Paul Fleming

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Paul Fleming (Frontispiece to Teütsche Poemata , 1642)

Paul Fleming (born October 5, 1609 in Hartenstein (Saxony) , † April 2, 1640 in Hamburg ) was a German doctor and writer. He is considered to be one of the most important lyric poets in German baroque literature.

Life

Fleming's birthplace in Hartenstein
Memorial plaque on the birthplace

Fleming was the son of the city pastor Abraham Fleming von Hartenstein. He received his first lessons from his father. He then attended school in Mittweida and was accepted into the Leipzig Thomas School by Johann Hermann Schein in 1623 at the age of 14 . In 1628 he enrolled at the Medical Faculty of the University of Leipzig and graduated in 1633 with a master's degree. In 1629 he made acquaintance with his fellow student Georg Gloger (1603–1631), with whom he remained on friendly terms until his death. Gloger referred Fleming to the book of the German Poetry by Martin Opitz . Opitz became the guiding star for Fleming. In 1631 he was crowned Poeta laureatus (cf. the legend of the portrait shown: PHIL. [Osophiae] et MED. [Icinae] D: [octor] et P. [oeta] L. [aureatus]).

At the invitation of Adam Olearius , Fleming went to Holstein in 1633 , where Duke Friedrich von Holstein-Gottorf hired him to accompany his embassy to Russia as a court squire, doctor and trustee . At the beginning of August 1634 the tour group reached the Russian capital Moscow . Part of the legation returned to Gottorp in April 1635 , while Fleming stayed with the rest in Reval .

In October of the same year Fleming traveled to Persia with the embassy of the Duke of Gottorf, led by Adam Olearius and Otto Brüggemann . They reached Isfahan in August 1637 and stayed there until 1639. Already on the return journey from Russia in 1635 he had met the three daughters of the Niehusen merchant family in Reval. In his poem to Elsabe Niehusen “A true heart to know” he emphasized the value of loyalty for human self-assertion. In 1639 Fleming became engaged to Anna Niehusen, Elsabe's younger sister, after Elsabe married someone else in 1637.

Fleming obtained his medical doctorate from the University of Leiden in 1640 and intended to go to Reval to become a doctor there. However, he died on the way there in Hamburg at a pneumonia and was in the ambulatory of St. Catherine's main church buried where a plaque is located in place of his war-torn grave marker since 1959th Fleming was 30 years old.

Fleming's best-known poems include To the Death of a Child and Madrigal . A number of his sonnets refer to places he visited during his travels. During his lifetime, only the collection of Latin poems Rubella, seu Suaviorum Liber (1631) and lamentations about the most innocent suffering and death of our Savior Jesus Christ (1632) were published. His Teutsche Poemata , which appeared posthumously in 1642, were later renamed Spiritual and Secular Poemata and contain many remarkable love songs. Fleming wrote in both Latin and German. His Latin poems were published in a volume by Johann Martin Lappenberg in 1863 .

Fleming also wrote the song in nine stanzas In all my deeds on the melody of O World, I Must Let You By Heinrich Isaac , which is included in several hymn books.

Latin poems

The lyrical corpus, written in Latin by Paul Fleming between 1630 and 1640, consists of a large number of occasional poems , which are dedicated to the short life of the author. Thomas Haye writes: "In addition to the theme of the Thirty Years' War, there are motifs from the legation trip to Russia, but above all a network of learned friends and patrons spanning Germany and Europe becomes visible." His poetic oeuvre consists of three parts: The Silvae collection , which consists of nine books, is largely structured according to the meter. These nine books are: Hexametric Poems (1), elegiac distiches (2), odes (3), elf silver (4), choliamben (5) and iambien (6); this is followed by poems about the high school in Reval (7), the Suavia and some accompanying poems (8) and finally Miscellanea (9). In the collection you can find almost all types of text from neo-Latin poetry. It contains moralizing verses, satires, poems of thanksgiving, epithalamies, temporal complaints, panegyrics (on Pope Urban VIII), epices (e.g. on Gustav Adolf) and numerous letters and friendship poems (e.g. to his comrade Markus Opitz). The manes Grogeriani addressed to Augustus Buchner deal in seven books by Georg Gloger, who died in 1631. Finally, Fleming also wrote twelve books with epigrams (in elegiac distiches). Poetry offers a broad literary spectrum, which in part is quite clearly shaped by contemporary school lessons and the method of mannerism. Among the Roman models, Catullus deserves special mention, while Petrarch, Johannes Secundus and Martin Opitz are among the modern models. Although some of his youthful works were published as early as the 1630s, the lyric collection that Paul Fleming had prepared for printing did not appear until after his death († 1640). Although he lived a short life, Fleming is one of the most important neo-Latin poets in Germany.

