Schlegel, Karl Wilhelm Friedrich

Karl Wilhelm Friedrich (1772-1829), a German poet and critic. He was the younger brother of August Wilhelm Schlegel. Friedrich Schlegel, as he is usually called, is considered by many as the more able of the two brothers, but he is less known to English readers. He was born at Hanover. He studied at Gottingen and Leipsic, and became noted as one of the foremost scholars of his time. He was the first to bring Sanskrit literature to the notice of German scholars. He was influenced profoundly by the philosophy of Fichte, the idealist, and by that of Schelling. Oppressed by the conditions of his own times, he turned to the past and found ecclesiastic life in the Middle Ages attractive. He joined the Roman Catholic church, hoping and believing that it might come again to the position of power it had held in former times. Schlegel lectured on philosophy, history, and literature, and was celebrated widely for brilliancy as a talker. His poetry was famous also and much of it is beautiful, though it is dreamy, mystical, and full of obscurity. As a critic, Schlegel's work was, like his brother's, that of the interpreter. He was more given to enthusiastic praise and to prejudiced criticism than the elder Schlegel. His most important prose works are On the Language and Wisdom of the Indians and Lectures on the History of Ancient and Modern Literature.