VI.

WIELAND.

This was one of our classical poets, and, accordingly, ought to be mentioned in a parallelism with Klopstock and Lessing.

CHRISTOPH MARTIN WIELAND (1733-1813) Was born the 5th of September 1733, at Oberholzheim, near Biberach, in which place his father exercised holy orders. The embryo bard of “Oberon" received, from the wise solicitude of a parent's love, the advantages of an excellent religious education, and being, moreover, gifted with a feeling heart, his thoughts were early directed to the study of divine things. His first essay at versifying, made when only ten years old, was to this effect:

:

"Fromme Kinder die gern beten

Müssen vor den Herrn treten.'

Wieland's studies were completed at Erfurt and Tübingen. In 1772, our poet responded to the invitation of the duchess Anna Amalia von Weimar, to fulfil the office of preceptor to the young Princes. Here he lived in intimate connexion with Goethe, Herder, and Schiller, until the period of his demise, which event took place on the 20th of January 1813.

WIELAND may be reckoned one of the greatest names in the whole circle of German literature. He wrote all kinds of poetry: hymns, dramas, and even novels; effected a German version of Shakspeare and Horace, as well as a translation of the letters of Cicero and Lucian,-and was in most of them eminently successful. Wieland's Muse is a creature of extraordinary ease and grace, both in Her tones and in Her numbers. His fancy is most luxuriant. In his prose works he is natural and vivacious, and exhibits a good store of wit; only a kind of Gallic attitudinism is

*Bötticher's Literarische Zustände.

occasionally discernible in these compositions. But then his idiom is so ornate, and his expressions so nobly-aspiring, that we must fain lose our demurring surprise in a jubilee of admiration. Wieland's delineations are replete with the power of pleasing. Goethe observes, that "the whole of northern Germany is indebted to Wieland for its literary style." Wolfgang Menzel terms him,-" a genius that overflows with fascinations, with jests, dashes of humour, and sallies of wit, in an inexhaustible measure."

Wieland has written with an iron-like industry; his works form a vast brotherhood of books,-while it is agreeable to the limits we have prescribed ourselves, to refer to only the most valuable of them. His "Oberon," completed in 1780, is his chef-d'œuvre, there being in this poem a beauty that may be felt, rather than described. The whole thing revels in a phasis of poetic fancy, and is coloured with the most strikingly-romantic hues. In its draught and execution it is redundant in classic grace, while it is so very perfect and complete in itself, that this one accomplishment of Wieland's genius-directed pen, will render his name immortal.

Can we say more than Goethe did, in the lines that hereinafter follow? or can we, indeed, do more than Goethe did? What, then, did Goethe say and do? Let us hear:

He wrote, on the 7th of April 1780, to Merk from Weimar: “Den Oberon wirst Du nun gelesen und Dich daran erfreut haben. Ich habe Wielanden dafür einen Lorbeerkranz geschickt, der ihn sehr gefreut hat."

Then again, on the 3rd July 1780, Goethe writes to J. C. Lavater, to the following effect: "Wieland's Oberon wird, so lange Poesie Poesie, Gold Gold, und Crystall Crystall bleiben wird, als ein Meisterstück poetischer Kunst geliebt und bewundert werden." The chief work which he consulted and adopted in the framing of his plot, was an old novel, entitled, "Huon de Bordeaux."

Wieland's "Musarion," published in 1768, and "Die

Grazien," (1770) are penned, the former more particularly, with elegant simplicity, whilst a consonance truly wonderful pervades the delineation of the whole. Our author has, perhaps, been most successful in this order of didactic poetry; his manner therein is easy, and his satire, with which it is not sparingly mixed, is, nevertheless, always good-tempered. A specimen of an almost unrivalled fluency (chartered, likewise, with the grace of classic lore) is uniformly discernible in these compositions.

Howbeit, we feel constrained to add our testimony to what was alleged at the beginning, viz.: that many of them discover 66 a French licence," as it has been sometimes called, so as to be, occasionally, loose and over-florid.

