Peer! Your son?
Åse
Now you can say
you have seen how he behaves.
First Woman
We’ll bear witness.
Åse
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.
Åse [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!
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 weak.
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.
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]
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