WILLIAM R. PERKINS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 DUKE UNIVERSITY 
 
 Montrose J. Moses 
 Collection 
 
 Presented by his wife 
 
 Mrs Montrose J. Moses 
 
 together with his sons 
 
 Lawrence Southerland Moses 
 
 and 
 
 Montrose James Moses 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2016 with funding from 
 Duke University Libraries 
 
 https://archive.org/details/peergynt01ibse 
 
THE MODERN DRAMA SERIES 
 
 EDITED 
 
 BY EDWIN BJORKMAN 
 
 PEER GYNT BY 
 
 HENRIK IBSEN 
 

PEER GYNT 
 
 A DRAMATIC POEM BY 
 
 HENRIK IBSEN 
 
 TRANSLATED IN THE ORIGINAL METER 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 R. ELLIS ROBERTS 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 MITCHELL KENNERLEY 
 MCMXIII 
 
COPYRIGHT I913 BY 
 MITCHELL KENNERLEY 
 
 THB'PLIMPTON* PRESS 
 NORWOOD* MASS* U • S • A 
 

 J /ifPti 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preface 
 
 vii 
 
 Introduction 
 
 ix 
 
 Peer Gynt 
 
 1 
 
 Notes 
 
 237 
 
PREFACE 
 
 F OR years I have cherished the dream that some day 
 I might be permitted to produce a version of 
 “ Peer Gynt ” by which the wonderful charm and deep 
 philosophy of the original could be brought within the 
 grasp of English-speaking readers. That dream lies 
 probably behind me, for while it would be foolish to 
 claim perfection on behalf of Mr. Roberts’ translation 
 — as he would be the last one to enter any such claim — 
 that translation comes nevertheless so close to the 
 original, both in form and thought, that the chance of 
 surpassing it seems small, indeed. The difficulties pre- 
 sented by the original are greater by far than those 
 encountered in any other of Ibsen’s plays, and it would 
 be almost unthinkable that a translator could wholly 
 avoid inversions and other artificialities. There are 
 lines in Mr. Roberts’ version which have troubled me, 
 but time and again I have also been pleasantly startled 
 by the ingenuity and tact displayed in the face of 
 problems that seemed beyond solution to me. Through 
 his work, one of Ibsen’s most interesting and attrac- 
 tive creations has been rendered available to the 
 English-speaking public in such shape that, at last, 
 they may savor the “serious jesting” that gives the 
 original a place apart in the world’s literature. Never 
 did Ibsen write with more abandon, never did he more 
 
viii PREFACE 
 
 strikingly prove himself possessed of that graver in- 
 sight which we call humor, than in “ Peer Gynt,” where, 
 with chameleontic ease, his symbolism contracts and 
 expands, so that sometimes we find only himself and 
 sometimes all mankind at the core of his mercifully 
 merciless satire. And, furthermore, it is my belief that, 
 as our evolutionary conception of life develops and 
 clarifies, it will become increasingly evident that this 
 latter-day myth, woven so skillfully out of old legends 
 and new facts, is one of the deepest and most instruc- 
 tive books given to mankind since science began to 
 triumph over faith — for in this “ dramatic poem ” 
 (as Ibsen himself called it), and particularly in its 
 final act, lies foreshadowed the new faith that must 
 sooner or later rise out of that triumph. 
 
 E. B. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 I 
 
 I F Peer Gynt stands for anything, it stands for this 
 truth, that personality is more important and splen- 
 did than any other factor in life or art. That is, to my 
 mind, the true secret of the ground between Classical 
 and Romantic — though Peer Gynt is rather Gothic 
 than Romantic. The old criticism — never better ex- 
 emplified than in Addison’s paper on Paradise Lost, 
 or better caricatured than in Berkeley’s edition of the 
 same poem — applied rules to a poem : it did not dream 
 of examining the rules by the poem, still less did it 
 think of criticising the poem by its knowledge of the 
 author. For instance, Addison discourses on whether 
 humor is proper to an epic: quotes the comic pas- 
 sage in Homer, looks minutely for similar lapses in 
 Virgil, then rightly condemns the bad joke of the gun- 
 powder in Milton. Now this no modern critic would 
 do. What he would see first of all is that, whatever 
 the suitability of Comus’ intrusion into epos, still 
 Homer had a sense of humor, and Milton as evidently 
 had not; and for that reason the author of Paradise 
 Lost would have been better advised to refrain from 
 comic incident. 
 
 Let me insist, too, that the classical tradition, in 
 creative or critical work, was unknown to the classical 
 age. It was an invention of France. Aristotle had no 
 thought of drawing up rules for the drama, or for 
 
X 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 literature generally, apart from the facts ; only his 
 facts were fewer and covered less space than do ours, 
 and so his criticism is more rigid. But it is based 
 on masterpieces : the Greek masterpieces, unlike the 
 French, were not written to rule — the rules were 
 merely so many statements of their observed excellence. 
 That is the real reason why some of us who love 
 Sophocles do not think he is more akin to Racine than 
 to Shakespeare; and feel the harmony of the Tempest 
 to be far more Hellenic than the passion of Phedre. 
 Shakespeare, as Sophocles, expressed his temperament 
 by the rules that suited him; Corneille and Racine 
 expressed theirs by rules that embodied not their choice 
 but their traditions. They did not find a form that 
 appealed to them. They followed a monarch whom 
 they feared to disobey. 
 
 Ibsen had, more than any modern writer, periods 
 when different styles appealed to him. In his youth 
 he is romantic, with side-glances towards satire ; 
 towards maturity he becomes classical, as in The Doll’s 
 House and Ghosts. In his greatest achievements he 
 is modernist — that is, his form so clothes his ideas 
 that we cannot conceive such a play as The Master- 
 Builder in any other setting: body and soul are 
 inseparable. 
 
 About Peer Gynt there is none of this inevitability 
 of form. Indeed it is — if we follow the old divisions 
 — far more epic than dramatic. In epos the character 
 of the hero is static. Achilles does not develop, nor 
 Odysseus, nor Satan. In drama the characters grow 
 before us, and -of the end of that growth we are un- 
 certain. Peer Gynt himself is the same in every scene 
 of the play. He is the man of the nineteenth century 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 xi 
 
 seen against the eternities ; and the eternities make 
 hijn thoroughly uncomfortable. He is Odysseus, with 
 this vivid difference, that he has conscience; he is an 
 Achilles, who never leaves his tent until the last page 
 of his story; he is a Satan who would wheedle God 
 into acquiescence in his rebellion. It is this static note 
 about Peer which disappoints some readers who have 
 founded their admiration for Ibsen on the later dramas. 
 To them the great poem, with its perfect woman, Sol- 
 veig, is a little lacking in the deep psychological in- 
 terest that they expect; it is too alien to the move- 
 ment, of which Goethe’s Faust is the watchword, that 
 regarded theology rather than religion, art rather than 
 life, as the basis of reality. Such a criticism is unfair 
 to the poem. Peer Gynt is perfectly free from the 
 romantic fallacy that saved the hero, at the last mo- 
 ment, by cloaking his offences in the heroine’s virtues. 
 Peer is a picture of a man w r ho never touches reality 
 except once, in his love for Solveig. Now, it is not 
 Solveig’s love which saves him, passive, against the 
 strength of great sins ; it is his love for Solveig, his 
 repentance and his recollection which, at the last mo- 
 ment, counterbalance his otherwise negative life. In 
 the ordinary romantic story the legend is thus : At 
 the end of life, the Devil holds the scales ; into one 
 scale he puts the hero’s sins and wickednesses, then 
 comes forward the heroine and slips her affection into 
 the other scale, and straightway the Devil’s scale kicks 
 the beam. How different is Ibsen — The Button- 
 Molder stands holding the scales. Into one he slips 
 Peer Gynt; the scales quiver not a jot. Peer, in rage 
 and despair, heaps into the scale his “ half-way prate,” 
 his dreams, his fancies, his little greeds ; still the scale 
 
Xll 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 does not move. There is no real Peer at all. Then 
 he remembers his one real offence, his sin against Sol- 
 veig. He put that in — or makes to do so — when 
 Solveig intervenes, puts Peer’s real self into God’s scale, 
 and — wins a decisive victory? No — Ibsen is too true 
 for that; but Solveig’s action does move the scale, and 
 Peer is given a last chance before the final visit of the 
 Button-Molder. 
 
 This then is the main thought in Peer Gynt. Just 
 as its irregular form is simply the sign of Ibsen’s per- 
 sonality, so the idea of the play is that reality in per- 
 sonality is what counts most. Action is nothing with- 
 out will; and will futile without motive. And the only 
 certainly availing motive is love. 
 
 II 
 
 First of all Peer Gynt must be read and enjoyed as 
 the great, fanciful, imaginative poem it is. Its secrets 
 — far more can be discovered than the author ever 
 meant — will only yield themselves to the lover, and 
 I have no intention of submitting this gorgeous and 
 capricious poem to a rigid analysis. Still its beauty 
 as a sheer narrative reveals itself immediately, while 
 some of its side-issues have been called obscure. The 
 story is a folk-tale. That is not to be forgotten. Peer 
 himself, the trolls, the Farm-Girls, the reindeer ride, all 
 the most delightful adjuncts of the first three acts, are 
 borrowed and generally improved from the Norwegian 
 folk-stories. 
 
 Generally Ibsen was content with taking these prop- 
 erties and intensifying their values. But a poem like 
 Peer Gynt takes some time to write, and when Ibsen 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 xiii 
 
 was writing the last two acts he yields more and more 
 to the temptation to give symbolic values to the old 
 characters. Sometimes he is content with a mere par- 
 allelism. For instance, the monkeys of Act IV, Scene 4, 
 correspond to the imps in the Dovre-King’s hall; the 
 horse, in Act IV, Scene 5, corresponds to the pig on 
 which Peer and the Green-Clad One gallop away. These 
 hints, as it were, of a dream-life help the unity of the 
 play tremendously, and Ibsen never made the mistake 
 of over-using them. But he is not always content with 
 just a correspondence. In Act II, Scene 7, the Boyg 
 looms vastly enough; and, as the story proceeds, Peer 
 Gynt’s repetition of “ Roundabout, said the Boyg,” his 
 reiteration of the deadly chant, 
 
 Backwards and forwards, ’t is just as long ; 
 
 In and out, and it ’s strait as strong, 
 
 gives a sinister color to the Great Boyg and his mean- 
 ing. Finally Peer’s identification of the Boyg with the 
 Sphinx surely shows us plainly enough that Peer Gynt 
 himself is in the position of the old seeker after the 
 Secret. Death, spiritual or bodily, is the penalty for 
 shirking the secret of the Sphinx; so you cannot cir- 
 cumvent the Boyg, you can only conquer him by an- 
 swering. I should have thought it was impossible for 
 any one to mistake the meaning of the Boyg; but I 
 confess that the meaning of the King of the Dovre is 
 much more difficult. To identify him with Memnon, as 
 does Peer, is no help at all, because there is no suit- 
 able legend about Memnon ; and the King’s reappear- 
 ance in the Fifth Act is one of the most unsatisfactory 
 and casually-written scenes in the play, one of the few 
 where Ibsen descends to a kind of poetical journalism 
 
XIV 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 only just tolerable in the poem, because it is so in keep- 
 ing with Peer’s character. 
 
 What means this motto of the Dovre: “Troll, to 
 thyself be enough”? Did Ibsen intend to satirize the 
 doctrine which Emerson preached in his essay on “ Self- 
 Reliance ”? What exact meaning did he attach to the 
 word “egotist”? Not, I think, that abundant self- 
 sufficiency which another master pilloried in Sir Wil- 
 loughby, nor the savage pride that slew Coriolanus. 
 Peer was not capable of either of those emotions, nor 
 indeed was the Dovré-King. It is obvious that Ibsen, 
 for one thing, was jousting at what he held was the 
 narrow-minded nationalism of his fellow countrymen ; 
 he was indeed satirizing an actual political and social 
 movement that corresponded roughly to the Irish Sinn 
 Fein. But he meant something more than mere satire 
 of political opponents. It is the “ Dovrish enough ” 
 which is going to damn Peer Gynt ; it is, for Ibsen, the 
 rigid line that marks off real men and women from 
 “ hill-trolls.” I incline myself to the view, as I have 
 stated in a note, that what Ibsen is attacking is the 
 particular form of monomania which we now know as 
 the gospel of the Superman. Nietzsche himself, or 
 rather Zarathrustra, is insistent that the Superman 
 will be quite unlike Man; and that is true; he will be 
 a hill-troll, not a god. Nietzsche’s doctrine is so in- 
 consistent with itself, and his repetition of it so full 
 of ignorances, that it is not easy to give any definite 
 form to the Superman. But it has this in common with 
 the hill-troll — the Superman, like the hill-troll, is self- 
 circumferenced as well as self-centred. Here is, I think, 
 to be found the real meaning of the “ fatal enough ” : 
 some students of Ibsen have found the attack on self- 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 xv 
 
 sufficiency in Peer Gynt difficult to reconcile with Ibsen’s 
 vehement preaching of self-realization in his other work. 
 The two are really complementary. What is wrong 
 with the troll doctrine is not the emphasis laid on 
 “ self,” it is the emphasis put on “ enough.” A man 
 can not realise himself at all without contact with his 
 fellow creatures. “ The strongest man in the world is 
 the man who stands most alone,” is put into Stock- 
 mann’s mouth. Dr. Stockmann is alone, but not sepa- 
 rate ; he is defiant, not ignoring ; he fights, he does not 
 forget. So, even at its strongest and most aggi'essive, 
 Ibsen’s doctrine of self-realization (if we identify him 
 with Dr. Stockmann) is not inconsistent with the con- 
 demnation of that selfish individualism which we find 
 in Peer Gynt. That individualism is, after all, in one 
 of the most forcible passages in the poem, described 
 as madness. It is only in the mad-house, at the end 
 of the Fourth Act, that Peer Gynt meets people who 
 are really themselves. 
 
 Here a man is himself, and can utterly sever 
 Everything else from himself for ever. 
 
 Here, full sail, as ourselves our course we make. 
 
 Each in the barrel of self down plunges 
 And ferments, and soon all but self expunges; 
 
 And seals, with self’s bung, self’s citadel, 
 
 And seasons the staves in self’s deep well. 
 
 No one has tears for the other’s disasters; 
 
 What the other’s ideas are, no one masters. 
 
 Ourselves, that we are in thought and tone. 
 
 Ourselves, to the spring-board’s uttermost verge. 
 
 It is this, surely, which Ibsen wants us to think of 
 as the inevitable outcome of the Dovre doctrine. 
 
 Beside the evidence furnished by the passage in the 
 mad-house scene, there are two positive interpretations 
 given us of what the poet means by true self-realiza- 
 tion. I mention them in order of importance. In the 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 Fifth Act, Scene 9, Peer asks the Button-Molder 
 point-blank, 
 
 To be oneself, what ’s it at bottom mean ? 
 
 And the Button-Molder replies: 
 
 To be oneself is : oneself to slay. 
 
 But that answer is no doubt thrown away on you ? 
 
 And so we ’ll say : everywhere to display 
 
 Like a signboard. Master’s meaning upon you. 
 
 Here the Button-Molder is not altogether free from 
 Peer’s own fault, quoting old axioms without due 
 thought. The Dominical injunction “Whosoever wills 
 to save his self shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose 
 his self for mj sake shall save it,” cannot be taken 
 apart from its complementary warning, “ What shall 
 it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his 
 own self? Or what shall a man give in exchange for 
 his self? ” — a warning that Peer misremembers and 
 misapplies in the First Scene of Act IV. It is obvious 
 that mere self-sacrifice is as futile as mere self-indul- 
 gence; nor, to my mind, does the Button-Molder’s 
 enlarged exposition of the meaning of self-realization 
 carry us much further. No, for the best interpreta- 
 tion of Ibsen’s meaning, and of its strong contrast 
 with Peer’s ideal, one must look at one of the most 
 dignified and impressive scenes in the play — the ser- 
 mon in Act V, Scene 3. It would be a mistake to give 
 unqualified praise to the poor man who evaded what 
 the world 1 is fond of calling “ greater responsibilities ” 
 in order to do his immediate or personal duty ; but 
 surely here is the exact antithesis of Peer’s selfishness. 
 This unnamed lad, who suffered scorn and self-mutila- 
 tion rather than desert his betrothed, his unborn child 
 
 1 The world of men particularly. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 XVII 
 
 and his old mother may not be the world’s hero, but 
 he does stand definitely for a keen, dogged faithfulness 
 to others, in which alone self-realization can be found. 
 Ibsen emphasizes the difference between this man and 
 Peer, by putting into Peer’s mouth, after the end of 
 the sermon, words claiming this man who found him- 
 self as “ a comrade in spirit.” 
 
 Peer trusts too much to our bad memories when he 
 makes that claim. In no scene in any play has Ibsen 
 so impressed on us the gulf between motive and action. 
 
 The Light of Light 
 
 Looks always on the motive, not the deed ; 
 
 The Shadow of Shadows on the deed alone. 
 
 Peer has shirked civil duties, social duties, patriotic 
 duties: the man with the sickle shirked them, too. Yet 
 one can rightly claim our praise, the other can only 
 earn contempt. And Peer is lying even when he im- 
 plies that there is an external similarity to the casual 
 observer. For, after all, the lad did cut off his finger: 
 and Peer — ? his own words bear witness against him. 
 
 But to chop ? To cut off for good and all 
 
 Yes, think of it ; wish it done — will it, withal; — 
 
 But to do it ! No ; that ’s beyond my discerning ! 
 
 So over against Peer the play gives us this poor, 
 humble, timid man who yet, in a crisis, possessed his 
 own soul securely, and dared to sacrifice for the sake 
 of Love and truth everything that the selfish man holds 
 most dearly. 
 
 We must not shrink from the conclusion that Ibsen, 
 in Peer Gynt, attacks self-sufficiency, from the fact that 
 Brand, the hero of his other great dramatic poem, comes 
 not a little under the condemnation. I have tried to 
 show elsewhere that the popular idea of Brand as a 
 
xviii INTRODUCTION 
 
 tragedy of a sublime figure conquered by circumstance 
 is a false one. I believe Ibsen — possibly only in the 
 course of the poem — himself saw Brand’s essential 
 weakness (a weakness so much more fatal because more 
 sublime than Peer Gynt’s) and that the tragedy of 
 Brand is that of a soul false to that inner self, and 
 that more glorious ideal, which ultimately gain expres- 
 sion in the thunder of avalanche and storm. 
 
 The Dovre-King himself is, then, less important than 
 his symbolic significance. He is the only character 
 whose poetical being is overweighted by his moral — 
 and, at his final appearance, this certainly spoils what 
 might otherwise have been a great scene. We feel the 
 poet becoming rather too explanatory, particularly in 
 the passage about troll j ournalism ; and also in the fa- 
 cetious comments on the Dovre-King’s fabulous nature. 
 
 There are none other of the characters, either legen- 
 dary or actual, who do not justify themselves. We 
 may think the Strange Passenger rather too vague in 
 his impressive interruptions, and feel that the intro- 
 duction of the Devil is a little too much on the other 
 side of farce : but that the Strange Passenger — put 
 into the play “ out of caprice ” — is impressive few 
 will deny ; and the Devil’s arrival needs no gloss. He 
 was bound to follow the Button-Molder. What I 
 would insist on is that the reader who comes fresh to 
 Peer Gynt should remember first the poetic value of the 
 characters. It i§ only so that he will gain any true 
 insight into their symbolic significance, if and where 
 there is any. It cannot be said too often that the 
 poetic value of Peer Gynt is primary; the satirical, 
 symbolic and religious values subsidiary. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 xix 
 
 III 
 
 What then is the poetic content of Peer Gynt ? Its 
 glorious quality of creative and rhythmical surprise, 
 its splendor of youth and exuberance, its sheer beauty, 
 its tense truth and candor, its almost perfect con- 
 centration on the character of Peer Gynt, are things 
 that only those who can read the original can fully 
 appreciate. Still one hopes — otherwise this version 
 would never have been attempted — that the essence 
 of the poem has not entirely evaded the translator, and 
 can be conveyed, however faultily, to the English reader. 
 Anyway, those sheer poetical qualities of presentation 
 must make their own appeal; but it may be useful to 
 add a word or two on Peer Gynt’s character — not so 
 much from the symbolic, as the poetic standpoint. 
 
 Peer Gynt is a new person in poetry. There are 
 qualities about him which have affinities with Falstaff; 
 and there are yet others in which he can call cousin 
 with Hamlet; but he is, even when he is old, far more 
 of a youth than either of Shakespeare’s creations. 
 That, perhaps, is the first note in him that insists and 
 claims to be heal’d. Peer Gynt is a boy. He is one 
 of those who go through the world trusting more to 
 “ charm ” than to any more solid quality : and his 
 
 charm carries him far. His mother, though she knows 
 its value, is always beaten down by it in the end; the 
 enmity it excites among the other youths is largely 
 the enmity of jealousy; it entrances Solveig; it makes 
 Ingrid consent to the wild elopement — and there is 
 hardly a scene in the play in which it does not, in the 
 most disconcerting way, confuse the judgment of the 
 reader. 
 
XX 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 This particular quality has not often been success- 
 fully conveyed in literature ; Peer Gynt is more easily 
 paralleled from real life — he recalls Sheridan or Fox, 
 or, to go higher, Shelley. It is only in a certain ad- 
 venturousness that he can recall such a hero as Tom 
 Jones : shallow though it be, there is a stream of 
 
 poetry in Peer Gynt, quite absent from the veins ‘of 
 the Foundling. 
 
 Yet the poverty of Peer’s poetical quality strikes 
 the reader almost as much as its presence. The reason 
 for its scanty running is evident enough. Peer is the 
 slave, not of imagination, but of fancy. The prosaic 
 man’s habit of dreaming, of seeking refuge from real 
 life in slight, desultory day-dreams, has caught Peer. 
 Partly encouraged by his mother’s character and ex- 
 ample, it has a firm hold on him long before the play 
 opens, and it only relaxes its grip when he is within 
 the sight and sound of Solveig. It is so much Peer’s 
 master that he cannot distinguish between his dreams 
 and his truths. In that sordid, terrible auction scene 
 — the depth of Iris degradation — Solveig’s hymn- 
 book is cried for auction along with the rubbish of the 
 Dovre, the desert and the mad-house. Peer, in his own 
 untruthful fashion, has turned even Love into a thing 
 of light laughter and easy tears, a thing of shallow 
 sentiment and windy regret — and he has to be rid of 
 that, to feel himself stripped and stark before he can see 
 the hut again, before his ears can be opened to Solveig’s 
 song of the home-coming. 
 
 Then Peer not only values fancy and the things of 
 fancy above imagination; but he adopts his fancies 
 second-hand. No doubt when Ibsen started the poem, 
 he had not thought out what exact use he would make 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 xxi 
 
 of the old legend on which the story of Peer Gynt is 
 based. But, as the play grew under his hands, he saw, 
 in these old scraps and fragments of ballads and fairy- 
 tales, wonderful material for illustrating Peer’s de- 
 rivative genius, his borrowed and unessential character. 
 Peer, in this, is surely related to Gregers Werle, only, 
 unlike Gregers, he has finally the courage and sense 
 to know that his relations with Solveig are on a more 
 real and sacred footing than his other experiences. 
 Peer lives in dreams, and in other men’s dreams. Even 
 his escapade with Ingrid is, Åse hints, inspired by the 
 recollection of tales told him by the fireside; and in 
 his middle age he surrounds with the glamour of a 
 shoddy romanticism the cruel degradation of the liaison 
 with the Green-Clad One, the ignoble struggle with the 
 imps of the Dovre. 
 
 I have not counted the number of times that Peer is 
 thrust into quotation to justify or explain his actions: 
 but he is always ready to fly to precedent, to base his 
 opinions on others’ judgements, to choose glibly the 
 first philosophic tag that presents itself. It is, per- 
 haps, this characteristic which makes Peer so singularly 
 typical of the nineteenth century. It was this in him 
 which caused me, in my essay on Ibsen, to call Peer 
 Gynt a “ pinch-beck Shelley.” My friend Mr. Robert 
 Lynd objects to the phrase and claims Peer Gynt as 
 Everyman. I doubt if there is really much difference 
 between us. Peer Gynt is Everyman of the nineteenth 
 century: but so was Shelley. Nothing seems more 
 curious to us to-day than to think that in his own time 
 Shelley was stoned as a heresiarch; and that the even 
 more remote rationalistic age, of which Mr. Shaw was 
 once the exponent, hailed the author of Queen Mab as 
 
XXII 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 “ a pioneer.” Shelley, of course, was the apotheosis 
 of the ordinary Protestant Englishman of his day. His 
 lack of humor ; his hatred of “ priestcraft ” ; his ex- 
 aggerated interest in, and respect for, science ; his keen 
 sense of justice; his passionate loyalty to blunt truth; 
 his engaging and embarrassing candor — are all quali- 
 ties, good, bad and indifferent, which mark the nine- 
 teenth-century Englishman. Shelley’s subservience to 
 Godwin — the dirtiest wittol that was ever mistaken for 
 a philosopher — should alone have given the key to his 
 character, that of a man not at all skilled in ideas, 
 with no temper or taste for independent thought, and 
 an infinite capacity for obedience, a capacity which, in 
 the disorganised intellectual state of Europe, had got 
 no proper object, and so ran into bondage to any 
 plausible and pernicious mountebank . 1 
 
 But Shelley, in all this, is typical, perhaps slightly 
 in anticipation, of that nineteenth-century English- 
 man who followed many prophets to many different 
 hills, and then prepared for the master’s offering many 
 different sacrifices. The nineteenth century was a time 
 of great men, of heroes, as one of the loudest of its 
 prophets would declare, not because its great men were 
 greater than those of other epochs — but because there 
 was a vast and growing body of smaller men who de- 
 manded heroes and hero-worship. That worship, the 
 antithesis of true freedom in thought, was given lav- 
 
 1 I am not forgetting the extremely early age at which Shelley died. 
 It would not really even be necessary to discuss his philosophy seri- 
 ously, if it had not been for the mistaken efforts of his admirers to 
 push into prominence what was, after all, only the ill-digested thoughts 
 of a precocious and easily influenced boy. The gift for supreme lyrical 
 poetry goes but rarely with any aptitude for deep thinking; and 
 Shelley, had he lived to maturity, would have been content with the 
 crown that is inalienably his. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 xxiii 
 
 ishly; it annoyed or amused the really great, men like 
 Thackeray or Browning; it spoiled the lesser great, 
 such as Carlyle or Bradlaugh or Tennyson ; and a few, 
 men of that singular modesty that only goes with su- 
 preme genius, Scott and Darwin and Newman, man- 
 aged somehow to evade the tribute of folly and homage. 
 
 Peer Gynt sums up all this misdirected talent for 
 obedience and credulity in a way that no other char- 
 acter in literature does. From the nature of the poem 
 his heroes are not men, but men’s opinions ; things 
 half-remembered and never really grasped, phrases and 
 axioms and saws that Peer can only apply as if he 
 was a figure in a folk-tale, not use as would a real 
 person in a genuine crisis. 
 
 This characteristic of his, besides ensuring for Peer 
 Gynt a permanence of interest to the student, only 
 second to that of Antigone, Medea or Hamlet, adds 
 enormously to the vivid power of the play, as a study 
 of human nature. Some may find Peer’s never-ceasing 
 adaptability, his readiness in all crises, to be at first 
 a hindrance to getting any true grasp of his character ; 
 but as the play goes on, its truth and certainty, illus- 
 trated as it is by each instance of untruth and uncer- 
 tainty, grip yet more and more ; and when action draws 
 to its close, through the wonderful, hanging mist of 
 that early Whitsun morn, one feels not only the truth 
 of Peer’s infinite and changing variety, but also the 
 truth of his fixed and certain centre, his love for, and 
 his dependence on Solveig. 
 
 One turns gladly to the lighter elements in Peer’s 
 character, and to the good side of his lying and dream- 
 ing. Is there any great poem that has a gayer, more 
 
XXIV 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 lovable hero? Odysseus alone, to my mind, can com- 
 pare with the ragged, cheerful, impudent rascal of the 
 first three acts. The incomparable ending of its first 
 scene — the quick changes in the wedding scene, from 
 gay to grave, from frivolous to bitter, from farce to 
 tragedy, are all made possible and plausible by the 
 chameleon character of the hero. Most readers are 
 embarrassed by Peer’s portly and pompous appearance 
 at the beginning of Act IV, but I believe the abrupt 
 change to be artistically sound. Nothing less sudden 
 and startling would have given us a true idea of the 
 degree and nature of Peer’s downward course. The 
 comic power of the poem is as admirable as the deep 
 and rarer note of tragedy and gloom, and is sustained 
 with as sure a precision. There is no modern book, 
 except the Pilgrim's Progress, so full of the spirit 
 of adventure, and at the same time so full of the real 
 stuff of life and poetry: there are scenes in Peer Gynt 
 that Dumas might have conceived and Butler written 
 — there are others that no one but Ibsen could have 
 either conceived or written, that place Peer Gynt above 
 Faust, and its author above all modern poets save the 
 author of The Ring and the Booh. 
 
 It is worthy of notice that Peer’s lightness and 
 gaiety of nature, his variety and multi-colored charm, 
 render possible the flamboyant and decorative excesses 
 of the poem. For me Act IV, though it may have been 
 an afterthought, is a vital and essential part of the 
 poem. Without it Peer Gynt would not be the supreme 
 poem it is; and I fancy that those critics who have 
 been disposed to frown on its exuberance have not 
 paused to think how much would be lost if we cut out 
 the episodes in the Desert, the scenes with Anitra, and 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 XXV 
 
 the frantic happenings in Egypt. I do not see how 
 else Ibsen could have given to Peer that spirit of cos- 
 mopolitanism, that false air of civilized security which 
 the hero has to attain, before he completes his history. 
 Before excising any scene as unnecessary or superflu- 
 ous, before removing any character as impertinent and 
 unwanted, let the reader consider whether that scene 
 or that character does not interpret yet another mood 
 of Peer Gynt, does not illuminate yet another corner 
 in his shifty soul. I do not say the treatment of every 
 character is satisfactory — there are many signs of 
 haste both in the Fourth and Fifth Acts — but there 
 is no character and no scene with which any one who 
 really understands the poem would willingly dispense. 
 
 IV 
 
 Of the other characters in the book only two demand 
 any detailed notice — Ase and Solveig. I would just 
 point out how decisive and firm is the drawing of In- 
 grid, a character who looks back to Hjordis and for- 
 ward to Hedda — how admirably Mads Moen is given 
 us in the three or four lines he speaks in the First Act, 
 and his drunken maudlin sentences in the Fifth — and 
 how supremely, in the Anitra episode, Ibsen fashions 
 that particular form of sexual silliness which overtakes 
 middle-aged gentlemen of doubtful pasts. Anitra — 
 again she has but a few lines to speak — is as vivid as 
 Fanny Wilton, and as real as one of the little manag- 
 ing baggages of the Restoration drama. But the minor 
 characters must yield in interest, as they do in impor- 
 tance, to Peer’s mother and to his bride. 
 
 That Ibsen used his own mother as the model for 
 
XXVI 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Åse was of more interest to him than to us ; what is 
 supremely exciting about the portrait of Åse, and the 
 picture of her relations with Peer, is that for the first 
 time in literature we have portrayed the love of a 
 mother and son without any sentiment and without any 
 falsehood. Here Ibsen owes a good deal to his having 
 adopted the old folk-tale which makes Peer a country 
 lad ; and he adds himself two other advantages : he 
 makes Åse a widow, and poor. For the country poor 
 in all nations have a frankness of speech and a candor 
 in their relations that is unknown in other classes. 
 This candor is not at all incompatible with kindness, 
 but it allows itself a freedom of intercourse that seems 
 incredible to the more sophisticated town-dweller. 
 
 Åse is, from her first appearance, dominant, eager, 
 quick, susceptible and loving. She will abuse Peer — 
 no one else may : she will beat him — and any one else 
 who tries to do so. She will call him liar, and repeat 
 his lies proudly to new acquaintances. In spite of her 
 angry, petulant, extravagant behavior, Solveig goes 
 naturally to her for information about Peer ; and finds 
 nothing in what she hears that does not strengthen her 
 desire to go to the outcast. Åse, it is true, suffers from 
 Peer’s own complaint. She dreams, and thinks her 
 dreams are realities ; but she has a firmer basis than 
 Peer has ; her life has one purpose, at any rate, which 
 Peer lacks until he meets Solveig, her purpose to care 
 for and shield her boy. That is real: and that 
 triumphs. 
 
 The deliberate, beautiful cobweb-spinning of the 
 death-scene it is impossible to treat roughly. The scene 
 is always compared to the death of Brand’s mother, 
 and generally there is a note of blame for Peer as com- 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 XXVll 
 
 pared with the stark prophet of “ All or Nothing.” 
 Yet is this quite fair? Peer has just come through, by 
 evasion — but by an evasion that has cost him real 
 agony — the greatest torture of his life — and can we 
 expect that he, or any other human being, should not 
 look around for an anodyne against the overwhelming 
 pain? He finds it there, by the poor truckle-bed where 
 his mother lies dying: with all the skill of his craft 
 he beguiles, he lies — if you will — the old woman into 
 the arms of death. It is not heroic: and yet would 
 any other behavior have been half as adequate, half 
 as real and essentially true, with such a case as Åse? 
 
 She herself is full of nothing but anxiety for her 
 son; and only so, only by recalling his youth and her 
 younger days, can Peer prevent her from dwelling on 
 the tragic business of Ingrid and the outlawry. 
 
 Ibsen’s creative style is shown at its highest by the 
 manner in which Ase’s character is built up by its 
 contact with others. Not only by description, not 
 only by her son’s laughing or indignant comment, not 
 only by her own speeches does Åse gradually display 
 herself. In her brief, abrupt retorts to Aslak and 
 Ingrid’s father, in the kind of awed condescension with 
 which she speaks to Solveig’s father, and in the proud 
 mother-spirit of her replies to Solveig herself — in all 
 these we gain, with each sentence, almost with each 
 word, further insight into her character. Then how 
 admirably, in the scene with Kari, are we allowed to see 
 Åse in her own proper position, evidenced by the re- 
 spect shown by Kari to her, even in her lamentable 
 misfortune? This art of revealing one character by 
 the aid of another, to make each trivial incident and 
 word have its due effect in the whole, is one of the 
 
xxviii INTRODUCTION 
 
 greatest secrets of the supreme dramatist or novelist, 
 and it is one which Ibsen mastered early, and used with 
 an effect and an art that have never been excelled and 
 rarely equalled. 
 
 I have heard it objected to Solveig that her charac- 
 ter is stationary. I have already discussed the same 
 objection as applied to Peer, and the same answer 
 serves, with a difference, for Solveig. The chief differ- 
 ence is that Solveig is more of a lyrical than an epic 
 character. She, perhaps, reminds one most of those 
 splendid people in Browning’s supremest poems, such 
 as the Duchess, or the Lady of The Statue and the 
 Bust, or Christina — people who are almost violently 
 individual, and yet also sum up a moral, an emotion, an 
 ideal. 
 
 Solveig is stationary. That is her saga. But it is 
 not right to say that Solveig at seventy is the same 
 as Solveig at seventeen; no, rather Solveig at seven- 
 teen is the same as Solveig at seventy. At her first 
 meeting with Peer she is his wife, his love, his guardian 
 — guardian not of his actions, nor of his errant 
 thoughts, nor of his wanton dreams ; they belong to 
 Ingrid, or the Farm-Girls or the Green-Clad One — 
 but guardian of that greater and more real self, which 
 only exists in her, and for her, and through her. What 
 Ibsen means — what so many of his critics have so 
 grossly missed — by that sentence, “ In my faith, in 
 my hope, in my love art thou,” is not that Peer is 
 rescued from his disastrous past by Solveig’s love, but 
 that there has never been any other Peer than the one 
 who fell in love with Solveig. That is all there is that 
 is real in him, all that is true, all that is permanent. 
 And nothing can alter the fact that this has been, and 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 XXIX 
 
 therefore is. This love is the only element in him 
 that has reality or permanence, and nothing can de- 
 stroy what has once really existed. Love is eternal; 
 that is, it belongs to a sphere and an order where 
 decay is not, outside time and beyond peace. This 
 may be unpalatable to some who have called themselves 
 Ibsenites, but it is the plain meaning of Solveig and 
 Peer, and it is frequently enunciated in other plays of 
 Ibsen. It is this which renders true what I have said 
 above, but the Solveig of the first meeting is really 
 the Solveig of the climax. She is the only person in 
 the play who is, all through, belonging to the things 
 that are not seen, to the things that are eternal ; and 
 in touching her Peer Gynt has laid hold on the pro- 
 fundities, and no Button-Molder can ever retain him. 
 
 Solveig’s person is as beautiful to me as Solveig’s 
 place in the play. I know no scene to excel that poig- 
 nant episode in the Third Act when she comes over the 
 snow to the outlawed Peer. In simplicity, in sweetness, 
 and in directness of appeal those few pages challenge 
 comparison with any love-scene in any literature. 
 Ibsen, writing in Italy, manages to combine the fresh- 
 ness and vigor of his native north with the charm 
 and glow of the south, and we have this beautiful scene 
 where passion does not forget to be tender, and love 
 burns with the bright and splendid flame of desire. 
 
 After that Third Act, after the parting, we only see 
 Solveig once before the end. With a contrast almost 
 stunning, Ibsen breaks into the riot and wanton waste 
 of the hot African scenes, and for a minute shows us 
 Solveig sitting lonely, singing the song of the home- 
 coming, the home-coming of Peer who has just been 
 abandoned by Anitra, and is on his way to the mad- 
 house. 
 
XXX 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 There is no need to enlarge on the climax of the 
 poem, when Peer at last “ comes home.” There, in the 
 hut, Solveig has waited, secure in the reality of Love 
 — knowing that the only judgment, when it is uttered, 
 will be the proclamation of her Peer against the world’s 
 Peer, will be to call back to life the boy who has wan- 
 dered so far away. There she sits, with her trans- 
 valuation of all values ; skilled is she in the use of the 
 only transcending and reforming power in the world, 
 sure in her wisdom, confident in her right. And the 
 last challenge of the Button-Molder, which Peer will 
 have to meet one day, can be met with boldness and 
 assurance ; for Peer, if he has not found his sin-list, 
 has found himself, and in the discovery of self, follows 
 the discovery of sin, and with that discovery, self- 
 deception has an end. 
 
 V 
 
 I return, then, to where I began, the greatness and 
 significance of personality. It was his vivid sense of 
 this which made Ibsen so hostile to institutions and 
 organizations, so nearly anarchist in his views about 
 the State and society. But he was saved from the 
 excess of this anarchy by the poet in him — that in 
 his nature which made him aware that there is no such 
 thing as a lonely personality. When a man is abso- 
 lutely alone, he dies. From this it is but a step to the 
 further realization that man can only perfectly realize 
 himself by his relations with his fellows. For Ibsen 
 this relation was heightened — and, if you will, hal- 
 lowed — into the one supreme relation of Love. Be- 
 side that fact, all others, even the power of hate (how 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 XXXI 
 
 wretched is the “ converted ” and bitter Einar of 
 Brand), fail: no doubt this is a weakness in Ibsen, 
 this strong sense of one truth; but it also accounts 
 for the depth and reality of his work. He had seen 
 the sun, and he had no patience or time to praise the 
 stars and the moon. He knew that there was one thing 
 necessary ; and so he ignores the things that are merely 
 desirable or convenient. Tolstoy, who has been himself 
 accused of over-idealism, complained at the publication 
 of “ When We Dead Awaken,” that Ibsen was getting 
 too far away from the drab facts of life, the struggle 
 and the need for bread and water. Can we not see in 
 this complaint a shadow of a suspicion that, in spite 
 of his apparently incongruous life, the Norwegian had 
 been more faithful to the centre than he had himself? 
 The generations to come may ignore much of Ibsen’s 
 work. They may be neglectful of his problems, of his 
 realism, of his grim and sardonic humor; but one 
 thing they will assuredly remember and reward, his 
 single-eyed devotion to truth and reality. And of all 
 his plays, while others may give intenser and minuter 
 pictures of men and women, Peer Gynt presents, in the 
 most vivid and enduring form, the poet’s vision of Life. 
 
 VI 
 
 The chief aim of this translation of Peer Gynt is to 
 give some idea of that luxuriant complexity of rhyme 
 and metre which marks the original. I have endeav- 
 ored to be as literal as possible; but have abandoned 
 mere fidelity without hesitation, when the effect was too 
 unnatural or displeasing. I fear many readers may 
 think, even as it is, I have occasionally been too bold. 
 
XXX11 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 The metres I have tried to render exactly throughout 
 the play. 
 
 The rhyme-schemes I have generally kept to, in sus- 
 tained lyrical or ironic monologues, such as Ase’s speech 
 when searching for Peer; Peer’s dreamy vision of renais- 
 sance; his agony over the disaster to the yacht; and 
 the other soliloquies in the Fourth Act. Also in the 
 death-scene of Åse ; in the thread-ball scene, and in the 
 final pages I have kept as closely as possible to the 
 Norwegian. In such narrative passages as occur in 
 the first scene of all I have allowed myself greater 
 freedom, as the sequence of rhymes in the original 
 strikes me as haphazard or merely dictated by expedi- 
 ency and facility. 
 
 I have generally represented treble or double rhymes 
 by treble and double rhymes in my translation; but 
 with regard to such a pair of words as “ løgne ” 
 “ øgne,” I thought it would be pedantic to refuse the 
 obvious “ lies ” “ eyes.” 
 
 As most readers of this book will know, there has 
 been only one previous version of Peer Gynt — that 
 by Mr. William and Mr. Charles Archer. I may as 
 well state at the outset, that without that version, mine 
 would never have been attempted or accomplished. 
 Their version was almost my first introduction to Ibsen ; 
 and there was a time when I knew much of it by heart. 
 Their translation is, of course, as literal as was con- 
 sistent with preserving the metres of the original ; mine 
 is hampered by also keeping the rhymes. Yet when, 
 as is so often the case, a plain forcible rendering, used 
 by Messrs. Archer, suits my version, I have not fumbled 
 about to discover a phrasing that should be merely 
 different. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 xxxiii 
 
 I have to thank the late Mr. Stanley Makower for 
 encouragement and a few very useful suggestions ; and 
 to Mr. William Archer I owe a debt in return for in- 
 formation freely placed at my disposal, and for his 
 generous attitude to my translation. 
 
PEER GYNT 
 
THE PERSONS 
 
 Åse, a farmer’s widow 
 Peer Gynt, her son 
 Two Old Women 
 Aslak, a smith 
 
 Wedding Guests, Kitchen-Master, Fiddler, &c. 
 
 A Newcomer and his Wife 
 
 Solveig and Little Helga, their daughters 
 
 The Farmer at Hegstad 
 
 Ingrid, his daughter 
 
 The Bridegroom and his Parents 
 
 Three Out-Farm Girls (Sæter-Girls) 
 
 A Green-Clad Woman 
 The Old Man of the Dovre 
 A Troll Courtier 
 
 Troll Women and Troll Imps. Two Witches. 
 
 Nixies, Bogies, Hob-Goblins, &c. 
 
