Page:The New Monthly Magazine - Volume 095.djvu/149

142 With fury raged the combat then.

The moon from clouds broke forth again

To light that struggle brief.

It beamed soon o'er the conqueror's way—

The hero of full many a lay—

The Lion-hearted chief.

These lines are a close translation, and there is surely, to say the least, a good deal of spirit in them. But none of Boye’s poetry is heavy.

Peter Foersom, the son of a clergyman at Ribe, in South Jutland, who was born in 1778, and died in 1817, takes his place among Danish writers, not so much as an author as a translator. He translated Thomson's" "Seasons, and the greater number of Shakspeare's plays, beginning with "Hamlet." He did not live to finish them all, and the work was continued and completed by Commander P. F. Wulff, a great patron of literature and literary people. Foersom was an actor, and himself performed the parts of some of Shakspeare’s heroes. It is a remarkable fact that most of the writers on general literature in Denmark were connected with the theatres—were directors, managers, inspectors, treasurers, or actors; if not always, at any rate at some period of their lives. In England, the Bar supplies the greater proportion of what may be called working literary men—reviewers, magazine writers, newspaper writers, novel writers, dramatic writers, &c.

We now come to Jens Baggesen, an author of whom the Danes are very proud. Tho consideration in which ho was held may best be shown by quoting the opinion of one of his countrymen—translating it of course "Not only was he himself a most interesting person, but his numerous works, often classical, were always attractive; his poetic talents were extraordinary; and his literary undertakings extensive. At the close of the last century he stood pre-eminently the first, and will always be deemed one of tho most gifted, original, and national poets that Denmark ever produced."

Baggesen was born at Korsör, in 1764. His parents were indigent, and unable to give him early advantages of education; but he learned to read and write, and in his twelfth year obtained the situation of under-clerk to the collector of taxes. His handwriting improved so much, that he was admitted into a private school, on the condition of becoming writing-master to his schoolfellows. From thence he went to a Latin school; but, not to follow him through the course of his education, it is sufficient to say that he published his first work, "Comic Tales," in 1785; and shortly after some elegiac and lyrical poems. In 1789 he wrote an opera called "Holger Danske"—"Holger the Dane;" a favourite subject and title with Danish authors, who all seem to delight in the tale of magic of which Holger Danske—the champion of Denmark—is the hero. But Baggesen's "Holger" was assailed by ridicule, and caricatured in a parody written by the witty P. A. Heiberg, and entitled "Holger Tydske"—"Holger the German." It was while smarting under this unmerited attack, that Baggesen obtained the patronage of the Duke of Augustenburg, and, through his influence, the means of travelling abroad. He travelled through Germany, France, and Switzerland, where, poor as he was, he married; and these travels he published in a prose work, which