10 Famous Last Words To Die For

Just as people might ask what we would like to see on our tombstone, so the more fatalistic among us might already be planning our last words. But last words don€™t have to be all doom and gloom €“ they can be witty, profound, or just plain absurd. Of course, it€™s all a matter of opinions as to whether you want to go out with a laugh or with a tear. And there€™s much debate about the authenticity of many last words, with Admiral Nelson€™s €œKiss me, Hardy€ being perhaps the most famously erroneous example (we€™ll print the true one later). Let's get to it;

10. Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906)

Who Was He: Norwegian playwright, held to be the widest performed playwright after Shakespeare. Career Highlights: Peer Gynt (1867), A Doll€™s House (1879), Ghosts (1881) and Hedda Gabler (1890). He had a profound influence on moving theatre into more realistic territory, inspiring the works of Anton Chekhov, James Joyce and others within the Modernist movement. Context of Last Words: Ibsen suffered a series of strokes in 1900 which left him unable to write. He spent the last six years of his life being cared for at his home in Christiania (now Oslo). Last Words: €œOn the contrary!€, when his nurse remarked one morning that he was looking better.