749 



ROTZEBUE, AUGUST FRIEDRICH. 



KOZLOV, IVAN IVANOVICH. 



750 



another is distinguished as a rioter, but no entry in proof of any 

 connection with printing. Let us therefore examine the credibility of 

 the narrative as given by Junius. The first thing that must strike 

 any one acquainted with printing is the uufitness of beech-bark as a 

 material for wooden types. Scriverius, who wrote in 1628, feeling 

 this varies the story : he says it was " a small bough of a beech or 

 rather of an oak-tree." It however does not matter much, as Juniua 

 goes on to say that he afterwards made his types of lead or pewter. 

 Here then was the invention complete. He is afterwards robbed of 

 the implements of his trade by one of his workmen, who escapes to 

 Amsterdam, and thence to Cologne, and lastly to Mainz, where he 

 establishes his press. What did this workman steal ? the materials of 

 a printing-office, the presses and types, even in that early stage of 

 printing, must have been bulky and weighty, could not have been 

 moved with any great facility, and could have been easily traced and 

 followed. If he only stole the matrices, with the knowledge which he 

 had acquired, that was no reason for Roster's abandoning an art 

 which Junius says was prospering. The name of the workman was 

 John, and Junius implies that he at least has no doubt it was Fust ; 

 he only refrains from discussing the matter because he does " not 

 wish to disturb the dead already enduring the pangs of conscience for 

 what they had done when living." As however it became clear that 

 Fust could not have been the man, the supporters of Roster's claims 

 concluded that it must have been Gutenberg; and when again it was 

 proved by undeniable documents that Qutenberg could not have been 

 in Haarlem at the time, they invented a brother for Gutenberg, also 

 of the name of John. Junius was told the story by Nicholas Galius, 

 who bad it from Cornelius, the old bookbinder. Cornelius it is ascer- 

 tained died in 1522, at least ninety years old. In 1440, which would 

 be the date 128 years before the time of Junius's writing, he would 

 therefore be perhaps a little more than eight years old, yet he was at 

 that age an assistant in the printing office, and slept with the criminal. 

 It is also ascertained that Roster the sexton died about 1440, and as 

 the journeyman thief had been some time acquiring his knowledge, it 

 must have been about 1441 that the robbery took place, yet Cornelius 

 says nothing of his master's death. Meerman, who supports Roster's 

 claim, to obviate this objection, makes the business to have been 

 carried on by Roster's grandchildren, but of this there is no record, 

 nor are any of their productions extant Finally, Junius, who was a 

 learned man, had been dead twelve years when his book was published. 

 It if not improbable that the whole passage may be an interpolation 

 nude by some one desirous to advance the reputation of Haarlem. 



It is needless to mention the names of the writers who have sup- 

 ported the claims of Haarlem. Ottley and T. F. Dibdin were the last 

 in England, and indeed they are now given up generally. J. Wetter, 

 in his ' Kritische Geschichte der Erfindung des Buchdruckerkunst,' 

 published at Mainz, in 1836, boasts that he has completely disposed of 

 all its pretensions ; and he is equally positive against all the claims 

 advanced by other places, such as Cologne, and even with regard to 

 Strasbourg, after using Schopflin's discoveries as to the progress Guten- 

 berg had made at Strasbourg [GUTENBERG], he turns round in an 

 appendix, and endeavours to prove that Schopflin, in order to exalt 

 his own city, had interpolated the passages in the legal process in 

 which the technical terms relating to the printing art were used ; that 

 Drytzehen was a manufacturer of metal mirrors, the forms being 

 moulds into which the metal was poured; and that the moveable 

 piece* (stttcke) were wooden ornaments for the frames. He also asserts 

 that Gutenberg's first books were produced from solid wooden blocks; 

 that then the letters were sawn asunder and thus used, the letters 

 being threaded together hi lines ; and that he subsequently discovered 

 the method of casting types. 



ROTZEBUE, AUGUST FRIEDRICH FERDINAND VON, was 

 born at Weimar in the year 1761. In his sixth year he made attempts 

 at poetical composition, and his interest for theatrical matters was 

 excited by the performances of a company of players at Weimar. At 

 the gymnasium he was instructed by Musdus, the celebrated author 

 of the ' Volksmahrchen ' (' Popular Tales ') ; and when he was sixteen 

 years of age he went to the University of Jena, where an amateur 

 theatre increased his love for the drama. He studied the law, but at 

 the lame time composed slight theatrical pieces. In 1781, at the 

 instance of the Prussian ambassador at the Russian court, he went to 

 Petersburg, and was kindly x'eceived by the emperor, who raised him 

 to the rank of nobility, and made him president of the government of 

 E.ithonis, While at Reval he wrote several favourite works, and among 

 them his well-known pieces 'Die Indianer in England' (' The Indians 

 in England '), which has been translated into English, and ' Menschen- 

 haM and Reue' ('Misanthropy and Repentance'), well known in this 

 country under the title of "The Stranger.' He travelled in 1790 to 

 Pyrmont, and after the death of his wife visited Paris, but returned 

 to Eethonia in 1795, where he wrote above twenty dramas. In 1798 

 he went to Vienna as poet to the Court Theatre, but gave up that 

 place in two yean, and received a yearly pension of 1000 crowns. 

 He bad icarcely arrived in Russia, to which country he had returned, 

 when, without knowing the cause, he was arrested and sent to Siberia. 

 A tnuulation made by a young Russian of a paltry little piece by 

 KoUebue, called ' Der Leibkutscher Peters des Grossen ' (' The Body- 

 Coachman of Peter the Great '), go delighted the Emperor Paul that 

 ha WM recalled from banishment. 



