The Master Builder and Other Plays Read online

  HILDE: I have no trunk.

  MRS SOLNESS: Oh well, that’ll sort itself out, I dare say. But you’ll have to make do with my husband’s company for the moment, while I see about having a room made nice and comfortable for you.

  SOLNESS: Couldn’t we use one of the nurseries? They’re all fixed up and ready anyway.

  MRS SOLNESS: Oh, yes. We’ve plenty of room there. [To HILDE] Why don’t you sit down, Miss Wangel, and rest a while. [She exits to the right.]

  HILDE roams around the room with her hands behind her back, looking at this and that. SOLNESS stands in front of the desk, also with his hands behind his back, following her with his eyes.

  HILDE [stopping and looking at him]: Do you have several nurseries, sir?

  SOLNESS: There are three nurseries in this house.

  HILDE: That’s a lot. You must have a great many children then?

  SOLNESS: No, we have no children. But now you can play at being a child for a while.

  HILDE: For tonight, yes. And I won’t cry. I’m going to try to see if I can’t sleep like a log.

  SOLNESS: Yes, you must be very tired, I’m sure.

  HILDE: Not at all! And yet –. It’s so utterly glorious12 to lie there like that and dream.

  SOLNESS: Do you often dream like that at night?

  HILDE: Oh, yes! Almost always.

  SOLNESS: And what do you dream of most?

  HILDE: I’m not saying, not tonight. Another time – perhaps. [She roams around the room again, stops by the desk and sifts lightly through the books and papers.]

  SOLNESS [stepping closer]: Are you looking for something?

  HILDE: No, I’m just standing here taking in all of this. [Turns.] Or maybe I’m not allowed to?

  SOLNESS: No, go ahead.

  HILDE: Is it you who writes in that big ledger?

  SOLNESS: No, it’s the bookkeeper.

  HILDE: A woman?13

  SOLNESS [smiling]: Yes, of course.

  HILDE: Someone you have working here with you?

  SOLNESS: Yes.

  HILDE: Is she married, this woman?

  SOLNESS: No, she’s a single lady.

  HILDE: I see.

  SOLNESS: But it looks as if she’ll be marrying soon.

  HILDE: Well, that’s good for her.

  SOLNESS: But not so good for me. Because then I’ll have no one to help me.

  HILDE: Can’t you find someone else who’s just as good, though?

  SOLNESS: Perhaps you could stay here and – and write in the ledger?

  HILDE [eyes him up and down]: Oh, that will be right! No thank you – we’ll have none of that.

  She wanders across the room again and sits down in the rocking-chair. SOLNESS too walks over to the coffee table.

  HILDE [as if continuing]: – I mean there must be other things to do around here apart from that. [Smiling at him] Don’t you think so too?

  SOLNESS: Certainly. First and foremost, though, I imagine you’ll want to do some shopping and get yourself all smartened up.

  HILDE [cheerfully]: No, I think I’d better not do that!

  SOLNESS: Oh?

  HILDE: Yes, because I’ve squandered all my money, you see.

  SOLNESS [laughing]: So, no trunk and no money!

  HILDE: Neither, no. Well, never mind – it’s all one now.

  SOLNESS: There, now that I really like you for!

  HILDE: Only for that?

  SOLNESS: For that and other things. [Sitting down in the armchair] Is your father still alive?

  HILDE: Yes, Father’s alive.

  SOLNESS: And now you’re thinking, perhaps, of studying here in town?

  HILDE: No, that hadn’t occurred to me.

  SOLNESS: But you’ll be staying here for some time, I presume?

  HILDE: Depending on how things go.

  She sits for a moment looking at him, half serious, half smiling. Then she takes off her hat and places it on the table in front of her.

  HILDE: Mr Master Builder Solness?

  SOLNESS: Yes?

  HILDE: Are you very forgetful, sir?

  SOLNESS: Forgetful? No, not as far as I know.

  HILDE: Then don’t you want to talk to me at all about what happened up there?

  SOLNESS [looks taken aback for a moment]: Up at Lysanger? [Indifferently] Well, there’s not much to talk about as far as that goes, I don’t think.

  HILDE [regards him reproachfully]: How can you sit there and say such a thing!

  SOLNESS: All right, you talk to me about it then.

