rT 8900 E5 F81 1919 ^ :^^'% '^, -'fivi aitljaca, »«» Bark .\Yi....it?)t.cV^- Only he dissects 54 IBSEN IN ENGLAND souls, not bodies." Of the "champagne" scene he de- clared that "no scene in any one of the old dramatists equals this for suggestive indecency." This is the same type of criticism as that which assailed "Ghosts" in 1891, yet there is a very perceptible difference in the attitude towards the scarcely known Norwegian and the attitude towards the acknowledged master of European drama. On Ibsen's seventieth birthday, March 20, 1898, the aged poet received tributes from every country that knew his dramas. On the continent the event was celebrated by special representations of his works. Though the English theatre took no notice of the day, a small group of Ibsen lovers, including Archer, Shaw, Asquith, Barrie, Hardy, Jones, Pinero, Gosse, etc., sent the dramatist a large silver goblet which was given a place of honor in his home. Eight years later Ibsen died, and the English journals were flooded with extravagant eulogy and fulsome praise. There were few, if any, dissenting voices. Even those who disliked his plays admitted his genius. All England united with the remainder of the civilized world in bring- ing tribute to the best hated artist of his generation. The outcry against the plays of Ibsen was an uncon- scious acknowledgment pi their merit and his genius. Poor plays are merely wearisome. But a play that can inspire glowing admiration and passionate dislike, a play that can create discussion for a month or more, that sure- ly is a great play. The Ibsen controversy was not entirely an admirable one. Reason gave way constantly to ill-temper, and the issues were often clouded. Ibsen was misinterpreted on THE IBSEN CONTROVERSY 55 all sides. The anti-Ibsenites, prejudiced, narrow, and lacking in self-control, insisted on emphasizing the "im- morality" of the dramas. Even the Ibsenites were oc- casionally incorrect in their estimates of their master. Of course one cannot take too seriously the faddist Ib- senites, with their "large majority of hot-gospellers, pro- fessional eccentrics, rates, intellectual declasses, spinsters who take up Ibsen as an alternative to 'art needlework' or the worship of Jumbo" (to quote the irrepressible Mr. Walkley). But even the most capable of Ibsen's defend- ers occasionally fell into error. For instance, Boyesen, one of his keenest interpreters in America, at times to- tally inisunderstood Ibsen, as when he said of Nora : "In her desperate strait, having no time to lose, she tries the same questionable arts on Dr. Rank, which so often had brought her husband to her feet ; and the doctor, being a man of few scruples, promptly responds with a declara- tion of love. In utter disgust, Nora turns from him, without having breathed the momentous question." And Shaw, one of Ibsen's most brilliant advocates in Eng- land, constantly overemphasized the propagandist in the poet. Archer attempts to explain the misunderstandings of which Ibsen was victim, by calling attention to the fact that the dramatist was known to his critics solely through the medium of translations. In the Critic of July, 1906, Archer said: "What should we think of a man who, knowing no^ French, should sit down to write a critical study of Victor Hugo? or who, knowing no German, should take upon himself to weigh Goethe in the balance and find him wanting? Yet this is inevitably the position 56 IBSEN IN ENGLAND of nineteen out of twenty critics who deal with the works o,f Ibsen." This undoubtedly contributed to the errors in Ibsen criticism, but does not wholly explain them. Ibsen, who requires careful study, was read quickly and criticised in passionate haste. He was deliberately misinterpreted by critics who wished to strengthen certain of their theories. And other critics, blinded by hatred of certain of Ibsen's ideas, were unable to see the poet in true perspective. All in all, however, the controversy was decidedly worth while. It was as wholesome as a brisk storm-wind. It awakened tired critics and jaded playgoers. It sharp- ened wits and compelled everyone to form an opinion, for nfeutrality was impossible. And, above all, it made Ibsen known throughout the English speaking world as nothing else could have done. III. ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF IBSEN* The eighteen seventies saw only a few English transla- tions of Ibsen, and no translations of any very great merit or any decided importance. By far the best work was done by Ibsen's sponsor, Gosse, whose translations of several lyrics and passages from the poetic dramas show his usual metrical perfection and delicacy of touch. The Ibsen translations in the Bergen edition "Norwegian and Swedish Poems" and in the English volume "Transla- tions from the Norse" are mediocre and lacking in any defi- nite poetic quality. Miss Ray's "Emperor and Galilean" is a faithful piece of work, but is pale and colorless. It was not until 1888 that Ibsen appeared in an ade- quate English translation. But the early eighteen eighties are not to be disregarded, for here we find the first Eng- lish "A Doll's House" and the first English "Ghosts". "Et dukkehjem", the play that was to become Ibsen's most popular drama in England, was first translated into English in 1880 by T. Weber, and was published by him in Copenhagen. Mr. Weber was a Danish schoolmaster, the author of many learned glossaries, phrase books and grammars. His acquaintance with the English language, however, was limited to the possession of a Danish-Eng- lish dictionary. As a result of this purely theoretical knowledge of EngUsh, his "Nora" is full of the most de- *See Appendix A. [57] S8 IBSEN IN ENGLAND licious absurdities. It is probably fortunate for Ibsen that very few copies of "Nora" were sold ; and yet what a rich store of humor has been lost because of the inac- cessibility of this little book ! William Archer seems to be one of the few English- men who possess a copy of "Nora". In an article in Volume I of "Time," he printed under the title "Ibsen as he is Translated" some of the most joyous bits of dia- logue. For instance, Mrs. Linde asks Nora : "And your husband returned completely cured?" Nora: "Sound as a roach! . . . And our children are well and healthy like I am. (Starts up applauding) Oh dear! Oh dear! Kristine it is, indeed, excessively charm- ing to live and be happy !" Dr. Rank asks Mrs. Linde : "Then you have come to town in order to recreate dur- ing all banquets ?" Poor Nora, after Krogstad leaves her, exclaims : "Deprave my little children? Poison my home? (A short pause; she turns up her nose) This is not true. This is in the name of wonder not true." Mrs. Linde tells Krogstad: "But now I'm alone in the world, so excessively inane and abandoned." The great final scene is particularly mutilated. Helmer says: "Don't utter such stupid shuffles: . . . Doff the shawl ! . . . From this moment it depends no longer on felicity ; it depends only on saving the rests, remnants and the appearance." ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS 59 Helmer : "You are first of all a wife and mother." Nora : " . . . I believe that I am first of all a man, I as well as you — or, at all events, that I am to try to become a man." Nora : "As I am now, I am no wife for you." Helmer: "I have power to grow another." Helmer: "Change yourself in such a manner that — ?" Nora: "That cohabitation between you and me might become a matrimony. Good-bye (exit through the cor- ridor.)" Never was the most rabid anti-Ibsenite quite as face- tious at Ibsen's expense as was the estimable Mr. Weber. The first Ibsen translation that gained any degree of popularity in England as a reading play, was another ver- sion of "A Doll's House." Henrietta Frances Lord's "Nora" was published in 1882, and instantly gained suf- ficient popularity to warrant second and third editions. Dull and uninspired as is this translation, there yet shone through it some of the greatness of Ibsen's dramatic art. Archer has described Miss Lord's translation as "a conscientious piece of work, but heavy and not always accurate." Heavy the translation certainly is, and full of awkward circumlocutions. Helmer : "Nora, can I never become to you anything but a stranger?" . . . Nora : "We both should need to change so, you as well 6o IBSEN IN ENGLAND as I, that — O, Torvald, I no longer believe in an)rthing miraculous." Helmer : "But I believe in it. Tell me. We must so change that — " Nora: "That our living together could be a marriage. Groodbye." (She goes out through the hall). Helmer : (Sinks in a chair by the door with his hands before his face) "Nora! Nora! (He looks round and stands up.) Empty! She is not here now. (A hope inspires him). The greatest miracle!" (Below stairs a door is heard shutting ominously in the lock.) Miss Lord's preface to her translation is peculiarly, in- teresting. Here, in the first volume of Ibsen that gained an English audience of any considerable size, the drama- tist is introduced as a propagandist. Ibsen is famous through Europe, Miss Lord declares, as the "Woman's Poet", the bold champion of Woman's Rights. For the benefit of those ladies who might be interested in a per- sonal description of their knight. Miss Lord dilates on his "long grey hair and whiskers", his "Jupiter's brow", his "delicate mouth", and self-command that "is^but the snow that covers a volcano of wild and passionate power." Ib- sen, she says, "opens all the great gates of his poetry to noble, pure-hearted, loving, disappointed women, who move about among reckless men as the natural centers for conversion and reconciliation, but either lack courage to seize the occasion, or, if they have much courage, happen to have, such a pig-headed, one-sided nianhood to deal with, that the inspired woman, the heavenly herald of na- ture and conscience, is trampled under foot or passed by, the man regretting it, but when it is too late. Such are ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS 6i most of Ibsen's women ... his task is to release the Sleeping Beauty, as the prince did in our childish fable. . . . Ibsen approaches the thorn-girt home ; he knows that every expression crushes thousands of convention- ality's roses ; and on his plain but trusty sword are these words only — Love and Understand." This amazing picture of Ibsen as a squire of distressed dames is unique in critical literature ; but, in stressing the propagandist in Ibsen, Miss Lord was but the pioneer and fore-runner of a host of later English critics headed by no less a personage than Bernard Shaw, whose Ibsen is always the propagandist. The success of "Nora" led Miss Lord to turn to "CJen- gangere", which she translated and published as "Ghosts" in 1885 in a socialistic journal. To-day, and later revised and printed in book form in 1888. This was the first English version of the play. The translation is a decided improvement over Miss Lord's "Nora". There is the same ponderous style, but there are fewer awkward un- English constructions. Strangely enough, "Ghosts", everywhere provocative of the bitterest controversy, here made no sensation. Miss Lord's 1888 volume of "Ghosts" is notable for an astounding preface, in which the translsttor gravely ex- plains "Ghosts" from the point of view of a philosophy known as "Karma". This preface is delightfully amus- ing because of the solemn absurdities of Miss Lord's doc- trines; but to lovers of Ibsen, his appearance in such guise must have been distressingly irritating. Miss Lord said in part: "Stating my philosophy of the play, I would say that part of our sense of pain and dis- 62 IBSEN IN ENGLAND order arises from so many of the characters having trav- estied their sex; Chamberlain Alving was really a woman-soul, Mrs. Alving a man-soul ; Mr. Manders is a woman; so is Oswald; Regina is a man. . . . Some souls perform all their evolutions, sub-human and human, attached to and acting through bodies of one sex ; some- times their own; sometimes the opposite; some adopt change for selfish, some for noble reasons, education, mission, etc., Ibsen himself being a woman-soul who has taken man's form for his work's sake. . . . Mr. Manders took man's form for power ; he had been a con- ventional woman in a former life, and now wished the self-importance of being a male ecclesiastic. Regina took woman's form to mitigate the impact of blows in life . . . she had been a very bad man, and had nothing but blows to expect from Karma. . . . Alving had been obsessed by sensual tempters all his life . . . after death they made Mr. Alving attach himself to his unhappy son, and studied how to darken his mind. . . . Then if heredity does not account for Oswald's suffer- ing, how came he to be the child of his parents? . . . Mrs. Alving owed Oswald something; it would be paid by her incarnating as a woman and being his mother. Had he been more evolved, he might have shrunk from accepting a favor from a soul like Mr. Alving's, even though he had a claim on Mrs. Alving. Oswald either did not perceive, or accepted the risk of having a bad man for a father. This element of weakness in Oswald explains hi? falling a victim to that father in the way I have described. . . . The unwholesomeness of 'Ghosts' consists of its mis-presenting all these transitory ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS 63 phases of soul history and calling them the operation of the law of Heredity. The disorder consists in the tra- vesty of sex. . . . It is useless to invite people to see that Oswald's dead father frightened him into idiocy, unless we are also able to show how his mother could have prevented that injury had she known how to go to work."