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434
IV. EDUCATION AND MENTAL CULTURE IN SWEDEN.
later on — by schoolboys and students, who also, at times, were allowed to
appear at court. But the plays and ballets performed at the court festivals were
generally carried out by foreign actors.
Our first professional actors were some students, who — having left the
University of Uppsala — appeared on the stage of that town in 1682 and afterwards
moved over to Stockholm, where they, in 1686, began to act before the public,
from which year Swedish dramatic art thus may reckon its origin. These actors
continued their activity till 1691 inclusive, and it then took more than forty years
before a Swedish theatrical company again made its appearance. This new troupe
was organized by A. J. v. Höpken and began its activity in 1737 under the
name of the »Royal Swedish Stage» and with the French actor Charles Långlöts
for its scenic instructor. The best known among the staff of this Swedish stage
are: P. Lindahl, P. Stenborg (1719/81), and Mrs. E. Olin (1740/1828).
However, Langlois did not succeed in keeping up the reputation of this stage
for any length of time; it degenerated more and more and was finally, in 1763,
replaced by a French company called in. Then it was P. Stenborg who, many
years later, with unwearied energy tried to keep native dramatic art alive, and
his exertions were crowned with success when Gustavus III started the Swedish
theater anew, as the first instructor of which he engaged the Frenchman Monoel,
father of MUe Mars. Famous actors of that time were A. de Broen (1758/1804),
L. Deland (1772/1823), G. F. Åbergsson (1775/1852), Elisabet Fahlgren.
(1771/1850), and Maria Kristina Ruckman (1769/1847). Among those who
carried on their artistical studies at the school of Monvel was also our most
renowned actor L. H. Hjortsberg (1772/1843), a master within all departments
of his art, tragedy in its narrower sense excepted, and he still kept up his activity
far into the 19th century.
Between 1840 and 1850, a more lively phase of development is entered upon
by our dramatic art. To this result contributed largely the writer, Captain
A. Lindeberg (1789/1849), who after several efforts managed to effect a
revocation of a privilege for the Royal stage entitling it to the sole right of acting
plays in the capital. In 1842, Lindeberg namely procured himself a license to
build a new theater, the present Dramatic one, at which then a quantity of
Swedish pieces were acted. More and more theaters have since been erected and at
present there are in Stockholm no less than eight.
Among prominent actors from the golden days of last century may here be
mentioned: O. U. Torsslow (1801/81), his wife S. F. Torsslow (1795/1859),
N. V. Almlöf (1799/1875), his son K. Almlöf (1829/98), distinguished
representative of comic characters, the wife of the latter, B. Almlöf (1831/82), the
tragedian G. Dahlqvist (1807/73), the excellent comic F. Deland (1812/94),
Emilie Högqvist (1812/46), E. Swartz (1826/98), above all famous for his
Hamlet, G. Kinmanson (1822/87) and K. G. Sundberg (1817/98), both renowned
as primo amorosos, G. Fredrikson (born 1832), who above all excelled in French
comedy, the representative of romantic heroes A. V. J. Elmlund (1838/1901),
the good-natured humourist V. Holmqvist (1842/95), and finally, the splendid
tragedienne and character-actress Elise Hwasser (1831/94). The time during
which all these in their full energy performed their artistical work, has on good
reasons been termed the golden age of the Swedish theater, and they have left
behind a vacuum not easily to be filled.
Among the phenomena of quite recent date within our dramatic art there
is one especially apt to attract attention and which may be of far reaching
consequences for that art. It is the fact of the Dramatic theater’s having, from 1898
inclusive, lost its position of a royal stage and now being managed as a private
undertaking by an association of actors without any public support except an
abatement of house-reut. Simultaneously, the Opera has, under the name of »The
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