C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
August Wilhelm von Schlegel (1767–1845)
Schlegel, August Wilhelm von (shlā’gel). A celebrated German Orientalist, critic, and poet, son of J. A.; born at Hanover, Sept. 8, 1767; died on May 12, 1845, at Bonn, where he was professor of literature in the university. His most notable works in literary and art criticism are: ‘Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature’ (3 vols., 1809–11); ‘On the Theory and History of the Plastic Arts’ (1827); ‘Reflections on the Study of the Asiatic Languages’ (1832). He translated many of the plays of Shakespeare, and made the English dramatist a German classic; his translations of Dante, Calderón, Camões, and other foreign masters of literature are admirable; his original poems show consummate art and grace of form. His original verse best seen in his sonnets, and in the elegy ‘Rome’ (1812).