1. Pillars of the Community: The Norwegian word ‘samfund’ can mean both ‘society’ and ‘community’, but the meaning in this play is most often clearly closer to the latter. We have therefore chosen to break with the convention of calling this play The Pillars of Society.
2. Consul: A consul was a local businessman appointed to facilitate a foreign nation’s trade interests. In 1877 there were around 210 such consuls in Norway.
3. Mrs: The term is ‘fru’, indicating that the woman in question is married and has a relatively high social standing (belonging to the bourgeoisie or the higher levels of the rural community). The term ‘madam’ was at this time used for married women from lower social strata.
4. schoolmaster: The title ‘adjunkt’ was used for teachers in the higher level of the education system, equivalent to secondary school and high school.
5. merchant: A merchant (‘grosserer’) in this respect dealt in large quantities of goods, but the term was also used for grocers more generally.
6. uphold: The verb (‘støtte’) used here echoes the plural noun ‘støtter’ (‘pillars’) in the play’s title. It has often been translated as ‘support’, but this does not quite convey Aune’s serious commitment to, and authority within, his community.
7. the Workers’ Association: The establishment of labour societies began in Norway in the 1860s, first with the Kristiania (now Oslo) Labour Society. These societies were at first of a philanthropic bent, but had become more political by the late 1870s.
8. Mr Chief Clerk: By the late nineteenth century, the title ‘herr’ was used in connection with all higher offices and with a number of other professions of different social categories. The title did not at that time signal a social distinction.
9. larger societies and communities: The word ‘samfund’ can mean both ‘society’ and ‘community’ (cf. above). Both words are used in the translation, depending on context.
10. whited sepulchres: Cf. Matthew 23:27: ‘Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.’
11. tares grow in amongst the wheat here too: Cf. Matthew 13:24–5: ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.’
12. Volunteer Nurses: Women in charge of the social work in a Lutheran parish. In a Norwegian context, the title was relatively new in Norway at this time, with the first institution for the training of ‘diakonisser’ established in Kristiania in 1868.
13. railway business: When Ibsen visited Norway from July to September 1874, several newspapers were running articles on the planned railway between Kristiania and the area along what is now the Oslo fjord. There were heated debates about whether the line ought to run inland or along the coast.
14. ‘Woman as Servant to the Community’: Fictitious title clearly meant to satirize the conduct literature of the period, prescribing the role of women in society.
15. sports and more sports: The Norwegian term ‘idræt’ was at this time often seen in contrast to English ‘sport’, with the former having a more utilitarian slant. Traditional Norwegian sports included skiing, skating, shooting, sailing and rowing, although German and Swedish gymnastics had also become popular from the 1850s onwards.
16. student Tønnesen: In order to be called ‘student’, the person in question would have to have passed the ‘examen artium’ which qualified a student for university.
17. Prodigal Tønnesen: An allusion to the parable of the prodigal son, Luke 15:11–32. The Norwegian adjective ‘forlorne sønn’ means ‘lost’ or ‘wayward’, so the effect is starker here than in the English. There are several variations on this theme later in the play. See also Ghosts, note 38.
18. held lectures in public halls: It was quite uncommon for women to give lectures at this time. But Aasta Hansteen (1824–1908), an advocate for women’s rights, had criticized the Church’s view of women during a Scandinavian lecture tour in 1876, and Ibsen’s mother-in-law, the writer Magdalene Thoresen (1819–1903), was the first woman writer in Scandinavia to give readings from her own works (1867).
19. A Norseman’s word: When the men who had signed the Norwegian constitution in 1814 parted, they gave the promise: ‘Enige og troe, indtil Dovre falder!’ (‘United and loyal, until (the mountain) Dovre falls!’). Here, the phrase indicates more generally that the word of a Norwegian can be trusted.
20. council: Norway had introduced a certain level of local administration in so-called communes (municipalities) in 1837. The most important tasks of these entities were the care of paupers and the running of elementary schools.
21. inland route: In contemporary debates the inland railway line was primarily supported by farmers and the forestry business and competed with the plans for a line along the coast.
22. tracts of forest: Timber, pulp and paper were among Norway’s most important export products in the nineteenth century.
23. family-minded: The compound ‘familjesind’ literally means ‘family mentality’ or ‘family spirit’, a way of thinking dominated by a sense of loyalty and duty to the family.
24. telegram: The first telegraph line in Norway had been established in 1855, and this new communication network had reached the northernmost towns by 1871.
25. circus troupe: The word ‘beriderselskab’ refers more specifically to a travelling circus with horses.
26. that woman: The word ‘fruentimmer’ originally meant ‘a woman’s room’. By this period it was used as a humorous or pejorative reference to a woman.
27. co-shipowner: In the south of Norway shipping was typically organized in partnerships, and many members of the local communities of coastal towns would be part owners of ships.
28. I’m in my fifties now: Average age expectancy for men in Norway was forty-eight years in the 1870s, and three years more for women. Only 5 per cent of the population were over sixty-five years during the nineteenth century.
29. the consul: Here used as a polite form of address in the third person.
