Must we, then, wholly dissent from Björnson’s judgment? I think not. In a historical, if not in an æsthetic, sense, _Ghosts_ may well rank as Ibsen’s greatest work. It was the play which first gave the full measure of his technical and spiritual originality and daring. It has done far more than any other of his plays to “move boundary-posts.” It has advanced the frontiers of dramatic art and implanted new ideals, both technical and intellectual, in the minds of a whole generation of playwrights. It ranks with _Hernani_ and _La Dame aux Camélias_ among the epoch-making plays of the nineteenth century, while in point of essential originality it towers above them. We cannot, I think, get nearer to the truth than George Brandes did in the above-quoted phrase from his first notice of the play, describing it as not, perhaps, the poet’s greatest work, but certainly his noblest deed. In another essay, Brandes has pointed to it, with equal justice, as marking Ibsen’s final breach with his early—one might almost say his hereditary—romanticism. He here becomes, at last, “the most modern of the moderns.” “This, I am convinced,” says the Danish critic, “is his imperishable glory, and will give lasting life to his works.” W. A. A DOLL’S HOUSE CHARACTERS. TORVALD HELMER. NORA, _his wife_. DOCTOR RANK. MRS. LINDEN.[3] NILS KROGSTAD. THE HELMERS’ THREE CHILDREN. ANNA,[4] _their nurse_. A MAID-SERVANT (ELLEN). A PORTER. _The action passes in Helmer’s house (a flat) in Christiania._ ----- Footnote 1: _Fortnightly Review_, July 1906. Footnote 2: See “The Mausoleum of Ibsen,” _Fortnightly Review_, August 1893. See also Mr. Bernard Shaw’s _Quintessence of Ibsenism_, p. 89, and my introduction to _Ghosts_ in the single-volume edition (Walter Scott). Footnote 3: In the original “Fru Linde.” Footnote 4: In the original “Anne-Marie.” A DOLL’S HOUSE. -------------- ACT FIRST. _A room, comfortably and tastefully, but not expensively, furnished. In the back, on the right, a door leads to the hall; on the left another door leads to HELMER’S study. Between the two doors a pianoforte. In the middle of the left wall a door, and nearer the front a window. Near the window a round table with arm-chairs and a small sofa. In the right wall, somewhat to the back, a door, and against the same wall, further forward, a porcelain stove; in front of it a couple of arm-chairs and a rocking-chair. Between the stove and the side-door a small table. Engravings on the walls. A what-not with china and bric-à-brac. A small bookcase filled with handsomely bound books. Carpet. A fire in the stove. It is a winter day._