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ACT I
(SCENE.--The breakfast-room at the EVJES' house. A glass-cupboard,
in two partitions, stands against the left-hand wall, well forward.
On the top of it stand a variety of objects. Beyond it, a stove. At
the back of the room, a sideboard. In the middle of the room a
small round folding table, laid for four persons. There is an
armchair by the stove; a sofa on the right; chairs, etc. A door at
the back of the room, and another in the left-hand wall. There are
paintings on the walls, and the general impression of the room is
one of snug comfort. EVJE, MRS. EVJE, and GERTRUD are seated at the
table. INGEBORG is standing by the sideboard. Breakfast is
proceeding in silence as the curtain rises. INGEBORG takes away
EVJE'S cup and re-fills it. As she brings it back to him, a ring is
heard at the bell. GERTRUD gets up.)
EVJE. Sit still; John will go to the door. (GERTRUD sits down
again. Directly afterwards, another ring is heard.)
MRS. EVJE. What can John be doing?
INGEBORG. I will go. (Goes out. She comes back, showing in HARALD
REJN, who hangs up his hat and coat in the hall before coming
in.)
HARALD. Good morning!
EVJE and MRS. EVJE. Good morning! (HARALD shakes hands with them.)
HARALD (to GERTRUD, who is sitting on the right). Good morning,
Gertrud! Am I a bit late to-day? (GERTRUD, who has taken his hand,
looks lovingly at him but says nothing.)
MRS. EVJE. Yes, I suppose you have been for a long constitutional,
although the weather is none of the best.
HARALD. It is not; I expect we shall have a thick fog by the
afternoon.
EVJE. Did you have breakfast before you went out?
HARALD. I did, thanks. (To INGEBORG, who has come forward with a
cup of coffee.) No, thank you. I will sit down here while you are
finishing. (Sits down on the sofa behind GERTRUD.)
MRS. EVJE. How is your brother Halvdan?
HARALD. A little better to-day, thanks--but of course we cannot
build on that.
EVJE. Is your eldest brother coming to see him?
HARALD. Yes, we expect him every day. Probably his wife has
come with him, and that has been the reason of the delay; she
finds it difficult to get away.
MRS. EVJE. Halvdan so often talks of her.
HARALD. Yes, I believe she is the best friend he has.
EVJE. No wonder, then, that she wants to come and say good-bye
to him. By the way, have you seen how the paper bids him
good-bye to-day?
HARALD. Yes, I have seen it.
MRS. EVJE (hurriedly). I hope Halvdan has not seen it?
HARALD (smiling). No, it is a long time now since Halvdan read a
newspaper. (A pause.)
EVJE. Then I suppose you have read what they say about you too?
HARALD. Naturally.
MRS. EVJE. It is worse than anything they have said about you
before.
HARALD. Well--of course, you know, my election meeting comes on
this evening.
EVJE. I can tell you it has upset _us_.
MRS. EVJE. Day after day we wake up to find our house invaded by
these abominations. That is a nice thought to begin your day's
work with!
HARALD. Is it so indispensable, then, to educated people to begin
their day by reading such things?
MRS. EVJE. Well--one must have a paper.
EVJE. And most people read it. Besides, one can't deny that a lot
of what is in it is true, although its general tendency is to run
everyone down.
HARALD (getting up). Quite so, yes. (Leans over GERTRUD'S
shoulder.) Gertrud, have you read it?
GERTRUD (does not look at him, and hesitates for a moment; then
says gently): Yes.
HARALD (under his breath). So that is it! (Walks away from her.)
EVJE. We have had a little bit of a scene here, I must tell you.
HARALD (walking up and down). Yes, I can understand that.
EVJE. I will repeat what I have said already: they write about
_you_, and _we_ have to suffer for it.
MRS. EVJE. Yes, and Gertrud especially.
GERTRUD. No--I don't want anyone to consider me in the matter at
all. Besides, it is not what they say of you in the paper that
hurts me--. (Stops abruptly.)
HARALD (who has come up to her). But what your parents are
feeling about it? Is that it? (GERTRUD does not answer.)
EVJE (pushing back his plate). There, I have finished! (They rise
from the table. MRS. EVJE helps INGEBORG to clear away the
things, which INGEBORG carries out of the room.)
MRS. EVJE. Couldn't you wash your hands of politics, Harald?
(GERTRUD goes out to the left.)
EVJE (who has followed GERTRUD with his eyes). We cannot deny that
it pains us considerably that in our old age our peaceful home
should be invaded by all this squabbling and abomination.
MRS. EVJE (who rung for INGEBORG to move the table). You have no
need to do it, either, Harald! You are a grown man, and your own
master. (INGEBORG comes in. HARALD helps her to move the table.)
EVJE (to his wife). Don't let Ingeborg hear. Come along, we will go
into my room.
MRS. EVJE. You forget, all the windows are open there. I have had
the fire lit here, so that we could stay here.
EVJE. Very well--then we will sit here. (Sits down by the fire.)
Will you have a cigar?
HARALD. No, thanks. (INGEBORG goes out.)
EVJE (taking a cigar and lighting it). As my wife said just now--
couldn't you wash your hands of politics, Harald? You, who have
both talent and means, need not be at a loss for a vocation in
life.
HARALD (sitting down on the sofa). If I have any talent, it is for
politics--and so I intend to devote my means to that.
EVJE. What do you propose to gain by it?
HARALD. What any one who believes in a cause hopes to gain--that
is to say, to help it on.
EVJE. And to become a cabinet minister?
HARALD. I certainly can't do that any other way; well, I admit--
that _is_ my idea.
EVJE. You will not be elected now.
HARALD. That we shall see.
EVJE. But suppose you are not re-elected to-morrow?
HARALD. Then I must find some other way.
EVJE. Always with the same object?
HARALD. Always with the same object. (EVJE sighs.)
