Through Finland in Carts Part 11

_Anna Liisa_ was the piece chosen, because it was a peasant drama. It is written by one of Finland's greatest dramatists--perhaps the greatest in the Finnish language--and a woman!

It was only a small impromptu theatre, packed to suffocation by a most wonderfully sympathetic audience, but as the play was very representative, we give a slight sketch of the subject.

The curtain rose on a little peasant log-hut with its huge chimney, where over a small native stove heated by wood, pots were boiling.

Fixed to a chair was a spinning machine, made of wood and shaped like an umbrella, which twisted round and round, while the bride-elect, with her fair hair hanging down in a plait, sat upon the stage.

Her fiance says how happy they will be in three weeks when they are married; but _Anna Liisa_, although desperately in love with her betrothed, hangs back, and refuses to sit upon his knee. At last _Johannes_ coaxes her to his side, and expresses huge delight at the prospect of their future. He tells her how he loves her with a never-fading love, is certain of her goodness, and that she has never loved any one else; he warmly praises her virtue; but, nevertheless, as he speaks, she shudders. Immediately an old woman comes in (_Husso_), the mother of _Mikko_, a man with whom _Anna Liisa_ had formerly had some relations; her words are of evil import, for she tells the girl if she marries _Johannes_, who has just left the room, she will do her harm.

_Anna_ pretending not to care, the old woman becomes furious and threatens her.

"I shall tell of your intrigue with my son. I have but to whisper of a----"

"Mother, no, no."

"But I can, and I will, and more than that, may speak of----"

The girl implores, tells of her real, honest love for _Johannes_, beseeches _Mikko's_ mother to hold her peace, but the woman is obdurate.

_Anna_ suffers tortures when left alone with her little sister, because the girl will talk of the delights of the coming wedding, and how nice it would be if _Anna Liisa_ had a child for her to dress like a doll.

The bride's father and mother, who know nothing of their daughter's intrigue, come and drink coffee, and like true peasants they pour the coffee into a saucer, and putting a bit of sugar into their mouths imbibe the beverage through it, supporting the saucer on five fingers.

Thus happily they all sit together--a real representation of life in a peasant home. In the midst of it all the former lover, _Mikko_, who was once a servant on the farm, comes in and is very insulting to the bridegroom-elect, and very insinuating to _Anna Liisa_. At last _Johannes_ gets angry; threats ensue. _Mikko_ says "that he was once engaged to a girl and intends to have her" (looking pointedly at _Anna Liisa_). It seems as if the whole story would be revealed, but at that moment the little sister rushes in to say _Mikko's_ horse has run away, and he goes off, leaving the bride and bridegroom alone, when the former implores _Johannes_ to trust her always and in everything, which he promises to do, greatly wondering the while at her request.

When the second act opens the father and mother are discussing before _Anna Liisa_ her own virtues. They say what a good wife their child will make, they lay stress upon her honesty, integrity, and truthfulness, and while the words sink into the guilty girl's heart like gall and wormwood, she sits and knits with apparent calmness. At last, however, the parents leave the room, and while she is thinking of following them, in comes _Mikko_. Finding herself alone with _Mikko_ the poor girl entreats him to leave her, to leave her in peace and happiness to marry the man she loves, and if possible to forget her guilty past.

"If you marry me you will get peace," he says.

"No. Nor shall I ever know peace again," she replies; "but I may have some happiness."

At this moment her fiance enters the room. _Mikko_ seizes the opportunity to tell him there is a secret between them that will disturb the happiness of all his future life. The girl appeals to _Mikko_ by looks and gesticulations, but each time he manages to evade her gaze, and utters such strange insinuations that at last _Johannes_ exclaims--

"This is too much!" and a desperate quarrel ensues.

_Anna Liisa_ wishes to speak alone with _Mikko_. To this _Johannes_ objects, thinking that _Anna Liisa_ ought not to have any secret with _Mikko_ unknown to him.

Then the whole family bundles home, having been to the store to buy things for the approaching festival.

"The matter is so," says _Mikko_, "that _Anna Liisa_ was my bride four years ago. And now I come to take her, but that fellow has in the meantime----"

_The Father._ "Your bride! That's a lie."

_The Mother._ "Good gracious! You want me to believe all kinds of things--_Anna Liisa_--who then was only fifteen years old. Don't listen to such things, _Johannes_. They're only senseless chat. I'll warrant that they have no foundation whatever. Besides, others would certainly have noticed had any such relations existed between them."

