E-text prepared by Douglas Levy
The Collected Works of Henrik Ibsen, Volume XI
by
Translation and Introduction by William Archer.
The anecdotic history of John Gabriel Borkman is even scantier thanthat of Little Eyolf. It is true that two mentions of it occur inIbsen's letters, but they throw no light whatever upon its spiritualantecedents. Writing to George Brandes from Christiania, on April24, 1896, Ibsen says: "In your last letter you make the suggestionthat I should visit London. If I knew enough English, I mightperhaps go. But as I unfortunately do not, I must give up the ideaaltogether. Besides, I am engaged in preparing for a big new work,and I do not wish to put off the writing of it longer than necessary.It might so easily happen that a roof-tile fell on my head before Ihad 'found time to make the last verse.' And what then?" On October3 of the same year, writing to the same correspondent, he againalludes to his work as "a new long play, which must be completed assoon as possible." It was, as a matter of fact, completed with verylittle delay, for it appeared in Copenhagen on December 15, 1896.
The irresponsible gossip of the time made out that Bjornsondiscerned in the play some personal allusions to himself; but thisBjornson emphatically denied. I am not aware that any attempt hasbeen made to identify the original of the various characters. It needscarcely be pointed out that in the sisters Gunhild and Ella we havethe pair of women, one strong and masterful, the other tender anddevoted, who run through so many of Ibsen's plays, from The Feast atSolhoug onwards—nay, even from Catalina. In my Introduction toThe Lady from the Sea (p. xxii) it is pointed out that Ibsen had thecharacter of Foldal clearly in his mind when, in March 1880, he madethe first draft of that play. The character there appears as: "Theold married clerk. Has written a play in his youth which was onlyonce acted. Is for ever touching it up, and lives in the illusionthat it will be published and will make a great success. Takes nosteps, however, to bring this about. Nevertheless accounts himselfone of the 'literary' class. His wife and children believe blindlyin the play." By the time Foldal actually came to life, the faithof his wife and children had sadly dwindled away.
There was scarcely a theatre in Scandinavia or Finland at whichJohn Gabriel Borkman was not acted in the course of January 1897.Helsingors led the way with performances both at the Swedish and theFinnish Theatres on January 10. Christiania and Stockholm followedon January 25, Copenhagen on January 31; and meanwhile the piece hadbeen presented at many provincial theatres as well. In Christiania,Borkman, Gunhild, and Ella were played by Garmann, Fru Gundersen,and Froken Reimers respectively; in Copenhagen, by Emil Pousen, FruEckhardt, and Fru Hennings. In the course of 1897 it spread all overGermany, beginning with Frankfort on Main, where, oddly enough,it was somewhat maltreated by the Censorship. In London, anorganization calling itself the New Century Theatre presented JohnGabriel Borkman at the Strand Theatre on the afternoon of May 3,1897, with Mr. W. H. Vernon as Borkman, Miss Genevieve Ward asGunhild, Miss Elizabeth Robins as Ella Rentheim, Mr. Martin Harveyas Erhart, Mr. James Welch as Foldal, and Mrs. Beerbohm Tree as Mrs.Wilton. The first performance in America was given by the CriterionIndependent Theatre of New York on November 18, 1897, Mr. E. J. Henleyplaying Bor