Hedda Gabler

By Henrik Ibsen.

Translated by Edmund Gosse and William Archer.

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Introduction

From Munich, on June 29, 1890, Ibsen wrote to the Swedish poet, Count Carl Soilsky: “Our intention has all along been to spend the summer in the Tyrol again. But circumstances are against our doing so. I am at present engaged upon a new dramatic work, which for several reasons has made very slow progress, and I do not leave Munich until I can take with me the completed first draft. There is little or no prospect of my being able to complete it in July.” Ibsen did not leave Munich at all that season. On October 30 he wrote: “At present I am utterly engrossed in a new play. Not one leisure hour have I had for several months.” Three weeks later (November 20) he wrote to his French translator, Count Prozor: “My new play is finished; the manuscript went off to Copenhagen the day before yesterday.⁠ ⁠… It produces a curious feeling of emptiness to be thus suddenly separated from a work which has occupied one’s time and thoughts for several months, to the exclusion of all else. But it is a good thing, too, to have done with it. The constant intercourse with the fictitious personages was beginning to make me quite nervous.” To the same correspondent he wrote on December 4: “The title of the play is Hedda Gabler. My intention in giving it this name was to indicate that Hedda, as a personality, is to be regarded rather as her father’s daughter than as her husband’s wife. It was not my desire to deal in this play with so-called problems. What I principally wanted to do was to depict human beings, human emotions, and human destinies, upon a groundwork of certain of the social conditions and principles of the present day.”

So far we read the history of the play in the official Correspondence.1 Some interesting glimpses into the poet’s moods during the period between the completion of The Lady from the Sea and the publication of Hedda Gabler are to be found in the series of letters to Fraulein Emilie Bardach, of Vienna, published by Dr. George Brandes.2 This young lady Ibsen met at Gossensass in the Tyrol in the autumn of 1889. The record of their brief friendship belongs to the history of The Master Builder rather than to that of Hedda Gabler, but the allusions to his work in his letters to her during the winter of 1889 demand some examination.

So early as October 7, 1889, he writes to her: “A new poem begins to dawn in me. I will execute it this winter, and try to transfer to it the bright atmosphere of the summer. But I feel that it will end in sadness⁠—such is my nature.” Was this “dawning” poem Hedda Gabler? Or was it rather The Master Builder that was germinating in his mind? Who shall say? The latter hypothesis seems the more probable, for it is hard to believe that at any stage in the incubation of Hedda Gabler he can have conceived it as even beginning in gaiety. A week later, however, he appears to have made up his mind that the time had not come for the poetic utilisation of his recent experiences. He writes on October 15: “Here I sit as usual at my writing table. Now I would fain work, but am unable to. My fancy, indeed, is very active. But it always wanders away ours. I cannot repress my summer memories⁠—nor do I wish to. I live through my experience again and again and yet again. To transmute it all into a poem, I find, in the meantime, impossible.” Clearly, then, he felt that his imagination ought to have been engaged on some theme having no relation to his summer experiences⁠—the theme, no doubt, of Hedda Gabler. In his next letter, dated October 29, he writes: “Do not be troubled because I cannot, in the meantime, create (dichten). In reality I am forever creating, or, at any rate, dreaming of something which, when in the fullness of time it ripens, will reveal itself as a creation (Dichtung).” On November 19 he says: “I am very busily occupied with preparations for my new poem. I sit almost the whole day at my writing table. Go out only in the evening for a little while.” The five following letters contain no allusion to the play; but on September 18, 1890, he wrote: “My wife and son are at present at Riva, on the Lake of Garda, and will probably remain there until the middle of October, or even longer. Thus I am quite alone here, and cannot get away. The new play on which I am at present engaged will probably not be ready until November, though I sit at my writing table daily, and almost the whole day long.”

Here ends the history of Hedda Gabler, so far as the poet’s letters carry us. Its hard clear outlines, and perhaps somewhat bleak atmosphere, seem to have resulted from a sort of reaction against the sentimental “dreamery” begotten of his Gossensass experiences. He sought refuge in the chill materialism of Hedda from the ardent transcendentalism of Hilda, whom he already heard knocking at the door. He was not yet in the mood to deal with her on the plane of poetry.3

Hedda Gabler was published in Copenhagen on December 16, 1890. This was the first of Ibsen’s plays to be translated from proof-sheets and published in England and America almost simultaneously with its first appearance in Scandinavia. The earliest theatrical performance took place at the Residenz Theater, Munich, on the last day of January 1891, in the presence of the poet, Frau Conrad-Ramlo playing the title-part. The Lessing Theater, Berlin, followed suit on February 10. Not till February 25 was the play seen in Copenhagen, with Fru Hennings as Hedda. On the following night it was given for the first time in Christiania, the Norwegian Hedda being Froken Constance Bruun. It was this production which the poet saw when he visited the Christiania Theater for the first time after his return to Norway, August 28, 1891. It would take pages to give even the baldest list of the productions and revivals of Hedda Gabler in Scandinavia and Germany, where it has always ranked among Ibsen’s most popular works. The admirable production of the play by Miss Elizabeth Robins and Miss Marion Lea, at the Vaudeville Theatre, London, April 20, 1891, may rank as the second great step towards the popularisation of Ibsen in England, the first being the Charrington-Achurch production of A Doll’s House in 1889. Miss Robins afterwards repeated her fine performance of Hedda many times, in London, in the English provinces, and in New York. The character has also been acted in London by Eleonora Duse, and as I write (March, 5, 1907) by Mrs. Patrick Campbell, at the Court Theatre. In Australia and America, Hedda has frequently been acted by Miss Nance O’Neill and other actresses⁠—quite recently by a Russian actress, Madame Alla Nazimova, who (playing in English) seems to have made a notable success both in this part and in Nora. The first French Hedda Gabler was Mlle. Marthe Brandes, who played the part at the Vaudeville Theatre, Paris, on December 17, 1891, the performance being introduced by a lecture by M. Jules Lemaitre. In Holland, in Italy, in Russia, the play has been acted times without number. In short (as might easily have been foretold) it has rivalled A Doll’s House in worldwide popularity.

It has been suggested,4 I think without sufficient ground, that Ibsen deliberately conceived Hedda Gabler as an “international” play, and that the scene is really the “west end” of any European city. To me it seems quite clear that Ibsen had Christiania in mind, and the Christiania of a somewhat earlier period than the ’nineties. The electric cars, telephones, and other conspicuous factors in the life of a modern capital are notably absent from the play. There is no electric light in Secretary Falk’s villa. It is still the habit for ladies to return on foot from evening parties, with gallant swains escorting them. This “suburbanism,” which so distressed the London critics of 1891, was characteristic of the Christiania Ibsen himself had known in the ’sixties⁠—the Christiania of Love’s Comedy⁠—rather than of the greatly extended and modernised city of the end of the century. Moreover Lovborg’s allusions to the fjord, and the suggested picture of Sheriff Elvsted, his family and his avocations are all distinctively Norwegian. The truth seems to be very simple⁠—the environment and the subsidiary personages are all thoroughly national, but Hedda herself is an “international” type, a product of civilisation by no means peculiar to Norway.

We cannot point to any individual model or models who “sat to” Ibsen for the character of Hedda.5 The late Grant Allen declared that Hedda was “nothing more nor less than the girl we take down to dinner in London nineteen times out of twenty”; in which case Ibsen must have suffered from a superfluidity of models, rather than from any difficulty in finding one. But the fact is that in this, as in all other instances, the word “model” must be taken in a very different sense from that in which it is commonly used in painting. Ibsen undoubtedly used models for this trait and that, but never for a whole figure. If his characters can be called portraits at all, they are composite portraits. Even when it seems pretty clear that the initial impulse towards the creation of a particular character came from some individual, the original figure is entirely transmuted in the process of harmonisation with the dramatic scheme. We need not, therefore, look for a definite prototype of Hedda; but Dr. Brandes shows that two of that lady’s exploits were probably suggested by the anecdotic history of the day.

Ibsen had no doubt heard how the wife of a well-known Norwegian composer, in a fit of raging jealousy excited by her husband’s prolonged absence from home, burnt the manuscript of a symphony which he had just finished. The circumstances under which Hedda burns Lovborg’s manuscript are, of course, entirely different and infinitely more dramatic; but here we have merely another instance of the dramatisation or “poetisation” of the raw material of life. Again, a still more painful incident probably came to his knowledge about the same time. A beautiful and very intellectual woman was married to a well-known man who had been addicted to drink, but had entirely conquered the vice. One day a mad whim seized her to put his self-mastery and her power over him to the test. As it happened to be his birthday, she rolled into his study a small keg of brandy, and then withdrew. She returned some time after wards to find that he had broached the keg, and lay insensible on the floor. In this anecdote we cannot but recognise the germ, not only of Hedda’s temptation of Lovborg, but of a large part of her character.

“Thus,” says Dr. Brandes, “out of small and scattered traits of reality Ibsen fashioned his close-knit and profoundly thought-out works of art.”

For the character of Eilert Lovborg, again, Ibsen seem unquestionably to have borrowed several traits from a definite original. A young Danish man of letters, whom Dr. Brandes calls Holm, was an enthusiastic admirer of Ibsen, and came to be on very friendly terms with him. One day Ibsen was astonished to receive, in Munich, a parcel addressed from Berlin by this young man, containing, without a word of explanation, a packet of his (Ibsen’s) letters, and a photograph which he had presented to Holm. Ibsen brooded and brooded over the incident, and at last came to the conclusion that the young man had intended to return her letters and photograph to a young lady to whom he was known to be attached, and had in a fit of aberration mixed up the two objects of his worship. Some time after, Holm appeared at Ibsen’s rooms. He talked quite rationally, but professed to have no knowledge whatever of the letter-incident, though he admitted the truth of Ibsen’s conjecture that the “belle dame sans merci” had demanded the return of her letters and portrait. Ibsen was determined to get at the root of the mystery; and a little inquiry into his young friend’s habits revealed the fact that he broke his fast on a bottle of port wine, consumed a bottle of Rhine wine at lunch, of Burgundy at dinner, and finished off the evening with one or two more bottles of port. Then he heard, too, how, in the course of a night’s carouse, Holm had lost the manuscript of a book; and in these traits he saw the outline of the figure of Eilert Lovborg.

Some time elapsed, and again Ibsen received a postal packet from Holm. This one contained his will, in which Ibsen figured as his residuary legatee. But many other legatees were mentioned in the instrument⁠—all of them ladies, such as Fraulein Alma Rothbart, of Bremen, and Fraulein Elise Kraushaar, of Berlin. The bequests to these meritorious spinsters were so generous that their sum considerably exceeded the amount of the testator’s property. Ibsen gently but firmly declined the proffered inheritance; but Holm’s will no doubt suggested to him the figure of that red-haired “Mademoiselle Diana,” who is heard of but not seen in Hedda Gabler, and enabled him to add some further traits to the portraiture of Lovborg. When the play appeared, Holm recognised himself with glee in the character of the bibulous man of letters, and thereafter adopted “Eilert Lovborg” as his pseudonym. I do not, therefore, see why Dr. Brandes should suppress his real name; but I willingly imitate him in erring on the side of discretion. The poor fellow died several years ago.

Some critics have been greatly troubled as to the precise meaning of Hedda’s fantastic vision of Lovborg “with vine-leaves in his hair.” Surely this is a very obvious image or symbol of the beautiful, the ideal, aspect of bacchic elation and revelry. Antique art, or I am much mistaken, shows us many figures of Dionysus himself and his followers with vine-leaves entwined their hair. To Ibsen’s mind, at any rate, the image had long been familiar. In Peer Gynt (Act iv. sc. 8), when Peer, having carried off Anitra, finds himself in a particularly festive mood, he cries: “Were there vine-leaves around, I would garland my brow.” Again, in Emperor and Galilean (Pt. ii. Act 1) where Julian, in the procession of Dionysus, impersonates the god himself, it is directed that he shall wear a wreath of vine-leaves. Professor Dietrichson relates that among the young artists whose society Ibsen frequented during his first years in Rome, it was customary, at their little festivals, for the revellers to deck themselves in this fashion. But the image is so obvious that there is no need to trace it to any personal experience. The attempt to place Hedda’s vine-leaves among Ibsen’s obscurities is an example of the firm resolution not to understand which animated the criticism of the ’nineties.

Dr. Brandes has dealt very severely with the character of Eilert Lovborg, alleging that we cannot believe in the genius attributed to him. But where is he described as a genius? The poet represents him as a very able student of sociology; but that is quite a different thing from attributing to him such genius as must necessarily shine forth in every word he utters. Dr. Brandes, indeed, declines to believe even in his ability as a sociologist, on the ground that it is idle to write about the social development of the future. “To our prosaic minds,” he says, “it may seem as if the most sensible utterance on the subject is that of the fool of the play: ‘The future! Good heavens, we know nothing of the future.’ ” The best retort to this criticism is that which Eilert himself makes: “There’s a thing or two to be said about it all the same.” The intelligent forecasting of the future (as Mr. H. G. Wells has shown) is not only clearly distinguishable from fantastic Utopianism, but is indispensable to any large statesmanship or enlightened social activity. With very real and very great respect for Dr. Brandes, I cannot think that he has been fortunate in his treatment of Lovborg’s character. It has been represented as an absurdity that he would think of reading abstracts from his new book to a man like Tesman, whom he despises. But though Tesman is a ninny, he is, as Hedda says, a “specialist”⁠—he is a competent, plodding student of his subject. Lovborg may quite naturally wish to see how his new method, or his excursion into a new field, strikes the average scholar of the Tesman type. He is, in fact, “trying it on the dog”⁠—neither an unreasonable nor an unusual proceeding. There is, no doubt, a certain improbability in the way in which Lovborg is represented as carrying his manuscript around, and especially in Mrs. Elvsted’s production of his rough draft from her pocket; but these are mechanical trifles, on which only a niggling criticism would dream of laying stress.

Of all Ibsen’s works, Hedda Gabler is the most detached, the most objective⁠—a character-study pure and simple. It is impossible⁠—or so it seems to me⁠—to extract any sort of general idea from it. One cannot even call it a satire, unless one is prepared to apply that term to the record of a “case” in a work of criminology. Reverting to Dumas’s dictum that a play should contain “a painting, a judgment, an ideal,” we may say the Hedda Gabler fulfils only the first of these requirements. The poet does not even pass judgment on his heroine: he simply paints her full-length portrait with scientific impassivity. But what a portrait! How searching in insight, how brilliant in colouring, how rich in detail! Grant Allen’s remark, above quoted, was, of course, a whimsical exaggeration; the Hedda type is not so common as all that, else the world would quickly come to an end. But particular traits and tendencies of the Hedda type are very common in modern life, and not only among women. Hyperaesthesia lies at the root of her tragedy. With a keenly critical, relentlessly solvent intelligence, she combines a morbid shrinking from all the gross and prosaic detail of the sensual life. She has nothing to take her out of herself⁠—not a single intellectual interest or moral enthusiasm. She cherishes, in a languid way, a petty social ambition; and even that she finds obstructed and baffled. At the same time she learns that another woman has had the courage to love and venture all, where she, in her cowardice, only hankered and refrained. Her malign egoism rises up uncontrolled, and calls to its aid her quick and subtle intellect. She ruins the other woman’s happiness, but in doing so incurs a danger from which her sense of personal dignity revolts. Life has no such charm for her that she cares to purchase it at the cost of squalid humiliation and self-contempt. The good and the bad in her alike impel her to have done with it all; and a pistol-shot ends what is surely one of the most poignant character-tragedies in literature. Ibsen’s brain never worked at higher pressure than in the conception and adjustment of those “crowded hours” in which Hedda, tangled in the web of Will and Circumstance, struggles on till she is too weary to struggle any more.

It may not be superfluous to note that the a in “Gabler” should be sounded long and full, like the a in “Garden”⁠—not like the a in “gable” or in “gabble.”

W. A.

Dramatis Personae

George Tesman6

Hedda Tesman, his wife

Miss Juliana Tesman, his aunt

Mrs. Elvsted

Judge7 Brack

Eilert Lövborg

Berta, servant at the Tesmans

The scene of the action is Tesman’s villa, in the west end of Christiania.

Hedda Gabler

Act I

A spacious, handsome, and tastefully furnished drawing room, decorated in dark colours. In the back, a wide doorway with curtains drawn back, leading into a smaller room decorated in the same style as the drawing room. In the right-hand wall of the front room, a folding door leading out to the hall. In the opposite wall, on the left, a glass door, also with curtains drawn back. Through the panes can be seen part of a verandah outside, and trees covered with autumn foliage. An oval table, with a cover on it, and surrounded by chairs, stands well forward. In front, by the wall on the right, a wide stove of dark porcelain, a high-backed armchair, a cushioned footrest, and two footstools. A settee, with a small round table in front of it, fills the upper right-hand corner. In front, on the left, a little way from the wall, a sofa. Further back than the glass door, a piano. On either side of the doorway at the back a whatnot with terra-cotta and majolica ornaments.⁠—Against the back wall of the inner room a sofa, with a table, and one or two chairs. Over the sofa hangs the portrait of a handsome elderly man in a General’s uniform. Over the table a hanging lamp, with an opal glass shade.⁠—A number of bouquets are arranged about the drawing room, in vases and glasses. Others lie upon the tables. The floors in both rooms are covered with thick carpets.⁠—Morning light. The sun shines in through the glass door.

Miss Juliana Tesman, with her bonnet on a carrying a parasol, comes in from the hall, followed by Berta, who carries a bouquet wrapped in paper. Miss Tesman is a comely and pleasant-looking lady of about sixty-five. She is nicely but simply dressed in a grey walking costume. Berta is a middle-aged woman of plain and rather countrified appearance.

Miss Tesman
Stops close to the door, listens, and says softly: Upon my word, I don’t believe they are stirring yet!

Berta
Also softly. I told you so, Miss. Remember how late the steamboat got in last night. And then, when they got home!⁠—good Lord, what a lot the young mistress had to unpack before she could get to bed.

Miss Tesman
Well well⁠—let them have their sleep out. But let us see that they get a good breath of the fresh morning air when they do appear.

She goes to the glass door and throws it open.

Berta
Beside the table, at a loss what to do with the bouquet in her hand. I declare there isn’t a bit of room left. I think I’ll put it down here, Miss. She places it on the piano.

Miss Tesman
So you’ve got a new mistress now, my dear Berta. Heaven knows it was a wrench to me to part with you.

Berta
On the point of weeping. And do you think it wasn’t hard for me, too, Miss? After all the blessed years I’ve been with you and Miss Rina.8

Miss Tesman
We must make the best of it, Berta. There was nothing else to be done. George can’t do without you, you see⁠—he absolutely can’t. He has had you to look after him ever since he was a little boy.

Berta
Ah but, Miss Julia, I can’t help thinking of Miss Rina lying helpless at home there, poor thing. And with only that new girl too! She’ll never learn to take proper care of an invalid.

Miss Tesman
Oh, I shall manage to train her. And of course, you know, I shall take most of it upon myself. You needn’t be uneasy about my poor sister, my dear Berta.

Berta
Well, but there’s another thing, Miss. I’m so mortally afraid I shan’t be able to suit the young mistress.

Miss Tesman
Oh well⁠—just at first there may be one or two things⁠—

Berta
Most like she’ll be terrible grand in her ways.

Miss Tesman
Well, you can’t wonder at that⁠—General Gabler’s daughter! Think of the sort of life she was accustomed to in her father’s time. Don’t you remember how we used to see her riding down the road along with the General? In that long black habit⁠—and with feathers in her hat?

Berta
Yes, indeed⁠—I remember well enough!⁠—But, good Lord, I should never have dreamt in those days that she and Master George would make a match of it.

Miss Tesman
Nor I.⁠—But by the by, Berta⁠—while I think of it: in future you mustn’t say Master George. You must say Dr. Tesman.

Berta
Yes, the young mistress spoke of that too⁠—last night⁠—the moment they set foot in the house. Is it true then, Miss?

Miss Tesman
Yes, indeed it is. Only think, Berta⁠—some foreign university has made him a doctor⁠—while he has been abroad, you understand. I hadn’t heard a word about it, until he told me himself upon the pier.

Berta
Well well, he’s clever enough for anything, he is. But I didn’t think he’d have gone in for doctoring people.

Miss Tesman
No no, it’s not that sort of doctor he is. Nods significantly. But let me tell you, we may have to call him something still grander before long.

Berta
You don’t say so! What can that be, Miss?

Miss Tesman
Smiling. H’m⁠—wouldn’t you like to know! With emotion. Ah, dear dear⁠—if my poor brother could only look up from his grave now, and see what his little boy has grown into! Looks around. But bless me, Berta⁠—why have you done this? Taken the chintz covers off all the furniture.

Berta
The mistress told me to. She can’t abide covers on the chairs, she says.

