady Inger but one unseemly word more. Finn. [Breaking from his grasp.] Why — did / make the song? [The blast of a horn is heard from the right. BlORN. Hark — what is that .'' Finn. A horn. Then there come guests to-night. BlORN. [At the window.] They are opening the gate. I hear the clatter of hoofs in the courtyard. It must be a knight. Finn. A knight ? Nay, that can scarce be. ACT I] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 27 BlORX. Why not ? FiXN. Did you not say yourself: the last of our knighthood is dead and gone ? \Goes out to tlie right. BlORX. The accursed knave, with his prying and peering! What avails all my striving to hide and hush things? They whisper of her even now — ; soon all men will be shouting aloud that Elixa. [Comes in again through the door on the left; looks round her, and says with suppressed emotion:] Are you alone, Biorn ? BlORX. Is it you. Mistress Elina ? Elixa. Come, Biorn, tell me one of your stories; I know you can tell others than those that BlORX. A story? Now — so late in the evening ? Elixa. If vou count from the time when it grew dark at Ostrat, then 'tis late indeed. 28 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act i BlORN. What ails you ? Has aught crossed you ? You seem so restless. Elina. Maybe so. BlORN. There is something amiss. I have hardly known you this half year past. Elina. Bethink you: this half year past my dearest sister Lucia has been sleeping in the vault below. BlORN. That is not all, Mistress Elina — it is not that alone that makes you now thoughtful and white and silent, now restless and ill at ease, as you are to-night. Elina. Not that alone, you think ? And wherefore not ? Was she not gentle and pure and fair as a summer night ? Biorn, — I tell you, Lucia was dear to me as my life. Have you forgotten how many a time, when we were children, we sat on your knee in the winter evenings.'' You sang songs to us, and told us tales Biorn. Ay, then you were blithe and gay. Elina. Ah, then, Biorn! Then I lived a glorious life in fable- land, and in my own imaginings. Can it be that the ACT I] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 29 sea-strand was naked then as now? If it was so, I knew it not. 'Twas there I loved to go weaving all mv fair romances; my heroes came from afar and sailed again across the sea; I lived in their midst, and set forth with them when they sailed away. [Sinks on a chair.] Now I feel so faint and weary; I can live no longer in my tales. They are only — tales. [Rising, vehemently.] Biorn, know you what has made me sick? A truth; a hateful, hateful truth, that gnaws me day and night. Biorn. What mean you ? Elina. Do you remember how sometimes you would give us good counsel and wise saws ? Sister Lucia followed them; but I — ah, well-a-day! BlORX. [Consoling her.] Well, well ! Elina. I know it — I was proud, overweening! In all our games, I would still be the Queen, because I was the tallest, the fairest, the wisest! I know it! Biorn. That is true. Elina. Once you took me by the hand and looked earnestly at me, and said: "Be not proud of your fairness, or your wisdom; but be proud as the mountain eagle as often as you think: I am Inger Gyldenlove's daughter!" 30 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act i BlORN. And was it not matter enough for pride ? Elina. You told me so often enough, Biorn! Oh, you told me many a tale in those days. [Presses his hand.] Thanks for them all! — Now, tell me one more; it might make me light of heart again, as of old. Biorn. You are a child no longer. Elina. Nay, indeed! But let me dream that I am. — Come, tell on! [Throws herself into a chair. Biorn sits on the edge of the high hearth. Biorn. Once upon a time there was a high-born knight Elina. [Who has been listening restlessly in the direction of the hall, seizes his arm and breaks out in a vehement whisper.] Hush! No need to shout so loud; I can hear well! Biorn. [More softly.] Once upon a time there was a high- born knight, of whom there went the strange report [Elina half rises, and listens in anxious suspense in the direction of the hall. ACT I] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 81 BlORN. Mistress EHna, — what ails you ? Elina. [Sits down again.] Me ? Nothing, Go on. BlORN. Well, as I was saying — did this knight but look straight in a woman's eyes, never could she forget it after; her thoughts must follow him wherever he went, and she must waste away with sorrow. Elina. I have heard that tale. — Moreover, 'tis no tale you are telling, for the knight you speak of is Nils Lykke, who sits even now in the Council of Denmark BlORN. Maybe so. Elina. Well, let it pass — go on! BlORN. Now it happened once on a time Elina. [Rises suddenly.] Hush; be still! BlORN. What now ? What is the matter ? 32 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act i Elina. [Listening.] Do you hear ? BlORN. What? Elina. It is there! Yes, by the cross of Christ, it is there! BlORN. [Rises.] What is there ? Where ? Elina. She herself — in the hall [Goes hastily toioards the hall. BlORN. [Folloioing^ How can you think — ? Mistress Elina, — go to your chamber! Elina. Hush; stand still! Do not move; do not let her see you! Wait — the moon is coming out. Can you not see the black-robed figure ^ Biorn. By all the saints ! Elina. Do you see — she turns Knut Alfson's picture to the wall. Ha-ha; be sure it looks her too straight in the eyes! Biorn. Mistress Elina, hear me! ACT I] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 33 Elina. [Going hack towards the fire place. '\ Now I know what I know! BlORN. [To himself. "l Then it is true! Elina. Who was it, Biorn ? Who w^as it ? BlORN. You saw as plainly as I. Elina. Well ? Whom did I see ? Biorn. You saw your mother. Elina. [Half to herself] Night after night I have heard her steps in there. I have heard her whispering and moan- ing like a soul in pain. And what says the song — ? Ah, now I know! Now I know that Biorn. Hush! [Lady Inger Gyldenlove enters rapidly from the hall, without noticing the others; she goes to tJie window, draivs the curtain, and gazes out as if ivatching for some one on the high road; after a while, she turns and goes slowly back into the hall. 34 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act i Elina. [Softly, following Iter with lier eyes.] White, white as the dead ! [An uproar of many voices is heard outside the door on tJie right. BlORN. What can this be ? Elina. Go out and see what is amiss. [EiNAR HuK, the bailiff, appears in the anteroom, with a crowd of Retainers and Peasants. EiNAR HuK. [In the doorway.] Straight in to her! And be not abashed ! BlORN. What seek you ? EiNAR HuK. Lady Inger herself. BlORN. Lady Inger .'' So late ? EiNAR HuK. Late, but time enough, I wot. The Peasants. Yes, yes; she must hear us now! [TJie whole rabble crowds into the room. At the same moment Lady Inger appears in the doorway oftlie hall. A sudden silence. ACT I] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 35 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 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 ! 36 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act i 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 whet- ting 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 .'' BlORN. [Softly and imploringly to Lady Inger.] 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 Den- mark. 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. ACT I] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 37 The Peasants. Ay, out with the Danish sheriffs! Out with the for- eign masters! Out with the Councillors' lackeys! Lady Inger. [To herself.] Ah, there is metal in them; and vet, yet ! BlORN. [To himself.] She is of two minds. [To Elixa.] What say you now. Mistress Elina — have you not sinned in misjudging your mother.'' Elina. Biorn — if my eyes have lied to me, I could tear them out of mv head! Einar Huk. See you not, my noble lady. King Gustav must be dealt with first. Were h i s 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 for- eign masters, and can choose ourselves a king, as the Swedes have done before us. Lady Inger. [With animation.] A king for ourselves! Arc you ^ stock ? Pronounce StoorS. thinking of the Sture^ stock ? 38 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act i 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. Never- theless, it might still be possible to find one or other shoot of the old stems Lady Inger [Hastily.] Enough, Einar Huk, enough! [To her- self.] Ah, my dearest hope! [Turns to the Peasants and Retainers. I have warned you, now, as well as I can. I have told you how great is the risk you run. But if you are fixed in your purpose, 'twere folly in me to forbid what I have no power to prevent. EiNAR Huk. Then we have your leave to ? Lady Inger. You have your own firm will; take counsel with that. If it be as you say, that you are daily harassed and op- pressed I know but little of these matters. I will not know more ! What can I, a lonely woman — ? Even if you were to plunder the 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 midtitude. Candles are lighted; tJie Retainers hring out iveapons of dif- ferent kinds from the Iiall. ACT I] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 39 BlORN. [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 — 'tis a dangerous game I have ventured this night. The others stake only their lives; but I, trust me, a thousandfold more! Biorn. How mean you ? Do you fear for your power and your favour with ? Lady Inger. My power? O God in Heaven! A Retainer. [Comes from the hall with a large sword.] See, here's a real good wolf's-tooth ! With this will I flay the blood- suckers' lackeys! EiNAR HuK. [To another^ What is that you have found? The Retainer. The breastplate they call Herlof Hyttefad's. EiNAR HuK. 'Tis too good for such as you. Look, here is the shaft of Sten Sture's^ lance; hang the breastplate upon it, and we shall have the noblest standard heart can desire. * Pronounce Stayn Stoore. 40 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act i Finn. [Comes from the door on tJie left, with a letter in his hand, and goes towards Lady Inger.] I have sought you through all the house Lady Inger. What would you ? Finn. [Hands Jier the letter.] A messenger is come from Trondhiem^ with a letter for you. Lady Inger. Let me see ! [Opening the letter.] From Trondhiem ? What can it be? [Runs through the letter.] O God! From him! And here in Norway [Reads on with strong emotion, while tlie men go on bringing out arms from the JmU. 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 to7ie.] No man shall leave my house to-night! ' Pronounce Tronyem. ACT I] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 41 EiNAR HUK. But the wind is fair, noble lady; 'twill take us quickly up the fiord, and Lady Inger. It shall be as I have said. EiNAR HuK. Are we to wait till to-morrow, then ? Lady Inger. Till to-morrow, and longer still. No armed man shall go forth from Ostrat yet awhile. [Signs of displeasure among the croicd. Some of the Peasants. We will go all the same, Lady Inger! The Cry Spreads. Ay, ay; we will go! Lady Inger. [Advancing a step towards them.] Who dares to move ? [A silence. After a moment's pause, sJie 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 e'en bear your oppressions and burdens yet awhile. Why murmur at that, when you see that we, your leaders, are as ill bested as you ? Take all the weapons back to the hall. You shall know my further will hereafter. Go! [The Retainers take hack the arms, and the whole crowd then withdraws by the door on the right. 42 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act i Elina. [Softly to BioRN.] Say you still that I have sinned in misjudging — the Lady of Ostrat ? Lady Inger. [Beckons *,o Biorn, and says.] Have a guest-chamber ready. Biorn. It is well. Lady Inger! Lady Inger. And let the gate be open to whoever shall knock. Biorn. But ? Lady Inger. The gate open! Biorn. The gate open. [Goes out to the right. Lady Inger. [To Elina, ivho has already reached the door on the left.] Stay here! Elina — my child — I have some- thing to say to you alone. Elina. I hear you. Lady Inger. Elina you think evil of your mother. ACT I] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 43 Elina. I think, to my sorrow, what your deeds have forced me to think. Lady Inger. And you answer as your bitter spirit bids you. Elina. Who has filled my spirit with bitterness ? From my childhood I had been wont to look up to you as a great and high-souled woman. 'Twas in your likeness that I pictured the women of the chronicles and the Book of Heroes. I thought the Lord God himself had set his seal on your brow, and marked you out as the leader of the helpless and the oppressed. Knights and nobles sang your praise in the feast-hall; and even 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 scarce know if through you I dare look for any morning. Lady Inger. 'Tis easy to see whence you have learnt such venom- ous words. You have let yourself give ear to what the thoughtless rabble mutters and murmurs about things it can little judge of. Elina. "Truth is in the people's mouth," was your word when they praised you in speech and song. 44 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act i Lady Inger. Maybe so. But if indeed I chose to sit here idle, though it was my part to act — think you not that such a choice were burden enough for me, without your add- ing to its weight ? Elina. The weight I add to your burden crushes me no less than you. Lightly and freely I drew the breath of life, so long as I had you to believe in. For my pride is my life; and well might I have been proud, had you remained what once you were. Lady Inger. And what proves to you that I have not .' Elina — how know you so surely that you are not doing your mother wrong "^ Elina. \y ehemently \ Oh, that I were! Lady Inger. Peace! You have no right to call your mother to ac- count. — With a single word I could ; but 'twould be an ill word for you to hear; you must await what time shall bring; maybe that Elina. \Turns to go.^ Sleep well, my mother f Lady Inger. [Hesitates^ Nay — stay with me; I have still some- what Come nearer; — you must hear me, Elina! \Sits down by the table in front of the windoiv. ACT I] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 45 Elina. I hear you. Lady Inger. For as silent as you are, I know well that you often long to be gone from here. Ostrat is too lonely and life- less for you. Elina. Do you wonder at that, my mother ? Lady Inger. It rests with you whether all this shall henceforth be Elina. changed How so? Lady Inger. Listen. — I look for a guest to-night. Elina. [Comes nearer.] A guest ? Lady Inger. A guest, who must remain a stranger to all. None must know whence he comes or whither he goes. « Elina. [Throivs herself, with a cry of joy, at her mother's feet, and seizes her hands.] My mother! My mother! For- give me, if you can, all the wrong I have done you! 46 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [acti Lady Inger. What do you mean ? Elina, I do not understand you. Elina. Then they were all deceived! You are still true at heart ! Lady Ingeb. Rise, rise and tell me Elina. Think you I do not know who the stranger is? Lady Inger. You know ? And yet ? Elina. Think you the gates of Ostrat shut so close that never a whisper of the country's woe can slip through them ? Think you I do not know that the heir of many a noble line wanders outlawed, without rest or shelter, while Danish masters lord it in the home of his fathers ? 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 ACT I] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 47 Lady Inger. [Coldly.] Enough! Now I understand you. Elina. [Continuing.] And that is why the gates of Ostrat 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 whither he goes! You are setting at naught the harsh decree that forbids you to harbour or succour the outlaw Lady Inger. Enough, I say! [After a short silence, adds with an effort: 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 igno- rance of all our griefs and miseries. What could it avail 48 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act i 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. Elina. Who has told you that, when courage and strength are needed, I shall be found wanting ? Lady Inger. Hush, child; — I might take you at your word. Elina. How mean you, my mother.'' Lady Inger. I might call on you for both; I might ; but let me say my say out first. Know then that the time seems now to be drawing nigh, towards which the Danish Council have been work- ing for many a year — the time, I mean, for them to strike the last blow at our rights and our freedom. Therefore must we now Elina. [Eagerly.] Openly rebel, my mother? Lady Inger. No; we must gain breathing-time. The Council is now assembled at Copenhagen, considering how best to go to work. Most of them hold, 'tis said, that there can be no end to dissensions till Norway and Denmark are one; for should we still possess our rights as a free land ACT I] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 49 when the time comes to choose the next king, 'tis 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. No, we will not endure it. But to take up arms — to declare open w^ar — what would come of that, so long as we are not united ? And were we ever less united in this land than we are even now ? — No, if aught is to be accomplished, it must be secretly and in silence. Even as I said, we must have time to draw breath. In the South, a good part of the nobles are for the Dane; but here in the North they are still in doubt. Therefore has King Frederick sent hither one of his most trusted coun- cillors, to assure himself with his own eyes how we stand affected. Elina. [In suspense.] Well — and then ? 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. 50 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [acti 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 Lady Inger. Fear not. All this I have fully weighed; but there is no danger. His errand in Norway is a secret; he has come unknown to Trondhiem, and unknown shall he be our guest at Ostrat. Elina. And the name of this Danish lord ? Lady Inger. It sounds well, Elina; Denmark has scarce a nobler name. Elina. But what then do you purpose ? I cannot yet grasp meaning. Lady Inger. your e, You will soon understand. — Since we cannot trample on the serpent, we must bind it. Elina. Take heed that it burst not your bonds. Lady Inger. It rests with you to tighten them as you will. ACT I] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 51 Elina. With me ? Lady Inger. I have long seen that Ostrat is as a cage to you. The young falcon chafes behind the iron bars. Elina. My wings are clipped. Even if you set me free — 'twould avail me little. Lady Inger. Your wings are not clipped, save by your own will. Elina. Will ? My will is in your hands. Be what you once were, and I too Lady Inger. Enough, enough. Hear me further. — It would scarce break your heart to leave Ostrat ? Elina. Maybe not, my mother! Lady Inger. You told me once, that you lived your happiest life in your tales and histories. What if that life were to be yours once more ? Elina. What mean you ? 52 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act i Lady Inger. Elina — if a mighty noble were to come and lead you to his castle, where you should find damsels and squires, silken robes and lofty halls awaiting you ? Elina. A noble, you say ? Lady Inger. A noble. Elina. [More softly.] And the Danish envoy comes hither to-night ? Lady Inger. To-night. Elina. If so be, then I fear to read the meaning of your words. Lady Inger. There is naught to fear if you misread them not. It is far from my thought to put force upon you. You shall choose for yourself in this matter, and follow your own rede. Elina. [Comes a step nearer.] Know you the tale of the mother who drove across the hills by night, with her little children in the sledge ? The wolves were on her track; 'twas life or death with her; — and one by one she cast out her little ones, to win time and save herself. ACT I] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 53 Lady Inger. Nursery tales! A mother would tear the heart from her breast before she would cast her child to the wolves! Elina. Were I not my mother's daughter, I would say you were right. But you are like that mother; one by one have you cast out your daughters to the wolves. The eldest went first. Five years ago Merete^ went forth from Ostrat; now she dwells in Bergen, and is Vinzents Lunge's" wife. But think you she is happy as the Danish noble's ladv "^ Vinzents Lung-e is mightv, well- nigh as a king; Merete has damsels and squires, silken robes and lofty halls; but the day has no sunshine for her, and the night no rest; for she has never loved him. He came hither and he wooed her, for she was the great- est heiress in Norway, and 'twas then needful for him to gain a footing in the land. I know it; I know it well! Merete bowed to your will; she went with the stranger lord. — But what has it cost her.? More tears than a mother should wish to answer for at the day of reck- oning! 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. ^ Pronounce Mayrayte. ^ Pronounce LoongJii. 54 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act i Elina. 'Tis you I ask; 'tis you 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, I startle you, my mother! You thought the ugly secret was buried with her; — but she told me all. A courtly knight had won her heart. He would have wedded her. You knew that her honour was at stake; yet your will never bent — and your child had to die. You see, I know all! Lady Inger. All ? Then she told you his name ? Elina. His name? No; his name she did not tell me. She shrank from his name as though it stung her; — she never uttered it. Lady Inger. [Relieved, to herself.] Ah, then you do not know all Elina — 'tis true that the whole of this matter was well known to me. But there is one thing it seems you have overlooked. 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. ACT I] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 55 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. Think you that, with Merete's lot before my eyes, I could sacrifice my second child to a man that loved her not ? Elina. Cunning words may beguile many, but they beguile not me Think not I know nothing of all that is passing in our land ? I understand your counsels but too well. I know that in you the Danish lords have no true friend. It may be that you hate them; but you fear them too. When you gave Merete to Vinzents Lunge, the Danes held the mastery on all sides throughout our land. Three years later, when you forbade Lucia to wed the man to whom, though he had deceived her, she had given her life — things were far different then. The King's Danish governors had shamefully misused the common people, and you deemed it not wise to link yourself still more closely to the foreign tyrants. And what have you done to avenge her that was sent so young to her grave ? You have done nothing. Well then, I will act in your stead; I will avenge all the shame they have brought upon our, people and our house! Lady Inger. You ? What will you do ? 56 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act i Elina. I will go my way, even as you go yours. What I shall do I myself know not; but I feel within me the strength to dare all for our righteous cause. Lady Inger. Then have you a hard fight before you. I once promised as you do now — and my hair has grown grey under the burden of that promise. Elina. Good-night! Your guest will soon be here, and at that meeting I should be one too many. It may be there is yet time for you ; well, God strengthen and guide you on your path! Forget not that the eyes of many thousands are fixed on you. Think on Merete, weeping late and early over her wasted life. Think on Lucia, sleeping in her black coffin. And one thing more. Forget not that in the game you play this night, your stake is your last child. [Goes out to the left. Lady Inger. [Looks after her aichile.] My last child ? You know not how true was that word But the stake is not my child only. God help me, I am playing to-night for the whole of Norway's land. Ah — is not that some one riding through the gateway .'' [Listens at the window. No; not yet. Only the wind; it blows cold as the grave Has God a right to do this ? — To make me a woman — and then to lay on my shoulders a man's work.' ACT I] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 57 For I h a V e the welfare of the country in my hands. It i s in my power to make tliem rise as one man. They look to m e 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 totvards 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 gesture of repidsion, and cries: Sten Sture! Knut Alfson! Olaf Skaktavl! Back — • back! — I cannot do this! [A Stranger, strongly built, and with grizzled hair and beard, has entered from the Banquet Hall. He is dressed in a torn laTnbskin tunic; his weapons are rusty. The Stranger. [Stops in the doorway, and says in a low voice.] Hail to you, Inger Gyldenlove! Lady Inger. [Turns with a scream.] Ah, Christ in heaven save me! [Falls back into a chair. The Stranger stands gaz- ing at her, motionless, leaning on his sword. 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 a heated 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 utter- ly, perish it must, for all we may do to save it. Olaf Skaktavl. x\nd think you I can content my heart with that be- lief ? Shall I sit and look idly on, now that the hour is come ? Do you forget the reckoning I have against them ? They have robbed me of my lands, and par- celled them out among themselves. My son, my only child, the last of my race, they have slaughtered like a dog. Myself they have outlawed and hunted through forest and fell these twenty years. — Once and again have folk whispered of my death; but this I believe, 58 ACT II] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 59 that they shall not lay me beneath the sod before I have seen my vengeance. Lady Inger. Then is there a long life before you. What have vou in mind to do ? Olaf Skaktavl. Do ? How should I know what I will do ? It has never been my part to plot and plan. That is where you must help me. You have the wit for that. I have but my sword and my two arms. 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. Lady Inger. Put me not in mind of what was. Olaf Skaktavl. 'Tis for that very purpose I am here. You shall hear me, even if Lady Inger. Be it so then; but be brief; for — I must say it — this is no place of safety for you. 60 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act ii 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 mav wander. Lady Inger. Speak then; I will not hinder you. Olaf Skaktavl. 'Tis niffh on thirty years now since first I saw you. It was at Akershus^ in the house of Knut Alfson and his wife. You were little more than a child then; yet were you 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. But you cared for nothing, thought of nothing, save your country's evil case and its great need. Lady Inger. I counted but fifteen summers then — remember that! And was it not as though a frenzy had seized us all in those days .'' Olaf Skaktavl. Call it what you will; but one thing I know — even the old and sober men among us thought it written in the counsels of the Lord on high that you were she who should break our thraldom and win us all our rights again. And more: you yourself then thought as we did. ' Pronounce Ahkers-hoos. ACT II] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 61 Lady Inger, 'Twas a sinful thought, Olaf Skaktavl. 