Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 9).djvu/13

 ROSMERSHOLM

INTRODUCTION

No one who ever saw Henrik Ibsen, in his later years at any rate, could doubt that he was a born aristocrat. It is said that a change came over his appearance and manner after the publication of Brand—that he then put off the Bohemian and put on the reserved, correct, punctilious man-of-the-world. When I first saw him in 1881, he had the air of a polished statesman or diplomatist. Distinction was the note of his personality. So early as 1872, he had written to George Brandes, who was then involved in one of his many controversies, "Be dignified! Dignity is the only weapon against such assaults." His actual words, Vær Fornem! mean, literally translated, "Be distinguished!" No democratic movement which implied a levelling down, could ever command Ibsen's sympathy. He was a leveller up, or nothing.

This deep-rooted trait in his character found its supreme expression in Rosmersholm.

One of his first remarks (to Brandes, January 3, 1882) after the storm had broken out over Ghosts was: "I feel most painfully affected by the crudity, the