Three Comedies | Page 4

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 Björnson'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 Björnson), 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
Björnson's work; and the controversial theme, that of religious
tolerance, with a sane restraint. It cannot be denied, however, that
Björnson'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 Björnson's and Ibsen's treatment of
problems in their dramas. Ibsen contented himself with diagnosing
social maladies; Björnson's more genial nature hints also at the remedy,
or at least at a palliative. Ibsen is a stern judge; Björnson is, beyond that,
a prophet of better things. Whereas Ibsen is first and foremost a
dramatist, Björnson 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 Björnson the love of humankind." Björnson,
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
Björnson'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. Björnson 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. Redaktören (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;