diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:53:51 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:53:51 -0700 |
| commit | 625a9f6f422806c87204e9c3ca13cda3bb36c33a (patch) | |
| tree | 628a56e9a462589ff9bc6be5b40d58ff951fa1b5 | |
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 18657.txt | 6090 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 18657.zip | bin | 0 -> 74250 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
5 files changed, 6106 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/18657.txt b/18657.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..780b747 --- /dev/null +++ b/18657.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6090 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Love's Comedy, by Henrik Ibsen, Translated by +C. H. Herford + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Love's Comedy + + +Author: Henrik Ibsen + + + +Release Date: June 22, 2006 [eBook #18657] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOVE'S COMEDY*** + + +E-text prepared by Douglas Levy + + + +The Collected Works of Henrik Ibsen, Volume I + +LOVE'S COMEDY + +Translation by C. H. Herford + + + + + + + +INTRODUCTION* + + +_Koerlighedens Komedie_ was published at Christiania in 1862. The +polite world--so far as such a thing existed at the time in the +Northern capital--received it with an outburst of indignation +now entirely easy to understand. It has indeed faults enough. +The character-drawing is often crude, the action, though full of +effective by-play, extremely slight, and the sensational climax +has little relation to human nature as exhibited in Norway, or +out of it, at that or any other time. But the sting lay in the +unflattering veracity of the piece as a whole; in the merciless +portrayal of the trivialities of persons, or classes, high in their +own esteem; in the unexampled effrontery of bringing a clergyman +upon the stage. All these have long since passed in Scandinavia, +into the category of the things which people take with their Ibsen +as a matter of course, and the play is welcomed with delight by +every Scandinavian audience. But in 1862 the matter was serious, +and Ibsen meant it to be so. + +For they were years of ferment--those six or seven which intervened +between his return to Christiania from Bergen in 1857, and his +departure for Italy in 1864. As director of the newly founded +"Norwegian Theatre," Ibsen was a prominent member of the little +knot of brilliant young writers who led the nationalist revolt +against Danish literary tradition, then still dominant in +well-to-do, and especially in official Christiania. Well-to-do +and official Christiania met the revolt with contempt. Under such +conditions, the specific literary battle of the Norwegian with +the Dane easily developed into the eternal warfare of youthful +idealism with "respectability" and convention. Ibsen had already +started work upon the greatest of his Norse Histories--_The +Pretenders_. But history was for him little more than material +for the illustration of modern problems; and he turned with zest +from the task of breathing his own spirit into the stubborn mould +of the thirteenth century, to hold up the satiric mirror to the +suburban drawing-rooms of Christiania, and to the varied phenomena +current there,--and in suburban drawing-rooms elsewhere,--under +the name of Love. + +Yet _Love's Comedy_ is much more than a satire, and its exuberant +humour has a bitter core; the laughter that rings through it is +the harsh, implacable laughter of Carlyle. His criticism of +commonplace love-making is at first sight harmless and ordinary +enough. The ceremonial formalities of the continental _Verlobung_, +the shrill raptures of aunts and cousins over the engaged pair, +the satisfied smile of enterprising mater-familias as she reckons +up the tale of daughters or of nieces safely married off under her +auspices; or, again, the embarrassments incident to a prolonged +_Brautstand_ following a hasty wooing, the deadly effect of +familiarity upon a shallow affection, and the anxious efforts to +save the appearance of romance when its zest has departed--all +these things had yielded such "comedy" as they possess to many +others before Ibsen, and an Ibsen was not needed to evoke it. +But if we ask what, then, is the right way from which these "cosmic" +personages in their several fashions diverge; what is the condition +which will secure courtship from ridicule, and marriage from +disillusion, Ibsen abruptly parts company with all his predecessors. +"'Of course,' reply the rest in chorus, 'a deep and sincere love';-- +'together,' add some, 'with prudent good sense.'" The prudent +good sense Ibsen allows; but he couples with it the startling +paradox that the first condition of a happy marriage is the absence +of love, and the first condition of an enduring love is the absence +of marriage. + +The student of the latter-day Ibsen is naturally somewhat taken +aback to find the grim poet of Doubt, whose task it seems to be +to apply a corrosive criticism to modern institutions in general +and to marriage in particular, gravely defending the "marriage of +convenience." And his amazement is not diminished by the sense +that the author of this plea for the loveless marriage, which +poets have at all times scorned and derided, was himself beyond +question happily, married. The truth is that there are two men +in Ibsen--an idealist, exalted to the verge of sentimentality, and +a critic, hard, inexorable, remorseless, to the verge of cynicism. +What we call his "social philosophy" is a _modus vivendi_ arrived +at between them. Both agree in repudiating "marriage for love"; +but the idealist repudiates it in the name of love, the critic in +the name of marriage. Love, for the idealist Ibsen, is a passion +which loses its virtue when it reaches its goal, which inspires +only while it aspires, and flags bewildered when it attains. +Marriage, for the critic Ibsen, is an institution beset with +pitfalls into which those are surest to step who enter it blinded +with love. In the latter dramas the tragedy of married life is +commonly generated by other forms of blindness--the childish +innocence of Nora, the maidenly ignorance of Helena Alving, neither +of whom married precisely "for love"; here it is blind Love alone +who, to the jealous eye of the critic, plays the part of the Serpent +in the Edens of wedded bliss. There is, it is clear, an element +of unsolved contradiction in Ibsen's thought;--Love is at once so +precious and so deadly, a possession so glorious that all other +things in life are of less worth, and yet capable of producing +only disastrously illusive effects upon those who have entered +into the relations to which it prompts. But with Ibsen--and it +is a grave intellectual defect--there is an absolute antagonism +between spirit and form. An institution is always with him, a +shackle for the free life of souls, not an organ through which +they attain expression; and since the institution of marriage +cannot but be, there remains as the only logical solution that +which he enjoins--to keep the soul's life out of it. To "those +about to marry," Ibsen therefore says in effect, "Be sure you +are not in love!" And to those who are in love he says, "Part!" + +It is easy to understand the irony with which a man who thought +thus of love contemplated the business of "love-making," and the +ceremonial discipline of Continental courtship. The whole +unnumbered tribe of wooing and plighted lovers were for him +unconscious actors in a world-comedy of Love's contriving--naive +fools of fancy, passionately weaving the cords that are to strangle +passion. Comedy like this cannot be altogether gay; and as each +fresh romance decays into routine, and each aspiring passion goes +out under the spell of a vulgar environment, or submits to the +bitter salvation of a final parting, the ringing laughter grows +harsh and hollow, and notes of ineffable sadness escape from the +poet's Stoic self-restraint. + +Ibsen had grown up in a school which cultivated the romantic, +piquant, picturesque in style; which ran riot in wit, in vivacious +and brilliant imagery, in resonant rhythms and telling double +rhymes. It must be owned that this was not the happiest school +for a dramatist, nor can _Love's Comedy_ be regarded, in the +matter of style, as other than a risky experiment which nothing +but the sheer dramatic force of an Ibsen could have carried through. +As it is, there are palpable fluctuations, discrepancies of manner; +the realism of treatment often provokes a realism of style out of +keeping with the lyric afflatus of the verse; and we pass with +little warning from the barest colloquial prose to the strains +of high-wrought poetic fancy. Nevertheless, the style, with all +its inequalities, becomes in Ibsen's hands a singularly plastic +medium of dramatic expression. The marble is too richly veined +for ideal sculpture, but it takes the print of life. The wit, +exuberant as it is, does not coruscate indiscriminately upon all +lips; and it has many shades and varieties--caustic, ironical, +imaginative, playful, passionate--which take their temper from +the speaker's mood. + +The present version of the play retains the metres of the original, +and follows it in general line for line. For a long passage, +occupying substantially the first twenty pages, the translator is +indebted to the editor of the present work; and two other passages-- +Falk's tirades on pp.58 and 100--result from a fusion of versions +made independently by us both. + C. H. H. + +*Copyright, 1907, by Charles Scribner's Sons. + + + + +LOVE'S COMEDY + + +PERSONS OF THE COMEDY + +MRS. HALM, widow of a government official. +SVANHILD AND ANNA, her daughters. +FALK, a young author, and LIND, a divinity student, her boarders. +GULDSTAD, a wholesale merchant. +STIVER, a law-clerk. +MISS JAY, his fiancee. +STRAWMAN, a country clergyman. +MRS. STRAWMAN, his wife. +STUDENTS, GUESTS, MARRIED AND PLIGHTED PAIRS. +THE STRAWMANS' EIGHT LITTLE GIRLS. +FOUR AUNTS, A PORTER, DOMESTIC SERVANTS. + + + SCENE--Mrs. Halm's Villa on the Drammensvejen at Christiania. + + + + +LOVE'S COMEDY + +PLAY IN THREE ACTS + + + +ACT FIRST + + +The SCENE represents a pretty garden irregularly but tastefully + laid out; in the background are seen the fjord and the + islands. To the left is the house, with a verandah and an open + dormer window above; to the right in the foreground an open + summer-house with a table and benches. The landscape lies in + bright afternoon sunshine. It is early summer; the fruit-trees + are in flower. + +When the Curtain rises, MRS. HALM, ANNA, and MISS JAY are sitting + on the verandah, the first two engaged in embroidery, the last + with a book. In the summer-house are seen FALK, LIND, GULDSTAD, + and STIVER: a punch-bowl and glasses are on the table. SVANHILD + sits alone in the background by the water. + + + +FALK [rises, lifts his glass, and sings]. + + Sun-glad day in garden shady + Was but made for thy delight: + What though promises of May-day + Be annulled by Autumn's blight? + + Apple-blossom white and splendid + Drapes thee in its glowing tent,-- + Let it, then, when day is ended, + Strew the closes storm-besprent. + +CHORUS OF GENTLEMEN. + + Let it, then, when day is ended, etc. + +FALK. + + Wherefore seek the harvest's guerdon + While the tree is yet in bloom? + Wherefore drudge beneath the burden + Of an unaccomplished doom? + Wherefore let the scarecrow clatter + Day and night upon the tree? + Brothers mine, the sparrows' chatter + Has a cheerier melody. + +CHORUS. + + Brothers mine, the sparrow's chatter, etc. + +FALK. + + Happy songster! Wherefore scare him + From our blossom-laden bower? + Rather for his music spare him + All our future, flower by flower; + Trust me, 'twill be cheaply buying + Present song with future fruit; + List the proverb, "Time is flying;--" + Soon our garden music's mute. + +CHORUS. + + List the proverb, etc. + +FALK. + + I will live in song and gladness,-- + Then, when every bloom is shed, + Sweep together, scarce in sadness, + All that glory, wan and dead: + Fling the gates wide! Bruise and batter, + Tear and trample, hoof and tusk; + I have plucked the flower, what matter + Who devours the withered husk! + +CHORUS. + + I have plucked the flower, etc. + [They clink and empty their glasses. + +FALK [to the ladies]. +There--that's the song you asked me for; but pray +Be lenient to it--I can't think to-day. + +GULDSTAD. +Oh, never mind the sense--the sound's the thing. + +MISS JAY [looking round]. +But Svanhild, who was eagerest to hear--? +When Falk began, she suddenly took wing +And vanished-- + +ANNA [pointing towards the back]. + No, for there she sits--I see her. + +MRS. HALM [sighing]. +That child! Heaven knows, she's past my comprehending! + +MISS JAY. +But, Mr. Falk, I thought the lyric's ending +Was not so rich in--well, in poetry, +As others of the stanzas seemed to be. + +STIVER. + Why yes, and I am sure it could not tax + Your powers to get a little more inserted-- + +FALK [clinking glasses with him]. +You cram it in, like putty into cracks, +Till lean is into streaky fat converted. + +STIVER [unruffled]. +Yes, nothing easier--I, too, in my day +Could do the trick. + +GULDSTAD. + Dear me! Were you a poet? + +MISS JAY. +My Stiver! Yes! + +STIVER. + Oh, in a humble way. + +MISS JAY [to the ladies]. +His nature is romantic. + +MRS. HALM. + Yes, we know it. + +STIVER. +Not now; it's ages since I turned a rhyme. + +FALK. +Yes varnish and romance go off with time. +But in the old days--? + +STIVER. + Well, you see, 'twas when +I was in love. + +FALK. + Is that time over, then? +Have you slept off the sweet intoxication? + +STIVER. +I'm now engaged--I hold official station-- +That's better than in love, I apprehend! + +FALK. +Quite so! You're in the right my good old friend. +The worst is past--_vous voila bien avance_-- +Promoted from mere lover to _fiance_. + +STIVER [with a smile of complacent recollection]. +It's strange to think of it--upon my word, +I half suspect my memory of lying-- + [Turns to FALK. +But seven years ago--it sounds absurd!-- +I wasted office hours in versifying. + +FALK. +What! Office hours--! + +STIVER. + Yes, such were my transgressions. + +GULDSTAD [ringing on his glass]. +Silence for our solicitor's confessions! + +STIVER. +But chiefly after five, when I was free, +I'd rattle off whole reams of poetry-- +Ten--fifteen folios ere I went to bed-- + +FALK. +I see--you gave your Pegasus his head, +And off he tore-- + +STIVER. + On stamped or unstamped paper-- +'Twas all the same to him--he'd prance and caper-- + +FALK. +The spring of poetry flowed no less flush? +But how, pray, did you teach it first to gush? + +STIVER. +By aid of love's divining-rod, my friend! +Miss Jay it was that taught me where to bore, +My _fiancee_--she became so in the end-- +For then she was-- + +FALK. + Your love and nothing more. + +STIVER [continuing]. +'Twas a strange time; I could not read a bit; +I tuned my pen instead of pointing it; +And when along the foolscap sheet it raced, +It twangled music to the words I traced;-- +At last by letter I declared my flame +To her--to her-- + +FALK. + Whose _fiancee_ you became. + +STIVER. +In course of post her answer came to hand-- +The motion granted--judgment in my favour! + +FALK. +And you felt bigger, as you wrote, and braver, +To find you'd brought your venture safe to land! + +STIVER. +Of course. + +FALK. + And you bade the Muse farewell? + +STIVER. +I've felt no lyric impulse, truth to tell, +From that day forth. My vein appeared to peter +Entirely out; and now, if I essay +To turn a verse or two for New Year's Day, +I make the veriest hash of rhyme and metre, +And--I've no notion what the cause can be-- +It turns to law and not to poetry. + +GULDSTAD [clinks glasses with him]. +And trust me, you're no whit the worse for that! + [To Falk. +You think the stream of life is flowing solely +To bear you to the goal you're aiming at-- +But here I lodge a protest energetic, +Say what you will, against its wretched moral. +A masterly economy and new +To let the birds play havoc at their pleasure +Among your fruit-trees, fruitless now for you, +And suffer flocks and herds to trample through +Your garden, and lay waste its springtide treasure! +A pretty prospect, truly, for next year! + +FALK. +Oh, next, next, next! The thought I loathe and fear +That these four letters timidly express-- +It beggars millionaires in happiness! +If I could be the autocrat of speech +But for one hour, that hateful word I'd banish; +I'd send it packing out of mortal reach, +As B and G from Knudsen's Grammar vanish. + +STIVER. +Why should the word of hope enrage you thus? + +FALK. +Because it darkens God's fair earth for us. +"Next year," "next love," "next life,"--my soul is vext +To see this world in thraldom to "the next." +'Tis this dull forethought, bent on future prizes, +That millionaires in gladness pauperises. +Far as the eye can reach, it blurs the age; +All rapture of the moment it destroys; +No one dares taste in peace life's simplest joys +Until he's struggled on another stage-- +And there arriving, can he there repose? +No--to a new "next" off he flies again; +On, on, unresting to the grave he goes; +And God knows if there's any resting then. + +MISS JAY. +Fie, Mr. Falk, such sentiments are shocking. + +ANNA [pensively]. +Oh, I can understand the feeling quite; +I am sure at bottom Mr. Falk is right. + +MISS JAY [perturbed]. +My Stiver mustn't listen to his mocking. +He's rather too eccentric even now.-- +My dear, I want you. + +STIVER [occupied in cleaning his pipe]. + Presently, my dear. + +GULDSTAD [to FALK]. +One thing at least to me is very clear;-- +And this is that you cannot but allow +Some forethought indispensable. For see, +Suppose that you to-day should write a sonnet, +And, scorning forethought, you should lavish on it +Your last reserve, your all, of poetry, +So that, to-morrow, when you set about +Your next song, you should find yourself cleaned out, +Heavens! how your friends the critics then would crow! + +FALK. +D'you think they'd notice I was bankrupt? No! +Once beggared of ideas, I and they +Would saunter arm in arm the selfsame way-- + [Breaking off. +But Lind! why, what's the matter with you, pray? +You sit there dumb and dreaming--I suspect you're +Deep in the mysteries of architecture. + +LIND [collecting himself]. +I? What should make you think so? + +FALK. + I observe. +Your eyes are glued to the verandah yonder-- +You're studying, mayhap, its arches' curve, +Or can it be its pillars' strength you ponder, +The door perhaps, with hammered iron hinges? +From something there your glances never wander. + +LIND. +No, you are wrong--I'm just absorbed in being-- +Drunk with the hour--naught craving, naught foreseeing. +I feel as though I stood, my life complete, +With all earth's riches scattered at my feet. +Thanks for your song of happiness and spring-- +From out my inmost heart it seemed to spring. + [Lifts his glass and exchanges a glance, unobserved, + with ANNA. +Here's to the blossom in its fragrant pride! +What reck we of the fruit of autumn-tide? + [Empties his glass. + +FALK [looks at him with surprise and emotion, + but assumes a light tone]. +Behold, fair ladies! though you scorn me quite, +Here I have made an easy proselyte. +His hymn-book yesterday was all he cared for-- +To-day e'en dithyrambics he's prepared for! +We poets must be born, cries every judge; +But prose-folks, now and then, like Strasburg geese, +Gorge themselves so inhumanly obese +On rhyming balderdash and rhythmic fudge, +That, when cleaned out, their very souls are thick +With lyric lard and greasy rhetoric. + [To LIND. +Your praise, however, I shall not forget; +We'll sweep the lyre henceforward in duet. + +MISS JAY. +You, Mr. Falk, are hard at work, no doubt, +Here in these rural solitudes delightful, +Where at your own sweet will you roam about-- + +MRS. HALM [smiling]. +Oh, no, his laziness is something frightful. + +MISS JAY. +What! here at Mrs. Halm's! that's most surprising-- +Surely it's just the place for poetising-- + [Pointing to the right. +That summer-house, for instance, in the wood +Sequestered, name me any place that could +Be more conducive to poetic mood-- + +FALK. +Let blindness veil the sunlight from mine eyes, +I'll chant the splendour of the sunlit skies! +Just for a season let me beg or borrow +A great, a crushing, a stupendous sorrow, +And soon you'll hear my hymns of gladness rise! +But best, Miss Jay, to nerve my wings for flight, +Find me a maid to be my life, my light-- +For that incitement long to heaven I've pleaded; +But hitherto, worse luck, it hasn't heeded. + +MISS JAY. +What levity! + +MRS. HALM. + Yes, most irreverent! + +FALK. +Pray don't imagine it was my intent +To live with her on bread and cheese and kisses. +No! just upon the threshold of our blisses, +Kind Heaven must snatch away the gift it lent. +I need a little spiritual gymnastic; +The dose in that form surely would be drastic. + +SVANHILD. +[Has during the talk approached; she stands close to + the table, and says in a determined but whimsical tone: +I'll pray that such may be your destiny. +But, when it finds you--bear it like a man. + +FALK [turning round in surprise]. +Miss Svanhild!