1875
PEER GYNT
by Henrik Ibsen
THE CHARACTERS
ASE, a peasant's widow.
PEER GYNT, her son.
TWO OLD WOMEN with corn-sacks. ASLAK, a smith. WEDDING-GUESTS. A
MASTER-COOK, A FIDDLER, etc.
A MAN AND WIFE, newcomers to the district.
SOLVEIG and LITTLE HELGA, their daughters.
THE FARMER AT HEGSTAD.
INGRID, his daughter.
THE BRIDEGROOM and His PARENTS.
THREE SAETER-GIRLS. A GREEN-CLAD WOMAN.
THE OLD MAN OF THE DOVRE.
A TROLL-COURTIER. SEVERAL OTHERS. TROLL-MAIDENS and TROLL-URCHINS. A
COUPLE OF WITCHES. BROWNIES, NIXIES, GNOMES, etc.
AN UGLY BRAT. A VOICE IN THE DARKNESS. BIRD-CRIES.
KARI, a cottar's wife.
Master COTTON, Monsieur BALLON, Herren VON EBERKOPF and
TRUMPETERSTRALE, gentlemen on their travels. A THIEF and A RECEIVER.
ANITRA, daughter of a Bedouin chief.
ARABS, FEMALE SLAVES, DANCING-GIRLS, etc.
THE MEMNON-STATUE (singing). THE SPHINX AT GIZEH (muta persona).
PROFESSOR BEGRIFFENFELDT, Dr. Phil., director of the madhouse at
Cairo.
HUHU, a language-reformer from the coast of Malabar. HUSSEIN, an
eastern Minister. A FELLAH, with a royal mummy.
SEVERAL MADMEN, with their KEEPERS.
A NORWEGIAN SKIPPER and HIS CREW. A STRANGE PASSENGER.
A PASTOR. A FUNERAL-PARTY. A PARISH-OFFICER. A BUTTON-MOULDER. A
LEAN PERSON.
The action, which opens in the beginning of the nineteenth
century, and ends around the 1860's, takes place partly in
Gudbrandsdalen, and on the mountains around it, partly on the coast
of Morocco, in the desert of Sahara, in a madhouse at Cairo, at sea,
etc.
ACT FIRST
SCENE FIRST
[A wooded hillside near ASE's farm. A river rushes down the slope.
On the further side of it an old mill shed. It is a hot day in
summer.]
[PEER GYNT, a strongly-built youth of twenty, comes down the
pathway. His mother, ASE, a small, slightly built woman, follows
him, scolding angrily.]
ASE
Peer, you're lying!
PEER [without stopping].
No, I am not!
ASE
Well then, swear that it is true!
PEER
Swear? Why should I?
ASE
See, you dare not!
It's a lie from first to last.
PEER [stopping].
It is true-each blessed word!
ASE [confronting him].
Don't you blush before your mother?
First you skulk among the mountains
monthlong in the busiest season,
stalking reindeer in the snows;
home you come then, torn and tattered,
gun amissing, likewise game;-
and at last, with open eyes,
think to get me to believe
all the wildest hunters'-lies!-
Well, where did you find the buck, then?
PEER
West near Gendin.
ASE [laughing scornfully].
Ah! Indeed!
PEER
Keen the blast towards me swept;
hidden by an alder-clump,
he was scraping in the snow-crust
after lichen-
ASE [as before].
Doubtless, yes!
PEER
Breathlessly I stood and listened,
heard the crunching of his hoof,
saw the branches of one antler.
Softly then among the boulders
I crept forward on my belly.
Crouched in the moraine I peered up;-
such a buck, so sleek and fat,
you, I'm sure, have ne'er set eyes on.
ASE
No, of course not!
PEER
Bang! I fired!
Clean he dropped upon the hillside.
But the instant that he fell
I sat firm astride his back,
gripped him by the left ear tightly,
and had almost sunk my knife-blade
in his neck, behind his skull-
when, behold! the brute screamed wildly,
sprang upon his feet like lightning,
with a back-cast of his head
from my fist made knife and sheath fly,
pinned me tightly by the thigh,
jammed his horns against my legs,
clenched me like a pair of tongs;-
then forthwith away he flew
right along the Gendin-Edge!
ASE [involuntarily].
Jesus save us-!
PEER
Have you ever
chanced to see the Gendin-Edge?
Nigh on four miles long it stretches
sharp before you like a scythe.
Down o'er glaciers, landslips, scaurs,
down the toppling grey moraines,
you can see, both right and left,
straight into the tarns that slumber,
black and sluggish, more than seven
hundred fathoms deep below you.
Right along the Edge we two
clove our passage through the air.
Never rode I such a colt!
Straight before us as we rushed
'twas as though there glittered suns.
Brown-backed eagles that were sailing
in the wide and dizzy void
half-way 'twixt us and the tarns,
dropped behind, like motes in air.
Ice-floes on the shores broke crashing,
but no murmur reached my ears.
Only sprites of dizziness sprang,
dancing, round;-they sang, they swung,
circle-wise, past sight and hearing!
ASE [dizzy].
Oh, God save me!
PEER
All at once,
at a desperate, break-neck spot,
rose a great cock-ptarmigan,
flapping, cackling, terrified,
from the crack where he lay hidden
at the buck's feet on the Edge.
Then the buck shied half around,
leapt sky-high, and down we plunged
both of us into the depths!
[ASE totters, and catches at the trunk of a tree. PEER GYNT
continues:]
Mountain walls behind us, black,
and below a void unfathomed!
First we clove through banks of mist,
then we clove a flock of sea-gulls,
so that they, in mid-air startled,
flew in all directions, screaming.
Downward rushed we, ever downward.
But beneath us something shimmered,
whitish, like a reindeer's belly.-
Mother, 'twas our own reflection
in the glass-smooth mountain tarn,
shooting up towards the surface
with the same wild rush of speed
wherewith we were shooting downwards.
ASE [gasping for breath].
Peer! God help me-! Quickly, tell-!
PEER
Buck from over, buck from under,
in a moment clashed together,
scattering foam-flecks all around.
There we lay then, floating, plashing,-
But at last we made our way
somehow to the northern shore;
buck, he swam, I clung behind him:-
I ran homewards-
ASE
But the buck, dear?
PEER
He's there still, for aught I know;-
[Snaps his fingers, turns on his heel, and adds:]
catch him, and you're welcome to him!
ASE
And your neck you haven't broken?
Haven't broken both your thighs?
and your backbone, too, is whole?
Oh, dear Lord-what thanks, what praise,
should be thine who helped my boy!
There's a rent, though, in your breeches;
but it's scarce worth talking of
when one thinks what dreadful things
might have come of such a leap-!
[Stops suddenly, looks at him open-mouthed and wide-eyed; cannot
find words for some time, but at last bursts out:]
Oh, you devil's story-teller,
Cross of Christ, how you can lie!
All this screed you foist upon me,
I remember now, I knew it
when I was a girl of twenty.
Gudbrand Glesne it befell,
never you, you-
PEER
Me as well.
Such a thing can happen twice.
ASE [exasperated].
Yes, a lie, turned topsy-turvy,
can be prinked and tinselled out,
decked in plumage new and fine,
till none knows its lean old carcass.
That is just what you've been doing,
vamping up things, wild and grand,
garnishing with eagles' backs
and with all the other horrors,
lying right and lying left,
filling me with speechless dread,
till at last I recognised not
what of old I'd heard and known!
PEER
If another talked like that
I'd half kill him for his pains.
ASE [weeping].
Oh, would God I lay a corpse;
would the black earth held me sleeping!
Prayers and tears don't bite upon him.-
Peer, you're lost, and ever will be!
PEER
Darling, pretty little mother,
you are right in every word;-
don't be cross, be happy-
ASE
Silence!
Could I, if I would, be happy,
with a pig like you for son?
Think how bitter I must find it,
I, a poor defenceless widow,
ever to be put to shame!
[Weeping again.]
How much have we now remaining
from your grandsire's days of glory?
Where are now the sacks of coin
left behind by Rasmus Gynt?
Ah, your father lent them wings,-
lavished them abroad like sand,
buying land in every parish,
driving round in gilded chariots.
Where is all the wealth he wasted
at the famous winter-banquet,
when each guest sent glass and bottle
shivering 'gainst the wall behind him?
PEER
Where's the snow of yester-year?
ASE
Silence, boy, before your mother!
See the farmhouse! Every second
window-pane is stopped with clouts.
Hedges, fences, all are down,
beasts exposed to wind and weather,
fields and meadows lying fallow,
every month a new distraint-
PEER
Come now, stop this old-wife's talk!
Many a time has luck seemed dropping,
and sprung up as high as ever!
ASE
Salt-strewn is the soil it grew from.
Lord, but you're a rare one, you,-
just as pert and jaunty still,
just as bold as when the pastor,
newly come from Copenhagen,
bade you tell your Christian name,
and declared that such a headpiece
many a prince down there might envy;
till the cob your father gave him,
with a sledge to boot, in thanks
for his pleasant, friendly talk.-
Ah, but things went bravely then!
Provost, captain, all the rest,
dropped in daily, ate and drank,
swilling, till they well-nigh burst.
But 'tis need that tests one's neighbour.
Still it grew and empty here
from the day that "Gold-bag Jon"
started with his pack, a pedlar.
[Dries her eyes with her apron.]
Ah, you're big and strong enough,
you should be a staff and pillar
for your mother's frail old age,-
you should keep the farm-work going,
guard the remnants of your gear;-
[Crying again.]
oh, God help me, small's the profit
you have been to me, you scamp!
Lounging by the hearth at home,
grubbing in the charcoal embers;
or, round all the country, frightening
girls away from merry-makings-
shaming me in all directions,
fighting with the worst rapscallions-
PEER [turning away from her].
Let me be.
ASE [following him].
Can you deny
that you were the foremost brawler
in the mighty battle royal
fought the other day at Lunde,
when you raged like mongrels mad?
Who was it but you that broke
Blacksmith Aslak's arm for him,-
or at any rate that wrenched one
of his fingers out of joint?
PEER
Who has filled you with such prate?
ASE [hotly].
Cottar Kari heard the yells!
PEER [rubbing his elbow].
Maybe, but 'twas I that howled.
ASE
You?
PEER
Yes, mother,-I got beaten.
ASE
What d'you say?
PEER
He's limber, he is.
ASE
Who?
PEER
Why Aslak, to be sure.
ASE
Shame-and shame; I spit upon you!
Such a worthless sot as that,
such a brawler, such a sodden
dram-sponge to have beaten you!
[Weeping again.]
Many a shame and slight I've suffered;
but that this should come to pass
is the worst disgrace of all.
What if he be ne'er so limber,
need you therefore be a weakling?
PEER
Though I hammer or am hammered,-
still we must have lamentations.
[Laughing.]
Cheer up, mother-
ASE
What? You're lying
now again?
PEER
Yes, just this once.
Come now, wipe your tears away;-
[Clenching his left hand.]
see,-with this same pair of tongs,
thus I held the smith bent double,
while my sledge-hammer right fist-
ASE
Oh, you brawler! You will bring me
with your doings to the grave!
PEER
No, you're worth a better fate;
better twenty thousand times!
Little, ugly, dear old mother,
you may safely trust my word,-
all the parish shall exalt you;
only wait till I have done
something-something really grand!
ASE [contemptuously].
You!
PEER
Who knows what may befall one!
ASE
Would you'd get so far in sense
one day as to do the darning
of your breeches for yourself!
PEER [hotly].
I will be a king, a kaiser!
ASE
Oh, God comfort me, he's losing
all the wits that he had left!
PEER
Yes, I will! just give me time!
ASE
Give you time, you'll be a prince,
so the saying goes, I think!
PEER
You shall see!
ASE
Oh, hold your tongue!
You're as mad as mad can be.-
Ah, and yet it's true enough,-
something might have come of you,
had you not been steeped for ever
in your lies and trash and moonshine.
Hegstad's girl was fond of you.
Easily you could have won her
had you wooed her with a will-
PEER
Could I?
ASE
The old man's too feeble
not to give his child her way.
He is stiff-necked in a fashion
but at last 'tis Ingrid rules;
and where she leads, step by step,
stumps the gaffer, grumbling, after.
[Begins to cry again.]
Ah, my Peer!-a golden girl-
land entailed on her! just think,
had you set your mind upon it,
you'd be now a bridegroom brave,-
you that stand here grimed and tattered!
PEER [briskly].
Come, we'll go a-wooing, then!
ASE
Where?
PEER
At Hegstad!
ASE
Ah, poor boy;
Hegstad way is barred to wooers!
PEER
How is that?
ASE
Ah, I must sigh!
Lost the moment, lost the luck-
PEER
Speak!
ASE [sobbing].
While in the Wester-hills
you in air were riding reindeer,
here Mads Moen's won the girl!
PEER
What! That women's-bugbear! He-!
ASE
Ay, she's taking him for husband.
PEER
Wait you here till I have harnessed
horse and waggon-
[Going.]
ASE
Spare your pains.
They are to be wed to-morrow-
PEER
Pooh; this evening I'll be there!
ASE
Fie now! Would you crown our miseries
with a load of all men's scorn?
PEER
Never fear; 'twill all go well.
[Shouting and laughing at the same time.]
Mother, jump! We'll spare the waggon;
'twould take time to fetch the mare up-
[Lifts her up in his arms.]
ASE
Put me down!
PEER
No, in my arms
I will bear you to the wedding!
[Wades out into the stream.]
ASE
Help! The Lord have mercy on us!
Peer! We're drowning-
PEER
I was born
for a braver death-
ASE
Ay, true;
sure enough you'll hang at last!
[Tugging at his hair.]
Oh, you brute!
PEER
Keep quiet now;
here the bottom's slippery-slimy.
ASE
Ass!
PEER
That's right, don't spare your tongue;
that does no one any harm.
Now it's shelving up again-
ASE
Don't you drop me!
PEER
Heisan! Hop!
Now we'll play at Peer and reindeer;-
[Curvetting.]
I'm the reindeer, you are Peer!
ASE
Oh, I'm going clean distraught!