  HILDE: When the tower was finished we had a big celebration in the town.14

  SOLNESS: Yes, I won’t forget that day in a hurry.

  HILDE [smiling]: Oh, no? How nice of you, sir!

  SOLNESS: Nice?

  HILDE: There was a band playing in the churchyard. And hundreds and hundreds of people. We schoolgirls were dressed in white. And we were all carrying flags.

  SOLNESS: Oh, yes, those flags – I remember them all right!

  HILDE: Then you climbed straight up the scaffolding. All the way up to the very top. And you were carrying a big wreath. And you hung that wreath right up there on the weather-vane.

  SOLNESS [brusquely, breaking in]: I used to do that back then. It’s an old custom, you see.

  HILDE: It was so wonderfully exciting to stand there, down below, gazing up at you. What if he were to fall! Him – the master builder himself!

  SOLNESS [as if changing the subject]: Yes, yes, yes, and Lord knows I might have done. Because one of those little white-clad devils – she carried on so, and shrieked up at me so –

  HILDE [all aglow]: ‘Hooray for Master Builder Solness!’ Yes!

  SOLNESS: – and waved that flag of hers so wildly that it – that it almost made my head spin to look at it.

  HILDE [more quietly, gravely]: That little devil – that was me.

  SOLNESS [staring hard at her]: Yes, I’m certain of that now. It had to be you.

  HILDE [brightening again]: Because it was so splendid and so terribly exciting. I couldn’t believe there was a master builder in all the world who could build such an enormously high tower. And then the fact that you were standing up there yourself, at the very top! In person! And that you weren’t the slightest bit dizzy. That was the most – kind of – dizzying thought of all.

  SOLNESS: But how could you be so sure that I wasn’t –?

  HILDE [dismissively]: Oh – now really! I felt it inside. I mean, otherwise you couldn’t have stood up there and sung, could you?

  SOLNESS [staring at her in amazement]: Sung? I sang?

  HILDE: You most certainly did.

  SOLNESS [shaking his head]: I’ve never sung a note in my life.

  HILDE: Well, you sang then. It sounded like harps playing15 in the air.

  SOLNESS [thoughtfully]: This is very odd – all this.

  HILDE [is quiet for a moment, looks at him and says softly]: But then – afterwards – then came the real bit.16

  SOLNESS: The real –?

  HILDE [glowing]: Yes, oh now surely I don’t have to remind you about that?

  SOLNESS: Oh yes, remind me just a little about that too.

  HILDE: Don’t you remember the grand dinner that was held in your honour at the club?

  SOLNESS: Ah, yes. That must have been that same afternoon. Because I left the next morning.

  HILDE: And after the club you were invited to supper at our house.

  SOLNESS: That’s quite correct, Miss Wangel. Remarkable how well all these little details have been imprinted on your memory.

  HILDE: Little details! Oh, a fine one you are! And I suppose it was just a little detail that I was alone in the drawing room when you arrived?

  SOLNESS: You were?

  HILDE [not replying to this]: You didn’t call me a little devil then.

  SOLNESS: No, I don’t imagine I did.

  HILDE: You said that I looked lovely in my white dress. And that I was like a little princess.

  SOLNESS: As I�
��m sure you were, Miss Wangel! And besides – feeling as free and easy as I did that day –

  HILDE: And then you said that when I grew up I would be your princess.

  SOLNESS [chuckling]: Well, well – I said that too?

  HILDE: Yes, you did. And when I asked how long I would have to wait, you said you would come back in ten years – like a troll – and carry me off. To Spain or somewhere like that. And there, you promised, you would buy me a kingdom.

  SOLNESS [as before]: Yes, well after a good dinner one can tend to be a bit extravagant. But did I really say all that?

  HILDE [laughing softly]: Yes. And you even told me what my kingdom would be called.

  SOLNESS: Really?

  HILDE: You said it would be called the kingdom of Orangia.17

  SOLNESS: Well, well, what an appetizing name.

  HILDE: No, I didn’t like it at all. Because it sounded as if you were making fun of me.

  SOLNESS: I’m sure I never meant to do that.

  HILDE: No, I should certainly hope not. Considering what you did next, I mean –

  SOLNESS: What on earth did I do next?

  HILDE: Oh, don’t tell me you’ve forgotten that as well! Because no one could help remembering such a thing, I’m sure.