^ And in Footnote i Miss Lord explains "The method is fully described in 'Christian Science Healing* by Frances Lord." This is the guise in which Ibsen's most solemn and most terrible tragedy first appeared in England. In this same year the first Archer translation appeared and with it better days for Ibsen in England. William Archer had Norwegian relatives, among them an uncle, Colin Archer, a renowned builder of boats in Larvik. For many years Archer had spent his summers with his Norwegian kinsfolk, and in this way had come to learn the Norwegian language. Once acquainted with the language, it was inevitable that he should turn to Nor- wegian literature, and here he discovered Ibsen. Always a devotee of literature Archer gave up the law in 1875 and entered journalism. After a year spent in Australia, he returned to London in 1878 and became a dramatic critic. Though he had been a warm admirer of Ibsen for several years, he did not take active part in the Ibsen campaign until 1880. In that year, he was instru- mental in the performance of "Samfundets stotter" ("Pil- lars of Society") in a translation that he himself had pre- pared. Archer first met Ibsen in Rome in 1881. Inspired by the artist, fascinated by the man, he returned to England 64 IBSEN IN ENGLAND determined to continue the campaign for the popularizar tion of Ibsen in England. Here he achieved notable suc- cess in his keen defenses and sympathetic criticisms of the dramatist. Valuable as are his criticisms of Ibsen and his share in the Ibsen controversy, Archer's greatest service has prob- ably been his translation of the dramas. The first of these published translations appeared in 1888 in the volume "Pillars of Society and Other Plays", published by Walter Scott in the Camelot Series. This volume contained an illuminating introduction by Havelock Ellis, the editor, Archer's translation of "Pillars of Society", revised from his 1880 version, "Ghosts" revised by Archer from Miss Lord's translation, and "An Enemy of Society", trans- lated from "En folkefiende" by Mrs. Eleanor Marx- Aveling. This volume gained instantaneous success. All three of the translations were recognized as achievements far in advance of any Ibsen translations that had preceded them. At times a bit stiff and lacking in flexibility, the style still had a rugged strength and simplicity that accorded well with these three plays. Ellis's preface evidenced strong sympathy with Ibsen and a fine literary sense. With un- erring judgment he called attention to those qualities of Ibsen most calculated to win and hold an audience. In less than five years the publishers sold over fourteen thou- sand copies of this volume. To most of these readers, on both sides of the Atlantic, this volume afforded their first view of Ibsen. It is indeed the first English trans- lation of Ibsen that gained for the Norwegian any ade- quate recognition. ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS 65 Archer followed these translations with a limited edi- tion of "A Doll's House", published to commemorate the Novelty Theatre production of 1889. These translations called forth from Ibsen the letter of Munich, November 3, 1889, in which he wrote to Archer : "I shall always feel that I owe you a great debt of gratitude for all that you have done, and are still doing, to introduce my works into England." There followed a translation of "Rosmersholm" by Louis Napoleon Parker — full of peculiarly un-EngUsh idioms, but effective in its reproduction of the spirit of the original — and Mrs. Marx-Aveling's translation of "Fruen fra havet" as "The Lady from the Sea". Some months had elapsed since Ibsen first gained an English audience with the volume "Pillars of Society and Other Plays". Ibsen's popularity was growing rapidly. His circle of readers eagerly pored over the seven plays that had appeared in scattered English editions, and de- manded to know what else Ibsen had written. The time seemed ripe for a collected edition of the dramas. On November 3, 1889, the Athenaeum announced : "By arrangement with Henrik Ibsen, Mr. Walter Scott will publish a complete edition of Ibsen's prose plays, his- torical as well as social. . . . Mr. William Archer has undertaken to translate several of the plays, and will be responsible for the accuracy of the whole series." This first collection of Ibsen's plays, "Ibsen's Prose Dramas," appeared in five volumes in 1890 and 1891. It contained the first EngUsh translations of "De unges for- bund" ("The League of Youth), "Haermaendene paa Helgeland" ("Vikings at Helgeland"), "Kongs-emneme" 66 IBSEN IN ENGLAND ("The Pretenders"), and "Hedda Gabler", all by William Archer; the first translations of "Vildanden" ("The Wild Duck"), by Mrs. F. E. Archer, and "Fru Inger til Os- traat" ("Lady Inger of Ostrat"), by Charles Archer; and translations of "Pillars of Society", "A Doll's House", "Ghosts", "An Enemy of the People", "Em- peror and Galilean", "Rosmersholm", and "The Lady from the Sea." Th^ translations in this collection are uniformly good. They are idiomatic and accurate, and show traces of the careful editing of William Archer. In the same two years, there was published in New York and London "The Prose Dramas of Henrik Ibsen", a three volume collection, edited by Gosse. Here there are only the nine social dramas that had been written up to that time. On the whole, the translations are slightly inferior to those in the larger collection, several of the plays particularly lacking forcefulness of style. These two collections of Ibsen published during the same two years, evidence the popularity of Ibsen's dramas as reading plays in the early nineties. Ibsen's position was now firmly established, and each new play that he wrote was speedily rushed into English transla- tion and hastily handed over to an eager audience. Up to 1 89 1 there had been no attempt to translate in its entirety any one of Ibsen's dramas in verse. In an ar- ticle in the Theatre of April 11, 1884, Archer had ex- plained the lack of a translation of Ibsen's "Brand" — "the difficulties presented by his strong local colour and rich versification being probably insuperable." In 1891, William Wilson compromised with the difficulties by pub- lishing a prose version of "Brand" in which the almost ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS 67 literal translation was unhampered by any metrical de- mands. The prose is dull and mechanical, and gives no idea of the vividness of the galloping meter in the Nor- wegian. And yet the volume was decidedly popular, and was later reprinted. The second of Ibsen's dramatic poems to find a com- plete English version was "Peer Gynt", translated by Wil- liam and Charles Archer. The translators rejected the prose method of William Wilson, believing that "the characteristic quality of the poet's achievement lay pre- cisely in his having, by the aid of rhythm and rhyme, transfigured the most easy and natural dialogue, without the least sacrifice of its naturalness", and proee, of course, could never reproduce this effect. But the very elaborate rhyme scheme of Ibsen's poem they were also forced to reject. The double and triple rhymes so trippingly em- ployed by Ibsen give to the play "a metrical character which it might puzzle Mr. Swinburne to reproduce in English." Moreover, the use of elaborate rhymes would have necessitated padding and inversion of phrase that would have destroyed the characteristic vernacular ease and simplicity of Ibsen's style. And so the translators determined to retain the meters of "Peer Gynt", but to employ unrhymed verse. Mr. William Archer has explained the purpose of the translation: "We sought to produce a translation which should convey to the general reader some faint conception of the movement and colour, the wit and pathos, of the original and at the same time a transcript which should serve the student as a 'crib' to the Norwegian text. . . . The following version is designed to facilitate, not to 68 IBSEN IN ENGLAND supersede, the study of the original. . . . Our funda- mental principle, then, has been to represent the original line for line." This method of translating "Peer Gynt" is by no means the ideal one. Put "Don Juan" into blank verse^ and the resulting poem, like the Archer "Peer Gynt", will be robbed of half its humor. Moreover, the line for line method has been a hampering one. But, on the whole, this translation satisfactorily interprets the spirit of the poem, and is a creditable performance of a uniquely dif- ficult task. Some years later, in 1913, R. Ellis Roberts published a translation of "Peer Gynt" in the original rhymes. His translation is a pleasant one, but is utterly lacking in vigor and spirit. The year 1894 saw three translations of "Brand". William Wilson's prose version appeared in a second edi- tion, and there were issued two new translations, "Brand, in English Verse in the Original Meters" by F. Edmund Garrett, and "Brand" by Professor Charles Harold Her- ford. The two metrical translations of course superseded Wilson's imperfect prose play. Garrett uses the original rhythm and rhymes. The version is often inaccurate and imperfect, as the translator had only a limited knowledge of Norwegian. But the English poem is noble and spirit- ed. The song of Einar and Agnes especially is most beautifully rendered. On the whole, the translation is an admirably sympathetic one. Herford's translation is more nearly perfect than Gar- rett's. It is remarkably accurate. Like Garrett, Profes- ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS 69 sor Herford reproduced the meters of the original, but he allowed himself less license, clinging to the line for line method of translation. His version, therefore, has not quite the free swing of Garrett's. On the whole, both Herford's and Garrett's transla- tions are admirable pieces of work, reproducing satis- factorily the meter, the diction, and the spirit of the original, without sacrificing the beauty of the English poem. During the last eight years of his creative life, Ibsen's four last plays appeared almost simultaneously in Nor- way and England. "Bygmester Solness" was written in 1892. Almost immediately, there was published in Eng- land a Norwegian edition, followed a few months later by an English translation, "The Master Builder", by Gosse and Archer. Archer's translations of "Little Eyolf" in 1895 and "John Gabriel Borkman" in 1897 fol- lowed immediately the Norwegian publications. Ibsen's last play, "Naar vi doede vaagner" was translated by Archer as "When We Dead Awaken" in 1900, very short- ly after the original play was issued. In 1900, Professor Herford followed his successful "Brand" with an English translation of "Kaerlighendens komedie" ("Love's Comedy.") He reproduced with masterly skill the original meters, gaining a light lilting effect very like the impression left by Ibsen's scurrying lines. With Ibsen's three most important poetic dramas in adequate English dress, the lyrics next claimed the atten- tion of translators. The English public had had the op- portunity of reading several of these short poems, as ^o IBSEN IN ENGLAND translations had appeared in periodicals and in various commentaries on Ibsen. But it remained for R. A. Streatfield to gather together and translate Ibsen's best lyrics and publish them in 1902 as "Ibsen's Lyrical Poems." This volume contains many poems that had never before being translated into English, and has more- over the merit of presenting Ibsen's finest lyrics within a single volume. Streatfield's translations are charming. In 1905 there appeared in England an interesting and highly valuable volume of "Ibsen's Letters", translated by John Nilsen Laurvik and Mary Morrison. Unfor- tunately Ibsen never preserved his correspondence, and so we have here merely the letters that he himself wrote. The editors, however,' strove to remedy this defect by giv- ing in copious footnotes the substance, at least in part, of those letters to Ibsen that called forth his answers. The letters are fairly well translated, and furnish indis- pensable side-lights on Ibsen's character and personality. "Speeches and New Letters of Ibsen," translated by Ame Kildal, a volume originally published in the United States in 1909, was printed in England in 191 1. This book furnishes a valuable supplement to the material in the earlier volume. The great English edition of Ibsen is "The Collected Works of Henrik Ibsen" published by Heinemann, and edited by Archer. This is the first really systematic sur- vey of Ibsen's work that has appeared in England. Sev- eral volumes were issued in 1906, the year of the drama- tist's death. The rest followed in 1907 and 1908. This splendid edition is in eleven volumes, and contains all of Ibsen's collected works except "Catilina". Mr. Archer ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS 71 apologizes in the preface for his omission of this play: "A great part of its interest lies in the very crudities of its style, which it would be a thankless task to reproduce in translation. Moreover, the poet impaired even its bio- graphical value by largely rewriting it before its