Danish people were no more aware of the original performance and pamphlet/folio (individual and collected-works editions) of Hamlet in the early 1600s than anyone else outside of England. Perhaps even less so, since the "English strolling players" (touring theatre companies), who sometimes performed Shakespearan plays, ranged mainly across the Low Countries and German-speaking territory. Indeed, it would take more than a century of changes to elite perceptions of what made a "good" play--as well as changes to Shakespeare's plays themselves, in the form of endless adaptations and complete rewritings--for proud English people to turn Shakespeare into a prime national export.

This was actually fortuitous for Shakespeare in Denmark. Because the rising tide of literary Romanticism that propelled him to international acclaim from the mid-18th century perfectly dovetailed with the cultural situation in contemporary Copenhagen.

To that point, Denmark's political and especially cultural life had been tightly tied to Germany. The language of the army and often the court was in fact German! The second half of the century, however, saw both a major growth in Danish nationalism and the German adulation for Shakespeare. So not only did the ongoing cultural ties to Germany propel the Bard to recognition and then prominence, but Danish writers and translators were keen to take his work from German translations into their own language.

So that's how Shakespeare first appears: in Danish-language reviews and literary essays that consider German-language books and plays quoting or adapting Shakespeare. Firmly in the realm of written literature, and at first only in snippets.

But they were snippets enough to make Denmark's Danish literary crowd very very interested. In particular, early attention was drawn to the history plays and historical tragedies by the plays and productions of Johannes Ewald in the early 1770s. A huge fan of Shakespeare in the German, his Danish plays adopted the dark, murderous and bloody style and settings of the historically-set tragedies into a Scandinavian historical or mythological context. With readers and audiences alike falling under the spell of this type of play, it was impossible for them not to notice Hamlet--especially with the new acclaim accorded its protagonist's inner turmoil in light of Romantic literary ideals.

The plot is actually loosely based on an old Danish legend of "Amleth", minus a ghost, some madness, you know, minor trappings. Shakespeare might have known the Latin text, but more likely either a French translation of it or the now-lost late 16th century drama based on it. But even through all those layers, it was still quite recognizable as a story not just set in Denmark but from Denmark.

So when the omnibus translation of Shakespeare's works into German was finally complete, writer-producer Friedrich Schroeder picked as the first of his adaptions to stage in Copenhagen none other than Hamlet. Schroeder's version of this and subsequent plays were still performed in German despite the burgeoning nationalism expressed even in choice of play--that's how closely intermingled the cultural life of Copenhagen and its court were between the two linguistic/cultural spheres. Reviewers were enthusiastic, and suggested that the play was perfect for translation into and performance in Danish.

So once again! When twenty-one year old Caspar Johannes Boye took it upon himself to translate Shakespeare into Danish the next year, the idealistic student more steeped in nationalist sentiment than his predecessors, he chose--you know it--Hamlet. Once again, reviews were overwhelmingly positive. Claus Fasting found in Boye's translation reason to call Shakespeare "the most original genius, next to Homer...the world has ever known," and pronounced Boye well ready to take up the mantle of making Shakespeare accessible to the public in Danish. The success was even enough that when Norwegian playwright-publisher repeatedly failed to get his editions of Shakespeare published in his own land, he found presses in Copenhagen eager to step up.

One important point: except for Schroeder's German productions, we have been talking solely about texts, not live performances. Even while Shakespeare became firmly entrenched in Danish and then Norwegian literary culture, success on the stage was still elusive. Actor and linguist (no, really) Peter Foersom spent the early years of the 19th century trying in vain to convince Copenhagen theatre companies to produce one of his growing roster of translations. Julius Caesar? No. Romeo & Juliet? Nah. Various Henrys in various Parts? Not so much. Finally--finally--he succeeded in 1813.

With, indeed, Hamlet.

Danish-language Shakespearan drama would still have rocky waters to chart. Foersom found financial backing to stage his Hamlet numerous times between 1813 and his death in 1817, but it never really caught on for an extended run. It did do better than the other early attempt, Macbeth in 1816. But lasting success on the stage to match print for Danish Shakespeare would have to wait a little longer for the tastes of Scandinavian theatergoers to steep themselves in the Romantic and the Gothic.

And in 1826, with fresh printed editions of Boye's Shakespeare stoking the fire, the Danish Royal Theatre cast its leading actor in the role that would come to define actors and acting through today: Hamlet.