Editing August Wilhelm Schlegel

{{Short description|German poet, translator, critic, and writer (1767–1845)}}
{{Infobox philosopher
| region = [[Western philosophy]]
| era   = [[19th-century philosophy]]
| image  = August Wilhelm von Schlegel.png
| name  = August Schlegel
| birth_name = August Wilhelm Schlegel
| birth_date = 8 September 1767
| birth_place = [[Hanover]], [[Electorate of Hanover]], [[Holy Roman Empire]]
| death_date = 12 May 1845 (aged 77)
| death_place = [[Bonn]], [[Rhine Province]], [[Kingdom of Prussia]]
| alma_mater = [[University of Göttingen]]
| institutions = [[University of Bonn]]
| school_tradition = [[Jena Romanticism]]<br>[[Historicism]]<ref name="Oxford">Brian Leiter, Michael Rosen (eds.), ''The Oxford Handbook of Continental Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 2007, p. 175.</ref>
| main_interests  = [[Philology]], [[philosophy of history]]
| notable_ideas  = 
}}
'''August Wilhelm von''' '''Schlegel''' ('''Schlegel''' until 1812; {{IPAc-en|ˈ|ʃ|l|eɪ|g|əl}} {{respell|SHLAY|gəl}};<ref name="LPD">{{citation|last=Wells|first=John C.|year=2008|title=Longman Pronunciation Dictionary|edition=3rd|publisher=Longman|isbn=9781405881180}}</ref> {{IPA|de|aʊˈɡʊst ˈʃleːɡl̩|lang}}; 8 September 1767{{snd}}12 May 1845) was a German [[Indology|Indologist]], poet, translator and critic. With his brother [[Friedrich Schlegel]], he was a leading influence within [[Jena Romanticism]]. His translations of [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]] turned the English dramatist's works into German classics.<ref name="colliers"/> Schlegel was also the professor of [[Sanskrit]] in Continental Europe and produced a translation of the ''[[Bhagavad Gita]]''.

==Childhood and education==
[[File:Domenico Quaglio Marktkirche Hannover.jpg|thumb|The Marktkirche at the beginning of the 19th century; oil painting after [[Domenico Quaglio the Younger|Domenico Quaglio]], 1832]]

Schlegel was born in [[Hanover]], where his father, [[Johann Adolf Schlegel]], was a [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] pastor. He was educated at the Hanover [[gymnasium (Germany)|gymnasium]] and at the [[University of Göttingen]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}{{Better source needed|date=April 2022}} Initially studying theology, he received a thorough philological training under [[Christian Gottlob Heyne|Heyne]] and became an admirer and friend of [[Gottfried August Bürger|Bürger]], with whom he was engaged in an ardent study of [[Dante Alighieri]], [[Petrarch]] and [[William Shakespeare]]. Schlegel met with [[Caroline Schelling]] and [[Wilhelm von Humboldt]]. In 1790 his brother [[Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel]] came to Göttingen. Both were influenced by [[Johann Gottfried Herder]], [[Immanuel Kant]], [[Tiberius Hemsterhuis]], [[Johann Winckelmann]] and [[Karl Theodor von Dalberg]]. From 1791 to 1795, Schlegel was tutor to Willem Ferdinand Mogge Muilman, the son of a Dutch banker, who lived at Herengracht 476 in Amsterdam.<ref>[The Life of August Wilhelm Schlegel, Cosmopolitan of Art and Poetry by Roger Paulin, p. 59]</ref>

==Career==
In 1796, soon after his return to Germany, Schlegel settled in [[Jena]], following an invitation from [[Friedrich Schiller]].{{sfn|Böhme|1920}} That year he married [[Caroline Schelling]], the widow of the physician Böhmer.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} She assisted Schlegel in some of his literary productions, and the publication of her correspondence in 1871 established for her a posthumous reputation as a German letter writer. She separated from Schlegel in 1801 and became the wife of the philosopher Schelling soon after.{{sfn|Böhme|1920}}

[[File:August Wilhelm Schlegel.jpg|thumb|Schlegel c. 1800]]
In Jena, Schlegel made critical contributions to [[Die Horen (Schiller)|Schiller's ''Horen'']] and that author's ''[[Musen-Almanach]]'',{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} and wrote around 300 articles for the ''Jenaer Allgemeine Litteratur-Zeitung''. He also did translations from Dante and Shakespeare. This work established his literary reputation and gained for him in 1798 an extraordinary professorship at the [[University of Jena]]. His house became the intellectual headquarters of the "romanticists", and was visited at various times between 1796 and 1801 by [[Johann Gottlieb Fichte]], whose ''[[Foundations of the Science of Knowledge]]'' was studied intensively, by his brother Friedrich, who moved in with his wife [[Dorothea Schlegel]], by [[Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling]], by [[Ludwig Tieck]], by [[Novalis]] and others.{{sfn|Böhme|1920}}

