Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/385

Rh ence by composing poems on particular occasions. He kept sinking deeper and deeper until he at last died, worn out in soul and body. His first great work was the tragedy "Erik XIV," which, at the instigation of Creutz, he wrote in Paris in the traditional style. This style did not, however, harmonize with the bent of his genius, and consequently the work was on the whole unsuccessful, though it contained many fine passages. His talent was for the first time displayed to advantage in his three chief works, the poems "Året 1783," "Grefvinnan Spastaras död," and the lyric drama "Medea," which appeared in rapid succession and gained him general recognition. "Grefvinnan Spastaras död" became particularly popular. It describes an episode from the earthquake in Messina, 1783, and in it a mother's love is depicted in its most charming aspect. Among his other works we may mention the poem "Yttersta domen" (the last judgment), and the oratorios (short dramas set to music) "Jerusalems Förstöring" and "Messias i Gethsemane." Lidner's excellence consists in his rich and vivid imagination, which imparts a magic splendor to his poetry and makes its faults less apparent. Moreover his feelings were strong and passionate, and his style was in the highest degree original. But the same faults that preyed on his life also cleave to his poetical works, for they are sorely wanting in dignity and moral earnestness. He could not master his physical appetites, nor could he control his creative power, and what he produced were not works of art; they were rather passionate outbursts of a grand but dilapidated intellect. In miniature Lidner reminds us of Byron.

While in Lidner an overstrained, unbridled preponderates and prevents him from producing art in the true sense of the word, so thought overshadows all in the works of  (1759-1808), who, in a higher degree than any of his contemporaries, paved the way for a new era in the world of intelligence. He is a type of that stir-