THE DRAMATURGY OF LUDVIG HOLBERG'S COMEDIES Gerald S. Argetsinger A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY August 1975 BOWLIÎO&EBÎ STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY © 1975 GERALD SCOTT ARGETSINGER ALL RIGHTS RESERVED il ABSTRACT This study first described Ludvig Holberg's dramaturgy and then identified the characteristics which • have engendered the comedies' continued popularity. All of the prior Holberg research was studied, but most of the understanding of the comedies came through the careful studying of the playscripts. Holberg's form was greatly influenced by the comedies of Moliere and the Commedia dell' Arte. The content and tone were influenced by the comedies of Ben Jonson and George Farquhar. Holberg wrote for, and was best liked by, the middle class. At first, scholars found his plays crass and inferior. But only twenty years after his death, the plays were accepted as the foundation of the Royal Danish Theatre’s repertory. Holberg created comic characters based upon middle class types. The characters’ speech is almost strictly everyday, Copenhagen Danish. Little was done to linguistically individualize speech except when it was an integral part of the satire of the play. Holberg was also adept at writing jokes. He was a master at creating comic situations. These situations give the characters a setting in which to be funny and provide a foundation for intrigues and other comic business. The visual aspects of the early productions were not important. After careful investigation, it was concluded that Holberg's plays did not succeed, as previous writings tend to assume, because of the "Danishness” of the characters. Instead, the comedies have succeeded because of Holberg’s ability to create comic characters, dialogue, business, and situations. These, united with the universal types, seem to be the major reasons for Holberg's popularity in the theatre. Ill ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to express my sincere appreciation to Hr. Per Pio and Hr. Jesper j/rgensen of the Royal Danish Library in Copenhagen. These gentlemen provided more assistance than they could possible know. I am also grateful to Dr. Roger Gross who continually went the extra mile when I need help and direction. And finally, I am grateful to Gail, who, without knowing it, gave more than anyone toward the completion of this project. IV TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION ......................................... 1 LUDVIG HOLBERG'S BACKGROUND.......................... 7 Holberg's Early Life and Writings ............. 8 The Danish Theatre at the Time of Holberg....................................... 22 The Literary Sources of the Comedies. ..... 29 Summary......................................... 43 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE COMEDIES AND THE CRITICISM..................................... ^5 The Comedies........................................47 Comedies of Character........................ 47 Comedies of Intrigue ..... ........... 54 Comedies of Special Public Occasions ... 56 Topical Comedies .......................... 58 Philosophical Comedies ................... 58 Satires of Dramatic Forms.................... 59 Holberg's Audience................................. 61 Holberg Criticism .............................. 63 Summary............................................ 74 THE VISUAL ASPECT....................................... 76 Scenery............................................ 77 Minor Visual Elements.............................83 Blocking..................................... 83 V Costumes..................................... 84 Special Stage Machinery ........................ 85 Summary and Conclusions ........................ 87 HOLBERG'S CHARACTERS ................................. 89 The "Danish” Characters ........................ 90 Holberg's Characters and the Commedia dell' Arte............................... 94 Holberg's Delineation of Character................97 Comic Characters.................................. 116 Summary and Conclusions ........................ 122 DIALOGUE............................................... 125 Linguistic Individuation......................... 125 Individualization of Personality ......... 126 Individualization of Moments ............. 138 Individualization of Scripts ............. 141 Other Linguistic Devices......................... 151 Verse.........................................151 The Monologue................................ 154 The Aside.................................... 158 Humor Based Upon Dialogue....................... 163 Summary and Conclusions ........................ 166 SITUATION AND STAGE ACTIVITY ........................ 168 Situation.........................................169 The Intrigue................................ 171 Comic Business..............................178 VI Music, Dance,a nd Spectacle.................. 186 Summary and Conclusions ....................... 189 CONCLUSIONS............................................. 192 BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................... 202 I INTRODUCTION On Wednesday, September 23, 1722, the first Danish language theatre was opened in Copenhagen with a production of Moliere’s The Miser. The following Friday, September. 25th, Ludvig Holberg’s The Political Tinker opened. This, the first production of a Holberg play, was an immediate success. Six years later, in 1728, when King Christian VI closed the theatres in Denmark, twenty Holberg comedies had been produced and seven o'thers written. When the theatres closed, Holberg stopped writing plays. But his comedies remained very popular in written form. In 1746, the new king, Frederik V, allowed the theatres to re-open. Revivals of Holberg's comedies were again the mainstay of the Danish theatre. His seven previ­ ously unproduced plays were soon staged along with six more comedies written for the new theatre. This brought the total of Holberg’s dramatic writings to thirty-three comedies. ■^This general information is available in many sources. The most compact is Den Danske Skueplads Paa Holbergs Tid (The Danish Theatre in Holberg* s Time) by Alfred Jeppesen, (Copenhagen: Martins Forlag, 1972). As in the above, whenever a Danish source is cited, the title will be followed by its English translation. 2 From that time until the present, the Danish National Theatre has been called "Holberg's Stage." His comedies have dominated the Danish repertoire for more than two hundred years. They have also been very popular in other Scandinavian countries. Indeed, since Holberg was born in Bergen, Norway, the Norwegians also claim him as their own great writer of comedies. Both the Danish and Norwegian national theatres have statues of Holberg over­ looking their entrances. Today Holberg's comedies are as popular as ever in Scandinavia, both in printed and staged form. There is always at least one Holberg comedy in the repertory of the Royal Danish Theatre. During the 1974-75 season, The Fortunate Shipwreck enjoyed a successful production. It seems unusual that a playwright whose work is so popular in Scandinavia is almost unknown elsewhere. Holberg's plays have been performed successfully in other countries, most in the northern European nations such as Germany and Holland. But few of his scripts have been translated into English and productions of them in America are rare. The fact that Holberg's comedies have been extremely popular in Scandinavia for over two hundred years is indicative of their theatrical effectiveness. This study will therefore assume the comedies' effectiveness and proceed first to 3 discover how Holberg wrote his comedies, and then to identify characteristics of his writing which engendered the comedies' popularity. In order to accomplish these two goals, all of the prior research in Danish and English has been studied. But most of the understanding of the comedies has come through the careful studying of Holberg's playscripts. The first chapter will contain an examination of Holberg's background. This will show why he began writing plays, what he hoped to achieve with them, and the major influences on Holberg's writings. Next, an overview of the comedies will familiarize the reader with the general nature of the scripts and contemporary criticism of them. The final chapters will present the major aspects of Holberg's dramaturgy to determine just how Holberg wrote successful comedies. The chapters have been arranged so the particular aspects which provide the least insight into the comedies' success are discussed first, and so on until the most important aspects of the comedies are discussed in the final chapter. The conclusions drawn from studying the scripts are not surprising, but they are not unimportant. Holberg is like many of the great comedy writers of the world. He seemed to have relied upon the "timeless” appeals of situations comedy. The same things that made the eighteenth century Danes laugh, made the audiences of Menander, Molière, and 4 George S. Kaufman laugh. This study is another piece of evidence that people are alike and laugh at similar things. Although the playscripts will be studied in the original Danish, numerous quotations from the scripts have been translated into English. Readers should study the fifteen Holberg comedies which have been translated into English. This study should also help to stimulate the trans­ lation of the complete library of Holberg comedies. Very little primary source material is available regarding the first productions