ZHUKOVSKY, VASILY ANDREEVICH. 



ZIEGLER, FRIEDRICH WILHELM. 



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to reward the ' Minstrel ;' a splendid edition of the work was issued 

 with a poetical epistle to herself, and Zhukovsky, who had been 

 decorated with the order of St. Anne for his military services, received 

 from the Emperor Alexander a pension for life of 4000 rubles. For 

 some years afterwards his time was chiefly spent at court at St. Peters- 

 burg in the enjoyment of imperial favour, of great success iu society, 

 and till the rise of the Russian Byron, Pushkin, of the reputation of 

 being the first poet of Russia. 



His most popular productions in this his most productive period 

 were a number of ballads, a species of composition which he was the 

 first to introduce into Russian literature. His first poem of the class, 

 'Ziudmilla,' au imitation f Burger's 'Lenora,' startled the Russian 

 public into a burst of enthusiastic admiration. He afterwards treated 

 tho same subject with variations in a poem entitled ' Svietlana,' which 

 is still considered his masterpiece, and finally he translated ' Lenora ' 

 itself simply from the German into Russian. Almost all his sub- 

 sequent ballads are founded on foreign originals, and constitute what 

 some of the Russian critics are fond of calling the " inimitable imita- 

 tions " of Zhukovsky. But how far the imitation extends it is not 

 always easy to ascertain, for in most cases he takes the liberty of 

 . suppressing the name of the original author. ; The reader who is 

 * acquainted with the poetical literature of England, France, and 

 Germany, in looking through tho ballads of Zhukovsky, is continually 

 meeting with old faces and old favourites. From Southey alone, the 

 Russian poet borrowed, without the mention of Southey's name, 

 ' Queen Orraca and the Five Martyrs of Morocco,' ' Rudiger,' ' The 

 Old Woman of Berkeley,' and ' Lord William,' the title of the last of 

 which he altered to ' Varvik,' the nearest approach which the Russian 

 alphabet allows to the English 'Warwick.' Still more strangely, 

 while the ballad of ' Smailholm Tower ' is acknowledged to be taken 

 from Walter Scott, a tolerably close version of the condemnation of 

 Constance, from the second canto of ' Marmion ' is presented to the 

 Deader of Zhukovsky's works, as ' The Trial Underground, a fragment 

 of an unfinished poem.' This mode of proceeding is not confined to 

 Zhukovsky, and seems to be in accordance with the Russian code of 

 literary ethics : as, though the native critics must be aware of the fact, 

 we have never seen it mentioned with blame. How apt it is to mislead, 

 may be shown from the example of Merime'e, who, in his life of the 

 false Demetrius, speaks of the beauty of the Polish ladies as being so 

 remarkable as to have drawn from the Russian Byron, Pushkin, the 

 very curious compliment paid to it iu the ballad of ' The Three Sons 

 of Bodrys,' quite unaware that the ballad in question has been trans- 

 ferred without acknowledgment from the Polish Byron, Mickiewicz. 



Leaving their origin out of view, the ballads of Zhukovsky are 

 beautiful specimens of animated narrative, and in his own poem of 

 'Svietlana' (which has been translated into English by Bowring) 

 there is a power and force of what is now called 'word-painting,' 

 which have rarely been equalled in any language. In his first romantic 

 poem, ' Ruslan and Liudmilla,' Pushkin showed a similar power, and 

 Zhukovsky sent a present of his works to him with the inscription, 

 " From the conquered teacher to his conquering pupil." They became 

 intimate friends, and around them were grouped for several years all 

 the most eminent literary society of St. Petersburg, which was in the 

 habit of meeting at Zhukovsky's house. All shades of opinion were 

 represented. Zhukovsky, a favourite at court, was a contributor to 

 ' The Polar Star," edited by Bestuzev and Ruilyeev, who afterwards 

 perished on the gallows and in exile for their conspiracy against the 

 Emperor Nicolas. Zhukovsky became more and more connected 

 with the imperial family. When the Grand-Duke Nicolas married a 

 Prussian princess, he was selected to teach her the Russian language ; 

