1.
1749 in literature
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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1749. February - The second part of John Clelands erotic novel Fanny Hill is published in London, the author is released from debtors prison in March. The Church of England asks the Secretary of State to stop the progress of this vile Book, in November, Cleland is arrested and charged with corrupting the Kings subjects. February 28 - Henry Fieldings comic novel The History of Tom Jones and it reaches its 4th edition by the end of the year. Also this year, Fielding becomes magistrate at Bow Street, and first enlists the help of the Bow Street Runners, april 12 - Official opening of the circular Radcliffe Library in Oxford, designed by James Gibbs. Sarah Fieldings novel The Governess, or Little Female Academy, generally seen as the first school story, is published in London, Élie Catherine Frérons journal Lettres de la comtesse de. is suppressed but he immediately replaces it by Lettres sur quelques écrits de ce temps. Oliver Goldsmith graduates from Trinity College, Dublin
2.
1752 in literature
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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1752. January 4 – Paper War of 1752–1753, in the first issue of The Covent-Garden Journal Henry Fielding starts his long-running quarrel with John Hill, tobias Smollett soon becomes involved, accusing Fielding of plagiarism. Thomas Sheridan introduces a version of Shakespeares Coriolanus incorporating portions of the version by James Thomson as Coriolanus, lewis Hallam opens a tour of north America with his brother Williams company at Williamsburg, Virginia, with Shakespeares The Merchant of Venice. Library at Melk Abbey in Lower Austria completed, september–December – Jovan Ševićs migration to Slavo-Serbia inspires Miloš Crnjanskis novel Сеобе
3.
1749 in art
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Events from the year 1749 in art. John Shackleton is appointed Principal Painter in Ordinary to King George II of Great Britain, canaletto completes his painting of Warwick Castle now at the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut. Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin refines technique for reflected light on glass and silver, thomas Hudson paints a portrait of Admiral Byng. Jean-Baptiste Oudry paints Clara the Rhinoceros, a portrait of the rhinoceros Clara at this date on display in Paris, joshua Reynolds paints Commodore the Honourable August Keppel, his first portrait of Keppel. Louis-François Roubiliacs memorial to the Duke of Argyll, his first work in Westminster Abbey, is installed, gervase Spencer paints a miniature self-portrait
4.
1740s in archaeology
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The decade of the 1740s in archaeology involved some significant events. 1747, The mummified remains known as Amcotts Moor Woman, a bog body, is unearthed from a bog in Lincolnshire. 1747, Substantial remains of the Temple of Apollo are discovered in Mdina, many of the ruins are dispersed among private collections. 1748, Pompeii rediscovered as the result of excavations by Spanish military engineer Rocque Joaquin de Alcubierre. 1740, Nicholas Mahudels Les Monumens les plus anciens de lindustrie des hommes, des Arts et reconnus dans les pierres de Foudres,1744, First volume of Le Antichità di Ercolano, account of discoveries at Herculaneum. 1743, The Papenbroek Collection is bequeathed to Leiden University, comprising about 150 antiquities and it is put on public display and published in 1746, but poorly cared for until it gets an official curator, half a century later. 1743, November 23 - Théophile Corret de la Tour dAuvergne, French antiquary 1747, March 7 - Nicholas Mahudel, French antiquary Archaeology timeline
5.
1749 in architecture
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See also, other events of 1749 and architecture timeline. April 12 - The Radcliffe Camera in Oxford, England, designed by James Gibbs, is opened as a library, mathematical Bridge at Queens College, Cambridge, England, designed by William Etheridge, is built by James Essex. La Vieille Charité almshouses in Marseille completed to the designs of Pierre Puget, work begins on Kings Chapel, in Boston, Massachusetts, designed by Peter Harrison. Work begins on Reales Astilleros de Esteiro in Ferrol, Spain
6.