{{blockquote|It is widely accepted that the Romantic Movement in Germany emerged, on the one hand, as a reaction against the aesthetical ideals defended in [[Classicism]] and [[Neoclassicism]], and on the other, as a deviation from the rational principles of the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] with the consequent regression to the irrational spirit of the [[Middle Ages]].<ref name="plato.stanford.edu">{{cite encyclopedia|last=Hay|first= Katia D.|title= August Wilhelm von Schlegel|encyclopedia= [[The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] |year= 2010|edition=Spring 2010 |publisher= Edward N. Zalta (ed.)|url=http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2010/entries/schlegel-aw/}}</ref>}}

{{blockquote|Schlegel argues that, from a philosophical point of view, everything participates in an ongoing process of creation, whereas, from an empirical point of view, natural things are conceived as if they were dead, fixed and independent from the whole.<ref name="plato.stanford.edu"/>}}

In 1797 August and Friedrich broke with Friedrich Schiller. With his brother, Schlegel founded the ''[[Athenaeum (German magazine)|Athenaeum]]'' (1798–1800), the organ of the Romantic school, in which he dissected disapprovingly the immensely popular works of the sentimental novelist [[August Lafontaine]].<ref name=Zeitlaeufte>Dirk Sangmeister, [http://www.zeit.de/1999/31/Der_Lieblingsdichter_der_Nation_ Der Lieblingsdichter der Nation...], article in German newspaper ''Die Zeit'' no. 31, 1999.</ref> He also published a volume of poems and carried on a controversy with [[August von Kotzebue|Kotzebue]]. At this time the two brothers were remarkable for the vigour and freshness of their ideas and commanded respect as the leaders of the new Romantic criticism. A volume of their joint essays appeared in 1801 under the title ''Charakteristiken und Kritiken''. His play ''Ion'', performed in Weimar in January 1802, was supported by [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]], but became a failure.

{{blockquote|When the work of art appears as if all its elements had been consciously chosen by a power above the artist, it has style; when the artist has not transcended his/her individuality, then s/he is categorized as a mannerist artist (SW III, 309–312).<ref name="plato.stanford.edu"/>}}

In 1801 Schlegel went to Berlin, where he delivered lectures on art and literature; and in the following year he published ''Ion'', a tragedy in [[Euripides|Euripidean]] style, which gave rise to a suggestive discussion on the principles of dramatic poetry. This was followed by ''Spanisches Theater'' (2 vols, 1803/1809), in which he presented admirable translations of five of [[Pedro Calderón de la Barca|Calderón]]'s plays. In another volume, ''Blumensträusse italienischer, spanischer und portugiesischer Poesie'' (1804), he gave translations of [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] and [[Italian language|Italian]] lyrics. He also translated works by [[Dante Aligheri]] and [[Luís de Camões]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}<ref name="colliers"/>

==Tutoring==
Early in 1804, he made the acquaintance of [[Madame de Staël]] in Berlin, who hired him as a tutor for her children. After divorcing his wife Caroline, Schlegel travelled with Madame de Staël to [[Switzerland]], [[Italy]] and [[France]], acting as an adviser in her literary work.<ref>''De l'Allemagne'' published in 1813.</ref> In 1807 he attracted much attention in France by an essay in the French, ''Comparaison entre la [[Phèdre]] de Racine et celle d'Euripide'', in which he attacked [[French classicism]] from the standpoint of the [[Romantic school]]. His famous lectures on dramatic art and literature (''Über dramatische Kunst und Literatur'', 1809–1811), which have been translated into most European languages, were delivered at Vienna in 1808.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}{{sfn|Böhme|1920}} He was accompanied by De Staël and her children. In 1810 Schlegel was ordered to leave the [[Act of Mediation|Swiss Confederation]] as an enemy of the French literature.<ref>[L.M. Child (1836) The biography of Madame de Stael, p. 48]</ref>

{{blockquote|For Schlegel, the magic of a work of art is that it brings us into a different world, with all its own internal coherence, and this is why it needs to become organic and complete unto itself. Therefore, its purpose should not be to reflect the real world with naturalism, but rather to create its own world, which could never be a question of applying a set of rules and principles to a particular matter (paintings, words, marble), such as classicist principles seemed to do.<ref name="plato.stanford.edu"/>}}

