Jeppe [walks to and fro, sits down, drinks, and gets up again].  Half a hundred rix-dollars, a wife and seven children.  If no one else will hang you, I’ll do it myself.  I know what sort you are, you bailiffs!  I know how you have cheated me and other miserable peasants—­Oh, there come those damned peasant illusions into my head again.  I meant to say, that I know your games and your goings-on so well, I could be a bailiff myself if I had to.  You get the cream off the milk, and your master gets dung, to speak modestly.  I really think that if the world keeps on, the bailiffs will all be noblemen and the noblemen all bailiffs.  When a peasant slips something into your hand or your wife’s, here is what your master is told:  “The poor man is willing and industrious enough, but certain misfortunes have befallen him which make it impossible for him to pay:  he has a poor piece of land, his cattle have got the scab,”—­or something like that,—­and with such babble your master has to let himself be cheated.  Take my word for it, lad!  I’m not going to let myself be fooled in that way, for I’m a peasant and a peasant’s son myself—­see how that illusion keeps cropping up!  I was about to say that I am a peasant’s son myself, for Abraham and Eve, our first parents, were tillers of the soil.

Secretary [on his knees].  Oh, gracious lord!  Pray take pity on him for the sake of his unfortunate wife; for how can she live if he is not there to feed her and the children?

Jeppe.  Who says they should live either?  We can string them up along with him.

Secretary.  Oh, my lord! she is such a lovely, beautiful woman.

Jeppe.  So?  Perhaps you are her lover, seeing you feel so badly about her.  Send her here.

SCENE 3

[Enter Bailiff’s wife; she kisses Jeppe’s band.]

Jeppe.  Are you the bailiff’s wife?

Wife.  Yes, your lordship, I am.

Jeppe [takes her by the breasts].  You are pretty.  Would you like to sleep with me to-night?

Wife.  My lord has only to command, for I am his servant.

Jeppe [to the Bailiff].  Do you consent to my lying with your wife to-night?

Bailiff.  I thank his lordship for doing my humble house the honor.

Jeppe.  Here!  Bring her a chair; she shall eat with me. [She sits at the table, and eats and drinks with him.  He becomes jealous of the Secretary.] You’ll get into trouble, if you look at her like that. [Whenever he looks at the Secretary, the Secretary takes his eyes off the woman and gazes at the floor.  Jeppe sings an old love-ballad as he sits at the table with her.  He orders a polka to be played and dances with her, but he is so drunk that he falls down three times, and finally lies where he falls and goes to sleep.]

SCENE 4