PEER GYNT (Illustrated Edition). Henrik Ibsen

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      Oh, you’re only fit to be tied in a stall!

      His Mother

      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!

      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?

      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 Lad

      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 up?

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