Page:EB1911 - Volume 28.djvu/1073

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1046
ZSCHOKKE—ZUCCARELLI

and steadfastly maintaining that as regarded Hungary they were to be looked upon not as partes annexae but as a regnum. During 1652-53 he was continually fighting against the Turks, yet from his castle at Csáktornya he was in constant communication with the learned world; the Dutch scholar, Jacobus Tollius, even visited him, and has left in his Epistolae itinerariae a lively account of his experiences. Tellius was amazed at the linguistic resources of Zrinyi, who spoke German, Croatian, Hungarian, Turkish and Latin with equal facility. Zrinyi's Latin letters (from which we learn that he was married a second time, to Sophia Löbel) are fluent and agreeable, but largely interspersed with Croatian and Magyar expressions. The last year of his life was also its most glorious one. He set out to destroy the strongly fortified Turkish bridge at Esseg, and thus cut off the retreat of the Turkish army, re-capturing all the strong fortresses on his way. He destroyed the bridge, but the further pursuance of the campaign was frustrated by the refusal of the imperial generals to co-operate. Still the expedition had covered him with glory. All Europe rang with his praises. It was said that only the Zrinyis had the secret of conquering the Turks. The emperor offered him the title of prince. The pope struck a commemorative medal with the effigy of Zrinyi as a field-marshal. The Spanish king sent him the Golden Fleece. The French king created him a peer of France. The Turks, to wipe out the disgrace of the Esseg affair, now laid siege to Uj-Zerin, a fortress which Zrinyi had built, and the imperial troops under Montecuculi looked on while he hastened to relieve it, refusing all assistance, with the result that the fortress fell. It was also by the advice of Montecuculi that the disgraceful peace of Vásvár was concluded. Zrinyi hastened to Vienna to protest against it, but in vain. Zrinyi quitted Vienna in disgust, after assuring the Venetian minister, Sagridino, that he was willing at any moment to assist the Republic against the Turks with 6000 men. He then returned to Csáktornya, and there, on the 18th of November, was killed by a wild boar which he had twice wounded and recklessly pursued to its lair in the forest swamps, armed only with his hunting-knife.

His poetical works first appeared at Vienna in 1651, under the title of The Siren of the Adriatic (Hung.); but his principal work, Obsidio Szigetiana, the epopoeia of the glorious self-sacrifice of his heroic ancestor of the same name, only appeared in fragments in Magyar literature till Arany took it in hand. It was evidently written under the influence of both Virgil and Tasso, though the author had no time to polish and correct its rough and occasionally somewhat wooden versification. But the fundamental idea—the duty of Hungarian valour to shake off the Turkish yoke, with the help of God—is sublime, and the whole work is intense with martial and religious enthusiasm. It is no unworthy companion of the other epics of the Renaissance period, and had many imitators. Arany first, in 1848, began to recast the Zrinyiad, as he called it, on modern lines, and the work was completed by Antal Vékóny in 1892.

See J. Arany and Kazmir Greksa, Zrinyi and Tasso (Hung.), Eger, 1892; Karoly Széchy, Life of Count Nicholas Zrinyi, the poet (Hung.), Budapest, 1896; Sándor Körösi, Zrinyi and Macchiavelli (Hung.), Budapest, 1893.  (R. N. B.) 

