his childhood. I was young when I left our town, and distance,
home-sickness and memory threw, as it were, a glamour over the place and
its people.
[_Some applause and cries of approval._
DR. STOCKMANN.
Then for years I was imprisoned in a horrible hole, far away in the
north. As I went about among the people scattered here and there over
the stony wilderness, it seemed to me, many a time, that it would have
been better for these poor famishing creatures to have had a
cattle-doctor to attend them, instead of a man like me.
[_Murmurs in the room._
BILLING.
[_Laying down his pen._] Strike me dead if I've ever heard——!
HOVSTAD.
What an insult to an estimable peasantry!
DR. STOCKMANN.
Wait a moment!—I don’t think any one can reproach me with forgetting my
native town up there. I sat brooding like an eider duck, and what I
hatched was—the plan of the Baths.
[_Applause and expressions of dissent._
DR. STOCKMANN.
And when, at last, fate ordered things so happily that I could come home
again—then, fellow citizens, it seemed to me that I hadn’t another
desire in the world. Yes, one desire I had: an eager, constant, burning
desire to be of service to my birthplace, and to its people.
BURGOMASTER.
[_Gazing into vacancy._] A strange method to select——!
DR. STOCKMANN.
So I went about revelling in my happy illusions. But yesterday
morning—no, it was really two nights ago—my mind’s eyes were opened
wide, and the first thing I saw was the colossal stupidity of the
authorities——
[_Noise, cries, and laughter._ MRS. STOCKMANN _coughs
repeatedly._
BURGOMASTER.
Mr. Chairman!
ASLAKSEN.
[_Ringing his bell._] In virtue of my position——!
DR. STOCKMANN.
It’s petty to catch me up on a word, Mr. Aslaksen! I only mean that I
became alive to the extraordinary muddle our leading men had been guilty
of, down at the Baths. I cannot for the life of me abide leading
men—I've seen enough of them in my time. They are like goats in a young
plantation: they do harm at every point; they block the path of a free
man wherever he turns—and I should be glad if we could exterminate them
like other noxious animals——
[_Uproar in the room._
BURGOMASTER.
Mr. Chairman, are such expressions permissible?
ASLAKSEN.
[_With his hand on the bell._] Dr. Stockmann——
DR. STOCKMANN.
I can’t conceive how it is that I have only now seen through these
gentry; for haven’t I had a magnificent example before my eyes here
every day—my brother Peter—slow of understanding, tenacious in
prejudice——
[_Laughter, noise, and whistling._ MRS. STOCKMANN _coughs._
ASLAKSEN _rings violently._
THE DRUNKEN MAN.
[_Who has come in again._] Is it me you’re alluding to? Sure enough, my
name’s Petersen; but devil take me if——
ANGRY VOICES.
Out with that drunken man! Turn him out!
[_The man is again turned out._
BURGOMASTER.
Who is that person?
A BYSTANDER.
I don’t know him, Burgomaster.
ANOTHER.
He doesn’t belong to the town.
A THIRD.
I believe he’s a timber-dealer from——
[_The rest is inaudible._
ASLAKSEN.
The man was evidently intoxicated.—Continue, Dr. Stockmann; but pray
endeavour to be moderate.
DR. STOCKMANN.
Well, fellow citizens, I shall say no more about our leading men. If any
one imagines, from what I have just said, that it’s these gentlemen I
want to make short work of to-night, he is mistaken—altogether mistaken.
For I cherish the comfortable conviction that these laggards, these
relics of a decaying order of thought, are diligently cutting their own
throats. They need no doctor to hasten their end. And it is not people
of _that_ sort that constitute the real danger to society; it is not
they who are most active in poisoning the sources of our spiritual life
and making a plague-spot of the ground beneath our feet; it is not
_they_ who are the most dangerous enemies of truth and freedom in our
society.
CRIES FROM ALL SIDES.
Who, then? Who is it? Name, name!
DR. STOCKMANN.
Yes, you may be sure I shall name them! For _this_ is the great
discovery I made yesterday: [_In a louder tone._] The most dangerous foe
to truth and freedom in our midst is the compact majority. Yes, it’s the
confounded, compact, liberal majority—that, and nothing else! There,
I've told you.
