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The Master Builder Act II · The Henrik Ibsen Library

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Act second of The Master Builder by Henrik Ibsen, translated
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  Speaker 1: by William Archer and Edmund Goss. 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. Act
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  Speaker 1: second a prettily furnished small drawing room in Solness's house.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: In the back a glass door leading out to the
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  Speaker 1: verandah and garden. The right hand corner is cut off
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: transversely by a large bay window, in which are flower stands.
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  Speaker 1: The left hand corner is similarly cut off by a
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: transverse wall, in which is a small door papered like
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  Speaker 1: the wall. On each side, an ordinary door in front.
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  Speaker 1: On the right, a console table with a large mirror
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  Speaker 1: over it, well filled stands of plants and flowers in front.
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  Speaker 1: On the left, a sofa with a table and chairs.
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  Speaker 1: Further back, a bookcase. Well forward in the room before
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: the bay window, a small table and some chairs. It
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: is early in the day. Soulness sits by the little
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: table with rognor Bruvic's portfolio open in front of him.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: He is turning the drawings over and closely examining some
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: of them. Missus Soulness moves about noiselessly, with a small
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: watering pot, attending to her flowers. She is dressed in
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  Speaker 1: black as before. Her hat, cloak and parasol lie on
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  Speaker 1: a chair near the mirror, unobserved by her. Solness now
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: and again follows her with his eyes. Neither of them speaks.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Kaya Phosley enters quietly by the door on the left.
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  Speaker 2: Well, is that you I merely wish to let you
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  Speaker 2: know that I have come.
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: Yes, yes, that's all right. Hasn't Rangner come too?
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: No, not yet. He had to wait a little while
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: to see the doctor. But he's coming presently to hear.
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: How is the old man to day?
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  Speaker 4: Not well?
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  Speaker 2: He begs you to excuse him. He's obliged to keep
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: his bed to day.
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  Speaker 3: Why, of course, by all means let him rest. But
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: now get your work.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Yes, do you wish to speak to Ragna when he comes?
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  Speaker 3: No? I don't know that I have anything particular to
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  Speaker 3: say to him.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Kaya goes out again to the left. Saulna's remained seated,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: turning over the drawings.
• 2:38
  Speaker 5: I wonder if he isn't going to die now, as
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  Speaker 5: well as well as who yes, yes, depend upon it?
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  Speaker 5: Halvard old Brovic is going to die too. You'll see
• 2:48
  Speaker 5: that he will.
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  Speaker 3: My dear Lena ought you not to go out for
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: a little walk?
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  Speaker 5: Yes, I suppose I ought to.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: She continues to attend the flowers.
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: Is she still asleep?
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  Speaker 5: Is it, miss Vangle? You are sitting there thinking.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: About I just happened to recollect her.
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  Speaker 5: Miss Vangle was up long ago?
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  Speaker 3: Oh was she?
• 3:08
  Speaker 5: When I went in to see her. She was busy
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  Speaker 5: putting her things in order.
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  Speaker 1: She goes in front of the mirror and slowly begins
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  Speaker 1: to put on her hat.
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  Speaker 3: So we have found a use for one of our
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  Speaker 3: nurseries after all, Helena, Yes we have. That seems to
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: me better than to have them all standing empty.
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  Speaker 5: That emptiness is dreadful. You are right there.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Soulness closes the portfolio, rises and approaches her.
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: You will find that we shall get on far better
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  Speaker 3: after this, Helena. Things will be more comfortable. Life will
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  Speaker 3: be easier, especially for you, after this, Yes, believe me, Elena.
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  Speaker 5: Do you mean because she has come here?
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  Speaker 3: I mean, of course, when once we have moved into
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  Speaker 3: the new home.
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  Speaker 5: Ah, do you think so, Halvard, will it be better?
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  Speaker 3: Then? I can't think otherwise? And surely you think so too.
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  Speaker 5: I think nothing at all about the new house.
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  Speaker 3: It's hard for me to hear you say that, for
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  Speaker 3: you know it is mainly for your sake that I
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  Speaker 3: have built it.
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  Speaker 1: He offers to help her on with her cloak. Missus,
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  Speaker 1: solness evades him.
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  Speaker 5: The fact is, you do far too much for my sake.
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  Speaker 3: No, No, you really mustn't say that, Elena. I cannot
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  Speaker 3: bear to hear you say such things.
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  Speaker 5: Very well, then I won't say it, Halbard.
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  Speaker 3: But I stick to what I said. You'll see that
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  Speaker 3: things will be easier for you in the new place.
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  Speaker 5: Oh, heavens, easier for me.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, indeed they will. He may be quite sure of that.
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  Speaker 3: For you see, there will be so very very much
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  Speaker 3: there that will remind you of your own home, the
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  Speaker 3: home that.
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  Speaker 5: Used to be fathers and mothers, and it was burnt
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  Speaker 5: to the ground.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, yes, my poor Elena, that was a terrible blow
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  Speaker 3: for you.
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  Speaker 5: You may build as much as ever you like. Halbard
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  Speaker 5: can never build up again a real home for me.
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  Speaker 3: Well, in Heaven's name, let us talk no more about it.
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  Speaker 4: Then we are not.
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  Speaker 5: In the habit of talking about it, For you always
• 5:09
  Speaker 5: put the thought away.
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  Speaker 3: From you, do I? And why should I do that?
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: Put the thought away from me?
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  Speaker 5: Oh, yes, Halvard, I understand you very well. You are
• 5:19
  Speaker 5: so anxious to spare me and to find excuses for
• 5:23
  Speaker 5: me too, as much as ever you can.
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  Speaker 3: You. Is it you yourself that you are talking about, Elena?
• 5:30
  Speaker 5: Yes, who else should it be but myself?
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  Speaker 3: That too.
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  Speaker 5: As for the old house, I wouldn't mind so much
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  Speaker 5: about that. When once misfortune was in the air.
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  Speaker 3: Why, ah, you are right there. Misfortune will have its way,
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  Speaker 3: as the saying goes.
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  Speaker 5: But it's what came of the fire, the dreadful thing
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  Speaker 5: that followed. That is the thing that that that.
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  Speaker 3: Don't think about that, Elena, Ah.
