A COMEDY IN FIVE ACTS 1722

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Jeppe of the hill, a peasant.

Nille, his wife.

Jacob shoemaker, an innkeeper.

Baron Nilus, lord of the district.

Secretary to the Baron.

Eric, a lackey.

A Valet.

Magnus, the village gossip.

A Judge, two Lawyers, two Doctors, a Bailiff and his Wife, Lackeys,
Retainers, and others.

ACTS I, IV, AND V

Scene:  A village road; on the left, Jeppe’s house; on the right, Jacob Shoemaker’s inn.  The court in Act IV is held in the open, and a tree is used for the gallows in Act V.

ACT II

A bedroom in the Baron’s castle.

ACT III

Dining-room in the same.

ACT I

SCENE I

(Nille, alone.)

Nille.  I hardly believe there’s such another lazy lout in all the village as my husband, it’s as much as I can do to get him up in the morning by pulling him out of bed by the hair.  The scoundrel knows to-day is market-day, and yet he lies there asleep at this hour of the morning.  The pastor said to me the other day, “Nille, you are much too hard on your husband; he is and he ought to be the master of the house.”  But I answered him, “No, my good pastor!  If I should let my husband have his way in the household for a year, the gentry wouldn’t get their rent nor the pastor his offering, for in that length of time he would turn all there was in the place into drink.  Ought I let a man rule the household who is perfectly ready to sell his belongings and wife and children and even himself for brandy?” The pastor had nothing to say to that, but stood there stroking his chin.  The bailiff agrees with me, and says, “My dear woman, pay no attention to the pastor.  It’s in the wedding-service, to be sure, that you must honor and obey your husband, but it’s in your lease, which is more recent than the service, that you shall keep up your farm and meet your rent—­a thing you can never do unless you haul your husband about by the hair every day and beat him to his work.”

I pulled him out of bed just now and went out to the barn to see how things were getting along, when I came in again, he was sitting on a chair, asleep, with his breeches—­saving your presence—­pulled on one leg; so the switch had to come down from the hook, and my good Jeppe got a basting till he was wide awake again.  The only thing he is afraid of is “Master Eric,” as I call the switch.  Hey, Jeppe, you cur, haven’t you got into your clothes yet?  Would you like to talk to Master Eric some more?  Hey, Jeppe!  Come in here!