PLAYS
FIRST SERIES
BY
AUGUST STRINDBERG
THE DREAM PLAY
THE LINK
THE DANCE OF DEATH, Part I
THE DANCE OF DEATH, Part II
TRANSLATED WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
EDWIN BJÖRKMAN
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1912
NOTE
This translation is authorised byMr. Strindberg,
and he has alsoapproved the selection
of theplays included in this volume.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
A CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF AUGUST STRINDBERG'S MAIN WORKS
THE DREAM PLAY
THE LINK
THE DANCE of DEATH, PART I
THE DANCE of DEATH, PART II
INTRODUCTION
To the first volume of his remarkable series of autobiographicalnovels, August Strindberg gave the name of "The Bondwoman'sSon." The allusion was twofold—to his birth and to the positionwhich fate, in his own eyes, seemed to have assigned him both asman and artist.
If we pass on to the third part of his big trilogy, "ToDamascus," also an autobiographical work, but written nearlytwenty years later, we find The Stranger, who is none but theauthor, saying: "I was the Bondwoman's Son, concerning whom itwas writ—Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son ofthe bondwoman shall not be heir with the free woman's son.'"
And The Lady, back of whom we glimpse Strindberg's secondwife, replies: "Do you know why Ishmael was cast out? It is tobe read a little further back—because he was a scoffer! Andthen it is also said: 'He will be a wild man; his hand will beagainst every man, and every man's hand against him; and heshall dwell in opposition to all his brethren.'"
These quotations should be read in conjunction with stillanother, taken from Strindberg's latest play, "The GreatHighway," which, while being a sort of symbolical summary of hislife experience, yet pierces the magic circle of self-concernwithin which too often he has remained a captive. There TheHermit asks: "You do not love your fellow-men?" And Strindberg,masquerading as The Hunter, cries in answer: "Yes, far toomuch, and fear them for that reason, too."
August Strindberg was born at Stockholm, Sweden, on January22, 1849. His father was a small tradesman, who had lost hisbusiness just before August was born, but who had the energy andability to start all over again as a steam-ship agent, making adecided success of his second venture. The success, however, wasslow in coming, and the boy's earliest years were spent in theworst kind of poverty—that poverty which has to keep up outwardappearances.
The mother had been a barmaid in one of the numerous innsforming one of the Swedish capital's most characteristicfeatures. There the elder Strindberg had met her and fallendeeply in love with her. August was their third child, born acouple of months after their relationship ha