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MERCK, JOHANN HEINRICH (1741–1791)

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 154 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MERCK, JOHANN HEINRICH (1741–1791) , See also:German author and critic, was See also:born at See also:Darmstadt on the 11th of See also:April 1741, a few days after the See also:death of his See also:father, a chemist. He studied See also:law at See also:Giessen, and in 1767 was given an See also:appointment in the paymaster's See also:department at Darmstadt, and a See also:year later himself became paymaster. For a number of years he exercised See also:con- "' siderable See also:influence upon the See also:literary See also:movement in See also:Germany; he helped to found the Frankfurter gelehrte Anzeigen in 1772, and was one of the See also:chief contributors to See also:Nicolai's Allgemeine Bibliothek. In 1782 he accompanied the Landgravine Karoline of See also:Hesse-Darmstadt to St See also:Petersburg, and on his return was a See also:guest of the See also:duke See also:Charles See also:Augustus of See also:Weimar in the See also:Wartburg, Unfortunate speculations brought him into pecuniary embarrassment in 1788, and although See also:friends, notably See also:Goethe; were ready to come to his assistance, his losses—combined with the death of five of his See also:children—so preyed upon his mind that he committed See also:suicide on the 27th of See also:June 1791. Merck distinguished himself mainly as a critic; his keen See also:perception, See also:critical perspicacity and refined See also:taste made him a valuable See also:guide to the See also:young writers of the See also:Sturm and Drang. He also wrote a number of small See also:treatises, dealing mostly with literature and See also:art, especially See also:painting, and a few poems, stories, narratives and the like; but they have not much See also:intrinsic importance. Merck's letters are particularly interesting and instructive, and throw much See also:light upon the literary conditions of his See also:time. Merck's Ausgewahlte Schriften zur schonen Literatur and Kunst were published by A. Stahr in 184o, with a See also:biography. See Briefe an J. H. Merck von Goethe, See also:Herder, See also:Wieland and andern bedeutenden Zeitgenossen (1835), Briefe an and von J.

H. Merck (1838) and Briefe aus dem Freundeskreise von Goethe, Herder, Hopfner and Merck (1847), all edited by K. See also:

Wagner. Cf. G. See also:Zimmermann, J. H. Merck, See also:seine Umgebung and seine Zeit (1871). MERCO;UR, SEIGNEURS AND See also:DUKES OF. The See also:estate of Mercceur in See also:Auvergne, See also:France, gave its name to a See also:line of powerful lords, which became See also:extinct in the 14th See also:century, and passed by See also:inheritance to the dauphins of Auvergne, See also:counts of Clermont. In 1426 it passed to the Bourbons by the See also:marriage. of Jeanne de Clermont, See also:dauphine of Auvergne, with See also:Louis de See also:Bourbon, See also:count of See also:Montpensier. It formed See also:part of the confiscated estates of the See also:Constable de Bourbon, and was given by See also:Francis I. and See also:Louise of See also:Savoy to See also:Antoine, duke of See also:Lorraine, and his wife, Renee de Bourbon.

See also:

Nicolas of Lorraine, son of Duke Antoine, was created duke of Mercceur and a peer of France in 1569. His son Philippe See also:Emmanuel (see below) See also:left a daughter, who married the duc de See also:Vendome in 16(29.

End of Article: MERCK, JOHANN HEINRICH (1741–1791)

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