(SCENE.–The editorial office of the “People’s Messenger.” The entrance door is on the left-hand side of the back wall; on the right-hand side is another door with glass panels through which the printing room can be seen. Another door in the right-hand wall. In the middle of the room is a large table covered with papers, newspapers and books. In the foreground on the left a window, before which stands a desk and a high stool. There are a couple of easy chairs by the table, and other chairs standing along the wall. The room is dingy and uncomfortable; the furniture is old, the chairs stained and torn. In the printing room the compositors are seen at work, and a printer is working a handpress. HOVSTAD is sitting at the desk, writing. BILLING comes in from the right with DR. STOCKMANN’S manuscript in his hand.)
Billing. Well, I must say!
Hovstad (still writing). Have you read it through?
Billing (laying the MS. on the desk). Yes, indeed I have.
Hovstad. Don’t you think the Doctor hits them pretty hard?
Billing. Hard? Bless my soul, he’s crushing! Every word falls like–how shall I put it?–like the blow of a sledgehammer.
Hovstad. Yes, but they are not the people to throw up the sponge at the first blow.
Billing. That is true; and for that reason we must strike blow upon blow until the whole of this aristocracy tumbles to pieces. As I sat in there reading this, I almost seemed to see a revolution in being.
Hovstad (turning round). Hush!–Speak so that Aslaksen cannot hear you.
Billing (lowering his voice). Aslaksen is a chicken-hearted chap, a coward; there is nothing of the man in him. But this time you will insist on your own way, won’t you? You will put the Doctor’s article in?
Hovstad. Yes, and if the Mayor doesn’t like it–
Billing. That will be the devil of a nuisance.
Hovstad. Well, fortunately we can turn the situation to good account, whatever happens. If the Mayor will not fall in with the Doctor’s project, he will have all the small tradesmen down on him–the whole of the Householders’ Association and the rest of them. And if he does fall in with it, he will fall out with the whole crowd of large shareholders in the Baths, who up to now have been his most valuable supporters–
Billing. Yes, because they will certainly have to fork out a pretty penny–
Hovstad. Yes, you may be sure they will. And in this way the ring will be broken up, you see, and then in every issue of the paper we will enlighten the public on the Mayor’s incapability on one point and another, and make it clear that all the positions of trust in the town, the whole control of municipal affairs, ought to be put in the hands of the Liberals.
Billing. That is perfectly true! I see it coming–I see it coming; we are on the threshold of a revolution!
(A knock is heard at the door.)
Hovstad. Hush! (Calls out.) Come in! (DR. STOCKMANN comes in by the street door. HOVSTAD goes to meet him.) Ah, it is you, Doctor! Well?
Dr. Stockmann. You may set to work and print it, Mr. Hovstad!
Hovstad. Has it come to that, then?
Billing. Hurrah!
Dr. Stockmann. Yes, print away. Undoubtedly it has come to that. Now they must take what they get. There is going to be a fight in the town, Mr. Billing!
Billing. War to the knife, I hope! We will get our knives to their throats, Doctor!
Dr. Stockmann. This article is only a beginning. I have already got four or five more sketched out in my head. Where is Aslaksen?
Billing (calls into the printing-room). Aslaksen, just come here for a minute!
Hovstad. Four or five more articles, did you say? On the same subject?
Dr. Stockmann. No–far from it, my dear fellow. No, they are about quite another matter. But they all spring from the question of the water supply and the drainage. One thing leads to another, you know. It is like beginning to pull down an old house, exactly.
Billing. Upon my soul, it’s true; you find you are not done till you have pulled all the old rubbish down.
Aslaksen (coming in). Pulled down? You are not thinking of pulling down the Baths surely, Doctor?
Hovstad. Far from it, don’t be afraid.
Dr. Stockmann. No, we meant something quite different. Well, what do you think of my article, Mr. Hovstad?
Hovstad. I think it is simply a masterpiece.
Dr. Stockmann. Do you really think so? Well, I am very pleased, very pleased.
Hovstad. It is so clear and intelligible. One need have no special knowledge to understand the bearing of it. You will have every enlightened man on your side.
Aslaksen. And every prudent man too, I hope?
Billing. The prudent and the imprudent–almost the whole town.
Aslaksen. In that case we may venture to print it.
Dr. Stockmann. I should think so!
Hovstad. We will put it in tomorrow morning.
Dr. Stockmann. Of course–you must not lose a single day. What I wanted to ask you, Mr. Aslaksen, was if you would supervise the printing of it yourself.
Aslaksen. With pleasure.
Dr. Stockmann. Take care of it as if it were a treasure! No misprints–every word is important. I will look in again a little later; perhaps you will be able to let me see a proof. I can’t tell you how eager I am to see it in print, and see it burst upon the public–
Billing. Burst upon them–yes, like a flash of lightning!
Dr. Stockmann. –and to have it submitted to the judgment of my intelligent fellow townsmen. You cannot imagine what I have gone through today. I have been threatened first with one thing and then with another; they have tried to rob me of my most elementary rights as a man–
Billing. What! Your rights as a man!
Dr. Stockmann. –they have tried to degrade me, to make a coward of me, to force me to put personal interests before my most sacred convictions.
Billing. That is too much–I’m damned if it isn’t.
Hovstad. Oh, you mustn’t be surprised at anything from that quarter.
Dr. Stockmann. Well, they will get the worst of it with me; they may assure themselves of that. I shall consider the “People’s Messenger” my sheet-anchor now, and every single day I will bombard them with one article after another, like bombshells–
Aslaksen. Yes, but
Billing. Hurrah!–it is war, it is war!
Dr. Stockmann. I shall smite them to the ground–I shall crush them–I shall break down all their defenses, before the eyes of the honest public! That is what I shall do!
Aslaksen, Yes, but in moderation, Doctor–proceed with moderation.
Billing. Not a bit of it, not a bit of it! Don’t spare the dynamite!
Dr. Stockmann. Because it is not merely a question of water- supply and drains now, you know. No–it is the whole of our social life that we have got to purify and disinfect–
Billing. Spoken like a deliverer!
Dr. Stockmann. All the incapables must be turned out, you understand–and that in every walk of life! Endless vistas have opened themselves to my mind’s eye today. I cannot see it all quite clearly yet, but I shall in time. Young and vigorous standard-bearers–those are what we need and must seek, my friends; we must have new men in command at all our outposts.
Billing. Hear hear!
Dr. Stockmann. We only need to stand by one another, and it will all be perfectly easy. The revolution will be launched like a ship that runs smoothly off the stocks. Don’t you think so?
Hovstad. For my part I think we have now a prospect of getting the municipal authority into the hands where it should lie.
Aslaksen. And if only we proceed with moderation, I cannot imagine that there will be any risk.
Dr. Stockmann. Who the devil cares whether there is any risk or not! What I am doing, I am doing in the name of truth and for the sake of my conscience.
Hovstad. You are a man who deserves to be supported, Doctor.
Aslaksen. Yes, there is no denying that the Doctor is a true friend to the town–a real friend to the community, that he is.
Billing. Take my word for it, Aslaksen, Dr. Stockmann is a friend of the people.
Aslaksen. I fancy the Householders’ Association will make use of that expression before long.
Dr. Stockmann (affected, grasps their hands). Thank you, thank you, my dear staunch friends. It is very refreshing to me to hear you say that; my brother called me something quite different. By Jove, he shall have it back, with interest! But now I must be off to see a poor devil–I will come back, as I said. Keep a very careful eye on the manuscript, Aslaksen, and don’t for worlds leave out any of my notes of exclamation! Rather put one or two more in! Capital, capital! Well, good-bye for the present– goodbye, goodbye!
(They show him to the door, and bow him out.)
Hovstad. He may prove an invaluably useful man to us.
Aslaksen. Yes, so long as he confines himself to this matter of the Baths. But if he goes farther afield, I don’t think it would be advisable to follow him.
Hovstad. Hm!–that all depends-
Billing. You are so infernally timid, Aslaksen!
Aslaksen. Timid? Yes, when it is a question of the local authorities, I am timid, Mr. Billing; it is a lesson I have learned in the school of experience, let me tell you. But try me in higher politics, in matters that concern the government itself, and then see if I am timid.
Billing. No, you aren’t, I admit. But this is simply contradicting yourself.
Aslaksen. I am a man with a conscience, and that is the whole matter. If you attack the government, you don’t do the community any harm, anyway; those fellows pay no attention to attacks, you see–they go on just as they are, in spite of them. But local authorities are different; they can be turned out, and then perhaps you may get an ignorant lot into office who may do irreparable harm to the householders and everybody else.