In 1812, he travelled with De Staël, her [[fiancé]] [[Albert de Rocca]] and her children to [[Moscow]], St. Petersburg and [[Stockholm]] and acted as secretary of [[Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte]], through whose influence the right of his family to noble rank was revived. After this, he joined again the household of Mme. de Staël until her death in 1817, for like [[Mathieu de Montmorency]] he was one of her intimates until the end of her life. Schlegel was made a professor of [[Indology]] at the [[University of Bonn]] in 1818, and during the remainder of his life occupied himself chiefly with oriental studies. He founded a special printing office for [[Sanskrit]]. As an orientalist, he was unable to adapt himself to the new methods opened up by [[Franz Bopp|Bopp]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}{{sfn|Böhme|1920}} He corresponded with [[Wilhelm von Humboldt]], a linguist. After the death of Madame de Staël 14 July 1817, Schlegel married in 1818 a daughter of [[Heinrich Paulus]], but this union was dissolved in 1821.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

==Travel and publications==
Schlegel was 50 years old and his own master.<ref>{{cite book | author1= Roger Paulin |title=The Life of August Wilhelm Schlegel: Cosmopolitan of Art and Poetry |publisher= Open Book Publishers |year=2016 |page=415 |isbn=9781909254954 }}</ref> He was financially independent and could travel at his own expense.<ref>{{cite book | author1= Roger Paulin |title=The Life of August Wilhelm Schlegel: Cosmopolitan of Art and Poetry |publisher= Open Book Publishers |year=2016 |page=416 |isbn=9781909254954 }}</ref> Schlegel's Vienna Lectures had been published and were read across Europe and in [[Saint Petersburg]]. Therefore, he could cultivate friendships with the educated elite.<ref>{{cite book | author1= Roger Paulin |title=The Life of August Wilhelm Schlegel: Cosmopolitan of Art and Poetry |publisher= Open Book Publishers |year=2016 |page=421 |isbn=9781909254954 }}</ref> He continued to lecture on art and literature, publishing in 1827 ''On the Theory and History of the Plastic Arts'',<ref name="colliers">{{Cite Collier's|wstitle=Schlegel, August Wilhelm von}}</ref> and in 1828 two volumes of critical writings (''Kritische Schriften'').<ref name="colliers"/>{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Schlegel's translation of [[William Shakespeare]], begun in Jena, was ultimately completed, under the superintendence of [[Ludwig Tieck]], [[Dorothea Tieck]], and [[Wolf Heinrich Graf von Baudissin]]. This rendering is considered one of the best poetical translations in German.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Schlegel did find the time to pursue his fascination for [[India]] and dedicated himself to the study of [[Sanskrit]].<ref>{{cite book | author1= Roger Paulin |title=The Life of August Wilhelm Schlegel: Cosmopolitan of Art and Poetry |publisher= Open Book Publishers |year=2016 |page=422 |isbn=9781909254954 }}</ref> From 1823 til 1830 he published the journal ''Indische Bibliothek''. In 1823 edited the ''[[Bhagavad Gita]]'', with a [[Latin]] translation, and in 1829, the ''Ramayana''. This was followed by his 1832 work ''Reflections on the Study of the Asiatic Languages''.<ref name="colliers"/>{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Schlegel became convinced that the origin of Germanic people could be identified in [[linguistic]] evidence and believed that languages could be used to reconstruct patterns of [[human migration]], so he studied the epics of [[Persia]] and India.<ref>{{cite book | author1= Roger Paulin |title=The Life of August Wilhelm Schlegel: Cosmopolitan of Art and Poetry |publisher= Open Book Publishers |year=2016 |page=475 |isbn=9781909254954 }}</ref> Schlegel published on this matter, attesting Indians, Egyptians, Greeks, and [[Aztecs]] the benefit of [[progress]]. He was impressed with their architecture, their mathematics, and their technology. In 1837 he wrote the preface to the German translation of [[James Cowles Prichard]]'s book ''An Analysis of the Egyptian Mythology'' which originally had been published in 1819.<ref>{{cite book | author1= Roger Paulin |title=The Life of August Wilhelm Schlegel: Cosmopolitan of Art and Poetry |publisher= Open Book Publishers |year=2016 |page=476 |isbn=9781909254954 }}</ref>

In 1835, Schlegel became head of the committee organising [[Beethoven Monument (Bonn)|a monument in memory of Ludwig van Beethoven]] in Bonn, the [[Ludwig van Beethoven|composer]]'s birthplace. Schlegel died in Bonn in 1845,{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} three months before its official unveiling.

