PLATEN-HALLERMUND, plit'ten hfiller mnnt, AUGUST, Count VON (1796-1835). A dis tinguished German poet, born at Anshach. Edu cated in the Corps of Cadets and the Pages' Institute at Munich, he entered the Bavarian army in 1814, took part in the campaign of 1815, but, wearied afterwards by the dreary monotony of garrison duty, he obtained a furlough and, provided with a stipend, devoted himself to philo logical and philosophical studies, first at Wiirz burg (18IS-10), then until 1525 at Erlangen, where Schelliug exercised a lasting influence upon him. He had early turned to Oriental studies and as a fruit thereof published in 1821 G/mse/en, a collection of poems in Oriental forms, which was followed in 1524 by Nene Ghaselen, both series winning a favorable comment from Goethe. A visit to Italy in 1824 inspired Sonette cats lenedig (1825), the finest collection of sonnets in the German tongue, remarkable for classic beauty of form. Bitterly opposed to Romanticism as he found it, he appears nevertheless under ro mantic influence in his dramatic poem Der glii scrne Pantoffel (1824), welded out of the fairy tales of Cinderella and Snowdrop, in the comedy Der Schatz. des Rhampsinit (1824), and in his later epic Die Abbassiden (1834), based on stories from the Arabian Nights. The extravagances of German Romanticism, however, kindled his wrath, and he satirized the 'fate tragedy' effectually in Die rerhangnissrolle Gabel (1826). a fork here
taking the place of the dagger by which, in the typical fate tragedy, the family ancestress conies to grief, and a dozen descendants being stabbed by the 'fatal fork' before the close of the drama. The command of language and mastery of versifi cation distinguishing this literary comedy are even excelled in Der romantische Wdipas (1829) directed more especially against the lack of form in Romanticism and its tendency to experiment with new and unwieldy metres, the chief target of Platen's satire here being Immermann (q.v.), parodied as "Nimmermann." In 1826 Platen had made Italy his permanent home and thence only twice visited his native land. During his last so journ in Germany in 1833 he published the histor ical drama Die Liga ron Cambrai and Gesehiehten des Iiiiuiqreichs ea pel ron 141 his rp3. He died at Syracuse, Sicily. Platen was no genius. but a poet of exquisite taste, whose later verses are models of formal virtuosity in their complex rhythms and technical polish of rhyme. his best biography is to be found in his Tagebucher, edited by Laubmann and Scheifier (Stuttgart, l896 1900). Consult also: Minckwitz, Graf Platen als Mensek and Diehter (Leipzig, 1838) ; Gilder sleeve, Essays and Studies (New York, 1890) ; Besson, Platen, etude biographigue et (Paris, 1894) ; and Greulich, Platens Litterator komodien (Bern, 1901).