Henrik Ibsen

Ghosts Henrik Ibsen

[A spacious garden-room, with one door to the left, and two doors to the right. In the middle of the room a round table, with chairs about it. On the table lie books, periodicals, and newspapers. In the foreground to the left a window, and by it a small sofa, with a worktable in front of it. In the background, the room is continued into a somewhat narrower conservatory, the walls of which are formed by large panes of glass. In the right-hand wall of the conservatory is a door leading down into the garden. Through the glass wall a gloomy fjord landscape is faintly visible, veiled by steady rain.] [ENGSTRAND, the carpenter, stands by the garden door. His left leg is somewhat bent; he has a clump of wood under the sole of his boot. REGINA, with an empty garden syringe in her hand, hinders him from advancing.] REGINA. [In a low voice.] What do you want? Stop where you are. You're positively dripping. ENGSTRAND. It's the Lord's own rain, my girl. REGINA. It's the devil's rain, I say. ENGSTRAND. Lord, how you talk, Regina. [Limps a step or two forward into the room.] It's just this as I wanted to say REGINA. Don't clatter so with that foot of yours, I tell you! The young master's asleep upstairs. ENGSTRAND. Asleep? In the middle of the day? REGINA. It's no business of yours. ENGSTRAND. I was out on the loose last night REGINA. I can quite believe that. ENGSTRAND. Yes, we're weak vessels, we poor mortals, my girl REGINA. So it seems. ENGSTRAND.-and temptations are manifold in this world, you see. But all the same, I was hard at work, God knows, at half-past five this morning. REGINA. Very well; only be off now. I won't stop here and have rendezvous's [Note: This and other French words by Regina are in that language in the original] with you. ENGSTRAND. What do you say you won't have? REGINA. I won't have any one find you here; so just you go about your business.