A Drama in Three Acts



185O

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PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION


The drama _Catiline_, with which I entered upon my literary
career, was written during the winter of 1848-49, that is in my
twenty-first year.

I was at the time in Grimstad, under the necessity of earning
with my hands the wherewithal of life and the means for
instruction preparatory to my taking the entrance examinations to
the university. The age was one of great stress. The February
revolution, the uprisings in Hungary and elsewhere, the Slesvig
war,--all this had a great effect upon and hastened my
development, however immature it may have remained for some time
after. I wrote ringing poems of encouragement to the Magyars,
urging them for the sake of liberty and humanity to hold out in
the righteous struggle against the "tyrants"; I wrote a long
series of sonnets to King Oscar, containing particularly, as far
as I can remember, an appeal to set aside all petty
considerations and to march forthwith at the head of his army to
the aid of our brothers on the outermost borders of Slesvig.