Jeppe on the Hill Part 1

Jeppe on the Hill.

by Ludvig Holberg.

LUDVIG HOLBERG

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries two great spiritual movements spread over Europe, the Renaissance and the Reformation. The former was confined princ.i.p.ally to southern Europe, and did not influence the life or literature of the Scandinavian countries to any great extent. The Reformation, however, caused a new tho brief literary era, especially in Denmark, where the mother tongue was again accorded its proper place, and the people again began to think of a national future.

Much had conspired to make the people of Europe lose faith in the old ideas. Copernicus had demonstrated that the earth was only a planet in an immense system, and Kepler and Galileo had taught that the earth circled about the sun, and that there was order and regularity in the movements of the heavenly bodies. Finally Newton announced his principle that the law of gravitation governed each and every one of these movements. All this together with the geographical discoveries of Columbus, Magellan, De Gama and others, revolutionized people's ideas of the universe and of the earth.

In December, 1684, just two weeks before Newton gave his first public lecture explaining his discovery, a child who was destined to become the founder of the Danish-Norwegian literature was born in Bergen, Norway.

That child was Ludvig Holberg. His parents died while the boy was but a few years old, and he was brought up by relatives. Too weakly and small to become a military man as his father had been, he was sent to the "Latin School" at Bergen. Eighteen years old he became a student at the University of Copenhagen. Two years later he became a student of theology. Lack of means compelled him to return to Bergen as a private tutor. But he soon determined to travel, and with a small sum of money he set out for Amsterdam. After considerable sickness and misfortune he returned to Norway. In 1706 there followed a journey to England, where two years were spent, largely in study at Oxford. Later he made four other journeys to foreign countries. Two years were spent in France, and about a year in Italy.

What were the conditions under which Holberg grew up? And what did he experience abroad? Turning to Denmark we find the religious, political and educational status very low. We can get an idea of the prevailing nature of government when we learn that Christian the Sixth was spoken of in a university address as a king whom G.o.d himself "fills with his wisdom, honors with his friends.h.i.+p, strengthens by his teachings, satisfies with his communications, perfects with Divine power, a man with whom he shares His creative strength, one who is beautified by G.o.d's image," and "whose plans evolve from the thoughts of the Almighty!"

In the religious field, conditions were no better. Intolerance and persecution were the rule. He who dared depart from the dry orthodox dogmas was promptly dealt with by law. Coupled with this intolerance was a huge ma.s.s of superst.i.tion that hung as a depressing cloud over the people. An eclipse, a comet or some strange phenomenon was believed to portend some dire manifestation of the wrath of heaven and bespoke as a certainty the judgment of G.o.d! Belief in witch-craft was common. Only fourteen years before Holberg's birth, seven witches were burned at one time in Christiania.

The theology of the day was such as to hinder educational activity.

There was only one student of law, for instance, to several hundred students of theology. A little philosophy was taught, but chiefly to aid in carrying on meaningless theological dissertations.

During Holberg's youth the social and literary conditions in Denmark were slavishly dependent upon those of foreign countries. Latin was the approved literary language. The new n.o.bility was largely German, consequently German was the language of the court. German was also spoken to a great extent among the artisans and merchants as these cla.s.ses were largely of the same origin as the n.o.bility. Those of the middle cla.s.s who aspired to social distinction necessarily wore powdered wigs and spoke French. These conditions limited the use of the mother tongue to the farmers, the fishermen and the lower cla.s.ses, whose work was frowned at and whose social condition was as wretched as it was despised.

Holberg, however, soon acquired different ideas of government religion and education, of social customs and of literature than those described.

He did not believe that the Scriptures were at variance with all other doctrines except that of "divine right." He believed in a monarchial government, but his theory was that government should be a contract between ruler and people as it was in England and Holland. This was the first time such a doctrine was taught in Denmark.

Religious compulsion and persecution was also vigorously opposed by Holberg. He knew but one kind of justifiable fanaticism he said, and that was fanaticism against the spirit of religious intoleration. The prevalent belief in witch-craft, too, was a subject against which Holberg frequently directed his satire.

