Three Comedies
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Bjornstjerne M. Bjornson >> Three Comedies
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INTRODUCTION
BJORNSTJERNE BJORNSON--poet, dramatist, novelist, and politician,
and the most notable figure in contemporary Norwegian history--
was born, in December 1832, at Kvikne in the north of Norway. His
father was pastor at Kvikne, a remote village in the Osterdal
district, some sixty miles south of Trondhjem; a lonely spot,
whose atmosphere and surroundings Bjornson afterwards described
in one of his short sketches ("Blakken"). The pastor's house lay
so high up on the "fjeld" that corn would not grow on its
meadows, where the relentless northern winter seemed to begin so
early and end so late. The Osterdal folk were a wild, turbulent
lot in those days--so much so, that his predecessor (who had
never ventured into the church without his pistol in his pocket)
had eventually run away and flatly refused to return, with the
result that the district was pastorless for some years until the
elder Bjornson came to it.
It was in surroundings such as this, and with scarcely any
playfellows, that Bjornstjerne Bjornson spent the first six years
of his life; and the sturdy independence of his nature may have
owed something to the unaccommodating life of his earliest days,
just as the poetical impulse that was so strong in his developed
character probably had its beginnings in the impressions of
beauty he received in the years that immediately followed. For,
when he was six, a welcome change came. His father was transferred
to the tranquil pastorate of Naes, at the mouth of the Romsdal,
one of the fairest spots in Norway. Here Bjornson spent the rest
of his childhood, in surroundings of beauty and peacefulness,
going to school first at Molde and afterwards at Christiania, to
pass on later to the Christiania University where he graduated in
1852. As a boy, his earliest biographer tells us, he was fully
determined to be a poet--and, naturally, the foremost poet of
his time!--but, as years passed, he gained a soberer estimate
of his possibilities. At the University he was one of a group
of kindred spirits with eager literary leanings, and it did not
take him long to gain a certain footing in the world of
journalism. His work for the first year or two was mainly in
the domain of dramatic criticism, but the creative instinct
was growing in him. A youthful effort of his--a drama entitled
Valborg--was actually accepted for production at the Christiania
theatre, and the author, according to custom, was put on the
"free list" at once. The experience he gained, however, by
assiduous attendance at the theatre so convinced him of the
defects in his own bantling, that he withdrew it before
performance--a heroic act of self-criticism rare amongst young
authors.
His first serious literary efforts were some peasant tales, whose
freshness and vividness made an immediate and remarkable
impression and practically ensured his future as a writer, while
their success inspired him with the desire to create a kind of
peasant "saga." He wrote of what he knew, and a delicate sense of
style seemed inborn in him. The best known of these tales are
Synnove Solbakken (1857) and Arne (1858). They were hailed as
giving a revelation of the Norwegian character, and the first-
named was translated into English as early as 1858. He was thus
made known to (or, at any rate, accessible to) English readers
many years before Ibsen, though his renown was subsequently
overshadowed, out of their own country, by the enormous vogue of
the latter's works. Ibsen, too, has been far more widely
translated (and is easier to translate) into English than
Bjornson. Much of the latter's finest work, especially in his
lyrical poetry and his peasant stories, has a charm of diction
that it is almost impossible to reproduce in translation. Ibsen
and Bjornson, who inevitably suggest comparison when either's
work is dealt with, were closely bound by friendship as well as
admiration until a breach was caused by Bjornson's taking offence
at a supposed attack on him in Ibsen's early play The League of
Youth, Bjornson considering himself to be lampooned in the
delineation of one of the characters thereof. The breach,
however, was healed many years later, when, at the time of the
bitter attacks that were made upon Ibsen in consequence of the
publication of Ghosts, Bjornson came into the field of controversy
with a vigorous and generous championing of his rival.
