Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Schlegel, Friedrich von

SCHLEGEL, FRIEDRICH VON, a German philologist, born in Hanover, Prussia, March 10, 1772. He first devoted himself to the study of Greek antiquity, and in 1794 published his great essay “On the Schools of Grecian Poetry”; following it with many others of a like tenor, as “The Greeks and Romans” (1797), and “History of Greek and Roman Poetry” (1798). In his “Fragments” (1798–1800) he essayed to establish the theory of a new romanticism; in the meantime writing the unfinished romance “Lucinda,” and a volume of “Poems.” He wrote also a tragedy, “Alarcos.” His work “Language and Wisdom of the Indians” (1808) was a valuable contribution to the science of language. Among his other writings are lectures on “Modern History” (1811); “History of Ancient and Modern Literature” (1815); “Philosophy of Life.” He died in Dresden, Saxony, Jan. 12, 1829.