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Gustaf von Numers (1848-1913) |
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Finnish playwright, unpractical dreamer, whose best known works were made in
cooperation with Kaarlo Bergbom,
the central figure of Finnish theatre in the 1880s. Later Gustaf von Numers cut
off with Bergbom
and wrote his plays for Swedish speaking theatres. Von Numers's female characters were exceptionally strong. His comedies, such as Kuopion takana (1891, Behind Kuopio) and Pastori Jussilainen (1895, Pastor Jussilainen), dealt with women's rights and conservative attitudes of the rural Finnish people, especially among the clergy. These romantic-realistic plays gained popularity in the time, when Minna Canth struggled for acceptance to her realistic and naturalistic works. "Me käytämme niitä aseita, mitkä maiselle on annettu. Ne ovat vähän terävämmät kuin miehen raaka voima, josta he aina kerskaavat, ja jonka avulla he ovat vuosituhansia meitä sortaneet." (from Kuopion takana) Gustaf von Numers was born in Maksamaa into a well-to-family aristocratic family. His native language was Swedish, but some of his plays were first performed in Finnish theatres. Von Numers's father, Lorentz August v. Numers (1818-1868), was a practical and energetic person who had increased the family fortune by spirit distilling. Johanna Gustava Malin, the writer's mother, died at the age of 25 in 1849. Lorentz August v. Numers then married her sister, Serafia Lovisa Malin. The old Tottesund manor, where von Numers spent his first five years, became later the scene of Anni Swan's classic juvenile novel Tottisalmen perillinen (1914, The Heir of Tottesund). It told of an orphan farm-hand Yrjö, who turns out to be the lost son of a baron and a heir to a large fortune. Swan wrote the book without visiting the manor, reputedly haunted by a ghost called the White Lady; she resides in the attic. Like other upper-class
children of the time, von Numers was first educated at home – his tutor at
Åminneborg manor, Carl Gustaf Swan, was the father of Anni, his cousin.
From 1861 von Numers
studied in Vaasa and graduated from the secondary school in 1869.
During this period he read poetry – Runeberg, Wecksell, Tegnér and
others – and contributed to the school's student magazine.
Shakespeare's works he
read in Swedish. Von Numers never learned Russian, which was the
administrative language in the Grand Duchy of Finland. After his father died, von Numers inherited Åminneborg manor and
considerable sum of money, which was meant to finance his further
studies. For a few years he lived a in Helsinki, where he attend the university
sporadically. In 1871 he travelled in Sweden and Norway. In addition, von Numers spent his time
in theaters, and took a course in agriculture in Mustiala. Besides being decades growing national awareness in Finland,
the 1870s and 1880s also saw rapid industrial development. Fortunes were made,
but von Numers lost one. He
rented in 1874 a farm from Ilmajoki, where he lived a carefree life as
a
gentleman farmer, pursuing unpractical plans, and spending his days
dreaming like Oblomov, until he had lost nearly all of his properties. Von Numers's marriage with Helena Lovisa Eleonora Roos did not change the situation. In 1883, he was offered a job as a railway official, but instead of focusing on his work he began to write. It provided him a way to escape the dull reality and earn extra income to support his large family. Von Numers worked as a station master from 1888 in the Ostrobothnian countryside. After making patriotic speeches he was forced to resign in 1903 from his office. For a short time he worked for a timber firm. Between the years 1905 and 1907 he was a canal chief in Heinävesi, and then a station master in Kannus. With the help of Kaarlo Bergbom, von Numers's Eerikki Puke
was staged in February 1888 at the Arkadia Theatre. Originally von Numers wrote
it in Swedish, but the Swedish theatre had the habit of rejecting his works. The dramaturg Rafael Hertzberg dismissed Eerikki Puke as unperformable. Set in the 15th century, the drama portays a kind of Finnish Joan of Arc, Kreeta, a farmer's daughter.
Her idealism encourages the hesitating governor of the castle Korsholm,
Eerikki Puke, to pretend to the crown of Sweden.
