Erasmus Montanus eller Rasmus Berg

by Ludvig Holberg

Den opblæste student Erasmus Montanus vender hjem fra København til landsbyen Bjerget og støder her sammen med de toneangivende lokale magter Per Degn og Jesper Ridefoged. Han misbruger logikken til at 'forvandle' sin mor til en sten og bevise at han må slå sine forældre. Men han sættes på plads af fornuftens repræsentant, en løjtnant, og ender med at måtte indrømme over for sin tilkommende svigerfar Jeronimus at jorden er flad som en pandekage.

Erasmus Montanus eller Rasmus Berg, komedie i fem akter, var blandt de stykker der lå færdige da Holberg udgav første tome af Hans Mikkelsens komedier i 1723. Dette fremgår af ”Just Justesens Betenkning over Comoedier”, hvor den anføres med titlen Johannes Montanus eller Hans Berg. Komedien blev først trykt i 1731 i Den Danske Skue-Plads, tome 5. Den var imidlertid aldrig blevet opført; det blev den første gang i efteråret 1747 i det lille teater i Læderstræde (om end den tidligere var blevet spillet på tysk i Hamborg i 1742), og efter Komediehusets åbning på Kgs. Nytorv i december 1748 skulle der gå 2½ år før den blev opført her den 9. juni 1751.

Erasmus Montanus var i begyndelsen ingen succes. Komediens tema, den tomme lærdom over for den nyttige dannelse, synes ikke at have appelleret til et bredere publikum. Dette giver Holberg anledning til i Epistel 249 at nævne at han selv med større fornøjelse ser denne komedie end den populære Mascarade. I resten af 1700-tallet blev Erasmus Montanus ikke spillet ofte, men senere er billedet vendt, og siden guldalderen har den hørt til blandt de hyppigst opførte og mest læste af Holbergs komedier.

http://www.saxo.com/dk/erasmus-montan...

Genres: Classics, Plays, Danish, Fiction, Drama, School, Denmark

141 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1723

About the author

Ludvig Holberg, Baron of Holberg, a writer, essayist, philosopher, historian and playwright born in Bergen, Norway during the time of the Dano-Norwegian double monarchy, spent most of his adult life in Denmark. He was influenced by Humanism, the Enlightenment and the Baroque. Holberg is considered the founder of modern Danish and Norwegian literature and is best known for the comedies he wrote in 1722–1723 for the theatre in Lille Grønnegade in Copenhagen.

Reviews

[Sara Gabrielsen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dårlig moral buuuuu
Enten: man må gi opp alle moraler og individuelle tanker for å bli akseptert av andre
Eller: choose your battles. Montanus fant ut at han kunne ha egne tanker, men uten å måtte si det til andre og fortsatt bli akseptert.

[Selma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in Danish.
Rasmus Berg or Erasmus Montanus, went to Copenhagen to become an intellectual and came back arrogant, and quite frankly not that smart. He was extremely rude to his parents and brother, believing himself to be of a superior intellect, and demanded that even they call him Erasmus Montanus. On the topic of his name, it was the kind of stroke of genius a pompous fourth grader would have gotten. That being said, I thought this play was an extremely clever commentary on academic conceit, that still holds true today.
I really liked Jacob, his brother, since he did not buy into Rasmus' superiority complex, and reminded him that he may be sitting in his fine clothes in Copenhagen; but, it is in fact Jacob and his parents that are financing his life. I found that this had its intended humorous effect on me, as a reader.

Overall, I thought this was a really good play that held against the test of time, and succeeds in remaining relevant in today's society. I think it deserves 4.5 out of 5 stars.

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Student kehrt zurück in Heimatdorf. Klugscheißt rum, wie schlau er ist. Benennt sich von Rasmus Berg in Erasmus Montanus um. Besteht drauf. Nervt alle mit seinem Neumalklugen-Gehabe.

Ungefähr so wie Rasmus Berg klang ich als Ersti und so klingen auch heute noch alle Erstis, wenn man sich an Weihnachten allzu gebildet vorkommt, weil man das IPA auswendig gelernt hat, oder ein paar menschliche Knochen mehr beim Namen kennt, oder mal einen Laborkittel tragen konnte. Eben deshalb bewundere ich Holbergs Stück so, weil es immer noch eine gewisse Aktualität besitzt und immer noch zum Schmunzeln bringt.
Bin jetzt Fan vom dänischen Molière.

