Three Dramas

Three Dramas

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Title: Three Dramas
Author: Bjornstjerne M. Bjornson
Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7844] [This file was first posted on
May 22, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THREE
DRAMAS ***

Nicole Apostola

THREE DRAMAS
THE EDITOR--THE BANKRUPT--THE KING
BY BJÖRNSTJERNE BJÖRNSON

INTRODUCTION
The three plays here presented were the outcome of a period when
Björnson's views on many topics were undergoing a drastic revision
and he was abandoning much of his previous orthodoxy in many
directions. Two of them were written during, and one immediately after,
a three years' absence from Norway--years spent almost entirely in
southern Europe. [Note: Further details respecting Björnson's life will
be found in the Introduction to Three Comedies by Björnson, published
in Everyman's Library in 1912.] For nearly ten years previous to this
voluntary exile, Björnson had been immersed in theatrical management
and political propagandism. His political activities (guided by a more
or less pronounced republican tendency) centred in an agitation for a
truer equality between the kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, his point
of view being that Norway had come to be regarded too much as a
mere appanage of Sweden. Between that and his manifold and
distracting cares as theatrical director, he had let imaginative work slide
for the time being; but his years abroad had a recuperative effect, and,
in addition, broadened his mental outlook in a remarkable manner.
Foreign travel, a wider acquaintance with differing types of humanity,
and, above all, a newly-won acquaintance with the contemporary
literature of other countries, made a deep impression upon Björnson's
vigorously receptive mind. He browsed voraciously upon the works of
foreign writers. Herbert Spencer, Darwin, John Stuart Mill, Taine,
Max-Müller, formed a portion of his mental pabulum at this time--and
the result was a significant alteration of mental attitude on a number of

questions, and a determination to make the attempt to embody his
theories in dramatic form. He had gained all at once, as he wrote to
Georg Brandes, the eminent Danish critic, "eyes that saw and ears that
heard." Up to this time the poet in him had been predominant; now it
was to be the social philosopher that held the reins. Just as Ibsen did, so
Björnson abandoned historical drama and artificial comedy for an
attempt at prose drama which should have at all events a serious thesis.
In this he anticipated Ibsen; for (unless we include the satirical political
comedy, The League of Youth, which was published in 1869, among
Ibsen's "social dramas") Ibsen did not enter the field with Pillars of
Society [Note: Published in The Pretenders and Two Other Plays, in
Everyman's Library, 1913.] until 1877, whereas Björnson's The Editor,
The Bankrupt, and The King were all published between 1874 and 1877.
Intellectual and literary life in Denmark had been a good deal stirred
and quickened in the early seventies, and the influence of that
awakening was inevitably felt by the more eager spirits in the other
Scandinavian countries. It is amusing to note, as one Norwegian writer
has pointed out, that this intellectual upheaval (which, in its turn, was a
reflection of that taking place in outer Europe) came at a time when the
bulk of the Scandinavian folk "were congratulating themselves that the
doubt and ferment of unrest which were undermining the foundations
of the great communities abroad had not had the power to ruffle the
placid surface of our good, old-fashioned, Scandinavian orthodoxy."
Björnson makes several sly hits in these plays (as does Ibsen in _Pillars
of Society_) at this distrust of the opinions and manners of the larger
communities outside of Scandinavia, notably America, with which the
Scandinavian countries were more particularly in touch through
emigration.
Brandes characterises the impelling motive of these three plays as a
passionate appeal for a higher standard of truth--in