Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/388

370 gest that he wished to make her a scholar, which did not, however, have any detrimental influence on her healthy unsophisticated mind. When twenty-six years old, she was married to Lenngren, and her husband introduced her into a circle of distinguished poets, at the head of which Lenngren figured. In 1777 she published the satire, "Thekonseljen" a work which she later declared to be a failure, though it was in reality of far greater value than the translations and adaptations which she made of French operas at the request of Gustav III. But she owes her prominent place in Swedish literature to her shorter poems, which were published from time to time in the paper which Kellgren and her husband edited, and which after her death were collected and issued in a book called "Skaldeförsök." For a long time she endeavored to conceal her name, probably from an exaggerated fear of being called a "blue stocking," and consequently, as Franzén says, she hid her lamp under her sewing table. For a long time Kellgren was thought to be the author of her poems, and when she finally cast aside her anonymousness, she rose rapidly in favor with the public. And this popularity was well deserved, for her satirical and idyllic poems are splendid in style, and their materials, which are chiefly taken from daily life, are treated in a truly poetical manner. They are still highly appreciated in Sweden on account of their fresh humor and for their fine psychological insight, as well as for the purity and simplicity which they breathe. Another female poet, (1767-1841) gained her popularity among her contemporaries chiefly by her sentimental erotic songs.

During the Gustavian period and the epoch immediately succeeding it, poetry monopolized all interests to such a degree that comparatively little was achieved in the purely scientific branches. Prose was not wholly neglected, but it was employed almost exclusively in æsthetics and philosophy. Thus the poet Leopold entered the lists as champion of the French