erse for years but "had exclusively cultivated the
incomparably more difficult art of writing in the even, beautiful idiom
of real life."

It was in 1857 that Bjoernson had put forth 'Synnoeve Solbakken,' a mere
novelet, it is true, but still the firstling of a native Norwegian
literature, reproducing the very accent of the soil; and here we have
once more an example of the way in which the novel is now continually
affecting the development of the drama, as the play has in the past
influenced the evolution of prose-fiction. For more than ten years Ibsen
failed to see how much it would profit him to follow Bjoernson's lead.
Between 'Love's Comedy' and the 'League of Youth' he put forth his two
great dramatic poems, 'Brand' (1866) and 'Peer Gynt' (1867); and even
after the 'League of Youth' (1869) had opened the series of modern
social dramas, he published 'Emperor and Galilean' (1873) before
resuming his incisive study of the life that lay around him.

The career of Julian the Apostate is sketched in what must be termed a
chronicle-play, in two parts and in ten acts, a broadly brushed panorama
of antique life, displaying Ibsen's abundant invention, his ability to
handle boldly a large theme, his gift of putting characters erect on
their feet with a few swift strokes. Altho 'Emperor and Galilean,' like
'Brand' and like 'Peer Gynt' was intended for the closet only, and not
for the stage itself, it proves its author to be a true dramatist,
centering the interest of his story on an essential struggle and keeping
in view always the pictorial aspects of his action.

In this chronicle-play, as in his two greater dramatic poems, Ibsen
reveals his perfect understanding of the practical necessities of the
playhouse, even tho he did not choose always to conform to them. Then
he turned his back on antiquity and faced the present in the series of
prose-plays by which he is most widely known to actual playgoers. He
found his characters and his themes in modern life and in his native
land; and the social dramas followed one another in steady
succession,--'Pillars of Society' (1877), 'A Doll's House' (1879),
'Ghosts' (1881), 'An Enemy of the People' (1882), the 'Wild Duck'
(1884), 'Rosmersholm' (1886), the 'Lady from the Sea' (1888), 'Hedda
Gabler' (1890), the 'Master-Builder' (1892), 'Little Eyolf' (1894),
'John Gabriel Borkman' (1896) and 'When We Dead Awaken' (1899).

As we look down this list, we see that it is perhaps unfair to