nt
alteration of mental attitude on a number of questions, and a
determination to make the attempt to embody his theories in dramatic
form. He had gained all at once, as he wrote to Georg Brandes, the
eminent Danish critic, "eyes that saw and ears that heard." Up to this
time the poet in him had been predominant; now it was to be the
social philosopher that held the reins. Just as Ibsen did, so Bjornson
abandoned historical drama and artificial comedy for an attempt at
prose drama which should have at all events a serious thesis. In this
he anticipated Ibsen; for (unless we include the satirical political
comedy, _The League of Youth_, which was published in 1869, among
Ibsen's "social dramas") Ibsen did not enter the field with _Pillars of
Society_ [Note: Published in _The Pretenders and Two Other Plays_, in
Everyman's Library, 1913.] until 1877, whereas Bjornson's _The Editor_,
_The Bankrupt_, and _The King_ were all published between 1874 and 1877.
Intellectual and literary life in Denmark had been a good deal stirred
and quickened in the early seventies, and the influence of that
awakening was inevitably felt by the more eager spirits in the other
Scandinavian countries. It is amusing to note, as one Norwegian writer
has pointed out, that this intellectual upheaval (which, in its turn,
was a reflection of that taking place in outer Europe) came at a time
when the bulk of the Scandinavian folk "were congratulating themselves
that the doubt and ferment of unrest which were undermining the
foundations of the great communities abroad had not had the power to
ruffle the placid surface of our good, old-fashioned, Scandinavian
orthodoxy." Bjornson makes several sly hits in these plays (as does
Ibsen in _Pillars of Society_) at this distrust of the opinions and
manners of the larger communities outside of Scandinavia, notably
America, with which the Scandinavian countries were more particularly in
touch through emigration.

Brandes characterises the impelling motive of these three plays as a
passionate appeal for a higher standard of truth--in journalism, in
finance, in monarchy: an appeal for less casuistry and more honesty.
Such a motive was characteristic of the vehement honesty of Bjornson's
own character; he must always, as he says in one of his letters, go
over to the side of any one whom he believed to "hold the truth in his
hands."

_The Editor_ (_Redaktoeren_) was written while Bjornson was in Florence,
and was