[Sabine · Rating 4 out of 5]

møj finurlig :-))

[Juliane Heide · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leste denne nye versjonen med klassen. Her snakker de lærde engelsk og ikke latin. De lo godt når Degnen åpenbart ikke kan så godt engelsk (latin) som han skal ha det til.

[Thea Madshaven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Denne var gøy og kort

[Melissa | melisthereader]

I did not understand anything of what I just read :S Other than that ending was the weirdest ever x) I can't rate it until I have thoroughly analysed this at school!

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Artig påminnelse om å ikke gå tapt i obskure ord og abstraksjoner som ikke lenger har bakkekontakt med virkeligheten!

Jeppe Berg fra bygda drar til Køben for å studere blant annet filosofi. Han kommer tilbake som Erasmus Montanus, nå en oppusen akademiker. Med sine nye språklige ferdigheter forvandler han sin ulærde mor om til en stein ved å misbruke syllogismen. Uten evne til å motsi sin sønns upenetrerbare logikk tvinges hun motvillig til å godta sin nye tilværelse. Like etter, som en trollman, fletter han sammen atter en syllogisme og moren gjennopptar sin menneskelige form.

Ironisk nok svelger familie og bekjente monsieur Montanus' meningsløse og esoteriske utsagn - selv om ingen forstår hva han sier - det høres jo tross alt svært komplisert og overbevisende ut. Når han derimot forsøker å bevise at jorda er rund, kontra flat, kommer han ingen vei. Selv en bonde forstår jo at dersom jorden var rundt og gikk i bane rundt solen, ville hver og en av dem falt av for lengst.

Til slutt møter han sin overmann i en belest løytnant. Han gir Jeppe, nå ynkelig og tårevåt, en dose av sin egen medisin. Løytnanten tvinger Jeppe inn i millitæret, der han erkjenner å ha misbrukt sin lærdom og må tåle ydmykelsen.

Historien overdriver et handlingsmønster som flere av oss lever ut fra tid til annen. Å vinne kun for å vinne, på bekostning av andre.

[Trine Salbøg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Akademisk dannelse gør klogere i et læringsperspektiv indenfor en bestemt tradition, men hæver sig aldrig over anden dannelse. Der er mange måder at blive klog på, som der er mange måder at få ål i de ellers så fine strømper. Dette var en genlæsning, og nej - Erasmus Montanus var, som jeg læste den som ganske ung. Jeg forstod, som jeg forstår den nu. Og ja, den er fortsat lidt kedelig og, som klassiske komedier lidt er, som tunge kulisser med gamle ord og rum til dåselatter.

[Sofie · Rating 4 out of 5]

full av vittigheter og ender godt til slutt:)

[Magnus Innset Berntsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meg hver gang jeg er på Lillehammer

[Håvard Bamle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every time I read enlightenment literature I feel like the same theme reappears. There is a frustration over the inadequacy of syllogismic logic. At the same time, writers do not yet have the language to express their frustration. Irony becomes the most important tool of social critics, and everything is brought under the scrutiny of satire. Who knows: if Frege had lived a hundred years sooner we may never have seen the French revolution?

[Neva · Rating 4 out of 5]

This play is too real.. If you change the disputations to modern issues you will see many Montanus bergs in modern media. Crazy how spot on an old play like this can be. Worth the read. Also quite funny. Read it with a group! Plays are best with friends

