Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/519

F U - F U for several years afterwards he led a half military half literary life with his regiment, whose headquarters were first at Aschersleben and then at Biickeburg. Fouqu6 married very early in life ; but the union was an unhappy one, and ended in divorce. In 1802, when still only twenty-live, he married his second wife, the widowed Frau von Rochow, better known as Caroline, Baroness do la Motte Fouque, herself an authoress of some note ; and, having obtained his discharge from military ser vice, he retired to his wife s family estate of Nennhausen, near Rat-henau, devoting himself to the study of Italian and Spanish, and to bringing out his first work Dramatische Spielf, under the feigned name of Pellegrin (1804). The volume was published by the brothers Schlegel, and their names were enough to win popularity for what Fouqu6 himself afterwards called a " Schiilerwerk." It was followed by Romnnzen aus dem Thai Ronceval, and by two plays, the Falh and the Reh, which appeared simultaneously. Cheered by praise from the brothers Schlegel, Fouqu6 set to work with renewed vigour, and in 1806 published a metrical rendering of an old prose romance, the Historic vom edlen Ritter Galmy, und einer scJionen Herzogin von Bretagne. In the same year appeared the poem Schiller s Todtenfeier, the joint work of Bernhardi and Fouque", who still wrote under the name of Pellegrin ; and in 1808 he published Alwin, a romance in 2 vols. This won for him many literary admirers, perhaps the chief of whom was Jean Paul Friedrich Richter. Sigurd der Schlangentodter (published 1808) was founded on the story of the Nie- belungenlied, and formed the first of a collection which appeared in 1818 under th 3 title Heldenspiele. Sigurd was the first work published in Fouque s own name. In 1811 appeared a play, Eginhard und Emma, two volumes en titled Vaterlandische Schauspide, ami the chivalric romance Der Zauberring. Conjointly with Frau von Helvig of Heidelberg he issued a Taschenbuch der Sagen und Leg en- den (1812-13), and with his friend Wilhelm Neumann began a periodical called Die Musen (1812-14). An other collection of plays, Schauspiele fur Preussen, was published in 1813, and in 1814 Corona, a poem, and Der Todesbund, a romance, forming the first of a series in six separate volumes entitled Kleine Romane (1814-19). In the same year (1814) he published a series in four parts entitled the Jahreszeiten, the spring number of which con tained his romance Undine, the summer number Die beiden Hauptleute, the autumn number Aslauga s Ritter and Algin und Jucunda, and the winter number Sintram und seine Gefdhrten. Die Fahrten Thiodolfs des Islanders, another story of chivalry, appeared in 1814, and was considered by Fouque" himself to be one of his most successful works. In 1816 he translated a tragedy, Numanda, from the Spanish of Cervantes, and published also Des Sdngers Liebe, KarVs des Grossen Geburt iind Jur/endjahre, and a tragedy called the Pilgerfahrt. Meanwhile, in February 1813, he had rejoined the army as lieutenant of cavalry, and twice narrowly escaped with his life at the battle of Liitzen. After the battle, while he was carrying an im portant dispatch over country at night, his horse stumbled into deep water ; and this misadventure resulted in an illness which disabled him for further service. He received an honourable discharge, was presented with the decoration of the " Johanniterorden," and promoted to the rank of major of cavalry. The invalided soldier now returned to his wife and daughter at Nennhausen, and again took up his pen. His wife died in 1831 ; and, having removed to Halle, he married there for the third time. He delivered lectures in Halle on the history of poetry and other forms of literature, and had gone to Berlin with the purpose of lecturing there also, when he died suddenly, January 23, 1843. aged 6G. The following is a list of his publications from 1817 downwards: Die Wunderbarcn Fahrten des Grafcn Alcthes von Lindenstein (1817); Altsacksisehcrildcrsaal(1818- 2Q); Der Mord Augusts von