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- 2 - period the right outboard (No. 4) engine and approximately 25 feet of the right outboard wing separated from the aircraft. After the fire was extinguished, control was secured, and the situation evaluated, the crew elected to proceed to Travis Air Force Base, California. They stated this decision was based on a partial hydraulic failure and the uninhabited approaches to Travis, plus the availability of military firefighting equipment and a longer runway.

After lowering the landing gear by emergency means, the flight landed at Travis at 1434 without further difficulty. Passengers evacuated the aircraft using the inflated emergency slides because no stairs were available.

The accident occurred about 1-1/2 miles west of the departure end of runway 28L at San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco, California, at an altitude estimated to be 800 feet m.s.l. The accident occurred during daylight hours.

1.2 Injuries to Personnel

1.3 Damage to Aircraft

The aircraft received substantial damage. The No. 4 engine separated from the wing, and approximately 25 feet of the right outboard wing separated from the aircraft. The remaining wring section received fire and puncture damage around the area of the wing separation line.

1.4 Other Damage

The main portion of the No. 4 engine struck and damaged a building approximately 1.8 miles from the departure end of runway 28L.

1.5 Crew Information

Captain Charles H. Kimes, age 44, possessed airline transport pilot certificate No. 38522-40 with multi-engine land and sea, DC-4, DC-6/7, C-46, B-377, and B-707 ratings issued May 16, 1958. His last proficiency check was completed May 21, 1965, and his last line check completed on June 17, 1654. Captain Kimes held an FAA first-class certificate issued April 29, 1965, without waivers. He had a total flying time of 17,736 hours of which 2,606 hours had been flown in the B-707 aircraft. He had flown 228 hours in the preceding 90 days and 71 hours in the preceding 30 days. He had 5-1/2 days off duty, and had not flown in the 24-hour period preceding the accident.

First Officer Frederick R. Miller, age 48, possessed airline transport pilot certificate No. 34563, with multi-engine land, DC-3, DC-4, DC-7, B-377, and B-707 ratings issued April 18, 1961. He also held navigator certificate No. 1178229. His last proficiency check was accomplished April 23, 1965. he held an FAA first-class certificate issued May 14, 1965, with a limitation that "Holder shall possess correcting glasses for near vision while exercising


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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]

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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.
 * 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,
 * h


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 eard 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 scyth


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 e.
 * 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,
 * l


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 eapt 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, de


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 ar? 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,


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 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


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 ?
 * 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,


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 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


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 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?


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 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!


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 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!


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 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 Hegs


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 tad! 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!


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 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!


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 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 weddin


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 g.
 * 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-


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 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 [thro


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 wing 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!


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 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 WOMA


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 N
 * 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!


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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 w


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 eak. 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.


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 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


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 ].
 * 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;


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 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


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 !-
 * 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


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 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


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 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].


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 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


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 .] [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


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 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.


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 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.


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 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 M


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 OTHER
 * 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!


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 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?


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4

ALL creditors and others persons having any claim whatsoever against the Estates of the above named are hereby requested to send particulars thereof to the undersigned on or before the 15th January, 1907, after which date the assets of the above named will be divided amongst the parties entitled thereto regard being had only to those claims of which notice shall have been given. And all monies owing to the above Estates shall be paid to the undersigned forthwith.

Kuching, 30th November 1906.

having been granted to Hiew Ah Jew, wife of deceased, all claims and monies owing to the said Estate should be sent to her.

Bau, 5th December, 1906.

creditors and other persons having any claim whatsoever against the Estate of the above named are hereby requested to send particulars thereof to the undersigned within three months from date, after which date the assets of the above named will be divided amongst the parties entitled thereto regard being had only to those claims of which notice shall have been given. And all monies owing to the above Estate shall be paid to the undersigned forthwith.

Bau, 5th December, 1906.

following sums now in deposit in the Court of Requests. Mukah, if not claimed on or before 31st March, 1907, will revert to Government.

of 17th January 1906 is hereby cancelled and the following regulations are substituted and will come into force on 1st January 1907.

After receipt of the amount of the money order required and the commission (2 cents on every dollar or part of a dollar, with a minimum of 10 cents) Officers in charge of Outstations may issue cheques on the Sarawak Treasury for Money Orders on the follow- ing places or countries.

 * 1. Kuching (maximum $100).

 * 2. United Kingdom (maximum £40) and through the United Kingdom on various British Dependencies and Foreign countries. (For maximum and other particulars see postal Guide.)

 * 3. Straits Settlements (maximum $100.)

 * 4. Federated Malay States (maximum $100.)

 * 5. India and through India on Burma and Ceylon (maximion Rs. 600.)

No order may contain a fraction of a cent, of a penny or of an anna. Orders on or "through" the United Kingdom and India should be calculated in accordance with the tables supplied by the Post Office, and the commission added.

The cheques, accompanied by the special printed application form (Outstation Money Order application), should be drawn in favour of, and forwarded to, the Postmaster General, Kuching.

In the case of Money Orders (1) on Kuching, (2) on or through the United Kingdom and


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 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 L


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 AD
 * 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


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 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


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 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


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 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


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 ].
 * 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?


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 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 [c


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 omes 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!


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 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


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 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 [l


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 ets 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!

==


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 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!


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 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.


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 THE COLLECTED WORKS OF

HENRIK IBSEN

VOLUME IV

PEER GYNT

(1867)


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 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 [bloc


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 king 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?


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 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 hi


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 m!
 * 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.]


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 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


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 [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 FATHE


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 R
 * 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 FATHE


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 R
 * 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


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 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 GI


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 RL
 * 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 GIR


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 LS
 * 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.]


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 ===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,
 * spor


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 ting 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.-


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 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


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 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.


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 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 O


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 NE
 * 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!


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 ===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


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 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 M


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 AN
 * 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 M


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 AN
 * 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


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 ].
 * 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.


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 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 M


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 AN
 * 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


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 ].
 * 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 M


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 AN
 * 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 M


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 AN
 * 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 agai


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 n.
 * 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 humankin


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 d.
 * 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-


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 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-COURTI


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 ER
 * 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 [bu


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 ried 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?


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 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 on


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 e.
 * 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


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 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-CRI


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 ES
 * 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.


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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?


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 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-!


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 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


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 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


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 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-


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 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.]


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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


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 :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;-


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 :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!


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 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


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 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 th


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 ere;
 * 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?


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 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


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 ;
 * 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!


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 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-?


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 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 WOM


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 AN
 * 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 WOM


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 AN
 * 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 WOM


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 AN
 * 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.


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 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.


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 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


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 !
 * 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,