PEER
There see; now we've reached the shallows;-
[Wades ashore.]
come, a kiss now, for the reindeer;
just to thank him for the ride-
ASE [boxing his ears].
This is how I thank him!
PEER
Ow!
That's a miserable fare!
ASE
Put me down!
PEER
First to the wedding.
Be my spokesman. You're so clever;
talk to him, the old curmudgeon;
say Mads Moen's good for nothing-
ASE
Put me down!
PEER
And tell him then
what a rare lad is Peer Gynt.
ASE
Truly, you may swear to that!
Fine's the character I'll give you.
Through and through I'll show you up;
all about your devil's pranks
I will tell them straight and plain-
PEER
Will you?
ASE [kicking with rage].
I won't stay my tongue
till the old man sets his dog
at you, as you were a tramp!
PEER
Hm; then I must go alone.
ASE
Ay, but I'll come after you!
PEER
Mother dear, you haven't strength-
ASE
Strength? When I'm in such a rage,
I could crush the rocks to powder!
Hu! I'd make a meal of flints!
Put me down!
PEER
You'll promise then-
ASE
Nothing! I'll to Hegstad with you!
They shall know you, what you are!
PEER
Then you'll even have to stay here.
ASE
Never! To the feast I'm coming!
PEER
That you shan't.
ASE
What will you do?
PEER
Perch you on the mill-house roof.
[He puts her up on the roof. ASE screams.]
ASE
Lift me down!
PEER
Yes, if you'll listen-
ASE
Rubbish!
PEER
Dearest mother, pray-!
ASE [throwing a sod of grass at him].
Lift me down this moment, Peer!
PEER
If I dared, be sure I would.
[Coming nearer.]
Now remember, sit quite still.
Do not sprawl and kick about;
do not tug and tear the shingles,-
else 'twill be the worse for you;
you might topple down.
ASE
You beast!
PEER
Do not kick!
ASE
I'd have you blown,
like a changeling, into space!
PEER
Mother, fie!
ASE
Bah!
PEER
Rather give your
blessing on my undertaking.
Will you? Eh?
ASE
I'll thrash you soundly,
hulking fellow though you be!
PEER
Well, good-bye then, mother dear!
Patience; I'll be back ere long.
[Is going, but turns, holds up his finger warningly, and says:]
Careful now, don't kick and sprawl!
[Goes.]
ASE
Peer!-God help me, now he's off;
Reindeer-rider! Liar! Hei!
Will you listen!-No, he's striding
o'er the meadow-! [Shrieks.] Help! I'm dizzy!
[TWO OLD WOMEN, with sacks on their backs, come down the path to
the mill.]
FIRST WOMAN
Christ, who's screaming?
ASE
It is I!
SECOND WOMAN
Ase! Well, you are exalted!
ASE
This won't be the end of it;-
soon, God help me, I'll be heaven-high!
FIRST WOMAN
Bless your passing!
ASE
Fetch a ladder;
I must be down! That devil Peer-
SECOND WOMAN
Peer! Your son?
ASE
Now you can say
you have seen how he behaves.
FIRST WOMAN
We'll bear witness.
ASE
Only help me;
straight to Hegstad I will hasten-
SECOND WOMAN
Is he there?
FIRST WOMAN
You'll be revenged, then;
Aslak Smith will be there too.
ASE [wringing her hands].
Oh, God help me with my boy;
they will kill him ere they're done!
FIRST WOMAN
Oh, that lot has oft been talked of;
comfort you: what must be must be!
SECOND WOMAN
She is utterly demented.
[Calls up the hill.]
Eivind, Anders! Hei! Come here!
A MAN'S VOICE
What's amiss?
SECOND WOMAN
Peer Gynt has perched his
mother on the mill-house roof!
SCENE SECOND
[A hillock, covered with bushes and heather. The highroad runs
behind it; a fence between.]
[PEER GYNT comes along a footpath, goes quickly up to the fence,
stops, and looks out over the stretch of country below.]
PEER
There it lies, Hegstad. Soon I'll have reached it.
[Puts one leg over the fence; then hesitates.]
Wonder if Ingrid's alone in the house now?
[Shades his eyes with his hand, and looks out.]
No; to the farm guests are swarming like gnats.-
Hm, to turn back now perhaps would be wisest.
[Draws back his leg.]
Still they must titter behind your back,
and whisper so that it burns right through you.
[Moves a few steps away from the fence, and begins absently
plucking leaves.]
Ah, if I'd only a good strong dram now.
Or if I could pass to and fro unseen.-
Or were I unknown.-Something proper and strong
were the best thing of all, for the laughter don't bite then.
[Looks around suddenly as though afraid; then hides among the
bushes. Some WEDDING-GUESTS pass by, going downwards towards
the farm.]
A MAN [in conversation as they pass].
His father was drunken, his mother is weak.
A WOMAN
Ay, then it's no wonder the lad's good for nought.
[They pass on. Presently PEER GYNT comes forward, his face flushed
with shame. He peers after them.]
PEER [softly].
Was it me they were talking of?
[With a forced shrug.]
Oh, let them chatter!
After all, they can't sneer the life out of my body.
[Casts himself down upon the heathery slope; lies for some time flat
on his back with his hands under his head, gazing up into the sky.]
What a strange sort of cloud! It is just like a horse.
There's a man on it too-and saddle-and bridle.-
And after it comes an old crone on a broomstick.
[Laughs quietly to himself.]
It is mother. She's scolding and screaming: You beast!
Hei you, Peer Gynt-[His eyes gradually close.] Ay, now
she is frightened.-
Peer Gynt he rides first, and there follow him many.-
His steed it is gold-shod and crested with silver.
Himself he has gauntlets and sabre and scabbard.
His cloak it is long, and its lining is silken.
Full brave is the company riding behind him.
None of them, though, sits his charger so stoutly.
None of them glitters like him in the sunshine.-
Down by the fence stand the people in clusters,
lifting their hats, and agape gazing upwards.
Women are curtseying. All the world knows him,
Kaiser Peer Gynt, and his thousands of henchmen.
Sixpenny pieces and glittering shillings
over the roadway he scatters like pebbles.
Rich as a lord grows each man in the parish.
High o'er the ocean Peer Gynt goes a-riding.
Engelland's Prince on the seashore awaits him;
there too await him all Engelland's maidens.
Engelland's nobles and Engelland's Kaiser,
see him come riding and rise from their banquet.
Raising his crown, hear the Kaiser address him-
ASLAK THE SMITH [to some other young men, passing along the road].
Just look at Peer Gynt there, the drunken swine-!
PEER [starting half up].
What, Kaiser-!
THE SMITH [leaning against the fence and grinning].
Up with you, Peer, my lad!
PEER
What the devil? The smith? What do you want here?
THE SMITH [to the others].
He hasn't got over the Lunde-spree yet.
PEER [jumping up].
You'd better be off!
THE SMITH
I am going, yes.
But tell us, where have you dropped from, man?
You've been gone six weeks. Were you troll-taken, eh?
PEER
I have been doing strange deeds, Aslak Smith!
THE SMITH [winking to the others].
Let us hear them, Peer!
PEER
They are nought to you.
THE SMITH [after a pause].
You're going to Hegstad?
PEER
No.
THE SMITH
Time was
they said that the girl there was fond of you.
PEER
You grimy crow-!
THE SMITH [falling back a little].
Keep your temper, Peer!
Though Ingrid has jilted you, others are left;-
think-son of Jon Gynt! Come on to the feast;
you'll find there both lambkins and widows well on-
PEER
To hell-!
THE SMITH
You will surely find one that will have you.-
Good evening! I'll give your respects to the bride.-
[They go off, laughing and whispering.]
PEER [looks after them a while, then makes a defiant motion and
turns half round].
For my part, may Ingrid of Hegstad go marry
whoever she pleases. It's all one to me.
[Looks down at his clothes.]
My breeches are torn. I am ragged and grim.-
If only I had something new to put on now.
[Stamps on the ground.]
If only I could, with a butcher-grip,
tear out the scorn from their very vitals!
[Looks round suddenly.]
What was that? Who was it that tittered behind there?
Hm, I certainly thought-No no, it was no one.-
I'll go home to mother.
[Begins to go upwards, but stops again and listens towards Hegstad.]
They're playing a dance!
[Gazes and listens; moves downwards step by step, his eyes
glisten; he rubs his hands down his thighs.]
How the lasses do swarm! Six or eight to a man!
Oh, galloping death,-I must join in the frolic!-
But how about mother, perched up on the mill-house-
[His eyes are drawn downwards again; he leaps and laughs.]
Hei, how the Halling flies over the green!
Ay, Guttorm, he can make his fiddle speak out!
It gurgles and booms like a foss o'er a scaur.
And then all that glittering bevy of girls!-
Yes, galloping death, I must join in the frolic!
[Leaps over the fence and goes down the road.]
SCENE THIRD
[The farm-place at Hegstad. In the background, the dwelling-house.
A THRONG OF GUESTS. A lively dance in progress on the green. THE
FIDDLER sits on a table. THE MASTER-COOK is standing in the doorway.
COOKMAIDS are going to and fro between the different buildings.
Groups of ELDERLY PEOPLE sit here and there, talking.]
A WOMAN [joins a group that is seated on some logs of wood].
The bride? Oh yes, she is crying a bit;
but that, you know, isn't worth heeding.
THE MASTER-COOK [in another group].
Now then, good folk, you must empty the barrel.
A MAN
Thanks to you, friend; but you fill up too quick.
A LAD [to the FIDDLER as he flies past, holding A GIRL by the hand].
To it now, Guttorm, and don't spare the fiddlestrings!
THE GIRL
Scrape till it echoes out over the meadows!
OTHER GIRLS [standing in a ring round a lad who is dancing].
That's a rare fling!
A GIRL
He has legs that can lift him!
THE LAD [dancing].
The roof here is high, and the walls wide asunder!
THE BRIDEGROOM [comes whimpering up to his FATHER, who is standing
talking with some other men, and twitches his jacket].
Father, she will not; she is so proud!
HIS FATHER
What won't she do?
THE BRIDEGROOM
She has locked herself in.
HIS FATHER
Well, you must manage to find the key.
THE BRIDEGROOM
I don't know how.
HIS FATHER
You're a nincompoop!
[Turns away to the others. The BRIDEGROOM drifts across the yard.]
A LAD [comes from behind the house].
Wait a bit, girls! Things 'll soon be lively!
Here comes Peer Gynt.
THE SMITH [who has just come up].
Who invited him?
THE MASTER-COOK
No one.
[Goes towards the house.]
THE SMITH [to the girls].
If he should speak to you, never take notice!
A GIRL [to the others].
No, we'll pretend that we don't even see him.
PEER GYNT [comes in heated and full of animation, stops right in
front of the group, and claps his hands].
Which is the liveliest girl of the lot of you?
A GIRL [as he approaches her].
I am not.
ANOTHER [similarly].
I am not.
A THIRD
No; nor I either.
PEER [to a fourth].
You come along, then, for want of a better.
THE GIRL
Haven't got time.
PEER [to a fifth].
Well then, you!
THE GIRL [going].
I'm for home.
PEER
To-night? are you utterly out of your senses?
THE SMITH [after a moment, in a low voice].
See, Peer, she's taken a greybeard for partner.
PEER [turns sharply to an elderly man].
Where are the unbespoke girls?
THE MAN
Find them out.
[Goes away from him.]
[PEER GYNT has suddenly become subdued. He glances shyly and
furtively at the group. All look at him, but no one speaks. He
approaches other groups. Wherever he goes there is silence; when he
moves away, they look after him and smile.]
PEER [to himself].
Mocking looks; needle-keen whispers and smiles.
They grate like a sawblade under the file!
[He slinks along close to the fence. SOLVEIG, leading little HELGA
by the hand, comes into the yard, along with her PARENTS.]
A MAN [to another, close to PEER GYNT].
Look, here are the new folk.
THE OTHER
The ones from the west?
THE FIRST MAN
Ay, the people from Hedal.
THE OTHER
Ah yes, so they are.
PEER [places himself in the path of the new-comers, points to
SOLVEIG, and asks the FATHER:]
May I dance with your daughter?
THE FATHER [quietly].
You may so; but first
we must go to the farm-house and greet the good people.
[They go in.]
THE MASTER-COOK [to PEER GYNT, offering him drink].
Since you are here, you'd best take a pull at the liquor.
PEER [looking fixedly after the new-comers].
Thanks; I'm for dancing; I am not athirst.
[The MASTER-COOK goes away from him. PEER GYNT gazes towards the
house and laughs.]
How fair! Did ever you see the like?
Looked down at her shoes and her snow-white-apron-!
And then she held on to her mother's skirt-folds,
and carried a psalm-book wrapped up in a kerchief-!
I must look at that girl.
[Going into the house.]
A LAD [coming out of the house, with several others].
Are you off so soon, Peer,
from the dance?
PEER
No, no.
THE LAD
Then you're heading amiss!
[Takes hold of his shoulder to turn him round.]
PEER
Let me pass!
THE LAD
I believe you're afraid of the smith.
PEER
I afraid!
THE LAD
You remember what happened at Lunde?
[They go off, laughing, to the dancing-green.]
SOLVEIG [in the doorway of the house].
Are you not the lad that was wanting to dance?
PEER
Of course it was me; don't you know me again?
[Takes her hand.]
Come, then!
SOLVEIG
We mustn't go far, mother said.
PEER
Mother said! Mother said! Were you born yesterday?
SOLVEIG
Now you're laughing-!
PEER
Why sure, you are almost a child.
Are you grown up?
SOLVEIG
I read with the pastor last spring.
PEER
Tell me your name, lass, and then we'll talk easier.
SOLVEIG
My name is Solveig. And what are you called?
PEER
Peer Gynt.
SOLVEIG [withdrawing her hand].
Oh heaven!
PEER
Why, what is it now?
SOLVEIG
My garter is loose; I must tie it up tighter.
[Goes away from him.]
THE BRIDEGROOM [pulling at his MOTHER'S gown].
Mother, she will not-!
HIS MOTHER
She will not? What?
THE BRIDEGROOM
She won't, mother-
HIS MOTHER
What?
THE BRIDEGROOM
Unlock the door.
HIS FATHER [angrily, below his breath].
