Music and theatre

Treasures in the Royal Library

Kaj Munk: Kardinalen og Kongen (The Cardinal and the King).
The Drama Collection, Poul Reumert’s Collection, 36 leaves, typed


Title page with a dedication to Poul Reumert	Page 1

The Danish playwright, poet, and pastor Kaj Munk’s (1898-1944) original typescript of the play Kardinalen og Kongen (The Cardinal and the King) with the author’s handwritten additions and a significant verse dedication to the famous actor Poul Reumert:

Til dig, der af den anden Lampens Aand
faar rakt hans Lyst og Kamp og Graad og Spot
og deraf bygger med din Mesterhaand
den lange Nat igennem Gryets Slot.
April 1930.
Kaj Munk

(For you who by the other genie of the lamp
are handed his desire and struggle and tears and taunt
from which you build with your master hand
the long night through the castle of dawn.
April 1930.
Kaj Munk)
This typescript is the only known autograph and complete source of the play in public collections. However, a fragment of act 1 was printed in the Sunday edition of the Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende on 10 June 1945, and the entire play was published in a revised version in the 1962 commemorative edition of Kaj Munk’s works.
The play was never performed in a full theatre production. However, after the war Reumert appeared at the National Theatre in Oslo, Norway in the autumn of 1945 when he with unique virtuosity and force recited the entire play and singlehandedly made the various characters of the drama come alive on stage.

34.2 x 20.8 cm.

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