The Master Builder and Other Plays

by Henrik Ibsen

  RUBEK: Oh, how wrong you are! The life within us and the life around us seethes and throbs as before!

  IRENE [smiles and shakes her head]: This young resurrected woman of yours can see all of life laid out on its funeral bier.

  RUBEK [throws his arms passionately round her]: Then let us two dead people live life this one time to the full – before we step down into our graves again!

  IRENE [with a scream]: Arnold!

  RUBEK: But not here in the semi-darkness! Not here, with this ugly, damp shroud flapping about us –

  IRENE [swept up by passion]: No, no – up in the light and in all the glittering glory. Up to the promised mountain top!

  RUBEK: We’ll celebrate our marriage feast up there, Irene – my beloved!

  IRENE [proud]: Then let the sun look upon us, Arnold.

  RUBEK: All the powers of light can look upon us. And of darkness too. [Takes her hand] Will you come with me now, my bride of grace?

  IRENE [as though transfigured]: I come freely and gladly, my lord and master.

  RUBEK [draws her along]: We must first pass through the mists, Irene, and then –

  IRENE: Yes, through all mists. And then right up to the top of the tower, shining in the sunrise.

  The clouds of mist sink more densely over the landscape. RUBEK, holding IRENE’s hand, climbs up over the snowfield to the right and soon disappears among the lower clouds. Biting stormblasts thrust and howl through the air.

  The SISTER OF MERCY emerges up in the scree on the left. She stops there and looks around, searchingly and silently.

  MAJA [heard singing joyfully at a distance, down in the ravine]:

  I am free! I am free! I am free!

  Prison life’s over for me!

  I’m free as a bird! I am free!

  Suddenly a thunderous roar is heard from up in the snowfield, which slides and hurtles down at a furious speed.

  RUBEK and IRENE are indistinctly glimpsed as they are hurled along in the mass of snow, and are buried by it.

  SISTER OF MERCY [utters a scream, stretches out her arms to them as they fall and cries]: Irene! [She stands for a while, silent, then makes the sign of the cross in the air in front of her, and says] Pax vobiscum!10

  MAJA’s jubilant song is heard from even further down the ravine.

  Notes

  The Master Builder

  Title

  1. The Master Builder: The title of the original is Bygmester Solness, literally ‘Master Builder Solness’. But The Master Builder became the preferred title from the time of the play’s first translation into English.

  Characters

  1. master builder: While the compound ‘bygmester’ of the original does mean ‘master builder’, the term is a set expression and simply refers to a builder who is in charge of a building firm, a building contractor. The term ‘master builder’ communicates a somewhat rarer and more mythical quality than does the original.

  2. Mrs: The term is ‘fru’, indicating that the woman in question is married and has a relatively high social standing (belonging to the bourgeoisie or the higher levels of the rural community). The term ‘madam’ was at this time used for married women from lower social strata.

  3. Knut: The ‘k’ in front of an ‘n’ should be pronounced in Dano-Norwegian (Danish was the shared written language of Denmark and Norway at this time, but Ibsen’s language is coloured by ‘Norwegianisms’).

  4. Miss: The word ‘frøken’ in the original was used to describe girls who had been confirmed (normally at the age of fourteen to sixteen, at the latest at nineteen). In contrast, ‘jomfru’ – more quaint by this period – meant an unmarried, younger woman of higher social standing.

  Act One

  1. left wall: Ibsen always pictures the stage from the perspective of the audience.

  2. master: In the original Brovik refers scathingly to Solness as ‘principalen’, which can also mean the director, head or leader.

  3. villa: Villas for families of the bourgeoisie were at this time mostly built in rural surroundings on the periphery of the city.

  4. dammit: The original’s ‘for fan’ literally means ‘for the devil’, a middling strong to strong swearword. Various forms of this expression have been rendered as ‘dammit’ or ‘dammit all’ throughout these translations. Ibsen’s Norwegian swearwords are typically of a religious rather than sexual kind.

  5. Blonde ringlets: Ringlets were worn by Norwegian women around 1830 but represented a very dated look by the 1890s, when women’s hair was tied in a knot in the neck or up on the head.