Irish poetry
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Irish poetry includes poetry in two languages, Irish and English. The earliest surviving poems in Irish date back to the 6th century and this culminated in the work of the poets of the Irish Literary Revival in the late 19th and early 20th century. Poetry in Irish represents the oldest vernacular poetry in Europe, the earliest examples date from the 6th century, and are generally short lyrics on themes from religion or the world of nature. They were frequently written by their authors in the margins of the illuminated manuscripts that they were copying. The best known example is Pangur Bán and it was practical for poems to be short because the Irish recognized that it was necessary to use any means necessary to make the poems lasting in their oral culture. To accomplish such a feat as well as they have, they used complicated rhyme schemes that would render a poem nonsensical if any of the key words were changed from the original version, in an oral culture, Irish poetry had many uses. A poem could be used to both the poet and the subject of the poem, oftentimes kings would commission poets to create a piece about them. Such poems would be passed on to descendants so they would remember the deeds of past generations. Kings would also commission poets to write poems of advertisement, speaking of the greatness and worthiness. Oral poetry, because it was in the vernacular, was used for entertainment. Poems that were entertaining could also be informative, teaching people lessons or offering them wisdom of experience for dealing with situations they would encounter in their everyday lives. Finally, poems, especially those featured in the sagas, were thought to be an instrument of the supernatural, Another source of early Irish poetry is the poems in the tales and sagas, such as the Táin Bó Cúailnge. Unlike many other European epic cycles, the Irish sagas were written in prose, Irish bards formed a professional hereditary caste of highly trained, learned poets. As officials of the court of king or chieftain, they performed a number of official roles and they were chroniclers and satirists whose job it was to praise their employers and damn those who crossed them. It was believed that a well-aimed bardic satire, glam dicin, the Metrical Dindshenchas, or Lore of Places, is probably the major surviving monument of Irish bardic verse. It is a great onomastic anthology of naming legends of significant places in the Irish landscape, the earliest of these date from the 11th century, and were probably originally compiled on a provincial basis. As a national compilation, the Metrical Dindshenchas has come down to us in two different recensions. Knowledge of the real or putative history of local places formed an important part of the education of the elite in ancient Ireland, verse tales of Fionn and the Fianna, sometimes known as Ossianic poetry, were extremely common in Ireland and Scotland throughout this period
7.
English poetry
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This article focuses on poetry written in English from the United Kingdom, England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The article does not include poetry from other countries where the English language is spoken, the earliest surviving English poetry, written in Anglo-Saxon, the direct predecessor of modern English, may have been composed as early as the 7th century. This is generally taken as marking the beginning of Anglo-Saxon poetry and it is possible to identify certain key moments, however. The Dream of the Rood was written before circa AD700, by and large, however, Anglo-Saxon poetry is categorised by the manuscripts in which it survives, rather than its date of composition. While the poetry that has survived is limited in volume, it is wide in breadth, beowulf is the only heroic epic to have survived in its entirety, but fragments of others such as Waldere and the Finnesburg Fragment show that it was not unique in its time. Other genres include much religious verse, from works to biblical paraphrase, elegies such as The Wanderer, The Seafarer, and The Ruin, and numerous proverbs, riddles. With one notable exception, Anglo-Saxon poetry depends on alliterative verse for its structure, with the Norman conquest of England, beginning in 1111 the Anglo-Saxon language rapidly diminished as a written literary language. The new aristocracy spoke predominantly Norman, and this became the language of courts, parliament. While Anglo-Norman or Latin was preferred for high culture, English literature by no means died out, other transitional works were preserved as popular entertainment, including a variety of romances and lyrics. With time, the English language regained prestige, and in 1362 it replaced French and Latin in Parliament, the reputation of Chaucers successors in the 15th century has suffered in comparison with him, though Lydgate and Skelton are widely studied. A group of Scottish writers arose who were believed to be influenced by Chaucer. The rise of Scottish poetry began with the writing of The Kingis Quair by James I of Scotland, the main poets of this Scottish group were Robert Henryson, William Dunbar and Gavin Douglas. The Renaissance was slow in coming to England, with the generally accepted start date being around 1509 and it is also generally accepted that the English Renaissance extended until the Restoration in 1660. However, a number of factors had prepared the way for the introduction of the new learning long before this start date. A number of medieval poets had, as noted, shown an interest in the ideas of Aristotle. The introduction of printing by Caxton in 1474 provided the means for the more rapid dissemination of new or recently rediscovered writers and thinkers. Caxton also printed the works of Chaucer and Gower and these books helped establish the idea of a poetic tradition that was linked to its European counterparts. In addition, the writings of English humanists like Thomas More and Thomas Elyot helped bring the ideas, the establishment of the Church of England in 1535 accelerated the process of questioning the Catholic world-view that had previously dominated intellectual and artistic life
8.