Oh, you're only fit to be tied in a stall!
HIS MOTHER
Don't scold him. Poor dear, he'll be all right yet.
[They move away.]
A LAD [coming with a whole crowd of others from the dancing-green].
Peer, have some brandy?
PEER
No.
THE LAD
Only a drain?
PEER [looking darkly at him].
Got any?
THE LAD
Well, I won't say but I have.
[Pulls out a pocket-flask and drinks.]
Ah! How it stings your throat!-Well?
PEER [Drinks.]
Let me try it.
ANOTHER LAD
Now you must try mine as well, you know.
PEER
No!
THE LAD
Oh, nonsense; now don't be a fool.
Take a pull, Peer!
PEER
Well then, give me a drop.
[Drinks again.]
A GIRL [half aloud].
Come, let's be going.
PEER
Afraid of me, wench?
A THIRD LAD
Who isn't afraid of you?
A FOURTH
At Lunde
you showed us clearly what tricks you could play.
PEER
I can do more than that, when once I get started!
THE FIRST LAD [whispering].
Now he's getting into swing!
SEVERAL OTHERS [forming a circle around him].
Tell away! Tell away!
What can you-?
PEER
To-morrow-!
OTHERS
No, now, to-night!
A GIRL
Can you conjure, Peer?
PEER
I can call up the devil!
A MAN
My grandam could do that before I was born!
PEER
Liar! What I can do, that no one else can.
I one day conjured him into a nut.
It was worm-bored, you see!
SEVERAL [laughing].
Ay, that's easily guessed!
PEER
He cursed, and he wept, and he wanted to bribe me
with all sorts of things-
ONE OF THE CROWD
But he had to go in?
PEER
Of course. I stopped up the hole with a peg.
Hei! If you'd heard him rumbling and grumbling!
A GIRL
Only think!
PEER
It was just like a humble-bee buzzing.
THE GIRL
Have you got him still in the nut?
PEER
Why, no;
by this time that devil has flown on his way.
The grudge the smith bears me is all his doing.
A LAD
Indeed?
PEER
I went to the smithy, and begged
that he would crack that same nutshell for me.
He promised he would!-laid it down on his anvil;
but Aslak, you know, is so heavy of hand;-
for ever swinging that great sledge-hammer-
A VOICE FROM THE CROWD
Did he kill the foul fiend?
PEER
He laid on like a man.
But the devil showed fight, and tore off in a flame
through the roof, and shattered the wall asunder.
SEVERAL VOICES
And the smith-?
PEER
Stood there with his hands all scorched.
And from that day onwards, we've never been friends.
[General laughter.]
SOME OF THE CROWD
That yarn is a good one.
OTHERS
About his best.
PEER
Do you think I am making it up?
A MAN
Oh no,
that you're certainly not; for I've heard the most on't
from my grandfather-
PEER
Liar! It happened to me!
THE MAN
Yes, like everything else.
PEER [with a fling].
I can ride, I can,
clean through the air, on the bravest of steeds!
Oh, many's the thing I can do, I tell you!
[Another roar of laughter.]
ONE OF THE GROUP
Peer, ride through the air a bit!
MANY
Do, dear Peer Gynt-!
PEER
You may spare you the trouble of begging so hard.
I will ride like a hurricane over you all!
Every man in the parish shall fall at my feet!
AN ELDERLY MAN
Now he is clean off his head.
ANOTHER
The dolt!
A THIRD
Braggart!
A FOURTH
Liar!
PEER [threatening them].
Ay, wait till you see!
A MAN [half drunk].
Ay, wait; you'll soon get your jacket dusted!
OTHERS
Your back beaten tender! Your eyes painted blue!
[The crowd disperses, the elder men angry, the younger laughing
and jeering.]
THE BRIDEGROOM [close to PEER GYNT].
Peer, is it true you can ride through the air?
PEER [shortly].
It's all true, Mads! You must know I'm a rare one!
THE BRIDEGROOM
Then have you got the Invisible Cloak too?
PEER
The Invisible Hat, do you mean? Yes, I have.
[Turns away from him. SOLVEIG crosses the yard, leading little
HELGA.]
PEER [goes towards them; his face lights up].
Solveig! Oh, it is well you have come!
[Takes hold of her wrist.]
Now will I swing you round fast and fine!
SOLVEIG
Loose me!
PEER
Wherefore?
SOLVEIG
You are so wild.
PEER
The reindeer is wild, too, when summer is dawning.
Come then, lass; do not be wayward now!
SOLVEIG [withdrawing her arm].
Dare not.
PEER
Wherefore?
SOLVEIG
No, you've been drinking.
[Moves off with HELGA.]
PEER
Oh, if I had but my knife-blade driven
clean through the heart of them,-one and all!
THE BRIDEGROOM [nudging him with his elbow].
Peer, can't you help me to get at the bride?
PEER [absently].
The bride? Where is she?
THE BRIDEGROOM
In the store-house.
PEER
Ah.
THE BRIDEGROOM
Oh, dear Peer Gynt, you must try at least!
PEER
No, you must get on without my help.
[A thought strikes him; he says softly but sharply:]
Ingrid! The store-house!
[Goes Up tO SOLVEIG.]
Have you thought better on't?
[SOLVEIG tries to go; he blocks her path.]
You're ashamed to, because I've the look of a tramp.
SOLVEIG [hastily].
No, that you haven't; that's not true at all!
PEER
Yes! And I've taken a drop as well;
but that was to spite you, because you had hurt me.
Come then!
SOLVEIG
Even if I would now, I daren't.
PEER
Who are you frightened of?
SOLVEIG
Father, most.
PEER
Father? Ay, ay; he is one of the quiet ones!
One of the godly, eh?-Answer, come!
SOLVEIG
What shall I say?
PEER
Is your father a psalm-singer?
And you and your mother as well, no doubt?
Come, will you speak?
SOLVEIG
Let me go in peace.
PEER
No!
[In a low but sharp and threatening tone.]
I can turn myself into a troll!
I'll come to your bedside at midnight to-night.
If you should hear some one hissing and spitting,
you mustn't imagine it's only the cat.
It's me, lass! I'll drain out your blood in a cup,
and your little sister, I'll eat her up;
ay, you must know I'm a werewolf at night;-
I'll bite you all over the loins and the back-
[Suddenly changes his tone, and entreats, as if in dread:]
Dance with me, Solveig!
SOLVEIG [looking darkly at him].
Then you were grim.
[Goes into the house.]
THE BRIDEGROOM [comes sidling up again].
I'll give you an ox if you'll help me!
PEER
Then come!
[They go out behind the house. At the same moment a crowd of men
come up from the dancing-green; most of them are drunk. Noise and
hubbub. SOLVEIG, HELGA, and their PARENTS appear among a number of
elderly people in the doorway.]
THE MASTER-COOK [to the SMITH, who is the foremost of the crowd].
Keep peace now!
THE SMITH [pulling off his jacket].
No, we must fight it out here.
Peer Gynt or I must be taught a lesson.
SOME VOICES
Ay, let them fight for it!
OTHERS
No, only wrangle!
THE SMITH
Fists must decide; for the case is past words.
SOLVEIG'S FATHER
Control yourself, man!
HELGA
Will they beat him, mother?
A LAD
Let us rather tease him with all his lies!
ANOTHER
Kick him out of the company!
A THIRD
Spit in his eyes!
A FOURTH [to the SMITH].
You're not backing out, smith?
THE SMITH [flinging away his jacket].
The jade shall be slaughtered!
SOLVEIG'S MOTHER [to SOLVEIG].
There, you can see how that windbag is thought of.
ASE [coming up with a stick in her hand].
Is that son of mine here? Now he's in for a drubbing!
Oh! how heartily I will dang him!
THE SMITH [rolling up his shirt-sleeves].
That switch is too light for a carcass like his.
The smith will dang him!
OTHERS
Bang him!
THE SMITH [spits on his hands and nods to ASE].
Hang him!
ASE
What? Hang my Peer? Ay, just try if you dare;-
Ase and I, we have teeth and claws!-
Where is he? [Calls across the yard:] Peer!
THE BRIDEGROOM [comes running up].
Oh, God's death on the cross!
Come father, come mother, and-!
HIS FATHER
What is the matter?
THE BRIDEGROOM
Just fancy, Peer Gynt-!
ASE [screams].
Have they taken his life?
THE BRIDEGROOM
No, but Peer Gynt-! Look, there on the hillside-!
THE CROWD
With the bride!
ASE [lets her stick sink].
Oh, the beast!
THE SMITH [as if thunderstruck].
Where the slope rises sheerest
he's clambering upwards, by God, like a goat!
THE BRIDEGROOM [crying].
He's shouldered her, mother, as I might a pig!
ASE [shaking her fist up at him].
Would God you might fall, and-!
[Screams out in terror.]
Take care of your footing!
THE HEGSTAD FARMER [comes in, bare-headed and white with rage].
I'll have his life for this bride-rape yet!
ASE
Oh no, God punish me if I let you!
ACT SECOND
SCENE FIRST
[A narrow path, high up in the mountains. Early morning.]
[PEER GYNT comes hastily and sullenly along the path. INGRID,
Still wearing some of her bridal ornaments, is trying to hold him
back.]
PEER
Get you from me!
INGRID [weeping].
After this, Peer?
Whither?
PEER
Where you will for me.
INGRID [wringing her hands].
Oh, what falsehood!
PEER
Useless railing.
Each alone must go his way.
INGRID
Sin-and sin again unites us!
PEER
Devil take all recollections!
Devil take the tribe of women-
all but one-!
INGRID
Who is that one, pray?
PEER
'Tis not you.
INGRID
Who is it then?
PEER
Go! Go thither whence you came!
Off! To your father!
INGRID
Dearest, sweetest-
PEER
Peace!
INGRID
You cannot mean it, surely,
what you're saying?
PEER
Can and do.
INGRID
First to lure-and then forsake me!
PEER
And what terms have you to offer?
INGRID
Hegstad Farm, and more besides.
PEER
Is your psalm-book in your kerchief?
Where's the gold-mane on your shoulders?
Do you glance adown your apron?
Do you hold your mother's skirt-fold?
Speak!
INGRID
No, but-
PEER
Went you to the pastor
this last spring-tide?
INGRID
No, but Peer-
PEER
Is there shyness in your glances?
When I beg, can you deny?
INGRID
Heaven! I think his wits are going!
PEER
Does your presence sanctify?
Speak!
INGRID
No, but-
PEER
What's all the rest then?
[Going.]
INGRID [blocking his way].
Know you it will cost your neck
should you fail me?
PEER
What do I care?
INGRID
You may win both wealth and honour
if you take me-
PEER
Can't afford.
INGRID [bursting into tears].
Oh, you lured me-!
PEER
You were willing.
INGRID
I was desperate!
PEER
Frantic I.
INGRID [threatening].
Dearly shall you pay for this!
PEER
Dearest payment cheap I'll reckon.
INGRID
Is your purpose set?
PEER
Like flint.
INGRID
Good! we'll see, then, who's the winner!
[Goes downwards.]
PEER [stands silent a moment, then cries:]
Devil take all recollections!
Devil take the tribe of women!
INGRID [turning her head, and calling mockingly upwards:]
All but one!
PEER
Yes, all but one.
[They go their several ways.]
SCENE SECOND
[Near a mountain tarn; the ground is soft and marshy round about.
A storm is gathering.]
[ASE enters, calling and gazing around her despairingly, in every
direction. SOLVEIG has difficulty in keeping up with her. SOLVEIG'S
FATHER and MOTHER, with HELGA, are some way behind.]
ASE [tossing about her arms, and tearing her hair].
All things are against me with wrathful might!
Heaven, and the waters, and the grisly mountains!
Fog-scuds from heaven roll down to bewilder him!
The treacherous waters are lurking to murder him!
The mountains would crush him with landslip and rift!-
And the people too! They're out after his life!
God knows they shan't have it! I can't bear to lose him!
Oh, the oaf! to think that the fiend should tempt him!
[Turning to SOLVEIG.]
Now isn't it clean unbelievable this?
He, that did nought but romance and tell lies;-
he, whose sole strength was the strength of his jaw;
he, that did never a stroke of true work;-
he-! Oh, a body could both cry and laugh!-
Oh, we clung closely in sorrow and need.
Ay, you must know that my husband, he drank,
loafed round the parish to roister and prate,
wasted and trampled our gear under foot.
And meanwhile at home there sat Peerkin and I-
the best we could do was to try to forget;
for ever I've found it so hard to bear up.
It's a terrible thing to look fate in the eyes;
and of course one is glad to be quit of one's cares,
and try all one can to keep thought far away.
Some take to brandy, and others to lies;
and we-why we took to fairy-tales
of princes and trolls and of all sorts of beasts;
and of bride-rapes as well. Ah, but who could have dreamt
that those devil's yarns would have stuck in his head?
[In a fresh access of terror.]
Hu! What a scream! It's the nixie or droug!
Peer! Peer!-Up there on that hillock-!
[She runs to the top of a little rise, and looks out over the
tarn. SOLVEIG'S FATHER and MOTHER come up.]
ASE
Not a sign to be seen!
THE FATHER [quietly].
It is worst for him!
ASE [weeping].
Oh, my Peer! Oh, my own lost lamb!
THE FATHER [nods mildly].
You may well say lost.
ASE
Oh no, don't talk like that!
He is so clever. There's no one like him.
THE FATHER
You foolish woman!
ASE
Oh ay; oh ay;
foolish I am, but the boy's all right!
THE FATHER [still softly and with mild eyes].
His heart is hardened, his soul is lost.
ASE [in terror].
No, no, he can't be so hard, our Lord!
THE FATHER
Do you think he can sigh for his debt of sin?
ASE [eagerly].
No, but he can ride through the air on a buck, though!
THE MOTHER
Christ, are you mad?
THE FATHER
Why, what do you mean?
ASE
Never a deed is too great for him.
You shall see, if only he lives so long-
THE FATHER
Best if you saw him on the gallows hanging.
ASE [shrieks].
Oh, cross of Christ!
THE FATHER
In the hangman's hands,
it may be his heart would be turned to repentance.
ASE [bewildered].