  6. clean-shaven: Fashion in the eighteenth century demanded beardlessness, but beards were popular in the nineteenth.

  7. upon my soul: ‘Så min sæl’ og salighed’ is an expression used in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Danish literature. By the 1890s it had become a literary-sounding and antiquated phrase. It literally means ‘so my soul and salvation’.

  8. baronial pile: ‘Røverborg’ literally means ‘robber’s fortress’, the fortress of a robber knight or robber baron; here an old, dilapidated house.

  9. the turn: ‘Omslaget’ may mean a change or reversal of one sort or another, e.g. the turn of the tide, a turn in the weather, but also a reversal of fortune. The word designates a central concept in the play.

  10. travelling costume: From the 1880s there were initiatives to make more easy and comfortable clothing for women’s outdoor activities, often a simple skirt and a separate top.

  11. mountain lodges: Lodges and cabins provided by the state or the Norwegian Trekking Association (founded in 1868) as accommodation for travellers over mountain passes.

  12. glorious: ‘Dejlig’ is a key word in the play. On the whole it is translated as ‘lovely’, but not when preceded by ‘utterly’ or ‘terribly’, in which cases ‘glorious’ or ‘splendid’ has been preferred for stylistic reasons.

  13. woman: Before it became applied to female individuals, the word ‘Fruentimmer’ in the original meant ‘a woman’s room’. The word acquired a pejorative sense from the middle of the nineteenth century, generally referring to a woman of low standing or questionable behaviour.

  14. When the tower was finished … celebration in the town: The owner traditionally gave a feast when the top of the construction was finished, and a wreath or small pine tree was placed on top.

  15. harps playing: Probably an allusion to the notion of the music or harmony of the spheres, a divine music not audible to the human ear.

  16. the real bit: ‘Det rigtige’. This is an instance of an adjective used with the definite article but no noun to follow, a stylistic possibility in Norwegian employed by Ibsen to denote a central idea, communicating a certain openness or enigmatic quality. Other instances of the same in this play include ‘det forfærdelige’ (literally: ‘the terrible [thing]’) and ‘det umulige’ (‘the impossible’). While the last example shows that this construction is not always untranslatable in English, in most cases a noun is required.

  17. Orangia: ‘Appelsinia’. The orange (‘appelsin’) was a rare and exotic fruit in Norway at this time.

  18. tied a knot in your handkerchief: A traditional way in which to signal that something must be remembered.

  Act Two

  1. Just as empty: Possibly an allusion to Genesis 1:2: ‘And the earth was without form, and void.’ In Ibsen’s original the words ‘tomt’ and ‘øde’ are identical with those used as equivalents of ‘without form’ and ‘void’ in his Danish Bible translation. These words more literally mean ‘empty’ and ‘deserted’.

  2. no longer looped up: This signals that she is about to move indoors.

  3. the big quarry: In the rocky terrain of Norway it is common for houses to be built on steep hillsides, with ledges or plateaux carved or blasted out of the rock to accommodate them.

  4. Aline caught a fever. And that affected her milk: A theory not known in either popular medicine or contemporary science.

  5. calling in life: The notion o
f a calling has biblical or Christian connotations. ‘Livskald’, literally ‘life calling’, is one of several key compounds involving ‘life’ in this play.

  6. midday: ‘Middag’ literally means ‘midday’, but more narrowly refers to the midday meal.

  7. sleigh: In the original a small sledge with room for only one person.

  8. as cowardly: ‘Skrælinger’. An old expression with reference to Inuits, with the literal meaning ‘weaklings’.

  Act Three

  1. my duty to bow to his wishes: Probably an allusion to St Paul’s notion of a woman’s place in relation to her husband, cf. e.g. Ephesians 5:22: ‘Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.’

  2. They’ve drained all the lifeblood out of her: Emptied her of her power. In Norwegian fairy tales trolls are often depicted as eating humans and drinking human blood.

  3. dauntless Viking spirit: ‘Vikingtrods i livet’. The original compound is a set expression, literally ‘Viking defiance’, adding ‘in life’.

