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SCENE TWELFTH
[Near the village of Gizeh. The great SPHINX carved out of the rock. In the distance the spires and minarets of Cairo.] [PEER GYNT enters; he examines the SPHINX attentively, now through his eyeglass, now through his hollowed hand.] PEER GYNT
- Now, where in the world have I met before
- something half forgotten that's like this hobgoblin?
- For met it I have, in the north or the south.
- Was it a person? And, if so, who?
- That Memnon, it afterwards crossed my mind,
- was like the Old Men of the Dovre, so called,
- just as he sat there, stiff and stark,
- planted on end on the stumps of pillars.-
- But this most curious mongrel here,
- this changeling, a lion and woman in one,-
- does he come to me, too, from a fairy-tale,
- or from a remembrance of something real?
- From a fairy-tale? Ho, I remember the fellow!
- Why, of course it's the Boyg, that I smote on the skull,-
- that is, I dreamt it,-I lay in fever.-
- [Going closer.]
- The self-same eyes, and the self-same lips;-
- not quite so lumpish; a little more cunning;
- but the same, for the rest, in all essentials.-
- Ay, so that's it, Boyg; so you're like a lion
- when one sees you from behind and meets you in the daytime!
- Are you still good at riddling? Come, let us try.
