claims, "is almost the only land on earth | tal, he soon accepted the situation of tutor where people are found willing to make it a and assistant to a clergyman in Norway, point of honour that they should be ignorant where, as he says, he spent a whole year in of their fathers' tongue." The literary pa-"flogging children and converting rustics," bulum of the middle classes, who gradually while, at the same time, he suffered severely advanced in power and position after the es- from various kinds of illness, both bodily tablishment of regal autocracy in 1660, and mental. He then returned to Copenha consisted simply of meagre sermons, and yet gen to pass his "second examination;" theremore meagre chronicles, or old ballads that after studied theology, along with the modwere only a weak reflection of the sweet and ern languages, and next spring (1704) noble songs of a preceding age; songs which, underwent his theological examination with E from their very sweetness and nobleness, much success. Necessity ere long obliged failed to find admission into the hearts of him to accept once more the post of tutor; the degenerate descendants of their original this time in a family at Bergen. But in the composers. Such was the state of literary house of his new employer he stumbled upon affairs in Denmark when Holberg com- a book of travels, which to such an extent menced his career. The times needed a re- aroused within him the longing to visit forformer, and in him the reformer came- eign countries, that, in spite of the earnest came with a power and energy that were advice of every one, he gave up his situa equal to the cause for which he fought tion, sold the little he possessed, and set sail throughout a long life of severe and unre- by the first ship that happened to leave the mitting toil. The result was the intellec- harbour. He never again beheld the place tual emancipation of his countrymen, and the of his nativity. laying, fast and firm, the basis on which, in due course, was erected the entire substantial edifice of modern Danish literature. Some slight account of Holberg's life and works may therefore be acceptable to those who take an interest in the development of the different national branches of later European literature, and who, although well aware of Holberg's renown as a comic dramatist, second alone to Plautus and Molière, may yet be ignorant of the immense services which he rendered, in many most important ways, not merely to the literature of his native country, but to that of the whole north of Europe.

Ludvig Holberg was born at Bergen, in Norway, on the 3d December, 1684. His father, an officer in the army, had risen from the ranks to the grade of Lieutenant Colonel, had seen foreign service, and at home distinguished himself against the Swedes, especially at the relief of Trondhjem in 1658. Ludvig, the youngest of twelve children, was as yet an infant when his father died. Shortly afterwards there occurred a disastrous fire, which in a single night reduced his surviving parent to poverty. She died when her son was ten years old, and the household was broken up. At this age he was, being an officer's son, enrolled as corporal in a regiment; but his desire for study was so great that his uncle by his mother's side, who felt an interest in the lad, took him to live in his own house, and sent him to the grammar-school of Bergen. When eighteen years old, Ludvig went to prosecute his studies at the University of Copenhagen, in the summer of 1702. Lacking, however, adequate means of support in the Danish capi

Holland was, in the first instance, the goal of his travels. He had a capital of sixty Danish rix-dollars, and hoped to further him self as a teacher of languages; but he speed'ily discovered that in Amsterdam "the most learned professors were not respected so much as was a common sea-captain." On account of his slim figure and his girlish countenance, he became the object, sometimes of admiration, sometimes of impertinent questions, as for example, "Hoor gij wel, mannetje! quando deseruisti studia tua ?"-ques tions which, in similar fashion, he was not slow to answer. An obstinate fever helped to exhaust his purse, and he was compelled to borrow money for the purpose of returning home. On arriving in Norway he took up his residence at Christiansand, where he soon acquired reputation as a language master, especially as a teacher of French. At first, notwithstanding, he nearly gave mortal offence to many of the citizens by his love of paradox, and, in particular, by his zeal in defending a newly published work, which endeavoured to prove, by no fewer than sixty arguments, that women were not human be ings; yet he abjured ere long this most upgallant heresy, and continued during his subsequent career of authorship to maintain with much ardour the social equality of the female sex. His musical talents also contributed to his popularity; and for his lin guistic acquirements he became, at least in Christiansand, "as renowned as King Mithridates, who spoke twenty-two tongues." But Holberg's restless spirit would not allow him to remain; and in 1706 he undertook a voyage to England, where he lived for two years at Oxford. There he spent his time

