Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/228

210 itable performances, especially as delineations of character. In these dramatic works, as also in his satirical novel "Rigsdalersedlens Hændelser" (the adventures of the bank-note), and in many of his songs and other lesser works, Heiberg unsparingly attacks all existing institutions. The government persecuted him inexorably, while the masses loved and honored him, not only on account of his sallies against the nobility and Germanism, but also against injustice. In the year 1799 there appeared a new press law, to which he fell a victim. He was accused of several offences against this law and sentenced to exile. In spite of the popular indignation thus aroused, the sentence was executed, and in 1800 Heiberg had to leave Denmark. He went to France, where he obtained an appointment in the ministry of foreign affairs, and where he remained until his death.

(1775-1826) was as combative and reckless as Heiberg, and far more violent. The best known of his scathing pamphlets is his "Aristokraternes Katekismus" (1796). It brought him a lawsuit, but he escaped to Sweden. An ode which he at this time wrote on the occasion of Bernstorfs death appeased the government; the suit was withdrawn and he returned to Denmark. But a few years later his writings again gave offence to the authorities, and only by flight to France did he escape a severe sentence that threatened him. He remained in France until his death, chiefly engaged in geographical work, by which he gained a world-wide fame.

This age produced a large number of poets, whose works are not, however, as a rule, of very great value. To encourage obscure talents, Holberg had in his time offered prizes for meritorious poems, and several others had followed his example. Artificial means of this kind soon, however, became superfluous, for poets soon sprang up in such great numbers