Begriffenfeldt.
Here's a knife!
Hussein.
[Seizing it.]
Ah, how I shall lick up the ink now! Oh, what rapture to cut oneself! [Cuts his throat.
Begriffenfeldt.
[Stepping aside.]
Pray do not sputter
Peer.
[In increasing terror.]
Hold him!
Hussein.
Ay, hold me! That is the word!
Hold! Hold the pen! On the desk with the paper! [Falls.
I'm outworn. The postscript—remember it, pray:
He lived and he died as a fate-guided pen[1]
Peer.
[Dizzily.]
What shall I! What am I? Thou mightyhold fast!
I am all that thou wilt,—I'm a Turk, I'm a sinner
A hill-troll; but help;—there was something that burst! [Shrieks.
I cannot just hit on thy name at the moment;—
Oh, come to my aid, thou—all madmen's protector!
[Sinks down insensible.
- ↑ "En påholden pen." "Underskrive med påholden pen"—to
sign by touching a pen which is guided by another.
