Ibsen Peer Gynt

Full Text and Introduction (NHB Drama Classics)
1. Auflage 2015
ISBN: 978-1-78001-671-9
Verlag: Nick Hern Books
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, Band 0, 130 Seiten

Reihe: NHB Drama Classi

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little Price Henrik Ibsen's mighty epic, by turns fantastic and tragic, based on the Norwegian fairy tale Per Gynt. Ibsen's play, his last to be written in verse, follows the poet and braggart Peer Gynt as, fleeing disgrace, he swaggers and seduces his way from the fjords of Norway to the deserts of Africa and back. Peer Gynt was originally published in 1867, and first performed in Christiania (Oslo) in 1876. This English version, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, is translated and introduced by Kenneth McLeish.

Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) was a Norwegian playwright and theatre director. His plays include: Brand, Peer Gynt, A Doll's House, Ghosts, An Enemy of the People, Hedda Gabler, Rosmersholm, The Master Builder, Little Eyolf, John Gabriel Borkman and When We Dead Awaken.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ibsen, Henrik

Weitere Mitwirkende

Mcleish, Kenneth

Leseproben

PART ONE

1

A wooded slope near ÅSE ’s farm A stream runs nearby. On the other side, an old mill. Hot summer day. PEER GYNT (sturdy, twenty years old) comes down the path. His mother ÅSE (small, slightly built) runs crossly after him, scolding him.

ÅSE. Peer, you’re lying.

PEER. I’m not, Ma.

ÅSE. Right then, swear.

PEER. Why should I?

ÅSE. It’s a pack of lies!

PEER (stopping). Every blessed word’s the truth.

ÅSE (confronting him). Aren’t you ashamed? Your own mother! You choose the busiest time of year. You say you’re going reindeer hunting. You’re away for months. You come home in rags. No game. No gun. Are you going to open your eyes wide and spin me some tale about the one that got away? Well? Where did you see that reindeer?

PEER. Gjendin Ridge. The west side.

ÅSE (scornfully).

Really?

PEER. How the wind howled! I was sheltering

By some boulders. Then I heard him,

In the trees, beside the snowdrift,

Scraping moss.

ÅSE (as before). I don’t believe it.

PEER. Shh! I held my breath. I heard him

Scraping, saw his antlers branching.

Carefully, I wriggled closer,

Squirmed across the rocks – and saw him

Clear as day, from round a boulder.

What a monster! Fat and glossy . . .

Ma, you’ll never see his equal.

ÅSE. That I do believe.

PEER. I fired then.

Down the deer fell on the hillside –

And the instant that he stumbled

Up I jumped, on to his shoulders,

Gripped him firmly by the left ear,

Drew my knife to slice his windpipe –

Hey! the ugly brute starts screaming,

Jumps up, sends my dagger flying,

Sheath and all. I’m caught. His antlers

Pin my legs, as tight as pincers.

Off he goes – his stride’s enormous! –

Bounds along the ridge of Gjendin.

ÅSE (involuntarily). Lord have mercy!

PEER.

You know Gjendin.

Half a mile or more it stretches,

Sharp as a scythe. You’re on the summit,

Looking down, this side or that side:

Gullies, sheer grey fells, and glaciers,

Till your eyes plunge into water,

Dark, deep water, half a mile below.

ÅSE (swaying). God save me!

PEER. All at once – there was no warning –

From the nest where it was huddling

On the eyebrow of the clifftop,

Flew a ptarmigan, wings flapping,

Startled, screeching. Hoo! The reindeer

Bounded skywards, turning, plunging

Down to the abyss below.

ÅSE totters and grasps a tree for support. PEER continues.

At our backs, sheer cliff. Below us,

Emptiness. Through the mist we hurtled,

Startled seagulls, sent them spinning,

Wheeling, screaming, far below us.

Down and down and down we hurtled,

Till, below, a whitish glimmer,

Glistening like a reindeer’s belly –

Ma, it was our own reflection,

Mirrored in the lake below us,

Rearing up as fast towards us

As we plunged madly, wildly down.

ÅSE (panting). Peer! In God’s name, tell me quickly!

PEER. Deer from air and deer from water

Merged together in an instant,

Crashed and splashed and sent foam flying.

On he swam, with me astride him,

Going north, until he struggled,

Safe and sound, to shore. Then I came home.

ÅSE. But what about the deer?

PEER. He’ll still be where I left him.

Snaps his fingers.

If you find him, you can keep him!

ÅSE. You didn’t break your neck? Your legs?

Your back’s all right? O God be praised

For saving him! It’s true, you’ve torn

Your trousers. But who cares about that?

When I think what could have happened

In a leap like that . . .

She breaks off, looks at him wide-eyed and open-mouthed, can at first find nothing to say, then bursts out:

You lying devil! God in heaven, how you can lie! I thought I’d heard that tale before. I’ve known it since I was twenty. It happened to Gudbrand Glesne in the fairy story, not to you.

