of its subject; but it made a speedy success on the boards, and
very soon became a popular item in the repertories of the
Christiania, Bergen and Copenhagen theatres. It was actually first
performed, in a Swedish translation, at Stockholm, a few days
before it was produced at Christiania. Very soon, too, the play
reached Berlin, Munich, Vienna, and other German and Austrian
theatres. It was played in Paris, at the Theatre Libre in 1894. The
character of Berent, the lawyer, which became a favourite one with
the famous Swedish actor Ernst Possart, was admittedly more or less
of a portrait of a well-known Norwegian lawyer, by name Dunker.
When Bjornson was writing the play, he went to stay for some days
with Dunker, who was to instruct him as to the legal aspect of
bankruptcy. Bjornson took the opportunity of studying the lawyer as
well as the law.

_The King_ (_Kongen_) was written at Aulestad, the Norwegian home
in which Bjornson settled after his return from abroad, and was
published at Copenhagen in 1877. It is perhaps not surprising that
the play, with its curious blend of poetry and social philosophy,
and its somewhat exuberant (though always interesting) wordiness,
was not at first a conspicuous success on the stage; but the
interest aroused by the published book was enormous. It was widely
read and vigorously discussed, both in Scandinavia and abroad; and
while, on the one hand, it brought upon Bjornson the most
scurrilous abuse and the harshest criticism from his political
opponents, on the other hand a prominent compatriot of his (whose
opinion was worth having) gave it as his verdict, at a political
meeting held soon after the play's publication, that "the most
notable thing that has happened in Norway of late--or at any rate,
one of the most notable--in my opinion is this last book of