As far as science and philosophy is concerned, it is sufficient to say that he was guided by the English philosophers of the time who held that experience was the safest guide to knowledge. In Holland he was influenced by Pierre Bayle and LeClerc. In France, Montesquieu, Montaigne, and Moliere were his teachers, while in Germany he was not influenced to any great extent.

Holberg's great work consisted in what he did to better the condition of the common people and to popularize the Danish language. But what was the reason that Holberg was able to take the most desirable teachings and customs, from England, France and Holland, and introduce them among the Scandinavian people? To begin with we must remember that his childhood was spent in Norway's most cosmopolitan city, Bergen. This gave him his desire to travel. His contact with people of wide experience in many different countries would certainly not lessen his liberal tendencies. Then too while at first his journeys were caused by mere curiosity, he soon determined to travel for a purpose. He wished to teach his countrymen. When abroad he made careful observations. Foreign customs were constantly compared with those of Denmark and Norway. But though he was liberal, he knew the art of moderation. While much that was foreign could be used to good advantage, there was also a great deal that was undesirable. His judgments were remarkably free. They were founded on his own observations, not on the opinion of others. His liberal, cosmopolitan views his keen critical discernment, his energy and application in his work account for his far reaching influence.

There remains for us to notice how the people were influenced by the work of this man. Holberg wrote for and about the common people. But in all his writings we observe his remarkable moderation. He knew that if he were to begin his educational campaign by an open attack on prevailing conditions, too much opposition would be the result. He sought the confidence and good will of the reader, and then by his wealth of wit and satire the reader was led to laugh at his own faults.

But it was not enough to tear down; construction was as necessary as destruction. The satirical poems, such as "Klim's Underground Journey"

and "Peder Paars" brought the people's faults to view, but desirable virtues to take their place were just as effectively presented in his "Epistles" and "Moral Thoughts," virtues which were also exemplified in the author's private life.

Holberg's writings created a proper recognition of the mother-tongue, and awakened a new interest in reading especially among the middle and poorer cla.s.ses. His writings created in the people an interest in themselves and in their land, such as they had not possessed before. It taught them to cherish the best that was Danish, to subst.i.tute the st.u.r.dy n.o.ble products of their own land for the ephemeric forms which ignorance and slavish imitation had brought from foreign countries. It helped them to realize themselves and it gave them prospects for a bright future as a nation. In Ludvig Holberg we see today, not only the founder of the Norwegian-Danish literature, the satirical author of "Peder Paars" or "Nils Klim's Underground Journey," not only a philosopher and historian, but a teacher who impressed his individuality on a whole people, and one whose influence as a mighty power for good is felt today not only in Scandinavian literature, but in all Scandinavian culture as well.

--MORRIS JOHNSON.

INTRODUCTION.

"Jeppe on the Hill" (Jeppe paa Bjerget) is probably the best known of Holberg's many comedies. It was first presented in the Danish Theatre in 1722, and has since then been played times without number and with continued appreciation. It is a plain picture of peasant life, with the ludicrous side turned out, of course, but so faithful in detail and comprehensive in character that it has become known as the best expression of medieval conditions in the Scandinavian language, the cla.s.sic representation of the medieval peasant in northern Europe. The plot of the play is briefly thus:

Jeppe, the princ.i.p.al 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. Without so much as a cup of coffee, he starts with his dozen pence with which he is to make his purchase. On the way he stops in at the rascally innkeeper's, Jakob Skomager's, who induces the vacillating Jeppe to part little by little with his money until the poor peasant finds himself "broke," and with nothing to show for his departed coin but a "glorious drunk." After a soliloquy in which he calls to mind his past life, especially his brief experience in the army, he is overcome by his intoxication and falls in a drunken stupor by the wayside. In this senseless condition he is found by his "liege lord and master," the n.o.bleman, and his servants. They decide to play a joke on the fellow; they dress him in the baron's clothes, take him to the castle and put him in the baron's bed, and then wait near by to see the show.

