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

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Speaker 1: Act four of An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen,
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Speaker 1: translated by R.
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Speaker 2: FRK.
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Speaker 1: Parson Sharp. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
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Speaker 1: are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
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Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox dot org. Scene a big old fashioned
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Speaker 1: room in Captain Horster's house. At the back, folding doors
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Speaker 1: which are standing open lead to an ante room. Three
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Speaker 1: windows in the left hand wall. In the middle of
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Speaker 1: the opposite wall, a platform has been erected. On this
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Speaker 1: is a small table with two candles, a water bottle
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Speaker 1: and a glass, and a bell. The room is lit
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Speaker 1: by lamps placed between the windows. In the foreground. On
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Speaker 1: the left there is a table with candles and the chair.
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Speaker 1: To the right is a door and some chair standing
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Speaker 1: near it. The room is nearly filled with a crowd
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Speaker 1: of townspeople of all sorts, a few women and schoolboys
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Speaker 1: being amongst them. People are still streaming in from the back,
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Speaker 1: and the room is soon filled.
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Speaker 3: Hullo, loamstad you here too.
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Speaker 4: I go to every public meeting.
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Speaker 5: I do brought your whistle too, I expect.
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Speaker 4: I should think so, haven't you rather?
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Speaker 5: And old Evanson said he was going to bring a cowhorn.
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Speaker 4: He did, good old Evanson.
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Speaker 6: I say, tell me what is going on here tonight?
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Speaker 4: Doctor Stockman is going to deliver an address attacking the mayor.
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Speaker 6: But the mayor is his brother.
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Speaker 3: That doesn't matter. Doctor Stockman's not the chap to be afraid.
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Speaker 7: For various reasons which you will easily understand. I must
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Speaker 7: beg to be excused. But fortunately we have among us
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Speaker 7: a man who I think will be acceptable to you all.
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Speaker 7: I referred to the president of the Householders Association, mister Oslackson.
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Speaker 5: Yes, as Lucksen, Bravo, ask Lucksen.
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Speaker 1: Doctor Stockman takes up his MSS and walks up and
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Speaker 1: down the platform.
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Speaker 8: Since my fellow citizens choose to entrust me with this duty,
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Speaker 8: I cannot refuse.
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Speaker 1: Loud applause Aslaksen mounts the platform, billing writing.
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Speaker 2: Mister Aslaksan was elected with enthusiasm.
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Speaker 8: And now as I am in this position, I should
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Speaker 8: like to say a few brief words. I am a
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Speaker 8: quiet and peaceable man who believes in discreet moderation and
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Speaker 8: in moderate discretion. All my friends can bear witness to that.
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Speaker 4: That's right, right, that's right, Teslaxen.
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Speaker 8: I have learned in the school of life and experience,
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Speaker 8: that moderation is the most valuable virtue a citizen can
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Speaker 8: possess here, and moreover, that discretion and moderation are what
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Speaker 8: enable a man to be of most service to the community.
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Speaker 8: I would therefore suggest to our esteemed fellow citizen who
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Speaker 8: has called this meeting, that he should strive to keep
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Speaker 8: strictly within the bounds of moderation.
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Speaker 3: Three cheers for the moderation society.
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Speaker 4: Shameh.
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Speaker 8: No interruptions, gentlemen, Please, does any one wish to make
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Speaker 8: any remarks? Mister Chairman, the Mayor will address the meeting.
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Speaker 7: In consideration of the close relationship in which, as you
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Speaker 7: all know, I stand to the present medical officer of
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Speaker 7: the baths. I should have preferred not to speak this evening,
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Speaker 7: but my official position with regard to the baths, and
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Speaker 7: my solicitude for the vital interests of the town, compelled
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Speaker 7: me to bring forward emotion. I venture to presume that
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Speaker 7: there is not a single one of our citizens present
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Speaker 7: who considers it desirable that unreliable and exaggerated accounts of
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Speaker 7: the sanitary conditions of the baths and the town should
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Speaker 7: be spread abroad.
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Speaker 6: No, no, no, certainly not.
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Speaker 4: We protest against it.
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Speaker 7: Therefore, I should like to propose that the meeting should
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Speaker 7: not permit the Medical Officer either to read or to
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Speaker 7: comment on his proposed lecture.
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Speaker 9: Not permit what the devil ahem, ahem, very well go ahead.
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Speaker 7: In my communication to the People's messenger, I put the
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Speaker 7: essential effects before the public in such a way that
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Speaker 7: every fair minded citizen can easily form his own opinion
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Speaker 7: from it. You will see that the main result of
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Speaker 7: the medical officer proposals, apart from their constituting a vote
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Speaker 7: of censure on the leading men of the town, would
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Speaker 7: be to settle the rate payers with an unnecessary expenditure
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Speaker 7: of at least some thousands of pounds.
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Speaker 1: Sounds of disapproval among the audience and some cat calls silence.