repub- lication. He did not make it, nor attempt to make it, a better play, but he in some measure corrected its juvenil- ity of expression. Which version, then, should a trans- lator choose? To go back to the original would seem a deliberate disregard of the poet's wishes; while, on the other hand, the retouched version is clearly of far in- ., ferior interest. It seemed advisable, therefore, to leave the play alone, so far as this edition was concerned." All of Ibsen's plays hitherto translated into English appear in this collection. In addition there is the early play "Gildet paa Solhoug". Charles Archer translated "Lady Inger of Ostrat" and "Rosmersholm", Herford translated "Love's Comedy" and "Brand", Mrs. Marx- Aveling translated "An Enemy of the People", Mrs. F. E. Archer translated "The Wild Duck" and "The Lady from the Sea", Charles and William Archer translated "Peer Gynt", Gosse and WiUiam Archer translated "Hedda Gabler" and "The Master Builder", and William Archer translated the remaining ten plays. "From Ibsen's Workshop", a volume containing notes, scenarios, and drafts of Ibsen's social dramas, has been printed as Volume 12 of this edition. It is particularly valuable as an indication of Ibsen's creative method. Gosse's "Ibsen", a well written biography of the drama- tist, has been added to "The Collected Works" as Volume 13- 72 IBSEN IN ENGLAND "The Collected Works" was immediately recognized as the fullest and most capably edited edition of Ibsen's dramas. So great was the demand for these books that six volumes were reissued in April, 1907. The collec- tion has been reprinted again and again in England and America and will undoubtedly remain for many years the standard English edition of Ibsen. For some years Fydell Edmund Garrett had been pub- lishing in various periodicals his translations of Ibsen's verse. In 1912, after her husband's death, Mrs. Garrett collected these translations and arranged them for publi- cation. In addition to twenty-six short lyrics, "Lyrics and Poems from Ibsen" contains the two long poems "Paa Vidderne" ("On the Heights") and "Terje Vigen", songs from "The Feast at Solhoug", "Love's Comedy", "The Pretenders", and "Peer Gynt", -Ase's death scene from "Peer Gynt'', and a revised version of "Brand". The translations in this volume are at times a bit inaccurate, but the spirit of the originals is there and the English verse is exquisite. Editions and re-editions of Ibsen's plays have con- tinued well into 1915, when the war put a stop to all such publications. Ibsen's plays in English have shown an as- tounding vitality. In the last thirty years there have ap- peared some seventy-five English editions of Ibsen's plays, some containing a single play, some containing twenty- one plays. There have been shilling editions and limited editions de luxe, elaborate and costly. And the market for Ibsen's plays is still an active one. The task of translating Ibsen's dramas into English has not been an easy one. The plays in verse present insuppr- ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS 73 able difficulties because of Ibsen's elaborate metrical de- vices, which should be reproduced, since in every case they are keyed to the spirit of the poem, but which often can be reproduced in form only at the expense of a fairly literal translation. But Ibsen's prose plays, too, present difficulties. In the General Preface to the Collected Works, Archer says : "Ibsen is at once extremely easy and extremely difficult to translate. It is extremely easy, in his prose plays, to realize his meaning ; it is often extreme- ly difficult to convey it in natural, colloquial, and yet not too colloquial English. He is especially fond of laying barbed-wire entanglements for the translator's feet, in the shape of recurrent phrases for which it is absolutely impossible to find an equivalent that will fit in all the dif- ferent contexts. But this is oiily One of the many classes of obstacles which encountered us on almost every page." But despite its difficulties, the work has been done and has been well done. Every Ibsen play, except "Catilina" and the early plays omitted from his Collected Works by Ibsen himself, has been translated at least once, and some of the plays have appeared in as many as fifteen or twenty editions. Many enthusiastic men and women have de- voted their time and their energy to this work. One of these, William Archer, is able to say of his work as an editor, critic, and translator of Ibsen, that it has been "one of the chief labours, as it has certainly been one of the greatest privileges of my life. Since 1887 or thereabouts; not many months have passed in which a considerable portion of my time has not been devoted to acting, in one 74 IBSEN IN ENGLAND form or another, as intermediary between Ibsen and the English-speaking pubUc." The greater part of the English translations of Ibsen are by Archer. Many of the plays signed by names other than his, have passed througJi his careful editing. The quality of Archer's translations is uniformly high. They are absolutely accurate. They interpret remark- aly well the spirit of Ibsen's plays. Their style is strong and simple, well suited to the subject matter with which they deal. But there is one great fault that char- acterizes practically all of the English translations of Ib- sen. We miss the poetry, the fire of the Norwegian. Ib- sen continually calls himself a poet ; his countrymen terra him Norway's greatest poet. Yet where can we find a trace of poetry in the bald, colorless prose of our English translations ? The poetry often gleams through even the social dramas, in the dark background and the vivid sun- rise of "Ghosts", in the White Horses of Rosmersholm, in the tumbling green waters that Ellida loves, in the sound of the harps in the air, yet even here these richly poetic figures are couched in baldly prosaic language. The fault is not Archer's. Ibsen was a poet, Archer is not — there is the difficulty. But even if Archer were a poet, the difficulty might still be insuperable. Gosse is a poet, yet his "Hedda Gabler" is no more beautiful than Archer's. The truth probably is that the poetic quality of Ibsen's prose is something too subtle to be carried over in a translation. Ibsen's stories we can get, his people live for us, his ideas come over in their full force, but his strong, quiet, yet vivid style we cannot get in English. Though the poetry is inevitably missing, Archer's trans- ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS 75 lations are of a high order. Of his associate's work, Ed- mund Gosse has said: "I have Httle hesitation in saying that no other foreign author of the second half of the nineteenth century has been so ably and exhaustively edit- ed in England as Ibsen has been in this instance." The Italian critic, Mario Borsa, in "The English Stage of To- Day" asserts that "the translations in verse and prose by William Archer are — in the opinions of the Norwegians themselves — the most accurate, effective, animated, ele- gant, as well as the most passionate to be found in any European language." These translations of Ibsen have won their definite place in the reading matter of the English-speaking world. Ibsen has become an English classic. IV. PERFORMANCES OF IBSEN IN ENGLAND* It Was in December, 1880, that an Ibsen play first found its way to the London stage. Impressed by its dramatic qualities, Archer had translated "Pillars of Society" in 1877, a few weeks after its first appearance in Norway. In vain he had peddled his translation in the English mar- ket. Publisher after publisher, he frankly tells us, had refused to print the play, failing to find in it any particular merit. Indeed "Pillars of Society" did not appear in print until 1888. But in the meantime Archer was not content to let the matter drop. He prepared an adapta- tion of the play, as "Quicksands, or The Pillars of So- ciety", for stage presentation, and arranged for its- per- formance at a single matinee on Wednesday morning, De- cember 15, 1880, at the Gaiety Theatre. The Athenaeum which had heralded the performance as "the means of introducing to the English public a prominent and an original poet",^ praised the produc- tion highly. "As a dramatic satire, the 'Pillars of So- ciety' of Ibsen is worthy of the reputation of its author. With a relentless vigour — which accounts for Ibsen's un- popularity among his own countrymen — the most familiar vices of modern society are scourged and lashed. . . ■ With the satire is connected a good and telling story, *See Appendix B. lAthenaeum, December 24, 1880. [76] PERFORMANCES IN ENGLAND 77 which introduces some novel, if not very powerful types of character, and which in its progress reaches a point of interest altogether poignant. . . . Extremely fine comedy it is, and we shall be glad to know more of its author's workmanship. . . . Our only fauU is with the first half of the title. In giving to the 'Samfundets stotter", literally 'Pillars of Society', the preliminary title of 'Quicksands', the adapter seems to accentuate the serious interest of the play at the expense of its satirical purpose."^ But, in spite of the favorable notice of the Athenaeum, this morning performance aroused little interest. It es^ caped even the penetrating eye of Mr. Clement Scott. Ib- sen was little better known on December 16 than he had been on December 14. The first performance of "A Doll's House" in English had been in Louisville, Kentucky, on December 7, 1883, when Madame Modjeska played Nora in a translation made by her husband, Charles Bozenta Chlapowski, a Pole, and her secretary. Miss Louise Everson, a Dane. It was by means of a much-diluted version of "A Doll's House'^ that Ibsen made his second appearance on the London stage. "Breaking a Butterfly", as Henry Arthur Jones and Henry Herman called their adaptation, was first performed on Monday, March 3, 1884, at the Prince's Theatre, with a notable cast including Mr. Kyrle Bellew, Mr. H. Beerbohm Tree, and Miss Lingard. But not even the skillful art of these actors could save the play from the severity of the critics and the indifference of the au- dience, and it was withdrawn in a month. In his "The lAthenaeum, December 24, 1880. 7? IBSEN IN ENGLAND Foundations of a National Drama", written many, many years later, Mr. Jones apologized for "Breaking a Butter- fly" : "I pray it may be forgotten from this time, or re- membered only with leniency amongst other transgres- sions of my dramatic youth and innocence." Mr. Jones and Mr. Herman carefully conventionalized the startling original, placed the setting in England, and supplied a radiantly happy ending. In "Breaking a But- terfly", Flora (Nora) has no children. Mrs. Linde is re- placed by a virtuous book-keeper, Martin Grittle, who steals the incriminating note. Krogstad is replaced by one Dunkley, a typical stage, villain. There is, of course, no sign of a Dr. Rank. Goddard (Helmer) has a mother and sister. Two ineffectual comic characters fill out the cast. In this play Mr. Jones and Mr. Herman were able to bring to pass the miracle that Ibsen failed to produce, for Goddard takes on himself the blame for Flora's for- gery, and the play ends with a very pretty domestic scene. Such an adaptation as this, announcing itself on the program as "founded on Ibsen's 'Nora' ", certainly gave England a false notion of the Norwegian dramatist. Though Miss Lord's translation of "Nora" had been pub- lished, it had only a small circulation. And the writer of the Athenaeum criticism of March 8, 1884, certainly did not stand alone in his absurd idea of Ibsen's play: " 'Nora', as the original of 'Breaking a Butterfly' is called, belongs to that idyllic class of pieces which seldom find favour in this country except when seasoned with satire. Its heroine is a species of Teutonic Frou-Frou, who, as a result of pure ignorance commits forgery, and when her crime is detected, contemplates suicide, , , , From the PERFORMANCES IN ENGLAND 79 punishment she has incurred she is saved by her husband, who takes on himself the burden of guilt. By a clumsy expedient the husband is himself saved, and the current of domestic serenity once more runs under conditions that recall the life of Charlotte and her spouse, as defined by Thackeray's clever satire. There is, indeed, nothing for the heroine to do but to go on 'cutting bread and butter', decking Christmas trees, or occupying herself with other similar pursuits." It was probably to combat such views as this, that Archer, in a review of "Breaking a Butterfly", in the ^Theatre for April i, 1884, laid particular emphasis on the Norwegian play from which Jones and Herman drew their drama. Archer stressed the triviality of the Eng- lish play. "Therefore I am prepared for general scepti- cism when I assert that the play on which it is founded is a very great play, that the character of its heroine is comparable in point of sheer warm-blooded vitality with such a creation as Hetty Sorrel or Maggie Tulliver, and that some of its scenes are of unsurpassed theatrical ef- fect. . . . Take a piece of music, omit all the har- monies, break up and re-arrange the melodic phrases, and then play them with your fore-finger on the pianoforte — do this, and you will have some idea of the process to which Messrs. Jones and Herman have subjected 'A Doll's House'. . . . The expression of the playbill, 'founded on Ibsen's "Nora" ' indicates even more than the authors' actual obligation to their original, and would be more exact if it read, 'founded on the ruins of Ibsen's "Nora" '. Let the little play be judged on its own merits. 