LIBRARY) r OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO , ~-~^s THE COLLECTED WORKS HENRIK IBSEN VOLUME X THE COLLECTED WORKS OF HENRIK IBSEN Copyright Edition. Complete in 11 Volumes 12mo. Price $1.00 each ENTIRELY REVISED AND EDITED BY WILLIAM ARCHER Volume I. Feast of Solhaug, Lady Inger, Love's Comedy " II. The Vikings at Helgoland, The Pre- tenders " m. Brand " IV. Peer Gynt " V. Emperor and Galilean (2 parts) " VI. League of Youth, Pillars of Society " VII. A Doll's House, Ghosts " VIII. An Enemy of the People, The Wild Duck " IX. Rosmersholm, The Lady from the Sea X. Hedda Gabler, The Master Builder " XI. Little Eyolf, John Gabriel Borkman, When We Dead Awaken CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS THE COLLECTED WORKS OF HENRIK IBSEN COPYRIGHT EDITION VOLUME X HEDDA GABLER THE MASTER BUILDER TRANSLATED BY EDMUND GOSSE AND WILLIAM ARCHER WITH INTRODUCTIONS BY WILLIAM ARCHER NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1907 INTRODUCTIONS BY WILLIAM ARCHER Copyright, 1907, by Charles Scribner's Sons CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION TO " HEDDA GABLER " . . . vii INTRODUCTION TO "THE MASTER BUILDER" . . xxi " HEDDA GABLER" 1 Translated by EDMUND GOSSE and WILLIAM ARCHER "THE MASTER BUILDER" 187 Translated by EDMUND GOSSK and WILLIAM ARCHER HEDDA GABLER. course with the fictitious personages was begin- ning to make me quite nervous." To the same correspondent he wrote on December 4 : " The title of the play is Hedda Gabler. My intention in giving it this name was to indicate that Hedda, as a personality, is to be regarded rather as her father's daughter than as her husband's wife. It was not my desire to deal in this play with so-called problems. What I principally wanted to do was to depict human beings, hu- man emotions, and human destinies, upon a groundwork of certain of the social conditions and principles of the present day." So far we read the history of the play in the official " Correspondence." 1 Some interesting glimpses into the poet's moods during the period between the completion of The Lady from the Sea and the publication of Hedda Gabler are to be found in the series of letters to Fraulein Emilie Bardach, of Vienna, published by Dr. George Brandes. 2 This young lady Ibsen met at Gossensass in the Tyrol in the autumn of 1889. The record of their brief friendship belongs to the history of The Master Builder rather than to that of Hedda Gabler, but the allusions to his work in his letters to her during the winter of 1889 demand some examination. So early as October 7, 1889, he writes to her: " A new poem begins to dawn in me. I will exe- cute it this winter, and try to transfer to it the bright atmosphere of the summer. But I feel that it will end in sadness such is my nature." Was this "dawning" poem Hedda Gabler 1 Or > Letters 214, 216, 217, 219. 2 In the Ibsen volume of Die Literatur (Berlin). INTRODUCTION. IX was it rather The Master Builder that was ger- minating in his mind? Who shall say? The latter hypothesis seems the more probable, for it is hard to believe that at any stage in the incu- bation of Hedda GaUer he can have conceived it as even beginning in a key of gaiety. A week later, however, he appears to have made up his mind that the time had not come for the poetic utilisation of his recent experiences. He writes on October 15: "Here I sit as usual at my writing-table. Now I would fain work, but am unable to. My fancy, indeed, is very active. But it always wanders away. It wanders where it has no business to wander during working hours. I cannot repress my summer memories nor do I wish to. I live through my experiences again and again and yet again. To transmute it all into a poem, I find, in the meantime, im- possible." Clearly, then, he felt that his imag- ination ought to have been engaged on some theme having no relation to his summer experi- ences the theme, no doubt, of Hedda Gabler. In his next letter, dated October 29, he writes: "Do not be troubled because I cannot, in the meantime, create (dichten). In reality I am for ever creating, or, at any rate, dreaming of some- thing which, when in the fulness of time it ripens, will reveal itself as a creation (Dicht- ung)." On November 19 he says: "I am very busily occupied with preparations for my new poem. I sit almost the whole day at my writing- table. Go out only in the evening for a little while." The five following letters contain no allusion to the play; but on September 18, 1890, he wrote: "My wife and son are at present at HEDDA G ABLER. Kiva, on the Lake of Garda, and will probably remain there until the middle of October, or even longer. Thus I am quite alone here, and cannot get away. The new play on which I am at pres- ent engaged will probably not be ready until No- vember, though I sit at my writing-table daily, and almost the whole day long." Here ends the history of Hedda Gdbler, so far as the poet's letters carry us. Its hard clear out- lines, and perhaps somewhat bleak atmosphere, seem to have resulted from a sort of reaction against the sentimental " dreamery " begotten of his Gossensass experiences. He sought refuge in the chill materialism of Hedda from the ardent transcendentalism of Hilda, whom he already heard knocking at the door. He was not yet in the mood to deal with her on the plane of poetry. 1 Hedda Gabler was published in Copenhagen on December 16, 1890. This was the first of Ibsen's plays to be translated from proof-sheets and published in England and America almost simultaneously with its first appearance in Scan- dinavia. The earliest theatrical performance took place at the Residenz Theater, Munich, on the last day of January 1891, in the presence of the poet, Frau Conrad-Ramlo playing the title- part. The Lessing Theater, Berlin, followed suit on February 10. Not till February 25 was the play seen in Copenhagen, with Fru Hennings as Hedda. On the following night it was given 1 Dr. Julius Elias (Xrne deutxche Rundschau, December 1906, p. 1462) makes the curious assertion that the character of Thea Elvsted was in part borrowed from this " GossensaHser Hildetypus." It is hard to see how even Ibsen's ingenuity could distil from the same flower two such different essences as Thea and Hilda. INTRODUCTION. XI for the first time in Christiania, the Norwegian Hedda being Eroken Constance Bruun. It was this production which the poet saw when he visited the Christiania Theater for the first time after his return to Norway, August 28, 1891. It would take pages to give even the baldest list of the productions and revivals of Hedda Gdbler in Scandinavia and Germany, where it has always ranked among Ibsen's most popular works. The admirable production of the play by Miss Eliza- beth Robins and Miss Marion Lea, at the Vaude- ville Theatre, London, April 20, 1891, may rank as the second great step towards the popularisa- tion of Ibsen in England, the first being the Charrington-Achurch production of A Doll's House in 1889. Miss Robins afterwards repeated her fine performance of Hedda many times, in London, in the English provinces, and in New York. The character has also been acted in London by Eleonora Duse, and as I write (March 5, 1907) by Mrs. Patrick Campbell, at the Court Theatre. In Australia and America, Hedda has frequently been acted by Miss Nance O'Neill and other actresses quite recently by a Russian actress, Madame Alia Nazimova, who (playing in English) seems to have made a notable suc- cess both in this part and in Nora. The first French Hedda Gabler was Mile. Marthe Brandes, who played the part at the Vaudeville Theatre, Paris, on December 17, 1891, the performance being introduced by a lecture by M. Jules Le- maitre. In Holland, in Italy, in Russia, the play has been acted times without number. In short (as might easily have been foretold) it has rivalled A Doll's House in world-wide popularity. Xll HEDDA GABLER. It has been suggested, 1 I think without suffi- cient ground, that Ibsen deliberately conceived Hedda Gabler as an " international " play, and that the scene is really the " west end " of any great European city. To me it seems quite clear that Ibsen had Christiania in mind, and the Christiania of a somewhat earlier period than the 'nineties. The electric cars, telephones, and other conspicuous factors in the life of a modern capital are notably absent from the play. There is no electric light in Secretary Talk's villa. It is still the habit for ladies to return on foot from evening parties, with gallant swains escort- ing them. This " suburbanism," which so dis- tressed the London critics of 1891, was charac- teristic of the Christiania Ibsen himself had known in the 'sixties the Christiania of Love's Comedy rather than of the greatly extended and modernised city of the end of the century. Moreover, Lovborg's allusions to the fiord, and the suggested picture of Sheriff Elvsted, his family and his avocations, are all distinctively Norwegian. The truth seems to be very simple the environment and the subsidiary personages are all thoroughly national, but Hedda herself is an " international " type, a product of civilisa- tion by no means peculiar to Norway. We cannot point to any individual model or models who " sat to " Ibsen for the character of Hedda. 2 The late Grant Allen declared that 1 See article by Herman Bang in Neue dentsche Rundschau. December 1906, p. 1495. 2 Dr. Brahm (Neue deutsrhe Rundschau, December 1906, p. 1422) says that after the first performance of Hedda (l^bler in Berlin Ibsen confided to him that the character had been suggested by a German lady whom he met in Munich, and who INTRODUCTION. Xlll Hedda was " nothing more nor less than the girl we take down to dinner in London nineteen times out of twenty"; in which case Ibsen must have suffered from a superfluity of models, rather than from any difficulty in finding one. But the fact is that in this, as in all other instances, the word " model " must be taken in a very different sense from that in which it is commonly used in painting. Ibsen undoubtedly used models for this trait and that, but never for a whole figure. If his characters can be called portraits at all, they are composite portraits. Even when it seems pretty clear that the initial impulse to- wards the creation of a particular character came from some individual, the original figure is en- tirely transmuted in the process of harmonisa- tion with the dramatic scheme. We need not, therefore, look for a definite prototype of Hedda ; but Dr. Brandes shows that two of that lady's exploits were probably suggested by the anec- dotic history of the day. Ibsen had no doubt heard how the wife of a well-known Norwegian composer, in a fit of raging jealousy excited by her husband's pro- longed absence from home, burnt the manuscript of a symphony which he had just finished. The circumstances under which Hedda burns Lov- borg's manuscript are, of course, entirely dif- ferent and infinitely more dramatic; but here we have merely another instance of the dramati- sation or " poetisation " of the raw material of life. Again, a still more painful incident prob- did not shoot, but poisoned herself. Nothing more seems to be known of this lady. See, too, an article by Julias Elias in the same magazine, p. 1460. XIV HEDDA GABLER. ably came to his knowledge about the same time. A beautiful and very intellectual woman was married to a well-known man who had been ad- dicted to drink, but had entirely conquered the vice. One day a mad whim seized her to put his self-mastery and her power over him to the test. As it happened to be his birthday, she rolled into his study a small keg of brandy, and then withdrew. She returned some time after- wards to find that he had broached the keg, and lay insensible on the floor. In this anecdote we cannot but recognise the germ, not only of Hedda's temptation of Lovborg, but of a large part of her character. " Thus," says Dr. Brandes, " out of small and scattered traits of reality Ibsen fashioned his close-knit and profoundly thought-out works of art." For the character of Eilert Lovborg, again, Ibsen seems unquestionably to have borrowed several traits from a definite original. A young Danish man of letters, whom Dr. Brandes calls Holm, was an enthusiastic admirer of Ibsen, and came to be on very friendly terms with him. One day Ibsen was astonished to receive, in Munich, a parcel addressed from Berlin by this young man, containing, without a word of ex- planation, a packet of his (Ibsen's) letters, and a photograph which he had presented to Holm. Ibsen brooded and brooded over the incident, and at last came to the conclusion that the young man had intended to return her letters and photograph to a young lady to whom he was known to be attached, and had in a fit of aber- ration mixed up the two objects of his worship. INTRODUCTION. XV Some time after, Holm appeared at Ibsen's rooms. Pie talked quite rationally, but professed to have no knowledge whatever of the letter- incident, though he admitted the truth of Ibsen's conjecture that the " belle dame sans merci " had demanded the return of her letters and portrait. Ibsen was determined to get at the root of the mystery; and a little inquiry into his young friend's habits revealed the fact that he broke his fast on a bottle of port wine, consumed a bottle of Rhine wine at lunch, of Burgundy at dinner, and finished off the evening with one or two more bottles of port. Then he heard, too, how, in the course of a night's carouse, Holm had lost the manuscript of a book; and in these traits he saw the outline of the figure of Eilert Lovborg. Some time elapsed, and again Ibsen received a postal packet from Holm. This one contained his will, in which Ibsen figured as his residuary legatee. But many other legatees were men- tioned in the instrument all of them ladies, such as Fraulein Alma Rothbart, of Bremen, and Fraulein Elise Kraushaar, of Berlin. The bequests to these meritorious spinsters were so generous that their sum considerably exceeded the amount of the testator's property. Ibsen gently but firmly declined the proffered inheri- tance; but Holm's will no doubt suggested to him the figure of that red-haired " Mademoiselle Diana," who is heard of but not seen in Hedda Gabler, and enabled him to add some further traits to the portraiture of Lovborg. When the play appeared, Holm recognised himself with glee in the character of the bibulous man of let- XVI HEDDA GABLER. ters, and thereafter adopted " Eilert Lovborg " as his pseudonym. I do not, therefore, see why Dr. Brandes should suppress his real name; but I willingly imitate him in erring on the side of discretion. The poor fellow died several years ago. Some critics have been greatly troubled as to the precise meaning of Hedda's fantastic vision of Lovborg " with vine-leaves in his hair." Surely this is a very obvious image or symbol of the beautiful, the ideal, aspect of bacchic elation and revelry. Antique art, or I am much mistaken, shows us many figures of Dionysus himself and his followers with vine-leaves en- twined in their hair. To Ibsen's mind, at any rate, the image had long been familiar. In Peer Gynt (Act iv. sc. 8), when Peer, having carried off Anitra, finds himself in a particularly festive mood, he cries : " Were there vine-leaves around, I would garland my brow." Again, in Emperor and Galilean (Pt. ii. Act 1) where Julian, in the procession of Dionysus, impersonates the god himself, it is directed that he shall wear a wreath of vine-leaves. Professor Dietrichson relates that among the young artists whose society Ib- sen frequented during his first years in Rome, it was customary, at their little festivals, for the revellers to deck themselves in this fashion. But the image is so obvious that there is no need to trace it to any personal experience. The attempt to. place Hedda's vine-leaves among Ibsen's ob- scurities is an example of the firm resolution not to understand which animated the criticism of the 'nineties. Dr. Braudes has dealt very severely with the INTRODUCTION. XV11 character of Eilert Lovborg, alleging that we cannot believe in the genius attributed to him. But where is he described as a genius? The poet represents him as a very able student of sociology; but that is a quite different thing from attributing to him such genius as must necessarily shine forth in every word he utters. Dr. Brandes, indeed, declines to believe even in his ability as a sociologist, on the ground that it is idle to write about the social development of the future. " To our prosaic minds," t he says, " it may seem as if the most sensible utterance on the subject is that of the fool of the play: ' The future ! Good heavens, we know nothing of the future.' " The best retort to this criticism is that which Eilert himself makes : " There's a thing or two to be said about it all the same." The intelligent forecasting of the future (as Mr. H. G. Wells has shown) is not only clearly distinguishable from fantastic Utopianism, but is indispensable to any large statesmanship or enlightened social activity. With very real and very great respect for Dr. Brandes, I cannot think that he has been fortunate in his treat- ment of Lovborg's character. It has been repre- sented as an absurdity that he should think of reading abstracts from his new book to a man like Tesman, whom he despises. But though Tesman is a ninny, he is, as Hedda says, a " spe- cialist " he is a competent, plodding student of his subject. Lovborg may quite naturally wish to see how his new method, or his excursion into a new field, strikes the average scholar of the Tesman type. He is, in fact, " trying it on the dog" neither an unreasonable nor an unusual XV111 HEDDA GABLER. proceeding. There is, no doubt, a certain im- probability in the way in which Lovborg is rep- resented as carrying his manuscript around, and especially in Mrs. Elvsted's production of his rough draft from her pocket; but these are me- chanical trifles, on which only a niggling criti- cism would dream of laying stress. Of all Ibsen's works, Hedda Gabler is the most detached, the most objective a character-study pure and simple. It is impossible or so it seems to me \o extract any sort of general idea from it. One cannot even call it a satire, unless one is prepared to apply that term to the record of a " case " in a work on criminology. Reverting to Dumas's dictum that a play should contain " a painting, a judgment, an ideal," we may say that Hedda Gabler fulfils only the first of these requirements. The poet does not even pass judg- ment on his heroine : he simply paints her full- length portrait with scientific impassivity. But what a portrait ! How searching in insight, how brilliant in colouring, how rich in detail ! Grant Allen's remark, above quoted, was, of course, a whimsical exaggeration : the Hedda type is not so common as all that, else the world would quickly come to an end. But particular traits and tendencies of the Hedda type are very com- mon in modern life, and not only among women. HyperaBSthesia lies at the root of her tragedy. With a keenly critical, relentlessly solvent intel- ligence, she combines a morbid shrinking from all the gross and prosaic detail of the sensual life. She has nothing to take her out of her- self not a single intellectual interest or moral enthusiasm. She cherishes, in a languid way, a INTRODUCTION. XIX petty social ambition ; and even that she finds obstructed and baffled. At the same time she learns that another woman has had the courage to love and venture all, where she, in her cow- ardice, only hankered and refrained. Her malign egoism rises up uncontrolled, and calls to its aid her quick and subtle intellect. She ruins the other woman's happiness, but in doing so incurs a danger from which her sense of personal dig- nity revolts. Life has no such charm for her that she cares to purchase it at the cost of squalid humiliation and self -contempt. The good and the bad in her alike impel her to have done with it all; and a pistol-shot ends what is surely one of the most poignant character-tragedies in literature. Ibsen's brain never worked at higher pressure than in the conception and adjustment of those " crowded hours " in which Hedda, tan- gled in the web of Will and Circumstance, strug- gles on till she is too weary to struggle any more. It may not be superfluous to note that the " a " in " Gabler " should be sounded long and full, like the "a" in " garden "no i like the "a" in "gable" or in "gabble." W. A. THE MASTER BUILDER. INTRODUCTION* WITH The Master Builder or Master Builder Solness, as the title runs in the original we enter upon the final stage in Ibsen's career. " You are essentially right," the poet wrote to Count Prozor in March 1900, " when you say that the series which closes with the Epilogue (When We Dead Awaken) began with Master Builder Solness." " Ibsen," says Dr. Brahm, " wrote in Chris- tiania all the four works which he thus seems to bracket together Solness, Eyolf, Borkman, and When We Dead Awaken. He returned to Norway in July 1891, for a stay of indefinite length; but the restless wanderer over Europe was destined to leave his home no more. . . . He had not returned, however, to throw himself, as of old, into the battle of the passing day. Polemics are entirely absent from the poetry of his old age. He leaves the State and Society at peace. He who had departed as the creator of Falk [in Love's Comedy] now, on his return, gazes, not satirically, but rather in a lyric mood, into the secret places of human nature and the wonders of his own soul." * Copyright, 1907, by Charles Scribner's Sons. xxi XX11 THE MASTER BUILDER. Dr. Brahm, however, seems to be mistaken in thinking that Ibsen returned to Norway with no definite intention of settling down. Dr. Julius Elias (an excellent authority) reports that short- ly before Ibsen left Munich in 1891, he remarked one day, " I must get back to the North ! " " Is that a sudden impulse ? " asked Elias. " Oh no," was the reply; "I want to be a good head of a household and have my affairs in order. To that end I must consolidate my property, lay it down in good securities, and get it under control and that one can best do where one has rights of citizenship." Some critics will no doubt be shocked to find the poet whom they have written down an " anarchist " confessing such bourgeois motives. After his return to Norway, Ibsen's corre- spondence became very scant, and we have no letters dating from the period when he was at work on The Master Builder. On the other hand, we possess a curious lyrical prelude to the play, which he put on paper on March 16, 1892. It is said to have been his habit, before setting to work on a play, to " crystallise in a poem the mood which then possessed him ; " but the fol- lowing is the only one of these keynote poems which has been published. I give it in the original language, with a literal translation: DE SAD DER, DE TO De sad der, de to, i saa lunt et bus ved h6st og i vinterdage, Saa braandte huset. Alt ligger i grus. De to faar i asken rage. For nede i den er et smykke gemt, et smykke, eom aldrig kan braende. INTRODUCTION. XX111 Og leder de trofast, haender det nemt at det findes af ham. eller hende. Men finder de end, de brandlidte to, det dyre, ildfaste smykke, aldrig h n finder sin braendte tro, ban aldrig sin braendte lykke. THEY SAT THERE, THE TWO They sat there, the two, in so cosy a house, through autumn and winter days. Then the house burned down. Everything lies in ruins. The two must grope among the ashes. For among them is hidden a jewel a jewel that never can burn. And if they search faithfully, it may easily happen that he or she may find it. But even should they find it, the burnt-out two find this precious unburnable jewel never will she find her burnt faith, h e never his burnt happiness. This is the latest piece of Ibsen's verse that has been given to the world; but one of his earliest poems first printed in 1858 was also, in some sort, a prelude to The Master Builder. Of this a literal translation may suffice. It is called BUILDING-PLANS I remember as clearly as if it had been to-day the evening when, in the paper, I saw my first poem in print. There I sat in my den, and, with long-drawn puffs, I smoked and I dreamed in blissful self-complacency. "I will build a cloud-castle. It shall shine all over the North. It shall have two wings : one little and one great. The great wing shall shelter a deathless poet ; the little wing shall serve as a young girl's bower." The plan seemed to me nobly harmonious ; but as time went on it fell into confusion. When the master grew reasonable, the castle turned utterly crazy; the great wing became too little, the little wing fell to ruin. Thus we see that, thirty-five years before the date of The Master Builder, Ibsen's imagination XXIV THE MASTER BUILDER. was preoccupied with a symbol of a master build- ing a castle in the air, and a young girl in one of its towers. There has been some competition among the poet's young lady friends for the honour of hav- ing served as his model for Hilda. Several, no doubt, are entitled to some share in it. One is not surprised to learn that among the papers he left behind were sheaves upon sheaves of letters from women. " All these ladies," says Dr. Julius Elias, " demanded something of him some cure for their agonies of soul, or for the incompre- hension from which they suffered; some solution of the riddle of their nature. Almost every one of them regarded herself as a problem to which Ibsen could not but have the time and the in- terest to apply himself. They all thought they had a claim on the creator of Nora. ... Of this chapter of his experience, Fru Ibsen spoke with ironic humour. ' Ibsen (I have often said to him), Ibsen, keep these swarms of over-strained womenfolk at arm's length.' ' Oh no (he would reply), let them alone. I want to observe them more closely.' His observations would take a longer or shorter time as the case might be, and would always contribute to some work of art." The principal model for Hilda was doubtless Fraulein Emilie Bardach, of Vienna, whom he met at Gossensass in the autumn of 1889. He was then sixty-one years of age; she is said to have been seventeen. As the lady herself handed his letters to Dr. Brandes for publication, there can be no indiscretion in speaking of them freely. Some passages from them I have quoted in the introduction to Hedda Gabler passages which INTRODUCTION. XXV show that at first the poet deliberately put aside his Gossensass impressions for use when he should stand at a greater distance from them, and meanwhile devoted himself to work in a totally different key. On October 15, 1889, he writes, in his second letter to Fraulein Bardach: " I cannot repress my summer memories, nor do I want to. I live through my experiences again and again, and yet again. To transmute it all into a poem I find, in the meantime, impossible. In the meantime? Shall I succeed in doing so some time in the future? And do I really wish to succeed? In the meantime, at any rate, I do not. . . . And yet it must come in time." The letters number twelve in all, and are couched in a tone of sentimental regret for the brief, bright summer days of their acquaintanceship. The keynote is struck in the inscription on the back of a photograph which he gave her before they parted: An die Maisonne eines Septemberlebens in Tirol, 1 27/9/89. In her album he had written the words: Hohes, schmerzliches Gliick um das Unerreichbare zu ringen ! * in which we may, if we like, see a foreshadowing of the Solness frame of mind. In the fifth let- ter of the series he refers to her as " an enig- matic Princess " ; in the sixth he twice calls her " my dear Princess " ; but this is the only point at which the letters quite definitely and unmis- takably point forward to The Master Builder. 1 "To the May-sun of a September life in Tyrol." 2 " High, painful happiness to struggle for the unattain- able ! " XXVI THE MASTER BUILDER. In the ninth letter (February 6, 1890) he says: " I feel it a matter of conscience to end, or at any rate, to restrict, our correspondence." The tenth letter, six months later, is one of kindly condolence on the death of the young lady's father. In the eleventh (very short) note, dated December 30, 1890, he acknowledges some small gift, but says : " Please, for the present, do not write to me again. ... I will soon send you my new play \Hedda, Gabler]. Receive it in friend- ship, but in silence ! " This injunction she ap- parently obeyed. When The Master Builder appeared, it would seem that Ibsen did not even send her a copy of the play; and we gather that he was rather annoyed when she sent him a photograph signed " Princess of Orangia." On his seventieth birthday, however, she telegraphed her congratulations, to which he returned a very cordial reply. And here their relations ended. That she was right, however, in regarding her- self as his principal model for Hilda appears from an anecdote related by Dr. Elias. 