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Jens Baggesen | |
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 Jens Baggesen, pastel byChristian Horneman made during a visit toCopenhagen in 1806 fromParis where Baggesen lived at the time | |
| Born | Jens Immanuel Baggesen (1764-02-15)15 February 1764 |
| Died | 3 October 1826(1826-10-03) (aged 62) |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Nationality | Danish |
| Literary movement | Romanticism |
| Notable works | Labyrinten "Da Jeg Var Lille" |
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Jens Immanuel Baggesen[1] (15 February 1764 – 3 October 1826) was a majorDanishpoet,librettist,critic, and comic writer.
Baggesen was born atKorsør on theDanishisland ofZealand on February 15, 1764. His parents were very poor, and he was sent tocopy documents at the office of the clerk ofHornsherred[citation needed]District before he was twelve. He was a melancholy, feeble child, and he attemptedsuicide more than once. By dint of indomitable perseverance, he managed to gain an education; in 1782, he entered theUniversity of Copenhagen.[2]
His first work—a verseComical Tales broadly similar to the laterBroad Grins ofColman the Younger—took the capital by storm and the struggling poet found himself a popular favorite at age 21.[2] He then tried more seriouslyric poetry and histact, elegant manners, and versatility gained him a place in the best society.[2] In March 1789,[citation needed] his success collapsed when hisoperaHolger Danske was received with mockery of its many faults[2] and a heatednationalist controversy over Baggesen's association withGermans.[citation needed] He left Denmark in a rage and spent the next years inGermany,France, andSwitzerland.[2]
In 1790, he married atBern and began to write inGerman. He published his next poemAlpenlied ("Alpine Song") in that language, but brought theDanishLabyrinten ("Labyrinth") as a peace offering upon his return toDenmark in the winter. It was received with unbounded homage. Over the next twenty years, he published volumes alternately in Danish and German and wandered across northern Europe before settling principally inParis. His most important German work during this period was the 1803 idyllichexameterepic calledParthenais.[2]
Upon his 1806 visit toCopenhagen, he found the youngOehlenschläger hailed as the great poet of the day and his own popularity on the wane. He then stayed, engaging in one abusiveliterary feud after another, most with the underlying issue that Baggesen was determined not to allow Oehlenschläger to be considered a greater poet than himself. He finally left for Paris in 1820, where he lost his second wife and youngest child in 1822. Suffering a period ofimprisonment for his debts, he fell at last into a hopeless melancholy madness. Having slightly recovered, he determined to see Denmark once more, but died en route at theFreemasons' hospital inHamburg on October 3, 1826. He was buried atKiel.[2]
Baggesen's many-sided talents achieved success in all forms of writing, but hispolitical,philosophical, andcritical works fell out of favor by the mid-19th century. Hissatire is marred by his egotism and passions, but his comic poems are deathless. His finished and elegant style was very influential on laterDanish literature, in which he is regarded as the major figure betweenHolberg andOehlenschläger. His greatest success, however, has proven to be the simple songDa Jeg Var Lille[3] ("There Was a Time when I Was Very Little")[4] which was known by heart among Danes a century after his death. It outlived all of his epics.[2]
There is a statue of Baggesen on Havnepladsen inKorsør, unveiled on 6 May 1906 by ProfessorVilhelm Andersen. The localBest Western hotel is also named after him.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Gosse, Edmund William (1911). "Baggesen, Jens Immanuel". InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 200.