 An Ugly Brat. A Voice in the Darkness. Bird 
 Cries 
 
 Kari, a cottar's widow 
 Master Cotton 
 Monsieur Ballon 
 Herr v. Eberkopf 
 Herr v. Trumpeterstråle 
 A Thief and a Receiver 
 Anitra, a Sheik's daughter 
 Arabs, Slaves, Dancing-Girls, &c. 
 
 > Travelling Gentlemen 
 
4 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Memnon’s Statue, a singing character 
 The Sphinx of Gizeh, persona muta 
 Begriefenfeedt, Professor, Ph.D., head of the 
 lunatic asylum at Cairo 
 
 Huhu, a language reformer from the coast of Malabar 
 Hussein, an Oriental Minister of State 
 A Feeeah, with a Royal Mummy 
 A Norwegian Skipper and his Crew 
 A Strange Passenger 
 A Priest 
 Mourners 
 A Bailiff 
 A Button-Molder 
 A Lean One 
 
PEER GYNT 
 
 THE FIRST ACT 
 
 SCENE ONE 
 
 A wooded hillside near Ase’s farm. A river rushes 
 down the hill. An old mill-shed on the further side of 
 the river. It is a hot summer day. 
 
 Peer Gynt, a sturdy youth of twenty, comes down the 
 path. Åse, his mother, small and slight, follows. She 
 is scolding angrily. 
 
 Åse 
 
 Peer, you ’re lying. 
 peer gynt (without stopping) 
 
 No! Not I! 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 If your story ’s true, swear to it ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Why should I swear? 
 
 Åse 
 
 You dare not do it ! 
 
 It ’s a lie, a lie, a lie ! 
 peer gynt ( stopping ) 
 
 Each blessed word of it is true. 
 
 Åse ( facing him ) 
 
 How can you face your mother? You — ! 
 
 Just when work is worst, you rush 
 Off to hunt thro’ snow and slush; 
 
6 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act i 
 
 Then with clothes in rags and tatters 
 Home you come ; and what more matters, 
 Lose your gun and kill no game: 
 
 And with round and innocent eyes 
 Want me to believe your lame 
 Catalogue of hunter’s lies ! — 
 
 Where was it on the buck you strayed? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 West by Gendin. 
 
 Åse ( laughing scornfully) 
 
 Really, yes? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 In the storm the alders sway’d ; 
 
 There the buck, behind the row, 
 
 Scraped for lichen in the mess 
 
 Of the slush 
 
 Åse (as before) 
 
 Yes? Really, yes? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Breathlessly, I stood and listened, 
 
 Heard his hard hoof crunch the snow; 
 Saw where one great antler glistened: 
 Then I dropped amid the boulders, 
 
 On my belly crawled, so quiet 
 Where from ’vantage I could spy at 
 Such a buck ! so big ! such shoulders 
 Larger than any 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 Oh! I know, 
 
 Much, much larger. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Bang! and down 
 
SCENE i] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 7 
 
 Dropped the deer upon the snow. 
 Scarcely had he fallen, when lo ! 
 
 I was sitting him astride 
 With his left ear in my grasp : 
 
 And had plunged, right to the hasp, 
 Where the neck and skull divide, 
 
 My keen blade, when with a cry, 
 
 To his feet the huge brute leaping, 
 Jerked his head back, quickly sweeping 
 Knife and sheath away. My thigh 
 And my legs were squeezed so tightly ; 
 With his horns he held and gripped me, 
 Like a pair of tongs he nipped me — 
 Thus, as quick as said, we two 
 Rushed along the edge ! — or flew ! 
 
 Åse ( involuntarily ) 
 
 Jesus ! Save us ! Save 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Have you 
 
 Seen the Gendin-Edge? So lightly 
 Like a scythe, straight on it stretches, 
 Stretches on for nigh four miles. 
 
 Over screes the vision fetches, 
 
 Over glaciers, landslips, piles 
 Of grey rubble, then it rests 
 On the sluggish tarns that sleep 
 Far below the mountain-crests, 
 
 Tarns seven hundred fathom deep ! 
 
 On the edge the buck and I 
 Cut our pathway through the sky. 
 
 Such a colt I ne’er bestrode! 
 
 ’Fore us ’t was as though there hung 
 Suns that shone, as on we swung. 
 
8 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act i 
 
 We saw many an eagle float 
 Brown-backt on his dizzy road 
 ’Twixt the tarn and us ; and then 
 Dwindle to a sun-fleckt mote, 
 
 As we passed him. On the shore 
 Ice-floes crashed: I heard no sound. 
 
 Only I heard, as in a swound, 
 
 Giddy sprites that danced around, 
 
 Danced and sang and danced again, 
 
 Danced to where they were before! 
 
 Åse {dizzy) 
 
 God preserve me! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 In my face, 
 
 At a hopeless break-neck place, 
 
 Up there rose a ptarmigan, 
 
 Flapping, clucking, terrified, 
 
 Whence ’t was hidden on a ledge 
 Near the buck’s feet on the edge. 
 
 Then the buck swerved round and shying. 
 
 First to scale the heavens trying, 
 
 Plunged right down, down, buck and man ! 
 
 ( Åse totters and clutches at a tree trunk. Peer Gynt 
 goes on) 
 
 Mountains, black, behind uprist, 
 
 Yawned the plumbless deep below! 
 
 First we clove through banks of mist. 
 
 Then we broke, like driven snow, 
 
 Gulls, which, as their flock was parted 
 Here and there with screamings started. 
 
 Downward, downward still we darted! 
 
 Something whitish glistened there 
 ’Neath us like deer’s belly-fur. 
 
SCENE i] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 9 
 
 Our reflexion, mother, dear ! 
 
 Mirror’d in the waters clear, 
 
 Rushing to the tarn’s smooth face 
 At the same tremendous pace 
 That we sought the deep’s embrace! 
 
 Åse ( gasping for breath ) 
 
 Peer ! God help me ! Quick ! What more ? 
 
 PEEK GYNT 
 
 Buck from over, buck from under, 
 
 Met and elasht like rolling thunder, 
 
 All about us foam-flecks dashing. 
 
 There we lay, my mother, splashing; 
 
 But we made the northern shore 
 Somehow at the last : the buck, he 
 Swam and I clung fast behind him. 
 
 I ran homewards 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 The deer, ducky? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 May be in the self-same spot; 
 
 ( Snaps his fingers, turns on his heel, and adds ) 
 You may keep him, if you find him ! 
 
 Åse 
 
 And your neck is sound? You ’ve not 
 Smasht completely both your thighs? 
 
 Sure you haven’t broke your spine? 
 
 Lord! To Thee my thanks shall rise, 
 
 Thee, who helped this boy of mine ! 
 
 True a rent in pants and coat is ; 
 
 But that ’s hardly worthy notice, 
 
 When one thinks that anything 
 Might have come from such a spring! 
 
10 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act i 
 
 ( Stops suddenly, looks at him open-mouthed and star- 
 ing, cannot find words at first, and finally hursts out ) 
 Oh! what friends’ tales you ’ve been spinning! 
 
 Holy Cross ! what lies you tell ! 
 
 All this screed, from the beginning, 
 
 You would stuff me with, I knew it 
 As a girl, I knew it well. 
 
 It was Gudbrand Glesne, who it 
 Happen’d to, not you 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Me too. 
 
 Such a thing again might happen. 
 
 Åse 
 
 Yes, a lie turned upside-down 
 Can be brushed to look like new ; 
 
 None can tell its carcase brown 
 When it has fine clothes to wrap in. 
 
 That is just what you ’ve been doing, 
 
 Yamping up these tales of ruin; 
 
 Then with eagles’ backs you garnisht 
 And with other terrors varnisht, 
 
 Jesting there and lying here 
 Till I held my breath for fear, 
 
 And I knew not what of old, 
 
 As a girl, I had been told ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Oh ! If any other said 
 
 Things like that, I ’d well-nigh slay him ! 
 
 Åse ( weeping ) 
 
 Would to God that I lay dead, 
 
 Dead, and ’neath the black earth dreaming: 
 
 Prayers and tears can never slay him — 
 
 Peer ! you ’re lost beyond redeeming. 
 
SCENE i] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 11 
 
 PEEK GYNT 
 
 Darling, pretty mummikins, 
 You are right about my sins: 
 
 There ! be nice, be happy 
 
 Åse 
 
 Peace ! 
 
 How can I have happiness, 
 
 I, with such a swine for son? 
 
 Shame and scorn, beyond denial 
 Are to me a grievous trial, 
 
 Me, a widow, poor and lone. ( W eeping again) 
 What have we now of the glory 
 Left us by your grandsire hoary? 
 
 Where are now the piles of gold 
 Rasmus Gynt acquired of old? 
 
 In your father’s time they wander’d 
 Off ; like sand the cash he squander’d ; 
 
 Buying acres near and far, 
 
 Driving in a golden car. 
 
 Where is all the wealth in vain spent 
 At that famous entertainment, 
 
 When each guest sent bottles reeling 
 At the wall, or to the ceiling? 
 
 PEEK GYNT 
 
 Where ’s the snow of yester-year? 
 
 Åse 
 
 Hold your tongue before your mother ! 
 
 See the farm-house! Every other 
 Pane is stuffed with clouts. And here 
 Hedges flat, and gates a-rattle, 
 
 Rain and cold beat on the cattle, 
 
 Fields and meadows lying fallow; 
 
 Every month a new distraint is 
 
12 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act i 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Cease these foolish tales to holloa ! 
 
 Just when fortune down and faint is, 
 
 Up she leaps as high as ever ! 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 If the soil is salt-strewn, never. 
 
 Lord ! But you ’re a mighty lad ! 
 
 Just as brisk and just as bad, 
 
 Just as bold as when the Vicar 
 Fresh from Copenhagen College 
 Asked your name, and swore your knowledge 
 Would do credit to a prince; 
 
 Not a prince could answer quicker! 
 
 And your poor dear father, since 
 He was pleased with Hum and pap, 
 
 Gave the man a horse and trap. 
 
 Then ’t was fun and feasting great ! 
 
 Parson, captain and the others 
 Day by day would eat and swill, 
 
 Stuffing till they nigh got ill. 
 
 But ’t is need such friendship smothers. 
 
 All was still and desolate 
 
 On the day that “ Nothing-lack John ” 
 
 Went out with his pedlar’s pack on. 
 
 ( Wipes her eyes with her apron) 
 
 Peer ! you ’re big and strong of arm, 
 
 You should be a prop and stay 
 To your mother’s failing day, 
 
 You should manage field and farm, 
 
 Guard the remnant that ’s your own ; — 
 
 ( Weeping once more) 
 
 All ! God help me, nought but harm 
 Have you brought to me, you drone ! 
 
SCENE i] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 13 
 
 Lounging lazy by the ingle, 
 
 With the coal the hearth-stone sharing; 
 Or, at feasts where young folks mingle, 
 All the lasses you ’d be scaring. 
 Everywhere you shame and mock me. 
 Then your fights with rascals shock me - 
 peer gynt ( turning away) 
 
 Let me be ! 
 
 Åse ( following ) 
 
 Dare you deny 
 
 You were chief among the rabble 
 In that mighty, famous squabble 
 Fought at Lunde, w T hen the men 
 Raged like crazy dogs? That then 
 It was you — or p’raps ’t was I ! — 
 Broke Smith Aslak’s arm — at least 
 Put his finger out, you beast! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Who has fill’d you with such lies? 
 
 Åse {hotly) 
 
 Kari heard the yells and thumping! 
 peer gynt {rubbing his elbow) 
 
 Yes, you might have heard my cries. 
 
 Åse 
 
 Yours? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Yes, mine. I got a clumping. 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 What? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 ÅSE 
 
 Who is? 
 
 Well, he ’s a lusty fellow. 
 
14 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act i 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Aslak made me bellow. 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 Shame — and shame ! 0 take mj curses ! 
 
 Oh! to think that mj son worse is 
 
 Than a sot, a wastrel, drunken 
 
 Beast in profligacy sunken. ( Weeping again) 
 
 Shame is mine ; things go amiss ; 
 
 But that this should happen, this 
 Beats all other miseries ! 
 
 Tho’ the smith is lusty, need he, 
 
 Peer, my son, be weak and weedy? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Whether I am beat or beating 
 
 Still complaints you ’ll be repeating. (Laughing) 
 
 Cheer up 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 What? again you ’re lying? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Yes; but just this once, my mother. 
 Dry your eyes and stop your crying 
 ( Clenches his left hand) 
 
 With this fellow and no other 
 I held Aslak, tightly; plying 
 My right like a hammer’s blows. 
 
 Åse 
 
 O, you scamp, with feats like those 
 You ’ll bring me to the tomb! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 No: you ’re worth a better doom, 
 Much, much better shall befall you. 
 Little ugly mother dear, 
 
 You can trust me, never fear 
 
SCENE i] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 15 
 
 All the place a queen shall call you ; 
 Only wait till I, victorious, 
 
 Do some — well, do something glorious ! 
 Åse ( contemptuously ) 
 
 You ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 None knows how fortune flits. 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 Could you ever have the wits 
 
 One day so to sew the stitches 
 
 That you need to mend your breeches ! 
 
 PEER GYNT ( hotly ) 
 
 I will be a king, a kaiser ! 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 Oh ! the boy ’s but little wiser 
 Than a fool. God pity me ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Give me time and you shall see ! 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 King, we sing, he ’ll be in time, 
 
 So, I think, runs the old rhyme ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Mother, wait! 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 0 ! stop your chatter 
 You ’re as mad as any hatter. — 
 
 Ah ! and yet there ’s truth enough — 
 Something once you might, with trying, 
 Have achieved, but for your lying 
 And your dreaming trash and stuff. 
 Hegstad’s girl was fond of you. 
 
 Had you only wished to wed her 
 To the church you could have led her. 
 
16 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act i 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 What? 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 Her father, old and mumbling, 
 Can’t stop what she wants to do. 
 
 In a way he ’s obstinate ; 
 
 But ’t is Ingrid, soon or late, 
 
 Rules him ; ’t is the daughter who 
 Leads the gaffer slowly, grumbling. 
 
 ( Beginning to weep again ) 
 
 Peer ! she ’s rich beyond reporting — 
 Lands, entailed ! Ah ! think, the pity ! 
 
 If you ’d woo’d, as though it matter’d, 
 You ’d have been a bridegroom pretty, 
 You who stand here grimed and tatter’d! 
 peer gynt ( briskly ) 
 
 Come then! We will go a-courting! 
 
 Åse 
 
 Where ? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 At Hegstad ! 
 
 Åse 
 
 There, poor dear, 
 Is no way for suitors clear ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 How is that? 
 
 Åse 
 
 ’T is all in vain, dear ! 
 Luck returns not what she spills — 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Speak, quick ! 
 
 Åse ( sobbing ) 
 
 On the Western hills 
 
SCENE i] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 17 
 
 While in air you hunted reindeer, 
 
 Here ’s Mads Moen won the heiress ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 What ! That woman’s bug-bear ! Mads ? 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 Yes ; he ’s going to wed the lass. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Just a moment to find where is, 
 
 Horse and cart — {Going) 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 Your trouble spare, 
 
 For the wedding is to-morrow 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Pooh ! this evening I ’ll be there ! 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 Shame now! Would you crown our sorrow 
 With a load of scorn and spite? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Nonsense; it will be all right. 
 
 {Shouting and laughing at the same time) 
 We’ll not drive. Quick, jump up! There! 
 
 ’T would take time to fetch the mare 
 
 {Lifts her in his arms) 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 Put me down ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Nay, on my arm 
 I will bear you to the wedding ! 
 
 ( Wades out into the river) 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 Help ! God keep us safe from harm ! 
 
 Peer ! We ’re drowning. 
 
18 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act i 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 No: I’m heading 
 
 For a nobler death! 
 
 Åse 
 
 Aye, true ! 
 
 Hanging is the fate for you! ( Pulling his hair ) 
 Oh ! you beast ! you 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Now, take care. 
 
 Here the bottom ’s smooth and slippy. 
 
 Åse 
 Ass ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Oh yes ! abuse and swear ; 
 
 None ’s the worse for that. Now grip! I 
 Clamber slow as it goes up. 
 
 Åse 
 
 Oh ! don’t drop me ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Hello ! Hop ! 
 
 We will play at Peer and reindeer, — 
 
 I ’m the reindeer, ( curvetting ) you are I. 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 Oh ! I ’m going mad ! I ’ll die ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Now we reach the shore again, dear. {Wades ashore ) 
 Won’t you give the deer a kiss, 
 
 Thanks for carrying of you 
 
 Åse {boxing his ears) 
 
 Is my thanks ! 
 
 This 
 
SCENE i] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 19 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Ow ! Ow ! I say 
 That is miserable pay. 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 Put me down! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 To Hegstad first. 
 
 Be my spokesman. You’re so elever; 
 
 Talk to him, the gaffer curst ; 
 
 Say Mads Moen ’s useless, never 
 
 Åse 
 
 Put me down ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 And, when all ’s told, 
 
 That Peer Gynt ’s a lad of gold. 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 Yes: I ’ll do that, you may swear! 
 
 Fine ’s the character you ’ll bear. 
 
 I will draw you full and truly 
 All your devil’s-pranks unruly 
 I will tell them plain and straight 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Oho ! 
 
 Åse ( kicking with rage ) 
 
 My tongue shall go on telling 
 Till the dog ’s set on you yelling 
 As a tramp at Hegstad gate ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 H’m ! Then I must go alone. 
 
 Åse 
 
 Yes, but quickly I ’ll pursue you ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 You ’ve not strength. The walk will do you 
 
20 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act i 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 Strength? I ’m wroth in such a fashion 
 I could smash the hardest stone! 
 
 I could eat flints in my passion! 
 
 Put me down ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Well, promise, dear 
 
 Åse 
 
 Nothing! I will go with you. 
 
 They shall have a portrait true ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Mother, you just must stop here. 
 
 Åse 
 
 No, I ’ll go with you, I will. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Never ! 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 How can you prevent me? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 I will perch you on the mill. 
 
 ( Puts her up on the roof ; Åse screams ) 
 Åse 
 
 Let me down. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Åse 
 
 Rubbish ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 If you ’ll consent, my 
 
 Please, now, mother fair 
 
 Åse ( throwing a sod of grass at him) 
 
 Let me down this instant, Peer! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 If I dared, be sure I would. ( Comes nearer) 
 
SCENE i] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 21 
 
 Don’t forget, sit still and good ; 
 
 Do not tug the tiles, nor tear ! 
 
 Do not sprawl ; take care of tripping — 
 Else you may fare ill, come slipping, 
 Toppling down. 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 You utter brute ! 
 
 PEEK GYNT 
 
 Do not kick! 
 
 Åse 
 
 Would God you’d shoot 
 Like a changeling through creation ! 
 
 PEEK GYNT 
 
 Oh! tut! 
 
 Åse 
 
 Bah! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Give to my wooing 
 Benison and approbation. 
 
 Do! 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 I ’ll give you such a beating, 
 
 Though jmu are so big and strong! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Well, farewell, though not for long! 
 
 Patience, soon will be our meeting. 
 
 (Is going, but turns, holds up his finger warningly 
 and says ) 
 
 Do not sprawl to your undoing! (Goes out ) 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 Peer ! God help me ! Off he ’s prancing ! 
 Reindeer-rider ! Liar ! Hi ! 
 
 Will you listen? No, he ’s dancing 
 
22 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act i 
 
 O’er the meadow! ( Screaming ) Help! I ’m dizzy. 
 [ Two Old Women, with sacks on their hacks, come 
 down the path to the mill. 
 
 FIRST OLD WOMAN 
 
 Lord! who ’s screaming? 
 
 Åse 
 
 It is I! 
 
 SECOND OLD WOMAN 
 
 Åse ! well you are on high ! 
 
 Åse 
 
 I ’ll go higher by and by : 
 
 Soon for heaven I shall be busy. 
 
 FIRST OLD WOMAN 
 
 Bless your passing! 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 Fetch a ladder! 
 
 Down I ’m coming ! That fiend Peer ! to — ! 
 
 SECOND OLD WOMAN 
 
 Your son ! 
 
 Åse 
 
 He never did a madder 
 Trick than this, which you can swear to. 
 
 FIRST OLD WOMAN 
 
 We ’ll bear witness. 
 
 Åse 
 
 Help me down, then! 
 
 And to Hegstad quick I ’ll fare — 
 
 SECOND OLD WOMAN 
 
 Is he there? 
 
 FIRST OLD WOMAN 
 
 You’ll get your own, then, 
 
 Back, for Aslak Smith goes there. 
 
SCENE II] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 23 
 
 Åse ( wringing her hands) 
 
 Ah ! God help me, ere they ’ve done 
 They will kill my only son ! 
 
 FIRST OED WOMAN 
 
 Oh ! that lot has oft been fear’d ; 
 
 Cheer up ! he must dree his weird. 
 
 SECOND OLD WOMAN 
 
 Is she in her senses still? ( Calls up the hill) 
 
 Here, you two ! And any other — 
 man’s voice 
 What ’s wrong? 
 second old woman 
 
 Peer Gynt’s percht his mother 
 On the roof of the old mill! 
 
 SCENE TWO 
 
 A hillside covered with hushes and heather. The 
 highroad runs behind it; and there is a fence between. 
 
 Peer Gynt comes along a path, goes briskly to the 
 fence, stops and looks out over the prospect. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Yonder lies Hegstad. Soon I shall win there. 
 
 ( Half clambers over the fence ; then hesitates) 
 
 Is she, is Ingrid alone and within there? 
 
 ( Shades his eyes and looks out) 
 
 No. To the house the guests swarm up the track, 
 Well, perhaps now it were wisest returning. 
 
 ( Draws back his leg) 
 
 Still they titter behind one’s back 
 And whisper, and then through your soul it goes 
 burning. 
 
PEER GYNT 
 
 [act i 
 
 24 
 
 ( Goes away from the fence a few steps, and plucks 
 leaves absently) 
 
 Ah ! if I ’d only a drop to be drinking 
 
 Or else, if I could only go unseen. 
 
 Or else were unknown — but the best thing, I ween, 
 Is drink, for the jeers then don’t set a man shrinking. 
 ( Looks around as though afraid; then hides among 
 the bushes ; some Wedding Guests pass on their 
 way to the farm) 
 a man ( conversing ) 
 
 His father a drunkard, his mother so weak. 
 
 A WOMAN 
 
 A wastrel the boy, nor ’s the reason to seek. 
 
 \The Guests go on. Presently Peer Gynt comes for- 
 ward. He is flushed with shame, and peers after 
 them. 
 
 PEER GYNT ( Softly ) 
 
 Was it me they were meaning? ( With a forced shrug) 
 
 Oh ! let them chatter ! 
 They can’t talk me dead, and what does the rest 
 matter? 
 
 ( Throws himself down on the heather; lies on his 
 back with his hands under his head and gazes up into 
 the sky) 
 
 What a curious cloud ! How like to a mare ! 
 
 There ’s a man on it too — and bridle — and saddle. 
 And behind an old crone, on a broomstick a-straddle ! 
 ( Laughs quietly to himself) 
 
 It ’s mother. She ’s screaming and shrieking: hi, 
 Peer ! 
 
 You ’re a brute — Ah ! now fear stops her holloas. — 
 (His eyes gradually close) 
 
 Peer Gynt rides the first, then a multitude follows. 
 
SCENE n] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 25 
 
 His horse is with gold and with silver a-shining. 
 Peer wears a long cloak, with a fine silken lining. 
 Gauntlets he has and a scabbard and sabre. 
 
 Of the riders behind each is fine as his neighbor. 
 None of them though, for the riding is fitter. 
 
 None is like Peer in the sun, all a-glitter. 
 
 Down by the fence stand the people, a-cluster, 
 Lifting their hats, gazing up in a fluster. 
 
 Women are curtseying. Every one hails him. 
 Kaiser Peer Gynt and his troop that ne’er fails him. 
 Many a sixpence and many a shilling 
 Throws he, that all may their pockets be filling. 
 
 Each richer far than he e’er hoped to be, grows. 
 Then Peer in his majesty over the sea goes. 
 Engelland’s prince on the shore stands to greet 
 him. 
 
 Engelland’s maidens are waiting to meet him, 
 Engelland’s nobles and Engelland’s Kaiser; 
 
 See Peer at high-table, no king there a wiser; 
 
 The Kaiser, with crown off, begins to speak, “ I 
 Sir ” 
 
 aslak the smith ( t o some others who are passing 
 along the road ) 
 
 Look there is Peer Gynt, the drunken swine ! 
 peer gynt ( starting half up) 
 
 What ? Kaiser ! 
 
 aslak ( leaning over the fence and grinning) 
 
 Get up Peer, bully mine! 
 
 peer gynt 
 
 What the devil ! The smith ! What d’ you want with 
 me? 
 
 aslak (to the others) 
 
 His mind must still run on our Lunde spree. 
 
26 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [^ct i 
 
 peek gynt ( springing up) 
 
 You ’d better clear out! 
 
 ASEAK 
 
 I am going, there ! 
 
 But where do you spring from? Tell us, Peer! 
 
 Six weeks away! Was it the hill-trolls’ snare? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Aslak Smith, the most singular deeds have I done. 
 aseak {winking to the others) 
 
 Tell us them, Peer! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 No: never a one. 
 
 aslak {after a pause) 
 
 You ’re going to Hegstad? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 No. 
 
 ASLAK 
 
 They say 
 
 There was a time when the girl lookt your way. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 You smutty crow ! 
 
 aseak {falling back a little) 
 
 Don’t be hasty, lad; 
 Though Ingrid ’s jilted you, more can be had; 
 Think, son of John Gynt! Come on to the feast; 
 Pretty lambs will be there or a widow at least 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 To hell ! 
 
 ASLAK 
 
 You will surely find one who will marry 
 
 Good-night, your respects to the bride we ’ll 
 carry. 
 
 [ They go, laughing and whispering. 
 
SCENE II] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 27 
 
 peer Gynt ( looJcs after them for a while, makes a de- 
 fiant motion and turns half round ) 
 
 Ingrid may marry, for all I ’m caring, 
 
 With whom she will. I ’ll not envy him! 
 
 ( Looks at himself ) 
 
 My pants are torn. I ’m ragged and grim. 
 
 If now I had something new to be wearing. 
 
 (i Stamps on the ground ) 
 
 Could I but with a butcher’s grip 
 
 Pluck out their disdain and far away throw it ! 
 
 ( Looks round suddenly ) 
 
 What was that? Who titter’d, and then tried to 
 slip ? 
 
 I thought I heard some one. No. No one. I know 
 it. 
 
 I ’ll go home to mother. 
 
 ( Begins to go upwards, hut stops again, and listens 
 towards Hegstad ) 
 
 Dance music ’s begun ! 
 
 ( Gazes and listens ; moves downwards slowly; his 
 eyes glisten ; he rubs his hands on his thighs ) 
 
 Each man has eight partners ! the girls so are 
 swarming ! 
 
 Ah, galloping death, I must join in the fun! 
 
 But, mother, up on the mill-roof storming 
 
 (His eyes are drawn towards Hegstad again; he 
 leaps and laughs ) 
 
 Hi! o’er the common the barn-dance is flying! 
 
 Aye, Guttorm, he can make his fiddle give a 
 Booming and rush, like the spate on a river ! 
 
 And the girls each with other in loveliness vying ! — 
 Yes, galloping death, I must join in the fun! 
 
 (Leaps over the fence and goes down the road ) 
 
28 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act i 
 
 SCENE THREE 
 
 The farm-place at Hegstad. At the hack the house. 
 A throng of guests. There ’s lively dancing on the 
 green. The Fiddler sits on the table. The Kitchen- 
 Master stands in the doorway. Cookmaids go to and 
 fro between the buildings. Elderly people sit here 
 and there conversing. 
 
 a woman ( goes to a group that is sitting on some logs 
 of wood) 
 
 The bride? Oh! yes, she’s crying a little; 
 
 But who minds that on the bridal day? 
 kitchen-master (in another group ) 
 
 Fill up now, sirs, and drink deeply! It ’ll 
 
 A MAN 
 
 Thanks! You are good. That’s enough, I say! 
 a lad (to the Fiddler, as he flies past, holding a girl 
 by the hand) 
 
 Ha ! then Guttorm, don’t fiddle charily ! 
 
 THE GIRL 
 
 Scrape, till it sings o’er the meadows merrily! 
 girls (in a ring, round a lad dancing) 
 
 There ’s a brave fling ! 
 
 A GIRL 
 
 His legs are the spryest. 
 
 the lad (dancing) 
 
 Here the walls are wide, and the roof of the highest ! 
 bridegroom (whimpering, comes up to his Father, who 
 is talking to some other men, and pulls his coat) 
 Father, she will not ; she is so proud ! 
 his father 
 
 What will she not? 
 
SCENE III] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 29 
 
 BRIDEGROOM 
 
 She has lockt herself in. 
 
 HIS FATHER 
 
 Well, find the key and an entrance win. 
 
 BRIDEGROOM 
 
 I can’t. 
 
 HIS FATHER 
 
 You ’re a fool, so easily cow’d! 
 
 ( Turns away to the others again; the Bridegroom 
 drifts across the place ) 
 a lad ( coming from behind the house ) 
 
 Girls, here ’s the chap to make iest and fun of you! 
 
 Peer Gynt ! 
 
 aslak (who has just come up) 
 
 Who asked him? 
 
 KITCHEN-MASTER 
 
 Not I, nor none of you. 
 
 ( Goes to the house) 
 
 Aslak (to the Girls) 
 
 If he should speak to you, mind a snub throw him. 
 girl (to the others) 
 
 Yes ; we ’ll pretend we don’t even know him. 
 peer gynt (comes lively and heated, stops in front of 
 the group , and claps his hands) 
 
 Come along! which is the liveliest one of you? 
 a girl (as he approaches her) 
 
 I am not. 
 
 another (similarly) 
 
 I am not. 
 
 A THIRD 
 
 No; nor I, thank you. 
 
 PEER GYNT (to U fourth) 
 
 For lack of a better, come out of the rank, you. 
 
30 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act i 
 
 THE GIRL 
 
 Have n’t the time. 
 
 PEER GYNT ( to the fifth) 
 
 You? 
 
 the girl {going) 
 
 Homewards I go. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 To-night! Are you raving, and out of your senses? 
 aslak {a moment after, in a low voice) 
 
 She ’s gone with an old man ; her answer pretence is. 
 peer gynt {turns sharply to an elderly man) 
 
 Where are the unbespoke girls ! 
 
 THE MAN 
 
 I don’t know. ( Goes away from him) 
 
 [Peer Gynt has become subdued. He glances shyly 
 and furtively at the group. All look at him; but no 
 one speaks. He approaches other groups. Wherever 
 he comes, there is silence; when he goes, they smile 
 and look after him. 
 
 PEER GYNT ( Softly ) 
 
 Glances, and thoughts keen as needles, and smiles. 
 They grate, as do saw-edges under the files ! 
 
 {He slinks along by the fence; Solveig, holding 
 Little Helga by the hand, comes into the farm-place 
 with her Parents) 
 
 a man {to another close to Peer Gynt) 
 
 See here are the new folk ! 
 
 THE OTHER 
 
 From west, afar? 
 
 THE MAN 
 
 Yes, the people from Hedal. 
 
 THE OTHER 
 
 So they are. 
 
SCENE III] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 31 
 
 peer Gynt {place s himself in front of the new folk, 
 points to Solveig, and asks the man ) 
 
 May I dance with your daughter? 
 the man ( quietly ) 
 
 You may do, but first 
 
 We must go to the house and greet our hostess. 
 
 [ They go on. 
 
 kitchen-master ( t o Peer Gynt, offering him a drink) 
 As you have come, drink deep to whatever the toast is ! 
 peer gynt {looking fixedly at the new comers) 
 
 Thanks. I ’d dance sooner. I ’ve not got a thirst. 
 
 [ The KitchenrM aster goes away. 
 peer gynt ( looks towards the house and laughs) 
 
 How fair! Saw you ever one so sweet? 
 
 Looking shy at her shoes ! and as they tarried, 
 
 She held to her mother’s petticoat-pleat, 
 
 And a hymn-book wrapt in her kerchief carried ! 
 
 I must seek her. {Going into the house) 
 a ead {coming out with several others) 
 
 Hallo! Hi! Peer, how is this? 
 
 You ’re leaving? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 No. 
 
 THE LAD 
 
 Then you ’re heading amiss ! 
 {Takes him hy the shoulders to turn him round) 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Let me pass ! 
 
 THE LAD 
 
 Is it Aslak the Smith you ’re afraid of? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Afraid, I? 
 
32 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act i 
 
 THE LAD 
 
 At Lunde we saw what you ’re made of ! 
 [ The group laugh and go to the dancing-green. 
 Solveig ( in the doorway ) 
 
 Are you not the lad who was wanting to dance? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Of course I am: don’t you remember my glance? 
 
 ( Takes her hand ) 
 
 Come along. 
 
 SOLVEIG 
 
 Not very far, mother said. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Mother said? Mother said! When were you born? 
 
 SOLVEIG 
 
 You ’re laughing — — - 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 You ’re only a babe, I ’ll be sworn ! 
 Are you grown up? 
 
 SOLVEIG 
 
 Last spring with the vicar I read. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Tell me your name, lass, and then we ’ll talk lightlier. 
 
 SOLVEIG 
 
 My name is Solveig. And what call they you? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Peer Gynt. 
 
 Solveig ( looses her hand) 
 
 Oh ! heavens ! 
 
 peer gycnt 
 
 Why, what would you do? 
 
 SOLVEIG 
 
 My garter is loose. I must tie it up tightlier. 
 
 ( Goes away) 
 
SCENE III] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 33 
 
 bridegroom ( pullmg at his mother ) 
 
 Mother, she will not ! 
 
 HIS MOTHER 
 
 She will not? what? 
 
 BRIDEGROOM 
 
 She won’t, mother ! 
 
 MOTHER 
 
 What? 
 
 BRIDEGROOM 
 
 Give me the key. 
 
 his father ( softly and angrily ) 
 
 Shove the boy in a stall ; he ’s not fit to go free ! 
 his mother 
 
 No, don’t scold him. Poor dear, he ’ll get over that. 
 [They go away. 
 
 a ead ( coming with a whole crowd of others from the 
 dancing-green) 
 
 Peer, have some brandy? 
 peer gynt 
 
 No. 
 
 EAD 
 
 Not a drain? 
 
 peer gynt ( looking darkly at him ) 
 
 Have you got any, then? 
 
 LAD 
 
 What, rather ! You spy it? 
 ( Pulls out a flask and drinks ) 
 
 Ah! how it stings me ! Well? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Let me try it! ( Drinks ) 
 
 another 
 
 Now try mine, Peer, as well. 
 
34 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act i 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Not I, not again! 
 
 ANOTHER 
 
 What rot ! To stop now were the act of an ass ! 
 Drink, Peer ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Well, yes, just a glimpse at the glass. 
 ( Drinks again ) 
 a gire ( half aloud ) 
 
 Come, let us go ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Are you frightened of me? 
 
 THIRD LAD 
 
 Who is n’t afraid of you ! 
 
 A FOURTH 
 
 Think on that one day 
 You show’d us what tricks you could do at Lunde ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 I can do more than that, when once I get free ! 
 first lad ( whispering ) 
 
 He ’s getting on now ! 
 several ( gathering round him ) 
 
 Tell us one of the seven 
 
 Great stories 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 To-morrow. 
 
 OTHERS 
 
 No ; now, this even ! 
 
 A GIRL 
 
 Can you conjure, Peer? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 I can raise up the devil ! 
 
SCENE III] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 35 
 
 A MAN 
 
 So could my grandmother, ere I was born ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Liar! Where I run none can run level! 
 
 One day in a nut I put Him with the Horn. 
 
 ’T was worm-eaten, you see ! 
 several ( laughing ) 
 
 Of course it was. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Then he 
 
 Cursed and wept and again and again lie 
 Promised me all 
 
 ONE OF THE CROWD 
 
 But he had to go in? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Rather. I stopped up the hole with a pin. 
 
 Hi! You should have heard him rumbling and 
 grumbling. 
 
 A GIRL 
 
 Only think! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 It was just like a bumble-bee bumbling. 
 
 THE GIRL 
 
 Have you got the fiend yet in the nut? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Why, nay. 
 
 By now the devil has flown on his way. 
 
 It is his fault, the smith has no love for me. 
 
 A LAD 
 
 Why? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Well, I went to the smith, and : Look here, said I, 
 Do you mind just giving this nutshell a cracking? 
 
36 PEER GYNT [act i 
 
 He was willing: put down the nut for a whacking; 
 But Aslak, you know, is so heavy of hand — 
 
 Eor ever that huge sledge-hammer swinging. — 
 voice ( from the crowd) 
 
 Did he slaughter the devil? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 He made a fine stand. 
 
 But the devil show’d fight : like a fiery brand 
 Through the roof and the shatter’d wall went winging. 
 
 SEVERAL 
 
 And the smith ? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Stood there with his hands all stinging 
 And since, the affair in my face has been flinging. 
 [All laugh. 
 
 SOME 
 
 The tale was a brave one ! 
 
 OTHERS 
 
 The best he has told ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 D’ you think I invented it ? 
 
 A MAN 
 
 Oh ! no, 
 
 You are free from that charge; I heard it of old 
 From granddad 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 You liar! I did it, just so! 
 
 THE MAN 
 
 Like ev’rything else. 
 peer gynt (with a fling) 
 
 Ho ! I can ride 
 
 Right through the air on a horse of gold ! 
 
SCENE III] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 37 
 
 And many ’s the thing I can do beside. 
 
 [A roar of laughter. 
 
 ONE OF THE CROWD 
 
 Ride through the air a bit ! 
 
 MANY 
 
 Yes, dear Peer Gynt 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Spare your vehement pray’rs : to them all I am flint. 
 I will ride like a hurricane over the crowd of you ! 
 
 All shall fall at my feet, yea the most proud of you ! 
 
 AN ELDEREY MAN 
 
 Now he is frantic. 
 
 ANOTHER 
 
 Insolent ! 
 
 A THIRD 
 
 Ass ! 
 
 A FOURTH 
 
 Liar ! 
 
 peer gynt ( threatening them) 
 
 You wait and I ’ll bring things to pass 
 
 man ( half-tipsy ) 
 
 Ay, wait; such a pass and a jolly surprise! 
 
 Your coat dusted! 
 
 OTHERS 
 
 Back bruised, and bunged-up eyes ! 
 [The crowd disperses, the elder men angry, the 
 younger laughing and jeering. 
 bridegroom ( close to house ) 
 
 Peer, is it true you can ride through the air? 
 
 PEER GYNT ( CUrtly ) 
 
 Quite true, Mads. I am a rare and a game one. 
 
 BRIDEGROOM 
 
 Have you got the invisible cloak? Is it there? 
 
38 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act i 
 
 PEEE GYNT 
 
 The hat do you mean? Yes, I have that same one. 
 
 ( Turns away from him; Solveig crosses the yard, 
 holding Helga by the hand) 
 peee gynt ( goes up to them, a light in his eyes) 
 Solveig ! How good ! You have come again, dear ! 
 
 ( Takes hold of her wrist) 
 
 Now I will whirl you gaily with me! 
 
 SOLVEIG 
 
 Let me go ! 
 
 PEEE GYNT 
 
 Why? 
 
 SOLVEIG 
 
 You are too free! 
 
 PEEE GYNT 
 
 When summer is dawning, then free is the reindeer ! 
 Come with me, lass : now don’t be curst ! 
 
 Solveig ( looses her arm) 
 
 I dare not. 
 
 PEEE GYNT 
 
 Why not? 
 
 SOLVEIG 
 
 You have been drinking. 
 
 ( Goes away with Helga) 
 
 PEEE GYNT 
 
 Ah ! if I were only my knife-blade sinking 
 Right in the heart of them — best and worst ! 
 beidegeoom ( nudging him with his elbow) 
 
 Cannot you help me to get at the bride? 
 peee gynt ( absently ) 
 
 The bride? Where is she? 
 
 BEIDEGEOOM 
 
 In the storehouse. 
 
SCENE III] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 39 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 0! 
 
 BRIDEGROOM 
 
 Peer, you might try to get at her ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 No, 
 
 You won’t have my help to get inside. 
 
 ( A thought comes to him: he sags softly and sharply) 
 Ingrid ! The storehouse ! 
 
 ( Goes up to Solveig) 
 
 Will you still leave me? 
 
 ( Solveig tries to go: he stands in her way) 
 
 You ’re ashamed to be seen with a tramp like Peer. 
 Solveig ( hastily ) 
 
 You ’re not like a tramp in the least, not a bit! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Yes ; and I ’ve had just a drop too : but it 
 
 Was only for spite, to spite you who would grieve me. 
 
 Come then ! 
 
 SOLVEIG 
 
 Ev’n if I wisht to, I dare not ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Whom do you fear? 
 
 SOLVEIG 
 
 My father. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 I see. 
 
 Father? I know. He ’s one of the “ swear-not,” 
 “ Touch-not,” godly crew? What? Answer me! 
 
 SOLVEIG 
 
 How shall I answer? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 At church he ne’er misses? 
 
40 PEER GYNT [act i 
 
 And your mother and you at your pray’rs don’t 
 cease ? 
 
 Pious ones? Answer! 
 
 SOLVEIG 
 
 Let me go in peace. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 No! 
 
 ( Drops his voice, and says sharply and terrifyingly ) 
 I can change myself into a troll ! 
 
 I ’ll come when, at midnight, the church-clocks toll. 
 If you should hear something that spits and hisses, 
 Don’t fancy it ’s only the cat or the kitten ! 
 
 That is I, girl. I ’ll drain off your blood in 
 a cup, 
 
 And your little sister, I ’ll eat her right up. 
 
 Aye, and over the back and the loins you ’ll be 
 bitten ; 
 
 For at night I ’m a were-wolf and ravage men. 
 {Suddenly changes his tone, and begs, as in anguish 
 and dread) 
 
 Dance, Solveig! 
 
 Solveig {looking darkly at him ) 
 
 You were horrible then. 
 
 {She goes into the house) 
 bridegroom {sidling up again) 
 
 You shall have an ox, if you ’ll help me! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Come ! 
 
 [They go out at the back of the house. At the same 
 time there come forward a crowd of men from the 
 dancing-green, most of them drunk. Noise and hub- 
 bub. Solveig, Helga, and their Parents stand among 
 elderly people in the doorway. 
 
SCENE III] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 41 
 
 kitchen-master ( to Aslak, who is foremost of the 
 crowd) 
 
 Keep the peace ! 
 aslak ( pulling off his jacket) 
 
 No; here is the ring of doom. 
 Peer Gynt or Aslak must have a fall. 
 
 SOME 
 
 Yes, let them fight! 
 
 OTHERS 
 
 Let them wrangle ; not maul ! 
 
 ASLAK 
 
 Fists must decide; it’s that way, no other. 
 
 SOLVEIG’s FATHER 
 
 Control yourself ! 
 
 HELGA 
 
 Will they beat him, mother? 
 
 A LAD 
 
 Let us rather go taunt him with all his lies. 
 
 ANOTHER 
 
 Throw him out of the feasting! 
 
 A THIRD 
 
 Spit in his eyes ! 
 
 a fourth (to Aslak) 
 
 Don’t give in now, smith! 
 aslak (casting away his jacket) 
 
 The ass must to the slaughter ! 
 solveig’s mother (to Solveig) 
 
 Now you see what they think of that windbag, 
 daughter ! 
 