8o IBSEN IN, ENGLAND which are not few ; but let it not be supposed to give the faintest idea of Ibsen's great 'Et dukkehjem'." A'reher himself translated "A Doll's House" in 1889, and offered it to Mr. and Mrs. Qiarrington for presenta- tion. From the start Archer had little hope of a successful performance. Ibsen, he felt, was impossible on the Eng- lish stage. In his article on "Breaking a Butterfly" in the Theatre of April i, 1884, he had discussed the advisa- bility of producing Ibsen's dramas : "It is this combination of the moralist — or 'immoralist', as some would prefer to Say — with the dramatic po^t which has given Ibsen his enormous influence in the three Scandinavian kingdoms; and it is this which makes his plays suffer more than any others by transportation across the Channel. For the British public will not have didactics at any price, and least of all such didactics as Ibsen's. . . . The ad- apters, or more properly the authors, have felt it needful to eliminate all that was satirical or unpleasant, and in 'making their work sympathetic they at once made it triv- ial. I am the last to blame them for doing so. Ibsen on the Eliglish stage is impossible. He must be trivial- ized, and I believe that Messrs. Jones and Herman have performed that office as well as could reasonably be ex- pected." In another passage in the same article, Archer had said of the 1880 performance of "Pillars of Society", that it failed to make any impression on the English pub- lic, and he added : "Nevertheless the play, though not in itself such a remarkable work as 'A Doll's House' is prqb- ably much better fitted for the English stage, and had I the courage (or audacity) to adapt instead of translating PERFORMANCES IN ENGLAND 8i it, and to transfer the action to England, the result might have been different." In spite of the fear, therefore, that Ibsen was impos- sible on the English stage, the performance was imder- taken. Herbert Waring, the actor who played Helmer, vividly described his attitude, towards the play in an ar- ticle, "Ibsen in London" in the Theatre of October i, 1894. He told of reading the play with an effort. He could find no interest in the "frivolous and mendacious heroine", "the painfully self-abnegating Mrs. Linden", "the commonplace and pragmatical husband", and above all "the morbidly amorous and hereditarily afflicted doc- tor." The dialogue seemed to him "bald and trivial." He had already guessed the usual happy ending when he came to the final conversation between Nora and Helmer. "Stimulated by a new hope, I read the play through again from beginning to end, and I can honestly say that never before or since have I experienced so much pleasurable excitement in the perusal or representation of any piece. The uninteresting puppets became endowed with an in- tense actuality ; the dialogue which I had previously thought so dull and unimaginative became the cogent and facile medium for the expression of individual and diverse character. Every word of the terse sentences, seemed to have a value of its own, and to suggest some subtle nuance of feeling. I discovered that the character of Krogstad had impressed me on the first reading simply be- cause it was the least complex of the group, and that Nora and Rank and Helmer were living and breathing entities." Waring went on to describe the enterprise : "The play was rehearsed at the forlorn Novelty Theatre in a spirit 82 IBSEN IN ENGLAND of doubt, with frequent lapses into despondency. This was, however, felt only by the players engaged, for the managers, Mr. and Mrs. Charrington (Miss Achurch) were already keen enthusiasts on the subject. Should we ever get safely to the end of the second act, or would the audience rise in its wrath at the terribly dangerous conversation between Nora and Rank, and denounce us as shameless interpreters of a wantonly pornographic dramatist? Our fears proved groundless; the play went smoothly from start to finish and was received at its close with quite ordinary first-night enthusiasm. Though an- nounced for one week's representation only, the run con- tinued for three weeks in all, and was only cut short by the pre-arranged departure of Mr. and Mrs. Charringtofl for Australia." Mr. Waring added an amusing story of himself and Archer : "I feel it my painful duty to record that in the first performance of 'A Doll's House' an un- fortunate failure of memory caused me to omit the line, 'No man sacrifices his honour, even for one he loves,' thereby precluding Nora's immortal reply, 'Millions of women have done so.' For this momentary lapse, the ac- complished and erudite critic already mentioned has, I firmly believe, never quite forgiven me." The run of "A Doll's House" began on Friday evening, June 7, 1889. Though certain passages were omitted for the sake of compression, the play as performed was essen- tially Ibsen's. The critics were unanimous in their praise of the acting. Mr. Waring's Helmer and Mr. Qiarring- ton's Dr. Rank were lauded on all sides. But Miss Achurch (Mrs. Charrington) as Nora was easily the sen- sation of the perfomance. R. H. Hervey in the Theatre PERFORMANCES IN ENGLAND 83 of July I said of Miss Achurch : "The character present- ed enormous difficulties, all of which she triumphantly overcame. Throughout she played with the utmost intel- ligence, subtlety, intensity, and truth." The Gentleman's Magazine of July, 1889, declared: "Much was due, no doubt, to the acting of Miss Janet Achurch as the heroine ; a performance so remarkable as to render it a subject of regret that the actress is leaving England for Australia. The play itself, however, took a firm grip upon the public, which was stirred to the depths." E. F. Spence in "Our Stage and Its Critics" pronounces Miss Achurch the most ^characteristic Nora that England has seen. George Ber- nard Shaw, in "Dramatic Opinions", crowns Miss Achurch as "the only tragic actress of genius we now possess." Mr. and Mrs. Charrington took "A Doll's House" in their repertoire on a long Australian tour in 1889. They performed the Ibsen play in America, Australia, New Zealand, and later in India and at the Khedival Theatre in Cairo. It was well received everywhere but in Sidney, where an indignant and outraged audience greeted Nora's exodus with howls and hisses. It was this remarkable production that first really in- troduced Ibsen to English theatre-goerS. "Quicksands, or the Pillars of Society" was a mere sporadic experi- ment and "Breaking a Butterfly" was an absurd com- promise. But here was the unadulterated Ibsen, acted by the most competent players that the English stage afford- ed, and success was inevitable. In 1897, in an article in the Saturday Review of May 15, Shaw described the Novelty Theatre "A Doll's House" as "the decisive blow 84 IBSEN IN ENGLAND for Ibsen — ^perhaps the only one that has really gpt home in England as yet." This performance, bringing Ibsen to the fore, started the fierce controversy that followed Ibsen's plays for years after. Faction thundered against faction. The daily papers were full of abuse.' And yet, strangelyt en- ough, the performance was everywhere praised. Shaw, in the Saturday Review of May 22, 1897, described the dis- cussion: "Even the vehemently anti-Ibsenite critics lost all power of discrimination and flattered the performers as frantically as they abused the play." For a while the sponsors of Ibsen in England rested on their laurels. On June 6, 1889, the Athenaeum an- nounced: "In consequence of the success of Ibsen's 'A Doll's House', his 'Pillars of Society' will be revived by Mrs. Oscar Beringer." But this production had only a single performance, a benefit for Miss Vera Beringer, then playing the title role in "Little Lord Fauntleroy." Between the acts of the play, Mrs. Kendal recited "Ost- ler Joe" and Mme. Antoinette Sterling sang "The Three Fishers." For several months Ibsen performances in England languished. Then in 1891 there came a revival of in- terest in the Norwegian playwright, and that year saw six productions of Ibsen's dramas. The season started with a single matinee performance of "A Doll's House" with Miss Marie Eraser as Nora, a part in which she had gained success in the provinces, and Mr. C. Forbes-Drummond as Helmer. The two stars were severely criticised, but the theatrical journals were unanimous in their praise of Mr. Charles Fulton as PERFORMANCES IN ENGLAND 85 Krogstad and of Miss Elizabeth Robins as Mrs. Linden. The Theatre of March 1 praised Mr. Fulton as the best Krogstad London had seen. Miss Robins, a young American actress, was enthusiastically greeted every- where as a remarkable find. Her performance of Martha Bemick in the 1889 "Pillars of Society" had passed un- noted, but her Mrs. Linden was a decided success. Jus- tin McCarthy, in the Gentleman's Magazine of June, i89r, summed up her acting: "Miss Robins is a very clever actress, an actress with ideas of her own, artistic, sym- pathetic, imaginative." • The performance as a whole was not particularly note- worthy, but it provoked again a storm of controversy. The Athenaeum of January 31 noted with some alarm that the single performance seemed to revive in its old fury the clamor against Ibsen. "Whatever may be the character of Ibsen's work, it at least stimulates the imagi- nation and furnishes food for afterthought. Whether the wave will sweep over old landmarks in the drama re- mains to be seen. That its influence is growing day by day is one of the things that he that runs may read." In February, 1891, "Rosmersholm" was announced for a series of afternoon performances. Mr. Frank R. Ben- son played Rosmer and Miss Florence Farr, Rebecca. The performance was fairly commendable. The Satur- day Review of February 28 pronounced Mr. Benson too weak. Miss Farr intelligent but wanting in passion, Mr. Forde suitably monotonous in -the part of Kroll. The Athenaeum of February 28 said : "It is not likely that the English public will soon take to pieces such as 'Rosiners- holm', which to the average audience only cease to be dull 86 IBSEN IN ENGLAND when they become monstrous. Not easy, indeed, is it to say whether any great gain would attend their establish- ment in favour. Before sentence is pronounced upon them, however, it is but just that they should be seen under favorable conditions. Some character was stamped upon Rebecca by Miss Florence Farr, and the bitterness and pedantry of Rector KroU could scarcely have been rendered more effectively than by Mr. Athol Forde. More than one character seemed misconstrued and the interpre- tation generally was amateurish." These two accounts merely damn with faint praise. On the whole, the press comments were caustic, leveling mild ridicule ^t the man- agers and actors, vehement abuse at the dramatist. One of the most significant events in the history of Ib- sen drama on the English stage was the foundation in 1891 of the Independent Theatre. This gallant organiza- tion was created in order that really worth while drama might find production in England. Its short life of six years was a continual struggle against indifference and open abuse, but in spite of its handicaps it managed to make a definite impression on the English public and to influence the English stage. J. T. Grein, the founder of the Independent Theatre, gave a biography of the organization in Stage Society News of January 25, 1907. Mr. Grein told how he had produced plays of. Jones and Pinero in his native country, Holland, in 1890. "So great was the success of these English plays at Amsterdam that the managers of the Royal Subsidized Theatre sent me a cheque for fifty pounds to be used in the interest of art in England. At the same time I had received another cheque for thirty PERFORMANCES IN ENGLAND 87 pounds for the translation of an English play. With these gigantic sums, in the wake of Antoine of Paris, I founded the Independent Theatre, the first performance of which elicited no less than five hundred articles, mostly vituperating Ibsen, whose 'Ghosts' inaugurated the move- ment, and obtained for me the honorary, if somewhat un- flattering title of 'the best abused man in London.' In parenthesis, I should add here that the distinction clung to me for many years, that some families closed their doors against me because I had produced an immoral play, and that a well-known journalist, since dead, refused , to be present at a banquet if I were invited. It cost me practically ten years of my life to overcome the prejudice created by an undertaking which even the enemy must admit has left its mark upon the history of our stage. 