30. great and good works: An allusion to Ove Malling’s popular patriotic work Store og gode Handlinger av Danske, Norske og Holstenere (1777) (Great and Good Actions of Danes, Norwegians and Holsteinians), a series of portraits of exemplary historical figures in the then union of Denmark-Norway.
31. gas pipe: Gas was primarily used for lighting. The first Norwegian gas works was established in Kristiania in 1847.
32. the poor school: The ‘almueskolen’ of the original was a type of school for the general populace, traditionally catering for those least well off.
33. this stuffy air: The word ‘stueluft’ (literally ‘living room air’) is a key concept in Ibsen which comes up again in his penultimate play, John Gabriel Borkman (1896). ‘Stueluft’ stands in opposition to another, more frequently used compound, namely ‘friluft’ (literally: ‘free air’ or ‘outdoors air’).
34. four hundred kroner: A timberman working in ship construction might earn two kroner a day around this time.
35. Mr Consul, sir: Vigeland uses the polite form ‘de’ (‘you’) to Bernick, who is socially above him. He later addresses him as ‘Mr Consul’, and this therefore seems to be the solution that best captures the polite form of address.
36. You: Bernick and Rummel are social equals, and Rummel here uses the informal ‘du’.
37. cane: The ‘spanskrør’ of the original was a long, thin cane made from palm wood, used for punishment.
38. breakfast: Ibsen uses the word ‘frokost’ in its Norwegian sense, i.e. ‘breakfast’, rather than what became Danish usage in the latter half of the nineteenth century, i.e. ‘lunch’.
39. absolute certainty: The original expression is ‘troen i hændene’ (‘faith in one’s hands’), often associated with St Thomas, who doubted Christ’s resurrection until he had touched His wounds. A reference to having solid evidence.
40. My conscience burdened: The original uses ‘ubelastet’ here, literally ‘unladen’ (‘jeg må have min samvittighed ubelastet’, literally ‘I must have my conscience unladen’), and it is only used this once in Ibsen. It implies a conscience without load, but was used more commonly in a financial context meaning ‘without debt’. It corresponds simultaneously to Bernick having a free conscience and to his concern that he will not be seen as responsible.
41. French raid on the Kabyles: Refers to the French actions in Algeria in the 1840s. The Kabyles are Berbers in northern Algeria.
42. in this country … the immigrant families: Trade in Norway had for centuries been dominated by immigrants and their descendants. Businesspeople were often from Sweden, Germany and Denmark.
43. dead as a citizen: The word ‘borgerlig’ means both ‘citizen’ and ‘bourgeois’. The latter sense, lost here and in the common English rendering ‘middle class’ in other contexts, resonates throughout the play.
44. In two months I’ll be back: From 1870 steamships from Norway via Liverpool were the standard way of travelling to America. The total travel time was around two weeks.
45. freights: Around 60 per cent of all Norwegian shipping went between third countries. This trade was vulnerable to changes in the international economy and was hard hit by economic slumps in the middle of the 1870s.
46. illuminations: Lighting arrangements for feasts of various kinds.
47. buck up: The phrase ‘mande dig op’ literally means ‘man yourself up’, or ‘show some courage’.
48. You do know: Rummel and Bernick use the formal second-person pronoun ‘de’ when addressing Miss Hessel. This polite mode of address was more or less compulsory in bourgeois and higher social milieux at the time.
49. stuff: The original has ‘malm’, meaning ‘ore’, a word that runs through Ibsen’s entire oeuvre and acquires a particularly central function in John Gabriel Borkman (1896).
50. Get away from me: See Christ’s response to Satan in Matthew 4:10: ‘Get thee hence, Satan.’
51. transparency: Transparent banner or large placard, lit from behind.
52. citizen of the state: The term ‘statsborger’ refers to a person belonging not just to the local community, but the wider community of the state.
53. true citizen: Here a distinction is made between the public sphere and the private.
54. book of family devotions: A ‘huspostille’, a Lutheran collection of sermons for the entire year, used for daily homilies.
55. Old friendship doesn’t rust: A Norwegian saying.
56. life’s work: The original has the compound ‘livsgerning’ (literally ‘life’s doing’ or ‘life’s work’), a more succinct and poetic term which refers to the totality of what one has achieved or will achieve in life. It also has associations with ‘calling’.
57. the spirit of truth, the spirit of freedom: The concepts of truth and freedom were often activated in political rhetoric in the aftermath of the French Revolution and in connection with other revolutionary movements of the nineteenth century.
1. A Doll’s House: Ibsen claimed to have coined the word ‘dukkehjem’, which means ‘doll home’ rather than ‘doll’s house’. It had in fact already been used in 1851 by his friend Paul Botten-Hansen, for whom it seems to have invoked an unreal and dreamy existence. The standard word was ‘dukkehus’.
2. lawyer: Two different terms are used in the original here: ‘advokat’ and ‘sagfører’. Helmer is the former, Krogstad the latter. An ‘advokat’ was at this time used for a barrister with the right to appear before the Norwegian High Court. Krogstad is a ‘sagfører’, a lawyer of a lower status than Helmer. He has passed the final examination in law, and has the right to appear in cases in both civil and criminal law.
