1896-01-15 to William Archer

Autograph letter signed, British Library, 282 words

[Edited for paragraph breaks, capitalization, spelling and punctuation.]

BOODLE’S, St JAMES’ STREET. S.W.

Wednesday [15 January 1896]

My dear Archer

I have just returned from the North where I read Ibsen's latest — I say latest because I have forgotten the spelling.

I believe that Gosse told me that the play ended at the end of the second act and that you maintained what seemed to Gosse an extravagant opinion erg. that the third act was the finest. I hope I am not doing Gosse an injustice but I believe he told me there was a sad falling off in the third act.

You are a philosopher and are not disturbed by irrelevancies but they exasperate me. Is it possible that Gosse said so foolish a thing? The second act is the weak act — the third act is sublime. It rises like a star from the moment the steamer leaves, then it flames up the sky like a star. Oh, how beautiful, how beautiful!

I have read Emperor and Galilean. The first part I dare not trust myself to speak of — I admire it beyond words of praise. The scene of incantation is sublime: we want some new words wherewith to praise Ibsen. But I confess I don't care so much about the second part. Forgive my presumption but it seems as if he follows history too closely, he did not give sufficient run to his imagination; and he might have imagined Julian foreseeing the darkness into which the Galilean would plunge Europe and painted him as a kind of Prometheus.

Have you read The Heather Field?

Always yours

George Moore