1710, where he wrote, and printed in 1711, his first work, _An Introduction to the History of the Nations of Europe_, and was permitted to present to King Frederick IV. two manuscript essays on Christian IV. and Frederick III. The king soon after presented him with the title of Professor, and with the Rosenkrantz grant of 100 dollars for four years, the holder of which was expected to travel. Holberg accordingly started in 1714, and visited, chiefly on foot, a great portion of Europe. From Amsterdam he walked through Rotterdam to Antwerp, took a boat to Brussels, and on foot again reached Paris. Walking and skating, he proceeded in the depth of winter to Marseilles, and on by sea to Genoa. On the last-mentioned voyage he caught a fever, and nearly died in that city. On his recovery he pushed on to Civita Vecchia and Rome. When the spring had come, being still very poor and in feeble health, he started homewards on foot by Florence, across the Apennines, through Bologna, Parma, Piacenza, Turin, over the Alps, through Savoy and Dauphine to Lyons, and finally to Paris, where he arrived in excellent health. After spending a month in Paris, he walked on to Amsterdam, took sail to Hamburg, and so went back to Denmark in 1716. He spent the next two years in extreme poverty, and published his _Introduction to Natural and Popular Law_. But at last, in 1718, his talents were recognized by his appointment as professor of metaphysics at the university of Copenhagen; and in 1720 he was promoted to the lucrative chair of public eloquence, which gave him a seat in the consistory. His pecuniary troubles were now at an end. Hitherto he had written only on law, history and philology, although in a Latin controversy with the jurist Andreas Hojer of Flensborg his satirical genius had flashed out. But now, and until 1728, he created an entirely new class of humorous literature under the pseudonym of Hans Mikkelsen. The serio-comic epic of _Peder Paars_, the earliest of the great classics of the Danish language, appeared In 1719. This poem was a brilliant satire on contemporary manners, and enjoyed an extraordinary success. But the author had offended in it several powerful persons who threatened his life, and if Count Danneskjold had not personally interested the king in him, Holberg's career might have had an untimely close. During the next two years he published five shorter satires, all of which were well received by the public. The great event of 1721 was the erection of the first Danish theatre in Gronnegade, Copenhagen; Holberg took the direction of this house, in which was played, in September 1722, a Danish translation of L'Avare. Until this time no plays had been acted in Denmark except in French and German, but Holberg now determined to use his talent in the construction of Danish comedy. The first of his original pieces performed was _Den politiske Kandestober_ (The Pewterer turned Politician); he wrote other