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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of An Enemy of the People, by Henrik Ibsen
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: An Enemy of the People
+
+Author: Henrik Ibsen
+
+Translator: R. Farquharson Sharp
+
+Release Date: December, 2000 [EBook #2446]
+Last updated: May 1, 2019
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE ***
+
+
+
+Produced by Martin Adamson.  HTML version by Al Haines.
+
+
+
+AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE
+
+
+
+A play in five acts
+
+
+
+by
+
+
+
+Henrik Ibsen
+
+
+
+Translated by R. Farquharson Sharp
+
+
+Contents
+
+
+ ACT I
+ ACT II
+ ACT III
+ ACT IV
+ ACT V
+
+
+DRAMATIS PERSONAE
+
+  Dr. Thomas Stockmann, Medical Officer of the Municipal Baths.
+  Mrs. Stockmann, his wife.
+  Petra (their daughter) a teacher.
+  Ejlif & Morten (their sons, aged 13 and 10 respectively).
+  Peter Stockmann (the Doctor's elder brother), Mayor of the
+  Town and Chief Constable, Chairman of the Baths' Committee, etc.
+  Morten Kiil, a tanner (Mrs. Stockmann's adoptive father).
+  Hovstad, editor of the "People's Messenger."
+  Billing, sub-editor.
+  Captain Horster.
+  Aslaksen, a printer.
+
+Men of various conditions and occupations, a few women, and a troop of
+schoolboys—the audience at a public meeting.
+
+The action takes place in a coastal town in southern Norway,
+
+AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE
+
+ACT I
+
+(SCENE.—DR. STOCKMANN'S sitting-room. It is evening. The room is
+plainly but neatly appointed and furnished. In the right-hand wall are
+two doors; the farther leads out to the hall, the nearer to the
+doctor's study. In the left-hand wall, opposite the door leading to the
+hall, is a door leading to the other rooms occupied by the family. In
+the middle of the same wall stands the stove, and, further forward, a
+couch with a looking-glass hanging over it and an oval table in front
+of it. On the table, a lighted lamp, with a lampshade. At the back of
+the room, an open door leads to the dining-room. BILLING is seen
+sitting at the dining table, on which a lamp is burning. He has a
+napkin tucked under his chin, and MRS. STOCKMANN is standing by the
+table handing him a large plate-full of roast beef. The other places at
+the table are empty, and the table somewhat in disorder, evidently a
+meal having recently been finished.)
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. You see, if you come an hour late, Mr. Billing, you
+have to put up with cold meat.
+
+Billing (as he eats). It is uncommonly good, thank you—remarkably good.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. My husband makes such a point of having his meals
+punctually, you know.
+
+Billing. That doesn't affect me a bit. Indeed, I almost think I enjoy a
+meal all the better when I can sit down and eat all by myself, and
+undisturbed.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Oh well, as long as you are enjoying it—. (Turns to
+the hall door, listening.) I expect that is Mr. Hovstad coming too.
+
+Billing. Very likely.
+
+(PETER STOCKMANN comes in. He wears an overcoat and his official hat,
+and carries a stick.)
+
+Peter Stockmann. Good evening, Katherine.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann (coming forward into the sitting-room). Ah, good
+evening—is it you? How good of you to come up and see us!
+
+Peter Stockmann. I happened to be passing, and so—(looks into the
+dining-room). But you have company with you, I see.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann (a little embarrassed). Oh, no—it was quite by chance
+he came in. (Hurriedly.) Won't you come in and have something, too?
+
+Peter Stockmann. I! No, thank you. Good gracious—hot meat at night!
+Not with my digestion.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Oh, but just once in a way—
+
+Peter Stockmann. No, no, my dear lady; I stick to my tea and bread and
+butter. It is much more wholesome in the long run—and a little more
+economical, too.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann (smiling). Now you mustn't think that Thomas and I are
+spendthrifts.
+
+Peter Stockmann. Not you, my dear; I would never think that of you.
+(Points to the Doctor's study.) Is he not at home?
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. No, he went out for a little turn after supper—he and
+the boys.
+
+Peter Stockmann. I doubt if that is a wise thing to do. (Listens.) I
+fancy I hear him coming now.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. No, I don't think it is he. (A knock is heard at the
+door.) Come in! (HOVSTAD comes in from the hall.) Oh, it is you, Mr.
+Hovstad!
+
+Hovstad. Yes, I hope you will forgive me, but I was delayed at the
+printers. Good evening, Mr. Mayor.
+
+Peter Stockmann (bowing a little distantly). Good evening. You have
+come on business, no doubt.
+
+Hovstad. Partly. It's about an article for the paper.
+
+Peter Stockmann. So I imagined. I hear my brother has become a prolific
+contributor to the "People's Messenger."
+
+Hovstad. Yes, he is good enough to write in the "People's Messenger"
+when he has any home truths to tell.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann (to HOVSTAD). But won't you—? (Points to the
+dining-room.)
+
+Peter Stockmann. Quite so, quite so. I don't blame him in the least, as
+a writer, for addressing himself to the quarters where he will find the
+readiest sympathy. And, besides that, I personally have no reason to
+bear any ill will to your paper, Mr. Hovstad.
+
+Hovstad. I quite agree with you.
+
+Peter Stockmann. Taking one thing with another, there is an excellent
+spirit of toleration in the town—an admirable municipal spirit. And it
+all springs from the fact of our having a great common interest to
+unite us—an interest that is in an equally high degree the concern of
+every right-minded citizen.
+
+Hovstad. The Baths, yes.
+
+Peter Stockmann. Exactly—-our fine, new, handsome Baths. Mark my
+words, Mr. Hovstad—the Baths will become the focus of our municipal
+life! Not a doubt of it!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. That is just what Thomas says.
+
+Peter Stockmann. Think how extraordinarily the place has developed
+within the last year or two! Money has been flowing in, and there is
+some life and some business doing in the town. Houses and landed
+property are rising in value every day.
+
+Hovstad. And unemployment is diminishing,
+
+Peter Stockmann. Yes, that is another thing. The burden on the poor
+rates has been lightened, to the great relief of the propertied
+classes; and that relief will be even greater if only we get a really
+good summer this year, and lots of visitors—plenty of invalids, who
+will make the Baths talked about.
+
+Hovstad. And there is a good prospect of that, I hear.
+
+Peter Stockmann. It looks very promising. Inquiries about apartments
+and that sort of thing are reaching us, every day.
+
+Hovstad. Well, the doctor's article will come in very suitably.
+
+Peter Stockmann. Has he been writing something just lately?
+
+Hovstad. This is something he wrote in the winter; a recommendation of
+the Baths—an account of the excellent sanitary conditions here. But I
+held the article over, temporarily.
+
+Peter Stockmann. Ah,—some little difficulty about it, I suppose?
+
+Hovstad. No, not at all; I thought it would be better to wait until the
+spring, because it is just at this time that people begin to think
+seriously about their summer quarters.
+
+Peter Stockmann. Quite right; you were perfectly right, Mr. Hovstad.
+
+Hovstad. Yes, Thomas is really indefatigable when it is a question of
+the Baths.
+
+Peter Stockmann. Well remember, he is the Medical Officer to the Baths.
+
+Hovstad. Yes, and what is more, they owe their existence to him.
+
+Peter Stockmann. To him? Indeed! It is true I have heard from time to
+time that some people are of that opinion. At the same time I must say
+I imagined that I took a modest part in the enterprise.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Yes, that is what Thomas is always saying.
+
+Hovstad. But who denies it, Mr. Stockmann? You set the thing going and
+made a practical concern of it; we all know that. I only meant that the
+idea of it came first from the doctor.
+
+Peter Stockmann. Oh, ideas yes! My brother has had plenty of them in
+his time—unfortunately. But when it is a question of putting an idea
+into practical shape, you have to apply to a man of different mettle,
+Mr. Hovstad. And I certainly should have thought that in this house at
+least...
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. My dear Peter—
+
+Hovstad. How can you think that—?
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Won't you go in and have something, Mr. Hovstad? My
+husband is sure to be back directly.
+
+Hovstad. Thank you, perhaps just a morsel. (Goes into the dining-room.)
+
+Peter Stockmann (lowering his voice a little). It is a curious thing
+that these farmers' sons never seem to lose their want of tact.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Surely it is not worth bothering about! Cannot you and
+Thomas share the credit as brothers?
+
+Peter Stockmann. I should have thought so; but apparently some people
+are not satisfied with a share.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. What nonsense! You and Thomas get on so capitally
+together. (Listens.) There he is at last, I think. (Goes out and opens
+the door leading to the hall.)
+
+Dr. Stockmann (laughing and talking outside). Look here—here is
+another guest for you, Katherine. Isn't that jolly! Come in, Captain
+Horster; hang your coat up on this peg. Ah, you don't wear an overcoat.
+Just think, Katherine; I met him in the street and could hardly
+persuade him to come up! (CAPTAIN HORSTER comes into the room and
+greets MRS. STOCKMANN. He is followed by DR. STOCKMANN.) Come along in,
+boys. They are ravenously hungry again, you know. Come along, Captain
+Horster; you must have a slice of beef. (Pushes HORSTER into the
+dining-room. EJLIF and MORTEN go in after them.)
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. But, Thomas, don't you see—?
+
+Dr. Stockmann (turning in the doorway). Oh, is it you, Peter? (Shakes
+hands with him.) Now that is very delightful.
+
+Peter Stockmann. Unfortunately I must go in a moment—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Rubbish! There is some toddy just coming in. You haven't
+forgotten the toddy, Katherine?
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Of course not; the water is boiling now. (Goes into the
+dining-room.)
+
+Peter Stockmann. Toddy too!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes, sit down and we will have it comfortably.
+
+Peter Stockmann. Thanks, I never care about an evening's drinking.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. But this isn't an evening's drinking.
+
+Peter Stockmann. It seems to me—. (Looks towards the dining-room.) It
+is extraordinary how they can put away all that food.
+
+Dr. Stockmann (rubbing his hands). Yes, isn't it splendid to see young
+people eat? They have always got an appetite, you know! That's as it
+should be. Lots of food—to build up their strength! They are the
+people who are going to stir up the fermenting forces of the future,
+Peter.
+
+Peter Stockmann. May I ask what they will find here to "stir up," as
+you put it?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Ah, you must ask the young people that—when the times
+comes. We shan't be able to see it, of course. That stands to
+reason—two old fogies, like us.
+
+Peter Stockmann. Really, really! I must say that is an extremely odd
+expression to—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Oh, you mustn't take me too literally, Peter. I am so
+heartily happy and contented, you know. I think it is such an
+extraordinary piece of good fortune to be in the middle of all this
+growing, germinating life. It is a splendid time to live in! It is as
+if a whole new world were being created around one.
+
+Peter Stockmann. Do you really think so?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Ah, naturally you can't appreciate it as keenly as I.
+You have lived all your life in these surroundings, and your
+impressions have been blunted. But I, who have been buried all these
+years in my little corner up north, almost without ever seeing a
+stranger who might bring new ideas with him—well, in my case it has
+just the same effect as if I had been transported into the middle of a
+crowded city.
+
+Peter Stockmann. Oh, a city—!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I know, I know; it is all cramped enough here, compared
+with many other places. But there is life here—there is promise—there
+are innumerable things to work for and fight for; and that is the main
+thing. (Calls.) Katherine, hasn't the postman been here?
+
+Mrs. Stockmann (from the dining-room). No.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. And then to be comfortably off, Peter! That is something
+one learns to value, when one has been on the brink of starvation, as
+we have.
+
+Peter Stockmann. Oh, surely—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Indeed I can assure you we have often been very hard put
+to it, up there. And now to be able to live like a lord! Today, for
+instance, we had roast beef for dinner—and, what is more, for supper
+too. Won't you come and have a little bit? Or let me show it you, at
+any rate? Come here—
+
+Peter Stockmann. No, no—not for worlds!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Well, but just come here then. Do you see, we have got a
+table-cover?
+
+Peter Stockmann. Yes, I noticed it.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. And we have got a lamp-shade too. Do you see? All out of
+Katherine's savings! It makes the room so cosy. Don't you think so?
+Just stand here for a moment—no, no, not there—just here, that's it!
+Look now, when you get the light on it altogether. I really think it
+looks very nice, doesn't it?
+
+Peter Stockmann. Oh, if you can afford luxuries of this kind—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes, I can afford it now. Katherine tells me I earn
+almost as much as we spend.
+
+Peter Stockmann. Almost—yes!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. But a scientific man must live in a little bit of style.
+I am quite sure an ordinary civil servant spends more in a year than I
+do.
+
+Peter Stockmann. I daresay. A civil servant—a man in a well-paid
+position...
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Well, any ordinary merchant, then! A man in that
+position spends two or three times as much as—
+
+Peter Stockmann. It just depends on circumstances.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. At all events I assure you I don't waste money
+unprofitably. But I can't find it in my heart to deny myself the
+pleasure of entertaining my friends. I need that sort of thing, you
+know. I have lived for so long shut out of it all, that it is a
+necessity of life to me to mix with young, eager, ambitious men, men of
+liberal and active minds; and that describes every one of those fellows
+who are enjoying their supper in there. I wish you knew more of Hovstad.
+
+Peter Stockmann. By the way, Hovstad was telling me he was going to
+print another article of yours.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. An article of mine?
+
+Peter Stockmann. Yes, about the Baths. An article you wrote in the
+winter.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Oh, that one! No, I don't intend that to appear just for
+the present.
+
+Peter Stockmann. Why not? It seems to me that this would be the most
+opportune moment.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes, very likely—under normal conditions. (Crosses the
+room.)
+
+Peter Stockmann (following him with his eyes). Is there anything
+abnormal about the present conditions?
+
+Dr. Stockmann (standing still). To tell you the truth, Peter, I can't
+say just at this moment—at all events not tonight. There may be much
+that is very abnormal about the present conditions—and it is possible
+there may be nothing abnormal about them at all. It is quite possible
+it may be merely my imagination.
+
+Peter Stockmann. I must say it all sounds most mysterious. Is there
+something going on that I am to be kept in ignorance of? I should have
+imagined that I, as Chairman of the governing body of the Baths—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. And I should have imagined that I—. Oh, come, don't let
+us fly out at one another, Peter.
+
+Peter Stockmann. Heaven forbid! I am not in the habit of flying out at
+people, as you call it. But I am entitled to request most emphatically
+that all arrangements shall be made in a businesslike manner, through
+the proper channels, and shall be dealt with by the legally constituted
+authorities. I can allow no going behind our backs by any roundabout
+means.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Have I ever at any time tried to go behind your backs?
+
+Peter Stockmann. You have an ingrained tendency to take your own way,
+at all events; and, that is almost equally inadmissible in a well
+ordered community. The individual ought undoubtedly to acquiesce in
+subordinating himself to the community—or, to speak more accurately,
+to the authorities who have the care of the community's welfare.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Very likely. But what the deuce has all this got to do
+with me?
+
+Peter Stockmann. That is exactly what you never appear to be willing to
+learn, my dear Thomas. But, mark my words, some day you will have to
+suffer for it—sooner or later. Now I have told you. Good-bye.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Have you taken leave of your senses? You are on the
+wrong scent altogether.
+
+Peter Stockmann. I am not usually that. You must excuse me now if I—
+(calls into the dining-room). Good night, Katherine. Good night,
+gentlemen. (Goes out.)
+
+Mrs. Stockmann (coming from the dining-room). Has he gone?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes, and in such a bad temper.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. But, dear Thomas, what have you been doing to him again?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Nothing at all. And, anyhow, he can't oblige me to make
+my report before the proper time.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. What have you got to make a report to him about?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Hm! Leave that to me, Katherine. It is an extraordinary
+thing that the postman doesn't come.
+
+(HOVSTAD, BILLING and HORSTER have got up from the table and come into
+the sitting-room. EJLIF and MORTEN come in after them.)
+
+Billing (stretching himself). Ah!—one feels a new man after a meal
+like that.
+
+Hovstad. The mayor wasn't in a very sweet temper tonight, then.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. It is his stomach; he has wretched digestion.
+
+Hovstad. I rather think it was us two of the "People's Messenger" that
+he couldn't digest.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. I thought you came out of it pretty well with him.
+
+Hovstad. Oh yes; but it isn't anything more than a sort of truce.
+
+Billing. That is just what it is! That word sums up the situation.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. We must remember that Peter is a lonely man, poor chap.
+He has no home comforts of any kind; nothing but everlasting business.
+And all that infernal weak tea wash that he pours into himself! Now
+then, my boys, bring chairs up to the table. Aren't we going to have
+that toddy, Katherine?
+
+Mrs. Stockmann (going into the dining-room). I am just getting it.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Sit down here on the couch beside me, Captain Horster.
+We so seldom see you. Please sit down, my friends. (They sit down at
+the table. MRS. STOCKMANN brings a tray, with a spirit-lamp, glasses,
+bottles, etc., upon it.)
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. There you are! This is arrack, and this is rum, and
+this one is the brandy. Now every one must help themselves.
+
+Dr. Stockmann (taking a glass). We will. (They all mix themselves some
+toddy.) And let us have the cigars. Ejlif, you know where the box is.
+And you, Morten, can fetch my pipe. (The two boys go into the room on
+the right.) I have a suspicion that Ejlif pockets a cigar now and
+then!—but I take no notice of it. (Calls out.) And my smoking-cap too,
+Morten. Katherine, you can tell him where I left it. Ah, he has got it.
+(The boys bring the various things.) Now, my friends. I stick to my
+pipe, you know. This one has seen plenty of bad weather with me up
+north. (Touches glasses with them.) Your good health! Ah, it is good to
+be sitting snug and warm here.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann (who sits knitting). Do you sail soon, Captain Horster?
+
+Horster. I expect to be ready to sail next week.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. I suppose you are going to America?
+
+Horster. Yes, that is the plan.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Then you won't be able to take part in the coming
+election?
+
+Horster. Is there going to be an election?
+
+Billing. Didn't you know?
+
+Horster. No, I don't mix myself up with those things.
+
+Billing. But do you not take an interest in public affairs?
+
+Horster. No, I don't know anything about politics.
+
+Billing. All the same, one ought to vote, at any rate.
+
+Horster. Even if one doesn't know anything about what is going on?
+
+Billing. Doesn't know! What do you mean by that? A community is like a
+ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm.
+
+Horster. Maybe that is all very well on shore; but on board ship it
+wouldn't work.
+
+Hovstad. It is astonishing how little most sailors care about what goes
+on on shore.
+
+Billing. Very extraordinary.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Sailors are like birds of passage; they feel equally at
+home in any latitude. And that is only an additional reason for our
+being all the more keen, Hovstad. Is there to be anything of public
+interest in tomorrow's "Messenger"?
+
+Hovstad. Nothing about municipal affairs. But the day after tomorrow I
+was thinking of printing your article—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Ah, devil take it—my article! Look here, that must wait
+a bit.
+
+Hovstad. Really? We had just got convenient space for it, and I thought
+it was just the opportune moment—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes, yes, very likely you are right; but it must wait
+all the same. I will explain to you later. (PETRA comes in from the
+hall, in hat and cloak and with a bundle of exercise books under her
+arm.)
+
+Petra. Good evening.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Good evening, Petra; come along.
+
+(Mutual greetings; PETRA takes off her things and puts them down on a
+chair by the door.)
+
+Petra. And you have all been sitting here enjoying yourselves, while I
+have been out slaving!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Well, come and enjoy yourself too!
+
+Billing. May I mix a glass for you?
+
+Petra (coming to the table). Thanks, I would rather do it; you always
+mix it too strong. But I forgot, father—I have a letter for you. (Goes
+to the chair where she has laid her things.)
+
+Dr. Stockmann. A letter? From whom?
+
+Petra (looking in her coat pocket). The postman gave it to me just as I
+was going out.
+
+Dr. Stockmann (getting up and going to her). And you only give to me
+now!
+
+Petra. I really had not time to run up again. There it is!
+
+Dr. Stockmann (seizing the letter). Let's see, let's see, child! (Looks
+at the address.) Yes, that's all right!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Is it the one you have been expecting go anxiously,
+Thomas?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes, it is. I must go to my room now and— Where shall I
+get a light, Katherine? Is there no lamp in my room again?
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Yes, your lamp is already lit on your desk.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Good, good. Excuse me for a moment—, (Goes into his
+study.)
+
+Petra. What do you suppose it is, mother?
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. I don't know; for the last day or two he has always
+been asking if the postman has not been.
+
+Billing. Probably some country patient.
+
+Petra. Poor old dad!—he will overwork himself soon. (Mixes a glass for
+herself.) There, that will taste good!
