Part 5
Then we shall ourselves put forth a statement to reassure the public.
DR. STOCKMANN.
Well and good; then I shall write against you. I shall stick to my point and prove that _I_ am right, and you wrong. And what will you do then?
BURGOMASTER.
Then I shall be unable to prevent your dismissal.
DR. STOCKMANN.
What——!
PETRA.
Father! Dismissal!
MRS. STOCKMANN.
Dismissal!
BURGOMASTER.
Your dismissal from the Baths. I shall be compelled to move that notice be given you at once, and that you have henceforth no connection whatever with the Baths.
DR. STOCKMANN.
You would dare to do that!
BURGOMASTER.
It is you who are playing the daring game.
PETRA.
Uncle, this is a shameful way to treat a man like father!
MRS. STOCKMANN.
Do be quiet, Petra!
BURGOMASTER.
[_Looking at PETRA._] Aha! We have opinions of our own already, eh? To be sure, to be sure! [_To MRS. STOCKMANN._] Sister-in-law, you are presumably the most rational member of this household. Use all your influence with your husband; try to make him realise what all this will involve both for his family——
DR. STOCKMANN.
My family concerns myself alone!
BURGOMASTER.
——both for his family, I say, and for the town he lives in.
DR. STOCKMANN.
It is I that have the real good of the town at heart! I want to lay bare the evils that, sooner or later, must come to light. Ah! You shall see whether I love my native town.
BURGOMASTER.
You, who, in your blind obstinacy, want to cut off the town’s chief source of prosperity!
DR. STOCKMANN.
That source is poisoned, man! Are you mad? We live by trafficking in filth and corruption! The whole of our flourishing social life is rooted in a lie!
BURGOMASTER.
Idle fancies—or worse. The man who scatters broadcast such offensive insinuations against his native place must be an enemy of society.
DR. STOCKMANN.
[_Going towards him._] You dare to——!
MRS. STOCKMANN.
[_Throwing herself between them._] Thomas!
PETRA.
[_Seizing her father’s arm._] Keep calm, father!
BURGOMASTER.
I will not expose myself to violence. You have had your warning now. Reflect upon what is due to yourself and to your family. Good-bye.
[_He goes._
*/
DR. STOCKMANN.
[_Walking up and down._] And I must put up with such treatment! In my own house, Katrina! What do you say to that!
MRS. STOCKMANN.
Indeed, it’s a shame and a disgrace, Thomas——
PETRA.
Oh, if I could only get hold of uncle——!
DR. STOCKMANN.
It’s my own fault. I ought to have stood up against them long ago—to have shown my teeth—and used them too!—And to be called an enemy of society! Me! I won’t bear it; by Heaven, I won’t!
MRS. STOCKMANN.
But my dear Thomas, after all, your brother has the power——
DR. STOCKMANN.
Yes, but I have the right.
MRS. STOCKMANN.
Ah yes, right, right! What good does it do to have the right, if you haven’t any might?
PETRA.
Oh, mother—how can you talk so?
DR. STOCKMANN.
What! No good, in a free community, to have right on your side? What an absurd idea, Katrina! And besides—haven’t I the free and independent press before me—and the compact majority at my back? That is might enough, I should think!
MRS. STOCKMANN.
Why, good heavens, Thomas! you’re surely not thinking of——?
DR. STOCKMANN.
What am I not thinking of?
MRS. STOCKMANN.
——of setting yourself up against your brother, I mean.
DR. STOCKMANN.
What the devil would you have me do, if not stick to what is right and true?
PETRA.
Yes, that’s what I should like to know?
MRS. STOCKMANN.
But it will be of no earthly use. If they won’t, they won’t.
DR. STOCKMANN.
Ho-ho, Katrina! just wait a while, and you shall see whether I can fight my battles to the end.
MRS. STOCKMANN.
Yes, to the end of getting your dismissal; that is what will happen.