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Speaker 8: Please, gentlemen, I beg to support the Mayor's motion. I
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Speaker 8: quite agree with him that there is something behind this
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Speaker 8: agitation started by the doctor. He talks about the baths,
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Speaker 8: but it is a revolution he is aiming at. He
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Speaker 8: wants to get the administration of the town put into
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Speaker 8: new hands. No one doubts the honesty of the doctor's intentions.
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Speaker 8: No one will suggest that there can be any two
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Speaker 8: opinions as to that, I myself am a believer in
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Speaker 8: self government for the people, provided it does not fall
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Speaker 8: too heavily on the ratepayers. But that would be the
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Speaker 8: case here, and that is why I will see doctor
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Speaker 8: Stockman damned. I beg your pardon before I go with
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Speaker 8: him in the matter. You can pay too dearly for
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Speaker 8: a thing sometimes, that is my opinion.
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Speaker 1: Loud applause on all sides, I too, feel called upon
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Speaker 1: to explain my position. Doctor Stockman's agitation appeared to be
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Speaker 1: gaining a certain amount of sympathy at first, so I
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Speaker 1: supported it as impartially as I could. But presently we
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Speaker 1: had reason to suspect that we had allowed ourselves to
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Speaker 1: be misled by misrepresentation of the state of affair. Misrepresentation, well,
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Speaker 1: let us say, not an entirely trustworthy representation. The mayor's
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Speaker 1: statement has proved that I hope no one here has
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Speaker 1: any doubts as to my liberal principles. The attitude of
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Speaker 1: the people's messenger towards important political questions is well known
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Speaker 1: to everyone, But the advice of experienced and thoughtful men
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Speaker 1: has convinced me that in purely local matters, a newspaper
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Speaker 1: ought to proceed with a certain caution.
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Speaker 8: I entirely agree with the speaker.
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Speaker 1: And in the matter before us, it is now an
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Speaker 1: undoubted fact that doctor Stockman has public opinion against him. Now,
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Speaker 1: what is an editor's first and most obvious duty, gentleman,
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Speaker 1: Is it not to work in harmony with his readers.
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Speaker 1: Has he not received a sort of tacit mandate to
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Speaker 1: work persistently and assiduously for the welfare of those whose
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Speaker 1: opinion he represents? Or is it possible I am mistaken
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Speaker 1: in that.
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Speaker 3: No, No, you are quite right.
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Speaker 1: It has cost me a severe struggle to break with
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Speaker 1: a man in whose house I have been lately a
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Speaker 1: frequent guest, A man who till to day had been
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Speaker 1: able to pride himself on the undivided good will of
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Speaker 1: his fellow citizens. A man whose only, or at all events,
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Speaker 1: whose essential failing is that he is swayed by his
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Speaker 1: heart rather than his head.
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Speaker 3: That is Truevo Stockman.
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Speaker 1: But my duty to the community obliged me to break
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Speaker 1: with him. And there is another consideration that impels me
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Speaker 1: to oppose him, and as far as possible, to arrest
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Speaker 1: him on the perilous course he has adopted. That is
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Speaker 1: consideration for his family, please.
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Speaker 9: Stick to the water supply and drainage consideration.
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Speaker 1: I repeat for his wife and his children, for whom
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Speaker 1: he has made no provision.
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Speaker 5: Is that us mother, hush.
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Speaker 8: I will now put the Mayor's proposition to the vote.
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Speaker 9: There is no necessity tonight. I have no intention of
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Speaker 9: dealing with all that filth down at the baths. No.
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Speaker 9: I have something quite different to say to you.
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Speaker 7: What is coming now?
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Speaker 10: I am a rate payer, and therefore I have a
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Speaker 10: right to speak to and my entire firm inconceivable opinion
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Speaker 10: is be quiet.
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Speaker 6: At the back there he is drunk.
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Speaker 1: Turn him out, They turn him out?
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Speaker 9: Am I allowed to speak?
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Speaker 8: Doctor Stockman will address the meeting.
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Speaker 9: I should like to have seen anyone a few days ago.
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Speaker 9: Dare to attempt to silence me as has been done
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Speaker 9: to night. I would have defended my sacred rights as
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Speaker 9: a man like a lion. But now it is all
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Speaker 9: one to me. I have something of even weightier importance
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Speaker 9: to say to you.
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Speaker 1: The crowd presses nearer to him, Morton Keel conspicuous among them.
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Speaker 9: I have thought and pondered a great deal these last
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Speaker 9: few days, pondered over such a variety of things that
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Speaker 9: In the end, my head seemed too full to hold
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Speaker 9: them ahem. But I got them clear in my mind
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Speaker 9: at last, and then I saw the whole situation lucidly.
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Speaker 9: And that is why I am standing here to night.
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Speaker 9: I have a great revelation to make to you, my
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Speaker 9: fellow citizens. I will part to you a discovery of
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Speaker 9: a far wider scope than the trifling matter that our
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Speaker 9: water supply is poisoned and our medicinal baths are standing
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Speaker 9: on pestiferous soil.
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Speaker 6: Don't talk about the back.
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Speaker 5: We won't hear.
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Speaker 3: You none of that.
