Part 59 (1/2)

_The Maid._ (_In the Hall._) _Ellen._ (_Half-dressed in the Here is a letter for you, ma'am. Hall_.) Here is a letter for you, ma'am.

_Helmer._ Give it here. (_He _Helmer._ Give it to me. (_Seizes seizes the letter and shuts the letter and shuts the door._) Yes, door._) Yes, from him. Look from him. You shall not have it.

here. I shall read it.

_Nora._ Read it. _Nora._ Read it.

_Helmer._ I have hardly the _Helmer._ (_By the lamp_.) I courage. I fear the worst. We have hardly the courage to. We may both be lost, both you and I. may both be lost, both you and Ah! I must know. (_Hastily I. Ah! I must know. (_Hastily tears the letter open; reads a tears the letter open; reads a few few lines with a cry of joy._) few lines, looks at an enclosure; Nora! a cry of joy._) Nora!

(_Nora looks inquiringly at (_Nora looks inquiringly at him._) him._)

_Helmer._ Nora!--Oh, I must read _Helmer._ Nora! Oh, I must read it again. Yes, yes, it is so. You it again. Yes, yes, it is so.

are saved, Nora, you are saved. I are saved, Nora, I am saved.

_Nora._ How, saved? _Nora._ And I?

_Helmer._ Look here. He sends _Helmer._ You too, of course; you back your promissory note. we are both saved, both of us.

He writes that he regrets and Look here, he sends you back your apologises, that a happy turn promissory note. He writes that in his life--Oh, what matter he regrets and appologises; that what he writes. We are saved, a happy turn in his life--Oh, Nora! There is nothing to matter what he writes. We are witness against you. Oh, Nora, saved, Nora! No one can harm you.

Nora.[20] Oh, Nora, Nora.[21]

The text of the right-hand column brings out more clearly than the original the complete but unconscious selfishness of Helmer. Ibsen, understanding that character more fully than in his first draft, makes not only the change from ”You are saved, Nora” to the self-revelatory ”I am saved!” but also the change to that infinitely more dramatic ”And I?”

which replaces Nora's ”How, saved?”

In a second set of extracts from the same scene, a firmer grasp of the characters has permitted Ibsen to replace the general and conventional in the last two speeches of the left-hand column with the more specific and characterizing lines of Helmer and the lines of Nora that are an inspiration.

_Nora._... It never for a moment _Nora._... When Krogstad's letter occurred to me that you lay in the box, it never occurred would think of submitting to to me that you would think of that man's conditions, that you submitting to that man's would agree to direct your conditions. I was convinced that actions by the will of another. I you would say to him, ”Make it was convinced that you would known to all the world”; and that say to him, ”Make it known to then-- the whole world”; and that then--

_Helmer._ Well? I should give _Helmer._ Well? When I had you up to punishment and disgrace. given my own wife's name up to disgrace and shame--?

_Nora._ No; then I firmly believed _Nora._ Then I firmly believed that you would come forward, take that you would come forward, everything upon yourself, and say, take everything upon yourself, ”I am the guilty one”-- and say, ”I am the guilty one.”

_Helmer._ Nora! _Helmer._ Nora!

_Nora._ You mean I would _Nora._ You mean I would never have accepted such a never have accepted such a sacrifice? No, of course not. But sacrifice? No, certainly not. But what would my word have been what would my a.s.sertions have in opposition to yours? I so been worth in opposition to yours?

firmly believed that you would That was the miracle that I hoped sacrifice yourself for me--”don't for and dreaded. And it was to listen to her,” you would hinder that that I wanted to die.

say--”she is not responsible; she is out of her senses”--you would say that it was love of you--you would move heaven and earth. I thought you would get Dr. Rank to witness that I was mad, unhinged, distracted.

I so firmly believed that you would ruin yourself to save me. That is what I dreaded, and therefore I wanted to die.

_Helmer._ Oh, Nora, Nora! _Helmer._ I would gladly work for you day and night, Nora-- bear sorrow and want for your sake--but no man sacrifices his honour, even for one he loves.

_Nora._ And how did it turn _Nora._ Millions of women have out? No thanks, no outburst of done so.[23]

affection, not a shred of a thought of saving me.[22]

Perfect phrasing rests, then, on character thoroughly understood and complete emotional accord with the character. Short of that in dialogue, one stops at the commonplace and colorless, the personal, or the literary.

Even, however, when dialogue expounds properly and is thoroughly in character, it will fail if not fitted for the stage. John Oliver Hobbes stated a truth, if somewhat exaggeratedly, in these lines of her preface to _The Amba.s.sador_: