A Doll's House and Other Plays (Penguin)

by Henrik Ibsen

  ASLAKSEN: Well, then I dare say we can print it.

  DR STOCKMANN: Yes, I should think so!

  HOVSTAD: It’ll go in early tomorrow.

  DR STOCKMANN: Yes, damn it all, not a single day must be wasted. Listen, Mr Aslaksen, I wanted to ask this of you: that you take personal charge of the manuscript.

  ASLAKSEN: I suppose I can do that.

  DR STOCKMANN: Look after it as if it was gold! No misprints; every word is crucial. And I’ll pop in again later; perhaps I could do a bit of proof-reading. I can’t say how eager I am to see it in print – hurled forth –

  BILLING: Hurled – yes, like lightning!

  DR STOCKMANN: – offered up for the judgement of my competent fellow citizens. Oh, you can’t imagine what I’ve been subjected to today. People have threatened me with one thing and another: they’ve wanted to rob me of my most obvious human rights –38

  BILLING: What! Your human rights!

  DR STOCKMANN: – they have tried to degrade me, tried to turn me into a lily-livered coward, demanded that I put personal interest before my most deeply held, most sacred convictions –

  BILLING: God strike me dead, if that isn’t just too gross.

  HOVSTAD: Well, you can expect anything from that quarter.

  DR STOCKMANN: But they won’t get far with me; they’ll get it in black and white. Every single day now I’ll drop anchor, so to speak, in The People’s Messenger and bombard them with one explosive article after another –

  ASLAKSEN: Yes, but listen now –

  BILLING: Hurrah; there’ll be war, there’ll be war!

  DR STOCKMANN: – I shall strike them to the ground, I shall crush them, raze their fortifications before the eyes of our entire right-thinking public! That’s what I’ll do!

  ASLAKSEN: But temperately, doctor, please; fire with temperance –

  BILLING: No; no! Don’t spare the dynamite!39

  DR STOCKMANN [carrying on regardless]: Because this is no longer just about the water system and sewers, you see. The whole of society must be cleansed, disinfected –

  BILLING: Ah, a timely word indeed!

  DR STOCKMANN: All these old bunglers must be swept away, you understand. And in every possible domain! Endless vistas have opened before me today. It’s not all quite clear to me yet; but I’m sure I shall work it out. Energetic, young standard-bearers, that’s what we need to go out in search of now, my friends; we must have new commanders at all our foreposts.

  BILLING: Hear, hear!

  DR STOCKMANN: And as long as we stick together it will go very smoothly, very smoothly. This transformation will run off the stocks like a ship. Don’t you think?

  HOVSTAD: I, for my part, believe that we have every prospect now of placing the municipal leadership where it rightfully belongs.

  ASLAKSEN: And as long as we proceed temperately, I can’t imagine it would be too risky.

  DR STOCKMANN: Who the hell cares whether it’s risky or not! What I’m doing, I’m doing in the name of truth and for the sake of my conscience.

  HOVSTAD: You’re a man worthy of support, doctor, sir.

  ASLAKSEN: Yes, nobody could deny it, the doctor is a true friend to this town; a real friend of the community.

  BILLING: Dr Stockmann is, God strike me dead, a friend of the people, Aslaksen!

  ASLAKSEN: I expect the Homeowners’ Association will soon use those very words.

  DR STOCKMANN [moved, he grasps their hands]: Thank you, thank you, my dear loyal friends – it’s so heartening to hear this; my distinguished brother called me something very different. Well, he’ll get that back with interest, by God! But now I must be off to visit some poor devil –. I’ll come back, as I said. Take very good care of the manuscript, Aslaksen – and, for heaven’s sake, don’t take out any exclamation marks! Add a couple rather! Splendid, splendid; goodbye for now – goodbye!

  Farewells are exchanged as he is accompanied to the door and leaves.

  HOVSTAD: He can be an invaluable asset to us.

  ASLAKSEN: Yes, as long as he keeps to this business with the Spa Institute. But if he goes further, it would be inadvisable to join company with him.

  HOVSTAD: Hm – well that all depends –

  BILLING: You’re always so damned fearful, Aslaksen!

  ASLAKSEN: Fearful? Yes, when it comes to local men of power, then I am fearful, Mr Billing; that’s something I’ve learned in the school of experience, let me tell you. But set me up in big politics, against the government itself, and then see if I’m fearful.