Kreeta. At the end, she is killed by her jealous cousin, Nils Murkainen. Kreeta has a vision that one day lords and
farmers will together save the land,. Bergbom edited and rewrote parts
of the text. Nils says the final words of the play, "satans adel!" (Kriisit ja kaipuu: Kaarlo Bergbomin elämä ja työ III: 1888-1906 by Pentti Paavolainen, 2018, p. 28) Bergbom's is close friend, the actor and jack-of-all-trades
Niilo Sala translated the play into Finnish. It passed Russian censorship. Eerikki Puke was performed seven times and received good reviews. It was followed by Tuukkalan tappelu
(1889, The Battle at Tuukkala), based on archeological findings in
Tuukkala village and a theory about conflicts involving Finnish tribes. The story dealt with a feud between the people of
Tavastland (Häme) and Karelia. Like in Iliad, the abduction of a woman causes the war. Anni Swan's sister Saimi had a small role in the play. In 1890 von Numers visited the playwright Minna Canth, who lived in Kuopio. She was the first notable Finnish social realist. Her radical opinions were constantly attacked by conservative and religious authorities. On his journey in eastern Finland, von Numers met in Lappeenranta his former tutor, Gustaf Swan, who had been appointed editor of Lappeenrannan Uutiset. Elinan surma(1891, Elina's Death), von Numers's major
work and theatrical breakthrough on the Finnish stage, premiered in
October 1891. Von
Numers received 650 marks for the play (in some sources 600 marks) –
not a large sum, about 3,700 euros in today's money. But for example,
at that time a farm-hand was paid 100-150 marks a year. Similar wages
were paid to workers. The tragedy drew from
a well-known medieval ballad from Kanteletar, Elias Lönnrot's
collection of lyrical and lyrical-epic folk poems. Lönnrot had copied
the original story from a manuscript while a student at Laukko:
"Elinainen neiti nuori / Meni aittahan mäelle, / Vaskivakka kainalossa,
/ Vaskiavain vakkasessa. / Tuoltapa tulee Klaus Kurki. / "Mistäs tunnet
Klaus Kurjen?" / "Tulennasta tuiman tunnen, / Jalon jalan heitännästä."
/ "Eikös muita ylpiöitä, / Kun on Laukon Klaus Kurki?"—." In von Numers's work the gentle Elin marries Klas Kurck, a recently widowed nobleman. His jealous mistress Kirsti (or Kerstin) Fleming convinces him, that his new wife is unfaithful. Kurck kills her, becomes mad and Kirsti repents bitterly. It has been said, that both von Numers and Bergbom, who helped him, could be called the authors of this play. The Swedish version, published by Werner Söderström, was entitled Klas Kurck och liten Elin: skådespel i sju tablåer (1928). At one scene Klas confesses his sins to a
smirking Roman Catholic priest. Von Numers's slap at the Catholic Church
was not uncommon, also Topelius portrayed a villainous Jesuit in Fältskärns berättelser (Tales of a Field Surgeon). Elinan surma
was an unexpected hit at the Finnish Theatre, featuring the great Ida
Aalberg as Kirsti and Axel Ahlberg as Klas Kurck. Von Numers did not
see the play until in Hämeenlinna in May 1892 and was not fully aware
of the changes made by Bergbom regarding the final stage version. After Elinan surma von Numers's cooperation with
Bergbom
ended because of financial disagreement. Basically, the issue was that
von Numers did not benefit from the commercial success of the play. He also refused to
accept Bergbom's creative contribution in finishing this work. Eliel Aspelin-Haapkylä, who had known von Numers in his youth, argued in Suomalaisen teatterin historia (1906-1910), that it was Bergbom, who was the mastermind behind von Numers's plays. His writings were "immature scribblings" and "far from being irreproachable." (Casting the Ideal Past by Ilona Pikkanen, 2012, pp. 151-154). And it was inevitable that their disagreement got into the newspapers. Von Numers destroyed all the letters he had received from Bergbom, and continued with comedies for the Swedish stage. Uusi pirtti (1893) was closed down after three performances at the Finnish Theatre. Von Numers had delivered this one-act comedy to Bergbom when they were still in good terms. To get rid of romanticism, von Numers read Cant, Ibsen, Björnson, and Strindberg. In Bakom Kuopio (Behind Kuopio), which premiered in Helsinki in 1890, the
