Complete Works of Henrik Ibsen (122 page)

SCENE NINT
H

[At a cross-road.]

PEER GYNT
Now comes the pinch, Peer, as never before!
This Dovrish Enough has passed judgment upon you.
The vessel’s a wreck; one must float with the spars.
All else; only not to the spoilt-goods heap!

THE BUTTON-MOULDER
[at the cross-road]
Well now, Peer Gynt, have you found your voucher?

PEER
Have we reached the cross-road? Well, that’s short work!

THE BUTTON-MOULDER
I can see on your face, as it were on a signboard,
the gist of the paper before I’ve read it.

PEER
I got tired of the hunt; — One might lose one’s way —

THE BUTTON-MOULDER
Yes; and what does it lead to, after all?

PEER
True enough; in the wood, and by night as well —

THE BUTTON-MOULDER
There’s an old man, though, trudging. Shall we call him here?

PEER
No let him go. He is drunk, my dear fellow!

THE BUTTON-MOULDER
But perhaps he might —

PEER
Hush; no — let him be!

THE BUTTON-MOULDER
Well, shall we turn to then?

PEER
One question only:
What is it, at bottom, this “being oneself”?

THE BUTTON-MOULDER
A singular question, most odd in the mouth
of a man who just now —

PEER
Come, a straightforward answer.

THE BUTTON-MOULDER
To be oneself is: to slay oneself.
But on you that answer is doubtless lost;
and therefore we’ll say: to stand forth everywhere
with Master’s intention displayed like a signboard.

PEER
But suppose a man never has come to know
what Master meant with him?

THE BUTTON-MOULDER
He must divine it.

PEER
But how oft are divinings beside the mark, —
then one’s carried ad undas in middle career.

THE BUTTON-MOULDER
That is certain, Peer Gynt; in default of divining
the cloven-hoofed gentleman finds his best hook.

PEER
This matter’s excessively complicated. —
See here! I no longer plead being myself; —
it might not be easy to get it proven.
That part of my case I must look on as lost.
But just now, as I wandered alone o’er the heath,
I felt my conscience-shoe pinching me;
I said to myself: After all, you’re a sinner —

THE BUTTON-MOULDER
You seem bent on beginning all over again —

PEER
No, very far from it; a great one I mean;
not only in deeds, but in words and desires.
I’ve lived a most damnable life abroad —

THE BUTTON-MOULDER
Perhaps; I must ask you to show me the schedule!

PEER
Well well, give me time; I will find out a parson,
confess with all speed, and then bring you his voucher.

THE BUTTON-MOULDER
Ay, if you can bring me that, then it is clear
you escape this business of the casting-ladle.
But Peer, I’d my orders —

PEER
The paper is old;
it dates no doubt from a long past period; —
at one time I lived with disgusting slackness,
went playing the prophet, and trusted in Fate.
Well, may I try?

THE BUTTON-MOULDER
But — !

PEER
My dear fellow,
I’m sure you can’t have so much to do.
Here, in this district, the air is so bracing,
it adds an ell to the people’s ages.
Recollect what the Justedal parson wrote:
“It’s seldom that any one dies in this valley.”

THE BUTTON-MOULDER
To the next cross-roads then; but not a step further.

PEER
A priest I must catch, if it be with the tongs.
[He starts running.]

SCENE TENT
H

[A heather-clad hillside with a path following the windings of the ridge.]

PEER
This may come in useful in many ways,
said Esben as he picked up a magpie’s wing.
Who could have thought one’s account of sins
would come to one’s aid on the last night of all?
Well, whether or no, it’s a ticklish business;
a move from the frying-pan into the fire; —
but then there’s a proverb of well-tried validity
which says that as long as there’s life, there’s hope.
[A LEAN PERSON, in a priest’s cassock, kilted-up high, and with a birding net over his shoulder, comes
hurrying along the ridge.]

PEER
Who goes there? A priest with a fowling-net!
Hei, hop! I’m the spoilt child of fortune indeed!
Good evening, Herr Pastor! the path is bad —

THE LEAN ONE
Ah yes; but what wouldn’t one do for a soul?

PEER
Aha! then there’s some one bound heavenwards?

THE LEAN ONE
No; I hope he is taking a different road.

PEER
May I walk with Herr Pastor a bit of the way?

THE LEAN ONE
With pleasure; I’m partial to company.

PEER
I should like to consult you —

THE LEAN ONE
Heraus! Go ahead!

