by Nicole Apostola
THREE COMEDIES
By Björnstjerne M. Björnson
INTRODUCTION
BJÖRNSTJERNE BJÖRNSON--poet, dramatist, novelist, and politician, and
the most notable figure in contemporary Norwegian history--was born, in
December 1832, at Kvikne in the north of Norway. His father was pastor
at Kvikne, a remote village in the Österdal district, some sixty miles
south of Trondhiem; a lonely spot, whose atmosphere and surroundings
Björnson afterwards described in one of his short sketches ("Blakken").
The pastor's house lay so high up on the "fjeld" that corn would not
grow on its meadows, where the relentless northern winter seemed to
begin so early and end so late. The Österdal folk were a wild, turbulent
lot in those days--so much so, that his predecessor (who had never
ventured into the church without his pistol in his pocket) had
eventually run away and flatly refused to return, with the result that
the district was pastorless for some years until the elder Björnson came
to it.
It was in surroundings such as this, and with scarcely any playfellows,
that Björnstjerne Björnson spent the first six years of his life; and
the sturdy independence of his nature may have owed something to the
unaccommodating life of his earliest days, just as the poetical
impulse that was so strong in his developed character probably had its
beginnings in the impressions of beauty he received in the years that
immediately followed. For, when he was six, a welcome change came. His
father was transferred to the tranquil pastorate of Naes, at the mouth
of the Romsdal, one of the fairest spots in Norway. Here Björnson spent
the rest of his childhood, in surroundings of beauty and peacefulness,
going to school first at Molde and afterwards at Christiania, to pass
on later to the Christiania University where he graduated in 1852. As a
boy, his earliest biographer tells us, he was fully determined to be
a poet--and, naturally, the foremost poet of his time!--but, as years
passed, he gained a soberer estimate of his possibilities. At the
University he was one of a group of kindred spirits with eager literary
leanings, and it did not take him long to gain a certain footing in the
world of journalism. His work for the first year or two was mainly in
the domain of dramatic criticism, but the creative instinct was growing
in him. A youthful effort of his--a drama entitled Valborg--was actually
accepted for production at the Christiania theatre, and the author,
according to custom, was put on the "free list" at once. The experience
he gained, however, by assiduous attendance at the theatre so convinced
him of the defects in his own bantling, that he withdrew it before
performance--a heroic act of self-criticism rare amongst young authors.
His first serious literary efforts were some peasant tales, whose
freshness and vividness made an immediate and remarkable impression and
practically ensured his future as a writer, while their success inspired
him with the desire to create a kind of peasant "saga." He wrote of what
he knew, and a delicate sense of style seemed inborn in him. The best
known of these tales are Synnöve Solbakken (1857) and Arne (1858). They
were hailed as giving a revelation of the Norwegian character, and the
first-named was translated into English as early as 1858. He was thus
made known to (or, at any rate, accessible to) English readers many
years before Ibsen, though his renown was subsequently overshadowed,
out of their own country, by the enormous vogue of the latter's works.
Ibsen, too, has been far more widely translated (and is easier to
translate) into English than Björnson. Much of the latter's finest work,
especially in his lyrical poetry and his peasant stories, has a charm of
diction that it is almost impossible to reproduce in translation. Ibsen
and Björnson, who inevitably suggest comparison when either's work is
dealt with, were closely bound by friendship as well as admiration until
a breach was caused by Björnson's taking offence at a supposed attack
on him in Ibsen's early play The League of Youth, Björnson considering
himself to be lampooned in the delineation of one of the characters
thereof. The breach, however, was healed many years later, when, at the
time of the bitter attacks that were made upon Ibsen in consequence of
the publication of Ghosts, Björnson came into the field of controversy
with a vigorous and generous championing of his rival.
Björnson's dramatic energies, as was the case with Ibsen in his early
days, first took the form of a series of historical dramas--Sigurd
Slembe, Konge Sverre, and others; and he was intimately connected with
the theatre by being for two periods theatrical director, from 1857 to
1859 at Bergen and from 1865 to 1867 at Christiania. Previous to the
latter engagement a stipend granted to him by the Norwegian government
enabled him to travel for two or three years in Europe; and during those
years his pen was never idle--poems, prose sketches, and tales flowing
from it in abundance. De Nygifte (The Newly-Married Couple), the
first of the three plays in the present volume, was produced at the
Christiania theatre in the first year of his directorship there.