Miss Tesman
Are they going to make this their everyday sitting room then?

Berta
Yes, that’s what I understood⁠—from the mistress. Master George⁠—the doctor⁠—he said nothing.

George Tesman comes from the right into the inner room, humming to himself, and carrying an unstrapped empty portmanteau. He is a middle-sized, young-looking man of thirty-three, rather stout, with a round, open, cheerful face, fair hair and beard. He wears spectacles, and is somewhat carelessly dressed in comfortable indoor clothes.

Miss Tesman
Good morning, good morning, George.

Tesman
In the doorway between the rooms. Aunt Julia! Dear Aunt Julia! Goes up to her and shakes hands warmly. Come all this way⁠—so early! Eh?

Miss Tesman
Why, of course I had to come and see how you were getting on.

Tesman
In spite of your having had no proper night’s rest?

Miss Tesman
Oh, that makes no difference to me.

Tesman
Well, I suppose you got home all right from the pier? Eh?

Miss Tesman
Yes, quite safely, thank goodness. Judge Brack was good enough to see me right to my door.

Tesman
We were so sorry we couldn’t give you a seat in the carriage. But you saw what a pile of boxes Hedda had to bring with her.

Miss Tesman
Yes, she had certainly plenty of boxes.

Berta
To Tesman. Shall I go in and see if there’s anything I can do for the mistress?

Tesman
No thank you, Berta⁠—you needn’t. She said she would ring if she wanted anything.

Berta
Going towards the right. Very well.

Tesman
But look here⁠—take this portmanteau with you.

Berta
Taking it. I’ll put it in the attic.

She goes out by the hall door.

Tesman
Fancy, Auntie⁠—I had the whole of that portmanteau chock full of copies of the documents. You wouldn’t believe how much I have picked up from all the archives I have been examining⁠—curious old details that no one has had any idea of⁠—

Miss Tesman
Yes, you don’t seem to have wasted your time on your wedding trip, George.

Tesman
No, that I haven’t. But do take off your bonnet, Auntie. Look here! Let me untie the strings⁠—eh?

Miss Tesman
While he does so. Well well⁠—this is just as if you were still at home with us.

Tesman
With the bonnet in his hand, looks at it from all sides. Why, what a gorgeous bonnet you’ve been investing in!

Miss Tesman
I bought it on Hedda’s account.

Tesman
On Hedda’s account? Eh?

Miss Tesman
Yes, so that Hedda needn’t be ashamed of me if we happened to go out together.

Tesman
Patting her cheek. You always think of everything, Aunt Julia. Lays the bonnet on a chair beside the table. And now, look here⁠—suppose we sit comfortably on the sofa and have a little chat, till Hedda comes.

They seat themselves. She places her parasol in the corner of the sofa.

Miss Tesman
Takes both his hands and looks at him. What a delight it is to have you again, as large as life, before my very eyes, George! My George⁠—my poor brother’s own boy!

Tesman
And it’s a delight for me, too, to see you again, Aunt Julia! You, who have been father and mother in one to me.

Miss Tesman
Oh yes, I know you will always keep a place in your heart for your old aunts.

Tesman
And what about Aunt Rina? No improvement⁠—eh?

Miss Tesman
Oh, no⁠—we can scarcely look for any improvement in her case, poor thing. There she lies, helpless, as she has lain for all these years. But heaven grant I may not lose her yet awhile! For if I did, I don’t know what I should make of my life, George⁠—especially now that I haven’t you to look after any more.

Tesman
Patting her back. There there there⁠—!

Miss Tesman
Suddenly changing her tone. And to think that here are you a married man, George!⁠—And that you should be the one to carry off Hedda Gabler⁠—the beautiful Hedda Gabler! Only think of it⁠—she, that was so beset with admirers!

Tesman
Hums a little and smiles complacently. Yes, I fancy I have several good friends about town who would like to stand in my shoes⁠—eh?

Miss Tesman
And then this fine long wedding tour you have had! More than five⁠—nearly six months⁠—

Tesman
Well, for me it has been a sort of tour of research as well. I have had to do so much grubbing among old records⁠—and to read no end of books too, Auntie.

Miss Tesman
Oh yes, I suppose so. More confidentially, and lowering her voice a little. But listen now, George⁠—have you nothing⁠—nothing special to tell me?

Tesman
As to our journey?

Miss Tesman
Yes.

Tesman
No, I don’t know of anything except what I have told you in my letters. I had a doctor’s degree conferred on me⁠—but that I told you yesterday.

Miss Tesman
Yes, yes, you did. But what I mean is⁠—haven’t you any⁠—any⁠—expectations⁠—?

Tesman
Expectations?

Miss Tesman
Why you know, George⁠—I’m your old auntie!

Tesman
Why, of course I have expectations.

Miss Tesman
Ah!

Tesman
I have every expectation of being a professor one of these days.

Miss Tesman
Oh yes, a professor⁠—

Tesman
Indeed, I may say I am certain of it. But my dear Auntie⁠—you know all about that already!

Miss Tesman
Laughing to herself. Yes, of course I do. You are quite right there. Changing the subject. But we were talking about your journey. It must have cost a great deal of money, George?

Tesman
Well, you see⁠—my handsome travelling scholarship went a good way.

Miss Tesman
But I can’t understand how you can have made it go far enough for two.

Tesman
No, that’s not easy to understand⁠—eh?

Miss Tesman
And especially travelling with a lady⁠—they tell me that makes it ever so much more expensive.

Tesman
Yes, of course⁠—it makes it a little more expensive. But Hedda had to have this trip, Auntie! She really had to. Nothing else would have done.

Miss Tesman
No no, I suppose not. A wedding tour seems to be quite indispensable nowadays.⁠—But tell me now⁠—have you gone thoroughly over the house yet?

Tesman
Yes, you may be sure I have. I have been afoot ever since daylight.

Miss Tesman
And what do you think of it all?

Tesman
I’m delighted! Quite delighted! Only I can’t think what we are to do with the two empty rooms between this inner parlour and Hedda’s bedroom.

Miss Tesman
Laughing. Oh my dear George, I daresay you may find some use for them⁠—in the course of time.

Tesman
Why of course you are quite right, Aunt Julia! You mean as my library increases⁠—eh?

Miss Tesman
Yes, quite so, my dear boy. It was your library I was thinking of.

Tesman
I am specially pleased on Hedda’s account. Often and often, before we were engaged, she said that she would never care to live anywhere but in Secretary Falk’s villa.9

Miss Tesman
Yes, it was lucky that this very house should come into the market, just after you had started.

Tesman
Yes, Aunt Julia, the luck was on our side, wasn’t it⁠—eh?

Miss Tesman
But the expense, my dear George! You will find it very expensive, all this.

Tesman
Looks at her, a little cast down. Yes, I suppose I shall, Aunt!

Miss Tesman
Oh, frightfully!

Tesman
How much do you think? In round numbers?⁠—Eh?

Miss Tesman
Oh, I can’t even guess until all the accounts come in.

Tesman
Well, fortunately, Judge Brack has secured the most favourable terms for me, so he said in a letter to Hedda.

Miss Tesman
Yes, don’t be uneasy, my dear boy.⁠—Besides, I have given security for the furniture and all the carpets.

Tesman
Security? You? My dear Aunt Julia⁠—what sort of security could you give?

Miss Tesman
I have given a mortgage on our annuity.

Tesman
Jumps up. What! On your⁠—and Aunt Rina’s annuity!

Miss Tesman
Yes, I knew of no other plan, you see.

Tesman
Placing himself before her. Have you gone out of your senses, Auntie? Your annuity⁠—it’s all that you and Aunt Rina have to live upon.

Miss Tesman
Well well⁠—don’t get so excited about it. It’s only a matter of form you know⁠—Judge Brack assured me of that. It was he that was kind enough to arrange the whole affair for me. A mere matter of form, he said.

Tesman
Yes, that may be all very well. But nevertheless⁠—

Miss Tesman
You will have your own salary to depend upon now. And, good heavens, even if we did have to pay up a little⁠—! To eke things out a bit at the start⁠—! Why, it would be nothing but a pleasure to us.

Tesman
Oh Auntie⁠—will you never be tired of making sacrifices for me!

Miss Tesman
Rises and lays her hand on his shoulders. Have I any other happiness in this world except to smooth your way for you, my dear boy. You, who have had neither father nor mother to depend on. And now we have reached the goal, George! Things have looked black enough for us, sometimes; but, thank heaven, now you have nothing to fear.

Tesman
Yes, it is really marvellous how everything has turned out for the best.

Miss Tesman
And the people who opposed you⁠—who wanted to bar the way for you⁠—now you have them at your feet. They have fallen, George. Your most dangerous rival⁠—his fall was the worst.⁠—And now he has to lie on the bed he has made for himself⁠—poor misguided creature.

Tesman
Have you heard anything of Eilert? Since I went away, I mean.

Miss Tesman
Only that he is said to have published a new book.

Tesman
What! Eilert Lövborg! Recently⁠—eh?

Miss Tesman
Yes, so they say. Heaven knows whether it can be worth anything! Ah, when your new book appears⁠—that will be another story, George! What is it to be about?

Tesman
It will deal with the domestic industries of Brabant during the Middle Ages.

Miss Tesman
Fancy⁠—to be able to write on such a subject as that!

Tesman
However, it may be some time before the book is ready. I have all these collections to arrange first, you see.

Miss Tesman
Yes, collecting and arranging⁠—no one can beat you at that. There you are my poor brother’s own son.

Tesman
I am looking forward eagerly to setting to work at it; especially now that I have my own delightful home to work in.

Miss Tesman
And, most of all, now that you have got the wife of your heart, my dear George.

Tesman
Embracing her. Oh yes, yes, Aunt Julia! Hedda⁠—she is the best part of it all! I believe I hear her coming⁠—eh?

Hedda enters from the left through the inner room. Her face and figure show refinement and distinction. Her complexion is pale and opaque. Her steel-grey eyes express a cold, unruffled repose. Her hair is of an agreeable brown, but not particularly abundant. She is dressed in a tasteful, somewhat loose-fitting morning gown.

Miss Tesman
Going to meet Hedda. Good morning, my dear Hedda! Good morning, and a hearty welcome!

Hedda
Holds out her hand. Good morning, dear Miss Tesman! So early a call! That is kind of you.

Miss Tesman
With some embarrassment. Well⁠—has the bride slept well in her new home?

Hedda
Oh yes, thanks. Passably.

Tesman
Laughing. Passably! Come, that’s good, Hedda! You were sleeping like a stone when I got up.

Hedda
Fortunately. Of course one has always to accustom one’s self to new surroundings, Miss Tesman⁠—little by little. Looking towards the left. Oh, there the servant has gone and opened the veranda door, and let in a whole flood of sunshine.

Miss Tesman
Going towards the door. Well, then we will shut it.

Hedda
No no, not that! Tesman, please draw the curtains. That will give a softer light.

Tesman
At the door. All right⁠—all right.⁠—There now, Hedda, now you have both shade and fresh air.

Hedda
Yes, fresh air we certainly must have, with all these stacks of flowers⁠—. But⁠—won’t you sit down, Miss Tesman?

Miss Tesman
No, thank you. Now that I have seen that everything is all right here⁠—thank heaven!⁠—I must be getting home again. My sister is lying longing for me, poor thing.

Tesman
Give her my very best love, Auntie; and say I shall look in and see her later in the day.

Miss Tesman
Yes, yes, I’ll be sure to tell her. But by the by, George⁠—feeling in her dress pocket⁠—I had almost forgotten⁠—I have something for you here.

Tesman
What is it, Auntie? Eh?

Miss Tesman
Produces a flat parcel wrapped in newspaper and hands it to him. Look here, my dear boy.

Tesman
Opening the parcel. Well, I declare!⁠—Have you really saved them for me, Aunt Julia! Hedda! isn’t this touching⁠—eh?

Hedda
Beside the whatnot on the right. Well, what is it?

Tesman
My old morning shoes! My slippers.

Hedda
Indeed. I remember you often spoke of them while we were abroad.

Tesman
Yes, I missed them terribly. Goes up to her. Now you shall see them, Hedda!

Hedda
Going towards the stove. Thanks, I really don’t care about it.

Tesman
Following her. Only think⁠—ill as she was, Aunt Rina embroidered these for me. Oh you can’t think how many associations cling to them.

Hedda
At the table. Scarcely for me.

Miss Tesman
Of course not for Hedda, George.

Tesman
Well, but now that she belongs to the family, I thought⁠—

Hedda
Interrupting. We shall never get on with this servant, Tesman.

Miss Tesman
Not get on with Berta?

Tesman
Why, dear, what puts that in your head? Eh?

Hedda
Pointing. Look there! She has left her old bonnet lying about on a chair.

Tesman
In consternation, drops the slippers on the floor. Why, Hedda⁠—

Hedda
Just fancy, if anyone should come in and see it!

Tesman
But Hedda⁠—that’s Aunt Julia’s bonnet.

Hedda
Is it!

Miss Tesman
Taking up the bonnet. Yes, indeed it’s mine. And, what’s more, it’s not old, Madam Hedda.

Hedda
I really did not look closely at it, Miss Tesman.

Miss Tesman
Trying on the bonnet. Let me tell you it’s the first time I have worn it⁠—the very first time.

Tesman
And a very nice bonnet it is too⁠—quite a beauty!

Miss Tesman
Oh, it’s no such great things, George. Looks around her. My parasol⁠—? Ah, here. Takes it. For this is mine too⁠—mutters⁠—not Berta’s.

Tesman
A new bonnet and a new parasol! Only think, Hedda.

Hedda
Very handsome indeed.

Tesman
Yes, isn’t it? Eh? But Auntie, take a good look at Hedda before you go! See how handsome she is!

Miss Tesman
Oh, my dear boy, there’s nothing new in that. Hedda was always lovely.

She nods and goes toward the right.

Tesman
Following. Yes, but have you noticed what splendid condition she is in? How she has filled out on the journey?

Hedda
Crossing the room. Oh, do be quiet⁠—!

Miss Tesman
Who has stopped and turned. Filled out?

Tesman
Of course you don’t notice it so much now that she has that dress on. But I, who can see⁠—

Hedda
At the glass door, impatiently. Oh, you can’t see anything.

Tesman
It must be the mountain air in the Tyrol⁠—

Hedda
Curtly, interrupting. I am exactly as I was when I started.

Tesman
So you insist; but I’m quite certain you are not. Don’t you agree with me, Auntie?

Miss Tesman
Who has been gazing at her with folded hands. Hedda is lovely⁠—lovely⁠—lovely. Goes up to her, takes her head between both hands, draws it downwards, and kisses her hair. God bless and preserve Hedda Tesman⁠—for George’s sake.

Hedda
Gently freeing herself. Oh⁠—! Let me go.

Miss Tesman
In quiet emotion. I shall not let a day pass without coming to see you.

Tesman
No you won’t, will you, Auntie? Eh?

Miss Tesman
Goodbye⁠—goodbye!

She goes out by the hall door. Tesman accompanies her. The door remains half open. Tesman can be heard repeating his message to Aunt Rina and his thanks for the slippers.

In the meantime, Hedda walks about the room, raising her arms and clenching her hands as if in desperation. Then she flings back the curtains from the glass door, and stands there looking out.

Presently, Tesman returns and closes the door behind him.

Tesman
Picks up the slippers from the floor. What are you looking at, Hedda?

Hedda
Once more calm and mistress of herself. I am only looking at the leaves. They are so yellow⁠—so withered.

Tesman
Wraps up the slippers and lays them on the table. Well, you see, we are well into September now.

Hedda
Again restless. Yes, to think of it!⁠—already in⁠—in September.

Tesman
Don’t you think Aunt Julia’s manner was strange, dear? Almost solemn? Can you imagine what was the matter with her? Eh?

Hedda
I scarcely know her, you see. Is she not often like that?

Tesman
No, not as she was today.

Hedda
Leaving the glass door. Do you think she was annoyed about the bonnet?

Tesman
Oh, scarcely at all. Perhaps a little, just at the moment⁠—

Hedda
But what an idea, to pitch her bonnet about in the drawing room! No one does that sort of thing.

Tesman
Well you may be sure Aunt Julia won’t do it again.

Hedda
In any case, I shall manage to make my peace with her.

Tesman
Yes, my dear, good Hedda, if you only would.

Hedda
When you call this afternoon, you might invite her to spend the evening here.

Tesman
Yes, that I will. And there’s one thing more you could do that would delight her heart.

Hedda
What is it?

Tesman
If you could only prevail on yourself to say du10 to her. For my sake, Hedda? Eh?

Hedda
No, no, Tesman⁠—you really mustn’t ask that of me. I have told you so already. I shall try to call her “Aunt”; and you must be satisfied with that.

Tesman
Well well. Only I think now that you belong to the family, you⁠—

Hedda
H’m⁠—I can’t in the least see why⁠—

She goes up towards the middle doorway.

Tesman
After a pause. Is there anything the matter with you, Hedda? Eh?

Hedda
I’m only looking at my old piano. It doesn’t go at all well with all the other things.

Tesman
The first time I draw my salary, we’ll see about exchanging it.

Hedda
No, no⁠—no exchanging. I don’t want to part with it. Suppose we put it there in the inner room, and then get another here in its place. When it’s convenient, I mean.

Tesman
A little taken aback. Yes⁠—of course we could do that.

Hedda
Takes up the bouquet from the piano. These flowers were not here last night when we arrived.

Tesman
Aunt Julia must have brought them for you.

Hedda
Examining the bouquet. A visiting card. Takes it out and reads: “Shall return later in the day.” Can you guess whose card it is?

Tesman
No. Whose? Eh?

Hedda
The name is “Mrs. Elvsted.”

Tesman
Is it really? Sheriff Elvsted’s wife? Miss Rysing that was.

Hedda
Exactly. The girl with the irritating hair, that she was always showing off. An old flame of yours I’ve been told.

Tesman
Laughing. Oh, that didn’t last long; and it was before I met you, Hedda. But fancy her being in town!

Hedda
It’s odd that she should call upon us. I have scarcely seen her since we left school.

Tesman
I haven’t see her either for⁠—heaven knows how long. I wonder how she can endure to live in such an out-of-the way hole⁠—eh?

Hedda
After a moment’s thought, says suddenly. Tell me, Tesman⁠—isn’t it somewhere near there that he⁠—that⁠—Eilert Lövborg is living?

Tesman
Yes, he is somewhere in that part of the country.

Berta enters by the hall door.

Berta
That lady, ma’am, that brought some flowers a little while ago, is here again. Pointing. The flowers you have in your hand, ma’am.

Hedda
Ah, is she? Well, please show her in.

Berta opens the door for Mrs. Elvsted, and goes out herself. —Mrs. Elvsted is a woman of fragile figure, with pretty, soft features. Her eyes are light blue, large, round, and somewhat prominent, with a startled, inquiring expression. Her hair is remarkably light, almost flaxen, and unusually abundant and wavy. She is a couple of years younger than Hedda. She wears a dark visiting dress, tasteful, but not quite in the latest fashion.

Hedda
Receives her warmly. How do you do, my dear Mrs. Elvsted? It’s delightful to see you again.

Mrs. Elvsted
Nervously, struggling for self-control. Yes, it’s a very long time since we met.

Tesman
Gives her his hand. And we too⁠—eh?

Hedda
Thanks for your lovely flowers⁠—

Mrs. Elvsted
Oh, not at all⁠—. I would have come straight here yesterday afternoon; but I heard that you were away⁠—

Tesman
Have you just come to town? Eh?

Mrs. Elvsted
I arrived yesterday, about midday. Oh, I was quite in despair when I heard that you were not at home.

Hedda
In despair! How so?

Tesman
Why, my dear Mrs. Rysing⁠—I mean Mrs. Elvsted⁠—

Hedda
I hope that you are not in any trouble?

Mrs. Elvsted
Yes, I am. And I don’t know another living creature here that I can turn to.

Hedda
Laying the bouquet on the table. Come⁠—let us sit here on the sofa⁠—

Mrs. Elvsted
Oh, I am too restless to sit down.

Hedda
Oh no, you’re not. Come here.

She draws Mrs. Elvsted down upon the sofa and sits at her side.

Tesman
Well? What is it, Mrs. Elvsted⁠—?

Hedda
Has anything particular happened to you at home?

Mrs. Elvsted
Yes⁠—and no. Oh⁠—I am so anxious you should not misunderstand me⁠—

Hedda
Then your best plan is to tell us the whole story, Mrs. Elvsted.

Tesman
I suppose that’s what you have come for⁠—eh?

Mrs. Elvsted
Yes, yes⁠—of course it is. Well then, I must tell you⁠—if you don’t already know⁠—that Eilert Lövborg is in town, too.

Hedda
Lövborg⁠—!