'Ghosts' was produced on March 9, 1891, under the di- rection of Mr. Cecil Raleigh, who, together with Mr. George Moore, showed great interest in the little society. Among our first members were George Meredith, Thomas Hardy, A. W. Pinero, H. A. Jones, Mrs. J. R. Green, and many other people of distinction; but in spite of the flourish of adverse trumpets which greeted the birth of the Independent Theatre, the roll of our members never exceeded one hundred and seventy-five, and the income was barely four hundred pounds a year during the whole of its existence. In fact, so poorly was the theatre pa- tronized that in October, 1891, we had only eighty-height pounds in the bank, and it was due to the help of Frank Harris, Frank Danby, and a few others, that I obtained enough to give a second performance. This was 88 IBSEN IN ENGLAND 'Therese Raquin' of Zola, and again the air was pregnant with abusive language." The Athenaeum of March 21, in describing the fer- ment caused by the creation of the Independent Theatre, said : "All the unreasoning hostility of the Englishman to innovation has been provoked, and in addition to the gen- eral condemnation of the theatrical reporters or critics, the leader-writers have entered the arena and belaboured all concerned in the undertaking." The Independent Theatre inaugurated its career with an invitation performance of "Ghosts" on Friday, March 13, 1 89 1. Angered as were the London theatrical critics, they yet gave grudging praise to the actors. The Athen- aeum of March 21 admitted: "In the case of plays so amateurish in many respects as those of Ibsen an ama- teurish interpretation is not wholly unsuitable. It is cer- tain that the interpreters of 'Ghosts', unknown as they are to fame, gave a serious and competent rendering of the strange and uncanny characters whom, Ibsen has planted in Mrs. Alving's house on one of the western fjords of Norway." Newspaper controversy had been started with the Char- rington performance of "A Doll's House" in 1889. Miss Eraser's "A Doll's House" in January, 1891, and Miss Farr's "Rosmersholm" in February, had revived the con- troversy. But it was "Ghosts" that really caused the storm to break with full force. The entire British press poured bitter abuse and condemnation over Ibsen, Grein, Archer and the actors. Ibsen became a household word. Behind the time indeed was the journal that omitted its daily column or so on Ibsen's iniquities. PERFORMANCES IN ENGLAND 89 Undaunted by the storm of abuse, two young American actresses, Elizabeth Robins and Marion Lea, joined forces to perform Ibsen's new play, "Hedda Gabler", at five consecutive matinees at the Vaudeville Theatre. The press comments on the acting were unanimously enthusiastic. The Athenaeum of April 25 praised the performance heartily : "Under circumstances that bespeak much courage on the part of two of our younger actresses, 'Hedda Gabler', Ibsen's latest drama, has been given, not in the surreptitious style adopted with his 'Ghosts', but in the light of full publicity. . . . 'Hedda Gabler' gains in intelligibility from interpretation. It is grim and un- holy, but painfully actual and true. Miss Elizabeth Robins gives an admirable representation of Hedda, full of subtlety and variety, and Miss Marion Lea shows with artistic truth the meek, lachrymose Thea. Mr. Sugden's Judge Brack is an excellent performance, and Miss Cowen, Miss Chapman, Mr. Scott Buist and Mr. Elwood make up an excellent cast." The May i number of the Theatre said: "This, the latest of Henrik Ibsen's plays, appears to average com- monsense people the most motiveless of any he has writ- ten. . . . The audience that was present on Monday afternoon was one the members of which for the most part believe in Ibsen, but I will also say that the remain- der appeared interested ; but then, this was, one might say, a picked audience, prepared at least to think on the play and critically watch the acting." The acting, the Theatre declared, was excellent. Miss Robins was subtle, refined, convincing. Miss Lea handled her character delicately. In the Gentleman's Magazine of June, 1891, Justin 90 ' IBSEN IN ENGLAND McCarthy declared that : "Miss Robins' Hedda Gabler is not Ibsen's Hedda Gabler. But . . . it is indeed a very remarkable, very powerful, very picturesque piece of acting. . . . The most satisfactory study in the whole cast to the serious student of Ibsen, was the Judge Brack of Mr. Sugden. This is far and away the best thing Mr. Sugden has done. . . . He is the man to the very life." E. F. Spence, in "Our Stage and Its Critics", says that England has never seen a Hedda, a Hilda, or a Mrs. Lin- den comparable to Miss Robins. The theatre was crowded and the audience an enthus- iastic one. The performance was generally acclaimed the best Ibsen production up to that time. On April 29, Ibsen wrote from Munich thanking Archer for his letter "telling me that 'Hedda Gabler' met with a unanimously favorable reception at its first appearance in London." The success of "Hedda Gabler" encouraged Mr. Thorne to put it into the regular evening bill of the Vaudeville in the first week in May. "Hedda Gabler" was played until May 31, when it was taken off the boards in the very height of its success. The Athenaeum of June 6 commented on the venture: "Great credit is reflected on the two clever, courageous and persevering young act- resses to whom the production is due. Under difficult conditions, and in the face of opposition scarcely short of persecution, they have made a gallant fight and have en- abled a large number of playgoers to judge for themselves of a work that has caused one of the keenest controversies of the day." On May II there was produced for the first time in PERFORMANCES IN ENGLAND 91 England "The Lady from the Sea". The performance was, on the whole, iijadequate. The interpretation was languid and unconvincing. The Theatre of June i criti- cised the production : "This play, that promised more per- haps than any other if it were put upon the stage, proved in representation the^most disappointing of any of Ib- sen's yet seen in England." A fairly satisfactory performance of "A Doll's House", with Miss Norreys as Nora, ended the 1891 season, a sea- son remarkable because of the number of Ibsen produc- tions, because of the founding of the Independent Thea- tre and the "Ghosts" controversy, and because of the bril- liance of the "Hedda Gabler" of Miss Robins and Miss Lea. In 1892, Mr. and Mrs. Charrington returned from a long tour, and reopened the Avenue Theatre with a re- vival of "A Doll's House." Mrs. Charrington a« Nora was again enthusiastically greeted by the audience and the press. She repeated her role again and again during the following seasons. One of the most successful of the EngUsh Ibsen pro- ductions was "The Master Builder", played in 1893 un- der the direction of Herbert Waring and Elizabeth Rob- ins. The English performance antedated any Scandi- navian presentation. London saw the third European production, following only Berlin and Leipsic. The storm of abuse that had followed Ibsen plays in England now gave way to merciless ridicule, a far more powerful weapon. But no theatrical critic was so blind- ed by prejudice as to "Withhold from the actors the praise that their masterly efforts merited. Everyone admitted 92 IBSEN IN ENGLAND that the play was magnificently acted and that it lent itT self admirably to stage presentation. Waring's Solness was on all sides pronounced excellent, and Miss Robins was everywhere acclaimed superb. A typical criticism is that appearing in the Theatre of April I, 1893. After a few paragraphs of bitter ridicule, the critic proceeded : "And but for the truly remarkable and brilliant acting of Miss Robins and Mr. Waring, it is hard to imagine an average audience having the patience to sit it through. Their grip and intensity and apparent belief in the humanity of Solness and Hilda, are however to be classed among the worthiest achievements of the modem stage. The Hilda, frequently compared to the dawning of the day, the rising of the sun, and so on, and equal to rendering these comparisons wondrously vivid and eloquent, is indeed a marvellous effort. From be- ginning to end there is not the faintest trace of Miss Robins — Miss Robins of the musical low voice, love of the minor chords, somewhat lackadaisical manner, and crushed and broken expression. All the customary tell- tale characteristics have vanished, and in their place is as radiant, vigorous, determined, buoyanta girl as one could well conceive. The stage is lightened by her presence. She seems to dissipate the gloom, just as Solness says. She is the embodiment of youth and health and bright- ness, and a robust conscience. The study is cleverer even than her Hedda Gabler, cleverer even than Miss Adiurch's first Nora Helmer. . . . Occasionally an unkind laugh — a laugh at the dramatist — broke upon the, stillness of the air, but for the most part the play was lis- tened to in respectful (not to say reverential) silence, and PERFORMANCES IN ENGLAND 93 the unanimous applause of a. crowded house apparently sealed it a success." Archer has pronounced Miss Robins "almost an ideal Hilda," and Shaw believes her to be the greatest Hilda England ever saw. In an article "Ibsen in London" in the Theatre of Oc- tober I, 1894, Mr. Waring said of "The Master Builder" : "As the work was delivered to us hot from the press we were denied the advantage of the critical analysis and speculation as to the author's hidden meaning with which the London papers were rife for several weeks after the production. We had to disregard all considerations of allegorical significance, and simply to take the story as we found it. . . . I do not think it is possible for any ac- tor to traject into the mind of his audience at a single sit- ting a full comprehension of matter which he himself has only understood after long days of laborious study. At all events, I am conscious myself of more or less com- plete failure in this respect. Nevertheless, as I have said, the study of this part was a labour of love to me. As one of the managers, I confess with pain that it was a labour of, or for, nothing else." After a fortnight of matinees at the Trafalgar Square Theatre, where the play attracted large audiences, it was taken to the Vaudeville Theatre on Monday evening, March 6, for a regular run that lasted until Passion Week ended it on March 30. Encouraged by her success as Hilda, Miss Robins ar- ranged a short Ibsen season at the Opera Comique in June. "Hedda Gabler", "Rosmersholm", and "The Mas- ter Builder" each had two matinee and two evening per- 94 IBSEN IN ENGLAND formances. With "The Master Builder" there was per- formed the fourth act of "Brand", which proved the chief attraction. According to the Theatre of July i, Miss Robins' was slower, heavier, more peevish and less masterful than she had been in her first performance of the play. Mr. Wal- ler as Lovborg showed a man more forcible and sensitive than the one Mr. Elwood had drawn; but the uncanny suggestion of genius was wanting. Mr. Sugden and Mr. Buist were much the same as th6y had been in the 1891 production. Miss Linden played Mrs. Elvsted with pret- tiness and simplicity, but without a hint of tragic pathos. As Rebecca, Miss Robins was enthusiastically praised. "She and Mr. Waller speedily wiped out the dismal memory of that sultry afternoon at the Vaudeville, when Mr. Benson and Miss Florence Farr, as Rosmer and Re- becca, spoke their words — merely spoke and nothing more. The intense feeling infused into their long scenes lent the new guilty couple an absorbing interest." M5-. Buist was effective, and Mr. Gould gave a light and play- ful touch to his happy satire of Brendel. Of "The Master Builder", the Theatre said that it "re- vealed Mr. Waller in a new light. As Solness he looked beneath the surface of the part, abandoned the hero's claim to be heroic, and played not like a leading actor, but the unhinged architect of Ibsen's puzzling pages." Miss Ivor was good as Mrs. Solness, making the char- acter younger than the usual Mrs. Solness. "Miss Rob- ins' Hilda remained what at first it was, a remarkable ex- ample of pure audacity in art, an effort so bracing and breezy that it stopped the questions that flew to the lips PERFORMANCES IN ENGLAND 95 and permitted nothing but a sense of supreme exhilara- tion." Miss Robins' acting in "Brand" provoked favorable conmient from all sides. The Theatre of July i said: "Every pitiable stage of the bereaved Agnes' final suffer- ing received woe-begone expression and was dwelt upon at realistic length. Every agony was lived through, hum- bly, quietly, with scarcely audible dry stifled sobs and fond caressing murmurs that would have melted a stone. The figure of the woman robbed of her last cold comfort — ^the clothes of her dead child — induced an abiding com- passion, and as an example of pure pathos will not easily be superseded. Miss Ivor gave picturesque expression to the coarse flouts and jeers of the Gypsy shrew, and Mr. Bernard Gould was interesting if not wholly satisfactory as Brand. Only two satisfying conceptions of Brand seem possible; one that of an iron-willed fanatic, the other of a man possessed by a religious frenzy. Neither of these was suggested by Mr. Gould, whose acting lacked" authority and the will force necessary to control and subdue even so mild and meek an Agnes as Miss Robins." In the autumn of 1894, Miss Robins took "Hedda Gab- ler" and "The Master Builder" to Manchester and other large English cities. In May, 1893, Signora Eleanora Duse opened her Lon- don engagement, that included Italian performances of "Camille", "Fedora", "Cavalleria Rusticana", "La Locan- diera", "Antony and Cleopatra", and "A Doll's House". London critics disagreed as to Signora Duse's produc- tion. Some, as the dramatic critic of the Theatre, praised her quiet, beautiful art. "Where, however, in- 96 IBSEN IN ENGLAND ^ evitably her greatness will eventually be shown is in the absolute inability of anyone who has once seen her