Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 4).djvu/184

 .]
 * 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;-