Dorothea Biehl

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Dorothea Biehl, (b. 2 June 1731 in Copenhagen-d.17 May 1788), was a Danish playwright and translator.

Biehl was born daughter to an inspector and learned to read and write sevarel languages form her grandfather, but after his death, her parents forbid her to read, and when her grandmother also died in 1746, she had to become a maid in 1747.

In 1755, her father became a secretary for the Danish Academy, and she begun her career as a translator from French, German and Italian.

In 1761, Biehl started to translate plays for the Royal Danish Theatre, and in 1762, her own play, Poète Campagnard had it's first performance, and she continued as a playwright until 1783. She was the first author in Denmark to give children parts and lines in her plays.

Her play Den listige Optrækkerske in 1765 about a woman using men's sexuality as a mean of self confirmation made a scandal. In 1771, she met the 21- year old Johan Bülow, with whom she had a correspondance published in 1783. When the Italian I.Bianchi visited the Danish court in 1774, she was presented to him as the only person suitable to converse an Italian artist on the same level. She retired in 1783.