Tesman
What! Has Eilert Lövborg come back? Fancy that, Hedda!

Hedda
Well well⁠—I hear it.

Mrs. Elvsted
He has been here a week already. Just fancy⁠—a whole week! In this terrible town, alone! With so many temptations on all sides.

Hedda
But, my dear Mrs. Elvsted⁠—how does he concern you so much?

Mrs. Elvsted
Looks at her with a startled air, and says rapidly. He was the children’s tutor.

Hedda
Your children’s?

Mrs. Elvsted
My husband’s. I have none.

Hedda
Your stepchildren’s, then?

Mrs. Elvsted
Yes.

Tesman
Somewhat hesitatingly. Then was he⁠—I don’t know how to express it⁠—was he⁠—regular enough in his habits to be fit for the post? Eh?

Mrs. Elvsted
For the last two years his conduct has been irreproachable.

Tesman
Has it indeed? Fancy that, Hedda!

Hedda
I hear it.

Mrs. Elvsted
Perfectly irreproachable, I assure you! In every respect. But all the same⁠—now that I know he is here⁠—in this great town⁠—and with a large sum of money in his hands⁠—I can’t help being in mortal fear for him.

Tesman
Why did he not remain where he was? With you and your husband? Eh?

Mrs. Elvsted
After his book was published he was too restless and unsettled to remain with us.

Tesman
Yes, by the by, Aunt Julia told me he had published a new book.

Mrs. Elvsted
Yes, a big book, dealing with the march of civilisation⁠—in broad outline, as it were. It came out about a fortnight ago. And since it has sold so well, and been so much read⁠—and made such a sensation⁠—

Tesman
Has it indeed? It must be something he has had lying by since his better days.

Mrs. Elvsted
Long ago, you mean?

Tesman
Yes.

Mrs. Elvsted
No, he has written it all since he has been with us⁠—within the last year.

Tesman
Isn’t that good news, Hedda? Think of that.

Mrs. Elvsted
Ah yes, if only it would last!

Hedda
Have you seen him here in town?

Mrs. Elvsted
No, not yet. I have had the greatest difficulty in finding out his address. But this morning I discovered it at last.

Hedda
Looks searchingly at her. Do you know, it seems to me a little odd of your husband⁠—h’m⁠—

Mrs. Elvsted
Starting nervously. Of my husband! What?

Hedda
That he should send you to town on such an errand⁠—that he does not come himself and look after his friend.

Mrs. Elvsted
Oh no, no⁠—my husband has no time. And besides, I⁠—I had some shopping to do.

Hedda
With a slight smile. Ah, that is a different matter.

Mrs. Elvsted
Rising quickly and uneasily. And now I beg and implore you, Mr. Tesman⁠—receive Eilert Lövborg kindly if he comes to you! And that he is sure to do. You see you were such great friends in the old days. And then you are interested in the same studies⁠—the same branch of science⁠—so far as I can understand.

Tesman
We used to be at any rate.

Mrs. Elvsted
That is why I beg so earnestly that you⁠—you too⁠—will keep a sharp eye upon him. Oh, you will promise me that, Mr. Tesman⁠—won’t you?

Tesman
With the greatest of pleasure, Mrs. Rysing⁠—

Hedda
Elvsted.

Tesman
I assure you I shall do all I possibly can for Eilert. You may rely upon me.

Mrs. Elvsted
Oh, how very, very kind of you! Presses his hands. Thanks, thanks, thanks! Frightened. You see, my husband is so very fond of him!

Hedda
Rising. You ought to write to him, Tesman. Perhaps he may not care to come to you of his own accord.

Tesman
Well, perhaps it would be the right thing to do, Hedda? Eh?

Hedda
And the sooner the better. Why not at once?

Mrs. Elvsted
Imploringly. Oh, if you only would!

Tesman
I’ll write this moment. Have you his address, Mrs.⁠—Mrs. Elvsted.

Mrs. Elvsted
Yes. Takes a slip of paper from her pocket, and hands it to him. Here it is.

Tesman
Good, good. Then I’ll go in⁠—Looks about him. By the by⁠—my slippers? Oh, here. Takes the packet and is about to go.

Hedda
Be sure you write him a cordial, friendly letter. And a good long one too.

Tesman
Yes, I will.

Mrs. Elvsted
But please, please don’t say a word to show that I have suggested it.

Tesman
No, how could you think I would? Eh?

He goes out to the right, through the inner room.

Hedda
Goes up to Mrs. Elvsted, smiles, and says in a low voice. There! We have killed two birds with one stone.

Mrs. Elvsted
What do you mean?

Hedda
Could you not see that I wanted him to go?

Mrs. Elvsted
Yes, to write the letter⁠—

Hedda
And that I might speak to you alone.

Mrs. Elvsted
Confused. About the same thing?

Hedda
Precisely.

Mrs. Elvsted
Apprehensively. But there is nothing more, Mrs. Tesman! Absolutely nothing!

Hedda
Oh yes, but there is. There is a great deal more⁠—I can see that. Sit here⁠—and we’ll have a cosy, confidential chat.

She forces Mrs. Elvsted to sit in the easy chair beside the stove, and seats herself on one of the footstools.

Mrs. Elvsted
Anxiously, looking at her watch. But, my dear Mrs. Tesman⁠—I was really on the point of going.

Hedda
Oh, you can’t be in such a hurry.⁠—Well? Now tell me something about your life at home.

Mrs. Elvsted
Oh, that is just what I care least to speak about.

Hedda
But to me, dear⁠—? Why, weren’t we schoolfellows?

Mrs. Elvsted
Yes, but you were in the class above me. Oh, how dreadfully afraid of you I was then!

Hedda
Afraid of me?

Mrs. Elvsted
Yes, dreadfully. For when we met on the stairs you used always to pull my hair.

Hedda
Did I, really?

Mrs. Elvsted
Yes, and once you said you would burn it off my head.

Hedda
Oh that was all nonsense, of course.

Mrs. Elvsted
Yes, but I was so silly in those days.⁠—And since then, too⁠—we have drifted so far⁠—far apart from each other. Our circles have been so entirely different.

Hedda
Well then, we must try to drift together again. Now listen. At school we said du11 to each other; and we called each other by our Christian names⁠—

Mrs. Elvsted
No, I am sure you must be mistaken.

Hedda
No, not at all! I can remember quite distinctly. So now we are going to renew our old friendship. Draws the footstool closer to Mrs. Elvsted. There now! Kisses her cheek. You must say du to me and call me Hedda.

Mrs. Elvsted
Presses and pats her hands. Oh, how good and kind you are! I am not used to such kindness.

Hedda
There, there, there! And I shall say du to you, as in the old days, and call you my dear Thora.

Mrs. Elvsted
My name is Thea.12

Hedda
Why, of course! I meant Thea. Looks at her compassionately. So you are not accustomed to goodness and kindness, Thea? Not in your own home?

Mrs. Elvsted
Oh, if I only had a home! But I haven’t any; I have never had a home.

Hedda
Looks at her for a moment. I almost suspected as much.

Mrs. Elvsted
Gazing helplessly before her. Yes⁠—yes⁠—yes.

Hedda
I don’t quite remember⁠—was it not as housekeeper that you first went to Mr. Elvsted’s?

Mrs. Elvsted
I really went as governess. But his wife⁠—his late wife⁠—was an invalid⁠—and rarely left her room. So I had to look after the housekeeping as well.

Hedda
And then⁠—at last⁠—you became mistress of the house.

Mrs. Elvsted
Sadly. Yes, I did.

Hedda
Let me see⁠—about how long ago was that?

Mrs. Elvsted
My marriage?

Hedda
Yes.

Mrs. Elvsted
Five years ago.

Hedda
To be sure; it must be that.

Mrs. Elvsted
Oh those five years⁠—! Or at all events the last two or three of them! Oh, if you13 could only imagine⁠—

Hedda
Giving her a little slap on the hand. De? Fie, Thea!

Mrs. Elvsted
Yes, yes, I will try⁠—. Well, if⁠—you could only imagine and understand⁠—

Hedda
Lightly. Eilert Lövborg has been in your neighbourhood about three years, hasn’t he?

Mrs. Elvsted
Looks at here doubtfully. Eilert Lövborg? Yes⁠—he has.

Hedda
Had you known him before, in town here?

Mrs. Elvsted
Scarcely at all. I mean⁠—I knew him by name of course.

Hedda
But you saw a good deal of him in the country?

Mrs. Elvsted
Yes, he came to us every day. You see, he gave the children lessons; for in the long run I couldn’t manage it all myself.

Hedda
No, that’s clear.⁠—And your husband⁠—? I suppose he is often away from home?

Mrs. Elvsted
Yes. Being sheriff, you know, he has to travel about a good deal in his district.

Hedda
Leaning against the arm of the chair. Thea⁠—my poor, sweet Thea⁠—now you must tell me everything⁠—exactly as it stands.

Mrs. Elvsted
Well, then you must question me.

Hedda
What sort of a man is your husband, Thea? I mean⁠—you know⁠—in everyday life. Is he kind to you?

Mrs. Elvsted
Evasively. I am sure he means well in everything.

Hedda
I should think he must be altogether too old for you. There is at least twenty years’ difference between you, is there not?

Mrs. Elvsted
Irritably. Yes, that is true, too. Everything about him is repellent to me! We have not a thought in common. We have no single point of sympathy⁠—he and I.

Hedda
But is he not fond of you all the same? In his own way?

Mrs. Elvsted
Oh I really don’t know. I think he regards me simply as a useful property. And then it doesn’t cost much to keep me. I am not expensive.

Hedda
That is stupid of you.

Mrs. Elvsted
Shakes her head. It cannot be otherwise⁠—not with him. I don’t think he really cares for anyone but himself⁠—and perhaps a little for the children.

Hedda
And for Eilert Lövborg, Thea?

Mrs. Elvsted
Looking at her. For Eilert Lövborg? What puts that into your head?

Hedda
Well, my dear⁠—I should say, when he sends you after him all the way to town⁠—Smiling almost imperceptibly. And besides, you said so yourself, to Tesman.

Mrs. Elvsted
With a little nervous twitch. Did I? Yes, I suppose I did. Vehemently, but not loudly. No⁠—I may just as well make a clean breast of it at once! For it must all come out in any case.

Hedda
Why, my dear Thea⁠—?

Mrs. Elvsted
Well, to make a long story short: My husband did not know that I was coming.

Hedda
What! Your husband didn’t know it!

Mrs. Elvsted
No, of course not. For that matter, he was away from home himself⁠—he was travelling. Oh, I could bear it no longer, Hedda! I couldn’t indeed⁠—so utterly alone as I should have been in future.

Hedda
Well? And then?

Mrs. Elvsted
So I put together some of my things⁠—what I needed most⁠—as quietly as possible. And then I left the house.

Hedda
Without a word?

Mrs. Elvsted
Yes⁠—and took the train to town.

Hedda
Why, my dear, good Thea⁠—to think of you daring to do it!

Mrs. Elvsted
Rises and moves about the room. What else could I possibly do?

Hedda
But what do you think your husband will say when you go home again?

Mrs. Elvsted
At the table, looks at her. Back to him?

Hedda
Of course.

Mrs. Elvsted
I shall never go back to him again.

Hedda
Rising and going towards her. Then you have left your home⁠—for good and all?

Mrs. Elvsted
Yes. There was nothing else to be done.

Hedda
But then⁠—to take flight so openly.

Mrs. Elvsted
Oh, it’s impossible to keep things of that sort secret.

Hedda
But what do you think people will say of you, Thea?

Mrs. Elvsted
They may say what they like, for aught I care. Seats herself wearily and sadly on the sofa. I have done nothing but what I had to do.

Hedda
After a short silence. And what are your plans now? What do you think of doing.

Mrs. Elvsted
I don’t know yet. I only know this, that I must live here, where Eilert Lövborg is⁠—if I am to live at all.

Hedda
Takes a chair from the table, seats herself beside her, and strokes her hands. My dear Thea⁠—how did this⁠—this friendship⁠—between you and Eilert Lövborg come about?

Mrs. Elvsted
Oh it grew up gradually. I gained a sort of influence over him.

Hedda
Indeed?

Mrs. Elvsted
He gave up his old habits. Not because I asked him to, for I never dared do that. But of course he saw how repulsive they were to me; and so he dropped them.

Hedda
Concealing an involuntary smile of scorn. Then you have reclaimed him⁠—as the saying goes⁠—my little Thea.

Mrs. Elvsted
So he says himself, at any rate. And he, on his side, has made a real human being of me⁠—taught me to think, and to understand so many things.

Hedda
Did he give you lessons too, then?

Mrs. Elvsted
No, not exactly lessons. But he talked to me⁠—talked about such an infinity of things. And then came the lovely, happy time when I began to share in his work⁠—when he allowed me to help him!

Hedda
Oh he did, did he?

Mrs. Elvsted
Yes! He never wrote anything without my assistance.

Hedda
You were two good comrades, in fact?

Mrs. Elvsted
Eagerly. Comrades! Yes, fancy, Hedda⁠—that is the very word he used!⁠—Oh, I ought to feel perfectly happy; and yet I cannot; for I don’t know how long it will last.

Hedda
Are you no surer of him than that?

Mrs. Elvsted
Gloomily. A woman’s shadow stands between Eilert Lövborg and me.

Hedda
Looks at her anxiously. Who can that be?

Mrs. Elvsted
I don’t know. Someone he knew in his⁠—in his past. Someone he has never been able wholly to forget.

Hedda
What has he told you⁠—about this?

Mrs. Elvsted
He has only once⁠—quite vaguely⁠—alluded to it.

Hedda
Well! And what did he say?

Mrs. Elvsted
He said that when they parted, she threatened to shoot him with a pistol.

Hedda
With cold composure. Oh nonsense! No one does that sort of thing here.

Mrs. Elvsted
No. And that is why I think it must have been that red-haired singing woman whom he once⁠—

Hedda
Yes, very likely.

Mrs. Elvsted
For I remember they used to say of her that she carried loaded firearms.

Hedda
Oh⁠—then of course it must have been she.

Mrs. Elvsted
Wringing her hands. And now just fancy, Hedda⁠—I hear that this singing woman⁠—that she is in town again! Oh, I don’t know what to do⁠—

Hedda
Glancing towards the inner room. Hush! Here comes Tesman. Rises and whispers. Thea⁠—all this must remain between you and me.

Mrs. Elvsted
Springing up. Oh yes⁠—yes! For heaven’s sake⁠—!

George Tesman, with a letter in his hand, comes from the right through the inner room.

Tesman
There now⁠—the epistle is finished.

Hedda
That’s right. And now Mrs. Elvsted is just going. Wait a moment⁠—I’ll go with you to the garden gate.

Tesman
Do you think Berta could post the letter, Hedda dear?

Hedda
Takes it. I will tell her to.

Berta enters from the hall.

Berta
Judge Brack wishes to know if Mrs. Tesman will receive him.

Hedda
Yes, ask Judge Brack to come in. And look here⁠—put this letter in the post.

Berta
Taking the letter. Yes, ma’am.

She opens the door for Judge Brack and goes out herself. Brack is a man of forty-five; thick set, but well-built and elastic in his movements. His face is roundish with an aristocratic profile. His hair is short, still almost black, and carefully dressed. His eyebrows thick. His moustaches are also thick, with shortcut ends. He wears a well-cut walking suit, a little too youthful for his age. He uses an eyeglass, which he now and then lets drop.

Judge Brack
With his hat in his hand, bowing. May one venture to call so early in the day?

Hedda
Of course one may.

Tesman
Presses his hand. You are welcome at any time. Introducing him. Judge Brack⁠—Miss Rysing⁠—

Hedda
Oh⁠—!

Brack
Bowing. Ah⁠—delighted⁠—

Hedda
Looks at him and laughs. It’s nice to have a look at you by daylight, Judge!

Brack
So you find me⁠—altered?

Hedda
A little younger, I think.

Brack
Thank you so much.

Tesman
But what do you think of Hedda⁠—eh? Doesn’t she look flourishing? She has actually⁠—

Hedda
Oh, do leave me alone. You haven’t thanked Judge Brack for all the trouble he has taken⁠—

Brack
Oh, nonsense⁠—it was a pleasure to me⁠—

Hedda
Yes, you are a friend indeed. But here stands Thea all impatience to be off⁠—so au revoir Judge. I shall be back again presently.

Mutual salutations. Mrs. Elvsted and Hedda go out by the hall door.

Brack
Well⁠—is your wife tolerably satisfied⁠—

Tesman
Yes, we can’t thank you sufficiently. Of course she talks of a little rearrangement here and there; and one or two things are still wanting. We shall have to buy some additional trifles.

Brack
Indeed!

Tesman
But we won’t trouble you about these things. Hedda say she herself will look after what is wanting.⁠—Shan’t we sit down? Eh?

Brack
Thanks, for a moment. Seats himself beside the table. There is something I wanted to speak to about, my dear Tesman.

Tesman
Indeed? Ah, I understand! Seating himself. I suppose it’s the serious part of the frolic that is coming now. Eh?

Brack
Oh, the money question is not so very pressing; though, for that matter, I wish we had gone a little more economically to work.

Tesman
But that would never have done, you know! Think of Hedda, my dear fellow! You, who know her so well⁠—! I couldn’t possibly ask her to put up with a shabby style of living!

Brack
No, no⁠—that is just the difficulty.

Tesman
And then⁠—fortunately⁠—it can’t be long before I receive my appointment.

Brack
Well, you see⁠—such things are often apt to hang fire for a long time.

Tesman
Have you heard anything definite? Eh?

Brack
Nothing exactly definite⁠—. Interrupting himself. But by the by⁠—I have one piece of news for you.

Tesman
Well?

Brack
Your old friend, Eilert Lövborg, has returned to town.

Tesman
I know that already.

Brack
Indeed! How did you learn it?

Tesman
From that lady who went out with Hedda.

Brack
Really? What was her name? I didn’t quite catch it.

Tesman
Mrs. Elvsted.

Brack
Aha⁠—Sheriff Elvsted’s wife? Of course⁠—he has been living up in their regions.

Tesman
And fancy⁠—I’m delighted to hear that he is quite a reformed character.

Brack
So they say.

Tesman
And then he has published a new book⁠—eh?

Brack
Yes, indeed he has.

Tesman
And I hear it has made some sensation!

Brack
Quite an unusual sensation.

Tesman
Fancy⁠—isn’t that good news! A man of such extraordinary talents⁠—. I felt so grieved to think that he had gone irretrievably to ruin.

Brack
That was what everybody thought.

Tesman
But I cannot imagine what he will take to now! How in the world will he be able to make his living? Eh?

During the last words, Hedda has entered by the hall door.

Hedda
To Brack, laughing with a touch of scorn. Tesman is forever worrying about how people are to make their living.

Tesman
Well you see, dear⁠—we were talking about poor Eilert Lövborg.

Hedda
Glancing at him rapidly. Oh, indeed? Sets herself in the armchair beside the stove and asks indifferently: What is the matter with him?

Tesman
Well⁠—no doubt he has run through all his property long ago; and he can scarcely write a new book every year⁠—eh? So I really can’t see what is to become of him.

Brack
Perhaps I can give you some information on that point.

Tesman
Indeed!

Brack
You must remember that his relations have a good deal of influence.

Tesman
Oh, his relations, unfortunately, have entirely washed their hands of him.

Brack
At one time they called him the hope of the family.

Tesman
At one time, yes! But he has put an end to all that.

Hedda
Who knows? With a slight smile. I hear they have reclaimed him up at Sheriff Elvsted’s⁠—

Brack
And then this book that he has published⁠—

Tesman
Well well, I hope to goodness they may find something for him to do. I have just written to him. I asked him to come and see us this evening, Hedda dear.

Brack
But my dear fellow, you are booked for my bachelor’s party this evening. You promised on the pier last night.

Hedda
Had you forgotten, Tesman?

Tesman
Yes, I had utterly forgotten.

Brack
But it doesn’t matter, for you may be sure he won’t come.

Tesman
What makes you think that? Eh?

Brack
With a little hesitation, rising and resting his hands on the back of his chair. My dear Tesman⁠—and you too, Mrs. Tesman⁠—I think I ought not to keep you in the dark about something that⁠—that⁠—

Tesman
That concerns Eilert⁠—?

Brack
Both you and him.

Tesman
Well, my dear Judge, out with it.

Brack
You must be prepared to find your appointment deferred longer than you desired or expected.

Tesman
Jumping up uneasily. Is there some hitch about it? Eh?

Brack
The nomination may perhaps be made conditional on the result of a competition⁠—

Tesman
Competition! Think of that, Hedda!

Hedda
Leans further back in the chair. Aha⁠—aha!

Tesman
But who can my competitor be? Surely not⁠—?

Brack
Yes, precisely⁠—Eilert Lövborg.

