Wieland, Christoph Martin (1733–1813)

German poet and novelist. After attempts at religious poetry, he came under the influence of Voltaire and Rousseau, and wrote novels such as Die Geschichte des Agathon/The History of Agathon (1766–67) and the satirical Die Abderiten (1774; translated as The Republic of Fools in 1861); and tales in verse such as Musarion oder Die Philosophie der Grazien (1768), Oberon (1780), and others. He translated Shakespeare into German 1762–66.