New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-12-21
Literary Nese,s and Criticism.

Is a woman. she will. once she has begun. go to
great extremes.
This is plausihility itself and one is almost
inclined TO be sorry for poor Ibsen. stupidity
misunderstood by malicious detractoTs. until
questions intrude that cannot be left
answered. Is an artist not to be held response
be for his whole lfe's work? Is Ibsen to
drarnatize one pathological case after another
and TO go scot free? The plausible protest
nave Just quoted amounts after all. to nothing
more than quibble. II Ibsen has devoted him
self 10 the composition Of dramas like Ghosts"
he must take the consequences and expect his
tory to strike at him over the shoulders of his
characters. Moreover, the letters only deepen
the impression left by the plays OF man inter
penetrated with the morbid ideas embodied in
those plays. There is no doubt in Ibsen's mind.
His esotism is overwhelming. "a Pastor Mand-
ers, he says, will always rouse some Mrs.
AIVing to revolt And just because she is a
woman, she will, once she has begun, go to
great extremes" Perhaps. if admit that
she is a woman" and that he is a man: but it
is a sound instinct which refuses to accept
either Pastor Manders or Mrs. Alving as rep
resentative type; and what aggregates Isbens
ofIence in fnf1icting creatures of the sort upon
the stage is his bland assumption that he is,
when all is said an authority on human beings.
My book is poetry he writes to Bjornson,
and if it is not then it will be. The concestion
Of poetry in our country in Norway, shall be
made to conform to the book. We know just
how this will be read by many an impassioned
student of the master" They will read into
it the cry of great soul in rebellion against an
unworthy generation. Fiddlesticks! These let
tiers give a sufficient answer to the argument
that the Ibsen doctrine is the mystery of sub
lime oracle. It is but the turbid expression of
ideas of emancipation struggling in the brain OF
a " M reVO Init T.
vine fire. Now and then Ihsen talks bravely
enough about new regime. in which man may
be brought into his own From Dresden. in 1870.
he writes to George Brandes. saying:
The great events of the day occupy my thoughts
much at present The old illusory France has col
lapsed: and soon the new. real Prussia does
the same. we shall be with one bound in new age
And it is high time they did. Up till now we have
been ying on nothing but the crumbs from the
which all nutriment has long been chewed- The
into them Liberty, equality, and fraternity are no
longer the things they were in days of the late
will not understand and therefore hate them.
they want only their own special reV4IutlonsIreV4
mere trifng. What is all important is the revou-
tion of the spirit of man.
We would have more confidence in this OBJ
server of human affairs if had not had Nora
presented to US as the Jeanne dare of the
movement which is to lead all out of the land
of bondage. In another letter to Brandes he
remarks that he expects nothing from special
reforms. The whole race is the wrong
track be declares and continues in this owlish
vein: THE whole succession of human genera
lions remind me of young shoemaker who has
forsaken his last and gone on the stage. we
have made fiasco both in the heroic and the
lover roles. The only parts in which We have
shown a little talent the naIvely comic: but
with our more highly developed self-conscious-
- TOD oryorl fnT-
I do not believe that things are better in other
countries than in our own; the masses, both at
home and abroad. are without all understanding
of higher things" Is the writer Of these words
70 he taken as a guide to the understanding of
higher things? He says that there are moments
when the whole history of the world appears
to me like one great shipwreck- and the only I'M
portant thing seems to be to save ones self
That is queer confession for a man to make
who is forever prattlng about reform; and while
we would not make too much of casual ex-
preston in private letter. we must confess
that this volume illustrates only too well the
idea that the important thing Is Ito save ones
self"
At home or abroad, in Germany and Italy,
Ibsen strikes us as man thinking first Of him
self and his works. These liberal ideas about
which he and his disciples talk much fall into
a strangely subordinate position. They strike
us less as elements of spiritual and intellectual
experience sorrowfully felt in the depths Of a
mans soul than as the material taken by a pro
fessional polenist with which to work out his
effects Ibsen never really kindles. He is sin
cere no doubt, but incurably unsympathetfc and
narrow The world has been kind to him. In
his earlier years public and private benefactions
enabled him to pursue his career; he has had
sterling friends all his life long; and he certainly
does not lack followers to-day. Yet his work is
beartless and his letters show that the man
is as self-centred as is the artist. Why, then,
has he raised up such school? The translators
of the volume before US point to the success of
his plays in Germany and elsewhere. and 1t is
equally undeniable that he has had an influence
unon other writer's. But success even spread
over a considerable period of time, is not
thing from which you always draw absolute
conclusions Lovers of routine will find routine
in a basketfuI of snakes, and believers in the
efficacy of formula will go repeating 1t with
e,,nrene faith until they find the world topping
about their ears The Ibsen formula produces, |
ccasionally an excellent stage situation; it is
fraught with vague atmosphere of Freedom, |
ond it is not improbable that dramatists and
audiences will go using and applauding it |
for some time to come. But as the absence of
-osllv uplifting ideas from Ibsen's works is |
sIovv1v realized by the world at large, his |
formula will fall into neglect.