Ludvig Holberg

“ When servants get more money than they can spend they become proud and turn up their noses at their masters. What are your wages?
Secretary—My lord has always given me two hundred a year.
Jeppe—You shall have the devil, not two hundred after this! What do you do to earn two hundred? I myself must work like a beast and stand in the granary from morning till evening and can hardly—See, now those peasant notions are coming into my mind again! Give me another glass of wine. (He drinks and the trumpets blow.) Two Rixdollars! Why that's simply to skin your masters. Listen! ”

“ While a mere peasant he appears dull and common-place enough, but give him the opportunity which he gets from the second act and on, and he displays a surprising readiness in his efforts to solve the perplexing problems he has had placed before him. The question of existence or non-existence which he has to answer might well perplex a sage; but while Jeppe is not quite able to unravel the situation, he makes rare use of the powers of logic at his command. When at last he is asked to face death, he does so with resignation, for he has not had much to be thankful for in life. ”

“ Overseer—I have seven children living, my lord!
Jeppe—Ha, ha, seven living children? Away, hang him, secretary!
Secretary—Oh, gracious lord, I am no hangman!
Jeppe—What you are not, you may become; you look as though you were equal to anything. When you have hanged him, I shall hang you afterwards myself.
Overseer—Ah, gracious lord! Is there no pardon?
Jeppe (walks back and forth, sits down to take a drink and rises again) —Half a hundred Rixdollars, wife and seven children. If no one else will hang you I will do it myself. I know very well what sort of fellows you are, you overseers ”

“ Jeppe (alone) —Here I have lived for fifty years, and in all that time I have not gone through as much as in these two days. This is certainly a queer story, when I stop to think of it; one hour a drunken peasant, another hour baron, a third hour peasant again; now dead, now alive on a gallows,—which is the funniest of it all; maybe when live people get hanged they die, and when dead people get hanged they come to life again. I guess that a drink of whiskey would taste fine on this. Hey! Jakob Skomager, come out! ”

“ It is but natural that "he who works like a horse will enjoy himself like a dog." With such ideals it is easy to see how he could imagine that he had been suddenly transported into heaven. With the feeling that his lord's chief business is to pilfer his hard-earned money; that the sexton is a personage whose chief virtue is a powerful voice; and that lawyers and magistrates are black-robed blackguards who juggle with equal facility with justice and Latin phrases, we can see that Jeppe's idea of law and authority was not very exalted. ”

“ Judge—Fie! You are a wicked woman! Get out of here quickly or we shall hang you up beside him. (Nille runs out.)
Scene 2. Jeppe. The Court.
(Jeppe is being taken down from the gallows.)
Jeppe—Ah, your honor! Is it certain that I am quite alive again or am I a ghost?
Judge—You are quite alive; for the court which can sentence you to death can also sentence you to life. Can't you understand that?
Jeppe—No, I don't understand it, but I believe I am still a ghost.
Judge—Ah, you fool! That is easy to see. He who takes a thing from you can certainly give it back to you. ”

“ Jakob—Don't you want to drink the overseer's health?
Jeppe—Very well; give me another penny's worth. The overseer is a decent sort of fellow. When we put a dollar in his hand he will swear by his soul before his master that we cannot pay our land rent. I'll be hanged, if I have any money left—you will give me a few drinks more on credit, won't you?
Jakob—No, Jeppe, you can't stand any more now. I'm not the fellow who will allow his guests to overdo things in his house and let them drink more than is good for them. I would rather lose my living, for it is a sin. ”

“ He tries in vain to connect the past with the present. When the uniformed servants answer his cry for help the situation becomes comical indeed. When Jeppe is finally convinced by servants and doctors that he is the baron, he assumes his new role with a vengeance and begins by tyrannizing over the servants and calling them to account. He does not forget to satisfy his desire for good things to eat and drink and after some fast music and a dance with the overseer's wife, he is overcome once more, this time by the wines and excitement, and falls again into a stupor of intoxication. ”

