the daughter of a petty official at Niedeck in Hanover. He soon fell in love with his young sister-in-law Auguste and repeated the story of Count von Gleichen,1 actually leading, with the connivance of his wife, a double matrimonial life. After the death of his wife he formally married Auguste, whom he celebrates in his poems as "Molly," and two years after her death, which took place in 1786, he married again, a young girl who had anonymously written an encomium upon the aging poet. But in 1792 he was bitterly undeceived, his wife eloping with another. Morally and physi cally shattered, he died in 1794. The popu larity of his poems in Germany is very great; notably "Lenore," a weird, phantastical ballad, similar to Poe's " Raven," which shows a remarkable grasp upon the German verse. He made model translations of Shakespeare's " Macbeth" and of the Iliad. The " Travels and Adventures of Baron Munchhausen," commonly ascribed to him, are not his original production, but trans lated from Raspe's English text, which appeared in London in 1785. Burger, with all his moral shortcomings, must be classed in German literature among the regener ators of German poetical style, if not as the founder of the new German poetry. An entirely different type of poet in personal character from Immermann and Burger is Victor von Scheffel, born in Karls ruhe (Baden) in 1826. He studied juris prudence at Munich, Heidelberg and Berlin, and afterwards German philology and liter ature. From 1848 to 1852 he was Refereudar (assistant of the court) in Siikkingen, but quitted office to travel through Italy. Later he lived in Heidelberg and Munich. From 1866 to 1886, the year of his death, he resided in his birthplace, Karlsruhe. His 1 Count Ernst von Gleichen, after a German legend, on his return to the Occident from Cairo, brought home a beautiful Mohammedan as his wife. His faithful Teu tonic spouse received both without a murmur, and they all lived happy — till they died. (Musaus, Volksmarchen der Deutschen. " Melechsala.")
first, and indeed his most popular, epic poem, "Der Trompeter von S'dkkingeu," from which we have already quoted, was composed in Sorrento in the Isle of Capri. The bookappeared in 1886 in its one hundred and thirty-sixth edition. Meanwhile a score or more new editions have followed. Another of his popular books is " Ekkehard." Of the classical beauty of his style there can be no doubt. One of his songs, " Alt Hei delberg, du Feine" is familiar to every German college student. He was particu larly productive in college songs, which he published under the title " Gaudeamns, Lieder aus dem Engeren und Weiteren." The town of Karlsruhe erected to him a monument which was unveiled with great ceremonies on November 19th, 1892. ' We now come to the poets still living. Four of them are most conspicuous: Albert Traeger, Ernst Wichert, Felix Dahn and Ernst von Wildenbruch. The first is by far the most interesting to us as Americans. He is in every respect a "self-made" man, having pushed his way to the very top, in the face of endless difficulties and obstacles. Born in 1830 in Augsburg, he went with his parents, in 1838, to Naumburg an der Saale, where his father entered upon business pur suits. Being left fatherless in 1844, his mother, amid great privations, succeeded in procuring sufficient means to complete his education. In 1848 he entered the univer sity in Halle to study law, and continued the same studies at Leipsic. In 1851 he en tered upon practical duties as assistant of the court, and six years later he passed the "grosse Staatspriifung," henceforth being employed as Assessor in several courts. In 1862 he became a duly admitted lawyer in a small town, and in 1875 he moved to Nordhausen, where he .remained in practice un til 1892, when he took up his domicile in Berlin, to give his talents wider scope. When quite young he obtained a more than local reputation as a criminal lawyer, which branch of the law he has cultivated ever
