AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE (1882) CHARACTERS. DOCTOR THOMAS STOCKMANN, _medical officer of the Baths_. MRS. STOCKMANN, _his wife_. PETRA, _their daughter, a teacher_. EILIF } _their sons, thirteen and ten years old respectively_. MORTEN } PETER STOCKMANN, _the doctor’s elder brother, Burgomaster[5] and chief of police, chairman of the Baths Committee, etc._ MORTEN KIIL,[6] _master tanner, Mrs. Stockmann’s adoptive-father_. HOVSTAD, _editor of the “People’s Messenger.”_ BILLING, _on the staff of the paper_. HORSTER, _a ship’s captain_. ASLAKSEN, _a printer_. _Participants in a meeting of citizens: all sorts and conditions of men, some women, and a band of schoolboys._ _The action passes in a town on the South Coast of Norway._ ----- Footnote 1: _Samliv med Ibsen_, p. 173. Footnote 2: See article by Julius Elias in _Die neue Rundschau_, December 1906, p. 1461. Footnote 3: _Samliv med Ibsen_, p. 33. Footnote 4: Herr Paulsen uses the English words; but it will appear from the sequel that Ibsen’s ideal was not so much the self-made as the self-mended man. Footnote 5: “Burgomaster” is the most convenient substitute for “Byfogd,” but “Town Clerk” would perhaps be more nearly equivalent. It is impossible to find exact counterparts in English for the different grades of the Norwegian bureaucracy. Footnote 6: Pronounce: _Keel_. AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE. PLAY IN FIVE ACTS. ACT FIRST. _Evening. DR. STOCKMANN’S sitting-room; simply but neatly decorated and furnished. In the wall to the right are two doors, the further one leading to the hall, the nearer one to the Doctor’s study. In the opposite wall, facing the hall door, a door leading to the other rooms of the house. Against the middle of this wall stands the stove; further forward a sofa with a mirror above it, and in front of it an oval table with a cover. On the table a lighted lamp, with a shade. In the back wall an open door leading to the dining-room, in which is seen a supper-table, with a lamp on it._ BILLING _is seated at the supper-table, with a napkin under his chin._ MRS. STOCKMANN _is standing by the table and placing before him a dish with a large joint of roast beef. The other seats round the table are empty; the table is in disorder, as after a meal._ MRS. STOCKMANN. If you come an hour late, Mr. Billing, you must put up with a cold supper. BILLING. [_Eating._] It is excellent—really first rate. MRS. STOCKMANN. You know how Stockmann insists on regular meal-hours—— BILLING.