T34 THE DRAMA 



And this brings me to the only part of my proper task which I have 

 not yet attempted. There is one of Ibsen's most celebrated and most 

 brilliant metrical dramas that I have not yet so much as mentioned. 

 It is his first work on the conditions of modern society, his first satire, 

 and the first utterance that roused that indignant resentment which 

 has from time to time flamed out against him from that day to this. 



I refer to "Love's Comedy," written in 1862, when Ibsen was 

 still living in Christiania. Its subject is love, courtship, and matri- 

 mony, and its hero and heroine are Falk (or Falcon), a young poet 

 and author, and Svanhild, the eldest daughter of the lady with whom 

 he boards. 



To us Englishmen there is always something supremely ludicrous 

 in the approved Continental customs and ideas concerning courtship ; 

 and Ibsen's relentless satire will be keenly enjoyed by all English- 

 men who are fortunate enough to be able to read it in the original. 

 But how can I give those who are not in that happy position any 

 conception of the bevies of fluttering maids and matrons that thrill 

 with delight at the announcement of another engagement, of the ex- 

 citement which pervades them on the report of a " little misunder- 

 standing " between the newly-engaged couple, of their officious zeal 

 in bringing about a " reconciliation," of their rapturous exclamations 

 when one of them sees Lind kissing Anna's glove, of their vexation 

 and disappointment when the lovers seem tired of being exhibited, of 

 their dismay when the poor harassed " quarry," as his friend calls 

 him, escapes for a moment; of the clergyman who seizes every occa- 

 sion of solemnly descanting on the beauty and sanctity of domestic 

 joys, and waves his hand towards the eight daughters (out of twelve !) 

 who are on the scene, with their mother, as living tokens and pledges 

 thereof; of the sobbing matron, who, with her handkerchief at her 

 eyes, tenderly dwells upon her " record " as a match-maker, " seven 

 nieces and all of them with boarders " ! 



And yet, when the curtain falls upon husband and wife and en- 

 gaged couples, old and new, kissing each other two and two, to a 

 grand chorus of the " triumph of love ! " it is difficult to exaggerate 

 the sense of desolation which swallows up and overwhelms all amuse- 

 ment, and makes the concluding scene of " Love's Comedy " one of 

 the saddest pieces of writing in Ibsen's works. 



Falk has noted from the first with disgust and scorn how all this 

 " officialism," as it were, marks the grave of love. As soon as a 

 " lover " is promoted to the recognized privileges of " my love," 

 the poetry is gone out of life. Falk looks upon the parson, who braved 

 public opinion and risked all his future in early life, for the girl he 

 loved, and who is now the very embodiment of commonplace, con- 

 ventional, worldly respectability; upon Styver, who once wrote poetry 

 by the ream, and did not mend his pen, but tuned it, and who now 