studying in the libraries, partly Church his- |
tory, partly modern history, and the law of
nations; he held familiar intercourse with the
students, and became in many ways ac-
quainted with the various aspects of English
life. At first he and a fellow-countryman,
who had been his travelling companion, were
forced to live so parsimoniously that for a
whole quarter of a year they only every
fourth day tasted animal food--a mode of
diet which was quite congenial to Holberg's
constitution, but which brought his comrade
to the verge of despair, so that Ludvig had
to console him with the words of the sage
Bion, "It is unreasonable to tear the hair
for sorrow, as if sorrow could be cured by
baldness." Ere long he managed to support
himself as teacher of foreign languages and
flute-playing; in musical society his pre-
sence was indispensable. He pursued his
own quiet path, during a lengthened period,
bearing the name of "Myn Heer," which
title some persons had heard given to him by
his barber, who believed him to be a Ger-
man, and wished to show his own knowledge
of the language. As there was no evil in
tention in such a misnomer, Holberg never
heeded to correct it, and his real name would
scarcely have been discovered if he had not
by accident met an English student called
Holber, with whom he forthwith formed ac-
quaintance as a namesake, and perhaps a
relative, through one of his ancestors who
had sailed to England along with Canute the
Great. By the Oxford students Holberg
was greatly liked. When he was preparing
to depart, one of them came to him as a dep-
uty from Magdalen College, and offered him
a considerable sum of money to defray the
expenses of his journey; but with grateful
thanks he declined their friendly proffer.
From London he sailed in a Swedish ship
to Elsinore, and thence walked on foot to
Copenhagen, arriving there in the summer

of 1708.

Here he thought of commencing as public lecturer, and actually began a series of dis courses on what he had witnessed in foreign countries. Hearers he had in plenty, but when the time for paying their instructor came, they suddenly, to his mortification, vanished; his only recompense was a low bow when he chanced to meet any of them on the street. Most opportunely, however, at this crisis, he was offered, and accepted, the appointment of travelling-tutor to a young man about to visit Germany-a country which in general seems to have had less attraction for Holberg than some other lands. On his return he was fortunate enough to receive free residence in Borch's Collegium for five years, and, in addition, a small salary

therewith connected. Now, at last, he had more leisure for his studies. The duty which devolved upon him, of taking part in academical exercises, he discharged by composing Latin declamationes, all relating to subjects with which he was practically acquainted: scientific travels in foreign regions, history, music, and languages. He lived, both from choice and necessity, in a very frugal manner, and made frequent pedestrian excursions for the sake of his health, but otherwise dwelt entirely among his books. At the age of twenty-seven he published his first work, for which he had gathered materials in Oxford, Introduction to the History of the European Kingdoms (1711), and afterwards a statistical appendix to the same. A treatise, on the Achievements of Christian the Fourth and Frederick the Third, composed, like the former, "for the use of the Crown Prince," and sent in manuscript to King Frederick the Fourth, procured the nomination of its author as Professor Extraordinarius" in 1714, to the chagrin of the learned pedants of the day, who refused to rank him with the rightful Academici. Shortly before he had been assigned a stipend of one hundred rix-dollars for four years, and on the strength of this meagre income he undertook, in the spring of 1714, his fourth and longest foreign journey. Having first proceeded to Holland, he walked all the way to Paris; and, although so long a teacher of languages, he had such difficulty in making himself understood, that he sometimes heard the people say, Il parle Français comme un cheval Allemand. By degrees he formed acquaintances as well with various Parisians as with some of his countrymen who resided in the capital. He was an assiduous frequenter of the libraries, and saw all that was to be seen in the city. Sometimes he attended the public tribunals to hear the pleadings of the advocates, sometimes he was present at public discussions on the advantages of the Catholic religion, and about this latter point he had also many private disputations. After residing a year and a half in Paris he hap. pened to be informed by a French student that one could travel to Rome for twenty rix-dollars, and Holberg was not able to resist the temptation of such a journey. started forthwith for the Eternal City, provided with a passport, in which he was described as Mikkel Rög of Aix-la-Chapelle; and that was the name he bore during his Italian expedition. Arrived at Genoa, he was assailed by a dangerous fever, and believed himself to be dying. In his helpless state, and under the roof of an extortionate landlord, who, every time that "Signor Recco" was prostrated by illness, reckoned tanto

