Peer Gynt: A Dramatic Poem by Henrik Ibsen (review)

1966 BOOK REVIEWS 447 drama or the modem novel. One is not likely to read it dispassionately. The book is often difficult going, but is usually worth the effort. In most respects it is a model of literary criticism. MELVIN J. FRIEDMAN University of Maryland PEER GYNT: A DRAMATIC POEM, by Henrik Ibsen, A new translation with a Foreword, by Rolf Fje1de, A Signet Classic, New American Library, New York, 1964, 253 pp. Price $.60. During the past decade and a half several editions of Ibsen's "social" plays and last plays--most of them "new" translations, one "a definitive new translation" -have appeared in paperback: Anchor, Bantam, Penguin, etc. Some of these lack adequate introductions and notes; some are content with outdated interpretations ; others reveal impatience in working out difficult passages; still others continue to lean pretty heavily upon Archer; and at least one urges that judicious cutting is a virtue in this jet age. Notable among hard-cover publications have been the editions by Eva Le Gallienne of Hedda Gabler and The Master Builder (New York University Press) and the McFarlane Oxford Ibsen, not yet complete. The best introductions, especially for people in the theater, are those by Eva Le Gallienne ; the most complete apparatus is being supplied in the Oxford Ibsen; and, a thoughtful statement on the responsibility of the present-day translator of Ibsen is that by Una Ellis-Fermor in Hedda' Gabler and Other Plays (Penguin, 1950). Far less attention has been paid to Ibsen's earlier production, and with good reason. Most of the earlier plays have little or no appeal to American or English audiences, and the two that do have a'ppeal, Brand and Peer Gynt, present formidable tasks for the translator. There have, nevertheless, been translations of Brand and Peer Gynt since the war, and these have now been augmented by The Vikings at Helgeland (1857), Love's Comedy (1862), The Pretenders (1863), The League of Youth (1869), and Emperor and Galilean (1873), all in the Oxford Ibsen; by Michael Meyer's adaptations of Brand and Peer Gynt (Anchor) for stage and TV; and by Rolf Fje1de's translation of the complete text of Peer Gynt (Signet). On the earlier plays McFarlane's Oxford Ibsen includes, in accord with his general practice, the most thorough treatment of the respective plays and the texts. There is a commendable foreword by W. H. Auden for Meyer's Brand (Anchor). Fjelde has written an impressive introduction to Peer Gynt. He also includes explanations for eighty-nine terms that are essential to an understanding of otherwise obscure passages. It would have been well had he glossed all the French, German, and Latin expressions that Ibsen used. I have only one major reservation about Fjelde's interpretation, that a final assessment of the character of Peer does not appear to have been reached. He has presented sufficient evidence to make a definitive statement, but he seems to have come to "a narrow door," which he hesitates to enter. There are also a number of minor matters in the foreword with which I would take issue, but a useful commentary would require too much space. Fjelde does not state what tasks he set for himself as translator, a serious omission, so the reviewer is left, on many occasions, to guess. We can suggest the nature of the perh3ips impossible task of rendering Peer Gynt faithfully into English with a brief comment on Ibsen's practice. Ibsen uses his language (sometimes colloquially, but never vulgarly) so that it serves both as a means of conveying what the character intends to say as well as a commentary by the author on the character and the situation; he maintains a consistent felicity of expression 448 MODERN DRAMA February throughout; and he achieves perfect rhythm and ingenious rhyme, with run-on lines and shifting rhyme patterns (a secondary feature here is the frequent change of meter and of line length to accommodate shifting moods, changing idea, etc.). These combine to produce a total effect that has never been equaled in Norwegian literature (Kinck's Driftekaren, The Man of Instinct, would on some counts only be a serious contender), and in all...