August Adolph von Haugwitz received lavish praise from his contemporaries; Erdmann Neumeister, for instance, says of him: "nobilis hic vates noster, nobile ingenium, carminum nobilis materia, numeri ipsi nobiles" (Noble is our poet, noble too is his spirit, his subject matter, and the verses themselves). Haugwitz's significance today, however, lies not so much in his modest contributions to German literature as in the fact that he represents a bridge between two eras. In his literary works Haugwitz sought to emulate and preserve the best baroque traditions of Andreas Gryphius and Christian Hoffmann von Hoffmannswaldau; while refusing to pander to fashionable trends in general, he was nevertheless willing to embrace French classicism. Although himself a member of the rural nobility, he shared--through his optimistic faith in the future, his belief that reason should be the foundation of ethical action, and his Christian values--a common ideological base with middle-class writers...