Hovstad. But what of the education of citizens by self government–don’t you attach any importance to that?
Aslaksen. When a man has interests of his own to protect, he cannot think of everything, Mr. Hovstad.
Hovstad. Then I hope I shall never have interests of my own to protect!
Billing. Hear, hear!
Aslaksen (with a smile). Hm! (Points to the desk.) Mr. Sheriff Stensgaard was your predecessor at that editorial desk.
Billing (spitting). Bah! That turncoat.
Hovstad. I am not a weathercock–and never will be.
Aslaksen. A politician should never be too certain of anything, Mr. Hovstad. And as for you, Mr. Billing, I should think it is time for you to be taking in a reef or two in your sails, seeing that you are applying for the post of secretary to the Bench.
Billing. I–!
Hovstad. Are you, Billing?
Billing. Well, yes–but you must clearly understand I am only doing it to annoy the bigwigs.
Aslaksen. Anyhow, it is no business of mine. But if I am to be accused of timidity and of inconsistency in my principles, this is what I want to point out: my political past is an open book. I have never changed, except perhaps to become a little more moderate, you see. My heart is still with the people; but I don’t deny that my reason has a certain bias towards the authorities– the local ones, I mean. (Goes into the printing room.)
Billing. Oughtn’t we to try and get rid of him, Hovstad?
Hovstad. Do you know anyone else who will advance the money for our paper and printing bill?
Billing. It is an infernal nuisance that we don’t possess some capital to trade on.
Hovstad (sitting down at his desk). Yes, if we only had that, then–
Billing. Suppose you were to apply to Dr. Stockmann?
Hovstad (turning over some papers). What is the use? He has got nothing.
Billing. No, but he has got a warm man in the background, old Morten Kiil–“the Badger,” as they call him.
Hovstad (writing). Are you so sure he has got anything?
Billing. Good Lord, of course he has! And some of it must come to the Stockmanns. Most probably he will do something for the children, at all events.
Hovstad (turning half round). Are you counting on that?
Billing. Counting on it? Of course I am not counting on anything.
Hovstad. That is right. And I should not count on the secretaryship to the Bench either, if I were you; for I can assure you–you won’t get it.
Billing. Do you think I am not quite aware of that? My object is precisely not to get it. A slight of that kind stimulates a man’s fighting power–it is like getting a supply of fresh bile–and I am sure one needs that badly enough in a hole-and-corner place like this, where it is so seldom anything happens to stir one up.
Hovstad (writing). Quite so, quite so.
Billing. Ah, I shall be heard of yet!–Now I shall go and write the appeal to the Householders’ Association. (Goes into the room on the right.)
Hovstad (sitting al his desk, biting his penholder, says slowly). Hm!–that’s it, is it. (A knock is heard.) Come in! (PETRA comes in by the outer door. HOVSTAD gets up.) What, you!–here?
Petra. Yes, you must forgive me–
Hovstad (pulling a chair forward). Won’t you sit down?
Petra. No, thank you; I must go again in a moment.
Hovstad. Have you come with a message from your father, by any chance?
Petra. No, I have come on my own account. (Takes a book out of her coat pocket.) Here is the English story.
Hovstad. Why have you brought it back?
Petra. Because I am not going to translate it.
Hovstad. But you promised me faithfully.
Petra. Yes, but then I had not read it, I don’t suppose you have read it either?
Hovstad. No, you know quite well I don’t understand English; but–
Petra. Quite so. That is why I wanted to tell you that you must find something else. (Lays the book on the table.) You can’t use this for the “People’s Messenger.”
Hovstad. Why not?
Petra. Because it conflicts with all your opinions.
Hovstad. Oh, for that matter–
Petra. You don’t understand me. The burden of this story is that there is a supernatural power that looks after the so-called good people in this world and makes everything happen for the best in their case–while all the so-called bad people are punished.
Hovstad. Well, but that is all right. That is just what our readers want.
Petra. And are you going to be the one to give it to them? For myself, I do not believe a word of it. You know quite well that things do not happen so in reality.
Hovstad. You are perfectly right; but an editor cannot always act as he would prefer. He is often obliged to bow to the wishes of the public in unimportant matters. Politics are the most important thing in life–for a newspaper, anyway; and if I want to carry my public with me on the path that leads to liberty and progress, I must not frighten them away. If they find a moral tale of this sort in the serial at the bottom of the page, they will be all the more ready to read what is printed above it; they feel more secure, as it were.
Petra. For shame! You would never go and set a snare like that for your readers; you are not a spider!
Hovstad (smiling). Thank you for having such a good opinion of me. No; as a matter of fact that is Billing’s idea and not mine.
Petra. Billing’s!
Hovstad. Yes; anyway, he propounded that theory here one day. And it is Billing who is so anxious to have that story in the paper; I don’t know anything about the book.
Petra. But how can Billing, with his emancipated views–
Hovstad. Oh, Billing is a many-sided man. He is applying for the post of secretary to the Bench, too, I hear.
Petra. I don’t believe it, Mr. Hovstad. How could he possibly bring himself to do such a thing?
Hovstad. Ah, you must ask him that.
Petra. I should never have thought it of him.
Hovstad (looking more closely at her). No? Does it really surprise you so much?
Petra. Yes. Or perhaps not altogether. Really, I don’t quite know
Hovstad. We journalists are not much worth, Miss Stockmann.
Petra. Do you really mean that?
Hovstad. I think so sometimes.
Petra. Yes, in the ordinary affairs of everyday life, perhaps; I can understand that. But now, when you have taken a weighty matter in hand–
Hovstad. This matter of your father’s, you mean?
Petra. Exactly. It seems to me that now you must feel you are a man worth more than most.
Hovstad. Yes, today I do feel something of that sort.
Petra. Of course you do, don’t you? It is a splendid vocation you have chosen–to smooth the way for the march of unappreciated truths, and new and courageous lines of thought. If it were nothing more than because you stand fearlessly in the open and take up the cause of an injured man–
Hovstad. Especially when that injured man is–ahem!–I don’t rightly know how to–
Petra. When that man is so upright and so honest, you mean?
Hovstad (more gently). Especially when he is your father I meant.
Petra (suddenly checked). That?
Hovstad. Yes, Petra–Miss Petra.
Petra. Is it that, that is first and foremost with you? Not the matter itself? Not the truth?–not my father’s big generous heart?
Hovstad. Certainly–of course–that too.
Petra. No, thank you; you have betrayed yourself, Mr. Hovstad, and now I shall never trust you again in anything.
Hovstad. Can you really take it so amiss in me that it is mostly for your sake–?
Petra. What I am angry with you for, is for not having been honest with my father. You talked to him as if the truth and the good of the community were what lay nearest to your heart. You have made fools of both my father and me. You are not the man you made yourself out to be. And that I shall never forgive you- never!
Hovstad. You ought not to speak so bitterly, Miss Petra–least of all now.
Petra. Why not now, especially?
Hovstad. Because your father cannot do without my help.
Petra (looking him up and down). Are you that sort of man too? For shame!
Hovstad. No, no, I am not. This came upon me so unexpectedly–you must believe that.
Petra. I know what to believe. Goodbye.
Aslaksen (coming from the printing room, hurriedly and with an air of mystery). Damnation, Hovstad!–(Sees PETRA.) Oh, this is awkward–
Petra. There is the book; you must give it to some one else. (Goes towards the door.)
Hovstad (following her). But, Miss Stockmann–
Petra. Goodbye. (Goes out.)
Aslaksen. I say–Mr, Hovstad–
Hovstad. Well well!–what is it?
Aslaksen. The Mayor is outside in the printing room.
Hovstad. The Mayor, did you say?
Aslaksen. Yes he wants to speak to you. He came in by the back door–didn’t want to be seen, you understand.
Hovstad. What can he want? Wait a bit–I will go myself. (Goes to the door of the printing room, opens it, bows and invites PETER STOCKMANN in.) Just see, Aslaksen, that no one–
Aslaksen. Quite so. (Goes into the printing-room.)
Peter Stockmann. You did not expect to see me here, Mr. Hovstad?
Hovstad. No, I confess I did not.
Peter Stockmann (looking round). You are very snug in here–very nice indeed.
Hovstad. Oh–
Peter Stockmann. And here I come, without any notice, to take up your time!
