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An Enemy of the People Act V · The Henrik Ibsen Library

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  Speaker 1: Act five of An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen,
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  Speaker 1: translated by R. Fr Kuarsen's sharp. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Scene
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  Speaker 1: doctor Stockman's study. Bookcases and cabinets containing specimens lined the walls.
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  Speaker 1: At the back is a door leading to the hall
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  Speaker 1: in the foreground. On the left a door leading to
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  Speaker 1: the sitting room. In the right hand wall are two windows,
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  Speaker 1: of which all the panes are broken. The doctor's desk,
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  Speaker 1: littered with books and papers, stands in the middle of
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  Speaker 1: the room, which is in disorder. It is morning. Doctor Stockman,
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  Speaker 1: in dressing gown, slippers and smoking cap, is bending down
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  Speaker 1: and raking with an umbrella under one of the cabinets.
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  Speaker 1: After a little while, he rakes out a stone.
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  Speaker 2: Catherine, I have found another one.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, you will find a lot more. Yet, I expect I.
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  Speaker 2: Shall treasure the stones as relics a leaf, and Morton
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  Speaker 2: shall look at them every day, and when they are
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  Speaker 2: grown up, they shall inherit them as heirlooms. Hasn't what
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  Speaker 2: the deuce is? Her name? The girl you know. Hasn't
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  Speaker 2: she been to fetch the glazier yet?
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  Speaker 3: Yes, but he said he didn't know if he would
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  Speaker 3: be able to come today.
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  Speaker 2: You will see he won't dare to come.
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  Speaker 3: Well, that is just what Randeine thought, that he didn't
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  Speaker 3: dare to on account of the neighbors. What is it
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  Speaker 3: you want, Randean? Give it to me. Here is a
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  Speaker 3: letter for you, Thomas, Let me see it. Ah, of course,
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  Speaker 3: who is it from?
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  Speaker 2: From the landlord? Notice to quit?
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  Speaker 3: Is it possible such a nice man.
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  Speaker 2: Does not dare to do otherwise? He says, doesn't like
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  Speaker 2: doing it, But they're not do otherwise on account of
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  Speaker 2: his fellow citizens, out of regard for public opinion. Is
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  Speaker 2: in a dependent position. Dares not offend certain influential men.
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  Speaker 3: There you see, Thomas, Yes, yes, I see well enough.
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  Speaker 2: The whole lot of them in the town are cowards.
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  Speaker 2: Not a man among them dares do anything for fear
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  Speaker 2: of the others. But it doesn't matter to us, Catherine.
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  Speaker 2: We are going to sail away to the New World.
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  Speaker 3: And but Thomas, are you sure we are well advised
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  Speaker 3: to take this step?
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  Speaker 2: Are you suggesting that I should stay here where they
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  Speaker 2: have pillared me as an enemy? Of the people branded me,
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  Speaker 2: broken my windows, and just look here, Catherine, they have
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  Speaker 2: torn a great rent in my black trousers too.
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  Speaker 3: Oh dear, they are the best pair you have got.
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  Speaker 2: You should never wear your best trousers when you go
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  Speaker 2: out to fight for freedom and truth. It is not
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  Speaker 2: that I care so much about the trousers, you know,
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  Speaker 2: you can always sew them up again for me, but
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  Speaker 2: that the common herd should dare to make this attack
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  Speaker 2: on me as if they were my equals. That is
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  Speaker 2: what I cannot, for the life of me swallow.
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  Speaker 3: There is no doubt they have behaved very ill towards you, Thomas.
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  Speaker 3: But is that sufficient reason for our leaving our native
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  Speaker 3: country for good and all?
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  Speaker 2: If we went to another town, do you suppose we
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  Speaker 2: should not find the common people just as insolent as
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  Speaker 2: they are here. Depend upon it, there is not much
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  Speaker 2: to choose between them. Ah well, let the curs snap.
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  Speaker 2: That is not the worst part of it. The worst
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  Speaker 2: is that from one end of this country to the other,
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  Speaker 2: every man is the slave of his party. Although as
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  Speaker 2: far as that goes, I dare say it is not
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  Speaker 2: much better in the Free West either. The compact majority
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  Speaker 2: in the liberal public opinion, and all that infernal old
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  Speaker 2: bagatrix are probably rampant there too, But there things are
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  Speaker 2: done on a larger scale. You see. They may they
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  Speaker 2: kill you, but they won't put you to death by
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  Speaker 2: slow torture. They don't squeeze a free man's soul in
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  Speaker 2: a vice as they do here. And if need be,
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  Speaker 2: one can live in solitude. If only I knew whether
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  Speaker 2: there was a virgin forest or a small south Sea
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  Speaker 2: island for sale cheap.