'Twas my proud heart, and not the Lord's call, that spoke in me. Olaf Skaktavl. You could have been the chosen one had vou but willed it. You came of the noblest blood in Norwav; power and riches were soon to be yours; and you had an ear for the cries of anguish — then! Do you remember that afternoon when Henrik Krum- medike and the Danish fleet anchored off Akershus? The captains of the fleet offered terms of peace, and, trusting to the safe-conduct, Knut Alfson rowed on board. Three hours later, we bore him through the castle gate Lady Inger. A corpse; a corpse! Olaf Skaktavl. The best heart in Norway burst, when Krummedike's hirelings struck him down. Methinks I still can see the long procession that passed into the Banquet Hall, heavily, two by two. There he lay on his bier, white as a spring cloud, with the axe-cleft in his brow. I may safelv sav that the boldest men in Norwav were gathered there that night. Lady Margrete stood by her dead husband's head, and we swore as one man to venture lands and life to avenge this last misdeed and all that had gone before. — Inger Gyldenlove, — who was it that burst through the circle of men ? A maiden — almost a 62 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act ii child — with fire in her eyes and her voice half choked with tears. — What was it she swore ? Shall I repeat your words ? ^ Lady Inger. I swore what the rest of you swore; neither more nor less. Olaf Skaktavl. You remember your oath — and yet you have for- gotten it. Lady Inger. And how did the others keep their promise ? I speak not of you, Olaf Skaktavl, but of your friends, all Nor- way's nobles ? Not one of them, in all these years, has had the courage to be a man ; yet they lay it to my charge that I am a woman. Olaf Skaktavl. I know what you would say. Why have they bent to the yoke, and not defied the tyrants to the last ? 'Tis but too true; there is base metal enough in our noble houses nowadays. But had they held together — who knows what then might have been ? And you could have held them together, for before you all had bowed. Lady Inger. My answer were easy enough, but 'twould scarce con- tent you. So let us leave speaking of what cannot be changed. Tell me rather what has brought you to Ostrjit. Do you need harbour? Well, I will try to hide you. If you would have aught else, speak out; you shall find me ready ACT II] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 63 Olaf Skaktavl. For twenty years have I been homeless. In the moun- tains of Jaemteland my hair has grown grey. My dwell- ing has been with wolves and bears. — You see, Lady Inger — / need you not; but both nobles and people stand in sore need of you. Lady Ingek. 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 brewing: 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. 'Tis he that has sent me to Ostrat. Lady Inger. [Rises.] Peter Kanzler, say you ? Olaf Skaktavl. He himself; — but mayhap you no longer know him ? * That is, Peter the Chancellor. 64 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act ii Lady Inger. [Half to herself.] Only too well ! — But tell me, I pray you, — what message do you bring? Olaf Skaktavl. When the rumour of the rising reached the border mountains, where I then was, I set off at once into Swe- den. 'Twas not hard to guess that Peter Kanzler had a finger in the game. I sought him out and offered to stand by him; — he knew me of old, as you know, and knew that he could trust me; so he has sent me hither. Lady Inger. [Impatiently.'] Yes, yes, — he sent you hither to ? Olaf Skaktavl. \\\^it}i secrecy.] Lady Inger — a stranger comes to Ostrat to-night. Lady Inger. [Surprised.] What.^ Know you that ? Olaf Skaktavl. Assuredly I know it. I know all. 'Twas to meet him that Peter Kanzler sent me hither. Lady Inger. To meet him ? Impossible, Olaf Skaktavl, — impos- sible. Olaf Skaktavl. 'Tis as I tell you. If he be not already come, he will soon ACT II] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 65 Lady Inger. Doubtless, doubtless; but Olaf Skaktavl. Then you knew of his coming ? Lady Inger. Ay, surely. He sent me a message. 'Twas therefore they opened to you as soon as you knocked. Olaf Skaktavl. [Listeyis.] Hush! — some one is riding along the road. [Goes to the window.] They are opening the gate. Lady Inger. [Looks out.] It is a knight and his attendant. They are dismounting in the courtyard. Olaf Skaktavl. 'Tis he, then. His name.? Lady Inger. You know not his name } Olaf Skaktavl. Peter Kanzler refused to tell it me. He would say no more than that I should find him at Ostrat the third evening after Martinmas Lady Inger. Ay; even to-night. 66 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act ii Olaf Skaktavl. He was to bring letters with him; and from them, and from you, I was to learn who he is. Lady Inger. Then let me lead you to your chamber. You have need of rest and refreshment. You shall soon have speech with the stranger. Olaf Skaktavl. Well, be it as you will, [Both go out to the left. [After a short pause, Finn enters cautiously by the door on the right, looks round the room, and -peeps into the Banquet Hall; he tJien goes hack to the door, and makes a sign to some one outside. Im- mediately after, enter Councillor Nils Lykke and the Swedish Commander, Jens Bielke. Nils Lykke. [Softly.] No one ? Finn. [In the same tone.] No one, master! Nils Lykke. And we may depend on you in all things ? Finn. The commandant in Trondhiem has ever given me a name for trustiness. . ACT II] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 67 Nils Lykke. 'Tis well; he has said as much to me. First of all, then — has there come any stranger to Ostrat to-night, before us ? Finn. Ay; a stranger came an hour since. Nils Lykke. [Softly, to Jens Bielke.] He is here. [Turns again to Finn.] Would you know him again ? Have you seen him ? Finn. Nay, none has seen him, that I know, but the gate- keeper. He was brought at once to Lady Inger, and she Nils Lykke. Well ? What of her ? He is not gone again already ? Finn. No; but it seems she holds him hidden in one of her own rooms; for Nils Lykke. It is well. Jens Bielke. [IF/mpers.] Then the first thing is to put a guard on the gate; so are we sure of him. 68 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act ii Nils Lykke. [With a smile.] H'm! [To Finn.] Tell me— is there any way of leaving the castle, save by the gate ? Gape not at me so ! I mean — can one escape from Ostrat un- seen, though the castle gate be barred ? Finn. Nay, that I know not. 'Tis true they talk of secret ways in the vaults beneath; but no one knows them save Lady Inger — and mayhap Mistress Elina. Jens Bielke. The devil! Nils Lykke. It is well. You may go. Finn. Should you need me in aught again, you have but to open the second door on the right in the Banquet Hall, and I shall presently be at hand. Nils Lykke. Good. [Points to the entrance-door. Finn goes out. Jens Bielke. Now, by my soul, dear friend and brother — this cam- paign is like to end but scurvily for both of us. Nils Lykke. [With a smile.] Oh — not for me, I hope. ACT II] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 69 Jens Bielke, Say you so? First of all, there is little honour to be won in hunting an overgrown whelp like this Nils Sture. Are we to think him mad or in his sober senses after the pranks he has played ? First he breeds bad blood among the peasants; promises them help and all their hearts can desire;— and then, when it comes to the pinch, off he runs to hide behind a petticoat! Moreover, to say truth, I repent that I followed your counsel and went not my own way. Nils Lykke. [To himself.] Your repentance comes somewhat late, my brother! Jens Bielke. For, let me tell you, I have never loved digging at a badger's earth. I looked for quite other sport. Here have I ridden all the way from Jaemteland with my horsemen, and have got me a warrant from the Trond- hiem 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. Were it not liker, in that case, that we had found the gate barred and well guarded? Would that we had; then could I have found use for my men-at-arms 70 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act ii Nils Lykke. But instead, the gate is very courteously thrown open to us. Mark now — if Inger Gyldenlove's fame beUe her not, I warrant she will not let her guests lack for either meat or drink. Jens Bielke. Ay, to turn aside from our errand! And what wild whim was that of yours to have me leave my horsemen half a league from the castle ! Had we come in force Nils Lykke. She had made us none the less welcome for that. But mark well that then our coming had made a stir. The peasants round about had held it for an outrage against Lady Inger; she had risen high in their favour once more — and with that, look you, we were ill served. Jens Bielke. Maybe so. But what am I to do now ? Count Sture is in Ostrat, you say. Ay, but how does that profit me ^ Be sure Lady Inger Gyldenlove has as many hid- ing-places as the fox, and more than one outlet to them. You and I, alone, may go snuffing about here as long as we please. I would the devil had the whole affair! Nils Lykke. Well, then, my friend — if you like not the turn your errand has taken, you have but to leave the field to me. Jens Bielke. To you ? What will you do ? ACT II] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 71 Nils Lykke. Caution and cunning may in this matter prove of more avail than force of arms. — And to say truth, Cap- tain Jens Bielke — something of the sort has been in my mind ever since we met in Trondhiem yesterday. Jens Bielke. Was that why you persuaded me to leave the men-at- arms ? Nils Lykke. Both your purpose at Ostrat and mine could best be served without them; and so Jens Bielke. The foul fiend seize you — I had almost said! And me to boot! Might I not have known that there is guile in all your dealings.'^ Nils Lykke. Be sure I shall need all my guile here, if I am to face my foe with even weapons. And let me tell you, 'tis of the utmost moment to me that I acquit me of my mission secretly and well. You must know that when I set forth I was scarce in favour with my lord the King. He held me in suspicion; though I dare swear I have served him as well as any man could, in more than one ticklish charge. Jens Bielke. That you may safely boast. God and all men know you for the craftiest devil in all the three kingdoms. 72 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act ii Nils Lykke. I thank you! Though, after all, 'tis not much to say. But this present errand I count as indeed a crowning test of my powers; for here I have to outwit a woman Jens Bielke. Ha-ha-ha ! In t h a t 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, 'tis women of twenty and thereabouts that ditty speaks of. Lady Inger Gyldenlove is nigh on fifty, and wily to boot beyond all women. 'Twill be no light mat- ter to overmatch her. But it must be done — at any cost. Should I contrive to win certain advantages over her that the King has long desired, I can reckon on the embassy to France next spring. You know that I spent three years at the University in Paris ? My whole soul is set on coming thither again, most of all if I can appear in lofty place, a king's ambassador. — Well, then — is it agreed — do you leave Lady Inger to me .'' Remember — when you were last at Court in Copenhagen, I made way for you with more than one fair lady Jens Bielke. Nay, truly now — that generosity cost you little; one and all of them were at your beck and call. But let that ACT II] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 73 pass; now that I have begun amiss in this matter, I had as lief that you should take it on your shoulders. Yet one thing you must promise— if the young Count Sture be in Ostrat, you will deliver him into my hands, dead or alive! Nils Lykke. You shall have him all alive. I, at any rate, mean not to kill him. But now you must ride back and join your people. Keep guard on the road. Should I mark aught that mislikes me, you shall know it forthwith. Jens Bielke. Good, good. But how am I to get out ? Nils Lykke. The fellow that brought us in will show the way. But go quietly Jens Bielke. Of course, of course. Well— good fortune to you ! 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 awhile; then walks about the room, looking rouyid him; then he says softly:] At last, then, I am at Ostrat — the ancient hall whereof a child, two years ago, told me so much. 74 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act ii 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. And underneath is — the grave-vault. It must be there that Lucia lies. [In a lower voice, half-seriously , half tvith forced gaiety. Were I timorous, I might well find myself fancying that when I set foot within Ostrat gate she turned about in her coffin; as I crossed the courtyard she lifted the lid; and when I named her name but now, 'twas as though a voice summoned her forth from the grave- vault. — Maybe she is even now groping her way up the stairs. The face-cloth blinds her, but she gropes on and on in spite of it. Now she has reached the Banquet Hall! She stands watching me from behind the door! [Turns his head backwards over one shoulder, nods, and says aloud: Come nearer, Lucia! Talk to me a little! Your mother keeps me waiting. 'Tis tedious waiting — and you have helped me to while away many a tedious hour [Passes his hand over his forehead, and takes one or two turns up and down. Ah, there! — Right, right; there is the deep curtained window. 'Tis there that Inger Gyldenlove is wont to stand gazing out over the road, as though looking for one that never comes. In there — [looks towards the door on the left] — somewhere in there is Sister Elina's cham- ber. Elina? Ay, Elina is her name. ACT II] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 75 Can it be that she Is so rare a being — so wise and so brave as Lucia fancied her? Fair, too, they say. But for a wedded wife — ? I should not have written so plainly. [Lost in thought, he is on the 'point of sitting down by the table, but stands up again. How will Lady Inger receive me.^ — She will scarce burn the castle over our heads, or slip me through a trap-door. A stab from behind — ? No, not that way either [Listens towards the hall. Aha! [Lady Inger Gyldexlove enters from the hall. Lady Ixger. [Coldly.] My greeting to you. Sir Councillor Nils Lykke. [Bows deeply.] Ah— the Lady of Ostrat! Lady Ixger. and my thanks that you have forewarned me of your visit. Nils Lykke. I could do no less. I had reason to think that ray coming might surprise you Lady Ixger. Trulv, Sir Councillor, therein you iud^ed aricrht. Nils Lykke was indeed the last guest I looked to see at Ostrat. 76 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act ii Nils Lykke. And still less, mayhap, did you think to see him come as a friend ? Lady Inger. As a friend ? You add mockery to all the shame and sorrow you have heaped upon my house ? After bring- ing my child to the grave, you still dare Nils Lykke, With your leave. Lady Inger Gyldenlove — on that matter we should scarce agree; for you count as nothing what / lost by that same unhappy chance. I purposed nought but in honour. I was tired of my unbridled life; my thirtieth year was already past; I longed to mate me with a good and gentle wife. Add to all this the hope of becoming your son-in-law Lady Inger. Beware, Sir Councillor! I have done all in my power to hide my child's unhappy fate. But because it is out of sight, think not it is out of mind. There may yet come a time Nils Lykke. You threaten me. Lady Inger? I have offered you my hand in amity; you refuse to take it. Henceforth, then, it is to be open war between us? Lady Inger. I knew not there had ever been aught else ? ACT II] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 77 Nils Lykke. Not on your side, mayhap. I have never been your enemy, — though, as a subject of the King of Den- mark, 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. Lady Inger. Your pardon. Sir Councillor, — I account for my do- ings to none but God and myself. If it please you, then, let me understand what brings you hither. Nils Lykke. Gladly, Lady Inger! The purpose of my mission to this country can scarce be unknown to you ? Lady Inger. I know the mission that report assigns you. Our King would fain know how the Norwegian nobles stand affected towards him. 78 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act ii Nils Lykke. Assuredly. Lady Inger. Then that is why you visit Ostrat? Nils Lykke. In part. But it is far from my purpose to demand any profession of loyalty from you Lady Inger. What then ? Nils Lykke. Hearken to me, Lady Inger! You said yourself but now that your position is no easy one. You stand half way between two hostile camps, whereof neither dares trust you fully. Your own interest must needs bind you to u s. On the other hand, you are bound to the disaffected by the bond of nationality, and — who knows } — mayhap by some secret tie as well. Lady Inger. [To herself.] A secret tie! Oh God, can he ? Nils Lykke. \Notices her emotion, hut makes no sign, and continues without change of ma7iner.] You cannot but see that such a position must ere long become impossible. — Sup- pose, now, it lay in my power to free you from these embarrassments which ACT II] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 79 Lady Inger. In your power, you say? Nils Lykke. First of all, Lady Inger, I would beg you to lay no stress on any careless words I may have used concerning that which lies between us two. Think not that I have forgotten for a moment the wrong I have done you. Sup- pose, now, I had long purposed to make atonement, as far as might be, where I had sinned. Suppose it were for that reason I had contrived to have this mission assigned me. Lady Inger. Speak your meaning more clearly. Sir Councillor; — I cannot follow you. Nils Lykke. I can scarce be mistaken in thinking that you, as well as I, know of the threatened troubles in Sweden. You know, or at least you can guess, that this rising is of far wider aim than is commonly supposed, and you under- stand therefore that our King cannot look on quietly and let things take their course. Am I not right .'^ Lady Inger. Go on. Nils Lykke. [Searchingly, after a short pause.] There is one possible chance that might endanger Gustav Vasa's throne 80 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act ii Lady Ixger. [To herself.] Whither is he tending? Nils Lykke. -the chance, namely, that there should exist in Sweden a man entitled bv his birth to claim election to the kingship. Lady Inger. [Evasively.] The Swedish nobles have been even as bloodily hewn down as our own, Sir Councillor. Where would you seek for ? Nils Lykke. [With a smile.] Seek ? The man is found already Lady Inger. [Starts violently.] Ah! He is found? Nils Lykke. -and he is too closely akin to you, Lady Inger, to be far from your thoughts at this moment. [Looks fixedly at her. The last Count Sture left a son Lady Inger. \With a cry^ Holy Saviour, how know you ? Nils Lykke. [Surprised.] Be calm, Madam, and let me finish. — This young man has till now lived quietly with his mother, Sten Sture's widow. ACT II] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 81 Lady Inger. [Breathes more freely.] With— ? Ah, yes— true, true! Nils Lykke. But now he has come forward openly. He has shown himself in the Dales as leader of the peasants; their numbers are growing day by day; and — as mayhap you know — they are finding friends among the peasants on this side of the border-hills. Lady Inger. [WJio has in the meantime regained her composure.] Sir Councillor, — you speak of all these matters as though they must of necessity be known to me. What ground have I given you to believe so.? I know, and wish to know, nothing. All my care is to live quietly within my own domain; I give no countenance to disturbers of the peace; but neither must you reckon on me if it be your purpose to suppress them. Nils Lykke. \In a low voice.'] Would you still be inactive, were it my purpose to come to their aid ? Lady Inger. How am I to understand you } Nils Lykke. Have you not seen, then, whither I have been aiming all this time.? — Well, I will tell you all, frankly and openly. Know, then, that the King and his Council 82 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [actii see clearly that we can have no sure footing in Norway so long as the nobles and the people continue, as now, to think themselves wronged and oppressed. We un- derstand to the full that willing allies are better than sullen subjects; and we have therefore no heartier wish than to loosen the bonds that hamper us, in effect, even as straitly as you. But you will scarce deny that the temper of Norway towards us makes such a step too dangerous — so long as we have no sure support behind us. Lady Inger, And this support ? Nils Lykke. Should naturally come from Sweden. But, mark well, not so long as Gustav Vasa holds the helm; h i s reckoning with Denmark is not yet settled, and mayhap never will be. 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 yours!" — Mark you well. Lady Inger, herein is our gen- erosity less than it may seem; for you must see that, far from weakening, 'twill rather strengthen us. And now that I have opened my heart to you so fully, do you too cast away all mistrust. And therefore [co7i- fidently] — the knight from Sweden, who came hither an hour before me Lady Inger. Then you already know of his coming? ACT II] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 83 Nils Lykke. Most certainly. 'Tis tie whom I seek. Lady Inger. [To herself.] Strange! Then it must be as Olaf Skaktavl said. [To Nils Lykke.] I pray you wait here, Sir Councillor! I will go bring him to you. [Goes out through the Banquet Hall. Nils Lykke, [Looks after her awhile in exultant astonishment.] She is bringing him! Ay, truly — she is bringing him! The battle is half won. I little thought it would go so smoothly. She is deep in the counsels of the rebels; she started in terror when I named Sten Sture's son. And now ? H'm ! Since Lady Inger has been simple enough to walk into the snare, Nils S^ure will not make many difficulties. A hot-blooded boy, thoughtless and rash . With my promise of help he will set forth at once — unhappily Jens Bielke will snap him up by the way — and the whole rising will be nipped in the bud. And then ? Then one further point to our advantage. It is spread abroad that the young Count Sture has been at Ostnit, — 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 Gvldenlove's name among the people stand never so high — 'twill scarce recover from such a blow. [Starts up in sudden uneasiness. 84 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act ii By all the devils — ! What if she has scented mis- chief? It may be he is even now slipping through our fingers — [Listens toivards the hall, and says with relief.] Ah, there is no fear. Here they come. [Lady Inger Gyldenlove enters from the hall, accompanied by Olaf Skaktavl. Lady Inger. [To Nils Lykke.] Here is the man you seek. Nils Lykke. [Aside.] Powers of hell — what means this ? Lady Inger. I have told this knight your name and all that you have imparted to me Nils Lykke. [Irresolutely.] Ay ? Have you so ? Well Lady Inger. and I will not hide from you that his faith in your help is none of the strongest. Nils Lykke. Is it not? Lady Inger. Can you marvel at that? Surely you know both his way of thinking and his bitter fate ACT II] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 85 Nils Lykke. This man's — ? Ah — ^yes, truly Olaf Skaktavl. [To Nils Lykke.] But seeing 'tis Peter Kanzler him- self that has appointed us this meeting Nils Lykke. Peter Kanzler — ? [Recovers himself quickly.] Ay, right, — I have a mission from Peter Kanzler Olaf Skaktavl. He must know best whom he can trust. So why should I trouble my head with pondering how Nils Lykke. Ay, you are right, noble Sir; why waste time over that ? Olaf Skaktavl. Rather let us come straight to the matter. Nils Lykke. Straight to the point; no beating about the bush — 'tis ever my fashion. Olaf Skaktavl. Then will you tell me your errand here ? Nils Lykke. Methinks you can partly guess my errand 86 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act ii Olaf Skaktavl. Peter Kanzler said something of papers that Nils Lykke. Papers? Ay, true, the papers! Olaf Skaktavl. Doubtless you have them with you ? Nils Lykke. Of course; safely bestowed; so safely that I cannot at once [Appears to search the inner pockets of his doublet; says to himself: Who the devil is he? What pretext can I make? I may be on the brink of great discoveries [Notices that the Servants are laying the table and lighting the lamps in the Banquet Hall, ayid says to Olaf Skaktavl: Ah, I see Lady Inger has taken order for the evening meal. Mayhap we could better talk of our affairs at table. Olaf Skaktavl. Good; as you will. Nils Lykke. [Aside.] Time gained — all gained! [To Lady Inger with a show of great friendliness: And meanwhile wc might learn what part Lady Inger Gyldenlove purposes to take in our design ? ACT II] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 87 Lady Inger. I ? — None. Nils Lykke and Olaf Skaktavl. None! Lady Inger. Can ye marvel, noble Sirs, that I venture not on a game wherein loss would mean loss of all ? And that, too, when none of my allies dare trust me fully. Nils Lykke. That reproach touches not me. I trust you blindly; I pray you be assured of that. Olaf Skaktavl. Who should believe in you, if not your countrymen ? Lady Inger. Truly, — this confidence rejoices me. [Goes to a cupboard in the back wall and Jills two goblets with wine. Nils Lykke. [Aside.] Curse her, will she slip out of the noose ? Lady Inger. [Hands a goblet to each.] And since so it is, I offer you a cup of welcome to Ostrat. Drink, noble knights! Pledge me to the last drop! 88 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act ii [Looks from one to the other after they have drunk, and says gravely: But now I must tell you — one goblet held a welcome for my friend; the other — death for my enemy! Nils Lykke. [Throivs down the goblet.] Ah, I am poisoned! Olaf Skaktavl. [At the same tim,e, clutches his sword.] Death and hell, have you murdered me ? Lady Inger, [To Olaf Skaktavl, pointing to Nils Lykke.] You see the Danes' confidence in Inger Gyldenlove [To Nils Lykke, pointing to Olaf Skaktavl.] and likewise my countrymen's faith in me! [To both of them. Yet you would have me place myself in your power.'* Gently, noble Sirs — gently! The Lady of Ostrat is not yet in her dotage. [Elina Gyldenlove enters by the door on the left. Elina. I heard loud voices — . What is amiss ? Lady Inger. [To Nils Lykke.] My daughter Elina. Nils Lykke. [Softly^ Elina! I had not pictured her thus. [Elina catches sight of Nils Lykke, and stands still, as in surprise, gazing at him. ACT II] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 89 Lady Inger. [Touches her arm.] My child — this knight is Elina. [Motiotis her mother hack ivith her Jiand, still looking intently at him, and says:] There is no need! I see who he is. He is Nils Lykke. Nils Lykke. [Aside, to Lady Inger.] How ? Does she know me ? Can Lucia have — ? Can she know ? Lady Inger. Hush! She knows nothing. Elina. [To herself.] I knew it; — even so must Nils Lykke appear. Nils Lykke. [Approaches her.] Yes, Elina Gyldenlove, — you have guessed aright. And as it seems that, in some sense, you know me, — and, moreover, as I am your mother's guest, — you will not deny me the flower-spray you wear in your bosom. So long as it is fresh and fragrant, I shall have in it an image of yourself. Elina. [Proudly, but still gazing at him.] Pardon me. Sir Knight — 'twas plucked in my own chamber, and there can grow no flower for you. 90 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act ii Nils Lykke. [Loosening a spray ofjiowers that he wears in the front of his doublet.^ At least you will not disdain this humble gift. 'Twas a farewell token from a courtly dame when I set forth from Trondhiem this morning. — But mark me, noble maiden, — were I to offer you a gift that were fully worthy of you, it could be nought less than a princely crown. Elina. \Who has taken the flowers passively.] And were it the royal crown of Denmark you held forth to me — be- fore I shared it with you, I would crush it to pieces between my hands, and cast the fragments at your feet! [ Throws down the flowers at his feet, and goes into the Banquet Hall. Olaf Skaktavl. [Mutters to himself.] Bold — as Inger Ottisdaughter by Knut Alf son's bier! Lady Inger. [Softly, after looking alternately at Elina and Nils Lykke.] The wolf c a n be tamed. Now to forge the fetters. Nils Lykke. [Picks up the flowers and gazes in rapture after Elina.] God's holy blood, but she is proud and fair! ACT THIRD The Banquet Hall. A high how-windoiv in the hack- ground; a smaller windoiu in front on the left. Sev- eral doors on each side. The ceiling is S7ipported by massive wooden pillars, on which, as well as on the walls, are hung all sorts of weapons. Pictures of saints, knights, and ladies hang in long roivs. Pen- dent from the ceiling a large many-branched lamp, alight. In front, on the right, an ancient carven high- seat. In the middle of the hall, a table with the rem- nants of the evening meal. Elina Gyldenlove enters from the left, slowly and in deep thought. Her expression shoivs that she is going over again in her mind the scene with Nils Lykke. At last she repeats the motion ivith which she flung away the flowers, and says in a low voice: 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 most secret spot, 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. 