The Vanity of Human Wishes
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The Vanity of Human Wishes, The Tenth Satire of Juvenal Imitated is a poem by the English author Samuel Johnson. As the subtitle suggests, it is an imitation of Satire X by the Latin poet Juvenal, unlike Juvenal, Johnson attempts to sympathize with his poetic subjects. Also, the focuses on human futility and humanitys quest after greatness like Juvenal. It was Johnsons second imitation of Juvenal, unlike London, The Vanity of Human Wishes emphasizes philosophy over politics. The poem was not a success, but later critics, including Walter Scott and T. S. Eliot. Howard D. Weinbrot called it one of the poems in the English language. In 1738 Johnson composed London, his first imitation of Juvenals poetry, when Johnson replaced Edward Cave with Robert Dodsley as his publisher, he agreed with Dodsley that he would need to change the focus of his poetry. Johnsons London is concerned primarily with issues, especially those surrounding the Walpole administration. In a conversation with George Steevens, Johnson recounted that he wrote the first seventy lines in the course of one morning, Johnson claimed that The whole number was composed before I committed a single couplet to writing. To accomplish this feat, Johnson relied on an oral form of composition which was only possible because of his extraordinary memory. Johnson told Boswell that when he was writing poetry, he often from laziness only wrote down the first half of each line. Although Johnson was busy after 1746 working on his Dictionary, he found time to work on The Vanity of Human Wishes and complete his play. The first edition was published on 9 January 1749 and it was the first publication by Johnson to feature his name on the title page. It was not a success and only earned Johnson fifteen guineas. A revised version was published in the 1755 edition of Dodsleys anthology A collection of Poems by Several Hands, a third version was published posthumously in the 1787 edition of his Works, evidently working from a copy of the 1749 edition. However, no independent version of the poem was published during Johnsons life beyond the initial publication, the Vanity of Human Wishes is a poem of 368 lines, written in closed heroic couplets. Johnson loosely adapts Juvenals original satire to demonstrate the inability of the world. Both themes are explored in one of the most famous passages in the poem, in a passage dealing with the life of a writer, Johnson drew on his own personal experience
9.
Samuel Johnson
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Johnson was a devout Anglican and committed Tory, and is described by the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography as arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history. He is also the subject of perhaps the most famous biography in English literature, born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, Johnson attended Pembroke College, Oxford for just over a year, before his lack of funds forced him to leave. After working as a teacher, he moved to London, where he began to write for The Gentlemans Magazine and his early works include the biography Life of Mr Richard Savage, the poems London and The Vanity of Human Wishes, and the play Irene. After nine years of work, Johnsons A Dictionary of the English Language was published in 1755 and it had a far-reaching effect on Modern English and has been described as one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship. This work brought Johnson popularity and success, until the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary 150 years later, Johnsons was viewed as the pre-eminent British dictionary. His later works included essays, an annotated edition of The Plays of William Shakespeare. In 1763, he befriended James Boswell, with whom he travelled to Scotland. Towards the end of his life, he produced the massive and influential Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, Johnson was a tall and robust man. His odd gestures and tics were disconcerting to some on first meeting him, after a series of illnesses, he died on the evening of 13 December 1784, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Born on 18 September 1709, to Michael Johnson, a bookseller and he did not cry and, with doubts surrounding the newborns health, his aunt exclaimed that she would not have picked such a poor creature up in the street. Since it was feared that the baby die, the vicar of St Marys was summoned to perform a baptism. Two godfathers were chosen, Samuel Swynfen, a physician and graduate of Pembroke College, Oxford, and Richard Wakefield, a lawyer, coroner, Johnsons health improved and he was put to wet-nurse with Joan Marklew. He soon contracted scrofula, known at time as the Kings Evil because it was thought royalty could cure it. Sir John Floyer, former physician to King Charles II, recommended that the young Johnson should receive the royal touch, however, the ritual was ineffective, and an operation was performed that left him with permanent scars across his face and body. Johnson demonstrated signs of intelligence as a child, and his parents, to his later disgust. His education began at the age of three, and was provided by his mother, who had him memorise and recite passages from the Book of Common Prayer. When Samuel turned four, he was sent to a nearby school, a year later, Johnson went to Lichfield Grammar School, where he excelled in Latin. During this time, Johnson started to exhibit the tics that would influence how people viewed him in his years
10.