[Johanna Bondevik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ei artig lita fortelling om en ung mann som bære ønska å løft seg sjøl opp med det han hadd å by på - og en lærepenge i hovmod og blind arroganse. Den unge herr Montanus e strålende fornøyd med utvikling av eget intellekt og nyvunne debattkunnskapa, nåkka han også demonstrer, gang på gang, i all sin praktfulle impertinens. Ikke bære ligg det humor i kordan han vektlegg debattering og filosofi langt over alle andre, faktisk nyttige og brukbare, evna - det ligg også en viss medynk eller stakkarslighet over det, da han sjøl ikke innehar nån sånne egenskapa. Erasmus e nok for nån en smått uutholdelig type (og forståelig så), og med sin komiske, tunge påvirkning av det engelske språket, blir han litt som en 1700-tallets Jan Thomas eller Fetisha Williams. Mildt hilarious, spør du meg. Hans nærvær e kverulantenes Mekka, og han sjøl en pseudo-veiviser for andre «lærde».
Erasmus Montanus e en demonstrasjon av at intellekt - om enn så stort - e verdiløst i uintelligent selskap; av at hovmod faktisk står for fall; og et vitne om ydmykhet som dyd.

Artige greier, som også bær med seg nån gode kommentara på samfunn og utdanning, som også e relevant her i dag. Ekstra s/o tel Jacob, som e the real GOAT i denna fortellinga.

Anbefales kjøpt, da den godt kan tas fram for å leses fleire gang gjennom åran👍🏼

[HardWorkofSanctification · Rating 5 out of 5]

Godhjertet skuespill som lærer en at en skal opprettholde folkeskikk selv om en er lærd, og at en ikke må gå på hodet for å disputere med folk, men heller respektere ens foreldre og neste. Montanus er et erkebilde av en brilleslange som efter å ha lært logikk vil bare ut og disputere, han anser seg selv for å være filosof, men er i virkeligheten en sofist med hovmodsproblemer og egt. en fagidiot med tunellsyn. Men det er en av de virkelig morsomme skuespill som får ens humør opp.

Goodhearted play that speaks about remembering manners even if one is learned, and that one should respect one's parents and neighbours. Montanus is an archetype of an overly learned man without chest, that just wants to discuss things all the time. He praises himself to be a philosopher while he is a sophist with the cardinal vice of pride ingrained into his mind. Truly a funny play that makes one's mood better.

[Eirik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stykket klarer å kritisere pretensiøse akademikere, autoritære stater som begrenser akademisk frihet, og bestefaren din som tror han kan alt i heile verden, alt på en gang. Scenen der Montanus prøver å overtale bygdefolket om at jorda er rund føltes alt for mye som når jeg prøver å overtale onkel om at klimaendringene er ekte. Det går jo faktisk ikke.

[Frank Hestvik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Erasmus Montanus has always had a special place in my heart.

Plot: Rasmus Berg, son of common farmers, is sent off to the university where he seemingly attains the finest intellectual arrogance and pretenses that money can buy. He returns to "the country" for a visit, now calling himself Erasmus Montanus, talks a lot of Latin nonsense (proving people are rocks or claiming ridiculous things like the Earth is round), and is generally seen as a fool with no practical sense, to the point where the whole village turns against him to make him recant his heretical notions.

I did see the actual play when I was very young, some kind of school trip in maybe 8th(?) grade. Bristling with youthful ADD I was probably not the most attentive audience member, but the gist I privately left with was that Erasmus was a sort of ironic hero. I thought it was a modern-day Galilei story but told from the Inquisition's point of view. Imagine for example that the play itself was written by his practical and mocking brother Jacob. So Erasmus was to me a sort of hero masqueraded as a fool by a biased narrative.

I mean, yes, Erasmus comes off as an arrogant fool spouting a bunch of incomprehensible Latin and syllogistic nonsense. But I imagined that if someone started to babble on about tangents or secants or whatever else geometry one might use to show the Earth is round it would probably sound like poppycock to (e.g.) Jacob or his kin, wouldn't it? Especially from someone so abrasive and "pedagogically challenged" as Erasmus. Similarly with any sort of philosophy if Erasmus couldn't bother translating it to a non-academic language. I mean, pick up any serious higher level math or theoretical physics book--homology, category theory, whatever--and you'll see what I mean. Just a bunch of mysteriously enticing symbols, little magical diagrams, and meaningless terminology. (Bad form to romanticize mathematics as some sort of scholarly mysticism, I know.) "Oh yes, this is saying that you can't actually put a knot on a piece of string in four dimensions," or "it's more likely the universe is shaped like a doughnut rather than a sphere by how our distant galaxies are color-shifted," "a six-dimensional being would need a minimum of four legs to walk as we can walk with only two"--nonsense? Or who can separate continental obscurantists from academic charlatans? Who except those elect Montani (Montana?) privy to such arcana, surely?

