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+**The Project Gutenberg Etext of Rosmersholm, by Henrik Ibsen**
+#1 in our series by Henrik Ibsen
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+Rosmersholm
+
+by Henrik Ibsen
+
+August, 2000  [Etext #2289]
+
+
+**The Project Gutenberg Etext of Rosmersholm, by Henrik Ibsen**
+*****This file should be named rsmrh10.txt or rsmrh10.zip******
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+E-text scanned by Martin Adamson
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+
+
+ROSMERSHOLM
+
+A play in four acts
+
+by HENRIK IBSEN
+
+
+
+
+Translated by R. FARQUHARSON SHARP
+
+
+
+
+DRAMATIS PERSONAE
+
+John Rosmer, of Rosmersholm, an ex-clergyman.
+Rebecca West, one of his household, originally engaged as
+companion to the late Mrs. Rosmer.
+Kroll, headmaster of the local grammar school, Rosmer's brother-
+in-law.
+Ulrik Brendel.
+Peter Mortensgaard.
+Mrs. Helseth, Rosmer's housekeeper.
+
+(The action takes place at Rosmersholm, an old manor-house in the
+neighbourhood of a small town on a fjord in western Norway.)
+
+
+
+
+ACT 1
+
+(SCENE--The sitting-room at Rosmersholm; a spacious room,
+comfortably furnished in old-fashioned style. In the foreground,
+against the right-hand wall, is a stove decorated with sprigs of
+fresh birch and wild flowers. Farther back, a door. In the back
+wall folding doors leading into the entrance hall. In the left-
+hand wall a window, in front of which is a stand filled with
+flowers and plants. Near the stove stand a table, a couch and an
+easy-chair. The walls are hung round with portraits, dating from
+various periods, of clergymen, military officers and other
+officials in uniform. The window is open, and so are the doors
+into the lobby and the outer door. Through the latter is seen an
+avenue of old trees leading to a courtyard. It is a summer
+evening, after sunset. REBECCA WEST is sitting by the window
+crocheting a large white woollen shawl, which is nearly
+completed. From time to time she peeps out of window through the
+flowers. MRS. HELSETH comes in from the right.)
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Hadn't I better begin and lay the table for supper,
+miss?
+
+Rebecca. Yes, do. Mr. Rosmer ought to be in directly.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Isn't there a draught where you are sitting, miss?
+
+Rebecca. There is a little. Will you shut up, please? (MRS.
+HELSETH goes to the hall door and shuts it. Then she goes to the
+window, to shut it, and looks out.)
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Isn't that Mr. Rosmer coming there?
+
+Rebecca. Where? (Gets up.) Yes, it is he. (Stands behind the
+window-curtain.) Stand on one side. Don't let him catch sight of
+us.
+
+Mrs. Helseth (stepping back). Look, miss--he is beginning to use
+the mill path again.
+
+Rebecca. He came by the mill path the day before yesterday too.
+(Peeps out between the curtain and the window-frame). Now we
+shall see whether--
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Is he going over the wooden bridge?
+
+Rebecca. That is just what I want to see. (After a moment.) No.
+He has turned aside. He is coming the other way round to-day too.
+(Comes away from the window.) It is a long way round.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Yes, of course. One can well understand his
+shrinking from going over that bridge. The spot where such a
+thing has happened is--
+
+Rebecca (folding up her work). They cling to their dead a long
+time at Rosmersholm.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. If you ask me, miss, I should say it is the dead
+that cling to Rosmersholm a long time.
+
+Rebecca (looking at her). The dead?
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Yes, one might almost say that they don't seem to
+be able to tear themselves away from those they have left behind.
+
+Rebecca. What puts that idea into your head?
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Well, otherwise I know the White Horses would not
+be seen here.
+
+Rebecca. Tell me, Mrs. Helseth--what is this superstition about
+the White Horses?
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Oh, it is not worth talking about. I am sure you
+don't believe in such things, either.
+
+Rebecca. Do you believe in them?
+
+Mrs. Helseth (goes to the window and shuts it). Oh, I am not
+going to give you a chance of laughing at me, miss. (Looks out.)
+See--is that not Mr. Rosmer out on the mill path again?
+
+Rebecca (looking out). That man out there? (Goes to the window.)
+Why, that is Mr. Kroll, of course!
+
+Mrs. Helseth. So it is, to be sure.
+
+Rebecca. That is delightful, because he is certain to be coming
+here.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. He actually comes straight over the wooden bridge,
+he does for all that she was his own sister. Well, I will go in
+and get the supper laid, miss. (Goes out to the right. REBECCA
+stands still for a moment, then waves her hand out of the window,
+nodding and smiling. Darkness is beginning to fall.)
+
+Rebecca (going to the door on the right and calling through it).
+Mrs. Helseth, I am sure you won't mind preparing something extra
+nice for supper? You know what dishes Mr. Kroll is especially
+fond of.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Certainly, miss. I will.
+
+Rebecca (opening the door into the lobby). At last, Mr. Kroll! I
+am so glad to see you!
+
+Kroll (coming into the lobby and putting down his stick). Thank
+you. Are you sure I am not disturbing you?
+
+Rebecca. You? How can you say such a thing?
+
+Kroll (coming into the room). You are always so kind. (Looks
+round the room.) Is John up in his room?
+
+Rebecca. No, he has gone out for a walk. He is later than usual
+of coming in, but he is sure to be back directly. (Points to the
+sofa.) Do sit down and wait for him.
+
+Kroll (putting down his hat). Thank you. (Sits down and looks
+about him.) How charmingly pretty you have made the old room
+look! Flowers everywhere!
+
+Rebecca. Mr. Rosmer is so fond of having fresh flowers about him.
+
+Kroll. And so are you, I should say.
+
+Rebecca. Yes, I am. I think their scent has such a delicious
+effect on one--and till lately we had to deny ourselves that
+pleasure, you know.
+
+Kroll (nodding slowly). Poor Beata could not stand the scent of
+them.
+
+Rebecca. Nor their colours either. They made her feel dazed.
+
+Kroll. Yes, I remember. (Continues in a more cheerful tone of
+voice). Well, and how are things going here?
+
+Rebecca. Oh, everything goes on in the same quiet, placid way.
+One day is exactly like another. And how are things with you? Is
+your wife--?
+
+Kroll. Oh, my dear Miss West, don't let us talk about my affairs.
+In a family there is always something or other going awry--
+especially in such times as we live in now.
+
+Rebecca (after a short pause, sitting down in an easy-chair near
+the sofa). Why have you never once been near us during the whole
+of your holidays?
+
+Kroll. Oh, it doesn't do to be importunate, you know.
+
+Rebecca. If you only knew how we have missed you.
+
+Kroll. And, besides, I have been away, you know.
+
+Rebecca. Yes, for a fortnight or so. I suppose you have been
+going the round of the public meetings?
+
+Kroll (nods). Yes, what do you say to that? Would you ever have
+thought I would become a political agitator in my old age--eh?
+
+Rebecca (smilingly). You have always been a little bit of an
+agitator, Mr. Kroll.
+
+Kroll. Oh, yes; just for my own amusement. But for the future it
+is going to be in real earnest. Do you ever read the Radical
+newspapers?
+
+Rebecca. Yes, I won't deny that!
+
+Kroll. My dear Miss West, there is no objection to that--not as
+far as you are concerned.
+
+Rebecca. No, that is just what I think. I must follow the course
+of events--keep up with what is happening.
+
+Kroll. Well, under any circumstances, I should never expect you,
+as a woman, to side actively with either party in the civic
+dispute--indeed one might more properly call it the civil war--that
+is raging here. I dare say you have read, then, the abuse these
+"nature's gentlemen" are pleased to shower upon me, and the
+scandalous coarseness they consider they are entitled to make use
+of?
+
+Rebecca. Yes, but I think you have held your own pretty forcibly.
+
+Kroll. That I have--though I say it. I have tasted blood now, and
+I will make them realise that I am not the sort of man to take it
+lying down--. (Checks himself.) No, no, do not let us get upon
+that sad and distressing topic this evening.
+
+Rebecca. No, my dear Mr. Kroll, certainly not.
+
+Kroll. Tell me, instead, how you find you get on at Rosmersholm,
+now that you are alone here--I mean, since our poor Beata--
+
+Rebecca. Oh, thanks--I get on very well here. Her death has made a
+great gap in the house in many ways, of course--and one misses her
+and grieves for her, naturally. But in other respects--
+
+Kroll. Do you think you will remain here?--permanently, I mean?
+
+Rebecca. Dear Mr. Kroll, I really never think about it at all.
+The fact is that I have become so thoroughly domesticated here
+that I almost feel as if I belonged to the place too.
+
+Kroll. You? I should think you did!
+
+Rebecca. And as long as Mr. Rosmer finds I can be any comfort or
+any use to him, I will gladly remain here, undoubtedly.
+
+Kroll (looking at her, with some emotion). You know, there is
+something splendid about a woman's sacrificing the whole of her
+youth for others.
+
+Rebecca. What else have I had to live for?
+
+Kroll. At first when you came here there was your perpetual worry
+with that unreasonable cripple of a foster-father of yours--
+
+Rebecca. You mustn't think that Dr. West was as unreasonable as
+that when we lived in Finmark. It was the trying journeys by sea
+that broke him up. But it is quite true that after we had moved
+here there were one or two hard years before his sufferings were
+over.
+
+Kroll. Were not the years that followed even harder for you?
+
+Rebecca. No; how can you say such a thing! I, who was so
+genuinely fond of Beata--! And she, poor soul was so sadly in need
+of care and sympathetic companionship.
+
+Kroll. You deserve to be thanked and rewarded for the forbearance
+with which you speak of her.
+
+Rebecca (moving a little nearer to him). Dear Mr. Kroll, you say
+that so kindly and so sincerely that I feel sure you really bear
+me no ill-will.
+
+Kroll. Ill-will? What do you mean?
+
+Rebecca. Well, it would not be so very surprising if it were
+rather painful for you to see me, a stranger, doing just as I
+like here at Rosmersholm.
+
+Kroll. How in the world could you think--!
+
+Rebecca. Then it is not so? (Holds out her hand to, him.) Thank
+you, Mr. Kroll; thank you for that.
+
+Kroll. But what on earth could make you take such an idea into
+your head?
+
+Rebecca. I began to be afraid it might be so, as you have so
+seldom been out here to see us lately.
+
+Kroll. I can assure you, you have been on the wrong scent
+entirely, Miss West. And, in any case, the situation of affairs
+is unchanged in any essential point; because during the last sad
+years of poor Beata's life it was you and you alone, even then,
+that looked after everything here.
+
+Rebecca. But it was more like a kind of regency in the wife's
+name.
+
+Kroll. Whatever it was, I--. I will tell you what, Miss West; as
+far as I am concerned I should have nothing whatever to say
+against it if you. But it doesn't do to say such things.
+
+Rebecca. What things?
+
+Kroll. Well, if it so happened that you were to step into the
+empty place--
+
+Rebecca. I have the place I want, already, Mr. Kroll.
+
+Kroll. Yes, as far as material benefits go; but not--
+
+Rebecca (interrupting him, in a serious voice). For shame, Mr.
+Kroll! How can you sit there and jest about such things!
+
+Kroll. Oh, well, I dare say our good John Rosmer thinks he has
+had more than enough of married life. But, all the same--
+
+Rebecca. Really, you almost make me feel inclined to laugh at
+you.
+
+Kroll. All the same--Tell me, Miss West, if I may be allowed the
+question, how old are you?
+
+Rebecca. I am ashamed to say I was twenty-nine on my last
+birthday, Mr. Kroll. I am nearly thirty.
+
+Kroll. Quite so. And Rosmer--how old is he? Let me see. He is five
+years younger than me, so he must be just about forty-three. It
+seems to me it would be very suitable.
+
+Rebecca. No doubt, no doubt. It would be remarkably suitable--Will
+you stop and have supper with us?
+
+Kroll. Thank you. I had meant to pay you a good long visit,
+because there is a matter I want to talk over with our excellent
+friend--Well, then, Miss West, to prevent your taking foolish
+ideas into your head again, I will come out here again from time
+to time, as in the old days.
+
+Rebecca. Yes, please do. (Holds out her hand to, him.) Thank you,
+thank you! You are really uncommonly good-natured.
+
+Kroll (with a little grumble). Am I? I can tell you that is more
+than they say at home. (ROSMER comes in by the door on the
+right.)
+
+Rebecca. Mr. Rosmer, do you see who is sitting here?
+
+Rosmer. Mrs. Helseth told me. (KROLL gets up.) I am so glad to
+see you here again, my dear fellow. (Puts his hands on KROLL'S
+shoulders and looks him in the face.) Dear old friend! I knew
+that one day we should be on our old footing again.
+
+Kroll. My dear fellow, have you that insane idea in your head
+too, that any thing could come between us?
+
+Rebecca (to ROSMER). Isn't it delightful to think it was all our
+imagination!
+
+Rosmer. Is that really true, Kroll? But why have you kept so
+obstinately away from us?
+
+Kroll (seriously, and in, a subdued voice). Because I did not
+want to come here like a living reminder of the unhappy time that
+is past--and of her who met her death in the mill-race.
+
+Rosmer. It was a very kind thought on your part. You are always
+so considerate. But it was altogether unnecessary to keep away
+from us on that account. Come along, let us sit down on the sofa.
+(They sit down.) I can assure you it is not in the least painful
+for me to think about Beata. We talk about her every day. She
+seems to us to have a part in the house still.
+
+Kroll. Does she really?
+
+Rebecca (lighting the lamp). Yes, it is really quite true.
+
+Rosmer. She really does. We both think so affectionately of her.
+And both Rebecca--both Miss West and I know in our hearts that we
+did all that lay in our power for the poor afflicted creature. We
+have nothing to reproach ourselves with. That is why I feel there
+is something sweet and peaceful in the way we can think of Beata
+now.
+
+Kroll. You dear good people! In future I am coming out to see you
+every day.
+
+Rebecca (sitting down in an arm-chair). Yes, let us see that you
+keep your word.
+
+Rosmer (with a slight hesitation). I assure you, my dear fellow,
+my dearest wish would be that our intimacy should never suffer in
+any way. You know, you have seemed to be my natural adviser as
+long as we have known one another, even from my student days.
+
+Kroll. I know, and I am very proud of the privilege. Is there by
+any chance anything in particular just now--?
+
+Rosmer. There are a great many things that I want very much to
+talk over with you frankly--things that lie very near my heart.
+
+Rebecca. I feel that is so, too, Mr. Rosmer. It seems to me it
+would be such a good thing if you two old friends--
+
+Kroll. Well, I can assure you I have even more to talk over with
+you--because I have become an active politician, as I dare say you
+know.
+
+Rosmer. Yes, I know you have. How did that come about?
+
+Kroll. I had to, you see, whether I liked it or not. It became
+impossible for me to remain an idle spectator any longer. Now
+that the Radicals have become so distressingly powerful, it was
+high time. And that is also why I have induced our little circle
+of friends in the town to bind themselves more definitely
+together. It was high time, I can tell you!
+
+Rebecca (with a slight smile). As a matter of fact, isn't it
+really rather late now?
+
+Kroll. There is no denying it would have been more fortunate if
+we had succeeded in checking the stream at an earlier point. But
+who could really foresee what was coming? I am sure I could not.
+(Gets up and walks up and down.) Anyway, my eyes are completely
+opened now; for the spirit of revolt has spread even into my
+school.
+
+Rosmer. Into the school? Surely not into your school?
+
+Kroll. Indeed it has. Into my own school. What do you think of
+this? I have got wind of the fact that the boys in the top class--
+or rather, a part of the boys in it--have formed themselves into a
+secret society and have been taking in Mortensgaard's paper!
+
+Rebecca. Ah, the "Searchlight".
+
+Kroll. Yes, don't you think that is a nice sort of intellectual
+pabulum for future public servants? But the saddest part of it is
+that it is all the most promising boys in the class that have
+conspired together and hatched this plot against me. It is only
+the duffers and dunces that have held aloof from it.
+
+Rebecca. Do you take it so much to heart, Mr. Kroll?
+
+Kroll. Do I take it to heart, to find myself so hampered and
+thwarted in my life's work? (Speaking more gently.) I might find
+it in my heart to say that I could even take that for what it is
+worth; but I have not told you the worst of it yet. (Looks round
+the room.) I suppose nobody is likely to be listening at the
+doors?
+
+Rebecca. Oh, certainly not.
+
+Kroll. Then let me tell you that the revolt and dissension has
+spread into my own home--into my own peaceful home--and has
+disturbed the peace of my family life.
+
+Rosmer (getting up). Do you mean it? In your own home?
+
+Rebecca (going up to Kroll). Dear Mr. Kroll, what has happened?
+
+Kroll. Would you believe it that my own children--. To make a long
+story short, my boy Laurits is the moving spirit of the
+conspiracy at the school. And Hilda has embroidered a red
+portfolio to keep the numbers of the "Searchlight" in.
+
+Rosmer. I should never have dreamed of such a thing; in your
+family--in your own house!
+
+Kroll. No, who would ever have dreamed of such a thing? In my
+house, where obedience and order have always ruled--where hitherto
+there has never been anything but one unanimous will--
+
+Rebecca. How does your wife take it?
+
+Kroll. Ah, that is the most incredible part of the whole thing.
+She, who all her days--in great things and small--has concurred in
+my opinions and approved of all my views, has actually not
+refrained from throwing her weight on the children's side on many
+points. And now she considers I am to blame for what has
+happened. She says I try to coerce the young people too much.
+Just as if it were not necessary to--. Well, those are the sort of
+dissensions I have going on at home. But naturally I talk as
+little about it as possible; it is better to be silent about such
+things. (Walks across the floor.) Oh, yes.--Oh, yes. (Stands by
+the window, with his hands behind his back, and looks out.)
+
+Rebecca (goes up to ROSMER, and speaks in low, hurried tones,
+unheard by KROLL). Do it!
+
+Rosmer (in the same tone). Not to-night.
+
+Rebecca (as before). Yes, this night of all others. (Goes away
+from him and adjusts the lamp.)
+
+Kroll (coming back). Yes, my dear John, so now you know the sort
+of spirit of the age that has cast its shadow both over my home
+life and my official work. Ought I not to oppose this appalling,
+destructive, disorganising tendency with all the weapons I can
+lay my hands upon? Of course it is certainly my duty--and that
+both with my pen and my tongue.
+
+Rosmer. But have you any hope that you can produce any effect in
+that way?
+
+Kroll. At all events I mean to take my share in the fight as a
+citizen. And I consider that it is the duty of every patriotic
+man, every man who is concerned about what is right, to do the
+same. And, I may as well tell you, that is really the reason why
+I have come here to see you to-night.
+
+Rosmer. My dear fellow, what do you mean? What can I--?
+
+Kroll. You are going to help your old friends, and do as we are
+doing--take your share in it to the best of your ability.
+
+Rebecca. But, Mr. Kroll, you know how little taste Mr. Rosmer has
+for that sort of thing.