William Collins (poet)
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William Collins was an English poet. Second in influence only to Thomas Gray, he was an important poet of the decades of the 18th century. His lyrical odes mark a turn away from the Augustan poetry of Alexander Popes generation, born in Chichester, Sussex, the son of a hatmaker and former mayor of the town, he was educated at The Prebendal School, Winchester and Magdalen College, Oxford. While still at the university, he published the Persian Eclogues which he had begun at school, after graduating in 1743 he was undecided about his future. There he was befriended by James Thomson and Dr Johnson as well as the actors David Garrick, in 1747 he published his collection of Odes on Several Descriptive and Allegorical Subjects on which his subsequent reputation was to rest. The poems are characterized by strong emotional descriptions and the relationship to the subject allowed by the ode form. At the time little notice was taken of these poems, which were at odds with the Augustan spirit of the age, with the depression on his lack of success, aggravated by drunkenness, he sank into insanity and in 1754 was confined to McDonalds Madhouse in Chelsea. From there he moved to the care of an elder sister in Chichester until his death in 1759. After the Odes, although he had many projects in his head and his only other poems were the ode written on Thomsons death and the posthumously discovered and unfinished Ode on the popular superstitions of the Highlands of Scotland. An intriguing addition, now lost, is the Ode on the Music of the Grecian Theatre that he described and proposed sending to the musician William Hayes in 1750, Hayes had just set The Passions by Collins to music as an oratorio that was received with some acclaim. This, coupled with the popularity of the Persian Eclogues, a version of which was published the year he died, was the closest approach to success that Collins knew. Following his death, his poems were issued in an edition by John Langhorne and slowly gained more recognition. While Dr Johnson wrote an account of his former friend in Lives of the Poets, he dismissed the poetry as contrived. Charles Dickens was dismissive for other reasons in his novel Great Expectations and it was not with me then, as it was in later life, when I fell into the society of the Passions and compared them with Collins and Wopsle, rather to the disadvantage of both gentlemen. Persian Eclogues, these were revised as Oriental Eclogues in 1759, verses humbly addressd to Sir Thomas Hanmer on his edition of Shakespeares works, republished in a revised edition in 1744, in which A Song from Shakespeares Cymbeline was included. William Collins at the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive Works by William Collins at Project Gutenberg Works by or about William Collins at Internet Archive Works by William Collins at LibriVox
11.
James Thomson (poet, born 1700)
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James Thomson was a Scottish poet and playwright, known for his poems The Seasons and The Castle of Indolence, and for the lyrics of Rule, Britannia. James Thomson was born in Ednam in Roxburghshire around 11 September 1700 and he was the fourth of nine children of Thomas Thomson and Beatrix Thomson. Beatrix Thomson was born in Fogo, Berwickshire and was a distant relation of the house of Hume, Thomas Thomson was the Presbyterian minister of Ednam until eight weeks after Thomson’s birth, when he was admitted as minister of Southdean, where Thomson spent most of his early years. Thomson may have attended the school of Southdean before going to the grammar school in Jedburgh in 1712. He failed to distinguish himself there and he was, however, encouraged to write poetry by Robert Riccaltoun, a farmer, poet and Presbyterian minister, and Sir William Bennet, a whig laird who was a patron of Allan Ramsay. While some early poems by Thomson survive, he burned most of them on New Year’s Day each year, Thomson entered the College of Edinburgh in autumn 1715, destined for the Presbyterian ministry. At Edinburgh he studied metaphysics, Logic, Ethics, Greek, Latin and he completed his arts course in 1719 but chose not to graduate, instead entering Divinity Hall to become a minister. In 1716 Thomas Thomson died, with legend saying that he was killed whilst performing an exorcism. At Edinburgh Thomson became a member of the Grotesque Club, a literary group, after the successful publication of some of his poems in the ‘’Edinburgh Miscellany’’ Thomson followed Mallet to London in February 1725 in an effort to publish his verse. In London, Thomson became a tutor to the son of Charles Hamilton, Lord Binning, through David