Carl Michael Bellman

Carl Michael Bellman (1740-1795) was a Swedish songwriter, poet, musician and entertainer who worked in Stockholm during the eighteenth century. He is a central figure of the Swedish song tradition, and his influence on Swedish music and literature is still felt. He has been compared to Shakespeare, Mozart and Hogarth, though his manner, which set elegant classical references against drinking and prostitution, is distinctive.

Born in the Södermalm district, he grew up in a family of civil servants and clergy. His parents hoped he would become a priest, but after a fever he discovered he could express any thought in rhymed verse. He worked without much success at the central bank, the Riksbanken, where debts and disorderly conduct led to his resignation in 1764. He then found modest posts in the civil service and built his reputation as a performer.

Bellman played the cittern and became one of the best known players of his day. His first songs were parodies, a common form of entertainment at the time. Between 1769 and 1773 he wrote much of his Epistles, songs in which drinking is the central theme, though love, death and the brevity of life also recur. His characters come from the taverns and poorer quarters of Stockholm, such as the clockmaker Fredman, the prostitute Ulla Winblad and the musician Movitz, and sit alongside figures from Greek, Roman and biblical myth. His style blends rococo elegance with comic incongruity: Venus steps ashore as a lustful tavern woman, and a graceful minuet accompanies a man lying hungover in the gutter.

King Gustav III granted him a sinecure as secretary to the national lottery, which gave him security for the rest of his life. He died in Stockholm in 1795. His songs are still sung by Swedish choirs and students, have been recorded in several languages, and are remembered in a museum in Stockholm devoted to him.