Thus we see that, thirty-five years before the date of _The Master
Builder_, Ibsen's imagination was preoccupied with a symbol of a
master building a castle in the air, and a young girl in one of its
towers.
There has been some competition among the poet's young lady friends
for the honour of having served as his model for Hilda. Several, no
doubt, are entitled to some share in it. One is not surprised to
learn that among the papers he left behind were sheaves upon sheaves
of letters from women. "All these ladies," says Dr. Julius Elias,
"demanded something of him--some cure for their agonies of soul,
or for the incomprehension from which they suffered; some solution
of the riddle of their nature. Almost every one of them regarded
herself as a problem to which Ibsen could not but have the time
and the interest to apply himself. They all thought they had a claim
on the creator of Nora. . . . Of this chapter of his experience, Fru
Ibsen spoke with ironic humour. 'Ibsen (I have often said to him),
Ibsen, keep these swarms of over-strained womenfolk at arm's length.'
'Oh no (he would reply), let them alone. I want to observe them
more closely.
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