Bjornson's dramatic energies, as was the case with Ibsen in his
early days, first took the form of a series of historical dramas
--Sigurd Slembe, Konge Sverre, and others; and he was intimately
connected with the theatre by being for two periods theatrical
director, from 1857 to 1859 at Bergen and from 1865 to 1867 at
Christiania. Previous to the latter engagement a stipend granted
to him by the Norwegian government enabled him to travel for two
or three years in Europe; and during those years his pen was
never idle--poems, prose sketches, and tales flowing from it in
abundance. De Nygifte (The Newly-Married Couple), the first of
the three plays in the present volume, was produced at the
Christiania theatre in the first year of his directorship there.
The two volumes, Digte og Sange (Poems and Songs) and Arnljot
Gelline, which comprise the greater proportion of Bjornson's
poetry, both appeared in 1870. Digte og Sange was republished, in
an enlarged edition, ten years later. It contains the poem "Ja,
vi elsker dette Landet" ("Yes, we love this land of ours"),
which, set to inspiring music by Nordraak, became Norway's most
favourite national song, as well as another of the same nature--
"Fremad! Fremad!" ("Forward! Forward!")--which, sung to music of
Grieg's, ran it hard in popularity. Of "Ja, vi elsker dette
Landet," Bjornson used to say that the greatest tribute he had
ever had to its hold upon his fellow-countrymen's hearts was
when, on one occasion during the poet's years of vigorous
political activity, a crowd of fervid opponents came and broke
his windows with stones; after which, turning to march away
triumphantly, they felt the need (ever present to the Scandinavian
in moments of stress) of singing, and burst out with one accord
into the "Ja, vi elsker dette Landet" of their hated political
adversary. "They couldn't help it; they had to sing it!" the poet
used to relate delightedly.
Of the birth of "Fremad! Fremad!" Grieg has left an account which
gives an amusing picture of the infectious enthusiasm that was
one of Bjornson's strongest characteristics. Grieg had given him,
as a Christmas present, the first series of his "Lyrical Pieces"
for the pianoforte, and had afterwards played some of them to the
poet, who was especially struck with one melody which Grieg had
called "Fadrelandssang" ("Song of the Fatherland"). Bjornson
there and then, to the composer's great gratification, protested
that he must write words to fit the air. (It must be mentioned
that each strophe of the melody starts with a refrain consisting
of two strongly accented notes, which suggest some vigorous
dissyllabic word.) A day or two later Grieg met Bjornson, who was
in the full throes of composition, and exclaimed to him that the
song was going splendidly, and that he believed all the youth of
Norway would adopt it enthusiastically; but that he was still
puzzled over the very necessary word to fit the strongly marked
refrain. However, he was not going to give it up. Next morning,
when Grieg was in his room peacefully giving a piano lesson to a
young lady, a furious ringing was heard at his front-door bell,
as if the ringer would tear the bell from its wires, followed by
a wild shout of "'Fremad! Fremad!' Hurrah, I have got it!
'Fremad!'" Bjornson, for of course the intruder was he, rushed
into the house the moment the maid's trembling fingers could open
the door, and triumphantly chanted the completed song to them,
over and over again, amidst a din of laughter and congratulations.
His first experiments in the "social drama," plays dealing with
the tragedies and comedies of every-day life in his own country,
were made at about the same time as Ibsen's; that is to say, in
the seventies. Bjornson's first successes in that field, which
made him at once a popular dramatist, were Redaktoren (The
Editor) in 1874 and En Fallit (A Bankruptcy) in 1875. The latter
especially was hailed as the earliest raising of the veil upon
Norwegian domestic life, and as a remarkable effort in the
detection of drama in the commonplace. Before he wrote these,
Bjornson had again been for some years out of Norway; and, as in
the case of Ibsen, who began the writing of his "social dramas"
when in voluntary exile, absence seemed to enable him to observe
the familiar from a new standpoint and in the proper perspective.
