Holberg, Ludvig, Baron

Holberg, Ludvig, Baron (lth`vē bärōn` hōl`bĕr), 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).

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Holberg, Ludvig, Baron

(born Dec. 3, 1684, Bergen, Nor.—died Jan. 28, 1754, Copenhagen, Den.) Norwegian-Danish man of letters. Educated in Denmark and England, he traveled in various European countries before becoming a professor at the University of Copenhagen; while there he began to create a new class of humorous literature. His seriocomic epic Peder Paars (1719), a parody of Virgil's Aeneid, is the earliest classic of the Danish language. Holberg was soon producing a steady flow of stage comedies, including The Political Tinker (1723), The Weathercock (1723), Jean de France (1723), Jeppe of the Hill (1723), The Fussy Man (1731), and Erasmus Montanus (1731), many of which are still produced. The outstanding Scandinavian literary figure of the Enlightenment, Holberg is claimed by both Norway and Denmark as a founder of their literatures.