Do you glance adown your apron?

  Do you hold your mother’s skirt-fold?

  Speak!

  INGRID

  No, but——

  PEER

  Went you to the Pastor19

  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?20

  Speak!

  INGRID

  No, but——

  PEER

  What’s all the rest then?

  [Going.]

  INGRID [Blocking his way.]

  Know you it will cost your neck

  Should you fail me?

  PEER

  What do I care?

  INGRID

  You may win both wealth and honour

  If you take me——

  PEER

  Can’t afford.

  INGRID [Bursting into tears.]

  Oh, you lured me——!

  PEER

  You were willing.

  INGRID

  I was desperate!

  PEER

  Frantic I.

  INGRID [Threatening.]

  Dearly shall you pay for this!

  PEER

  Dearest payment cheap I’ll reckon.

  INGRID

  Is your purpose set?

  PEER

  Like flint.

  INGRID

  Good! we’ll see, then, who’s the winner!

  [Goes downwards.]

  PEER [Stands silent a moment, then cries:]

  Devil take all recollections!

  Devil take the tribe of women!

  INGRID [Turning her head, and calling mockingly upwards:]

  All but one!

  PEER

  Yes, all but one.

  [They go their several ways.]

  SCENE SECOND

  Near a mountain tarn; the ground is soft and marshy round about. A storm is gathering.

  ÅSE 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.

  ÅSE [Tossing about her arms, and tearing her hair.]

  All things are against me with wrathful might!

  Heaven, and the waters, and the grisly mountains!

  Fog-scuds from heaven roll down to bewilder him!

  The treacherous waters are lurking to murder him!

  The mountains would crush him with landslip and rift!—

  And the people too! They’re out after his life!

  God knows they shan’t have it! I can’t bear to lose him!

  Oh, the oaf! to think that the fiend should tempt him!

  [Turning to SOLVEIG.]

  Now isn’t it clean unbelievable this?

  He, that did nought but romance and tell lies;—

  He, whose sole strength was the strength of his jaw;

  He, that did never a stroke of true work;—

  He——! Oh, a body could both cry and laugh!—

  Oh, we clung closely in sorrow and need.

  Ay, you must know that my husband, he drank,

  Loafed round the parish to roister and prate,

  Wasted and trampled our gear under foot.

  And meanwhile at home there sat Peerkin and I—

  The best we could do was to try to forget;

  For ever I’ve found it so hard to bear up.

  It’s a terrible thing to look fate in the eyes;

  And of course one is glad to be quit of one’s cares,

  And try all one can to hold thinking aloof.

  Some take to brandy, and others to lies;

  And we—why we took to fairy-tales

  Of princes and trolls and of all sorts of beasts;

  And of bride-rapes as well. Ah, but who could have dreamt

  That those devil’s yarns would have stuck in his head?

  [In a fresh access of terror].

  Hu! What a scream! It’s the nixie or droug!21

  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.]

  ÅSE

  Not a sign to be seen!

  THE FATHER [Quietly.]

  It is worst for him!

  ÅSE [Weeping.]

  Oh, my Peer! Oh, my own lost lamb!

  THE FATHER [Nods mildly.]

  You may well say lost.

  ÅSE

  Oh no, don’t talk like that!

  He is so clever. There’s no one like him.

  THE FATHER

  You foolish woman!

  ÅSE

  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.

  ÅSE [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?

  ÅSE [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?

  ÅSE

  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.

  ÅSE [Shrieks.]

  Oh, cross of Christ!

  THE FATHER

  In the hangman’s hands,

  It may be his heart would be turned to repentance.

  ÅSE [Bewildered.]

  Oh, you’ll soon talk me out of my senses!

  We must find him!

  THE FATHER

  To rescue his soul.

  ÅSE

  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

  H’m!—Here’s a sheep-path——

  ÅSE

  The Lord will repay you

  Your guidance and help!

  THE FATHER

  It’s a Christian’s duty.

