Dorothea Biehl
Encyclopedia
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
– 17 May 1788) was a Danish playwright and translator.
Biehl was born daughter to an inspector and learned to read and write several languages form her grandfather, but after his death, her parents forbid her to read, and when her grandmother also died in 1746, she had to become a maid in 1747.
In 1755, her father became a secretary for the Danish Academy, and she began her career as a translator from French, German and Italian.
In 1761, Biehl started to translate plays for the Royal Danish Theatre
Royal Danish Theatre
The Royal Danish Theatre is both the national Danish performing arts institution and a name used to refer to its old purpose-built venue from 1874 located on Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen. The theatre was founded in 1748, first serving as the theatre of the king, and then as the theatre of the...
, and in 1762, her own play, Poète Campagnard had its first performance, and she continued as a playwright until 1783. She was the first author in Denmark to give children parts and lines in her plays.
Her play Den listige Optrækkerske from 1765 about a woman using men's sexuality as a mean of self confirmation made a scandal. In 1771, she met the 21-year old Johan Bülow, with whom she had a correspondence published in 1783. When the Italian I. Bianchi visited the Danish court in 1774, she was presented to him as the only person suitable to converse an Italian artist on the same level. She retired in 1783.
Sample of work
- Den kierlige mand (1764)
- Den forelskede ven (1765)
- Den listige optrækkerske (1765)
- Brevveksling imellem fortrolige venner 1-3, (1783)