Генрик Ибсен - The Lady from the Sea

Wangel. Ellida! What in heaven's name!

Ellida. Save me, Wangel! Don't you see him there? Why, he is standing there!

Wangel (looking thither). That man? (Coming nearer.) May I ask you who you are, and what you have come into this garden for?

The Stranger (motions with a nod towards ELLIDA). I want to talk to her.

Wangel. Oh! indeed. So I suppose it was you. (To ELLIDA.) I hear a stranger has been to the house and asked for you?

The Stranger. Yes, it was I.

Wangel. And what do you want with my wife? (Turning round.) Do you know him, Ellida?

Ellida (in a low voice and wringing her hands). Do I know him! Yes, yes, yes!

Wangel (quickly). Well!

Ellida. Why, it is he, Wangel!—he himself! He who you know!

Wangel. What! What is it you say? (Turning.) Are you the Johnston who once…

The Stranger. You may call me Johnston for aught I care! However, that's not my name.

Wangel. It is not?

The Stranger. It is—no longer. No!

Wangel. And what may you want with my wife? For I suppose you know the lighthouse–keeper's daughter has been married this long time, and whom she married, you of course also know.

The Stranger. I've known it over three years.

Ellida (eagerly). How did you come to know it?

The Stranger. I was on my way home to you, Ellida. I came across an old newspaper. It was a paper from these parts, and in it there was that about the marriage.

Ellida (looking straight in front of her). The marriage! So it was that!

The Stranger. It seemed so wonderful to me. For the rings—why that, too, was a marriage, Ellida.

Ellida (covering her face with her hands). Oh!—Wangel. How dare you?

The Stranger. Have you forgotten that?

Ellida (feeling his look, suddenly cries out). Don't stand there and look at me like that!

Wangel (goes up to him). You must deal with me, and not with her. In short—now that you know the circumstances—what is it you really want here? Why do you seek my wife?

The Stranger. I promised Ellida to come to her as soon as I could.

Wangel. Ellida, again—!

The Stranger. And Ellida promised faithfully she would wait for me until I came.

Wangel. I notice you call my wife by her first name. This kind of familiarity is not customary with us here.

The Stranger. I know that perfectly. But as she first, and above all, belongs to me—

Wangel. To you, still—

Ellida (draws back behind WANGEL). Oh! he will never release me!

Wangel. To you? You say she belongs to you?

The Stranger. Has she told you anything about the two rings—my ring and Ellida's?

Wangel. Certainly. And what then? She put an end to that long ago. You have had her letters, so you know this yourself.

The Stranger. Both Ellida and I agreed that what we did should have all the strength and authority of a real and full marriage.

Ellida. But you hear, I will not! Never on earth do I wish to know anything more of you. Do not look at me like that. I will not, I tell you!

Wangel. You must be mad to think you can come here, and base any claim upon such childish nonsense.

The Stranger. That's true. A claim, in your sense, I certainly have not.

Wangel. What do you mean to do, then? You surely do not imagine you can take her from me by force, against her own will?

The Stranger. No. What would be the good of that? If Ellida wishes to be with me she must come freely.

Ellida (starts, crying out). Freely!

Wangel. And you actually believe that—

Ellida (to herself). Freely!

Wangel. You must have taken leave of your senses! Go your ways. We have nothing more to do with you.

The Stranger (looking at his watch). It is almost time for me to go on board again. (Coming nearer.) Yes, yes, Ellida, now I have done my duty. (Coming still nearer.) I have kept the word I gave you.

Ellida (beseechingly drawing away). Oh! don't touch me!

The Stranger. And so now you must think it over till tomorrow night—

Wangel. There is nothing to think over here. See that you get away.

The Stranger (still to ELLIDA). Now I'm going with the steamer up the fjord. Tomorrow night I will come again, and then I shall look for you here. You must wait for me here in the garden, for I prefer settling the matter with you alone; you understand?

Ellida (in low, trembling tone). Do you hear that, Wangel?

Wangel. Only keep calm. We shall know how to prevent this visit.

The Stranger. Goodbye for the present, Ellida. So tomorrow night—

Ellida (imploringly). Oh! no, no! Do not come tomorrow night! Never come here again!

The Stranger. And should you then have a mind to follow me over the seas—

Ellida. Oh, don't look at me like that!

The Stranger. I only mean that you must then be ready to set out.

Wangel. Go up to the house, Ellida.

Ellida. I cannot! Oh, help me! Save me, Wangel!

The Stranger. For you must remember that if you do not go with me tomorrow, all is at an end.

Ellida (looks tremblingly at him). Then all is at an end? Forever?

The Stranger (nodding). Nothing can change it then, Ellida. I shall never again come to this land. You will never see me again, nor hear from me either. Then I shall be as one dead and gone from you forever.

Ellida (breathing with difficulty). Oh!

The Stranger. So think carefully what you do. Goodbye! (He goes to the fence and climbs over it, stands still, and says.) Yes, Ellida; be ready for the journey tomorrow night. For then I shall come and fetch you. (He goes slowly and calmly down the footpath to the right.)

Ellida (looking after him for a time). Freely, he said; think—he said that I must go with him freely!

Wangel. Only keep calm. Why, he's gone now, and you'll never see him again.

Ellida. Oh! how can you say that? He's coming again tomorrow night!

Wangel. Let him come. He shall not meet you again in any case.

Ellida (shaking her head). Ah, Wangel! Do not believe you can prevent him.

Wangel. I can, dearest; only trust me.

Ellida (pondering, and not listening to him). Now when he's been here tomorrow night—and then when he has gone over seas in the steamer—

Wangel. Yes; what then?

Ellida. I should like to know if he will never, never come back again.

Wangel. No, dear Ellida. You may be quite sure of that. What should he do here after this? Now that he has learnt from your own lips that you will have nothing more to do with him. With that the whole thing is over.

Ellida (to herself). Tomorrow, then, or never!

Wangel. And should it ever occur to him to come here again—

Ellida. Well?

Wangel. Why, then, it is in our power to make him harmless.

Ellida. Oh! do not think that!

Wangel. It is in our power, I tell you. If you can get rid of him in no other way, he must expiate the murder of the captain.

Ellida (passionately). No, no, no! Never that! We know nothing about the murder of the captain! Nothing whatever!

Wangel. Know nothing? Why, he himself confessed it to you!

Ellida. No, nothing of that. If you say anything of it I shall deny it. He shall not be imprisoned. He belongs out there—to the open sea. He belongs out there!

Wangel (looks at her and says slowly). Ah! Ellida—Ellida!

Ellida (clinging passionately to him). Oh! dear, faithful one—save me from this man!

Wangel (disengaging himself gently). Come, come with me! (LYNGSTRAND and HILDE, both with fishing tackle, come in from the right, along the pond.)

Lyngstrand (going quickly up to ELLIDA). Now, Mrs. Wangel, you must hear something wonderful.

Wangel. What is it?

Lyngstrand. Fancy! We've seen the American!

Wangel. The American?

Hilde. Yes, I saw him, too.

Lyngstrand. He was going round the back of the garden, and thence on board the great English steamer.