--well, I'll do the best I can. +But think you I may trust implicitly +To finding your petitions efficacious? +Heaven as you know, to faith alone is gracious-- +And though you've doubtless will enough for two +To make me bid my peace of mind adieu, +Have you the faith to carry matters through? +That is the question. + +SVANHILD [half in jest]. + Wait till sorrow comes, +And all your being's springtide chills and numbs, +Wait till it gnaws and rends you, soon and late, +Then tell me if my faith is adequate. + [She goes across to the ladies. + +MRS. HALM [aside to her]. +Can you two never be at peace? you've made +Poor Mr. Falk quite angry, I'm afraid. + + [Continues reprovingly in a low voice. MISS JAY joins in + the conversation. SVANHILD remains cold and silent. + +FALK [after a pause of reflection goes over to the summer-house, + then to himself]. +With fullest confidence her glances lightened. +Shall I believe, as she does so securely, +That Heaven intends-- + +GULDSTAD. + No, hang it; don't be frightened! +The powers above would be demented surely +To give effect to orders such as these. +No, my good sir--the cure for your disease +Is exercise for muscle, nerve, and sinew. +Don't lie there wasting all the grit that's in you +In idle dreams; cut wood, if that were all; +And then I'll say the devil's in't indeed +If one brief fortnight does not find you freed +From all your whimsies high-fantastical. + +FALK. +Fetter'd by choice, like Burnell's ass, I ponder-- +The flesh on this side, and the spirit yonder. +Which were it wiser I should go for first? + +GULDSTAD [filling the glasses]. +First have some punch--that quenches ire and thirst. + +MRS. HALM [looking at her watch]. +Ha! Eight o'clock! my watch is either fast, or +It's just the time we may expect the Pastor. + [Rises, and puts things in order on the verandah. + +FALK. +What! have we parsons coming? + +MISS JAY. + Don't you know? + +MRS. HALM. +I told you, just a little while ago-- + +ANNA. +No, mother--Mr. Falk had not yet come. + +MRS. HALM. +Why no, that's true; but pray don't look so glum. +Trust me, you'll be enchanted with his visit. + +FALK. +A clerical enchanter; pray who is it? + +MRS. HALM. +Why, Pastor Strawman, not unknown to fame. + +FALK. +Indeed! Oh, yes, I think I've heard his name, +And read that in the legislative game +He comes to take a hand, with voice and vote. + +STIVER. +He speaks superbly. + +GULDSTAD. + When he's cleared his throat. + +MISS JAY. +He's coming with his wife-- + +MRS. HALM. + And all their blessings-- + +FALK. +To give them three or four days' treat, poor dears-- +Soon he'll be buried over head and ears +In Swedish muddles and official messings-- +I see! + +MRS. HALM [to FALK]. + Now there's a man for you, in truth! + +GULDSTAD. +They say he was a rogue, though, in his youth. + +MISS JAY [offended]. +There, Mr. Guldstad, I must break a lance! +I've heard as long as I can recollect, +Most worthy people speak with great respect +Of Pastor Strawman and his life's romance. + +GULDSTAD [laughing]. +Romance? + +MISS JAY. + Romance! I call a match romantic +At which mere worldly wisdom looks askance. + +FALK. +You make my curiosity gigantic. + +MISS JAY [continuing]. +But certain people always grow splenetic-- +Why, goodness knows--at everything pathetic, +And scoff it down. We all know how, of late, +An unfledged, upstart undergraduate +Presumed, with brazen insolence, to declare +That "William Russell"(1)was a poor affair! + +FALK. +But what has this to do with Strawman, pray? +Is he a poem, or a Christian play? + +MISS JAY [with tears of emotion]. +No, Falk,--a man, with heart as large as day. +But when a--so to speak--mere lifeless thing +Can put such venom into envy's sting, +And stir up evil passions fierce and fell +Of such a depth-- + +FALK [sympathetically]. + And such a length as well-- + +MISS JAY. +Why then, a man of your commanding brain +Can't fail to see-- + +FALK. + Oh, yes, that's very plain. +But hitherto I haven't quite made out +The nature, style, and plot of this romance. +It's something quite delightful I've no doubt-- +But just a little inkling in advance-- + +STIVER. +I will abstract, in rapid _resume_, +The leading points. + +MISS JAY. + No, I am more _au fait_, +I know the ins and outs-- + +MRS. HALM. + I know them too! + +MISS JAY. +Oh Mrs. Halm! now let me tell it, do! +Well, Mr. Falk, you see--he passed at college +For quite a miracle of wit and knowledge, +Had admirable taste in books and dress-- + +MRS. HALM. +And acted--privately--with great success. + +MISS JAY. +Yes, wait a bit--he painted, played and wrote-- + +MRS. HALM. +And don't forget his gift of anecdote. + +MISS JAY. +Do give me time; I know the whole affair: +He made some verses, set them to an air, +Also his own,--and found a publisher. +O heavens! with what romantic melancholy +He played and sang his "Madrigals to Molly"! + +MRS. HALM. +He was a genius, the simple fact. + +GULDSTAD [to himself]. +Hm! Some were of opinion he was cracked. + +FALK. +A gray old stager,(2)whose sagacious head +Was never upon mouldy parchments fed, +Says "Love makes Petrarchs, just as many lambs +And little occupation, Abrahams." +But who was Molly? + +MISS JAY. + Molly? His elect, +His lady-love, whom shortly we expect. +Of a great firm her father was a member-- + +GULDSTAD. +A timber house. + +MISS JAY [curtly]. + I'm really not aware. + +GULDSTAD. +Did a large trade in scantlings, I remember. + +MISS JAY. +That is the trivial side of the affair. + +FALK. +A firm? + +MISS JAY [continuing]. + Of vast resources, I'm informed. +You can imagine how the suitors swarm'd; +Gentlemen of the highest reputation.-- + +MRS. HALM. +Even a baronet made application. + +MISS JAY. +But Molly was not to be made their catch. +She had met Strawman upon private stages; +To see him was to love him-- + +FALK. + And despatch +The wooing gentry home without their wages? + +MRS. HALM. +Was it not just a too romantic match? + +MISS JAY. +And then there was a terrible old father, +Whose sport was thrusting happy souls apart; +She had a guardian also, as I gather, +To add fresh torment to her tortured heart. +But each of them was loyal to his vow; +A straw-hatched cottage and a snow-white ewe +They dream'd of, just enough to nourish two-- + +MRS. HALM. +Or at the very uttermost a cow,-- + +MISS JAY. +In short, I've heard it from the lips of both,-- +A beck, a byre, two bosoms, and one troth. + +FALK. +Ah yes! And then--? + +MISS JAY. + She broke with kin and class. + +FALK. +She broke--? + +MRS. HALM. + Broke with them. + +FALK. + There's a plucky lass! + +MISS JAY. +And fled to Strawman's garret-- + +FALK. + How? Without-- +Ahem, the priestly consecration? + +MISS JAY. + Shame! + +MRS. HALM. +Fy, fy! my late beloved husband's name +Was on the list of sponsors--! + +STIVER [to MISS JAY]. + The one room +Not housing sheep and cattle, I presume. + +MISS JAY [to STIVER]. +O, but you must consider this, my friend; +There is no _Want_ where Love's the guiding star; +All's right without if tender Troth's within. + [To Falk. +He loved her to the notes of the guitar, +And she gave lessons on the violin-- + +MRS. HALM. +Then all, of course, on credit they bespoke-- + +GULDSTAD. +Till, in a year, the timber merchant broke. + +MRS. HALM. +Then Strawman had a call to north. + +MISS JAY. + And there +Vowed, in a letter that I saw (as few did), +He lived but for his duty, and for her. + +FALK [as if completing her statement]. +And with those words his Life's Romance concluded. + +MRS. HALM [rising]. +How if we should go out upon the lawn, +And see if there's no prospect of them yet? + +MISS JAY [drawing on her mantle]. +It's cool already. + +MRS. HALM. + Svanhild, will you get +My woollen shawl?--Come ladies, pray! + +LIND [to ANNA, unobserved by the others]. + Go on! + + [SVANHILD goes into the house; the others, except + FALK, go towards the back and out to the left. + LIND, who has followed, stops and returns. + +LIND. +My friend! + +FALK. + Ah, ditto. + +LIND. + Falk, your hand! The tide +Of joy's so vehement, it will perforce +Break out-- + +FALK. + Hullo there; you must first be tried; +Sentence and hanging follow in due course. +Now, what on earth's the matter? To conceal +From me, your friend, this treasure of your finding; +For you'll confess the inference is binding: +You've come into a prize off Fortune's wheel! + +LIND. +I've snared and taken Fortune's blessed bird! + +FALK. +How? Living,--and undamaged by the steel? + +LIND. +Patience; I'll tell the matter in one word. +I am engaged! Conceive--! + +FALK [quickly]. + Engaged! + +LIND. + It's true! +To-day,--with unimagined courage swelling, +I said,--ahem, it will not bear re-telling;-- +But only think,--the sweet young maiden grew +Quite rosy-red,--but not at all enraged! +You see, Falk, what I ventured for a bride! +She listened,--and I rather think she cried; +That, sure, means "Yes"? + +FALK. + If precedents decide; +Go on. + +LIND. + And so we really are--engaged? + +FALK. +I should conclude so; but the only way +To be quite certain, is to ask Miss Jay. + +LIND. +O no, I feel so confident, so clear! +So perfectly assured, and void of fear. + [Radiantly, in a mysterious tone. +Hark! I had leave her fingers to caress +When from the coffee-board she drew the cover. + +FALK [lifting and emptying his glass]. +Well, flowers of spring your wedding garland dress! + +LIND [doing the same]. +And here I swear by heaven that I will love her +Until I die, with love as infinite +As now glows in me,--for she is so sweet! + +FALK. +Engaged! Aha, so that was why you flung +The Holy Law and Prophets on the shelf! + +LIND [laughing]. +And you believed it was the song you sung--! + +FALK. +A poet believes all things of himself. + +LIND [seriously]. +Don't think, however, Falk, that I dismiss +The theologian from my hour of bliss. +Only, I find the Book will not suffice +As Jacob's ladder unto Paradise. +I must into God's world, and seek Him there. +A boundless kindness in my heart upsprings, +I love the straw, I love the creeping things; +They also in my joy shall have a share. + +FALK. +Yes, only tell me this, though-- + +LIND. + I have told it,-- +My precious secret, and our three hearts hold it! + +FALK. +But have you thought about the future? + +LIND. + Thought? +I?--thought about the future? No, from this +Time forth I live but in the hour that is. +In home shall all my happiness be sought; +We hold Fate's reins, we drive her hither, thither, +And neither friend nor mother shall have right +To say unto my budding blossom: Wither! +For I am earnest and her eyes are bright, +And so it must unfold into the light! + +FALK. +Yes, Fortune likes you, you will serve her turn! + +LIND. +My spirits like wild music glow and burn; +I feel myself a Titan: though a foss +Opened before me--I would leap across! + +FALK. +Your love, you mean to say, in simple prose, +Has made a reindeer of you. + +LIND. + Well, suppose; +But in my wildest flight, I know the nest +In which my heart's dove longs to be at rest! + +FALK. +Well then, to-morrow it may fly _con brio_, +You're off into the hills with the quartette. +I'll guarantee you against cold and wet-- + +LIND. +Pooh, the quartette may go and climb in _trio_, +The lowly dale has mountain air for me; +Here I've the immeasurable fjord, the flowers, +Here I have warbling birds and choral bowers, +And lady fortune's self,--for here is she! + +FALK. +Ah, lady Fortune by our Northern water caught her! + [With a glance towards the house. +Hist--Svanhild-- + +LIND. + Well; I go,--disclose to none +The secret that we share alone with one. +'Twas good of you to listen; now enfold it +Deep in your heart,--warm, glowing, as I told it. + + [He goes out in the background to the others. FALK + looks after him a moment, and paces up and down + in the garden, visibly striving to master his + agitation. Presently SVANHILD comes out with a + shawl on her arm, and is going towards the back. + FALK approaches and gazes at her fixedly. + SVANHILD stops. + +SVANHILD [after a short pause]. +You gaze at me so! + +FALK [half to himself]. + Yes, 'tis there--the same; +The shadow in her eyes' deep mirror sleeping, +The roguish elf about her lips a-peeping, +It is there. + +SVANHILD. + What? You frighten me. + +FALK. + Your name +Is Svanhild? + +SVANHILD. + Yes, you know it very well. + +FALK. +But do you know the name is laughable? +I beg you to discard it from to-night! + +SVANHILD. +That would be far beyond a daughter's right-- + +FALK [laughing]. +Hm. "Svanhild! Svanhild!" + [With sudden gravity. + With your earliest breath +How came you by this prophecy of death? + +SVANHILD. +Is it so grim? + +FALK. + No, lovely as a song, +But for our age too great and stern and strong, +How can a modern demoiselle fill out +The ideal that heroic name expresses? +No, no, discard it with your outworn dresses. + +SVANHILD. +You mean the mythical princess, no doubt-- + +FALK. +Who, guiltless, died beneath the horse's feet. + +SVANHILD. +But now such acts are clearly obsolete. +No, no, I'll mount his saddle! There's my place! +How often have I dreamt, in pensive ease, +He bore me, buoyant, through the world apace, +His mane a flag of freedom in the breeze! + +FALK. +Yes, the old tale. In "pensive ease" no mortal +Is stopped by thwarting bar or cullis'd portal; +Fearless we cleave the ether without bound; +In practice, tho', we shrewdly hug the ground; +For all love life and, having choice, will choose it; +And no man dares to leap where he may lose it. + +SVANHILD. +Yes! show me but the end, I'll spurn the shore; +But let the end be worth the leaping for! +A Ballarat beyond the desert sands-- +Else each will stay exactly where he stands. + +FALK [sarcastically]. +I grasp the case;--the due conditions fail. + +SVANHILD [eagerly]. +Exactly: what's the use of spreading sail +When there is not a breath of wind astir? + +FALK [ironically]. +Yes, what's the use of plying whip and spur +When there is not a penny of reward +For him who tears him from the festal board, +And mounts, and dashes headlong to perdition? +Such doing for the deed's sake asks a knight, +And knighthood's now an idle superstition. +That was your meaning, possibly? + +SVANHILD. + Quite right. +Look at that fruit tree in the orchard close,-- +No blossom on its barren branches blows. +You should have seen last year with what brave airs +It staggered underneath its world of pears. + +FALK [uncertain]. +No doubt, but what's the moral you impute? + +SVANHILD [with finesse]. +O, among other things, the bold unreason +Of modern Zacharies who seek for fruit. +If the tree blossom'd to excess last season, +You must not crave the blossoms back in this. + +FALK. +I knew you'd find your footing in the ways +Of old romance. + +SVANHILD. + Yes, modern virtue is +Of quite another stamp. Who now arrays +Himself to battle for the truth? Who'll stake +His life and person fearless for truth's sake? +Where is the hero? + +FALK [looking keenly at her]. + Where is the Valkyria? + +SVANHILD [shaking her head]. +Valkyrias find no market in this land! +When the faith lately was assailed in Syria, +Did you go out with the crusader-band? +No, but on paper you were warm and willing,-- +And sent the "Clerical Gazette" a shilling. + + [Pause. FALK is about to retort, but checks + himself, and goes into the garden. + +SVANHILD [after watching him a moment, approaches + him and asks gently: +Falk, are you angry? + +FALK. + No, I only brood,-- + +SVANHILD [with thoughtful sympathy]. +You seem to be two natures, still at feud,-- +Unreconciled-- + +FALK. + I know it well. + +SVANHILD [impetuously]. + But why? + +FALK [losing self-control]. +Why, why? Because I hate to go about +With soul bared boldly to the vulgar eye, +As Jock and Jennie hang their passions out; +To wear my glowing heart upon my sleeve, +Like women in low dresses. You, alone, +Svanhild, you only,--you, I did believe,-- +Well, it is past, that dream, for ever flown.-- + + [She goes to the summer-house and looks out; + he follows. + +You listen--? + +SVANHILD. + To another voice, that sings. +Hark! every evening when the sun's at rest, +A little bird floats hither on beating wings,-- +See there--it darted from its leafy nest-- +And, do you know, it is my faith, as oft +As God makes any songless soul, He sends +A little bird to be her friend of friends, +And sing for ever in her garden-croft. + +FALK [picking up a stone]. +Then must the owner and the bird be near, +Or its song's squandered on a stranger's ear. + +SVANHILD. +Yes, that is true; but I've discovered mine. +Of speech and song I am denied the power, +But when it warbles in its leafy bower, +Poems flow in upon my brain like wine-- +Ah, yes,--they fleet--they are not to be won-- + + [FALK throws the stone. SVANHILD screams. + +O God, you've hit it! Ah, what have you done! + + [She hurries out to the the right and then + quickly returns. + +O pity! pity! + +FALK [in passionate agitation]. + No,--but eye for eye, +Svanhild, and tooth for tooth. Now you'll attend +No further greetings from your garden-friend, +No guerdon from the land of melody. +That is my vengeance: as you slew I slay. + +SVANHILD. +I slew? + +FALK. + You slew. Until this very day, +A clear-voiced song-bird warbled in my soul; +See,--now one passing bell for both may toll-- +You've killed it! + +SVANHILD. + Have I? + +FALK. + Yes, for you have slain +My young, high-hearted, joyous exultation-- + [Contemptuously. +By your betrothal! + +SVANHILD. + How! But pray explain--! + +FALK. +O, it's in full accord with expectation; +He gets his licence, enters orders, speeds to +A post,--as missionary in the West-- + +SVANHILD [in the same tone]. +A pretty penny, also, he succeeds to;-- +For it is Lind you speak of--? + +FALK. + You know best +Of whom I speak. + +SVANHILD [with a subdued smile]. + As the bride's sister, true, +I cannot help-- + +FALK. + Great God! It is not you--? + +SVANHILD. +Who win this overplus of bliss? Ah no! + +FALK [with almost childish joy]. +It is not you! O God be glorified! +What love, what mercy does He not bestow! +I shall not see you as another's bride;-- +'Twas but the fire of pain He bade me bear-- + [Tries to seize her hand. +O hear me, Svanhild, hear me then-- + +SVANHILD [pointing quickly to the background]. + See there! + + [She goes towards the house. At the same moment + MRS. HALM, ANNA, MISS JAY, GULDSTAD, STIVER, and + LIND emerge from the background. During the + previous scene the sun has set; it is now dark. + +MRS. HALM [to SVANHILD]. +The Strawmans may be momently expected. +Where have you been? + +MISS JAY [after glancing at FALK]. + Your colour's very high. + +SVANHILD. +A little face-ache; it will soon pass by. + +MRS. HALM. +And yet you walk at nightfall unprotected? +Arrange the room, and see that tea is ready; +Let everything be nice; I know the lady. + [Svanhild goes in. + +STIVER [to FALK]. +What is the colour of this parson's coat? + +FALK. +I guess bread-taxers would not catch his vote. + +STIVER. +How if one made allusion to the store +Of verses, yet unpublished, in my drawer? + +FALK. +It might do something. + +STIVER. + Would to heaven it might! +Our wedding's imminent; our purses light. +Courtship's a very serious affair. + +FALK. +Just so: "_Qu'allais-tu faire dans cette galere?