Jesper.  I am too good to associate with such a fanatic.

[Exeunt Jesper and Peer.]

SCENE 3

Montanus.  I can dispute dispassionately with these people, however harshly they speak to me.  I do not become hot-headed unless I dispute with people who imagine that they understand Methodum disputandi and that they are just as well versed in philosophy as I. For this reason I was ten times as zealous when I argued against the student to-day; for he had some appearance of learning.  But here come my parents.

SCENE 4

(Enter Jeppe and Nille.)

Jeppe.  Oh, my dear son, don’t carry on so, and don’t quarrel with everybody.  The bailiff and deacon, who at our request undertook to make peace between you and your father-in-law, have, I hear, been made sport of.  What is the use of turning good folk into cocks and bulls?

Montanus.  For this purpose I have studied, for this purpose I have racked my brains:  that I may say what I choose, and justify it.

Jeppe.  It seems to me that it would have been better never to have studied in that way.

Montanus.  Keep your mouth shut, old man!

Jeppe.  You’re not going to beat your parents?

Montanus.  If I did, I should justify that, too, before the whole world. [Exeunt Jeppe and Nille, weeping.]

SCENE 5

(Enter Jacob.)

Montanus.  I will not abandon my opinions, even if they all go mad at once.

Jacob.  I have a letter for Mossur.

[Gives him the letter, and exit.]

SCENE 6

Montanus (reading).  My dearest friend!  I could never have imagined that you would so easily abandon her who for so many years has loved you with such faith and constancy.  I can tell you for a certainty that my father is so set against the notion that the earth is round, and considers it such an important article of faith, that he will never give me to you unless you assent to the belief that be and the other good folk here in the village hold.  What difference can it make to you whether the earth is oblong, round, eight-cornered, or square?  I beg of you, by all the love I have borne you, that you conform to the faith in which we here on the hill have been happy for so long.  If you do not humor me in this, you may be sure that I shall die of grief, and the whole world will abhor you for causing the death of one who has loved you as her own soul.

Elisabeth, daughter of Jeronimus,
by her own hand.

Oh, heavens!  This letter moves me and throws me into great irresolution—­

Utque securi
Saucia trabs ingens, ubi plaga novissima restat,
Quo cadat in dubio est, omnique a parte timetur,
Sic animus—­