Love's Comedy

About “Love's Comedy”

Love's Comedy is a comedy written by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It was first published on 29 December 1862, though an earlier version titled Svanhild dates to 1860. The play faced strong opposition when it was first released, with the Christiania Theatre refusing to stage it due to its controversial reputation. Ibsen noted that the play caused a great deal of hostility, more than most works typically received. His wife was the only person who supported it at the time. In 1866, Ibsen revised the play for a new publication, aiming to make it more appealing to Danish readers by reducing its use of specifically Norwegian language. This change has been seen as an early sign of his disregard for the movement to purify the Norwegian language. (Summary adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.)