Background
Opitz was born on 23 December, 1597 in Bunzlau (Bolesławiec) in Lower Silesia, in the Principality of Schweidnitz-Jauer.
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
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(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
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Opitz was born on 23 December, 1597 in Bunzlau (Bolesławiec) in Lower Silesia, in the Principality of Schweidnitz-Jauer.
He received his early education at the Gymnasium of his native town, of which his uncle was rector, and in 1617 attended the high school "Schonaichianum" at Beuthen, where he made a special study of French, Dutch and Italian poetry.
In 1618 he entered the university of Frankfort-on-Oder as a student of literae humaniores, and in the same year published his first essay, Aristarchus, sive De contemptu linguae Teutonicae, a plea for the purification of the German language from foreign adulteration.
In 1619 he went to Heidelberg, where he became the leader of the school of young poets which at that time made that university town remarkable. Visiting Leiden in the following year he sat at the feet of the famous Dutch lyric poet Daniel Heinsius (1580 - 1655), whose Lobgesang Jesu Christi and Lobgesang Bacchi he had already translated into alexandrines.
After being for a short year (1622) professor of philosophy at the Gymnasium of Weissenburg (now Karlsburg) in Transylvania; he led a wandering life in the service of various territorial nobles.
In 1624 he was appointed councillor to Duke George Rudolf of Liegnitz and Brieg in Silesia, and in 1625, as reward for a requiem poem composed on the death of Archduke Charles of Austria, was crowned laureate by the emperor Ferdinand II who a few years later ennobled him under the title " von Boberfeld. "
In 1630 went to Paris, where he made the acquaintance of Hugo Grotius. He settled in 1635 at Danzig, where Ladislaus IV of Poland made him his historiographer and secretary. Here he died of the plague on the 20th of August 1639.
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 Widerwdrtigkeit des Krieges (written 1621, but not published till 1633); Zlatna, oder von Ruhe des Gemiits (1622); Lob des Feldlebens (1623); Vielgut, oder vom wahren Gliick (1629), and Vesuvius (1633).
These contain some vivid poetical descriptions, but are in the main treatises in poetical form.
In 1624 Opitz published a collected edition of his poetry under the title Acht Bucher deutscher Poematum (though, owing to a mistake on the part of the printer, there are only five books); his Dafne (1627), to which Heinrich Schiitz composed the music, is the earliest German opera.
His Ausgewahlte Dichlungen have been edited by J. Tittmann (1869) and by H. Oesterley (Kiirschner's Deutsche Nationalliteratur, vol. xxvii. 1889). There are modern reprints of the Buck von der deutschen Poeterey by W. Braune (2nd ed. , 1882), and, together with Aristarchus, by G. Witkowski (1888), and also of the Teutsche Poemata, of 1624, by G. Witkowski (1902). See H. Palm, Beitriige zur Geschichte der deutschen Literatur des 16ten und ijten Jahrhunderts (1877); K. Borinski, Die Poetik der Renaissance (1886); R. Beckherrn, Opitz, Ronsard und Heinsius (1888). Bibliography byOesterley in the Zentralblatt fur Bibliolhekswesen for 1885.
Opitz died in Danzig.
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
He was elected a member of the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft in 1629.