Mallet, by 1724 a published poet, Thomson met the great English poets of the day including Richard Savage, Aaron Hill and Alexander Pope. Thomson’s mother died on 12 May 1725, around the time of his writing ‘Winter’, ‘Winter’ was first published in 1726 by John Millian, with a second edition being released later the same year. By 1727, Thomson was working on Summer, published in February, and was working at Watt’s Academy, a school for young gentlemen, in the same year Millian published a poem by Thomson titled ‘A Poem to the Memory of Sir Isaac Newton’. He wrote Spring in 1728 and finally Autumn in 1730, when the set of four was published together as The Seasons, during this period he also wrote other poems, such as to the Memory of Sir Isaac Newton, and his first play, The Tragedy of Sophonisba. In 1730, he became tutor to the son of Sir Charles Talbot, then Solicitor-General, on his return Talbot arranged for him to become a secretary in chancery, which gave him financial security until Talbots death in 1737. Meanwhile, there appeared his next work, Liberty. In 1740, he collaborated with Mallet on the masque Alfred which was first performed at Cliveden, the Prince gave him a pension of £100 per annum. He had also introduced him to George Lyttelton, who became his friend and patron. In later years, Thomson lived in Richmond upon Thames, and it was there that he wrote his final work The Castle of Indolence, which was published just before his untimely death on 27 August 1748
12.
American poetry
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Unsurprisingly, most of the early colonists work relied on contemporary British models of poetic form, diction, and theme. However, in the 19th century, a distinctive American idiom began to emerge, the history of American poetry is not easy to know. The received narrative of Modernism proposes that Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot were perhaps the most influential modernist English-language poets in the period during World War I. But this narrative leaves out African American and women poets who were published, by the 1960s, the young poets of the British Poetry Revival looked to their American contemporaries and predecessors as models for the kind of poetry they wanted to write. There are 14 such writers whom we might on that basis call American poets, early examples include a 1616 testimonial poem on the sterling warlike character of Captain John Smith and Rev. One of the first recorded poets of the British colonies was Anne Bradstreet, the poems she published during her lifetime address religious and political themes. She also wrote tender evocations of home, family life and of her love for her husband, edward Taylor wrote poems expounding Puritan virtues in a highly wrought metaphysical style that can be seen as typical of the early colonial period. This narrow focus on the Puritan ethic was, understandably, the dominant note of most of the written in the colonies during the 17th. Of course, being a Puritan minister as well as a poet, a distinctly American lyric voice of the colonial period was Phillis Wheatley, a slave whose book Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, was published in 1773. She was one of the poets of her day, at least in the colonies. The 18th century saw an emphasis on America itself as fit subject matter for its poets. The work of Rebecca Hammond Lard, although old, still apply to life in todays world. She writes about nature, not only the nature of environment, on the whole, the development of poetry in the American colonies mirrors the development of the colonies themselves. The early poetry is dominated by the need to preserve the integrity of the Puritan ideals that created the settlement in the first place, as the colonists grew in confidence, the poetry they wrote increasingly reflected their drive towards independence. This shift in subject matter was not reflected in the mode of writing which tended to be conservative and this can be seen as a product of the physical remove at which American poets operated from the center of English-language poetic developments in London. The first significant poet of the independent United States was William Cullen Bryant, whose contribution was to write rhapsodic poems on the grandeur of prairies. Formed the Fireside Poets were a group of 19th-century American poets from New England, the poets primary subjects were the domestic life, mythology, and politics of the United States, in which several of the poets were directly involved. Other notable poets to emerge in the early and middle 19th century include Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edgar Allan Poe, Henry David Thoreau, Sidney Lanier, and James Whitcomb Riley
13.
