Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 4).djvu/95

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 * The treacherous waters are lurking to murder him!
 * The mountains would crush him with landslip and rift!-
 * And the people too! They're out after his life!
 * God knows they shan't have it! I can't bear to lose him!
 * Oh, the oaf! to think that the fiend should tempt him!
 * [Turning to SOLVEIG.]
 * Now isn't it clean unbelievable this?
 * He, that did nought but romance and tell lies;-
 * he, whose sole strength was the strength of his jaw;
 * he, that did never a stroke of true work;-
 * he-! Oh, a body could both cry and laugh!-
 * Oh, we clung closely in sorrow and need.
 * Ay, you must know that my husband, he drank,
 * loafed round the parish to roister and prate,
 * wasted and trampled our gear under foot.
 * And meanwhile at home there sat Peerkin and I-
 * the best we could do was to try to forget;
 * for ever I've found it so hard to bear up.
 * It's a terrible thing to look fate in the eyes;
 * and of course one is glad to be quit of one's cares,
 * and try all one can to keep thought far away.
 * Some take to brandy, and others to lies;
 * and we-why we took to fairy-tales
 * of princes and trolls and of all sorts of beasts;
 * and of bride-rapes as well. Ah, but who could have dreamt
 * that those devil's yarns would have stuck in his head?
 * [In a fresh access of terror.]