Download File
Download File Download File
32 IBSEN situations from Ibsen's plays. Ibsen's method is the true artist's method. The realist writing about people tends to give an inventory of personal peculiarities, and a faithful report of all that is said and done. The romantic hopes, somehow, to " create an atmosphere " by suggesting what he once felt for something not altogether unlike the matter in hand. Ibsen sets himself to discover the halfpennyworth of significance in all this intolerable deal of irrelevance. Which is the word, which the gesture, that, springing directly from the depths of one character, penetrates to the depths of another ? What is the true cause of this hubbub of inconsequent words and contradictory actions ? Nothing less remote than the true cause will serve, nothing else is firmly rooted in reality. Is that man expressing what he feels or is he paying out what he thinks he is expected to feel ? Have I pushed simplification as far as it will go ? Are there no trappings, no over- tones, nothing but what is essential to express my vision of reality ? And, above all, is my vision absolutely sharp and sure ? These were the questions Ibsen had to answer. When he succeeded he was a great artist, not, as Mr. Roberts suggests, in the manner of Shakespeare, but in the manner of ^Eschylus. There is no more obvious proof of the
IBSEN 33 greatness of Ibsen's art than the perfection of its form. To assert that fine form always enfolds fine thought and feeling would imply a knowledge of literature to which it would be effrontery in a critic to pretend. He may be allowed, however, to advise any one who is ready with an instance of great form enclosing a void to verify his : it impressions was thus that one critic at any rate came to appreciate Goldoni and Alfieri. Be that as it may, this is certain : a perfectly conceived idea never fails to express itself in perfect form. Ibsen did not shirk the labour of making his con- ceptions as hard, and definite, and selfsupporting as possible. No matter how autobiographical some of his best plays may be, he is too good an artist to allow them to lean on his personal experience ; they have to stand firmly on their own feet. Ibsen, there- fore, worked his conceptions to such a degree of hardness and self-consistency that he could detach them from himself and study them impersonally. That is why his plays are models of form. And if there be an Academy of Letters that takes its duties seriously, Rosmersbolm and Ghosts are, we presume, in the hands of every young person within its sphere of influence. The students are shown, we hope, that Ibsen's form is superb, not because Ibsen paid any particular attention to c
- Page 2: LIBRARY of CALIFORNIA MHDtC0 LMMvct
- Page 9 and 10: POT-BOILERS BT CLIVE BELL T LONDON
- Page 11 and 12: CONTENTS PAGE FOREWORD i MONTAIGNE
- Page 13 and 14: FOREWORD DEAR GEOFFREY WHITWORTH, C
- Page 15 and 16: FOREWORD 3 Naturally, by so obligin
- Page 17 and 18: FOREWORD 5 I have said that the edi
- Page 19 and 20: FOREWORD 7 I write more fluently no
- Page 21 and 22: FOREWORD 9 amiss with Mr. Bennett's
- Page 23 and 24: FOREWORD ii is bound to turn the be
- Page 25 and 26: FOREWORD 13 " La Princesse de Cleve
- Page 27 and 28: FOREWORD 15 Mr. Bennett is not so w
- Page 29 and 30: MONTAIGNE IN FACSIMILE 1 LET it be
- Page 31 and 32: MONTAIGNE 19 Montaigne was thorough
- Page 33 and 34: MONTAIGNE 21 by, his subject, but,
- Page 35 and 36: MONTAIGNE 23 moral code and the met
- Page 37 and 38: MONTAIGNE 25 Indeed, this admiratio
- Page 39 and 40: MONTAIGNE 27 not inappropriate, the
- Page 41 and 42: IBSEN 29 the romantic, invited to s
- Page 43: IBSEN 31 political thinker or a soc
- Page 47 and 48: IBSEN 35 or his life to the ideal,
- Page 49 and 50: IBSEN 37 Ibsen's social and politic
- Page 51 and 52: IBSEN 39 tolerate. Men long for the
- Page 53 and 54: MISS COLERIDGE i THE greatest art i
- Page 55 and 56: MISS COLERIDGE 43 without demur tha
- Page 57 and 58: MISS COLERIDGE 45 Here is the first
- Page 59 and 60: MISS COLERIDGE 47 a shrinking fasti
- Page 61 and 62: MISS COLERIDGE 49 picture. Her life
- Page 63 and 64: PEACOCK 51 are as amateurish as the
- Page 65 and 66: PEACOCK 53 was folly, who judged ev
- Page 67 and 68: PEACOCK 55 century living in the ni
- Page 69 and 70: PEACOCK 57 the Conservative party ;
- Page 71 and 72: PEACOCK 59 Peacock's attitude towar
- Page 73 and 74: PEACOCK 61 curiosity and ; just as
- Page 75 and 76: PEACOCK 63 A letter to Hookham, dat
- Page 77 and 78: PEACOCK 65 who claims attention for
- Page 79 and 80: PEACOCK 67 His epitaph I wrote, as
- Page 81 and 82: PEACOCK 69 his relations with Shell
- Page 83 and 84: PEACOCK 71 most entertaining, and p
- Page 85 and 86: PEACOCK 73 sionately pursued imposs
- Page 87 and 88: BOSWELL'S LETTERS 75 they created a
- Page 89 and 90: BOSWELL'S LETTERS 77 the sheer trut
- Page 91 and 92: BOSWELL'S LETTERS 79 Boswell tells
- Page 93 and 94: BOSWELL'S LETTERS 81 plexities bese
IBSEN 33<br />
greatness of Ibsen's art than the perfection of<br />
its form. To assert that fine form always<br />
enfolds fine thought and feeling would imply<br />
a knowledge of literature to which it would be<br />
effrontery in a critic to pretend. He may be<br />
allowed, however, to advise any one who is<br />
ready with an instance of great form enclosing<br />
a void to<br />
verify his : it impressions was thus<br />
that one critic at any rate came to appreciate<br />
Goldoni and Alfieri. Be that as it may, this<br />
is certain : a perfectly conceived idea never<br />
fails to express itself in perfect form. Ibsen<br />
did not shirk the labour of making his con-<br />
ceptions as hard, and definite, and selfsupporting<br />
as possible. No matter how autobiographical<br />
some of his best plays may be,<br />
he is too good an artist to allow them to lean<br />
on his personal experience ; they<br />
have to<br />
stand firmly on their own feet. Ibsen, there-<br />
fore, worked his conceptions to such a degree<br />
of hardness and self-consistency that he could<br />
detach them from himself and study them<br />
impersonally. That is why his plays are<br />
models of form. And if there be an Academy<br />
of Letters that takes its duties seriously,<br />
Rosmersbolm and Ghosts are, we presume, in<br />
the hands of every young person within its<br />
sphere of influence. The students are shown,<br />
we hope, that Ibsen's form is superb, not<br />
because Ibsen paid any particular attention to<br />
c
Change language