Henry Jones (poet)
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Henry Jones, born in Ireland, was a poet and dramatist active in London. Jones was born at Beaulieu, near Drogheda, co and he was apprenticed to a bricklayer, but contrived to study privately. Some complimentary verses which he addressed to the corporation of Drogheda and some lines On Mr. Popes Death, attracted the attention of Lord-chief-justice Singleton, Chesterfield rewarded Jones liberally, and, at his request, Jones followed him to London in 1748. With the assistance of Chesterfield and his friends, Jones published by subscription Poems on Several Occasions, 8vo, London,1749 and he finished about the end of 1752 his tragedy, The Earl of Essex. Chesterfield warmly commended it to Colley Cibber, the latter introduced Jones to the manager of Covent Garden Theatre, and showed his regard for him by making efforts at court to secure the laureateship for Jones after his own death. It met with success in Dublin and the provinces. The play was printed soon after its production, and reached a fourth edition in 1770 and its literary quality is of the poorest. The success ruined Jones, and he took to irregular courses, at length he offended him by borrowing money of his servant. He had at that time made some progress with a tragedy called Harold and his relations with some of the leading actors were still friendly. He sponged freely on minor actors, whom in his drunken fits he would denounce as parrots and he composed a prologue for Husbands, paid some poetical compliments to Barry on his Hamlet, and wrote a eulogy on Margaret Woffington. When an inmate of sponging-houses he generally contrived to flatter the daughter or wife of the bailiff with verses on their beauty or talents and his misfortunes at last excited the pity of the master of the Bedford Coffee-house, Covent Garden, who gave him free board and lodging. He left his room unobserved early one morning, and, after being in a state of intoxication for two days, was run over by a wagon in St. Martins Lane and he died in the parish workhouse in April 1770. Reddish, the actor of Drury Lane, obtained all Joness manuscripts, the last-named drama was augmented and completed by Paul Hiffernan, and, under the title of The Heroine of the Cave, was produced for Reddishs benefit on 25 March 1774. It was printed in the following year, the fate of Harold is unknown. Jones wrote also, Philosophy, a Poem addressd to the Ladies who attend Mr. Booths Lectures, by the Bricklayer, 8vo, Dublin,1746. Earl of Orrery, occasiond by reading his Lordships translation of Plinys Epistles, 4to, merit, a Poem, 4to, London,1753. The Relief, or Day-Thoughts, a Poem, occasioned by The Complaint, or Night Thoughts, 8vo, the Duke of Newcastle, on the Death of the Rt. Hon. Henry Pelham, 4to, London,1754, the Invention of Letters, and the Utility of the Press, s. sh. fol
14.
William Mason (poet)
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William Mason was an English divine, poet, amateur draughtsman, author, editor and gardener He was born in Hull and educated at Hull Grammar School and St Johns College, Cambridge. He was ordained in 1754 and held a number of posts in the church, in 1747 his poem Musaeus, a Monody on the Death of Mr. Pope was published to acclaim and quickly went through several editions. Summarizing this poem, a threnody, William Lyon Phelps writes, Musaeus was a monody on the death of Pope, there is nothing remarkable about these imitations. His garden designs included one for the Viscount Harcourt and he entered the Church in 1754, and in 1762 became the precentor and canon of York Minster. He was the friend, executor, and biographer of Thomas Gray, in 1775 The Poems of Mr. Gray. To which are prefixed Memoirs of his Life and Writings by W. Mason and he was also a friend of Horace Walpole and Joshua Reynolds. Masons artwork was considered worthy of showing at the Royal Academy between 1782 and 1786, in 1785 he was William Pitt the Youngers choice to succeed William Whitehead as Poet Laureate but refused the honour. Two of his works of scenes at the York racecourse, A Country Racecourse with horses preparing to start, were reproduced as mezzotint illustrations in 1786 by Francis Jukes in collaboration with Robert Pollard. In 1797 Mason hurt his shin on a Friday while stepping out of his carriage and he was able to officiate in his church at Aston on the Sunday, but died from the injury on the following Wednesday,7 April. Memorial inscriptions for Mason may be found in the church at Aston near Rotherham where he was rector, a cenotaph was also erected by Countess Harcourt in the gardens at Nuneham Courtenay. He was the guardian of Francis Ferrand Foljambe during his minority, Poets Corner Author and Bookinfo. com Translation into French of The English Garden with five drawings. William Mason at the Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900 William Mason at the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive Lee, Sidney, ed. Mason, William
15.
