Chamisso, ADELBERT VON

Chamisso, ADELBERT VON, one of the most celebrated of German lyric poets, was born in 1781, at the château of Boncourt, in Champagne. The French Revolution driving his parents to settle in Prussia in 1790, he became in 1796 a page of the queen, and two years later entered the Prussian service. But when the campaign of 1806 broke out he returned to France, for though no admirer of Napoleon, he would not fight against his native land. At this time he was thrown into the circle of Madame de Staël at Coppet, and there began that study of natural science which he afterwards pursued at Berlin. In 1815–18 he accompanied a Russian exploring expedition round the world as naturalist (see CORAL); and on his return was appointed custodian of the Botanical Garden of Berlin. In 1835 he was elected to the Academy of Science; and, after a happy domestic life, he died at Berlin, 21st August 1838, universally loved and honoured. He wrote several works on natural history, but his fame rests partly on his poetical productions, still more on his quaint and humorous fiction called Peter Schlemihl (1813), the story of the man who lost his shadow, which has been translated into almost all the languages of Europe. The character of his poetry is wild and gloomy, and he is fond of rugged and horrible subjects. In his political songs he succeeds well in humour and irony; nor is he deficient in deep and genuine feeling. Indeed, several of his ballads and romances are masterpieces in their way. His collected works have been edited by Hitzig (6th ed. 1874). See lives by Fulda (1881) and Lentzner (Lond. 1893).