MRS. EVJE (who has taken her sewing and sat down by the fire).
Oh, these politics!
HARALD. At any rate, they are the most prominent factors in
life just now.
EVJE. We do not suppose we can exercise any influence over you. But
at any rate it is possible that you yourself have not considered
the position into which you have put the whole of us. (Both he and
his wife avoid looking at HARALD during this discussion.)
MRS. EVJE. Say what you really mean, dear--that he is making us
all thoroughly unhappy, and that is the truth!
HARALD (getting up, and walking up and down). Well, look here--I
have a proposal to make. It is, that you should abandon all
opposition to Gertrud's marrying me at once. To-day again my
brother has expressed the wish that we should be married by his
bedside; so that he should be able to take part in it. I scarcely
need add how happy it would make me.
EVJE. But whether she is here at home or married to you, you know,
her parents' distress would be just as great every time their child
was persecuted.
MRS. EVJE. Surely you can appreciate that!
HARALD. But what answer am I to give to my brother's request?--
most likely the last he will ever--. (Stops.)
EVJE (after a pause). He is very kind to wish it, as he always is.
Nothing would make us happier; but we who are her parents do not
consider that you could make our daughter happy as long as you
remain in politics and on the lines on which you are now
travelling.
HARALD (after a pause, during which he has stood still). That is to
say, you contemplate breaking off our engagement?
EVJE (looking at him quickly). Far from it!
MRS. EVJE (at the same time). How can you say such a thing?
EVJE (turning towards the fire again). We have spoken about it
to Gertrud to-day--as to whether it would not be possible to
induce you to choose some other career.
MRS. EVJE. You understand now, why you found Gertrud upset. You
must listen to us now, as she did, in all friendliness.
EVJE (getting up and standing with his back to the fire). The first
thing I do in the morning is to read my paper. You know what
was in it to-day--the same as is in it now every day.
MRS. EVJE. No; I am sure it has never been as bad as to-day.
HARALD (walking up and down again). The election is just at
hand!
EVJE. Well--it is just as painful to us, her father and mother,
whether it is before or after the election. We are not accustomed
to associate with any one who has not first-class credentials--and
now we have to endure seeing doubt cast upon our own son-in-law's.
Do not misunderstand me; to my mind, for credentials to be
first-class they must not only actually be so, but must also be
considered to be so by people in general. (HARALD begins to walk
up and down again.) The second thing I do in the morning is to
open my letters. Amongst to-day's were several from friends we
had invited to a party we thought of giving--if, that is to say,
your brother's illness took no sudden turn for the worse. No fewer
than ten of them refuse our invitation--most of them making some
excuse, and a few with a little more show of a real reason; but one
of them speaks straight out, and I have his letter here. (Takes it
from his pocket.) I have kept it for you. It is from my father's
old friend, the bishop. I haven't my spectacles--and for me to have
mislaid my spectacles will show you what a state of mind I am in. I
don't think I have done such a thing for--. Here, read it yourself!
Read it aloud!
HARALD (taking the letter). "My dear Mr. Evje. As you are my poor
dear friend's son, you must listen to the truth from me. I cannot
willingly come to your house while I might meet there a certain
person who, certainly, is one of you, but nevertheless is a person
whom I cannot hold in entire respect."
MRS. EVJE. Well, Harald, what do you think our feelings must be
when we read things like that?
EVJE. Do not imagine that, in spite of that, _we_ do not hold you
in entire respect. We only ask you to ensure our daughter's
happiness. You can do that with a word.
MRS. EVJE. We know what you are, whatever people say--even if they
are bishops. But, in return, you ought to have confidence in our
judgment; and our advice to you is, have done with it! Marry
Gertrud at once, and go away for your honeymoon; by the time you
come back, people will have got something else to talk about--and
you will have found something else to occupy you as well.
EVJE. You must not misunderstand us. We mean no coercion. We are
not insisting on this alternative. If you wish to be married, you
shall--without feeling yourself obliged to change your vocation for
_our_ sakes. We only want to make it clear that it would pain us--
pain us very deeply.
MRS. EVJE. If you want to take time to think it over, or want to
talk it over with Gertrud or with your brother, do! (GERTRUD
comes in and goes about the room looking for something.)
EVJE. What are you looking for, dear?
GERTRUD. Oh, for the--.
MRS. EVJE. I expect it is the newspaper; your grandfather has been
asking for it.
EVJE. Surely there is no need for _him_ to read it?
MRS. EVJE. He asked me for it, too. He knows quite well what has
made us all unhappy.
EVJE. Can't you tell him? No, that wouldn't do.
MRS. EVJE (to GERTRUD). I suppose you have had to confess to him
what is the matter?
GERTRUD (trying to conceal an emotion that is almost too much for
her). Yes. (Finds the paper, and goes out.)
MRS. EVJE (when GERTRUD has gone). Poor child!
EVJE. Does not what she is carrying to him, with all that it says
about you and about your brother, seem to you like an omen? I will
tell you how it strikes me. Your brother is a very much more gifted
man than I am; and although it is true, as that paper says, that
nothing of all that he has worked for has ever come to anything,
still perhaps he may nevertheless have accomplished more than
either you or me, although we have done a good deal between us to
increase the prosperity of our town. I feel that to be so, although
I cannot express what I mean precisely. But consider the reputation
he will leave behind him. All educated people will say just what
that paper says to-day--and to-morrow he will be forgotten. He will
scarcely find a place in history, for history only concerns itself
with the great leaders of men. What does it all come to, then?
Neither present nor posthumous fame; but death--death all the time.
He is dying by inches now, dying of the most horrible persecution;
and the emotion that his end will cause among a few individuals
cannot be called posthumous fame. (HARALD begins to speak, but
checks himself.) Can _you_ hope to make a better fight of it? You
think you are stronger? Very well; perhaps you may have the
strength to endure it until other times come and other opinions
with them. But there will be one by your side who will not have the
strength to endure it. Gertrud is not strong--she could never stand
it; indeed now--already--. (Is stopped by his emotion.)
