LAMOTTE-FOUQUÉ, FRIEDRICH-HEINRICH-KARL, BARON DE, one of the modern poets of the romantic school, was born at Brandenburg, 12th Feb. 1777. His ancestors, who had been driven from France by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, belonged to one of the most ancient families in Normandy; and his grandfather (Henri August Baron de Lamotte Fouqué) was a general in the Prussian service, had fought in the Seven Years' War, was wounded and taken prisoner at Landshut, and throughout the whole of his career enjoyed the intimacy and friendship of Frederic the Second. Entering the Prussian army at a very early age, the youthful Fouqué served as a lieutenant of cavalry in several campaigns; but at the peace of Basel retired to the country, and devoted himself to literature. About this time he published, under his assumed name of Pellegrinus, a translation of the Numancia of Cervantes, several dramas, the romance of Alwin, and Die Historie des Edeln Ritters Galmey, und einer Schönen Herzogin aus Bretagne. Hitherto he had been an imitator of Cervantes and Spanish writers; but now the Scandinavian literature, a taste for which had been revived in Germany, won his admiration; and in 1809 he published, under his own name, the poem of Sigurd der Schlagentödter, in which the chivalry of the old northern romances is successfully copied both in spirit and life. In 1813 there appeared his masterpiece, Undine, a wild and supernatural tale, original in its conception, and told with great descriptive power and exquisite tenderness of emotion. It has been translated into all the languages of Europe. The same year summoned him from his studies to defend his country against the French. He fought valiantly in several battles, rose to the rank of captain, and, when attacked by ill health, retired with the title of major, at the time when the allied armies were about to cross the Rhine. He fixed his abode at Nennhausen, the property of his second wife Caroline, who was herself a popular novelist. In 1814 appeared his Corona, an epic poem; and in the following year Die Fahrten Thiodolfs; Der Zau-
berring; and Singers Liebe. After he had produced, in 1821, Der Verfolgte, and the romance of Bertrand du Guesclin, and in 1828, Der Singerkrieg auf der Wartburg, he relapsed into comparative inactivity, during which he seems to have passed from an admiration of the mythology and chivalry of olden times to an extravagant esteem for their feudal government. His next work, Die Weltreiche, a poem published in 1835, showed that his former fascinating vivacity was considerably subdued, and that his thoughts, now growing grave and stern, were also becoming narrowed to the sentiments and feelings of a class. The quaintness of his style remained to give a charming brilliancy to the current of his thoughts, but failed to reconcile the public to his political opinions. His Zeitung für den Deutschen Adel (Paper for the German nobility), printed in 1841, tended only to diminish his popularity. Fouqué died at Berlin, in January 23, 1843, before the publication of his last work, Abfall und Busse, oder der Seelenpiegel (Apostasy and Repentance, or the Soul's Mirror).
Lamotte-Fouqué must ever be regarded as the most successful writer of the romantic school, which numbers amongst its disciples Tieck, Novalis, Hoffmann, Brentano, and Arnim. His mysterious knights, gnomes, and fairies, with their world of enchanted forests and talking trees, are described with a wonderful facility of poetic artifice; but at the same time he always wraps a deep and true moral in the disguise of supernatural imagery. His romances have also this distinguishing characteristic, that they are more purely romances than the works of most writers of the same school, and the gay visions which he depicts float at a safer distance above the realities of common life. Although it has recently become the fashion in Germany very much to underrate Fouqué's merits, later writers, such as Vilmor (Geschichte der deutschen National-Literatur 1856), regard him with higher favour. They hold him to be at least entitled to the merit of a skilful renaissance from the heroic poems of the twelfth century. His poetical works, however, are not so successful, as the themes are generally placed in a region much too high for his genius.
Besides the works above-mentioned, Fouqué published Vaterländische Schauspiele, 1811; Altsächsische Bildersaal, 1818; Lebensbeschreibung des Generals Henri Aug. Baron de la Motte Fouqué, 1824; Geschichte der Jungfrau von Orleans, 1826; General von Rückel, 1828; Erzählungen und Novellen, 1833; Von der Liebeslehre, 1837; Goethe und Einer seiner Bewunderer, 1840; Selbstbiographie, 1840; Ausgewählte Werke, 1841; Der Pappenheimer Cürassier, 1842.