91 92 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act hi And' 'twas to him my mother thought to offer me ! — How I hate him! They say Nils Lykke is unlike all other men. It is not true! There is nothing strange in him. There are many, many like him! When Biorn used to tell me his tales, all the princes looked as Nils Lykke looks. When I sat lonely here in the hall and dreamed my histories, and my knights came and went, — they were one and all even as he. How strange and how good it is to hate! Never have I known how sweet it can be — till to-night. Ali — not to live a thousand years would I sell the moments I have lived since I saw him! — "God's holy blood, but she is proud " [Goes slowly toivards the hack, oyens the window and looks out. Nils Lykke comes in by the first door on the right. Nils Lykke. [To himself ."l "Sleep well at Ostrat, Sir Knight," said Inger Gyldenlove as she left me. Sleep well ? Ay, 'tis easily said, but Out there, sky and sea in tumult; below, in the grave- vault, a young girl on her bier; the fate of two kingdoms in my hand; — and in my breast a withered flower that a woman has flung at my feet. Truly, I fear me sleep will be slow of coming. [Notices Elina, who has left the windoio, and is going out on the left.] There she is. Her haughty eyes seem veiled with thought. — Ah, if I but dared — . [Aloud.] Mistress Elina! Elina. [Stops at the door.] What will you ? Why do you pursue me ? ACT III] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 93 Nils Lykke. You err; I pursue you not. I am myself pursued. Elina. You? Nils Lykke. By a multitude of thoughts. Therefore 'tis with sleep as with you: — it flees me. Elina. Go to the window, and there you will find pastime; — a storm-tossed sea Nils Lykke. [Smiles.] A storm-tossed sea.' That may I find in you as well. Elina. In me? Nils Lykke. Ay, of that our first meeting has assured me. Elina. And that offends you ? Nils Lykke. Nay, in nowise; yet I could wish to see you of milder mood. Elina. [Proudly.] Think you that you will ever have your wish r 94 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act hi Nils Lykke. I am sure of it. I have a welcome word to say to you. Elina. What is it ? Nils Lykke. Farewell. Elina. [Comes a step nearer him.] Farewell ? You are leav- ing Ostrat — so soon ? Nils Lykke. This very night. Elina. [Seems to hesitate for a moment; then says coldly.] Then take my greeting, Sir Knight! [Bows and is about to go. Nils Lykke. Elina Gyldenlove, — I have no right to keep you here; but 'twill be unlike your nobleness if you refuse to hear what I have to say to you. Elina. I hear you, Sir Knight. Nils Lykke. I know you hate mc. Elina. You are keen-sighted, I perceive. ACT III] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 95 Nils Lykke. But I know, too, that I have fully merited your hate. Unseemly and wounding were the words I wrote of you in my letter to Lady Inger. Elina. Like enough; I have not read them. Nils Lykke. But at least their purport is not unknown to you; I know your mother has not left you in ignorance of the matter; at the least she has told you how I praised the lot of the man who — : surely you know the hope I nursed — Elina. Sir Knight— if 'tis of that you would speak — Nils Lykke. I speak of it, only to ask pardon for my words; for no other reason, I swear to you. If my fame— as I have too much cause to fear — has gone before me to Ostrat, you must needs know enough of my life not to won- der that in such things I should go to work something boldly. I have met many women, Elina Gyldenlove; but not one have I found unyielding. Such lessons, look you, teach a man to be secure. He loses the habit of roundabout ways Elina. Maybe so. I know not of what metal those women can have been made. 96 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act hi For the rest, you err in thinking 'twas your letter to mv mother that aroused my soul's hatred and bitterness against you. It is of older date. Nils Lykke. [Uneasili/.] Of older date ? What mean you ? Elina. 'Tis as you guessed : — your fame has gone before you, to Ostrat, even as over all the land. Nils Lykke's name is never spoken save with the name of some woman whom he has beguiled and cast off. Some speak it in wrath, others with laughter and wanton jeering at those weak-souled creatures. But through the wrath and the laughter and the jeers rings the song they have made of you, full of insolent challenge, like an enemy's song of triumph. 'Tis all this together that has begotten my hate for you. You were ever in my thoughts, and ever I longed to meet you face to face, that you might learn that there are women on whom your subtle speeches are lost — if you should think to use them. Nils Lykke. You judge me unjustly, if you judge from what ru- mour has told of me. Even if there be truth in all you have heard, — you know not the causes behind it. — As a boy of seventeen I began my course of pleasure. I have lived full fifteen years since then. I^ight women granted me all that I would — even before the wish had shaped itself into a prayer; and what I offered them they seized with eager hands. You are the first woman that has flung back a gift of mine with scorn at my feet. ACT III] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 97 Think not I reproach you. Rather I honour you for it, as never before have I honoured woman. But for this I reproach my fate — and the thought is a gnawing pain to me — that you and I were not sooner brought face to face. EHna Gyldenlove! Your mother has told me of you. While far from Ostrat life ran its rest- less course, you went your lonely way in silence, living in your dreams and histories. Therefore you will under- stand what I have to tell you. — Know, then, that once I too lived even such a life as yours. Methought that when I stepped forth into the great world, a noble and stately woman would come to meet me, and would beckon to me and point out the path towards a glorious goal. — I was deceived, Elina Gyldenlove! Women came to meet me; but she was not among them. Ere yet I had come to full manhood, I had learnt to despise them all. Was it my fault .'^ Why were not the others even as you ? — I know the fate of your fatherland lies heavy on your soul; and you know the part I have in these af- fairs . 'Tis said of me that I am false as the sea- foam. Mayhap I am; but if I be, it is women who have made me so. Had I sooner found what I sought, — had I met a woman proud and noble and high-souled even as you, then had my path been different indeed. At this moment, maybe, I had been standing at your side as the champion of all that suffer wrong in Norway's land. 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. 98 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act hi Nils Lykke. [Coming closer, speaks low and more intimately.] As you have dwelt here at Ostrat, alone with your change- ful thoughts, how often have you felt your bosom stifling; how often have the roof and walls seemed to shrink to- gether till they crushed your very soul. Then have your longings taken wing with you; then have you yearned to fly far from here, you knew not whither. — How often have you not wandered alone by the fiord; far out a ship has sailed by in fair array, with knights and ladies on her deck, with song and music of stringed instruments; — a faint, far-off rumour of great events has reached your ears; — and you have felt a longing in your breast, an unconquerable craving to know all that lies beyond the sea. But you have not understood what ailed you. At times you have thought it was the fate of your fatherland that filled you with all these restless broodings. 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 mys- terious might, that binds together the destinies of mortals ? When you dreamed of the many-coloured life far out in the wide world — 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 a-seeking, and ever in vain ? Elina. Who are you, that have power to clothe my most se- cret thoughts in words ? How can you tell me what I ACT III] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 99 have borne in my inmost soul — yet knew it not myself? How know you ? Nils Lykke. All that I have told you, I have read in your eyes. Elina. Never has any man spoken to me as you have spoken. I have understood you but dimly; and yet — all, all seems changed since [To herself.] Now I understand why they said that Nils Lykke was unlike all others. Nils Lykke. There is one thing in the world that might drive a man to madness, but to think of it; and that is the thought of what might have been, had things but fallen out in this way or that. Had I met you on my path while the tree of my life was yet green and budding, at this hour, mayhap, you had been But forgive me, noble lady! Our speech of these past few moments has made me forget how we stand one to another. 'Twas as though a secret voice had told me from the first that to you I could speak openly, without flattery or dissimulation. Elina. That can you. Nils Lykke. 'Tis well; — and it may be that this openness has al- ready in part reconciled us. Ay — my hope is yet bolder. The time may yet come when you will think of the 100 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act hi stranger knight without hate or bitterness in your soul. Nay, — mistake me not ! I mean not n o w — but some time, in the days to come. And that this may be the less hard for you — and as I have begun once for all to speak to you plainly and openly — let me tell you Sir Knight- Elina. Nils Lykke. [Smiling.] Ah, I see the thought of my letter still af- frijrhts vou. Fear nou2;ht on that score. I would from my heart it were unwritten, for — I know 'twill concern you little enough, so I may even say it right out — for I love you not, and shall never come to love you. Fear nothing, therefore, as I said before; I shall in nowise seek to But what ails you ? Elina. Me.^ Nothing, nothing. — Tell me but one thing: why do you still wear those flowers ? What would you with them .'' Nils Lykke. These ? Are they not a gage of battle you have thrown down to the wicked Nils Lykke, on behalf of all woman- kind ? What could I do but take it up ? You asked what I would with them ? [Softly.] When I stand again amid the fair ladies of Denmark — when the music of the strings is hushed and there is silence in the hall — then will I bring forth these flowers and ACT III] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 101 tell a tale of a young maiden sitting alone in a gloomy black-beamed hall, far to the north in Norway [Breaks off and bows respectfully. But I fear I detain the noble daughter of the house too long. We shall meet no more; for before daybreak I shall be gone. So now I bid you farewell. Elina. Fare you well, Sir Knight! [A short silence. Nils Lykke. Again you are deep in thought, Elina Gyldenlove! Is it the fate of your fatherland that weighs upon you still .'' Elina. [Shakes her head, absently gazing straight in front of her.] My fatherland.' — I think not of my fatherland. Nils Lykke. Then 'tis the strife and misery of the time that dis- quiets you. Elina. The time ? I had forgotten it — — You go to Denmark ? Said you not so ? Nils Lykke. I go to Denmark. Elina. Can I look towards Denmark from this hall ? LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNtti 102 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act hi Nils Lykke. [Points to the window on the left.] Ay, from this win- dow. Denmark lies there, to the south. Elina. And is it far from here ? More than a hundred leagues .'' Nils Lykke. Much more. The sea lies between you and Denmark. Elina. [To herself.] The sea ? Thought has sea-gulls' wings. The sea cannot stay it. [Goes out to the left. Nils Lykke. [Looks after her awhile; then says:] If I could but spare two days now — or even one — I would have her in my power, even as the others. And yet is there rare stuff in this maiden. She is proud. Might I not after all ? No; rather humble her [Paces the room.] Verily, I believe she has set my blood afire. Who would have thought it possible after all these years? — Enough of this! I must get out of the tangle I have here thrust myself into. [Sits in a chair on the right.] What is the meaning of it ? Both Olaf Skaktavl and Inger Gyldenlove seem blind to the mistrust 'twill waken, when 'tis rumoured that I am in their league. — Or can Lady Inger have seen through my purpose ? Can she have seen that all my promises were but designed to lure Nils Sture forth from his hiding- place .'* [Syrings wp.] Damnation ! Is it I that have ,-^y ACT III] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 103 been fooled ? 'Tis like enough that Count Sture is not at Ostrat at all. It may be the rumour of his flight was but a feint. He may be safe and sound among his friends in Sweden, while I [Walks restlessly up and dourn.] And to think I was so sure of success! If I should effect nothing ? If Lady Inger should penetrate all my designs — and publish my discomfiture — . To be a laughing-stock both here and in Denmark! To have sought to lure Lady Inger into a trap — and given her cause the help it most needed — strengthened her in the people's favour ! Ah, I could well-nigh sell myself to the Evil One, would he but help me to lay hands on Count Sture, [The windoio in the background is pushed open. Nils Stensson appears outside. Nils Lykke, [Clutches at his sword.] Who is there ? Nils Stensson. [Jumps down on to the Jloor.] Ah; here I am at last then! Nils Lykke. [Aside.] What means this ? Nils Stensson. God's peace, master! Nils Lykke. Thanks, good Sir! Methinks you have chosen a strange way of entrance. 104 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act hi Nils Stensson. Av, what the devil was I to do ? The gate was shut. Folk must sleep in this house like bears at Yuletide. Nils Lykke. God be thanked! Know you not that a good con- science is the best pillow ? Nils Stensson. Ay, it must be even so; for with all my rattling and thundering, I Nils Lykke. You won not in ? Nils Stensson. You have hit it. So I said to myself: As you are bidden to be in Ostrat to-night, if you have to go through fire and water, you may surely make free to creep through a window. Nils Lykke. [Aside.] Ah, if it should be ! [Moves a step or tivo nearer.] Was it, then, of the last necessity that you should reach Ostrat to-night.^ Nils Stensson. Was it ? Ay, faith but it was. I lore not to keep folk waiting, I can tell you. Nils Lykke. Aha, — then Lady Inger Gyldenlcive looks for your coming ? ACT III] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 105 Nils Stensson. Lady Inger Gyldenlove ? Nay, that I can scarce say for certain; [with a sly smile] but there might be some one else Nils Lykke. [Smiles in answer.] Ah, so there might be some one else — ? Nils Stensson. Tell me — are you of the house ? Nils Lykke. I ? Well, in so far that I am Lady Inger's guest this evening. Nils Stensson. A guest ? — Is not to-night the third night after Mar- tinmas ? Nils Lykke. The third night after — ? Av, right enough, — Would you seek the lady of the house at once ? I think she is not yet gone to rest. But might not you sit down and rest awhile, dear young Sir ? See, here is yet a flagon of wine remaining, and doubtless you will find some food. Come, fall to; you will do wisely to refresh your strength. Nils Stensson. You are right. Sir; 'twere not amiss. [Sits doicn by the table and eats and drinks.] Both roast meat and sweet cakes! Why, you live like lords here! When one 106 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act iii has slept, as I have, on the naked ground, and lived on bread and water for four or five days Nils Lykke. [Looks at him with a smile.] Ay, such a life must be hard for one that is wont to sit at the high-table in noble halls Nils Stensson. Noble halls ? Nils Lykke. But now can you take your ease at Ostrat, as long as it likes you. Nils Stensson. [Pleased.] Ay ? Can I truly ? Then I am not to be- gone again so soon ? Nils Lykke. Nay, that I know not. Sure you yourself can best say that. Nils Stensson. [Softly.] Oh, the devil! [Stretches himself in the chair.] Well, you see — 'tis not yet certain. I, for my part, were nothing loath to stay quiet here awhile; but Nils Lykke. But you are not in all points your own master? There be other duties and other affairs— . 3 ACT III] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 107 Nils Stensson. Ay, that is just the rub. Were I to choose, I would rest me at Ostrat at least the winter through; I have for the most part led a soldier's life, and [Interrupts himself suddenly , Jills a goblet, and drinks.] Your health, Sir! Nils Lykke. A soldier's life ? H'm! Nils Stensson. Nay, what I would have said is this: I have long 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 is so cursedly slow to take open action. Nils Lykke. Open action ? Nils Stensson. Ay, ay, you understand me; I mean she is so loath to take a hand in driving the foreign masters out of the land. Nils Lykke. Ay, there you are right. But if now you do what you can, you will doubtless move her. Nils Stensson. I ? God knows 'twould but little serve if I 108 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act hi Nils Lykke. Yet 'tis strange you should seek her here if you have so little hope. Nils Stensson. What mean you ? — Tell me, know you Lady Inger ? Nils Lykke. Surely; since I am her guest Nils Stensson. Ay, but it in nowise follows that you know her. I too am her guest, yet have I never seen so much as her shadow. Nils Lykke. Yet did you speak of her Nils Stensson. as all folk speak. Why should I not? And be- sides, I have often enough heard from Peter Kanzler [Stops in confusion, and falls to eating busily. Nils Lykke. You would have said ? Nils Stensson. [Eatitig.] I ? Nay, 'tis all one. [Nils Lykke laughs. Nils Stensson. Why laugh you. Sir? ACT III] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 109 Nils Lykke. At nothing. Sir! Nils Stensson. [Drinks.] A pretty vintage ye have in this house. Nils Lykke. [Approaches him confidentially.] Listen — were it not time now to throw off the mask.^ Nils Stensson. [Smiling.] The mask ? Why, do as seems best to you. Nils Lykke. Then off with all disguise. You are known, Count Sture! Nils Stensson. [Bursts out laughing.] Count Sture ? Do you too take me for Count Sture ? [Rises from the table.] You mistake, Sir! I am not Count Sture. Nils Lykke. You are not .'' Then who are you ? Nils Stensson. My name is Nils Stensson. Nils Lykke. [Looks at him with a smile.] H'm! Nils Stensson? But you are not Sten Sture's son Nils .'' The name chimes at least. 110 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act hi Nils Stensson. True enough; but God knows what right I have to bear it. My father I never knew; my mother was a poor peasant woman, that was robbed and murdered in one of the old feuds. Peter Kanzler chanced to be on the spot; he took me into his care, brought me up, and taught me the trade of arms. As you know, King Gus- tav has been hunting him this many a year; and I have followed him faithfully, wherever he went. Nils Lykke. Peter Kanzler has taught you more than the trade of arms, meseems. Well, well; then you are not Nils Sture. But at least you come from Sweden. Peter Kanzler has sent you hither to find a stranger, who Nils Stensson. [Nods cunningly^ who is found already. Nils Lykke. [Somevjhat uncertain.] And whom you do not know ? Nils Stensson. As little as you know me; for I swear to you by God himself: I am not Count Sture! Nils Lykke. In sober earnest. Sir ? Nils Stensson. As truly as I live! Wherefore should I deny it, if I were? ACT III] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 111 Nils Lykke. But where, then, is Count Sture ? Nils Stensson. [In a low voice.] Ay, that is just the secret. Nils Lykke. [Whispers.] Which is known to you ? Is't not so ? Nils Stensson. [Nods.] And which I am to tell you. Nils Lykke. To tell me? Well then, — where is he.' [Nils Stensson points upwards. Nils Lykke. Up there? Lady Inger holds him hidden in the loft- room? Nils Stensson. Nay, nay; you mistake me. [Looks round cautiously.] Nils Sture is in Heaven! Nils Lykke. Dead ? And where ? Nils Stensson. In his mother's castle, — three weeks since. 112 LADY INGER OF OSTRAT [act hi Nils Lykke. Ah, you are deceiving me! 'Tis but five or six days since he crossed the frontier into Norway. Nils Stensson. Oh, that was I. Nils Lykke. But just before that the Count had appeared in the Dales. The people, who were restless already, broke out openly and would have chosen him for king. Nils Stensson. Ha-ha-ha; that was me too! Nils Lykke. You? Nils Stensson. I will tell you how it came about. One day Peter Kanzler called me to him and gave me to know that great things were preparing. He bade me set out for Norway and fare to Ostrat, where I must be on a cer- tain fixed day Nils Lykke. [Nods.] The third night after Martinmas. Nils Stensson. There I was to meet a strano;er 'o^ Nils Lykke. Ay, right; I am he. ACT III] LADY INGER OF OSTRAT 113 Nils Stexssox. From him I should learn what more I had to do. Moreover, I was to let him know that the Count was dead of a sudden, but that as yet 'twas known to no one save to his mother the Countess, together with Peter Kanzler and a few old servants of the Stures. Nils Lykke. I understand. The Count was the peasants' rally ing- point. Were the tidings of his death to spread, they would fall asunder, — and 'twould all come to nought. Nils Stensson. Ay, maybe so; I know little of such matters. Nils Lykke. But how came you to give yourself out for the Count ? Nils Stensson. How came I to ? Nay, what know I ? Many's the mad prank I have hit on in my day. And yet 'twas not I hit on it neither; for whereever I appeared in the Dales, the people crowded round me and hailed me as Count Sture. Deny it as I pleased, 'twas wasted breath. The Count had been there two years before, they said — and the veriest child knew me again. Well, so be it. thought I; never again will you be a Count in this life; why not try what 'tis like for once .'' Nils Lykke. Well, — and what did you more ^ 114 LADY TNGER OF ()STRAT [act hi Nils Stensson. I? I ate and drniik and took my ease. The only pity was that I had to take tlie road a tier daughters. Anna, J ^ Falk, a younq avtlwr, 1 , , , T J- ■ -I a J 1 r 'if'* boarders. LiiND, a divinuy student, J GuLDSTAD, a wholesale raerchant. Stiver, a law-clerk. Miss Jay, his fiancee. Strawman, a country clergyman. Mrs. Strawman, his xcife. Students, Guests, Married and Plighted Pairs. The Strawmans' Eight Little Girls. Four Aunts, a Porter, Domestic Servants. Scene. — Mrs. Halm's Villa on the Drammensvejen at Chris- fi/int/i. tiania LOVE'S COMEDY PLAY m THREE ACTS ACT FIRST The Scene represents a pretty garden irregularly but tastefully laid out; in the background are seen tlie fjord and the islands. To the left is the house, with a verandah arul an open dormer window above; to the right in the foreground an open summer-house with a table and benches. The landscape lies in bright afternoon sunshine. It is early summer; the fruit-trees are in flower. When the Curtain rises, Mrs. Halm, Anna, and Miss Jay are sitting on the verandah, the first two engaged in embroidery, the last ivith a book. In the summer- house are seen Falk, Lind, Guldstad, and Stiver: a punch-bowl and glasses are on the table. Svan- HiLD sits alone in the background by the water. Falk. \Rises, lifts his glass, and sings.] Sun-glad day in garden shady Was but made for thy delight: What though promises of May-day Be annulled by Autumn's blight? .^07 308 LOVE'S COMEDY [act i Apple-blossom white and splendid Drapes thee in its glowing tent, — Let it, then, when day is ended. Strew the closes storm-besprent. Chorus of Gentlemen. Let it, then, when day is ended, etc. Falk. Wherefore seek the harvest's guerdon While the tree is yet in bloom .'' Wherefore drudge beneath the burden Of an unaccomplished doom ? Wherefore let the scarecrow clatter Day and night upon the tree ? Brothers mine, the sparrow's chatter Has a cheerier melody. Chorus. Brothers mine, the sparrow's chatter, etc. Falk. Happy songster! Wherefore scare him From our blossom-laden bower? Rather for his music spare him All our future, flower by flower; Trust me, 'twill be cheaply buying Present song with future fruit; List the proverb, "Time is flying; — " Soon our garden music's mute. Chorus. List the proverb, etc. ACTi] LOVE'S COMEDY 309 Falk. I will live in song and gladness,— Then, when every bloom is shed. Sweep together, scarce in sadness, All that glory, wan and dead: Fling the gates wide! Bruise and batter. Tear and trample, hoof and tusk; I have plucked the flower, what matter Who devours the withered husk! Chorus. I have plucked the flower, etc. [They clink arid empty their glasses. Falk. [To the ladies.] There — that's the song you asked me for; but pray Be lenient to it— I can't think to-day. GULDSTAD. Oh, never mind the sense— the sound's the thinff. Miss Jay. [Looking round.] But Svanhild, who was eagerest to hear — ? When Falk began, she suddenly took wing And vanished — Anna. [Pointing towards the back.] No, for there she sits — I see her. 310 LOVE'S COMEDY [act i Mrs. Halm. [Sighing.] That child ! Heaven knows, she's past my compre- hending ! Miss Jay. But, Mr. Falk, I thought the lyric's ending Was not so rich in — well, in poetry. As others of the stanzas seemed to be. Stiver. Why, yes, and I am sure it could not tax Your powers to get a little more inserted — Falk. [Clinking glasses with him.] You cram it in, like putty into cracks. Till lean is into streaky fat converted. Stiver. [Unruffled.] Yes, nothing easier— I, too, in my day Could do the trick. Guldstad. Dear me! Were you a poet? Miss Jay. My Stiver! Yes! Stiver. Oh, in a humble way. ACTi] LOVE'S COMEDY 311 Miss Jay. [To the ladies.] His nature is romantic. Mrs. Halm. Yes, we know it. Stiver. Not now; it's ages since I turned a rhyme. Falk. Yes, varnish and romance go off with time. But in the old days — ? Stiver. Well, you see, 'twas when I was in love. Falk. Is that time over, then ? Have you slept off the sweet intoxication ? Stiver. I'm now engaged— I hold official station— That's better than in love, I apprehend! Falk. Quite so! You're in the right, my good old friend. The worst is past — vous voila hien avancs^— Promoted from mere lover io fiance. 312 LOVE'S COMEDY [act i Stiver. [With a smile of complacent recollection.] It's strange to think of it — upon my word, I half suspect my memory of lying — [Turns to Falk. But seven years ago — it sounds absurd! — I wasted office hours in versifying. Falk. What! Office hours — ! Stiver. Yes, such were my transgressions. GULDSTAD. [Ringing on his glass.] Silence for our solicitor's confessions! Stiver. But chiefly after five, when I was free, I'd rattle off whole reams of poetry — Ten — fifteen folios ere I went to bed — Falk. I see — you gave your Pegasus his head. And off he tore — Stiver. On stamped or unstamped paper — 'Twas all the same to him — he'd prance and caper— ACTi] LOVE'S COMEDY 313 Falk. The spring of poetry flowed no less flush ? But how, pray, did you teach it first to gush ? Stiver. By aid of love's divining-rod, my friend! Miss Jay it was that taught me where to bore, Isly fiancee — she became so in the end — For then she was — Falk. Your love and nothing more. Stiver. \Continuing.'\ 'Twas a strange time; I could not read a bit; I tuned my pen instead of pointing it; And when along the foolscap sheet it raced, It twangled music to the words I traced; — At last by letter I declared my flame To her — to her — Falk. Whose fiance you became. Stiver. In course of post her answer came to hand The motion granted — judgment in my favour! Falk. And you felt bigger, as you wrote, and braver. To find you'd brought your venture safe to land ! 