Henrik Ibsen

“ I mean to reign, as a sultan, whole and fiery,- not on Gyntiana's shores, under trellised vines and palm-leaves,- but enthroned in the freshness of a woman's virgin thoughts.- See you now, my little maiden, why I've graciously bewitched you,- why I have your heart selected, and established, so to speak, there my being's Caliphate? All your longings shall be mine. I'm an autocrat in passion! You shall live for me alone. I'll be he who shall enthrall you like gold and precious stones. Should we part, then life is over,- that is, your life, nota bene! ”

“ So unspeakably poor, then, a soul can go back to nothingness, into the grey of the mist. Thou beautiful earth, be not angry with me that I trampled thy grasses to no avail. Thou beautiful sun, thou hast squandered away thy glory of light in an empty hut. There was no one within it to hearten and warm;- the owner, they tell me, was never at home. Beautiful sun and beautiful earth, you were foolish to bear and give light to my mother. The spirit is niggard and nature lavish; and dearly one pays for one's birth with one's life.- I will clamber up high, to the dizziest peak ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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? ”

“ If I give a doit more, slap my jaw for me, Captain. THE CAPTAIN
I owe you a quittance, and not a thrashing;- but excuse me, the wind's blowing up to a gale. [He goes forward. It has fallen dark; lights are lit in the cabin. The sea increases. Fog and thick clouds.] PEER
To have a whole bevy of youngsters at home;- still to dwell in their minds as a coming delight;- to have others' thoughts follow you still on your path!- There's never a soul gives a thought to me.- Lights in the sconces! ”

“ 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 layer that rolls itself softly together is the gentleman, living in ease and good cheer. The next one seems sick. There are black streaks upon it;- black symbolises both parsons and niggers. [Pulls off several layers at once.] What an enormous number of swathings! Isn't the kernel soon coming to light? [Pulls the whole onion to pieces.] I'm blest if it is! To the innermost centre, it's nothing but swathings-each smaller and smaller.- Nature is witty! [Throws the fragments away.] The devil take brooding! If one goes about thinking, one's apt to stumble. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Reason is dead and gone; long live Peer Gynt! PEER
Now, my dear good fellow-! [The LUNATICS come one by one, and at intervals, into the courtyard.] BEGRIFFENFELDT
Good morning! Come forth, and hail the dawn of emancipation! Your Kaiser has come to you! PEER
Kaiser? BEGRIFFENFELDT
Of course! PEER
But the honour's so great, so entirely excessive- BEGRIFFENFELDT
Oh, do not let any false modesty sway you at an hour such as this. PEER
But at least give me time-! No, indeed, I'm not fit; I'm completely dumbfounded! BEGRIFFENFELDT
A man who has fathomed the Sphinx's meaning! A man who's himself! ”

“ What, home! To father-in-law! That would be fine! We madcap birds that have flown from the cage must never come into his sight again. Besides, my child, in the self-same place it's wisest never to stay too long; for familiarity lessens respect;- most of all when one comes as a prophet or such. One should show oneself glimpse-wise, and pass like a dream. Faith, 'twas time that the visit should come to an end. They're unstable of soul, are these sons of the desert;- both incense and prayers dwindled off towards the end. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A heath, with fir-trees. A forest fire has been raging; charred tree-trunks are seen stretching for miles. White mists here and there clinging to the earth.] [PEER GYNT comes running over the heath.] PEER
Ashes, fog-scuds, dust wind-driven,- here's enough for building with! Stench and rottenness within it; all a whited sepulchre. Figments, dreams, and still-born knowledge lay the pyramid's foundation; o'er them shall the work mount upwards, with its step on step of falsehood. ”

“ The cavern is deep, and the Prophet great! [They make off, leaving the booty behind them. The horsemen gradually disappear in the distance.] PEER GYNT [enters, cutting a reed whistle] .
What a delectable morning-tide!- The dung-beetle's rolling his ball in the dust; the snail creeps out of his dwelling-house. The morning; ay, it has gold in its mouth.- It's a wonderful power, when you think of it, that Nature has given to the light of day. One feels so secure, and so much more courageous,- one would gladly, at need, take a bull by the horns.- What a stillness all round! ”

“ 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. ”

“ Wisdom in extremes is folly; coward blossoms into tyrant; truth, when carried to excess, ends in wisdom written backwards. Ay, my daughter, I'm forsworn as a dog if there are not folk with o'erfed souls on earth who shall scarce attain to clearness. Once I met with such a fellow, of the flock the very flower; and even he mistook his goal, losing sense in blatant sound.- See the waste round this oasis. ”

“ Am I not? There, grab! I can leap like a buck! Were there vine-leaves around, I would garland my brow. To be sure I am young! Hei, I'm going to dance! [Dances and sings.] I am a blissful game-cock! Peck me, my little pullet! Hop-sa-sa! Let me trip it;- I am a blissful game-cock! ANITRA
You are sweating, my prophet; I fear you will melt;- hand me that heavy bag hung at your belt. PEER
Tender solicitude! Bear the purse ever;- hearts that can love are content without gold! [Dances and sings again.] Young Peer Gynt is the maddest wag;- he knows not what foot he shall stand upon. ”