1 It is not an altogether pleasing anecdote, but Dr. Elias is an unexceptionable witness, and it can by no means be omitted from an examination into the origins of The Master Builder. Ibsen had come to Berlin in February 1891 for the first performance of Hedda Gabler. Such expe- riences were always a trial to him, and he felt greatly relieved when they were over. Packing, too, he detested; and Elias having helped him through this terrible ordeal, the two sat down to lunch together, while awaiting the train. An expansive mood descended upon Ibsen, and chuc- 1 Neue deutsche Rundschau, December, 1906, p. 1462. INTRODUCTION. XXV11 kling over his champagne glass, he said : " Do you know, my next play is already hovering before me of course in vague outline. But of one thing I have got firm hold. An experience: a woman's figure. Very interesting, very inter- esting indeed. Again a spice of devilry in it." Then he related how he had met in the Tyrol a Viennese girl of very remarkable character. She had at once made him her confidant. The gist of her confessions was that she did not care a bit about one day marrying a well brought-up young man most likely she would never marry. What tempted and charmed and delighted her was to lure other women's husbands away from them. She was a little daemonic wrecker; she often appeared to him like a little bird of prey, that would fain have made him, too, her booty. He had studied her very, very closely. For the rest, she had had no great success with him. " She did not get hold of me, but I got hold of her for my play. Then I fancy " (here he chuckled again) " she consoled herself with some one else." Love seemed to mean for her only a sort of morbid imagination. This, however, was only one side of her nature. His little model had had a great deal of heart and of womanly understanding; and thanks to the spontaneous power she could gain over him, every woman might, if she wished it, guide some man towards the good. " Thus Ibsen spoke," says Elias, " calmly and coolly, gazing as it were into the far distance, like an artist taking an objective view of some experience like Lubek speaking of his soul-thefts. He had stolen a soul, and put it to a double employment. Thea Elvsted and XXV111 THE MASTER BUILDER. Hilda Wangel are intimately related are, in- deed, only different expressions of the same na- ture." If Ibsen actually declared Thea and Hilda to be drawn from one model, we must of course take his word for it; but the relationship is hard to discern. There can be no reasonable doubt, then, that the Gossensass episode gave the primary impulse to The Master Builder. But it seems pretty well established, too, that another lady, whom he met in Christiania after his return in 1891, also contributed largely to the character of Hilda. This may have been the reason why he resented Fraulein Bardach's appropriating to herself the title of " Princess of Orangia." The play was published in the middle of De- cember 1892. It was acted both in Germany and England before it was seen in the Scandinavian capitals. Its first performance took place at the Leasing Theatre, Berlin, January 19, 1893, with Emanuel Reicher as Solness and Frl. Reisen- hofer as Hilda. In London it was first performed at the Trafalgar Square Theatre (now the Duke of York's) on February 20, 1893, under the di- rection of Mr. Herbert Waring and Miss Eliza- beth Robins, who played Solness and Hilda. This was one of the most brilliant and success- ful of English Ibsen productions. Miss Robins was almost an ideal Hilda, and Mr. Waring's Solness was exceedingly able. Some thirty per- formances were given in all, and the play was reproduced at the Opera Comique later in the season, with Mr. Lewis Waller as Solness. In the following year Miss Robins acted Hilda in Manchester. In Christiania and Copenhagen the INTRODUCTION. XXIX play was produced on the same evening, March 8, 1893; the Copenhagen Solness and Hilda were Emil Poulsen and Fru Hennings. A Swedish production, by Lindberg, soon followed, both in Stockholm and Gothenburg. In Paris Solness le constructeur was not seen until April 3, 1894, when it was produced by " L'CEuvre " with M. Lugne-Poe as Solness. This company, sometimes with Mme. Suzanne Despres and sometimes with Mme. Berthe Bady as Hilda, in 1894 and 1895 presented the play in London, Brussels, Amster- dam, Milan, and other cities. In October 1894 they visited Christiania, where Ibsen was present at one of their performances, and is reported by Herman Bang to have been so enraptured with it that he exclaimed, " This is the resurrection of my play ! " On this occasion Mme. Bady was the Hilda. The first performance of the play in America took place at the Carnegie Lyceum, New York, on January 16, 1900, with Mr. Will- iam H. Pascoe as Solness and Miss Florence Kahn as Hilda. The performance was repeated in the course of the same month, both at Wash- ington and Boston. In England, and probably elsewhere as well, The Master Builder produced a curious double effect. It alienated many of the poet's staunch- est admirers, and it powerfully attracted many people who had hitherto been hostile to him. Looking back, it is easy to see why this should have been so ; for here was certainly a new thing in drama, which could not but set up many novel reactions. A greater contrast could scarcely be imagined than that between the hard, cold, pre- cise outlines of Hedda Gabler and the vague XXX THE MASTER BUILDER. mysterious atmosphere of The Master Builder, in which, though the dialogue is sternly re- strained within the limits of prose, the art of drama seems for ever on the point of floating away to blend with the art of music. Substan- tially, the play is one long dialogue between Sol- ness and Hilda; and it would be quite possible to analyse this dialogue in terms of music, not- ing (for example) the announcement first of this theme and then of that, the resumption and re- inforcement of a theme which seemed to have been dropped, the contrapuntal interweaving 1 of two or more motives, a scherzo here, a fugal pas- sage there. Leaving this exercise to some one more skilled in music (or less unskilled) than myself, I may note that in The Master Builder Ibsen resumes his favourite retrospective method, from which in Hedda Gabler he had in great measure departed. But the retrospect with which we are here concerned is purely psychological. The external events involved in it are few and simple in comparison with the external events which are successively unveiled in the retrospec- tive passages of The Wild Duck or Rosmersholm. The matter of the play is the soul-history of Halvard Solness, recounted to an impassioned listener so impassioned, indeed, that the soul- changes it begets in her form an absorbing and thrilling drama. The graduations, retardations, accelerations of Solness's self-revealment are managed with the subtlest art, so as to keep the interest of the spectator ever on the stretch. The technical method was not new; it was sim- ply that which Ibsen had been perfecting from Pillars of Society onward; but it was applied to INTRODUCTION. XXXI a subject of a nature not only new to him, but new to literature. That the play is full of symbolism it would be futile to deny; and the symbolism is mainly autobiographic. The churches which Solness sets out by building doubtless represent Ibsen's early romantic plays, the " homes for human beings " his social dramas ; while the houses with high towers, merging into " castles in the air," stand for those spiritual dramas, with a wide outlook over the metaphysical environment of humanity, on which he was henceforth to be en- gaged. Perhaps it is not altogether fanciful to read a personal reference into Solness's refusal to call himself an architect, on the ground that his training has not been systematic that he is a self-taught man. Ibsen too was in all essen- tials self-taught; his philosophy was entirely unsystematic; and, like Solness, he was no stu- dent of books. There may be an introspective note also in that dread of the younger genera- tion to which Solness confesses. It is certain that the old Master-Builder was not lavish of his certificates of competence to young aspirants, though there is nothing to show that his reti- cence ever depressed or quenched any rising genius. On the whole, then, it cannot be doubted that several symbolic motives are inwoven into the iridescent fabric of the play. But it is a great mistake to regard it as essentially and insepa- rably a piece of symbolism. Essentially it is history of a sickly conscience, worked out in terms of pure psychology. Or rather, it is a study of a sickly and a robust conscience side XXX11 THE MASTER BUILDER. by side. " The conscience is very conservative," Ibsen has somewhere said; and here Solness's conservatism is contrasted with Hilda's radical- ism or rather would-be radicalism, for we are led to suspect, towards the close, that the radical too is a conservative in spite of herself. The fact that Solness cannot climb as high as he builds implies, I take it, that he cannot act as freely as he thinks, or as Hilda would goad him into thinking. At such an altitude his con- science would turn dizzy, and life would become impossible to him. But here I am straying back to the interpretation of symbols. My present purpose is to insist that there is nothing in the play which has no meaning on the natural- psychological plane, and absolutely requires a symbolic interpretation to make it comprehen- sible. The symbols are harmonic undertones; the psychological melody is clear and consistent without any reference to them. 1 It is true that, in order to accept the action on what we may call the realistic level, we must suppose Solness to possess and to exercise, sometimes in spite of himself, and sometimes unconsciously, a consid- erable measure of hypnotic power. But the time is surely past when we could reckon hypnotism among " supernatural " phenomena. Whether 1 This conception I have worked out at much greater length in an essay, entitled The Melody of the Master Builder, appended to the shilling edition of the play, published in 1893. I there retell the story, transplanting it to England and making the hero a journalist instead of an architect, in order to show that (it we grant the reality of certain commonly-accepted phenomena of hypnotism) there is nothing incredible or even extravagantly improbable about it. The argument is far too long to be included here, but the reader who ia interested in the subject may find it worth referring to. INTRODUCTION. XXX111 the particular forms of hypnotic influence at- tributed to Solness do actually exist is a question we need not determine. The poet does not de- mand our absolute credence, as though he were giving evidence in the witness-box. What he requires is our imaginative acceptance of cer- tain incidents which he purposely leaves hover- ing on the border between the natural and the preternatural, the explained and the unexplained. In this play, as in The Lady from the Sea and Little Eyolf, he shows a delicacy of art in his dalliance with the occult which irresistibly re- calls the exquisite genius of Nathaniel Haw- jthorne. 1 "' The critics who insist on finding nothing but symbolism in the play have fastened on Mrs. Solness's " nine lovely dolls," and provided the most amazing interpretations for them. A letter which I contributed in 1893 to the Westminster Gazette records an incident which throws a curi- ous light on the subject, and may be worth pre- serving. " At a recent first night," I wrote, " I happened to be seated just behind a well-known critic. He turned round to me and said, ' I want you to tell me what is your theory of those " nine lovely dolls." Of course one can see that they are entirely symbolical.' ' I am not so sure of that,' I replied, remembering a Norwegian cousin of my own who treasured a favourite doll until she was nearer thirty than twenty. ' They of course symbolise the unsatisfied passion of motherhood in Mrs. Solness's heart, but I have 1 For an instance of the technical methods by which he suggested the supernormal element in the atmosphere of the play, see Introduction to A DolVs House, p. xiv. XXXIV THE MASTER BUILDER. very little doubt that Ibsen makes use of this " symbol " because he has observed a similar case, or cases, in real life.' ' What ! ' cried the critic. ' He has seen a grown-up, a middle-aged, woman continuing to " live with " her dolls ! ' I was about to say that it did not seem to me so very improbable, when a lady who was seated next me, a total stranger to both of us, leant forward and said, ' Excuse my interrupting you, but it may perhaps interest you to know that I have three dolls to which I am deeply attached!' I will not be so rude as to conjecture this lady's age, but we may be sure that a very young woman would not have had the courage to make such an avowal. Does it not seem that Ibsen knows a thing or two about human nature English as well as Norwegian which we dramatic critics, though bound by our calling to be subtle psychol- ogists, have not yet fathomed ? " In the course of the correspondence which followed, one very apposite anecdote was quoted from an American paper, the Argonaut: "An old Virginia lady said to a friend, on finding a treasured old cup cracked by a careless maid, ' I know of nothing to compare with the affliction of losing a hand- some piece of old china.' ' Surely,' said the friend, ' it is not so bad as losing one's children.' ' Yes, it is,' replied the old lady, ' for when your children die, you do have the consolations of religion, you know.'" It would be a paradox to call The Master Builder Ibsen's greatest work, but one of his three or four greatest it assuredly is. Of all his writings, it is probably the most original, the most individual, the most unlike any other INTRODUCTION. XXXV drama by any other writer. The form of Brand and Peer Gynt was doubtless suggested by other dramatic poems notably by Faust. In The Wild Duck, in Rosmersholm, in Hedda Gabler, even in Little Eyolf and John Gabriel BorTcman, there remain faint traces of the French leaven which was so strong in the earlier plays. But The Master Builder had no model and has no parallel. It shows no slightest vestige of outside influence. It is Ibsen, and nothing but Ibsen. W. A. HEDDA GABLER (1890) VOL. X. CHARACTERS. GEORGE HEDDA TESMAN, his wife. Miss JULIANA TESMAN, his aunt. MRS. ELVSTED. JUDGE 2 BRACK. ElLERT LOVBORG. BERTA, servant at the Tesmans. The scene of the action is Tesmari's vitta, in the west end of Christiania.. 1 Tesman, whose Christian name in the original is " Jbrgen," is described as "stipendiat i kulturhistorie " that is to say, the holrler of a scholarship for purposes of research into the History of Civilisation. 1 In the original ' ' Assessor." HEDDA GABLER. PLAY IN FOUR ACTS. ACT FIRST. A spacious, handsome, and tastefully furnished draw- ing-room, decorated in dark colours. In the back, a wide doorway with curtains drawn back, leading into a smaller room decorated in the same style as the drawing-room. In the right-hand wall of the front room, a folding door leading out to the hall. In the opposite wall, on the left, a glass door, also with curtains drawn back. Through the panes can be seen part of a veranda outside, and trees covered with autumn foliage. An oval table, with a cover on it, and surrounded by chairs, stands well forward. In front, by the wall on the right, a wide stove of dark porcelain, a high- backed arm-chair, a cushioned foot-rest, and two footstools. A settee, with a small round table in front of it, Jills the tipper right-hand corner. In front, on the left, a little way from the wall, a sofa. Further back than the glass door, a piano. On either side of the doorway at the back a what- not with terra-cotta and majolica ornaments. Against the back wall of the inner room a so fa, with 4 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT I. a table, and one or two chairs. Over the sofa hangs the portrait of a handsome elderly man in a General's uniform. Over the table a hanging lamp, with an opal glass shade. A number of bouquets are arranged about the drawing-room, in vases and glasses. Others lie upon the tables. The floors in both rooms are covered with thick carpets. Morning light. The sun shines in through the glass door. Miss JULIANA TESMAN, with her bonnet on andcarn/- ing a parasol, comes in from the half, follon-cd by BERTA, who carries a bouquet wrapped in paper. Miss TESMAN is a comely and pleasant- looking lady of about sixty-Jive. She is nicely but simply dressed in a grey walking-costume. BERTA is a middle aged woman of plain and rather countrified appearance. Miss TESMAN. [Stops close to the door, listens, and says softly :] Upon my word, I don't believe they are stirring yet! BERTA. [Also softlyJ] I told you so, Miss. Remember how late the steamboat got in last night. And then, when they got home ! good Lord, what a lot the young mistress had to unpack before she could get to bed. Miss TESMAN. Well well let them have their sleep out. But let us see that they get a good breath of the fresh morning air when they do appear. [She goes to the glass door and throws it open. ACT I.] HEDDA GABLER. 5 BERTA. [Beside the table, at a loss what to do with the bouquet in her hand.] 1 declare there isn't a bit of room left. I think I'll put it down here, Miss. [She places it on the piano. Miss TESMAN. So you've got a new mistress now, my dear Berta. Heaven knows it was a wrench to me to part with you. BERTA. [Ore the point of weeping.] And do you think it wasn't hard for me too, Miss ? After all the blessed years I've been with you and Miss Rina. 1 Miss TESMAN. We must make the best of it, Berta. There was nothing else to be done. George can't do with- out you, you see he absolutely can't. He has had you to look after him ever since he was a little boy. BERTA. Ah but, Miss Julia, I can't help thinking of Miss Rina lying helpless at home there, poor thing. And with only that new girl too ! She'll never learn to take proper care of an invalid. Miss TESMAN. Oh, I shall manage to train her. And of course you know, I shall take most of it upon myself- You needn't be uneasy about my poor sister, my dear Berta. 1 Pronounce Reena. HEDDA GABLER. ACT I- BERTA. Well, but there's another thing, Miss. I'm so mortally afraid I shan't be able to suit the young mistress. Miss TESMAN. Oh well just at first there may be one or two things BERTA. Most like she'll be terrible grand in her ways. Miss TESMAN. Well, you can't wonder at that General Ga bier's daughter ! Think of the sort of life she was accus- tomed to in her father's time. Don't you remem- ber how we used to see her riding down the road along with the General ? In that long black habit and with *eathers in her hat ? BERTA. Yes indeed I remember well enough ! But, good Lord, I should never have dreamt in those days that she and Master George would make a match of it. Miss TESMAN. Nor I. But by-the-bye, Berta while I think of it : in future you mustn't say Master George. You must say Dr. Tesman. BERTA. Yes, the young mistress spoke of that too last night the moment they set foot in the house. Is it true then, Miss ? Miss TESMAN. Yes, indeed it is. Only think, Berta some VCT I.] HEDDA GABLER. 7 foreign university has made him a doctor while he has been abroad, you understand. I hadn't heard a word about it, until he told me himself upon the pier. BERTA. Well well, he's clever enough for anything, he is. But I didn't think he'd have gone in for doc- toring people too. Miss TESMAN. No no, it's not that sort of doctor he is. [Nods significantly.] But let me tell you, we may have to call him something still grander before long. BERTA. You don't say so ! What can that be, Miss? Miss TESMAN. [Smiling.] H'm wouldn't you like to know ! [ With emotion.] Ah, dear dear if my poor brother could only look up from his grave now, and see what his little boy has grown into ! [Looks around.] But bless me, Berta why have you done this ? Taken the chintz covers off all the furniture? BERTA. The mistress told me to. She can't abide covers on the chairs, she says. Miss TESMAN. Are they going to make this their everyday sitting-room then ? BERTA. Yes, that's what I understood from the mistress. Master George the doctor he said nothing. 8 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT I. GEORGE TESMAN comes from the right into the inner room, humming to himself, and currying an un- strapped empty portmanteau. He is a middle- sized, young looking man of thirty-three, rather stout, with a round, open, cheerful face, fair hair and beard. He wears spectacles, and is some- what carelessly dressed in comfortable indoor clothes. Miss TESMAN. Good morning, good morning, George. TESMAN. [/ the doorway between the rooms.] Aunt Julia ! Dear Aunt Julia ! [Goes up to her and shakes hands warmly] Come all this way so early ! Eh ? Miss TESMAN. Why, of course I had to come and see how you were getting on. TESMAN. In spite of your having had no proper night's rest ? Miss TESMAN. Oh, that makes no difference to me. TESMAN. Well, I suppose you got home all right from the pier ? Eh ? Miss TESMAN. Yes, quite safely, thank goodness. Judge Brack was good enough to see me right to my door. TESMAN. We were so sorry we couldn't give you a seat in ACT I.] HEDDA GABLER. 9 the carriage. But you saw what a pile of boxes Hedela had to bring with her. Miss TESMAN. Yes, she had certainly plenty of boxes. BERTA. [To TESMAN.] Shall I go in and see if there's anything I can do for the mistress ? TESMAN. No thank you, Berta you needn't. She said she would ring if she wanted anything. BERTA. [Going towards the right.] Very well. TESMAN. But look here take this portmanteau with you. BERTA, [Taking it.] I'll put it in the attic. [She goes out by the hall door TESMAN. Fancy, Auntie I had the whole of that port- manteau chock full of copies of documents. You wouldn't believe how much I have picked up from all the archives I have been examining curious old details that no one has had any idea of Miss TESMAN. Yes, you don't seem to have wasted your time on your wedding trip, George. 10 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT I. TESMAN. No, that I haven't. But do take off your bon- net, Auntie. Look here ! Let me untie the strings eh ? Miss TESMAN. [While he does so.] Well well this is just as if you were still at home with us. TESMAN. [ With the bonnet in his hand, looks at it from all sides.] Why, what a gorgeous bonnet you've been investing in ! Miss TESMAN. I bought it on Hedda's account. TESMAN. On Hedda's account ? Eh ? Miss TESMAN. Yes, so that Hedda needn't be ashamed of me if we happened to go out together. TESMAN. [Patting her cheek] You always think of every- thing, Aunt Julia. [Lays the bonnet on a chair beside the table.] And now, look here suppose we sit comfortably on the sofa and have a little chat, till Hedda comes. [They seat themselves. She places her para sol in the corner of the sofa. Miss TESMAN. [Takes both his hands and looks at him.] What a delight it is to have you again, as large as life, before my very eyes, George ! My George my p oorbrother's own boy ! ACT I.] HEDDA GABLER. ll TESMAN. And it's a delight for me, too, to see you again, Aunt Julia ! You, who have been father and mother in one to me. Miss TESMAN. Oh yes, I know you will always keep a place in your heart for your old aunts. TESMAN. And what about Aunt Rina ? No improvement eh? Miss TESMAN. Oh no we can scarcely look for any improve- ment in her case, poor thing. There she lies, helpless, as she has lain for all these years. But heaven grant I may not lose her yet awhile : For if I did, I don't know what I should make of my life, George especially now that I haven't you to look after any more. TESMAN. [Patting her back.] There there there ! Miss TESMAN. [Suddenly changing her toneJ\ And to think that here are you a married man, George ! And that you should be the one to carry off Hedda Gabler the beautiful Hedda Gabler ! Only think of it she, that was so beset with admirers ! TESMAN. [Hums a little and smiles complacently.] Yes, I fancy I have several good friends about town who would like to stand in my shoes eh ? 12 HEDDA GABLEK. [ACT I. Miss TESMAN. And then this fine long wedding-tour you have had ! More than five nearly six months TESMAN. Weil, for me it has been a sort of tour of re- search as well. I have had to do so much grubbing among old records and to read no end of books too, Auntie. Miss TESMAN. Oh yes, I suppose so. [More conjidentially, and lowering her voice a little.] But listen now, George, have you nothing nothing special to tell me ? TESMAN. As to our journey ? Miss TESMAN. Yes. TESMAN. No, I don't know of anything except what I have told you in my letters. I had a doctor's degree conferred on me but that I told you yesterday. Miss TESMAN. Yes, yes, you did. But what I mean is haven't you any any expectations ? TESMAN. Expectations ? Miss TESMAN. Why you know, George I'm your old auntie ! TESMAN. Why, of course 1 have expectations. ACT I.] HEDDA GABLER. 13 Miss TESMAN. Ah! TESMAN. I have every expectation of being a professor one of these days. Miss TESMAN. Oh yes, a professor TESMAN. Indeed, I may say I am certain of it. But my dear Auntie you know all about that already ! Miss TESMAN. [Laughing to herself.] Yes, of course I do. You are quite right there. \Changingthe subject.] Butwe were talking about your journey. It must have cost a great deal of money, George ? TESMAN. Well, you see my handsome travelling-scholar- ship went a good way. Miss TESMAN. But I can't understand how you can hare made it go far enough for two. TESMAN. No, that's not so easy to understand eh ? Miss TESMAN. And especially travelling with a lady they tell me that makes it ever so much more expensive TESMAN. Yes, of course it makes it a little more expen- sive. But Hedda had to have this trip, Auntie! She really had to. Nothing else would have done. 14 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT I. Miss TESMAN. No no, I suppose not. A wedding-tour seems to be quite indispensable nowadays. But tell me now have you gone thoroughly over the house yet ? TESMAN. Yes, you may be sure I have. I have been afoot ever since daylight. Miss TESMAN. And what do you think of it all ? TESMAN. I'm delighted ! Quite delighted ! Only I can't think what we are to do with the two empty rooms between this inner parlour and Hedda's bedroom. Miss TESMAN. [Laughing.] Oh my dear George, I daresay you may find some use for them in the course of time. TESMAN. Why of course you are quite right, Aunt Julia ! You mean as my library increases eh ? Miss TESMAN. Yes, quite so, my dear boy. It was your library I was thinking of. TESMAN. I am specially pleased on Hedda's account. Often and often, before we were engaged, she said that she would never care to live anywhere but in Secretary Falk's villa. 1 1 In the original, " Statsradinde Falks villa" showing that it had belonged to the widow of a cabinet minister. ACT I.] HEDDA GABLER. 15 Miss TESMAN. Yes, it was lucky that this very house should come into the market, just after you had started. TESMAN. Yes, Aunt Julia, the luck was on our side, wasn't it eh ? Miss TESMAN. But the expense, my dear George ! You will find it very expensive, all this. TESMAN. [Looks at her, a little cast down.] Yes, I suppose I shall, Aunt ! Miss TESMAN. Oh, frightfully ! TESMAN. How much do you think ? In round numbers? Eh? Miss TESMAN. Oh, I can't even guess until all the accounts come in. TESMAN. Well, fortunately, Judge Brack has secured the most favourable terms for me, so he said in a letter to Hedda. Miss TESMAN. Yes, don't be uneasy, my dear boy. Besides, I have given security for the furniture and all the carpets. TESMAN. Security ? You ? My dear Aunt Julia what sort of security could you give ? 16 HEDDA 6ABLER. [ACT I. Miss TESMAN. I have given a mortgage on our annuity. TESMAN. f Jumps upJ] What ! On your and Aunt Rina's annuity ! Miss TESMAN. Yes, I knew of no other plan, you see. TESMAN. [Placing himself before her.] Have you gone out of your senses, Auntie ! Your annuity it's all that you and Aunt Rina have to live upon. Miss TESMAN. Well well don't get so excited about it. It's only a matter of form you know Judge Brack assured me of that. It was he that was kind enough to arrange the whole affair for me A mere matter of form, he said. TESMAN. Yes, that may be all very well. But never- theless Miss TESMAN. You will have your own salary to depend upon now. And, good heavens, even if we did have to pay up a little ! To eke things out a bit at the start ! Why, it would be nothing but a pleasure to us. TESMAN. Oh Auntie will you never be tired of making sacrifices for me ' Miss TESMAN. [Rises and lays her hand on his shoulders.] Have ACT I.] HEDDA GABLER. 17 I any other happiness in this world except to smooth your way for you, my dear boy ? You, who have had neither father nor mother to depend on. And now we have reached the goal, George ! Things have looked black enough for us, some- times ; but, thank heaven, now you have nothing to fear. TESMAN. Yes, it is really marvellous how everything has turned out for the best. Miss TESMAN. And the people who opposed you who wanted to bar the way for you now you have them at your feet. They have fallen, George Your most dangerous rival his fall was the worst. And now he has to lie on the bed he has made for himself poor misguided creature. TESMAN. Have you heard anything of Eilert ? Since I went away, I mean. Miss TESMAN. Only that he is said to have published a new book. TESMAN. What ! Eilert Lovborg ! Recently eh ? Miss TESMAN. Yes, so they say. Heaven knows whether it can be worth anything I Ah, when your new book appears that will be another story, George 1 What is it to be about ? 18 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT I. TESMAN. It will deal with the domestic industries of Brabant during the Middle Ages. Miss TESMAN. Fancy to be able to write on such a subject as that ! TESMAN. However, it may be some time before the book is ready. I have all these collections to arrange first, you see. Miss TESMAN. Yes, collecting and arranging no one can beat you at that. There you are my poor brother's own son. TESMAN. I am looking forward eagerly to setting to work at it ; especially now that I have my own delightful home to work in. Miss TESMAN. And, most of all, now that you have got the wife of your heart, my dear George. TESMAN. [Embracing her.} Oh yes, yes, Aunt Julia Hedda she is the best part of it all ! [Looks towards the doorway.] I believe I hear her coming eh? HEDDA enters from the left through the inner room. She is a woman of nine-and twenty. Her face and Jigure show refinement and distinction. Her complexion is pale and opaque. Her steel-grey eyes express a cold, unruffled repose. Her hair ACT I.] HEDDA GABLER. 