Page:EB1911 - Volume 08.djvu/59

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44
DENNERY—DENNIS

characteristics. The cultivation of verse, which was greatly discouraged in the eighties, returned. Drachmann was supported by excellent younger poets of his school. J. J. Jörgensen (b. 1866), a Catholic decadent, was very prolific. Otto C. Fönss (b. 1853) published seven little volumes of graceful lyrical poems in praise of gardens and of farm-life. Andreas Dolleris (b. 1850), of Vejle, showed himself an occasional poet of merit. Alfred Ipsen (b. 1852) must also be mentioned as a poet and critic. Valdemar Rördam, whose The Danish Tongue was the lyrical success of 1901, may also be named. Some attempts were made to transplant the theories of the symbolists to Denmark, but without signal success. On the other hand, something of a revival of naturalism is to be observed in the powerful studies of low life admirably written by Karl Larsen (b. 1860).

The drama has long flourished in Denmark. The principal theatres are liberally open to fresh dramatic talent of every kind, and the great fondness of the Danes for this form of entertainment gives unusual scope for experiments in halls or private theatres; nothing is too eccentric to hope to obtain somewhere a fair hearing. Drachmann produced with very great success several romantic dramas founded on the national legends. Most of the novelists and poets already mentioned also essayed the stage, and to those names should be added these of Einar Christiansen (b. 1861), Ernst von der Recke (b. 1848), Oskar Benzon (b. 1856) and Gustav Wied (b. 1858).

In theology no names were as eminent as in the preceding generation, in which such writers as H. N. Clausen (1793–1877), and still more Hans Lassen Martensen (1808–1884), lifted the prestige of Danish divinity to a high point. But in history the Danes have been very active. Karl Ferdinand Allen (1811–1871) began a comprehensive history of the Scandinavian kingdoms (5 vols., 1864–1872). Jens Peter Trap (1810–1885) concluded his great statistical account of Denmark in 1879. The 16th century was made the subject of the investigations of Troels Lund (q.v.). About 1880 several of the younger historians formed the plan of combining to investigate and publish the sources of Danish history; in this the indefatigable Johannes Steenstrup (b. 1844) was prominent. The domestic history of the country began, about 1885, to occupy the attention of Edvard Holm (b. 1833), O. Nielsen and the veteran P. Frederik Barfod (1811–1896). The naval histories of G. Lütken attracted much notice. Besides the names already mentioned, A. D. Jörgensen (1840–1897), J. Fredericia (b. 1849), Christian Erslev (b. 1852) and Vilhelm Mollerup have all distinguished themselves in the excellent school of Danish historians. In 1896 an elaborate composite history of Denmark was undertaken by some leading historians (pub. 1897–1905). In philosophy nothing has recently been published of the highest value. Martensen’s Jakob Böhme (1881) belongs to an earlier period. H. Höffding (b. 1843) has been the most prominent contributor to psychology. His Problems of Philosophy and his Philosophy of Religion were translated into English in 1906. Alfred Lehmann (b. 1858) has, since 1896, attracted a great deal of attention by his sceptical investigation of psychical phenomena. F. Rönning has written on the history of thought in Denmark. In the criticism of art, Julius Lange (1838–1896), and later Karl Madsen, have done excellent service. In literary criticism Dr Georg Brandes is notable for the long period during which he remained predominant. His was a steady and stimulating presence, ever pointing to the best in art and thought, and his influence on his age was greater than that of any other Dane.

Authorities.—R. Nyerup, Den danske Digtekunsts Historie (1800–1808), and Almindeligt Literaturlexikon (1818–1820); N. M. Petersen, Literaturhistorie (2nd ed., 1867–1871, 5 vols.); Overskou, Den danske Skueplads (1854–1866, 5 vols.), with a continuation (2 vols., 1873–1876) by E Collin; Chr. Bruun, Bibliotheca Danica (3 vols., 1872–1896); Bricka, Dansk biografisk Lexikon (1887–1901); J. Paludan, Danmarks Literatur i Middelalderen (Copenhagen, 1896); P. Hansen, Illustreret Dansk Literaturhistorie (3 vols., 1901–1902); F. W. Horn, History of the Scandinavian North from the most ancient times to the present (English translation by Rasmus B. Anderson (Chicago, 1884), with bibliographical appendix by Thorwald Solberg); Ph. Schweitzer, Geschichte der Skandinavischen Litteratur (3 pts., Leipzig, 1886–1889), forming vol. viii. of the Geschichte der Weltlitteratur. See also Brandes, Kritiker og Portraiter (1870); Brandes, Danske Ditgere (1877); Marie Herzfeld, Die Skandinavische Litteratur und ihre Tendenzen (Berlin and Leipzig, 1898); Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen, Essays on Scandinavian Literature (London, 1895); Edmund Gosse, Studies in the Literature of Northern Europe (new ed., London, 1883); Vilhelm Andersen, Litteraturbilleder (Copenhagen, 1903); A. P. J. Schener, Kortfattet Indledning til Romantikkus Periode i Danmarks Litteratur (Copenhagen, 1894).  (E. G.) 