Among Wieland's "Komische Erzählungen" may be mentioned,—“ Endymion," "Aurora und Cephalus," and "Der Kombabus"; these are the most celebrated: while not less entertaining are his "Schach Lolo," and "Der Vogelfang." His "Idris und Zenide" is one of the most over-elaborated chefs-d'œuvre in the whole circle of German letters.

"Der neue Amadis" is certainly the most humorous and eccentric of all the productions of Wieland's great genius, abounding in the strangest poetry, but in stanzas, at the same time, of the most singular beauty. As one of the most charming novels in verse, we ought to account his poem of “Clelia und Sinibald"; as the two merriest possible twin tales, his fairy tales of "Das Wintermährchen,” and "Das Sommermährchen."

In the list of Wieland's prose works we must first record his "Don Silvio von Rosalva," finished in 1764, in which all the miraculous circumstances appear to be perfectly in keeping, and natural. This tale is an imitation of the "Don Quixote" of Cervantes, and one of its most amusing portions will ever be accounted the story-episodical to the main design-of the "Prinz Biribinker."

"Die Geschichte des Agathon," which appeared in 1766,

is Wieland's principal, and, at the same time, unquestionably his most successful, novel. In this work he determines, with all the finesse of the French, the line of demarcation between wisdom and virtue. The truth, however, of this novel of "Agathon" is, that it is Wieland's own history in a Greek dress. This is, in point of style, one of the most facile, polished, and fluent novels imaginable, and it ranks as the best fiction of his time. Again, his "Abderiten," an urbane satire on the folly in manners indigenous to small country towns, is a first-rate production. In his "Goldenen Spiegel," and "Geschichte des Danischmed," Wieland has enunciated his principles of poetry. "Der goldene Spiegel" appears in the form of an oriental tale, in which a kind of historico-political philosophy is laid down. The most successful of the translations by this author is his German version of" Horace,” which is, in fact, a masterpiece. This rendering of the old Roman lyric we may, not inaccurately, pronounce "Horatius Redivivus," so closely does Wieland approach his great prototype. The translation of "Cicero's Letters is not less excellent. In his German promulgation of "Shakspeare," Wieland was scarcely as happy; still, there is great merit due to him, on the whole, as he was one of the first who made our fatherland acquainted with the writings of that imperishable genius.

VII.

BERLIN, AND THE NORTH OF GERMANY.

The northern parts of Germany have been the nursingmothers of master-spirits. The warlike era in the middle of the eighteenth century, and the hero and king of that time, Frederick the Great, furnished the poetry of the day with new subject-matter, while he furthered the arts and

sciences by all the influence of his royal patronage. The study of the ancient classics, and of the English and French literature, made a great impression upon the compositions of that day; and the style adopted by such leading authors as Klopstock and Lessing, induced a progress altogether unusual and unknown in any other tongue. The ode now assumes a classical form, and the interests of didactic poetry are advanced. Halle and Berlin applied themselves principally to poetry, philosophy, and criticism. Gleim and Uz sprang up in the university town of Halle; whilst at Berlin: Kleist, Ramler, Mendelsohn, Nicolai, and Lessing, flourished; at Hamburg: Klopstock and Hagedorn assisted with great zeal in the organization of bardic unions. Of Hagedorn we have already spoken; it remains for us now to consider the others.

EWALD CHRISTIAN VON KLEIST (1715-1759) Was born on the 3rd of March at Zeblin, near Cöslin, in Pomerania. He became in 1736 an officer in the Danish army, from which, however, he seceded, when Frederick II recalled all his subjects from foreign services. Kleist fought in 1759 as a colonel under General Fink at the battle of Kunersdorf, where he stormed the last battery of the Russians; in this sortie his right arm was disabled, so that he could only wield his sword with the left hand. The instant after a cannon-ball had shattered his leg, he shouted, sinking from his seat in the saddle :

"Kinder verlasst euren König nicht!"

The savage Cossacks threw him, maimed as he was, into a slough, where he was found on the day following, and straightway conveyed to Frankfort on the Oder, in which town he died of his wounds on the 24th August 1759. The epitaph, that Kleist composed on one of his comrades, is to no one more appropriate than to himself: