Christiania, although Bjoernson vigorously
maintained that the protraiture was typical rather than personal.

"In various other countries than my own, I have observed the type of
journalist who is here depicted. It is characterized by acting upon a
basis of sheer egotism, passionate and boundless, and by terrorism in
such fashion that it frightens honest people away from every liberal
movement, and visits upon the individual an unscrupulous persecution."

This play was not particularly successful upon the stage, but the book
was widely read, and occasioned much excited personal controversy. "A
Bankruptcy," on the other hand, proved a brilliant stage success. Its
matter was less contentious, and its technical execution was effective
and brilliant. It was not in vain that Bjoernson had at different times
been the director of three theatres. This play has for its theme the
ethics of business life, and more especially the question of the extent
to which a man whose finances are embarrassed is justified in continued
speculation for the ultimate protection of himself and his creditors.
Despite its treatment of this serious problem, the play is lighter and
more genial in vein than the author's plays are wont to be, and the
element of humor is unusually conspicuous. Jaeger remarks that "A
Bankruptcy" did two new things for Norwegian dramatic literature. It
made money affairs a legitimate subject for literary treatment, and it
raised the curtain upon the Norwegian home. "It was with 'A Bankruptcy'
that the home made its first appearance upon the stage, the home with
its joys and sorrows, with its conflicts and its tenderness."

Two years later appeared "The King, which is in many respects
Bjoernson's greatest modern masterpiece in dramatic form. He had by
this time become a convinced republican, but he was also an
evolutionist, and he knew that republics are not created by fiat. He
believed the tendency toward republicanism to be irresistible, but he
believed also that there must be intermediate stages in the transition
from monarchy. Absolutism is succeeded by constitutionalism, and that
by parliamentarism, and that in the end must be succeeded by a
republicanism that will free itself from all the traditional forms of
symbol and ceremonial. He had also a special belief that the smaller
peoples were better fitted for development in this direction than the
larger and more complex societies, although, on the other hand,