Page:The New Monthly Magazine - Volume 094.djvu/468

458 rough planed the taste of the nation." He certainly gave an impulse to its literary taste, and laboured hard to improve and amuse his countrymen.

Ludvig Holberg was born at Bergen, in Norway, in 1684. Though well connected by his mother’s side—his maternal grandfather having been a bishop—his father, who was a military man, had risen from the ranks; but he died a colonel, which proved, says his gifted son, "that he was not a nobleman by birth, but by deeds." He adds, that his father "was ever known to be an upright, valiant, and pious man, who gained the approbation of all who knew him." On the death of his widowed mother, when he was only ten years of age, Holberg was left an almost destitute orphan. He was at first intended. for the army, but after he had quitted the grammar-school, an uncle (his mother’s brother) sent him to the University of Copenhagen, where he studied divinity, and also French and Italian. His poverty compelled him afterwards to take the situation of a tutor in a private family in Norway, whither he had returned.

When he had saved sixty dollars, he determined to go forth to see the world, and embarked for Amsterdam. Not, however, finding any encouragement to remain in Holland, and his slender finances being exhausted, he returned to Norway, where he set up, on the strength of his travels, as a teacher of modern languages. Here, at Christiansand, he was reaping quite a golden harvest, when a bankrupt Dutch merchant arrived to divide his honours and emoluments. However, he succeéded in scraping up a little money, and then betook himself to England. On landing at Gravesend, Holberg walked to London, and from thence proceeded to Oxford; he subsisted there by teaching French and music, and his wit and information brought him much into notice. He read a great deal while at Oxford; and on his return to the north, went. to Copenhagen, where his talents attracted the attention of the reigning king (Frederick IV.), by whom, in 1714, he was appointed a professor at the university. His wandering disposition, however, soon led him abroad again; but after having travelled through Holland, France, and Italy, he returned to Denmark, and resumed his functions at the university. In 1747 he was created a baron; and by that time he had amassed a good deal of money—partly by strict economy, and partly by the sale of his works. Holberg disposed of his fortune in rather a singular manner. He presented the greater part of it to the aristocratic academy of Soroe, and bequeathed a considerable sum to create a fund, the interest of which was to be given as dowries to young ladies. He died unmarried, in the seventieth year of his age, in January, 1754.

Ludwig Holberg has been called "the Molière of the North;" he wrote between thirty and forty comedies, which abound in wit and humour, and ridicule the foibles of society in his day and country; but the humour, it must be confessed, is frequently low, and not exactly suitable to the refinement of modern taste. His historical writings were also numerous: among these were an "Introduction to the General History of Europe;" "A Description of Denmark and Norway;" "A History of Denmark;" "A General History of the Church;" "A History of Celebrated Characters;" "A History of the Jews," &c. He also published "Moral Fables" and "Moral Reflections." But the two works which most