Peer Gynt - Act 3

==ACT 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 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-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.]

===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
: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;-
: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!
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
: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 there;
: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?
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;
: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!
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-?
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 WOMAN
: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 WOMAN
: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 WOMAN
: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.
: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.
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!
: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,
:you must close them carefully.
:And then you must see to my coffin;
:and be sure it's a fine one, dear.
:Ah no, by-the-bye-
PEER
:Be quiet!
:There's time yet to think of that.
ASE
:Ay, ay.
: [Looks restlessly around the room.]
:Here you see the little
:they've left us! It's like them, just.
PEER [with a writhe].
:Again!
:: [Harshly.]
:Well, I know it was my fault.
:What's the use of reminding me?
ASE
:You! No, that accursed liquor,
:from that all the mischief came!
:Dear my boy, you know you'd been drinking;
:and then no one knows what he does;
:and besides, you'd been riding the reindeer;
:no wonder your head was turned!
PEER
:Ay, ay; of that yarn enough now.
:Enough of the whole affair.
:All that's heavy we'll let stand over
:till after-some other day.
: [Sits on the edge of the bed.]
:Now, mother, we'll chat together;
:but only of this and that,-
:forget what's awry and crooked,
:and all that is sharp and sore.-
:Why see now, the same old pussy;
:so she is alive then, still?
ASE
:She makes such a noise o' nights now;
:you know what that bodes, my boy!
PEER [changing the subject].
:What news is there here in the parish?
ASE [smiling].
:There's somewhere about, they say,
:a girl who would fain to the uplands-
PEER [hastily].
:Mads Moen, is he content?
ASE
:They say that she hears and heeds not
:the old people's prayers and tears.
:You ought to look in and see them;-
:you, Peer, might perhaps bring help-
PEER
:The smith, what's become of him now?
ASE
:Don't talk of that filthy smith.
:Her name I would rather tell you,
:the name of the girl, you know-
PEER
:No, now we will chat together,
:but only of this and that,-
:forget what's awry and crooked,
:and all that is sharp and sore.
:Are you thirsty? I'll fetch you water.
:Can you stretch you? The bed is short.
:Let me see;-if I don't believe, now,
:It's the bed that I had when a boy!
:Do you mind, dear, how oft in the evenings
:you sat at my bedside here,
:and spread the fur-coverlet o'er me,
:and sang many a lilt and lay?
ASE
:Ay, mind you? And then we played sledges
:when your father was far abroad.
:The coverlet served for sledge-apron,
:and the floor for an ice-bound fiord.
PEER
:Ah, but the best of all, though,-
:mother, you mind that too?-
:the best was the fleet-foot horses-
ASE
:Ay, think you that I've forgot?-
:It was Kari's cat that we borrowed;
:it sat on the log-scooped chair-
PEER
:To the castle west of the moon, and
:the castle east of the sun,
:to Soria-Moria Castle
:the road ran both high and low.
:A stick that we found in the closet,
:for a whip-shaft you made it serve.
ASE
:Right proudly I perked on the box-seat-
PEER
:Ay, ay; you threw loose the reins,
:and kept turning round as we travelled,
:and asked me if I was cold.
:God bless you, ugly old mother,-
:you were ever a kindly soul-!
:What's hurting you now?
ASE
:My back aches,
:because of the hard, bare boards.
PEER
:Stretch yourself; I'll support you.
:There now, you're lying soft.
ASE [uneasily].
:No, Peer, I'd be moving!
PEER
:Moving?
ASE
:Ay, moving; 'tis ever my wish.
PEER
:Oh, nonsense! Spread o'er you the bed-fur.
:Let me sit at your bedside here.
:There; now we'll shorten the evening
:with many a lilt and lay.
ASE
:Best bring from the closet the prayer-book:
:I feel so uneasy of soul.
PEER
:In Soria-Moria Castle
:the King and the Prince give a feast.
:On the sledge-cushions lie and rest you;
:I'll drive you there over the heath-
ASE
:But, Peer dear, am I invited?
PEER
:Ay, that we are, both of us.