[_Immense disturbance in the room. Most of the audience are
shouting, stamping, and whistling. Several elderly gentlemen
exchange furtive glances and seem to be enjoying the scene._
MRS. STOCKMANN _rises in alarm._ EILIF _and_ MORTEN _advance
threateningly towards the school-boys, who are making
noises._ ASLAKSEN _rings the bell and calls for order._
HOVSTAD _and_ BILLING _both speak, but nothing can be heard.
At last quiet is restored._
ASLAKSEN.
I must request the speaker to withdraw his ill-considered expressions.
DR. STOCKMANN.
Never, Mr. Aslaksen! For it’s this very majority that robs me of my
freedom, and wants to forbid me to speak the truth.
HOVSTAD.
The majority always has right on its side.
BILLING.
Yes, and truth too, strike me dead!
DR. STOCKMANN.
The majority never has right on its side. Never I say! That is one of
the social lies that a free, thinking man is bound to rebel against. Who
make up the majority in any given country? Is it the wise men or the
fools? I think we must agree that the fools are in a terrible,
overwhelming majority, all the wide world over. But how in the devil’s
name can it ever be right for the fools to rule over the wise men?
_Uproar and yells._
DR. STOCKMANN.
Yes, yes, you can shout me down, but you cannot gainsay me. The majority
has _might_—unhappily—but _right_ it has not. It is I, and the few, the
individuals, that are in the right. The minority is always right.
_Renewed uproar._
HOVSTAD.
Ha ha! Dr. Stockmann has turned aristocrat since the day before
yesterday!
DR. STOCKMANN.
I have said that I have no words to waste on the little, narrow-chested,
short-winded crew that lie in our wake. Pulsating life has nothing more
to do with them. I am speaking of the few, the individuals among us, who
have made all the new, germinating truths their own. These men stand, as
it were, at the outposts, so far in the van that the compact majority
has not yet reached them—and _there_ they fight for truths that are too
lately born into the world’s consciousness to have won over the
majority.
HOVSTAD.
So the Doctor’s a revolutionist now!
DR. STOCKMANN.
Yes, by Heaven, I am, Mr. Hovstad! I am going to revolt against the lie
that truth belongs exclusively to the majority. What sort of truths do
the majority rally round? Truths so stricken in years that they are
sinking into decrepitude. When a truth is so old as that, gentlemen,
it’s in a fair way to become a lie.
[_Laughter and jeers._
DR. STOCKMANN.
Yes, yes, you may believe me or not, as you please; but truths are by
no means the wiry Methusalehs some people think them. A
normally-constituted truth lives—let us say—as a rule, seventeen or
eighteen years; at the outside twenty; very seldom more. And truths so
patriarchal as that are always shockingly emaciated; yet it’s not till
then that the majority takes them up and recommends them to society as
wholesome food. I can assure you there’s not much nutriment in that
sort of fare; you may take my word as a doctor for that. All these
majority-truths are like last year’s salt pork; they’re like rancid,
mouldy ham, producing all the moral scurvy that devastates society.
ASLAKSEN.
It seems to me that the honourable speaker is wandering rather far from
the subject.
BURGOMASTER.
I beg to endorse the Chairman’s remark.
DR. STOCKMANN.
Why you’re surely mad, Peter! I'm keeping as closely to my text as I
possibly can; for my text is precisely this—that the masses, the
majority, this devil’s own compact majority—it’s that, I say, that’s
poisoning the sources of our spiritual life, and making a plague-spot of
the ground beneath our feet.
HOVSTAD.
And you make this charge against the great, independent majority, just
because they have the sense to accept only certain and acknowledged
truths?
DR. STOCKMANN.
Ah, my dear Mr. Hovstad, don’t talk about certain truths! The truths
acknowledged by the masses, the multitude, were certain truths to the
vanguard in our grandfathers' days. We, the vanguard of to-day, don’t
acknowledge them any longer; and I don’t believe there exists any other
certain truth but this—that no society can live a healthy life upon
truths so old and and marrowless.
HOVSTAD.
