cultural resources in henrik ibsen's early environment - Ibsen.net

Later, however, there were several who took notice of this quick, witty young
man, and the apothecary's waiting room soon became a favorite meeting-place, especially
on Sundays and in the evenings, where more and more comrades were introduced. There
was always amusement in the appreciative circle around him, with Ibsen as the center,
sparkling as he was with humor, and to be sure with sarcasm as well, always negotiating
his straitened circumstances in good humor. One could find no indication that anything
troubled him. He possessed to a great degree the resilience of youth.
Among those who gathered in the watch-room there were some, especially one of
them, who by his foolishness and unsuccessful attempts to be witty became a very useful
and rather well-deserving object for Ibsen's wit and sarcasm, which was always rewarded
afterwards with bursts of laughter. Among the many jokes, often in the form of poems,
and illustrated by splendid drawings, whereby he held up to ridicule comic circumstances
among the comrades, there is one which I have a desire to relate. The anecdote evokes a
complicated situation, in which the above-mentioned young man played a highly
laughable role.
Ibsen had an astonishing ability to write fluent verse quickly, and he was also, as
already mentioned, very talented as an illustrator. His pen could quickly, tastefully and
tellingly express the point, when something was to be presented by illustration. Even
though without seeing the altogether first-rate drawings one can scarcely take pleasure in
what is comical in these presented circumstances, I shall even so attempt to give the
reader an impression of them.
In a notebook in a series of pages one saw as a first picture the young man,
bowing and elegantly flourishing his hat in the entryway, just as he takes leave after a
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