Riva, on the Lake
of Garda, and will probably remain there until the middle of October,
or even longer. Thus I am quite alone here, and cannot get away. The new
play on which I am at present engaged will probably not be ready until
November, though I sit at my writing-table daily, and almost the whole
day long."

Here ends the history of _Hedda Gabler_, so far as the poet's
letters carry us. Its hard clear outlines, and perhaps somewhat bleak
atmosphere, seem to have resulted from a sort of reaction against the
sentimental "dreamery" begotten of his Gossensass experiences. He
sought refuge in the chill materialism of Hedda from the ardent
transcendentalism of Hilda, whom he already heard knocking at the door.
He was not yet in the mood to deal with her on the plane of poetry.(3)

_Hedda Gabler_ was published in Copenhagen on December 16, 1890. This
was the first of Ibsen's plays to be translated from proof-sheets and
published in England and America almost simultaneously with its first
appearance in Scandinavia. The earliest theatrical performance took
place at the Residenz Theater, Munich, on the last day of January 1891,
in the presence of the poet, Frau Conrad-Ramlo playing the title-part.
The Lessing Theater, Berlin, followed suit on February 10. Not till
February 25 was the play seen in Copenhagen, with Fru Hennings as Hedda.
On the following night it was given for the first time in Christiania,
the Norwegian Hedda being Froken Constance Bruun. It was this production
which the poet saw when he visited the Christiania Theater for the first
time after his return to Norway, August 28, 1891. It would take pages
to give even the baldest list of the productions and revivals of _Hedda
Gabler_ in Scandinavia and Germany, where it has always ranked among
Ibsen's most popular works. The admirable production of the play by Miss
Elizabeth Robins and Miss Marion Lea, at the Vaudeville Theatre,
London, April 20, 1891, may rank as the second great step towards
the popularisation of Ibsen in England, the first being the
Charrington-Achurch production of _A Doll's House_ in 1889. Miss Robins
afterwards repeated her fine performance of Hedda many times, in London,
in the English provinces, and in New York. The character has also been
acted in London by Eleonora Duse, and as I write (March, 5, 1907) by
Mrs. Patrick Campbell, at the Court Theatre. In Australia and America,
Hedda has frequently been acted by Miss Nance O'Neill and ot