Gustaf Fredrik Gyllenborg

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Gustaf Fredrik Gyllenborg

Count Gustaf Fredrik Gyllenborg (born November 25, 1731 in Strömsbro ( Östergötland ), † March 30, 1808 in Stockholm ) was a Swedish poet .

Life

Gustaf Fredrik Gyllenborg was a son of the Imperial Councilor Johan Gyllenborg. He studied from 1746 to 1747 in Uppsala and then from 1748 to 1751 in Lund , at which latter university he was the last rector illustris . In 1751 he was called in as a registrar for the judicial reviews. From 1756 to 1762 he was the cavalier of the heir to the throne Gustav at the Swedish royal court. In 1762 he was appointed chamber councilor and in 1774 chancellery. In order to introduce him to the civil servant career, he was elected to the bank agent, and was then a member of the management of the number lottery. He was not politically active.

With his friend Gustaf Philip Creutz Gyllenborg belonged to the literary circle Tankebyggarorden , which had formed around the "shepherdess from the north", Hedvig Charlotta Nordenflycht . At Creutz's suggestion, he began satires based on Latin models. In poems like Verldsföraktaren ("The Misanthrope "; 1762) he attacked the weaknesses of modern society in the spirit of Rousseau . He hid his naivety and softness behind the rigorous stoic desire for virtue and claimed to be a clever teacher ( Ode över själens styrka [" Ode about the strength of the soul "], 1766). In his best-known poem Menniskans nöjen och elände (“Human happiness and misery”, 1762), strong pessimism is expressed ; the whole existence of man appears darkened. After 1763, when Mrs. Nordenflycht died and his friend Creutz had started a long stay abroad, Gyllenborg lacked intellectual stimulation, so that he hardly produced any significant literary works.

Gyllenborg's great heroic poem Tåget över Bält (“Train across the Belt”, 1785) is a stiff imitation of Voltaire's Henriade , which depicts Charles X's famous train across the ice of Jutland and Zealand. The work is remarkable in that it is the first real epic written in ancient meter in Swedish literature . Gyllenborg also tried his hand at drama , but with little luck. His plays Birger Jarl (1774), Sune Jarl (1783), Det nya Herrskapet (“The New Rulership ”) lack dramatic life, inner motivation and natural development. They drag themselves along the tracks of the French Kothurn . His oldest small work was first reported in Våra Försök (“Our attempts”, 3 volumes, 1753–1756) and Vitterhetsarbeten (“Literary works”) and later several poems appeared in the Vitterhetsarbeten af ​​Creutz och Gyllenborg (“Literary works by Creutz and Gyllenborg ”, Stockholm 1795; 2nd edition 1812). His memoirs were published in 1885 under the title Mitt leverne 1731-1775 by G. Frunck.

Gyllenborg died in Stockholm on March 30, 1808 at the age of 76. The Svenska Alademien , of which he became a member in 1786, erected a monument modeled by Byström in the Klarakirche in Stockholm. From 1786 he was also an honorary member of the Kungliga Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Academies .

literature

Web links

Commons : Gustaf Fredrik Gyllenborg  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b c d e T. Pech: Gyllenborg (Gustav Friedrich) , in :: Allgemeine Encyclopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste , 1st section, 98th part (1880), p. 300.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Gyllenborg, Gustaf Fredrik , in: Gero von Wilpert (Ed.): Lexikon der Weltliteratur , 3rd edition, 1998, p. 597 f.
  3. ↑ a b c Gustaf Fredrik, Count Gyllenborg , in: Encyclopædia Britannica online.
  4. ↑ Gustaf Fredrik Gyllenborg . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 7, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, p. 959.
personal data
SURNAME Gyllenborg, Gustaf Fredrik
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish poet
DATE OF BIRTH November 25, 1731
PLACE OF BIRTH Strömsbro ( Östergötland )
DATE OF DEATH March 30, 1808
Place of death Stockholm