Cas: 
  Tirr mig ei mer; jeg kunde glemme mig. 
  Taenk paa dit eget Vel, frist mig ei laenger.

  Bru: 
  Bort, svage Mand!

  Cas: 
  Er dette muligt?

  Bru: 
    Hor mig, jeg vil tale. 
  Skal jeg mig boie for din Vredes Nykker? 
  Og skraemmes, naar en gal Mand glor paa mig?

  Cas: 
  O Guder, Guder! maa jeg taale dette?

Bru:  Dette, ja mer end det.  Stamp kun mod Brodden, ras kun, indtil dit stolte Hjerte brister; lad dine Slaver se hvor arg du er og skjelve.  Jeg—­skal jeg tilside smutte?  Jeg gjore Krus for dig?  Jeg krumme Ryg naar det behager dig?  Ved Guderne!  Du selv skal svaelge al din Galdes Gift, om saa du brister; thi fra denne Dag jeg bruger dig til Moro, ja til Latter, naar du er ilsk.

The italicized passages show that the influence of Foersom was felt in more than one scene.  It would be easy to give other instances.

After all this, we need scarcely more than mention Lassen’s Macbeth[21] published in 1883.  The usual brief note at the end of the play gives the usual information that, out of regard for the purpose for which the translation has been made, certain parts of the porter scene and certain speeches by Malcolm in Act IV, Sc. 3 have been cut.  Readers will have no difficulty in picking them out.

[21. Macbeth.  Tragedie af William Shakespeare.  Oversat af H. Lassen.  Udgivet af Selskabet for Folkeoplysningens Fremme som andet Tillaegshefte til Folkevennen for 1883.  Kristiania.  Grondal og Son.]

Macbeth is, like all Lassen’s work, dull and prosaic.  Like his other translations from Shakespeare, it has never become popular.  The standard translation in Norway is still the Foersom-Lembcke, a trifle nationalized with Norwegian words and phrases whenever a new acting version is to be prepared.  And while it is not true that Lassen’s translations are merely norvagicized editions of the Danish, it is true that they are often so little independent of them that they do not deserve to supersede the work of Foersom and Lembcke.

G

Norwegian translations of Shakespeare cannot, thus far, be called distinguished.  There is no complete edition either in Riksmaal or Landsmaal.  A few sonnets, a play or two, a scrap of dialogue—­Norway has little Shakespeare translation of her own.  Qualitatively, the case is somewhat better.  Several of the renderings we have considered are extremely creditable, though none of them can be compared with the best in Danish or Swedish.  It is a grateful task, therefore, to call attention to the translations by Christen Collin.  They are not numerous—­only eleven short fragments published as illustrative material in his school edition (English text) of The Merchant of Venice—­[22] but they are of notable quality, and they save the Riksmaal literature from the reproach of surrendering completely to the Landsmaal the task of turning Shakespeare into Norwegian.  With the exception of a few lines from Macbeth and Othello, the selections are all from The Merchant of Venice.