314 LOVE'S COMEDY [act i Stiver. Of course Falk. And then you bade the Muse farewell ? Stiver. I've felt no lyric impulse, truth to tell, From that day forth. My vein appeared to peter Entirely out; and now, if I essay To turn a verse or two for New Year's Day, I make the veriest hash of rhyme and metre. And — I've no notion what the cause can be — It turns to law and not to poetry. GULDSTAD. [Clinks glasses with him.] And, trust me, you're no whit the worse for that! [To Falk. You think the stream of life is flowing solely To bear you to the goal you're aiming at — But you may find yourself mistaken wholly. As for your song, perhaps it's most poetic. Perhaps it's not — on that point we won't quarrel — But here I lodge a protest energetic, Say what you will, against its wretched moral. A masterly economy and new To let the birds play havoc at their pleasure Among your fruit-trees, fruitless now for you, And suffer flocks and herds to trample through Your garden, and lay waste its springtide treasure! A pretty prospect, truly, for next year! ACT I] LOVE'S COMEDY 315 Falk. Oh, next, next, next! The thought I loathe and fear That these four letters timidly express — It beggars millionaires in happiness! If I could be the autocrat of speech But for one hour, that hateful word I'd banish; I'd send it packing out of mortal reach, As B and G from Knudsen's Grammar vanish. Stiver. Why should the word of hope enrage you thus? Falk. Because it darkens God's fair earth for us. "Next year," "next love," "next life,"— my soul is vext To see this world in thraldom to "the next." 'Tis this dull forethought, bent on future prizes, That millionaires in gladness pauperises. Far as the eye can reach, it blurs the age; All rapture of the moment it destroys; No one dares taste in peace life's simplest joys Until he's struggled on another stage — And there arriving, can he there repose ? No — to a new "next" off he flies again; On, on, unresting, to the grave he goes; And God knows if there's any resting then. Miss Jay. Fie, Mr. Falk, such sentiments are shocking. 316 LOVE'S COMEDY [act i Anna. [Pensively.] Oh, I can understand the feehng quite; I am sure at bottom Mr. Falk is right. Miss Jay. [Perturbed.] My Stiver mustn't listen to his mocking. He's rather too eccentric even now. — My dear, I want you. Stiver. [Occupied in cleaning his pipe.] Presently, my dear. GULDSTAD. [To Falk.] One thing at least to me is very clear; — And that is that you cannot but allow Some forethought indispensable. For see, Suppose that you to-day should write a sonnet. And, scorning forethought, you should lavish on it Your last reserve, your all, of poetry. So that, to-morrow, when you set about Your next song, you should find yourself cleaned out, Heavens! how your friends the critics then would crow! Falk. D'you think they'd notice I was bankrupt? No! Once beggared of ideas, I and they ACT I] LOVE'S COMEDY 317 Would saunter arm in arm the selfsame way — [Breaking off. But Lind ! why, what's the matter with you, pray ? You sit there dumb and dreaming — I suspect you're Deep in the mysteries of architecture. Lind. [Collecting himself.] I ? What should make you think so ? Falk. I observe. Your eyes are glued to the verandah yonder — You're studying, mayhap, its arches' curve. Or can it be its pillars' strength you ponder, The door perhaps, with hammered iron hinges.' The window blinds, and their artistic fringes ? From something there your glances never wander. Lind. No, you are wrong — I'm just absorbed in being — Drunk with the hour — naught craving, naught fore- seeing. I feel as though I stood, my life complete. With all earth's riches scattered at my feet. Thanks for your song of happiness and spring — From out my inmost heart it seemed to spring. [Lifts Jiis glass and exchanges a glance, unob- served, ivith Anna. Here's to the blossom in its fragrant pride! What reck we of the fruit of autumn-tide.? [Empties his glass. 318 LOVE'S COMEDY [act i Falk. [Looks at him with surprise and emotion, but assumes a light tone.] Behold, fair ladies! though you scorn me quite, Here I have made an easy proselyte. His hymn-book yesterday was all he cared for — To-day e'en dithyrambics he's prepared for! We poets must be born, cries every judge; But prose-folks, now and then, like Strasburg geese. Gorge themselves so inhumanly obese On rhyming balderdash and rhythmic fudge, That, when cleaned out, their very souls are thick With lyric lard and greasy rhetoric. [To Lind. Your praise, however, I shall not forget; We'll sweep the lyre henceforward in duet. Miss Jay. You, Mr. Falk, are hard at work, no doubt. Here in these rural solitudes delightful, Where at your own sweet will you roam about — Mrs. Halm. [Smiling.] Oh, no, his laziness is something frightful. Miss Jay. What! here at Mrs. Halm's! that's most surpris- ing— Surely it's just the place for poetising — [Pointing to the right. That summer-house, for instance, in the wood Sequestered, name me any place that could Be more conducive to poetic mood — ACT I] LOVE'S COMEDY 319 Falk. Let blindness veil the sunlight from mine eyes I'll chant the splendour of the sunlit skies! Just for a season let me beg or borrow A great, a crushing, a stupendous sorrow, And soon you'll hear my hymns of gladness rise! But best. Miss Jay, to nerve my wings for flight, Find me a maid to be my life, my light — For that incitement long to Heaven I've pleaded; But hitherto, w^orse luck, it hasn't heeded. Miss Jay. What levity! Mrs. Halm. Yes, most irreverent! Falk, Pray don't imagine it was my intent To live with her on bread and cheese and kisses. No! just upon the threshold of our blisses, Kind Heaven must snatch away the gift it lent. I need a little spiritual gymnastic; The dose in that form surely would be drastic, SVANHILD [Has during the talk approached; she stands close to the table, and says in a determined but whimsical tone: I'll pray that such may be your destiny. But, when it finds you — bear it like a man. 320 LOVE'S COMEDY [act i Falk. [Turning round in surprise.] Miss Svanhild! — well, I'll do the best I can. But think you I may trust implicitly To finding your petitions efficacious ? Heaven, as you know, to faith alone is gracious — And though you've doubtless will enough for two To make me bid my peace of mind adieu, Have you the faith to carry matters through ? That is the question. Svanhild. [Half in jest.] Wait till sorrow comes. And all your being's springtide chills and numbs. Wait till it gnaws and rends you, soon and late, Then tell me if my faith is adequate. [She goes across to the ladies. Mrs. Halm. [Aside to her.] Can you two never be at peace ? you've made Poor Mr. Falk quite angry I'm afraid. [Continues reprovingly in a low voice. Miss Jay joins in tJie conversation. Svanhild remains cold and silent. Falk. [After a pause of reflection goes over to the summer-house, then to himself] With fullest confidence her glances lightened. Shall I believe, as she does so securely. That Heaven intends — ACTi] LOVE'S COMEDY 321 GULDSTAD. No, hang it! don't be frightened! The powers above would be demented surely To give effect to orders such as these. No, my good sir — the cure for your disease Is exercise for muscle, nerve and sinew. Don't lie there wasting all the grit that's in you In idle dreams; cut wood, if that were all; And then I'll say the devil's in't indeed If one brief fortnight does not find you freed From all your whimsies high-fantastical Falk. Fetter'd by choice, like Burnell's ass, I ponder — The flesh on this side, and the spirit yonder. Which were it wiser I should go for first ? GuLDSTAD. [Filling tJie glasses.] First have some punch — that quenches ire and thirst. Mrs. Halm. [Looking at her watch.] Ha! Eight o'clock! my watch is either fast, or It's just the time we may expect the Pastor. [Rises, and puts things in order on tJie verandah. Falk. What ! have we parsons coming ? Miss Jay. Don't you know ? 322 LOVE'S COMEDY [acti Mrs. Halm. I told you, just a little while ago — Anna. No, mother— Mr. Falk had not yet come. Mrs. Halm. Why no, that's true; but pray don't look so glum. Trust me, you'll be enchanted with his visit. Falk. A clerical enchanter; pray who is it ? Mrs. Halm. Why, Pastor Straw^man, not unknown to fame. Falk. Indeed! Oh, yes, I think I've heard his name, And read that in the legislative game He comes to take a hand, with voice and vote. Stiver. He speaks superbly. GULDSTAD. When he's cleared his throat. Miss Jay. He's coming with his wife — ACTi] LOVE'S COMEDY 323 Mrs. Halm, And all their blessings — Falk. To give them three or four days' treat, poor dears — Soon he'll be buried over head and ears In Swedish muddles and official messings — I see! Mrs. Halm. [To Falk.] Now there's a man for you, in truth! GULDSTAD. They say he was a rogue, though, in his youth. Miss Jay. [Offended.] There, Mr. Guldstad, I must break a lance! I've heard as long as I can recollect. Most worthy people speak with great respect Of Pastor Strawman and his life's romance. Guldstad. [Laughing.] Romance ? Miss Jay. Romance! I call a match romantic At which mere worldly wisdom looks askance. Falk You make my curiosity gigantic. 324 LOVE'S COMEDY [act i Miss Jay. [Conti?iuing.] But certain people always grow splenetic — Why, goodness knows — at everything pathetic. And scoff it down. We all know how, of late, An unfledged, upstart undergraduate Presumed with brazen insolence, to declare That "William Russell"* was a poor affair! Falk. But what has this to do with Strawman, pray? Is he a poem, or a Christian play ? Miss Jay. [With tears of emotion.] No, Falk, — a man, with heart as large as day. But when a — so to speak — mere lifeless thing Can put such venom into envy's sting. And stir up evil passions fierce and fell Of such a depth — Falk. [Sympathetically .] And such a length as well — Miss Jay. Why then, a man of your commanding brain Can't fail to see — Falk. Oh, yes, that's very plain. But hitherto I haven't quite made out The nature, style, and plot of this romance. * See Notes, page 483. ACT I] LOVE'S COMEDY 325 It's something quite delightful I've no doubt- But just a little inkling in advance — Stiver. I will abstract, in rapid resume. The leading points. Miss Jay. No, I am more au fait, I know the ins and outs — Mrs. Halm. I know them too! Miss Jay, Oh Mrs. Halm! now let me tell it, do! Well, Mr. Falk, you see— he passed at college For quite a miracle of wit and knowledge, Had admirable taste in books and dress — Mrs. Halm. And acted — privately — with great success. Miss Jay. Yes, wait a bit — he painted, played and wrote — Mrs. Halm. And don't forget his gift of anecdote Miss Jay Do give me time; I know the whole affair: He made some verses, set them to an air. 326 LOVE'S COMEDY [acti Also his own, — and found a publisher. O Heavens! with what romantic melancholy He played and sang his "Madrigals to Molly"! Mrs. Halm. He was a genius, that's the simple fact. GULDSTAD. [To himself.] Hm! Some were of opinion he was cracked. Falk. A gray old stager,* whose sagacious head Was never upon mouldy parchments fed, Says "Love makes Petrarchs, just as many lambs And little occupation, Abrahams." But who was Molly? Miss Jay. Molly ? His elect. His lady-love, whom shortly we expect. Of a great firm her father was a member — A timber house. GuLDSTAD. Miss Jay. [Curtly.] I'm really not aware. GuLDSTAD. Did a large trade in scantlings, I remember. ' See Notes, page 483. ACTi] LOVE'S COMEDY 327 Miss Jay. That is the trivial side of the affair. Falk. A firm? Miss Jay. [Contitiuing.] Of vast resources, I'm informed. You can imagine how the suitors swarm'd; Gentlemen of the highest reputation. — Mrs. Halm. Even a baronet made application. Miss Jay. But Molly was not to be made their catch. Sh£ had met Strawman upon private stages; To see him was to love him — Falk. And despatch The wooing gentry home without their wages ? Mrs. Halm. Was it not just a too romantic match? Miss Jay. And then there was a terrible old father, Whose sport was thrusting happy souls apart; She had a guardian also, as I gather, To add fresh torment to her tortured heart. 328 LOVE'S COMEDY [act i But each of them was loyal to his vow; A straw-thatched cottage and a snow-white ewe They dream'd of, just enough to nourish two — Mrs. Halm. Or at the rery uttermost a cow, — Miss Jay. In short, I've heard it from the Hps of both, — A beck, a byre, two bosoms, and one troth. Falk. Ah yes ! And then — ? Miss Jay. She broke with kin and class. She broke — ? Falk. Mrs. Halm. Broke with them. Falk. There's a plucky lass! Miss Jay. And fled to Strawman's garret — Falk. How ? Without— Ahem — the priestly consecration ? ACT I] LOVE'S COMEDY 329 Miss Jay. Shame! Mrs. Halm. Fy, fy! my late beloved husband's name Was on the list of sponsors — ! Stiver. [To Miss Jay.] You're to blame For leaving that important item out. In a report 'tis of the utmost weight That the chronology be accurate. But what I never yet could comprehend Is how on earth they managed — Falk. The one room Not housing sheep and cattle, I presume. Miss Jay. [To Stiver.] O, but you must consider this, my friend; There is no Want where Love's the guiding star; All's right without if tender Troth's within. [To Falk. He loved her to the notes of the guitar, And she gave lessons on the violin — Mrs. Halm. Then all, of course, on credit they bespoke — GULDSTAD. Till, in a year, the timber merchant broke. 330 LOVE'S COMEDY [act i Mrs. Halm. Then Strawman had a call to north. Miss Jay. And there Vowed, in a letter that I saw (as few did), He lived but for his duty, and for her. Falk. [As if completing her statement.] And with those words his Life's Romance concluded. Mrs. Halm. [Rising.] How if we should go out upon the lawn, And see if there's no prospect of them yet ? Miss Jay. [Draiving on her mantle.] It's cool already. Mrs. Halm. Svanhild, will you get My woollen shawl? — Come ladies, pray! LiND. [To Anna, unobserved by the others.] Go on! [Svanhild goes into the house; the others, except Falk, go towards the back and out to the left. LiND, who has followed, stojjs and returns. LiND. My friend ! ACT I] LOVE'S COMEDY 331 Falk. Ah, ditto. LiND. Falk, your hand! The tide Of joy's so vehement, it will perforce Break out — Falk. Hullo there; you must first be tried; Sentence and hanging follow in due course. Now, what on earth's the matter? To conceal From me, your friend, this treasure of your finding; For you'll confess the inference is binding: You've come into a prize off Fortune's wheel! LiND. I*ve snared and taken Fortune's blessed bird! Falk. How ? Living, — and undamaged by the steel ? LiND. Patience; I'll tell the matter in one word. I am engaged ! Conceive — ! Falk. [Quickhj.] Engaged ! LiND. It's true. To-day, — with unimagined courage swelling, I said, — ahem, it will not bear re-telling; — 332 LOVE'S COMEDY [act i But only think,— the sweet young maiden grew Quite rosy-red,— but not at all enraged! You see, Falk, what I ventured for a bride! She listened, — and I rather think she cried; That, sure, means "Yes"? Falk. If precedents decide; Go on. LiND. And so we really are — engaged ? Falk. I should conclude so; but the only way To be quite certain, is to ask Miss Jay. LiND. O no, I feel so confident, so clear! So perfectly assured, and void of fear. [Radiantly f in a mysterious tone. Hark! I had leave her fingers to caress When from the coffee-board she drew the cover. Falk. [Lifting and emptying his glass.] "Well, flowers of spring your wedding garland dress! LiND. [Doing the same.] And here I swear by heaven that I will love her Until I die, with love as infinite As now glows in me,— for she is so sweet! ACTi] LOVE'S COMEDY 333 Falk. Engaged! Aha, so that was why you flung The Holy Law and Prophets on the shelf! LiND. [Laughing.] And you believed it was the song you sung — ! Falk. A poet believes all things of himself. LiND. [Seriously .] Don't think, however, Falk, that I dismiss The theologian from my hour of bliss. Only, I find the Book will not suffice As Jacob's ladder unto Paradise. I must into God's world, and seek Him there. A boundless kindness in my heart upsprings, I love the straw, I love the creeping things; They also in my joy shall have a share. Falk. Yes, only tell me this, though — LiND. I have told it, — My precious secret, and our three hearts hold it! Falk. But have you thought about the future? SSi LOVE'S COMEDY [act i LiND. Thought ? I ? — thought about the future ? No, from this Time forth I Uve but in the hour that is. In home shall all my happiness be sought; We hold Fate's reins, we drive her hither, thither, And neither friend nor mother shall have right To say unto my budding blossom: Wither! For I am earnest and her eyes are bright, And so it must unfold into the light! Falk. Yes, Fortune likes you, you will serve her turn! LiND. My spirits like wild music glow and burn; I feel myself a Titan: though a foss Opened before me — I would leap across! Falk. Your love, you mean to say, in simple prose. Has made a reindeer of you. LiND. Well, suppose; But in my wildest flight, I know the nest In which my heart's dove longs to be at rest! Falk. Well then, to-morrow it may fly con brio; You're off into the hills with the quartette. I'll guarantee you against cold and wet — ACT I] LOVE'S COMEDY 335 LiND. Pooh, the quartette may go and climb in trio^ The lowly dale has mountain air for me; Here I've the immeasurable fjord, the flowers. Here I have warbling birds and choral bowers, And lady Fortune's self, — for here is she! Falk. Ah, lady Fortune by our Northern water Is rara avis, — hold her if you've caught her! [With a glance towards the house. Hist — Svanhild — LiND. Well; I go, — disclose to none The secret that we share alone with one. *Twas good of you to listen: now enfold it Deep in your heart, — warm, glowing, as I told it. [He goes out in the background to the others. Falk looks after him a moment, and 'paces up and down in the garden, visibly striving to master his agitation. Presently Svanhild comes out with a shawl on her arm, and is going towards the back. Falk approaches and gazes at her fixedly. Svanhild stops. Svanhild. [After a short pause. 1 You gaze so at me ? Falk. [Half to himself. 1 Yes, 'tis there — the same; The shadow in her eyes' deep mirror sleeping, 336 LOVE'S COMEDY [act i The roguish elf about her lips a-peeping, It i s there. SVANHILD. What ? You frighten me. Falk. Your name Is Svanhild ? SVANHILD. Yes, you know it very well. Falk. But do y o u know the name is laughable ? I beg you to discard it from to-night! Svanhild. That would be far beyond a daughter's right — Falk. [LaugJiing.] Hm. "Svanhild! Svanhild!" [With sudden gravity. With your earliest breath How came you by this prophecy of death ? Svanhild, Is it so grim ? Falk, No, lovely as a song, But for our age too great and stern and strong, How can a modern demoiselle fill out ACT I] LOVE'S COMEDY 337 The ideal that heroic name expresses? No, no, discard it with your outworn dresses. SVANHILD. You mean the mythical princess, no doubt — Falk, Who, guiltless, died beneath the horse's feet. SvANHILD, But now such acts are clearly obsolete. No, no, I'll mount his saddle! There's my place! How often have I dreamt, in pensive ease. He bore me, buoyant, through the world apace. His mane a flag of freedom in the breeze! Falk. Yes, the old tale. In "pensive ease" no mortal Is stopped by thwarting bar or cullis'd portal; Fearless we cleave the ether without bound; In practice, tho', we shrewdly hug the ground; For all love life and, having choice, will choose it; And no man dares to leap where he may lose it. SVANHILD. Yes! show me but the end, I'll spurn the shore; But let the end be worth the leaping for! A Ballarat beyond the desert sands — Else each will stay exactly where he stands. Falk. [Sarcastically.] I grasp the case; — the due conditions fail. 338 LOVE'S COMEDY [act i SVANHILD. [Eagerly.] Exactly: what's the use of spreading sail When there is not a breath of wind astir? Falk. [Ironically.] Yes, what's the use of plying whip and spur When there is not a penny of reward For him who tears him from the festal board, And mounts, and dashes headlong to perdition ? Such doing for the deed's sake asks a knight, And knighthood's now an idle superstition. That was your meaning, possibly? SVANHILD, Quite right. Look at that fruit-tree in the orchard close, — No blossom on its barren branches blows. You should have seen last year with what brave airs It staggered underneath its world of pears. Falk. [Uncertain.] No doubt, but what's the moral you impute ? SVANHILD. [With finesse.] O, among other things, the bold unreason Of modern Zacharies who seek for fruit. If the tree blossom'd to excess last season. You must not crave the blossoms back in this. ACT I] LOVE'S COMEDY 339 Falk. I knew you'd find your footing in the ways Of old Romance. SVANHILD. Yes, modern virtue is Of quite another stamp. Who now arrays Himself to battle for the truth } Who'll stake His life and person fearless for truth's sake ? Where is the hero ? Falk. \Looking keenly at her.'l Where is the Valkyria ? SVANHILD. [Shaking Iter Iiead.] Valkyrias find no market in this land! When the faith lately was assailed in Syria, Did y o u go out with the crusader-band ? No, but on paper you were warm and willing, — And sent the "Clerical Gazette" a shilling. [Pause. Falk is about to retort, but checks him- self, and goes into the garden. SVANHILD. [After watching him a moment, approaches him and asks gently:] Falk, are you angry ? Falk. No, I only brood, — 340 LOVE'S COMEDY [act i SVANHILD, [With tJwughtful sympathy.] You seem to be two natures, still at feud, — Unreconciled — Falk. I know it well. SVANHILD. [Impetuously .] But why ? Falk. [Losing self-control.] Why, why ? Because I hate to go about With soul bared boldly to the vulgar eye, As Jock and Jennie hang their passions out; To wear my glowing heart upon my sleeve. Like women in low dresses. You, alone, Svanhild, you only, — you, I did believe, — Well, it is past, that dream, for ever flown. — [SJie goes to the suminer-house and looks out; lie follows. You listen — ? Svanhild. To another voice, that sings. Hark! every evening when the sun's at rest, A little bird floats hither on beating wings, — See there — it darted from its leafy nest — And, do you know, it is my faith, — as oft As God makes any songlcss soul, He sends A little bird to be her friend of friends. And sing for ever in her garden-croft. ACT I] LOVE'S COMEDY 341 Falk. [Picking up a stone.] Then must the owner and the bird be near. Or its song's squandered on a stranger's ear. SVANHILD. Yes, that is true; but I've discovered mine. Of speech and song I am denied the power. But when it warbles in its leafy bower. Poems flow in upon my brain like wine — Ah, yes, — they fleet — they are not to be won — [Falk throivs the stone. Svanhild screams. O God, you've hit it! Ah, what have you done! [She hurries out to the right and then quickly returns. pity! pity! Falk. [In passionate agitation.] No, — but eye for eye, Svanhild, and tooth for tooth. Now you'll attend No further greetings from your garden-friend. No guerdon from the land of melody. That is my vengeance: as you slew, I slay. Svanhild. 1 slew ? Falk. You slew. Until this very day, A clear-voiced song-bird warbled in my soul; See, — now one passing bell for both may toll — You've killed it! 342 LOVE'S COMEDY [acti SVANHILD. Havel? Falk. Yes, for you have slain My young, high-hearted, joyous exultation — [ Co ntemptuously . By your betrothal ! SVANHILD. How! But pray, explain — ! Falk. O, it's in full accord with expectation; He gets his licence, enters orders, speeds to A post, — as missionary in the West — SVANHILD. [In the same tone.] A pretty penny, also, he succeeds to; — For it is Lind you speak of — ? Falk. You know best Of whom I speak. SVANHILD. [With a subdued smile.] As the bride's sister, true, I cannot help — Falk. Great God ! It is not you — ? ACT I] LOVE'S COMEDY 343 SVANHILD. Who win this overplus of bliss? Ah no! Falk. [With almost childish joy.] It is not you ! O God be glorified ! What love, what mercy does He not bestow! I shall not see you as another's bride; — 'Twas but the fire of pain He bade me bear — [Tries to seize her hand. O hear me, Svanhild, hear me then — SVANHILD. [Pointing quickly to the background.] See there! [She goes towards the house. At the same moment Mrs. Halm, Anna, Miss Jay, GuLDSTAD, Stiver, and Lind emerge from the background. During the previous scene the sun has set; it is now dark. Mrs. Halm. [To Svanhild.] The Strawmans may be momently expected Where have you been ? Miss Jay. [After glancing at Falk.] Your colour's very high. Svanhild. A little face-ache; it will soon pass by. 344 LOVE'S COMEDY [act i Mrs. Halm. And yet you walk at nightfall unprotected ? Arrange the room, and see that tea is ready; Let everything be nice; I know the lady. [SvANHiLD goes in. Stiver. {To Falk.] What is the colour of this parson's coat? Falk. I guess bread-taxers would not catch his vote. Stiver. How if one made allusion to the store Of verses, yet unpublished, in my drawer? Falk. It might do something. Stiver. Would to heaven it might! Our wedding's imminent; our purses light. Courtship's a very serious affair. Falk. Just so: " Quallais-tu /aire dans cette galere?" Stiver. Is courtship a "galere ?" Falk. No, married lives; — All servitude, captivity, and gyves. ACT I] LOVE'S COMEDY 345 Stiver. [Seeing Miss Jay approach.] You little know what wealth a man obtains From woman's eloquence and woman's brains. Miss Jay. [Aside to Stiver.] Will Guldstad give us credit, think you? Stiver. [Peevishly.] I Am not quite certain of it yet: I'll try, [They withdraw in conversation; Lind and Anna approach. Lind. [Aside to Falk.] I can't endure it longer; in post-haste I must present her — Falk. You had best refrain, And not initiate the eye profane Into your mysteries — Lind. That would be a jest! — From you, my fellow-boarder, and my mate. To keep concealed my new-found happy state! Nay, now, my head with Fortune's oil anointed — 346 LOVE'S COMEDY [act i Falk. You think the occasion good to get it curled? Well, my good friend, you won't be disappointed; Go and announce your union to the world ! LiND. Other reflections also weigh with me. And one of more especial gravity; Say that there lurked among our motley band Some sneaking, sly, pretender to her hand; Say, his attentions became undisguised, — We should be disagreeably compromised. Falk. Yes, it is true; it had escaped my mind, You for a higher oflBce were designed. Love as his young licentiate has retained you; Shortly you'll get a permanent position; But it would be defying all tradition If at the present moment he ordained you. LiND. Yes if the merchant does not — Falk. What of him ? Anna. [ Troubled.] Oh, it is Lind's unreasonable whim. LiND. Hush; I've a deep foreboding that the man Will rob me of my treasure, if he can. ACT I] LOVE'S COMEDY 347 The fellow, as we know, comes daily down, Is rich, unmarried, takes you round the town; In short, my own, regard it as we will. There are a thousand things that bode us ill. Anna. [Sighitig.] Oh, it's too bad; to-day was so delicious. Falk. [Sympathetically to Lind.] Don't wreck your joy, unfoundedly suspicious. Don't hoist your flag till time the truth disclose — Anna. Great God! Miss Jay is looking; hush, be still! [She and Lind icithdraw in different directions. Falk. [Loolcing after Lind.] So to the ruin of his youth he goes. GULDSTAD. \Who has meantime been conversing on the steps with Mrs. Halm and Miss Jay, approaches Falk and slaps him on the shoulder. Well, brooding on a poem ? Falk. No, a play. GuLDSTAD. The deuce; — I never heard it was your line. 348 LOVE'S COMEDY [act i Falk. O no, the author is a friend of mine. And your acquaintance also, I daresay. The knave's a dashing writer, never doubt. Only imagine, in a single day He's worked a perfect little Idyll out. GULDSTAD. [Slily.] With happy ending, doubtless! Falk. You're aware, No curtain falls but on a plighted pair. Thus with the Trilogy's First Part we've reckoned; But now the poet's labour-throes begin; The Comedy of Troth-plight, Part the Second, Thro' five insipid Acts he has to spin. And of that staple, finally, compose Part Third, — or Wedlock's Tragedy, in prose. GuLDSTAD. [STniling.] The poet's vein is catching, it would seem. Falk. Really ? How so, pray ? Guldstad. Since I also pore And ponder over a poetic scheme, — [My Seriously. An actuality — and not a dream. ACT I] LOVE'S COMEDY 349 Falk. And pray, who is the hero of your theme ? GULDSTAD. I'll tell you that to-morrow — not before. Falk. It is yourself! GuLDSTAD. You think me equal to it ? Falk. I'm sure no other mortal man could do it. But then the heroine ? No city maid, I'll swear, but of the country, breathing balm ? GuLDSTAD. [Lifting his finger. 