Leseprobe_Holm_Holberg Plays Volume I

Holberg, who never married, became a landed proprietor and a Baron, a title
granted by the king of Denmark, which gave him a tax advantage that – plus the
income from selling his works – made him a very wealthy man; this enabled him
to fund an academy, projected to operate along the lines of a modern alternative
to the University. When theatrical performance was once again permitted, he
became actively involved in the running of the playhouse and wrote another
six plays, which proved somewhat lacking in the inspired wit of his first period
as dramatist. The Academy exists to this day, now as a ‘gymnasium’ (upper
secondary school), in the town of Sorø in mid-Sealand, the part of the country
where Holberg’s barony was established in 1747. Holberg lies buried in Sorø
Abbey Church, situated in the grounds of the Academy.
In many respects, Holberg was a traveller throughout his life: in countries,
cultures, fictions. He was tirelessly observant and analytical, telling his stories
with irony and paradox, and providing his audience and his readers with the
opportunity to question accustomed ideas about reality.
A complicated delivery
Holberg published his plays under the pseudonym ‘Hans Mikkelsen’, supposedly
a licensed brewer in a provincial Danish town. This man ‘Mikkelsen’ also worked
in partnership with the intellectual ‘Just Justesen’, who enriched the poet’s texts
with erudite introductions and notes. By thus playing with identities, Professor
Holberg had donned a protective mask behind which he could wield his pen.
In 1723, ‘Justesen’ wrote a preface to the first batch of plays, a ‘reflection’ in
which he championed the legitimacy of the theatre. This short treatise is the first
Danish ‘poetics of dramaturgy’. The text established the foundations for theatre
activities, setting out key principles that proved significant for the evolution of
Danish theatre and dramatic art in general.
The Danish actors who performed on the newly-opened stage were students
(they had some acting experience from participation in plays at the Latin secondary
school), who would later take up posts in the Church and in the schools. The
Church, however, was generally not at all keen on the theatre, an aversion that
can be traced back to the early Church Fathers. Historically, this negative view of
the art form and its practitioners had sometimes led to harsh and uncompromising
consequences. In England, for example, not long after Shakespeare’s death,
Cromwell’s Puritans came to power and closed the theatres; this religiouslymotivated
ban on theatrical performance lasted for twenty years. In France,
specific legislation excluded actors from the Church community; one of the more
famous consequences being the difficulties involved in giving Molière a Christian
burial, despite royal patronage.
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