Peer Gynt figure quite so exuberant, outrageous, vitalistic as Peer Gynt. He merely "seems" initially to be an unlikely candidate for such eminence: "What is he", we say, "except a kind of Norwegian roaring boy?" – marvelously attractive to women, a kind of bogus poet, a narcissist, absurd self-idolator, a liar, seducer, bombastic self-deceiver. But this is paltry moralizing – all too much like the scholarly chorus that rants against Falstaff. True, Peer, unlike Falstaff, is not a great wit. But in the Yahwistic, biblical sense, Peer the scamp bears the blessing: More life. On 5 January 1867 Ibsen wrote to Frederik
Peer Gynt Ginty", transferred the play to an Irish Civil War setting. It was staged at Dublin's Gate Theatre. In 1969, Broadway impresario Jacques Levy (who had previously directed the first version of "Oh! Calcutta!") commissioned The Byrds' Roger McGuinn to write the music for a pop (or country-rock) version of "Peer Gynt", to be titled "Gene Tryp". The play was apparently never completed, although, as of 2006, McGuinn was preparing a version for release. Several songs from the abortive show appeared on the Byrds' albums of 1970 and 1971. In March 1972 Jerry Heymann's adaptation, called "Mr. Gynt, Inc.", was performed