Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 4).djvu/268

 :no Kaiser are you; you are nought but an onion.
 * I'm going to peel you now, my good Peer!
 * You won't escape either by begging or howling.
 * [Takes an onion and pulls off layer after layer.]
 * There lies the outermost layer, all torn;
 * that's the shipwrecked man on the jolly-boat's keel.
 * Here's the passenger layer, scanty and thin;-
 * and yet in its taste there's a tang of Peer Gynt.
 * Next underneath is the gold-digger ego;
 * the juice is all gone-if it ever had any.
 * This coarse-grained layer with the hardened skin
 * is the peltry-hunter by Hudson's Bay.
 * The next one looks like a crown;-oh, thanks!
 * we'll throw it away without more ado.
 * Here's the archaeologist, short but sturdy;
 * and here is the Prophet, juicy and fresh.
 * He stinks, as the Scripture has it, of lies,
 * enough to bring the water to an honest man's eyes.
 * This layer that rolls itself softly together
 * is the gentleman, living in ease and good cheer.
 * The next one seems sick. There are black streaks upon it;-
 * black symbolises both parsons and niggers.
 * [Pulls off several layers at once.]
 * What an enormous number of swathings!
 * Isn't the kernel soon coming to light?
 * [Pulls the whole onion to pieces.]
 * I'm blest if it is! To the innermost centre,
 * it's nothing but swathings-each smaller and smaller.-
 * Nature is witty!
 * [Throws the fragments away.]
 * The devil take brooding!
 * If one goes about thinking, one's apt to stumble.