cultural resources in henrik ibsen's early environment - Ibsen.net

But do not sing before I come back and have informed you that everything is secure.
ELISABETH.
No, certainly not, but just hurry! You hurry!
I am hurrying, I am flying!
(Walks slowly out.)
BJØRN.
SCENE SEVEN.
ELISABETH alone.
Now I am alone, let me collect myself!
My head is so confused that I scarcely
Know where I am.... Still... let's see....
I have heard it often enough, it is like this:
The king wants to marry me to Ebbesen;
But why should the monarch choose for me?
Does my heart not dare to choose for itself? Ah, no!
Freedom is not compatible with the favor
Which the king has shown the abandoned child,
Whose mother died when she was born,
Whose father soon followed her in death.
I know, when my father was preparing
To visit the North Pole for the second time,
The king reproached him with angry words
Over the outcome of his first voyage,
And the loss of the ships and men.
He answered rashly, one word provoked another,
The embittered king struck him with his cane.
There is an ancient legend, that he whom King Christian
Has touched in anger cannot live;
My father has confirmed that once again:
Early in my tender childhood I was alone,
All I inherited was his famous name.
That awakened the king's mercy towards the weak,
He gave me gold, stood godfather to me,
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