Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/75

 Andrews ^9 through his commercial experience. The soul had objected to following the course of Christ's experience; so Peer in his resolve to follow in travel the course of history decides to skip over Bible history. Both refer to Socrates and his fate. Hell and the troll-kingdom have many similarities. In hell everything is self-sufficient and superficial; there is no depth, no relation to the past, only an eternal state of beginning. The idea underlying this characterization is not essentially unrelated to that contained in Dovregubben's riddle as to the difference between trolls and men: the troll's motto is self-sufficiency. Heiberg's humorous injection of the metre into the discussion ("Anapast") reminds me, though the comparison may seem far fetched, of the Strange Passenger's assurance to Peer Gynt that one doesn't die in the middle of the fifth act. 8 The "black upon white" of the printed matter of hell is effectively altered by Ibsen to the "red upon black" of the troll-newspapers. The societies of the learned in hell are matched by Ibsen's "club of learned" in the insane asylum. It is perhaps permissible to compare Mefistofeles' declara- tion that most poets are better than their works, but in the case of the greatest poets the relation is reversed, with Dovregubben's assurance that trolls are better than their reputation, which is the reverse of the case with men. The great man, Mefistofeles eluci- dates, is but a tool in the Master's hands; when he has accomplished the Master's purpose he is discarded (but not his work). With a certain degree of similarity the Button-moulder makes clear to Peer that the Master had intended him for a "gleaming button on the world vest," but as the casting had not turned out well he must be consigned to the junk-heap to be melted over again. Per- haps the riddle of the identity of the Strange Passenger is solved if one has understood the connection between his appearance to Peer and that of death to the actor in Heiberg's play. 9 The latter identifies himself as a messenger in God's service and the Strange Passenger's revelations as to his identity lead Peer to suspect in him a "messenger of the light"; the Passenger uses expressions that savor of the stage. Both authors employ ' 'notabene. " That heat is associated with hell is traditional enough not to be wondered at, 8 Illustrations of this type of humor from Tieck and other authors will occur to the reader; cf. Logeman, Commentary, 288. 9 Cf. Logeman, Commentary, 282.