Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/345

Rh but other conditions were not favorable, and so there was here, as in the rest of the North, produced instead the school-comedy. Its original purpose was to train the students of the colleges and of the university in the classical languages, and at the same time to promote morality by introducing examples of good conduct. Later Swedish was substituted for the ancient languages, while the original pedagogical tendency was preserved. The first author of a school-comedy was, who wrote a "Tobiae comedia," and like all the subsequent plays of this kind it was produced in rhymed verses. For some time these dramas took their plots exclusively from the Bible, adhering with servile accuracy to the scriptural text without seeking to secure any dramatic development. To this sweeping statement we must make a single exception, the "Holofernis och Judiths commaedia," which in excellence surpasses all the others.

In the beginning of the seventeenth century these dramatized biblical tales were succeeded by secular plays, which took their plots from the old classical literature, but which in other respects ranked no higher than their predecessors. The best one among them is the oldest one entitled, "En lustigh comoedia vidh nampn Tisbe" (a merry comedy by the name Thisbe), written by (died 1647), which was played for the first time in 1610. To the better ones of this class belongs also "Troijenborgh," by, which treats of the fate of Troy, and is written with a comparatively high degree of dramatic skill. The "Judas Redivivus," by, is worthy of notice on account of its scenes from popular life, and for other pictures of the times to which it belongs.

now founded an entirely new school, in which be soon found imitators. He selected subjects from Swedish history as the basis of his dramas. He intended to write fifty comedies and tragedies on the history of Sweden. In these he proposed to represent his country's history from the introduction of Christianity to the Reformation, just as had