JOHANN

ELIAS

See also:

• SCHLEGEL, AUGUST WILHELM VON (1767-1845)
• JOHANN ELIAS SCHLEGEL (1719-1749)
• SCHLEGEL, KARL WILHELM FRIEDRICH VON (1772-1829)

SCHLEGEL (1719-1749)  , German critic and dramatic poet, was born at Meissen on the 28th of January 1719 . He was educated at Schulpforta and at the university of Leipzig, where he studied law . In 1743 he became private secretary to his relative, von Spener, the Saxon ambassador at the Danish court . Afterwards he was made professor extra-ordinary at the academy of Seroe, where he died on the 13thof August 1749 . Schlegel was a contributor to the Bremer Beitrdge and for some time, while he was living in Denmark, edited a weekly periodical, Der Fremde . With his dramas as well as with his critical writings he did much to prepare the way for Lessing, by whom his genius was warmly appreciated . He wrote two lively and well-constructed comedies, Der Triumph der guten Frauen and Die stumme Schonheit, the former in prose, the latter in alexandrines . Hermann and Canut (in alexandrines) are generally considered his best tragedies . His works were edited (in 5 vols., 1761-1770) by his brother, J . H . Schlegel (1724-1780), who had a considerable reputation as a writer on Danish history . Another brother, J .

Adolf Schlegel (1721-1793), an eminent preacher, and author of some volumes of

verse, was the father of August Wilhelm and Friedrich von Schlegel . J . E . Schlegel's Asthetische and dramaturgische Schriften have been edited by J. von Antoniewicz (1887). and a selection of his plays by F . Muncker in Bremer Beitrdge, vol. ii . (Kiirschner's Deutsche Nationalliteratur, vol. xliv., 1899) . See, besides the biography by his brother in the edition of his works, E . Wolff, Johann Elias Schlegel (1889); and J . Rentsch, Johann Elias Schlegel ads Trauerspieldichter (1890) .