Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/272

254 cessor as professor of æsthetics in the Copenhagen University and in this capacity he wrote a number of dissertations, which give evidence of a thorough and comprehensive study of that science. In his books, "Minder fra min Barndom og min Ungdom" (Recollections from my childhood and youth), and "Erindringer fra min förste Udenlandsreise" (Recollections from my first journey abroad), he has given us fragments of an autobiography which is interesting, both on account of the sincerity and knowledge of self revealed, and on account of the story told. He died in Rome in 1871.

(1784—1860) was a very peculiar, romantic, poetical nature. He was already thirty-five years old when he published his first volume entitled "dramatiske Scener." This was followed, in the course of fourteen years, by five other volumes with similar contents. The title suggests the peculiarity of his works as to their form. The loosely connected scenes are intended to produce an independent effect, and accordingly contain each a complete act. No stress is laid on really dramatic combinations of the materials, and this accounts for the fact that these works, which abound in noble and sublime thoughts on life, and are remarkable for their elegance of diction, received but little notice from the poet's contemporaries. He never loses his complete command of language, and whether he indulges in the deepest pathos or vents his feelings in the most withering scorn, he always succeeds in finding the most suitable phrases, and thus he reminds us, in many respects, of Shakespeare. What Bredahl has written in addition to this, his chief work, can in no way be compared with the latter. Greatly disappointed at not finding the merited public appreciation, and upon the whole dissatisfied with the world, he retired in 1824 to a small farm,