 Åse (comes up with a stick in her hand) 
 
 Is that son of mine here? Oh ! he ’s in for a drubbing ! 
 Oh ! how heartily I will dang the beast ! 
 
42 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act i 
 
 aslak ( rolling up his shirt-sleeves) 
 
 Pooh! that would but give him a gentle rubbing. 
 
 SOME 
 
 The smith will dang him ! 
 
 OTHERS 
 
 Bang the beast! 
 
 aslak ( spits on his hands and nods to Åse) 
 
 Hang the beast! 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 What say? Hang my Peer? Oh! try if you dare! 
 Åse has teeth and claws that can tear. 
 
 Where is he? ( Calls across the yard) 
 
 Peer ! 
 
 BRIDEGROOM ( runs Up) 
 
 Oh ! God’s death on the tree ! 
 Come father, mother, and 
 
 THE FATHER 
 
 What is wrong now? 
 
 BRIDEGROOM 
 
 Think, Peer Gynt ! 
 
 Åse ( screams ) 
 
 Have you taken my boy from me ? 
 
 BRIDEGROOM 
 
 No, Peer Gynt ! See on the lull’s brow ! 
 
 MANY 
 
 With the bride ! 
 
 Ise ( lets her stick fall) 
 
 O ! you beast! 
 
 aslak (as though thunderstruck) 
 
 See the precipice drop there ! 
 He ’s climbing up, my God, like a kid ! 
 bridegroom (crying) 
 
 He shoulder’d her like I do a pig, mother ; he did ! 
 
SCENE III] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 43 
 
 Åse ( shaking her fist up at him ) 
 
 O! would you might fall! ( Screams in terror) 
 
 Tread with care on the top there ! 
 ingrid’s father ( comes on, bareheaded, white with 
 rage) 
 
 I ’ll have your life for this bride-rape yet ! You ! 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 O ! no ! God punish me if I let you ! 
 
 END OF FIRST ACT 
 
THE SECOND ACT 
 
 SCENE ONE 
 
 A narrow mountain path, high up. It is early morn- 
 ing. Peer Gynt comes hastily and sullenly along the 
 path. Ingrid, with some of her bridal trappings on, 
 tries to hold him back. 
 
 PEEK GYNT 
 
 Go! 
 
 Ingrid ( weeping ) 
 
 Like this? What are you saying? 
 
 Whither ? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Where you will for me. 
 
 Ingrid ( wringing her hands) 
 
 False one ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Useless tears and praying! 
 
 Each must go his own way, free ! 
 
 INGRID 
 
 Sin — and sin will reunite us ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Devil take the thoughts that bite us ! 
 
 Devil take all girls that spite us — 
 
 All save one ! 
 
 INGRID 
 
 And who is she, dear? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 ’T is not you ! 
 
SCENE i] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 45 
 
 INGRID 
 
 Who is it, pray? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Go ! Go off the self-same way ! 
 
 To your father ! 
 
 INGRID 
 
 This to me, dear 1 ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Peace ! 
 
 INGRID 
 
 You can’t want this to be, dear; 
 What you ’re saying. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Can and do. 
 
 INGRID 
 
 First to lure and then forsake me ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Well, what offer can you make me? 
 
 INGRID 
 
 Hegstad Farm and more ’s for you. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Where ’s your hymn-book? Does your hair 
 Swim, like gold, o’er neck and throat; 
 
 Look you shyly anywhere? 
 
 Hold your mother’s petticoat? 
 
 Speak ! 
 
 INGRID 
 
 No; but 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Then with the Yicar 
 Read you this last spring? 
 
 INGRID 
 
 No ; my 
 
46 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act II 
 
 PEEK GYNT 
 
 Are you bashful in your glances. 
 
 When I ask, can you deny? 
 
 INGRID 
 
 Heav’ns ! ’t is one of his mad trances 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Does your presence sanctify? 
 
 Speak ! 
 
 INGRID 
 
 No 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Then, why all this bicker? 
 Ingrid ( stands in his way) 
 
 Know! you will, if you forsake me, 
 
 Suffer. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 I don’t care a pin. 
 
 INGRID 
 
 You may goods and honor win 
 If you ’ll have me. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 They won’t make me. 
 Ingrid ( bursting into tears) 
 
 Oh, you lured me ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 You were willing. 
 
 INGRID 
 
 I was desperate ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Frantic I. 
 
 Ingrid ( threateningly) 
 
 Oh ! the price you ’ll pay is high ! 
 
 {Going) 
 
SCENE II] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 47 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Glad I ’d pay ten thousand shilling. 
 
 INGRID 
 
 Is your purpose set? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Like stone. 
 
 INGRID 
 
 Good! The equal fates invite us ! ( Goes downwards) 
 peer gynt ( is silent for a moment ; then cries) 
 
 Devil take all thoughts that bite us ! 
 
 Devil take all girls that spite us ! 
 
 Ingrid ( turnmg her head, and calling mockingly 
 upwards) 
 
 All save one ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Yes; all save one! 
 
 [ They go; each a different way. 
 
 SCENE TWO 
 
 Near a mountain-tarn; the ground near is soft and 
 marshy. Åse, in despair, is calling and looking round 
 her on all sides. Solveig keeps up with her only with 
 difficulty. Solveig’s Father and Mother, and Helga are 
 some way behind. 
 
 Åse ( tossing her arms and tearing her hair) 
 
 With awesome terrors all things try to beat me ! 
 Heav’n, waters, the hills are one to defeat me! 
 
 The mists from the heav’ns roll down to entrap him ! 
 The treacherous waters in wan death will wrap him ! 
 And the hills, with landslips, will crush him to powder ; 
 And the people cry loud for his blood, and louder ! 
 
48 PEER GYNT [act ii 
 
 God ! they shan’t have it ! I can’t live apart from 
 him ! 
 
 The oaf! That the fiend should thus steal his heart 
 from him ! 
 
 ( Turns to Solveig) 
 
 Now isn’t this all past belief, beyond flying? 
 
 He, whose whole life was romancing and lying; 
 
 He, who was strong — to chatter and shirk ; 
 
 He, who never once did a bit of real work: 
 
 He — Oh, a body could both laugh and cry ! — 
 
 In pain and in need we clung close, he and I. 
 
 Yes ; you must know that my man used to drink, 
 Around the parish for gossip would slink, 
 
 Wasted and threw to the winds all our stuff. 
 
 And meanwhile sat Peerkin and I, all day. 
 
 The best thing was to keep memory away; 
 
 To bear up under all I ’ve found hard enough. 
 
 It ’s a horrible thing to look fate in the eyes ; 
 
 And of course one would gladly try and shake sor- 
 row off, 
 
 And do all one can to keep thoughts of to-morrow off. 
 Some take to brandy and some take to lies; 
 
 And we — well, we took to fairy-tales 
 Of princes and trolls and grim beasts with scales. 
 And of bride-rape as well. But who could have said 
 That those tales of the fiend would stick in his 
 head ? 
 
 ( Terrified again) 
 
 Hu ! what a shriek ! It ’s a nixie or bogie ! 
 
 Peer ! Peer ! — On that hillock ! the rogue, he ! 
 
 {Ru ns to the top of a little rise, and looks over the 
 tarn; Solveig’’ s Parents come up) 
 
 Not a sign ! 
 
49 
 
 scene ii] PEER GYNT 
 
 solveig’s father ( quietly ) 
 
 It is worst for him, your boy. 
 
 Åse ( weeping ) 
 
 Ah! my lost lamb! my Peer! my joy! 
 solveig’s father ( nods mildly ) 
 
 Verily lost. 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 No, no ; he ’s too clever ! 
 
 Don’t tell me. You ’ll not meet his equal — never ! 
 solveig’s FATHER 
 You foolish woman! 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 Oh ! yes, quite, quite ; 
 
 I am foolish ; but the boy ’s all right ! 
 solveig’s father ( still softly and with mild eyes ) 
 
 His soul is lost ; his heart has been harden’d. 
 
 Åse (in anguish ) 
 
 No! Our Lord is kind and Peer ’ll be pardon’d! 
 solveig’s father. 
 
 Think you he can feel for his sinfulness sorrow? 
 
 Åse ( eagerly ) 
 
 No; but he’ll ride through the heavens to-morrow! 
 solveig’s mother 
 Lord! are you mad? 
 solveig’s father 
 
 What do you mean, dame? 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 No deed ’s too hard for him. No game 
 
 Too risky, you ’ll see, if he only lives long enough 
 
 solveig’s FATHER 
 
 Best if you saw him on a gallows strong enough. 
 
 Åse ( shrieks ) 
 
 0 ! Cross of Christ ! 
 
50 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act n 
 
 solveig’s father 
 
 Neath the terrible sentence 
 It might be his heart would be turn’d to repentance. 
 Åse ( bewildered ) 
 
 O ! all this will send me senseless in time ! 
 
 We must find him! 
 solveig’s father 
 
 To save his soul. 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 And his skin ! 
 
 We must dredge the swamps, for fear he ’s fall’n in ! 
 And if he ’s troll-taken, the church bells must chime. 
 solveig’s father 
 
 Hm ! — here ’s a cattle-path — 
 
 Åse 
 
 God, who is just, 
 
 Repay you ! 
 solveig’s father 
 
 I do but what Christians must. 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 Fie ! The rest then are heathen ! who would not 
 search 
 
 But, when we set out, left us all in the lurch. 
 solveig’s father. 
 
 They all knew him too well. 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 He was better than they! 
 
 ( Wrings her hands ) 
 
 And think — and think, may be killed to-day ! 
 solveig’s father 
 
 Here are tracks of a man! 
 
 Åse 
 
 ’T is here we must go. 
 
SCENE III] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 51 
 
 SOLVEIG S FATHER 
 
 Round this side of the farm we will scatter, so. 
 {He and his wife go on) 
 solveig ( to Åse) 
 
 Go on ! Tell me more ! 
 
 Åse {wiping her eyes) 
 
 Of my son, you mean? 
 
 solveig 
 
 Yes. 
 
 Tell all! 
 
 Åse {smiles and tosses her head) 
 
 All? Soon you ’d tire, I guess ! 
 
 SOLVEIG 
 
 Sooner by far in telling you ’ll tire 
 Than will my desire. 
 
 SCENE THREE 
 
 Low, treeless heights under the mountain-moorland ; 
 peaks afar off. The shadows are long; it is late in the 
 day. 
 
 Peer Gynt comes running at full speed, and stops on 
 the hillside. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 All the parish is after me quick! 
 
 Every man of them arm’d with a gun or a stick. 
 
 In front I can hear the old Hegstad churl howling, 
 Every one knows that Peer Gynt ’s out and prowl- 
 ing. — 
 
 This is different far from a bout, smith with Peer ! 
 This is life ! In each limb one is strong as a bear. 
 {Strikes out and springs up in the air) 
 
 To crush, overturn ! Stem the rush of the river ! 
 
52 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act II 
 
 To beat! Tear up firs, till the lowest roots quiver! 
 This is life ! This both hardens and lifts one higher ! 
 To hell with the savorless tales of the liar! 
 three farm girls ( rush across the hillside screaming 
 and singing) 
 
 Trolls ! Bård and Kåre ! Hear the alarms, dears ! 
 Troll-pack! Will you slumber to-night in our arms, 
 dears ? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Whom call you? 
 
 FARM GIRLS 
 
 The trolls of the night! Of the night! 
 
 FIRST GIRL 
 
 Trond, come with kindness ! 
 
 SECOND GIRL 
 
 Bård, come with might ! 
 
 THIRD GIRL 
 
 In our saeter the cots are empty and cry for us ! 
 
 FIRST GIRL 
 
 Might is kindness ! 
 
 SECOND GIRL 
 
 And kindness is might ! 
 
 THIRD GIRL 
 
 Lacking lads, we must play with the trolls of the 
 night ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Why, where are the lads, then? 
 the three ( with a horse-laugh ) 
 
 They may not come nigh for us ! 
 
 FIRST GIRL 
 
 Mine call’d me his sweetheart, his darling, his life, 
 Now he ’s taken a grey-headed widow to wife. 
 
SCENE in] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 53 
 
 SECOND GIRL 
 
 Mine met a gipsy-lass up the far North. 
 
 Now as gipsies they tramp the land back and forth. 
 
 THIRD GIRL 
 
 Mine kill’d the brat that was born of our sin. 
 
 And now his head ’s stuck on a stake, all a-grin. 
 
 THE THREE 
 
 Trolls of the Valfield! Hear the alarms, dears! 
 Troll-pack! Will you slumber to-night in our arms, 
 dears ? 
 
 peer gynt (stands, with a leap, in the midst of them) 
 
 I ’m a troll with three heads, and for three girls a 
 lover ! 
 
 THE GIRLS 
 
 Are you such a lad, eh? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 You yourselves may discover! 
 
 PIRST GIRL 
 
 To the hut! 
 
 SECOND GIRL 
 
 We have barrels of mead! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 They shall dry for us ! 
 
 THIRD GIRL , 
 
 This night then shall no cot be empty, nor cry for us ! 
 second girl ( kissing him ) 
 
 Like white-heated iron he glistens and sparkles. 
 third girl ( doing the same) 
 
 Like a baby’s eyes where the tarn deepest darkles. 
 peer gynt ( dancing in the midst) 
 
 Heavy of heart, and wanton of thought; 
 
 A smile in the eyes, in the throat a sob caught ! 
 
54 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act II 
 
 the gires ( making long noses towards the mountain- 
 tops, screaming and singing ) 
 
 Trond, Bård and Kåre ! Here are our charms, dears ! 
 Troll-pack ! Who ’ll slumber to-night in our arms, 
 dears ? 
 
 [ They dance away over the heights, with Peer Gynt 
 in the midst. 
 
 SCENE FOUR 
 
 Among the Ronde mountains. Sunset. Shining snow- 
 peaks all round. 
 
 peer gynt ( enters , dizzy and bewildered) 
 
 Tower over tower is growing! 
 
 See the gate glitter and sway ! 
 
 Stand! Will you stand? It’s flowing 
 Further and further away! 
 
 The cock on the wind-vane lifts his 
 Wings for a heavenly flight; 
 
 Deeper the blue in the rifts is, 
 
 Barr’d are the hills and closed tight. — 
 
 What ’s there? Trees and trunks many-rooted 
 That spring from a rent in the ground? 
 
 They are warriors heron-footed ! 
 
 Now they fade, not a sign of them ’s found. 
 
 Like rainbow streamers, a singing 
 Shoots through my soul and sight. 
 
 What ’s that far-off chiming and ringing 
 That weighs on my forehead so tight? 
 
 It beats on my brows as a bell, as 
 A red-hot ring of lead. 
 
 I cannot think, who in hell has 
 Fastened it round my head! ( Sinks down) 
 
SCENE iv] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 55 
 
 Over the Gendin-edge flying. 
 
 Stuff and curst lies ! Up the height, 
 
 The dizziest, with the bride crying — 
 
 And drunk for a day and a night; 
 
 Hawks and falcons have chased me, 
 
 Threaten’d by trolls and their spies ; 
 
 Crazy girls have embraced me — 
 
 Stuff and accursed lies ! (Gazes long upwards ) 
 
 There two brown eagles are flying. 
 
 Southward are winging the geese. 
 
 While I am stumbling and lying 
 
 In the muck and the mess to the knees ! ( Springs up ) 
 I will fly ! I will wash myself white in 
 The bath of the swift-flying wind ! 
 
 I ’ll fly high ! I will plunge myself bright in 
 The font of the souls that have sinn’d! 
 
 I will soar far above farm-lasses ; 
 
 I will ride myself clean of mind; 
 
 I will cross the salt sea-passes 
 Over Engelland’s prince and his kind ; 
 
 Yes, girls, you may well be staring; 
 
 My ride is for none of you ; 
 
 You are wasting your time by caring — ! 
 
 Yet, perhaps, I will stoop down too. 
 
 The two brown eagles? Where are they? 
 
 They ’ve vanisht, the devil knows where ! — 
 
 The gable peaks there, by that star! They 
 Are soaring up everywhere ! 
 
 Lo ! out of the ruins it rises ! 
 
 Wide see the gateway stands ! 
 
 I know it ! What greets my eyes is 
 Th’ ancestral farm-house grand ! 
 
 The old fence has gone, and the litter 
 
56 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act n 
 
 Of clouts from the windows has gone. 
 
 Each casement with lights is a-glitter; 
 
 To-night there’s a great feast on! 
 
 Hark ! there is the parson halloing 
 As his knife on his tumbler he hits ; 
 
 There ’s the captain his bottle throwing 
 And smashing the mirror to bits. — 
 
 Peace, mother! Now, no complaining! 
 
 Let them waste and squander for me! 
 
 ’T is the rich John Gynt entertaining; 
 
 Hurrah for the family! 
 
 What is all this row and racket? 
 
 Why do they cry and call? 
 
 Who is the boy in the jacket 
 The parson bids into the hall? 
 
 Go in, Peer Gynt, to the judging 
 It rings forth in song and shout ! 
 
 Great were thy sires ; spite o’ grudging 
 Fate, bring thy greatness about! 
 
 ( Leaps forward, rims against a rock; falls and re- 
 mains stretched on the ground ) 
 
 SCENE FIVE 
 
 A hillside, with great, soughing trees. Stars shine 
 through the leaves; birds sing in the tree-tops. 
 
 A Green-Clad Woman is crossing the hillside. Peer 
 Gynt follows making all kinds of lover-like antics. 
 
 green-clad one ( stops and turns round ) 
 
 Is it true? 
 
 peer gynt ( drawing his finger across his throat) 
 
 As true as my name is Peer; 
 
 As true as that you have a beautiful bloom ! 
 
SCENE v] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 57 
 
 Will you have me? You ’ll see how I ’ll love you and 
 spare ; 
 
 You shan’t turn the spindle nor work at the loom. 
 You shall eat all you want, till you ’re ready to burst. 
 I never will drag you about by the hair 
 
 GREEN-CLAD ONE 
 
 Nor beat me? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Now if I do, may I be curst ! 
 
 We king’s sons, we never beat women, you see. 
 
 GREEN-CEAD ONE 
 
 You ’re a king’s son? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Yes. 
 
 GREEN-CLAD ONE 
 
 I ’m the Dovre-King’s daughter. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Are you? See then, how you ’re fitted for me! 
 
 GREEN-CLAD ONE 
 
 In the Ronde our palace looms large by the water. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 My mother’s is larger, you have to agree. 
 
 GREEN-CLAD ONE 
 
 Know you my father? His name is King Brose. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Know you my mother? Her name is Queen Åse. 
 
 GREEN-CLAD ONE 
 
 When my father is angry, the mountains are 
 shatter’d. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 When my mother scolds, they reel and are scatter’d. 
 
 GREEN-CLAD ONE 
 
 My father can kick to the loftiest arches. 
 
58 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act II 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Through the torrent my mother magnificent marches. 
 
 GREEN-CLAD ONE 
 
 Have you got other clothes than those tatter’d rags, 
 Peer? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Ho ! you should j ust see my Sunday raiment ! 
 
 GREEN-CLAD ONE 
 
 Gold and silk are my dresses for every day meant. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 It looks as if sticks and straw were your wear. 
 
 GREEN-CLAD ONE 
 
 Yes, there is one thing, please, don’t forget; don’t; 
 And that is the Ronde-folks’ use and wont: 
 
 A two-fold form has our every belonging. 
 
 And when you come to my father’s hall 
 
 It may happen suspicions will on you be thronging 
 
 That the place is a dreary moraine, and that ’s all. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Why, of us precisely the same tale is told ! 
 
 Rubbish and trash you may think our gold. 
 
 And each pane that a glitt’ring reflection throws 
 You may fancy a bundle of clouts and hose. 
 
 GREEN-CLAD ONE 
 
 Foul it seems fair, and black it seems white. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Big it seems small, and filthy seems bright ! 
 GREEN-CLAD ONE ( falls 071 hlS neck ) 
 
 Ay, Peer, now I see, how amazingly we fit ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 As the comb fits the hair, as the breeches the knee fit. 
 green-clad one ( calls away over the hillside ) 
 
 Bridal-steed ! Bridal-steed ! Come, my steed, come ! 
 
SCENE Vi] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 59 
 
 [A gigantic pig comes running in with a rope's end 
 for bridle and an old sack for saddle. Peer Gynt 
 vaults on its hack and puts the Green-Clad One in 
 front of him. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Halloo ! then, magnificent gallop we home ! 
 
 Gee-up ! Gee-up ! my courser fine ! 
 green-clad one ( tenderly ) 
 
 Ah ! of late ’t was my wont to be pensive and pine — 
 Folk never can tell what the fates will throw them! 
 peer gynt ( thrashing the pig and trotting off) 
 
 The great ! By their riding-gear men know them ! 
 
 SCENE SIX 
 
 The Royal Hall of the Old Man of the Dovre. There 
 are many Troll Courtiers, Gnomes and Brownies. The 
 Old Man of the Dovre is enthroned with his sceptre in 
 his hand. His children and nearest relatives are be- 
 side him. Peer Gynt stands before him. A violent up- 
 roar in the hall. 
 
 TROLL COURTIERS 
 
 Beat him ! The Christian has infatuated 
 The Dovre-King’s loveliest daughter ! 
 
 A TROLL IMP 
 
 May I hack him on the fingers? 
 
 ANOTHER 
 
 May I pluck hair from his hated 
 
 Head? 
 
 A TROLL GIRL 
 
 May his thighs by me be bitten and grated? 
 a troll witch {with a ladle) 
 
 May I flay him and pop him in boiling water? 
 
60 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act II 
 
 another {with a chopper ) 
 
 Shall he roast on the spit? In the pot get a 
 browning? 
 
 OLD MAN OF THE DOVRE 
 
 Cool your blood! {Beckons his councillors close ) 
 
 An end to bragging and frowning ! 
 We ’ve been going backwards in this latter' day, 
 
 Nor know what will stand and what ’s falling away. 
 When we get a recruit, there ’s no sense in downing 
 And shoving him off ; besides our whole town in 
 There ’s no stronger chap if you take me as guide. 
 It is true he has only a single head, 
 
 But my daughter herself has no more, beside 
 Three-headed trolls are of a fashion dead; 
 
 One rarely meets two-headers now, my sons, 
 
 And those even are but indifferent ones. 
 
 {To Peer Gynt ) 
 
 It ’s my daughter you want me, then, to be giving? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Your daughter and realm for dowry; yes. 
 
 OLD MAN OF DOVRÉ 
 
 The half is yours, as long as I ’m living, 
 
 And the other half, when I depart life’s stress. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 I ’m content with that. 
 
 OLD MAN 
 
 Too quickly spoken. 
 
 You ’ ve a few promises, now, to give. 
 
 Break but one of them, our pact ’s broken. 
 
 And you ’ll never get out of here alive. 
 
 First of all you must swear that you ’ll pay no 
 heed to 
 
 What ’s beyond the Ronde, the roads that lead to 
 
SCENE VI ] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 61 
 
 The world without: Day, Deeds, Light you must 
 shun. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Only call me King, and that ’s easily done. 
 
 OLD MAN 
 
 And next — well, your wits to the test I ’ll put. 
 
 ( Draws himself up in his seat ) 
 oldest toll courtier ( to Peer Gynt') 
 
 Let ’s see if you ’ve got a wisdom tooth 
 That can crack the Dovre-King’s riddle-nut. 
 
 OLD MAN 
 
 How do men differ from trolls? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 In truth 
 
 They don’t differ at all, as it seems to me. 
 
 Big trolls would roast you, and small trolls would 
 scratch you, 
 
 ’T were like that with us, if men dared and could 
 catch you. 
 
 OLD MAN 
 
 True enough. In that and in more we agree. 
 
 Yet even is even and morning is morning, 
 
 There is a difference, set for a warning, 
 
 What the difference is ’twixt our and your ways, I 
 Will tell you. Out there ’neath the glittering span 
 O’ the sky, goes the saying, “ Be thyself, man ! ” 
 While here, among us, among all the troll-herd, 
 
 “ Troll to thyself be — enough ! ” is the word. 
 oldest troll courtier ( t o Peer Gynt) 
 
 Do you fathom the depth? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 It strikes me as hazy. 
 
62 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act II 
 
 OLD MAN 
 
 Let “ Enough,” the sundering word, be written 
 In your mind, and on your escutcheon smitten. 
 peer gynt ( scratching himself behind the ears) 
 Well, but 
 
 OLD MAN 
 
 It must, if here you would lord it ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 All right ; let it go : I think I can afford it 
 
 OLD MAN 
 
 Then next you must learn true value to give 
 To the homely and every-day way we live. 
 
 (He beckons; two Trolls with pig s' -heads, white 
 night-caps and so forth, bring in food and drink) 
 The cow gives cakes and the bullock mead; 
 
 Whether sweet or sour you must not heed; 
 
 The great point is, which must not be forgot, 
 
 It ’s home-brew’d, here, on the spot. 
 peer gynt (pushing the things away) 
 
 May your home-brew’d drink help hell to blaze! 
 
 I shall never get used to this country’s ways. 
 
 OLD MAN 
 
 You get the bowl too, made of gold that won’t perish, 
 Who has the gold bowl, him my daughter will cherish. 
 peer gynt (meditating) 
 
 It is written : Coerce the natural creature ; 
 
 And, perhaps, in time the drink will seem sweeter. 
 Let it go ! (Complies) 
 
 OLD MAN 
 
 That’s a wise word! You spit? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 I must trust to the force of habit for it. 
 
SCENE Vi] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 63 
 
 OLD MAN 
 
 And next you throw off your Christian dress, 
 
 Eor in this is the pride of the Dovre, confess: 
 
 Here all things are mountain-made, nought ’s from 
 the dale 
 
 Except the silk bow at the end of your tail. 
 
 Ipeer gynt ( indignant ) 
 
 I ’ve no tail ! 
 
 OLD MAN 
 
 You must get one, of course, like the rest. 
 Lord Chamberlain, tie on him my Sunday-best. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 No: I’m damned. I will not look a fool, do you 
 hear ? 
 
 OLD MAN 
 
 None woos my child save with a tail at his rear. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Turn a man to a beast ! 
 
 OLD MAN 
 
 Nay, my son, you mistake; 
 Of you only a mannerly wooer I ’d make. 
 
 Now here ’s a fine tail, with an orange bow on 
 her. 
 
 And to let you wear that is a very great honor. 
 peer gynt ( reflectively ) 
 
 They say, Man is a mote and Life is a bubble. 
 
 And to follow the use and wont saves trouble. 
 
 Tie away! 
 
 OLD MAN 
 
 You ’re a pliable fellow, at least. 
 
 TROLL COURTIER 
 
 Just try with what grace you can swing it and 
 wag it ! 
 
64 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act II 
 
 peek gynt ( angrily ) 
 
 Ha! would you have me yet further drag it? 
 
 Must I give up Christianity? 
 
 OLD MAN 
 
 No; in quietness you may a Christian be. 
 
 On faith there ’s no duty, but free it comes in : 
 
 You must tell a troll by his looks and his skin. 
 There ’s our manners and dress, only put on them, 
 You may hold as your faith what we curse and 
 condemn. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Spite of your terms, you are reasonabler 
 Than I fear’d you would be when we first got ac- 
 quainted. 
 
 OLD MAN 
 
 My son, we trolls are n’t so black as we ’re painted. 
 Here again do we differ from mankind. — There, 
 We need not discuss grave affairs any more ; 
 
 Now joy for the eyes and the ears we will bring out. 
 Music-maid, forth ! Let the Dovre harp ring out ! 
 Dancing-maid, forth ! Tread the Dovre-hall’s floor ! 
 [Music and dance. 
 
 TROLL COURTIER 
 
 How like you it? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Like it, h’m! 
 
 OLD MAN 
 
 Speak without fear. 
 
 What see you? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 ’T is monstrously grim and queer. 
 A bell-cow with her hoof on gut-strings a-playing. 
 A sow in socks tripping in tune and swaying. 
 
SCENE Vi] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 65 
 
 COURTIERS 
 
 Eat him! 
 
 OLD MAN 
 
 Bear in mind he has but human senses ! 
 
 TROLL MAIDENS 
 
 Let me tear off an ear, let me pluck out an eye ! 
 green-clad one ( weeping ) 
 
 Hu-hu ! And we must bear this, my sisters and I, 
 Our singing and dancing a loathsome offence is ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Oho! was it you? Well, a jest at the revel, 
 
 You know, is never unkindly meant. 
 
 GREEN-CLAD ONE 
 
 Can you swear ’t was a joke? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 May I go to the devil 
 
 If the dance and the music were n’t harmony blent. 
 
 OLD MAN 
 
 Well now, human nature ’s a curious thing; 
 
 It sticks so long and it sticks so tightly. 
 
 If, in conflict with us, it is wounded slightly 
 Or badly, it heals, though the scar may sting. 
 
 My son-in-law ’s pliable, free from malice. 
 
 Willingly his Christian trousers he dropt, 
 
 Willingly he drank the mead from our chalice, 
 Willingly was persuaded a tail to adopt — 
 
 So willing, in short, in all things we found him 
 That I myself thought, the old Adam that bound him 
 Had been kickt out of doors with a final dismissal — 
 When hey ! he is back again, ere one can whistle. 
 Yes, yes, my good son-in-law, it is sure 
 For your human nature we must find a cure. 
 
66 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act II 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 What will you do? 
 
 OLD MAN 
 
 In your left eye I ’ll make 
 A slight scratch until you have crooked sight ; 
 
 But all that you can see will seem brave and bright. 
 And then your right window-pane I must break. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Are you drunk? 
 
 old man ( lays many sharp instruments on the table) 
 Here ’s many a useful tool. 
 
 Blinkers you will wear as a raging bull. 
 
 Then you ’ll know that your bride is beautiful — 
 And your vision will not be plagued, as just now, 
 By an old bell-cow and a dancing sow 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 This is madman’s talk! 
 
 OLDEST TROLL COURTIER 
 
 ’T is the King who advises. 
 ’T is you who are mad and he who wise is ! 
 
 OLD MAN 
 
 Just think how in the long future years 
 
 You ’ll be saved the annoyance and trouble of tears ! 
 
 For remember ’t is from the fount of vision 
 
 The bitter and marring waters spout. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 True enough: and the sermon book says with pre- 
 cision 
 
 If thine eye offend thee pluck it out. 
 
 But when shall I get back the sight of men, 
 
 Heal’d and recover’d? 
 
 OLD MAN 
 
 Son, never again. 
 
SCENE Vi] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 67 
 
 PEEE GYNT 
 
 Indeed ! Then the bargain is off ! Good-bye ! 
 
 OLD MAN 
 
 What would you without? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Go on my way, I. 
 
 OLD MAN 
 
 No, stop ! To slip in is no difficult thing ! 
 
 But outwards the Dovre-gates will not swing. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Surely you would not detain me by force? 
 
 OLD MAN 
 
 Be sensible now, and listen Prince Peer ! 
 
 You have talents for trolldom. You give quite a fair 
 Copy of a proper and troll-like course. 
 
 And you ’d fain be a troll? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 I would; when I get 
 A bride, and a well-managed realm in addition — 
 
 I can lose a good deal for such a position. 
 
 But to all things on earth is due limit set. 
 
 I accept the tail, it can’t be denied ; 
 
 But I can undo what the Chamberlain tied; 
 
 My breeches I ’ve dropt ; they were old, full of 
 patches, 
 
 I can don them again and fasten the latches. 
 
 And easily too I should be able 
 
 From your Dovrefied life to slip the cable. 
 
 That a cow is a maid, I am willing to swear; 
 
 An oath one can always eat and be free again — 
 But ’t is that, just to know one can never be again 
 Oneself, nor can die like a man, but must wear 
 The garb of a hill-troll for ever and ever — 
 
68 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act II 
 
 And, withal to feel one can turn back, never, 
 
 As ’t is writ : that ’s what you are hoping for me too, 
 And that is a thing I can never agree to. 
 
 OLD MAN 
 
 Very soon in truth, by my royal life, I ’ll 
 Get angry ; and that, you ’ll find is no trifle. 
 
 You treacherous hound! Do you argue with me? 
 First with my daughter you make too free — 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 There you lie in your teeth! 
 
 OLD MAN 
 
 And now marry you must. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Dare you accuse me — ? 
 
 OLD MAN 
 
 What? Did n’t you lust 
 In your heart, and desire her your leman to be? 
 
 PEER GYNT ( Wltll a SUOrt ) 
 
 Desire? Who the devil cares twopence for it? 
 
 OLD MAN 
 
 You humankind have not alter’d a bit. 
 
 You ’re ready to prate of the spirit and kneel for it ; 
 But nought counts, if you can’t with your hands 
 touch and feel for it. 
 
 So you think, do you, lust matters nothing? You’ll 
 see ; 
 
 Just wait; oh, you soon shall see with your eyes — 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 You don’t catch me with a bait of lies! 
 
 GREEN-CLAD ONE 
 
 Ere the 3 r ear ’s out, my Peer, you a father will be. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Open doors ! I will go. 
 
SCENE Vi] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 69 
 
 OLD MAN 
 
 In a buck-skin, Prince Peer, 
 You shall have the imp after you. 
 peek, gynt ( wiping off the sweat ) 
 
 Would I might waken ! 
 
 OLD MAN 
 
 At the palace you ’d like him? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Bah ! let him be taken 
 
 To the workhouse ! 
 
 OLD MAN 
 
 Well, Prince, that ’s your own affair. 
 But one thing is certain, what ’s done is done ; 
 
 He ’ll shoot up, too, in a rapid fashion, 
 
 These mongrels grow almost before they ’ve begun — 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Old man, don’t act like an ox in a passion; 
 
 Hear reason, girl! Come to a compromise. 
 
 I ’m not rich nor a prince. Now you know, be 
 wise: 
 
 For whether you take or the measure or weight of 
 me, 
 
 You ’ll gain nothing by keeping and making a mate 
 of me. 
 
 [The Green-Clad One is taken ill, and is carried hy 
 the Troll Maids. 
 
 old man ( looks at him for a while in supreme disdain ; 
 then says) 
 
 On the rock-walls, children, dash him flat. 
 
 TROLL IMPS 
 
 First let ’s play eagle and owl ! Or we might 
 Have the wolf-game, or grey-mouse and glow-eyed 
 cat ! 
 
70 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act n 
 
 OLD MAN 
 
 Yes, but quick. I ’m annoyed and sleepy. Good 
 night ! 
 
 (Goes) 
 
 peer gynt (hunted by the Troll Imps) 
 
 Let me be, devil’s imps! (Tries to bolt up the 
 chimney) 
 
 TROLL IMPS 
 
 Come nixies ! Come brownies ! 
 
 Bite him behind! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Au ! 
 
 (Tries to go down thro ’ the cellar trap-door) 
 
 TROLL IMP 
 
 There a way down is ! 
 
 Stop all holes ! 
 
 TROLL COURTIER 
 
 They ’re enjoying themselves! 
 peer gynt (struggling with a little imp, that has bit 
 itself fast in his ear) 
 
 Beast, let go. 
 
 TROLL COURTIER 
 
 Gently, you scamp, with a king’s son ! So. 
 
 (Hits him over the fingers) 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 A rat hole! (Runs to it) 
 
 TROLL IMP 
 
 Brother, run to it quickly and bar ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 The old one was bad, but the young are worse far ! 
 
 TROLL IMP 
 
 Slash him! 
 
SCENE Vil] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 71 
 
 PEEE GYNT 
 
 Ah! would I were small as a mouse! ( Rushes 
 around) 
 
 troll imps ( swarming round) 
 
 Shut him in ! Brothers ! 
 peer gynt ( weeping ) 
 
 Would I were a louse. ( He 
 
 falls) 
 
 TROLE IMPS 
 
 Now into his eyes! 
 
 peer gynt ( buried in a heap of imps) 
 
 Help, mother, I die ! 
 
 [Church hells sound afar off. 
 
 TROLL IMP 
 
 Bells in the hills ! The cows of the Black Frock are 
 nigh ! 
 
 [The Trolls flee, with an uproar of yelling and shriek- 
 ing. The hall collapses; all disappears. 
 
 SCENE SEVEN 
 
 Pitch darkness. 
 
 Peer Gynt is heard heating and slashing about him 
 with a large hough. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Answer! Who are you? 
 
 VOICE IN THE DARKNESS 
 
 Myself. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Clear out! 
 
 VOICE 
 
 The hill ’s big enough, Peer ; go roundabout ! 
 
72 PEER GYNT [act ii 
 
 peer gynt ( tries to get through another place, hut 
 strikes against something) 
 
 Who are you? 
 
 VOICE 
 
 Myself. Can you say the same? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 I say what I will ; my sword flashes like flame ! 
 
 Have at you ! There ! There the blow has bitten ! 
 Hundreds King Saul, thousands Peer Gynt has 
 smitten ! 
 
 (Beating and slashing) 
 
 Who are you? 
 
 VOICE 
 
 Myself. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 That ’s an answer which 
 You may keep, for it leaves things as black as pitch. 
 What are you? 
 
 VOICE 
 
 The great Boyg. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 The great Boyg, you say; 
 The riddle was black, now I think it is grey. 
 
 Clear out, then, Boyg! 
 
 VOICE 
 
 Go roundabout, Peer ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Right through! ( Beats and slashes) 
 
 He is down ! 
 
 ( Tries to go on, hut strikes against something) 
 
 Hallo ! there ’s more there ! 
 
 VOICE 
 
 The Boyg, Peer Gynt ! The one only one, 
 
SCENE Vil] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 73 
 
 ’T is the Boyg that ’s untired, and the Boyg that is 
 done. 
 
 ’T is the Boyg that is dead, and the Boyg that ’s 
 alive still. 
 
 peer gynt ( throws away the bough ) 
 
 My sword is bewitcht ; with my fists I ’ll arrive still. 
 {Struggles to get through ) 
 
 VOICE 
 
 Yes: rely on your fists, on your body rely. 
 
 He-he, Peer Gynt, so you will clamber on high. 
 peer gynt ( falls back again) 
 
 Backwards and forwards, ’t is just as long; 
 
 In and out, and it ’s strait as strong ! 
 
 He is there. And there. And he ’s round the bend. 
 
 I am out, and then back in this ring without end. 
 Name yourself! Let me see you! What are you? 
 Speak ! 
 
 VOICE 
 
 The Boyg. 
 
 peer gynt {groping around) 
 
 Not dead, not living; slimy and sleek; 
 Misty. Not even a form ! It ’s as bad as keeping 
 Up a fight among bears, a-snarl and half sleeping! 
 
 ( Screams ) 
 
 Strike back at me ! 
 
 VOICE 
 
 The Boyg ’s not mad, Peer. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Strike ! 
 
 VOICE 
 
 The Boyg strikes not. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 You shall struggle, I swear! 
 
74 > 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act II 
 
 VOICE 
 
 The great Boyg wins without struggle or stress. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Were there only a nixie here, that could prick me! 
 Were a troll here, aged only a year and a night ! 
 Only something to fight with. Nought ’s here ev’n to 
 kick me. 
 
 He’s snoring! Boyg! 
 
 VOICE 
 
 Yes? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Use force, and fight ! 
 
 VOICE 
 
 The great Boyg wins all by gentleness. 
 peer gynt ( biting his own arms and hands) 
 
 In my flesh plunge ravening teeth and claws ! 
 
 I must feel my own warm blood a-dripping. 
 
 [A sound is heard like! the heating of the wings of 
 huge birds. 
 
 BIRD CRIES 
 
 Is he coming, Boyg? 
 
 VOICE 
 
 Ay, slowly slipping. 
 
 BIRD CRIES 
 
 All our sisters far off ! To the tryst ! Do not pause ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 If you ’d save me now, lass, be quick for I die ! 
 
 Gaze not down before you, bending so low. 
 
 Your pra} f er-book ! Straight at his eyes! There! 
 Throw ! 
 
 BIRD CRIES 
 
 He totters ! 
 
SCENE Vill] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 75 
 
 VOICE 
 
 We have him ! 
 
 BIRD CRIES 
 
 Sisters, swiftly fly ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Too dear the price that one pays for life 
 
 In such an agonized hour of strife. ( Sinks down ) 
 
 BIRD CRIES 
 
 Boyg ! There he ’s dropt ! Quick ! Seize him ! Bind 
 him ! 
 
 [ The ringing of bells and psalm-singing are heard 
 afar off. 
 
 the boyg ( shrinks up to nothing and says in a gasp ) 
 He was too strong. There were women behind him. 
 
 SCENE EIGHT 
 
 Sunrise. The mountain-side in front of Ase’s saeter. 
 The door is shut; all is deserted and silent. 
 
 Peer Gynt is lying asleep by the wall of the saeter. 
 
 peer gynt {wakes and looks about him with dull and 
 heavy eyes ; he spits ) 
 
 Oh ! I wish I’d a pickled herring to chew ! 
 
 ( Spits again, and at the same moment sees Helga, 
 who appears with a basket of food ) 
 
 Ha! child, are you there? What is it you ’d do? 
 
 HELGA 
 
 It is Solveig 
 
 PEER GYNT ( jumps Up ) 
 
 Where is she? 
 
 HELGA 
 
 Behind there, alone. 
 
76 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act II 
 
 solveig ( unseen ) 
 
 Come no nearer, or else away I will race. 
 
 PEER GYNT ( stops still ) 
 
 You ’re afraid, I suppose, I shall try to embrace ? 
 
 SOLVEIG 
 
 For shame ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Do you know where I was in the night? 
 The Dovre-King’s daughter wants me for her 
 own. 
 
 SOLVEIG 
 
 Then it was well that we set the bells ringing. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Oh ! Peer Gynt ’s not the lad to be lured by troll- 
 singing. 
 
 What do you say? 
 helga ( weeping ) 
 
 Oh ! she ’s taken to flight ! 
 
 ( Runs after her) 
 
 Wait ! 
 
 peer gynt ( catches her by the arm) 
 
 In my pocket I ’ve got something good for you ! 
 
 A silver-stud, child ! You may have it ; see ! 
 
 Only speak for me ! 
 
 HELGA 
 
 Let go ! Let me be ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Take it! 
 
 HELGA 
 
 Let go ! There ’s the basket of food for 3 T ou ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 God pity you if you don’t 
 
SCENE vra] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 77 
 
 HELGA 
 
 Uf, how you scare me! 
 peer Gynt ( gently ; letting her go ) 
 
 Nay; beseech her in remembrance to bear me! 
 
 [ Helga runs off. 
 
 END OF SECOND ACT 
 
THE THIRD ACT 
 
 SCENE ONE 
 
 Deep in the pine-woods. Grey autumnal weather. 
 Snow is falling. 
 
 Peer Gynt stcCnds in his shirt-sleeves and fells timber. 
 
 peer gynt (hewing at a large fir with crooked 
 branches ) 
 
 Ah ! my ancient churl, you are stout and tall ; 
 
 But ’t is little use, for you ’re doom’d to fall. ( Hews 
 again ) 
 
 I see well enough you ’ve a shirt of steel ; 
 
 Yet right through its strength my blows you shall 
 feel. — 
 
 Now you ’re shaking your crooked arms on high ; 
 You ’ve reason into a rage to fly ; 
 
 But all the same you must bow the knee ! 
 
