Hedda!

  [Approaching her.]

  Good heavens—are you up so early? Eh?

  HEDDA

  Yes, I am up very early this morning.

  TESMAN

  And I never doubted you were still sound asleep! Fancy that, Hedda!

  HEDDA

  Don’t speak so loud. Mrs. Elvsted is resting in my room.

  TESMAN

  Has Mrs. Elvsted been here all night?

  HEDDA

  Yes, since no one came to fetch her.

  TESMAN

  Ah, to be sure.

  HEDDA [Closes the door of the stove and rises.]

  Well, did you enjoy yourselves at Judge Brack’s?

  TESMAN

  Have you been anxious about me? Eh?

  HEDDA

  No, I should never think of being anxious. But I asked if you had enjoyed yourself.

  TESMAN

  Oh yes,—for once in a way. Especially the beginning of the evening; for then Eilert read me part of his book. We arrived more than an hour too early—fancy that! And Brack had all sorts of arrangements to make—so Eilert read to me.

  HEDDA [Seating herself by the table on the right.]

  Well? Tell me, then——

  TESMAN [Sitting on a footstool near the stove.]

  Oh Hedda, you can’t conceive what a book that is going to be! I believe it is one of the most remarkable things that have ever been written. Fancy that!

  HEDDA

  Yes yes; I don’t care about that——

  TESMAN

  I must make a confession to you, Hedda. When he had finished reading—a horrid feeling came over me.

  HEDDA

  A horrid feeling?

  TESMAN

  I felt jealous of Eilert for having had it in him to write such a book. Only think, Hedda!

  HEDDA

  Yes, yes, I am thinking!

  TESMAN

  And then how pitiful to think that he—with all his gifts—should be irreclaimable, after all.

  HEDDA

  I suppose you mean that he has more courage than the rest?

  TESMAN

  No, not at all—I mean that he is incapable of taking his pleasures in moderation.

  HEDDA

  And what came of it all—in the end?

  TESMAN

  Well, to tell the truth, I think it might best be described as an orgy, Hedda.

  HEDDA

  Had he vine-leaves in his hair?

  TESMAN

  Vine-leaves? No, I saw nothing of the sort. But he made a long, rambling speech in honour of the woman who had inspired him in his work—that was the phrase he used.

  HEDDA

  Did he name her?

  TESMAN

  No, he didn’t; but I can’t help thinking he meant Mrs. Elvsted. You may be sure he did.

  HEDDA

  Well—where did you part from him?

  TESMAN

  On the way to town. We broke up—the last of us at any rate—all together; and Brack came with us to get a breath of fresh air. And then, you see, we agreed to take Eilert home; for he had had far more than was good for him.

  HEDDA

  I daresay.

  TESMAN

  But now comes the strange part of it, Hedda; or, I should rather say, the melancholy part of it. I declare I am almost ashamed—on Eilert’s account—to tell you——

  HEDDA

  Oh, go on——!

  TESMAN

  Well, as we were getting near town, you see, I happened to drop a little behind the others. Only for a minute or two—fancy that!

  HEDDA

  Yes, yes, yes, but——?

  TESMAN

  And then, as I hurried after them—what do you think I found by the wayside? Eh?

  HEDDA

  Oh, how should I know!

  TESMAN

  You mustn’t speak of it to a soul, Hedda! Do you hear! Promise me, for Eilert’s sake.

  [Draws a parcel, wrapped in paper, from his coat pocket.]

  Fancy, dear—I found this.

  HEDDA

  Is not that the parcel he had with him yesterday?

  TESMAN

  Yes, it is the whole of his precious, irreplaceable manuscript! And he had gone and lost it, and knew nothing about it. Only fancy, Hedda! So deplorably——

  HEDDA

  But why did you not give him back the parcel at once?

  TESMAN

  I didn’t dare to—in the state he was then in——

  HEDDA

  Did you not tell any of the others that you had found it?

  TESMAN

  Oh, far from it! You can surely understand that, for Eilert’s sake, I wouldn’t do that.

  HEDDA

  So no one knows that Eilert Lövborg’s manuscript is in your possession?

  TESMAN

  No. And no one must know it.

  HEDDA

  Then what did you say to him afterwards?

  TESMAN

  I didn’t talk to him again at all; for when we got in among the streets, he and two or three of the others gave us the slip and disappeared. Fancy that!

  HEDDA

  Indeed! They must have taken him home then.

  TESMAN

  Yes, so it would appear. And Brack, too, left us.

  HEDDA

  And what have you been doing with yourself since?

  TESMAN

  Well, I and some of the others went home with one of the party, a jolly fellow, and took our morning coffee with him; or perhaps I should rather call it our night coffee—eh? But now, when I have rested a little, and given Eilert, poor fellow, time to have his sleep out, I must take this back to him.