19 is of an agreeable medium brown, but not par- ticularly abundant. She is dressed in a tasteful, somewhat loose-Jilting morning gown. Miss TESMAN. [Going to meet HEDDA.] Good morning, my dear Hedda ! Good morning, and a hearty welcome HEDDA. [Holds out her hand.] Good morning, dear Miss Tesman ! So early a call ! That is kind of you. Miss TESMAN. [With some embarrassment.] Well has the bride slept well in her new home ? HEDDA. Oh yes, thanks. Passably. TESMAN. [Laughing.] Passably ! Come, that's good, Hedda ! You were sleeping like a stone when I got up. HEDDA. Fortunately. Of course one has always to accustom one's self to new surroundings, Miss Tesman little by little. [Looking towards the left.] Oh there the servant has gone and opened the veranda door, and let in a whole flood of sunshine Miss TESMAN. [Going towards the door.] Well, then we will shut it. 20 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT I. HEDDA. No no, not that ! Tesrrian, please draw the curtains. That will give a softer light. TESMAN. [At the door.] All right all right. There now, Hedda, now you have both shade and fresh air. HEDDA. Yes, fresh air we certainly must have, with all these stacks of flowers . But won't you sit down, Miss Tesman ? Miss TESMAN. No, thank you. Now that I have seen that everything is all right here thank heaven! I must be getting home again. My sister is lying longing for me, poor thing. TESMAN. Give her my very best love, Auntie ; and say 1 shall look in and see her later in the day. Miss TESMAN. Yes, yes, I'll be sure to tell her. But by-the- bye, George [Feeling in her dress pocket] I had almost forgotten I have something for you here. TESMAN. What is it, Auntie ? Eh ? Miss TESMAN. [Produces aflat parcel wrapped in newspaper and hands it to him.] Look here, my dear boy. TESMAN. [Opening the parcel. J Well, I declare ! Have you ACT I.] HEDDA GABLER. 21 really saved them for me, Aunt Julia ! Hedda ! isn't this touching eh ? HEDDA. [Beside the whatnot on the right.] Well, what is it? TESMAN. My old morning-shoes ! My slippers. HEDDA. Indeed. I remember you often spoke of them while we were abroad. TESMAN. Yes, I missed them terribly. [Goes up to her.] Now you shall see them, Hedda ! HEDDA. [Going towards the stove.] Thanks, I really don't care about it. TESMAN. [Following her.] Only think ill as she was, Aunt Rina embroidered these for me. Oh you can't think how many associations cling to them. HEDDA. [At the table.] Scarcely for me. Miss TESMAN. Of course not for Hedda, George. TESMAN. Well, but now that she belongs to the family, I thought 22 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT I. HEDDA. [Interrupting.] We shall never get on with this servant, Tesman. Miss TESMAN. Not get on with Berta ? TESMAN. Why, dear, what puts that in your head ? Eh ? HEDDA. [Pointing.] Look there ! She has left her old bonnet lying about on a chair. TESMAN. [In consternation, drops theslipjyers on the floor. Why, Hedda HEDDA. Just fancy, if any one should come in and see it ! TESMAN. But Hedda that's Aunt Julia's bonnet. HEDDA. Is it! Miss TESMAN. [Taking up the bonnet.] Yes, indeed it's mine. And, what's more, it's not old, Madam Hedda. HEDDA. I really did not look closely at it, Miss Tesman. ACT I.] HEDDA GABLER. 23 Miss TESMAN. [Trying on the bonnet.] Let me tell you it's the first time I have worn it the very first time. TESMAN. And a very nice bonnet it is too quite a beauty ! Miss TESMAN. Oh, it's no such great things, George. [Looks around her.] My parasol ? Ah, here. [Takes it.] For this is mine too [mutters] not Berta's. TESMAN. A new bonnet and a new parasol ! Only think, Hedda ! HEDDA. Very handsome indeed. TESMAN. Yes, isn't it ? Eh ? But Auntie, take a good look at Hedda before you go ! See how hand- some she is ! Miss TESMAN. Oh, my dear boy, there's nothing new in that. Hedda was always lovely. [She nods and goes towards the nght. TESMAN. [Following.] Yes, but have you noticed what splendid condition she is in ? How she has filled out on the journey ? HEDDA. [Crossing the room.] Oh, do be quiet J 24 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT I. Miss TESMAN. [WTio has stopped and turned.] Filled out ? TESMAN. Of course you don't notice it so much now ;hat she has that dress on. But I, who can see HEDDA. [At the glass door, impatiently.] Oh, you can't see my thing. TESMAN. It must be the mountain air in the Tyrol HEDDA. [Curtly, interrupting.] I am exactly as I was when I started. TESMAN. So you insist ; but I'm quite certain you are not. Don't you agree with me, Auntie ? Miss TESMAN. [Who has been gazing at her with folded hands.] Hedda is lovely lovely lovely. [Goes up to her, takes her head between both hands, draws it down- wards, and kisses her hair.] God bless and pre- serve Hedda Tesman for George's sake. HEDDA. [Gently freeing herself.] Oh ! Let me go. Miss TESMAN. [In quiet emotion.] I shall not let a day pass without coming to see you. TESMAN. No you won't, will you, Auntie ? Eh ? ACT I.] HEDDA GABLER. 25 Miss TESMAN. Good-bye good-bye ! [She goes out by the hall door. TESMAN accompanies her. The door remains half open. TESMAN can be heard re- peating his message to Aunt Rina and his thanks Jor the slippers. [In the meantime, HEDDA walks about the room, raising her arms and clenching her hands as if in desperation. Then she flings back the curtains from the glass door, and stands there looking out. [Presently TESMAN returns and closes the door behind him. TESMAN. [Picks up the slippers from the floor.] What are you looking at, Hedda ? HEDDA. [Once more calm and mistress of herself.] I am only looking at the leaves. They are so yellow so withered. TESMAN. [Wraps up the slippers and lays them on the table.] Well you see, we are well into September now. HEDDA. [Again restless.] Yes, to think of it .'Already in in September. TESMAN. Don't you think Aunt Julia's manner was strange, dear ? Almost solemn ? Can you imagine what was the matter with her ? Eh ? 26 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT I. HEDDA. I scarcely know her, you see. Is she not often like that ? TESMAN. No, not as she was to-day. HEDDA. [Leaving the glass door.] Do you think she was annoyed about the bonnet ? TESMAN. Oh, scarcely at all. Perhaps a little, just at the moment HEDDA. But what an idea, to pitch her bonnet about in the drawing room ! No one does that sort of thing. TESMAN. Well you may be sure Aunt Julia won't do it again. HEDDA. In any case, I shall manage to make my peace with her, TESMAN. Yes, my dear, good Hedda, if you only would . HEDDA. When you call this afternoon, you might invite her to spend the evening here. TESMAN. Yes, that I will. And there's one thing more you could do that would delight her heart. ACT I.] HEDDA GABLER. 2? HEDDA. What is it ? TESMAN. If you could only prevail on yourself to say du l to her. For my sake, Hedda ? Eh ? HEDDA. No no, Tesman you really mustn't ask that ot me. I have told you so already. I shall try to call her " Aunt " ; and you must be satisfied with that. TESMAN. Well well. Only I think now that you belong to the family, you HEDDA. H'm I can't in the least see why [She goes up towards the middle doorway. TESMAN. [After a pause.'] Is there anything the matter with you, Hedda ? Eh ? HEDDA. I'm only looking at my old piano. It doesn't go at all well with all the other things. TESMAN. The first time I draw my salary, we'll see about exchanging it. HEDDA. No, no no exchanging. I don't want to part with it. Suppose we put it there in the inner 1 Du = them : Tesman means, ' ' If you could persuade your- self to tufoyer her." 28 HEDDA OABLER. [ACT I. room, and then get another here in its place. When it's convenient, I mean. TESMAN. [A little taken aback.] Yes of course we could do that. HEDDA. [Takes up the bouquet from the piano J\ These riowers were not here last night when we arrived TESMAN. Aunt Julia must have brought them for you. HEDDA. [Examining the bouquet.] A visiting-card. [Takes it out and reads :] " Shall return later in the day." Can you guess whose card it is ? TESMAN. iSTo. Whose ? Eh ? HEDDA. The name is " Mrs. Elvsted." TESMAN. Is it really ? Sheriff Elvsted's wife ? Miss Rysing that was. HEDDA. Exactly. The girl with the irritating hair, that she was always showing off. An old flame of yours I've been told. TESMAN. [Laughing.'] Oh, that didn't last long ; and it was before I knew you, Hedda. But fancy her being in town ! ACT I.] HEDDA GABLER. 29 HEDDA. It's odd that she should call upon us. I have scarcely seen her since we left school. TESMAN. I haven't seen her either for heaven knows how long. I wonder how she can endure to live in such aa out-of-the way hole eh ? HEDDA. [After a moment's thought, says suddenly.] Tell me, Tesman isn't it somewhere near there that he that Eilert Lovborg is living ? TESMAN. Yes, he is somewhere in that part of the country. BERTA enters by the hall door. BERTA. That lady, ma'am, that brought some flowers a little while ago, is here again. [Pointing.] The flowers you have in your hand, ma'am. HEDDA. Ah, is she ? Well, please show her in. BERTA opens the door for MRS. ELVSTED, and goes out herself. MRS. ELVSTED is a woman oj fragile figure, with pretty, soft features. Her eyes are light blue, large, round, and somewhat prominent, with a startled, inquiring expression. Her hair is remarkably light, almost flaxen, and unusually abundant and wavy. She is a couple of years younger than HEDDA. She wears a dark visiting dress, tasteful, but not quite in the latest fashion. 30 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT I. HEDDA. [Receives her warmly.] How do you do, rny dear Mrs. Elvsted ? It's delightful to see you again. MRS. ELVSTED. [Nervously, struggling for self-control.] Yes, it's a very long time since we met. TESMAN. [Gives her his hand.] And we too eh ? HEDDA. Thanks for your lovely flowers MRS. ELVSTED. Oh, not at all . I would have come straight here yesterday afternoon ; but I heard that you were away TESMAN. Have you just come to town ? Eh ? MRS. ELVSTED. I arrived yesterday, about midday. Oh, I was quite in despair when I heard that you were not at home. HEDDA. In despair ! How so ? TESMAN. Why, my dear Mrs. Rysing I mean Mrs. Elvsted HEDDA. I hope that you are not in any trouble ? ACT I.] HEDDA GABLER. 31 MRS. ELVSTED. Yes, I am. And 1 don't know another living creature here that I can turn to. HEDDA. [Laying the bouquet on the table.] Come let us sit here on the sofa MRS. ELVSTED. Oh, I am too restless to sit down. HEDDA. Oh no, you're not. Come here. [She draws MRS. ELVSTED down upon the sofa and sits at her side. TESMAN. Well ? What is it, Mrs. Elvsted ? HEDDA. Has anything particular happened to you at home? MRS. ELVSTED. Yes and no. Oh I am so anxious you should not misunderstand me HEDDA. Then your best plan is to tell us the whole story, Mrs. Elvsted. TESMAN. I suppose that's what you have come for eh ? MRS. ELVSTED. Yes, yes of course it is. Well then, I must 32 HEDDA G ABLER. [ACT I. tell you if you don't already know that Eilert Lovborg is in town, too. HEDDA. Lovborg ! TESMAN. What ! Has Eilert Lovborg come back ? Fancy that, Hedda ! HEDDA. Well well I hear it. MRS. ELVSTED. He has been here a week already. Just fancy a whole week ! In this terrible town, alone ! With so many temptations on all sides. HEDDA. But, my dear Mrs. Elvsted how does h e con- cern you so much ? MRS. ELVSTED. [Looks at her with a startled air, and says rapidly '.] He was the children's tutor. HEDDA. Your children's ? MRS. ELVSTED. My husband's. I have none. HEDDA. Your step-children's, then ? MRS. ELVSTED. Yes. ACT I.~ HEDDA (J ABLER. TESMAN. [Someivhat hesitatingly.] Then was he I don't know how to express it was he regular enough in his habits to be fit for the post ? Eh ? MRS. ELVSTED. For the last two years his conduct has been irreproachable. TESMAN. Has it indeed ? Fancy that, Hedda ! HEDDA, I hear it. MRS. ELVSTED. Perfectly irreproachable, I assure you ! In every respect. But all the same now that I know he is here in this great town and with a large sum of money in his hands I can't help being in mortal fear for him, TESMAN. Why did he not remain where he was ? With you and your husband ? Eh ? MRS. ELVSTED. After his book was published he was too rest- less and unsettled to remain with us. TESMAN. Yes, by-the-bye, Aunt Julia told me he had published a new book. MRS. ELVSTED. Yes, a big book, dealing with the march of civilisation in broad outline, as it were. It came x c 34 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT I. out about a fortnight ago. And since it has sold so well, and been so much read and made such a sensation TESMAN. Has it indeed? It must be something he has had lying by since his better days. MRS. ELVSTED. Long ago, you mean ? TESMAN. Yes. MRS. ELVSTED. No, he has written it all since he has been with us within the last year. TESMAN. Isn't that good news/Hedda ? Think of that . MRS. ELVSTED. Ah yes, if only it would last ! HEDDA. Have you seen him here in town ? MRS. ELVSTED. No, not yet. I have had the greatest difficulty in finding out his address. But this morning I discovered it at last. HEDDA, [Looks searchingly at her.] Do you know, it seems to me a little odd of your husband h'm MRS. ELVSTED. [Starting nervously.] Of my husband ! What? ACT I.] HEDDA GABLE R. 35 HEDDA. That he should send you to town on such an errand that he does not come himself and look after his friend. MRS. ELVSTED. Oh no, no my husband has 110 time. And besides, I I had some shopping to do. HEDDA. \With a slight smiled] Ah, that is a different matter. MRS. ELVSTED. [Rising quickly and uneasily.] And now I beg and implore you, Mr. Tesman receive Eilert Lovborg kindly if he comes to you ! And that he is sure to do. You see you were such great friends in the old days. And then you are interested in the same studies the same branch of science so far as I can understand. TESMAN. We used to be, at any rate. MRS, ELVSTED. That is why I beg so earnestly that you you too will keep a sharp eye upon him. Oh, you will promise me that, Mr. Tesman won't you ? TESMAN. With the greatest of pleasure, Mrs. Rysing HEDDA. Elvsted. TESMAN. I assure you I shall do all I possibly can for Eilert. You may rely upon me. 36 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT I. MRS. ELVSTED Oh, how very, very kind of you ! [Presses his hands.] Thanks, thanks, thanks ! [Frightened.] You see, my husband is so very fond of him ! HEDDA. [Rising.'] You ought to write to him, Tesman. Perhaps he may not care to come to you of his own accord. TESMAN. Well, perhaps it would be the right thing to do, Hedda? Eh? HEDDA. Ad the sooner the better. Why not at once ? MRS. ELVSTED. [Imploringly.] Oh, if you only would ! TESMAN. I'll write this moment. Have you his address, Mrs. Mrs. Elvsted. MRS. ELVSTED. Yes. [Takes a slip of paper from her pocket, and hands it to him.] Here it is. TESMAN. Good, good. Then I'll go in [Looks about him.] By-the-bye, my slippers ? Oh, here. [ Takes the packet, and is about to go. HEDDA. Be sure you write him a cordial, friendly letter. And a good long one too. ACT I.] HEDDA GABLER. 37 TESMAN, Yes, I will. MRS. ELVSTED. But please, please don't say a word to show that I have suggested it. TESMAN. No, how could you think I would ? Eh ? [He goes out to the right, through the inner room. HEDDA. [Goes up to MRS. ELVSTED, smiles, and says in a low voice.] There ! We have killed two birds with one stone. MRS. ELVSTED. What do you mean ? HEDDA. Could you not see that I wanted him to go ? MRS. ELVSTED. Yes, to write the letter HEDDA. And that I might speak to you alone. MRS. ELVSTED. [Confused.] About the same thing ? HEDDA. Precisely. MRS. ELVSTED. [Apprehensively.] But there is nothing more Mrs. Tesman ! Absolutely nothing ! 38 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT I. HEDDA. Oh yes, but there is. There is a great deal more I can see that. Sit here and we'll have a cosy, confidential chat. [She forces M RS. ELVSTED lo sit in the easy- chair beside the stove, and seats herself on one of the footstools. MRS. ELVSTED. [Anxiously, looking at her watch.] But, my dear Mrs. Tesman I was really on the point of going. HEDDA. Oh, you can't be in such a hurry.- Well ? Now tell me something about your life at home. MRS. ELVSTED. Oh, that is just what I care least to speak about. HEDDA. But to me, dear ? Why, weren't we schoolfellows ? MRS.. ELVSTED. Yes, but you were in the class above me. Oh, how dreadfully afraid of you I was then ! HEDDA. Afraid of me ? MRS. ELVSTED. Yes, dreadfully. For when we met on the stairs you used always to pull my hair. HEDDA. Did I, really ? ACT I.J HEDDA GABLER. 39 MRS. ELVSTED. Yes, and once you said you would burn it ott my head. HEDDA. Oh that was all nonsense, of course. MRS. ELVSTED. Yes, but I was so silly in those days. And since then, too we have drifted so far far apart from each other. Our circles have been so entirely different. HEDDA. Well then, we must try to drift together again. Now listen ! At school we said du l to each other ; and we called each other by our Christian names MRS. ELVSTED. No, I am sure you must be mistaken. HEDDA. No, not at all ! I can remember quite distinctly. So now we are going to renew our old friendship. [Draws the footstool closer to MRS. ELVSTED.] There now ! [Kisses her cheek.] You must say du to me and call me Hedda. MRS. ELVSTED. [Presses and pats her htmds.] Oh, how good and kind you are ! I am not used to such kindness. HEDDA. There, there, there ! And I shall say rfwtoyou, as in the old days, and call you my dear Thora. 1 See footnote, p. 27. 40 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT I. MRS. ELVSTED. My name is Thea. 1 HEDDA. Why, of course ! I meant Thea. [Looks at her compassionately.] So you are not accustomed to goodness and kindness, Thea ? Not in your own home ? MRS. ELVSTED. Oh, if I only had a home ! But I haven't any ; I have never had a home. HEDDA. [Looks at her Jor a moment .] I almost suspected as much. MRS. ELVSTED. [Gazing helplessly before her.] Yes yes yes. HEDDA. I don't quite remember was it not as house- keeper that you first went to Mr. Elvsted's ? MRS. ELVSTED. I really went as governess. But his wife his late wife was an invalid, -and rarely left her room. So I had to look after the housekeeping as well. HEDDA. And then at last you became mistress of the house. MRS. ELVSTED. [Sadly.] Yes, I did. HEDDA. Let me see about how long ago was that ? 1 Pronounce Tora and Taya. ACT I.] HEDDA GABLER. 41 MRS. ELVSTED. My marriage ? HEDDA. Yes. MRS. ELVSTED. Five years ago. HEDDA. To be sure ; it must be that. MRS. ELVSTED. Oh those five years ! Or at all events the last two or three of them ! Oh, if you ' could only imagine HEDDA. [Giving her a little slap on the hand.] De ? Fie, Thea ! MRS. ELVSTED. Yes, yes, I will try Well, if you could only imagine and understand HEDDA. [Lightly.] Eilert Lovborg has been in youi neighbourhood about three years, hasn't he ? MRS. ELVSTED. [Looks at her doubtfully.] Eilert Lovborg ? Yes he has. HEDDA. Had you known him before, in town here ? MRS. ELVSTED. Scarcely at all. I mean I knew him by name of course. 1 Mrs. Elvsted here uses the formal pronoun De, whereupon Hedda rebukes her. In her next speech Mrs. Elvsted says du. 42 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT I. HEDDA. But you saw a good deal of him in the country ? MRS. ELVSTED. Yes, he came to us every day. You see, he gave the children lessons ; for in the long run I couldn't manage it all myself. HEDDA. No, that's clear. And your husband ? I suppose he is often away from home ? MRS. ELVSTED. Yes. Being sheriff, you know, he has to travel about a good deal in his district. HEDDA. [ Leaning against the arm of the chair."] Thea my poor, sweet Thea now you must tell me every- thing exactly as it stands. MRS. ELVSTED. Well then, you must question me. HEDDA. What sort of a man is your husband, Thea ? I mean you know in everyday life. Is he kind to you ? MRS. ELVSTED. [Evasively.] I am sure he means well in every- thing. HEDDA. I should think he must be altogether too old for you. There is at least twenty years' difference between you, is there not ? ACT I.] HEDDA GABLER. 4>3 MRS. ELVSTED. [Irritably.] Yes, that is true, too. Everything about him is repellent to me ! We have not a thought in common. We have no single point of sympathy he and I. HEDDA. But is he not fond of you all the same ? In his own way ? MRS. ELVSTED. Oh I really don't know. I think he regards me simply as a useful property. And then it doesn't cost much to keep me. I am not expensive. HEDDA. That is stupid of you. MRS. ELVSTED. [Shakes her head.] It cannot be otherwise not with him. I don't think he really cares for any one but himself and perhaps a little for the children. HEDDA And for Eilert Lovberg, Thea. MRS. ELVSTED. [Looking at her.] For Eilert Lovborg ? What puts that into your head ? HEDDA. Well, my dear I should say, when he sends you after him all the way to town [Smiling almost imperceptibly.] And besides, you said so yourself, to Tesman. 44 HEDDA OABLER. [ACT I. MRS. ELVSTED. [ With a little nervous twitch.] Did I ? Yes, I suppose I did. [Vehemently, but not loudly.] No I may just as well make a clean breast of it at once ! For it must all come out in any case. HEDDA. Why, my dear Thea ? MRS. ELVSTED. Well, to make a long story short : My husband did not know that I was coming. HEDDA. What ' Your husband didn't know it ' MRS. ELVSTED. No, of course not. For that matter, he was away from home himself he was travelling. Oh, I could bear it no longer, Hedda ! I couldn't indeed so utterly alone as I should have been in future. HEDDA. Well ? And then ? MRS. ELVSTED. So I put together some of my things what I needed most as quietly as possible. And then I left the house. HEDDA. Without a word ? MRS. ELVSTED. Yes and took the train straight to town. ACT I.] HEDDA GABLER. 45 HEDDA. Why, my dear, good Thea to think of you daring to do it ! MRS. ELVSTED. [Rises and moves about the roowz.] What else could I possibly do ? HEDDA. But what do you think your husband will say when you go home again ? MRS. ELVSTED. [At the table, looks at her.~\ Back to him ? HEDDA. Of course. MRS. ELVSTED. I shall never go back to him again. HEDDA. [Rising and going towards herJ\ Then you have left your home for good and all ? MRS. ELVSTED. Yes. There was nothing else to be done. HEDDA. But then to take flight so openly MRS. ELVSTED. Oh, it's impossible to keep things of that sort secret. HEDDA. But what do you think people will say of you, Thea ? 46 HEDDA O ABLER. [ACT I. MRS. ELVSTED. They may say what they like, for aught / care. [Seats herself wearily and sadly on the sofa.] I have done nothing but what I had to do. HEDDA. [After a short silence.] And what are your plans now ? What do you think of doing ? MRS. ELVSTED. I don't know yet. I only know this, that I must live here, where Eilert Lovborg is if I am to live at all. HEDDA. [Takes a chair from the table, seats herself beside her, and strokes her hands.] My dear Thea how did this this friendship between you and Eilert Lovborg come about ? MRS. ELVSTED. Oh it grew up gradually. I gained a sort of influence over him. HEDDA. Indeed ? MRS. ELVSTED. He gave up his old habits. Not because I asked him to, for I never dared do that. But of course he saw how repulsive they were to me ; and so he dropped them. HEDDA. [Concealing an 'involuntary/ smile of scorn.] Then you have reclaimed him as the saying goes my little Thea. ACT I.] HEDDA GABLEH. 47 MRS. ELVSTED. So he says himself, at any rate. And he, on his side, has made a real human being of me taught me to think, and to understand so many things. HEDDA. Did he give you lessons too, then ? MRS. ELVSTED. No, not exactly lessons. But he talked to me talked about such an infinity of things. And then came the lovely, happy time when I began to share in his work when he allowed me to help him! HEDDA. Oh he did, did he ? MRS. ELVSTED. Yes ! He never wrote anything without my assistance. HEDDA. You were two good comrades, in fact ? MRS. ELVSTED. [Eagerly.] Comrades ! Yes, fancy, Hedda that is the very word he used ! Oh, I ought to feel perfectly happy ; and yet I cannot ; for I don't know how long it will last. HEDDA. Are you no surer of him than that ? MRS. ELVSTED. [Gloomily.] A woman's shadow stands between Eilert Lovberg and me. 48 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT I HEDDA. [Looks at her anxiously.] Who can that be ? MRS. ELVSTED. I don't know. Some one he knew in his in his past. Some one he has never been able wholly to forget. HEDDA. What has he told you about this ? MRS. ELVSTED. He has only once quite vaguely alluded to it. HEDDA. Well ! And what did he say ? MRS. ELVSTED. He said that when they parted, she threatened to shoot him with a pistol. HEDDA. [With cold composure.] Oh nonsense ! No one does that sort of thing here. MRS. ELVSTED. No. And that is why I think it must have been that red-haired singing-woman whom he once HEDDA. Yes, very likely. MRS. ELVSTED. For I remember they used to say of her that she carried loaded firearms. ACT I.] HEDDA GABLER. 49 HEDDA. Oh then of course it must have been she. MRS. ELVSTED. [Wringing her hands.] And now just fancy, Hedda I hear that this singing- woman that she is in town again ! Oh, I don't know what to do HEDDA. [Glancing towards the inner room.] Hush ! Here comes Tesman. [Rises and whispers. J Thea all this must remain between you and me. MRS. ELVSTED. [Springing up] Oh yes yes ! For heaven's sake .' GEORGE TESMAN, with a letter in his hand, comes from the right through the inner room. TESMAN. There now the epistle is finished. HEDDA. That's right. And now Mrs. Elvsted is just going. Wait a moment I'll go with you to the garden gate. TESMAN. Do you think Berta could post the letter, Hedda dear ? HEDDA. [Takes it.] I will tell her to. 50 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT I. BERTA enters from the hall. BERTA. Judge Brack wishes to know if Mrs. Tesraan will receive him. HEDDA. Yes, ask Judge Brack to come in. And look here put this letter in the post. BERTA. [Taking the letter.] Yes, ma'am. [She opens the door for JUDGE BRACK and goes out herself. BRACK is a man of forty-five ; thick set, but well-built and elastic in his movements. His face is roundish with an aristocratic profile. His hair is short, still almost black, and carefully dressed. His eyes are lively and sparkling. His eyebrows thick. His moustaches are also thick, with short-cut ends. He wears a well-cut walking-suit, a little too youthful for his age. He uses an eye-glass, which he now and then lets drop. JUDGE BRACK. [With his hat in his hand, bowing.] May one venture to call so early in the day ? HEDDA. Of course one may. TESMAN. [Presses his hand.] You are welcome at any time. [Introducing him.] Judge Brack Miss Rysing ACT I.] HEDDA GABLER. 51 HEDDA. Oh ! BRACK. [Bowing.] Ah delighted HEDDA. [ Looks at him and laughs.] It's nice to have a look at you by daylight, Judge ! BRACK. Do you find me altered ? HEDDA. A little younger, I think. BRACK. Thank you so much. TESMAN. But what do you think of Hedda eh ? Doesn't she look flourishing ? She has actually HEDDA. Oh, do leave me alone. You haven't thanked Judge Brack for all the trouble he has taken BRACK. Oh, nonsense it was a pleasure to me HEDDA. Yes, you are a friend indeed. But here stands Thea all impatience to be off so au revoir Judge. I shall be back again presently. [Mutual salutations. MRS. ELVSTED and HEDDA go out by the hall door. 52 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT 1. BRACK. Well, is your wife tolerably satisfied TESMAN. Yes, we can't thank you sufficiently. Of course she talks of a little re-arrangement here and there ; and one or two things are still wanting, We shall have to buy some additional trifles. BRACK. Indeed ! TESMAN. But we won't trouble you about these things. Hedda says she herself will look after what is wanting. Shan't we sit down ? Eh ? BRACK. Thanks, for a moment. [Seats himself beside the tabled] There is something I wanted to speak to you about, my dear Tesman. TESMAN. Indeed ? Ah, I understand ! [Seating himself.] I suppose it's the serious part of the frolic that is coming now. Eh ? BRACK. Oh, the money question is not so very pressing ; though, for that matter, I wish we had gone a little more economically to work. TESMAN. But that would never have done, you know ! Think of Hedda, my dear fellow ! You, who know her so well . I couldn't possibly ask her to put up with a shabby style of living ! ACT I.] HEDDA GABLER. 53 BRACK. No, no that is just the difficulty. TESMAN. And then fortunately it can't be long before I receive my appointment. BRACK. Well, you see such things are often apt to hang fire for a time. TESMAN. Have you heard anything definite ? Eh ? BRACK. Nothing exactly definite . [Interrupting himse/f.] But by-the-bye I have one piece of news for you. TESMAN. Well ? BRACK. Your old friend, Eilert Lovborg, has returned to town. TESMAN. I know that already. BRACK. Indeed ! How did you learn it ? TESMAN. From that lady who went out with Hedda. BRACK. Really ? What was her name ? I didn't quite catch it. 54 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT I TESMAN. Mrs. Elvsted. BRACK. Aha Sheriff Elvsted's wife ? Of course he has been living up in their regions. TESMAN. And fancy I'm delighted to hear that he is quite a reformed character ! BRACK. So they say, TESMAN. And then he has published a new book eh ? BRACK. Yes, indeed he has. TESMAN. And I hear it has made some sensation ! BRACK. Quite an unusual sensation. TESMAN. Fancy isn't that good news ! A man of such extraordinary talents . I felt so grieved to think that he had gone irretrievably to ruin. BRACK. That was what everybody thought. TESMAN. But t cannot imagine what he will take to now ! How in the world will he be able to make his living ? Eh ? ACT I.] HEDDA OABLER. 55 [During the last words, HEDDA has entered by the hall door. HEDDA. [To BRACK, laughing with a touch of scorn.] Tesman is for ever worrying about how people are to make their living. TESMAN. Well you see, dear we were talking about poor Eilert Lovborg. HEDDA. [Glancing at him rapidly.] Oh, indeed ? [Seats herself in the arm-chair beside the stove and asks indifferently :] What is the matter with him? TESMAN. Well no doubt he has run through all his property long ago ; and he can scarcely write a new book every year eh ? So I really can't see what is to become of him. BRACK. Perhaps I can give you some infotmation on that point. TESMAN. Indeed ! BRACK. You must remember that his relations have a ood deal of influence. TESMAN. Oh, his relations, unfortunately, have entirely washed their hands of him. 56 HEDDA GABLF.R. [ACT I, BRACK. At one time they called him the hope of the family. TESMAN. At one time, yes ! But he has put an end to all that. HEDDA. Who knows ? [ With a slight smile .] I hear they have reclaimed him up at Sheriff Elvsted's BRACK. And then this book that he has published TESMAN. Well well, I hope to goodness they may find something for him to do. I have just written to him. I asked him to come and see us this even- ing, Hedda dear. BRACK. But my dear fellow, you are booked for my bachelors' party this evening. You promised on the pier last night. HEDDA. Had you forgotten, Tesman ? TESMAN. Yes, I had utterly forgotten. BRACK. But it doesn't matter, for you may be sure he won't come. TESMAN What makes you think that ? Eh ? ACT I.] HEDDA GABLER. 