Oh, you'll soon talk me out of my senses!
We must find him!
THE FATHER
To rescue his soul.
ASE
And his body!
If he's stuck in the swamp, we must drag him out;
if he's taken by trolls, we must ring the bells for him.
THE FATHER
Hm!-Here's a sheep-path-
ASE
The Lord will repay you
your guidance and help!
THE FATHER
It's a Christian's duty.
ASE
Then the others, fie! they are heathens all;
there wasn't one that would go with us-
THE FATHER
They knew him too well.
ASE
He was too good for them!
[Wrings her hands.]
And to think-and to think that his life is at stake!
THE FATHER
Here are tracks of a man.
ASE
Then it's here we must search!
THE FATHER
We'll scatter around on this side of our saeter.
[He and his wife go on ahead.]
SOLVEIG [to ASE].
Say on; tell me more.
ASE [drying her eyes].
Of my son, you mean?
SOLVEIG
Yes;-
Tell everything!
ASE [smiles and tosses her head].
Everything?-Soon you'd be tired!
SOLVEIG
Sooner by far will you tire of the telling
than I of the hearing.
SCENE THIRD
[Low, treeless heights, close under the mountain moorlands; peaks in
the distance. The shadows are long; it is late in the day.]
[PEER GYNT comes running at full speed, and stops short on the
hillside.]
PEER
The parish is all at my heels in a pack!
Every man of them armed or with gun or with club.
Foremost I hear the old Hegstad-churl howling.-
Now it's noised far and wide that Peer Gynt is abroad!
It is different, this, from a bout with a smith!
This is life! Every limb grows as strong as a bear's.
[Strikes out with his arms and leaps in the air.]
To crush, overturn, stem the rush of the foss!
To strike! Wrench the fir-tree right up by the root!
This is life! This both hardens and lifts one high!
To hell then with all of the savourless lies!
THREE SAETER GIRLS [rush across the hillside, screaming and
singing].
Trond of the Valfjeld! Bard and Kare!
Troll-pack! To-night would you sleep in our arms?
PEER
To whom are you calling?
THE GIRLS
To the trolls! to the trolls!
FIRST GIRL
Trond, come with kindness!
SECOND GIRL
Bard, come with force!
THIRD GIRL
The cots in the saeter are all standing empty!
FIRST GIRL
Force is kindness!
SECOND GIRL
And kindness is force!
THIRD GIRL
If lads are awanting, one plays with the trolls!
PEER
Why, where are the lads, then?
ALL THREE [with a horse-laugh].
They cannot come hither!
FIRST GIRL
Mine called me his sweetheart and called me his darling.
Now he has married a grey-headed widow.
SECOND GIRL
Mine met a gipsy-wench north on the upland.
Now they are tramping the country together.
THIRD GIRL
Mine put an end to our bastard brat.
Now his head's grinning aloft on a stake.
ALL THREE
Trond of the Valfjeld! Bard and Kare!
Troll-pack! To-night would you sleep in our arms?
PEER [stands, with a sudden leap, in the midst of them].
I'm a three-headed troll, and the boy for three girls!
THE GIRLS
Are you such a lad, eh?
PEER
You shall judge for yourselves!
FIRST GIRL
To the hut! To the hut!
SECOND GIRL
We have mead!
PEER
Let it flow!
THIRD GIRL
No cot shall stand empty this Saturday night!
SECOND GIRL [kissing him].
He sparkles and glisters like white-heated iron.
THIRD GIRL [doing likewise].
Like a baby's eyes from the blackest tarn.
PEER [dancing in the midst of them].
Heavy of heart and wanton of mind.
The eyes full of laughter, the throat of tears!
THE GIRLS [making mocking gestures towards the mountain-tops,
screaming and singing].
Trond of the Valfjeld! Bard and Kare!
Troll-pack!-To-night will you sleep in our arms?
[They dance away over the heights, with PEER GYNT in their midst.]
SCENE FOURTH
[Among the Ronde mountains. Sunset. Shining snowpeaks all around.]
[PEER GYNT enters, dizzy and bewildered.]
PEER
Tower over tower arises!
Hei, what a glittering gate!
Stand! Will you stand! It's drifting
further and further away!
High on the vane the cock stands
lifting his wings for flight;-
blue spread the rifts and bluer,
locked is the fell and barred.-
What are those trunks and tree-roots,
that grow from the ridge's clefts?
They are warriors heron-footed!
Now they, too, are fading away.
A shimmering like rainbow-streamers
goes shooting through eyes and brain.
What is it, that far-off chiming?
What's weighing my eyebrows down?
Hu, how my forehead's throbbing-
a tightening red-hot ring-!
I cannot think who the devil
has bound it around my head!
[Sinks down.]
Flight o'er the Edge of Gendin-
stuff and accursed lies!
Up o'er the steepest hill-wall
with the bride,-and a whole day drunk;
hunted by hawks and falcons,
threatened by trolls and such,
sporting with crazy wenches:-
lies and accursed stuff!
[Gazes long upwards.]
Yonder sail two brown eagles.
Southward the wild geese fly.
And here I must splash and stumble
in quagmire and filth knee-deep!
[Springs up.]
I'll fly too! I will wash myself clean in
the bath of the keenest winds!
I'll fly high! I will plunge myself fair in
the glorious christening-font!
I will soar far over the saeter;
I will ride myself pure of soul;
I will forth o'er the salt sea waters,
and high over Engelland's prince!
Ay, gaze as ye may, young maidens;
my ride is for none of you;
you're wasting your time in waiting-!
Yet maybe I'll swoop down, too.-
What has come of the two brown eagles-?
They've vanished, the devil knows where!-
There's the peak of a gable rising;
it's soaring on every hand:
it's growing from out the ruins;-
see, the gateway is standing wide!
Ha-ha, yonder house, I know it;
it's grandfather's new-built farm!
Gone are the clouts from the windows;
the crazy old fence is gone.
The lights gleam from every casement;
there's a feast in the hall to-night.
There, that was the provost clinking
the back of his knife on his glass;-
there's the captain flinging his bottle,
and shivering the mirror to bits.-
Let them waste; let it all be squandered!
Peace, mother; what need we care!
'Tis the rich Jon Gynt gives the banquet;
hurrah for the race of Gynt!
What's all this bustle and hubbub?
Why do they shout and bawl?
The captain is calling the son in;-
oh, the provost would drink my health.
In then, Peer Gynt, to the judgment;
it rings forth in song and shout:
Peer Gynt, thou art come of great things,
and great things shall come of thee!
[Leaps forward, but runs his head against a rock, falls, and remains
stretched on the ground.]
SCENE FIFTH
[A hillside, wooded with great soughing trees. Stars are gleaming
through the leaves; birds are singing in the tree-tops.]
[A GREEN-CLAD WOMAN is crossing the hillside; PEER GYNT follows her,
with all sorts of lover-like antics.]
THE GREEN-CLAD ONE [stops and turns round].
Is it true?
PEER [drawing his finger across his throat].
As true as my name is Peer;-
as true as that you are a lovely woman!
Will you have me? You'll see what a fine man I'll be;
you shall neither tread the loom nor turn the spindle.
You shall eat all you want, till you're ready to burst.
I never will drag you about by the hair-
THE GREEN-CLAD ONE
Nor beat me?
PEER
No, can you think I would?
We kings' sons never beat women and such.
THE GREEN-CLAD ONE
You're a king's son?
PEER
Yes.
THE GREEN-CLAD ONE
I'm the Dovre-King's daughter.
PEER
Are you? See there, now, how well that fits in!
THE GREEN-CLAD ONE
Deep in the Ronde has father his palace.
PEER
My mother's is bigger, or much I'm mistaken.
THE GREEN-CLAD ONE
Do you know my father? His name is King Brose.
PEER
Do you know my mother? Her name is Queen Ase.
THE GREEN-CLAD ONE
When my father is angry the mountains are riven.
PEER
They reel when my mother by chance falls a-scolding.
THE GREEN-CLAD ONE
My father can kick e'en the loftiest roof-tree.
PEER
My mother can ride through the rapidest river.
THE GREEN-CLAD ONE
Have you other garments besides those rags?
PEER
Ho, you should just see my Sunday clothes!
THE GREEN-CLAD ONE
My week-day gown is of gold and silk.
PEER
It looks to me liker tow and straws.
THE GREEN-CLAD ONE
Ay, there is one thing you must remember:-
this is the Ronde-folk's use and wont:
all our possessions have twofold form.
When you shall come to my father's hall,
it well may chance that you're on the point
of thinking you stand in a dismal moraine.
PEER
Well now, with us it's precisely the same.
Our gold will seem to you litter and trash!
And you'll think, mayhap, every glittering pane
is nought but a bunch of old stockings and clouts.
THE GREEN-CLAD ONE
Black it seems white, and ugly seems fair.
PEER
Big it seems little, and dirty seems clean.
THE GREEN-CLAD ONE [falling on his neck].
Ay, Peer, now I see that we fit, you and I!
PEER
Like the leg and the trouser, the hair and the comb.
THE GREEN-CLAD ONE [calls away over the hillside].
Bridal-steed! Bridal-steed! bridal-steed mine!
[A gigantic pig comes running in with a rope's end for a bridle
and an old sack for a saddle. PEER GYNT vaults on its back, and
seats the GREEN-CLAD ONE in front of him.]
PEER
Hark-away! Through the Ronde-gate gallop we in!
Gee-up, gee-up, my courser fine!
THE GREEN-CLAD ONE [tenderly].
Ah, but lately I wandered and moped and pined-.
One never can tell what may happen to one!
PEER [thrashing the pig and trotting off].
You may know the great by their riding-gear!
SCENE SIXTH
[The Royal Hall of the King of the Dovre-Trolls. A great assembly
of TROLL-COURTIERS, GNOMES, and BROWNIES. THE OLD MAN OF THE DOVRE
sits on the throne, crowned, and with his sceptre in his hand. His
CHILDREN and NEAREST RELATIONS are ranged on both sides. PEER GYNT
stands before him. Violent commotion in the hall.]
THE TROLL-COURTIERS
Slay him! a Christian-man's son has deluded
the Dovre-King's loveliest maid!
A TROLL-IMP
May I hack him on the fingers?
ANOTHER
May I tug him by the hair?
A TROLL-MAIDEN
Hu, hei, let me bite him in the haunches!
A TROLL-WITCH [with a ladle].
Shall he be boiled into broth and bree?
ANOTHER TROLL-WITCH [with a chopper].
Shall he roast on a spit or be browned in a stewpan?
THE OLD MAN OF THE DOVRE
Ice to your blood, friends!
[Beckons his counsellors nearer around him.]
Don't let us talk big.
We've been drifting astern in these latter years;
we can't tell what's going to stand or to fall,
and there's no sense in turning recruits away.
Besides the lad's body has scarce a blemish,
and he's strongly-built too, if I see aright.
It's true, he has only a single head;
but my daughter, too, has no more than one.
Three-headed trolls are going clean out of fashion;
one hardly sees even a two-header now,
and even those heads are but so-so ones.
[To PEER GYNT.]
It's my daughter, then, you demand of me?
PEER
Your daughter and the realm to her dowry, yes.
THE OLD MAN
You shall have the half while I'm still alive,
and the other half when I come to die.
PEER
I'm content with that.
THE OLD MAN
Ay, but stop, my lad;-
you also have some undertakings to give.
If you break even one, the whole pact's at an end,
and you'll never get away from here living.
First of all you must swear that you'll never give heed
to aught that lies outside Ronde-hills' bounds;
day you must shun, and deeds, and each sunlit spot.
PEER
Only call me king, and that's easy to keep.
THE OLD MAN
And next-now for putting your wits to the test.
[Draws himself up in his seat.]
THE OLDEST TROLL-COURTIER [to PEER GYNT].
Let us see if you have a wisdom-tooth
that can crack the Dovre-King's riddle-nut!
THE OLD MAN
What difference is there 'twixt trolls and men?
PEER
No difference at all, as it seems to me.
Big trolls would roast you and small trolls would claw you;-
with us it were likewise, if only they dared.
THE OLD MAN
True enough; in that and in more we're alike.
Yet morning is morning, and even is even,
and there is a difference all the same.-
Now let me tell you wherein it lies:
Out yonder, under the shining vault,
among men the saying goes: "Man, be thyself!"
At home here with us, 'mid the tribe of the trolls,
the saying goes: "Troll, to thyself be-enough!"
THE TROLL-COURTIER [to PEER GYNT].
Can you fathom the depth?
PEER
It strikes me as misty.
THE OLD MAN
My son, that "Enough," that most potent and sundering
word, must be graven upon your escutcheon.
PEER [scratching his head].
Well, but-
THE OLD MAN
It must, if you here would be master!
PEER
Oh well, let it pass; after all, it's no worse-
THE OLD MAN
And next you must learn to appreciate
our homely, everyday way of life.
[He beckons; two TROLLS with pigs'-heads, white night-caps, and so
forth, bring in food and drink.]
The cow gives cakes and the bullock mead;
ask not if its taste be sour or sweet;
the main matter is, and you mustn't forget it,
it's all of it home-brewed.
PEER [pushing the things away from him].
The devil fly off with your home-brewed drinks!
I'll never get used to the ways of this land.
THE OLD MAN
The bowl's given in, and it's fashioned of gold.
Whoso owns the gold bowl, him my daughter holds dear.
PEER [pondering].
It is written: Thou shalt bridle the natural man;-
and I daresay the drink may in time seem less sour.
So be it!
[Complies.]
THE OLD MAN
Ay, that was sagaciously said.
You spit?
PEER
One must trust to the force of habit.
THE OLD MAN
And next you must throw off your Christian-man's garb;
for this you must know to our Dovre's renown:
here all things are mountain-made, nought's from the dale,
except the silk bow at the end of your tail.
PEER [indignant].
I haven't a tail!
THE OLD MAN
Then of course you must get one.
See my Sunday-tail, Chamberlain, fastened to him.
PEER
I'll be hanged if you do! Would you make me a fool!
THE OLD MAN
None comes courting my child with no tail at his rear.
PEER
Make a beast of a man!
THE OLD MAN
Nay, my son, you mistake;
I make you a mannerly wooer, no more.