  ÅSE

  Then the others, fie! they are heathens all;

  There was never a one that would go with us——

  THE FATHER

  They knew him too well.

  ÅSE

  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.

  ÅSE

  Then it’s here we must search!

  THE FATHER

  We’ll scatter around on this side of our sæter.22

  [He and his wife go on ahead.]

  SOLVEIG [To ÅSE.]

  Say on; tell me more.

  ÅSE [Drying her eyes.]

  Of my son, you mean?

  SOLVEIG

  Yes;—

  Tell everything!

  ÅSE [Smiles and tosses her head.]

  Everything?—Soon you’d be tired!

  SOLVEIG

  Sooner by far will you tire of the telling

  Than I of the hearing.

  SCENE THIRD

  Low, treeless heights, close under the mountain moorlands; peaks in the distance.The shadows are long; it is late in the day.

  PEER GYNT comes running at full speed, and stops short on the hillside.

  PEER

  The parish is all at my heels in a pack!

  Every man of them armed or with gun or with club.

  Foremost I hear the old Hegstad-churl howling.—

  Now it’s noised far and wide that Peer Gynt is abroad!

  It is different, this, from a bout with a smith!

  This is life! Every limb grows as strong as a bear’s.

  [Strikes out with his arms and leaps in the air.]

  To crush, overturn, stem the rush of the foss!23

  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 SÆTER GIRLS [Rush across the hillside, screaming and singing.]

  Trond of the Valfjeld! Bård and Kårë!

  Troll-pack! To-night would you sleep in our arms?

  PEER

  To whom do you call?

  THE GIRLS

  To the trolls! to the trolls!

  FIRST GIRL

  Trond, come with kindness!

  SECOND GIRL

  Bård, come with force!

  THIRD GIRL

  The cots in the sæter are all standing empty!

  FIRST GIRL

  Force is kindness!

  SECOND GIRL

  And kindness is force!

  THIRD GIRL

  If lads are awanting, one plays with the trolls.

  PEER

  Why, where are the lads, then?

  ALL THREE [With a horse-laugh.]

  They cannot come hither.

  FIRST GIRL

  Mine called me his sweetheart and called me his darling.

  Now he has married a grey-headed widow.

  SECOND GIRL

  Mine met a gipsy-wench north on the upland.

  Now they are tramping the country together.

  THIRD GIRL

  Mine put an end to our bastard brat.

  Now his head’s grinning aloft on a stake.

  ALL THREE

  Trond of the Valfjeld! Bård and Kårë!

  Troll-pack! To-night would you sleep in our arms?

  PEER [Stands, with a sudden leap, in the midst of them.]

  I’m a three-headed troll, and the boy for three girls!

  THE GIRLS

  Are you such a lad, eh?

  PEER

  You shall judge for yourselves!

  FIRST GIRL

  To the hut! To the hut!

  SECOND GIRL

  We have mead!

  PEER

  Let it flow!

  THIRD GIRL

  No cot shall stand empty this Saturday night!

  SECOND GIRL [Kissing him.]

  He sparkles and glisters like white-heated iron.

  THIRD GIRL [Doing likewise.]

  Like a baby’s eyes from the blackest tarn.

  PEER [Dancing in the midst of them.]

  Heavy of heart and wanton of mind.

  The eyes full of laughter, the throat of tears!

  THE GIRLS [Making mocking gestures towards the mountain-tops, screaming and singing.]

  Trond of the Valfjeld! Bård and Kårë!

  Troll-pack!—To-night who shall sleep in our arms?

  [They dance away over the heights, with PEER GYNT in their midst.]

  SCENE FOURTH

  Among the Rondë mountains. Sunset. Shining snow-peaks 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 wind-cock

  Arches his wings for flight;—

  Blue spread the rifts and bluer,

  Locked is the fell and barred.—

  What are those trunks and tree-roots,

  That grow from the ridge’s clefts?

  They are warriors heron-footed!

  Now they, too, are fading away.