“ God held me, poor man, what shall I do? Restrain yourself, Jeppe! Isn't it a shame that you should make yourself miserable for the sake of a glass of rotten whiskey? No, it sha'n't happen this time,—I must away. Ah! if I only dared to drink one more penny's worth. ”

“ Jakob—We don't care for any old sayings here, Jeppe! If you won't pay in advance you'll not get a drop. We have sworn off trusting anybody, even the overseer himself.
Jeppe (weeping) —Can't you trust me, I am an honest man?
Jakob—No credit, Jeppe.
Jeppe—Take the money then, you rascal!. Now it is done, drink now, Jeppe! (drinks) . Ah! that feels good.
Jakob—Yes, that's the kind of stuff to warm a fellow's inside!
Jeppe—The best thing about whiskey is that it gives a man such spirit. Now I think neither of my wife nor Master Erik, so changed have I become after the last glass. ”

“ When he finds himself solemnly condemned to die by poison and hanging, he implores in vain for pardon, asks for some whiskey to keep up his courage, bids farewell to wife, family and dumb friends, and falls as before into a deep stupor. ”

“ When I feel of my back, which is still sore from the blows I got, when I hear myself speak, when I feel of my hollow tooth, it seems to me that it's me. When, on the other hand, I look at my cap, my shirt, and on all the fine things before me, and hear the beautiful music, I'll be hanged if I can get it into my head that it's me. ”

“ How could a guileless peasant steal in upon his lordship's estate, and assume his position, without being able to assume his face or his form! How could he come into my lord's sleeping-chamber? How could he get to his wardrobe without some one seeing him? No, your honor, one can see that it is a conspiracy hatched up by the poor man's enemies. I hope, therefore, that he will be acquitted.
Jeppe (weeping) —Ah! God bless your lips! I have a plug of tobacco in my pocket, if you would like some; it is good enough for any honest man.
[Pg 43]
Second Lawyer—No thanks, keep your tobacco, Jeppe. ”

“ Jeppe, the hero and central figure of the play, is a type of the oppressed, circumscribed, and despirited serf of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, despised by his superiors and abused by his wife, drunken as an almost inevitable result of his condition and mercilessly driven from his own home. Drink is practically his only recourse and is to him the nearest and easiest approach to happiness. It is as the eminent Danish critic, Brandes, suggests, a sort of other life to Jeppe,—it is to him what music and poetry is to us. ”

“ Baron—Ay! Such things happen every day. If not in that manner, then in some other, do people lose their lives through some jest. For example, if a man has a weak will and knows that he is likely to lose both life and health from too much drink, still he is likely to overtask his strength and risk both for the sake of an evening's pleasure. I am convinced, Erik, that it would have been better if you had allowed yourself to be hanged rather than to have spoiled such a splendid comedy. ”

“ Valet—Alas, yes, doctor; he is in a pitiful state.
Second Doctor—How is everything with you, my gracious lord?
Jeppe—Quite well! Except that I am rather thirsty after the whiskey which I got at Jakob Skomager's yesterday. If you will only give me a mug of beer and let me go, then they may hang you two doctors up for all I care, because I don't need any medicine.
First Doctor—That is certainly a clear case of hallucinations.
Second Doctor—But the more violent the disease is the sooner he will get over it. Let us feel our lordship's pulse. Quid tibi videtur, domine frater? ”

“ Jakob—Yes, yes, death is pretty hard to meet; a fellow is so pious when he meets the enemy.
Jeppe—Yes, quite true; I don't know how it was, but I lay and read the whole night before the action in David's "Psalter."
Jakob—I wonder that you who have been a soldier will let your wife tyrannize over you the way she does.
Jeppe—I! If I only had her here! Then you would see how I should pound her! One more glass, Jakob! I have eight pence left yet! (Aside) When I have drunk them up, I shall drink on credit. Give me a mug of beer on that. ”