1 Ah, — that's the point, and must not be betrayed! — [Changing his tone. Pray tell me your opinion of Miss Halm. Falk. O you're best able to pronounce upon her; My voice can neither credit nor dishonour, — [Smiling. But just take care no mischief-maker blot This fine poetic scheme of which you talk. Suppose I were so shameless as to balk The meditated climax of the plot ? 350 LOVE'S COMEDY [act i GULDSTAD. [Good-naturedly.] Well, I would cry "Amen," and change my plan. Falk. What! GuLDSTAD. Why, you see, you are a letter'd man; How monstrous were it if your skill'd design Were ruined by a bungler's hand like mine! [Retires to the background. Falk. [In passing, to Lind.] Yes, you were right; the merchant's really scheming The ruin of your new-won happiness. Lind. [Aside to Anna.] Now then you see, my doubting was not dreaming; We'll go this very moment and confess. [Theij approach Mrs. Halm, who is standing with Miss Jay hy the house. GuLDSTAD. [Conversing with Stiver.] 'Tis a fine evening. A man's disposed — Stiver. Very likely, — when ACT I] LOVE'S COMEDY 351 GULDSTAD. [Facetiously.] What, all not running smooth In true love's course ? Stiver, Not that exactly — Falk. [Coming up.] Then With your engagement ? Stiver. That's about the truth. * Falk. Hurrah! Your spendthrift pocket has a groat Or two still left, it seems, of poetry. Stiver. [Stiffly-] I cannot see what poetry has got To do with my engagement, or with me. Falk. You are not meant to see; when lovers prove What love is, all is over with their love. Guldstad. [To Stiver.] But if there's matter for adjustment, pray Let's hear it. Soi LOVES COMEDY [acti Sttteb. I*ve been pondering all day Whether the thing is proper to disclose. But still the Ayes are balanced by the Noes. Falk. I'll ricrht tou in one sentence. Ever since As plighted lover you were first installed. You've felt yourself, if I may say so, galled — Stiver. And sometimes to the quick. Falk. Y'ou've had to wince Beneath a crushing load of obHgations That vou'd send packing, if good form permitted. That's what's the matter. STrmE. Monstrous accusations! My legal debts I've honestly acquitted; But other bonds next month are falling due; [To GULDSTAD. When a man weds, you see, he gets a wife — Falk. [Triumphant.] Now vour vouth's heaven once again is blue. There rang an echo from your old song-life I That's how it is: I read you thro' and thro'; Wings, wings were all you wanted, — and a knife! Stivze. A knife ? ACT I] LOVE'S COMEDY 358 Falk. Yes. Resolution's knife, to sever Each captive bond, and set you free for ever. To soar — Stiver. [Angrily.] Nav. now vou're insolent bevond Endurance! Me to charij^e with violation Of law. — me. me with plotting to abscond! It's libellous, malicious defamation. Insult and calumnv — Falk. Are you insane ? What is all this about? Explain! Explain! CJuLTtSTAD. [Laugln'ngh/ to Stiver.] Yes, clear your mind of all this balderdash! What do vou want ? Stiver. [Pulling himself together.] A trifling loan in cash. Falk. A loan! Stiver. [Hurrirdly to Guldstad.] That is, I mean to sav, vou know, A voucher for a ten pouml note, or so. 354 LOVE'S COMEDY [act i Miss Jay. [To LiND and Anna.] I wish you joy! How lovely, how delicious! Guldstad. [Going up to the ladies. \ Pray what has happened ? [To himself.] This was unpropitious. Falk. [Throws his arms about Stiver's neck.] Hurrah! the trumpet's dulcet notes proclaim A brother born to you in Amor's name! [Drags him to the others. Miss Jay. [To the gentlemen.] Think ! Lind and Anna — think ! — have plighted hearts, Affianced lovers! Mrs. Halm. [With tears of emotion.] 'Tis the eighth in order Who well-provided from this house departs; [To Falk. Seven nieces wedded — always with a boarder — [Is overcome; presses her handkerchief to her eyes. ACTi] LOVE'S COMEDY 355 Miss Jay. [To Anna.] Well, there will come a flood of gratulation ! [Caresses her with emotion. LiND. [Seizing Falk's hand.] My friend, I walk in rapt intoxication: Falk. Hold! As a plighted man you are a member Of Rapture's Temperance-association. Observe its rules; — no orgies here, remember! [Turning to Guldstad sympathetically. Well, my good sir! Guldstad. [Beaming with pleasure.] I think this promises x\ll happiness for both. Falk. [Staring at him.] You seem to stand The shock with exemplary self-command. That's well. Guldstad. What do you mean, sir? 356 LOVE'S COMEDY [act i Falk. Only this; That inasmuch as you appeared to feed Fond expectations of your own — GULDSTAD. Indeed ? Falk. At any rate, you were upon the scent. You named Miss Halm; you stood upon this spot And asked me — GuLDSTAD. [Smiling.] There are two, though, are there not ? Falk. It was — the other sister that you meant? GuLDSTAD. That sister, yes, the other one, — just so. Judge for yourself, when you have come to know That sister better, if she has not in her Merits which, if they were divined, would win her A little more regard than we bestow. Falk. [Coldly.] Her virtues are of every known variety I'm sure. ACT I] LOVE'S COMEDY 357 GULDSTAD. Not quite; the accent of society She cannot hit exactly; there she loses. Falk. A grievous fault. GuLDSTAD. But if her mother chooses To spend a winter on her, she'll come out of it Queen of them all, I'll wager. Falk. Not a doubt of it. GuLDSTAD. [Laughing.] Young women are odd creatures, to be sure! Falk. [Gaily.] Like winter rve-seed, canopied secure By frost and snow, invisibly they sprout. GuLDSTAD. Then in the festive ball-room bedded out— Falk. With equivoque and scandal for manure — GuLDSTAD. And when the April sun shines — 358 LOVE'S COMEDY [acti Falk. There the blade is; The seed shot up in mannikin green ladies! [LiND comes up and seizes Falk's hand. LiND. How well I chose, — past understanding well; — I feel a bliss that nothing can dispel. GULDSTAD. There stands your mistress; tell us, if you can, The right demeanour for a plighted man. LiND. [Perturbed. 1 That's a third person's business to declare. GuLDSTAD. [Joking^ Ill-tempered ! This to Anna's ears I'll bear. \Goes to the ladies. LiND. [Looking after him.] Can such a man be tolerated ? Falk. You Mistook his aim, however, — LiND. And how so ? ACT I] LOVE'S COMEDY 359 Falk. It was not Anna that he had in view. LiND. How, was it Svanhild ? Falk. Well, I hardly know. [Whimsically. Forgive me, martyr to another's cause! LiND. What do you mean ? Falk. You've read the news to-night ? LiND. No. Falk. Do so. There 'tis told in black and white Of one who, ill-luck's bitter counsel taking. Had his sound teeth extracted from his jaws Because his cousin-german's teeth were aching. Miss Jay. [Looking out to the left.] Here comes the priest ! Mrs. Halm. Now see a man of might! 360 LOVE'S COMEDY [act i Stiver. Five children, six, seven, eight — Falk. And, heavens, all recent! Miss Jay. Ugh! it is almost to be called indecent. \A carriage has meantime been heard stopping outside to the left. Strawman, his wife, and eight little girls, all in travelling dress, enter one by one. Mrs, Halm. [Advancing to meet them.] Welcome, a hearty welcome! Strawman. Thank you. Mrs. Strawman. Is it A party ? Mrs. Halm. No, dear madam, not at all. Mrs. Strawman. If we disturb you — Mrs. Halm. Au contraire, your visit Could in no wise more opportunely fall. My Anna's just engaged. ACT I] LOVE'S COMEDY 361 Strawman. [Shaking Anna's hand with unction.] Ah then, I must Bear witness; — Lo! in wedded Love's presented A treasure such as neither moth nor rust Corrupt — if it be duly supplemented. Mrs. Halm. But how delightful that your little maids Should follow you to town. Strawman. Four tender blades We have besides. Mrs. Halm. Ah, really ? Strawman. Three of whom Are still too infantine to take to heart A loving father's absence, when I come To town for sessions. Miss Jay. [To Mrs. Halm, bidding farewell.] Now I must depart Mrs. Halm. O, it is still so early! Miss Jay. I must fly To town and spread the news. The Storms, I know. 362 LOVE'S COMEDY [act i Go late to rest, they will be up; and oh! How glad the aunts will be! Now, dear, put by Your shyness; for to-morrow a spring-tide Of callers will flow in from every side! Mrs. Halm. Well, then, good-night. ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^ Now friends, what would you say To drinking tea ? [To Mrs. Strawman. Pray, madam, lead the way. [Mrs. Halm, Strawman, his wife and chil- dren, with GuLDSTAD, LiND, and Anna go into the house. Miss Jay. {Taking Stiver's arm.'] Now let's be tender! Look how softly floats Queen Luna on her throne o'er lawn and lea! Well, but you are not looking! Stiver. \Crossly.] Yes, I see; I'm thinking of the promissory notes. {They go out to the left. Falk, %vho has been continuously watching Strawman and his icife, remains behind alone in the garden. It is nolo dark; the house is lighted up. Falk. All is as if burnt out; all desolate, dead — ! So thro' the world they wander, two and two; ACT I] LOVE'S COMEDY 363 Charred wreckage, like the blackened stems that strew The forest when the withering fire is fled. Far as the eye can travel, all is drought. And nowhere peeps one spray of verdure out! [SvANHiLD comes out on to the verandah with a Jiowering rose-tree which she sets down. Yes one — ^yes one — ! SVANHILD. Falk, in the dark ? Falk. And fearless! Darkness to me is fair, and light is cheerless. But are not you afraid in yonder walls Where the lamp's light on sallow corpses falls — SVANHILD. Shame ! Falk. [Looking after Strawman, who appears at the window. He was once so brilliant and so strong; Warred with the world to win his mistress; passed For Custom's doughtiest iconoclast; And poured forth love in pseans of glad song — ! Look at him now! In solemn robes and wraps, A two-legged drama on his own collapse! And she, the limp-skirt slattern, with the shoes Heel-trodden, that squeak and clatter in her traces. This is the winged maid who was his Muse And escort to the kingdom of the graces! Of all that fire this puff of smoke's the end! Sic transit gloria amoris, friend. 364 LOVE'S COMEDY [act i SVANHILD. Yes, it is wretched, wretched past compare. I know of no one's lot that I would share. Falk. [Eagerly.] Then let us two rise up and bid defiance To this same order Art, not Nature, bred! SVANHILD. [Shaking her head.] Then were the cause for which we made alliance Ruined, as sure as this is earth we tread. Falk. No, triumph waits upon two souls in unity. To Custom's parish-church no more we'll wend, Seatholders in the Philistine community. See, Personality's one aim and end Is to be independent, free and true. In that I am not wanting, nor are you. A fiery spirit pulses in your veins. For thoughts that master, vou have words that burn; The corslet of convention, that constrains The beating hearts of other maids, you spurn. The voice that you were born with will not chime to The chorus Custom's baton gives the time to. Svanhild. And do you think pain has not often pressed Tears from my eyes, and quiet from my breast ? I longed to shape my way to my own bent — ACT I] LOVE'S COMEDY 365 Falk. "In pensive ease?" SVANHILD. O no, 'twas sternly meant. But then the aunts came in with well-intended Advice, the matter must be sifted, weighed — [Coming nearer. "In pensive ease," you say; oh no, I made A bold experiment — in art. Falk. Which ended— ? SVANHILD. In failure. I lacked talent for the brush. The thirst for freedom, tho', I could not crush; Checked at the easel, it essayed the stage — Falk. That plan was shattered also, I engage ? SVANHILD. Upon the eldest aunt's suggestion, yes; She much preferred a place as governess — Falk. But of all this I never heard a word ! SVANHILD. [Smiling.] No wonder; they took care that none was heard. They trembled at the risk "my future" ran If this were whispered to unmarried Man. 366 LOVE'S COMEDY [act i Falk. [After gazing a moment at her in meditative sympathy.] That such must be your lot I long had guessed. When first I met you, I can well recall, You seemed to me quite other than the rest, Beyond the comprehension of them all. They sat at table, — fragrant tea a-brewing, And small-talk humming with the tea in tune, The young girls blushing and the young men cooing. Like pigeons on a sultry afternoon. Old maids and matrons volubly averred Morality and faith's supreme felicity, Young wives were loud in praise of domesticity. While you stood lonely like a mateless bird. And when at last the gabbling clamour rose To a tea-orgy, a debauch of prose. You seemed a piece of silver, newly minted, Among foul notes and coppers, dulled and dinted. You were a coin imported, alien, strange. Here valued at another rate of change. Not passing current in that babel mart Of poetry and butter, cheese and art. Then — while Miss Jay in triumph took the field — SVANHILD. [Gravely.] Her knight behind her, like a champion bold. His hat upon his elbow, like a shield — Talk. Your mother nodded to your untouched cup: "Drink, Svanhild dear, before your tea grows « ACT I] LOVE'S COMEDY And then you drank the vapid liquor up, The mawkish brew beloved of young and old. But that name gripped me with a sudden spell; The grim old Volsungs as they fought and fell. With all their faded aeons, seemed to rise In never-ending line before my eyes. In you I saw a Svanhild, like the old/ But fashioned to the modern age's mould. Sick of its hollow warfare is the world; Its lying banner it would fain have furled; But when the world does evil, its offence ' Is blotted in the blood of innocence. Svanhild. [With gentle irony.] I think, at any rate, the fumes of tea Must answer for that direful fantasy; But 'tis your least achievement, past dispute. To hear the spirit speaking, when 'tis mute. ' Falk. [With emotion. Nay, Svanhild, do not jest: behind your scoff Tears glitter,— O, I see them plain enough. And I see more: when you to dust are frav'd, And kneaded to a formless lump of clay, " Each bungling dilettante's scalpel-blade ' On you his dull devices shall display. The world usurps the creature of God's hand And sets its image in the place of His, Transforms, enlarges that part, lightens this; And when upon the pedestal you stand ' See Notes, page 483. 367 368 LOVE'S COMEDY [act i Complete, cries out in triumph: "Now she is At last what woman ought to be: Behold, How plastically calm, how marble-cold! Bathed in the lamplight's soft irradiation. How well in keeping with the decoration!" [Passionately seizing her hand. But if you are to die, live first ! Come forth With me into the glory of God's earth! Soon, soon the gilded cage will claim its prize. The Lady thrives there, but the Woman dies, And I love nothing but the W'oman in you. There, if they will, let others woo and win you, But here, my spring of life began to shoot. Here my Song-tree put forth its firstling fruit; Here I found wings and flight: — Svanhild, I know it. Only be mine, — here I shall grow a poet! Svanhild. [In gentle reproof, withdravnng her hand.] O, why have you betrayed yourself ? How sweet It was when we as friends could freely meet! You should have kept your counsel. Can we stake Our bliss upon a word that we may break ? Now you have spoken, all is over. Falk. No! I've pointed to the goal, — now leap with me. My high-souled Svanhild — if you dare, and show That you have heart and courage to be free. Svanhild. Be free ? ACT I] LOVE'S COMEDY 369 Falk. Yes, free, for freedom's all-in-all Is absolutely to fulfil our Call. And you by heaven were destined, I know well. To be my bulwark against beauty's spell. I, like my falcon namesake, have to swing Against the wind, if I would reach the sky! You are the breeze I must be breasted by. You, only you, put vigour in my wing: Be mine, be mine, until the world shall take you. When leaves are falling, then our paths shall part. Sing unto me the treasures of your heart. And for each song another song I'll make you; So may you pass into the lamplit glow Of age, as forests fade without a throe. SVANHILD. [With suppressed bitterness.'] I cannot thank you, for your words betray The meaning of your kind solicitude. You eye me as a boy a sallow, good To cut and play the flute on for a day. Falk. Yes, better than to linger in the swamp Till autumn choke it with her grey mists damp! [Vehemently. You must! you shall! To me you must present What God to you so bountifully lent. I speak in song what you in dreams have meant. See yonder bird I innocently slew. 370 LOVE'S COMEDY [act i Her warbling was Song's book of books for you. O, yield your music as she yielded hers! My life shall be that music set to verse! SVANHILD, And when you know me, when my songs are flown, And my last requiem chanted from the bough, — What then ? Falk. [Observing her.] What then ? Ah well, remember now ! [Pointing to tJie garden. SVANHILD. [Gently^ Yes, I remember you can drive a stone. Falk. [With a scornful laugh.] This is your vaunted soul of freedom therefore ! All daring, if it had an end to dare for! [Vehemently. I've shown you one; now, once for all, your yea Or nay. SVANHILD. You know the answer I must make you: I never can accept you in your way. ACT I] LOVE'S COMEDY 371 Falk. [Coldly, breaking off.] Then there's an end of it; the world may take you! [SvANHiLD has silently turned away. She sup- ports her hands upon the verandah railing, and rests her head upon them. Falk. [Walks several times up and down, takes a dgar, stops near her and says, after a pause: You think the topic of my talk to-night Extremely ludicrous, I should not wonder? [Pauses for an answer. Svanhild is silent. I'm very conscious that it was a blunder; Sister's and daughter's love alone possess you; Henceforth I'll wear kid gloves when I address you, Sure, so, of being understood aright. [Pauses, but as Svanhild remains motionless, he turns and goes towards the right. Svanhild. [Lifting her head after a brief silence, looking at him and draiving nearer.] Now I will recompense your kind intent To save me, with an earnest admonition. That falcon-image gave me sudden vision What your "emancipation" really meant. You said you were the falcon, that must fight Athwart the wind if it would reach the sky, I was the breeze you must be breasted by. Else vain were all your faculty of flight; 372 LOVE'S COMEDY [act i How pitifully mean! How paltry! Nay How ludicrous, as you yourself divined! That seed, however, fell not by the way. But bred another fancy in my mind Of a far more illuminating kind. You, as I saw it, were no falcon, but A tuneful dragon, out of paper cut. Whose Ego holds a secondary station, Dependent on the string for animation; Its breast was scrawled with promises to pay In cash poetic, — at some future day; The wings were stiff with barbs and shafts of wit That wildly beat the air, but never hit; The tail was a satiric rod in pickle To castigate the town's infirmities, But all it compass'd was to lightly tickle The casual doer of some small amiss. So you lay helpless at my feet, imploring: "O raise me, how and where is all the same! Give me the power of singing and of soaring, No matter at what cost of bitter blame!" Falk. [Clenching his fists in inward agitation.^ Heaven be my witness — ! SVANHILD. No, you must be told : — For such a childish sport I am too old. But you, whom Nature made for high endeavour. Are you content the fields of air to tread Hanging your poet's life upon a thread That at my pleasure I can slip and sever? ACT I] LOVE'S COMEDY 373 Falk. [Hurriedly.] What is the date to-day ? SVANHILD. [More gently.] Why, now, that's right! Mind well this day, and heed it, and beware; Trust to your own wings only for your flight. Sure, if they do not break, that they will bear'. The paper poem for the desk is fit, That which is lived alone has life in it; That only has the wings that scale the height; Choose now between them, poet: be, or write! [Nearer to him. Now, I have done what you besought me; now My requiem is chanted from the bough; My only one; now all my songs are flown; Now if you will, I'm ready for the stone! [She goes into the house; Falk remains motion- less, looking after her; far out on the fjord is seen a boat, from which the following chorus is faintly heard: Chorus. My wings I open, my sails spread wide. And cleave like an eagle life's glassy tide; Gulls follow my furrow's foaming; Overboard with the ballast of care and cark; And what if I shatter my roaming bark. It is passing sweet to be roaming! 374 LOVE'S COMEDY [act i Falk. [Starting from a reverie.] What, music ? Ah, it will be Lind's quartette Getting their jubilation up. — Well met! [To GuLDSTAD, who enters with an overcoat on his arm. Ah, slipping off, sir ? GuLDSTAD. Yes, with your goodwill. But let me first put on my overcoat. We prose-folks are susceptible to chill; The night wind takes us by the tuneless throat. Good evening! Falk. Sir, a word ere you proceed! Show me a task, a mighty one, you know — ! I'm goinor in for life — ! GuLDSTAD. [With ironical emphasis.] Well, in you go! You'll find that you are i n for it, indeed. Falk. [Looking reflectively at him, says slowly.] There is my program, furnished in a phrase. [In a lively outburst. Now I have wakened from my dreaming days, I've cast the die of life's supreme transaction, I'll show you — else the devil take me — ACTi] LOVE'S COMEDY 375 GULDSTAD. Fie, No cursing; curses never scared a fly. Falk. Words, words, no more, but action, only action! I will reverse the plan of the Creation; — Six days were lavish'd in that occupation; My world's still lying void and desolate, Hurrah, to-morrow, Sunday — I'll create! GuLDSTAD. [Laughing.] Yes, strip, and tackle it like a man, that's right! But first go in and sleep on it. Good-night! [Goes out to the left, Svanhild appears in the room over the verandah; she shuts the windoia and draws down the blind. Falk. No, first I'll act. I've slept too long and late. [Looks up at Svanhild's icindow, and exclaims, as if seized with a sudden resolution: Good-night! Good-night! Sweet dreams to-night be thine; To-morrow, Svanhild, thou art plighted mine! [Goes out quickly to the right; from the water the Chorus is heard again. Chorus. Maybe I shall shatter my roaming bark. But it's passing sweet to be roaming! [The boat slowly glides aivay as the curtain falls. ACT SECOND Sunday afternoon. Well-dressed ladies and gentlemen are drinking coffee on the verandah. Several of the guests appear through the open glass door in the gar- den-room; the following song is heard from within. Chorus. Welcome, welcome, new plighted pair To the merry ranks of the plighted! Now you may revel as free as air, Caress without stint and kiss without care, — No longer of footfall affrighted. Now you are licensed, wherever you go. To the rapture of cooing and billing; Now you have leisure love's seed to sow. Water, and tend it, and make it grow; — Let us see you've a talent for tilling! Miss Jay. [Within.] Ah Lind, if I only had chanced to hear, I would have teased you! A Lady. [Within.] How vexatious though! 376 ACT II] LOVE'S COMEDY 377 Another Lady. [In tJie door ic ay.] Dear Anna, did he ask in writing? An Aunt. No! Mine did. Miss Jay. A Lady. [On the verandah.] How long has it been secret, dear ? [Runs i7ito tiie room. Miss Jay. To-morrow there will be the ring to choose. Ladies. [Eager! I/.] We'll take his measure! Miss Jay. Nay; that she must do. Mrs. Strawman. [On the verandah, to a lady who is busy with embroidery.] What kind of knitting-needles do you use ? A Servant. [In the door with a coffee-pot.] More coffee, madam ? 378 LOVE'S COMEDY [act ii A Lady. Thanks, a drop or two. Miss Jay. [To Anna.] How fortunate you've got your new manteau Next week to go your round of visits in! An Elderly Lady. [At the tvindow.] When shall we go and order the trousseau ? Mrs. Strawman. How are they selling cotton-bombasine ? A Gentleman. [To some ladies on the verandah.] Just look at Lind and Anna; what's his sport.' Ladies. [With shrill ecstasy.] Gracious, he kissed her glove! Others. [Similarly, springing up.] No! Kiss'dit? Really? Lind. [Appears, red and embarrassed, in the doorivay.] O, stuff and nonsense! [Disappears. ACT II] LOVE'S COMEDY 379 Miss Jay. Yes, I saw it clearly. Stiver. [In the door, ivith a coffee-cup in one hand and a biscuit in the other.] The witnesses must not mislead the court; I here make affidavit, they're in error. Miss Jay. [Within.] Come forward, Anna; stand before this mirror! Some Ladies. [Calling.] You, too, Lind ! Miss Jay. Back to back! A little nearer! Ladies. Come, let us see by how much she is short. [All run into the garden-room; laughter and shrill talk are heard for awhile from within. [Falk, who during the preceding scene has been walking about in the garden, advances into the foreground, stops and looks in until the noise has somewhat abated. Falk. There love's romance is being done to death.— The butcher once who boggled at the slaughter. Prolonging needlessly the ox's breath,— }80 LOVE'S COMEDY [act ii He got his twenty days of bread and water; But these — these butchers yonder — they go free. [Clenches his jist. I could be tempted — ; hold, words have no worth, I've sworn it, action only from henceforth! LiND. \Co7ning hastily hut cautiously outi\ Thank God, they're talking fashions; now's my chance To slip away — Falk. Ha, Lind, you've drawn the prize Of luck, — congratulations buzz and dance All day about you, like a swarm of flies. Lind. They're all at heart so kindly and so nice; But rather fewer clients would suffice. Their helping hands begin to gall and fret me; I'll get a moment's respite, if they'll let me. [Going out to the right. Falk. Whither away ? Lind. Our den; — it has a lock; In case you find the oak is sported, knock. Falk. But shall I not fetch Anna to you ? ACTiiJ LOVE'S COMEDY 381 LiND. No— If she wants anything, she'll let me know. Last night we were discussing until late; We've settled almost everything of weight; Besides I think it scarcely goes with piety To have too much of one's beloved's society. Falk. Yes, you are right; for daily food we need A simple diet. LiND. Pray excuse me, friend. I want a whiff of reason and the weed; I haven't smoked for three whole days on end. My blood was pulsing in such agitation, I trembled for rejection all the ti^me— Falk. Yes, you may well desire recuperation — LiND. And won't tobacco's flavour be sublime! [Goes out to the right. Miss Jay and some other Ladies come out of the garden-room. Miss Jay. [To Falk.] That was he surelv.' Falk. Yes, your hunted deer. 382 LOVE'S COMEDY [act ii Ladies. To run away from us! Others. For shame! For shame! Falk. 'Tis a bit shy at present, but, no fear, A week of servitude will make him tame. Miss Jay. [Looking round ^ Where is he hid ? Falk. His present hiding-place Is in the garden loft, our common lair; [Blandly. But let me beg you not to seek him there; Give him a breathing time! Miss Jay. ^Yell, good : the grace Will not be long, tho'. Falk. Nay, be generous! Ten minutes, — then begin the game again. He has an English sermon on the brain. Miss Jay. An English — ? ACT II] LOVE'S COMEDY 333 Ladies. O you laugh! You're fooling us! Falk. Fm in grim earnest. 'Tis his fixed intention To take a charge among the emigrants. And therefore — Miss Jay. [With horror] Heavens, he had the face to mention That mad idea? [To the ladies. O quick— fetch all the aunts' Anna, her mother, Mrs. Strawman too. Ladies. [Agitated.] This must be stopped ! All. We'll make a great ado! Miss Jay. Thank God, they're coming. [To Anna, who comes from the garden-room with Strawman, his wife and children. Stiver, Guldstad, Mrs. Halai and the other guests. Miss Jay. Do you know what Lind Has secretly determined in his mind ? To go as missionary — 384 LOVE'S COMEDY [act ii Anna. Yes, I know. Mrs. Halm. And you've agreed — ! Anna. [Embarrassed.] That I will also go. Miss Jay. [Indignant.] He's talked this stuff to you! Ladies. [Clasping their hands together.] What tyranny! Falk. But think, his Call that would not be denied — ! Miss Jay. Tut, that's what people follow when they're free: A bridegroom follows nothing but his bride. — No, my sweet Anna, ponder, I entreat: You, reared in comfort from your earliest breath — ? Falk. Yet, sure, to suffer for the faith is sweet! ACT II] LOVE'S COMEDY 385 Miss Jay. Is one to suffer for one's bridegroom's faith ? That is a rather novel point of view. [To the ladies. Ladies, attend! r^ ? a » [ Takes Anna s arm. Now listen; then repeat For his instruction what he has to do. [They go into the background and out to the right in eager talk with several of the ladies; the other guests disperse in groups about the garden. Falk stops Strawman, whose xcife and children keep close to him. Guldstad goes to and fro duri?ig the following conver- sation. Falk. Come, pastor, help young fervour in its fight, Before they lure Miss Anna from her vows. Strawman. [In clerical cadence.] The wife must be submissive to the spouse; — [Reflecting. But if I apprehended him aright. His Call's a problematical affair, The Offering altogether in the air — Falk. Pray do not judge so rashly. I can give You absolute assurance, as I live, His Call is definite and incontestable — 386 LOVE'S COMEDY [act ii Strawman. [Seeing it in a new light.] Ah — if there's something fixed — investable — Per a n n u m — then I've nothing more to say. Falk. [Impatiently.] You think the most of what I count the least; I mean the inspiration , — not the pay! Strawman. [With an unctuous smile.] Pay is the first condition of a priest In Asia, Africa, America, Or where you will. Ah yes, if he were free, My dear young friend, I willingly agree. The thing might pass; but, being pledged and bound. He'll scarcely find the venture very sound. Reflect, he's young and vigorous, sure to found A little family in time; assume his will To be the very best on earth — but still The means, my friend — ? 