Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/237

Rh is unable to lead her to the altar on this day because he lacks stockings and he cannot present himself on an occasion so solemn in ordinary boots. But Grete is determined to have the wedding, and so her friend Mette suggests to Johan the idea that he steal a pair of stockings from his rival, Mads, whose prospects for obtaining Grete himself have been noticeably improved by Johan's lack of stockings. After a terrible inward struggle between love and virtue, love conquers, and Johan becomes a thief. Grete has evil forebodings, but Johan indignantly refuses to countenance them as unworthy of both her and himself, and everything promises well when Mads and his friend Jesper discover the theft and charge Johan with it in the presence of his bride. Johan is unwilling to outlive the disgrace and stabs himself, and Grete follows his example. Then Mads kills himself from grief at the loss of his beloved, and his friend Jesper follows him faithfully. Finally Mette, too, follows suit and kills herself simply because she does not care to be the only survivor, and thus the play terminates as tragically as could well be desired.

The effect of the drama depends on the contrast between the ludicrous action of the most insignificant persons and the grand plot planned according to all the rules of art, on the one hand, and on the other a pretentious diction which struts about in high buskins, and which, at every moment, forgets its own assumed part, while the natural utterances of these persons with their coarse phrases and insipid figures of speech obtrude themselves even in the midst of their grandest speeches. The poet has accomplished his difficult task in a most satisfactory manner and filled his play to the brim with fun and humor, and while he never exaggerates, he betrays no anxiety lest he should give too loose reins to his sallies

The chief literary-historical value of Wessel's parody consists in his attack on the affected French taste, and this value is not lessened by the circumstance that he probably borrowed his idea from an older English play, "The Rehearsal," which