+
+Kroll. Then he has got to overcome that distaste now. You do not
+keep abreast of the times, John. You sit here and bury yourself
+in your historical researches. Goodness knows, I have the
+greatest respect for family pedigrees and all that they imply.
+But this is not the time for such occupations, unhappily. You
+have no conception of the state of affairs that is going on all
+over the country. Every single idea is turned upside down, or
+very nearly so. It will be a hard fight to get all the errors
+straightened out again.
+
+Rosmer. I can quite believe it. But that sort of a fight is not
+in my line at all.
+
+Rebecca. Besides, I rather fancy that Mr. Rosmer has come to look
+at the affairs of life with wider opened eyes than before.
+
+Kroll (with a start). Wider opened eyes?
+
+Rebecca. Yes, or with an opener mind--with less prejudice.
+
+Kroll. What do you mean by that? John--surely you could never be
+so weak as to allow yourself to be deluded by the accidental
+circumstance that the demagogues have scored a temporary success!
+
+Rosmer. My dear fellow, you know very well that I am no judge of
+politics; but it certainly seems to me that of late years
+individual thought has become somewhat more independent.
+
+Kroll. Quite so--but do you consider that as a matter of course to
+be a good thing? In any case you are vastly mistaken, my friend.
+Just inquire a little into the opinions that are current amongst
+the Radicals, both out here in the country and in town. You will
+find them to be nothing else than the words of wisdom that appear
+in the "Searchlight".
+
+Rebecca. Yes, Mortensgaard has a great deal of influence over the
+people about here.
+
+Kroll. Yes, just think of it--a man with as dirty a record as his!
+A fellow that was turned out of his place as a schoolmaster
+because of his immoral conduct! This is the sort of man that
+poses as a leader of the people! And successfully, too!--actually
+successfully! I hear that he means to enlarge his paper now. I know,
+on reliable authority, that he is looking for a competent
+assistant.
+
+Rebecca. It seems to me surprising that you and your friends do
+not start an opposition paper.
+
+Kroll. That is exactly what we intend to do. This very day we
+have bought the "County News." There was no difficulty about the
+financial side of the matter; but-- (Turns towards ROSMER) Now we
+have come to the real purport of my visit. It is the Management
+of it--the editorial management--that is the difficulty, you see.
+Look here, Rosmer--don't you feel called upon to undertake it, for
+the sake of the good cause?
+
+Rosmer (in a tone of consternation). I!
+
+Rebecca. How can you think of such a thing!
+
+Kroll. I can quite understand your having a horror of public
+meetings and being unwilling to expose yourself to the mercies of
+the rabble that frequents them. But an editor's work, which is
+carried on in much greater privacy, or rather--
+
+Rosmer. No, no, my dear fellow, you must not ask that of me.
+
+Kroll. It would give me the greatest pleasure to have a try at
+work of that sort myself--only it would be quite out of the
+question for me; I am already saddled with such an endless number
+of duties. You, on the other hand, who are no longer hampered by
+any official duties, might--. Of course the rest of us would give
+you all the help in our power.
+
+Rosmer. I cannot do it, Kroll. I am not fitted for it.
+
+Kroll. Not fitted for it? That was just what you said when your
+father got you your living.
+
+Rosmer. I was quite right; and that was why I resigned it, too.
+
+Kroll. Well, if you only make as good an editor as you did a
+parson, we shall be quite satisfied.
+
+Rosmer. My dear Kroll--once for all--I cannot do it.
+
+Kroll. Well, then, I suppose you will give us the use of your
+name, at all events?
+
+Rosmer. My name?
+
+Kroll. Yes, the mere fact of John Rosmer's name being connected
+with it will be a great advantage to the paper. We others are
+looked upon as pronounced partisans. I myself even have the
+reputation of being a wicked fanatic, I am told. Therefore we
+cannot count upon our own names to give us any particular help in
+making the paper known to the misguided masses. But you, on the
+contrary, have always held aloof from this kind of fighting.
+Your gentle and upright disposition, your polished mind, your
+unimpeachable honour, are known to and appreciated by every one
+about here. And then there is the deference and respect that your
+former position as a clergyman ensures for you--and, besides that,
+there is the veneration in which your family, name is held!
+
+Rosmer. Oh, my family name.
+
+Kroll (pointing to the portraits). Rosmers of Rosmersholm--
+clergymen, soldiers, men who have filled high places in the
+state--men of scrupulous honour, every one of them--a family that
+has been rooted here, the most influential in the place, for
+nearly two centuries. (Lays his hand on ROSMER'S shoulder.) John,
+you owe it to yourself and to the traditions of your race to join
+us in defence of all that has hitherto been held sacred in our
+community. (Turning to REBECCA.) What do you say, Miss West?
+
+Rebecca (with a quiet little laugh). my dear Mr. Kroll--it all
+sounds so absurdly ludicrous to me.
+
+Kroll. What! Ludicrous?
+
+Rebecca. Yes, because it is time you were told plainly--
+
+Rosmer (hurriedly). No, no--don't! Not now!
+
+Kroll (looking from one to the other). But, my dear friends, what
+on earth--? (Breaks off, as MRS. HELSETH comes in, by the door on
+the right.) Ahem!
+
+Mrs. Helseth. There is a man at the kitchen door, sir. He says he
+wants to see you.
+
+Rosmer (in a relieved voice). Is there? Well, ask him to come in.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Shall I show him in here, sir?
+
+Rosmer. Certainly.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. But he doesn't look the sort of man one ought to
+allow in here.
+
+Rebecca. What does he look like, Mrs. Helseth?
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Oh, he is not much to look at, Miss.
+
+Rosmer. Did he not give you his name?
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Yes, I think he said it was Hekman, or something
+like that.
+
+Rosmer. I do not know any one of that name.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. And he said his Christian name was Ulrik.
+
+Rosmer (with a start of surprise). Ulrik Hetman! Was that it?
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Yes, sir, it was Hetman.
+
+Kroll. I am certain I have heard that name before.
+
+Rebecca. Surely it was the name that strange creature used to
+write under--
+
+Rosmer (to Kroll). It is Ulrik Brendel's pseudonym, you know.
+
+Kroll. That scamp Ulrik Brendel. You are quite right.
+
+Rebecca. So he is alive still.
+
+Rosmer. I thought he was travelling with a theatrical company.
+
+Kroll. The last I heard of him was that he was in the workhouse.
+
+Rosmer. Ask him to come in, Mrs. Helseth.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Yes, sir. (Goes out.)
+
+Kroll. Do you really mean to allow this fellow into your house?
+
+Rosmer. Oh, well, you know he was my tutor once.
+
+Kroll. I know that what he did was to stuff your head with
+revolutionary ideas, and that in consequence your father turned
+him out of the house with a horsewhip.
+
+Rosmer (a little bitterly). Yes, my father was always the
+commanding officer--even at home.
+
+Kroll. Be grateful to his memory for that, my dear John. Ah!
+(MRS. HELSETH shows ULRIK BRENDEL in at the door, then goes out
+and shuts the door after her. BRENDEL is a good-looking man with
+grey hair and beard; somewhat emaciated, but active and alert; he
+is dressed like a common tramp, in a threadbare frock coat, shoes
+with holes in them, and no visible linen at his neck or wrists.
+He wears a pair of old black gloves, carries a dirty soft hat
+under his arm, and has a walking-stick in his hand. He looks
+puzzled at first, then goes quickly up to KROLL and holds out his
+hand to him.)
+
+Brendel. Good-evening, John!
+
+Kroll. Excuse me
+
+Brendel. Did you ever expect to see me again? And inside these
+hated walls, too?
+
+Kroll. Excuse me. (Points to ROSMER.) Over there.
+
+Brendel (turning round). Quite right. There he is. John--my boy--my
+favourite pupil!
+
+Rosmer (shaking hands with him). My old tutor!
+
+Brendel. In spite of certain recollections, I could not pass by
+Rosmersholm without paying you a flying visit.
+
+Rosmer. You are very welcome here now. Be sure of that.
+
+Brendel. And this charming lady--? (Bows to Rebecca.) Your wife,
+of course.
+
+Rosmer. Miss West.
+
+Brendel. A near relation, I presume. And our stranger friend
+here? A colleague, I can see.
+
+Rosmer. Mr. Kroll, master of the grammar school here.
+
+Brendel. Kroll? Kroll? Wait a moment. Did you take the Philology
+course in your student days?
+
+Kroll. Certainly I did.
+
+Brendel. By Jove, I used to know you, then
+
+Kroll. Excuse me--
+
+Brendel. Were you not--
+
+Kroll. Excuse me--
+
+Brendel. --one of those champions of all the virtues that got me
+turned out of the Debating Society?
+
+Kroll. Very possibly. But I disclaim any other acquaintance with
+you.
+
+Brendel. All right, all right! Nach Belieben, Mr. Kroll. I dare
+say I shall get over it. Ulrik Brendel will still be himself in
+spite of it.
+
+Rebecca. Are you on your way to the town, Mr. Brendel?
+
+Brendel. You have hit the nail on the head, ma'am. At certain
+intervals I am obliged to do something for my living. I do not do
+it willingly--but, enfin--when needs must--
+
+Rosmer. My dear Mr. Brendel, will you not let me be of assistance
+to you? In some way or another, I mean--
+
+Brendel. Ah, what a proposal to come from you! Could you wish to
+soil the tie that binds us together? Never, John--never!
+
+Rosmer. But what do you propose to do in the town, then? I assure
+you, you won't find it so easy--
+
+Brendel. Leave that to me, my boy. The die is cast. The unworthy
+individual who stands before you is started on an extensive
+campaign--more extensive than all his former excursions put
+together. (To KROLL.) May I venture to ask you, Professor--unter
+uns--are there in your esteemed town any fairly decent,
+respectable and spacious assembly-rooms?
+
+Kroll. The most spacious is the hall belonging to the Working
+Men's Association.
+
+Brendel. May I ask, sir, if you have any special influence with
+that no doubt most useful Association?
+
+Kroll. I have nothing whatever to do with it.
+
+Rebecca (to BRENDEL). You ought to apply to Peter Mortensgaard.
+
+Brendel. Pardon, madame--what sort of an idiot is he?
+
+Rosmer. Why do you make up your mind he is an idiot?
+
+Brendel. Do you suppose I can't tell, from the sound of the name,
+that it belongs to a plebeian?
+
+Kroll. I did not expect that answer.
+
+Brendel. But I will conquer my prejudices. There is nothing else
+for it. When a man stands at a turning-point in his life--as I do--
+. That is settled. I shall, put myself into communication with
+this person--commence direct negotiations.
+
+Rosmer. Are you in earnest when you say you are standing at a
+turning-point in your life?
+
+Brendel. Does my own boy not know that wherever Ulrik Brendel
+stands he is always in earnest about it? Look here, I mean to
+become a new man now--to emerge from the cloak of reserve in which
+I have hitherto shrouded myself.
+
+Rosmer. In what way?
+
+Brendel. I mean to take an active part in life--to step forward--to
+look higher. The atmosphere we breathe is heavy with storms. I
+want now to offer my mite upon the altar of emancipation.
+
+Kroll. You too?
+
+Brendel (to them all). Has your public here any intimate
+acquaintance with my scattered writings?
+
+Kroll. No, I must candidly confess that--
+
+Rebecca. I have read several of them. My foster-father had them.
+
+Brendel. My dear lady, then you have wasted your, time. They are
+simply trash, allow me to tell you.
+
+Rebecca. Really?
+
+Brendel. Those you have read, yes. My really important works no
+man or woman knows anything about. No one--except myself.
+
+Rebecca. How is that?
+
+Brendel. Because they are not yet written.
+
+Rosmer. But, my dear Mr. Brendel--
+
+Brendel. You know, my dear John, that I am a bit of a sybarite--a
+gourmet. I have always been so. I have a taste for solitary
+enjoyment, because in that way my enjoyment is twice--ten times--as
+keen. It is, like this. When I have been wrapped in a haze of
+golden dreams that have descended on me--when new, intoxicating,
+momentous thoughts have had their birth in my mind, and I have
+been fanned by the beat of their wings as they bore me aloft--at
+such moments I have transformed them into poetry, into visions,
+into pictures. In general outlines, that is to say.
+
+Rosmer. Quite so.
+
+Brendel. You cannot imagine the luxury of enjoyment I have
+experienced! The mysterious rapture of creation!--in, general
+outlines, as I said. Applause, gratitude, eulogies, crowns of
+laurel!--all these I have culled with full hands trembling with
+joy. In my secret ecstasies I have steeped myself in a happiness
+so, intoxicating--
+
+Kroll. Ahem!
+
+Rosmer. But you have never written anything of it down?
+
+Brendel. Not a word. The thought of the dull clerk's work that it
+would mean has always moved me to a nauseating sense of disgust.
+Besides, why should I profane my own ideals when I could enjoy
+them, in all their purity, by myself? But now they shall be
+sacrificed. Honestly, I feel as a mother must do when she
+entrusts her young daughter to the arms of a husband. But I am
+going to, sacrifice them nevertheless--sacrifice them on the altar
+of emancipation. A series of carefully thought-out lectures, to
+be delivered all over the country!
+
+Rebecca (impetuously). That is splendid of you, Mr. Brendel! You
+are giving up the most precious thing you possess.
+
+Rosmer. The only thing.
+
+Rebecca (looking meaningly at ROSMER). I wonder how many there
+are who would do as much--who dare do it?
+
+Rosmer (returning her look). Who knows?
+
+Brendel. My audience is moved. That refreshes my heart and
+strengthens my will--and now I shall proceed upon my task
+forthwith. There is one other point, though. (To KROLL.) Can you
+inform me, sir, whether there is an Abstainers' Society in the
+town? A Total Abstainers' Society? I feel sure there must be.
+
+Kroll. There is one, at your service. I am the president.
+
+Brendel. I could tell that as soon as I saw you! Well, it is not
+at all impossible that I may come to you and become a member for
+a week.
+
+Kroll. Excuse me--we do not accept weekly members.
+
+Brendel. A la bonne heure, my good sir. Ulrik Brendel has never
+been in the habit of forcing himself upon societies of that kind.
+(Turns to go But I must not prolong my stay in this house, rich
+as it is in memories. I must go into the town and find some
+suitable lodging. I shall find a decent hotel of some kind there,
+I hope?
+
+Rebecca. Will you not have something hot to drink before you go?
+
+Brendel. Of what nature, dear lady?
+
+Rebecca. A cup of tea, or--
+
+Brendel. A thousand thanks to the most generous of hostesses!--but
+I do not like trespassing on private hospitality. (Waves his
+hand.) Good-bye to you all! (Goes to the door, but turns back.)
+Oh, by the way--John--Mr. Rosmer--will you do your former tutor a
+service for old friendship's sake?
+
+Rosmer. With the greatest of pleasure.
+
+Brendel. Good. Well, then, lend me--just for a day or two--a
+starched shirt.
+
+Rosmer. Nothing more than that!
+
+Brendel. Because, you see, I am travelling on foot--on this
+occasion. My trunk is being sent after me.
+
+Rosmer. Quite so. But, in that case, isn't there anything else?
+
+Brendel. Well, I will tell you what--perhaps you have an old,
+worn-out summer coat that you could spare?
+
+Rosmer. Certainly I have.
+
+Brendel. And if there happened to be a pair of presentable shoes
+that would go with the coat
+
+Rosmer. I am sure we can manage that, too. As soon as you let us
+know your address, we will send the things to you.
+
+Brendel. Please don't think of it! No one must be put to any
+inconvenience on my account! I will take the trifles with me.
+
+Rosmer. Very well. Will you come upstairs with me, then?
+
+Rebecca. Let me go. Mrs. Helseth and I will see about it.
+
+Brendel. I could never think of allowing this charming lady--
+
+Rebecca. Nonsense! Come along, Mr. Brendel. (She goes out by the
+door on the right.)
+
+Rosmer (holding BRENDEL back). Tell me--is there no other way I
+can be of service to you?
+
+Brendel. I am sure I do not know of any. Yes, perdition seize
+it!--now that I come to think of it--John, do you happen to have
+seven or eight shillings on you?
+
+Rosmer. I will see. (Opens his purse.) I have two half-sovereigns
+here.
+
+Brendel. Oh, well, never mind. I may as well take them. I can
+always get change in town. Thanks, in the meantime. Remember that
+it was two half-sovereigns I had. Good-night, my own dear boy!
+Good-night to you, sir! (Goes out by the door on the right,
+where ROSMER takes leave of him and shuts the door after him.)
+
+Kroll. Good heavens--and that is the Ulrik Brendel of whom people
+once thought that he would do great things!
+
+Rosmer. At all events he has had the courage to live his life in
+his own way. I do not think that is such a small thing, after
+all.
+
+Kroll. What? A life like his? I almost believe he would have the
+power, even now, to disturb all your ideas.
+
+Rosmer. No, indeed. I have come to a clear understanding with
+myself now, upon all points.
+
+Kroll. I wish I could believe it, my dear Rosmer. You are so
+dreadfully susceptible to impressions from without.
+
+Rosmer. Let us sit down. I want to have a talk with you.
+
+Kroll. By all means. (They sit down on the couch.)
+
+Rosmer (after a short pause). Don't you think everything here
+looks very pleasant and comfortable?
+
+Kroll. Yes, it looks very pleasant and comfortable now--and
+peaceful. You have made yourself a real home, Rosmer. And I have
+lost mine.
+
+Rosmer. My dear fellow, do not say that. There may seem to be a
+rift just now, but it will heal again.
+
+Kroll. Never, never. The sting will always remain. Things can
+never be as they were before.
+
+Rosmer. I want to ask you something, Kroll. You and I have been
+the closest of friends now for so many years--does it seem to you
+conceivable that anything could destroy our friendship?
+
+Kroll. I cannot imagine anything that could cause a breach
+between us. What has put that into your head?
+
+Rosmer. Well--your attaching such tremendous importance to
+similarity of opinions and views.
+
+Kroll. Certainly I do; but then we two hold pretty similar
+opinions at all events on the most essential points.
+
+Rosmer (gently). No. Not any longer.
+
+Kroll (trying to jump up from his seat). What is this?
+
+Rosmer (restraining him). No, you must sit still. Please, Kroll.
+
+Kroll. What does it all mean? I do not understand you. Tell me,
+straight out!
+
+Rosmer. A new summer has blossomed in my heart--my eyes have
+regained the clearness of youth. And, accordingly, I am now
+standing where--
+
+Kroll. Where? Where are you standing?
+
+Rosmer. Where your children are standing.
+
+Kroll. You? You! The thing is impossible! Where do you say you
+are standing?
+
+Rosmer. On the same side as Laurits and Hilda.
+
+Kroll (letting his head drop). An apostate. John Rosmer an
+apostate.
+
+Rosmer. What you are calling apostasy ought to have made me feel
+sincerely happy and fortunate; but for all that I have suffered
+keenly, because I knew quite well it would cause you bitter
+sorrow.