'Build not upon the sand,' Says Scripture. If, upon the other hand. The Offering— Falk. That's no trifle, I'm aware. Strawman. Ah, come — that wholly alters the affair. When men are zealous in their Offering, And liberal — ACT II] LOVE'S COMEDY 387 Falk. There he far surpasses most. Strawman. " He " say you ? How ? In virtue of his post The Offering is not what he has to bring But what he has to get. Mrs. Strawman. [Looking towards the backgroujid.] They're sitting there. Falk. [After staring a moment in amazement, suddenly under- stands and bursts out laughing.] Hurrah for Offerings — the ones that caper And strut — on Holy-days— in bulging paper! Strawman. All the year round the curb and bit we bear, But Whitsuntide and Christmas make things square. Falk. [Gaily.] Why then, provided only there's enough of it, Even family-founders will obey their Calls. Strawman. Of course; a man assured the quaiitum suff. of it Will preach the Gospel to the cannibals. •fc' [Sotto voce. 88 LOVE'S COMEDY [act ii Now I must see if she cannot be led, [To one of the little girls. My little Mattie, fetch me out my head — My pipe-head I should say, my little dear — [Feels in his coat-tail 'pocket. Nay, wait a moment tho': I have it here. [Goes across and Jills his pipe, followed by his icife and children. GULDSTAD. [Approaching .^ You seem to play the part of serpent in This paradise of lovers. Falk. O, the pips Upon the tree of knowledge are too green To be a lure for anybody's lips. [To LiND, ivho comes in from the right. Ha, Lind! LiND. In Heaven's name, who's been ravaging Our sanctum .'' There the lamp lies dashed To pieces, curtain dragged to floor, pen smashed, And on the mantelpiece the ink pot splashed — Falk. [Clapping him on the shoulder.] This wreck's the first announcement of my spring; No more behind drawn curtains I will sit. Making pen poetry with lamp alit; ACT II] LOVE'S COMEDY 389 My dull domestic poctising's done, I'll walk by day, and glory in the sun: My spring has come, my soul has broken free, Action henceforth shall be my poetry. LlND, Make poetry of what you please for me; But how if Mrs. Halm should take amiss Your breaking of her furniture to pieces ? Falk. What!— she, who lays her daughters and her nieces Upon the altar of her boarders' bliss,— She frown at such a bagatelle as this! LiND. [Angrily.] It's utterly outrageous and unfair. And compromises me as well as you! But that's her business, settle it with her. The lamp was mine, tho', shade and burner too— Falk. Tut, on that head, I've no account to render; You have God's summer sunshine in its splendour,— What would you with the lamp ? LiND. You are grotesque; You utterly forget that summer passes; If I'm to make a figure in my classes At Christmas I must buckle to mv desk. 390 LOVE'S COMEDY [act ii Falk. [Staring at him.] What, you look forward ? LiND. To be sure I do. The examination's amply worth it too. Falk. Ah but — you 'only sit and live' — remember! Drunk with the moment, you demand no more — Not even a modest third-class next December. You've caught the bird of Fortune fair and fleet. You feel as if the world with all its store Were scattered in profusion at your feet. LiND. Those were my words; they must be understood. Of course, cum grano sails — Falk. Very good ! LiND. In the forenoons I will enjoy my bliss; That I am quite resolved on — Falk. LiND. Daring man! I have my round of visits to the clan; Time will run anyhow to waste in this; ACT II] LOVE'S COMEDY 391 But any further dislocation of My study-plan I strongly disapprove. Falk, A week ago, however, you were bent On going out into God's world with song. LiND. Yes, but I thought the tour a little long; The fourteen days might well be better spent. Falk Nay, but you had another argument For staying; how the lovely dale for you Was mountain air and winged warble too. LiND. Yes, to be sure, this air is unalloyed; But all its benefits may be enjoyed Over one's book without the slightest bar. Falk. But it was just the Book which failed, you see. As Jacob's ladder — LiND. How perverse you are: That is what people say when they are f r e e — Falk. [Looking at him and folding his hands in silent amaze- ment.] Thou also, Brutus! 392 LOVE'S COMEDY [act ii LiND. [With a shade of confusion and annoyance.] Pray remember, do! That I have other duties now than you; I have my fiancee. Every pHghted pair. Those of prolonged experience not excepted, — Whose evidence you would not wish rejected, — Will tell you, that if two are bound to fare Through life together, they must — Falk. Prithee spare The comment; who supplied it? LiND. Well, we'll say Stiver, he's honest surely; and Miss Jay, Who has such very great experience here. She says — Falk. Well, but the Parson and his — dear? LiND. Yes, they're remarkable. There broods above Them such placidity, such quietude, — Conceive, she can't remember being wooed, Has quite forgotten what is meant by love. Falk. Ah yes, when one has slumber'd over long, The birds of memory refuse their song. [Laying his hand on Lind's shoulder, with an ironical look. You, Lind, slept sound last night, I guarantee ? ACT II] LOVE'S COMEDY 393 LiND. And long. I went to bed in such depression, And yet with such a fever in my brain, I almost doubted if I could be sane. Falk. Ah yes, a sort of witchery, you see. LiND. Thank God I woke in perfect self-possession. [During the foregoing scene Strawman has been seen from time to time walking in the back- ground in lively conversation with Anna; Mrs. Strawman and the children follow. Miss Jay noiv appears also, and with lier Mrs. Halm and otJier ladies. Miss Jay. [Before she enters.] Ah, Mr. Lind. LiND. [To Falk.] They're after me again! Come, let us go. Miss Jay. Nay, nay, you must remain. Let us make speedy end of the division That has crept in between your love and you. Lind. Are we divided ? 394 LOVE'S COMEDY [act ii Miss Jay. [Pointing to Anna, who is standing further off in the garden.^ Gather the decision From yon red eyes. The foreign mission drew Those tears. LiND. But heavens, she was glad to go — Miss Jay. [Scoffing.] Yes, to be sure, one would imagine so! No, my dear Lind, you'll take another view When you have heard the whole affair discussed. Lind. But then this warfare for the faith, you know. Is my most cherished dream! Miss Jay. O who would build On dreaming in this century of light ? Why, Stiver had a dream the other night; There came a letter singularly sealed — Mrs. Strawman. It's treasure such a dream prognosticates. Miss Jay. [Nodding i\ Yes, and next day they sued him for the rates. [The ladies make a circle round Lind and go in conversation with him into the garden. ACT 11] LOVE'S COMEDY 395 Strawman. [Continuing, to Anna, who faintly tries to escape.] From these considerations, daughter mine, From these considerations, buttressed all With reason, morals, and the Word Divine, You now perceive that to desert your Call Were absolutelv inexcusable. Anna. [Half crying.] Oh! I'm so young — Strawman. And it is natural, I own, that one should hesitate to thrid These perils, dare the snares that there lie hid; From doubt's entanglement you must break free, — Be of good cheer and follow Moll and me! Mrs. Strawman. Yes, your dear mother tells me that I too Was just as inconsolable as you When we received our Call — Strawman. And for like cause — The fascination of the town — it was; But when a little money had come in. And the first pairs of infants, twin by twin. She quite got over it. 396 LOVE'S COMEDY [act ii Falk. [Sotto voce to Strawman.] Bravo, you able Persuader. Strawman. [Nodding to him and turning again to Anna.] Now you've promised me, be stable. Shall man renounce his work ? Falk says the Call Is not so very slender after all. Did you not, Falk ? Falk. Nay, pastor — Strawman. To be sure — ! [To Anna. Of something then at least you are secure. What's gained by giving up, if that is so ? Look back into the ages long ago, See, Adam, Eve — the Ark, see, pair by pair. Birds in the field — the lilies in the air. The little birds^ — the little birds — the fishes — [Continues in a loiver tone, as lie withdraws ivith Anna. [Miss Jay ayid the Aunts return with Lind.] Falk. Hurrah! Here come the veterans in array; The old guard charging to retrieve the day! ACT II] LOVE'S COMEDY 397 Miss Jay. All, in exact accordance with our wishes! [Aside. We have him, Falk ! — Now let us tackle her! [Approaches Anna. Strawman. [With a deprecating motion.] She needs no secular solicitation; The Spirit has spoken, what can Earth bestead — .' [Modestbj. If in some small degree my words have sped. Power was vouchsafed me — ! Mrs. Halm. Come, no more evasion, Bring them together! Aunts. [With emotion.] Ah, how exquisite! Strawman. Yes, can there be a heart so dull and dead As not to be entranced at such a sig-ht! It is so thrilling and so penetrating, So lacerating, so exhilarating. To see an innocent babe devoutly lay Its offering on Duty's altar. Mrs. Halm. Nay, Her family have also done their part. 398 LOVE'S COMEDY [act ii Miss Jay. I and the Aunts — I should imagine so. You, Lind, may have the key to Anna's heart, [Presses his hand. But we possess a picklock, you must know. Able to open where the key avails not. And if in years to come, cares throng and thwart, Only apply to us, our friendship fails not. Mrs. Halm. Yes, we shall hover round you all your life, — Miss Jay. And shield you from the fiend of wedded strife. Strawman. Enchanting group ! Love, friendship, hour of glad- ness, Yet so pathetically touched with sadness. [Turning to Lind. But now, young man, pray make an end of this. [Leading Anna to him. Take thy betrothed — receive her — with a kiss! Lind. [Giving his hand to Anna.] I stay at home ! Anna. [At the same moment.] I go with you! ACT II] LOVE'S COMEDY 399 Anna. [Amazed.] You stay ? LiND. [Equally so.] You go with me ? Anna. [With a helpless glatice at the company.] Why, then, we are divided as before! LiND. What's this ? The Ladies. What now ? Miss Jay. [Excitedly.] Our wills are all at war — Strawman She gave her solemn word to cross the sea With him! Miss Jay. And he gave his to slay ashore With her! Falk. [Laughing.] They both complied; what would you more! 400 LOVE'S COMEDY [actii Strawman. These complications are too much for me. [Goes towards the background. Aunts [To one another.] How in the world came they to disagree ? Mrs. Halm. [To GuLDSTAD and Stiver, who have been walking in the garden and now approach.] The spirit of discord's in possession here. [Talks aside to them. Mrs. Strawman. [To Miss Jay, noticing that the table is being laid.] There comes the tea. Miss Jay. [Curthj.] Thank heaven. Falk. Hurrah! a cheer For love and friendship, maiden aunts and tea! Stiver. But if the case stands thus, the whole proceeding May easily be ended with a laugh; All turns upon a single paragraph, Which bids the wife attend the spouse. No pleading Can wrest an ordinance so clearly stated — 401 ACT II] LOVE'S COMEDY Miss Jay. Doubtless, but does that help us to agree ? Strawman. She must obey a law that heaven dictated. Stiver. But Lind cau circumvent that law, you see. [To Lind. Put oflF your journey, and then— budge no jot. Aunts. [Delighted.] Yes, that's the way. Mrs. Halm. Agreed ! Miss Jay. That cuts the knot. [SvANHiLD and the maids have meantime laid the tea-table beside the verandah steps. At Mrs. Halm's invitation the ladies sit down. Tlie rest of the company take their places, partly on the verandah and in the summer- house, partly in the garden. Falk sits on the verandah. During the following scene thei, drink tea. Mrs. Halm. [^miling^ And so our little storm is overblown. Such summer showers do good when they are gone; 402 LOVE'S COMEDY [act ii The sunshine greets us with a double boon. And promises a cloudless afternoon. Miss Jay. Ah yes, Love's blossom without rainy skies Would never thrive according to our wishes. Falk. In dry land set it, and it forthwith dies; For in so far the flowers are like the fishes — Svanhild. Nay, for Love lives, you know, upon the air — Miss Jay. Which is the death of fishes — Falk. So I say. Miss Jay. Aha, we've put a bridle on you there! Mrs. Strawman. The tea is good, one knows by the bouquet. Falk. Well, let us keep the simile you chose. Love is a flower; for if heaven's blessed rain Fall short, it all but pines to death— [Pauses. Miss Jay. What then ? ACT II] LOVE'S COMEDY 403 Falk. [With a gallant bow.] Then come the aunts with the reviving hose. — But poets have this simile employed. And men for scores of centuries enjoyed, — Yet hardly one its secret sense has hit; For flowers are manifold and infinite. Say, then, what flower is love.? Name me, who knows. The flower most like it ? Miss Jay. Why, it is the rose; Good gracious, that's exceedingly well known; — Love, all agree, lends life a rosy tone. A Young Lady. It is the snowdrop; growing, snow enfurled; Till it peer forth, undreamt of by the world. An Aunt. It is the dandelion, — made robust By dint of human heel and horse hoof thrust; Nay, shooting forth afresh when it is smitten. As Pedersen so charmingly has written. I/IND. It is the bluebell, — ringing in for all Young hearts life's joyous Whitsun festival. Mrs. Halm. No, 'tis an evergreen, — as fresh and gay In desolate December as in May. 404 LOVE'S COMEDY [act ii GULDSTAD. No, Iceland moss, dry gathered, — far the best Cure for young ladies with a wounded breast. A Gentleman. No, the wild chestnut tree, — in high repute For household fuel, but with a bitter fruit. SVANHILD. No, a camelia; at our balls, 'tis said, The chief adornment of a lady's head. Mrs. Strawman. No, it is like a flower, O such a bright one; — Stay now — a blue one, no, it was a white one — What i s its name — ? Dear me — the one I met — ; Well it is singular how I forget! Stiver. None of these flower similitudes will run. The flowerp o t is a likelier candidate. There's only room in it, at once, for one; But by progressive stages it holds eight. Strawman. [With his little girls round him.] No, love's a pear tree; in the spring like snow With myriad blossoms, which in summer grow To pearlets; in the parent's sap each shares; — And with God's help they'll all alike prove pears. ACT II] LOVE'S COMEDY 405 Falk. So many heads, so many sentences! No, you all grope and blunder off the line. Each simile's at fault; I'll tell you mine; — You're free to turn and wrest it as you please. [Rises as if to make a speech. In the remotest east there grows a plant ;^ And the sun's cousin's garden is its haunt — The Ladies. Ah, it's the tea-plant! Falk. Yes. Mrs. Strawman. His voice is so Like Strawman's when he — Strawman. Don't disturb his flow. Falk. It has its home in fabled lands serene; Thousands of miles of desert lie between; — Fill up, Lind! — So. — Now in a tea-oration, I'll show of tea and Love the true relation. [The guests cluster round him. It has its home in the romantic land; Alas, Love's home is also in Romance, Only the Sun's descendants understand The herb's right cultivation and advance. *See Notes, page 483. 406 LOVE'S COMEDY [act ii With Love it is not otherwise than so. Blood of the Sun along the veins must flow If Love indeed therein is to strike root. And burgeon into blossom, into fruit. Miss Jay. But China is an ancient land; you hold In consequence that tea is very old — Straw^man. Past question antecedent to Jerusalem. Falk. Yes, 'twas already famous when Methusalem His picture-books and rattles tore and flung — Miss Jay. [ Triumphantly.] And Love is in its very nature young! To find a likeness there is pretty bold. Falk. No; Love, in truth, is also very old; That principle we here no more dispute Than do the folks of Rio or Bey rout. Nay, there are those from Cayenne to Caithness, Who stand upon its everlastingness; — Well, that may be a slight exaggeration. But old it is beyond all estimation. Miss Jay. But Love is all alike; whereas we see Both good and bad and middling kinds of tea! ACT II] LOVE'S COMEDY 407 Mrs. Strawman. Yes, they sell tea of many qualities. Anna. The green spring shoots I count the very first — Svanhild. Those serve to quench celestial daughters' thirst. A Young Lady. Witching as ether fumes they say it is — Another. Balmy as lotus, sweet as almond, clear — GULDSTAD. That's not an article we deal in here. Falk. [Who has meanwhile come down from the verandah.] Ah, ladies, every mortal has a small Private celestial empire in his heart. There bud such shoots in thousands, kept apart By Shyness's soon shatter'd Chinese Wall. But in her dim fantastic temple bower The little Chinese puppet sits and sighs, A dream of far-off wonders in her eyes — And in her hand a golden tulip flower. For her the tender firstling tendrils grew; — Rich crop or meagre, what is that to you ? Instead of it we get an after crop They kick the tree for, dust and stalk and stem, — As hemp to silk beside what goes to them — 408 LOVE'S COMEDY [act ii GULDSTAD. That is the black tea, Falk. [Nodding.] That's what fills the shop. A Gentleman. There's beef tea too, that Holberg says a word of— Miss Jay. [Sharphj.] To modern taste entirely out of date. Falk. And a beef love has equally been heard of. Wont — in romances — to browbeat its mate, And still they say its trace may be detected Amongst the henpecked of the married state. In short there's likeness where 'twas least expected. So, as you know, an ancient proverb tells, That something ever passes from the tea Of the bouquet that lodges in its cells. If it be carried hither over sea. It must across the desert and the hills, — Pay toll to Cossack and to Russian tills; — It gets their stamp and licence, that's enough, "We buy it as the true and genuine stuff. But has not Love the self-same path to fare ? Across Life's desert ? How the world would rave And shriek if you or I should boldly bear 409 ACT II] LOVE'S COMEDY Our Love by way of Freedom's ocean wave! I' Good heavens, his moral savour's passed away, "And quite dispersed LegaHty's bouquet!"— Strawman. [Rising.] Yes, happily,— in every moral land Such wares continue to be contraband! Falk. Yes, to pass current here. Love must have cross'd The great Siberian waste of regulations, Fann'd by no breath of ocean to its cost; It must produce official attestations From friends and kindred, devils of relations. From church curators, organist and clerk. And other fine folks— over and above The primal licence which God gave to Love.— And then the last great point of likeness;— mark How heavily the hand of culture weighs Upon that far Celestial domain; Its power is shatter 'd, and its wall decays. The last true Mandarin's strangled; hands profane Already are put forth to share the spoil; Soon the Sun's realm will be a legend vain, An idle tale incredible to sense; The world is gray in gray— we've flung tlie soil On buried Faery,— we have made her mound. But if we have,— then where can Love be found ? Alas, Love also is departed hence! [Lifts his cup. Well let him go, since so the times decree;— A health to Amor, late of Earth,— in tea! [He drains his cup; indignant murmurs amongst the company. 410 LOVE'S COMEDY [act ii Miss Jay. A very odd expression! "Dead" indeed! The Ladies. To say that Love is dead — ! Strawman. Why, here you see Him sitting, rosy, round and sound, at tea. In all conditions! Here in her sable weed The widow — Miss Jay. Here a couple, true and tried, — Stiver. With many ample pledges fortified. GULDSTAD. Then Love's light cavalry, of maid and man. The plighted pairs in order — Strawman. In the van The veterans, whose troth has laughed to scorn The tooth of Time- Miss Jay. [Hastily interrupting.] And then the babes new-born — The little novices of yester-morn — ACT II] ' LOVE'S COMEDY 411 Strawman. Spring, summer, autumn, winter, in a word. Are here; the truth is patent, past all doubt. It can be clutched and handled, seen and heard, — Falk. What then ? Miss Jay. And yet you want to thrust it out! Falk. Madam, you quite mistake. In all I spoke I cast no doubt on anything you claim; But I would fain remind you that, from smoke. We cannot logically argue flame. That men are married, and have children, I Have no desire whatever to deny; Nor do I dream of doubting that such things Are in the world as troth and wedding-rings; That billets-doux some tender hands indite And seal with pairs of turtle doves that — fight; That sweethearts swarm in cottage and in hall. That chocolate rewards the wedding-call; That usage and convention have decreed. In every point, how "Lovers" shall proceed: — But, heavens! We've majors also by the score. Arsenals heaped with muniments of war. With spurs and howitzers and drums and shot. But what does that permit us to infer? That we have men who dangle swords, but not That they will wield the weapons that they wear. Tho' all the plain with gleaming tents you crowd. Does that make heroes of the men they shroud ? 412 LO^^E'S COMEDY - [act n Strawman". Well, all in moderation; I must o-^n. It is not quite conducive to the truth That we should paint the enamourment of youth So bright, as if — ahem — it stood alone. Love-making still a frail foundation is. Only the snuggery of wedded bliss Provides a rock where Love may builded be In unassailable security. Miss Jay. There I entirelv differ. In mv view, A free accord of lovers, heart with heart, Who hold together, having leave to part. Gives the best warrant that their love is true. AXNA. [Warmly.] O no — Love's bond when it is fresh and young Is of a stuff more precious and more strong. LiND. [Thoughtfully.] Possibly the ideal flower may blow. Even as that snowdrop, — hidden by the snow. Falk. [With a gvdden oiUburgt.] You fallen Adam! There a heart was cleft With longing for the Eden it has left I Acxn] LOVE'S COMEDY 413 LiXD. What stuff! Mks. Haij^. [OJ^nd/^, to Falk. n\v{ng.] 'Tis not a verr friendlv act To stir a quarrel where we've made a peace. As for vour friend's j^xhI fortune, be at ease — Some Ladies. Nay that's assured — Others. A very certain fact. Mrs. Halm. The cooking-class at school. I must confess. She did not take; but she shall learn it still. Miss Jay. With her own hands she's trimming hex own dre>ss. Ax ArxT. [Patting Anna's ^'Te'S and ivnds In maniac dance upon tlie lips of friends! Was it gootl sense he wanted .- Or a she- Professor of tlie lore of Cookerv ^ 414 LOVE'S COMEDY [act n A joyous son of springtime he came here, For the wild rosebud on the bush he burned. You reared the rosebud for him; he returned— And for his rose found what ? The hip ! Miss Jay. [Offended.] You jeer! Falk. A useful household condiment, heaven knows! But yet the hip was not his bridal rose. Mrs. Halm. 0, if it is a ball-room queen he wants, I'm very sorry; these are not their haunts. Falk. O yes, I know the pretty coquetry They carry on with "Domesticity." It is a suckling of the mighty Lie That, like hop-tendrils, spreads itself on high. 1, madam, reverently bare my head To the ball queen; a child of beauty she— And the ideal's golden woof is spread In ball-rooms, hardly in the nursery. Mrs. Halm. [With suppressed bitterness.] Your conduct, sir, is easily explained; A plighted lover cannot be a friend; That is the kernel of the whole affair; I have a very large experience there. ACT II] LOVE'S COMEDY 415 Falk. No doubt, — with seven nieces, each a wife — Mrs. Halm. And each a happy wife — Falk. [With emphasis.] Ah, do we know ? How! guldstad. Miss Jay. Mr. Falk! LiND. Are you resolved to sow Dissension ? Falk. [Vehemently.] Yes, war, discord, turmoil, strife! Stiver. What you, a lay, profane outsider here! Falk. No matter, still the battle-flag I'll rear! Yes, it is war I mean with nail and tooth Against the Lie with the tenacious root, The lie that you have fostered into fruit, For all its strutting in the guise of truth! 416 ' LOVE'S COMEDY [actii Stiver. Against these groundless charges I protest, Reserving right of action — Miss Jay. Do be still! Falk. So then it is Love's ever-running rill That tells the widow what she once possess'd, — That very Love that, in the days gone by, Out of her language blotted "moan" and "sigh"! So then it is Love's brimming tide that rolls Along the placid veins of wedded souls, — That very Love that faced the iron sleet, Trampling inane Convention under feet. And scoffing at the impotent discreet! So then it is Love's beauty-kindled flame That keeps the plighted from the taint of time Year after year! Ah yes, the very same That made our young bureaucrat blaze in ryhme! So it is Love's young bliss that will not brave The voyage over vaulted Ocean's wave. But asks a sacrifice when, like the sun. Its face should fill with glory, making one ! Ah no, you vulgar prophets of the Lie, Give things the names we ought to know them by; Call widows' passion— wanting what they miss, And wedlock's habit — call it what it is ! Strawman. Young man, this insolence has gone too far! In every word there's scoffing and defiance. [Goes close up to Falk. ACT II] LOVE'S COMEDY 417 Now I'll gird up my aged loins to war For hallowed custom against modern science! Falk. I go to battle as it were a feast! Strawman. Good ! For your bullets I will be a beacon : — [Nearer. A wedded pair is holy, like a priest — Stiver. [At Falk's other side.] And a betrothed — Falk. Half-holy, like the deacon. Strawman. Behold these children; — see, — this little throng! lo triumphe may for them be sung! How was it possible — how practicable — ; The words of truth are strong, inexorable; — He has no hearing whom they cannot move. See, — every one of them's a child of Love — ! [Stops in confusion. That is — you understand — I would have said — ! Miss Jay. [Fanning herself loith her handkerchief.] This is a very mystical oration! 418 LOVE'S COMEDY [act ii Falk. There you yourself provide the demonstration, — A good old Norse one, sound, true-born, home-bred. You draw distinction between wedded pledges And those of Love: your Logic's without flaw. They are distinguished just as roast from raw. As hothouse bloom from wilding of the hedges! Love is with us a science and an art; It long since ceased to animate the heart. Love is with us a trade, a special line Of business, with its union, code and sign; It is a guild of married folks and plighted. Past-masters with apprentices united; For they cohere compact as jelly-fishes, A singing-club their single want and wish is — And a gazette! GULDSTAD. Falk. A good suggestion, yes! We too must have our organ in the press. Like ladies, athletes, boys, and devotees. Don't ask the price at present, if you please. There I'll parade each amatory fetter That John and Thomas to our town unites, There publish every pink and perfumed letter That William to his tender Jane indites; There you shall read, among "Distressing Scenes" — Instead of murders and burnt crinolines. The broken matches that the week's afforded; There under "goods for sale" you'll find what firms Will furnish cast-off rings on easy terms; There double, treble births will be recorded; ACTii] LOVE'S COMEDY 419 No wedding, but our rallying rub-a-dub Shall drum to the performance all the club; No suit rejected, but we'll set it down. In letters large, with other news of weight Thus: "Amor-Moloch, we regret to state. Has claimed another victim in our town." You'll see, we'll catch subscribers: once in sight Of the propitious season when they bite. By way of throwing them the bait they'll brook I'll stick a nice young man upon my hook. Yes, you will see me battle for our cause. With tiger's, nay with editorial, claws Rending them — GULDSTAD. And the paper's name will be— ? Falk. Amor's Norse Chronicle of Archery. Stiver. [Going nearer.] You're not in earnest, you will never stake Your name and fame for such a fancv's sake' Falk. I'm in grim earnest. We are often told Men cannot live on love; I'll show that this Is an untenable hypothesis; For Love will prove to be a mine of gold : Particularly if Miss Jay, perhaps. Will Mr. Strawman's "Life's Romance" unfold, As appetising feuilleton, in scraps. 