PEER. Must everything happen only once?

ÅSE (in tears). Oh God, I wish I was dead, asleep in the black ground! What does he care for prayers and tears? You’re good for nothing, Peer. You always have been.

PEER. Ma, dear, sweetheart, all you say is true. Don’t cry.

ÅSE. Leave me alone! How could I be happy – even if I wanted – with a pig of a son like you? Why shouldn’t I cry, a poor widow, alone, ashamed? (Weeping again.) What’s happened to all the happiness your grandpa left us? Where are old Rasmus’ moneybags? Your father sent them scampering, spilling gold like sand. The land he bought! The golden coach he rode in! That winter banquet, where every guest had his own glass and bottle, and smashed them against the wall!

PEER. Where are the snows of yesteryear?

ÅSE. Don’t interrupt! Look at the farmhouse: windows stuffed with rags, fences broken, cattle outdoors in wind and storm, fields overgrown, every month another bailiff –

PEER. We’ve had bad luck before. It’s always got better.

ÅSE. Salt’s been sown where once our luck grew. Peer, you never change. You were always a stuck up brat. D’you remember the time that parson from Copenhagen asked your name, told you how princes, where he came from, would be glad of such airs and graces? Your Pa gave him a horse and a sledge for those kind words. Ah, those were the days! Parsons, captains, folk like that calling every day, stuffing themselves at our expense. Fair weather friends! The minute the goose was dead, everyone vanished. The place has been a desert ever since.

She wipes her eyes on her apron.

You’re big. You’re strong. You should be working hard on your inheritance. Your poor old mother’s prop and stay!

In tears again.

Good for nothing! What help have you ever been to me? When you’re in, you laze by the fire, poking and prodding the embers. When you’re out you make girls shriek at dances or fight bigger wastrels than yourself. I’m so ashamed –

PEER (moving away from her). Leave me alone.

ÅSE (going after him). You mean it wasn’t you started that punchup at Lunde? Everyone fighting like a pack of dogs! It wasn’t you broke Blacksmith Aslak’s arm? Well, fractured his finger, whatever it was you did.

PEER. Who told you such rubbish?

ÅSE (crossly). The whole street heard. Such howls!

PEER (rubbing his elbow). Oh yes. My howls.

ÅSE. What?

PEER. Yes, Ma, I was howling.

ÅSE. What d’you mean?

PEER. He’s bigger than me. I’ve got marks to prove it.

ÅSE. Shame on you! Shame! You’re no son of mine! You let that drunk, that bully, that good for nothing . . . ? You let him . . . ?

She bursts into tears again.

Haven’t I enough to bear? This is the worst of all. Just because he’s bigger than you, you let him beat you up?

PEER. It’s all right, Ma.

ÅSE. Why? Was that another lie?

PEER. Yes. Do stop crying.

He clenches his left fist.

See: I held him in these pincers,

Bent him over, bent him double,

Gave that blacksmith such a thrashing –

ÅSE. Another thrashing! You’ll be the death of me.

PEER. No, Ma. Darling. Sweetheart. Cabbage.

All I have. You’re all I cherish.

Trust me. Word of honour. One day

Everyone in town will bow to

Åse Gynt, Peer’s mother, mother

Of Peer who did the mighty deed.

ÅSE (snorting). You?

PEER. Who else? Who knows the future?

ÅSE. Who knows if you’ll learn enough to patch those pants?

PEER (hotly). I’ll be a king, a Kaiser.

ÅSE. You’re crazy. Mind you . . . you could have been someone, if you hadn’t been such a liar. That girl at Haegstad fancied you. If you’d played your cards right, you could have won that game.

PEER. You think so?

ÅSE (weeping again). Oh Peer, just think of it. The dowry! The old man’s heir! You could have been dancing at your own wedding, instead of standing here in rags.

PEER (eagerly). I’ll do it.

ÅSE. What?

PEER. Ask him at Haegstad.

ÅSE. Oh Peer! You can’t. Not any more.

PEER. Why not?

ÅSE. You’re too late. I might have known.

PEER. What d’you mean?

ÅSE (sobbing). While you were riding reindeers, he promised her to Mads Moen.

PEER. Mads Moen? That idiot?

ÅSE. He’s going to marry her.

PEER. Wait here. I’ll fetch the cart.

He starts to go.

ÅSE. The wedding’s tomorrow.

PEER. Doesn’t matter. I’ll go tonight.

ÅSE. Don’t people laugh at us enough? You’ll make things worse.

PEER. No, Ma. This time luck’s on our side.

Look! Who needs a horse and cart?

Laughing and shouting together, he picks her up.

No time to waste in harnessing!

ÅSE. Put me down!

PEER. I’ll take you to the wedding. I’ll carry you!

He wades into the stream.

ÅSE. Lord have mercy! Peer! We’ll drown!

PEER. I wasn’t born for drowning.

ÅSE. You were born to be hanged!

She pulls his hair.

Pig! Put me down!

PEER....