DR. STOCKMANN.
Well then, I shall at any rate have done my duty towards the public, towards society—I who am called an enemy of society!
MRS. STOCKMANN.
But towards your family, Thomas? Towards us at home? Do you think _that_ is doing your duty towards those who are dependent on you?
PETRA.
Oh, mother, don’t always think first of us.
MRS. STOCKMANN.
Yes, it’s easy for you to talk; you can stand alone if need be.—But remember the boys, Thomas; and think a little of yourself too, and of me——
DR. STOCKMANN.
You’re surely out of your senses, Katrina! If I were to be such a pitiful coward as to knuckle under to this Peter and his confounded crew—should I ever have another happy hour in all my life?
MRS. STOCKMANN.
I don’t know about that; but God preserve us from the happiness we shall all of us have if you persist in defying them. There you will be again, with nothing to live on, with no regular income. I should have thought we had had enough of that in the old days. Remember them, Thomas; think of what it all means.
DR. STOCKMANN.
[_Struggling with himself and clenching his hands._] And this is what these jacks-in-office can bring upon a free and honest man! Isn’t it revolting, Katrina?
MRS. STOCKMANN.
Yes, no doubt they are treating you shamefully. But God knows there’s plenty of injustice one must just submit to in this world.—Here are the boys, Thomas. Look at them! What is to become of them? Oh no, no! you can never have the heart——
EILIF _and_ MORTEN, _with school-books, have meanwhile entered._
DR. STOCKMANN.
The boys——! [_With a sudden access of firmness and decision._] Never, though the whole earth should crumble, will I bow my neck beneath the yoke.
[_Goes towards his room._
MRS. STOCKMANN.
[_Following him._] Thomas—what are you going to do?
DR. STOCKMANN.
[_At the door._] I must have the right to look my boys in the face when they have grown into free men. _Goes into his room._
MRS. STOCKMANN.
[_Bursts into tears._] Ah, God help us all!
PETRA.
Father is true to the core. He will never give in!
[_The boys ask wonderingly what it all means; PETRA signs to them to be quiet._
-----
Footnote 9:
The word “mådehold,” in Norwegian, means both “moderation” and “temperance.”
ACT THIRD.
_The Editor’s Room of the “People’s Messenger.” In the background, to the left, an entrance-door—to the right another door, with glass panes, through which can be seen the composing-room. A door in the right-hand wall. In the middle of the room a large table covered with papers, newspapers, and books. In front, on the left, a window, and by it a desk with a high stool. A couple of arm-chairs beside the table; some other chairs along the walls. The room is dingy and cheerless, the furniture shabby, the arm-chairs dirty and torn. In the composing-room are seen a few compositors at work; further back, a hand-press in operation._
HOVSTAD _is seated at the desk, writing. Presently_ BILLING _enters from the right, with the_ DOCTOR’S _manuscript in his hand._
BILLING.
Well, I must say——!
HOVSTAD.
[_Writing._] Have you read it through?
BILLING.
[_Laying the MS. on the desk._] Yes, I should think I had.
HOVSTAD.
Don’t you think the Doctor comes out strong?
BILLING.
Strong! Why, strike me dead if he isn’t crushing! Every word falls like a—well, like a sledge-hammer.
HOVSTAD.
Yes, but these fellows won’t collapse at the first blow.
BILLING.
True enough; but we’ll keep on hammering away, blow after blow, till the whole officialdom comes crashing down. As I sat in there reading that article, I seemed to hear the revolution thundering afar.
HOVSTAD.
[_Turning round._] Hush! Don’t let Aslaksen hear that.
BILLING.
[_In a lower voice._] Aslaksen’s a white-livered, cowardly fellow, without a spark of manhood in him. But this time you’ll surely carry your point? Eh? You’ll print the Doctor’s paper?
HOVSTAD.
Yes, if only the Burgomaster doesn’t give in——
BILLING.
