Franz Xaver Karl Gewey (14 April 1764 – 18 October 1819) was an Austrian civil servant, and a writer and dramatist of popular satirical pieces.

Life

Gewey was born in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, son of a lawyer. He studied law, and from 1784 was employed at the ''

Hofkriegsrat The ''Hofkriegsrat'' (or Aulic War Council, sometimes Imperial War Council) established in 1556 was the central military administrative authority of the Habsburg monarchy until 1848 and the predecessor of the Austro-Hungarian Ministry of War. Th ...

'', then in Klagenfurt at the presidential chancellery; from 1795 he was a court chancellor in Vienna. From an early age he was interested in the theatre, playing on amateur stages with

Joachim Perinet Joachim Perinet (20 October 1763 – 4 April 1816) was an Austrian actor and dramatist. He is regarded as one of the founders of ("Old Viennese Folk Theatre"). Life Perinet was born in Vienna in 1763, the son of a merchant. His biographer in ''All ...

. He had a talent for parody and comic depictions of everyday life in Vienna. Gewey's early plays ''Die Modesitten'' ("The fashionable ways") and ''Pygmalion'' were well received, and went on to write further satirical pieces, that were in tune with the popular mood at that time. He was also successful with his serious play ''Der seltene Prozeß'' ("The remarkable trial"). Most of his plays were not printed and are now lost. Gewey Grab

After the death of in 1813 he took over the writing of the popular ' ("Letters from Eipeldauer, recently arrived in Vienna, to his cousin in Kakran"), continuing until his death in 1819. They are of interest, being written in dialect and showing local customs of the day. Also popular were his ''Komische Gedichte über die Stadt und die Vorstädte Wiens'' ("Comic poems about the city and the suburbs of Vienna"), in four issues during 1812, with two further issues by Gewey and

Karl Meisl Karl Meisl, or Carl Meisl (30 June 1775 – 8 October 1853) was an accountant in the Imperial Austrian Navy, and a dramatist. Life Meisl was born in Ljubljana (at that time in the Hapsburg Monarchy) in 1775, and was educated there. In 1800 he was ...

."Gewey, Franz Xaver Karl (1764-1819), Schriftsteller"
''Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon''. Retrieved 13 February 2022.

His character

He was described by the writer

Franz Gräffer Franz Gräffer (6 January 1785 – 8 October 1852) was an librarian, bookseller and writer from the Austrian Empire. He was a founder of the ''Österreichische National-Encyklopädie'', regarded as the first comprehensive reference work about Austr ...

: "It was a great pleasure to be in Gewey's company; constant cheerfulness, a bubbly mood, there was laughter and laughter. Even his open, clear, jovial expression was heart-warming.... He spoke very loudly, laughed even louder, really resoundingly, and fell into looking glaring, grotesque; he was also quite fond of the genre of cynicism. Parody spiced with a little sarcasm was his sphere".

References

External links

Franz Xaver Karl Gewey
at

The LiederNet Archive The LiederNet Archive (formerly The Lied, Art Song, and Choral Texts Archive) is a donation-supported web archive of art song and choral texts founded in 1995 by Emily Ezust, an American/Canadian computer programmer and amateur violinist. The webs ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gewey, Franz Xaver Karl 1764 births 1819 deaths Civil servants from the Austrian Empire 19th-century Austrian dramatists and playwrights Dramatists and playwrights from the Austrian Empire Writers from Vienna 19th-century Austrian male writers