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  Speaker 3: But think of the boys, Thomas.
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  Speaker 2: What a strange woman you are, Catherine, would you prefer
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  Speaker 2: to have the boys grow up in a society like this?
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  Speaker 2: You suffer yourself last night that half the population are
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  Speaker 2: out of their minds, And if the other half have
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  Speaker 2: not lost their senses, it is because they are mere
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  Speaker 2: brutes with no sense to lose.
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  Speaker 3: But Thomas, dear the imprudent things you said had something
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  Speaker 3: to do with it.
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  Speaker 2: You know, well, listen what I said perfectly true. Don't
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  Speaker 2: they turn every idea topsy turvy? Don't they make a
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  Speaker 2: regular hodgepodge of right and wrong? Don't they say that
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  Speaker 2: the things I know are true are lies? The the
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  Speaker 2: craziest part of it all is the fact of these liberals,
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  Speaker 2: men of full age, going about in crowds, imagining that
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  Speaker 2: they are the broad minded party. Did you ever hear
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  Speaker 2: anything like it? Catherine?
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  Speaker 3: Yes, yes, it's mad enough of them, certainly.
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  Speaker 1: But Petra comes in from the sitting room.
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  Speaker 3: Back from school already.
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  Speaker 4: Yes, I have been given notice of dismissal.
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  Speaker 3: Dismissal you too, missus.
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  Speaker 4: Busk gave me my notice, so I thought it was
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  Speaker 4: best to go at once.
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  Speaker 2: You were perfectly right too.
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  Speaker 3: Who would have thought missus Busk was a woman like that?
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  Speaker 4: Missus Busk isn't a bit like that.
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  Speaker 5: Mother.
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  Speaker 4: I saw quite plainly how it hurt her to do it.
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  Speaker 4: But she didn't dare do otherwise, she said, And so
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  Speaker 4: I got my notice.
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  Speaker 2: Ha ha, she didn't dare do otherwise either. It's delicious.
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  Speaker 3: Well, after the dreadful scenes last night.
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  Speaker 4: It was not only that just listen to this father. Well,
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  Speaker 4: missus Busk showed me no less than three letters she received.
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  Speaker 2: This morning Anonymous. I suppose yes, yes, because they didn't
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  Speaker 2: dare to risk signing their names Catherine, and.
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  Speaker 4: Two of them were to the effect that a man
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  Speaker 4: who has been our guest here was declaring last night
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  Speaker 4: at the club that my views on various subjects are
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  Speaker 4: extremely emancipated.
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  Speaker 2: You did not deny that. I hope no.
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  Speaker 4: You know I wouldn't missus. Busk's own views are tolerably
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  Speaker 4: emancipated when we are alone together. But now that this
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  Speaker 4: report about me is being spread, she dare not keep
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  Speaker 4: me on any longer.
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  Speaker 3: And someone who had been a guest of ours. That
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  Speaker 3: shows you the return you get for your hospitality, Thomas.
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  Speaker 2: We can't live in such a disgusting hole any longer.
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  Speaker 2: Pack up as quickly as you can, Catherine. The sooner
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  Speaker 2: we get away, the better be quiet.
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  Speaker 3: I think I hear someone in the hall. See who
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  Speaker 3: it is, Petra.
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  Speaker 4: Oh it's you, Captain Horster. Do come in?
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  Speaker 6: Good morning? I thought I would just come in and
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  Speaker 6: see how you were.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks.
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  Speaker 3: That is really kind of you, And thank you too
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  Speaker 3: for helping us through the crowd. Captain Horster.
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  Speaker 4: How did you manage to get home again?
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  Speaker 6: Oh? Somehow or other. I'm fairly strong. And there is
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  Speaker 6: more sound than fury about these folk.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, isn't their Swinish cowardice astonishing? Look here I will
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  Speaker 2: show you something. There are all the stones they have
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  Speaker 2: thrown through my windows. Just look at them. I'm hanged
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  Speaker 2: if there are more than two decently large bits of
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  Speaker 2: hard stone in the whole heap. The rest are nothing
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  Speaker 2: but gravel, wretched little things. And yet they stood out there,
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  Speaker 2: bawling and swearing that they would do me some violence.
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  Speaker 2: But as for doing anything, you don't say much of
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  Speaker 2: that in this town.
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  Speaker 6: Just as well for you this time, doctor.
