Swedish Language and Literature

The Renaissance.

The 16th century added but little to Swedish literature, and that little is mostly connected with the newly-founded university of Uppsala. The Renaissance scarcely made itself felt in Scandinavia, and even the Reformation failed to waken the genius of the country. The most prominent writers were two brothers, Olavus Petri (1493-1552) and Laurentius Petri (1499-1573), Carmelite monks who adopted the Lutheran doctrine while studying at Wittenberg, and came back to Sweden in 1518 as apostles of the new faith. Olavus became chancellor to Gustavus Vasa, but his reforming zeal soon brought him into disgrace, and in 1540 he was condemned to death. Two years later he was pardoned, and allowed to resume his preaching in Stockholm. He wrote a Svensk kronika, which is the earliest prose history of Sweden, a mystery-play, Tobiae comedia, which is the first Swedish drama, and three psalm-books. Laurentius Petri, who was a man of calmer temperament, was archbishop of all Sweden, and edited or superintended the translation of the Bible published at Uppsala in 1540. He also wrote many psalms. Laur entius Andreae (d. 1552), had previously prepared a translation of the New Testament, which appeared in 1526. He was a polemical writer of prominence on the side of the Reformers. Finally, Petrus Niger (Peder Svart), bishop of Vasteras (d. 1562), wrote a chronicle of Gustavus I. up to 1533, in excellent prose.

With the accession of Charles IX. literature began to assert itself in more vigorous forms. The long life of the royal librarian, Johannes Bure or Buraeus (1568-1652), formed a link between the age of the Petri and that of Stiernhielm. A patient antiquary, Buraeus advanced the knowledge of ancient Scandinavian myth ology and language; nor was it without significance that two of the greatest Swedes of the century, Gustavus Adolphus and the poet Stiernhielm, were his pupils. The reign of Charles IX. saw the rise of secular drama in Sweden. The first comedy was the Tisbe of Magnus Olai Asteropherus (d. 1647), a coarse but witty piece, acted by the schoolboys of the college of Arboga in 161o. A greater dramatist was Johannes Messenius (1579-1636), who, having been discovered plotting against the Government dur ing the absence of Gustavus in Russia, was condemned to im prisonment for life—that is, for 20 years. Before this disaster he had been professor of jurisprudence in Uppsala, where his first historical comedy Disa was performed in 1611 and the tragedy of Signill in 1612. The design of Messenius was to write the history of his country in 5o plays of which only six were com pleted. Messenius was a genuine poet, a fact that is more ap parent in the lyrics he introduced into his plays than in the plays themselves. He was imitated by a little group of playwrights. Nikolaus Holgeri Catonius (d. 1655) wrote a tragedy on the Trojan War, Troijenborgh; Andreas Prytz (d. 1655) several re ligious chronicle plays from Swedish history; and Jacobus Ronde letius (d. 1662) a curious "Christian tragicomedy" of Judas

redivivus. Another interesting play was an anonymous Holofernes and Judith based on German models. These were all acted by schoolboys and university youths, and when such performances went out of fashion the drama in Sweden almost ceased.

Stiernhielm and His Followers.

The greatest literary name of the I 7th century was that of Georg Stiernhielm (see STJERN HJELM) (1598-1672), a man of many-sided intellectual attain ment. His chief literary work, and the greatest Swedish poem of the century, is the epic—or rather didactic allegory—Hercules (publ. 1658), written in excellent hexameters.

The claim of Stiernhielm to be the first Swedish poet may be contested by a younger man, but a slightly earlier writer, Gustaf Rosenhane (1619-84), known to literature as Skogekar Bargbo. If Stiernhielm studied Opitz, Rosenhane took the French poets of the Renaissance for his models, and in 1650 wrote a cycle of 1 oo sonnets, the earliest in the language (V enerid, 168o). Most of the young poets followed Stiernhielm rather than Rosenhane. As personal friends and pupils of the former, the brothers Colum bus deserve special attention: Each wrote copiously in verse, Johan (164o-84) almost entirely in Latin, while Samuel (1642 79), especially in his Odae sueticae, showed himself an apt imitator of the Swedish hexameters of Stiernhielm, to whom he was at one time secretary, and whose Hercules he dramatized. Urban Harm (1641-1724) introduced the new form of classical tragedy from France, his best play being Rosimunda (1665). Lars Johansson (1638-74), who called himself "Lucidor," was a misanthropic, melancholy poet whose adventurous, unhappy life ended in his being stabbed, like Marlowe, in a midnight brawl at a tavern. His Flowers of Helicon bear witness occasionally to a very genuine poetic feeling. Haquin Spegel (1645-1714), the famous archbishop of Uppsala, wrote a long didactic epic in alexandrines, Guds V erk och Vila (God's Labour and Rest, 1685), with an introductory ode to the Deity in rhymed hexameters. He also takes a high place as a writer of hymns. Another ecclesiastic, the bishop of Skara, Jesper Svedberg (1653-1735), wrote sacred verses, but is better remembered as the father of Swedenborg. Peter Lagerlof (1648-99), professor of poetry at Uppsala, culti vated a pastoral vein in his ingenious lyrics Elisandra and Lycillis. Gunno Eurelius, afterwards ennobled with the name of Dahl stjerna (q.v.) (1661-1709), early showed an interest in the poetry of Italy. In 1690 he translated Guarini's Pastor Fido, and in or just after 1697 published his Kunga-Skald, an epic in ottava rims in honour of Charles XI. ; it is not without real merits, richness of language, flowing metre and a genuine poetic enthusiasm. Johan Runius (1679-1713) has, on the one hand, points of con tact with Lucidor, and on the other, often seems a forerunner of Bellman. His poetry appears in a collection entitled Dudaim.