Chapter 12 of Comedies by Holberg is here in full — 432 sentences across 87 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter XII
Chapter 12 of Comedies by Holberg is here in full — 432 sentences across 87 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
SCENE 4 (Enter Jeppe and Nille.) JEPPE. Oh, my dear son, don't carry on so, and don't quarrel with everybody. The bailiff and deacon, who at our request undertook to make peace between you and your father-in-law, have, I hear, been made sport of. What is the use of turning good folk into cocks and bulls?
Chapter 12 of Comedies by Holberg is here in full — 432 sentences across 87 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/86 · 5 reading units · Lines 1–5
These definitions explain words found in the current reading and keep every example grounded in its original sentence.
Oxford-style entry order: headword, part of speech, US IPA, concise definition, contextual example, and audio.
an officer of the court who is employed to execute writs and processes and make arrests etc.
From this reading “The bailiff and deacon, who at our request undertook to make peace between you and your father-in-law, have, I hear, been made sport of.”
plural of “bull” — uncastrated adult male of domestic cattle
From this reading “What is the use of turning good folk into cocks and bulls?”
plural of “cock” — obscene terms for penis
From this reading “What is the use of turning good folk into cocks and bulls?”
a Protestant layman who assists the minister
From this reading “The bailiff and deacon, who at our request undertook to make peace between you and your father-in-law, have, I hear, been made sport of.”
the father of your spouse
From this reading “The bailiff and deacon, who at our request undertook to make peace between you and your father-in-law, have, I hear, been made sport of.”
an angry dispute
From this reading “Oh, my dear son, don't carry on so, and don't quarrel with everybody.”
an active diversion requiring physical exertion and competition
From this reading “The bailiff and deacon, who at our request undertook to make peace between you and your father-in-law, have, I hear, been made sport of.”
inflected form of “undertake” — enter upon an activity or enterprise
From this reading “The bailiff and deacon, who at our request undertook to make peace between you and your father-in-law, have, I hear, been made sport of.”
Every word in these five lines is listed here, and every one of them can be played on its own.
Dictionary details are shown only when verified; these are not licensed Oxford entries.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading SCENE 4 (Enter Jeppe and Nille.)
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading SCENE 4 (Enter Jeppe and Nille.)
in or near a particular place or position
From this reading The bailiff and deacon, who at our request undertook to make peace between you and your father-in-law, have, I hear, been made sport of.
an officer of the court who is employed to execute writs and processes and make arrests etc.
From this reading The bailiff and deacon, who at our request undertook to make peace between you and your father-in-law, have, I hear, been made sport of.
the past participle of “be”
From this reading The bailiff and deacon, who at our request undertook to make peace between you and your father-in-law, have, I hear, been made sport of.
in the space, time, or range separating two things
From this reading The bailiff and deacon, who at our request undertook to make peace between you and your father-in-law, have, I hear, been made sport of.
plural of “bull” — uncastrated adult male of domestic cattle
From this reading What is the use of turning good folk into cocks and bulls?
move while supporting, either in a vehicle or in one's hands or on one's body
From this reading Oh, my dear son, don't carry on so, and don't quarrel with everybody.
plural of “cock” — obscene terms for penis
From this reading What is the use of turning good folk into cocks and bulls?
a Protestant layman who assists the minister
From this reading The bailiff and deacon, who at our request undertook to make peace between you and your father-in-law, have, I hear, been made sport of.
dearly loved
From this reading Oh, my dear son, don't carry on so, and don't quarrel with everybody.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Oh, my dear son, don't carry on so, and don't quarrel with everybody.
to come or go into
From this reading SCENE 4 (Enter Jeppe and Nille.)
every person
From this reading Oh, my dear son, don't carry on so, and don't quarrel with everybody.
the father of your spouse
From this reading The bailiff and deacon, who at our request undertook to make peace between you and your father-in-law, have, I hear, been made sport of.
people in general (often used in the plural)
From this reading What is the use of turning good folk into cocks and bulls?
having desirable or positive qualities especially those suitable for a thing specified
From this reading What is the use of turning good folk into cocks and bulls?
used with a past participle to form the perfect tenses
From this reading The bailiff and deacon, who at our request undertook to make peace between you and your father-in-law, have, I hear, been made sport of.
perceive (sound) via the auditory sense
From this reading The bailiff and deacon, who at our request undertook to make peace between you and your father-in-law, have, I hear, been made sport of.
the person speaking or writing, as the subject of the verb
From this reading The bailiff and deacon, who at our request undertook to make peace between you and your father-in-law, have, I hear, been made sport of.
moving to the inside of something
From this reading What is the use of turning good folk into cocks and bulls?
the form of “be” used with he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading What is the use of turning good folk into cocks and bulls?
