COMEDIES BY HOLBERG

JEPPE OF THE HILL, THE POLITICAL TINKER, ERASMUS MONTANUS

TRANSLATED FROM THE DANISH BY

OSCAR JAMES CAMPBELL, JR., PH.D.

Assistant Professor of English in the University of Wisconsin

AND

FREDERIC SCHENCK, B. LITT. OXON.

Instructor in English in Harvard University

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY OSCAR JAMES CAMPBELL, JR.

NEW YORK

1914

INTRODUCTION

Ludvig Holberg is generally considered the most remarkable of Danishwriters. Though he produced books on international law, finance, andhistory, as well as satires, biographies, and moral essays, he ischiefly celebrated for his comedies, which still—nearly two hundredyears after then composition—delight large audiences in Denmark,and bid fair to be immortal. These comedies were the fruit of theauthor's actual experience; they are closely related to his otherworks and reflect the range and diversity of his pursuits. Tounderstand fully Holberg's creations, one must first becomeacquainted with the events of his life.

Ludvig Holberg was born in Bergen, December 3, 1684, of goodparentage on both sides. His mother was a granddaughter of adistinguished bishop, and his father an army officer who had risenfrom the ranks by personal merit. Bergen had long been atrading-post of the Hanseatic League, and in the seventeenth centurvwas distinctly cosmopolitan in character. Perhaps as a result of hisenvironment, Holberg seemed early to have acquired a desire totravel. In any case, he devoted most of the years of his youngmanhood to seeing the woild.

In 1704, shortly after receiving his degree at the University ofCopenhagen, he made a journey to the Netherlands. About a yearlater, he went to England, where he spent more than two years,partly in Oxford and partly in London, studying history andabsorbing new ideas. In

1708, as the tutor of a young Danish boy, he visited Dresden,Leipzig, and Halle. Soon after his return to Copenhagen, he obtaineda small stipend in a foundation for students, called Borch'sCollege, While there he wrote two historical treatises of enoughvalue to win him an appointment as "extraordinary" professor in theuniversity. Though this position gave him the right to the firstvacancy that might occur in the faculty, it did not entitle him toany salary, and it was only through the good offices of a friend atcourt that he obtained a stipend of about $150 a year for fouryears, during which time he was to be a sort of travelling fellow ofthe university. In the spring of 1714, Holberg, then thirty years ofage, left Copenhagen for his fourth journey abroad.

This excursion was far more extensive and picturesque than any hehad undertaken before. He travelled first to Paris, by way ofAmsterdam and Brussels, and later to Genoa and Rome, by way ofMarseilles. Except for the necessary sea voyages, most of thejourney was made on foot. After staying in Rome for six months,harassed the entire time by malarial fever, he turned his facetowards home. In order to escape the discomforts and perils oftravel by sea, he decided to return to Paris overland, and walkedfrom Rome to Florence in fourteen days. Finding his health improvedby the regular exercise, he continued on foot over the Alps toLyons, and subsequently to Paris and Copenhagen, where he arrived inthe autumn of 1716. Holberg had gone a

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