Kleist, (Bernd Wilhelm) Heinrich Von

Kleist, (Bernd Wilhelm) Heinrich Von (1777–1811), German dramatist, born into a Prussian military family, who was himself in the army and saw active service. In 1799 he resigned his commission in order to devote himself to literature and philosophy; but he failed to achieve his ambitions and committed suicide. His first play, Die Familie Schroffenstein (1804), was a fate drama involving the destruction of two feuding families; Die Hermannsschlacht, a patriotic drama written in 1808 but not performed until 1871, dealt with the defeat of the Romans by Arminius, and was intended to serve as a warning to Napoleon; Penthesilea, written at about the same time and produced in a shortened version in 1876, was based on the story of the Amazon Queen; Käthchen von Heilbronn (1810), a Ritterdrama, was revived by Reinhardt for the opening of the Deutsches Theatre in 1905; and Prinz Friedrich von Homburg (1821), in which the hero disobeys a military command but is brought to accept the necessity of discipline and his own death sentence (whereupon he is reprieved), was seen in Berlin with Josef Kainz in the chief part. It was not a success at the time, but is now considered an important part of the German repertory. In 1951, in a French translation, with Gérard Philipe as Friedrich and produced by Jean Vilar, it was one of the outstanding successes of the Avignon Festival. As The Prince of Homburg the play was produced in New York in 1976 (National Theatre, London, 1982). Kleist was also the author of two comedies, an adaptation of Molière's Amphitryon, published in 1807, and Der zerbrochene Krug, in which a village magistrate with a Falstaffian virtuosity in lying tries a case in which he is himself the culprit. It was produced at Weimar by Goethe in 1808, but its merits were not apparent until its revival at Hamburg in 1820. It is now regarded as one of the best short comedies in the German language, and has been seen in English as The Broken Jug (or Pitcher) and in Scots as The Chippit Chantie.