Scene 4.
Jakob Skomager. Jeppe.
Jakob—Welcome back from town! Did you get the soap for your wife?
Jeppe—Ay, you rascal, you must know what kind of people you are talking to! Off with your cap! for you are but an idiot compared to a fellow like me.
Jakob—I'd not stand such words from anyone else, Jeppe. But since you give my house a daily penny, I won't be too particular.
Jeppe—Off with your cap, you rascal!
Jakob—What has happened to you on the way, that you've got the big head?
Jeppe—You must know that I have been hanged since I spoke with you last.
Jakob—That is not so much to feel proud about. I don't envy you a bit. But listen, Jeppe, "where you have drunk your beer there you should show your spleen!" You become drunk at other places, but come into my house just to make a disturbance.
Jeppe—Quick, off with your cap, you rascal! Don't you hear that jingling in my pocket?
Jakob (with his hat under his arm)—Whew! Where did you get that money?
Jeppe—From my barony, Jakob. I'll tell you what has happened to me, but give me a glass of mead first; for I am too proud to drink Danish whiskey.
Jakob—Your health, Jeppe.
Jeppe—Now I shall tell you what has happened to me. When I left you I fell asleep; when I woke up again I was a baron, and got drunk again on canaille sack; when I got drunk of sack, I woke up on a dung-heap; when I woke up on the dung-heap, I lay down to sleep again, hoping that I would again become a baron, but I found that it doesn't always go like that; for my wife woke me up with Master Erik and dragged me in by the hair without having the least respect for such a man as I had been. When I came into the room I was kicked out head first, and saw myself surrounded by a lot of shysters, who sentenced me to death and killed me with poison; after I had been hanged I came to life again and got four Rixdollars. This is the whole story; but how such a thing could happen, I will let you imagine.
Jakob—Ha! Ha! Ha! It's a dream, Jeppe.
Jeppe—If I didn't have these four Rixdollars I'd think it was a dream, too. Give me another, Jakob, I'll not think more of that foolishness but have another good drink.
Jakob—Your health, Baron. Ha! Ha! Ha!
Jeppe—Perhaps you can't understand this, Jakob?
Jakob—Not if I stood on my head.
Jeppe—It might be true anyway, Jakob, for you are a dunce, and don't understand such things.