  4. grist to his mill: The idiom ‘fik vand på sin mølle’ (literally ‘got water on his mill’) refers to someone who finds new arguments and becomes more eager and assertive.

  5. it is finished: Christ’s last words on the cross; see John 19:30.

  Little Eyolf

  Characters

  1. Miss: See note 4 to the List of Characters in The Master Builder above.

  2. Borgheim: The spelling has been changed from ‘Borghejm’ to ‘Borgheim’ in order to facilitate pronunciation.

  3. The Rat-Maid: The literal meaning of ‘Rottejomfruen’. Ibsen seems to have used the Grimm brothers’ fairy tale ‘The Pied Piper of Hamelin’ as a source for this character, but he claimed that she was based on a childhood memory of an insane woman who was known by this name in his hometown of Skien. ‘The Rat-Maid’ catches the fairy-tale quality better than the traditional English translation ‘Rat Wife’; used of an old crone, it also has an ironic dimension.

  Act One

  1. the background: In his stage directions, Ibsen employs terms such as ‘background’ and ‘foreground’ rather than ‘upstage’ and ‘downstage’. He always pictures the stage from the perspective of the audience.

  2. all the nicer: ‘Dejligere’. The word ‘dejlig’ occurs often in the play, and the many different contexts make it impossible to remain consistent in translation. In certain cases it has been translated as ‘lovely’, in others as ‘marvellous’ or ‘sweet’, here as ‘nice’ and in one instance as ‘fine and good’.

  3. How empty: See The Master Builder, Act Two, note 1, above.

  4. gives scope: The word ‘romme’ literally means to contain or accommodate.

  5. there’s someone coming after me: Allmers alludes to John the Baptist’s words about Christ; see Mark 1:7.

  6. I’ll have to be a soldier: Compulsory military service for young men was introduced in Southern Norway in 1876 and in Northern Norway in 1897.

  7. gnaws: Words associated with the Rat-Maiden, such as ‘nager’, ‘gnaver’, ‘lokke’ (gnaw, lure), recur throughout the play, and the translation has aimed for consistency in order to capture the importance of this set of metaphors.

  8. beastie: ‘Skabilken’ refers to an ugly, unshapely creature.

  9. Puggy-boy: ‘Mops’ refers to a small dog with a broad face and a short, blunt nose, a pug. The addition of ‘mann’ is in Norwegian common in nicknames for boys and pets.

  10. Then I walk him round the house three times: A reference to traditional belief in the magic powers of circles and of the numeral three.

  11. woman: See The Master Builder, Act One, note 13, above.

  12. follow my calling: The notion of ‘a calling’ has biblical or Christian associations here.

  13. inconceivable good fortune: ‘Ubegribelige lykke’. The word ‘lykke’ has a number of possible translations in English, including ‘happiness’ and ‘fortune’. Elsewhere in the play the word has been translated as ‘happiness’.

  14. gold and green forests: Set expression, used in Norwegian fairy tales. The saying often refers to unrealistic promises.

  15. the complete one: ‘Den fuldfærdige’ literally means ‘the fully finished one’. The same word is used twice in this line.

  16. renunciation: A renunciation of the Devil was proclaimed before the Confession in connection with Lutheran christenings.

  17. tickled pink: ‘Kisteglad’. Literally ‘asylum happy’, the happiness of someone who is insane. Overjoyed.

  18. rouse the wickedness: ‘Det onde’. The adjective ‘ond’ (‘evil’ or ‘wicked’) and its noun and adverb forms are all key words in the play. The image of ‘onde øjne’ (‘evil eyes’, see below) is also central, but elsewhere, as in this context, translating ‘ond’ as ‘evil’ comes across as too metaphysical in English. ‘Ond’ is therefore most often translated as ‘wicked’.

  19. left him neglected: ‘Gå for lud og kaldt vand’. Set expression. Literally to be cleansed with ‘lye and cold water’, i.e., in the most uncomfortable ways; to be neglected and badly treated.

  20. The time had not yet come for me: See John 12:23: ‘The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.’ Ibsen uses the archaic form ‘tiden er kommen’, which is identical with the translation of this verse in some Danish bibles.