3. Mrs: The term is ‘fru’, indicating that the woman in question is married and has a relatively high social standing (belonging to the bourgeoisie or the higher levels of the rural community). The term ‘madam’ was at this time used for married women from lower social strata.
4. maid: ‘Stuepigen’ refers to a maid with a particular responsibility for cleaning and keeping tidy the more private areas of the house, but who would also assist with receiving family guests and serving.
5. comfortably: The original ‘hyggeligt’ is a key word in what might be called a Danish and Norwegian cult of domesticity, akin to the German notion of ‘Gemütlichkeit’. ‘Cosy’ and ‘comfortable’ later in this act are translations of the related words ‘hyggelig’, ‘hygge’ and ‘hygget seg’.
6. hallway: The original has ‘forstuen’, the first room (after an entrance or the like) you entered in a house or an apartment, from which there was access to the other rooms.
7. Christmas tree: This German tradition was introduced in Norway from the middle of the nineteenth century, first in the towns and among the bourgeoisie. The tree was decorated in secret by the parents before the doors to the living room were opened on Christmas Eve.
8. Half a krone: In 1875 Norway changed to a decimal system in which one krone equalled 100 øre. To make it immediately clear that Nora is being very generous, for those unfamiliar with Norwegian currency, half a krone is used rather than the fifty ‘øre’ of the original.
9. spending-bird: The original has ‘spillefugl’, from the German ‘Spielvogel’, a toy bird; ‘spille’ means both to play and to waste.
10. a woman thou art: In the original the archaic form ‘du est’ is used to signal a humorous formality.
11. dress material: Servants received some of their pay in the form of goods and were often given at least one new piece of clothing for Christmas.
12. hang the money: Small home-made paper baskets filled with fruit, sweets and raisins were hung on the Christmas tree and harvested by the children during Christmas.
13. miraculous: This is the first instance of the key and recurring word ‘vidunderligt’ or ‘det vidunderlige’. ‘Vidunderligt’ is a stronger expression than ‘wonderful’ in modern English. It is something which, according to Ordbog over det danske sprog (Dictionary of the Danish Language), appears as ‘nearly supernatural or unfathomable in its grandeur, excellent qualities or “inexplicability” and which creates an overwhelming impression and thrill. It is above the everyday, the usual, the ordinary, having the character of something unreal, unearthly, fairy-tale-like in its beauty and magnitude.’ In order to avoid the excessively religious connotations of ‘the miracle’, this translation has opted for phrases such as ‘the miraculous’ and ‘the miraculous thing’.
14. travelling clothes: During the decade in which the play was written, this would often be a jacket or a paletot, a waisted overcoat. Jackets of sealskin were popular from the mid 1870s.
15. Department: The Norwegian word ‘departementet’ might also be translated as ‘ministry’, but Helmer’s work has been with the civil service and not particularly high-powered or prestigious.
16. Twelve hundred speciedaler: Before Norway in 1875 introduced kroner, it had used ‘speciedaler’. One speciedaler at this point equalled four kroner.
17. little school: Teaching was among the few socially acceptable professions for women of the upper and middle classes. Women from the middle classes might also work in shops and offices.
18. spa: The first Norwegian spa was opened in 1837 and was soon followed by others. These were used for treating both physical and mental illness.
19. your circumstances: The genitive pronoun ‘eders’ (plural ‘your’) is a more formal variant of ‘deres’; this distinction is not available in English.
20. lottery: Denmark at this time had a state lottery. Lotteries were forbidden by law in Norway, except for charity.
21. a wife can’t borrow without her husband’s consent: Married women were formally without independent legal status and were not allowed to enter into economic transactions on their own, although this was not always adhered to in practice.
22. solicitor’s clerk: A ‘sagførerfuldmægtig’ was a person with the right to do certain kinds of business for a lawyer, a subordinate but responsible and respectable position.
23. telegram: The first telegraph line in Norway had been established in 1855, and this new communication network had reached the northernmost towns by 1871.
24. front door: The word ‘porten’ may mean gate rather than door.
25. Do you remember this, Mrs Helmer?: The original has ‘Husker fruen’ (‘Does the lady remember’). Such use of the third-person form and title communicated politeness, at times also condescension and distance.
26. atmosphere: The word ‘dunstkreds’ in the original specifically refers to air with a bad smell. It is associated with infectious matter, miasma.
27. Christmas Day: The most important holy day of the year. Families would traditionally keep to themselves, and not receive or go on visits.
28. Miss Nora: Using the first name shows a degree of intimacy, while the use of her title (which is ‘fru’ (‘Mrs’) rather than ‘frøken’ (‘Miss’) in the original) preserves some formality.
29. got herself into trouble: The phrase ‘kommen i ulykke’ refers even more explicitly to a woman who has been seduced and become pregnant outside of marriage.
30. Consul: A consul was a local businessman appointed to facilitate a foreign nation’s trade interests. In 1877 there were 210 such consuls in Norway.