He

per la notte e tanto per il giorno,-apprehensive | culcate good morals, and refine the language of monkish visitation, longing for spiritual as well as the manners of his countrymen. comfort and physical support, he would in The determination bore fruit in the inimita all probability have succumbed to his disease, ble mock-heroic poem, Peder Paars, to which had it not been for the attention and kind- we shall afterwards at greater length refer. ness of a complete stranger, whom, however, Peder Paars was published in 1719, and soon he subsequently found out to be a country- gained such popularity that it passed through th man of his own. It was in the autumn of a number of editions, and was also largely i 1715, shortly after the decease of Louis the circulated in Sweden and in Germany, where Fourteenth; and Holberg tells us that he people learned Danish for the sole purpose used to draw patience from the thought, of being enabled to read the work. But the "What is thy life compared with that of singular success of Peder Paars was a small such a man?" Sailing from Genoa, he and matter compared with Holberg's subsequent his fellow-passengers, a whole company of literary triumphs. His genius had now dis monks and females, were nearly captured by covered the secret of its true power, and pirates. Amid the universal cries of terror, hasted to achieve fresh victories. A troop he stood on deck, worn out by illness, with of French actors, who had for some time his sword by his side, and, like the rest, been performing at the Palace, aroused a invoked St. Antony, when, most fortunately, general desire for the establishment of a the pirate vessel left them, and attacked theatre in Copenhagen. It was opened in another ship. After this happy escape he 1722, with the representation of Molière's reached Rome in safety, and the sight of St. L'Avare, translated into Danish; but, in order Peter's made him forget all his past troubles that they might have original Danish plays and dangers. In Rome he lived according as well as French translations, the promoters to the customs of the people, cooked his own of the theatre had naturally recourse to the food, and sat by the hearth, "with a book in author of Peder Paars, and he with small one hand and a ladle in the other." He reluctance agreed to meet their wishes. Holprosecuted his studies zealously in the public berg used the same form of comedy which libraries, and also devoted much attention had been employed before him by Plautus to the monuments of antiquity. After and Molière, but, more than they, he kept spending the winter in Rome, he made his his own time and his own land in view, inas way on foot back to Paris, "with fever," as much as his chief object was "to depict the he tells us, "the whole way, for his fellow-national faults and follies which had not been traveller." It was only when he reached castigated in other comedies;" and his knowl Amsterdam, that he felt completely restored edge of mankind was so rich and varied, his to health, not, strangely enough, by medi- lively fancy so inexhaustible, that in a very cine, but by playing on the violin all night few years he penned in swift succession no in the company of some kindred spirits. fewer than between twenty and thirty comic Fully reinvigorated in mind and body, he re- dramas, replete with vivid typical delineaturned to Copenhagen in the summer of 1716. tions of the most dissimilar human characters, There he lived a year and a half in compara- who, through some ridiculous habit, or the tive poverty, until the Chair of Metaphysics in favourite follies either of certain individuals the University became vacant, and, although or certain social conditions, only all too far from being a friend of metaphysical stud- easily became the butt of the author's telling ies, he agreed to accept it. A second vacancy satire. Already, in 1722, The State Tinker shortly occurring, he was appointed Profes- was performed to such a large audience that sor of Latin and Rhetoric, and also made a many were compelled to stand in the passages. member of the Consistory (Assessor), by The same year there followed The Ficklewhich his income was materially improved. minded, Jean de France, Jeppe paa Bjerget, and And now, with so fortunate a change in his Gert Westphaler; in 1723 appeared The outward prospects, there came a correspond- Eleventh of June and The Lying-in Chamber; ing change in his literary activity, a change in 1724 there were represented as many as which resulted in the production of that eight new pieces, among them The Christmas series of works which have mainly rendered Party-which could scarcely be played to him illustrious. At this period he was in the close for the laughter of the spectators, the thirty-fifth year of his age. Since and at last of the actors themselves,-Jacob his boyhood he had never written verses, Von Tybo, Ulysses of Ithacia a merciless and "could not hear the finest piece of parody on the productions of the German poetry read to him without a weary yawn." stage,--Melampe-a tragi-comedy, which evo But after the lapse of long years he deter- keď at once tears and smiles,-and Henrich mined to try his hand once more at poeti and Pernille, where the chief figures are two cal composition of the didactic kind, to in- servants, a valet and lady's-maid, who have