714 



STEIN 



STKINTHAL 



whom to father dirty annotations he did not i-li 

 to own. Steevens died at Hampstead, J<1 January 

 1800, and was buried at I'oplar under one of 

 Flaxman's monuments. He began his literary life 

 in 1766 with a reprint from the original quarto* of 

 Twenty of the Plays of Shake*i*are (4 vols. ). This 

 work caused him to be employed as collalx>rator 

 with Johnson in his edition ( 1773). Of this latter 

 work a second edition appeared in 1778, to which 

 Ma lone had contributed, and the latter printed in 

 1780 by way of supplement the doubtful plays and 

 the poems', an act of inde|ieiidence which the 

 jealous Steevens could not endure. Steevens now 

 et to work, with the help of Isaac Reed, upon a 

 completely new edition of Shakespeare(1793; 1803), 

 in which ' instead of a timid and servile adherence to 

 ancient copies,' is adopted the ' expulsion of useless 

 and supernumerary syllables, and an occasional 

 supply of such as might fortuitously have been 

 omitted.' This doctored text held its authority till 

 the publication of Malone's posthumous edition, the 

 famous Variorum Shakespeare (ed. by Boswell, 21 

 vols. 1821 ). In his great edition Steevens did not 

 print the poems of Shakespeare, ' because the 

 strongest act of parliament that could be framed 

 would fnil to compel readers into their service.' 



Stein, CHARLOTTE VON, the intimate friend of 

 Goethe (q.v.), was born at Weimar on Christmas 

 Day 1742, and married in 1764 to the Duke's 

 Master of the Horse. Her friendship with Goethe 

 was broken suddenly after the poets return from 

 Italy ( 1788 ). They were, however, in some measure 

 reconciled before Frail von Stein died, at Weimar, 

 on 6th January 1827. Goethe's Letters to her 

 were first published in 1848-51, and again, with 

 additions, in 1883-85 ; and another final collec- 

 tion was issued by the German Goethe Society 

 in 1886. The lady's letters to Goethe were destroyed 

 by her shortly before her death. 



See Hofer, Goethe vnd V. von Stein (1878), and 

 Duntzer's defence of her, C. von Stein (1874). 



Stein, HEINRICH FRIEDRICH CARL, BARON 

 VOM, Prussian statesman, was born at Nassau on 

 26th October 1757. He prepared himself for public 

 life at Gottingen ( 1773-77 ), and entered the service 

 of Prussia in 1780. In four years he had risen to 

 be the administrative head of the mines in West- 

 phalia, and in 1796 was appointed president of the 

 Westphalian chambers. In 1804 he was summoned 

 to take charge of the department that had the 

 control of the excise, customs, manufactures, and 

 trade ; but though he succeeded in getting the 

 restrictions on internal commerce abolished, and 

 effected some minor improvements, he was unable 

 to modify the traditional and favourite methods 

 of governing current in Prussia. At length 

 the King and his minister could no longer work 

 together, and Stein tendered his resignation 

 (January 1807). Whilst living in retirement at 

 Nassau he wrote an essay on administrative 

 reform, in which he outlined the measures which 

 IUB subsequently carried into effect. After Frede- 

 rick-William III. had drunk the bitter dregs 

 of his policy in the treaty of Tilsit, he saw no 

 other alternative except to recall the man whom 

 he had so despitefully used, especially as this step 

 was recommended to him by his con<nieror Napoleon. 