31. Neapolitan fisher-girl: Motif used in nineteenth-century genre painting.
32. tarantella: The most famous of all Italian folk dances, dating back to medieval times. The Danish author and scientist Vilhelm Bergsøe, who became Ibsen’s friend during his first stay in Italy in 1864–8, described the tarantella as a popular folk tradition and noted the belief that the dancer was in a state of possession.
33. consumption of the spine: Rare neurological form of tertiary syphilis. In contemporary scientific belief the last phase of this degenerative illness was thought to include an attack on inner organs, including the marrow. This might lead to paralysis, heart failure and madness. The patient might be symptom-free for long periods between the various phases of the illness.
34. elfin-girl: In ancient Norse tradition elves were considered dangerous creatures. Ibsen here seems to build on a Romantic view, also associated with Shakespeare, where elves are more friendly, attractive and gracious. They are generally shy, but may appear in moonlight.
35. first-name terms: By saying ‘vi er dus’ Helmer here notes a breach of etiquette. Polite society required that one would only use the intimate ‘du’ (‘you’) to people one would address by first name, generally only the close family. Two people who knew each other well might in rare cases use ‘du’ and first names even in more official settings. With others present, with whom the parties were not on intimate terms, it was customary to switch to the polite form ‘de’.
36. Let whatever comes come: An allusion to two hymns in the Lutheran hymn book, one of them by Martin Luther.
37. abominable process of destruction: A biblical expression, ‘ødelæggelsens vederstyggelighed’, in the original. See, e.g., Matthew 24:15: ‘When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation …’
38. poor innocent spine: A reference to the contemporary idea that syphilis was an inherited disease, transferable from father to son.
39. higher up: Etiquette required that no woman showed her legs above the ankle. For a woman to show the upper part of her stocking to a man other than her husband was a daring act.
40. guide or instruct: The single word ‘vejlede’ means both ‘instruct’ and ‘guide’.
41. back stairs: These were used by the servants and for deliveries.
42. the most terrible thing: The original’s ‘det forfærdelige’ (repeated in Act Three) is an instance of an adjective used with the definite article but no following noun, a stylistic possibility in Norwegian employed by Ibsen to denote a central idea, communicating a certain indeterminacy or enigmatic quality. Other instances of the same in this play include, most centrally, ‘det vidunderlige’ (‘the miraculous thing’).
43. black cloak: The ‘domino’ was originally a piece of winter clothing which only reached down over part of the chest and back, used by clerics. It was later commonly used for masquerades, by both men and women.
44. I’d have liked to –: A respectable woman would generally be accompanied home.
45. past our door: Biblical allusion. See Exodus 12:23: ‘the Lord will pass over the door.’
46. child of joy and good fortune: The original has the poetic compound ‘lykkebarn’, literally ‘luck child’ or ‘good fortune child’. Helmer later berates Nora by calling her ‘Du ulyksalige’, ‘You unfortunate [one]’.
47. cap of invisibility: It was a common folk belief that the subterranean creatures could make themselves invisible by putting on a piece of clothing.
48. borne in my arms: Biblical allusion. See Matthew 4:6: ‘He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.’
49. Give it to me: Helmer insists on his legal right to read his wife’s letters.
50. I’ll guide and instruct you: According to the Danish theologian Erik Pontoppidan’s explanation of Luther’s Small Cathecism, a married man ought to ‘faithfully love, honour, direct, govern and provide for’ his wife. The original repeats the word ‘vejlede’, cf. above, but here also uses ‘råde’, ‘give advice’.
51. your religion: Here the Evangelical-Lutheran form of Christianity.
52. he is freed according to the law from all obligations towards her: Divorce was only possible on grounds of adultery, desertion or impotence. The ‘guilty party’ would lose his or her rights to common property and parental influence and would be barred from remarrying.
1. Ghosts: The Norwegian title, ‘Gengangere’, literally means ‘something that or someone who walks again’. There are rare examples of it being used in contemporary scientific discussions of inherited syphilis.
2. Family Drama: Ibsen’s chosen term was not an established sub-category of drama.
3. Mrs: The term is ‘fru’, indicating that the woman in question is married and has a relatively high social standing (belonging to the bourgeoisie or the higher levels of the rural community). The term ‘madam’ was at this time used for married women from lower social strata.
4. chamberlain: A title which could be a mere honorary title granted by a royal person, as in this case. It was not as exclusive as, for example, the title of the British Lord Chamberlain, and Mr Alving did not serve at court.
5. in the service: The phrase ‘i huset’ (‘in the house’) can simply mean that one is a member of the household, but can also refer to employment as a servant.
6. the left: Ibsen always pictures the stage from the perspective of the audience.
7. idiot: The original has ‘menneske’, literally ‘person’ or ‘man’ (in the generic sense). Here the word is used pejoratively.
8. we are but frail: Biblical allusion. See Romans 6:19: ‘the infirmity of your flesh’. Engstrand, who has just been called ‘menneske’, here again uses this word (including himself and all ‘mennesker’ among those who are frail).