_" + +STIVER. +Is courtship a "galere"? + +FALK. + No, married lives;-- +All servitude, captivity, and gyves. + +STIVER [seeing MISS JAY approach]. +You little know what wealth a man obtains +From woman's eloquence and woman's brains. + +MISS JAY [aside to STIVER]. +Will Guldstad give us credit, think you? + +STIVER [peevishly]. + I +Am not quite certain of it yet: I'll try. + + [They withdraw in conversation; LIND and + ANNA approach. + +LIND [aside to FALK]. +I can't endure it longer; in post-haste +I must present her-- + +FALK. + You had best refrain, +And not initiate the eye profane +Into your mysteries-- + +LIND. + That would be a jest!-- +From you, my fellow-boarder, and my mate, +To keep concealed my new-found happy state! +Nay, now, my head with Fortune's oil anointed-- + +FALK. +You think the occasion good to get it curled? +Well, my good friend, you won't be disappointed; +Go and announce your union to the world! + +LIND. +Other reflections also weigh with me, +And one of more especial gravity; +Say that there lurked among our motley band +Some sneaking, sly pretender to her hand; +Say, his attentions became undisguised,-- +We should be disagreeably compromised. + +FALK. +Yes, it is true; it had escaped my mind, +You for a higher office were designed, +Love as his young licentiate has retained you; +Shortly you'll get a permanent position; +But it would be defying all tradition +If at the present moment he ordained you. + +LIND. +Yes if the merchant does not-- + +FALK. + What of him? + +ANNA [troubled]. +Oh, it is Lind's unreasonable whim. + +LIND. +Hush; I've a deep foreboding that the man +Will rob me of my treasure, if he can. +The fellow, as we know, comes daily down, +Is rich, unmarried, takes you round the town; +In short, my own, regard it as we will, +There are a thousand things that bode us ill. + +ANNA [sighing]. +Oh, it's too bad; to-day was so delicious! + +FALK [sympathetically to LIND]. +Don't wreck your joy, unfoundedly suspicious, +Don't hoist your flag till time the truth disclose-- + +ANNA. +Great God! Miss Jay is looking; hush, be still! + + [She and LIND withdraw in different directions. + +FALK [looking after LIND]. +So to the ruin of his youth he goes. + +GULDSTAD. [Who has meantime been conversing on the steps + with MRS. HALM and MISS JAY, approaches FALK + and slaps him on the shoulder. +Well, brooding on a poem? + +FALK. + No, a play. + +GULDSTAD. +The deuce;--I never heard it was your line. + +FALK. +O no, the author is a friend of mine, +And your acquaintance also, I daresay. +The knave's a dashing writer, never doubt. +Only imagine, in a single day +He's worked a perfect little Idyll out. + +GULDSTAD [slily]. +With happy ending, doubtless! + +FALK. + You're aware, +No curtain falls but on a plighted pair. +Thus with the Trilogy's First Part we've reckoned; +But now the poet's labour-throes begin; +The Comedy of Troth-plight, Part the Second, +Thro' five insipid Acts he has to spin, +And of that staple, finally, compose +Part Third,--or Wedlock's Tragedy, in prose. + +GULDSTAD [smiling]. +The poet's vein is catching, it would seem. + +FALK. +Really? How so, pray? + +GULDSTAD. + Since I also pore +And ponder over a poetic scheme,-- + [Mysteriously. +An actuality--and not a dream. + +FALK. +And pray, who is the hero of your theme? + +GULDSTAD. +I'll tell you that to-morrow--not before. + +FALK. +It is yourself! + +GULDSTAD. + You think me equal to it? + +FALK. +I'm sure no other mortal man could do it. +But then the heroine? No city maid, +I'll swear, but of the country, breathing balm? + +GULDSTAD [lifting his finger]. +Ah,--that's the point, and must not be betrayed!-- + [Changing his tone. +Pray tell me your opinion of Miss Halm. + +FALK. +O you're best able to pronounce upon her; +My voice can neither credit nor dishonour,-- + [Smiling. +But just take care no mischief-maker blot +This fine poetic scheme of which you talk. +Suppose I were so shameless as to balk +The meditated climax of the plot? + +GULDSTAD [good-naturedly]. +Well, I would cry "Amen," and change my plan. + +FALK. +What! + +GULDSTAD. + Why, you see, you are a letter'd man; +How monstrous were it if your skill'd design +Were ruined by a bungler's hand like mine! + [Retires to the background. + +FALK [in passing, to LIND]. +Yes, you were right; the merchant's really scheming +The ruin of your new-won happiness. + +LIND [aside to ANNA]. +Now then you see, my doubting was not dreaming; +We'll go this very moment and confess. + + [They approach MRS. HALM, who is standing with Miss Jay + by the house. + +GULDSTAD [conversing with STIVER]. +'Tis a fine evening. + +STIVER. + Very likely,--when +A man's disposed-- + +GULDSTAD [facetiously]. + What, all not running smooth +In true love's course? + +STIVER. + Not that exactly-- + +FALK [coming up]. + Then +With your engagement? + +STIVER. + That's about the truth. + +FALK. +Hurrah! Your spendthrift pocket has a groat +Or two still left, it seems, of poetry. + +STIVER [stiffly]. +I cannot see what poetry has got +To do with my engagement, or with me. + +FALK. +You are not meant to see; when lovers prove +What love is, all is over with their love. + +GULDSTAD [to STIVER]. +But if there's matter for adjustment, pray +Let's hear it. + +STIVER. + I've been pondering all day +Whether the thing is proper to disclose, +But still the Ayes are balanced by the Noes. + +FALK. +I'll right you in one sentence. Ever since +As plighted lover you were first installed, +You've felt yourself, if I may say so, galled-- + +STIVER. +And sometimes to the quick. + +FALK. + You've had to wince +Beneath a crushing load of obligations +That you'd send packing, if good form permitted. +That's what's the matter. + +STIVER. + Monstrous accusations! +My legal debts I've honestly acquitted; +But other bonds next month are falling due; + [To GULDSTAD. +When a man weds, you see, he gets a wife-- + +FALK [triumphant]. +Now your youth's heaven once again is blue; +There rang an echo from your old song-life! +That's how it is: I read you thro' and thro'; +Wings, wings were all you wanted,--and a knife! + +STIVER. +A knife? + +FALK. + Yes, Resolution's knife, to sever +Each captive bond, and set you free for ever, +To soar-- + +STIVER [angrily]. + Nay, now you're insolent beyond +Endurance! Me to charge with violation +Of law,--me, me with plotting to abscond! +It's libellous, malicious defamation, +Insult and calumny-- + +FALK. + Are you insane? +What is all this about? Explain! Explain! + +GULDSTAD [laughingly to STIVER]. +Yes, clear your mind of all this balderdash! +What do you want? + +STIVER [pulling himself together]. + A trifling loan in cash. + +FALK. +A loan! + +STIVER [hurriedly to GULDSTAD]. + That is, I mean to say, you know, +A voucher for a ten pound note, or so. + +MISS JAY [to LIND and ANNA]. +I wish you joy! How lovely, how delicious! + +GULDSTAD [going up to the ladies]. +Pray what has happened? + [To himself.] This was unpropitious. + +FALK [throws his arms about STIVER's neck]. +Hurrah! the trumpet's dulcet notes proclaim +A brother born to you in Amor's name! + [Drags him to the others. + +MISS JAY [to the gentlemen]. +Think! Lind and Anna--think!--have plighted hearts, +Affianced lovers! + +MRS. HALM [with tears of emotion]. + 'Tis the eighth in order +Who well-provided from this house departs; + [To FALK. +Seven nieces wedded-always with a boarder-- + [Is overcome; presses her handkerchief to her eyes. + +MISS JAY [to ANNA]. +Well, there will come a flood of gratulation! + [Caresses her with emotion. + +LIND [seizing FALK's hand]. +My friend, I walk in rapt intoxication! + +FALK. +Hold! As a plighted man you are a member +Of Rapture's Temperance-association. +Observe it's rules;--no orgies here, remember! + [Turning to GULDSTAD sympathetically. +Well, my good sir! + +GULDSTAD [beaming with pleasure]. + I think this promises +All happiness for both. + +FALK [staring at him]. + You seem to stand +The shock with exemplary self-command. +That's well. + +GULDSTAD. + What do you mean, sir? + +FALK. + Only this; +That inasmuch as you appeared to feed +Fond expectations of your own-- + +GULDSTAD. + Indeed? + +FALK. +At any rate, you were upon the scent. +You named Miss Halm; you stood upon this spot +And asked me-- + +GULDSTAD [smiling]. + There are two, though, are there not? + +FALK. +It was--the other sister that you meant? + +GULDSTAD. +That sister, yes, the other one,--just so. +Judge for yourself, when you have come to know +That sister better, if she has not in her +Merits which, if they were divined, would win her +A little more regard than we bestow. + +FALK [coldly]. +Her virtues are of every known variety +I'm sure. + +GULDSTAD. + Not quite; the accent of society +She cannot hit exactly; there she loses. + +FALK. +A grievous fault. + +GULDSTAD. + But if her mother chooses +To spend a winter on her, she'll come out of it +Queen of them all, I'll wager. + +FALK. + Not a doubt of it. + +GULDSTAD [laughing]. +Young women are odd creatures, to be sure! + +FALK [gaily]. +Like winter rye-seed, canopied secure +By frost and snow, invisibly they sprout. + +GULDSTAD. +Then in the festive ball-room bedded out-- + +FALK. +With equivique and scandal for manure-- + +GULDSTAD. +And when April sun shines-- + +FALK. + There the blade is; +The seed shot up in mannikin green ladies! + + [LIND comes up and seizes FALK's hand. + +LIND. +How well I chose,--past understanding well;-- +I feel a bliss that nothing can dispel. + +GULDSTAD. +There stands your mistress; tell us, if you can, +The right demeanor for a plighted man. + +LIND [perturbed]. +That's a third person's business to declare. + +GULDSTAD [joking]. +Ill-tempered! This to Anna's ears I'll bear. + [Goes to the ladies. + +LIND [looking after him]. +Can such a man be tolerated? + +FALK. + You +Mistook his aim, however,-- + +LIND. + And how so? + +FALK. +It was not Anna that he had in view. + +LIND. +How, was it Svanhild? + +FALK. + Well, I hardly know. + [Whimsically. +Forgive me, martyr to another's cause! + +LIND. +What do you mean? + +FALK. + You've read the news to-night? + +LIND. +No. + +FALK. + Do so. There 'tis told in black and white +Of one who, ill-luck's bitter counsel taking, +Had his sound teeth extracted from his jaws +Because his cousin-german's teeth were aching. + +MISS JAY [looking out to the left]. +Here comes the priest! + +MRS. HALM. + Now see a man of might! + +STIVER. +Five children, six, seven, eight-- + +FALK. + And, heavens, all recent! + +MISS JAY. +Ugh! it is almost to be called indecent. + + [A carriage has meantime been heard stopping outside + to the left. STRAWMAN, his wife, and eight little + girls, all in traveling dress, enter one by one. + +MRS. HALM. [advancing to meet them]. +Welcome, a hearty welcome! + +STRAWMAN. + Thank you. + +MRS. STRAWMAN. + It is +A party? + +MRS. HALM. + No, dear madam, not at all. + +MRS. STRAWMAN. +If we disturb you-- + +MRS. HALM. + _Au contraire_, your visit +Could in no wise more opportunely fall. +My Anna's just engaged. + +STRAWMAN [shaking ANNA's hand with unction]. + Ah then, I must +Bear witness;--Lo! in wedded Love's presented +A treasure such as neither moth nor rust +Corrupt--if it be duly supplemented. + +MRS. HALM. +But how delightful that your little maids +Should follow you to town. + +STRAWMAN. + Four tender blades +We have besides. + +MRS. HALM. + Ah, really? + +STRAWMAN. + Three of whom +Are still too infantine to take to heart +A loving father's absence, when I come +To town for sessions. + +MISS JAY [to MRS. HALM, bidding farewell]. + Now I must depart. + +MRS. HALM. +O, it is still so early! + +MISS JAY. + I must fly +To town and spread the news. The Storms, I know, +Go late to rest, they will be up; and oh! +How glad the aunts will be! Now, dear, put by +Your shyness; for to-morrow a spring-tide +Of callers will flow in from every side! + +MRS. HALM. +Well, then, good-night + [To the others. + Now friends, what would you say +To drinking tea? + [To MRS. STRAWMAN. +Pray, madam, lead the way. + + [MRS. HALM, STRAWMAN, his wife and children, with + GULDSTAD, LIND, and ANNA go into the house. + +MISS JAY [taking STIVER's arm]. +Now let's be tender! Look how softly floats +Queen Luna on her throne o'er lawn and lea!-- +Well, but you are not looking! + +STIVER [crossly]. + Yes, I see; +I'm thinking of the promissory notes. + + [They go out to the left. FALK, who has been + continuously watching STRAWMAN and his wife, + remains behind alone in the garden. It is + now dark; the house is lighted up. + +FALK. +All is as if burnt out;--all desolate, dead--! +So thro' the world they wander, two and two; +Charred wreckage, like the blackened stems that strew +The forest when the withering fire is fled. +Far as the eye can travel, all is drought. +And nowhere peeps one spray of verdure out! + + [SVANHILD comes out on to the verandah with a + flowering rose-tree which she sets down. + +Yes one--yes one--! + +SVANHILD. + Falk, in the dark? + +FALK. + And fearless! +Darkness to me is fair, and light is cheerless. +But are not you afraid in yonder walls +Where the lamp's light on sallow corpses falls-- + +SVANHILD. +Shame! + +FALK [looking after STRAWMAN who appears at the window]. + He was once so brilliant and strong; +Warred with the world to win his mistress; passed +For Custom's doughtiest iconoclast; +And pored forth love in paeans of glad song--! +Look at him now! In solemn robes and wraps, +A two-legged drama on his own collapse! +And she, the limp-skirt slattern, with the shoes +Heel-trodden, that squeak and clatter in her traces, +This is the winged maid who was his Muse +And escort to the kingdom of the graces! +Of all that fire this puff of smoke's the end! +_Sic transit gloria amoris_, friend. + +SVANHILD. +Yes, it is wretched, wretched past compare. +I know of no one's lot that I would share. + +FALK [eagerly]. +Then let us two rise up and bid defiance +To this same order Art, not Nature, bred! + +SVANHILD [shaking her head]. +Then were the cause for which we made alliance +Ruined, as sure as this is earth we tread. + +FALK. +No, triumph waits upon two souls in unity. +To Custom's parish-church no more we'll wend, +Seatholders in the Philistine community. +See, Personality's one aim and end +Is to be independent, free and true. +In that I am not wanting, nor are you. +A fiery spirit pulses in your veins, +For thoughts that master, you have works that burn; +The corslet of convention, that constrains +The beating hearts of other maids, you spurn. +The voice that you were born with will not chime to +The chorus Custom's baton gives the time to. + +SVANHILD. +And do you think pain has not often pressed +Tears from my eyes, and quiet from my breast? +I longed to shape my way to my own bent-- + +FALK. +"In pensive ease?" + +SVANHILD. + O, no, 'twas sternly meant. +But then the aunts came in with well-intended +Advice, the matter must be sifted, weighed-- + [Coming nearer. +"In pensive ease," you say; oh no, I made +A bold experiment--in art. + +FALK. + Which ended--? + +SVANHILD. +In failure. I lacked talent for the brush. +The thirst for freedom, tho', I could not crush; +Checked at the easel, it essayed the stage-- + +FALK. +That plan was shattered also, I engage? + +SVANHILD. +Upon the eldest aunt's suggestion, yes; +She much preferred a place as governess-- + +FALK. +But of all this I never heard a word! + +SVANHILD [smiling]. +No wonder; they took care that none was heard. +They trembled at the risk "my future" ran +If this were whispered to unmarried Man. + +FALK [after gazing a moment at her in meditative sympathy]. +That such must be your lot I long had guessed. +When first I met you, I can well recall, +You seemed to me quite other than the rest, +Beyond the comprehension of them all. +They sat at table,--fragrant tea a-brewing, +And small-talk humming with the tea in tune, +The young girls blushing and the young men cooing, +Like pigeons on a sultry afternoon. +Old maids and matrons volubly averred +Morality and faith's supreme felicity, +Young wives were loud in praise of domesticity, +While you stood lonely like a mateless bird. +And when at last the gabbling clamour rose +To a tea-orgy, a debauch of prose, +You seemed a piece of silver, newly minted, +Among foul notes and coppers dulled and dinted. +You were a coin imported, alien, strange, +Here valued at another rate of change, +Not passing current in that babel mart +Of poetry and butter, cheese and art. +Then--while Miss Jay in triumph took the field-- + +SVANHILD [gravely]. +Her knight behind her, like a champion bold, +His hat upon his elbow, like a shield-- + +FALK. +Your mother nodded to your untouched cup: +"Drink, Svanhild dear, before your tea grows cold." +And then you drank the vapid liquor up, +The mawkish brew beloved of young and old. +But that name gripped me with a sudden spell; +The grim old Volsungs as they fought and fell, +With all their faded aeons, seemed to rise +In never-ending line before my eyes. +In you I saw a Svanhild, like the old,(3) +But fashioned to the modern age's mould. +Sick of its hollow warfare is the world; +Its lying banner it would fain have furled; +But when the world does evil, its offence +Is blotted in the blood of innocence. + +SVANHILD [with gentle irony]. +I think, at any rate, the fumes of tea +Must answer for that direful fantasy; +But 'tis your least achievement, past dispute, +To hear the spirit speaking, when 'tis mute. + +FALK [with emotion]. +Nay, Svanhild, do not jest: behind your scoff +Tears glitter,--O, I see them plain enough. +And I see more: when you to dust are fray'd, +And kneaded to a formless lump of clay, +Each bungling dilettante's scalpel-blade +On you his dull devices shall display. +The world usurps the creature of God's hand +And sets its image in the place of His, +Transforms, enlarges that part, lightens this; +And when upon the pedestal you stand +Complete, cries out in triumph: "Now she is +At last what woman ought to be: Behold, +How plastically calm, how marble-cold! +Bathed in the lamplight's soft irradiation, +How well in keeping with the decoration!" + [Seizing her hand. +But if you are to die, live first! Come forth +With me into the glory of God's earth! +Soon, soon the gilded cage will claim its prize. +The Lady thrives there, but the Woman dies, +And I love nothing but the Woman in you. +There, if they will, let others woo and win you, +But here, my spring of life began to shoot, +Here my Song-tree put forth its firstling fruit; +Here I found wings and flight:--Svanhild, I know it, +Only be mine,--here I shall grow a poet! + +SVANHILD [in gentle reproof, withdrawing her hand]. +O, why have you betrayed yourself? How sweet +It was when we as friends could freely meet! +You should have kept your counsel. Can we stake +Our bliss upon a word that we may break? +Now you have spoken, all is over. + +FALK. + No! +I've pointed to the goal,--now leap with me, +My high-souled Svanhild--if you dare, and show +That you have heart and courage to be free. + +SVANHILD. +Be free? + +FALK. + Yes, free, for freedom's all-in-all +Is absolutely to fulfil our