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  Speaker 2: True enough. But it makes one angry all the same,
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  Speaker 2: because if someday it should be a question of a
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  Speaker 2: national fight, in real earnest, you will see that public
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  Speaker 2: opinion will be in favor of taking to one's heels,
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  Speaker 2: and the compact majority will turn tail like a flock
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  Speaker 2: of sheep. Captain Horster, that is what is so mournful
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  Speaker 2: to think of. It gives me so much concern that
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  Speaker 2: no devil take it. It is ridiculous to care about it.
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  Speaker 2: They have called me an enemy of the people. So
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  Speaker 2: an enemy of the people, let me be.
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  Speaker 3: You will never be that, Thomas.
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  Speaker 2: Don't swear to that, Catherine. To be called an ugly
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  Speaker 2: name may have the same effect as a pin scratch
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  Speaker 2: in the lung. And that hateful name I can't get
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  Speaker 2: quit of it. It is sticking here in the pit
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  Speaker 2: of my stomach eating into me like a corrosive acid,
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  Speaker 2: and no magnesia will remove it.
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  Speaker 4: Pah, you should only laugh at them, father.
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  Speaker 6: They will change their minds some day, doctor.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, Thomas, as sure as you are standing here.
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  Speaker 2: Perhaps when it is too late. Much good may it
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  Speaker 2: do them? They may wallow in their fields then, and
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  Speaker 2: rue the day when they drove a patriot in exile.
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  Speaker 2: When do you sail?
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  Speaker 6: Captain Horst Hm, That was just what I had come
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  Speaker 6: to speak about.
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  Speaker 2: Why has anything gone wrong with the ship?
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  Speaker 6: No, But what has happened is that I am not
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  Speaker 6: to set sail in it.
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  Speaker 4: Do you mean that you have been dismissed from your command?
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  Speaker 6: Yes, that's just it.
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  Speaker 3: You too, there, you see, Thomas.
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  Speaker 2: And that for the truth's sake. Oh, if I had
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  Speaker 2: thought such a thing possible.
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  Speaker 6: You mustn't take it to heart. I shall be sure
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  Speaker 6: to find a job with some ship owner or other elsewhere.
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  Speaker 2: And that is this man Vick, a wealthy man, independent
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  Speaker 2: of every one and everything. Shame on him.
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  Speaker 6: He is quite an excellent fellow. Otherwise, he told me
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  Speaker 6: himself he would willingly have kept me on if only
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  Speaker 6: he had dared.
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  Speaker 2: But he didn't dare. No of course not.
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  Speaker 6: It is not such an easy matter, he said. For
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  Speaker 6: a party man.
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  Speaker 2: The worthy man spoke the truth. A party is like
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  Speaker 2: a sausage machine and mashes up all sorts of heads
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  Speaker 2: together into the same mincemeat, fat heads and blockheads, all
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  Speaker 2: in one mash.
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  Speaker 3: Come come, Thomas, dear.
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  Speaker 4: If only you would not come home with us, things
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  Speaker 4: might not have come to this pass.
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  Speaker 6: I do not regret it.
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  Speaker 4: Thank you for that.
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  Speaker 6: And so what I came to say was that if
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  Speaker 6: you are determined to go away, I have thought of
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  Speaker 6: another plan that's splendid.
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  Speaker 2: If only we can get away at once.
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  Speaker 3: Hush, wasn't that someone knocking?
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  Speaker 4: That is uncle?
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  Speaker 3: Surely Ah, come in, dear, Thomas promised me. Definitely.
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  Speaker 1: Peter Stockman comes in from the hall.
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  Speaker 5: Oh you're engaged. In that case, I will no, no
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  Speaker 5: come in, but I wanted to speak to you alone.
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  Speaker 3: We will go into the sitting room in the meanwhile.
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  Speaker 6: And I will look in again later.
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  Speaker 2: No go in there with them, Captain Horst. I want
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  Speaker 2: to hear more about very well.
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  Speaker 6: I will wait.
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  Speaker 2: Then.
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  Speaker 1: He follows missus Stockman and Patra into the sitting room.
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  Speaker 2: I dare say you will find it rather drafty here
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  Speaker 2: to day. Put your hat on.
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  Speaker 5: Thank you, if I may, I think I caught colt
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  Speaker 5: last night. I stood and shivered.
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  Speaker 2: Really I found it warm enough.
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  Speaker 5: I regret it was not in my power to prevent
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  Speaker 5: those excesses last night.
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  Speaker 2: Have you anything in particular to say to me besides.
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  Speaker 5: That I have this document for you from the Baths
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  Speaker 5: Committee my dismissal, Yes, dating from the day. It gives
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  Speaker 5: us pain to do it, but to speak, frankly, we
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  Speaker 5: dare not do otherwise on account of public opinion. Dared not.