+
+Hovstad. Have you been teaching in the evening school again today?
+
+Petra (sipping from her glass). Two hours.
+
+Billing. And four hours of school in the morning?
+
+Petra. Five hours.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. And you have still got exercises to correct, I see.
+
+Petra. A whole heap, yes.
+
+Horster. You are pretty full up with work too, it seems to me.
+
+Petra. Yes—but that is good. One is so delightfully tired after it.
+
+Billing. Do you like that?
+
+Petra. Yes, because one sleeps so well then.
+
+Morten. You must be dreadfully wicked, Petra.
+
+Petra. Wicked?
+
+Morten. Yes, because you work so much. Mr. Rorlund says work is a
+punishment for our sins.
+
+Ejlif. Pooh, what a duffer, you are, to believe a thing like that!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Come, come, Ejlif!
+
+Billing (laughing). That's capital!
+
+Hovstad. Don't you want to work as hard as that, Morten?
+
+Morten. No, indeed I don't.
+
+Hovstad. What do you want to be, then?
+
+Morten. I should like best to be a Viking,
+
+Ejlif. You would have to be a pagan then.
+
+Morten. Well, I could become a pagan, couldn't I?
+
+Billing. I agree with you, Morten! My sentiments, exactly.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann (signalling to him). I am sure that is not true, Mr.
+Billing.
+
+Billing. Yes, I swear it is! I am a pagan, and I am proud of it.
+Believe me, before long we shall all be pagans.
+
+Morten. And then shall be allowed to do anything we like?
+
+Billing. Well, you'll see, Morten.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. You must go to your room now, boys; I am sure you have
+some lessons to learn for tomorrow.
+
+Ejlif. I should like so much to stay a little longer—
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. No, no; away you go, both of you, (The boys say good
+night and go into the room on the left.)
+
+Hovstad. Do you really think it can do the boys any harm to hear such
+things?
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. I don't know; but I don't like it.
+
+Petra. But you know, mother, I think you really are wrong about it.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Maybe, but I don't like it—not in our own home.
+
+Petra. There is so much falsehood both at home and at school. At home
+one must not speak, and at school we have to stand and tell lies to the
+children.
+
+Horster. Tell lies?
+
+Petra. Yes, don't you suppose we have to teach them all sorts of things
+that we don't believe?
+
+Billing. That is perfectly true.
+
+Petra. If only I had the means, I would start a school of my own; and
+it would be conducted on very different lines.
+
+Billing. Oh, bother the means—!
+
+Horster. Well if you are thinking of that, Miss Stockmann, I shall be
+delighted to provide you with a schoolroom. The great big old house my
+father left me is standing almost empty; there is an immense
+dining-room downstairs—
+
+Petra (laughing). Thank you very much; but I am afraid nothing will
+come of it.
+
+Hovstad. No, Miss Petra is much more likely to take to journalism, I
+expect. By the way, have you had time to do anything with that English
+story you promised to translate for us?
+
+Petra. No, not yet, but you shall have it in good time.
+
+(DR. STOCKMANN comes in from his room with an open letter in his hand.)
+
+Dr. Stockmann (waving the letter). Well, now the town will have
+something new to talk about, I can tell you!
+
+Billing. Something new?
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. What is this?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. A great discovery, Katherine.
+
+Hovstad. Really?
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. A discovery of yours?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. A discovery of mine. (Walks up and down.) Just let them
+come saying, as usual, that it is all fancy and a crazy man's
+imagination! But they will be careful what they say this time, I can
+tell you!
+
+Petra. But, father, tell us what it is.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes, yes—only give me time, and you shall know all
+about it. If only I had Peter here now! It just shows how we men can go
+about forming our judgments, when in reality we are as blind as any
+moles—
+
+Hovstad. What are you driving at, Doctor?
+
+Dr. Stockmann (standing still by the table). Isn't it the universal
+opinion that our town is a healthy spot?
+
+Hovstad. Certainly.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Quite an unusually healthy spot, in fact—a place that
+deserves to be recommended in the warmest possible manner either for
+invalids or for people who are well—
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Yes, but my dear Thomas—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. And we have been recommending it and praising it—I have
+written and written, both in the "Messenger" and in pamphlets...
+
+Hovstad. Well, what then?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. And the Baths—we have called them the "main artery of
+the town's life-blood," the "nerve-centre of our town," and the devil
+knows what else—
+
+Billing. "The town's pulsating heart" was the expression I once used on
+an important occasion.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Quite so. Well, do you know what they really are, these
+great, splendid, much praised Baths, that have cost so much money—do
+you know what they are?
+
+Hovstad. No, what are they?
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Yes, what are they?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. The whole place is a pest-house!
+
+Petra. The Baths, father?
+
+Mrs. Stockmann (at the same time), Our Baths?
+
+Hovstad. But, Doctor—
+
+Billing. Absolutely incredible!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. The whole Bath establishment is a whited, poisoned
+sepulchre, I tell you—the gravest possible danger to the public
+health! All the nastiness up at Molledal, all that stinking filth, is
+infecting the water in the conduit-pipes leading to the reservoir; and
+the same cursed, filthy poison oozes out on the shore too—
+
+Horster. Where the bathing-place is?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Just there.
+
+Hovstad. How do you come to be so certain of all this, Doctor?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I have investigated the matter most conscientiously. For
+a long time past I have suspected something of the kind. Last year we
+had some very strange cases of illness among the visitors—typhoid
+cases, and cases of gastric fever—
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Yes, that is quite true.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. At the time, we supposed the visitors had been infected
+before they came; but later on, in the winter, I began to have a
+different opinion; and so I set myself to examine the water, as well as
+I could.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Then that is what you have been so busy with?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Indeed I have been busy, Katherine. But here I had none
+of the necessary scientific apparatus; so I sent samples, both of the
+drinking-water and of the sea-water, up to the University, to have an
+accurate analysis made by a chemist.
+
+Hovstad. And have you got that?
+
+Dr. Stockmann (showing him the letter). Here it is! It proves the
+presence of decomposing organic matter in the water—it is full of
+infusoria. The water is absolutely dangerous to use, either internally
+or externally.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. What a mercy you discovered it in time.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. You may well say so.
+
+Hovstad. And what do you propose to do now, Doctor?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. To see the matter put right, naturally.
+
+Hovstad. Can that be done?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. It must be done. Otherwise the Baths will be absolutely
+useless and wasted. But we need not anticipate that; I have a very
+clear idea what we shall have to do.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. But why have you kept this all so secret, dear?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Do you suppose I was going to run about the town
+gossiping about it, before I had absolute proof? No, thank you. I am
+not such a fool.
+
+Petra. Still, you might have told us—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Not a living soul. But tomorrow you may run around to
+the old Badger—
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Oh, Thomas! Thomas!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Well, to your grandfather, then. The old boy will have
+something to be astonished at! I know he thinks I am cracked—and there
+are lots of other people who think so too, I have noticed. But now
+these good folks shall see—they shall just see! (Walks about, rubbing
+his hands.) There will be a nice upset in the town, Katherine; you
+can't imagine what it will be. All the conduit-pipes will have to be
+relaid.
+
+Hovstad (getting up). All the conduit-pipes—?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes, of course. The intake is too low down; it will have
+to be lifted to a position much higher up.
+
+Petra. Then you were right after all.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Ah, you remember, Petra—I wrote opposing the plans
+before the work was begun. But at that time no one would listen to me.
+Well, I am going to let them have it now.  Of course I have prepared a
+report for the Baths Committee; I have had it ready for a week, and was
+only waiting for this to come. (Shows the letter.) Now it shall go off
+at once. (Goes into his room and comes back with some papers.) Look at
+that! Four closely written sheets!—and the letter shall go with them.
+Give me a bit of paper, Katherine—something to wrap them up in. That
+will do! Now give it to-to-(stamps his foot)—what the deuce is her
+name?—give it to the maid, and tell her to take it at once to the
+Mayor.
+
+(Mrs. Stockmann takes the packet and goes out through the dining-room.)
+
+Petra. What do you think Uncle Peter will say, father?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. What is there for him to say? I should think he would be
+very glad that such an important truth has been brought to light.
+
+Hovstad. Will you let me print a short note about your discovery in the
+"Messenger?"
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I shall be very much obliged if you will.
+
+Hovstad. It is very desirable that the public should be informed of it
+without delay.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Certainly.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann (coming back). She has just gone with it.
+
+Billing. Upon my soul, Doctor, you are going to be the foremost man in
+the town!
+
+ Dr. Stockmann (walking about happily). Nonsense! As a matter of
+fact I have done nothing more than my duty. I have only made a lucky
+find—that's all. Still, all the same...
+
+Billing. Hovstad, don't you think the town ought to give Dr. Stockmann
+some sort of testimonial?
+
+Hovstad. I will suggest it, anyway.
+
+Billing. And I will speak to Aslaksen about it.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. No, my good friends, don't let us have any of that
+nonsense. I won't hear anything of the kind. And if the Baths Committee
+should think of voting me an increase of salary, I will not accept it.
+Do you hear, Katherine?—I won't accept it.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. You are quite right, Thomas.
+
+Petra (lifting her glass). Your health, father!
+
+Hovstad and Billing. Your health, Doctor! Good health!
+
+Horster (touches glasses with DR. STOCKMANN). I hope it will bring you
+nothing but good luck.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Thank you, thank you, my dear fellows! I feel
+tremendously happy! It is a splendid thing for a man to be able to feel
+that he has done a service to his native town and to his
+fellow-citizens. Hurrah, Katherine! (He puts his arms round her and
+whirls her round and round, while she protests with laughing cries.
+They all laugh, clap their hands, and cheer the DOCTOR. The boys put
+their heads in at the door to see what is going on.)
+
+
+ACT II
+
+(SCENE.—The same. The door into the dining room is shut. It is
+morning. MRS. STOCKMANN, with a sealed letter in her hand, comes in
+from the dining room, goes to the door of the DOCTOR'S study, and peeps
+in.)
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Are you in, Thomas?
+
+Dr. Stockmann (from within his room). Yes, I have just come in. (Comes
+into the room.) What is it?
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. A letter from your brother.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Aha, let us see! (Opens the letter and reads:) "I return
+herewith the manuscript you sent me" (reads on in a low murmur) H'm!—
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. What does he say?
+
+Dr. Stockmann (putting the papers in his pocket). Oh, he only writes
+that he will come up here himself about midday.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Well, try and remember to be at home this time.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. That will be all right; I have got through all my
+morning visits.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. I am extremely curious to know how he takes it.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. You will see he won't like it's having been I, and not
+he, that made the discovery.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Aren't you a little nervous about that?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Oh, he really will be pleased enough, you know. But, at
+the same time, Peter is so confoundedly afraid of anyone's doing any
+service to the town except himself.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. I will tell you what, Thomas—you should be good
+natured, and share the credit of this with him. Couldn't you make out
+that it was he who set you on the scent of this discovery?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I am quite willing. If only I can get the thing set
+right. I—
+
+(MORTEN KIIL puts his head in through the door leading from the hall,
+looks around in an enquiring manner, and chuckles.)
+
+Morten Kiil (slyly). Is it—is it true?
+
+Mrs. Stockmann (going to the door). Father!—is it you?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Ah, Mr. Kiil—good morning, good morning!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. But come along in.
+
+Morten Kiil. If it is true, I will; if not, I am off.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. If what is true?
+
+Morten Kiil. This tale about the water supply, is it true?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Certainly it is true, but how did you come to hear it?
+
+Morten Kiil (coming in). Petra ran in on her way to the school—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Did she?
+
+Morten Kiil. Yes; and she declares that—I thought she was only making
+a fool of me—but it isn't like Petra to do that.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Of course not. How could you imagine such a thing!
+
+Morten Kiil. Oh well, it is better never to trust anybody; you may find
+you have been made a fool of before you know where you are. But it is
+really true, all the same?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. You can depend upon it that it is true. Won't you sit
+down? (Settles him on the couch.) Isn't it a real bit of luck for the
+town—
+
+Morten Kiil (suppressing his laughter). A bit of luck for the town?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes, that I made the discovery in good time.
+
+Morten Kiil (as before). Yes, yes. Yes!—But I should never have
+thought you the sort of man to pull your own brother's leg like this!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Pull his leg!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Really, father dear—
+
+Morten Kiil (resting his hands and his chin on the handle of his stick
+and winking slyly at the DOCTOR). Let me see, what was the story? Some
+kind of beast that had got into the water-pipes, wasn't it?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Infusoria—yes.
+
+Morten Kiil. And a lot of these beasts had got in, according to
+Petra—a tremendous lot.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Certainly; hundreds of thousands of them, probably.
+
+Morten Kiil. But no one can see them—isn't that so?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes; you can't see them,
+
+Morten Kiil (with a quiet chuckle). Damn—it's the finest story I have
+ever heard!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. What do you mean?
+
+Morten Kiil. But you will never get the Mayor to believe a thing like
+that.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. We shall see.
+
+Morten Kiil. Do you think he will be fool enough to—?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I hope the whole town will be fools enough.
+
+Morten Kiil. The whole town! Well, it wouldn't be a bad thing. It would
+just serve them right, and teach them a lesson. They think themselves
+so much cleverer than we old fellows. They hounded me out of the
+council; they did, I tell you—they hounded me out. Now they shall pay
+for it. You pull their legs too, Thomas!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Really, I—
+
+Morten Kiil. You pull their legs! (Gets up.) If you can work it so that
+the Mayor and his friends all swallow the same bait, I will give ten
+pounds to a charity—like a shot!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. That is very kind of you.
+
+Morten Kiil. Yes, I haven't got much money to throw away, I can tell
+you; but, if you can work this, I will give five pounds to a charity at
+Christmas.
+
+(HOVSTAD comes in by the hall door.)
+
+Hovstad. Good morning! (Stops.) Oh, I beg your pardon
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Not at all; come in.
+
+Morten Kiil (with another chuckle). Oho!—is he in this too?
+
+Hovstad. What do you mean?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Certainly he is.
+
+Morten Kiil. I might have known it! It must get into the papers. You
+know how to do it, Thomas! Set your wits to work. Now I must go.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Won't you stay a little while?
+
+Morten Kiil. No, I must be off now. You keep up this game for all it is
+worth; you won't repent it, I'm damned if you will!
+
+(He goes out; MRS. STOCKMANN follows him into the hall.)
+
+Dr. Stockmann (laughing). Just imagine—the old chap doesn't believe a
+word of all this about the water supply.
+
+Hovstad. Oh that was it, then?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes, that was what we were talking about. Perhaps it is
+the same thing that brings you here?
+
+Hovstad. Yes, it is, Can you spare me a few minutes, Doctor?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. As long as you like, my dear fellow.
+
+Hovstad. Have you heard from the Mayor yet?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Not yet. He is coming here later.
+
+Hovstad. I have given the matter a great deal of thought since last
+night.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Well?
+
+Hovstad. From your point of view, as a doctor and a man of science,
+this affair of the water supply is an isolated matter. I mean, you do
+not realise that it involves a great many other things.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. How do you mean?—Let us sit down, my dear fellow. No,
+sit here on the couch. (HOVSTAD Sits down on the couch, DR. STOCKMANN
+On a chair on the other side of the table.) Now then. You mean that—?
+
+Hovstad. You said yesterday that the pollution of the water was due to
+impurities in the soil.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes, unquestionably it is due to that poisonous morass
+up at Molledal.
+
+Hovstad. Begging your pardon, Doctor, I fancy it is due to quite
+another morass altogether.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. What morass?
+
+Hovstad. The morass that the whole life of our town is built on and is
+rotting in.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. What the deuce are you driving at, Hovstad?
+
+Hovstad. The whole of the town's interests have, little by little, got
+into the hands of a pack of officials.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Oh, come!—they are not all officials.
+
+Hovstad. No, but those that are not officials are at any rate the
+officials' friends and adherents; it is the wealthy folk, the old
+families in the town, that have got us entirely in their hands.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes, but after all they are men of ability and knowledge.
+
+Hovstad. Did they show any ability or knowledge when they laid the
+conduit pipes where they are now?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. No, of course that was a great piece of stupidity on
+their part. But that is going to be set right now.
+
+Hovstad. Do you think that will be all such plain sailing?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Plain sailing or no, it has got to be done, anyway.
+
+Hovstad. Yes, provided the press takes up the question.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I don't think that will be necessary, my dear fellow, I
+am certain my brother—
+
+Hovstad. Excuse me, doctor; I feel bound to tell you I am inclined to
+take the matter up.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. In the paper?
+
+Hovstad. Yes. When I took over the "People's Messenger" my idea was to
+break up this ring of self-opinionated old fossils who had got hold of
+all the influence.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. But you know you told me yourself what the result had
+been; you nearly ruined your paper.
+
+Hovstad. Yes, at the time we were obliged to climb down a peg or two,
+it is quite true—because there was a danger of the whole project of
+the Baths coming to nothing if they failed us. But now the scheme has
+been carried through, and we can dispense with these grand gentlemen.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Dispense with them, yes; but, we owe them a great debt
+of gratitude.
+
+Hovstad. That shall be recognised ungrudgingly, But a journalist of my
+democratic tendencies cannot let such an opportunity as this slip. The
+bubble of official infallibility must be pricked. This superstition
+must be destroyed, like any other.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I am whole-heartedly with you in that, Mr. Hovstad; if
+it is a superstition, away with it!
+
+Hovstad. I should be very reluctant to bring the Mayor into it, because
+he is your brother. But I am sure you will agree with me that truth
+should be the first consideration.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. That goes without saying. (With sudden emphasis.) Yes,
+but—but—
+
+Hovstad. You must not misjudge me. I am neither more self-interested
+nor more ambitious than most men.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. My dear fellow—who suggests anything of the kind?
+
+Hovstad. I am of humble origin, as you know; and that has given me
+opportunities of knowing what is the most crying need in the humbler
+ranks of life. It is that they should be allowed some part in the
+direction of public affairs, Doctor. That is what will develop their
+faculties and intelligence and self respect—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I quite appreciate that.
+
+Hovstad. Yes—and in my opinion a journalist incurs a heavy
+responsibility if he neglects a favourable opportunity of emancipating
+the masses—the humble and oppressed. I know well enough that in
+exalted circles I shall be called an agitator, and all that sort of
+thing; but they may call what they like. If only my conscience doesn't
+reproach me, then—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Quite right! Quite right, Mr. Hovstad. But all the
+same—devil take it! (A knock is heard at the door.) Come in!
+
+(ASLAKSEN appears at the door. He is poorly but decently dressed, in
+black, with a slightly crumpled white neckcloth; he wears gloves and
+has a felt hat in his hand.)
+
+Aslaksen (bowing). Excuse my taking the liberty, Doctor—
+
+Dr. Stockmann (getting up). Ah, it is you, Aslaksen!
+
+Aslaksen. Yes, Doctor.
+
+Hovstad (standing up). Is it me you want, Aslaksen?
+
+Aslaksen. No; I didn't know I should find you here. No, it was the
+Doctor I—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I am quite at your service. What is it?
+
+Aslaksen. Is what I heard from Mr. Billing true, sir—that you mean to
+improve our water supply?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes, for the Baths.
+
+Aslaksen. Quite so, I understand. Well, I have come to say that I will
+back that up by every means in my power.
+
+Hovstad (to the DOCTOR). You see!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I shall be very grateful to you, but—
+
+Aslaksen. Because it may be no bad thing to have us small tradesmen at
+your back. We form, as it were, a compact majority in the town—if we
+choose. And it is always a good thing to have the majority with you,
+Doctor.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. That is undeniably true; but I confess I don't see why
+such unusual precautions should be necessary in this case. It seems to
+me that such a plain, straightforward thing—
+
+Aslaksen. Oh, it may be very desirable, all the same. I know our local
+authorities so well; officials are not generally very ready to act on
+proposals that come from other people. That is why I think it would not
+be at all amiss if we made a little demonstration.
+
+Hovstad. That's right.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Demonstration, did you say? What on earth are you going
+to make a demonstration about?
+
+Aslaksen. We shall proceed with the greatest moderation, Doctor.
+Moderation is always my aim; it is the greatest virtue in a citizen—at
+least, I think so.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. It is well known to be a characteristic of yours, Mr.
+Aslaksen.
+
+Aslaksen. Yes, I think I may pride myself on that. And this matter of
+the water supply is of the greatest importance to us small tradesmen.
+The Baths promise to be a regular gold-mine for the town. We shall all
+make our living out of them, especially those of us who are
+householders. That is why we will back up the project as strongly as
+possible. And as I am at present Chairman of the Householders'
+Association.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes—?
+
+Aslaksen. And, what is more, local secretary of the Temperance
+Society—you know, sir, I suppose, that I am a worker in the temperance
+cause?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Of course, of course.
