cally effective, but it can hardly be called logical. Gert has
been disposed of. His sudden return out of the clutches of the soldiers
is inexplicable and unwarranted. Worse still, he has only a short
while previous been urging Olof to live on for his work. If Olof be
a renegade, he is so upon the advice of Gert himself, and to call the
concession made by Olof for the saving of his own life far-reaching
enough to explain Gert's sudden change of attitude approaches
dangerously near to quibbling. In the metrical version, on the other
hand, the same cry of "renegade" is quite logically and suitably
wrung from the lips of Vilhelm, the scholar who is still dreaming of
uncompromised ideals. But it is not the final word. This comes from
Olof, and takes the form of a brief apostrophe to the fleeing Vilhelm,
which I think ranks with the finest passages produced by Strindberg.
Apologetically, I offer this English version of it as a fitting close to
my Introduction:

Olof. Oh, what a word! But though it shook the air,
These columns did not stir, nor fell the dome,
And I stand calm upon this lonely shore,
Where I was dropped by the receding waves--
For, after all, I am ashore. And now
A last "good luck upon the road" I send
To speed the daring sailor who will give
No ear to one that just has come to grief.
With sails hauled close, steer for the open sea
And for the far-off goal your soul desires!
Ere long you must fall off like all the rest,
Although a star your guiding landmark be
For in due time the stars themselves must fall!

EDWIN BJORKMAN MAY 15, 1915

MASTER OLOF

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

OLOF PEDERSSON (Olaus Petri), generally known as MASTER OLOF.
GERT THE PRINTER.
GUSTAF ERIKSSON VASA, King of Sweden.
HANS BRASK, Bishop of Linkoeping.
MANS SOMMAR, Bishop of Straengnaes.
LARS SIGGESON, Lord High Constable.
LARS ANDERSSON (Laurentius Andreae), Lord High Chancellor.
LARS PEDERSSON (Laurentius Petri), brother of Master Olof.
HANS WINDRANK, a Master Mariner.
A Man from Smaland.
A German.
A Dane.
MARTEN and NILS, Black Friars.
A Tavern-keeper.
A Burier.
First Scholar.
Second Scholar.
The Sexton at St. Nicolaus (or Greatchurch).
A Servant of the Palace.
An Overseer.
A Townsman.
A Courtier.
DAME CHRISTINE, Olof's mother.
CHRISTINE, daughter of Gert the Printer.