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m!
- 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.]