The New International Encyclopædia/Feith, Rhijnvis

FEITH, fīt, Rhijnvis (1753-1824). A Dutch poet, dramatist, and romancer, of melancholy humor, in singular contrast to his social and literary good fortune. He was born at Zwolle, where, after graduation at Leyden (1770), he became burgomaster in 1780, and published in 1783 Julia, the Dutch Werther, steeped in romantic gloom. This he followed by tragedies, Thirsa (1784), and The Patriots (1785), and another Werther novel, Constantia (1785), which made him the most popular poet of Holland, but provoked bitter criticism for their morbid sentimentality. After six years' silence he published a third tragedy, Lady Jane Grey (1791), and a portentous churchyard poem in four cantos, The Grave (1792). Other tragedies and a didactic poem in six cantos on Old Age (1802), with five volumes of miscellaneous poems (1796-1814), and Poems for Public Worship (1804), complete his works, of which an edition (13 vols.) appeared in 1825. Though now neglected, he is interesting as the Dutch representative of the mood that in Germany produced Novalis (q.v.).