  BILLING: No, you’re not, no; but that’s exactly what makes you so inconsistent.

  ASLAKSEN: I am a man of conscience, that’s the thing. If you let loose on the government, then you don’t do the community any harm at least; because those men aren’t troubled by it, you see – they’ll stand as secure as ever. But the local authorities, they can be ousted, and then you can end up with incompetence at the helm, resulting in irreparable harm to homeowners and others.

  HOVSTAD: But the education of the people40 through self-governance – don’t you consider that?

  ASLAKSEN: When a man’s got interests that need protecting, he can’t think about everything, Mr Hovstad.

  HOVSTAD: Then pray God I never get any interests.

  BILLING: Hear – hear!

  ASLAKSEN [smiles]: Hmm! [Points to the desk.] That editor’s stool was occupied by District Governor Stensgård before you.

  BILLING [spits]: Pah! That turncoat.

  HOVSTAD: I’m no weathercock – and never will be.

  ASLAKSEN: A politician should never forswear anything, Mr Hovstad. And you, Mr Billing, I think you should also take a reef or two in your sails these days; after all, you’re applying for the post of secretary at the magistrate’s41 office.

  BILLING: I –!

  HOVSTAD: You, Billing?

  BILLING: Yes, but – you must realize, dammit, that I’m just doing it to annoy those venerable old fools.

  ASLAKSEN: Well, it’s none of my business. But when I’m accused of cowardice and inconsistency in my opinions, then I’d like to have it stressed: Aslaksen’s political past is open to anybody and everybody. I’ve undergone no other change, than to grow more temperate, you see. My heart is still with the people; but I don’t deny that my head is somewhat inclined towards the authorities – the local ones, at least.

  He goes into the printshop.

  BILLING: Shouldn’t we try to get rid of him, Hovstad?

  HOVSTAD: Do you know anybody else who’d be prepared to give us paper and printing on credit?

  BILLING: It’s a damned shame that we don’t have the necessary capital.

  HOVSTAD [sitting down at his desk]: Yes, if only we had that, then –

  BILLING: Suppose you approach Dr Stockmann?

  HOVSTAD [leafing through papers]: Oh, what use would that be? He owns nothing.

  BILLING: No, but he’s got a good man in the wings, old Morten Kiil – ‘the Badger’, as they call him.

  HOVSTAD [writing]: Are you that certain he owns anything?

  BILLING: Yes, God strike me dead, he most certainly does! And some of it is sure to come to the Stockmann family. He’s bound to be thinking about making provision – for the children at least.

  HOVSTAD [half turning]: Are you building on that?

  BILLING: Building? I’m not building on anything.

  HOVSTAD: You’d be right not to. And as for that position at the magistrate’s, you oughtn’t to build on that either; because I can assure you – you won’t get it.

  BILLING: You think I don’t know that already? But that’s exactly what’s so dear to me, not to get it. A rebuttal like that fires your fighting spirit. It gives you a kind of supply of fresh bile, and that can certainly be needed in a dull backwater like this, where hardly anything really rousing ever happens.

  HOVSTAD [who is writing]: Right, yes.

  BILLING: Anyway – they’ll be hearing from me soon! – I’ll go in now and write that appeal to the
Homeowners’ Association.

  He goes into the room on the right.

  HOVSTAD [sitting at his desk, biting on his pen and speaking slowly]: Hmm – right, yes. [A knock is heard.] Come in!

  PETRA comes in through the left-hand door in the background.

  HOVSTAD [getting up]: Oh, it’s you? What are you doing here?

  PETRA: I’m sorry but –

  HOVSTAD [pulling an armchair up]: Won’t you sit down?

  PETRA: No, thank you; I won’t be staying.

  HOVSTAD: It’s something from your father perhaps –?

  PETRA: No, from me. [Takes a book out of her coat pocket.] Here’s your English story.

  HOVSTAD: Why are you giving it back?

  PETRA: I’m sorry, but I don’t want to translate it.

  HOVSTAD: But you promised me –

  PETRA: Well, I hadn’t read it then. And you obviously haven’t read it either?

  HOVSTAD: No; as you know, I don’t understand English; but –

  PETRA: Quite; which is why I wanted to tell you that you must look for something different. [Puts the book on the table.] This really can’t be used in The People’s Messenger.

  HOVSTAD: Why not?

  PETRA: Because it’s completely at odds with your own opinions.