9. steamship: The coastal steamer afforded the easiest connection between places along the fjords and other parts of the country.
10. damned: The original has ‘fan”, a coarse form of the more acceptable ‘fanden’ (the devil). Norwegian swear words are on the whole of a religious kind. It is hard to find English equivalents that are strong enough without being sexual or appearing anachronistic. See A Note on the Translation.
11. What the hell’s: See note 10.
12. Fi donc: French interjection communicating contempt.
13. Pied de mouton: Literally ‘sheep’s foot’, a cloven foot.
14. I’ll bleedin’ well: See note 10.
16. wayfaring mariners: An example of Engstrand’s tendency to mimic a higher or more archaic style, with internal inconsistencies as a result (in the original Engstrand uses the vulgar plural form of seamen, ‘sjømænder’ instead of the formally correct ‘sjømænd’).
17. seven or eight hundred kroner: A little above the annual salary for a labourer.
19. savoir vivre: French for the art of living, knowing how to live life to the full.
20. three hundred speciedaler: Before Norway in 1875 introduced kroner, it had used ‘speciedaler’. One speciedaler at this point equalled four kroner.
21. church register: The parish registers functioned as the only public registers at this time.
22. Miss: The word ‘jomfru’ used in the original refers to a young, unmarried woman. A somewhat dated, conservative usage in the second half of the nineteenth century, when the word had for the most part been superseded by ‘frøken’ (Miss). ‘Jomfru’ means both ‘maiden’ and ‘virgin’. In Ibsen’s modern prose dramas the word only appears in one other place, when Hedvig in The Wild Duck (1884) describes a picture of Death and a maiden from Harrison’s History of London.
23. farmer: The original ‘Landman’ literally means ‘countryman’, as opposed to ‘city folk’.
24. hallway: The original has ‘forstuen’, the first room (after an entrance or the like) you entered in a house or apartment, from which there was access to the other rooms.
25. hot chocolate: A conventional drink among the bourgeoisie, later replaced by coffee.
26. Is the pastor sitting comfortably?: Use of the the third-person form of address indicates distance, as in ‘would the gentleman like …?’
27. guiding hand: A common religious phrase. An allusion to God’s guidance, or to Providence more generally.
28. intellectual trends: The word ‘åndelige’ includes the meanings of both ‘spiritual’ and ‘intellectual’.
29. Solvik: The name literally means ‘Sunny bay’. Older farms with ‘Sol’ as a prefix in their name would often be found in sunny spots, on the more attractive, sunny side of the valley.
30. estate: Aristocracy in Norway had been formally abolished in 1821. The term ‘herregården’ generally referred to a large farm with a certain history of having played a significant social, economic and cultural role in the area.
31. higher purpose: The original has the more succinct compound ‘livsopgave’, literally ‘life task’ or ‘task in life’, again with a more poetic ring and connotations of a noble calling.
32. my colleague’s: Probably a reference to an evangelical revivalist clergyman. The evangelical movement stressed individual conversion and repentance, and opposed a more rationalist, liberal theology.
33. Divine Providence: The demand that one trust God’s guidance is clearly expressed in the Danish theologian Erik Pontoppidan’s authoritative explanations of Martin Luther’s Small Catechism.
34. social burden: The compound noun ‘fattigbyrder’ used here means more literally ‘the burden of (taking care of) the poor’. The care of the poor had been the responsibility of local government since the Poor Law of 1845 and would make up around 30–40 per cent of total communal expenditure around this time. Taxes would be paid according to land ownership, wealth and income.
35. cause offence: A biblical allusion. See 1 Corinthians 10:32: ‘Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God.’
36. all manner of things to wrestle with: The original uses the word ‘anfægtelser’, which means temptations or strong religious doubts, but here more specifically refers to the mental state of having to wrestle with these temptations or doubts.
37. office: Homes had offices where business was conducted, and this was usually the sole preserve of men; cf. Torvald Helmer’s office in A Doll’s House. Here, Mrs Alving is associated with the office, but never Chamberlain Alving.
38. Prodigal Son: An allusion to the parable of the prodigal son, Luke 15:11–32. The Norwegian adjective ‘forlorne’ means ‘lost’ or ‘wayward’, so the effect is starker here than in the English ‘prodigal’. See also Pillars of the Community, note 17.
39. first name: This use of a person’s first name indicates a high degree of intimacy and close acquaintance. As the older of the two, it is Manders’s prerogative to suggest the mode of address. This choice communicates both his close relationship to the family (especially Mrs Alving) and his superior position.
40. inward man: Biblical allusion. See, e.g., Romans 7:22–3: ‘For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.’
41. private room: The word ‘kammeret’ refers to a smaller, private room. Chamberlain Alving seems to have spent time alone here rather than in the office.
42. the joys of life: The original has the compound ‘livsglad’, literally ‘happy in life’ or ‘enjoying life’. It is the first glimpse in the play of the central concern with Osvald’s ‘livsglæde’, translated as ‘joy of life’, and his ‘arbejdsglæden’, the ‘joy of work’.
