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HOLBERG, LUDVIG HOLBERG, BARON (1684-...
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See also:HOLBERG, LUDVIG HOLBERG, See also:BARON (1684-1754) , the See also:great Scandinavian writer, was See also:born at See also:Bergen, in See also:Norway, on the 3rd of See also:December 1684. Both Holberg's parents died in his childhood, his See also:father first, leaving a considerable See also:property; and in his See also:eleventh See also:year he lost his See also:mother also. Before the latter event, however, the See also:family had been seriously impoverished by a great See also:fire, which destroyed several valuable buildings, but notwithstanding this, the mother See also:left to each of her six See also:children some little See also:fortune. In 1695 the boy Holberg was taken into the See also:house of his See also:uncle, Peder Lem, who sent him to the Latin school, and prepared him for the profession of a soldier; but soon after this he was adopted by his See also:cousin See also:Otto Munthe, and went to him up in the mountains. His great him, Holberg's career might have had an untimely See also:close. During the next two years he published five shorter satires, all of which were well received by the public. The great event of 1721 was the erection of the first Danish See also:theatre in Gronnegade, See also:Copenhagen; Holberg took the direction of this house, in which was played, in See also:September 1722, a Danish See also:translation of L'Avare. Until this See also:time no plays had been acted in See also:Denmark except in See also:French and See also:German, but Holberg now determined to use his See also:talent in the construction of Danish See also:comedy. The first of his See also:original pieces performed was Den politiske Kandestober (The Pewterer turned Politician); he wrote other comedies with miraculous rapidity, and before 1722 was closed, there had been performed in See also:succession, and with immense success, Den Vaegelsindede (The Waverer), See also:Jean de See also:France, Jeppe paa Bjerget, and Geri the Westphalian. Of these five plays, four at least are masterpieces; and they were almost immediately followed by others. Holberg took no See also:rest, and before the end of 1723 the comedies of Barselstuen (The Lying-in See also:Room), The Eleventh of See also:July, See also:Jakob von Thyboe, Den Bundeslose (The Fidget), See also:Erasmus Montanus, See also:Don Ranudo, Ulysses of See also:Ithaca, Without See also:Head or Tail, See also:Witchcraft and Melampe had all been written, and some of them acted. In 1724 the most famous comedy that Holberg produced was Henrik and Pernille. But in spite of this unprecedented See also:blaze of dramatic See also:genius the theatre See also:fell into pecuniary difficulties, and had to be closed, Holberg composing for the last See also:night's performance, in See also:February 1727, a Funeral of Danish Comedy. All this excessive labour for the See also:stage had undermined the great poet's See also:health, and in 1725 he had determined to take the See also:baths at See also:Aix-la-Chapelle; but instead of going thither he wandered through See also:Belgium to See also:Paris, and spent the See also:winter there. In the See also:spring he returned to Copenhagen with recovered health and See also:spirits, and worked quietly at his protean See also:literary labours until the great fire of 1728. In the See also:period of See also:national poverty and depression that followed this event, a puritanical spirit came into See also:vogue which was little in sympathy with Holberg's dramatic or satiric genius. He therefore closed his career as a dramatic poet by See also:publishing in 1731 his acted comedies, with the addition of five which he had no opportunity of putting on the stage. With characteristic versatility, he adopted the serious See also:tone of the new See also:age, and busied himself for the next twenty years with See also:historical, philosophical and statistical writings. During this period he published his poetical See also:satire called See also:Metamorphosis (1726), his Epistolae ad virum perillustrem (1727), his Description of Denmark and Norway (1729), See also:History of Denmark, Universal See also: In See also:August 1753 he took to his See also:bed, and he died at Copenhagen on the 28th of See also:January 17J4, in the seventieth year of his age. He was buried at Soro, in See also:Zealand. He had never married, and he bequeathed all his property, which was considerable, to Sorb See also:College. Holberg was not only the founder of Danish literature and the greatest of Danish authors, but he was, with the exception of See also:Voltaire, the first writer in See also:Europe during his own See also:generation. Neither See also:Pope nor See also:Swift, who perhaps excelled him in particular branches of literary See also:production, approached him in range of genius, or in encyclopaedic versatility. Holberg found Denmark provided with no books, and he wrote a library for her. When he arrived in the See also:country, the Danish See also:language was never heard in a See also:gentleman's house. Polite Danes were wont to say that a See also:man wrote Latin to his See also:friends, talked French to the ladies, called his See also:dogs in German, and only used Danish to swear at his servants. The single genius of Holberg revolutionized this581 See also:system. He wrote poems of all kinds in a language hitherto employed only for See also:ballads and See also:hymns; he instituted a theatre, and composed a See also:rich collection of comedies for it; he filled the shelves of the citizens with See also:works in their own See also:tongue on history, See also:law, politics, See also:science, See also:philology and See also:philosophy, all written in a true and manly See also:style, and representing the extreme attainment of See also:European culture at the moment. Perhaps no author who ever lived has had so vast an See also:influence over his country-men, an influence that is still at work after 200 years. The See also:editions of Holberg's works are See also:legion. See also:Complete editions of the Comedies are too numerous to be quoted; the best is that brought out in 3 vols. by F. L. See also:Lichtenberg, in 187o. Of Peder Paars there exist at least twenty-three editions, besides See also:translations in Dutch, German and See also:Swedish. The Iter subterraneum has been three several times translated into Danish, ten times into German, thrice into Swedish, thrice into Dutch, thrice into See also:English, twice into French, twice into See also:Russian and once into Hungarian. The See also:life of Holberg was written by See also:Welhaven in 1858 and by Georg See also:Brandes in 1884. Among works on his genius by foreigners may be mentioned an exhaustive study by See also:Robert See also:Prutz (1857), and Holberg considers comme imitateur de See also:Moliere, by A. Legrelle (Paris, 1864). (E. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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