+
+Aslaksen. Well, you can understand that I come into contact with a
+great many people. And as I have the reputation of a temperate and
+law-abiding citizen—like yourself, Doctor—I have a certain influence
+in the town, a little bit of power, if I may be allowed to say so.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I know that quite well, Mr. Aslaksen.
+
+Aslaksen. So you see it would be an easy matter for me to set on foot
+some testimonial, if necessary.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. A testimonial?
+
+Aslaksen. Yes, some kind of an address of thanks from the townsmen for
+your share in a matter of such importance to the community. I need
+scarcely say that it would have to be drawn up with the greatest regard
+to moderation, so as not to offend the authorities—who, after all,
+have the reins in their hands. If we pay strict attention to that, no
+one can take it amiss, I should think!
+
+Hovstad. Well, and even supposing they didn't like it—
+
+Aslaksen. No, no, no; there must be no discourtesy to the authorities,
+Mr. Hovstad. It is no use falling foul of those upon whom our welfare
+so closely depends. I have done that in my time, and no good ever comes
+of it. But no one can take exception to a reasonable and frank
+expression of a citizen's views.
+
+Dr. Stockmann (shaking him by the hand). I can't tell you, dear Mr.
+Aslaksen, how extremely pleased I am to find such hearty support among
+my fellow-citizens. I am delighted—delighted! Now, you will take a
+small glass of sherry, eh?
+
+Aslaksen. No, thank you; I never drink alcohol of that kind.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Well, what do you say to a glass of beer, then?
+
+Aslaksen. Nor that either, thank you, Doctor. I never drink anything as
+early as this. I am going into town now to talk this over with one or
+two householders, and prepare the ground.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. It is tremendously kind of you, Mr. Aslaksen; but I
+really cannot understand the necessity for all these precautions. It
+seems to me that the thing should go of itself.
+
+Aslaksen. The authorities are somewhat slow to move, Doctor. Far be it
+from me to seem to blame them—
+
+Hovstad. We are going to stir them up in the paper tomorrow, Aslaksen.
+
+Aslaksen. But not violently, I trust, Mr. Hovstad. Proceed with
+moderation, or you will do nothing with them. You may take my advice; I
+have gathered my experience in the school of life. Well, I must say
+goodbye, Doctor. You know now that we small tradesmen are at your back
+at all events, like a solid wall. You have the compact majority on your
+side Doctor.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I am very much obliged, dear Mr. Aslaksen, (Shakes hands
+with him.) Goodbye, goodbye.
+
+Aslaksen. Are you going my way, towards the printing-office. Mr.
+Hovstad?
+
+Hovstad, I will come later; I have something to settle up first.
+
+Aslaksen. Very well. (Bows and goes out; STOCKMANN follows him into the
+hall.)
+
+Hovstad (as STOCKMANN comes in again). Well, what do you think of that,
+Doctor? Don't you think it is high time we stirred a little life into
+all this slackness and vacillation and cowardice?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Are you referring to Aslaksen?
+
+Hovstad, Yes, I am. He is one of those who are floundering in a
+bog—decent enough fellow though he may be, otherwise. And most of the
+people here are in just the same case—see-sawing and edging first to
+one side and then to the other, so overcome with caution and scruple
+that they never dare to take any decided step.
+
+Dr. Stockmann, Yes, but Aslaksen seemed to me so thoroughly
+well-intentioned.
+
+Hovstad. There is one thing I esteem higher than that; and that is for
+a man to be self-reliant and sure of himself.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I think you are perfectly right there.
+
+Hovstad. That is why I want to seize this opportunity, and try if I
+cannot manage to put a little virility into these well-intentioned
+people for once. The idol of Authority must be shattered in this town.
+This gross and inexcusable blunder about the water supply must be
+brought home to the mind of every municipal voter.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Very well; if you are of opinion that it is for the good
+of the community, so be it. But not until I have had a talk with my
+brother.
+
+Hovstad. Anyway, I will get a leading article ready; and if the Mayor
+refuses to take the matter up—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. How can you suppose such a thing possible!
+
+Hovstad. It is conceivable. And in that case—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. In that case I promise you—. Look here, in that case
+you may print my report—every word of it.
+
+Hovstad. May I? Have I your word for it?
+
+Dr. Stockmann (giving him the MS.). Here it is; take it with you. It
+can do no harm for you to read it through, and you can give it me back
+later on.
+
+Hovstad. Good, good! That is what I will do. And now goodbye, Doctor.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Goodbye, goodbye. You will see everything will run quite
+smoothly, Mr. Hovstad—quite smoothly.
+
+Hovstad. Hm!—we shall see. (Bows and goes out.)
+
+Dr. Stockmann (opens the dining-room door and looks in). Katherine! Oh,
+you are back, Petra?
+
+Petra (coming in). Yes, I have just come from the school.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann (coming in). Has he not been here yet?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Peter? No, but I have had a long talk with Hovstad. He
+is quite excited about my discovery, I find it has a much wider bearing
+than I at first imagined. And he has put his paper at my disposal if
+necessity should arise.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Do you think it will?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Not for a moment. But at all events it makes me feel
+proud to know that I have the liberal-minded independent press on my
+side. Yes, and just imagine—I have had a visit from the Chairman of
+the Householders' Association!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Oh! What did he want?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. To offer me his support too. They will support me in a
+body if it should be necessary. Katherine—do you know what I have got
+behind me?
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Behind you? No, what have you got behind you?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. The compact majority.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Really? Is that a good thing for you Thomas?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I should think it was a good thing. (Walks up and down
+rubbing his hands.) By Jove, it's a fine thing to feel this bond of
+brotherhood between oneself and one's fellow citizens!
+
+Petra. And to be able to do so much that is good and useful, father!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. And for one's own native town into the bargain, my child!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. That was a ring at the bell.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. It must be he, then. (A knock is heard at the door.)
+Come in!
+
+Peter Stockmann (comes in from the hall). Good morning.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Glad to see you, Peter!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Good morning, Peter, How are you?
+
+Peter Stockmann. So so, thank you. (To DR. STOCKMANN.) I received from
+you yesterday, after office hours, a report dealing with the condition
+of the water at the Baths.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes. Have you read it?
+
+Peter Stockmann. Yes, I have,
+
+Dr. Stockmann. And what have you to say to it?
+
+Peter Stockmann (with a sidelong glance). Hm!—
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Come along, Petra. (She and PETRA go into the room on
+the left.)
+
+Peter Stockmann (after a pause). Was it necessary to make all these
+investigations behind my back?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes, because until I was absolutely certain about it—
+
+Peter Stockmann. Then you mean that you are absolutely certain now?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Surely you are convinced of that.
+
+Peter Stockmann. Is it your intention to bring this document before the
+Baths Committee as a sort of official communication?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Certainly. Something must be done in the matter—and
+that quickly.
+
+Peter Stockmann. As usual, you employ violent expressions in your
+report. You say, amongst other things, that what we offer visitors in
+our Baths is a permanent supply of poison.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Well, can you describe it any other way, Peter? Just
+think—water that is poisonous, whether you drink it or bathe in it!
+And this we offer to the poor sick folk who come to us trustfully and
+pay us at an exorbitant rate to be made well again!
+
+Peter Stockmann. And your reasoning leads you to this conclusion, that
+we must build a sewer to draw off the alleged impurities from Molledal
+and must relay the water conduits.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes. Do you see any other way out of it? I don't.
+
+Peter Stockmann. I made a pretext this morning to go and see the town
+engineer, and, as if only half seriously, broached the subject of these
+proposals as a thing we might perhaps have to take under consideration
+some time later on.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Some time later on!
+
+Peter Stockmann. He smiled at what he considered to be my extravagance,
+naturally. Have you taken the trouble to consider what your proposed
+alterations would cost? According to the information I obtained, the
+expenses would probably mount up to fifteen or twenty thousand pounds.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Would it cost so much?
+
+Peter Stockmann. Yes; and the worst part of it would be that the work
+would take at least two years.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Two years? Two whole years?
+
+Peter Stockmann. At least. And what are we to do with the Baths in the
+meantime? Close them? Indeed we should be obliged to. And do you
+suppose anyone would come near the place after it had got out that the
+water was dangerous?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes but, Peter, that is what it is.
+
+Peter Stockmann. And all this at this juncture—just as the Baths are
+beginning to be known. There are other towns in the neighbourhood with
+qualifications to attract visitors for bathing purposes. Don't you
+suppose they would immediately strain every nerve to divert the entire
+stream of strangers to themselves? Unquestionably they would; and then
+where should we be? We should probably have to abandon the whole thing,
+which has cost us so much money-and then you would have ruined your
+native town.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I—should have ruined—!
+
+Peter Stockmann. It is simply and solely through the Baths that the
+town has before it any future worth mentioning. You know that just as
+well as I.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. But what do you think ought to be done, then?
+
+Peter Stockmann. Your report has not convinced me that the condition of
+the water at the Baths is as bad as you represent it to be.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I tell you it is even worse!—or at all events it will
+be in summer, when the warm weather comes.
+
+Peter Stockmann. As I said, I believe you exaggerate the matter
+considerably. A capable physician ought to know what measures to
+take—he ought to be capable of preventing injurious influences or of
+remedying them if they become obviously persistent.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Well? What more?
+
+Peter Stockmann. The water supply for the Baths is now an established
+fact, and in consequence must be treated as such. But probably the
+Committee, at its discretion, will not be disinclined to consider the
+question of how far it might be possible to introduce certain
+improvements consistently with a reasonable expenditure.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. And do you suppose that I will have anything to do with
+such a piece of trickery as that?
+
+Peter Stockmann. Trickery!!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes, it would be a trick—a fraud, a lie, a downright
+crime towards the public, towards the whole community!
+
+Peter Stockmann. I have not, as I remarked before, been able to
+convince myself that there is actually any imminent danger.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. You have! It is impossible that you should not be
+convinced. I know I have represented the facts absolutely truthfully
+and fairly. And you know it very well, Peter, only you won't
+acknowledge it. It was owing to your action that both the Baths and the
+water conduits were built where they are; and that is what you won't
+acknowledge—that damnable blunder of yours. Pooh!—do you suppose I
+don't see through you?
+
+Peter Stockmann. And even if that were true? If I perhaps guard my
+reputation somewhat anxiously, it is in the interests of the town.
+Without moral authority I am powerless to direct public affairs as
+seems, to my judgment, to be best for the common good. And on that
+account—and for various other reasons too—it appears to me to be a
+matter of importance that your report should not be delivered to the
+Committee. In the interests of the public, you must withhold it. Then,
+later on, I will raise the question and we will do our best, privately;
+but nothing of this unfortunate affair not a single word of it—must
+come to the ears of the public.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I am afraid you will not be able to prevent that now, my
+dear Peter.
+
+Peter Stockmann. It must and shall be prevented.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. It is no use, I tell you. There are too many people that
+know about it.
+
+Peter Stockmann. That know about it? Who? Surely you don't mean those
+fellows on the "People's Messenger"?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes, they know. The liberal-minded independent press is
+going to see that you do your duty.
+
+Peter Stockmann (after a short pause). You are an extraordinarily
+independent man, Thomas. Have you given no thought to the consequences
+this may have for yourself?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Consequences?—for me?
+
+Peter Stockmann. For you and yours, yes.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. What the deuce do you mean?
+
+Peter Stockmann. I believe I have always behaved in a brotherly way to
+you—haven't I always been ready to oblige or to help you?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes, you have, and I am grateful to you for it.
+
+Peter Stockmann. There is no need. Indeed, to some extent I was forced
+to do so—for my own sake. I always hoped that, if I helped to improve
+your financial position, I should be able to keep some check on you.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. What! Then it was only for your own sake—!
+
+Peter Stockmann. Up to a certain point, yes. It is painful for a man in
+an official position to have his nearest relative compromising himself
+time after time.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. And do you consider that I do that?
+
+Peter Stockmann. Yes, unfortunately, you do, without even being aware
+of it. You have a restless, pugnacious, rebellious disposition. And
+then there is that disastrous propensity of yours to want to write
+about every sort of possible and impossible thing. The moment an idea
+comes into your head, you must needs go and write a newspaper article
+or a whole pamphlet about it.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Well, but is it not the duty of a citizen to let the
+public share in any new ideas he may have?
+
+Peter Stockmann. Oh, the public doesn't require any new ideas. The
+public is best served by the good, old established ideas it already has.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. And that is your honest opinion?
+
+Peter Stockmann. Yes, and for once I must talk frankly to you. Hitherto
+I have tried to avoid doing so, because I know how irritable you are;
+but now I must tell you the truth, Thomas. You have no conception what
+an amount of harm you do yourself by your impetuosity. You complain of
+the authorities, you even complain of the government—you are always
+pulling them to pieces; you insist that you have been neglected and
+persecuted. But what else can such a cantankerous man as you expect?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. What next! Cantankerous, am I?
+
+Peter Stockmann. Yes, Thomas, you are an extremely cantankerous man to
+work with—I know that to my cost. You disregard everything that you
+ought to have consideration for. You seem completely to forget that it
+is me you have to thank for your appointment here as medical officer to
+the Baths.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I was entitled to it as a matter of course!—I and
+nobody else! I was the first person to see that the town could be made
+into a flourishing watering-place, and I was the only one who saw it at
+that time. I had to fight single-handed in support of the idea for many
+years; and I wrote and wrote—
+
+Peter Stockmann. Undoubtedly. But things were not ripe for the scheme
+then—though, of course, you could not judge of that in your
+out-of-the-way corner up north. But as soon as the opportune moment
+came I—and the others—took the matter into our hands.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes, and made this mess of all my beautiful plan. It is
+pretty obvious now what clever fellows you were!
+
+Peter Stockmann. To my mind the whole thing only seems to mean that you
+are seeking another outlet for your combativeness. You want to pick a
+quarrel with your superiors—an old habit of yours. You cannot put up
+with any authority over you. You look askance at anyone who occupies a
+superior official position; you regard him as a personal enemy, and
+then any stick is good enough to beat him with. But now I have called
+your attention to the fact that the town's interests are at stake—and,
+incidentally, my own too. And therefore, I must tell you, Thomas, that
+you will find me inexorable with regard to what I am about to require
+you to do.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. And what is that?
+
+Peter Stockmann. As you have been so indiscreet as to speak of this
+delicate matter to outsiders, despite the fact that you ought to have
+treated it as entirely official and confidential, it is obviously
+impossible to hush it up now. All sorts of rumours will get about
+directly, and everybody who has a grudge against us will take care to
+embellish these rumours. So it will be necessary for you to refute them
+publicly.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I! How? I don't understand.
+
+Peter Stockmann. What we shall expect is that, after making further
+investigations, you will come to the conclusion that the matter is not
+by any means as dangerous or as critical as you imagined in the first
+instance.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Oho!—so that is what you expect!
+
+Peter Stockmann. And, what is more, we shall expect you to make public
+profession of your confidence in the Committee and in their readiness
+to consider fully and conscientiously what steps may be necessary to
+remedy any possible defects.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. But you will never be able to do that by patching and
+tinkering at it—never! Take my word for it, Peter; I mean what I say,
+as deliberately and emphatically as possible.
+
+Peter Stockmann. As an officer under the Committee, you have no right
+to any individual opinion.
+
+Dr. Stockmann (amazed). No right?
+
+Peter Stockmann. In your official capacity, no. As a private person, it
+is quite another matter. But as a subordinate member of the staff of
+the Baths, you have no right to express any opinion which runs contrary
+to that of your superiors.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. This is too much! I, a doctor, a man of science, have no
+right to—!
+
+Peter Stockmann. The matter in hand is not simply a scientific one. It
+is a complicated matter, and has its economic as well as its technical
+side.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I don't care what it is! I intend to be free to express
+my opinion on any subject under the sun.
+
+Peter Stockmann. As you please—but not on any subject concerning the
+Baths. That we forbid.
+
+Dr. Stockmann (shouting). You forbid—! You! A pack of—
+
+Peter Stockmann.  I forbid it—I, your chief; and if I forbid it, you
+have to obey.
+
+Dr. Stockmann (controlling himself). Peter—if you were not my brother—
+
+Petra (throwing open the door). Father, you shan't stand this!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann (coming in after her). Petra, Petra!
+
+Peter Stockmann. Oh, so you have been eavesdropping.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. You were talking so loud, we couldn't help it!
+
+Petra. Yes, I was listening.
+
+Peter Stockmann. Well, after all, I am very glad—
+
+Dr. Stockmann (going up to him). You were saying something about
+forbidding and obeying?
+
+Peter Stockmann. You obliged me to take that tone with you.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. And so I am to give myself the lie, publicly?
+
+Peter Stockmann. We consider it absolutely necessary that you should
+make some such public statement as I have asked for.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. And if I do not—obey?
+
+Peter Stockmann. Then we shall publish a statement ourselves to
+reassure the public.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Very well; but in that case I shall use my pen against
+you. I stick to what I have said; I will show that I am right and that
+you are wrong. And what will you do then?
+
+Peter Stockmann. Then I shall not be able to prevent your being
+dismissed.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. What—?
+
+Petra. Father—dismissed!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Dismissed!
+
+Peter Stockmann. Dismissed from the staff of the Baths. I shall be
+obliged to propose that you shall immediately be given notice, and
+shall not be allowed any further participation in the Baths' affairs.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. You would dare to do that!
+
+Peter Stockmann. It is you that are playing the daring game.
+
+Petra. Uncle, that is a shameful way to treat a man like father!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Do hold your tongue, Petra!
+
+Peter Stockmann (looking at PETRA). Oh, so we volunteer our opinions
+already, do we? Of course. (To MRS. STOCKMANN.) Katherine, I imagine
+you are the most sensible person in this house. Use any influence you
+may have over your husband, and make him see what this will entail for
+his family as well as—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. My family is my own concern and nobody else's!
+
+Peter Stockmann. —for his own family, as I was saying, as well as for
+the town he lives in.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. It is I who have the real good of the town at heart! I
+want to lay bare the defects that sooner or later must come to the
+light of day. I will show whether I love my native town.
+
+Peter Stockmann. You, who in your blind obstinacy want to cut off the
+most important source of the town's welfare?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. The source is poisoned, man! Are you mad? We are making
+our living by retailing filth and corruption! The whole of our
+flourishing municipal life derives its sustenance from a lie!
+
+Peter Stockmann. All imagination—or something even worse. The man who
+can throw out such offensive insinuations about his native town must be
+an enemy to our community.
+
+Dr. Stockmann (going up to him). Do you dare to—!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann (throwing herself between them). Thomas!
+
+Petra (catching her father by the arm). Don't lose your temper, father!
+
+Peter Stockmann. I will not expose myself to violence. Now you have had
+a warning; so reflect on what you owe to yourself and your family.
+Goodbye. (Goes out.)
+
+Dr. Stockmann (walking up and down). Am I to put up with such treatment
+as this? In my own house, Katherine! What do you think of that!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Indeed it is both shameful and absurd, Thomas—
+
+Petra. If only I could give uncle a piece of my mind—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. It is my own fault. I ought to have flown out at him
+long ago!—shown my teeth!—bitten! To hear him call me an enemy to our
+community! Me! I shall not take that lying down, upon my soul!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. But, dear Thomas, your brother has power on his side.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes, but I have right on mine, I tell you.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Oh yes, right—right. What is the use of having right
+on your side if you have not got might?
+
+Petra. Oh, mother!—how can you say such a thing!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Do you imagine that in a free country it is no use
+having right on your side? You are absurd, Katherine. Besides, haven't
+I got the liberal-minded, independent press to lead the way, and the
+compact majority behind me? That is might enough, I should think!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. But, good heavens, Thomas, you don't mean to?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Don't mean to what?
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. To set yourself up in opposition to your brother.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. In God's name, what else do you suppose I should do but
+take my stand on right and truth?
+
+Petra. Yes, I was just going to say that.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. But it won't do you any earthly good. If they won't do
+it, they won't.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Oho, Katherine! Just give me time, and you will see how
+I will carry the war into their camp.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Yes, you carry the war into their camp, and you get
+your dismissal—that is what you will do.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. In any case I shall have done my duty towards the
+public—towards the community, I, who am called its enemy!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. But towards your family, Thomas? Towards your own home!
+Do you think that is doing your duty towards those you have to provide
+for?
+
+Petra. Ah, don't think always first of us, mother.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Oh, it is easy for you to talk; you are able to shift
+for yourself, if need be. But remember the boys, Thomas; and think a
+little of yourself too, and of me—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I think you are out of your senses, Katherine! If I were
+to be such a miserable coward as to go on my knees to Peter and his
+damned crew, do you suppose I should ever know an hour's peace of mind
+all my life afterwards?