 ( Breaks off abruptly) 
 
 Lies ! It is nought but an old, gnarl’d tree. 
 
 Lies ! It is not a steel-clad churl ; 
 
 It ’s a fir, with split bark, whose branches curl. — 
 
 It is heavy work, this hewing of timber; 
 
 But to dream, while you hew, does n’t make you more 
 limber. — 
 
 It ’s all over — I ’m done with living in hazy 
 Lies, and in daylight dreaming me crazy. 
 
 You ’re an outlaw, lad! In the woods are your ways. 
 Ay ’ 
 
 ( Hews for a while quickly ) 
 
SCENE i] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 79 
 
 An outlaw ; aj. You ’ve no mother now, able 
 To bring you your food, and to spread you the table. 
 If you ’d eat, my lad, you yourself must bring 
 Your rations raw from the wood and the spring, 
 Split your own fir-roots and build your own fire, 
 Arrange and prepare what you need and desire. 
 
 If you want warm clothes, you must stalk the deer ; 
 If a house, you must quarry and bring your stones 
 here ; 
 
 Would you timber the house, you must fell no lack 
 Of logs, and bring them along on your back. — 
 
 ( His axe sinks down; he looks straight in front of 
 him ) 
 
 Brave shall the building be ! See ! rise there 
 Tower and vane, from the roof-tree, high and fair! 
 And I will carve, for a knob on the gable, 
 
 A mermaid, shaped like a fish from the navel. 
 
 The brass on the vane and the locks shall shimmer. 
 And the windows shall all be properly glazed. 
 Strangers that pass, shall ask, amazed 
 “ What is that, far off on the hill a-glimmer? ” 
 
 ( Laughs angrily') 
 
 Devil’s own lies ! There they flock again quick. 
 
 You ’re an outlaw, lad! ( Hews vigorously) 
 
 A hovel, no more, 
 
 Bark-thatcht, will keep rain and frost from the door. 
 {Looks up at the tree) 
 
 Now he is toppling. There; only a kick! 
 
 And he ’s dropt, and measures his length on the 
 ground — 
 
 And the undergrowth swarms and shudders around ! 
 {Begins to lop twigs from the trunk ; suddenly listens 
 and stands still with his axe raised) 
 
80 PEER GYNT [act m 
 
 — — 
 
 There is some one there after me ! What ! Is it you 
 
 for me, 
 
 Old Hegstad churl? Would you try and do for me? 
 ( Crouches behind the tree, and peers over it) 
 
 A lad. Only one. He seems terrified. 
 
 He peers all round him. What ’s that he would hide 
 ’Neath his jacket? A sickle. He looks around; 
 stops ; 
 
 Then flat on the fence-rail his hand is put. 
 
 What ’s he going to do now? Why, see how he 
 props — 
 
 Ugh ! He ’s chopt off his finger ! What a cut ! 
 
 A whole finger off ! Like an ox he is bleeding. — 
 With his hand swathed in rags fast away he is 
 speeding. (Rises) 
 
 What a devil ! A finger off ! Quite irreplaceable ! 
 Right off ! And none made him do such an unfaceable 
 Act. — I remember, of course ; ’t is but this that ’ll 
 Free you from serving the King in battle. 
 
 That ’s it. They wished him to war to be turning ; 
 And the lad did n’t want to go ; mayhap, to fall — 
 But to chop — ? To cut off for good and all — 
 Yes, think of it ; wish it done ; will it, withal — 
 
 But to do it! No; that’s beyond my discerning! 
 (Shakes his head a moment; then goes on zcdth his 
 work again) 
 
 SCENE TWO 
 
 A room in Ase’s house. Everything in disorder; 
 boxes stand open; clothes and dresses strewn all around; 
 a cat is on the bed. 
 
SCENE II] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 81 
 
 Åse and the Cotter's Wife are hard at work packing 
 things together and setting them straight. 
 
 Åse ( running to one side ) 
 
 Kari, come here ! 
 
 KARI 
 
 What now? 
 
 Åse (on the other side ) 
 
 Come here ! Where is — ? 
 Where shall I find it — ? Where — tell me — there 
 is — 
 
 What am I looking for? I ’m out of my wits! 
 Where ’s the key of the chest ? 
 
 KARI 
 
 In the key hole. 
 
 Åse 
 
 O ! it ’s — 
 
 What ’s that rumbling I hear ? 
 
 KARI 
 
 The last cart-load 
 
 That they ’re driving along on the Hegstad road. 
 
 Åse ( weeping ) 
 
 Would I in the black chest were driving away! 
 
 Ah ! What troubles a mortal must bear in his day ! 
 God have mercy ! God help me ! The house is stript 
 bare ! 
 
 What the Hegstad churl left, the Bailiff collected. 
 Not even the clothes from my back were rejected. 
 
 It ’s a shame ! Their decree was brutal, unfair ! 
 
 (Sits herself on the edge of the bed ) 
 
 The farm and the ground are lost to our line — 
 The old man was stern, but worse the law dealt with 
 me ; 
 
82 PEER GYNT [act in 
 
 No mercy was shown, no sympathy felt with me — 
 Peer was away, and no counsel was mine. 
 
 KARI 
 
 You can live in this house, though, until you die. 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 Yes, can live upon charity, the cat and I ! 
 
 KARI 
 
 God pity you, dame; your Peer cost you dear. 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 Peer? You are out of your senses, I fear! 
 
 Ingrid came back no worse for the revel. 
 
 ’T was the foul fiend ’t were right to put one’s curse 
 on ; 
 
 For he, and none else, was the guilty person; 
 
 Yes; my poor boy was tempted astray by the devil. 
 
 KARI 
 
 Now, won’t it be best if I send for the Vicar? 
 Perhaps } r ou are really worse than you know. 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 For the Vicar? Perhaps. I am feeling sicker. 
 
 ( Starts up) 
 
 But, my God, no, I can’t. I ’m the lad’s mother, oh ! 
 I must help him ; see what I can lay my hand on ; 
 ’T is mere duty to help him, when all men abandon. 
 There ’s his coat they have left him. I ’ll try and 
 patch it. 
 
 There ’s the fur-rug, I wish I ’d the courage to 
 snatch it. 
 
 Where are his hose? 
 
 KARI 
 
 Mixt up with those rags. There ! 
 
 Åse ( rummaging ) 
 
 What have we here? Kari, look! I declare 
 
SCENE II] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 83 
 
 ’T is the old casting ladle. With this he would play 
 Button-molder, melt buttons and shape and impress. 
 He came in, when there were guests, one day, 
 
 And asked his father for tin. “ Oh yes ! 
 
 But not tin,” said John. “ King’s coins from the 
 Mint ; 
 
 Silver ; to show you ’re the son of J ohn Gynt.” 
 
 God pardon him, he had drunk all he could hold. 
 And then he cared neither for tin nor gold. 
 
 Here ’s the hose ! They ’re nothing but holes, they ’re 
 so old. 
 
 They want darning, Kari ! 
 
 KARI 
 
 That they do, sadly. 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 When that ’s done, I ’ll to bed. I ’m feeling badly. 
 
 I feel frail and poorly and broken — I — ( Joyfully ) 
 Two woollen shirts, Kari — they ’ve passed them by. 
 
 KARI 
 
 So they have. 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 Well, sometimes luck comes nigh. 
 You can put aside one of them, Kari. There. 
 
 Or rather, I think we ’ll keep both. I could swear 
 The one he has on is worn-out and thin. 
 
 KARI 
 
 Oh, heavens ! Mother Åse, I fear ’t is a sin. 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 Well, well; but the Vicar has preacht to us whence is 
 Forgiveness for this and our other offences. 
 
84 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act III 
 
 SCENE THREE 
 
 In front of a newly built hut in the wood. Reindeer's 
 horns are over the door. The snow lies deep. It is 
 twilight. 
 
 Peer Gynt stands outside the door and fastens a large 
 wooden bar to it. 
 
 peer gynt ( laughing at times ) 
 
 Bars I must fasten, to keep out the foeman, 
 
 To keep out the troll-folk, and man and woman. 
 Bars I must fasten ; yes, bars I must fix in, 
 
 To keep out the bogie, the hobgoblin vixen. 
 
 They come in the night, with a tapping and blinking : 
 Open, Peer Gynt, we ’re as nimble as thinking ! 
 
 One ’neath the bed bustles, one rakes in the ashes, 
 Down the flue, like a fiery dragon, one dashes. 
 
 “ Do you think, Peer, that bolting, or barring, or 
 locking 
 
 Can shut out the hobgoblin thoughts that are knock- 
 ing? ” 
 
 [Solveig enters on snow-shoes over the heath; she 
 has a shawl over her head and a bundle in her hand. 
 
 SOLVEIG 
 
 God prosper your labor. You must not reject me. 
 I was call’d. I have come. And so you must pro- 
 tect me. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Solveig! It cannot be- — -! Yes, it is she — 
 
 And you are not afraid to come here to me ! 
 
 SOLVEIG 
 
 I was call’d by the word you sent through my sister; 
 I was call’d, I was call’d in peace and in riot; 
 
 I was call’d, when I met your mother and kist her; 
 
SCENE III] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 85 
 
 And her words bred dreams that still call’d me in 
 quiet. 
 
 Desolate days, and nights heavy and drear, 
 
 Called me away, and bade me come here. 
 
 Life seem’d stifled down there ; I could not bring out 
 The tears from my heart, nor could laughter ring out. 
 I knew not for certain what you wanted or would do ; 
 I knew but for certain what I must do and should do. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 But your father? 
 
 SOLVEIG 
 
 Nowhere in God’s earth at all 
 Are there any whom father or mother I call. 
 
 I have loosed me from all. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 My Solveig ! My own dear ! 
 
 And to come here to me? 
 
 SOLVEIG 
 
 Yes : to you alone, dear ; 
 You must be all; you must love and console me. 
 
 [In tears . 
 
 To leave little Helga, ah ! that was the worst ; — 
 
 But ’t was worse when from my father I stole me; 
 And worst to leave her at whose breast I was nurst ; — 
 Ah no ! The worst sorrow, the hardest endeavor, 
 God forgive me ! was from them all to sever ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 And you know the decree that was pass’d in the 
 spring? 
 
 I forfeit farm, heritage, everything. 
 
 SOLVEIG 
 
 Think you for heritage, goods, and gear 
 I left my own people and wander’d here? 
 
86 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act in 
 
 PEER GY NT 
 
 And you know that if outside the wood I betake me 
 
 Whoever meets me, can a prisoner make me? 
 
 SOLVEIG 
 
 I sped here on snow-shoes. “ Where, then, do you 
 roam? ” 
 
 Folks asked, when I questioned the way: I said, 
 “ Home.” 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 I can throw away nails and planks with impunity, 
 
 And locks meant for hobgoblin-thoughts’ impor- 
 tunity ! 
 
 If you with the hunter dare to dwell 
 
 The hut will be blessed with a holy spell. 
 
 Solveig! Let me look at you! Ah! not too near! 
 
 Only look at you ! How fair ! How pure ! How 
 dear ! 
 
 Let me lift you up ! Oh ! how light and how fine ! 
 
 Let me carry you ! I ’ll never tire, Solveig mine ! 
 
 Your beautiful body I ’ll hold far away from me 
 
 Lest to it some stain or smirching may stray from me ! 
 
 Who ’d have thought I could draw you here for my 
 keeping; — 
 
 Ah! but how I have longed for you, waking and 
 sleeping. 
 
 You can see, I ’ve been hewing and building, here; 
 
 But it ’s ugly and mean ; it must down again 
 dear 
 
 SOLVEIG 
 
 Be it mean or brave — here is all to my mind. 
 
 One can breathe with such ease in the teeth of the 
 wind. 
 
 Down below it was stifling ; one felt one’s breath fail ; 
 
SCENE III] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 87 
 
 It was partly that drove me in fear from the dale. 
 But here, where the soughing of firs greets the ear, — 
 What a stillness and song ! — I am in my home here. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Solveig, are you sure? Till your life’s end? For 
 ever? 
 
 SOEVEIG 
 
 The path I have trodden leads back again — never ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Mine ! In ! Let me see you within, my desire ! 
 
 Go in ! I must fetch fir-roots for the fire ; 
 
 The fire shall be cosy, with bright flames a-quiver, 
 You shall sit softly, my love, and ne’er shiver. 
 
 [He opens the door; Solveig goes in. He stands still 
 for a moment ; then laughs loudly for joy and leaps 
 into the air. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 My own ! My king’s daughter ! She is found, she ’s 
 my prize now ! 
 
 Ah ! the king’s palace, built firm, shall arise now ! 
 [He seizes his axe and moves off ; at the same moment 
 an Old-looking Woman, in a tattered green gown 
 comes out of the wood; an Ugly Brat, with an ale- 
 flagon in his hand, limps behind and holds on to her 
 skirt. 
 
 THE WOMAN 
 
 Good evening, Peer Swift-foot ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 What ’s that? Who ’s there? 
 
 THE WOMAN 
 
 Old friends, Peer Gynt ! I live quite close here, Peer. 
 We are neighbors. 
 
88 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act III 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Indeed ? There I learn something new. 
 
 THE WOMAN 
 
 As your hut was builded, mine built itself too. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 I ’m in haste. 
 
 THE WOMAN 
 
 Yes ; that you always were, friend. 
 But I ’ll trudge behind you and catch in the end. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 You ’re mistaken, good woman ! 
 
 THE WOMAN 
 
 I was so before ; 
 
 Mistaken in all that you promised and swore. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 I promise — ? What in hell do you mean by your 
 blather? 
 
 THE WOMAN 
 
 You ’ve forgot the grand night when you drank with 
 my father? 
 
 You ’ve forgot? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 I ’ve forgot what I never have known. 
 What ’s your chatter about ? When met we last, 
 crone ? 
 
 THE WOMAN 
 
 When we met last was when we met first. 
 
 {To The Brat) 
 
 Give father a drink. I ’m sure he ’s a-thirst. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Father? You ’ve been drinking? You dare call that 
 imp ? 
 
SCENE III] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 89 
 
 THE WOMAN 
 
 Can’t you tell the pig by his skin? Look there! 
 Where are your eyes ? See ! the boy ’s got a limp 
 In his leg, as you have in your soul, my Peer. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Would you have me believe ? 
 
 THE WOMAN 
 
 Would you wriggle out ? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 That lanky imp? 
 
 THE WOMAN 
 
 He has grown. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 You troll-snout ! 
 
 Do you dare to attempt to father on me ? 
 
 THE WOMAN 
 
 Come now, Peer Gynt, you ’re as rude as can be ! 
 
 ( Weeping) 
 
 Is it my fault, that I am not so pretty 
 As I was when you lured me with dance and ditty? 
 Last fall, in my travail, the Fiend gripped my back, 
 And of course I ’m a fright after such an attack. 
 But if you would see me as fair as before, 
 
 You need but to turn that wench from your door, 
 Drive her away from your soul and your sight ; — 
 And I ’ll lose my snout, love, and no more be a fright ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Begone from me, troll-witch ! 
 
 THE WOMAN 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 I will split your skull! 
 
 Go away, Peer? Not I! 
 
90 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act m 
 
 THE WOMAN 
 
 H’m, if you dare to, try ! 
 Ha-ha, Peer Gynt, of that I ’ve no fear. 
 
 I will come again every day of the year. 
 
 I will peep at you both, through the door set a-jar. 
 When you ’re tender and sit with your girl by the 
 ingle, 
 
 I ’ll watch how you pet, how caressing you are — 
 
 I ’ll sit down and in your embraces I ’ll mingle. 
 
 We will share you, we two; your love I ’ll divide with 
 her. 
 
 Farewell, dear! To-morrow to church you may ride 
 with her! 
 
 PEEK. GYNT 
 
 You nightmare of hell ! 
 
 THE WOMAN 
 
 And of course there is that ! 
 You light-footed loon, you must breed } r our own brat ! 
 Little imp, will you go to your dad? 
 the beat ( spits at him ) 
 
 Faugh, I ’ll hit 
 
 And chop you with my axe ; only wait, wait a bit ! 
 the woman ( kissing The Brat ) 
 
 What a head he has got on his shoulders, the cure ! 
 When you ’re grown, you ’ll be dad’s living image, 
 I ’m sure ! 
 
 PEEK GYNT 
 
 Would you were as far ! 
 
 the woman 
 
 As we are near now? 
 
 peek gynt ( clenching his hands ) 
 
 All this ! 
 
SCENE III] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 91 
 
 THE WOMAN 
 
 Only for thoughts and desires ; I vow 
 It is hard on you, Peer ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 ’T is worst for another ! 
 Solveig, my jewel, my maid of pure gold! 
 
 THE WOMAN 
 
 Said the devil, The guiltless must smart. His mother 
 Hit his head when his father ’d drunk all he could 
 hold! 
 
 [ She trudges into the thicket with The Brat who 
 throws the ale-flagon at Peer Gynt. 
 peer gynt ( after a long silence) 
 
 Roundabout, said the Boyg. And so I must here — 
 My king’s palace with clatter to pieces crashes ! 
 There ’s a wall around her, whom I was so near ; 
 
 Of a sudden all ’s ugly, my joy is but ashes. — 
 Roundabout, lad ! There ’s never a way 
 Right through this to where she is standing to-day. 
 Right through? There should be a way — there’s 
 a sentence, 
 
 Could I only recall it, that speaks of repentance. 
 But what? What is it? No book to remind me! 
 
 I ’ve forgotten it mostly, and here I can’t find me 
 Any to help thrust this muddle behind me. — 
 Repentance? For years I might fight and wrestle 
 Ere I won my way through. ’T were a poor life and 
 hard. 
 
 What is lovely and pure to bray with a pestle, 
 
 Then remake it from many a fragment and shard! 
 You can mend a fiddle,” but never a bell. 
 
 No use wishing lawns green, if you tramp them as 
 well. 
 
92 PEER GYNT [act m 
 
 But it ’s only a lie, this ! That witch with her 
 snout ! 
 
 Now is all their beastliness out of sight, out — 
 
 No — though out of sight, it is not out of mind. 
 Stealthily thoughts creep in from behind. 
 
 Ingrid! And the three, dancing on the hill-crest! 
 Will they want to share? Indignantly, spitefully, 
 Will they claim, as she, to be claspt to my breast? 
 In my outstretcht arms to be lifted delightfully? 
 Roundabout, lad! For though I possest 
 Arms as long as the roots of a fir, yet I fear, 
 
 Even then, I should hold my Solveig too near 
 To put her down stainless and pure and clear. — 
 
 I must roundabout here, as best I may; 
 
 I stand to gain nothing, lose nothing, that way. 
 
 One must put such things from one! Forget and 
 defy — 
 
 ( Goes a little way towards the hut, hut stops again ) 
 Go in after this? Stain’d with muck of the sty? 
 
 Go in with that troll-rabble hard at my heel? 
 
 Speak, yet be silent? Confess, yet conceal — ? 
 
 ( Throws away his axe ) 
 
 It ’s a holy-day evening. For me, as I am, 
 
 To keep tryst with my bride, were a sin fit to damn. 
 Solveig (in the doorway ) 
 
 Art coming? 
 peer gy nt (half aloud) 
 
 Roundabout ! 
 
 SOLVEIG 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 What? 
 
 You must wait. 
 
 I ’ve got something heavy to fetch, and it ’s late. 
 
SCENE iv] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 93 
 
 SOLVEIG 
 
 Stay! I will help you. A burden? We ’ll share it. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 No! Stay where you are, alone I must bear it. 
 
 SOLVEIG 
 
 Don’t go too far, Peer ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Be patient, dear; 
 
 Be it far or near, you must wait. 
 
 Solveig ( nodding after him ) 
 
 I ’ll wait here ! 
 
 [ Peer Gynt goes down the path in the wood. Solveig 
 stays , standing in the half -open door. 
 
 SCENE FOUR 
 
 Ase’s room. Evening. A wood fire gives warmth and 
 light. The cat is on a chair at the foot of the bed. 
 
 Åse lies on the bed and twitches restlessly at the 
 coverlet. 
 
 Åse 
 
 0 Lord my God, won’t he come nigh me? 
 
 The night drags so slow and the day. 
 
 I ’ve none to send tell him, how by me 
 Thoughts flash of the things I must say. 
 
 1 have n’t a moment to spare now ! 
 
 Who ’d ever have thought ’t was so near ! 
 
 Ah ! the only thing that I care now 
 
 Is to know if I ’ve been too severe ! 
 peer gynt ( enters ) 
 
 Good evening ! 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 The Lord give you gladness ! 
 
94 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act III 
 
 Then you have come ! My boy, my dear ! 
 
 But to enter the valley was madness ! 
 
 You know your life ’s forfeit here. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Let life go as it will, no matter ! 
 
 I was near, and I could n’t have past. 
 
 Åse 
 
 Ay, now Kari has gone with her chatter, 
 
 I ’ll depart in peace at the last ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Depart! Why, where are you going? 
 
 What are you saying? Leave this? 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 My time to its close is growing; 
 
 Peer, the end is near; it is. 
 
 peer gynt ( writhing and going to the back of the 
 room ) 
 
 See there now! I ’m fleeing from sorrow; 
 
 Here at least I thought peace I ’d have won ! 
 
 Are your hands and feet cold? 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 To-morrow 
 
 It will all be over and done. 
 
 When my eyes have dimmed, dear, don’t you 
 Forget to close them with care. 
 
 And you ’ll see to my coffin, won’t you? 
 
 And have it a fine one, Peer? 
 
 Ah ! no ! I forgot 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Don’t bother ! 
 
 We ’ll think of such things when we must. 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 Yes ( looks restlessly round the room ) 
 
SCENE IV ] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 95 
 
 The little they left your mother 
 You can see. It was like them, just. 
 peer gynt ( writhing ) 
 
 There again ! ( Harshly ) 
 
 What ’s the use ? Am I blinking 
 The fact that ’t was I was to blame? 
 
 Åse 
 
 You! No! That damnable drinking, 
 
 From that the disaster came! 
 
 You know, you ’d had more than a drain, dear, 
 And then no one can tell what he ’s at ; 
 
 Besides, you ’d been riding the reindeer; 
 
 No wonder you acted like that! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Yes, yes ; let that old tale rest now. 
 
 Let the whole affair rest as it may. 
 
 All that is dreary, ’t were best now 
 Let slip till — another day. 
 
 (Sits on the edge of the bed ) 
 
 Now, mother, we ’ll talk as of yore, dear; 
 
 Of this and of that, you and I; 
 
 Forget what is sharp and sore, dear, 
 
 And all that is crabb’d and awry. 
 
 There ’s old Puss on the chair a-sitting ; 
 
 So she is alive and here? 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 Of nights she’s growling and spitting; 
 
 You know what that bodes, my dear! 
 peer gynt (changing the subject) 
 
 Have you news here to greet my returning? 
 
 Åse (smiling) 
 
 They say, and it is not denied, 
 
 There ’s a girl for the highlands yearning 
 
96 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act m 
 
 peer gynt ( hastily ) 
 
 Mads Moen, is he satisfied? 
 
 Åse 
 
 They say that the old folk are praying 
 With tears, and she pays no heed. 
 
 You might run in, without staying — 
 
 You, Peer, might help in their need. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 What news of the smith now, mother? 
 
 Åse 
 
 Don’t talk of the dirty tyke! 
 
 Let me tell you the name of that other, 
 
 The name of the girl ; I ’d like 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 No, now we ’ll talk as of yore, dear, 
 
 Of this and of that, you and I ; 
 
 Forget what is sharp and sore, dear, 
 
 And all that is crabb’d and awry. 
 
 Are you thirsty? Shall I bring you drink, dear? 
 Can you stretch yourself? That bed ’s a toy ! 
 Let me see ! Why, surely, I think, dear, 
 
 It ’s the bed that I had when a boy ! 
 
 You sang many a song, you remember? 
 
 As you sat down here by my bed; 
 
 To shorten the nights of November, 
 
 And I had the fur over me spread. 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 Ah! remember! We play’d at sledges 
 When your father was far away; there 
 For our fiord with the sharp ice-edges 
 The floor ; and our apron the fur. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Yes ; but the best of course is — 
 
SCENE iv] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 97 
 
 Do you remember that, too, 
 
 Mother? — the fleet-footed horses — 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 Remember ! Be sure I do ! 
 
 We had Ivari’s cat as a loan, and 
 It sat on the chair ; oh ! the fun 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 To the Castle West of the Moon and 
 The Castle East of the Sun, 
 
 To Soria-Moria Castle, 
 
 High and low, the road ran wide. 
 
 We found a stick with a tassel: 
 
 ’T will serve for a whip, we cried. 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 I sat up on the box seat proudly — 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Yes ; you drove with the reins quite slack 
 And turn’d, as we ran on, and loudly 
 Askt, was I cold? Did I lack? 
 
 God bless you, old mother mine, there ! 
 
 You were always kindly, you — 
 
 Where is your pain? 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 At my spine. There 
 I can feel the hard boards through. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Stretch yourself! I will be loving 
 And hold you ! Now you lie soft. 
 
 Åse {restlessly) 
 
 No, Peei*, I ’d be moving! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Moving? 
 
98 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act in 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 Aje, moving, I want to oft. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Nonsense! A short night I’ll bring you; 
 
 I will sit down here by the bed ; 
 
 And many a song I will sing you; 
 
 See ! the fur is over you spread ! 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 My pray’r book, Peer ! It, ere I pass, ’ll 
 Console me. I ’m troubled at heart ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 In Soria-Moria Castle 
 
 The King’s feast is going to start. 
 
 Lie snug ’mid the cushions hidden; 
 
 Right over the heath we will fare. 
 
 Åse 
 
 But Peer, darling, are we bidden? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Yes, mother, both of us. 
 
 (Throws a string round the chair the cat is on; 
 takes a stick in his hand and sits at the foot of the 
 bed) 
 
 There ! 
 
 Gee-up ! Come, Black-beauty, go it ! 
 
 Are you cold, mother? Anything wrong? 
 
 Aye-aye; by the pace we know it, 
 
 When Grane gallops along ! 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 Ah Peer, dear, what is that ringing? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 ’T is the glittering sledge-bells, dear ! 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 There ’s a hollow rumbling and swinging ! 
 
SCENE iv] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 99 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 We cross over a fiord just here! 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 I ’m afraid ! What is that I hear sighing 
 And rushing so wild and drear? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 It ’s the fir-trees, mother, a-cr jing ! 
 
 Sit still, and have no fear. 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 Far-off there ’s a sparkling and gleaming ! 
 Whence comes that glittering day? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 From the Castle windows ’t is streaming. 
 Can you hear them, they ’re dancing? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Outside there stands Saint Peter 
 And prays you to enter in. 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 Poor Åse? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 He ’s honor’d to greet her ; 
 And brings the best wine from the bin. 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 Wine, Peer! And are there cakes there? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Rather ! a heaped-up plate ! 
 
 And the late Dean’s wife she makes there 
 Your coffee right by the gate. 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 Shall I meet her after arriving? 
 
100 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act III 
 
 PEER GY NT 
 
 As much as you care to do. 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 Ah ! Peer, what a feast you ’re driving 
 Your poor old mother to ! 
 peer gynt {cracking the whip ) 
 
 Gee-up ! Come, Black-beauty, hurry ! 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 Dear! Are you going right still? 
 peer gynt {cracking again) 
 
 Yes, the road is broad. 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 The scurry, 
 
 The pace makes me tired and ill. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 You can see now the castle rise, and 
 The journey is nearly done. 
 
 ÅSE 
 
 I will lie down, close my eyes and 
 Trust me to you, my son ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Come up now, Grane, and hustle ! 
 
 There ’s a throng in the castle drive ; 
 
 At the gates they swarm and bustle. 
 
 Peer Gynt and his mother arrive! 
 
 What say you now, Lord Saint Peter? 
 
 Is n’t mother allow’d in there ? 
 
 You ’ll search long, ere you will meet a 
 Body more honest, I ’ll swear, 
 
 Of myself I make no boast, Sir ; 
 
 I can turn at the gate and go. 
 
 Should you treat me, I ’ll drink a toast, Sir, 
 Thankfully ; if not, so ! 
 
SCENE IV ] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 101 
 
 Of fibs I have told as many 
 As the fiend at the pulpit-cush, 
 
 I have call’d my mother “ Henny ” 
 
 ’Cause she cluckt like a bird in a bush. 
 
 But here with respect you shall greet her 
 And give her due honor and praise. 
 
 For there does n’t come any to beat her 
 From the parish nowadays. — 
 
 Ho-ho ! God the Father’s coming! 
 
 Saint Peter, you ’re up a tree! {In a deep voice ) 
 
 “ Stop these airs, this official ha’humming ! 
 
 Mother Åse shall enter free ! ” 
 
 {Laughs loudly and turns to his mother ) 
 
 There you see, what did I say, dear? 
 
 Now they ’re singing a different song! {In terror ) 
 Your eyes are dim ! Don’t look that way, dear ! 
 Are you faint — ? Are you — ? Mother! What’s 
 wrong ? 
 
 {Goes to the bed-head ) 
 
 You mustn’t lie there and stare so! 
 
 Speak, mother ! It ’s I, your son ! 
 
 {Feels her forehead and hands with care; throws the 
 string on the chair and says quietly ) 
 
 Now, Grane, the whip I can spare. So ! 
 
 The journey is really done. 
 
 {Closes her eyes and bends over her ) 
 
 Thanks for each cuddle and smack now, 
 
 For all that you were when alive! 
 
 But see ! you must thank me back now — 
 
 {Presses his cheek to her mouth ) 
 
 There; that was thanks for the drive. 
 kari ( enters ) 
 
 What? Peer! Here’s an end to weeping! 
 
102 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act m 
 
 The worst of our need is fled! 
 
 Dear Lord, how sound she is sleeping ! 
 
 Or can she be ? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Hush! She is dead. 
 
 \Kari weeps over the body. Peer Gynt walks round 
 the room for a while ; finally he stands beside the bed. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Eine let her funeral be, dame. 
 
 Forth from here I must try and get. 
 
 KARI 
 
 Are you going far? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 To the sea, dame. 
 
 KARI 
 
 So far ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Aye, and farther yet. ( Goes out ) 
 
 END OF THIRD ACT 
 
THE FOURTH ACT 
 
 SCENE ONE 
 
 On the North-West coast of Morocco. A palm-grove. 
 A table spread for dinner is under an awning on rush 
 matting. Further back in the grove hang hammocks. 
 Off the land lies a steam-yacht, flying the Norwegian 
 and American flags. On the beach a jolly-boat. It is 
 towards sunset. 
 
 Peer Gynt, a handsome, middle-aged man, in an ele- 
 gant travelling -suit, with gold-rimmed pince-nez hang- 
 ing on his breast, presides at the head of the table. 
 Mr. Cotton, Monsieur Ballon, with Herr von Eberkopf 
 and Herr Trumpeterstrale are finishing dinner. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Drink! If man was for pleasure meant, 
 
 He must pursue the things that please now. 
 
 You know ’t is written. Spent is spent, 
 
 And lost is lost — Do have some cheese now ! 
 
 TRUMPETERSTRALE 
 
 Brother, you ’re princely as a host ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Why, of my cash and cook you might 
 Assert the same, my steward 
 
 MR. COTTON 
 
 Right ! 
 
 Here ’s to the four of you ! A toast ! 
 
 MONSIEUR BALLON 
 
 Monsieur, you have a gout, a ton, 
 
10 4 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act IV 
 
 That nowadays is seldom found 
 Among men living en gar^on. 
 
 Something, I know not what — 
 
 VON EBERKOPF 
 
 A tinge, 
 
 A spice of free soul-contemplation, 
 
 And internationalization, 
 
 An outlook, past the cloudy fringe, 
 
 By narrow prejudice unbound, 
 
 A stamp of high illumination, 
 
 An Ur-Natur, a life-sensation, 
 
 To crown the trilogy, united. 
 
 ’T was that, Monsieur, you wished to say? 
 
 MONSIEUR BALLON 
 
 Perhaps ; it would not sound that way, 
 
 So loftily, in French recited. 
 
 VON EBERKOPF 
 
 Ei was! A stiff tongue. We explore 
 The Absolute, the Cause, the steady 
 And final thing 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 ’T is found already. 
 The point is, I ’m a bachelor. 
 
 Yes, gentlemen. The matter is 
 Completely clear. What should a man be? 
 Himself, I answer, brief as can be. 
 
 He should care for himself and his. 
 
 But can he if, a mule, he bears 
 The load of others’ joys and cares? 
 
 VON EBERKOPF 
 
 This in-and-for-yourselfness led, it 
 Must, I should think, to certain strife 
 
SCENE i] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 105 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 It did, when I was starting life: 
 
 But always I came off with credit. 
 
 Once, ’gainst my will, I very nearly 
 Did get entrapp’d. I was, you see, 
 
 Brisk, handsome, young, just ripe for marriage; 
 The girl, whom I loved very dearly, 
 
 She was of royal family 
 
 MONSIEUR BALLON 
 
 Of royal ? 
 
 peer gynt ( carelessly ) 
 
 Yes, you know; allied to 
 
 The ancient lines 
 
 trumpeterstrale ( hitting the table ) 
 
 These noble trolls ! 
 
 peer gynt ( shrugging his shoulders ) 
 
 Old Fossil Highnesses! their pride to 
 Keep the line pure, and to have tried to 
 Have no plebeian on their rolls. 
 
 MR. COTTON 
 
 And so the end was a miscarriage? 
 
 MONSIEUR BALLON 
 
 Her father frown’d on the alliance? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Ear from it ! 
 
 MONSIEUR BALLON 
 
 Ah! 
 
 peer gynt ( forbearingly ) 
 
 You understand 
 Reasons there were, made them demand 
 Th’ affair should pass beyond affiance. 
 
 That from the start the thing was far 
 From pleasant to me, must be granted. 
 
106 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act IV 
 
 In some things I ’m particular, 
 
 I like to stand alone, firm-planted. 
 
 So when the lady’s father came 
 And made proposals vague, and hinted 
 That I had better change my name, 
 
 And have a coat-of-arms imprinted, 
 
 With other things that did n’t strike at all 
 My fancy, things I did n’t like at all — 
 
 I gracefully withdrew ; replied 
 “ No ” to his final proposition — 
 
 And so renounced my youthful bride. 
 {Drums on the table with a pious air ) 
 Yes; there ’s a Fate guides our ambition! 
 There can we mortals put reliance; 
 
 And ’t is a comfortable science. 
 
 MONSIEUR BAELON ' 
 
 And so the matter ended there? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Oh no ! Some fellows most intrusive, 
 
 Who were excessively abusive, 
 
 Mixt themselves up in the affair. 
 
 Worst were the house’s youngest scions. 
 
 I fought with seven, as strong as lions. 
 
 It was a time I shan’t forget, 
 
 Though I pull’d through, and live as yet. 
 It cost me blood ; the blood I ’ve spent 
 Attests my value with precision, 
 
 And clearly points to that event, 
 
 Mention’d above, Fate’s supervision. 
 
 VON EBERKOPF 
 
 The view you take of life, Herr Peer, 
 
 Gives you the name Philosopher. 
 
 For where the commonplace empiric 
 
SCENE i] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 107 
 
 Sees all in scraps, and naught generic, 
 
 And never stops his stupid stumbling. 
 
 You hold all things at once, unfumbling. 
 
 One norm you use for all and each; 
 
 You point each random illustration 
 To one great centre, and so reach 
 A glorious life-contemplation ! 
 
 And you have never been to College? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 I am, I told you once, I thought, 
 
 A man exclusively self-taught. 
 
 To steady methods I ne’er took; 
 
 But I have thought and studied knowledge, 
 
 And skimmed the gist of many a book. 
 
 I did n’t start till I was getting 
 
 Well on in years ; ’t is hard then, setting 
 
 The mind to know a subject truly, 
 
 The ins and outs to study duly. 
 
 Historians I have open’d fitfully; 
 
 I ’ve had no time for learning real. 
 
 And since one needs, when life ’s a bubble, 
 
 To trust to some profound ideal, 
 
 Religion I have taken flitfully; 
 
 It slides down so, without much trouble. 
 
 Don’t read to swallow ! Read to choose, for 
 ’T is but to see what one has use for. 
 
 MR. COTTON 
 
 Practical, that is ! 
 peer gynt ( lighting a cigar ) 
 
 Let ’s recall then, 
 
 Dear friends, the stages of my story. 
 
 How came I to the land of glory 
 
 Out West? Dead poor, my hands my all then! 
 
108 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act IV 
 
 I fought for bread ’mid all that glitter ; 
 
 Believe me, it was hard, severe. 
 
 But life, my friends, ah ! life is dear ; 
 
 And, as they tell us, death is bitter. 
 
 Well, Luck, ere long, you know, was kind to me ; 
 And old Fate, too, he had a mind to me; 
 
 I prosper’d. Some gifts were assigned to me 
 At birth. I used them. Prosper’d more. 
 
 In ten years’ time this name I bore: 
 
 “ The Croesus of the Charlestown shipping.” 
 My fame flew fast from lip to lip in 
 Port after port. Luck sail’d aboard — 
 
 ME. COTTON 
 
 What did you trade in? 
 
 PEER 6YNT 
 
 Most I scored 
 
 By Negro-slaves for Carolina 
 And idol-images for China. 
 
 MONSIEUR BALLON 
 
 Fi done! 
 
 TRUMPETERSTRÅLE 
 
 The devil ! Uncle Gynt. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 The trade was almost absolutely 
 Impossible is what you ’d hint ? 
 
 I felt the same myself acutely. 
 
 I thought it ev’n abominable, 
 
 But, pray believe me, once you ’re in ’t, 
 
 To break away you ’ll scarce be able. 
 
 ’T is very hard to interrupt 
 So vast a business, so expensive, 
 
 Employing thousands in extensive 
 Enterprise ; to end all abrupt. 
 
SCENE i] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 109 
 
 It ’s that “ abrupt ” I can’t abide ; 
 
 But own, upon the other side 
 I ’ve always found myself agree 
 With those who care for consequences ; 
 
 And that to over-step the fences 
 Has never seem’d quite nice to me. 
 
 Besides that, youth and I were sundering; 
 Back to the forties no endeavor 
 Would take me; and my hair was gray; 
 And though my health could not be better, 
 A thought clung to me, like a fetter; 
 
 Who knows, how soon may dawn the day 
 When the great verdict shall be thundering 
 That parts the sheep and goats forever? 
 What could I do? I couldn’t stop them, 
 The idols, it was evident. 
 
 I found a way, nor had to drop them ; 
 
 With the old another trade I blent. 
 
 Each spring the gods I still exported; 
 
 Each autumn preachers I escorted, 
 Supplying them with all they wanted, 
 
 As stockings, Bibles, rice and rum 
 
 MR. COTTON 
 
 Yes, at some profit? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Yes ; at some. 
 
 It prosper’d. The true seed they planted. 
 For every idol that was sold, 
 
 They got a coolie in the fold, 
 
 And so the effect was neutralized. 
 
 Fallow the field was never lying; 
 
 The idols, which were pushed and prized, 
 Still with the mission-work were vying. 
 
110 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act IV 
 
 MR. COTTON 
 
 What of the African commodities? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 There too my ethic won the fight. 
 
 The trade for those could not be right, 
 
 Whose hair was thin, and gray the tint of it. 
 
 The end oft comes without a hint of it. 
 
 And then the philanthropic oddities 
 Carefully laid a thousand traps ; 
 
 Besides so many a busybody, ’t is 
 A risk from weather and mishaps. 
 
 At all these who his finger snaps? 
 
 I said, now Peter, take a reef in 
 
 Your sails ! Stop sins that you ’ve been chief in ! 
 
 In land down south I speculated, 
 
 Kept back the last carcass-consign, 
 
 Which happened to be very fine. 
 
 They grew so sleek and fat past measure 
 It was to me and them a pleasure. 
 
 I ’ve said too, nor exaggerated, 
 
 I was their father — and was blest 
 By getting a fair interest. 
 
 I built them schools ; and so a stated 
 Amount of virtue might be gain’d 
 And at a level strict maintain’d ; 
 
 And care I took that not at all 
 Below that level it should fall. 
 
 Now, to save further perturbation, 
 
 I’ve withdrawn from the whole affair; 
 
 Finally, sold the slave-plantation 
 And all the live-stock, hide and hair. 
 
 At parting, too, I gave to all 
 Grog gratis, both to big and small ; 
 
SCENE i] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 111 
 
 Men, women, had a drunken riot, 
 
 And widows took their snuff in quiet. 
 
 And so I hope — and I am not 
 Rash, if the ancient saying ’s true, 
 
 That those do good, who no ill do — 
 
 That my past errors are forgot; 
 
 I think my virtue is availing 
 To balance ’gainst my frequent failing. 
 von eberkope ( chinks glasses with him ) 
 
 What strengthening thoughts your words awaken ! 
 
 A principle you bold apply, 
 
 Freed from the night of theory, 
 
 By all external stir unshaken ! 
 peer gynt ( during the preceding passages he has ap- 
 plied himself steadily to the bottle ) 
 
 With us North men the town is taken 
 If it ’s besieged at all. The master, 
 
 Prevailing key of life’s nought but 
 To keep one’s ear securely shut 
 Against a snake that brings disaster. 
 
 MR. COTTON 
 
 And what ’s this foe that we must cut? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 One, who with slyness unbelievable 
 
 Tempts us to do the irretrievable. ( Drinking again ) 
 
 The true whole of the Art of daring, 
 
 Of real pluck in act the Art — 
 
 Is this : choice-free to stand, apart, 
 
 Midst all life’s treachery and snaring — 
 
 To know for sure, another day 
 Remains beyond the day of battle; 
 
 To know a bridge is standing, that ’ll 
 Bear you if you retrace your way. 
 
112 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act IV 
 
 This theory far has carried me ; 
 
 From it the note of my career is; 
 
 Again, this rule by which I steer is 
 From childhood’s home a legacy. 
 
 MONSIEUR BALLON 
 
 You are Norwegian? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Yes, by birth; 
 
 A citizen of all the earth 
 
 In soul ; for luck that ’s come my way 
 
 I have to thank America. 
 
 The later German schools have given 
 The books on which my mind has thriven. 
 
 From France there has come many a vest for me, 
 
 My manners, and my spice of wit — 
 
 From England hands for labor fit 
 And a keen sense of what is best for me; 
 
 The Jew has taught me how to wait, 
 
 While dolce — we all learn ere twenty, 
 
 So I, from Italy, far niente. 
 
 And once, when in a parlous strait, 
 
 To turn completely my life’s wheel, 
 
 I had recourse to Swedish steel. 
 trumpeter strÅle ( lifting his glass ) 
 
 Yes, Swedish steel ! 
 
 VON EBERKOPF 
 
 The man who sways 
 
 The steel sword first demands our praise ! 
 
 [ They clink glasses and drink with him. The wine 
 begins to go to his head. 
 
 MR. COTTON 
 
 All this is very good, I see. 
 
SCENE i] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 113 
 
 But, sir, one thing still worries me — 
 
 What with your gold d’ you think of doing? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 H’m. Doing? What? 
 all four ( coming nearer) 
 
 Let ’s hear what ’s brewing ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 First I would get some travel out of it. 
 
 You see, sirs, that ’s why I shipped you 
 To keep me company, at Gibraltar. 
 
 A choir of friends I needed, who 
 
 Would dance around my gold-calf altar 
 
 VON EBERKOPF 
 
 A witty word ! 
 
