Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 4).djvu/222

 PEER
 * Now, my dear good fellow-!

[The LUNATICS come one by one, and at intervals, into the courtyard.] BEGRIFFENFELDT
 * Good morning! Come forth,
 * and hail the dawn of emancipation!
 * Your Kaiser has come to you!

PEER
 * Kaiser?

BEGRIFFENFELDT
 * Of course!

PEER
 * But the honour's so great, so entirely excessive-

BEGRIFFENFELDT
 * Oh, do not let any false modesty sway you
 * at an hour such as this.

PEER
 * But at least give me time-!
 * No, indeed, I'm not fit; I'm completely dumbfounded!

BEGRIFFENFELDT
 * A man who has fathomed the Sphinx's meaning!
 * A man who's himself!

PEER
 * Ay, but that's just the rub.
 * It's true that in everything I am myself;
 * but here the point is, if I follow your meaning,
 * to be, so to phrase it, outside oneself.