Call. +And you by heaven were destined, I know well, +To be my bulwark against beauty's spell. +I, like my falcon namesake, have to swing +Against the wind, if I would reach the sky! +You are the breeze I must be breasted by, +You, only you, put vigour in my wing: +Be mine, be mine, until the world shall take you, +When leaves are falling, then our paths shall part. +Sing unto me the treasures of your heart, +And for each song another song I'll make you; +So may you pass into the lamplit glow +Of age, as forests fade without a throe. + +SVANHILD [with suppressed bitterness]. +I cannot thank you, for your words betray +The meaning of your kind solicitude. +You eye me as a boy a sallow, good +To cut and play the flute on for a day. + +FALK. +Yes, better than to linger in the swamp +Till autumn choke it with her grey mists damp! + [Vehemently. +You must! you shall! To me you must present +What God to you so bountifully lent. +I speak in song what you in dreams have meant. +See yonder bird I innocently slew, +Her warbling was Song's book of books for you. +O, yield your music as she yielded hers! +My life shall be that music set to verse! + +SVANHILD. +And when you know me, when my songs are flown, +And my last requiem chanted from the bough,-- +What then? + +FALK [observing her]. + What then? Ah, well, remember now! + [Pointing to the garden. + +SVANHILD [gently]. +Yes, I remember you can drive a stone. + +FALK [with a scornful laugh]. +This is your vaunted soul of freedom therefore! +All daring, if it had an end to dare for! + [Vehemently. +I've shown you one; now, once for all, your yea +Or nay. + +SVANHILD. + You know the answer I must make you: +I never can accept you in your way. + +FALK [coldly, breaking off]. +Then there's an end of it; the world may take you! + + [SVANHILD has silently turned away. She supports + her hands upon the verandah railing, and rests + her head upon them. + +FALK [Walks several times up and down, takes a cigar, + stops near her and says, after a pause: +You think the topic of my talk to-night +Extremely ludicrous, I should not wonder? + [Pauses for an answer. SVANHILD is silent. +I'm very conscious that it was a blunder; +Sister's and daughter's love alone possess you; +Henceforth I'll wear kid gloves when I address you, +Sure, so, of being understood aright. + + [Pauses, but as SVANHILD remains motionless, he + turns and goes towards the right. + +SVANHILD [lifting her head after a brief silence, + looking at him and drawing near. +Now I will recompense your kind intent +To save me, with an earnest admonition. +That falcon-image gave me sudden vision +What your "emancipation" really meant. +You said you were the falcon, that must fight +Athwart the wind if it would reach the sky, +I was the breeze you must be breasted by, +Else vain were all your faculty of flight; +How pitifully mean! How paltry! Nay +How ludicrous, as you yourself divined! +That seed, however, fell not by the way, +But bred another fancy in my mind +Of a far more illuminating kind. +You, as I saw it, were no falcon, but +A tuneful dragon, out of paper cut, +Whose Ego holds a secondary station, +Dependent on the string for animation; +Its breast was scrawled with promises to pay +In cash poetic,--at some future day; +The wings were stiff with barbs and shafts of wit +That wildly beat the air, but never hit; +The tail was a satiric rod in pickle +To castigate the town's infirmities, +But all it compass'd was to lightly tickle +The casual doer of some small amiss. +So you lay helpless at my feet imploring: +"O raise me, how and where is all the same! +Give me the power of singing and of soaring, +No matter at what cost of bitter blame!" + +FALK [clenching his fists in inward agitation]. +Heaven be my witness--! + +SVANHILD. + No, you must be told:-- +For such a childish sport I am too old. +But you, whom Nature made for high endeavour, +Are you content the fields of air to tread +Hanging your poet's life upon a thread +That at my pleasure I can slip and sever? + +FALK [hurriedly]. +What is the date to-day? + +SVANHILD [more gently]. + Why, now, that's right! +Mind well this day, and heed it, and beware; +Trust to your own wings only for your flight, +Sure, if they do not break, that they will bear. +The paper poem for the desk is fit, +That which is lived alone has life in it; +That only has the wings that scale the height; +Choose now between them, poet: be, or write! + [Nearer to him. +Now I have done what you besought me; now +My requiem is chanted from the bough; +My only one; now all my songs are flown; +Now, if you will, I'm ready for the stone! + + [She goes into the house; FALK remains motionless, + looking after her; far out on the fjord is seen a + boat, from which the following chorus is faintly + heard: + +CHORUS. + +My wings I open, my sails spread wide, +And cleave like an eagle life's glassy tide; + Gulls follow my furrow's foaming; +Overboard with the ballast of care and cark; +And what if I shatter my roaming bark, + It is passing sweet to be roaming! + +FALK [starting from a reverie]. +What, music? Ah, it will be Lind's quartette +Getting their jubilation up.--Well met! + [To GULDSTAD, who enters with an overcoat on his arm. +Ah, slipping off, sir? + +GULDSTAD. + Yes, with your goodwill. +But let me first put on my overcoat. +We prose-folks are susceptible to chill; +The night wind takes us by the tuneless throat. +Good evening! + +FALK. + Sir, a word ere you proceed! +Show me a task, a mighty one, you know--! +I'm going in for life--! + +GULDSTAD [with ironical emphasis]. + Well, in you go! +You'll find that you are in for it, indeed. + +FALK [looking reflectively at him, says slowly]. +There is my program, furnished in a phrase. + [In a lively outburst. +Now I have wakened from my dreaming days, +I've cast the die of life's supreme transaction, +I'll show you--else the devil take me-- + +GULDSTAD. + Fie, +No cursing: curses never scared a fly. + +FALK. +Words, words, no more, but action, only action! +I will reverse the plan of the Creation;-- +Six days were lavish'd in that occupation; +My world's still lying void and desolate, +Hurrah, to-morrow, Sunday--I'll create! + +GULDSTAD [laughing]. +Yes, strip, and tackle it like a man, that's right! +But first go in and sleep on it. Good-night! + + [Goes out to the left. SVANHILD appears in the + room over the verandah; she shuts the window + and draws down the blind. + +FALK. +No, first I'll act. I've slept too long and late. + [Looks up at SVANHILD's window, and exclaims, as + if seized with a sudden resolution: +Good-night! Good-night! Sweet dreams to-night be thine; +To-morrow, Svanhild, thou art plighted mine! + + [Goes out quickly to the right; from the water the + CHORUS is heard again. + +CHORUS. + +Maybe I shall shatter my roaming bark, +But it's passing sweet to be roaming! + + [The boat slowly glides away as the curtain falls. + + + + +ACT SECOND + + +Sunday afternoon. Well-dressed ladies and gentlemen are drinking + coffee on the verandah. Several of the guests appear through + the open glass door in the garden-room; the following song is + heard from within. + + +CHORUS. + +Welcome, welcome, new plighted pair +To the merry ranks of the plighted! +Now you may revel as free as air, +Caress without stint and kiss without care,-- +No longer of footfall affrighted. + +Now you are licensed, wherever you go, +To rapture of cooing and billing; +Now you have leisure love's seed to sow, +Water, and tend it, and make it grow;-- +Let us see you've a talent for tilling! + +MISS JAY [within]. +Ah Lind, if I only had chanced to hear, +I would have teased you! + +A LADY [within]. + How vexatious though! + +ANOTHER LADY [in the doorway]. +Dear Anna, did he ask in writing? + +AN AUNT. + No! +Mine did. + +A LADY [on the verandah]. + How long has it been secret, dear? + [Runs into the room. + +MISS JAY. +To-morrow there will be the ring to choose. + +LADIES [eagerly]. +We'll take his measure! + +MISS JAY. + Nay; that she must do. + +MRS. STRAWMAN [on the verandah, to a lady who is busy + with embroidery]. +What kind of knitting-needles do you use? + +A SERVANT [in the door with a coffee-pot]. +More coffee, madam? + +A LADY. + Thanks, a drop or two. + +MISS JAY [to ANNA]. +How fortunate you've got your new manteau +Next week to go your round of visits in! + +AN ELDERLY LADY [at the window]. +When shall we go and order the trousseau? + +MRS. STRAWMAN. +How are they selling cotton-bombasine? + +A GENTLEMAN [to some ladies on the verandah]. +Just look at Lind and Anna; what's his sport? + +LADIES [with shrill ecstasy]. +Gracious, he kissed her glove! + +OTHERS [similarly, springing up]. + No! Kiss'd it! Really? + +LIND [appears, red and embarrassed, in the doorway]. +O, stuff and nonsense! [Disappears. + +MISS JAY. + Yes, I saw it clearly. + +STIVER [in the door, with a coffee-cup in one hand and + a biscuit in the other]. +The witnesses must not mislead the court; +I here make affidavit, they're in error. + +MISS JAY [within]. +Come forward, Anna; stand before this mirror! + +SOME LADIES [calling]. +You, too, Lind! + +MISS JAY. + Back to back! A little nearer! + +LADIES. +Come, let us see by how much she is short. + + [All run into the garden-room; laughter and shrill + talk are heard for a while from within. + + [FALK, who during the preceding scene has been + walking about in the garden, advances into the + foreground, stops and looks in until the noise + has somewhat abated. + +FALK. +There love's romance is being done to death.-- +The butcher once who boggled at the slaughter, +Prolonging needlessly the ox's breath,-- +He got his twenty days of bread and water; +But these--these butchers yonder--they go free. + [Clenches his fist. +I could be tempted--; hold, words have no worth, +I've sworn it, action only from henceforth! + +LIND [coming hastily but cautiously out]. +Thank God, they're talking fashions; now's my chance +To slip away-- + +FALK. + Ha, Lind, you've drawn the prize +Of luck,--congratulations buzz and dance +All day about you, like a swarm of flies. + +LIND. +They're all at heart so kindly and so nice; +But rather fewer clients would suffice. +Their helping hands begin to gall and fret me; +I'll get a moment's respite, if they'll let me. + [Going out to the right. + +FALK. +Wither away? + +LIND. + Our den;--it has a lock; +In case you find the oak is sported, knock. + +FALK. +But shall I not fetch Anna to you? + +LIND. + No-- +If she wants anything, she'll let me know. +Last night we were discussing until late; +We've settled almost everything of weight; +Besides I think it scarcely goes with piety +To have too much of one's beloved's society. + +FALK. +Yes, you are right; for daily food we need +A simple diet. + +LIND. + Pray, excuse me, friend. +I want a whiff of reason and the weed; +I haven't smoked for three whole days on end. +My blood was pulsing in such agitation, +I trembled for rejection all the time-- + +FALK. +Yes, you may well desire recuperation-- + +LIND. +And won't tobacco's flavour be sublime! + + [Goes out to the right. MISS JAY and some other + LADIES come out of the garden-room. + +MISS JAY [to FALK]. +That was he surely? + +FALK. + Yes, your hunted deer. + +LADIES. +To run away from us! + +OTHERS. + For shame! For shame! + +FALK. +'Tis a bit shy at present, but, no fear, +A week of servitude will make him tame. + +MISS JAY [looking round]. +Where is he hid? + +FALK. + His present hiding-place +Is in the garden loft, our common lair; + [Blandly. +But let me beg you not to seek him there; +Give him a breathing time! + +MISS JAY. + Well, good: the grace +Will not be long, tho'. + +FALK. + Nay, be generous! +Ten minutes,--then begin the game again. +He has an English sermon on the brain. + +MISS JAY. +An English--? + +LADIES. + O you laugh! You're fooling us! + +FALK. +I'm in grim earnest. 'Tis his fixed intention +To take a charge among the emigrants, +And therefore-- + +MISS JAY [with horror]. + Heavens, he had the face to mention +That mad idea? [To the ladies. + O quick--fetch all the aunts! +Anna, her mother, Mrs. Strawman too. + +LADIES [agitated]. +This must be stopped! + +ALL. + We'll make a great ado! + +MISS JAY. +Thank God, they're coming. + + [To ANNA, who comes from the garden-room with STRAWMAN, + his wife and children, STIVER, GULDSTAD, MRS. HALM and + the other guests. + +MISS JAY. + Do you know what Lind +Has secretly determined in his mind? +To go as missionary-- + +ANNA. + Yes, I know. + +MRS. HALM. +And you've agreed--! + +ANNA [embarrassed]. + That I will also go. + +MISS JAY [indignant]. +He's talked this stuff to you! + +LADIES [clasping their hands together]. + What tyranny! + +FALK. +But think, his Call that would not be denied--! + +MISS JAY. +Tut, that's what people follow when they're free: +A bridegroom follows nothing but his bride.-- +No, my sweet Anna, ponder, I entreat: +You, reared in comfort from your earliest breath--? + +FALK. +Yet, sure, to suffer for the faith is sweet! + +MISS JAY. +Is one to suffer for one's bridegroom's faith? +That is a rather novel point of view. + [To the ladies. +Ladies, attend! + [Takes ANNA's arm. + Now listen; then repeat +For his instruction what he has to do. + + [They go into the background and out to the right + in eager talk with several of the ladies; the + other guests disperse in Groups about the garden. + FALK stops STRAWMAN, whose wife and children keep + close to him. GULDSTAD goes to and fro during + the following conversation. + +FALK. +Come, pastor, help young fervour in its fight, +Before they lure Miss Anna from her vows. + +STRAWMAN [in clerical cadence]. +The wife must be submissive to the spouse;-- + [Reflecting. +But if I apprehended him aright, +His Call's a problematical affair, +The offering altogether in the air-- + +FALK. +Pray do not judge so rashly. I can give +You absolute assurance, as I live, +His Call is definite and incontestable-- + +STRAWMAN [seeing it in a new light]. +Ah--if there's something fixed--investable-- +Per annum--then I've nothing more to say. + +FALK [impatiently]. +You think the most of what I count the least; +I mean the inspiration,--to the pay! + +STRAWMAN [with an unctuous smile]. +Pay is the first condition of a priest +In Asia, Africa, America, +Or where you will. Ah yes, if he were free, +My dear young friend, I willingly agree, +The thing might pass; but, being pledged and bound, +He'll scarcely find the venture very sound. +Reflect, he's young and vigorous, sure to found +A little family in time; assume his will +To be the very best on earth--but still +The means, my friend--? 'Build not upon the sand,' +Says Scripture. If, upon the other hand, +The Offering-- + +FALK. + That's no trifle, I'm aware. + +STRAWMAN. +Ah, come--that wholly alters the affair. +When men are zealous in their Offering, +And liberal-- + +FALK. + There he far surpasses most. + +STRAWMAN. +"He" say you? How? In virtue of his post +The Offering is not what he has to bring +But what he has to get. + +MRS. STRAWMAN [looking towards the background]. + They're sitting there. + +FALK [after staring a moment in amazement suddenly + understands and bursts out laughing.]. +Hurrah for Offerings--the ones that caper +And strut--on Holy-days--in bulging paper! + +STRAWMAN. +All the year round the curb and bit we bear, +But Whitsuntide and Christmas make things square. + +FALK [gaily]. +Why then, provided only there's enough of it, +Even family-founders will obey their Calls. + +STRAWMAN. +Of course; a man assured the _quantum suff_ of it +Will preach the Gospel to the cannibals. + [Sotto voce. +Now I must see if she cannot be led, + [To one of the little girls. +My little Mattie, fetch me out my head-- +My pipe-head I should say, my little dear-- + [Feels in his coat-tail pocket. +Nay, wait a moment tho': I have it here. + + [Goes across and fills his pipe, followed by his + wife and children. + +GULDSTAD [approaching]. +You seem to play the part of serpent in +This paradise of lovers. + +FALK. + O, the pips +Upon the tree of knowledge are too green +To be a lure for anybody's lips. + [To LIND, who comes in from the right. +Ha, Lind! + +LIND. + In heaven's name, who's been ravaging +Our sanctum? There the lamp lies dashed +To pieces, curtain dragged to floor, pen smashed, +And on the mantelpiece the ink pot splashed-- + +FALK [clapping him on the shoulder]. +This wreck's the first announcement of my spring; +No more behind drawn curtains I will sit, +Making pen poetry with lamp alit; +My dull domestic poetising's done, +I'll walk by day, and glory in the sun: +My spring is come, my soul has broken free, +Action henceforth shall be my poetry. + +LIND. +Make poetry of what you please for me; +But how if Mrs. Halm should take amiss +Your breaking of her furniture to pieces? + +FALK. +What!--she, who lays her daughters and her nieces +Upon the altar of her boarders' bliss,-- +She frown at such a bagatelle as this? + +LIND [angrily]. +It's utterly outrageous and unfair, +And compromises me as well as you! +But that's her business, settle it with her. +The lamp was mine, tho', shade and burner too-- + +FALK. +Tut, on that head, I've no account to render; +You have God's summer sunshine in its splendour,-- +What would you with the lamp? + +LIND. + You are grotesque; +You utterly forget that summer passes; +If I'm to make a figure in my classes +At Christmas I must buckle to my desk. + +FALK [staring at him]. +What, you look forward? + +LIND. + To be sure I do, +The examination's amply worth it too. + +FALK. +Ah but--you 'only sit and live'--remember! +Drunk with the moment, you demand no more-- +Not even a modest third-class next December. +You've caught the bird of Fortune fair and fleet, +You feel as if the world with all its store +Were scattered in profusion at your feet. + +LIND. +Those were my words; they must be understood, +Of course, _cum grano salis_-- + +FALK. + Very good! + +LIND. +In the forenoons I well enjoy my bliss; +That I am quite resolved on-- + +FALK. + Daring man! + +LIND. +I have my round of visits to the clan; +Time will run anyhow to waste in this; +But any further dislocation of +My study-plan I strongly disapprove. + +FALK. +A week ago, however, you were bent +On going out into God's world with song. + +LIND. +Yes, but I thought the tour a little long; +The fourteen days might well be better spent. + +FALK. +Nay, but you had another argument +For staying; how the lovely dale for you +Was mountain air and winged warble too. + +LIND. +Yes, to be sure, this air is unalloyed; +But all its benefits may be enjoyed +Over one's book without the slightest bar. + +FALK. +But it was just the Book which failed, you see, +As Jacob's ladder-- + +LIND. + How perverse you are! +That is what people say when they are free-- + +FALK [looking at him and folding his hands in silent + amazement]. +Thou also, Brutus! + +LIND [with a shade of confusion and annoyance]. + Pray remember, do! +That I have other duties now than you; +I have my _fiancee_. Every plighted pair, +Those of prolonged experience not excepted,-- +Whose evidence you would not wish rejected,-- +Will tell you, that if two are bound to fare +Through life together, they must-- + +FALK. + Prithee spare +The comment; who supplied it? + +LIND. + Well, we'll say +Stiver, he's honest surely; and Miss Jay, +Who has such very great experience here, +She says-- + +FALK. + Well, but the Parson and his--dear? + +LIND. +Yes, they're remarkable. There broods above +Them such placidity, such quietude,-- +Conceive, she can't remember being wooed, +Has quite forgotten what is meant by love. + +FALK. +Ah yes, when one has slumber'd over long, +The birds of memory refuse their song. + [Laying his hand on LIND's shoulder, with an + ironical look. +You, Lind, slept sound last night, I guarantee? + +LIND. +And long. I went to bed in such depression, +And yet with such a fever in my brain, +I almost doubted if I could