Jeppe

“ We know not only how he has lived, but even how he will meet death. Jeppe possesses enough of the common stuff of human nature always to awaken comprehension and delight; yet he is more than an extraordinarily complete and convincing individual, and his story is more than an amusing farce. Widely prevalent social conditions of a past time are here expressed in human terms of lasting truth and vitality. In Jeppe the peasant of the eighteenth-century Sjaelland lives for all time. ”

“ 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 ”

“ MONTANUS. Little mother, I should like very much to break him of the habit of calling me "brother." It is not decent for a peasant boy to call a learned man "brother." I should like to have him call me "Monsieur."
JEPPE. Do you hear that, Jacob? When you speak to your brother after this, you are to call him Mossur.
MONTANUS. I should like to have the deacon invited here to-day, so that I can see what he is good for.
JEPPE. Yes, surely, it shall be done.
MONTANUS. In the mean time I will go to visit my sweetheart.
NILLE. But I am afraid it is going to rain. Jacob can cany your cloak for you. ”

“ 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. ”

“ JEPPE. I have never done any hunting or poaching, for I know that's a thing that will get a man hard labor; no living soul can prove that I ever hunted as much as a hare in my lord's woods.
VALET. Why, my gracious lord, I was out hunting with you myself yesterday.
JEPPE. Yesterday I was at Jacob Shoemaker's, and I drank twelve pennyworth of brandy, so how could I have been hunting?
VALET. Oh, I beg his gracious lordship on my bare knees to stop talking such nonsense. Eric! have the doctors been sent for?
ERIC. Yes, they are coming immediately. ”

“ Jeppe, the principal character, is a poor oppressed peasant, abused by his wife and trodden down by his superiors. We are introduced in the opening scene to his wife, Nille, a veritable Xanthippe transplanted to the eighteenth century. With her shrill voice and stout whip,—Master Erik, by name,—she drives him out at an unreasonably early hour to go an unreasonable long distance for an insignificant amount of soap. She is, in fact, a true counterpart of Dame Van Winkle, wielding authority over a poor, weak Rip. ”

“ Pelle stood there shuffling, in order to fight down his tears; but he had to snigger with mischievous delight at the idea of Jeppe’s dangling head.
“Then we must see whether he can stand a buzzing head,” said the journeyman, getting ready to strike him.
“No, you can wait until he deserves it,” said Master Andres hastily. “You will soon find an occasion.”
“Well, he’s done with the wax,” said Jeppe, “but the question is, can he sit? Because there are some who never learn the art of sitting.” ”

“ 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. ”

“ JEPPE. Swear that the devil may split you if it's not so. JUDGE. Come, take our word for it, and thank us for so graciously sentencing you back to life again.
JEPPE. If you hadn't hanged me yourselves, I would gladly thank you for taking me down from the gallows.
JUDGE. Be satisfied, Jeppe! Tell us if your good wife beats you too often, and we shall find a remedy. Here are four rix-dollars with which you can make merry for a while, and don't forget to drink our health. ”

“ Just think, if he could be a learned lad like his brother, what a joy it would be for his old parents!
JEPPE. No, wife, one is enough; we must have one at home who can give us a hand and do our work.
NILLE. Oh, at such work as that a man cannot do more than live from hand to mouth. Rasmus Berg, who is a scholar, can do our family more good, with his brain, in an hour than the other in a year.
JEPPE. That makes no difference, little mother; our fields must be tilled and our crops looked after. We can't possibly get along without Jacob. ”

“ I remember that my sainted father was Niels on the Hill, my grandfather, Jeppe on the Hill, my wife's name is Nille, her switch, Master Erik, my sons, Hans, Christopher and Niels. But see! Now I know: it is the other life, it is paradise, it is heaven! I must have drunk too much yesterday at Jakob Skomager's, died and immediately come to heaven. Death cannot be so awful as they would make one believe, since I didn't even feel it. ”

“ SCENE 3 (Enter Jeppe and Nille.)
JEPPE. What is all this noise?
JACOB. Oh, my brother Rasmus is beating me.
NILLE. What does this mean? He wouldn't hit you without good reason.
MONTANUS. No, mother, that is so. He comes here and bandies words with me as though he were my equal.
NILLE. What a devil's own rogue! Don't you know enough to respect such a learned man? Don't you know that he is an honor to our whole family? My dear and respected son, you mustn't pay any attention to him, he is an ignorant lout. ”