==Historic evaluations==
According to the 1910-1911 [[Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition|''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Eleventh Edition]]:
{{blockquote| 
As an original poet Schlegel is unimportant, but as a poetical translator he has rarely been excelled, and in criticism he put into practice the Romantic principle that a critic's first duty is not to judge from the standpoint of superiority, but to understand and to "characterize" a work of art.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} }}

An article for the 1920 ''[[Encyclopedia Americana]]'' provided the following thoughts:
{{blockquote|
As a critic [Schlegel] carried on the tradition of [[Gotthold Ephraim Lessing|Lessing]] and [[Johann Gottfried Herder|Herder]]. Without possessing Lessing's power of style and personality, [Schlegel] commanded a wider range of artistic susceptibility. His unerring linguistic and historical scholarship and the calm objectivity of his judgment enabled him to carry out, even more successfully than Herder himself, Herder's demand that literary criticism should be based on a sympathetic penetration into the specific individuality of each poetic production rather than on the application of preconceived aesthetic standards.

Schlegel established models for the new method of analytical and interpretative criticism in his essays on [[Goethe]]'s ''[[Hermann and Dorothea]]'' and on [[Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]''. His Vienna lectures ''On Dramatic Art and Literature'' were translated into most of the languages of Europe and stand as a permanent contribution to critical literature; his definition of the terms "classic" and "romantic" met with general recognition; his views on the so-called "three unities" and on the "correctness" of Shakespeare evoked an especially strong echo in England and finally made the [[Samuel Johnson|Johnson]]ian attitude toward Shakespeare appear obsolete.

Formal perfection of language is the chief merit of his poems, which suffer from a lack of originality. In his drama ''Ion'', he vainly attempted to rival Goethe's [[Iphigenia in Tauris (Goethe)|''Iphigenie'']]. He prided himself on being "model and master in the art of sonnets" among the Germans. He is at his best in sparkling literature parodies such as ''Ehrenpforte und Triumphbogen für Kotzebue'' (1801).{{sfn|Böhme|1920}} }}

The 1905 ''[[New International Encyclopedia]]'' in its article on Schlegel, gives the following opinions:
{{blockquote|
*The Schlegel-Tieck translation is universally considered better than any other rendering of Shakespeare in a foreign language. Thanks to Schlegel and Tieck, Shakespeare has become a national poet of Germany.
*[Schlegel's] ''Spanisches Theater'' (1803-09), consisting of five pieces of Calderon's, admirably translated,... [made] that poet a favorite with the German people, and his ''Blumensträusse der italienischen, spanischen und portugiesischen Poesie'' (Berlin, 1804), a charming collection of southern lyrics, [marks] the appearance of . . . the naturalization in German verse of the metrical forms of the Romanic races.
*Schlegel was quarrelsome, jealous, and ungenerous in his relations with literary men, and did not even shrink from slander when his spleen was excited.}}

==Honors==
*Elected a member of the [[American Antiquarian Society]] in 1836.<ref>[http://www.americanantiquarian.org/memberlists American Antiquarian Society Members Directory]</ref>

==Portraits==
*''Portrait of A. W. Schlegel'' by [[Albert Gregorius]] (1774–1853), 1817, in [[Coppet Castle]] (Switzerland)

==Published works by Schlegel==
*''Ion'' (1803)<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iQM7AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA2 |title = Ion: Ein Schauspiel|last1 = Schlegel|first1 = August Wilhelm von|year = 1803}}</ref>
*''Rom Elegie'' (1805)
* Schlegel's Berlin lectures of 1801/1804 reprinted from manuscript notes by [[Jakob Minor]] (1884){{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}
*''Poetische Werke'' (1811)
* ''Observations sur la langue et la littératures provençale'' (1818)
*''[[Bhagavad Gita]]'' (1823, Latin translation)
*''Kritische Schriften'' (1828, critical works)
*''[[Ramayana]]'' (1838, Latin translation, incomplete)
*''Sämtliche Werke'' (1846–1848) (''Collected Works'') issued in twelve volumes by Eduard Böcking
*''Œuvres écrites en français'' (3 vols., 1846)
*''Opuscula Latine scripta'' (1848)

===Translations by Schlegel===
Schlegel's Shakespeare translations have been often reprinted. The edition of 1871–72 was revised with Schlegel's manuscripts by [[Michael Bernays]]. See Bernays's ''Zur Entstehungsgeschichte des Schlegelschen Shakespeare'' (1872); [[Rudolph Genée]], ''Schlegel und Shakespeare'' (1903). Schlegel also translated plays by [[Pedro Calderón de la Barca]], such as ''[[La banda y flor]]'', which became the basis for E. T. A. Hoffmann's 1807 singspiel ''[[Liebe und Eifersucht]]''.