Kotzcbuc: Frcundcsruf an Dcutschlands Jugend (1819); Bcrtrandd.it Oucsclin (1821); Hieronymus von Staitf (1821); Der Vcrfolgtc, Wilde Licbc, and Hitter Elidonc (1822); Rcfugie, oder Hcimath und Frcmde: ein Roman aus der neuen Zeit (1824); Lcbensbcschrcibungen des Konigl. Preuae. Generals der Infanterie, H. A. Baron dc la Mottc Fouque (1824); a collection of his poems in 5 vols., contain ing most of his lyrics and dramas (1816-27); Gcschichte der Jung- frau von Orleans (1826); Der Sangcrkricg avfdcr Wartburg (1828); General v. Ruchcl, cine militaristic Biograjihie (1828); Fata Mor gana (1830) ; Erzdhlungcn u. Novcllcn (1833) ; Die Wcltreiche (1835-40) ; Biichlein von der Liebcslchrc (1837); Der Pappcnhcimcr Cuirassier (1842) ; Lebcnsgcschichtc des Baron Friedrich dc la Motto Fouque, aufgezcichnct durch ihn sdbst (1840); Goethe und Eincr seiner Bewundcrer (1840) ; Ausgcwahlte Wcrke des Baron Fr. do la Mottc Fouque, Ausgabc letzter Hand (1841). A posthumous romance, entitled Abfall und Busse, odcr die Scclcnspiegel, ein Roman aus der Grenzscheide des 18 und 19 Jahrh., was published in 1844 ; also a collection entitled Gcistliche Gedichtc (1858), and Christlicher Licdcrschatz (1862). Fouqud s popularity was great ; but he had the mis fortune to outlive it. A disciple of the brothers Schlegel and the Romance School in Germany, he became one of its most illustrious representatives. There was a time when Fouque s volumes were in every German household, and people waited eagerly at the libraries for his newest work. But he lived to see the change in literary taste which shelved the romance school, and with it almost all his own writings. The greater part of these are being now quickly forgotten. Those which have survived, and will survive, the varia tions of popular taste, are his romances the Zauberriny and the contents of the Jahreszeiten, especially the ex quisite Undine, which has always been considered his masterpiece. Fouque s was not an intellect of the very highest order, neither was he a man of intense feelings ; and those who expect to find in his works deep thinking or highly-wrought passion will be disappointed. Should they, however, desire the graceful, the romantic, the exquisite, it is there in abundance. They will find a beauty and simplicity of style unsurpassed in the German lan guage ; plots, light and airy, laid in scenes of opal hue. For Fouque" aimed at ethereal beauty, delighted in word- painting, and flitted continually between the glories of a crimson Spanish sunset and the cold steel-blue of a north German nightfall. There is in his works plenty of sweet pathos, of a kind which may wet the eye but never wrings the heart ; there is also a truly German love of the weird and supernatural ; but their especial characteristic is their pure, chivalric tone : " An ideal of Christian knighthood," says the translator of Wilhelm Meister, in his German Romance, " whencesoever borrowed or derived, has all along, with more or less distinctness, hovered round his fancy," It is in allusion to this same characteristic that Jean Paul Richter, Fouqud s illustrious critic in the Heidelberger Jahrbucher, has christened him "Der Tapfere," or " The Valiant." Of Fouque s works, the Undine, the Zaubcrring, Aslauga s Ritter, and Sintram have been translated into English. The translation of Aslauya s Ritter is in Carlyle s German Romance. (F. M. ) FOUQUET, NICOLAS (1615-1680), viscount of Melun and of Vaux, marquis of Belle-Isle, superintendent of finance under Louis XIV., was born at Paris in 1615. Destined to official life, he was carefully educated; and so evident was his superior ability that he was appointed master of requests at the age of twenty. He was only thirty-five when he obtained the important post of pro- cureur-general to the parliament of Paris (1650). During the civil war Fouquet devoted himself to the interests of the queen-mother, Anne of Austria, and enjoyed in return her protection and patronage. At her instance he was called in 1652 to the office of superintendent of finance. The finances were then in a state of the utmost disorder,