The Project Gutenberg EBook of Three Dramas, by Bjornstjerne M. Bjornson

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Title: Three Dramas
The Editor--The Bankrupt--The King

Author: Bjornstjerne M. Bjornson

Commentator: R. Farquharson Sharp

Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7844]
Posting Date: August 11, 2009

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THREE DRAMAS ***

Produced by Nicole Apostola

THREE DRAMAS

THE EDITOR--THE BANKRUPT--THE KING

By Bjornstjerne Bjornson

CONTENTS

THE EDITOR
THE BANKRUPT
THE KING

INTRODUCTION

The three plays here presented were the outcome of a period when
Bjornson's views on many topics were undergoing a drastic revision and
he was abandoning much of his previous orthodoxy in many directions. Two
of them were written during, and one immediately after, a three years'
absence from Norway--years spent almost entirely in southern Europe.
[Note: Further details respecting Bjornson's life will be found in the
Introduction to Three Comedies by Bjornson, published in Everyman's
Library in 1912.] For nearly ten years previous to this voluntary
exile, Bjornson had been immersed in theatrical management and political
propagandism. His political activities (guided by a more or less
pronounced republican tendency) centred in an agitation for a truer
equality between the kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, his point of view
being that Norway had come to be regarded too much as a mere appanage
of Sweden. Between that and his manifold and distracting cares as
theatrical director, he had let imaginative work slide for the time
being; but his years abroad had a recuperative effect, and, in addition,
broadened his mental outlook in a remarkable manner. Foreign travel, a
wider acquaintance with differing types of humanity, and, above all,
a newly-won acquaintance with the contemporary literature of other
countries, made a deep impression upon Bjornson's vigorously receptive
mind. He browsed voraciously upon the works of foreign writers. Herbert
Spencer, Darwin, John Stuart Mill, Taine, Max-Mueller, formed a portion
of his mental pabulum at this time--and the result was a significa