Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/321

Rh had a surprizing influence over her genius. She saw some poems, written by a clergyman named Schonemann, who is well known at Berlin to have been at times affected, after a violent fever, with a sort of madness, during which he always spoke and preached in verse. Although the bulk of this extraordinary man's performances rather indicate a disordered imagination than the inspiration of the Muses, she found in them something which awakened her own genius.

She now became more desirous than ever to follow the natural bent of her disposition, and was at last encouraged by several persons to proceed, particularly by professor Meyer, of Halle, who was no otherwise acquainted with her than by having seen one of her poems, which were first committed to the press.

She removed to Great Glogau in 1755, with her husband and children, where she gained the liberty of access to the shop of a bookseller, and read much, but without any settled plan. The use Mrs. Darbach (as she always chose to be called) made of this privilege, appear throughout her poems.

The remarkable war which ended in 1764, and the king of Prussia's great exploits, gave new scope to her genius. The battle of Lowoschutz occasioned her first triumphal ode, and she soon after perused the military songs of a Prussian grenadier, some of Romler's odes, and Mrs. Unzer's poems. Her subsequent productions, on occasion of her sovereign's victories, plainly shew the effect they had upon her, and are proofs of a poetical genius already come to maturity.

She continued, however, still oppressed by poverty; but Providence was pleased at last to release her from a very