Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/209

Rh conscious was "a good and useful moral," and as a means to this end he created his play. He well understood that it would be fruitless to fling people's faults and follies into their faces, and so he "mixed nonsense into his plays," as he himself asserts, in order to secure a better effect. He frequently in so doing gave offence, and then, as when he published Peder Paars, he had many misunderstandings to contend with. On the one hand it gave great offence that a university professor should occupy himself with "tomfooleries" of this kind, and on the other hand many felt hurt and believed themselves personally held up to public ridicule, so that Holberg repeatedly was compelled to defend himself in writing against false interpretations, and to enlighten the public in regard to the real purport of his plays. The fact that he, in spite of all opposition, continued his work and did not go astray in his vast creative activity, is the strongest proof that he was profoundly convinced of the importance of his task.

When during the reign of Christian VI the puritanism of the court was spread throughout the land and invaded all social relations, Holberg suspended his activity as a playwright and went to Paris to enjoy a holiday. On his return to Copenhagen he resumed his long interrupted historical studies and published a "Danmarks Historie" in three volumes, a thorough, exhaustive, and graphic work, and the first popular history of Denmark ever written. This was followed by a general ecclesiastical history from the introduction of Christianity to the Reformation, an excellent work, which for the first time made this great subject accessible to all, and it was, moreover, written in a thoroughly vivid and fascinating style.

His history of the Jews is of less importance, consisting chiefly in a compilation from other writers. In his comparative sketches of heroes and heroines he followed Plutarch's method, constantly comparing two celebrated men or women. He sketches their lives in a general introduction