Complete Works of Henrik Ibsen (335 page)

ULFHEIM.
[Slowly.]
Well, no — it’s true there are no works of art; but —

MAIA.
[Relieved.]
Ah! that’s one good thing, at any rate!

ULFHEIM.
Will you go with me, then — as far and as long as I want you?

MAIA.
There is a tame bird of prey keeping watch upon me.

ULFHEIM.
[Wildly.]
We’ll put a bullet in his wing, Maia!

MAIA.
[Looks at him a moment, and says resolutely.]
Come then, and carry me down into the depths.

ULFHEIM.
[Puts his arm round her waist.]
It is high time! The mist is upon us!

MAIA.
Is the way down terribly dangerous?

ULFHEIM.
The mountain is more dangerous still. [She shakes him off, goes to the edge of the precipice and looks over, but starts quickly back.

ULFHEIM.
[Goes towards her, laughing.]
What? Does it make you a little giddy?

MAIA.
[Faintly.]
Yes, that too. But go and look over. Those two, coming up —

ULFHEIM.
[Goes and bends over the edge of the precipice.]
It’s only your bird of prey — and his strange lady.

MAIA.
Can’t we get past them — without their seeing us?

ULFHEIM.
Impossible! The path is far too narrow. And there’s no other way down.

MAIA.
[Nerving herself.]
Well, well — let us face them here, then!

ULFHEIM.
Spoken like a true bear-killer, comrade! [PROFESSOR RUBEK and IRENE appear over the edge of the precipice at the back. He has his plaid over his shoulders; she has a fur cloak thrown loosely over her white dress, and a swansdown hood over her head.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
[Still only half visible above the edge.]
What, Maia! So we two meet once again?

MAIA.
[With assumed coolness.]
At your service. Won’t you come up? [PROFESSOR RUBEK climbs right up and holds out his hand to IRENE, who also comes right to the top.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
[Coldly to MAIA.]
So you, too, have been all night on the mountain, — as we have?

MAIA.
I have been hunting — yes. You gave me permission, you know.

ULFHEIM.
[Pointing downward.]
Have you come up that path there?

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
As you saw.

ULFHEIM.
And the strange lady too?

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
Yes, of course.
[With a glance at MAIA.]
Henceforth the strange lady and I do not intend our ways to part.

ULFHEIM.
Don’t you know, then, that it is a deadly dangerous way you have come?

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
We thought we would try it, nevertheless. For it did not seem particularly hard at first.

ULFHEIM.
No, at first nothing seems hard. But presently you may come to a tight place where you can neither get forward nor back. And then you stick fast, Professor! Mountain-fast, as we hunters call it.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
[Smiles and looks at him.]
Am I to take these as oracular utterances, Mr. Ulfheim?

ULFHEIM.
Lord preserve me from playing the oracle!
[Urgently, pointing up towards the heights.]
But don’t you see that the storm is upon us? Don’t you hear the blasts of wind?

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
[Listening.]
They sound like the prelude to the Resurrection Day.

ULFHEIM.
They are storm-blasts form the peaks, man! Just look how the clouds are rolling and sinking — soon they’ll be all around us like a winding-sheet!

IRENE.
[With a start and shiver.]
I know that sheet!

MAIA.
[Drawing ULFHEIM away.]
Let us make haste and get down.

ULFHEIM.
[To PROFESSOR RUBEK.]
I cannot help more than one. Take refuge in the hut in the mean-time — while the storm lasts. Then I shall send people up to fetch the two of you away.

IRENE.
[In terror.]
To fetch us away! No, no!

ULFHEIM.
[Harshly.]
To take you by force if necessary — for it’s a matter of life and death here. Now, you know it.
[To MAIA.]
Come, then — and don’t fear to trust yourself in your comrade’s hands.

MAIA.
[Clinging to him.]
Oh, how I shall rejoice and sing, if I get down with a whole skin!

ULFHEIM.
[Begins the descent and calls to the others.]
You’ll wait, then, in the hut, till the men come with ropes, and fetch you away. [ULFHEIM, with MAIA in his arms, clambers rapidly but warily down the precipice.

IRENE.
[Looks for some time at PROFESSOR RUBEK with terror-stricken eyes.]
Did you hear that, Arnold? — men are coming up to fetch me away! Many men will come up here —

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
Do not be alarmed, Irene!

IRENE.
[In growing terror.]
And she, the woman in black — she will come too. For she must have missed me long ago. And then she will seize me, Arnold! And put me in the strait-waistcoat. Oh, she has it with her, in her box. I have seen it with my own eyes —

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
Not a soul shall be suffered to touch you.