 and when Nicolas became emperor, and the offspring of the marriage, 

 the hereditary prince, was of an age to require a preceptor, Zhukovsky 

 was appointed to the office. This withdrew him for some years from 

 the active pursuit of literature, but enabled him in various ways to 

 act efficiently for the benefit of his literary brethren. It was by the 

 influence of Zhukovsky that Hertzen [HEKTZEN] was allowed to return 

 from exile, and that Mickiewicz [MicKiEWiczJ, tho Polish poet, ob- 

 tained permission to quit Russia, which he had entered as a captive. 

 He too had probably a hand in obtaining a pension for Pushkin's 

 widow after the decease of her husband, whose death he witnessed 

 and described, but in a letter singularly jejune and destitute of his 

 usual fire. It was remarked that, by a singular coincidence, the death 

 of Pushkin took place on Zhukovsky's birthday, the 29th of January 

 (o.s.). When the hereditary prince, now (1857) the Emperor Alex- 

 ander II., made extensive tours through the vast empire which was to 

 fall under his sceptre, Zhukovsky acted as his Mentor, and he also 

 accompanied him in his visit to Germany, Italy, and England. The 

 poet had made tours in Germany and Italy before, but to England 

 this was his first visit ; and though some of his poems had been trans- 

 lated by Bowring, and noticed by Byron, it is probable that the 

 " Minstrel in the Russian camp " was recognised by few under the 

 disguise of the French appellation on his cards " M. de Joukoffsky." 

 On his visit to the British Museum however, one of the assistant- 

 librarians, who was a student of Russian literature, had the satisfaction 

 of showing him an edition of his works which had just been added to 

 the national library. Shortly after the prince's return to Russia, his 

 preceptor's functions ceased. Zhukovsky's health had for some time 

 been indifferent, and he transferred his residence to Germany, a country 



of which it is said he was " passionately fond," to have the benefit of 

 the waters. He had always been a panegyrist and an admirer of domes- 

 tic life, but he had now attained his fifty-ninth year and was still a 

 bachelor. The Hereditary Prince in his European tour had been in 

 search of a wife, and on the 28th of April 1841 he married the present 

 Empress of Russia, the daughter of the grand-duke of Hesse. Within 

 a month the preceptor followed the pupil's example. On the 21st 61 

 May 1841, at a little Russian chapel on a hill near Canstadt, which was 

 erected over the remains of a Russian princess who had been queen of 

 Wirtemburg, he was married to a beautiful girl of the name of Reutern, 

 the daughter of an old officer and native of one of the Baltic provinces. 

 Six years afterwards he wrote to a friend in raptures at the domestic 

 happiness which had fallen to his portion. He chiefly passed his time 

 at a retreat iu the neighbourhood of Dusseldorf, and amused himself 

 with translating into Russian poems by Ferduci and Homer. Two 

 children, both boys, were the offspring of the marriage, and his chief 

 delight was in superintending their education, which he wished that 

 his life might be prolonged to his eightieth year to see completed. 

 Neither this wish nor that of revisiting Russia was fulfilled. Ou the 

 12th of April 1852, Zhukovsky died, calm and resigned, at Baden, in 

 the bosom of his family. His remains were afterwards removed to his 

 native country. 



