Gran (looking up slowly). Yes.

The King. Why didn't you stop me?

Gran. It all happened too quickly. But to think that you could have the heart to do it--in my own house--to a man who was my father's oldest friend, and is mine--!

The King. Harald! (Puts his arm round his shoulders.) Have I ever asked you for anything that you have not given me?

Gran. No.

The King. Then I ask you now to admit that you know that, if I had thought this would hurt you, I would never have done it--not for worlds!

Do you still believe as well of me as that?

Gran. Yes.

The King. Thank you. Then I will admit to you, in return, that for months past I have lived in a state of horrible tension of mind; and that is why I jump too easily from one extreme to the other. So, my friends, you must forgive me! Or finish my scolding some other time!

Because now I must talk to you of the matter which induced me to come here. You are the only ones I can turn to; so be good to me!--Shall we sit down again?

Koll. As you please.

The King (moving towards the table). I know you both want to ask me the same question: why I have never come before now. My answer is: because I have only now arrived at a clear conception of my own position. Some months ago some hard words that were used to me lit a fire in my heart and burnt out a heap of rubbish that had collected there. (ANNA fills their gla.s.ses.) Won't you send that girl away?

Gran. She is deaf and dumb.

The King. Poor girl! (Sits down.) When I came back from my cruise round the world, the old king was dead. My father had come to the throne, and I was crown prince, and I went with my father to the cathedral to attend a thanksgiving service for my safe return.

Gran. I was there.

The King. The whole thing was a novelty to me, and a solemn one. I was overcome with emotion. Seeing that, my father whispered to me: "Come farther forward, my boy! The people must see their future king praying."

That finished it! I was not born to be a king; my soul was still too unsullied, and I spurned such falsehood with the deepest loathing. Just think of it!--to come back from three years at sea, and begin my life in that way--as if perpetually in front of a mirror! I won't dwell on it.

But when my father died and I became king, I had become so accustomed to the atmosphere of falsehood I lived in that I no longer recognised truth when I saw it. The const.i.tution prescribed my religion for me--and naturally I had none. And it was the same with everything--one thing after another! What else could you expect? The only tutor I valued--you, Koll--had been dismissed; they considered you to be too freethinking.

Koll (smilingly). Oh, yes!

The King. The only real friend that dated from my happier days--you, Harald, had been sent to the right about; you were a republican. It was while I was in despair over that loss that I fell really in love for the first time--with your sister, Harald. Banishment, again. What then?

Why, then the craving that every healthy youth feels--the desire for love--was turned into dissolute channels. (Drinks.)

Gran. I understand, well enough.

The King. Well, put all those things together. That was what my life was--until just lately. Because lately something happened, my dear friends. And now you must help me! Because, to make a long story short, either I mean to be the chief official in my country in a peaceful, citizenlike, genuine way, or--as G.o.d is above me--I will no longer be king! (Gets up, and the others do so.)

Koll. Ah, we have got it at last!

The King. Do you think I don't know that our republican friend there spoke what is every thoughtful man's verdict upon me? (They are silent.) But how could I possibly undertake my task, as long as I believed everything to be make-believe and falsehood, without exception? Now I know the root of the falsehood! It is in our inst.i.tutions; he was quite right. And one kind of falsehood begets another. You cannot imagine how ludicrous it appeared to me--who up till then had led such a sinful, miserable existence--when I saw honourable men pretending that I was a being of some superior mould! I! (Walks up and down, then stops.) It is the state--our inst.i.tutions--that demand this falsehood both on their part and on mine. And that for the security and happiness of the country! (Moves about restlessly.) From the time I became crown prince they kept from me everything that might have instilled truth into me--friendship, love, religion, a vocation--for my vocation is quite another one; and it was all done in the name of my country! And now that I am king, they take away all responsibility from me as well--all responsibility for my own acts--the system demands it! Instead of an individual, what sort of a contemptible creature do they make of me! The kingly power, too?--that is in the hands of the people's representatives and the government. I don't complain of that; but what I do complain of is that they should pretend that _I_ have it, and that everything should be done in _my_ name; that I should be the recipient of pet.i.tions, cheers, acclamations, obeisances--as if the whole power and responsibility were centred in _my_ person! In me--from whom, in the interests of all, they have taken away everything! Is that not a pitiful and ludicrous falsehood? And, to make it credible, they endow me into the bargain with a halo of sanct.i.ty! "The King is sacred;" "Our Most Gracious Sovereign," "Your Majesty!" It becomes almost blasphemous!

Gran. Quite true.

The King. No, if that cannot be done away with, I can do away with myself. But it must be possible to do away with it! It cannot be necessary for a people, who are marching on the eternal path towards truth, to have a lie marching at the head of them!

Koll. No, it is not necessary.

The King (eagerly). And that is what you will help me to show them.

Koll. I have no objection! There is life in the country yet!

The King (to Gran). And you, my friend? Are you afraid of being shot by a mad republican if you help me?

Gran. I am not particularly afraid of death, any way. But the maid is telling us that supper is served.

The King. Yes, let us have supper!

Koll. And then, to our task!

Curtain

ACT II

(SCENE.--A park with old lofty trees. In the foreground, to the right, an arbour with a seat. The KING is sitting, talking to BANG, who is a man of gross corpulence.)

Bang. And I felt so well in every way that, I a.s.sure your Majesty, I used to feel it a pleasure to be alive.

The King (drawing patterns in the dust with his walking stick). I can quite believe it.

Bang. And then I was attacked by this pain in my heart and this difficulty in breathing. I run round and round this park, on an empty stomach, till I am absolutely exhausted.

The King (absently). Couldn't you drive round, then?

Bang. Drive?--But it is the exercise, your Majesty, that--

The King. Of course. I was thinking of something else.

Bang. I would not mind betting that I know what your Majesty was thinking of--if I may say so without impertinence.

The King. What was it, then?

Bang. Your Majesty was thinking of the socialists!

The King. Of the--?

Bang. The socialists!

The King (looking amused). Why particularly of them?

Bang. I was right, you see! Ha, ha, ha! (His laughter brings on a violent fit of coughing.) Your Majesty must excuse me; laughing always brings on my cough.--But, you know, the papers this morning are full of their goings on!

The King. I have not read the paper.