Tesman
Clasping his hands. No, no⁠—it’s quite impossible! Eh?

Brack
H’m⁠—that is what it may come to, all the same.

Tesman
Well but, Judge Brack⁠—it would show the most incredible lack of consideration for me. Gesticulates with his arms. For⁠—just think⁠—I’m a married man! We have married on the strength of these prospects, Hedda and I; and run deep into debt; and borrowed money from Aunt Julia too. Good heavens, they had as good as promised me the appointment. Eh?

Brack
Well, well, well⁠—no doubt you will get it in the end; only after a contest.

Hedda
Immovable in her armchair. Fancy, Tesman, there will be a sort of sporting interest in that.

Tesman
Why, my dearest Hedda, how can you be so indifferent about it?

Hedda
As before. I am not at all indifferent. I am most eager to see who wins.

Brack
In any case, Mrs. Tesman, it is best that you should know how matters stand. I mean⁠—before you set about the little purchases I hear you are threatening.

Hedda
This can make no difference.

Brack
Indeed! Then I have no more to say. Goodbye! To Tesman. I shall look in on my way back from my afternoon walk, and take you home with me.

Tesman
Oh yes, yes⁠—your news has quite upset me.

Hedda
Reclining, holds out her hand. Goodbye, Judge; and be sure you call in the afternoon.

Brack
Many thanks. Goodbye, goodbye!

Tesman
Accompanying him to the door. Goodbye my dear Judge! You must really excuse me⁠—Judge Brack goes out by the hall door.

Tesman
Crosses the room. Oh Hedda⁠—one should never rush into adventures. Eh?

Hedda
Looks at him, smiling. Do you do that?

Tesman
Yes, dear⁠—there is no denying⁠—it was adventurous to go and marry and set up house upon mere expectations.

Hedda
Perhaps you are right there.

Tesman
Well⁠—at all events, we have our delightful home, Hedda! Fancy, the home we both dreamed of⁠—the home we were in love with, I may almost say. Eh?

Hedda
Rising slowly and wearily. It was part of our compact that we were to go into society⁠—to keep open house.

Tesman
Yes, if you only knew how I had been looking forward to it! Fancy⁠—to see you as hostess⁠—in a select circle! Eh? Well, well, well⁠—for the present we shall have to get on without society, Hedda⁠—only to invite Aunt Julia now and then.⁠—Oh, I intended you to lead such an utterly different life, dear⁠—!

Hedda
Of course I cannot have my man in livery just yet.

Tesman
Oh, no, unfortunately. It would be out of the question for us to keep a footman, you know.

Hedda
And the saddle horse I was to have had⁠—

Tesman
Aghast. The saddle horse!

Hedda
—I suppose I must not think of that now.

Tesman
Good heavens, no!⁠—that’s as clear as daylight!

Hedda
Goes up the room. Well, I shall have one thing at least to kill time with in the meanwhile.

Tesman
Beaming. Oh thank heaven for that! What is it, Hedda. Eh?

Hedda
In the middle doorway, looks at him with covert scorn. My pistols, George.

Tesman
In alarm. Your pistols!

Hedda
With cold eyes. General Gabler’s pistols.

She goes out through the inner room, to the left.

Tesman
Rushes up to the middle doorway and calls after her: No, for heaven’s sake, Hedda darling⁠—don’t touch those dangerous things! For my sake Hedda! Eh?

Act II

The room at the Tesmans’ as in the first Act, except that the piano has been removed, and an elegant little writing table with the bookshelves put in its place. A smaller table stands near the sofa on the left. Most of the bouquets have been taken away. Mrs. Elvsted’s bouquet is upon the large table in front.⁠—It is afternoon.

Hedda, dressed to receive callers, is alone in the room. She stands by the open glass door, loading a revolver. The fellow to it lies in an open pistol case on the writing table.

Hedda
Looks down the garden, and calls: So you are here again, Judge!

Brack
Is heard calling from a distance. As you see, Mrs. Tesman!

Hedda
Raises the pistol and points. Now I’ll shoot you, Judge Brack!

Brack
Calling unseen. No, no, no! Don’t stand aiming at me!

Hedda
This is what comes of sneaking in by the back way.14 She fires.

Brack
Nearer. Are you out of your senses⁠—!

Hedda
Dear me⁠—did I happen to hit you?

Brack
Still outside. I wish you would let these pranks alone!

Hedda
Come in then, Judge.

Judge Brack, dressed as though for a men’s party, enters by the glass door. He carries a light overcoat over his arm.

Brack
What the deuce⁠—haven’t you tired of that sport, yet? What are you shooting at?

Hedda
Oh, I am only firing in the air.

Brack
Gently takes the pistol out of her hand. Allow me, madam! Looks at it. Ah⁠—I know this pistol well! Looks around. Where is the case? Ah, here it is. Lays the pistol in it, and shuts it. Now we won’t play at that game any more today.

Hedda
Then what in heaven’s name would you have me do with myself?

Brack
Have you had no visitors?

Hedda
Closing the glass door. Not one. I suppose all our set are still out of town.

Brack
And is Tesman not at home either?

Hedda
At the writing table, putting the pistol case in a drawer which she shuts. No. He rushed off to his aunt’s directly after lunch; he didn’t expect you so early.

Brack
H’m⁠—how stupid of me not to have thought of that!

Hedda
Turning her head to look at him. Why stupid?

Brack
Because if I had thought of it I should have come a little⁠—earlier.

Hedda
Crossing the room. Then you would have found no one to receive you; for I have been in my room changing my dress ever since lunch.

Brack
And is there no sort of little chink that we could hold a parley through?

Hedda
You have forgotten to arrange one.

Brack
That was another piece of stupidity.

Hedda
Well, we must just settle down here⁠—and wait. Tesman is not likely to be back for some time yet.

Brack
Never mind; I shall not be impatient.

Hedda seats herself in the corner of the sofa. Brack lays his overcoat over the back of the nearest chair, and sits down, but keeps his hat in his hand. A short silence. They look at each other.

Hedda
Well?

Brack
In the same tone. Well?

Hedda
I spoke first.

Brack
Bending a little forward. Come, let us have a cosy little chat, Mrs. Hedda.15

Hedda
Leaning further back in the sofa. Does it not seem like a whole eternity since our last talk? Of course I don’t count those few words yesterday evening and this morning.

Brack
You mean since out last confidential talk? Our last tête-à-tête?

Hedda
Well yes⁠—since you put it so.

Brack
Not a day passed but I have wished that you were home again.

Hedda
And I have done nothing but wish the same thing.

Brack
You? Really, Mrs. Hedda? And I thought you had been enjoying your tour so much!

Hedda
Oh yes, you may be sure of that!

Brack
But Tesman’s letters spoke of nothing but happiness.

Hedda
Oh, Tesman! You see, he thinks nothing is so delightful as grubbing in libraries and making copies of old parchments, or whatever you call them.

Brack
With a smile of malice. Well, that is his vocation in life⁠—or part of it at any rate.

Hedda
Yes, of course; and no doubt when it’s your vocation⁠—. But I! Oh, my dear Mr. Brack, how mortally bored I have been.

Brack
Sympathetically. Do you really say so? In downright earnest?

Hedda
Yes, you can surely understand it⁠—! To go for six whole months without meeting a soul that knew anything of our circle, or could talk about things we were interested in.

Brack
Yes, yes⁠—I too should feel that a deprivation.

Hedda
And then, what I found most intolerable of all⁠—

Brack
Well?

Hedda
—was being everlastingly in the company of⁠—one and the same person⁠—

Brack
With a nod of assent. Morning, noon, and night, yes⁠—at all possible times and seasons.

Hedda
I said “everlastingly.”

Brack
Just so. But I should have thought, with our excellent Tesman, one could⁠—

Hedda
Tesman is⁠—a specialist, my dear Judge.

Brack
Undeniable.

Hedda
And specialists are not at all amusing to travel with. Not in the long run at any rate.

Brack
Not even⁠—the specialist one happens to love?

Hedda
Faugh⁠—don’t use that sickening word!

Brack
Taken aback. What do you say, Mrs. Hedda?

Hedda
Half laughing, half irritated. You should just try it! To hear of nothing but the history of civilisation, morning, noon, and night⁠—

Brack
Everlastingly.

Hedda
Yes yes yes! And then all this about the domestic industry of the middle ages⁠—! That’s the most disgusting part of it!

Brack
Looks searchingly at her. But tell me⁠—in that case, how am I to understand your⁠—? H’m⁠—

Hedda
My accepting George Tesman, you mean?

Brack
Well, let us put it so.

Hedda
Good heavens, do you see anything so wonderful in that?

Brack
Yes and no⁠—Mrs. Hedda.

Hedda
I had positively danced myself tired, my dear Judge. My day was done⁠—With a slight shudder. Oh no⁠—I won’t say that; nor think it either!

Brack
You have assuredly no reason to.

Hedda
Oh, reasons⁠—Watching him closely. And George Tesman⁠—after all, you must admit that he is correctness itself.

Brack
His correctness and respectability are beyond all question.

Hedda
And I don’t see anything absolutely ridiculous about him.⁠—Do you?

Brack
Ridiculous? N⁠—no⁠—I shouldn’t exactly say so⁠—

Hedda
Well⁠—and his powers of research, at all events, are untiring.⁠—I see no reason why he should not one day come to the front, after all.

Brack
Looks at her hesitatingly. I thought that you, like everyone else, expected him to attain the highest distinction.

Hedda
With an expression of fatigue. Yes, so I did.⁠—And then, since he was bent, at all hazards, on being allowed to provide for me⁠—I really don’t know why I should not have accepted his offer?

Brack
No⁠—if you look at it in that light⁠—

Hedda
It was more than my other adorers were prepared to do for me, my dear Judge.

Brack
Laughing. Well, I can’t answer for all the rest; but as for myself, you know quite well that I have always entertained a⁠—a certain respect for the marriage tie⁠—for marriage as an institution, Mrs. Hedda.

Hedda
Jestingly. Oh, I assure you I have never cherished any hopes with respect to you.

Brack
All I require is a pleasant and intimate interior, where I can make myself useful in every way, and am free to come and go as⁠—as a trusted friend⁠—

Hedda
Of the master of the house, do you mean?

Brack
Bowing. Frankly⁠—of the mistress first of all; but of course of the master too, in the second place. Such a triangular friendship⁠—if I may call it so⁠—is really a great convenience for all the parties, let me tell you.

Hedda
Yes, I have many a time longed for someone to make a third on our travels. Oh⁠—those railway carriage tête-à-têtes⁠—!

Brack
Fortunately your wedding journey is over now.

Hedda
Shaking her head. Not by a long⁠—long way. I have only arrived at a station on the line.

Brack
Well, then the passengers jump out and move about a little, Mrs. Hedda.

Hedda
I never jump out.

Brack
Really?

Hedda
No⁠—because there is always someone standing by to⁠—

Brack
Laughing. To look at your ankles, do you mean?

Hedda
Precisely.

Brack
Well but, dear me⁠—

Hedda
With a gesture of repulsion. I won’t have it. I would rather keep my seat where I happen to be⁠—and continue the tête-à-tête.

Brack
But suppose a third person were to jump in and join the couple.

Hedda
Ah⁠—that is quite another matter!

Brack
A trusted, sympathetic friend⁠—

Hedda
—with a fund of conversation on all sorts of lively topics⁠—

Brack
—and not the least bit of a specialist!

Hedda
With an audible sigh. Yes, that would be a relief indeed.

Brack
Hears the front door open, and glances in that direction. The triangle is completed.

Hedda
Half aloud. And on goes the train.

George Tesman, in a grey walking suit, with a soft felt hat, enters from the hall. He has a number of unbound books under his arm and in his pockets.

Tesman
Goes up to the table beside the corner settee. Ouf⁠—what a load for a warm day⁠—all these books. Lays them on the table. I’m positively perspiring, Hedda. Hallo⁠—are you there already, my dear Judge? Eh? Berta didn’t tell me.

Brack
Rising. I came in through the garden.

Hedda
What books have you got there?

Tesman
Stands looking them through. Some new books on my special subjects⁠—quite indispensable to me.

Hedda
Your special subjects?

Brack
Yes, books on his special subjects, Mrs. Tesman.

Brack and Hedda exchange a confidential smile.

Hedda
Do you need still more books on your special subjects?

Tesman
Yes, my dear Hedda, one can never have too many of them. Of course one must keep up with all that is written and published.

Hedda
Yes, I suppose one must.

Tesman
Searching among his books. And look here⁠—I have got hold of Eilert Lövborg’s new book too. Offering it to her. Perhaps you would like to glance through it, Hedda? Eh?

Hedda
No, thank you. Or rather⁠—afterwards perhaps.

Tesman
I looked into it a little on the way home.

Brack
Well, what do you think of it⁠—as a specialist?

Tesman
I think it shows quite remarkable soundness of judgment. He never wrote like that before. Putting the books together. Now I shall take all these into my study. I’m longing to cut the leaves⁠—! And then I must change my clothes. To Brack. I suppose we needn’t start just yet? Eh?

Brack
Oh, dear no⁠—there is not the slightest hurry.

Tesman
Well then, I will take my time. Is going with his books, but stops in the doorway and turns. By the by, Hedda⁠—Aunt Julia is not coming this evening.

Hedda
Not coming? Is it that affair of the bonnet that keeps her away?

Tesman
Oh, not at all. How could you think such a thing of Aunt Julia? Just fancy⁠—! The fact is, Aunt Rina is very ill.

Hedda
She always is.

Tesman
Yes, but today she is much worse than usual, poor dear.

Hedda
Oh, then it’s only natural that her sister should remain with her. I must bear my disappointment.

Tesman
And you can’t imagine, dear, how delighted Aunt Julia seemed to be⁠—because you had come home looking so flourishing!

Hedda
Half aloud, rising. Oh, those everlasting Aunts!

Tesman
What?

Hedda
Going to the glass door. Nothing.

Tesman
Oh, all right. He goes through the inner room, out to the right.

Brack
What bonnet were you talking about?

Hedda
Oh, it was a little episode with Miss Tesman this morning. She had laid down her bonnet on the chair there⁠—Looks at him and smiles.⁠—and I pretended to think it was the servant’s.

Brack
Shaking his head. Now my dear Mrs. Hedda, how could you do such a thing? To the excellent old lady, too!

Hedda
Nervously crossing the room. Well, you see⁠—these impulses come over me all of a sudden; and I cannot resist them. Throws herself down in the easy chair by the stove. Oh, I don’t know how to explain it.

Brack
Behind the easy chair. You are not really happy⁠—that is at the bottom of it.

Hedda
Looking straight before her. I know of no reason why I should be⁠—happy. Perhaps you can give me one?

Brack
Well⁠—amongst other things, because you have got exactly the home you had set your heart on.

Hedda
Looks up at him and laughs. Do you too believe in that legend?

Brack
Is there nothing in it, then?

Hedda
Oh yes, there is something in it.

Brack
Well?

Hedda
There is this in it, that I made use of Tesman to see me home from evening parties last summer⁠—

Brack
I, unfortunately, had to go quite a different way.

Hedda
That’s true. I know you were going a different way last summer.

Brack
Laughing. Oh fie, Mrs. Hedda! Well, then⁠—you and Tesman⁠—?

Hedda
Well, we happened to pass here one evening; Tesman, poor fellow, was writhing in the agony of having to find conversation; so I took pity on the learned man⁠—

Brack
Smiles doubtfully. You took pity? H’m⁠—

Hedda
Yes, I really did. And so⁠—to help him out of his torment⁠—I happened to say, in pure thoughtlessness, that I should like to live in this villa.

Brack
No more than that?

Hedda
Not that evening.

Brack
But afterwards?

Hedda
Yes, my thoughtlessness had consequences, my dear Judge.

Brack
Unfortunately that too often happens, Mrs. Hedda.

Hedda
Thanks! So you see it was this enthusiasm for Secretary Falk’s villa that first constituted a bond of sympathy between George Tesman and me. From that came our engagement and our marriage, and our wedding journey, and all the rest of it. Well, well, my dear Judge⁠—as you make your bed so you must lie, I could almost say.

Brack
This is exquisite! And you really cared not a rap about it all the time?

Hedda
No, heaven knows I didn’t.

Brack
But now? Now that we have made it so homelike for you?

Hedda
Uh⁠—the rooms all seem to smell of lavender and dried rose leaves.⁠—But perhaps it’s Aunt Julia that has brought that scent with her.

Brack
Laughing. No, I think it must be a legacy from the late Mrs. Secretary Falk.

Hedda
Yes, there is an odour of mortality about it. It reminds me of a bouquet⁠—the day after the ball. Clasps her hands behind her head, leans back in her chair and looks at him. Oh, my dear Judge⁠—you cannot imagine how horribly I shall bore myself here.

Brack
Why should not you, too, find some sort of vocation in life, Mrs. Hedda?

Hedda
A vocation⁠—that should attract me?

Brack
If possible, of course.

Hedda
Heaven knows what sort of a vocation that could be. I often wonder whether⁠—Breaking off. But that would never do either.

Brack
Who can tell? Let me hear what it is.

Hedda
Whether I might not get Tesman to go into politics, I mean.

Brack
Laughing. Tesman? No really now, political life is not the thing for him⁠—not at all in his line.

Hedda
No, I daresay not.⁠—But if I could get him into it all the same?

Brack
Why⁠—what satisfaction could you find in that? If he is not fitted for that sort of thing, why should you want to drive him into it?

Hedda
Because I am bored, I tell you! After a pause. So you think it quite out of the question that Tesman should ever get into the ministry?

Brack
H’m⁠—you see, my dear Mrs. Hedda⁠—to get into the ministry, he would have to be a tolerably rich man.

Hedda
Rising impatiently. Yes, there we have it! It is this genteel poverty I have managed to drop into⁠—! Crosses the room. That is what makes life so pitiable! So utterly ludicrous!⁠—For that’s what it is.

Brack
Now I should say the fault lay elsewhere.

Hedda
Where, then?

Brack
You have never gone through any really stimulating experience.

Hedda
Anything serious, you mean?

Brack
Yes, you may call it so. But now you may perhaps have one in store.

Hedda
Tossing her head. Oh, you’re thinking of the annoyances about this wretched professorship! But that must be Tesman’s own affair. I assure you I shall not waste a thought upon it.

Brack
No, no, I daresay not. But suppose now that what people call⁠—in elegant language⁠—a solemn responsibility were to come upon you? Smiling. A new responsibility, Mrs. Hedda?

Hedda
Angrily. Be quiet! Nothing of that sort will ever happen!

Brack
Warily. We will speak of this again a year hence⁠—at the very outside.

Hedda
Curtly. I have no turn for anything of the sort, Judge Brack. No responsibilities for me!

Brack
Are you so unlike the generality of women as to have no turn for duties which⁠—?

Hedda
Beside the glass door. Oh, be quiet, I tell you!⁠—I often think there is only one thing in the world I have any turn for.

Brack
Drawing near to her. And what is that, if I may ask?

Hedda
Stands looking out. Boring myself to death. Now you know it. Turns, looks towards the inner room, and laughs. Yes, as I thought! Here comes the Professor.

Brack
Softly, in a tone of warning. Come, come, come, Mrs. Hedda!

George Tesman, dressed for the party, with his gloves and hat in his hand, enters from the right through the inner room.

Tesman
Hedda, has no message come from Eilert Lövborg? Eh?

Hedda
No.

Tesman
Then you’ll see he’ll be here presently.

Brack
Do you really think he will come?

Tesman
Yes, I am almost sure of it. For what you were telling us this morning must have been a mere floating rumour.

Brack
You think so?

Tesman
At any rate, Aunt Julia said she did not believe for a moment that he would ever stand in my way again. Fancy that!

Brack
Well then, that’s all right.

Tesman
Placing his hat and gloves on a chair on the right. Yes, but you must really let me wait for him as long as possible.

Brack
We have plenty of time yet. None of my guests will arrive before seven or half past.

Tesman
Then meanwhile we can keep Hedda company, and see what happens. Eh?

Hedda
Placing Brack’s hat and overcoat upon the corner settee. And at the worst Mr. Lövborg can remain here with me.

Brack
Offering to take his things. Oh, allow me, Mrs. Tesman!⁠—What do you mean by “At the worst”?

Hedda
If he won’t go with you and Tesman.

Tesman
Looks dubiously at her. But, Hedda dear⁠—do you think it would quite do for him to remain here with you? Eh? Remember, Aunt Julia can’t come.

Hedda
No, but Mrs. Elvsted is coming. We three can have a cup of tea together.

Tesman
Oh yes, that will be all right.

Brack
Smiling. And that would perhaps be the safest plan for him.

Hedda
Why so?

Brack
Well, you know, Mrs. Tesman, how you used to gird at my little bachelor parties. You declared they were adapted only for men of the strictest principles.

