Act One:
Page I – Page II – Page III – Page IV – Page V
Act Two:
Page I  –  Page II  –  Page III
Act Three:
Page I – Page II – Page III – Page IV

ACT ONE (Page II)

MRS. HALM: (Smiling)   No, the truth is, he's horribly sluggish and lazy .

 

MISS SKJAERE:   I would have imagined, as Mrs. Halm's lodger

              Your poetic seeds would be sprouting to order.  

              (Pointing to the right)

              That little cottage among the trees seems designed

              Expressly with poets like you in mind.

              Aren't you content?

 

FALK:                                   If I were made blind,

                Eyes shrouded in darkness, bereft of sight,

              That's when I'd sing of the heaven's clear light.       

              I need, say, for a month's period on credit,

              A sorrow so crushing I hardly could bear it;

              Then hear me sing of the full joy of life!

              Best of all, let me find my way to a wife.

              I've sent up this prayer to our merciful Lord.

              But on this, at least, we're not in accord.

 

MISS SKJAERE:   You're so shamefully flippant!

 

MRS. HALM:                                                      Quite indecent!

 

FALK:      Don't think my agenda's anything as pleasant,

              As a trip with my lover on some kind of spree -

              Say, a jaunt round the grounds of Love's Tivoli!

              Instead we'd trek deserts, precarious but free!

              Like a rigorous work-out for the spirit:

              That regimen would have real merit.

 

SVANHILD: (During the foregoing she moved closer; she now stands beside him and speaks playfully)

               Good. I'll pray fervently you meet that fate.

                If, when it comes, you take it like a man.

 

FALK:   Ah, Miss Svanhild is it?   Well, at any rate,

              I'll be forewarned.   But you think you can

              Guarantee your prayers will have that effect?

              Not each who prays is one of God's elect.

              I know too well how much you're determined

              To rob me utterly of my peace of mind;

              But can you keep up a faith of that severe kind - ?

         

 

SVANHILD: (Between banter and earnest)  

              When you come to meet with genuine grief,

              When the green of summer fades to yellow leaf,

              When suffering, awake, dreams bring no relief,

              Judge then if my faith's a long one or brief.

                               (She joins the ladies)

 

MRS. HALM: (Softly)   Will you two stop your bickering?   Look, child!

              See how you're getting Mr. Falk riled.!

 

FALK: (After a short, thoughtful silence, goes over to the summer house and speaks to himself)

              Deep seriousness was glancing from her eyes

              But is it possible she can believe

              That heaven would -

 

GULDSTAD:                        Good Lord, no! Nowise.

              With all due respect, what a fine time we'd have,       

              If heaven always carried out such requests.

              What you need, my clever fellow, is to cast

              Yourself,   -   arms, legs, torso - into exercise.

              Not loafing here, gazing all day at trees.

              If nothing else, at least go chop some wood.

              You'd find, beyond all doubt, that you could

              See the world as your friend, not your enemy

              (And in less than a fortnight, I guarantee).

 

FALK:   Like the fabled donkey I'm between two choices.

              One side, Flesh, the other, Spirit advises.

              Which would it be wisest to choose first?

 

GULDSTAD (Filling the glasses) :   Try punch. It gets rid of sorrow and thirst.

 

MRS. HALM (Looks at her watch): It's eight o'clock!   The priest will be here soon.

              ( Gets up and tidies up the veranda)

 

FALK:   Priest?   Are we in for a clerical invasion?

 

MISS SKJAERE:                                               Of course we are!

 

MRS. HALM:   It's what I've been telling you for the past hour –

 

ANNA;   No, mother, Mr. Falk wasn't here then.

 

MRS HALM:   So you weren't.   Well, don't look so put out;

              Trust me, you'll enjoy meeting the man.

 

FALK:   Who is this dispenser of delight and doctrine?

 

MRS. HALM:   Good Lord, you're going to meet Pastor Stråmand.

 

FALK:   Oh yes?   I know the name of course, not the face.

              I read he's arrived here to take his place

              In parliament, as a new legislator.

 

STYVER:   That's right.   He's turned out quite the orator -

 

GULDSTAD:   - with an annoying habit of clearing his throat.

 

MISS SKJAERE: His wife's with him too.   And, on top of that –

 

MRS. HALM:   - there's the darling children he's brought along –

 

FALK:   To give the little dears a brief vacation,

              Before he's up to his elbows in our nation's

              Sovereignty questions and parliamentary harangues!

              I get the picture.

 

MRS. HALM:                A complete man, Mr. Falk!

 

GULDSTAD:   Though his earlier days caused some folk to talk.

 

MRS. HALM (Indignant) : What's that, Mr. Guldstad!   Well, I can only say

              Ever since I was a little girl, all that I've heard,

              Is nothing but esteem - and from people whose word

              I respect -   for Pastor Stråmand's romantic ways.

 

GULDSTAD ( laughing) : Romantic?

 

MISS SKJAERE:                          Yes, romantic . I'd   say romantic;

              Such as ordinary people couldn't comprehend.

 

FALK: Now you've roused my curiosity no end.

 

MISS SKJAERE (Continuing) : But, Heaven knows, you can always find

              People only too ready to see things of this kind,

              As an excuse for their wit.   We all know, I take it, 

              That student who'd go around here and make it

              His mission, so tasteless and immature,

              To attack our good wholesome literature.

 

FALK:   Literature?   Our parson's a poet, you say?

               Composing a Christian morality play?

 

MISS SKJAERE (Worked up to enthusiasm) :

              No, Falk, a man with his heart in the right place.