The Thin Person

PEER
You see here before you a good sort of man.
The laws of the state I have strictly observed,
have made no acquaintance with fetters or bolts; —
but it happens at times that one misses one’s footing
and stumbles —

THE LEAN ONE
Ah yes; that occurs to the best of us.

PEER
Now these trifles you see —

THE LEAN ONE
Only trifles?

PEER
Yes; from sinning en gros I have ever refrained.

THE LEAN ONE
Oh then, my dear fellow, pray leave me in peace; —
I’m not the person you seem to think me. —
You look at my fingers? What see you in them?

PEER
A nail-system somewhat extremely developed.

THE LEAN ONE
And now? You are casting a glance at my feet?

PEER
[pointing]
That’s a natural hoof?

THE LEAN ONE
So I flatter myself.

PEER
[raises his hat]
I’d have taken my oath you were simply a parson;
and I find I’ve the honour — . Well, best is best; —
when the hall door stands wide, — shun the kitchen way;
when the king’s to be met with, — avoid the lackey.

THE LEAN ONE
Your hand! You appear to be free from prejudice.
Say on then, my — friend; in what way can I serve you?
Now you mustn’t ask me for wealth or power;
I couldn’t supply them although I should hang for it.
You can’t think how slack the whole business is; —
transactions have dwindled most pitiably.
Nothing doing in souls; only now and again
a stray one —

PEER
The race has improved so remarkably?

THE LEAN ONE
No, just the reverse; it’s sunk shamefully low; —
the majority end in a casting-ladle.

PEER
Ah yes — I have heard that ladle mentioned;
in fact, ‘twas the cause of my coming to you.

THE LEAN ONE
Speak out!

PEER
If it were not too much to ask,
I should like —

THE LEAN ONE
A harbour of refuge? eh?

PEER
You’ve guessed my petition before I have asked.
You tell me the business is going awry;
so I daresay you will not be over-particular.

THE LEAN ONE
But, my dear —

PEER
My demands are in no way excessive.
I shouldn’t insist on a salary;
but treatment as friendly as things will permit.

THE LEAN ONE
A fire in your room?

PEER
Not too much fire; — and chiefly
the power of departing in safety and peace, —
the right, as the phrase goes, of freely withdrawing
should an opening offer for happier days.

THE LEAN ONE
My dear friend, I vow I’m sincerely distressed;
but you cannot imagine how many petitions
of similar purport good people send in
when they’re quitting the scene of their earthly activity.

PEER
But now that I think of my past career,
I feel I’ve an absolute claim to admission —

THE LEAN ONE
‘Twas but trifles, you said —

PEER
In a certain sense; —
but, now I remember, I’ve trafficked in slaves —

THE LEAN ONE
There are men that have trafficked in wills and souls,
but who bungled it so that they failed to get in.

PEER
I’ve shipped Bramah-figures in plenty to China.

THE LEAN ONE
Mere fustian again! Why, we laugh at such things.
There are people that ship off far gruesomer figures
in sermons, in art, and in literature —
yet have to stay out in the cold —

PEER
Ah, but then,
do you know — I once went and set up as prophet!

THE LEAN ONE
In foreign parts? Humbug! Why, most people’s sehen
ins Blaue ends in the casting-ladle.
If you’ve no more than that to rely upon,
with the best of goodwill, I can’t possibly house you.

PEER
But hear this: In a shipwreck — I clung to a boat’s keel, —
and it’s written: A drowning man grasps at a straw, —
furthermore it is written: You’re nearest yourself, —
so I half-way divested a cook of his life.

THE LEAN ONE
It were all one to me if a kitchen-maid
you had half-way divested of something else.
What sort of stuff is this half-way jargon,
saving your presence? Who, think you, would care
to throw away dearly-bought fuel in times
like these on such spiritless rubbish as this?
There now, don’t be enraged; ‘twas your sins that scoffed at;
and excuse my speaking my mind so bluntly. —
Come, my dearest friend, banish this stuff from your head,
and get used to the thought of the casting-ladle.
What would you gain if I lodged you and boarded you?
Consider; I know you’re a sensible man.
Well, you’d keep your memory; that’s so far true; —
but the retrospect o’er recollection’s domain
would be, both for heart and for intellect,
what the Swedes call “Mighty poor sport” indeed.
You have nothing either to howl or to smile about,
no cause for rejoicing nor yet for despair,
nothing to make you feel hot or cold;
only a sort of a something to fret over.

PEER
It is written: It’s never so easy to know
where the shoe is tight that one isn’t wearing.