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. I don't know anything about that; but God preserve us
+from the peace of mind we shall have, all the same, if you go on
+defying him! You will find yourself again without the means of
+subsistence, with no income to count upon. I should think we had had
+enough of that in the old days. Remember that, Thomas; think what that
+means.
+
+Dr. Stockmann (collecting himself with a struggle and clenching his
+fists). And this is what this slavery can bring upon a free, honourable
+man! Isn't it horrible, Katherine?
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Yes, it is sinful to treat you so, it is perfectly
+true. But, good heavens, one has to put up with so much injustice in
+this world. There are the boys, Thomas! Look at them! What is to become
+of them? Oh, no, no, you can never have the heart—. (EJLIF and MORTEN
+have come in, while she was speaking, with their school books in their
+hands.)
+
+Dr. Stockmann. The boys— I (Recovers himself suddenly.) No, even if
+the whole world goes to pieces, I will never bow my neck to this yokel
+(Goes towards his room.)
+
+Mrs. Stockmann (following him). Thomas—what are you going to do!
+
+Dr. Stockmann (at his door). I mean to have the right to look my sons
+in the face when they are grown men. (Goes into his room.)
+
+Mrs. Stockmann (bursting into tears). God help us all!
+
+Petra. Father is splendid! He will not give in.
+
+(The boys look on in amazement; PETRA signs to them not to speak.)
+
+
+ACT III
+
+(SCENE.—The editorial office of the "People's Messenger." The entrance
+door is on the left-hand side of the back wall; on the right-hand side
+is another door with glass panels through which the printing room can
+be seen. Another door in the right-hand wall. In the middle of the room
+is a large table covered with papers, newspapers and books. In the
+foreground on the left a window, before which stands a desk and a high
+stool. There are a couple of easy chairs by the table, and other chairs
+standing along the wall. The room is dingy and uncomfortable; the
+furniture is old, the chairs stained and torn. In the printing room the
+compositors are seen at work, and a printer is working a handpress.
+HOVSTAD is sitting at the desk, writing. BILLING comes in from the
+right with DR. STOCKMANN'S manuscript in his hand.)
+
+Billing. Well, I must say!
+
+Hovstad (still writing). Have you read it through?
+
+Billing (laying the MS. on the desk). Yes, indeed I have.
+
+Hovstad. Don't you think the Doctor hits them pretty hard?
+
+Billing. Hard? Bless my soul, he's crushing! Every word falls like—how
+shall I put it?—like the blow of a sledgehammer.
+
+Hovstad. Yes, but they are not the people to throw up the sponge at the
+first blow.
+
+Billing. That is true; and for that reason we must strike blow upon
+blow until the whole of this aristocracy tumbles to pieces. As I sat in
+there reading this, I almost seemed to see a revolution in being.
+
+Hovstad (turning round). Hush!—Speak so that Aslaksen cannot hear you.
+
+Billing (lowering his voice). Aslaksen is a chicken-hearted chap, a
+coward; there is nothing of the man in him. But this time you will
+insist on your own way, won't you? You will put the Doctor's article in?
+
+Hovstad. Yes, and if the Mayor doesn't like it—
+
+Billing. That will be the devil of a nuisance.
+
+Hovstad. Well, fortunately we can turn the situation to good account,
+whatever happens. If the Mayor will not fall in with the Doctor's
+project, he will have all the small tradesmen down on him—the whole of
+the Householders' Association and the rest of them. And if he does fall
+in with it, he will fall out with the whole crowd of large shareholders
+in the Baths, who up to now have been his most valuable supporters—
+
+Billing. Yes, because they will certainly have to fork out a pretty
+penny—
+
+Hovstad. Yes, you may be sure they will. And in this way the ring will
+be broken up, you see, and then in every issue of the paper we will
+enlighten the public on the Mayor's incapability on one point and
+another, and make it clear that all the positions of trust in the town,
+the whole control of municipal affairs, ought to be put in the hands of
+the Liberals.
+
+Billing. That is perfectly true! I see it coming—I see it coming; we
+are on the threshold of a revolution!
+
+(A knock is heard at the door.)
+
+Hovstad. Hush! (Calls out.) Come in! (DR. STOCKMANN comes in by the
+street door. HOVSTAD goes to meet him.) Ah, it is you, Doctor! Well?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. You may set to work and print it, Mr. Hovstad!
+
+Hovstad. Has it come to that, then?
+
+Billing. Hurrah!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes, print away. Undoubtedly it has come to that. Now
+they must take what they get. There is going to be a fight in the town,
+Mr. Billing!
+
+Billing. War to the knife, I hope! We will get our knives to their
+throats, Doctor!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. This article is only a beginning. I have already got
+four or five more sketched out in my head. Where is Aslaksen?
+
+Billing (calls into the printing-room). Aslaksen, just come here for a
+minute!
+
+Hovstad. Four or five more articles, did you say? On the same subject?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. No—far from it, my dear fellow. No, they are about
+quite another matter. But they all spring from the question of the
+water supply and the drainage. One thing leads to another, you know. It
+is like beginning to pull down an old house, exactly.
+
+Billing. Upon my soul, it's true; you find you are not done till you
+have pulled all the old rubbish down.
+
+Aslaksen (coming in). Pulled down? You are not thinking of pulling down
+the Baths surely, Doctor?
+
+Hovstad. Far from it, don't be afraid.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. No, we meant something quite different. Well, what do
+you think of my article, Mr. Hovstad?
+
+Hovstad. I think it is simply a masterpiece.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Do you really think so? Well, I am very pleased, very
+pleased.
+
+Hovstad. It is so clear and intelligible. One need have no special
+knowledge to understand the bearing of it. You will have every
+enlightened man on your side.
+
+Aslaksen. And every prudent man too, I hope?
+
+Billing. The prudent and the imprudent—almost the whole town.
+
+Aslaksen. In that case we may venture to print it.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I should think so!
+
+Hovstad. We will put it in tomorrow morning.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Of course—you must not lose a single day. What I wanted
+to ask you, Mr. Aslaksen, was if you would supervise the printing of it
+yourself.
+
+Aslaksen. With pleasure.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Take care of it as if it were a treasure! No
+misprints—every word is important. I will look in again a little
+later; perhaps you will be able to let me see a proof. I can't tell you
+how eager I am to see it in print, and see it burst upon the public—
+
+Billing. Burst upon them—yes, like a flash of lightning!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. —and to have it submitted to the judgment of my
+intelligent fellow townsmen. You cannot imagine what I have gone
+through today. I have been threatened first with one thing and then
+with another; they have tried to rob me of my most elementary rights as
+a man—
+
+Billing. What! Your rights as a man!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. —they have tried to degrade me, to make a coward of me,
+to force me to put personal interests before my most sacred convictions.
+
+Billing. That is too much—I'm damned if it isn't.
+
+Hovstad. Oh, you mustn't be surprised at anything from that quarter.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Well, they will get the worst of it with me; they may
+assure themselves of that. I shall consider the "People's Messenger" my
+sheet-anchor now, and every single day I will bombard them with one
+article after another, like bombshells—
+
+Aslaksen. Yes, but
+
+Billing. Hurrah!—it is war, it is war!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I shall smite them to the ground—I shall crush them—I
+shall break down all their defenses, before the eyes of the honest
+public! That is what I shall do!
+
+Aslaksen, Yes, but in moderation, Doctor—proceed with moderation.
+
+Billing. Not a bit of it, not a bit of it! Don't spare the dynamite!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Because it is not merely a question of water-supply and
+drains now, you know. No—it is the whole of our social life that we
+have got to purify and disinfect—
+
+Billing. Spoken like a deliverer!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. All the incapables must be turned out, you
+understand—and that in every walk of life! Endless vistas have opened
+themselves to my mind's eye today. I cannot see it all quite clearly
+yet, but I shall in time. Young and vigorous standard-bearers—those
+are what we need and must seek, my friends; we must have new men in
+command at all our outposts.
+
+Billing. Hear hear!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. We only need to stand by one another, and it will all be
+perfectly easy. The revolution will be launched like a ship that runs
+smoothly off the stocks. Don't you think so?
+
+Hovstad. For my part I think we have now a prospect of getting the
+municipal authority into the hands where it should lie.
+
+Aslaksen. And if only we proceed with moderation, I cannot imagine that
+there will be any risk.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Who the devil cares whether there is any risk or not!
+What I am doing, I am doing in the name of truth and for the sake of my
+conscience.
+
+Hovstad. You are a man who deserves to be supported, Doctor.
+
+Aslaksen. Yes, there is no denying that the Doctor is a true friend to
+the town—a real friend to the community, that he is.
+
+Billing. Take my word for it, Aslaksen, Dr. Stockmann is a friend of
+the people.
+
+Aslaksen. I fancy the Householders' Association will make use of that
+expression before long.
+
+Dr. Stockmann (affected, grasps their hands). Thank you, thank you, my
+dear staunch friends. It is very refreshing to me to hear you say that;
+my brother called me something quite different. By Jove, he shall have
+it back, with interest! But now I must be off to see a poor devil—I
+will come back, as I said. Keep a very careful eye on the manuscript,
+Aslaksen, and don't for worlds leave out any of my notes of
+exclamation! Rather put one or two more in! Capital, capital! Well,
+good-bye for the present—goodbye, goodbye! (They show him to the door,
+and bow him out.)
+
+Hovstad. He may prove an invaluably useful man to us.
+
+Aslaksen. Yes, so long as he confines himself to this matter of the
+Baths. But if he goes farther afield, I don't think it would be
+advisable to follow him.
+
+Hovstad. Hm!—that all depends—
+
+Billing. You are so infernally timid, Aslaksen!
+
+Aslaksen. Timid? Yes, when it is a question of the local authorities, I
+am timid, Mr. Billing; it is a lesson I have learned in the school of
+experience, let me tell you. But try me in higher politics, in matters
+that concern the government itself, and then see if I am timid.
+
+Billing. No, you aren't, I admit. But this is simply contradicting
+yourself.
+
+Aslaksen. I am a man with a conscience, and that is the whole matter.
+If you attack the government, you don't do the community any harm,
+anyway; those fellows pay no attention to attacks, you see—they go on
+just as they are, in spite of them. But local authorities are
+different; they can be turned out, and then perhaps you may get an
+ignorant lot into office who may do irreparable harm to the
+householders and everybody else.
+
+Hovstad. But what of the education of citizens by self
+government—don't you attach any importance to that?
+
+Aslaksen. When a man has interests of his own to protect, he cannot
+think of everything, Mr. Hovstad.
+
+Hovstad. Then I hope I shall never have interests of my own to protect!
+
+Billing. Hear, hear!
+
+Aslaksen (with a smile). Hm! (Points to the desk.) Mr. Sheriff
+Stensgaard was your predecessor at that editorial desk.
+
+Billing (spitting). Bah! That turncoat.
+
+Hovstad. I am not a weathercock—and never will be.
+
+Aslaksen. A politician should never be too certain of anything, Mr.
+Hovstad. And as for you, Mr. Billing, I should think it is time for you
+to be taking in a reef or two in your sails, seeing that you are
+applying for the post of secretary to the Bench.
+
+Billing. I—!
+
+Hovstad. Are you, Billing?
+
+Billing. Well, yes—but you must clearly understand I am only doing it
+to annoy the bigwigs.
+
+Aslaksen. Anyhow, it is no business of mine. But if I am to be accused
+of timidity and of inconsistency in my principles, this is what I want
+to point out: my political past is an open book. I have never changed,
+except perhaps to become a little more moderate, you see. My heart is
+still with the people; but I don't deny that my reason has a certain
+bias towards the authorities—the local ones, I mean. (Goes into the
+printing room.)
+
+Billing. Oughtn't we to try and get rid of him, Hovstad?
+
+Hovstad. Do you know anyone else who will advance the money for our
+paper and printing bill?
+
+Billing. It is an infernal nuisance that we don't possess some capital
+to trade on.
+
+Hovstad (sitting down at his desk). Yes, if we only had that, then—
+
+Billing. Suppose you were to apply to Dr. Stockmann?
+
+Hovstad (turning over some papers). What is the use? He has got nothing.
+
+Billing. No, but he has got a warm man in the background, old Morten
+Kiil—"the Badger," as they call him.
+
+Hovstad (writing). Are you so sure he has got anything?
+
+Billing. Good Lord, of course he has! And some of it must come to the
+Stockmanns. Most probably he will do something for the children, at all
+events.
+
+Hovstad (turning half round). Are you counting on that?
+
+Billing. Counting on it? Of course I am not counting on anything.
+
+Hovstad. That is right. And I should not count on the secretaryship to
+the Bench either, if I were you; for I can assure you—you won't get it.
+
+Billing. Do you think I am not quite aware of that? My object is
+precisely not to get it. A slight of that kind stimulates a man's
+fighting power—it is like getting a supply of fresh bile—and I am
+sure one needs that badly enough in a hole-and-corner place like this,
+where it is so seldom anything happens to stir one up.
+
+Hovstad (writing). Quite so, quite so.
+
+Billing. Ah, I shall be heard of yet!—Now I shall go and write the
+appeal to the Householders' Association. (Goes into the room on the
+right.)
+
+Hovstad (sitting al his desk, biting his penholder, says slowly).
+Hm!—that's it, is it. (A knock is heard.) Come in! (PETRA comes in by
+the outer door. HOVSTAD gets up.) What, you!—here?
+
+Petra. Yes, you must forgive me—
+
+Hovstad (pulling a chair forward). Won't you sit down?
+
+Petra. No, thank you; I must go again in a moment.
+
+Hovstad. Have you come with a message from your father, by any chance?
+
+Petra. No, I have come on my own account. (Takes a book out of her coat
+pocket.) Here is the English story.
+
+Hovstad. Why have you brought it back?
+
+Petra. Because I am not going to translate it.
+
+Hovstad. But you promised me faithfully.
+
+Petra. Yes, but then I had not read it, I don't suppose you have read
+it either?
+
+Hovstad. No, you know quite well I don't understand English; but—
+
+Petra. Quite so. That is why I wanted to tell you that you must find
+something else. (Lays the book on the table.) You can't use this for
+the "People's Messenger."
+
+Hovstad. Why not?
+
+Petra. Because it conflicts with all your opinions.
+
+Hovstad. Oh, for that matter—
+
+Petra. You don't understand me. The burden of this story is that there
+is a supernatural power that looks after the so-called good people in
+this world and makes everything happen for the best in their
+case—while all the so-called bad people are punished.
+
+Hovstad. Well, but that is all right. That is just what our readers
+want.
+
+Petra. And are you going to be the one to give it to them? For myself,
+I do not believe a word of it. You know quite well that things do not
+happen so in reality.
+
+Hovstad. You are perfectly right; but an editor cannot always act as he
+would prefer. He is often obliged to bow to the wishes of the public in
+unimportant matters. Politics are the most important thing in life—for
+a newspaper, anyway; and if I want to carry my public with me on the
+path that leads to liberty and progress, I must not frighten them away.
+If they find a moral tale of this sort in the serial at the bottom of
+the page, they will be all the more ready to read what is printed above
+it; they feel more secure, as it were.
+
+Petra. For shame! You would never go and set a snare like that for your
+readers; you are not a spider!
+
+Hovstad (smiling). Thank you for having such a good opinion of me. No;
+as a matter of fact that is Billing's idea and not mine.
+
+Petra. Billing's!
+
+Hovstad. Yes; anyway, he propounded that theory here one day. And it is
+Billing who is so anxious to have that story in the paper; I don't know
+anything about the book.
+
+Petra. But how can Billing, with his emancipated views—
+
+Hovstad. Oh, Billing is a many-sided man. He is applying for the post
+of secretary to the Bench, too, I hear.
+
+Petra. I don't believe it, Mr. Hovstad. How could he possibly bring
+himself to do such a thing?
+
+Hovstad. Ah, you must ask him that.
+
+Petra. I should never have thought it of him.
+
+Hovstad (looking more closely at her). No? Does it really surprise you
+so much?
+
+Petra. Yes. Or perhaps not altogether. Really, I don't quite know
+
+Hovstad. We journalists are not much worth, Miss Stockmann.
+
+Petra. Do you really mean that?
+
+Hovstad. I think so sometimes.
+
+Petra. Yes, in the ordinary affairs of everyday life, perhaps; I can
+understand that. But now, when you have taken a weighty matter in hand—
+
+Hovstad. This matter of your father's, you mean?
+
+Petra. Exactly. It seems to me that now you must feel you are a man
+worth more than most.
+
+Hovstad. Yes, today I do feel something of that sort.
+
+Petra. Of course you do, don't you? It is a splendid vocation you have
+chosen—to smooth the way for the march of unappreciated truths, and
+new and courageous lines of thought. If it were nothing more than
+because you stand fearlessly in the open and take up the cause of an
+injured man—
+
+Hovstad. Especially when that injured man is—ahem!—I don't rightly
+know how to—
+
+Petra. When that man is so upright and so honest, you mean?
+
+Hovstad (more gently). Especially when he is your father I meant.
+
+Petra (suddenly checked). That?
+
+Hovstad. Yes, Petra—Miss Petra.
+
+Petra. Is it that, that is first and foremost with you? Not the matter
+itself? Not the truth?—not my father's big generous heart?
+
+Hovstad. Certainly—of course—that too.
+
+Petra. No, thank you; you have betrayed yourself, Mr. Hovstad, and now
+I shall never trust you again in anything.
+
+Hovstad. Can you really take it so amiss in me that it is mostly for
+your sake—?
+
+Petra. What I am angry with you for, is for not having been honest with
+my father. You talked to him as if the truth and the good of the
+community were what lay nearest to your heart. You have made fools of
+both my father and me. You are not the man you made yourself out to be.
+And that I shall never forgive you-never!
+
+Hovstad. You ought not to speak so bitterly, Miss Petra—least of all
+now.
+
+Petra. Why not now, especially?
+
+Hovstad. Because your father cannot do without my help.
+
+Petra (looking him up and down). Are you that sort of man too? For
+shame!
+
+Hovstad. No, no, I am not. This came upon me so unexpectedly—you must
+believe that.
+
+Petra. I know what to believe. Goodbye.
+
+Aslaksen (coming from the printing room, hurriedly and with an air of
+mystery). Damnation, Hovstad!—(Sees PETRA.) Oh, this is awkward—
+
+Petra. There is the book; you must give it to some one else. (Goes
+towards the door.)
+
+Hovstad (following her). But, Miss Stockmann—
+
+Petra. Goodbye. (Goes out.)
+
+Aslaksen. I say—Mr. Hovstad—
+
+Hovstad. Well well!—what is it?
+
+Aslaksen. The Mayor is outside in the printing room.
+
+Hovstad. The Mayor, did you say?
+
+Aslaksen. Yes he wants to speak to you. He came in by the back
+door—didn't want to be seen, you understand.
+
+Hovstad. What can he want? Wait a bit—I will go myself. (Goes to the
+door of the printing room, opens it, bows and invites PETER STOCKMANN
+in.) Just see, Aslaksen, that no one—
+
+Aslaksen. Quite so. (Goes into the printing-room.)
+
+Peter Stockmann. You did not expect to see me here, Mr. Hovstad?
+
+Hovstad. No, I confess I did not.
+
+Peter Stockmann (looking round). You are very snug in here—very nice
+indeed.
+
+Hovstad. Oh—
+
+Peter Stockmann. And here I come, without any notice, to take up your
+time!
+
+Hovstad. By all means, Mr. Mayor. I am at your service. But let me
+relieve you of your—(takes STOCKMANN's hat and stick and puts them on
+a chair). Won't you sit down?
+
+Peter Stockmann (sitting down by the table). Thank you. (HOVSTAD sits
+down.) I have had an extremely annoying experience to-day, Mr. Hovstad.
+
+Hovstad. Really? Ah well, I expect with all the various business you
+have to attend to—
+
+Peter Stockmann. The Medical Officer of the Baths is responsible for
+what happened today.
+
+Hovstad. Indeed? The Doctor?
+
+Peter Stockmann. He has addressed a kind of report to the Baths
+Committee on the subject of certain supposed defects in the Baths.
+
+Hovstad. Has he indeed?
+
+Peter Stockmann. Yes—has he not told you? I thought he said—
+
+Hovstad. Ah, yes—it is true he did mention something about—
+
+Aslaksen (coming from the printing-room). I ought to have that copy.
+
+Hovstad (angrily). Ahem!—there it is on the desk.
+
+Aslaksen (taking it). Right.
+
+Peter Stockmann. But look there—that is the thing I was speaking of!
+
+Aslaksen. Yes, that is the Doctor's article, Mr. Mayor.