+
+Kroll. Rosmer, Rosmer, I shall never get over this. (Looks at him
+sadly.) To think that you, too, could bring yourself to
+sympathise with and join in the work of disorder and ruin that is
+playing havoc with our unhappy country.
+
+Rosmer. It is the work of emancipation that I sympathise with.
+
+Kroll. Oh yes, I know all about that. That is what it is called,
+by both those who are leading the people astray and by their
+misguided victims. But, be sure of this--you need expect no
+emancipation to be the result of the spirit that relies on the
+poisoning of the whole of our social life.
+
+Rosmer. I do not give my allegiance to the spirit that is
+directing this, nor to any of those who are leading the fight. I
+want to try to bring men of all shades of opinion together--as
+many as I can reach--and bind them as closely together as I can.
+I want to live for and devote all the strength that is in me to
+one end only--to create a real public opinion in the country.
+
+Kroll. So you do not consider that we have sufficient public
+opinion! I, for my part, consider that the whole lot of us are on
+the high road to be dragged down into the mire where otherwise
+only the common people would be wallowing.
+
+Rosmer. It is just for that reason that I have made up my mind as
+to what should be the real task of public opinion.
+
+Kroll. What task?
+
+Rosmer. The task of making all our fellow-countrymen into men of
+nobility.
+
+Kroll. All our fellow-countrymen--!
+
+Rosmer. As many as possible, at all events.
+
+Kroll. By what means?
+
+Rosmer. By emancipating their ideas and purifying their
+aspirations, it seems to me.
+
+Kroll. You are a dreamer, Rosmer. Are you going to emancipate
+them? Are you going to purify them?
+
+Rosmer. No, my dear fellow--I can only try to awake the desire for
+it in them. The doing of it rests with themselves.
+
+Kroll. And do you think they are capable of it?
+
+Rosmer. Yes.
+
+Kroll. Of their own power?
+
+Rosmer. Yes, of their own power. There is no other that can do
+it.
+
+Kroll (getting up). Is that speaking as befits a clergyman?
+
+Rosmer. I am a clergyman no longer.
+
+Kroll. Yes, but--what of the faith you were brought up in?
+
+Rosmer. I have it no longer.
+
+Kroll. You have it no longer?
+
+Rosmer (getting up). I have given it up. I had to give it up,
+Kroll.
+
+Kroll (controlling his emotion). I see. Yes, yes. The one thing
+implies the other. Was that the reason, then, why you left the
+service of the Church?
+
+Rosmer. Yes. When my mind was clearly made up--when I felt the
+certainty that it Was not merely a transitory temptation, but
+that it was something that I would neither have the power nor
+the desire to dismiss from my mind--then I took that step.
+
+Kroll. So it has been fermenting in your mind as long as that.
+And we--your friends--have never been allowed to know anything of
+it. Rosmer, Rosmer--how could you hide the sorrowful truth from
+us!
+
+Rosmer. Because I considered it was a matter that only concerned
+myself; and therefore I did not wish to cause you and my other
+friends any unnecessary pain. I thought I should be able to live
+my life here as I have done hitherto--peacefully and happily. I
+wanted to read, and absorb myself in all the works that so far
+had been sealed books to me--to familiarise myself thoroughly with
+the great world of truth and freedom that has been disclosed to
+me now.
+
+Kroll. An apostate. Every word you say bears witness to that.
+But, for all that, why have you made this confession of your
+secret apostasy? Or why just at the present moment?
+
+Rosmer. You yourself have compelled me to it, Kroll.
+
+Kroll. I? I have compelled you?
+
+Rosmer. When I heard of your violent behaviour at public
+meetings--when I read the reports of all the vehement speeches you
+made there of all your bitter attacks upon those that were on the
+other side--your scornful censure of your opponents--oh, Kroll, to
+think that you--you--could be the man to do that!--then my eyes were
+opened to my imperative duty. Mankind is suffering from the
+strife that is going on now, and we ought to bring peace and
+happiness and a spirit of reconciliation into their souls. That
+is why I step forward now and confess myself openly for what I
+am--and, besides, I want to put my powers to the test, as well as
+others. Could not you--from your side--go with me in that, Kroll?
+
+Kroll. Never, as long as I live, will I make any alliance with
+the forces of disorder in the community.
+
+Rosmer. Well, let us at least fight with honourable weapons,
+since it seems we must fight.
+
+Kroll. I can have nothing more to do with any one who does not
+think with me on matters of vital importance, and I owe such a
+man no consideration.
+
+Rosmer. Does that apply even to me?
+
+Kroll. You yourself have broken with me, Rosmer.
+
+Rosmer. But does this really mean a breach between us?
+
+Kroll. Between us! It is a breach with all those who have
+hitherto stood shoulder to shoulder with you. And now you must
+take the consequences.
+
+(REBECCA comes in from the room on the right and opens the door
+wide.)
+
+Rebecca. Well, that is done! We have started him off on the road
+to his great sacrifice, and now we can go in to supper. Will you
+come in, Mr. Kroll?
+
+Kroll (taking his hat). Good-night, Miss West. This is no longer
+any place for me.
+
+Rebecca (excitedly). What do you mean? (Shuts the door and comes
+nearer to the two men.) Have you told him--?
+
+Rosmer. He knows now.
+
+Kroll. We shall not let you slip out of our hands, Rosmer. We
+shall compel you to come back to us again.
+
+Rosmer. I shall never find myself there any more.
+
+Kroll. We shall see. You are not the man to endure standing
+alone.
+
+Rosmer. I am not so entirely alone, even now. There are two of us
+to bear the solitude together here.
+
+Kroll. Ah! (A suspicion appears to cross his mind.) That too!
+Beata's words!
+
+Rosmer. Beata's?
+
+Kroll (dismissing the thought from his mind). No, no--that was
+odious of me. Forgive me.
+
+Rosmer. What? What do you mean?
+
+Kroll. Think no more about it. I am ashamed of it. Forgive me--and
+good-bye. (Goes out by the door to the hall.)
+
+Rosmer (following him). Kroll! We cannot end everything between
+us like this. I will come and see you to-morrow.
+
+Kroll (turning round in the hall). You shall not set your foot in
+my house. (Takes his stick and goes.)
+
+ROSMER stands for a while at the open door; then shuts it and
+comes back into the room.)
+
+Rosmer. That does not matter, Rebecca. We shall be able to go
+through with it, for all that--we two trusty friends--you and I.
+
+Rebecca. What do you suppose he meant just now when he said he
+was ashamed of himself?
+
+Rosmer. My dear girl, don't bother your head about that. He
+didn't even believe what he meant, himself. But I will go and see
+him tomorrow. Goodnight!
+
+Rebecca. Are you going up so early to-night--after this?
+
+Rosmer. As early to-night as I usually do. I feel such a sense of
+relief now that it is over. You see, my dear Rebecca, I am
+perfectly calm--so you take it calmly, too. Good-night.
+
+Rebecca. Good-night, dear friend--and sleep well! (ROSMER goes out
+by the door to the lobby; then his footsteps are heard as he goes
+upstairs. REBECCA goes to the wall and rings a bell, which is
+answered by MRS. HELSETH.) You can clear the table again, Mrs.
+Helseth. Mr. Rosmer does not want anything, and Mr. Kroll has
+gone home.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Gone home? What was wrong with him, miss?
+
+Rebecca (taking up her crochet-work). He prophesied that there
+was a heavy storm brewing--
+
+Mrs. Helseth. That is very strange, miss, because there isn't a
+scrap of cloud in the sky.
+
+Rebecca. Let us hope he doesn't meet the White Horse. Because I
+am afraid it will not be long before we hear something of the
+family ghost.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. God forgive you, miss--don't talk of such a dreadful
+thing!
+
+Rebecca. Oh, come, come!
+
+Mrs. Helseth (lowering her voice). Do you really think, miss,
+that some one here is to go soon?
+
+Rebecca. Not a bit of it. But there are so many sorts of white
+horses in this world, Mrs. Helseth--Well, good-night. I shall go
+to my room now.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Good-night, miss. (Rebecca takes her work and goes
+out to the right. MRS. HELSETH shakes her head, as she turns down
+the lamp, and mutters to herself): Lord--Lord!--how queer Miss West
+does talk sometimes!
+
+
+ACT II
+
+(SCENE. ROSMER'S study. The door into it is in the left-hand
+wall. At the back of the room is a doorway with a curtain drawn
+back from it, leading to his bedroom. On the right, a window, in
+front of which is a writing-table strewn with books and papers.
+Bookshelves and cupboards on the walls. Homely furniture. On the
+left, an old-fashioned sofa with a table in front of it. ROSMER,
+wearing a smoking-jacket, is sitting at the writing-table on a
+high-backed chair. He is cutting and turning over the leaves of a
+magazine, and dipping into it here and there. A knock is heard at
+the door on the left.)
+
+Rosmer (without turning round). Come in.
+
+(REBECCA comes in, wearing a morning wrapper.)
+
+Rebecca. Good morning.
+
+Rosmer (still turning over the leaves of his book). Good morning,
+dear. Do you want anything?
+
+Rebecca. Only to ask if you have slept well?
+
+Rosmer. I went to sleep feeling so secure and happy. I did not
+even dream. (Turns round.) And you?
+
+Rebecca. Thanks, I got to sleep in the early morning.
+
+Rosmer. I do not think I have felt so light-hearted for a long
+time as I do to-day. I am so glad that I had the opportunity to
+say what I did.
+
+Rebecca. Yes, you should not have been silent so long, John.
+
+Rosmer. I cannot understand how I came to be such a coward.
+
+Rebecca. I am sure it was not really from cowardice.
+
+Rosmer. Yes, indeed. I can see that at bottom there was some
+cowardice about it.
+
+Rebecca. So much the braver of you to face it as you did. (Sits
+down beside him on a chair by the writing-table.) But now I want
+to confess something that I have done--something that you must not
+be vexed with me about.
+
+Rosmer. Vexed? My dear girl, how can you think--?
+
+Rebecca. Yes, because I dare say it was a little presumptuous of
+me, but--
+
+Rosmer. Well, let me hear what it was.
+
+Rebecca. Last night, when that Ulrick Brendel was going, I wrote
+him a line or two to take to Mortensgaard.
+
+Rosmer (a little doubtfully). But, my dear Rebecca--What did you
+write, then?
+
+Rebecca. I wrote that he would be doing you a service if he
+would interest himself a little in that unfortunate man, and help
+him in any way he could.
+
+Rosmer. My dear, you should not have done that. You have only
+done Brendel harm by doing so. And besides, Mortensgaard is a
+man I particularly wish to have nothing to do with. You know I
+have been at loggerheads once with him already.
+
+Rebecca. But do you not think that now it might be a very good
+thing if you got on to good terms with him again?
+
+Rosmer. I? With Mortensgaard? For what reason, do you mean?
+
+Rebecca. Well, because you cannot feel altogether secure now--
+since this has come between you and your friends.
+
+Rosmer (looking at her and shaking his head). Is it possible that
+you think either Kroll or any of the others would take a revenge
+on me--that they could be capable of--
+
+Rebecca. In their first heat of indignation dear. No one can be
+certain of that. I think, after the way Mr. Kroll took it--
+
+Rosmer. Oh, you ought to know him better than that. Kroll is an
+honourable man, through and through. I will go into town this
+afternoon, and have a talk with him. I will have a talk with them
+all. Oh, you will see how smoothly everything will go. (MRS.
+HELSETH comes in by the door on the left.)
+
+Rebecca (getting up). What is it, Mrs. Helseth?
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Mr. Kroll is downstairs in the hall, miss.
+
+Rosmer (getting up quickly). Kroll!
+
+Rebecca. Mr. Kroll! What a surprise!
+
+Mrs. Helseth. He asks if he may come up and speak to Mr. Rosmer.
+
+Rosmer (to REBECCA). What did I say! (To MRS. HELSETH). Of course
+he may. (Goes to the door and calls down the stairs.) Come up, my
+dear fellow! I am delighted to see you! (He stands holding the
+door open. MRS. HELSETH goes out. REBECCA draws the curtain over
+the doorway at the back, and then begins to tidy the room. KROLL
+comes in with his hat in his hand.)
+
+Rosmer (quietly, and with some emotion). I knew quite well it
+would not be the last time--
+
+Kroll. To-day I see the matter in quite a different light from
+yesterday.
+
+Rosmer. Of course you do, Kroll! Of course you do! You have been
+thinking things over--
+
+Kroll. You misunderstand me altogether. (Puts his hat down on the
+table.) It is important that I should speak to you alone.
+
+Rosmer. Why may not Miss West--?
+
+Rebecca. No, no, Mr. Rosmer. I will go.
+
+Kroll (looking meaningly at her). And I see I ought to apologise
+to you, Miss West, for coming here so early in the morning. I see
+I have taken you by surprise, before you have had time to--
+
+Rebecca (with a start). Why so? Do you find anything out of place
+in the fact of my wearing a morning wrapper at home here?
+
+Kroll. By no means! Besides, I have no knowledge of what customs
+may have grown up at Rosmersholm.
+
+Rosmer. Kroll, you are not the least like yourself to-day.
+
+Rebecca. I will wish you good morning, Mr. Kroll. (Goes out
+to the left.)
+
+Kroll. If. you will allow me-- (Sits down on the couch.)
+
+Rosmer. Yes, my dear fellow, let us make ourselves comfortable
+and have a confidential talk. (Sits down on a chair facing
+KROLL.)
+
+Kroll. I have not been able to close an eye since yesterday. I
+lay all night, thinking and thinking.
+
+Rosmer. And what have you got to say to-day?
+
+Kroll. It will take me some time, Rosmer. Let me begin with a
+sort of introduction. I can give you some news of Ulrick Brendel.
+
+Rosmer. Has he been to see you?
+
+Kroll. No. He took up his quarters in a low-class tavern--in the
+lowest kind of company, of course; drank, and stood drinks to
+others, as long as he had any money left; and then began to abuse
+the whole lot of them as a contemptible rabble--and, indeed, as
+far as that goes he was quite right. But the result was, that he
+got a thrashing and was thrown out into the gutter.
+
+Rosmer. I see he is altogether incorrigible.
+
+Kroll. He had pawned the coat you gave him, too, but that is
+going to be redeemed for him. Can you guess by whom?
+
+Rosmer. By yourself, perhaps?
+
+Kroll. No. By our noble friend Mr. Mortensgaard.
+
+Rosmer. Is that so?
+
+Kroll. I am informed that Mr. Brendel's first visit was paid to
+the "idiot" and  "plebeian".
+
+Rosmer. Well, it was very lucky for him--
+
+Kroll. Indeed it was. (Leans over the table, towards ROSMER.) Now
+I am coming to a matter of which, for the sake of our old--our
+former--friendship, it is my duty to warn you.
+
+Rosmer. My dear fellow, what is that?
+
+Kroll. It is this; that certain games are going on behind your
+back in this house.
+
+Rosmer. How can you think that? Is it Rebec--is it Miss West you
+are alluding to?
+
+Kroll. Precisely. And I can quite understand it on her part; she
+has been accustomed, for such a long time now, to do as she likes
+here. But nevertheless--
+
+Rosmer. My dear Kroll, you are absolutely mistaken. She and I
+have no secrets from one another about anything whatever.
+
+Kroll. Then has she confessed to you that she has been
+corresponding with the editor of the "Searchlight"?
+
+Rosmer. Oh, you mean the couple of lines she wrote to him on
+Ulrik Brendel's behalf?
+
+Kroll. You have found that out, then? And do you approve of her
+being on terms of this sort with that scurrilous hack, who almost
+every week tries to pillory me for my attitude in my school and
+out of it?
+
+Rosmer. My dear fellow, I don't suppose that side of the question
+has ever occurred to her. And in any case, of course she has
+entire freedom of action, just as I have myself.
+
+Kroll. Indeed? Well, I suppose that is quite in accordance with
+the new turn your views have taken--because I suppose Miss West
+looks at things from the same standpoint as you?
+
+Rosmer. She does. We two have worked our way forward in complete
+companionship.
+
+Kroll (looking at him and shaking his head slowly). Oh, you
+blind, deluded man!
+
+Rosmer. I? What makes you say that?
+
+Kroll. Because I dare not--I WILL not--think the worst. No, no, let
+me finish what I want to say. Am I to believe that you really
+prize my friendship, Rosmer? And my respect, too? Do you?
+
+Rosmer. Surely I need not answer that question.
+
+Kroll. Well, but there are other things that require answering--
+that require full explanation on your part. Will you submit to it
+if I hold a sort of inquiry--?
+
+Rosmer. An inquiry?
+
+Kroll. Yes, if I ask you questions about one or two things that
+it may be painful for you to recall to mind. For instance, the
+matter of your apostasy--well, your emancipation, if you choose to
+call it so--is bound up with so much else for which, for your own
+sake, you ought to account to me.
+
+Rosmer. My dear fellow, ask me about anything you please. I have
+nothing to conceal.
+
+Kroll. Well, then, tell me this--what do you yourself believe was
+the real reason of Beata's making away with herself?
+
+Rosmer. Can you have any doubt? Or perhaps I should rather say,
+need one look for reasons for what an unhappy sick woman, who is
+unaccountable for her actions, may do?
+
+Kroll. Are you certain that Beata was so entirely unaccountable
+for her actions? The doctors, at all events, did not consider
+that so absolutely certain.
+
+Rosmer. If the doctors had ever seen her in the state in which I
+have so often seen her, both night and day, they would have had
+no doubt about it.
+
+Kroll. I did not doubt it either, at the time.
+
+Rosmer. Of course not. It was impossible to doubt it,
+unfortunately. You remember what I told you of her ungovernable,
+wild fits of passion--which she expected me to reciprocate. She
+terrified me! And think how she tortured herself with baseless
+self-reproaches in the last years of her life!
+
+Kroll. Yes, when she knew that she would always be childless.
+
+Rosmer. Well, think what it meant--to be perpetually in the
+clutches of such--agony of mind over a thing that she was not in
+the slightest degree responsible for--! Are you going to suggest
+that she was accountable for her actions?
+
+Kroll. Hm!--Do you remember whether at that time you had, in the
+house any books dealing with the purport of marriage--according to
+the advanced views of to-day?
+
+Rosmer. I remember Miss West's lending me a work of the kind. She
+inherited Dr. West's library, you know. But, my dear Kroll, you
+surely do not suppose that we were so imprudent as to let the
+poor sick creature get wind of any such ideas? I can solemnly
+swear that we were in no way to blame. It was the overwrought
+nerves of her own brain that were responsible for these frantic
+aberrations.
+
+Kroll. There is one thing, at any rate, that I can tell you now,
+and that is that your poor tortured and overwrought Beata put an
+end to her own life in order that yours might be happy--and that
+you might be free to live as you pleased.
+
+Rosmer (starting half up from his chair). What do you mean by
+that?
+
+Kroll. You must listen to me quietly, Rosmer--because now I can
+speak of it. During the last year of her life she came twice to
+see me, to tell me what she suffered from her fears and her
+despair.
+
+Rosmer. On that point?
+
+Kroll. No. The first time she came she declared that you were on
+the high road to apostasy--that you were going to desert the faith
+that your father had taught you.
