Jeppe on the Hill Part 6

Overseer's wife. Jeppe. The others.

(Wife comes in and kisses him on the hand.)

=Jeppe=--Are you the overseer's wife?

=Woman=--Yes, I am, gracious lord.

=Jeppe= (pats her on the cheek)--You are real nice. Won't you sit down at the table with me?

=Woman=--My lord has only to command; I am at his service.

=Jeppe= (to the overseer)--Will you let your wife eat with me?

=Overseer=--I thank your lordship that you do me the honor.

=Jeppe=--See here, place a chair for her, she shall sit at the table with me.

(She seats herself at the table, eats and drinks with him; he becomes jealous of the secretary and whenever he looks at him, the secretary immediately looks the other way. He sings an old-fashioned love song while they are sitting at the table. Jeppe orders the musicians to play a polka and dances with her, but falls three times from drunkenness, and the fourth time he remains lying and falls asleep.)

Scene 4.

The Baron. The others.

=Baron= (who has. .h.i.therto played the part of secretary)--He sleeps soundly already. Now the game is ours; but we came near being fooled ourselves, for he was bound to tyrrannize over us, whereupon we either had to spoil the joke, or allow ourselves to be maltreated by that rude peasant, from whose conduct one may learn how tyrannical and proud such people may become who through some accident or other achieve honor or position. My disguising myself as a secretary came near being my misfortune, for if I had allowed him to strike me it might have become a pretty serious affair and have made me no less than the peasant, an object of ridicule.

We had better let him sleep a little now before we put him back in his filthy peasant clothes.

=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 gla.s.s 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? Now I recognize to my sorrow, everything, my bed, my coat, my old hat, myself; this is something else, Jeppe, than drinking canaille sack from golden goblets and sitting at table with lackeys and secretaries at one's command. Good luck never lasts very long. Ah! Ah! to think that I who was such a gracious lord only a short time ago should see myself in such a condition now; my splendid bed changed to a dungheap, my gold embroidered cap to an old, wornout hat, my lackeys to swine, and myself from a gracious lord to a miserable peasant. I expected when I woke up to find my fingers bedecked with rings, but they are (to speak reverently) bedecked with something else. I expected to call my servants to account, but now I must myself offer my own back for punishment when I come home and give an account of myself. I thought when I woke to reach for a gla.s.s of sack, but got instead something quite different. Ah! Ah! Jeppe, that stay in Paradise was but short and your happiness soon came to an end. But who knows if the same thing could not happen to me again if I lay down to rest once more? Ah! ah! if it would only come to me again! Ah! if I could only get back to Paradise. (Lies down to sleep again.)

Scene 2.

Jeppe. Nille.

=Nille=--I wonder if something has happened to him? What can this mean?

Either the devil has taken him or (what I am more afraid of) he is sitting in an inn and drinking up the money. I was a fool when I trusted that drunkard with twelve pence at one time. But what do I see? Does he not lie there in the filth snoring? Ah! poor me, who must have such a beast of a husband! Your back shall pay dearly enough for this.

(Steals over to him and gives him a whack from Master Erik on the back.)

=Jeppe=--Hey! Hey! Help! Help! What is that? Where am I? Who am I? Who hits me? Why do you hit me? Hey!

=Nille=--I shall soon teach you what it is. (Strikes him again and pulls him around by the hair.)

=Jeppe=--Ah, Nille, my dear! Don't strike me any more, you don't know what has happened to me.

=Nille=--Where have you been so long, you drunken dog? Where is the soap you were to buy?

=Jeppe=--I could not get to town, Nille.

=Nille=--Why could you not get to town?

=Jeppe=--I was taken up to Paradise on the way.

=Nille=--To Paradise! (Strikes him.) To Paradise! (Strikes him again.) To Paradise! (Strikes him again.) Are you going to make fun of me besides?

=Jeppe=--Ow! Ow! Ow! As sure as I am an honest man it is not true.

=Nille=--What is true?

=Jeppe=--That I have been in Paradise.

(Nille repeats, "In Paradise," and strikes him again.)

=Jeppe=--Ah, Nille, my dear, don't hit me any more.

=Nille=--Quick! Confess where you have been or I will murder you!

=Jeppe=--Ah, I would gladly confess where I have been if you would not strike me any more.

=Nille=--Confess, then!

=Jeppe=--Swear that you will not strike me any more, then.

=Nille=--No.

=Jeppe=--As true as I am an honest man and my name is Jeppe on the Hill, I have been in Paradise and seen things that will make you wonder when you hear them.

(Nille thrashes him again and drags him in by the hair.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: NILLE POUNDING JEPPE.]

Scene 3.