Act IV

The same rooms at the Tesmans’. It is evening. The drawing room is in darkness. The back room is light by the hanging lamp over the table. The curtains over the glass door are drawn close.

	Hedda, dressed in black, walks to and fro in the dark room. Then she goes into the back room and disappears for a moment to the left. She is heard to strike a few chords on the piano. Presently she comes in sight again, and returns to the drawing room.
	Berta enters from the right, through the inner room, with a lighted lamp, which she places on the table in front of the corner settee in the drawing room. Her eyes are red with weeping, and she has black ribbons in her cap. She goes quietly and circumspectly out to the right. Hedda goes up to the glass door, lifts the curtain a little aside, and looks out into the darkness.
	Shortly afterwards, Miss Tesman, in mourning, with a bonnet and veil on, comes in from the hall. Hedda* goes towards her and holds out her hand.*
Miss Tesman	Yes, Hedda, here I am, in mourning and forlorn; for now my poor sister has at last found peace.
Hedda	I have heard the news already, as you see. Tesman sent me a card.
Miss Tesman	Yes, he promised me he would. But nevertheless I thought that to Hedda—here in the house of life—I ought myself to bring the tidings of death.
Hedda	That was very kind of you.
Miss Tesman	Ah, Rina ought not to have left us just now. This is not the time for Hedda’s house to be a house of mourning.
Hedda	Changing the subject. She died quite peacefully, did she not, Miss Tesman?
Miss Tesman	Oh, her end was so calm, so beautiful. And then she had the unspeakable happiness of seeing George once more—and bidding him goodbye.—Has he not come home yet?
Hedda	No. He wrote that he might be detained. But won’t you sit down?
Miss Tesman	No thank you, my dear, dear Hedda. I should like to, but I have so much to do. I must prepare my dear one for her rest as well as I can. She shall go to her grave looking her best.
Hedda	Can I not help you in any way?
Miss Tesman	Oh, you must not think of it! Hedda Tesman must have no hand in such mournful work. Nor let her thought dwell on it either—not at this time.
Hedda	One is not always mistress of one’s thoughts—
Miss Tesman	Continuing. Ah yes, it is the way of the world. At home we shall be sewing a shroud; and here there will soon be sewing too, I suppose—but of another sort, thank God!
	George Tesman enters by the hall door.
Hedda	Ah, you have come at last!
Tesman	You here, Aunt Julia? With Hedda? Fancy that!
Miss Tesman	I was just going, my dear boy. Well, have you done all you promised?
Tesman	No; I’m really afraid I have forgotten half of it. I must come to you again tomorrow. Today my brain is all in a whirl. I can’t keep my thoughts together.
Miss Tesman	Why, my dear George, you mustn’t take it in this way.
Tesman	Mustn’t—? How do you mean?
Miss Tesman	Even in your sorrow you must rejoice, as I do—rejoice that she is at rest.
Tesman	Oh yes, yes—you are thinking of Aunt Rina.
Hedda	You will feel lonely now, Miss Tesman.
Miss Tesman	Just at first, yes. But that will not last very long, I hope. I daresay I shall soon find an occupant for Rina’s little room.
Tesman	Indeed? Who do you think will take it? Eh?
Miss Tesman	Oh, there’s always some poor invalid or other in want of nursing, unfortunately.
Hedda	Would you really take such a burden upon you again?
Miss Tesman	A burden! Heaven forgive you, child—it has been no burden to me.
Hedda	But suppose you had a total stranger on your hands—
Miss Tesman	Oh, one soon makes friends with sick folk; and it’s such an absolute necessity for me to have someone to live for. Well, heaven be praised, there may soon be something in this house, too, to keep an old aunt busy.
Hedda	Oh, don’t trouble about anything here.
Tesman	Yes, just fancy what a nice time we three might have together, if—?
Hedda	If—?
Tesman	Uneasily. Oh nothing. It will all come right. Let us hope so—eh?
Miss Tesman	Well well, I daresay you two want to talk to each other. Smiling. And perhaps Hedda may have something to tell you too, George. Goodbye! I must go home to Rina. Turning at the door. How strange it is to think that now Rina is with me and with my poor brother as well!
Tesman	Yes, fancy that, Aunt Julia! Eh?
	Miss Tesman goes out by the hall door.
Hedda	Follows Tesman* coldly and searchingly with her eyes.* I almost believe your Aunt Rina’s death affects you more than it does your Aunt Julia.
