TO LOUIS UNTERMEYER
"Ibsen Revisited" was first produced at the Liberal Club, in 1914, with the following cast:
The Maid ………. Jo Gotsch
The Stranger…… Floyd Dell
A middle-class interior. The parlour-maid is dusting the furniture.
THE MAID. Oh, how dull it is here! Nobody to talk to, nobody to flirt with. . . . Flirt! The men that come to this house don't even know the meaning of the word. I never worked in such a place. Life is just one long funeral. I wish something would happen. (A knock at the door.) Ah! if it were only in the old days, one might hope that that was a reporter. But nothing like that now!
She opens the door. A stranger enters.
THE STRANGER. Is—ah—Miss Gabler in?
THE MAID. You mean—Mrs. Lovberg?
THE STRANGER. Yes—but . . . I'm not mistaken, am I? Mrs. Lovberg is— or was—Hedda Gabler. Isn't that true?
THE MAID. Oh, yes, it's Hedda. But she prefers to be called by her husband's name. Did you wish to see her? She is busy just now.