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  Speaker 2: I seem to have heard that word before today.
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  Speaker 5: I must beg you to understand your position clearly. For
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  Speaker 5: the future. You must not count on any practice whatever
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  Speaker 5: in the town.
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  Speaker 2: Devil take the practice. But why are you so sure
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  Speaker 2: of that?
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  Speaker 5: The Householder's Association is circulating a list from house to house.
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  Speaker 5: All right minded citizens are being called upon to give
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  Speaker 5: up employing you. And I can assure you that not
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  Speaker 5: a single head of a family will risk refusing his signature.
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  Speaker 5: They simply dare not.
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  Speaker 2: No. No, I don't doubt it.
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  Speaker 5: But what then, if I might advise you it would
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  Speaker 5: be best to leave the place for a little while.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, the propriety of leaving the place has occurred to me.
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  Speaker 5: Good. And then when you have had six months to
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  Speaker 5: think things over, if after mature consideration, you can persuade
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  Speaker 5: yourself to write a few words of regret, acknowledging your error.
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  Speaker 2: I might have my appointment restored to me.
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  Speaker 5: Do you mean, perhaps it is not at all impossible.
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  Speaker 2: But what about public opinion? Then surely you would not
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  Speaker 2: dare to do it on account of public feeling.
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  Speaker 5: Public opinion is an extremely mutable thing, and to be
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  Speaker 5: quite candid with you, it is a matter of great
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  Speaker 5: importance to us to have some admission of that sort
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  Speaker 5: from you in writing.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, that's what you are after, is it? I will
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  Speaker 2: just trouble you to remember what I said to you
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  Speaker 2: lately about foxy tricks of that sort.
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  Speaker 5: Your position was quite different then. At that time you
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  Speaker 5: had reason to suppose that you had the whole town
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  Speaker 5: at your back.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, and now I have the whole town on my back.
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  Speaker 2: I would not do it if I had the devil
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  Speaker 2: and his damn on my back. Never. Never, I tell.
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  Speaker 5: You, a man with the family has no right to
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  Speaker 5: behave as you do. You have no right to do it.
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  Speaker 2: I have no right. There is only one single thing
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  Speaker 2: in the world a freeman has no right to do.
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  Speaker 2: Do you know what that is? No, of course you don't,
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  Speaker 2: But I will tell you. A free man has no
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  Speaker 2: right to soil himself with filth. He has no right
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  Speaker 2: to behave in a way that would justify his spitting
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  Speaker 2: in his own face.
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  Speaker 5: This sort of thing sounds extremely plausible, of course, and
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  Speaker 5: if there were no other explanation for your obstinacy. But
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  Speaker 5: as it happens that there is.
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  Speaker 2: What do you mean?
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  Speaker 5: You understand very well what I mean, But as your
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  Speaker 5: brother and a man of discretion, I advise you not
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  Speaker 5: to build too much upon expectations and prospects that may
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  Speaker 5: so very easily fail you.
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  Speaker 2: What in the world is all this about?
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  Speaker 5: Do you really ask me to believe that you are
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  Speaker 5: ignorant of the terms of mister Keel's will.
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  Speaker 2: I know that the small amount he possesses is to
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  Speaker 2: go to an institution for indigent old work people. How
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  Speaker 2: does that concern.
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  Speaker 5: Me in the first place? It is, by no means
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  Speaker 5: a small amount that is in question. Mister Keel is
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  Speaker 5: a fairly wealthy.
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  Speaker 2: Man, But I had no notion of that. Hmm.
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  Speaker 5: Hun't you really? Then? I suppose you had no notion
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  Speaker 5: either that a considerable portion of his wealth will come
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  Speaker 5: to your children, you and your wife having a life
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  Speaker 5: rent of the capital. Has she never told you so?
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  Speaker 2: Never? On my honor, Quite the reverse, he has consistently
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: done nothing but fume at being so unconscionably heavily taxed.
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  Speaker 2: But you are perfectly certain of this, Peter.
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  Speaker 5: I have it from an absolutely reliable source.
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  Speaker 2: Then, thank god, Catherine is provided for, and the children too.
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  Speaker 2: I must tell her this at once, Catherine, Catherine, hush.
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  Speaker 5: Don't see a word yet.
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  Speaker 3: What is the matter?
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  Speaker 2: Oh? Nothing, you can go back.
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  Speaker 1: She shuts the door. Doctor Stockman walks up and down
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  Speaker 1: in his excitement.
