Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 4).djvu/214

 ===SCENE TWELFTH=== [Near the village of Gizeh. The great SPHINX carved out of the rock. In the distance the spires and minarets of Cairo.] [PEER GYNT enters; he examines the SPHINX attentively, now through his eyeglass, now through his hollowed hand.] PEER GYNT
 * Now, where in the world have I met before
 * something half forgotten that's like this hobgoblin?
 * For met it I have, in the north or the south.
 * Was it a person? And, if so, who?
 * That Memnon, it afterwards crossed my mind,
 * was like the Old Men of the Dovre, so called,
 * just as he sat there, stiff and stark,
 * planted on end on the stumps of pillars.-
 * But this most curious mongrel here,
 * this changeling, a lion and woman in one,-
 * does he come to me, too, from a fairy-tale,
 * or from a remembrance of something real?
 * From a fairy-tale? Ho, I remember the fellow!
 * Why, of course it's the Boyg, that I smote on the skull,-
 * that is, I dreamt it,-I lay in fever.-
 * [Going closer.]
 * The self-same eyes, and the self-same lips;-
 * not quite so lumpish; a little more cunning;
 * but the same, for the rest, in all essentials.-
 * Ay, so that's it, Boyg; so you're like a lion
 * when one sees you from behind and meets you in the daytime!
 * Are you still good at riddling? Come, let us try.