Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/384

366 produced a genuine national comedy, which still like Kexél's "Kapten Puff" belongs to the repertoire of the Swedish stage.

Among Bellman's cousins are also numbered (1758-97) and  (1756-1806). They were both writers of comedies, but not particularly eminent, though their plays were national productions of great importance for the young Swedish theatre. Envallson developed an astounding fertility and produced more than eighty comedies. The best known among them is "Slåtterölet eller Kronofogdarne," which, though it is a free adaptation of a French comedy, has become a truly national drama.

Very different from Bellman was (1758-93), a man whose eminent talent unfortunately did not become fully developed. Already in his eighteenth year Lidner's reputation for irregularities was so bad that he was expelled from the University of Lund, where he was studying. He went to Rostock, where he took the master's degree, but at the same time he continued his irregular life, so that it was decided to put him on board a ship bound for the East Indies. He deserted the ship at the Cape of Good Hope, where he spent a year in the greatest misery. Thereupon he returned to Sweden and published a small collection of fables, some of which are very fine. Gustav III, who with a truly royal generosity assisted all poor men of talent, also tried to help him and sent him as secretary of the Swedish embassy to Paris, the embassador being the above mentioned Count Creutz. But here, too, Lidner continued his bad habits and Creutz, who for a long time had shown a great deal of leniency toward him, was at last obliged to send him away. Now the king, too, abandoned him and only now and then sent him small pecuniary contributions, which Lidner soon spent in dissipation. He finally eked out a miserable exist-