…I was now a happy man, 
I had faith in everyone, 
owned the courage of a poet, the mind of youth…

 
During the years before and after his studies in Slagelse Andersen almost constantly wrote plays within the drama of fate genre. The tragedy The Forest Chapel [Skovcapellet] from 1821 is a characteristic example and expression of his at the time still untried attempts to make his way to the world of the theatre.

According to Andersen the play which he especially loved to perform at soirées made the writer Kamma Rahbek exclaim: "but there are entire passages in it that you have taken directly from Oehlenschläger and Ingemann!" The young poet answered cheerfully: "Yes, but they are so lovely!" 

Not until 1829 did Andersen succeed in having his debut as a playwright at the beloved stage, but oddly enough with a travesty of the tragedy of fate as genre with the heroic-satirical vaudeville Love on St Nicolas Tower or What Does the Pit Say? [Kjærlighed på Nicolai Taarn, eller Hvad siger Parterret?] 

For the first time his grotesque-absurd style and witty tone shines through, a style that he often used in his later scenic works which secured him the greatest successes at the theatre in his later vaudevilles, romantic comedies and melodramas.