+
+Rosmer (eagerly). What you say is impossible, Kroll!--absolutely
+impossible! You must be wrong about that.
+
+Kroll. Why?
+
+Rosmer. Because as long as Beata lived I was still doubting and
+fighting with myself. And I fought out that fight alone and in
+the completest secrecy. I do not imagine that even Rebecca--
+
+Kroll. Rebecca?
+
+Rosmer. Oh, well--Miss West. I call her Rebecca for the sake of
+convenience.
+
+Kroll. So I have observed.
+
+Rosmer. That is why it is so incomprehensible to me that Beata
+should have had any suspicion of it. Why did she never speak to
+me about it?--for she never did, by a single word.
+
+Kroll. Poor soul--she begged and implored me to speak to you.
+
+Rosmer. Then why did you never do so?
+
+Kroll. Do you think I had a moment's doubt, at that time, that
+her mind was unhinged? Such an accusation as that, against a man
+like you! Well, she came to see me again, about a month later.
+She seemed calmer then; but, as she was going away, she said:
+"They may expect to see the White Horse soon at Rosmersholm."
+
+Rosmer. Yes, I know--the White Horse. She often used to talk about
+that.
+
+Kroll. And then, when I tried to distract her from such unhappy
+thoughts, she only answered: "I have not much time left; for
+John must marry Rebecca immediately now."
+
+Rosmer (almost speechless). What are you saying! I marry--!
+
+Kroll. That was on a Thursday afternoon. On the Saturday evening
+she threw herself from the footbridge into the millrace.
+
+Rosmer. And you never warned us!
+
+Kroll. Well, you know yourself how constantly she used to say
+that she was sure she would die before long.
+
+Rosmer. Yes, I know. But, all the same, you ought to have warned
+us!
+
+Kroll. I did think of doing so. But then it was too late.
+
+Rosmer. But since then, why have you not--? Why have you kept all
+this to yourself?
+
+Kroll. What good would it have done for me to come here and add
+to your pain and distress? Of course I thought the whole thing
+was merely wild, empty fancy--until yesterday evening.
+
+Rosmer. Then you do not think so any longer?
+
+Kroll. Did not Beata see clearly enough, when she saw that you
+were going to fall away from your childhood's faith?
+
+Rosmer (staring in front of him). Yes, I cannot understand that.
+It is the most incomprehensible thing in the world to me.
+
+Kroll. Incomprehensible or not, the thing is true. And now I ask
+you, Rosmer, how much truth is there in her other accusation?--the
+last one, I mean.
+
+Rosmer. Accusation? Was that an accusation, then?
+
+Kroll. Perhaps you did not notice how it was worded. She said she
+meant to stand out of the way. Why? Well?
+
+Rosmer. In order that I might marry Rebecca, apparently.
+
+Kroll. That was not quite how it was worded. Beata expressed
+herself differently. She said "I have not much time left; for
+John must marry Rebecca IMMEDIATELY now."
+
+Rosmer (looks at him for a moment; then gets up). Now I
+understand you, Kroll.
+
+Kroll. And if you do? What answer have you to make?
+
+Rosmer (in an even voice, controlling himself). To such an
+unheard-of--? The only fitting answer would be to point to the
+door.
+
+Kroll (getting up). Very good.
+
+Rosmer (standing face to face with him). Listen to me. For
+considerably more than a year to be precise, since Beata's death--
+Rebecca West and I have lived here alone at Rosmersholm. All that
+time you have known of the charge Beata made against us; but I
+have never for one moment seen you appear the least scandalised
+at our living together here.
+
+Kroll. I never knew, till yesterday evening, that it was a case
+of an apostate man and an "emancipated" woman living together.
+
+Rosmer. Ah! So then you do not believe in any purity of life
+among apostates or emancipated folk? You do not believe that they
+may have the instinct of morality ingrained in their natures?
+
+Kroll. I have no particular confidence in the kind of morality
+that is not rooted in the Church's faith.
+
+Rosmer. And you mean that to apply to Rebecca and myself?--to my
+relations with Rebecca?
+
+Kroll. I cannot make any departure, in favour of you two, from my
+opinion that there is certainly no very wide gulf between free
+thinking and--ahem!
+
+Rosmer. And what?
+
+Kroll. And free love, since you force me to say it.
+
+Rosmer (gently). And you are not ashamed to say that to me!--you,
+who have known me ever since I was a boy.
+
+Kroll. It is just for that reason. I know how easily you allow
+yourself to be influenced by those you associate with. And as for
+your Rebecca--well, your Miss West, then--to tell the truth, we
+know very little about her. To cut the matter short, Rosmer--I am
+not going to give you up. And you, on your part, ought to try and
+save yourself in time.
+
+Rosmer. Save myself? How--? (MRS. HELSETH looks in through the
+door on the left.) What do you want?
+
+Mrs. Helseth. I wanted to ask Miss West to come down, sir.
+
+Rosmer. Miss West is not up here.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Indeed, sir? (Looks round the room.) That is very
+strange. (Goes out.)
+
+Rosmer. You were saying--?
+
+Kroll. Listen to me. As to what may have gone on here in secret
+while Beata was alive, and as to what may be still going on here,
+I have no wish to inquire more closely. You were, of course,
+extremely unhappy in your marriage--and to some extent that may be
+urged in your excuse--
+
+Rosmer. Oh, how little you really know me!
+
+Kroll. Do not interrupt me. What I want to say is this. If you
+definitely must continue living with Miss West, it is absolutely
+necessary that you should conceal the revolution of opinion--I
+mean the distressing apostasy--that she has beguiled you into. Let
+me speak! Let me speak! I say that, if you are determined to go
+on with this folly, for heaven's sake hold any variety of ideas
+or opinions or beliefs you like--but keep your opinions to
+yourself. It is a purely personal matter, and there is not the
+slightest necessity to go proclaiming it all over the
+countryside.
+
+Rosmer. It is a necessity for me to abandon a false and equivocal
+position.
+
+Kroll. But you have a duty towards the traditions of your family,
+Rosmer! Remember that! From time immemorial Rosmersholm has been
+a stronghold of discipline and order, of respect and esteem for
+all that the best people in our community have upheld and
+sanctioned. The whole neighbourhood has taken its
+tone from Rosmersholm. If the report gets about that you
+yourself have broken with what I may call the Rosmer family
+tradition, it will evoke an irreparable
+state of unrest.
+
+Rosmer. My dear Kroll, I cannot see the matter in that light. It
+seems to me that it is my imperative duty to bring a little light
+and happiness into the place where the race of Rosmers has spread
+darkness and oppression for all these long years.
+
+Kroll (looking severely at him). Yes, that would be a worthy
+action for the man with whom the race will disappear. Let such
+things alone, my friend. It is no suitable task for you. You were
+meant to lead the peaceful life of a student.
+
+Rosmer. Yes, that may be so. But nevertheless I want to try and
+play my humble part in the struggles of life.
+
+Kroll. The struggles of life! Do you know what that will mean for
+you? It will mean war to the death with all your friends.
+
+Rosmer (quietly). I do not imagine they are all such fanatics as
+you.
+
+Kroll. You are a simple-minded creature, Rosmer--an inexperienced
+creature. You have no suspicion of the violence of the storm that
+will burst upon you. (MRS. HELSETH slightly opens the door on the
+left.)
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Miss West wishes me to ask you, sir
+
+Rosmer. What is it?
+
+Mrs. Helseth. There is some one downstairs that wishes to speak
+to you for a minute, sir.
+
+Rosmer. Is it the gentleman that was here yesterday afternoon, by
+any chance?
+
+Mrs. Helseth. No, it is that Mr. Mortensgaard.
+
+Rosmer. Mortensgaard?
+
+Kroll. Aha! So matters have got as far as that already, have
+they!
+
+Rosmer. What does he want with me? Why did you not send him away
?
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Miss West told me to ask you if he might come up.
+
+Rosmer. Tell him I am engaged, and--
+
+Kroll (to MRS. HELSETH). No; show him up, please. (MRS. HELSETH
+goes out. KROLL takes up his hat.) I quit the field--temporarily.
+But we have not fought the decisive action yet.
+
+Rosmer. As truly as I stand here, Kroll, I have absolutely
+nothing to do with Mortensgaard.
+
+Kroll. I do not believe you any longer on any point. Under no
+circumstances shall I have any faith in you after this. It is war
+to the knife now. We shall try if we cannot make you powerless to
+do any harm.
+
+Rosmer. Oh, Kroll--how you have sunk! How low you have sunk!
+
+Kroll. I? And a man like you has the face to say so? Remember
+Beata!
+
+Rosmer. Are you harking back to that again!
+
+Kroll. No. You must solve the riddle of the millrace as your
+conscience will allow you--if you have any conscience still left.
+(PETER MORTENSGAARD comes in softly and quietly, by the door on
+the left. He is a short, slightly built man with sparse reddish
+hair and beard. KROLL gives him a look of hatred.) The
+"Searchlight" too, I see. Lighted at Rosmersholm! (Buttons up his
+coat.) That leaves me no doubt as to the course I should steer.
+
+Mortensgaard (quietly). The "Searchlight" will always be ready
+burning to light Mr. Kroll home.
+
+Kroll. Yes, you have shown me your goodwill for a long time. To
+be sure there is a Commandment that forbids us to bear false
+witness against our neighbour--
+
+Mortensgaard. Mr. Kroll has no need to instruct me in the
+Commandments.
+
+Kroll. Not even in the sixth?
+
+Rosmer. Kroll--!
+
+Mortensgaard. If I needed such instruction, Mr. Rosmer is the
+most suitable person to give it me.
+
+Kroll (with scarcely concealed scorn). Mr. Rosmer? Oh yes, the
+Reverend Mr. Rosmer is undoubtedly the most suitable man for
+that! I hope you will enjoy yourselves, gentlemen. (Goes out and
+slams the door after him.)
+
+Rosmer (stands looking at the door, and says to himself). Yes,
+yes--it had to be so. (Turns round.) Will you tell me, Mr.
+Mortensgaard, what has brought you out here to see me?
+
+Mortensgaard. It was really Miss West I wanted to see. I thought
+I ought to thank her for the kind letter I received from her
+yesterday.
+
+Rosmer. I know she has written to you. Have you had a talk with
+her?
+
+Mortensgaard. Yes, a little. (Smiles slightly.) I hear that there
+has been a change of views in certain respects at Rosmersholm.
+
+Rosmer. My views have changed to a very considerable extent; I
+might almost say entirely.
+
+Mortensgaard. That is what Miss West said. And that was why she
+thought I ought to come up and have a little chat with you about
+this.
+
+Rosmer. About what, Mr. Mortensgaard?
+
+Mortensgaard. May I have your permission to announce in the
+"Searchlight" that you have altered your opinions, and are going
+to devote yourself to the cause of free thought and progress?
+
+Rosmer. By all means. I will go so far as to ask you to make the
+announcement.
+
+Mortensgaard. Then it shall appear to-morrow. It will be a great
+and weighty piece of news that the Reverend Mr. Rosmer of
+Rosmersholm has made up his mind to join the forces of light in
+that direction too.
+
+Rosmer. I do not quite understand you.
+
+Mortensgaard. What I mean is that it implies the gain of strong
+moral support for our party every time we win over an earnest,
+Christian-minded adherent.
+
+Rosmer (with some astonishment). Then you don't know--? Did Miss
+West not tell you that as well?
+
+Mortensgaard. What, Mr. Rosmer? Miss West was in a considerable
+hurry. She told me to come up, and that I would hear the rest of
+it from yourself.
+
+Rosmer. Very well, then; let me tell you that I have cut myself
+free entirely--on every side. I have now, no connection of any
+kind with the tenets of the Church. For the future such matters
+have not the smallest signification for me.
+
+Mortensgaard (looking at him in perplexity). Well, if the moon
+had fallen down from the sky, I could not be more--! To think that
+I should ever hear you yourself renounce--!
+
+Rosmer. Yes, I stand now where you have stood for a long time.
+You can announce that in the "Searchlight" to-morrow too.
+
+Mortensgaard. That, too? No, my dear Mr. Rosmer--you must excuse
+me--but it is not worth touching on that side of the matter.
+
+Rosmer. Not touch on it?
+
+Mortensgaard. Not at first, I think.
+
+Rosmer. But I do not understand--
+
+Mortensgaard. Well, it is like this, Mr. Rosmer. You are not as
+familiar with all the circumstances of the case as I am, I
+expect. But if you, too, have joined the forces of freedom--and if
+you, as Miss West says you do, mean to take part in the movement--
+I conclude you do so with the desire to be as useful to the
+movement as you possibly can, in practice as well as, in theory.
+
+Rosmer. Yes, that is my most sincere wish.
+
+Mortensgaard. Very well. But I must impress on you, Mr. Rosmer,
+that if you come forward openly with this news about your
+defection from the Church, you will tie your own hands
+immediately.
+
+Rosmer. Do you think so?
+
+Mortensgaard. Yes, you may be certain that there is not much that
+you would be able to do hereabouts. And besides, Mr. Rosmer, we
+have quite enough freethinkers already--indeed, I was going to say
+we have too many of those gentry. What the party needs is a
+Christian element--something that every one must respect. That is
+what we want badly. And for that reason it is most advisable that
+you should hold your tongue about any matters that do not concern
+the public. That is my opinion.
+
+Rosmer. I see. Then you would not risk having anything to do with
+me if I were to confess my apostasy openly?
+
+Mortensgaard (shaking his head). I should not like to, Mr.
+Rosmer. Lately I have made it a rule never to support anybody or
+anything that is opposed to the interests of the Church.
+
+Rosmer. Have you, then, entered the fold of the Church again
+lately?
+Mortensgaard. That is another matter altogether.
+
+Rosmer. Oh, that is how it is. Yes, I understand you now.
+
+Mortensgaard. Mr. Rosmer--you ought to remember that I, of all
+people, have not absolute freedom of action.
+
+Rosmer. What hampers you?
+
+Mortensgaard. What hampers me is that I am a marked man.
+
+Rosmer. Ah--of course.
+
+Mortensgaard. A marked man, Mr. Rosmer. And you, of all people,
+ought to remember that--because you were responsible, more than
+any one else, for my being branded.
+
+Rosmer. If I had stood then where I stand now, I should have
+handled the affair more judiciously.
+
+Mortensgaard. I think so too. But it is too late now; you have
+branded me, once for all--branded me for life. I do not suppose
+you can fully realise what such a thing means. But it is possible
+that you may soon feel the smart of it yourself now, Mr. Rosmer.
+
+Rosmer. I?
+
+Mortensgaard. Yes. You surely do not suppose that Mr. Kroll and
+his gang will be inclined to forgive a rupture such as yours? And
+the "County News" is going to be pretty bloodthirsty, I hear. It
+may very well come to pass that you will be a marked man, too.
+
+Rosmer. On personal grounds, Mr. Mortensgaard, I feel myself to
+be invulnerable. My conduct does not offer any point of attack.
+
+Mortensgaard (with a quiet smile). That is saying a good deal,
+Mr. Rosmer.
+
+Rosmer. Perhaps it is. But I have the right to say as much.
+
+Mortensgaard. Even if you were inclined to overhaul your conduct
+as thoroughly as you once overhauled mine?
+
+Rosmer. You say that very strangely. What are you driving at?--is
+it anything definite?
+
+Mortensgaard. Yes, there is one definite thing--no more than a
+single one. But it might be quite awkward enough if malicious
+opponents got a hint of it.
+
+Rosmer. Will you have the kindness to tell me what on earth it
+is?
+
+Mortensgaard. Can you not guess, Mr. Rosmer?
+
+Rosmer. No, not for a moment.
+
+Mortensgaard. All right. I must come out with it, then. I have in
+my possession a remarkable letter, that was written here at
+Rosmersholm.
+
+Rosmer. Miss West's letter, you mean? Is it so remarkable?
+
+Mortensgaard. No, that letter is not remarkable. But I received a
+letter from this house on another occasion.
+
+Rosmer. From Miss West?
+
+Mortensgaard. No, Mr. Rosmer.
+
+Rosmer. Well, from whom, then? From whom?
+
+Mortensgaard. From your late wife.
+
+Rosmer. From my wife? You had a letter from my wife?
+
+Mortensgaard. Yes, I did.
+
+Rosmer. When?
+
+Mortensgaard. It was during the poor lady's last days. It must be
+about a year and a half ago now. And that is the letter that is
+so remarkable.
+
+Rosmer. Surely you know that my wife's mind was affected at that
+time?
+
+Mortensgaard. I know there were a great many people who thought
+so. But, in my opinion, no one would have imagined anything of
+the kind from the letter. When I say the letter is a remarkable
+one, I mean remarkable in quite another way.
+
+Rosmer. And what in the world did my poor wife find to write to
+you about?
+
+Mortensgaard. I have the letter at home. It begins more or less
+to the effect that she is living in perpetual terror and dread,
+because of the fact that there are so many evilly disposed people
+about her whose only desire is to do you harm and mischief.
+
+Rosmer. Me?
+
+Mortensgaard. Yes, so she says. And then follows the most
+remarkable part of it all. Shall I tell you, Mr. Rosmer?
+
+Rosmer. Of course! Tell me everything, without any reserve.
+
+Mortensgaard. The poor lady begs and entreats me to be
+magnanimous. She says that she knows it was you, who got me
+dismissed from my post as schoolmaster, and implores me most
+earnestly not to revenge myself upon you.
+
+Rosmer. What way did she think you could revenge yourself, then?
+
+Mortensgaard. The letter goes on to say that if I should hear
+that anything sinful was going on at Rosmersholm, I was not to
+believe a word of it; that it would be only the work of wicked
+folk who were spreading the rumours on purpose to do you harm.
+
+Rosmer. Does the letter say that?
+
+Mortensgaard. You may read it at your convenience, Mr. Rosmer.
+
+Rosmer. But I cannot understand--? What did she imagine there
+could be any wicked rumours about?
+
+Mortensgaard. In the first place, that you had broken away from
+the faith of your childhood. Mrs. Rosmer denied that absolutely--
+at that time. And, in the next place--ahem !
+
+Rosmer. In the next place?
+
+Mortensgaard. Well, in the next place she writes--though rather
+confusedly--that she has no knowledge of any sinful relations
+existing at Rosmersholm; that she has never been wronged in any
+way; and that if any rumours of that sort should get about, she
+entreats me not to allude to them in the "Searchlight".
+
+Rosmer. Does she mention any names?
+
+Mortensgaard. No.
+
+Rosmer. Who brought you the letter?
+
+Mortensgaard. I promised not to tell that. It was brought to me
+one evening after dark.
+
+Rosmer. If you had made inquiries at the time, you would have
+learnt that my poor unhappy wife was not fully accountable for
+her actions.
+
+Mortensgaard. I did make inquiries, Mr. Rosmer; but I must say I
+did not get exactly that impression.
+
+Rosmer. Not?--But why have you chosen this moment to enlighten me
+as to the existence of this old crazy letter?