THE LEAN ONE
Very true; I have — praise be to so-and-so! —
no occasion for more than a single odd shoe.
But it’s lucky we happened to speak of shoes;
it reminds me that I must be hurrying on; —
I’m after a roast that I hope will prove fat;
so I really mustn’t stand gossiping here. —

PEER
And may one inquire, then, what sort of sin-diet
the man has been fattened on?

THE LEAN ONE
I understand
he has been himself both by night and by day,
and that, after all, is the principal point.

PEER
Himself? Then do such folks belong to your parish?

THE LEAN ONE
That depends; the door, at least, stands ajar for them.
Remember, in two ways a man can be
himself — there’s a right and wrong side to the jacket.
You know they have lately discovered in Paris
a way to take portraits by help of the sun.
One can either produce a straightforward picture,
or else what is known as a negative one.
In the latter the lights and the shades are reversed,
and they’re apt to seem ugly to commonplace eyes;
but for all that the likeness is latent in them,
and all you require is to bring it out.
If, then, a soul shall have pictured itself
in the course of its life by the negative method,
the plate is not therefore entirely cashiered, —
but without more ado they consign it to me.
I take it in hand, then, for further treatment,
and by suitable methods effect its development.
I steam it, I dip it, I burn it, I scour it,
with sulphur and other ingredients like that,
till the image appears which the plate was designed for, —
that, namely, which people call positive.
But if one, like you, has smudged himself out,
neither sulphur nor potash avails in the least.

PEER
I see; one must come to you black as a raven
to turn out a white ptarmigan? Pray what’s the name
inscribed ‘neath the negative counterfeit
that you’re now to transfer to the positive side?

THE LEAN ONE
The name’s Peter Gynt.

PEER
Peter Gynt! Indeed?
Is Herr Gynt himself?

THE LEAN ONE
Yes, he vows he is.

PEER
Well, he’s one to be trusted, that same Herr Peter.

THE LEAN ONE
You know him, perhaps?

PEER
Oh yes, after a fashion; —
one knows all sorts of people.

THE LEAN ONE
I’m pressed for time;
where saw you him last?

PEER
It was down at the Cape.

THE LEAN ONE
Di Buona Speranza?

PEER
Just so; but he sails
very shortly again, if I’m not mistaken.

THE LEAN ONE
I must hurry off then without delay.
I only hope I may catch him in time!
That Cape of Good Hope — I could never abide it; —
it’s ruined by missionaries from Stavanger.
[He rushes off southwards.]

PEER
The stupid hound! There he takes to his heels
with his tongue lolling out. He’ll be finely sold.
It delights me to humbug an ass like that.
He to give himself airs, and to lord it forsooth!
He’s a mighty lot, truly, to swagger about!
He’ll scarcely grow fat at his present trade; —
he’ll soon drop from his perch with his whole apparatus. —
Hm, I’m not over-safe in the saddle either;
[A shooting star is seen; he nods after it.]
I’m expelled, one may say, from self-owning nobility.
Bear all hail from Peer Gynt, Brother Starry-Flash!
To flash forth, to go out, and be naught at a gulp —
[Pulls himself together as though in terror, and goes deeper in among the mists; stillness for awhile; then he cries:]
Is there no one, no one in all the turmoil, —
in the void no one, no one in heaven — !
[He comes forward again further down, throws his hat upon the ground, and tears at his hair. By degrees a
stillness comes over him.]
So unspeakably poor, then, a soul can go
back to nothingness, into the grey of the mist.
Thou beautiful earth, be not angry with me
that I trampled thy grasses to no avail.
Thou beautiful sun, thou hast squandered away
thy glory of light in an empty hut.
There was no one within it to hearten and warm; —
the owner, they tell me, was never at home.
Beautiful sun and beautiful earth,
you were foolish to bear and give light to my mother.
The spirit is niggard and nature lavish;
and dearly one pays for one’s birth with one’s life. —
I will clamber up high, to the dizziest peak;
I will look once more on the rising sun,
gaze till I’m tired o’er the promised land;
then try to get snowdrifts piled up over me.
They can write above them: “Here No One lies buried;”
and afterwards, — then — ! Let things go as they can.

CHURCH-GOERS
[singing on the forest path]
Oh, morning thrice blessed,
when the tongues of God’s kingdom
struck the earth like to flaming steel!
from the earth to His dwelling
now the heirs’ song ascendeth
in the tongue of the kingdom of God.

PEER
[crouches as in terror]
Never look there! there all’s desert and waste. —
I fear I was dead long before I died.
[Tries to slink in among the bushes, but comes upon the cross-roads.]