The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-01-28

~HrDDINGFoLD SURREY. Dec. ..
1S99.--In the year In which Ibsen
publishes a new play all other lit
~ erary events take second place.
This happens with solemn period
icity only once in two years. Once
In two years the divine plant flowers. Once
in two years the prophet opens his lips.
And the metaphors are not homogeneous.
for through all the sternness of Ibsen's
various messages have always twined the
star-like blossoms Of that fancy which 10
all Ibsen now allows to escape to the
surface OF the tremendous poetic force
lying like q central volcanic fire beneath
all his work. Well, the great event OF a
new play by Ibsen happened in Copenhagen
on December 10. Copenhagen Is the capi-
tai of Scandinavian culture and, although
Ibsen is a Norwegian, he always publishes
his books In Copenhagen BY the lovely
accident OF my having married Danish
lady, am able to see the divine plant
flower and hear the prophet speak two or
three weeks before the rest Of England,
and I shall be disappointed IL this Is not
the first newspaper notice of when We
Dead Awake" which appears In America.
We in England who are ignorant OF Nor
wegian-or have not been wise enough to
marry Scandinavian wives-must rely for
our Ibsen on William Archer, and his
translation Of the new play will not be
ready till the middle OF January. Mr..
Archer rightly regards his post Of trans
lator-in-ordinary to the greatest writer In
Europe as an honor to be taken very Sc
riously. He is said to spend about as much
time and care in translating the master
as the master himself in writing. As each
carefully finished act Is complete 1t is sent
over the sea to Mr. Archer with dread seals
OF secrecy upon 1t; for the prenatal silence
around a play of Ibsen's Is as dreadful as
that surrounding the Pythian oracle. while
the fate OF an empire hangs upon It's awful
speech. Not even the title OF the new
play is allowed to leak out.
:: :: -
On this occasion there was chosen title
which certainly excites curiosity in high
degree. You will hardly guess its signifi-
canoe till you read the play, or are told;
a significance all the more important as
coming from so old man. and writer
who is perhaps the last from whom We
would expect the message. The dead"
who awake" are those who at the end
of their lives suddenly understand that
they have missed the one thing in life
worth living for. They have, maybe, lived
lives of high idealism; they have been
mighty servants of beauty or knowledge:
but they have missed-love. In fact, the
message OF when We Dead Awake" Is
the old message Of Love Is Enough" A
message one hardly expected to hear Ibsen
proclaiming, and one the most significant
from him, as have said, because he has
waited till old age to proclaim 1t.
He describes the play an "An epilogue,"
but 1 understand from a Danish paper
that Ibsen does not mean in using the
word ''epilogue" that this play is his last
work, but that with 1t he concludes his
series of realistic symbolic dramas of So
cial life such as 1.-THE Dolls House."
Ghosts" 1.-THE Master Builder" etc. 1t
is conjectured that his intention may be
to return to the more strictly poetic drama
in which he gained his first laurels. such
works as Brand" "Pere Gynt" and EN-
peror and GaIicean." While very content
with anything he cares to give us, II would
be interesting to see him make that re-
turn.
when We Dead Awake Is in three acts.
and the following Is a list OF the dramatiS
personnel:
Prof Arnold Rubek Sculptor
Frau Maja Rubek His wife
The inspector at the watering place.
Ulfhejm IA rich landed proprietor, and hunter OF
big game, particularly bears).
A travelling lady
thing between a Sister Of Mercy and hospital
She wean religious garb. but is not in
Walters, guests at watering place. and children.
The first act takes place at a watering
place along the coast of Norway; the Sec
ond and third acts in the neighborhood of
a mountain sanitorium.
In double sense the play is an cpl
logue, for the formative action has taken
place before the play begins, and the
drama, so far as it is drama at all
for 1t Is rather a poem dialogue-is a
drama of simple conclusions.
Let me first sketch the story in q few
words and fill in the sketch more fully
here and there later on. Years before
the play opens Prof. Arnold Rubek, now a
a great love which had inspired him to
do his most inspired word, namely 1.-THE
Day of Resurrection" A great love-
and yet not love at all. for Rubek had
been one of those men whom one might
call the monks of art and had loved beau
ty with so pure n flame that when Irene
had given UP all the world to live with
him and inspire his great work, loving
him humanity as women do he, really low
ing her, too. had crushed down the mortal
love In his heart and forbidden himself
to lay human hands on the holy beauty
which he was to immortalize. Into his
great pure work must creep no single
trait of common passion. Irene should
be his divine model, and that alone. Ru-
bek kept his vow too we'll, for, when the
great worb was finished, Irene, broken
hearted to be thus worshiped as an ideal,
when she was longing to be taken into
his arms as woman, goes away. She
exhibits Rubeks holy love in music
halls, takes many lovers, callously mar
ries, riots her life to ashes Rubek pur-
sues the path of his art, wins great fame
and wealth, returns to his native Nor
way (Which had not previously appreci-
ated him--mark here one of several auto
Geographic touches) and marries pretty
little empty-headed bourgeois. of whom
he Is soon as thoroughly sick as she of
him.
At this point the play takes UP the
story. At Norwegian watering place
together they are mutually bored. They
never had anything really in common,
and now they make no pretense of it.
Although Fru Maja cares nothing for his
art, great or little, she reproaches him
with doing no great work nowadays. He
only makes busts of celebrities at high
prices. In the husbands answer to her