The first performance of the play in Norway took place at the
Christiania Theatre on January 15, 1895, Fru Wettergren playing
Rita And Fru Dybwad, Asta. In Copenhagen (March 13, 1895) Fru Oda
Nielsen and Fru Hennings played Rita and Asta respectively, while
Emil Poulsen played Allmers. The first German Rita (Deutsches
Theater, Berlin, January 12, 1895) was Frau Agnes Sorma, with
Reicher as Allmers. Six weeks later Frl. Sandrock played Rita at
the Burgtheater, Vienna. In May 1895 the play was acted by M.
Lugne-Poe's company in Paris. The first performance in English took
place at the Avenue Theatre, London, on the afternoon of November
23, 1896, with Miss Janet Achurch as Rita, Miss Elizabeth Robins as
Asta, and Mrs. Patrick Campbell as the Rat-Wife. Miss Achurch's
Rita made a profound impression. Mrs. Patrick Campbell afterwards
played the part in a short series of evening performances. In the
spring of 1895 the play was acted in Chicago by a company of
Scandinavian amateurs, presumably in Norwegian. Fru Oda Nielsen has
recently (I understand) given some performances of it in New York,
and Madame Alla Nazimova has announced it for production during the
coming season (1907-1908).

As the external history of _Little Eyolf_ is so short. I am tempted
to depart from my usual practice, and say a few words as to its
matter and meaning.

George Brandes, writing of this play, has rightly observed that "a
kind of dualism has always been perceptible in Ibsen; he pleads the
cause of Nature, and he castigates Nature with mystic morality;
only sometimes Nature is allowed the first voice, sometimes
morality. In _The Master Builder_ and in _Ghosts_ the lover of