[8]. Married women and widows of the lower middle-class are addressed as Madam in Norway.
[9]. The Norwegian “Independence Day.”
[10]. “Local situation” is a very ineffectual rendering of Aslaksen’s phrase, “lokale forholde”—German, Verhältnisse—but there seems to be no other which will fit into all the different contexts in which it occurs. It reappears in An Enemy of the People, Act V
[11]. The system of indirect election obtains in Norway. The constituencies choose a College of Electors, who, in turn, choose the Members of the Storthing or Parliament. It is the preliminary “Election of Electors” to which Monsen refers.
[12]. In this untranslatable passage Daniel Heire seems to be making a sort of pun on suffragium and naufragium.
[13]. In Norway, before an action comes into Court, the parties are bound to appear in person before a Commission of Arbitration or Conciliation. If the Commission can suggest an arrangement acceptable to both sides, this arrangement has the validity of a judgment, and the case goes no further. Counsel are not allowed to appear before the Commission.
ACT SECOND.
A garden-room at the Chamberlains, elegantly furnished, with a piano, flowers, and rare plants. Entrance door at the back. On the left, a door leading to the dining-room; on the right, several glass doors lead out to the garden.
Aslaksen stands at the entrance door. A Maidservant is carrying some dishes of fruit into the dining-room.
The Maid.