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WIELAND, CHRISTOPH MARTIN. 



WIELAND, CHRISTOPH MARTIN. 



683 





view he sent a specimen of an epic poem, ' Arminius,' to Bodmer, at 

 Zurich, which laid the foundation of an intimate friendship between 

 this great critic and Wieland. 



In 1752 Wieland returned to Biberach, and as he Lad no prospects 

 of obtaining an appointment, he formed the plan of going to Gottin- 

 gen, taking his degree and entering upon the career of an academical 

 teacher there. But this plan was given up, and he accepted the invi- 

 tation of Bodmer, who asked him to come to Zurich and remain in his 

 house, until a suitable appointment should ba found. Wieland, on 

 his arrival at Zurich, was received in the kindest manner by Bodmer, 

 and soon found in him a second father. Bodmer and Breitinger 

 were then at the head of the new school of German poetry, which 

 vigorously and successfully combated the pedantic formalism of 

 Gottsched of Leipzig and his followers. Wieland gained the esteem 

 and admiration of Bodmer, and was" not only made acquainted with 

 the best productions of German literature, but also with the most 

 eminent men, who assembled round Boduier as the greatest critic of 

 the day. In the first year of his stay at Zurich, Wieland, at the 

 request of his patron, prepared a new edition of a collection of pole- 

 mical essays against Gottsched, on the improvement of taste in Ger- 

 many (' Sammlung der Zuricherschen Streitschriften zur Verbesserung 

 des Deutschen Geschmackes wider die Gottsched sche Schule, von 

 1741-44 '), and accompanied it with a preface. All that Wieland 

 wrote at Zurich bears the strongest marks of Bodmer's influence, 

 both in form and sentiment, and although Bodmer himself was a poet 

 of very inferior merit, Wieland expatiated at great length on the 

 beauties of his poetry, especially the epic ' Noah' ('Von den Schon- 

 heiten des Bodmer'schen Gedichtes Noah'). Wieland showed himself 

 still more as the disciple of Bodmer in his epic ' Der Gepriifte Abra- 

 ham,' in three cantos, in which Bodmer greatly assisted the young 

 poet; in 'Briefe von Verstorbenen an hiuterlassene Freuude' (Zurich, 

 1753), and various other compositions : for during this period Wieland 

 wrote with the same haste and want of reflection as his patron. 



In 1754 Wieland, fortunately for him, left the house of Bodmer, to 

 undertake the education of the sons of two distinguished families at 

 Ziirich. The circle in which he now began to move obliged him to 

 make himself acquainted with Italian, French, and English poetry, 

 and his continued study of Shaftesbury, Xenophon, and Euripid-es, 

 gradually led him to the path which was most suited to his genius. 

 His rea.-on now began to gain the ascendancy over his imagination 

 and feelings. The acquaintance of a distinguished actor induced 

 Wieland about this time to try his strength in the dramatic line, and 

 he wrote the tragedies ' Lady Johanna Grey,' ' Clementina von Por- 

 retta,' and the comedy ' Pandora ; ' but these attempts met with no 

 success, and he found out in time that the drama was not his proper 

 sphere. After having been engaged as a teacher at Zurich for four 

 years he accepted the situation of tutor in a distinguished family at 

 Bern, but he soon gave it up, and occupied himself with lecturing on 

 philosophical subjects, and with new literary undertakings. His resi- 

 dence at Bern, and especially his intercourse with women of acquire- 

 ments and education, gave to his mind a more decided turn, and his 

 real talents now began to be developed. Among those women who 

 exercised a great influence over him, we may mention the celebrated 

 Julia Bondeli, the friend of Rousseau. It was at Bern that Wieland 

 wrote the beautiful story of ' Araspes and Panthea,' and conceived the 

 plan of his ' Agathon,' his most celebrated novel ; he also wrote here 

 the first five cantos of an epic called ' Cyrus,' which appeared in 1757, 

 and of which a new edition was published in 1759; 'Cyrus' however 

 was never completed. 



In 1760 Wieland returned to Biberach, where he obtained an 

 appointment in the administration of the town. He now sought and 

 found recreation hi the study of Shakspere, twenty-eight of whose 

 dramas he translated into German (Zurich, 1762-66, 8 vols. 8vo). 

 This was the first German translation of Shakspere; but Wieland, 

 whose mind had been nurtured chiefly by the study of Plato, Xeiio- 

 phou, Euripides, and the French writers, was not the man to give a 

 faithful picture of the great dramatist ; his translation has a certain 

 prettiness, elegance, and polish, but he never comes up to the strength 

 and pathos of Shakspere. Germany however must be grateful to 

 him for having taken the first step towards nationalising Shakspere, 

 and for having paved the way for his successors, Eschenburg, Voss, 

 Schlegel, and others. Another circumstance which relieved the dull- 

 ness of his life at Biberach, and gave to his mind a peculiar turn, 

 was that Sophia de Laroche, accompanied by her husband and Count 

 Stadion, came to stay in the neighbourhood of Biberach, whither the 

 count retired from public service. Wieland formed the acquaintance 

 of the party, and became the sincere friend of all. The extensive 

 library of the count, and his knowledge of the world, suggested new 

 thoughts and ideas to Wieland. Wieland, who was at all times very 

 susceptible to influences from without, became in the company of his 

 new friends a man of the world. His religious enthusiasm left him, 

 and a sort of practical wisdom became his guide, which to some 

 extent destroyed the intensity of his feeling, but at the same time 

 laid the foundation of his littrary greatness. Wieland's compositions 

 of this period combine the refined sensuality of the Athenians with a 

 sort of practical philosophy and the elegance of the French. That a 

 voluptuous sensuality runs through all his productions of this period 

 cannot be denied ; but this sensuality, however seductive it may be 



to a youthful and inexperienced reader, was in reality only the playful 

 musings of his imagination, and perhaps the consequence of his over- 

 anxiety to obtain a numerous class of readers : his personal character 

 at this, as well as all other periods of his life, was of the highest moral 

 purity. His first production of this kind was his poetical story of 

 'Undine' (1762), which was followed by ' Komiscbe Erziihlungen' 