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  Speaker 5: That is exactly what I cannot help thinking about. And
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  Speaker 5: now at last I must speak about it too, for
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  Speaker 5: I don't seem to be able to bear it any longer,
• 6:09
  Speaker 5: and then never to be able to forgive myself yourself, Yes,
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  Speaker 5: for I had duties on both sides, both towards you
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  Speaker 5: and towards the little ones. I ought to have hardened myself,
• 6:23
  Speaker 5: not to have let the horror take such hold upon me,
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  Speaker 5: nor the grief for the burning of my home. Oh, Halvard,
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  Speaker 5: if I only had the strength.
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  Speaker 3: Elena, you must promise me never to think these thoughts anymore.
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  Speaker 3: Promise me that, dear.
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  Speaker 5: Oh, promise, promise. One can promise anything.
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  Speaker 3: Ah, but this is hopeless, hopeless, never a ray of sunlight,
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  Speaker 3: not so much as a gleam of brightness to light
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  Speaker 3: up our home.
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  Speaker 5: This is no home, Halvard.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, no, you may well say that, And God knows
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  Speaker 3: whether you are not right in saying that. It will
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: be no better for us in the new house either.
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  Speaker 5: It will never be any better, just as empty, just
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  Speaker 5: as desolate there as here.
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  Speaker 3: Why in all the world have we built it? Then?
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  Speaker 3: Can you tell me that?
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  Speaker 5: No, you must answer that question for yourself.
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  Speaker 3: What do you mean by that? Elena?
• 7:20
  Speaker 5: What do I mean?
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  Speaker 3: Yes, in the devil's name, you said it so strangely,
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  Speaker 3: as if you had some hidden meaning in it.
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  Speaker 5: No, indeed, I assure you.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, come now, I know what I know. I have
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  Speaker 3: both my eyes and my ears about me. Elena, you
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  Speaker 3: may depend upon that.
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  Speaker 5: Why what are you talking about?
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  Speaker 3: What is it do you mean to say? You don't
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  Speaker 3: find a kind of lurking hidden meaning in the most
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  Speaker 3: innocent word I happen to say?
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  Speaker 5: I do you say? I do that?
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  Speaker 3: It's natural enough, Elena, when you have a sick man
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  Speaker 3: on your hands.
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  Speaker 5: Sick are you ill, Halvard?
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  Speaker 3: A half madman, man, a crazy man?
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  Speaker 5: Call me what you will, Halbert, for God's sake, but
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  Speaker 5: you are.
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  Speaker 3: Wrong, both you and the doctor. I am not in
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  Speaker 3: the state that you imagine.
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  Speaker 1: He walks up and down the room. Missus soulness follows
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  Speaker 1: him anxiously with her eyes. Finally he goes up to her.
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  Speaker 3: In reality, there is nothing whatever the matter with me.
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  Speaker 5: No, there isn't is there? But then what is it
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  Speaker 5: that troubles you?
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  Speaker 3: So? Why this that I often feel ready to think
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  Speaker 3: under this terrible burden of debt?
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  Speaker 5: Debt? Do you say, but you owe no one anything, Halbard,
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  Speaker 5: I owe.
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  Speaker 3: A boundless debt to you, to you, to you, Elena.
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  Speaker 5: What is behind all this? You may just as well tell.
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  Speaker 3: Me at once, But there is nothing behind it. I
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  Speaker 3: have never done you any wrong, not wittingly and wilfully
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  Speaker 3: at any rate. And yet, and yet it seems as
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  Speaker 3: though a crushing debt rested upon me and wed me down,
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  Speaker 3: a debt to me, chiefly to you.
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  Speaker 5: Then you are ill after all, Halvard.
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  Speaker 3: I suppose I must be, or not far from it. Ah,
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  Speaker 3: Now it grows.
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  Speaker 1: Light Hilda van Gel comes in. She has made some
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  Speaker 1: alteration in her dress and let down her skirt.
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  Speaker 4: Good morning, mister soulness.
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  Speaker 3: Slept well, quite.
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  Speaker 4: Deliciously, like a child in a cradle. Oh, I lay
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  Speaker 4: and stretched myself like like a princess.
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  Speaker 3: You were thoroughly comfortable, then I should think so, And
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  Speaker 3: no doubt you dreamed too?
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  Speaker 4: Yes, I did, But that was horrid, was it? Yes?
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  Speaker 4: For I dreamed I was falling over a frightfully high
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  Speaker 4: sheer precipice. Do you never have that kind of dream?
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  Speaker 1: Oh?
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  Speaker 3: Yes?
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  Speaker 5: Now?
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  Speaker 4: And then it's tremendously thrilling when you fall and fall.
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  Speaker 3: It seems to make one's blood run cold.
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  Speaker 4: Do you draw your legs up under you while you
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  Speaker 4: were falling?
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  Speaker 3: Yes, as high as ever I can so do.
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  Speaker 5: I I must go into town now, Halvard, and I'll
• 10:13
  Speaker 5: try to get one or two things that you may require.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Hilda making a motion to throw her arms around her neck.
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  Speaker 4: Oh you, dear missus souleness, you are really much too
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  Speaker 4: kind to me.
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  Speaker 1: Frightfully kind Missus Soulness, deprecatingly freeing herself.
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  Speaker 5: Oh not at all. It's only my duty, so I
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  Speaker 5: am very glad to do it.
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  Speaker 4: But really, I think I am quite fit to be
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  Speaker 4: seen in the streets now that I've put my dress
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  Speaker 4: to rights. Or do you think I am not.
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  Speaker 5: To tell you the truth? I think people would stare
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  Speaker 5: at you a little pooh?
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  Speaker 4: Is that all that only amuses me?
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  Speaker 3: Yes? But people might take it into their heads that
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: you were mad too? You see mad?
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: Are there so many mad people here in town?
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: Then here you see one at all events?
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  Speaker 4: You, mister soulness?
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  Speaker 3: Have you not noticed that yet? No?
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: I certainly have not. And yet perhaps in one single thing.
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  Speaker 3: Ah, do you hear that? Elena?
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  Speaker 5: What is that? One single thing? Miss Vangle?
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  Speaker 4: No, I won't say, oh yes, do no, thank you?
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: I am not so mad as that.
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  Speaker 5: When you and miss Vangle are alone, I dare say
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  Speaker 5: she will tell you Harvard.
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  Speaker 3: Ah you think she will? Oh?
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  Speaker 5: Yes, certainly, for you have known her so well in
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  Speaker 5: the past, ever since she was a child.
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  Speaker 1: You tell me, she goes out by the door on
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  Speaker 1: the left.
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  Speaker 4: Does your wife dislike me very much?
