. . . I will
soon send you my new play [_Hedda Gabler_]. Receive it in friendship,
but in silence!" This injunction she apparently obeyed. When _The
Master Builder_ appeared, it would seem that Ibsen did not even send
her a copy of the play; and we gather that he was rather annoyed when
she sent him a photograph signed "Princess of Orangia." On his
seventieth birthday, however, she telegraphed her congratulations,
to which he returned a very cordial reply. And here their relations
ended.
That she was right, however, in regarding herself as his principal
model for Hilda appears from an anecdote related by Dr. Elias.(3)
It is not an altogether pleasing anecdote, but Dr. Elias is an
unexceptionable witness, and it can by no means be omitted from an
examination into the origins of _The Master Builder_. Ibsen had come
to Berlin in February 1891 for the first performance of _Hedda Gabler_.
Such experiences were always a trial to him, and he felt greatly
relieved when they were over. Packing, too, he detested; and Elias
having helped him through this terrible ordeal, the two sat down to
lunch together, while awaiting the train. An expansive mood descended
upon Ibsen, and chuckling over his champagne glass, he said: "Do you
know, my next play is already hovering before me--of course in vague
outline.
Pages:
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30