57 BRACK. [With a little hesitation, rising and resting his hands on Ike back of his chair.] My dear Tes- man and you too, Mrs. Tesman I think I ought not to keep you in the dark about some- thing that that TESMAN. That concerns Eilert ? BRACK. Both you and him. TESMAN. Well, my dear Judge, out with it. BRACK. You must be prepared to find your appointment deferred longer than you desired or expected. TESMAN. [Jumping up uneasily.] Is there some hitch about it? Eh? BRACK. The nomination may perhaps be made con- ditional on the result of a competition TESMAN. Competition ! Think of that, Hedda ! HEDDA. [Leans further back in the chair.] Aha aha ! TESMAN. But who can my competitor be? Surely not ? 58 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT I. BRACK. Yes, precisely Eilert Lovborg. TESMAN. [Clasping his hands.] No, no it's quite incon- ceivable ! Quite impossible ' Eh ? BRACK. H'm that is what it may come to, all the same. TESMAN. Well but, Judge Brack it would show the most incredible lack of consideration for me. [Gesticulates with his arms.] For just think I'm a married man ! We have married on the strength of these prospects, Hedda and I ; and run deep into debt ; and borrowed money from Aunt Julia too. Good heavens, they had as good as promised me the appointment. Eh ? BRACK. Well, well, well no doubt you will get it in the end ; only after a contest. HEDDA. [Immovable in her arm-chair.] Fancy, Tesman, there will be a sort of sporting interest in that. TESMAN. Why, my dearest Hedda, how can you be so indifferent about it. HEDDA. [As before.] 1 am not at all indifferent. I am most eager to see who wins. ACT I.] HEDUA OABLF.R. 59 BRACK. In any case, Mrs. Tesman, it is best that you should know how matters stand. I mean before you set about the little purchases I hear you are threatening. HEDDA. This can make no difference. BRACK. Indeed ! Then I have no more to say. Good- bye ! [To TESMAN.] I shall look in on my way back from my afternoon walk, and take you home with me. TESMAN. Oh yes, yes your news has quite upset me. HEDDA. [Reclining, holds out her hand.] Good-bye, Judge ; and be sure you call in the afternoon. BRACK. Many thanks. Good-bye, good-bye ! TESMAN. [Accompanying him to the door.] Good-bye my dear Judge ! You must really excuse me [JUDGE BRACK goes out by the hall door. TESMAN. [Crosses the room.] Oh Hedda one should never rush into adventures. Eh ? HEDDA. [Looks at him, smiling.] Do you do th?t? 60 HEDDA OABLER. [ACT I. TESMAN. Yes, dear -there is no denying it was adven- turous to go and marry and set up house upon mere expectations. HEDDA. Perhaps you are right there. TESMAN. Well at all events, we have our delightful home, Hedda ! Fancy, the home we both dreamed of the home we were in love with, I may almost say. Eh ? HEDDA. [Rising slowly and wearily.] It was part of our compact that we were to go into society to keep open house. TESMAN. Yes, if you only knew how I had been looking forward to it ! Fancy to see you as hostess in a select circle ! Eh ? Well, well, well for the present we shall have to get on without society, Hedda only to invite Aunt Julia now and then. Oh, I intended you to lead such an utterly dif- ferent life, dear ! HEDDA. Of course I cannot have my man in livery just yet. TESMAN. Oh no, unfortunately. It would be out of the question for us to keep a footman, you know. HEDDA. And the saddle-horse I was to have had ACT I.] HEDDA GABLER. 6l TESMAN. [Aghast.] The saddle-horse ! HEDDA. 1 suppose I must not think of that now. TESMAN. Good heavens, no ! that's as clear as daylight HEDDA. [Goes up the room.] Well, I shall have one thing at least to kill time with in the meanwhile. TESMAN. [Beaming.] Oh thank heaven for that ! What is it, Hedda ? Eh ? HEDDA. [In the middle doorway, looks at him with covert scorn.] My pistols, George. TESMAN. [In alarm.] Your pistols ! HEDDA. [With cold eyes.] General Gabler's pistols. [She goes out through the inner room, to the left. TESMAN. [Rushes up to the middle doorway and calls after her :] No, for heaven's sake, Hedda darling don't touch those dangerous things ! For my sake, Hedda ! Eh ? ACT SECOND The room at ike TESMANS' as in the first Act, except that the piano has been removed, and an elegant little writing-table with book-shelves put in its place. A smaller table stands near the sofa on the left. Most of the bouquets have been taken away. MRS. ELVSTED'S bouquet is upon the large table in front. It is afternoon. HEDDA, dressed to receive callers, is alone in the iriom. She stands by the open glass door, loading a revolver. The felloiv to it lies in an open pistol-case on the writing-table. HEDDA. [Looks down the garden, and calls .] So you are here again, Judge ! BRACK. [/* heard calling from a distance.] As you see, Mrs. Tesman ! HEDDA. [Raises the pistol and points.] Now I'll shoot you, Judge Brack ! BRACK. [Calling unseen.] No, no, no ! Don't stand aiming at me ! HEDDA. This is what comes of sneaking in by the back way. 1 [She fires. 1 " Bagveje " means both " back ways " and " underhand courses. " ACT II.] HEDDA OABLER. 63 BRACK. [Nearer.] Are you out of your senses ! HEDDA. Dear me did I happen to hit you ? BRACK. [Still outside.] I wish you would let these pranks alone ! HEDDA. Come in then, Judge. JUDGE BRACK, dressed as though for a men's party, enters by the glass door. He carries a light overcoat over his arm. BRACK. What the deuce haven't you tired of that sport, yet ? What are you shooting at ? HEDDA. Oh, I am only firing in the air. BRACK. [Gently takes the pistol out of her hand.] Allow me, madam ! [Looks at it.] Ah I know this pistol well ! [Looks around.] Where is the case ? Ah, here it is. [Lays the pistol in it, and shuts it.] Now we won't play at that game any more to-day. HEDDA. Then what in heaven's name would you have me do with myself? BRACK. Have you had no visitors ? 64 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT II. HEDDA. [Closing the glass door.] Not one. I suppose all our set are still out of town. BRACK. And is Tesman not at home either ? HEDDA. [At the writing-table, putting the pistol-case in a drawer which she shutsJ\ No. He rushed off to his aunt's directly after lunch ; he didn't expect you so early. BRACK. H'm how stupid of me not to have thought of that! HEDDA. [Turning her head to look at him.] Why stupid ? BRACK. Because if I had thought of it I should have come a little earlier. HEDDA. [Crossing the room.] Then you would have found no one to receive you ; for I have been in my room changing my dress ever since lunch. BRACK. And is there no sort of little chink that we could hold a parley through ? HEDDA. You have forgotten to arrange one. BRACK. That was another piece of stupidity. ACT II.] HEDDA GABLER. 6.5 HEDDA. Well, we must just settle down here and wait. Tesman is not likely to be back for some time yet. 'BRACK. Never mind ; I shall not be impatient. HEDDA seats herself in the corner of the sofa. BRACK lays his overcoat over the back of the nearest chair, and sits down, but keeps his hat in his hand. A short silence. They look at each other. HEDDA. Well? BRACK. [In the same tone.] Well ? HEDDA I spoke first. BRACK. [Bending a little forward.] Come, let us have cosy little chat, Mrs. Hedda. 1 HEDDA. [Leaning further back in the sofa.\ Does it not seem like a whole eternity since our last talk ? Of course I don't count those few words yesterday evening and this morning. BRACK. You mean since our last confidential talk ? Our last tete-a-tete ? 1 As this form of address is contrary to English usage, and as the note of familiarity would be lacking in "Mrs. Tesman," Brack may, in stage representation, say "Miss Hedda," thus ignoring her marriage and reverting to the form of address no doubt customary between them of old. E 66 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT II. HEDDA. Well yes since you put it so. BRACK. Not a day has passed but I have wished that you were home again. HEDDA. And I have done nothing bujt wish the same thing. BRACK. You ? Really, Mrs. Hedda ? And I thought you had been enjoying your tour so much ! HEDDA. Oh yes, you may be sure of that ! BRACK. But Tesman's letters spoke of nothing but hap- piness. HEDDA. Oh, Tesman! You see, he thinks nothing so delightful as grubbing in libraries and making copies of old parchments, or whatever you call them. BRACK. [With a spice of malice. ] Well, that is his vocation in life or part of it at any rate. HEDDA. Yes, of course ; and no doubt when it's your vocation -. But// Oh, my dear Mr. Brack, how mortally bored I have been. ACT II.] HEDDA OABLER. 67 BRACK. [Sympathetically.] Do you really say so ? In downright earnest ? HEDDA Yes, you can surely understand it ! To go for six whole months without meeting a soul that knew anything of our circle, or could talk about the things we are interested in. BRACK. Yes, yes I too should feel that a deprivation. HEDDA. And then, what I found most intolerable of all BRACK. Well ? HEDDA. was being everlastingly in the company of one and the same person BRACK. [With a nod oj assent.] Morning, noon, and night, yes at all possible times and seasons. HEDDA. I said " everlastingly." BRACK. Just so. But I should have thought, with our excellent Tesman, one could HEDDA. Tesman is a specialist, my dear Judge. 68 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT 11. BRACK. Undeniably. HEDDA. And specialists are not at all amusing to travel with. Not in the long run at any rate. BRACK. Not even the specialist one happens to love ? H EDDA. Faugh don't use that sickening word : BRACK. [ Taken aback.] What do you say, Mrs. Hedda ? HEDDA. [Half laughing, half irritated.] You should just try it ! To hear of nothing but the history of civilisation, morning, noon, and night BRACK. Everlastingly. HEDDA. Yes yes yes ! And then all this about the domestic industry of the middle ages ! That's the most disgusting part of it ! BRACK. [Looks searchingly at her.] But tell me in that case, how am I to understand your ? H'm HEDDA. My accepting George Tesman, you mean ? BRACK. Well, let us put it so. ACT Il.J HEDDA GABLER 69 HEDDA. Good heavens, do you see anything so wonderful in that ? BRACK. Yes and no Mrs. Hedda. HEDDA. I had positively danced myself tired, my dear Judge. My day was done [With a slight shudder.~\ Oh no 1 won't say that ; nor think it either ! BRACK. You have assuredly no reason to. HEDDA. Oh, reasons [Watching him closely J\ And George Tesman after all, you must admit that he is correctness itself. BRACK. His correctness and respectability are beyond all question. HEDDA. And I don't see anything absolutely ridiculous about him. Do you ? BRACK. Ridiculous? N no I shouldn't exactly say so HEDDA. Well and his powers of research, at all events, are untiring. I see no reason why he should not one day come to the front, after all. BRACK. [Isooks at her hesitatingly .] I thought that you, like 70 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT II. every one else, expected him to attain the highest distinction. HEDDA. \Wiih an expression of fatigue.} Yes, so I did. And then, since he was bent, at all hazards, on being allowed to provide for me I really don't know why I should not have accepted his offer ? BRACK. No if you look at it in that light HEDDA. It was more than my other adorers were prepared to do for me, my dear Judge. BRACK. [Laughing.] Well, I can't answer for all the rest ; but as for myself, you know quite well that I have always entertained a a certain respect for the marriage tie for marriage as an institution, Mrs. Hedda. HEDDA. [Jestingly.] Oh, I assure you I have never cherished any hopes with respect to you. BRACK. All I require is a pleasant and intimate interior, where I can make myself useful in every way, and am free to come and go as as a trusted friend HEDDA. Of the master of the house, do you mean ? BRACK. [Bowing.] Frankly of the mistress first of all ; but of course of the master too, in the second ACT II.] HEDDA GABLEtt. 7l place. Such a triangular friendship if I may call it so is really a great convenience for all parties, let me tell you. HEDDA. Yes, I have many a time longed for some one to make a third on our travels. Oh those railway- carriage tete-a-tetes ! BRACK. Fortunately your wedding journey is over now. HEDDA. [Shaking her head.] Not by a long long way. I have only arrived at a station on the line. BRACK. Well, then the passengers jump out and move about a little, Mrs. Hedda. HEDDA. I never jump out. BRACK. Really ? HEDDA, No because there is always some one standing by to BRACK. [Laughing.'] To look at your ankles, do you mean ? HEDDA. Precisely. BRACK. Well but, dear me HEDDA. [With a gesture of repulsion.] I won't have it. 72 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT II I would rather keep my seat where I happen to be and continue the tete-a-tete. BRACK. But suppose a third person were to jump in and join the couple. HEDDA. Ah that is quite another matter ! BRACK. A trusted, sympathetic friend HEDDA. with a fund of conversation on all sorts of lively topics BRACK. and not the least bit of a specialist ! HEDDA. [With an audible sigh.] Yes, that would be a relief indeed. BRACK. [Hears the front door open, and glances in that direction.] The triangle is completed. HEDDA. [Half aloud.] And on goes the train. GEORGE TESMAN, in a grey walking- suit, with a soft felt hat, enters from the hall. He has a number of unbound books under his arm and in his pockets. TESMAN. [Goes up to the table beside the corner settee.] Ouf what a load for a warm day all these books. ACT II.] HEDDA OABLER. 73 [Lays them on the table. ,] I'm positively perspiring, Hedda. Hallo are you there already, my dear Judge ? Eh ? Berta didn't tell me. BRACK. [Rising.] I came in through the garden. HEDDA. What books have you got there ? TESMAN. [Stands looking them through.] Some new books on my special subjects quite indispensable to me. HEDDA. Your special subjects ? BRACK. Yes, books on his special subjects, Mrs. Tesman. [BRACK and HEDDA exchange a confidential smile. HEDDA. Do you need still more books on your special subjects ? TESMAN. Yes, my dear Hedda, one can never have too many of them. Of course one must keep up with all that is written and published. HEDDA. Yes, I suppose one must. TESMAN. [Searching among his books.] And look here I have got hold of Eilert Lovborg's new book too. 74 HEDDA OABLER. [ACT 11. [Offering it to her] Perhaps you would like to glance through it, Hedda ? Eh ? HEDDA. No, thank you. Or rather afterwards perhaps. TESMAN. I looked into it a little on the way home. BRACK. Well, what do v ou think of it as a specialist ? TESMAN. I think it shows quite remarkable soundness of judgment. He never wrote like that before. [Putting the books together.] Now I shall take all these into my study. I'm longing to cut the leaves ! And then I must change my clothes. [To BRACK.] I suppose we needn't start just yet ? Eh ? BRACK. Oh, dear 110 there is not the slightest hurry. TESMAN. Well then, I will take my time. [Is going with his books, but stops in the doorway and turns.] By- the-bye, Hedda Aunt Julia is not coming this evening. HEDDA. Not coming ? Is it that affair of the bonnet that keeps her away ? TESMAN. Oh, not at all. How could you think such a thing of Aunt Julia ? Just fancy ! The fact is, Aunt Rina is very ill. ACT 11.] HEDDA GABLER. 75 HEDDA. She always is. TESMAN. Yes, but to-day she is much worse than usual, poor dear. HEDDA. Oh, then it's only natural that her sister should remain with her. 1 must bear my disappoint- ment. TESMAN, And you can't imagine, dear, how delighted Aunt Julia seemed to be because you had come home looking so flourishing ! HEDDA. [Half aloud, rising.'] Oh, those everlasting Aunts ! TESMAN. What ? HEDDA. [Going to the glass door.] Nothing. TESMAN. Oh, all right. [He goes through the inner room, out to (he right. BRACK. What bonnet were you talking about ? HEDDA. Oh, it was a little episode with Miss Tesmau this morning. She had laid down her bonnet on the chair there [Looks at him and smiles.] and I pretended to think it was the servant's. 76 HEDDA OABLER. [ACT II. BRACK. [Shaking his head.] Now my dear Mrs. Hedda. how could you do such a thing ? To that excel- lent old lady, too ! HEDDA. [Nervously crossing the room] Well, you see these impulses come over me all of a sudden ; and I cannot resist them. [Throws herself doivn in the easy-chair by the stove.] Oh, 1 don't know how to explain it. BRACK. [Behind the easy-chair.] You are not really happy that is at the bottom of it. HEDDA. [Looking straight before her] I know of no reason why I should be happy. Perhaps you can give me one ? BRACK. Well amongst other things, because you have got exactly the home you had set your heart on. HEDDA. [Looks up at him and laughs.] Do you too believe in that legend ? BRACK. Is there nothing in it, then ? HEDDA. Oh yes, there is something in it. BRACK. Well ? ACT II.] HEDDA GABLER. 77 H EDDA. There is this in it, that I made use of Tesman to see me home from evening parties last sum- mer BRACK. I, unfortunately, had to go quite a different way. HEDDA. That's true. I know you were going a different way last summer. BRACK. [Laughing.] Oh fie, Mrs. Hedda ! Well, then you and Tesman ? HEDDA. Well, we happened to pass here one evening ; Tesman, poor fellow, was writhing in the agony of having to find conversation ; so I took pity on the learned man BRACK. [Smiles doubtfully.] You took pity? H'm HEDDA. Yes, I really did. And so to help him out of his torment I happened to say, in pure thought- lessness, that I should like to live in this villa. BRACK. No more than that ? HEDDA. Not that evening. BRACK. But afterwards ? 78 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT II. HEDDA. Yes, my thoughtlessness had consequences, my dear Judge. BRACK. Unfortunately that too often happens, Mrs. Hedcla. HEDDA. Thanks ! So you see it was this enthusiasm for Secretary Falk's villa that first constituted a bond of sympathy between George Tesman and me. From that came our engagement and our marriage, and our wedding journey, and all the rest of it. Well, well, my dear Judge as you make your bed so you must lie, I could almost say. BRACK. This is exquisite ! And you really cared not a rap about it all the time ? HEDDA. No, heaven knows I didn't. BRACK. But now ? Now that we have made it so homelike for you ? HEDDA. Uh the rooms all seem to smell of lavender and dried rose-leaves. But perhaps it's Aunt Julia that has brought that scent with her. BRACK. [laughing.] No, I think it must be a legacy from the late Mrs. Secretary Falk. ACT II.] HEDDA GABLER. 79 HEDDA. Yes, there is an odour of mortality about it. It reminds me of a bouquet the day after the ball. [Clasps her hands behind her head, leans back in her chair and looks at *.MW.] Oh, my dear Judge you cannot imagine how horribly I shall bore myself here. BRACK. Why should not you, too, find some sort of vocation in life, Mrs. Hedda ? HEDDA. A vocation that should attract me ? BRACK. If possible, of course. HEDDA. Heaven knows what sort of a vocation that could be. I often wonder whether [Break- ing off.] But that would never do either. BRACK. Who can tell ? Let me hear what it is. HEDDA. Whether I might not get Tesman to go into politics, I mean. BRACK. [Laughing.'] Tesman ? No really now, political life is not the thing for him not at all in his line. HEDDA. No, I daresay not. But if I could get him into it all the same ? 80 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT II. BRACK. Why what satisfaction could you find in that ? If he is not fitted for that sort of thing, why should you want to drive him into it ? HEDDA. Because I am bored, I tell you ! [After a pause.] So you think it quite out of the question that Tesman should ever get into the ministry ? BRACK. H'm you see, my dear Mrs. Hedda to get into the ministry, he would have to be a tolerably rich man. HEDDA. [Rising impatiently .] Yes, there we have it ! It is this genteel poverty I have managed to drop into ! [Crosses the room.] That is what makes life so pitiable ! So utterly ludicrous ! For that's what it is. BRACK. Now / should say the fault lay elsewhere. HEDDA. Where, then ? BRACK. You have never gone through any really stimu- lating experience. HEDDA. Anything serious, you mean ? BRACK. Yes, you may call it so. But now you may perhaps have one in store. ACT II.] HEDDA GABLER 81 HEDDA. [Tossing her head.] Oh, you're thinking of the annoyances about this wretched professorship ' But that must be Tesman's own affair. I assure you I shall not waste a thought upon it. BRACK. No, no, I daresay not. But suppose now that what people call in elegant language a solemn responsibility were to come upon you ? [Smiling. J A new responsibility, Mrs. Hedda ? HEDDA. [Angrily.] Be quiet ! Nothing of that sort will ever happen ! BRACK. [Warily.] We will speak of this again a year hence at the very outside. HEDDA. [Curtly.] 1 have no turn for anything of the sort, Judge Brack. No responsibilities for me ! BRACK. Are you so unlike the generality of women as to have no turn for duties which ? HEDDA. [Beside the glass door.] Oh, be quiet, I tell you ! I often think there is only one thing in the world I have any turn for. BRACK. [Drawing near to her.] And what is that, if may ask ? x P 82 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT ii. HEDDA. [Stands looking out.] Boring myself to death. Now you know it. [Turns, looks towards the inner room, and laughs. \ Yes, as I thought ' Here comes the Professor. BRACK. [Softly, in a tone of warning.] Come, come, come, Mrs. Hedda ' GEORGE TESMAN, dressed for the party, with Ins gloves and hat in his hand, enters Jrom the nghl through the inner room, TESMAN. Hedda, has no message come from Eilert Lov- borg ? Eh ? HEDDA. No. TESMAN Then you'll see he'll be here presently. BRACK. Do you really think he will come ? TESMAN. Yes, I am almost sure of it. For what you were telling us this morning must have been a mere floating rumour. BRACK. You think so ? TESMAN. At any rate, Aunt Julia said she did not believe for a moment that he would ever stand in my way again. Fancy that ! ACT II.] HEDDA GABLER. 83 BRACK. Well then, that's all right. TESMAN. [Placing his hat and gloves on a chair on the right.] Yes, but you must really let me wait for him as long as possible. BRACK. We have plenty of time yet. None of my guests will arrive before seven or half- past. TESMAN. Then meanwhile we can keep Hedda company, and see what happens. Eh ? HEDDA. [Placing BRACK'S hat and overcoat upon the corner settee.] And at the worst Mr. Lovborg can remain here with me. BRACK. [Offering to take his things.} Oh, allow me, Mrs. Tesman ! What do you mean by "At the worst " ? HEDDA. If he won't go with you and Tesman. TESMAN. [Looks dubiously at her.] But, Hedda dear do you think it would quite do for him to remain with you? Eh? Remember, Aunt Julia can't come. HEDDA. No, but Mrs. Elvsted is coming. We three can have a cup of tea together. 84 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT II. TESMAN. Oh yes, that will be all right. BRACK. [Smiling.] And that would perhaps be the safest plan for him. HEDDA. Why so ? BRACK. Well, you know, Mrs. Tesman, how you used to gird at my little bachelor parties. You declared they were adapted only for men of the strictest principles. HEDDA. But no doubt Mr. Lovborg's principles are strict enough now. A converted sinner [BERTA appears at the hall door. BERTA. There's a gentleman asking if you are at home, ma'am HEDDA. Well, show him in. TESMAN. [Softly.] I'm sure it is he ! Fancy that! EILERT LOVBORG enters from the hall. He is slim and If an ; of the same age as TESMAN, but looks older and somewhat worn-out. His hair and beird are of a blackish brown, his face long and pale, but with patches of colour on the cheek- bones. He is dressed in a well-cut black visiting suit, quite new. He has dark gloves and a silk hat. He stops near the door, and makes a rapid bow, seeming somewhat embarrassed. ACT II.] HEDDA GABLER. 85 TESMAN. [Goes up to him and shakes him warmly by the hand.] Well, my dear Eilert so at last we meet again ! EILERT LOVBORG. [Speaks in a subdued voice.] Thanks for your letter, Tesman. [Approaching HEDDA.] Will you too shake hands with me, Mrs. Tesman ? HEDDA. [Talcing his hand.] I am glad to see you, Mr. Lovborg \With a motion of her hand.] I don't know whether you two gentlemen ? LOVBORG. [Boiving slightly.] Judge Brack, I think. BRACK. [Doing likewise.] Oh yes, in the old days TESMAN. [To LOVBORG, with his hands on his shoulders.] And now you must make yourself entirely at home, Eilert ! Musn't he, Hedda ? For I hear you are going to settle in town again ? Eh ? LOVBORG. Yes, I am. TESMAN. Quite right, quite right. Let me tell you, I have got hold of your new book ; but I haven't had time to read it yet. LOVBORG. You may spare yourself the trouble. 86 HEDDA GABLE R. [ACT II. TESMAN. Why so ? LOVBORG. Because there is very little in it. TESMAN. Just fancy how can you say so? BRACK. But it has been very much praised, I hear. LOVBORG. That was what I wanted ; so I put nothing into the book but what every one would agree with. BRACK. Very wise of you. TESMAN. Well but, my dear Eilert .' LOVBORG. For now I mean to win myself a position again to make a fresh start. TESMAN. [A little embarrassed.] Ah, that is what you wish to do ? Eh ? LOVBORG. [Smiling, lays down his hat, and draws a packet, wrapped in paper, from his coat pocket] But when this one appears, George Tesman, you will have to read it. For this is the real book the book I have put my true self into. TESMAN. Indeed ? And what is it ? ACT II.] HEDDA OABLER. 8? LoVBORG. It is the continuation. TESMAN. The continuation ? Of what ? LOVBORO. Of the book. TESMAN Of the new book ? LOVBORO. Of course TESMAN. Why, my dear Eilert does it not come down to our own days ? LOVBORC. Yes, it does; and this one deals with the future. TESMAN. With the future ! But, good heavens, we know nothing of the future ! LOVBORG. No ; but there is a thing or two to be said about it all the same. [Opens the packet.} Look here TESMAN. Why, that's not your handwriting. LOVBORG. I dictated it. [Turning over the pages.] It falls into two sections. The first deals with the civilis- ing forces of the future. And here is the second - [running through the pages towards the end] fore- casting the probable line of development. 88 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT II. TESMAN. How odd now ' I should never have thought of writing anything of that sort. HEDDA [At Ike glass door, drumming on the pane.] H'm . I daresay not. LOVBORG. [Replacing the manuscript in its paper and laying the packet on the table.] I brought it, thinking 1 might read you a little of it this evening. TESMAN. That was very good of you, Eilert. But this evening ? [Looking at BRACK.] 1 don't quite see how we can manage it LOVBORG. Well then, some other time. There is no hurry. BRACK. I must tell you, Mr. Lovborg there is a little gathering at my house this evening mainly in honour of Tesman, you know LOVBORG. [Looking for his liat.~\ Oh then I won't detain you BRACK. No, but listen will you not do me the favour of joining us ? LOVBORG. [Curtly and decidedly.] No, I can't thank you very much. ACT II.] UK. 1)1) \ GABLER. 89 BRACK. Oh, nonsense do ! We shall be quite a select little circle. And I assure you we shall have a " lively time," as Mrs. Hed as Mrs. Tesman says. LOVBORG. I have no doubt of it. But nevertheless BRACK. And then you might bring your manuscript with you, and read it to Tesman at my house. I could give you a room to yourselves. TESMAN. Yes, think of that, Eilert, why shouldn't you ? Eh? HEDDA. [Interposing.] But, Tesman, if Mr. Lovborg would really rather not ! I am sure Mr. Lovborg is much more inclined to remain here and have supper with me. LOVBORG. [Looking at her.] With you, Mrs. Tesman ? HEDDA. And with Mrs. Elvsted. LOVBORG. Ah [Lightly.] I saw her for a moment this morning. HEDDA. Did you ? Well, she is coming this evening. So you see you are almost bound to remain, Mr. Lovborg, or she will have no one to see her home. 90 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT II. LOVBORG. That's true. Many thanks, Mrs. Tesman in that case I will remain. HEDDA. Then I have one or two orders to give the servant- [She goes to tlie hall door and rings. BERTA enters. HEDDA talks to her in a whisper, and points towards the inner room. BERTA nods and goes out again. TESMAN. [At the same time, to LOVBORG.] Tell me, Eilert is it this new subject the future that you are going to lecture about ? LOVBORG. Yes. TESMAN. They told me at the bookseller's that you are going to deliver a course of lectures this autumn. LOVBORG. That is my intention. I hope you won't take it ill, Tesman. TESMAN. Oh no, not in the least ! But ? LOVBORG. I can quite understand that it must be disagree- able to you. TESMAN. [Cast down.] Oh, I can't expect you, out of consideration for me, to ACT II.] HEDDA GABLER. 91 Lb'VBORG. But I shall wait till you have received your appointment. TESMAN. Will you wait ? Yes but yes but are you not going to compete with me ? Eh ? LOVBORO. No ; it is only the moral victory I care for. TESMAN. Why, bless me then Aunt Julia was right after all ! Oh yes I knew it ! Hedda ! Just fancy Eilert Lovborg is not going to stand in our way ! HEDDA. [Curtly.] Our way? Pray leave me out of the question. [She goes up towards the inner room, where BERTA is placing a tray with decanters and glasses on the table. HEDDA nods approval, and comes fonvard again. BERTA goes out. TESMAN. [At the same time.] And you, Judge Brack what do you say to this ? Eh ? BRACK. Well, I say that a moral victory h'm may be all very fine TESMAN. Yes, certainly. But all the same HEDDA. [Looking at TESMAN with a cold smile.] You 92 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT II. stand there looking as if you were thunder- struck TESMAN. Yes so I am I almost think BRACK. Don't you see, Mrs. Tesman, a thunderstorm has just passed over ? HEDDA. [Pointing towards the inner room.] Will you not take a glass of cold punch, gentlemen ? BRACK. [Looking at his watch] A stirrup-cup ? Yes, it wouldn't come amiss. TESMAN. A capital idea, Hedda ! Just the thing ! Now that the weight has been taken off my mind HEDDA. Will you not join them, Mr. Lovborg ? LOVBORG. [With a gesture of refusal.] No, thank you. Nothing for me. BRACK. Why bless me cold punch is surely not poison. LOVBORG. Perhaps not for every one. HEDDA. I will keep Mr. Lovborg company in the meantime. ACT II.] HEDDA GABLER. 