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  Speaker 3: Did you think you noticed anything of the kind?
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: Did you notice it yourself?
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  Speaker 3: Elena has become exceedingly shy with strangers of late years,
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  Speaker 3: has she?
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  Speaker 4: Really?
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  Speaker 3: But if only you could get to know her thoroughly. Ah,
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  Speaker 3: she is so good, so kind, so excellent a creature.
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  Speaker 4: But if she is all that, what made her say
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  Speaker 4: that about her duty?
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: Her duty?
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: She said that she would go out and buy something
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  Speaker 4: for me because it was her duty.
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  Speaker 3: Oh?
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  Speaker 4: I can't bear that ugly, horrid word.
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  Speaker 3: Why not?
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  Speaker 4: It sounds so cold and sharp and stinging. Duty? Duty, dooty?
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: Don't you think so too? Doesn't it seem to sting you?
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  Speaker 3: Mm? I haven't thought much about it.
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: Yes, it does. And if she is so good as
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: you say she is, why should she talk in that way?
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  Speaker 3: But good lord, what would you have had her say? Then?
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  Speaker 4: She might have said she would do it because she
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: had taken a tremendous fancy to me. She might have
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: said something like that, something really warm and cordial, you understand?
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: Is that how you would like to have it?
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  Speaker 4: Yes, precisely.
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  Speaker 1: She wanders about the room, stops at the bookcase and
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: looks at the books.
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  Speaker 4: What a lot of books you have?
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  Speaker 3: Yes? I have got together a good mini.
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: Do you read them all? Too?
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: Now? I used to try to. Do you read much? No?
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  Speaker 4: Never, I have given it up for it all seems
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  Speaker 4: so irrelevant.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: That is just my feeling, Hilda wanders about a little,
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: stops at the small table, opens the portfolio, and turns
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: over the contents.
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  Speaker 4: Are all these drawings yours?
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  Speaker 3: No, they are drawn by a young man whom I
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: employ to.
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  Speaker 4: Help me, someone you have taught.
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: Oh yes, no doubt he has learnt something from me too.
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  Speaker 4: Then I suppose he is very clever, isn't he.
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: Oh he might be worse for my purpose.
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: Oh yes, I'm sure he is frightfully clever.
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: Do you think you can see that in the drawings?
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: Pooh, these scrawlings? But if he has been learning from you?
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: Oh, so far as that goes. There are plenty of
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: people here that have learnt from me and have come
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: to little enough for all that.
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: No, I can't, for the life of me understand how
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: you can be so stupid stupid?
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: Do you think I am so very stupid?
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: Yes? I do. Indeed, if you are content to go
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: about here teaching all these.
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: People, well, and why not?
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: No, indeed, mister soulness, what can be the good of that?
• 14:37
  Speaker 4: No one but you should be allowed to build. You
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: should stand quite alone, do it all yourself. Now you
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: know it?
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: Hilda? Well, how in the world did that come into
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: your head.
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: Do you think I am so very far wrong? Then?
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: No, that's not what I mean. But now I'll tell
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: you something. Well, I keep on incessantly, in silence and alone,
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: brooding on that very thought.
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: Yes, that seems to me perfectly natural.
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: Perhaps you have noticed it already, No, indeed I haven't.
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: But just now, when you said you thought I was
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: off my balance in one thing, you said.
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: Oh, I was thinking of something quite different.
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: What was it?
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: I am not going to tell you.
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: Well, well, as you please come here and I will
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: show you something.
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: What is it?
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: Do you see you over there in the garden, Yes,
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: right above the great quarry. The new house you mean,
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: the one that is being built, Yes, almost finished.
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: It seems to have a very high tower.
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: The scaffolding is still up.
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: Is that your new house? Yes, the house you are
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: soon going to move into.
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: Yes?
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: Are there nurseries in that house too?
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: Three? There are here and no child and there never
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: will be one.
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: Well, isn't it just as I said that that you
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: are a little a little mad after all?
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: Was that what you were thinking of?
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: Yes, of all the empty nurseries I slept in.
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: We have had children, Elena, and I have you two
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: little boys. They were of the same age. Twins then, yes, twins.
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: It's eleven or twelve years ago now, and.
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: So both of them. You have lost both the twins
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: then we.
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: Kept them only about three weeks or scarcely. So much, oh, Hilda,
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: I can't tell you what a good thing it is
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: for me that you have come. For now, at last
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: I have someone to talk to.
• 16:52
  Speaker 4: Can you not talk to her too?
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: Not about this, not as I want to talk and must,
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: and not about so many other things either.
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: Was that all you meant when you said you need me?
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: That was mainly what I meant at all events yesterday.
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: For today I am not so sure. Come here and
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: let us sit down. Hilda, sit there on the sofa
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: so that you can look into the garden.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: Hilda seats herself in the corner of the sofa. Soulness
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: brings a chair closer.
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: Should you like to hear about it?
• 17:26
  Speaker 4: Yes, I shall love to sit and listen to you.
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: Then I will tell you all about it.
• 17:32
  Speaker 4: Now I can see both the garden and you, mister Solness.
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: So now tell away.
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: Begin out there on the rising ground where you see
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: the new house. Yes, Elena and I lived there in
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: the first years of our married life. There was an
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: old house up there that had belonged to her mother,
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: and we inherited it and the whole of the great
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: garden with it.
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: Was there a tower on that house.
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: Too, No, nothing of the kind. From the outside it
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: looked like a great, dark, ugly wooden box, but all
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: the same it was snug and comfortable enough inside.
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: Then did you pull down the ramshackled old place.
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: No, it was burnt down, the whole of it.
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: Yes, was that a great misfortune for you?
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: That depends on how you look at it as a builder.
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: The fire was the making of me. Well, But it
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: was just after the birth of the two little boys.
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: The poor little twins.
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: Yes, they came healthy and bonnie into the world, and
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: they were growing too. You could see the difference day
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: to day.
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: Little children do grow quickly.
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: At first it was the prettiest sight in the world
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: to see Elena lying with the two of them in
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: her arms. But then came the night of the fire.
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: What happened, do tell me? Was anyone burnt?
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: No? Not that everyone got safe and sound out of
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: the house.
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: Well, and what then?
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: The fright had shaken Alena terribly, the alarm, the escape
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: the breakneck hurry, and then the ice cold night air,
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: for they had to be carried out just as they lay,
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: both she and the little ones.
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: Was it too much for them?