+
+Mortensgaard. With the object of advising you to be extremely
+cautious, Mr. Rosmer.
+
+Rosmer. As to my way of life, do you mean?
+
+Mortensgaard. Yes. You must remember that for the future you will
+not be unassailable.
+
+Rosmer. So you persist in thinking that I have something to
+conceal here?
+
+Mortensgaard. I do not see any reason why a man of emancipated
+ideas should refrain from living his life as fully as possible.
+Only, as I have already said, you should be cautious in future.
+If rumours should get about of anything that offends people's
+prejudices, you may be quite certain that the whole cause of
+freedom of thought will suffer for it. Good-bye, Mr. Rosmer.
+
+Rosmer. Good-bye.
+
+Mortensgaard. I shall go straight to the printing-office now and
+have the great piece of news inserted in the "Searchlight".
+
+Rosmer. Put it all in.
+
+Mortensgaard. I will put in as much as there is any need for the
+public to know. (Bows, and goes out. ROSMER stands at the door,
+while MORTENSGAARD goes downstairs. The front door is heard
+shutting.)
+
+Rosmer (still standing in the doorway, calls softly). Rebecca!
+Reb--ahem! (Calls loudly.) Mrs. Helseth--is Miss West downstairs?
+
+Mrs. Helseth (from below). No, sir, she is not here.
+
+(The curtain at the end of the room is drawn back, disclosing
+REBECCA standing in the doorway.)
+
+Rebecca. John!
+
+Rosmer (turning round). What! Were you in there, in my bedroom!
+My dear, what were you doing there?
+
+Rebecca (going up to him). I have been listening.
+
+Rosmer. Rebecca! Could you do a thing like that?
+
+Rebecca. Indeed I could. It was so horrid the way he said that--
+about my morning wrapper.
+
+Rosmer. Ah, so you were in there too when Kroll--?
+
+Rebecca. Yes. I wanted to know what was at the bottom of his
+mind.
+
+Rosmer. You know I would have told you.
+
+Rebecca. I scarcely think you would have told me everything--
+certainly not in his own words.
+
+Rosmer. Did you hear everything, then?
+
+Rebecca. Most of it, I think. I had to go down for a moment when
+Mortensgaard came.
+
+Rosmer. And then came up again?
+
+Rebecca. Do not take it ill of me, dear friend.
+
+Rosmer. Do anything that you think right and proper. You have
+full freedom of action.--But what do you say to it all, Rebecca?
+Ah, I do not think I have ever stood so much in need of you as I
+do to-day.
+
+Rebecca. Surely both you and I have been prepared for what would
+happen some day.
+
+Rosmer. No, no--not for this.
+
+Rebecca. Not for this?
+
+Rosmer. It is true that I used to think that sooner or later our
+beautiful pure friendship would come to be attacked by calumny
+and suspicion--not on Kroll's part, for I never would have
+believed such a thing of him--but on the part of the coarse-minded
+and ignoble-eyed crowd. Yes, indeed; I had good reason enough for
+so jealously drawing a veil of concealment over our compact. It
+was a dangerous secret.
+
+Rebecca. Why should we pay any heed to what all these other
+people think? You and I know that we have nothing to reproach
+ourselves with.
+
+Rosmer. I? Nothing to reproach myself with? It is true enough
+that I thought so until to-day. But now, now, Rebecca--
+
+Rebecca. Yes? Now?
+
+Rosmer. How am I to account to myself for Beata's horrible
+accusation?
+
+Rebecca (impetuously). Oh, don't talk about Beata! Don't think
+about Beata any more! She is dead, and you seemed at last to have
+been able to get away from the thought of her.
+
+Rosmer. Since I have learnt of this, it seems just as if she had
+come to life again in some uncanny fashion.
+
+Rebecca. Oh no--you must not say that, John! You must not!
+
+Rosmer. I tell you it is so. We must try and get to the bottom of
+it. How can she have strayed into such a woeful misunderstanding
+of me?
+
+Rebecca. Surely you too are not beginning to doubt that she was
+very nearly insane?
+
+Rosmer. Well, I cannot deny it is just of that fact that I feel I
+cannot be so altogether certain any longer. And besides if it
+were so--
+
+Rebecca. If it were so? What then?
+
+Rosmer. What I mean is--where are we to look for the actual cause
+of her sick woman's fancies turning into insanity?
+
+Rebecca. What good can it possibly do for you to indulge in such
+speculations!
+
+Rosmer. I cannot do otherwise, Rebecca. I cannot let this doubt
+go on gnawing at my heart, however unwilling I may be to face
+it.
+
+Rebecca. But it may become a real danger to you to be perpetually
+dwelling on this one lugubrious topic.
+
+Rosmer (walking about restlessly and absorbed in the idea). I
+must have betrayed myself in some way or other. She must have
+noticed how happy I began to feel from the day you came to us.
+
+Rebecca. Yes; but dear, even if that were so--
+
+Rosmer. You may be sure she did not fail to notice that we read
+the same books; that we sought one another's company, and
+discussed every new topic together. But I cannot understand it--
+because I was always so careful to spare her. When I look back,
+it seems to me that I did everything I could to keep her apart
+from our lives. Or did I not, Rebecca?
+
+Rebecca. Yes, yes--undoubtedly you did.
+
+Rosmer. And so did you, too. And notwithstanding that--! Oh, it is
+horrible to think of! To think that here she was--with her
+affection all distorted by illness --never saying a word--watching
+us--noticing everything and--and--misconstruing everything.
+
+Rebecca (wringing her hands). Oh, I never ought to have come to
+Rosmersholm.
+
+Rosmer. Just think what she must have suffered in silence! Think
+of all the horrible things her poor diseased brain must have led
+her to believe about us and store up in her mind about us! Did
+she never speak to you of anything that could give you any kind
+of clue?
+
+Rebecca (as if startled). To me! Do you suppose I should have
+remained here a day longer, if she had?
+
+Rosmer. No, no--that is obvious. What a fight she must have
+fought--and fought alone, Rebecca! In despair, and all alone. And
+then, in the end, the poignant misery of her victory--which was
+also her accusation of us--in the mill-race! (Throws himself into
+a chair, rests his elbows on the table, and hides his face in his
+hands.)
+
+Rebecca (coming quietly up behind him). Listen to me, John. If it
+were in your power to call Beata back--to you--to Rosmersholm--would
+you do it?
+
+Rosmer. How can I tell what I would do or what I would not do! I
+have no thoughts for anything but the one thing which is
+irrevocable.
+
+Rebecca. You ought to be beginning to live now, John. You were
+beginning. You had freed yourself completely on all sides. You
+were feeling so happy and so light--hearted
+
+Rosmer. I know--that is true enough. And then comes this
+overwhelming blow.
+
+Rebecca (standing behind him, with her arms on the back of his
+chair). How beautiful it was when we used to sit there downstairs
+in the dusk--and helped each other to plan our lives out afresh.
+You wanted to catch hold of actual life--the actual life of the
+day, as you used to say. You wanted to pass from house to house
+like a guest who brought emancipation with him--to win over men's
+thoughts and wills to your own --to fashion noble men all around
+you, in a wider and wider circle--noble men!
+
+Rosmer. Noble men and happy men.
+
+Rebecca. Yes, happy men.
+
+Rosmer. Because it is happiness that gives the soul nobility,
+Rebecca.
+
+Rebecca. Do you not think suffering too? The deepest suffering?
+
+Rosmer. Yes, if one can win through it--conquer it--conquer it
+completely.
+
+Rebecca. That is what you must do.
+
+Rosmer (shaking his head sadly). I shall never conquer this
+completely. There will always be a doubt confronting me--a
+question. I shall never again be able to lose myself in the
+enjoyment of what makes life so wonderfully beautiful.
+
+Rebecca (speaking over the back of his chair, softly). What do
+you mean, John?
+
+Rosmer (looking up at her). Calm and happy innocence.
+
+Rebecca (taking a step backwards). Of course. Innocence. (A short
+silence.)
+
+Rosmer (resting his head on his hands with his elbows on the
+table, and looking straight in front of him). How ingeniously--how
+systematically--she must have put one thing together with another!
+First of all she begins to have a suspicion as to my orthodoxy.
+How on earth did she get that idea in her mind? Any way, she did;
+and the idea grew into a certainty. And then--then, of course, it
+was easy for her to think everything else possible. (Sits up in
+his chair and, runs his hands through his hair.) The wild fancies
+I am haunted with! I shall never get quit of them. I am certain
+of that--certain. They will always be starting up before me to
+remind me of the dead.
+
+Rebecca. Like the White Horse of Rosmersholm.
+
+Rosmer. Yes, like that. Rushing at me out of the dark--out of
+the silence.
+
+Rebecca. And, because of this morbid fancy of yours, you are
+going to give up the hold you had just gained upon real life?
+
+Rosmer. You are right, it seems hard--hard, Rebecca. But I have no
+power of choice in the matter. How do you think I could ever get
+the mastery over it?
+
+Rebecca (standing behind his chair). By making new ties for
+yourself.
+
+Rosmer (starts, and looks up). New ties?
+
+Rebecca. Yes, new ties with the outside world. Live, work, do
+something! Do not sit here musing and brooding over insoluble
+conundrums.
+
+Rosmer (getting up). New ties! (Walks across the room, turns at
+the door and comes back again.) A question occurs to my mind. Has
+it not occurred to you too, Rebecca?
+
+Rebecca (catching her breath). Let me hear what it is.
+
+Rosmer. What do you suppose will become of the tie between us,
+after to-day?
+
+Rebecca. I think surely our friendship can endure, come what may.
+
+Rosmer. Yes, but that is not exactly what I meant. I was thinking
+of what brought us together from the first, what links us so
+closely to one another--our common belief in the possibility of a
+man and a woman living together in chastity.
+
+Rebecca. Yes, yes--what of it?
+
+Rosmer. What I mean is--does not such a tie as that--such a tie as
+ours--seem to belong properly to a life lived in quiet, happy
+peacefulness?
+
+Rebecca. Well?
+
+Rosmer. But now I see stretching before me a life of strife and
+unrest and violent emotions. For I mean to live my life, Rebecca!
+I am not going to let myself be beaten to the ground by the dread
+of what may happen. I am not going to have my course of life
+prescribed for me, either by any living soul or by another.
+
+Rebecca. No, no--do not! Be a free man in everything, John!
+
+Rosmer. Do you understand what is in my Mind, then? Do you not
+know? Do you not see how I could best win my freedom from all
+these harrowing memories from the whole sad past?
+
+Rebecca. Tell me!
+
+Rosmer. By setting up, in opposition to them, a new and living
+reality.
+
+Rebecca (feeling for the back of the chair). A living--? What do
+you mean?
+
+Rosmer (coming closer to her). Rebecca--suppose I asked you now--
+will you be my second wife?
+
+Rebecca (is speechless for a moment, then gives a cry of joy).
+Your wife! Yours--! I!
+
+Rosmer. Yes--let us try what that will do. We two shall be one.
+There must no longer be any empty place left by the dead in this
+house.
+
+Rebecca. I--in Beata's place--?
+
+Rosmer. And then that chapter of my life will be closed--
+completely closed, never to be reopened.
+
+Rebecca (in a low, trembling voice). Do you think so, John?
+
+Rosmer. It must be so! It must! I cannot--I will not--go through
+life with a dead body on my back. Help me to throw it off,
+Rebecca; and then let us stifle all memories in our sense of
+freedom, in joy, in passion. You shall be to me the only wife I
+have ever had.
+
+Rebecca (controlling herself). Never speak of this, again. I will
+never be your wife.
+
+Rosmer. What! Never? Do you think, then, that you could not learn
+to love me? Is not our friendship already tinged with love?
+
+Rebecca (stopping her ears, as if in fear). Don't speak like
+that, John! Don't say such things!
+
+Rosmer (catching her by the arm). It is true! There is a growing
+possibility in the tie that is between us. I can see that you
+feel that, as well as I--do you not, Rebecca?
+
+Rebecca (controlling herself completely). Listen. Let me tell you
+this--if you persist in this, I shall leave Rosmersholm.
+
+Rosmer. Leave Rosmersholm! You! You cannot do that. It is
+impossible.
+
+Rebecca. It is still more impossible for me to become your wife.
+Never, as long as I live, can I be that.
+
+Rosmer (looks at her in surprise). You say "can" --and you say it
+so strangely. Why can you not?
+
+Rebecca (taking both his hands in hers). Dear friend --for your
+own sake, as well as for mine, do not ask me why. (Lets go of his
+hands.) So, John. (Goes towards the door on the left.)
+
+Rosmer. For the future the world will hold only one question for
+me--why?
+
+Rebecca (turns and looks at him). In that case everything is at
+an end.
+
+Rosmer. Between you and me?
+
+Rebecca. Yes.
+
+Rosmer. Things can never be at an end between us two. You shall
+never leave Rosmersholm.
+
+Rebecca (with her hand on the door-handle). No, I dare say I
+shall not. But, all the same, if you question me again, it will
+mean the end of everything.
+
+Rosmer. The end of everything, all the same? How--?
+
+Rebecca. Because then I shall go the way Beata went. Now you
+know, John.
+
+Rosmer. Rebecca--!
+
+Rebecca (stops at the door and nods: slowly). Now you know. (Goes
+out.)
+
+Rosmer (stares in bewilderment at the shut door, and says to
+himself): What can it mean?
+
+
+ACT III
+
+(SCENE-The sitting-room at Rosmersholm. The window and the hall-
+door are open. The morning sun is seen shining outside. REBECCA,
+dressed as in ACT I., is standing by the window, watering and
+arranging the flowers. Her work is lying on the armchair. MRS.
+HELSETH is going round the room with a feather brush, dusting the
+furniture.)
+
+Rebecca (after a short pause). I wonder why Mr. Rosmer is so late
+in coming down to-day?
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Oh, he is often as late as this, miss. He is sure
+to be down directly.
+
+Rebecca. Have you seen anything of him?
+
+Mrs. Helseth. No, miss, except that as I took his coffee into his
+study he went into his bedroom to finish dressing.
+
+Rebecca. The reason I ask is that he was not very well yesterday.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. No, he did not look well. It made me wonder whether
+something had gone amiss between him and his brother-in-law.
+
+Rebecca. What do you suppose could go amiss between them?
+
+Mrs. Helseth. I can't say, miss. Perhaps it was that fellow
+Mortensgaard set them at loggerheads.
+
+Rebecca. It is quite possible. Do you know anything of this Peter
+Mortensgaard?
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Not I! How could you think so, miss--a man like
+that!
+
+Rebecca. Because of that horrid paper he edits, you mean?
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Not only because of that, miss. I suppose you have
+heard that a certain married woman, whose husband had deserted
+her, had a child by him?
+
+Rebecca. I have heard it; but of course that was long before I
+came here.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Bless me, yes--he was quite a young man then. But
+she might have had more sense than he had. He wanted to marry
+her, too, but that could not be done; and so he had to pay
+heavily for it. But since then--my word!--Mortensgaard has risen in
+the world. There are lots of people who run after him now.
+
+Rebecca. I believe most of the poor people turn to him first when
+they are in any trouble.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Oh, not only the poor people, miss--
+
+Rebecca (glancing at her unobserved). Indeed?
+
+Mrs. Helseth (standing at the sofa, dusting vigorously). People
+you would least expect, sometimes, miss.
+
+Rebecca (arranging the flowers). Yes, but that is only an idea of
+yours, Mrs. Helseth. You cannot know that for certain.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. You think I don't know anything about that for
+certain, do you, miss? Indeed I do. Because--if I must let out the
+secret at last--I carried a letter to Mortensgaard myself once.
+
+Rebecca (turns round). No--did you!
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Yes, that I did. And that letter, let me tell you,
+was written here--at Rosmersholm.
+
+Rebecca. Really, Mrs. Helseth?
+
+Mrs. Helseth. I give you my word it was, miss. And it was written
+on good note-paper--and sealed with beautiful red sealing-wax.
+
+Rebecca. And you were entrusted with the delivery of it? Dear
+Mrs. Helseth, it is not very difficult to guess whom it was from.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Who, then?
+
+Rebecca. Naturally, it was something that poor Mrs. Rosmer in her
+invalid state
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Well, you have mentioned her name, miss--not I.
+
+Rebecca. But what was in the letter?--No, of course, you cannot
+know that.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Hm!--it is just possible I may know, all the same.
+
+Rebecca. Did she tell you what she was writing about, then?
+
+Mrs. Helseth. No, she did not do that. But when Mortensgaard had
+read it, he set to work and cross-questioned me, so that I got a
+very good idea of what was in it.
+
+Rebecca. What do you think was in it, then? Oh, dear, good Mrs.
+Helseth, do tell me!
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Certainly not, miss. Not for worlds.
+
+Rebecca. Oh, you can tell me. You and I are such friends, you
+know.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Heaven forbid I should tell you anything about
+that, miss. I shall not tell you anything, except that it was
+some dreadful idea that they had gone and put into my poor sick
+mistress's head.
+
+Rebecca. Who had put it into her head?
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Wicked people, miss. Wicked people.
+
+Rebecca. Wicked--?
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Yes, I say it again--very wicked people, they must
+have been.
+
+Rebecca. And what do you think it could be?
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Oh, I know what I think--but, please Heaven, I'll
+keep my mouth shut. At the same time, there is a certain lady in
+the town--hm!
+
+Rebecca. I can see you mean Mrs. Kroll.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Yes, she is a queer one, she is. She has always
+been very much on the high horse with me. And she has never
+looked with any friendly eye on you, either, miss.
+
+Rebecca. Do you think Mrs. Rosmer was quite in her right mind
+when she wrote that letter to Mortensgaard?
+
+Mrs. Helseth. It is so difficult to tell, miss. I certainly don't
+think she was quite out of her mind.
+
+Rebecca. But you know she seemed to go quite distracted when she
+learnt that she would never be able to have a child. That was
+when her madness first showed itself.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Yes, that had a terrible effect on her, poor lady.
+
+Rebecca (taking up her work, and sitting down on a chair by the
+window). But, in other respects, do you not think that was really
+a good thing for Mr. Rosmer, Mrs. Helseth?
+
+Mrs. Helseth. What, miss?
+
+Rebecca. That there were no children?
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Hm!--I really do not know what to say to that.
+
+Rebecca. Believe me, it was best for him. Mr. Rosmer was never
+meant to be surrounded by crying children.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Little children do not cry at Rosmersholm, Miss
+West.
+
+Rebecca (looking at her). Not cry?
+
+Mrs. Helseth. No. In this house, little children have never been
+known to cry, as long as any one can remember.
+
+Rebecca. That is very strange.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Yes, isn't it, miss? But it runs in the family. And
+there is another thing that is just as strange; when they grow up
+they never laugh--never laugh, all their lives.
+
+Rebecca. But that would be extraordinary
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Have you ever once heard or seen Mr. Rosmer laugh,
+miss?
+
+Rebecca. No--now that I think of it, I almost believe you are
+right. But I fancy most of the folk hereabouts laugh very little.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. That is quite true. People say it began at
+Rosmersholm, and I expect it spread like a sort of infection.
+
+Rebecca. You are a sagacious woman, Mrs. Helseth!
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Oh, you mustn't sit there and make game of me,
+miss. (Listens.) Hush, hush--Mr. Rosmer is coming down. He doesn't
+like to see brooms about. (Goes out by the door on the right.
+ROSMER, with his stick and hat in his hand, comes in from the
+lobby.)
+
+Rosmer. Good-morning, Rebecca.
+
+Rebecca. Good-morning, dear. (She goes on working for a little
+while in silence.) Are you going out?
+
+Rosmer. Yes.
+
+Rebecca. It is such a lovely day.
+
+Rosmer. You did not come up to see me this morning.
+
+Rebecca. No--I didn't. Not to-day.
+
+Rosmer. Don't you mean to do so in future, either? Rebecca. I
+cannot say yet, dear.
+
+Rosmer. Has anything come for me?
+
+Rebecca. The "County News" has come.
+
+Rosmer. The "County News"!
+
+Rebecca. There it is, on the table.
+
+Rosmer (putting down his hat and stick). Is there anything--?
+
+Rebecca. Yes.
+
+Rosmer. And you did not send it up to me
+
+Rebecca. You will read it quite soon enough.
+
+Rosmer. Well, let us see. (Takes up the paper and stands by the
+table reading it.) What!--"cannot pronounce too emphatic a warning
+against unprincipled deserters." (Looks at her.) They call me a
+deserter, Rebecca.
+
+Rebecca. They mention no names at all.
+
+Rosmer. It comes to the same thing. (Goes on reading.) "Secret
+traitors to the good cause."--"Judas-like creatures, who
+shamelessly confess their apostasy as soon as they think the most
+opportune and most profitable moment has arrived."--"A reckless
+outrage on the fair fame of honoured ancestors"--"in the
+expectation that those who are enjoying a brief spell of
+authority will not disappoint them of a suitable reward." (Lays
+the paper down on the table.) And they write that of me--these men
+who have known me so long and so intimately--write a thing that
+they do not even believe themselves! They know there is not a
+single word of truth in it--and yet they write it.
+
+Rebecca. There is more of it yet.
+
+Rosmer (taking up the paper again). "Make some allowance for
+inexperience and want of judgment"--"a pernicious influence which,
+very possibly, has extended even to matters which for the present
+we will refrain from publicly discussing or condemning." (Looks
+at her.) What does that mean?
+
+Rebecca. That is a hit at me, obviously.
+
+Rosmer (laying down the paper). Rebecca, this is the conduct of
+dishonourable men.
+
+Rebecca. Yes, it seems to me they have no right to talk about
+Mortensgaard.
+
+Rosmer (walking up and down the room). They must be saved from
+this sort of thing. All the good that is in men is destroyed, if
+it is allowed to go on. But it shall not be so! How happy--how
+happy I should feel if I could succeed in bringing a little light
+into all this murky ugliness.
+
+Rebecca (getting up). I am sure of it. There is something great,
+something splendid, for you to live for!
+
+Rosmer. Just think of it--if I could wake them to a real knowledge
+of themselves--bring them to be angry with and ashamed of
+themselves--induce them to be at one with each other in
+toleration, in love, Rebecca!
+
+Rebecca. Yes! Give yourself up entirely to that task, and you
+will see that you will succeed.
+
+Rosmer. I think it might be done. What happiness it would be to
+live one's life, then! No more hateful strife--only emulation;
+every eye fixed on the same goal; every man's will, every man's
+thoughts moving forward-upward--each in its own inevitable path
+Happiness for all--and through the efforts of all! (Looks out of
+the window as he speaks, then gives a start and says gloomily:)
+Ah! not through me.
+
+Rebecca. Not--not through you?
+
+Rosmer. Nor for me, either.
+
+Rebecca. Oh, John, have no such doubts.
+
+Rosmer. Happiness, dear Rebecca, means first and foremost the
+calm, joyous sense of innocence.
+
+Rebecca (staring in front of her). Ah, innocence--
+
+Rosmer. You need fear nothing on that score. But I--
+
+Rebecca. You least of all men!
+
+Rosmer (pointing out of the window). The mill-race.
+
+Rebecca. Oh, John!--(MRS. HELSETH looks in in through the door
+on the left.)
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Miss West!
+
+Rebecca. Presently, presently. Not now.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Just a word, miss! (REBECCA goes to the door. MRS.
+HELSETH tells her something, and they whisper together for a
+moment; then MRS. HELSETH nods and goes away.)
+
+Rosmer (uneasily). Was it anything for me?
+
+Rebecca. No, only something about the housekeeping. You ought to
+go out into the open air now, John dear. You should go for a good
+long walk.
+
+Rosmer (taking up his hat). Yes, come along; we will go together.
+
+Rebecca. No, dear, I can't just now. You must go by yourself. But
+shake off all these gloomy thoughts--promise me that!
+
+Rosmer. I shall never be able to shake them quite off, I am
+afraid.
+
+Rebecca. Oh, but how can you let such groundless fancies take
+such a hold on you!
+
+Rosmer. Unfortunately they are not so groundless as you think,
+dear. I have lain, thinking them over, all night. Perhaps Beata
+saw things truly after all.
+
+Rebecca. In what way do you mean?
+
+Rosmer. Saw things truly when she believed I loved you, Rebecca.
+
+Rebecca. Truly in THAT respect?
+
+Rosmer (laying his hat down on the table). This is the question I
+have been wrestling with--whether we two have deluded ourselves
+the whole time, when we have been calling the tie between us
+merely friendship.
+
+Rebecca. Do you mean, then, that the right name for it would have
+been--?
+
+Rosmer. Love. Yes, dear, that is what I mean. Even while Beata
+was alive, it was you that I gave all my thoughts to. It was you
+alone I yearned for. It was with you that I experienced peaceful,
+joyful, passionless happiness. When we consider it rightly,
+Rebecca, our life together began like the sweet, mysterious love
+of two children for one another--free from desire or any thought
+of anything more. Did you not feel it in that way too? Tell me.
+
+Rebecca (struggling with herself). Oh, I do not know what to
+answer.
+
+Rosmer. And it was this life of intimacy, with one another and
+for one another, that we took to be friendship. No, dear--the tie
+between us has been a spiritual marriage--perhaps from the very
+first day. That is why I am guilty. I had no right to it--no right
+to it for Beata's sake.
+
+Rebecca. No right to a happy life? Do you believe that, John?
+
+Rosmer. She looked at the relations between us through the eyes
+of HER love--judged them after the nature of HER love. And it was
+only natural. She could not have judged them otherwise than she
+did.
+
+Rebecca. But how can you so accuse yourself for Beata's
+delusions?
+
+Rosmer. It was for love of me--in her own way that--she threw
+herself into the mill-race. That fact is certain, Rebecca. I can
+never get beyond that.
+
+Rebecca. Oh, do not think of anything else but the great,
+splendid task that you are going to devote your life to!
+
+Rosmer (shaking his head). It can never be carried through. Not
+by me. Not after what I know now.
+
+Rebecca. Why not by you?
+
+Rosmer. Because no cause can ever triumph which has its
+beginnings in guilt.
+
+Rebecca (impetuously). Oh, these are nothing but prejudices you
+have inherited--these doubts, these fears, these scruples! You
+have a legend here that your dead return to haunt you in the form
+of white horses. This seems to me to be something of that sort.
+
+Rosmer. Be that as it may, what difference does it make if I
+cannot shake it off? Believe me, Rebecca, it is as I say--any
+cause which is to win a lasting victory must be championed by a
+man who is joyous and innocent.
+
+Rebecca. But is joy so absolutely indispensable to you, John?
+
+Rosmer. Joy? Yes, indeed it is.
+
+Rebecca. To you, who never laugh?
+
+Rosmer. Yes, in spite of that. Believe me, I have a great
+capacity for joy.
+
+Rebecca. Now you really must go out, dear--for a long walk--a
+really long one, do you hear? There is your hat, and there is
+your stick.
+
+Rosmer (taking them from her). Thank you. And you won't come too?
+
+Rebecca. No, no, I can't come now.
+
+Rosmer. Very well. You are none the less always with me now.
+(Goes out by the entrance hall. After a moment REBECCA peeps out
+from behind the door which he has left open. Then she goes to the
+door on the right, which she opens.)
+
+Rebecca (in a whisper). Now, Mrs. Helseth. You can let him come
+in now. (Crosses to the window. A moment later, KROLL comes in
+from the right. He bows to her silently and formally and keeps
+his hat in his hand.)
+
+Kroll. Has he gone, then?
+
+Rebecca. Yes.
+
+Kroll. Does he generally stay out long?
+
+Rebecca. Yes. But to-day he is in a very uncertain mood--so, if
+you do not want to meet him--
+
+Kroll. Certainly not. It is you I wish to speak to--and quite
+alone.
+
+Rebecca. Then we had better make the best of our time. Please sit
+down. (She sits down in an easy-chair by the window. KROLL takes
+a chair beside her.)
+
+Kroll. Miss West, you can scarcely have any idea how deeply
+pained and unhappy I am over this revolution that has taken place
+in John Rosmer's ideas.
+
+Rebecca. We were prepared for that being so--at first.
+
+Kroll. Only at first?
+
+Rosmer. Mr. Rosmer hoped confidently that sooner or later you
+would take your place beside him.
+
+Kroll. I?
+
+Rebecca. You and all his other friends.
+
+Kroll. That should convince you how feeble his judgment is on any
+matter concerning his fellow-creatures and the affairs of real
+life.
+
+Rebecca. In any case, now that he feels the absolute necessity of
+cutting himself free on all sides
+
+Kroll. Yes; but, let me tell you, that is exactly what I do not
+believe.
+
+Rebecca. What do you believe, then?
+
+Kroll. I believe it is you that are at the bottom of the whole
+thing.
+
+Rebecca. Your wife put that into your head, Mr. Kroll.
+
+Kroll. It does not matter who put it into my head. The point is
+this, that I feel grave doubts--exceedingly grave doubts--when I
+recall and think over the whole of your behaviour since you came
+here.
+
+Rebecca (looking at him). I have a notion that there was a time
+when you had an exceedingly strong BELIEF in me, dear Mr. Kroll--I
+might almost say, a warm belief.
+
+Kroll (in a subdued voice). I believe you could bewitch any one--
+if you set yourself to do it.
+
+Rebecca. And you say I set myself to do it!
+
+Kroll. Yes, you did. I am no longer such a simpleton as to
+suppose that sentiment entered into your little game at all. You
+simply wanted to secure yourself admission to Rosmersholm--to
+establish yourself here. That was what I was to help you to. I
+see it now.
+
+Rebecca. Then you have completely forgotten that it was Beata
+that begged and entreated me to come and live here.
+
+Kroll. Yes, because you had bewitched her too. Are you going to
+pretend that friendship is the name for what she came to feel
+towards you? It was idolatry--adoration. It degenerated into a--
+what shall I call, it?--a sort of desperate passion. Yes, that is
+just the word for it.
+
+Rebecca. Have the goodness to remember the condition your sister
+was in. As far as I am concerned I do not think I can be said to
+be particularly emotional in any way.
+
+Kroll. No, you certainly are not. But that makes you all the more
+dangerous to those whom you wish to get into your power.
+It comes easy to you to act with deliberation and careful
+calculation, just because you have a cold heart.
+
+Rebecca. Cold? Are you so sure of that?
+
+Kroll. I am certain of it now. Otherwise you could not have
+pursued your object here so unswervingly, year after year. Yes,
+yes--you have gained what you wanted. You have got him and
+everything else here into your power. But, to carry out your
+schemes, you have not scrupled to make him unhappy.
+
+Rebecca. That is not true. It is not I; it is you yourself that
+have made him unhappy.
+
+Kroll. I!
+
+Rebecca. Yes, by leading him to imagine that he was responsible
+for the terrible end that overtook Beata.
+
+Kroll. Did that affect him so deeply, then?
+
+Rebecca. Of course. A man of such gentle disposition as he--
+
+Kroll. I imagined that one of your so-called "emancipated" men
+would know how to overcome any scruples. But there it is! Oh,
+yes--as a matter of fact it turned out just as I expected. The
+descendant of the men who are looking at us from these walls need
+not think he can break loose from what has been handed down as an
+inviolable inheritance from generation to generation.
+
+Rebecca (looking thoughtfully in front of her). John Rosmer's
+nature is deeply rooted in his ancestors. That is certainly very
+true.
+
+Kroll. Yes, and you ought to have taken that into consideration,
+if you had had any sympathy for him. But I dare say you were
+incapable of that sort of consideration. Your starting-point is
+so very widely-removed from his, you see.
+
+Rebecca. What do you mean by my starting-point?
+
+Kroll. I mean the starting-point of origin--of parentage, Miss
+West.
+
+Rebecca. I see. Yes, it is quite true that my origin is very
+humble. But nevertheless--
+
+Kroll. I am not alluding to rank or position. I am thinking of
+the moral aspect of your origin.
+
+Rebecca. Of my origin? In what respect?
+
+Kroll. In respect of your birth generally.
+
+Rebecca. What are you saying!
+
+Kroll. I am only saying it because it explains the whole of your
+conduct.
+
+Rebecca. I do not understand. Be so good as to tell me exactly
+what you mean.
+
+Kroll. I really thought you did not need telling. Otherwise it
+would seem a very strange thing that you let yourself be adopted
+by Dr. West.
+
+Rebecca (getting up). Oh, that is it! Now I understand.
+
+Kroll. And took his name. Your mother's name was Gamvik.
+
+Rebecca (crossing the room). My father's name was Gamvik, Mr.
+Kroll.
+
+Kroll. Your mother's occupation must, of course, have brought her
+continually into contact with the district physician.
+
+Rebecca. You are quite right.
+
+Kroll. And then he takes you to live with him, immediately upon
+your mother's death. He treats you harshly, and yet you stay with
+him. You know that he will not leave you a single penny--as a
+matter of fact you only got a box of books--and yet you endure
+living with him, put up with his behaviour, and nurse him to the
+end.
+
+Rebecca (comes to the table and looks at him scornfully). And my
+doing all that makes it clear to you that there was something
+immoral--something criminal about my birth!
+
+Kroll. What you did for him, I attributed to an unconscious
+filial instinct. And, as far as the rest of it goes, I consider
+that the whole of your conduct has been the outcome of your
+origin.
+
+Rebecca (hotly). But there is not a single word of truth in what
+you say! And I can prove it! Dr. West had not come to Finmark
+when I was born.
+
+Kroll. Excuse me, Miss West. He went there a year before you were
+born. I have ascertained that.
+
+Rebecca. You are mistaken, I tell you! You are absolutely
+mistaken!
+
+Kroll. You said here, the day before yesterday, that you were
+twenty-nine--going on for thirty.
+
+Rebecca. Really? Did I say that?
+
+Kroll. Yes, you did. And from that I can calculate--
+
+Rebecca. Stop! That will not help you to calculate. For, I may as
+well tell you at once, I am a year older than I give myself out
+to be.
+
+Kroll (smiling incredulously). Really? That is something new. How
+is that?
+
+Rebecca. When I had passed my twenty-fifth birthday, I thought I
+was getting altogether too old for an unmarried girl, so I
+resolved to tell a lie and take a year off my age.
+
+Kroll. You--an emancipated woman--cherishing prejudices as to the
+marriageable age!
+
+Rebecca. I know it was a silly thing to do--and ridiculous, too.
+But every one has some prejudice or another that they cannot get
+quite rid of. We are like that.
+
+Kroll. Maybe. But my calculation may be quite correct, all the
+same; because Dr. West was up in Finmark for a flying visit the
+year before he was appointed.
+
+Rebecca (impetuously). That is not true
+
+Kroll. Isn't it?
+
+Rebecca. No. My mother never mentioned it.
+
+Kroll. Didn't she, really!
+
+Rebecca. No, never. Nor Dr. West, either. Never a word of it.
+
+Kroll. Might that not be because they both had good reason to
+jump over a year?--@just as you have done yourself, Miss West?
+Perhaps it is a family failing.
+
+Rebecca (walking about, wringing her hands). It is impossible. It
+is only something you want to make me believe. Nothing in the
+world will make me believe it. It cannot be true! Nothing in the
+world--
+
+Kroll (getting up). But, my dear Miss West, why in Heaven's name
+do you take it in this way? You quite alarm me! What am I to
+believe and think?
+
+Rebecca. Nothing. Neither believe nor think anything.
+
+Kroll. Then you really must give me some explanation of your
+taking this matter--this possibility--so much to heart.
+
+Rebecca (controlling herself). It is quite obvious, I should
+think, Mr. Kroll. I have no desire for people here to think me an
+illegitimate child.
+
+Kroll. Quite so. Well, well, let us be content with your
+explanation, for the present. But you see that is another point
+on which you have cherished a certain prejudice.
+
+Rebecca. Yes, that is quite true.
+
+Kroll. And it seems to me that very much the same applies to most
+of this "emancipation" of yours, as you call it. Your reading
+has introduced you to a hotch-potch of new ideas and opinions;
+you have made a certain acquaintance with researches that are
+going on in various directions--researches that seem to you to
+upset a good many ideas that people have hitherto considered
+incontrovertible and unassailable. But all this has never gone
+any further than knowledge in your case, Miss West--a mere matter
+of the intellect. It has not got into your blood.
+
+Rebecca (thoughtfully). Perhaps you are right.
+
+Kroll. Yes, only test yourself, and you will see! And if it is
+true in your case, it is easy to recognise how true it must be in
+John Rosmer's. Of course it is madness, pure and simple. He will
+be running headlong to his ruin if he persists in coming openly
+forward and proclaiming himself an apostate! Just think of it--he,
+with his shy disposition! Think of HIM disowned--hounded out of
+the circle to which he has always belonged--exposed to the
+uncompromising attacks of all the best people in the place.
+Nothing would ever make him the man to endure that.
+
+Rebecca. He MUST endure it! It is too late now for him to draw
+back.
+
+Kroll. Not a bit too late--not by any means too late. What has
+happened can be hushed up--or at any rate can be explained away as
+a purely temporary, though regrettable, aberration. But--there is
+one step that it is absolutely essential he should take.
+
+Rebecca. And that is?
+
+Kroll. You must get him to legalise his position, Miss West.
+
+Rebecca. The position in which he stands to me?
+
+Kroll. Yes. You must see that you get him to do that.
+
+Rebecca. Then you can't rid yourself of the conviction that the
+relations between us need "legalising," as you say?
+
+Kroll. I do not wish to go any more precisely into the question.
+But I certainly have observed that the conditions under which it
+always seems easiest for people to abandon all their so-called
+prejudices are when--ahem!
+
+Rebecca. When it is a question of the relations between a man and
+a woman, I suppose you mean?
+
+Kroll. Yes--to speak candidly--that is what I mean.
+
+Rebecca (walks across the room and looks out of the window). I
+was on the point of saying that I wish you had been right, Mr.
+Kroll.
+
+Kroll. What do you mean by that? You say it so strangely!
