The Washington times., 1906-06-03

insist on holding up 20 the people what
they had chosen to ignore-tho essen
tial gap between the real and the ideal.
Sewing societies and tea parties were
shocked Anathena be the man who
lacks faith IN the ideal-or who tries 20
make Il a vulgar reality.
He answered their wrath and petty
persecution with satire, and the breach
between himself and hfs contemporaries
widened. and eventually he gave up the
battle in Norway. and went to Rome.
For twenty-five years he lived a vol
untary exile in Italy or Germany. This
was his most productive period. About
every second year he published a book.
and the books were translated into
many languages and went through
many editions They reflected the
man. his different stages Of develop
ment. Some were gloomy and sar-
doDic. some fresh and invigorating. but
all provoked discussion so that both
continents rang with his name. When
asked IN his later years which he con-
sidered the best OF his works. he said
that each one was the best when he
wrote #. for each was the expression
Of the thought and spirit which then
animated him
They have certainly been various
enough. During his first years IN
Italy he was intensely Norwegian.
His work breathed the meagerness OF
the Netheriand. obstinate. insistent,
bigoted. uncultured. but under ali this
the fine elements OF stability and
moral purpose. To this class belong
The Pretenders. Brand Peer
Gynt" Brand" is the most unmis-
takably, hopelessly northern thing he
ever wrote-an alegorical poem IN
dramatic form And II was the best
received in Norway and even in Den
mark and Sweden, going through
many editions. Peer Gynt' has been
called ''the tragedy Of the imagina-
ton 1t is symbolic but full OF
satire. and has a fine lyric swing 10 IL
Mems League" a testing of shams
political rather than Of shams social.
and his first important prose work.
There are those who contend that his
poetry will live when his prose is for
gotten. Perhaps It VIII. but his poetry
IS symbolic. aIlegoricaI. well nigh un-
ineligible. while his prose is the prose
OF the surgeon, OF the man Of science.
,
the nineteenth century should be. There
is scarcely a man IN contemporary
literature whose work Is so intensely
modern. shows so clearly our peculari-
ties. our affections, our excesses the
spirit Of our time-so unquiet. so mo-
rose, so subtle. His later plays are
without trick or catch. they owe moth
ing 20 fantastic ranting. they are SIM
PLY the chronicIings Of observations.
All Of his later works have been in
prose: all Of 1t concerns itself with
modern life He once said that he
had written nothing that he had not
lived through or seen IN life. Each Of
his plays-"An Enemy to Society,""
pillars of Society," The Dolls
House" The Wild Ducks Ghosts"
'Rouersholm." Little Eyolf," Sol
ness" when the Dead Awake
uncovered a sham; egitated a reform
of one sort or another. Most OF them
are unpleasant. Ghosts" for instance.
sets forth most convincingly but most
disagreeably. his belief in heredity.
He himself came Of mixed blood His
father was Of Danish family. with a
stotch strain in it; his mother of old
German family. The former was
sociable. jovial. with a quick wit and
a gift Of repartee; the latter reserved.
quiet. retrospective. rather gloomy.
II is said that he got his satire and
wit from the one. his idealism and
gloom from the other.
In The Dolls House he is regard