Hovstad. By all means, Mr. Mayor. I am at your service. But let me relieve you of your–(takes STOCKMANN’s hat and stick and puts them on a chair). Won’t you sit down?
Peter Stockmann (sitting down by the table). Thank you. (HOVSTAD sits down.) I have had an extremely annoying experience to-day, Mr. Hovstad.
Hovstad. Really? Ah well, I expect with all the various business you have to attend to–
Peter Stockmann. The Medical Officer of the Baths is responsible for what happened today.
Hovstad. Indeed? The Doctor?
Peter Stockmann. He has addressed a kind of report to the Baths Committee on the subject of certain supposed defects in the Baths.
Hovstad. Has he indeed?
Peter Stockmann. Yes–has he not told you? I thought he said–
Hovstad. Ah, yes–it is true he did mention something about–
Aslaksen (coming from the printing-room). I ought to have that copy.
Hovstad (angrily). Ahem!–there it is on the desk.
Aslaksen (taking it). Right.
Peter Stockmann. But look there–that is the thing I was speaking of!
Aslaksen. Yes, that is the Doctor’s article, Mr. Mayor.
Hovstad. Oh, is THAT what you were speaking about?
Peter Stockmann. Yes, that is it. What do you think of it?
Hovstad. Oh, I am only a layman–and I have only taken a very cursory glance at it.
Peter Stockmann. But you are going to print it?
Hovstad. I cannot very well refuse a distinguished man.
Aslaksen. I have nothing to do with editing the paper, Mr. Mayor–
Peter Stockmann. I understand.
Aslaksen. I merely print what is put into my hands.
Peter Stockmann. Quite so.
Aslaksen. And so I must– (moves off towards the printing-room).
Peter Stockmann. No, but wait a moment, Mr. Aslaksen. You will allow me, Mr. Hovstad?
Hovstad. If you please, Mr. Mayor.
Peter Stockmann. You are a discreet and thoughtful man, Mr. Aslaksen.
Aslaksen. I am delighted to hear you think so, sir.
Peter Stockmann. And a man of very considerable influence.
Aslaksen. Chiefly among the small tradesmen, sir.
Peter Stockmann. The small tax-payers are the majority–here as everywhere else.
Aslaksen. That is true.
Peter Stockmann. And I have no doubt you know the general trend of opinion among them, don’t you?
Aslaksen. Yes I think I may say I do, Mr. Mayor.
Peter Stockmann. Yes. Well, since there is such a praiseworthy spirit of self-sacrifice among the less wealthy citizens of our town–
Aslaksen. What?
Hovstad. Self-sacrifice?
Peter Stockmann. It is pleasing evidence of a public-spirited feeling, extremely pleasing evidence. I might almost say I hardly expected it. But you have a closer knowledge of public opinion than I.
Aslaksen. But, Mr. Mayor-
Peter Stockmann. And indeed it is no small sacrifice that the town is going to make.
Hovstad. The town?
Aslaksen. But I don’t understand. Is it the Baths–?
Peter Stockmann. At a provisional estimate, the alterations that the Medical Officer asserts to be desirable will cost somewhere about twenty thousand pounds.
Aslaksen. That is a lot of money, but–
Peter Stockmann. Of course it will be necessary to raise a municipal loan.
Hovstad (getting up). Surely you never mean that the town must pay–?
Aslaksen. Do you mean that it must come out of the municipal funds?–out of the ill-filled pockets of the small tradesmen?
Peter Stockmann. Well, my dear Mr. Aslaksen, where else is the money to come from?
Aslaksen. The gentlemen who own the Baths ought to provide that.
Peter Stockmann. The proprietors of the Baths are not in a position to incur any further expense.
Aslaksen. Is that absolutely certain, Mr. Mayor?
Peter Stockmann. I have satisfied myself that it is so. If the town wants these very extensive alterations, it will have to pay for them.
Aslaksen. But, damn it all–I beg your pardon–this is quite another matter, Mr, Hovstad!
Hovstad. It is, indeed.
Peter Stockmann. The most fatal part of it is that we shall be obliged to shut the Baths for a couple of years.
Hovstad. Shut them? Shut them altogether?
Aslaksen. For two years?
Peter Stockmann. Yes, the work will take as long as that–at least.
Aslaksen. I’m damned if we will stand that, Mr. Mayor! What are we householders to live upon in the meantime?
Peter Stockmann. Unfortunately, that is an extremely difficult question to answer, Mr. Aslaksen. But what would you have us do? Do you suppose we shall have a single visitor in the town, if we go about proclaiming that our water is polluted, that we are living over a plague spot, that the entire town–
Aslaksen. And the whole thing is merely imagination?
Peter Stockmann. With the best will in the world, I have not been able to come to any other conclusion.
Aslaksen. Well then I must say it is absolutely unjustifiable of Dr. Stockmann–I beg your pardon, Mr. Mayor.
Peter Stockmann. What you say is lamentably true, Mr. Aslaksen. My brother has unfortunately always been a headstrong man.
Aslaksen. After this, do you mean to give him your support, Mr. Hovstad?
Hovstad. Can you suppose for a moment that I–?
Peter Stockmann. I have drawn up a short resume of the situation as it appears from a reasonable man’s point of view. In it I have indicated how certain possible defects might suitably be remedied without outrunning the resources of the Baths Committee.
Hovstad. Have you got it with you, Mr. Mayor?
Peter Stockmann (fumbling in his pocket). Yes, I brought it with me in case you should–
Aslaksen. Good Lord, there he is!
Peter Stockmann. Who? My brother?
Hovstad. Where? Where?
Aslaksen. He has just gone through the printing room.
Peter Stockmann. How unlucky! I don’t want to meet him here, and I had still several things to speak to you about.
Hovstad (pointing to the door on the right). Go in there for the present.
Peter Stockmann. But–?
Hovstad. You will only find Billing in there.
Aslaksen. Quick, quick, Mr. Mayor–he is just coming.
Peter Stockmann. Yes, very well; but see that you get rid of him quickly. (Goes out through the door on the right, which ASLAKSEN opens for him and shuts after him.)
Hovstad. Pretend to be doing something, Aslaksen. (Sits down and writes. ASLAKSEN begins foraging among a heap of newspapers that are lying on a chair.)
Dr. Stockmann (coming in from the printing room). Here I am again. (Puts down his hat and stick.)
Hovstad (writing). Already, Doctor? Hurry up with what we were speaking about, Aslaksen. We are very pressed for time today.
Dr. Stockmann (to ASLAKSEN). No proof for me to see yet, I hear.
Aslaksen (without turning round). You couldn’t expect it yet, Doctor.
Dr. Stockmann. No, no; but I am impatient, as you can understand. I shall not know a moment’s peace of mind until I see it in print.
Hovstad. Hm!–It will take a good while yet, won’t it, Aslaksen?
Aslaksen. Yes, I am almost afraid it will.
Dr. Stockmann. All right, my dear friends; I will come back. I do not mind coming back twice if necessary. A matter of such great importance–the welfare of the town at stake–it is no time to shirk trouble, (is just going, but stops and comes back.) Look here–there is one thing more I want to speak to you about.
Hovstad. Excuse me, but could it not wait till some other time?
Dr. Stockmann. I can tell you in half a dozen words. It is only this. When my article is read tomorrow and it is realised that I have been quietly working the whole winter for the welfare of the town–
Hovstad. Yes but, Doctor–
Dr. Stockmann. I know what you are going to say. You don’t see how on earth it was any more than my duty–my obvious duty as a citizen. Of course it wasn’t; I know that as well as you. But my fellow citizens, you know–! Good Lord, think of all the good souls who think so highly of me–!
Aslaksen. Yes, our townsfolk have had a very high opinion of you so far, Doctor.
Dr. Stockmann. Yes, and that is just why I am afraid they–. Well, this is the point; when this reaches them, especially the poorer classes, and sounds in their ears like a summons to take the town’s affairs into their own hands for the future…
Hovstad (getting up). Ahem I Doctor, I won’t conceal from you the fact–
Dr. Stockmann. Ah I–I knew there was something in the wind! But I won’t hear a word of it. If anything of that sort is being set on foot–
Hovstad. Of what sort?
Dr. Stockmann. Well, whatever it is–whether it is a demonstration in my honour, or a banquet, or a subscription list for some presentation to me–whatever it is, you most promise me solemnly and faithfully to put a stop to it. You too, Mr. Aslaksen; do you understand?
