Complete Works of Henrik Ibsen (11 page)

CATILINE.
[Huskily.]
It kills the memory? Dare I trust your word?
Then press your poison-wreath upon my forehead.

FURIA.
[Puts the wreath on his head.]
Now it is yours! Thus decked you shall appear
Before the prince of darkness, Catiline!

CATILINE. Away! away! I yearn to go below; —
I long to pass into the spirit lands.
Let us together go! What holds me here?
What stays my steps? Behind me here I feel
Upon the morning sky a misty star; —
It holds me in the land of living men;
It draws me as the moon attracts the sea.

FURIA. Away! Away!

CATILINE. It beckons and it twinkles.
I cannot follow you until this light
Is quenched entirely, or by clouds obscured, —
I see it clearly now; ‘tis not a star;
It is a human heart, throbbing and warm;
It binds me here; it fascinates and draws me
As draws the evening star the eye of children.

FURIA. Then stop this beating heart!

CATILINE. What do you mean?

FURIA. The dagger in your belt — . A single thrust, —
The star will vanish and the heart will die
That stand between us like an enemy.

CATILINE. Ah, I should — ? Sharp and shining is the dagger —

CATILINE.
[With a cry.]
Aurelia! O Aurelia, where — where are you?
Were you but here — ! No, no, — I will not see you!
And yet methinks all would be well again,
And peace would come, if I could lay my head
Upon your bosom and repent — repent!

FURIA. And what would you repent?

CATILINE. Oh, everything!
That I have been, that I have ever lived.

FURIA. ‘Tis now too late — too late! Whence now you stand
No path leads back again. — Go try it, fool!
Now am I going home. Place you your head
Upon her breast and see if there you find
The blessed peace your weary soul desires.

FURIA.
[With increasing wildness.]
Soon will the thousand dead rise up again;
Dishonored women will their numbers join;
And all, — aye, they will all demand of you
The life, the blood, the honor you destroyed.
In terror you will flee into the night, —
Will roam about the earth on every strand,
Like old Actean, hounded by his dogs, —
A shadow hounded by a thousand shades!

CATILINE. I see it, Furia. Here I have no peace.
I am an exile in the world of light!
I’ll go with you into the spirit realms; —
The bond that binds me I will tear asunder.

FURIA. Why grope you with the dagger?

CATILINE. She shall die.

[The lightning strikes and the thunder rolls.]

FURIA. The mighty powers rejoice at your resolve! —
See, Catiline, — see, yonder comes your wife.

[AURELIA comes through the forest in an anxious search.]

AURELIA. Where shall I find him? Where — where can he be!
I’ve searched in vain among the dead —

[Discovers him.]

AURELIA. Great heavens, —
My Catiline!

[She rushes toward him.]

CATILINE.
[Bewildered.]
Speak not that name again!

AURELIA. You are alive?

[Is about to throw herself in his arms.]

CATILINE.
[Thrusting her aside.]
Away! I’m not alive.

AURELIA. Oh, hear me, dearest — !

CATILINE. No, I will not hear!
I hate you. I see through your cunning wiles.
You wish to chain me to a living death.
Cease staring at me! Ah, your eyes torment me, —
They pierce like daggers through my very soul!
Ah, yes, the dagger! Die! Come, close your eyes —

[He draws the dagger and seizes her by the hand.]

AURELIA. Keep guard, oh gracious gods, o’er him and me!

CATILINE. Quick, close your eyes; close them, I say; — in them
I see the starlight and the morning sky — .
Now shall I quench the heavenly star of dawn!

[The thunder rolls again.]

CATILINE. Your heart; your blood! Now speak the gods of life
Their last farewell to you and Catiline!

[He lifts the dagger toward her bosom; she escapes into the tent; he pursues her.]

FURIA.
[Listens.]
She stretches out her hand imploringly.
She pleads with him for life. He hears her not.
He strikes her down! She reels in her own blood!

[CATILINE comes slowly out of the tent with the dagger in his hand.]

CATILINE. Now am I free. Soon I shall cease to be.
Now sinks my soul in vague oblivion.
My eyes are growing dim, my hearing faint,
As if through rushing waters. Ah, do you know
What I have slain with this my little dagger?
Not her alone, — but all the hearts on earth, —
All living things, all things that grow and bloom; —
The starlight have I dimmed, the crescent moon,
The flaming sun. Ah, see, — it fails to rise;
‘Twill never rise again; the sun is dead.
Now is the whole wide realm of earth transformed
Into a huge and clammy sepulchre,
Its vault of leaden grey; — beneath this vault
Stand you and I, bereft of light and darkness,
Of death and life, — two restless exiled shadows.

FURIA. Now stand we, Catiline, before our goal!

CATILINE. No, one step more — before I reach my goal.
Relieve me of my burden! Do you not see,
I bend beneath the corpse of Catiline?
A dagger through the corpse of Catiline!

