ALEXAN'DRI, or ALERSANDRI, VASILIO (Basil), a Rouman poet and litterateur, was b. at Jassy, the chief city of Moldavia, in 1821. His family was of Venetian origin. After spending several years at a French boarding-school at Jassy, he was sent, in his fourteenth year, with a tutor to Paris; and in due course he obtained from the univer sity of Paris the degree of bachelor of letters. He is said to have thereafter made trial in succession of the study of medicine and the study of law, and to have found neither of them to his liking; lie certainly followed up neither, but, without qualifying himself fen. any profession, went back to Jassy in 1839. He found at Jassy a band of young men educated, as he himself had been, in France, whose minds had been formed upon the literature and the political ideas of France; who, besides being ambitious of literary dis tinction, were zealous for political equality and for Rouman nationality and independ ence. He naturally became the associate of these men; and, soon after his return, made his debut in literature by contributing a story, The Flower-Girl of Florence, to a periodi cal conducted by them under the editorship of Cogalniceano. He became a frequent contributor to this periodical. Unfortunately, it was not destined to live long, being suppressed by order of prince Stourdza. It was in 1842, after a long excursion among the mountains of his native province, that he first made his appearance as a poet, pub lishing several pieces, most of them strongly tinged with national feeling. At this time, too, it was that he began to write the songs and ballads upon which his chief claim to literary reputation at present rests. In 1844 he suddenly attained to an almost unbound ed local popularity as a play-writer. Having become concerned in the management of two theaters at Jassy, the one French, the other Moldavian, he produced a series of pieces, some in French, others in Rouman, which, though mostly slight and hasty performances, had merit enough to excite the enthusiasm of his countrymen. Georges de Sadagoura, Jassy en, Carnival, Lee Pierre de la liaison, La Noce Tfillageoise, are the titles of the most important of them. In 1844, he had also, in conjunction with Cogal niceano and prince John Ghika, set on foot a new periodical, devoted to literature and science; but this, like the ono already mentioned, was not suffered to live long—it was suppressed by the government, after a career of only nine months.
A. was engaged in the revolutionary movement which took place at Jassy in the year of revolutions, 1848, and on its failure had to betake himself to Paris. There, through
the press, during the short period of his exile, he labored to arouse public opinion in favor of the independence of the Roumans; and his efforts, though they were unsuccess ful at the time, helped, with those of others, to prepare the way for what took place sev eral years after. It was to the Russian war that Moldauia and 'Walachia were destined to owe their virtual emancipation from the yoke of Turkey, and the chance of obtaining self-government and union. The union of the two principalities was carried by the res olution of their. inhabitants, backed by the support of France, in spite of political obsta cles that seemed almost insurmountable; and A. did not a little to inspire the resolution of his countrymen. A song which he wrote at the critical moment in 1856, ne Hour of Union, became exceedingly popular, and by its stirring appeals to the feeling of Rou man nationality, helped to allay the jealousies which divided the two principalities, and to make them work toget her for the union. A. took a prominent part in all the political transactions which culminated in this result. It should be stated that two years earlier, when the death of his father had put him into possession of the family estate, he had emancipated the serfs who lived upon it; and that this example found so many imitators that the government found itself almost immediately compelled to decree a general meas ure of enfranchisement.
A.'s Popular Ballads of Roumania, which he had begun to compose in 1842, appeared at Jassy in two parts in 1852 and 1853. One of the parts, translated into French by him self, was afterwards published at Paris under the title of Ballades et Chantes Poindatree de la Jihumanie. His collected dramatic works were published at Jassy in 1852. An other volume of poems appeared at Paris in 1853; and of this volume a French transla tion, with the title, Les Doinas Poesies hfoldaves, was soon afterwards produced by M. Vanesco. Le Collier Litterairv, a miscellaneous collection of pieces in prose and verse, many of which had previously appeared in periodicals, he published in 1857. A., as may be inferred from facts already stated, has written largely in periodicals, but mostly on subjects of passing interest. All his works, besides their intrinsic merits, which are very considerable, arc interesting from the connection they have with the growth of a national feeling among the Romnans.