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Personal data
Name
Henning Adam von Bassewitz
Born 1731
Died December 17, 1770
Alias
Monsieur de Bassewitz
Biography

Baron and sometime Lord Chamberlain to Karl I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg.1 Bassewitz was also a translator, who was the first to translate George Lillo's The Merchant of London into German (as Der Kaufmann von London), although he appears to have translated it from a previous French translation rather than from Lillo's original in English.2

Bassewitz was almost certainly a close relation of Lütke Cuno Wolfradt von Bassewitz (1728-1796), Hauptmann of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, son of Ludolph Friedrich von Bassewitz and Magdalene Sybille.

  • 1
  • 2Cf. Daunicht, R. (1956) "The First German Translator of George Lillo's Merchant of London and the First Performances of the Play in Germany" in Symposium: A Quarterly Journal in Modern Literatures, 9:2, 324-330
Life with Boswell

Boswell visited Bassewitz, then Lord Chamberlain, upon his return to Brunswick on August 8, 1764.