+
+Hovstad. Oh, is THAT what you were speaking about?
+
+Peter Stockmann. Yes, that is it. What do you think of it?
+
+Hovstad. Oh, I am only a layman—and I have only taken a very cursory
+glance at it.
+
+Peter Stockmann. But you are going to print it?
+
+Hovstad. I cannot very well refuse a distinguished man.
+
+Aslaksen. I have nothing to do with editing the paper, Mr. Mayor—
+
+Peter Stockmann. I understand.
+
+Aslaksen. I merely print what is put into my hands.
+
+Peter Stockmann. Quite so.
+
+Aslaksen. And so I must— (moves off towards the printing-room).
+
+Peter Stockmann. No, but wait a moment, Mr. Aslaksen. You will allow
+me, Mr. Hovstad?
+
+Hovstad. If you please, Mr. Mayor.
+
+Peter Stockmann. You are a discreet and thoughtful man, Mr. Aslaksen.
+
+Aslaksen. I am delighted to hear you think so, sir.
+
+Peter Stockmann. And a man of very considerable influence.
+
+Aslaksen. Chiefly among the small tradesmen, sir.
+
+Peter Stockmann. The small tax-payers are the majority—here as
+everywhere else.
+
+Aslaksen. That is true.
+
+Peter Stockmann. And I have no doubt you know the general trend of
+opinion among them, don't you?
+
+Aslaksen. Yes I think I may say I do, Mr. Mayor.
+
+Peter Stockmann. Yes. Well, since there is such a praiseworthy spirit
+of self-sacrifice among the less wealthy citizens of our town—
+
+Aslaksen. What?
+
+Hovstad. Self-sacrifice?
+
+Peter Stockmann. It is pleasing evidence of a public-spirited feeling,
+extremely pleasing evidence. I might almost say I hardly expected it.
+But you have a closer knowledge of public opinion than I.
+
+Aslaksen. But, Mr. Mayor—
+
+Peter Stockmann. And indeed it is no small sacrifice that the town is
+going to make.
+
+Hovstad. The town?
+
+Aslaksen. But I don't understand. Is it the Baths—?
+
+Peter Stockmann. At a provisional estimate, the alterations that the
+Medical Officer asserts to be desirable will cost somewhere about
+twenty thousand pounds.
+
+Aslaksen. That is a lot of money, but—
+
+Peter Stockmann. Of course it will be necessary to raise a municipal
+loan.
+
+Hovstad (getting up). Surely you never mean that the town must pay—?
+
+Aslaksen. Do you mean that it must come out of the municipal
+funds?—out of the ill-filled pockets of the small tradesmen?
+
+Peter Stockmann. Well, my dear Mr. Aslaksen, where else is the money to
+come from?
+
+Aslaksen. The gentlemen who own the Baths ought to provide that.
+
+Peter Stockmann. The proprietors of the Baths are not in a position to
+incur any further expense.
+
+Aslaksen. Is that absolutely certain, Mr. Mayor?
+
+Peter Stockmann. I have satisfied myself that it is so. If the town
+wants these very extensive alterations, it will have to pay for them.
+
+Aslaksen. But, damn it all—I beg your pardon—this is quite another
+matter, Mr. Hovstad!
+
+Hovstad. It is, indeed.
+
+Peter Stockmann. The most fatal part of it is that we shall be obliged
+to shut the Baths for a couple of years.
+
+Hovstad. Shut them? Shut them altogether?
+
+Aslaksen. For two years?
+
+Peter Stockmann. Yes, the work will take as long as that—at least.
+
+Aslaksen. I'm damned if we will stand that, Mr. Mayor! What are we
+householders to live upon in the meantime?
+
+Peter Stockmann. Unfortunately, that is an extremely difficult question
+to answer, Mr. Aslaksen. But what would you have us do? Do you suppose
+we shall have a single visitor in the town, if we go about proclaiming
+that our water is polluted, that we are living over a plague spot, that
+the entire town—
+
+Aslaksen. And the whole thing is merely imagination?
+
+Peter Stockmann. With the best will in the world, I have not been able
+to come to any other conclusion.
+
+Aslaksen. Well then I must say it is absolutely unjustifiable of Dr.
+Stockmann—I beg your pardon, Mr. Mayor.
+
+Peter Stockmann. What you say is lamentably true, Mr. Aslaksen. My
+brother has unfortunately always been a headstrong man.
+
+Aslaksen. After this, do you mean to give him your support, Mr. Hovstad?
+
+Hovstad. Can you suppose for a moment that I—?
+
+Peter Stockmann. I have drawn up a short resume of the situation as it
+appears from a reasonable man's point of view. In it I have indicated
+how certain possible defects might suitably be remedied without
+outrunning the resources of the Baths Committee.
+
+Hovstad. Have you got it with you, Mr. Mayor?
+
+Peter Stockmann (fumbling in his pocket). Yes, I brought it with me in
+case you should—
+
+Aslaksen. Good Lord, there he is!
+
+Peter Stockmann. Who? My brother?
+
+Hovstad. Where? Where?
+
+Aslaksen. He has just gone through the printing room.
+
+Peter Stockmann. How unlucky! I don't want to meet him here, and I had
+still several things to speak to you about.
+
+Hovstad (pointing to the door on the right). Go in there for the
+present.
+
+Peter Stockmann. But—?
+
+Hovstad. You will only find Billing in there.
+
+Aslaksen. Quick, quick, Mr. Mayor—he is just coming.
+
+Peter Stockmann. Yes, very well; but see that you get rid of him
+quickly. (Goes out through the door on the right, which ASLAKSEN opens
+for him and shuts after him.)
+
+Hovstad. Pretend to be doing something, Aslaksen. (Sits down and
+writes. ASLAKSEN begins foraging among a heap of newspapers that are
+lying on a chair.)
+
+Dr. Stockmann (coming in from the printing room). Here I am again.
+(Puts down his hat and stick.)
+
+Hovstad (writing). Already, Doctor? Hurry up with what we were speaking
+about, Aslaksen. We are very pressed for time today.
+
+Dr. Stockmann (to ASLAKSEN). No proof for me to see yet, I hear.
+
+Aslaksen (without turning round). You couldn't expect it yet, Doctor.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. No, no; but I am impatient, as you can understand. I
+shall not know a moment's peace of mind until I see it in print.
+
+Hovstad. Hm!—It will take a good while yet, won't it, Aslaksen?
+
+Aslaksen. Yes, I am almost afraid it will.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. All right, my dear friends; I will come back. I do not
+mind coming back twice if necessary. A matter of such great
+importance—the welfare of the town at stake—it is no time to shirk
+trouble, (is just going, but stops and comes back.) Look here—there is
+one thing more I want to speak to you about.
+
+Hovstad. Excuse me, but could it not wait till some other time?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I can tell you in half a dozen words. It is only this.
+When my article is read tomorrow and it is realised that I have been
+quietly working the whole winter for the welfare of the town—
+
+Hovstad. Yes but, Doctor—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I know what you are going to say. You don't see how on
+earth it was any more than my duty—my obvious duty as a citizen. Of
+course it wasn't; I know that as well as you. But my fellow citizens,
+you know—! Good Lord, think of all the good souls who think so highly
+of me—!
+
+Aslaksen. Yes, our townsfolk have had a very high opinion of you so
+far, Doctor.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes, and that is just why I am afraid they—. Well, this
+is the point; when this reaches them, especially the poorer classes,
+and sounds in their ears like a summons to take the town's affairs into
+their own hands for the future...
+
+Hovstad (getting up). Ahem! Doctor, I won't conceal from you the fact—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Ah I—I knew there was something in the wind! But I
+won't hear a word of it. If anything of that sort is being set on foot—
+
+Hovstad. Of what sort?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Well, whatever it is—whether it is a demonstration in
+my honour, or a banquet, or a subscription list for some presentation
+to me—whatever it is, you most promise me solemnly and faithfully to
+put a stop to it. You too, Mr. Aslaksen; do you understand?
+
+Hovstad. You must forgive me, Doctor, but sooner or later we must tell
+you the plain truth—
+
+(He is interrupted by the entrance Of MRS. STOCKMANN, who comes in from
+the street door.)
+
+Mrs. Stockmann (seeing her husband). Just as I thought!
+
+Hovstad (going towards her). You too, Mrs. Stockmann?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. What on earth do you want here, Katherine?
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. I should think you know very well what I want.
+
+Hovstad, Won't you sit down? Or perhaps—
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. No, thank you; don't trouble. And you must not be
+offended at my coming to fetch my husband; I am the mother of three
+children, you know.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Nonsense!—we know all about that.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Well, one would not give you credit for much thought
+for your wife and children today; if you had had that, you would not
+have gone and dragged us all into misfortune.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Are you out of your senses, Katherine! Because a man has
+a wife and children, is he not to be allowed to proclaim the truth-is
+he not to be allowed to be an actively useful citizen—is he not to be
+allowed to do a service to his native town!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Yes, Thomas—in reason.
+
+Aslaksen. Just what I say. Moderation in everything.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. And that is why you wrong us, Mr. Hovstad, in enticing
+my husband away from his home and making a dupe of him in all this.
+
+Hovstad. I certainly am making a dupe of no one—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Making a dupe of me! Do you suppose I should allow
+myself to be duped!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. It is just what you do. I know quite well you have more
+brains than anyone in the town, but you are extremely easily duped,
+Thomas. (To Hovstad.) Please do realise that he loses his post at the
+Baths if you print what he has written.
+
+Aslaksen. What!
+
+Hovstad. Look here, Doctor!
+
+Dr. Stockmann (laughing). Ha-ha!—just let them try! No, no—they will
+take good care not to. I have got the compact majority behind me, let
+me tell you!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Yes, that is just the worst of it—your having any such
+horrid thing behind you.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Rubbish, Katherine!—Go home and look after your house
+and leave me to look after the community. How can you be so afraid,
+when I am so confident and happy? (Walks up and down, rubbing his
+hands.) Truth and the People will win the fight, you may be certain! I
+see the whole of the broad-minded middle class marching like a
+victorious army—! (Stops beside a chair.) What the deuce is that lying
+there?
+
+Aslaksen Good Lord!
+
+Hovstad. Ahem!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Here we have the topmost pinnacle of authority! (Takes
+the Mayor's official hat carefully between his finger-tips and holds it
+up in the air.)
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. The Mayor's hat!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. And here is the staff of office too. How in the name of
+all that's wonderful—?
+
+Hovstad. Well, you see—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Oh, I understand. He has been here trying to talk you
+over. Ha-ha!—he made rather a mistake there! And as soon as he caught
+sight of me in the printing room. (Bursts out laughing.) Did he run
+away, Mr. Aslaksen?
+
+Aslaksen (hurriedly). Yes, he ran away, Doctor.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Ran away without his stick or his—. Fiddlesticks! Peter
+doesn't run away and leave his belongings behind him. But what the
+deuce have you done with him? Ah!—in there, of course. Now you shall
+see, Katherine!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Thomas—please don't—!
+
+Aslaksen. Don't be rash, Doctor.
+
+(DR. STOCKMANN has put on the Mayor's hat and taken his stick in his
+hand. He goes up to the door, opens it, and stands with his hand to his
+hat at the salute. PETER STOCKMANN comes in, red with anger. BILLING
+follows him.)
+
+Peter Stockmann. What does this tomfoolery mean?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Be respectful, my good Peter. I am the chief authority
+in the town now. (Walks up and down.)
+
+Mrs. Stockmann (almost in tears). Really, Thomas!
+
+Peter Stockmann (following him about). Give me my hat and stick.
+
+Dr. Stockmann (in the same tone as before). If you are chief constable,
+let me tell you that I am the Mayor—I am the master of the whole town,
+please understand!
+
+Peter Stockmann. Take off my hat, I tell you. Remember it is part of an
+official uniform.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Pooh! Do you think the newly awakened lionhearted people
+are going to be frightened by an official hat? There is going to be a
+revolution in the town tomorrow, let me tell you. You thought you could
+turn me out; but now I shall turn you out—turn you out of all your
+various offices. Do you think I cannot? Listen to me. I have triumphant
+social forces behind me. Hovstad and Billing will thunder in the
+"People's Messenger," and Aslaksen will take the field at the head of
+the whole Householders' Association—
+
+Aslaksen. That I won't, Doctor.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Of course you will—
+
+Peter Stockmann. Ah!—may I ask then if Mr. Hovstad intends to join
+this agitation?
+
+Hovstad. No, Mr. Mayor.
+
+Aslaksen. No, Mr. Hovstad is not such a fool as to go and ruin his
+paper and himself for the sake of an imaginary grievance.
+
+Dr. Stockmann (looking round him). What does this mean?
+
+Hovstad. You have represented your case in a false light, Doctor, and
+therefore I am unable to give you my support.
+
+Billing. And after what the Mayor was so kind as to tell me just now,
+I—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. A false light! Leave that part of it to me. Only print
+my article; I am quite capable of defending it.
+
+Hovstad. I am not going to print it. I cannot and will not and dare not
+print it.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. You dare not? What nonsense!—you are the editor; and an
+editor controls his paper, I suppose!
+
+Aslaksen. No, it is the subscribers, Doctor.
+
+Peter Stockmann. Fortunately, yes.
+
+Aslaksen. It is public opinion—the enlightened public—householders
+and people of that kind; they control the newspapers.
+
+Dr. Stockmann (composedly). And I have all these influences against me?
+
+Aslaksen. Yes, you have. It would mean the absolute ruin of the
+community if your article were to appear.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Indeed.
+
+Peter Stockmann. My hat and stick, if you please. (DR. STOCKMANN takes
+off the hat and lays it on the table with the stick. PETER STOCKMANN
+takes them up.) Your authority as mayor has come to an untimely end.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. We have not got to the end yet. (To HOVSTAD.) Then it is
+quite impossible for you to print my article in the "People's
+Messenger"?
+
+Hovstad. Quite impossible—out of regard for your family as well.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. You need not concern yourself about his family, thank
+you, Mr. Hovstad.
+
+Peter Stockmann (taking a paper from his pocket). It will be
+sufficient, for the guidance of the public, if this appears. It is an
+official statement. May I trouble you?
+
+Hovstad (taking the paper). Certainly; I will see that it is printed.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. But not mine. Do you imagine that you can silence me and
+stifle the truth! You will not find it so easy as you suppose. Mr.
+Aslaksen, kindly take my manuscript at once and print it as a
+pamphlet—at my expense. I will have four hundred copies—no, five or
+six hundred.
+
+Aslaksen. If you offered me its weight in gold, I could not lend my
+press for any such purpose, Doctor. It would be flying in the face of
+public opinion. You will not get it printed anywhere in the town.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Then give it me back.
+
+Hovstad (giving him the MS.). Here it is.
+
+Dr. Stockmann (taking his hat and stick). It shall be made public all
+the same. I will read it out at a mass meeting of the townspeople. All
+my fellow-citizens shall hear the voice of truth!
+
+Peter Stockmann. You will not find any public body in the town that
+will give you the use of their hall for such a purpose.
+
+Aslaksen. Not a single one, I am certain.
+
+Billing. No, I'm damned if you will find one.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. But this is too shameful! Why should every one turn
+against you like that?
+
+Dr. Stockmann (angrily). I will tell you why. It is because all the men
+in this town are old women—like you; they all think of nothing but
+their families, and never of the community.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann (putting her arm into his). Then I will show them that
+an old woman can be a man for once. I am going to stand by you, Thomas!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Bravely said, Katherine! It shall be made public—as I
+am a living soul! If I can't hire a hall, I shall hire a drum, and
+parade the town with it and read it at every street-corner.
+
+Peter Stockmann. You are surely not such an errant fool as that!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes, I am.
+
+Aslaksen. You won't find a single man in the whole town to go with you.
+
+Billing. No, I'm damned if you will.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Don't give in, Thomas. I will tell the boys to go with
+you.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. That is a splendid idea!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Morten will be delighted; and Ejlif will do whatever he
+does.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes, and Petra!—and you too, Katherine!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. No, I won't do that; but I will stand at the window and
+watch you, that's what I will do.
+
+Dr. Stockmann (puts his arms round her and kisses her). Thank you, my
+dear! Now you and I are going to try a fall, my fine gentlemen! I am
+going to see whether a pack of cowards can succeed in gagging a patriot
+who wants to purify society! (He and his wife go out by the street
+door.)
+
+Peter Stockmann (shaking his head seriously). Now he has sent her out
+of her senses, too.
+
+
+ACT IV
+
+(SCENE.—A big old-fashioned room in CAPTAIN HORSTER'S house. At the
+back folding-doors, which are standing open, lead to an ante-room.
+Three windows in the left-hand wall. In the middle of the opposite wall
+a platform has been erected. On this is a small table with two candles,
+a water-bottle and glass, and a bell. The room is lit by lamps placed
+between the windows. In the foreground on the left there is a table
+with candles and a chair. To the right is a door and some chairs
+standing near it. The room is nearly filled with a crowd of townspeople
+of all sorts, a few women and schoolboys being amongst them. People are
+still streaming in from the back, and the room is soon filled.)
+
+1st Citizen (meeting another). Hullo, Lamstad! You here too?
+
+2nd Citizen. I go to every public meeting, I do.
+
+3rd Citizen. Brought your whistle too, I expect!
+
+2nd Citizen. I should think so. Haven't you?
+
+3rd Citizen. Rather! And old Evensen said he was going to bring a
+cow-horn, he did.
+
+2nd Citizen. Good old Evensen! (Laughter among the crowd.)
+
+4th Citizen (coming up to them). I say, tell me what is going on here
+tonight?
+
+2nd Citizen. Dr. Stockmann is going to deliver an address attacking the
+Mayor.
+
+4th Citizen. But the Mayor is his brother.
+
+1st Citizen. That doesn't matter; Dr. Stockmann's not the chap to be
+afraid.
+
+3rd Citizen. But he is in the wrong; it said so in the “People’s
+Messenger.”
+
+2nd Citizen. Yes, I expect he must be in the wrong this time, because neither
+the Householders’ Association nor the Citizens’ Club would lend him
+their hall for his meeting.
+
+1st Citizen. He couldn’t even get the loan of the hall at the Baths.
+
+2nd Citizen. No, I should think not.
+
+A Man in another part of the crowd. I say—who are we to back up in this?
+
+Another Man, beside him. Watch Aslaksen, and do as he does.
+
+Billing (pushing his way through the crowd, with a writing-case under his arm).
+Excuse me, gentlemen—do you mind letting me through? I am reporting for the
+“People’s Messenger.” Thank you very much! (He sits down at
+the table on the left.)
+
+A Workman. Who was that?
+
+Second Workman. Don’t you know him? It’s Billing, who writes for
+Aslaksen’s paper.
+
+(CAPTAIN HORSTER brings in MRS. STOCKMANN and PETRA through the door on the
+right. EJLIF and MORTEN follow them in.)
+
+Horster. I thought you might all sit here; you can slip out easily from here,
+if things get too lively.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Do you think there will be a disturbance?
+
+Horster. One can never tell—with such a crowd. But sit down, and don’t
+be uneasy.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann (sitting down). It was extremely kind of you to offer my husband
+the room.
+
+Horster. Well, if nobody else would—
+
+Petra (who has sat down beside her mother). And it was a plucky thing to do,
+Captain Horster.
+
+Horster. Oh, it is not such a great matter as all that.
+
+(HOVSTAD and ASLAKSEN make their way through the crowd.)
+
+Aslaksen (going up to HORSTER). Has the Doctor not come yet?
+
+Horster. He is waiting in the next room. (Movement in the crowd by the door
+at the back.)
+
+Hovstad. Look—here comes the Mayor!
+
+Billing. Yes, I’m damned if he hasn’t come after all!
+
+(PETER STOCKMANN makes his way gradually through the crowd, bows courteously,
+and takes up a position by the wall on the left. Shortly afterwards Dr.
+STOCKMANN comes in by the right-hand door. He is dressed in a black
+frock-coat, with a white tie. There is a little feeble applause, which is
+hushed down. Silence is obtained.)
+
+Dr. Stockmann (in an undertone). How do you feel, Katherine?
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. All right, thank you. (Lowering her voice.) Be sure not to lose
+your temper, Thomas.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Oh, I know how to control myself.
+
+(Looks at his watch, steps on to the platform, and bows. It is a quarter
+past—so I will begin. (Takes his MS. out of his pocket).
+
+Aslaksen. I think we ought to elect a chairman first.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. No, it is quite unnecessary.
+
+Some of the Crowd. Yes—yes!
+
+Peter Stockmann. I certainly think too that we ought to have a chairman.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. But I have called this meeting to deliver a lecture, Peter.
