677 
THE AMERICAN-SCANDINAVIAN REVIEW 
Ludvig Holberg, the Father of Danish Comedy. 
Ch. Fritzach, 1731 
From an Engraving by 
just as the theatre had been granted a subsidy from the government 
under King Frederik IV, a terrific conflagration devastated Copen¬ 
hagen, and the result was that for a long time its inhabitants had other 
things to think of than amusements. In 1730 the king died, and dur¬ 
ing the reign of his successor, King Christian VI, pietism was the dom¬ 
inating force in all classes of society and rendered the existence of a 
theatre impossible. But, however brief and sporadic the activity was 
in the first national playhouse of the North, it became of everlasting 
significance by producing Holberg’s comedies, whose moral influence 
has extended far beyond the modest stage on which they were first 