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Speaker 9: I have already told you that what I want to
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Speaker 9: speak about is the great discovery I have made lately,
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Speaker 9: the discovery that all the sources of our moral life
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Speaker 9: are poisoned, and that the whole fabric of our civic
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Speaker 9: community is founded on the pestiferous soil of falsehood.
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Speaker 4: What is that?
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Speaker 7: Says such an insinuation?
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Speaker 8: I call upon the speaker to moderate his language.
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Speaker 9: I have always loved my native town as a man
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Speaker 9: only can love the home of his youthful days. I
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Speaker 9: was not old when I went away from here, an
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Speaker 9: exile longing and memories cast as it were, an additional
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Speaker 9: halo over both the town and its inhabitants.
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Speaker 1: Some clapping and applause, And there.
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Speaker 9: I stayed for many years in a horrible hole far
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Speaker 9: away up north. When I came into contact with some
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Speaker 9: of the people that lived scattered about among the rocks,
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Speaker 9: I often thought that it would have been more service
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Speaker 9: to the poor, half starved creatures if a veterinary doctor
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Speaker 9: had been sent up there instead of a man like me.
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Speaker 1: Murmurs among the crowd.
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Speaker 2: I'm damned if I have ever heard.
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Speaker 1: It is an insult to a respectable population.
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Speaker 9: Wait a bit, I do not think anyone will charge
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Speaker 9: me with having forgotten my native town. Up there, I
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Speaker 9: was like one of the cider ducks, brooding on its nest,
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Speaker 9: and what I hatched was the plans for these.
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Speaker 1: Baths, applause and protests, and.
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Speaker 9: Then, when the fate at last decreed for me, the
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Speaker 9: great happiness of coming home again. I assure you, gentlemen,
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Speaker 9: I thought I had nothing more in the world to
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Speaker 9: wish for, Or rather, there was one thing I wished for, eagerly, untiringly, ardently,
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Speaker 9: and that was to be able to be of service
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Speaker 9: to my native town and the good of the community.
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Speaker 7: You chose a strange way of doing it the m.
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Speaker 9: And so, with my eyes blinded to the real facts,
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Speaker 9: I reveled in happiness. But yesterday morning, no, to be precise,
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Speaker 9: it was yesterday afternoon the eyes of my mind were
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Speaker 9: opened wide, and the first thing I realized was the
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Speaker 9: colossal stupidity of the authorities.
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Speaker 1: Uproar, shouts and laughter, Missus Dockman coughs persistently.
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Speaker 8: Mister Cherman, by virtue of my authority, it.
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Speaker 9: Is a petty thing to catch me up on a word,
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Speaker 9: Mister Oslocksen. What I mean is only that I got
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Speaker 9: sent of the unbelievable piggishness our leading men had been
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Speaker 9: recent responsible for down at the baths. I can't stand
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Speaker 9: leading men at any price. I have had enough of
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Speaker 9: such people in my time. They are like billy goats
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Speaker 9: on a young plantation. They do mischief everywhere they stand
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Speaker 9: in a free man's way, whatever way he turns, And
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Speaker 9: what I should like best would be to see them
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Speaker 9: exterminated like any other vermin.
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Speaker 7: Uproar, mister Chairman. Can we allow such expressions to pause?
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Speaker 3: Doctor?
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Speaker 9: I cannot understand how it is that I have only
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Speaker 9: now acquired a clear conception of what these gentry are
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Speaker 9: when I had almost daily before my eyes in this
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Speaker 9: town such an excellent specimen of them. My brother Peter,
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Speaker 9: slow witted and hide bound in prejudice.
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Speaker 1: Laughter, uproar and hisses. Missus Stockman SIPs, coughing assiduously Aslackson
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Speaker 1: rings his bell violently. The drunken man who has got
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Speaker 1: in again?
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Speaker 9: Is it me?
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Speaker 10: He talking about? My Name's Peterson? All right, but devil
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Speaker 10: take me a fight.
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Speaker 6: Turn out that drunken man.
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Speaker 4: Turn him out.
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Speaker 1: He has turned out again?
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Speaker 7: Who was that person?
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Speaker 3: I don't know who he is, mister Mayor.
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Speaker 4: He doesn't belong here.
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Speaker 5: I expect he's a navvy from over it.
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Speaker 8: He had obviously had too much beer. Proceeds, doctor, But
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Speaker 8: please strive to be moderate in your language.
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Speaker 9: Very well, gentlemen, I will say no more about our
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Speaker 9: leading men. And if anyone imagines from what I have
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Speaker 9: just said that my object is to attack these people
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Speaker 9: this evening, he is wrong, absolutely wide of the mark.
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Speaker 9: For I cherish the comforting conviction that these parasites, all
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Speaker 9: these venerable relics of a dying school of thought, are
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Speaker 9: most admirably paving the way for their own extinction. They
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Speaker 9: need no doctor's help to hasten their end. Nor is
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Speaker 9: folk of that kind who constitute the most pressing danger
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Speaker 9: to the community. It is not they who are most
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Speaker 9: instrumental in poisoning the sources of our moral life and
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Speaker 9: infecting the ground on which we stand. It is not
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Speaker 9: they who are the most dangerous enemies of truth and
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Speaker 9: freedom amongst us.