Hedda
But no doubt Mr. Lövborg’s principles are strict enough now. A converted sinner⁠—Berta appears at the hall door.

Berta
There’s a gentleman asking if you are at home, ma’am⁠—

Hedda
Well, show him in.

Tesman
Softly. I’m sure it is he! Fancy that!

Eilert Lövborg enters from the hall. He is slim and lean; of the same age as Tesman, but looks older and somewhat worn-out. His hair and beard are of a blackish brown, his face long and pale, but with patches of colour on the cheeks. He is dressed in a well-cut black visiting suit, quite new. He has dark gloves and a silk hat. He stops near the door, and makes a rapid bow, seeming somewhat embarrassed.

Tesman
Goes up to him and shakes him warmly by the hand. Well, my dear Eilert⁠—so at last we meet again!

Eilert Lövborg
Speaks in a subdued voice. Thanks for your letter, Tesman. Approaching Hedda. Will you too shake hands with me, Mrs. Tesman?

Hedda
Taking his hand. I am glad to see you, Mr. Lövborg. With a motion of her hand. I don’t know whether you two gentlemen⁠—?

Lövborg
Bowing slightly. Judge Brack, I think.

Brack
Doing likewise. Oh yes⁠—in the old days⁠—

Tesman
To Lövborg, with his hands on his shoulders. And now you must make yourself entirely at home, Eilert! Mustn’t he, Hedda?⁠—For I hear you are going to settle in town again? Eh?

Lövborg
Yes, I am.

Tesman
Quite right, quite right. Let me tell you, I have got hold of your new book; but I haven’t had time to read it yet.

Lövborg
You may spare yourself the trouble.

Tesman
Why so?

Lövborg
Because there is very little in it.

Tesman
Just fancy⁠—how can you say so?

Brack
But it has been very much praised, I hear.

Lövborg
That was what I wanted; so I put nothing into the book but what everyone would agree with.

Brack
Very wise of you.

Tesman
Well but, my dear Eilert⁠—!

Lövborg
For now I mean to win myself a position again⁠—to make a fresh start.

Tesman
A little embarrassed. Ah, that is what you wish to do? Eh?

Lövborg
Smiling, lays down his hat, and draws a packet wrapped in paper, from his coat pocket. But when this one appears, George Tesman, you will have to read it. For this is the real book⁠—the book I have put my true self into.

Tesman
Indeed? And what is it?

Lövborg
It is the continuation.

Tesman
The continuation? Of what?

Lövborg
Of the book.

Tesman
Of the new book?

Lövborg
Of course.

Tesman
Why, my dear Eilert⁠—does it not come down to our own days?

Lövborg
Yes, it does; and this one deals with the future.

Tesman
With the future! But, good heavens, we know nothing of the future!

Lövborg
No; but there is a thing or two to be said about it all the same. Opens the packet. Look here⁠—

Tesman
Why, that’s not your handwriting.

Lövborg
I dictated it. Turning over the pages. It falls into two sections. The first deals with the civilising forces of the future. And here is the second⁠—running through the pages towards the end⁠—forecasting the probable line of development.

Tesman
How odd now! I should never have thought of writing anything of that sort.

Hedda
At the glass door, drumming on the pane. H’m⁠—. I daresay not.

Lövborg
Replacing the manuscript in its paper and laying the packet on the table. I brought it, thinking I might read you a little of it this evening.

Tesman
That was very good of you, Eilert. But this evening⁠—? Looking back at Brack. I don’t see how we can manage it⁠—

Lövborg
Well then, some other time. There is no hurry.

Brack
I must tell you, Mr. Lövborg⁠—there is a little gathering at my house this evening⁠—mainly in honour of Tesman, you know⁠—

Lövborg
Looking for his hat. Oh⁠—then I won’t detain you⁠—

Brack
No, but listen⁠—will you not do me the favour of joining us?

Lövborg
Curtly and decidedly. No, I can’t⁠—thank you very much.

Brack
Oh, nonsense⁠—do! We shall be quite a select little circle. And I assure you we shall have a “lively time,” as Mrs. Hed⁠—as Mrs. Tesman says.

Lövborg
I have no doubt of it. But nevertheless⁠—

Brack
And then you might bring your manuscript with you, and read it to Tesman at my house. I could give you a room to yourselves.

Tesman
Yes, think of that, Eilert⁠—why shouldn’t you? Eh?

Hedda
Interposing. But, Tesman, if Mr. Lövborg would really rather not! I am sure Mr. Lövborg is much more inclined to remain here and have supper with me.

Lövborg
Looking at her. With you, Mrs. Tesman?

Hedda
And with Mrs. Elvsted.

Lövborg
Ah⁠—Lightly. I saw her for a moment this morning.

Hedda
Did you? Well, she is coming this evening. So you see you are almost bound to remain, Mr. Lövborg, or she will have no one to see her home.

Lövborg
That’s true. Many thanks, Mrs. Tesman⁠—in that case I will remain.

Hedda
Then I have one or two orders to give the servant⁠—

She goes to the hall door and rings. Berta enters. Hedda talks to her in a whisper, and points towards the inner room. Berta nods and goes out again.

Tesman
At the same time, to Lövborg. Tell me, Eilert⁠—is it this new subject⁠—the future⁠—that you are going to lecture about?

Lövborg
Yes.

Tesman
They told me at the bookseller’s that you are going to deliver a course of lectures this autumn.

Lövborg
That is my intention. I hope you won’t take it ill, Tesman.

Tesman
Oh no, not in the least! But⁠—?

Lövborg
I can quite understand that it must be very disagreeable to you.

Tesman
Cast down. Oh, I can’t expect you, out of consideration for me, to⁠—

Lövborg
But I shall wait till you have received your appointment.

Tesman
Will you wait? Yes but⁠—yes but⁠—are you not going to compete with me? Eh?

Lövborg
No; it is only the moral victory I care for.

Tesman
Why, bless me⁠—then Aunt Julia was right after all! Oh yes⁠—I knew it! Hedda! Just fancy⁠—Eilert Lövborg is not going to stand in our way!

Hedda
Curtly. Our way? Pray leave me out of the question.

She goes up towards the inner room, where Berta is placing a tray with decanters and glasses on the table. Hedda nods approval, and comes forward again. Berta goes out.

Tesman
At the same time. And you, Judge Brack⁠—what do you say to this? Eh?

Brack
Well, I say that a moral victory⁠—h’m⁠—may be all very fine⁠—

Tesman
Yes, certainly. But all the same⁠—

Hedda
Looking at Tesman with a cold smile. You stand there looking as if you were thunderstruck⁠—

Tesman
Yes⁠—so I am⁠—I almost think⁠—

Brack
Don’t you see, Mrs. Tesman, a thunderstorm has just passed over?

Hedda
Pointing towards the room. Will you not take a glass of cold punch, gentlemen?

Brack
Looking at his watch. A stirrup cup? Yes, it wouldn’t come amiss.

Tesman
A capital idea, Hedda! Just the thing! Now that the weight has been taken off my mind⁠—

Hedda
Will you not join them, Mr. Lövborg?

Lövborg
With a gesture of refusal. No, thank you. Nothing for me.

Brack
Why bless me⁠—cold punch is surely not poison.

Lövborg
Perhaps not for everyone.

Hedda
I will keep Mr. Lövborg company in the meantime.

Tesman
Yes, yes, Hedda dear, do.

He and Brack go into the inner room, seat themselves, drink punch, smoke cigarettes, and carry on a lively conversation during what follows. Eilert Lövborg remains standing beside the stove. Hedda goes to the writing table.

Hedda
Raising he voice a little. Do you care to look at some photographs, Mr. Lövborg? You know Tesman and I made a tour in the Tyrol on our way home?

She takes up an album, and places it on the table beside the sofa, in the further corner of which she seats herself. Eilert Lövborg approaches, stops, and looks at her. Then he takes a chair and seats himself to her left.

Hedda
Opening the album. Do you see this range of mountains, Mr. Lövborg? It’s the Ortler group. Tesman has written the name underneath. Here it is: “The Ortler group near Meran.”

Lövborg
Who has never taken his eyes off her, says softly and slowly: Hedda⁠—Gabler!

Hedda
Glancing hastily at him. Ah! Hush!

Lövborg
Repeats softly. Hedda Gabler!

Hedda
Looking at the album. That was my name in the old days⁠—when we two knew each other.

Lövborg
And I must teach myself never to say Hedda Gabler again⁠—never, as long as I live.

Hedda
Still turning over the pages. Yes, you must. And I think you ought to practise in time. The sooner the better, I should say.

Lövborg
In a tone of indignation. Hedda Gabler married? And married to⁠—George Tesman!

Hedda
Yes⁠—so the world goes.

Lövborg
Oh, Hedda, Hedda⁠—how could you16 throw yourself away!

Hedda
Looks sharply at him. What? I can’t allow this!

Lövborg
What do you mean?

Tesman comes into the room and goes towards the sofa.

Hedda
Hears him coming and says in an indifferent tone. And this is a view from the Val d’Ampezzo, Mr. Lövborg. Just look at these peaks! Looks affectionately up at Tesman. What’s the name of these curious peaks, dear?

Tesman
Let me see. Oh, those are the Dolomites.

Hedda
Yes, that’s it!⁠—Those are the Dolomites, Mr. Lövborg.

Tesman
Hedda, dear⁠—I only wanted to ask whether I shouldn’t bring you a little punch after all? For yourself at any rate⁠—eh?

Hedda
Yes, do, please; and perhaps a few biscuits.

Tesman
No cigarettes?

Hedda
No.

Tesman
Very well.

He goes into the inner room and out to the right. Brack sits in the inner room, and keeps an eye from time to time on Hedda and Lövborg.

Lövborg
Softly, as before. Answer me, Hedda⁠—how could you go and do this?

Hedda
Apparently absorbed in the album. If you continue to say du to me I won’t talk to you.

Lövborg
May I not say du even when we are alone?

Hedda
No. You may think it; but you mustn’t say it.

Lövborg
Ah, I understand. It is an offence against George Tesman, whom you17⁠—love.

Hedda
Glances at him and smiles. Love? What an idea!

Lövborg
You don’t love him then!

Hedda
But I won’t hear of any sort of unfaithfulness! Remember that.

Lövborg
Hedda⁠—answer me one thing⁠—

Hedda
Hush! Tesman enters with a small tray from the inner room.

Tesman
Here you are! Isn’t this tempting? He puts the tray on the table.

Hedda
Why do you bring it yourself?

Tesman
Filling the glasses. Because I think it’s such fun to wait upon you, Hedda.

Hedda
But you have poured out two glasses. Mr. Lövborg said he wouldn’t have any⁠—

Tesman
No, but Mrs. Elvsted will soon be here, won’t she?

Hedda
Yes, by the by⁠—Mrs. Elvsted⁠—

Tesman
Had you forgotten her? Eh?

Hedda
We were so absorbed in these photographs. Shows him a picture. Do you remember this little village?

Tesman
Oh, it’s that one just below the Brenner Pass. It was there we passed the night⁠—

Hedda
—and met that lively party of tourists.

Tesman
Yes, that was the place. Fancy⁠—if we could only have had you with us, Eilert! Eh?

He returns to the inner room and sits beside Brack.

Lövborg
Answer me one thing, Hedda⁠—

Hedda
Well?

Lövborg
Was there no love in your friendship for me either? Not a spark⁠—not a tinge of love in it?

Hedda
I wonder if there was? To me it seems as though we were two good comrades⁠—two thoroughly intimate friends. Smilingly. You especially were frankness itself.

Lövborg
It was you that made me so.

Hedda
As I look back upon it all, I think there was really something beautiful, something fascinating⁠—something daring⁠—in⁠—in that secret intimacy⁠—that comradeship which no living creature so much as dreamed of.

Lövborg
Yes, yes, Hedda! Was there not?⁠—When I used to come to your father’s in the afternoon⁠—and the General sat over at the window reading his papers⁠—with his back towards us⁠—

Hedda
And we two on the corner sofa⁠—

Lövborg
Always with the same illustrated paper before us⁠—

Hedda
For want of an album, yes.

Lövborg
Yes, Hedda, and when I made my confessions to you⁠—told you about myself, things that at that time no one else knew! There I would sit and tell you of my escapades⁠—my days and nights of devilment. Oh, Hedda⁠—what was the power in you that forced me to confess these things?

Hedda
Do you think it was any power in me?

Lövborg
How else can I explain it? And all those⁠—those roundabout questions you used to put to me⁠—

Hedda
Which you understood so particularly well⁠—

Lövborg
How could you sit and question me like that? Question me quite frankly⁠—

Hedda
In roundabout terms, please observe.

Lövborg
Yes, but frankly nevertheless. Cross question me about⁠—all that sort of thing?

Hedda
And how could you answer, Mr. Lövborg?

Lövborg
Yes, that is just what I can’t understand⁠—in looking back upon it. But tell me now, Hedda⁠—was there not love at the bottom of our friendship? On your side, did you not feel as though you might purge my stains away⁠—if I made you my confessor? Was it not so?

Hedda
No, not quite.

Lövborg
What was you motive, then?

Hedda
Do think it quite incomprehensible that a young girl⁠—when it can be done⁠—without anyone knowing⁠—

Lövborg
Well?

Hedda
—should be glad to have a peep, now and then, into a world which⁠—?

Lövborg
Which⁠—?

Hedda
—which she is forbidden to know anything about?

Lövborg
So that was it?

Hedda
Partly. Partly⁠—I almost think.

Lövborg
Comradeship in the thirst for life. But why should not that, at any rate, have continued?

Hedda
The fault was yours.

Lövborg
It was you that broke with me.

Hedda
Yes, when our friendship threatened to develop into something more serious. Shame upon you, Eilert Lövborg! How could you think of wronging your⁠—your frank comrade.

Lövborg
Clenches his hands. Oh, why did you not carry out your threat? Why did you not shoot me down?

Hedda
Because I have such a dread of scandal.

Lövborg
Yes, Hedda, you are a coward at heart.

Hedda
A terrible coward. Changing her tone. But it was a lucky thing for you. And now you have found ample consolation at the Elvsteds’.

Lövborg
I know what Thea has confided to you.

Hedda
And perhaps you have confided to her something about us?

Lövborg
Not a word. She is too stupid to understand anything of that sort.

Hedda
Stupid?

Lövborg
She is stupid about matters of that sort.

Hedda
And I am cowardly. Bends over towards him, without looking him in the face, and says more softly: But now I will confide something to you.

Lövborg
Eagerly. Well?

Hedda
The fact that I dared not shoot you down⁠—

Lövborg
Yes!

Hedda
—that was not my arrant cowardice⁠—that evening.

Lövborg
Looks at her a moment, understands, and whispers passionately. Oh, Hedda! Hedda Gabler! Now I begin to see a hidden reason beneath our comradeship! You18 and I⁠—! After all, then, it was your craving for life⁠—

Hedda
Softly, with a sharp glance. Take care! Believe nothing of the sort!

Twilight has begun to fall. The hall door is opened from without by Berta.

Hedda
Closes the album with a bang and calls smilingly: Ah, at last! My darling Thea⁠—come along!

Mrs. Elvsted enters from the hall. She is in evening dress. The door is closed behind her.

Hedda
On the sofa, stretches out her arms towards her. My sweet Thea⁠—you can’t think how I have been longing for you!

Mrs. Elvsted, in passing, exchanges slight salutations with the gentlemen in the inner room, then goes up to the table and gives Hedda her hand. Eilert Lövborg has risen. He and Mrs. Elvsted greet each other with a silent nod.

Mrs. Elvsted
Ought I to go in and talk to your husband for a moment?

Hedda
Oh, not at all. Leave those two alone. They will soon be going.

Mrs. Elvsted
Are they going out?

Hedda
Yes, to a supper party.

Mrs. Elvsted
Quickly, to Lövborg. Not you?

Lövborg
No.

Hedda
Mr. Lövborg remains with us.

Mrs. Elvsted
Takes a chair and is about to seat herself at his side. Oh, how nice it is here!

Hedda
No, thank you, my little Thea! Not there! You’ll be good enough to come over here to me. I will sit between you.

Mrs. Elvsted
Yes, just as you please.

She goes round the table and seats herself on the sofa on Hedda’s right. Lövborg reseats himself on his chair.

Lövborg
After a short pause, to Hedda. Is not she lovely to look at?

Hedda
Lightly stroking her hair. Only to look at!

Lövborg
Yes. For we two⁠—she and I⁠—we are two real comrades. We have absolute faith in each other; so we can sit and talk with perfect frankness⁠—

Hedda
Not roundabout, Mr. Lövborg?

Lövborg
Well⁠—

Mrs. Elvsted
Softly clinging close to Hedda. Oh, how happy I am, Hedda! For only think, he says I have inspired him too.

Hedda
Looks at her with a smile. Ah! Does he say that, dear?

Lövborg
And then she is so brave, Mrs. Tesman!

Mrs. Elvsted
Good heavens⁠—am I brave?

Lövborg
Exceedingly⁠—where your comrade is concerned.

Hedda
Ah, yes⁠—courage! If one only had that!

Lövborg
What then? What do you mean?

Hedda
Then life would perhaps be liveable, after all. With a sudden change of tone. But now, my dearest Thea, you really must have a glass of cold punch.

Mrs. Elvsted
No, thanks⁠—I never take anything of that kind.

Hedda
Well then, you, Mr. Lövborg.

Lövborg
Nor I, thank you.

Mrs. Elvsted
No, he doesn’t either.

Hedda
Looks fixedly at him. But if I say you shall?

Lövborg
It would be of no use.

Hedda
Laughing. Then I, poor creature, have no sort of power over you?

Lövborg
Not in that respect.

Hedda
But seriously, I think you ought to⁠—for your own sake.

Mrs. Elvsted
Why, Hedda⁠—!

Lövborg
How so?

Hedda
Or rather on account of other people.

Lövborg
Indeed?

Hedda
Otherwise people might be apt to suspect that⁠—in your heart of hearts⁠—you did not feel quite secure⁠—quite confident in yourself.

Mrs. Elvsted
Softly. Oh please, Hedda⁠—!

Lövborg
People may suspect what they like⁠—for the present.

Mrs. Elvsted
Joyfully. Yes, let them!

Hedda
I saw it plainly in Judge Brack’s face a moment ago.

Lövborg
What did you see?

Hedda
His contemptuous smile, when you dared not go with them into the inner room.

Lövborg
Dared not? Of course I preferred to stop here and talk to you.

Mrs. Elvsted
What could be more natural, Hedda?

Hedda
But the Judge could not guess that. And I say, too, the way he smiled and glanced at Tesman when you dared not accept his invitation to this wretched little supper party of his.

Lövborg
Dared not! Do you say I dared not?

Hedda
I don’t say so. But that was how Judge Brack understood it.

Lövborg
Well, let him.

Hedda
Then you are not going with them?

Lövborg
I will stay here with you and Thea.

Mrs. Elvsted
Yes, Hedda⁠—how can you doubt that?

Hedda
Smiles and nods approvingly to Lövborg. Firm as a rock! Faithful to your principles, now and forever! Ah, that is how a man should be! Turns to Mrs. Elvsted and caresses her. Well now, what did I tell you, when you came to us this morning in such a state of distraction⁠—

Lövborg
Surprised. Distraction!

Mrs. Elvsted
Terrified. Hedda⁠—oh Hedda⁠—!

Hedda
You can see for yourself! You haven’t the slightest reason to be in such mortal terror⁠—Interrupting herself. There! Now we can all three enjoy ourselves!

Lövborg
Who has given a start. Ah⁠—what is all this, Mrs. Tesman?

Mrs. Elvsted
Oh my God, Hedda! What are you saying? What are you doing?

Hedda
Don’t get excited! That horrid Judge Brack is sitting watching you.

Lövborg
So she was in mortal terror! On my account!

Mrs. Elvsted
Softly and piteously. Oh, Hedda⁠—now you have ruined everything!

Lövborg
Looks fixedly at her for a moment. His face is distorted. So that was my comrade’s frank confidence in me?

Mrs. Elvsted
Imploringly. Oh, my dearest friend⁠—only let me tell you⁠—

Lövborg
Takes one of the glasses of punch, raises it to his lips, and says in a low, husky voice. Your health, Thea!

He empties the glass, puts it down, and takes the second.

Mrs. Elvsted
Softly. Oh, Hedda, Hedda⁠—how could you do this?

Hedda
I do it? I? Are you crazy?

Lövborg
Here’s to your health too, Mrs. Tesman. Thanks for the truth. Hurrah for the truth!

He empties the glass and is about to refill it.

Hedda
Lays her hand on his arm. Come, come⁠—no more for the present. Remember you are going out to supper.

Mrs. Elvsted
No, no, no!

Hedda
Hush! They are sitting watching you.

