Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/365

Rh horse), or when, as in the case of many of his songs, he adopts the simple style of the popular ballad. These by far surpass all his other productions, by which he became famous, and on which his historical importance is based. During the last years of his life, when the political revolutions had for a time banished him from the court, he worked assiduously on his "Svea rikes Historia," which he had begun at an early age, but which he did not carry further than to the reign of Carl IX. The style is attractive, but it shows a want of investigation of original sources, and a lack of criticism.

This was the period of the foundation of societies of scholars and poets, and Sweden established several of them, copying French models. Of these the "Vitterhets-Akademien," or society of the fine arts, founded in 1753 by Queen Louise Ulrika under the auspices of Dalin, has attained the greatest celebrity. On the death of the Queen it ceased to exist, but was reorganized on an enlarged plan by Gustav III in 1786, and called "Kongliga Vitterhets-Historie—och Antiquitets-Akademien," and as such it still exists. Other societies of poets were the "Utile Dulci," with its sub-branches "Apollinis Sacra" in Upsala and "Aurora" in Åbo, and the "Tankebygger-Ordenen" (the order of thought builders). Among the founders of the last is (1718-63), whose name ranked high in the literature of that period. She had received a very thorough education, but her sound common sense and her clear mind kept her aloof from pedantry. Her sentimentality, her romantic longing, her correct idea of the true nature of poetry make her a very marked character in the Swedish literature of her time, which was so completely imbued with pseudo- classicism. This particularly applies to the collection of elegiac poems "Den sörjande Turturdufvan" (the mourning turtle dove), which she composed when in her twenty