1866.]

More interesting and more important than most of the performances
which we have thus far considered is that of _Henry IV_ in 1867, while
Bjornson was still director. To his desire to give Johannes Brun an
opportunity for the display of his genius in the greatest of comic roles
we owe this version of the play. Bjornson obviously could not give both
parts, and he chose to combine cuttings from the two into a single play
with Falstaff as the central figure. The translation used was Lembcke's
and the text was only slightly norvagicized.

Bjornson's original prompt book is not now available. In 1910, however,
H. Wiers Jensen, a playwright associated with the National Theater,
shortened and slightly adapted the version for a revival of the play,
which had not been seen in Kristiania since February 8, 1885. We may
assume that in all essentials the prompt book of 1910 reproduces that of
1867.

In this _Kong Henrik IV_ the action opens with I Henry IV, II-4, and Act
I consists of this scene freely cut and equally freely handled in the
distribution of speeches. The opening of the scene, for example, is cut
away entirely and replaced by a brief account of the robbery put naively
into the mouth of Poins. The opening of Act II is entirely new. Since
all the historical scenes of Act I of the original have been omitted, it
becomes necessary to give the audience some notion of the background.
This is done in a few lines in which the King tells of the revolt of
the nobles and of his own difficult situation. Then follows the king's
speech from Part I, Act III, Sc. 2:

Lords, give us leave; the prince of Wales and I
must have some conference...

and what follows is the remainder of the scene with many cuttings. Sir
Walter Blunt does not appear. His role is taken by Warwick.

Act II, Sc. 2 of Bjornson's text follows Part I, Act III, Sc. 3 closely.

Act III, Sc. 1 corresponds with Part I, Act III, Sc. 1 to the point
where Lady Mortimer and Lady Percy enter. This episode is cut and the
scene resumes with the entrance of the messenger in Part I, Act IV,
Sc. 1, line 14. This scene is then followed in outline to the end.

Act III, Sc. 2 begins with Part I, Act IV, Sc. 3 from the entrance of
Falstaff, and follows it to the end of the scene. To this is added most
of Scene 4, but there is little left of the original action. Only the
Falstaff episodes are retained intact.

The last act (IV) is a wonderful composite. Scene 1 co