Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/100

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GOTTSCHALK. foreign successes. He visited most of the im- portant cities and towns from one end of the I iiited States to tlie other, playing or comlucti: g iiis own compositions. His success and the haid work entailed undermined his health, and it only needed the fatiguing tour through Cuba and Latin America, commenced in 1805, to hasten his death which occurred at Rio Janeiro. His com- positions, published and manuscript, covered every branch of music, but his fame as a com- poser centred in his pianoforte pieces, of which there are about ninety. GOTTSCHAXL, g6t'shal, Eldolph vox (1S23 • — ■). A German critic and miscellaneous writer. He was oorn in Breslau and studied at Ko- nigsberg. Breslau, and Berlin. His political and social sympathies with the revolutionary move- ment of 1848 were shown in the dramas Wiener ItmiiorteUcn (1848), Linnhcrtine von Mcricourt (1850): and Ferdinand ron Schell (1851), as well as in his first collection of poems, Gedichte (1850), and in a lyric epic. Die Gottin. ein holies Lied voni Weibe (185.3). From this time on his work became more serene in temper and style. An epic, Carlo Zeno (1854), was followed by an excellent historical comedy, Pitt iitid Fox (1854), and this by literari" and historical studies, whose final titles were: Die deutsche Xalional-Littera- tur des X/A". Jahrhunderts (1892) ; and Poetik: Die DichtKunst und ihrc Formen (1858). Name- worthy also are: Xeiie Oedichte (1858) ; Mazep- pa (1859) ; Reisehilder aiis Italien (1864) ; ilaja (1804): Konifj Pharao (1872); Janus, poems (1873) : and Biinte BUiten. poems (1891). Gott- schall's dramas are collected in twelve volumes (1884); his literary essays in Portraits und Studien (1871); Litterarische Totenkliinge und Lebensfraf/en (1885): and Stiidien stir neiien deiitschen Litleratiir (1892). Of his many nov- els, the first, Im Banne des seliwarzen Adlers (1875). is best. Gottschall was also active as an editor and compiler of anthologies. GOTTSCHED, got'shet, JoH.>-x Chkistoph (1700-00). A noted German critic and author, who for about thirty years exercised an almost undisputed literary diciatorship in Germany. He was born near Konigsberg. February 2. 1700, studied theology and especially philosophy, at the University of Konigsberg, and in 1724 went to Leipzig, where his lectures on polite literature made him speedily knovn, and where he became professor, first of poetry (1730), then of logic and metajihysics (1734) at the imiversity. As editor of the weeklies Die rerniinftiqen Tad- lerinnen (1725-26) ani. Der Biedermann (1727). he started on his career of untiring critical activity, continued in other literary journals, all tending toward purification of the language and toward conventional foiTns. In 1726 he was elected senior of the Poetic Society of Ijcipzig. which he reorganized, and whose influ- . ence was considerably extended by him. Direct- ing his criticism at first chiefly against the bombast and absurd affectations of the Second Silesian School, he proceeded to lay down strict laws for the composition of poetry. He was exclusively a man of reason who sought to reduce all rules of rhetoric and poetrv' to philosophic principles, confining himself, however, strictly to external perception, evidently incapable of fathoming the intrinsic merit of creative genius. Voiced in all his various periodicals and treatises, 78 GOTZ. this tendency was especially apparent in hia ersuch eiuer kritischen Dichtkunst fitr die Deiitschen (1730 and repeatedly after). His main endeavor was directed toward the reforma- tion of the German drama, for which he was bent upon creating a national theatre on the model of the French. Aided by his cultured wife, LiKSE Adelguade Viktobie ("l 7 13-02). a prolific writer and translator, and with the cooperation of the theatrical manager Xeuber and his wife, Caroline, a clever actress, he succeeded indeed in bringing about a considerable improvement in the condition of the German stage by substituting for the prevailing operatic performances transla- tions of French dramas and original plays, and by banishing from it forever the coarse buf- fooneries of the 'Hanswurst' (Jack Pudding). His own tragedy, Der sterbende Cato (1732), fashioned after Addison's work to serve as a model of what a true tragedy should be. and enthusiastically applauded by Gottsched's faith- ful followers, is a dreary and stilted production, barren of poetry and dramatic action. Growing ever more vain and dictatorial, and carrying his reforms to pedantic excess, he became in- volved in a violent controversy with the Swiss critics Bodmer and Breitinger, who advocated the introduction to the German public of the great English writers, especially Milton, and when, in 1748, Gottsched went so far as to be- little the rising genius of Klopstock, he drew upon himself ridicule and scathing criticism. The new literary spirit inaugurated by Lessing remained a closed book to him. Long before (1741) he had also. fallen out with Caroline Xeuber, regarding practical stage matters, and even placed himself in opposition to his wife. Gradually his influence and authority declined, leaving him imbittered and isolated, and thus it came to pass th.at this worthy man. who in his day had done yeoman service for German litera- ture, became a by-word for foolish pedantry years before his death, which occurred at Leip- zig. December 12, 1706. He left at least one im- portant work, yatifler Yorrat zur Gesrhirhtr der deiitschen dramatischen Dichtunn (1757-65). a valuable repertory of information intended to embrace an account of all dramatic productions in (rermany from 1450 to 1760. Consult: Danzel, Gottsched und seine Zeit (Leipzig, 1848) : Fischer. Gottsched und sein Katnpf mif den Schu-eizern (ib., 1892) ; and Wolff, Goftscheds Stellu7ig im deutschen. Bildungslehen (Kiel, 1895- 97). GOTZ. gets, Hermann (1840-70). A gifted German composer, born in Kiinigsberg, Prussia. He did not begin his musical studies imtil his eighteenth year, and from 1800 to 1863 was a pupil at the Stern Conservatory. Berlin, where his teachers were Stern, Von Biilow. and Ulrich. Upon leaving the conservatory, he became organ- ist of a church at Winterthur, Switzerland. Gotz's place among comjiosers is pennanently estab- lished by his one opera. Die Ziihmiintj der Wider- spenstiqen. first performed at JIannheim on Octo- ber 11, 1874. In addition to some orchestral compositions, he left an unfinished opera, com- pleted by his friend Ernst Frank, called Fran- cesea ron Rimini. Ill health, broucht on bv over- work, caused him to retire in 1870 to Hottingen, near Zurich, and he died there, December 3, 1876.