93 TESMAN. Yes, yes, Hedda dear, do. [He and BRACK go into the inner room, seat themselves, drink punch, smoke cigarettes, and carry on a lively conversa- tion during what follows. EILERT Lov- BORO remains standing beside the stove. HEDDA goes to the writing-table. HEDDA. [Raising her voice m little*] Do you care to look at some photographs, Mr. Lovborg ? You know Tesman and I made a tour in the Tyrol on our way home ? [She takes up an album, and places it on the table beside the sofa, in the further corner of which she seats herself. EILERT LOVBORG approaches, stops, and looks at her. Then he takes a chair and seals him- self to her left, with his back towards the inner room. HEDDA. [Opening the album.] Do you see this range of mountains, Mr. Lovborg ? It's the Ortler group. Tesman has written the name underneath. Here it is : " The Ortler group near Meran." LOVBORG. [ Who has never taken his eyes off her, says softly and slowly :] Hedda Gabler ! HEDDA. [Glancing hastily at him.] Ah ! Hush ! LOVBORG. [Repeals softly.] Hedda Gabler! 94 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT II. HEDDA. [Looking at the album.] That was my name in the old days when we two knew each other. LOVBORG. And I must teach myself never to say Hedda Gabler again never, as long as I live. HEDDA. [Still turning over the pages.] Yes, you must. And I think you ought to practise in time. The sooner the better, I should say. LOVBORG. [In a tone of indignation.] Hedda Gabler mar- ried ? And married to George Tesman ! HEDDA. Yes so the world goes. LOVBORO. Oh, Hedda, Hedda how could you 1 throw yourself away ! HEDDA. [Looks sharply at him.] What ? I can't allow this ! LOVBORG. What do you mean ? [TESMAN comes into the room and goes towards the sofa. HEDDA. [Hears him coming and says in an indifferent tone.] And this is a view from the Val d'Ampezzo, Mr. 1 He uses the familiar d*. ACT II.] HEDDA GABLER. 95 Lovborg. Just look at these peaks ! [Looks affectionately up at TESMAN.] What's the name of these curious peaks, dear ? TESMAN. Let me see. Oh, those are the Dolomites. HEDDA. Yes, that's it ! Those are the Dolomites, Mr. Lovborg. TESMAN. Hedda dear, I only wanted to ask whether I shouldn't bring you a little punch after all ? For yourself at any rate eh ? HEDDA. Yes, do, please ; and perhaps a few biscuits. TESMAN. No cigarettes ? HEDDA. No. TESMAN. Very well. [He goes into the inner room and out to the right. BRACK sits in the inner room, and keeps an eye from time to time on HEDDA and LOVBORG. LOVBORG. [Softly, as before.] Answer me, Hedda how could you go and do this ? HEDDA. [Apparently absorbed in the album.] If you con- tinue to say du to me I won't talk to you. 96 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT II. LOVBORG. May I not say du even when we are alone ? HEDDA. No. You may think it ; but you mustn't say it. LOVBORG. Ah, I understand. It is an offence against George Tesman, whom you 1 love. HEDDA. [Glances at him and smiles.] Love ? What an idea ! LOVBORG. You don't love him then ! HEDDA. But I won't hear of any sort of unfaithfulness ! Remember that. LOVBORG. Hedda answer me one thing HEDDA. Hush! [TESMAN enters with a small tray from the inner room. TESMAN. Here you are ! Isn't this tempting ? [He puts the tray on the table. HEDDA. Why do you bring it yourself ? From this point onward Lovborg uses the formal De. ACT II.] HEDDA GABLER. 9? TESMAN. [Filling the glasses.] Because I think it's such fun to wait upon you, Hedda. HEDDA. But you have poured out two glasses. Mr. Lovborg said he wouldn't have any TESMAN. No, but Mrs. Elvsted will soon be here, won't she? HEDDA. Yes, by-the-bye Mrs. Elvsted TESMAN. Had you forgotten her ? Eh ? HEDDA. We were so absorbed in these photographs. [Shows him a picture.] Do you remember this little village ? TESMAN. Oh, it's that one just below the Brenner Pass. It was there we passed the night HEDDA. and met that lively party of tourists. TESMAN. Yes, that was the place. Fancy if we could only have had you with us, Eilert ! Eh ? [He returns to the inner room and sits beside BRACK. LOVBORG. Answer me this one thing, Hedda x o 98 HEDDA GABLER. j^ACT II. HEDDA. Well ? LOVBORG. Was there no love in your friendship for me either ? Not a spark not a tinge of love in it? HEDDA. I wonder if there was ? To me it seems as though we were two good comrades two thoroughly intimate friends. [Smilingly.] You especially were frankness itself. LOVBORG. It was you that made me so. HEDDA. As I look back upon it all, I think there was really something beautiful, something fascinating something daring in in that secret intimacy that comradeship which no living creature so much as dreamed of. LOVBORG. Yes, yes, Hedda ! Was there not ? When I used to come to your father's in the afternoon and the General sat over at the window reading his papers with his back towards us HEDDA. And we two on the corner sofa LOVBORG. Always with the same illustrated paper before HEDDA. For want of an album, yes. ACT II.] HEDDA GABLER. 99 LbVBORG. Yes, Hedda, and when I made my confessions to you told you about myself, things that at that time no one else knew ! There I would sit and tell you of my escapades my days and nights of devilment. Oh, Hedda what was the power in you that forced me to confess these things ? HEDDA. Do you think it was any power in me ? LOVBORG. How else can I explain it ? And all those those roundabout questions you used to put to me HEDDA. Which you understood so particularly well LOVBORG. How could you sit and question me like that ? Question me quite frankly HEDDA. In roundabout terms, please observe. LOVBORG. Yes, but frankly nevertheless. Cross-question me about all that sort of thing ? HEDDA. And how could you answer, Mr. Lovborg ? LOVBORG. Yes, that is just what I can't understand in looking back upon it. But tell me now, Hedda was there not love at the bottom of our friend- 100 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT LI. ship ? On your side, did you not feel as though you might purge my stains away if I made you my confessor ? Was it not so ? HEDDA. No, not quite. LOVBORG. What was your motive, then ? HEDDA. Do you think it quite incomprehensible that a young girl when it can be done without any one knowing LOVBORG. Well ? HEDDA. should be glad to have a peep, now and then, into a world which LOVBORG. Which ? HEDDA. -"which she is forbidden to know anything about ? LOVBORG. So that was it ? HEDDA, Partly. Partly I almost think. LOVBORG. Comradeship in the thirst for life. But why should not that, at any rate, have continued ? HEDDA. The fault was yours. ACT II.] HEDDA GABLER. 101 Lo'VBORG. It was you that broke with me. HEDDA. Yes, when our friendship threatened to develop into something more serious. Shame upon you, Eilert Lovborg ! How could you think of wrong- ing your your frank comrade ? LOVBORG. [Clenching his hands.] Oh, why did you not carry out your threat ? Why did you not shoot me down ? HEDDA. Because I have such a dread of scandal. LOVBORG. Yes, Hedda, you are a coward at heart. HEDDA. A terrible coward. [Changing her tone.] But it was a lucky thing for you. And now you have found ample consolation at the Elvsteds'. LOVBORG. I know what Thea has confided to you. HEDDA. And perhaps you have confided to her some- thing about us ? LOVBORG. Not a word. She is too stupid to understand anything of that sort. HEDDA. Stupid ? 102 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT II. LOVBORG. She is stupid about matters of that sort. HEDDA. And 1 am cowardly. \Bends over towards him, without looking him in the face, and says more softly :] But now I will confide something to you. LOVBORG. [Eagerly.] Well ? HEDDA. The fact that I dared not shoot you down LOVBORG. Yes! HEDDA. that was not my most arrant cowardice that evening. LOVBORG. [Looks at her a moment, understands, and whispers passionately.] Oh, Hedda ! Hedda Gabler ! Now I begin to see a hidden reason beneath our com- radeship ! You * and I ! After all, then, it was your craving for life HEDDA. [Softly, with a sharp glance] Take care ! Believe nothing of the sort ! [Twilight has begun to fall. The hall door is opened from without by BERT A. HEDDA. [Closes the album with a bang and calls smilingly :] Ah, at last ! My dariing Thea, corne along ! 1 In this speech he once more says du, Hedda addresses hjm throughout as De, ACT II.] HEDDA OABLER. 103 MRS. ELVSTED enters from the hall. She is in evening dress. The door is closed behind her. HEDDA. [O the sofa, stretches out her arms towards her.] My sweet Thea you can't think how I have been longing for you ! [Mas. ELVSTED, in passing, exchanges slight salutations with the gentlemen in the inner room, then goes up to the table and gives HEDDA her hand. EILERT LOVBORG has risen. He and MRS. ELVSTED greet each other with a silent nod. MRS. ELVSTED. Ought I to go in and talk to your husband for a moment ? HEDDA. Oh, not at all. Leave those two alone. They will soon be going. MRS. ELVSTED. Are they going out ? HEDDA. Yes, to a supper-party. MRS. ELVSTED. [Quickly, to LOVBORG.] Not you? LOVBORG. No. HEDDA. Mr. Lovborg remains with us. 104 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT It. MRS. ELVSTED. [Takes a chair and is about to seat herself at his side.] Oh, how nice it is here ! HEDDA. No, thank you, my little Thea ! Not there! You'll be good enough to come over here to me. I will sit between you. MRS. ELVSTED. Yes, just as you please. [She goes round the table and seats herself on the sofa on HEDDA'S right. LOVBORG re-seats himself on his chair. LOVBORG. [After a short pause, to HEDDA.] Is not she lovely to look at ? HEDDA. [Lightly stroking her hair.] Only to look at ? LOVBORG. Yes. For we two she and I we are two real comrades. We have absolute faith in each other ; so we can sit and talk with perfect frankness HEDDA. Not round about, Mr. Lovborg? LOVBORG. Well MRS. ELVSTED. [Softly clinging close to HEDDA.] Oh, how happy I am, Hedda ! For, only think, he says I have inspired him loo. ACT II.] HEDDA GABLER. 105 HEDDA. [Looks at her with a smile.] Ah ! Does he say that, dear ? LOVBORG. And then she is so brave, Mrs. Tesman ! MRS. EL VST ED. Good heavens am I brave ? LOVBORO. Exceedingly where your comrade is concerned. HEDDA. Ah yes courage ! If one only had that ! LOVBORG. What then ? What do you mean ? HEDDA. Then life would perhaps be liveable, after all. [ With a sudden change of tone. ] But now, my dearest Thea, you really must have a glass of cold punch. MRS. ELVSTED. No, thanks I never take anything of that kind. HEDDA. Well then, you, Mr. Lovborg. LOVBORG. Nor I, thank you. MRS. ELVSTED. No, he doesn't either. 106 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT II. HEDDA. [Looks fixedly at him.} But if I say you shall ? LOVBORG. It would be no use. HEDDA. [Laughing.] Then I, poor creature, have no sort of power over you ? LOVBORG. Not in that respect. HEDDA. But seriously, I think you ought to for your own sake. MRS. ELVSTED. Why, Hedda ! LOVBORG. How so ? HEDDA. Or rather on account of other people. LOVBORG. Indeed ? HEDDA. Otherwise people might be apt to suspect that in your heart of hearts you did not feel quite secure quite confident in yourself. MRS. ELVSTED. [Softly.] Oh please, Hedda : LOVBORG. People may suspect what they like for the present. ACT II.] HEDDA GABLER. 107 MRS. ELVSTED. [Joyfully. ~\ Yes, let them ! HEDDA. I saw it plainly in Judge Brack's face a moment ago. Lb'VBORG. What did you see ? HEDDA. His contemptuous smile, when you dared not go with them into the inner room. LOVBORG. Dared not ? Of course I preferred to stop here and talk to yo u. MRS. ELVSTED. What could be more natural, Hedda ? HEDDA. But the Judge could not guess that. And I saw, too, the way he smiled and glanced at Tesman when you dared not accept his invitation to this wretched little supper-party of his. LOVBORO. Dared not ! Do you say I dared not ? HEDDA. / don't say so. But that was how Judge Brack understood it. LOVBORO. Well, let him. HEDDA. Then you are not going with them ? 108 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT II. Lo'VBORG. I will stay here with you and Thea. MRS. ELVSTED. Yes, Hedda how can you doubt that ? HEDDA. [Smiles and nods approvingly to LOVBORG.] Firm as a rock ! Faithful to your principles, now and for ever ! Ah, that is how a man should be ! [Turns to MRS. ELVSTED and caresses her.] Well now, what did 1 tell you, when you came to us this morning in such a state of distraction LOVBORG. [Surprised.'] Distraction ! MRS. ELVSTED. [Terrified.] Hedda oh Hedda ! HEDDA. You can see for yourself! You haven't the slightest reason to be in such mortal terror [Intetrupting herself.] There ! Now we can all three enjoy ourselves ! LOVBORG. [Who has given a start.] Ah what is all this, Mrs. Tesman ? MRS. ELVSTED. Oh my God, Hedda ! What are you saying ? What are you doing ? HEDDA. Don't get excited ! That horrid Judge Brack is sitting watching you. ACT II.] HEDDA GABLER. 109 LOVBORG. So she was in mortal terror ! On my account ! MRS. ELVSTED. [Softly and piteous! yJ\ Oh, Hedda now you have ruined everything ! LOVBORG. [Looks fixedly at her for a moment. His face is distorted.] So that was my comrade's frank con- fidence in me ? MRS. ELVSTED. [Imploringly.] Oh, my dearest friend only let me tell you LOVBORG. [Takes one of the glasses of punch, raises it to his lips, and soys in a loiv, husky voice.] Your health, Thea! [He empties the glass, puts it down, and takes the second. MRS. ELVSTED. [Softly.} Oh, Hedda, Hedda how could you do this? HEDDA. / do it ? / ? Are you crazy ? LOVBORG. Here's to your health too, Mrs. Tesman. Thanks for the truth. Hurrah for the truth ! [He empties the glass and is about to re-Jill it. HEDDA. [Lays her hand on his arm.} Come,come no more for the present. Remember you are going out to supper. 110 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT II. MRS. ELVSTED. No, no, no ! HEDDA. Hush ! They are sitting watching you. LOVBORG. [Putting down the glass. ~\ Now, Thea tell me the truth MRS. ELVSTED. Yes. LOVBORG. Did your husband know that you had come after me ? MRS. ELVSTED. [Wringing her hands .] Oh, Hedda do you hear what he is asking ? LOVBORG. Was it arranged between you and him that you were to come to town and look after me ? Perhaps it was the Sheriff himself that urged you to come ? Aha, my dear no doubt he wanted my help in his office ! Or was it at the card-table that he missed me ? MRS. ELVSTED. [Softly, in agony.] Oh, Lovborg, Lbvborg ! LOVBORG. [Seizes a glass and is on the point of filling it.] Here's a glass for the old Sheriff too ! HEDDA. [Preventing him.] No more just now. Remember, you have to read your manuscript to Tesman. ACT II.] HEDDA GABLER. Ill LOVBORG. [ Calmly, putting down the glass.] It was stupid of me all this, Thea to take it in this way, I mean. Don't be angry with me, my dear, dear comrade. You shall see both you and the others that if I was fallen once now I have risen again ! Thanks to y o u, Thea. MRS. ELVSTED. [Radiant with jot/.] Oh, heaven be praised [BRACK has in the meantime looked at hif> watch. He and TESMAN rise and come into the drawing room. BRACK. [Takes his frett and overcoat] Well, Mrs. Tesman, our time has come. HEDDA. I suppose it has. LOVBORG. [Rising.'] Mine too, Judge Brack. MRS. ELVSTED. [Softly and imploringly] Oh, Lovborg, don't do it! HEDDA. [Pinching her arm.] They can hear you ! MRS. ELVSTED. [With a suppressed shriek.] Ow ! LOVBORG. [To BRACK.] You were good enough to invite me. 112 HEDDA GABLER. ACT II.] BRACK. Well, are you coming after all ? LOVBORG. Yes, many thanks. BRACK. I'm delighted LOVBORG. [To TESMAN, putting the parcel of MS. in his pocket.] I should like to show you one or two things before I send it to the printers. TESMAN. Fancy that will be delightful. But, Hedda dear, how is Mrs. Elvsted to get home ? Eh ? HEDDA. Oh, that can be managed somehow. LOVBORG. [Looking towards the ladies.] Mrs. Elvsted? Of course, I'll come again and fetch her. [Approach- ing.] At ten or thereabouts, Mrs. Tesman ? Will that do ? HEDDA. Certainly. That will do capitally. TESMAN. Well, then, that's all right. But you must not expect me so early, Hedda. HEDDA. Oh, you may stop as long as long as ever you please. ACT II.] HEDDA GABLER. 113 MRS. ELVSTED. [Trying to conceal her anxiety.] Well then, Mr. Lovborg I shall remain here until you come. LOVBORG. [With his hat in his hand.] Pray do, Mrs. Elvsted. BRACK. And now off goes the excursion train, gentle- men ! I hope we shall have a lively time, as a certain fair lady puts it. HEDDA. Ah, if only the fair lady could be present un- seen ! BRACK. Why unseen ? HEDDA. In order to hear a little of your liveliness at first hand, Judge Brack. BRACK. [Laughing.] I should not advise the fair lady to try it. TESMAN. [Also laughing.] Come, you're a nice one Hedda ! Fancy that ! BRACK. Well, good-bye, good-bye, ladies. LOVBORG. [Bowing.] About ten o'clock, then. [BRACK, LOVBORG, and TESMAN go out by the hall door. At the same time, BERTA X H 114 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT II. enters from the inner room with a lighted lamp, which she places on the drawing- room table ; she goes out by the way she came. MRS. ELVSTED. \Who has risen and is wandering restlessly about the room.] Hedda Hedda what will come of all this ? HEDDA. At ten o'clock he will be here. I can see him already with vine-leaves in his hair flushed and fearless MRS. ELVSTED. Oh, I hope he may. HEDDA. And then, you see then he will have regained control over himself. Then he will be a free man for all his days. MRS. ELVSTED. Oh God ! if he would only come as you see him now ! HEDDA. He will come as I see him so, and not other- wise ! [Rises and approaches THEA.] You may doubt him as long as you please ; / believe in him. And now we will try MRS. ELVSTED. You have some hidden motive in this, Hedda ! HEDDA. Yes, I have. I want for once in my life to have power to mould a human destiny. ACT II.] HEDDA GABLER. 115 MRS. ELVSTED. Have you not the power ? HEDDA. I have not and have never had it. MRS. ELVSTEB Not your husband's ? HEDDA. Do you think that is worth the trouble? Oh, if you could only understand how poor I am. And fate has made you so rich ! [Clasps her passion- ately in her arms.] I think I must burn your hair off, after all. MRS. ELVSTED. Let me go ! Let me go ! I am afraid of you, Hedda! BERTA. [In the middle doorway.] Tea is laid in the dining-room, ma'am. HEDDA. Very well. We are coming. MRS. ELVSTED. No, no, no ! I would rather go home alone \ At once ! HEDDA. Nonsense ! First you shall have a cup of tea, you little stupid. And then at ten o'clock Eilert Lovborg will be here with vine-leaves in his hair. [She drags MRS. ELVSTED almost by force towards the middle doorway. ACT THIRD. The room at the TESMANS'. The curtains are drawn over the middle doorway, and also over the glass door. The lamp, half turned dotvn, and with a shade over it, is burning on the table. In the stove, the door of which stands open, there has been a jire, which is now nearly burnt out. MRS. ELVSTED, wrapped in a large shawl, and with her feet upon a foot-rest, sits close to the stove, sunk back in the arm-chair. HEDDA, fully dressed, lies sleeping upon the sofa, with a sofa- blanket over her. MRS. ELVSTED. [After a pause, suddenly sits up in her chair, and listens eagerly. Then she sinks back again wearily, moaning to herself '.] Not yet ! Oh God oh God not yet ! BERTA slips cautiously in by the hall door. She has a letter in her hand. MRS. ELVSTED. [Turns and whispers eagerly.] Well has any one come ? BERTA. \Softly. Yes, a girl has just brought this letter. ACT III.] HEDDA GABLER. 117 MRS. ELVSTED. [Quickly, holding out her hand.] A letter ! Give it to me ! BERTA. No, it's for Dr. Tesman, ma'am. MRS. ELVSTED. Oh, indeed. BERTA. It was Miss Tesman's servant that brought it. I'll lay it here on the table. MRS. ELVSTED. Yes, do. BERTA. [Laying down the letter.] I think I had better put out the lamp. It's smoking. MRS. ELVSTED. Yes, put it out. It must soon be daylight now. BERTA. [Putting out the lamp] It is daylight already, ma'am. MRS. ELVSTED. Yes, broad day ! And no one come back yet ! BERTA. Lord bless you, ma'am I guessed how it would be. MRS. ELVSTED. You guessed ? BERTA. Yes, when I saw that a certain person had come 118 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT III. back to town and that he went off with them. For we've heard enough about that gentleman before now. MRS. ELVSTED. Don't speak so loud. You will waken Mrs. Tes- man. BERTA. [Looks toward,? the sofa and sighs.] No, no let her sleep, poor thing. Shan't I put some wood on the fire ? MRS. ELVSTED. Thanks, not for me. BERTA. Oh, very well. [She goes softly out by the hall door. HEDDA. [fs wakened by the shutting of the door, and looks up.] What's that ? MRS. ELVSTED. It was only the servant HEDDA. [Looking about her.] Oh, we're here ! Yes, now I remember. [Sits erect upon the sofa, stretches herself, and rubs her eyes.] What o'clock is it, Thea ? MRS. ELVSTED. [Looks at her watch.] It's past seven. HEDDA. When did Tesman come home ? ACT III.] HEDDA OABLER. 119 MRS. ELVSTED. He has not come. H EDDA. Not come home yet ? MRS. ELVSTED. [Rising.] No one has come. HEDDA. Think of our watching and waiting here till four in the morning MRS. ELVSTED. [Wringing her hands.] And howl watched and waited for him ! HEDDA. [Yawns, and says with her hand before her mouth.] Well well we might have spared ourselves the trouble. , MRS. ELVSTED. Did you get a little sleep ? HEDDA. Oh yes ; 1 believe I have slept pretty well. Have you not ? MRS. ELVSTED. Not for a moment. I couldn't, Hedda ! not to save my life. HEDDA. [Rises and goes loivards her.] There there there ! There's nothing to be so alarmed about. I under- stand quite well what has happened. ISO HEDDA OABLER. [ACT III. MRS. ELVSTED. Well, what do you think ? Won't you tell me? HEDDA. Why, of course it has been a very late affair at Judge Brack's MRS. ELVSTED. Yes, yes that is clear enough. But all the same HEDDA. And then, you see, Tesman hasn't cared to come home and ring us up in the middle of the night. [Laughing.] Perhaps he wasn't inclined to show himself either immediately after a jollification. MRS. ELVSTED. But in that case where can he have gone ? HEDDA. Of course he has gone to his Aunts' and slept there. They have his old room ready for him. MRS. ELVSTED. No, he can't be with them ; for a letter has just come for him from Miss Tesman. There it lies. HEDDA. Indeed ? [Looks at the address.] Why yes, it's addressed in Aunt Julia's own hand. Well then, he has remained at Judge Brack's. And as for Eilert Lovborg he is sitting, with vine leaves in his hair, reading his manuscript. ACT III.] HEDDA GABLER. 121 MRS. ELVSTED. Oh Hedda, you are just saying things you don't believe a bit. HEDDA, You really are a little blockhead, Thea. MRS. ELVSTED. Oh yes, I suppose I am. HEDDA. And how mortally tired you look. MRS. ELVSTED. Yes, I am mortally tired. HEDDA. Well then, you must do as I tell you. You must go into my room and lie down for a little while. MRS. ELVSTED. Oh no, no I shouldn't be able to sleep. HEDDA. I am sure you would. MRS. ELVSTED. Well, but your husband is certain to come soon now ; and then I want to know at once HEDDA. I shall take care to let you know when he comes. MRS. ELVSTED. Do you promise me, Hedda ? 122 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT III. HEDDA. Yes, rely upon me. Just you go in and have a sleep in the meantime. MRS. ELVSTED. Thanks ; then I'll try to. [She goes off through the inner room. [ H EDDA goes up to the glass door and draws back the curtains. The broad daylight streams into the room. Then she takes a little hand-glass from the writing-table, looks at herself in it, and arranges her hair. Next she goes to the hall door and presses the bell-button. BERTA presently appears at the hall door. BERTA. Did you want anything, ma'am ? HEDDA. Yes; you must put some more wood in the stove. I am shivering. BERTA. Bless me I'll make up the fire at once. [She rakes the embers together and lays a piece of wood upon them ; then stops and listens.} That was a ring at the front door, ma'am. HEDDA. Then go to the door. I will look after the fire. BERTA. It'll soon burn up. [She goes out by the hall door. [HEDDA kneels on the foot-rest and lays some more pieces of wood in the stove. ACT III.] HEDDA GABLER. 123 After a short pause, GEORGE TESMAN enters from the hall. He looks tired and rather serious. He steals on tiptoe towards the middle doorway and is about to slip through the curtains. HEDDA. [At the stove, without looking up.] Good morning. TESMAN. [Turns.] Hedda ! [Approaching her.] Good heavens are you up so early ? Eh ? HEDDA. Yes, I am up very early this morning. TESMAN. And I never doubted you were still sound asleep ! Fancy that, Hedda ! HEDDA. Don't speak so loud. Mrs. Elvsted is resting in my room. TESMAN. Has Mrs. Elvsted been here all night ? HEDDA. Yes, since no one came to fetch her. TESMAN. Ah, to be sure. HEDDA. [Closes the door of the stove and rises.] Well, did you enjoy yourselves at Judge Brack's ? TESMAN. Have you been anxious about me ? Eh ? 124 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT III. HEDDA. No, 1 should never think of being anxious. But I asked if you had enjoyed yourself. TESMAN. Oh yes, for once in a way. Especially the beginning of the evening ; for then Eilert read me part of his book. We arrived more than an hour too early fancy that ! And Brack had all sorts of arrangements to make so Eilert read to me. HEDDA. [Seating herself by the table on the right.'] Well ? Tell me, then TESMAN. [Sitting on a footstool near the stove.] Oh Hedda, you can't conceive what a book that is going to be ! I believe it is one of the most remarkable things that have ever been written. Fancy that ! HEDDA. Yes yes ; I don't care about that TESMAN. I must make a confession to you, Hedda. When he had finished reading a horrid feeling came over me. HEDDA. A horrid feeling ? TESMAN. I felt jealous of Eilert for having had it in him to write such a book. Only think, Hedda ! HEDDA. Yes, yes, I am thinking I ACT III.] HEDDA OABLER. 125 TESMAN. And then how pitiful to think that he with all his gifts should be irreclaimable, after all. HEDDA. I suppose you mean that he has more courage than the rest ? TESMAN. No, not at all I mean that he is incapable of taking his pleasures in moderation. HEDDA. And what came of it all in the end ? TESMAN. Well, to tell the truth, I think it might best be described as an orgie, Hedda. HEDDA. Had he vine-leaves in his hair? TESMAN. Vine-leaves? No, I saw nothing of the sort. But he made a long, rambling speech in honour of the woman who had inspired him in his work that was the phrase he used. HEDDA. Did he name her ? TESMAN. No, he didn't ; but I can't help thinking he meant Mrs. Elvsted. You may be sure he did. HEDDA. Well where did you part from him ? 126 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT III. TESMAN. On the way to town. We broke up the last of us at any rate all together; and Brack came with us to get a breath of fresh air. And then, you see, we agreed to take Eilert home ; for he had had far more than was good for him. HEDDA. I daresay. TESMAN. But now comes the strange part of it, Hedda ; or, I should rather say, the melancholy part of it. I declare I am almost ashamed on Eilert's account to tell you HEDDA. Oh, go on ! TESMAN. Well, as we were getting near town, you see, I happened to drop a little behind the others. Only for a minute or two fancy that ! HEDDA. Yes yes yes, but ? TESMAN. And then, as I hurried after them what do you think I found by the wayside ? Eh ? HEDDA. Oh, how should I know ! TESMAN. You mustn't speak of it to a soul, Hedda ! Do you hear ! Promise me, for Eilert's sake. [Draws a parcel, wrapped in paper, from his coat pocket. Fancy, dear I found this. ACT III.] HEDDA GABLER. 127 HEDDA. Is not that the parcel he had with him yesterday ? TESMAN. Yes, it is the whole of his precious, irreplaceable manuscript ! And he had gone and lost it, and knew nothing about it. Only fancy, Hedda ! So deplorably HEDDA. But why did you not give him back the parcel at once ? TESMAN. I didn't dare to in the state he was then in HEDDA. Did you not tell any of the others that you had found it ? TESMAN. Oh, far from it ! You can surely understand that, for Eilert's sake, I wouldn't do that. HEDDA. So no one knows that Eilert Lovborg's manu- script is in your possession ? TESMAN. No. And no one must know it HEDDA. Then what did you say to him afterwards ? TESMAN. I didn't talk to him again at all ; for when we got in among the streets, he and two or three of the others gave us the slip and disappeared. Fancy that ! 128 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT III. HEDDA. Indeed ! They must have taken him home then. TESMAN. Yes, so it would appear. And Brack, too, left us. HEDDA. And what have you been doing with yourself since ? TESMAN. Well, I and some of the others went home with one of the party, a jolly fellow, and took our morning coffee with him ; or perhaps I should rather call it our night coffee eh ? But now, when I have rested a little, and given Eilert, poor fellow, time to have his sleep out, I must take this back to him. HEDDA. [Holds out her hand for the packet.] No don't give it to him ! Not in such a hurry, I mean. Let me read it first. TESMAN. No, my dearest Hedda, I mustn't, I really mustn't. HEIDA. You must not ? TESMAN. No for you can imagine what a state of des- pair he will be in when he wakens and misses the manuscript. He has no copy of it, you must know ! He told me so. HEDDA. {Looking searchingly at him.