[He throws a string round the back of the chair on which the cat is
lying, takes up a stick, and seats himself at the foot of the bed.]
:Gee-up! Will you stir yourself, Black-boy?
:Mother, you're not a-cold?
:Ay, ay; by the pace one knows it,
:when Grane begins to go!
ASE
:Why, Peer, what is it that's ringing-?
PEER
:The glittering sledge-bells, dear!
ASE
:Oh, mercy, how hollow it's rumbling!
PEER
:We're just driving over a fiord.
ASE
:I'm afraid! What is that I hear rushing
:and sighing so strange and wild?
PEER
:It's the sough of the pine-trees, mother,
:on the heath. Do you but sit still.
ASE
:There's a sparkling and gleaming afar now;
:whence comes all that blaze of light?
PEER
:From the castle's windows and doorways.
:Don't you hear, they are dancing?
ASE
:Yes.
PEER
:Outside the door stands Saint Peter,
:and prays you to enter in.
ASE
:Does he greet us?
PEER
:He does, with honor,
:and pours out the sweetest wine.
ASE
:Wine! Has he cakes as well, Peer?
PEER
:Cakes? Ay, a heaped-up dish.
:And the dean's wife is getting ready
:your coffee and your dessert.
ASE
:Oh, Christ; shall we two come together?
PEER
:As freely as ever you will.
ASE
:Oh, deary, Peer, what a frolic
:you're driving me to, poor soul!
PEER [cracking his whip].
:Gee-up; will you stir yourself, Black-boy!
ASE
:Peer, dear, you're driving right?
PEER [cracking his whip again].
:Ay, broad is the way.
ASE
:This journey,
:it makes me so weak and tired.
PEER
:There's the castle rising before us;
:the drive will be over soon.
ASE
:I will lie back and close my eyes then,
:and trust me to you, my boy!
PEER
:Come up with you, Grane, my trotter!
:In the castle the throng is great;
:they bustle and swarm to the gateway.
:Peer Gynt and his mother are here!
:What say you, Master Saint Peter?
:Shall mother not enter in?
:You may search a long time, I tell you,
:ere you find such an honest old soul.
:Myself I don't want to speak of;
:I can turn at the castle gate.
:If you'll treat me, I'll take it kindly;
:if not, I'll go off just as pleased.
:I have made up as many flim-flams
:as the devil at the pulpit-desk,
:and called my old mother a hen, too,
:because she would cackle and crow.
:But her you shall honour and reverence,
:and make her at home indeed;
:there comes not a soul to beat her
:from the parishes nowadays.-
:Ho-ho; here comes God the Father!
:Saint Peter! you're in for it now!
:: [In a deep voice.]
:"Have done with these jack-in-office airs, sir;
:Mother Ase shall enter free!"
:[Laughs loudly, and turns towards his mother.]
:Ay, didn't I know what would happen?
:Now they dance to another tune!
:: [Uneasily.]
:Why, what makes your eyes so glassy?
:Mother! Have you gone out of your wits-?
: [Goes to the head of the bed.]
:You mustn't lie there and stare so-!
:Speak, mother; it's I, your boy!
[Feels her forehead and hands cautiously; then throws the string
on the chair, and says softly:]
:Ay, ay!-You can rest yourself, Grane;
:for even now the journey's done.
:[Closes her eyes, and bends over her.]
:For all of your days I thank you,
:for beatings and lullabies!-
:But see, you must thank me back, now-
:[Presses his cheek against her mouth]
:There; that was the driver's fare.
THE COTTAR'S WIFE [entering].
:What? Peer! Ah, then we are over
:the worst of the sorrow and need!
:Dear Lord, but she's sleeping soundly-
:or can she be-?
PEER
:Hush; she is dead.
[KARI weeps beside the body; PEER GYNT walks up and down the room
for some time; at last he stops beside the bed.]
PEER
:See mother buried with honour.
:I must try to fare forth from here.
KARI
:Are you faring afar?
PEER
:To seaward.
KARI
:So far!
PEER
:Ay, and further still.
::[He goes.]