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  Speaker 2: Provided for. Just think of it. We are all provided
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  Speaker 2: for and for life. What a blessed feeling it is
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  Speaker 2: to no one is provided for?
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  Speaker 5: Yes, but that is just exactly what you are not.
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  Speaker 5: Mister Kiel can order his will any day he likes.
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  Speaker 2: But he won't do that. My dear Peter the Badger
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  Speaker 2: is much too delighted at my attack on you and
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  Speaker 2: your wise friends.
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  Speaker 5: Ali that throws a light on various things.
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  Speaker 2: What things?
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  Speaker 5: I see that the whole thing was a combined maneuver
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  Speaker 5: on your part and his These violent, reckless attacks that
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  Speaker 5: you've made against the leading men of the town, under
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  Speaker 5: the pretense that it was in the name of truth.
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  Speaker 2: What about them?
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  Speaker 5: I see that there were nothing else than the stipulated
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  Speaker 5: price for that vindictive old man's will.
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  Speaker 2: Peter, you are the most disgusting plebeian I have ever
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  Speaker 2: met in all my life.
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  Speaker 5: All is over between us. Your dismissal is irrevocable. We
• 17:10
  Speaker 5: have a weapon against you now.
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  Speaker 2: For shame, for shame, Catherine, you must have the floor
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  Speaker 2: scrubbed after him. But what's her name? The devil? Take it?
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: The girl who has always got soot on her nose.
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  Speaker 4: Hush, Thomas, be quiet, Father, grandfather is here asking if
• 17:33
  Speaker 4: he may speak to you alone.
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  Speaker 2: Certainly he may come in, mister Keele.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: Morton Keel comes in. Doctor Stockman shuts the door after him.
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  Speaker 2: What can I do for you? Won't you sit down?
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  Speaker 7: I won't sit He looked very comfortable here to day, Thomas, Yes,
• 17:51
  Speaker 7: don't we very comfortable? Plenty of fresh air. I should
• 17:55
  Speaker 7: think you have got enough to day of that oxygen
• 17:58
  Speaker 7: you were talking about yesterday. Your conscience must be in
• 18:01
  Speaker 7: splendid order to day. I should think it is so
• 18:04
  Speaker 7: I should think. Do you know what I have got here?
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  Speaker 2: A good conscience too? I hope?
• 18:11
  Speaker 7: Bah, No, it is something better than that.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: He takes a thick pocket book from his breast pocket,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: opens it and displays a packet of papers.
• 18:20
  Speaker 7: Shares in the baths they were not difficult to get
• 18:24
  Speaker 7: to day, and you have been buying as many as
• 18:28
  Speaker 7: I could pay for.
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: But my dear mister Keel, consider the state of the
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: bath's affairs.
• 18:34
  Speaker 7: If you behave like a reasonable man, you can soon
• 18:37
  Speaker 7: set the boss on their feet again.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: Well, you can say for yourself that I have done
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: all I can, But they are all mad in this town.
• 18:47
  Speaker 7: You said yesterday that the worst of this pollution came
• 18:50
  Speaker 7: from my tannery. If that is true, then my grandfather
• 18:54
  Speaker 7: and my father before me, and I myself for many
• 18:56
  Speaker 7: years past, have been poisoning the town like three destroying angels.
• 19:01
  Speaker 7: Do you think I'm going to sit quiet under that reproach? Um?
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: Unfortunately, I'm afraid you will.
• 19:06
  Speaker 7: Have to no, thank you. I'm jealous of my name
• 19:10
  Speaker 7: and my reputation. They call me the badger. I am
• 19:13
  Speaker 7: told a badger is a kind of pig, I believe,
• 19:16
  Speaker 7: But I am not going to give them the right
• 19:18
  Speaker 7: to call me that I mean to live and die
• 19:21
  Speaker 7: a clean man.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: And how are you going to set about it?
• 19:25
  Speaker 7: You shall cleanse me, Thomas. I do you know what
• 19:28
  Speaker 7: money I have bought these shares with? No, of course
• 19:31
  Speaker 7: you can't know, but I will tell you. It is
• 19:34
  Speaker 7: the money that Catherine and Petra and the boys will
• 19:37
  Speaker 7: have when I am gone, because I have been able
• 19:39
  Speaker 7: to save a little bit after all, you know.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: And you have gone and taken Catherine's money for this.
• 19:46
  Speaker 7: Yes, the whole of the money is invested in the
• 19:48
  Speaker 7: baths now. And now I just want to see you
• 19:52
  Speaker 7: whether you are quite stark staring mad at Thomas. If
• 19:56
  Speaker 7: you still make out that these animals and other nasty
• 19:58
  Speaker 7: things of that sort come from my tunnery, it will
• 20:01
  Speaker 7: be exactly as if you were to flay broad strips
• 20:04
  Speaker 7: of skin from Catherine's body and Petra's and the boys.
