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- Hu-hu! And this we must hear and put up with,
- when I and my sister make music and dance.
PEER
- Oho, was it you? Well, a joke at the feast,
- you must know, is never unkindly meant.
THE GREEN-CLAD ONE
- Can you swear it was so?
PEER
- Both the dance and the music
- were utterly charming, the cat claw me else.
THE OLD MAN
- This same human nature's a singular thing;
- it sticks to people so strangely long.
- If it gets a gash in the fight with us,
- it heals up at once, though a scar may remain.
- My son-in-law, now, is as pliant as any;
- he's willingly thrown off his Christian-man's garb,
- he's willingly drunk from our chalice of mead,
- he's willingly tied on the tail to his back,-
- so willing, in short, did we find him in all things,
- I thought to myself the old Adam, for certain,
- had for good and all been kicked out of doors;
- but lo! in two shakes he's atop again!
- Ay ay, my son, we must treat you, I see,
- to cure this pestilent human nature.
PEER
- What will you do?
THE OLD M
