More important than this effusion of bad verse from the poet of fashion was a little article which Paul Botten Hansen wrote in Illustreret Nyhedsblad[7] in 1865.  Botten Hansen had a fine literary appreciation and a profound knowledge of books.  The effort, therefore, to give Denmark and Norway a complete translation of Shakespeare was sure to meet with his sympathy.  In 1861 Lembcke began his revision of Foersom’s work, and, although it must have come up to Norway from Copenhagen almost immediately, no allusion to it is found in periodical literature till Botten Hansen wrote his review of Part (Hefte) XI.  This part contains King John.  The reviewer, however, does not enter upon any criticism of the play or of the translation; he gives merely a short account of Shakespearean translation in the two countries before Lembcke.  Apparently the notice is written without special research, for it is far from complete, but it gives, at any rate, the best outline of the subject which we have had up to the present.  Save for a few lines of praise for Foersom and a word for Hauge, “who gave the first accurate translation of this masterpiece (Macbeth) of which Dano-Norwegian literature can boast before 1861,” the review is simply a loosely connected string of titles.  Toward the close Botten Hansen writes:  “When to these plays (the standard Danish translations) we add (certain others, which are given), we believe that we have enumerated all the Danish translations of Shakespeare.”  This investigation has shown, however, that there are serious gaps in the list.  Botten Hansen calls Foersom’s the first Danish translation of Shakespeare.  It is curious that he should have overlooked Johannes Boye’s Hamlet of 1777, or Rosenfeldt’s translation of six plays (1790-1792).  It is less strange that he did not know Sander and Rahbek’s translation of the unaltered Macbeth of 1801—­which preceded Hauge by half a century—­for this was buried in Sander’s lectures.  Nor is he greatly to be blamed for his ignorance of the numerous Shakespearean fragments which the student may find tucked away in Danish reviews, from M.C.  Brun’s Svada (1796) and on.  Botten Hansen took his task very lightly.  If he had read Foersom’s notes to his translation he would have found a clue of interest to him as a Norwegian.  For Foersom specifically refers to a translation of a scene from Julius Caesar in Trondhjems Allehaande.

    [7.  Vol.  XIV, p. 96.]

Lembcke’s revision, which is the occasion of the article, is greeted with approval and encouragement.  There is no need for Norwegians to go about preparing an independent translation.  Quite the contrary.  The article closes:  “Whether or not Lembcke has the strength and endurance for such a gigantic task, time alone will tell.  At any rate, it is the duty of the public to encourage the undertaking and make possible its completion.”