When he awakes he is certainly the transformed--and perplexed--peasant.

He is quite overcome by the splendor of his surroundings, thinks at one moment that he is in a dream, and next decides that he must be in paradise; he calls for his wife, receives no reply, and wonders whether he is really himself or someone else. 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 a.s.sumes 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. He is dressed in his old clothes and put back on the dungheap where he first was found. When he awakes he finds himself by the old familiar wayside in all his old toggery,--plain "Jeppe on the Hill" once more. He is now thoroughly convinced that he really was in paradise, and begins to take another nap in the hope of again coming into his former glory, but when his wife, Nille, steals up and administers a resounding whack on his back with old Master Erik, he is convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that he is in paradise no longer. The situation is further complicated for poor Jeppe and made the more ludicrous to the spectators when he is hauled before a magistrate for taking possession of the baron's house and tyrannizing over his servants. At the mock trial, which is one of the most humorous situations in the play, he stands ready to embrace the lawyer who defends him while he is wis.h.i.+ng he could knock down or hang the lawyer who accuses him.

When he finds himself solemnly condemned to die by poison and hanging, he implores in vain for pardon, asks for some whiskey to keep up his courage, bids farewell to wife, family and dumb friends, and falls as before into a deep stupor. As he gradually regains consciousness, it is but to find himself hanging from the gallows,--by the arm pits, to be sure, but looking dead enough to cause his wife a few brief moments of remorse for her past treatment of her departed spouse. After he has been sentenced to life again by the same court that sentenced him to death before, the magistrate gives him four Rixdollars, a great sum for him, and he finds himself again the same old "Jeppe." When at last he is free, and the cause of his perplexities and bewildering metamorphoses has been revealed to him in startling fas.h.i.+on by the irrepressible Magnus, his chagrin is deep, indeed. The play closes after the old fas.h.i.+on by the reappearance of the perpetrators, the baron and his attendants, the former drawing the moral from the incident.

Such is the simple plot of this immortal comedy. Now a few words as to its significance. Jeppe, the hero and central figure of the play, is a type of the oppressed, circ.u.mscribed, 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.

What may we gather from his reminiscences as he calls them up in his intoxication? His soldier days, his smattering of German, and his campaigns are particularly vivid, and although the latter were probably not especially glorious, they furnish him his proudest memories. Indeed the most honorable words he could put in the mouth of the s.e.xton as he imagined him at his own funeral are those words so unspeakably comical, that "he lived like a soldier and died like a soldier."

What does this peasant know, and where did he get his knowledge? The source is not far to seek. His figures have the flavor of the stable and the Bible and he is far more certain of his use of the former than of the latter. He has also come by just enough of folklore to misapply it, as note his reference to Abner and Roland. Who are his most intimate friends? There is Mo'ns Christofferson who gives him excellent advice which he fails to follow, but dearest of all is his dappled horse, a trifle lazier, if such a thing is possible, than himself. But poor he has always been, and while baron he shows that he knows to a much greater degree than the baron himself the value of money; for though he has, so far as he knows, more money than he has ever seen in all his peasant days, he remains n.i.g.g.ardly in his use of it even when he has all he wants.

What is this man's highest idea of enjoyment, what does he demand when his greatest wish can be fulfilled? Simply a good bed, fine clothes, plenty to eat, sweet wine in abundance, many servants, and a handmaid.

If he has any greater ambition it would be to have more and better things to eat and drink, and more and finer things to wear. It is but natural that "he who works like a horse will enjoy himself like a dog."

With such ideals it is easy to see how he could imagine that he had been suddenly transported into heaven. With the feeling that his lord's chief business is to pilfer his hard-earned money; that the s.e.xton is a personage whose chief virtue is a powerful voice; and that lawyers and magistrates are black-robed blackguards who juggle with equal facility with justice and Latin phrases, we can see that Jeppe's idea of law and authority was not very exalted. His highest idea of justice was embodied in his toast, "G.o.d keep our friends, and may the devil take all our enemies!"