be sane. + +FALK. +Ah yes, a sort of witchery, you see. + +LIND. +Thank God I woke in perfect self-possession. + + [During the foregoing scene STRAWMAN has been seen + from time to time walking in the background in + lively conversation with ANNA; MRS. STRAWMAN and + the children follow. MISS JAY now appears also, + and with her MRS. HALM and other ladies. + +MISS JAY [before she enters]. +Ah, Mr. Lind. + +LIND [to FALK]. + They're after me again! +Come, let us go. + +MISS JAY. + Nay, nay, you must remain, +Let us make speedy end of the division +That has crept in between your love and you. + +LIND. +Are we divided? + +MISS JAY [pointing to ANNA, who is standing further + off in the garden]. + Gather the decision +From yon red eyes. The foreign mission drew +Those tears. + +LIND. + But heavens, she was glad to go-- + +MISS JAY [scoffing]. +Yes, to be sure, one would imagine so! +No, my dear Lind, you'll take another view +When you have heard the whole affair discussed. + +LIND. +But then this warfare for the faith, you know, +Is my most cherished dream! + +MISS JAY. + O who would build +On dreaming in this century of light? +Why, Stiver had a dream the other night; +There came a letter singularly sealed-- + +MRS. STRAWMAN. +It's treasure such a dream prognosticates. + +MISS JAY [nodding]. +Yes, and next day they sued him for the rates. + + [The ladies make a circle round LIND and go in + conversation with him into the garden. + +STRAWMAN [continuing, to ANNA, who faintly tries to escape]. +From these considerations, daughter mine, +From these considerations, buttressed all +With reason, morals, and the Word Divine, +You now perceive that to desert your Call +Were absolutely inexcusable. + +ANNA [half crying]. +Oh! I'm so young-- + +STRAWMAN. + And it is natural, +I own, that one should tremble to essay +These perils, dare the lures that there waylay; +But from doubt's tangle you must now break free,-- +Be of good cheer and follow Moll and me! + +MRS. STRAWMAN. +Yes, your dear mother tells me that I too +Was just as inconsolable as you +When we received our Call-- + +STRAWMAN. + And for like cause-- +The fascination of the town--it was; +But when a little money had come in, +And the first pairs of infants, twin by twin, +She quite got over it. + +FALK [sotto voce to STRAWMAN]. + Bravo, you able +Persuader. + +STRAWMAN [nodding to him and turning again to ANNA]. + Now you've promised me, be stable. +Shall man renounce his work? Falk says the Call +Is not so very slender after all. +Did you not, Falk? + +FALK. + Nay, pastor-- + +STRAWMAN. + To be sure--! + [To ANNA. +Of something then at least you are secure. +What's gained by giving up, if that is so? +Look back into the ages long ago, +See, Adam, Eve--the Ark, see, pair by pair, +Birds in the field--the lilies in the air, +The little birds--the little birds--the fishes-- + + [Continues in a lower tone, as he withdraws with + ANNA. + + [MISS JAY and the AUNTS return with LIND. + +FALK. +Hurrah! Here come the veterans in array; +The old guard charging to retrieve the day! + +MISS JAY. +Ah, in exact accordance with out wishes! + [Aside. +We have him, Falk!--Now let us tackle her! + [Approaches ANNA. + +STRAWMAN [with a deprecating motion]. +She needs no secular solicitation; +The Spirit has spoken, what can Earth bestead--? + [Modestly. +If in some small degree my words have sped, +Power was vouchsafed me--! + +MRS. HALM. + Come, no more evasion, +Bring them together! + +AUNTS [with emotion]. + Ah, how exquisite. + +STRAWMAN. +Yes, can there be a heart so dull and dead +As not to be entranced at such a sight! +It is so thrilling and so penetrating, +So lacerating, so exhilarating, +To see an innocent babe devoutly lay +Its offering on Duty's altar. + +MRS. HALM. + Nay, +Her family have also done their part. + +MISS JAY. +I and the Aunts--I should imagine so. +You, Lind, may have the key to Anna's heart, + [Presses his hand. +But we possess a picklock, you must know, +Able to open where the key avails not. +And if in years to come, cares throng and thwart, +Only apply to us, our friendship fails not. + +MRS. HALM. +Yes, we shall hover round you all your life,-- + +MISS JAY. +And shield you from the fiend of wedded strife. + +STRAWMAN. +Enchanting group! Love, friendship, hour of gladness, +Yet so pathetically touched with sadness. + [Turning to LIND. +But now, young man, pray make an end of this. + [Leading ANNA to him. +Take thy betrothed--receive her--with a kiss! + +LIND [giving his hand to ANNA]. +I stay at home! + +ANNA [at the same moment]. +I go with you! + +ANNA [amazed]. + You stay? + +LIND [equally so]. + You go with me? + +ANNA [with a helpless glance at the company]. +Why, then, we are divided as before! + +LIND. +What's this? + +THE LADIES. + What now? + +MISS JAY [excitedly]. + Our wills are at war-- + +STRAWMAN. +She gave her solemn word to cross the sea +With him! + +MISS JAY. + And he gave his to stay ashore +With her! + +FALK [laughing]. +They both complied; what would you more! + +STRAWMAN. +These complications are too much for me. + [Goes toward the background. + +AUNTS [to one another]. +How in the world came they to disagree? + +MRS. HALM +[To GULDSTAD and STIVER, who have been walking + in the garden and now approach. +The spirit of discord's in possession of her. + [Talks aside to them. + +MRS. STRAWMAN +[To MISS JAY, noticing that the table is + being laid. +There comes the tea. + +MISS JAY [curtly]. + Thank heaven. + +FALK. + Hurrah! a cheer +For love and friendship, maiden aunts and tea! + +STIVER. +But if the case stands thus, the whole proceeding +May easily be ended with a laugh; +All turns upon a single paragraph, +Which bids the wife attend the spouse. No pleading +Can wrest an ordinance so clearly stated-- + +MISS JAY. +Doubtless, but does that help us to agree? + +STRAWMAN. +She must obey a law that heaven dictated. + +STIVER. +But Lind can circumvent that law, you see. + [To LIND. +Put off your journey, and then--budge no jot. + +AUNTS [delighted]. +Yes, that's the way! + +MRS HALM. + Agreed! + +MISS JAY. + That cuts the knot. + + [SVANHILD and the maids have meantime laid the + tea-table beside the verandah steps. At MRS. HALM's + invitation the ladies sit down. The rest of the + company take their places, partly on the verandah + and in the summer-house, partly in the garden. + FALK sits on the verandah. During the following + scene they drink tea. + +MRS. HALM [smiling]. +And so our little storm is overblown. +Such summer showers do good when they are gone; +The sunshine greets us with a double boon, +And promises a cloudless afternoon. + +MISS JAY. +Ah yes, Love's blossom without rainy skies +Would never thrive according to our wishes. + +FALK. +In dry land set it, and it forthwith dies; +For in so far the flowers are like the fishes-- + +SVANHILD. +Nay, for Love lives, you know, upon the air-- + +MISS JAY. +Which is the death of fishes-- + +FALK. + So I say. + +MISS JAY. +Aha, we've put a bridle on you there! + +MRS. STRAWMAN. +The tea is good, one knows by the bouquet. + +FALK. +Well, let us keep the simile you chose. +Love is a flower; for if heaven's blessed rain +Fall short, it all but pines to death-- [Pauses. + +MISS JAY. + What then? + +FALK [with a gallant bow]. +Then come the aunts with the reviving hose.-- +But poets have this simile employed, +And men for scores of centuries enjoyed,-- +Yet hardly one its secret sense has hit; +For flowers are manifold and infinite. +Say, then, what flower is love? Name me, who knows, +The flower most like it? + +MISS JAY. + Why, it is the rose; +Good gracious, that's exceedingly well known;-- +Love, all agree, lends life a rosy tone. + +A YOUNG LADY. +It is the snowdrop; growing, snow enfurled; +Till it peer forth, undreamt of by the world. + +AN AUNT. +It is the dandelion,--made robust +By dint of human heel and horse hoof thrust; +Nay, shooting forth afresh when it is smitten, +As Pedersen so charmingly has written. + +LIND. +It is the bluebell,--ringing in for all +Young hearts life's joyous Whitsun festival. + +MRS. HALM. +No, 'tis an evergreen,--as fresh and gay +In desolate December as in May. + +GULDSTAD. +No, Iceland moss, dry gathered,--far the best +Cure for young ladies with a wounded breast. + +A GENTLEMAN. +No, the wild chestnut tree,--high repute +For household fuel, but with a bitter fruit. + +SVANHILD. +No, a camellia; at our balls, 'tis said, +The chief adornment of a lady's head. + +MRS. STRAWMAN. +No, it is like a flower, O such a bright one;-- +Stay now--a blue one, no, it was a white one-- +What is it's name--? Dear me--the one I met--; +Well it is singular how I forget! + +STIVER. +None of these flower similitudes will run. +The flowerpot is a likelier candidate. +There's only room in it, at once, for one; +But by progressive stages it holds eight. + +STRAWMAN [with his little girls round him]. +No, love's a pear tree; in the spring like snow +With myriad blossoms, which in summer grow +To pearlets; in the parent's sap each shares;-- +And with God's help they'll all alike prove pears. + +FALK. +So many heads, so many sentences! +No, you all grope and blunder off the line. +Each simile's at fault; I'll tell you mine;-- +You're free to turn and wrest it as you please. + [Rises as if to make a speech. +In the remotest east there grows a plant;(4) +And the sun's cousin's garden is its haunt-- + +THE LADIES. +Ah, it's the tea-plant! + +FALK. + Yes. + +MRS. STRAWMAN. + His voice is so +Like Strawman's when he-- + +STRAWMAN. + Don't disturb his flow. + +FALK. +It has its home in fabled lands serene; +Thousands of miles of desert lie between;-- +Fill up, Lind!--So.--Now in a tea-oration, +I'll show of tea and Love the true relation. + [The guests cluster round him. +It has its home in the romantic land; +Alas, Love's home is also in Romance, +Only the Sun's descendants understand +The herb's right cultivation and advance. +With Love it is not otherwise than so. +Blood of the Sun along the veins must flow +If Love indeed therein is to strike root, +And burgeon into blossom, into fruit. + +MISS JAY. +But China is an ancient land; you hold +In consequence that tea is very old-- + +STRAWMAN. +Past question antecedent to Jerusalem. + +FALK. +Yes, 'twas already famous when Methusalem +His picture-books and rattles tore and flung-- + +MISS JAY [triumphantly]. +And love is in its very nature young! +To find a likeness there is pretty bold. + +FALK. +No; Love, in truth, is also very old; +That principle we here no more dispute +Than do the folks of Rio or Beyrout. +Nay, there are those from Cayenne to Caithness, +Who stand upon its everlastingness;-- +Well, that may be slight exaggeration, +But old it is beyond all estimation. + +MISS JAY. +But Love is all alike; whereas we see +Both good and bad and middling kinds of tea! + +MRS. STRAWMAN. +Yes, they sell tea of many qualities. + +ANNA. +The green spring shoots I count the very first-- + +SVANHILD. +Those serve to quench celestial daughter's thirst. + +A YOUNG LADY. +Witching as ether fumes they say it is-- + +ANOTHER. +Balmy as lotus, sweet as almond, clear-- + +GULDSTAD. +That's not an article we deal in here. + +FALK [who has meanwhile come down from the verandah]. +Ah, ladies, every mortal has a small +Private celestial empire in his heart. +There bud such shoots in thousands, kept apart +By Shyness's soon shatter'd Chinese Wall. +But in her dim fantastic temple bower +The little Chinese puppet sits and sighs, +A dream of far-off wonders in her eyes-- +And in her hand a golden tulip flower. +For her the tender firstling tendrils grew;-- +Rich crop or meagre, what is that to you? +Instead of it we get an after crop +They kick the tree for, dust and stalk and stem,-- +As hemp to silk beside what goes to them-- + +GULDSTAD. +That is black tea. + +FALK [nodding]. + That's what fills the shop. + +A GENTLEMAN. +There's beef tea too, that Holberg says a word of-- + +MISS JAY [sharply]. +To modern taste entirely out of date. + +FALK. +And a beef love has equally been heard of, +Wont--in romances--to brow-beat its mate, +And still they say its trace may be detected +Amongst the henpecked of the married state. +In short there's likeness where 'twas least expected. +So, as you know, an ancient proverb tells, +That something ever passes from the tea +Of the bouquet that lodges in its cells, +If it be carried hither over the sea. +It must across the desert and the hills,-- +Pay toll to Cossack and to Russian tills;-- +It gets their stamp and licence, that's enough, +We buy it as the true and genuine stuff. +But has not Love the self-same path to fare? +Across Life's desert? How the world would rave +And shriek if you or I should boldly bear +Our Love by way of Freedom's ocean wave! +"Good heavens, his moral savour's passed away, +And quite dispersed Legality's bouquet!"-- + +STRAWMAN [rising]. +Yes, happily,--in every moral land +Such wares continue to be contraband! + +FALK. +Yes, to pass current here, Love must have cross'd +The great Siberian waste of regulations, +Fann'd by no breath of ocean to its cost; +It must produce official attestations +From friend and kindred, devils of relations, +From church curators, organist and clerk, +And other fine folks--over and above +The primal licence which God gave to Love.-- +And then the last great point of likeness;--mark +How heavily the hand of culture weighs +Upon that far Celestial domain; +Its power is shatter'd, and its wall decays, +The last true Mandarin's strangled; hands profane +Already are put forth to share the spoil; +Soon the Sun's realm will be a legend vain, +An idle tale incredible to sense; +The world is gray in gray--we've flung the soil +On buried Faery,--then where can Love be found? +Alas, Love also is departed hence! + [Lifts his cup. +Well let him go, since so the times decree;-- +A health to Amor, late of Earth,--in tea! + [He drains his cup; indignant murmurs amongst + the company. + +MISS JAY. +A very odd expression! "Dead" indeed! + +THE LADIES. +To say that Love is dead--! + +STRAWMAN. + Why, here you see +Him sitting, rosy, round and sound, at tea, +In all conditions! Here in her sable weed +The widow-- + +MISS JAY. + Here a couple, true and tried,-- + +STIVER. +With many ample pledges fortified. + +GULDSTAD. +The Love's light cavalry, of maid and man, +The plighted pairs in order-- + +STRAWMAN. + In the van +The veterans, whose troth has laughed to scorn +The tooth of Time-- + +MISS JAY [hastily interrupting]. + And then the babes new-born-- +The little novices of yester-morn-- + +STRAWMAN. +Spring, summer, autumn, winter, in a word, +Are here; the truth is patent, past all doubt, +It can be clutched and handled, seen and heard,-- + +FALK. +What then? + +MISS JAY. + And yet you want to thrust it out! + +FALK. +Madam, you quite mistake. In all I spoke +I cast no doubt on anything you claim; +But I would fain remind you that, from smoke, +We cannot logically argue flame. +That men are married, and have children, I +Have no desire whatever to deny; +Nor do I dream of doubting that such things +Are in the world as troth and wedding-rings; +The billets-doux some tender hands indite +And seal with pairs of turtle doves that--fight; +That sweethearts swarm in cottage and in hall, +That chocolate reward the wedding call; +That usage and convention have decreed, +In every point, how "Lovers" shall proceed:-- +But, heavens! We've majors also by the score, +Arsenals heaped with muniments of war, +With spurs and howitzers and drums and shot, +But what does that permit us to infer? +That we have men who dangle swords, but not +That they will wield the weapons that they wear. +Tho' all the plain with gleaming tents you crowd, +Does that make heroes of the men they shroud? + +STRAWMAN. +Well, all in moderation; I must own, +It is not quite conducive to the truth +That we should paint the enamourment of youth +So bright, as if--ahem--it stood alone. +Love-making still a frail foundation is. +Only the snuggery of wedded bliss +Provides a rock where Love may builded be +In unassailable security. + +MISS JAY. +There I entirely differ. In my view, +A free accord of lovers, heart with heart, +Who hold together, having leave to part, +Gives the best warrant that their love is true. + +ANNA [warmly]. +O no--Love's bound when it is fresh and young +Is of a stuff more precious and more strong. + +LIND [thoughtfully]. +Possibly the ideal flower may blow, +Even as that snowdrop,--hidden by the snow. + +FALK [with a sudden outburst]. +You fallen Adam! There a heart was cleft +With longing for the Eden it has left! + +LIND. +What stuff! + +MRS. HALM [offended, to FALK, rising]. + 'Tis not a very friendly act +To stir a quarrel where we've made a peace. +As for your friend's good fortune, be at ease-- + +SOME LADIES. +Nay that's assured-- + +OTHERS. + A very certain fact. + +MRS. HALM. +The cooking-class at school, I must confess, +She did not take; but she shall learn it still. + +MISS JAY. +With her own hands she's trimming her own dress. + +AN AUNT [patting ANNA's hand]. +And growing exquisitely sensible. + +FALK [laughing aloud]. +O parody of sense, that rives and rends +In mania dance upon the lips of friends! +Was it good sense he wanted? Or a she- +Professor of the lore of Cookery? +A joyous son of springtime he came here, +For the wild rosebud on the bush he burned. +You reared the rosebud for him; he returned-- +And for his rose found what? The hip! + +MISS JAY [offended]. + You jeer! + +FALK. +A useful household condiment, heaven knows! +But yet the hip was not his bridal rose. + +MRS. HALM. +O, if it is a ball-room queen he wants, +I'm very sorry; these are not their haunts. + +FALK. +O yes, I know the pretty coquetry +They carry on with "Domesticity." +It is a suckling of the mighty Lie +That, like hop-tendrils, spreads itself on high. +I, madam, reverently bare my head +To the ball queen; a child of beauty she-- +And the ideal's golden woof is spread +In ball-rooms, hardly in the nursery. + +MRS. HALM [with suppressed bitterness]. +Your conduct, sir is easily explained; +A plighted lover cannot be a friend; +That is the kernel of the whole affair; +I have a very large experience there. + +FALK. +No doubt,--with seven nieces, each a wife-- + +MRS. HALM. +And each a happy wife-- + +FALK [with emphasis]. + Ah, do we know? + +GULDSTAD. +How! + +MISS JAY. + Mr. Falk! + +LIND. + Are you resolved to sow +Dissension? + +FALK [vehemently]. + Yes, war, discord, turmoil, strife! + +STIVER. +What you, a lay, profane outsider here! + +FALK. +No matter, still the battle-flag I'll rear! +Yes, it is war I mean with nail and tooth +Against the Lie with the tenacious root, +The lie that you have fostered into fruit, +For all its strutting in the guise of truth! + +STIVER. +Against these groundless charges I protest, +Reserving right of action-- + +MISS JAY. + Do be still! + +FALK. +So then it is Love's ever-running rill +That tells the widow what she once possess'd,-- +Out of her language blotted "moan" and "sigh"! +So then it is Love's brimming tide that rolls +Along the placid veins of wedded souls,-- +That very Love that faced the iron sleet, +Trampling inane Convention under feet, +And scoffing at the impotent discreet! +So then it is Love's beauty-kindled flame +That keeps the plighted from the taint of time +Year after year! Ah yes, the very same +That made our young bureaucrat blaze in rhyme! +So it is Love's young bliss that will not brave +The voyage over vaulted Ocean's wave, +But asks a sacrifice when, like the sun, +Its face should fill with glory, making one! +Ah no, you vulgar prophets of the Lie, +Give things the names we ought to know them by; +Call widows' passion--wanting what they miss, +And wedlock's habit--call it what it is! + +STRAWMAN. +Young man, this insolence has gone too far! +In every word there's scoffing and defiance. + [Goes close up to FALK. +Now I'll gird up my aged loins to war +For hallowed custom against modern science! + +FALK. +I go to battle as it were a feast! + +STRAWMAN. +Good! For your bullets I will be a beacon:-- + [Nearer. +A wedded pair is holy, like a priest-- + +STIVER [at FALK's other side]. +And a betrothed-- + +FALK. + Half-holy, like the deacon. + +STRAWMAN. +Behold these children;--see,--this little throng! +_Io triumphe_ may for them be sung! +How was it possible--how practicable--: +The words of truth are strong, inexorable--; +He has no hearing whom they cannot move. +See,--every one of them's a child of Love--! + [Stops in confusion. +That is--you understand--I would have said--! + +MISS JAY [fanning herself with her handkerchief]. +This is a very mystical oration! + +FALK. +There you yourself provide the demonstration,-- +A good old Norse one, sound, true-born, home-bred. +You draw distinction between wedded pledges +And those of Love: your Logic's without flaw. +They are distinguished just as roast from raw, +As hothouse bloom from wilding of the hedges! +Love is with us a science and an art; +It long ago since ceased to animate the heart. +Love is with us a trade, a special line +Of business, with its union, code and sign; +It is a guild of married folks and plighted, +Past-masters with apprentices united; +For they cohere compact as jelly-fishes, +A singing-club their single want and wish is-- + +GULDSTAD. +And a gazette! + +FALK. + A good suggestion, yes! +We too must have our organ in the press, +Like ladies, athletes, boys, and devotees. +Don't ask the price at present, if you please. +There I'll parade each amatory fetter +That John and Thomas to our town unites, +There publish every pink and perfumed letter +That William to his tender Jane indites; +There you shall read, among "Distressing Scenes"-- +Instead of murders and burnt crinolines, +The broken matches that the week's afforded; +There under "goods for sale" you'll find what firms +Will furnish cast-off rings on easy terms; +There double, treble births will be recorded; +No wedding, but our rallying rub-a-dub +Shall drum to the performance all the club; +No suit rejected, but we'll set it down, +In letters large, with other news of weight +Thus: "Amor-Moloch, we regret to state, +Has claimed another victim in our town." +You'll see, we'll catch subscribers: once in sight +Of the propitious season when they bite, +By way of throwing them the bait they'll brook +I'll stick a nice young man upon my hook. +Yes, you will see me battle for our cause, +With tiger's, nay with editorial, claws +Rending them-- + +GULDSTAD. + And the paper's name will be--? + +FALK. +Amor's Norse Chronicle of Archery. + +STIVER [going nearer]. +You're not in earnest, you will never stake +Your name and fame for such a fancy's sake! + +FALK. +I'm in grim earnest. We are often told +Men cannot live on love; I'll show that this +Is an untenable hypothesis; +For Love will prove to be a mine of gold: +Particularly if Miss Jay, perhaps, +Will Mr. Strawman's "Life's Romance" unfold, +As appetising feuilleton, in scraps. + +STRAWMAN [in terror]. +Merciful heaven! My "life's romance!" What, what! +When was my life romantic, if you please? + +MISS JAY. +I never said so. + +STIVER. + Witness disagrees. + +STRAWMAN. +That I have ever swerved a single jot +From social prescript,--is a monstrous lie. + +FALK. +Good. + [Clapping STIVER on the shoulder. + Here's a friend who will not put me by. +We'll start with Stiver's lyric ecstasies. + +STIVER [after a glance of horror at STRAWMAN]. +Are you quite mad! Nay then I must be heard! +You dare accuse me for a poet-- + +MISS JAY. + How--! + +FALK. +Your office has averred it anyhow. + +STIVER [in towering anger]. +Sir, by our office nothing is averred. + +FALK. +Well, leave me then, you also: I have by me +One comrade yet whose loyalty will last. +"A true heart's story" Lind will not deny me, +Whose troth's too tender for the ocean blast, +Who for his mistress makes surrender of +His fellow-men--pure quintessence of Love! + +MRS. HALM. +My patience, Mr. Falk, is now worn out. +The same abode no longer can receive us:-- +I beg of you this very day to leave us-- + +FALK [with a bow as MRS. HALM and the company withdraw]. +That this would come I never had a doubt! + +STRAWMAN. +Between us two there's a battle to the death; +You've slandered me, my wife, my little flock, +From Molly down to Millie, in one breath. +Crow on, crow on--Emancipation's cock,-- + [Goes in followed by his wife and children. + +FALK. +And go you on observing Peter's faith +To Love your lord--who, thanks to your advice, +Was thrice denied before the cock crew thrice! + +MISS JAY [turning faint]. +Attend me, Stiver! help me get unlaced +My corset--this way, this way--do make haste! + +STIVER [to FALK as he withdraws with MISS JAY on his arm]. +I here renounce your friendship. + +LIND. + I likewise. + +FALK [seriously]. +You too, my Lind? + +LIND. + Farewell. + +FALK. + You were my nearest one-- + +LIND. +No help, it is the pleasure of my dearest one. + + [He goes in: SVANHILD has remained standing on the + verandah steps. + +FALK. +So, now I've made a clearance, have free course +In all directions! + +SVANHILD. + Falk, one word with you! + +FALK [pointing politely to the house]. +That way, Miss Halm;--that way, with all the force +Of aunts and inmates, Mrs. Halm withdrew. + +SVANHILD [nearer him]. +Let them withdraw; their ways and mine divide; +I will not swell the number of their band. + +FALK. +You'll stay? + +SVANHILD. + If you make war on lies, I stand +A trusty armour-bearer by your side. + +FALK. +You, Svanhild, you who-- + +SVANHILD. + I, who--yesterday--? +Were you yourself, Falk, yesterday the same? +You bade me be a sallow, for your play. + +FALK. +And a sweet sallow sang me into shame. +No, you are right: I was a child to ask; +But you have fired me to a nobler task. +Right in the midst of men the Church is founded +Where Truth's appealing clarion must be sounded +We are not called, like demigods, to gaze on +The battle from the far-off mountain's crest, +But in our hearts to bear our fiery blazon, +An Olaf's cross upon a mailed breast,-- +To look afar across the fields of flight, +Tho' pent within the mazes of its might,-- +Beyond the mirk descry one glimmer still +Of glory--that's the Call we must fulfil. + +SVANHILD. +And you'll fulfil it when you break from men, +Stand free, alone,-- + +FALK. + Did I frequent them then? +And there lies duty. No, that time's gone by,-- +My solitary compact with the sky. +My four-wall-chamber poetry is done; +My verse shall live in forest and in field, +I'll fight under the splendour of the sun;-- +I or the Lie--one of us two must yield! + +SVANHILD. +Then forth with God from Verse to Derring-doe! +I did you wrong: you have a feeling heart; +Forgive me,--and as good friends let us part-- + +FALK. +Nay, in my future there is room for two! +We part not. Svanhild, if you dare decide, +We'll battle on together side by side. + +SVANHILD. +We battle? + +FALK. + See, I have no friend, no mate, +By all abandoned, I make war on all: +At me they aim the piercing shafts of hate; +Say, do you dare with me to stand or fall? +Henceforth along the beaten walks I'll move +Heedful of each constraining etiquette; +Spread, like the rest of men, my board, and set +The ring upon the finger of love! + [Takes a ring from his finger and holds it up. + +SVANHILD [in breathless suspense]. +You mean that? + +FALK. + Yes, by us the world will see, +Love has an everlasting energy, +That suffers not its splendour to take hurt +From the day's dust, the common highway's dirt. +Last night I showed you the ideal aflame, +Beaconing from a dizzy mountain's brow. +You shuddered, for you were a woman,--now +I show you woman's veritable aim;-- +A soul like yours, what it has vowed, will keep. +You see the abyss before you, Svanhild, leap! + +SVANHILD [almost inaudibly]. +If we should fail--? + +FALK [exulting]. + No, in your eyes I see +A gleam that surely prophesies our winning! + +SVANHILD. +Then take me as I am, take all of me! +Now buds the young leaf; now my spring's beginning! + + [She flings herself boldly into his arms as the + curtain falls. + + + + +ACT THIRD. + + +Evening. Bright moonlight. Coloured lanterns are hung about the + trees. In the background are covered tables with bottles, + glasses, biscuits, etc. From the house, which is lighted + up from top to bottom, subdued music and singing are heard + during the following scene. SVANHILD stands on the verandah. + FALK comes from the right with some books and a portfolio + under his arm. The PORTER follows with a portmanteau and + knapsack. + + +FALK. +That's all, then? + +PORTER. + Yes, sir, all is in the pack, +But just a satchel, and the paletot. + +FALK. +Good; when I go, I'll take them on my back. +Now off. See, this is the portfolio. + +PORTER. +It's locked, I see. + +FALK. + Locked, Peter. + +PORTER. + Good, sir. + +FALK. + Pray, +Make haste and burn it. + +PORTER. + Burn it? + +FALK. + Yes, to ash-- + [Smiling. +With every draft upon poetic cash; +As for the books, you're welcome to them. + +PORTER. + Nay, +Such payment is above a poor man's earning. +But, sir, I'm thinking, if you can bestow +Your books, you must have done with all your learning? + +FALK. +Whatever can be learnt from books I know, +And rather more. + +PORTER. + More? Nay, that's hard I doubt! + +FALK. +Well, now be off; the carriers wait without. +Just help them load the barrow ere you go. + [The PORTER goes out to the left. + +FALK [approaching SVANHILD who comes to meet him]. +One moment's ours, my Svanhild, in the light +Of God and of the lustrous summer night. +How the stars glitter thro' the leafage, see, +Like bright fruit hanging on the great world-tree. +Now slavery's last manacle I slip, +Now for the last time feel the wealing whip; +Like Israel at the Passover I stand, +Loins girded for the desert, staff in hand. +Dull generation, from whose sight is hid +The Promised Land beyond that desert flight, +Thrall tricked with knighthood, never the more knight, +Tomb thyself kinglike in the Pyramid,-- +I cross the barren desert to be free. +My ship strides on despite an ebbing sea; +But there the Legion Lie shall find its doom, +And glut one deep, dark, hollow-vaulted tomb. + [A short pause; he looks at her and takes her hand. +You are so still! + +SVANHILD. + So happy! Suffer me, +O suffer me in silence still to dream. +Speak you for me; my budding thoughts, grown strong, +One after one will burgeon into song, +Like lilies in the bosom of the stream. + +FALK. +O say it once again, in truth's pure tone +Beyond the fear of doubt, that thou art mine! +O say it, Svanhild, say-- + +SVANHILD [throwing herself on his neck]. + Yes, I am thine! + +FALK. +Thou singing-bird God sent me for my own! + +SVANHILD. +Homeless within my mother's house I dwelt, +Lonely in all I thought, in all I felt, +A guest unbidden at the feast of mirth,-- +Accounted nothing--less than nothing--worth. +Then you appeared! For the first time I heard +My own thought uttered in another's word; +To my lame visions you gave wings and feet-- +You young unmasker of the Obsolete! +Half with your caustic keenness you alarmed me, +Half with your radiant eloquence you charmed me, +As sea-girt forests summon with their spell +The sea their flinty beaches still repel. +Now I have read the bottom of your soul, +Now you have won me, undivided, whole; +Dear forest, where my tossing billows beat, +My tide's at flood and never will retreat! + +FALK. +And I thank God that in the bath of Pain +He purged my love. What strong compulsion drew +Me on I knew not, till I saw in you +The treasure I had blindly sought in vain. +I praise Him, who our love has lifted thus +To noble rank by sorrow,--licensed us +To a triumphal progress, bade us sweep +Thro' fen and forest to our castle-keep, +A noble pair, astride on Pegasus! + +SVANHILD [pointing to the house]. +The whole house, see, is making feast to-night. +There, in their honour, every room's alight, +There cheerful talk and joyous song ring out; +On the highroad no passer-by will doubt +That men are happy where they are so gay. + [With compassion. +Poor sister!--happy in the great world's way! + +FALK. +"Poor" sister, say you? + +SVANHILD. + Has she not divided +With kith and kin the treasure of her soul, +Her capital to fifty hands confided, +So that not one is debtor for the whole? +From no one has she all things to receive, +For no one has she utterly to live. +O beside my wealth hers is little worth; +I have but one possession upon earth. +My heart was lordless when with trumpet blare +And multitudinous song you came, its king, +The banners of my thought your ensign bear, +You fill my soul with glory, like the spring. +Yes, I must needs thank God, when it is past, +That I was lonely till I found out thee,-- +That I lay dead until the trumpet blast +Waken'd me from the world's frivolity. + +FALK. +Yes we, who have no friends on earth, we twain +Own the true wealth, the golden fortune,--we +Who stand without, beside the starlit sea, +And watch the indoor revel thro' the pane. +Let the lamp glitter and the song resound, +Let the dance madly eddy round and round;-- +Look up, my Svanhild, into yon deep blue,-- +There glitter little lamps in thousands, too-- + +SVANHILD. +And hark, beloved, thro' the limes there floats +This balmy eve a chorus of sweet notes-- + +FALK. +It is for us that fretted vault's aglow-- + +SVANHILD. +It is for us the vale is loud below! + +FALK. +I feel myself like God's lost prodigal; +I left Him for the world's delusive charms. +With mild reproof He wooed me to His arms; +And when I come, He lights the vaulted hall, +Prepares a banquet for the son restored, +And makes His noblest creature my reward. +From this time forth I'll never leave that Light,-- +But stand its armed defender in the fight; +Nothing shall part us, and our life shall prove +A song of glory to triumphant love! + +SVANHILD. +And see how easy triumph is for two, +When He's a man-- + +FALK. + She, woman thro' and thro';-- +It is impossible for such to fall! + +SVANHILD. +Then up, and to the war with want and sorrow; +This very hour I will declare it all! + [Pointing to FALK's ring on her finger. + +FALK [hastily]. +No, Svanhild, not to-night, wait till to-morrow! +To-night we gather our young love's red rose; +'Twere sacrilege to smirch it with the prose +Of common day. + [The door into the garden-room opens. + Your mother's coming! Hide! +No eye this night shall see thee as my bride! + + [They go out among the trees by the summer-house. + MRS. HALM and GULDSTAD come out on the balcony. + +MRS. HALM. +He's really going? + +GULDSTAD. + Seems so, I admit. + +STIVER [coming]. +He's going, madam! + +MRS. HALM. + We're aware of it! + +STIVER. +A most unfortunate punctilio. +He'll keep his word; his stubbornness I know. +In the Gazette he'll put us all by name; +My love will figure under leaded headings, +With jilts, and twins, and countermanded weddings. +Listen; I tell you, if it weren't for shame, +I would propose an armistice, a truce-- + +MRS. HALM. +You think he would be willing? + +STIVER. + I deduce +The fact from certain signs, which indicate +That his tall talk about his Amor's News +Was uttered in a far from sober state. +One proof especially, if not transcendent, +Yet tells most heavily against defendant: +It has been clearly proved that after dinner +To his and Lind's joint chamber he withdrew, +And there displayed such singular demeanour +As leaves no question-- + +GULDSTAD. + [Sees a glimpse of FALK and SVANHILD, who separate, + Falk going to the background; SVANHILD remains + standing hidden by the summer-house. + Hold, we have the clue! +Madam, one word!--Falk does not mean to go, +Or if he does, he means it as a friend. + +STIVER. +How, you believe then--? + +MRS. HALM. + What do you intend? + +GULDSTAD. +With the least possible delay I'll show +That matters move precisely as you would. +Merely a word in private-- + +MRS. HALM. + Very good. + + [They go together into the garden and are seen from + time to time in lively conversation. + +STIVER. + [Descending into the garden discovers FALK, who is + standing by the water and gazing over it. +These poets are mere men of vengeance, we +State servants understand diplomacy. +I need to labour for myself-- + [Seeing STRAWMAN, who enters from the garden-room. + Well met! + +STRAWMAN [on the verandah]. +He's really leaving! [Going down to STIVER. + Ah, my dear sir, let +Me beg you just a moment to go in +And hold my wife-- + +STIVER. + I--hold her, sir? + +STRAWMAN. + I mean +In talk. The little ones and we are so +Unused to be divided, there is no +Escaping-- + [His wife and children appear in the door. + Ha! already on my trail. + +MRS. STRAWMAN. +Where are you, Strawman? + +STRAWMAN [aside to STIVER]. + Do invent some tale, +Something amusing--something to beguile! + +STIVER [going on to the verandah]. +Pray, madam, have you read the official charge? +A masterpiece of literary style. + [Takes a book from his pocket. +Which I shall now proceed to cite at large. + + [Ushers her politely into the room, and follows + himself. FALK comes forward; he and Strawman + meet; they regard one another a moment in + silence. + +STRAWMAN. +Well? + +FALK. + Well? + +STRAWMAN. + Falk? + +FALK. + Pastor? + +STRAWMAN. + Are you less +Intractable than when we parted? + +FALK. + Nay, +I go my own inexorable way-- + +STRAWMAN. +Even tho' you crush another's happiness? + +FALK. +I plant the flower of knowledge in its place. + [Smiling. +If, by the way, you have not ceased to think +Of the Gazette-- + +STRAWMAN. + Ah, that was all a joke? + +FALK. +Yes, pluck up courage, that will turn to smoke; +I break the ice in action, not in ink. + +STRAWMAN. +But even though you spare me, sure enough +There's one who won't so lightly let me off; +He has the advantage, and he won't forego it, +That lawyer's clerk--and 'tis to you I owe it; +You raked the ashes of our faded flames, +And you may take your oath he won't be still +If once I mutter but a syllable +Against the brazen bluster of his claims. +These civil-service gentlemen, they say, +Are very potent in the press to-day. +A trumpery paragraph can lay me low, +Once printed in that Samson-like Gazette +That with the jaw of asses fells its foe, +And runs away with tackle and with net, +Especially towards the quarter day-- + +FALK [aquiescing]. +Ah, were there scandal in the case, indeed-- + +STRAWMAN [despondently]. +No matter. Read its columns with good heed, +You'll see me offered up to Vengeance. + +FALK [whimsically]. + Nay, +To retribution--well-earned punishment. +Thro' all our life there runs a Nemesis, +Which may delay, but never will relent, +And grants to none exception or release. +Who wrongs the Ideal? Straight there rushes in +The Press, its guardian with the Argus eye, +And the offender suffers for his sin. + +STRAWMAN. +But in the name of heaven, what pledge have I +Given this "Ideal" that's ever on your tongue? +I'm married, have a family, twelve young +And helpless innocents to clothe and keep; +I have my daily calls on every side, +Churches remote and gleve and pasture wide, +Great herds of breeding cattle, ghostly sheep-- +All to be watched and cared for, clipt and fed, +Grain to be winnowed, compost to be spread;-- +Wanted all day in shippon and in stall, +What time have _I_ to serve the "Ideal" withal? + +FALK. +Then get you home with what dispatch you may, +Creep snugly in before the winter-cold; +Look, in young Norway dawns at last the day, +Thousand brave hearts are in its ranks enroll'd, +Its banners in the morning breezes play! + +STRAWMAN. +And if, young man, I were to take my way +With bag and baggage home, with everything +That made me yesterday a little king, +Were mine the only _volet face_ to-day? +Think you I carry back the wealth I brought? + [As FALK is about to answer. +Nay, listen let me first