THE AMERICAN-SCAN DIN AVIAN REVIEW 
107 
behind the words were lacking. In 1903 came her last Ibsen part, Fru 
Alving in Ghosts. In it she reached the culmination of her powers. 
Her voice expressed the sufferings of the soul, and her audience lis¬ 
tened, breathless and moved, to the words of that unhappy mother. In 
her portrayal the many sides of the character found expression, the 
aristocratic lady of the very best society, the gentle mother, and the 
horror-stricken woman. The interplay between Fru Hennings and 
Peter Jerndorff as Pastor Manders, attained with fine, clear, and 
simple means, was the highest scenic representation of real human 
beings. 
Had her language been that of one of the great powers, Nora, 
little Hedvig, and Fru Alving would have brought Fru Hennings 
world-wide renown. This was demonstrated when she played these 
parts in her own tongue in Berlin, 1901 and 1903, and in Prague in 
1904. Though the audience could not understand her words, they 
were impressed by the beautiful human character behind her art, and 
by the speaking expression of her eyes. The conquest was the greater 
in that she could not capture these foreign audiences by passionate 
violence, but must content herself with winning their admiration by 
her nervous acting, her intelligence, her imagination, and her electrify¬ 
ing energy. 
Slim and buoyant, erect in carriage and with the lightest step 
imaginable, quick to seize the new, lively and fresh in conversation, but 
with eyes that are dimmed, Fru Hennings, the greatest Ibsen actress 
of the North, has passed the allotted span of life. Other actresses have 
since played Ibsen’s women and won a name, particularly Norway’s 
Fru Dybwad, but Fru Hennings was the first, the contemporary of 
the master, and received the world-known characters fresh from the 
workroom. He was conscious of a great debt of gratitude to her, but 
her debt to him is no less. 
