Johannes Ewald

Johannes Ewald was born in Copenhagen in 1743, the son of a pastor at the royal orphanage who died when the boy was eleven; he was then sent to the Latin school in Slesvig. A theology student at fifteen, he left in 1759 for the Seven Years' War: the Prussians would not have him, so he served as a drummer in the Austrian army and came home weakened in 1760. Arendse Huulegaard, whom he loved, married another man in 1764. He lived on occasional verse, drank, suffered from gout, spent time in hospital, then came under the guardianship of a pastor who was his mother's confidant. He died in Copenhagen in 1781, without ever marrying.

In the catalogue 1

• TheatreThe Death of BalderBalders DødJohannes Ewald · 1775Literature