This ended the discussion.  At this day, of course, one cannot pass judgment, and there is no reason why we should.  The two things which stand out are Bjornson’s protest against spectacular productions of Shakespeare’s plays, and his ardent, almost passionate tribute to him as the poet whose influence had been greatest in his life.

And then there is a long silence.  Norwegian periodicals—­there is not to this day a book on Shakespeare by a Norwegian—­contain not a single contribution to Shakespearean criticism till 1880, when a church paper, Luthersk Ugeskrift[11] published an article which proved beyond cavil that Shakespeare is good and safe reading for Lutheran Christians.  The writer admits that Shakespeare probably had several irregular love-affairs both before and after marriage, but as he grew older his heart turned to the comforts of religion, and in his epitaph he commends his soul to God, his body to the dust.  Shakespeare’s extreme objectivity makes snap judgments unsafe.  We cannot always be sure that his characters voice his own thoughts and judgments, but, on the other hand, we have no right to assume that they never do.  The tragedies especially afford a safe basis for judgment, for in them characterization is of the greatest importance.  No great character was ever created which did not spring from the poet’s own soul.  In Shakespeare’s characters sin, lust, cruelty, are always punished; sympathy, love, kindness are everywhere glorified.  The writer illustrates his meaning with copious quotations.

    [11.  Vol.  VII, pp. 1-12.]

Apparently the good Lutheran who wrote this article felt troubled about the splendor which Shakespeare throws about the Catholic Church.  But this is no evidence, he thinks, of any special sympathy for it.  Many Protestants have been attracted by the pomp and circumstance of the Catholic Church, and they have been none the worse Protestants for that.  The writer had the good sense not to make Shakespeare a Lutheran but, for the rest, the article is a typical example of the sort of criticism that has made Shakespeare everything from a pious Catholic to a champion of atheistic democracy.  If, however, the readers of Luthersk Ugeskrift were led to read Shakespeare after being assured that they might do so safely, the article served a useful purpose.

Eight years later the distinguished litterateur and critic, Just Bing, wrote in Vidar[12], one of the best periodicals that Norway has ever had, a brief character study of Ophelia, which, though it contains nothing original, stands considerably higher as literary criticism than anything we have yet considered, with the sole exception of Bjornson’s article in Aftenbladet, twenty-three years earlier.

    [12. 1880, pp. 61-71.]