A bright orange bow we'll allow you to wear,
and that passes here for the highest of honours.
PEER [reflectively].
It's true, as the saying goes: Man's but a mote.
And it's wisest to follow the fashion a bit.
Tie away!
THE OLD MAN
You're a tractable fellow, I see.
THE COURTIER
just try with what grace you can waggle and whisk it!
PEER [peevishly].
Ha, would you force me to go still further?
Do you ask me to give up my Christian faith?
THE OLD MAN
No, that you are welcome to keep in peace.
Doctrine goes free; upon that there's no duty;
it's the outward cut one must tell a troll by.
If we're only at one in our manners and dress,
you may hold as your faith what to us is a horror.
PEER
Why, in spite of your many conditions, you are
a more reasonable chap than one might have expected.
THE OLD MAN
We troll-folk, my son, are less black than we're painted;
that's another distinction between you and us.-
But the serious part of the meeting is over;
now let us gladden our ears and our eyes.
Music-maid, forth! Set the Dovre-harp sounding!
Dancing-maid, forth! Tread the Dovre-hall's floor!
[Music and a dance.]
THE COURTIER
How like you it?
PEER
Like it? Hm-
THE OLD MAN
Speak without fear!
What see you?
PEER
Why, something unspeakably grim:
a bell-cow with her hoof on a gut-harp strumming,
a sow in socklets a-trip to the tune.
THE COURTIERS
Eat him!
THE OLD MAN
His sense is but human, remember!
TROLL-MAIDENS
Hu, tear away both his ears and his eyes!
THE GREEN-CLAD ONE [weeping].
Hu-hu! And this we must hear and put up with,
when I and my sister make music and dance.
PEER
Oho, was it you? Well, a joke at the feast,
you must know, is never unkindly meant.
THE GREEN-CLAD ONE
Can you swear it was so?
PEER
Both the dance and the music
were utterly charming, the cat claw me else.
THE OLD MAN
This same human nature's a singular thing;
it sticks to people so strangely long.
If it gets a gash in the fight with us,
it heals up at once, though a scar may remain.
My son-in-law, now, is as pliant as any;
he's willingly thrown off his Christian-man's garb,
he's willingly drunk from our chalice of mead,
he's willingly tied on the tail to his back,-
so willing, in short, did we find him in all things,
I thought to myself the old Adam, for certain,
had for good and all been kicked out of doors;
but lo! in two shakes he's atop again!
Ay ay, my son, we must treat you, I see,
to cure this pestilent human nature.
PEER
What will you do?
THE OLD MAN
In your left eye, first,
I'll scratch you a bit, till you see awry;
but all that you see will seem fine and brave.
And then I'll just cut your right window-pane out-
PEER
Are you drunk?
THE OLD MAN [lays a number of sharp instruments on the table].
See, here are the glazier's tools.
Blinkers you'll wear, like a raging bull.
Then you'll recognise that your bride is lovely,-
and ne'er will your vision be troubled, as now,
with bell-cows harping and sows that dance.
PEER
This is madman's talk!
THE OLDEST COURTIER
It's the Dovre-King speaking;
it's he that is wise, and it's you that are crazy!
THE OLD MAN
Just think how much worry and mortification
you'll thus escape from, year out, year in.
You must remember, your eyes are the fountain
of the bitter and searing lye of tears.
PEER
That's true; and it says in our sermon-book:
If thine eye offend thee, then pluck it out.
But tell me, when will my sight heal up
into human sight?
THE OLD MAN
Nevermore, my friend.
PEER
Indeed! In that case, I'll take my leave.
THE OLD MAN
What would you without?
PEER
I would go my way.
THE OLD MAN
No, stop! It's easy to slip in here,
but the Dovre-King's gate doesn't open outwards.
PEER
You wouldn't detain me by force, I hope?
THE OLD MAN
Come now, just listen to reason, Prince Peer!
You have gifts for trolldom. He acts, does he not,
even now in a passably troll-like fashion?
And you'd fain be a troll?
PEER
Yes, I would, sure enough.
For a bride and a well-managed kingdom to boot,
I can put up with losing a good many things.
But there is a limit to all things on earth.
The tail I've accepted, it's perfectly true;
but no doubt I can loose what the Chamberlain tied.
My breeches I've dropped; they were old and patched;
but no doubt I can button them on again.
And lightly enough I can slip my cable
from these your Dovrefied ways of life.
I am willing to swear that a cow is a maid;
an oath one can always eat up again:-
but to know that one never can free oneself,
that one can't even die like a decent soul;
to live as a hill-troll for all one's days-
to feel that one never can beat a retreat,-
as the book has it, that's what your heart is set on;
but that is a thing I can never agree to.
THE OLD MAN
Now, sure as I live, I shall soon lose my temper;
and then I am not to be trifled with.
You pasty-faced loon! Do you know who I am?
First with my daughter you make too free-
PEER
There you lie in your throat!
THE OLD MAN
You must marry her.
PEER
Do you dare to accuse me-?
THE OLD MAN
What? Can you deny
that you lusted for her in heart and eye?
PEER [with a snort of contempt].
No more? Who the deuce cares a straw for that?
THE OLD MAN
It's ever the same with this humankind.
The spirit you're ready to own with your lips,
but in fact nothing counts that your fists cannot handle.
So you really think, then, that lust matters nought?
Wait; you shall soon have ocular proof of it-
PEER
You don't catch me with a bait of lies!
THE GREEN-CLAD ONE
My Peer, ere the year's out, you'll be a father.
PEER
Open doors! let me go!
THE OLD MAN
In a he-goat's skin,
you shall have the brat after you.
PEER [mopping the sweat off his brow].
Would I could waken!
THE OLD MAN
Shall we send him to the palace?
PEER
You can send him to the parish!
THE OLD MAN
Well well, Prince Peer; that's your own look-out.
But one thing's certain, what's done is done;
and your offspring, too, will be sure to grow;
such mongrels shoot up amazingly fast-
PEER
Old man, don't act like a headstrong ox!
Hear reason, maiden! Let's come to terms.
You must know I'm neither a prince nor rich;-
and whether you measure or whether you weigh me,
be sure you won't gain much by making me yours.
[THE GREEN-CLAD ONE is taken ill, and is carried out by
TROLL-MAIDS.]
THE OLD MAN [looks at him for a while in high disdain; then says:]
Dash him to shards on the rock-walls, children!
THE TROLL-IMPS
Oh dad, mayn't we play owl-and-eagle first!
The wolf-game! Grey-mouse and glow-eyed cat!
THE OLD MAN
Yes, but quick. I am worried and sleepy. Good-night!
[He goes.]
PEER [hunted by the TROLL-IMPS].
Let me be, devil's imps!
[Tries to escape up the chimney.]
THE IMPS
Come brownies! Come nixies!
Bite him behind!
PEER
Ow!
[Tries to slip down the cellar trap-door.]
THE IMPS
Shut up all the crannies!
THE TROLL-COURTIER
Now the small-fry are happy!
PEER [struggling with a little imp that has bit himself fast to
his ear].
Let go, will you, beast!
THE COURTIER [hitting him across the fingers].
Gently, you scamp, with a scion of royalty!
PEER
A rat-hole-!
[Runs to it.]
THE IMPS
Be quick, Brother Nixie, and block it!
PEER
The old one was bad, but the youngsters are worse!
THE IMPS
Slash him!
PEER
Oh, would I were small as a mouse!
[Rushing around.]
THE IMPS [swarming round him].
Close the ring! Close the ring!
PEER [weeping].
Would that I were a louse!
[He falls.]
THE IMPS
Now into his eyes!
PEER [buried in a heap of imps].
Mother, help me, I die!
[Church-bells sound far away.]
THE IMPS
Bells in the mountain! The Black-Frock's cows!
[THE TROLLS take to flight, amid a confused uproar of yells and
shrieks. The palace collapses; everything disappears.]
SCENE SEVENTH
[Pitch darkness.]
[PEER GYNT is heard beating and slashing about him with a large
bough.]
PEER
Answer! Who are you?
A VOICE IN THE DARKNESS
Myself.
PEER
Clear the way!
THE VOICE
Go roundabout, Peer! The hill's roomy enough.
PEER [tries to force a passage at another place, but strikes against
something].
Who are you?
THE VOICE
Myself. Can you say the same?
PEER
I can say what I will; and my sword can smite!
Mind yourself! Hu, hei, now the blow falls crushing!
King Saul slew hundreds; Peer Gynt slew thousands!
[Cutting and slashing.]
Who are you?
THE VOICE
Myself.
PEER
That stupid reply
you may spare; it doesn't clear up the matter.
What are you?
THE VOICE
The great Boyg.
PEER
Ah, indeed!
The riddle was black; now I'd call it grey.
Clear the way then, Boyg!
THE VOICE
Go roundabout, Peer!
PEER
No, through!
[Cuts and slashes.]
There he fell!
[Tries to advance, but strikes against something.]
Ho ho, are there more here?
THE VOICE
The Boyg, Peer Gynt! the one only one.
It's the Boyg that's unwounded, and the Boyg that was hurt,
it's the Boyg that is dead, and the Boyg that's alive.
PEER [throws away the branch].
The weapon is troll-smeared; but I have my fists!
[Fights his way forward.]
THE VOICE
Ay, trust to your fists, lad, trust to your body.
Hee-hee, Peer Gynt, so you'll reach the summit.
PEER [falling back again].
Forward or back, and it's just as far;-
out or in, and it's just as strait!
He is there! And there! And he's round the bend!
No sooner I'm out than I'm back in the ring.-
Name who you are! Let me see you! What are you?
THE VOICE
The Boyg.
PEER [groping around].
Not dead, not living; all slimy; misty.
Not so much as a shape! It's as bad as to battle
in a cluster of snarling, half-wakened bears!
[Screams.]
Strike back at me, can't you!
THE VOICE
The Boyg isn't mad.
PEER
Strike!
THE VOICE
The Boyg strikes not.
PEER
Fight! You shall
THE VOICE
The great Boyg conquers, but does not fight.
PEER
Were there only a nixie here that could prick me!
Were there only as much as a year-old troll!
Only something to fight with. But here there is nothing.-
Now he's snoring! Boyg!
THE VOICE
What's your will?
PEER
Use force!
THE VOICE
The great Boyg conquers in all things without it.
PEER [biting his own arms and hands].
Claws and ravening teeth in my flesh!
I must feel the drip of my own warm blood.
[A sound is heard like the wing-strokes of great birds.]
BIRD-CRIES
Comes he now, Boyg?
THE VOICE
Ay, step by step.
BIRD-CRIES
All our sisters far off! Gather here to the tryst!
PEER
If you'd save me now, lass, you must do it quick!
Gaze not adown so, lowly and bending.-
Your clasp-book! Hurl it straight into his eyes!
BIRD-CRIES
He totters!
THE VOICE
We have him.
BIRD-CRIES
Sisters! Make haste!
PEER
Too dear the purchase one pays for life
in such a heart-wasting hour of strife.
[Sinks down.]
BIRD-CRIES
Boyg, there he's fallen! Seize him! Seize him!
[A sound of bells and of psalm-singing is heard far away.]
THE BOYG [shrinks up to nothing, and says in a gasp:]
He was too strong. There were women behind him.
SCENE EIGHTH
[Sunrise. The mountain-side in front of ASE's saeter. The door is
shut; all is silent and deserted.]
[PEER GYNT iS lying asleep by the wall of the saeter.]
PEER [wakens, and looks about him with dull and heavy eyes. He
spits].
What wouldn't I give for a pickled herring!
[Spits again, and at the same moment catches sight of HELGA, who
appears carrying a basket of food.]
Ha, child, are you there? What is it you want?
HELGA
It is Solveig-
PEER [jumping up].
Where is she?
HELGA
Behind the saeter.
SOLVEIG [unseen].
If you come nearer, I'll run away!
PEER [stopping short].
Perhaps you're afraid I might take you in my arms?
SOLVEIG
For shame!
PEER
Do you know where I was last night?-
Like a horse-fly the Dovre-King's daughter is after me.
SOLVEIG
Then it was well that the bells were set ringing.
PEER
Peer Gynt's not the lad they can lure astray.-
What do you say?
HELGA [crying].
Oh, she's running away!
[Running after her.]
Wait!
PEER [catches her by the arm].
Look here, what I have in my pocket!
A silver button, child! You shall have it,-
only speak for me!
HELGA
Let me be; let me go!
PEER
There you have it.
HELGA
Let go; there's the basket of food.
PEER
God pity you if you don't-!
HELGA
Uf, how you scare me!
PEER [gently; letting her go].
No, I only meant: beg her not to forget me!
[HELGA runs off.]
ACT THIRD
SCENE FIRST
[Deep in the pine-woods. Grey autumn weather. Snow is falling.]
[PEER GYNT stands in his shirt-sleeves, felling timber.]
PEER [hewing at a large fir-tree with twisted branches].
Oh ay, you are tough, you ancient churl;
but it's all in vain, for you'll soon be down.
[Hews at it again.]
I see well enough you've a chain-mail shirt,
but I'll hew it through, were it never so stout.-
Ay, ay, you're shaking your twisted arms;
you've reason enough for your spite and rage;
but none the less you must bend the knee-!
[Breaks off suddenly.]
Lies! 'Tis an old tree, and nothing more.
Lies! It was never a steel-clad churl;
it's only a fir-tree with fissured bark.-
It is heavy labour this hewing timber;
but the devil and all when you hew and dream too.-
I'll have done with it all-with this dwelling in mist,
and, broad-awake, dreaming your senses away.-
You're an outlaw, lad! You are banned to the woods.
[Hews for a while rapidly.]
Ay, an outlaw, ay. You've no mother now
to spread your table and bring your food.
If you'd eat, my lad, you must help yourself,
fetch your rations raw from the wood and stream,
split your own fir-roots and light your own fire,
bustle around, and arrange and prepare things.
Would you clothe yourself warmly, you must stalk your deer;
would you found you a house, you must quarry the stones;
would you build up its walls, you must fell the logs,
and shoulder them all to the building-place.-
[His axe sinks down; he gazes straight in front of him.]