[He shows her the dagger.]

CATILINE. Come, Furia, set me free! Come, take this dagger; —
On it the star of morning I impaled; —
Take it — and plunge it straightway through the corpse;
Then it will loose its hold, and I am free.

FURIA.
[Takes the dagger.]
Your will be done, whom I have loved in hate!
Shake off your dust and come with me to rest.

[She buries the dagger deep in his heart; he sinks down at the foot of the tree.]

CATILINE.
[After a moment comes to consciousness
again, passes his hand across his forehead, and speaks
faintly.]
Now, mysterious voice, your prophecy I understand!
I shall perish by my own, yet by a stranger’s hand.
Nemesis has wrought her end. Shroud me, gloom of night!
Raise your billows, murky Styx, roll on in all your might!
Ferry me across in safety; speed the vessel on
Toward the silent prince’s realm, the land of shadows wan.
Two roads there are running yonder; I shall journey dumb
Toward the left —

AURELIA.
[From the tent, pale and faltering, her bosom bloody.]
— no, toward the right! Oh, toward Elysium!

CATILINE.
[Startled.]
How this bright and lurid picture fills my soul with dread!
She herself it is! Aurelia, speak, — are you not dead?

AURELIA.
[Kneels before him.]
No, I live that I may still your agonizing cry, —
Live that I may lean my bosom on your breast and die.

CATILINE. Oh, you live!

AURELIA. I did but swoon; though my two eyes grew blurred,
Dimly yet I followed you and heard your every word.
And my love a spouse’s strength again unto me gave; —
Breast to breast, my Catiline, we go into the grave!

CATILINE. Oh, how gladly would I go! Yet all in vain you sigh.
We must part. Revenge compels me with a hollow cry.
You can hasten, free and blithesome, forth to peace and light;
I must cross the river Lethe down into the night.

[The day dawns in the background.]

AURELIA.
[Points toward the increasing light.]
No, the terrors and the gloom of death love scatters far.
See, the storm-clouds vanish; faintly gleams the morning star.

AURELIA.
[With uplifted arms.]
Light is victor! Grand and full of freshness dawns the day!
Follow me, then! Death already speeds me on his way.

[She sinks down over him.]

CATILINE.
[Presses her to himself and speaks with his last
strength.]
Oh, how sweet! Now I remember my forgotten dream,
How the darkness was dispersed before a radiant beam,
How the song of children ushered in the new-born day.
Ah, my eye grows dim, my strength is fading fast away;
But my mind is clearer now than ever it has been:
All the wanderings of my life loom plainly up within.
Yes, my life a tempest was beneath the lightning blaze;
But my death is like the morning’s rosy-tinted haze.

[Bends over her.]

CATILINE.
You have driven the gloom away; peace dwells within my breast.
I shall seek with you the dwelling place of light and rest!

CATILINE.
[He tears the dagger quickly out of his breast and
speaks with dying voice.]
The gods of dawn are smiling in atonement from above;
All the powers of darkness you have conquered with your love!

[During the last scene FURIA has withdrawn farther and farther into the background and disappears at last among the trees. CATILINE’s head sinks down on AURELIA’s breast; they die.]

Translated by Anders Orbeck

Having left Grimstad in 1850, Ibsen travelled to Christiania (modern day Oslo) to study for the Norwegian examination required for university entrance.
The Burial Mound
was written during Whitsuntide 1850, when Ibsen was having a holiday from his studies. Originally the title was
Normannerne
(The Normans). At the same time Ibsen was engaged in a number of literary projects in drama, poetry and prose. In a letter of January 5th 1850 to his friend Ole C. Schulerud, Ibsen mentioned “the little one-acter
Normannerne
has been re-written, or rather is to be re-written, and I am busying myself with it at present. In its new form it will be seen to be clothing a more extended idea than the one for which it was originally intended.”

As soon as it was completed, the drama was handed in to the Christiania Theatre, under the pseudonym Brynjolf Bjarme. Contrary to
Catiline
,
The Burial Mound
was immediately accepted, being a work that suited the taste of the time and the national-romantic trend.

The first performance was on September 26, 1850 and Ibsen, aged 22, was present in the audience himself. He is reported to have been extremely nervous and to have hidden himself away in the darkest corner of the theatre. The interest surrounding the performance was great and the number of tickets sold for the premiere was
557. A
new drama by a Norwegian author was at that time an event in itself. The critical reception was mixed and some critics were unmerciful in their reviews. Nevertheless, the play had some appeal to the public and confirmed the young Ibsen in his decision to embark on a literary career as a playwright.

Christiania Theatre (1899) was Norway’s finest theatre between October 4, 1836 to September 1, 1899. It was located at Bankplassen by the Akershus Fortress in central Christiania (Oslo today), in Norway.