SCHLEGEL, AUGUST WILHELM VON German poet, translator and critic, was born on Sept. 8, 1767, at Hanover, where his father, Johann Adolf Schlegel (1721-1793), was a Lutheran pastor. He was educated at the Hanover gymna sium and at the university of Gottingen. Having spent some years as a tutor in the house of a banker at Amsterdam, he went to Jena, where, in 1796, he married Karoline Michaelis, the widow of the district medical officer Bohmer and in 1798 was ap pointed extraordinary professor. Here he began his translation of Shakespeare, which was ultimately completed, under the super intendence of Ludwig Tieck, by Tieck's daughter Dorothea and Graf W. H. Baudissin. This rendering is one of the best poetical translations in German, or indeed in any language. At Jena Schlegel contributed to Schiller's periodicals the Horen and the Musenalmanach ; and with his brother Friedrich he conducted the Athenaeum, the organ of the Romantic school. He also pub lished a volume of poems, and carried on a rather bitter contro versy with Kotzebue. The brothers were the leaders of the new Romantic criticism. A volume of their joint essays appeared in 180i under the title Charakteristiken und Kritiken. In 1802 Schlegel went to Berlin, where he lectured on art and literature ; and in the following year he published Ion, a tragedy in Euripidean style, which gave rise to a suggestive discussion on the principles of dramatic poetry. This was followed by Spanisches Theater (2 vols., 1803-1809), in which he presented admirable transla tions of five of Calderon's plays ; and in another volume, Blumen strdusse italienisc/ier, spanischer und portuguesischer Poesie (1804), he gave translations of Spanish, Portuguese and Italian lyrics. In 1807 he attracted much attention in France by an essay in the French language, Comparaison entre la Phedre de Racine et celle d'Euripide, in which he attacked French classicism from the standpoint of the Romantic school. His lectures on dramatic art and literature (Ober dramatische Kunst und Literatur, 1809— 18ir ), which have been translated into most European languages, were delivered at Vienna in 1808.
Meanwhile, after a divorce from his wife Karoline, in 1804, he travelled in France, Germany, Italy and other countries with Madame de Stael, who owed to him many of the ideas which she embodied in her work, De l'Allemagne. In 1813 he acted as secretary to the crown prince of Sweden. Schlegel was made a pro fessor of literature at the university of Bonn in 1818, and during the remainder of his life occupied himself chiefly with oriental studies, although he continued to lecture on art and literature, and in 1828 he issued two volumes of critical writings (Kritische Schrif ten). In 1823-1830 he published the journal Indische Biblio thek (3 vols.) and edited (1823) the Bhagavad-Gita with a Latin translation, and (1829) the Ramayanci. These works mark the beginning of Sanskrit scholarship in Germany. After the death of Madame de Stael Schlegel married (1818) a daughter of Pro fessor Paulus of Heidelberg; but this union was dissolved in 1821. He died at Bonn on May 12, 1845. As an original poet Schlegel is unimportant, but as a poetical translator he has rarely been excelled.
In 1846-47 Schlegel's Siimtliche Werke were issued in twelve volumes by E. Bocking. There are also editions by the same editor of his CEuvres ecrites en francais (3 vols., 1846), and of his Opuscula Latine scripta (1848). Schlegel's Shakespeare translations have been often reprinted; the edition of 1871-72 was revised with Schlegel's mss. by M. Bernays. See M. Bernays, Zur Entstehungsgeschichte des Schlegel schen Shakespeare (1872) ; R. Genee, Schlegel und Shakespeare (1903) ; J. Koerner, Romantiker send Klassiker. Die Bruder Schlegel in ihren Beziehungen zu Schiller and Goethe (1924) ; Schlegel's Berlin lectures of 18o1-04 were reprinted from ms. notes by J. Minor (1884). A selection of the writings of both A. W. and Friedrich Schlegel, edited by 0. F. Walzel, will be found in Kiirschner's Deutsche Nationallitera tur, 143 (1892). See especially R. Haym, Romantische Schule, and the article in the Allg. deutsche Biographie by F. Muncker.