explain my thought + [Coming nearer. +Time was when I was young, like you, and played +Like you, the unconquerable Titan's part; +Year after year I toiled and moiled for bread, +Which hardens a man's hand, but not his heart. +For northern fells my lonely home surrounded, +And by my parish bounds my world was bounded. +My home--Ah, Falk, I wonder, do you know +What home is? + +FALK [curtly]. + I have never known. + +STRAWMAN. + Just so. +That is a home, where five may dwell with ease, +Tho' two would be a crowd, if enemies. +That is a home, where all your thoughts play free +As boys and girls about their father's knee, +Where speech no sooner touches heart, than tongue +Darts back an answering harmony of song; +Where you may grow from flax-haired snowy-polled, +And not a soul take note that you grow old; +Where memories grow fairer as they fade, +Like far blue peaks beyond the forest glade. + +FALK [with constrained sarcasm]. +Come, you grow warm-- + +STRAWMAN. + Where you but jeered and flouted. +So utterly unlike God made us two! +I'm bare of that he lavished upon you. +But I have won the game where you were routed. +Seen from the clouds, full many a wayside grain +Of truth seems empty chaff and husks. You'd soar +To heaven, I scarcely reach the stable door, +One bird's an eagle born-- + +FALK. + And one a hen. + +STRAWMAN. +Yes, laugh away, and say it be so, grant +I am a hen. There clusters to my cluck +A crowd of little chickens,--which you want! +And I've the hen's high spirit and her pluck, +And for my little ones forget myself. +You think me dull, I know it. Possibly +You pass a harsher judgment yet, decree +Me over covetous of worldly pelf. +Good, on that head we will not disagree. + [Seizes FALK's arm and continues in a low + tone but with gathering vehemence. +You're right, I'm dull and dense and grasping, yes; +But grasping for my God-given babes and wife, +And dense from struggling blindly for bare life, +And dull from sailing seas of loneliness. +Just when the pinnance of my youthful dream +Into the everlasting deep went down, +Another started from the ocean stream +Borne with a fair wind onward to life's crown. +For every dream that vanished in the wave, +For every buoyant plume that broke asunder, +God sent me in return a little wonder, +And gratefully I took the good He gave. +For them I strove, for them amassed, annexed,-- +For them, for them, explained the Holy text; +On them you've poured the venom of your spite! +You've proved, with all the cunning of the schools, +My bliss was but the paradise of fools, +That all I took for earnest was a jest;-- +Now I implore, give me my quiet breast +Again, the flawless peace of mind I had-- + +FALK. +Prove, in a word, your title to be glad? + +STRAWMAN. +Yes, in my path you've cast the stone of doubt, +And nobody but you can cast it out. +Between my kin and me you've set a bar,-- +Remove the bar, the strangling noose undo-- + +FALK. +You possibly believe I keep the glue +Of lies for Happiness's in a broken jar? + +STRAWMAN. +I do believe, the faith your reasons tore +To shreds, your reasons may again restore; +The limb that you have shatter'd, you can set; +Reverse your judgment,--the whole truth unfold, +Restate the case--I'll fly my banner yet-- + +FALK [haughtily]. +I stamp no copper Happiness as gold. + +STRAWMAN [looking fixedly at him]. +Remember then that, lately, one whose scent +For truth is of the keenest told us this: + [With uplifted finger. +"There runs through all our life a Nemesis, +Which may delay, but never will relent." + [He goes towards the house. + +STIVER + [Coming out with glasses on, and an open book + in his hand. +Pastor, you must come flying like the blast! +Your girls are sobbing-- + +THE CHILDREN [in the doorway]. + Pa! + +STIVER. + And Madam waiting! + [Strawman goes in. +This lady has no talent for debating. + [Puts the book and glasses in his pocket, + and approaches FALK. +Falk! + +FALK. + Yes! + +STIVER. + I hope you've changed your mind at last? + +FALK. +Why so? + +STIVER. + For obvious reasons. To betray +Communications made in confidence, +Is conduct utterly without defence. +They must not pass the lips. + +FALK. + No, I've heard say +It is at times a risky game to play. + +STIVER. +The very devil! + +FALK. + Only for the great. + +STIVER [zealously]. +No, no, for all us servants of the state. +Only imagine how my future chances +Would dwindle, if the governor once knew +I keep Pegasus that neighs and prances +In office hours--and such an office, too! +From first to last, you know, in our profession, +The winged horse is viewed with reprobation: +But worst of all would be, if it got wind +That I against our primal law had sinn'd +By bringing secret matters to the light-- + +FALK. +That's penal, is it--such an oversight? + +STIVER [mysteriously]. +It can a servant of the state compel +To beg for his dismissal out of hand. +On us officials lies a strict command, +Even by the hearth to be inscrutable. + +FALK. +O those despotical authorities, +Muzzling the--clerk that treadeth out the grain! + +STIVER [shrugging his shoulders]. +It is the law; to murmur is in vain. +Moreover, at a moment such as this, +When salary revision is in train, +It is not well to advertise one's views +Of office time's true function and right use. +That's why I beg you to be silent; look, +A word may forfeit my-- + +FALK. + Portfolio? + +STIVER. +Officially it's called a transcript book; +A protocol's the clasp upon the veil of snow +That shrouds the modest breast of the Bureau. +What lies beneath you must not seek to know. + +FALK. +And yet I only spoke at your desire; +You hinted at your literary crop. + +STIVER. +How should I guess he'd grovel in the mire +So deep, this parson perch'd on fortune's top, +A man with snug appointments, children, wife, +And money to defy the ills of life? +If such a man prove such a Philistine, +What shall of us poor copyists be said? +Of me, who drive the quill and rule the line, +A man engaged and shortly to be wed, +With family in prospect--and so forth? + [More vehemently. +O, if I only had a well-lined berth, +I'd bind the armour'd helmet on my head, +And cry defiance to united earth! +And were I only unengaged like you, +Trust me, I'd break a road athwart the snow +Of prose, and carry the Ideal through! + +FALK. +To work then, man! + +STIVER. + How? + +FALK. + You may still do so! +Let the world's prudish owl unheeded flutter by; +Freedom converts the grub into a butterfly! + +STIVER. +You mean, to break the engagement--? + +FALK. + That's my mind;-- +The fruit is gone, why keep the empty rind? + +STIVER. +Such a proposal's for a green young shoot, +Not for a man of judgment and repute. +I heed not what King Christian in his time +(The Fifth) laid down about engagements broken-off; +For that relationship is nowhere spoken of +In any rubric of the code of crime. +The act would not be criminal in name, +It would in no way violate the laws-- + +FALK. +Why there, you see then! + +STIVER [firmly]. + Yes, but all the same,-- +I must reject all pleas in such a cause. +Staunch comrades we have been in times of dearth; +Of life's disport she asks but little share, +And I'm a homely fellow, long aware +God made me for the ledger and the hearth. +Let others emulate the eagle's flight, +Life in the lowly plains may be as bright. +What does his Excellency Goethe say +About the white and shining milky way? +Man may not there the milk of fortune skim, +Nor is the butter of it meant for him. + +FALK. +Why, even were fortune-churning our life's goal, +The labour must be guided by the soul;-- +Be citizens of the time that is--but then +Make the time worthy of the citizen. +In homely things lurks beauty, without doubt, +But watchful eye and brain must draw it out. +Not every man who loves the soil he turns +May therefore claim to be another Burns.(5) + +STIVER. +Then let us each our proper path pursue, +And part in peace; we shall not hamper you; +We keep the road, you hover in the sky, +There where we too once floated, she and I. +But work, not song, provides our daily bread, +And when a man's alive, his music's dead. +A young man's life's a lawsuit, and the most +Superfluous litigation in existence: +Plead where and how you will, your suit is lost. + +FALK [bold and confident, with a glance at the + summer-house]. +Nay, tho' I took it to the highest place,-- +Judgment, I know, would be reversed by grace! +I know two hearts can live a life complete, +With hope still ardent, and with faith still sweet; +You preach the wretched gospel of the hour, +That the Ideal is secondary! + +STIVER. + No! +It's primary: appointed, like the flower, +To generate the fruit, and then to go. + + [Indoors, MISS JAY plays and sings: "In the Gloaming." + STIVER stands listening in silent emotion. + +With the same melody she calls me yet +Which thrilled me to the heart when first we met. + [Lays his hand on FALK's arm and gazes intently at him. +Oft as she wakens those pathetic notes, +From the white keys reverberating floats +An echo of the "yes" that made her mine. +And when our passions shall one day decline, +To live again as friendship, to the last +That song shall link that present to this past. +And what tho' at the desk my back grow round, +And my day's work a battle for mere bread, +Yet joy will lead me homeward, where the dead +Enchantment will be born again in sound. +If one poor bit of evening we can claim, +I shall come off undamaged from the game! + + [He goes into the house. FALK turns towards the + summer-house. SVANHILD comes out, she is pale + and agitated. They gaze at each other in silence + a moment, and fling themselves impetuously into + each other's arms. + +FALK. +O, Svanhild, let us battle side by side! +Thou fresh glad blossom flowering by the tomb,-- +See what the life is that they call youth's bloom! +There's coffin-stench wherever two go by +At the street corner, smiling outwardly, +With falsehood's reeking sepulchre beneath, +And in their blood the apathy of death. +And this they think is living! Heaven and earth, +Is such a load so many antics worth? +For such an end to haul up babes in shoals, +To pamper them with honesty and reason, +To feed them fat with faith one sorry season, +For service, after killing-day, as souls? + +SVANHILD. +Falk, let us travel! + +FALK. + Travel? Whither, then? +Is not the whole world everywhere the same? +And does not Truth's own mirror in its frame +Lie equally to all the sons of men? +No, we will stay and watch the merry game, +The conjurer's trick, the tragi-comedy +Of liars that are dupes of their own lie; +Stiver and Lind, the Parson and his dame, +See them,--prize oxen harness'd to love's yoke, +And yet at bottom very decent folk! +Each wears for others and himself a mask, +Yet one too innocent to take to task; +Each one, a stranded sailor on a wreck, +Counts himself happy as the gods in heaven; +Each his own hand from Paradise has driven, +Then, splash! into the sulphur to the neck! +But none has any inkling where he lies, +Each thinks himself a knight of Paradise, +And each sits smiling between howl and howl; +And if the Fiend come by with jeer and growl, +With horns, and hoofs, and things yet more abhorred,-- +Then each man jogs the neighbour at his jowl: +"Off with your hat, man! See, there goes the Lord!" + +SVANHILD [after a brief thoughtful silence]. +How marvellous a love my steps has led +To this sweet trysting place! My life that sped +In frolic and fantastic visions gay, +Henceforth shall grow one ceaseless working day! +O God! I wandered groping,--all was dim: +Thou gavest me light--and I discovered him! + [Gazing at FALK in love and wonder. +Whence is that strength of thine, thou mighty tree +That stand'st alone, and yet canst shelter me--? + +FALK. +God's truth, my Svanhild; that gives fortitude. + +SVANHILD [with a shy glance towards the house]. +They came like tempters, evilly inclined, +Each spokesman for his half of humankind, +One asking: How can true love reach its goal +When riches' leaden weight subdues the soul? +The other asking: How can true love speed +When life's a battle to the death with Need? +O horrible!--to bid the world receive +That teaching as the truth, and yet to live! + +FALK. +How if 'twere meant for us? + +SVANHILD. + For us?--What, then? +Can outward fate control the wills of men? +I have already said: if thou'lt stand fast, +I'll dare and suffer by thee to the last. +How light to listen to the gospel's voice, +To leave one's home behind, to weep, rejoice, +And take with God the husband of one's choice! + +FALK [embracing her]. +Come then, and blow thy worst, thou winter weather! +We stand unshaken, for we stand together! + + [MRS. HALM and GULDSTAD come in from the right in + the background. + +GULDSTAD [aside]. +Observe! + + [FALK and SVANHILD remain standing by the summer-house. + +MRS. HALM [surprised]. + Together! + +GULDSTAD. + Do you doubt it now? + +MRS. HALM. +This is most singular. + +GULDSTAD. + O, I've noted how +His work of late absorb'd his interest. + +MRS. HALM [to herself]. +Who would have fancied Svanhild so sly? + [Vivaciously to GULDSTAD. +But no--I can't think. + +GULDSTAD. + Put it to the test. + +MRS. HALM. +Now, on the spot? + +GULDSTAD. + Yes, and decisively! + +MRS. HALM [giving him her hand]. +God's blessing with you! + +GULDSTAD [gravely]. + Thanks, it may bestead. + [Comes to the front. + +MRS. HALM [looking back as she goes towards the house]. +Whichever way it goes, my child is sped. + [Goes in. + +GULDSTAD [approaching FALK]. +It's late, I think? + +FALK. + Ten minutes and I go. + +GULDSTAD. +Sufficient for my purpose. + +SVANHILD [going]. + Farewell. + +GULDSTAD. + No, +Remain. + +SVANHILD. + Shall I? + +GULDSTAD. + Until you've answered me. +It's time we squared accounts. It's time we three +Talked out for once together from the heart. + +FALK [taken aback]. +We three? + +GULDSTAD. + Yes,--all disguises flung apart. + +FALK [suppressing a smile]. +O, at your service. + +GULDSTAD. + Very good, then hear. +We've been acquainted now for half a year; +We've wrangled-- + +FALK. + Yes. + +GULDSTAD. + We've been in constant feud; +We've changed hard blows enough. You fought--alone-- +For a sublime ideal; I as one +Among the money-grubbing multitude. +And yet it seemed as if a chord united +Us two, as if a thousand thoughts that lay +Deep in my own youth's memory benighted +Had started at your bidding into day. +Yes, I amaze you. But this hair grey-sprinkled +Once fluttered brown in spring-time, and this brow, +Which daily occupation moistens now +With sweat of labour, was not always wrinkled. +Enough; I am a man of business, hence-- + +FALK [with gentle sarcasm]. +You are the type of practical good sense. + +GULDSTAD. +And you are hope's own singer young and fain. + [Stepping between them. +Just therefore, Falk and Svanhild, I am here. +Now let us talk, then; for the hour is near +Which brings good hap or sorrow in its train. + +FALK [in suspense]. +Speak, then! + +GULDSTAD [smiling]. + My ground is, as I said last night, +A kind of poetry-- + +FALK. + In practice. + +GULDSTAD. + Right! + +FALK. +And if one asked the source from which you drew--? + +GULDSTAD + [Glancing a moment at SVANHILD, and then turning + again to FALK. +A common source discovered by us two. + +SVANHILD. +Now I must go. + +GULDSTAD. + No, wait till I conclude. +I should not ask so much of others. You, +Svanhild, I've learnt to fathom thro' and thro'; +You are too sensible to play the prude. +I watched expand, unfold, your little life; +A perfect woman I divined within you, +But long I only saw a daughter in you;-- +Now I ask of you--will you be my wife? + [SVANHILD draws back in embarrassment. + +FALK [seizing his arm]. +Hold! + +GULDSTAD. + Patience; she must answer. Put your own +Question;--then her decision will be free. + +FALK. +I--do you say? + +GULDSTAD [looking steadily at him]. + The happiness of three +Lives is at stake to-day,--not mine alone. +Don't fancy it concerns you less than me; +For tho' base matter is my chosen sphere, +Yet nature made me something of a seer. +Yes, Falk, you love her. Gladly, I confess, +I saw your young love bursting into flower. +But this young passion, with its lawless power, +May be the ruin of her happiness. + +FALK [firing up]. +You have the face to say so? + +GULDSTAD [quietly]. + Years give right. +Say now you won her-- + +FALK [defiantly]. + And what then? + +GULDSTAD [slowly and emphatically]. + Yes, say +She ventured in one bottom to embark +Her all, her all upon one card to play,-- +And then life's tempest swept the ship away, +And the flower faded as the day grew dark? + +FALK [involuntarily]. +She must not! + +GULDSTAD [looking at him with meaning]. + Hm. So I myself decided +When I was young, like you. In days of old +I was afire for one. Our paths divided. +Last night we met again;--the fire was cold. + +FALK. +Last night? + +GULDSTAD. + Last night. You know the parson's dame-- + +FALK. +What? It was she, then, who-- + +GULDSTAD. + Who lit the flame. +Long I remembered her with keen regret, +And still in my remembrance she arose +As the young lovely woman that she was +When in life's buoyant spring-time first we met. +And that same foolish fire you now are fain +To light, that game of hazard you would dare. +See, that is why I call to you--beware! +The game is perilous! Pause, and think again! + +FALK. +No, to the whole tea-caucus I declared +My fixed and unassailable belief-- + +GULDSTAD [completing his sentence]. +That heartfelt love can weather unimpaired +Custom, and Poverty, and Age, and Grief. +Well, say it be so; possibly you're right; +But see the matter in another light. +What love is, no man ever told us--whence +It issues, that ecstatic confidence +That one life may fulfil itself in two,-- +To this no mortal ever found the clue. +But marriage is a practical concern, +As also is betrothal, my good sir-- +And by experience easily we learn +That we are fitted just for her, or her. +But love, you know, goes blindly to its fate, +Chooses a woman, not a wife, for mate; +And what if now this chosen woman was +No wife for you--? + +FALK [in suspense]. + Well? + +GULDSTAD [shrugging his shoulders]. + Then you've lost your cause. +To make happy bridegroom and a bride +Demands not love alone, but much beside, +Relations that do not wholly disagree. +And marriage? Why, it is a very sea +Of claims and calls, of taxing and exaction, +Whose bearing upon love is very small. +Here mild domestic virtues are demanded, +A kitchen soul, inventive and neat handed, +Making no claims, and executing all;-- +And much which in a lady's presence I +Can hardly with decorum specify. + +FALK. +And therefore--? + +GULDSTAD. + Hear a golden counsel then. +Use your experience; watch your fellow-men, +How every loving couple struts and swaggers +Like millionaires among a world of beggars. +They scamper to the altar, lad and lass, +They make a home and, drunk with exultation, +Dwell for awhile within its walls of glass. +Then comes the day of reckoning;--out, alas, +They're bankrupt, and their house in liquidation! +Bankrupt the bloom of youth on woman's brow, +Bankrupt the flower of passion in her breast, +Bankrupt the husband's battle-ardour now, +Bankrupt each spark of passion he possessed. +Bankrupt the whole estate, below, above,-- +And yet this broken pair were once confessed +A first-class house in all the wares of love! + +FALK [vehemently]. +That is a lie! + +GULDSTAD [unmoved]. + Some hours ago 'twas true +However. I have only quoted you;-- +In these same words you challenged to the field +The "caucus" with love's name upon your shield. +Then rang repudiation fast and thick +From all directions, as from you at present; +Incredible, I know; who finds it pleasant +To hear the name of death when he is sick? +Look at the priest! A painter and composer +Of taste and spirit when he wooed his bride;-- +What wonder if the man became a proser +When she was snugly settled by his side? +To be his lady-love she was most fit; +To be his wife, tho'--not a bit of it. +And then the clerk, who once wrote clever numbers? +No sooner was the gallant plighted, fixed, +Than all his rhymes ran counter and got mixed; +And now his Muse continuously slumbers, +Lullabied by the law's eternal hum. +Thus you see-- [Looks at SVANHILD. + Are you cold? + +SVANHILD [softly]. + No. + +FALK [with forced humour]. + Since the sum +Works out a minus then in every case +And never shows a plus,--why should you be +So resolute your capital to place +In such a questionable lottery? + +GULDSTAD [looks at him, smiles, and shakes his head]. +My bold young Falk, reserve a while your mirth.