The two volumes, Digte og Sange (Poems and Songs) and Arnljot Gelline,
which comprise the greater proportion of Björnson's poetry, both
appeared in 1870. Digte og Sange was republished, in an enlarged
edition, ten years later. It contains the poem "Ja, vi elsker dette
Landet" ("Yes, we love this land of ours"), which, set to inspiring
music by Nordraak, became Norway's most favourite national song, as
well as another of the same nature--"Fremad! Fremad!" ("Forward!
Forward!")--which, sung to music of Grieg's, ran it hard in popularity.
Of "Ja, vi elsker dette Landet," Björnson used to say that the greatest
tribute he had ever had to its hold upon his fellow-countrymen's hearts
was when, on one occasion during the poet's years of vigorous political
activity, a crowd of fervid opponents came and broke his windows with
stones; after which, turning to march away triumphantly, they felt the
need (ever present to the Scandinavian in moments of stress) of singing,
and burst out with one accord into the "Ja, vi elsker dette Landet" of
their hated political adversary. "They couldn't help it; they had to
sing it!" the poet used to relate delightedly.
Of the birth of "Fremad! Fremad!" Grieg has left an account which
gives an amusing picture of the infectious enthusiasm that was one
of Björnson's strongest characteristics. Grieg had given him, as a
Christmas present, the first series of his "Lyrical Pieces" for the
pianoforte, and had afterwards played some of them to the poet, who
was especially struck with one melody which Grieg had called
"Fadrelandssang" ("Song of the Fatherland"). Björnson there and then, to
the composer's great gratification, protested that he must write words
to fit the air. (It must be mentioned that each strophe of the melody
starts with a refrain consisting of two strongly accented notes, which
suggest some vigorous dissyllabic word.) A day or two later Grieg met
Björnson, who was in the full throes of composition, and exclaimed to
him that the song was going splendidly, and that he believed all the
youth of Norway would adopt it enthusiastically; but that he was still
puzzled over the very necessary word to fit the strongly marked refrain.
However, he was not going to give it up. Next morning, when Grieg was
in his room peacefully giving a piano lesson to a young lady, a furious
ringing was heard at his front-door bell, as if the ringer would tear
the bell from its wires, followed by a wild shout of "'Fremad! Fremad!'
Hurrah, I have got it! 'Fremad!'" Björnson, for of course the intruder
was he, rushed into the house the moment the maid's trembling fingers
could open the door, and triumphantly chanted the completed song to
them, over and over again, amidst a din of laughter and congratulations.
His first experiments in the "social drama," plays dealing with the
tragedies and comedies of every-day life in his own country, were made
at about the same time as Ibsen's; that is to say, in the seventies.
Björnson's first successes in that field, which made him at once a
popular dramatist, were Redaktören (The Editor) in 1874 and En Fallit
(A Bankruptcy) in 1875. The latter especially was hailed as the earliest
raising of the veil upon Norwegian domestic life, and as a remarkable
effort in the detection of drama in the commonplace. Before he wrote
these, Björnson had again been for some years out of Norway; and, as in
the case of Ibsen, who began the writing of his "social dramas" when in
voluntary exile, absence seemed to enable him to observe the familiar
from a new standpoint and in the proper perspective.
After his first successes in this line, when his plays (and his poems
and tales to an equal extent) had made him popular and honoured among
his own people, Björnson settled at Aulestad, which remained his home
for the rest of his life. He also became a doughty controversialist in
social and religious matters, and the first outcome of this phase was
his play Leonarda (the second in this volume), which was first performed
in 1879, to be followed by Det ny System (The New System) later in
the same year. These works aroused keen controversy, but were not such
popular stage successes as his earlier plays. Moreover, about this time,
on his return from a visit to America, he plunged into the vortex of
political controversy as an aggressive radical. He was a vigorous and
very persuasive orator; and in that capacity, as well as in that of
writer of political articles and essays, was an uncompromising foe to
the opportunist theories which he held to be degrading the public life
of his country. The opposition he aroused by his fearless
