Martin Opitz

(b Bunzlau, 23 Dec 1597; d Danzig, 20 Aug 1639). German poet, librettist and literary theorist. Active both in Silesia and abroad, he wrote a highly influential treatise (1624) introducing modern High German. His reform verses (sacred and secular) were set by many German composers in the 17th century, following his emphasis on proper diction. He also wrote other sacred texts and adapted the libretto for the first German opera, Schütz's Dafne (1627, Torgau).

Opitz, Martin (Bunzlau, Silesia, 1597-1639, Danzig), a son of middle-class parents, received his schooling at Bunzlau and Breslau. He then studied at Beuthen, Frankfurt/Oder, and Heidelberg, taking refuge from the disturbances of war in Holland, where he became a friend of Heinsius, in 1620. He was in Denmark in 1621, and in 1622 accepted a teaching appointment in remote Transylvania, which he held for a year.

In 1617 Opitz wrote Aristarchus sive De Contemptu Linguae Teutonicae, an essay in Latin maintaining the suitability of the German language for poetic use. His Transylvanian year is commemorated in the idyllic poem Zlatna, oder von der Rhue [Ruhe] des Gemütes (1623). Back in Silesia he published Das Buch von der deutschen Poeterey (1624; ed. R. Alewyn, 1963; ed. C. Sommer, 1974) which provided the theoretical gloss to his poems. These, which include sonnets, are characterized by neat, elegant versification and pure rhymes. In 1625 his first authorized collection of poems, Martini Opitii Acht Bücher, Deutscher Poematum, appeared, he translated Seneca's Troades into alexandrines (Troerinnen), and he was crowned poet laureate (see Gekrönter Dichter) by the Emperor Ferdinand II.

From 1626 to 1633 Opitz, a Protestant, was secretary to Count Dohna, a Roman Catholic who was charged with establishing the Counter-Reformation (see Gegenreformation) in Breslau. In 1626 Opitz translated Barclay's novel Argenis (see Barclay, J.), his major contribution to the development of the German novel, and rendered German versions of Jeremiah and in 1627 the Song of Songs. That year he was ennobled by the Emperor (Martin Opitz von Boberfeld) and translated Rinuccini's Daphne for performance in Saxony to music by H. Schütz. In 1630 he made his own contribution to pastoral poetry with Die Schäfferey von der Nimfen Hercinie. In 1631 his translation of Bewys van den waren godsdienst (1622) by H. Grotius (H. de Groot, 1583-1645) appeared as Von der Wahrheit der Christlichen Religion. His TrostGedichte in Widerwertigkeit deß Kriegs, begun in 1621, appeared in 1633. After a period in the service of the Duke of Liegnitz, Opitz moved in 1635 to Danzig where he became court historiographer. There he translated Sophocles' Antigone (1636). A year later he published his translation of the Psalter and in 1638 his revision of a German translation of Sidney's Arcadia appeared. He is also the author of a geographical didactic poem, Vesuvius (1633). By his precise, orderly mind, his facility for quick, clear expression, and the aptness of his outlook to his age, Opitz acquired an immense reputation, reflected by his entry into the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft as der Gekrönte. Little of his work was original, but he had drive and energy in his self-imposed role of aesthetic educator. He died of the plague.

Gesammelte Werke (5 vols.), ed. G. Schulz-Behrend, appeared in 1968 ff.