After the death of this emperor, Rotzebue went to Weimar, and 

 thence to Jena. Some disagreement with Gothe caused him to remove 

 to Berlin, where he edited the periodical ' Der Freimiithige ' (' The 

 Free-Humoured '). About the same time he commenced his ' Alma- 

 nach dramatischer Spiele,' an annual much in the style of those in 

 England, though the plates are of an humbler character, aud the 

 literary part is exclusively dramatic. His ' Recollections ' of Paris, 

 of Rome, and of Naples, and his ' Early History of Prussia,' appear 

 to have added little to his reputation. The events of the year 1806 

 caused him to fly from Prussia to Russia, where in his writings he 

 unceasingly attacked the Emperor Napoleon and the French. His 

 political expressions at this time raised him to importance, and the 

 turn of affairs in 1813, and the unpopularity of the French, procured 

 him the editorship of a Russian-Prussian paper. In 1814 he went as 

 Russian consul-general to Kbnigsberg, where he wrote several little 

 plays, and an indifferent history of Germany. In 1817, after having 

 again visited Petersburg, he was despatched to Germany by the emperor 

 of Russia, with a large salary, to watch the state of literature and 

 public opinion, and to communicate all that he could learn. He at 

 the same time edited a weekly literary paper, but the German people 

 had at last become disgusted with his scoffing at everything like liberal 

 opinions. Against these and against the freedom of the press his 

 writings were constantly levelled. He sneered at every expression of 

 the popular wish for a constitutional government. He held up the 

 state of Europe before the French Revolution as the perfection of 

 happiness; till at last he roused the indignation of Sand, a student 

 and political enthusiast, who, considering him an enemy to liberty, 

 assassinated him in 1819. 



Kotzebuc's fame rests almost entirely on his dramas, which are nearly 

 one hundred in number, and of the most various degrees of merit. 

 The best of them (excepting ' The Two Rlingsbergs ') have been 

 translated into English. Besides ' The Stranger ' and ' The Indians 

 in England," it is only necessary to enumerate ' Lovers' Vows ' (' Der 

 Strassenraviber aus Rindersliebe '), ' Pizarro ' (' Die Spanier in Peru'), 

 'The Virgin of the Sun,' and 'Benyowski.' Unfortunately for a per- 

 manent reputation, he created too great a sensation at the time of his 

 writing ; the public were at first delighted, and afterwards surfeited 

 by his exaggerated expressions, his forced situations, and maudlin 

 sentimentality. A reaction accordingly has taken place, and he is 

 now as much despised as he was formerly overrated, and certaiuly 

 more than he merits. It is not fair to criticise him in a merely literary 

 point of view : he was an actual working writer for the stage, and his 

 knowledge of dramatic construction aud of stage effect must call 

 forth the approbation of every qualified judge. Gothe reckoned as 

 the best of his plays ' Die beideu Rlingsberg ' (' The Two Rlings- 

 bergs '), a genteel comedy of great merit, but little known in this 

 country. 



KOTZEBUE, OTTO VON, captain in the Russian marines, was sou 

 of the above. In the year 1S14 he set out on a voyage round the 

 world, which he completed in 1818, and of which he published an 

 account three years afterwards. He had previously gone round the 

 world as a midshipman under Rrusenstern. lu 1824 he undertook a 

 third voyage as captain of an imperial man-of-war, when he discovered 

 two islands in the South Sea, and returned in 1826. An account of 

 this voyage was published in London by Kotzebuc's companion, Dr. 

 Kschholz, and by himself in St. Petersburg. He died in March 1846. 



ROZLOV, IVAN IVANOVICH, a Russian poet, who was much 

 attached to the English language and literature, was born in 1774, 

 moved in the higher circles of society, and was, it is said, remarkable 

 for his liveliness and activity, till in his twenty-ninth year he was by 

 paralysis deprived of the use of his feet. He was previously acquainted 

 with French and Italian, but it was not till after he was thus afflicted 

 that he made himself master of English, which he studied during 

 intervals of pain. A still severer calamity awaited him, for he was 

 afterwards deprived of his sight. A deep feeling for poetry was first 

 developed in him after his afflictions, and during the remainder of 

 his life the study and the composition of poetry formed his chief con- 

 solation. He died in 1838. In the collection of his poetical works, 

 which occupies two volumes, the chief are two narrative poems in the 

 style of Byron, 'The Monk' (Chernetz), and the ' Princess Dolgorukay a." 

 Among his numerous translations from the English are the ' Funeral of 

 Sir John Moore,' Wordsworth's ' We are Seven,' Byron's ' Bride of 

 Abydos,' Scott's 'Young Lochinvar,' in which, from some singular 

 fancy, he has altered the name from Lochinvar to Waverley, and 

 extracts from ' Don Juan ' and ' Childe Harold.' Among the original 

 poems is an interesting epistle to Walter Scott, expressing the vain 

 longings of the author to visit Abbotsford and gaze on the abbey of 

 Melrose. Rozlov was such a writer of English that he even translated 

 Pushkin's ' Fountain of Bakhiserai ' into our language, and forwarded 

 it to Lord Byron with a request to be permitted to dedicate it to the 

 English poet It was about the time of Byron's death, and Rozlov 

 never received an answer. He aftewards intrusted it to an English 

 traveller in Russia (we believe Captain Chamier), who in his ' Anec- 

 dotes of Russia,' published in the ' New Monthly Magazine ' for 1830, 

 gives a specimen, which is as correct in language as if written by an 

 Englishman, and possesses considerable poetical merit His verses in 

 Russian are extremely tender and harmonious, and breathe a spirit of 

 melancholy which ia aot surprising under the circumstances of, the 



