Chapter IV: Part 4

[With great sparkling eyes.] That was the song that I heard through the air!

SOLNESS.

But afterwards his turn came.

HILDA.

What do you mean by that?

SOLNESS.

[Looks despondently at her.] Building homes for human beings--is not worth a rap, Hilda.

HILDA.

Do you say that now?

SOLNESS.

Yes, for now I see it. Men have no use for these homes of theirs--to be happy in. And I should not have had any use for such a home, if I had had one. [With a quiet, bitter laugh.] See, that is the upshot of the whole affair, however far back I look. Nothing really built; nor anything sacrificed for the chance of building. Nothing, nothing! the whole is nothing!

HILDA.

Then you will never build anything more?

SOLNESS.

[With animation.] On the contrary, I am just going to begin!

HILDA.

What, then? What will you build? Tell me at once!

SOLNESS.

I believe there is only one possible dwelling-place for human happiness--and that is what I am going to build now.

HILDA.

[Looks fixedly at him.] Mr. Solness--you mean our castles in the air.

SOLNESS.

The castles in the air--yes.

HILDA.

I am afraid you would turn dizzy before we got half-way up.

SOLNESS.

Not if I can mount hand in hand with you, Hilda.

HILDA.

[With an expression of suppressed resentment.] Only with me? Will there be no others of the party?

SOLNESS.

Who else should there be?

HILDA.

Oh--that girl--that Kaia at the desk. Poor thing--don't you want to take her with you too?

SOLNESS.

Oho! Was it about her that Aline was talking to you?

HILDA.

Is it so--or is it not?

SOLNESS.

[Vehemently.] I will not answer such a question. You must believe in me, wholly and entirely!

HILDA.

All these ten years I have believed in you so utterly--so utterly.

SOLNESS.

You must go on believing in me!

HILDA.

Then let me see you stand free and high up!

SOLNESS.

[Sadly.] Oh Hilda--it is not every day that I can do that.

HILDA.

[Passionately.] I will have you do it! I will have it! [Imploringly.] Just once more, Mr. Solness! Do the impossible once again!

SOLNESS.

[Stands and looks deep into her eyes.] If I try it, Hilda, I will stand up there and talk to him as I did that time before.

HILDA.

[In rising excitement.] What will you say to him?

SOLNESS.

I will say to him: Hear me, Mighty Lord--thou may'st judge me as seems best to thee. But hereafter I will build nothing but the loveliest thing in the world--

HILDA.

[Carried away.] Yes--yes--yes!

SOLNESS. --build it together with a princess, whom I love--

HILDA.

Yes, tell him that! Tell him that!

SOLNESS.

Yes. And then I will say to him: Now I shall go down and throw my arms round her and kiss her--

HILDA. --many times! Say that!

SOLNESS. --many, many times, I will say it!

HILDA.

And then--?

SOLNESS.

Then I will wave my hat--and come down to the earth--and do as I said to him.

HILDA.

[With outstretched arms.] Now I see you again as I did when there was song in the air!

SOLNESS.

[Looks at here with his head bowed.] How have you become what you are, Hilda?

HILDA.

How have you made me what I am?

SOLNESS.

[Shortly and firmly.] The princess shall have her castle.

HILDA.

[Jubilant, clapping her hands.] Oh, Mr. Solness--! My lovely, lovely castle. Our castle in the air!

SOLNESS.

On a firm foundation.

[In the street a crowd of people has assembled, vaguely seen
through the trees. Music of wind-instruments is heard far
away behind the new house.

MRS. SOLNESS, with a fur collar round her neck, DOCTOR HERDAL
with her white shawl on his arm, and some ladies, come out
on the verandah. RAGNAR BROVIK comes at the same time up
from the garden.

MRS. SOLNESS.

[To RAGNAR.] Are we to have music, too?

RAGNAR.

Yes. It's the band of the Mason's Union. [To SOLNESS.] The foreman asked me to tell you that he is ready now to go up with the wreath.

SOLNESS.

[Takes his hat.] Good. I will go down to him myself.

MRS. SOLNESS.

[Anxiously.] What have you to do down there, Halvard?

SOLNESS.

[Curtly.] I must be down below with the men.

MRS. SOLNESS.

Yes, down below--only down below.

SOLNESS.

That is where I always stand--on everyday occasions.

[He goes down the flight of steps and away through the garden.

MRS. SOLNESS.

[Calls after him over the railing.] But do beg the man to be careful when he goes up! Promise me that, Halvard!

DR. HERDAL.

[To MRS. SOLNESS.] Don't you see that I was right? He has given up all thought of that folly.

MRS. SOLNESS.

Oh, what a relief! Twice workmen have fallen, and each time they were killed on the spot. [Turns to HILDA.] Thank you, Miss Wangel, for having kept such a firm hold upon him. I should never have been able to manage him.

DR. HERDAL.

[Playfully.] Yes, yes, Miss Wangel, you know how to keep firm hold on a man, when you give your mind to it.

[MRS. SOLNESS and DR. HERDAL go up to the ladies, who are
standing nearer to the steps and looking over the garden.
HILDA remains standing beside the railing in the foreground.
RAGNAR goes up to her.

