Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906)

Peer Gynt

Translated by Robert Farquharson Sharp

Act IV

Scene 4

(Daybreak. The grove of acacias and palms.)

(Peer Gynt in his tree with a broken branch in his hand, trying to beat off a swarm of monkeys.)

PEER. Confound it! A most disagreeable night. (Laying about him.) Are you there again? This is most accursed! Now they’re throwing fruit. No, it’s something else. A loathsome beast is your Barbary ape! The Scripture says: Thou shalt watch and fight. But I’m blest if I can; I am heavy and tired. (Is again attacked; impatiently:) I must put a stopper upon this nuisance! I must see and get hold of one of these scamps, get him hung and skinned, and then dress myself up, as best I may, in his shaggy hide, that the others may take me for one of themselves.—What are we mortals? Motes, no more; and it’s wisest to follow the fashion a bit.—Again a rabble! They throng and swarm. Off with you! Shoo! They go on as though crazy. If only I had a false tail to put on now,—only something to make me a bit like a beast.—What now? There’s a pattering over my head—! (Looks up.) It’s the grandfather ape,—with his fists full of filth—! (Huddles together apprehensively, and keeps still for a while. The ape makes a motion; Peer Gynt begins coaxing and wheedling him, as he might a dog.) Ay,—are you there, my good old Bus? He’s a good beast, he is! He will listen to reason! He wouldn’t throw;—I should think not, indeed! It is me! Pip-pip! We are first-rate friends! Ai-ai! Don’t you hear, I can talk your language? Bus and I, we are kinsfolk, you see;—Bus shall have sugar to-morrow—! The beast! The whole cargo on top of me! Ugh, how disgusting!—Or perhaps it was food? ’Twas in taste—indefinable; and taste’s for the most part a matter of habit. What thinker is it who somewhere says: You must spit and trust to the force of habit?—Now here come the small-fry! (Hits and slashes around him.) It’s really too bad that man, who by rights is the lord of creation, should find himself forced to—! O murder! murder! the old one was bad, but the youngsters are worse!

Act IV Scene 3

Act IV Scene 5