 MR. COTTON 
 
 But there ’s no doubt of it, 
 
 None hoists sails merely for the sailing. 
 
 There is some port that you ’d be hailing. 
 
 And that is ? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 To be Emperor. 
 
 ALL FOUR 
 
 What? 
 
 peer gynt ( nodding ) 
 
 Emperor ! 
 
 ALL FOUR 
 
 Where ? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 The whole world over! 
 
 MONSIEUR BALLON 
 
 But how, friend? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 By the might of money! 
 
114 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act IV 
 
 The plan, you know, is nothing new; 
 
 In it my true soul I discover. 
 
 Ev’n as a boy, in visions sunny, 
 
 On clouds far o’er the sea I flew. 
 
 With golden scabbard and with train 
 I soar’d — then down I dropp’d again. 
 But, friends, I ne’er forgot my port. — 
 There ’s a text, or something of the sort, 
 Somewhere, I don’t remember where: 
 
 If you gain’d the whole world, it said, 
 And lost yourself, your great gain were 
 A garland on a cloven head. 
 
 That text, or something like, in youth 
 I heard ; and it is sober truth. 
 
 VON EBERKOPF 
 
 The Gyntish self? What is it, brother? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 The world behind my forehead level, 
 
 By which I am not any other 
 Than I, no more than God ’s the Devil. 
 
 TRUMPETERSTRALE 
 
 A-ha, I see now where you ’d climb ! 
 
 MONSIEUR BALLON 
 
 Thinker superb ! 
 
 VON EBERKOPF 
 
 Poet sublime ! 
 
 peer gynt ( with rising voice ) 
 
 The Gyntish self — what can it be 
 But wishes, longings, appetites? 
 
 The Gyntish self — it is the sea 
 Of exigencies, whims, and rights ! 
 
 All that to my heart motion’s giving; 
 
 All, by which I, as I, am living. 
 
SCENE i] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 115 
 
 But as the Lord requires the clay 
 For worlds, which Him as God obey; 
 
 So I need gold if I would stand 
 Emperor over every land. 
 
 MONSIEUR BALLON 
 
 But you have gold? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Not enough pelf. 
 
 P’raps for a wonder nine-days-old, 
 
 An Emperor å la Lippe-Detmold. 
 
 But I must be en bloc myself, 
 
 The Gynt o’er all the globe victorious, 
 
 Sir Gynt, from top to bottom, glorious ! 
 monsieur ballon (in transports ) 
 
 Of world-beauty to be proprietor! 
 
 VON EBERKOPE 
 
 J ohannisberger ages old ! 
 
 TRUMPETERSTRÅLE 
 
 And all the blades of Karl the Bold ! 
 
 MR. COTTON 
 
 But first a business-opening quiet, or 
 Some wider scheme 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 That is provided; 
 
 Our anchoring at this point supplied it. 
 To-night we sail off northerly. 
 
 Letters on board, that came to me, 
 
 Have brought me tidings most momentous — 
 ( Rises with lifted glass) 
 
 Fate never keeps us in the prison 
 
 If we ’ve the pluck to use what ’s lent us 
 
 THE FOUR 
 
 Well? Tell us — Quickly ! 
 
116 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act it 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Greece has risen. 
 
 the four {jumping up) 
 
 What? Greece ? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Is settled for a fight. 
 
 THE FOUR 
 
 Hurrah ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 And Turkey ’s in a plight. 
 
 {Empties his glass) 
 
 MONSIEUR BALLON 
 
 To Hellas! Glory’s gate stands wide! 
 
 The sword of France is on their side! 
 
 VON EBERKOPF 
 
 For them my shouts (far off) shall rise! 
 
 MR. COTTON 
 
 I ’ll help (for payment) with supplies! 
 
 TRUMPETERSTRÅLE 
 
 Lead on ! In Bender I shall find 
 The buckles Charles XII left behind ! 
 monsieur ballon {falling on Peer Gynt’s neck) 
 Forgive me! For a moment, look you, 
 
 I did misjudge ! 
 
 von eberkopf {pressing his hands) 
 
 And I mistook you, 
 
 Dog! dolt! for just a scoundrel utter! 
 
 MR. COTTON 
 
 Too strong that ! Say, of fools a sample 
 
 TRUMPETERSTRÅLE {tries to kiss him) 
 
 I, Uncle, for a mean example 
 Of the worst products of the gutter 
 Of U. S. A. ! 
 
SCENE i] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 117 
 
 VON EBERKOPF 
 
 We ’ve all been groping 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 The deuce ! 
 
 VON EBERKOPF 
 
 Now see we, past our hoping, 
 
 In glory gathered on the heights, 
 
 The Gyntish whims and appetites ! 
 
 monsieur ballon ( admiringly ) 
 
 This is Sir Gynt! This your idea! 
 
 VON EBERKOPF 
 
 ’T is Gynt with honor! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 It would be a 
 
 Kindness to 
 
 MONSIEUR BALLON 
 
 You don’t see it? Eh? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 See? If I do, may I be damn’d! 
 
 MONSIEUR BALLON 
 
 What are you not upon your way 
 To Greece, your ship with money cramm’d? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 No, many thanks ! I side with might, 
 
 Send cash to help the Turks to fight. 
 
 MONSIEUR BALLON 
 
 Impossible ! 
 
 VON EBERKOPF 
 
 Witty, but a joke! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 ( After a little, leaning on his chair and assuming a 
 dignified mien) 
 
118 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act IV 
 
 Come, gentlemen, I think it best 
 We part, before we lose the rest 
 Of friendship blown away like smoke. 
 
 Who nothing has will lightly risk it. 
 
 The man who scarcely owns the earth 
 His shadow hides, to war may frisk it ; 
 
 He ’s food for powder from his birth. 
 
 One who ’s a sound and stable figure 
 As I am — well, his stake is bigger. 
 
 Go ye to Hellas. I will arm you 
 Gratis and put you all ashore; 
 
 The more you sound war’s wild alarm, you 
 Will serve my purposes the more. 
 
 Strike home for freedom and for right ! 
 
 Give the Turks hell and hell’s hot night — 
 
 And end, like heroes in romances, 
 
 Pierced by the Janissaries’ lances. — 
 
 But I (< Slaps his pocket) 
 
 I ’ve cash. I am not in ’t, 
 
 But am myself, Sir Peter Gynt. 
 
 ( Puts up his sun-sliade, goes into the grove, where one 
 has a glimpse of hammocks) 
 
 TRUMPETER STRÅLE 
 
 The swinish cur! 
 
 MONSIEUR BALLON 
 
 No taste for glory ! 
 
 MR. COTTON 
 
 Oh ! glory ’s quite another story ! 
 
 But think what profits there would be 
 For us if Greece did struggle free. 
 
 MONSIEUR BALLON 
 
 I saw myself with conquests laden 
 And clasp’d by many a Grecian maiden ! 
 
SCENE i] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 119 
 
 TRUMPETERSTRÅLE 
 
 Ah! in my Swedish hand I grasp’d 
 The buckles that a king’s shoes clasp’d ! 
 
 VON EBERKOPF 
 
 The culture of my Fatherland 
 I saw dispersed on every hand — — ! 
 
 MR. COTTON 
 
 The loss in cash will stop me sleeping ! 
 
 Damn it! I scarce can keep from weeping! 
 I saw me as Olympus’ lord. 
 
 If true that mountain’s reputation 
 It would good copper still afford, 
 
 If we set up a mining-station. 
 
 Then there ’s Castalia, that river 
 Which people talk about forever ; 
 
 Its falls, at a low estimate, 
 
 Must be a thousand horse-power’s weight — 
 TRUMPETERSTRÅLE 
 
 I ’ll go ! My Swedish sword so bold 
 Is worth far more than Yankee gold ! 
 
 MR. COTTON 
 
 Perhaps; but jamm’d into the tussle 
 We’d be submerged, kill’d in the bustle; 
 And then whence does the profit come? 
 
 MONSIEUR BALLON 
 
 Accurst! So near to fortune’s crown; 
 
 And now arrested at its tomb ! 
 mr. cotton (shaking his fist at the yacht') 
 
 In that black chest is hammer’d down 
 The nabob’s golden nigger-sweat ! 
 
 VON EBERKOPF 
 
 A royal notion ! Quick ! We ’ll get — 
 
120 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act IV 
 
 Away ! His empire goes to pot ! 
 
 Hurra ! 
 
 MONSIEUR BALLON 
 
 What will you? 
 
 VON EBERKOPF 
 
 Seize the pow’r! 
 
 I ’ll buy the crew within the hour. 
 
 On board then ! I annex the yacht ! 
 
 MR. COTTON 
 
 You what ? 
 
 VON EBERKOPF 
 
 I grab it all — the lot ! 
 
 ( Goes down to the jolly-boat) 
 
 MR. COTTON 
 
 Self-interest also orders me 
 
 To grab my share. ( Goes after him) 
 
 TRUMPETERSTRÅLE 
 
 What villainy ! 
 
 MONSIEUR BALLON 
 
 A scurvy trick — ! But — enfin! What? 
 
 ( Follows the others) 
 
 TRUMPETERSTRÅLE 
 
 Well, I must go, too, with the rest, 
 
 But to the whole world I protest ! ( Follows ) 
 
 SCENE TWO 
 
 Another part of the coast. Moonlight with drifting 
 clouds. The yacht, far out, is going at full speed. 
 
 Peer Gynt comes tearing along the beach. Now he is 
 pinching his arms; now looking out over the sea. 
 
SCENE II] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 121 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 A nightmare ! A phantom. Soon I ’ll be waking ! 
 Out to sea ! What a furious pace she is making ! 
 
 A mere phantom ! I ’m sleeping ! I ’m drunk ! dizzy 
 — I! 
 
 ( Clenches his hands ) 
 
 It ’s impossible that I am going to die ! 
 
 ( Tears his hair) 
 
 A dream ! I will it ’s a dream ! It ’s mere fudge ! 
 
 O monstrous ! It ’s real, this vision of fear — ! 
 
 My brute-beasts of friends ! Oh ! Lord, do Thou 
 hear ! 
 
 Since Thou art so wise and so righteous ! O, 
 J udge — ! 
 
 ( With up stretched arms ) 
 
 It is I, Peter Gynt ! Lord, hearken ! ’T is I ! 
 
 If Thou care not for me, O Father, I die ! 
 
 Make them back the machine! Or the jolly-boat 
 lower ! 
 
 Stop the robbers ! Make something go wrong with 
 the power ! 
 
 Hearken ! Let other folks’ business lie by a bit ! 
 
 The world can look after itself for a minute, 
 
 As usual, He ’s deaf ! Does n’t heed, though I cry, 
 a bit! 
 
 A nice thing ! A God with a bank — and nought 
 in it ! 
 
 {Beckons upwards) 
 
 Hist ! I ’ve got rid of the nigger plantation ! 
 
 And I ’ve sent good priests to the heathen Asian ! 
 One good turn is worth another, Lord! 
 
 O, help me on board ! 
 
 [A jet of fire shoots into the air from the yacht, and 
 
122 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act IV 
 
 heavy smoke rolls up. A hollow report is heard. 
 Peer Gynt shrieks, and sinks on to the sand. Gradu- 
 ally the smoke fades away; the ship has disappeared. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 ’T was the Wrath and the Sword ! 
 In a crack ! To the bottom. All hands struck — ! 
 Oh, forever praised be the happy duck — 
 
 ( With emotion ) 
 
 Luck? It was more than that, much more! I, 
 
 I was to be saved and they were to die. 
 
 O, thanks and praise to Thee who hast wielded 
 Thy might for me, kept me in spite of my sins — 
 
 ( Draws a deep breath) 
 
 What a wonderful peace to the bosom wins 
 When a man can know he is specially shielded. 
 
 But the desert! What about eating and drinking? 
 O, I shall find something. He ’s able to cherish. 
 There ’s no danger really. ( Loudly and ingratiat- 
 ingly) 
 
 He ’s sure to be thinking 
 
 That a poor little sparrow like me must n’t perish. 
 Be humble ! Don’t badger Him ! There is no need ! 
 Put your cares on the Lord, and don’t be down- 
 hearted — 
 
 {With a start of terror) 
 
 A lion that growl’d in the reeds there and started — 
 (His teeth chattering) 
 
 No, it was n’t a lion. (Plucking up courage) 
 
 A lion, indeed ! 
 
 These beasts, they take care to keep out of disasters. 
 They know it ’s not safe to fall foul of their masters. 
 They have instinct; they feel, and it goes without 
 saying 
 
SCENE in] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 123 
 
 With elephants it is but dangerous playing. — 
 
 But, nevertheless, what I want now is trees. 
 
 Over there there ’s a grove of acacias and palms ; 
 
 If I once clomb up, I ’d feel more at my ease — 
 Particularly if I knew a few psalms — ( Clambers up ) 
 Morn and eve are not similar. That ’s a text which 
 Has often enough been considered and sifted. 
 
 (Seats himself comfortably) 
 
 How precious to feel in the spirit uplifted. 
 
 To think nobly is more than to know oneself rich. 
 Only trust in Plim. What from the cup of need 
 I can bear to drain He knows to a jot. 
 
 For my personal weal He takes fatherly heed — 
 (Casts a glance over the sea, and whispers with a 
 sigh) 
 
 But economical — no, that He ’s not. 
 
 SCENE THREE 
 
 Night. A camp of Moors on the edge of the desert. 
 Watch-fires with soldiers resting. 
 
 a slave (enters tearing his hair) 
 
 Gone is the Emperor’s charger! Grief! 
 another slave (enters rending his garments) 
 
 The Emperor’s sacred robes are stolen! 
 an officer (enters) 
 
 We ’ll thrash until his feet are swollen 
 The man who fails to catch the thief ! 
 
 [ The soldiers mount their horses and gallop off in all 
 directions. 
 
124 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act IV 
 
 SCENE FOUR 
 
 Daybreak. The clump of acacias and palms. 
 
 Peer Gynt in his tree with a broken branch in his 
 hand is keeping off a swarm of monkeys. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Damn it ! A most disagreeable night ! 
 
 ( Hits around him) 
 
 Are you there again ? Damnation and curses ; 
 
 Now they throw fruit. No ; it something far worse is, 
 Of all beasts your monkey ’s the loathsomest, quite ! 
 ’T is the Scripture that says : Thou shalt watch and 
 wuestle. 
 
 I ’m too sleepy to watch, and too tired to fight. 
 
 (Is attacked again; impatiently) 
 
 0 ! if I don’t stop it, this damnable pest ’ll — ! 
 
 1 must capture a monkey, some villainous fright, 
 
 And hang him and flay him and scramble inside, 
 
 As well as I can, the brute’s shaggy hide ; 
 
 They ’ll take me for an ape, if in ape’s skin I nestle — 
 What is man ? A mote. And the world ’s a bubble, 
 And to follow the use and wont saves trouble. — 
 There ’s the rabble again ! They swarm and throng. 
 Get away ! Shoo ! They behave as though frantic. 
 
 If I had a false tail now, with which I could antic — 
 Could I turn to a beast all these monkeys among — 
 What ’s that ? There ’s a pattering over my head 
 there — ! 
 
 ( Looks up) 
 
 It ’s the old one — with both of his fists full of 
 muck — ! 
 
 (Crouches nervously and keeps still for a while. The 
 
SCENE v] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 125 
 
 monkey moves: Peer Gynt begins to coax and wheedle 
 him , as though he were a dog ) 
 
 Yes; are you there then, good old Bus! ’Gluck! 
 He’s a jolly beast! Yes! He’ll by reason be led! 
 There ! 
 
 He ’d never throw down, no, of course he would not — 
 It is me ! Pip-pip ! The same house we belong to ! 
 Ai-ai ! Don’t you hear, I can speak your tongue too ? 
 Bus and I, why, we have made friends on the spot ; 
 Bus shall have sugar to-morrow — ! You animal! 
 The whole lot on top of me ! Loathsome ! Is ’t 
 credible — 
 
 The taste was, well — nondescript — that it was 
 edible ? 
 
 For taste is a matter of habit, that ’s all. 
 
 What thinker was it said somewhere: Spit 
 And trust to habit to conquer it ? — 
 
 Here ’s the small fry too ! 
 
 ( Hits and slashes about him ) 
 
 What devils they are ! 
 It ’s a shame that Man, who ’s the Lord of Creation, 
 Should find himself forced to — Hell ! Damnation ! 
 The old one was bad, but the young are worse far! 
 
 SCENE FIVE 
 
 Early morning. A stony place with a view out over 
 the desert. On one side a cleft in the hill and a cave. 
 
 A Thief and a Receiver in the cleft with the Em- 
 peror's horse and robes. The horse, richly caparisoned, 
 is standing tied to a stone. Horsemen afar off. 
 
 THE THIEF 
 
 The tongues of the lances 
 
126 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act IV 
 
 Flickering, glittering — 
 
 See, see ! 
 
 THE RECEIVER 
 
 Already my limbs are 
 The sand-plain littering; 
 
 Woe ’s me ! 
 
 the thief ( folds his arms over his breast ) 
 
 My father, he thieved ; 
 
 His son he must thieve, too. 
 
 THE RECEIVER 
 
 My father received; 
 
 His son must receive, too. 
 
 THE THIEF 
 
 Still thy weird is to thee; 
 
 Still thyself thou shalt be. 
 the receiver ( listening ) 
 
 Steps in the brushwood ! 
 
 Flee, flee! But whither? 
 
 THE THIEF 
 
 Deep the cave is ; and great 
 The Prophet! Hither! 
 
 [ They flee away and leave the booty behind. The 
 Horsemen disappear in the distance. 
 peer gynt ( enters , cutting a reed-whistle ) 
 
 What a genial morning it is ! How bland ! — 
 
 In the dust with his ball the dung-beetle is creeping, 
 Forth from his dwelling the snail is peeping. 
 
 The morning ! She comes with gold in each hand. — 
 And with pow’r, with a wonderful pow’r she ’s full, 
 The power that ’s the daylight’s, by Nature’s favor. 
 One feels so secure, one feels so much braver, 
 
 If need was, one would cheerfully close with a bull. — 
 
SCENE v] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 127 
 
 What a stillness ! The country ! How beautiful it 
 is ! — 
 
 It ’s a mystery how all this I ’ve ignored ; 
 
 Man shuts himself up in the hugest of cities 
 Merely to live with a mob and be bored. — 
 
 Just look how the lizards are frisking around, 
 Snapping and thinking of nought, I ’ll be bound. 
 The life of the beasts is with innocence rife ! 
 
 Each fulfils its Creator’s commands, unambiguous, 
 Each keeps its own marks plain, however exiguous, 
 
 Is itself, itself both in sport and in strife, 
 
 Itself, as when first He granted it life. 
 
 A toad. In the midst of the rock. The rough 
 Stone is all round him. His head only peers from it. 
 He sits framed, as in a window, and leers from it 
 At the world and is to himself — enough — 
 (Reflectively) 
 
 Enough? To himself? Do I know whence that 
 phrase is? 
 
 I have read it, in some so-called classic, in youth. 
 
 In the sermons? In Solomon’s words of truth? 
 
 Alas ! Year by year, I notice, the case is 
 I ’m losing my memory for dates and places. 
 
 ( Sits down in the shade) 
 
 In the cool one can rest and stretch out one’s feet. 
 Here are ferns growing. Roots, too, good to eat. 
 
 ( Eats a little) 
 
 For an animal, sure, this food, would be meeter — 
 But the text says : “ Bridle the natural creature ! ” 
 And ’t is written : the pride of the proud shall 
 tumble. 
 
 And exalted he ’ll be, who makes himself humble. 
 
 ( Uneasily) 
 
128 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act tv 
 
 Exalted? Yes, that must be mj lot, it ’s plain — 
 Anything else ! The idea ’s inexpressible ! 
 
 Fate will help me away from this place inaccessible, 
 And contrive for me, so I can start again. 
 
 This is only a trial ; deliverance is sure — 
 
 Pray God that my health and strength endure. 
 
 ( Puts his thoughts away, lights a cigar, stretches 
 himself and gazes over the desert ) 
 
 What an enormous waste ! Without limit ! — 
 
 Far off an ostrich strides over the sand. — 
 
 What did God really mean, when He plann’d 
 This deadness, this voidness, this freak of earth’s 
 forces? 
 
 This desert, bereft of all of life’s sources ; 
 
 This cinder, no profit to any? How grim it 
 Lies, of the earth the one patch always fallow ! 
 
 This corpse, since God will’d earth from nothing to 
 ravish, 
 
 Has n’t deign’d, ev’n with thanks, His name to 
 hallow. 
 
 Why was it created? — Nature is lavish — 
 
 Is that sea, in the east, that flickers and strikes 
 My vision! No, it’s a mirage. Now I mind me 
 The sea ’s in the west : it lies piled up behind me, 
 From the desert damm’d out by a slanting dyke. 
 
 ( A thought flashes through him) 
 
 Damm’d out! Then I could — ? For the dyke is 
 but narrow. 
 
 Damm’d out? A canal, a mere breach in the 
 barrow — 
 
 Like a river of life then the waters would 
 Run through the canal, and the desert flood ! 
 
 Soon would yon grave, glowing-hot, without motion, 
 
SCENE v] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 129 
 
 Extend as a fresh and a rippling ocean. 
 
 The oases would rise in the midst, like islands ; 
 
 Atlas would lift, on the north, his green load; 
 Sailing-ships w'ould, like birds home from the high- 
 lands, 
 
 Skim to the south, on the caravans’ road. 
 
 The vapors would vanish, ’fore life-giving breezes, 
 And the dews from the clouds would be quickly 
 distill’d ; 
 
 Town after town would the people build, 
 
 And the grass grow green where the shadow of 
 trees is. 
 
 Down south, the Sahara’s wall behind, 
 
 The land is a coast for fresh culture designed. 
 
 Steam would set Timbuctoo’s factories spinning; 
 
 We ’d colonize Bornu in famous style ; 
 
 And through Habes the explorer his way would be 
 winning 
 
 Safe in a train to the Upper Nile. 
 
 Midst of my sea, on a fat oasis, 
 
 I will found their new home, the Norwegian race’s; 
 Our blood ’s kin to that in a royal breast, 
 
 And Arab crossing will do the rest. 
 
 By a bay there will rise, on a shelving strand, 
 Peeropolis, my capital city. 
 
 The world is decrepit ! The moment is fit : I 
 Found Gyntiana, my virgin land; ( gets up) 
 
 Had I the money ’t would finisht be. 
 
 A key of gold for the gate of sea ! 
 
 A crusade against death ! He shall give up the keys 
 Of that chest, where, the miser ! he hoards at his 
 ease. 
 
 Men in every land are for liberty raving — 
 
130 PEER GYNT [act iv 
 
 Like the ass in the ark I will send forth mj cries 
 
 Over the world, and to Her will baptize 
 
 The beautiful, thrall-bound coasts I am saving. 
 
 I must forth ! To find money, in th’ east or the west ! 
 My kingdom — a half in the east or the west ! 
 
 Half — for a horse to help in my quest! 
 
 ( The horse in the cleft neighs) 
 
 A horse ! And robes ! And a sword ! And fine 
 trinkets ! 
 
 ( Goes closer) 
 
 It can’t be! It is though — ! What? I’ve heard 
 tell, 
 
 Or read somewhere, that Faith can move — moun- 
 tains — I think it ’s 
 
 But what about moving a horse as well — ? 
 
 Pooh ! It ’s plain fact ; here ’s the horse to go on ; 
 
 For the rest, ab esse ad posse, and so on 
 
 ( Puts on the robes, and looks down at them) 
 
 Sir Peter — a Turk too, from top to toe ! 
 
 Well, men never can tell what path Fate ’ll show 
 them — 
 
 Gee-up, now Grane, let ’s see how you go ! 
 
 ( Leaps into the saddle) 
 
 Golden stirrups under my feet, too ! O ! 
 
 The great, by their riding-gear men know them! 
 
 ( Gallops off into the desert) 
 
 SCENE SIX 
 
 Tent of an Arab chief, alone in an oasis. 
 
 Peer Gynt in his Eastern dress, resting on cushions. 
 He is drinking coffee, and smoking a long pipe. Anitra 
 and a bevy of girls dance and sing before him. 
 
SCENE Vi] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 131 
 
 CHORUS OF GIRLS 
 
 The Prophet is come ! 
 
 The Lord Prophet, all things unravelling. 
 
 To us, to us is he come 
 O’er the sand-ocean travelling! 
 
 The Lord Prophet, in nothing e’er failing, 
 
 To us, to us is he come 
 Through the sand-ocean sailing ! 
 
 Wake the flute and the drum; 
 
 The Prophet, the Prophet is come! 
 
 ANITRA 
 
 White as milk is his steed, as the streaming 
 Milk-rivers in Paradise drunken. 
 
 Be bent, ev’ry knee ! Ev’ry head, be sunken ! 
 
 His eyes as the stars are, graciously beaming. 
 
 But the days of that man are ended 
 
 Who dares look on those star-rays so splendid ! 
 
 Through the desert he came. 
 
 Gold and pearls on his breast sprang and glow’d. 
 
 It was light when he rode. 
 
 Behind was darkness and gloom; 
 
 And drought and the dread simoom. 
 
 He, all-glorious, came ! 
 
 Through the desert he came ; 
 
 Our body of earth, he shared it, 
 
 Kaaba ’s an empty name — 
 
 He himself has declared it ! 
 
 CHORUS OF GIRLS 
 
 Wake the flute and the drum; 
 
 The Prophet, the Prophet is come! 
 
 (The girls dance to soft music ) 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 I have read it in print — and the saying ’s sheer 
 truth — 
 
132 PEER GYNT [act iv 
 
 “ None’s a prophet at home, in the land of his 
 youth.” 
 
 It ’s this kind of life I ’d much rather follow, 
 
 More pleasant than Charlestown shipping I find it. 
 In the whole of that life there was something hollow, 
 Something alien at bottom, something muddy behind 
 it — 
 
 I never felt really one of that crowd there, 
 
 My real self was always under a cloud there. 
 
 What possest me to enter that galley at all? 
 
 To grub as a trader — ! I can’t comprehend it. 
 When I think it all over, I meet a blank wall. 
 
 It happened so ; that answer must end it. — 
 
 To be yourself on a basis of gold, 
 
 Is to build your house on a sand-foundation. 
 
 For watch and ring and such signs of station 
 The good people fawn on you, crawl in the mud ; 
 They lift their hats to your jewell’d stud; 
 
 But ring, stud, are not your person, I hold — 
 
 A Prophet ; that ’s a clear role to be filling. 
 
 You know where you stand. If you make a success, 
 The ovation is yours ; it ’s yourself the}’ bless ; 
 Yourself, nor your every pound-sterling and shilling. 
 Without any doubt then, one is what one is, 
 
 One owes nothing to Fortune’s subsidies 
 Nor need lean upon patents and licences — 
 
 A Prophet ; yes that ’s the position for me. 
 
 And the thing was so utterly unexpected. — 
 
 These children of nature I met unprotected 
 As over the desert I rode from the sea. 
 
 The Prophet was come ; so the sure news flies. 
 
 I had n’t the slightest desire to deceive them — ; 
 There ’s a difference ’twixt lies and prophetic replies ; 
 
SCENE Vi] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 133 
 
 And I can always turn back and leave them. 
 
 I ’m not at all bound ; the thing ’s plain, of course — 
 It ’s all private, to speak without reservation ; 
 
 I can go, as I came ; I have got my horse ; 
 
 I ’m master, in short, of the situation. 
 anitra ( approaching the entrance ) 
 
 Prophet and Master ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 What would my slave of me? 
 
 ANITRA 
 
 The sons of the plain at thy tent-door are near; 
 They pray for the light of thy countenance — 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Stay ! 
 
 Say to them, “ Stand a long distance away ; ” 
 
 Say, at a distance their prayers I will hear. 
 
 Add, in here I ’ll have no men to crave boons of me ! 
 Menfolk, my child, are a rotten race — 
 
 Absolute muck indeed are they ! 
 
 Anitra, you can’t think, the shameless face 
 
 With which they have swin’d — have sinn’d, I say ! — 
 
 Well, enough of that ! Girls, you may dance for my 
 
 i°y ! 
 
 The Prophet would banish the thoughts that annoy. 
 the girls ( dancing ) 
 
 The Prophet is good; the Prophet is grieving 
 For the sons of the dust, their ill deeds and deceiving! 
 The Prophet is mild ; to his mildness he praises ; 
 
 To sinners the gates of his heaven he upraises ! 
 peer gynt (his eyes following Anitra during the dance ) 
 Legs that as swift as drumsticks can flit. 
 
 Yes, that damsel, she is a dainty bit. 
 
 True she has a somewhat extravagant figure — 
 
134 PEER GYNT [act iv 
 
 It don’t follow the laws of beauty with rigor; 
 
 But what is beauty? Convention merely; 
 
 A coin, which with changes of place can clearly 
 Its worth change. That man for extremes is eager, 
 Who ’s contrived from the normal its utmost to cap- 
 ture ; 
 
 In the strictly correct one misses all rapture. 
 
 Either plump to excess or excessively meagre, 
 Distressingly young, or appallingly old : 
 
 With those in between are mawkish or bold. — 
 
 ’T is not by their cleanliness her feet invite one ; 
 
 Nor do her arms ; in especial the right one. 
 
 But that is, at bottom, no derogation. 
 
 I should sooner call it a qualification — 
 
 Anitra, hearken ! 
 anitra ( approaching ) 
 
 Thy slave bends her ear. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 You ’re alluring, my child. And moved is the 
 Prophet. 
 
 If you do not believe me, then hearken and hear ! 
 
 I ’ll make you a Houri ! There ’s the proof of it. 
 
 ANITRA 
 
 It ’s not possible, Lord ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 What? You think it ’s a jest? 
 On my life, I am serious, quite, I protest ! 
 
 ANITRA 
 
 But I ’ve not got a soul. ' 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Well, one must be found for you. 
 
 ANITRA 
 
 How, Lord? 
 
SCENE Vi] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 135 
 
 PEEK- GYNT 
 
 Just trust to me, I will be bound for 
 you — 
 
 I ’ll see you a sound education get. 
 
 No soul! Well truly you are rather stolid, 
 
 As they say, I have noticed the same with regret. 
 There ’ll be space for a soul though, it ’s not like a 
 solid. 
 
 Come here ! Where ’s your brain-pan, let ’s feel the 
 size of it. 
 
 There is room, there is room ; I ’d have wagered my 
 eyes of it. 
 
 True enough — you will never be able to dig 
 Very deeply — your soul, I ’m afraid, won’t be 
 big — 
 
 But, take heart; it really will be just the same to 
 you — 
 
 It will be large enough not to bring any shame to 
 you — 
 
 ANITRA 
 
 The Prophet is good 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Don’t hesitate, girl! 
 
 ANITRA 
 
 But I ’d rather 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Come, out with it ! Tell me the whole 
 
 ANITRA 
 
 Well, I don’t care so much about having a soul — 
 Give me rather 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Yes, what? 
 
136 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act IV 
 
 anitka ( pointing to his Turban ) 
 
 That beautiful pearl! 
 
 peee gynt ( enraptured , handing her the jewel) 
 
 Anitra ! True daughter of Eve ! How you show it ! 
 As a magnet, you draw me; for I am a man, 
 
 And as it was put by a much esteem’d poet : 
 
 “ Das ewig Weibliche ziehet uns an ! ” 
 
 SCENE SEVEN 
 
 A moonlit night. A palm-grove outside Anitra’ s tent. 
 Peer Gynt , with an Arabian lute in his hands, sits 
 under a tree. His beard and hair are clipped; he looks 
 much younger. 
 
 peer gynt ( plays and sings) 
 
 I lockt, I lockt my Paradise 
 And took the key with me. 
 
 ’Fore the north wind my good ship flies! 
 
 Hark to the lovely women’s cries, 
 
 Forlorn beside the sea! 
 
 Still south, my stout keel clove her way 
 And would the waves outstrip. 
 
 Where palm-trees, proud and lofty sway, 
 
 A wreath around the ocean-bay, 
 
 I burnt my sturdy ship. 
 
 I came aboard the desert’s ship, 
 
 The ship on four legs staunch. 
 
 It foam’d beneath the lashing whip — 
 
 O ! catch me ! I ’m a bird — I skip 
 And twitter on a branch! 
 
SCENE vn] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 137 
 
 Anitra, sap of sweetest trees 
 Thou art, I know it now ! 
 
 Ay, ev’n Angora goat-milk cheese 
 My taste does not so choicely please, 
 
 Anitra, ah ! as thou ! 
 
 ( He hangs the lute over his shoulder and comes 
 nearer ) 
 
 Stillness! Did the fair one hearken? 
 
 Has she heard my little lay? 
 
 Peeps she from where curtains darken, 
 
 Veil and so forth flung away? 
 
 Hush ! a noise, as wine that ’s pouring 
 When the cork bursts out amain ! 
 
 Now again! And yet again! 
 
 Sighs or songs of love’s sweet pain? — 
 
 No: it is my darling snoring — 
 
 Sweetest strain ! Anitra ’s sleeping ! 
 
 Nightingale, now cease thy cry! 
 
 Not a woe shall pass thee by 
 
 If thou darest with songs of weeping — • 
 
 As the text says, “ Presently ! ” 
 
 Nightingale, thou’rt always singing; 
 
 Ah ! and even so am I. 
 
 Thou, as I, to love art bringing 
 Tender little hearts that sigh. 
 
 Balmy night for song w T as fashion’d; 
 
 And in song one sphere we share; 
 
 We are We, in song empassion’d, 
 
 We, the nightingale and Peer. 
 
 And the slumber of the maiden 
 Crowns my heart with gladness laden — 
 
 This, to have my loving lip 
 O’er the cup — yet not a sip — ! 
 
138 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act IV 
 
 But what ’s that, I wonder? Lo! 
 
 She is coming! Better so. 
 anitra ( from the tent ) 
 
 Master, in the night art calling? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Yes, Anitra, it was I. 
 
 I was waken’d by the squalling 
 Of the cat, whose hunting-cry 
 
 ANITRA 
 
 No; no hunting made thee waken. 
 Something worse thy sleep hath shaken. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 What then? 
 
 ANITRA 
 
 Spare me! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Speak, my girl ! 
 
 ANITRA 
 
 O I blush to 
 
 peer gynt ( nearer ) 
 
 Was it, tell me, 
 That which suddenly befell me, 
 
 When I gave to you the pearl? 
 anitra ( horrified ) 
 
 Liken thee, earth’s prize, to that 
 Horrible, disgusting cat ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 From the standpoint, child, of passion 
 Cat and prophet, in a fashion, 
 
 Are n’t at all dissimilar. 
 
 ANITRA 
 
 Master, how the jests are flowing 
 From thy lips. 
 
SCENE Vil] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 139 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 My child, you ’re far 
 Too like others, who ’re for knowing 
 From the outside what men are. 
 
 I am full of jests at heart, 
 
 Jests like this, especially. 
 
 My position thrusts a part, 
 
 On me, of solemnity; 
 
 I have duties prejudicial, 
 
 Worry never leaves me free, 
 
 Just to plague me all agree, 
 
 So I ’m harsh as harsh can be 
 Sometimes ; yet ’t is superficial. — 
 
 Pouf! Avaunt. In téte-å-téte I 
 Am Peer — well, I ’m he, you see. 
 
 To the prophet show the gate! I 
 Am myself, here you have me ! 
 
 (Sits under a tree and draws her to him ) 
 Come, Anitra! See, beguiling 
 Us to rest, the palm tree’s shade! 
 
 I ’ll be whisp’ring, you ’ll be smiling; 
 
 An exchange, then, shall be made; 
 
 You shall whisper love, the while 
 At your lips I gaze and smile ! 
 anitra (lies down at his feet ) 
 
 All thy words are sweet as singing, 
 Though I understand but little. 
 
 If I listen, Master, it ’ll 
 Unto me a soul be bringing? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Soul, and spirit’s light, and learning 
 Soon in you you ’ll be discerning. 
 
 When in East, each rosy-finger 
 
140 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act IV 
 
 Prints in gold type — Day is here — 
 
 Then at play we will not linger. 
 
 You shall have my lessons, dear. 
 
 But ’mid night’s delicious quiet 
 I were stupid, did I try at 
 Practising my pedagogic 
 With my tatter’d bit of logic. 
 
 And the soul, of all that ’s sent us, 
 
 Is not chief. As says a singer, 
 
 ’T is the heart that ’s most momentous. 
 
 ANITEA 
 
 Speak, O Master! As I listen 
 Pearls across my vision glisten ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Folly ’t is to be too clever ; 
 
 Cowardice in cruelty ever 
 
 Ends, and too much truth, turn’d scurvy, 
 
 Is but wisdom topsy-turvy. 
 
 Yes, my child — or I ’m a liar. 
 
 Aye, a hound, if there are not 
 O’er-fed souls who ’ll get no nigher 
 To clear sight than they have got. 
 
 There was such a man — I knew him — 
 
 Not another equal to him; 
 
 He mistook his goal and calling, 
 
 Losing sense in blatant bawling. — 
 
 See the waste round this oasis? 
 
 Were I but to swing my turban, 
 
 Floods would rush that naught could curb, an 
 Ocean to the farthest places ! 
 
 But I should a blockhead be 
 Thus creating land and sea. 
 
 Know you, what it is to live? 
 
SCENE VII ] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 141 
 
 ANITKA 
 
 Teach me ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 ’T is yourself to give 
 To be wafted down time’s river 
 As yourself — self nought can shiver. 
 
 In manhood alone I can 
 
 Be what I am, dear child, this man ! 
 
 The old eagle moults his plumage, 
 
 Th’ old man totters to his rheumage, 
 
 Joan ’s not got a tooth to bite with, 
 
 Darby, wither’d hands can’t fight with — 
 
 One and all get wither’d souls. 
 
 Youth! Youth! Where ’s my kingdom? Mine! 
 I ’ll be Sultan, sole, supreme — 
 
 Not where Gyntiana rolls 
 Rivers under palm and vine — 
 
 But firm based upon the fine 
 Freshness of a woman’s dream. — 
 
 See you now, my maiden pretty, 
 
 Why I ’ve lured you, here ’s the token, 
 
 Why to you my heart has spoken, 
 
 Why I ’ve builded my soul’s city 
 There, my being ’s Caliphat. 
 
 Mine ! and mine alone I call you. 
 
 For in love I ’m autocrat ! 
 
 Mine your every pang and bliss is. 
 
 I am he, who shall enthral you, 
 
 As fine gold a jewel kisses. 
 
 Part we, you and I ? All ’s over — - 
 Here on you the emphasis is ! 
 
 All which veil and garments cover, 
 
 Will-less, without yes or no, 
 
142 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act IV 
 
 Full of me, all I must know. 
 
 Midnight beauty of your tresses, 
 
 All of charm the fancy guesses, 
 
 Like the Babylonian garden, 
 
 Shall allure your body’s warden. 
 
 Therefore I do not regret 
 That your head ’s a habitation 
 Empty ; with a soul, men get 
 Lost, quite, in self-contemplation. 
 
 While we ’re talking, hark, my doxy, 
 
 You shall, if you like, you know, 
 
 Have a ring, that I can lock — see? — 
 
 Round your ankle; safer so; 
 
 I will be your soul by proxy. 
 
 For the rest — why, status quo. 
 
 ( Anitra snores ) 
 
 What? She sleeps! Then did it flow 
 Useless past her, all I ’ve spoken? 
 
 No! ’t is of my pow’r a token 
 That away she ’s carried, dreaming, 
 
 On my tales of passion streaming. 
 
 ( Rises and lays trinkets in her lap ) 
 
 There are jewels for you! There! 
 
 Sleep, Anitra ! Dream of Peer. . . . 
 
 Sleep! For this your sleeping places 
 On your Emperor’s brow the crown! 
 
 Yict’ry on his Person’s basis. 
 
 Now Peer Gynt has made his own. 
 
 SCENE EIGHT 
 
 A caravan route. The oasis lies far off in the back- 
 ground. 
 
SCENE Vill] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 143 
 
 Peer Gynt, on his white horse, gallops over the desert. 
 He has Anitra in front on his saddle-bow. 
 
 ANITRA 
 
 Let be! I’ll bite! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 You rascal! You love! 
 
 ANITRA 
 
 What would you? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Would? Play at the hawk and 
 the dove! 
 
 Carry you off! Frisk about a bit, frantic! 
 
 ANITRA 
 
 For shame ! An elderly prophet ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Rot ! 
 
 The prophet ’s not elderly, silly ! A lot 
 Of old age it betokens, this kind of antic ! 
 
 ANITRA 
 
 Let me go ! I ’ll go home ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Would you, coquette? 
 
 Home! To papa-in-law! How ’d you be met? 
 
 We madcap brides, that have taken our flight, 
 
 Must never again come within his sight. 
 
 Besides, child, no wise man shows his face, 
 
 Believe me, too long in the self-same place; 
 
 Men think far less of, when they know more about 
 you — 
 
 As for prophets — well, quickly flags their panegyric. 
 One should be but a moment of joy, like a lyric. 
 
 It was time that I left. Even these things without, 
 you 
 
144 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act IV 
 
 Know, that these sons of the desert are fickle — 
 
 At the last prayers were few, and the incense a trickle. 
 
 ANITEA 
 
 Yes, but are you a prophet? 
 
 PEEK GYNT 
 
 I am your King! 
 
 ( Tries to kiss her) 
 
 Tut! my woodpecker! Is n’t she quick on the wing? 
 
 ANITEA 
 
 Give me that ring that you have on your finger. 
 
 PEEE GYNT 
 
 Take all the trash, my Anitra, take all! 
 
 ANITEA 
 
 Like sweet songs your words on the memory linger. 
 
 PEEE GYNT 
 
 To inspire such a passion, this true bliss I call! 
 
 I ’ll dismount ! Like a slave, I will stand at your 
 bridle ! 
 
 ( Hands her his riding-whip and gets off) 
 
 There now ! My blossom, my rose of all roses ; 
 
 I will tramp through the sand ! Even I, at your 
 side, ’ll 
 
 Trudge till a sunstroke my passion forecloses. 
 
 I am young, Anitra ! And please don’t forget it. 
 Don’t be shocked at the way I would frolic and pet it. 
 Jests and high-jinks are youth’s only criterion! 
 
 So you ’d see, were you quicker to grasp at the truth, 
 That a lover who ’s bent (don’t, my poppet, be 
 dreary) on 
 
 High-jinks and jests is, ergo, a youth! 
 
 ANITEA 
 
 Yes, you ’re a youth ! Have } T ou yet got a ring or 
 two? 
 
SCENE Vill] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 145 
 
 PEEK GYNT 
 
 Ain’t I? There! Grab! Like a buck’s, there’s a 
 fling or two ! 
 
 Were there vine-leaves about, I would make me a 
 crown. 
 
 To be sure I am young ! I will dance ! Derry-down ! 
 ( Dances and sings ) 
 
 I am the happiest game-cock! 
 
 Peck me, my little pullet ! 
 
 Ha! Let me trip and fool it; 
 
 I am the happiest game-cock! 
 
 ANITRA 
 
 You are sweating, my prophet, I fear you may 
 melt ; 
 
 Give me that heavy bag hung at your belt. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Tender solicitude! Bear the purse ever — 
 
 The lover from gold can contentedly sever. 
 
