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BELLMAN, KARL MIKAEL (1740–1795)

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 704 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BELLMAN, KARL MIKAEL (1740–1795) , See also:Swedish poet, son of a See also:civil servant, was See also:born at See also:Stockholm on the 4th of See also:February 1740. When quite a See also:child he See also:developed an extraordinary See also:gift of improvising See also:verse, during the' See also:delirium of a severe illness, See also:weaving See also:wild thoughts together lyrically and singing airs of his own See also:composition. When he was nineteen he became clerk in a See also:bank and afterwards in the customs, but his habits were irregular and he was frequently in See also:great See also:distress, particularly after the See also:death of his See also:patron, Gustavus III. As See also:early as 1757 he published Evangeliska Dodstankar, meditations on the See also:Passion from the See also:German of See also:David von See also:Schweidnitz, and during the next few years wrote, besides other See also:translations, a great quantity of poems, imitative for the most See also:part of Dalin. In 176o appeared his first characteristic See also:work, Manan (The See also:Moon), a satirical poem, which was revised and edited by Dalin. But the great work of his See also:life occupied him from 1765 to 1780, and consists of the collections of dithyrambic odes known as Fred-mans Epistlar (1790) and Fredmans See also:Sanger (1791). Fredman and his See also:friends were well-known characters in the Stockholm pot-houses, where Bellman had studied them from the life. No See also:poetry can possibly See also:smell less of the See also:lamp than Bellman's. He was accustomed, when in the presence of none but confidential friends, to announce that the See also:god was about to visit him. He would shut his eyes, take his See also:zither, and begin apparently to improvise the See also:music and the words of a See also:long Bacchic See also:ode in praise of love or See also:wine. Most of his melodies are taken See also:direct, or with slight adaptations, from old Swedish See also:ballads, and still retain their popularity. Fredman's Epistles See also:bear the clear impress of individual See also:genius; his torrents of rhymes are not without their method; wild as they seem, they all conform to the rules of See also:style, and among those that have been preserved there are few that are not perfect in See also:form.

A great Swedish critic has remarked that the voluptuous joviality and the See also:

humour of Bellman is, after all, only " sorrow clad in See also:rose-See also:colour," and this underlying pathos gives his poems their undying See also:charm. His later See also:works, Bacchi Tempel (The See also:Temple of Bacchus) (1783), eight See also:numbers of a See also:journal called Hvad behagas? (What you Will) (1781), in 1780 a religious See also:anthology entitled in a later edition (1787) Zions Hogtid (See also:Zion's See also:Holiday), and a See also:translation of See also:Gellert's Fables, are comparatively unimportant. He died on the 11th of February 1795. Much of Bellman's work was only printed after his death, Bihang till Fredmans Epistlar (See also:Nykoping, 1809), Fredmans Handskrifter (See also:Upsala, 1813), Skaldestycken (" Poems," Stockholm, 1814) being among the most important of these See also:posthumous works. A See also:colossal See also:bronze bust of the poet by See also:Bystrom (erected by the Swedish See also:Academy in 1829) adorns the public gardens of Stockholm, and a statue by See also:Alfred Nystrom is in the Hasselbacken, Stockholm. Bellman had a See also:grand manner, a See also:fine See also:voice and great gifts of See also:mimicry, and was a favourite See also:companion of See also:King Gustavus III. The best edition of his works was published at Stockholm, edited by J. G. Carlen, with See also:biographical notes, illustrations and music ( vols., 1856–1861); see also monographs on Bellman by Nils See also:Erdmann (Stockholm, 1895) and by F. Niedner (See also:Berlin, 1905).

End of Article: BELLMAN, KARL MIKAEL (1740–1795)

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