to ever again accept the old-style acting as supreme. Again, like Ibsen, she effects a revolution with every perfor- mance." Others, as the critic of the Athenaeum of June 17, expressed disappointment: "The conversations with Mrs. Linden have irresistible vivacity and variety. The actress sits on a stool at the feet of her friend, kisses her with caressing tenderness, hugs her, and plays all sorts of tricks, all of them delightful, and some of them fantastic. We are less impressed, however, by her unrest than by her seductiveness, and, while admiring her petulance, are not convinced of the necessity for her sacrifice. Add to this that she exhibits in the piece no pathos, and that she leaves the -tarantella undanced, and the fact that she is not Ib- sen's Nora seems patent." It was ten years later when Signora Duse played an- other Ibsen character in London. This time she present- ed "Hedda Gabler." The Athenaeum of October 10 felt that her conception of the character was not entirely clear, but praised her perfect method. Two years later, in 1905, Signora Duse repeated her presentation of Hed- da, again meeting a rather indifferent audience, and a rather patronizing press. Signora Duse was the first of a series of foreign play- ers who enacted Ibsen roles in England. The most of them met no more gracious reception than had their great predecessor. It was unpleasant enough to have to see foreign drama, but to have to see foreign drama acted in a foreign tongue by foreign actors — it was a bit too much for the British public ! PERFORMANCES IN ENGLAND 97 German companies presented "A Doll's House" in 1894, "Hedda Gabler" in 1901, "The Wild Duck" in 1905, and "Rosmersholm" in 1906. In 189s, the Theatre de I'Oeuvre de Paris presented French versions of "Rosmersholm" and "The Master Builder." Shaw, in the Saturday Review of May 22, 1897, favorably commented on the performance of "Ros- mersholm" as a harmonious whole. In "Dramatic Opin- ions" he praised "The Master Builder". M. Lugne-Poe was an inimitable Solness. His master builder with his vulgar trousers and red nose was amazingly true to life. The character was a combination of energy, talent, covetousness, egotism, and sentimentality. But few Lon- don critics shared Shaw's opinion, and the French per- formances, like the German, were dismissed with a line or two. In June, 1903, Madame Rejane, the first French Nora, played "Maison de Poupee" in London. The Athenaeum of June 27 praised her performance, but preferred to it the Noras of Miss Achurch and Signora Duse. Madame Lydia Yavorska, Countess Bariatinsky, played in London from 1909 to 191 1. Her repertoire included "Hedda Gabler" and "A Doll's House". She was the most successful of the foreign interpreters of Ibsen, large- ly because she played in English, assisted by a popular English supporting company. A strange, fierce 'type of acting made her a theatrical sensation. The Athenaeum of December 11, 1909, pronounced her Hedda too melo- dramatic, though splendid in her feverish gaiety. The Academy said, of her Nora: "Her fire, her passion, the wonderfully rapid and convincing changes of her expres- 98 IBSEN IN ENGLAND sion, her quick, lithe movements, make a sensation to which we are hardly accustomed in this country,"* and of her Hedda: "Madame Yavorska finds in Hedda a character peculiarly suited to the wonderful acting with which she has surprised those who have seen her."* All of the foreign performances of Ibsen seem to have been regarded as doubly exotic, and were attended with curiosity rather than with appreciation and sympathy. Probably not even Signora Duse had any marked in- fluence on English interpretation of Ibsen roles. The first of the popular English "actor-managers" to attempt an Ibsen drama was Mr. H. Beerbohm Tree, who produced "An Enemy of the People" on June 14, 1893. He played Dr. Thomas Stockmann, with Mr. E. M. Rob- son as Aslaksen. Mrs. George Cran in her biography, "H. Beerbohm Tree" says of "An Enemy of the People": "In his first creation, Mr. Tree lost the proportion of the part, and ex- aggerated the comic aspect; his greed for improvement soon showed him the error of what he was doing, and he pulled the character together, making of it a fine, coherent part." Mr. Tree's Stockmann was deservedly praised on all sides. The combination of a capable and very popular actor and an Ibsen play that contains little to offend the sensibilities of the English public, completely won over the critics. The Theatre of July i, 1893, gives an en- thusiastic account of the performance : "It is not very of- ten that an actor improves upon his author when the lat- lAcademy, March 11, 1911. sAcademy, June 8, ISU. PERFORMANCES IN ENGLAND 99 ter is a genius. But Mr. Beerbohm Tree has done it. Stockmann in Ibsen's play is a tragedian. A kind of Don Quixote, tilting at municipal windmills, he is obviously drawn as a fanatic, a single-minded iconoclast. That is good. But the tragi-comedy Mr. Tree reads into him is better. Broader, more human, and more sympathetic, the new Stockmann drives home the truth of the play with immeasurably increased force. . . . Breezy, im- pulsive, vigorous, he dominated the stage." Robson was fine as Aslaksen. "There has been nothing on the stage more unobtrusively humorous than this leader of 'the compact majority' for many a day." Mr. Tree's first matinee of "An Enemy of the People" was such a marked success that the pky was never after absent from his repertoire. He revived it again and again in London, the provinces, and America. When newer plays failed, Mr. Tree could always gain applause with his inimitable Stockmann. Mrs. George Cran described vividly a particularly timely revival in 1906: "During the revival in the Spring of 1906 some of the lines acquired such special point that the audiences invariably thought Mr. Tree was 'gagging'. Balfour was daily losing ground, and the Liberals were being returned in their numbers for the new Parliament. Night after night the action of the play was suspended to give way to a storm of hooting sprinkled with cheers from the house, when the actor voiced his legitimate lines, 'The damned com- pact Liberal majority !' " "Little Eyolf" was written in 1894. In December of that year the play was presented in the original Norweg- ian and in Archer's English version as a copyright per- lOO IBSEN IN ENGLAND formance. The first professional performance of "Lit- tle Eyolf" in English took place in November, 1896. The distinguished cast included Mr. Thorpe as Allmers, Miss Achurch as Rita, Miss Robins as Asta, and Mrs. Patrick Campbell as The Rat Wife. The production was one of the most vivid and brilliant performances of Ibsen in England. The Athenaeum of November 28, while blam- ing Ibsen for lack of modesty, and declaring that — "the whole strikes us as the dream of a blind man concerning colour; — a schoolboy's conception of an orgie" — ^had noth- ing but praise for the actors. In the Saturday Review of November 28, 1896, Shaw said : "The performance was of course a very remarkable one. When, in a cast of five, you have the three best yet discovered actresses of their generation, you naturally look for something extraordinary. . . . Miss Achurch was more than equal to the occasion. Her power seemed to grow with its own expenditure. . . . She played with all her old originality and success, and with more than her old authority over her audience. . . . Being myself a devotee of the beautiful school, I like being en- chanted by Mrs. Patrick Campbell better than being frightened, harrowed, astonished, consciencCTStricken, de- vastated, and dreadfully delighted in general by Miss Achurch's untamed genius. I have seen Mrs. Campbell play the Rat Wife twice. . . . She played super- naturally, beautifully. ... Of Miss Robins' Asta it is difficult to say much, since the part, played as she plays it, does not exhibit anything like the full extent of her powers. . . . Asta was only a picture. . . . Mr. Courtenay Thorpe played very intelligently. . . . PERFORMANCES IN ENGLAND loi Master Stewart Dawson, as Eyolf, was one of the best actors in the company." Miss Achurch was singularly impressive, but the ven- ture was not profitable ; and so the part of Rita was un- wisely given to Mrs. Patrick Campbell in the hope of at- tracting her large personal following. Miss Florence Farr was given the Rat Wife. This cast gave a series of evening performances until December 19. Mrs. Camp- bell made a lovely and charming Rita, but lacked the fire and brilliancy of Miss Achurch. The first cast produced a truly memorable performance of Ibsen's vivid play. The first English performance of "John Gabriel Bork- man" was less successful. An organization called the New Century Theatre produced the play in 1897 with Mr. Vernon as Borkman, Miss Genevieve Ward as Mrs. Bork- man, and Miss Robins as Ella Rentheim, but in spite of the admirable cast the performance was not entirely satis- factory. Shaw, in the Saturday Review of May i8, described the acting of the play as "fairly good, as acting goes in Lon- don now, whenever the performers were at all in their depth ; it was at least lugubriously well intentioned when they were out of it. . . . The Ibsenite actor marks the speeches that are beyond him by a sudden access of pathetic sentimentality and an intense consciousness of Ibsen's greatness ... its effect is as false as false can be; and I am sorry to say that it is gradually establish- ing a funereally unreal tradition which is likely to end in making Ibsen the most portentous of stage bores." Miss Robins, he said, was "too young and too ferociously in- dividuaUstic" to play Ella. "Mr. Vernon's Borkman was I02 IBSEN IN ENGLAND not ill acted ; only as it was not Ibsen's Borkman, but the very reverse and negation of him, the better Mr. Vernon acted the worse it was for the play. He was a thorough- ly disillusioned elderly man of business, patient and sen- sible rather than kindly, and with the sort of strength that a man derives from the experience that teaches him his limits. . . . Ibsen's Borkman, on the contrary, is a man of the most energetic imagination, whose illusions feed on his misfortunes, and whose conception of his own power grows hyperbolical and Napoleonic in his solitude and impotence." In 1897, the Independent Theatre was discontinued, af- ter a six years' career of continual struggle. But, though the organization constantly faced financial failure, and though it was always handicapped by an apathetic public and an iniiqical press, it still maintained its un- swervingly high standard of production. The value of the Independent Theatre presentations of modem plays can hardly be overestimated; and the Ibsen productions were by no means the least valuable. Two years after its initial performance, the Independ- ent Theatre revived "Ghosts" in. January, 1893. Owing to the Censor's ban on a public performance of the play, none but invited guests were present. Mrs. Patrick Campbell played Mrs. Alving admirably, and Miss Hall Caine was an ideal Regina. The following year the Independent Theatre staged the first English performance of "The Wild Duck". The cast included Mr. Charles Fulton as Gregers Werle, Mr. Abingdon as Hialmar, Mr. Laurence Irving as Relling, Mrs. Herbert Waring as Gina, and Miss Winifred Eraser PERFORMANCES IN ENGLAND 103 as Hedvig. The production was not entirely successful, though it gave opportunity for some remarkable acting. Of Fulton, Herbert Waring said: "I have never seen a more complete incarnation of any part than the Gregers Werle of Mr. Charles Fulton."