Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/26

monthly, and written throughout in verse; and Thomas Kingo (1634-1723), the author of many excellent hymns. Arreboe is called father of Danish poetry. The poets and prose writers of the 16th and 17th centuries are enumerated by Thura in his Idea Historiæ Literariæ Danorum (1732). The classic mythology never pervaded the literature of Denmark, as it did that of other European countries; and hence the modern development of Danish poetry has a strongly Scandinavian character, the poets drawing their inspirations less from Greece and Rome than from the Scandanavian sagas, brought out by the labors of Vedel and his successors. The chief Danish writer of the 18th century is Ludvig Holberg (1684-1754), dramatic poet, writer of fiction, and popular philosopher, whose fertile imagination and genial humor manifest themselves with a strong bracing realism. He was most at home in comedy. He founded the theatre at Copenhagen, and wrote for it within three years 20 plays, several of which still continue to be favorites. The most popular are: “The Pewter Statesman,” a political satire; “The Arabian Powder,” a satire upon the alchemists; “Ulysses,” a parody of the heroic German drama; and “The Brothers Antipodes,” representing two brothers, one superstitious and the other skeptical, both undergoing a spiritual cure. Holberg has been called the Molière of the North. His most heroic epic, “Peder Paars,” in which the hero is a country grocer, shipwrecked while crossing to Jutland to meet his lady love, is full of humor and genial philosophy. He wrote a prose satirical romance entitled “Niels Klim's Subterranean Journey,” of supposed skeptical tendencies, which from fear of the orthodoxy of King Christian VI. was first published in Latin (1741), but was subsequently translated into almost every European tongue. His “History of Denmark to the year 1670,” also written in Latin, is a standard work. Christian Falster was a contemporary of Holberg, and wrote some satirical poems of reputation, but of unequal merit. The next poet of the first order is Johannes Evald (died 1781). His tragedies of “Baldur's Death” and “Rolf Krage” have long been favorites, as well as his comedy “The Harlequin Patriot,” while he is the author of the Danish national song “King Christian at the high mast stands.” Evald holds toward Holberg somewhat the same relation as Schiller to Goethe, and both their the early, enthusiastic, and successful effort to establish a national literature free from foreign corruption. They were followed by Christian Pram, a poet of considerable merit, whose romantic epic Störkodder appeared in 1785; and Ole Johan Samsöe (died 1796), and Levin Christian Sander (died 1819), writers of excellent tragedies, who coöperated in the development of a purely national literature; while the Danish histories of Peder F. Suhm and Erik Pontoppidan stand prominent toward the close of the century. Jens Baggesen (1764-1826) was the favorite lyrist of the nation. His tales, lyrics, and comic epics are full of grace and humor. He was an admirer of the German poets, and wrote and published a number of pieces in German. He may perhaps be considered as marking that inclination toward German associations which comes out more conspicuously in Adam Oehlenschläger (1779-1850), the greatest Danish poet of the present century. Oehlenschläger found his favorite subjects in the mythology of Scandinavia, and his “Baldur the Good” and “Gods of the North” bring the gods of the Edda and the old Norse heroes upon the modern stage. His “Correggio” is an exquisite picture of the representatives of different schools of painting, and became a favorite of the European stage. The “Death of Socrates” and “Queen Margaret” show rich fancy, tender pathos, and noble diction. His “Hamlet” gives not the Shakespearian but the historic character as handed down by Saxo Grammaticus; its first representation in Copenhagen (1846) excited the greatest enthusiasm. Oehlenschläger translated his own works into German, and is as well known in Germany as in Denmark. Peder Andreas Heiberg (1758-1841) was a dramatic writer of great originality. His son Johan Ludvig Heiberg (1791-1860) confined himself to comedy and vaudeville, but ranks among the first of recent dramatists. He was also a philosophical and archæological writer of great merit, and his novels, published anonymously, are little if at all inferior to those of Hans Christian Andersen. Bernhard Severin Ingemann (1789-1862) was a poet and dramatist known outside of Denmark. His epics Waldemar de Store and Holger Danske deserve great praise. He is the author also of the national song Danebrog. Hendrik Hertz (1798-1870) is also known outside of his native land, and some of his lyrics and dramatic poems have been translated into English. Fr. Paludan-Müller (born 1809) is also eminent; his Adam Homo, which may be classed with epic, didactic, or satiric poetry, is perhaps the most remarkable production of modern Danish literature. Nicolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig (1783-1872) is in many respects one of the first Danish authors of recent times. As a popular writer of hymns he is unequalled; in lyrical and historical poetry he equals Oehlenschläger, his Kong Harald og Ansgar and Optrin af Kämpelivets Undergang i Nord being beautiful delineations of the old Danish life and character; while his archæological writings and his translations of the works of Snorro and Saxo are of great value. His son Svend Grundtvig (born 1824) has published investigations of the literary monuments of Iceland. Christian Molbech (1783-1857) gained great distinction in Danish literary history. In 1826 he edited Harpestreng's “Book of Medicine,” supposed to have been written in the 13th century. His son Chr. Karl Frederik Molbech