Ewald Christian von Kleist
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Ewald Christian von Kleist was a German poet and cavalry officer. His vast family was well-established in Farther Pomerania,58 male members of his family fought in Frederick the Greats army of the Seven Years War, Kleist was born at Zeblin, near Köslin in Farther Pomerania, to the von Kleist family of cavalry leaders. The Kleist family is an old, established one in Farther Pomerania whose roots date to the 12th century, Kleists father, Joachim Ewald, son of Ewald von Kleist, had been born on the family estate. On 7 July,1710, he married Marie Juliane von Manteuffel from Groß-Poplow and she died on 9 November 1719 after the birth of the sixth child. Ewald Christian, the child of this marriage, lived with his only brother, Franz Casimir, one year older, at the estate of a paternal uncle, Christian von Manteuffel. Either on the completion of his studies, or because his father was unhappy with the direction his studies took he entered the Danish army and he served in a unit commanded by a friend of his father. After distinguishing himself at the Battle of Mollwitz and the siege of Neisse, he was promoted to captain in 1749, quartered during the winter of 1757-1758 in Leipzig during the Seven Years War, he found relief from his irksome military duties in the society of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. Shortly afterwards in the battle of Kunersdorf, on 12 August 1759, he was wounded in the forefront of the attack. Kleists chief work is a poem in hexameters, Der Frühling and it earned him the nickname the Poet of the Spring. In his description of the beauties of nature Kleist shows poetical genius and he noted in his letters that Carl Wilhelm Ramler had given him belated commentary and improvements on his poem, which he self-published in December 1749. Subsequently, his poem received considerable notice, even from Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis, after his death his friend Karl Wilhelm Ramler published an edition of Kleists Sämtliche Werke in 2 vols. A critical edition was published by August Sauer, in 3 vols, see also Arthur Chuquet, De Ewaldi Kleistii vita et scriptis, and Heinrich Pröhle, Friedrich der Grosse und die deutsche Literatur. Research places the three Kleist poets—Ewald, Franz Alexander von Kleist and Heinrich von Kleist to the same forefather at the start of the 15th century
16.
German literature
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German literature comprises those literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German parts of Belgium and Switzerland, Liechtenstein, South Tyrol in Italy and to a lesser extent works of the German diaspora. German literature of the period is mostly in Standard German. The Old High German period is reckoned to run until about the mid-11th century, the most famous works are the Hildebrandslied, Middle High German starts in the 12th century, the key works include The Ring and the poems of Oswald von Wolkenstein and Johannes von Tepl. The Baroque period was one of the most fertile times in German literature, modern literature in German begins with the authors of the Enlightenment. The Sensibility movement of the 1750s-1770s ended with Goethes best-selling Die Leiden des jungen Werther, the Sturm und Drang and Weimar Classicism movements were led by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller. German Romanticism was the dominant movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Biedermeier refers to the literature, music, the visual arts, under the Nazi regime, some authors went into exile and others submitted to censorship. Periodization is not a science but the following list contains movements or time periods typically used in discussing German literature. The closer one nears the present, the more debated the periodizations become, the Old High German period is reckoned to run until about the mid-11th century, though the boundary to Early Middle High German is not clear-cut. The most famous work in OHG is the Hildebrandslied, a piece of Germanic alliterative heroic verse which besides the Muspilli is the sole survivor of what must have been a vast oral tradition. Another important work, in the dialect of Old Saxon, is a life of Christ in the style of a heroic epic known as the Heliand. This was the period of the blossoming of MHG lyric poetry, one of the most important of these poets was Walther von der Vogelweide. The same sixty years saw the composition of the most important courtly romances and these are written in rhyming couplets, and again draw on French models such as Chrétien de Troyes, many of them relating Arthurian material, for example, Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach. These high medieval heroic epics are written in rhymed strophes, not the verse of Germanic prehistory. Therefore, the literature of the late 14th and the early 15th century falls, as it were, the Volksbuch tradition which would flourish in the 16th century also finds its origin in the second half of the 15th century. Sebastian Brant Thomas Murner Philipp Melanchthon Sebastian Franck The Baroque period was one of the most fertile times in German literature, many writers reflected the horrible experiences of the Thirty Years War, in poetry and prose. Grimmelshausens adventures of the young and naïve Simplicissimus, in the eponymous book Simplicius Simplicissimus, martin Opitz established rules for the purity of language, style, verse and rhyme
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