Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/171

Rh which were so popular in Germany, were seldom seen in Denmark, and only one comedy of this kind has been preserved. Of greater dramatic works, such as were played in other countries for the benefit of the people, there is not the slightest trace in Denmark.

The school-comedies on account of the epic and allegorical element so prominent in them, are essentially different from the later dramatic literature. There is no effort to preserve unity of action, of time, or of place, nor do they concern themselves about any motive for the action. They were partly intended for edification, this applying to representations of Bible stories; partly for instruction, this applying to the moral allegories, which furnished examples to be shunned or imitated; and partly, finally, for the amusement of the spectators. In the last class the low comical element predominated.) So frequently are the didactic and amusing elements united that the designation "amusing and useful comedies," would apply to the majority of them.

The first Danish plays of this kind, of which we have any record, are the three so-called, preserved in a manuscript from 1531. The faithless wife, a burlesque, very amusing carnival drama, is, as it seems, borrowed from the German, though no German original is to be found. It is the only comedy of this kind extant in Denmark. The "Judgment of Paris" is a short, allegorical, mythological "morality," of very slight value, and the "Dorothea comedy" is the translation of a Latin "Saints' play" written by the knight Chilian of Wellerstadt in the beginning of the sixteenth century. The epilogue is, however, original Danish. These works have been attributed to the above named Christian Pedersen, who was at one time rector of the Odinse Latin school; but the proofs are insufficient. All that is certain is that he was the author of the epilogue to the "Saints' play."

A mystery-play from the period of the Reformation is the drama on the national saint, Knud Lavard, "Ludus de