MRS. EVJE. She hides it from you, but she cannot hide it from us.
Besides, a friend of ours--our dear doctor--said only yesterday--.
(Breaks off in tears.)
EVJE. We never told you, but he warned us some time ago; we had no
idea it was so serious, or that it had anything to do with this.
But yesterday he frightened us; he said she--. Well, you can ask
him yourself. He will be here directly. (HARALD fills a glass of
water and raises it to his lips, but sets it down again untasted.)
MRS. EVJE (going to him). I am so sorry for you, Harald! To have
this come on you just now--when your splendid brother is at the
point of death, and you yourself are being persecuted! (A ring is
heard at the bell.)
EVJE. But it should be a warning to you! Sometimes a single
movement will change the course of a whole life.
MRS. EVJE. And do have a little confidence in us! (A ring is heard
again.)
EVJE. What on earth has become of John to-day? That is the second
time the bell has rung.
MRS. EVJE. One of the maids is opening the door, I can hear.
EVJE. I expect it is the doctor.
MRS. EVJE. Yes, it is he--I know his ring. (A knock is heard at the
door.)
EVJE. Come in! (The DOCTOR comes in.)
The DOCTOR. Good morning! (Lays down his hat and stick.) Well, so I
hear John has been up to his pranks again? The rascal is in bed.
EVJE and MRS. EVJE. In bed?
The DOCTOR. Came home at four o'clock in the morning, drunk. Ill
to-day, naturally. Ingeborg asked me to go in and see him.
EVJE. Well!--I am determined to put an end to it!
MRS. EVJE. Yes, I have never been able to understand why you were
so lenient with John.
EVJE. He has been with us five years; and, besides, it makes people
talk so, if you have to send your servants away.
MRS. EVJE. But surely this sort of thing makes them talk much
worse!
EVJE. Well--he shall leave this very day.
The DOCTOR (to HARALD). How are you, Rejn?--Oho! I understand. I
have come at an inopportune moment with my complaints of John? You
have all got something more serious on your minds?
MRS. EVJE. Yes, we have had it out, as we agreed yesterday.
The DOCTOR. You must forgive me, my dear Rejn, for having told my
old friends the whole truth yesterday. She (pointing to MRS. EVJE)
was an old playfellow of mine, and her husband and I have been
friends from boyhood; so we have no secrets from each other. And
Gertrud's condition makes me very uneasy.
HARALD. Why have you never told me that before?
The DOCTOR. Goodness knows I have often enough given her parents
hints that she was not well; but they have only made up their minds
that her happiness in her engagement would quite cure her. They are
a considerate couple, these two dear people, you know; they didn't
want to seem interfering.
HARALD. Their consideration--which I appreciate and have lately had
constant reason to be grateful for--has all at once become a more
powerful weapon than open opposition. It makes a duty of what I
should otherwise have felt to be unfair coercion. But now the
situation is such that I can neither go forward nor back. After
what I have gone through, you must see that I cannot withdraw on
the very eve of the election--and after the election it will be too
late. On the other hand--(with emotion)--I cannot, I dare not, go
on with it if it is to cost me--. (Breaks off.)
EVJE (standing in front of the fire). There, there! Take time to
think it over, my dear boy; talk it over with her and with your
brother.
The DOCTOR (who has sat down on a chair to the left, a little away
from the others). I have just been to see your brother. A
remarkable man! But do you know what occurred to me as I sat there?
He is dying because he _is_ a man. The only people that are fit for
political life nowadays are those whose hearts have been turned to
stone. (Picks up something from the table and gets up.) Ah, just
look here! Here is a fine specimen of petrifaction. It is a
fragment of palm leaf of some kind, found impressed in a bit of
rock from Spitzbergen. I sent it you myself, so I know it. That is
what you have to be like to withstand arctic storms!--it will take
to harm. But your brother--well, his life had been like that of the
original palm tree, with the air sighing through its branches; the
change of climate was too sudden for him. (Goes up to HARALD.) You
have still to try it. Shall you be able to kill all the humanity
that is in you? If you can make yourself as insensate a thing as
this stone, I daresay you will be able to stand the life. But are
you willing to venture upon political life at such a price? If you
are--so be it; but remember that in that case you must also kill
all humanity in Gertrud--in these two--in every one that is dear to
you. Otherwise no one will understand you or follow you. If you
cannot do that, you will never be more than a dabbler in politics--
a quarter, an eighth part, of a politician--and all your efforts,
in what you consider your vocation, will be pitiable!
MRS. EVJE (who has been occupied at the back of the room, but now
sits down by the fare). That is quite true! I know cases of
petrifaction like that--and God preserve anyone that I love from
it!
EVJE (coming forward towards HARALD). I don't want to say anything
to hurt your feelings--least of all just now. But I just want to
add my warning, because I believe I have discovered that there is a
danger that persecution may make you hard.
HARALD. Yes!--but do you suppose it is only politics that offer
that dangerous prospect?
The DOCTOR. You are quite right! It is all the cry nowadays,
"Harden yourself!" It isn't only military men and doctors that
have to be hardened; commercial men have to be hardened, civil
servants have to be hardened, or dried up; and everybody else has
to be hardened for life, apparently. But what does it all mean? It
means that we are to drive out all warmth from our hearts, all
desire from our imaginations. There is a child's heart at the
bottom of every one of our hearts-ever young, full of laughter and
tears; and that is what we shall have killed before we are "fitted
for the battle of life," as they put it. No, no--that is what we
ought to preserve; we were given it for that! (HARALD hides his
face in his hands, and sits so for some time.)
MRS. EVJE. Any mother or any wife knows that.
EVJE (standing with his back to the fire). You want to bring back
the age of romance, doctor!
