(1906) in force. England enjoys the proud distinction of being the
one country in the world where _Ghosts_ may not be publicly acted.
In the United States, the first performance of the play in English
took place at the Berkeley Lyceum, New York City, on January 5,
1894. The production was described by Mr. W. D. Howells as "a great
theatrical event--the very greatest I have ever known." Other
leading men of letters were equally impressed by it. Five years
later, a second production took place at the Carnegie Lyceum; and
an adventurous manager has even taken the play on tour in the
United States. The Italian version of the tragedy, _Gli Spettri_,
has ever since 1892 taken a prominent place in the repertory of the
great actors Zaccone and Novelli, who have acted it, not only
throughout Italy, but in Austria, Germany, Russia, Spain, and South
America.

In an interview, published immediately after Ibsen's death,
Bjornstjerne Bjornson, questioned as to what he held to be his
brother-poet's greatest work, replied, without a moment's
hesitation, _Gengangere_. This dictum can scarcely, I think, be
accepted without some qualification. Even confining our attention
to the modern plays, and leaving out of comparison _The Pretenders_,
_Brand_, and _Peer Gynt_, we can scarcely call _Ghosts_ Ibsen's
richest or most human play, and certainly not his profoundest or
most poetical. If some omnipotent Censorship decreed the
annihilation of all his works save one, few people, I imagine,
would vote that that one should be _Ghosts_. Even if half a dozen
works were to be saved from the wreck, I doubt whether I, for my
part, would include _Ghosts_ in the list. It is, in my judgment, a
little bare, hard, austere. It is the first work in which Ibsen
applies his new technical method--evolved, as I have suggested,