Lövborg
Putting down the glass. Now, Thea⁠—tell me the truth⁠—

Mrs. Elvsted
Yes.

Lövborg
Did your husband know that you had come after me?

Mrs. Elvsted
Wringing her hands. Oh, Hedda⁠—do you hear what his is asking?

Lövborg
Was it arranged between you and him that you were to come to town and look after me? Perhaps it was the Sheriff himself that urged you to come? Aha, my dear⁠—no doubt he wanted my help in his office! Or was it at the card table that he missed me?

Mrs. Elvsted
Softly, in agony. Oh, Lövborg, Lövborg⁠—!

Lövborg
Seizes a glass and is on the point of filling it. Here’s a glass for the old Sheriff too!

Hedda
Preventing him. No more just now. Remember, you have to read your manuscript to Tesman.

Lövborg
Calmly, putting down the glass. It was stupid of me all this. Thea⁠—to take it in this way, I mean. Don’t be angry with me, my dear, dear comrade. You shall see⁠—both you and the others⁠—that if I was fallen once⁠—now I have risen again! Thanks to you, Thea.

Mrs. Elvsted
Radiant with joy. Oh, heaven be praised⁠—!

Brack has in the meantime looked at his watch. He and Tesman rise and come into the drawing room.

Brack
Takes his hat and overcoat. Well, Mrs. Tesman, our time has come.

Hedda
I suppose it has.

Lövborg
Rising. Mine too, Judge Brack.

Mrs. Elvsted
Softly and imploringly. Oh, Lövborg, don’t do it!

Hedda
Pinching her arm. They can hear you!

Mrs. Elvsted
With a suppressed shriek. Ow!

Lövborg
To Brack. You were good enough to invite me.

Judge Brack
Well, are you coming after all?

Lövborg
Yes, many thanks.

Brack
I’m delighted⁠—

Lövborg
To Tesman, putting the parcel of MS. in his pocket. I should like to show you one or two things before I send it to the printers.

Tesman
Fancy⁠—that will be delightful. But, Hedda dear, how is Mrs. Elvsted to get home? Eh?

Hedda
Oh, that can be managed somehow.

Lövborg
Looking towards the ladies. Mrs. Elvsted? Of course, I’ll come again and fetch her. Approaching. At ten or thereabouts, Mrs. Tesman? Will that do?

Hedda
Certainly. That will do capitally.

Tesman
Well, then, that’s all right. But you must not expect me so early, Hedda.

Hedda
Oh, you may stop as long⁠—as long as ever you please.

Mrs. Elvsted
Trying to conceal her anxiety. Well then, Mr. Lövborg⁠—I shall remain here until you come.

Lövborg
With his hat in his hand. Pray do, Mrs. Elvsted.

Brack
And now off goes the excursion train, gentlemen! I hope we shall have a lively time, as a certain fair lady puts it.

Hedda
Ah, if only the fair lady could be present unseen⁠—!

Brack
Why unseen?

Hedda
In order to hear a little of your liveliness at first hand, Judge Brack.

Brack
Laughing. I should not advise the fair lady to try it.

Tesman
Also laughing. Come, you’re a nice one Hedda! Fancy that!

Brack
Well, goodbye, goodbye, ladies.

Lövborg
Bowing. About ten o’clock, then,

Brack, Lövborg, and Tesman go out by the hall door. At the same time, Berta enters from the inner room with a lighted lamp, which she places on the drawing room table; she goes out by the way she came.

Mrs. Elvsted
Who has risen and is wandering restlessly about the room. Hedda⁠—Hedda⁠—what will come of all this?

Hedda
At ten o’clock⁠—he will be here. I can see him already⁠—with vine leaves in his hair⁠—flushed and fearless⁠—

Mrs. Elvsted
Oh, I hope he may.

Hedda
And then, you see⁠—then he will have regained control over himself. Then he will be a free man for all his days.

Mrs. Elvsted
Oh God!⁠—if he would only come as you see him now!

Hedda
He will come as I see him⁠—so, and not otherwise! Rises and approaches Thea. You may doubt him as long as you please; I believe in him. And now we will try⁠—

Mrs. Elvsted
You have some hidden motive in this, Hedda!

Hedda
Yes, I have. I want for once in my life to have power to mould a human destiny.

Mrs. Elvsted
Have you not the power?

Hedda
I have not⁠—and have never had it.

Mrs. Elvsted
Not your husband’s?

Hedda
Do you think that is worth the trouble? Oh, if you could only understand how poor I am. And fate has made you so rich! Clasps her passionately in her arms. I think I must burn your hair off after all.

Mrs. Elvsted
Let me go! Let me go! I am afraid of you, Hedda!

Berta
In the middle doorway. Tea is laid in the dining room, ma’am.

Hedda
Very well. We are coming

Mrs. Elvsted
No, no, no! I would rather go home alone! At once!

Hedda
Nonsense! First you shall have a cup of tea, you little stupid. And then⁠—at ten o’clock⁠—Eilert Lövborg will be here⁠—with vine leaves in his hair.

She drags Mrs. Elvsted almost by force to the middle doorway.

Act III

The room at the Tesmans’. The curtains are drawn over the middle doorway, and also over the glass door. The lamp, half turned down, and with a shade over it, is burning on the table. In the stove, the door of which stands open, there has been a fire, which is now nearly burnt out.

Mrs. Elvsted, wrapped in a large shawl, and with her feet upon a footrest, sits close to the stove, sunk back in the armchair. Hedda, fully dressed, lies sleeping upon the sofa, with a sofa blanket over her.

Mrs. Elvsted
After a pause, suddenly sits up in her chair, and listens eagerly. Then she sinks back again wearily, moaning to herself. Not yet!⁠—Oh God⁠—oh God⁠—not yet!

Berta slips cautiously in by the hall door. She has a letter in her hand.

Mrs. Elvsted
Turns and whispers eagerly. Well⁠—has anyone come?

Berta
Softly. Yes, a girl has just brought this letter.

Mrs. Elvsted
Quickly, holding out her hand. A letter! Give it to me!

Berta
No, it’s for Dr. Tesman, ma’am.

Mrs. Elvsted
Oh, indeed.

Berta
It was Miss Tesman’s servant that brought it. I’ll lay it here on the table.

Mrs. Elvsted
Yes, do.

Berta
Laying down the letter. I think I had better put out the lamp. It’s smoking.

Mrs. Elvsted
Yes, put it out. It must soon be daylight now.

Berta
Putting out the lamp. It is daylight already, ma’am.

Mrs. Elvsted
Yes, broad day! And no one come back yet⁠—!

Berta
Lord bless you, ma’am⁠—I guessed how it would be.

Mrs. Elvsted
You guessed?

Berta
Yes, when I saw that a certain person had come back to town⁠—and that he went off with them. For we’ve heard enough about that gentleman before now.

Mrs. Elvsted
Don’t speak so loud. You will waken Mrs. Tesman.

Berta
Looks towards the sofa and sighs. No, no⁠—let her sleep, poor thing. Shan’t I put some wood on the fire?

Mrs. Elvsted
Thanks, not for me.

Berta
Oh, very well. She goes softly out by the hall door.

Hedda
Is wakened by the shutting of the door, and looks up. What’s that⁠—?

Mrs. Elvsted
It was only the servant.

Hedda
Looking about her. Oh, we’re here⁠—! Yes, now I remember. Sits erect upon the sofa, stretches herself, and rubs her eyes. What o’clock is it, Thea?

Mrs. Elvsted
Looks at her watch. It’s past seven.

Hedda
When did Tesman come home?

Mrs. Elvsted
He has not come.

Hedda
Not come home yet?

Mrs. Elvsted
Rising. No one has come.

Hedda
Think of our watching and waiting here till four in the morning⁠—

Mrs. Elvsted
Wringing her hands. And how I watched and waited for him!

Hedda
Yawns, and says with her hand before her mouth. Well well⁠—we might have spared ourselves the trouble.

Mrs. Elvsted
Did you get a little sleep?

Hedda
Oh yes; I believe I have slept pretty well. Have you not?

Mrs. Elvsted
Not for a moment. I couldn’t, Hedda!⁠—not to save my life.

Hedda
Rises and goes towards her. There there there! There’s nothing to be so alarmed about. I understand quite well what has happened.

Mrs. Elvsted
Well, what do you think? Won’t you tell me?

Hedda
Why, of course it has been a very late affair at Judge Brack’s⁠—

Mrs. Elvsted
Yes, yes⁠—that is clear enough. But all the same⁠—

Hedda
And then, you see, Tesman hasn’t cared to come home and ring us up in the middle of the night. Laughing. Perhaps he wasn’t inclined to show himself either⁠—immediately after a jollification.

Mrs. Elvsted
But in that case⁠—where can he have gone?

Hedda
Of course he has gone to his Aunts’ and slept there. They have his old room ready for him.

Mrs. Elvsted
No, he can’t be with them for a letter has just come for him from Miss Tesman. There it lies.

Hedda
Indeed? Looks at the address. Why yes, it’s addressed in Aunt Julia’s hand. Well then, he has remained at Judge Brack’s. And as for Eilert Lövborg⁠—he is sitting, with vine leaves in his hair, reading his manuscript.

Mrs. Elvsted
Oh, Hedda, you are just saying things you don’t believe a bit.

Hedda
You really are a little blockhead, Thea.

Mrs. Elvsted
Oh yes, I suppose I am.

Hedda
And how mortally tired you look.

Mrs. Elvsted
Yes, I am mortally tired.

Hedda
Well then, you must do as I tell you. You must go into my room and lie down for a little while.

Mrs. Elvsted
Oh no, no⁠—I shouldn’t be able to sleep.

Hedda
I am sure you would.

Mrs. Elvsted
Well, but you husband is certain to come soon now; and then I want to know at once⁠—

Hedda
I shall take care to let you know when he comes.

Mrs. Elvsted
Do you promise me, Hedda?

Hedda
Yes, rely upon me. Just you go in and have a sleep in the meantime.

Mrs. Elvsted
Thanks; then I’ll try. She goes off to the inner room.

Hedda goes up to the glass door and draws back the curtains. The broad daylight streams into the room. Then she takes a little hand glass from the writing table, looks at herself in it, and arranges her hair. Next she goes to the hall door and presses the bell button.

Berta presently appears at the hall door.

Berta
Did you want anything, ma’am?

Hedda
Yes; you must put some more wood in the stove. I am shivering.

Berta
Bless me⁠—I’ll make up the fire at once. She rakes the embers together and lays a piece of wood upon them; then stops and listens. That was a ring at the front door, ma’am.

Hedda
Then go to the door. I will look after the fire.

Berta
It’ll soon burn up. She goes out by the hall door.

Hedda kneels on the footrest and lays some more pieces of wood in the stove.

After a short pause, George Tesman enters from the hall. He steals on tiptoe towards the middle doorway and is about to slip through the curtains.

Hedda
At the stove, without looking up. Good morning.

Tesman
Turns. Hedda! Approaching her. Good heavens⁠—are you up so early? Eh?

Hedda
Yes, I am up very early this morning.

Tesman
And I never doubted you were still sound asleep! Fancy that, Hedda!

Hedda
Don’t speak so loud. Mrs. Elvsted is resting in my room.

Tesman
Has Mrs. Elvsted been here all night?

Hedda
Yes, since no one came to fetch her.

Tesman
Ah, to be sure.

Hedda
Closes the door of the stove and rises. Well, did you enjoy yourselves at Judge Brack’s?

Tesman
Have you been anxious about me? Eh?

Hedda
No, I should never think of being anxious. But I asked if you had enjoyed yourself.

Tesman
Oh yes⁠—for once in a way. Especially the beginning of the evening; for then Eilert read me part of his book. We arrived more than an hour too early⁠—fancy that! And Brack had all sorts of arrangements to make⁠—so Eilert read to me.

Hedda
Seating herself by the table on the right. Well? Tell me then⁠—

Tesman
Sitting on a footstool near the stove. Oh, Hedda, you can’t conceive what a book that is going to be! I believe it is one of the most remarkable things that have ever been written. Fancy that!

Hedda
Yes yes; I don’t care about that⁠—

Tesman
I must make a confession to you, Hedda. When he had finished reading⁠—a horrid feeling came over me.

Hedda
A horrid feeling?

Tesman
I felt jealous of Eilert for having had it in him to write such a book. Only think, Hedda!

Hedda
Yes, yes, I am thinking!

Tesman
And then how pitiful to think that he⁠—with all his gifts⁠—should be irreclaimable, after all.

Hedda
I suppose you mean that he has more courage than the rest?

Tesman
No, not at all⁠—I mean that he is incapable of taking his pleasure in moderation.

Hedda
And what came of it all⁠—in the end?

Tesman
Well, to tell the truth, I think it might best be described as an orgy, Hedda.

Hedda
Had he vine leaves in his hair?

Tesman
Vine leaves? No, I saw nothing of the sort. But he made a long, rambling speech in honour of the woman who had inspired him in his work⁠—that was the phrase he used.

Hedda
Did he name her?

Tesman
No, he didn’t; but I can’t help thinking he meant Mrs. Elvsted. You may be sure he did.

Hedda
Well⁠—where did you part from him?

Tesman
On the way to town. We broke up⁠—the last of us at any rate⁠—all together; and Brack came with us to get a breath of fresh air. And then, you see, we agreed to take Eilert home; for he had had far more than was good for him.

Hedda
I daresay.

Tesman
But now comes the strange part of it, Hedda; or, I should rather say, the melancholy part of it. I declare I am almost ashamed⁠—on Eilert’s account⁠—to tell you⁠—

Hedda
Oh, go on⁠—!

Tesman
Well, as we were getting near town, you see, I happened to drop a little behind the others. Only for a minute or two⁠—fancy that!

Hedda
Yes yes yes, but⁠—?

Tesman
And then, as I hurried after them⁠—what do you think I found by the wayside? Eh?

Hedda
Oh, how should I know!

Tesman
You mustn’t speak of it to a soul, Hedda! Do you hear! Promise me, for Eilert’s sake. Draws a parcel, wrapped in paper, from his coat pocket. Fancy, dear⁠—I found this.

Hedda
Is not that the parcel he had with him yesterday?

Tesman
Yes, it is the whole of his precious, irreplaceable manuscript! And he had gone and lost it, and knew nothing about it. Only fancy, Hedda! So deplorably⁠—

Hedda
But why did you not give him back the parcel at once?

Tesman
I didn’t dare to⁠—in the state he was then in⁠—

Hedda
Did you not tell any of the others that you had found it?

Tesman
Oh, far from it! You can surely understand that, for Eilert’s sake, I wouldn’t do that.

Hedda
So no one knows that Eilert Lövborg’s manuscript is in your possession?

Tesman
No. And no one must know it.

Hedda
Then what did you say to him afterwards?

Tesman
I didn’t talk to him again at all; for when we got in among the streets, he and two or three of the others gave us the slip and disappeared. Fancy that!

Hedda
Indeed! They must have taken him home then.

Tesman
Yes, so it would appear. And Brack, too, left us.

Hedda
And what have you been doing with yourself since?

Tesman
Well, I and some of the others went home with one of the party, a jolly fellow, and took our morning coffee with him; or perhaps I should rather call it our night coffee⁠—eh? But now, when I have rested a little, and given Eilert, poor fellow, time to have his sleep out, I must take this back to him.

Hedda
Holds out her hand for the packet. No⁠—don’t give it to him! Not in such a hurry, I mean. Let me read it first.

Tesman
No, my dearest Hedda, I mustn’t, I really mustn’t.

Hedda
You must not?

Tesman
No⁠—for you can imagine what a state of despair he will be in when he wakens and misses the manuscript. He has no copy of it, you must know! He told me so.

Hedda
Looking searchingly at him. Can such a thing not be reproduced? Written over again?

Tesman
No, I don’t think that would be possible. For the inspiration, you see⁠—

Hedda
Yes, yes⁠—I suppose it depends on that⁠—Lightly. But, by the by⁠—here is a letter for you.

Tesman
Fancy⁠—!

Hedda
Handing it to him. It came early this morning.

Tesman
It’s from Aunt Julia! What can it be? He lays the packet on the other footstool, opens the letter, runs his eye through it, and jumps up. Oh, Hedda⁠—she says that poor Aunt Rina is dying!

Hedda
Well, we were prepared for that.

Tesman
And that if I want to see her again, I must make haste. I’ll run in to them at once.

Hedda
Suppressing a smile. Will you run?

Tesman
Oh, my dearest Hedda⁠—if you could only make up your mind to come with me! Just think!

Hedda
Rises and says wearily, repelling the idea. No, no don’t ask me. I will not look upon sickness and death. I loathe all sorts of ugliness.

Tesman
Well, well, then⁠—! Bustling around. My hat⁠—? My overcoat⁠—? Oh, in the hall⁠—. I do hope I mayn’t come too late, Hedda! Eh?

Hedda
Oh, if you run⁠—Berta appears at the hall door.

Berta
Judge Brack is at the door, and wishes to know if he may come in.

Tesman
At this time! No, I can’t possibly see him.

Hedda
But I can. To Berta. Ask Judge Brack to come in. Berta goes out.

Hedda
Quickly, whispering. The parcel, Tesman!

She snatches it up from the stool.

Tesman
Yes, give it to me!

Hedda
No, no, I will keep it till you come back.

She goes to the writing table and places it in the bookcase. Tesman stands in a flurry of haste, and cannot get his gloves on.

Judge Brack enters from the hall.

Hedda
Nodding to him. You are an early bird, I must say.

Brack
Yes, don’t you think so! To Tesman. Are you on the move, too?

Tesman
Yes, I must rush of to my aunts’. Fancy⁠—the invalid one is lying at death’s door, poor creature.

Brack
Dear me, is she indeed? Then on no account let me detain you. At such a critical moment⁠—

Tesman
Yes, I must really rush⁠—Goodbye! Goodbye!

He hastens out by the hall door.

Hedda
Approaching. You seem to have made a particularly lively night of it at your rooms, Judge Brack.

Brack
I assure you I have not had my clothes off, Mrs. Hedda.

Hedda
Not you, either?

Brack
No, as you may see. But what has Tesman been telling you of the night’s adventures?

Hedda
Oh, some tiresome story. Only that they went and had coffee somewhere or other.

Brack
I have heard about that coffee party already. Eilert Lövborg was not with them, I fancy?

Hedda
No, they had taken him home before that.

Brack
Tesman too?

Hedda
No, but some of the others, he said.

Brack
Smiling. George Tesman is really an ingenuous creature, Mrs. Hedda.

Hedda
Yes, heaven knows he is. Then is there something behind all this?

Brack
Yes, perhaps there may be.

Hedda
Well then, sit down, my dear Judge, and tell your story in comfort.

She seats herself to the left of the table. Brack sits near her, at the long side of the table.

Hedda
Now then?

Brack
I had special reasons for keeping track of my guests⁠—last night.

Hedda
Of Eilert Lövborg among the rest, perhaps?

Brack
Frankly, yes.

Hedda
Now you make me really curious⁠—

Brack
Do you know where he and one or two of the others finished the night, Mrs. Hedda?

Hedda
If it is not quite unmentionable, tell me.

Brack
Oh no, it’s not at all unmentionable. Well, they put in an appearance at a particularly animated soirée.

Hedda
Of the lively kind?

Brack
Of the very liveliest⁠—

Hedda
Tell me more of this, Judge Brack⁠—

Brack
Lövborg, as well as the others, had been invited in advance. I knew all about it. But he had declined the invitation; for now, as you know, he has become a new man.

Hedda
Up at the Elvsteds’, yes. But he went after all, then?

Brack
Well, you see, Mrs. Hedda⁠—unhappily the spirit moved him at my rooms last evening⁠—

Hedda
Yes, I hear he found inspiration.

Brack
Pretty violent inspiration. Well, I fancy that altered his purpose; for we menfolk are unfortunately not always so firm in our principles as we ought to be.

Hedda
Oh, I am sure you are an exception, Judge Brack. But as to Lövborg⁠—?

Brack
To make a long story short⁠—he landed at last in Mademoiselle Diana’s rooms.

Hedda
Mademoiselle Diana’s?

Brack
It was Mademoiselle Diana that was giving the soirée, to a select circle of her admirers and her lady friends.

Hedda
Is she a red-haired woman?

Brack
Precisely.

Hedda
A sort of a⁠—singer?

Brack
Oh yes⁠—in her leisure moments. And moreover a mighty huntress⁠—of men⁠—Mrs. Hedda. You have no doubt heard of her. Eilert Lövborg was one of her most enthusiastic protectors⁠—in the days of his glory.

Hedda
And how did all this end?

Brack
Far from amicably, it appears. After a most tender meeting, they seem to have come to blows⁠—

Hedda
Lövborg and she?

