CHAMISSO, ADELBERT VON, one of the most celebrated of German lyric poets, was b. in 1781, at the castle of Boncourt, in Champagne. His parents settling in Prussia in 1790, he became a page of the queen, and entered upon a military career. But when the campaign of 1806 broke out, be returned to France, for though no admirer of Napo leon, he was unwilling to fight against his native land. At this time, he was thrown into the circle of Madame de Stall at Coppet, and there began that study of natural philosophy which he afterwards pursued at Berlin. In 1814, count Rumjanzow, chan cellor of the Russian empire, prepared an exploring expedition round the world at his own expense; C. accompanied it as naturalist. He embarked at Cronstadt under capt. Otto von Kotzebue, chief of the expedition, which, however, failed in its main object—that of discovering a north-east passage. Subsequently, he obtained a situation in the botanical gar den of Berhn, was made a member of the academy of science; and after a happy domestic life, died there in 1838, universally loved and honored. He wrote several works on natural
history, but his fame rests chiefly on his poetical productions. As early as 1804-1806, he, together with Varnhagen von Ense, published a Musen Almanac& In 1813, he wrote his original and amusing fiction called Peter Schlemild, the story of the man who loses his shadow, which has been translated into almost all the languages of Europe. The character of his poetry is wild and gloomy, and he is fond of rugged and horrible sub jects. In his political songs, he succeeds well in humor and irony; nor is he deficient in deep and genuine feeling. Indeed, several of his ballads and romances are master pieces in their way. We may instance one of his longest poems, Salas y Gomez, written in terza rima, as a proof how peculiarly German the cast of C.'s mind was, despite his French origin. Ilis collected works, in six volumes, appeared at Lelpsic in 1836-39.