A LEAN PERSON. (_The action, which opens in the beginning of the present [that is the nineteenth] century, and ends towards our own days [1867], takes place partly in Gudbrandsdale, and on the mountains around it, partly on the coast of Morocco, in the desert of Sahara, in a madhouse at Cairo, at sea, etc._) ----- Footnotes: ----- Footnote 20: Pronounce _Oasë_. The letter _å_ is pronounced like the _o_ in “home.” Footnote 21: Pronounce _Pair Günt_—the _G_ hard, the _y_ like the German modified _ü_. ----- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ PEER GYNT. -------------- ACT FIRST. SCENE FIRST. _A wooded hillside near ÅSE’S farm. A river rushes down the slope. On the farther side of it an old mill-shed. It is a hot day in summer._ _PEER GYNT, a strongly-built youth of twenty, comes down the pathway. His mother, ÅSE, a small, slightly-built woman, follows him, scolding angrily._ ÅSE. Peer, you’re lying! PEER. [_Without stopping._] No, I am not! ÅSE. Well then, swear that it is true! PEER. Swear? Why should I? ÅSE. See, you dare not! It’s a lie from first to last. PEER. [_Stopping._] It is true—each blessed word! ÅSE. [_Confronting him._] Don’t you blush before your mother? First you skulk among the mountains Monthlong in the busiest season, Stalking reindeer in the snows; Home you come then, torn and tattered, Gun amissing, likewise game;— And at last, with open eyes, Think to get me to believe All the wildest hunters’-lies!— Well, where did you find the buck, then? PEER. West near Gendin.[22] ÅSE. [_Laughing scornfully._] Ah! Indeed. PEER. Keen the blast towards me swept; Hidden by an alder-clump, He was scraping in the snow-crust After lichen—— ÅSE. [_As before._] Doubtless, yes! PEER.