 ( Dances and sings again ) 
 
 Young Peer Gynt is a madcap ! 
 
 Does n’t know which foot to stand upon ! 
 
 Pooh, says Peer — pooh, pooh, go on! 
 
 Young Peer Gynt is a madcap. # 
 
 ANITRA 
 
 What j oy to see you in the dance, O my Prophet ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 A truce to the Prophet ! — we ’ve had enough of it ! 
 Let ’s change clothes ! 
 
 ANITRA 
 
 Your caftan ’s too long, and the smocking’s 
 Of your girdle too wide, and too tight are your 
 stockings 
 
146 
 
 PEER GYXT 
 
 [act IV 
 
 PEEK, GYXT 
 
 Eli bien! ( Kneels ) 
 
 But vouchsafe me a vehement sorrow, 
 
 To the heart of a lover is suffering sweet! 
 
 Listen ! We ’ll get to my tow’r — not to-morrow 
 
 AXITEA 
 
 Your paradise — must we ride far ere we greet ? 
 
 PEEE GYXT 
 
 0 ! a thousand miles or 
 
 AXITEA 
 
 Too far! 
 
 PEEE GYXT 
 
 0 ! hear ! 
 
 You shall have the soul that I promised you, 
 dear 
 
 AXITEA 
 
 Oh, thank you ! I ’ll get on without the soul, I. 
 
 But you asked for a sorrow 
 
 PEEE GYXT 
 
 Yes, curse me ; one, say, or two ! 
 One short, sharp sorrow — to last but a day or two ! 
 
 AXITEA 
 
 Anitra obeyeth the Prophet ! — Good-bye ! 
 
 (She Cuts him sharply across the -fingers , and dashes 
 off at a tremendous gallop bach across the desert) 
 PEEE gyxt ( stands for a long time thunder struck) 
 Well, now may I be ! 
 
 SCENE NINE 
 
 The same place. An hour later. 
 
 Peer Gynt, sedate and thoughtful, is stripping off his 
 Turkish clothes bit by bit. Last of all he takes his little 
 
SCENE IX] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 147 
 
 travelling cap from his coat-pocket, puts it on, and 
 stands once more in European dress. 
 peer gynt (j vhen he has thrown the turban far away 
 from him ) 
 
 There lies the Turk, then, and I stand here ! 
 
 These heathenish games are no good, I ’m clear ; 
 That the whole thing was only a question of dressing 
 Not bred in the bone, as they say, is a blessing. — 
 What induced me to enter that galley? Adhere 
 To the life of a Christian ! Yes ! that sound advice is ; 
 Don’t copy the peacock; remember morality; 
 
 Keep, in all of your actions, this side of legality ; 
 
 Be yourself, and so earn, at the ultimate crisis, 
 
 A speech by your grave, on your tomb chaste devices. 
 (Walks a few steps ) 
 
 The hussy — that girl came most horribly close 
 To turning my head and completely upsetting me; 
 I ’m a troll if I know what managed to glose 
 And bewilder me, thus in a quandary getting me. 
 Well, it ’s good that it ’s done! ’T was a jest most 
 periculous ; 
 
 And if carried on would have made me ridiculous. 
 
 I have err’d. Ah, yes — but I ’ve this consolation, 
 That my error was due to the false situation. 
 
 ’T was not I, in my actual person, that fell, 
 
 It was really that way of living prophetical ; 
 
 It so lackt the true salt of action that — well — 
 
 It took its revenge in bad taste emetical. 
 
 To be “ Prophet ” ’s a monstrous poor thing, on the 
 whole ! 
 
 By your very profession you walk in a mist ; 
 
 In prophetical play the opponent cries “ vole ” 
 
 The moment from folly and dreams you desist. 
 
148 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act IV 
 
 I ’ve been equal, so far, to the situation 
 Merely by my giving that goose education. 
 
 But, nevertheless ( Bursts out laughing) 
 
 H’m! Just think of it ! Me! 
 To try to stop time by tripping and dancing! 
 
 And to fight with the flood by frolic and prancing! 
 To strum on the lute-strings, to cuddle and blether, 
 And to end like a game-cock — be pluckt, every 
 feather. 
 
 That was frenzy prophetical, verily. 
 
 Yes, pluckt ! Yes, my Lord, I ’m nigh pluckt to the 
 skin ; 
 
 Well, I ’ve still got a trifling reserve to call in ; 
 
 I ’ve got some in America, some in my pocket, 
 
 So I need n’t ask yet for the poor-house ’s docket. 
 And this middle condition is best, after all. 
 
 I ’m not tied to my coachman or horse ; I don’t bawl 
 For my buggy or baggage, in troubled vexation; 
 
 I am master, in short, of the situation. — 
 
 What path shall I choose, with so many? The wise is 
 Known from the fool by his choice at a crisis. 
 Business? No, that is a leaf quite turn’d over; 
 
 And a cast-off coat is my life as a lover. 
 
 To go backwards, crab-like, I ’ve got no ambition. 
 
 “ Backwards or forwards, ’t is just as long; 
 
 In or out, and it ’s strait as strong,” 
 
 So I ’ve read in a book of serenic erudition. 
 
 I ’ll find something new ; ennoble my life ; 
 
 Find a goal that is worth the money and strife. 
 
 Shall I write out my life without dissimulation — 
 
 A book for men’s guidance and imitation? — 
 
 Or, stay ! — since I ’ve got the leisured capacity, 
 Shall I study past ages with interest rife, 
 
SCENE ix] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 149 
 
 As a travelling scholar watch time’s voracity? 
 
 Yes, to be sure; that is my occupation! 
 
 Why, to legends, when I was a boy, I ’d be turning, 
 And since then I have n’t dropt that side of learn- 
 ing. — 
 
 I will follow the road of each several nation ! 
 
 I will float like a feather on history’s stream, 
 
 Make it alive again, as in a dream — 
 
 See the heroes struggle for truth and right — 
 
 As an onlooker, out of the danger quite — 
 
 See the martyrs bleed and the thinkers die, 
 
 See empires founded and empires fall, 
 
 See world-epochs grow from seedlings small; 
 
 I will skim the cream of history ! I ! — 
 
 I must try and get hold of some ancient horology, 
 And travel, as far as I can, by chronology. — 
 
 Of course — I have not very sound foundations, 
 And “ true ” history deceives one and tries the 
 patience ! — 
 
 But then ! your starting-point’s random — poor ! 
 The result is original so, and new. — 
 
 To have such a goal! How uplifted I feel! 
 
 And to go straight for it, like flint and steel ! 
 
 ( With quiet emotion) 
 
 To break off all round, to put all behind one, 
 
 The bonds that to friends and hearth-stone bind 
 one — 
 
 One’s hoarded wealth to blow up sky-high — 
 
 To love and its lures to say “ Good-bye ” — 
 
 Only to get a view into Truth’s mystery — 
 (Wiping a tear from his eye) 
 
 That ’s the test of the genuine student of history ! — 
 I feel happier than I e’er thought I could be. 
 
150 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act IV 
 
 Now I have found my destiny’s key. 
 
 Now I ’ve only to hold on through thick and thin. 
 
 It ’s excusable now if, in pride, I soar, 
 
 And know me, the man, Peer Gynt, within, 
 
 Also call’d Human-life’s Emperor. — 
 
 The past shall be own’d, every minute and sod, by me ; 
 The paths of the living shall no more be trod by 
 me — 
 
 ’T is worth just the price of a shoe-sole, to-day is; 
 There is no faith in man, and futile his way is ; 
 
 His soul has no wings, and for strength he ’s no 
 place — 
 
 ( Shrugs his shoulders ) 
 
 And women — ah ! they are a rotten race ! 
 
 ( Goes off) 
 
 SCENE TEN 
 
 A summer day. Far up in the North. A hut in the 
 wood. A door, with a large wooden bar, stands open. 
 Reindeer-horns over the door. A herd of goats by the 
 wall of the hut. 
 
 A Middle-aged Woman, fair and comely, sits and 
 spins outside m the sunshine. 
 
 the woman ( glances down the path and sings) 
 
 The winter may pass, and the spring may go by, 
 And next summer too, yes, the whole year may fly — 
 But one day you will come, that I know, that I know ; 
 I will wait, for at parting I promised you so. 
 
 ( Calls the goats, spins, and sings again ) 
 
 God give you strength, wheresoever you roam ! 
 
 God give you joy, if in heav’n you ’ve come home! 
 Here I will wait, till you come again, love ; 
 
 If you wait at His footstool, we ’ll meet there, above ! 
 
SCENE Xl] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 151 
 
 SCENE ELEVEN 
 
 In Egypt. Daybreak. Memnon’s statue stands amid 
 the sand. 
 
 Peer Gynt enters on foot and looks around him for a 
 while. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 This would be a good start from which I might 
 range. — 
 
 I ’ve become an Egyptian, now, for a change ; 
 
 That is, on the Gyntish Ego’s basis. 
 
 Next to Assyria I will make traces. 
 
 To begin right back at the world’s creation, 
 
 Would simply mean trouble and extra vexation — 
 Round about all Bible-history I ’ll wander, 
 
 And find secular signs of it whereon to ponder. 
 
 To peer, as the proverb says, into the crannies, 
 Completely outside both my power and my plan is. 
 (Sits on a stone) 
 
 Here will I sit and await the habitual 
 Song of the statue, the old dawn-ritual. 
 
 After breakfast, the Pyramid I will climb ; 
 
 And look inside too, if I ’ve got the time. 
 
 Then I ’ll go where the Red Sea stretches far, 
 
 And perhaps find the grave of King Potiphar. — 
 Then I ’ll turn Asiatic. Seek Babylon, 
 
 The harlots and gardens, the world’s admiration, 
 That ’s to say, the chief traces of civilization. 
 
 Then at once to the walls of Troy I ’ll go on. 
 
 Then from Troy there ’s a fairway across the sea 
 To where Athens stands in her ancient glory; 
 
 Then I ’ll see the pass, and recount the story 
 How Leonidas held off the enemy; 
 
152 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act IV 
 
 I will read up the best sort of metaphysician, 
 
 Find where Socrates suffer’d, that place of perdi- 
 tion ; 
 
 Tut — by the bye — there ’s a war on at present ! — 
 I must put off Greece till affairs are more pleasant. 
 
 ( Looks at his watch) 
 
 It ’s really too bad, how slow at its rising 
 
 The sun is. I ’ve not got much time. Well, then, 
 
 I will go on from Troy — it was there I was when — 
 ( Rises and listens ) 
 
 What is it, that rushing of song, most surpris- 
 ing ? 
 
 [Sunrise. 
 
 memnon’s statue (sings) 
 
 From the demigod’s ashes, 
 
 In fresh youth are winging 
 Birds ever singing. 
 
 Zeus who knows all 
 Form’d them to brawl. 
 
 Owls of Athene, 
 
 In your sleep who has seen ye? 
 
 Read the riddle, or thou 
 Must die now ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Passing strange. I could really have thought there 
 was cast 
 
 From the statue a sound. Music, that of the 
 Past. 
 
 I could hear well the notes of the stone, rising, 
 sinking. — 
 
 I will write it, to give food for thought to the 
 thinking. 
 
 (Notes in his pocket-book) 
 
SCENE XII ] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 153 
 
 “ The statue did sing. ’T was the sound that I heard 
 of it, 
 
 For the rest, I could n’t make out ev’ry word of it. 
 ’T was illusion, the whole thing, I need hardly say. — 
 Nothing else of importance observed to-day.” 
 
 ( Goes away ) 
 
 SCENE TWELVE 
 
 Near the village of Gizeh. The great Sphinx carved 
 out of the rock. A long way off the spires and minarets 
 of Cairo. 
 
 Peer Gynt enters ; he examines the Sphinx atten- 
 tively, now through his eye-glass, now through his hol- 
 lowed hand. 
 
 PEEK GYNT 
 
 Where met I something (I half forget it), 
 
 You curious old hobgoblin, like you? 
 
 For, in the north or the south, I have met it. 
 
 Was it a person? And, if so, who? 
 
 That Memnon, the fancy afterwards came to me, 
 Was like the Old Man of the Dovre, so call’d: 
 
 As he sat stiff and stark, he seem’d the same to me, 
 On his end, and by broken pillars wall’d. 
 
 But this most amazing of mongrel creatures, 
 
 This changeling, this lion with woman’s features — 
 Does it too come from a fairy-tale? 
 
 Or from something real, something I fail — 
 
 From a fairy-tale ? Why — I was sure I knew him ! 
 It ’s the Boyg, whom I smote on the skull ; I nigh 
 slew him — 
 
 That is, I dreamt I did — I had a fever. — 
 
 ( Goes nearer ) 
 
154 PEER GYNT [act iv 
 
 The eyes just the same, lips the same as ever — 
 
 Not quite so sluggish; a bit more alluring; 
 
 But the same, after all, in matters enduring. — 
 
 So that ’s it, Boyg; you look like a lion, 
 
 If a day-light view one succeeds in procuring! 
 
 Are you still good at riddling? Well, again I will 
 try on. 
 
 Will you in the same answer, I wonder, persist? You ! 
 ( Calls out towards the Sphinx) 
 
 Boyg, hi! Who are you? 
 a voice {behind the Sphinx ) 
 
 Ach, Sphinx, wer bist du? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 What? Echo answers in German? How curious! 
 
 THE VOICE 
 
 Wer bist du? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Clearly its learning ’s not spurious ! 
 My observation is new. I may quote it. 
 
 {Notes in his book) 
 
 So “ Echo German; Berlin accent,” I note it. 
 
 [ Begrijfenfeldt comes from behind the Sphinx. 
 
 BEGRIPFENFEEDT 
 
 A man ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 O ! it must have been him that I heard. 
 {Notes again) 
 
 “ Something else, to upset my conclusions, occurr’d.” 
 BEGRiFFENFEEDT {with all kinds of restless antics) 
 
 Oh ! Ein Lebensfrage — ! Herr ! Dare I to do — 
 h’m? 
 
 Is there reason you ’re here just to-day? What is it? 
 
SCENE XIl] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 155 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 I ’m greeting a friend of my youth. Just a visit. 
 
 BEGRIFFENFEEDT 
 
 What ? The Sphinx? 
 
 PEER GYNT ( nods ) 
 
 Yes ; in days gone by I knew him. 
 
 BEGRIFFENFELDT 
 
 Famous ! — And that after such a night ! 
 
 My brain and my brow beat away like a bell ! Sir ! 
 You know him? Speak on, then! Ah! can you tell, 
 sir, 
 
 What he is? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 What he is ? There I ’ll give you light. 
 
 He is himself. 
 
 BEGRIFFENFELDT (t vith a leap ) 
 
 Ha ! On my vision the great 
 Riddle of life flashes forth ! Then it ’s certain 
 He ’s himself? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Yes, he says so, at any rate. 
 
 BEGRIFFENFELDT 
 
 Himself! Revolution! Ring up the curtain! 
 
 (Takes his hat off ) 
 
 And your name is, dear sir? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Peer Gynt I was christen’d. 
 
 BEGRIFFENFELDT ( with rapt admiration) 
 
 Peer Gynt! Allegoric! I might have foreseen — 
 Peer Gynt? The Unknown, I presume it must mean. 
 The Comer, whose coming was told ! Ah ! I listen’d — 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Really? You came here to meet — You have been — 
 
156 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act iv 
 
 BEGRIFFENFELDT 
 
 Peer Gynt! Profound! Enigmatic! Clear! 
 
 Each word has a lesson, deep as the abyss is ! 
 
 What are you? 
 peer gynt ( modestly ) 
 
 I ’ve tried — though human to miss is — 
 To be myself. And I have a passport here. 
 
 BEGRIFFENFELDT 
 
 Again at the bottom that word enigmatic ! 
 
 ( Seizes him by the wrist ) 
 
 Cairo ! The Interpreters’ Kaiser ! Ecstatic ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Kaiser? 
 
 BEGRIFFENFELDT 
 
 Come on ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 But am I, as the phrase is — ? 
 BEGRIFFENFELDT ( dragging him away ) 
 
 The Interpreters’ Kaiser — upon Self’s basis ! 
 
 SCENE THIRTEEN 
 
 In Cairo. A large courtyard, with high walls and 
 buildings round it. Barred windows ; iron cages. 
 Three Keepers in the court. A fourth enters. 
 
 THE NEWCOMER 
 
 Schafmann ; where’s the director? He told me to 
 wait now — 
 
 A KEEPER 
 
 He drove off in the morning before it was light. 
 
 THE FIRST 
 
 Something must have occurr’d to annoy him, last 
 night. 
 
 For instance — 
 
SCENE XIIl] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 157 
 
 ANOTHER 
 
 Be quiet, he ’s outside the gate now ! 
 [Begriffenfeldt leads Peer Gynt in, locks the gate and 
 puts the key in his pocket, 
 peer gynt (aside) 
 
 Indeed, he ’s a man of remarkable gifts ; 
 
 With each word, beyond comprehension he lifts 
 The subject. (Looks around ) 
 
 So this is your Athenæum? 
 
 BEGRIFFENEELDT 
 
 Yes, every one of them, here you can see ’em — 
 
 The old group of Interpreters three score and ten, 
 But we ’ve added a hundred and sixty since then — 
 (Shouts to Keepers) 
 
 Michael, Schlingelberg, Schafmann, Fuchs — 
 
 Into the cages with you ! Shucks ! 
 
 THE KEEPERS 
 
 We! 
 
 BEGRIFFENFELDT 
 
 Get in ! Who else but you ? 
 
 When the world buzzes round, we must buzz with it, 
 too. 
 
 (Forces them into a cage) 
 
 He has come on this morning, he, Peer the Great; 
 You can guess the rest — more I needn’t state. 
 (Locks the cage, and throws the key into a well) 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 But, my dear Herr Doctor and Director — er — ? 
 
 BEGRIFFENFELDT 
 
 Neither one nor the other. I have been — Mein Herr, 
 
 Can you keep a secret? I must ease my heart 
 
 peer gynt (with increasing uneasiness) 
 
 What is it? 
 
158 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act IV 
 
 BEGRIFFENFELDT 
 
 Promise ! Don’t tremble, nor start ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 I will try 
 
 begriffenfeldt (takes him into a corner and whispers ) 
 The Absolute Reason quite 
 Departed this life at eleven last night. 
 peer gynt 
 
 God help me ! 
 
 BEGRIFFENFELDT 
 
 Yes, it ’s extremely deplorable, 
 And to me, as I ’m placed, it ’s especially horrible ; 
 For this institution ’s been known till to-day 
 As a madhouse. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 A madhouse! 
 
 BEGRIFFENFELDT 
 
 Till now, I say, 
 
 But no longer, you see. 
 peer gynt (blanched, saps softly ) 
 
 A madhouse ! This shows it ! 
 And this man is mad — and there ’s no one else 
 knows it ! 
 
 (Tries to steal off) 
 begriffenfeldt (follows him) 
 
 I hope you don’t misunderstand what I ’ve stated? 
 When I said He was dead, I — exaggerated. 
 
 He ’s beside himself. Out of his skin he leapt free, 
 Like my comrade Munchausen’s fox — do you see? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Excuse me one minute 
 
 begriffenfeldt (holding him back) 
 
 ’T was an eel he was like 
 
SCENE XIIl] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 159 
 
 Not a fox, of course. Right through his eye went a 
 spike ; 
 
 He writhed on the wall 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Oh ! where can I win ? 
 
 BEGRIFFENFELDT 
 
 Just a stick round his neck and, whip ! out of his skin ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 He ’s utterly crazy ! As mad as can be ! 
 
 BEGRIFFENFELDT 
 
 ’T is quite clear; ’t is a fact; futile any pretence is, 
 This from-himself-going must have consequences ; 
 
 In chief, revolution by land and sea. 
 
 Those who were call’d crazy, all became quite 
 Normal, at eleven o’clock last night, 
 
 In accordance with Reason’s new phase. And thence 
 is, 
 
 If ’t is rightly regarded, this my contention, 
 
 This fact too, at the hour (see above) which I 
 mention, 
 
 All the sane people, so call’d, went out of their senses. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 You mention’d the hour. My time’s short; I’ve 
 not — 
 
 BEGRIFFENFELDT 
 
 Your time ! You remind me ! I ’d nearly forgot ! 
 
 ( Opens a door and shouts ) 
 
 Come ! Of the new age I make proclamation ! 
 
 Reason is dead. Long live Peer Gynt, shout ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Now, my dear good sir — 
 
 [ The lunatics come out, at intervals, into the court- 
 yard. 
 
160 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act IV 
 
 BEGRIFFENFELDT 
 
 Good morning ! Come out! 
 And hail the first rays of emancipation ! 
 
 Here ’s your Kaiser ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Kaiser ? 
 
 BEGRIFFENFELDT 
 
 Yes, Kaiser, man. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 But the honour ’s so great, so much out of my way — 
 you 
 
 BEGRIFFENFELDT 
 
 Ah ! do not let any false modesty sway you 
 At a moment like this. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Give me time that I can — ! 
 No, indeed, I ’m not fit ; I’m completely dumfounded ! 
 
 BEGRIFFENFELDT 
 
 You! who have read the Sphinx’s secret, astounded? 
 You who ’re yourself? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 ’T is there that the haze is. 
 In everything I am myself, am I; 
 
 But here, if I follow you, one must try 
 To be outside oneself, as the phrase is. 
 
 BEGRIFFENFELDT 
 
 Outside? Now, that is a curious mistake! 
 
 Here one is oneself and can utterly sever 
 Everything else from oneself for ever. 
 
 Here, full sail, as ourselves, our course we make. 
 
 Each in the barrel of self down plunges 
 
 And ferments, and soon all but self expunges ; 
 
 And seals, with self’s bung, self’s citadel, 
 
SCENE XIIl] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 161 
 
 And seasons the staves in self’s deep well. 
 
 No one has tears for the other’s disasters ; 
 
 What the other’s ideas are, no one masters. 
 Ourselves, that we are in thought and tone, 
 Ourselves, to the spring-board’s uttermost verge — 
 And so, if a Kaiser ’s to mount the throne, 
 
 You are the very man, I urge. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Oh ! would that the devil ! 
 
 BEGRIFFENEELDT 
 
 Now don’t be downhearted; 
 Nearly all things in nature are new when they ’re 
 started. 
 
 “ Oneself ! ” — Come, you shall an example see ; 
 
 I ’ll choose out at random the first to be had. — 
 
 ( Beckons to a gloomy figure) 
 
 Good-day, Huhu ! Well, are you wandering, my lad, 
 Always with the imprint of misery? 
 
 HUHU 
 
 Yes ! Without interpretations 
 
 The people die, by generations. ( To Peer Gynt) 
 
 You ’re a stranger: will you hear? 
 
 PEER GYNT ( bowing ) 
 
 Certainly ! 
 
 HUHU 
 
 Then lend an ear — 
 
 Eastward, far as travel reaches, 
 
 Lie the Malabarish beaches. 
 
 Dutch and Portuguese surrounded 
 Them with culture quite unbounded. 
 
 Also in the same land there is 
 Plenty of pure Malabaris. 
 
 These too spoil the people’s speech, as 
 
162 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act iv 
 
 Well as lord it o’er the beaches. 
 
 But their land, in years of old, it 
 Was the orang-outang controll’d it. 
 
 In the forest none him better’d ; 
 
 There he fought and snarl’d unfetter’d. 
 Just as Nature had created 
 Him, so grinn’d he and so hated. 
 
 He could shriek unreprehended ; 
 
 For his kingdom none contended. — 
 
 Then the foreign joke (O evil 
 Day !) quite spoil’d the speech primeval. 
 Centuries four, without cessation 
 Night ruled o’er the monkey nation. 
 Nights so long, you know, are found to 
 Hide the goal a people ’s bound to. — 
 Forest’s primal notes are still now; 
 Growls the air no longer fill now, 
 
 If we wish our thoughts to utter 
 We in feeble words must stutter! 
 
 This constraint is really much too 
 Rigid; Portuguese and Dutch, too, 
 Half-caste races, Malabaris — 
 
 On them all it most unfair is. — 
 
 I have tried to raise th’ ideal 
 Of our primal speech, the real — 
 
 Tried to raise the corpse, by seeking 
 Proofs to show the right of shrieking, 
 Shriekt myself, and tried to show it 
 Needful, as the people’s poet. — 
 Through neglect my efforts languish. — 
 Now, I trust, you grasp my anguish. 
 Thanks, for lending me an ear; 
 
 Have you counsel, let me hear ! 
 
SCENE XIIl] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 163 
 
 PEER GYNT ( SOftl 2/) 
 
 It is written : best be howling 
 
 With the wolves around you yowling. (Aloud) 
 
 Trees, sir, to my recollection, 
 
 In Morocco give protection 
 To orang-outangs, quite lacking 
 Either bard’s or spokesman’s backing; 
 
 Their speech sounded Malabarish ! 
 
 It was pleasing yet not garish — 
 
 Have you thought of emigrating? 
 
 There ’s a way to serve your state in 
 
 HUHTJ 
 
 Thanks for lending me an ear, sir ; 
 
 I will do it without fear, sir. ( With a large gesture) 
 East ! Thou hast disown’d thy singer ! 
 
 In the West orangs still linger. (He goes) 
 
 BEGRIFFENFELDT 
 
 Well, was he himself? I should think so — wholly. 
 He ’s chock full of his own affairs simply and solely. 
 He ’s himself in all that out of him flows, — 
 
 He ’s himself because he beside himself goes. 
 
 Come here ! I ’ve another to show, who agrees, on 
 Everything now, since last night, with Reason. 
 
 (To a Fellah, carrying a mummy on his back) 
 
 King Apis ! how art thou, whom all realms obey, sir? 
 the fellah (wildly to Peer Gynt) 
 
 Am I King Apis? 
 
 peer gynt (getting behind the doctor) 
 
 Well, I don’t like to say, sir; 
 
 I ’m not quite at home in the situation ; 
 
 But your tone might be a justification 
 
 THE FELLAH 
 
 Now you ’re lying, too. 
 
164 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act IV 
 
 BEGRIFFENFELDT 
 
 Oh ! your Highness before — I 
 Should explain how things are. 
 
 THE FELLAH 
 
 I will tell him my story. 
 
 {Turns to Peer Gynt ) 
 
 Do you see what I have on my shoulders? 
 
 He was named Apis and King. 
 
 Now he goes by the name of mummy, 
 
 And is dead as anything. 
 
 He built all the Pyramids yonder, 
 
 And hew’d out the mighty Sphinx, 
 
 And fought, as the Doctor puts it, 
 
 With the Turks, both rechts and links. 
 
 And therefore the whole of Egypt 
 Hail’d him god and bountiful, 
 
 And put him up in the temples 
 In the likeness of a bull. — 
 
 But I am this same King Apis 
 I see that as clear as day; 
 
 And if you don’t understand it, 
 
 Very soon understand it you may. 
 
 One day King Apis dismounted 
 When he was out on the chase, 
 
 And withdrew himself, unattended, 
 
 To a part of my ancestor’s place. 
 
 But the field that King Apis fatten’d 
 Has nourisht me with its corn ; 
 
 If additional proofs are wanted, 
 
 I have an invisible horn. 
 
 Is it not, now, a cruel disaster 
 That no one will own my might? 
 
 I ’m Apis by birth, Egypt’s master, 
 
SCENE XIIl] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 165 
 
 But a Fellah in others’ sight. 
 
 Can you tell me what I should do now? 
 
 If you have advice, kindly state. 
 
 The problem is, how to make me 
 Like to King Apis the great. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 You had better build pyramids, Highness, 
 And hew out a mightier Sphinx, 
 
 And fight, as the Doctor puts it, 
 
 With the Turks both rechts and links. 
 
 THE FELLAH 
 
 H’m, that is a pretty story ! 
 
 A Fellah! A brother to lice! 
 
 I who can scarce keep my hovel 
 Free from the rats and mice. 
 
 Quick, man — think out something better 
 That ’ll make me both safe and great, 
 
 And exactly like to King Apis, 
 
 Whom my shoulders carry in state! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Suppose jmu hang’d yourself, Highness, 
 
 And then, in earth’s lap lying, 
 
 ’Twixt the coffin’s natural frontiers, 
 
 Kept as dead as anything? 
 
 THE FELLAH 
 
 I ’ll do it ! My life for a halter ; 
 
 On the gallows high I will sway ! — 
 
 ’T will be a bit strange to start with, 
 
 But time will smooth that away. 
 
 ( Goes off and prepares to hang himself ) 
 
 EEGRIFFENFELDT 
 
 There ’s a personality for you, Herr Peer — 
 A man with a method 
 
166 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act IV 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Yes, yes ; I ’m aware. 
 But he ’ll hang himself verily ! God ! Be gracious ! 
 
 I feel ill — I can’t control thoughts pertinacious — ! 
 
 BEGRIFFENFELDT 
 
 ’T is a state of transition ; ’t will soon disappear. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Transition? To what? Pray — I must leave 
 here 
 
 BEGRiFFENDFELDT ( holding him ) 
 
 Are you mad? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Oh! not yet. Mad? God forbid it! 
 [A commotion. The Minister Hussein pushes through 
 the crowd. 
 
 HUSSEIN 
 
 They tell me a Kaiser has come here to-day. 
 
 (To Peer Gynt) 
 
 Is it you? 
 
 peer gynt (in desperation ) 
 
 Yes, of course ! It can’t be kept hid, it 
 Seems plain. 
 
 HUSSEIN 
 
 Good! There are notes to write, eh? 
 peer gynt (tearing his hair) 
 
 Huzza ! Right there ; the madder, the better ! 
 
 HUSSEIN 
 
 I hope you will take a dip here, for your letter. 
 (Bowing deeply) 
 
 I am a pen. 
 
 peer gynt (bowing still deeper) 
 
 Then I am (let ’s tell ’em!) 
 
 A trumpery piece of imperial vellum. 
 
SCENE XIIl] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 167 
 
 HUSSEIN 
 
 My story can briefly be put in a word: 
 
 I ’m a pen, and they call me a pounce-box, my lord. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 My story, put briefly, Sir Pen, is a light one — 
 
 I ’m a blank sheet of paper that no one will write on. 
 
 HUSSEIN 
 
 What I am good for, none will understand; 
 
 They all try to use me for scattering sand. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Once a woman’s silver-claspt book was Peer Gynt — 
 Whether mad or sane, ’t is the same misprint ! 
 
 HUSSEIN 
 
 Fancy; what an agonised life; 
 
 To be Pen and ne’er have a taste of the knife! 
 peer gynt {with a high leap) 
 
 Fancy; a reindeer; from high hills to bound — 
 
 To fall — and your hoofs never come to the ground ! 
 
 HUSSEIN 
 
 A knife ! I am blunt — quick, make a new end to me ! 
 The world is in ruins, if none acts like a friend to me ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 ’T would be vastly sad for the world, that it would, 
 Which God said, like other self-made things, was good. 
 
 BEGRIFFENFELDT 
 
 Here ’s a knife ! 
 
 Hussein ( seizing it) 
 
 To lick ink ! No tongue can utter 
 What a rapture to cut oneself! ( Cuts his throat) 
 BEGRIFFENFELDT ( stepping aside) 
 
 Do not splutter. 
 
 peer gynt (in increasing horror) 
 
 Hold him! 
 
168 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act IV 
 
 HUSSEIN 
 
 Hold me ! That ’s the word that is wanted ! 
 Hold ! Hold the pen ! On the desk should be planted 
 Paper — ! (Falls) 
 
 I ’m worn-out. P.S. ’t is decided 
 He lived a,nd he died as a pen fate-guided! 
 
 PEER 6YNT (d'lZZy) 
 
 What shall I — ? What am I ? Great — Help is 
 bespoke ! 
 
 I am all that thou wilt — a Turk, sinner, bad — 
 
 A hill troll — but help — there was something that 
 broke. 
 
 ( Shrieks ) 
 
 I can’t now remember the name I invoke ! — 
 
 Help me, thou — O Protector of all the mad ! 
 (Sinks down in a swoon ) 
 
 BEGRiEFENFELDT (with a wreath of straw in his hand, 
 gives a leap and sits astride him ) 
 
 In the mire enthroned we see him ! 
 
 Beside himself — ! Now crown him there! 
 
 (Puts the wreath on him and shouts ) 
 
 Hail ! Self-hood’s Kaiser ! Honor we him ! 
 
 SCHAFMANN 
 
 (In the cage) 
 
 Es lebe hoch der grosse Peer ! 
 
 END OF FOURTH ACT 
 
THE FIFTH ACT 
 
 SCENE ONE 
 
 On board a ship in the! North Sea, off the Norwegian 
 coast. Sunset. Stormy weather. 
 
 Peer Gynt, a sturdy old man, with grizzled hair and 
 beard, stands aft by the poop. He is dressed half- 
 sailor fashion, in a pea-jacket and long boots. Hid 
 clothing is somewhat the worse for wear; he himself is 
 weather-beaten, and has a harder expression. The 
 Ship’s Captain is beside the steersman at the wheel. 
 The Crew are forward. 
 
 peer gynt ( leans his arms on the bidwarks, and gazes 
 towards the land) 
 
 Look at Hallingskarv, drest for the winter ! Oh ! 
 
 He swaggers it brave in the evening glow. 
 
 His brother, the Jokle, ’s behind on a cantle; 
 
 He still wears on his back his green ice-mantle. 
 The Folgefånn, too, she is fine and bright, 
 
 Lying there, like a maiden, in perfect white. 
 
 Don’t you start, old lads, any madcap play ! 
 
 Stand where you stand, granite stern and gray. 
 the captain ( shouts forward ) 
 
 Two hands to the wheel — and aloft show a light ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 It blows stiff. 
 
 THE CAPTAIN 
 
 We ’ll have a storm ere night. 
 
170 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act V 
 
 PEEK GYNT 
 
 Can one make out the Ronde Hills from the sea? 
 
 THE CAPTAIN 
 
 Why no, man — right back o’ the snowfields they be. 
 
 PEEK .GYNT 
 
 Or Blaho? 
 
 THE CAPTAIN 
 
 No; but from up in the rigging 
 You can see, in clear weather, Galdhopiggen. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Which way is Hårteig? 
 the captain ( pointing ) 
 
 Just there, or nearly. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Of course. 
 
 THE CAPTAIN 
 
 You know the coast here, clearly? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 When I left the country, we sailed this way, 
 
 And the dregs stick tight till the last, they say. 
 
 ( Spits and gazes at the coast ) 
 
 Over there, in the blue of screes and crannies — 
 Where the valleys, black, narrow as ditches, go — 
 And right on the edge of the fiord, below — 
 
 It is there the abiding place of man is. 
 
 ( Looks at the Captain) 
 
 They build far apart in this country. 
 
 THE CAPTAIN 
 
 True ; 
 
 The dwellings are far between and few. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Shall we get in by daybreak? 
 
SCENE i] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 171 
 
 THE CAPTAIN 
 
 I think we might, 
 
 If we don’t get a regular storm in the night. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 It grows thick in the west. 
 
 THE CAPTAIN 
 
 It does so. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Stay ! 
 
 When we settle things up, you might put me in 
 mind — 
 
 As the phrase is, to do a good turn I ’m inclined, 
 Help the crew 
 
 THE CAPTAIN 
 
 Thank you! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Nothing much, by the way. 
 I have digg’d for gold, and lost what I found — 
 Fate and I are enemies, down to the ground. 
 
 You know what I ’ve got, safe below, on board. 
 That’s all; the fiend took the rest of my hoard. 
 
 THE CAPTAIN 
 
 It ’s enough to make you highly respected 
 At home. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 I ’ve no family. He ’s not expected, 
 
 The rich old curmudgeon, by any one here. — 
 
 Well, so one escapes the scene on the pier! 
 
 THE CAPTAIN 
 
 Here is the storm. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Well, bear in mind — 
 
172 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act V 
 
 If any ’s in real need, by your judging, 
 
 I ’ll help ; with my money I ’ll not be grudging. 
 
 THE CAPTAIN 
 
 That ’s handsome. They ’re most of them poor, 
 you ’ll find ; 
 
 They all have got wives and children to feed. 
 
 Things go hard with a man on naught but his 
 earnings ; 
 
 Should he come home with extra, of all his returnings 
 ’T will be one that will not be forgotten with speed. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Wives have they, and children? What ’s this are 
 you saying? 
 
 Are they married? 
 
 THE CAPTAIN 
 
 Married? Yes, the whole fo’c’sle. 
 The worst-off ’s the cook for, laughing at locks, ill 
 Famine is ever at his house staying. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Married? They ’ve folks at home then to meet them? 
 When they come, there are folks to be glad at the 
 sight? 
 
 THE CAPTAIN 
 
 Of course, in poor folk’s way. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 And come they one night, 
 
 What then? 
 
 THE CAPTAIN 
 
 Why the good wife will be there to greet them 
 And fetch something good. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 And a light ? 
 
SCENE i] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 173 
 
 THE CAPTAIN 
 
 May be two ; 
 
 And for supper a dram of some hot drink will brew. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 And they sit there so snug ! And it ’s warm by the 
 ingle ! 
 
 How they chatter as with them their children mingle ! 
 There is none hears another right out to the end, 
 For the joy that is on them! — 
 
 THE CAPTAIN 
 
 I daresay that ’s true. 
 
 And therefore it ’s handsome of you to befriend — 
 As you promised to 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 May I be damn’d if I do ! 
 
 Do you think I am mad? Would you have me fork 
 out 
 
 For the children of folk I care nothing about? 
 
 I ’ve slaved far too hard at my money-collecting! 
 Poor old Peer Gynt there is no one expecting. 
 
 THE CAPTAIN 
 
 Well, well, as you please; your money’s your own, 
 sir. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Right ! It is mine ; and mine alone, sir. 
 
 We ’ll reckon, as soon as you ’ve let down your 
 anchor, 
 
 Whatever the fare is from Panama here. 
 
 Then rum round to the crew. Nothing more; never 
 fear, 
 
 I ’ll no more, or right on my jaw give a spanker! 
 
 THE CAPTAIN 
 
 I owe you a quittance and never a thrashing — 
 
174 ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act V 
 
 But pardon — the storm to a fury is lashing. 
 
 [He goes forward. It has come over dark; lights are 
 lit in the cabin. The sea grows. Fog and thick 
 clouds. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 At home a whole bevy of youngsters expecting 
 you; 
 
 Always with joy in their hearts recollecting you; 
 To have other’s thoughts follow you still on your 
 way — 
 
 There ’s never a soul thinks of me to-day — 
 
 Lights for to greet them? Lights! I will quench 
 them. 
 
 I will hit upon something! With liquor I ’ll drench 
 them ; 
 
 Not one of the beasts shall go sober ashore. 
 
 Drunk home to their children and wives they shall 
 stumble ! 
 
 They shall curse; bang the board till the glasses 
 tumble, 
 
 They shall scare those that wait for them ! Aye, and 
 more. 
 
 Right out of the house shall the good wife run 
 screaming. — 
 
 Clutching her children ! Their j oy shatter’d dream- 
 ing! 
 
 ( The ship gives a heavy lurch ; he staggers and keeps 
 up with difficulty ) 
 
 That ’s a good old buffet, a blow like a caber’s : 
 
 The sea might be paid, so hard are his labors; 
 
 He’s still himself here in the North, as of old; 
 
 A cross sea, a crooked and wrong-headed scold. — 
 ( Listens ) 
 
 What is it — those screams ? 
 
SCENE i] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 175 
 
 the watch (forward) 
 
 A wreck a-lee ! 
 
 the captain ( amidships , orders) 
 
 Starboard your helm ! Keep her to ! 
 
 THE MATE 
 
 Can you say, 
 
 Are there men on the wreck? 
 
 THE WATCH 
 
 I can see three ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Quick with the stern-boat 
 
 THE CAPTAIN 
 
 She ’d fill straight away. 
 
 ( Goes forward) 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Who can think of that? (To some of the crew) 
 
 If you are men, try and save them ! 
 What the devil, the waves and a wetting, just brave 
 them 
 
 THE BOATSWAIN 
 
 It cannot be thought of in such a sea. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 They are screaming again ! There ’s a lull in the wind 
 now — 
 
 Cook, I will pay you — come, quick, show your kind 
 now — 
 
 THE COOK 
 
 Not if twenty pounds sterling were offer’d to me 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 You dogs ! Chicken-hearted ! Can you forget 
 These men have wives, children at home? Oh! and 
 yet — 
 
 They sit and they wait 
 
176 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act V 
 
 THE BOATSWAIN 
 
 Patience ’s good for the wits. 
 
 THE CAPTAIN 
 
 Bear away from the breakers ! 
 
 THE MATE 
 
 She ’s going ! She splits ! 
 
 PEEK GYNT 
 
 All is silent ? 
 
 THE BOATSWAIN 
 
 And even now, were you right, 
 In the world there are three new-made widows 
 to-night. 
 
 [ The storm increases. Peer Gynt moves away aft. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 There is no faith left among men now — and there ’s 
 No Christianity, ’t is true what they write; 
 
 Men do little good ; and how scanty their pray’rs, 
 And how small their respect for Supernal Might. — 
 In a storm, like this is, the Lord ’s a real danger. 
 These beasts should take care, think what ’s true 
 without saying, 
 
 That with elephants it is but risky playing — 
 
 Yet quite openly they must arouse his anger! 
 
 I am guiltless quite; there, for the oblation, 
 
 I ’ll prove, with cash ready, I took my station. 
 
 What does that profit me? — Well, as the phrase is: 
 A clear conscience a pillow of comfort is. 
 
 That ’s all right on dry land ; but quite other the 
 case is 
 
 On the high seas here where the wind the waves 
 chases, 
 
 When a decent man ’s out with a rabble like this. 
 One never can be one’s self at sea; 
 
SCENE i] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 177 
 
 One must follow the rest, a-port, a-lee; 
 
 If for them this should be the hour that is 
 chosen, 
 
 I ’ll be dasht to the deuce with the cook and the 
 bo’sun; 
 
 One’s personal welfare is clean set aside ; 
 
 One counts but as a sausage at slaughtering-tide — 
 My mistake is, my conduct has been too meek. 
 
 And I ’ve had no thanks in the end to reward it. 
 Were I younger, a different plan I would seek, 
 
 And try for a time to swagger and lord it. 
 
 There’s time still! The parish a-fluster shall be! 
 Come 
 
 Running to see Peer high over the sea come ! 
 
 I will get back the homestead by hook or by crook ; 
 I ’ll rebuild, till as fine as a palace it look. 
 
 But I ’ll have none inside in the rooms ! All the 
 chaps 
 
 Shall stand in the gateway, twirling their caps ; 
 They shall beg and beseech — that they may do, for 
 me ; 
 
 Not a farthing of mine, though, shall one of them 
 see; 
 
 If I ’ve had to howl under Fate’s sharp lashes, 
 
 I ’ll find folks in my turn — and then down the whip 
 crashes — 
 
 a strange passenger ( stands in the darkness at Peer 
 Gynt’s side and greets him as a friend) 
 
 Good evening! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Good evening ! What ? Who may you be ? 
 
 THE PASSENGER 
 
 At your service, your fellow passenger. 
 
178 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act V 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Indeed! I thought I was the only one, sii*. 
 