“ Life-giving breezes would scatter the choking vapours, and dew would distil from the clouds. People would build themselves town on town, and grass would grow green round the swaying palm-trees. The southland, behind the Sahara's wall, would make a new seaboard for civilisation. Steam would set Timbuctoo's factories spinning; Bornu would be colonised apace; the naturalist would pass safely through Habes in his railway-car to the Upper Nile. In the midst of my sea, on a fat oasis, I will replant the Norwegian race ”

“ 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? ”

“ 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. ”

“ The close-fisted old churl shall open the sack he lies brooding upon. Men rave about freedom in every land;- like the ass in the ark, I will send out a cry o'er the world, and will baptise to liberty the beautiful, thrall-bounden coasts that shall be. ”

“ 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! ”

“ 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. ”

“ We go, full sail, as our very selves. Each one shuts himself up in the barrel of self, in the self-fermentation he dives to the bottom,- with the self-bung he seals it hermetically, and seasons the staves in the well of self. No one has tears for the other's woes; no one has mind for the other's ideas. We're our very selves, both in thought and tone, ourselves to the spring-board's uttermost verge,- and so, if a Kaiser's to fill the throne, it is clear that you are the very man. PEER
O would that the devil-! ”

“ 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. ”

“ Might have stopped in the Ronde in comfort and peace? Saved my trouble and toil and no end of shoe-leather? Peer Gynt-a troll? Why it's rubbish! It's stuff! Good-bye! There's a halfpenny to buy you tobacco. THE OLD MAN
Nay, my good Prince Peer! PEER
Let me go! You're mad, or else doting. Off to the hospital with you! THE OLD MAN
Oh, that is exactly what I'm in search of. But, as I told you, my grandson's offspring have become overwhelmingly strong in the land, and they say that I only exist in books. The saw says: One's kin are unkindest of all; I've found to my cost that that saying is true. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Even as thou sowest thou shalt one day reap.- One must be oneself; for oneself and one's own one must do one's best, both in great and in small things. If the luck goes against you, at least you've the honour of a life carried through in accordance with principle.- Now homewards! Though narrow and steep the path, though Fate to the end may be never so biting- still old Peer Gynt will pursue his own way, and remain what he is: poor, but virtuous ever. ”

“ His days were as a lute with muted strings. And therefore, peace be with thee, silent warrior, that fought the peasant's little fight, and fell! It is not ours to search the heart and reins;- that is no task for dust, but for its ruler;- yet dare I freely, firmly, speak my hope: he scarce stands crippled now before his God! [The gathering disperses. PEER GYNT remains behind, alone.] ”

“ 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. ”

“ A MAN DRESSED IN MOURNING
Now there is only rubbish left over. [Catches sight of PEER GYNT.] Are there strangers here too! God be with you, good friend! PEER
Well met! You have lively times here to-day. Is't a christening junket or a wedding feast? THE MAN IN MOURNING
I'd rather call it a house-warming treat;- the bride is laid in a wormy bed. PEER
And the worms are squabbling for rags and clouts. THE MAN IN MOURNING
That's the end of the ditty; it's over and done. PEER
All the ditties end just alike; and they're all old together; I knew 'em as a boy. A LAD OF TWENTY [with a casting-ladle] . ”

“ Brandy here, boys! I feel I'm grown old;- I must put up to auction my rubbish and lumber! A LAD
What have you to sell, then? PEER
A palace I have- it lies in the Ronde; it's solidly built. THE LAD
A button is bid! PEER
You must run to a dram. 'Twere a sin and a shame to bid anything less. ANOTHER
He's a jolly old boy this! [The bystanders crowd round him.] PEER [shouts] .
Grane, my steed; who bids? ONE OF THE CROWD
Where's he running? PEER
Why, far in the west! Near the sunset, my lads! Ah, that courser can fly as fast, ay, as fast as Peer Gynt could lie. ”

“ 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? ”

“ 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. ”

“ To break off all round one, on every side, the bonds that bind one to home and friends,- to blow into atoms one's hoarded wealth,- to bid one's love and its joys good-night,- all simply to find the arcana of truth,- [Wiping a tear from his eye.] that is the test of the true man of science!- I feel myself happy beyond all measure. Now I have fathomed my destiny's riddle. Now 'tis but persevering through thick and thin! It's excusable, sure, if I hold up my head, and feel my worth, as the man, Peer Gynt, also called Human-life's Emperor.- I will own the sum-total of bygone days ”

“ 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] . ”

“ Balmy night is made for music; music is our common sphere; in the act of singing, we are we, Peer Gynt and nightingale. And the maiden's very sleeping is my passion's crowning bliss;- for the lips protruded o'er the beaker yet untasted quite- but she's coming, I declare! After all, it's best she should. ANITRA [from the tent] .
Master, call'st thou in the night? PEER
Yes indeed, the Prophet calls. I was wakened by the cat with a furious hunting-hubbub- ANITRA
Ah, not hunting-noises, Master; it was something much, much worse. ”

“ My Lord Prince, too, has grizzled a bit since we met. PEER
My dear father-in-law, the years gnaw and wear one.- Well well, a truce to all private affairs,- and pray, above all things, no family jars. I was then a sad madcap- THE OLD MAN
Oh yes; oh yes;- His Highness was young; and what won't one do then? But his Highness was wise in rejecting his bride; he saved himself thereby both worry and shame; for since then she's utterly gone to the bad- PEER
Indeed! THE OLD MAN
She has led a deplorable life; and, just think,-she and Trond are now living together. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 [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! ”