676 
THE AMERICAN-SCANDINAVIAN REVIEW 
wright, contrary to all 
rules of evolution, was 
created overnight by one 
man. 
This great poet was 
Ludvig Holberg. The 
idea of establishing a 
Danish theatre was not 
his own, however, but 
was due to a French 
actor, Rene Magnon de 
Montaigu, who from 
1686 had belonged to 
the king’s Court Troupe, 
which had recently been 
dissolved. He joined 
with one of his com¬ 
patriots, Etienne de Ca- 
pion, who owned a small 
playhouse near Kongens Nytorv (at present Ny Adelgade) in which 
French comedies had been staged without stirring up much interest 
among the public of Copenhagen. During a period of financial diffi¬ 
culties, Montaigu conceived the idea of playing comedies in the Danish 
language, and to this end solicited the assistance of Professor Holberg, 
who within a surprisingly short time wrote his first comedies. The 
opening production, however, was not one of his works, but Moliere’s 
The Miser; and three days later, September 26, 1722, Holberg’s The 
Political Tinker; was produced for the first time. In the beginning, 
while the enterprise was new, the attendance was so large that the 
theatre could not hold the crowds that sought admittance; but those 
who gained entrance were, according to Holberg’s own statement, 
“kept laughing from beginning to end.” 
Our knowledge of the little playhouse is unfortunately very 
meagre. No picture of the building has been preserved, no portraits 
of the actors, no financial accounts, only a few play-bills have been 
found. At that time critical reviews of the stage were unknown. The 
only contemporaneous report that has reached our time, aside from the 
statement of the author himself, is that of a visiting Swedish judge, 
but all he says in his traveling diary is that the comedy was “fair 
enough” (var artig nog). We know, however, that the actors were 
mostly young students who for one reason or another had broken off 
their studies and in Montaigu found an able instructor. But as soon 
as the curiosity of the public had been satisfied, interest waned. The 
theatre was in existence only six years, during which time it was obliged 
to close its doors four times owing to economic difficulties. In 1728, 
The Old Court Theatre at Christiansborg, Now Con¬ 
verted into a Theatrical Museum 
