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GRIMM, FRIEDRICH MELCHIOR, I

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 600 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GRIMM, See also:FRIEDRICH MELCHIOR, I ,ARON vON (1723–1807), See also:French author, the son of a See also:German pastor, was See also:born at Ratisbon on the 26th of See also:December 1723. He studied at the University of See also:Leipzig, where he came under the See also:influence of See also:Gottsched and of J. A. See also:Ernesti, to whom he was largely indebted for his See also:critical appreciation of classical literature. When nineteen he produced a tragedy, Banise, which met with some success. After two years of study he returned to Ratisbon, where he was attached to the See also:household of See also:Count Schonberg. In 1748 he accompanied See also:August Heinrich, Count Friesen, to See also:Paris as secretary, and he is said by See also:Rousseau to have acted for some See also:time as reader to See also:Frederick, the See also:young hereditary See also:prince of See also:Saxe-See also:Gotha. His acquaintance with Rousseau, through a mutual sympathy in regard to musical matters, soon ripened into intimate friendship, and led to a See also:close association with the encyclopaedists. He rapidly obtained a thorough knowledge of the French See also:language, and acquired so perfectly the See also:tone and sentiments of the society in which he moved that all marks of his See also:foreign origin and training seemed effaced. A witty pamphlet entitled Le See also:Petit Prophete de Boehmischbroda (1753), written by him in See also:defence of See also:Italian as against French See also:opera, established his See also:literary reputation. It is possible that the origin of the pamphlet is partly to be accounted for by his vehement See also:passion? for Mlle Fel, the prima donna of the Italian See also:company. In 1753 Grimm, following the example of the See also:abbe See also:Raynal, began a literary See also:correspondence with various German sovereigns.

Raynal's letters, Nouvelles litteraires, ceased See also:

early in 1755. With the aid of See also:friends, especially of See also:Diderot and Mme d'See also:Epinay, during his temporary absences from See also:France, Grimm himself carried on the correspondence, which consisted of two letters a See also:month, until 1773, and eventually counted among his subscribers See also:Catherine II. of See also:Russia, Stanislas See also:Poniatowski, See also:king of See also:Poland, and many princes of the smaller German States. " Weld was the author of several See also:anti-See also:slavery books which had considerable influence at the time. Among them are The See also:Bible against Slavery (1837), See also:American Slavery as It Is (1839), a collection of extracts from See also:Southern papers, and Slavery and the See also:Internal Slave See also:Trade in the U.S. (1841). 2 Rousseau's. See also:account of this affair (Confessions, 2nd See also:part, 8th See also:book) must be received with caution. It was probably in 1754 that Grimm was introduced by Rousseau to Madame d'Epinay, with whom he soon formed a liaison which led to an irreconcilable rupture between him and Rousseau. Rousseau was induced by his resentment to give in his Confessions a wholly mendacious portrait of Grimm's See also:character. In 1755, after the See also:death of Count Friesen, who was a See also:nephew of See also:Marshal Saxe and an officer in the French See also:army, Grimm became secretaire See also:des commandments to the See also:duke of See also:Orleans, and in this capacity he accompanied Marshal d'See also:Estrees'on the See also:campaign of See also:Westphalia in 1756–57. He was named See also:envoy of the See also:town of See also:Frankfort at the See also:court of France in 1759, but was deprived of his See also:office for criticizing the See also:comte de See also:Broglie in a despatch intercepted by See also:Louis XV. He was made a See also:baron of the See also:Holy See also:Roman See also:Empire in 1775. His introduction to Catherine II. of Russia took See also:place at St See also:Petersburg in 1773, when he was in the See also:suite of Wilhelmine of See also:Hesse-See also:Darmstadt on the occasion of her See also:marriage to the czarevitch See also:Paul.