Hovstad. You must forgive me, Doctor, but sooner or later we must tell you the plain truth–
(He is interrupted by the entrance Of MRS. STOCKMANN, who comes in from the street door.)
Mrs. Stockmann (seeing her husband). Just as I thought!
Hovstad (going towards her). You too, Mrs. Stockmann?
Dr. Stockmann. What on earth do you want here, Katherine?
Mrs. Stockmann. I should think you know very well what I want.
Hovstad, Won’t you sit down? Or perhaps–
Mrs. Stockmann. No, thank you; don’t trouble. And you must not be offended at my coming to fetch my husband; I am the mother of three children, you know.
Dr. Stockmann. Nonsense!–we know all about that.
Mrs. Stockmann. Well, one would not give you credit for much thought for your wife and children today; if you had had that, you would not have gone and dragged us all into misfortune.
Dr. Stockmann. Are you out of your senses, Katherine! Because a man has a wife and children, is he not to be allowed to proclaim the truth-is he not to be allowed to be an actively useful citizen–is he not to be allowed to do a service to his native town!
Mrs. Stockmann. Yes, Thomas–in reason.
Aslaksen. Just what I say. Moderation in everything.
Mrs. Stockmann. And that is why you wrong us, Mr. Hovstad, in enticing my husband away from his home and making a dupe of him in all this.
Hovstad. I certainly am making a dupe of no one–
Dr. Stockmann. Making a dupe of me! Do you suppose I should allow myself to be duped!
Mrs. Stockmann. It is just what you do. I know quite well you have more brains than anyone in the town, but you are extremely easily duped, Thomas. (To Hovstad.) Please do realise that he loses his post at the Baths if you print what he has written.
Aslaksen. What!
Hovstad. Look here, Doctor!
Dr. Stockmann (laughing). Ha-ha!–just let them try! No, no–they will take good care not to. I have got the compact majority behind me, let me tell you!
Mrs. Stockmann. Yes, that is just the worst of it–your having any such horrid thing behind you.
Dr. Stockmann. Rubbish, Katherine!–Go home and look after your house and leave me to look after the community. How can you be so afraid, when I am so confident and happy? (Walks up and down, rubbing his hands.) Truth and the People will win the fight, you may be certain! I see the whole of the broad-minded middle class marching like a victorious army–! (Stops beside a chair.) What the deuce is that lying there?
Aslaksen Good Lord!
Hovstad. Ahem!
Dr. Stockmann. Here we have the topmost pinnacle of authority! (Takes the Mayor’s official hat carefully between his finger-tips and holds it up in the air.)
Mrs. Stockmann. The Mayor’s hat!
Dr. Stockmann. And here is the staff of office too. How in the name of all that’s wonderful–?
Hovstad. Well, you see–
Dr. Stockmann. Oh, I understand. He has been here trying to talk you over. Ha-ha!–he made rather a mistake there! And as soon as he caught sight of me in the printing room. (Bursts out laughing.) Did he run away, Mr. Aslaksen?
Aslaksen (hurriedly). Yes, he ran away, Doctor.
Dr. Stockmann. Ran away without his stick or his–. Fiddlesticks! Peter doesn’t run away and leave his belongings behind him. But what the deuce have you done with him? Ah!–in there, of course. Now you shall see, Katherine!
Mrs. Stockmann. Thomas–please don’t–!
Aslaksen. Don’t be rash, Doctor.
(DR. STOCKMANN has put on the Mayor’s hat and taken his stick in his hand. He goes up to the door, opens it, and stands with his hand to his hat at the salute. PETER STOCKMANN comes in, red with anger. BILLING follows him.)
Peter Stockmann. What does this tomfoolery mean?
Dr. Stockmann. Be respectful, my good Peter. I am the chief authority in the town now. (Walks up and down.)
Mrs. Stockmann (almost in tears). Really, Thomas!
Peter Stockmann (following him about). Give me my hat and stick.
Dr. Stockmann (in the same tone as before). If you are chief constable, let me tell you that I am the Mayor–I am the master of the whole town, please understand!
Peter Stockmann. Take off my hat, I tell you. Remember it is part of an official uniform.
Dr. Stockmann. Pooh! Do you think the newly awakened lionhearted people are going to be frightened by an official hat? There is going to be a revolution in the town tomorrow, let me tell you. You thought you could turn me out; but now I shall turn you out– turn you out of all your various offices. Do you think I cannot? Listen to me. I have triumphant social forces behind me. Hovstad and Billing will thunder in the “People’s Messenger,” and Aslaksen will take the field at the head of the whole Householders’ Association–
Aslaksen. That I won’t, Doctor.
Dr. Stockmann. Of course you will–
Peter Stockmann. Ah!–may I ask then if Mr. Hovstad intends to join this agitation?
Hovstad. No, Mr. Mayor.
Aslaksen. No, Mr. Hovstad is not such a fool as to go and ruin his paper and himself for the sake of an imaginary grievance.
Dr. Stockmann (looking round him). What does this mean?
Hovstad. You have represented your case in a false light, Doctor, and therefore I am unable to give you my support.
Billing. And after what the Mayor was so kind as to tell me just now, I–
Dr. Stockmann. A false light! Leave that part of it to me. Only print my article; I am quite capable of defending it.
Hovstad. I am not going to print it. I cannot and will not and dare not print it.
Dr. Stockmann. You dare not? What nonsense!–you are the editor; and an editor controls his paper, I suppose!
Aslaksen. No, it is the subscribers, Doctor.
Peter Stockmann. Fortunately, yes.
Aslaksen. It is public opinion–the enlightened public– householders and people of that kind; they control the newspapers.
Dr. Stockmann (composedly). And I have all these influences against me?
Aslaksen. Yes, you have. It would mean the absolute ruin of the community if your article were to appear.
Dr. Stockmann. Indeed.
Peter Stockmann. My hat and stick, if you please. (DR. STOCKMANN takes off the hat and lays it on the table with the stick. PETER STOCKMANN takes them up.) Your authority as mayor has come to an untimely end.
Dr. Stockmann. We have not got to the end yet. (To HOVSTAD.) Then it is quite impossible for you to print my article in the “People’s Messenger”?
Hovstad. Quite impossible–out of regard for your family as well.
Mrs. Stockmann. You need not concern yourself about his family, thank you, Mr. Hovstad.
Peter Stockmann (taking a paper from his pocket). It will be sufficient, for the guidance of the public, if this appears. It is an official statement. May I trouble you?
Hovstad (taking the paper). Certainly; I will see that it is printed.
Dr. Stockmann. But not mine. Do you imagine that you can silence me and stifle the truth! You will not find it so easy as you suppose. Mr. Aslaksen, kindly take my manuscript at once and print it as a pamphlet–at my expense. I will have four hundred copies–no, five or six hundred.
Aslaksen. If you offered me its weight in gold, I could not lend my press for any such purpose, Doctor. It would be flying in the face of public opinion. You will not get it printed anywhere in the town.
Dr. Stockmann. Then give it me back.
Hovstad (giving him the MS.). Here it is.
Dr. Stockmann (taking his hat and stick). It shall be made public all the same. I will read it out at a mass meeting of the townspeople. All my fellow-citizens shall hear the voice of truth!
Peter Stockmann. You will not find any public body in the town that will give you the use of their hall for such a purpose.
Aslaksen. Not a single one, I am certain.
Billing. No, I’m damned if you will find one.
Mrs. Stockmann. But this is too shameful! Why should every one turn against you like that?
Dr. Stockmann (angrily). I will tell you why. It is because all the men in this town are old women–like you; they all think of nothing but their families, and never of the community.
Mrs. Stockmann (putting her arm into his). Then I will show them that an old woman can be a man for once. I am going to stand by you, Thomas!
Dr. Stockmann. Bravely said, Katherine! It shall be made public– as I am a living soul! If I can’t hire a hall, I shall hire a drum, and parade the town with it and read it at every street- corner.
Peter Stockmann. You are surely not such an errant fool as that!
Dr. Stockmann. Yes, I am.
Aslaksen. You won’t find a single man in the whole town to go with you.
Billing. No, I’m damned if you will.
Mrs. Stockmann. Don’t give in, Thomas. I will tell the boys to go with you.
Dr. Stockmann. That is a splendid idea!
Mrs. Stockmann. Morten will be delighted; and Ejlif will do whatever he does.
Dr. Stockmann. Yes, and Petra!–and you too, Katherine!
Mrs. Stockmann. No, I won’t do that; but I will stand at the window and watch you, that’s what I will do.