  HEDDA [Holds out her hand for the packet.]

  No—don’t give it to him! Not in such a hurry, I mean. Let me read it first.

  TESMAN

  No, my dearest Hedda, I mustn’t, I really mustn’t.

  HEDDA

  You must not?

  TESMAN

  No—for you can imagine what a state of despair he will be in when he wakens and misses the manuscript. He has no copy of it, you must know! He told me so.

  HEDDA [Looking searchingly at him.]

  Can such a thing not be reproduced? Written over again?

  TESMAN

  No, I don’t think that would be possible. For the inspiration, you see——

  HEDDA

  Yes, yes—I suppose it depends on that——

  [Lightly.]

  But, by-the-bye—here is a letter for you.

  TESMAN

  Fancy——!

  HEDDA [Handing it to him.]

  It came early this morning.

  TESMAN

  It’s from Aunt Julia! What can it be?

  [He lays the packet on the other footstool, opens the letter, runs his eye

  through it, and jumps up.]

  Oh, Hedda—she says that poor Aunt Rina is dying!

  HEDDA

  Well, we were prepared for that.

  TESMAN

  And that if I want to see her again, I must make haste. I’ll run in to them at once.

  HEDDA [Suppressing a smile.]

  Will you run?

  TESMAN

  Oh, my dearest Hedda—if you could only make up your mind to come with me! Just think!

  HEDDA [Rises and says wearily, repelling the idea.]

  No, no, don’t ask me. I will not look upon sickness and death. I loathe all sorts of ugliness.

  TESMAN

  Well, well, then——!

  [Bustling around.]

  My hat——? My overcoat——? Oh, in the hall——. I do hope

  I mayn’t come too late, Hedda! Eh?

  HEDDA

  Oh, if you run——

  [BERTA appears at the hall door.]

  BERTA

  Judge Brack is at the door, and wishes to know if he may come in.

  TESMAN

  At this time! No, I can’t possibly see him.

  HEDDA

  But I can.

  [To BERTA.]

  Ask Judge Brack to come in.

  [BERTA goes out.]

  HEDDA. [Quickly, whispering.]

  The parcel, Tesman!

  [She snatches it up from the stool.]

  TESMAN

  Yes, give it to me!

  HEDDA

  No, no, I will keep it till you come back.

  [She goes to the writing-table and places it in the bookcase. TESMAN

  stands in a flurry of haste, and cannot get his gloves on.]

  JUDGE BRACK enters from the hall.

  HEDDA [Nodding to him.]

  You are an early bird, I must say.

  BRACK

  Yes, don’t you think so?

  [To TESMAN.]

  Are you on the move, too?

  TESMAN

  Yes, I must rush off to my aunts’. Fancy—the invalid one is lying at death’s door, poor creature.

  BRACK

  Dear me, is she indeed? Then on no account let me detain you. At such a critical moment——

  TESMAN

  Yes, I must really rush——Good-bye! Good-bye! [He hastens out by the hall door.]

  HEDDA [Approaching.]

  You seem to have made a particularly lively night of it at your rooms, Judge Brack.

  BRACK

  I assure you I have not had my clothes off, Mrs. Hedda.

  HEDDA

  Not you, either?

  BRACK

  No, as you may see. But what has Tesman been telling you of the night’s adventures?

  HEDDA

  Oh, some tiresome story. Only that they went and had coffee somewhere or other.

  BRACK

  I have heard about that coffee-party already. Eilert Lövborg was not with them, I fancy?

  HEDDA

  No, they had taken him home before that.

  BRACK

  Tesman too?

  HEDDA

  No, but some of the others, he said.

  BRACK [Smiling.]

  George Tesman is really an ingenuous creature, Mrs. Hedda.

  HEDDA

  Yes, heaven knows he is. Then is there something behind all this?

  BRACK

  Yes, perhaps there may be.

  HEDDA

  Well then, sit down, my dear Judge, and tell your story in comfort. [She seats herself to the left of the table. BRACK sits near her, at the long side of the table.]

  HEDDA

  Now then?

  BRACK

  I had special reasons for keeping track of my guests—or rather of some of my guests—last night.

  HEDDA

  Of Eilert Lövborg among the rest, perhaps?

  BRACK

  Frankly—yes.

  HEDDA

  Now you make me really curious——

  BRACK

  Do you know where he and one or two of the others finished the night, Mrs. Hedda?

  HEDDA

  If it is not quite unmentionable, tell me.

  BRACK

  Oh no, it’s not at all unmentionable. Well, they put in an appearance at a particularly animated soirée.156

  HEDDA

  Of the lively kind?