He became See also:

minister of Saxe-Gotha at the court of France in 1776, but in 1777 he again See also:left Paris on a visit to St Petersburg, where he remained for nearly a See also:year in daily intercourse with Catherine. He acted as Paris See also:agent for the empress in the See also:purchase of See also:works of See also:art, and executed many confidential commissions for her. In 1783 and the following years he lost his two most intimate friends, Mme d'Epinay and Diderot. In 1792 he emigrated, and in the next year settled in Gotha, where his poverty was relieved by Catherine, who in 1796 appointed him minister of Russia at See also:Hamburg. On the death of the empress Catherine he took See also:refuge with Mme d'Epinay's granddaughter, Emilie de Belsunce, comtesse de Bueil. Grimm had always interested himself in her, and had procured her See also:dowry from the empress Catherine. She now received him with the utmost kindness. He died at Gotha on the 19th of December 1807. The correspondence of Grimm was strictly confidential, and was not divulged during his lifetime. It embraces nearly the whole See also:period from 1750 to 1790, but the later volumes, 1773 to 1790, were chiefly the See also:work of his secretary, See also:Jakob Heinrich Meister. At first he contented himself with enumerating the See also:chief current views in literature and art and indicating very slightly the contents of the See also:principal new books, but gradually his criticisms became more extended and trenchant, and he touched on nearly every subject—See also:political, literary, See also:artistic, social and religious—which interested the Parisian society of the time. His notices of contemporaries are somewhat severe, and he exhibits the foibles and selfishness of the society in which he moved; but he was unbiassed in his literary judgments, and time has only served to confirm his criticisms.

In See also:

style and manner of expression he is thoroughly French. He is generally somewhat See also:cold in his appreciation, but his literary See also:taste is delicate and subtle; and it was the See also:opinion of Sainte-Beuve that the quality of his thought in his best moments will compare not unfavourably even with that of See also:Voltaire. His religious and philosophical opinions were entirely negative. Grimm's"Correspondance litteraire, philosophique et critique . depuis 1753 jusqu'en 1769, was edited, with many excisions, by J. B. A. Suard and published at Paris in 1812, in 6 vols. 8vo; deuxieme partie, de 1771 a 1782, in 1812 in 5 vols. 8vo; and troisibme partie, See also:pendant une partie des annees 1795 et 1776, et pendant See also:les annees 1782 a 1790 inclusivement, in 1813 in 5 vols. 8vo. A supplementary See also:volume appeared in 1814; the whole correspondence was collected and published by M. Jules Taschereau, with the assistance of A.

Chatide, in a Nouvelle Edition, revue et See also:

mise clans un meilleur ordre, avec des notes et des eclaircissements, et oil se trouvent retablies pour la premiere fois les phrases supprimees See also:par la censure imperiale (Paris, 1829, 15 vols. 8vo); and the Correspondance inedite, et recueil de lettres, poesies, morceaux, et fragments retranches par la censure imperiale en 1812 et 1813 was published in 1829. The See also:standard edition is that of M. See also:Tourneux (16 vols., 1877-1882). Grimm's Memoire historique sur l'origine et les suites de mon attachement pour l'imperatrice Catherine II usqu' au aces de sa majeste imperiale, and Catherine's correspondence with Grimm (1774–1796) were published by J. Grot in 188o, in the Collection of the See also:Russian Imperial See also:Historical Society. She' treats him very familiarly, and calls him Heraclite, Georges Dandin, &c. At the time of the Revolution she begged him to destroy her letters, but he refused, and after his death they were returned to St Petersburg. Grimm's See also:side of the correspondence, however, is billy partially preserved: He signs himself Pleureur." Some of Grimm's letters, besides the See also:official correspondence, are included in the edition of M. Tourneux; others are contained in the Erinnerungen einer Urgrossmutter of K. von Bechtolsheim, edited (See also:Berlin, 19oz) by Count C. Oberndorff. See also Mine d'Epinay's Memoires; Rousseau's Confessions; the notices contained in the See also:editions quoted; E.

See also:

Scherer, Melchior Grimm (1887); Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du lundi, vol. vii. For further works bearing on the subject, see K. A. Georges, Friedrich Melchior Grimm (See also:Hanover and Leipzig, 1904).

End of Article: GRIMM, FRIEDRICH MELCHIOR, I

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