Emperor and Galilean
Emperor and Galilean is Ibsen's play with the longest creative process. It lasted for nine years, from 1864 to 1873. Having just moved to Italy, Ibsen passed the summer months of 1864 in the small mountain village of Genzano, where he spent much of his time with Lorentz Dietrichson. In his memoirs Past Times Dietrichson writes:
"I particularly remember that one day I was lying reading Ammianus Marcellinus's description of Julian the Apostate's campaign, and Ibsen became greatly interested in this reading. We came to talk about Julian, and I know it was then that the idea of a literary treatment of this subject became seriously fixed in his mind. At least he said at the end of the conversation that he hoped no-one would forestall him in dealing with this subject."
The original plan was to finish writing the play by the summer of 1865, but as we know, however, Ibsen started on Brand at the same time, and this got in the way of his work on the Julian material. Peer Gynt (1867) and The League of Youth (1869) then followed. After finishing the latter play he spent two months in Stockholm before embarking on his lengthy visit to Egypt. In the spring and summer of 1870 he was occupied with the new edition of The Pretenders.
However he never gave up the Julian project during all this time, but merely postponed it time after time. Around New Year 1870/71 he began work on a first draft, but was once again engaged on another publication, this time Digte (Poems), which came out on May 3rd 1871. When he again took up the draft he had started on at the turn of the year, he chose to discard it, and on July 24th 1871 he started on a fresh draft.
At this point Ibsen was planning a work in three parts, the first one being entitled "Julian and his friends in wisdom". The fair copy of this was finished by the end of 1871. The second part, entitled "Julian's apostasy" was written in the spring and finished in fair copy in the summer of 1872. In the early autumn he began the third part, "Julian on the imperial throne", but decided to combine the first two parts in what finally became the first part of the work "Cæsar's Apostasy" in five acts. The third part, which now became part II, "The Emperor Julian", also in five acts, was written in the period between November 21st 1872 and February 13th 1873. Later in the spring it was finished in fair copy and sent off for printing.
First edition
Emperor and Galilean appeared in the bookshops on October 16th 1873. It was published by Gyldendalske Boghandel (F. Hegel) in Copenhagen. The first edition consisted of 4 000 copies and was quickly sold out, partly through advance orders. On December 16th the same year a reprint of 2 000 copies appeared.
On several occasions Ibsen called Emperor and Galilean his major work. Among most critics this is a controversial judgement, to put it mildly. It is true that the book was favourably reviewed on the whole, but since then it has hardly ever been considered Ibsen's best piece of work.
First performance
As in the case of Brand and Peer Gynt, Emperor and Galilean was not written for the stage. A mastodon of a drama in ten acts set in the Roman Empire in the fourth century was hardly meant to appeal either theatre directors or audiences.
All the same, various adaptations of the play have found their way to the stage. The first performance of the play was on December 5th 1896 at Leipzig Stadttheater in Germany. The adaptation consisted of six acts and was the work of Leopold Adler. The performance lasted for four hours, and was said to have made a very strong impression – although the critics found a large number of weaknesses in it.
The first performance in Norway was on March 30th 1903 at Nationaltheatret in Christiania. This time only the first part, ''Cæsar's Apostasy", was staged.
By Jens-Morten Hanssen / ibsen.net