ultraconservative curate Elias Jussilainen is cleverly duped by a
young woman, Lilli, the fiancée of his son and an advocate of women's rights. "Tärkeintä
kaikesta on, ettet koskaan unohda naisellista arvoasi. Sinun tulee
muistaa, Naemi, ettemme me ole mitään itämaisia odaliskeja emmekä
keskiajan nunnia, vaan pystypäitä nykyajan naisia, jotka vastaamme
omasta itsestämme. Paina mieleesi nämä kaksi asiaa: naisella on arvonsa
ja naisella on elämäntehtävänsä!" Niilo Sala acted in the role of the young Jussilainen but Olga Finne as
the cigarette smoking Lilli became the favorite of the audience. They both got good reviews. Originally von Numers planned that
Lilli was mannish. Bergbom made her a little bit more feminine. The comedy was
adapted to the screen by the Finnish-born Swedish director Mauritz
Stiller under the title Den tyranniske fästmannen (1912, The Tyrannical Fiancée). The end was taken from another comedy, Pastor Jussilainen. Ester Julin, who had played Lilli at Lilla Teatern in Stockholm, was cast as the leading lady. Von Numers
possibly wrote the play as an answer to Minna Canth's accusations that
he showed an "excessive interest in young girls." (A History of Finnish Literature by Jaakko Ahokas, 1973, p. 139) The sequel, Pastor Jussilainen, was not translated into Finnish until 1923. In the story the
reactionary Jussilainen adopts some modern ideas. Its first film
version, entitled När svärmor regerar (When the Mother-in-Law Reigns), was
made by Mauritz Stiller, who acted in the title role.
The beginning of Matti Kassila's adaptation from 1955 was shot as
if it were a film recording of a stage performance at the National
Theatre. The actors go to their dressing rooms to put on their make-ups
and costumes, there is a sound of a gong and the curtain opens. Edvin
Laine starred in the title role; all the actors were from the National
Theatre. Gustaf von Numers died on February 6, 1913, in Kannus. For a long time he had planned to write a romantic opera Hvita frun från Tottesund
(The White Lady of Tottesund), which would fuse together his happy
childhood memories and later experiences, but he never realized the
idea. At his old age, von Numers began to resemble more and more Leo
Tolstoy; he had a thick white beard and a small cap, but instead of
dressing in peasant garb he wore a uniform or a suit. For further reading: Suomalaisen teatterin historia (4 vols.) by Eliel Aspelin-Haapkylä (1906-10); 'Bortglömda teaterstycken av Gustaf v. Numers' by B. Estlander, in Historisk Tidskfrft för Finland (1921); Gustav von Numers by V. Tarkiainen (1922); 'Gustaf von Numers,' in Aleksis Kivestä Martti Merenmaahan:suomalaisten kirjailijain elämäkertoja (1954); 'Gustaf von Numers' by Rafael Koskimies, in Suomen kirjallisuus IV: Minna Canthista Eino Leinoon, ed. by Matti Kuusi, Simo Konsala (1965); 'Gustav Adolf von Numers,' in A History of Finnish Literature by Jaakko Ahokas (1973); 'Numers, Gustav von,' in McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama, Vol. 3, ed. by Stanley Hochman (1983); 'Pastori Jussilainen,' in Suomen kansallisfilmografia 5, ed. by Kari Uusitalo (1989); 'Theater,' in A History of Finland's Literature, ed. by George C. Schoolfield (1998); Casting the Ideal Past: a Narratological Close Reading of Eliel Aspelin-Haapkylä´s History of the Finnish Theatre Company (1906-1910) by Ilona Pikkanen (dissertation; 2012); 'Teatterin uudet kirjailijat Gustaf von Numers ja J.H. Erkko,' in Kriisit ja kaipuu: Kaarlo Bergbomin elämä ja työ III: 1888–1906 by Pentti Paavolainen (2018) Selected works:
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