  BRACK

  Of the very liveliest——

  HEDDA

  Tell me more of this, Judge Brack——

  BRACK

  Lövborg, as well as the others, had been invited in advance. I knew all about it. But he had declined the invitation; for now, as you know, he has become a new man.

  HEDDA

  Up at the Elvsteds’, yes. But he went after all, then?

  BRACK

  Well, you see, Mrs. Hedda—unhappily the spirit moved him at my rooms last evening——

  HEDDA

  Yes, I hear he found inspiration.

  BRACK

  Pretty violent inspiration. Well, I fancy that altered his purpose; for we menfolk are unfortunately not always so firm in our principles as we ought to be.

  HEDDA

  Oh, I am sure you are an exception, Judge Brack. But as to Lövborg—?

  BRACK

  To make a long story short—he landed at last in Mademoiselle Diana’s rooms.

  HEDDA

  Mademoiselle Diana’s?

  BRACK

  It was Mademoiselle Diana that was giving the soirée to a select circle of her admirers and her lady friends.

  HEDDA

  Is she a red-haired woman?

  BRACK

  Precisely.

  HEDDA

  A sort of a—singer?

  BRACK

  Oh yes—in her leisure moments. And moreover a mighty huntress—of men—Mrs. Hedda. You have no doubt heard of her. Eilert Lövborg was one of her most enthusiastic protectors—in the days of his glory.

  HEDDA

  And how did all this end?

  BRACK

  Far from amicably, it appears. After a most tender meeting, they seem to have come to blows——

  HEDDA

  Lövborg and she?

  BRACK

  Yes. He accused her or her friends of having robbed him. He declared that his pocket-book had disappeared—and other things as well. In short, he seems to have made a furious disturbance.

  HEDDA

  And what came of it all?

  BRACK

  It came to a general scrimmage,157 in which the ladies as well as the gentlemen took part. Fortunately the police at last appeared on the scene.

  HEDDA

  The police too?

  BRACK

  Yes. I fancy it will prove a costly frolic for Eilert Lövborg, crazy being that he is.

  HEDDA

  How so?

  BRACK

  He seems to have made a violent resistance—to have hit one of the constables on the head and torn the coat off his back. So they had to march him off to the police-station with the rest.

  HEDDA

  How have you learnt all this?

  BRACK

  From the police themselves.

  HEDDA [Gazing straight before her.]

  So that is what happened. Then he had no vine-leaves in his hair.

  BRACK

  Vine-leaves, Mrs. Hedda?

  HEDDA [Changing her tone.]

  But tell me now, Judge—what is your real reason for tracking out Eilert Lövborg’s movements so carefully?

  BRACK

  In the first place, it could not be entirely indifferent to me if it should appear in the police-court that he came straight from my house.

  HEDDA Will the matter come into court then?

  BRACK

  Of course. However, I should scarcely have troubled so much about that. But I thought that, as a friend of the family, it was my duty to supply you and Tesman with a full account of his nocturnal exploits.

  HEDDA

  Why so, Judge Brack?

  BRACK

  Why, because I have a shrewd suspicion that he intends to use you as a sort of blind.

  HEDDA

  Oh, how can you think such a thing!

  BRACK

  Good heavens, Mrs. Hedda—we have eyes in our head. Mark my words! This Mrs. Elvsted will be in no hurry to leave town again.

  HEDDA

  Well, even if there should be anything between them, I suppose there are plenty of other places where they could meet.

  BRACK

  Not a single home. Henceforth, as before, every respectable house will be closed against Eilert Lövborg.

  HEDDA And so ought mine to be, you mean?

  BRACK

  Yes. I confess it would be more than painful to me if this personage were to be made free of your house. How superfluous, how intrusive, he would be, if he were to force his way into——

  HEDDA

  ——into the triangle?

  BRACK Precisely. It would simply mean that I should find myself homeless.

  HEDDA [Looks at him with a smile.]

  So you want to be the one cock in the basket*—that is your aim.

  BRACK [Nods slowly and lowers his voice.]

  Yes, that is my aim. And for that I will fight—with every weapon I can command.

  HEDDA [Her smile vanishing.]

  I see you are a dangerous person—when it comes to the point.

  *Eneste hane i kurven—a proverbial saying.

  BRACK

  Do you think so?

  HEDDA

  I am beginning to think so. And I am exceedingly glad to think—that you have no sort of hold over me.

  BRACK [Laughing equivocally.]

  Well, well, Mrs. Hedda—perhaps you are right there. If I had, who knows what I might be capable of?

  HEDDA

  Come come now, Judge Brack! That sounds almost like a threat.