Master Gert, or The Babbling Barber: A Comedy in One Act
Holberg, Ludvig, 1684-1754Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019
Rating 3.4- Word count
- 58K words
- Chapters
- 6
Tags
Foreign Language Books Dramatic Literature Social ObservationStage DramaPortrait GalleryCommon FolkClassical DramaDialogue FormHumor ReliefOne-Act PlaySatirical ComedyNordic LiteratureSummary
Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Mestari Gert eli Lörpöttelevä parturi: Huvinäytelmä 1:ssä näytöksessä by HolbergAuthor: Holberg, Ludvig, 1684-1754,Language: Finnish, Class: PT: Language and Literatures: Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures, Release Date: Oct 26, 2015Editor's review
This is a Finnish public-domain translation of Holberg's one-act comedy The Boastful Barber Gert, a compact work in the European Enlightenment comic tradition. The play revolves around a boastful barber, generating laughs through misunderstandings, bragging, and mistaken identity, with a tight structure suited to a single sitting. Holberg's comedies often use ordinary townsfolk to satirize human weaknesses; this short play with few characters makes it easy to observe how a one-act builds conflict quickly and resolves it. The Finnish text poses a language barrier for most Chinese readers and is better suited as supplementary material for Nordic drama studies, comparative literature, or language learning. When reading, note the exaggerated rhetoric and pacing of the dialogue to see how Enlightenment comedy achieves moral satire through everyday situations.Who it's for
A good fit for
- Readers studying Nordic Enlightenment drama and one-act structure
- Advanced Finnish learners seeking short dramatic texts
- Readers interested in Holberg's comic tradition and satire of ordinary life
- Teachers and students needing public-domain short plays for classroom reading or adaptation
Not a good fit for
- General readers who read only Chinese and cannot read Finnish
- Drama fans expecting full-length plays or large casts
- Readers who prefer serious tragedy or modern experimental theatre
Reading tips
- Read through once to see how the barber's boasting drives the misunderstandings, then revisit key lines for the comic setup.
- Read alongside other Holberg one-act comedies to compare character types and satirical techniques.
- Language learners can read roles aloud, paying attention to exaggerated tone and rhythm in colloquial dialogue.
About the publisher
Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.
Contents
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
FAQ
What language is this version in?
The record lists Finnish. It is a Finnish translation of Holberg's play, not the original Danish, and there is no Chinese parallel text.How long does it take to read a one-act play?
It is short with a concentrated cast; readers with Finnish proficiency can usually finish it in one sitting, while language learners may need two or three sessions.Can I understand this play without knowing Holberg?
Yes. The plot centers on the barber's boasting and misunderstandings and stands fairly independently; knowing common conventions of Enlightenment comedy first will make the satirical intent easier to grasp.This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.
About the author
Holberg, Ludvig, 1684-1754 AuthorLudvig Holberg (1684–1754) is a representative writer of the Nordic Enlightenment, though public information available here about his nationality, life, and education is limited. Sixteen of his works are held in this collection, chiefly comedies and satirical travel narratives. His representative work Jeppe on the Hill creates a peasant who, transformed and given noble status, comes to see the absurdity of society; Niels Klim's Journey Under the Ground uses the framework of an imaginary voyage to criticize social institutions and human habits. His plays often use colloquial dialogue and exaggerated plots to produce laughter, with satire aimed at hierarchical prejudice and self-importance. These works are regarded in Nordic literature as an important source of the comic tradition and satirical prose, and have had some influence on later drama and fantasy literature.