But instead of all this vague talk, suppose you were to give us some
specimens of these old marrowless truths that we are living upon.
[_Approval from several quarters._
DR. STOCKMANN.
Oh, I could give you no end of samples from the rubbish-heap; but, for
the present, I shall keep to one acknowledged truth, which is a hideous
lie at bottom, but which Mr. Hovstad, and the _Messenger_, and all
adherents of the _Messenger_, live on all the same.
HOVSTAD.
And that is——?
DR. STOCKMANN.
That is the doctrine you have inherited from your forefathers, and go on
thoughtlessly proclaiming far and wide—the doctrine that the multitude,
the vulgar herd, the masses, are the pith of the people—that they _are_
the people—that the common man, the ignorant, undeveloped member of
society, has the same right to sanction and to condemn, to counsel and
to govern, as the intellectually distinguished few.
BILLING.
Well, now, strike me dead——!
HOVSTAD.
[_Shouting at the same time._] Citizens, please note this!
ANGRY VOICES.
Ho-ho! Aren’t we the people? Is it only the grand folks that are to
govern?
A WORKING MAN.
Out with the fellow that talks like that!
OTHERS.
Turn him out!
A CITIZEN.
[_Shouting._] Blow your horn, Evensen.
[_The deep notes of a horn are heard; whistling, and terrific
noise in the room._
DR. STOCKMANN.
[_When the noise has somewhat subsided._] Now do be reasonable! Can’t
you bear even for once in a way to hear the voice of truth? I don’t ask
you all to agree with me on the instant. But I certainly should have
expected Mr. Hovstad to back me up, as soon as he had collected himself
a bit. Mr. Hovstad sets up to be a freethinker——
SEVERAL VOICES.
[_Subdued and wondering._] Freethinker, did he say? What? Mr. Hovstad a
freethinker?
HOVSTAD.
[_Shouting._] Prove it, Dr. Stockmann. When have I said so in print?
DR. STOCKMANN.
[_Reflecting._] No, upon my soul, you’re right there; you’ve never had
the frankness to do that. Well, well, I won’t put you on the rack, Mr.
Hovstad. Let me be the freethinker then. And now I'll make it clear to
you all, and on scientific grounds too, that the _Messenger_ is leading
you shamefully by the nose, when it tells you that you, the masses, the
crowd, are the true pith of the people. I tell you that’s only a
newspaper lie. The masses are nothing but the raw material that must be
fashioned into a People.
[_Murmurs, laughter, and disturbance in the room._
DR. STOCKMANN.
Is it not so with all other living creatures? What a difference between
a cultivated and an uncultivated breed of animals! Just look at a common
barn-door hen. What meat do you get from such a skinny carcase? Not
much, I can tell you! And what sort of eggs does she lay? A decent crow
or raven can lay nearly as good. Then take a cultivated Spanish or
Japanese hen, or take a fine pheasant or turkey—ah! then you’ll see the
difference! And now look at the dog, our near relation. Think first of
an ordinary vulgar cur—I mean one of those wretched, ragged, plebeian
mongrels that haunt the gutters, and soil the sidewalks. Then place such
a mongrel by the side of a poodle-dog, descended through many
generations from an aristocratic stock, who have lived on delicate food,
and heard harmonious voices and music. Do you think the brain of the
poodle isn’t very differently developed from that of the mongrel? Yes,
you may be sure it is! It’s well-bred poodle-pups like this that
jugglers train to perform the most marvellous tricks. A common
peasant-cur could never learn anything of the sort—not if he tried till
doomsday.
[_Noise and laughter are heard all round._
A CITIZEN.
[_Shouting._] Do you want to make dogs of us now?
ANOTHER MAN.
We’re not animals, Doctor!
DR. STOCKMANN.
Yes, on my soul, but we _are_ animals, my good sir! We’re one and all of
us animals, whether we like it or not. But truly there are few enough
aristocratic animals among us. Oh, there’s a terrible difference between
poodle-men and mongrel-men! And the ridiculous part of it is, that Mr.
Hovstad quite agrees with me so long as it’s four-legged animals we’re
talking of——
HOVSTAD.