420 LOVE'S COMEDY [actii Strawman. [In terror.] Merciful heaven! My "life's romance"! What, what ! When was my life romantic, if you please ? Miss Jay. I never said so. Stiver. Witness disagrees. Strawman. That I have ever swerved a single jot From social prescript, — is a monstrous lie. Falk. Good. [Clapping Stiver on the shoulder. Here's a friend who will not be put by. We'll start with Stiver's lyric ecstasies. Stiver. [After a glance of horror at Strawman.] Are you quite mad! Nay then I must be heard! You dare accuse me for a poet — Miss Jay. How—! Falk. Your office has averred it anyhow. ACT II] LOVE'S COMEDY 421 Stiver. [In towering anger.] Sir, by our office nothing is averred. Falk. Well, leave me then, you also: I have by me One comrade yet whose loyalty will last. "A true heart's story" Lind will not deny me. Whose troth's too tender for the ocean blast, Who for his mistress makes surrender of His fellow-men — pure quintessence of Love! Mrs. Halm. My patience, Mr. Falk, is now worn out. The same abode no longer can receive us: — I beg of you this very day to leave us — Falk. [With a how as Mrs. Halm and the company withdraw. 1 That this would come I never had a doubt! Strawman. Between us two there's battle to the death; You've slandered me, my wife, my little flock. From Mollie down to Millie, in one breath. Crow on, crow on — Emancipation's cock, — [Goes in, followed hy his wife and children. Falk. And go you on observing Peter's faith To Love your lord — who, thanks to your advice. Was thrice denied before the cock crew thrice! 422 LOVE'S COMEDY [act ii Miss Jay. [ Turning faint.] Attend me, Stiver! help me get unlaced My corset — this way, this way — do make haste! Stiver. [To Falk, as he withdraws with Miss Jay on his arm.] I here renounce your friendship. I likewise. LiND. Falk. [Seriously.] You too, my Lind ? LiND. Farewell. Falk. You were my nearest one — Lind. No help, it is the pleasure of my dearest one. [He goes in: Svanhild has remained standing on the verandah steps. Falk. So, now I've made a clearance, have free course In all directions! Svanhild. Falk, one word with you! ACTiiJ LOVE'S COMEDY 423 Falk. [Pointing politely to the house.] That way, Miss Halm; — that way, with all the force Of aunts and inmates, Mrs. Halm withdrew. SVANHILD. [Nearer to him.] Let them withdraw; their ways and mine divide; I will not swell the number of their band. Falk. You'll stay ? SVANHILD. If you make war on lies, I stand A trusty armour-bearer by your side, Falk. You, Svanhild, you who — SVANHILD. I, who — yesterday — ? Were you yourself, Falk, yesterday the same ? You bade me be a sallow, for your play, Falk. And a sweet sallow sang me into shame. No, you are right; I was a child to ask; But you have fired me to a nobler task. Right in the midst of men the Church is founded 424 LOVE'S COMEDY [act ii Where Truth's appealing clarion must be sounded We are not called, like demigods, to gaze on The battle from the far-off mountain's crest, But in our hearts to bear our fiery blazon. An Olaf's cross upon a mailed breast, — To look afar across the fields of flight, Tho' pent within the mazes of its might, — Beyond the mirk descry one glimmer still Of glory — that's the Call we must fulfil. SVANHILD. And you'll fulfil it when you break from men, Stand free, alone, — Falk. Did I frequent them then? And there lies duty. No, that time's gone by, — My solitary compact with the sky. My four- wall-chamber poetry is done; My verse shall live in forest and in field, I'll fight under the splendour of the sun; — I or the Lie — one of us two must yield! SVANHILD. Then forth with God from Verse to Derringdoe! I did you wrong: you have a feeling heart; Forgive me, — and as good friends let us part — Falk. Nay, in my future there is room for two! We part not. Svanhild, if you dare decide, We'll battle on together side by side. ACT II] LOVE'S COMEDY 425 SVANHILD. We battle? Falk. See, I have no friend, no mate. By all abandoned, I make war on all: At me they aim the piercing shafts of hate; Say, do you dare with me to stand or fall ? Henceforth along the beaten walks I'll move Heedful of each constraining etiquette; Spread, like the rest of men, my board, and set The ring upon the finger of my love! [Takes a ring from his finger and holds it up. SVANHILD. [In breathless suspense.] You mean that ? Falk. Yes, by us the world shall see, Love has an everlasting energy. That suffers not its splendour to take hurt From the day's dust, the common highway's dirt. Last night I showed you the ideal flame, Beaconing from a dizzy mountain's brow. You shuddered, for you were a woman, — now I show you woman's veritable aim; — A soul like yours, what it has vowed, will keep. You see the abyss before you. — Svanhild, leap! SVANHILD. [Almost inaudibly.] If we should fail — ! 426 LOVE'S COMEDY [act ii Falk. [Exidting .] No, in your eyes I see A gleam that surely prophesies our winning! SVANHILD. Then take me as I am, take all of me! Now buds the young leaf; now my spring's begin- ning! [She flings herself boldly into his arms as the curtain falls. ACT THIRD Evening. Bright moonlight. Coloured lanterns are hung about the trees, hi the background are covered tables li'ith bottles, glasses, biscuits, etc. From the house, ichich is lighted wp from top to bottom, subdued music and singing are heard during the following scene. Svaxhild stands on the verandah. Falk comes from the right with some books and a portfolio under his arm. The Porter follows ivith a port- manteau a?id a knapsack. Falk. That's all, then ? Porter. Yes, sir, all is in the pack. But just a satchel, and the paletot. Falk. Good; when I go, I'll take them on my back. Now off. See, this is the portfolio. Porter. It's locked, I see. Falk. Locked, Peter. 427 428 LOVE'S COMEDY [act iii Porter, Talk. Make haste and burn it. Good, sir. Pray, Porter. Burn it? Falk. Yes, to ash — [Smilitig. With every draft upon poetic cash; As for the books, you're welcome to them. Porter. Nay, Such payment is above a poor man's earning. But, sir, I'm thinking, if you can bestow Your books, you must have done with all your learning ? Falk. Whatever can be learnt from books I know. And rather more. Porter. More ? Nay, that's hard, I doubt! Falk. W^ell, now be off; the carriers wait without. Just help them load the barrow ere you go. [The Porter goes out to tJie left. ACT III] LOVE'S COMEDY 429 Falk. [Approaching Svanhild, ivho comes to meet him.] One moment's ours, my Svanhild, in the Hght Of God and of the lustrous summer night. How the stars glitter thro' the leafage, see, Like bright fruit hanging on the great world-tree. Now slavery's last manacle I slip. Now for the last time feel the weaHng whip; Like Israel at the Passover I stand. Loins girded for the desert, staff in hand. Dull generation, from whose sight is hid The Promised Land beyond that desert flight. Thrall tricked with knighthood, never the more knight. Tomb thyself kinglike in the Pyramid, — I cross the barren desert to be free. My ship strides on despite an ebbing sea; But there the Legion Lie shall find its doom. And glut one deep, dark, hollow-vaulted tomb. [A short pause; lie looks at Jier aiid takes Jier hand. You are so still! Svanhild, So happy! Suffer me, O suffer me in silence still to dream. Speak you for me; my budding thoughts, grown strong, One after one will burgeon into song. Like lilies in the bosom of the stream. Falk. O say it once again, in truth's pure tone Beyond the fear of doubt, that thou art mine! O say it, Svanhild, say — 430 LOVE'S COMEDY [act iii SVANHILD. [Throwing herself on his neck.] Yes, I am thine! Falk. Thou singing-bird God sent me for my own! SVANHILD. Homeless within my mother's house I dwelt, Lonely in all I thought, in all I felt, A guest unbidden at the feast of mirth, — Accounted nothing — less than nothing — worth. Then you appeared ! For the first time I heard My own thought uttered in another's word; To my lame visions you gave wings and feet — You young unmasker of the Obsolete! Half with your caustic keenness you alarmed me. Half with your radiant eloquence you charmed me, As sea-girt forests summon with their spell The sea their flinty beaches still repel. Now I have read the bottom of your soul, Now you have won me, undivided, whole; Dear forest, where my tossing billows beat. My tide's at flood and never will retreat! Falk. And I thank God that in the bath of Pain He purged my love. What strong compulsion drew Me on I knew not, till I saw in you The treasure I had blindly sought in vain. I praise Him, who our love has lifted thus To noble rank by sorrow, — licensed us ACT III] LOVE'S COMEDY 431 To a triumphal progress, bade us sweep Thro' fen and forest to our castle-keep, A noble pair, astride on Pegasus! SVANHILD. [Pointing to the house.] The whole house, see, is making feast to-night. There, in their honour, every room's alight. There cheerful talk and joyous song ring out; On the highroad no passer-by will doubt That men are happy where they are so gay. [With compassion. Poor sister! — happy in the great world's way! Falk. "Poor" sister, sav you.'' SVANHILD. Has she not divided With kith and kin the treasure of her soul. Her capital to fifty hands confided. So that not one is debtor for the whole? From no one has she a 1 1 things to receive. For no one has she utterly to live. beside m y wealth hers is little worth; 1 have but one possession upon earth. My heart was lordless when with trumpet blare And multitudinous song you came, its king. The banners of my thought your ensign bear. You fill my soul with glory, like the spring. Yes, I must needs thank God, when it is past. That I was lonely till I found out thee, — That I lay dead until the trumpet blast Waken'd me from the world's frivolity. 432 LOVE'S COMEDY [act iii Falk. Yes we, who have no friends on earth, we twain Own the true wealth, the golden fortune, — we Who stand without, beside the starlit sea. And watch the indoor revel thro' the pane. Let the lamp glitter and the song resound. Let the dance madly eddy round and round; — Look up, my Svanhild, into yon deep blue, — There glitter little lamps in thousands, too — Svanhild, And hark, beloved, thro' the limes there floats This balmy eve a chorus of sweet notes — Falk. It is for us that fretted vault's aglow — Svanhild. It is for us the vale is loud below! Falk. I feel myself like God's lost prodigal; I left Him for the world's delusive charms. With mild reproof He wooed me to His arms; And when I come. He lights the vaulted hall, Prepares a banquet for the son restored. And makes His noblest creature my reward. From this time forth I'll never leave that Light, — But stand its armed defender in the fight; Nothing shall part us, and our life shall prove A song of glory to triumphant love ! ACT III] LOVE'S COMEDY 433 SVANHILD. And see how easy triumph is for two, When he's a man — Falk. She, woman thro' and thro'; — It is impossible for such to fall ! SVANHILD. Then up, and to the war with want and sorrow; This very hour I will declare it all! [Pointing to Falk's ring on herfiiiger Falk. [Hastily.'] No, Svanhild, not to-night, wait till to-morrow! To-night we gather our young love's red rose; 'Twere sacrilege to smirch it with the prose Of common day. [The door into the garden-room opens. Your mother's coming! Hide! No eye this night shall see thee as my bride ! [Theij go out among the trees hy the summer- house. Mrs. Halm and Guldstad come out on tJie balcony. Mrs. Halm. He's really going } Guldstad. Seems so, I admit. 434 LOVE'S COMEDY [act iii Stiver. [Coming.] He's going, madam ! Mrs. Halm. We're aware of it! Stiver. A most unfortunate punctilio. He'll keep his word; his stubbornness I know. In the Gazette he'll put us all by name; ]My love will figure under leaded headings, \Yith jilts, and twins, and countermanded wed- dings. Listen; I tell you, if it weren't for shame, I would propose an armistice, a truce — Mrs. Halm. You think he would be willing ? Stiver. I deduce The fact from certain signs, which indicate That his tall talk about his Amor's News Was uttered in a far from sober state. One proof especially, if not transcendent, Yet tells most heavily against defendant: It has been clearly proved that after dinner To his and Lind's joint chamber he withdrew. And there displayed such singular demeanour As leaves no question — ACT III] LOVE'S COMEDY 435 GULDSTAD. [Sees a glimpse of Falk and Svanhild, who separate, Falk going to the background; Svanhild remains standing hidden by the summer-house.] Hold, we have the clue! Madam, one word!— Falk does not mean to go. Or if he does, he means it as a friend. Stiver. How, you believe then — ? Mrs. Halm. What do you intend ? GuLDSTAD. With the least possible delay I'll show That matters move precisely as you would. Merely a word in private — Mrs. Halm. Very good. [They go together into the garden and are seen from time to time in lively conversation. Stiver. [Descending into the garden discovers Falk, who is standing by the water and gazing over it.] These poets are mere men of vengeance, we State servants understand diplomacy. I need to labour for myself — [Seeing Strawman, who enters from the garden- room. Well met! 436 LOVE'S COMEDY [act iii Strawman. [On tJie verandah.] He's really leaving! [Going down to Stiver. Ah, my dear sir, let Me beg you just a moment to go in And hold my wife — Stiver. I — hold her, sir? Strawman. I mean In talk. The little ones and we are so Unused to be divided, there is no Escaping — [His wife and children appear in the door. Ha! already on my trail. Mrs. Strawman. Where are you, Strawman ? Strawman. [^Aside to Stiver.] Do invent some tale. Something amusing — something to beguile! Stiver. [Going on to the verandali.] Pray, madam, have you read the official charge? A masterpiece of literary style. [Takes a book from his pocket. ACTiii] LOVE'S COMEDY 437 Which I shall now proceed to cite at large. [Ushers her politely into the room, and folloivs himself. Falk comes forward; he and Straw- man meet; they regard one another a moment in silence. Well? Well? Strawman. Falk. Strawman. Falk! Falk. Pastor! Strawman. Are you less Intractable than when we parted ? Falk Nay, I go my own inexorable way — Strawman. Even tho' you crush another's happiness ? Falk. I plant the flower of knowledge in its place. [Smiling. If, by the way, you have not ceased to think Of the Gazette — 438 LOVE'S COMEDY [act iii Strawman. Ah, that was all a joke ? Falk. Yes, pluck up courage, that will turn to smoke; I break the ice in action, not in ink. Strawman. But even though you spare me, sure enough There's one who won't so lightly let me off; He has the advantage, and he won't forego it, That lawyer's clerk — and 'tis to you I owe it; You raked the ashes of our faded flames. And you may take your oath he won't be still If once I mutter but a syllable Against the brazen bluster of his claims. These civil-service gentlemen, they say. Are very potent in the press to-day. A trumpery paragraph can lay me low. Once printed in that Samson-like Gazette That with the jaw of asses fells its foe, And runs away with tackle and with net. Especially towards the quarter day — ■ Falk. [Acquiescing.] Ah, were there scandal in the case, indeed — Strawman. [Despondently.] No matter. Read its columns with good heed, You'll see me offered up to Vengeance. ACT III] LOVE'S COMEDY 439 Falk. [Whimsically.] Nay, To retribution— well-earned punishment. Thro' all our life there runs a Nemesis, Which may delay, but never will relent, And grants to none exception or release. Who wrongs the Ideal ? Straight there rushes in The Press, its guardian with the Argus eye. And the offender suffers for his sin. Strawman. But in the name of heaven, what pledge have I Given this "Ideal" that's ever on your tongue? I'm married, have a family, twelve young And helpless innocents to clothe and keep; I have my daily calls on every side, Churches remote and glebe and pasture wide, Great herds of breeding cattle, ghostly sheep — All to be watched and cared for, dipt and fed. Grain to be winnowed, compost to be spread; — Wanted all day in shippon and in stall. What time have / to serve the "Ideal" withal.? Falk. Then get you home with what dispatch you may. Creep snugly in before the winter-cold; Look, in young Norway dawns at last the day. Thousand brave hearts are in its ranks enroll'd. Its banners in the morning breezes play! Strawman. And if, young man, I were to take my way With bag and baggage home, with everything 440 LOVE'S COMEDY [act iir That made me yesterday a little king, Were mine the only volte face to-day? Think you I carry back the wealth I brought ? \As Falk is about to answer. Nay, listen, let me first explain my thought. \Coming nearer. Time was when I was young, like you, and played Like you, the unconquerable Titan's part; Year after year I toiled and moiled for bread, Which hardens a man's hand, but not his heart. For northern fells my lonely home surrounded, And by my parish bounds my world was bounded. My home — Ah, Falk, I wonder, do you know What home is ? Falk. [Ciirthj.] I have never known. Strawman. Just so. That is a home, where five may dwell with ease, Tho' two would be a crowd, if enemies. That is a home, where all your thoughts play free As boys and girls about their father's knee. Where speech no sooner touches heart, than tongue Darts back an answering harmony of song; Where you may grow from flax-haired snowy-polled. And not a soul take note that you grow old; Where memories grow fairer as they fade, Like far blue peaks beyond the forest glade. Falk [TFi7/t constrained sarcasm.] Come, you grow warm — ACT III] LOVE'S COMEDY 441 Strawman. Where you but jeered and flouted. So utterly unlike God made us two! I'm bare of that he lavished upon you. But I have won the game where you were routed. Seen from the clouds, full many a wayside grain Of truth seems empty chaff and husks. You'd soar To heaven, I scarcely reach the stable door. One bird's an eagle born — Falk. And one a hen. Strawman. Yes, laugh away, and say it be so, grant I am a hen. There clusters to my cluck A crowd of little chickens, — which you want! And I've the hen's high spirit and her pluck. And for my little ones forget myself. You think me dull, I know it. Possibly You pass a harsher judgment yet, decree Me over covetous of worldly pelf. Good, on that head we will not disagree. [Seizes Falk's arm and continues in a low tone hut ivith gathering vehemence. You're right, I'm dull and dense and grasping, yes; But grasping for my God-given babes and wife, And dense from struggling blindly for bare life, And dull from sailing seas of loneliness. Just when the pinnace of my youthful dream Into the everlasting deep went down, Another started from the ocean stream Borne with a fair wind onward to life's crown. 442 LOVE'S COMEDY [act iii For every dream that vanished in the wave, For every buoyant plume that broke asunder, God sent me in return a Httle Wonder, And gratefully I took the good He gave. For them I strove, for them amassed, annexed, — For them, for them, explained the Holy text; My clustering girls, my garden of delight! On them you've poured the venom of your spite! You've proved, v/ith all the cunning of the schools, My bliss was but the paradise of fools, That all I took for earnest was a jest; — Now I implore, give me my quiet breast Again, the jQawless peace of mind I had — Falk. Prove, in a word, your title to be glad ? Strawman. Yes, in my path you've cast the stone of doubt. And nobody but you can cast it out. Between my kin and me you've set a bar, — Remove the bar, the strangling noose undo — Falk. You possibly believe I keep the glue Of lies for Happiness's broken jar? Strawman. I do believe, the faith your reasons tore To shreds, your reasons may again restore; The limb that you have shatter'd, you can set; Reverse your judgment, — the whole truth unfold, Restate the case — I'll fly my banner yet — ACT III] LOVE'S COMEDY 443 Falk. [Haughtily.] I stamp no copper Happiness as gold. Strawman. [Looking fixedly at him.] Remember then that, lately, one whose scent For truth is of the keenest told us this : [With uplifted finger. "There runs through all our life a Nemesis, Which may delay, but never will relent." [He goes towards the house. Stiver. [Coming out with glasses on, and an open book in his ha7id.] Pastor, you must come flying like the blast! Your girls are sobbing — The Children. [In the doorway.] Pa! Stiver. And Madam waiting ! [Strawman goes in. This lady has no talent for debating. [Puts the hook and glasses in his pocket, and approaches Falk. Falk! Falk. Yes! 444 LOVE'S COMEDY [act iii Stiver. I hope you've changed your mind at last ? Falk. Whv so ? Stiver. For obvious reasons. To betray Communications made in confidence. Is conduct utterly without defence. They must not pass the lips. Falk. No, I've heard say It is at times a risky game to play. Stiver. The very devil! Falk. Only for the great. Stiver. [Zealously.] No, no, for all us servants of the state. Only imagine how my future chances Would dwindle, if the governor once knew I keep a Pegasus that neighs and prances In office hours — and such an office, too! From first to last, you know, in our profession. The winged horse is viewed with reprobation: But worst of all would be, if it got wind That I against our primal law had sinn'd By bringing secret matters to the light — ACT III] LOVE'S COMEDY 445 Falk. That's penal, is it — such an oversight ? Stiver. [Mysterio usbj.] It can a servant of the state compel To beg for his dismissal out of hand. On us officials lies a strict command, Even by the hearth to be inscrutable. Falk. O those despotical authorities, Muzzling the — clerk that treadeth out the grain! Stiver. [Shrugging his shoulders i\ It is the law; to murmur is in vain. Moreover, at a moment such as this. When salary revision is in train. It is not well to advertise one's views Of office time's true function and right use. That's why I beg you to be silent; look, A word may forfeit my — Falk. Portfolio ? Stiver. Officially it's called a transcript book; A protocol's the clasp upon the veil of snow That shrouds the modest breast of the Bureau. What lies beneath you must not seek to know. 446 LOVE'S COMEDY [act iii Falk. And yet I only spoke at your desire; You hinted at your literary crop. Stiver. How should I guess he'd grovel in the mire So deep, this parson perch'd on fortune's top, A man with snug appointments, children, wife. And money to defy the ills of life .' If such a man prove such a Philistine, What shall of us poor copyists be said ? Of me, who drive the quill and rule the line, A man engaged and shortly to be wed. With family in prospect — and so forth.? [More vehemently. O, if I only had a well-lined berth, I'd bind the armour 'd helmet on my head, And cry defiance to united earth! And were I only unengaged like you. Trust me, I'd break a road athwart the snow Of Prose, and carry the Ideal through! Falk. To work then, man! Stiver. How? Falk. You may still do so! Let the world's prudish owl unheeded flutter by; Freedom converts the grub into a butterfly! ACT III] LOVE'S COMEDY 447 Stiver. [Steppitig hack.] You mean, to break the engagement — ? Falk. That's my mind; — The fruit is gone, why keep the empty rind ? Stiver. Such a proposal's for a green young shoot, Not for a man of judgment and repute. I heed not what King Christian in his time (The Fifth) laid down about engagements broken- off; For that relationship is nowhere spoken of In any rubric of the code of crime. The act would not be criminal in name, It would in no way violate the laws — Falk. Why there, you see then ! Stiver. [Firmly.] Yes, but all the same, — I must reject all pleas in such a cause. Staunch comrades we have been in times of dearth; Of life's disport she asks but little share. And I'm a homely fellow, long aware God made me for the ledger and the hearth. Let others emulate the eagle's flight. Life in the lowly plains may be as bright. 448 LOVE'S COMEDY [act iii What does his Excellency Goethe say About the white and shining milky way ? Man may not there the milk of fortune skim. Nor is the butter of it meant for him. Falk. Why, even were fortune-churning our life's goal. The labour must be guided by the soul; — Be citizens of the time that is — but then Make the time worthy of the citizen. In homely things lurks beauty, without doubt, But watchful eye and brain must draw it out. Not every man who loves the soil he turns May therefore claim to be another Burns. Stiver. Then let us each our proper path pursue, And part in peace; we shall not hamper you; We keep the road, you hover in the sky. There where we too once floated, she and I. But work, not song, provides our daily bread. And when a man's alive, his music's dead. A voung: man's life's a lawsuit, and the most Superfluous litigation in existence: Withdraw, make terms, abandon all resistance: Plead where and how you will, your suit is lost. Falk. [Bold and confident, with a glance at the summer-house.] Nay, tho' I took it to the highest place, — Judgment, I know, would be reversed by grace! I know two hearts can live a life complete, ACTiii] LOVE'S COMEDY 449 With hope still ardent, and with faith still sweet; You preach the wretched gospel of the hour, That the Ideal is secondary! Stiver. No! It's primary: appointed, like the flower. To generate the fruit, and then to go. [Indoors, Miss Jay plays and sings: "In the Gloaming." Stiver stands listening in silent emotion. With the same melody she calls me yet Which thrilled me to the heart when first we met. [Lays his hand on Falk's arm and gazes in- tently at him. Oft as she wakens those pathetic notes. From the w^hite keys reverberating floats An echo of the "yes" that made her mine. And when our passions shall one day decline. To live again as friendship, to the last That song shall link that present to this past. And what tho' at the desk my back grow round, And my day's work a battle for mere bread, Yet joy will lead me homeward, where the dead Enchantment will be born again in sound. If one poor bit of evening we can claim, I shall come off undamaged from the game! [He goes into the house. Falk turns toicards the summer-house. Svanhild comes out, she is pale and agitated. They gaze at each other in silence a moment, and fling themselves impetuously into each other's arms. 450 LOVE'S COMEDY [act iii Talk. O, Svanhild, let us battle side by side! Thou fresh glad blossom flowering by the tomb, — See what the life is that they call youth's bloom! There's coffin-stench of bridegroom and of bride; There's coffin-stench wherever two go by At the street corner, smiling outwardly. With falsehood's reeking sepulchre beneath. And in their blood the apathy of death. And this they think is living! Heaven and earth, Is such a load so many antics worth ? For such an end to haul up babes in shoals. To pamper them with honesty and reason, To feed them fat with faith one sorry season. For service, after killing-day, as souls ? Svanhild. Falk, let us travel ! \ Falk. Travel ? Whither, then ? Is not the whole world everywhere the same ? And does not Truth's own mirror in its frame Lie equally to all the sons of men ? No, we will stay and watch the merry game, The conjurer's trick, the tragi-comedy Of liars that are dupes of their own lie; Stiver and Lind, the Parson and his dame. See them, — prize oxen harness'd to love's yoke,. And yet at bottom very decent folk! Each wears for others and himself a mask. Yet one too innocent to take to task; Each one, a stranded sailor on a wreck, Counts himself happy as the gods in heaven; ACT III] LOVE'S COMEDY 451 Each his own hand from Paradise has driven, Then, splash! into the sulphur to the neck! But none has any inkling where he lies, Each thinks himself a knight of Paradise, And each sits smiling between howl and howl; And if the Fiend come by with jeer and growl, With horns, and hoofs, and things yet more ab- horred, — Then each man jogs the neighbour at his jowl : " Off with your hat, man ! See, there goes the Lord ! " SVANHILD. [After a brief, thoughtful silence.] How marvellous a love my steps has led To this sweet trysting place ! My life that sped In frolic and fantastic visions gay, Henceforth shall grow one ceaseless working day! O God! I wandered groping, — all was dim: Thou gavest me light — and I discovered him! [Gazing at Falk in love and wonder. Whence is that strength of thine, thou mighty tree That stand 'st unshaken in the wind-wrecked wood, That stand 'st alone, and yet canst shelter me—? Falk. God's truth, my Svanhild; — that gives fortitude. SVANHILD, [With a shy glance towards the house.] They came like tempters, evilly inclined. Each spokesman for his half of humankind, One asking: How can true love reach its goal When riches' leaden weight subdues the soul ? 