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FOUQUE, FRIEDRICH HEINRICH KARL DE LA...

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 750 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FOUQUE, See also:FRIEDRICH HEINRICH KARL DE LA MOTTE, See also:BARON (1777-1843) , See also:German writer of the romantic See also:movement, was See also:born on the 12th of See also:February 1777 at See also:Brandenburg. His grandfather had been one of See also:Frederick the See also:Great's generals and his See also:father was a Prussian officer. Although not originally intended for a military career, Friedrich de la Motte Fouque ultimately gave up his university studies at See also:Halle to join the See also:army, and he took See also:part in the See also:Rhine See also:campaign of 1794. The See also:rest of his See also:life was devoted mainly to See also:literary pursuits. Like so many of the younger romanticists, Fouque owed his introduction to literature to A. W. See also:Schlegel, who published his first See also:book, Dramaiische Spiele von Pellegrin in 1804. His next See also:work, Romanzen vom Tal Ronceval (18o5), showed more plainly his See also:allegiance to the romantic leaders, and in the Historie vom edlen See also:Ritter Galmy (1806) he versified a 16th-See also:century See also:romance of See also:medieval See also:chivalry. See also:Sigurd der Schlangentoter, ein Heldenspiel (18o8), the first See also:modern German dramatization of the Nibelungen See also:saga, attracted See also:attention to him, and influenced considerably subsequent versions of the See also:story, such as See also:Hebbel's Nibelungen and See also:Wagner's See also:Ring See also:des Nibelungen. These See also:early writings indicate the lines which Fouque's subsequent literary activity followed; his interests were divided between medieval chivalry on the one See also:hand and See also:northern See also:mythology on the other. In 1813, the See also:year of the rising against See also:Napoleon, he again fought with the Prussian army, and the new patriotism awakened in the German See also:people See also:left its See also:mark upon his writings. Between 1810 and 1815 Fouque's popularity was at its height; the many romances and novels, plays and epics, which he turned out with extraordinary rapidity, appealed exactly to the See also:mood of the See also:hour.

The earliest of these are the best—Undine, which appeared in 1811, being, indeed, one of the most charming of all German Marc/ten and the only work by which Fouque's memory still lives to-See also:

day. A more comprehensive See also:idea of his See also:powers may, however, be obtained from the two romances Der Zauberring (1813) and See also:Die Fahrten Thiodulfs des Islanders (1815). From 1820 onwards the quality of Fouque's work rapidly degenerated, partly owing to the fatal ease with which he wrote, partly to his inability to keep See also:pace with the changes in German See also:taste. He remained the belated romanticist, who, as the See also:reading See also:world turned to new interests, clung the more tenaciously to the See also:paraphernalia of romanticism; but in the See also:cold, sober See also:light of the See also:post-romantic See also:age, these appeared merely flimsy and theatrical. The vitalizing imaginative See also:power of his early years deserted him, and the See also:sobriquet of a " See also:Don Quixote of Romanticism " which his enemies applied to him was not unjustified. Fouque's first See also:marriage had been unhappy and soon ended in See also:divorce. His second wife, Karoline von Briest (1773–1831) enjoyed some reputation as a novelist in her day. After her See also:death Fouque married a third See also:time. Some See also:consolation for the ebbing See also:tide of popular favour was afforded him by the munificence of Frederick See also:William IV. of See also:Prussia, who granted him a See also:pension which allowed him to spend his later years in comfort. He died in See also:Berlin on the 23rd of See also:January 1843. Fouque's Ausgewahlte Werke, edited by himself, appeared in 12 vols. (Berlin, 1841); a selection, edited by M.

See also:

Koch, will be found in Kiirschner's Deutsche Nationalliteratur, vol. 146, part ii. (See also:Stuttgart, 1893) ; Undine, Sintram, &c., in innumerable reprints. Bibliography in Goedeke's Grundriss zur Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung (2nd ed., vi. pp. 115 if., See also:Dresden, 1898). Most of Fouque's See also:works have been translated, and the See also:English versions of Aslauga's See also:Knight (by See also:Carlyle), Sintram and his Companions and Undine, have been frequently republished. For Fouque's life cp. Lebensgeschichte des Baron Friedrich de la Matte Fouque. Aufgezeichnet dutch ihn selbst (Halle, 1840), (only to the year 1813), and also the introduction to Koch's selections in the Deutsche Nationalliteratur. (J. G.

End of Article: FOUQUE, FRIEDRICH HEINRICH KARL DE LA MOTTE, BARON (1777-1843)

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