Anitra.
I don't care so much about having a soul;—
Give me rather
Peer.
What, child?
Anitra.
[Pointing to his turban.]
That lovely opal! Peer.
[Enchanted, handing her the jewel.]
Anitra! Anitra! true daughter of Eve! I feel thee magnetic; for I am a man, And, as a much-esteemed author has phrased it: "Das Ewig-Weibliche ziehet uns an!"[1]
SCENE SEVENTH. A moonlight night. The palm-grove outside Anitra's tent.
Peer Gynt is sitting beneath a tree, with an Arabian lute in his hands. His beard and hair are clipped; he looks considerably younger.
Peer Gynt.
[Plays and sings.]
I double-locked my Paradise,
And took its key with me.
The north-wind bore me seaward ho!
While lovely women all forlorn
Wept on the ocean strand.
- ↑ In the previous edition we restored the exact wording of
Goethe's line, "zieht uns hinan." We ought to have understood
that the point of the speech lay in the misquotation.