Brave shall the building be. Tower and vane
shall rise from the roof-tree, high and fair.
And then I will carve, for the knob on the gable,
a mermaid, shaped like a fish from the navel.
Brass shall there be on the vane and the door-locks.
Glass I must see and get hold of too.
Strangers, passing, shall ask amazed
what that is glittering far on the hillside.
[Laughs angrily.]
Devil's own lies! There they come again.
You're an outlaw, lad!
[Hewing vigorously.]
A bark-thatched hovel
is shelter enough both in rain and frost.
[Looks up at the tree.]
Now he stands wavering. There; only a kick,
and he topples and measures his length on the ground;-
the thick-swarming undergrowth shudders around him!
[Begins lopping the branches from the trunk; suddenly he listens,
and stands motionless with his axe in the air.]
There's some one after me!-Ay, are you that sort,
old Hegstad-churl;-would you play me false?
[Crouches behind the tree, and peeps over it.]
A lad! One only. He seems afraid.
He peers all round him. What's that he hides
'neath his jacket? A sickle. He stops and looks around,-
now he lays his hand on a fence-rail flat.
What's this now? Why does he lean like that-?
Ugh, ugh! Why, he's chopped his finger off!
A whole finger off!-He bleeds like an ox.-
Now he takes to his heels with his fist in a clout.
[Rises.]
What a devil of a lad! An unmendable finger!
Right off! And with no one compelling him to it!
Ho', now I remember! It's only thus
you can 'scape from having to serve the King.
That's it. They wanted to send him soldiering,
and of course the lad didn't want to go.-
But to chop off-? To sever for good and all-?
Ay, think of it-wish it done-will it to boot,-
but do it-! No, that's past my understanding!
[Shakes his head a little; then goes on with his work.]
SCENE SECOND
[A room in ASE's house. Everything in disorder; boxes standing open;
wearing apparel strewn around. A cat is lying on the bed.]
[ASE and the COTTAR's WIFE are hard at work packing things
together and putting them straight.]
ASE [running to one side].
Kari, come here!
KARI
What now?
ASE [on the other side].
Come here-!
Where is-? Where shall I find-? Tell me where-?
What am I seeking? I'm out of my wits!
Where is the key of the chest?
KARI
In the key-hole.
ASE
What is that rumbling?
KARI
The last cart-load
they're driving to Hegstad.
ASE [weeping].
How glad I'd be
in the black chest myself to be driven away!
Oh, what must a mortal abide and live through!
God help me in mercy! The whole house is bare!
What the Hegstad-churl left now the bailiff has taken.
Not even the clothes on my back have they spared.
Fie! Shame on them all that have judged so hardly!
[Seats herself on the edge of the bed.]
Both the land and the farm-place are lost to our line;
the old man was hard, but the law was still harder;-
there was no one to help me, and none would show mercy;
Peer was away; not a soul to give counsel.
KARI
But here, in this house, you may dwell till you die.
ASE
Ay, the cat and I live on charity.
KARI
God help you, mother; your Peer's cost you dear.
ASE
Peer? Why, you're out of your senses, sure!
Ingrid came home none the worse in the end.
The right thing had been to hold Satan to reckoning;-
he was the sinner, ay, he and none other;
the ugly beast tempted my poor boy astray!
KARI
Had I not better send word to the parson?
Mayhap you're worse than you think you are.
ASE
To the parson? Truly I almost think so.
[Starts up.]
But, oh God, I can't! I'm the boy's own mother;
and help him I must; it's no more than my duty;
I must do what I can when the rest forsake him.
They've left him this coat; I must patch it up.
I wish I dared snap up the fur-rug as well!
What's come of the hose?
KARI
They are there, 'mid that rubbish.
ASE [rummaging about].
Why, what have we here? I declare it's an old
casting-ladle, Kari! With this he would play
button-moulder, would melt, and then shape, and then stamp
them.
One day-there was company-in the boy came,
and begged of his father a lump of tin.
"No tin," says Jon, "but King Christian's coin;
silver; to show you're the son of Jon Gynt."
God pardon him, Jon; he was drunk, you see,
and then he cared neither for tin nor for gold.
Here are the hose. Oh, they're nothing but holes;
they want darning, Kari!
KARI
Indeed but they do.
ASE
When that is done, I must get to bed;
I feel so broken, and frail, and ill-
[Joyfully.]
Two woollen-shirts, Kari;-they've passed them by!
KARI
So they have indeed.
ASE
It's a bit of luck.
One of the two you may put aside;
or rather, I think we'll e'en take them both;-
the one he has on is so worn and thin.
KARI
But oh, Mother Ase, I fear it's a sin!
ASE
Maybe; but remember, the priest holds out
pardon for this and our other sinnings.
SCENE THIRD
[In front of a settler's newly-built hut in the forest. A reindeer's
horns over the door. The snow is lying deep around. It is dusk.]
[PEER GYNT is standing outside the door, fastening a large wooden
bar to it.]
PEER [laughing betweenwhiles].
Bars I must fix me; bars that can fasten
the door against troll-folk, and men, and women.
Bars I must fix me; bars that can shut out
all the cantankerous little hobgoblins.-
They come with the darkness, they knock and they rattle:
Open, Peer Gynt, we're as nimble as thoughts are!
'Neath the bedstead we bustle, we rake in the ashes,
down the chimney we hustle like fiery-eyed dragons.
Hee-hee! Peer Gynt; think you staples and planks
can shut out cantankerous hobgoblin-thoughts?
[SOLVEIG comes on snow-shoes over the heath; she has a shawl over
her head, and a bundle in her hand.]
SOLVEIG
God prosper your labour. You must not reject me.
You sent for me hither, and so you must take me.
PEER
Solveig! It cannot be-! Ay, but it is!
And you're not afraid to come near to me!
SOLVEIG
One message you sent me by little Helga;
others came after in storm and in stillness.
All that your mother told bore me a message,
that brought forth others when dreams sank upon me.
Nights full of heaviness, blank, empty days,
brought me the message that now I must come.
It seemed as though life had been quenched down there;
I could nor laugh nor weep from the depths of my heart.
I knew not for sure how you might be minded;
I knew but for sure what I should do and must do.
PEER
But your father?
SOLVEIG
In all of God's wide earth
I have none I can call either father or mother.
I have loosed me from all of them.
PEER
Solveig, you fair one-
and to come to me?
SOLVEIG
Ay, to you alone;
you must be all to me, friend and consoler.
[In tears.]
The worst was leaving my little sister;-
but parting from father was worse, still worse;
and worst to leave her at whose breast I was borne;-
oh no, God forgive me, the worst I must call
the sorrow of leaving them all, ay all!
PEER
And you know the doom that was passed in spring?
It forfeits my farm and my heritage.
SOLVEIG
Think you for heritage, goods, and gear,
I forsook the paths all my dear ones tread?
PEER
And know you the compact? Outside the forest
whoever may meet me may seize me at will.
SOLVEIG
I ran upon snow-shoes; I asked my way on;
they said "Whither go you?" I answered, "I go home."
PEER
Away, away then with nails and planks!
No need now for bars against hobgoblin-thoughts.
If you dare dwell with the hunter here,
I know the hut will be blessed from ill.
Solveig! Let me look at you! Not too near!
Only look at you! Oh, but you are bright and pure!
Let me lift you! Oh, but you are fine and light!
Let me carry you, Solveig, and I'll never be tired!
I will not soil you. With outstretched arms
I will hold you far out from me, lovely and warm one!
Oh, who would have thought I could draw you to me,-
ah, but I have longed for you, daylong and nightlong.
Here you may see I've been hewing and building;-
it must down again, dear; it is ugly and mean-
SOLVEIG
Be it mean or brave,-here is all to my mind.
One so lightly draws breath in the teeth of the wind.
Down below it was airless; one felt as though choked;
that was partly what drove me in fear from the dale.
But here, with the fir-branches soughing o'erhead,-
what a stillness and song!-I am here in my home.
PEER
And know you that surely? For all your days?
SOLVEIG
The path I have trodden leads back nevermore.
PEER
You are mine then! In! In the room let me see you!
Go in! I must go to fetch fir-roots for fuel.
Warm shall the fire be and bright shall it shine,
you shall sit softly and never be a-cold.
[He opens the door; SOLVEIG goes in. He stands still for a while,
then laughs aloud with joy and leaps into the air.]
PEER
My king's daughter! Now I have found her and won her!
Hei! Now the palace shall rise, deeply founded!
[He seizes his axe and moves away; at the same moment an OLD-LOOKING
WOMAN, in a tattered green gown, comes out from the wood; an UGLY
BRAT, with an ale-flagon in his hand, limps after, holding on to her
skirt.]
THE WOMAN
Good evening, Peer Lightfoot!
PEER
What is it? Who's there?
THE WOMAN
Old friends of yours, Peer Gynt! My home is near by.
We are neighbours.
PEER
Indeed? That is more than I know.
THE WOMAN
Even as your hut was builded, mine built itself too.
PEER [going].
I'm in haste-
THE WOMAN
Yes, that you are always, my lad;
but I'll trudge behind you and catch you at last.
PEER
You're mistaken, good woman!
THE WOMAN
I was so before;
I was when you promised such mighty fine things.
PEER
I promised-? What devil's own nonsense is this?
THE WOMAN
You've forgotten the night when you drank with my sire?
You've forgot-?
PEER
I've forgot what I never have known.
What's this that you prate of? When last did we meet?
THE WOMAN
When last we met was when first we met.
[To THE BRAT.]
Give your father a drink; he is thirsty, I'm sure.
PEER
Father? You're drunk, woman! Do you call him-?
THE WOMAN
I should think you might well know the pig by its skin!
Why, where are your eyes? Can't you see that he's lame
in his shank, just as you too are lame in your soul?
PEER
Would you have me believe-?
THE WOMAN
Would you wriggle away-?
PEER
This long-legged urchin-!
THE WOMAN
He's shot up apace.
PEER
Dare you, you troll-snout, father on me-?
THE WOMAN
Come now, Peer Gynt, you're as rude as an ox!
[Weeping.]
Is it my fault if no longer I'm fair,
as I was when you lured me on hillside and lea?
Last fall, in my labour, the Fiend held my back,
and so 'twas no wonder I came out a fright.
But if you would see me as fair as before,
you have only to turn yonder girl out of doors,
drive her clean out of your sight and your mind;-
do but this, dear my love, and I'll soon lose my snout!
PEER
Begone from me, troll-witch!
THE WOMAN
Ay, see if I do!
PEER
I'll split your skull open-!
THE WOMAN
Just try if you dare!
Ho-ho, Peer Gynt, I've no fear of blows!
Be sure I'll return every day of the year.
I'll set the door ajar and peep in at you both.
When you're sitting with your girl on the fireside bench,-
when you're tender, Peer Gynt,-when you'd pet and caress her,-
I'll seat myself by you, and ask for my share.
She there and I-we will take you by turns.
Farewell, dear my lad, you can marry to-morrow!
PEER
You nightmare of hell!
THE WOMAN
By-the-bye, I forgot!
You must rear your own youngster, you light-footed scamp!
Little imp, will you go to your father?
THE BRAT [spits at him].
Faugh!
I'll chop you with my hatchet; only wait, only wait!
THE WOMAN [kisses THE BRAT].
What a head he has got on his shoulders, the dear!
You'll be father's living image when once you're a man!
PEER [stamping].
Oh, would you were as far-!
THE WOMAN
As we now are near?
PEER [clenching his hands].
And all this-!
THE WOMAN
For nothing but thoughts and desires!
It is hard on you, Peer!
PEER
It is worst for another!-
Solveig, my fairest, my purest gold!
THE WOMAN
Oh ay, 'tis the guiltless must smart, said the devil;
his mother boxed his ears when his father was drunk!
[She trudges off into the thicket with THE BRAT, who throws the
flagon at PEER GYNT.]
PEER [after a long silence].
The Boyg said, "Go roundabout!"-so one must here.-
There fell my fine palace, with crash and clatter!
There's a wall around her whom I stood so near,
of a sudden all's ugly-my joy has grown old.-
Roundabout, lad! There's no way to be found
right through all this from where you stand to her.
Right through? Hm, surely there should be one.
There's a text on repentance, unless I mistake.
But what? What is it? I haven't the book,
I've forgotten it mostly, and here there is none
that can guide me aright in the pathless wood.-
Repentance? And maybe 'twould take whole years,
ere I fought my way through. 'Twere a meagre life, that.
To shatter what's radiant, and lovely, and pure,
and clinch it together in fragments and shards?
You can do it with a fiddle, but not with a bell.
Where you'd have the sward green, you must mind not to trample.
'Twas nought but a lie though, that witch-snout business!
Now all that foulness is well out of sight.-
Ay, out of sight maybe, not out of mind.
Thoughts will sneak stealthily in at my heel.
Ingrid! And the three, they that danced on the heights!
Will they too want to join us? With vixenish spite
will they claim to be folded, like her, to my breast,
to be tenderly lifted on outstretched arms?
Roundabout, lad; though my arms were as long
as the root of the fir, or the pine-tree's stem,-
I think even then I should hold her too near,
to set her down pure and untarnished again.-
I must roundabout here, then, as best I may,
and see that it bring me nor gain nor loss.
One must put such things from one, and try to forget.-
[Goes a few steps towards the hut, but stops again.]
Go in after this? So befouled and disgraced?
Go in with that troll-rabble after me still?
Speak, yet be silent; confess, yet conceal-?
[Throws away his axe.]
It's holy-day evening. For me to keep tryst,
such as now I am, would be sacrilege.
SOLVEIG [in the doorway].
Are you coming?
PEER [half aloud].
Roundabout!
SOLVEIG
What?
PEER
You must wait.
It is dark, and I've got something heavy to fetch.
SOLVEIG
Wait; I will help you; the burden we'll share.
PEER
No, stay where you are! I must bear it alone.
SOLVEIG
But don't go too far, dear!
PEER
Be patient, my girl;
be my way long or short-you must wait.
SOLVEIG [nodding to him as he goes].
Yes, I'll Wait!
[PEER GYNT goes down the wood-path. SOLVEIG remains standing in
the open half-door.]