              But when even something as totally blameless

              As moral literature's prone to ugly slander -

 

FALK: -    and there's so much of it!   Yes it makes you wonder –

 

MISS SKJAERE:   - yes, you must see too, with your keen mind

              Just how –

 

FALK:                Perfectly clearly.   But what I don't find

              So easy to grasp is this romance's essence - its aim.

              I can see it must have been impressive at the time,

              But if it could be conveyed with the fewest possible facts –

 

STYVER: I think I could come up with appropriate extracts

                   From the case-

 

MISS SKJAERE:               But I remember it better –

              I can tell you –

 

MRS. HALM:                 So can I!

 

MISS SKJAERE:                               No, Mrs. Halm, do   let a

              Person who really knows tell it.   After he graduated,

              Here, in town, his mind was one of the best,

              He knew the New Criticism – the post-modernist –                                                                       

MRS. HALM: On the stage his acting was so highly rated -

 

MISS SKJAERE: Yes, yes, and when he played music, or painted -

 

MRS. HALM: Do you remember how he spoke and recited - ?

 

MISS SKJAERE: Lord, let me get a word in!   I told you I knew –

              He wrote his own music – and the words too.

              And then, didn't he publish, I think, quite a few -

              ‘Seven Sonnets to my Mary' – yes!    I distincly recall

              How beautifully he performed; guitar, voice and all.

             

MRS. HALM:   Yes, yes, oh how true!   Ah, what great gifts he had!

 

GULDSTAD (Quietly):   Hm! There were others thought him utterly mad.

 

FALK:    An ancient guru, whose wisdom didn't come

              From old parchments, yet who acquired quite a sum

              Of it,   says Love begets your poem-breeding Petrarchs

              As dimwittedness and dullness your sage patriarchs.

              But who's this ‘Mary'?                

                                                                                                                  

MISS SKJAERE:                   Mary?   She was the source

              Of his great love, as you'll hear in due course.

              The daughter of the owner of some shipping firm –

 

GULSTAD:   Timber merchant -.

 

MISS SKJAERE ( Impatiently) : Good Lord, - it's all the same.

             

GULSTAD:               Most of their exports went to the Dutch

 

MISS SKJAERE:   Well, I can't see how it matters that much!

 

FALK: A shipping firm?

 

MISS SKJAERE (Continuing) :   Worth millions, it's said.

              That being so one hardly need mention

              She captured all our young men's attention.

 

MRS. HALM: Including even a court-chamberlain, I've read.

 

MISS SKJAERE:   But Mary held staunchly to her woman's right.

              She'd met Stråmand at the Drama group one night,

              And the dénouement of that was - love at first sight!

 

FALK:   And so her other suitors were all sent packing?

 

MRS. HALM:   There!   Well, wasn't that a romantic thing?

 

MISS   SKJAERE:   Plus a grumpy old guardian who made it his mission

              To search out the sweethearts and forbid them to woo,

              Just to increase the misery of their condition.

              But they remained to each other constant and true;

              They'd dreamed up their love-nest just made for two,

              Equipped with a milk-white lamb and a ewe

 

MRS. HALM:   Or perhaps, at the most, a sweet little cow.

 

MISS SKJAERE:   In short, as they sang in the sweet old fashion,

              ‘A cottage, a brook, two hearts beating as one'.

 

FALK:   Just so!   And then - ?

 

MISS SKJAERE:                And then she left home and kindred.

 

FALK:    She left home - ?

 

MRS. HALM:                   Left it for good.

 

FALK:                                                       Well,   that was splendid!

 

MISS SKJAERE:   And flew to her lover, flew up to his garret .

 

FALK:   Flew up!   Without, that is,   – pausing for wedlock?

 

MISS SKJAERE:   Oh, really!  

 

MRS. HALM:                      For shame!   My spouse saw them married.

              He was one of the witnesses.

 

SKYVER (To   MISS SKJAERE):     Your account did lack

              Salient details, lending itself to horrid

              Conjectures.   Always, in making a deposition,

              Set out facts correctly in the narration.

              But I've never been able to get into my head

              How they coped –

 

FALK:                               - what kind of life they led?

              They'd a lamb, and a cow in a garret, you said!  

 

MISS SKJAERE (To   STYVER):  

           There's one thing, my sweet, can be depended

              On: the ardent lover, though poor, is not bitter.

              Aloving heart makes everything light.

              He wooed her with songs and his faithful guitar;

              She would trill on the piano her heartfelt answer.

 

MRS. HALM: And, you understand, they lived on credit –

 

GULDSTAD: One year, until the old man's firm bankrupted.

 

MRS. HALM:   Just then, Stråmand received his living up north.

             

MISS SKJAERE:   In a letter I saw later, he'd taken an oath,

              To live only for his duty and for his wife.

 

FALK ( Concluding):   So, in that fashion ended the romance of his life?

 

MRS. HALM (Getting up) : Yes.   Well now I think I'll go into the garden,

              And see if they're not making their way up here.

 

MISS SKJAERE (Putting on her cape) : It's getting cooler.

 

MRS. HALM:      Yes.   Svanhild, would you be a dear

              And fetch my shawl.

 

LIND (To   ANNA, undetected by the others) : Go join them!

 

MRS.HALM:                                                                           Come along then!

 

(SVANHILD goes into the house;   the others, except   FALK, exit through the back to the left.     LIND, who has followed them, stops and returns.)

 

LIND:   My friend!

 

FALK:                  At your service!

 

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