] until 1877,
whereas Bjornson's _The Editor_, _The Bankrupt_, and _The King_
were all published between 1874 and 1877. Intellectual and literary
life in Denmark had been a good deal stirred and quickened in the
early seventies, and the influence of that awakening was inevitably
felt by the more eager spirits in the other Scandinavian countries.
It is amusing to note, as one Norwegian writer has pointed out,
that this intellectual upheaval (which, in its turn, was a
reflection of that taking place in outer Europe) came at a time
when the bulk of the Scandinavian folk "were congratulating
themselves that the doubt and ferment of unrest which were
undermining the foundations of the great communities abroad had not
had the power to ruffle the placid surface of our good,
old-fashioned, Scandinavian orthodoxy." Bjornson makes several sly
hits in these plays (as does Ibsen in _Pillars of Society_) at this
distrust of the opinions and manners of the larger communities
outside of Scandinavia, notably America, with which the
Scandinavian countries were more particularly in touch through
emigration.
Brandes characterises the impelling motive of these three plays as
a passionate appeal for a higher standard of truth--in journalism,
in finance, in monarchy: an appeal for less casuistry and more
honesty.
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