This page needs to be proofread.
ERKOPF
- Exalted poet!
PEER [more and more elevated].
- The Gyntish Self-it is the host
- of wishes, appetites, desires,-
- the Gyntish Self, it is the sea
- of fancies, exigencies, claims,
- all that, in short, makes my breast heave,
- and whereby I, as I, exist.
- But as our Lord requires the clay
- to constitute him God o' the world,
- so I, too, stand in need of gold,
- if I as Emperor would figure.
MONSIEUR BALLON
- You have the gold, though!
PEER
- Not enough.
- Ay, maybe for a nine-days' flourish,
- as Emperor a la Lippe-Detmold.
- But I must be myself en bloc,
- must be the Gynt of all the planet,
- Sir Gynt throughout, from top to toe!
MONSIEUR BALLON [enraptured].
- Possess the earth's most exquisite beauty!
VON EBERKOPF
- All century-old Johannisberger!