43. paternal home: The original uses the word ‘fædrenehjemmet’, meaning ‘home of the father’, rather than the more common ‘familjehjemmet’, ‘family home’.
44. get married: Women of the upper and middle classes were generally not supposed to take on paid work, but to be provided for by their husbands. Men were therefore unable to marry before they could provide for their families.
45. unlawful relationships: During this time, a law of 1842 forbidding cohabitation was still in force. It stated that extramarital sex could be punished with imprisonment or fines.
46. wild marriages: The phrase Ibsen uses here, ‘såkaldte vilde ægteskaber’ (literally ‘so-called wild marriages’), is a reference to a relationship based on free love. Ibsen has probably borrowed the expression from the German.
47. life of freedom: The original has the more poetic compound ‘frihedsliv’, literally ‘freedom life’.
48. my husband: In the original Mrs Alving refers to her husband by his surname, which was common practice when a wife spoke about her husband to people from outside the family circle.
49. But a wife is not entitled to stand as judge over her husband: See Ephesians 5:22–3: ‘Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.’
50. Helene: When Pastor Manders here switches to her first name, he discloses that the two have or have had a more intimate relationship. Elsewhere, he addresses her as ‘Mrs Alving’. See, note 39.
51. government almanac: An annual publication containing the most important information on state institutions and affairs.
52. three hundred speciedaler: A very large sum for a servant. Johanne seems to have been paid around four times the standard annual salary for a servant.
53. fallen man: The expression ‘falden mand’, ‘fallen man’ (with reference to gender rather than the generic ‘menneske’), is a neologism in Dano-Norwegian, mimicking the conventional reference to ‘falden kvinde’, ‘fallen woman’.
54. consulted: A reference to the customs of engagement and marriage. See King Christian V’s Norwegian Law of 1687 in which a man desiring to be married should ask the woman’s parents or guardians for her hand, but with her consent.
55. depraved: The word ‘forfaldent’ literally means ‘decrepit’, ‘ruined’, ‘decayed’, with associations of ‘fallen’.
56. a child should love and honour his mother and father: The Fourth Commandment. See Exodus 20:1–17.
57. dead doctrines: The word ‘tro’, translated as ‘doctrines’ here, also means ‘faith’, ‘belief’.
58. frightened of the light: The compound word ‘lysrædde’ literally means ‘light-fearful’ or ‘afraid of the light’.
59. wailing: The expression ‘grædendes tårer’ is common in the comedies of Ludvig Holberg (1684–1754). Here Engstrand adds an ungrammatical ‘s’, displaying his working-class register.
60. gnashing of teeth: The expression ‘tænders gnidsel’ is used several times in Matthew with reference to eternal damnation.
61. the wages of sin: See Romans 6:23: ‘For the wages of sin is death.’
62. ‘vermoulu’: ‘État vermoulu’ is a French expression meaning ‘worm-eaten’ and was at that time used of patients with syphilis.
63. the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children: An Old Testament notion. See Exodus 20:5: ‘for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.’
64. eagerly: The original has the compound ‘livfuldt’, literally ‘life full’ or ‘full of life’.
65. light and sunshine: A reference to French impressionism, known in Norway from around 1870. It may possibly also allude to the group of Scandinavian painters associated with Skagen in northern Denmark in the 1870s and ’80s, ‘the Skagen painters’.
66. parish: The original’s ‘landsognet’ was a rural district belonging to a market town, but constituting an independent commune or municipality.
67. gold-feathered nest: The phrase ‘leve som guld i et æg’ literally means ‘live like gold in an egg’, a twist on the Norwegian idiom ‘live like the yolk in an egg’, i.e., being in the best place possible.
68. Why are you so formal with me: Polite conventions meant that one could not use the informal ‘du’ without being on first-name terms with someone. Here the expression ‘Hvorfor kan du ikke sige du til mig?’ of the original means ‘Why can’t you (the informal ‘du’) say you (the informal ‘du’) to me?’ By now choosing the informal ‘du’ in addressing her, and asking her to use the same mode of address, he is challenging the norms of the servant–master relationship.
69. sunny Sunday: The word is ‘søndagsvejr’, literally ‘Sunday weather’. Cf. the note on impressionism above.
70. civil service appointment: A state office to which one formally had to be appointed by the king.
71. I suppose I can say Osvald now: Since Regine is Osvald’s half-sister, and now knows it, she seems to mean that they are equals and that she is in a position where she can suggest that they change their mode of address.
72. end up with nothing: The expression ‘stå på bar bakke’ literally means to ‘stand on bare ground’, meaning being without the means to provide for oneself. Regine is not in command of the idiom, adding an indefinite article (‘en bar bakke’).
73. inherited: One’s ‘arvelod’ refers to the totality of one’s inheritance. Cf. also the contemporary scientific theories that considered syphilis an inheritable disease, transferable from father to son.
74. lodged in here: Osvald hints at the fact that the illness has now attacked his brain. This would belong to the symptoms that were associated with the tertiary and terminal phase of syphilis.
75. I had one attack down there: One of the leading contemporary medical authorities on syphilis, Alfred Fournier, noted that a patient who had survived a first attack would often not be able to cope with a second or third attack.
