Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/279

Rh ical productions. In 1814 he published his first great work, "Marionettheatret," which contained the two romantic dramas, "Don Juan" and "Pottemager Walter" (Potter Walter). The refined and noble diction in these pieces did not fail to attract wide attention. Three years later followed "Dristig vovet, halv er vundet" (Boldly ventured is half the victory), a study from Calderon, of whom Heiberg was so exceedingly fond that he chose him as the subject of his thesis for the degree of doctor; and in the same year he also published a romantic work on the myth about Psyche. His critical bent had already in 1815 vented itself in the above mentioned dramatic satire, "Julespög og Nytaarslöier," in which he rebuked, in a most scathing manner, the vagaries of the romantic school, especially Ingemann's idealistic dramas and the public who were wild with enthusiasm over them. This led to a feud between himself and Grundtvig, who assumed the defence of Ingemann, but was completely vanquished by Heiberg's sharp work: "Ny A B C Bog til Äre, Nytte og Fornöielse for den unge Grundtvig" (New primer in honor of and for the use and amusement of the youth Grundtvig).

After a journey abroad during which he visited his father, who still lived in Paris, he became Lector of Danish language and literature in Kiel, but after a few years he returned to Copenhagen, where the vaudevilles he published made great stir in æsthetical circles. The peculiarity of this kind of plays introduced on the Danish stage by Heiberg consists, as is well known, in the manner in which the words and music are blended into one, but still so that the music is the subordinate element, serving chiefly to give a lyric character to the drama. The models of these light, lively little plays were really taken from the French stage, but in Heiberg's hands the vaudeville was essentially changed and became an entirely new dramatic species, which Heiberg well knew how to use as a means for arousing that taste for local comical element which is peculiar to the very nature of the Danish people. The best among the vaudevilles are: "Kong Salomon og Jörgen