  HOVSTAD: Well, that’s not necessarily –

  PETRA: You don’t seem to understand. It’s about how a supernatural power 42 looks after the so-called good people in the world and ensures that everything turns out for the best for them in the end – and how the so-called bad people get their punishment.

  HOVSTAD: Yes, but that’s perfect. That’s just the sort of thing people want.

  PETRA: And you want to be the person to give them this sort of thing? You don’t believe a word of it yourself. You know very well that isn’t how things are in reality.

  HOVSTAD: Indeed, you’re perfectly right; but an editor can’t always act as he’d prefer. He often has to bow to people’s opinion on less important issues. After all, politics is the chief priority in life – for a newspaper at least; and if I want to carry people with me on matters of emancipation and progress, then I can’t frighten them off. When they find a moral tale like this lower down on the pages, they’re more willing to go along with what’s printed above – they feel somehow safer.

  PETRA: Goodness! You surely aren’t so deceitful as to set traps for your readers; you’re not some sort of spider!

  HOVSTAD [smiling]: Thank you for having such faith in me. But, you’re right, it was in fact only Billing’s line of thought, not mine.

  PETRA: Billing’s!

  HOVSTAD: Well; he said something of the sort recently at least. And it’s actually Billing who’s so anxious to get the story in; I don’t know the book myself, as I said.

  PETRA: But how can Billing, with his emancipated views –?

  HOVSTAD: Oh, Billing is a man of many parts. He’s even applied for the position of secretary to the magistrate’s office, so I hear.

  PETRA: I don’t believe it, Mr Hovstad. How could he bring himself to do such a thing?

  HOVSTAD: Well, you’ll have to ask him that.

  PETRA: I’d never have thought that of Billing.

  HOVSTAD [looks at her more intently]: Really? Do you find it so surprising?

  PETRA: Yes. Or, then again, perhaps not. Oh, I don’t know –

  HOVSTAD: Us hacks aren’t of much worth, Miss.

  PETRA: You really mean that?

  HOVSTAD: Now and then it’s what I think.

  PETRA: Well yes, perhaps in the usual day-to-day wrangling, that I can understand. But now, when you’ve taken on such an important cause –

  HOVSTAD: This thing with your father, you mean?

  PETRA: Precisely, yes. Right now, I imagine you must feel you’re a man of greater worth than most.

  HOVSTAD: Yes, I do feel something of the sort today.

  PETRA: Yes, you must, surely? Oh, it’s a splendid vocation you’ve chosen. Blazing a trail for neglected truths and for new, courageous points of view –. The very fact of standing up and speaking out fearlessly on behalf of a wronged man –

  HOVSTAD: Especially when that wronged man – hm! – I don’t rightly know how to –

  PETRA: When he’s so deeply principled and honest, you mean?

  HOVSTAD [more quietly]: Especially when he’s your father, I meant.

  PETRA [taken aback]: What? –

  HOVSTAD: Yes, Petra – Miss Petra.

  PETRA: Is that what comes first and foremost for you? Not the cause itself? Not the truth; not my father’s heartfelt caring and generosity?

  HOVSTAD: Well yes – yes, obviously, that too.

  PETRA: No, thank you; you’ve given yourself away now, Mr Hovstad; and I will never believe you about anything ever again.

  HOVSTAD: Can you take it so amiss if it’s mainly for your sake –?

  PETRA: What I’m angry with you for is that you haven’t been honest with Father. You’ve talked to him as though the truth and the community’s well-being were uppermost in your mind. You’ve made fools of both Father and me; you’re not the man you made yourself out to be. And for that, I shall never forgive you – never!

  HOVSTAD: You oughtn’t to say that so harshly, Miss Petra; least of all now.

  PETRA: Why not now, as well as any time?

  HOVSTAD: Because your father can’t manage without my help.

  PETRA [looking down at him]: So you’re that sort of man? Shame on you!

  HOVSTAD: No, no; really I’m not. It just came over me kind of unawares; you mustn’t think that of me.

  PETRA: I know what to think. Goodbye.

  ASLAKSEN [coming from the printshop urgently and with an air of secrecy]: Christ Almighty, Mr Hovstad! – [Sees PETRA.] Oops, didn’t mean that –

  PETRA: There’s the book; you’d better give it to somebody else. [Goes towards the exit.]

  HOVSTAD [following her]: But, Miss Stockmann –

  PETRA: Goodbye.

  She leaves.

  ASLAKSEN: Mr Hovstad, listen!