1. Enemy of the People: The word ‘folkefiende’ had in rare instances been used in Swedish and Danish before this, in the sense of ‘enemy of democracy’. There are no recorded earlier uses of it in Norwegian. Ibsen had been characterized as an ‘enemy of society’ (‘samfundets fiende’) in a debate in the Norwegian parliament in 1882.
2. Play: Ibsen had long wavered between calling An Enemy of the People ‘lystspil’ (a kind of light comedy) or ‘skuespil’ (play), but finally decided on the latter.
3. medical officer: ‘Badelæge’, i.e. a doctor employed at a spa.
4. Mrs: The term ‘fru’ indicates that the woman in question is married and has a relatively high social standing (belonging to the bourgeoisie or the higher levels of the rural community). The term ‘madam’ was at this time used for married women from lower social strata.
5. teacher: The title, ‘lærerinde’, is gender specific in the original, referring to a female teacher. From the middle of the century women gradually became more accepted as teachers in state elementary schools. It became one of the few professions available to unmarried women of the bourgeoise.
6. Eilif: The spelling has been changed from ‘Ejlif’ to ‘Eilif’ in order to facilitate pronunciation (‘ej’ is the old Dano-Norwegian way of spelling the diphthong ‘ei’).
7. mayor of the town and local police chief: The ‘byfogd’ (here ‘mayor’) was a local judge and in charge of the lowest court in the towns. In smaller towns the same person would at that time fill the roles of head of police and administrative head of the court.
8. People’s Messenger: The name ‘Folkebudet’, literally ‘The Folk Messenger’, is reminiscent of a number of democratically inclined newspapers of the time, many of which had the prefix ‘Folk’.
9. various classes and occupations: The terms classes (‘klasser’) and standing (the plural form ‘stænder’ meant social standing or occupational status) were roughly synonymous in nineteenth-century Norway, but the latter, somewhat more general categorization was the more frequent.
10. table covering: Not a table cloth for the dining table, but a heavier cloth (‘bordtæppe’) often richly decorated with embroidery.
11. Mr Billing: The title ‘herr’ was by this time used in connection with all higher offices and with a number of other professions of different social categories. At this time the title did not signal social distinctions.
12. public spirit: The original uses the word ‘borgerånd’, literally ‘a spirit of citizenship’, meaning a commitment and loyalty to the state and to society more generally.
13. poor rates: The overall costs for taking care of the poor went up in the 1870s, but not in terms of the share of communal expenses.
14. up north: The expression ‘nordpå’ (‘in the north’) refers to northern Norway, today the provinces of Nordland, Troms and Finnmark.
15. district governor: The ‘amtmand’ was the highest-ranked civil servant in the local regions, the counties. In 1866 Norway was divided into twenty counties.
16. a top senior official: The ‘amtmand’ (see previous note) and the bishop were the highest authorities in a county.
17. the individual: Loyalty towards authority was often motivated by the Fourth Commandment, to ‘honour thy father and thy mother’, and elaborated on in various Lutheran cathechisms.
18. the community: The original ‘samfundet’ means both ‘society’ and ‘community’. See Pillars of the Community, note 1.
19. toddy heater: The word ‘kogemaskine’ literally means ‘boiling machine’; it was a metal container which could be used for heating water.
20. arrack: Alcoholic beverage based on rice and palm juice, originally Indian.
21. smoking-cap: The ‘kalot’ was a form of headgear used by men, not least balding men.
22. English story: Newspapers would often publish serial stories at the bottom of the page, either as mere entertainment or (commonly) for their moral or didactic content. Many of these stories would be translated from English.
23. Mølledalen: The name literally means ‘Mill Valley’.
24. the devil take me: The original has ‘fan”, a coarse form of the more acceptable ‘fanden’ (the devil). Norwegian swear words are on the whole of a religious kind. It is hard to find English equivalents that are strong enough without being sexual or appearing anachronistic
25. Hounded me: Kiil is playing on words; ‘hundsvoterte mig’ literally means ‘hound-voted me out’, i.e. that he was voted out like a dog. The noun ‘hundsvott’ is a rare and strongly pejorative term, literally the genitalia of a female dog.
26. council: A certain local autonomy had been established in 1837, in the form of an executive committee, ‘formandskabet’. The representatives were elected by those who had the right to vote in parliamentary elections; men without property and women were excluded.
27. fifty kroner: The monthly salary for a labourer was around fifty kroner at this time.
29. bureaucrats: The members of the civil service (‘embedsmænd’) dominated local government. The local pastor would typically often also hold the position of mayor, particularly in rural districts.
30. solid majority: The expression ‘kompakt majoritet’ is here used for the first time in Dano-Norwegian, indicating a large and unchanging majority.
31. citizen: The term used here is ‘statsborger’ (literally ‘citizen of the state’).
32. Homeowners’ Association: Home ownership was the minimal requirement for the right to vote.
33. Temperance Society: The first Norwegian temperance society had been founded in 1845, and was followed by a number of societies for teetotallers, the first of which was established in 1859, after which the temperance movement lost support.
