for the ultimate protection of himself and his creditors.
Despite its treatment of this serious problem, the play is
lighter and more genial in vein than the author's plays
are wont to be, and the element of humor is unusually
conspicuous. Jaeger remarks that "A Bankruptcy" did two
new things for Norwegian dramatic literature. It made money
affairs a legitimate subject for literary treatment, and
it raised the curtain upon the Norwegian home. "It was with
'A Bankruptcy' that the home made its first appearance upon
the stage, the home with its joys and sorrows, with its
conflicts and its tenderness."

Two years later appeared "The King, which is in many
respects Bjornson's greatest modern masterpiece in dramatic
form. He had by this time become a convinced republican,
but he was also an evolutionist, and he knew that republics
are not created by fiat. He believed the tendency toward
republicanism to be irresistible, but he believed also that
there must be intermediate stages in the transition from
monarchy. Absolutism is succeeded by constitutionalism,
and that by parliamentarism, and that in the end must
be succeeded by a republicanism that will free itself from
all the traditional forms of symbol and ceremonial. He had
also a special belief that the smaller peoples were better
fitted for development in this direction than the larger and
more complex societies, although, on the other hand, he thought
that the process of growth into full self-government was likely
to be slower among the Germanic than among the Latin races.
In the deeply moving play now to be considered, we have, in
the character of the titular king, an extraordinary piece of