The DOCTOR (with a laugh). Not its errors--because in those days
unclean minds brought to birth a great deal that was unclean.
(Seriously.) But what is it, when all is said and done, but a
violent protest on the part of the Teutonic people against the
Romanesque spirit and school--a remarkable school, but not _ours_.
To us it seems a barren, merely intellectual school--a mere mass of
formulas which led to a precocious development of the mind. And
that was the spirit it bred--critical and barren. But these schools
of thought are now all we have, and both of them are bad for us!
They have no use for the heart or the imagination; they do not
breed faith or a longing for high achievement. Look at _our_ life!
Is our life really our own?
MRS. EVJE. No. You have only to think of our language, our tastes,
our society, our--
The DOCTOR (interrupting her). Those are the externals of our life,
merely the externals! No, look within--look at such a view of life
as we were talking about, clamouring for "hardening"--is that ours?
Can we, for all our diligence, make as much way in it as, for
instance, a born Parisian journalist?--become like a bar of steel
with a point at each end, a pen-point and a sword-point? _We_
can't do that; the Teutonic temperament is not fitted for it.
EVJE. Oh, we are well on the way towards it. Look at the heartless
intolerance in our politics; it will soon match what you were
describing.
HARALD. Everyone that disagrees with you is either an ambitious
scoundrel, or half mad, or a blockhead.
The DOCTOR (laughing). Yes, and here in the north, in our small
communities, where a man meets all his enemies in the same barber's
shop, we feel it as keenly as if we were digging our knives into
each other! (Seriously.) We may laugh at it, but if we could add up
the sum of suffering that has been caused to families and to
individuals--if we could see the concrete total before us--we
should be tempted to believe that our liberty had been given to us
as a curse! For it _is_ a cursed thing to destroy the humanity that
is in us, and make us cruel and hard to one another.
HARALD (getting up, but standing still). But, my good friends, if
you are of the same mind about that, and I with you--what is the
next thing to do?
The DOCTOR. The next thing to do?
HARALD. Naturally, to unite in making an end of it.
MRS. EVJE (as she works). What can _we_ do?
EVJE. I am no politician and do not wish to become one.
The DOCTOR (laughing, and sitting down). No, a politician is a
principle, swathed round with a printed set of directions for use.
I prefer to be allowed to be a human being.
HARALD. No one can fairly insist on your taking up any vocation
to which you do not feel you have a calling.
The DOCTOR. Of course not.
HARALD. But one certainly might insist on your not helping to
maintain a condition of affairs that you detest.
ALL. We?
HARALD. This newspaper, which is the ultimate reason of all this
conversation we have had--you take it in.
EVJE. Why, you take it in yourself!
HARALD. No. Every time there is anything nasty in it about me or
mine, it is sent to me anonymously.
The DOCTOR (with a laugh). I don't take it in; I read my hall-porter's
copy.
HARALD. I have heard you say that before. I took an opportunity
to ask your hall-porter. He said _he_ did not read it, and did not
take it in either.
The DOCTOR (as before). Then I should like to know who does pay
for it!
EVJE. A newspaper is indispensable to a business man.
HARALD. An influential business man could by himself, or at any
rate with one or two others, start a paper that would be as useful
again to him as this one is.
EVJE. That is true enough; but, after all, if we agree with its
politics?
HARALD. I will accept help from any one whose opinions on public
affairs agree with my own. Who am I that I should pretend to
judge him? But I will not give him my help in anything that is
malicious or wicked.
The DOCTOR. Pshaw!
HARALD. Everyone who subscribes to, or contributes to, or gives
any information to a paper that is scurrilous, is giving his help to
what is wicked. And, moreover, every one who is on terms of
friendship with a man who is destroying public morality, is
helping him to do it.
The DOCTOR (getting up). Does he still come here? (A silence.)
EVJE. He and I are old schoolfellows--and I don't like breaking with
old acquaintances.
MRS. EVJE. He is a most amusing man, too--though I can't deny that
he is malicious. (The DOCTOR sits down again, humming to himself.)
HARALD. But that is not all. Both you and the Doctor have--with
some eloquence--
The DOCTOR (with a laugh). Thank you!
HARALD. --expressed your abhorrence of certain political tendencies
with which neither you nor I have any sympathy--which affront
our ideas of humane conduct. You do not feel called upon to
enter actively into the lists against them; but why do you try to
prevent those who do feel so called upon? You lament the
existing state of things--and yet you help to maintain it, and make
a friend of the man who is its champion!
The DOCTOR (turning his head). Apparently we are on our defence,
Evje!
HARALD. No--I am. I was told a little while ago that I was in a fair
way to become hardened and callous, and that I must abandon
my career--and that I must do so for Gertrud's sake, too, because
she would never be able to share the fight with me. I was told
this at one of the bitterest moments in my life. And that made me
hesitate for a moment. But now I have turned my face forward
again, because you have enlightened me! (A short, sharp cough is
heard in the hall.)
MRS. EVJE (getting up). That is he! (A knock is heard at the door;
the DOCTOR gets up and pushes his chair back. The EDITOR comes in.)
The EDITOR. Good morning, my children! How are you?
MRS. EVJE (sitting down). I did not hear the bell.
The EDITOR. I don't suppose you did--I came in by the back door. I
took you by surprise, eh? Discussing me, too--what? (Laughs.)
EVJE. You have given us enough reason to, to-day, any way.
The EDITOR. Yes, haven't I? Such a thing for a man to do to his
best friends--eh?
EVJE. That is true.
The EDITOR. To his old schoolfellows--his neighbours--eh? I expect it
has disturbed your natural moderation--eh?
EVJE. I pride myself on my moderation.
The EDITOR. As much as on your brandy!
EVJE. Are you going to begin your nonsense again?
The EDITOR. Good-morning, Doctor! Have you been making them
a fine speech this morning?--about my paper? or about humanity?--
romanticism? or catholicism?--eh? (Laughs.)
