HEYSE, PAUL JOHANN LUDWIG Ger man novelist, dramatist and poet, was born at Berlin on March 15, 183o, the son of the philologist K. W. L. Heyse (1797-1855). He studied classics, and then the Romance languages at Bonn, and, before he had completed his course, wrote a tragedy, Francesca von Rimini. After a year's stay in Italy, he was summoned, early in 1854, by King Maximilian II. to Munich. Heyse was a master of the short story. He published at Munich in 1855 four in one volume, one of which, L'Arrabbiata, showed his genius. Many other volumes of stories appeared in due course, and in these his most characteristic work is to be found. Heyse worked on his stories in the spirit of a sculptor ; he seized upon some picturesque incident or situation, and chiselled and polished until all the effect which it was capable of producing had been extracted from it. He wrote also several novels, the more important being Kinder der Welt (1873), Im Paradiese (18 7 5)—the one dealing with the religious and social problems of its time, the other with artist-life in Munich, Der Roman der Stiftsdame (1888), and Merlin (1892), a novel directed against the modern realistic movement of which Heyse had been the leading opponent in Germany. He was a pro lific dramatist ; among the best of his plays are Die Sabinerinnen (1859), Hans Lange (1866), Kolberg (1868), Die Weisheit Salomos (1886), and Maria von Magdala (19°3). His best stage pieces were, however, the one-act plays corresponding in their scope to his short stories. There are masterly translations by him of Leopardi, Giusti and other Italian poets (I talienische Dichter seit der Mitte des 18ten Jahrhundert, 4 vols., 1888-189o) . Some of the translations of Shakespeare in the Bodenstedt edition are by him. His collected works contain many admirable original lyrics and some admirable verse tales. Heyse received the Nobel prize for literature in 1910. He died at Munich on April 2, 1914.
See his autobiography, Jugenderinnerungen and Bekenntnisse (1901) . Also O. Kraus, Paul Heyses Novellen and Romane (1888) ; E. Petzet, Paul Heyse als Dramatiker (19o4) , and the essays by T. Ziegler (in Studien and Studienkopfe, 1877), and G. Brandes (in Moderne Geister, 1887) ; Spiero, Paul Heyse (191o) ; H. Raff, Paul Heyse (Iwo). A new edition of Heyse's Gesammelte Werke appeared in 1924 (is vols.) . See his Brie f wechsel with J. Burckhardt (1916) , with Th. Storm (ed. G. Plottke 1917-1918), with G. Keller (ed. Kalbeck, 1919), and with E. Geibel (ed. F. E. A. Geibel, 1922).