Tesman	Oh, it’s not that alone. It’s Eilert I am so terribly uneasy about.
Hedda	Quickly. Is there anything new about him?
Tesman	I looked in at his rooms this afternoon, intending to tell him the manuscript was in safe keeping.
Hedda	Well, did you find him?
Tesman	No. He wasn’t at home. But afterwards I met Mrs. Elvsted, and she told me that he had been here early this morning.
Hedda	Yes, directly after you had gone.
Tesman	And he said that he had torn his manuscript to pieces—eh?
Hedda	Yes, so he declared.
Tesman	Why, good heavens, he must have been completely out of his mind! And I suppose you thought it best not to give it back to him, Hedda?
Hedda	No, he did not get it.
Tesman	But of course you told him that we had it?
Hedda	No. Quickly. Did you tell Mrs. Elvsted?
Tesman	No; I thought I had better not. But you ought to have told him. Fancy, if, in desperation, he should go and do himself some injury! Let me have the manuscript, Hedda! I will take it to him at once. Where is it?
Hedda	Cold and immovable, leaning on the armchair. I have not got it.
Tesman	Have not got it? What in the world do you mean?
Hedda	I have burnt it—every line of it.
Tesman	With a violent movement of terror. Burnt! Burnt Eilert’s manuscript!
Hedda	Don’t scream so. The servant might hear you.
Tesman	Burnt! Why, good God—! No, no, no! It’s impossible!
Hedda	It is so, nevertheless.
Tesman	Do you know what you have done, Hedda? It’s unlawful appropriation of lost property. Fancy that! Just ask Judge Brack, and he’ll tell you what it is.
Hedda	I advise you not to speak of it—either to Judge Brack or to anyone else.
Tesman	But how could you do anything so unheard-of? What put it into your head? What possessed you? Answer me that—eh?
Hedda	Suppressing an almost imperceptible smile. I did it for your sake, George.
Tesman	For my sake!
Hedda	This morning, when you told me about what he had read to you—
Tesman	Yes yes—what then?
Hedda	You acknowledged that you envied him his work.
Tesman	Oh, of course I didn’t mean that literally.
Hedda	No matter—I could not bear the idea that anyone should throw you into the shade.
Tesman	In an outburst of mingled doubt and joy. Hedda! Oh, is this true? But—but—I never knew you show your love like that before. Fancy that!
Hedda	Well, I may as well tell you that—just at this time—Impatiently breaking off. No, no; you can ask Aunt Julia. She well tell you, fast enough.
Tesman	Oh, I almost think I understand you, Hedda! Clasps his hands together. Great heavens! do you really mean it! Eh?
Hedda	Don’t shout so. The servant might hear.
Tesman	Laughing in irrepressible glee. The servant! Why, how absurd you are, Hedda. It’s only my old Berta! Why, I’ll tell Berta myself.
Hedda	Clenching her hands together in desperation. Oh, it is killing me—it is killing me, all this!
Tesman	What is, Hedda? Eh?
Hedda	Coldly, controlling herself. All this—absurdity—George.
Tesman	Absurdity! Do you see anything absurd in my being overjoyed at the news! But after all—perhaps I had better not say anything to Berta.
Hedda	Oh—why not that too?
Tesman	No, no, not yet! But I must certainly tell Aunt Julia. And then that you have begun to call me George too! Fancy that! Oh, Aunt Julia will be so happy—so happy!
Hedda	When she hears that I have burnt Eilert Lövborg’s manuscript—for your sake?
Tesman	No, by the by—that affair of the manuscript—of course nobody must know about that. But that you love me so much,20 Hedda—Aunt Julia must really share my joy in that! I wonder, now, whether this sort of thing is usual in young wives? Eh?
Hedda	I think you had better ask Aunt Julia that question too.
Tesman	I will indeed, some time or other. Looks uneasy and downcast again. And yet the manuscript—the manuscript! Good God! it is terrible to think what will become of poor Eilert now.
	Mrs. Elvsted, dressed as in the first Act, with hat and cloak, enters by the hall door.
Mrs. Elvsted	Greets them hurriedly, and says in evident agitation. Oh, dear Hedda, forgive my coming again.
Hedda	What is the matter with you, Thea?
Tesman	Something about Eilert Lövborg again—eh?
Mrs. Elvsted	Yes! I am dreadfully afraid some misfortune has happened to him.
Hedda	Seized her arm. Ah—do you think so?