  21. Had let my hair down: The fashion for women was to have their hair pulled back and collected in a heavy knot at the neck or on the head. To have hair down loose was not acceptable except in private.

  22. ‘You had champagne, but you touched it not’: An allusion to the last line in the Norwegian poet Johan Sebastian Welhaven’s anti-revolutionary poem ‘Republikanerne’ (‘The Republicans’, 1832): ‘They had champagne, but touched it not’.

  23. evil eyes: It was believed that certain people with occult powers could harm both men and animals with their gaze. This is also a feature in Norwegian fairy tales.

  24. Look – the crutch! It’s floating: ‘Krykken flyder’. This formulation ought to convey the sound of a tolling bell and provide an appropriately sing-song line for Rita in Act Three. The solution here is a slight expansion on the more compact formulation in the original.

  Act Two

  1. joy and pride: The word ‘glæde’ (joy or happiness) is another central word in the play and closely related to ‘lykke’ (cf. above). While ‘lykke’ has generally been translated as ‘happiness’, ‘glæde’ has been translated as ‘joy’.

  2. black crape: A ribbon around the hat or the arm in order to communicate grief.

  3. vowels: The original literally means ‘light first letters in the names’, i.e. a light vowel, a vowel formed far to the front of the mouth.

  4. the law of change: ‘Forvandlingens lov’. Cited initially by Allmers and referred to several times in the play. Probably referring to the general notion that all things in nature, including human abilities and relations, are subject to the law of change. ‘Forvandling’ literally means ‘transformation’.

  5. complicity and penitence: Confession and repentance had a central place in Lutheran theology.

  Act Three

  1. Mrs Allmers: ‘Fru Rita’. The address in the original, literally ‘Mrs Rita’, marks a gentleman’s polite acquaintance with a lady. It is close enough for him to use the first name, but not on its own or with the informal ‘du’ (you).

  2. Miss Asta: ‘Frøken Asta’. See the note on Mrs Allmers above.

  3. I had the sense that death and I … travelling companions: This motif is found in the Asbjørnsen and Moe fairy tale ‘Følgesvenden’ (‘The Companion’), in which a dead man joins a young boy and helps him.

  4. Desolation and emptiness all around: Another reference to Genesis 1:2.

  John Gabriel Borkman

  Characters

  1. Mrs: See note 2 to the List of Characters in The Master Builder, above.

  2. Miss: See note 4 to the List of Characters in The Master Builder, above.

  3. Vilhelm Foldal: A charact
er who seems first to have been conceived by Ibsen in connection with The Lady from the Sea (1888). In the notes for that play Ibsen sketched him as an old married clerk who wrote a play in his youth and who is perpetually polishing it, living in the hope that he will one day get it published and make a name for himself.

  4. clerk: ‘Extraskriver’. Assistant in a government ministry, secretary or copyist.

  5. maid: ‘Stuepige’. Maid with a particular responsibility for cleaning and keeping tidy the more private parts of the house, who would also help with receiving family guests and serving.

  Act One

  1. the background: Ibsen employs terms such as ‘background’ and ‘foreground’ rather than ‘upstage’ and ‘downstage’. He always pictures the stage from the perspective of the audience.

  2. horsehair sofa: A ‘kanapé’ was an upholstered bench or sofa shaped as two or three connected chairs, here with horsehair, which was commonly used both to stuff and upholster Empire-style furniture (see also Act Two, note 1, below).

  3. our student: The use of academic and professional titles was common in Norway in the nineteenth century, in both direct address and description. Erhart Borkman is frequently referred to as ‘Student Borkman’. The translation has kept such references to a minimum, preferring instead the designation ‘young Mr Borkman’.

  4. They always called him by his first name: The use of first name signals a close and personal relationship, in which the person spoken of is included in a fellowship of people below him or her in social rank.

  5. The whole lot: ‘Hele herligheden’ literally means ‘all of the glory’, and the original phrase may have religious connotations.

  6. restitution: ‘Oprejsning’. This central word may have religious connotations, signalling the raising up of a fallen humankind through Christ, but Mrs Borkman’s focus here is on the social and material aspects of life.