JEPPE. Welcome home again, Peer.
PEER. Thank you, Jeppe Berg.
JEPPE. Oh, my dear Peer, I wish you could explain to me some Latin in my son's last letter.
PEER. That's nothing! Do you think I don't understand Latin as well as your son? I am an old Academicus, I'd have you know, Jeppe Berg.
JEPPE. I know it,—I just wondered if you understood the new Latin, for that language must change, just as the language of Sjaelland has done. In my youth the people here on the hill didn't talk the way they do now; what they now call a "lackey" used to be called a "boy;" what they now call a "mysterious" used to be called a "whore;" a "mademoiselle," a "house-maid;" a "musician," a "fiddler;" and a "secretary," a "clerk." So I suppose Latin may have changed, too, since you were in Copenhagen. Will you please explain that? (Pointing to a line in the letter.} I can read the letters, but I don't get the meaning.
PEER. Your son writes that he is now studying his Logicam,
Rhetoricam, and Metaphysicam.
JEPPE. What does Logicam mean?
PEER. That's his pulpit.
JEPPE. I'm glad of that. I wish he could become a pastor!
PEER. But a deacon first.