Tesman	Why, good Lord—what makes you think that, Mrs. Elvsted?
Mrs. Elvsted	I heard them talking of him at my boardinghouse—just as I came in. Oh, the most incredible rumours are afloat about him today.
Tesman	Yes, fancy, so I heard too! And I can bear witness that he went straight home to bed last night. Fancy that!
Hedda	Well, what did they say at the boardinghouse?
Mrs. Elvsted	Oh, I couldn’t make out anything clearly. Either they knew nothing definite, or else—. They stopped talking when the saw me; and I did not dare to ask.
Tesman	Moving about uneasily. We must hope—we must hope that you misunderstood them, Mrs. Elvsted.
Mrs. Elvsted	No, no; I am sure it was of him they were talking. And I heard something about the hospital or—
Tesman	The hospital?
Hedda	No—surely that cannot be!
Mrs. Elvsted	Oh, I was in such mortal terror! I went to his lodgings and asked for him there.
Hedda	You could make up your mind to that, Thea!
Mrs. Elvsted	What else could I do? I really could bear the suspense no longer.
Tesman	But you didn’t find him either—eh?
Mrs. Elvsted	No. And the people knew nothing about him. He hadn’t been home since yesterday afternoon, they said.
Tesman	Yesterday! Fancy, how could they say that?
Mrs. Elvsted	Oh, I am sure something terrible must have happened to him.
Tesman	Hedda dear—how would it be if I were to go and make inquiries—?
Hedda	No, no—don’t you mix yourself up in this affair.
	Judge Brack, with his hat in his hand, enters by the hall door, which Berta opens, and closes behind him. He looks grave and bows in silence.
Tesman	Oh, is that you, my dear Judge? Eh?
Brack	Yes. It was imperative I should see you this evening.
Tesman	I can see you have heard the news about Aunt Rina?
Brack	Yes, that among other things.
Tesman	Isn’t it sad—eh?
Brack	Well, my dear Tesman, that depends on how you look at it.
Tesman	Looks doubtfully at him. Has anything else happened?
Brack	Yes.
Hedda	In suspense. Anything sad, Judge Brack?
Brack	That, too, depends on how you look at it, Mrs. Tesman.
Mrs. Elvsted	Unable to restrain her anxiety. Oh! it is something about Eilert Lövborg!
Brack	With a glance at her. What makes you think that, Madam? Perhaps you have already heard something—?
Mrs. Elvsted	In confusion. No, nothing at all, but—
Tesman	Oh, for heaven’s sake, tell us!
Brack	Shrugging his shoulders. Well, I regret to say Eilert Lövborg has been taken to the hospital. He is lying at the point of death.
Mrs. Elvsted	Shrieks. Oh God! oh God—!
Tesman	To the hospital! And at the point of death!
Hedda	Involuntarily. So soon then—
Mrs. Elvsted	Wailing. And we parted in anger, Hedda!
Hedda	Whispers. Thea—Thea—be careful!
Mrs. Elvsted	Not heeding her. I must go to him! I must see him alive!
Brack	It is useless, Madam. No one will be admitted.
Mrs. Elvsted	Oh, at least tell me what has happened to him? What is it?
Tesman	You don’t mean to say that he has himself—Eh?
Hedda	Yes, I am sure he has.
Brack	Keeping his eyes fixed upon her. Unfortunately you have guessed quite correctly, Mrs. Tesman.
Mrs. Elvsted	Oh, how horrible!
Tesman	Himself, then! Fancy that!
Hedda	Shot himself!
Brack	Rightly guessed again, Mrs. Tesman.
Mrs. Elvsted	With an effort at self-control. When did it happen, Mr. Brack?
Brack	This afternoon—between three and four.
Tesman	But, good Lord, where did he do it? Eh?
Brack	With some hesitation. Where? Well—I suppose at his lodgings.
Mrs. Elvsted	No, that cannot be; for I was there between six and seven.
Brack	Well then, somewhere else. I don’t know exactly. I only know that he was found—. He had shot himself—in the breast.
Mrs. Elvsted	Oh, how terrible! That he should die like that!
Hedda	To Brack. Was it in the breast?
Brack	Yes—as I told you.
Hedda	Not in the temple?
Brack	In the breast, Mrs. Tesman.
Hedda	Well, well—the breast is a good place, too.
Brack	How do you mean, Mrs. Tesman?
Hedda	Evasively. Oh, nothing—nothing.