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: Oh? No, they stood it well enough. But Elena fell
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: into a fever and it affected her milk. She would
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: insist on nursing them herself, because it was her duty,
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: she said. And both our little boys they.
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: They Oh they did not get over that.
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: No, that they did not get over. That was how
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: we lost them.
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: It must have been terribly hard for.
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: You, hard enough for me, but ten times harder for Elena.
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: Oh that such things should be allowed to happen here
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: in the world. From the day I lost them, I
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: had no heart for building churches.
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: Did you not like building the church tower in our town?
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: I didn't like it. I know how free and happy
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: I felt when that tower was finished. I know that too,
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: And now I shall never never build anything of that
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: sort again, neither churches nor church towers.
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: Nothing but houses for people to live.
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: In, homes for human beings held, but homes.
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: With high towers and pinnacles upon them.
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: If possible. But as I said before, that fire was
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: the making of me as a builder. I mean, why don't.
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: You call yourself an architect like the others.
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: I have not been systematically enough taught for that. Most
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: of what I know I have found out for myself.
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: But you succeeded all the same.
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: Yes, thanks to the fire, I laid out almost the
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: whole of the garden in villa lots, and there I
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: was able to build after my own heart. So I
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: came to the front with a rush.
• 21:01
  Speaker 4: You must surely be a very happy man as matters
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: stand with you?
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: Happy? Do you say that too, like all the rest
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: of them?
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: Yes, I should say you must be if you could
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: only cease thinking about the two little children.
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: The two little children, they are not so easy to forget, Hilda.
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: Do you still feel their loss so much? After all
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: these years?
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: A happy man? You said?
• 21:32
  Speaker 4: Well, now are you not happy in other respects?
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: When I told you all this about the fire? Well,
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: was there not one special thought that you that you
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: seized upon?
• 21:47
  Speaker 5: No?
• 21:48
  Speaker 4: What thought should that be?
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: It was simply and solely by that fire that I
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: was enabled to build homes for human beings, cozy, comfortable,
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: bright home homes where father and mother and the whole
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: troop of children can live in safety and gladness. Feeling.
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: What a happy thing it is to be alive in
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: the world, and most of all to belong to each
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: other in great things and in small well.
• 22:14
  Speaker 4: And is it not a great happiness for you to
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: be able to build such beautiful homes?
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: The price, Hilda, the terrible price I had to pay
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: for the opportunity.
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: But can you never get over that?
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: No, that I might build homes for others, I had
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: to forego, to forego for all time the home that
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: might have been my own, I mean, a home for
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: a troop of children, and for father and mother too.
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: But need you have done that for all time?
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: You say that was the price of this happiness that
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: people talk about, this happiness, hm, This happiness was not
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: to be bought any cheaper, Hilda.
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: But may it not come right even yet?
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: Never in this world? Never? That is another consequence of
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: the fire, and of Alina's illness afterwards.
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: And yet you build all these nurseries.
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: Have you never noticed, Hilda, how the impossible? How it
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: seems to beckon and cry aloud to.
• 23:23
  Speaker 4: One the impossible? Yes, indeed, is that how you feel too?
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: Yes? I do? Well?
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: Then there must be a little of the troll in
• 23:36
  Speaker 4: you too?
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: Why of the troll?
• 23:39
  Speaker 4: What would you call it? Then?
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: Well, well, perhaps you are right, But how can I
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: help turning into a troll when this is how it
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: always goes with me? In everything? In everything?
• 23:51
  Speaker 4: How do you mean.
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: Mark what I say to you, Hilda, all that I
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: have succeeded in doing, building, creating all the beauty, curity, cheerful, comfort,
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: high and magnificence too. Oh is it not terrible even
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: to think of?
• 24:09
  Speaker 4: What is so terrible?
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: That all this I have to make up for, to
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: pay for not in money but in human happiness, and
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: not with my own happiness only, but with other peoples too. Yes, Yes,
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: do you see that, Hilda? That is the price which
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: my position as an artist has cost me and others.
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: And every single day I have to look on while
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: the price is paid for me anew over again and
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: over again and over again forever.
• 24:44
  Speaker 4: Now I can see that you are thinking of of.
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: Her, Yes, mainly of Elena. For Elena, she too had
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: her vocation in life, just as much as I had mine.
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: But her vocation has had to be stunted and crushed
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: and shattered in order that mine might force its way
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: to a sort of great victory. For you must know
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: that Alena, she too had a talent for building. She
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: for building, not houses and towers and spires, not such
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: things as I work away.
• 25:19
  Speaker 4: Yet Well, but what then.
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: For building up the souls of little children, Hilda? For
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: building up children souls in perfect balance and in noble
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: and beautiful forms, for enabling them to soar up into
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: erect and full grown human souls. That was Elena's talent.
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: And there it all lies, now, unused and unusable, forever,
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: of no earthly service to anyone, just like the ruins
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: left by a fire.
• 25:54
  Speaker 4: Yes, but even if this were so.
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: It is so. It is so, I know it well.
• 26:01
  Speaker 4: But in any case, it is not your fault.
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: Ah. That is the great, the terrible question, That is
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: the doubt that is gnawing me night and day. That, yes,
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: suppose the fault was mine in a certain.
• 26:19
  Speaker 4: Sense, your fault, the fire, all of it.
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: The whole thing. And yet perhaps I may not have
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: had anything to do with it.
• 26:29
  Speaker 4: Oh, mister solness, if you can talk like that, I
• 26:33
  Speaker 4: am afraid you must be ill.
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: After all, I don't think I shall ever be of
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: quite sound mind on that point.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: Rognar Bruvic cautiously opens the little door in the left
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: hand corner. Hilda comes forward. Rognar when he sees Hilda.
• 26:52
  Speaker 5: Oh, I beg pardon, mister Solmes.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: He makes a movement to withdraw.
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: No, no, don't go. Let us get it over.
• 27:01
  Speaker 5: Oh, yes, if only we could.
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: I hear your father is no better.
• 27:06
  Speaker 5: Father is fast growing weaker.
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: And therefore I beg and employ you to write a
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: few kind words to me on one of the plans.
• 27:16
  Speaker 5: He's something for father to read before he eat.
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: I won't hear anything more about those drawings of yours.
• 27:21
  Speaker 5: Have you looked at them?
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: Yes? I have, and theil good for nothing, and I
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: am good for nothing too. Stay here with me, Rang,
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: Now you shall have everything your own way, and then
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: you can marry kaya and live at your ease and
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: happily too. Who knows? Only don't think of building on
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: your own account?
