Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 4).djvu/265

 PEER
 * And where is he now, this remarkable man?

AN ELDERLY MAN
 * He fared over seas to a foreign land;
 * it went ill with him there, as one well might foresee;-
 * it's many a year now since he was hanged.

PEER
 * Hanged! Ay, ay! Why, I thought as much;
 * our lamented Peer Gynt was himself to the last.
 * [Bows.]
 * Good-bye,-and best thanks for to-day's merry meeting.
 * [Goes a few steps, but stops again.]
 * You joyous youngsters, you comely lasses,-
 * shall I pay my shot with a traveller's tale?

SEVERAL VOICES
 * Yes; do you know any?

PEER
 * Nothing more easy.-
 * [He comes nearer; a look of strangeness comes over him.]
 * I was gold-digging once in San Francisco.
 * There were mountebanks swarming all over the town.
 * One with his toes could perform on the fiddle;
 * another could dance a Spanish halling on his knees;
 * a third, I was told, kept on making verses
 * while his brain-pan was having a hole bored right through i