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A SURVEY OF DANISH LITERATURE, FROM THE EARLIEST
PERIOD TO THE PRESENT TIME.
BY MRS. BUSHBY.
Part III.
In reviewing the literature of Denmark, one is surprised to see, not so few but so many authors—many, when the limited size of the country and extent of the population be taken into consideration. It must be remembered that the Danish language is not much known, and that it is spoken and read only by the inhabitants of Denmark Proper, its dependencies, and a portion of its colonists in the East and West Indies; yet it can boast of more writers than countries of an equal or larger size—than Holland, Italy, Spain, or Portugal. To compare the amount of its literature with the amount of the literature of Germany, France, or England, would be unfair and ridiculous; for the German language is that of a large portion of Europe, the French is almost a universal language wherever civilisation extends, and English is the mother-tongue of half the globe. It is surprising, therefore, that Denmark has so extensive and really so good a literature. This is still more to be wondered at, as the Danes are such excellent linguists that the literary stores of other nations are within their easy reach; and, moreover, as such numbers of the best works among the dead, and of the most popular among the living languages, have been translated into Danish. It is amusing to see, in the catalogues of the fashionable circulating libraries of Copenhagen, the names of numerous English novels and romances, some of them looking rather odd in their foreign nomenclature—"Ridder Peveril paa Höien," which stands for "Peveril of the Peak;” "En Fortælling om Montrose"—literally, "A Tale about Montrose;" "Snarleyyaw, eller den djævelske Hund” ("The Devilish Dog")—Marryat's "Snarleyow; or, The Dog-Fiend.” But the Danes do not translate the titles of English works so absurdly as the French sometimes do, and frequently they abide by the originals. Most of the novels of Lady Blessington, Lady C. Bury, Lady Morgan, Mrs. Trollope, and Miss Edgeworth, have been translated into Danish; and many of Bulwer's, Dickens's, James's, Harrison Ainsworth's, Marryat's, Grattan's, &c., are also popular in Denmark. All Walter Scott's, of course, are well known there. In fact, the popularity of foreign authors—English, French, German, and Italian—rather interferes with the sale of original Danish works.
In resuming this slight survey of Danish literature, those authors must be mentioned first who stand, as it were, on the thresholds of two centuries, belonging both to the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Knud Lyne Rahbek is one of those; he was born in Copenhagen in 1760, and died there in 1830. Professor Rahbek was an untiring labourer in the fields of literature. His mind was early imbued with a love of reading, which was cultivated by skilful private tuition during his childhood. At twelve years of age he was sent to the excellent academy of Herlufsholm, in the south of Zealand, and he afterwards took honours at the university. He was celebrated for his compilations as well as his compositions—the