-- +There are two ways of founding an estate. +It may be built on credit--drafts long-dated +On pleasure in a never-ending bout, +On perpetuity of youth unbated, +And permanent postponement of the gout. +It may be built on lips of rosy red, +On sparkling eyes and locks of flowing gold, +On trust these glories never will be shed, +Nor the dread hour of periwigs be tolled. +It may be built on thoughts that glow and quiver,-- +Flowers blowing in the sandy wilderness,-- +On hearts that, to the end of life, for ever +Throb with the passion of the primal "yes." +To dealings such as this the world extends +One epithet: 'tis known as "humbug," friends. + +FALK. +I see, you are a dangerous attorney, +You--well-to-do, a millionaire may-be; +While two broad backs could carry in one journey +All that beneath the sun belongs to me. + +GULDSTAD [sharply]. +What do you mean? + +FALK. + That is not hard to see. +For the sound way of building, I suppose, +Is just with cash--the wonder-working paint +That round the widow's batten'd forehead throws +The aureole of a young adored saint. + +GULDSTAD. +O no, 'tis something better that I meant. +'Tis the still flow of generous esteem, +Which no less honours the recipient +Than does young rapture's giddy-whirling dream. +It is the feeling of the blessedness +Of service, and home quiet, and tender ties, +The joy of mutual self-sacrifice, +Of keeping watch lest any stone distress +Her footsteps wheresoe'er her pathway lies; +It is the healing arm of a true friend +The manly muscle that no burdens bend, +The constancy no length of years decays, +The arm that stoutly lifts and firmly stays. +This, Svanhild, is the contribution I +Bring to your fortune's fabric: now, reply. + [SVANHILD makes an effort to speak; GULDSTAD lifts + his hand to check her. +Consider well before you give your voice! +With clear deliberation make your choice. + +FALK. +And how have you discovered-- + +GULDSTAD. + That I love her? +That in your eyes 'twas easy to discover. +Let her too know it. [Presses his hand. + Now I will go in. +Let the jest cease and earnest work begin; +And if you undertake that till the end +You'll be to her no less a faithful friend, +A staff to lean on, and a help in need, +Than I can be-- [Turning to SVANHILD. +Cancel it from the tables of your thought. +Then it is I who triumph in very deed; +You're happy, and for nothing else I fought. + [To FALK. +And, apropos--just now you spoke of cash, +Trust me, 'tis little more than tinsell'd trash. +I have not ties, stand perfectly alone; +To you I will make over all I own; +My daughter she shall be, and you my son. +You know I have a business by the border: +There I'll retire, you set your home in order, +And we'll foregather when a year is gone. +Now, Falk, you know me; with the same precision +Observe yourself: the voyage down life's stream, +Remember, is no pastime and no dream. +Now, in the name of God--make your decision! + + [Goes into the house. Pause. FALK and + SVANHILD look shyly at each other. + +FALK. +You are so pale. + +SVANHILD. + And you so silent. + +FALK. + True. + +SVANHILD. +He smote us hardest. + +FALK [to himself]. + Stole my armour, too. + +SVANHILD. +What blows he struck! + +FALK. + He knew to place them well. + +SVANHILD. +All seemed to go to pieces where they fell. + [Coming nearer to him. +How rich in one another's wealth before +We were, when all had left us in despite, +And Thought rose upward like the echoing roar +Of breakers in the silence of the night. +With exultation then we faced the fray, +And confidence that Love is lord of death;-- +He came with worldly cunning, stole our faith, +Sowed doubt,--and all the glory pass'd away! + +FALK [with wild vehemence]. +Tear, tear it from thy memory! All his talk +Was true for others, but for us a lie! + +SVANHILD [slowly shaking her head]. +The golden grain, hail-stricken on its stalk, +Will never more wave wanton to the sky. + +FALK [with an outburst of anguish]. +Yes, we two, Svanhild--! + +SVANHILD. + Hence with hopes that snare! +If you sow falsehood, you must reap despair. +For others true, you say? And do you doubt +That each of them, like us, is sure, alike, +That he's the man the lightning will not strike, +And no avenging thunder will find out, +Whom the blue storm-cloud scudding up the sky +On wings of tempest, never can come nigh? + +FALK. +The others split their souls on scattered ends: +Thy single love my being comprehends. +They're hoarse with yelling in life's Babel din: +I in this quiet shelter fold thee in. + +SVANHILD. +But if love, notwithstanding, should decay, +--Love being Happiness's single stay-- +Could you avert, then, Happiness's fall? + +FALK. +No, my love's ruin were the wreck of all. + +SVANHILD. +And can you promise me before the Lord +That it will last, not drooping like the flower, +But smell as sweet as now till life's last hour? + +FALK [after a short pause]. +It will last long. + +SVANHILD. +"Long!" "Long!"--Poor starveling word! +Can "long" give any comfort in Love's need? +It is her death-doom, blight upon her seed. +"My faith is, Love will never pass away"-- +That song must cease, and in its stead be heard: +"My faith is, that I loved you yesterday!" + [As uplifted by inspiration. +No, no, not thus our day of bliss shall wane, +Flag drearily to west in clouds and rain;-- +But at high noontide, when it is most bright, +Plunge sudden, like a meteor, into the night! + +FALK. +What would you, Svanhild? + +SVANHILD. + We are of the Spring; +No autumn shall come after, when the bird +Of music in thy breast shall not be heard, +And long not thither where it first took wing. +Nor ever Winter shall his snowy shroud +Lay on the clay-cold body of our bliss;-- +This Love of ours, ardent and glad and proud, +Pure of disease's taint and age's cloud, +Shall die the young and glorious thing it is! + +FALK [in deep pain]. +And far from thee--what would be left of life? + +SVANHILD. +And near me what were left--if Love depart? + +FALK. +A home? + +SVANHILD. + Where Joy would gasp in mortal strife. + [Firmly. +It was not given to me to be your wife. +That is the clear conviction of my heart! +In courtship's merry pastime I can lead, +But not sustain your spirit in its need. + [Nearer and gathering fire. +Now we have revell'd out a feast of spring; +No thought of slumber's sluggard couch come nigh! +Let Joy amid delirious song make wing +And flock with choirs of cherubim on high. +And tho' the vessel of our fate capsize, +One plank yet breasts the waters, strong to save;-- +The fearless swimmer reaches Paradise! +Let Joy go down into his watery grave; +Our Love shall yet triumph, by God's hand, +Be borne from out the wreckage safe to land! + +FALK. +O, I divine thee! But--to sever thus! +Now, when the portals of the world stand wide,-- +When the blue spring is bending over us, +On the same day that plighted thee my bride! + +SVANHILD. +Just therefore must we part. Our joy's torch fire +Will from this moment wane till it expire! +And when at last our worldly days are spent, +And face to face with our great Judge we stand, +And, as righteous God, he shall demand +Of us the earthly treasure that he lent-- +Then, Falk, we cry--past power of Grace to save-- +"O Lord, we lost it going to the grave!" + +FALK [with strong resolve]. +Pluck off the ring! + +SVANHILD [with fire]. + Wilt thou? + +FALK. + Now I divine! +Thus and no otherwise canst thou be mine! +As the grave opens into life's Dawn-fire, +So Love with Life may not espoused be +Till, loosed from longing and from wild desire, +Pluck off the ring, Svanhild! + +SVANHILD [in rapture]. + My task is done! +Now I have filled thy soul with song and sun. +Forth! Now thou soarest on triumphant wings,-- +Forth! Now thy Svanhild is the swan that sings! + [Takes off the ring and presses a kiss upon it. +To the abysmal ooze of ocean bed +Descend, my dream!--I fling thee in its stead! + + [Goes a few steps back, throws the ring into the + fjord, and approaches FALK with a transfigured + expression. + +Now for this earthly life I have foregone thee,-- +But for the life eternal I have won thee! + +FALK [firmly]. +And now to the day's duties, each, alone. +Our paths no more will mingle. Each must wage +His warfare single-handed, without moan. +We caught the fevered frenzy of the age, +Fain without fighting to secure the spoil, +Win Sabbath ease, and shirk the six days' toil, +Tho' we are called to strive and to forego. + +SVANHILD. +But not in sickness. + +FALK. +Tho' quenched were all the light of earth and sky,-- +The thought of light is God, and cannot die. + +SVANHILD [withdrawing towards the background]. +Farewell! [Goes further. + +FALK. + Farewell--gladly I cry again-- + [Waves his hat. +Hurrah for love, God's glorious gift to men! + + [The door opens. FALK withdraws to the right; the + younger guests come out with merry laughter. + +THE YOUNG GIRLS. +A lawn dance! + +A YOUNG GIRL. + Dancing's life! + +ANOTHER. + A garland spread +With dewy blossoms fresh on every head! + +SEVERAL. +Yes, to the dance, the dance! + +ALL. + And ne'er to bed! + + [STIVER comes out with STRAWMAN arm in arm. MRS. + STRAWMAN and the children follow. + +STIVER. +Yes, you and I henceforward are fast friends. + +STRAWMAN. +Allied in battle for our common ends. + +STIVER. +When the twin forces of the State agree-- + +STRAWMAN. +They add to all men's-- + +STIVER [hastily]. + Gains! + +STRAWMAN. + And gaiety. + + [MRS. HALM, LIND, ANNA, GULDSTAD, and MISS JAY, + with the other guests, come out. All eyes are + turned upon FALK and SVANHILD. General amazement + when they are seen standing apart. + +MISS JAY [among the AUNTS, clasping her hands]. +What! Am I awake or dreaming, pray? + +LIND [who has noticed nothing]. +I have a brother's compliments to pay. + + [He, with the other guests, approaches FALK, but + starts involuntarily and steps back on looking + at him. + +What is the matter with you? You're a Janus +With double face! + +FALK [smiling]. + I cry, like old Montanus,(6) +The earth is flat, Messieurs;--by optics lied; +Flat as a pancake--are you satisfied? + [Goes quickly out to the right. + +MISS JAY. +Refused! + +THE AUNTS. + Refused! + +MRS. HALM. + Hush, ladies, if you please! + [Goes across to SVANHILD. + +MRS. STRAWMAN [to STRAWMAN]. +Fancy, refused! + +STRAWMAN. + It cannot be! + +MISS JAY. + It is! + +THE LADIES [from mouth to mouth]. +Refused! Refused! Refused! + + [They gather in little groups about the garden. + +STIVER [dumfounded]. + He courting? How? + +STRAWMAN. +Yes, think! He laugh'd at us, ha, ha--but now-- + + [They gaze at each other speechless. + +ANNA [to LIND]. +That's good! He was too horrid, to be sure! + +LIND [embracing her]. +Hurrah, now thou art mine, entire and whole. + + [They go outside into the garden. + +GULDSTAD [looking back towards SVANHILD]. +Something is shattered in a certain soul; +But what is yet alive in it I'll cure. + +STRAWMAN [recovering himself and embracing STIVER]. +Now then, you can be very well contented +To have your dear _fiancee_ for a spouse. + +STIVER. +And you complacently can see your house +With little Strawmans every year augmented. + +STRAWMAN [Rubbing his hands with satisfaction and looking + after FALK]. +Insolent fellow! Well, it served him right;-- +Would all these knowing knaves were in his plight! + + [They go across in conversation; MRS. HALM + approaches with SVANHILD. + +MRS. HALM [aside eagerly]. +And nothing binds you? + +SVANHILD. + Nothing. + +MRS. HALM. + Good, you know +A daughter's duty-- + +SVANHILD. + Guide me, I obey. + +MRS. HALM. +Thanks, child. [Pointing to GULDSTAD. + He is rich and _comme il faut +Parti_; and since there's nothing in the way-- + +SVANHILD. +Yes, there is one condition I require!-- +To leave this place. + +MRS. HALM. + Precisely his desire. + +SVANHILD. +And time-- + +MRS. HALM. + How long? Bethink you, fortune's calling! + +SVANHILD [with a quiet smile]. +Only a little; till the leaves are falling. + + [She goes towards the verandah; MRS. HALM seeks + out GULDSTAD. + +STRAWMAN [among the guests]. +One lesson, friends, we learn from this example! +Tho' Doubt's beleaguering forces hem us in, +The Truth upon the Serpents's head shall trample, +The cause of Love shall win-- + +GUESTS. + Yes, Love shall win! + + [They embrace and kiss, pair by pair. Outside to + the left are heard song and laughter. + +MISS JAY. +What can this mean? + +ANNA. + The students! + +LIND. + The quartette, +Bound for the mountains;--and I quite forgot +To tell them-- + + [The STUDENTS come in to the left and remain + standing at the entrance. + +A STUDENT [to LIND]. + Here we are on the spot! + +MRS. HALM. +It's Lind you seek, then? + +MISS JAY. + That's unfortunate. +He's just engaged-- + +AN AUNT. + And so, you may be sure, +He cannot think of going on a tour. + +THE STUDENTS. +Engaged! + +ALL THE STUDENTS. + Congratulations! + +LIND [to his comrades]. + Thanks, my friends! + +THE STUDENT [to his comrades]. +There goes our whole fish-kettle in the fire! +Our tenor lost! No possible amends! + +FALK [Coming from the right, in summer suit, with student's + cap, knapsack and stick. +_I'll_ sing the tenor in young Norway's choir! + +THE STUDENTS. +You, Falk! hurrah! + +FALK. + Forth to the mountains, come! +As the bee hurries from her winter home! +A twofold music in my breast I bear, +A cither with diversely sounding strings, +One for life's joy, a treble loud and clear, +And one deep note that quivers as it sings. + [To individuals among the STUDENTS. +You have the palette?--You the note-book? Good, +Swarm then, my bees, into the leafy wood, +Till at night-fall with pollen-laden thigh, +Home to our mighty mother-queen we fly! + + [Turning to the company, while the STUDENTS depart and + and the Chorus of the First Act is faintly heard outside. + +Forgive me my offences great and small, +I resent nothing;-- [Softly. + but remember all. + +STRAWMAN [beaming with happiness]. +Now fortune's garden once again is green! +My wife has hopes,--a sweet presentiment-- + [Draws him whispering apart. +She lately whispered of a glad event-- + [Inaudible words intervene. +If all goes well . . . at Michaelmas . . . thirteen! + +STIVER [With MISS JAY on his arm, turning to FALK, smiles + triumphantly, and says, pointing to STRAWMAN: +I'm going to start a household, flush of pelf! + +MISS JAY [with an ironical courtesy]. +I shall put on my wedding-ring next Yule. + +ANNA [similarly, as she takes LIND's arm]. +My Lind will stay, the Church can mind itself-- + +LIND [hiding his embarrassment]. +And seek an opening in a ladies' school. + +MRS. HALM. +I cultivate my Anna's capabilities-- + +GULDSTAD [gravely]. +An unromantic poem I mean to make +Of one who only lives for duty's sake. + +FALK [with a smile to the whole company]. +I go to scale the Future's possibilities! +Farewell! [Softly to SVANHILD. + God bless thee, bride of my life's dawn, +Where'er I be, to nobler deed thou'lt wake me. + + [Waves his hat and follows the STUDENTS. + +SVANHILD [Looks after him a moment, then says softly but firmly: +Now over is my life, by lea and lawn, +The leaves are falling;--now the world may take me. + + [At this moment the piano strikes up a dance, and + champagne corks explode in the background. The + gentlemen hurry to and fro with their ladies on + their arms. GULDSTAD approaches SVANHILD and + bows: she starts momentarily, then collects + herself and gives him her hand. MRS. HALM and + her family, who have watched the scene in suspense, + throng about them with expressions of rapture, + which are overpowered by the music and the + merriment of the dancers in the garden. + + [But from the country the following chorus rings + loud and defiant through the dance music: + +CHORUS OF FALK AND THE STUDENTS. + +And what if I shattered my roaming bark, +It was passing sweet to be roaming! + +MOST OF THE COMPANY. +Hurrah! + + [Dance and merriment; the curtain falls. + + + +NOTES + +1. "_William Russel._" An original historic tragedy, found upon +the career of the ill-fated Lord William Russell, by Andreas Munch, +cousin of the historian P. A. Munch. It was produced at +Christiania in 1857, the year of Ibsen's return from Bergen, +and reviewed by him in the _Illusteret Nyhedsblad_ for that year, +Nos. 61 and 52. Professor Johan Storm of Christiania, to whose +kindness I owe these particulars, adds that "it is rather a fine +play and created a certain sensation in its time; but Munch is +forgotten." + +2. _A grey old stager_. Ibsen's friend P. Botten-Hansen, author +of the play _Hyldrebryllupet_. + +3. _A Svanhild like the old_. In the tale of the Volsungs Svanhild +was the daughter of Sigurd and Gudrun,--the _Siegfried_ and Kriemhild +of _Nibelungenlied_. The fierce King Jormunrek, hearing of her +matchless beauty, sends his son Randwer to woo her in his name. +Randwer is, however, induced to woo her in his own, and the girl +approves. Jormunrek thereupon causes Randwer to be arrested and +hanged, and meeting with Svanhild, as he and his men ride home +from the hunt, tramples her to death under their horses' hoofs. +Gudrun incites her sons Sorli and Hamdir to avenge their sister: +they boldly enter Jormunrek's hall, and succeed in cutting off +his hands and feet, but are themselves slain by his men. This +last dramatic episode is told in the Eddic _Hamthismol_. + +4. _In the remotest east there grows a plant_. The germ of the +famous tea-simile is due to Fru Collett's romance, "The Officials +Daughters" (cf. Introduction, p. ix.). But she exploits the idea +only under a single and obvious aspect, viz., the comparison of +the tender bloom of love with the precious firstling blade which +brews the quintessential tea for the Chinese emperor's table; +what the world calls love being, like what it calls tea a coarse +and flavourless after-crop. Ibsen has, it will be seen given a +number of ingenious developments to the analogy. I know Fru +Collett's work only through the accounts of it given by Brandes +and Jaeger. + +5. _Another Burns_. In the original: "Dolen" ("The Dalesman"), +that is A. O. Vinje, Ibsen's friend and literary comrade, editor +of the journal so-called and hence known familiarly by its name. +See the Introduction. + +6. _Like Old Montanus_. The hero of Holberg's comedy _Erasmus +Montanus_, who returns from foreign travel to his native parish +with the discovery that the world is _not_ flat. Public indignation +is aroused, and Montanus finds it expedient to announce that his +eyes had deceived him, that "the world _is_ flat, gentlemen." + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOVE'S COMEDY*** + + +******* This file should be named 18657.txt or 18657.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/6/5/18657 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://www.gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: +http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/18657.zip b/18657.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..324a015 --- /dev/null +++ b/18657.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9bd3c3b --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #18657 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18657) |