Weise, Christian

Weise, Christian (krĭs`tyän vī`zə), 1642–1708, German didactic poet and dramatist. He wrote more than 60 plays, many of them written for production in schools. Perhaps the best-known are the comedy Bäurischer Macchiavellus [the village Machiavelli] (1679) and the tragedy Masaniello (1688). His plays are marked by realism and the use of natural dialects. He also wrote novels, mostly political satires, e.g., Die drei argsten Erznarren [the three archest fools] (1672).

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Weise, Christian 

WEISE, CHRISTIAN. Born Apr. 30, 1642, in Zittau; died there on Oct. 21, 1708. German writer and teacher.

Weise wrote plays for students, dramas for the theater (for example, The Tragedy of the Neapolitan Mutineer Masa-gniello 1683), and satirical and didactic novels in which he ridiculed the passion for foreign fashions (for instance, The Three Greatest Fools in the World, 1672). Unlike the pretentious aristocratic German literature of the late 17th century, Weise displays a desire for naturalness and a true picture of life.

WORKS

Schulkomödien. Edited by L. F. Hoffmann. Leipzig, 1956.
In Russian translation:
In the book Khrestomatiia po zapadnoevropeiskoi literature: Literatura semnadtsatogo veka, 2nd ed. Compiled by B. I.
Purishev. Moscow, 1949.

REFERENCE

Eggert, W. Chr. Weise und seine Bühne. Berlin-Leipzig, 1935.