The DOCTOR (laughing). Certainly one of us two has made a fine
speech this morning!
The EDITOR. Not me; mine was made yesterday!--How is your hall-porter?
The DOCTOR (laughing). Quite well, I am ashamed to say.
The EDITOR. There's a faithful subscriber to my paper, if you like!
(The DOCTOR laughs.) Well, Mrs. Evje, I can give you news of your
man, Master John!
MRS. EVJE. Can you? It is more than I can.
The EDITOR. Yes--he is in bed still. That is why I came in the back
way--to enquire after his health.
MRS. EVJE. But how--?
The EDITOR. How is he after last night?
MRS. EVJE. Really, I believe you know everything. We had no idea
he was out last night.
The EDITOR. Oh, that is the very latest intelligence! He has been
figuring as a speaker--he was drunk, of course--before the
Association founded by his master's future son-in-law. And he
made a most effective speech--indeed, the speakers at that
Association always make most effective speeches! It was all
about a Sliding Scale of Taxation, Profit-Sharing for Workers, the
necessity for a Labour majority in Parliament, etc., etc., all the
usual Socialist rhodomontade. You see how infectious intellectual
ideas are!
EVJE. Well!--I shall turn him out of the house to-day!
The EDITOR. But that is not in accordance with your love of
moderation, Evje!
EVJE. It is a scandal.
The EDITOR (to EVJE). But not the worst. Because, if you want to
avoid that sort of thing, there are others you must turn out of the
house. (Glances towards HARALD.)
EVJE. You seem determined to quarrel to-day?
The EDITOR. Yes, with your "moderation."
EVJE. You would be none the worse of a little of it.
The EDITOR. "Brandy and Moderation" is your watchword--eh?
EVJE. Do stop talking such nonsense!--I know one thing, and that
is that you seem to find the brandy from my distillery remarkably
to your taste!
The DOCTOR (interrupting them). When you are in these provoking
moods there is always some grievance lurking at the back of your
mind. Out with it! I am a doctor, you know; I want to get at the
cause of your complaint!
The EDITOR. You were not very successful in that, you know,
when you said my maid had cholera, and she really only was--.
(Laughs.)
The DOCTOR (laughing). Are you going to bring that story up
again? Every one is liable to make mistakes, you know--even you,
my boy!
The EDITOR. Certainly. But before making a mistake this time--
ahem!--I wanted first of all to enquire whether--
The DOCTOR. Ah! now it is coming!
The EDITOR --whether you have any objection to my mentioning
John in my paper?
MRS. EVJE. What has John to do with us?
The EDITOR. Just as much as the Association, where he delivered
his speech, has; it--ahem!--is one of the family institutions!
EVJE. I have had no more to do with making John what he is than I
have had with making that Association what it is.
The EDITOR. Your future son-in-law made the Association what it is,
and the Association has made John what he is.
The DOCTOR. Or, to put it the other way round: John is Mr. Evje's
servant; John has become an active member of the Association;
therefore Mr. Evje is a patron of the Association.
The EDITOR. Or this way: John, being the well-known Mr. Evje's
servant, has for that reason become an active member of the
Association which--as he expressed it--his employer's future
son-in-law "has had the honour to found!"
MRS. EVJE. Surely you never mean to put that in the paper?
The EDITOR (laughing). They are John's own words.
Mr. Evje. Of course, he would never put a tipsy man's maunderings
into the paper. (To his wife.) Don't you understand that he is joking?
The EDITOR (clearing his throat). It is already in type.
The DOCTOR. Oh, nonsense!
The EDITOR. The scene afforded an opportunity for an extremely
amusing sketch, without mentioning any names.
Mr. Evje. I sincerely hope that
The DOCTOR (to EVJE). Oh, he is only teasing you! You know him.
The EDITOR. What do you think of this? "Those who indirectly
support so dangerous an institution will have to face exposure."--I
quite agree with it.
MRS. EVJE (getting up). What do you mean? Do you mean that my
husband--?
The EDITOR. A little fright will be a good discipline for him!
EVJE. Is what you quoted meant as an accusation against us--
whether you are serious or whether you are joking?
The DOCTOR. He is only trying to frighten you with a bogey; it is
not the first time, you know!
EVJE. Yes, but what have _I_ to be frightened of? I don't belong to
the Association.
The EDITOR. But persons who do belong to it frequent your house.
A man is known by the company he keeps.
MRS. EVJE. I really begin to think he _does_ mean it seriously.
The EDITOR. It is too ugly a thing to jest about, you mean?
EVJE. Is it possible that you seriously mean to allude to John as
my servant?
The EDITOR. Isn't he your servant?
EVJE. And to put that in the paper for every one to read?
The EDITOR. No--only for those who read the paper.
EVJE. And you have come here to tell us that?
The EDITOR. Do you suppose I would do it without telling you?
MRS. EVJE. It is perfectly shameless!
The EDITOR. It certainly is.
EVJE. Is it your intention to quarrel with me?
The EDITOR. Of course!
EVJE. With your own schoolfellow?--one who has been it true friend
to you in all your ups and downs? It is abominable!
The EDITOR. Perhaps it was to ensure my holding my tongue that
you have been my friend!
MRS. EVJE. You _couldn't_ behave in such a fashion to a friend!
The EDITOR (drily). To my own brother, if he stood in my way!
HARALD (to himself). This is too much! (Comes forward.) Is your
hatred for me so bitter that on my account you must persecute
even my future parents-in-law, your own old friends?
The EDITOR (who, as soon as HARALD came forward, has turned away
to the DOCTOR). Have you heard how people are being beaten up to
go to the meeting of electors to-night? The last political speeches
of the campaign must be made with red fire burning at the wings! (Laughs.)
MRS. EVJE (coming up to him). No, you are not going to get out of it
by changing the subject. Is it really your intention to put my
husband in your paper?
