Thomas Thaarup (21 August 1749 – 12 July 1821) was a

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

. Thomas Thaarup was born in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, where his father, Niels Thaarup, owned a hardware store. His mother's name was Anna Margaretha and her maiden name was Stupsack.

Education

Though his family lived in

Læsø Læsø ("Isle of Hlér") is the largest island in the North Sea bay of Kattegat, and is located off the northeast coast of the Jutland Peninsula, the Danish mainland. Læsø is also the name of the municipality (Danish, '' kommune'') on that is ...

, Thaarup was sent to a grammar school in

Helsingør Helsingør ( , ; sv, Helsingör), classically known in English as Elsinore ( ), is a city in eastern Denmark. Helsingør Municipality had a population of 62,686 on 1 January 2018. Helsingør and Helsingborg in Sweden together form the northern ...

and went to

Copenhagen University The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public research university in Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in Scandinavia after Uppsala Unive ...

in 1768.

Works

Thaarup wrote the

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

to C.E.F. Weyse's 1st

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

Cantata A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir. The meaning of ...

Anti-Semitic writings

In 1813, Thaarup published ''Moses and Jesus or On the Intellectual and Moral Relations of the Jews and Christians'', a translation of a German script (by Friedrich Buchholz); both in the scripture itself and in the recollection with which he accompanied the translation, many fanatical and untrue accusations are made against the Jews that their distinguishing feature is "Selfishness, Cruelty and Laziness, etc.". The translated script provoked a strong response; Professor Otto Horrebow, confessional Christian Bastholm and several others supported Thaarup in his attack, while he was sharply countered by people like

Jens Baggesen Jens Immanuel Baggesen (15 February 1764 – 3 October 1826) was a major Danish poet, librettist, critic, and comic writer. Life Baggesen was born at Korsør on the Danish island of Zealand on February 15, 1764. His parents were very poo ...

Steen Steensen Blicher Steen Steensen Blicher (11 October 1782, Vium – 26 March 1848 in Spentrup) was an author and poet born in Vium near Viborg, Denmark. Biography Blicher was the son of a literarily inclined Jutlandic parson whose family was distantly rela ...

, Johan Werfel and others. On this subject, Thaarup published a few more writings: ''Vor Haandtering'' (1816), a free translation of a German play by Sessa, ''Over the Jews' Claims on German Civil Law'' (1816) and ''The Rights of Christianity and the German People'' (1817), both translations of German writings by Friedrich Rühs.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thaarup, Thomas Danish male poets 1749 births 1821 deaths