this course, with its gradually intensified conflict between the
King and Olof, it is above all necessary to bear in mind that the
former regarded the Reformation principally as a means toward
that political reorganization and material upbuilding of the
country which formed his main task; while to Olof the religious
reconstruction assumed supreme importance. This fundamental
divergence of purpose is clearly indicated and effectively used
by Strindberg, and we have reason to believe that he has pictured
not only Gustaf Vasa and Master Olof, but also the other
historical characters, in close accordance with what history has
to tell us about them. Among the chief figures there is only one
--Gert the Printer--who is not known to history, and one--the
wife of Olof--who is so little known that the playwright has been
at liberty to create it almost wholly out of his own imagination.

At the juncture represented by the initial scenes of the play,
Olof was in reality thirty-one years old, but he is made to
appear still younger. The King should be, and is, about twenty-
seven, while Lars Andersson is about fifty-four, and Bishop Brask
about seventy. Gert must be thought a man of about sixty, while
Christine must be about twenty. The action of the play lasts from
1524 to 1540, but Strindberg has contracted the general
perspective, so to speak, giving us the impression that the
entire action takes place within a couple of years. I have tried
to work out a complete chronology, and think it fairly safe to
date the several parts of the play as follows:

The first act takes place on Whitsun Eve, 1524, which means that
the exact date must fall between May 10 and June 13 of that year,
and probably about June 1.