That would be deuced annoying.
HOVSTAD.
Well, whatever happens, fortunately we can turn the situation to account. If the Burgomaster won’t agree to the Doctor’s proposal, he’ll have all the small middle-class down upon him—all the House-owners' Association, and the rest of them. And if he does agree to it, he’ll fall out with the whole crew of big shareholders in the Baths, who have hitherto been his main support——
BILLING.
Yes, of course; for no doubt they’ll have to fork out a lot of money——
HOVSTAD.
You may take your oath of that. And then, don’t you see, when the ring is broken up, we’ll din it into the public day by day that the Burgomaster is incompetent in every respect, and that all responsible positions in the town, the whole municipal government in short, must be entrusted to men of liberal ideas.
BILLING.
Strike me dead if that isn’t the square truth! I see it—I see it: we are on the eve of a revolution!
[_A knock at the door._
HOVSTAD.
Hush! [_Calls._] Come in!
DR. STOCKMANN _enters from the back, left._
HOVSTAD.
[_Going towards him._] Ah, here is the Doctor. Well?
DR. STOCKMANN.
Print away, Mr. Hovstad!
HOVSTAD.
So it has come to that?
BILLING.
Hurrah!
DR. STOCKMANN.
Print away, I tell you. To be sure it has come to that. Since they will have it so, they must. War is declared, Mr. Billing!
BILLING.
War to the knife, say I! War to the death, Doctor!
DR. STOCKMANN.
This article is only the beginning. I have four or five others sketched out in my head already. But where do you keep Aslaksen?
BILLING.
[_Calling into the printing-room._] Aslaksen! just come here a moment.
HOVSTAD.
Four or five more articles, eh? On the same subject?
DR. STOCKMANN.
Oh no—not at all, my dear fellow. No; they will deal with quite different matters. But they’re all of a piece with the water-works and sewer question. One thing leads to another. It’s just like beginning to pick at an old house, don’t you know?
BILLING.
Strike me dead, but that’s true! You feel you can’t leave off till you’ve pulled the whole lumber-heap to pieces.
ASLAKSEN.
[_Enters from the printing-room._] Pulled to pieces! Surely the Doctor isn’t thinking of pulling the Baths to pieces?
HOVSTAD.
Not at all. Don’t be alarmed.
DR. STOCKMANN.
No, we were talking of something quite different. Well, what do you think of my article, Mr. Hovstad?
HOVSTAD.
I think it’s simply a masterpiece——
DR. STOCKMANN.
Yes, isn’t it? I'm glad you think so—very glad.
HOVSTAD.
It’s so clear and to the point. One doesn’t in the least need to be a specialist to understand the gist of it. I am certain every intelligent man will be on your side.
ASLAKSEN.
And all the prudent ones too, I hope?
BILLING.
Both the prudent and imprudent—in fact, almost the whole town.
ASLAKSEN.
Then I suppose we may venture to print it.
DR. STOCKMANN.
I should think so!
HOVSTAD.
It shall go in to-morrow.
DR. STOCKMANN.
Yes, plague take it, not a day must be lost. Look here, Mr. Aslaksen, this is what I wanted to ask you: won’t you take personal charge of the article?
ASLAKSEN.
Certainly I will.
DR. STOCKMANN.
Be as careful as if it were gold. No printers' errors; every word is important. I shall look in again presently; perhaps you’ll be able to let me see a proof.—Ah! I can’t tell you how I long to have the thing in print—to see it launched——
BILLING.
Yes, like a thunderbolt!
DR. STOCKMANN.
——and submitted to the judgment of every intelligent citizen. Oh, you have no idea what I have had to put up with to-day. I've been threatened with all sorts of things. I was to be robbed of my clearest rights as a human being——
BILLING.
What! Your rights as a human being!
DR. STOCKMANN.
——I was to humble myself, and eat the dust; I was to set my personal interests above my deepest, holiest convictions——
BILLING.
