Martin Opitz
Martin Opitz | |
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Born | 23 December 1597 ![]() Bolesławiec ![]() |
Died | 20 August 1639 ![]() Gdańsk ![]() |
Other names | Der Gekrönte ![]() |
Occupation | Poet, literary theorist, writer ![]() |
Movement | Baroque |
Signature | |
Martin Opitz von Boberfeld (23 December 1597 – 20 August 1639) was a German poet, regarded as the greatest of that nation during his lifetime.
Biography
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bb/Opitz%2C_Martin_%E2%80%93_Weltliche_und_geistliche_Dichtung%2C_1888_%E2%80%93_BEIC_3279391.jpg/220px-Opitz%2C_Martin_%E2%80%93_Weltliche_und_geistliche_Dichtung%2C_1888_%E2%80%93_BEIC_3279391.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/50/House_in_Wittenberg_commemorating_the_stay_of_Martin_Opitz_in_1625.jpg/220px-House_in_Wittenberg_commemorating_the_stay_of_Martin_Opitz_in_1625.jpg)
Opitz was born in
In 1619 Opitz went to
In 1624 Opitz was appointed councilor to Duke George Rudolf of Liegnitz (Legnica) and Brieg (Brzeg) in Silesia, and in 1625, as reward for a requiem poem composed on the death of Archduke Charles of Austria, was crowned poet laureate by Emperor Ferdinand II, who a few years later ennobled him under the title "von Boberfeld." He was elected a member of the Fruitbearing Society in 1629, and in 1630 he went to Paris, where he made the acquaintance of Hugo Grotius. He settled in 1635 in the Hanseatic city of Danzig (Gdańsk) in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, where King Władysław IV Vasa of Poland made him his historiographer and secretary. There he died of the plague on 20 August 1639 in Danzig.[1]
Opitz was the head of the so-called First Silesian School of poets, and was during his life regarded as the greatest German poet. Although he would not today be considered a poetical genius, he may justly claim to have been the "father of German poetry" in respect at least of its form; his Buch von der deutschen Poeterey (1624) put an end to the hybridism that had until then prevailed, and established rules for the "purity" of language, style, verse and rhyme.[1]
Opitz's own poems are in accordance with the rigorous rules which he laid down. They are mostly a formal and sober elaboration of carefully considered themes, and contain little beauty and less feeling. To this didactic and descriptive category belong his best poems, Trost-Gedichte in Widerwärtigkeit des Krieges (written 1621, but not published until 1633); Zlatna, oder von der Ruhe des Gemüths (1622); Lob des Feldlebens (1623); Vielgut, oder vom wahren Glück (1629), and Vesuvius (1633). These contain some vivid poetical descriptions, but are in the main treatises in poetical form.[1]
In 1624 Opitz published a collected edition of his poetry under the title Acht Bücher deutscher Poematum (though, owing to a mistake on the part of the printer, there are only five books); his
In 1625 he lived in Wittenberg in Saxony.[2]
Besides numerous translations, Opitz edited (1639) Das Annolied, a Middle High German poem of the end of the 11th century, and thus preserved it from oblivion[1] since the original manuscript is now lost. Opitz also wrote a pastoral novel, Schäferei der Nymphe Hercinie (The Idyll of the Nymph Hercinie, 1630).
Opitz died in Danzig on 20 August 1639.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Opitz von Boberfeld, Martin". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 129. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ Plaque in Wittenberg
- Martin Opitz, An den Durchlauchten, Hochgebornen Fürsten und Herren, Herren Uldrichen, Postulirten Administratorn desz Stiffts Schwerin, Erben zu Norwegen, Hertzog zu Schleswig, Holstein, Stormarn undt der Ditmarschen, ... Lobgetichte (praising poems in honour of Duke Ulrik), Brieg: Gründer, 1633.
- Martin Opitz, "Geistliche Poemata 1638", in: Erich Trunz Barock, Max Niemeyer Verlag Tübingen 1966
External links
- Works by Martin Opitz at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Martin Opitz at Internet Archive
- Works by Martin Opitz at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- The Correspondence of Martin Opitz in EMLO
- Opitz, Martin (1869). Ausgewählte dichtungen von Martin Opitz. Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus.
- Opitz, Martin (1888). Weltliche und geistliche Dichtung. Berlin und Stuttgart: W. Spemann.