Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Impressions of Russian Literature - II
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Constantly changing influences from Western and
Southern Europe, from the contemporary age and from
the past, had their effect upon this poetry, which just
escaped mediocrity. The influence of Horace and the
Anacreontics, perhaps through the influence of the
Göttingen lyric, follows that of Klopstock. When
the ballad style prevails, Derzhavin begins to write
ballads and to imitate, at second-hand (after Zhukovski),
Bürger’s “Leonore.” At the close of his poetic career
he was influenced by Ossian, who was then making an
impression everywhere.
The influence which Ludwig Holberg exerted even
here in distant Russia at this period is specially
interesting to a Dane. The author who laid the foundation
of Russian comedy, Denis von Wízin (1742-1792),
received the impulse to his dramatic attempts from
Holberg. French and German companies had found an
audience in Russia before the Russian theatre was
established, and it was a German manager, the distinguished
actor Ackerman, who, so to speak, introduced the entire
comedy of Holberg into Russia. When a permanent
Russian stage was opened in St. Petersburg and Moscow
(1756-57), a long list of plays of the favorite Danish
author, translated from the German into Russian, was
produced upon it. “Don Ranudo” and “Henry and
Pernilla” gave the most satisfaction, yet they could not
compete in power of attraction with the lyrical tragedy
of Metastasio, “Artaxerxes,” translated by Holberg,
which was regarded as an original production of Holberg
and always filled the house to the last place.
Von Wízin saw “Henry and Pernilla” in St. Petersburg
when he was a student, and felt, to use his own
expression, “an indescribable fascination” in this
comedy. His first celebrated comedy, “The
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