Background
He was born in Berlin, May 31, 1773, the son of a ropemaker.
He was born in Berlin, May 31, 1773, the son of a ropemaker.
Tieck studied at the universities of Halle, Göttingen, Gottingen, and Erlangen, concentrating on English literature, especially of the Elizabethan period.
In 1794 he entered the service of the Berlin publisher and rationalist writer C. F. Nicolai, whose narrative series, Straussfedern, he continued with tales chiefly of a satiric, didactic-rationalistic bent, in striking contrast to his earlier exotic, highly imaginative works, among which was Almansur (1790). This blending of rationalism and Romanticism persisted throughout his life.
Tieck's principal writings are the melancholy, epistolary novel William Lovell (1795 - 1796) and the Volksmarchen (1797). The latter contained stories retold from chapbooks of the 15th and 16th centuries, partly in narrative form, for example Die schöne Magelone, and partly in dramatic form, for example Ritter Blaubart ("Knight Bluebeard") and Der gestiefelte Kater ("Puss in Boots"); it also contained original tales of a highly imaginative, weird nature, notably Der blonde Eckbert, translated into English by Carlyle. He attempted to counteract the prevailing rationalism, of which Nicolai was an extreme representative. The Volksmarchen attracted the attention of the Schlegels, especially August Wilhelm, who proclaimed Tieck a "romantic" poet.
In 1799, Tieck found a friend in the romantic author Friedrich von Hardenberg, who was called Novalis, and began his Romantische dichtungen (1799 - 1800), in which the typically romantic panorama in dramatic form, Leben und Tod her heiligen Genoveva, appeared.
In 1804 was published the amorphous drama Kaiser Octavianus, considered by Tieck the best example of his "romantic manner. "In 1802 Tieck and his family became guests of Count von Finchenstein on his estates in the Neumark near Frankfurt-an-der-Oder. There he remained until 1819, though with interruptions that included a visit to England in 1817, preparing modernized versions of German medieval poems (Minnelieder aus dem schwäbischenschwabischen Zeitalter, 1803), collections of Elizabethan plays (Altenglisches Theater, 1811), and an edition of German dramas of the 16th and 17th centuries (Deutsches Theater, 1817). He also began a collection of some of his earlier romantic works, which were published as Phantasus (1816 - 1818), linking them with clever conversations recalling Boccaccio's Decameron, and adding some new works, among them Fortunat, in the same manner. In 1819 Tieck settled with his family in Dresden, where from 1825 to 1830 he served as dramatic adviser to the royal theater. Here he turned away from romanticism and wrote a long series of Novellen, in which the usually realistic plot is subordinated to an often didactic discussion of social and literary questions. Die GemäldeGemalde (1821) and Des Lebens Überfluss (1837) are characteristic Novellen; others, dealing with historical material, include Dichterleben (1826), a story of Shakespeare's youth, and Der Aufruhr in den Cevennen (1826). Tieck's last important work, Vittoria Accorombona (1840), is a novel of the Italian Renaissance.
He also wrote many fugitive articles during this time and edited the continuation, made by Count W. H. von Baudissin and his own daughter Dorothea, of the A. W. Schlegel translations of Shakespeare. In 1842 he was summoned to Berlin by the Prussian king, Frederick William IV, and supervised performances of ancient Greek and Elizabethan dramas. From 1820 to 1840 his works had considerable influence upon English and American literature. Tieck died in Berlin, Apr. 28, 1853.
In 1798 Tieck married.