Oh, beasts are only beasts.
DR. STOCKMANN.
Well and good—but no sooner do I apply the law to two-legged animals,
than Mr. Hovstad stops short; then he daren’t hold his own opinions, or
think out his own thoughts; then he turns the whole principle upside
down, and proclaims in the _People’s Messenger_ that the barn-door hen
and the gutter-mongrel are precisely the finest specimens in the
menagerie. But that’s always the way, so long as the commonness still
lingers in your system, and you haven’t worked your way up to spiritual
distinction.
HOVSTAD.
I make no pretence to any sort of distinction. I come of simple peasant
folk, and I am proud that my root should lie deep down among the common
people, who are here being insulted.
WORKMEN.
Hurrah for Hovstad. Hurrah! hurrah!
DR. STOCKMANN.
The sort of common people I am speaking of are not found among the lower
classes alone; they crawl and swarm all around us—up to the very summits
of society. Just look at your own smug, respectable Burgomaster! Why, my
brother Peter belongs as clearly to the common people as any man that
walks on two legs——
[_Laughter and hisses._
BURGOMASTER.
I protest against such personalities.
DR. STOCKMANN.
[_Imperturbably._]——and that not because, like myself, he’s descended
from a good-for-nothing old pirate from Pomerania, or thereabouts—for
that’s our ancestry——
BURGOMASTER.
An absurd tradition! Utterly groundless.
DR. STOCKMANN.
——but he is so because he thinks the thoughts and holds the
opinions of his official superiors. Men who do that, belong,
intellectually-speaking, to the common people; and that is why my
distinguished brother Peter is at bottom so undistinguished,—and
consequently so illiberal.
BURGOMASTER.
Mr. Chairman——!
HOVSTAD.
So that the distinguished people in this country are the Liberals?
That’s quite a new light on the subject. _Laughter._
DR. STOCKMANN.
Yes, that is part of my new discovery. And _this_, too, follows: that
liberality of thought is almost precisely the same thing as morality.
Therefore I say it’s absolutely unpardonable of the _Messenger_ to
proclaim, day out, day in, the false doctrine that it’s the masses, the
multitude, the compact majority, that monopolise liberality and
morality,—and that vice and corruption and all sorts of spiritual
uncleanness ooze out of culture, as all that filth oozes down to the
Baths from the Mill Dale tan-works!
[_Noise and interruptions._
DR. STOCKMANN.
[_Goes on imperturbably, smiling in his eagerness._] And yet this same
_Messenger_ can preach about elevating the masses and the multitude to a
higher level of well-being! Why, deuce take it, if the _Messenger’s_ own
doctrine holds good, the elevation of the masses would simply mean
hurling them straight to perdition! But, happily, the notion that
culture demoralises is nothing but an old traditional lie. No it’s
stupidity, poverty, the ugliness of life, that do the devil’s work! In a
house that isn’t aired and swept every day—my wife maintains that the
floors ought to be scrubbed too, but perhaps that is going too
far;—well,—in such a house, I say, within two or three years, people
lose the power of thinking or acting morally. Lack of oxygen enervates
the conscience. And there seems to be precious little oxygen in many and
many a house in this town, since the whole compact majority is
unscrupulous enough to want to found its future upon a quagmire of lies
and fraud.
ASLAKSEN.
I cannot allow so gross an insult to be levelled against a whole
community.
A GENTLEMAN.
I move that the Chairman order the speaker to sit down.
EAGER VOICES.
Yes, yes! That’s right! Sit down! Sit down!
DR. STOCKMANN.
[_Flaring up._] Then I shall proclaim the truth at every street corner!
I shall write to newspapers in other towns! The whole country shall know
how matters stand here!
HOVSTAD.
It almost seems as if the Doctor’s object were to ruin the town.
DR. STOCKMANN.
Yes, so well do I love my native town that I would rather ruin it than
see it flourishing upon a lie.
ASLAKSEN.
That’s plain speaking.
[_Noise and whistling._ MRS. STOCKMANN _coughs in vain; the_
DOCTOR _no longer heeds her._
HOVSTAD.
