4, K.A. Winterhjelm has
a short appreciation of his work. "Johannes Brun has, as nearly as we
can estimate, played something like three hundred roles at Christiania
Theater. Many of them, to be sure, are minor parts--but there remains
a goodly number of important ones, from the clown in the farce to the
chief parts in the great comedies. Merely to enumerate his great
successes would carry us far afield. We recall in passing that he
has given us Falstaff both in _Henry IV_ and in _The Merry Wives of
Windsor_, Bottom in _A Midsummer Night's Dream_, and Autolycus in
_A Winter's Tale_. Perhaps he lacks something of the nobleman we feel
that he should be in _Henry IV_, but aside from this petty criticism,
what a wondrous comic character Brun has given us!"

As to the success of _Coriolanus_, the sixteenth of Shakespeare's plays
to be put on in Kristiania, neither the newspapers nor the magazines
give us any clew. If we may believe a little puff in _Aftenposten_ for
January 20, 1874, the staging was to be magnificent. _Coriolanus_ was
played in a translation by Hartvig Lassen for the first time on January
21, 1874. After thirteen performances it was withdrawn on January 10,
1876, and has not been since presented.

In 1877, _Richard III_ was brought on the boards for the first time, but
apparently the occasion was not considered significant, for there is
scarcely a notice of it. The public seemed surfeited with Shakespeare,
although the average had been less than one Shakespearean play a season.
At all events, it was ten years before the theater put on a new
one--_Julius Caesar_, on March 22, 1888. It had the unheard of
distinction of being acted sixteen times in one month, from the premiere
night to April 22. Yet the papers passed it by with indifference. Most
of them gave it merely a notice, and the promised review in
_Aftenposten_ never appeared.

_Julius Caesar_ is the last new play to be presented at Christiania
Theater or at the National Theater, which replaced the old Christiania
Theater in 1899. From October, 1899 to January, 1913 the National
Theater has presented eight Shakespearean plays, but every one of
them has been a revival of plays previously presented.

_Bergen_

Up to a few years ago, the only theater of consequence in Norway,
outside of the capital, was at Bergen. In many respects the history of
the theater at Bergen is more interesting than that of the theater at
Christiania. Established in 1850, w