River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1880-07-15
A ROYAL QUARREL.
The king of sweden and Norway
Measures swords with n Norwegian

'Ihe King of sweden and Norway
Measures swords with a Norwegian
Poet.
Oscar, King of Sweden and Norway,
and Bjornsterne-Bj orsen, poet of Nor
other, and the King is for the moment
victorious. The ostensible cause of
quarrel is political but the cause Of
causes is said to be literary, the King
himself being writer of verses, and
unwilling to have brother near the
throne. The King is Swede, and the
Norwegian Parliament is anti-Swedish.
Some wears ago it demanded certain re-
forms, such as limitation of the royal
power of arbitrarily -dissolving Parlia-
ment, an extension of the franchise,
and other measure in the direction of
popular freedom. The King has stead
lily refused to grant them, and the peo-
pie of Norway have grown more and
more persistent.
Bornsen, the poet, is also an editor
Of radical paper, in which he has bold
ly criticised the King, both in his royal
and his literary character. IF this
man were Norwegian" he says, ''or
if he even lived among us, or if he were
a poetical genius who understood the
people, he might comply with the de-
mands of the parliament; but he comes
here on a short tour when he has the
time to spare, and is surrounded by IA
ring of petitioners eager to get some
thing out of him before he departs 1t
is a pit liable, humiliating spectacle
The King retorts that Bjornsen is an
atheist and a traitor, and so the fight
goes on. The King and the poet are of
nearly the same age, and have grown
in reputation and fame side by side
the poet writing and singing for the
people, the King, sustained by all the
traditions of his race, unfolding the
power of the throne.
Five years ago the Frankfort Acad-
envy of Sciences elected King Oscar a
corresponding member, in recognition
of his poetical translation of Goethe's
Faust" into Swedish; and he is Il mem
Der of other learned societies. He also
writes for the magazines, and sends
criticisms of current literature to the
bi-monthly review in Stockholm. 1t is
related by writer in the New York
Herald which tells the story Of the new
quarrel, that for a time the king and
the poet like Frederick the Great and
Voltaire, lived in harmony together,
and Copenhagen divided its applause
between them. Some months ago
their friendship cooled. Professor
Molbech, theatrical censor,
had refused to license a
piece composed in the Bjornsen school,
and the king thought fit to decorate the
professor with the star of the north.
A bitter polemic then began. The poet
defended the play in one journal; the
king attacked it in another. 1t was
confidently asserted that Bjornsen had
challenged King Oscar to II duel, and
that the latter had instructed the public
prosecutor to bring am action against
him for treason. 1t is certain that the
poet left Sweden very hastily with his
family, on pretcxt of producing his
plays in Germany and Austria, and that
the literary feud has continued unabat-
ed ever since.
The quarrel is now extending into an
affair of state, and is watched by the
neighbors on the other side of the North
and Baltic Seas with a good deal of in
terest.