KLOPSTOCK. 
friend, for procuring by his means that I might fee the 
author of the Melfiah, when in Hamburg. He told him, 
that a certain girl at Hamburg wilhed to fee him, and, 
for all recommendation, Ihowed him fome letters, in which 
I made bold to criticize Klopftotk’s verfes. Klopftock 
■came, and came to me. I mult confefs, that, though 
greatly prepofleffed of his qualities, I never thought him 
the amiable youth whom I found him. This made its 
effect. After having feen him two hours, I was obliged 
to pafs the evening in a company, which never had been 
fo wearifome to me. I could not fpeak, I could not play; 
1 thought I law nothing but Klopftock. I favv him the 
next day, and the following, and we were very ferioufly 
friends. But the fourth day he departed. It was a ftrong 
hour, the hour of his departure ! He wrote foon after, 
and from that time our correfpondence began to be a very 
diligent one. I fincerely believed my love to be friend- 
fhip. I fpoke with my friends of nothing but Klopftock, 
and (bowed his letters. They rallied at me, and faid I 
was in love. I rallied them again, and faid that they 
mud have a very friendfhiplefs heart, if they had no idea 
of friendlhip to a man as well as to a woman. Thus it 
continued eight months, in which time my friends found 
as much love in Klopftock’s letters as in me. I perceived it 
likewife, but I would not believe it. At the laft Klopftock 
faid plainly, that he loved ; and I ftartled as for a wrong 
thing. I anfwered that it was no love, but friendlhip, as 
it was what I felt for him ; we had not feen one another 
enough to love, (as if love muft have more time than friend¬ 
lhip!) This was fincerely my meaning, and I had this 
meaning till Klopftock came again to Hamburg. This 
he did a year after we had feen one another the firft time. 
We faw, we were friends, we loved, and we believed that 
we loved ; and a fhort time after I could even tell Klop¬ 
ftock that I loved. But we were obliged to part again, 
and wait two years for our wedding. My mother would 
not let marry me a ftranger. I could marry then with¬ 
out her confentment, as by the death of my father my 
fortune depended not on her; but this was an horri¬ 
ble idea for me ; and thank heaven that I have prevailed 
by prayers ! At this time, knowing Klopftock, fhe loves 
him as her lifely fon, and thanks God that (lie has not 
perfifted. We married, and I am the happieft wife in the 
world. In fome few months it will be four years that I 
am fo happy, and ftill I dote upon Klopftock as if he was 
my bridegroom. If you knew my hufband, you would 
not wonder. If you knew his poem, I could defcribe him 
very briefly, in faying he is in all refpects what he is as a 
poet. This I can fay with all wifely modefty. But I 
dare not fpeak of my hufband ; I am all raptures when I 
do it. And, as happy as I am in love, fo happy am I in 
friendlhip, in my mother, two elder fillers, and five other 
women. How rich I am ! Sir, you have willed that I 
fhould fpeak of myfelf, but I fear I have done it too much. 
Yet you fee how it interefts me. I have the belt compli¬ 
ments for you of my dear hufband. My compliments to 
all yours. Will they increafe my treafure of friendlhip ? 
I am, fir, your mod humble fervant, M. Klopstock.” 
This truly eftimable lady expreifes, in another letter, the 
pleafure which fhe anticipated in prefenring a child to the 
hufband whom llie fo dearly loved; but this blelfing was 
denied her; Hie died in child-bed, in the December fol¬ 
lowing, in a very dreadful manner. Klopftock cherilh- 
ed the remembrance of this charming woman to the laft 
moment of his life, and always found a melancholy plea- 
lure in vifiting her grave, in the village of Ottenfen near 
Hamburg, where he directed that his own remains Ihould 
be placed by her fide. 
