Complete Works of Henrik Ibsen (712 page)

SPEECH TO THE WORKINGMEN OF TRONDHJEM, JUNE 14th, 188
5

EIGHT days ago I returned home again to Norway after an absence of eleven years.

During these eight days at home I have experienced more of the joy of life than during all the eleven years abroad.

I have found immense progress in most lines, and I have seen that the nation to which I most closely belong has approached the rest of Europe considerably more than formerly.

But the visit at home has also caused me disappointments. My experience has shown me that the most indispensable individual rights are not as yet safeguarded as I believed I might hope and expect under the new form of government.

A ruling majority does not grant the individual either liberty of faith or liberty of expression beyond an arbitrarily fixed limit.

So there is still much to be done before we may be said to have attained to real liberty. But I fear that it will be beyond the power of our
‘present
democracy to solve these problems. An element of
nobility
must enter into our political life, our administration, our representation, and our press.

Of course I am not thinking of the nobility of
birth
, nor of that of
wealth
, nor of that of
knowledge
, neither of that of
ability
or intelligence. But I think of the nobility of
character
, of the nobility of will and mind.

That alone it is which can make us free.

This nobility which I hope will be granted to our nation will come to us from two sources. It will come to us from two groups which have not as yet been irreparably harmed by party pressure. It will come to us from our women and from our workingmen.

The reshaping of social conditions which is now under way out there in Europe is concerned chiefly with the future position of the workingman and of woman.

That it is which I hope for and wait for; and it is that that I will work for, and shall work for my whole life so far as I am able.

It is with these words that I take pleasure in extending to you my most hearty thanks for all the honour and joy which the Trondhjem labor union to-night has given me. And while extending my thanks I propose a long life to the laboring class and its future.

SPEECH AT THE DANISH STUDENTS’ BANQUET, COPENHAGEN, OCTOBER 3, 188
5

I DO not like it at all to hear my praises sung so loudly. I prefer solitude, and I always feel an inclination to protest when the health of an artist or a poet is proposed with a motive such as: There stands he, and there far away are the others. But the thanks given me contains also an admission. If my existence has been of any importance, as you say it has, the reason is that there is kinship between me and the times. There is no yawning gulf fixed between the one who produces and the one who receives. There is kinship between the two. I thank you for the kinship I have found here among you.

SPEECH AT THE BANQUET IN STOCKHOLM, SEPTEMBER 24th, 188
7

Ladies and Gentlemen:

MY most sincere thanks for all the friendliness and good understanding which I have also at this time received proofs of here. A great happiness is experienced in the feeling of possessing a greater country. But to reply fully to all the words of praise of which I have just been made the object lies beyond and above my power. There is, however, one particular point in these utterances which I should like to consider for a moment. It has been said that I, and that in a prominent manner, have contributed to create a new era in these countries. I, on the contrary, believe that the time in which we now live might with quite as good reason be characterized as a conclusion, and that from it something new is about to be born. For I believe that the teaching of natural science about evolution has validity also as regards the mental factors of life. I believe that the time will soon come when political and social conceptions will cease to exist in their present forms, and that from their coalescence there will come a unity, which, for the present, will contain the conditions for the happiness of mankind. I believe that poetry, philosophy and religion will be merged in a new category and become a new vital force, of which we who live now can have no clear conception.

It has been said of me on different occasions that I am a pessimist. And so I am in so far as I do not believe in the everlastingness of human ideals. But I am also an optimist in so far as firmly believe in the capacity for procreation and development of ideals. Especially, to be more definite, am I of the opinion that the ideals of our time, while disintegrating, are tending towards what in my play “Emperor and Galilean” I indicated by the name of “the third kingdom.” Therefore, permit me to drink a toast to that which is in the process of formation, — to that which is to come. It is on a Saturday night that we are assembled here. Following it comes the day of rest, the festival day, the holy day — whichever you wish to call it. For my part I shall be content with the result of my life’s work, if this work can serve to prepare the spirit for the morrow. But above all I shall be content if it shall serve to strengthen the mind in that week of work which will of a necessity follow.

I thank you for your attention.

SPEECH AT THE BANQUET IN CHRISTIANIA, MARCH 23d, 189
8

On the occasion of Ibsen’s seventieth birthday, March 20th, 1898.

WHEN I just now asked for silence it became so quiet all around. At least so it seemed to me. But if you have expected that I should answer fully to all those warm, kind words which have been spoken to me, you are mistaken. I can express my most cordial thanks for them only in a general way; and likewise for all the honour and homage which is’ being shown me here to-day.

Or perhaps you have expected that I should begin to speak of my books? But that I would not be able to do. For in that case I should have to bring in my whole life. And that by itself would make a mighty thick book, that alone.

And, furthermore, I now really have in mind to
write
such a book. A book which will link my life and my writings together into an explanatory whole. Yes, for I think that I have now attained so ripe an age that I might be permitted to allow myself some little breathing time, — take one year’s vacation — for such a book would, indeed, be vacation work compared with the exciting and exhausting writing of dramas. And a vacation I have never really had since I left Norway thirty-four years ago. It seems to me I may need it now.

