Tieck, JOHANN LUDWIG

Tieck, JOHANN LUDWIG, one of the most prominent champions of Romanticism (q.v.) in Germany, and the friend of Novalis and the Schlegels, was born in Berlin on 31st May 1773. Most of his life was spent in that city, in Dresden, and near Frankfort-on-the-Oder, his life's calling being that of a man of letters; and in Berlin he ended his days, on 28th April 1853. After two or three immature romances, he struck out a new line in clever dramatised versions of the old fairy-tales, such as Fair Eckbert, Puss in Boots, The Faithful Eckhart, Blue Beard, and others, which he made the vehicle for some polished satire on contemporary literature. This is Tieck's peculiar groove. He followed up this first success—Volksmärchen von Peter Lebrecht (1797)—by publishing the tragedy Leben und Tod der Heiligen Genoveva (1800), the comedy Kaiser Octavianus (1804), and Phantasus (1812–17), a collection of the same class of traditional lore in story and drama. These books became great favourites in Germany, owing to the simple and agreeable style of the narrative, and the dreamy fancy and delicate irony that pervaded them. Another great favourite was a romance in glorification of art, entitled Franz Sternbald's Wanderungen (1798). In his later years Tieck wrote several works of a more modern cast, of which Die Gemälde, Die Reisenden, Die Verlobung, Hexensabbath are amongst the most highly esteemed. Besides superintending the completion of A. W. Schlegel's translation of Shakespeare's plays—it was long erroneously believed that he had translated them himself—he edited the doubtful plays and wrote a series of essays (Shakespeare's Vorschule, 1823–29). Don Quixote he did translate with his own hand (1799–1804). He holds an honourable place in the ranks of Germany's dramatic and literary critics, in virtue of his Dramaturgische Blätter (2d ed. 1852) and Kritische Schriften (1848). Tieck's Schriften were published in 28 vols. in 1828–54, and his Novellen in 12 vols. in 1852–54. Some of his fairy-tales and novels were translated into English by Carlyle and Thirlwall. See biographies by Köpke (1855) and Friesen (1871); and Carlyle's Essays, vol. i.