now completed: _Judith_ (1840), _Genoveva_ (1841), _The Diamond_ (1841;
printed in 1847), and _Poems_ (1842).

These publications won fame for Hebbel and yielded some immediate
pecuniary gain. But although he had reached the goal of his ambition in
having become a poet, and a dramatist whose first play had appeared on
the stage, he still lacked a settled occupation and a sure income.
Having been born a Danish subject, he conceived the idea of a direct
appeal to Christian VIII. of Denmark for such an appointment as the king
might be persuaded to give him. In spite of the unacademic course of his
studies and his lack of strictly professional training, he thought of a
professorship of esthetics at Kiel. Even in those days, when
professorships could be had on easier terms than now, this was a wild
dream. But Hebbel did not appeal to his sovereign in vain. He spent the
winter of 1842-43 in Copenhagen, where the Danish-German dramatist
Oehlenschläger smoothed his path to royal favor; and after two audiences
with Christian VIII. he was granted a pension of six hundred thalers a
year for two years, in order that by traveling he might learn more of
the world and cultivate his poetic talents. His first expression of
gratitude for this privilege was the tragedy _Maria Magdalena_, begun at
Hamburg in May, finished at Paris in December, 1843, and dedicated to
the king.

Hebbel's departure for Paris, in September, 1843, did not mean for him
what Heine's settlement there twelve years before had meant for
Heine--the beginning of a new life. Hebbel's knowledge of French was
very imperfect, and he was as much isolated in Paris as he had been in
Munich; he did not seek stimulus from without so much as freedom to
develop the ideas that were teeming in his mind. When he left Hamburg,
however, he was destined never to return thither except as a visitor,