452 LOVE'S COMEDY [actiii The other asking: How can true love speed When Hfe's a battle to the death with Need ? horrible! — to bid the world receive That teaching as the truth, and yet to live! Falk. How if 'twere meant for us ? SVANHILD. For us ? — What, then ? Can outward faith control the wills of men ? 1 have already said: if thou'lt stand fast, I'll dare and suffer by thee to the last. How light to listen to the gospel's voice. To leave one's home behind, to weep, rejoice, And take with God the husband of one's choice! Falk. [Embracing her.] Come then, and blow thy worst, thou winter weather! We stand unshaken, for we stand together! [Mrs. Halm and Guldstad come in from the right in the background. Guldstad. [Aside.] Observe ! [Falk and Svanhild remain standing bij the summer-house. Mrs. Halm. [Surprised.] Together! ACT III] LOVE'S COMEDY 453 GULDSTAD. Do you doubt it now ? Mrs. Halm. This is most singular. GuLDSTAD. O, I've noted how His work of late absorb'd his interest. Mrs. Halm. [To herself.] Who would have fancied Svanhild was so sly ? [Vivaciously to Guldstad. But no — I can't think. Guldstad. Put it to the test. Mrs. Halm. Now, on the spot ? Guldstad. Yes, and decisively! Mrs. Halm. [Giving him her hand.] God's blessing with you ! Guldstad. [Gravely.] Thanks, it may bestead. [Comes to the front. 454 LOVE'S COMEDY [act iii Mrs. Halm. [Looking back as she goes towards the house.] Whichever way it goes, my child is sped. [Goes in. GULDSTAD. [Approaching Falk.] It's late, I think ? Falk. Ten minutes and I go. GuLDSTAD. Sufficient for my purpose. SVANHILD. [Going.] Farewell. Remain. GuLDSTAD. No, SVANHILD. Shall I ? GULDSTAD. Until you've answered me. It's time we squared accounts. It's time we three Talked out for once together from the heart. Falk. [Taken aback.] We three ? ACT ml LOVE'S COMEDY 455 GULDSTAD. Yes,— all disguises flung apart. Falk. [Suppressing a smile.] O, at your service. GuLDSTAD. Very good, then hear. We've been acquainted now for half a year; We've wrangled — Falk. Yes. GuLDSTAD. We've been in constant feud ; We've changed hard blows enough. You fought— alone — For a sublime ideal; I as one Among the money-grubbing multitude. And yet it seemed as if a chord united Us two, as if a thousand thoughts that lay Deep in my own youth's memory benighted Had started at your bidding into day. Yes, I amaze you. But this hair grey-sprinkled Once fluttered brown in spring-time, and this brow, Which daily occupation moistens now With sweat of labour, was not always wrinkled. Enough; I am a man of business, hence — Falk. [With gentle sarcasm.] You are the type of practical good sense. 456 LOVE'S COMEDY [act iii GULDSTAD. And you are hope's own singer young and fain. [Stepping between them. Just therefore, Falk and Svanhild, I am here. Now let us talk, then; for the hour is near ' Which brings good hap or sorrow in its train. Falk. [In suspense.] Speak, then! GuLDSTAD. [Smiling.] My ground is, as I said last night, A kind of poetry — Falk. In practice. GuLDSTAD. [Nodding sloivly.] Right! Falk. And if one asked the source from which you drew — ? GuLDSTAD. [Glancing a moment at Svanhild, and then turning again to Falk.] A common source discovered by us two. Svanhild. Now I must go. ACTiii] LOVE'S COMEDY 457 GULDSTAD. No, wait till I conclude. I should not ask so much of others. You, Svanhild, I've learnt to fathom thro' and thro'; You are too sensible to play the prude. I watched expand, unfold, your little life; A perfect woman I divined within you. But long I only saw a daughter in you; — Now I ask of you — will you be my wife ? [Svanhild draws back in embarrassment. Falk. [Seizing his arm.] Hold! GuLDSTAD. Patience; she must answer. Put your own Question; — then her decision will be free. Falk. I — do you say ? GuLDSTAD. [Looking steadily at him.] The happiness of three Lives is at stake to-day, — not mine alone. Don't fancy it concerns you less than me; For tho' base matter is my chosen sphere, Yet nature made me something of a seer. Yes, Falk, you love her. Gladly, I confess, I saw your young love bursting into flower. But this young passion, with its lawless power, iSIay be the ruin of her happiness. 458 LOVE'S COMEDY [act in Falk. [Firing up.] You have the face to say so ? GULDSTAD. [Quietly.] Years give right. Say now you won her- Falk. [Defiantly.] And what then? GuLDSTAD. [Slowly and emphatically.] Yes, say She ventured in one bottom to embark Her all, her all upon one card to play, — And then life's tempest swept the ship away. And the flower faded as the day grew dark ? Falk. [Involuntarily.] She must not! Guldstad. [Lookiiig at him loith meaning.] Hm. So I myself decided When I was young, like you. In days of old I was afire for one. Our paths divided. Last night we met again; — the fire was cold. ACT ml LOVE'S COMEDY 459 Falk. Last night ? GULDSTAD. Last night. You know the parson's dame — Falk. What? It was she, then, who— GULDSTAD. Who lit the flame. Long I remembered her with keen regret, And still in my remembrance she arose As the young lovely woman that she was When in life's buoyant spring-time first we met. And that same foolish fire you now are fain To light, that game of hazard you would dare. See, that is why I call to you— beware! The game is perilous! Pause, and think again! Falk. No, to the whole tea-caucus I declared My fixed and unassailable belief — GuLDSTAD. [Com'pletiiig his sentence.] That heartfelt love can weather unimpaired Custom, and Poverty, and Age, and Grief. Well, say it be so; possibly you're right; But see the matter in another light. What love is, no man ever told us— whence It issues, that ecstatic confidence 460 LOVE'S COMEDY [act iii That one life may fulfil itself in two, — To this no mortal ever found the clue. But marriage is a practical concern. As also is betrothal, my good sir — And by experience easily we learn That we are fitted just for her, or her. But love, you know, goes blindly to its fate, Chooses a woman, not a wife, for mate; And what if now this chosen v/oman was No wife for you — ? Falk. [In suspense.] Well ? GULDSTAD. [Shrugging his shoulders.'] Then you've lost your cause. To make a happy bridegroom and a bride Demands not love alone, but much beside. Relations one can meet with satisfaction. Ideas that do not wholly disagree. And marriage ? Why, it is a very sea Of claims and calls, of taxing and exaction. Whose bearing upon love is very small. Here mild domestic virtues are demanded, A kitchen soul, inventive and neat handed. Making no claims, and executing all; — And much which in a lady's presence I Can hardly with decorum specify. Falk. And therefore — ? ACT III] LOVE'S COMEDY 461 GULDSTAD. Hear a golden counsel then. Use your experience; watch your fellow-men, How every loving couple struts and swaggers Like millionaires among a world of beggars. They scamper to the altar, lad and lass, Thev make a home and, drunk with exultation. Dwell for awhile within its walls of glass. Then comes the day of reckoning; — out, alas, They're bankrupt, and their house in liquidation! Bankrupt the bloom of youth on woman's brow. Bankrupt the flower of passion in her breast. Bankrupt the husband's battle-ardour now. Bankrupt each spark of passion he possessed. Bankrupt the whole estate, below, above, — And yet this broken pair were once confessed A first-class house in all the wares of love' That is a lie! Falk. [Vehemently.] GuLDSTAD. [Unm(yved.] Some hours ago 'twas true However. I have only quoted you; — In these same words you challenged to the field The "caucus" with love's name upon your shield. Then rang repudiation fast and thick From all directions, as from you at present; Incredible, I know; who finds it pleasant To hear the name of death when he is sick ? Look at the priest! A painter and composer 462 LOVE'S COMEDY [act iii Of taste and spirit when he wooed his bride; — What wonder if the man became a proser When she was snugly settled by his side ? To be his lady-love she was most fit; To be his wife, tho' — not a bit of it. And then the clerk, who once wrote clever numbers ? No sooner was the gallant plighted, fixed, Than all his rhymes ran counter and got mixed; And now his Muse continuously slumbers, Lullabied by the law's eternal hum. Thus you see — [Looks at Svanhild. Are you cold ? Svanhild. [Softly.] No. Falk. [With forced humour.] Since the sum Works out a minus then in every case And never shows a p 1 u s, — why should you be So resolute your capital to place In such a questionable lottery ? It almost looks as if you fancied Fate Had meant you for a bankrupt from your birth? Guldstad. [Looks at him, smiles, and shakes his head.] My bold young Falk, reserve a while your mirth. — There are two ways of founding an estate. It may be built on credit — drafts long-dated On pleasure in a never-ending bout, On perpetuity of youth unbated, ACTiii] LOVE'S COMEDY 463 And permanent postponement of the gout. It may be built on lips of rosy red. On sparkling eyes and locks of flowing gold, On trust these glories never will be shed. Nor the dread hour of periwigs be tolled. It may be built on thoughts that glow and quiver, — Flowers blowing in the sandy wilderness, — On hearts that, to the end of life, for ever Throb with the passion of the primal "yes." To dealings such as this the world extends One epithet: 'tis known as "humbug," friends. Falk. I see, you are a dangerous attorney. You — well-to-do, a millionaire, maybe; While two broad backs could carry in one journey All that beneath the sun belongs to me. GULDSTAD. [Sharpli/.] What do you mean ? 4 Falk. That is not hard to see. For the sound way of building, I suppose, Is just with cash — the wonder-working paint That round the widow's batten'd forehead throws The aureole of a young adored saint. GuLDSTAD. O no, 'tis something better that I meant. 'Tis the still flow of generous esteem, 464 LOVE'S COMEDY [act m Which no less honours the recipient Than does young rapture's giddy-whirling dream. It is the feeling of the blessedness Of service, and home quiet, and tender ties. The joy of mutual self-sacrifice, Of keeping watch lest any stone distress Her footsteps wheresoe'er her pathway lies; It is the healing arm of a true friend. The manly muscle that no burdens bend. The constancy no length of years decays. The arm that stoutly lifts and firmly stays. This, Svanhild, is the contribution I Bring to your fortune's fabric: now, reply. [Svanhild makes an effort to speak; Guldstad lifts his hand to check her. Consider well before you give your voice! With clear deliberation make your choice. Falk. And how have you discovered — Guldstad. That vou love her ? That in your eyes 'twas easy to discover. Let her too know it. [Presses his hand. Now I will go in. Let the jest cease and earnest work begin; And if you undertake that till the end You'll be to her no less a faithful friend, A staff to lean on, and a help in need. Than I can be [Turning to Svanhild. Why, good, my offer's nought; Cancel it from the tables of your thought. ACT III] LOVE'S COMEDY 465 Then it is I who triumph in very deed; You're happy, and for nothing else I fought. [To Falk. And, apropos — just now you spoke of cash. Trust me, 'tis Httle more than tinsell'd trash. I have no ties, stand perfectly alone; To you I will make over all I own; My daughter she shall be, and you my son. You know I have a business by the border: There I'll retire, you set your home in order. And we'll foregather when a year is gone. Now, Falk, you know me; with the same precision Observe yourself: the voyage down life's stream. Remember, is no pastime and no dream. Now, in the name of God — make your decision! [Goes into the house. Pause. Falk and Svan- HiLD look shyly at each other. You are so pale. Falk. svanhild. And you so silent. Falk. True. Svanhild. He smote us hardest. Falk. [To himself.] Stole my armour, too. 466 LOVE'S COMEDY [act iii SVANHILD. What blows he struck! Falk. He knew to place them well. SVANHILD. All seemed to go to pieces where they fell. [Coming nearer to him. How rich in one another's wealth before We were, when all had left us in despite, And Thought rose upward like the echoing roar Of breakers in the silence of the night. With exultation then we faced the fray, And confidence that Love is lord of death; — He came with worldly cunning, stole our faith. Sowed doubt, — and all the glory pass'd away! Falk. [With wild veJiemence.] Tear, tear it from thy memory! All his talk Was true for others, but for us a lie! SVANHILD. [Sloioly shaking her head.] The golden grain, hail-stricken on its stalk. Will never more wave wanton to the sky. Falk. [With an outburst of anguish.] Yes, we two, Svanhild — ! ACT III] LOVE'S COMEDY 467 SVANHILD. Hence with hopes that snare! If you sow falsehood, you must reap despair. For others true, you say ? And do you doubt That each of them, like us, is sure, alike, That he's the man the lightning will not strike. And no avenging thunder will find out, Whom the blue storm-cloud, scudding up the sky On wings of tempest, never can come nigh ? Falk. The others split their souls on scattered ends: Thy single love my being comprehends. They're hoarse with yelling in life's Babel din: I in this quiet shelter fold thee in. SVANHILD. But if love, notwithstanding, should decay, — Love being Happiness's single stay — Could you avert, then, Happiness's fall ? Falk. No, my love's ruin were the wreck of all. Svanhild. And can you promise me before the Lord That it will last, not drooping like the flower. But smell as sweet as now till life's last hour? Falk. [After a short pause.] It will last long. 468 LOVE'S COMEDY [act iii SVANHILD. [With anguish.] "Long!" "Long!" — Poor starveling word! Can "long" give any comfort in Love's need? It is her death-doom, blight upon her seed. "My faith is, Love will never pass away" — That song must cease, and in its stead be heard: "My faith is, that I loved you yesterday!" [As wplifted by inspiration. No, no, not thus our day of bliss shall wane, Flag drearily to west in clouds and rain; — But at high noontide, when it is most bright, Plunge sudden, like a meteor, into night! Falk. [In anguish.] What would you, Svanhild ? SVANHILD. We are of the Spring; No Autumn shall come after, when the bird Of music in thy breast shall not be heard, And long not thither where it first took wing. Nor ever Winter shall his snowy shroud Lay on the clay-cold body of our bliss; — This Love of ours, ardent and glad and proud. Pure of disease's taint and age's cloud, Shall die the young and glorious thing it is! Falk. [In deep pain.] And far from thee — what would be left of life ? ACT III] LOVE'S COMEDY 469 SVANHILD. And near me what were left — if Love depart? Falk. A home ! SVANHILD. Where Joy would gasp in mortal strife. [Firmly. It was not given to me to be your wife. That is the clear conviction of my heart! In courtship's merry pastime I can lead. But not sustain your spirit in its need. [Nearer and with gathering fire. Now we have revell'd out a feast of spring; No thought of slumber's sluggard couch come nigh! Let Joy amid delirious song make wing And flock with choirs of cherubim on high. And tho' the vessel of our fate capsize, One plank yet breasts the waters, strong to save; — The fearless swimmer reaches Paradise! Let Joy go down into his watery grave; Our Love shall yet in triumph, by God's hand. Be borne from out the wreckage safe to land ! Falk. O, I divine thee! But — to sever thus! Now, when the portals of the world stand wide, — When the blue spring is bending over us, On the same day that plighted thee my bride! SVANHILD. Just therefore must we part. Our joy's torch fire Will from this moment wane till it expire! 470 LOVE'S COMEDY [act iii And when at last our worldly days are spent, And face to face with our great Judge we stand, And, as a righteous God, he shall demand Of us the earthly treasure that he lent — Then, Falk, we cry — past power of Grace to save — "O Lord, we lost it going to the grave!" Falk. [With strong resolve.] Pluck off the ring ! SVANHILD. [Withjire.] Wilt thou ? Falk. Now I divine! Thus and no otherwise canst thou be mine! As the grave opens into life's Dawn-fire, So Love with Life may not espoused be Till, loosed from longing and from wild desire, It soars into the heaven of memory! Pluck off the ring, Svanhild! SVANHILD. [In rapture.] My task is done! Now I have filled thy soul with song and sun. Forth! Now thou soarest on triumphant wings, — Forth! Now thy Svanhild is the swan that sings! [ Takes off the ring and presses a kiss upon it. To the abysmal ooze of ocean bed ACT III] LOVE'S COMEDY 471 Descend, my dream! — I fling thee in its stead! [Goes a few steps back, throws tlie ring into the fjord, and approacJies Falk with a transfig- ured expression. Now for this earthly life I have foregone thee, — But for the life eternal I have won thee! Falk. [Firmly.] And now to the day's duties, each, alone. Our paths no more will mingle. Each must wage His warfare single-handed, without moan. We caught the fevered frenzy of the age. Fain without fighting to secure the spoil. Win Sabbath ea-se, and shirk the six days' toil, Tho' we are called to strive and to forego. ■'O^ SVANHILD. But not in sickness. Falk. No, — made strong by truth. Our heads no penal flood will overflow; This never-dying memory of our youth Shall gleam against the cloud-wrack like the bow Of promise flaming in its colours seven, — Sign that we are in harmony with heaven. That gleam your quiet duties shall make bright — SVANHILD. And speed the poet in his upward flight! 472 LOVE'S COMEDY [act iii Falk. The poet, yes; for poets all men are Who see, thro' all their labours, mean or great, In pulpit or in schoolroom, church or state. The Ideal's lone beacon-splendour flame afar. Yes, upward is my flight; the winged steed Is saddled; I am strong for noble deed. And now farewell! SVANHILD. Farewell ! Falk. [Einbracing her.] One kiss! SVANHILD. The last! [Tears herself free. Now I can lose thee gladly till life's past! Falk. Tho' quenched were all the light of earth and sky, — The thought of light is God, and cannot die. SVANHILD. [Withdraiving towards the hackground.] Farewell! [Goes further. Falk. Farewell — gladly I cry again — [Waves his hat. ACT III] LOVE'S COMEDY 473 Hurrah for love, God's glorious gift to men! [TJic door opens. Falk wifhdrmcs to tJie rigJit; the younger guests come out with merry laughter. The Youxg Girls. A lawn dance! A Young Girl. Dancing's life! Another. A garland spread With dewy blossoms fresh on every head! Several. Yes, to the dance, the dance ! All. And ne'er to bed ! [Stiver comes out u-ith Strawman arm in arm. ]Mrs. Strawman a7id the children follow. Stiver. Yes, vou and I henceforward are fast friends. Strawjl^n. Allied in battle for our common ends. Stiver. When the twin forces of the State agree — Straw^^lvn. They add to all men's — 474 LO\TE'S COMEDY [act in Stiver. I Hastily.] Gains! Strawman. And gaiety. [Mrs. Halm, Lind, Anna, Guldstad, and Miss Jay, with the other guests, come out. All eyes are turned upon Falk and Svanhild. General amazement when they are seen stand- ing apart. Miss Jay. [Among the Aunts, clasping her hands.] What! Am I awake or dreaming, pray.'' Lind. [Who has noticed nothing.] I have a brother's compliments to pay. [He, with the other guests, approaches Falk, hut starts involuntarily and steps back on looking at him. What is the matter with you ? You're a Janus With double face! Falk. [Smiling.] I cry, like old Montanus,^ The earth is flat. Messieurs; — my optics lied; Flat as a pancake — are you satisfied ? [Goes quickly out to the right. * See Notes, page 484. ACT III] LOVE'S COMEDY Miss Jay. Refused ! The Aunts. Refused ! 475 Mrs. Halm. Hush, ladies, if you please! [Goes across to Svanhild. Mbs. Strawman. [To Strawman.] Fancy, refused! Strawman. It cannot be! Miss Jay. It is! The Ladies. [From mouth to moufJi.] Refused! Refused! Refused! [They gatJier in little groups about the garden. Stiver. [Dumfounded.] H e courting ? How ? Strawman. Yes, think! He laugh'd at us, ha, ha— but now— [Theij gaze at each other speechless. 476 LOVE'S COMEDY [act iii Anna. [To LiND.] That's good! He was too horrid, to be sure! LiND. [Embracing her.] Hurrah, now thou art mine, entire and whole. * [They go outside into the garden. GULDSTAD. [Looking back towards Svanhild.] Something is shattered in a certain soul; But what is yet alive in it I'll cure. Strawman. [Recovering himself and embracing Stiver.] Now then, you can be very well contented To have your dear Jiancee for a spouse. Stiver. And you complacently can see your house With little Strawmans every year augmented. Strawman. [Rubbing his hands luith satisfaction and looking after Falk.] Insolent fellow! Well, it served him right; — Would all these knowing knaves were in his plight T [They go across in conversation; Mrs. Halm approaches vrith Svanhild, ACT ml LOVE'S COMEDY 477 Mrs. Halm. [Aside, eagerly.] And nothing binds you ? SVANHILD. Nothing. Mrs. Halm. Good, you know A daughter's duty — SVANHILD. Guide me, I obey. Mrs. Halm. Thanks, child. [Pointing to Guldstad. He is a rich and comme ilfaut Parti; and since there's nothing in the way — SVANHILD. Yes, there is one condition I require! — To leave this place. Mrs. Halm. Precisely his desire. Svanhild. And time — Mrs. Halm. How long ? Bethink you, fortune's calling! 478 LOVE'S COMEDY [act iii SVANHILD. [With a quiet smile.] Only a little; till the leaves are falling. [She goes towards the verandah; Mrs. Halm seeks out Guldstad. Strawman. [Among the guests.] One lesson, friends, we learn from this example! Tho' Doubt's beleaguering forces hem us in, Yet Truth upon the Serpent's head shall trample, The cause of Love shall win — Guests. Yes, Love shall win! [They embrace and hiss, pair by pair. Outside to the left are heard song and laughter. Miss Jay. What can this mean ? Anna. The students! LiND. The quartette, Bound for the mountains; — and I quite forgot To tell them— [The Students come in to tlie left and remain standing at tJie entrance. A Student. [To LiND.] Here we are upon the spot! ACT III] LOVE'S COMEDY 479 Mrs. Halm, It's Lind you seek, then ? Miss Jay. That's unfortunate. He's just engaged — An Aunt. And so, you may be sure, ling on a The Students. He cannot think of going on a tour. Engaged ! All the Students. Congratulations ! Lind. [To his comrades.] Thanks, my friends! The Student. [To his comrades.] There goes our whole fish-kettle in the fire! Our tenor lost! No possible amends! Falk. [Coming from the right, in sum,mer suit, with student* s cap, knapsack and stick.] I'll sing the tenor in young Norway's choir! The Students. You, Falk! hurrah! 480 LOVE'S COMEDY [act iii Falk. Forth to the mountains, come! As the bee hurries from her winter home! A twofold music in my breast I bear, A cither with diversely sounding strings, One for life's joy, a treble loud and clear, And one deep note that quivers as it sings. [To individuals among the Students. You have the palette.? — You the note-book.'^ Good, Swarm then, my bees, into the leafy wood, Till at nightfall with pollen-laden thigh. Home to our mighty mother-queen we fly! [Turnirig to the company, while the Students depart and the Chorus of the First Act is faintly heard outside. Forgive me my offences great and small, I resent nothing; — [Softly, but remember all. Strawman. [Beaming tvith happiness i\ Now fortune's garden once again is green! My wife has hopes, — a sweet presentiment — [Draws him whispering apart. She lately whispered of a glad event — [Inaudible words intervene. If all goes well ... at Michaelmas . . . thirteen! Stiver. \With Miss Jay on his arm, turning to Falk, smiles triumphantly, and says, pointing to Strawman:] I'm going to start a household, flush of pelf! ACT III] LOVE'S COMEDY 481 Miss Jay. [With an ironical courtesy.] I shall put on my wedding-ring next Yule. Anna. [Similarly, as she takes Lind's arin.\ My Lind will stay, the Church can mind itself — LiND. [Hiding his embarrassment.] And seek an opening in a ladies' school. Mrs. Halm. I cultivate my Anna's capabilities — GULDSTAD. [Gravely.] An unromantic poem I mean to make Of one who only lives for duty's sake. Falk. [With a smile to tJie whole company.] I go to scale the Future's possibilities! Farewell! [So/Y/y ^o Svanhild. God bless thee, bride of my life's dawn, Where'er I be, to nobler deed thou'lt wake me. [Waves his hat and follows the Students. SVANHILD. [Looks after him a moment, then says, softly hut firmly:] Now over is my life, by lea and lawn, 482 LOVE'S COMEDY [act iii The leaves are falling; — now the world may take me, [At this moment the piano strikes up a dance, and champagne corks explode in the back- ground. The gentlemen hurry to and fro with their ladies on their arms. Guldstad approaches Svanhild and hows: she starts momentarily, then collects herself and gives him, her hand. Mrs. Halm and her family, who have watched the scene in suspense, throng about them with expressions of rap- ture, which are overpowered by the music and the merriment of the dancers in the garden. [But from the country the folloiving chorus rings loud and defiant through the dance music: Chorus of Falk and the Students. And what if I shattered my roaming bark. It was passing sweet to be roaming! Most of the Company. Hurrah! [Dance and merriment; the curtain falls. NOTES P, 324. William Russcl. An original historic tragedy, founded upon the career of the ill-fated Lord William Russell, by An- dreas Munch, cousin of the historian P. A. Munch. It was produced at Christiania in 1857, the year of Ibsen's return from Bergen, and reviewed by him in the lUustreret Nyhedshlad for that year, Nos. 51 and 52. Professor Johan Storm of Chris- tiania, to whose kindness I owe these particulars, adds that "it is rather a fine play and created a certain sensation in its time; but Munch is forgotten." P. 326. A gray old stager. Ibsen's friend P. Botten-Hansen, author of the play Hyldrebryllupet. P. 367. A Svanhild, like the old. In the tale of theVolsungs Svanhild was the daughter of Sigurd and Gudrun, — the Siegfried and Kriemhild of the Nihehmgenlied. The fierce king Jor- munrek, hearing of her matchless beauty, sends his son Randwer to woo her in his name. Randwer is, however, induced to woo her in his own, and the girl approves. Jormunrek thereupon causes Randwer to be arrested and hanged, and meeting with Svanhild, as he and his men ride home from the hunt, tramples her to death under their horses' hoofs. Gudrun incites her sons Sorli and Hamdir to avenge their sister; they boldly enter Jormunrek's hall, and succeed in cutting off his hands and feet, but are themselves slain by his men. This last dramatic episode is told in the Eddie Hamthi^mol. P. 405. In the remotest east there grows a plant. The germ of the famous tea-simile is due to Fru Collett's romance. The OfjiciaVs Davghters. But she exploits the idea only under a single and obvious aspect, viz., the comparison of the tender bloom of love with the precious firstling blade which brews the quintessential tea for the Chinese emperor's table; what the world calls love being, like what it calls tea, a coarse and flavourless aftercrop. Ibsen has, it will be seen, given a number of ingenious developments to the analogy. I know 483 484 NOTES Fru Collett's work only through the accounts of it given by Brandes and Jaeger. P. 448. Another Burns. In the original: Dolen {The Dales- man), that is A. O. Vinje, Ibsen's friend and literary comrade, editor of the journal so-called and hence known familiarly by its name. See the Introduction. P. 474. Like Old Montanus. The hero of Holberg's comedy Erasmvs Mountanvs, who returns from foreign travel to his native parish with the discovery that the world is not flat. Public indignation is aroused, and Montanus finds it expedient to announce that his eyes had deceived him, that " the world is flat, gentlemen." \ 'b UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA 000 660 350 o P^/Df LIBRARY '- 3 1210 01256 1550 ■HfliMf