Though he is a peasant he knows life and human nature and has, too, a philosophy of life,--a philosophy which to him is his salvation. He does not look on life in any bitter or hopeless way, yet he has that distrust and suspicion so characteristic of the Danish peasant. He is always master of the situation, and is cautious and sly enough never to allow himself to be caught off his guard. He weeps in sheer grat.i.tude when his lawyer defends him, and he offers him a chew of his tobacco, but when the lawyer answers that he did it from a sense of Christian charity he answers, sarcastically, "I beg your pardon, Mr. Lawyer, I had not thought you people were so honest." In the last act (Act V., Scene 2) we see another ill.u.s.tration of his native shrewdness. When he has been sentenced back to life we would naturally expect a profuse expression of grat.i.tude from Jeppe on his delivery from death. But when the judge says to him, "Thank us, that we have been so gracious as to sentence you back to life," Jeppe gives the unexpected answer that "if you had not hanged me yourself, I should have been glad to thank you that you let me down again."

While a mere peasant he appears dull and common-place enough, but give him the opportunity which he gets from the second act and on, and he displays a surprising readiness in his efforts to solve the perplexing problems he has had placed before him. The question of existence or non-existence which he has to answer might well perplex a sage; but while Jeppe is not quite able to unravel the situation, he makes rare use of the powers of logic at his command. When at last he is asked to face death, he does so with resignation, for he has not had much to be thankful for in life. In the supposed hour of his death he turns, not to the Bible of which he is so blissfully ignorant, but to that never-failing comforter through life--the whiskey bottle. When he bids farewell, as he supposes, to this world, he includes the whole circle of his interest, and says, "Goodbye," and "Thanks for good company" to his family and his animal friends, including his dappled horse, his faithful dog, and even "Mo'ns," his black cat.

We have then in Jeppe a character furnis.h.i.+ng on the one hand entertainment to the young and light of heart, and on the other an interesting study for the psychologist, the statesman, the socialist, the historian and the philanthropist.

Thus the author has depicted through the various burlesque and humorous situations of a comedy a concrete yet typical character, he has given us the pathetic history of a poor, oppressed peasant, a whole human life from the cradle to the grave.

--W. C. W.

JEPPE ON THE HILL

ACT I.

Scene 1.

=Nille= (alone)--I don't believe there is such a lazy rascal in the whole district as my husband. I can hardly wake him up when I pull him out of bed by the hair. To-day the rascal knows that it is market day, but still he lies and sleeps so long. Herr Paul said to me lately, "Nille, you are too hard on your husband. He is and ought to be master of the household." But I answered him, "No, my dear Herr Paul, if I should let him boss this house for a single year then neither the landlord would get his rent nor the rector his fee, since he would squander in drink all that I have in the house. Should I let such a man rule this household, who is ready to sell farm, wife, children--yes, even himself--for drink?" Whereupon Herr Paul became silent and thoughtfully stroked his chin. The overseer of the estate sides with me and says, "Little woman, don't you mind what the preacher says. Although the ritual says that you must honor and obey your husband, your lease, which is newer than the ritual, says that you must keep up your place and pay your rent, which it would be impossible for you to do if you did not drag your old man out of bed by the hair every morning and drive him to work." Just now I jerked him out of bed and went out to the barn to see how the work was getting on, and when I came back he was sitting with his trousers over one leg, and so the switch had to be taken off the peg and my good old Jeppe dressed down until he became quite awake again.

The only thing he is afraid of is Master Erick, (that is what I call the switch.) Hey, Jeppe, aren't you up yet, you lazy bones? Would you like to speak with Master Erik once more? Hey, Jeppe, come out!

Scene 2.

=Jeppe=--I must have time to put on my clothes, mustn't I? You don't want me to come out like a pig without trousers and without coat.

=Nille=--Haven't you had time, you wretch, to put on ten pairs of trousers since I woke you up this morning?