“A time to think this over, will I, as meet, allow ; To-morrow, my sweet Else, will be a day as now." Thus did he speak so guileful and looked upon the maid; The other Lords smiled to themselves to hear the words he said, "To the sound of harps and flutes, where a thousand tapers blaze, We will move on costly carpets, in the dance's pleasant maze; When winter's time is dreary in halls so large and fine, We will throw the golden dice and drink the Malmsey wine." She raised head, and with her hand she flung her locks aside, 66 I am but a peasant maiden: you are a high-born knight; And soon your eye would cease to gaze upon me with delight. Unto a peasant only will I give my plighted word, For never could you lay aside your glittering knightly sword." 66 Gladly upon the wall will I hang my noble brand, And sharpen scythe and ploughshare, a tiller of the land." "Yes, wadmel will I wear; and this crimson mantle gay, "I will send my gallant charger into the wood so wide, "From out your castle cellars must all your wine be sent, And with the beer and mead I brew you must be well content." "Yes, I will gladly drink the Danish mead and beer, And leave unto my minstrels the wine so sweet and clear. "No minstrel singeth gaily without his draught of wine ; "Your noble shield with pictures and wondrous signs set round, Then from his noble countenance both pride and joy beamed out, "Upon the shield leap lions, and a heart that is on fire; "I will no longer tempt thee, now that I know thy mind; With that upon his charger's neck the loosened rein he cast, And forth with all his train he sped, even as an autumn blast. The leaves they rustled under the horse's thundering bound, And with a wildly shrill halloh! the summer woods resound. Just then across the garden rushed on with joyful haste CASPAR JOHANNES BOJE Is celebrated for his religious poetry. His Psalms and Hymns are to be found in all the collections for public worship, and are equal to ary productions of that kind. He is himself a clergyman, and in 1835 was appointed pastor of St. Olaf's Church, in Elsinore; in 1840, Knight of Dannebrog; and is now minister of Garnison's congregation, in Copenhagen. He has written the following tragedies :-"Svend Grathe," "King Sigurd," "Queen Juta of Denmark," and "Erik the Seventh." Under the name of " David's Harp," he published a selection of the Psalms, translated metrically from the Hebrew. His Spiritual Poems and Songs were published between 1833 and 1836, and a new collection in 1840. He is also well known as the translator of the best of Sir Walter Scott's romances and the co-editor of Baggesen's collected works. HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN Is sufficiently known to the English reader by his romances, "The Improvisatore," "O. T.," and "Only a Fiddler;" by his Autobiography, and his Stories and Legends for the Young, introduced to the English public by ourselves. The following slight sketch of himself and his productions may therefore suffice. He was born in 1805, in Odense, where his father was a shoemaker. He first thought to attach himself to the theatre. He did not succeed very well there, but attracted the notice of powerful individuals, and, with the liberality to youthful genius so characteristic of Denmark, he was enabled to enter the University, and there passed his examination with credit. He then received a travelling stipend, and visited Germany, France, Switzerland and Italy. To this journey we owe his "Improvisatore," unquestionably the best romance he has written. He afterwards, in 1840, again visited those countries, and extended his travels to Greece and Turkey. He has written a great variety of poems, plays, operas, travels and stories. Those which we have mentioned are his best. His "Picture-Book without Pictures," and stories for children, will always retain their simple, legendary and fascinating charm. His "Improvisatore," from its vivid portraiture of Italian life; his "O. T.," from its equally graphic painting of the life amid the heaths of Jutland; and his "Only a Fiddler," from the touching truth with which the sorrows necessarily attendant on a spirit with more sensibility than genius are represented, will equally continue to charm. But Andersen's subsequent productions have been failures; those published in England have dropped nearly dead from the press; and the reason for this is very obvious. Andersen is a singular mixture of simplicity and worldliness. The child-like heart which animates his best compositions appears to your astonished vision in real life, in the shape of a petit-maître sighing after the notice of princes. The poet is lost to you in the egotist; and once perceiving this, you have the key to the charm of one or two romances, and the flatness of the rest; for he always paints himself-his own mind, history and feelings. This delights in a first story, less in the second, and not at all in the third; for it is but crambe repartita. Perhaps much of Andersen's fame in this country arose from the very fact of the almost total ignorance here of the host of really great and original writers which Denmark possessed. Andersen stood forward as a wonder from a country of whose literary affluence the British public was little cognizant, while in reality he was but an average sample of a numerous and giant race. To this illustrious list we may yet add the names of Hans Peter Holst, a poet of established reputation, and the author of much excellent lyric poetry. His "Farewell," written on the death of Frederick VIL, was sung at his funeral in 1839. The same year, he published a collection of his poems; and in 1843 his Romances, as well as his "Out and Home," the result of his foreign travel, containing both prose and poetry. Besides this, he is the author of "Giachino," a play; and in the war with Holstein in 1848, he stood forth in an attitude of strong patriotism with his "Little Hornblower," in which he expressed and at the same time propelled the spirit of the time. Neither must we here omit the names of Moritz Christian Hansen, the author of a variety of dramas, novels, tales and educational works; of Carl Christian Rafn, so celebrated in the department of the old Northern literature and antiquities; of Henrik Arnhold Wergeland, a poet and dramatist; or of A. M. Goldschmidt, the editor of "Corsaren," the Danish Charivari, of a collection of highly interesting short stories, and still more of the novel "A Jew," just translated by ourselves into English ; a novel written with remarkable power and feeling, and possessing the peculiarity of showing us the Christian world, from the Jewish point of view; while it is, by the confession of intelligent Jews themselves, a most accurate picture of the domestic and social life of that very extraordinary people. These are the leading names in the Literature and Romance of Denmark; but besides these, more popular departments of knowledge-those of art, science, antiquities, jurisprudence and public policy—all present names equally numerous and brilliant, and which would well deserve a detailed view did our purpose extend so far. Amongst the chief ornaments of Denmark of present or very recent |