grows as I work at it, and I am certain that you will be satisfied with it.” Two months later (March 8) the poem has “advanced to the middle of the second act.” On August 8, he sends to Hegel, from Villa Pisani, Casamicciola, Ischia, the complete manuscript of the first three acts, and writes: “I am curious to hear how you like the poem. I am very hopeful myself. It may interest you to know that Peer Gynt is a real person, who lived in Gudbrandsdal, probably at the end of last, or beginning of this, century; but of his exploits not much more is known than is to be found in Asbjörnsen’s _Norwegian Fairy Tales_, in the section _Pictures from the Mountains_. Thus I have not had very much to build upon; but so much the more liberty has been left me. It would interest me to know what Clemens Petersen thinks of the work.” What Clemens Petersen did think we shall presently learn. On October 18 Ibsen despatched from Sorrento the remainder of his manuscript, and the book was published on November 14. It has often been pointed out (by myself among others) as a very remarkable fact that two such gigantic creations as _Brand_ and _Peer Gynt_ should have been given to the world in two successive years; but on examination the marvel somewhat dwindles. _Peer Gynt_ did not follow so hot-foot upon _Brand_ as the bare dates of publication would lead us to suppose. _Brand_ was written in the summer of 1865, _Peer Gynt_ (as we have seen) in 1867; so that the poet’s mind had lain fallow for a whole year (1866) between the two great efforts. It was a long delay in the publication of _Brand_ that made its successor seem to tread so close upon its heels. One or two other references to the origin of _Peer Gynt_ may be found in Ibsen’s letters. The most important occurs in an autobiographical communication to Peter Hansen, dated Dresden, October 28, 1870: “After _Brand_ came _Peer Gynt_, as though of itself. It was written in Southern Italy, in Ischia and at Sorrento. So far away from one’s readers one becomes reckless. This poem contains much that has its origin in the circumstances of my own youth. My own mother—with the necessary exaggerations—served as the model for Ase. (Likewise for Inga in _The Pretenders_).” Twelve years later (1882) Ibsen wrote to George Brandes: “My father was a merchant with a large business and wide connections, and he enjoyed dispensing reckless hospitality. In 1836 he failed, and nothing was left to us except a farm near the town.... In writing _Peer Gynt_, I had the circumstances and memories of my own childhood before me when I described the life in the house of ‘the rich Jon Gynt.’”