Caroline Amalie Thielo (1 March 1735 – 5 February 1754) was a Danish

actress An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

, one of her country's first professional native female actors, and said to be the first actress ever employed at the

Royal Danish Theatre The Royal Danish Theatre (RDT, Danish: ') is both the national Danish performing arts institution and a name used to refer to its old purpose-built venue from 1874 located on Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen. The theatre was founded in 1748, first s ...

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

. She was very popular in the mid-18th century, and was also employed as a translator of plays for the theatre.

Life and career

Born child of the organist Carl August Thielo (1707–1763, the founder and first director of the Royal Danish Theatre), she debuted at the age of twelve on the temporary stage at Læderstræde, where her father's troupe had performed since 1747 after public theatre was once more made legal in Denmark, and until the building of the Royal Theatre was finished in 1748. Thielo was considered to be the leading interpreter of mistress, heroine and girl's parts, and became very popular. Among her roles was Agnès in ''Fruentimmerskolen'' by

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, ; ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the great writers in the French language and world liter ...

, and Isabella in ''Don Ranudo'' by

Ludvig Holberg Ludvig Holberg, Baron of Holberg (3 December 1684 – 28 January 1754) was a writer, essayist, philosopher, historian and playwright born in Bergen, Norway, during the time of the Denmark–Norway, Dano–Norwegian dual monarchy. He was infl ...

. Amongst the plays she translated for the theatre were ''Deucalion'', and ''Pyrrha'', which was performed in 1753. As with many actresses of this age, she was considered to be a prostitute; this was a common view in this period, as it was considered indecent of women to expose themselves in public, and Caroline Thielo, being young, beautiful and unmarried, was particularly exposed to this – the novelty of female actors drew people to the theatre; it was said that many people came there just to see the women on the stage, who were considered very exotic.

Death

According to legend that the Danish theatrical historian Thomas Overskou mentions in his work on the Danish theater, Thielo was murdered when she was only 19 years old. She is said to have had an affair with the Russian emissary in Copenhagen Baron Johann Albrecht von Korff, who belonged to the

freemason Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

s; she had tricked him into revealing some secret signs, and as a consequence, he murdered her by having his servant blood let her to death. However this story is pure fabrication, and does not seem to have had any adherents until Overskou mentioned it in 1856.K.L. Bugge, ''Det danske frimureries historie'', volume 1, 1910, pp. 374-82. Other sources claim that, in reality, she died of the

fever Fever or pyrexia in humans is a symptom of an anti-infection defense mechanism that appears with Human body temperature, body temperature exceeding the normal range caused by an increase in the body's temperature Human body temperature#Fever, s ...

References

External links

Dansk Kvindebiografisk Leksikon

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thielo, Caroline 18th-century Danish actresses 1735 births 1754 deaths Danish stage actresses Translators to Danish 18th-century Danish translators