• 20:07
  Speaker 7: And no decent man would do that unless he were mad.
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: Yes, but I am mad. I am mad.
• 20:16
  Speaker 7: You cannot be so absurdly mad as all that when
• 20:19
  Speaker 7: it is a question of your wife and children.
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: Why wouldn't you consult me about it before you went
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: and bought all that.
• 20:26
  Speaker 7: Trash what is done cannot be undone.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: If only I were not so certain about it. But
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: I am absolutely convinced that I am right.
• 20:35
  Speaker 7: If you stick to your mad idea, this won't be
• 20:37
  Speaker 7: worth much, you know.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: But hang it all. It might be possible for signs
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: to discover some prophylactic I should think, or are some
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: antidote of some.
• 20:47
  Speaker 7: Kind to kill these animals?
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: Do you mean yes? Or to make them innocuous?
• 20:52
  Speaker 7: Couldn't you try? Some rat Spain?
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: Don't talk nonsense. They all say it is only imagination,
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: you know. Well, let it go at that, Let them
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: have their own way about it. Haven't the ignorant, narrow
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: minded curs revile me as an enemy of the people.
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: And haven't they been ready to tear the clothes off
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: my back.
• 21:13
  Speaker 7: Too, and broken all your windows to pieces?
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: And then there is the duty to my family. I
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: must talk it over with Catherine. She is great on
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: those things.
• 21:23
  Speaker 7: That is right. Be guided by a reasonable woman's advice.
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: To think you could do such a preposterous thing, risking
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: Catherine's money in this way, and putting me in such
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: a horribly painful dilemma. When I look at you, I
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: think I see the devil himself.
• 21:43
  Speaker 7: Then I had better go, but I must have an
• 21:46
  Speaker 7: answer from you before two o'clock. Yes or no? If
• 21:49
  Speaker 7: it is no, the shares go to a charity, and
• 21:53
  Speaker 7: that this very day.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: And what does Catherine get.
• 21:57
  Speaker 7: Not a halpenny?
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: The door leading to the hall open, Hofstad and Aslaksen
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: make their appearance.
• 22:04
  Speaker 7: Look at those two.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: What the devil have you actually the face to come
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: into my house?
• 22:11
  Speaker 8: Certainly we have something to say to you, you see.
• 22:14
  Speaker 7: Yes or no before two o'clock.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: Ahh Morton Keel goes out.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: Well, what do you want with me? Be brief?
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: I can quite understand that you are annoyed with us
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: for our attitude at the meeting yesterday.
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: Attitude do you call it? Yes, it was a charming attitude.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: I call it weak, womanish, damnably shameful.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: Call it what you like? We could not do otherwise, you.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: Dared not do otherwise. Isn't that it?
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: Well? If you like to put it that way?
• 22:47
  Speaker 8: But why did you not let us have word of
• 22:49
  Speaker 8: it beforehand? Just a hint to mister Hobstad or to
• 22:52
  Speaker 8: me a hint of what of what was behind it all?
• 22:57
  Speaker 8: I don't understand you in the oh, yes, you do,
• 23:01
  Speaker 8: doctor Stockman, It is no good making a mystery of
• 23:04
  Speaker 8: it any longer.
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: What the devil do you both mean?
• 23:09
  Speaker 8: May I ask if your father in law is not
• 23:11
  Speaker 8: going round the town buying up all the shares in
• 23:14
  Speaker 8: the baths.
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: Yes, he has been buying bath shares today, But it.
• 23:19
  Speaker 8: Would have been more prudent to get someone else to
• 23:21
  Speaker 8: do it, someone less nearly related to you.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: And you should not have let your name appear in
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: the affair. There was no need for anyone to note
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: that the attack on the baths came from you. You
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: ought to have consulted me, doctor Stockman.
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: Are such things conceivable? Are such things possible?
• 23:40
  Speaker 8: Evidently they are. But it is better to use a
• 23:43
  Speaker 8: little finesse, you know.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: And it is much better to have several persons in
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: a thing of that sort, because the responsibility of each
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: individual is lessened when there are others with him.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: Come to the point, gentlemen, what do you want?
• 23:57
  Speaker 8: Perhaps mister Hobstad had better know you tell him as
• 24:01
  Speaker 8: LExEN Well. The fact is that now we know the
• 24:04
  Speaker 8: bearings of the whole affair, we think we might venture
• 24:07
  Speaker 8: to put the people's messenger at your disposal.
