KLEIST, CHRISTIAN EWALD DE, an eminent German poet, was born at Zeblin in Pomerania, in the year 1715. He studied law at Keningsberg, and afterwards went to vi sit his relations in Denmark, at whose desire he endea voured to obtain a civil appointment ; but his solicitations having proved unsuccessful, he resolved to devote himself to the military profession. Soon E.fterwards he entered lido the Prussian service, and distinguished himself in several of the great Frederic's campaigns, as a brave, enterprising, and accomplished officer. He attained the rank of major, and terminated his life at the battle of Kunnersdurf, on the 12th of August 1759, after performing the most gallant exploits. Being attached to the corps of General Fink, he attacked the flank of the Russians, assisted in storming three batteries, and received a wound in the right hand, which obliged him to hold his sword in his left. Having missed the commander of his battalion, he immediately put himself at its head, and led on the men, tinder a heavy fire of cannon, to the attack of the fourth battery. There he was wounded in the left arm, and compelled to carry his sword again in the disabled right hand. As he approach ed the battery, his right leg was shattered by a grape shot; and he fell from his horse, with the exclamation, " My lads, don't forsake your king !" As the enemy now rush ed forward in great numbers, his body could riot be re moved from the field. Sonic Cossacks having come up, stripped him naked, and threw him into a bog. In this si tuation, he was found by some compassionate Russian sol diers, who laid him on straw before a watch-fire, put a co vering over him, and gave him some bread and water. He was again stripped of his covering by the Co sacks, and lay for several hours in a state of nakedness, until a Rus sian officer ordered him to be carried to Frankfort on the Oder, where he was delivered over to the care of medical men. He died of his wounds 11 days after.
Kleist was well advanced in years before he discovered any. decided genius for poetry, and his talents were first called forth by an accidental impulse. The productions,
however, which afterwards flowed from his pen, have se cured for him a distinguished rank among the poets of his country. He attempted various kinds of poetry—descrip tive, lyrical, and epic ; but he excelled eniefly in the faith ful delineation of rural scenes. His most admired poem is that entitled, " The Spring, or Vernal Season," which has been lately translated into English. See Kleist's Scimmt liche TVerke, with the author's life, by Korte, in 2 vols. 8 vo. Berlin, 1803. (z.) KLOpsTocK, FREDERIC THEOPH mus, a celebrated German poet, was born at Quedlinburg, in the year 1724. Having received the rudiments of his education at home, he was sent to the public school of Quedlinburg, where he distinguished himself by his intellectual ,powers, and ex celled in bodily exercises. At the age of sixteen, he went to the college of his native place ; where he made great proficiency in his classical studies, and acquired a taste for elegant literature. His poetical genius already displayed itself in some pastorals ; and even at this early period, he conceived the design of his great epic poem, The Mes siah.
In the year 1745, he commenced the study of divinity at the university of Jena. But his thoughts were constantly turned towards the great work he had projected, of which he composed the three first cantoes in prose. Afterwards, however, he resolved to adopt the versification of Homer and Virgil as his model ; and having succeeded in his first attempts, he, at length, determined to execute the whole poem iu German hexameters.
Ih 1746, he removed to Leipsic, where he became ac quainted with a number of young men of poetical talents, who published their essays in an occasional paper, called the Bremische Beytrage. or " Bremen Contributions." In this paper %cele published the three first cantoes of Klop stock's Messiah, with a number of his odes ; which were received with such general approbation, as encouraged him to persevere in his poetical labours.