^ The Theatre of June i praised especially the acting of Mrs. Waring, Miss Fraser and Mr. Fulton. Gina, it said, was an absorbing study in naturalness, remarkably clever in a simple, restriained and homely way. Even better was the wistful, wondering Hedvig. Gi-egers was strong and boldly outlined. In November, 1894, the Independent Theatre was turned into a company with a capital of forty-five hun- dred pounds. Miss Dorothy Leighton was appointed as- sistant director to Mr. Grein. In November of the fol- lowing year, Mr. Grein retired from his directorship. In May, 1897, under the direction of Miss Leighton and Mr. Charles Charrington, the Independent Theatre revived "A Doll's House". The performance was an ad- mirable one. Archer, in the World, May 19, said of Miss Achurch's performance that many people thought it her best. "Perhaps it was ; but I must own to a rooted prejudice in favour of the old Nora, the Nora of 1889. So clear and detailed is my remembrance of that crea- tion, that it necessarily renders me unjust to the Nora of to-day. Every divergence from the old reading, were it never so great an improvement, would jar on me simply as a thing new and unexpected." Of the Helmer, Mr. Archer said : "Excellent as was Mr. Waring's Helmer in the original production, I think Mr. Courtenay Thorpe was, or with a little more preparation might have been, tTbeatre, October 1, 1894, I04 IBSEN IN ENGLAND even better. . . . His performance was excellent, an original character-study, and, in the last act, luminous and daring. . . . Mr. Charrington resumed his old part of Rank, and played it effectively. . . . Mr. Fulton's Krogstad promised excellently, but became too rough and loud as his scenes went on." In the Saturday Review of May IS, Shaw pronounced Courtenay Thorpe the best Helmer so far. "Ibsen has in this case repeated his old feat of making an actor's reputation." The Independent Theatre revived "The Wild Duck" in May, 1897, under the management of Mr. Charrington. Though the play suffered from insufficient rehearsal, the performance was a very creditable one. The Athenaeum of May 22 praised Miss Eraser's Hed- vig. Miss Phillips' Gina, Mr. Outram's Werle, and Mr. Thoiipe's Gregers. Hialmar it declared to be Mr. Irving's best role. In the World of May 26, Archer lauded the intelligence and originality of Mr. Thorpe. His Gregers "was a very spirited sketch of a very difficult part. It suffered, like his Helmer from hasty preparation ... it was a most, able effort at characterization. . . . Mr. Lau- rence Irving showed a very intelligent appreciation of the humor of Hialmar Ekdal, but his technical resources are as yet scarcely adequate to such an exacting part. Mr. James Welch was good as old Ekdal, but did not bring out the character as clearly as I should have expected. Mr. Charrington gave a marked physiognomy to Relling, and Mr. Leonard Outram was good as old Werle. Miss Kate Phillips was rather out of her element in the part of Gina, but Miss FfoUiott Paget was excellent as Mrs. PERFORMANCES IN ENGLAND 105 Sorby, and Miss Winifred Eraser repeated her pathetical- ly beautiful rendering of little Hedvig." Bernard Shaw discussed the acting in the Saturday Re- view of May 22. "Mr. Irving's acting was a remarkable achievement, and fairly entitles him to patronize his father as an old-fashioned actor who has positively never played a leading. Ibsen part. . . . Mr. Welch's Ekdal left nothing to be said; it was faultless. . . . Mr. Char- rington played Relling with great artistic distinction ; no- body else got so completely free from conventional art or so convincingly behind the part and the play as he." For the third time, the Independent Theatre presented "Ghosts". Because of the Censor's ruling, this was again a private performance. Shaw, in the Saturday Review of June 26, 1897, described Mrs. Wright's Mrs. Alving as an achievement quite beyond the culture of any other actress of her generation. Mr. Thorpe's Oswald he felt to be too romantically horrible. Mr. C. E. Montague, in "Drama- tic Values", praised Thorpe's Oswald as a "giant effort of imagination." ^ Appropriately enough, the Independent Theatre's last Ibsen production, as well as its first, was "Ghosts". The fight had been a brave one, but England was not at that time ready for such an organization, and the Independent Theatre died in 1897. But its successor was not far off. Two years later, in the summer of 1899, a few enthusiastic lovers of the stage organized a small society "to secure the production of plays of obvious power and merit which lacked, under the conditions then prevalent on the stage, any opportunity for their presentation." The performances of the Incor- io6 IBSEN IN ENGLAND porated Stage Society took place on Sundays before an audience composed of the members of the society and their friends. Of the fifty productions of the Society's ten years of existence, five were of Ibsen's dramas. The large membership of the society— in 1906 it liad twelve hundred members — contributed materially to its great success. The Incorporated Stage Society gave its first Ibsen per- formance in February, 1900. This has been the only English performance of "The League of Youth". The admirable cast included Mr. Titheradge, Mr. Granville Barker, Miss Eraser, Mr. Thorpe, and Mr. Charrington. The acting was delightful. In May, 1901, the Incorporated Stage Society produced "Pillars of Society" under the direction of Mr. Oscar Asche. The Athenaeum of May 18 pronounced this an interesting and creditable performance. Mr. J. T. Grein, in "Dramatic Criticism", said of the performance : "I am glad to say that 'The Pillars of Society' was, on the whole, given with great credit to every body concerned." He particularly praised the charm of Miss Robertson, the pathos of Mrs. Maltby and the intensity of Mr. Gran's acting. Of Mr. Asche he said : "I wish to pay my tribute to Mr. Oscar Asche, who was not only the organizer of the performance, but also its life and soul in the person- ality of Consul Bernick. ... It was a fine effort, worthy of a true artist." The Incorporated Stage Society presented "The Lady from the Sea" in May, 1902. The acting was pleasing. Mr. Montague in "Dramatic Opinions" complains that Miss Achurch as EUida did not make the part smack of PERFORMANCES IN ENGLAND 107 the sea, but the greater part of the press comment was favorable. The Athenaeum of May 10 praised Miss Achurch highly and admitted that the play took a firm hold upon the public, but declared that "such merit as it possesses is poetic rather than dramatic. . . . The denouement of the play is, however, unsatisfactory and the whole suffers from that parochialism of which Ibsen rarely divests himself." The Westminster Review of July, 1902, said: "Ellida is ... a creature of absolute impulse. . . . An intellectual actress, like Miss Achurch, however able her interpretation may be, fails to represent Ibsen's Ellida. It is a tremendous part, and one is grateful for the oppor- tunity of seeing it even attempted. Miss Achurch's ren- dering was as fine as it could be, in its way. . . . Her natural easy method is the right one. . . . Mr. Nor- man McKinnel was a wholly admirable Dr. Wangel, and the scenes between him and Miss Achurch were a rare artistic treat. Mr. Laurence Irving succeeded in impart- ing a certain weirdness to the difficult part of the Stranger, but he was scarcely 'alluring', and this again is of the essence of the part. The other players, particular- ly Mr. Arthur Royston, as the young sculptor, Lyng- strand, were on a more than ordinary level of excellence." Ibsen's last play, "When We Dead Awaken", received its initial production in January, 1903. The Incorporated Stage Society secured for this presentation Mr. Tithe- radge for Rubek, Miss Hackney for Maia, Mr. Irving for Ulfheim, and Miss Watson for Irene. The perform- ance was only fairly successful. The Athenaeum of January 31, 1903, pronounced the play unfit for the stage io8 IBSEN IN ENGLAND since essentially undramatic, but added that it gave singu- lar opportunity for acting. Mr. Irving and Miss Watson were particularly praised. The final Ibsen production of the Incorporated Stage Society was the early play "Lady Inger of Ostrat", Jan- uary, 1906. A note on the program read : " 'Lady Inger of Ostrat' was written in 1855. In conception and execu- tion it is in almost startling contrast with what are called Ibsen's social dramas. The workmanship, though ex- tremely interesting to anyone studying the development of Ibsen's art, is in many ways curiously naive and old- fashioned. Soliloquies and asides meet us at every turn. In the social dramas they can scarcely be found. The plot, with all its mistaken identities, its mysterious strangers, its sons spirited away from their mothers, is more like 'Hemani' than 'Hedda Gabler'. In technique, in fact, it is nearer to 'Le Verre d'Eau' than to 'The Wild Duck'. To anyone, therefore, who looks to Ibsen solely as a master of technique, 'Lady Inger of Ostrat' will come as something of a disappointment. But to anyone who wishes to see from what humble beginnings that flawless technique sprang, and to trace its germ in the less-sure touch of the master's early work, the plaj cannot fail to be interesting." Miss Edyth Olive played Lady Inger, Mr. Ainley played Nils Lykke, and Mr. Harcourt Williams Nils Stensson. The performance was a success because of the excellent acting. The play itself succeeded only in puzzling an audience unable to follow intrigue and coun- ter-intrigue through the bewildef ing action. The Incorporated Stage Society was a thoroughly sue- PERFORMANCES IN ENGLAND 109 cessful project, well accomplishing its purpose of intro- ducing to the English public the best of modem and classic plays. An equally successful enterprise was the Barker- Ve- drenne partnership. The Court Theatre matinee pro- ject was inaugurated in 1904. Back in 1899, Granville Barker had been connected with the Incorporated Stage Society. He had acted in the performances, and had seen two of his plays presented by the Society. He met Mr. Vedrenne, an enterprising manager, and discussed with him a project for running a stock company in some small theatre. Mr. Vedrenne was interested, but the matter went no further, owing to lack of capital. In February, 1904, Mr. J. H. Leigh, proprietor of the Court Theatre, was giving a series of Shakespeare re- vivals with Mr. Vedrenne as manager. Mr. Leigh asked Mr. Barker to superintend the production of "Two Gen- tlemen of Verona". Mr. Barker consented on the con- dition that he be allowed to give five or six matinees of "Candida" with Mr. Vedrenne as joint manager. His proposal was accepted and from this there grew the per- manent Vedrenne-Barker alliance. In 1905, Mr. Vedrenne became the lessee of the Court Theatre. The Vedrenne-Barker performances began in 1904, and lasted until June 29, 1907. During that time thirty-two plays by seventeen authors were produced, and nine hundred and forty-six performances were given. Of these, seven hundred and one performances were of eleven plays by Bernard Shaw. Ibsen was represented by two plays. In October, 1905, Mr. Barker and Mr. Vedrenne pre- no IBSEN IN ENGLAND sented "The Wild Duck" at the Court Theatre. Mr. Desmond McCarthy, in his book on "The Court Theatre", says that "The Wild Duck" was rather disappointing. "Though each part was admirably played, as a whole it was not so impressive as the performances of Herr An- dresen's company. . . . Granville Barker's . . . Hialmar Ekdal was a pitiable and ridiculous figure in- stead of a repulsive and ridiculous one. . . . The fault we have to find with Mr. Barker's interpretation is that it is too good-natured. . . . Mr. George, as Old Ek- dal, was good, especially in the first act. . . . Mies Agnes Thomas was the best English Gina I remember. . . . Miss Dorothy Minto's Hedvig was particularly good. . . . Mr. Lang's Relling could only have been improved in one respect, which was not in his power to remedy. In casting the part of Relling, I believe the im- portant quality to look for in the pereonality of the actor is his voice." Mr. Vedrenne and Mr. Barker produced "Hedda Gab- ler" at the Court Theatre in March, 1907. The cast in- cluded Mr. Trevor Lowe as Tesman, Mr. James Heam as Judge Brack, Mr. Laurence Irving as Eilert, and Mrs. Patrick Campbell as Hedda. This admirable perform- ance was enthusiastically received by the public. Mr. McCarthy in "The Court Theatre" says : "The per- formance of 'Hedda Gabler' was better than that of 'The Wild Duck'. It is seldom so remarkable a play is so re- markably acted. Mrs. Patrick Campbell's acting of Hed- da was not one hair's-breadth out. Hedda, as a charac- ter, strikes us at once monstrous and familiar. . . . Mrs. Patrick Campbell became the character to the life. PERFORMANCES IN ENGLAND iii It speaks wonders for the Court Theatre management that she did not act the others oflf the stage. Mr. Trevor Lowe, as George Tesman, Hedda's husband, was excel- lent, and Mr. James Heam's Judge Brack was a good piece of careful acting. Lovborg's entrance the morning after the debauch, in which he has lost his manuscript and his self-respect, was most impressive. Mr. Laurence Irving can, as the phrase is, 'look volumes'." All England gasped when, in 1903, Miss Ellen Terry announced her determination to produce an Ibsen play. She presented "The Vikings at Helgeland" for the week beginning April 13, 1903, with a remarkable cast includ- ing Mr. Hubert Carter, Mr. Holman Clark, Mr. Oscar Asche, Mr. Mark Kinghome and Mr. Tearle. Miss Terry was stage manager. The costumes were by her daughter, Miss Edith Craig, the scenery and lighting by Mr. Gordon Craig. The Athenaeum of April 25 commented: "The play, though undeniably gloomy, is powerfully conceived and intensely dramatic." It praised Miss Terry's masterly performance, and preferred the acting of Mr. Clark to that of the other men. The setting of the play was particularly noteworthy. For some time Gordon Craig had been evolving his theories of stage-craft, but had had no opportunity of put- ting them into practice. There is little doubt that Ellen Terry selected this colorful play in order to enable her son to materialize his interesting ideas on staging. "The Vikings at Helgeland" was the first play produced with the Gordon Craig stage-craft that has since revolution- ized English dramatic productions. 