GEORG

RUDOLF

See also:

• GEORG RUDOLF WECKHERLIN (1584—1653)

WECKHERLIN (1584—1653)  , German poet, was born at Stuttgart on the 15th of September 1584 . After studying law he settled at Stuttgart, and, as secretary to the Duke Johann Friedrich of Wurttemberg, was employed on diplomatic missions to France and England . Between 162o and 1624 he lived in England in the service of the Palatinate, and seems also to have been employed by the English government . In 1644 he was appointed " Secretary for Foreign Tongues " in England, a position in which, on the establishment of the Commonwealth, he was followed byMilton . He died in London on the 13th of February 16J3 . Weckherlin was the most distinguished of the circle of South German poets who prepared the way for the Renaissance movement associated in Germany with Martin Opitz . Two volumes of his Oden and Gesange appeared in 1618 and 1619; his collected Geistliche and weltliche Gedichte in 1641 . His models were the poets of the French Pleiade, and with his psalms, odes and sonnets he broke new ground for the German lyric . An epic poem on the death of Gustavus Adolphus, in alexandrines, seems to have won most favour with his contemporaries . Weckherlin's Gedichte have been edited by H . Fischer for the Stuttgarler LiterarischerVerein(vols. cxcix.-cc., 1894—1895) . Selections were published by W .

Muller (1823) and K . Goedeke (1873) . See also C . P . Conz, Nachrichten van dent Leben and den Schriften Weckhertins (1803) ; E . Hopfner, G . R . Weckherlins Oden and Gesange (1865) ; H . Fischer, Beitrage zur Literaturgeschichte Schwabens (1891), and the same author's article in the Allgemeine deutsche Biographie (1896) .