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Barthold Heinrich Brockes Biography

Barthold Heinrich Brockes Image

BROCKES, Barthold Heinrich (1680-1747). A German poet, born in Hamburg. He studied at the universities of Halle and Leyden and traveled extensively. In 1724-26 he and his friends published Der Patriot (4 vols.). A passion oratorio set to music by a score of composers, including Händel, made him famous. In his works he turns, with a simple religious faith, from the stilted conventional poetry of his day to the appreciation of nature, then but slightly understood. Particularly deserving of citation is his collection Irdisches Vergnügen in Gott (9 vols., 1721-48 ), which shows the influence of the Bible, Milton, and Thomson; new abridged ed. by Stiehler (1887). He translated Pope's Essay on Man and Thomson's Seasons. Consult A. Brandl, B. H. Brockes (Innsbruck, 1878).

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. IV (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 1.