Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/257

Rh aesthetics in the University of Copenhagen, and as such he delivered a series of lectures on Ewald and Schiller. Though not gifted with eminent critical talents, still his words are not without value, since his pure poetical instinct supplies what he lacked in other respects. Here we may also call attention to the introductions which he wrote for his earlier poetical works. They consist in admirably conceived dissertations, in which he defends the new æsthetical principles with great ardor and clearness.

Oehlenschläger was not only a very prolific, but also a very versatile poet. There is no kind of poetical composition in which he has not produced something. But the particular kind of poetical composition in which his genius developed the most luxuriant bloom was the romances, or in other words, that form of poetry in which epic blends with lyric. His tragedies—they do not all deserve this name, since but few of his heroes produce any truly tragical impressions—are rather dramatized romances than dramas proper. The scenes do not organically group themselves around a fundamental idea that is developed by necessity, but they resolve themselves into loosely connected pictures in which epic and lyrical elements hold alternately the supremacy. They abound in passages full of a weird imagination and warm feeling, and for this reason they carried everything before them. Though they have but little intrinsic dramatic power, they will always remain an ornament to Danish literature.

Aside from the immediate poetic merit which must be attributed to Oehlenschläger's best works, they have a great and imperishable value for Danish literature, on account of their national character. Holberg availed himself of foreign elements, and established between the literature of his own country and that of Europe a connection which proved advantageous in many respects. No one thought at that time of reverting to the people's historical past. Ewald made the first step in this direction, but he stood alone. Then the times became ripe for a comprehension of antiquity, and Oeh-