• 27:42
  Speaker 5: Well, well, then I must go home and tell father
• 27:46
  Speaker 5: what you say I promised I would.
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: Is this what I am to tell father before he dies?
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: Oh? Tell him, tell him what you will for me
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: to say nothing at all to him. I can't do
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: anything else, Rang there.
• 28:04
  Speaker 5: Well, may I have the drawings to take with me?
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: Yes? Take them? Take them by all means. They're lying
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: there on the table.
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: Thanks, No, no, leave them here? Why because I want
• 28:17
  Speaker 4: to look at them too, But.
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: You have been well? Leave them there then, very well,
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: and go home at once to your father. Yes, I
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: suppose I must rang now. You must not ask me
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: to do what is beyond my power?
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: Do you hear?
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: Rang? Now? You must not? No, No, I.
• 28:36
  Speaker 5: Beg your pardon.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: He bows and goes out by the corner door. Hilda
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: goes over and sits down on a chair near the mirror.
• 28:45
  Speaker 4: That was a very ugly thing to do.
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: Do you think so too?
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: Yes? It was horribly ugly, and hard and bad and
• 28:54
  Speaker 4: cruel as well.
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: Oh, you don't understand my position.
• 28:58
  Speaker 4: No matter I say. You ought not to be like that.
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: You said yourself only just now that no one but
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: I ought to be allowed to build.
• 29:06
  Speaker 4: I may say such things, but you must not.
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: I most of all, Shirley, who have paid so dear
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: for my position.
• 29:14
  Speaker 4: Oh yes, with what you call domestic comfort and that sort.
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: Of thing, and with my piece of soul into the
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: bargain piece of soul.
• 29:26
  Speaker 4: Yes, yes, you are right in that, poor mister soulness
• 29:32
  Speaker 4: you fancy that?
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: Just sit down again, Hilda, and I'll tell you something funny. Well,
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: it sounds such a ludicrous little thing. For you see,
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: the whole story turns upon nothing but a crack in
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: the chimney. No more than that, No, not to begin with.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: He moves a chair nearer to Hilda and sits down.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: Hilda impatiently taps on her knee.
• 29:58
  Speaker 4: Well, now for the crack in the chimney.
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: I had noticed the split in the flu long long
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: before the fire. Every time I went up into the attic,
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: I looked to see if it was still there, and
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: it was, yes, For no one else knew about it.
• 30:13
  Speaker 4: And you said nothing, nothing, and did not think of
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: repairing the flu either.
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: Oh, yes, I thought about it, but never got any further.
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: Every time I intended to set to work, it seemed
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: just as if a hand held me back. Not today,
• 30:31
  Speaker 3: I thought tomorrow, And nothing ever came of it.
• 30:35
  Speaker 4: But why did you keep putting it off like that?
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: Because I was revolving something in my mind through that
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: little black crack in the chimney, I might perhaps force
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: my way upwards as a builder. That must have been thrilling,
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: almost irresistible, quite irresistible, For at that time it appeared
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: to me a perfectly simple and straightforward matter. I would
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: have had it happen in the winter time, a little
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: before midday I was to be out driving Elena in
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: the sleigh. The servants at home would have made huge
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: fires in the stoves, for of.
• 31:15
  Speaker 4: Course it was to be bitterly cold.
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: That day, rather biting, yes, and they would want Elena
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: to find it thoroughly snug and warm when she came home.
• 31:25
  Speaker 4: I suppose she is very chilly by nature.
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: She is. And as we drove home we were to
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: see the smoke, only the smoke, the smoke first. But
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: when we came up to the garden gate, the whole
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: of the old timber box was to be a rolling
• 31:41
  Speaker 3: mass of flames. That is how I wanted it to be.
• 31:46
  Speaker 4: You see, Ah, why why could it not have happened?
• 31:50
  Speaker 3: So you may well say that, Hilda, Well.
• 31:54
  Speaker 4: But now listen, mister soulness. Are you perfectly certain that
• 31:57
  Speaker 4: the fire was caused by that little crack in the chimney?
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: No, on the contrary, I am perfectly certain that the
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: crack in the chimney had nothing whatever to do with
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: the fire. What it has been clearly ascertained that the
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: fire broke out in a clothes cupboard in a totally
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: different part of the house.
• 32:14
  Speaker 4: Then what is all this nonsense you were talking about?
• 32:17
  Speaker 4: The crack in the chimney?
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: May I go on talking to you a little, Hilda?
• 32:22
  Speaker 4: Yes, if you'll only talk sensibly.
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: I will try to out with it. Then, mister soulness,
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: don't you agree with me, Hilda, that there exists special
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: chosen people who have been endowed with the power and
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: faculty of desiring a thing, craving for a thing, willing
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: a thing so persistently and so so inexorably, that at
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: last it has to happen.
• 32:51
  Speaker 4: Don't you believe that if that is so, we shall
• 32:54
  Speaker 4: see one of these days whether I am one of
• 32:57
  Speaker 4: the chosen.
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: It is not one self alone that can do such
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: great things. Oh, now, the helpers and the servers they
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: must do their part two if it is to be
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: of any good. But they never come of themselves. One
• 33:14
  Speaker 3: has to call upon them very persistently inwardly.
• 33:18
  Speaker 4: You understand what are these helpers and servers?
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: Now we can talk about that some other time. For
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: the present, let us keep to this business of the fire.
• 33:29
  Speaker 4: Don't you think that fire would have happened all the
• 33:31
  Speaker 4: same even without your wishing for it.
• 33:34
  Speaker 3: If the house had been old Knute Brovics, it would
• 33:37
  Speaker 3: never have burnt down so conveniently for him. I'm sure
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: of that, for he does not know how to call
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: for the helpers, no, nor for the servers either. So
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: you see, Hilda, it is my fault after all, that
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: the lives of the two little boys had to be sacrificed.
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: And do you think it is not my fault too,
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: that Elena has never been the woman she should and
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: might have been, and that she most longed to be.
• 34:03
  Speaker 4: Yes, But if it is all the work of these
• 34:06
  Speaker 4: helpers and servers.
• 34:08
  Speaker 3: Who called for the helpers and servers, it was I
• 34:12
  Speaker 3: and they came and obeyed my will. That is what
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: people call having the luck on your side. But I
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: must tell you what this sort of luck feels like.
