Ibsen's prose dramas

Front matter

\S9o

CORNELL

UNIVERSITY

Prefatory Note

It was during his first stay in Rome, in 1864, that Ibsen conceived and partly executed the doubledrama of Emperor and Galilean {Kejser og Galil(zer\ In point of origin, then, it immediately follows The Pretenders, and precedes all the modern dramas except Love's Comedy. But the mood of indignation in which the poet had turned his back on his native country imperatively demanded utterance. The first plunge into Italy and antiquity had distracted his thoughts for a time ; but they soon turned northward again. Libanius and Ammian, Gibbon and Neander, were put aside ; and to the two years of intense productivity which followed, we owe the most distinctively northern of all Ibsen's works. Brand and Peer Gynt — poems of fiord and glacier, scaur and tarn. Then came The League of Youth, first of the social dramas, published in the autumn of 1869. There can be little doubt that Ibsen now conceived the idea, which he has carried out perhaps too resolutely, of devoting himself for the future to "actuality," realism and prose. But in the war of 1870 he saw an epoch-making event, the influence of which, upon society and upon himself, could not at once be realised. He was conscious, viii FREFA TOR Y NOTE.

perhaps, of a state of fermentation within and around him which would take time to settle down. In this frame of mind he reverted to his scheme for a drama on the subject of Julian the Apostate, and determined to get it out of hand before devoting himself finally to his new line of thought and form of utterance. If this conjecture be correct, and we owe to the Franco-German war the postponement of the later social plays and the completion of Einperor and Galilean, I, for one, feel grateful to Prince Bismarck ; though he would not, perhaps, appreciate the gratitude which regards his " world-historic drama " in the light of a mere prologue or prelude to Ibsen's. Be this as it may, we find the poet busily at work upon " a new poem of some length " in the early days of 1872 ; and in 1873- Einperor and Galilean was published, nine years after its inception.

In my introductory note to Lady Inger and The Pretenders, I gave a short sketch of the historic foundation on which these dramas were constructed. Such a sketch, in the present instance, would be superfluous if not impertinent Norwegian history is somewhat beyond the ken of the general reader ; but Julian the Apostate, unlike Inger Gyldenlove and Earl Skule, belongs in every sense to world-history. The sources from which Ibsen has drawn his material are open to all. Much has been written, and may yet be written, as to his treatment of history; but this is a matter of opinion rather than of fact, and I have been careful, in these brief introductions, not to stray into criticism. The chief modern authorities upon Julian, apart from

PREFA TOR V NOTE. ix

the indispensable Gibbon, are Neander, Der Kaiser Julian und sein Zeitalter (Leipzig, 1813), translated by G. V. Cox (1850); D. F. Strauss, Der Romantiker auf dem Throne der Cdsaren, a lecture of strong political tendency delivered in 1847, and included in the author's Gesammelte Schriften, vol. i. (Bonn, 1876); C. G. Semisch, Julian der Abtriinnige: Ein CharakUriild (Bres\a.u, 1868); Friedrich Rode, Geschichte der Reaction Kaiser Julians gegen die Christliche Kirche (Jena, 1877); H. Adrien Naville, _/«/?«« VApostat (Paris, 1877); and Gerald Henry Rendall, The Emperor Julian ; Paganism and Christianity, Hulsean Essay for 1876 (Cambridge, 1879). I need scarcely remind the reader that as Emperor and Galilean was published in 1873, Ibsen cannot have consulted Rode, Naville,' or Rendall. Mr. Rendall, indeed, whose interesting work contains a full bibliography of the subject, makes several quotations from Ibsen.

The following translation is to a large extent founded (by arrangement) on Miss Catherine Ray's version of Kejser eg Galilceer (entitled The Emperor and the Galilean) v/hich appeared in 1876, and has long been entirely out of print. To Miss Ray belongs the credit of having been the first English translator of Ibsen, as Mr. Gosse was his first exp ositor My principles of translation differ so wiaely from Miss Ray's, that I have probably not adopted a hundred phrases of her version in their integrity ; yet her labours have been of great assistance to me, even where the two renderings may seem to be utterly dissimilar.

X PREFA TOR Y NOTE.

In Ibsen's other prose plays the meaning of each particular sentence is almost always perfectly clear, however difficult it may be to render it into English. In Emperor and Galilean, on the other hand, there occur a few tnetaph ysical o r mystical expressions, the precise signification of which it is difficult to grasp and doubly difficult to reproduce. I have done the best I could with these. If the reader suspects my accuracy, he may turn, if not to the original, then to one of the German versions, of which there are at least two. The German vocabulary and idiom are much nearer the Norwegian than ours, so that in these versions many difficult phrases are reproduced with the utmost accuracy, by transliteration rather than translation.

