Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Heinemann Volume 1).pdf/376



No, a play.

The deuce;—I never heard it was your line.

O no, the author is a friend of mine, And your acquaintance also, I daresay. The knave's a dashing writer, never doubt. Only imagine, in a single day He's worked a perfect little Idyll out.

[slily].

With happy ending, doubtless!

You're aware, No curtain falls but on a plighted pair. Thus with the Trilogy's First Part we've reckoned; But now the poet's labour-throes begin; The Comedy of Troth-plight, Part the Second, Thro' five insipid Acts he has to spin, And of that staple, finally, compose Part Third,—or Wedlock's Tragedy, in prose.

[smiling].

The poet's vein is catching, it would seem.

Really? How so, pray?