Johann Joachim Eschenburg (7 December 1743 – 29 February 1820) was a German

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governmen ...

and literary

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

. He was born and educated at

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, going on to study at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...

and

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

. In 1767 he was appointed tutor, and subsequently professor, at the Collegium Carolinum in

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the Nor ...

(today

TU Braunschweig The Technische Universität Braunschweig (unofficially University of Braunschweig – Institute of Technology), commonly referred to as TU Braunschweig, is the oldest ' (comparable to an institute of technology in the American system) in Germany. ...

). The title of ''Hofrat'' was conferred on him in 1786, and in 1814 he was made one of the directors of the Carolinum. He is best known for his efforts to popularize

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

in Germany. He published a series of German translations of the principal English writers on

aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed thr ...

, such as

Charles Burney Charles Burney (7 April 1726 – 12 April 1814) was an English music historian, composer and musician. He was the father of the writers Frances Burney and Sarah Burney, of the explorer James Burney, and of Charles Burney, a classicist a ...

Joseph Priestley Joseph Priestley (; 24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) was an English chemist, natural philosopher, separatist theologian, grammarian, multi-subject educator, and liberal political theorist. He published over 150 works, and conducted exp ...

and Richard Hurd; and also produced the first complete translation in German prose of

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's plays (''William Shakespear's Schauspiele'', 13 vols., Zürich, 1775–1782). This is virtually a revised edition of the incomplete translation published by

Christoph Martin Wieland Christoph Martin Wieland (; 5 September 1733 – 20 January 1813) was a German poet and writer. He is best-remembered for having written the first ''Bildungsroman'' (''Geschichte des Agathon''), as well as the epic ''Oberon'', which formed the ba ...

between 1762 and 1766. Besides editing, with memoirs, the works of

Friedrich von Hagedorn Friedrich von Hagedorn (23 April 1708 – 28 October 1754), German poet, was born at Hamburg, where his father, a man of scientific and literary taste, was Danish ambassador. His younger brother, Christian Ludwig, was a well known art historian ...

, Zachariä and other German poets, he was the author of a ''Handbuch der klassischen Literatur'' (1783); ''Entwurf einer Theorie und Literatur der schönen Wissenschaften'' (1783); ''Beispielsammiung zur Theorie und Literatur der schönen Wissenschaften'' (8 vols, 1788–1795); ''Lehrbuch der Wissenschaftskunde'' (1792); and ''Denkmäler altdeutscher Dichtkunst'' (1799). Most of these passed through several editions. Eschenburg was also a poet, and some of his hymns, e.g. ''Ich will dich noch im Tod erheben'' and ''Dir trau ich, Gott, und wanke nicht'', remain well-known. Eschenburg became a correspondent, living abroad, of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands in 1809. In 1818 he became associated member.

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