The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-03-12
WHAT IBSEN'S DEAD AWAKE TO
can or THE INDIVIDUALISf
AGAINST ORGANIZED SOCIETY.
when We Dead Awake rs the Dramatic
Epilogue Of His Career rs Poet ana
Ptaywrlght--"Brand' and Its SYM
bOlism-The Champagne OF the North.

EpilOKue Of His Career rs Poet anu
PiayNrlght-"Brand" and Its SYM
bOlsm-The Champagne OF the NORTH
Il have read this play four or five times
said one of the old guard at the first mat
inee Of When We Dead Awake, and l
grant you that Ibsen 10 great genius
but Pm blessed If can see what 1t means
or that it means anything Then he added
with an obviously satirical intent, The
moral seems to be that when you spend
a moonit summer night on the mountain
with another mans wife unchaperoned
/ it's wrong il you climb down into the valley
! but all right If you 20 up TO the top SalIre
Is often n buzz saw that cuts both ways
| The satirst tested better than he knew
When Prof c. Ii. Herford, the admirable
tran slator Of Brand" submitted to the
poet his Interpretation Of tho obscure
symbolism Of Gerd's falcon and asked II
il were the right one, lUsen enlgmatlcaly
answered that "he could very well accept
this view" With a single addition, namely,
that the woman with whom you climb up
ward be the one you ought TO have married
In the first place, Ibsen might easily smile
ephinxlike smile and say that he could
very well accept his satirists interpreta-
ton.
To the mind rooted in the conventions
OF established society OF course, the inter
probation is the acme of moral chaos and
social anarchy Tostoy, who looks for
ward by looking backward called the play
"a delirium of decadent mares nests,
and the Munich critic, wilhelm Weigund,
said that Ibsens conception both Of life
and of art revealed the ignobility cf the
pleheian agitator bent on reducing all things
and all men to dead level 1t all depends
upon the point Of view 4 middle aged
English woman. who had strayed in TO
performance of Shahespeare's Antony
and Cleopatra, was seen TO be in mood
OF spiritual exataton, and explained the
fact by saying that she was thinking how
different was the life Of orr own dear Queen,
The Rev. Morgan Dix would no doubt find
a like stimulus at when We Dead Awake
in rejecting upon how different are the
teachings Of his Church on the subject OF
marriage and divorce.
Ihsen is indeed an anarchist Weigand
caught up the critical stick by the right
end though he misused II as a polcem0n's
club TO lay ont his subject, and no one can
hope to understand his plays who does
not approach them-not indeed in the
spirit OF anarchy, but certainly with all
ideas of society and the individual in com
plete solution. This much has long been
evident TO the seeing eve in each and every
ono Of the plays; but the publication Of the
playwrghts letters tby Fox. Dufield &
Coz has given Us explicit evidence on the
point Ibsen abjuros all social order
even the order of what il called freedom.
Rome was the only invlolate place in
EUROPE he wrote 10 Brundes in 1870. the
only place that enjoyed true freedom
freedom from political freedoms tyranny.
For every statesman who springs
up there an artist will sink to ruin.
The politicians only want special revolu
tons; revolutions in the external life, in
the political, &c But all that is mere
trumpery. What is Of importance Is the
revolution in tho soul of man Nine
months later he wrote: II have really never
had any strong feeling OF solidarity. In
fact, ! have only in a way accepted II "a a
traditional tenet OF falkland il one had
the courage 10 leave il out Of considera-
ton altogether ono would perhaps be rid
Of the worst ballast with which ones per-
sonnlity j. burdened There are moments
when the whole history Of the world np-
pears to me one great shipwTeck the i'm.
portant thing is 20 save ones self. donot
expect anything from special reforms.
The whole race Is on the wrong track q
that is the trouble" The State brushes
individuality,T he wrote elsewhere; away
with the STATED Let free viii and
spiritual affinity hc the only recognized
basis Of union For even the most ad-
vauced political and social economy he
had an utter, a scoinful contempt BrlndeS