RAGNAR.

[With suppressed laughter, half whispering.] Miss Wangel--do you see all those young fellows down in the street?

HILDA.

Yes.

RAGNAR.

They are my fellow students, come to look at the master.

HILDA.

What do they want to look at him for?

RAGNAR.

They want to see how he daren't climb to the top of his own house.

HILDA.

Oh, that is what those boys want, is it?

RAGNAR.

[Spitefully and scornfully.] He has kept us down so long--now we are going to see him keep quietly down below himself.

HILDA.

You will not see that--not this time.

RAGNAR.

[Smiles.] Indeed! Then where shall we see him?

HILDA.

High--high up by the vane! That is where you will see him!

RAGNAR.

[Laughs.] Him! Oh yes, I daresay!

HILDA.

His will is to reach the top--so at the top you shall see him.

RAGNAR.

His will, yes; that I can easily believe. But he simply cannot do it. His head would swim round, long, long before he got half-way. He would have to crawl down again on his hands and knees.

DR. HERDAL.

[Points across.] Look! There goes the foreman up the ladders.

MRS. SOLNESS.

And of course he has the wreath to carry too. Oh, I do hope he will be careful!

RAGNAR.

[Stares incredulously and shouts.] Why, but it's--

HILDA.

[Breaking out in jubilation.] It is the master builder himself?

MRS. SOLNESS.

[Screams with terror.] Yes, it is Halvard! Oh my great God--! Halvard! Halvard!

DR. HERDAL.

Hush! Don't shout to him!

MRS. SOLNESS.

[Half beside herself.] I must go to him! I must get him to come down again!

DR. HERDAL.

[Holds her.] Don't move, any of you! Not a sound!

HILDA.

[Immovable, follows SOLNESS with her eyes.] He climbs and climbs. Higher and higher! Higher and higher! Look! Just look!

RAGNAR.

[Breathless.] He must turn now. He can't possibly help it.

HILDA.

He climbs and climbs. He will soon be at the top now.

MRS. SOLNESS.

Oh, I shall die of terror. I cannot bear to see it.

DR. HERDAL.

Then don't look up at him.

HILDA.

There he is standing on the topmost planks! Right at the top!

DR. HERDAL.

Nobody must move! Do you dear?

HILDA.

[Exulting, with quiet intensity.] At last! At last! Now I see him great and free again!

RAGNAR.

[Almost voiceless.] But this is im--

HILDA.

So I have seen him all through these ten years. How secure he stands! Frightfully thrilling all the same. Look at him! Now he is hanging the wreath round the vane!

RAGNAR.

I feel as if I were looking at something utterly impossible.

HILDA.

Yes, it is the impossible that he is doing now! [With the indefinable expression in her eyes.] Can you see any one else up there with him?

RAGNAR.

There is no one else.

HILDA.

Yes, there is one he is striving with.

RAGNAR.

You are mistaken.

HILDA.

Then do you hear no song in the air, either?

RAGNAR.

It must be the wind in the tree-tops.

HILDA.

_I_ hear a song--a mighty song! [Shouts in wild jubilation and glee.] Look, look! Now he is waving his hat! He is waving it to us down here! Oh, wave, wave back to him! For now it is finished! [Snatches the white shawl from the Doctor, waves it, and shouts up to SOLNESS.] Hurrah for Master Builder Solness!

DR. HERDAL.

Stop! Stop! For God's sake--!

[The ladies on the verandah wave their pocket-handkerchiefs, and
the shouts of "Hurrah" are taken up in the street. Then they
are suddenly silenced, and the crowd bursts out into a shriek
of horror. A human body, with planks and fragments of wood,
is vaguely perceived crashing down behind the trees.

MRS. SOLNESS AND THE LADIES.

[At the same time.] He is falling! He is falling!

[MRS. SOLNESS totters, falls backwards, swooning, and is caught,
amid cries and confusion, by the ladies. The crowd in the
street breaks down the fence and storms into the garden. At
the same time DR. HERDAL, too, rushes down thither. A short
pause.

HILDA.

[Stares fixedly upwards and says, as if petrified.] My Master Builder.

RAGNAR.

[Supports himself, trembling, against the railing.] He must be dashed to pieces--killed on the spot.

ONE OF THE LADIES.

[Whilst MRS. SOLNESS is carried into the house.] Run down for the doctor--

RAGNAR.

I can't stir a root--

ANOTHER LADY.

Then call to some one!

RAGNAR.

[Tries to call out.] How is it? Is he alive?

A VOICE.

[Below, in the garden.] Mr. Solness is dead!

OTHER VOICES.

[Nearer.] The head is all crushed.--he fell right into the quarry.

HILDA.

[Turns to RAGNAR, and says quietly.] I can't see him up there now.

RAGNAR.

This is terrible. So, after all, he could not do it.

HILDA.

[As if in quiet spell-bound triumph.] But he mounted right to the top. And I heard harps in the air. [Waves her shawl in the air, and shrieks with wild intensity.] My--my Master Builder!