By translation and inclusion in selected plays of merit from many languages, _Beyond Human Control_ has become one of the most familiar of Björnson’s social dramas. It is one of the chosen plays in _Chief Contemporary Dramatists_, Series I, by Thomas H. Dickinson. There are two parts to this drama, with differing _motifs_--the first in chronology and most widely read and staged is _Beyond Human Power_ (or _Beyond Our Power: Over Ævne_ I, 1883) dealing with problems of religious faith and fanaticism; the second part (_Over Ævne_ II, 1895) treats of differences of opinion between labor and capital. The first part, a complete play, has been given throughout Europe and was performed in New York in 1902, with Mrs. Patrick Campbell in the leading rôle. The characters are strongly balanced in interest; the wife of the self-sacrificing, impractical pastor, Clara Sang, is a masterly delineation of wifely loyalty and maternal responsibility. The Bishop is well drawn in antithesis to Pastor Sang. _A Gauntlet_ created discussion in Norway because of its daring theme--the advocacy of the same standards of social purity for men and women. It is less effective dramatically but morally it is vigorous. Björnson’s later work in drama includes such good reading-plays as _Laboremus_, _Daglannet_, and _When the New Wine Blooms_.[42] As examples of literary work after the age of seventy, to which may be added the story, _Mary_,[43] with emotional power, they stand as testimonials to the vigor, mental and spiritual, of this worthy “Viking” of our day. After he received the Nobel prize, in accord with the proviso of the Code of Statutes, he made a noteworthy address upon the theme, “Poetry As a Manifestation of the Sense of Vital Surplus.” His own vitality and zest in life never lapsed. He declared that the possession of a new pair of trousers in his old age gave him a sense of delight like that of a child and he would get up an hour earlier “to get full enjoyment of these clothes.” Edwin Björkman, one of the most intuitive of his many translators, tells, in his _Voices of Tomorrow_[44] incidents in the later life of Björnson that verify his childlike nature, combined with serious, passionate efforts for human betterment. His wife, an actress by training, was his amanuensis and critic; between husband and wife existed a rare bond of sympathy: at formal dinners, and on social occasions of varied kinds, Björnson insisted that his wife should sit at his right hand, in spite of other conventions. As writer, speaker, “lay preacher,” and civic adviser, Björnson has an assured rank among “The Creative Spirits of the Nineteenth Century.” FOOTNOTES: [34] Inscription with the Nobel Prize Award in Literature, 1903. [35] _Northern Studies_ by Edmund Gosse, Walter Scott, London, 1890. By permission of Sir Edmund Gosse. [36] _Ibid._, p. 32. By permission of Sir Edmund Gosse. [37] American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1915. By permission of translator and publisher.