Strike me dead, but that’s too outrageous!
HOVSTAD.
Oh, what can you expect from that quarter?
DR. STOCKMANN.
But they shall find they were mistaken in me; they shall learn that in black and white, I promise them! I shall throw myself into the breach every day in the _Messenger_, bombard them with one explosive article after another——
ASLAKSEN.
Yes, but look here——
BILLING.
Hurrah! It’s war! War!
DR. STOCKMANN.
I shall smite them to the earth, I shall crush them, I shall level their entrenchments to the ground in the eyes of all right-thinking men! That’s what I shall do!
ASLAKSEN.
But above all things be temperate, Doctor; bombard with moderation——
BILLING.
Not at all, not at all! Don’t spare the dynamite!
DR. STOCKMANN.
[_Going on imperturbably._] For now it’s no mere question of water-works and sewers, you see. No, the whole community must be purged, disinfected——
BILLING.
_There_ sounds the word of salvation!
DR. STOCKMANN.
All the old bunglers must be sent packing, you understand. And that in every possible department! Such endless vistas have opened out before me to-day. I am not quite clear about everything yet, but I shall see my way presently. It’s young and vigorous standard-bearers we must look for, my friends; we must have new captains at all the outposts.
BILLING.
Hear, hear!
DR. STOCKMANN.
And if only we hold together, it will go so smoothly, so smoothly! The whole revolution will glide off the stocks just like a ship. Don’t you think so?
HOVSTAD.
For my part, I believe we have now every prospect of placing our municipal affairs in the right hands.
ASLAKSEN.
And if only we proceed with moderation, I really don’t think there can be any danger.
DR. STOCKMANN.
Who the devil cares whether there’s danger or not! What I do, I do in the name of truth and for conscience' sake.
HOVSTAD.
You are a man to be backed up, Doctor.
ASLAKSEN.
Yes, there’s no doubt the Doctor is a true friend to the town; he’s what I call a friend of society.
BILLING.
Strike me dead if Dr. Stockmann isn’t a Friend of the People, Aslaksen!
ASLAKSEN.
I have no doubt the House-owners' Association will soon adopt that expression.
DR. STOCKMANN.
[_Shaking their hands, deeply moved._] Thanks, thanks, my dear, faithful friends; it does me good to hear you. My respected brother called me something very different. Never mind! Trust me to pay him back with interest! But I must be off now to see a poor devil of a patient. I shall look in again, though. Be sure you look after the article, Mr. Aslaksen; and, whatever you do, don’t leave out any of my notes of exclamation! Rather put in a few more! Well, good-bye for the present, good-bye, good-bye.
[_Mutual salutations while they accompany him to the door. He goes out._
HOVSTAD.
He will be invaluable to us.
ASLAKSEN.
Yes, so long as he confines himself to this matter of the Baths. But if he goes further, it will scarcely be advisable to follow him.
HOVSTAD.
H'm—that entirely depends on——
BILLING.
You’re always so confoundedly timid, Aslaksen.
ASLAKSEN.
Timid? Yes, when it’s a question of attacking local authorities, I am timid, Mr. Billing; I have learnt caution in the school of experience, let me tell you. But start me on the higher politics, confront me with the Government itself, and then see if I'm timid.
BILLING.
No, you’re not; but that’s just where your inconsistency comes in.
ASLAKSEN.
The fact is, I am keenly alive to my responsibilities. If you attack the Government, you at least do society no harm; for the men attacked don’t care a straw, you see—they stay where they are all the same. But _local_ authorities can be turned out; and then we might get some incompetent set into power, to the irreparable injury both of house-owners and other people.
HOVSTAD.
But the education of citizens by self-government—do you never think of _that_?
ASLAKSEN.
When a man has solid interests to protect, he can’t think of everything, Mr. Hovstad.
HOVSTAD.
Then I hope I may never have solid interests to protect.
