I don’t see what complete tragedy there is for it but that. But the Devil knows what queer card the old Roué has up his sleeve!—Perhaps Rita “has” the roadmaster publicly on the stage, while Asta throws herself into the fiord. Yes, Eyolf No. 2 does by design what Eyolf No. 1 did by accident—and does it conjointly with Alfred (at the risk of repeating Rosmersholm and Hedda and the Wild Duck), while Rita falls upon Borgheim and the Rat wife returns leading in a wild dance of rodents! That, at least, is the way it should be. But come to my aid! I was so full of it yesterday that, being near you, I popped in—tho’ I had already written, but only missed you.
Yours ever,
H. J.
Nov. 28th. 1894.
34, De Vere Gardens. W.
Dear Mr. Pawling,
Many thanks for your missive of yesterday & the message from the publisher-dramatist, whose friendly thought of sending me the play I much appreciate. I have read it, and, having done so, feel that such reflections as it may have engendered had better be imparted to Heinemann directly. Therefore I will write to him by the time he shall have returned from Manchester—& I will in returning him the sheets also send back the 3d. act of Ibsen, which I ought already to have restored & of which I spoke perhaps a little too despairingly on Sunday night at Gosse’s. On reading it over more deliberately the next day, I saw more its great intention of beauty. It is meagre & inconclusive, I think; but none the less I can imagine that, played with some real effort—& in a scenic Scandinavian twilight, it may have a certain fine solemnity & poetry of effect.
Yours very truly
Henry James