34. But no man can be denied his prudent and frank expression of opinion as a citizen: An allusion to the Norwegian Constitution’s section 100, securing the freedom of expression (‘frimodige ytringer’).
35. regional engineer: With the growth in communal responsibilities from the middle of the nineteenth century, a town engineer (‘stadsingeniør’) would often be part of a professionalized local administration.
36. boardroom secret: In a couple of instances there seems to be this confusion of the responsibilities of the management and the board.
37. war to the knife: Originally a rallying cry (‘War to the knife and knife to the hilt’) related to the issue of slavery. It first seems to have appeared in the Kansas Atchison Squatter Sovereign (c. 1854).
38. human rights: The idea of the individual’s inalienable rights had been formulated in the American Declaration of Independence in 1776 and in the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in 1789. The term ‘menneskerettigheder’, literally ‘human rights’, appears anachronistic in English.
39. dynamite: Dynamite had been invented by the Swede Alfred Nobel in 1863.
40. education of the people: Probably a reference to the function of local government as a kind of education into citizenship (‘borgeropdragelse’).
41. magistrate: The state representative in the towns. This could be an individual or made up of a small board.
42. supernatural power: ‘Styrelse’ more specifically refers to a belief in Divine Providence.
43. your honour: The use of title ‘byfogden’ (‘the mayor’) in the original here indicates a polite address in the third person, in the place of the formal pronoun ‘de’ (you).
44. municipal loan: The rural communes were on the whole cautious about taking up mortgages in this period.
45. subscription list: A promise of money. The signatories committed themselves to giving a loan or providing some other form of economic transaction.
46. swagger stick: A short stick traditionally used by the commanding officer as a sign of status. Here used in jest to refer to the mayor’s walking stick.
47. lion: Norway’s official heraldic emblem, a lion with a crown and a battle-axe. Here a symbolic reference to the people rising up (‘vågnende folkeløve’ literally means ‘awakening lion of the people’).
48. middle class: The original is ‘borgerskapet’, meaning the ‘bourgeoisie’ but also ‘the citizens’, and a series of connected words.
49. every status: The original has the words ‘alle stænder’, cf. ‘stand’ versus ‘klasse’, note 9.
50. the Club: A number of exclusive societies (‘borgerklubben’, literally ‘the club of the bourgeoisie’ or ‘of the citizens’) with similar names had been founded in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. These had been losing influence from the 1840s onwards, however.
51. Silence: The original has ‘Silentium’, a Latin expression used conventionally in meetings to command silence.
52. I am a taxpayer: Tax liability was based on land ownership in the rural districts and on income and wealth in the towns.
53. common folk: ‘Almue’ referred both to a large crowd and, more generally, to the great masses of the people, often used in a pejorative way of speaking about the uncultivated and uneducated.
54. eider: A large duck found all along the Norwegian coast, but especially in the north.
55. timberman: ‘Lasthandler’ more specifically refers to a timber trader.
56. Methuselahs: According to Genesis 5:21–7, Methuselah is said to have died at the age of 969.
57. freethinker: Originally a seventeenth-century concept referring to someone whose thinking ran counter to religious orthodoxy.
58. the poodle’s cranium has developed quite differently from that of the mongrel: Ibsen was familiar with Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. On the Origin of Species had first appeared in Danish translation in 1872.
59. inherited lie: A ‘folkeløgn’ (literally ‘people’s lie’) is a lie which has been taken up by the people at large.
60. an enemy of the people: In Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, which Ibsen may have drawn on here, the protagonist is sentenced ‘as enemy to the people and his country’ (III.iii).
61. Mr Vik: Ibsen’s stage direction first only calls him ‘a fat man’.
62. shakes the dust from his feet: An allusion to Christ’s admonition to his disciples in Matthew 10:14: ‘And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.’
63. ‘I forgive you, for you know not what you do’: An allusion to Christ’s words during the Crucifixion. See Luke 23:34: ‘Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.’
64. free-minded: In this instance the Norwegian ‘frisindede’ is translated literally, as ‘free-minded’, in order to retain the more general sense of the term. The usual translation, ‘freethinking’, is problematic because of its political connotations. The political party ‘Det frisindede Venstre’ (‘The free-minded Left’) was liberal. In the rest of the translation ‘frisindet’ has generally been translated as ‘liberal’ and ‘liberal-minded’.
65. house owner: The original uses ‘husfader’, literally ‘father of the house’.
66. Father-in-law: The polite address was commonly used towards the elderly, even within the family. Dr Stockmann here uses the formal ‘De’ (you).
67. if only I understood the local conditions: Aslasken also appears in an earlier play by Ibsen, The League of Youth (1869), as a comic drunkard, where he has a catchphrase, ‘de lokale forhold’ (‘the local conditions’), with the last line of that play being ‘it depends on the local conditions’. The reprise of the catchphrase here is clearly intended as a comic touch for contemporary theatre-goers.
68. I shall hurl my inkwell straight at their skulls: An allusion to the story of Luther throwing his inkpot at the devil.