The Mayor.
To build.
Brand.
To <g>build</g>?
The Mayor.
Why, yes,—the common state
To better, and my own to boot.
First I will build up the repute
I stood in till a recent date:—
The elections soon will be on foot:—
So I must set some scheme afloat,
Some booming enterprise promote;
Thus I regain my lost authority,
And check the wane of my majority.
Now, I've reflected, to compete
With wind and tide wins no man's praises;
The folk want "lifting," as the phrase is,
A work for which I'm all unmeet;
I can but set them on their feet;
Which can't be done unless they please,—
And here all are my enemies!
Whence I've resolved since such the case is,
After ripe thought, to find a basis
For making war with poverty.
Brand.
You would uproot it?
The Mayor.
No, not I!
It is a necessary ill
In every state: we must endure it;
Yet may we, with a little skill,
In certain forms confine, secure it,
If only we begin in time.
Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Heinemann Volume 3).djvu/163
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