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Speaker 11: Who?
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Speaker 6: Then, who is it?
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Speaker 4: Name? Name?
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Speaker 9: You may depend upon it, I shall name them. That
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Speaker 9: is precisely the great discovery I made yesterday. The most
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Speaker 9: dangerous enemy of truth and freedom amongst us is the
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Speaker 9: compact majority, Yes, the damned compact liberal majority. That is it?
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Speaker 1: Now, you know, tremendous uproar. Most of the crowd are shouting, stamping,
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Speaker 1: and hissing. Some of the older men among them exchanged
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Speaker 1: stolen glances and seem to be enjoying themselves. Missus Stockman
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Speaker 1: gets up, looking anxious, Aileave and Morton advance threateningly upon
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Speaker 1: some of the schoolboys who are playing pranks. Aslasen rings
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Speaker 1: his bell and begs for silence, Hofstad and Billing both
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Speaker 1: talk at once but are inaudible. At last, quiet is restored.
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Speaker 8: As Chairman I call upon the speaker to withdraw the
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Speaker 8: ill considered expressions he has just used.
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Speaker 9: Never, mister, aslaxen, It is the majority in our community
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Speaker 9: that denies me my freedom and seeks to prevent my
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Speaker 9: speaking the truth.
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Speaker 1: The majority always has right on its side, and truth.
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Speaker 9: Too, By God, the majority never has right on its side. Never.
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Speaker 9: I say that is one of these social lies against
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Speaker 9: which an independent, intelligent man must wage war. Who is
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Speaker 9: it that constitute the majority of the population in a country?
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Speaker 9: Is it the clever folk or the stupid I don't
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Speaker 9: imagine you will dispute the fact that at present the
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Speaker 9: stupid people are in an absolutely overwhelming majority all the
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Speaker 9: world over. But good Lord, you can never pretend that
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Speaker 9: it is right that the stupid folk should govern the clever.
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Speaker 1: Ones uproar and cries, Oh.
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Speaker 9: Yes, you can shut me down, I know, but you
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Speaker 9: cannot answer me. The majority has might on its side, unfortunately,
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Speaker 9: but right it has not. I am in the right,
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Speaker 9: I and a few other scattered individuals. The minority is
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Speaker 9: always in the right.
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Speaker 1: Renewed uproar. Aha, So doctor Stockman has become an aristocrat
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Speaker 1: since the day before yesterday.
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Speaker 9: I have already said that I don't intend to waste
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Speaker 9: a word on the puny, narrow chested, short winded crew
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Speaker 9: whom we are leaving. Astern pulsating life no longer concerns
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Speaker 9: itself with them. I am thinking of the few, the
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Speaker 9: scattered few amongst us, who have absorbed new and vigorous truths.
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Speaker 9: Such men stand, as it were, at the outposts, so
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Speaker 9: far ahead that the compact majority has not yet been
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Speaker 9: able to come up with them. And there they are
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Speaker 9: fighting for truths that are too newly bored into the
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Speaker 9: world of consciousness to have any considerable number of people
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Speaker 9: on their side as yet.
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Speaker 1: So the doctor is a revolutionary.
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Speaker 9: Now, good heavens, of course, I am, mister Hobstadt, I
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Speaker 9: propose to raise a revolution against the lie that the
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Speaker 9: majority has the monopoly of the truth. What sort of
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Speaker 9: truths are they that the majority usually supports. They are
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Speaker 9: truths that are of such advanced age that they are
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Speaker 9: beginning to break up. And if the truth is as
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Speaker 9: old as that, it is also in a fair way
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Speaker 9: to become a lie.
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Speaker 1: Gentlemen, laughter and mocking cries.
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Speaker 9: Yes, believe me or not, as you like. But the
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Speaker 9: truths are by no means as long lived as Methuselah.
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Speaker 9: As some folk imagine a normally constituted truth lives let
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Speaker 9: us say, as a rule, seventeen or eighteen or at
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Speaker 9: most twenty years, seldom longer. But truths as aged as
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Speaker 9: that are always worn frightfully thin. And nevertheless, it is
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Speaker 9: only then that the majority recognizes them and recommends them
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Speaker 9: to the community as a wholesome moral nourishment. There is
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Speaker 9: no great nutritive value in that sort of fair I
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Speaker 9: can assure you, and as a doctor I ought to know.
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Speaker 9: These majority truths are like last year's cured meat, like
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Speaker 9: rancid tainted ham, and they are the origin of the
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Speaker 9: moral scurvy that is rampant in our communities.
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Speaker 8: It appears to me that the speaker is wandering a
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Speaker 8: long way from his subject.
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Speaker 7: I quite agree with the chairman.
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Speaker 9: Have you gone clean out of your senses? Peter? I
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Speaker 9: am sticking as closely to my subject as I can.