112 IBSEN IN ENGLAND Discriminating critics everywhere praised the scenic effects in "The Vikings at Helgeland". Max Beerbohm in the Saturday Review of April 25, dwelt on the perfect stage managing, and the beauty of the strange, super- natural effects in the setting. During the years 1907 to 1914, Ibs^n was summarily appropriated by amateur societies as their own peculiar property. As the Athenaeum remarked in relieved tones, "Fortunately 'Rosmersholm' is an actor-proof play",* and even a very poor Rebecca can somehow convey the emo- tion of Ibsen's drama. But some of these amateur per- formances were of great value. The English Drama Society first attempted an Ibsen play in 1907, when it presented "The Master Builder" for a week in May. In November, 191 1, the Society played the last four acts of "The Wild Duck". In that same month the Drama Society gave "Hedda Gabler", with Mr. Leigh Lovel as Tesman and Miss Octavia Kenmore as Hedda. In November and December, 1912, the Society again presented Miss Kenmore as Hedda. A single per- formance of "When We Dead Awaken", in December, 191 3, ended the Drama Society's Ibsen productions. Miss Kenmore, who had starred in a few performances of the Drama Society, was an actress of unusual exper- ience in Ibsen. She and Mr. Lovel were the mainstays of the Adelphi Repertory Company, which for six years had played Ibsen dramas throughout the English prov- inces. Miss Kenmore and Mr. Lovel had appeared in more Ibsen performances than any other actors in the world. The Adelphi Repertory Company produced lAthenaeoim, February IE, 1908. PERFORMANCES IN ENGLAND 113 "Rosmersholm" in London in May, 191 1, and March, 1912, and "A Doll's House" in March and October, 1912. An amateur society, the Adelphi Play Society, inaugur- ated its career by a performance of "Ghosts" in June, 191 1. The Academy of July i praised the entire cast en- thusiastically. The Society played "Peer Gynt" on June 2, 1912. The Play Actors, another amateur organization, per- formed "Brand" in November, 1912. The acting was on a high level throughout. In 1910 there was founded in London the Ibsen Club, an organization of young enthusiasts banded together to study and perform the dramas of Ibsen. This indefati- gable little group performed in the entirety or in part al- most all of Ibsen's plays, including "Peer Gynt", "Brand", "Olaf Liliekrans", "The Hero's Mound", as well as the more popular "A Doll's House", "Ghosts", etc. The plays usually had only a single performance each at the Club's studio or at the little Rehearsal Theatre, on Sun- day evenings. On Sunday, February 26, 191 1, scenes from "Peer Gynt" were produced for the first time in England. The Ibsen Club repeated its performance several times later. Strangely enough, in this first production a woman. Miss Pax Robertson, played Peer. The Club gave the first English performance of Ibsen's youthful work "Olaf Liliekrans", in June, 191 1. "When We Dead Awaken" was presented by the Ibsen Club in the December of that year. In May, 1912, the Club presented selections from "Peer Gynt" and "A Doll's House", and gave the first performance in England of Ibsen's early play, "The 114 IBSEN IN ENGLAND Hero's Mound". These are a few of the more unusual programs of the Ibsen Club. But hardly a play of Ib- sen's was neglected in its meetings. Miss Roeina Filippi, an instructor in acting, presented several Ibsen plays with her students as actors. In Oc- tober, 1910, she first produced "John Gabriel Borkman". She repeated the play in January, 191 1. Miss Filippi her- self played Mrs. Borkman. Her acting was termed by the Times of January 27, 191 1, "a magnificent perform- ance." She produced "A Doll's House" in January, 1914. One of the latest and one of the finest of the Ibsen per- formances was "The Pretenders", produced at the Hay- market Theatre in February, 1913. The cast included Mr. Gill as Hakon, Mr. Irving as Earl Skule, Mr. Havi- land as Bishop Nicholas, Mr. Rathbone as Jatgeir Skald, and Miss Netta Westcott as Margrete. The Athenaeum of February 22 praised the perform- ance highly. The setting was artistic and effective. The acting was noteworthy. Mr. Haviland was forceful, though the death scene was not up to his level. Mr. Gill was dignified and altogether admirable. Mr. Irving was not up to his usual standard. Miss Westcott was excel- lent. The Academy of February 22 said: "Mr. William Haviland as the Bishop gave a very fine and subtle per- formance. . . . Mr. Basil Gill, with his resolute manner and manly speech, made it convincing. Mr. Laurence Irving took the part of Skule. It is the best thing he has done yet. . . . Mr. Guy Rathbone was dignified and unobtrusive." PERFORMANCES IN ENGLAND 115 The costumes, scenery and music were admirable. Of Mr. Sime, who designed the costumes, the Academy of December 23 said: "Mr. Sime ... is perhaps the greatest living authority on ancient Norway, and has made a special study of the period of 'The Pretenders', which ensures that the grouping, dresses and colouring will be historically correct." The latest Ibsen production of any importance in Eng- land has been "Ghosts". After twenty-three years, the Censor's ban on "Ghosts" was removed by the Lord Chamberlain. All this time Mr. J. T. Grein had been working continuously for this end. The first public per- formance of "Ghosts" in England was a single matinee at the Haymarket Theatre on Tuesday, July 14, 1914, un- der the direction of Mr. Grein. The cast consisted of Miss Bessie Hatton, Mr. Quartermaine, Mr. J. Fisher White, Mr. Stacy Aumonier, and Miss Dorothy Drake. To quote the Times of July 15: "Mr. Leon Quarter- maine's performance as the disease-ridden, dread-haunt- ed boy was a remarkable achievement, full of tragic im- potent suggestion both in speech and gesture. Mr. Fisher White as the frank and dogmatic pastor evoked almost the only laugh of the afternoon, and played with fine and 6jrmpathetic art ; Mr. Stacy Aumonier was still a little in- clined to over-emphasize the hypocritical scheming of Engstrand, but in all other respects was in admirable con- trast to the general tensity, and Miss Dorothy Drake gave a skillful rendering of the full-blooded Regina. Miss Bessie Hatton played the tfagic part of the mother with fine restraint, sweetness and power, fully on a level with the rest of the company. . . . Mr. Grein, in return- ii6 IBSEN IN ENGLAND ing thanks for the reception of the piece, read a telegram from Christiania conveying the best wishes of the King and Queen of Norway, under whose patronage it was given, both to the play and to the players." The history of Ibsen dramas on the English stage has been a series of fights against tremendous odds. In spite of an actively hostile press, an apathetic public, an un- sympathetic theatrical world, a few undaunted enthusiasts managed to give Ibsen a trial on the English stage. The theatrical profession looked on Ibsen with sus- picion. Managers dared not risk financial failure by pre- senting his plays. Actors dared not risk personal unpopu- larity by allying themselves with his cause. In some cases, actors who took part in Ibsen plays did so with re- luctance, as, for example, Mr. Louis Calvert, who ex- pressed himself as having no enthusiasm for Ibsen, since the dramatist "tends to diminish the public stock of harm- less pleasure." But little by little there gathered to- gether a group of actors and actresses who gave them- selves up to the work with high courage and kindling en- thusiasm. Miss Elizabeth Robins, Miss Marion Lea, Mr. Charrington and his wife Miss Janet Achurch, Mr. War- ing, and some few others were ready to sacrifice much and endure much that Ibsen might find a place on the English stage. Of the popular English stage favor- ites, Mrs. Patrick Campbell and Mr. Tree alone allied themselves with Ibsen, though Miss Terry took a week's excursion into Ibsen saga drama. With no theatrical powers backing Mr. Archer, Mr. Grein, Mr. Charrington, and the other devotees of Ibsen drama, the plays seldom could get an entirely adequate PERFORMANCES IN ENGLAND 117 hearing. Ibsen appeared at afternoon performances, at the end of the season when there was nothing to be gained or lost, at second-rate theatres in out of the way places. The Academy of March 23, 1901, describes the tjrpical Ibsen performance : "Who does not know the forlorn and furtive enterprises undertaken at 'unlucky' theatres, with afternoon sunlight coming in through the side windows, at which Ibsen's masterpieces have been exposed to the adoration of the few and the laughter of the many These must remain among the bitterest memories of all who care for dramatic art, only less shameful, less insult- ing to the artist, than the present utilization of the same plays to beguile the Sunday night tedium of the theatrical world." Lack of funds made it impossible to give Ibsen's dramas their proper stage mounting. Shaw, in the Satur- day Review of May 8, 1897, vividly describes the setting of "John Gabriel Borkman" : "The first performance of 'John Gabriel Borkman', the latest masterpiece of the acknowledged chief of European dramatic art, has taken place in London under the usual shabby circumstances. For the first scene in the gloomy Borkman house, a faded, soiled, dusty wreck of some gay French salon, originally designed, perhaps, for Offenbach's 'Favart', was fitted with an incongruous Norwegian stove, a painted etair case, and a couple of chairs which were no doubt white and gold when they first figured in Tom Taylor's 'Plot and Passion' or some other relic of the days before Mr. Bancroft revolutionized stage furniture, but have ap- parently languished ever since, unsold and unsaleable among second-hand keys, framed lithographs of the ii8 IBSEN IN ENGLAND Prince Consort, casual fire-irons and stair-rods, and other spoils of the broker. Still, the scene at least was describ- able, and even stimulative — ^to irony. In Act II, the gal- lery in which Borkman prowls for eight years like a wolf was no gallery at all, but a square box ugly to loathsome- ness, and too destructive to the imagination and descrip- tive faculty to incur the penalty of criticism. In Act III (requiring, it will be remembered, the shifting landscape from 'Parsifal') two new cloths specially painted, and good enough to produce a tolerable illusion of snowy pine-wood and midnight mountain with proper acces- sories, were made ridiculous by a bare acre of wooden floor and only one set of wings for the two. When I looked at that, and thought of the eminence of the author and the greatness of his work, I felt ashamed." But in spite of these handicaps there was a handful of enthusiasts who fought the battle through to the end. Be- fore audiences composed of a few devotees, hostile critics, and curious neutrals attracted by the scandal that clung to Ibsen drama, they doggedly presented the plays. "Cati- lina" and "The Feast of Solhoug" are youthful works that do not merit stage production. "Love's Comedy" is a "talky" play, too lacking in action to be successful on the stage. The double play, "Emperor and Galilean" is not adapted to stage presentation. But, outside of these four plays, every one of Ibsen's acknowledged plays gained a place on the English stage, and in addition the English public saw "Olaf Liliekrans" and "The Hero's Mound". Of these twenty Ibsen plays presented to a London audience, some had only one or two perform- ances, only a very few had runs of any length, but Tree's PERFORMANCES IN ENGLAND 119 production of "An Enemy of the People" was revived again and again for years, and "A Doll's House" was seen in at least twelve different productions. And prac- tically every one of these twenty plays received adequate acting, for the actors who supported Ibsen included some of the most capable on the English stage. In spite of its indifference, in spite of its hostility, Eng- land saw the Ibsen plays, and saw them well acted. And though the dramas themselves had little popularity, they have left their mark indelibly on the English stage. V. PARODIES AND SEQUELS TO IBSEN DRAMAS It must have been a great temptation to contemporary parodists to burlesque the dramas of Ibsen. He was the most talked of man of letters in the England of the early nineties. He was the source of one of the liveliest jour- nalistic controversies that the Englishman of that day had known. The very newness of his matter and style, his striking mannerisms, these made him easy to caricature. And, above all, what self respecting parodist could resist the temptation to shock the more pious Ibsenites who, with bated breath, discussed the teachings and meanings of the master? The English parodies of Ibsen were written during a period of only a few years. Before 1891, Ibsen was still a vague and shadowy figure, represented on the stage only by "A Doll's House" and "Pillars of Society". But in 1891 there appeared on the London stage ."Rosmer- sholm", "Pillars of Society", "Hedda Gabler", "The Lady from the Sea", and that most abused of all Ibsen dramas, "Ghosts". By the end of 1891 Ibsen was a name known to every reader of a London newspaper. In 1895, the English public had become resigned to Ib- sen. He still provoked controversy in the theatrical jour- nals, but he had lost his charm for the daily newspaper. He was no longer an absorbing topic of conversation, [120] PARODIES AND SEQUELS 121 and the parodists lost interest in him. The Ibsen bur- lesque flourished, therefore, between 1891 and 1895. W. D. Adams in his "A Book of Burlesque", mentions as the first English parodies of Ibsen two travesties, by Mr. J. P. Hurst and by Mr. Wilton Jones. These were never acted. The first acted burlesque was "A Pair of Ghosts— (af- ter Ibsen)", by Campbell Rae Brown. This was a duo- logue in two scenes acted in Steinway Hall on April 16, 1891. A popular actress of burlesque. Miss Rose Hen- ney, appeared as the leading lady. Far more clever was "Ibsen's Ghost, or Toole up to Date", an early work of the dramatist J. M. Barrie. This burlesque was first performed on May 30, 1891, at Toole's Theatre. It purported to be the fifth act of "Hed- da Gabler", which had been performed in London a few weeks before. This "New Hedda" was in one act. The cast included: Qeorge Tesman, an artist Mr. Q. Shelton Thea Tesman