[_Shouting amid the tumult._] The man who would ruin a whole community
must be an enemy to his fellow citizens!
DR. STOCKMANN.
[_With growing excitement._] What does it matter if a lying community is
ruined! Let it be levelled to the ground, say I! All men who live upon a
lie ought to be exterminated like vermin! You’ll end by poisoning the
whole country; you’ll bring it to such a pass that the whole country
will deserve to perish. And if ever it comes to that, I shall say, from
the bottom of my heart: Perish the country! Perish all its people!
A MAN.
[_In the crowd._] Why, he talks like a regular enemy of the people!
BILLING.
Strike me dead but there spoke the people’s voice!
THE WHOLE ASSEMBLY.
[_Shouting._] Yes! yes! yes! He’s an enemy of the people! He hates his
country! He hates the whole people!
ASLAKSEN.
Both as a citizen of this town and as a human being, I am deeply shocked
at what it has been my lot to hear to-night. Dr. Stockmann has unmasked
himself in a manner I should never have dreamt of. I must reluctantly
subscribe to the opinion just expressed by some estimable citizens; and
I think we ought to formulate this opinion in a resolution. I therefore
beg to move, “That this meeting declares the medical officer of the
Baths, Dr. Thomas Stockmann, to be an enemy of the people.”
[_Thunders of applause and cheers. Many form a circle round the_
DOCTOR _and hoot at him._ MRS. STOCKMANN _and_ PETRA _have
risen._ MORTEN _and_ EILIF _fight the other school-boys, who
have also been hooting. Some grown-up persons separate
them._
DR. STOCKMANN.
[_To the people hooting._] Ah, fools that you are! I tell you that——
ASLAKSEN.
[_Ringing._] The Doctor is out of order in speaking. A formal vote must
be taken; but out of consideration for personal feelings, it will be
taken in writing and without names. Have you any blank paper, Mr.
Billing?
BILLING.
Here’s both blue and white paper——
ASLAKSEN.
Capital; that will save time. Cut it up into slips. That’s it. [_To the
meeting._] Blue means no, white means aye. I myself will go round and
collect the votes.
[_The_ BURGOMASTER _leaves the room._ ASLAKSEN _and a few others
go round with pieces of paper in hats._
A GENTLEMAN.
[_To HOVSTAD._] What can be the matter with the Doctor? What does it all
mean?
HOVSTAD.
Why, you know what a hare-brained creature he is.
ANOTHER GENTLEMAN.
[_To BILLING._] I say, you’re often at his house. Have you ever noticed
if the fellow drinks?
BILLING.
Strike me dead if I know what to say. The toddy’s always on the table
when any one looks in.
A THIRD GENTLEMAN.
No, I should rather say he went off his head at times.
FIRST GENTLEMAN.
I wonder if there’s madness in the family?
BILLING.
I shouldn’t be surprised.
A FOURTH GENTLEMAN.
No, it’s pure malice. He wants to be revenged for something or other.
BILLING.
He was certainly talking about a rise in his salary the other day; but
he didn’t get it.
ALL THE GENTLEMEN.
[_Together._] Aha! That explains everything.
THE DRUNKEN MAN.
[_In the crowd._] I want a blue one, I do! And I'll have a white one
too.
SEVERAL PEOPLE.
There’s the tipsy man again! Turn him out.
MORTEN KIIL.
[_Approaching the DOCTOR._] Well, Stockmann, you see now what such
monkey-tricks lead to?
DR. STOCKMANN.
I have done my duty.
MORTEN KIIL.
What was that you said about the Mill Dale tanneries?
DR STOCKMANN.
You heard what I said—that all the filth comes from them.
MORTEN KIIL.
From my tannery as well?
DR. STOCKMANN.
I'm sorry to say yours is the worst of all.
MORTEN KIIL.
Are you going to put _that_ in the papers, too?
DR. STOCKMANN.
I can’t gloze anything over.
MORTEN KIIL.
This may cost you dear, Stockmann!
[_He goes out._
A FAT GENTLEMAN.
[_Goes up to HORSTER, without bowing to the ladies._] Well, Captain, so
you lend your house to enemies of the people.