“ Holberg's writings created a proper recognition of the mother-tongue, and awakened a new interest in reading especially among the middle and poorer classes. His writings created in the people an interest in themselves and in their land, such as they had not possessed before. It taught them to cherish the best that was Danish, to substitute the sturdy noble products of their own land for the ephemeric forms which ignorance and slavish imitation had brought from foreign countries. It helped them to realize themselves and it gave [Pg ix] them prospects for a bright future as a nation. ”

“ I mean to say I know the way you conduct yourselves so well that I myself could be overseer if I had to. You get the cream of the milk and the Baron gets—something else. I believe that if the world lasts much longer overseers will become noblemen and noblemen, overseers. When a peasant gives a little something to either you or your wives, then when you come to your master the story is: that poor man is willing and industrious enough, but various misfortunes have come on him so he cannot pay ”

“ What may we gather from his reminiscences as he calls them up in his intoxication? His soldier days, his smattering of German, and his campaigns are particularly vivid, and although the latter were probably not especially glorious, they furnish him his proudest memories. Indeed the most honorable words he could put in the mouth of the sexton as he imagined him at his own funeral are those words so unspeakably comical, that "he lived like a soldier and died like a soldier."
What does this peasant know, and where did he get his knowledge? The source is not far to seek. ”

“ There that sow goes in to eat breakfast, and I, poor man, must walk four miles before I can get anything to eat; can anyone have such a damned woman as I have? I really believe she is a cousin to Lucifer. Folks around here say that Jeppe drinks, but they don't say why Jeppe drinks; why, I never got so many poundings in the ten years I was in the army as I get every day from that awful woman. She pounds me, the overseer drives me to work like a beast; and the sexton pays court to my wife. Mustn't I drink, mustn't I use all the means nature has given us to drive away sorrow? ”

“ Secretary—Your lordship gave it to me yourself.
Jeppe—I don't remember that. Give it back to me, I must have done that while drunk. One doesn't give such rings away. I'll have to look into this and see what other things you have received. Servants shall not have more than board and wages! I swear that I do not remember of having given you anything in particular; for why should I do it? That ring is worth over a guinea. No, no, good fellows! Not so! You must not take advantage of your master's weakness and drunkenness. When I am drunk I am as likely as not to give my very trousers away ”

“ But poor he has always been, and while baron he shows that he knows to a much greater degree than the baron himself the value of money; for though he has, so far as he knows, more money than he has ever seen in all his peasant days, he remains niggardly in his use of it even when he has all he wants. ”

“ Therefore, it can't be heaven. But what can it be? I am not asleep, I am not awake; I am not dead, I am not alive; I am not crazy, I am not sane; I am Jeppe on the Hill, I am not Jeppe on the Hill; I am poor, I am rich; I am a poor peasant, I am a king. Ah!—Ah!—Ah! Help! Help! Help!
(At the great commotion several people come in who in the meantime have stood by, watching to see how he would act.)
Scene 2. Valet. A lackey. Jeppe.
Valet—I wish your lordship a hearty good morning! Here's a gown if your lordship wishes to arise. Erik, fetch a towel and a wash basin. ”

“ On the way he stops in at the rascally innkeeper's, Jakob Skomager's, who induces the vacillating Jeppe to part little by little with his money until the poor peasant finds himself "broke," and with nothing to show for his departed coin but a "glorious drunk." After a soliloquy in which he calls to mind his past life, especially his brief experience in the army, he is overcome by his intoxication and falls in a drunken stupor by the wayside. In this senseless condition he is found by his "liege lord and master," the nobleman, and his servants. They decide to play a joke on the fellow ”

“ If I should wish myself alive again, it would be only that I might get a mug of beer to quench my thirst; for what good does all this glory do me when I must die again of thirst? I remember the preacher has often said that one neither hungers nor thirsts in heaven and further that one finds there all his deceased friends. ”