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GUNTHER, JOHANN CHRISTIAN (1695-1723)

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 730 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GUNTHER, JOHANN See also:CHRISTIAN (1695-1723) , See also:German poet, was See also:born at See also:Striegau.in See also:Lower See also:Silesia on the 8th of See also:April 1695. After attending the gymnasium at See also:Schweidnitz, he was sent in 1715 by his See also:father, a See also:country See also:doctor, to study See also:medicine at See also:Wittenberg; but he was idle and dissipated, had no See also:taste for the profession chosen for him, and came to a See also:complete rupture with his See also:family. In 1717 he went to See also:Leipzig, where he was befriended by J. B. Mencke (1674-1732), who recognized his See also:genius; and there he published a poem on the See also:peace of Passarowitz (concluded between the German See also:emperor and the See also:Porte in 1718) which acquired him reputation. A recommendation from Mencke to See also:Frederick See also:Augustus II. of See also:Saxony, See also:king of See also:Poland, proved worse than useless, as Gunther appeared at the See also:audience drunk. From that See also:time he led an unsettled and dissipated See also:life, sinking ever deeper into the See also:slough of misery, until he died at See also:Jena on the 15th of See also:March 1723, when only in his 28th See also:year. See also:Goethe pronounces Gunther to have been a poet in the fullest sense of the See also:term. His lyric poems as a whole give See also:evidence of deep and lively sensibility, See also:fine See also:imagination, See also:clever wit, and a true See also:ear for See also:melody and See also:rhythm; but an See also:air of cynicism is more or less See also:present in most of them, and dull or vulgar witticisms are not infrequently found See also:side by side with the purest inspirations of his genius. " Gunther's collected poems were published in'four volumes (See also:Breslau, 1723-1735). They are also included in vol. vi. of Tittmann's Deutsche Dichter See also:des igten Jahrh. (Leipzig, 1874), and vol. xxxviii. of Kiirschner's Deutsche Nationalliteratur (1883).

A pretended auto-See also:

biography of Gunther appeared at Schweidnitz in 1732, and a life of him by Siebrand at Leipzig in 1738. See See also:Hoffmann von Fallersleben, J. Ch. Gunther (Breslau, 1833) ; O. Roquette, Leben and Dichten J. Ch. Gunthers (See also:Stuttgart, 1860) ; M. Kalbeck, Neue Beitrage zur Biographie des Dichters C. Gunther (Breslau, 1879).and was buried in the See also:cathedral of that See also:city, where a statue was erected to his memory in 1352. See See also:Graf L. Utterodt zu Scharffenberg, Gunther, Graf von See also:Schwarz-See also:burg, erwahlter deutscher See also:Konig (Leipzig, 1862) ; and K. Janson, Das Konigtum Giinthers von Schwarzburg (Leipzig, 1880).

End of Article: GUNTHER, JOHANN CHRISTIAN (1695-1723)

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