} Can such a thing not be reproduced ? Written over agaia ? ACT III.] HEDDA GABLER. 129 TESMAN. No, I don't think that would be possible. For the inspiration, you see HEDDA. Yes, yes I suppose it depends on that [Lightly.] But, by-the-bye here is a letter for you. TESMAN. Fancy HEDDA. [Handing it to him.} It came early this morn- ing. TESMAN. It's from Aunt Julia ! What can it be ? [He lays the packet on the other footstool, opens the letter, runs his eye through it, and jumps up.] Oh, Hedda she says that poor Aunt Rina is dying ! HEDDA. Well, we were prepared for that. TESMAN. And that if I want to see her again, I must make haste. I'll run in to them at once. HEDDA. [Suppressing a smile.] Will you run ? TESMAN. Oh, my dearest Hedda if you could only make up your mind to come with me ! Just think ! HEDDA. [Rises and says wearily, repelling the idea.] No, 130 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT III. no, don't ask me. I will not look upon sickness and death. I loathe all sorts of ugliness. TESMAN. Well, well, then ! [Bustling around.] My hat ? My overcoat ? Oh, in the hall . I do hope I mayn't come too late, Hedda ! Eh ? HEDDA. Oh, if you run [BERTA appears at the hall door. BERTA. Judge Brack is at the door, and wishes to know if he may come in. TESMAN. At this time ! No, I can't possibly see him. HEDDA. But I can. [To BERTA.] Ask Judge Brack to come in. [BERTA goes out. HEDDA. [Quickly, whispering.] The parcel, Tesman ! [She snatches it up from the stool. TESMAN. Yes, give it to me ! HEDDA. No, no, I will keep it till you come back. [She goes to the writing-table and places it in the bookcase. TESMAN stands in a flurry of haste, and cannot get his gloves on. ACT III.] HEDDA GABLER. 131 JUDGE BRACK enters from the hall. HEDDA. [Nodding to him.} You are an early bird, I must say. BRACK. Yes, don't you think so ? [To TESMAN.] Are you on the move, too ? TESMAN. Yes, I must rush off to my aunts'. Fancy the invalid one is lying at death's door, poor creature. BRACK. Dear me, is she indeed ? Then on no account let me detain you. At such a critical moment TESMAN. Yes, I must really rush Good-bye ! Good- bye ! [He hastens out by the hall door. HEDDA. [Approaching.] You seem to have made a particularly lively night of it at your rooms, Judge Brack. BRACK. I assure you I have not had my clothes off, Mrs. Hedda. HEDDA. Not you, either ? BRACK. No, as you may see. But what has Tesman been telling you of the night's adventures ? 132 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT III. HEDDA. Oh, some tiresome story. Only that they went and had coffee somewhere or other. BRACK. I have heard about that coffee-party already. Eilert Lovborg was not with them, I fancy? HEDDA. No, they had taken him home before that. BRACK. Tesman too? HEDD.A. No, but some of the others, he said. BRACK. [Smiling.] George Tesman is really an ingenu- ous creature, Mrs. Hedda. HEDDA. Yes, heaven knows he is. Then is there some- thing behind all this ? BRACK. Yes, perhaps there may be. HEDDA. Well then, sit down, my dear Judge, and tell your story in comfort. [She seats herself to the left of the table. BRACK sits near her, at the long side of the table. HEDDA. Now then ? ACT III.] HEDDA GABLER. 133 BRACK. I had special reasons for keeping track of my guests or rather of some of my guests last night. HEDDA. Of Eilert Lovborg among the rest, perhaps ? BRACK. Frankly yes. HEDDA. Now you make me really curious BRACK. Do you know where he and one or two of the others finished the night, Mrs. Hedda ? HEDDA. If it is not quite unmentionable, tell me. BRACK. Oh no, it's not at all unmentionable. Well, they put in an appearance at a particularly ani- mated soiree. HEDDA. Of the lively kind ? BRACK. Of the very liveliest HEDDA. Tell me more of this, Judge Brack BRACK. Lovborg, as well as the others, had been invited in advance. I knew all about it. But he had 134- HEDDA GABLER. [ACT III. declined the invitation ; for now, as you know, he has become a new man. HEDDA. Up at the Elvsteds', yes. But he went after all, then ? BRACK. Well, you see, Mrs. Hedda unhappily the spirit moved him at my rooms last evening HEDDA. Yes, I hear he found inspiration. BRACK. Pretty violent inspiration. Well, I fancy that altered his purpose ; for we menfolk are unfortu- nately not always so firm in our principles as we ought to be. HEDDA. Oh, I am sure you are an exception, Judge Brack. But as to Lovborg ? BRACK. To make a long story short he landed at last in Mademoiselle Diana's rooms. HEDDA. Mademoiselle Diana's ? BRACK. It was Mademoiselle Diana that was giving the soiree, to a select circle of her admirers and her lady friends. HEDDA. Is she a red-haired woman ? ACT in.] in. UN \ (, \iu.i u. J35 BRACK. Precisely. HEDDA. A sort of a singer ? BRACK. Oh yes in her leisure moments. And more- over a mighty huntress of men Mrs. Hedda. You have no doubt heard of her. Eilert Lovborg was one of her most enthusiastic protectors in the days of his glory. HEDDA. And how did all this end ? BRACK. Far from amicably, it appears. After a most tender meeting, they seem to have come to blows HEDDA. Lovborg and she ? BRACK. Yes. He accused her or her friends of having robbed him. He declared that his pocket-book had disappeared and other things as well. In short, he seems to have made a furious disturbance,, HEDDA. And what came of it all ? BRACK. It came to a general scrimmage, in which the ladies as well as the gentlemen took part. Fortu- nately the police at last appeared on the scene. 136 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT III. HEDDA. The police too ? BRACK. Yes. I fancy it will prove a costly frolic for Eilert Lovborg, crazy being that he is. HEDDA. How so ? BRACK. He seems to have made a violent resistance to have hit one of the constables on the head and torn the coat off his back. So they had to march him off to the police-station with the rest. HEDDA. How have you learnt all this ? BRACK. From the police themselves. HEDDA. [Gazing straight before her.] So that is what happened. Then he had no vine-leaves in his hair. BRACK. Vine-leaves, Mrs. Hedda ? HEDDA. [Changing her toneJ\ But tell me now, Judge what is your real reason for tracking out Eilert Lb'vborg's movements so carefully ? BRACK. In the first place, it could not be entirely indifferent to me if it should appear in the police- court that he came straight from my house. ACT III.] HEDDA OABLER. 137 HEDDA. Will the matter come into court then ? BRACK. Of course. However, I should scarcely have troubled so much about that. But I thought that, as a friend of the family, it was my duty to supply you and Tesman with a full account of his nocturnal exploits. HEDDA. Why so, Judge Brack ? BRACK. Why, because I have a shrewd suspicion that he intends to use you as a sort of blind. HEDDA. Oh, how can you think such a thing ! BRACK. Good heavens, Mrs. Hedda we have eyes in our head. Mark my words ! This Mrs. Elvsted will be in no hurry to leave town again. HEDDA. Well, even if there should be anything between them, I suppose there are plenty of other places where they could meet. BRACK. Not a single home. Henceforth, as before, every respectable house will be closed against Eilert Lovborg. HEDDA. And so ought mine to be, you mean ? 138 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT III. BRACK. Yes. I confess it would be more than painful to me if this personage were to be made free of your house. How superfluous, how intrusive, he would be, if he were to force his way into HEDDA. into the triangle ? BRACK. Precisely. It would simply mean that I should find myself homeless. HEDDA. [Looks at him with a smile.] So you want to be the one cock in the basket 1 that is your aim. BRACK. [Nods slowly and lowers his voice.] Yes, that is my aim. And for that I will fight with every weapon I can command. HEDDA. [Her smile vanishing.] I see you are a dangerous person when it comes to the point. BRACK. Do you think so ? HEDDA. I am beginning to think so. And I am exceed- ingly glad to think that you have no sort of hold over me. 1 " Eneste bane i kurven " a proverbial saying. ACT 111.] HEDDA OABLER. 139 BRACK. [Laughing equivocally.] Well well, Mrs. Hedda perhaps you are right there. If I had, who knows what I might be capable of? HEDDA. Ccme come now, Judge Brack ! That sounds almost like a threat. BRACK. [Rising.] Oh, not at all ! The triangle, you know, ought, if possible, to be spontaneously con- structed. HEDDA. There I agree with you. BRACK. Well, now I have said all I had to say ; and I had better be getting back to town. Good-bye, Mrs. Hedda. [He goes towards the glass door* HEDDA. [Rising] Are you going through the garden ? BRACK. Yes, it's a short cut for me. HEDDA. And then it is a back way, too. BRACK. Quite so. I have no objection to back ways. They may be piquant enough at times. HEDDA. When there is ball practice going on, you mean ? 140 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT III. BRACK. [In the doorway, laughing to her] Oh, people don't sho 3t their tame poultry, I fancy. HEDDA. [Also laughing] Oh no, when there is only one cock in the basket [They exchange laughing nods of farewell. He goes. She closes the door behind him. [HEDDA, who has become quite serious, stands for a moment looking out. Presently she goes and peeps through the curtain over the middle doorway. Then she goes to the writing-table, takes LOVBORG'S packet out of the bookcase, and is on the point oj looking through its contents. BERTA is heard speaking loudly in the hall. HEDDA turns and listens. Then she hastily locks up the packet in the drawer, and lays the key on the inkstand. EILERT LOVBORG, with his greatcoat on and his hat in his hand, tears open the hall door. He looks sometvhat confused and irritated. LOVBORG. [Looking towards the hall] And I tell you I must and will come in ! There ! [He closes the door, turns, sees HEDDA, at once regains his self-control, and bows. HEDDA. [At the writing-table] Well, Mr. Lovborg, this is rather a late hour to call for Thea. ACT III.] HEDDA GABLER. 141 LOVBORG. You mean rather an early hour to call on you. Pray pardon me. HEDDA. How do you know that she is still here ? LOVBORG. They told me at her lodgings that she had been out all night. HEDDA. [Going to the oval table.] Did you notice any- thing about the people of the house when they said that ? LOVBORG. [Looks inquiringly at her.] Notice anything about them ? HEDDA. I mean, did they seem to think it odd ? LOVBORG. [Suddenly understanding] Oh yes, of course ! I am dragging her down with me ! However, I didn't notice anything. I suppose Tesman is not up yet ? HEDDA. No I think not LOVBORG. When did he come home ? HEDDA. Very late. LOVBORG. Did he tell you anything ? 142 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT III. HEDDA. Yes, I gathered that you had had an exceed- ingly jolly evening at Judge Brack's. LOVBORG. Nothing more ? HEDDA. I don't think so. However, I was so dread- fully sleepy MRS. ELVSTED enters through the curtains of the middle doorway. MRS. ELVSTED. [Going towards him.] Ah, Lovborg ! At last ! LOVBORG. Yes, at last. And too late ! MRS. ELVSTED. [Looks anxiously at him.] What is too late ? LOVBORG. Everything is too late now. It is all over with me. MRS. ELVSTED. Oh no, no don't say that ! LOVBORG. You will say the same when you hear MRS. ELVSTEO. I won't hear anything ! ACT III.] HEDDA GABLER. 143 HEDDA. Perhaps you would prefer to talk to her alone I If so, I will leave you. LOVBORG. No, stay you too. I beg you to stay. MRS. ELVSTED. Yes, but I won't hear anything, I tell you. LOVBORG. It is not last night's adventures that I want to talk about. MRS. ELVSTED. What is it then ? LOVBORG. I want to say that now our ways must part. MRS. ELVSTED. Part ! HEDDA. [Involuntarily.] I knew it ! LOVBORG. You can be of no more service to me, Thea. MRS. ELVSTED. How can you stand there and say that ! No more service to you ! Am I not to help you now, as before ? Are we not to go on working together ? LOVBORG. Henceforward I shall do no work. 144 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT III. MRS. ELVSTED. [Despairingly.] Then what am I to do with my life ? LOVBORG. You must try to live your life as if you had never known me. MRS. ELVSTED. But you know I cannot do that ! LOVBORG. Try if you cannot, Thea. You must go home again MRS. ELVSTED. [In vehement protest.] Never in this world ! Where you are, there will I be also ! I will not let myself be driven away like this ! I will remain here ! I will be with you when the book appears. HEDDA. [Half aloud, in suspense.] Ah yes the book ! LOVBORG. [Looks at her.] My book and Thea's ; for that is what it is. MRS. ELVSTED. Yes, I feel that it is. And that is why I have a right to be with you when it appears ! I will see with my own eyes how respect and honour pour in upon you afresh. And the happiness^- the happiness oh, I must share it with you ! LOVBORG. Thea our book will never appear. ACT III.] HEDDA GABLER. 145 HEDDA. Ah! MRS. ELVSTED. Never appear ! LOVBORG. Can never appear. MRS. ELVSTED. [In agonised foreboding.] Lovborg what have you done with the manuscript ? HEDDA. [Looks anxiously at him.] Yes, the manu- script ? MRS. ELVSTED. Where is it ? LOVBORG. Oh Thea don't ask me about it ! MRS. ELVSTED. Yes, yes, I will know. I demand to be told at once. LOVBORG. The manuscript . Well then 1 have torn the manuscript into a thousand pieces. MRS. ELVSTED. [Shrieks.'] Oh no, no ! HEDDA. [Involuntarily.] But that's not LOVBORG. [Looks at her.] Not true, you think ? X K 146 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT III. HEDDA. [Collecting herself.] Oh well, of course since you say so. But it sounded so improbable LOVBORG. It is true, all the same. MRS. ELVSTED. [ Wringing her hands.] Oh God oh God, Hedda torn his own work to pieces ! LOVBORG. I have torn my own lite to pieces. So why should I not tear my life-work too ? MRS. ELVSTED. And you did this last night ? LOVBORG. Yes, I tell you ! Tore it into a thousand pieces and scattered them on the fiord far out. There there is cool sea-water at any rate let them drift upon it drift with the current and the wind. And then presently they will sink deeper and deeper as I shall, Thea. MRS. ELVSTED. Do you know, Lovborg, that what you have done with the book I shall think of it to my dying day as though you had killed a little child. LOVBORG. Yes, you are right. It is a sort of child-murder. ACT III.] HEDDA GABLER. 147 MRS. ELVSTED. How could you, then ! Did not the child belong to me too ? HEDDA. [Almost inaudibly.] Ah, the child MRS. ELVSTED. \Breathingheavily.] It is all over then. Well well, now I will go, Hedda. HEDDA. But you are not going away from town ? MRS. ELVSTED. Oh, I don't know what I shall do. I see nothing but darkness before me. [She goes out by the hall door HEDDA. [Stands waiting for a moment.] So you are not going to see her home, Mr. Lovborg ? LOVBORG. I ? Through the streets ? Would you have people see her walking with me ? H EDDA. Of course I don't know what else may have happened last night. But is it so utterly irre- trievable ? LOVBORG. It will not end with last night I know that perfectly well. And the thing is that now I have no taste for that sort of life either, I won' I 148 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT III. begin it anew. She has broken my courage and ray power of braving life out. HEDDA. [Looking straight before her.] So that pretty little fool has had her fingers in a man's destiny. [Looks at him.] But all the same, how could you treat her so heartlessly. LOVBORG. Oh, don't say that it was heartless ! HEDDA. To go and destroy what has filled her whole soul for months and years ! You do not call that heartless ! LOVBORG. To you I can tell the truth, Hedda. HEDDA. The truth ? LOVBORG. First promise me give me your word that what I now confide to you Thea shall never know. HEDDA. I give you my word. LOVBORG. Good. Then let me tell you that what I said just now was untrue. HEDDA. About the manuscript ? ACT III.] HEDDA GABLER. 149 LOVBORG. Yes. I have not torn it to pieces nor thrown it into the fiord. HEDDA. No, no . But where is it then ? LOVBORG. I have destroyed it none the less utterly destroyed it, Hedda ! HEDDA. I don't understand. LOVBORG. Thea said that what I had done seemed to her like a child -murder. HEDDA. Yes, so she said. LOVBORG. But to kill his child that is not the worst thing a father can do to it. HEDDA. Not the worst r LOVBORG. No. I wanted to spare Thea from hearing the worst. HEDDA. Then what is the worst ? LOVBORG. Suppose now, Hedda, that a man in the small hours of the morning came home to his child's mother after a night of riot and debauchery, and 150 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT III. said : " Listen I have been here and there in this place and in that. And I have taken our child with me to this place and to that. And I have lost the child utterly lost it. The devil knows into what hands it may have fallen who may have had their clutches on it." HEDDA. Well but when all is said and done, you know this was only a book LOVBORG. Thea's pure soul was in that book. HEDDA. Yes, so I understand. LOVBORG. And you can understand, too, that for her and me together no future is possible. HEDDA. What path do you mean to take then ? LOVBORG. None. I will only try to make an end of it all the sooner the better. HEDDA. [A step nearer him.] PLilert Lovborg listen to me. Will you not try to to do it beautifully ? LOVBORG. Beautifully ? [Smiling.] With vine-leaves in my hair, as you used to dream in the old days ? ACT III.] HEDDA GABLER. 151 HEDDA. No, no. I have lost my faith in the the vine- leaves. But beautifully nevertheless ! For once in a way ! Good-bye ! You must go now and do not come here any more. LOVBORG. Good-bye, Mrs. Tesman. And give George Tesman my love. [He is on the point of going. HEDDA. No, wait ! I must give you a memento to take with you. [She goes to the writing-table and opens the drawer and the pistol-case; then returns to LOVBORG with one of the . pistols. LOVBORG. [Looks at herJ\ This ? Is this the memento ? HEDDA. [Nodding slowly.] Do you recognise it ? It was aimed at you once. LOVBORG. You should have used it then. HEDDA. Take it and do you use it now. LOVBORG. [Puts the pistol in his breast pocket.] Thanks ! HEDDA. And beautifully, Eilert Lovborg. Promise m that ! 152 HEDDA OABLER. [ACT III. LoVBORO. Good-bye, Hedda Gabler. [He goes out by the hall door. [HEDDA listens for a moment at the door. Then she goes up to the writing-table, takes out the packet of manuscript, peeps under the cover, draws a few of the sheets half out, and looks at them. Next she goes over and seats herself in the arm- chair beside the stove, with the packet in her lap. Presently she opens the stove door, and then the packet. HEDDA. [ Throws one of the quires into ihejire and whispers to herself. ] Now I am burning your child, Thea ! Burning it, curly-locks ! [Throwing one or two more quires into the stove. ~\ Your child and Eilert Lovborg's. [Throws the rest in.~\ I am burning 1 am burning your child. ACT FOURTH. The same rooms at the TESMANS'. It is evening. The drawing-room is in darkness. The back room is lighted by the hanging lamp over the table. The curtains over the glass door are drawn close. HEDDA, dressed in black, walks to and fro in the dark room. Then she goes into the back room and disappears for a moment to the left. She is heard to strike a few chords on the piano. Pre- sently she comes in sight again, and returns to the drawing-room. BERTA enters from the right, through the inner room, with a lighted lamp, which she places on the table in front of the corner settee in the drawing- room. Her eyes are red with weeping, and she has black ribbons in her cap. She goes quietly and circumspectly out to the right. HEDDA goes up to the glass door, lifts the curtain a little aside, and looks out into the darkness. Shortly aftertvards, Miss TESMAN, in mourning, with a bonnet and veil on, comes in from the hall. HEDDA goes towards her and holds out her hand. Miss TESMAN. Yes, Hedda, here I am, in mourning and forlorn; for now my poor sister has at last found peace. 154 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT IV. HEDDA. I have heard the news already, as you see. Tesman sent me a card. Miss TESMAN. Yes, he promised me he would. But neverthe- less I thought that to Hedda here in the house of life I ought myself to bring the tidings of death. HEDDA. That was very kind of you. Miss TESMAN. Ah, Rina ought not to have left us just now. This is not the time for Hedda's house to be a house of mourning. HEDDA. [Changing the subject. ] She died quite peacefully, did she not, Miss Tesman ? Miss TESMAN. Oh, her end was so calm, so beautiful. And then she had the unspeakable happiness of seeing George once more and bidding him good bye. Has he not come home yet ? HEDDA. No. He wrote that he might be detained. But won't you sit down ? Miss TESMAN. No thank you, my dear, dear Hedda. I should like to, but I have so much to do. I must prepare my dear one for her rest as well as I can. She shall go to her grave looking her best. ACT IV.] HEDDA GABLER. 155 HEDDA. Can I not help you in any way ? Miss TESMAN. Oh, you must not think of it ! Hedda Tesman must have no hand in such mournful work. Nor let her thoughts dwell on it either not at this time. HEDDA. One is not always mistress of one's thoughts Miss TESMAN. [Continuing.] Ah yes, it is the way of the would. At home we shall be sewing a shroud; and here there will soon be sewing too, I suppose but of another sort, thank God ! GEORGE TESMAN enters by the hall door. HEDDA. Ah, you have come at last ! TESMAN. You here, Aunt Julia? With Hedda? Fancy that ! Miss TESMAN. I was just going, my dear boy. Well, have you done all you promised ? TESMAN. No ; I'm really afraid I have forgotten half of it. I must come to you again to-morrow. To-day my brain is all in a whirl. I can't keep' my thoughts together. 156 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT IV. Miss TESMAN. Why, my dear George, you mustn't take it in this way. TESMAN. Mustn't ? How do you mean ? Miss TESMAN. Even in your sorrow you must rejoice, as I do rejoice that she is at rest. TESMAN. Oh yes, yes you are thinking of Aunt Rina. HEDDA. You will feel lonely now, Miss Tesman. Miss TESMAN. Just at first, yes. But that will not last very long, I hope. I daresay I shall soon find an occu- pant for poor Rina's little room. TESMAN. Indeed ? Who do you think will take it ? Eh ? Miss TESMAN. Oh, there's always some poor invalid or other hi want of nursing, unfortunately. HEDDA. Would you really take such a burden upon you again ? Miss TESMAN. A burden! Heaven forgive you, child it has been no burden to me. ACT IV.] HEDDA GAULEH. 15? HEDDA. But suppose you had a total stranger on your hands Miss TESMAN. Oh, one soon makes friends with sick folk ; and it's such an absolute necessity for me to have some one to live for. Well, heaven be praised, there may soon be something in this house, too, to keep an old aunt busy. HEDDA. Oh, don't trouble about anything here. TESMAN. Yes, just fancy what a nice time we three might have together, if ? HEDDA. If ? TESMAN. [Uneasily.] Oh, nothing. It will all come right. Let us hope so eh ? Miss TESMAN. Well well, I daresay you two want to talk to each other. [Smiling.'] And perhaps Hedda may have something to tell you too, George. Good-bye ! I must go home to Rina. [Turning at the door.] How strange it is to think that now Rina is with me and with my poor brother as well ! TESMAN, Yes, fancy that, Aunt Julia ! Eh ? [Miss TESMAN goes out by the hall door. 158 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT IV. HEDDA. [Follows TESMAN coldly and searchingly with her eyes.] I almost believe your Aunt Rina's death affects you more than it does your Aunt Julia. TESMAN. Oh, it's not that alone. It's Eilert I am so terribly uneasy about. HEDDA. [Quickly.] Is there anything new about him ? TESMAN. I looked in at his rooms this afternoon, intend- ing to tell him the manuscript was in safe keeping. HEDDA. Well, did you not find him ? TESMAN. No. He wasn't at home. But afterwards I met Mrs. Elvsted, and she told me that he had been here early this morning. HEDDA. Yes, directly after you had gone. TESMAN. And he said that he had torn his manuscript to pieces eh ? HEDDA. Yes, so he declared. TESMAN. Why, good heavens, he must have been com- pletely out of his mind ! And I suppose you thought it best not to give it back to him, Hedda ? ACT IV.] HEDDA GABLER. 159 HEDDA. No, he did not get it. TESMAN. But of course you told him that we had it ? HEDDA. No. [Quickly.] Did you tell Mrs. Elvsted ? TESMAN. No ; I thought I had better not. But you ought to have told him. Fancy, if, in desperation, he should go and do himself some injury ! Let me have the manuscript, Hedda ! I will take it to him at once. Where is it ? HEDDA. [Cold and immovable, leaning on the arm-chair .] I have not got it. TESMAN. Have not got it ? What in the world do you mean ? HEDDA. I have burnt it every line of it. TESMAN. [ With a violent movement of terror.] Burnt ! Burnt Eilert's manuscript ! HEDDA. Don't scream so. The servant might hear you. TESMAN. Burnt ! Why, good God ! No, no, no ! It's impossible ! HEDDA. It is so, nevertheless. ifiO HEDDA GABLER. [ACT IV. TESMAN. Do you know what you have done, Hedda ? It's unlawful appropriation of lost property. Fancy that ! Just ask Judge Brack, and he'll tell you what it is. HEDDA. I advise you not to speak of it either to Judge Brack, or to any one else. TESMAN. But how could you do anything so unheard-of? What put it into your head ? What possessed you ? Answer me that eh ? HEDDA. [Suppressing an almost imperceptible smile.] I did it for your sake, George. TESMAN. For my sake ! HEDDA. This morning, when you told me about what he had read to you TESMAN. Yes yes what then ? HEDDA. You acknowledged that you envied him his work. TESMAN. Oh, of course I didn't mean that literally. HEDDA. No matter I could not bear the idea that any one should throw you into the shade. ACT IV.] MEDDA GABLER. i 6l TESMAN. [In an outburst of mingled doubt and joy .] Hedda ! Oh, is this true ? But but I never "knew you show your love like that before. Fancy that ! HEDDA. Well, I may as well tell you that just at this time [hnpatietitly, breaking ojj.] No, no ; you can ask Aunt Julia. She will tell you, fast enough. TESMAN. Oh, I almost think I understand you, Hedda ! [Clasps his hands together.] Great heavens! do you really mean it ! Eh ? HEDDA. Don't shout so. The servant might hear. TESMAN. [Laughing in irrepressible glee.] The servant 1 Why, how absurd you are, Hedda. It's only my old Berta ! Why, I'll tell Berta myself. HEDDA. [Clenching her hands together in desperation.] Oh. it is killing me, it is killing me, all this ! TESMAN. What is, Hedda ? Eh ? HEDDA. [Coldly, controlling herself.] All this absurdity George. TESMAN. Absurdity ! Do you see anything absurd in my 162 HEDDA OABLER. [ACT IV being overjoyed at the news ! But after all perhaps I had better not say anything to Berta. HEDDA. Oh why not that too ? TESMAN. No, no, not yet ! But I must certainly tell Aunt Julia. And then that you have begun to call me George too ! Fancy that ! Oh, Aunt Julia will be so happy so happy ! HEDDA. When she hears that I have burnt Eilert Lov- borg's manuscript for your sake ? TESMAN. No, by-the-bye that affair of the manuscript of course nobody must know about that. But that you love me so much, 1 Hedda Aunt Julia must really share my joy in that ! I wonder, now, whether this sort of thing is usual in young wives ? Eh? HEDDA. I think you had better ask Aunt Julia that ques- tion too. TESMAN. I will indeed, some time or other. [Looks uneasy and downcast again.] And yet the manuscript the manuscript ! Good God ! it is terrible to think what will become of poor Eilert now. Literally, "That you burn for me." ACT IV.] HEDDA GABLER. 16'3 MRS. ELVSTED, dressed as in the first Act, with hat and cloak, enters by the hall door. MRS. ELVSTED. [Greets them hurriedly, and says in evident agita- tion.] Oh, dear Hedda, forgive my coming again. HEDDA. What is the matter with you, Thea ? Something about Eilert Txivborg again eh ? MRS. ELVSTED. Yes ! I am dreadfully afraid some misfortune has happened to him. HEDDA. [Seises her arm.] Ah, do you mink so : TESMAN. Why, good Lord what makes you think that, Mrs. Elvsted ? MRS. ELVSTED. I heard them talking of him at my boarding- hou^e just as I came in. Oh, the most incredible rumours are afloat about him to-day. TESMAN. Yes, fancy, so I heard too ! And I can bear witness that he went straight home to bed last night. Fancy that ' HEDDA. Well, what did they say at the boarding house ? 164 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT IV. MRS. ELVSTED. Oh, I couldn't make out anything clearly. Either they knew nothing definite, or else . They stopped talking when they saw me ; and 1 did not dare to ask. TESMAN. [Moving about uneasily.] We must hope we must hope that you misunderstood them, Mrs. Elvsted. MRS. ELVSTED. No, no ; I am sure it was of him they were talk- ing. And I heard something about the hospital or TESMAN. The hospital? HEDDA. No surely that cannot be ! MRS. ELVSTED. Oh, I was in such mortal terror ! I went to his lodgings and asked for him there. HEDDA. You could make up your mind to that, Thea! MRS. ELVSTED. What else could I do ? I really could bear the suspense no longer. TESMAN. But you didn't find him either eh ? MRS. ELVSTED. No. And the people knew nothing about him. He hadn't been home since yesterday afternoon, they said. ACT IV.] HEDDA GABLER. l65 TESMAN. Yesterday ! Fancy, how could they say that ? MRS. ELVSTED. Oh, I am sure something terrible must have happened to him. TESMAN. Hedda dear how would it be if I were to go and make inquiries ? HEDDA. No, no don't you mix yourself up in this affair. JUDGE BRACK, with his hat in his hand, enters by the hall door, which BERTA opens, and closes behind him. He looks grave and bows in silence. TESMAN. Oh, is that you, my dear Judge ? Eh ? BRACK. Yes. It was imperative 1 should see you this evening. TESMAN. I can see you have heard the news about Aunt Rina ? BRACK. Yes, that among other things. TESMAN. Isn't it sad eh ? BRACK. Well, my dear Tesman, that depends on how you look at it. 166 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT IV. TESMAX. [Looks doubtfully at him.] Has anything else happened ? BRACK. Yes. HEDDA. [In suspense.] Anything sad, Judge Brack ? BRACK. That, too, depends on how you look at it, Mrs. Tesman. MRS. ELVSTED. [Unable to restrain her anxiety.] Oh ! it is something about Eilert Lovborg I BRACK. [With a glance at her.] What makes you think that, Madam ? Perhaps you have already heard something ? MRS. ELVSTED. [In confusion.] No, nothing at all, but TESMAN. Oh, for heaven's sake, tell us ! BRACK. [Shrugging his shoulders.] Well, I regret to say Eilert Lovborg has been taken to the hospital. He is lying at the point of death. MRS. ELVSTED. [Shrieks.