Complete Works of Henrik Ibsen (329 page)

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
[More softly, with emotion.]
It is to you I owe everything, everything, Irene — and I thank you.

IRENE.
[Lost in thought for a moment.]
If I had then done what I had a right to do, Arnold —

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
Well? What then?

IRENE.
I should have killed that child.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
Killed it, you say?

IRENE.
[Whispering.]
Killed it — before I went away from you. Crushed it — crushed it to dust.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
[Shakes his head reproachfully.]
You would never have been able to, Irene. You had not the heart to do it.

IRENE.
No, in those days I had not that sort of heart.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
But since then? Afterwards?

IRENE.
Since then I have killed it innumerable times. By daylight and in the dark. Killed it in hatred — and in revenge — and in anguish.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
[Goes close up to the table and asks softly.]
Irene — tell me now at last — after all these years — why did you go away from me? You disappeared so utterly — left not a trace behind —

IRENE.
[Shaking her head slowly.]
Oh Arnold — why should I tell you that now — from the world beyond the grave.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
Was there some one else whom you had come to love?

IRENE.
There was one who had no longer any use for my love — any use for my life.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
[Changing the subject.]
H’m — don’t let us talk any more of the past —

IRENE.
No, no — by all means let us not talk of what is beyond the grave — what is now beyond the grave for me.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
Where have you been, Irene? All my inquiries were fruitless — you seemed to have vanished away.

IRENE.
I went into the darkness — when the child stood transfigured in the light.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
Have you travelled much about the world?

IRENE.
Yes. Travelled in many lands.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
[Looks compassionately at her.]
And what have you found to do, Irene?

IRENE.
[Turning her eyes upon him.]
Wait a moment; let me see — . Yes, now I have it. I have posed on the turntable in variety-shows. Posed as a naked statue in living pictures. Raked in heaps of money. That was more than I could do with you; for you had none. — And then I turned the heads of all sorts of men. That too, was more than I could do with you, Arnold. You kept yourself better in hand.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
[Hastening to pass the subject by.]
And then you have married, too?

IRENE.
Yes; I married one of them.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
Who is your husband?

IRENE.
He was a South American. A distinguished diplomatist.
[Looks straight in front of her with a stony smile.]
Him I managed to drive quite out of his mind; mad — incurably mad; inexorably mad. — It was great sport, I can tell you — while it was in the doing. I could have laughed within me all the time — if I had anything within me.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
And where is he now?

IRENE.
Oh, in a churchyard somewhere or other. With a fine handsome monument over him. And with a bullet rattling in his skull.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
Did he kill himself?

IRENE.
Yes, he was good enough to take that off my hands.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
Do you not lament his loss, Irene?

IRENE.
[Not understanding.]
Lament? What loss?

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
Why, the loss of Herr von Satow, of course.

IRENE.
His name was not Satow.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
Was it not?

IRENE.
My second husband is called Satow. He is a Russian —

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
And where is he?

IRENE.
Far away in the Ural Mountains. Among all his gold-mines.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
So he lives there?

IRENE.
[Shrugs her shoulders.]
Lives? Lives? In reality I have killed him —

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
[Start.]
Killed — !

IRENE.
Killed him with a fine sharp dagger which I always have with me in bed —

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
[Vehemently.]
I don’t believe you, Irene!

IRENE.
[With a gentle smile.]
Indeed you may believe it, Arnold.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
[Looks compassionately at her.]
Have you never had a child?

IRENE.
Yes, I have had many children.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
And where are your children now?

IRENE.
I killed them.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
[Severely.]
Now you are telling me lies again!

IRENE.
I have killed them, I tell you — murdered them pitilessly. As soon as ever they came into the world. Oh, long, long before. One after the other.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
[Sadly and earnestly.]
There is something hidden behind everything you say.

IRENE.
How can I help that? Every word I say is whispered into my ear.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
I believe I am the only one that can divine your meaning.

IRENE.
Surely you ought to be the only one.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
[Rests his hands on the table and looks intently at her.]
Some of the strings of your nature have broken.

IRENE.
[Gently.]
Does not that always happen when a young warm-blooded woman dies?