Tesman	And the wound is dangerous, you say—eh?
Brack	Absolutely mortal. The end has probably come by this time.
Mrs. Elvsted	Yes, yes, I feel it. The end! The end! Oh, Hedda—!
Tesman	But tell me, how have you learnt all this?
Brack	Curtly. Through one of the police. A man I had some business with.
Hedda	In a clear voice. At last a deed worth doing!
Tesman	Terrified. Good heavens, Hedda! what are you saying?
Hedda	I say there is beauty in this.
Brack	H’m, Mrs. Tesman—
Mrs. Elvsted	Oh, Hedda, how can you talk of beauty in such an act!
Hedda	Eilert Lövborg has himself made up his account with life. He has had the courage to do—the one right thing.
Mrs. Elvsted	No, you must never think that was how it happened! It must have been in delirium that he did it.
Tesman	In despair!
Hedda	That he did not. I am certain of that.
Mrs. Elvsted	Yes, yes! In delirium! Just as when he tore up our manuscript.
Brack	Starting. The manuscript? Has he torn that up?
Mrs. Elvsted	Yes, last night.
Tesman	Whispers softly. Oh, Hedda, we shall never get over this.
Brack	H’m, very extraordinary.
Tesman	Moving about the room. To think of Eilert going out of the world in this way! And not leaving behind him the book that would have immortalised his name—
Mrs. Elvsted	Oh, if only it could be put together again!
Tesman	Yes, if it only could! I don’t know what I would not give—
Mrs. Elvsted	Perhaps it can, Mr. Tesman.
Tesman	What do you mean?
Mrs. Elvsted	Searches in the pocket of her dress. Look here. I have kept all the loose notes he used to dictate from.
Hedda	A step forward. Ah—!
Tesman	You have kept them, Mrs. Elvsted! Eh?
Mrs. Elvsted	Yes, I have them here. I put them in my pocket when I left home. Here they still are—
Tesman	Oh, do let me see them!
Mrs. Elvsted	Hands him a bundle of papers. But they are in such disorder—all mixed up.
Tesman	Fancy, if we could make something out of them, after all! Perhaps if we two put our heads together—
Mrs. Elvsted	Oh yes, at least let us try—
Tesman	We will manage it! We must! I will dedicate my life to this task.
Hedda	You, George? Your life?
Tesman	Yes, or rather all the time I can spare. My own collections must wait in the meantime. Hedda—you understand, eh? I owe this to Eilert’s memory.
Hedda	Perhaps.
Tesman	And so, my dear Mrs. Elvsted, we will give our whole minds to it. There is no use in brooding over what can’t be undone—eh? We must try to control our grief as much as possible, and—
Mrs. Elvsted	Yes, yes, Mr. Tesman, I will do the best I can.
Tesman	Well then, come here. I can’t rest until we have looked through the notes. Where shall we sit? Here? No, in there, in the back room. Excuse me, my dear Judge. Come with me, Mrs. Elvsted.
Mrs. Elvsted	Oh, if only it were possible!
	Tesman and Mrs. Elvsted go into the back room. She takes off her hat and cloak. They both sit at the table under the hanging lamp, and are soon deep in an eager examination of the papers. Hedda crosses to the stove and sits in the arm chair. Presently Brack goes up to her.
Hedda	In a low voice. Oh, what a sense of freedom it gives one, this act of Eilert Lövborg’s.
Brack	Freedom, Mrs. Hedda? Well, of course, it is a release for him—
Hedda	I mean for me. It gives me a sense of freedom to know that a deed of deliberate courage is still possible in this world—a deed of spontaneous beauty.
Brack	Smiling. H’m—my dear Mrs. Hedda—
Hedda	Oh, I know what you are going to say. For you are a kind of specialist too, like—you know!
Brack	Looking hard at her. Eilert Lövborg was more to you than perhaps you are willing to admit to yourself. Am I wrong?
Hedda	I don’t answer such questions. I only know that Eilert Lövborg has had the courage to live his life after his own fashion. And then—the last great act, with its beauty! Ah! that he should have the will and the strength to turn away from the banquet of life—so early.
Brack	I am sorry, Mrs. Hedda—but I fear I must dispel an amiable illusion.
Hedda	Illusion?
Brack	Which could not have lasted long in any case.
Hedda	What do you mean?
Brack	Eilert Lövborg did not shoot himself—voluntarily.
Hedda	Not voluntarily?