The EDITOR. He is putting himself there.
EVJE. I, who all my life have avoided being drawn into any political
party?
The DOCTOR. What has Evje to do with Harald Rein's politics?
The EDITOR. He endorses them!
MRS. EVJE. No!--a thousand times no!
EVJE. Why, only to-day
The DOCTOR. I can bear witness to that!
The EDITOR. It is no use protesting!
EVJE. But you must believe our protestations!
The EDITOR. Bah! You will see something more to-morrow--
EVJE. Something more?
MRS. EVJE. Against my husband?
The EDITOR. That scandal about the Stock Exchange Committee. No
less than three Letters to the Editor about it have been lying in my
pigeon-holes for some time.
EVJE (in bewilderment). Are you going to put nonsense of that sort
in your paper? The most respected men on the Exchange--?
MRS. EVJE. Members of the Committee--?
The EDITOR. They are only respected men so long as they respect
themselves. When their chairman enters into connections which
offend public opinion, the whole crew of them must be made to
feel what sort of a man it is they are associating with.
The DOCTOR. So on Mr. Rejn's account you are going to expose
Evje, and on Evje's account the Stock Exchange Committee? I
suppose my turn will come soon!
The EDITOR. It will come.
The DOCTOR. Indeed!
The EDITOR. The letters that have been sent to me are all from
highly respected men. That shows that public opinion has turned
round; and public opinion must be obeyed! (Throws out his hands.)
EVJE (in a troubled voice). It is quite true that I have noticed in
several little ways that their temper--. (Looks round him, and
checks himself. Then speaks more confidently.) But it was just at
such a time that I looked for help from you, my friend. That is
why I did not bother myself much about it.
The EDITOR (to EVJE). But you know it is you that are attacking me
now!
EVJE. I?
MRS. EVJE. He?
The EDITOR. And, besides, I have no choice in the matter. You have
made your bed, and must lie on it.
EVJE (growing angry again). But do you really mean that you don't
feel yourself how shocking such behaviour in an old friend is?
The EDITOR. "Old friend," "old schoolfellow," "neighhour,"--out
with the whole catalogue!
MRS. EVJE. I am sure you don't deserve to be either one or the other!
(The EDITOR laughs.) Think what you wrote to-day about Halvdan
Rejn, who is dying. A man could only write that who--who--
The EDITOR. Well?--who?
MRS. EVJE. Who has not an atom of heart.
The EDITOR. Ha, ha! "The natural affections!"--"family considerations!"
Truth, my dear lady, has no family ties; it has no respect even for a
"dying man."
MRS. EVJE. Yes, indeed--every decent man has some respect for
suffering, and even wicked men are silent in the presence of death!
The EDITOR. "Sufferer"--"dying man"--"martyr,"
I suppose! Oh, we know all that old story!
HARALD (coming forward). Let me tell you that you are a--person
with whom I will not condescend to argue. (Walks away from him.)
The EDITOR (who has at once crossed the room). This theatrical
flaunting of the "dying man" before people's eyes, that a
calculating brother has permitted himself, is of course what is
really shocking in the whole affair. But I will tear the mask off him.
The DOCTOR (following him). Listen to me, now; listen!
We are gentlefolk, you know! And even if Mr. Rejn
has let himself be so carried away as to mention his
dying brother on a public occasion--well, I am not going
to say that I approve of it, but surely it is excusable
and--
HARALD (coming forward). I want none of your defence, thank you!
The DOCTOR. The one of you is just as mad as the other! (To the
EDITOR.) But what has all this to do with Evje, seeing that, after all,
the whole of this affair of the Rejns'--
EVJE (to the EDITOR, eagerly). I give you my word of honour that I
have never approved of Harald's utterances about his brother,
either. I am a man of moderation, as you know; I do not approve
of his politics. Only to-day--
MRS. EVJE. And what on earth have politics to do with the Stock
Exchange Committee?
The DOCTOR. Or with Evje's coachman!
EVJE. You might just as well take it into your head to write about
my clerks, or my workmen, or--
The DOCTOR. His carpenters, or his brewers--or his horses!
The EDITOR (stands suddenly still and says, drily): You may assure
yourselves that things are quite sufficient as they are! (Begins to
button up his coat.)
EVJE. Is it so bad as all that!
MRS. EVJE. Good gracious!--what is it then?
The EDITOR (taking up his hat). You will be able to read it
to-morrow, together with some more about the "dying man."
Good-bye!
EVJE and MRS. EVJE (together.) But before you go--
The DOCTOR. Hush, hush! Let us remember we are gentlefolk! What
will you bet that the whole thing is not just a bogey to frighten you?
The EDITOR (holding out his hand towards the DOCTOR).
I hold Mr. Evje's position in the town in the hollow of my hand!
EVJE (fuming). Is your object to ruin _that_, then?
MRS. EVJE. You will never succeed in that!
The DOCTOR. Hush, hush! let us remember we are gentlefolk!
EVJE. In my own house--my old schoolfellow--that
he should have the audacity--!
The EDITOR. I have told you the truth openly. And, as far as that
goes, you have stood more than that from me in your own house,
my boy. Because the misfortune is that you are a coward.
EVJE. _I_ a coward?
The DOCTOR (laughing). Hush, hush! Let us remember we are
gentlefolk!
EVJE. Yes, I have been weak enough to be afraid of
scandal, especially in the newspapers, it is true; that is why I have
put up with you too long! But now you shall see that I am not a
coward. Leave my house!
MRS. EVJE. That's right!
The DOCTOR. But you must part like gentlefolk, you know.
The EDITOR. Pooh! You will be sending me a message
directly, to call me back!
EVJE. You have the face to say that?
MRS. EVJE (to EVJE). Come, dear, don't provoke him any more!
The EDITOR (turning to go). You daren't do otherwise.