BILLING.
Hear, hear!
ASLAKSEN.
[_Smiling._] H'm! [_Points to the desk._] Governor Stensgård[10] sat in that editorial chair before you.
BILLING.
[_Spitting._] Pooh! A turncoat like that!
HOVSTAD.
I am no weathercock—and never will be.
ASLAKSEN.
A politician should never be too sure of anything on earth, Mr. Hovstad. And as for you, Mr. Billing, you ought to take in a reef or two, I should say, now that you are applying for the secretaryship to the Town Council.
BILLING.
I——!
HOVSTAD.
Is that so, Billing?
BILLING.
Well, yes—but, deuce take it, you understand, I'm only doing it to spite their high-mightinesses.
ASLAKSEN.
Well, that has nothing to do with me. But if I am to be accused of cowardice and inconsistency, I should just like to point out _this_: My political record is open to every one. I have not changed at all, except in becoming more moderate. My heart still belongs to the people; but I don’t deny that my reason inclines somewhat towards the authorities—the local ones, I mean.
[_Goes into the printing-room._]
BILLING.
Don’t you think we should try to get rid of him, Hovstad?
HOVSTAD.
Do you know of any one else that will pay for our paper and printing?
BILLING.
What a confounded nuisance it is to have no capital!
HOVSTAD.
[_Sitting down by the desk._] Yes, if we only had that——
BILLING.
Suppose you applied to Dr. Stockmann?
HOVSTAD.
[_Turning over his papers._] What would be the good? He hasn’t a rap.
BILLING.
No; but he has a good man behind him—old Morten Kiil—“The Badger,” as they call him.
HOVSTAD.
[_Writing._] Are you so sure he has money?
BILLING.
Yes, strike me dead if he hasn’t! And part of it must certainly go to Stockmann’s family. He’s bound to provide for—for the children at any rate.
HOVSTAD.
[_Half turning._] Are you counting on _that_?
BILLING.
Counting? How should I be counting on it?
HOVSTAD.
Best not! And that secretaryship you shouldn’t count on either; for I can assure you you won’t get it.
BILLING.
Do you think I don’t know that? A refusal is the very thing I want. Such a rebuff fires the spirit of opposition in you, gives you a fresh supply of gall, as it were; and that’s just what you need in a god-forsaken hole like this, where anything really stimulating so seldom happens.
HOVSTAD.
[_Writing._] Yes, yes.
BILLING.
Well—they shall soon hear from me!—Now I'll go and write the appeal to the House-owners' Association. _Goes into the room on the right._
HOVSTAD.
[_Sits at his desk, biting his penholder, and says slowly_:] H'm—so that’s the way of it.—[_A knock at the door._] Come in.
PETRA _enters from the back, left._
HOVSTAD.
[_Rising._] What! Is it you? Here?
PETRA.
Yes; please excuse me——
HOVSTAD.
[_Offering her an arm-chair._] Won’t you sit down?
PETRA.
No, thanks; I must go again directly.
HOVSTAD.
Perhaps you bring a message from your father——?
PETRA.
No, I have come on my own account. [_Takes a book from the pocket of her cloak._] Here is that English story.
HOVSTAD.
Why have you brought it back?
PETRA.
Because I won’t translate it.
HOVSTAD.
But you promised——
PETRA.
Yes; but then I hadn’t read it. I suppose you have not read it either?
HOVSTAD.
No; you know I can’t read English; but——
PETRA.
Exactly; and that’s why I wanted to tell you that you must find something else. [_Putting the_ _book on the table._] This will never do for the _Messenger_.
HOVSTAD.
Why not?
PETRA.
Because it flies in the face of all your convictions.
HOVSTAD.
Well, for that matter——
PETRA.
You don’t understand me. It makes out that a supernatural power looks after the so-called good people in this world, and turns everything to their advantage at last; while all the so-called bad people are punished.
HOVSTAD.
