SCHLEGEL, JOHANN ELIAS

born Jan. 17, 1719, Meissen, Saxony died Aug. 13, 1749, Sor, Den. German author and critic (uncle of August Wilhelm and Friedrich von Schlegel), whose plays and criticism helped give the German theatre a much-needed new impetus. He was educated at the famous classical-humanist boarding school Schulpforte. After studying law in Leipzig, he became private secretary to the Saxon ambassador in Copenhagen in 1743 and from 1748 taught at the Sor Academy. At a time when Shakespeare was virtually unknown to the German public, he showed his awareness of Shakespeare's genius in Vergleichung Shakespears und Andreas Gryphs (1741), a discussion of the relative merits of Shakespeare and the leading 17th-century German dramatist and poet. Schlegel developed a theory of literary appreciation that anticipated later developments in the field of aesthetics; he insisted that art aims at providing pleasure rather than instruction or moral uplift. His comedies Die Stumme Schnheit (1747) and Der Triumph der guten Frauen (1748) were praised later by G.E. Lessing.