*Copyright, 1907, by Charles Scribner's Sons.
**_Ibsen and Bjornson_. London, Heinmann, 1899, p.88




THE FEAST AT SOLHOUG (1856)



THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION


PREFACE


I wrote _The Feast at Solhoug_ in Bergen in the summer of 1855--that
is to say, about twenty-eight years ago.

The play was acted for the first time on January 2, 1856, also at
Bergen, as a gala performance on the anniversary of the foundation
of the Norwegian Stage.

As I was then stage-manager of the Bergen Theatre, it was I myself
who conducted the rehearsals of my play. It received an excellent,
a remarkably sympathetic interpretation. Acted with pleasure and
enthusiasm, it was received in the same spirit. The "Bergen
emotionalism," which is said to have decided the result of the
latest elections in those parts, ran high that evening in the