which I have rendered "the morals of the higher rascality." I cannot
but suspect (though for this I have no authority) that in the word
"overskurk," which might be represented in German by "Ueberschurke,"
Borkman is parodying the expression "Uebermensch," of which so much
has been heard of late. When I once suggested this to Ibsen, he
neither affirmed nor denied it. I understood him to say, however,
that in speaking of "overskurken" he had a particular man in view.
Somewhat pusillanimously, perhaps, I pursued my inquiries no further.

*Copyright, 1907, by Charles Scribner's Sons.




JOHN GABRIEL BORKMAN (1896)


PERSONS.

JOHN GABRIEL BORKMAN, formerly Managing Director of a Bank.
MRS. GUNHILD BORKMAN, his wife.
ERHART BORKMAN, their son, a student.
MISS ELLA RENTHEIM, Mrs. Borkman's twin sister.
MRS. FANNY WILTON.
VILHELM FOLDAL, subordinate clerk in a Government office.
FRIDA FOLDAL, his daughter.
MRS. BORKMAN'S MAID.


The action passes one winter evening, at the Manorhouse of