existence, Holberg produced twenty-six comedies, most of which were
successfully performed. His literary fecundity seems the more
remarkable when it is remembered that he had no Danish models.

The theatre was not well supported by the public. After the first
year, the receipts of an evening amounted to no more than $13, and
sometimes the actors were compelled to tell the spectators who had
gathered that they could not afford to present the play to so small
an audience. In 1728, the company was at last granted a royal
subvention of about $2500 a year by Frederick VI, and it had begun
to play under the proud title of Royal Actors, when Copenhagen was
swept by a devastating fire. The theatre itself was not destroyed,
but the town was so badly impoverished that for the moment all forms
of public amusement had to be discontinued. Furthermore, the
pietists, to whose doctrines the crown prince was a devout adherent,
asserted that the fire was God's scourge for the wickedness of
Copenhagen, the most impudent form of which, they believed, was the
drama. Before conditions in the city were enough improved to warrant
the resumption of his subsidy to the actors, the king died, on
October 12, 1730. Under the reign of his pietistic successor,
Christian VI (1730-1746), no dramatic performances of any sort were
sanctioned; the theatre building was sold at auction, the company
disbanded, and Holberg ceased writing plays.

In the year of Christian VI's accession to the throne, Holberg was
made Professor of History at the university. Pietist though he was,
the new monarch was an enthusiastic patron of scholarship, and
during his reign Holberg devoted himself almost exclusively to
research, particularly for his History of Denmark, on which his
present reputation as an historian rests. The one important work of