 (1763-64), ' Abenteuer des Don Silvio von Rosalva, oder der Sieg der 

 Natur Uber die Schwiirmerei ' (1764) which is a sort of imitation of 

 Cervantes' ' Don Quixote.' During this period, which may be termed 

 the frivolous period of his life, the things for which he had before 

 entertained the highest enthusiasm, such as love, religion, virtue, and 

 philosophy, were occasionally ridiculed as unnatural, and as the mere 

 offspring of our fancy. But during this same period he produced his 

 best novel, ' Agathou ' (1766), the scene of which is ancient Greece, 

 and in which he endeavours to show how far a man may advance in 

 wisdom aud virtue by the mere use of his natural faculties, and what 

 influence outward circumstances may have upon him. The works 

 which he wrote about or shortly after this time are all of an erotic 

 character, such as his 'Idris und Zenide' (1767), a romantic poem in 

 five cantos ; ' Musarion,' a work unique in its kind for the ease, grace- 

 fulness, and harmonious beauty of its style, which the author himself 

 called a philosophy of the Graces ; and a poem entitled ' Die Grazien ' 

 ('The Graces') 1770. In his novel, 'Der neue Amadis' (1771) 

 Wieland endeavoured to show the superiority of intellectual over 

 mere physical beauty ; a theme which he took up again in his later 

 years in his ' Krates und Hipparchia.' 



In 1765 Wieland married the daughter of an Augsburg merchant, 

 who was devotedly attached to him, and with whom he lived happily 

 for thirty-five years. She bore him fourteen children in twenty years. 

 In 1769 he was invited to the professorship of philosophy in the Uni- 

 versity of Erfurt. He accepted the offer, and discharged the duties of 

 his office with the most honest zeal, but the envy and the intrigues of 

 the academic body, who thought it a disgrace that a poet, aud an 

 erotic poet too, should be among them, placed the most vexatious 

 obstacles in his way. The secret and open attacks that were made 

 upon him, drew forth the humorous poem ' Der Verklagte Amor,' and 

 'Nachlass des Diogenes von Sinope ' (1770). The former of these 

 works is the last of his erotic poems, and was written to defend that 

 kind of poetry. The latter was composed to defend his own views of 

 human life and of philosophy. The works which now followed had a 

 more serious and philosophical character, partly in consequence of 

 his position at Erfurt, and partly the result of the events of the times, 

 among which we must mention the effects produced by the works of 

 Rousseau, and the reforms introduced by the Emperor Joseph II. 

 Wieland attacked the doctrines of Rousseau in a small humorous 

 novel entitled 'Koxhox und Kikequetzel' (1769 and 1770), and in 

 his 'Beitriige zur geheimen' Geschichte des menschlichen Verstaudes 

 und Herzens, aus den Archiven der Natur' (1770). Another work, 

 which appeared two years later under the title ' Goldener Spiegel oder 

 die Konige von Scheschian,' is a collection of the most important 

 lessons which the rulers of mankind should derive from history. 



Wieland was not at Erfurt long without attracting the attention of 

 the Duchess Amalie of Saxe-Weimar. She wanted a person to com- 

 plete the education of her two sons, and she chose Wieland on the 

 recommendation of Dalberg. In 1772 Wieland accordingly went to 

 Weimar, where he received the title of Hofrath, and a salary of 1000 

 thalf.rs, which was continued after the cessation of his duties under 

 the name of a pension. The kiud and honourable manner in which 

 he was received at the court, the attachment of his pupils, and the 

 intercourse of the distinguished men who were already assembled 

 around the duchess, had such charms for Wieland, that he felt at once 

 that he was in his proper sphere. His first literary productions at 

 Weimar were a melodrame, ' Die Wahl des Hercules,' and a lyric 

 drama 'Alceste' (1772), which were received with extraordinary 

 favour, and are still among the better productions of the kind in 

 Germany. It was an important event in the literary history of 

 Germany that Wieland established and edited the 'Deutscher Mercur,' 

 a monthly periodical devoted to criticism and matters of taste. 

 Wieland alone edited it from 1775 to 1789, and from 1789 to 1805 in 

 conjunction with the well-known archaeologist Bottiger. Wieland's 

 own criticisms were on the whole neither true nor profound, and 

 when he expounded his principles in his letters on his ' Alceste,' 

 Gbthe and Herder rose in arms against him. Gothe wrote his well 

 known farce ' Gotter, Helden, und Wieland,' to which Wieland replied 

 in a humorous way and with his usual mildness. The affair drew the 

 attention of Wielaud's pupils to Gothe, who was subsequently also 

 invited to Weimar, and became the friend of Wieland. The first im- 

 portant work which appeared after Wieland's arrival at Weimar, was 

 his humorou s history of the inhabitants of the ancient town of Abdera 

 ('Die Abderiten,' 1773), which the author intended to be an analysis^ 

 of the errors, contradictions, and singularities in human nature. It 

 was followed by ' Erzahlungen und Mahrchen ' (1775-83), which are 

 distinguished from his earlier works of fiction by greater earnestness, 

 depth of feeling, and the absence of voluptuous descriptions. The 

 greatest of all Wieland's poetical productions is his epic romance 

 ' Oberon,' in 12 cantos, which appeared in 1780. 



After the publication of 'Oberon,' Wieland abandoned the field of 

 romantic poetry, to devote the remainder of his life to the study of 



