Friedrich von Schlegel (1772-1829)

Friedrich von Schlegel (1772-1829), brother of August Wilhelm, was also a critic and poet and a leading spokesman for the typical theories and ideas of romanticism. His writings include Lucinde ( 1799), a fragmentary novel on the subject of free love; Alarkos ( 1802), a tragedy; History of Ancient and Modern Literature ( 1815); and Language and Wisdom of the Indians ( 1808). He was particularly known for his irony and his melancholy temperament.

The two brothers are important figures in the launching of romantic criticism and romantic standards of aesthetics, philosophy, and individual conduct, as well as founders of the sciences of comparative mythology and philology; in connection with philology, both did work in Indian languages.

Their wives, Caroline, née Böhmer and Dorothea, née Mendelssohn, were both women of brilliant minds and literary talent, Dorothea and Friedrich were together converted to Roman Catholicism in 1808. The father and the uncle of Friedrich and August Wilhelm, Johann Elias Schlegel ( 1718-1749) and Johann Adolf Schlegel ( 1721-1793), respectively, were well-known men of letters of their own time. Johann Elias was a critic and playwright, an early admirer of Shakespeare; Johann Adolf was a publicist and critic.