JESPER. Yes, yes, just listen to Peer when he shakes his sleeves!
That's right, keep at him!
MONTANUS. He's not answering what I ask him. What is the genitive of
"Imprimatur"?
PEER. Nominativus, ala; genitivus, alae; dativus, ala; vocativus, ala; ablativus, ala.
JESPER. Ah, ha, Monsieur Montanus, we have some folk here on the hill, too!
PEER. I should say so. In my time the fellows that graduated were of a different sort from nowadays. They were lads who got shaved twice a week, and could scan all kinds of verse.
MONTANUS. That is certainly a wonderful thing! Boys in the second class can do that to-day. Nowadays there are graduates from the schools in Copenhagen who can write Hebrew and Chaldean verse,
PEER. Then they can't know much Latin.
MONTANUS. Latin! If you went to school now, you couldn't get above the bottom class.
JESPER. Don't say that, Montanus. The deacon is, I know, a thoroughly educated man; that I have heard both the district bailiff and the tax-collector say.
MONTANUS. Perhaps they understand Latin just as little as he