Gottfried August Bürger
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Gottfried August Bürger | |
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Born | Gottfried August Bürger 31 December 1747 |
Died | 8 June 1794 | (aged 46)
Gottfried August Bürger (31 December 1747 – 8 June 1794) was a German poet. His ballads were very popular in Germany. His most noted ballad, Lenore, found an audience beyond readers of the German language in an English and Russian adaptation and a French translation.
Biography
Bürger was born in
As he continued his wild career, however, his grandfather withdrew his support and he was left to his own. Meanwhile, he had made fair progress with his legal studies, and had the good fortune to form a close friendship with a number of young men of literary tastes.
Meanwhile, he kept in touch with his Göttingen friends, and when the Göttinger Bund or "Hain" ("
Shortly before his removal there his wife died (30 July 1784), and on 29 June the next year he married his sister-in-law "Molly." Her death in childbirth on 9 January 1786 affected him deeply. He appeared to lose at once all courage and all bodily and mental vigour. He still continued to teach in Göttingen; at the jubilee of the foundation of the university in 1787 he was made an honorary doctor of philosophy, and in 1789 was appointed
In 1790, he married a third time, his wife being a certain Elise Hahn, who, enchanted with his poems, had offered him her heart and hand. Only a few weeks of married life with his "Schwabenmädchen" sufficed to prove his mistake, and after two and a half years he divorced her. Deeply wounded by Schiller's criticism, in the 14th and 15th part of the Allgemeine Literaturzeitung of 1791, of the second edition of his poems, disappointed, wrecked in fortune and health, Bürger eked out a precarious existence as a teacher in Göttingen until, ill with tuberculosis, he died there on 8 June 1794.[9] The government of Hanover afforded him some assistance shortly before his death.
Bürger's talent for popular poetry was very considerable, and his ballads are among the finest in the German language. Besides Lenore, Das Lied vom braven Manne, Die Kuh, Der Kaiser und der Abt and Der wilde Jäger are famous. Among his purely lyrical poems, but few have earned a lasting reputation; but mention may be made of Das Blümchen Wunderhold, Lied an den lieben Mond, and a few love songs. His sonnets, particularly the elegies, are of great beauty.[9] Bürger revived the sonnet form in German, and his experiments in it were praised as models by Schiller, despite his severe criticism of some of Bürger's more popular poems.[7]
Editions
Editions of Bürger's Sämtliche Schriften appeared at Göttingen, 1817 (incomplete); 1829–1833 (8 vols.), and 1835 (one vol.); also a selection by Eduard Grisebach (5th ed, 1894). The Gedichte have been published in innumerable editions, the best being that by August Sauer (2 vols., 1884). Briefe von und an Bürger were edited by Adolf Strodtmann in 4 vols. (1874). Bürger was introduced to English readers in William and Helen (1775), Walter Scott's version of Lenore. The elder Dumas translated Lenore into French.[7]
Bürger is known for German translations of Baron Munchausen’s narrative of his marvellous travels and campaigns in Russia by Rudolf Erich Raspe (1786, after the release of the 4th English edition; 2nd expanded ed. 1788, after the release of the 5th expanded English edition). In his introduction to the 1788 German edition, Bürger admitted to adapting and elaborating the original English-language works, and, despite his clear notice that he was doing a translation, for some time Bürger was believed to be the author of the tales. Raspe had originally concealed his authorship.
See also
Notes
- ^ a b c Chisholm 1911, p. 812.
- ^ Reynolds, Francis J., ed. (1921). Collier's New Encyclopedia. New York: P. F. Collier & Son Company. .
- ^ Lenore, by Göttfried August Bürger, (Translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti)
- ^ German Classics, by William Cleaver Wilkinson Published 1900 by Funk & Wagnalls Company in New York, London, p. 151ff
- ^ William and Helen by Sir Walter Scott
- ^ The Vampire Female: "The Bride of Corinth" (1797) by: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Archived 2013-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ New International Encyclopedia(1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
- ^ Chisholm 1911, pp. 812–813.
- ^ a b c Chisholm 1911, p. 813.
References
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bürger, Gottfried August". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 812–813. This work in turn cites:
- Biography by Heinrich Pröhle (1856)
- Introduction from Sauer's edition of the poems
- Wolfgang von Wurzbach, Gottfried August Bürger. Sein Leben und seine Werke (Leipzig, 1900)
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the - Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920). Encyclopedia Americana. .
- Karl Ernst Hermann Krause (1886), "Münchhausen, Hieronimus Freiherr von", Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 23, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 1–5
External links
- Works by Gottfried August Bürger at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Gottfried August Bürger at Internet Archive
- Works by Gottfried August Bürger at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Lenore. Ballade von G. A. Bürger. Melodram mit Begleitung des Pianoforte. [Op. 8.] from the Sibley Music Library Digital Score Collection
- Lenore. Ballade von Bürger. [Musik von] Franz Liszt. Texte francais d'Alexandre Picotfrom the Sibley Music Library Digital Score Collection
- Herbert Günther. "Gottfried August Bürger" (in German). klaus-seehafer.de. Retrieved 26 July 2011.
- William Cleaver Wilkinson German classics Published 1900 by Funk & Wagnalls Company in New York, London p. 151