After his first successes in this line, when his plays (and his
poems and tales to an equal extent) had made him popular and
honoured among his own people, Bjornson settled at Aulestad,
which remained his home for the rest of his life. He also became
a doughty controversialist in social and religious matters, and
the first outcome of this phase was his play Leonarda (the second
in this volume), which was first performed in 1879, to be
followed by Det ny System (The New System) later in the same
year. These works aroused keen controversy, but were not such
popular stage successes as his earlier plays. Moreover, about
this time, on his return from a visit to America, he plunged into
the vortex of political controversy as an aggressive radical. He
was a vigorous and very persuasive orator; and in that capacity,
as well as in that of writer of political articles and essays,
was an uncompromising foe to the opportunist theories which he
held to be degrading the public life of his country. The
opposition he aroused by his fearless championship of whatever he
considered a rightful cause was so bitter that he was eventually
obliged to retire from Norway for two or three years. So much did
this temporarily affect his literary reputation at home, that
when, in 1883, he had written En Hanske (A Gauntlet--the third
play here translated) he found at first considerable difficulty
in getting it performed. Later, however, he became a political
hero to a large section of his compatriots, and by degrees won
back fully the place he had occupied in their hearts. He
enthusiastically espoused the cause of the projected separation
from Sweden, though when that matter came to a crisis he
exercised an invaluable influence on the side of moderation.
For the remainder of his life he continued to be prolific in
literary production, with an ever increasing renown amongst
European men of letters, and an ever deepening personal hold upon
the affections of his fellow-countrymen. In 1903 he was awarded
the Nobel prize for literature. During his later years he, like
Ibsen, was a determined opponent of the movement to replace the
Dano-Norwegian language, which had hitherto been the literary
vehicle of Norwegian writers, by the "Bonde-Maal"--or "Ny Norsk"
("New Norwegian"), as it has lately been termed. This is an
artificial hybrid composed from the Norwegian peasant dialects,
by the use of which certain misguided patriots were (and
unfortunately still are) anxious to dissociate their literature
from that of Denmark. Bjornson, and with him most of the soberer
spirits amongst Norwegian writers, had realised that the door
which had so long shut out Norway from the literature of Europe
must be, as he put it, opened from the inside; and he rightly
considered that the ill-judged "Bonde-Maal" movement could only
have the result of wedging the door more tightly shut.
He died, in April 1910, in Paris, where for some years he had
always spent his winters, and was buried at home with every mark
of honour and regret, a Norwegian warship having been sent to
convey his remains back to his own land.
He was a man of very lovable personality and of the kindest
heart; easily moved by any tale of oppression or injustice, and
of wide-armed (albeit sometimes in judicious) generosity; more
apt, in the affairs of everyday life, to be governed by his heart
than by his head, and as simple as a child in many matters. His
wife was an ideal helpmate to him, and their family life very
happy.
The Newly-Married Couple (1865) offers a considerable contrast to
the other two plays here presented. It belongs to the school of
Scribe and the "soliloquy," and the author avails himself of the
recognised dramatic conventions of the day. At the same time,
though the characters may be conventional in type, they are,
thanks to Bjornson's sense of humour, alive; and the theme of the
estrangement and reconciliation of the "newly-married couple" is
treated with delicacy and charm. It is true that it is almost
unbelievable that the hero could be so stupid as to allow the
"confidante" to accompany his young wife when he at last succeeds
in wresting her from her parents' jealous clutches; but, on the
other hand, that lady, with her anonymous novel that revealed the
truth to the young couple, was necessary to the plot as a "dea ex
machina." The play was, and is, immensely popular on the
Scandinavian stage, and still holds the boards on others. It has
been translated into Swedish, German, English, Dutch, Italian,
Polish and Finnish.
Leonarda (1879) marks just as striking an advance upon Bjornson's
early plays as the first of Ibsen's "social dramas" did upon his.
