itous. Fru Dybwad had scored her greatest success as Puck; the life
and sparkle and jollity of that mischievous wight seemed like a poetic
glorification of her own character. It might be expected, then, that she
would triumph in the role of Rosalind.

[38: _As You Like It_, eller _Livet i Skogen_. Dramatisk Skuespil
av William Shakespeare. Oversat og bearbeidet for Nationaltheatret
av Herman Wildenvey. Kristiania og Kobenhavn. 1912.]

Then came the problem of a stage version. A simple cutting of Lembcke
seemed inappropriate to this intensely modern woman. There was danger,
too, that Lembcke's faithful Danish would hang heavy on the light and
sparkling Norwegian. Herman Wildenvey undertook to prepare an acting
version that should fit the actress and the occasion. The result is the
text before us. For the songs and intermissions, Johan Halvorsen,
Kapelmester of the theater, composed new music and the theater provided
a magnificent staging. The tremendous stage-success of Wildenvey's _As
You Like It_ belongs rather to stage history, and for the present we
shall confine ourselves to the translation itself.

First, what of the cutting? In a short introduction the translator has
given an apologia for his procedure. It is worth quoting at some length.
"To adapt a piece of literature is, as a rule, not especially
commendable. And now, I who should be the last to do it, have become the
first in this country to attempt anything of the sort with Shakespeare.

"I will not defend myself by saying that most of Shakespeare's plays
require some sort of adaptation to the modern stage if they are to be
played at all. But, as a matter of fact, I have done little adapting. I
have dusted some of the speeches, maltreated others, and finally cut out
a few which would have sputtered out of the mouths of the actors like
fringes of an old tapestry. But, above all, I have tried to reproduce
the imperishable woodland spirit, the fresh breath of out-of-doors which
permeates this play."

Wildenvey then states that in his cuttings he has followed the edition
of the British Empire Shakespeare Society. But the performance in
Kristiania has demanded more, "and my adaptation could not be so
wonderfully ideal. _As You Like It_ is, probably more than any other of
Shakespeare's plays, a jest and only in part a play. Through the title
he has given his work, he has given me the right to make my own
arrangement which is accordingly, yours truly