Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Heinemann Volume 1).pdf/475

 O, if I only had a well-lined berth, I'd bind the armour'd helmet on my head, And cry defiance to united earth! And were I only unengaged like you, Trust me, I'd break a road athwart the snow Of Prose, and carry the Ideal through!

To work then, man!

How?

You may still do so! Let the world's prudish owl unheeded flutter by; Freedom converts the grub into a butterfly!

[stepping back].

You mean, to break the engagement—?

That's my mind;— The fruit is gone, why keep the empty rind?

Such a proposal's for a green young shoot, Not for a man of judgment and repute. I heed not what King Christian in his time (The Fifth) laid down about engagements broken-off; For that relationship is nowhere spoken of In any rubric of the code of crime. The act would not be criminal in name, It would in no way violate the laws—