Yes, but that’s all right. That’s the very thing the public like.
PETRA.
And would you supply the public with such stuff? You don’t believe a word of it yourself. You know well enough that things do not really happen like that.
HOVSTAD.
Of course not; but an editor can’t always do as he likes. He has often to humour people’s fancies in minor matters. After all, politics is the chief thing in life—at any rate for a newspaper; and if I want the people to follow me along the path of emancipation and progress, I mustn’t scare them away. If they find a moral story like this down in the cellar,[11] they are all the more ready to take in what we tell them above—they feel themselves safer.
PETRA.
For shame! You’re not such a hypocrite as to set traps like that for your readers. You’re not a spider.
HOVSTAD.
[_Smiling._] Thanks for your good opinion. It’s true that the idea is Billing’s, not mine.
PETRA.
Mr. Billing’s!
HOVSTAD.
Yes, at least he was talking in that strain the other day. It was Billing that was so anxious to get the story into the paper; I don’t even know the book.
PETRA.
But how can Mr. Billing, with his advanced views——
HOVSTAD.
Well, Billing is many-sided. He’s applying for the secretaryship to the Town Council, I hear.
PETRA.
I don’t believe that, Mr. Hovstad. How could he descend to such a thing?
HOVSTAD.
That you must ask him.
PETRA.
I could never have thought it of Billing!
HOVSTAD.
[_Looking more closely at her._] No? Is it such a surprise to you?
PETRA.
Yes. And yet—perhaps not. Oh, I don’t know——
HOVSTAD.
We journalists are not worth much, Miss Petra.
PETRA.
Do you really say that?
HOVSTAD.
I think so, now and then.
PETRA.
Yes, in the little every-day squabbles—that I can understand. But now that you have taken up a great cause——
HOVSTAD.
You mean this affair of your father’s?
PETRA.
Of course. I should think you must feel yourself worth more than the general run of people now.
HOVSTAD.
Yes, to-day I do feel something of the sort.
PETRA.
Yes, surely you must. Oh, it’s a glorious career you have chosen! To be the pioneer of unrecognised truths and new and daring ways of thought!—even, if that were all, to stand forth fearlessly in support of an injured man——
HOVSTAD.
Especially when the injured man is—I hardly know how to put it——
PETRA.
You mean when he is so upright and true?
HOVSTAD.
[_In a low voice._] I mean—especially when he is your father.
PETRA.
[_Suddenly taken aback._] _That?_
HOVSTAD.
Yes, Petra—Miss Petra.
PETRA.
So that is your chief thought, is it? Not the cause itself? Not the truth? Not father’s great, warm heart?
HOVSTAD.
Oh, that too, of course.
PETRA.
No, thank you; you said too much that time, Mr. Hovstad. Now I shall never trust you again, in anything.
HOVSTAD.
Can you be so hard on me because it’s mainly for your sake——?
PETRA.
What I blame you for is that you have not acted straightforwardly towards father. You have talked to him as if you cared only for the truth and the good of the community. You have trifled with both father and me. You are not the man you pretended to be. And that I will never forgive you—never.
HOVSTAD.
You shouldn’t say that so bitterly, Miss Petra—least of all now.
PETRA.
Why not now?
HOVSTAD.
Because your father cannot do without my help.
PETRA.
[_Measuring him from head to foot._] So you are capable of _that_, too? Oh, shame!
HOVSTAD.
No, no. I spoke without thinking. You mustn’t believe that of me.
PETRA.
I know what to believe. Good-bye.
ASLAKSEN _enters from printing-room, hurriedly and mysteriously._
ASLAKSEN.
What do you think, Mr. Hovstad—[_Seeing PETRA._] Ow, that’s awkward——
PETRA.
Well, there is the book. You must give it to some one else. _Going towards the main door._
HOVSTAD.
[_Following her._] But, Miss Petra——
PETRA.
Good-bye. _She goes._