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LENZ, JAKOB MICHAEL REINHOLD (1751-1792)

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 431 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LENZ, See also:JAKOB See also:MICHAEL See also:REINHOLD (1751-1792) , See also:German . poet, was See also:born at Sesswegen in See also:Livonia, the son of the See also:village pastor, on the 12th of See also:January 1751. He removed with his parents to Dorpat in 1759, and soon began to compose sacred odes, in the manner of See also:Klopstock. In 1768 he entered the university of See also:Konigsberg as a student of See also:theology, and in 1771 accompanied, as See also:tutor, two See also:young German nobles, named von See also:Kleist, to See also:Strassburg, where they were to enter the Frencharmy. In Strassburg Lenz was received into the See also:literary circle that gathered See also:round See also:Friedrich See also:Rudolf Salzmann (1749—1821) and became acquainted with See also:Goethe, at that See also:time a student at the university. In See also:order to be See also:close to his young pupils, Lenz had to remove to Fort See also:Louis in the neighbourhood, and while here became deeply enamoured of Goethe's friend, Friederike Elisabeth Brion (1752-1813), daughter of the pastor of Sesenheim. Lenz endeavoured, after Goethe's departure from Strassburg, to replace the See also:great poet in her affections, and to her he poured out songs and poems (See also:Die Liebe auf dem Lande) which were See also:long attributed to Goethe himself, as was also Lenz's first See also:drama, the See also:comedy, Der See also:Hofmeister, See also:oder Vorteile der Privaterziehung (1774). In 1776 he visited See also:Weimar and was most kindly received by the See also:duke; but his See also:rude, overbearing manner and vicious habits led to his See also:expulsion. In 1777 he became insane, and in 1779 was removed from See also:Emmendingen, where J. G. See also:Schlosser (1739—1799), Goethe's See also:brother-in-See also:law, had given him a See also:home, to his native village. Here he lived in great poverty for several years, and then was given, more out of charity than on See also:account of his merits, the See also:appointment of tutor in a See also:pension school near See also:Moscow, where he died on the 24th of May 1792. Lenz, though one of the most talented poets of the See also:Sturm and Drang See also:period, presented a See also:strange medley of See also:genius and childishness.

His great, though neglected and distorted, abilities found vent in See also:

ill-conceived imitations of See also:Shakespeare. His comedies, Der Hofineister; Der neue Menoza (1774); Die Soldaten (1776); Die Freunde machen den Philosophen (1776), though accounted the best of his See also:works, are characterized by unnatural situations and an incongruous mixture of tragedy and comedy. Lenz's Gesammelte Schriften were published by L. See also:Tieck in three volumes (1828); supplementary to these volumes are E. Dorer-Egloff, J. M. R. Lenz and See also:seine Schriften (1857) and K. Weinhold Dramatischer Nachlass von J. M. R. Lenz (1884) ; a selection ots Lenz's writings will be found in A.

Sauer, Stiirmer und Dranger, ii.; Kiirschner's Deutsche Nationalliteratur, vol. lxxx., (1883). See further E. See also:

Schmidt, Lenz and See also:Klinger (1878); J. Froitzheim, Lenz and Goethe (1891); H. See also:Rauch, Lenz and Shakespeare (1892); F. Waldmann, Lenz in Briefen (1894).

End of Article: LENZ, JAKOB MICHAEL REINHOLD (1751-1792)

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