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Speaker 9: For my subject is precisely this, that it is the masses,
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Speaker 9: the majority, this infernal compact majority, that poisons the sources
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Speaker 9: of our moral life and infects the ground we stand on.
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Speaker 1: And all this because the great, broad minded majority of
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Speaker 1: the people is prudent enough to show deference only to
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Speaker 1: well ascertained and well approved truths.
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Speaker 9: Ah, my good, mister Hobsatz, don't talk nonsense about well
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Speaker 9: ascertained truths. The truths of which the masses now approve
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Speaker 9: are the very truth that the fighters at the outposts
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Speaker 9: held to in the days of our grandfathers. We fighters
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Speaker 9: at the outposts nowadays no longer approve of them, and
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Speaker 9: I do not believe there is any other well ascertained truth.
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Speaker 9: Accept this that no community can live a healthy life
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Speaker 9: if it is nourished only on such old marrowless truths.
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Speaker 1: But instead of standing there using vague generalities, it would
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Speaker 1: be interesting if you would tell us what these old
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Speaker 1: marrowless truths are that we are nourished on. Applause from
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Speaker 1: many quarters.
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Speaker 9: Oh, I could give you a whole string of such abominations,
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Speaker 9: but to begin with, I will confine myself to one
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Speaker 9: well approved truth, which at the bottom is a foul lie,
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Speaker 9: but upon which, nevertheless, mister Hobstad and the People's Messenger
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Speaker 9: and all the messenger supporters are nourished. And that is
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Speaker 9: that is the doctrine you have inherited from your forefathers,
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Speaker 9: and proclaim thoughtlessly far and wide, the doctrine that the public,
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Speaker 9: the crowd. The masses are the essential part of the population,
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Speaker 9: that they constitute the people. That the common folk, the
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Speaker 9: ignorant and incomplete element in the community, have the same
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Speaker 9: right to pronounce judgment and to approve, to direct, and
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Speaker 9: to govern as the isolated, intellectually superior personalities in it.
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Speaker 2: Well, damn if.
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Speaker 1: Ever, I, fellow citizens, take good note of that.
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Speaker 4: Oh ho, we are not the people, only the superior
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Speaker 4: folk are to Governor are they.
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Speaker 6: Go out for talking such rubbish?
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Speaker 3: Out with them? Blow your horn, Evanson.
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Speaker 1: A horn is blown loudly amidst hisses and an angry uproar.
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Speaker 9: Be reasonable, can't you stand hearing the voice of truth
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Speaker 9: for once? I don't in the least expect you to
21:43
Speaker 9: agree with me all at once, But I must say
21:46
Speaker 9: I didn't expect mister Hobstad to admit I was right
21:49
Speaker 9: when he had recovered his composure a little. He claims
21:53
Speaker 9: to be a freethinker, free thinking, he.
21:56
Speaker 5: Says, Hobstead, a freethinker.
21:59
Speaker 1: Prove it, doctor Dockman, When have I ever said so?
22:02
Speaker 1: In print?
22:03
Speaker 9: No confound that you are right? You have never had
22:07
Speaker 9: the courage to well. I won't put you in a hole,
22:12
Speaker 9: mister harmstadt. Let us say it is I that am
22:15
Speaker 9: the freethinker. Then I am going to prove to you
22:18
Speaker 9: scientifically that the people's messenger leads you by the nose
22:23
Speaker 9: in a shameful manner when it tells you that you
22:27
Speaker 9: that the common people, the crowd, the masses are the
22:30
Speaker 9: real essence of the people. That is only a newspaper. Lie,
22:36
Speaker 9: I tell you the common people are nothing more than
22:39
Speaker 9: the raw material of which a people.
22:41
Speaker 1: Is made groans, laughter and uproar.
22:45
Speaker 9: Well, isn't that the case? Isn't there an enormous difference
22:50
Speaker 9: between a well bred and an ill bred strain of animals. Take,
22:54
Speaker 9: for instance, a common barn door hen. What sort of
22:59
Speaker 9: eating do you get? I'm a shriveled up old scrag
23:01
Speaker 9: of a fowl like that? Not much do you? And
23:05
Speaker 9: what sort of eggs does it lay? A fairly good
23:08
Speaker 9: crow or a raven can lay pretty nearly as good
23:11
Speaker 9: an egg. But take a well bred Spanish or Japanese hen,
23:16
Speaker 9: or a good pheasant or a turkey, then you will
23:19
Speaker 9: see the difference. Oh, take the case of dogs, with
23:23
Speaker 9: whom we humans are on such intimate terms. Think first
23:28
Speaker 9: of an ordinary common cur I mean one of the horrible,
23:32
Speaker 9: coarse haired, low bred curs that do nothing but run
23:36
Speaker 9: about the streets and befowl the walls of the houses.