} Oh God ! oh God ! TESMAN. To the hospital ! And at the point of death ACT IV.] HEDDA CABLF.R. l6? HEDDA. [Involuntarily.] SosoorTthen - MRS. ELVSTED. [ Wailing.'] And we parted in anger, Hedda ! HEDDA. [ n 'hitpers.] Thea Thea be careful ! MRS. ELVSTED. Xoi heeding her.] I must go to him ! I must see him alive ! BRACK. It is useless, Madam. No one will be admitted. MRS. ELVSTED. Oh, at least tell me what has happened to him ? What is it ? TESMAX. You don't mean to say that he has himself - Eh? HEDDA. Yes, I am sure he has. TESMAN. Hedda, how can you - ? BRACK. [Keeping hi* eyes fixed upon her.] Unfortu- nately you have guessed quite correctly, Mrs. Tesman. MRS ELVSTED. Oh, how horrible ! TESMAX. Himself, then ' Fancy that ' 168 HEDDA OABLER. [ACT IV. HEDDA. Shot himself! BRACK. Rightly guessed again, Mrs. Tesman. MRS. ELVSTED. [With an effort at self-control.] When did it happen, Mr. Brack ? BRACK. This afternoon between three and four. TESMAN. But, good Lord, where did he do it ? Eh ? BRACK. [With some hesitation.] Where? Well I suppose at his lodgings. MRS. ELVSTED. No, that cannot be ; for I was there between six and seven. BRACK. Well then, somewhere else. I don't know exactly. I only know that he was found . He had shot himself in the breast. MRS. ELVSTED. Oh, how terrible ! That he should die like that! HEDDA. [To BRACK.] Was it in the breast? BRACK. Yes as 1 told you. ACT IV.] HEDDA GABLER. HEDDA. Not in the temple ? BRACK. In the breast, Mrs. Tesman. HEDDA. Well, well the breast is a good place, too. BRACK. How do you mean, Mrs. Tesman r HEDDA. [Evasively.] Oh, nothing nothing. TESMAN. And the wound is dangerous, you say eh ? BRACK. Absolutely mortal. The end has probably come by this time. MRS. ELVSTED. Yes, yes, I feel it. The end ! The end ! Oh, Hedda ! TESMAN. But tell me, how have you learnt all this? BRACK. [Curtly.] Through one of the police. A man I had some business with. HEDDA. [In a clear voice.] At last a deed worth doing ' TESMAN. [Terrified.] Good heavens, Hedda ! what are you saying ? 170 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT IV. HEDDA. I say there is beauty in this. BRACK. H'm, Mrs. Tesman TESMAN. Beauty ! Fancy that ! MRS. ELVSTED. Oh, Hedda, how can you talk of beauty in such an act ! HEDDA. Eilert Lovborg has himself made up his account with life. He has had the courage to do the one right thing. MRS. ELVSTED. No, you must never think that was how it hap- pened ! It must have been in delirium that he did it. TESMAN. In despair ! HEDDA. That he did not. I am certain of that. MRS. ELVSTED. Yes, yes ! In delirium ! Just as when he tore up our manuscript. BRACK. [Starting.] The manuscript ? Has he torn that up ? MRS. ELVSTED. Yes, last night. ACT IV.] HEDDA GABLER. 171 TESMAN. [Whispers softly.] Oh, Hedda, we shall never get over this. BRACK. H'm, very extraordinary. TESMAN. [Moving about the room.] To think of Eilert going out of the world in this way ! And not leaving behind him the book that would have immortalised his name MRS. ELVSTED. Oh, if only it could be put together again ! TESMAN. Yes, if it only could ! I don't know what I would not give MRS. ELVSTED. Perhaps it can, Mr. Tesman. TESMAN. What do you mean ? MRS. ELVSTED. [Searches in the pocket of her dress.] Look here. I have kept all the loose notes he used to dictate from. HEDDA. [A step forward.] Ah ! TESMAN. You have kept them, Mrs. Elvsted ! Eh ? 172 HEDDA OABLER. [ACT IV. MRS. ELVSTED. Yes, I have them here. I put them in my pocket when I left home. Here they still are TESMAN. Oh, do let me see them ! MRS. ELVSTED. [Hands him a bundle of papers.] But they are in such disorder all mixed up. TESMAN. Fancy, if we could make something out of them, after all ! Perhaps if we two put our heads together MRS. ELVSTED. Oh yes, at least let us try TESMAN. We will manage it! We must! I will dedicate my life to this task. HEDDA. You, George ? Your life ? TESMAN. Yes, or rather all the time I can spare. My own collections must wait in the meantime. Hedda you understand, eh ? I owe this to Eilert's memory. HEDDA. Perhaps. TESMAN. And so, my dear Mrs. Elvsted, we will give our whole minds to it. There is no use in brooding ACT IV.] HEDDA GABLER. 173 over what can't be undone eh ? We must try to control our grief as much as possible, and MRS. ELVSTED. Yes, yes, Mr. Tesman, I will do the best I can. TESMAN. Well then, come here. I can't rest until we have looked through the notes. Where shall we sit ? Here ? No, in there, in the back room. Excuse me, my dear Judge. Come with me, Mrs. Elvsted. MRS. ELVSTED. Oh, if only it were possible ! [TESMAN and MRS. ELVSTED go into the back room. She takes off her hat and cloak. They both sit at the table under the hanging lamp, and are soon deep in an eager examination of the papers. HEDDA crosses to the stave and sits in the arm-chair. Presently BRACK goes up to her.'} HEDDA. [In a low voice.] Oh, what a sense of freedom it gives one, this act of Eilert Lovborg's. BRACK. Freedom, Mrs. Hedda ? Well, of course, it is a release for him HEDDA. I mean for me. It gives me a sense of freedom to know that a deed of deliberate courage is still possible in this world,- a deed of spontaneous beauty. 174 HEDDA OABLER. [ACT IV. BRACK. [Smiling.'] H'm my dear Mrs. Hedda HEDDA. Oh, I know what you are going to say. For you are a kind of specialist too, like you know ! BRACK. [Looking hard at her.] Eilert Lovborg was more to you than perhaps you are willing to admit to yourself. Am I wrong ? HEDDA. I don't answer such questions. I only know that Eilert Lovborg has had the courage to live his life after his own fashion. And then the last great act, with its beauty ! Ah ! that he should have the will and the strength to turn away from the banquet of life so early. BRACK. I am sorry, Mrs. Hedda, but I fear I must dis- pel an amiable illusion. HEDDA. Illusion ? BRACK. Which could not have lasted long in any case. HEDDA. What do you mean ? BRACK. Eilert Lovborg did not shoot himself volun- tarily. ACT IV.] HEDDA GABLER. 175 HEDDA. Not voluntarily ? BRACK. No. The thing did not happen exactly as I told it. HEDDA. [In suspense.^ Have you concealed something ? What is it ? BRACK. For poor Mrs. Elvsted's sake I idealised the facts a little. HEDDA. What are the facts ? BRACK. First, that he is already dead. HEDDA. At the hospital ? BRACK. Yes without regaining consciousness. HEDDA. What more have you concealed ? BRACK. This the event did not happen at his lodgings. HEDDA. Oh, that can make no difference. BRACK. Perhaps it may. For I must tell you Eilert 176 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT IV. Lovborg was found shot in in Mademoiselle Diana's boudoir. HEDDA. [Makes a motion as if to rise, but sinks back again.] That is impossible, Judge Brack ! He cannot have been there again to-day. BRACK. He was there this afternoon. He went there, he said, to demand the return of something which they had taken from him. Talked wildly about a lost child HEDDA. Ah so that was why BRACK. I thought probably he meant his manuscript ; but now I hear he destroyed that himself. So I suppose it must have been his pocket-book. HEDDA. Yes, no doubt. And there there he was found ? BRACK. Yes, there. With a pistol in his breast-pocket, discharged. The ball had lodged in a vital part. HEDDA. In the breast yes. BRACK. No in the bowels. HEDDA. [Looks up at him with an expression of loathing.] That too ! Oh, what curse is it that makes every- thing I touch turn ludicrous and mean ? ACT IV.] HEDDA GABLER. 177 BRACK. There is one point more, Mrs. Hedda anotner disagreeable feature in the affair. HEDDA. And what is that ? BRACK. The pistol he carried HEDDA. [Breathless.] Well ? What of it ? BRACK. He must have stolen it. HEDDA. [Leaps tip.] Stolen it ! That is not true ! He did not steal it ! BRACK. No other explanation is possible. He must have stolen it . Hush ! TESMAN and MRS. ELVSTED have risen from the table in the back room, and come into the drawing- room, TESMAN. [ With the papers in both his hands. ] Hedda dear, it is almost impossible to see under that lamp Think of that ! HEDDA. Yes, I am thinking. TESMAN. Would you mind our sitting at your writing- table eh ? X M 178 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT IV. HEDDA. If you like. [Quickly.] No, wait ! Let me clear it first ! TESMAN. Oh, you needn't trouble, Hedda. There is plenty of room. HEDDA. No no, let me clear it, I say ' I will take these things in and put them on the piano. There ! [She has drawn out an object, covered with sheet music, from under the bookcase, places several other pieces of music upon it, and carries the whole into the inner room, to the left. TESMAN lays the scraps of paper on the writing-table, and moves the lamp there from the corner table. He and MRS. ELVSTED sit down and proceed with their work. HEDDA returns. HEDDA. [behind MRS. ELVSTED'S chair, gently ruffling her hair.] Well, my sweet Thea, how goes it with Eilert Lovborg's monument ? M RS. ELVSTED. [Looks dispiritedly up at her.] Oh, it will be ter- ribly hard to put in order. TESMAN. We must manage it. I am determined And arranging other people's papers is just the work for me. [HEDDA goes over to the stove, and seats herself on one of the footstools. BRACK stands over her, leaning on the arm-chair. ACT IV.] HEDHA OAIJLKR. 179 HEDDA. [ Whispers.] What did you say about the pistol ? BRACK. [Softly.] That he must have stolen it. HEDDA. Why stolen it ? BRACK. Because every other explanation ought to be impossible, Mrs. Hedda. HEDDA. Indeed ? BRACK. [Glances at her.] Of course Eilert Lovborg was here this morning. Was he not ? HEDDA. Yes. BRACK. Were you alone with him ? HEDDA. Part of the time. BRACK. Did you not leave the room whilst he was here ? HEDDA. No. BRACK. Try to recollect. Were you not out of the room a moment ? HEDDA. Yes, perhaps just a moment out in the hall. 180 HEDDA G ABLER. [ACT IV. BRACK. And where was your pistol-case during that time ? HEDDA. I had it locked up in BRACK. Well, Mrs. Hedda ? HEDDA. The case stood there 011 the writing-table. BRACK. Have you looked since, to see whether both the pistols are there ? HEDDA. No. BRACK. Well, you need not. I saw the pistol found in Lovborg's pocket, and I knew it at once as the ^ne I had seen yesterday and before, too. HEDDA. Have you it with you ? BRACK. No ; the police have it. HEDDA. What will the police do with it ? BRACK. Search till they find the owner. HEDDA. Do you think they will succeed ACT IV.] HEDDA GABLER. 181 BRACK. [Bends over her and whispers.] No, Hedda Gabler not so long as I say nothing. HEDDA. [Looks frightened at him.} And if you do not say nothing, what then ? BRACK. [Shrugs his shoulders.} There is always the possi- bility that the pistol was stolen. HEDDA. [Firmly.] Death rather than that. BRACK. [Smiling.] People say such things but they don't do them. HEDDA. [ Without replying.} And supposing the pistol was not stolen, and the owner is discovered ? What then ? BRACK. Well, Hedda then comes the scandal. HEDDA. The scandal ! BRACK. Yes, the scandal of which you are so mortally afraid. You will, of course, be brought before the court both you and Mademoiselle Diana. She will have to explain how the thing happened whether it was an accidental shot or murder. Did the pistol go off as lie was trying to take it out of his pocket, to threaten her with ? Or did she tear the pistol out of his hand, shoot him, and 182 HEDDA GABLER. [ACT IV. push it back into his pocket ? That would be quite like her ; for she is an able-bodied young person, this same Mademoiselle Diana. HEDDA. But / have nothing to do with all this repulsive business. BRACK. No. But you will have to answer the question: Why did you give Eilert Lovborg the pistol ? And what conclusions will people draw from the fact that you did give it to him ? HEDDA. [Lets her head sink.] That is true. I did not think of that. BRACK. Well, fortunately, there is no danger, so long as I say nothing. HEDDA. [Looks up at him.] So I am in your power, Judge Brack. You have me at your beck and call, from this time forward. BRACK. [ Whispers softly] Dearest Hedda believe me I shall not abuse my advantage. HEDDA. I am in your power none the less. Subject to your will and your demands. A slave, a slave then ! [Rises impettious/y.] No, I cannot endure the thought of that ! Never : BRACK. [Looks half-mockinglif at her.] People generally get used to the inevitable. ACT IV.] HEDDA GABLER. 183 HEDDA. [Returns his look.] Yes, perhaps. [She. crosses to the writing-table. Suppressing an involuntary smile, she imitates TESMAN'S intonations.] Well ? Are you getting on, George ? Eh ? TESMAN. Heaven knows, dear. In any case it will be the work of months. HEDDA. [As before.] Fancy that ' [Passes her hands softly through MRS. ELVSTED'S hair.] Doesn't it seem strange to you, Thea ? Here are you sitting with Tesman just as you used to sit with Eilert Lovborg ? MRS. ELVSTED Ah, if I could only inspire your husband in the same way ! HEDDA Oh, that will come too in time. TESMAN. Yes, do you know, Hedda I really think 1 begin to feel something of the sort. But won't you go and sit with Brack again ? HEDDA. Is there nothing I can do to help you two ? TESMAN. No, nothing in the world. [Turning his head.] I trust to you to keep Hedda company, my dear Brack' BRACK. [ With a glance at HEDDA.] With the very greatest of pleasure. 184 HEDDA GABI.EH. [ACT IV. HEDDA. Thanks. But I am tired this evening. I will go in and lie down a little on the sofa. TESMAN. Yes, do dear eh ? [HEDDA goes into the back room and draws the curtains. A short pause. Suddenly she is heard playing a wild dance iw the MRS. ELVSTED. [Starts from her chair.] Oh what is that? TESMAN. [Runs to the doonvay.] Why, my dearest Hedda don't play dance-music to-night ! Just think of Aunt Rina ! And of Eilert too ! HEDDA. [Puts her head out between the curtains] And of Aunt Julia. And of all the rest of them. After this, I will be quiet. [Closes the curtains again.] TESMAN. [At the writing-table.] It's not good for her to see us at this distressing work. I'll tell you what, Mrs. Elvsted, you shall take the empty room at Aunt Julia's, and then I will come over in the evenings, and we can sit and work there eh ? HEDDA. [7 the inner room.] I hear what you are saying, Tesman. But how am / to get through the even- ings out here ? ACT IV.] HEDDA GABLER. 185 TESMAN. [Turning over the papers.] Oh, I daresay Judge Brack will be so kind as to look in now and then, even though I am out. BRACK. [In the arm-chair, calls out gaily J] Every blessed evening, with all the pleasure in life, Mrs. Tesman ! We shall get on capitally together, we two ! HEDDA. [Speaking loud and clear '.] Yes, don't you flatter yourself we will, Judge Brack ? Now that you are the one cock in the basket [A shot is heard within. TESMAN, MRS. ELVSTED, and BRACK leap to their feet. TESMAN. Oh, now she is playing with those pistols again. [He throws back the curtains and runs in, followed by MRS. ELVSTED. HEDDA lies stretched on the sofa, lifeless. Confusion and cries. BERTA enters in alarm from the right. TESMAN. [Shrieks to BRACK.] Shot herself ! Shot herself in the temple ! Fancy that ! BRACK. [Half -fainting in the arm-chair.] Good God ! people don't do such things THE MASTER BUILDER (1892) CHARACTERS HALYARD SOLNESS, Master Builder. ALINE SOLNESS, his wife. DOCTOR HERDAL, physician. KNUT BROVIK, formerly an architect, now in SOLNESS'S employment. RAGNAR BROVIK, Ms son, draughtsman. KAIA FOSLI, his niece, book-keeper. Miss HILDA WANGEL. Some Ladies. A Crowd in the street. The action passes in and abinti SOLNESS'S house. THE MASTER BUILDER. PLAY IN THREE ACTS. ACT FIRST. A plainly-furnished work-room in the house oj HALYARD SOLNESS. Folding doors on the left lead out to the hall. On the right is the door leading to the inner rooms of the house. At the back is an open door into the draughtsmen's office. In front, on the left, a desk with books, papers and writing materials. Further back than the folding door, a stove. In the right-hand corner, a sofa, a table, and one or two chairs. On the table a water-bottle and glass. A smaller table, with a rocking-chair and arm-chair, in front on the right. Lighted lamps, with shades, on the table in the draughtsmen's office, on the table in the corner, and on the desk. In the draughtsmen's office sit KNUT BROVIK and his son RAGNAR, occupied with plans and calculations. At the desk in the outer office stands KAIA FOSLI, writing in the ledger. KNUT BROVICK is a spare old man with white hair and beard. He wears a rather threadbare but well-brushed black coat, spectacles, and a somewhat discoloured white 190 THE MASTER BUILDER. [ACT I. neckcloth. RAGNAR BROVIK is a well-dressed, light-haired man in his thirties, with a slight stoop. KAIA FOSLI is a slightly built girl, a little over twenty, carefully dressed, and delicate- looking. She has a green shade (tver her eyes. All three go on working for some time in silence. KNUT BROVIK. [Rises suddenly, as if in distress, from the table; breathes heavily and laboriously as he comes forward into the doo/-way.] No, I can't bear it much longer ! KAIA. [Going up to him.] You are feeling very ill this evening, are you not, uncle ? BROVIK. Oh, I seem to get worse every day. RAGNAR. [Has risen and advances.] You ought to go home, father. Try to get a little sleep BROVIK. [Impatiently.] Go to bed, I suppose ? Would you have me stifled outright ? KAIA. Then take a little walk. RAGNAR. Yes, do. I will come with you. BROVIK. [With warmth.] I will not go till he comes! I ACT I.] THE MASTER BUILDER. 191 am determined to have it out this evening with [in a time of suppressed bitterness] with him with the chief. KAIA. [Anxiously.] Oh no, uncle, do wait awhile before doing that ! RAGNAR. Yes, better wait, father ! BROVIK. [Draws his breath laboriously.] Ha ha ! / haven't much time for waiting. KAIA. [Listening.] Hush ! I hear him on the stairs. [All three go back to their work. A short silence. HALVARD SOLNESS comes in through the hall door. He is a man no longer young, but healthy and vigorous, with close-cut curly hair, dark mous- tache and dark thick eyebrows. He wears a greyish-green buttoned jacket with an upstanding collar and broad lappels. On his head he wears a soft grey felt hat, and he has one or two light portfolios under his arm. SOLNESS. [Near the door, points towards the draughtsmen's office, and asks in a whisper :] Are they gone ? KAIA. [Softly, shaking her head.] No. [She takes the shade off her eyes. SOLNESS crosses the room, throws his hat on a 192 THE MASTHR BUILDER. [ACT I. chair, places the portfolios on the table by the sofa, and approaches the desk again. KAIA goes on writing without intermission, but seems nervous and un- easy. SOLNESS. [Aloud.] What is that you are entering, Miss Fosli ? KAIA. [Starts.] Oh, it is only something that SOLNESS. Let me look at it, Miss Fosli. [Bends over her, pretends to be looking into the ledger, and whispers :] Kaia! KAIA. [Softly, still writing.] Well ? SOLNESS. Why do you always take that shade off when I come ? KAIA. [As before.] I look so ugly with it on. SOLNESS. [SmiKng.] Then you don't like to look ugly, Kaia ? KAIA. [Half glancing up at him.] Not for all the world. Not in your eyes, SOLNESS. [Strokes her hair gently.] Poor, poor little Kaia ACT I.] THE MASTER BUILDER. 193 KAIA. [Bending her head.] Hush they can hear you ! [SoLNEss strolls across the room to the right, turns and pauses at the door of Ike draughtsmen's office. SOLNESS. Has any one been here for me ? RAGNAR. [Rising.] Yes, the young couple who want a villa built, out at Lovstrand. SOLNESS. [Growling.] Oh, those two! They must wait. I am not quite clear about the plans yet. RAGNAR. [Advancing, with some hesitation.] They were very anxious to have the drawings at once. SOLNESS. [As before.'] Yes, of course so they all are. BROVIK. [Looks up.] They say they are longing so to get into a house of their own. SOLNESS. Yes, yes we know all that ! And so they are content to take whatever is offered them. They get a a roof over their heads an address but nothing to call a home. No thank you ! In that case, let them apply to somebody else. Tell them that, the next time they call. X N 194 THE MASTER BUILDER. [ACT I. BROVIK. f Pushes his glasses up on to his forehead and looks in astonishment at him.} To somebody else ? Are you prepared to give up the commission ? SoLNESS. [ Impatiently.} Yes, yes, yes, devil take it! If that is to be the way of it . Rather that, than build away at random. [Vehemently.] Besides, I know very little about these people as yet. BROVIK. The people are safe enough. Ragnar knows them. He is a friend of the family. Perfectly safe people. SOLNESS. Oh, safe safe enough ' That is not at all what I mean. Good lord don't you understand me either ? [Angrily.'] I won't have anything to do with these strangers. They may apply to whom they please, so far as I am concerned. BROVIK. [Rising.] Do you really mean that ? SOLNESS. [Sulkily. ] Yes I do. For once in a way. [He comes forward. [BROVIK exchanges a glance with RAGNAR, who makes a warning gesture. Then BROVIK comes into the front room. BROVIK. May I have a few words with you ? ACT I.] THE MASTER BUILDER. 195 SoLNESS. Certainly. BROVIK. [To KAIA.] Just go in there for a moment, Kaia. KAIA. [Uneasily.'] Oh, but uncle BROVIK. Do as I say, child. And shut the door after you. [KAIA goes reluctantly into the draughts- men's office, glances anxiously and im- ploringly at SOLNESS, and shuts the door. BROVIK. [Lowering his voice a little.] I don't want the poor children to know how ill I am. SOLNESS. Yes, you have been looking very poorly of late. BROVIK. It will soon be all over with me. My strength is ebbing from day to day. SOLNESS. Won't you sit down ? BROVIK. Thanks may I ? SOLNESS. [Placing the arm-chai- more conveniently.] Here take this chair. And now? 1J)6 THE MASTER BUILDER. [ACT I. BROVIK. [Has sealed himself with difficulty.] Well, you see, it's about Ragnar. That is what weighs most upon me. What is to become of him ? SoLNESS. Of course your son will stay with me as long as ever he likes. BROVIK. But that is just what he does not like. He feels that he cannot stay here any longer. SOLNESS. Why, I should say he was very well off here. But if he wants more money, I should not mind BROVIK. No, no! It is not that. [Impatiently. } But sooner or later he, too, must have a chance of doing something on his own account. SOLNESS. [Without looking at him.] Do you think that Ragnar has quite talent enough to stand alone ? BROVIK. No, that is just the heartbreaking part of it I have begun to have my doubts about the boy. For you have never said so much as as one encouraging word about him. And yet I cannot but think there must be something in him he can't be without talent. SoLNFSS. Well, but he has learnt nothing nothing thoroughly, I mean. Except, of course, to draw. ACT 1.] THE MASTER BUILDER. 1Q1 BROVIK. [Looks at him with covert hatred, and says hoarsely.] You had learned little enough of the business when you were in my employment. But that did not prevent you from setting to work [breathing with difficulty] and pushing your way up, and taking the wind out of my sails mine, and so many other people's. SOLNESS. Yes, you see circumstances favoured me. BROVIK. You are right there. Everything favoured you. But then how can you have the heart to let me go to my grave without having seen what Ragnar is fit for t And of course I am anxious to see them married, too before I go. SOLNESS. [Sharply.] Is it she who wishes it ? BROVIK. Not Kaia so much as Ragnar he talks about it everyday. [Appealing/?/.] You must you must help him to get some independent work now ! I must see something that the lad has done. Do you hear ? SOLNESS. [Peevishly.] Hang it, man, you can't expect me to drag commissions down from the moon for him! BPOVIK. He has the chance of a capital commission at this very moment. A big bit of work. 198 THE MASTER BUILDER. [ACT i. SOLNESS. [Uneasily, startled.] Has he ' BROVIK. If you would give your consent. SOLNESS. What sort of work do you mean ? BROVIK. [ With some hesitation.'] He can have the build- ing of that villa out at Lovstrand. SOLNESS. That ! Why I am going to build that myself. BROVIK. Oh you don't much care about doing it. SOLNESS. [Flaring up.] Don't care ! I ! Who dares to say that ? BROVIK. You said so yourself just now. SOLNESS. Oh, never mind what I say. Would they give Ragnar the building of that villa ? BROVIK. Yes. You see, he knows the family. And then just for the fun of the thing he has made drawings and estimates and so forth ACT I.] THE MASTER BUILDER. 199 SoLNESS. Are they pleased with the drawings ? The people who will have to live in the house ? BROVIK. Yes. If you would only look through them and approve of them SOLNESS. Then they would let Ragnar build their home for them ? BROVIK. They were immensely pleased with his idea. They thought it exceedingly original, they said. SOLNESS. Oho ! Original ! Not the old-fashioned stuff that / am in the habit of turning out ! BROVIK. It seemed to them different. SOLNESS. [With suppressed irritation.] So it was to see Ragnar that they came here whilst I was out ! BROVIK. They came to call upon you and at the same time to ask whether you would mind retiring SOLNESS. [Angrily.] Retire ? I ? BROVIK. In case you thought that Ragnar's draw- ings 200 THE MASTER BUILDER. [ACT I. SoLNESS. I ! Retire in favour of your son ! BROVIK. Retire from the agreement, they meant. SOLNESS. . Oh, it comes to the same thing. [Laughs angrily.] So that is it, is it? Halvard Solness is to see about retiring now ! To make room for younger men ! For the very youngest, perhaps ! He must make room ! Room ! Room ! BROVIK. Why, good heavens ! there is surely room for more than one single man SOLNESS. Oh, there's not so very much room to spare either. But, be that as it may I will never re- tire ! 1 will never give way to anybody ! Never of my own free will. Never in this world will 1 do that ! BROVIK. [Rises with difficulty.] Then I am to pass out of life without any certainty ? Without a gleam of happiness ? Without, any faith or trust in Ragnar ? Without having seen a single piece of work of his doing ? Is that to be the way of it ? SOLNESS. [Turns half aside, and mutters.] H'm don't ask more just now. ACT I.] THE MASTER BUILDER. 201 BROVIK. I must have an answer to this one question. Am I to pass out of life in such utter poverty ? SoLNESS. [Seems to struggle with himself ; finally he says, in a low but firm voice :] You must pass out of life as best you can. BROVIK. Then be it so. [He goes up the room. SOLNESS. [Following him, half in desperation.] Don't you understand that I cannot help it ? I am what I am, and I cannot change my nature ! BROVIK. No, on ; I suppose you can't. [Reels and sup- ports himself against the sofa-table.] May I have a glass of water ? SOLNESS. By all means. [Fills a glass and hands it to him. BROVIK. Thanks. [Drinks and puts the glass donm again. [SOLNESS goes up and opens the door of tne draughtsmen's office t SOLNESS. Ragnar you must come and take your father home. RAGNAR rises quickly. He and KAIA come into the work-room. RAGNAR. What is the matter, father ? THE MASTER BUILDER. [ACT I. BROVIK. Give me your arm. Now let us go. RAGNAR. Very well. You had better put your things on, too, Kaia. SOLNESS. Miss Fosli must stay just fora moment. There is a letter I want written. BROVIK. [Looks at SOLNESS.] Good night. Sleep well if you can. SOLNESS. Good night. [BROVIK and RAGNAR go out by the hall- door. KAIA goes to the desk. SOLNESS stands with bent head, to the right, by the arm-chair. KAIA. [Dubiously] Is there any letter ? SOLNESS. [Curtly] No, of course not. [Looks sternly at her] Kaia ! KAIA. [Anxiously, in a low voice] Yes ! SOLNESS. [Points imperatively to a spot on thejloor] Come here ! At once ! KAIA. [Hesitatingly] Yes. SOLNESS. [As before.] Nearer ! ACT I.] THE MASTER BUILDER. 203 KAIA. [Obeying.] What do you want with me? SOLNESS. [Looks at her for a while.] Is it you I have to thank for all this ? KAIA. No, no, don't think that ! SOLNESS. But confess now you want to get married ! KAIA. [Softly.] Ragnar and I have been engaged for four or five years, and so SOLNESS. And so you think it time there were an end 01 it. Is not that so ? KAIA. Ragnar and Uncle say I must. So I suppose I shall have to give in. SOLNESS. [More gently.] Kaia, don't you really care a little bit for Ragnar, too ? KAIA. I cared very much for Ragnar once before I came here to you. SOLNESS. But you don't now ? Not in the least ? KAIA. [Passionately, clamping her hands and holding them out towards him.] Oh, you know very well 204 THE MASTER BUILDER. [ACT I. there is only one person I care for now ! One, and one only, in all the world ! I shall never care for any one else. SOLNESS. Yes, you say that. And yet you go away from me leave me alone here with everything on my hands. KAIA. But could I not stay with you, even if Ragnar ? SOLNESS. [Repitdiatitig the idea] No, no, that is quite impossible. If Ragnar leaves me and starts work on his own account, then of course he will need you himself. KAIA. [Wringing her hands] Oh, I feel as if I could not be separated from you ! It's quite, quite impossible ! SOLNESS. Then be sure you get those foolish notions out of Ragnar's head. Marry him as much as you please [Alters his tone.] I mean don't let him throw up his eood situation with me. For then I can keep you too, my dear Kaia. KAIA. Oh yes, how lovely that would be, if it could only be managed ! SOLNESS. [Clasps her head with with his two hands and whispers] For I cannot get on without you, you see. I must have you with me every single day. ACT I.] THE MASTER BUILDER. 