“ 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—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. ”

“ 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! ”

“ Erik—Ah, my lord, he sleeps as sound as a stone. See here! I can pound him without his feeling it.
Baron—Take him away, then, and complete the comedy.
(Curtain.)
ACT IV. Scene 1.
Jeppe (represented lying on a dung heap in his old peasant clothes, awakes and cries:) —Hey, secretary! Valets! Lackeys! One more glass of canaille sack! (Looks around and rubs his eyes, blinks as before, feels of his head, looks at his old wide brimmed hat, turns the hat around on all sides, looks at his clothes, recognizes himself, begins to speak.) How long was Abraham in Paradise? ”

“ He was not so stupid as to tell them where he came from, but when he got home, Jeppe had already been told of it! But that is soon forgotten, unless, indeed, his trousers rub against his sore places. Then he remembers it; remembers that in this world everything has to be paid for; there is no getting out of things; once one begins anything one has to eat one’s way through it, like the boy in the fairy-tale. And this discovery is, in the abstract, not so strikingly novel to Pelle. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ You run. I've said my say once for all, now do as you like. [Exit Nille.]
SCENE 3 JEPPE. Now the sow's going in to eat her breakfast, while I, poor devil, must walk four leagues without bite or sup. Could any man have such a damnable wife as I have? I honestly think she's own cousin to Lucifer. Folks in the village say that Jeppe drinks, but they don't say why Jeppe drinks: I didn't get as many blows in all the ten years I was in the militia as I get in one day from my malicious wife. She beats me, the bailiff drives me to work as if I were an animal, and the deacon makes a cuckold of me. ”

“ 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. ”

“ But then the journeyman took the lasts off him, and the pain came back to him, and his whole miserable plight. He heard Jeppe’s squeaky voice, and looked at the young master, who sat there submissively, without having the courage to express his opinion, and all at once he felt terribly sorry for himself.
“That was right,” buzzed old Jeppe, “a shoemaker mustn’t be afraid to wax his hide a little. What? I believe it has actually brought the water to his eyes! No, when I was apprentice we had a real ordeal ”

“ JACOB. You poor fool, that's about a fiddler.
JEPPE. So it is. See here, Jacob! Give me twopence worth more of brandy.
JACOB. All right; I see you're a good fellow; you don't grudge spending a penny or two in my house.
JEPPE. Hey, Jacob! make it fourpence.
JACOB. Certainly.
JEPPE. (singing again) .
The earth drinks water,
The sea drinks sun,
The sun drinks sea,
Everything on earth drinks;
Why not me?
JACOB. Your health, Jeppe!
JEPPE. Mir zu!
JACOB. Here's to you in half of it!
JEPPE. Ich tank you, Jacob. Drink, man, and the devil take you and welcome! ”

“ Jeppe spat the words out. This lighting was always a source of strike between them.
“No one else in the whole island works by so wretched a light, you take my word, father.”
“In my time I never heard complaints about the light,” retorted Jeppe. “And better work has been done under the glass ball than any one can do now with all their artificial discoveries. But it’s disappearing now; the young people to-day know no greater pleasure than throwing their money out of the window after such modern trash.”
“Yes, in father’s time—then everything was so splendid!” said Master Andres. ”

“ But, no,—you don't understand Latin; I must say it in Danish. Whoever drinks well, sleeps well. Isn't that so?
JEPPE. That's true enough, for when I am half-drunk I sleep like a horse.
MONTANUS. He who sleeps well does not sin. Isn't that true, too?
JEPPE. True, too; so long as a man's asleep he doesn't sin.
MONTANUS. He who does not sin is blessed.
JEPPE. That is also true.
MONTANUS. Ergo: he who drinks well is blessed.—Little mother, I will turn you into a stone.
NILLE. Oh, nonsense! That is more than even learning can do.
MONTANUS. You shall hear whether it is or not. A stone cannot fly. ”

“ He lay under the tiled roof raving with fever; they had thrown his bed into the loft. “What, isn’t he up yet?” said Jeppe, astounded, when he came in to the workshop. “No? Well, he’ll soon get up when he gets hungry.” It was no joke to take a sick apprentice his meals in bed. But Pelle did not come down.
Once the young master threw all considerations overboard and took some food up to him. “You’re making yourself ridiculous,” sneered Jeppe; “you’ll never be able to manage people like that!” And Madam scolded. But Master Andres whistled until he was out of hearing. ”