The German-language poems

Fleming monument in Hartenstein

Paul Fleming's literary work consists exclusively of poetry, which was initially only written in Latin, which is why the Latin poems make up almost half of Fleming's oeuvre. They were highly valued by his contemporaries and make their author appear today as a major exponent of neo-Latin poetry of the German 17th century, being on the same level as his German works.

Together with his friend Adam Olearius, Fleming undertook two long legation trips to Russia and Persia in 1633 and 1639, with a few stays in Reval. The travel time allowed the poet to fully develop his style of speech, an expansion of the thematic world and the final form of expression. The first large edition of his German poems (Teütsche Poemata), on which the Prodromus collection (59 poems) printed in 1641 was based, appeared in 1642 and has been reprinted very often since then. The poet had put them together himself and divided them into “Poetic Forests”, “Headings”, “Odes” and “Sonnets”, taking into account the various themes (spiritual, congratulatory, corpse, wedding and love poems). The first group (Poetic Forests) consists mainly of Alexandrians, many of whom are epic in character. The somewhat shorter "Book of Headings" contains epigrams, a genre that Fleming liked to use in his Latin works.

The ode, which with its song-like character matched the musical sense of the poet, allowed the greatest creativity. Especially among the odes there are poems that achieved great success ("New Year's Sode 1633"; "In all my deeds"; "Elsgen's loyal heart"; "Don't let yourself be trusted"); "In the Jtalian way: O fronte serena" ). Some of them were used in Protestant hymn books. Their simple melody is often reminiscent of the folk and society song, in which the influence of Johann Hermann Schein, Fleming's former teacher at the famous Thomas School, becomes clear. The Odes and the Poetic Woods also contain translations from Il pastor fido by Giovanni Battista Guarini .

The German sonnet poetry found its climax in Fleming's sonnets, alongside those of Andreas Gryphius . Like many other baroque poets, he filled this form with Petrarkic, spiritual, patriotic and causal themes. Ewa Pietrzak wrote in Kindler's Literature Lexicon about Fleming's sonnet art: “What distinguishes his sonnets, besides all the formal perfection, is a kind of recognition of individual power, the naturalness of human nature as an individual fate.” So Fleming often reveals personal views with the examples in the poems . The virtues recommended are based in neoicism, a philosophy of life that comes close to Horace's vanitas idea and the famous carpe diem (literally translated: "pick the day", which means, his time to use his life).

Fleming's erotic poems, in which German-speaking Petrarkism reached its climax, are considered the highpoint of his work. He countered the Petrarkic motif of self-surrender with the poetic confession of self-assertion and again thematized the main motif of his entire poetry: the constancy and loyalty to the beloved, to himself, to the fatherland and to his faith. Fleming's complete oeuvre includes numerous poems on the subject of war and peace. Their distinguishing feature is the pronounced will for peace that strives towards realization.

What was new for Fleming was the "tone of an experienced and reflective self", which the poet developed in the opinion of Hans-Georg Kemper, when he, increasingly desperate, asked in poetic form during his trip to Persia about the meaning of the trip for his life.

Works

reception

Settings

Fiction representations

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Paul Fleming  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Paul Fleming  - Sources and full texts
Wikiquote: Paul Fleming  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stefan Altner, Paul Fleming, Medicin Doctor and Poeta Laureatus Caesareus - On the 400th Birthday , Leipziger Blätter No. 55, October 2009, ISSN  0232-7244 , p. 78.
  2. ^ Text of the tombstone
  3. ↑ Quotation from Thomas Haye from Heinz Ludwig Arnold : Kindlers Literatur Lexikon . Completely revised edition. 18 volumes. Stuttgart, Metzler 2009. ISBN 978-3-476-04000-8 , page 561
  4. ^ Alberto Martino: The Italian literature in the German-speaking area. Additions and corrections to Frank-Rutger Hausmann's bibliography. Amsterdam: Rodopi 1994, p. 423
  5. ^ Quote from Ewa Pietrzak from Heinz Ludwig Arnold : Kindlers Literatur Lexikon . Completely revised edition. 18 volumes. Stuttgart, Metzler 2009. ISBN 978-3-476-04000-8 , page 562
  6. ↑ Hans-Georg Kemper: “‹ Think that in barbarism / Everything is not barbaric! ›On the Muskowite and Persian journey by Adam Olearius and Paul Fleming”, in: Description of the world. On the poetics of travel and country reports , edited by Xenja von Ertzdorff with the collaboration of Rudolf Schulz, Rodopi, Amsterdam 2000, ISBN 90-420-0480-0 , pp. 315–344, p. 320.
personal data
SURNAME Fleming, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer and doctor
DATE OF BIRTH October 5, 1609
PLACE OF BIRTH Hartenstein , Ore Mountains
DATE OF DEATH April 2, 1640
Place of death Hamburg