Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/227

Rh Rahbek, and "Udvalgte danske Viser fra Middelalderen" (Selected Danish ballads from the middle age), in five volumes, which he published together with Rahbek and Abrahamson. Several historical and antiquarian works by this gifted author are also of great value. He also rendered an inestimable service to northern antiquarian research by the fact that the museum was founded chiefly at his instigation. The above mentioned (1744-1812), a Slesvig by birth, although he had received a German education, became a most ardent advocate of the Danish language, which, at the military academy, had been completely superseded by the German, as Abrahamson found to his sorrow, and he distinguished himself as a warm and sincere patriot. By numerous dissertations in various periodicals he endeavored to diffuse a knowledge of the history and literature of the North.

As we are now considering the general intellectual movements in the literature at the close of the last century, it may not be out of place to mention two men, who, though poets, still were of chief importance as the representatives of the national agitation and of the liberal ideas that were daily gaining ground. These men are and. They both stood on the ground of the French revolution and they took a prominent part in that opposition against the existing institutions, which continued with increasing recklessness, especially after the emancipation of the press effected by Struense in 1770. Heiberg (1758-1841) early made his name known by his satirical songs, and his comedies especially secured him great influence on public opinion. These operettas and comedies obtained an extraordinary success and were even compared with Holberg's comedies, though they are in reality by no means equal to them; but still many of them are very cred-