SCENE FOURTH
[ASE's room. Evening. The room is lighted by a wood fire on the open
hearth. A cat is lying on a chair at the foot of the bed.]
[ASE lies in the bed, fumbling about restlessly with her hands on
the coverlet.]
ASE
Oh, Lord my God, isn't he coming?
The time drags so drearily on.
I have no one to send with a message;
and I've much, oh so much, to say.
I haven't a moment to lose now!
So quickly! Who could have foreseen!
Oh me, if I only were certain
I'd not been too strict with him!
PEER GYNT [enters].
Good evening!
ASE
The Lord give you gladness!
You've come then, my boy, my dear!
But how dare you show face in the valley?
You know your life's forfeit here.
PEER
Oh, life must e'en go as it may go;
I felt that I must look in.
ASE
Ay, now Kari is put to silence,
and I can depart in peace!
PEER
Depart? Why, what are you saying?
Where is it you think to go?
ASE
Alas, Peer, the end is nearing;
I have but a short time left.
PEER [writhing, and walking towards the back of the room].
See there now! I'm fleeing from trouble;
I thought at least here I'd be free-!
Are your hands and your feet a-cold, then?
ASE
Ay, Peer; all will soon be o'er.-
When you see that my eyes are glazing,
you must close them carefully.
And then you must see to my coffin;
and be sure it's a fine one, dear.
Ah no, by-the-bye-
PEER
Be quiet!
There's time yet to think of that.
ASE
Ay, ay.
[Looks restlessly around the room.]
Here you see the little
they've left us! It's like them, just.
PEER [with a writhe].
Again!
[Harshly.]
Well, I know it was my fault.
What's the use of reminding me?
ASE
You! No, that accursed liquor,
from that all the mischief came!
Dear my boy, you know you'd been drinking;
and then no one knows what he does;
and besides, you'd been riding the reindeer;
no wonder your head was turned!
PEER
Ay, ay; of that yarn enough now.
Enough of the whole affair.
All that's heavy we'll let stand over
till after-some other day.
[Sits on the edge of the bed.]
Now, mother, we'll chat together;
but only of this and that,-
forget what's awry and crooked,
and all that is sharp and sore.-
Why see now, the same old pussy;
so she is alive then, still?
ASE
She makes such a noise o' nights now;
you know what that bodes, my boy!
PEER [changing the subject].
What news is there here in the parish?
ASE [smiling].
There's somewhere about, they say,
a girl who would fain to the uplands-
PEER [hastily].
Mads Moen, is he content?
ASE
They say that she hears and heeds not
the old people's prayers and tears.
You ought to look in and see them;-
you, Peer, might perhaps bring help-
PEER
The smith, what's become of him now?
ASE
Don't talk of that filthy smith.
Her name I would rather tell you,
the name of the girl, you know-
PEER
No, now we will chat together,
but only of this and that,-
forget what's awry and crooked,
and all that is sharp and sore.
Are you thirsty? I'll fetch you water.
Can you stretch you? The bed is short.
Let me see;-if I don't believe, now,
It's the bed that I had when a boy!
Do you mind, dear, how oft in the evenings
you sat at my bedside here,
and spread the fur-coverlet o'er me,
and sang many a lilt and lay?
ASE
Ay, mind you? And then we played sledges
when your father was far abroad.
The coverlet served for sledge-apron,
and the floor for an ice-bound fiord.
PEER
Ah, but the best of all, though,-
mother, you mind that too?-
the best was the fleet-foot horses-
ASE
Ay, think you that I've forgot?-
It was Kari's cat that we borrowed;
it sat on the log-scooped chair-
PEER
To the castle west of the moon, and
the castle east of the sun,
to Soria-Moria Castle
the road ran both high and low.
A stick that we found in the closet,
for a whip-shaft you made it serve.
ASE
Right proudly I perked on the box-seat-
PEER
Ay, ay; you threw loose the reins,
and kept turning round as we travelled,
and asked me if I was cold.
God bless you, ugly old mother,-
you were ever a kindly soul-!
What's hurting you now?
ASE
My back aches,
because of the hard, bare boards.
PEER
Stretch yourself; I'll support you.
There now, you're lying soft.
ASE [uneasily].
No, Peer, I'd be moving!
PEER
Moving?
ASE
Ay, moving; 'tis ever my wish.
PEER
Oh, nonsense! Spread o'er you the bed-fur.
Let me sit at your bedside here.
There; now we'll shorten the evening
with many a lilt and lay.
ASE
Best bring from the closet the prayer-book:
I feel so uneasy of soul.
PEER
In Soria-Moria Castle
the King and the Prince give a feast.
On the sledge-cushions lie and rest you;
I'll drive you there over the heath-
ASE
But, Peer dear, am I invited?
PEER
Ay, that we are, both of us.
[He throws a string round the back of the chair on which the cat is
lying, takes up a stick, and seats himself at the foot of the bed.]
Gee-up! Will you stir yourself, Black-boy?
Mother, you're not a-cold?
Ay, ay; by the pace one knows it,
when Grane begins to go!
ASE
Why, Peer, what is it that's ringing-?
PEER
The glittering sledge-bells, dear!
ASE
Oh, mercy, how hollow it's rumbling!
PEER
We're just driving over a fiord.
ASE
I'm afraid! What is that I hear rushing
and sighing so strange and wild?
PEER
It's the sough of the pine-trees, mother,
on the heath. Do you but sit still.
ASE
There's a sparkling and gleaming afar now;
whence comes all that blaze of light?
PEER
From the castle's windows and doorways.
Don't you hear, they are dancing?
ASE
Yes.
PEER
Outside the door stands Saint Peter,
and prays you to enter in.
ASE
Does he greet us?
PEER
He does, with honor,
and pours out the sweetest wine.
ASE
Wine! Has he cakes as well, Peer?
PEER
Cakes? Ay, a heaped-up dish.
And the dean's wife is getting ready
your coffee and your dessert.
ASE
Oh, Christ; shall we two come together?
PEER
As freely as ever you will.
ASE
Oh, deary, Peer, what a frolic
you're driving me to, poor soul!
PEER [cracking his whip].
Gee-up; will you stir yourself, Black-boy!
ASE
Peer, dear, you're driving right?
PEER [cracking his whip again].
Ay, broad is the way.
ASE
This journey,
it makes me so weak and tired.
PEER
There's the castle rising before us;
the drive will be over soon.
ASE
I will lie back and close my eyes then,
and trust me to you, my boy!
PEER
Come up with you, Grane, my trotter!
In the castle the throng is great;
they bustle and swarm to the gateway.
Peer Gynt and his mother are here!
What say you, Master Saint Peter?
Shall mother not enter in?
You may search a long time, I tell you,
ere you find such an honest old soul.
Myself I don't want to speak of;
I can turn at the castle gate.
If you'll treat me, I'll take it kindly;
if not, I'll go off just as pleased.
I have made up as many flim-flams
as the devil at the pulpit-desk,
and called my old mother a hen, too,
because she would cackle and crow.
But her you shall honour and reverence,
and make her at home indeed;
there comes not a soul to beat her
from the parishes nowadays.-
Ho-ho; here comes God the Father!
Saint Peter! you're in for it now!
[In a deep voice.]
"Have done with these jack-in-office airs, sir;
Mother Ase shall enter free!"
[Laughs loudly, and turns towards his mother.]
Ay, didn't I know what would happen?
Now they dance to another tune!
[Uneasily.]
Why, what makes your eyes so glassy?
Mother! Have you gone out of your wits-?
[Goes to the head of the bed.]
You mustn't lie there and stare so-!
Speak, mother; it's I, your boy!
[Feels her forehead and hands cautiously; then throws the string
on the chair, and says softly:]
Ay, ay!-You can rest yourself, Grane;
for even now the journey's done.
[Closes her eyes, and bends over her.]
For all of your days I thank you,
for beatings and lullabies!-
But see, you must thank me back, now-
[Presses his cheek against her mouth]
There; that was the driver's fare.
THE COTTAR'S WIFE [entering].
What? Peer! Ah, then we are over
the worst of the sorrow and need!
Dear Lord, but she's sleeping soundly-
or can she be-?
PEER
Hush; she is dead.
[KARI weeps beside the body; PEER GYNT walks up and down the room
for some time; at last he stops beside the bed.]
PEER
See mother buried with honour.
I must try to fare forth from here.
KARI
Are you faring afar?
PEER
To seaward.
KARI
So far!
PEER
Ay, and further still.
[He goes.]
ACT FOURTH
SCENE FIRST
[On the south-west coast of Morocco. A palm-grove. Under an
awning, on ground covered with matting, a table spread for dinner.
Further back in the grove hammocks are slung. In the offing lies a
steam-yacht, flying the Norwegian and American colours. A jolly-boat
drawn up on the beach. It is towards sunset.]
[PEER GYNT, a handsome middle-aged gentleman, in an elegant
travelling-dress, with a gold-rimmed double eyeglass hanging at his
waistcoat, is doing the honours at the head of the table. MR.
COTTON, MONSIEUR BALLON, HERR VON EBERKOPF, and HERR
TRUMPETERSTRALE, are seated at the table finishing dinner.]
PEER GYNT
Drink, gentlemen! If man is made
for pleasure, let him take his fill then.
You know 'tis written: Lost is lost,
and gone is gone-. What may I hand you?
TRUMPETERSTRALE
As host you're princely, Brother Gynt!
PEER
I share the honour with my cash,
with cook and steward-
MR. COTTON
Very well;
let's pledge a toast to all the four!
MONSIEUR BALLON
Monsieur, you have a gout, a ton
that nowadays is seldom met with
among men living en garcon,-
a certain-what's the word-?
VON EBERKOPF
A dash,
a tinge of free soul-contemplation,
and cosmopolitanisation,
an outlook through the cloudy rifts
by narrow prejudice unhemmed,
a stamp of high illumination,
an Ur-Natur, with lore of life,
to crown the trilogy, united.
Nicht wahr, Monsieur, 'twas that you meant?
MONSIEUR BALLON
Yes, very possibly; not quite
so loftily it sounds in French.
VON EBERKOPF
Ei was! That language is so stiff.-
But the phenomenon's final cause
if we would seek-
PEER
It's found already.
The reason is that I'm unmarried.
Yes, gentlemen, completely clear
the matter is. What should a man be?
Himself, is my concise reply.
He should regard himself and his.
But can he, as a sumpter-mule
for others' woe and others' weal?
VON EBERKOPF
But this same in-and-for-yourself-ness,
I'll answer for't, has cost you strife-
PEER
Ay yes, indeed; in former days;
but always I came off with honour.
Yet one time I ran very near
to being trapped against my will.
I was a brisk and handsome lad,
and she to whom my heart was given,
she was of royal family-
MONSIEUR BALLON
Of royal-?
PEER [carelessly].
One of those old stocks,
you know the kind-
TRUMPETERSTRALE [thumping the table].
Those noble-trolls!
PEER [shrugging his shoulders].
Old fossil Highnesses who make it
their pride to keep plebeian blots
excluded from their line's escutcheon.
MR. COTTON
Then nothing came of the affair?
MONSIEUR BALLON
The family opposed the marriage?
PEER
Far from it!
MONSIEUR BALLON
Ah!
PEER [with forbearance].
You understand
that certain circumstances made for
their marrying us without delay.
But, truth to tell, the whole affair
was, first to last, distasteful to me.
I'm finical in certain ways,
and like to stand on my own feet.
And when my father-in-law came out
with delicately veiled demands
that I should change my name and station,
and undergo ennoblement,
with much else that was most distasteful,
not to say quite inacceptable,-
why then I gracefully withdrew,
point-blank declined his ultimatum-
and so renounced my youthful bride.
[Drums on the table with a devout air.]
Yes, yes; there is a ruling Fate!
On that we mortals may rely;
and 'tis a comfortable knowledge.
MONSIEUR BALLON
And so the matter ended, eh?
PEER
Oh no, far otherwise I found it;
for busy-bodies mixed themselves,
with furious outcries, in the business.
The juniors of the clan were worst;
with seven of them I fought a duel.
That time I never shall forget,
though I came through it all in safety.
It cost me blood; but that same blood
attests the value of my person,
and points encouragingly towards
the wise control of Fate aforesaid.
VON EBERKOPF
Your outlook on the course of life
exalts you to the rank of thinker.
Whilst the mere commonplace empiric
sees separately the scattered scenes,
and to the last goes groping on,
you in one glance can focus all things.
One norm to all things you apply.
You point each random rule of life,
till one and all diverge like rays
from one full-orbed philosophy.-
And you have never been to college?
PEER
I am, as I've already said,
exclusively a self-taught man.
Methodically naught I've learned;
but I have thought and speculated,
and done much desultory reading.
I started somewhat late in life,
and then, you know, it's rather hard
to plough ahead through page on page,
and take in all of everything.
I've done my history piecemeal;
I never have had time for more.
And, as one needs in days of trial
some certainty to place one's trust in,
I took religion intermittently.
That way it goes more smoothly down.
One should not read to swallow all,
but rather see what one has use for.
MR. COTTON
Ay, that is practical!
PEER [lights a cigar].
Dear friends,
just think of my career in general.
In what case came I to the West?
A poor young fellow, empty-handed.
I had to battle sore for bread;
trust me, I often found it hard.
But life, my friends, ah, life is dear,
and, as the phrase goes, death is bitter.
Well! Luck, you see, was kind to me;
old Fate, too, was accommodating.
I prospered; and, by versatility,
I prospered better still and better.
In ten years' time I bore the name
of Croesus 'mongst the Charleston shippers.
My fame flew wide from port to port,
and fortune sailed on board my vessels-
MR. COTTON
What did you trade in?
PEER
I did most
in Negro slaves for Carolina,
and idol-images for China.
MONSIEUR BALLON
Fi donc!
TRUMPETERSTRALE
The devil, Uncle Gynt!
PEER
You think, no doubt, the business hovered
on the outer verge of the allowable?
Myself I felt the same thing keenly.
It struck me even as odious.
But, trust me, when you've once begun,
it's hard to break away again.
At any rate it's no light thing,
in such a vast trade-enterprise,
that keeps whole thousands in employ,
to break off wholly, once for all.