But, ladies and gentlemen, you must not on that account think that I intend, definitely, to lay aside my dramatic quill. No, I intend to resort and hold to that until the last. For I still have sundry whimsies in stock which I have not so far found opportunity to give expression to. Only when I have well rid myself of these will it be time to lay aside my dramatic quill. And how easy would it be to stop
then
as compared with the time when I was yet in the midst of the beginning! How silent and empty it was around one then! How the individual fellow-combatants stood scattered, each by himself, without coherence, without connecting links between them! Many a time it would seem to me then as if — once passed away — I had never been here. Nor my work, either!

But
now!
Now it has become populous round about. Young forces, confident of victory, have joined.
They
do not any longer have to write for a narrow circle.
They
have a public, an entire people to whom they may speak and to whom they may direct their thoughts and feelings. Whether they meet
opposition
or
adherence
— that is immaterial. It is only the
inability
, the
unwillingness to hear
which is of evil. That have
I
felt.

I sincerely regret that I have come in contact so little with many in this country who are to continue the work. Not because I would, if such was the case, attempt to exert any pressure, but that I myself might reach a deeper comprehension. And particularly would I have used that closer relation to remove a misconception which has in many ways been a hindrance to
me,
— the misconception namely, that there should be a feeling of absolute happiness-connected with that rare fairytale fate which I have had: to gain fame and name yonder in the many lands. And I have gained warm, understanding hearts out there, too.
That
first and foremost.

But this real inner happiness, — that is no find, no gift. It must be acquired at a price which may often be felt to be heavy enough. For
that
is the point: that he who has gained for himself a home out in the many lands, — in his inmost soul he feels nowhere quite at home, — hardly even in the. country of his birth.

But perhaps that may come yet. And I shall regard this evening as a starting point.

For
here
I behold something that resembles an agreement.
Here
all views, all diverging opinions have been able to gather about one and the same thing. I have here no longer the painful feeling of being regarded as the poet of a party, either of the one or of the other. His entire people a poet must have around him — either in adherence or in opposition. And then the idea of unity will go further towards larger aims and higher tasks. — That is my hope and my belief.

Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, I ask you to accept my most cordial thanks for all your kindness and friendliness.

SPEECH AT THE BANQUET IN COPENHAGEN, APRIL 1st, 189
8

PROFESSOR HANSEN’S speech has confused me and upset my answer. I must now extemporize and kindly ask for your attention. To-day is the first of April. On the same day in the year 1861 I arrived for the first time in Copenhagen. That is now thirty-four years ago. Remember the date and the year! I travelled southward, through Germany and Austria, and passed through the Alps on the ninth of May. On the high mountains the clouds hung like great dark curtains, and underneath these and through the tunnel we rode until we suddenly found ourselves at Miramare, where the beauty of the South, a wonderfully bright gleam, shining like white, marble, suddenly revealed itself to me and placed its stamp on my whole later production, even though not all in it was a thing of beauty.

This feeling of having escaped from the darkness into the light, from the mists through a tunnel out into the sunshine, that feeling I again experienced when the other morning I gazed the length of the Sound. And then I found here the trusty Danish eyes. It seemed to me that these two journeys acquired an inner connection, and for this I give you most cordial thanks.

SPEECH AT THE BANQUET OF THE SWEDISH AUTHORS’ LEAGUE, STOCKHOLM, APRIL 11th, 189
8

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I WISH to thank you cordially for this evening. It has been a rather peculiar experience for me to be present here. I do not know that I have ever belonged to any association, and I almost think that it is altogether the first time that I have been present at such a gathering. It is true that there is a society in Christiania which is of somewhat the same nature as this one, but there I am a member for the sake of appearance only, and for several reasons never take any part in its meetings. Here for the first time I have appeared at a club, and so it is something new to me. For the truth is, a society does not suit my temperament. And in a certain sense it would seem as if organization were least of all something adapted to authors; for authors must go their own wild ways — ay, as wild as they can ever wish, if they are to fulfil the mission of their lives. I think, however, that such a club as this may after all in certain respects have its tasks to perform. Real cultural tasks. One of these tasks is this, that authors jointly protect themselves outwardly, something which may many times be of great necessity. Then there is another task which I think is of no less importance, and which I cannot fail to emphasize here. It is unfortunately true that dramatic authors must be translated; but the northern peoples? — for I really cannot give up my old idea of a united North as a cultural unity, — should they not be able to agree to avoid as much as possible reading each other in translation? For that which we read in translation is always in danger of being more or less misunderstood; since unfortunately the translators themselves are too often somewhat lacking in comprehension. I think that if we would read each other in the original we should reach to a far more intimate and deeper understanding of the content. To work for improvement in this direction will be one of the noblest tasks of this club.

In conclusion will you let me say that I always feel so well here in Sweden. I have found here an old established culture, founded on a strong tradition — stronger than in many other countries — and which reaches deeper than many think. And then I have met here so many good and cordial characters. Such I do not easily forget when I have once learned to know them.

I shall always hold in imperishable memory this evening and all those here who have shown me the honour to wish to be with me. My hearty thanks to you!