Dr. Stockmann. Yes, here. This is the field of battle--this is where the fight will be. This is where I shall triumph! As soon as I have had my trousers sewn up I shall go out and look for another house. We must have a roof over our heads for the winter.
Horster. That you shall have in my house.
Dr. Stockmann. Can I?
Horsier. Yes, quite well. I have plenty of room, and I am almost never at home.
Mrs. Stockmann. How good of you, Captain Horster!
Petra. Thank you!
Dr. Stockmann (grasping his hand). Thank you, thank you! That is one trouble over! Now I can set to work in earnest at once. There is an endless amount of things to look through here, Katherine!
Luckily I shall have all my time at my disposal; because I have been dismissed from the Baths, you know.
Mrs. Stockmann (with a sigh). Oh yes, I expected that.
Dr. Stockmann. And they want to take my practice away from me too. Let them! I have got the poor people to fall back upon, anyway--those that don't pay anything; and, after all, they need me most, too. But, by Jove, they will have to listen to me; Ishall preach to them in season and out of season, as it says somewhere.
Mrs. Stockmann. But, dear Thomas, I should have thought events had showed you what use it is to preach.
Dr. Stockmann. You are really ridiculous, Katherine. Do you want me to let myself be beaten off the field by public opinion and the compact majority and all that devilry? No, thank you! And what I want to do is so ****** and clear and straightforward. Ionly want to drum into the heads of these curs the fact that the liberals are the most insidious enemies of *******--that party programmes strangle every young and vigorous truth--that considerations of expediency turn morality and justice upside down--and that they will end by ****** life here unbearable.
Don't you think, Captain Horster, that I ought to be able to make people understand that?
Horster. Very likely; I don't know much about such things myself.
Dr. Stockmann. Well, look here--I will explain! It is the party leaders that must be exterminated. A party leader is like a wolf, you see--like a voracious wolf. He requires a certain number of smaller victims to prey upon every year, if he is to live. Just look at Hovstad and Aslaksen! How many smaller victims have they not put an end to--or at any rate maimed and mangled until they are fit for nothing except to be householders or subscribers to the "People's Messenger"! (Sits down on the edge of the table.)Come here, Katherine--look how beautifully the sun shines to-day!
And this lovely spring air I am drinking in!
Mrs. Stockmann. Yes, if only we could live on sunshine and spring air, Thomas.
Dr. Stockmann. Oh, you will have to pinch and save a bit--then we shall get along. That gives me very little concern. What is much worse is, that I know of no one who is liberal-minded and high-minded enough to venture to take up my work after me.
Petra. Don't think about that, father; you have plenty of time before you.--Hello, here are the boys already!
(EJLIF and MORTEN come in from the sitting-room.)Mrs. Stockmann. Have you got a holiday?
Morten. No; but we were fighting with the other boys between lessons--Ejlif. That isn't true; it was the other boys were fighting with us.
Morten. Well, and then Mr. Rorlund said we had better stay at home for a day or two.
Dr. Stockmann (snapping his fingers and getting up from the table). I have it! I have it, by Jove! You shall never set foot in the school again!
The Boys. No more school!
Mrs. Stockmann. But, Thomas--
Dr. Stockmann. Never, I say. I will educate you myself; that is to say, you shan't learn a blessed thing--Morten. Hooray!
Dr. Stockmann. --but I will make liberal-minded and high-minded men of you. You must help me with that, Petra.
Petra, Yes, father, you may be sure I will.
Dr. Stockmann. And my school shall be in the room where they insulted me and called me an enemy of the people. But we are too few as we are; I must have at least twelve boys to begin with.
Mrs. Stockmann. You will certainly never get them in this town.
Dr. Stockmann. We shall. (To the boys.) Don't you know any street urchins--regular ragamuffins--?
Morten. Yes, father, I know lots!
Dr. Stockmann. That's capital! Bring me some specimens of them. Iam going to experiment with curs, just for once; there may be some exceptional heads among them.
Morten. And what are we going to do, when you have made liberal-minded and high-minded men of us?
Dr. Stockmann. Then you shall drive all the wolves out of the country, my boys!
(EJLIF looks rather doubtful about it; MORTEN jumps about crying "Hurrah!
Mrs. Stockmann. Let us hope it won't be the wolves that will drive you out of the country, Thomas.
Dr. Stockmann. Are you out of your mind, Katherine? Drive me out!
Now--when I am the strongest man in the town!
Mrs. Stockmann. The strongest--now?
Dr. Stockmann. Yes, and I will go so far as to say that now I am the strongest man in the whole world.
Morten. I say!
Dr. Stockmann (lowering his voice). Hush! You mustn't say anything about it yet; but I have made a great discovery.
Mrs. Stockmann. Another one?
Dr. Stockmann. Yes. (Gathers them round him, and says confidentially:) It is this, let me tell you--that the strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone.
Mrs. Stockmann (smiling and shaking her head). Oh, Thomas, Thomas!
Petra (encouragingly, as she grasps her father's hands). Father!
End