Nicole Apostola



THREE DRAMAS

THE EDITOR--THE BANKRUPT--THE KING

BY BJORNSTJERNE BJORNSON







INTRODUCTION

The three plays here presented were the outcome of a period when
Bjornson's views on many topics were undergoing a drastic revision
and he was abandoning much of his previous orthodoxy in many
directions. Two of them were written during, and one immediately
after, a three years' absence from Norway--years spent almost
entirely in southern Europe. [Note: Further details respecting
Bjornson's life will be found in the Introduction to Three Comedies
by Bjornson, published in Everyman's Library in 1912.] For nearly
ten years previous to this voluntary exile, Bjornson had been
immersed in theatrical management and political propagandism. His
political activities (guided by a more or less pronounced
republican tendency) centred in an agitation for a truer equality