DENMARK AND THE DANES 



141 



Photograph from Frederick Simpich 

 THE COPENHAGEN FISHMONGER DELIVERS HER GOODS FRESH AT YOUR KITCHEN DOOR 

 The famous Danish sole is peddled on the streets in small tanks. 



Ann of Denmark, the Queen of James 

 I, was, like all Danes, fond of panto- 

 mimic acting; and some students assert 

 that the great scene within the scene in 

 Hamlet, where King Claudius calls out in 

 terror, "Lights ! More lights !" was cre- 

 ated in order to please the taste of this 

 Danish princess for pantomime. There 

 seems little doubt that Hamlet was writ- 

 ten in her honor. 



One may find the Padua of Shakespeare 

 not exactly the real Padua, and certainly 

 the coast of Bohemia never existed ; but 

 the longer one lives in Denmark the surer 

 one becomes that Shakespeare must have 

 been familiar with the country and its 

 people, for even genius could hardly be 

 so marvelously intuitive. 



The Danish theater is part of the na- 

 tional life and it is taken very seriously. 

 It sometimes shocks Protestants from 

 other countries to find that it is the cus- 

 tom in many families to take the newly 

 confirmed boys and girls to the royal 

 opera to hear the typically Danish Elver- 

 hoi (The Elves' Hill) or Holger Drach- 

 mann's Der War en Gang (There Was a 

 Time) ; and these performances are, as a 

 rule, given on Sunday afternoon. 



The Lutheran Church in Denmark is 

 not at all antagonistic to the theater ; and 

 most of the pastors themselves, as a rule 

 very well educated and cultivated men, 

 would be shocked if anybody assumed to 

 censure the induction of the young Chris- 

 tian soldier into the delights of the na- 

 tional playhouse. 



It seems a pity that the pleasant fan- 

 tasia, Der War en Gang, has never been 

 played on our stage. The first scene, at 

 a Dresden china court, is full of charm, 

 humor, and delicacy. The theme itself 

 might not be counted as altogether dis- 

 creet for American children, but Danish 

 fathers and mothers see no impropriety 

 whatever in it; and, as in Elvcrhoi, there 

 is some really entrancing music. 



EVERY DANISH CHILD IS GIVEN A MUSICAL 

 EDUCATION 



The Danes have operas in their own 

 language by Hartmann, Gade, and Heyse. 

 They, with Lange-Miiller, have created 

 song music which gives melodies to every 

 Danish home ; and these melodies, set to 

 poetic words by Danish lyric writers, 

 are always in fashion. Jazz has been im- 

 ported, of course. It is heard in the ho- 



