KLOPSTOCK, Frederic Theophilus, was born at Quedlinburg in 1724, and one of the most celebrated of the German poets. His father was a man of an elevated character, and a magistrate of that place, who afterwards farmed a bailiwick in the Brandenburg part of Mansfield. Klopstock was the oldest of eleven children, and having received the rudiments of education at home, he was put to the public school of Quedlinburg, where he soon became conspicuous both for bodily and mental exercises. He went to the college of the same place at the age of sixteen, where, under the tuition of an able teacher, he obtained a knowledge of, and taste for, the beauties of the best classical authors. He composed some pastorals in verse; and even at this early period he conceived the bold design of writing an epic poem, fixing at length, after much deliberation, on the Messiah, by which he has rendered his name immortal.

He commenced the study of theology at the University of Jena, in the year 1745, although in his retirement he was constantly ruminating on his great projected work already mentioned, sketching out the three first cantos. They were first written in prose, as the common measure of German verse did not accord with his own sentiments. Transported with the melody of Homer’s and Virgil’s strains, he determined to make trial of German hexameters, in which he succeeded so entirely to his own satisfaction, that he fixed upon this majestic verse for the whole of his poem. By his removal from Jena to Leipzig in 1746, he became acquainted with a number of young votaries of the muses, who occasionally published their essays in a paper called the Bremen Contributions, in which appeared the three cantos of Klopstock’s Messiah, and a number of his odes, for which he was so applauded as to animate him to persevere.

He quitted Leipzig in 1748, and resided at Langensalza, where he carried on a fruitless correspondence with a beautiful young lady, who discovered no inclination to return his passion, which for some time threw a gloom over his mind. He now published ten books of his Messiah, by which he came to be known and admired all over Germany. It was an extremely popular work amongst all those who were at once the lovers of poetry and devotion. It was quoted from the pulpit by young divines, whilst others of a more stern deportment found fault with the author, as indulging too much in fiction on sacred topics.

He travelled into Switzerland in 1750, to pay a visit to Bodmer of Zurich, in consequence of an invitation, and was received with every token of respect. The sublime scenery of that country, the simplicity of its inhabitants, and the freedom they enjoyed, were admirably suited to the taste and sentiments of Klopstock. Here in all probability he would have breathed his last, had not Baron Bernstorff, who was charmed with bis poetry, engaged Count Molke, after returning from France to Copenhagen, to invite him to that city, with assurances of such a pension as would make him independent. Our author accordingly set out for Copenhagen in the year 1751, by the way of Brunswick and Hamburg, at which latter place he became acquainted with a young lady, Miss Moller, of literary abilities, and a heart susceptible of tender impressions. They were soon afterwards married, and seemed destined by Providence to be one of the happiest couples upon earth; but he was early deprived of her, for she died in childbed, and her memory was sacred to Klopstock to the last hour of his existence. He lived for the most part at Copenhagen till the year 1771, after which he resided at Hamburg in the capacity of royal Danish legate, and counsellor of the margrave of Baden, who gave him a pension, and engaged him to pass the year 1775 at his palace of Carlsruhe. Such was the diffidence of our poet, that it required the most extraordinary condescension on the part of the great to make him easy in their presence.

The decline of his health made no change on the habitual tranquillity of his mind; he contemplated his approaching dissolution without any dismay, and his pious fortitude continued unshaken amidst the severest sufferings. He died at Hamburg in March 1803, being then seventy-nine years of age, and his funeral was attended with such honours as justly belonged to the greatest poet of the country.

The character of Klopstock as a poet is that of exuberance of imagination and sentiment. His sublimity, which is nearly unparalleled, makes him almost lose himself in mystical extravagance. A great critic claims for the author of the Messiah a rank amongst the very first class of poets. His odes and lyric poems are much admired by his countrymen; and his dramatic works display great force and dignity, but are thought to be better adapted to the closet than the theatre. He was also an excellent prose writer, as is fully evinced by his Grammatical Dialogues.