  SOLNESS: Well, if you could just jog my memory a little, then perhaps –. Hm?

  HILDE [looking him straight in the eye]: You went and kissed me, Master Builder Solness.

  SOLNESS [open-mouthed, jumps up from his chair]: I did!

  HILDE: Oh yes, you did. You put your arms around me, tilted me backwards and kissed me. Many times.

  SOLNESS: Oh, but my dear, sweet Miss Wangel –!

  HILDE [getting to her feet]: You’re not going to deny it, surely?

  SOLNESS: Yes, I most certainly do deny it!

  HILDE [eyeing him contemptuously]: I see.

  She turns and walks slowly over to the stove and stands facing it, motionless, with her hands behind her back. Brief pause.

  SOLNESS [warily coming up behind her]: Miss Wangel –?

  HILDE neither moves nor says anything.

  SOLNESS: Please don’t stand there like a stone pillar. This thing you spoke of, it must be something you’ve dreamed. [Laying a hand on her arm] Listen to me –

  HILDE gives an impatient shake of her arm.

  SOLNESS [as if a thought has occurred to him]: Or – Wait though! – There’s something here that goes deeper, you’ll see!

  HILDE does not move.

  SOLNESS [softly, but intently]: I must have thought all this. I must have willed it. Have wished for it. Have desired it. And then –. Might that not be the way of it?

  HILDE still says nothing.

  SOLNESS [impatiently]: All right, all right, dammit – then I must have done it as well!

  HILDE [turns her head slightly, but does not look at him]: So you admit it now?

  SOLNESS: Yes. Whatever you want.

  HILDE: That you put your arms around me?

  SOLNESS: Yes, yes!

  HILDE: And tilted me back?

  SOLNESS: A long, long way back.

  HILDE: And kissed me?

  SOLNESS: Yes, I did.

  HILDE: Many times?

  SOLNESS: As many as you like.

  HILDE [spinning round to face him, eyes sparkling again]: There, you see, I got it out of you at last!

  SOLNESS [smiling]: Yes – fancy me forgetting something like that.

  HILDE [pouting slightly again and walking away from him]: Oh, well – you’ve kissed so many girls in your day, I expect.

  SOLNESS: No, you mustn’t think that of me.

  HILDE sits down in the armchair. SOLNESS stands with one hand on the rocking-chair.

  SOLNESS [studying her closely]: Miss Wangel?

  HILDE: Yes?

  SOLNESS: How was it now? What else happened there – between us two?

  HILDE: Nothing else happened. As you very well know. Because then the other guests arrived, and then – ugh!

  SOLNESS: Yes, that’s right! The others arrived. Fancy me forgetting that, too.

  HILDE: Oh, you haven’t really forgotten any of it. Just been a little ashamed. One doesn’t forget something like that, I know.

  SOLNESS: No, it certainly seems that way.

  HILDE [bright and bubbly again, looking at him]: Or have you perhaps also forgotten what day it was?

  SOLNESS: What day –?

  HILDE: Yes, on what day you hung the wreath on the tower? Well? Out with it now!

  SOLNESS: Hm – the actual date, for the life of me, I can’t remember. I only know that it was ten years ago. In the autumn sometime.

  HILDE [nodding her head slowly several times]: It was ten years ago. On the 19th of September.

  SOLNESS: Ah, yes, it must have been around then. Well I never, you even remember that! [Stopping short] Wait a moment, though –! Yes – it’s the 19th of September today too.

  HILDE: Yes, it is. And the ten years is up. And you did not come – as you promised me you would.

  SOLNESS: Promised you? Threatened you with, don’t you mean?

  HILDE: I wouldn’t call that much of a threat.

  SOLNESS: Well, teased you a little, then!

  HILDE: Was that all you wanted? To tease me?

  SOLNESS: Well, to have a bit of fun with you then! Heaven help me, I don’t remember. But it must have been something like that. Because you were only a child back then.

  HILDE: Oh, perhaps not so much of a child as all that. Not such a chit of a girl as you might think.

  SOLNESS [eyeing her intently]: Did you really, seriously believe that I would come back?

  HILDE [concealing a faintly mischievous smile]: Of course! I expected it of you.

  SOLNESS: That I would come to your home and carry you off?

