Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 4).djvu/131

 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