Unreal stage conventions have disappeared, the characterisation
is convincing, and the dialogue, if more prolix than Ibsen's (as
is throughout the case with Bjornson), is always interesting and
individual. The emotional theme of the play, the love of an older
woman for her adopted daughter's young lover, is treated with the
poetic touch that pervades all Bjornson's work; and the
controversial theme, that of religious tolerance, with a sane
restraint. It cannot be denied, however, that Bjornson's changed
and unorthodox attitude towards religious matters--an attitude
little expected except by those who knew him best--contributed a
good deal towards the temporary waning of his popularity at this
time. Leonarda is (like A Gauntlet) a good example of the root
difference between Bjornson's and Ibsen's treatment of problems
in their dramas. Ibsen contented himself with diagnosing social
maladies; Bjornson's more genial nature hints also at the remedy,
or at least at a palliative. Ibsen is a stern judge; Bjornson is,
beyond that, a prophet of better things. Whereas Ibsen is first
and foremost a dramatist, Bjornson is rather by instinct the
novelist who casts his ideas in dramatic form, and is concerned
to "round up" the whole. As Brandes says, in the course of his
sympathetic criticism of the two writers, "Ibsen is in love with
the idea, and its psychological and logical consequences. ...
Corresponding to this love of the abstract idea in Ibsen, we have
in Bjornson the love of humankind." Bjornson, moreover, was a
long way behind Ibsen in constructive skill. As regards the
technical execution of Leonarda, its only obvious weakness is a
slight want of vividness in the presentation of the thesis. The
hiatuses between the acts leave perhaps too much to the
imagination, and the play needs more than a cursory reading for
us to grasp the full import of the actions and motives of its
personages. Leonarda has not been previously translated into
English; though Swedish, French, German and Finnish versions of it exist.
A Gauntlet (finished in 1883) shows a great advance in dramatic
technique. The whole is closely knit and coherent, and the
problems involved are treated with an exhaustiveness that is
equally fair to both sides. As has been already said, the plays
that had preceded it from Bjornson's pen aroused such active
controversy that he found it at first impossible to get A
Gauntlet produced in his own country. Its first performance was
in Hamburg, in 1883, and for that the author modified and altered
it greatly. Eventually it was played, in its original form, in
the Scandinavian countries, and in its turn stirred up a bitter
controversy on the ethics of male and female morality as regards
marriage. It was currently said that hundreds of contemplated
marriages were broken off in Norway as an effect of its statement
of a vital problem. The remodelling the play originally underwent
for its performance in Germany was drastic. The second and third
acts were entirely recast, the character of Dr. Nordan was
omitted and others introduced, and the ending was changed. The
first version was, however, evidently the author's favourite, and
it is that that is presented here. Bjornson never published the
recast version, and in the "memorial edition" of his works it is
the present version that is given. The recast version was
translated into English by Mr. Osman Edwards and produced (in an
"adapted" and mangled form, for which the translator was not
responsible) at the Royalty Theatre in London in 1894.
R. FARQUHARSON SHARP.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
DRAMATIC AND POETIC WORKS.--Mellem Slagene (Between the Battles),
1857. Halte-Hulda (Lame Hulda), 1858. Kong Sverre (King Sverre),
1861. Sigurd Slembe (Sigurd the Bastard), 1862; translated by
W. M. Payne, 1888. Maria Stuart i Skotland, 1864. De Nygifte (The
Newly-Married Couple), 1865; translated by T. Soelfeldt, 1868; by
S. and E. Hjerleid, 1870; as A Lesson in Marriage, by G. I.
Colbron, 1911. Sigurd Jorsalfar (Sigurd the Crusader), 1872.
Redaktoren (The Editor), 1874. En Fallit (A Bankruptcy), 1874.
