PLAYS
BY
AUGUST STRINDBERG
THIRD SERIES
SWANWHITE
SIMOOM
DEBIT AND CREDIT
ADVENT
THE THUNDERSTORM
AFTER THE FIRE
TRANSLATED FROM THE SWEDISH WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
EDWIN BJÖRKMAN
AUTHORIZED EDITION
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1921
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
SWANWHITE
SIMOOM
DEBIT AND CREDIT
ADVENT
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
ACT IV
ACT V
THE THUNDERSTORM
AFTER THE FIRE
INTRODUCTION
The collection of plays contained in this volume is unusuallyrepresentative, giving what might be called a cross-section ofStrindberg's development as a dramatist from his naturalistic revoltin the middle eighties, to his final arrival at resigned mysticism andSwedenborgian symbolism.
"Swanwhite" was written in the spring of 1901, about the time whenStrindberg was courting and marrying his third wife, the gifted Swedishactress Harriet Bosse. In the fall of 1902 the play appeared in bookform, together with "The Crown Bride" and "The Dream Play," all of thembeing issued simultaneously, at Berlin, in a German translation made byEmil Schering.
Schering, who at that time was in close correspondence with Strindberg,says that the figure of Swanwhite had been drawn with directreference to Miss Bosse, who had first attracted the attention ofStrindberg by her spirited interpretation of Biskra in "Simoom."And Schering adds that it was Strindberg's bride who had a littlepreviously introduced him to the work of Maeterlinck, therebyfurnishing one more of the factors determining the play.
Concerning the influence exerted upon him by the Belgianplaywright-philosopher, Strindberg himself wrote in a pamphlet named"Open Letters to the Intimate Theatre" (Stockholm, 1909):
"I had long had in mind skimming the cream of our most beautifulfolk-ballads in order to turn them into a picture for the stage.Then Maeterlinck came across my path, and under the influence ofhis puppet-plays, which are not meant for the regular stage, I wrotemy Swedish scenic spectacle, 'Swanwhite.' It is impossible either tosteal or to borrow from Maeterlinck. It is even difficult to become hispupil, for there are no free passes that give entrance to his world ofbeauty. But one may be urged by his example into searching one's owndross-heaps for gold—and it is in that sense I acknowledge my debt tothe master.
"Pushed ahead by the impression made on me by Maeterlinck, andborrowing his divining-rod for my purposes, I turned to such sources[i.e., of Swedish folk-lore] as the works of Geijer, Afzelius, andDybeck. There I found a superabundance of princes and princesses. Thestepmother theme I had discovered on my own hook as a constant—itfigures in twenty-six different Swedish folk-tales. In the same place Ifound the resurrection theme, as, for instance