Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/282

264 cation is not only masterly, but it defies imitation. This kind of poetical composition, hovering between the pathetic and the work-a-day element, afforded an excellent arena for sportive grace, and was the field in which Hertz, by the very bent of his genius, must have felt himself most at home. At the same time Hertz also published his celebrated "Gjengangerbreve eller poetiske Epistler fra Paradis" (A Ghost's letters, or epistles from Paradise), a series of rhymed epistles in which he has taken Baggesen as his model in respect to form, but the work is written with such skill and elegance that the disciple may in this case be said to have surpassed his master. The purpose of these letters was to influence the æsthetic tendency of the age, and especially to support Heiberg in his literary controversies with Hauch, Ingemann and others.

In his numerous subsequent poetical works, Hertz made a practical application of the æsthetic theories which he had laid down in his rhymed epistles. The drama was his specialty, and he has produced very excellent things in every branch of theatrical composition. Following in the wake of Heiberg, he wrote admirable vaudevilles, such as "Debatten i Politivennen" (the debate in the Police Friend, a local paper), and "De Fattiges Dyrehave" (a park for the poor). He also wrote comedies, for which the plot was taken from life, such as "Sparekassen" (the savings bank), "Besöget i Kjöbenhavn" (the visit to Copenhagen); plays in which the plots were borrowed from various countries and various ages, such as "Ninon," "Tonietta," "De Deporterede," and others; and finally also romantic plays, "Kong Réné's Datter" and "Svend Dyrings Hus," in the latter of which he not only put on the stage a subject borrowed from the popular ballad, but also adapted the form to that which it originally had in the mediæval compositions; in other words, he produced from the lyric metre of the heroic ballad an exceedingly effective dramatic metre. In the most of his plays, with the exception, perhaps, of his vaudevilles, which, on the whole, are inferior to Hei-