HORSTER.
I suppose I can do as I please with my own property, Sir.
THE GENTLEMAN.
Then of course you can have no objection if I follow your example?
HORSTER.
What do you mean, Sir?
THE GENTLEMAN.
You shall hear from me to-morrow.
[_Turns away and goes out._
PETRA.
Wasn’t that the owner of your ship, Captain Horster?
HORSTER.
Yes, that was Mr. Vik.
ASLAKSEN.
[_With the voting papers in his hands, ascends the platform and rings._]
Gentlemen! I have now to announce the result of the vote. All the
voters, with one exception——
A YOUNG GENTLEMAN.
That’s the tipsy man!
ASLAKSEN.
With the exception of one intoxicated person, this meeting of citizens
unanimously declares the medical officer of the Baths, Dr. Thomas
Stockmann, to be an enemy of the people. [_Cheers and applause._] Three
cheers for our fine old municipality! [_Cheers._] Three cheers for our
able and energetic Burgomaster, who has so loyally set family prejudice
aside! [_Cheers._] The meeting is dissolved. [_He descends._]
BILLING.
Three cheers for the Chairman!
ALL.
Hurrah for Aslaksen.
DR. STOCKMANN.
My hat and coat, Petra. Captain, have you room for passengers to the new
world?
HORSTER.
For you and yours, Doctor, we’ll make room.
DR. STOCKMANN.
[_While PETRA helps him to put on his coat._] Good. Come Katrina, come
boys!
[_He gives his wife his arm._
MRS. STOCKMANN.
[_In a low voice._] Thomas, dear, let us go out by the back way.
DR. STOCKMANN.
No back ways, Katrina! [_In a loud voice._] You shall hear from the
enemy of the people, before he shakes the dust from his feet! I am not
so forbearing as a certain person; I don’t say: I forgive you, for you
know not what you do.
ASLAKSEN.
[_Shouts._] That is a blasphemous comparison, Dr. Stockmann!
BILLING.
Strike me——! This is more than a serious man can stand!
A COARSE VOICE.
And he threatens us into the bargain!
ANGRY CRIES.
Let’s smash his windows! Duck him in the fiord!
A MAN.
[_In the crowd._] Blow your horn, Evensen! Blow man, blow!
[_Horn-blowing, whistling, and wild shouting. The_ DOCTOR, _with
his family, goes towards the door._ HORSTER _clears the way
for them._
ALL.
[_Yelling after them as they go out._] Enemy of the people! Enemy of the
people! Enemy of the people!
BILLING.
Strike me dead if I'd care to drink toddy at Stockmann’s to-night!
[_The people throng towards the door; the shouting is taken up
by others outside; from the street are heard cries of “Enemy
of the people! Enemy of the people!”_
-----
Footnote 12:
Literally, “unprovided-for.”
ACT FIFTH.
DR. STOCKMANN’S _Study. Bookshelves and glass cases with various
collections along the walls. In the back, a door leading to the
hall; in front, on the left, a door to the sitting-room. In the
wall to the right are two windows, all the panes of which are
smashed. In the middle of the room is the_ DOCTOR’S
_writing-table, covered with books and papers. The room is in
disorder. It is forenoon._
DR. STOCKMANN, _in dressing-gown, slippers, and skull-cap, is bending
down and raking with an umbrella under one of the cabinets; at
last he rakes out a stone._
DR. STOCKMANN.
[_Speaking through the sitting-room doorway._] Katrina, I've found
another!
MRS. STOCKMANN.
[_In the sitting-room._] Oh, I'm sure you’ll find plenty more.
DR. STOCKMANN.
[_Placing the stone on a pile of others on the table._] I shall keep
these stones as sacred relics. Eilif and Morten shall see them every
day, and when I die they shall be heirlooms. [_Raking under the
bookcase._] Hasn’t—what the devil is her name?—the girl—hasn’t she been
for the glazier yet?
MRS. STOCKMANN.
[_Coming in._] Yes, but he said he didn’t know whether he would be able
to come to-day.
DR. STOCKMANN.
I believe, if the truth were told, he daren’t come.
MRS. STOCKMANN.