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading SCENE 4 (Enter Jeppe and Nille.)
produced by a manufacturing process
From this reading The bailiff and deacon, who at our request undertook to make peace between you and your father-in-law, have, I hear, been made sport of.
engage in
From this reading The bailiff and deacon, who at our request undertook to make peace between you and your father-in-law, have, I hear, been made sport of.
belonging to the person speaking
From this reading Oh, my dear son, don't carry on so, and don't quarrel with everybody.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading SCENE 4 (Enter Jeppe and Nille.)
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading The bailiff and deacon, who at our request undertook to make peace between you and your father-in-law, have, I hear, been made sport of.
a midwestern state in north central United States in the Great Lakes region
From this reading Oh, my dear son, don't carry on so, and don't quarrel with everybody.
touching and supported by a surface
From this reading Oh, my dear son, don't carry on so, and don't quarrel with everybody.
belonging to the speaker and others
From this reading The bailiff and deacon, who at our request undertook to make peace between you and your father-in-law, have, I hear, been made sport of.
the state prevailing during the absence of war
From this reading The bailiff and deacon, who at our request undertook to make peace between you and your father-in-law, have, I hear, been made sport of.
an angry dispute
From this reading Oh, my dear son, don't carry on so, and don't quarrel with everybody.
express the need or desire for
From this reading The bailiff and deacon, who at our request undertook to make peace between you and your father-in-law, have, I hear, been made sport of.
the place where some action occurs
From this reading SCENE 4 (Enter Jeppe and Nille.)
for that reason; with the result that
From this reading Oh, my dear son, don't carry on so, and don't quarrel with everybody.
a male human offspring
From this reading Oh, my dear son, don't carry on so, and don't quarrel with everybody.
an active diversion requiring physical exertion and competition
From this reading The bailiff and deacon, who at our request undertook to make peace between you and your father-in-law, have, I hear, been made sport of.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading The bailiff and deacon, who at our request undertook to make peace between you and your father-in-law, have, I hear, been made sport of.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading The bailiff and deacon, who at our request undertook to make peace between you and your father-in-law, have, I hear, been made sport of.
the act of changing or reversing the direction of the course
From this reading What is the use of turning good folk into cocks and bulls?
inflected form of “undertake” — enter upon an activity or enterprise
From this reading The bailiff and deacon, who at our request undertook to make peace between you and your father-in-law, have, I hear, been made sport of.
the act of using
From this reading What is the use of turning good folk into cocks and bulls?
used to ask for information about something
From this reading What is the use of turning good folk into cocks and bulls?
which person or people
From this reading The bailiff and deacon, who at our request undertook to make peace between you and your father-in-law, have, I hear, been made sport of.
in the company of; together with
From this reading Oh, my dear son, don't carry on so, and don't quarrel with everybody.
the person or people being spoken to
From this reading The bailiff and deacon, who at our request undertook to make peace between you and your father-in-law, have, I hear, been made sport of.
belonging to the person or people being spoken to
From this reading The bailiff and deacon, who at our request undertook to make peace between you and your father-in-law, have, I hear, been made sport of.
Chapter 12 of Comedies by Holberg by Ludvig Holberg holds 432 sentences, grouped into 87 reading sections of at most 5 sentences. The text is the source edition, unabridged, and the chapter records which sentences cover which part of the work so that nothing is dropped. Every word can be tapped for its pronunciation and dictionary entry.
Chapter 12 holds 432 sentences of Comedies by Holberg, unabridged, divided into 87 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 12 of Comedies by Holberg by Ludvig Holberg exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 432 sentences, grouped into 87 sections of at most 5 sentences so that a reader can take the chapter in steady, finishable pieces. The chapter also stores a coverage record mapping every one of its sentences to a part of the work, which is how the edition demonstrates that no line was dropped.
Work through the 87 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 87 sections in this chapter is short enough to read once, hear once, and then re-read with the vocabulary in view. Tapping a word plays it alone and opens its dictionary entry with IPA, part of speech and meaning, so the reader is never forced to guess a pronunciation from spelling. Working section by section keeps a long chapter from becoming an undifferentiated wall of text, which is the usual reason a reader abandons a work of this period.
Yes — every sentence and every individual word in chapter 12 can be played aloud in United States English.
Audio covers the whole chapter: any sentence can be played, and any single word within it can be played on its own. The voice uses United States English. For a work of this period that matters, because spelling is an unreliable guide to pronunciation for vocabulary that has fallen out of daily use, and a learner who guesses wrong tends to keep the error. Hearing the word in its own sentence, and then alone, settles it.
Common questions about reading Comedies by Holberg by Ludvig Holberg on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 5141 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #5749 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #5749, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 428 minutes of reading across 1029 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through Comedies by Holberg section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 12 chapters of Comedies by Holberg to begin.
Each section holds 5 sentences; read it once through.
Play the section aloud, then tap any unfamiliar word for its entry.
Words and structures a reader meets early in Comedies by Holberg, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