Kongen (The King), 1877. Leonarda, 1879. Det ny System (The New
System), 1879. En Hanske, 1883; translated as A Gauntlet, by
H. L. Braekstad 1890; by Osman Edwards 1894. Over AEvne (Beyond our
Strength), Part I., 1883; translated as Pastor Sang, by W. Wilson,
1893; Part II., 1895. Geografi og Kaerlighed (Geography and Love),
1885; Paul Lange og Tora Parsberg, 1898; translated by H. L.
Braekstad, 1899. Laboremus, 1901; translation published by
Chapman and Hall, 1901. Paa Storhove (At Storhove), 1904;
Daglannet, 1904; Naar den ny Vin blomstrer (When the Vineyards
are in Blossom), 1909.
Digte og Sange (Poems and Songs), 1870; Arnljot Gelline, 1870.
FICTION.--Synnove Solbakken 1857; translated as Trust and Trial,
by Mary Howitt, 1858; as Love and Life in Norway, by Hon. Augusta
Bethell and A. Plesner, 1870; as The Betrothal, in H. and
A. Zimmern's Half-hours with Foreign Novelists, 1880; also
translated by Julie Sutter, 1881; by R. B. Anderson, 1881. Arne,
1858; translated by T. Krag, 1861; by A. Plesner and S. Rugeley-
Powers, 1866; by R. B. Anderson, 1881; by W. Low (Bohn's Library),
1890. Smaastykker (Sketches), 1860. En glad Gut, 1860; translated
as Ovind, by S. and E. Hjerleid 1869; as The Happy Boy, by R. B.
Anderson, 1881; as The Happy Lad (published by Blackie), 1882.
Fiskerjenten, 1868 translated as The Fisher Maiden, by M. E. Niles,
1869; as The Fishing Girl, by A. Plesner and F. Richardson, 1870;
as The Fishing Girl, by S. and E. Hjerleid, 1871; as The Fisher
Maiden, by R. B. Anderson, 1882. Brude-Slaatten, 1873; translated
as The Bridal March, by R. B. Anderson, 1882; by J. E. Williams,
1893. Fortaellinger (Tales), 1872. Magnhild, 1877; translated by
R. B. Anderson, 1883. Kaptejn Mansana, 1879; translated as Captain
Mansana by R. B. Anderson, 1882. Det flager i Byen og paa Havnen
(Flags are Flying in Town and Port), 1884; translated as The
Heritage of the Kurts, by C Fairfax 1892. Paa Guds Veje, 1889;
translated as In God's Way, by E. Carmichael, 1890. Nye Fortaellinger
(New Tales), 1894; To Fortaelinger (Two Tales), 1901; Mary, 1906.
Collected edition of the Novels, translated into English, edited by
E. Gosse, 13 vols., 1895-1909.
[See Life of Bjornson by W. M. Payne, 1910; E. Gosse's Study of
the Writings of Bjornson, in edition of Novels, 1895; H. H.
Boyesen's Essays on Scandinavian Literature, 1895; G. Brandes'
Critical Studies of Ibsen and Bjornson, 1899.]
CONTENTS
THE NEWLY-MARRIED COUPLE
LEONARDA
A GAUNTLET
THE NEWLY-MARRIED COUPLE
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
The FATHER.
The MOTHER.
LAURA, their daughter.
AXEL, her husband.
MATHILDE, her friend.
THE NEWLY-MARRIED COUPLE
ACT I
(SCENE.--A handsomely furnished, carpeted room, with a door at
the back leading to a lobby. The FATHER is sitting on a couch on
the left-hand side, in the foreground, reading a newspaper. Other
papers are lying on a small table in front of him. AXEL is on
another couch drawn up in a similar position on the right-hand
side. A newspaper, which he is not reading, is lying on his knee.
The MOTHER is sitting, sewing, in an easy-chair drawn up beside a
table in the middle of the room.)
[LAURA enters.]
Laura. Good morning, mother! (Kisses her.)
Mother. Good morning, dear. Have you slept well?
Laura. Very well, thanks. Good morning, dad! (Kisses him.)