Dr. Stockmann (puts his arms round her and kisses her). Thank you, my dear! Now you and I are going to try a fall, my fine gentlemen! I am going to see whether a pack of cowards can succeed in gagging a patriot who wants to purify society! (He and his wife go out by the street door.)
Peter Stockmann (shaking his head seriously). Now he has sent her out of her senses, too.
ACT IV
(SCENE.–A big old-fashioned room in CAPTAIN HORSTER’S house. At the back folding-doors, which are standing open, lead to an ante- room. Three windows in the left-hand wall. In the middle of the opposite wall a platform has been erected. On this is a small table with two candles, a water-bottle and glass, and a bell. The room is lit by lamps placed between the windows. In the foreground on the left there is a table with candles and a chair. To the right is a door and some chairs standing near it. The room is nearly filled with a crowd of townspeople of all sorts, a few women and schoolboys being amongst them. People are still streaming in from the back, and the room is soon filled.)
1st Citizen (meeting another). Hullo, Lamstad! You here too?
2nd Citizen. I go to every public meeting, I do.
3rd Citizen. Brought your whistle too, I expect!
2nd Citizen. I should think so. Haven’t you?
3rd Citizen. Rather! And old Evensen said he was going to bring a cow-horn, he did.
2nd Citizen. Good old Evensen! (Laughter among the crowd.)
4th Citizen (coming up to them). I say, tell me what is going on here tonight?
2nd Citizen. Dr. Stockmann is going to deliver an address attacking the Mayor.
4th Citizen. But the Mayor is his brother.
1st Citizen. That doesn’t matter; Dr. Stockmann’s not the chap to be afraid.
Peter Stockmann. For various reasons, which you will easily understand, I must beg to be excused. But fortunately we have amongst us a man who I think will be acceptable to you all. I refer to the President of the Householders’ Association, Mr. Aslaksen.
Several voices. Yes–Aslaksen! Bravo Aslaksen!
(DR. STOCKMANN takes up his MS. and walks up and down the platform.)
Aslaksen. Since my fellow-citizens choose to entrust me with this duty, I cannot refuse.
(Loud applause. ASLAKSEN mounts the platform.)
Billing (writing), “Mr. Aslaksen was elected with enthusiasm.”
Aslaksen. And now, as I am in this position, I should like to say a few brief words. I am a quiet and peaceable man, who believes in discreet moderation, and–and–in moderate discretion. All my friends can bear witness to that.
Several Voices. That’s right! That’s right, Aslaksen!
Aslaksen. I have learned in the school of life and experience that moderation is the most valuable virtue a citizen can possess–
Peter Stockmann. Hear, hear!
Aslaksen. –And moreover, that discretion and moderation are what enable a man to be of most service to the community. I would therefore suggest to our esteemed fellow-citizen, who has called this meeting, that he should strive to keep strictly within the bounds of moderation.
A Man by the door. Three cheers for the Moderation Society!
A Voice. Shame!
Several Voices. Sh!-Sh!
Aslaksen. No interruptions, gentlemen, please! Does anyone wish to make any remarks?
Peter Stockmann. Mr. Chairman.
Aslaksen. The Mayor will address the meeting.
Peter Stockmann. In consideration of the close relationship in which, as you all know, I stand to the present Medical Officer of the Baths, I should have preferred not to speak this evening. But my official position with regard to the Baths and my solicitude for the vital interests of the town compel me to bring forward a motion. I venture to presume that there is not a single one of our citizens present who considers it desirable that unreliable and exaggerated accounts of the sanitary condition of the Baths and the town should be spread abroad.
Several Voices. No, no! Certainly not! We protest against it!
Peter Stockmann. Therefore, I should like to propose that the meeting should not permit the Medical Officer either to read or to comment on his proposed lecture.
Dr. Stockmann (impatiently). Not permit–! What the devil–!
Mrs. Stockmann (coughing). Ahem!-ahem!
Dr. Stockmann (collecting himself). Very well, Go ahead!
Peter Stockmann. In my communication to the “People’s Messenger,” I have put the essential facts before the public in such a way that every fair-minded citizen can easily form his own opinion. From it you will see that the main result of the Medical Officer’s proposals–apart from their constituting a vote of censure on the leading men of the town–would be to saddle the ratepayers with an unnecessary expenditure of at least some thousands of pounds.
(Sounds of disapproval among the audience, and some cat-calls.)
Aslaksen (ringing his bell). Silence, please, gentlemen! I beg to support the Mayor’s motion. I quite agree with him that there is something behind this agitation started by the Doctor. He talks about the Baths; but it is a revolution he is aiming at–he wants to get the administration of the town put into new hands. No one doubts the honesty of the Doctor’s intentions–no one will suggest that there can be any two opinions as to that, I myself am a believer in self-government for the people, provided it does not fall too heavily on the ratepayers. But that would be the case here; and that is why I will see Dr. Stockmann damned–I beg your pardon–before I go with him in the matter. You can pay too dearly for a thing sometimes; that is my opinion.
(Loud applause on all sides.)
Hovstad. I, too, feel called upon to explain my position. Dr. Stockmann’s agitation appeared to be gaining a certain amount of sympathy at first, so I supported it as impartially as I could. But presently we had reason to suspect that we had allowed ourselves to be misled by misrepresentation of the state of affairs–
Dr. Stockmann. Misrepresentation–!
Hovstad. Well, let us say a not entirely trustworthy representation. The Mayor’s statement has proved that. I hope no one here has any doubt as to my liberal principles; the attitude of the “People’s Messenger” towards important political questions is well known to everyone. But the advice of experienced and thoughtful men has convinced me that in purely local matters a newspaper ought to proceed with a certain caution.
Aslaksen. I entirely agree with the speaker.
Hovstad. And, in the matter before us, it is now an undoubted fact that Dr. Stockmann has public opinion against him. Now, what is an editor’s first and most obvious duty, gentlemen? Is it not to work in harmony with his readers? Has he not received a sort of tacit mandate to work persistently and assiduously for the welfare of those whose opinions he represents? Or is it possible I am mistaken in that?
Voices from the crowd. No, no! You are quite right!
Hovstad. It has cost me a severe struggle to break with a man in whose house I have been lately a frequent guest–a man who till today has been able to pride himself on the undivided goodwill of his fellow-citizens–a man whose only, or at all events whose essential, failing is that he is swayed by his heart rather than his head.
A few scattered voices. That is true! Bravo, Stockmann!
Hovstad. But my duty to the community obliged me to break with him. And there is another consideration that impels me to oppose him, and, as far as possible, to arrest him on the perilous course he has adopted; that is, consideration for his family–
Dr. Stockmann. Please stick to the water-supply and drainage!
Hovstad. –consideration, I repeat, for his wife and his children for whom he has made no provision.
Morten. Is that us, mother?
Mrs. Stockmann. Hush!
Aslaksen. I will now put the Mayor’s proposition to the vote.
Dr. Stockmann. There is no necessity! Tonight I have no intention of dealing with all that filth down at the Baths. No; I have something quite different to say to you.
Peter Stockmann (aside). What is coming now?
A Drunken Man (by the entrance door). I am a ratepayer! And therefore, I have a right to speak too! And my entire–firm– inconceivable opinion is–
A number of voices. Be quiet, at the back there!
Others. He is drunk! Turn him out! (They turn him out.)
Dr. Stockmann. Am I allowed to speak?
Aslaksen (ringing his bell). Dr. Stockmann will address the meeting.
Dr. Stockmann. I should like to have seen anyone, a few days ago, dare to attempt to silence me as has been done tonight! I would have defended my sacred rights as a man, like a lion! But now it is all one to me; I have something of even weightier importance to say to you. (The crowd presses nearer to him, MORTEN Kiil conspicuous among them.)
Dr. Stockmann (continuing). I have thought and pondered a great deal, these last few days–pondered over such a variety of things that in the end my head seemed too full to hold them–
Peter Stockmann (with a cough). Ahem!
Dr. Stockmann. –but I got them clear in my mind at last, and then I saw the whole situation lucidly. And that is why I am standing here to-night. I have a great revelation to make to you, my fellow-citizens! I will impart to you a discovery of a far wider scope than the trifling matter that our water supply is poisoned and our medicinal Baths are standing on pestiferous soil.
A number of voices (shouting). Don’t talk about the Baths! We won’t hear you! None of that!
Dr. Stockmann. I have already told you that what I want to speak about is the great discovery I have made lately–the discovery that all the sources of our moral life are poisoned and that the whole fabric of our civic community is founded on the pestiferous soil of falsehood.