A selection of the writings of both August Wilhelm and Friedrich Schlegel, edited by Oskar Walzel, will be found in [[Joseph Kürschner|Kürschner]]'s ''Deutsche Nationalliteratur'', 143 (1892).

===Letters of the Schlegel brothers===
*''Ludwig Tieck und die Brüder Schlegel. Briefe'' ed. by Edgar Lohner (München 1972)

==Notes==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==References==
*{{NIE|wstitle=Schlegel, August Wilhelm von |year=1905}}
*{{EB1911 |wstitle=Schlegel, August Wilhelm von|volume=24|pages=328–329}}
*{{Americana|first=Traugott |last=Böhme |wstitle=Schlegel, August Wilhelm von |year=1920}}

==Further reading==
*Paulin, R. The Life of August Wilhelm Schlegel, Cosmopolitan of Art and Poetry, Cambridge: Open Book Publishers (2016) {{ISBN|9781909254954}}
*[[Rudolf Haym]], ''Romantische Schule'' (1870; new ed., 1914)
*{{Cite ADB|31|354|368|Schlegel, August Wilhelm|Franz Muncker|ADB:Schlegel, August Wilhelm von}}
*Strauss, D. Fr., ''Kleine Schriften'' (1862)
*Huch, Ricarda, ‘Blütezeit der Romantik'' (1899)
*''Caroline, Briefe aus der Frühromantik'' (ed. by Erich Schmidt, 2 vols., 1913)
*Sidgwick, Mrs. Alfred, ''Caroline Schlegel and her Friends'' (1889)
*Bernays, M., ''Zur Entstehungsgeschichte des Schlegelschen Shakespeare'' (1872), new ed. Celtis Verlag, Berlin 2013, {{ISBN|978-3-944253-02-2}}
*Genée, R., ''A. W. Schlegel und Shakespeare'' (1903)
*Gundolf, F, ''Shakespeare und der deutsche Geist'' (1911)
*Helmholtz, A. A., ''The Indebtedness of S. T. Coleridge to A. W. Schlegel'' (1907)
*da Rocha Abreu, Manuel: Zwischenruf - Rassistisch. In: Frankfurter Rundschau, 17 January 2006, P. 26.

==External links==
{{Nuttall poster|Schlegel, August Wilhelm von}}
{{commons category}}
*{{Gutenberg author |id=2356| name=August Wilhelm von Schlegel}}
*{{Internet Archive author |sname=August Wilhelm Schlegel}}
*[[Anna Augusta Von Helmholtz-Phelan|Phelan, Anna Augusta von Helmholtz]], 1907 {{cite web|title=''The indebtedness of Samuel Taylor Coleridge to August Wilhelm von Schlegel'' |url=https://archive.org/details/indebtednesssam00helmgoog|access-date=2010-09-24}}
*Francke, Kuno, Howard, William Guild, Schiller, Friedrich, 1913-1914 {{cite web|title=''The German classics of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries : masterpieces of German literature translated into English Vol 4'' |url=https://archive.org/stream/germanclassicsof04franuoft#page/n11/mode/2up|access-date=2010-09-24}}
*{{cite SEP |url-id=schlegel-aw |title=August Wilhelm von Schlegel |last=Hay |first=Katia D.}}
*[http://www.mkone.org/art/translating-shakespeare/ Translating Shakespeare] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080704130744/http://www.mkone.org/art/translating-shakespeare/ |date=2008-07-04 }} - process and problems of translating the works of William Shakespeare, done by Schlegel
*{{Cite book|publisher=dalla stamperia di Paolo Emilio Giusti, nella contr. di s. Margherita, al n.o 1118|last= Schlegel|first=  August Wilhelm : von|title= Vorlesungen über dramatische Kunst und literatur. ita |place= Milano|year= 1817|url= https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=3311484}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Schlegel, August Wilhelm}}
[[Category:1767 births]]
[[Category:1845 deaths]]
[[Category:18th-century German scholars]]
[[Category:18th-century German writers]]
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[[Category:19th-century German dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:19th-century German male writers]]
[[Category:German literary critics]]
[[Category:German untitled nobility]]
[[Category:German poets]]
[[Category:German Indologists]]
[[Category:German translators]]
[[Category:German male poets]]
[[Category:German male dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:English–German translators]]
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[[Category:Writers from Hanover]]
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[[Category:Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)]]
[[Category:Translators of William Shakespeare]]
[[Category:University of Göttingen alumni]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Bonn]]
[[Category:Coppet group]]
[[Category:German Sanskrit scholars]]
[[Category:Translators of the Bhagavad Gita]]