Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/226

208 in this line. He gained his real importance as a writer for the promotion of popular enlightenment.

(1760-1830) was one of the most fertile writers of which the Danish literature can boast. His works were for a long time widely read and keenly appreciated. Still, his intellectual gifts were not of a sufficiently high order to enable him to appropriate the new ideas that came with the dawn of the nineteenth century, or in general to keep pace with the march of time. Nevertheless, he possessed intelligence enough to acknowledge the claims of the new era and to abstain from warring with it. His specialty was æsthetics. In addition to his numerous original poetical and critical works he published many translations of similar productions from foreign languages, and superintended the editing of several poets of ancient and more recent times. He interested himself in various ways in behalf of the theatre, and from 1809 to 1830 he was its manager. He also wrote dramas, which were not, however, successful. Rahbek was a most charming man personally, and had therefore hosts of friends. His house, the so-called "Bakkehus" (House on the hill), near Copenhagen, where his gifted, wife, Kamma (Karen Margarethe), who was a celebrated letter-writer, presided as a most amiable hostess, was for a long time the trysting-place of all who were in any manner distinguished for wit and talent.

In (1759-1829) Danish literary history found an able and untiring worker. When a poor student he had the good fortune of making the acquaintance of the historian, Suhm, who secured him an appointment in the public libraries, in which he was actively engaged until his death. Among his works in the field of history of literature special mention should be made of his "Bidrag til den danske Digtekunsts Historie" (six volumes), which he published with