An edition of Zhukovsky's works which appeared at St. Petersburg 

 in 1835-37, fills eight octavo volumes, and three additional ones were 

 published under the title of ' New Poems' in 1849. Only one of 

 these eleven volumes consists of prose, the remainder is all either 

 original or translated poetry. Among the prose the palm is generally 

 given to a tale entitled ' Marina Roshcha ' (Mary's Grove), the name of 

 a favourite resort of the inhabitants of Moscow, which ever since the 

 tale appeared has been regarded in the light of a classic spot. There 

 are some fragments of a diary kept by Zhukovsky on his tours in Italy 

 and Germany, which are singularly vivid, but nothing apparently has 

 been published from his pen of his visit to England. Among tho 

 poems ' Svietlana ' is the masterpiece, and he is often called by his 

 admirers ' the poet of Svietlana.' One of the volumes is occupied with 

 a poetic version of La Motte Fouqud's ' Undine,' and most of another 

 with a version of Schiller's ' Maid of Orleans,' in both of which Zhu- 

 kovsky is thought by Russian critics to have surpassed the originals. 

 His later works consist almost entirely of translations, one from tho 

 ' Shah-Nameh,' into a metre not in the least resembling that of Fer- 

 duci, the other from the ' Odyssey ' of Honier, into hexameters. Zhu- 

 kovsky informs us in the preface that, not understanding a word of 

 Greek, he had composed his version by means of an interlineary trans- 

 lation of the original which a German professor (Grashof) had been 

 kind enough to make for his exclusive benefit, and candidly admits 

 that to the question " if he has succeeded " he can make no answer, 

 as he can be no fair judge, not being able to make a comparison. 

 Those who can make it are not likely to be satisfied with his success. 

 Considering the genius of Zhukovsky, and the great resemblance 

 iu many points of the Greek and Russian languages, the difference 

 between the exquisite beauty of the original and the unpleasiug 

 abruptness in the .copy is very striking. In addition to the trans- 

 lations from the English that have been already noticed, it may bo 

 mentioned that Zhukovsky also rendered into Russian the 'Alex- 

 ander's Feast' of Dryden, Moore's 'Paradise and the Peri,' which he 

 entitled ' The Angel and the Peri,' Byron's ' Prisoner of Cbillon,' 

 and numerous other pieces, some of which bear the names of the 

 original authors. 



A critical essay on Zhukovsky by Sneguirev appeared in the ' Mosk- 

 vitianin' for 1853, and has been separately published. It is accompa- 

 nied by a minute chronology of all his writings by Tikhonravov. 



ZIEGLER, FRIEDRICH WILHELM, a popular actor and dramatic 

 writer of Germany, was born at Brunswick in 1760. His fine person, 

 and his great talents as an actor, made the Emperor Joseph II. anxious 

 to gain him for the court theatre of Vienna, and the Emperor at his 

 own expense sent him to the best German theatres for the purpose of 

 studying and cultivating his art, and afterwards appointed him to the 

 court theatre of Vienna, where Ziegler remained for nearly forty 

 years. Not satisfied with his fame as an actor, Ziegler endeavoured 

 to obtain the higher reputation of a dramatic author. His attempts 

 were crowned with success, and he became one of the most popular 

 and prolific writers of the day. His plays, partly comedies and 

 tragedies, and partly domestic dramas, were performed at Vienna and 

 in nearly all the towns of Southern Germany, where they enjoyed a 

 popularity equal to those of Iffland and Kotzebue. Invention, situa- 

 tion, and effect were generally happily combined in his plays, and he 

 showed a great practical knowledge of theatrical affairs : owing to 

 these circumstances, some of his plays, such as ' Parteienwuth ' and 

 ' Die vier Temperamente,' still continue to be acted, although the lan- 

 guage is rather obsolete. In 1798, when Kotzebue went to Vienna as 

 the successor of Alxinger, Ziegler and some others formed so strong 

 an opposition to him, that he quitted Vienna after two years. As 

 Ziegler was engaged in the service of the imperial court, he frequently 

 allowed himself to be made use of for political purposes, partly 

 by writing plays with certain political tendencies, and partly by 

 hints and allusions. A collection of his dramatic works, in 5 vols. 

 3vo, appeared at Vienna, 1791-94. A more complete collection of 

 Ziegler's ' Sammtliche Dramatische Werke,' in 13 vols. 8 vo, appeared 