The DOCTOR. But part like gentlefolk--!
EVJE (following the EDITOR). No, as sure as I live--
The EDITOR. You will be sending a message to call me back! Ha, ha,
ha!
EVJE. Never, never!
MRS. EVJE. My dear--!
The EDITOR. Yes, you will--directly--this very day! Ha, ha, ha!
The DOCTOR. Don't part like that! Part like gentle--
EVJE. No, I tell you!
The EDITOR (laughing all the time). Yes!
MRS. EVJE. My dear-remember you may bring on one of your
attacks!
The EDITOR (at the door). You are too much of a coward! Ha! ha!
(Goes out.)
EVJE (in a rage). No!
The EDITOR (sticking his head in at the door). Yes! (Goes away.)
The DOCTOR. What a visit! I cannot help laughing, all the same! Ha,
ha, ha, ha!
EVJE. Do you dare to laugh at that?
The DOCTOR. "Old schoolfellows"--ha, ha! "Moderation"--ha, ha!
"The same party"--ha, ha, ha!
MRS. EVJE. Oh, my husband is ill!
EVJE (faintly). Yes--a little water!
MRS. EVJE. Water, water, Harald!
The DOCTOR. One of his attacks--that is another affair altogether.
Here (takes a bottle from his pocket)--smell this! That's it! Now, a
little water! (Gives him some.) No danger this time. Cheer up, old
boy!
EVJE. What a scandal!
MRS. EVJE. Yes, you will never be able to bear it, dear; I told you
so.
EVJE. To think of _my_ name appearing in the papers, when all my
life I have--
MRS. EVJE. --done everything you could to keep clear of such
things! And you such a dear, good, upright man!--Oh, these politics
are the curse of the world!
The DOCTOR (laughing). As I told you, you must go through a
special process of hardening before you can stand them.
EVJE. And think of public opinion--my position--my connections! It
is more than I can bear!
MRS. EVJE (to the Doctor). I am sure the first time he reads
something about himself in the paper, it will make him really ill!
He won't be able to stand it, I know.
The DOCTOR. Oh, he will get over it.
MRS. EVJE. No, he won't. I am frightened at the mere thought of it.
He will never be able to bear it, never!
EVJE. When all my life I have tried to keep clear of such things--!
MRS. EVJE. And now in your old age, though you deserve it no
more than a child does, to be dragged into it! If I could prevent
that, I would willingly take on my own shoulders whatever--
EVJE. No, no--not you! Not you!
The DOCTOR. But the thing is not necessarily done because he
threatened he would do it.
EVJE. Do you think--?
The DOCTOR. He is so dreadfully hot-headed, but I am sure he will
think twice--
MRS. EVJE. --before he attacks a lifelong friend! Yes, that is so, isn't
it!
EVJE. Do you really think that there is any possibility then--?
The DOCTOR. I really can't say!
MRS. EVJE. Nothing in the world is impossible!
EVJE. We were both so hot-headed.
The DOCTOR. Yes, it will have to be a more peaceable conversation
than that of a few minutes ago!
EVJE. I don't know how it is--there is something so provoking about
him.
MRS. EVJE. Yes, and you have not been very well lately, either. I
have often said so to you.
EVJE. No, I haven't. It has been just one thing after another! And all
my life I have tried to keep clear of such things!
The DOCTOR. I will tell you what, old friend; I am sure the best thing
to do would be--
EVJE. What?
The DOCTOR. I am sure you will not be easy in your mind until
someone has talked to him.
MRS. EVJE. Yes, couldn't that be done? Good gracious, that is not
sending a message to him!
EVJE. But who would--? (A short silence.)
The DOCTOR. I don't know who would be best.
MRS. EVJE. All our old friends have deserted us; we shall soon have
none.
The DOCTOR. Well, at all events, you have me.
EVJE. Would you really be willing to--? Do you mean it? (Grasps his
hand.)
The DOCTOR. Of course I will! He can't eat me!
MRS. EVJE. How good you are! Of course you only need tell him--
what is quite true--that my husband would never be able to bear it!
He, who all these years--
EVJE. --have put up with an incredible amount for his sake, both
from himself and from others!
MRS. EVJE. Yes, that is true! And now you will go, dear friend--our
only friend!--and talk to him quite amicably and sensibly, won't
you?
EVJE. But don't delay! He is so hot-headed that we must find him
before--
The DOCTOR. Oh, I will find him; he is always about the town.
EVJE. And tell him--ask him--
The DOCTOR. Oh, I know what to say to him.
MRS. EVJE. That is right!
EVJE. Thank you! I shall never forget how, at a moment when
everything threatened to overwhelm me, you were the only one to
stand by me! Ah, I feel as if a load had fallen off my shoulders! I
feel all at once quite happy again!
The DOCTOR. That's right. You pull yourself together! I will see to
everything else.
EVJE. Thanks, thanks! But make haste!
The DOCTOR. I am off! My hat? (Turns, and sees HARALD, and says to
himself.) A-ha! He looks as if he had had about enough of this. It
would have been a joke to--
EVJE. Oh, do make haste, my friend!
The DOCTOR. Yes, yes--if only I could find my hat.
MRS. EVJE. It is on the table.
The DOCTOR. So it is!
EVJE. Good luck to you!
MRS. EVJE. And do it very tactfully!
The DOCTOR (meaningly). And I hope you three will enjoy
yourselves! (Goes out.)
EVJE. What a morning!
MRS. EVJE. We, who have always endeavoured to take everything
quietly and indulgently--
EVJE. Yes, and to conduct our family affairs peaceably and
affectionately! (Jumps up and turns to HARALD.) The whole thing is
_your_ fault!
MRS. EVJE. Yes, it is Harald's fault! From the day this unfortunate
engagement came about, we have scarcely had a moment's peace
here.