+
+Peter Stockmann. Dr. Stockmann’s lecture may possibly lead to a
+considerable conflict of opinion.
+
+Voices in the Crowd. A chairman! A chairman !
+
+Hovstad. The general wish of the meeting seems to be that a chairman should be
+elected.
+
+Dr. Stockmann (restraining himself). Very well—let the meeting have its way.
+
+Aslaksen. Will the Mayor be good enough to undertake the task ?
+
+Three Men (clapping their hands). Bravo! Bravo!
+
+Peter Stockmann. For various reasons, which you will easily understand,
+I must beg to be excused. But fortunately we have amongst us a man who
+I think will be acceptable to you all. I refer to the President of the
+Householders' Association, Mr. Aslaksen.
+
+Several voices. Yes—Aslaksen! Bravo Aslaksen!
+
+(DR. STOCKMANN takes up his MS. and walks up and down the platform.)
+
+Aslaksen. Since my fellow-citizens choose to entrust me with this duty,
+I cannot refuse.
+
+(Loud applause. ASLAKSEN mounts the platform.)
+
+Billing (writing), "Mr. Aslaksen was elected with enthusiasm."
+
+Aslaksen. And now, as I am in this position, I should like to say a few
+brief words. I am a quiet and peaceable man, who believes in discreet
+moderation, and—and—in moderate discretion. All my friends can bear
+witness to that.
+
+Several Voices. That's right! That's right, Aslaksen!
+
+Aslaksen. I have learned in the school of life and experience that
+moderation is the most valuable virtue a citizen can possess—
+
+Peter Stockmann. Hear, hear!
+
+Aslaksen. —And moreover, that discretion and moderation are what
+enable a man to be of most service to the community. I would therefore
+suggest to our esteemed fellow-citizen, who has called this meeting,
+that he should strive to keep strictly within the bounds of moderation.
+
+A Man by the door. Three cheers for the Moderation Society!
+
+A Voice. Shame!
+
+Several Voices. Sh!-Sh!
+
+Aslaksen. No interruptions, gentlemen, please! Does anyone wish to make
+any remarks?
+
+Peter Stockmann. Mr. Chairman.
+
+Aslaksen. The Mayor will address the meeting.
+
+Peter Stockmann. In consideration of the close relationship in which,
+as you all know, I stand to the present Medical Officer of the Baths, I
+should have preferred not to speak this evening. But my official
+position with regard to the Baths and my solicitude for the vital
+interests of the town compel me to bring forward a motion. I venture to
+presume that there is not a single one of our citizens present who
+considers it desirable that unreliable and exaggerated accounts of the
+sanitary condition of the Baths and the town should be spread abroad.
+
+Several Voices. No, no! Certainly not! We protest against it!
+
+Peter Stockmann. Therefore, I should like to propose that the meeting
+should not permit the Medical Officer either to read or to comment on
+his proposed lecture.
+
+Dr. Stockmann (impatiently). Not permit—! What the devil—!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann (coughing). Ahem!-ahem!
+
+Dr. Stockmann (collecting himself). Very well, Go ahead!
+
+Peter Stockmann. In my communication to the "People's Messenger," I
+have put the essential facts before the public in such a way that every
+fair-minded citizen can easily form his own opinion. From it you will
+see that the main result of the Medical Officer's proposals—apart from
+their constituting a vote of censure on the leading men of the
+town—would be to saddle the ratepayers with an unnecessary expenditure
+of at least some thousands of pounds.
+
+(Sounds of disapproval among the audience, and some cat-calls.)
+
+Aslaksen (ringing his bell). Silence, please, gentlemen! I beg to
+support the Mayor's motion. I quite agree with him that there is
+something behind this agitation started by the Doctor. He talks about
+the Baths; but it is a revolution he is aiming at—he wants to get the
+administration of the town put into new hands. No one doubts the
+honesty of the Doctor's intentions—no one will suggest that there can
+be any two opinions as to that, I myself am a believer in
+self-government for the people, provided it does not fall too heavily
+on the ratepayers. But that would be the case here; and that is why I
+will see Dr. Stockmann damned—I beg your pardon—before I go with him
+in the matter. You can pay too dearly for a thing sometimes; that is my
+opinion.
+
+(Loud applause on all sides.)
+
+Hovstad. I, too, feel called upon to explain my position. Dr.
+Stockmann's agitation appeared to be gaining a certain amount of
+sympathy at first, so I supported it as impartially as I could. But
+presently we had reason to suspect that we had allowed ourselves to be
+misled by misrepresentation of the state of affairs—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Misrepresentation—!
+
+Hovstad. Well, let us say a not entirely trustworthy representation.
+The Mayor's statement has proved that. I hope no one here has any doubt
+as to my liberal principles; the attitude of the "People's Messenger"
+towards important political questions is well known to everyone. But
+the advice of experienced and thoughtful men has convinced me that in
+purely local matters a newspaper ought to proceed with a certain
+caution.
+
+Aslaksen. I entirely agree with the speaker.
+
+Hovstad. And, in the matter before us, it is now an undoubted fact that
+Dr. Stockmann has public opinion against him. Now, what is an editor's
+first and most obvious duty, gentlemen? Is it not to work in harmony
+with his readers? Has he not received a sort of tacit mandate to work
+persistently and assiduously for the welfare of those whose opinions he
+represents? Or is it possible I am mistaken in that?
+
+Voices from the crowd. No, no! You are quite right!
+
+Hovstad. It has cost me a severe struggle to break with a man in whose
+house I have been lately a frequent guest—a man who till today has
+been able to pride himself on the undivided goodwill of his
+fellow-citizens—a man whose only, or at all events whose essential,
+failing is that he is swayed by his heart rather than his head.
+
+A few scattered voices. That is true! Bravo, Stockmann!
+
+Hovstad. But my duty to the community obliged me to break with him. And
+there is another consideration that impels me to oppose him, and, as
+far as possible, to arrest him on the perilous course he has adopted;
+that is, consideration for his family—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Please stick to the water-supply and drainage!
+
+Hovstad. —consideration, I repeat, for his wife and his children for
+whom he has made no provision.
+
+Morten. Is that us, mother?
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Hush!
+
+Aslaksen. I will now put the Mayor's proposition to the vote.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. There is no necessity! Tonight I have no intention of
+dealing with all that filth down at the Baths. No; I have something
+quite different to say to you.
+
+Peter Stockmann (aside). What is coming now?
+
+A Drunken Man (by the entrance door). I am a ratepayer! And therefore,
+I have a right to speak too! And my entire—firm—inconceivable opinion
+is—
+
+A number of voices. Be quiet, at the back there!
+
+Others. He is drunk! Turn him out! (They turn him out.)
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Am I allowed to speak?
+
+Aslaksen (ringing his bell). Dr. Stockmann will address the meeting.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I should like to have seen anyone, a few days ago, dare
+to attempt to silence me as has been done tonight! I would have
+defended my sacred rights as a man, like a lion! But now it is all one
+to me; I have something of even weightier importance to say to you.
+(The crowd presses nearer to him, MORTEN Kiil conspicuous among them.)
+
+Dr. Stockmann (continuing). I have thought and pondered a great deal,
+these last few days—pondered over such a variety of things that in the
+end my head seemed too full to hold them—
+
+Peter Stockmann (with a cough). Ahem!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. —but I got them clear in my mind at last, and then I
+saw the whole situation lucidly. And that is why I am standing here
+to-night. I have a great revelation to make to you, my fellow-citizens!
+I will impart to you a discovery of a far wider scope than the trifling
+matter that our water supply is poisoned and our medicinal Baths are
+standing on pestiferous soil.
+
+A number of voices (shouting). Don't talk about the Baths! We won't
+hear you! None of that!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I have already told you that what I want to speak about
+is the great discovery I have made lately—the discovery that all the
+sources of our moral life are poisoned and that the whole fabric of our
+civic community is founded on the pestiferous soil of falsehood.
+
+Voices of disconcerted Citizens. What is that he says?
+
+Peter Stockmann. Such an insinuation—!
+
+Aslaksen (with his hand on his bell). I call upon the speaker to
+moderate his language.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I have always loved my native town as a man only can
+love the home of his youthful days. I was not old when I went away from
+here; and exile, longing and memories cast as it were an additional
+halo over both the town and its inhabitants. (Some clapping and
+applause.) And there I stayed, for many years, in a horrible hole far
+away up north. When I came into contact with some of the people that
+lived scattered about among the rocks, I often thought it would of been
+more service to the poor half-starved creatures if a veterinary doctor
+had been sent up there, instead of a man like me. (Murmurs among the
+crowd.)
+
+Billing (laying down his pen). I'm damned if I have ever heard—!
+
+Hovstad. It is an insult to a respectable population!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Wait a bit! I do not think anyone will charge me with
+having forgotten my native town up there. I was like one of the
+eider-ducks brooding on its nest, and what I hatched was the plans for
+these Baths. (Applause and protests.) And then when fate at last
+decreed for me the great happiness of coming home again—I assure you,
+gentlemen, I thought I had nothing more in the world to wish for. Or
+rather, there was one thing I wished for—eagerly, untiringly,
+ardently—and that was to be able to be of service to my native town
+and the good of the community.
+
+Peter Stockmann (looking at the ceiling). You chose a strange way of
+doing it—ahem!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. And so, with my eyes blinded to the real facts, I
+revelled in happiness. But yesterday morning—no, to be precise, it was
+yesterday afternoon—the eyes of my mind were opened wide, and the
+first thing I realised was the colossal stupidity of the authorities—.
+(Uproar, shouts and laughter, MRS. STOCKMANN coughs persistently.)
+
+Peter Stockmann. Mr. Chairman!
+
+Aslaksen (ringing his bell). By virtue of my authority—!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. It is a petty thing to catch me up on a word, Mr.
+Aslaksen. What I mean is only that I got scent of the unbelievable
+piggishness our leading men had been responsible for down at the Baths.
+I can't stand leading men at any price!—I have had enough of such
+people in my time. They are like billy-goats on a young plantation;
+they do mischief everywhere. They stand in a free man's way, whichever
+way he turns, and what I should like best would be to see them
+exterminated like any other vermin—. (Uproar.)
+
+Peter Stockmann. Mr. Chairman, can we allow such expressions to pass?
+
+Aslaksen (with his hand on his bell). Doctor—!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I cannot understand how it is that I have only now
+acquired a clear conception of what these gentry are, when I had almost
+daily before my eyes in this town such an excellent specimen of
+them—my brother Peter—slow-witted and hide-bound in prejudice—.
+(Laughter, uproar and hisses. MRS. STOCKMANN Sits coughing assiduously.
+ASLAKSEN rings his bell violently.)
+
+The Drunken Man (who has got in again). Is it me he is talking about?
+My name's Petersen, all right—but devil take me if I—
+
+Angry Voices. Turn out that drunken man! Turn him out. (He is turned
+out again.)
+
+Peter Stockmann. Who was that person?
+
+1st Citizen. I don't know who he is, Mr. Mayor.
+
+2nd Citizen. He doesn't belong here.
+
+3rd Citizen. I expect he is a navvy from over at—(the rest is
+inaudible).
+
+Aslaksen. He had obviously had too much beer. Proceed, Doctor; but
+please strive to be moderate in your language.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Very well, gentlemen, I will say no more about our
+leading men. And if anyone imagines, from what I have just said, that
+my object is to attack these people this evening, he is
+wrong—absolutely wide of the mark. For I cherish the comforting
+conviction that these parasites—all these venerable relics of a dying
+school of thought—are most admirably paving the way for their own
+extinction; they need no doctor's help to hasten their end. Nor is it
+folk of that kind who constitute the most pressing danger to the
+community. It is not they who are most instrumental in poisoning the
+sources of our moral life and infecting the ground on which we stand.
+It is not they who are the most dangerous enemies of truth and freedom
+amongst us.
+
+Shouts from all sides. Who then? Who is it? Name! Name!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. You may depend upon it—I shall name them! That is
+precisely the great discovery I made yesterday. (Raises his voice.) The
+most dangerous enemy of truth and freedom amongst us is the compact
+majority—yes, the damned compact Liberal majority—that is it! Now you
+know! (Tremendous uproar. Most of the crowd are shouting, stamping and
+hissing. Some of the older men among them exchange stolen glances and
+seem to be enjoying themselves. MRS. STOCKMANN gets up, looking
+anxious. EJLIF and MORTEN advance threateningly upon some schoolboys
+who are playing pranks. ASLAKSEN rings his bell and begs for silence.
+HOVSTAD and BILLING both talk at once, but are inaudible. At last quiet
+is restored.)
+
+Aslaksen. As Chairman, I call upon the speaker to withdraw the
+ill-considered expressions he has just used.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Never, Mr. Aslaksen! It is the majority in our community
+that denies me my freedom and seeks to prevent my speaking the truth.
+
+Hovstad. The majority always has right on its side.
+
+Billing. And truth too, by God!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. The majority never has right on its side. Never, I say!
+That is one of these social lies against which an independent,
+intelligent man must wage war. Who is it that constitute the majority
+of the population in a country? Is it the clever folk, or the stupid? I
+don't imagine you will dispute the fact that at present the stupid
+people are in an absolutely overwhelming majority all the world over.
+But, good Lord!—you can never pretend that it is right that the stupid
+folk should govern the clever ones! (Uproar and cries.) Oh, yes—you
+can shout me down, I know! But you cannot answer me. The majority has
+might on its side—unfortunately; but right it has not. I am in the
+right—I and a few other scattered individuals. The minority is always
+in the right. (Renewed uproar.)
+
+Hovstad. Aha!—so Dr. Stockmann has become an aristocrat since the day
+before yesterday!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I have already said that I don't intend to waste a word
+on the puny, narrow-chested, short-winded crew whom we are leaving
+astern. Pulsating life no longer concerns itself with them. I am
+thinking of the few, the scattered few amongst us, who have absorbed
+new and vigorous truths. Such men stand, as it were, at the outposts,
+so far ahead that the compact majority has not yet been able to come up
+with them; and there they are fighting for truths that are too
+newly-born into the world of consciousness to have any considerable
+number of people on their side as yet.
+
+Hovstad. So the Doctor is a revolutionary now!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Good heavens—of course I am, Mr. Hovstad! I propose to
+raise a revolution against the lie that the majority has the monopoly
+of the truth. What sort of truths are they that the majority usually
+supports? They are truths that are of such advanced age that they are
+beginning to break up. And if a truth is as old as that, it is also in
+a fair way to become a lie, gentlemen. (Laughter and mocking cries.)
+Yes, believe me or not, as you like; but truths are by no means as
+long-lived at Methuselah—as some folk imagine. A normally constituted
+truth lives, let us say, as a rule seventeen or eighteen, or at most
+twenty years—seldom longer. But truths as aged as that are always worn
+frightfully thin, and nevertheless it is only then that the majority
+recognises them and recommends them to the community as wholesome moral
+nourishment. There is no great nutritive value in that sort of fare, I
+can assure you; and, as a doctor, I ought to know. These "majority
+truths" are like last year's cured meat—like rancid, tainted ham; and
+they are the origin of the moral scurvy that is rampant in our
+communities.
+
+Aslaksen. It appears to me that the speaker is wandering a long way
+from his subject.
+
+Peter Stockmann. I quite agree with the Chairman.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Have you gone clean out of your senses, Peter? I am
+sticking as closely to my subject as I can; for my subject is precisely
+this, that it is the masses, the majority—this infernal compact
+majority—that poisons the sources of our moral life and infects the
+ground we stand on.
+
+Hovstad. And all this because the great, broadminded majority of the
+people is prudent enough to show deference only to well-ascertained and
+well-approved truths?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Ah, my good Mr. Hovstad, don't talk nonsense about
+well-ascertained truths! The truths of which the masses now approve are
+the very truths that the fighters at the outposts held to in the days
+of our grandfathers. We fighters at the outposts nowadays no longer
+approve of them; and I do not believe there is any other
+well-ascertained truth except this, that no community can live a
+healthy life if it is nourished only on such old marrowless truths.
+
+Hovstad. But, instead of standing there using vague generalities, it
+would be interesting if you would tell us what these old marrowless
+truths are, that we are nourished on.
+
+(Applause from many quarters.)
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Oh, I could give you a whole string of such
+abominations; but to begin with I will confine myself to one
+well-approved truth, which at bottom is a foul lie, but upon which
+nevertheless Mr. Hovstad and the "People's Messenger" and all the
+"Messenger's" supporters are nourished.
+
+Hovstad. And that is—?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. That is, the doctrine you have inherited from your
+forefathers and proclaim thoughtlessly far and wide—the doctrine that
+the public, the crowd, the masses, are the essential part of the
+population—that they constitute the People—that the common folk, the
+ignorant and incomplete element in the community, have the same right
+to pronounce judgment and to approve, to direct and to govern, as the
+isolated, intellectually superior personalities in it.
+
+Billing. Well, damn me if ever I—
+
+Hovstad (at the same time, shouting out). Fellow-citizens, take good
+note of that!
+
+A number of voices (angrily). Oho!—we are not the People! Only the
+superior folk are to govern, are they!
+
+A Workman. Turn the fellow out for talking such rubbish!
+
+Another. Out with him!
+
+Another (calling out). Blow your horn, Evensen!
+
+(A horn is blown loudly, amidst hisses and an angry uproar.)
+
+Dr. Stockmann (when the noise has somewhat abated). Be reasonable!
+Can't you stand hearing the voice of truth for once? I don't in the
+least expect you to agree with me all at once; but I must say I did
+expect Mr. Hovstad to admit I was right, when he had recovered his
+composure a little. He claims to be a freethinker—
+
+Voices (in murmurs of astonishment). Freethinker, did he say? Is
+Hovstad a freethinker?
+
+Hovstad (shouting). Prove it, Dr. Stockmann! When have I said so in
+print?
+
+Dr. Stockmann (reflecting). No, confound it, you are right!—you have
+never had the courage to. Well, I won't put you in a hole, Mr. Hovstad.
+Let us say it is I that am the freethinker, then. I am going to prove
+to you, scientifically, that the "People's Messenger" leads you by the
+nose in a shameful manner when it tells you that you—that the common
+people, the crowd, the masses, are the real essence of the People. That
+is only a newspaper lie, I tell you! The common people are nothing more
+than the raw material of which a People is made. (Groans, laughter and
+uproar.) Well, isn't that the case? Isn't there an enormous difference
+between a well-bred and an ill-bred strain of animals? Take, for
+instance, a common barn-door hen. What sort of eating do you get from a
+shrivelled up old scrag of a fowl like that? Not much, do you! And what
+sort of eggs does it lay? A fairly good crow or a raven can lay pretty
+nearly as good an egg. But take a well-bred Spanish or Japanese hen, or
+a good pheasant or a turkey—then you will see the difference. Or take
+the case of dogs, with whom we humans are on such intimate terms. Think
+first of an ordinary common cur—I mean one of the horrible,
+coarse-haired, low-bred curs that do nothing but run about the streets
+and befoul the walls of the houses. Compare one of these curs with a
+poodle whose sires for many generations have been bred in a gentleman's
+house, where they have had the best of food and had the opportunity of
+hearing soft voices and music. Do you not think that the poodle's brain
+is developed to quite a different degree from that of the cur? Of
+course it is. It is puppies of well-bred poodles like that, that
+showmen train to do incredibly clever tricks—things that a common cur
+could never learn to do even if it stood on its head. (Uproar and
+mocking cries.)
+
+A Citizen (calls out). Are you going to make out we are dogs, now?
+
+Another Citizen. We are not animals, Doctor!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes but, bless my soul, we are, my friend! It is true we
+are the finest animals anyone could wish for; but, even among us,
+exceptionally fine animals are rare. There is a tremendous difference
+between poodle-men and cur-men. And the amusing part of it is, that Mr.
+Hovstad quite agrees with me as long as it is a question of four-footed
+animals—
+
+Hovstad. Yes, it is true enough as far as they are concerned.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Very well. But as soon as I extend the principle and
+apply it to two-legged animals, Mr. Hovstad stops short. He no longer
+dares to think independently, or to pursue his ideas to their logical
+conclusion; so, he turns the whole theory upside down and proclaims in
+the "People's Messenger" that it is the barn-door hens and street curs
+that are the finest specimens in the menagerie. But that is always the
+way, as long as a man retains the traces of common origin and has not
+worked his way up to intellectual distinction.
+
+Hovstad. I lay no claim to any sort of distinction, I am the son of
+humble country-folk, and I am proud that the stock I come from is
+rooted deep among the common people he insults.
