Never could I read aloud when anybody was sitting behind me
or close up to me; far less if I had children on my lap or on my
back, or young Copenhageners lying all over me. It is a _facon de
parler_ to call me 'the children's poet.' My aim has been to be the
poet of all ages; children could not represent me."
In 1842 Andersen gave to the world "A Poets' Bazaar," a chronicle of his
travels through nearly all the countries of Europe. In 1844 the drama
"The King is Dreaming," and in 1845 the fairy comedy "The Flower of
Fortune." But his highest dramatic triumph he celebrated in the
anonymous comedy "The New Lying-in Room," which in a measure proved his
contention that it was personal hostility and not critical scruples
which made so large a portion of the Copenhagen literati persecute him.
For the very men who would have been the first to hold his play up to
scorn were the heartiest in their applause, as long as they did not know
that Andersen was its author. Less pronounced was the success of the
lyrical drama "Little Kirsten" (1846); and the somewhat ambitious epic
"Ahasverus" comes very near being a failure.
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