Brack
Yes. He accused her or her friends of having robbed him. He declared that his pocketbook had disappeared⁠—and other things as well. In short, he seems to have made a furious disturbance.

Hedda
And what came of it all?

Brack
It came to a general scrimmage, in which the ladies as well as the gentlemen took part. Fortunately the police at last appeared on the scene.

Hedda
The police too?

Brack
Yes. I fancy it will prove a costly frolic for Eilert Lövborg, crazy being that he is.

Hedda
How so?

Brack
He seems to have made a violent resistance⁠—to have hit one of the constables on the head and torn the coat off his back. So they had to march him off to the police station with the rest.

Hedda
How have you learnt all this?

Brack
From the police themselves.

Hedda
Gazing straight before her. So that is what happened. Then he had no vine leaves in his hair.

Brack
Vine leaves, Mrs. Hedda?

Hedda
Changing her tone. But tell me now, Judge⁠—what is your real reason for tracking out Eilert Lövborg’s movements so carefully?

Brack
In the first place, it could not be entirely indifferent to me if it should appear in the police court that he came straight from my house.

Hedda
Will the matter come into court then?

Brack
Of course. However, I should scarcely have troubled so much about that. But I thought that, as a friend of the family, it was my duty to supply you and Tesman with a full account of his nocturnal exploits.

Hedda
Why so, Judge Brack?

Brack
Why, because I have a shrewd suspicion that he intends to use you as a sort of blind.

Hedda
Oh, how can you think such a thing!

Brack
Good heavens, Mrs. Hedda⁠—we have eyes in our head. Mark my words! This Mrs. Elvsted will be in no hurry to leave town again.

Hedda
Well, even if there should be anything between them, I suppose there are plenty of other places where they could meet.

Brack
Not a single home. Henceforth, as before, every respectable house will be closed against Eilert Lövborg.

Hedda
And so ought mine to be, you mean?

Brack
Yes. I confess it would be more than painful to me if this personage were to be made free of your house. How superfluous, how intrusive, he would be, if he were to force his way into⁠—

Hedda
—into the triangle?

Brack
Precisely. It would simply mean that I should find myself homeless.

Hedda
Looks at him with a smile. So you want to be the one cock in the basket19⁠—that is your aim.

Brack
Nods slowly and lowers his voice. Yes, that is my aim. And for that I will fight⁠—with every weapon I can command.

Hedda
Her smile vanishing. I see you are a dangerous person⁠—when it comes to the point.

Brack
Do you think so?

Hedda
I am beginning to think so. And I am exceedingly glad to think⁠—that you have no sort of hold over me.

Brack
Laughing equivocally. Well well, Mrs. Hedda⁠—perhaps you are right there. If I had, who knows what I might be capable of?

Hedda
Come come now, Judge Brack! That sounds almost like a threat.

Brack
Rising. Oh, not at all! The triangle, you know, ought, if possible, to be spontaneously constructed.

Hedda
There I agree with you.

Brack
Well, now I have said all I had to say; and I had better be getting back to town. Goodbye, Mrs. Hedda. He goes towards the glass door.

Hedda
Rising. Are you going through the garden?

Brack
Yes, it’s a shortcut for me.

Hedda
And then it is a back way, too.

Brack
Quite so. I have no objection to back ways. They may be piquant enough at times.

Hedda
When there is ball practice going on, you mean?

Brack
In the doorway, laughing to her. Oh, people don’t shoot their tame poultry, I fancy.

Hedda
Also laughing. Oh no, when there is only one cock in the basket⁠—

They exchange laughing nods of farewell. He goes. She closes the door behind him.

Hedda, who has become quite serious, stands for a moment looking out. Presently she goes and peeps through the curtain over the middle doorway. Then she goes to the writing table, takes Lövborg’s packet out of the bookcase, and is on the point of looking through its contents. Berta is heard speaking loudly in the hall. Hedda turns and listens. Then she hastily locks up the packet in the drawer, and lays the key on the inkstand.

Eilert Lövborg, with his greatcoat on and his hat in his hand, tears open the hall door. He looks somewhat confused and irritated.

Lövborg
Looking towards the hall. and I tell you I must and will come in! There!

He closes the door, turns, sees Hedda, at once regains his self-control, and bows.

Hedda
At the writing table. Well, Mr. Lövborg, this is rather a late hour to call for Thea.

Lövborg
You mean rather an early hour to call on you. Pray pardon me.

Hedda
How do you know that she is still here?

Lövborg
They told me at her lodgings that she had been out all night.

Hedda
Going to the oval table. Did you notice anything about the people of the house when they said that?

Lövborg
Looks inquiringly at her. Notice anything about them?

Hedda
I mean, did they seem to think it odd?

Lövborg
Suddenly understanding. Oh yes, of course! I am dragging her down with me! However, I didn’t notice anything.⁠—I suppose Tesman is not up yet.

Hedda
No⁠—I think not⁠—

Lövborg
When did he come home?

Hedda
Very late.

Lövborg
Did he tell you anything?

Hedda
Yes, I gathered that you had had an exceedingly jolly evening at Judge Brack’s.

Lövborg
Nothing more?

Hedda
I don’t think so. However, I was so dreadfully sleepy⁠—

Mrs. Elvsted enters through the curtains of the middle doorway.

Mrs. Elvsted
Going towards him. Ah, Lövborg! At last⁠—!

Lövborg
Yes, at last. And too late!

Mrs. Elvsted
Looks anxiously at him. What is too late?

Lövborg
Everything is too late now. It is all over with me.

Mrs. Elvsted
Oh no, no⁠—don’t say that!

Lövborg
You will say the same when you hear⁠—

Mrs. Elvsted
I won’t hear anything!

Hedda
Perhaps you would prefer to talk to her alone? If so, I will leave you.

Lövborg
No, stay⁠—you too. I beg you to stay.

Mrs. Elvsted
Yes, but I won’t hear anything, I tell you.

Lövborg
It is not last night’s adventures that I want to talk about.

Mrs. Elvsted
What is it then⁠—?

Lövborg
I want to say that now our ways must part.

Mrs. Elvsted
Part!

Hedda
Involuntarily. I knew it!

Lövborg
You can be of no more service to me, Thea.

Mrs. Elvsted
How can you stand there and say that! No more service to you! Am I not to help you now, as before? Are we not to go on working together?

Lövborg
Henceforward I shall do no work.

Mrs. Elvsted
Despairingly. Then what am I to do with my life?

Lövborg
You must try to live your life as if you had never know me.

Mrs. Elvsted
But you know I cannot do that!

Lövborg
Try if you cannot, Thea. You must go home again⁠—

Mrs. Elvsted
In vehement protest. Never in this world! Where you are, there will I be also! I will not let myself be driven away like this! I will remain here! I will be with you when the book appears.

Hedda
Half aloud, in suspense. Ah yes⁠—the book!

Lövborg
Looks at her. My book and Thea’s; for that is what it is.

Mrs. Elvsted
Yes, I feel that it is. And that is why I have a right to be with you when it appears! I will see with my own eyes how respect and honour pour in upon you afresh. And the happiness⁠—the happiness⁠—oh, I must share it with you!

Lövborg
Thea⁠—our book will never appear.

Hedda
Ah!

Mrs. Elvsted
Never appear!

Lövborg
Can never appear.

Mrs. Elvsted
In agonised foreboding. Lövborg⁠—what have you done with the manuscript?

Hedda
Looks anxiously at him. Yes, the manuscript⁠—?

Mrs. Elvsted
Where is it?

Lövborg
The manuscript⁠—. Well then⁠—I have torn the manuscript into a thousand pieces.

Mrs. Elvsted
Shrieks. Oh no, no⁠—!

Hedda
Involuntarily. But that’s not⁠—

Lövborg
Looks at her. Not true, you think?

Hedda
Collecting herself. Oh well, of course⁠—since you say so. But it sounded so improbable⁠—

Lövborg
It is true, all the same.

Mrs. Elvsted
Wringing her hands. Oh God⁠—oh God, Hedda⁠—torn his own work to pieces!

Lövborg
I have torn my own life to pieces. So why should I not tear my lifework too⁠—?

Mrs. Elvsted
And you did this last night?

Lövborg
Yes, I tell you! Tore it into a thousand pieces⁠—and scattered them on the fjord⁠—far out. There there is cool seawater at any rate⁠—let them drift upon it⁠—drift with the current and the wind. And then presently they will sink⁠—deeper and deeper⁠—as I shall, Thea.

Mrs. Elvsted
Do you know, Lövborg, that what you have done with the book⁠—I shall think of it to my dying day as though you had killed a little child.

Lövborg
Yes, you are right. It is a sort of child murder.

Mrs. Elvsted
How could you, then⁠—! Did not the child belong to me too?

Hedda
Almost inaudibly. Ah, the child⁠—

Mrs. Elvsted
Breathing heavily. It is all over then. Well well, now I will go, Hedda.

Hedda
But you are not going away from town?

Mrs. Elvsted
Oh, I don’t know what I shall do. I see nothing but darkness before me. She goes out by the hall door.

Hedda
Stands waiting for a moment. So you are not going to see her home, Mr. Lövborg?

Lövborg
I? Through the streets? Would you have people see her walking with me?

Hedda
Of course I don’t know what else may have happened last night. But is it so utterly irretrievable?

Lövborg
It will not end with last night⁠—I know that perfectly well. And the thing is that now I have no taste for that sort of life either. I won’t begin it anew. She has broken my courage and my power of braving life out.

Hedda
Looking straight before her. So that pretty little fool has had her fingers in a man’s destiny. Looks at him. But all the same, how could you treat her so heartlessly.

Lövborg
Oh, don’t say that I was heartless!

Hedda
To go and destroy what has filled her whole soul for months and years! You do not call that heartless!

Lövborg
To you I can tell the truth, Hedda.

Hedda
The truth?

Lövborg
First promise me⁠—give me your word⁠—that what I now confide in you Thea shall never know.

Hedda
I give you my word.

Lövborg
Good. Then let me tell you that what I said just now was untrue.

Hedda
About the manuscript?

Lövborg
Yes. I have not torn it to pieces⁠—nor thrown it into the fjord.

Hedda
No, no⁠—. But⁠—where is it then?

Lövborg
I have destroyed it none the less⁠—utterly destroyed it, Hedda!

Hedda
I don’t understand.

Lövborg
Thea said that what I had done seemed to her like a child murder.

Hedda
Yes, so she said.

Lövborg
But to kill his child⁠—that is not the worst thing a father can do to it.

Hedda
Not the worst?

Lövborg
Suppose now, Hedda, that a man⁠—in the small hours of the morning⁠—came home to his child’s mother after a night of riot and debauchery, and said: “Listen⁠—I have been here and there⁠—in this place and in that. And I have taken our child with⁠—to this place and to that. And I have lost the child⁠—utterly lost it. The devil knows into what hands it may have fallen⁠—who may have had their clutches on it.”

Hedda
Well⁠—but when all is said and done, you know⁠—this was only a book⁠—

Lövborg
Thea’s pure soul was in that book.

Hedda
Yes, so I understand.

Lövborg
And you can understand, too, that for her and me together no future is possible.

Hedda
What path do you mean to take then?

Lövborg
None. I will only try to make an end of it all⁠—the sooner the better.

Hedda
A step nearer him. Eilert Lövborg⁠—listen to me.⁠—Will you not try to⁠—to do it beautifully?

Lövborg
Beautifully? Smiling. With vine leaves in my hair, as you used to dream in the old days⁠—?

Hedda
No, no. I have lost my faith in the vine leaves. But beautifully nevertheless! For once in a way!⁠—Goodbye! You must go now⁠—and do not come here any more.

Lövborg
Goodbye, Mrs. Tesman. And give George Tesman my love.

He is on the point of going.

Hedda
No, wait! I must give you a memento to take with you.

She goes to the writing table and opens the drawer and the pistol case; then returns to Lövborg with one of the pistols.

Lövborg
Looks at her. This? Is this the memento?

Hedda
Nodding slowly. Do you recognise it? It was aimed at you once.

Lövborg
You should have used it then.

Hedda
Take it⁠—and do you use it now.

Lövborg
Puts the pistol in his breast pocket. Thanks!

Hedda
And beautifully, Eilert Lövborg. Promise me that!

Lövborg
Goodbye, Hedda Gabler. He goes out by the hall door.

Hedda listens for a moment at the door. Then she goes up to the writing table, takes out the packet of manuscript, peeps under the cover, draws a few of the sheets half out, and looks at them. Next she goes over and seats herself in the armchair beside the stove, with the packet in her lap. Presently she opens the stove door, and then the packet.

Hedda
Throws one of the quires into the fire and whispers to herself. Now I am burning your child, Thea!⁠—Burning it, curlylocks! Throwing one or two more quires into the stove. Your child and Eilert Lövborg’s. Throws the rest in. I am burning⁠—I am burning your child.

Act IV

The same rooms at the Tesmans’. It is evening. The drawing room is in darkness. The back room is light by the hanging lamp over the table. The curtains over the glass door are drawn close.

Hedda, dressed in black, walks to and fro in the dark room. Then she goes into the back room and disappears for a moment to the left. She is heard to strike a few chords on the piano. Presently she comes in sight again, and returns to the drawing room.

Berta enters from the right, through the inner room, with a lighted lamp, which she places on the table in front of the corner settee in the drawing room. Her eyes are red with weeping, and she has black ribbons in her cap. She goes quietly and circumspectly out to the right. Hedda goes up to the glass door, lifts the curtain a little aside, and looks out into the darkness.

Shortly afterwards, Miss Tesman, in mourning, with a bonnet and veil on, comes in from the hall. Hedda goes towards her and holds out her hand.

Miss Tesman
Yes, Hedda, here I am, in mourning and forlorn; for now my poor sister has at last found peace.

Hedda
I have heard the news already, as you see. Tesman sent me a card.

Miss Tesman
Yes, he promised me he would. But nevertheless I thought that to Hedda⁠—here in the house of life⁠—I ought myself to bring the tidings of death.

Hedda
That was very kind of you.

Miss Tesman
Ah, Rina ought not to have left us just now. This is not the time for Hedda’s house to be a house of mourning.

Hedda
Changing the subject. She died quite peacefully, did she not, Miss Tesman?

Miss Tesman
Oh, her end was so calm, so beautiful. And then she had the unspeakable happiness of seeing George once more⁠—and bidding him goodbye.⁠—Has he not come home yet?

Hedda
No. He wrote that he might be detained. But won’t you sit down?

Miss Tesman
No thank you, my dear, dear Hedda. I should like to, but I have so much to do. I must prepare my dear one for her rest as well as I can. She shall go to her grave looking her best.

Hedda
Can I not help you in any way?

Miss Tesman
Oh, you must not think of it! Hedda Tesman must have no hand in such mournful work. Nor let her thought dwell on it either⁠—not at this time.

Hedda
One is not always mistress of one’s thoughts⁠—

Miss Tesman
Continuing. Ah yes, it is the way of the world. At home we shall be sewing a shroud; and here there will soon be sewing too, I suppose⁠—but of another sort, thank God!

George Tesman enters by the hall door.

Hedda
Ah, you have come at last!

Tesman
You here, Aunt Julia? With Hedda? Fancy that!

Miss Tesman
I was just going, my dear boy. Well, have you done all you promised?

Tesman
No; I’m really afraid I have forgotten half of it. I must come to you again tomorrow. Today my brain is all in a whirl. I can’t keep my thoughts together.

Miss Tesman
Why, my dear George, you mustn’t take it in this way.

Tesman
Mustn’t⁠—? How do you mean?

Miss Tesman
Even in your sorrow you must rejoice, as I do⁠—rejoice that she is at rest.

Tesman
Oh yes, yes⁠—you are thinking of Aunt Rina.

Hedda
You will feel lonely now, Miss Tesman.

Miss Tesman
Just at first, yes. But that will not last very long, I hope. I daresay I shall soon find an occupant for Rina’s little room.

Tesman
Indeed? Who do you think will take it? Eh?

Miss Tesman
Oh, there’s always some poor invalid or other in want of nursing, unfortunately.

Hedda
Would you really take such a burden upon you again?

Miss Tesman
A burden! Heaven forgive you, child⁠—it has been no burden to me.

Hedda
But suppose you had a total stranger on your hands⁠—

Miss Tesman
Oh, one soon makes friends with sick folk; and it’s such an absolute necessity for me to have someone to live for. Well, heaven be praised, there may soon be something in this house, too, to keep an old aunt busy.

Hedda
Oh, don’t trouble about anything here.

Tesman
Yes, just fancy what a nice time we three might have together, if⁠—?

Hedda
If⁠—?

Tesman
Uneasily. Oh nothing. It will all come right. Let us hope so⁠—eh?

Miss Tesman
Well well, I daresay you two want to talk to each other. Smiling. And perhaps Hedda may have something to tell you too, George. Goodbye! I must go home to Rina. Turning at the door. How strange it is to think that now Rina is with me and with my poor brother as well!

Tesman
Yes, fancy that, Aunt Julia! Eh?

Miss Tesman goes out by the hall door.

Hedda
Follows Tesman coldly and searchingly with her eyes. I almost believe your Aunt Rina’s death affects you more than it does your Aunt Julia.

Tesman
Oh, it’s not that alone. It’s Eilert I am so terribly uneasy about.

Hedda
Quickly. Is there anything new about him?

Tesman
I looked in at his rooms this afternoon, intending to tell him the manuscript was in safe keeping.

Hedda
Well, did you find him?

Tesman
No. He wasn’t at home. But afterwards I met Mrs. Elvsted, and she told me that he had been here early this morning.

Hedda
Yes, directly after you had gone.

Tesman
And he said that he had torn his manuscript to pieces⁠—eh?

Hedda
Yes, so he declared.

Tesman
Why, good heavens, he must have been completely out of his mind! And I suppose you thought it best not to give it back to him, Hedda?

Hedda
No, he did not get it.

Tesman
But of course you told him that we had it?

Hedda
No. Quickly. Did you tell Mrs. Elvsted?

Tesman
No; I thought I had better not. But you ought to have told him. Fancy, if, in desperation, he should go and do himself some injury! Let me have the manuscript, Hedda! I will take it to him at once. Where is it?

Hedda
Cold and immovable, leaning on the armchair. I have not got it.

Tesman
Have not got it? What in the world do you mean?

Hedda
I have burnt it⁠—every line of it.

Tesman
With a violent movement of terror. Burnt! Burnt Eilert’s manuscript!

Hedda
Don’t scream so. The servant might hear you.

Tesman
Burnt! Why, good God⁠—! No, no, no! It’s impossible!

Hedda
It is so, nevertheless.

Tesman
Do you know what you have done, Hedda? It’s unlawful appropriation of lost property. Fancy that! Just ask Judge Brack, and he’ll tell you what it is.

Hedda
I advise you not to speak of it⁠—either to Judge Brack or to anyone else.

Tesman
But how could you do anything so unheard-of? What put it into your head? What possessed you? Answer me that⁠—eh?

Hedda
Suppressing an almost imperceptible smile. I did it for your sake, George.

Tesman
For my sake!

Hedda
This morning, when you told me about what he had read to you⁠—

Tesman
Yes yes⁠—what then?

Hedda
You acknowledged that you envied him his work.

Tesman
Oh, of course I didn’t mean that literally.

Hedda
No matter⁠—I could not bear the idea that anyone should throw you into the shade.

Tesman
In an outburst of mingled doubt and joy. Hedda! Oh, is this true? But⁠—but⁠—I never knew you show your love like that before. Fancy that!

Hedda
Well, I may as well tell you that⁠—just at this time⁠—Impatiently breaking off. No, no; you can ask Aunt Julia. She well tell you, fast enough.

Tesman
Oh, I almost think I understand you, Hedda! Clasps his hands together. Great heavens! do you really mean it! Eh?

Hedda
Don’t shout so. The servant might hear.

Tesman
Laughing in irrepressible glee. The servant! Why, how absurd you are, Hedda. It’s only my old Berta! Why, I’ll tell Berta myself.

Hedda
Clenching her hands together in desperation. Oh, it is killing me⁠—it is killing me, all this!

Tesman
What is, Hedda? Eh?

Hedda
Coldly, controlling herself. All this⁠—absurdity⁠—George.

Tesman
Absurdity! Do you see anything absurd in my being overjoyed at the news! But after all⁠—perhaps I had better not say anything to Berta.

Hedda
Oh⁠—why not that too?

Tesman
No, no, not yet! But I must certainly tell Aunt Julia. And then that you have begun to call me George too! Fancy that! Oh, Aunt Julia will be so happy⁠—so happy!

Hedda
When she hears that I have burnt Eilert Lövborg’s manuscript⁠—for your sake?

Tesman
No, by the by⁠—that affair of the manuscript⁠—of course nobody must know about that. But that you love me so much,20 Hedda⁠—Aunt Julia must really share my joy in that! I wonder, now, whether this sort of thing is usual in young wives? Eh?