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
Oh Irene, have done with these wild imaginings — ! You are living! Living — living!

IRENE.
[Rises slowly from her chair and says, quivering.]
I was dead for many years. They came and bound me — laced my arms together behind my back — . Then they lowered me into a grave-vault, with iron bars before the loop-hole. And with padded walls — so that no one on the earth above could hear the grave-shrieks — . But now I am beginning, in a way, to rise from the dead.
[She seats herself again.]

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
[After a pause.]
In all this, do you hold me guilty?

IRENE.
Yes.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
Guilty of that — your death, as you call it.

IRENE.
Guilty of the fact that I had to die.
[Changing her tone to one of indifference.]
Why don’t you sit down, Arnold?

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
May I?

IRENE.
Yes. — You need not be afraid of being frozen. I don’t think I am quite turned to ice yet.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
[Moves a chair and seats himself at her table.]
There, Irene. Now we two are sitting together as in the old days.

IRENE.
A little way apart from each other — also as in the old days.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
[Moving nearer.]
It had to be so, then.

IRENE.
Had it?

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
[Decisively.]
There had to be a distance between us —

IRENE.
Was it absolutely necessary, Arnold?

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
[Continuing.]
Do you remember what you answered when I asked if you would go with me out into the wide world?

IRENE.
I held up three fingers in the air and swore that I would go with you to the world’s end and to the end of life. And that I would serve you in all things —

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
As the model for my art —

IRENE. — in frank, utter nakedness —

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
[With emotion.]
And you did serve me, Irene — so bravely — so gladly and ungrudgingly.

IRENE.
Yes, with all the pulsing blood of my youth, I served you!

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
[Nodding, with a look of gratitude.]
That you have every right to say.

IRENE.
I fell down at your feet and served you, Arnold!
[Holding her clenched hand towards him.]
But you, you, — you — !

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
[Defensively.]
I never did you any wrong! Never, Irene!

IRENE.
Yes, you did! You did wrong to my innermost, inborn nature —

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
[Starting back.]
I — !

IRENE.
Yes, you! I exposed myself wholly and unreservedly to your gaze —
[More softly.]
And never once did you touch me.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
Irene, did you not understand that many a time I was almost beside myself under the spell of all your loveliness?

IRENE.
[Continuing undisturbed.]
And yet — if you had touched me, I think I should have killed you on the spot. For I had a sharp needle always upon me — hidden in my hair —
[Strokes her forehead meditatively.]
But after all — after all — that you could —

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
[Looks impressively at her.]
I was an artist, Irene.

IRENE.
[Darkly.]
That is just it. That is just it.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
An artist first of all. And I was sick with the desire to achieve the great work of my life.
[Losing himself in recollection.]
It was to be called “The Resurrection Day” — figured in the likeness of a young woman, awakening from the sleep of death —

IRENE.
Our child, yes —

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
[Continuing.]
It was to be the awakening of the noblest, purest, most ideal woman the world ever saw. Then I found you. You were what I required in every respect. And you consented so willingly — so gladly. You renounced home and kindred — and went with me.

IRENE.
To go with you meant for me the resurrection of my childhood.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
That was just why I found in you all that I required — in you and in no one else. I came to look on you as a thing hallowed, not to be touched save in adoring thoughts. In those days I was still young, Irene. And the superstition took hold of me that if I touched you, if I desired you with my senses, my soul would be profaned, so that I should be unable to accomplish what I was striving for. — And I still think there was some truth in that.

IRENE.
[Nods with a touch of scorn.]
The work of art first — then the human being.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
You must judge me as you will; but at that time I was utterly dominated by my great task — and exultantly happy in it.

IRENE.
And you achieved your great task, Arnold.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
Thanks and praise be to you, I achieved my great task. I wanted to embody the pure woman as I saw her awakening on the Resurrection Day. Not marvelling at anything new and unknown and undivined; but filled with a sacred joy at finding herself unchanged — she, the woman of earth — in the higher, freer, happier region — after the long, dreamless sleep of death.
[More softly.]
Thus did I fashion her. — I fashioned her in your image, Irene.