Early Plays

Early Plays

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Early Plays, by Henrik Ibsen #11 in
our series by Henrik Ibsen
Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the
header without written permission.
Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is
important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how
the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a
donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since
1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of
Volunteers!*****
Title: Early Plays Catiline, The Warrior's Barrow, Olaf Liljekrans
Author: Henrik Ibsen
Release Date: December, 2004 [EBook #7172] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on March 20,
2003]
Edition: 10

Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-Latin-1
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EARLY
PLAYS ***

This eBook was produced by David Starner, Michael Kaelbling, and
the Online Distributed Proofreading Team

This series of SCANDINAVIAN CLASSICS was published by the
American-Scandinavian Foundation in the belief that greater familiarity
with the chief literary monuments of the North will help Americans to a
better understanding of Scandinavians, and thus serve to stimulate their
sympathetic co-operation to good ends.
* * * * *
SCANDINAVIAN CLASSICS
VOLUME XVII

EARLY PLAYS
by
HENRIK IBSEN
* * * * *
EARLY PLAYS
CATILINE, THE WARRIOR'S BARROW, OLAF LILJEKRANS
by
HENRIK IBSEN
TRANSLATED FROM THE NORWEGIAN BY ANDERS ORBECK,
A. M.
Assistant Professor of English in the University of Montana * * * * *
_To
O. W. Firkins
Teacher and Friend and Inspirer of these Translations._

* * * * *
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
CATILINE
THE WARRIOR'S BARROW
OLAF LILJEKRANS
LIST OF FOUNDATION PUBLICATIONS
* * * * *
INTRODUCTION
One of the most remarkable facts about Ibsen is the orderly
development of his genius. He himself repeatedly maintained that his
dramas were not mere isolated accidents. In the foreword to the readers
in the popular edition of 1898 he urges the public to read his dramas in
the same order in which he had written them, deplores the fact that his
earlier works are less known and less understood than his later works,
and insists that his writings taken as a whole constitute an organic unity.
The three of his plays offered here for the first time in English
translation will afford those not familiar with the original Norwegian
some light on the early stages of his development.
Catiline, the earliest of Ibsen's plays, was written in 1849, while Ibsen
was an apothecary's apprentice in Grimstad. It appeared in Christiania
in the following spring under the pseudonym Brynjolf Bjarme. The
revolutionary atmosphere of 1848-49, the reading of the story of
Catiline in Sallust and Cicero in preparation for the university
examinations, the hostility which existed between the apprentice and
his immediate social environment, the fate which the play met at the
hands of the theatrical management and the publishers, his own
struggles at the time,--are all set forth clearly enough in the preface to

the second edition. The play was written in the blank verse of
Oehlenschlaeger's romantic dramas. Ibsen's portrayal of the Roman
politician is not in accord with tradition; Catiline is not an out-and-out
reprobate, but an unfortunate and highly sensitive individual in whom
idealism and licentiousness struggle for mastery. Vasenius, in his study
of the poet (_Ibsens Dramatiska Diktning in dess Första Skede_,
Helsingfors, 1879), insists that Ibsen thus intuitively hit upon the real
Catiline revealed by later nineteenth century research. The poet seems
not to have heard of Duma's Catiline, which appeared about the same
time, nor of earlier plays on the subject by Ben Jonson and others. The
struggle in Ibsen's play is centered in the soul of Catiline; not once do
his political opponents appear on the scene. Only one critic raised his
voice in behalf of the play at the time of its appearance, and only a few
copies of the original edition survive. Ibsen issued in 1875 a revised
edition in celebration of his twenty-fifth anniversary as an author. Since
then a third edition has been issued in 1891, and a fourth in 1913.
_The Warrior's Barrow_, Ibsen's second play, was finished in 1850
shortly after the publication of Catiline. Ibsen entered upon his literary
career with a gusto he seems soon to have lost;