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: It feels like a great raw place here on my breast,
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: and the helpers and servers keep on flaying pieces of
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: skin off other people in order to close my sore.
• 34:33
  Speaker 3: But still the sow is not healed. Never never, Oh,
• 34:38
  Speaker 3: if you knew how it can sometimes gnaw and burn,
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: you are.
• 34:44
  Speaker 4: Ill, mister soulness, very ill.
• 34:47
  Speaker 3: I almost think say mad, for that is what you mean.
• 34:52
  Speaker 4: No, I don't think there is much amiss with your intellect?
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: With what then? Out with it?
• 34:58
  Speaker 4: I wonder whether you were not sent into the world
• 35:01
  Speaker 4: with a sickly conscience.
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: A sickly conscience. What devilry is that?
• 35:06
  Speaker 4: I mean that your conscience is feeble, too delicately built
• 35:11
  Speaker 4: as it were, hasn't strength to take a grip of
• 35:14
  Speaker 4: things to lift and bear? What is heavy?
• 35:18
  Speaker 3: Hm? May I ask, then, what sort of conscience one
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: ought to have?
• 35:22
  Speaker 4: I should like your conscience to be to be thoroughly robust.
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: Indeed robust? Eh? Is your own conscience robust? May I ask?
• 35:32
  Speaker 4: Yes? I think it is. I have never noticed that
• 35:35
  Speaker 4: it wasn't.
• 35:36
  Speaker 3: It has not been put very severely to the test,
• 35:39
  Speaker 3: I should think.
• 35:40
  Speaker 4: Oh, it was no such simple matter to leave father.
• 35:44
  Speaker 4: I am so awfully fond.
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: Of him, dear me, for a month or two, I.
• 35:49
  Speaker 4: Think I shall never go home again?
• 35:51
  Speaker 3: Never? Then? Why did you leave him?
• 35:54
  Speaker 4: Have you forgotten again that the ten years are up?
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: Oh? Nonsense? Was anything wrong at home? Eh?
• 36:02
  Speaker 4: It was this impulse within me that urged and goaded
• 36:05
  Speaker 4: me to come, and lured and drew me on as well.
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: There we have it. There, we have it, Hilda, There
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: is the troll in you too, as in me, For
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: it's the troll in one. You see. It is that
• 36:20
  Speaker 3: that calls to the powers outside us, and then you
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: must give in, whether you will or no.
• 36:27
  Speaker 4: I almost think you are right, mister Soulness.
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: No, there are devils innumerable abroad in the world, Hilda, that.
• 36:33
  Speaker 4: One never sees devils too.
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: Good devils and bad devils, light haired devils and black
• 36:39
  Speaker 3: haired devils. If only you could always tell whether it
• 36:42
  Speaker 3: is the light or the dark ones that have got
• 36:44
  Speaker 3: hold of you. Oh, then it would be simple enough.
• 36:49
  Speaker 4: Or if one had a really vigorous, radiantly healthy conscience,
• 36:53
  Speaker 4: so that one dared to do what one would.
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: I believe now that most people are just as pune
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: any creatures as I am.
• 37:01
  Speaker 4: In that respect, I shouldn't wonder.
• 37:04
  Speaker 3: In the sagas have you read any of the old sagas? Oh?
• 37:08
  Speaker 4: Yes, when I used to read books, I.
• 37:11
  Speaker 3: In the sagas you read about vikings who sailed to
• 37:14
  Speaker 3: foreign lands and plundered and burned and killed men.
• 37:17
  Speaker 4: And carried off women.
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: And kept them in captivity.
• 37:21
  Speaker 4: Took them home in their ships.
• 37:23
  Speaker 3: And behaved to them like like the very worst of trolls.
• 37:27
  Speaker 4: I think that must have been.
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: Thrilling to carry off women.
• 37:32
  Speaker 4: Eh, to be carried off?
• 37:36
  Speaker 3: Oh indeed, But what made.
• 37:39
  Speaker 4: You speak of these vikings, mister soulness?
• 37:42
  Speaker 3: Why those fellows must have had robust consciences, if you like.
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: When they got home again, they could eat and drink
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: and be as happy as children, and the women too.
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: They often would not leave them on any account. Can
• 37:56
  Speaker 3: you understand that, Hilda.
• 37:58
  Speaker 4: Those women I can understand exceedingly Well.
• 38:02
  Speaker 3: Oh, perhaps you could do the same yourself. Why not
• 38:07
  Speaker 3: live of your own free will with a ruffian like that?
• 38:10
  Speaker 4: If it was a ruffian I had come to.
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: Love, could you come to love a man like that?
• 38:16
  Speaker 4: Good Heavens, you know very well one can't choose whom
• 38:20
  Speaker 4: one is going to love.
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: Oh no, I suppose it is the troll within one
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: that's responsible for that, and.
• 38:29
  Speaker 4: All those blessed devils that you know so well, both
• 38:33
  Speaker 4: the light haired and the dark haired ones.
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: Then I hope with all my heart that the devils
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: will choose carefully for you, Hilda.
• 38:42
  Speaker 4: For me, they have chosen already once and for all.
• 38:48
  Speaker 3: Hilda, you are like a wild bird of the woods.
• 38:53
  Speaker 4: Far from it. I don't hide myself away under the bushes.
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: No, No, there is rather something of the bird of
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: prey in you that is.
• 39:02
  Speaker 4: Nearer it perhaps, And why not a bird of prey?
• 39:08
  Speaker 4: Why should not I go a hunting I, as well
• 39:11
  Speaker 4: as the rest, carry off the prey I want, if
• 39:15
  Speaker 4: only I can get my claws into it and do
• 39:18
  Speaker 4: with it as I will.
• 39:20
  Speaker 3: Hilda, do you know what you are?
• 39:24
  Speaker 4: Yes? I suppose I am a strange sort of bird.
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: No, you are like a dawning day. When I look
• 39:32
  Speaker 3: at you, I seem to be looking towards the sunrise.
• 39:37
  Speaker 4: Tell me, mister soulness, are you certain that you have
• 39:40
  Speaker 4: never called me to you? Inwardly? You know?
• 39:45
  Speaker 3: I almost think I must have?
• 39:48
  Speaker 4: What did you want with me?
• 39:50
  Speaker 3: You are the younger generation, Hilda.
• 39:53
  Speaker 4: That younger generation that you are so afraid.
• 39:56
  Speaker 3: Of, and which in my heart I yearn to so deeply.