23:39
Speaker 9: Compare one of these curs with a poodle whose sires,
23:43
Speaker 9: for many generations have been bred in a gentleman's house,
23:47
Speaker 9: where they have had the best of food and had
23:49
Speaker 9: the opportunity of hearing soft voices and music. Do you
23:53
Speaker 9: not think that the poodle's brain has developed to quite
23:56
Speaker 9: a different degree than that of the cur. Of course,
24:00
Speaker 9: cities it is puppies of well bred poodles like that
24:04
Speaker 9: that show men tray to do incredibly clever tricks, things
24:08
Speaker 9: that a common kirk could never learn to do, even
24:10
Speaker 9: if it stood on its head.
24:12
Speaker 1: Uproar and mocking cries.
24:14
Speaker 3: Are you going to make out? We are dogs?
24:16
Speaker 11: Now?
24:17
Speaker 5: We are not animals?
24:18
Speaker 9: Doctor, Yes, but bless my soul, we are, my friend.
24:23
Speaker 9: It is true that we are the finest animals anyone
24:26
Speaker 9: could wish for, But even among us, exceptionally fine animals
24:31
Speaker 9: are rare. There is a tremendous difference between poodlemn andker men,
24:37
Speaker 9: And the amazing part of it is that mister Hobstad
24:40
Speaker 9: quite agrees with me, as long as it is a
24:43
Speaker 9: question of four footed animals.
24:45
Speaker 1: Yes, it is true enough as far as they are concerned.
24:49
Speaker 9: Very well. But as soon as I extend the principle
24:52
Speaker 9: and apply it to two legged animals, mister Hobstad stops short.
24:57
Speaker 9: He no longer dares to think independently or to pursue
25:00
Speaker 9: his ideas to their logical conclusion. So he turns the
25:05
Speaker 9: whole theory upside down and proclaims in the People's Messenger
25:10
Speaker 9: that it is the barn door hands and street curs
25:13
Speaker 9: that are the finest specimens in the menagerie. But that
25:17
Speaker 9: is always the way, as long as the man retains
25:20
Speaker 9: the traces of common origin and has not worked his
25:23
Speaker 9: way up to intellectual distinction.
25:26
Speaker 1: I lay no claim to any sort of distinction. I
25:29
Speaker 1: am the son of humble country folk, and I am
25:31
Speaker 1: proud that the stock I come from is rooted deep
25:34
Speaker 1: among the common people.
25:36
Speaker 5: He insults, Bravo hovstaed, bravravavo.
25:41
Speaker 9: The kind of common people I mean are not only
25:44
Speaker 9: to be found low down in the social scale. They
25:48
Speaker 9: crawl and swarm all around us, even in the highest
25:52
Speaker 9: social positions. You have only to look at your own, fine,
25:55
Speaker 9: distinguished mayor, My brother Peter is every bit as plebi
26:00
Speaker 9: as anyone that walks in two shoes.
26:02
Speaker 7: I protest against personal illusions of this kind.
26:06
Speaker 9: And that not because he is, like myself, descended from
26:10
Speaker 9: some old rascal of a pirate from Pomerania or thereabouts,
26:14
Speaker 9: because that is who we are descended from.
26:17
Speaker 7: An absurd legend, I deny.
26:19
Speaker 9: It, but because he thinks what his superiors think and
26:23
Speaker 9: holds the same opinions as they. People who do that
26:27
Speaker 9: are intellectually speaking, common people. And that is why my
26:32
Speaker 9: magnificent brother Peter is in reality so very far from
26:37
Speaker 9: any distinction, and consequently also so far from being liberal minded,
26:43
Speaker 9: mister Sherman, So it is.
26:45
Speaker 1: Only the distinguished men that are liberal minded in this country.
26:49
Speaker 1: We are learning something quite new.
26:52
Speaker 9: Yes, that is part of my new discovery too, And
26:56
Speaker 9: another part of it is that broad mindedness is almost
27:00
Speaker 9: precisely the same thing as morality. That is why I
27:04
Speaker 9: maintain that it is absolutely inexcusable in the People's Messenger
27:09
Speaker 9: to proclaim day in and day out the false doctrine
27:14
Speaker 9: that it is the masses, the crowd, the compact majority,
27:18
Speaker 9: that have the monopoly of broad mindedness and morality, and
27:22
Speaker 9: that vice and corruption and every kind of intellectual depravity
27:26
Speaker 9: are the result of culture, just as all the filth
27:29
Speaker 9: that is draining into our baths is the result of
27:32
Speaker 9: the tanneries up at mordidal.
27:35
Speaker 1: Uproar and interruptions. Doctor Stockmann is undisturbed and goes on,
27:40
Speaker 1: carried away by his ardor with a smile.
