Again: 

  Has he, Masters?  I fear there will come a worse in his place.

Translation: 

  Mener I det, godt Folk?—­etc.

Despite these faults—­and many others could be cited,—­it is perfectly clear that this unknown student of Shakespeare understood his original and endeavored to reproduce it correctly in good Danish.  His very blunders showed that he tried not to be slavish, and his style, while not remarkable, is easy and fluent.  Apparently, however, his work attracted no attention.  His name is unknown, as are his sources, and there is not, with one exception, a single reference to him in the later Shakespeare literature of Denmark and Norway.  Not even Rahbek, who was remarkably well informed in this field, mentions him.  Only Foersom,[6] who let nothing referring to Shakespeare escape him, speaks (in the notes to Part I of his translation) of a part of Act III of Julius Caesar in Trondhjems Allehaande.  That is all.  It it not too much to emphasize, therefore, that we have here the first Danish version of any part of Julius Caesar as well as the first Norwegian translation of any part of Shakespeare into what was then the common literary language of Denmark and Norway.[7]

    [6. William Shakespeares Tragiske Vaerker—­Forste Deel. Khbn.
    1807.  Notes at the back of the volume.]

    [7.  By way of background, a bare enumeration of the early Danish
    translations of Shakespeare is here given.

    1777. Hamlet.  Translated by Johannes Boye.

    1790. Macbeth.  Translated by Nils Rosenfeldt.
      Othello.  Translated by Nils Rosenfeldt.
      All’s Well that Ends Well.  Translated by Nils Rosenfeldt.

    1792. King Lear.  Translated by Nils Rosenfeldt.
      Cymbeline.  Translated by Nils Rosenfeldt.
      The Merchant of Venice.  Translated by Nils Rosenfeldt.

    1794. King Lear.  Nahum Tate’s stage version.  Translated by Hans
    Wilhelm Riber.

    1796. Two Speeches.—­To be or not to be—­(Hamlet.)
      Is this a dagger—­(Macbeth.)
      Translated by Malthe Conrad Brun in Svada.

    1800.  Act III, Sc. 2 of Julius Caesar.  Translated by Knut Lyhne
    Rahbek in Minerva.

    1801. Macbeth.  Translated by Levin Sander and K.L.  Rahbek.  Not
    published till 1804.

    1804.  Act V of Julius Caesar.  Translated by P.F.  Foersom in
    Minerva.

    1805.  Act IV Sc. 3 of Love’s Labour Lost.  Translated by P.F. 
    Foersom in Nytaarsgave for Skuespilyndere.

    1807.  Hamlet’s speech to the players.  Translated by P.F.  Foersom
    in Nytaarsgave for Skuespilyndere.

It may be added that in 1807 appeared the first volume of Foersom’s translation of Shakespeare’s tragedies, and after 1807 the history of Shakespeare in Denmark is more complicated.  With these matters I shall deal at length in another study.]

B