+
+Voices. Bravo, Hovstad! Bravo! Bravo!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. The kind of common people I mean are not only to be
+found low down in the social scale; they crawl and swarm all around
+us—even in the highest social positions. You have only to look at your
+own fine, distinguished Mayor! My brother Peter is every bit as
+plebeian as anyone that walks in two shoes— (laughter and hisses)
+
+Peter Stockmann. I protest against personal allusions of this kind.
+
+Dr. Stockmann (imperturbably).—and that, not because he is like
+myself, descended from some old rascal of a pirate from Pomerania or
+thereabouts—because that is who we are descended from—
+
+Peter Stockmann. An absurd legend. I deny it!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. —but because he thinks what his superiors think, and
+holds the same opinions as they, People who do that are, intellectually
+speaking, common people; and, that is why my magnificent brother Peter
+is in reality so very far from any distinction—and consequently also
+so far from being liberal-minded.
+
+Peter Stockmann. Mr. Chairman—!
+
+Hovstad. So it is only the distinguished men that are liberal-minded in
+this country? We are learning something quite new! (Laughter.)
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes, that is part of my new discovery too. And another
+part of it is that broad-mindedness is almost precisely the same thing
+as morality. That is why I maintain that it is absolutely inexcusable
+in the "People's Messenger" to proclaim, day in and day out, the false
+doctrine that it is the masses, the crowd, the compact majority, that
+have the monopoly of broad-mindedness and morality—and that vice and
+corruption and every kind of intellectual depravity are the result of
+culture, just as all the filth that is draining into our Baths is the
+result of the tanneries up at Molledal! (Uproar and interruptions. DR.
+STOCKMANN is undisturbed, and goes on, carried away by his ardour, with
+a smile.) And yet this same "People's Messenger" can go on preaching
+that the masses ought to be elevated to higher conditions of life! But,
+bless my soul, if the "Messenger's" teaching is to be depended upon,
+this very raising up the masses would mean nothing more or less than
+setting them straightway upon the paths of depravity! Happily the
+theory that culture demoralises is only an old falsehood that our
+forefathers believed in and we have inherited. No, it is ignorance,
+poverty, ugly conditions of life, that do the devil's work! In a house
+which does not get aired and swept every day—my wife Katherine
+maintains that the floor ought to be scrubbed as well, but that is a
+debatable question—in such a house, let me tell you, people will lose
+within two or three years the power of thinking or acting in a moral
+manner. Lack of oxygen weakens the conscience. And there must be a
+plentiful lack of oxygen in very many houses in this town, I should
+think, judging from the fact that the whole compact majority can be
+unconscientious enough to wish to build the town's prosperity on a
+quagmire of falsehood and deceit.
+
+Aslaksen. We cannot allow such a grave accusation to be flung at a
+citizen community.
+
+A Citizen. I move that the Chairman direct the speaker to sit down.
+
+Voices (angrily). Hear, hear! Quite right! Make him sit down!
+
+Dr. Stockmann (losing his self-control). Then I will go and shout the
+truth at every street corner! I will write it in other towns'
+newspapers! The whole country shall know what is going on here!
+
+Hovstad. It almost seems as if Dr. Stockmann's intention were to ruin
+the town.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes, my native town is so dear to me that I would rather
+ruin it than see it flourishing upon a lie.
+
+Aslaksen. This is really serious. (Uproar and cat-calls MRS. STOCKMANN
+coughs, but to no purpose; her husband does not listen to her any
+longer.)
+
+Hovstad (shouting above the din). A man must be a public enemy to wish
+to ruin a whole community!
+
+Dr. Stockmann (with growing fervor). What does the destruction of a
+community matter, if it lives on lies? It ought to be razed to the
+ground. I tell you— All who live by lies ought to be exterminated like
+vermin! You will end by infecting the whole country; you will bring
+about such a state of things that the whole country will deserve to be
+ruined. And if things come to that pass, I shall say from the bottom of
+my heart: Let the whole country perish, let all these people be
+exterminated!
+
+Voices from the crowd. That is talking like an out-and-out enemy of the
+people!
+
+Billing. There sounded the voice of the people, by all that's holy!
+
+The whole crowd (shouting). Yes, yes! He is an enemy of the people! He
+hates his country! He hates his own people!
+
+Aslaksen. Both as a citizen and as an individual, I am profoundly
+disturbed by what we have had to listen to. Dr. Stockmann has shown
+himself in a light I should never have dreamed of. I am unhappily
+obliged to subscribe to the opinion which I have just heard my
+estimable fellow-citizens utter; and I propose that we should give
+expression to that opinion in a resolution. I propose a resolution as
+follows: "This meeting declares that it considers Dr. Thomas Stockmann,
+Medical Officer of the Baths, to be an enemy of the people." (A storm
+of cheers and applause. A number of men surround the DOCTOR and hiss
+him. MRS. STOCKMANN and PETRA have got up from their seats. MORTEN and
+EJLIF are fighting the other schoolboys for hissing; some of their
+elders separate them.)
+
+Dr. Stockmann (to the men who are hissing him). Oh, you fools! I tell
+you that—
+
+Aslaksen (ringing his bell). We cannot hear you now, Doctor. A formal
+vote is about to be taken; but, out of regard for personal feelings, it
+shall be by ballot and not verbal. Have you any clean paper, Mr.
+Billing?
+
+Billing. I have both blue and white here.
+
+Aslaksen (going to him). That will do nicely; we shall get on more
+quickly that way. Cut it up into small strips—yes, that's it. (To the
+meeting.) Blue means no; white means yes. I will come round myself and
+collect votes. (PETER STOCKMANN leaves the hall. ASLAKSEN and one or
+two others go round the room with the slips of paper in their hats.)
+
+1st Citizen (to HOVSTAD). I say, what has come to the Doctor? What are
+we to think of it?
+
+Hovstad. Oh, you know how headstrong he is.
+
+2nd Citizen (to BILLING). Billing, you go to their house—have you ever
+noticed if the fellow drinks?
+
+Billing. Well I'm hanged if I know what to say. There are always
+spirits on the table when you go.
+
+3rd Citizen. I rather think he goes quite off his head sometimes.
+
+1st Citizen. I wonder if there is any madness in his family?
+
+Billing. I shouldn't wonder if there were.
+
+4th Citizen. No, it is nothing more than sheer malice; he wants to get
+even with somebody for something or other.
+
+Billing. Well certainly he suggested a rise in his salary on one
+occasion lately, and did not get it.
+
+The Citizens (together). Ah!—then it is easy to understand how it is!
+
+The Drunken Man (who has got among the audience again). I want a blue
+one, I do! And I want a white one too!
+
+Voices. It's that drunken chap again! Turn him out!
+
+Morten Kiil. (going up to DR. STOCKMANN). Well, Stockmann, do you see
+what these monkey tricks of yours lead to?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I have done my duty.
+
+Morten Kiil. What was that you said about the tanneries at Molledal?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. You heard well enough. I said they were the source of
+all the filth.
+
+Morten Kiil. My tannery too?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Unfortunately your tannery is by far the worst.
+
+Morten Kiil. Are you going to put that in the papers?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I shall conceal nothing.
+
+Morten Kiil. That may cost you dearly, Stockmann. (Goes out.)
+
+A Stout Man (going UP to CAPTAIN HORSTER, Without taking any notice of
+the ladies). Well, Captain, so you lend your house to enemies of the
+people?
+
+Horster. I imagine I can do what I like with my own possessions, Mr.
+Vik.
+
+The Stout Man. Then you can have no objection to my doing the same with
+mine.
+
+Horster. What do you mean, sir?
+
+The Stout Man. You shall hear from me in the morning. (Turns his back
+on him and moves off.)
+
+Petra. Was that not your owner, Captain Horster?
+
+Horster. Yes, that was Mr. Vik the shipowner.
+
+Aslaksen (with the voting-papers in his hands, gets up on to the
+platform and rings his bell). Gentlemen, allow me to announce the
+result. By the votes of every one here except one person—
+
+A Young Man. That is the drunk chap!
+
+Aslaksen. By the votes of everyone here except a tipsy man, this
+meeting of citizens declares Dr. Thomas Stockmann to be an enemy of the
+people. (Shouts and applause.) Three cheers for our ancient and
+honourable citizen community! (Renewed applause.) Three cheers for our
+able and energetic Mayor, who has so loyally suppressed the promptings
+of family feeling! (Cheers.) The meeting is dissolved. (Gets down.)
+
+Billing. Three cheers for the Chairman!
+
+The whole crowd. Three cheers for Aslaksen! Hurrah!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. My hat and coat, Petra! Captain, have you room on your
+ship for passengers to the New World?
+
+Horster. For you and yours we will make room, Doctor.
+
+Dr. Stockmann (as PETRA helps him into his coat), Good. Come,
+Katherine! Come, boys!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann (in an undertone). Thomas, dear, let us go out by the
+back way.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. No back ways for me, Katherine, (Raising his voice.) You
+will hear more of this enemy of the people, before he shakes the dust
+off his shoes upon you! I am not so forgiving as a certain Person; I do
+not say: "I forgive you, for ye know not what ye do."
+
+Aslaksen (shouting). That is a blasphemous comparison, Dr. Stockmann!
+
+Billing. It is, by God! It's dreadful for an earnest man to listen to.
+
+A Coarse Voice. Threatens us now, does he!
+
+Other Voices (excitedly). Let's go and break his windows! Duck him in
+the fjord!
+
+Another Voice. Blow your horn, Evensen! Pip, pip!
+
+(Horn-blowing, hisses, and wild cries. DR. STOCKMANN goes out through
+the hall with his family, HORSTER elbowing a way for them.)
+
+The Whole Crowd (howling after them as they go). Enemy of the People!
+Enemy of the People!
+
+Billing (as he puts his papers together). Well, I'm damned if I go and
+drink toddy with the Stockmanns tonight!
+
+(The crowd press towards the exit. The uproar continues outside; shouts
+of "Enemy of the People!" are heard from without.)
+
+
+ACT V
+
+(SCENE.—DR. STOCKMANN'S study. Bookcases and cabinets containing
+specimens, line the walls. At the back is a door leading to the hall;
+in the foreground on the left, a door leading to the sitting-room. In
+the righthand wall are two windows, of which all the panes are broken.
+The DOCTOR'S desk, littered with books and papers, stands in the middle
+of the room, which is in disorder. It is morning. DR. STOCKMANN in
+dressing-gown, slippers and a smoking-cap, is bending down and raking
+with an umbrella under one of the cabinets. After a little while he
+rakes out a stone.)
+
+Dr. Stockmann (calling through the open sitting-room door). Katherine,
+I have found another one.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann (from the sitting-room). Oh, you will find a lot more
+yet, I expect.
+
+Dr. Stockmann (adding the stone to a heap of others on the table). I
+shall treasure these stones as relics. Ejlif and Morten shall look at
+them every day, and when they are grown up they shall inherit them as
+heirlooms. (Rakes about under a bookcase.) Hasn't—what the deuce is
+her name?—the girl, you know—hasn't she been to fetch the glazier yet?
+
+Mrs. Stockmann (coming in). Yes, but he said he didn't know if he would
+be able to come today.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. You will see he won't dare to come.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Well, that is just what Randine thought—that he didn't
+dare to, on account of the neighbours. (Calls into the sitting-room.)
+What is it you want, Randine? Give it to me. (Goes in, and comes out
+again directly.) Here is a letter for you, Thomas.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Let me see it. (Opens and reads it.) Ah!—of course.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Who is it from?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. From the landlord. Notice to quit.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Is it possible? Such a nice man
+
+Dr. Stockmann (looking at the letter). Does not dare do otherwise, he
+says. Doesn't like doing it, but dare not do otherwise—on account of
+his fellow-citizens—out of regard for public opinion. Is in a
+dependent position—dares not offend certain influential men.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. There, you see, Thomas!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes, yes, I see well enough; the whole lot of them in
+the town are cowards; not a man among them dares do anything for fear
+of the others. (Throws the letter on to the table.) But it doesn't
+matter to us, Katherine. We are going to sail away to the New World,
+and—
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. But, Thomas, are you sure we are well advised to take
+this step?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Are you suggesting that I should stay here, where they
+have pilloried me as an enemy of the people—branded me—broken my
+windows! And just look here, Katherine—they have torn a great rent in
+my black trousers too!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Oh, dear!—and they are the best pair you have got!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. You should never wear your best trousers when you go out
+to fight for freedom and truth. It is not that I care so much about the
+trousers, you know; you can always sew them up again for me. But that
+the common herd should dare to make this attack on me, as if they were
+my equals—that is what I cannot, for the life of me, swallow!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. There is no doubt they have behaved very ill toward
+you, Thomas; but is that sufficient reason for our leaving our native
+country for good and all?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. If we went to another town, do you suppose we should not
+find the common people just as insolent as they are here? Depend upon
+it, there is not much to choose between them. Oh, well, let the curs
+snap—that is not the worst part of it. The worst is that, from one end
+of this country to the other, every man is the slave of his Party.
+Although, as far as that goes, I daresay it is not much better in the
+free West either; the compact majority, and liberal public opinion, and
+all that infernal old bag of tricks are probably rampant there too. But
+there things are done on a larger scale, you see. They may kill you,
+but they won't put you to death by slow torture. They don't squeeze a
+free man's soul in a vice, as they do here. And, if need be, one can
+live in solitude. (Walks up and down.) If only I knew where there was a
+virgin forest or a small South Sea island for sale, cheap—
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. But think of the boys, Thomas!
+
+Dr. Stockmann (standing still). What a strange woman you are,
+Katherine! Would you prefer to have the boys grow up in a society like
+this? You saw for yourself last night that half the population are out
+of their minds; and if the other half have not lost their senses, it is
+because they are mere brutes, with no sense to lose.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. But, Thomas dear, the imprudent things you said had
+something to do with it, you know.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Well, isn't what I said perfectly true? Don't they turn
+every idea topsy-turvy? Don't they make a regular hotchpotch of right
+and wrong? Don't they say that the things I know are true, are lies?
+The craziest part of it all is the fact of these "liberals," men of
+full age, going about in crowds imagining that they are the
+broad-minded party! Did you ever hear anything like it, Katherine!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Yes, yes, it's mad enough of them, certainly;
+but—(PETRA comes in from the sitting-room). Back from school already?
+
+Petra. Yes. I have been given notice of dismissal.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Dismissal?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. You too?
+
+Petra. Mrs. Busk gave me my notice; so I thought it was best to go at
+once.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. You were perfectly right, too!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Who would have thought Mrs. Busk was a woman like that!
+
+Petra. Mrs. Busk isn't a bit like that, mother; I saw quite plainly how
+it hurt her to do it. But she didn't dare do otherwise, she said; and
+so I got my notice.
+
+Dr. Stockmann (laughing and rubbing his hands). She didn't dare do
+otherwise, either! It's delicious!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Well, after the dreadful scenes last night—
+
+Petra. It was not only that. Just listen to this, father!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Well?
+
+Petra. Mrs. Busk showed me no less than three letters she received this
+morning—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Anonymous, I suppose?
+
+Petra. Yes.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes, because they didn't dare to risk signing their
+names, Katherine!
+
+Petra. And two of them were to the effect that a man, who has been our
+guest here, was declaring last night at the Club that my views on
+various subjects are extremely emancipated—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. You did not deny that, I hope?
+
+Petra. No, you know I wouldn't. Mrs. Busk's own views are tolerably
+emancipated, when we are alone together; but now that this report about
+me is being spread, she dare not keep me on any longer.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. And someone who had been a guest of ours! That shows
+you the return you get for your hospitality, Thomas!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. We won't live in such a disgusting hole any longer. Pack
+up as quickly as you can, Katherine; the sooner we can get away, the
+better.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Be quiet—I think I hear someone in the hall. See who
+it is, Petra.
+
+Petra (opening the door). Oh, it's you, Captain Horster! Do come in.
+
+Horster (coming in). Good morning. I thought I would just come in and
+see how you were.
+
+Dr. Stockmann (shaking his hand). Thanks—that is really kind of you.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. And thank you, too, for helping us through the crowd,
+Captain Horster.
+
+Petra. How did you manage to get home again?
+
+Horster. Oh, somehow or other. I am fairly strong, and there is more
+sound than fury about these folk.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes, isn't their swinish cowardice astonishing? Look
+here, I will show you something! There are all the stones they have
+thrown through my windows. Just look at them! I'm hanged if there are
+more than two decently large bits of hard stone in the whole heap; the
+rest are nothing but gravel—wretched little things. And yet they stood
+out there bawling and swearing that they would do me some violence; but
+as for doing anything—you don't see much of that in this town.
+
+Horster. Just as well for you this time, doctor!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. True enough. But it makes one angry all the same;
+because if some day it should be a question of a national fight in real
+earnest, you will see that public opinion will be in favour of taking
+to one's heels, and the compact majority will turn tail like a flock of
+sheep, Captain Horster. That is what is so mournful to think of; it
+gives me so much concern, that—. No, devil take it, it is ridiculous
+to care about it! They have called me an enemy of the people, so an
+enemy of the people let me be!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. You will never be that, Thomas.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Don't swear to that, Katherine. To be called an ugly
+name may have the same effect as a pin-scratch in the lung. And that
+hateful name—I can't get quit of it. It is sticking here in the pit of
+my stomach, eating into me like a corrosive acid. And no magnesia will
+remove it.
+
+Petra. Bah!—you should only laugh at them, father,
+
+Horster. They will change their minds some day, Doctor.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Yes, Thomas, as sure as you are standing here.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Perhaps, when it is too late. Much good may it do them!
+They may wallow in their filth then and rue the day when they drove a
+patriot into exile. When do you sail, Captain Horster?
+
+Horster. Hm!—that was just what I had come to speak about—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Why, has anything gone wrong with the ship?
+
+Horster. No; but what has happened is that I am not to sail in it.
+
+Petra. Do you mean that you have been dismissed from your command?
+
+Horster (smiling). Yes, that's just it.
+
+Petra. You too.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. There, you see, Thomas!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. And that for the truth's sake! Oh, if I had thought such
+a thing possible—
+
+Horster. You mustn't take it to heart; I shall be sure to find a job
+with some ship-owner or other, elsewhere.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. And that is this man Vik—a wealthy man, independent of
+everyone and everything—! Shame on him!
+
+Horster. He is quite an excellent fellow otherwise; he told me himself
+he would willingly have kept me on, if only he had dared—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. But he didn't dare? No, of course not.
+
+Horster. It is not such an easy matter, he said, for a party man—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. The worthy man spoke the truth. A party is like a
+sausage machine; it mashes up all sorts of heads together into the same
+mincemeat—fatheads and blockheads, all in one mash!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Come, come, Thomas dear!
+
+Petra (to HORSTER). If only you had not come home with us, things might
+not have come to this pass.
+
+Horster. I do not regret it.
+
+Petra (holding out her hand to him). Thank you for that!
+
+Horster (to DR. STOCKMANN). And so what I came to say was that if you
+are determined to go away, I have thought of another plan—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. That's splendid!—if only we can get away at once.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Hush!—wasn't that some one knocking?
+
+Petra. That is uncle, surely.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Aha! (Calls out.) Come in!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Dear Thomas, promise me definitely—. (PETER STOCKMANN
+comes in from the hall.)
+
+Peter Stockmann. Oh, you are engaged. In that case, I will—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. No, no, come in.
+
+Peter Stockmann. But I wanted to speak to you alone.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. We will go into the sitting-room in the meanwhile.
+
+Horster. And I will look in again later.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. No, go in there with them, Captain Horster; I want to
+hear more about—.
+
+Horster. Very well, I will wait, then. (He follows MRS. STOCKMANN and
+PETRA into the sitting-room.)
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I daresay you find it rather draughty here today. Put
+your hat on.
+
+Peter Stockmann. Thank you, if I may. (Does so.) I think I caught cold
+last night; I stood and shivered—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Really? I found it warm enough.
+
+Peter Stockmann. I regret that it was not in my power to prevent those
+excesses last night.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Have you anything in particular to say to me besides
+that?
+
+Peter Stockmann (taking a big letter from his pocket). I have this
+document for you, from the Baths Committee.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. My dismissal?
+
+Peter Stockmann. Yes, dating from today. (Lays the letter on the
+table.) It gives us pain to do it; but, to speak frankly, we dared not
+do otherwise on account of public opinion.
+
+Dr. Stockmann (smiling). Dared not? I seem to have heard that word
+before, today.
+
+Peter Stockmann. I must beg you to understand your position clearly.
+For the future you must not count on any practice whatever in the town.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Devil take the practice! But why are you so sure of that?
+
+Peter Stockmann. The Householders' Association is circulating a list
+from house to house. All right-minded citizens are being called upon to
+give up employing you; and I can assure you that not a single head of a
+family will risk refusing his signature. They simply dare not.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. No, no; I don't doubt it. But what then?