27:42
Speaker 9: And yet this same people's messenger can go on preaching
27:47
Speaker 9: that the masses are to be elevated to higher conditions
27:50
Speaker 9: of life. But bless my soul, if the messenger's teaching
27:55
Speaker 9: is to be depended upon this very raising up the
27:59
Speaker 9: masses would mean nothing more or less than setting them
28:03
Speaker 9: straightway upon the paths of depravity. Happily, the theory that
28:08
Speaker 9: culture demoralizes is only an old falsehood that our forefathers
28:13
Speaker 9: believed in and we have inherited. No, it is ignorance, poverty,
28:19
Speaker 9: ugly conditions of life that do the devil's work. In
28:23
Speaker 9: a house which does not get aired and swept every day,
28:27
Speaker 9: my wife Catherine maintains that the floor are to be
28:30
Speaker 9: scrubbed as well, but that is a debatable question. In
28:34
Speaker 9: such a house, let me tell you, people will lose
28:38
Speaker 9: within two or three years the power of thinking or
28:42
Speaker 9: acting in a moral manner. Lack of oxygen weakens the conscience,
28:47
Speaker 9: and there must be a plentiful lack of oxygen in
28:50
Speaker 9: very many houses in this town. I should think, judging
28:54
Speaker 9: from the fact that the whole compact majority can be
28:57
Speaker 9: unconscientious enough to wish to build the tower's prosperity on
29:02
Speaker 9: a quagmire of falsehood and.
29:04
Speaker 8: Deceit, we cannot allow such a grave accusation to be
29:07
Speaker 8: flung in a citizen community.
29:09
Speaker 3: I move that the chairman direct the speaker to sit
29:12
Speaker 3: down here, quite right, make him sit down.
29:16
Speaker 9: Then I will go and shout the truth at every
29:20
Speaker 9: street corner. I will write it in other towns, newspapers.
29:24
Speaker 9: The whole country shall know what is going on here.
29:27
Speaker 1: It almost seems as if doctor Stockman's intention were to
29:31
Speaker 1: ruin the town.
29:33
Speaker 9: Yes, my native town is so dear to me that
29:37
Speaker 9: I would rather ruin it than see it flourishing upon
29:41
Speaker 9: a lie.
29:42
Speaker 8: This is really serious.
29:44
Speaker 1: Uproar and cat calls missus. Stockman coughs, but to no purpose.
29:48
Speaker 1: Her husband does not listen to her any longer. A
29:51
Speaker 1: man must be a public enemy to wish to ruin
29:53
Speaker 1: a whole community.
29:55
Speaker 9: What does the destruction of a community matter, if it
29:58
Speaker 9: lives on lies, it ought to be raised to the ground.
30:02
Speaker 9: I tell you, all who live by lies are to
30:05
Speaker 9: be exterminated. Like vermin. You will end up by infecting
30:10
Speaker 9: the whole country. You will bring about such a state
30:14
Speaker 9: of things that the whole country will deserve to be ruined.
30:18
Speaker 9: And if things come to that pass, I shall say,
30:22
Speaker 9: from the bottom of my heart, let the whole country perish.
30:28
Speaker 9: Let all these people be exterminated.
30:32
Speaker 6: That is talking like an out and out enemy of
30:34
Speaker 6: the people.
30:35
Speaker 2: There sounded the voice of the people. By all that's holy.
30:39
Speaker 4: Yes, he is an enemy of the people, hates his country,
30:42
Speaker 4: He hates his own people, both as a citizen and
30:46
Speaker 4: as an individual.
30:47
Speaker 8: I am profoundly disturbed by what we have had to
30:50
Speaker 8: listen to. Doctor Stockman has shown himself in a light
30:53
Speaker 8: I should never have dreamed of. I am unhappily obliged
30:57
Speaker 8: to subscribe to the opinion which I have just heard
31:00
Speaker 8: my estimable fellow citizens utter, And I propose that we
31:03
Speaker 8: should give expression to that opinion in a resolution. I
31:06
Speaker 8: propose a resolution as follows. This meeting declares that it
31:11
Speaker 8: considers doctor Thomas Stockman, medical Officer of the baths to
31:15
Speaker 8: be an enemy.
31:16
Speaker 3: Of the people.
31:17
Speaker 1: A storm of cheers and applause. A number of men
31:20
Speaker 1: surround the doctor and his him. Missus Stockman and Petra
31:24
Speaker 1: have got up from their seats, Morton and Ailey for fighting,
31:28
Speaker 1: the other schoolboys for hissing, and some of their elders
31:30
Speaker 1: separate them.
31:32
Speaker 9: Ah, you fools, I tell you.
31:35
Speaker 8: That we cannot hear you now.
31:37
Speaker 6: Doctor.
31:38
Speaker 8: A formal vote is about to be taken, but out
31:41
Speaker 8: of regard for personal feelings, it shall be by ballot
31:44
Speaker 8: and not verbal. Have you any clean paper, mister Billing?
31:48
Speaker 2: I have both blue and white here that.
31:51
Speaker 8: Will do nicely. We shall get on more quickly that way.
31:54
Speaker 8: Cut it up into small strips. Yes, that's it. Blue
31:58
Speaker 8: means no white meat. Yes, I will come round myself
32:02
Speaker 8: and collect boats.
32:03
Speaker 1: Peter Stockman leaves the hall Aslaxon and one or two
32:07
Speaker 1: others go round the room with slips of paper in
32:09
Speaker 1: their hats.
32:11
Speaker 3: I say, what has come to the doctor. What are
32:13
Speaker 3: we to think of it?