One difficulty from which the German translator is free has encountered me at every turn. The Norwegians use only one word — Riget (German das Reich) — to cover the two ideas represented in English by " empire " and " kingdom." In most cases "empire" is clearly the proper rendering, since it would be absurd to speak in English of the Roman or the Byzantine Kingdom. But it would be no less impossible to say, in the Lord's Prayer, "Thine is the empire and the power and the glory." In the scene with Maximus in Ephesus, and in several other passages, I have used the word "empire" where "kingdom," in its Biblical sense, would have been preferable were it not necessary to keep the analogy or contrast between the temporal and the spiritual " empire " clearly before the reader's' mind. But at the end of the fifth act of Ccssar's Apostasy, where

PREFA TOR Y NOTE. xi

the Lord's Prayer is interwoven with the dialogue, I have been forced to fall back on " kingdom." The reader, then, will please remember that these two words stand for one word — Riget — in the original.

The verse from Homer quoted by Julian in the third act of the second play occurs in the twentieth book of the Odyssey (line i8). Ibsen prints the sentence which follows it as a second hexameter line ; but either he or one of , his authorities has apparently misread the passage in the treatise " Against the Cynic Heraclius," on which this scene is founded. No such line occurs in Homer ; and, in the attack on Heraclius, the phrase about the mad dog appears as part of the author's text, not as a quotation. I have ventured, therefore, to " render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's," and print the phrase as Julian's own.

W. A.

CESAR'S APOSTASY.

^ DRAMA IN FIVE ACTS.

Characters.

The Emperor Constantius.

The Empress Eusebia.

The Princess Helena, the Emperor's sister.

Prince Galxus, the Emperor's cousin.

Prince Julian, Calluses younger half-brother,

Memnon, an Ethiopian, the Emperors body-slave,

Potamon, a goldsmith.

Phocion, a dyer,

Eunapius, a hair-dresser.

A Fruit-seller,

A Captain of the Watch,

A Soldier.

A Painted Woman,

A Paralytic Man,

A Blind Beggar.

Agathon, the son of a Cappadodan vine-grower.

LiBANius, a Philosopher.

Gregory of Nazianzus.

BASILlnS OF CiSSAREA.

Sallust of Perusia.

Hekebolius, a Theologian.

Maximus the Mystic

Eutherids, Julian's chamberlain.

Leontes, a Quastor.

Myrrha, a slave.

Decentius, a Tribune.

SiINtvul, Julian's Master of the Horse,

Florentius, 1

Oribases, a Physician,

,- ' \ subalterns,

Varro, I

Maurus, a Standard-Bearer.

Soldiers, church-goers, heathen on-lookers, courtiers, priests, students, dancing girls, servants, attendants on the Qucestor, Gallic warriors.

Visions and voices.

The first act passes in Constantinople, the second in Athens, the third in Ephesus, the fourth in LuteHa in Gaul, and the ffth in Vienna [ Vienne'l in the same province. The action takes place during the ten years between A.D. 351 and k..n. 361.

CESAR'S APOSTASY.

DRAMA IN FIVE ACTS.

Act First

{Easter night in Constantinople. The scene ts an open place, •with trees, bushes, and overthrown statues, in the vicinity of the Imperial Palace. In the background, fully illuminated, stands the Chapel Royal. To the right a marble balustrade, from which a staircase leads down to the water. Between the pines and cypresses appear glimpses of the Bosphortts and the Asiatic coast.)

{Service in the church. Soldiers of the Imperial Guard stand on the church steps. Great crowds of worshipiers stream in. Beggars, cripples, and blind people at the doors. Heathen on-lookers, fruit-sellers, and water-carriers fill up the place.)

Hymn of Praise (inside the church).

Never-ending adoration

to the Cross of our salvation !

The Serpent is hurled

to the deepest abyss;

the Lamb rules the world ;

all is peace, all is bliss !

POTAMON THE GOLDSMITH {carrying a paper lantern, enters from the left, taps one of the soldiers on the shoulder, and asks : ) Hist, good friend — when is the Emperor coming ?

The Soldier. I cannot tell.

PhoCION the Dyer (Jin the crowd, turning his head). The Emperor? Was not soirfe one asking about the Emperor ? The Emperor is coming a little before midnight— just before. I had it from Memnon himself.

EUNAPIUS the Barber {pishes in hastily and pushes a Fruit-seller aside). Out of the way, heathen !

The Fruit-seller. Softly, sir 1

Potamon. The swine grumbles !

EUNAPIUS. Dog, dog !

Phocion. Grumbling at a well-dressed Christian! — at a man of the Emperor's own faith !

EUNAPIUS {knocks the Fruit-seller down). Into the gutter with you !

Potamon. That's right. Wallow there along with your gods !

Phocion (beating him with his stick). Take that — and that — and that !

EUNAPIUS {kicking him). And this — and this ! I'll baste your god-detested skin for you ! {The Fruit-seller hastens away.)

Phocion {with the evident intention of being heard by the Captain of the Guard). It is much to be desired that some one should bring this scene to our blessed Emperor's ears. The Emperor has lately expressed his displeasure at the way in which we Christian citizens hold intercourse with the heathen, just as if no gulf divided us

Potamon. You refer to that placard in the market-places ? I too have read it. And I hold that, as there is both true and false gold in the world