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: Do you dare do that? Now what about public opinion?
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: Are you not afraid of a storm breaking upon our heads?
• 24:17
  Speaker 8: We will try to weather it, and you must be
• 24:19
  Speaker 8: ready to go off quickly on a new tac doctor.
• 24:22
  Speaker 8: As soon as your invective has done its work?
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: Do you mean as soon as my father in law
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: and I have got hold of the shares at a
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: low figure?
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: Your reasons for wishing to get control of the baths
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: are mainly scientific? I take it, of course.
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: It was for scientific reasons that I persuaded the old
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: badger to stand in with me in the matter. So
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: we will tink her at the conduit pipes. A little
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: man dig up a little bit of the shore, and
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: it shan't cost the town a sixpence. That will be
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: all right.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: Eh, I think so? If you have the people's messenger
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: behind you.
• 24:58
  Speaker 8: The press is a power in a free commune, quite.
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: So, and so is public opinion. And you, mister Oslockson,
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: I suppose you will be answerable for the Householder's Association, yes, and.
• 25:12
  Speaker 8: For the Temperance Society. You may rely on that.
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: But gentlemen, I really am ashamed to ask the question,
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: But what return do you.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: We should prefer to help you? Without any return whatever,
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: believe me, But the People's Messenger is in rather a
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: shaky condition. It doesn't go really well. And I should
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: be very unwilling to suspend the paper now when there
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: is so much work to be done here in the
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: political way.
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: Quite so, that would be a great trial to such
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: a friend of the people as you are. But I
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: am an enemy of the people. Remember where have I
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: put my stick? Where the devil is my stick?
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: What's that?
• 25:56
  Speaker 8: Surely you never mean?
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: And suppose I don't give you a single penny of
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: all I get out of it. Many is not very
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: easy to get out of us. Rich folk.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: Please to remember, and you please to remember that this
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: affair of the shares can be represented in two ways.
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: Yes, and you are just the man to do it.
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: If I don't come to the rescue of the People's Messenger,
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: you will certainly take an evil view of the affair.
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: You will hunt me down, I can well imagine, pursue me,
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: try to throttle me as a dog does a hare.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: It is a natural law. Every animal must fight for
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: its own livelihood.
• 26:36
  Speaker 8: And get its food where it can.
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: You know, then you go and look for yours in
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: the gutter, Because I am going to show you which
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: is the strongest animal of us. Three Ah, Now.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: You are surely not going to use violence.
• 26:53
  Speaker 8: Take care what you are doing with that umbrella.
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: Out of the window with you, mister Havstadt.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: Are you quite mad?
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: Out of the window, mister Aslaxon, jump, I tell you
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: will have to do it sooner or later.
• 27:07
  Speaker 8: Moderation, doctor. I am a delicate man. I can stand
• 27:10
  Speaker 8: so little.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: Help help missus Stockman, Petra and Horster come in from
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: the sitting room.
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: Good gracious Thomas, what is happening?
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: Jump out? I tell you, Out into the gutter.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: An assault on an unoffending man, I call you to witness.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: Captain Horster hurries out through the hall. If only I
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: knew the way about here, steals out through the sitting room.
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: Control yourself, Thomas, upon my.
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: Soul, they have escaped, after all?
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: What did they want you to do?
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: I will tell you later on. I have something else
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: to think about.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: Now goes to the table and write something on a
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: calling card.
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: Look there, Catherine, what is written there?
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: Three big nose? What does that mean?
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: I will tell you that too later on. There Petra
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: tell sooty face to run over to the badgers with
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: that as quick as she can. Hurry up.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: Petra takes his card and goes out to the hall.
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: Well, I think I have had a visit from every
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: one of the Devil's messengers to day. But now I
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: am going to sharpen my pen till they can feel
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: its point. I shall dip it in venom, and gall
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: I shall hurl my inkpot at their heads.
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: Yes, but we are going away, you know, Thomas.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: Petra comes back.
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: Well, she has.
• 28:34
  Speaker 4: Gone with it.
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: Good going away? Did you say? No, I'll be hanged
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: if we are going away. We are going to stay
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: where we are.
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: Catherine, stay here here in the town.
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: Yes. Here, this is the field of battle. This is
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: where the fight will be. This is where I shall triumph.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: As soon as I have had my son up, I
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: shall go out to look for another house. We must
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: have a roof over our heads for the winter.
• 29:07
  Speaker 6: That you shall have in my house?
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: Can I? Yes?
• 29:11
  Speaker 6: Quite well, I have plenty of room, and I am
• 29:14
  Speaker 6: almost never at home.
