Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/640

 616 WIDIN WIELAND parts finely waved transversely with black and gray or reddish brown, and lower parts mostly white ; top of head nearly white, with a broad green patch around and behind the eyes ; rest of head and neck grayish, spotted and banded with black ; wing coverts white, the greater tipped with black ; speculum green, encircled by black ; tertials black on the outer web, edged with white. It has a swift and well sustained flight, and is found in company with teals and other ducks ; it is distributed through- out North America, and is accidental in Eu- rope. The flesh is highly esteemed, especially when they have fed in the rice fields ; they breed in the north, and also in Texas, accord- ing to Audubon, and the eggs are six to eight. The European widgeon (M. Penelope, Bonap.) is rather smaller, and not uncommon all along the Atlantic'coast of the United States; it dif- fers chiefly in having the head and neck red- dish brown or cinnamon, the former with a few dusky spots, the top of the head cream-colored, and a few traces of green around the eyes. WIDIN, or Widdln, a fortified town of Tur- key, in W. Bulgaria, on the Danube, 370 m. N. W. of Constantinople, and 130 m. S. E. of Belgrade ; pop. about 25,000. It is situated on a wide plain formed by a bend of the river opposite Kalafat in Little Wallachia, and is of great strategic importance. A Greek arch- bishop resides here. The town has a trade in grain, wine, and salt. The ships from the Black sea anchor in fair weather close to it. In 1G89 the Turks wore signally defeated here by the imperialists, but the fortress it- self, though frequently assailed, has never been captured, and is hence called the <l Virgin Fort." The fortifications were strengthened in 1853-'4, when the environs on both banks of the Danube were for a time the principal theatre of the war. Turkish troops wore con- centrated here in March, 1876, as a protection against Servia. Near by is the town of Bonu, which is generally identified with the site of ancient Bononia, in upper Moesia. WIDOW BIRD. See WEAVER BIRD. WIED, Prince of. See NEUWIED. WIEL1IVD, Chrlstoph Martin, a Gorman author, born at Oberholzheim, Swabia, Sept. 5, 1733, died in Weimar, Jan. 20, 1818. Soon after his birth his father settled as Protestant minister at Biberach. Ho displayed a precocious talent for poetry, and acquired an extensive knowl- edge of ancient and modern literature at his father's house and at the school of Klosterber- gen, near Magdeburg. After spending about a year and a half at Erfurt, he went home in 1750. Mario Sophie Guterman von Gutersho- fen, his cousin, then visiting his father, won his love, and ever after remained his friend, and for a time his literary guide, although in 1760 she married the councillor Laroche, un- der which name she became known in litera- ture. After spending some time at the uni- versity of Tubingen, he accepted in 1752 Bod- mer's hospitality at Zurich, assisting him in literary work. Subsequently he was a private teacher in that city, and for a short period in Bern, where he composed his tragedy Clemen- tina von Porretta, after Richardson's " Sir Charles Grandison." At Biberach, where in 1760 he became chief of the local administra- tion, he translated 22 of Shakespeare's plays (8vo, Zurich, 1762-'6), which paved the way for far superior translations. A visit of Sophie Laroche and her husband to Count Stadion, in the vicinity of Biberach, brought Wieland into contact with persons of rank, and the count's extensive library improved his knowl- edge. In 1765 he contracted a happy mar- riage with an Augsburg lady, who bore him 14 children, and died in 1801. In 1769 he was appointed profeseor of philosophy at Erfurt ; but the academical authorities had little regard for fanciful writers, and especially objected to his amatory poems, in defence of which he wrote Der -cerklagte Amor and Nachlass des Diogenea ton Sinope (1770). At the same time he satirized Rousseau in his humorous novel Koxhox und Kikequetzel (1769-'70), and wrote Beitrage zur geheimen Geschichte dea mensch- liehen Verstandes vnd Herzens aus den Ar- ehinen der Natur (1770). The duchess Ama- lia of Saxe- Weimar-Eisenach engaged him in 1772 as teacher for her sons, the future grand duke Charles Augustus and his brother, and gave him the title of councillor and a salary, subsequently continued as a pension, of 1,000 thalers. At this time there was a general out- cry against him as a licentious and atheistical writer. Lavater called upon all good Chris- tians to pray for the sinner; and in 1778, on Klopstock's birthday, Wieland's works were burned by the disciples of that poet. But gradually he became better appreciated. Ho founded at "Weimar the Deutschcr Merkur, a monthly periodical, which he edited for many years, and in which his explanatory notes rela- ting to his lyric drama Alceste and his general treatment of mythological heroes resulted in a controversy with Goethe and Herder, and in the former's Gotter, Helden tind Wieland. Goethe, after his arrival in 1775 at Weimar, became a friend of Wieland, who had replied to his adverse criticism with characteristic placidity. He resided at his country seat of Osmannstedt near Weimar from 1797 to 1808, when he removed to that city and became in- timate with Schiller. To the last he remained a favorite of the court and literary circles.* He was buried in the garden of his country house by the side of his wife and of Sophie Brentano, the granddaughter of Sophie La- roche. Soon after his death Goethe delivered a memorial address before the Amalia-Logc, of which Wieland had been a life-long mem- ber. A bronze statue of him by Gasser was placed on the Wielandsplatz at Weimar in 1857, shortly before the erection of Rietschel's dou- ble statue of Goethe and Schiller. Wieland's epics were the forerunners of the romantic school ; his style and influence imparted a high