CHAMISSO, ALDELBERT VON, a distinguished poet, naturalist, and traveller, was born on the 27th of January 1781 in the chateau of Boncoart in Champagne. He belonged to a very aucient noble family of Lorraine. Uutil the outbreak of the French revolution the family lived quietly ou their estate, and Adelbert'e brother Charles was one of the pages of Louis XVI., to whom he remaiued faithful to the last, and for whom he risked his life on several occasions. In 1790 the chateau Boucourt was razed to the ground, whereupon the family of the Chamissos quitted Franca ; and after having wandered about in the Netherlands and the south of Germany they ultimately went to Berlin in 1796, where, together with other French emigrauts, they took up their permanent residence. As they had lost all their property, the whole family lived upon the little income which two of the sons made by painting miniature portraits. Adelbert however was extremely fortunate : the Queen of Prussia made him one of her pages, and took great care of his education, which ho received in one of the gymnasiums of Berlin. He made himself thoroughly acquainted with the German language and literature, and the spirit which pervades all his own literary productions shows that he became so completely Germanised that the peculiarities of the German mind, which are most foreign to the Freuch, were in him most prominent. In 1798 he entered the Prussian army, and his parents accepting the offer of Napoleon, then First Consul, returned to France. Shortly after this he began writing poetry in German, and from 1804 to 1806 he edited a 'Musen-almanach' conjointly with Varnhagen von Ense. After the peace of Tilsit, Chemise() quitted the Prussian service; and in 1810 he returned to France, where his family had recovered a great part of their property. For a short time he was teacher in a school at NapohSonville, but his personal feelings and the friendships he had formed in Germany drew him back to that country. He now devoted himself almost entirely to the study of tho natural sciences. In 1813 he wrote for the amusement of the children of a friend a little book called 'Peter Sehlemil,' containing the story of a man who loses his shadow. This amusing little work, which has been translated into English and most other European languages, was first published in Germany by Chamiseo's friend be la Motto Fouqu4 (1814), which has led some persons to look upon it as the production of Fouqu6. A second edition, accompanied by some
lyric poems and ballads, was published by the author himself iu 1S27. In 1814 Count Rumjanzow, chanoellor of the Russian empire, prepared an exploring expedition round the world at his own expense. Ha invited Chemise° to accompany the expedition as naturalist, and the invitation was gladly accepted. In 1815 Chamisso embarked at Cron stadt under Captain Kotzebue, and returned thither in 1818. One of the main objects of the expedition had been the discovery of a north east passage, in which the expedition failed ; but iu all other respects the discoveries were highly satisfactory. An account of the voyage was published by Kotzebue in two volumes, and Chemise° himself published Bemerkuugen and Aneichten auf einer Raise um die Welt,' Weimar, 1821, 4to, which forms an indispensable supplement to Kotzebue's work, and contains a most faithful account of everything that came within the range of his persoual observation. After his return from this voyage Chemise° again took up his residence at Berlin ; the university conferred upon him the degree of Doctor in Philosophy; he became a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, and soon after he received the appointment of inspector of the botanical gardens of the tame city. While in this situation he wrote a botanical work, ' Uebersicht der in Norddeutschland vorkommendeu niitzliehsten nod schadlichsten Gewfichsa, nebat Anaichten fiber des Pflanzenreich nod Pflanzenkunde,' Berlin, 1827. These subjects however did not estrange him from the cultivation of poetry, for during the last ten years of his life he produced a great number of small poems, many of which, especially his popular legends and ballads, belong to the beat productions of the kind in German literature. He died on the 21st of August 1838 at Berlin. His poems were collected and published separately, Leipzig, 1831, in 1 vol. 8vo, and a second edition appeared in 1834. A collection of all his works, both in prow and in verse, was oareopeadecee, edited by J. E. Ilitzig.