privations left on the mind, and such an one came in as beautiful a form as we can well conceive in a poet's life. Side by side with Denmark lay a kindred countrySweden. Its people were of the same blood, the same spirit, the same genius. They possessed the same interest in all the glorious memories of the Scaldic and Heroic North. They had their own heroic memories, their own beautiful literature, their own poets. But many a bloody battle, and many a bitter strife had arisen between them; and the political tinkers of Europe had not diminished their mutual hostility, by rending Norway from one and giving it to the other. In the summer of 1829, some friends invited him to cross over by the steamer to Malmö and Lund, in Sweden. As he was approaching the Swedish shore, it struck him as strange, that he from his very boyhood had been in the habit of gazing from Frederiksborg on the outstretched coast of Schonen, and yet never before thought of visiting it. The manner in which he was received was such as must have increased this wonder. All ranks of people testified the same hospitable enthusiasm to welcome the greatest poet of Denmark. Addresses were made to him at the University of Lund, and again on his return by the students, in a body, on the high-road, with a professor at their head. He was invited to various dinners, where addresses were presented and songs sung in his honour. Finally, he was requested, by a deputation of students in full academical dress, to attend the great annual inauguration of the Rector of the University of Lund, and the distribution of the degrees. This took place in the ancient cathedral, and as Oehlenschläger stood near the altar, Bishop Tegnér, the great poet of Sweden, who was delivering an oration in hexameters, suddenly turned round, saying, in the words of his poetical address: "The Scalds' Adam is here; the king of the poets of the North; the heir to the throne of the poetical world, for the throne itself is Goethe's!" and with that, before all the immense crowd which filled the church, amongst whom were Oehlenschläger's wife and children, he placed a laurel-crown upon his head, amidst the thunder of kettle-drums, trumpets, and the discharge of cannon. This honour was followed by other festivities, in which the students carried the poet in triumph on their shoulders. The visit was returned by Tegnér, with Agardh, Thestrup and other Swedes of note, to Copenhagen, where they were received with like flattering marks of attention; and this exchange of civilities produced a marked effect on the intellectual and social relations of the two kindred nations, who for centuries stood in an hostile attitude towards each other. In Oehlenschläger's excitement, amid these sudden. honours, he makes some most natural remarks on the situation of poets in the world. "First," he says, people demur as to whether we are poets, and scarcely have we shown it, when they doubt whether we are so any longer. With every new work we must again demonstrate this as on the first occasion. If a new production does not please, the blame, for a certain time, overwhelms all the previous fame. All the half-educated will undertake to teach us our own art; many readers imagine themselves, as judges, quite able to look down Thus in our own art we are regarded as possessing the very least portion of understanding. Paul says: "They who like Adelberg, think themselves geniuses without understanding—really think so-without understanding.' But this very often happens. The maturity of mind, and the knowledge of human nature, the sagacity and vigour of judgment, which are necessary upon us. VOL. II. H Jean for the working out and completing of a great poetical work, pass without notice. They succeed sometimes,' it is said, and much oftener they fail.' We are great children, and with bandaged eyes we grope in the luckybag of genius fruit-trees, that produce ripe or unripe fruit, just as it happens, for the knowing, accomplished, tasteful eaters! And with this estimation, bordering on contempt, shall we permit ourselves to be satisfied? For what is an artist if he be not also a man? And what is a man without reason, without confidence and taste in his art? What I have suffered from unreasonable depreciation, I will here say nothing of; I will only say, that even my children's children might possibly have been hereafter taunted as the children of such a father. But, God be praised, this judgment was thus, at once and for ever, overruled! My son rejoiced in his father, and my countrymen rejoiced too in their landsman, and testified it by a thundering hurrah as I ascended the steamer to return home." For twenty years longer, however, did Oehlenschläger continue to show that he had not merely genius, but a masculine understanding, and to reap the honours he so richly deserved. In a few months after this day of distinction he was ordained by the King of Sweden, Knight of the North Star, and received a diploma as Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Lund. We have not space here to name all the works with which he enriched the Danish, or more properly, the whole Northern literature. His tragedies will stand as monumentum ære perennius, and we have yet to add to those already named, a series of others. In 1833 came out "Queen Margaret ;" in 1835, "Socrates;" 1836, "Olaf the Saint;" 1838, "Knud the Great," (Canute); 1841, "Dina;" 1843, "Erik Glipping;" 1846, "The Land Found and Lost ;" and "Amleth," (Hamlet). In the poet's latest works, the same intellectual freshness and the same inspirations manifest themselves, as in his earliest labours. He continued strong and prolific to the last; and from his own countrymen, from foreigners, and from his monarch he was continually receiving marks of grateful affection and admiration. Immediately after his return from his first foreign tour, he was appointed Professor; at the coronation in 1815, he was made Knight of Dannebrog; and in 1839, Counsellor of State. The present King conferred on him the medal of honour of the Dannebrog-men; and the following year he was named Commander of Dannebrog. He received from Sweden the great gold medal of the Academy of Sciences; the cross of Commander, and afterwards the great cross of the North Star. By the King of Prussia he was honoured, after Thorwaldsen's death, with the Order of Merit; he was an officer of the Belgic Order of Leopold, and Knight of the French Legion of Honour. From England what was the distinction he received? None. The English Government of the day, chary of encouragement to native literature, knew nothing of the literature of other countries. To conclude-in this sketch of the life and character of Oehlenschläger, we feel, after all, that we have been able to convey but a very inadequate idea of his real greatness as a poet. His genius is strong, healthy, and fertile, and he worked in a genial consciousness of his strength. In him there is no straining, no galvanic efforts to produce effect. Like nature, on whose calm bosom he reposed in love, he is great in his own amplitude, and in the very depth of his tranquillity there are life and power. His natural tone is solemn, like that of the ancient North, which so early awoke his admiration and affection, but he can throw out the sparks of wit, humour and irony, on any fitting occasion, as in his "Aladdin,” his "Brothers of Damascus," and his "Fisherman's Daughter," and others of his dramas. We must make room for a single specimen of these qualities from the latter drama. The Fisherman is engaged in lamenting the death of his little boy who has been drowned, when there comes a European into the Arabian desert, carried in a palanquin by black slaves, and attended by his secretary and a guide. EUROPEAN (with enthusiasm). Is it then here? GUIDE. Yet a few paces farther, Towards the left, good Sir. EUROP. May I then feel assured GUIDE. EUROP. Of this great fact? That it was even here It is indeed; I had supposed it to be much more red; To use such names as give a wrong idea. With all he has, at the Cape called Good Hope. |