366 No7'ivay and the Norzvegians 



We now come to the greatest name in Norse litera- 

 ture, the only one, perhaps, which is of very great 

 weight and of importance for the literature of Europe 

 generally; I mean Henrik Ibsen. In this country 

 Ibsen is only beginning to be generally knowu. When 

 a translation of ' The Doll's House ' {Et Dukkeh.jcm — 

 literally ' a Doll's house ') was put upon the stage in 

 London in 1889, this was the first time that the 

 majority of the public, and even of writers for the 

 press, had heard Ibsen's name. Even then he was 

 generally spoken of as an eccentric rather than a great 

 writer. The acting of Heclda Gcibler last year brought 

 one of his works into pretty general notice ; and since 

 then it is probable that the volumes containing his 

 prose dramas, translated by Mr. William Archer, have 

 been a good deal studied. 



As long ago, however, as 1873, Mr. Edmund Gosse 

 contributed to the Fortnifjhtly Revieiv an article on 

 ' Ibsen, the Norwegian Satirist,' which turned the atten- 

 tion of the more literary to Ibsen ; and induced some 

 persons to learn Norse in order to read him. The 

 article was written before Ibsen had begun to write 

 his prose dramas of social life. 



In Germany Ibsen is much better known, and much 

 more highly appreciated than in this country. No 

 plays by living German authors are played there more 

 frequently than Ibsen's are. That the Norse poet and 

 dramatist should find a cordial reception in Germany 

 is only right ; for certainly in many respects his muse 

 can trace its parentage to the best muse of Germany. 



Ibsen is associated in our minds almost exclusively 

 with his realistic dramas of modern social life. But to 



