[1]. Letters 214, 216, 217, 219.
[2]. In the Ibsen volume of Die Literatur (Berlin).
[3]. Dr. Julius Elias (Neue deutsche Rundschau, December 1906, p. 1462) makes the curious assertion that the character of Thea Elvsted was in part borrowed from this “Gossensasser Hildetypus.” It is hard to see how even Ibsen’s ingenuity could distil from the same flower two such different essences as Thea and Hilda.
[4]. See article by Herman Bang in Neue deutsche Rundschau, December 1906, p. 1495.
[5]. Dr. Brahm (Neue deutsche Rundschau, December 1906, p. 1422) says that, after the first performance of Hedda Gabler in Berlin, Ibsen confided to him that the character had been suggested by a German lady whom he met in Munich, and who did not shoot, but poisoned herself. Nothing more seems to be known of this lady. See, too, an article by Julius Elias in the same magazine, p. 1460.
[6]. ”To the May-sun of a September life—in Tyrol.“
[7]. ”High, painful happiness—to struggle for the unattainable!“
[8]. Neue deutsche Rundschau, December 1906, p. 1462.
[9]. This conception I have worked out at much greater length in an essay, entitled The Melody of the Master Builder, appended to the shilling edition of the play, published in 1893. I there retell the story, transplanting it to England and making the hero a journalist instead of an architect, in order to show that (if we grant the reality of certain commonly-accepted phenomena of hypnotism) there is nothing incredible or even extravagantly improbable about it. The argument is far too long to be included here, but the reader who is interested in the subject may find it worth referring to.
[10]. For an instance of the technical methods by which he suggested the supernormal element in the atmosphere of the play, see Introduction to A Doll’s House, p. xiv.