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: Hilda rises goes to the little table and fetches Ragnarbruvic's portfolio.
• 40:07
  Speaker 4: We were talking of these drawings.
• 40:10
  Speaker 3: Put those things away. I have seen enough of them.
• 40:12
  Speaker 4: Yes, but you have to write your approval.
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: On them, write my approval on them. Never.
• 40:18
  Speaker 4: But the poor old man is lying at death's door.
• 40:21
  Speaker 4: Can't you give him and his son this pleasure before
• 40:24
  Speaker 4: they are parted, and perhaps he might get the commission
• 40:27
  Speaker 4: to carry them out too.
• 40:29
  Speaker 3: Yes, that is just what he would get. He has
• 40:31
  Speaker 3: made sure of that, has my fine gentleman.
• 40:35
  Speaker 4: Then good heavens if that is so? Can't you tell
• 40:39
  Speaker 4: the least little bit of a lie? For once in
• 40:41
  Speaker 4: a way a lie?
• 40:43
  Speaker 3: Hilda? Take those devil's drawings out of my sight?
• 40:47
  Speaker 4: Well, well, well, don't bite me. You talk of trolls,
• 40:52
  Speaker 4: But I think you go on like a troll yourself.
• 40:56
  Speaker 4: Where do you keep your pen and ink?
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: There is nothing of the sort in here, but.
• 41:00
  Speaker 4: In the office where that young lady is.
• 41:03
  Speaker 3: Stay where you are, Hilda. I ought to tell a lie,
• 41:06
  Speaker 3: you say, oh, yes, for the sake of his old father,
• 41:09
  Speaker 3: I might well do that, for in my time I
• 41:11
  Speaker 3: have crushed him, trodden him under foot him too. I
• 41:16
  Speaker 3: needed room for myself. But this Rangnar, he must on
• 41:20
  Speaker 3: no account be allowed to come to the front.
• 41:23
  Speaker 4: Poor fellow. There is surely no fear of that if
• 41:27
  Speaker 4: he has nothing in him.
• 41:29
  Speaker 3: If rang Nar Brovic gets his chance, he will strike
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: me to the earth, crush me as I crushed his father.
• 41:37
  Speaker 4: Crush you. Has he the ability for that?
• 41:41
  Speaker 3: Yes? You may depend upon it. He has the ability.
• 41:44
  Speaker 3: He is the younger generation that stands ready to knock
• 41:47
  Speaker 3: at my door to make an end of Halvard's soulness, And.
• 41:51
  Speaker 4: Yet you would bar him out. Fie, mister soulness.
• 41:55
  Speaker 3: The fight I have been fighting has cost hearts blood enough.
• 41:59
  Speaker 3: And I am afraid too that the helpers and servers
• 42:02
  Speaker 3: will not obey me any longer.
• 42:05
  Speaker 4: Then you must go ahead without them. There is nothing
• 42:07
  Speaker 4: else for it.
• 42:09
  Speaker 3: It is hopeless, Hilda. The luck is bound to turn
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: a little sooner or a little later. Retribution is inexorable.
• 42:19
  Speaker 4: Don't talk like that. Do you want to kill me?
• 42:23
  Speaker 4: To take from me? What is more than my life?
• 42:26
  Speaker 3: And what is that?
• 42:28
  Speaker 4: The longing to see you? Great, to see you with
• 42:33
  Speaker 4: a wreath in your hand, high high up upon a
• 42:36
  Speaker 4: church tower. Come out with your pencil. Now you must
• 42:41
  Speaker 4: have a pencil about you.
• 42:43
  Speaker 3: I have one here very well.
• 42:45
  Speaker 4: Now let us too sit down here mister stillness.
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: Sulness seats himself at the table. Hilda stands behind him,
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: leaning over the back of the chair.
• 42:55
  Speaker 4: And now we will write on the drawings. We must
• 42:57
  Speaker 4: write very very nicely and cordially for this horrid ruar
• 43:01
  Speaker 4: or whatever his name is.
• 43:03
  Speaker 3: Tell me one thing, Hilda. Yes, if you have been
• 43:07
  Speaker 3: waiting for me all these ten years, what then? Why
• 43:11
  Speaker 3: have you never written to me? Then I could have answered.
• 43:14
  Speaker 4: You No, no, no, that was just what I did
• 43:18
  Speaker 4: not want.
• 43:19
  Speaker 3: Why not?
• 43:21
  Speaker 4: I was afraid the whole thing might fall to pieces.
• 43:25
  Speaker 4: But we were going to write on the drawings, mister soulness,
• 43:29
  Speaker 4: so we were mind now kindly and cordially. Oh how
• 43:34
  Speaker 4: I hate, how I hate this ruled.
• 43:39
  Speaker 3: Have you never really cared for anyone, Hilda, for anyone else?
• 43:43
  Speaker 4: I suppose you mean.
• 43:45
  Speaker 3: For anyone else? Yes? Have you never in all these
• 43:49
  Speaker 3: ten years? Never?
• 43:51
  Speaker 4: Oh? Yes? Now? And then when I was perfectly furious
• 43:56
  Speaker 4: with you for not coming, then.
• 43:58
  Speaker 3: You did take an interest in other people too, a.
• 44:01
  Speaker 4: Little bit for a week or so. Good heavens, mister soulness.
• 44:05
  Speaker 4: You surely know how such things come about.
• 44:08
  Speaker 3: Hilda. What is it you have come for?
• 44:12
  Speaker 4: Don't waste time talking. The poor old man might go
• 44:15
  Speaker 4: and die in the meantime.
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: Answer me, Hilda, what do you want of me?
• 44:20
  Speaker 4: I want my kingdom?
• 44:23
  Speaker 3: Hm.
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: He gives a rapid glance toward the door on the left,
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: and then goes on writing on the drawings At the
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: same moment, missus Soulness enters.
• 44:34
  Speaker 5: Here are a few things I have got for you,
• 44:36
  Speaker 5: Miss Vangle. The large parcels will be sent later on.
• 44:40
  Speaker 4: Oh, how very very kind of you.
• 44:43
  Speaker 5: Only my simple duty, nothing more than that.
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: Solness reading over what he has.
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: Written, Elena. Yes, did you notice whether the bookkeeper was
• 44:53
  Speaker 3: out there?
• 44:54
  Speaker 5: Yes, of course she was there.
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: Soulness puts the drawings in the portfolio.
