OPITZ, MARTIN, a famous German poet, was b. Dee. 23, 1597, at Bunzlau, in Silesia. He received an education of the highest kind; and after some time spent at the court of the duke of Liegnitz, he accepted, iu 1622, an invitation by Bethlen Gabor, prince of Transylvania, to teach philosophy and the Hurnanio•a at Weissenburg; but disliking the rudeness of the country, he soon ieturned to the court of the duke of Liegnitz. In 1024 his first poems were published, and in the same year his work Von der deutechen Poete•ei, in which he laid the foundation of a system of German poetics. In 1625 lie went to Vienna, where, on account of an elegy on the death of an archduke, be received a laurel crown from the bands of the emperor, Ferdinand II. In 1626 he became secretary, although a Protestant, to the Karl Hannibal of Dolma, a distinguished Roman Catholic and imperialist, and was employed in various transac tions with foreign courts. In 1620 the emperor raised him to the rank of nobility. After the death of the burggraf of Dohna, in 1633, he returned to the courts of Liegnitz and Brieg. About this time lie published Vesuv, a didactic poem, and his Trostyl.dieht ira Wideraiirtigkeit des Kritys. the best of his poems, which were followed by an opera
called Judith, a translation of the Antigone of Sophocles, and a translation of the Psalms. In 1633 lie was appointed secretary and historiographer to Ladislaus IV. of Poland. But in the midst of his days, and when he had attained to fame and prosperity, he was cut olf by the plague:it Danzig. Aug. 20, 1639. Opitz was more honored by his contem poraries ilia II almost any other poet over was. German poetry, which had been neglected and despised, Logan again to be esteemed and cultivated.. The popularity of Opitz and his relations v4117 the chiefs of the Roman Catholic party, led to the adoption, th•ough out the whole of Germany, of the form given to time German language by Luther, which had previously obtained general accentance only in the Protestant states. Ilis poetry is characterized by careful attention to language and meter, and by reflection rather than by brilliant fancy or deep feeling. There are several editions of his works, but none is quite complete (3 vols., Breslau, 1690; 3 vols., Amst. 1646; and 3 vols. Frankfort and Leipsie, 1724.)