Complete Works of Henrik Ibsen (56 page)

MISS JAY.
What levity!

MRS. HALM.
            Yes, most irreverent!

FALK.
Pray don’t imagine it was my intent
To live with her on bread and cheese and kisses.
No! just upon the threshold of our blisses,
Kind Heaven must snatch away the gift it lent.
I need a little spiritual gymnastic;
The dose in that form surely would be drastic.

SVANHILD.
[Has during the talk approached; she stands close to
  the table, and says in a determined but whimsical tone:
I’ll pray that such may be your destiny.
But, when it finds you — bear it like a man.

FALK
[turning round in surprise]
.
Miss Svanhild! — well, I’ll do the best I can.
But think you I may trust implicitly
To finding your petitions efficacious?
Heaven as you know, to faith alone is gracious —
And though you’ve doubtless will enough for two
To make me bid my peace of mind adieu,
Have you the faith to carry matters through?
That is the question.

SVANHILD
[half in jest]
.
                     Wait till sorrow comes,
And all your being’s springtide chills and numbs,
Wait till it gnaws and rends you, soon and late,
Then tell me if my faith is adequate.
       [She goes across to the ladies.

MRS. HALM
[aside to her]
.
Can you two never be at peace? you’ve made
Poor Mr. Falk quite angry, I’m afraid.

   [Continues reprovingly in a low voice. MISS JAY joins in
       the conversation. SVANHILD remains cold and silent.

FALK
[after a pause of reflection goes over to the summer-house,
    then to himself]
.
With fullest confidence her glances lightened.
Shall I believe, as she does so securely,
That Heaven intends —

GULDSTAD.
                     No, hang it; don’t be frightened!
The powers above would be demented surely
To give effect to orders such as these.
No, my good sir — the cure for your disease
Is exercise for muscle, nerve, and sinew.
Don’t lie there wasting all the grit that’s in you
In idle dreams; cut wood, if that were all;
And then I’ll say the devil’s in’t indeed
If one brief fortnight does not find you freed
From all your whimsies high-fantastical.

FALK.
Fetter’d by choice, like Burnell’s ass, I ponder —
The flesh on this side, and the spirit yonder.
Which were it wiser I should go for first?

GULDSTAD
[filling the glasses]
.
First have some punch — that quenches ire and thirst.

MRS. HALM
[looking at her watch]
.
Ha! Eight o’clock! my watch is either fast, or
It’s just the time we may expect the Pastor.
     [Rises, and puts things in order on the verandah.

FALK.
What! have we parsons coming?

MISS JAY.
                              Don’t you know?

MRS. HALM.
I told you, just a little while ago —

ANNA.
No, mother — Mr. Falk had not yet come.

MRS. HALM.
Why no, that’s true; but pray don’t look so glum.
Trust me, you’ll be enchanted with his visit.

FALK.
A clerical enchanter; pray who is it?

MRS. HALM.
Why, Pastor Strawman, not unknown to fame.

FALK.
Indeed! Oh, yes, I think I’ve heard his name,
And read that in the legislative game
He comes to take a hand, with voice and vote.

STIVER.
He speaks superbly.

GULDSTAD.
                  When he’s cleared his throat.

MISS JAY.
He’s coming with his wife —

MRS. HALM.
                           And all their blessings —

FALK.
To give them three or four days’ treat, poor dears —
Soon he’ll be buried over head and ears
In Swedish muddles and official messings —
I see!

MRS. HALM
[to FALK]
.
      Now there’s a man for you, in truth!

GULDSTAD.
They say he was a rogue, though, in his youth.

MISS JAY
[offended]
.
There, Mr. Guldstad, I must break a lance!
I’ve heard as long as I can recollect,
Most worthy people speak with great respect
Of Pastor Strawman and his life’s romance.

GULDSTAD
[laughing]
.
Romance?

MISS JAY.
         Romance! I call a match romantic
At which mere worldly wisdom looks askance.

FALK.
You make my curiosity gigantic.

MISS JAY
[continuing]
.
But certain people always grow splenetic —
Why, goodness knows — at everything pathetic,
And scoff it down. We all know how, of late,
An unfledged, upstart undergraduate
Presumed, with brazen insolence, to declare
That “William Russell”(1)was a poor affair!

FALK.
But what has this to do with Strawman, pray?
Is he a poem, or a Christian play?

MISS JAY
[with tears of emotion]
.
No, Falk, — a man, with heart as large as day.
But when a — so to speak — mere lifeless thing
Can put such venom into envy’s sting,
And stir up evil passions fierce and fell
Of such a depth —

FALK
[sympathetically]
.
                  And such a length as well —

MISS JAY.
Why then, a man of your commanding brain
Can’t fail to see —

FALK.
                    Oh, yes, that’s very plain.
But hitherto I haven’t quite made out
The nature, style, and plot of this romance.
It’s something quite delightful I’ve no doubt —
But just a little inkling in advance —

STIVER.
I will abstract, in rapid
resume
,
The leading points.

MISS JAY.
                    No, I am more
au fait
,
I know the ins and outs —

MRS. HALM.
                          I know them too!

