Ludvig Holberg is generally considered the most remarkable of Danish
writers. Though he produced books on international law, finance, and
history, as well as satires, biographies, and moral essays, he is
chiefly celebrated for his comedies, which still--nearly two hundred
years after then composition--delight large audiences in Denmark,
and bid fair to be immortal. These comedies were the fruit of the
author's actual experience; they are closely related to his other
works and reflect the range and diversity of his pursuits. To
understand fully Holberg's creations, one must first become
acquainted with the events of his life.

Ludvig Holberg was born in Bergen, December 3, 1684, of good
parentage on both sides. His mother was a granddaughter of a
distinguished bishop, and his father an army officer who had risen
from the ranks by personal merit. Bergen had long been a
trading-post of the Hanseatic League, and in the seventeenth centurv
was distinctly cosmopolitan in character. Perhaps as a result of his
environment, Holberg seemed early to have acquired a desire to
travel. In any case, he devoted most of the years of his young
manhood to seeing the woild.

In 1704, shortly after receiving his degree at the University of
Copenhagen, he made a journey to the Netherlands. About a year
later, he went to England, where he spent more than two years,
partly in Oxford and partly in London, studying history and
absorbing new ideas. In