Johann Karl August Musics, a German author, born in Jena in 1735, died in Weimar, Oct. 28, 1787. He studied theology, and was a candidate for a rural parish, but his services were declined on account of his having participated in a dance; upon which he renounced divinity, and accepted in 1763 an employment at the court of Weimar, as governor of the pages. He exchanged this office in 1770 for that of professor at the gymnasium of Weimar, which he held until his death. He wrote Grandi-son der Ziceite, republished in 1781-'2 under the title of Der Deutsche Grandisoni, directed against Richardson's admirers. He also took the field against Lavater in his Phymognomische Reisen. His Volksmärchen der Deutschen (5 vols., 1782) gained a still wider popularity.

Kotzebue prepared an edition of his remains (Leipsic, 1791), with a biography of the author, whom he calls the good Musaus. Carlyle's "Specimens of German Romance" (London, 1827) contains versions of some of the tales.