I
should like your conscience to be thoroughly robust.
should like your conscience to be thoroughly robust.
World's Greatest Books - Volume 17 - Poetry and Drama
And yet the flue didn't actually
cause the fire. Yet it was my fault in a certain sense.
HILDA: I'm afraid you must be--ill.
SOLNESS: I don't think I'll ever be quite of sound
mind on that point.
[RAGNAR _enters, and begs a few kind words about his
drawings to cheer his father, who is dying_. SOLNESS
_dismisses him almost brutally, and bids him never
think of building on his own account_.
HILDA (_when_ RAGNAR _has gone_): That was horribly
ugly--and hard and bad and cruel as well.
SOLNESS: Oh, you don't understand my position,
which I've paid so dear for. _(Confidentially)_ Hilda,
don't you agree with me that there exists special chosen
people, who have the power of desiring, _craving_ a thing,
until at last it _has_ to happen? And aren't there helpers
and servers who must do their part too? But they never
come of themselves. One has to call them very persistently,
inwardly. So the fire happened conveniently
for me; but the two little boys and Aline were sacrificed.
She will never be the woman she longed to be.
HILDA: I believe you have a sickly conscience.
I
should like your conscience to be thoroughly robust.
SOLNESS: Is _yours_ robust?
HILDA: I think it is.
SOLNESS: I think the Vikings had robust consciences.
And the women they used to carry off had robust consciences,
too. They often wouldn't leave their captors
on any account.
HILDA: These women I can understand exceedingly
well.
SOLNESS: Could you come to love a man like that?
HILDA: One can't choose whom one's going to love.
SOLNESS: Hilda, there's something of the bird of prey
in you!
HILDA: And why not? Why shouldn't I go a-hunting
as well as the rest? Tell me, Mr. Solness, have you
never called me to you--inwardly, you know?
SOLNESS _(softly)_: I almost think I must have.
HILDA: What did you want with me?
cause the fire. Yet it was my fault in a certain sense.
HILDA: I'm afraid you must be--ill.
SOLNESS: I don't think I'll ever be quite of sound
mind on that point.
[RAGNAR _enters, and begs a few kind words about his
drawings to cheer his father, who is dying_. SOLNESS
_dismisses him almost brutally, and bids him never
think of building on his own account_.
HILDA (_when_ RAGNAR _has gone_): That was horribly
ugly--and hard and bad and cruel as well.
SOLNESS: Oh, you don't understand my position,
which I've paid so dear for. _(Confidentially)_ Hilda,
don't you agree with me that there exists special chosen
people, who have the power of desiring, _craving_ a thing,
until at last it _has_ to happen? And aren't there helpers
and servers who must do their part too? But they never
come of themselves. One has to call them very persistently,
inwardly. So the fire happened conveniently
for me; but the two little boys and Aline were sacrificed.
She will never be the woman she longed to be.
HILDA: I believe you have a sickly conscience.
I
should like your conscience to be thoroughly robust.
SOLNESS: Is _yours_ robust?
HILDA: I think it is.
SOLNESS: I think the Vikings had robust consciences.
And the women they used to carry off had robust consciences,
too. They often wouldn't leave their captors
on any account.
HILDA: These women I can understand exceedingly
well.
SOLNESS: Could you come to love a man like that?
HILDA: One can't choose whom one's going to love.
SOLNESS: Hilda, there's something of the bird of prey
in you!
HILDA: And why not? Why shouldn't I go a-hunting
as well as the rest? Tell me, Mr. Solness, have you
never called me to you--inwardly, you know?
SOLNESS _(softly)_: I almost think I must have.
HILDA: What did you want with me?