32:14
Speaker 4: Oh?
32:14
Speaker 1: You know how headstrong he is?
32:17
Speaker 4: Billing? You go to their house? Have you ever noticed
32:20
Speaker 4: that the fellow drinks?
32:22
Speaker 2: Well? I'm hanged if I know what to say. There
32:24
Speaker 2: are always spirits on the table when you go.
32:27
Speaker 5: I rather think he goes quite off his head.
32:30
Speaker 3: Sometimes I wonder if there is any madness in his family.
32:33
Speaker 2: I shouldn't wonder if there were.
32:35
Speaker 6: Now it is nothing more than she and Alice. He
32:38
Speaker 6: wants it even with somebody for something or another.
32:41
Speaker 2: Well, certainly he suggested a rise in his salary on
32:45
Speaker 2: one occasion lately and did not get it.
32:48
Speaker 4: Ah, but it is easy to understand how it is.
32:51
Speaker 10: I want a blow one, I know, and I wanna
32:54
Speaker 10: white one toe.
32:56
Speaker 5: It's that drunken chap again.
32:58
Speaker 11: Ten' outs well, Stockman. Do you see what these monkey
33:02
Speaker 11: tricks of yours lead to?
33:04
Speaker 9: I have done my duty.
33:07
Speaker 11: What was that you said about the tanneries at Moldel?
33:10
Speaker 9: You heard well enough. I said they were the source.
33:13
Speaker 11: Of all the filth My tannery too.
33:16
Speaker 9: Unfortunately, your tannery is by far the worst.
33:20
Speaker 11: Are you going to put that in the papers?
33:22
Speaker 9: I shall conceal nothing.
33:24
Speaker 11: That may cost you daily.
33:25
Speaker 5: Stockman goes out, well, Captain, so you'll lend your house
33:30
Speaker 5: to enemies of the.
33:31
Speaker 10: People, I imagine I can do what I like with my
33:34
Speaker 10: own possessions, mister.
33:35
Speaker 5: Vic Then you can have no objection to my doing
33:38
Speaker 5: the same with mine. What do you mean, sir, you
33:42
Speaker 5: shall hear from me in the morning.
33:44
Speaker 1: Turns his back on him and moves off.
33:46
Speaker 8: Was that not your owner, Captain Horster, Yes, that was mister.
33:51
Speaker 7: Vic the shipowner.
33:53
Speaker 1: Aslason, with the voting papers in his hands, gets up
33:56
Speaker 1: onto the platform and rings his bell.
33:58
Speaker 8: Gentlemen, allow me to announce the results. By the votes
34:02
Speaker 8: of everyone here except one person, that is the drunk chap.
34:06
Speaker 8: By the votes of everyone here except a tipsy man.
34:10
Speaker 8: This meeting of citizens declares doctor Thomas Stockman to be
34:13
Speaker 8: an enemy.
34:14
Speaker 3: Of the people.
34:15
Speaker 1: Shouts and applause.
34:17
Speaker 8: Three cheers for our ancient and honorable citizen community.
34:21
Speaker 1: Renewed applause.
34:22
Speaker 8: Three cheers for our able and energetic mayor, who has
34:26
Speaker 8: so loyally suppressed the promptings of family feeling.
34:29
Speaker 1: Cheers.
34:30
Speaker 8: The meeting is dissolved.
34:32
Speaker 1: Get down.
34:33
Speaker 2: Three cheers for the chairman.
34:35
Speaker 5: Three cheers for as Lucksen.
34:37
Speaker 9: Hurrarah, my hat and coat Petra. Captain, have you room
34:44
Speaker 9: on your ship for passengers to the New World?
34:47
Speaker 10: For you and yours, we will make room.
34:49
Speaker 9: Doctor good Come Catherine, Come boys.
34:55
Speaker 3: Thomas, dear, let us go out by the backway.
34:58
Speaker 9: No back ways from me, Catherine. You will hear more
35:02
Speaker 9: of this enemy of the people before he shakes the
35:05
Speaker 9: dust off his shoes upon you. I am not so
35:09
Speaker 9: forgiving as a certain person. I do not say I
35:13
Speaker 9: forgive you, for you know not what you do.
35:16
Speaker 8: That is a blasphemous comparison, doctor Stockman.
35:19
Speaker 2: It is by God it's dreadful for an earnest man
35:23
Speaker 2: to listen to threatens us.
35:24
Speaker 4: Now does he?
35:26
Speaker 3: Let's go and break his windows, knock him in the field.
35:29
Speaker 6: Blow your horn, even send pep pep.
35:31
Speaker 1: Horn blowing hisses and wild cries. Doctor Stockman goes out
35:35
Speaker 1: through the hall with his family, Horster elbowing away for them.
35:40
Speaker 3: People.
35:43
Speaker 2: Well, I'm damned if I go and drink toddy with
35:46
Speaker 2: the Stockman's tonight.
35:48
Speaker 1: The crowd presses towards the exit. The upper continues. Shouts
35:52
Speaker 1: of people are heard from without and of Act four,