IRENE.
[With a wild smile.]
Oh no — I myself have a resource against that.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
What resource do you mean?

IRENE.
[Drawing out the knife.]
This!

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
[Tries to seize it.]
Have you a knife?

IRENE.
Always, always — both day and night — in bed as well!

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
Give me that knife, Irene!

IRENE.
[Concealing it.]
You shall not have it. I may very likely find a use for it myself.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
What use can you have for it, here?

IRENE.
[Looks fixedly at him.]
It was intended for you, Arnold.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
For me!

IRENE.
As we were sitting by the Lake of Taunitz last evening —

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
By the Lake of —

IRENE. — outside the peasant’s hut — and playing with swans and water-lilies —

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
What then — what then?

IRENE. — and when I heard you say with such deathly, icy coldness — that I was nothing but an episode in your life —

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
It was you that said that, Irene, not I.

IRENE.
[Continuing.]
— then I had my knife out. I wanted to stab you in the back with it.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
[Darkly.]
And why did you hold your hand?

IRENE.
Because it flashed upon me with a sudden horror that you were dead already — long ago.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
Dead?

IRENE.
Dead. Dead, you as well as I. We sat there by the Lake of Taunitz, we two clay-cold bodies — and played with each other.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
I do not call that being dead. But you do not understand me.

IRENE.
Then where is the burning desire for me that you fought and battled against when I stood freely forth before you as the woman arisen from the dead?

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
Our love is assuredly not dead, Irene.

IRENE.
The love that belongs to the life of earth — the beautiful, miraculous earth-life — the inscrutable earth-life — that is dead in both of us.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
[Passionately.]
And do you know that just that love — it is burning and seething in me as hotly as ever before?

IRENE.
And I? Have you forgotten who I now am?

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
Be who or what you please, for aught I care! For me, you are the woman I see in my dreams of you.

IRENE.
I have stood on the turn-table-naked — and made a show of myself to many hundreds of men — after you.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
It was I that drove you to the turn-table — blind as I then was — I, who placed the dead clay-image above the happiness of life — of love.

IRENE.
[Looking down.]
Too late — too late!

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
Not by a hairsbreadth has all that has passed in the interval lowered you in my eyes.

IRENE.
[With head erect.]
Nor in my own!

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
Well, what then! Then we are free — and there is still time for us to live our life, Irene.

IRENE.
[Looks sadly at him.]
The desire for life is dead in me, Arnold. Now I have arisen. And I look for you. And I find you. — And then I see that you and life lie dead — as I have lain.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
Oh, how utterly you are astray! Both in us and around us life is fermenting and throbbing as fiercely as ever!

IRENE.
[Smiling and shaking her head.]
The young woman of your Resurrection Day can see all life lying on its bier.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
[Throwing his arms violently around her.]
Then let two of the dead — us two — for once live life to its uttermost — before we go down to our graves again!

IRENE.
[With a shriek.]
Arnold!

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
But not here in the half darkness! Not here with this hideous dank shroud flapping around us —

IRENE.
[Carried away by passion.]
No, no — up in the light, and in all the glittering glory! Up to the Peak of Promise!

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
There we will hold our marriage-feast, Irene — oh, my beloved!

IRENE.
[Proudly.]
The sun may freely look on us, Arnold.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
All the powers of light may freely look on us — and all the powers of darkness too.
[Seizes her hand.]
Will you then follow me, oh my grace-given bride?

IRENE.
[As though transfigured.]
I follow you, freely and gladly, my lord and master!

PROFESSOR RUBEK.
[Drawing her along with him.]
We must first pass through the mists, Irene, and then —

IRENE.
Yes, through all the mists, and then right up to the summit of the tower that shines in the sunrise. [The mist-clouds close in over the scene — PROFESSOR RUBEK and IRENE, hand in hand, climb up over the snow-field to the right and soon disappear among the lower clouds. Keen storm-gusts hurtle and whistle through the air.

[The SISTER OF MERCY appears upon the stone-scree to the left. She stops and looks around silently and searchingly.

MAIA. I am free! I am free! I am free! No more life in the prison for me! I am free as a bird! I am free!

[Suddenly a sound like thunder is heard from high up on the snow- field, which glides and whirls downwards with headlong speed. PROFESSOR RUBEK and IRENE can be dimly discerned as they are whirled along with the masses of snow and buried in them.