DENNERY, or D’Ennery, ADOLPHE (1811–1899), French dramatist and novelist, whose real surname was Philippe, was born in Paris on the 17th of June 1811. He obtained his first success in collaboration with Charles Desnoyer in Émile, ou le fils d’un pair de France (1831), a drama which was the first of a series of some two hundred pieces written alone or in collaboration with other dramatists. Among the best of them may be mentioned Gaspard Hauser (1838) with Anicet Bourgeois; Les Bohémiens de Paris (1842) with Eugène Grangé; with Mallian, Marie-Jeanne, ou la femme du peuple (1845), in which Madame Dorval obtained a great success; La Case d’Oncle Tom (1853); Les Deux Orphelines (1875), perhaps his best piece, with Eugène Cormon. He wrote the libretto for Gounod’s Tribut de Zamora (1881); with Louis Gallet and Édouard Blan he composed the book of Massenet’s Cid (1885); and, again in collaboration with Eugène Cormon, the books of Auber’s operas, Le Premier Jour de bonheur (1868) and Rêve d’amour (1869). He prepared for the stage Balzac’s posthumous comedy Mercadet ou le faiseur, presented at the Gymnase theatre in 1851. Reversing the usual order of procedure, Dennery adapted some of his plays to the form of novels. He died in Paris in 1899.


DENNEWITZ, a village of Germany, in the Prussian province of Brandenburg, near Jüterbog, 40 m. S.W. from Berlin. It is memorable as the scene of a decisive battle on the 6th of September 1813, in which Marshal Ney, with an army of 58,000 French, Saxons and Poles, was defeated with great loss by 50,000 Prussians under Generals Bülow (afterwards Count Bülow of Dennewitz) and Tauentzien. The site of the battle is marked by an iron obelisk.


DENNIS, JOHN (1657–1734), English critic and dramatist, the son of a saddler, was born in London in 1657. He was educated at Harrow School and Caius College, Cambridge, where he took his B.A. degree in 1679. In the next year he was fined and dismissed from his college for having wounded a fellow-student with a sword. He was, however, received at Trinity Hall, where he took his M.A. degree in 1683. After travelling in France and Italy, he settled in London, where he became acquainted with Dryden, Wycherley and others; and being made temporarily independent by inheriting a small fortune, he devoted himself to literature. The duke of Marlborough procured him a place as one of the queen’s waiters in the customs with a salary of £120 a year. This he afterwards disposed of for a small sum, retaining, at the suggestion of Lord Halifax, a yearly charge upon it for a long term of years. Neither the poems nor the plays of Dennis are of any account, although one of his tragedies, a violent attack on the French in harmony with popular prejudice, entitled Liberty Asserted, was produced with great success at Lincoln’s Inn Fields in 1704. His sense of his own importance approached mania, and he is said to have desired the duke of Marlborough to have a special clause inserted in the treaty of Utrecht to secure him from French vengeance. Marlborough pointed out that although he had been a still greater enemy of the French nation, he had no fear for his own security. This tale and others of a similar nature may well be exaggerations prompted by his enemies, but the infirmities of character and temper indicated in them were real. Dennis is best remembered as a critic, and Isaac D’Israeli, who took a by no means favourable view of Dennis, said that some of his criticisms attain classical rank. The earlier ones, which have nothing of the rancour that afterwards gained him the nickname of “Furius,” are the best. They are Remarks . . . (1696), on Blackmore’s epic of Prince Arthur; Letters upon Several Occasions written by and between Mr Dryden, Mr Wycherley, Mr Moyle, Mr Congreve and Mr Dennis, published by Mr Dennis (1696); two pamphlets in reply to Jeremy Collier’s Short View; The Advancement and Reformation of