205 KAIA. [In nervous exaltation.}. My God ! My God ! SOLNESS. [Kisses her hair.] Kaia Kaia ! KAIA. [Sinks dotvn before him.] Oh, how good you are to me ! How unspeakably good you are ! SOLNESS. [ Vehemently.] Get up ! For goodness' sake get up ! I think I hear some one ! [He helps her to rise. She staggers over to the desk. MRS. SOLNESS enters by the door on the right. She looks thin and wasted with grief, but shows traces of bygone beauty. Blonde ringlets. Dresseed with good taste, wholly in black. Speaks some- what slowly and in a plaintive voice. MRS. SOLNESS. [fn the doonvay.] Halvard ! SOLNESS. [Turns.] Oh, are you there, my dear ? MRS. SOLNESS. \With a glance at KAIA.] I am afraid I am dis- turbing you. SOLNESS. Not in the least. Miss Fosli has only a short letter to write. MRS. SOLNESS. Yes, so I see. 206 THE MASTER BUILDER. [ACT I SOLNESS. What do you want with me, Aline ? MRS. SOLNESS. I merely wanted to tell you that Dr. Herdal is in the drawing-room. Won't you come and see him, Halvard ? SOLNESS. [Looks sttspiciously at her.] H'm is the doctor so very anxious to talk to me ? MRS. SOLNESS. Well, not exactly anxious. He really came to see me ; but he would like to say how-do-you-do to you at the same time. SOLNESS. [Laughs to himself.] Yes, I daresay. Well, you must ask him to wait a little. MRS. SOLNESS. Then you will come in presently ? SOLNESS. Perhaps I will. Presently, presently, dear. In a little while. MRS. SOLNESS. [Glancing again at KAIA.] Well now, don't forget, Halvard. [ Withdraws and closes the door behind her. KAIA. [Softly.] Oh dear, oh dear I am sure Mrs. Solness thinks ill of me in some way ! ACT I.] THE MASTER BUILDER. 207 SoLNESS. Oh, not in the least. Not more than usual at any rate. But all the same, you had better go now, Kaia. KAIA. Yes, yes, now I must go. SOLNESS. [Severely.] And mind you get that matter settled for me. Do you hear ? KAIA. Oh, if it only depended on me SOLNESS; I will have it settled, I say ' And to-morrow too not a day later ! KAIA. [Terrified.] If there's nothing else for it, I am quite willing to break off the engagement. SOLNESS. [Angrily.] Break it off. Are you mad? Would you think of breaking it off? KAIA. [Distracted.] Yes, if necessary. For I must I must stay here with you ! I can't leave you ! That is utterly utterly impossible ! SOLNESS. [With a sudden outburst.] But deuce take it how about Ragnar then ! It's Ragnar that I KAIA. [Looks at him with terrified eyes.] It is chiefly on Ragnar's account, that that you ? 208 THE MASTER BUILDER. [ACT I. SoLNESS. [Collecting himself.] No, no, of course not ! You don't understand me either. [Gently and softly.] Of course it is you I want to keep you above everything, Kaia. But for that very reason, you must prevent Ragnar, too, from throwing up his situation. There, there, now go home. KAIA. Yes, yes good-night, then. SOLNESS. Good night. [As she is going.] Oh, stop a moment ! Are Ragnar's drawings in there ? KAIA. I did not see him take them with him. SOLNESS. Then just go and find them for me. I might perhaps glance over them, after all. KAIA. [Happy.] Oh yes, please do ! SOLNESS. For your sake, Kaia dear. Now, let me have them at once, please. [KAIA hurries into the draughtsmen' x office, searches anxiously in the table-drawer, finds a portfolio and brings it with her. KAIA. Here are all the drawings. SOLNESS. Good. Put them down there on the table. ACT i.] THE MASTER BUILDER. 209 KAIA. [Putting dawn the portfolio.] Good night, then. [Beseechingly.] And please, please think kindly of me. SoLNESS. Oh, that I always do. Good-night, my dear little Kaia. [Glances to the right.] Go, go now ! MRS. SOLNESS and DR. HERDAL enter by the door on the right. He is a stoutish, elderly man, nith a round, good-humoured face, clean shaven, with thin, light hair, and gold spectacles. MRS. SOLNESS. [Still in the doonvay.] Halvard, I cannot keep the doctor any longer. SOLNESS. Well then, come in here. MRS. SOLNESS. [To KAIA, who is turning down the desk lamp.] Have you finished the letter already, Miss Fosli ? KAIA. [/ confusion.] The letter ? SOLNESS. Yes, it was quite a short one. MRS. SOLNESS. It must have been very short, SOLNESS. You may go now, Miss Fosli. And please come in good time to-morrow morning. x o 210 THE MASTER BUILDER. [ACT I. KAIA. I will be sure to. Good-night, Mrs. Solness. [She goes out by the hall door. MRS. SOLNESS. She must be quite an acquisition to you, Hal- varcl, this Miss Fosli. SOLNESS. Yes, indeed. She is useful in all sorts of ways. MRS. SOLNESS. So it seems. DR. HERDAL. Is she good at book-keeping too ? SOLNESS. Well of course she has had a good deal of practice during these two years. And then she is so nice and willing to do whatever one asks of her. MRS. SOLNESS. Yes, that must be very delightful SOLNESS. It is. Especially when one is not too much accustomed to that sort of thing. MRS. SOLNESS. [In a tone of gentle remonstrance^ Can you say that, Halvard ? SOLNESS. Oh, no, no, my dear Aline ; I beg your pardon. ACT I.] THE MASTER BUILDER. 211 MRS. SOLNESS. There's no occasion. Well then, doctor, you will come back later on, and have a cup of tea with us? DR. HERDAL. I have only that one patient to see, and then I'll come back. MRS. SOLNESS. Thank you. [She goes out by the door on the right. SOLNKSS. Are you in a hurry, doctor ? DR. HERDAJL. No, not at all. SOLNESS. May I have a little chat with you ? DR. HERDAL. With the greatest of pleasure. SOLNESS. Then let us sit down. [He motions the doctor to take the rocking-chair, and sits down himself in the arm chair. Looks searchingly at him.] Tell me did you notice anything odd about Aline ? DR. HERDAL. Do you mean just now, when she was here ? SOLNESS. Yes, in her manner to me. Did you notice anything ? 212 THE MASTER BUILDER. [ACT I. DR. HERDAL. [Smiling,] Well,l admit one couldn't well avoid noticing that your wife h'm SOLNESS. Well ? DR. HERDAL. that your wife is not particularly fond of this Miss Fosli. SOLNESS. Js that all ? I have noticed that myself. DR. HERDAL. And I must say I am scarcely surprised at it. SOLNESS. At what ? DR. HERDAL. That she should not exactly approve of your seeing so much of another woman, all day and every day. SOLNESS. No, no, I suppose you are right there and Aline too. But it's impossible to make any change. DR. HERDAL. Could you not engage a clerk ? SOLNESS. The first man that came to hand ? No, thank you that would never do for me. DR. HERDAL. But now, if your wife ? Suppose, with her delicate health, all this tries her too much f [ACT I. THE MASTER BUILDER. 213 SoLNESS. Even then I might almost say it can make no difference. I must keep Kaia Fosli. No one else could fill her place. DR. HERDAL. No one else ? SOLNESS. No, no one. DR. HERDAL. [Drawing his chair closer.^ Now listen to me, my dear Mr. Solness. May I ask you a question, quite between ourselves ? SOLNESS. By all means. DR. HERDAL. Women, you see in certain matters, they have a deucedly keen intuition SOLNESS. They have, indeed. There is not the least doubt of that. But - ? DR. HERDAL. Well, tell me now if your wife can't endure this Kaia Fosli ? SOLNESS. Well, what then ? DR. HERDAL. may she not have just just the least little bit of reason for this instinctive dislike ? SOLNESS. [Looks at him and rises.] Oho ! 214 THE MASTER BUILDER. [ACT I. DR. HERDAL. Now don't be offended but hasn't she ? SoLNESS. [With curl decision.] No. DR. HERDAL. No reason of any sort ? SOLNESS. No other reason than her own suspicious nature. DR. HERDAL. I know you have known a good many women in your time. SOLNESS. Yes, I have. DR. HERDAL. And have been a good deal taken with some of them, too. SOLNESS. Oh yes, I don't deny it. DR. HERDAL. But as regards Miss Fosli, then ? There is nothing of that sort in the case ? SOLNESS. No; nothing at all on my side. DR. HERDAL. But on her side ? SOLNESS. I don't think you have any right to ask that question, doctor. ACT I.] THE MASTER BUILDER. 215 DR. HERDAL. Well, you know, we were discussing your wife's intuition. SOLNESS. So we were. And for that matter [lowers his roice] Aline' s intuition, as you call it in a cer- tain sense, it has not been so far astray. DR. HERDAL. Aha ! there we have it ! SOLNESS. [Sits down.] Doctor Herdal I am going to tell you a strange story if you care to listen to it. DR. HERDAL. I like listening to strange stories. SOLNESS. Very well then. I daresay you recollect that I took Knut Brovik and his son into my employment after the old man's business had gone to the dogs DR. HERDAL. Yes, so I have understood. SOLNESS. You see, they really are clever fellows, these two. Each of them has talent in his own way. But then the son took it into his head to get en- gaged ; and the next thing, of course, was that he wanted to get married and begin to build on his own account. That is the way with all these young people. 216 THE MASTER BUILDEK. [ACT I. DR. HERDAL. [Laughing.] Yes, they have a bad habit of wanting to marry. SOLNESS. Just so. But of course that did not suit my plans ; for I needed Ragnar myself and the old man too. He is exceedingly good at calculating bearing-strains and cubic contents and all that sort of devilry, you know. DR. HERDAL. Oh yes, no doubt that's indispensable. SOLNESS. Yes, it is. But Ragnar was absolutely bent on setting to work for himself. He would hear of nothing else. DR. HERDAL. But he has stayed with you all the same. SOLNESS. Yes, I'll tell you how that came about. One day this girl, Kaia Fosli, came to see them on some errand or other. She had never been here before. And when I saw how utterly infatuated they were with each other, the thought occurred to me : if I could only get her into the office here, then perhaps Ragnar too would stay where he is. DR. HERDAL. That was not at all a bad idea. SOLNESS. Yes, but at the time I did not breathe a word of what was in my mind. I merely stood and ACT I.] THE MASTER BUILDER. 217 looked at her and kept on wishing intently that I could have her here. Then I talked to her a little, in a friendly way about one thing and another. And then she went away. DR. HERDAL. Well ? SoLNESS. Well then, next day, pretty late in the evening, when old Brovik and Ragnar had gone home, she came here again, arid behaved as if I had made an arrangement with her. DR. HERDAL. An arrangement ? What about ? SOLNESS. About the very thing my mind had been fixed on. But I hadn't said one single word about it. DR. HERDAL. That was most extraordinary. SOLNESS. Yes, was it not ? And now she wanted to know what she was to do here whether she could begin the very next morning, and so forth. DR. HERDAL. Don't you think she did it in order to be with her sweetheart ? SOLNESS. That was what occurred to me at first. But no, that was not it. She seemed to drift quite away from him when once she had come here to 218 THE MASTER BUILDER. [ACT I. DR. HERDAL. She drifted over to you, then ? SOLNESS. Yes, entirely. If I happen to look at her when her back is turned, I can tell that she feels it. She quivers and trembles the moment I come near her. What do you think of that? DR. HERDAL. H'm that's not very hard to explain. SOLNESS. Well, but what about the other thing ? That she believed I had said to her what I had only wished and willed silently inwardly to my- self? What do you say to that ? Can you explain that, Dr. Herdal ? DR. HERDAL. No, I won't undertake to do that. SOLNESS. I felt sure you would not ; and so I have never cared to talk about it till now. But it's a cursed nuisance to me in the long run, you understand. Here have I got to go on day after day pretend- ing . And it's a shame to treat her so, too, poor girl. [Vehemently, ,] But I cannot do any- thing else. For if she runs away from me then Ragnar will be off too. DR. HERDAL. And you have not told your wite the rights ot the story? ACT i.] THE MASTER BUILDER. 219 SOLNESS. No. DR. HERDAL. Then why on earth don't you ? SOLNESS. [Looks fixedly at him, and says in a low voice ;] Because I seem to find a sort of of salutary self- torture in allowing Aline to do me an injustice. DR. HERDAL. [Shakes his head.] I don't in the least under- stand what you mean. SOLNESS. Well, you see it is like paying off a little bit of a huge, immeasurable debt DR. HERDAL. To your wife ? SOLNESS. Yes ; and that always helps to relieve one's mind a little. One can breathe more freely for a while, you understand. DR. HERDAL. No, goodness knows, I don't understand at all SOLNESS. [Breaking off, rises again.] Well, well, well then we won't talk any more about it. [He saunters across the room, returns, and stops beside the table. Looks at the doctor with a sly smile.] I sup- pose you think you have drawn me out nicely now, doctor ? 220 THE MASTER BUILDER. [ACT I. DR. HERDAL. [With some irritation.] Drawn you out ? Again I have not the faintest notion what you mean, Mr. Solness. SoLNESS. Oh come, out with it; I have seen it quite clearly, you know. DR. HERDAL. What have you seen ? SOLKESS. [In a lotv voice, slowly.] That you have been quietly keeping an eye upon me. DR. HERDAL. That / have ! And why in all the world should I do that? SOLNESS. Because you think that I [Passionately .] Well, devil take it you think the same of me as Aline does. DR. HERDAL. And what does she think about you ? SOLNESS. [Having recovered his self-control.^ She has begun to think that I am that I am ill. DR. HERDAL. Ill ! You ! She has never hinted such a thing to me. Why, what can she think is the matter with you ? ACT I.] THE MASTER BUILDER. 221 SoLNESS. [Leans over the back of the chair and whispers.] Aline has made up her mind that I am mad. That is what she thinks. DR. HERDAL. [Rising.] Why, my dear good fellow ! SOLNESS. Yes, on my soul she does ! I tell you it is so. And she has got you to think the same ! Oh, I can assure you. doctor, I see it in your face as clearly as possible. You don't take me in so easily, I can tell you. DR. HERDAL. [Looks at him in amazement.] Never, Mr. Solness never has such a thought entered my mind. SOLNESS. [With an incredulous smile .] Really? Has it not? DR. HERDAL. No, never ! Nor your wife's mind either, I am convinced. I could almost swear to that. SOLNESS. Well, I wouldn't advise you to. For, in a cer- tain sense, you see, perhaps perhaps she is not so far wrong in thinking something of the kind. DR. HERDAL. Come now, I really must say 222 THE MASTER BUILDER. [ACT I. SoLNESS. [Interrupting, with a siveep of his hand.] Well, well, my dear doctor don't let us discuss this any further. We had better agree to differ. [Changes to a tone of quiet amusement.] But look here now, doctor h m DR. HERDAL. Well ? SOLNESS. Since you don't believe that I am ill and crazy and mad, and so forth DR. HERDAL. What then ? SOLNESS. Then I daresay you fancy that I am an ex- tremely happy man. DR. HERDAL. Is that mere fancy ? SOLNESS. [Laughs.] No, no of course not ! Heaven forbid ! Only think to be Solness the master builder ! Halvard Solness ! What could be more delightful ? DR. HERDAL. Yes, I must say it seems to me you have had the luck on your side to an astounding degree. SOLNESS. [Suppresses a gloomy smile] So I have. I can't complain on that score. DR. HERDAL. First of all that grim old robbers' castle was ACT l.J THE MASTER BUILDER. 223 burnt down for you. And that was certainly a great piece of luck. SoLNESS. [Seriously.] It was the home of Aline's family. Remember that. DR. HERDAL. Yes, it must have been a great grief to her. SOLNESS. She has not got over it to this day not in al these twelve or thirteen years. DR. HERDAL. Ah, but what followed must have been the worst blow for her. SOLNESS. The one thing with the other. DR. HERDAL. But you yourself you rose upon the ruins. You began as a poor boy from a country village and now you are at the head of your profession. Ah, yes, Mr. Solness, you have undoubtedly had the luck on your side. SOLNESS. [Looking at him with embarrassment.^ Yes, but that is just what makes me so horribly afraid. DR. HERDAL. Afraid ? Because you have the luck on your side ! SOLNESS. It terrifies me terrifies me every hour of the day. For sooner or later the luck must turn, you see. 224 THE MASTER BUILDER. [ACT I. DR. HERDAL. Oh nonsense ! What should make the luck turn ? SoLNESS. \With Jirm assurance.} The younger genera- tion. DR. HERDAL. Pooh ! The younger generation ! You are not laid on the shelf yet, I should hope. Oh no your position here is probably firmer now than it has ever been. SOLNESS. The luck will turn. I know it I feel the day approaching. Some one or other will take it into his head to say : Give me a chance ! And then all the rest will come clamouring after him, and shake their fists at me and shout : Make room make room make room ! Yes, just you see, doctor presently the younger generation will come knocking at my door DR. HERDAL. \Laughing.] Well, and what if they do ? SOLNESS. What if they do ? Then there's an end of Halvard Solness. [There is a knock at the door on the left. SOLNESS. [Ste/'fo.] What's that ? Did you not hear some- thing ? DR. HERDAL. Some one is knocking at the door. ACT I.] THE MASTER BUILDER. 225 SoLNESS. [Loudly.] Come in. HILDA W ANGEL enters by the hall door. She is of middle height, supple, and delicately built. Some- what sunburnt. Dressed in a tourist costume, with skirt caught up for walking, a sailor's collar open at the throat, and a small sailor hat on her head. Knapsack on back, plaid in strap, and alpenstock. HILDA. [Goes straight up to SOLNESS, her eyes sparkling with happiness.} Good evening ! SOLNESS. [Looks doubtfully at her.] Good evening HILDA. [Laughs.] I almost believe you don't recognise e! SOLNESS. No Imustadmitthat justfor the moment DR. HERDAL. [Approaching.] But 7 recognise you, my dear young lady HILDA. [Pleased.] Oh, is it you that DR. HERDAL. Of course it is. [To SOLNESS.] We met at one of the mountain stations this summer. [To HILDA.] What became of the other ladies ? x P 226 THE MASTER BUILDER. [ACT i. HILDA. Oh, they went westward. DR. HERDAL. They didn't much like all the fun we used to have in the evenings. HILDA. No, I believe they didn't. DR. HERDAL. [Holds up his finger at her.] And I am afraid it can't be denied that you flirted a little with us. HILDA. Well, that was better fun than to sit there knitting stockings with all those old women. DR. HERDAL. [Laughs.] There I entirely agree with you ! SOLNESS. Have you come to town this evening ? HILDA. Yes, I have just arrived. DR. HERDAL. Quite alone, Miss Wangel ? HILDA. Oh yes ! SOLNESS. Wangel ? Is your name Wangel ? ACT I.] THE MASTER BUILDER. 227 HILDA. [Looks in amused surprise at him.] Yes, of course it is. SOLNESS. Then you must be a daughter of the district doctor up at Lysanger ? HILDA. [As before.] Yes, who else's daughter should I be? SOLNESS. Oh, then I suppose we met up there, that summer when I was building a tower on the old church. HILDA. [More seriously.] Yes, of course it was then we met. SOLNESS. Well, that is a long time ago. HILDA. [Looks hard at him.] It is exactly the ten years. SOLNESS. You must have been a mere child then, I should think. HILDA. [Carelessly.] Well, I was twelve or thirteen. DR. HERDAL. Is this the first time you have ever been up to town, Miss Wangel ? HILDA. Yes, it is indeed. 228 THE MASTER BUILDER. [ACT I. SoLNESS. And don't you know any one here HILDA. Nobody but you. And of course, your wife. SGLNESS. So you know her, too? HILDA. Only a little. We spent a few days together at the sanatorium. SOLNESS. Ah, up there ? HILDA. She said I might come and pay her a visit if ever I came up to town. [Smiles.] Not that that was necessary. SOLNESS. Odd that she should never have mentioned it. [HILDA puts her stick down by the stove, takes off the knapsack and lays it and the plaid on the sofa. DR. HERDAL offers to help her. SOLNESS stands and gazes at her. HILDA. [Going towards hi?n.] Well, now 1 must ask you to let me stay the night here. SOLNESS. I am sure there will be no difficulty about that. HILDA. For I have no other clothes than those I stand in, except a change of linen in my knapsack. And that has to go to the wash, for it's very dirty. ACT I.] THE MASTER BUILDER. 229 SoLNESS. Oh yes, that can be managed. Now I'll just let ray wife know DR. HERDAL. Meanwhile I will go and see my patient. SOLNESS. Yes, do ; and come again later on. DR. HERDAL. [Playfully, with a glance at HILDA..] Oh that I will, you may be very certain ! [Laughs.] So your prediction has come true, Mr. Solness ! SOLNESS. How so ? DR. HERDAL. The younger generation did come knocking at your door. SOLNESS. [Cheerfully.'] Yes, but in a very different way fjom what I meant. DR. HERDAL. Very different, yes. That's undeniable. [He goes out by the hall-door. SOLNESS opens the door on the right and speaks into the side room. SOLNESS. Aline ! Will you come in here, please. Here is a friend of yours Miss Wangel. 230 THE MASTER BUILDER. [ACT I. MRS. SOLNESS. [Appears in the doorway.] Who do you say it is ? [Sees HILDA.] Oh, is it you, Miss Wangel ? [Goes up to her and offers her hand.\ So you have come to town after all. SOLNESS. Miss Wangel has this moment arrived ; and she would like to stay the night here. MRS. SOLNESS. Here with us ? Oh yes, certainly. SOLNESS. Till she can get her things a little in order, you know. MRS. SOLNESS. I will do the best I can for you. It's no more than my duty. I suppose your trunk is coming on later ? HILDA. I have no trunk. MRS. SOLNESS. Well, it will be all right, I daresay. In the meantime, you must excuse my leaving you here with my husband, until I can get a room made a little comfortable for you. SOLNESS. Can we not give her one of the nurseries? They are all ready as it is. ACT I.] THE MASTER BUILDER. 231 MRS. SOLNESS. Oh yes. There we have room and to spare. [To HILDA.] Sit down now, and rest a little. [She goes out to the right. [HILDA, with her hands behind her back, strolls about the room and looks at various objects. SOLNESS stands in front, beside the table, also with his hands behind his back, and follows her with his eyes. HILDA. [Stops and looks at him.] Have you several nurseries ? SOLNESS. There are three nurseries in the house. HILDA. That's a lot. Then I suppose you have a great many children ? SOLNESS. No. We have no child. But now you can be the child here, for the time being. HILDA. For to-night, yes. I shall not cry. I mean to sleep as sound as a stone. SOLNESS. Yes, you must be very tired, I should think. HILDA. Oh no ! But all the same It's so delicious to lie and dream. THE MASTER BUILDER. [ACT I. SoLNESS. Do you dream much of nights ? HILDA. Oh yes ! Almost always. SOLNESS. What do you dream about most ? HILDA. I sha'n't tell you to-night. Another time perhaps. [She again strolls about the room, stops at the desk and turns over the books and papers a little. SOLNESS. [Approaching.] Are you searching for any- thing ? HILDA. No, I am merely looking at all these things. [Turns.] Perhaps I mustn't? SOLNESS. Oh, by all means. HILDA. Is it you that write in this great ledger? SOLNESS. No, it's my book-keeper. H ILDA. Is it a woman ? SOLNESS. [Smiles.'] Yes. ACT I.] THE MASTER BUILDER. 233 HILDA. One you employ here, in your office ? SoLNESS. Yes. HILDA. Is she married ? SOLNESS. No, she is single. HILDA. Oh, indeed ! SOLNESS. But I believe she is soon going to be married. HILDA. That's a good thing for her. SOLNESS. But not such a good thing for me. For then I shall have nobody to help me. HILDA. Can't you get hold of some one else who will do just as well ? SOLNESS. Perhaps you would stay here and and write in the ledger ? HILDA. [Measures him with a glance.] Yes, I daresay ! No, thank you nothing of that sort for me. [She again strolls across the room, and sits down in the rocking-chair. SOLNESS too goes to the table. HILDA. [Continuing.] For there must surely be plenty 234- THE MASTER BUILDER. [\CT I. of other things to be done here. [Looks smilingly at him.] Don't you think so, too? SOLNESS. Of course. First of all, I suppose, you want to make a round of the shops, and get yourself up in the height of fashion. HILDA. \Amused.} No, I think I shall let that alone ! SOLNESS. Indeed ? HILDA. For you must know I have run through all my money. SOLNESS. [Lattghs.] Neither trunk nor money, then i HILDA. Neither one nor the other. But never mind it doesn't matter now. SOLNESS. Come now, I like you for that. HILDA. Only for that? SOLNESS. For that among other things. [Sits in the arm- chair.] Is your father alive still ? HILDA. Yes, father's alive. SOLNESS. Perhaps you are thinking of studying here ? ACT I.] THE MASTER BUILDER. 235 HILDA. No, that hadn't occurred to me. SoLNESS. But I suppose you will be staying for some time ? HILDA. That must depend upon circumstances. [She sits awhile rocking herself and looking at him, half seriously, half with a sup- pressed smile. Then she takes off her hat and puts it on the table in front of her. HILDA. Mr. Solness ! SOLNESS. Well? HILDA. Have you a very bad memory ? SOLNESS. A bad memory ? No, not that I am aware of. HILDA. Then have you nothing to say to me about what happened up there ? SOLNESS. [In momentary surprise.] Up at Lysanger ? [/- differently.] Why, it was nothing much to talk about, it seems to me. HILDA. [Looks reproachfully at him.] How can you sit there and say such things ? 23G THE MASTER BUILDER. [ACT I. SoLNESS. Well, then, you talk to me about it. HILDA. When the tower was finished, we had grand doings in the town. SOLNESS. Yes, I shall not easily forget that day. HILDA. [Smiles.] Will you not ? That comes well from you. SOLNESS. Comes well ? HILDA. There was music in the churchyard and many, many hundreds of people. We school-girls were dressed in white ; and we all carried flags. SOLNESS. Ah yes, those flags I can tell you I remember them ! HILDA. Then you climbed right up the scaffolding, straight to the very top ; and you had a great wreath with you ; and you hung that wreath right away up on the weather-vane. SOLNESS. [Curtly interrupting.] I always did that in those days. It is an old custom. HILDA. It was so wonderfully thrilling to stand below ACT I.] THE MASTER BUILDER. 237 and look up at you. Fancy, if lie should fall over ! He the roaster builder himself! SOLNESS. [As if to divert her from the subject.] Yes, yes, yes, that might very well have happened, too. For one of those white-frocked little devils, she went on in such a way, and screamed up at me so HILDA. [Sparkling nnth pleasure.] " Hurra for Master Builder Solness ! " Yes ! SOLNESS. and waved and flourished with her flag, so that I so that it almost made me giddy to look at it. HILDA. [In a lower voice, seiiously.] That little devil that was /. SOLNESS. [Fixes his eyes steadily upon her.] I am sure of that now. It must have been you. HILDA. [Lively again.] Oh, it was so gloriously thrill- ing ! I could not have believed there was a builder in the whole world that could build such a tremendously high tower. And then, that you yourself should stand at the very top of it, as large as life ! And that you should not be the least bit dizzy ! It was that above everything that made one made one dizzy to think of. 238 THE MASTER BUILDER. [ACT I. SoLNESS. How could you be so certain that I was not ? HILDA. [Scouting the idea.] No indeed ! Oh no ! I knew that instinctively. For if you had been, you could never have stood up there and sung. SOLNESS. [Looks at her in astonishment]. Sung ? Did / sing ? HILDA. Yes, I should think you did. SOLNESS. [Shakes his head.] I have never sung a note in my life. HILDA. Yes indeed, you sang then. It sounded like harps in the air. SOLNESS. [Thoughtfully.] This is very strange all this. HILDA. [Is silent awhile, looks at him and says in a low voice :] But then, it was after that that the real thing happened. SOLNESS. The real thing ? HILDA. [Sparkling with vivacity.] Yes, I surely don't need to remind you of that ? ACT I.] THE MASTER BUILDER. 239 SoLNESS. Oh yes, do remind me a little of that, too. HILDA. Don't you remember that a great dinner was given in your honour at the Club ? SOLNESS. Yes, to be sure. It must have been the same afternoon, for I left the place next morning. HILDA. And from the Club you were invited to come round to our house to supper. SOLNESS. Quite right, Miss Wangel. It is wonderful how all these trifles have impressed themselves on your mind. HILDA. Trifles ! I like that ! Perhaps it was a trifle, too, that I was alone in the room when you came in ? SOLNESS. Were you alone? HILDA. [Without answering him.] You didn't call me a little devil then ? * SOLNESS. No, I suppose I did not. HILDA. You said I was lovely in my white dress, and that I looked like a little princess. 240 THE MASTER BUILDER. [ACT I. SoLNESS. I have no doubt you did, Miss Wangel. And besides I was feeling so buoyant and free that day HILDA. And then you said that when I grew up I should be your princess. SOLNESS. [Laughing a little.] Dear, dear did I say that too? HILDA. Yes, you did. And when I asked how long I should have to wait, you said that you would come again in ten years like a troll and carry me off to Spain or some such place. And you promised you would buy me a kingdom there. SOLNESS. [As before.] Yes, after a good dinner one doesn't haggle about the halfpence. But did I really say all that HILDA. [Laughs to herself.] Yes. And you told me, too, what the kingdom was to be called. SOLNESS. Well, what was it? HILDA. It was to be called the kingdom of Orangia, 1 you said. SOLNESS. Well, that was an appetising name. 'In the original " Appelsinia," "appelsin" meaning " orange." ACT I.] THE MASTER BUILDER. 24! HILDA. No, I didn't like it a bit ; for it seemed as though you wanted to make game of me. SoLNESS. I am sure that cannot have been my intention. HILDA. No, I should hope not considering what you did next SOLNESS. What in the world did I do next ? HILDA. Well, Chat's the finishing touch, if you have forgotten that too. I should have thought no one could help remembering such a thing as that. SOLNESS. Yes, yes, just give me a hint, and then per- haps Well ? HILDA. [Looks fixedly at him.] You came and kissed me, Mr. Solness, SOLNESS. [Open-mouthed, rising from Ids chair.] I did ! HILDA. Yes, indeed you did. You took me in both your arms, and bent my head back, and kissed me many times. SOLNESS. Now really, my dear Miss Wangel ! x