  A shimmering like rainbow-streamers

  Goes shooting through eyes and brain.

  What is it, that far-off chiming?

  What’s weighing my eyebrows down?

  Hu, how my forehead’s throbbing—

  A tightening red-hot ring——!

  I cannot think who the devil

  Has bound it around my head!

  [Sinks down.]

  Flight o’er the Edge of Gendin—

  Stuff and accursed lies!

  Up o’er the steepest hill-wall

  With the bride,—and a whole day drunk;

  Hunted by hawks and falcons,

  Threatened by trolls and such,

  Sporting with crazy wenches:—

  Lies and accursed stuff!

  [Gazes long upwards.]

  Yonder sail two brown eagles.

  Southward the wild geese fly.

  And here I must splash and stumble

  In quagmire and filth knee-deep!

  [Springs up.]

  I’ll fly too! I will wash myself clean in

  The bath of the keenest winds!

  I’ll fly high! I will plunge myself fair in

  The glorious christening-font!

  I will soar far over the sæter;

  I will ride myself pure of soul;

  I will forth o’er the salt sea waters,

  And high over Engelland’s prince!

  Ay, gaze as ye may, young maidens;

  My ride is for none of you;

  You’re wasting your time in waiting—!

  Yet maybe I’ll swoop down, too.—

  What has come of the two brown eagles—?

  They’ve vanished, the devil knows where!—

  There’s the peak of a gable rising;

  It’s soaring on every hand;

  It’s growing from out the ruins;—

  See, the gateway is standing wide!

  Ha-ha, yonder house, I know it;

  It’s grandfather’s new-built farm!

  Gone are the clouts from the windows;

  The crazy old fence is gone.

  The lights gleam from every casement;

  There’s a feast in the hall to-night.

  There, that was the provost clinking

  The back of his knife on his glass;—

  There’s the captain flinging his bottle,

  And shivering the mirror to bits.—

  Let them waste; let it all be squandered!

  Peace, mother; what need we care!

  ’Tis the rich Jon Gynt gives the banquet;

  Hurrah for the race of Gynt!

  What’s all this bustle and hubbub?

  Why do they shout and bawl?

  The captain is calling the son in;—

  Oh, the provost would drink my health.

  In then, Peer Gynt, to the judgment;

  It rings forth in song and shout:

  Peer Gynt, thou art come of great things,

  And great things shall come of thee!

  [Leaps forward, but runs his head against a rock, falls, and remains

  stretched on the ground.]

  SCENE FIFTH

  A hillside, wooded with great soughing trees. Stars are gleaming through the leaves; birds are singing in the tree-tops.

  A GREEN-CLAD WOMAN is crossing the hillside; PEER GYNT follows her, with all sorts of lover-like antics.

  THE GREEN-CLAD ONE [Stops and turns round.]

  Is it true?

  PEER [Drawing his finger across his throat.]

  As true as my name is Peer;—

  As true as that you are a lovely woman!

  Will you have me? You’ll see what a fine man I’ll be;

  You shall neither tread the loom nor turn the spindle.

  You shall eat all you want, till you’re ready to burst.

  I never will drag you about by the hair——

  THE GREEN-CLAD ONE

  Nor beat me!

  PEER

  No, can you think I would!

  We kings’ sons never beat women and such.

  THE GREEN-CLAD ONE

  You’re a king’s son.

  PEER

  Yes.

  THE GREEN-CLAD ONE

  I’m the Dovrë-King’s daughter.

  PEER

  Are you! See there, now, how well that fits in!

  THE GREEN-CLAD ONE

  Deep in the Rondë 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 Brosë.

  PEER

  Do you know my mother? Her name is Queen Åsë.

  THE GREEN-CLAD ONE

  When my father is angry the mountains are riven.

  PEER

  They reel when my mother by chance falls a-scolding.

  THE GREEN-CLAD ONE

  My father can kick e’en the loftiest roof-tree.24

  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 Rondë-folk’s use and wont:

  All our possessions have two-fold form.