_Mikko._ "It was not noticed. We succeeded in concealing it so well that n.o.body had the slightest idea."

_The Father._ "Shut up, _Mikko_, ere I get furious. That my daughter should have secret intrigues with a groom. Fie, for shame! How dare you spread such vile slander. Had it concerned any other!--But _Anna Liisa_, whom everybody knows to be the most steady and honourable girl in the whole neighbourhood. That you can be so impudent. For shame, I say once more."

_Mikko._ "Ask _Anna Liisa_ herself if I have spoken truth or falsehood."

_The Father._ "Can't you open your mouth, girl? Clear yourself from such disgusting insults."

_The Mother._ "Defend yourself, _Anna Liisa_."

_Johannes._ "Say that he lies, and I will believe you."

Matters have gone too far. The disclosure cannot be put off.

Broken-hearted she only exclaims--

"Oh, good G.o.d!"

_Mikko_ in his mad rage fetches his old mother, who corroborates all he has said, and tells the story of _Anna Liisa's_ guilt, adding--

"And she could have been put in prison."

"Why?" they all cry in chorus.

"Because she murdered her child."

_Anna Liisa_ says nothing for a time, but finally she falls on her knees before her father and implores his pardon. Then she confesses that everything the woman has said is true, even the accusation that she murdered her own child.

Her father s.n.a.t.c.hes up a hatchet and tries to kill her, in which attempt he would have succeeded had not _Mikko_ interfered and dragged her away.

When the third act opens the father, mother, and fiance are found discussing the situation, and finally deciding to let their friends come to the congratulatory festival on first reading of the banns, and pretend that nothing unusual had happened. Afterwards they could rearrange the relations.h.i.+p.

The mother, who had been watching _Anna Liisa_, is afraid of her curious apathetic behaviour, and looks out of the window, when she sees her setting off in a boat, apparently with the purpose of self-destruction.

She and the fiance rush off to save her and bring her home. The girl explains in wild despair how she thought she saw her child under the water, and intended to jump in and rescue him. She raves somewhat like Ophelia in _Hamlet_, but her former lover _Mikko_ comes back to her, and whispers in her ear. She rejects him violently.

"Let me get away from here," she murmurs to her mother, "let me get away," and a very sad and touching scene ensues.

The little sister bounds in straight from church, and says how lovely it was to hear the banns read, and to think the wedding was so near. She decorates the room with wreaths of pine branches, and festoons of the birch-tree, such festoons as we make into trails with holly and ivy for Christmas decorations. She jumps for joy as the guests begin to arrive, and in this strange play the father actually thinks it right for his daughter to marry _Mikko_, her seducer, whom he welcomes, and they arrange affairs comfortably between them.

This is very remarkable. In most countries it would be considered right for the father to expel his daughter's lover from his house; but in this play of _Minna Canth's_ she draws a very Finnish characteristic.

"_Se oli niin sallittu_" ("It is so ordained") is a sort of motto amongst this Northern people. Whether it is that they are phlegmatic, wanting in energy, fatalists, or what, one cannot say, but certain it is that they sit down and accept the inevitable as calmly as the Mohammedan does when he remarks: "It is the will of Allah."

The festivities proceed. An old fiddler and more peasants appear. The men sit down on one side of the room, the women on the other, and the former lover, _Mikko_, thinking himself the bridegroom-elect, cheerfully invites every one to dance. The old fiddler strikes up a merry air, and they dance the _jenka_, a sort of schottische, joyously. Gaiety prevails, the girl's father being apparently as happy as his guests, when the door opens and the rector of the parish and other distinguished guests enter.

"Where is the bride?" it is asked.

No one knew exactly how to answer; _Johannes_ no longer wishes to marry her, and she refuses to marry her former lover, _Mikko_.

Again the priest asks: "Where is the bride?"

After waiting some time the door opens slowly. _Anna Liisa_ enters and is greeted--as is usual on such occasions--by cries of _Elakoon, elakoon_ (let her live!) in chorus. Answering with the unusual words: "Let G.o.d's Holy Spirit live in us!" the girl advanced into the room and stood before them, robed in the black gown which it is the fas.h.i.+on for peasant brides in Finland to wear. The clergyman addressed her as a bride.

"I am not a bride," she replies, as she stands sadly alone in her black robe.

"What do you mean? the banns have just been read," he asks.