Voices of disconcerted Citizens. What is that he says?
Peter Stockmann. Such an insinuation–!
Aslaksen (with his hand on his bell). I call upon the speaker to moderate his language.
Dr. Stockmann. I have always loved my native town as a man only can love the home of his youthful days. I was not old when I went away from here; and exile, longing and memories cast as it were an additional halo over both the town and its inhabitants. (Some clapping and applause.) And there I stayed, for many years, in a horrible hole far away up north. When I came into contact with some of the people that lived scattered about among the rocks, I often thought it would of been more service to the poor half- starved creatures if a veterinary doctor had been sent up there, instead of a man like me. (Murmurs among the crowd.)
Billing (laying down his pen). I’m damned if I have ever heard–!
Hovstad. It is an insult to a respectable population!
Dr. Stockmann. Wait a bit! I do not think anyone will charge me with having forgotten my native town up there. I was like one of the cider-ducks brooding on its nest, and what I hatched was the plans for these Baths. (Applause and protests.) And then when fate at last decreed for me the great happiness of coming home again–I assure you, gentlemen, I thought I had nothing more in the world to wish for. Or rather, there was one thing I wished for–eagerly, untiringly, ardently–and that was to be able to be of service to my native town and the good of the community.
Peter Stockmann (looking at the ceiling). You chose a strange way of doing it–ahem!
Dr. Stockmann. And so, with my eyes blinded to the real facts, I revelled in happiness. But yesterday morning–no, to be precise, it was yesterday afternoon–the eyes of my mind were opened wide, and the first thing I realised was the colossal stupidity of the authorities–. (Uproar, shouts and laughter, MRS. STOCKMANN coughs persistently.)
Peter Stockmann. Mr. Chairman!
Aslaksen (ringing his bell). By virtue of my authority–!
Dr. Stockmann. It is a petty thing to catch me up on a word, Mr. Aslaksen. What I mean is only that I got scent of the unbelievable piggishness our leading men had been responsible for down at the Baths. I can’t stand leading men at any price!–I have had enough of such people in my time. They are like billy- goats on a young plantation; they do mischief everywhere. They stand in a free man’s way, whichever way he turns, and what I should like best would be to see them exterminated like any other vermin–. (Uproar.)
Peter Stockmann. Mr. Chairman, can we allow such expressions to pass?
Aslaksen (with his hand on his bell). Doctor–!
Dr. Stockmann. I cannot understand how it is that I have only now acquired a clear conception of what these gentry are, when I had almost daily before my eyes in this town such an excellent specimen of them–my brother Peter–slow-witted and hide-bound in prejudice–. (Laughter, uproar and hisses. MRS. STOCKMANN Sits coughing assiduously. ASLAKSEN rings his bell violently.)
The Drunken Man (who has got in again). Is it me he is talking about? My name’s Petersen, all right–but devil take me if I–
Angry Voices. Turn out that drunken man! Turn him out. (He is turned out again.)
Peter Stockmann. Who was that person?
1st Citizen. I don’t know who he is, Mr. Mayor.
2nd Citizen. He doesn’t belong here.
3rd Citizen. I expect he is a navvy from over at–(the rest is inaudible).
Aslaksen. He had obviously had too much beer. Proceed, Doctor; but please strive to be moderate in your language.
Dr. Stockmann. Very well, gentlemen, I will say no more about our leading men. And if anyone imagines, from what I have just said, that my object is to attack these people this evening, he is wrong–absolutely wide of the mark. For I cherish the comforting conviction that these parasites–all these venerable relics of a dying school of thought–are most admirably paving the way for their own extinction; they need no doctor’s help to hasten their end. Nor is it folk of that kind who constitute the most pressing danger to the community. It is not they who are most instrumental in poisoning the sources of our moral life and infecting the ground on which we stand. It is not they who are the most dangerous enemies of truth and freedom amongst us.
Shouts from all sides. Who then? Who is it? Name! Name!
Dr. Stockmann. You may depend upon it–I shall name them! That is precisely the great discovery I made yesterday. (Raises his voice.) The most dangerous enemy of truth and freedom amongst us is the compact majority–yes, the damned compact Liberal majority–that is it! Now you know! (Tremendous uproar. Most of the crowd are shouting, stamping and hissing. Some of the older men among them exchange stolen glances and seem to be enjoying themselves. MRS. STOCKMANN gets up, looking anxious. EJLIF and MORTEN advance threateningly upon some schoolboys who are playing pranks. ASLAKSEN rings his bell and begs for silence. HOVSTAD and BILLING both talk at once, but are inaudible. At last quiet is restored.)
Aslaksen. As Chairman, I call upon the speaker to withdraw the ill-considered expressions he has just used.
Dr. Stockmann. Never, Mr. Aslaksen! It is the majority in our community that denies me my freedom and seeks to prevent my speaking the truth.
Hovstad. The majority always has right on its side.
Billing. And truth too, by God!
Dr. Stockmann. The majority never has right on its side. Never, I say! That is one of these social lies against which an independent, intelligent man must wage war. Who is it that constitute the majority of the population in a country? Is it the clever folk, or the stupid? I don’t imagine you will dispute the fact that at present the stupid people are in an absolutely overwhelming majority all the world over. But, good Lord!–you can never pretend that it is right that the stupid folk should govern the clever ones I (Uproar and cries.) Oh, yes–you can shout me down, I know! But you cannot answer me. The majority has might on its side–unfortunately; but right it has not. I am in the right–I and a few other scattered individuals. The minority is always in the right. (Renewed uproar.)
Hovstad. Aha!–so Dr. Stockmann has become an aristocrat since the day before yesterday!
Dr. Stockmann. I have already said that I don’t intend to waste a word on the puny, narrow-chested, short-winded crew whom we are leaving astern. Pulsating life no longer concerns itself with them. I am thinking of the few, the scattered few amongst us, who have absorbed new and vigorous truths. Such men stand, as it were, at the outposts, so far ahead that the compact majority has not yet been able to come up with them; and there they are fighting for truths that are too newly-born into the world of consciousness to have any considerable number of people on their side as yet.
Hovstad. So the Doctor is a revolutionary now!
Dr. Stockmann. Good heavens–of course I am, Mr. Hovstad! I propose to raise a revolution against the lie that the majority has the monopoly of the truth. What sort of truths are they that the majority usually supports? They are truths that are of such advanced age that they are beginning to break up. And if a truth is as old as that, it is also in a fair way to become a lie, gentlemen. (Laughter and mocking cries.) Yes, believe me or not, as you like; but truths are by no means as long-lived at Methuselah–as some folk imagine. A normally constituted truth lives, let us say, as a rule seventeen or eighteen, or at most twenty years–seldom longer. But truths as aged as that are always worn frightfully thin, and nevertheless it is only then that the majority recognises them and recommends them to the community as wholesome moral nourishment. There is no great nutritive value in that sort of fare, I can assure you; and, as a doctor, I ought to know. These “majority truths” are like last year’s cured meat–like rancid, tainted ham; and they are the origin of the moral scurvy that is rampant in our communities.
Aslaksen. It appears to me that the speaker is wandering a long way from his subject.
Peter Stockmann. I quite agree with the Chairman.
Dr. Stockmann. Have you gone clean out of your senses, Peter? I am sticking as closely to my subject as I can; for my subject is precisely this, that it is the masses, the majority–this infernal compact majority–that poisons the sources of our moral life and infects the ground we stand on.
Hovstad. And all this because the great, broadminded majority of the people is prudent enough to show deference only to well- ascertained and well-approved truths?
Dr. Stockmann. Ah, my good Mr. Hovstad, don’t talk nonsense about well-ascertained truths! The truths of which the masses now approve are the very truths that the fighters at the outposts held to in the days of our grandfathers. We fighters at the outposts nowadays no longer approve of them; and I do not believe there is any other well-ascertained truth except this, that no community can live a healthy life if it is nourished only on such old marrowless truths.
Hovstad. But, instead of standing there using vague generalities, it would be interesting if you would tell us what these old marrowless truths are, that we are nourished on.
(Applause from many quarters.)
Dr. Stockmann. Oh, I could give you a whole string of such abominations; but to begin with I will confine myself to one well-approved truth, which at bottom is a foul lie, but upon which nevertheless Mr. Hovstad and the “People’s Messenger” and all the “Messenger’s” supporters are nourished.
Hovstad. And that is–?
