Complete Works of Henrik Ibsen (111 page)

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]
Now the 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 SEVENT
H

[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]
Go roundaboutWho 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 EIGHT
H

[Sunrise. The mountain-side in front of ÅSE’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 THIR
D

SCENE FIRS
T

[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.]