  HOVSTAD: All right, all right; what is it now?

  ASLAKSEN: The mayor’s out in the printshop.

  HOVSTAD: The mayor, you say?

  ASLAKSEN: Yes, he wants to speak to you. He came in by the back door – didn’t want to be seen, you understand.

  HOVSTAD: What could it be about? No, wait – I’ll go myself –

  He goes to the door of the printshop, opens it, greets the MAYOR and invites him in.

  HOVSTAD: Keep watch, Aslaksen, so nobody –

  ASLAKSEN: Understood –

  He goes out into the printshop.

  THE MAYOR: Didn’t expect to see me here, did you, Mr Hovstad?

  HOVSTAD: No, I didn’t actually.

  THE MAYOR [looking round]: You’ve made it very comfortable for yourself in here; very nice.

  HOVSTAD: Oh –

  THE MAYOR: And here I come without a by-your-leave making demands on your time!

  HOVSTAD: Not at all, Mr Mayor; at your service. But let me relieve you of your – [Takes the MAYOR’s hat and stick and puts them on a chair.] And wouldn’t your honour43 like to sit down?

  THE MAYOR [sits at the table]: Thank you.

  HOVSTAD sits at the table too.

  THE MAYOR: Something most – most vexing has happened to me today, Mr Hovstad.

  HOVSTAD: Oh? Well, of course; with the numerous duties the mayor has, then –

  THE MAYOR: The cause today is the medical officer.

  HOVSTAD: Oh? The doctor?

  THE MAYOR: He’s written some sort of report to the Spa’s board, concerning a number of supposed defects with the Spa.

  HOVSTAD: No, really?

  THE MAYOR: Yes – hasn’t he told you? I thought he said –

  HOVSTAD: Ah, that’s true, he did mention something –

  ASLAKSEN [coming from the printshop]: I should probably take the manuscript –

  HOVSTAD [annoyed]: Hm! It’s there on the desk.
/>   ASLAKSEN [finds it]: Good.

  THE MAYOR: But look, that’s it there –

  ASLAKSEN: Yes, this is the doctor’s article, Mr Mayor.

  HOVSTAD: Oh, is that what you’re talking about?

  THE MAYOR: The very thing. What do you think of it?

  HOVSTAD: Well, I’m no expert, of course, and I’ve only glanced through it.

  THE MAYOR: But you’re allowing it to go to print?

  HOVSTAD: I can’t very well refuse a man writing under his own name –

  ASLAKSEN: I have no say in the paper, Mr Mayor –

  THE MAYOR: Of course not.

  ASLAKSEN: I just print what’s put in my hands.

  THE MAYOR: Quite so.

  ASLAKSEN: So if you’ll excuse – [Heads towards the printshop.]

  THE MAYOR: No, wait a moment, Mr Aslaksen. With your permission, Mr Hovstad –

  HOVSTAD: Of course, Mr Mayor –

  THE MAYOR: You are a prudent and thoughtful man, Mr Aslaksen.

  ASLAKSEN: I’m delighted the mayor thinks so.

  THE MAYOR: And a man with a wide circle of influence.

  ASLAKSEN: Well, mainly amongst modest folk, of course.

  THE MAYOR: Modest taxpayers are the richest in number – here as elsewhere.

  ASLAKSEN: They are indeed.

  THE MAYOR: And I have no doubt that you know what the general mood is among them. Isn’t that so?

  ASLAKSEN: I’d like to think so, yes, Mr Mayor.

  THE MAYOR: Well – seeing as there’s such a praiseworthy willingness for sacrifice amongst the town’s less affluent citizens, then –

  ASLAKSEN: How do you mean?

  HOVSTAD: Sacrifice?

  THE MAYOR: It’s a splendid sign of public spirit, a truly splendid sign. I might almost have said that I hadn’t expected it. But then, of course, you know the public mood better than I.

  ASLAKSEN: Yes but, Mr Mayor –

  THE MAYOR: And it’ll be no mean sacrifice that the town will have to make.

  HOVSTAD: The town?

  ASLAKSEN: But I don’t understand –. It’s the Spa –!

  THE MAYOR: According to a provisional estimate, the alterations that the Spa’s medical officer deems desirable will run to a couple of hundred thousand kroner.

  ASLAKSEN: Yes, that’s a lot of money; but –

  THE MAYOR: Naturally, it’ll be necessary for us take out a municipal loan.44