The 1760's and 1770's saw the emergence of numerous clubs, orders and societies in Stockholm. One of the most extraordinary expressions of this phenomenon was Carl Michael Bellman's Bacchi Orden, a series of semi-public dramatic entertainments chronicling the exploits of the members of Bacchi Orden, a fictional society enrolling several of Stockholm's most notorious drunkards and dedicated to the celebration of Bacchus. Bellman's parodic perspective stands in marked contrast to the self-professed virtuous undertakings of Stockholm's contemporary clubs and orders, whose members were recruited from the social and economic elites and professional and artisanal classes. The main purpose of the dissertation was to study the ceremonial rhetorical practices of Bacchi Orden - speeches, processions and other features designed to enhance the members' loyalty to the society's chosen ideal - and compare them to similar rhetorical traits in several orders and societies of the era in Stockholm to understand what made Bellman's parody work as an entertainment. The dissertation consists of three chapters. The first chapter introduces Bacchi Orden as a parodic and dramatic work and the eighteenth-century associations as cultural and social institutions. The second chapter outlines the use of ceremonial rhetoric in a number of orders and societies in Stockholm contemporary with Bacchi Orden. Through a combined chronological and thematic approach, the third chapter examines recurring rhetorical patterns in Bellman's parody and the rhetorical implications these patterns might have signaled to his audicence. The ceremonial rhetorical practices of Bacchi Orden may be interpreted as parodying rhetorical commonplaces occuring in all the examined orders' pledges to uphold certain virtues for the benefit of the Swedish nation. This system of virtues - with moderation, patriotism and diligence as cornerstones - is put to parodic use in Bacchi Orden through the different breaches of decorum Bellman allows his characters to act out in their doomed endeavors to combine ceremonial protocol and severe intoxication. As a contrast, friendly and frank companionship among the selected few is the one positive virtue that Bellman's audience can infer from his mock-society. This particular tenet became central to subsequent social clubs, which used Bellman's fiction as a template for their ceremonies.

This study examines how smells were perceived in 18th century Stockholm by analyzing odor references in the poetry collection Fredman’s Epistles (1790) (Sw. Fredmans epistlar) by Carl Michael Bellman (1740–1795). Using a specific form of contextualizing, the purpose of the study is to show how the meaning of smells in 18th century Stockholm appears when the smelling objects in the epistles are put in a relevant context. By extension, the investigation will show how the smell sensations in the epistles reveal attitudes towards life, death and certain social and cultural phenomena. I argue that the inhabitants of Stockholm in the 18th century, depending on their social and cultural belonging, shared many of the attitudes towards places, people and phenomena that are reproduced in the epistles. I also argue that 18th century Stockholm was not as dominated by foul smells as has been claimed by previous research. This study sheds new light on how different smells were perceived, described and understood in 18th century Stockholm.