WOMAN IN GREEN
You’re a king’s son?
PEER GYNT
Yes.
WOMAN IN GREEN
I’m the Dovre King’s daughter.
PEER GYNT
You are? Well, that’s a coincidence.
WOMAN IN GREEN
Deep in the Ronde his castle stands.
PEER GYNT
My mother’s is bigger, if it’s any matter.
WOMAN IN GREEN
You know my father? His name’s King Brose.
PEER GYNT
You know my mother? Her name’s Queen Aase.
WOMAN IN GREEN
When my father’s mad, the mountains flinch.
PEER GYNT
When my mother scolds, there’s an avalanche.
WOMAN IN GREEN
My father can kick to the highest beams.
PEER GYNT
My mother rides through the swiftest streams.
WOMAN IN GREEN
Have you no other clothes than those fish nets there?
PEER GYNT
Ah, you should see my Sunday gear!
WOMAN IN GREEN
Weekdays, I’m always in gold and silks.
PEER GYNT
It looks more to me like celery stalks.
WOMAN IN GREEN
Yes, but there’s one thing to understand
About Ronde customs: here you’ll find
Everything has to be seen two ways.
You could easily think, if you went on
To my father’s court, that his royal house
Was nothing more than a bleak moraine.
PEER GYNT
Well, isn’t it just the same with us?
Our gold would look to you like dross,
And every glittering pane might seem
Like clouts of stockings, rags and grime.
WOMAN IN GREEN
Black seems white, and vile looks fair.
PEER GYNT
Great seems small, and foul looks pure.
WOMAN IN GREEN (embracing him)
Oh Peer, I can see, we’re like one and the same!
PEER GYNT
Like a leg for a trouser; like hair for a comb.
WOMAN IN GREEN
My steed, my steed! My bridal steed!
(An enormous pig comes running in, with a rope end for a bridle and an old sack for a saddle. PEER GYNT swings up onto its back and sets the WOMAN IN GREEN in front of him.)