+
+Rebecca. Oh, nothing! Do not let us talk any more about it. Ah,
+there he is!
+
+Kroll. Already! I will go, then.
+
+Rebecca (turning to him). No--stay here, and you will hear
+something.
+
+Kroll. Not now. I do not think I could bear to see him.
+
+Rebecca. I beg you to stay. Please do, or you will regret it
+later. It is the last time I shall ever ask you to do anything.
+
+Kroll (looks at her in surprise, and lays his hat down). Very
+well, Miss West. It shall be as you wish. (A short pause. Then
+ROSMER comes in from the hall.)
+
+Rosmer (stops at the door, as he sees KROLL). What! you here?
+
+Rebecca. He wanted to avoid meeting you, John.
+
+Kroll (involuntarily). "John?"
+
+Rebecca. Yes, Mr. Kroll. John and I call each other by our
+Christian names. That is a natural consequence of the relations
+between us.
+
+Kroll. Was that what I was to hear if I stayed?
+
+Rebecca. Yes, that and something else.
+
+Rosmer (coming into the room). What is the object of your visit
+here to-day?
+
+Kroll. I wanted to make one more effort to stop you, and win you
+back.
+
+Rosmer (pointing to the newspaper). After that?
+
+Kroll. I did not write it.
+
+Rosmer. Did you take any steps to prevent its appearing?
+
+Kroll. That would have been acting unjustifiably towards the
+cause I serve. And, besides that, I had no power to prevent it.
+
+Rebecca (tears the newspaper into pieces, which she crumples up
+and throws into the back of the stove). There! Now it is out of
+sight; let it be out of mind too. Because there will be no more
+of that sort of thing, John.
+
+Kroll. Indeed, I wish you could ensure that.
+
+Rebecca. Come, and let us sit down, dear--all three of us. Then I
+will tell you all about it.
+
+Rosmer (sitting down involuntarily). What has come over you,
+Rebecca? You are so unnaturally calm--What is it?
+
+Rebecca. The calmness of determination. (Sits down.) Please sit
+down too, Mr. Kroll. (He takes a seat on the couch.)
+
+Rosmer. Determination, you say. Determination to do what?
+
+Rebecca. I want to give you back what you need in order to live
+your life. You shall have your happy innocence back, dear friend.
+
+Rosmer. But what do you mean?
+
+Rebecca. I will just tell you what happened. That is all that is
+necessary.
+
+Rosmer. Well?
+
+Rebecca. When I came down here from Finmark with Dr. West, it
+seemed to me that a new, great, wide world was opened to me. Dr.
+West had given me an erratic sort of education--had taught me all
+the odds and ends that I knew about life then. (Has an evident
+struggle with herself, and speaks in barely audible tones.) And
+then--
+
+Kroll. And then?
+
+Rosmer. But, Rebecca--I know all this.
+
+Rebecca (collecting herself). Yes--that is true enough. You know
+it only too well.
+
+Kroll (looking fixedly at her). Perhaps it would be better if I
+left you.
+
+Rebecca. No, stay where you are, dear Mr. Kroll. (To ROSMER.)
+Well, this was how it was. I wanted to play my part in the new
+day that was dawning--to have a share in all the new ideas. Mr.
+Kroll told me one day that Ulrik Brendel had had a great
+influence over you once, when you were a boy. I thought it might
+be possible for me to resume that influence here.
+
+Rosmer. Did you come here with a covert design?
+
+Rebecca. What I wanted was that we two should go forward together
+on the road towards freedom--always forward, and further forward!
+But there was that gloomy, insurmountable barrier between you and
+a full, complete emancipation.
+
+Rosmer. What barrier do you mean?
+
+Rebecca. I mean, John, that you could never have attained freedom
+except in the full glory of the sunshine. And, instead of that,
+here you were--ailing and languishing in the gloom of such a
+marriage as yours.
+
+Rosmer. You have never spoken to me of my marriage in that way,
+before to-day.
+
+Rebecca. No, I did not dare, for fear of frightening you.
+
+Kroll (nodding to ROSMER). You hear that!
+
+Rebecca (resuming). But I saw quite well where your salvation
+lay--your only salvation. And so I acted.
+
+Rosmer. How do you mean--you acted?
+
+Kroll. Do you mean that?
+
+Rebecca. Yes, John. (Gets up.) No, do not get up. Nor you either,
+Mr. Kroll. But we must let in. the daylight now. It was not you,
+John. You are innocent. It was I that lured--that ended by luring--
+Beata into the tortuous path--
+
+Rosmer (springing up). Rebecca!
+
+Kroll (getting up). Into the tortuous path!
+
+Rebecca. Into the path that--led to the mill-race. Now you know
+it, both of you.
+
+Rosmer (as if stunned). But I do not understand--What is she
+standing there saying? I do not understand a word--
+
+Kroll. Yes, yes. I begin to understand.
+
+Rosmer. But what did you do? What did you find to tell her?
+Because there was nothing--absolutely nothing!
+
+Rebecca. She got to know that you were determined to emancipate
+yourself from all your old prejudices.
+
+Rosmer. Yes, but at that time I had come to no decision.
+
+Rebecca. I knew that you soon would come to one.
+
+Kroll (nodding to ROSMER). Aha!
+
+Rosmer. Well--and what more? I want to know everything now.
+
+Rebecca. Some time afterwards, I begged and implored her to let
+me leave Rosmersholm.
+
+Rosmer. Why did you want to leave here--then?
+
+Rebecca. I did not want to. I wanted to remain where I was. But I
+told her that it would be best for us all if I went away in time.
+I let her infer that if I remained here any longer I could not
+tell what-what-might happen.
+
+Rosmer. That is what you said and did, then?
+
+Rebecca. Yes, John.
+
+Rosmer. That is what you referred to when you said that you
+"acted"?
+
+Rebecca (in a broken voice). Yes, that was it.
+
+Rosmer (after a pause). Have you confessed everything now,
+Rebecca?
+
+Rebecca. Yes.
+
+Kroll. Not everything.
+
+Rebecca (looking at him in terror). What else can there be?
+
+Kroll. Did you not eventually lead Beata to believe that it was
+necessary--not merely that it should be best--but that it was
+necessary, both for your own sake and for John's, that you should
+go away somewhere else as soon as possible?--Well?
+
+Rebecca (speaking low and indistinctly). Perhaps I did say
+something of the sort.
+
+Rosmer (sinking into a chair by the window). And she, poor sick
+creature, believed in this tissue of lies and deceit! Believed in
+it so completely--so absolutely! (Looks up at REBECCA.) And she
+never came to me about it--never said a word! Ah, Rebecca--I see it
+in your face--YOU dissuaded her from doing so.
+
+Rebecca. You know she had taken it into her head that she, a
+childless wife, had no right to be here. And so she persuaded
+herself that her duty to you was to give place to another.
+
+Rosmer. And you--you did nothing to rid her mind of such an idea?
+
+Rebecca. No.
+
+Kroll. Perhaps you encouraged her in the idea? Answer! Did you
+not do so?
+
+Rebecca. That was how she understood me, I believe.
+
+Rosmer. Yes, yes--and she bowed to your will in everything. And so
+she gave place. (Springs up.) How could you--how could you go on
+with this terrible tragedy!
+
+Rebecca. I thought there were two lives here to choose between,
+John.
+
+Kroll (severely and with authority). You had no right to make any
+such choice.
+
+Rebecca (impetuously). Surely you do not think I acted with cold
+and calculating composure! I am a different woman now, when I am
+telling you this, from what I was then. And I believe two
+different kinds of will can exist at the same time in one person.
+I wanted Beata away--in one way or the other; but I never thought
+it would happen, all the same. At every step I ventured and
+risked, I seemed to hear a voice in me crying: "No further! Not
+a step further!" And yet, at the same time, I COULD not stop. I
+HAD to venture a little bit further--just one step. And then
+another--and always another--and at last it happened. That is how
+such things go of themselves. (A short silence.)
+
+Rosmer (to REBECCA). And how do you think it will go with YOU in
+the future?--after this?
+
+Rebecca. Things must go with me as they can. It is of very little
+consequence.
+
+Kroll. Not a word suggestive of remorse! Perhaps you feel none?
+
+Rebecca (dismissing his remark coldly). Excuse me, Mr. Kroll,
+that is a matter that is no concern of any one else's. That is an
+account I must settle with myself.
+
+Kroll (to ROSMER). And this is the woman you have been living
+under the same roof with--in relations of the completest
+confidence. (Looks up at the portraits on the walls.) If only
+those that are gone could look down now!
+
+Rosmer. Are you going into the town?
+
+Kroll (taking up his hat). Yes. The sooner the better.
+
+Rosmer (taking his hat also). Then I will go with you.
+
+Kroll. You will! Ah, I thought we had not quite lost you.
+
+Rosmer. Come, then, Kroll. Come! (They both go out into the hall
+without looking at REBECCA. After a minute REBECCA goes
+cautiously to the window and peeps out between the flowers.)
+
+Rebecca (speaking to herself, half aloud). Not over the bridge
+to-day either. He is going round. Never over the millrace--never.
+(Comes away from the window.) As I thought! (She goes over to the
+bell, and rings it. Soon afterwards MRS. HELSETH comes in from
+the right.)
+
+Mrs. Helseth. What is it, miss?
+
+Rebecca. Mrs. Helseth, will you be so good as to fetch my
+travelling trunk down from the loft?
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Your trunk?
+
+Rebecca. Yes, the brown hair-trunk, you know.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Certainly, miss. But, bless my soul, are you going
+away on a journey, miss?
+
+Rebecca. Yes--I am going away on a journey, Mrs. Helseth.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. And immediately!
+
+Rebecca. As soon as I have packed.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. I never heard of such a thing! But you are coming
+back again soon, I suppose, miss?
+
+Rebecca. I am never coming back again.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Never! But, my goodness, what is to become of us at
+Rosmersholm if Miss West is not here any longer? Just as
+everything was making poor Mr. Rosmer so happy and comfortable!
+
+Rebecca. Yes, but to-day I have had a fright, Mrs. Helseth.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. A fright! Good heavens-how?
+
+Rebecca. I fancy I have had a glimpse of the White Horse.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Of the White Horse! In broad daylight!
+
+Rebecca. Ah! they are out both early and late, the White Horses
+of Rosmersholm. (Crosses the room.) Well--we were speaking of my
+trunk, Mrs. Helseth.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Yes, miss. Your trunk.
+
+(They both go out to the right.)
+
+
+ACT IV
+
+(SCENE.-The same room in the late evening. The lamp, with a shade
+on it, is burning on the table. REBECCA is standing by the table,
+packing some small articles in a travelling-bag. Her cloak, hat,
+and the white crochetted shawl are hanging on the back of the
+couch. MRS. HELSETH comes in from the right.)
+
+Mrs. Helseth (speaking in low tones and with a reserved manner).
+Yes, all your things have been taken down, miss. They are in the
+kitchen passage.
+
+Rebecca. Thank you. You have ordered the carriage?
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Yes, miss. The coachman wants to know what time he
+shall bring it round.
+
+Rebecca. I think at about eleven o'clock. The boat goes at
+midnight.
+
+Mrs. Helseth (with a little hesitation). But what about Mr.
+Rosmer? Suppose he is not back by that time?
+
+Rebecca. I shall start, all the same. If I should not see him,
+you can tell him I will write to him--a long letter, say that.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Yes, I dare say it will be all right to write. But,
+poor dear, I really think that you ought to try and have a talk
+with him once more.
+
+Rebecca. Perhaps I ought--Or perhaps not, after all.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Dear, dear! I never thought I should, live to see
+such a thing as this!
+
+Rebecca. What did you think, then, Mrs. Helseth?
+
+Mrs. Helseth. To tell the truth, miss, I thought Mr. Rosmer was
+an honester man than that.
+
+Rebecca. Honester?
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Yes, miss, that is the truth.
+
+Rebecca. But, my dear Mrs. Helseth, what do you mean by that?
+
+Mrs. Helseth. I mean what is true and right, miss. He should not
+get out of it in this way--that he shouldn't.
+
+Rebecca (looking at her). Now look here, Mrs. Helseth. Tell me,
+honestly and frankly, why you think I am going away.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Good Lord, miss--because it is necessary, I suppose.
+Well, well!--Still, I certainly do not think Mr. Rosmer has
+behaved well. There was some excuse in Mortensgaard's case,
+because the woman's husband was still alive; so that it was
+impossible for them to marry, however much they wished it. But
+Mr. Rosmer, he could--ahem!
+
+Rebecca (with a faint smile). Is it possible that you could think
+such things about me and Mr. Rosmer?
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Not for a moment--until to-day, I mean.
+
+Rebecca. But why to-day?
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Well, after all the horrible things they tell me
+one may see in the papers about Mr. Rosmer
+
+Rebecca. Ah!
+
+Mrs. Helseth. What I mean is this--if a man can go over to
+Mortensgaard's religion, you may believe him capable of anything.
+And that's the truth.
+
+Rebecca. Yes, very likely. But about me? What have you got to say
+about me?
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Well, I am sure, miss--I do not think you are so
+greatly to be blamed. It is not always so easy for a lone woman
+to resist, I dare say. We are all human after all, Miss West.
+
+Rebecca. That is very true, Mrs. Helseth. We are all human, after
+all.--What are you listening to?
+
+Mrs. Helseth (in a low voice). Good Lord!--I believe that is him
+coming now.
+
+Rebecca (with a start). In spite of everything, then--! (Speaks
+with determination.) Very well. So be it. (ROSMER comes in from
+the hall. He sees the luggage, and turns to REBECCA.)
+
+Rosmer. What does this mean?
+
+Rebecca. I am going away.
+
+Rosmer. At once?
+
+Rebecca. Yes. (To MRS. HELSETH.) Eleven o'clock, then.
+
+Mrs. Helseth. Very well, miss. (Goes out to the right.)
+
+Rosmer (after a short pause). Where are you going, Rebecca?
+
+Rebecca. I am taking the boat for the north.
+
+Rosmer. North? What are you going there for?
+
+Rebecca. It is where I came from.
+
+Rosmer. But you have no more ties there now.
+
+Rebecca. I have none here, either.
+
+Rosmer. What do you propose to do?
+
+Rebecca. I do not know. I only want to make an end of it.
+
+Rosmer. Make an end of what?
+
+Rebecca. Rosmersholm has broken me.
+
+Rosmer (more attentively). What is that?
+
+Rebecca. Broken me utterly. I had a will of my own, and some
+courage, when I came here. Now I am crushed under the law of
+strangers. I do not think I shall have the courage to begin
+anything else in the world after this.
+
+Rosmer. Why not? What do you mean by being crushed under a law--?
+
+Rebecca. Dear friend, do not let us talk about that now--Tell me
+what passed between you and Mr. Kroll.
+
+Rosmer. We have made our peace.
+
+Rebecca. Quite so. So it came to that.
+
+Rosmer. He got together all our old circle of friends at his
+house. They convinced me that the work of ennobling men's souls
+was not in my line at all. Besides, it is such a hopeless task,
+any way. I shall let it alone.
+
+Rebecca. Well, perhaps it is better so.
+
+Rosmer. Do you say THAT now? Is that what your opinion is now?
+
+Rebecca. I have come to that opinion--in the last day or two.
+
+Rosmer. You are lying, Rebecca.
+
+Rebecca. Lying--?
+
+Rosmer. Yes, lying. You have never believed in me. You have never
+believed me to be the man to lead the cause to victory.
+
+Rebecca. I have believed that we two together would be equal to
+it.
+
+Rosmer. That is not true. You have believed that you could
+accomplish something big in life yourself--that you could use me
+to further your plans--that I might be useful to you in the
+pursuit of your object. That is what you have believed.
+
+Rebecca. Listen to me, John
+
+Rosmer (sitting down wearily on the couch). Oh, let me be! I see
+the whole thing clearly now. I have been like a glove in your
+hands.
+
+Rebecca. Listen to me, John. Let us talk this thing over. It will
+be for the last time. (Sits down in a chair by the couch.) I had
+intended to write to you about it all--when I had gone back north.
+But it is much better that you should hear it at once.
+
+Rosmer. Have you something more to tell, then?
+
+Rebecca. The most important part of it all.
+
+Rosmer. What do you mean?
+
+Rebecca. Something that you have never suspected. Something that
+puts all the rest in its true light.
+
+Rosmer (shaking his head). I do not understand, at all.
+
+Rebecca. It is quite true that at one time I did play my cards so
+as to secure admission to Rosmersholm. My idea was that I should
+succeed in doing well for myself here--either in one way or in
+another, you understand.
+
+Rosmer. Well, you succeeded in carrying your scheme through, too.
+
+Rebecca. I believe I could have carried anything through--at that
+time. For then I still had the courage of a free will. I had no
+one else to consider, nothing to turn me from my path. But then
+began what has broken down my will and filled the whole of my
+life with dread and wretchedness.
+
+Rosmer. What--began? Speak so that I can understand you.
+
+Rebecca. There came over me--a wild, uncontrollable passion--Oh,
+John--!
+
+Rosmer. Passion? You--! For what?
+
+Rebecca. For you.
+
+Rosmer (getting up). What does this mean!
+
+Rebecca (preventing him). Sit still, dear. I will tell you more
+about it.
+
+Rosmer. And you mean to say--that you have loved me--in that way!
+
+Rebecca. I thought I might call it loving you--then. I thought it
+was love. But it was not. It was what I have said--a wild,
+uncontrollable passion.
+
+Rosmer (speaking with difficulty). Rebecca--is it really you-you-
+who are sitting here telling me this?
+
+Rebecca. Yes, indeed it is, John.
+
+Rosmer. Then it was as the outcome of this--and under the
+influence of this--that you "acted," as you called it.
+
+Rebecca. It swept over me like a storm over the sea--like one of
+the storms we have in winter in the north. They catch you up and
+rush you along with them, you know, until their fury is expended.
+There is no withstanding them.
+
+Rosmer. So it swept poor unhappy Beata into the mill-race.
+
+Rebecca. Yes--it was like a fight for life between Beata and me at
+that time.
+
+Rosmer. You proved the strongest of us all at Rosmersholm--
+stronger than both Beata and me put together.
+
+Rebecca. I knew you well enough to know that I could not get at
+you in any way until you were set free--both in actual
+circumstances and in your soul.
+
+Rosmer. But I do not understand you, Rebecca. You--you yourself
+and your whole conduct--are an insoluble riddle to me. I am free
+now--both in my soul and my circumstances. You are absolutely in
+touch with the goal you set before yourself from the beginning.
+And nevertheless--
+
+Rebecca. I have never stood farther from my goal than I do now.
+
+Rosmer. And nevertheless, I say, when yesterday I asked you--urged
+you--to become my wife, you cried out that it never could be.
+
+Rebecca. I cried out in despair, John.
+
+Rosmer. Why?
+
+Rebecca. Because Rosmersholm has unnerved me. All the courage has
+been sapped out of my will here--crushed out! The time has gone
+for me to dare risk anything whatever. I have lost all power of
+action, John.