Father. Good morning, little one, good morning. Happy and in
good spirits?
Laura. Very. (Passes in front of AXEL.) Good morning, Axel! (Sits
down at the table, opposite her mother.)
Axel. Good morning.
Mother. I am very sorry to say, my child, that I must give up
going to the ball with you to-night. It is such a long way to go,
in this cold spring weather.
Father (without looking up from his paper). Your mother is not
well. She was coughing in the night.
Laura. Coughing again?
Father. Twice. (The MOTHER coughs, and he looks up.) There, do
you hear that? Your mother must not go out, on any account.
Laura. Then I won't go, either.
Father. That will be just as well; it is such raw weather. (To
the MOTHER.) But you have no shawl on, my love; where is your
shawl?
Laura. Axel, fetch mother's shawl; it is hanging in the lobby.
(AXEL goes out into the lobby.)
Mother. We are not really into spring yet. I am surprised the
stove is not lit in here.
Laura (to AXEL, who is arranging the shawl over the MOTHER'S
shoulders). Axel, ring the bell and let us have a fire. (He does
so, and gives the necessary instructions to the Servant.)
Mother. If none of us are going to the ball, we ought to send
them a note. Perhaps you would see to that, Axel?
Axel. Certainly--but will it do for us to stay away from this
ball?
Laura. Surely you heard father say that mother has been coughing
in the night.
Axel. Yes, I heard; but the ball is being given by the only
friend I have in these parts, in your honour and mine. We are the
reason of the whole entertainment--surely we cannot stay away
from it?
Laura. But it wouldn't be any pleasure to us to go without
mother.
Axel. One often has to do what is not any pleasure.
Laura. When it is a matter of duty, certainly. But our first duty
is to mother, and we cannot possibly leave her alone at home
when she is ill.
Axel. I had no idea she was ill.
Father (as he reads). She coughed twice in the night. She coughed
only a moment ago.
Mother. Axel means that a cough or two isn't illness, and he
is quite right.
Father (still reading). A cough may be a sign of something very
serious. (Clears his throat.) The chest--or the lungs. (Clears
his throat again.) I don't think I feel quite the thing myself,
either.
Laura. Daddy dear, you are too lightly clothed.
Mother. You dress as if it were summer--and it certainly isn't
that.
Father. The fire will burn up directly. (Clears his throat
again.) No, not quite the thing at all.
Laura. Axel! (He goes up to her.) You might read the paper to us
till breakfast is ready.
Axel. Certainly. But first of all I want to know if we really are
not to go to the ball?
Laura. You can go, if you like, and take our excuses.
Mother. That wouldn't do. Remember you are married now.
Axel. That is exactly why it seems to me that Laura cannot stay
at home. The fact that she is my wife ought to have most weight
with her now; and this ball is being given for us two, who have
nothing the matter with us, besides being mainly a dance for
young people--
Mother. And not for old folk.
Laura. Thank you; mother has taken to dancing again since I
have grown up. I have never been to a ball without mother's
leading off the dances.
Mother. Axel apparently thinks it would have been much better
if I had not done so.
Father (as he reads). Mother dances most elegantly.
Axel. Surely I should know that, seeing how often I have had the
honour of leading off with mother. But on this occasion forty or
fifty people have been invited, a lot of trouble and expense
incurred and a lot of pleasure arranged, solely for our sakes. It
would be simply wicked to disappoint them.
Father (still reading). We can give a ball for them, in return.
Mother. All the more as we owe heaps of people an invitation.
Laura. Yes, that will be better; we have more room here, too. (A
pause.)
Axel (leaning over LAURA'S chair). Think of your new ball dress--
my first present to you. Won't that tempt you? Blue muslin,
with silver stars all over it? Shall they not shine for the first
time to-night?
Laura (smiling). No, there would be no shine in the stars if
mother were not at the dance.
Axel. Very well--I will send our excuses. (Turns to go out.)
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