+
+Peter Stockmann. If I might advise you, it would be best to leave the
+place for a little while—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes, the propriety of leaving the place has occurred to
+me.
+
+Peter Stockmann. Good. And then, when you have had six months to think
+things over, if, after mature consideration, you can persuade yourself
+to write a few words of regret, acknowledging your error—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I might have my appointment restored to me, do you mean?
+
+Peter Stockmann. Perhaps. It is not at all impossible.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. But what about public opinion, then? Surely you would
+not dare to do it on account of public feeling...
+
+Peter Stockmann. Public opinion is an extremely mutable thing. And, to
+be quite candid with you, it is a matter of great importance to us to
+have some admission of that sort from you in writing.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Oh, that's what you are after, is it! I will just
+trouble you to remember what I said to you lately about foxy tricks of
+that sort!
+
+Peter Stockmann. Your position was quite different then. At that time
+you had reason to suppose you had the whole town at your back—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes, and now I feel I have the whole town ON my
+back—(flaring up). I would not do it if I had the devil and his dam on
+my back—! Never—never, I tell you!
+
+Peter Stockmann. A man with a family has no right to behave as you do.
+You have no right to do it, Thomas.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I have no right! There is only one single thing in the
+world a free man has no right to do. Do you know what that is?
+
+Peter Stockmann. No.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Of course you don't, but I will tell you. A free man has
+no right to soil himself with filth; he has no right to behave in a way
+that would justify his spitting in his own face.
+
+Peter Stockmann. This sort of thing sounds extremely plausible, of
+course; and if there were no other explanation for your obstinacy—.
+But as it happens that there is.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. What do you mean?
+
+Peter Stockmann. You understand, very well what I mean. But, as your
+brother and as a man of discretion, I advise you not to build too much
+upon expectations and prospects that may so very easily fail you.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. What in the world is all this about?
+
+Peter Stockmann. Do you really ask me to believe that you are ignorant
+of the terms of Mr. Kiil's will?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I know that the small amount he possesses is to go to an
+institution for indigent old workpeople. How does that concern me?
+
+Peter Stockmann. In the first place, it is by no means a small amount
+that is in question. Mr. Kiil is a fairly wealthy man.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I had no notion of that!
+
+Peter Stockmann. Hm!—hadn't you really? Then I suppose you had no
+notion, either, that a considerable portion of his wealth will come to
+your children, you and your wife having a life-rent of the capital. Has
+he never told you so?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Never, on my honour! Quite the reverse; he has
+consistently done nothing but fume at being so unconscionably heavily
+taxed. But are you perfectly certain of this, Peter?
+
+Peter Stockmann. I have it from an absolutely reliable source.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Then, thank God, Katherine is provided for—and the
+children too! I must tell her this at once—(calls out) Katherine,
+Katherine!
+
+Peter Stockmann (restraining him). Hush, don't say a word yet!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann (opening the door). What is the matter?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Oh, nothing, nothing; you can go back. (She shuts the
+door. DR. STOCKMANN walks up and down in his excitement.) Provided
+for!—Just think of it, we are all provided for! And for life! What a
+blessed feeling it is to know one is provided for!
+
+Peter Stockmann. Yes, but that is just exactly what you are not. Mr.
+Kiil can alter his will any day he likes.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. But he won't do that, my dear Peter. The "Badger" is
+much too delighted at my attack on you and your wise friends.
+
+Peter Stockmann (starts and looks intently at him). Ah, that throws a
+light on various things.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. What things?
+
+Peter Stockmann. I see that the whole thing was a combined manoeuvre on
+your part and his. These violent, reckless attacks that you have made
+against the leading men of the town, under the pretence that it was in
+the name of truth—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. What about them?
+
+Peter Stockmann. I see that they were nothing else than the stipulated
+price for that vindictive old man's will.
+
+Dr. Stockmann (almost speechless). Peter—you are the most disgusting
+plebeian I have ever met in all my life.
+
+Peter Stockmann. All is over between us. Your dismissal is
+irrevocable—we have a weapon against you now. (Goes out.)
+
+Dr. Stockmann. For shame! For shame! (Calls out.) Katherine, you must
+have the floor scrubbed after him! Let—what's her name—devil take it,
+the girl who has always got soot on her nose—
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. (in the sitting-room). Hush, Thomas, be quiet!
+
+Petra (coming to the door). Father, grandfather is here, asking if he
+may speak to you alone.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Certainly he may. (Going to the door.) Come in, Mr.
+Kiil. (MORTEN KIIL comes in. DR. STOCKMANN shuts the door after him.)
+What can I do for you? Won't you sit down?
+
+Morten Kiil. I won't sit. (Looks around.) You look very comfortable
+here today, Thomas.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes, don't we!
+
+Morten Kiil. Very comfortable—plenty of fresh air. I should think you
+have got enough to-day of that oxygen you were talking about yesterday.
+Your conscience must be in splendid order to-day, I should think.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. It is.
+
+Morten Kiil. So I should think. (Taps his chest.) Do you know what I
+have got here?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. A good conscience, too, I hope.
+
+Morten Kiil. Bah!—No, it is something better than that. (He takes a
+thick pocket-book from his breast-pocket, opens it, and displays a
+packet of papers.)
+
+Dr. Stockmann (looking at him in astonishment). Shares in the Baths?
+
+Morten Kiil. They were not difficult to get today.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. And you have been buying—?
+
+Morten Kiil. As many as I could pay for.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. But, my dear Mr. Kiil—consider the state of the Baths'
+affairs!
+
+Morten Kiil. If you behave like a reasonable man, you can soon set the
+Baths on their feet again.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Well, you can see for yourself that I have done all I
+can, but—. They are all mad in this town!
+
+Morten Kiil. You said yesterday that the worst of this pollution came
+from my tannery. If that is true, then my grandfather and my father
+before me, and I myself, for many years past, have been poisoning the
+town like three destroying angels. Do you think I am going to sit quiet
+under that reproach?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Unfortunately I am afraid you will have to.
+
+Morten Kiil. No, thank you. I am jealous of my name and reputation.
+They call me "the Badger," I am told. A badger is a kind of pig, I
+believe; but I am not going to give them the right to call me that. I
+mean to live and die a clean man.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. And how are you going to set about it?
+
+Morten Kiil. You shall cleanse me, Thomas.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I!
+
+Morten Kiil. Do you know what money I have bought these shares with?
+No, of course you can't know—but I will tell you. It is the money that
+Katherine and Petra and the boys will have when I am gone. Because I
+have been able to save a little bit after all, you know.
+
+Dr. Stockmann (flaring up). And you have gone and taken Katherine's
+money for this!
+
+Morten Kiil. Yes, the whole of the money is invested in the Baths now.
+And now I just want to see whether you are quite stark, staring mad,
+Thomas! If you still make out that these animals and other nasty things
+of that sort come from my tannery, it will be exactly as if you were to
+flay broad strips of skin from Katherine's body, and Petra's, and the
+boys'; and no decent man would do that—unless he were mad.
+
+Dr. Stockmann (walking up and down). Yes, but I am mad; I am mad!
+
+Morten Kiil. You cannot be so absurdly mad as all that, when it is a
+question of your wife and children.
+
+Dr. Stockmann (standing still in front of him). Why couldn't you
+consult me about it, before you went and bought all that trash?
+
+Morten Kiil. What is done cannot be undone.
+
+Dr. Stockmann (walks about uneasily). If only I were not so certain
+about it—! But I am absolutely convinced that I am right.
+
+Morten Kiil (weighing the pocket-book in his hand). If you stick to
+your mad idea, this won't be worth much, you know. (Puts the
+pocket-book in his pocket.)
+
+Dr. Stockmann. But, hang it all! It might be possible for science to
+discover some prophylactic, I should think—or some antidote of some
+kind—
+
+Morten Kiil. To kill these animals, do you mean?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes, or to make them innocuous.
+
+Morten Kiil. Couldn't you try some rat's-bane?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Don't talk nonsense! They all say it is only
+imagination, you know. Well, let it go at that! Let them have their own
+way about it! Haven't the ignorant, narrow-minded curs reviled me as an
+enemy of the people?—and haven't they been ready to tear the clothes
+off my back too?
+
+Morten Kiil. And broken all your windows to pieces!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. And then there is my duty to my family. I must talk it
+over with Katherine; she is great on those things.
+
+Morten Kiil. That is right; be guided by a reasonable woman's advice.
+
+Dr. Stockmann (advancing towards him). To think you could do such a
+preposterous thing!  Risking Katherine's money in this way, and putting
+me in such a horribly painful dilemma! When I look at you, I think I
+see the devil himself—.
+
+Morten Kiil. Then I had better go. But I must have an answer from you
+before two o'clock—yes or no. If it is no, the shares go to a charity,
+and that this very day.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. And what does Katherine get?
+
+Morten Kiil. Not a halfpenny. (The door leading to the hall opens, and
+HOVSTAD and ASLAKSEN make their appearance.) Look at those two!
+
+Dr. Stockmann (staring at them). What the devil!—have YOU actually the
+face to come into my house?
+
+Hovstad. Certainly.
+
+Aslaksen. We have something to say to you, you see.
+
+Morten Kiil (in a whisper). Yes or no—before two o'clock.
+
+Aslaksen (glancing at HOVSTAD). Aha! (MORTEN KIIL goes out.)
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Well, what do you want with me? Be brief.
+
+Hovstad. I can quite understand that you are annoyed with us for our
+attitude at the meeting yesterday.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Attitude, do you call it? Yes, it was a charming
+attitude! I call it weak, womanish—damnably shameful!
+
+Hovstad. Call it what you like, we could not do otherwise.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. You DARED not do otherwise—isn't that it?
+
+Hovstad. Well, if you like to put it that way.
+
+Aslaksen. But why did you not let us have word of it beforehand?—just
+a hint to Mr. Hovstad or to me?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. A hint? Of what?
+
+Aslaksen. Of what was behind it all.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I don't understand you in the least—
+
+Aslaksen (with a confidential nod). Oh yes, you do, Dr. Stockmann.
+
+Hovstad. It is no good making a mystery of it any longer.
+
+Dr. Stockmann (looking first at one of them and then at the other).
+What the devil do you both mean?
+
+Aslaksen. May I ask if your father-in-law is not going round the town
+buying up all the shares in the Baths?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes, he has been buying Baths shares today; but—
+
+Aslaksen. It would have been more prudent to get someone else to do
+it—someone less nearly related to you.
+
+Hovstad. And you should not have let your name appear in the affair.
+There was no need for anyone to know that the attack on the Baths came
+from you. You ought to have consulted me, Dr. Stockmann.
+
+Dr. Stockmann (looks in front of him; then a light seems to dawn on him
+and he says in amazement.) Are such things conceivable? Are such things
+possible?
+
+Aslaksen (with a smile). Evidently they are. But it is better to use a
+little finesse, you know.
+
+Hovstad. And it is much better to have several persons in a thing of
+that sort; because the responsibility of each individual is lessened,
+when there are others with him.
+
+Dr. Stockmann (composedly). Come to the point, gentlemen. What do you
+want?
+
+Aslaksen. Perhaps Mr. Hovstad had better—
+
+Hovstad. No, you tell him, Aslaksen.
+
+Aslaksen. Well, the fact is that, now we know the bearings of the whole
+affair, we think we might venture to put the "People's Messenger" at
+your disposal.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Do you dare do that now? What about public opinion? Are
+you not afraid of a storm breaking upon our heads?
+
+Hovstad. We will try to weather it.
+
+Aslaksen. And you must be ready to go off quickly on a new tack,
+Doctor. As soon as your invective has done its work—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Do you mean, as soon as my father-in-law and I have got
+hold of the shares at a low figure?
+
+Hovstad. Your reasons for wishing to get the control of the Baths are
+mainly scientific, I take it.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Of course; it was for scientific reasons that I
+persuaded the old "Badger" to stand in with me in the matter. So we
+will tinker at the conduit-pipes a little, and dig up a little bit of
+the shore, and it shan't cost the town a sixpence. That will be all
+right—eh?
+
+Hovstad. I think so—if you have the "People's Messenger" behind you.
+
+Aslaksen. The Press is a power in a free community. Doctor.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Quite so. And so is public opinion. And you, Mr.
+Aslaksen—I suppose you will be answerable for the Householders'
+Association?
+
+Aslaksen. Yes, and for the Temperance Society. You may rely on that.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. But, gentlemen—I really am ashamed to ask the
+question—but, what return do you—?
+
+Hovstad. We should prefer to help you without any return whatever,
+believe me. But the "People's Messenger" is in rather a shaky
+condition; it doesn't go really well; and I should be very unwilling to
+suspend the paper now, when there is so much work to do here in the
+political way.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Quite so; that would be a great trial to such a friend
+of the people as you are. (Flares up.) But I am an enemy of the people,
+remember! (Walks about the room.) Where have I put my stick? Where the
+devil is my stick?
+
+Hovstad. What's that?
+
+Aslaksen. Surely you never mean—
+
+Dr. Stockmann (standing still.) And suppose I don't give you a single
+penny of all I get out of it? Money is not very easy to get out of us
+rich folk, please to remember!
+
+Hovstad. And you please to remember that this affair of the shares can
+be represented in two ways!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes, and you are just the man to do it. If I don't come
+to the rescue of the "People's Messenger," you will certainly take an
+evil view of the affair; you will hunt me down, I can well
+imagine—pursue me—try to throttle me as a dog does a hare.
+
+Hovstad. It is a natural law; every animal must fight for its own
+livelihood.
+
+Aslaksen. And get its food where it can, you know.
+
+Dr. Stockmann (walking about the room). Then you go and look for yours
+in the gutter; because I am going to show you which is the strongest
+animal of us three! (Finds an umbrella and brandishes it above his
+head.) Ah, now—!
+
+Hovstad. You are surely not going to use violence!
+
+Aslaksen. Take care what you are doing with that umbrella.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Out of the window with you, Mr. Hovstad!
+
+Hovstad (edging to the door). Are you quite mad!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Out of the window, Mr. Aslaksen! Jump, I tell you! You
+will have to do it, sooner or later.
+
+Aslaksen (running round the writing-table). Moderation, Doctor—I am a
+delicate man—I can stand so little—(calls out) help, help!
+
+(MRS. STOCKMANN, PETRA and HORSTER come in from the sitting-room.)
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Good gracious, Thomas! What is happening?
+
+Dr. Stockmann (brandishing the umbrella). Jump out, I tell you! Out
+into the gutter!
+
+Hovstad. An assault on an unoffending man! I call you to witness,
+Captain Horster. (Hurries out through the hall.)
+
+Aslaksen (irresolutely). If only I knew the way about here—. (Steals
+out through the sitting-room.)
+
+Mrs. Stockmann (holding her husband back). Control yourself, Thomas!
+
+Dr. Stockmann (throwing down the umbrella). Upon my soul, they have
+escaped after all.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. What did they want you to do?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I will tell you later on; I have something else to think
+about now. (Goes to the table and writes something on a calling-card.)
+Look there, Katherine; what is written there?
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Three big Noes; what does that mean.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. I will tell you that too, later on. (Holds out the card
+to PETRA.) There, Petra; tell sooty-face to run over to the "Badger's"
+with that, as quick as she can. Hurry up! (PETRA takes the card and
+goes out to the hall.)
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Well, I think I have had a visit from every one of the
+devil's messengers to-day! But now I am going to sharpen my pen till
+they can feel its point; I shall dip it in venom and gall; I shall hurl
+my inkpot at their heads!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Yes, but we are going away, you know, Thomas.
+
+(PETRA comes back.)
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Well?
+
+Petra. She has gone with it.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Good.—Going away, did you say? No, I'll be hanged if we
+are going away! We are going to stay where we are, Katherine!
+
+Petra. Stay here?
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Here, in the town?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes, here. This is the field of battle—this is where
+the fight will be. This is where I shall triumph! As soon as I have had
+my trousers sewn up I shall go out and look for another house. We must
+have a roof over our heads for the winter.
+
+Horster. That you shall have in my house.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Can I?
+
+Horsier. Yes, quite well. I have plenty of room, and I am almost never
+at home.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. How good of you, Captain Horster!
+
+Petra. Thank you!
+
+Dr. Stockmann (grasping his hand). Thank you, thank you! That is one
+trouble over! Now I can set to work in earnest at once. There is an
+endless amount of things to look through here, Katherine! Luckily I
+shall have all my time at my disposal; because I have been dismissed
+from the Baths, you know.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann (with a sigh). Oh yes, I expected that.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. And they want to take my practice away from me too. Let
+them! I have got the poor people to fall back upon, anyway—those that
+don't pay anything; and, after all, they need me most, too. But, by
+Jove, they will have to listen to me; I shall preach to them in season
+and out of season, as it says somewhere.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. But, dear Thomas, I should have thought events had
+showed you what use it is to preach.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. You are really ridiculous, Katherine. Do you want me to
+let myself be beaten off the field by public opinion and the compact
+majority and all that devilry? No, thank you! And what I want to do is
+so simple and clear and straightforward. I only want to drum into the
+heads of these curs the fact that the liberals are the most insidious
+enemies of freedom—that party programmes strangle every young and
+vigorous truth—that considerations of expediency turn morality and
+justice upside down—and that they will end by making life here
+unbearable. Don't you think, Captain Horster, that I ought to be able
+to make people understand that?
+
+Horster. Very likely; I don't know much about such things myself.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Well, look here—I will explain! It is the party leaders
+that must be exterminated. A party leader is like a wolf, you see—like
+a voracious wolf. He requires a certain number of smaller victims to
+prey upon every year, if he is to live. Just look at Hovstad and
+Aslaksen! How many smaller victims have they not put an end to—or at
+any rate maimed and mangled until they are fit for nothing except to be
+householders or subscribers to the "People's Messenger"! (Sits down on
+the edge of the table.) Come here, Katherine—look how beautifully the
+sun shines to-day! And this lovely spring air I am drinking in!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Yes, if only we could live on sunshine and spring air,
+Thomas.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Oh, you will have to pinch and save a bit—then we shall
+get along. That gives me very little concern. What is much worse is,
+that I know of no one who is liberal-minded and high-minded enough to
+venture to take up my work after me.
+
+Petra. Don't think about that, father; you have plenty of time before
+you.—Hello, here are the boys already!
+
+(EJLIF and MORTEN come in from the sitting-room.)
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Have you got a holiday?
+
+Morten. No; but we were fighting with the other boys between lessons—
+
+Ejlif. That isn't true; it was the other boys were fighting with us.
+
+Morten. Well, and then Mr. Rorlund said we had better stay at home for
+a day or two.
+
+Dr. Stockmann (snapping his fingers and getting up from the table). I
+have it! I have it, by Jove! You shall never set foot in the school
+again!
+
+The Boys. No more school!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. But, Thomas—
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Never, I say. I will educate you myself; that is to say,
+you shan't learn a blessed thing—
+
+Morten. Hooray!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. —but I will make liberal-minded and high-minded men of
+you. You must help me with that, Petra.
+
+Petra, Yes, father, you may be sure I will.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. And my school shall be in the room where they insulted
+me and called me an enemy of the people. But we are too few as we are;
+I must have at least twelve boys to begin with.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. You will certainly never get them in this town.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. We shall. (To the boys.) Don't you know any street
+urchins—regular ragamuffins—?
+
+Morten. Yes, father, I know lots!
+
+Dr. Stockmann. That's capital! Bring me some specimens of them. I am
+going to experiment with curs, just for once; there may be some
+exceptional heads among them.
+
+Morten. And what are we going to do, when you have made liberal-minded
+and high-minded men of us?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Then you shall drive all the wolves out of the country,
+my boys!
+
+(EJLIF looks rather doubtful about it; MORTEN jumps about crying
+"Hurrah!")
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Let us hope it won't be the wolves that will drive you
+out of the country, Thomas.
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Are you out of your mind, Katherine? Drive me out!
+Now—when I am the strongest man in the town!
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. The strongest—now?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes, and I will go so far as to say that now I am the
+strongest man in the whole world.
+
+Morten. I say!
+
+Dr. Stockmann (lowering his voice). Hush! You mustn't say anything
+about it yet; but I have made a great discovery.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann. Another one?
+
+Dr. Stockmann. Yes. (Gathers them round him, and says confidentially:)
+It is this, let me tell you—that the strongest man in the world is he
+who stands most alone.
+
+Mrs. Stockmann (smiling and shaking her head). Oh, Thomas, Thomas!
+
+Petra (encouragingly, as she grasps her father's hands). Father!
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of An Enemy of the People, by Henrik Ibsen
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