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: How good of you, Captain Horster.
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you, thank you. That is one trouble over.
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: Now I can set to work in earnest at once.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: There is an endless amount of things to look through here, Catherine.
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: Luckily I shall have all my time at my disposal,
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: because I have been dismissed from the baths you know.
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: Oh yes, I expected.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: That, And they want to take my practice away from
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: me too. Let them. I have got the poor people
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: to fall back upon anyway, those that don't pay anything,
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: and after all they need me most too. But by Jove,
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: they will have to listen to me. I shall each
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: to them in season and out of season, as it
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: says somewhere.
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: But dear Thomas, I should have thought events had showed
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: you what use it is to preach.
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: You are really ridiculous, Catherine. Do you want me to
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: let myself be beaten off the field by public opinion
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: and the compact majority in all that devilry? No, thank you,
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: And what I want to do is so simple and
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: clear and straightforward. I only want to drum into the
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: heads of these curs the fact that the Liberals are
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: the most insidious enemies of freedom, that party programs strangle
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: every young and vigorous truth, that considerations of expediency turn
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: morality and justice upside down, and that they will end
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: by making life here unbearable. Don't you think, Captain horster
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: that I ought to be able to make people understand
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: that very likely.
• 31:00
  Speaker 6: I don't know much about such things myself.
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: Well, look here I will explain. It is the party
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: leaders that must be exterminated. A party leader is like
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: a wolf? Is he like a voracious wolf? He requires
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: a certain number of smaller victims to prey upon every
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: year if he is to live. Just look at Hofstadt
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: and us Lockson. How many smaller victims have they not
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: put an end to, or at any rate maimed and
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: mangled until they are fit for nothing except to be
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: householders or subscribers to the people's messenger. Come here, Catherine,
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: Look how beautifully the sun shines to day, and this
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: lovely spring air I am drinking in.
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: Yes, if only we could live on sunshine and spring air.
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: Thomas, Oh, you will have to pinch and save a bit,
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: then we shall get along. That gives me very little concern.
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: What is much worse is that I know of no
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: one who was liberal minded and high minded enough to
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: venture to take up my work after me.
• 32:06
  Speaker 4: Don't think about that, father, You have plenty of time
• 32:09
  Speaker 4: before you. Hello, here are the boys already aile?
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: Even Morton, come in from the sitting room.
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: Have you got a holiday?
• 32:17
  Speaker 9: No, But we were fighting with the other boys between lessons.
• 32:21
  Speaker 9: That isn't true.
• 32:22
  Speaker 8: It's with the other boys.
• 32:23
  Speaker 9: We're fighting with us well. And then mister Rowland said
• 32:26
  Speaker 9: we had better stay at home a day or two.
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: I have it. I have it. By jove. You shall
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: never set foot in the school again.
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: No more school, but Thomas.
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: Never never. I say I will educate you myself. That
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: is to say you shan't learn a blessed thing.
• 32:48
  Speaker 9: Hooray.
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: But I will make liberal minded and high minded men
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: of you. You must help me.
• 32:54
  Speaker 4: With that, Petro, Yes, father, you may be sure I will,
• 32:58
  Speaker 4: and my.
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: School shall be in the room where they insulted me
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: and called me an enemy of the people. But we
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: are too few as we are, I must have at
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: least twelve boys to begin with.
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: You will certainly never get them in this town.
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: We shall. Don't you know any street urchins, regular ragamuffins?
• 33:19
  Speaker 9: Yes, father, I know lots.
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: That's capital. Bring me some specimens of them. I am
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: going to experiment with curs just for once. There may
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: be some exceptional heads among them.
• 33:33
  Speaker 9: And what are we going to do when you have
• 33:35
  Speaker 9: made little minded and high minded men of us, then.
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: You shall drive all the wolves out of the country.
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: My boys, A leaf looks rather doubtful about it. Morton
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: jumps about, crying, Hurrah.
• 33:47
  Speaker 3: Let us hope it won't be the wolves that will
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: drive you out of the country. Thomas, are you out
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: of your mind?
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: Catherine? Drive me out now? When I am the strongest
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: man in the town.
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: The strongest now, yes, And I will.
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: Go so far as to say that now I am
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: the strongest man in the whole world. I say, hush,
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: you mustn't say anything about it yet. But I have
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: made a great.
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: Discovery another one.
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: Yes, it is this. Let me tell you that the
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone.
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: Oh Thomas, Thomas Father.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: And of Act five and of an Enemy of the
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: People by Henrik Ibsen, translated by R. Fard Warsen. Short