Our poet continued to refide at Copenhagen till 1771, 
when his protestor and friend count BernftorfF retired 
from office. Klopftock then fixed his abode at Hamburg, 
where he refided during the remainder of his life, with the 
exception of about a year, which he fpent at Carlfruhe, in 
confequence of a prelfing invitation from the margrave of 
Baden in 1775. The remaining years of Klopftock’s life 
afford few events. In 1791, when In his 68th year, he 
VoL. XI. No. 794, 
777 
married Johanna van Wertheim, a near relation of his firft 
wife ; and much of the happinefs of his cheerful old age 
was owing to his union with this lady. Till the very dole 
of life, he retained his poetical powers, and his facred harp 
ftill fent forth (trains of fublime and fervent piety. While 
finking into the grave, he was engaged in prelenting pof- 
terity with a collection of his works, worthy of fo great 
a poet. Klopftock died at Hamburg on the 14th of 
March, 1803, in the 80th year of his age. His ftrong 
feelings of religion died aluftre on his laft moments, when 
he exhibited a noble example of what he had often lung 
in his divine poems. He (poke of death with the molt 
cheerful compofure. The pleating images of immortality 
delineated by his fublime mufe recurred to his mind, and 
whifpered peace to his departing fpirit. A folemn funeral, 
fuch as Germany had never before witneft'ed for any literary- 
man, honoured the venerable remains of Klopftock. They 
were interred with the molt imprelfive ceremonies on the 
xzd of March, belide thofe of his firft wife, in the church¬ 
yard of the village of Ottenfen. 
The poetical character of Klopftock is that of exuberance 
of imagination and fentiment. Sublime almoft beyond 
parallel, he is apt to lole himfelf in myltical abltrattion s 
and his excefs of feeling fometimes betrays him into rant 
and extravagance. Milton and Klopftock habitually af- 
fume the higheft tone of didtion which language ad¬ 
mits ; they have feldom refources in referve when they 
wiiTi to foar above their ufual level of diction, but be¬ 
come aft'edted, bloated, unintelligible. Milton’s war of 
heaven is tame, and Klopftock’s afeenfion is tedious; they 
have continually been on the ftretcli; and on great occa- 
fions they fink, as if unequal to their fubjedt. Klopftock's 
great work, the Mefliah, a poem of twenty cantos, and 
twenty thoufand hexameter lines, difplays the prolixity 
of his nation, and the redundancy of his ideas. A very 
acute and intelligent critic, in the Monthly Magazine, 
vol. x. fays of it, “ No epopcea exifts out of which fo 
many paltages and perfonages could be cut without mu¬ 
tilation.” . To its high merits, however, he gives a free tef- 
timony, and he claims for its author a rank in the very 
firft clafs of poets. Of his fuccefs in adopting the heroic 
meafure of Greece and Rome, a German ear alone can be 
the adequate judge. From the popularity of the work, it 
is clear that, at lealt, his innovation has been endured; but 
it does appear to have produced many imitators. The 
odes a-nd lyric pieces of Klopftock are greatly admired by 
his countrymen. His dramatic works are faid to polfefs 
much force and dignity, but to be better adapted to the 
clofet than the ftage. Speaking of his facred drama call¬ 
ed Solomon, the Monthly Review fays, “The play is dull 
beyond toleration ; and, although Solomon himfelf had writ¬ 
ten his, none but Job could have perufed it throughout, 
with a perfect command of temper.” Klopftock was alfo 
a profe-writer; his Grammatical Dialogues are elteemed 
for their judicious remarks, and their patriotic purpofe of 
proving that the German tongue is capable of all the 
llrength and noblenefs of a clallical language. We (hall 
conclude this article with a very highly-drawn character 
of Klopftock, wherein he is (we think molt unjultly) pre¬ 
ferred to Milton. “ We are accuftomed to call Klopftock 
the German Milton ; I with they were never named toge¬ 
ther, and that Klopftock had never known Milton. Both 
have written facred poefy; but they were not infpired by 
the fame Urania. They bear to each other the fame rela¬ 
tion that Moles bears to Cbrift, or the old to the new co¬ 
venant. The edifice of Milton is a Iteadfalt ami well- 
planned building, veiling on ancient columns; Klopftock’s 
is an enchanted dome, echoing with the fofteft and pared 
tones of human feeling, hovering between heaven and 
earth, borne on angels’ (boulders. Milton's mufe is maf- 
culine, and harlh as his iambics ; Kiopltock’s is a tender 
woman, difl'olving in pious ecttafies, warbling elegies and 
hymns. Klopftock had Itudied deeply the language of 
his country, and won for it more powers than the Briton 
ever l'ufpefted his to polfefs. A fingie ode of Klopftock 
outweighs the whole lyric literature of Britain. The Her- 
9-M- man 