 Accordingly Stein resumed office liefore the year 

 ran out. He at once set to work with the swiftest 

 energy, and in little more than a twelvemonth 

 wrought such changes as laid the foundations 

 of Prussia's anlwequent greatness. His aim was 

 to root the sovereign power in the hearts and wills of 

 the people, and to make them free and responsible 

 political actors. To this end be promulgated 

 measures which abolished the last relics of serfdom, 

 did away with the privileges of caste, freed the 



sale and purchase of land from the rusty shackles 

 of feudalism, created on the lands of the crown a 

 class of peasant proprietors, and abolished all 

 monopolies and other hindrances to free trade. At 

 the same time he framed a scheme of municipal 

 government which liberated the citizens from the 

 military bureaucracies, ami he warmly supported 

 Scharnhorxt (q.v. ) in his schemes of army reform, 

 which converted the Prussian troops into a discip- 

 lined body of citizen-soldiers. Other wide-reaching 

 reforms he was unable to carry- out himself, be- 

 cause Napoleon, at length realising the character 

 of the man he hail recommended, insisted upon his 

 dismissal, and even confiscated his family estates 

 in Westphalia. Stein quitted (Novemlier 1808) 

 his POM and withdrew to Austria, but not before 

 issuing his Political Testament, a forecast of the 

 changes Prussia needed to undergo. Not feeling 

 himself quite secure in Austria, he accepted an in- 

 vitation to St Petersburg (1812), and, alt hough he 

 refused to enter the czar's service, he was actively 

 instrumental in cementing the coalition against 

 Napoleon, and in animating the Germans in their 

 final uprising. From the momentous battle of 

 Leipzig to the Congress of Vienna he was the ruling 

 spirit of the opposition against Napoleon. After the 

 congress closed, Stein, who was dissatisfied with its 

 conclusions, gradually withdrew into private life ; a 

 period of tranquillity and especially of reaction, 

 like that which soon set in in Prussia, was not 

 suited to a man of his strong and downright char- 

 acter. The principal fruit of his leisure was the 

 establishment ( 1819 ) and organisation of the society 

 that has printed the great collection of histori- 

 cal documents known as Monumenta Germania; 

 Hisiorica. Stein died at his country-seat of 

 Kappenberg in Westphalia on 29th June 1831, 

 the last male of his race, as he left only daughters 

 by his wife, a granddaughter of George II. of 



See Pertz, Leben det Minittert Freiherrn vom Stein 

 (6 vols. 1849-55) ; Professor Seeley's Life and Timet of 

 Stein (3 vols. Camb. 1878); and the Eriiineningen of 

 General von Boyen ( 1891 ). 



Steinbock. See GOAT, ANTELOPES. 



Stcinkerk, or STEENKEHKE, a village in the 

 Belgian province of Hainault, 5 miles N. of 

 Soignies, was the scene of William III.'s defeat by 

 the French under Marshal Luxembourg, on 3<1 

 August 1692. Pop. 860. 



StHniiK'l/. CARL FRIEDRICH VON, Prussian 

 general, born at Eisenach on 27th December 1796, 

 fought through the campaign of 1813-14, winning 

 the iron cross for valour, and in the war of 1866 

 routed three successive Austrian corps (June 27- 

 29). On the outbreak of the Franco-Cerniaii war 

 of 1870 he was put in command of the right wing 

 of the German advance ; but he proved unequal 

 to the task committed to him. especially at Grave- 

 lotte, and after that battle was nominated governor- 

 general of Posen and Silesia. He died at Bad 

 Landeck on 4th August 1877. 



s I <-in III. -I I. 1 IKY MANX, was born at Grobzi}.' in 

 Anhalt, 16th May 1823, studied philology and 

 philosophy at Berlin, and from 1850 became a lecturer 

 in the science of Language and Mythology. The 

 years 1852-55 he gave to the study of Chinese at 

 Paris, and in 1863 became an extra-ordinary pro- 

 fessor of the science of Language at Berlin, from 

 1872 also lecturing at the JcwUh Ili^h School on Old 

 Testament criticism, ethics, and the philosophy 

 and history of religion. His writings liear the 

 stamp of a powerful intellect and of learning 

 remarkable at once for profundity and width of 

 range. His method shows the influence of W. von 

 1 1 urn hold i. whose philological works he edited 

 (1884). He died 14th March 1899. 



