between the kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, his point of view being
that Norway had come to be regarded too much as a mere appanage of
Sweden. Between that and his manifold and distracting cares as
theatrical director, he had let imaginative work slide for the time
being; but his years abroad had a recuperative effect, and, in
addition, broadened his mental outlook in a remarkable manner.
Foreign travel, a wider acquaintance with differing types of
humanity, and, above all, a newly-won acquaintance with the
contemporary literature of other countries, made a deep impression
upon Bjornson's vigorously receptive mind. He browsed voraciously
upon the works of foreign writers. Herbert Spencer, Darwin, John
Stuart Mill, Taine, Max-Mueller, formed a portion of his mental
pabulum at this time--and the result was a significant alteration
of mental attitude on a number of questions, and a determination to
make the attempt to embody his theories in dramatic form. He had
gained all at once, as he wrote to Georg Brandes, the eminent
Danish critic, "eyes that saw and ears that heard." Up to this time
the poet in him had been predominant; now it was to be the social
philosopher that held the reins. Just as Ibsen did, so Bjornson
abandoned historical drama and artificial comedy for an attempt at
prose drama which should have at all events a serious thesis. In
this he anticipated Ibsen; for (unless we include the satirical
political comedy, _The League of Youth_, which was published in
1869, among Ibsen's "social dramas") Ibsen did not enter the field
with _Pillars of Society_ [Note: Published in _The Pretenders and
Two Other Plays_, in Everyman's Library, 1913.] 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