Jeppe on the Hill Part 4

=Erik=--Yes, they are coming soon.

=Valet=--Let us a.s.sist our lord in putting on his dressing gown. Perhaps when he comes out in the fresh air it will be better. Does our lord wish to have on his gown?

=Jeppe=--Most willingly. You may do with me what you like, if only you do not take my life, for I am as innocent as an unborn babe.

Scene 3.

A valet. Erik. Jeppe. Two doctors.

=First Doctor=--We hear with great regret that your lords.h.i.+p is indisposed.

=Valet=--Alas, yes, doctor; he is in a pitiful state.

=Second Doctor=--How is everything with you, my gracious lord?

=Jeppe=--Quite well! Except that I am rather thirsty after the whiskey which I got at Jakob Skomager's yesterday. If you will only give me a mug of beer and let me go, then they may hang you two doctors up for all I care, because I don't need any medicine.

=First Doctor=--That is certainly a clear case of hallucinations.

=Second Doctor=--But the more violent the disease is the sooner he will get over it. Let us feel our lords.h.i.+p's pulse. Quid tibi videtur, domine frater?

=First Doctor=--I am not of that opinion. Such strange weaknesses must be cured in another fas.h.i.+on. Our lords.h.i.+p has had an awful and gruesome dream, which has brought the blood into such commotion and so confused his brain that he imagines himself a peasant. We must try to divert him with the things in which he finds the most pleasure; give him the wines and foods which suit him best, and play for him his favorite pieces of music.

(Lively music begins.)

=Valet=--Why, that is my lord's favorite piece.

=Jeppe=--Perhaps so. Do you always have such fun in this place?

=Valet=--As often as your lords.h.i.+p wishes; since it is you who gives us our wages.

=Jeppe=--But it is strange that I cannot remember what I have done in the past.

=First Doctor=--That is the result of the sickness, your lords.h.i.+p, that one forgets everything that he has done before. I recollect that one of my neighbors a few years ago became so delirious from strong drink that he made himself believe for two days that he had no head.

=Jeppe=--I wish that Christopher, the bailiff, would get the same idea, but he must have a sickness which is just opposite to this; since he imagined that he has a big head, while he really has none at all, as one can see from his decisions.

(They all laugh at this: Ha, ha, ha.)

=Second Doctor=--It is a pleasure to hear our lords.h.i.+p jest. But to come back to the story again, that same person went all over town and asked people if they had found his head, which he had lost, but he got well again and is at this day s.e.xton in Jutland.

=Jeppe=--He might be that, even if he had not found his wits again.

(All laugh: Ha, ha, ha.)

=First Doctor=--Does my colleague remember the story of what happened ten years since to the man who imagined that his head was full of flies? He could not get rid of the notion no matter how much one argued with him, until a shrewd doctor cured him in this wise: He laid a plaster covered with dead flies on his head, and after some time he pulled it off, showed it to the patient, made him believe that they had been extracted from his head, whereupon the patient became well again.

=Second Doctor=--There are innumerable examples of such illusions. I remember also of having heard of one who made himself believe that his nose was ten feet long and warned everyone whom he met not to come too near to him.

=First Doctor=--That is what is the matter with our gracious lord. He imagines that he is a poor peasant. But he must get rid of such thoughts, then he will soon become well again.

=Jeppe=--But can it be possible that it is only imagination?

=First Doctor=--Certainly! Your lords.h.i.+p has heard from these stories what imagination can do.

=Jeppe=--Am I not then Jeppe on the Hill?

=Second Doctor=--No, certainly not.

=Jeppe=--Is the wicked Nille not my wife?

=First Doctor=--By no means, since my lord is a widower.

=Jeppe=--Is it then nothing but imagination that she has a switch called Master Erik?

=Second Doctor=--Purely imagination.

=Jeppe=--Is it then not true that I was to go to town yesterday to buy soap?

=First Doctor=--No.

=Jeppe=--Nor yet, that I drank up all the money at Jakob Skomager's?

=Valet=--Why, my lord was with us on a hunt all day yesterday.

=Jeppe=--Nor yet that I am henpecked?

=Valet=--Why, your wife has been dead for many years.

=Jeppe=--Ah, I am beginning to understand my weakness. I will not think of that peasant any longer, for I see that it is nothing but a dream and a mistake. Isn't it strange though how a person can fall into such an error?

=Valet=--Will it please your lords.h.i.+p to take a walk in the garden while we prepare a little breakfast?

=Jeppe=--To be sure, but see that you are quick about it, for I am both hungry and thirsty.

(Curtain.)

ACT III.

Scene 1.

Jeppe. Valet. Secretary.