<meta content="urn:uuid:b5892a72-07c3-41f0-8075-78332e60d72e" name="Adept.expected.resource"/> </head> <body> <p class="p16"><a id="a1339"/><span class="t15">SPEECH AT THE BANQUET IN STOCKHOLM, APRIL 13th, 1898</span></p> <p class="p17">IT seems to me like a dream, this my visit here in Stockholm; and indeed it is a dream. The first figure that met me in the dream was His Majesty the King. (Oscar II (1829-1907), King of Norway and Sweden, 1872-1905, King of Sweden, 1905-1907.)</p> <p class="p20">He bestowed upon me the greatest demonstration of honour that could have been accorded me. I was surprised. I who came to express my gratitude received still more to be grateful for. And now I am invited to this splendid and brilliant gathering here, so representative in every way. When His Majesty the King met me with such a demonstration of honour, it all appeared to me like an ingenious royal eccentricity. And something similar I feel also in this place. I do not see in this homage which is here paid me a mere personal homage. I see in it an approval of literature as a cultural power, expressed by the Swedish people. And what effect this must have on me I am sure you can imagine. My life has passed like a long, long, quiet week, and as I stand here in the real passion week, my life is transformed into a fairy play. I, the old dramatist, see my life remolded into a poem, a fairy poem. It has been transformed into a summer night’s dream. My thanks for the transformation.</p> </body> </html>