Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 8).djvu/31

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

over the scene as imperceptibly as dawn grows into day.

It seems to me, then, that The Wild Duck is a consummation rather than a new departure. Assuredly it marks the summit of the poet's achievement (in modern prose) up to that date. Its only possible rival is Ghosts; and who does not feel the greater richness, depth, suppleness, and variety of the later play? It gives us, in a word, a larger segment of life.