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Early Plays — Catiline, the Warrior's Barrow, Olaf Liljekrans By: Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) |
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This series of SCANDINAVIAN CLASSICS was published by the
American Scandinavian Foundation in the belief that greater
familiarity with the chief literary monuments of the North will
help Americans to a better understanding of Scandinavians, and
thus serve to stimulate their sympathetic co operation to good
ends. SCANDINAVIAN CLASSICS VOLUME XVII EARLY PLAYS by
HENRIK IBSEN EARLY PLAYS
CATILINE, THE WARRIOR'S BARROW,
OLAF LILJEKRANS
by HENRIK IBSEN
TRANSLATED FROM THE NORWEGIAN BY
ANDERS ORBECK, A. M. Assistant Professor of English in the University
of Montana To O. W. Firkins Teacher and Friend
and Inspirer of
these Translations.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION CATILINE THE WARRIOR'S BARROW OLAF LILJEKRANS LIST OF FOUNDATION PUBLICATIONS
INTRODUCTION
One of the most remarkable facts about Ibsen is the orderly
development of his genius. He himself repeatedly maintained that
his dramas were not mere isolated accidents. In the foreword to
the readers in the popular edition of 1898 he urges the public to
read his dramas in the same order in which he had written them,
deplores the fact that his earlier works are less known and less
understood than his later works, and insists that his writings
taken as a whole constitute an organic unity. The three of his
plays offered here for the first time in English translation will
afford those not familiar with the original Norwegian some light
on the early stages of his development. Catiline , the earliest of Ibsen's plays, was written in
1849, while Ibsen was an apothecary's apprentice in Grimstad. It
appeared in Christiania in the following spring under the
pseudonym Brynjolf Bjarme. The revolutionary atmosphere of
1848 49, the reading of the story of Catiline in Sallust and
Cicero in preparation for the university examinations, the
hostility which existed between the apprentice and his immediate
social environment, the fate which the play met at the hands of
the theatrical management and the publishers, his own struggles
at the time, are all set forth clearly enough in the preface to
the second edition. The play was written in the blank verse of
Oehlenschlaeger's romantic dramas. Ibsen's portrayal of the
Roman politician is not in accord with tradition; Catiline is not
an out and out reprobate, but an unfortunate and highly sensitive
individual in whom idealism and licentiousness struggle for
mastery. Vasenius, in his study of the poet ( Ibsens
Dramatiska Diktning in dess Första Skede , Helsingfors, 1879),
insists that Ibsen thus intuitively hit upon the real Catiline
revealed by later nineteenth century research. The poet seems
not to have heard of Duma's Catiline , which appeared about
the same time, nor of earlier plays on the subject by Ben Jonson
and others. The struggle in Ibsen's play is centered in the soul
of Catiline; not once do his political opponents appear on the
scene. Only one critic raised his voice in behalf of the play at
the time of its appearance, and only a few copies of the original
edition survive... Continue reading book >>
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