Hedda
I think you had better ask Aunt Julia that question too.

Tesman
I will indeed, some time or other. Looks uneasy and downcast again. And yet the manuscript⁠—the manuscript! Good God! it is terrible to think what will become of poor Eilert now.

Mrs. Elvsted, dressed as in the first Act, with hat and cloak, enters by the hall door.

Mrs. Elvsted
Greets them hurriedly, and says in evident agitation. Oh, dear Hedda, forgive my coming again.

Hedda
What is the matter with you, Thea?

Tesman
Something about Eilert Lövborg again⁠—eh?

Mrs. Elvsted
Yes! I am dreadfully afraid some misfortune has happened to him.

Hedda
Seized her arm. Ah⁠—do you think so?

Tesman
Why, good Lord⁠—what makes you think that, Mrs. Elvsted?

Mrs. Elvsted
I heard them talking of him at my boardinghouse⁠—just as I came in. Oh, the most incredible rumours are afloat about him today.

Tesman
Yes, fancy, so I heard too! And I can bear witness that he went straight home to bed last night. Fancy that!

Hedda
Well, what did they say at the boardinghouse?

Mrs. Elvsted
Oh, I couldn’t make out anything clearly. Either they knew nothing definite, or else⁠—. They stopped talking when the saw me; and I did not dare to ask.

Tesman
Moving about uneasily. We must hope⁠—we must hope that you misunderstood them, Mrs. Elvsted.

Mrs. Elvsted
No, no; I am sure it was of him they were talking. And I heard something about the hospital or⁠—

Tesman
The hospital?

Hedda
No⁠—surely that cannot be!

Mrs. Elvsted
Oh, I was in such mortal terror! I went to his lodgings and asked for him there.

Hedda
You could make up your mind to that, Thea!

Mrs. Elvsted
What else could I do? I really could bear the suspense no longer.

Tesman
But you didn’t find him either⁠—eh?

Mrs. Elvsted
No. And the people knew nothing about him. He hadn’t been home since yesterday afternoon, they said.

Tesman
Yesterday! Fancy, how could they say that?

Mrs. Elvsted
Oh, I am sure something terrible must have happened to him.

Tesman
Hedda dear⁠—how would it be if I were to go and make inquiries⁠—?

Hedda
No, no⁠—don’t you mix yourself up in this affair.

Judge Brack, with his hat in his hand, enters by the hall door, which Berta opens, and closes behind him. He looks grave and bows in silence.

Tesman
Oh, is that you, my dear Judge? Eh?

Brack
Yes. It was imperative I should see you this evening.

Tesman
I can see you have heard the news about Aunt Rina?

Brack
Yes, that among other things.

Tesman
Isn’t it sad⁠—eh?

Brack
Well, my dear Tesman, that depends on how you look at it.

Tesman
Looks doubtfully at him. Has anything else happened?

Brack
Yes.

Hedda
In suspense. Anything sad, Judge Brack?

Brack
That, too, depends on how you look at it, Mrs. Tesman.

Mrs. Elvsted
Unable to restrain her anxiety. Oh! it is something about Eilert Lövborg!

Brack
With a glance at her. What makes you think that, Madam? Perhaps you have already heard something⁠—?

Mrs. Elvsted
In confusion. No, nothing at all, but⁠—

Tesman
Oh, for heaven’s sake, tell us!

Brack
Shrugging his shoulders. Well, I regret to say Eilert Lövborg has been taken to the hospital. He is lying at the point of death.

Mrs. Elvsted
Shrieks. Oh God! oh God⁠—!

Tesman
To the hospital! And at the point of death!

Hedda
Involuntarily. So soon then⁠—

Mrs. Elvsted
Wailing. And we parted in anger, Hedda!

Hedda
Whispers. Thea⁠—Thea⁠—be careful!

Mrs. Elvsted
Not heeding her. I must go to him! I must see him alive!

Brack
It is useless, Madam. No one will be admitted.

Mrs. Elvsted
Oh, at least tell me what has happened to him? What is it?

Tesman
You don’t mean to say that he has himself⁠—Eh?

Hedda
Yes, I am sure he has.

Brack
Keeping his eyes fixed upon her. Unfortunately you have guessed quite correctly, Mrs. Tesman.

Mrs. Elvsted
Oh, how horrible!

Tesman
Himself, then! Fancy that!

Hedda
Shot himself!

Brack
Rightly guessed again, Mrs. Tesman.

Mrs. Elvsted
With an effort at self-control. When did it happen, Mr. Brack?

Brack
This afternoon⁠—between three and four.

Tesman
But, good Lord, where did he do it? Eh?

Brack
With some hesitation. Where? Well⁠—I suppose at his lodgings.

Mrs. Elvsted
No, that cannot be; for I was there between six and seven.

Brack
Well then, somewhere else. I don’t know exactly. I only know that he was found⁠—. He had shot himself⁠—in the breast.

Mrs. Elvsted
Oh, how terrible! That he should die like that!

Hedda
To Brack. Was it in the breast?

Brack
Yes⁠—as I told you.

Hedda
Not in the temple?

Brack
In the breast, Mrs. Tesman.

Hedda
Well, well⁠—the breast is a good place, too.

Brack
How do you mean, Mrs. Tesman?

Hedda
Evasively. Oh, nothing⁠—nothing.

Tesman
And the wound is dangerous, you say⁠—eh?

Brack
Absolutely mortal. The end has probably come by this time.

Mrs. Elvsted
Yes, yes, I feel it. The end! The end! Oh, Hedda⁠—!

Tesman
But tell me, how have you learnt all this?

Brack
Curtly. Through one of the police. A man I had some business with.

Hedda
In a clear voice. At last a deed worth doing!

Tesman
Terrified. Good heavens, Hedda! what are you saying?

Hedda
I say there is beauty in this.

Brack
H’m, Mrs. Tesman⁠—

Mrs. Elvsted
Oh, Hedda, how can you talk of beauty in such an act!

Hedda
Eilert Lövborg has himself made up his account with life. He has had the courage to do⁠—the one right thing.

Mrs. Elvsted
No, you must never think that was how it happened! It must have been in delirium that he did it.

Tesman
In despair!

Hedda
That he did not. I am certain of that.

Mrs. Elvsted
Yes, yes! In delirium! Just as when he tore up our manuscript.

Brack
Starting. The manuscript? Has he torn that up?

Mrs. Elvsted
Yes, last night.

Tesman
Whispers softly. Oh, Hedda, we shall never get over this.

Brack
H’m, very extraordinary.

Tesman
Moving about the room. To think of Eilert going out of the world in this way! And not leaving behind him the book that would have immortalised his name⁠—

Mrs. Elvsted
Oh, if only it could be put together again!

Tesman
Yes, if it only could! I don’t know what I would not give⁠—

Mrs. Elvsted
Perhaps it can, Mr. Tesman.

Tesman
What do you mean?

Mrs. Elvsted
Searches in the pocket of her dress. Look here. I have kept all the loose notes he used to dictate from.

Hedda
A step forward. Ah⁠—!

Tesman
You have kept them, Mrs. Elvsted! Eh?

Mrs. Elvsted
Yes, I have them here. I put them in my pocket when I left home. Here they still are⁠—

Tesman
Oh, do let me see them!

Mrs. Elvsted
Hands him a bundle of papers. But they are in such disorder⁠—all mixed up.

Tesman
Fancy, if we could make something out of them, after all! Perhaps if we two put our heads together⁠—

Mrs. Elvsted
Oh yes, at least let us try⁠—

Tesman
We will manage it! We must! I will dedicate my life to this task.

Hedda
You, George? Your life?

Tesman
Yes, or rather all the time I can spare. My own collections must wait in the meantime. Hedda⁠—you understand, eh? I owe this to Eilert’s memory.

Hedda
Perhaps.

Tesman
And so, my dear Mrs. Elvsted, we will give our whole minds to it. There is no use in brooding over what can’t be undone⁠—eh? We must try to control our grief as much as possible, and⁠—

Mrs. Elvsted
Yes, yes, Mr. Tesman, I will do the best I can.

Tesman
Well then, come here. I can’t rest until we have looked through the notes. Where shall we sit? Here? No, in there, in the back room. Excuse me, my dear Judge. Come with me, Mrs. Elvsted.

Mrs. Elvsted
Oh, if only it were possible!

Tesman and Mrs. Elvsted go into the back room. She takes off her hat and cloak. They both sit at the table under the hanging lamp, and are soon deep in an eager examination of the papers. Hedda crosses to the stove and sits in the arm chair. Presently Brack goes up to her.

Hedda
In a low voice. Oh, what a sense of freedom it gives one, this act of Eilert Lövborg’s.

Brack
Freedom, Mrs. Hedda? Well, of course, it is a release for him⁠—

Hedda
I mean for me. It gives me a sense of freedom to know that a deed of deliberate courage is still possible in this world⁠—a deed of spontaneous beauty.

Brack
Smiling. H’m⁠—my dear Mrs. Hedda⁠—

Hedda
Oh, I know what you are going to say. For you are a kind of specialist too, like⁠—you know!

Brack
Looking hard at her. Eilert Lövborg was more to you than perhaps you are willing to admit to yourself. Am I wrong?

Hedda
I don’t answer such questions. I only know that Eilert Lövborg has had the courage to live his life after his own fashion. And then⁠—the last great act, with its beauty! Ah! that he should have the will and the strength to turn away from the banquet of life⁠—so early.

Brack
I am sorry, Mrs. Hedda⁠—but I fear I must dispel an amiable illusion.

Hedda
Illusion?

Brack
Which could not have lasted long in any case.

Hedda
What do you mean?

Brack
Eilert Lövborg did not shoot himself⁠—voluntarily.

Hedda
Not voluntarily?

Brack
No. The thing did not happen exactly as I told it.

Hedda
In suspense. Have you concealed something? What is it?

Brack
For poor Mrs. Elvsted’s sake I idealised the facts a little.

Hedda
What are the facts?

Brack
First, that he is already dead.

Hedda
At the hospital?

Brack
Yes⁠—without regaining consciousness.

Hedda
What more have you concealed?

Brack
This⁠—the event did not happen at his lodgings.

Hedda
Oh, that can make no difference.

Brack
Perhaps it may. For I must tell you⁠—Eilert Lövborg was found shot in⁠—in Mademoiselle Diana’s boudoir.

Hedda
Makes a motion as if to rise, but sinks back again. That is impossible, Judge Brack! He cannot have been there again today.

Brack
He was there this afternoon. He went there, he said, to demand the return of something which they had taken from him. Talked wildly about a lost child⁠—

Hedda
Ah⁠—so that is why⁠—

Brack
I thought probably he meant his manuscript; but now I hear he destroyed that himself. So I suppose it must have been his pocketbook.

Hedda
Yes, no doubt. And there⁠—there he was found?

Brack
Yes, there. With a pistol in his breast pocket, discharged. The ball had lodged in a vital part.

Hedda
In the breast⁠—yes?

Brack
No⁠—in the bowels.

Hedda
Looks up at him with an expression of loathing. That too! Oh, what curse is it that makes everything I touch turn ludicrous and mean?

Brack
There is one point more, Mrs. Hedda⁠—another disagreeable feature in the affair.

Hedda
And what is that?

Brack
The pistol he carried⁠—

Hedda
Breathless. Well? What of it?

Brack
He must have stolen it.

Hedda
Leaps up. Stolen it! That is not true! He did not steal it!

Brack
No other explanation is possible. He must have stolen it⁠—. Hush!

Tesman and Mrs. Elvsted have risen from the table in the back room, and come into the drawing room.

Tesman
With the papers in both his hands. Hedda, dear, it is almost impossible to see under that lamp. Think of that!

Hedda
Yes, I am thinking.

Tesman
Would you mind our sitting at you writing table⁠—eh?

Hedda
If you like. Quickly. No, wait! Let me clear it first!

Tesman
Oh, you needn’t trouble, Hedda. There is plenty of room.

Hedda
No no, let me clear it, I say! I will take these things in and put them on the piano. There!

She has drawn out an object, covered with sheet music, from under the bookcase, places several other pieces of music upon it, and carries the whole into the inner room, to the left. Tesman lays the scraps of paper on the writing table, and moves the lamp there from the corner table. He and Mrs. Elvsted sit down and proceed with their work. Hedda returns.

Hedda
Behind Mrs. Elvsted’s chair, gently ruffling her hair. Well, my sweet Thea⁠—how goes it with Eilert Lövborg’s monument?

Mrs. Elvsted
Looks dispiritedly up at her. Oh, it will be terribly hard to put in order.

Tesman
We must manage it. I am determined. And arranging other people’s papers is just the work for me.

Hedda goes over to the stove, and seats herself on one of the footstools. Brack stands over her, leaning on the armchair.

Hedda
Whispers. What did you say about the pistol?

Brack
Softly. That he must have stolen it.

Hedda
Why stolen it?

Brack
Because every other explanation ought to be impossible, Mrs. Hedda.

Hedda
Indeed?

Brack
Glances at her. Of course Eilert Lövborg was here this morning. Was he not?

Hedda
Yes.

Brack
Were you alone with him?

Hedda
Part of the time.

Brack
Did you not leave the room whilst he was here?

Hedda
No.

Brack
Try to recollect. Were you not out of the room a moment?

Hedda
Yes, perhaps just a moment⁠—out in the hall.

Brack
And where was you pistol case during that time?

Hedda
I had it locked up in⁠—

Brack
Well, Mrs. Hedda?

Hedda
The case stood there on the writing table.

Brack
Have you looked since, to see whether both the pistols are there?

Hedda
No.

Brack
Well, you need not. I saw the pistol found in Lövborg’s pocket, and I knew it at once as the one I had seen yesterday⁠—and before, too.

Hedda
Have you it with you?

Brack
No; the police have it.

Hedda
What will the police do with it?

Brack
Search till they find the owner.

Hedda
Do you think they will succeed?

Brack
Bends over her and whispers. No, Hedda Gabler⁠—not so long as I say nothing.

Hedda
Looks frightened at him. And if you do not say nothing⁠—what then?

Brack
Shrugs his shoulders. There is always the possibility that the pistol was stolen.

Hedda
Firmly. Death rather than that.

Brack
Smiling. People say such things⁠—but they don’t do them.

Hedda
Without replying. And supposing the pistol was not stolen, and the owner is discovered? What then?

Brack
Well, Hedda⁠—then comes the scandal!

Hedda
The scandal!

Brack
Yes, the scandal⁠—of which you are so mortally afraid. You will, of course, be brought before the court⁠—both you and Mademoiselle Diana. She will have to explain how the thing happened⁠—whether it was an accidental shot or murder. Did the pistol go off as he was trying to take it out of his pocket, to threaten her with? Or did she tear the pistol out of his hand, shoot him, and push it back into his pocket? That would be quite like her; for she is an able-bodied young person, this same Mademoiselle Diana.

Hedda
But I have nothing to do with all this repulsive business.

Brack
No. But you will have to answer the question: Why did you give Eilert the pistol? And what conclusions will people draw from the fact that you did give it to him?

Hedda
Lets her head sink. That is true. I did not think of that.

Brack
Well, fortunately, there is no danger, so long as I say nothing.

Hedda
Looks up at him. So I am in your power, Judge Brack. You have me at your beck and call, from this time forward.

Brack
Whispers softly. Dearest Hedda⁠—believe me⁠—I shall not abuse my advantage.

Hedda
I am in your power none the less. Subject to your will and your demands. A slave, a slave then! Rises impetuously. No, I cannot endure the thought of that! Never!

Brack
Looks half-mockingly at her. People generally get used to the inevitable.

Hedda
Returns his look. Yes, perhaps. She crosses to the writing table. Suppressing an involuntary smile, she imitates Tesman’s intonations. Well? Are you getting on, George? Eh?

Tesman
Heaven knows, dear. In any case it will be the work of months.

Hedda
As before. Fancy that! Passes her hands softly through Mrs. Elvsted’s hair. Doesn’t it seem strange to you, Thea? Here are you sitting with Tesman⁠—just as you used to sit with Eilert Lövborg?

Mrs. Elvsted
Ah, if I could only inspire your husband in the same way!

Hedda
Oh, that will come too⁠—in time.

Tesman
Yes, do you know, Hedda⁠—I really think I begin to feel something of the sort. But won’t you go and sit with Brack again?

Hedda
Is there nothing I can do to help you two?

Tesman
No, nothing in the world. Turning his head. I trust to you to keep Hedda company, my dear Brack.

Brack
With a glance at Hedda. With the very greatest of pleasure.

Hedda
Thanks. But I am tired this evening. I will go in and lie down a little on the sofa.

Tesman
Yes, do dear⁠—eh?

Hedda goes into the back room and draws the curtains. A short pause. Suddenly she is heard playing a wild dance on the piano.

Mrs. Elvsted
Starts from her chair. Oh⁠—what is that?

Tesman
Runs to the doorway. Why, my dearest Hedda⁠—don’t play dance music tonight! Just think of Aunt Rina! And of Eilert too!

Hedda
Puts her head out between the curtains. And of Aunt Julia. And of all the rest of them.⁠—After this, I will be quiet. Closes the curtains again.

Tesman
At the writing table. It’s not good for her to see us at this distressing work. I’ll tell you what, Mrs. Elvsted⁠—you shall take the empty room at Aunt Julia’s, and then I will come over in the evenings, and we can sit and work there⁠—eh?

Hedda
In the inner room. I hear what you are saying, Tesman. But how am I to get through the evenings out here?

Tesman
Turning over the papers. Oh, I daresay Judge Brack will be so kind as to look in now and then, even though I am out.

Brack
In the armchair, calls out gaily. Every blessed evening, with all the pleasure in life, Mrs. Tesman! We shall get on capitally together, we two!

Hedda
Speaking loud and clear. Yes, don’t you flatter yourself we will, Judge Brack? Now that you are the one cock in the basket⁠—

A shot is heard within. Tesman, Mrs. Elvsted, and Brack leap to their feet.

Tesman
Oh, now she is playing with those pistols again.

He throws back the curtains and runs in, followed by Mrs. Elvsted. Hedda lies stretched on the sofa, lifeless. Confusion and cries. Berta enters in alarm from the right.

Tesman
Shrieks to Brack. Shot herself! Shot herself in the temple! Fancy that!

Brack
Half-fainting in the armchair. Good God!⁠—people don’t do such things.

Endnotes

Letters 214, 216, 217, 219. ↩

In the Ibsen volume of Die Literatur (Berlin). ↩

Dr. Julius Elias (Neue deutsche Rundschau, December 1906, p. 1462) makes the curious assertion that the character of Thea Elvsted was in part borrowed from this “Gossensasser Hildetypus.” It is hard to see how even Gibes’ ingenuity could distil from the same flower two such different essences as Thea and Hilda. ↩

See article by Herman Bang in Neue deutsche Rundschau, December 1906, p. 1495. ↩

Dr. Brahm (Neue deutsche Rundschau, December 1906, P. 1422) says that after the first performance of Hedda Gabler in Berlin Ibsen confided to him that the character had been suggested by a German lady whom he met in Munich, and who did not shoot, but poisoned herself. Nothing more seems to be known of this lady. See, too, an article by Julius Elias in the same magazine, p. 1460. ↩

Tesman, whose Christian name in the original is “Jorgen,” is described as “stipendiat i kulturhistorie”⁠—that is to say, the holder of a scholarship for purposes of research into the History of Civilisation. ↩

In the original “Assessor.” ↩

Pronounce Reena. ↩

In the original “Statsradinde Falks villa”⁠—showing that it had belonged to the widow of a cabinet minister. ↩

Du equals thou: Tesman means, “If you could persuade yourself to tutoyer her.” ↩

Du equals thou. ↩

Pronounce Tora and Taya. ↩

Mrs. Elvsted here uses the formal pronoun De, whereupon Hedda rebukes her. In her next speech Mrs. Elvsted says du. ↩

“Bagveje” means both “back ways” and “underhand courses.” ↩

As this form of address is contrary to English usage, and as the note of familiarity would be lacking in “Mrs. Tesman,” Brack may, in stage representation, say “Miss Hedda,” thus ignoring her marriage and reverting to the form of address no doubt customary between them of old. ↩

He uses the familiar du. ↩

From this point onward Lövborg use the formal De. ↩

In this speech he once more says du. Hedda addresses him throughout as De. ↩

“Enest hane i kurven”⁠—a proverbial saying. ↩

Literally, “That you burn for me.” ↩

Colophon

Hedda Gabler
was published in 1890 by
Henrik Ibsen.
It was translated from Danish in 1891 by
Edmund Gosse and William Archer.

This ebook was produced for
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and is based on a transcription produced in 2003 by
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The cover page is adapted from
Trompe l’Oeil with Pistols,
a painting completed in 1672 by
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