• 44:59
  Speaker 5: Hmm, she was standing at the desk, as she always
• 45:03
  Speaker 5: is when I go through the room.
• 45:05
  Speaker 3: Then I'll give this to her and tell her that.
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: Hilda takes the portfolio from him.
• 45:10
  Speaker 4: Oh, no, let me have the pleasure of doing that.
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: Goes to the door, but turns.
• 45:16
  Speaker 4: What is her name?
• 45:17
  Speaker 3: Her name is miss Fossley.
• 45:19
  Speaker 4: Pooh, that sounds so cold her Christian name?
• 45:23
  Speaker 3: I mean, Kaya, I believe KaiA.
• 45:27
  Speaker 4: Come in here, make haste. Mister Soulness wants to speak
• 45:30
  Speaker 4: to you.
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: Kaya falsely appears at the door. Here I am Hilda
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: handing her the portfolio.
• 45:38
  Speaker 4: See here, Kya, you can take this home, mister Soulness
• 45:42
  Speaker 4: has written on them. Now, oh, at last.
• 45:45
  Speaker 3: Give them to the old man as soon as you can.
• 45:47
  Speaker 2: I will go straight home with them.
• 45:49
  Speaker 3: Yes, do now Rangner will have a chance of building
• 45:52
  Speaker 3: for himself.
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: Oh may he come and thank you for all?
• 45:56
  Speaker 3: I won't have any thanks. Tell him that from me,
• 45:59
  Speaker 3: Yes I will, and tell him at the same time that,
• 46:03
  Speaker 3: henceforward I do not require his services, nor yours either,
• 46:09
  Speaker 3: not mine either. You will have other things to think
• 46:12
  Speaker 3: of now and to attend to, and that is a
• 46:15
  Speaker 3: very good thing for you. Well, go home with the
• 46:18
  Speaker 3: drawings now, miss Vasstley, at once, do you hear?
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: Yes, mister soulness, she goes out?
• 46:25
  Speaker 5: Heavens, what deceitful eyes she has, she.
• 46:30
  Speaker 3: That poor little creature.
• 46:32
  Speaker 5: Oh I can see what I can see? Halvard? Are
• 46:35
  Speaker 5: you really dismissing them? Yes, her as well?
• 46:39
  Speaker 3: Was not that what you wished?
• 46:41
  Speaker 5: But how can you get on without her? Oh? Well,
• 46:45
  Speaker 5: no doubt you have some one else in reserve, Halvard.
• 46:48
  Speaker 4: Well, I, for one am not the person to stand
• 46:50
  Speaker 4: at a desk.
• 46:52
  Speaker 3: Never mind, never mind. It will be all right to
• 46:54
  Speaker 3: lean there. Now. All you have to do is think
• 46:57
  Speaker 3: about moving into our new home as quickly as you can.
• 47:01
  Speaker 3: This evening we will hang up the wreath. What do
• 47:04
  Speaker 3: you say to that, Miss Hilda?
• 47:06
  Speaker 4: It will be splendid to see you so high up
• 47:09
  Speaker 4: once more.
• 47:10
  Speaker 5: Me, for heaven's sake, Miss Vangell, don't imagine such a thing,
• 47:14
  Speaker 5: my husband, when you always get so dizzy.
• 47:18
  Speaker 4: He get dizzy? No, I know quite well he does not.
• 47:22
  Speaker 5: Oh, yes, indeed he does.
• 47:24
  Speaker 4: But I have seen him with my own eyes, right
• 47:28
  Speaker 4: up at the top of a high church tower.
• 47:31
  Speaker 5: Yes, I hear people talk of that, but it is
• 47:34
  Speaker 5: utterly impossible.
• 47:35
  Speaker 3: Impossible, impossible, Yes, but there I stood all the same.
• 47:40
  Speaker 5: Oh how can you say so, Halvard? Why you can't
• 47:44
  Speaker 5: even bear to go out on the second story balcony here?
• 47:47
  Speaker 5: You have always been like that.
• 47:49
  Speaker 3: You may perhaps see something different this evening.
• 47:52
  Speaker 5: No, no, no, please, gone, I shall never see that.
• 47:56
  Speaker 5: I will write at once to the doctor, and I
• 47:58
  Speaker 5: am sure he won't let you do it. Why, Alena,
• 48:02
  Speaker 5: Oh you know you're ill, Halvard. This proves it. Oh god,
• 48:07
  Speaker 5: oh god.
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: She goes hastily out to the right.
• 48:11
  Speaker 4: Is it so?
• 48:13
  Speaker 3: Or is it not that I turned dizzy that.
• 48:16
  Speaker 4: My master builder dares not cannot climb as high as
• 48:21
  Speaker 4: he builds?
• 48:23
  Speaker 3: Is that the way you look at it? Yes, I
• 48:26
  Speaker 3: believe there is scarcely a corner in me that is safe.
• 48:29
  Speaker 4: From you up there, Then right up there you.
• 48:34
  Speaker 3: Might have the topmost room in the tower, Hilda. There
• 48:37
  Speaker 3: you might live like a princess.
• 48:40
  Speaker 4: Yes, that is what you promised me.
• 48:43
  Speaker 3: Did I really fye?
• 48:45
  Speaker 4: Mister soulness, you said I should be a princess, and
• 48:50
  Speaker 4: that you would give me a kingdom, and then you
• 48:53
  Speaker 4: went in.
• 48:55
  Speaker 3: Well, are you quite certain that this is not a dream?
• 48:59
  Speaker 3: A fancy has fixed itself in your mind?
• 49:02
  Speaker 4: Do you mean that you did not do it?
• 49:05
  Speaker 3: I scarcely know myself, but now I know so much
• 49:09
  Speaker 3: for certain that.
• 49:10
  Speaker 4: I that you say it at once.
• 49:14
  Speaker 3: That I ought to have done it.
• 49:18
  Speaker 4: Don't tell me you can.
• 49:20
  Speaker 3: Ever be dizzy this evening. Then we will hang up
• 49:24
  Speaker 3: the wreath, Princess Hilda.
• 49:27
  Speaker 4: Over your new home.
• 49:29
  Speaker 3: Yes, over the new house which will never be a
• 49:33
  Speaker 3: home for me.
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: He goes out through the garden door. Hilda looks straight
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: in front of her with a far away expression, and
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: whispers to herself. The only words audible.
• 49:46
  Speaker 4: Are frightfully thrilling.
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: End of act second
• 50:02
  Speaker 4: Chu