 THE PASSENGER 
 
 A mistake, which is now corrected, you see. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 But it ’s singular that for the first time to-night 
 I should see you 
 
 THE PASSENGER 
 
 I never come out in the light. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 You’re ill, then? You look like a sheet, just as 
 white 
 
 THE PASSENGER 
 
 No, thanks. I ’m uncommonly fit and right. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 What a storm! 
 
 THE PASSENGER 
 
 Yes, sir, a blessed, God-given ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Blessed? 
 
 THE PASSENGER 
 
 The seas high as houses are running. 
 
 How one’s mouth waters ! To-night, the wrecks, 
 stunning 
 
 And deafening, along the coast will be riven ; 
 
 And think, how the corpses ashore will be driven! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Lord save us ! 
 
 THE PASSENGER 
 
 Have you ever seen a man choked 
 Or hang’d — or drowned? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Too far you have joked. 
 
SCENE i] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 179 
 
 THE PASSENGER 
 
 The corpses all laugh. But their laughter ’s con- 
 strain’d ; 
 
 And the most part are biting their tongues, as tho’ 
 pain’d. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Leave me ! 
 
 THE PASSENGER 
 
 Your pardon, just one question more! 
 If we, for example, should now run ashore 
 And sink in the dark. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 You think that we may? 
 
 THE PASSENGER 
 
 I really don’t know what I ought to say. 
 
 But suppose that you sink, and I come up, lonely. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Oh, rubbish 
 
 THE PASSENGER 
 
 It is a hypothesis only, 
 
 But when a man stands with one foot in the grave. 
 He grows open-handed, would avoid seeming hate- 
 ful — 
 
 Peer gynt ( feeling in his pocket) 
 
 Oh ! money ! 
 
 THE PASSENGER 
 
 No; no; but if you gave 
 
 Your esteem’d carcass to me, I would be grate- 
 ful ? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 This is too much! 
 
180 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act V 
 
 THE PASSENGER 
 
 It ’s only your body, I pray you ! 
 And that ’s for my work of research 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Getaway! You! 
 
 THE PASSENGER 
 
 But, my dear sir, consider — ’t will be to your 
 profit ! 
 
 I ’ll open you, then we will know the truth of it. 
 What I specially seek is the seat of dreams — 
 
 And critically I will look at your seams 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Go away from me ! 
 
 THE PASSENGER 
 
 But, my dear sir — a drown’d body 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Blasphemer ! You ’re goading the storm to be bloody ! 
 It ’s really too bad ! Here it ’s raining and blowing, 
 A high sea, and all kinds of signs that are 
 showing 
 
 There ’s something that comes for our death or our 
 chastening ; 
 
 And you, by your talk, will insist on its hastening! 
 
 THE PASSENGER 
 
 You ’re in no mood for further negotiations, 
 
 But time, you know, brings so many mutations 
 
 ( Nods in friendly wise) 
 
 We will meet when you ’re sinking, if not before ! 
 Then by my proposals you may set more store. 
 
 ( Goes into the cabin) 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 What dismal companions, these scientists ! So 
 Free- thinking and 
 
181 
 
 SCENE i] PEER GYNT 
 
 (To the Boatswain, who is -passing ) 
 
 Friend, a word with you! Oh! 
 That passenger? What asylum has been his nurse? 
 
 THE BOATSW r AIN 
 
 There ’s no passenger here but yourself, is there? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 No others? This thing’s getting worse and worse. 
 {To the Ship’s Boy, who comes out of the cabin ) 
 Who went down the companion just now? 
 
 THE BOY 
 
 Ship’s dog, Sir! {Passes on) 
 
 THE LOOK-OUT {shouts) 
 
 Land close ahead! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Oh ! my bos ! My safe ! How — ? 
 All the baggage on deck ! 
 
 THE BOATSWAIN 
 
 We have more to do now. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 It was nonsense, captain ! Just chaff ! I swear 
 I will help the cook ; yes, I pledge my wits 
 
 THE CAPTAIN 
 
 The j ib ’s blown away ! 
 
 THE MATE 
 
 And the foresail goes ! There ! 
 the boatswain {screams from forward) 
 
 Breakers under the bow ! 
 
 THE CAPTAIN 
 
 She ’ll go to bits ! 
 
 [ The ship strikes. Noise and confusion. 
 
182 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act V 
 
 SCENE TWO 
 
 Close by the land, among rocks and breakers. The 
 ship sinks. In the scud, the jolly-boat can be seen, with 
 two men in her. A sea strikes and fills her; she capsizes ; 
 a shriek is heard; then all is silent for a time. Shortly 
 after the boat comes bottom upwards. 
 
 Peer Gynt rises to the surface near the boat. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Help! Lord! A boat! I’m drowning! Oh! 
 
 Save me — ! How does the scripture go? 
 
 ( Clutches on the boat’s keel) 
 the cook ( rises on the other side) 
 
 Lord! For my babes’ sakes, stretch Thine hand! 
 Have mercy! Fetch me safe to land! 
 
 ( Seizes hold of the keel) 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Let go ! 
 
 THE COOK 
 
 Let go ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 I ’ll strike ! 
 
 THE COOK 
 
 So ’111! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 With kicks I ’ll crush you utterly ! 
 
 Let go! The boat will not float both! 
 
 THE COOK 
 
 No. Yield! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Yield ! 
 
SCENE II] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 183 
 
 THE COOK 
 
 You can take your oath! 
 
 [They fight; one of the Cook's hands is disabled; he 
 clings on with the other. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Off with that hand ! 
 
 THE COOK 
 
 Oh ! Kind Sir — spare ! 
 
 Think of my babes, a-waiting there ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 I need my life far more than you, 
 
 For I am childless still. 
 
 THE COOK 
 
 Nay! do 
 
 Let go! You ’ve lived; and I am young! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Quick, sink — your weight too long has hung 
 
 THE COOK 
 
 Have mercy ! Yield in God’s name yet ! 
 
 There ’s none to miss you nor regret — 
 
 (He screams and slips ) 
 
 I ’ll drown ! 
 
 peer gynt [seizes him ) 
 
 I ’ll hold you by the hair ; 
 
 Say an “ Our Father quick, to pray’r ! 
 
 THE COOK 
 
 I can’t remember — ; dark clouds cover ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Quick, the essentials ! Get it over ! 
 
 THE COOK 
 
 Give us this day ! 
 
184 
 
 PEER GYXT 
 
 [act V 
 
 PEEK GYNT 
 
 Oh, let that be! 
 You ’ll get all you need, certainly. 
 
 THE COOK 
 
 Give us this day 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 The same old song! 
 
 ’T is plain you ’ve been a cook for long 
 
 [ The Cook slips from his grasp. 
 the cook ( sinking ) 
 
 Give us this day our ( Disappears ) 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Amen, friend! 
 
 You were yourself right to the end — 
 
 ( Pulls himself up on the boat) 
 
 While there is life, there ’s hope, say I 
 
 the strange passenger ( catches hold of the boat) 
 Good morning! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Hey! 
 
 THE PASSENGER 
 
 I heard } r ou cry ! — 
 
 ’T is good again to meet with you. 
 
 Well? So my prophecy came true? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Let go ! ’T will scarce serve one, this boat ! 
 
 THE PASSENGER 
 
 I ’m swimming too. And I can float 
 If I have but my finger-tips, 
 
 So, on this ledge to guard off slips. 
 
 But å propos your body 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Peace ! 
 
SCENE II] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 185 
 
 THE PASSENGER 
 
 The rest, of course, is done for 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Cease! 
 
 No more! 
 
 THE PASSENGER 
 
 Just as you like. (i Silence) 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Well? Well! 
 
 THE PASSENGER 
 I ’m silent. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Satan’s tricks of hell ! — 
 
 What do you? 
 
 THE PASSENGER 
 
 Wait. 
 
 peer gynt ( tearing his hair ) 
 
 I ’ll lose my wits. 
 
 What are you? 
 
 THE PASSENGER ( nodding ) 
 
 Friendly. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 What else? 
 
 THE PASSENGER 
 
 It ’S 
 
 For you to think. Know you none other 
 Like me? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 The devil, or his brother! 
 
 THE PASSENGER ( Softly ) 
 
 Across life’s night holds he a lamp 
 For mortals who through horror tramp? 
 
186 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act V 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Come then, when things are seen aright, 
 
 You are a messenger of light? 
 
 THE PASSENGER 
 
 Friend — have you known twice in a year 
 The clutch of earnest dread and fear? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 One fears, when one towards risk has slidden; 
 But in your words lie meanings hidden 
 
 THE PASSENGER 
 
 Ay, have you once in life e’er known 
 The vict’ry dread gives — dread alone? 
 
 PEER GYNT ( looks at him) 
 
 Came you to open me a door, 
 
 ’T was stupid not to come before. 
 
 Now I’m half-drown’d — what rhyme or reason 
 Was there in choosing such a season? 
 
 THE PASSENGER 
 
 Would victory have likelier been 
 Beside your hearthstone, snug, serene? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Perhaps not — but your talk was droll ; 
 
 How could you think ’t would stir the soul? 
 
 THE PASSENGER 
 
 Where I come from, pathetic style ’s 
 No more esteemed than jests and smiles. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 All has its time ; the old text I fish up — 
 
 What suits the broker damns the Bishop. 
 
 THE PASSENGER 
 
 They who ’ve gone thro’ incineration 
 On week-days must have relaxation. 
 
SCENE III] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 187 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Be off, you bugbear! Loose that hand! 
 
 I will not die ! I will reach land ! 
 
 THE PASSENGER 
 
 Don’t be afraid, you ’ll keep alive ! 
 
 One dies not midmost of Act Five. ( Glides away ) 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 That shows, at last, his nature’s twist ! 
 
 He was a sorry moralist. 
 
 SCENE THREE 
 
 Churchyard in a high-lying mountain parish. 
 
 A Funeral. Priest and People. The last verse of 
 the Psalm is being sung. Peer Gynt is passing by on 
 the road. 
 
 peer gynt (at the gate ) 
 
 Here ’s a count^man going the way of us all. 
 
 God be thankt, that it is n’t my funeral. 
 
 (Enters the churchyard ) 
 the priest (speaking beside the grave ) 
 
 Now that the soul ’s been summoned to its God, 
 And here the dust lies, like an empty pod, 
 
 Now, my dear friends, we ’ll speak a word upon 
 The life on this earth of the man who ’s gone. 
 Wealth was not his, wisdom he had no share in, 
 
 He had a quiet voice, unmanly bearing, 
 
 His views were undecided, if he spoke; 
 
 He scarce was master of his home and folk; 
 
 He sidled into church, as he were saying, 
 
 “ May I have leave to join you in your praying? ” 
 He came, you know, from Gudbrandsdale, unbidden. 
 When here he settled, he was but a lad; 
 
188 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act V 
 
 And you remember, how he always had 
 His right hand thrust deep in his pocket hidden. 
 That right hand in the pocket, to mj^ thinking, 
 Stampt the man’s picture firmly on the mind — 
 
 And beside that his writhing, his shamed shrinking, 
 Where’er he went, from notice of his kind. 
 
 But though his path was still aloof and lonely, 
 Though in our midst he was a stranger still, 
 
 You know, what he so wanted to conceal — 
 
 The hand he cover’d, had four fingers only. — 
 
 I well remember, many years ago, 
 
 One morn : at Lunde there were held assizes. 
 
 It was in war time, and the country’s crisis 
 Was in all mouths, and what the fates might show. 
 
 I watcht there. At the table, in between 
 Bailiff and sergeants was the Captain sitting; 
 
 Then they were measuring up and down, admitting 
 Lad after lad as soldiers. From the green, 
 
 Where the young folk were all together singing, 
 
 Into the crowded room, swept laughter ringing. 
 
 A name was call’d. Another came; and, lo! 
 
 He was as white as is the glacier-snow. 
 
 He was call’d nearer; at the last the table 
 Reacht ; his right hand was swaddled in a clout ; 
 
 He gasp’d, he swallow’d, strove for words — unable 
 To find his voice, though bidden to speak out. 
 
 All, yes, at last; with words that now would 
 linger, 
 
 Now rush apace, with cheeks all flaming-red, 
 
 He mumbled of a scythe that slipp’d, he said. 
 
 And shore, by chance, right to the skin, his finger. 
 Straight o’er the room a sudden silence stole. 
 
 Men made mouths, bandied glances, and the whole 
 
SCENE ra] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 189 
 
 Room stoned the lad with looks. He could not flee it ; 
 He felt the hail-storm, though he did not see it. 
 Then rose the grey old Captain, spat, and so 
 Pointed without the door and thunder’d : “ Go ! ” 
 And the lad went. All there fell back before him, 
 So that he ran the gauntlet through that throng; 
 He found the door; fled, and his anguish strong 
 Up, ever up, through woods, o’er hillsides bore him, 
 Up, o’er the crags that threaten still to tumble, 
 Among the hills he had his homestead humble. — 
 With mother and betrothed and child, one day 
 Some six months later here we saw him wander. 
 
 He leased some ground up on the hillside yonder 
 Where towards Lomb the waste land sweeps away. 
 He married soon as it was possible ; 
 
 He built a house ; broke the stern soil ; and well 
 He fared, as many an acre bravely told 
 Bearing its generous load of waving gold. 
 
 At church he ever kept his right hand hidden — 
 
 Ah ! but at home ! His fingers nine would then, 
 
 I ’m sure, work just as hard as others’ ten. — 
 
 One spring, and all beneath the flood had slidden. 
 Their lives were spared them. Stript of all, in 
 ruin, 
 
 He set to work to make another clearing, 
 
 And, ere the autumn, a new farm-house grew in 
 Another spot, in shelter safe appearing. 
 
 Shelter’d? From flood, indeed; from landslide, no! 
 Two years, and all was swallow’d by the snow. 
 
 Yet by the landslide was his soul unshaken ; 
 
 He dug, he raked, carted and cleared the ground — 
 And ere next winter’s blasting snows could waken, 
 For the third time his little house stood sound. 
 
190 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act V 
 
 Three sons he had, three active boys and merry; 
 And they must go to school, and school was far; 
 They ’d have to climb, where snows the hill-path bury, 
 And where the narrow, trembling passes are. 
 
 What did he do? The eldest boy was ready 
 To do his best, and where the pass sheer’d black, 
 His father tied a rope round him to steady; 
 
 The other two he bore on arms and back. 
 
 Thus, year by year he toil’d, till they were men. 
 Some slight return he might have lookt for, then. 
 
 In the New World three prosperous attorneys 
 Forget their Norse, their father and those journeys. 
 He was short-sighted. Still a ring was bounding 
 His vision ; only those near him he saw. 
 
 To him seem’d meaningless, as cymbals sounding, 
 Words that should ring, and touch the heart with awe. 
 His race, his country, all that ’s high and bright, 
 Stood shrouded in a mist to this man’s sight. 
 
 But he was humble, humble; and he came 
 From the assizes by his doom fear-ridden, 
 
 As surely as his cheeks were flushed with shame 
 And his four fingers in his pocket hidden. — 
 
 He sinn’d against the law of the land? Ay, true! 
 But there is something tops the law, outshining, 
 Sure as o’er yonder snow-white mountain do 
 The clouds, like higher peaks, on peaks reclining. 
 
 He was no patriot. Dead as a barren tree is 
 For Church and State. But on his mountain shelf 
 There, ’mid his circle small, where he could see his 
 Work, he w T as strong, because he was himself. 
 
 Up to the end, that native note rang right. 
 
 A lute with silent strings to him was given. 
 
 Peace to thee, thou who quietly has striven, 
 
SCENE III] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 191 
 
 Fighting and falling in the peasant’s fight ! 
 
 It is not ours to search the heart and reins; 
 
 That ’s not dust’s task, but His who dust sustains ; 
 Yet what I hope I ’ll speak out firm and free : 
 
 Scarce crippled now before his God stands he ! 
 
 [ The gathering disperses. Peer Gynt remains behind 
 alone. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Now that ’s what I call Christianity ! 
 
 There was nothing to bring to one disconsolation. — 
 Aye, the topic — stand firm on a self-foundation — 
 That the good priest taught in his homily — 
 
 Is full, in its essence, of edification. 
 
 ( Looks down into the grave ) 
 
 Was it he, that I watcht one day a-hacking 
 His finger, when logs in the wood I was stacking? 
 Who knows? If I weren’t standing here by the 
 grave 
 
 Of my comrade in spirit, here, with my stave, 
 
 I could almost believe it was I that slept 
 And heard, in a dream, with what praise I was 
 wept. — 
 
 It ’s a decent and Christian-like thing to do 
 To take a so-call’d memorial view 
 In charity over the one that ’s departed. 
 
 When I ’m to be buried, I ’d not be down-hearted 
 If this excellent priest was to do the rest. 
 
 Ah ! well, I ’ve some time still ; the sexton ’s not 
 started 
 
 To send out his note to ask me as his guest; 
 
 And, as Scripture has it : What ’s best is best — 
 For the day, enough the day’s evil things call — 
 And further: discount not thy funeral. — 
 
192 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act V 
 
 Ah! the Church is the comforter! To her is owing 
 Our thanks, though I ’ve not realized it as yet ; 
 
 But now I feel, what a true blessing we get 
 In having a sound authority showing: 
 
 That your reaping shall be in accord with your 
 sowing. — 
 
 One must be oneself ; for oneself and one’s kin 
 In all do one’s best, through thick and thin. 
 
 Should luck go against you, you ’ve this to your 
 glory ; 
 
 The doctrine has guided your whole life-story. — 
 Now home! Though the path be steep and strait; 
 Though Fate to the end should spite my endeav- 
 our ; 
 
 Still old Peer Gynt will go his own gait 
 
 And remain what he is : poor, but virtuous ever. 
 
 {He goes ) 
 
 SCENE FOUR 
 
 A slope with a dried-up river-bed. A tumble-to-bits 
 mill-house beside the river; the ground is torn up, and 
 the whole place is in ruins. Higher up a large farm- 
 house. 
 
 In front of the farm-house an auction is being held. 
 Many people are gathered. There are drinking and 
 uproar. 
 
 Peer Gynt is sitting on a rubbish heap by the null. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Backwards and forwards, ’t is just as long; 
 
 In and out, and it ’s strait as strong. — 
 
 The river wears on, and time wastes drear. 
 Roundabout, said the Boyg; one must go round here. 
 
SCENE IV ] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 193 
 
 A MAN DRESSED IN MOURNING 
 
 Now there is nothing but rubbish to stir. 
 
 ( Catches sight of Peer Gynt ) 
 
 Are there strangers here, too? God be with you, 
 dear sir! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Well met! Things are merry to-day, I see. 
 
 A bride-feast or christening jollity? 
 
 THE MAN IN MOURNING 
 
 Rather a house-warming, I should have said ; 
 
 The bride is laid in a wormy bed. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 The worms squabble for rags and clouts that 
 cover 
 
 THE MAN IN MOURNING 
 
 That ’s the end of the ditty, so all is over. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 All the ditties end so, that ’s truth ; 
 
 And they all are old; I knew them in youth. 
 a ead of twenty ( with a casting-ladle) 
 
 Just see what a priceless thing I ’ve bought! 
 
 In this Peer Gynt silver buttons wrought. 
 
 ANOTHER 
 
 Look at mine? A groat got the money-sack! 
 
 A THIRD 
 
 No more? Twopence, say, for the pedlar’s pack? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Peer Gynt? Who was he? 
 
 THE MAN IN MOURNING 
 
 Well, he was kith, 
 
 That I know, to Death and to Aslak the Smith. 
 
 A MAN IN GREY 
 
 You ’ve forgot me, I say! Are you drunk or mad? 
 
194 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act V 
 
 THE MAN IN MOURNING 
 
 You ’ve forgot that Hegstad a stable-door had. 
 
 THE MAN IN GREY 
 
 Aye, true, but we know you were never fastidious. 
 
 THE MAN IN MOURNING 
 
 If only she does n’t deceive Death the hideous. 
 
 THE MAN IN GREY 
 
 Come, kinsman! For kinship’s sake, take just a 
 drop ! 
 
 THE MAN IN MOURNING 
 
 To hell with your kinship! With drink you’re a 
 slop 
 
 THE MAN IN GREY 
 
 Oh, rubbish; I ’m sure blood is not so thin, 
 
 One cannot help feeling to Peer Gynt akin. 
 
 ( Goes away with him ) 
 
 PEER GYNT ( Softly ) 
 
 One meets with acquaintances. 
 a ead ( shouts after The Man in Mourning ) 
 
 Aslak, think ! 
 
 Sure, mother will haunt you, if you have a drink. 
 peer gynt (rises) 
 
 Untrue, in this case, what the husbandmen tell, 
 is; 
 
 The deeper one harrows, the better the smell is. 
 a EAn ( with a bearskin ) 
 
 Look, the cat of the Dovre! Well, what he kept 
 warm in. 
 
 It was he, who at Yule, gave the trolls such a 
 storming. 
 
 another {with a Reindeer- skull) 
 
 Here is the wonderful reindeer that bore 
 Peer Gynt when o’er edge and crag they tore. 
 
SCENE iv] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 195 
 
 a third {with a hammer, calls out to The Man in 
 Mourning) 
 
 Hi, Aslak, were you ever this sledge-hammer swing- 
 ing? 
 
 Was it used, when the fiend through the wall went 
 winging? 
 
 a fourth ( empty handed) 
 
 Mads, here ’s the invisible cloak, see ! wherewith 
 Ingrid and Peer fled ; and flew through the air with. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Brandy there, boys ! I feel old ! — My trumpery 
 I will put up at auction with trash and frumpery ! 
 
 A EAD 
 
 What have you to sell, eh? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 A palace, there ! 
 
 It lies in the Ronde; it is built four-square. 
 
 A EAD 
 
 A button is bid ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Come, make it a quart. 
 
 ’T were a sin and a shame to bid anything short. 
 
 ANOTHER 
 
 He ’s a jolly old boy, this ! ( People crowd round him) 
 
 PEER GYNT ( shouts ) 
 
 Grane, my horse — 
 
 Who bids? 
 
 ONE OF THE CROWD 
 
 Where ’s he running? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Far west is his course. 
 Near the sunset, my lads! He’s as quick at flying, 
 Is that charger of mine, as Peer Gynt was at lying. 
 
196 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act V 
 
 VOICES 
 
 What more have you got? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Gold and trash as well! 
 I bought it with ruin — at a loss I will sell. 
 
 A EAD 
 
 Put it up ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 A dream of a silver-claspt book! 
 
 That I ’ll let go for the price of a hook. 
 
 THE LAD 
 
 To the devil with dreams! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 My kaiserdom, man ! 
 
 I fling it among you, let take it who can ! 
 
 THE LAD 
 
 Is the crown given in? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Of the loveliest straw. 
 
 The first who shall wear it, ’t will fit without flaw. 
 Hi, there is more ! An addled egg, there ! 
 
 The Prophet’s beard ! A madman’s grey hair ! 
 
 All are his who can find for one who astray is 
 A sign post in the hills saying : Here your way is ! 
 
 THE BAILIFF ( who llOS COTTie Up ) 
 
 If you carry on in this manner much more 
 Your way will soon lead to the prison-door. 
 peer gynt ( hat in hand) 
 
 Quite likely. But who was Peer Gynt, can you tell, 
 sir? 
 
 THE BAILIFF 
 
 What nonsense 
 
SCENE IV ] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 197 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Your pardon! I beg you 
 
 THE BAILIFF 
 
 Oh! well, sir, 
 
 He ’s said to have been a disgusting romancer 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 A romancer? 
 
 THE BAILIFF 
 
 Yes — all that was strong or great 
 He romanced about, he did it all, he ’d state. 
 
 But pardon me, friend — I have duties to answer 
 
 (Goes) 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 And now, this remarkable man, where is he? 
 
 AN ELDERLY MAN 
 
 To foreign lands he sail’d over the sea ; 
 
 It fared ill with him too, as one might swear — 
 
 It ’s many years since he was hanged out there. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Hang’d? Ay, ay! I ’d have thought as much; 
 
 Peer Gynt was himself to the final touch. (Bows) 
 Farewell — and thank you all for the day, 
 
 (Goes a few steps, but stops again) 
 
 You joyous lads and you damsels pretty, 
 
 With a traveller’s tale my shot shall I pay? 
 
 SEVERAL 
 
 Yes, do you know any? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Aye, and witty. — 
 
 (He comes nearer ; a look of strangeness steals over 
 him) 
 
 Out in ’Frisco once I was digging for gold. 
 
 It was cramm’d with buffoons, a number untold. 
 
198 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act V 
 
 With his toes one could fiddle away ; on his haunches 
 Another could dance the old Spanish dances; 
 
 A third composed verses, and still could do it 
 While his brain-pan was having a hole bored thro’ it. 
 To this buffoon-meeting the devil came hieing — 
 Thought he, with the rest, his luck would be trying. 
 His great line was this : in a perfectly fine 
 Realistic way he could grunt like a swine. 
 
 In a full house, th’ excitement was tense; tho’ none 
 knew 
 
 Who he was, yet his personality drew. 
 
 He came on in a cloak with a flying cape ; yes, it — 
 Or Man muss sich drappiren, as Germans express it. 
 But under that cape — what no one suspected — 
 He ’d smuggled a real, live pig undetected. 
 
 And now began the representation. 
 
 He pincht ; and the pig squeakt up to th’ occasion. 
 The whole thing was a fantasy, or tried to be, 
 
 On the life of a pig, both enslaved and free ; 
 
 At the end, a shrill slaughter-house-shriek let vent ; 
 Whereupon the performer bowed humbly, and 
 went. — 
 
 The critics discussed and judged the whole picture; 
 Its scheme met with praise and also with stricture; 
 Some thought the tone was too attenuated; 
 
 Some that the death-shriek show’d too much labor — 
 But that qua grunt he had exaggerated 
 The whole thing, each man agreed with his neigh- 
 bor. — 
 
 The devil laekt sense : had he thought for a second 
 He would have first with his audience reckon’d. 
 
 \n e boras and goes. A puzzled silence falls over the 
 people. 
 
SCENE V] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 199 
 
 SCENE FIVE 
 
 Whitswn Eve. In the heart of the forest. Far away, 
 in a clearing, is a hut with reindeer horns on the gable. 
 
 Peer Gynt is creeping among the undergrowth, 
 gathering wild onions. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Here is one standpoint. What is the next to swing 
 to? — 
 
 One should prove all things, and then the best cling 
 to. 
 
 Well, so I have — away from Cæsar 
 
 And downwards as far as from Nebuchadnezzar. 
 
 So I ’ve had, after all, to go through Bible history. — 
 The old boy ’s return’d to his mother. — I ’ve misst 
 her, aye, 
 
 As it ’s writ, Born of earth, thou art earth’s child 
 still. 
 
 The main thing in life is one’s belly to fill. 
 
 Fill it with onions ! That ’s precious poor faring — 
 I ’ll be cunning and try my hand at snaring. 
 
 Water ’s here in the beck ; so I shan’t suffer thirst, 
 And, after all, over the beasts I am first. 
 
 When it ’s my time to die, as it one day will be — 
 
 I shall creep in under a wind-fallen tree ; 
 
 Like the bear, I ’ll heap up the leaves for a cover, 
 And scrape on the bark in big letters, over 
 The place where I am: Here Peer Gynt lies, a 
 Good sort, o’er all the other beasts Kaiser. — 
 Kaiser? ( Laughs inwardly ) 
 
 Old cuckoo of soothsaying! You 
 Are n’t Kaiser; you ’re an onion. See what I ’ll do ! 
 
200 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act V 
 
 I am going to peel you now, my good Peer ! 
 
 You won’t escape either by howl or pray’r. 
 
 ( Takes an onion and strips off one coat after 
 another) 
 
 There lies, in tatters, the outermost coat: 
 
 ’T is the ship-wreckt man clinging on to the boat. 
 Here ’s the passenger-layer, scanty and thin — 
 
 Yet to taste there ’s a smack of Peer Gynt therein. 
 The gold-digger ego ’s the next thereunder ; 
 
 Its juice has gone — or — was there any, I wonder? 
 This one with hard skin and coarse in the grain 
 Is the old Hudson-Bay and seal-hunter strain. 
 
 The next ’s like a crown — O ! thanks, right away 
 We will throw that without further delay. 
 
 Here ’s the archaeologist, short, energetic. 
 
 And here fresh and juicy ’s the ego prophetic. 
 
 It stinks, as the Scripture has it, of lies, 
 
 Enough to bring tears to an honest man’s eyes. 
 
 This layer, that ’s roll’d so softly together, 
 
 Is the gentleman living at ease in fair weather. 
 
 The next one seems sick. It has odd black figures — 
 Black can denote both parsons and niggers. 
 
 ( Pulls off several at once) 
 
 What a vast number of swathings are here! 
 
 Where ’s the kernel? Won’t it ever appear? 
 
 ( Pulls the whole onion to bits) 
 
 No ! I ’m blest if it will ! To the innermost centre 
 It ’s all swathings — each less as the deeper I 
 enter. — 
 
 Nature is witty! ( Throws the bits away) 
 
 Brooding thoughts to hell tumble ! 
 If one thinks overmuch, one is apt to stumble. 
 
 Well, I can laugh at the danger, undaunted; 
 
SCENE v] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 201 
 
 Eor I, on all fours here, am firmly planted. 
 (Scratches the back of his head ) 
 
 How the whole odd affair the spirit amazes ! 
 
 Life uses fairy-gold, as the phrase is. 
 
 If you snatch at the coin, hey ! presto ’s the call, 
 And you grasp dead leaves only — or nothing at all. 
 (He has come near to the hut ; he catches sight of it 
 and starts') 
 
 This hut? On the heath ! Ha! (Rubs his eyes) 
 
 It seems as though 
 
 This very same building I used to know. — 
 
 The reindeer-skull, spreading there over the gable — ! 
 A mermaid, shaped like a fish from the navel — ! 
 Lies ! There ’s no mermaid ! But nails, and a lock — 
 Bars, to keep out the hobgoblin-thoughts that 
 knock — ! 
 
 Solveig (singing in the hut) 
 
 For Whitsun all has been ready since noon. 
 
 Dearest lad of mine, far away, far — 
 
 Comest thou soon? 
 
 Is thy burden smarting? 
 
 Take time ; for, oh, 
 
 I ’ll wait ; at parting 
 I promised thee so. 
 
 peer gynt (rises, quiet and deadly pale) 
 
 One who ’s remember’d — and one, who ’s forgot. 
 One who ’s squander’d — and one who ’s treasured 
 for ever. 
 
 O, zeal ! — And the game can be play’d again — 
 never ! 
 
 O, dread ! — My Empire was here in this spot ! 
 (Runs off along the wood path) 
 
202 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act V 
 
 SCENE SIX 
 
 Night. A heath with firs. A forest-fire has been 
 raging. Charred tree trunks stretching for miles. 
 White mists here and there clinging to the earth. 
 Peer Gynt is running over the heath. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Ashes, fog-scud, dust wind-driven — 
 
 Here ’s enough for building given ! 
 
 Stench and rottenness within 
 The whited sepulchre of sin. 
 
 Still-born knowledge, dreams, romances 
 Laid the pyramid’s foundation ; 
 
 So proceeds the work’s creation, 
 
 Step on step of lying fancies. 
 
 Zeal avoided, shunn’d repentance. 
 
 Flaunt on top, a scutcheon naked ; 
 
 Hark! The trump of doom their sentence! 
 
 Petrus Gyntus Cæsar fecit! ( Listens ) 
 
 What is that like children’s weeping? 
 
 Weeping, but half-way to song. — 
 
 At my feet are thread-balls creeping — ! 
 
 ( Kicks at them ) 
 
 Off ! And cease my path to throng ! 
 the thread-balls {on the ground) 
 
 Thoughts are we; 
 
 Thou shouldst have thought us ; 
 
 Feet to flee 
 
 Thou shouldst have brought us ! 
 peer gy t nt ( going roundabout) 
 
 I have given life to one ; — 
 
 He was crook-legg’d, could n’t run ! 
 
SCENE VI ] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 203 
 
 THE THREAD-BALLS 
 
 We should have risen 
 Like voices quivering — 
 
 We creep here, in prison, 
 
 Like thread-balls shivering. 
 peer gynt (stumbling} 
 
 Thread-ball ! Oh ! you rascal, damn you ! 
 
 Trip me, father as I am? You — ! ( Flees away ) 
 withered leaves {flying before the wind ) 
 
 We are a clarion; 
 
 Thou shouldst have been sounding us ! 
 While thou didst tarry, on 
 Crept Death confounding us. 
 
 Here ’s the worm’s bite on us, 
 
 Our curves dissecting; 
 
 No sun will light on us, 
 
 Sweet fruits protecting. 
 peer gynt 
 
 Not in vain your life’s enduring; 
 
 Lie you still ; you ’ll save manuring. 
 a singing in the air 
 
 We are a song; 
 
 Thou shouldst have sung us ! — 
 
 Too long! Too long 
 
 Thou has warpt and wrung us. 
 
 In thy heart’s hollow 
 
 We ’ve been lying and waiting; 
 
 No word came, creating. 
 
 We ’re poison to swallow! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Poison you, you stupid lines ! 
 
 Had I time for verse and whines? 
 
 ( Tries a short cut ) 
 
204 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act V 
 
 dewdrops ( dripping from the branches ) 
 
 We are tears 
 Unshed, unanguisht. 
 
 Sharp-wounding ice-spears 
 We could have vanquish!. 
 
 Now the spears stick in 
 The breast we ’d be quick in; 
 
 The wound is mended 
 Our pow’r is ended. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Thanks : in the Ronde my tears started — 
 
 All the same my tail-part smarted! 
 
 BROKEN STRAWS 
 
 We are deeds ; 
 
 Thou shouldst have endeavor’d us ; 
 Doubt, with his weeds, 
 
 Has strangled and sever’d us. 
 
 On the Ultimate Day, ah ! 
 
 We ’ll come in a crew 
 And all we will say, ah — 
 
 Then woe to you ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Shabby tricks these, as I live! 
 
 Blame me for what ’s negative? ( Hastens away ) 
 ase’s voice ( far away ) 
 
 Fie, what a rush, boy! 
 
 You ’re oversetting me ! 
 
 Here in the slush, boy — 
 
 Sadly it ’s wetting me. — 
 
 Take that turn instead, } r ou — ! 
 
 Peer, where ’s the castle? 
 
 The Fiend has misled } 7 ou 
 By the stick with the tassel ! 
 
SCENE vn] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 205 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Fast away you ’d best be tearing! 
 
 If the devil’s sins you ’re bearing, 
 
 On the hillside you ’ll fall prone ; 
 
 Hard enough, to bear one’s own. ( Runs off) 
 
 SCENE SEVEN 
 Another part of the heath. 
 
 PEER GYNT ( sings ) 
 
 A sexton! A sexton! Where are the dogs staying? 
 A song from brazen precentor mouths braying; 
 Around your hat-brim a mourning-band deep ; 
 
 I have many dead ; I must see them asleep ! 
 
 [ The Button-M older, with a box of tools and a large 
 casting-ladle, comes from a side-path. 
 
 THE BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 Well met, old gaffer! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Good evening, friend ! 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 The man ’s in a hurry. Where does he wend? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 To a wake. 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 Indeed? My eyes aren’t what they 
 
 were — 
 
 Excuse me — your name does n’t chance to be Peer? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Peer Gynt, as they say. 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 That ’s luck, all right ; 
 
 It ’s precisely Peer Gynt I am sent for to-night. 
 
206 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act V 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 You ’re sent for? What would you? 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 You see what this is, 
 
 I ’m a button-molder. You must go into this. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 In the ladle? What for? 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 There you must be melted. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Melt ? 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 It ’s empty, and clean as if ’t were new smelted. 
 Your grave ’s dug, your coffin is now on the way. 
 
 In your body the worms’ feast furious and faster 
 Can grow — but I ’ve orders, without delay 
 To fetch in your soul, on behalf of Master. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 It can’t be ! Like this without any warning ! 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 It ’s an old custom, when a man’s buried or born, in 
 Strict secret to settle the date of the function; 
 
 And the guest of honor has no injunction. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Yes, that ’s true. I ’m dizzy. My thoughts seem to 
 smolder. 
 
 You are then 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 I told you — a button-molder. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 I see ! The pet child has nicknames to go by. 
 
 So, Peer, it ’s there, that you must get the throw-by ! 
 But, my good man, ’t is monstrous unfair, yes it is ! 
 
SCENE vn] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 207 
 
 I ’m sure I deserve gentler treatment than this ; 
 Although you may n’t think it, I ’m not a bad 
 chap — 
 
 I ’ve done not a little good here ; mayhap, 
 
 At the worst I ’m a bungler, a sort of beginner — 
 But certainly not a singular sinner. 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 That ’s the rub, my good man ; all the trouble is 
 thence ; 
 
 You ’re no sinner at all in the higher sense ; 
 
 So you, all the torture-pangs unpaid, ’ll 
 Come, like the rest, to the casting-ladle. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Ladle or sulphur pit — what ’s in a name? 
 
 Spruce-ale or swipes, each is beer just the same. 
 
 Go ! Satan ! 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 You can’t be so rude as to judge 
 For horse-hooves the two feet on which I trudge? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 On horse-hooves or fox’s claws — get out ; 
 
 And take good care what you are about! 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 My friend, you are under a great delusion. 
 
 To save time — we ’re both in a hurry to go — 
 
 I ’ll give reasons enough to clear up the confusion. 
 You have, your own mouth has just told me so, 
 Never practised the so-called strenuous sinning — 
 Scarce middling, even 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 To talk reasonably 
 
 Ah, now you ’re beginning 
 
208 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act V 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 Wait just a bit; 
 
 “ Virtuous ” were a word that would hardly fit 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Well, that I have never laid claim to have been. 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 You ’re but so-so then, betwixt and between. 
 
 A sinner of really striking style 
 
 We can only meet nowadays once in a while ; 
 
 It needs more than merely to tramp in the mire; 
 
 A sin is compounded of keenness and fire. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Yes ; you ’re right enough there ; what you say is 
 quite true ; 
 
 Like the Berserkers, one must lay on and go through. 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 On the other hand, friend, you took your sin lightly. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Only outwardly, friend, I was splasht with mud 
 slightly. 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 Now we ’ll soon agree. The sulphur pit clearly 
 Is not for you, who in mire dabbled merely 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 And, in consequence, friend, I can go on as I came. 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 No, in consequence, friend, you for melting I claim. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 What are these tricks you ’ve hit upon, pray, 
 
 At home, while in foreign parts I ’ve been away? 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 The custom has lasted since Adam was weary, all 
 That it ’s meant for ’s to save good material. 
 
209 
 
 scene vii ] PEER GYNT 
 
 You must know — you ’ve workt at it — time and 
 again 
 
 A casting will turn out — well, trash, to be plain ; 
 Sometimes the loop was n’t found on a button. 
 What did you do, then? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 I flung it away. 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 Ah! ’twas known John Gynt was never a glutton 
 To save, while his purse had aught in it. Eh? 
 
 But Master ’s one of the thriftier men ; 
 
 That ’s why he ’s prosperous. He ’d never fling 
 Away as rubbish the least little thing 
 If, as raw material, ’t would serve again. 
 
 You were meant for a button, a shining token, 
 
 On the coat of the world ; but your loop was broken, 
 And so to the waste-box you must pass. 
 
 And, as they say, be merged in the mass. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 You surely don’t mean to mix up me 
 With Dick and Tom into something new? 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 That ’s just what I mean. That your fate will be. 
 We ’ve done it already to folk not a few. 
 
 They do just the same with coin at the Mint, 
 
 If the coins, through long usage, have lost their 
 imprint. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 But these are the ways of a miserly screw! 
 
 My dear good friend, let me go free ; now do — 
 
 A loopless button, a worn-out mite, 
 
 The loss — to a man like your master — how slight ! 
 
210 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act V 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 O ! the spirit is in you : what thence we will get, ’ll 
 Give you your value as so much metal. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 No! I say! No! I will fight — do you worst — 
 Fight with teeth and claws ! Sooner aught else first ! 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 What else? If you ’d only use sense, ’t would be right 
 enough. 
 
 For heav’n, we agreed, you ’re not nearly light 
 enough 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 I am easy contented; I don’t aim so high; 
 
 But I won’t lose myself, not a jot of what ’s “ I.” 
 Have me judged by the law, as the old-fashioned 
 way is ! 
 
 Give me Him with the Hoof, for a time — if my 
 stay is 
 
 A hundred years, at the worst; still, there 
 Is something a man can surely bear; 
 
 The torture ’s just moral ; and that should prevent us 
 From thinking it can be so mighty momentous. 
 
 It is, as ’t is written, a state of transition, 
 
 As the fox said — one waits, and then, as a vision, 
 The hour of redemption ! One lives withdrawn, 
 
 And hopes for the happier day to dawn. — 
 
 But this other — to have to mix and float 
 In some outsider’s carcass, a midge, a mote — 
 
 This ladle-business, this “ Of Gynt no more! ” 
 
 This from my innermost soul I abhor! 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 But surely you need n’t, my excellent Peer, 
 
 Get so very warm over so small an affair? 
 
SCENE Vil] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 211 
 
 Yourself you have ruever been, never — so why 
 Does it matter at all, if completely you die? 
 
 PEEK GYNT 
 
 Have I not been? — I could laugh, very nearly! 
 Peer Gynt then has been something else, I suppose ! 
 In the dark, button-molder, you ’re judging, clearly. 
 Could you see where my innermost being grows, 
 
 You would find only Peer, yes, nothing but Peer, 
 Nothing else at all and nothing more ’s there. 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 It ’s impossible. I have my orders here. 
 
 “ Peer Gynt thou shalt fetch ” — see, it ’s written 
 clear — 
 
 “ He ’s defied his life’s design from his cradle. 
 
 Like other spoilt goods, put him into the ladle.” 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 What nonsense ! Some other they ’re thinking on. 
 
 Is it really Peer? Not Rasmus or John? 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 I melted them up many years ago. 
 
 Don’t waste time now ; but come quietly ! So ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 No ! I ’m damn’d if I do ! Would n’t it be splendid 
 If we heard to-morrow some one else was intended ! 
 My good man, you really had better take care ! 
 
 The responsibility ’s heavy to bear 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 I have it in writing 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 A respite I ask! 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 What good will that do you? 
 
212 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act V 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 I ’ll make it mj task 
 
 To find proofs I have been myself, all of my life; 
 And thg,t is the issue on which we ’re at strife. 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 Find proofs? But how? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 By vouchers and witnesses. 
 
 BITTTON-MOLDER 
 
 I fear Master won’t take them as signs of what fit- 
 ness is. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 O! Enough for the day the day’s evil things call! 
 Just loan me myself, my dear man, that ’s all; 
 
 I ’ll be back soon. One ’s birth there is no repeating 
 And one clings to one’s self, as created, you know. 
 Come ; are we agreed ? 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 Well; be it so. 
 
 But remember, at the nest cross-way is our meeting. 
 [ Peer Gynt runs off. 
 
 SCENE EIGHT 
 
 A further point on the heath. 
 
 peer gynt ( running hard) 
 
 Time is money, as the Scripture says for our learning. 
 If I only knew where the cross-ways are — 
 
 They may be near, and they may be far. 
 
 The earth, like hot iron, beneath me is burning. 
 