+
+Rosmer. Tell me how that has come about.
+
+Rebecca. It has come about through my living with you.
+
+Rosmer. But how? How?
+
+Rebecca. When I was alone with you here--and you had really found
+yourself--
+
+Rosmer. Yes, yes?
+
+Rebecca. For you never really found yourself as long as Beata was
+Alive--
+
+Rosmer. Alas, you are right in that.
+
+Rebecca. When it came about that I was living together with you
+here, in peace and solitude--when you exchanged all your thoughts
+with me unreservedly--your every mood, however tender or intimate--
+then the great change happened in me. Little by little, you
+understand. Almost imperceptibly--but overwhelmingly in the end,
+till it reached the uttermost depths of my soul.
+
+Rosmer. What does this mean, Rebecca?
+
+Rebecca. All the other feeling--all that horrible passion that had
+drowned my better self--left me entirely. All the violent emotions
+that had been roused in me were quelled and silenced. A peace
+stole over my soul--a quiet like that of one of our mountain
+peaks up under the midnight sun.
+
+Rosmer. Tell me more of it--all that you can.
+
+Rebecca. There is not much more to tell. Only that this was how
+love grew up in my heart--a great, self-denying love--content
+with such a union of hearts as there has been between us two.
+
+Rosmer. Oh, if only I had had the slightest suspicion of all this!
+
+Rebecca. It is best as it is. Yesterday, when you asked me if I
+would be your wife, I gave a cry of joy--
+
+Rosmer. Yes, it was that, Rebecca, was it not! I thought
+that was what it meant.
+
+Rebecca. For a moment, yes-I forgot myself for a moment. It was
+my dauntless will of the old days that was struggling to be free
+again. But now it has no more strength--it has lost it for ever.
+
+Rosmer. How do you explain what has taken place in you?
+
+Rebecca. It is the Rosmer attitude towards life-
+or your attitude towards life, at any rate--that has infected
+my will.
+
+Rosmer. Infected?
+
+Rebecca. Yes, and made it sickly--bound it captive under laws
+that formerly had no meaning for me. You--my life together with
+you--have ennobled my soul--
+
+Rosmer. Ah, if I dared believe that to be true!
+
+Rebecca. You may believe it confidently. The Rosmer attitude
+towards life ennobles. But-(shakes her head)-but-but--
+
+Rosmer. But? Well?
+
+Rebecca. But it kills joy, you know.
+
+Rosmer. Do you say that, Rebecca?
+
+Rebecca. For me, at all events.
+
+Rosmer. Yes, but are you so sure of that? If I asked you
+again now--? Implored you--?
+
+Rebecca. Oh, my dear--never go back to that again! It is
+impossible. Yes, impossible--because I must tell you this, John.
+I have a--past behind me.
+
+Rosmer. Something more than you have told me?
+
+Rebecca. Yes, something more and something different.
+
+Rosmer (with a faint smile). It is very strange, Rebecca, but--
+do you know--the idea of such a thing has occurred to me more
+than once.
+
+Rebecca. It has? And yet--notwithstanding that, you--?
+
+Rosmer. I never believed in it. I only played with the idea-
+nothing more.
+
+Rebecca. If you wish, I will tell you all about it at once.
+
+Rosmer (stopping her). No, no! I do not want to hear a word
+aabout it. Whatever it is, it shall be forgotten, as far
+as I am concerned.
+
+Rebecca. But I cannot forget it.
+
+Rosmer. Oh, Rebecca--!
+
+Rebecca. Yes, dear--that is just the dreadful part of it-that
+now, when all the happiness of life is freely and fully offered
+to me, all I can feel is that I am barred out from it by my past.
+
+Rosmer. Your past is dead, Rebecca. It has no longer any hold
+on you--has nothing to do with you--as you are now.
+
+Rebecca. Ah, my dear, those are mere words, you know. What
+about innocence, then? Where am I to get that from?
+
+Rosmer (gloomily). Ah, yes--innocence.
+
+Rebecca. Yes, innocence--which is at the root of all joy
+and happiness. That was the teaching, you know, that you
+wanted to see realised by all the men you were going to raise
+up to nobility and happiness.
+
+Rosmer. Ah, do not remind me of that. It was nothing but a
+half-dreamt dream, Rebecca--a rash suggestion that I have
+no longer any faith in. Human nature cannot be ennobled by
+outside influences, believe me.
+
+Rebecca (gently). Not by a tranquil love, do you think?
+
+Rosmer (thoughtfully). Yes, that would be a splendid thing-
+almost the most glorious thing in life, I think if it were so.
+(Moves restlessly.) But how am I ever to clear up the question?-
+how am I to get to the bottom of it?
+
+Rebecca. Do you not believe in me, John?
+
+Rosmer. Ah, Rebecca, how can I believe you entirely--you whose
+life here has been nothing but continual concealment and
+secrecy!--And now you have this new tale to tell. If it is
+cloaking some design of yours, tell me so--openly. Perhaps there
+is something or other that you hope to gain by that means? I will
+gladly do anything that I can for you.
+
+Rebecca (wringing her hands). Oh, this killing doubt! John, John--!
+
+Rosmer. Yes, I know, dear--it is horrible--but I cannot help it. I
+shall never be able to free myself from it--never be able to feel
+certain that your love for me is genuine and pure.
+
+Rebecca. But is there nothing in your own heart that bears
+witness to the transformation that has taken place in me--and
+taken place through your influence, and yours alone!
+
+Rosmer. Ah, my dear, I do not believe any longer in my power to
+transform people. I have no belief in myself left at all. I do
+not believe either in myself or in you.
+
+Rebecca (looking darkly at him). How are you going to live out
+your life, then?
+
+Rosmer. That is just what I do not know--and cannot imagine. I do
+not believe I can live it out. And, moreover, I do not know
+anything in the world that would be worth living for.
+
+Rebecca. Life carries a perpetual rebirth with it. Let us hold
+fast to it, dear. We shall be finished with it quite soon enough.
+
+Rosmer (getting up restlessly). Then give me my faith back
+again!--my faith in you, Rebecca--my faith in your love! Give me a
+proof of it! I must have some proof!
+
+Rebecca. Proof? How can I give you a proof--!
+
+Rosmer. You must! (Crosses the room.) I cannot bear this
+desolate, horrible loneliness--this-this--. (A knock is heard at
+the hall door.)
+
+Rebecca (getting up from her chair). Did you hear that?
+
+(The door opens, and ULRIK BRENDEL comes in. Except that he wears
+a white shirt, a black coat and, a good pair of high boots, he is
+dressed as in the first act. He looks troubled.)
+
+Rosmer. Ah, it is you, Mr. Brendel!
+
+Brendel. John, my boy, I have come to say good-bye to you!
+
+Rosmer. Where are you going, so late as this?
+
+Brendel. Downhill.
+
+Rosmer. How--?
+
+Brendel. I am on my way home, my beloved pupil. I am homesick for
+the great Nothingness.
+
+Rosmer. Something has happened to you, Mr. Brendel! What is it?
+
+Brendel. Ah, you notice the transformation, then? Well, it is
+evident enough. The last time I entered your doors I stood before
+you a man of substance, slapping a well-filled pocket.
+
+Rosmer. Really? I don't quite understand--
+
+Brendel. And now, as you see me to-night, I am a deposed monarch
+standing over the ashes of my burnt-out palace.
+
+Rosmer. If there is any way I can help you
+
+Brendel. You have preserved your childlike heart, John--can you
+let me have a loan?
+
+Rosmer. Yes, most willingly!
+
+Brendel. Can you spare me an ideal or two?
+
+Rosmer. What do you say?
+
+Brendel. One or two cast-off ideals? You will be doing a good
+deed. I am cleaned out, my dear boy, absolutely and entirely.
+
+Rebecca. Did you not succeed in giving your lecture?
+
+Brendel. No, fair lady. What do you think?--just as I was standing
+ready to pour out the contents of my horn in plenty, I made the
+painful discovery that I was bankrupt.
+
+Rebecca. But what of all your unwritten works, then?
+
+Brendel. For five and twenty years I have been like a miser
+sitting on his locked money-chest. And then to-day, when I opened
+it to take out my treasure--there was nothing there! The mills of
+time had ground it into dust. There was not a blessed thing left
+of the whole lot.
+
+Rosmer. But are you certain of that?
+
+Brendel. There is no room for doubt, my dear boy. The President
+has convinced me of that.
+
+Rosmer. The President?
+
+Brendel. Oh, well--His Excellency, then. Ganz nach Belieben.
+
+Rosmer. But whom do you mean?
+
+Brendel. Peter Mortensgaard, of course.
+
+Rosmer. What!
+
+Brendel (mysteriously). Hush, hush, hush! Peter Mortensgaard is
+Lord and Chieftain of the Future. I have never stood in a more
+august presence. Peter Mortensgaard has the power of omnipotence
+in him. He can do whatever he wants.
+
+Rosmer. Oh, come--don't you believe that!
+
+Brendel. It is true, my boy--because Peter Mortensgaard never
+wants to do more than he can. Peter Mortensgaard is capable of
+living his life without ideals. And that, believe me, is
+precisely the great secret of success in life. It sums up all the
+wisdom of the world. Basta!
+
+Rosmer (in a low voice). Now I see that you are going away from
+here poorer than you came.
+
+Brendel. Bien! Then take an example from your old tutor. Erase
+from your mind everything that he imprinted there. Do not build
+your castle upon the shifting sand. And look well ahead, and be
+sure of your ground, before you build upon the charming creature
+who is sweetening your life here.
+
+Rebecca. Do you mean me?
+
+Brendel. Yes, most attractive mermaid!
+
+Rebecca. Why am I not fit to build upon?
+
+Brendel (taking a step nearer to her). I understood that my
+former pupil had a cause which it was his life's work to lead to
+victory.
+
+Rebecca. And if he has--?
+
+Brendel. He is certain of victory--but, be it distinctly
+understood, on one unalterable condition.
+
+Rebecca. What is that?
+
+Brendel (taking her gently by the wrist). That the woman who
+loves him shall gladly go out into the kitchen and chop off her
+dainty, pink and white little finger--here, just at the middle
+joint. Furthermore, that the aforesaid loving woman shall--also
+gladly--clip off her incomparably moulded left ear. (Lets her go,
+and turns to ROSMER.) Good-bye, John the Victorious!
+
+Rosmer. Must you go now--in this dark night?
+
+Brendel. The dark night is best. Peace be with you! (He goes out.
+Silence in the room for a short time.)
+
+Rebecca (breathing heavily). How close and sultry it is in here!
+(Goes to the window, opens it and stands by it.)
+
+Rosmer (sitting down on a chair by the stove). There is nothing
+else for it after all, Rebecca--I can see that. You must go away.
+
+Rebecca. Yes, I do not see that I have any choice.
+
+Rosmer. Let us make use of our last hour together. Come over here
+and sit beside me.
+
+Rebecca (goes and sits down on the couch). What do you want,
+John?
+
+Rosmer. In the first place I want to tell you that you need have
+no anxiety about your future.
+
+Rebecca (with a smile). Hm! My future!
+
+Rosmer. I have foreseen all contingencies--long ago. Whatever may
+happen, you are provided for.
+
+Rebecca. Have you even done that for me, dear?
+
+Rosmer. You might have known that I should.
+
+Rebecca. It is many a long day since I thought about anything of
+the kind.
+
+Rosmer. Yes, of course. Naturally, you thought things could never
+be otherwise between us than as they were.
+
+Rebecca. Yes, that was what I thought.
+
+Rosmer. So did I. But if anything were to happen to me now--
+
+Rebecca. Oh, John, you will live longer than I shall.
+
+Rosmer. I can dispose of my miserable existence as I please, you
+know.
+
+Rebecca. What do you mean? You surely are never thinking of--!
+
+Rosmer. Do you think it would be so surprising? After the
+pitiful, lamentable defeat I have suffered? I, who was to have
+made it my life's work to lead my cause to victory--! And here I
+am, a deserter before the fight has even really begun!
+
+Rebecca. Take up the fight again, John! Only try--and you will
+see that you will conquer. You will ennoble hundreds--thousands--of
+souls. Only try!
+
+Rosmer. I, Rebecca, who no longer believe even in my having a
+mission in life?
+
+Rebecca. But your mission has stood the test. You have at all
+events ennobled one of your fellow-creatures for the rest of her
+life--I mean myself.
+
+Rosmer. Yes--if I dared believe you about that.
+
+Rebecca (wringing her hands). But, John, do you know of nothing--
+nothing--that would make you believe that?
+
+Rosmer (starts, as if with fear). Don't venture on that subject!
+No further, Rebecca! Not a single word more!
+
+Rebecca. Indeed, that is just the subject we must venture upon.
+Do you know of anything that would stifle your doubts? For I know
+of nothing in the world.
+
+Rosmer. It is best for you not to know. Best for us both.
+
+Rebecca. No, no, no--I have no patience with that sort of thing!
+If you know of anything that would acquit me in your eyes, I
+claim it as my right that you should name it.
+
+Rosmer (as if impelled against his will). Well, let us see. You
+say that you have great love in your heart; that your soul has
+been ennobled through me. Is that so? Have you counted the cost?
+Shall we try and balance our accounts? Tell me.
+
+Rebecca. I am quite ready.
+
+Rosmer. Then when shall it be?
+
+Rebecca. Whenever you like. The sooner the better.
+
+Rosmer. Then let me see, Rebecca, whether you--for my sake-this
+very night--. (Breaks off.) Oh, no, no!
+
+Rebecca. Yes, John! Yes, yes! Say it, and you shall see.
+
+Rosmer. Have you the courage--are you willing--gladly, as Ulrik
+Brendel said--for my sake, to-night--gladly--to go the same way--that
+Beata went!
+
+Rebecca (gets up slowly from the couch, and says almost
+inaudibly): John--!
+
+Rosmer. Yes, dear--that is the question I shall never be able to
+rid my thoughts of, when you have gone away. Every hour of the
+day I shall come back to it. Ah, I seem to see you bodily before
+me--standing out on the foot-bridge-right out in the middle. Now
+you lean out over the railing ! You grow dizzy as you feel drawn
+down towards the mill-race! No--you recoil. You dare not do--what
+she dared.
+
+Rebecca. But if I had the courage?--and willingly and gladly? What
+then?
+
+Rosmer. Then I would believe in you. Then I should get back my
+faith in my mission in life--my faith in my power to ennoble my
+fellow men--my faith in mankind's power to be ennobled.
+
+Rebecca (takes up her shawl slowly, throws it over her head. and
+says, controlling herself): You shall have your faith back.
+
+Rosmer. Have you the courage and the strength of will for that,
+Rebecca?
+
+Rebecca. Of that you must judge in the morning--or later--when they
+take up my body.
+
+Rosmer (burying his head in his hands). There is a horrible
+temptation in this--!
+
+Rebecca. Because I should not like to be left lying there--any
+longer than need be. You must take care that they find me.
+
+Rosmer (springing up). But all this is madness, you know. Go
+away, or stay! I will believe you on your bare word this time
+too.
+
+Rebecca. Those are mere words, John. No more cowardice or
+evasion! How can you believe me on my bare word after today?
+
+Rosmer. But I do not want to see your defeat, Rebecca.
+
+Rebecca. There will be no defeat.
+
+Rosmer. There will. You will never have the heart to go Beata's
+way.
+
+Rebecca. Do you believe that?
+
+Rosmer. Never. You are not like Beata. You are not under the
+influence of a distorted view of life.
+
+Rebecca. But I am under the influence of the Rosmersholm view of
+Life--now. Whatever my offences are--it is right that I should
+expiate them.
+
+Rosmer (looking at her fixedly). Have you come to that decision?
+
+Rebecca. Yes.
+
+Rosmer. Very well. Then I too am under the influence of our
+unfettered view of life, Rebecca. There is no one that can judge
+us. And therefore we must be our own judges.
+
+Rebecca (misunderstanding his meaning). That too. That too. My
+leaving you will save the best that is in you.
+
+Rosmer. Ah, there is nothing left to save in me.
+
+Rebecca. There is. But I--after this I should only be like some
+sea-sprite hanging on to the barque you are striving to sail
+forward in, and, hampering its progress. I must go overboard. Do
+you think I could go through the world bearing the burden of a
+spoiled life--brooding for ever over the happiness which I have
+forfeited by my past? I must throw up the game, John.
+
+Rosmer. If you go--then I go with you.
+
+Rebecca (looks at him with an almost imperceptible smile, and
+says more gently): Yes, come with me, dear--and be witness--
+
+Rosmer. I go with you, I said.
+
+Rebecca. As far as the bridge--yes. You never dare go out on to
+it, you know.
+
+Rosmer. Have you noticed that?
+
+Rebecca (in sad and broken tones). Yes. That was what made my
+love hopeless.
+
+Rosmer. Rebecca--now I lay my hand on your head. (Does as he
+says.) And I take you for my true and lawful wife.
+
+Rebecca (taking both his hands in hers, and bowing her head on to
+his breast). Thank you, John. (Lets him go.) And now I am going--
+gladly.
+
+Rosmer. Man and wife should go together.
+
+Rebecca. Only as far as the bridge, John.
+
+Rosmer. And out on to it, too. As far as you go--so far I go with
+you. I dare do it now.
+
+Rebecca. Are you absolutely certain that way is the best for you?
+
+Rosmer. I know it is the only way.
+
+Rebecca. But suppose you are only deceiving yourself? Suppose it
+were only a delusion--one of these White Horses of Rosmersholm?
+
+Rosmer. It may be so. We can never escape from them--we of my
+race.
+
+Rebecca. Then stay, John!
+
+Rosmer. The man shall cleave to his wife, as the wife to her
+husband.
+
+Rebecca. Yes, but first tell me this--is it you that go with me,
+or I that go with you?
+
+Rosmer. We shall never get to the bottom of that.
+
+Rebecca. Yet I should dearly like to know.
+
+Rosmer. We two go with each other, Rebecca. I with you, and you
+with me.
+
+Rebecca. I almost believe that is true.
+
+Rosmer. For now we two are one.
+
+Rebecca. Yes. We are one now. Come! We can go gladly now. (They
+go out, hand in hand, through the hall, and are seen to turn to
+the left. The door stands open after them. The room is empty for
+a little while. Then MRS. HELSETH opens the door on the right.)
+
+Mrs. Helseth. The carriage, miss, is--. (Looks round the room.)
+Not here? Out together at this time of night? Well, well--I must
+say--! Hm! (Goes out into the hall, looks round and comes in
+again.) Not sitting on the bench--ah, well! (Goes to the window
+and looks out.) Good heavens! What is that white thing--! As I am
+a living soul, they are both out on the foot-bridge! God forgive
+the sinful creatures--if they are not in each other's arms! (Gives
+a wild scream.) Ah!--they are over--both of them! Over into the
+mill-race! Help! help! (Her knees tremble, she holds on shakily
+to the back of a chair and can scarcely get her words out.) No.
+No help here. The dead woman has taken them.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Rosmersholm, by Henrik Ibsen
+
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