Dr. Stockmann. That is, the doctrine you have inherited from your forefathers and proclaim thoughtlessly far and wide–the doctrine that the public, the crowd, the masses, are the essential part of the population–that they constitute the People–that the common folk, the ignorant and incomplete element in the community, have the same right to pronounce judgment and to, approve, to direct and to govern, as the isolated, intellectually superior personalities in it.
Billing. Well, damn me if ever I–
Hovstad (at the same time, shouting out). Fellow-citizens, take good note of that!
A number of voices (angrily). Oho!–we are not the People! Only the superior folk are to govern, are they!
A Workman. Turn the fellow out for talking such rubbish!
Another. Out with him!
Another (calling out). Blow your horn, Evensen!
(A horn is blown loudly, amidst hisses and an angry uproar.)
Dr. Stockmann (when the noise has somewhat abated). Be reasonable! Can’t you stand hearing the voice of truth for once? I don’t in the least expect you to agree with me all at once; but I must say I did expect Mr. Hovstad to admit I was right, when he had recovered his composure a little. He claims to be a freethinker–
Voices (in murmurs of astonishment). Freethinker, did he say? Is Hovstad a freethinker?
Hovstad (shouting). Prove it, Dr. Stockmann! When have I said so in print?
Dr. Stockmann (reflecting). No, confound it, you are right!–you have never had the courage to. Well, I won’t put you in a hole, Mr. Hovstad. Let us say it is I that am the freethinker, then. I am going to prove to you, scientifically, that the “People’s Messenger” leads you by the nose in a shameful manner when it tells you that you–that the common people, the crowd, the masses, are the real essence of the People. That is only a newspaper lie, I tell you! The common people are nothing more than the raw material of which a People is made. (Groans, laughter and uproar.) Well, isn’t that the case? Isn’t there an enormous difference between a well-bred and an ill-bred strain of animals? Take, for instance, a common barn-door hen. What sort of eating do you get from a shrivelled up old scrag of a fowl like that? Not much, do you! And what sort of eggs does it lay? A fairly good crow or a raven can lay pretty nearly as good an egg. But take a well-bred Spanish or Japanese hen, or a good pheasant or a turkey–then you will see the difference. Or take the case of dogs, with whom we humans are on such intimate terms. Think first of an ordinary common cur–I mean one of the horrible, coarse-haired, low-bred curs that do nothing but run about the streets and befoul the walls of the houses. Compare one of these curs with a poodle whose sires for many generations have been bred in a gentleman’s house, where they have had the best of food and had the opportunity of hearing soft voices and music. Do you not think that the poodle’s brain is developed to quite a different degree from that of the cur? Of course it is. It is puppies of well-bred poodles like that, that showmen train to do incredibly clever tricks–things that a common cur could never learn to do even if it stood on its head. (Uproar and mocking cries.)
A Citizen (calls out). Are you going to make out we are dogs, now?
Another Citizen. We are not animals, Doctor!
Dr. Stockmann. Yes but, bless my soul, we are, my friend! It is true we are the finest animals anyone could wish for; but, even among us, exceptionally fine animals are rare. There is a tremendous difference between poodle-men and cur-men. And the amusing part of it is, that Mr. Hovstad quite agrees with me as long as it is a question of four-footed animals–
Hovstad. Yes, it is true enough as far as they are concerned.
Dr. Stockmann. Very well. But as soon as I extend the principle and apply it to two-legged animals, Mr. Hovstad stops short. He no longer dares to think independently, or to pursue his ideas to their logical conclusion; so, he turns the whole theory upside down and proclaims in the “People’s Messenger” that it is the barn-door hens and street curs that are the finest specimens in the menagerie. But that is always the way, as long as a man retains the traces of common origin and has not worked his way up to intellectual distinction.
Hovstad. I lay no claim to any sort of distinction, I am the son of humble country-folk, and I am proud that the stock I come from is rooted deep among the common people he insults.
Voices. Bravo, Hovstad! Bravo! Bravo!
Dr. Stockmann. The kind of common people I mean are not only to be found low down in the social scale; they crawl and swarm all around us–even in the highest social positions. You have only to look at your own fine, distinguished Mayor! My brother Peter is every bit as plebeian as anyone that walks in two shoes– (laughter and hisses)
Peter Stockmann. I protest against personal allusions of this kind.
Dr. Stockmann (imperturbably).–and that, not because he is like myself, descended from some old rascal of a pirate from Pomerania or thereabouts–because that is who we are descended from–
Peter Stockmann. An absurd legend. I deny it!
Dr. Stockmann. –but because he thinks what his superiors think, and holds the same opinions as they, People who do that are, intellectually speaking, common people; and, that is why my magnificent brother Peter is in reality so very far from any distinction–and consequently also so far from being liberal- minded.
Peter Stockmann. Mr. Chairman–!
Hovstad. So it is only the distinguished men that are liberal- minded in this country? We are learning something quite new! (Laughter.)
Dr. Stockmann. Yes, that is part of my new discovery too. And another part of it is that broad-mindedness is almost precisely the same thing as morality. That is why I maintain that it is absolutely inexcusable in the “People’s Messenger” to proclaim, day in and day out, the false doctrine that it is the masses, the crowd, the compact majority, that have the monopoly of broad- mindedness and morality–and that vice and corruption and every kind of intellectual depravity are the result of culture, just as all the filth that is draining into our Baths is the result of the tanneries up at Molledal! (Uproar and interruptions. DR. STOCKMANN is undisturbed, and goes on, carried away by his ardour, with a smile.) And yet this same “People’s Messenger” can go on preaching that the masses ought to be elevated to higher conditions of life! But, bless my soul, if the “Messenger’s” teaching is to be depended upon, this very raising up the masses would mean nothing more or less than setting them straightway upon the paths of depravity! Happily the theory that culture demoralises is only an old falsehood that our forefathers believed in and we have inherited. No, it is ignorance, poverty, ugly conditions of life, that do the devil’s work! In a house which does not get aired and swept every day–my wife Katherine maintains that the floor ought to be scrubbed as well, but that is a debatable question–in such a house, let me tell you, people will lose within two or three years the power of thinking or acting in a moral manner. Lack of oxygen weakens the conscience. And there must be a plentiful lack of oxygen in very many houses in this town, I should think, judging from the fact that the whole compact majority can be unconscientious enough to wish to build the town’s prosperity on a quagmire of falsehood and deceit.
Aslaksen. We cannot allow such a grave accusation to be flung at a citizen community.
A Citizen. I move that the Chairman direct the speaker to sit down.
Voices (angrily). Hear, hear! Quite right! Make him sit down!
Dr. Stockmann (losing his self-control). Then I will go and shout the truth at every street corner! I will write it in other towns’ newspapers! The whole country shall know what is going on here!
Hovstad. It almost seems as if Dr. Stockmann’s intention were to ruin the town.
Dr. Stockmann. Yes, my native town is so dear to me that I would rather ruin it than see it flourishing upon a lie.
Aslaksen. This is really serious. (Uproar and cat-calls MRS. STOCKMANN coughs, but to no purpose; her husband does not listen to her any longer.)
Hovstad (shouting above the din). A man must be a public enemy to wish to ruin a whole community!
Dr. Stockmann (with growing fervor). What does the destruction of a community matter, if it lives on lies? It ought to be razed to the ground. I tell you– All who live by lies ought to be exterminated like vermin! You will end by infecting the whole country; you will bring about such a state of things that the whole country will deserve to be ruined. And if things come to that pass, I shall say from the bottom of my heart: Let the whole country perish, let all these people be exterminated!
Voices from the crowd. That is talking like an out-and-out enemy of the people!
Billing. There sounded the voice of the people, by all that’s holy!
The whole crowd. (shouting). Yes, yes! He is an enemy of the people! He hates his country! He hates his own people!
Aslaksen. Both as a citizen and as an individual, I am profoundly disturbed by what we have had to listen to. Dr. Stockmann has shown himself in a light I should never have dreamed of. I am unhappily obliged to subscribe to the opinion which I have just heard my estimable fellow-citizens utter; and I propose that we should give expression to that opinion in a resolution. I propose a resolution as follows: “This meeting declares that it considers Dr. Thomas Stockmann, Medical Officer of the Baths, to be an enemy of the people.” (A storm of cheers and applause. A number of men surround the DOCTOR and hiss him. MRS. STOCKMANN and PETRA have got up from their seats. MORTEN and EJLIF are fighting the other schoolboys for hissing; some of their elders separate them.)