EVJE. No, no, that is not the case! We must be reasonable. At first,
when Mr. Rejn had a fine future before him, when people vied
with one another to catch him, then the engagement was an honour
to us as well as to our daughter. But from the moment he took up these
wretched politics--that is to say, from the time his brother fell ill--
well, he can see for himself what the result has been to us!
MRS. EVJE. And he certainly must admit that it is not what we
have deserved; indeed it is more than a respected and well-bred
family can put up with.
HARALD. I quite agree that it is more than a respected and
well-bred family _ought_ to put up with.
MRS. EVJE. Oh, so _you_ feel that too?
HARALD. Certainly. And the only excuse I can see is that there are
many more in the same case. It is only in that way that such
things become possible.
EVJE. I do not understand. Many more like--?--like whom?
HARALD. Like you!
MRS. EVJE. In what respect?
HARALD. I will explain. Most of the successful politicians
nowadays have not gained their position by means of any
greatness of their own, but by the pitiable weakness of others.
Another age will form a different estimate of them--see them in
their proper perspective, and find them to be much smaller men!
EVJE. But what has that to do with us?
HARALD. Well, just try to size up that man whom a little while ago
you turned out of your house and afterwards sent a message to--
EVJE. We sent _no_ message to him!
MRS. EVJE. A friend of ours has gone to talk to him. That is quite a
different thing!
HARALD. Well, take his measure by yours and yours by his! He
went away, and he will come back like a conquering hero. Will
that be thanks to his greatness, or his talent--to the loftiness of his
opinions or his feelings? No,--it will be thanks to your pitiable
weakness.
MRS. EVJE. Upon my word!
EVJE. Well, I--!
HARALD. Do you think any one who has any pluck in his
disposition would consent to be a party to such a contemptible
state of things? Think of your own daughter, educated by that
good old man who lies in there, but an obedient child to you;
think how she must be perpetually torn between what she loves
and respects and what she sees going on here! No wonder she is
ill! But remember this--she is not ill because she sticks to me;
she is ill because of your pitiable weakness!
MRS. EVJE. How can you dare to say such things! So you too--!
EVJE. Such an absolute want of respect!
HARALD. Listen to me, once for all. I intend, God helping me, to
take up the fight that has killed my brother, the noblest man I
know! And Gertrud is going to take up _her_ share in the fight, as I
do mine. But to come to this house as long as _he_ comes here--to go
through what I have gone through to-day--sullies my self-respect
to such an extent, and offends my better feelings so deeply, that
either he never sets foot here again, or I do not!
EVJE and MRS. EVJE. But--!
HARALD (quietly). When I came here to-day, I thought we should
be able to arrange matters without my speaking out; but there is
nothing else for it, so good-bye! (Goes out. A moment's silence
follows.)
MRS. EVJE. Is _he_ giving _us_ our dismissal? Or does he not really
mean to break with us?--My dear, what is the matter? (Goes to
her husband's side.)
EVJE (without moving). Tell me, my dear--am I a bad man?
MRS. EVJE. You, a bad man?
EVJE. Because, if I were not a bad, wicked man, they could not
behave in such a way to me, one after the other.
MRS. EVJE. But, my dear, you are the best and dearest and most
considerate of men! And they are shameless traitors to you, my
dear husband!
EVJE. But how on earth, then, could it come about that I, who all
my life have tried to keep clear of such things--for I have, haven't I?
MRS. EVJE. Every one knows that, that knows anything about you.
EVJE. How could it come about that in my old age I should be
despised and forsaken by everybody? Surely it is no crime to
want to live in peace, apart from all that sort of thing?
MRS. EVJE. No, indeed; that is what all decent people want to do.
EVJE. Yes, I thought so too. But now you see!
MRS. EVJE. But _you_ have been dreadfully unfortunate.
EVJE. Why should I have been just the one to be dreadfully
unfortunate? Most people escape such things altogether.
MRS. EVJE (starting). Here is Gertrud.
EVJE. Poor child!
MRS. EVJE. What on earth are we to say to her?
EVJE. Be careful, my dear! be careful! (GERTRUD comes in quietly
and comes forward to them.)
GERTRUD. Did I see Harald go away?
MRS. EVJE. Yes, my child, he--he went away.
GERTRUD. Without saying good-bye to me?
EVJE. That's true, he didn't say good-bye to you.
MRS. EVJE. Were you expecting him to come into grandfather's
room to say good-bye to you?
GERTRUD. Yes. Tell me how things went here?
EVJE. Why were you not here, dear?
GERTRUD (in astonishment). I here? You said you did not want me
to be present--
EVJE. I remember, yes; we thought it would not be advisable.
GERTRUD (still speaking quietly, but in growing alarm).
But how did things go, then?
EVJE. How did they go? Badly.
MRS. EVJE (hurriedly). That is to say, he did not behave at all well.
You must prepare yourself for the worst, my child!
GERTRUD. Is it something very bad, then?
EVJE. You know he is a little hasty just now, when he has so much
on his hands. He lacks a proper sense of moderation--but he will
learn it, sure enough.
GERTRUD (almost inaudibly). But what does it mean? Is he never
coming back?
EVJE. Never coming back? What an extraordinary question! Of
course he will come back. He was only a little over-hasty, you
know--
GERTRUD. And said he would never come back?
MRS. EVJE. Come, come, my dear--you mustn't be alarmed.
EVJE. He talked such a lot, you know, that we must not attach any
particular importance to anything he said.
GERTRUD. So that is how it is!
MRS. EVJE. We must make allowances for all that he is going
through just now--
EVJE (suddenly). My child, you look so pale--
MRS. EVJE (going to her). Gertrud!
GERTRUD (with a quiet movement of protest). I must give grandfather
his drink; that was really what I came for. And that was how I
happened to see Harald through the window. I will take grandfather
his drink. (The curtain falls as she goes out of the room.)
Content of ACT I [Bjornstjerne Bjornson's play/drama: The Editor]
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