  HILDE: Just like a troll, yes.

  SOLNESS: And make you a princess?

  HILDE: You promised me you would.

  SOLNESS: And give you a kingdom, too?

  HILDE [gazing at the ceiling]: Well, why not. I mean, it’s not as if it needed to be an ordinary, real sort of kingdom.

  SOLNESS: But something else that was just as good?

  HILDE: Yes, at least as good. [Considering him briefly] After all, if you could build the tallest towers in the world, then you had to be able to see your way to building some sort of kingdom too – or so I thought.

  SOLNESS [shaking his head]: I just don’t know what to make of you, Miss Wangel.

  HILDE: You don’t? It seems very simple to me.

  SOLNESS: No, I can’t figure out whether you mean everything you’re saying. Or whether you’re only joking –

  HILDE [smiling]: Making fun, maybe? Me too?

  SOLNESS: Yes, exactly. Making fun. Of us both. [Looking at her] Have you known for a long time that I was married?

  HILDE: Yes, I’ve known all along. Why do you ask that?

  SOLNESS [casually]: Oh, the thought just occurred to me. [Regards her gravely and says in a low voice] Why did you come here?

  HILDE: Because I want my kingdom. The time’s up, you know.

  SOLNESS [laughing in spite of himself]: Oh, you’re a fine one, you are!

  HILDE [gaily]: Hand over my kingdom, master builder! [Rapping on the table with her finger] Kingdom on the table!

  SOLNESS [pushing the rocking-chair closer and sitting down]: Seriously, though – why did you come? What do you really mean to do here?

  HILDE: Well, first I’m going to take a walk around and look at everything you’ve built.

  SOLNESS: In that case you’ll have more than enough to keep you going.

  HILDE: Yes, because you’ve built such an awful lot.

  SOLNESS: That I have. Mainly in the last few years.

  HILDE: A lot of church towers too? Enormously high ones?

  SOLNESS: No. I don’t build church towers any more. No churches either.

  HILDE: So what do you build now?

  SOLNESS: Homes for people.

  HILDE [thoughtf
ully]: Couldn’t you add a touch of – a touch of the church tower to those homes too?

  SOLNESS [puzzled]: What do you mean by that?

  HILDE: I mean – something that points – sort of up into the air. With the weather-vane so dizzyingly high above.

  SOLNESS [ponders this for a moment]: It’s funny you should say that. Because there’s nothing I’d rather do.

  HILDE [impatiently]: Well why don’t you do it then!

  SOLNESS [shaking his head]: No, because it’s not what people want.

  HILDE: Imagine – not to want that!

  SOLNESS [more brightly]: I’m building a new home for myself now, though. Just across from here.

  HILDE: For yourself?

  SOLNESS: Yes, it’s almost finished. And that one does have a tower.

  HILDE: High tower?

  SOLNESS: Yes.

  HILDE: Very high?

  SOLNESS: People will probably say it’s far too high. For a home.

  HILDE: First thing tomorrow morning I’m going out to have a look at that tower.

  SOLNESS [sits with his hand on his cheek, staring at her]: Tell me, Miss Wangel – what is your name? Your first name, I mean.

  HILDE: My name’s Hilde, of course.

  SOLNESS [as before]: Hilde? Ah?

  HILDE: Don’t you even remember that? You called me Hilde yourself. That day when you behaved so improperly.

  SOLNESS: I did that as well?

  HILDE: Only then you called me little Hilde. And that I did not like.

  SOLNESS: So you didn’t like that, Miss Hilde?

  HILDE: No, not then. – Come to think of it – ‘Princess Hilde’ –. That will sound rather good, I think.

  SOLNESS: I see. Princess Hilde of – of –. What was it your kingdom was to be called?

  HILDE: Oh, pooh! I’m not interested in that stupid kingdom. I want a very different one, I do!

  SOLNESS [has sat back in his chair and is still looking at her]: Isn’t it strange –? The more I think about it now – the more I feel that for years and years I’ve been racking my brains, trying to – er –

  HILDE: To what?

  SOLNESS: To recall something – some experience which I felt I must have forgotten. But no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t think what it might be.

  HILDE: You should have tied a knot in your handkerchief,18 master builder.

  SOLNESS: Then I would just have gone around wondering what that knot was for.