Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/207

In Holberg's Comedies the germs, which are already to be found in Peder Paars, are further developed. Precisely as in this poem, we encounter in the comedies a multitude of typical characters taken from the daily life of that period and painted with such fresh and vivid colors that Oelenschlæger justly remarks, that "if Copenhagen had been buried beneath the ground and only Holberg's comedies had remained, we should nevertheless have known the life that stirred within its walls, not only in its broad outlines, but also in many of its minutest details." We here make the acquaintance of the political tinker, Herman von Bremenfeld, whose head has been turned by politics to such a degree that he on this account neglects his work. We further find Jean de France, or Hans Fransen as he was called before he went to Paris, and who afterward is filled with conceits of all sorts; then the boasting, blustering soldier Jakob von Thybo, the peasant lad, Rasmus Berg, or Erasmus Montanus, whom a stay at the University of Copenhagen has turned into a conceited fool, and many other characters from the life of the metropolis. The "Barselstue" (the lying-in room) introduces us to a whole gallery of exquisite female characters, in which the everlastingly feminine element has been comically illustrated and diversified in a truly masterly manner. The pitiable lot of the Danish peasantry, kept down in the basest servitude, has been described in a plastic manner in his "Jeppe paa Berget." We here have a peasant endowed by nature with excellent parts, who, under the terrible oppression resting on his class, has become the very incarnation of wretchedness, and makes in many respects a tragical impression, since, in spite of the irresistible and sparkling humor of the play, we are not able for a moment to lose sight of the contrast between that which this peasant under different circumstances might have been and the deep debasement in which we now behold him. This comedy gives one of the most striking pictures of life that any literature can boast. Among his charter plays of general interest " Den Stundeslöso" (the restless