Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/246



ITH Baggesen we have already advanced far into the present century. But before taking leave of the eighteenth century we must take a brief glance at the state of things prevailing at its close in order to see how such a man was needed to infuse new life into the whole nation. It is true there was a vigorous and talented activity in many directions, but the fruits of the work done were small in proportion to the strength expended. Both the greatest poets which the age had produced died uncomprehended and by no means sufficiently appreciated, while inferior talent occupied prominent places. Characteristic of the poetical taste of the time is the circumstance that preference was accorded by the public to drinking songs. They were regarded as the main requisite for social intercourse, and accordingly this kind of poetry reached at this time its golden age. In many things there was, of course, strife and fermentation. Opposite tendencies struggled for the supremacy; orthodoxy contended with rationalism, enthusiasm for foreign productions with the national sentiment just awaking, and yet there was a striking smallness and insignificance in all matters pertaining to the world of thought. There existed, to be sure, some