I am to learn.

and I, 1-73: 

  I will not fail you

is a close parallel, but Collin probably would not insist that his theory accounts for every case.  As to Dr. Western’s other example of good meter spoiled by corrupt texts, Collin would, no doubt, admit the possibility of the proposed emendations.  It would not alter his contention that a pause in the line, like a pause in music, is not necessarily void, but may be very significant indeed.

The array of Shakespearean critics in Norway, as we said at the beginning, is not imposing.  Nor are their contributions important.  But they show, at least, a sound acquaintance with Shakespeare and Shakespeareana, and some of them, like the articles of Just Bing, Brettville Jensen, Christen Collin, and August Western, are interesting and illuminating.  Bjornson’s article in Aftenbladet is not merely suggestive as Shakespearean criticism, but it throws valuable light on Bjornson himself and his literary development.  When we come to the dramatic criticism of Shakespeare’s plays, we shall find renewed evidence of a wide and intelligent knowledge of Shakespeare in Norway.

CHAPTER III

Performances Of Shakespeare’s Plays In Norway

Christiania

The first public theater in Christiania was opened by the Swedish actor, Johan Peter Stroemberg, on January 30, 1827, but no Shakespeare production was put on during his short and troubled administration.  Not quite two years later this strictly private undertaking became a semi-public one under the immediate direction of J.K.  Boecher, and at the close of the season 1829-30, Boecher gave by way of epilogue to the year, two performances including scenes from Holberg’s Melampe, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and Oehlenschlaeger’s Aladdin.  The Danish actor Berg played Hamlet, but we have no further details of the performance.  We may be sure, however, that of the two translations available, Boye’s and Foersom’s, the latter was used. Hamlet, or a part of it, was thus given for the first time in Norway nearly seventeen years after Foersom himself had brought it upon the stage in Denmark.[1]

    [1.  Blanc:  Christianias Theaters Historie, p. 51.]

More than fourteen years were to elapse before the theater took up Shakespeare in earnest.  On July 28, 1844, the first complete Shakespearean play was given.  This was Macbeth in Foersom’s version of Schiller’s “bearbeitung,” which we shall take up in our studies of Shakespeare in Denmark.[2] No reviews of it are to be found in the newspapers of the time, not even an announcement.  This, however, does not prove that the event was unnoticed, for the press of that day was a naive one.  Extensive reviews were unknown; the most that the public expected was a notice.