MISS JAY.
Oh Mrs. Halm! now let me tell it, do!
Well, Mr. Falk, you see — he passed at college
For quite a miracle of wit and knowledge,
Had admirable taste in books and dress —

MRS. HALM.
And acted — privately — with great success.

MISS JAY.
Yes, wait a bit — he painted, played and wrote —

MRS. HALM.
And don’t forget his gift of anecdote.

MISS JAY.
Do give me time; I know the whole affair:
He made some verses, set them to an air,
Also his own, — and found a publisher.
O heavens! with what romantic melancholy
He played and sang his “Madrigals to Molly”!

MRS. HALM.
He was a genius, the simple fact.

GULDSTAD
[to himself]
.
Hm! Some were of opinion he was cracked.

FALK.
A gray old stager,(2)whose sagacious head
Was never upon mouldy parchments fed,
Says “Love makes Petrarchs, just as many lambs
And little occupation, Abrahams.”
But who was Molly?

MISS JAY.
                   Molly? His elect,
His lady-love, whom shortly we expect.
Of a great firm her father was a member —

GULDSTAD.
A timber house.

MISS JAY
[curtly]
.
                I’m really not aware.

GULDSTAD.
Did a large trade in scantlings, I remember.

MISS JAY.
That is the trivial side of the affair.

FALK.
A firm?

MISS JAY
[continuing]
.
        Of vast resources, I’m informed.
You can imagine how the suitors swarm’d;
Gentlemen of the highest reputation. —

MRS. HALM.
Even a baronet made application.

MISS JAY.
But Molly was not to be made their catch.
She had met Strawman upon private stages;
To see him was to love him —

FALK.
                             And despatch
The wooing gentry home without their wages?

MRS. HALM.
Was it not just a too romantic match?

MISS JAY.
And then there was a terrible old father,
Whose sport was thrusting happy souls apart;
She had a guardian also, as I gather,
To add fresh torment to her tortured heart.
But each of them was loyal to his vow;
A straw-hatched cottage and a snow-white ewe
They dream’d of, just enough to nourish two —

MRS. HALM.
Or at the very uttermost a cow, —

MISS JAY.
In short, I’ve heard it from the lips of both, —
A beck, a byre, two bosoms, and one troth.

FALK.
Ah yes! And then — ?

MISS JAY.
                    She broke with kin and class.

FALK.
She broke — ?

MRS. HALM.
             Broke with them.

FALK.
                              There’s a plucky lass!

MISS JAY.
And fled to Strawman’s garret —

FALK.
                                How? Without —
Ahem, the priestly consecration?

MISS JAY.
                                 Shame!

MRS. HALM.
Fy, fy! my late beloved husband’s name
Was on the list of sponsors — !

STIVER
[to MISS JAY]
.
                               The one room
Not housing sheep and cattle, I presume.

MISS JAY
[to STIVER]
.
O, but you must consider this, my friend;
There is no
Want
where Love’s the guiding star;
All’s right without if tender Troth’s within.
                                         [To Falk.
He loved her to the notes of the guitar,
And she gave lessons on the violin —

MRS. HALM.
Then all, of course, on credit they bespoke —

GULDSTAD.
Till, in a year, the timber merchant broke.

MRS. HALM.
Then Strawman had a call to north.

MISS JAY.
                                   And there
Vowed, in a letter that I saw (as few did),
He lived but for his duty, and for her.

FALK
[as if completing her statement]
.
And with those words his Life’s Romance concluded.

MRS. HALM
[rising]
.
How if we should go out upon the lawn,
And see if there’s no prospect of them yet?

MISS JAY
[drawing on her mantle]
.
It’s cool already.

MRS. HALM.
                   Svanhild, will you get
My woollen shawl? — Come ladies, pray!

LIND
[to ANNA, unobserved by the others]
.
                                      Go on!

   [SVANHILD goes into the house; the others, except
       FALK, go towards the back and out to the left.
       LIND, who has followed, stops and returns.

LIND.
My friend!

FALK.
          Ah, ditto.

LIND.
                    Falk, your hand! The tide
Of joy’s so vehement, it will perforce
Break out —

FALK.
            Hullo there; you must first be tried;
Sentence and hanging follow in due course.
Now, what on earth’s the matter? To conceal
From me, your friend, this treasure of your finding;
For you’ll confess the inference is binding:
You’ve come into a prize off Fortune’s wheel!

LIND.
I’ve snared and taken Fortune’s blessed bird!

FALK.
How? Living, — and undamaged by the steel?

LIND.
Patience; I’ll tell the matter in one word.
I am engaged! Conceive — !

FALK
[quickly]
.
                           Engaged!

LIND.
                                    It’s true!
To-day, — with unimagined courage swelling,
I said, — ahem, it will not bear re-telling; —
But only think, — the sweet young maiden grew
Quite rosy-red, — but not at all enraged!
You see, Falk, what I ventured for a bride!
She listened, — and I rather think she cried;
That, sure, means “Yes”?

FALK.
                         If precedents decide;
Go on.