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FRIEDRICH VON MATTHISSON (1761–1831)

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 902 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FRIEDRICH VON MATTHISSON (1761–1831)  , German poet, was born at Hohendodeleben near
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Magdeburg, the son of the
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village pastor, on the 23rd of
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January 1761 . After studying
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theology and
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philology at the university of Halle, he was appointed in 1781 master at the classical school Philanthropin in
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Dessau . This once famous seminary was, however, then rapidly decaying in public favour, and in 1784 Matthisson was glad to accept a travelling tutorship . He lived for two years with the Swiss author Bonstetten at Nyon on the lake of Geneva . In 1794 he was appointed reader and travelling companion to the princess Louisa of
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Anhalt-Dessau . In 1812 he entered the service of the king of
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Wurttemberg, was ennobled, created counsellor of legation, appointed intendant of the court theatre and chief librarian of the royal library at
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Stuttgart . In 1828 he retired and settled at Worlitz near Dessau, where he died on the 12th of March 1831 . Matthisson enjoyed for a time a
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great popularity on account of his poems, Gedichte (1787; 15th ed., 1851; new ed., 1876), which Schiller extravagantly praised for their melancholy sweetness and their
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fine descriptions of scenery . The verse is melodious and the language musical, but the thought and sentiments they express are too often artificial and insincere . His Adelaide has been rendered famous owing to Beethoven's setting of the
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song . Of his elegies, Die Elegie in den Ruinen eines alien Bergschlosses is still a favourite . His reminiscences, Erinnerungen (5 vols., 1810-1816), contain interesting accounts of his travels .

Matthisson's Schriften appeared in eight volumes (1825-1829), of which the first contains his poems, the

remainder his Erinnerungen ; a ninth
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volume was added in 1833 containing his biography by H . Doring . His Literarischer Nachlass, with a selection from his correspondence, was published in four volumes by F . R . Schoch in 1832 .

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