Ludvig Holberg's Comedies

Often designated “The Molière of the North” and “The Father of Scandinavian Theatre,” Ludvig Holberg through the con­tinued popularity of his comedies has domi­nated the Danish National Theatre for more than two hundred years. Of Norwegian birth, Holberg is claimed by Norway as their own great comic genius. Both the Danish and the Norwegian National Theatres are fronted by statues of Holberg overlooking their entrances. This book presents the first introduction to and analysis of Holberg’s thirty-three comedies in English and is the first book in any language to explain why they continue to be the most popular comedies in Scan­dinavia. After introducing Holberg and dis­cussing how and why he could write such lively works, Argetsinger divides the plays into six general types: comedies of character, comedies of intrigue, comedies of special public occasions, topical comedies, philo­sophical comedies, and satires of dramatic forms, and provides a fully developed exam­ple of each type. He then examines those de­tails that make the scripts comic and stageworthy. The essential elements of Holberg’s com­edy are those of all successful comedy writ­ers: comic situations, business, character, and dialogue. View Less