Brack	No. The thing did not happen exactly as I told it.
Hedda	In suspense. Have you concealed something? What is it?
Brack	For poor Mrs. Elvsted’s sake I idealised the facts a little.
Hedda	What are the facts?
Brack	First, that he is already dead.
Hedda	At the hospital?
Brack	Yes—without regaining consciousness.
Hedda	What more have you concealed?
Brack	This—the event did not happen at his lodgings.
Hedda	Oh, that can make no difference.
Brack	Perhaps it may. For I must tell you—Eilert Lövborg was found shot in—in Mademoiselle Diana’s boudoir.
Hedda	Makes a motion as if to rise, but sinks back again. That is impossible, Judge Brack! He cannot have been there again today.
Brack	He was there this afternoon. He went there, he said, to demand the return of something which they had taken from him. Talked wildly about a lost child—
Hedda	Ah—so that is why—
Brack	I thought probably he meant his manuscript; but now I hear he destroyed that himself. So I suppose it must have been his pocketbook.
Hedda	Yes, no doubt. And there—there he was found?
Brack	Yes, there. With a pistol in his breast pocket, discharged. The ball had lodged in a vital part.
Hedda	In the breast—yes?
Brack	No—in the bowels.
Hedda	Looks up at him with an expression of loathing. That too! Oh, what curse is it that makes everything I touch turn ludicrous and mean?
Brack	There is one point more, Mrs. Hedda—another disagreeable feature in the affair.
Hedda	And what is that?
Brack	The pistol he carried—
Hedda	Breathless. Well? What of it?
Brack	He must have stolen it.
Hedda	Leaps up. Stolen it! That is not true! He did not steal it!
Brack	No other explanation is possible. He must have stolen it—. Hush!
	Tesman and Mrs. Elvsted have risen from the table in the back room, and come into the drawing room.
Tesman	With the papers in both his hands. Hedda, dear, it is almost impossible to see under that lamp. Think of that!
Hedda	Yes, I am thinking.
Tesman	Would you mind our sitting at you writing table—eh?
Hedda	If you like. Quickly. No, wait! Let me clear it first!
Tesman	Oh, you needn’t trouble, Hedda. There is plenty of room.
Hedda	No no, let me clear it, I say! I will take these things in and put them on the piano. There!
	She has drawn out an object, covered with sheet music, from under the bookcase, places several other pieces of music upon it, and carries the whole into the inner room, to the left. Tesman lays the scraps of paper on the writing table, and moves the lamp there from the corner table. He and Mrs. Elvsted sit down and proceed with their work. Hedda returns.
Hedda	Behind Mrs. Elvsted’s chair, gently ruffling her hair. Well, my sweet Thea—how goes it with Eilert Lövborg’s monument?
Mrs. Elvsted	Looks dispiritedly up at her. Oh, it will be terribly hard to put in order.
Tesman	We must manage it. I am determined. And arranging other people’s papers is just the work for me.
	Hedda goes over to the stove, and seats herself on one of the footstools. Brack stands over her, leaning on the armchair.
Hedda	Whispers. What did you say about the pistol?
Brack	Softly. That he must have stolen it.
Hedda	Why stolen it?
Brack	Because every other explanation ought to be impossible, Mrs. Hedda.
Hedda	Indeed?
Brack	Glances at her. Of course Eilert Lövborg was here this morning. Was he not?
Hedda	Yes.
Brack	Were you alone with him?
Hedda	Part of the time.
Brack	Did you not leave the room whilst he was here?
Hedda	No.
Brack	Try to recollect. Were you not out of the room a moment?
Hedda	Yes, perhaps just a moment—out in the hall.
Brack	And where was you pistol case during that time?
Hedda	I had it locked up in—
Brack	Well, Mrs. Hedda?
Hedda	The case stood there on the writing table.
Brack	Have you looked since, to see whether both the pistols are there?
Hedda	No.
Brack	Well, you need not. I saw the pistol found in Lövborg’s pocket, and I knew it at once as the one I had seen yesterday—and before, too.
Hedda	Have you it with you?
Brack	No; the police have it.
Hedda	What will the police do with it?
Brack	Search till they find the owner.
Hedda	Do you think they will succeed?
Brack	Bends over her and whispers. No, Hedda Gabler—not so long as I say nothing.
Hedda	Looks frightened at him. And if you do not say nothing—what then?
Brack	Shrugs his shoulders. There is always the possibility that the pistol was stolen.