(Of course I saw Erasmus this way because I knew immediately that I was him. Like, come, I write in English on GR even about Norwegian books without English translations, quoting them in the original Norwegian and then switching back to English. How convoluted is that? Yet I simply couldn't fathom being able to express myself nearly as efficiently (w.r.t. time, not necessarily efficaciously!) in my hesitant and halting Norwegian. In other words: it saves me time, even though it makes the act more futile, so I can produce a greater amount of futility. So I too am an obvious proponent of solipsistic and uselessly intellectual exercises, an Erasmus walking around in the rain muttering to himself in Latin, certainly not getting anything done.)

Then, back in the class room after this trip to the theater, I was hardly seated before the teacher summarily declared that Erasmus was an idiot. And everyone nodded in agreement, like, "well, duh." And that is what the play was about. It was making fun of these so-called dreamers or intellectuals who got so caught up in their own heads they turned into big useless babies.

I was shocked! Outraged! I wanted to say, but, but, Erasmus was right, really! He was right! What about The Inquisition, is there no parallel? Anti-intellectualism has always been in bed with violence and brutality and this had the taste of pure propaganda! Imprisoning him in the military to make him conform to the public opinion? OK, I wasn't actually this cringingly pseudo-clever; these are rationalized forms of the memory added later as I've grown into my own intellectual cringeworthiness. But I was really surprised. Being Erasmus, I could not accept it to be so...plain.

I think I even raised my hand to ask the teacher if he was serious; I remember him smiling at me. Of course he was serious. No, there's no ironic meta-perspective, there's "narrative unrealiability," or any such nonsense. It's pretty simple. Erasmus was actually just an insufferable idiot and the fact that he was right about the Earth being round is coincidental and meaningless. Boo.

Now, re-reading it, I can more easily see that yes, OK, I'll admit that perhaps...perhaps Erasmus is a fool, narrative perspective regardless. But screw that. There's still the part of me that will always root for him, like someone secretly in love with their own disease.

Tho the most sensible character in the entire play I discovered was Magdelone, Erasmus' mother-in-law-to-be, who thought both sides were being silly:

"Hør, Mand, jeg finder dette aldeles ikke af den Vigtighed, at vi derfor skulde ophæve Partiet."

She is, of course, the real hero.

[Sandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

It wasnt a bad book, just, I was forced to read it by my school and I didnt like the ending. And it didnt stick out or was special to me so I wouldnt give it a high rating or recommend it but its not bad.

[Vita · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book written by a pretentious man about an even more pretentious idiot of a man. Sure there are some things to learn from this book and the writing is more than alright, but it’s not worth the read.

[Line Cathrine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vittig fremstilling av usikkerheten den norske bonden kjente på 1800-tallet knyttet å bli sett på som ulærd! Jeg tenker dette stykket kan si oss mye om de sosiale forskjellene i samtiden, og hvordan nordmenn ble nærmest "glemt" av danskekongen i unionstiden.

[Walaa Alnabhan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Det er rigtig fint at man er veluddannet, men det fineste er at man kombinerer uddannelse med beskedenhed, mener jeg :-)

[Eva · Rating 2 out of 5]

boring

[Alva]

Läste den på originalspråk, vilket inte var så svårt som jag trodde att det skulle vara. Ganska roligt, lätt att hänga med i.

[Gine Bugge Sande · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3.5*

[Emma Katrine Kleberg Sjøstedt · Rating 1 out of 5]

Jeg læste kun til side 68, jeg læste ikke efterskriften..

[Helium · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely book to read. I would recommend but it might take some time to fully understand some of the words and sentences

[Xenia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good a lot of difficult language tho, but with explanations so it's alright

[Luisa Lester · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ikke lige min type bog.. vi elsker skolebøger🙂🙂

[Annika Kristensen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmmm

[Nora Tangen Aarskog · Rating 5 out of 5]

Morosam og genial. Tidlaus humor.