 A witness! A witness! Oh, where shall I find one? 
 It ’s unthinkable here, on this heath. ’T was de- 
 signed on 
 
SCENE Vill] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 213 
 
 The stupidest system, this world! Where a right 
 Has got to be proved, though it ’s plain as the light ! 
 [An Old Crooked Man, with a stick in his hand and 
 hag on his back, trudges in front of him. 
 
 THE OLD MAN ( Stopping ) 
 
 Dear, kind sir — spare a penny to a homeless soul ! 
 
 PEEK GYNT 
 
 I ’m sorry, I have n’t a copper, no, not one 
 
 THE OLD MAN 
 
 Prince Peer! That we meet again, as the years 
 roll 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Who are you? 
 
 THE OLD MAN 
 
 Is the Old Man of the Ronde forgotten? 
 
 PEEK GYNT 
 
 You are never ? 
 
 THE OLD MAN 
 
 The Dovre-King, yes ; just that! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 The Dovre-King? Really? The Dovre-King ! What! 
 
 THE OLD MAN 
 
 Oh, I’m down on my luck! — Still hard fate 
 pushes 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Ruin’d? 
 
 THE OLD MAN 
 
 Plunder’d — stript bare of all. 
 
 And here, like a starving wolf, I must crawl. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Hurra ! Such witness don’t grow on the bushes ! 
 
 THE OLD MAN 
 
 The Prince, too, has got gray since we met. 
 
214 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act V 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Time’s scars ! 
 
 My dear father-in-law, he gnaws and wears. 
 
 Well; that’s enough of our private affairs — 
 
 And, above all, let’s have no family jars. 
 
 I was then but a madcap 
 
 THE OLD MAN 
 
 Of course ; and it ’s true 
 The Prince was then young. And then what won’t 
 one do? 
 
 But the Prince was wise in rejecting his bride; 
 
 She would always trouble and shame have been giving ! 
 For since then she went to the bad at a stride 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Dear me ! 
 
 THE OLD MAN 
 
 And has been most abandon’d ; beside 
 Just think — at the present with Trond she is living. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 What Trond? 
 
 THE OLD MAN 
 
 Of the Valfjeld. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Aha ? ’T was he 
 
 That the farm-lasses left to come courting me. 
 
 THE OLD MAN 
 
 But my grandson has grown up tall and stout, 
 
 And has flourishing children all over the land 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Please, my dear man, this chatter we’ll do without; 
 I ’ve got a quite different problem in hand. — 
 
 I ’ve got into rather an awkward position — 
 
 I have need of a voucher or witness to swear; 
 
SCENE vm] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 215 
 
 And you, father-in-law, could best help me there. 
 And I ’d give you a tip, say, in recognition 
 
 THE OLD MAN 
 
 Really? Can I come to the Prince’s aid? 
 
 And with a character I ’ll be repaid? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Most gladly. I have n’t much cash in pocket, 
 
 And so am compell’d severely to dock it. 
 
 Now hear what ’s the trouble. No doubt you recall 
 The night when, a suitor, I enter’d your hall — — 
 
 THE OLD MAN 
 
 Of course, my Lord Prince ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 But pray do not “ prince ” me ! 
 But no matter. By force you wisht to convince me ; 
 By a slit in the lens you ’d have biasst my sight, 
 Would have made of Peer Gynt a troll of the night: 
 What did I do? Protested with might and main, 
 Swore I ’d stand on my own till the end of the story ; 
 And so I renounced Love, Power and Glory, 
 
 And all this that I might myself retain. 
 
 To this fact, you see, you must swear ’fore the 
 
 judge 
 
 THE OLD MAN 
 
 No, I ’m blest if I can ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Why, what is this fudge? 
 
 THE OLD MAN 
 
 Why, surely to lie you would never compel me? 
 
 Did n’t you put on the troll-breeches, tell me? 
 
 And tasted the mead ? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 You lured me persuasively; 
 
216 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act v 
 
 But the ultimate test I declined unevasively, 
 
 And it ’s that your idea of a man depends on. 
 
 A poem is judg’d by the note which it ends on. 
 
 THE OLD MAN 
 
 But it ended, Peer, just in the contrary way. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 What ’s this rot ? 
 
 THE OLD MAN 
 
 When you left the Ronde, that day 
 My motto upon your escutcheon was smitten. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 What motto? 
 
 THE OLD MAN 
 
 The sundering word had been written. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 The word? 
 
 THE OLD MAN 
 
 That parts man and the ways thereof 
 From troll-folk: Troll, to thyself be enough! 
 peer gynt ( recoils a step ) 
 
 Enough ! 
 
 THE OLD MAN 
 
 And you ’ve lived with all your might 
 Right up to the word ever since that night. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 I have ! Peer Gynt ! 
 the old man ( weeping ) 
 
 It ’s monstrous ingratitude ! 
 You’ve lived as a troll, but disguised your true 
 attitude. 
 
 Through the word that I taught you, you ’ve with 
 dexterity 
 
 Swung yourself into a state of prosperity; 
 
SCENE vm] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 217 
 
 And now you must turn up your nose despising 
 Me and the word, to which you owe your rising. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Enough ! A hill-troll ! An egoist ! Oh ! 
 
 This must be all rubbish ; it is, I know ! 
 the old man ( pulls out a bundle of old newspapers) 
 You think, p’raps, the Press not much after our 
 ways is? 
 
 Just wait ; here I ’ll show you in red and black 
 How the Bloksberg Post has sung your praises ; 
 Here’s the Haklefjeld Journal on the same tack 
 From the year you left home to the day you came 
 back. — 
 
 Won’t you read them, Peer? Do, if you feel inclined. 
 Here ’s a leader now; “ Stallion-hoof,” it ’s signed. 
 And here “ Troll Nationalism ” ’s another. 
 
 It urges a truth that cannot be denied, 
 
 That ’s it no use for horns and tail making a bother, 
 So long as one has but a bit of the hide. 
 
 “ Our enough,” it concludes, “ is always ample 
 To give men trolldom’s mark,” and gives you as 
 example. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 A hill-troll? I! 
 
 THE OLD MAN 
 
 The matter ’s clear — quite. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 And I might have remain’d where I was that night? 
 Might have stay’d in the Ronde snug, and in slumber ? 
 Spared my trouble and toil and of shoes — what a 
 number ! 
 
 Peer Gynt — a troll ! — It ’s rubbish ! Fudge ! I ! ! 
 Here ’s a ha’penny to buy you tobacco. Good-bye ! 
 
218 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act V 
 
 THE OLD MAN 
 
 No, Prince Peer! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Let go ! You ’re lunatic 
 Or in second childhood. To hospital ! Quick ! 
 
 THE OLD MAN 
 
 O! that ’s just what I want and have hitherto misst. 
 My great-grandchildren, who are everywhere staying 
 Have become most important, as I was saying; 
 
 And they say that it ’s only in books I exist. 
 
 The saw has it, Unkindest of all are relations ; 
 
 The truth of that saying I sorely bewail, 
 
 It ’s cruel to count as a fable, a tale 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 My dear man, there are others bear these imputations. 
 
 THE OLD MAN 
 
 And ourselves we ’ve no Mutual Aid Society, 
 
 No poor-box, no bank to put pennies by — 
 
 To the Rondé these things would be in contrariety. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Yes, that damn’d “ To thyself be enough ” was the 
 cry! 
 
 THE OLD MAN 
 
 With the Prince the word is no source of complaining. 
 And if he could but contrive — all my days it 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 j\iy man, it ’s a wrong scent on which you are strain- 
 
 • i n g; 
 
 I ’m right on my uppers myself, as they phrase it 
 
 THE OLD MAN 
 
 You don’t mean it? The Prince — a beggar? All 
 gone ? 
 
SCENE XX] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 219 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Completely. The Pi’ince’s ego ’s in pawn. 
 
 And you ’ve done it all, you damn’d trolls ! You! 
 One sees, what bad company bi’ings a man to. 
 
 THE OED MAN 
 
 So my hope ’s tumbled down again right off its tree ! 
 At a 
 
 Shuffle I ’d best go to town now. Good-bye ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 What will you do there? 
 
 THE OED MAN 
 
 I ’ll go to the theatre, 
 For national plays there ’s a newspaper cry — — 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Good luck to your journey; and greet them from me. 
 I ’ll come the same way, if I can but get free, 
 
 With a farce, mad and deep ; they shall hear it one 
 Sunday, 
 
 And it ’s title is “ Sic transit gloria mundi! ” 
 
 \He runs along the road ; the Old Man of the Dovre 
 shouts after him. 
 
 SCENE NINE 
 
 At a cross-way. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 There ’s a tussle now, Peer, as you ’ve never yet 
 known ! 
 
 That Dovrish Enough has judged you its own. 
 
 It’s a wreck; so to float with the jetsom endeavor. 
 Or else — but he flung in the rubbish-heap — never ! 
 BTJTTON-MOLDER ( at the parting of the ways ) 
 
 Well, Peer, have you vouchers now to your ci*edit? 
 
220 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act V 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Oh ! Is this the cross-way? Well, that is quick work ! 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 In your face, as a sign-post, the letters that lurk 
 On the paper I see, before I have read it. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 I got tired of the run — one might lose one’s 
 way 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 Yes; and besides, what’s it lead to? Eh? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 True enough ; in the wood and at night to steer 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 There an old man trudges, though. Let ’s call him 
 here ? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 No; let him go. He’s quite drunk, you see! 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 Still he might perhaps 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Hush ; no — let him be ! 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 Well, shall we start? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 One question merely. 
 
 “ To be one self,” what ’s it at bottom mean ? 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 A singular question ! An odd one to glean 
 From the mouth of a man 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Answer shortly and clearly. 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 To be oneself is : oneself to slay. 
 
SCENE IX] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 221 
 
 But that answer is no doubt thrown away on you? 
 And so we ’ll say : everywhere to display, 
 
 Like a sign-board, Master ’s meaning upon you. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 But suppose that a man’s never come to know 
 What Master meant with him? 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 Then he must guess it. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 But how often one’s guesses go wrong, and so 
 In the midst of a life troubled waters oppress it. 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 That ’s true, Peer Gynt : the lack of good guesses 
 Is the best bait with which the Hoofed One his hook 
 dresses. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 This is really a terribly tangled affair. — 
 
 Now that I ’ve been myself, I no longer declare — 
 It might n’t be easy to get the fact proved. 
 
 So I ’ll count that as lost. But just now, as I 
 wandered 
 
 Over the heath here alone, and pondered, 
 
 My shoe pincht me, my conscience I felt it, was moved ; 
 I said to myself : After all, you ’re a sinner 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 You appear to want over again to begin a 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 No; a great one, I mean, of vigor and fire; 
 
 Not only in deed, but in word and desire, 
 
 Abroad I have lived like a desperate beast. 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 It may be; you ’ve a list to prove what you say? 
 
222 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act V 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Well, give me a respite ; I ’ll seek out a priest, 
 
 And confess, and then bring you his voucher straight- 
 way. 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 Oh, if you can bring me that, don’t fear, 
 
 You ’ll escape the casting-ladle, that ’s clear. 
 
 But orders, Peer 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 O ! they ’re years old, those papers ! 
 They belong, no doubt, to a long-past date; 
 
 I did once live slackly, indulged in the vapours, 
 Played at the prophet, and trusted in fate. 
 
 Well, may I try? 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 But ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 My dear good fellow — 
 There ’s not much doing here your resources to rally. 
 The air is so bracing, the people get mellow — 
 Why, it adds an ell to all of their ages. 
 
 Remember, the Justedal parson’s pages : 
 
 “ It ’s seldom that any one dies in this valley.” 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 To the next cross-way ; but no more, not an inch, sir ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 A priest I must catch, though it be with a pincer. 
 ( Runs off) 
 
 SCENE TEN 
 
 A hillside with heather. The path winds up along the 
 ridge. 
 
SCENE x] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 223 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 This may come in useful for many a thing, 
 
 Said Esben, as he pickt up a magpie’s wing. 
 
 Who ’d have said an account of one’s sins, so late 
 On the last night, could help a man out of his strait? 
 It ’s a ticklish business indeed, and rash is 
 A move right into the fire from the ashes — 
 
 There ’s a saw though, age-long, and of world-wide 
 scope, 
 
 That says : as long as there ’s life, there is hope. 
 
 [A lean person in a priest's cassock, tucked in at the 
 girdle, and with a fowling-net over his shoulder, comes 
 running along the hillside. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Who ’s that? A priest with a fowling-net! 
 
 Hurrah ! I ’m the spoilt child of fortune ! Well met ! 
 Herr Pastor ! The road ’s bad, with many a 
 hole 
 
 THE EEAN ONE 
 
 It is; but what would n’t one do for a soul? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Oho ! Then there ’s some one bound heavenwards ? 
 
 THE LEAN ONE 
 
 Nay! 
 
 I hope he is taking a different way. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 May I go with you, Pastor, where’er ’t is you walk to? 
 
 THE LEAN ONE 
 
 With pleasure ; I ’m glad to have some one to talk to ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 There ’s a thing on my mind 
 
 THE LEAN ONE 
 
 Indeed! Go ahead! 
 
224 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act V 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 You see here before you a man who has led 
 A good sort of life. All state-laws I have kept ; 
 Behind bolts and bars I have never slept; 
 
 Yet, it happens at times that a fellow stumbles, 
 Loses his feet 
 
 THE EEAN ONE 
 
 Oh ! the best have their tumbles. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Well, these trifles, you see 
 
 THE EEAN ONE 
 
 Only trifles ? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Yes. 
 
 I have always refrained from sin in excess. 
 
 THE LEAN ONE 
 
 Then, leave me in peace, my dear man, please ; 
 
 I am not what you think. You ’re looking at these, 
 These fingers of mine? What do you see, there? Eh? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Nails in a remarkable state of advance. 
 
 THE LEAN ONE 
 
 And now? At my feet you are taking a glance? 
 peer gynt ( pomting ) 
 
 That’s a natural hoof? 
 
 THE LEAN ONE 
 
 I trust so, anyway. 
 
 peer gynt ( raising his hat ) 
 
 I ’d have sworn you were simply a priest, as you 
 drest ; 
 
 And I find I ’ve the honor — well, best is best ; 
 When the hall-door invites — don’t go to the back; 
 When the king can be met — bid the lackey go pack. 
 
SCENE x] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 225 
 
 THE LEAN ONE 
 
 Your hand! Fi’om prejudice you enjoy freedom. 
 
 I offer my services, friend, if you need ’em? 
 
 But don’t ask for power, or money to buy it. 
 
 Were I to hang for ’t, I could n’t supply it. 
 
 You would n’t believe of the business — how slack 
 it is ; 
 
 Trade ’s dwindling. The prospect — I can’t say how 
 black it is. 
 
 There ’s no traffic in souls ; one may sometimes wend, 
 A stray one 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 The race has so specially raised itself? 
 
 THE LEAN ONE 
 
 No, indeed; it is shameful the way it’s debased 
 itself — 
 
 In a casting-ladle most of them end. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Aha, yes — I have heard it alluded to. 
 
 In fact ’t was the cause of my coming to you. 
 
 THE LEAN ONE 
 
 Speak out ! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 If it is n’t an indiscretion, 
 
 I should like 
 
 THE LEAN ONE 
 
 A harbor of refuge? Eh! 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 You ’ve precisely guesst what I was going to say. 
 The business is slack, on your own confession, 
 
 So you would n’t press home such rules as exist 
 on 
 
226 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act V 
 
 THE LEAN ONE 
 
 But 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 I don’t ask for much; I would n’t insist on 
 Receiving a salary, say ; but I ’d hope for 
 A treatment as friendly as things gave scope for. 
 
 THE LEAN ONE 
 
 Rooms heated ? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Not too hot ; above all these, 
 Leave to go out again free, and in ease — 
 
 The right, as the phrase is, to leave with impunity 
 If one day there came a glad opportunity. 
 
 THE LEAN ONE 
 
 My dear friend, I vow I ’m sincerely sorry ; 
 
 You can’t think how I have from all the nations 
 People with similar supplications, 
 
 When they ’re leaving this scene of earthly worry. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 But when I call my career to mind, 
 
 I feel I must come, that I have a clear right 
 
 THE LEAN ONE 
 
 Only trifles, you said 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 In a sense, oh quite; 
 
 But, well, I have trafBckt in slaves, I find 
 
 THE LEAN ONE 
 
 Men have traffiekt in wills and souls on conditions 
 So bungling and stupid, they lost their admissions. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 To China I ’ve shipp’d many Bramah figures. 
 
 THE LEAN ONE 
 
 We laugh at such things. They ’re but trash like 
 your niggers. 
 
SCENE x] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 227 
 
 There are people who ship off far ghastlier things 
 In sermons, books, pictures — and them the cold 
 stings 
 
 Outside my door 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Yes, but hear the worst of it ! 
 Once I went off and set up as a prophet. 
 
 THE LEAN ONE 
 
 In foreign parts? Humbug! The casting-ladle 
 Takes most people’s Sehen ins Blaue in the end. 
 
 If that ’s all you rely on, that, I ’m afraid, ’ll 
 Never house you with me, though I wish it could, 
 friend. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Well, hear this ; in a ship-wreck — I clung to a 
 boat — 
 
 And : Drowning men grasp at straws, some one ’s 
 suggested — 
 
 And: To one self one is nearest, some one else 
 wrote — 
 
 So a cook of his life I half-way divested. 
 
 ■THE LEAN ONE 
 
 If a kitchen-maid you had half-way divested 
 Of something else, I ’d be as much interested. 
 
 What sort of stuff is this half-way prate, 
 
 Asking your pardon? In times like the present 
 On rubbish like this is, nerveless, putrescent, 
 
 Who ’d throw away coal at its pi’esent high rate? 
 There, don’t get enraged ; at your sins I was girding ; 
 Forgive me for being so blunt in my wording. — 
 Now, my dear fellow, put all this out of your head, 
 And get used to the thought of the fate that ’s 
 awarded you. 
 
228 PEER GYNT [act v 
 
 What would you gain if I lodged you and boarded 
 you? 
 
 Just think; you’re a sensible man, when all’s said. 
 Well, it ’s true you ’d have memory, when you were 
 dead — 
 
 But in gazing on memory’s land outspread 
 Your heart and your intellect both were ill sped ; 
 You ’d have, as the Swedes say, but poor sport 
 afforded you. 
 
 You have nothing to smile or lift up your voice over; 
 No cause for despair, and naught to rejoice over; 
 Nothing to make you hot or cold 
 Only a something to worry you old. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 It is written : it ’s never very much bother 
 To know where the shoe pinches that ’s worn by 
 another. 
 
 THE EEAN ONE 
 
 That’s true; I have — thank You-know-who — 
 Only got need of a single odd shoe. 
 
 It ’s lucky that shoes come up in our talk ; 
 
 It reminds me of what I have got to be at, 
 
 Going after a roast, that I hope will prove fat; 
 
 So I can’t gossip more, but must on with my 
 walk 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 And what sort of sin-diet, may I inquire, 
 
 Has fatten’d the man? 
 
 THE EEAN ONE 
 
 I hear people say 
 
 That he ’s been himself, by night and by day ; 
 
 And that is the principal thing we desire. 
 
SCENE x] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 229 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Himself? To such folk then your parish extends? 
 
 THE LEAN ONE 
 
 Well, the door’s set ajar. You see, it depends — 
 To be oneself — one in two ways can attack it ; 
 There ’s a right and a wrong side to every jacket. 
 Quite lately in Paris, ’t is said, they ’ve begun 
 A way to take portraits by help of the sun ; 
 
 You can either have people portray’d as they live, 
 Or else have a so-called negative. 
 
 In these you ’ve the lights and the shadows inverted, 
 And they ’re ugly in commonplace eyes, ’t is asserted ; 
 But for all that, in them the likeness is latent, 
 
 And it needs but your efforts to make it patent. 
 
 If a soul in photography should have selected 
 The negative method its life to portray, 
 
 The plate’s not, for that reason, entirely rejected, 
 But simply to me it ’s given away. 
 
 Then I take it and treat it to change what is mutable, 
 And develop the picture by methods suitable. 
 
 I steam and I dip, I burn and I scour 
 With sulphur and other such things, every hour, 
 Till the picture comes, which the photo should give; 
 That, namely, which people call positive. 
 
 But for one who has wiped himself out, like you, 
 Sulphur and potash can nothing do. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 And so one must come to you black as a raven 
 To be made a white grouse? What name is engraven, 
 Pray, on that negative counterfeit 
 From which you’re a positive going to get? 
 
 THE LEAN ONE 
 
 The name ’s Peer Gynt. 
 
230 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act V 
 
 PEEK GYNT 
 
 Peer Gynt? Ah! His! 
 
 Is Herr Gynt himself? 
 
 THE LEAN ONE 
 
 Yes, he swears that he is. 
 
 PEEK GYNT 
 
 He ’s trustworthy, too, is that same Herr Peter. 
 
 THE LEAN ONE 
 
 You know him, perhaps? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Oh, just to greet — er, 
 One knows all kinds of people. 
 
 THE LEAN ONE 
 
 I ’ve no time to trape. 
 
 Where saw you him last? 
 
 PEEK GYNT 
 
 It was down by the Cape. 
 
 THE LEAN ONE 
 
 Di Buona Speranza? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Yes, but he ’s sailing 
 Thence soon, unless my memory ’s failing. 
 
 THE LEAN ONE 
 
 Then without delay I must show my best pace. 
 
 I hope I shall catch him ere he ’s left the place ! 
 The Cape I detest; what spoils everything there is 
 Those annoying Stavanger missionaries. 
 
 {He rushes away, southwards ) 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 The stupid dog! There he goes racing, head down, 
 Tongue lolling out. Well, he ’ll be done brown. 
 When I fool such an ass, I need none to reward it. 
 He ’s a nice sort of fellow to swagger and lord it ! 
 
SCENE x] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 231 
 
 He has got a fine lot, truly, to brag about! 
 
 By this trade he ’ll never get much flesh to drag 
 about ; 
 
 He ’ll soon drop off his perch, and with him the 
 whole sordid 
 
 Business. — Ahem ! My own seat ’s scarcely steady : 
 I ’m expelled from the self-owning gentry already. 
 (A shooting star is seen; he nods after it) 
 
 Greeting from Peer Gynt, Brother Starry-flash ! 
 
 To shine bright, at a gulp into nothing to crash — 
 ( Pulls himself together as though in terror, and goes 
 deeper into the! mists; stillness for a moment and 
 then he cries) 
 
 Is there no one, no one in all this driven — 
 
 No one in the abysses, no one in heaven — ! 
 
 ( Comes forward again further dozen, throws his hat 
 on the path, and tears his hair. By degrees a still- 
 ness comes over him) 
 
 Then a soul can, so horribly poor, slip away 
 Back to nothingness, into the mist and the gray. 
 
 O beautiful earth, be not angry, I pray, 
 
 That for nothing I ’ve trampled thy grass sweet- 
 smelling. 
 
 0 beautiful sun, thou hast squander’d away 
 Thy glory of light on a desolate dwelling, 
 
 To warm and attune it, was none to begin there — 
 The owner, they tell me, was never within there. 
 Beautiful sun and beautiful earth, 
 
 You were foolish to cherish my mother at birth. 
 The spirit is niggard and nature is lavish, 
 
 And one’s life for one’s birth is a high price to 
 ravish. 
 
 1 will up to the hills, to the loftiest one; 
 
232 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 [act V 
 
 I will look once more on the rising sun, 
 
 Gaze over the promised land, gaze away 
 Till I ’m tired ; then try and get snow-drifts to 
 cover me; 
 
 And “ Here no one lies buried ” have written over 
 me ; 
 
 And afterwards — then — ! Let things go as they 
 may. 
 
 church-goers ( singing on the forest path) 
 
 Morn blest beyond telling, 
 
 When Heaven’s tongues came winging 
 To the earth like the flash of a sword ! 
 
 Now from earth to His dwelling 
 Soars up His sons’ singing 
 In the tongues of the Heaven of the Lord. 
 peer gynt ( crouches as in horror) 
 
 Never look there ! There waste and ruin abide. — 
 
 I ’m afraid I was dead long before I died. 
 
 ( Tries to creep in among the bushes, but comes upon 
 the cross-way) 
 
 BUTTON-MOEDER 
 
 Good morning, Peer Gynt ! Where ’s the list of your 
 sinning? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Do you think that I have n’t been shouting and 
 dinning 
 
 As hard as I could? 
 
 BUTTON-MOEDER 
 
 And met no one at all? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 No; no one beside a photography rover. 
 
 BUTTON-MOEDER 
 
 Well, the respite is over. 
 
SCENE x] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 233 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Everything ’s over. 
 
 The owl smells a rat. Can’t you hear? — there! — 
 its call? 
 
 BUTTON-MOEDER 
 
 That ’s the matins-bell 
 
 peer gynt ( pointing ) 
 
 What ’s that shining there? 
 
 BUTTON-MOEDER 
 
 Only light from a hut. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 And that song on the border 
 
 Of tears? 
 
 BUTTON-MOEDER 
 
 But a woman’s song. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Ah ! — that is where 
 
 Is the list of my sins 
 
 button-mo lder (seizes him ) 
 
 Set your house in order ! 
 [ They have come out of the underwood, and are stand- 
 ing near the hut. Daybreak. 
 peer gynt 
 
 Set my house in order? It’s there! Off! Go! 
 Away ! Were it big as a coffin, your ladle — 
 
 ’T were too small, man, me and my sins to cradle ! 
 
 BUTTON-MOLDER 
 
 To the third cross-way, Peer; but then — so ! 
 
 ( Turns aside and goes ) 
 peer gynt ( approaches the hut ) 
 
 Backwards or forwards, it’s just as long; 
 
 In and out, and it ’s strait as strong. (Stops) 
 
 No! — like a lament, wild, unending 
 
234- PEER GYNT [act v 
 
 Is this to come back, in and home to be w:nding. 
 
 ( Takes some steps but stops again) 
 
 Roundabout, said the Boyg ! 
 
 ( Hears singing in the hut ) 
 
 No; this time say 
 
 Right through, however strait be the way ! 
 
 [ He runs towards the cottage; at the same moment 
 Solveig appears in the door, dressed for church, and 
 with her hymn-book in a kerchief; a staff in her hand. 
 She stands erect and mild. 
 
 peer gynt ( throws himself down on the threshold ) 
 Have you doom for the sinner, then speak the word. 
 
 SOLVEIG 
 
 It is he ! It is he ! 0 ! praised be the Lord ! 
 
 ( Gropes after him) 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 All my sins and my trespasses ! Cry and call ! 
 
 SOLVEIG 
 
 Oh ! my own lad, in nought hast thou sinn’d at all ! 
 
 ( Gropes for him again and finds him) 
 button-molder ( behind the cottage) 
 
 The sin-list, Peer Gynt? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Cry out all thy wrong! 
 Solveig (sits down beside him) 
 
 Thou has made all my life as a beautiful song. 
 Blessed be thou, whom at last I am greeting! 
 Blessed, thrice blessed our Whitsun-morn meeting! 
 peer gynt 
 
 Then I am lost. 
 
 SOLVEIG 
 
 One yet reigns in the skies. 
 
SCENE x] 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 235 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Lost ! If you have not for riddles replies ! 
 
 SOLVEIG 
 
 Ask me them. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 Ask them ! — Ah ! once we get started ! 
 Can you tell where Peer Gynt has been since we 
 parted? 
 
 SOLVEIG 
 
 Been ? 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 As when first from God’s thought he went winging ; 
 Been with his destiny’s mark on his brow ! 
 
 Canst thou tell me that! If not, I must bow 
 And go down where the mists are clinging. 
 
 Solveig ( smiling ) 
 
 O, that riddle is easy. 
 
 PEER GYNT 
 
 If thou knowest, speak now ! 
 Where was I, as myself, as the true man, the whole? 
 Where was I with the seal of God set on my soul? 
 
 SOLVEIG 
 
 In my faith, in my hope, in my love wast thou. 
 peer gynt ( starts back ) 
 
 What sayest thou ! — Peace ! With words thou art 
 playing. 
 
 Thou art mother thyself to the lad that ’s there ! 
 
 SOLVEIG 
 
 Yes, I am; but, who is his Father, Peer? 
 
 Surely he who forgives at the mother’s praying. 
 .peer gynt ( a gleam of light comes over him, he cries ) 
 My mother ; my wife ; woman pure from all sin ! — 
 0, hide me, hide me therein! 
 
236 PEER GYNT [act v 
 
 [ Clings to her and covers his face in her lap. A long 
 stillness. Sunrise. 
 
 Solveig ( sings softly) 
 
 Sleep thou, dearest boy of mine! 
 
 I will cradle thee, I will guard thee. — 
 
 The boy has been sitting on his mother’s knees. 
 
 And through life’s long day, they ’ve been playing 
 at their ease. 
 
 The boy on his mother’s breast has lain, 
 
 Through life’s long day. God shield thee from all 
 pain ! 
 
 Close up to my heart has the boy been prest 
 Through life’s long day. Now he ’s tired, and would 
 rest. 
 
 Sleep thou, dearest boy of mine ! 
 
 I will cradle thee! I will guard thee! 
 button-molder’s voice ( behind the cottage ) 
 
 We will meet again, Peer, at the last cross-way; 
 And then we ’ll see whether — no more I say. 
 Solveig ( sings louder in the fuller daylight) 
 
 I will cradle thee, I will guard thee — 
 
 Sleep and dream, thou boy of mine! 
 
 CURTAIN 
 
NOTES 
 
NOTES 
 
 THE FIRST ACT 
 
 Pages 6-9. The story of the flight on the reindeer is bor- 
 rowed from a Norse folk-tale. It should be noticed that the 
 symbolic, or typical, side of Peer is rendered more natural 
 by this adoption of familiar stories — by investing his 
 hero with some of the characteristics of a folk-hero. Ibsen 
 ensures the Norwegian reader getting into the right frame 
 of mind. It has not, of course, quite the same value for 
 foreigners ; but there seems no reason why Peer Gynt 
 should not become as acclimatised to England as have Faust 
 and Don Juan. 
 
 Page 15. I have used “ Kaiser ” as well as “ Emperor ” 
 for rendering the word “Kejser”: preference is given to 
 “ Emperor ” in the cosmopolitan period of Peer Gynt’s 
 career. 
 
 Page 25. In a letter to me Mr. Archer points out that 
 “ Engelland ” bears the same relation to “ England ” as 
 does “ Norroway ” of the ballad to our “ Norway.” I 
 thought of altering it to “ Lvonesse,” but on consideration 
 have kept “ Engelland.” The reader must understand 
 that it is a dim country of romance that Peer is dream- 
 ing of. (It should also be remembered that “ Engelland ” 
 is an older form preserving the original “ Angle-land.” 
 — E. B.) 
 
 Page 28. “ Kitchen-Master ” — a master of ceremonies: 
 his duty is to see that everything goes off well at the feast. 
 
 Page 28. “ Here the walls are wide, and the roof of the 
 highest!” refers to the country-dance (the “Hailing”), 
 in which it is the object of the dancer to kick the rafters. 
 
240 
 
 NOTES 
 
 Page 32. “With the Vicar I read” — i. e., prepared 
 for Confirmation. 
 
 Page 35. “ The Devil in the Nut ” is, of course, an old 
 folk-tale. 
 
 Page 39. “ He ’s one of the ‘ swear-not,’ ” etc. Ibsen 
 
 had been at Skien during a revival, not dissimilar to that 
 which ten years ago overran Wales. Part of Brand owes 
 a good deal to the effect produced on Ibsen by Pastor 
 Lammers, the missioner of the movement; and here he 
 makes Peer Gynt include Solveig’s parents among the 
 “ awakened.” 
 
 THE SECOND ACT 
 
 Page 52. Three Farm Girls. I can see no good reason 
 for not translating “ Saeter.” “ Saeter ” is an out-farm, to 
 which the cattle are sent to graze during the summer, and 
 apparently the autumn; for in the folk- tale of Peer Gynt 
 (fn Asbjornsen) Peer starts on his adventures “ late in the 
 autumn.” Ibsen has borrowed the idea of the courtship 
 between the farm girls and the trolls from the folk-tale; 
 but in it, while there are only three girls, there are four 
 Hill-Trolls — Gust of Vaeré, Tron of the Valfjeld, Tjos- 
 tol Abakken, and Rolf Eldforpungen. Tron is the only 
 name Ibsen has kept. Only one of the girls in the folk- 
 tale, mad Kari, has any desire to have a troll as a lover; 
 the other two Peer Gynt finds terrified and at their prayers, 
 and glad of his succor. It will be seen by this that 
 Ibsen has quite altered the color of the old tale: the 
 girls in his poem are more “ forthv,” as they say in Corn- 
 wall, and brag of their troll-lovers. In the affair with 
 Ingrid, Peer sins against physical love; in this adventure, 
 against love that rules fancy; and in the bitter business 
 with the Green-Clad One, against imaginative Love. 
 
 Page 56. Scene Five. For the last two scenes we have 
 been on the edge of fairyland: here we enter. There is. 
 
NOTES 
 
 241 
 
 however, no kind of need to call these and the following 
 scenes “ visions,” or “ supra-sensual experiences.” They 
 are as real as any of Peer’s selfish experiences. 
 
 Page 60. It is, perhaps, worth noticing that the Dovré- 
 King here anticipates Nietzsche; the Superman is remark- 
 ably like a Hill-Troll. And Nietzsche’s blustering non- 
 sense finds its best corrective in the stern, Greek sense of 
 Ibsen’s plays. 
 
 Page 62. “ It ’s home-brew’d.” Here Ibsen is attack- 
 
 ing that spirit of nationalism which, from his superior 
 vantage-point in Italy, he considered “ narrowing.” I do 
 not think that this and the similar outbursts in Act IV 
 need be taken too seriously. 
 
 THE THIRD ACT 
 
 Page 97. Every one who cares for fairy-stories will 
 recognize the Castle West of the Moon and East of the 
 Sun. The use Ibsen makes of it here is perhaps, with the 
 exception of the Boyg, the most consummate of his folk- 
 tale recollections. 
 
 Page 98. “ Grane ” was the name of Sigurd Fafnirs- 
 
 bane’s horse. 
 
 THE FOURTH ACT 
 
 Page 103. “ Mr. Cotton.” So in the original. Also his 
 first remark is “ Very well,” in English. At first I kept 
 this; but on consideration decided that what point it had 
 was lost on English readers. I have, however, kept the 
 scraps of French which Ibsen ascribes to M. Ballon, be- 
 cause they have an appeal to us, as to Ibsen. Also, it is 
 not, I think, insular prejudice which makes me think 
 Ibsen was better acquainted with colloquial French than 
 conversational English. 
 
212 
 
 NOTES 
 
 Pages 103, 104. I need hardly say that “ gout,” “ ton,” 
 “ en gar 9 on,” “ Ur-Natur,” “ Ei was” are all Ibsen’s 
 phrases. 
 
 Page 107. “One norm you use” — “norm” is the 
 word in the original. 
 
 Page 112. “Vest for me” — apart from its conven- 
 ience as a rhyme, I thought it allowable to let Peer Gynt, 
 in his role as nouveau riche, use this commercial synonym 
 for waistcoat. 
 
 Page 115. “ a la Lippe-Detmold,” “ en bloc” — so in 
 
 original ; also “ Sir Gynt.” Perhaps it is as well to re- 
 mind the twentieth-century reader that Lippe-Detmold 
 was an independent principality when Peer Gynt was 
 written. It is, of course, now one of the twenty-six States 
 that form the German Empire. 
 
 Page 118. “ Sir Peter Gynt.” So in original. 
 
 Page 119. “Damn it.” Ibsen gives Mr. Cotton that 
 inevitable “ God dam.” 
 
 Page 120. “ Enfin ” — so in original. 
 
 “ But to the whole world I protest ” — those who wish 
 to grasp this and other political allusions are referred to 
 Mr. Archer’s edition of Peer Gynt. 
 
 Page 121. “Peter” — so in the original. 
 
 Page 124. “And the world’s a bubble, 
 
 And to follow the use and wont saves trouble.” 
 
 We shall find all through this Act, and to a great extent 
 through the next, these parallelisms in speech or experi- 
 ence to Peer’s previous adventures. This scene, I need 
 hardly say, corresponds with that in the Dovre-King’s 
 hall, of which Peer Gynt has just given so glowing an 
 account to his three friends. 
 
NOTES 
 
 243 
 
 Page 146. “Eh bien!” So in the original. 
 
 Page 157. “ The old group of Interpreters three score 
 
 and ten.” Mr. Archer says this is meant to refer to the 
 writers of the Septuagint. If so, surely the 160 new ones 
 is merely a round number for the languages into which the 
 Bible has been translated since the Greek version. 
 
 Page 161. Huhu is a hit at those Norwegians who were 
 seeking to use an artificial dialect, created out of the vari- 
 ous local dialects, as a literary language. The movement 
 has increased largely since Ibsen wrote Peer Gynt. There 
 is no exact parallel to it, as the Gaelic League endeavours 
 to revive for modern purposes a language with a splendid 
 past literature. 
 
 Page 165. “ Rechts and links ” — so in original. 
 
 THE FIFTH ACT 
 
 Page 169. Hallingskarv, Jokle, Folgefånn — these are 
 all mountains. 
 
 Page 177. The Strange Passenger. It should be re- 
 membered that Ibsen stated he put in this character “ from 
 caprice ” — but he uses his caprice with wonderful effect. 
 
 Page 185. “Across life’s night,” etc. From here till 
 the end of this scene, in spite of its obscurity, it is evident 
 that Ibsen was preoccupied with the same religious mo- 
 tives that inspired the writing of Brand. The Strange 
 Passenger, with this sentence, really changes his character 
 altogether. Up to now he has been a jester, with no ap- 
 parent message: now he personates Peer’s “ Last Chance 
 he almost takes on the role of guardian angel. The most 
 difficult of his ambiguous speeches is certainly that which 
 I have rendered: 
 
 “ They who ’ve gone thro’ incineration 
 On week-days must have relaxation.” 
 
244 - 
 
 NOTES 
 
 Mr. Archer’s literal version is : 
 
 “ The host whose dust inurned has slumbered 
 Treads not on week-days the cothurnus.” 
 
 One must not strain so fantastic a passage as this, but I 
 think we can safely assume that The Strange Passenger is 
 protesting against the idea that religious sincerity must 
 always be coupled with a repellent severity of aspect. 
 Anyway, he says, “ Where I live ” — i. e., some spirit- 
 world — “ We do take week-days off. We allow ourselves 
 to smile then.” 
 
 I have dealt with this because I have found that its 
 meaning, in English, Norwegian, and German, is regarded 
 as hopelessly obscure. 
 
 (The passage mentioned by Mr. Roberts as particularly 
 difficult means literally : “ The host that have slept in the 
 burial-urns do not put on the buskin for every-day occa- 
 sions.” The inner meaning of it is that those who have 
 passed through the ordeal of death can afford to smile at 
 everything else. Implied in it is a suggestion that beyond 
 the grave waits a peace that gives but little weight to 
 human worries and fears. The figure of the Strange Pas- 
 senger is a symbolization of death — or rather of one of 
 its aspects, another one being represented by the Button- 
 Molder. The latter suggests death as the renewer of 
 life, as the fount into which life lets its overflow fall back 
 in order that thence it may issue again in more satisfac- 
 tory forms. The Strange Passenger, on the other hand, 
 presents death as the bringer of peace and rest, who de- 
 mands a surrender of the fleshly shell as the price of his 
 services. One might say that the refrain to every word 
 uttered by the Passenger to Peer is this : “ The lesson 
 taught by mastered fear is that death and external dis- 
 solution come as a boon and not as a curse.” Back of the 
 Button-Molder’s insistence I perceive instead a thought 
 which seems to have been present in the mind of Goethe 
 during one of his talks with Eckermann: the thought that 
 immortality is not inherent in man, but must be earned. 
 For this reason I believe that the fifth act of Peer Gynt 
 
NOTES 
 
 245 
 
 may prove one of the foundation stones of a future con- 
 ception of death that will be less panic-stricken and more 
 scientific than the prevailing one. — E. B.) 
 
 Page 192. Scene Four shares with Three the reputation 
 of being the most obscure in the play. It may help readers 
 to follow the under-meanings if I give the names of the 
 characters. “ A Man Dressed in Mourning,” is Aslak the 
 Smith, “ A Man in Grey ” is Mads Moen, and the funeral 
 is evidently Ingrid’s, who seems to have married Aslak. 
 The whole scene represents the sordid recollections of an 
 old man about his disreputable past, and, as Peer says, 
 “ the deeper he goes, the worse is the smell.” First we 
 have Aslak and Mads’ unsavory gibes about Ingrid; then, 
 when Peer’s name is introduced, Aslak shamelessly claims 
 him as a relative — for did he not marry Peer’s discarded 
 mistress? Then Mads intervenes, also claiming relation- 
 ship, for he had been betrothed to Ingrid, and so was con- 
 nected with Peer Gynt. 
 
 Then finally there is the mysterious Lad who speaks of 
 the dead woman as “ Mother,” but calls Aslak by his name. 
 It is his remark that causes Peer the greatest disgust, and 
 I think we must assume that the Lad is the son of Peer 
 and Ingrid. 1 The appropriateness of Peer’s tale, at the 
 end of the scene, is obvious enough. Just as the Devil’s 
 audience was disgusted at the poor quality of the real pig, 
 so the characters in this scene go on chattering about the 
 old fanciful Peer Gynt, when the genuine man is there and 
 they quite fail to recognize him. 
 
 Page 201. “ Life uses fairy-gold, as the phrase is,” etc. 
 
 Even Mr. Archer does not translate his original literally 
 in this passage. The Norwegian, rendered verbatim, is 
 “ Life has, as it ’s phrased, a fox behind its ear. But when 
 you grasp at him, Reynard takes to his heels.” This odd 
 expression, “ to have a fox behind the ear,” indicative of 
 
 1 It is barely possible that he is the son of Ingrid and Mads. The 
 betrothal ceremony in Norway was frequently the beginning of marital 
 relations. Cf. the sermon in this Act. 
 
246 
 
 NOTES 
 
 deceit and double-dealing, would convey nothing to Eng- 
 lish readers. I think the well-known tradition of “ fairy- 
 gold is a good enough equivalent, and more suited to the 
 mood of the passage than Mr. Archer’s “ Life, as they 
 say, plays with cards up its sleeve.” 
 
 Page 205. The scene between Peer and the Button- 
 Molder, apart from its intrinsic power, is interesting to 
 English readers as expressing the same idea as does Mr. 
 Kipling’s Tomlinson. The resemblance is even closer in 
 Scene Ten, when Peer is pleading with the Devil himself. 
 
 Page 233. “ The owl smells a rat.” (Here Mr. Roberts 
 has given the only feasible translation of a phrase which, 
 in a note excluded by me, he professes not to understand. 
 The Norwegian phrase is: Uglen lugter lunten. The lit- 
 eral meaning of it is: “ The owl smells the match.” It is 
 an old saw, dating back to the time of primitive fire-arms, 
 when the hunter had to use a match-cord to set off his gun. 
 The smell of the burning cord served as a warning to the 
 bird, either of impending danger or, as seems more prob- 
 able, of an impending feast. On meeting the Button- 
 Molder a second time, Peer thinks the game is up, and 
 the sound, at that moment, of a church bell, which he re- 
 gards chiefly as a symbol of death and burial, makes him 
 think of an owl hooting at the scent of possible prey. — 
 E. B.) 
 

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