ZSCHOKKE, JOHANN HEINRICH DANIEL (1771-1848), German author, was born at Magdeburg on the 22nd of March 1771. He was educated at the monasterial (kloster) school and at the Altstädter gymnasium of his native place. He spent some time as playwright with a company of strolling actors, but afterwards studied philosophy, theology and history at the university of Frankfort-on-the-Oder, where in 1792 he established himself as Privatdozent. He created much sensation by an extravagant novel, Abällino, der grosse Bandit (1793; subsequently also dramatized), modelled on Schiller's Räuber, and the melodramatic tragedy, Julius von Sassen (1796). The Prussian government having declined to make him a full professor, Zschokke in 1796 settled in Switzerland, where he conducted an educational institution in the castle of Reichenau. The authorities of the Grisons admitted him to the rights of a citizen, and in 1798 he published his Geschichte des Freistaats der drei Bünde im hohen Rätien. The political disturbances of this year compelled him to close his institution. He was, however, sent as a deputy to Aarau, where he was made president of the educational department, and afterwards as government commissioner to Unterwalden, his authority being ultimately extended over the cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Zug. Zschokke distinguished himself by the vigour of his administration and by the enthusiasm with which he devoted himself to the interests of the poorer classes of the community. In 1800 he reorganized the institutions of the Italian cantons and was appointed lieutenant-governor of the canton of Basel. Zschokke retired from public life when the central government at Bern proposed to re-establish the federal system, but after the changes effected by Bonaparte he entered the service of the canton of Aargau, with which he remained connected. In 1801 he attracted attention by his Geschichte vom Kampfe und Untergange der schweizerischen Berg- und Wald-Kantone. Through his Schweizerbote, the publication of which began in 1804, he exercised a wholesome influence on public affairs; and the like may be said of his Miscellen für die neueste Weltkunde, issued from 1807 to 1813. In 1811 he also started a monthly periodical, the Erheiterungen. He wrote various historical works, the most important of which is Des Schweizerlandes Geschichte für das Schweizervolk (1822, 8th ed. 1849). Zschokke's tales, on which his literary reputation rests, are collected in several series, Bilder aus der Schweiz (5 vols., 1824-25), Ausgewählte Novellen und Dichtungen (16 vols., 1838-39). The best known are: Addrich im Moos (1794); Der Freihof von Aarau (1794); Alamontade (1802); Der Creole (1830); Das Goldmacherdorf (1817); and Meister Jordan (1845). In Stunden der Andacht (1809-1816; 27 editions in Zschokke's lifetime), which was widely read, he expounded in a rationalistic spirit the fundamental principles of religion and morality. Eine Selbstschau (1842) is a kind of autobiography. Zschokke was not a great original writer, but he secured an eminent place in the literature of his time by his enthusiasm for modern ideas in politics and religion, by the sound, practical judgment displayed in his works, and by the energy and lucidity of his style. He died at his country house of Blumenhalde on the Aar on the 27th of June 1848.

An edition of Zschokke's selected works, in forty volumes, was issued in 1824-28. In 1851-54 an edition in thirty-five volumes was published. A new edition of the Novellen was published by A. Vögtlin in twelve volumes (1904). There are biographies of Zschokke by E. Münch (1831); Emil Zschokke (3rd ed. 1876); R. Sauerländer (Aarau, 1884); and R. Wernly (Aarau, 1894). See also M. Schneiderreit, Zschokke, seine Weltanschauung und Lebensweisheit (1904).

ZSCHOPAU, a town in the kingdom of Saxony, on the left bank of the Zschopau, 18 m. S.E. from Chemnitz by the railway to Annaberg. Pop. (1900) 6748. It contains a handsome parish church dedicated to St Martin, a town hall and a castle (Wildeck), built by the Emperor Henry I. in 932. The industries include ironfounding, cotton and thread-spinning, cloth-weaving and furniture making.

ZUCCARELLI, FRANCESCO (1702-1788), Italian painter, was born at Pitigliano in Tuscany, and studied in Rome under Onesi, Morandi, and Nelli. At Rome, and later in Venice, he became famous as one of the best landscape painters of the classicizing 18th century. Having visited England on a previous occasion, he was induced by some patrons to return thither in 1752, remaining until 1773, when he settled in Florence, dying there in 1788. Zuccarelli, who was one of the foundation members of the Royal Academy, enjoyed the patronage of royalty and of many wealthy English collectors for whom he executed his principal works—generally landscapes with classic ruins and small figures. A large number of them are at Windsor Castle, and of the seven examples which formed part of the John Samuel collection two are now at the National Gallery. The royal palace in Venice contains as many as twenty-one, and the academy four. Others are at the Vienna Gallery and at the Louvre in Paris. His work was very unequal, but at his