Dr. Stockmann (to the men who are hissing him). Oh, you fools! I tell you that–
Aslaksen (ringing his bell). We cannot hear you now, Doctor. A formal vote is about to be taken; but, out of regard for personal feelings, it shall be by ballot and not verbal. Have you any clean paper, Mr. Billing?
Billing. I have both blue and white here.
Aslaksen (going to him). That will do nicely; we shall get on more quickly that way. Cut it up into small strips–yes, that’s it. (To the meeting.) Blue means no; white means yes. I will come round myself and collect votes. (PETER STOCKMANN leaves the hall. ASLAKSEN and one or two others go round the room with the slips of paper in their hats.)
1st Citizen (to HOVSTAD). I say, what has come to the Doctor? What are we to think of it?
Hovstad. Oh, you know how headstrong he is.
2nd Citizen (to BILLING). Billing, you go to their house–have you ever noticed if the fellow drinks?
Billing. Well I’m hanged if I know what to say. There are always spirits on the table when you go.
3rd Citizen. I rather think he goes quite off his head sometimes.
1st Citizen. I wonder if there is any madness in his family?
Billing. I shouldn’t wonder if there were.
4th Citizen. No, it is nothing more than sheer malice; he wants to get even with somebody for something or other.
Billing. Well certainly he suggested a rise in his salary on one occasion lately, and did not get it.
The Citizens (together). Ah!–then it is easy to understand how it is!
The Drunken Man (who has got among the audience again). I want a blue one, I do! And I want a white one too!
Voices. It’s that drunken chap again! Turn him out!
Morten Kiil. (going up to DR. STOCKMANN). Well, Stockmann, do you see what these monkey tricks of yours lead to?
Dr. Stockmann. I have done my duty.
Morten Kiil. What was that you said about the tanneries at Molledal?
Dr. Stockmann. You heard well enough. I said they were the source of all the filth.
Morten Kiil. My tannery too?
Dr. Stockmann. Unfortunately your tannery is by far the worst.
Morten Kiil. Are you going to put that in the papers?
Dr. Stockmann. I shall conceal nothing.
Morten Kiil. That may cost you dearly, Stockmann. (Goes out.)
A Stout Man (going UP to CAPTAIN HORSTER, Without taking any notice of the ladies). Well, Captain, so you lend your house to enemies of the people?
Horster. I imagine I can do what I like with my own possessions, Mr. Vik.
The Stout Man. Then you can have no objection to my doing the same with mine.
Horster. What do you mean, sir?
The Stout Man. You shall hear from me in the morning. (Turns his back on him and moves off.)
Petra. Was that not your owner, Captain Horster?
Horster. Yes, that was Mr. Vik the shipowner.
Aslaksen (with the voting-papers in his hands, gets up on to the platform and rings his bell). Gentlemen, allow me to announce the result. By the votes of every one here except one person–
A Young Man. That is the drunk chap!
Aslaksen. By the votes of everyone here except a tipsy man, this meeting of citizens declares Dr. Thomas Stockmann to be an enemy of the people. (Shouts and applause.) Three cheers for our ancient and honourable citizen community! (Renewed applause.) Three cheers for our able and energetic Mayor, who has so loyally suppressed the promptings of family feeling! (Cheers.) The meeting is dissolved. (Gets down.)
Billing. Three cheers for the Chairman!
The whole crowd. Three cheers for Aslaksen! Hurrah!
Dr. Stockmann. My hat and coat, Petra! Captain, have you room on your ship for passengers to the New World?
Horster. For you and yours we will make room, Doctor.
Dr. Stockmann (as PETRA helps him into his coat), Good. Come, Katherine! Come, boys!
Mrs. Stockmann (in an undertone). Thomas, dear, let us go out by the back way.
Dr. Stockmann. No back ways for me, Katherine, (Raising his voice.) You will hear more of this enemy of the people, before he shakes the dust off his shoes upon you! I am not so forgiving as a certain Person; I do not say: “I forgive you, for ye know not what ye do.”
Aslaksen (shouting). That is a blasphemous comparison, Dr. Stockmann!
Billing. It is, by God! It’s dreadful for an earnest man to listen to.
A Coarse Voice. Threatens us now, does he!
Other Voices (excitedly). Let’s go and break his windows! Duck him in the fjord!
Another Voice. Blow your horn, Evensen! Pip, pip!
(Horn-blowing, hisses, and wild cries. DR. STOCKMANN goes out through the hall with his family, HORSTER elbowing a way for them.)
The Whole Crowd (howling after them as they go). Enemy of the People! Enemy of the People!
Billing (as he puts his papers together). Well, I’m damned if I go and drink toddy with the Stockmanns tonight!
(The crowd press towards the exit. The uproar continues outside; shouts of “Enemy of the People!” are heard from without.)
ACT V
(SCENE.–DR. STOCKMANN’S study. Bookcases and cabinets containing specimens, line the walls. At the back is a door leading to the hall; in the foreground on the left, a door leading to the sitting-room. In the righthand wall are two windows, of which all the panes are broken. The DOCTOR’S desk, littered with books and papers, stands in the middle of the room, which is in disorder. It is morning. DR. STOCKMANN in dressing- gown, slippers and a smoking-cap, is bending down and raking with an umbrella under one of the cabinets. After a little while he rakes out a stone.)
Dr. Stockmann (calling through the open sitting-room door). Katherine, I have found another one.
Mrs. Stockmann (from the sitting-room). Oh, you will find a lot more yet, I expect.
Dr. Stockmann (adding the stone to a heap of others on the table). I shall treasure these stones as relies. Ejlif and Morten shall look at them everyday, and when they are grown up they shall inherit them as heirlooms. (Rakes about under a bookcase.) Hasn’t–what the deuce is her name?–the girl, you know–hasn’t she been to fetch the glazier yet?
Mrs. Stockmann (coming in). Yes, but he said he didn’t know if he would be able to come today.
Dr. Stockmann. You will see he won’t dare to come.
Mrs. Stockmann. Well, that is just what Randine thought–that he didn’t dare to, on account of the neighbours. (Calls into the sitting-room.) What is it you want, Randine? Give it to me. (Goes in, and comes out again directly.) Here is a letter for you, Thomas.
Dr. Stockmann. Let me see it. (Opens and reads it.) Ah!–of course.
Mrs. Stockmann. Who is it from?
Dr. Stockmann. From the landlord. Notice to quit.
Mrs. Stockmann. Is it possible? Such a nice man
Dr. Stockmann (looking at the letter). Does not dare do otherwise, he says. Doesn’t like doing it, but dare not do otherwise–on account of his fellow-citizens–out of regard for public opinion. Is in a dependent position–dares not offend certain influential men.
Mrs. Stockmann. There, you see, Thomas!
Dr. Stockmann. Yes, yes, I see well enough; the whole lot of them in the town are cowards; not a man among them dares do anything for fear of the others. (Throws the letter on to the table.) But it doesn’t matter to us, Katherine. We are going to sail away to the New World, and–
Mrs. Stockmann. But, Thomas, are you sure we are well advised to take this step?
Dr. Stockmann. Are you suggesting that I should stay here, where they have pilloried me as an enemy of the people–branded me– broken my windows! And just look here, Katherine–they have torn a great rent in my black trousers too!
Mrs. Stockmann. Oh, dear!–and they are the best pair you have got!
Dr. Stockmann. You should never wear your best trousers when you go out to fight for freedom and truth. It is not that I care so much about the trousers, you know; you can always sew them up again for me. But that the common herd should dare to make this attack on me, as if they were my equals–that is what I cannot, for the life of me, swallow!
Mrs. Stockmann. There is no doubt they have behaved very ill toward you, Thomas; but is that sufficient reason for our leaving our native country for good and all?
Dr. Stockmann. If we went to another town, do you suppose we should not find the common people just as insolent as they are here? Depend upon it, there is not much to choose between them. Oh, well, let the curs snap–that is not the worst part of it. The worst is that, from one end of this country to the other, every man is the slave of his Party. Although, as far as that goes, I daresay it is not much better in the free West either; the compact majority, and liberal public opinion, and all that infernal old bag of tricks are probably rampant there too. But there things are done on a larger scale, you see. They may kill you, but they won’t put you to death by slow torture. They don’t squeeze a free man’s soul in a vice, as they do here. And, if need be, one can live in solitude. (Walks up and down.) If only I knew where there was a virgin forest or a small South Sea island for sale, cheap–