Hedda	Firmly. Death rather than that.
Brack	Smiling. People say such things—but they don’t do them.
Hedda	Without replying. And supposing the pistol was not stolen, and the owner is discovered? What then?
Brack	Well, Hedda—then comes the scandal!
Hedda	The scandal!
Brack	Yes, the scandal—of which you are so mortally afraid. You will, of course, be brought before the court—both you and Mademoiselle Diana. She will have to explain how the thing happened—whether it was an accidental shot or murder. Did the pistol go off as he was trying to take it out of his pocket, to threaten her with? Or did she tear the pistol out of his hand, shoot him, and push it back into his pocket? That would be quite like her; for she is an able-bodied young person, this same Mademoiselle Diana.
Hedda	But I have nothing to do with all this repulsive business.
Brack	No. But you will have to answer the question: Why did you give Eilert the pistol? And what conclusions will people draw from the fact that you did give it to him?
Hedda	Lets her head sink. That is true. I did not think of that.
Brack	Well, fortunately, there is no danger, so long as I say nothing.
Hedda	Looks up at him. So I am in your power, Judge Brack. You have me at your beck and call, from this time forward.
Brack	Whispers softly. Dearest Hedda—believe me—I shall not abuse my advantage.
Hedda	I am in your power none the less. Subject to your will and your demands. A slave, a slave then! Rises impetuously. No, I cannot endure the thought of that! Never!
Brack	Looks half-mockingly at her. People generally get used to the inevitable.
Hedda	Returns his look. Yes, perhaps. She crosses to the writing table. Suppressing an involuntary smile, she imitates Tesman’s* intonations.* Well? Are you getting on, George? Eh?
Tesman	Heaven knows, dear. In any case it will be the work of months.
Hedda	As before. Fancy that! Passes her hands softly through Mrs. Elvsted’s hair. Doesn’t it seem strange to you, Thea? Here are you sitting with Tesman—just as you used to sit with Eilert Lövborg?
Mrs. Elvsted	Ah, if I could only inspire your husband in the same way!
Hedda	Oh, that will come too—in time.
Tesman	Yes, do you know, Hedda—I really think I begin to feel something of the sort. But won’t you go and sit with Brack again?
Hedda	Is there nothing I can do to help you two?
Tesman	No, nothing in the world. Turning his head. I trust to you to keep Hedda company, my dear Brack.
Brack	With a glance at Hedda. With the very greatest of pleasure.
Hedda	Thanks. But I am tired this evening. I will go in and lie down a little on the sofa.
Tesman	Yes, do dear—eh?
	Hedda goes into the back room and draws the curtains. A short pause. Suddenly she is heard playing a wild dance on the piano.
Mrs. Elvsted	Starts from her chair. Oh—what is that?
Tesman	Runs to the doorway. Why, my dearest Hedda—don’t play dance music tonight! Just think of Aunt Rina! And of Eilert too!
Hedda	Puts her head out between the curtains. And of Aunt Julia. And of all the rest of them.—After this, I will be quiet. Closes the curtains again.
Tesman	At the writing table. It’s not good for her to see us at this distressing work. I’ll tell you what, Mrs. Elvsted—you shall take the empty room at Aunt Julia’s, and then I will come over in the evenings, and we can sit and work there—eh?
Hedda	In the inner room. I hear what you are saying, Tesman. But how am I to get through the evenings out here?
Tesman	Turning over the papers. Oh, I daresay Judge Brack will be so kind as to look in now and then, even though I am out.
Brack	In the armchair, calls out gaily. Every blessed evening, with all the pleasure in life, Mrs. Tesman! We shall get on capitally together, we two!
Hedda	Speaking loud and clear. Yes, don’t you flatter yourself we will, Judge Brack? Now that you are the one cock in the basket—
	A shot is heard within. Tesman, Mrs. Elvsted, and Brack* leap to their feet.*
Tesman	Oh, now she is playing with those pistols again.
	He throws back the curtains and runs in, followed by Mrs. Elvsted. Hedda* lies stretched on the sofa, lifeless. Confusion and cries. Berta enters in alarm from the right.*
Tesman	Shrieks to Brack. Shot herself! Shot herself in the temple! Fancy that!
Brack	Half-fainting in the armchair. Good God!—people don’t do such things.

Endnotes

Ibsen's Plays

Notes

Show the following:

Adjust appearance:

Act IV

Annotate