Baron Ludvig Holberg

Ludvig Holberg, Baron , 1684-1754, Danish dramatist, essayist, poet, and historian, apostle of the Enlightenment in Scandinavia. Born in Norway, he studied theology in Bergen and in Copenhagen. After 1708 he made Denmark his home, residing there between European travels. Professor of metaphysics and later of history at the Univ. of Copenhagen, Holberg was the foremost Danish author of his time. His comedies, which brought him world stature, include the early mock-heroic epic poem Pedar Paars (1719-20), the satirical drama The Political Tinker (1722), and numerous other plays (he wrote 26 in the period 1722-24 alone). The ideas of the Enlightenment were publicized in Niels Klim's Subterranean Journey (1740, tr. 1960), a utopian novel, and in Moral Thoughts (1744) and Epistles (5 vol., 1748-54), collections of essays. He also wrote many popular scientific works; histories of Denmark, of Christianity, and of the Jews; and an autobiography (3 parts, in Latin, 1728-43, tr. 1827). Translations of his works include selected plays (1914, 1946, 1950) and essays (1955).

Holberg, Ludvig (1684–1754), historian, philosopher, satirist, and playwright, who, though born in Norway, spent most of his working life in Denmark, being for many years Professor of Metaphysics at the University of Copenhagen. His connection with the theatre was brief, but far-reaching in effect. When in 1721 he was appointed director of the Danske Skueplads, he brought to his task a knowledge of and love for the drama unusual in Denmark at that time, his favourite playwrights being Plautus and Molière. There were at this time no Danish plays, only French and German. To remedy this he wrote plays in Danish with a mixture of Danish and Norwegian scenes and characters not previously seen, creating in the vernacular a tradition of comedy which was upheld by his successors. His first two productions, in 1722, were a translation of Molière's L'Avare and his own Den politiske Kandestøber (The Political Tinker). He wrote in all 32 comedies, six of them after 1747, when the Danske Skueplads reopened after 20 years of inactivity. The best of his plays belong to the earlier period. Although many of Holberg's plays became known throughout Europe in translation, they have made little impact in England or the USA. Apparently the only one to be professionally produced was Jeppe paa Bjerget, eller den forvandlede Bonde (1722), which, as Jeppe of the Mountains, was seen at the Pitlochry Festival Theatre in 1966.