That "once for all" I can't abide,
but own, upon the other side,
that I have always felt respect
for what are known as consequences;
and that to overstep the bounds
has ever somewhat daunted me.
Besides, I had begun to age,
was getting on towards the fifties;-
my hair was slowly growing grizzled;
and, though my health was excellent,
yet painfully the thought beset me:
Who knows how soon the hour may strike,
the jury-verdict be delivered
that parts the sheep and goats asunder?
What could I do? To stop the trade
with China was impossible.
A plan I hit on-opened straightway
a new trade with the self-same land.
I shipped off idols every spring,
each autumn sent forth missionaries,
supplying them with all they needed,
as stockings, Bibles, rum, and rice-
MR. COTTON
Yes, at a profit?
PEER
Why, of course.
It prospered. Dauntlessly they toiled.
For every idol that was sold
they got a coolie well baptised,
so that the effect was neutralised.
The mission-field lay never fallow,
for still the idol-propaganda
the missionaries held in check.
MR. COTTON
Well, but the African commodities?
PEER
There, too, my ethics won the day.
I saw the traffic was a wrong one
for people of a certain age.
One may drop off before one dreams of it.
And then there were the thousand pitfalls
laid by the philanthropic camp;
besides, of course, the hostile cruisers,
and all the wind-and-weather risks.
All this together won the day.
I thought: Now, Peter, reef your sails;
see to it you amend your faults!
So in the South I bought some land,
and kept the last meat-importation,
which chanced to be a superfine one.
They throve so, grew so fat and sleek,
that 'twas a joy to me, and them too.
Yes, without boasting, I may say
I acted as a father to them,-
and found my profit in so doing.
I built them schools, too, so that virtue
might uniformly be maintained at
a certain general niveau,
and kept strict watch that never its
thermometer should sink below it.
Now, furthermore, from all this business
I've beat a definite retreat;-
I've sold the whole plantation, and
its tale of live-stock, hide and hair.
At parting, too, I served around,
to big and little, gratis grog,
so men and women all got drunk,
and widows got their snuff as well.
So that is why I trust,-provided
the saying is not idle breath:
Whoso does not do ill, does good,-
my former errors are forgotten,
and I, much more than most, can hold
my misdeeds balanced by my virtues.
VON EBERKOPF [clinking glasses with him].
How strengthening it is to hear
a principle thus acted out,
freed from the night of theory,
unshaken by the outward ferment!
PEER [who has been drinking freely during the preceding passages]
We Northland men know how to carry
our battle through! The key to the art
of life's affairs is simply this:
to keep one's ear close shut against
the ingress of one dangerous viper.
MR. COTTON
What sort of viper, pray, dear friend?
PEER
A little one that slyly wiles you
to tempt the irretrievable.
[Drinking again.]
The essence of the art of daring,
the art of bravery in act,
is this: To stand with choice-free foot
amid the treacherous snares of life,-
to know for sure that other days
remain beyond the day of battle,-
to know that ever in the rear
a bridge for your retreat stands open.
This theory has borne me on,
has given my whole career its colour;
and this same theory I inherit,
a race-gift, from my childhood's home.
MONSIEUR BALLON
You are Norwegian?
PEER
Yes, by birth;
but cosmopolitan in spirit.
For fortune such as I've enjoyed
I have to thank America.
My amply-furnished library
I owe to Germany's later schools.
From France, again, I get my waistcoats,
my manners, and my spice of wit,-
from England an industrious hand,
and keen sense for my own advantage.
The Jew has taught me how to wait.
Some taste for dolce far niente
I have received from Italy,-
and one time, in a perilous pass,
to eke the measure of my days,
I had recourse to Swedish steel.
TRUMPETERSTRALE [lifting up his glass].
Ay, Swedish steel-?
VON EBERKOPF
The weapon's wielder
demands our homage first of all!
[They clink glasses and drink with him. The wine begins to go to his
head.]
MR. COTTON
All this is very good indeed;-
but, sir, I'm curious to know
what with your gold. you think of doing.
PEER [smiling].
Hm; doing? Eh?
ALL FOUR [coming closer].
Yes, let us hear!
PEER
Well, first of all, I want to travel.
You see, that's why I shipped you four,
to keep me company, at Gibraltar.
I needed such a dancing-choir
of friends around my gold-calf-altar-
VON EBERKOPF
Most witty!
MR. COTTON
Well, but no one hoists
his sails for nothing but the sailing.
Beyond all doubt, you have a goal;
and that is-?
PEER
To be Emperor.
ALL FOUR
What?
PEER [nodding].
Emperor!
THE FOUR
Where?
PEER
O'er all the world.
MONSIEUR BALLON
But how, friend-?
PEER By the might of gold!
That plan is not at all a new one;
it's been the soul of my career.
Even as a boy, I swept in dreams
far o'er the ocean on a cloud.
I soared with train and golden scabbard,-
and flopped down on all-fours again.
But still my goal, my friends, stood fast.-
There is a text, or else a saying,
somewhere, I don't remember where,
that if you gained the whole wide world,
but lost yourself, your gain were but
a garland on a cloven skull.
That is the text-or something like it;
and that remark is sober truth.
VON EBERKOPF
But what then is the Gyntish Self?
PEER
The world behind my forehead's arch,
in force of which I'm no one else
than I, no more than God's the Devil.
TRUMPETERSTRALE
I understand now where you're aiming!
MONSIEUR BALLON
Thinker sublime!
VON EBERKOPF
Exalted poet!
PEER [more and more elevated].
The Gyntish Self-it is the host
of wishes, appetites, desires,-
the Gyntish Self, it is the sea
of fancies, exigencies, claims,
all that, in short, makes my breast heave,
and whereby I, as I, exist.
But as our Lord requires the clay
to constitute him God o' the world,
so I, too, stand in need of gold,
if I as Emperor would figure.
MONSIEUR BALLON
You have the gold, though!
PEER
Not enough.
Ay, maybe for a nine-days' flourish,
as Emperor a la Lippe-Detmold.
But I must be myself en bloc,
must be the Gynt of all the planet,
Sir Gynt throughout, from top to toe!
MONSIEUR BALLON [enraptured].
Possess the earth's most exquisite beauty!
VON EBERKOPF
All century-old Johannisberger!
TRUMPETERSTRALE
And all the blades of Charles the Twelfth!
MR. COTTON
But first a profitable opening
for business-
PEER
That's already found;
our anchoring here supplied me with it.
To-night we set off northward ho!
The papers I received on board
have brought me tidings of importance-!
[Rises with uplifted glass.]
It seems that Fortune ceaselessly
aids him who has the pluck to seize it-
THE GUESTS
Well? Tell us-!
PEER
Greece is in revolt.
ALL FOUR [springing up].
What! Greece-?
PEER
The Greeks have risen in Hellas.
THE FOUR
Hurrah!
PEER
And Turkey's in a fix!
[Empties his glass.]
MONSIEUR BALLON
To Hellas! Glory's gate stands open!
I'll help them with the sword of France!
VON EBERKOPF
And I with war-whoops-from a distance!
MR. COTTON
And I as well-by taking contracts!
TRUMPETERSTRALE
Lead on! I'll find again in Bender
the world-renowned spur-strap-buckles!
MONSIEUR BALLON [falling on PEER GYNT'S neck].
Forgive me, friend, that I at first
misjudged you quite!
VON EBERKOPF [pressing his hands].
I, stupid hound,
took you for next door to a scoundrel!
MR. COTTON
Too strong that; only for a fool-
TRUMPETERSTRALE [trying to kiss him].
I, Uncle, for a specimen
of Yankee riff-raff's meanest spawn-!
Forgive me-!
VON EBERKOPF
We've been in the dark-
PEER
What stuff is this?
VON EBERKOPF
We now see gathered
in glory all the Gyntish host
of wishes, appetites, and desires-!
MONSIEUR BALLON [admiringly].
So this is being Monsieur Gynt!
VON EBERKOPF [in the same tone].
This I call being Gynt with honour!
PEER
But tell me-?
MONSIEUR BALLON
Don't you understand?
PEER
May I be hanged if I begin to!
MONSIEUR BALLON
What? Are you not upon your way
to join the Greeks, with ship and money-?
PEER [contemptuously].
No, many thanks! I side with strength,
and lend my money to the Turks.
MONSIEUR BALLON
Impossible!
VON EBERKOPF
Witty, but a jest!
PEER [after a short silence, leaning on a chair and assuming a
dignified mien].
Come, gentlemen, I think it best
we part before the last remains
of friendship melt away like smoke.
Who nothing owns will lightly risk it.
When in the world one scarce commands
the strip of earth one's shadow covers,
one's born to serve as food for powder.
But when a man stands safely landed,
as I do, then his stake is greater.
Go you to Hellas. I will put you
ashore, and arm you gratis too.
The more you eke the flames of strife,
the better will it serve my purpose.
Strike home for freedom and for right!
Fight! storm! make hell hot for the Turks;-
and gloriously end your days
upon the Janissaries' lances.-
But I-excuse me-
[Slaps his pocket.]
I have cash,
and am myself, Sir Peter Gynt.
[Puts up his sunshade, and goes into the grove, where the hammocks
are partly visible.]
TRUMPETERSTRALE
The swinish cur!
MONSIEUR BALLON
No taste for glory-!
MR. COTTON
Oh, glory's neither here nor there;
but think of the enormous profits
we'd reap if Greece should free herself.
MONSIEUR BALLON
I saw myself a conqueror,
by lovely Grecian maids encircled.
TRUMPETERSTRALE
Grasped in my Swedish hands, I saw
the great, heroic spur-strap-buckles!
VON EBERKOPF
I my gigantic Fatherland's
culture saw spread o'er earth and sea-!
MR. COTTON
The worst's the loss in solid cash.
God dam! I scarce can keep from weeping!
I saw me owner of Olympus.
If to its fame the mountain answers,
there must be veins of copper in it,
that could be opened up again.
And furthermore, that stream Castalia,
which people talk so much about,
with fall on fall, at lowest reckoning,
must mean a thousand horse-power good-!
TRUMPETERSTRALE
Still I will go! My Swedish sword
is worth far more than Yankee gold!
MR. COTTON
Perhaps; but, jammed into the ranks,
amid the press we'd all be drowned;
and then where would the profit be?
MONSIEUR BALLON
Accurst! So near to fortune's summit,
and now stopped short beside its grave!
MR. COTTON [shakes his fist towards the yacht].
That long black chest holds coffered up
the nabob's golden nigger-sweat-!
VON EBERKOPF
A royal notion! Quick! Away!
It's all up with his empire now!
Hurrah!
MONSIEUR BALLON
What would you?
VON EBERKOPF
Seize the power!
The crew can easily be bought.
On board then! I annex the yacht!
MR. COTTON
You-what-?
VON EBERKOPF
I grab the whole concern!
[Goes down to the jolly-boat.]
MR. COTTON
Why then self-interest commands me
to grab my share.
[Goes after him.]
TRUMPETERSTRALE
What scoundrelism!
MONSIEUR BALLON
A scurvy business-but-enfin!
[Follows the others.]
TRUMPETERSTRALE
I'll have to follow, I suppose,-
but I protest to all the world-!
[Follows.]
SCENE SECOND
[Another part of the coast. Moonlight with drifting clouds. The
yacht is seen far out, under full steam.]
[PEER GYNT comes running along the beach; now pinching his arms, now
gazing out to sea.]
PEER
A nightmare!-Delusion!-I'll soon be awake!
She's standing to sea! And at furious speed!-
Mere delusion! I'm sleeping! I'm dizzy and drunk!
[Clenches his hands.]
It's not possible I should be going to die!
[Tearing his hair.]
A dream! I'm determined it shall be a dream!
Oh, horror! It's only too real, worse luck!
My brute-beasts of friends-! Do but hear me, oh Lord!
Since thou art so wise and so righteous-! Oh judge-!
[With upstretched arms.]
It is I, Peter Gynt! Oh, Lord, give but heed!
Hold thy hand o'er me, Father; or else I must perish!
Make them back the machine! Make them lower the gig!
Stop the robbers! Make something go wrong with the rigging!
Hear me! Let other folks' business lie over!
The world can take care of itself for the time!
I'm blessed if he hears me! He's deaf as his wont is!
Here's a nice thing! A God that is bankrupt of help!
[Beckons upwards.]
Hist! I've abandoned the nigger-plantation!
And missionaries I've exported to Asia!
Surely one good turn should be worth another!
Oh, help me on board-!
[A jet of fire shoots into the air from the yacht, followed by thick
clouds of smoke; a hollow report is heard. PEER GYNT utters a
shriek, and sinks down on the sands. Gradually the smoke clears
away; the ship has disappeared.]
PEER [softly, with a pale face].
That's the sword of wrath!
In a crack to the bottom, every soul, man and mouse!
Oh, for ever blest be the lucky chance-
[With emotion.]
A chance? No, no, it was more than chance.
I was to be rescued and they to perish.
Oh, thanks and praise for that thou hast kept me,
hast cared for me, spite of all my sins!-
[Draws a deep breath.]
What a marvellous feeling of safety and peace
it gives one to know oneself specially shielded!
But the desert! What about, food and drink?
Oh, something I'm sure to find. He'll see to that.
There's no cause for alarm;-
[Loud and insinuatingly.]
He would never allow
a poor little sparrow like me to perish!
Be but lowly of spirit. And give him time.
Leave it all in the Lord's hands; and don't be cast down.-
[With a start of terror.]
Can that be a lion that growled in the reeds-?
[His teeth chattering.]
No, it wasn't a lion.
[Mustering up courage.]
A lion, forsooth!
Those beasts, they'll take care to keep out of the way.
They know it's no joke to fall foul of their betters.
They have instinct to guide them;-they feel, what's a fact,
that it's dangerous playing with elephants.-
But all the same-. I must find a tree.
There's a grove of acacias and palms over there;
if I once can climb up, I'll be sheltered and safe,-
most of all if I knew but a psalm or two.
[Clambers up.]
Morning and evening are not alike;
that text has been oft enough weighed and pondered.
[Seats himself comfortably.]
How blissful to feel so uplifted in spirit.
To think nobly is more than to know