The fourth scene of Act II. is written in lines of three accents; the last scene of the third act—Åse’s death-scene—in lines of three accents with alternate double and single rhymes. In rendering this scene, we have been careful to preserve the alternation of strong with light endings, which gives it its metrical character. Two scenes—Act IV. Sc. I, and Act V. Sc. 2—consist of four-accent iambic lines, differing from the octosyllabic verse of _Marmion_ or _The Giaour_ chiefly in the greater prevalence of double and even treble rhymes. Finally, the sixth scene of Act V. consists mainly of eight-line lyrical stanzas, with two accents in each line, Peer Gynt’s interspersed remarks being in trochaic verses, like those of Act I. Sc. 1. In such intercalated passages, so to speak, as the rhapsodies of Huhu and the Fellah in Act IV. Sc. 13, and the Pastor’s speech at the grave in Act V. Sc. 3, we have accurately reproduced the measures of the original. The Pastor’s speech is the only passage in the whole poem which is couched in iambic decasyllables. In dealing with idioms and proverbial expressions, our practice has not been very consistent. We have sometimes, where they seemed peculiarly racy and expressive, translated them literally; in other cases we have had recourse to the nearest English equivalent, even where the metaphor employed is quite different. In the latter instances we have usually given the literal rendering of the phrase in a footnote. For the present edition the text has been carefully revised, and some rough edges have, it is hoped, been smoothed away; but no very essential alteration has been made. While we are keenly conscious of all that the poem loses in our rendering, we cannot but feel that it has justified its existence, inasmuch as it has brought home to thousands of readers on both sides of the Atlantic a not wholly inadequate sense of the greatness of the original. W. A. ----- Footnotes: ----- Footnote 1: One of Holberg’s most famous comedies. Footnote 2: See _The Lady from the Sea_. Footnote 3: Brandes: _Ibsen and Björnson_, p. 35. London, Heinemann, 1899. Except in regard to the fourth act, Dr. Brandes has, in the introduction to _Peer Gynt_ in the German collected edition, recanted his early condemnation of the poem. Footnote 4: The last words are “deus caritatis.” Footnote 5: _Norske Huldre-Eventyr og Folkesagn_, Christiania, 1848, p. 47. See also Copenhagen edition, 1896, p. 163. Footnote 6: _Norske Folke-og Huldre-Eventyr_, Copenhagen, 1896, p. 48. Footnote 7: _Ibid._, p. 129. Footnote 8: _Ibid._, p. 259. Footnote 9: