Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Anastasius Grün

GRÜN, Anastasius (1806-1876), pseudonym for Anton Alexander, count of Auersperg, who was born April 11, 1806, at Laibach, the capital of the Austrian duchy of Carniola. He received his university education first at Gratz and then at Vienna, where he studied jurisprudence. In 1832 the title of " Imperial Chamberlain " was conferred upon him, and in 1839 he married the daughter of Count Attems. He accepted no official post, and devoted himself chiefly to literary pursuits. When the " March Revolution " broke out in 1848 at Vienna, the count entered the political arena, and represented the district of Laibach at the National Assembly at Frankfort-on-the-Main. After a few months, however, he resigned his seat, and again retired into private life. In 1860, when a fresh impulse was given to political life in Austria, he resumed his activity as a politician, and greatly distinguished himself in the Austrian House of Lords as one of the most intrepid and influential supporters of the cause of liberalism, both in political and religious matters, until his death in 1876. Count Auersperg ac quired great fame as a poet, as which he is known under the pseudonym of Anastasius Griin. His first publication, Blatter der Liebe, " Leaves of Love" (1830), showed little originality ; bat his second production, Der letzte Hitter, " The last Knight " (1830), brought to light his eminence as a poet. It celebrates the deeds and adventures of the emperor Maximilian I. (1493-1519), and contains exquisite poetical descriptions tinged with playful humour. His next poetical productions, Spaziergdnge eines Wiener Poeten, " Walks of a Vienna Poet " (1831), and Schutt, " Ruins " (1835), quite electrified the whole of Germany by the bold ness and originality of their conception and by their decided liberal tendency. His Collected Poems (1837) increased his reputation as a poet, but not so his epics, Die Nile- lungen im FracTc (1843) and Der Pfa/ vom Kahlemberg (1850). He also produced masterly translations of the popular Slovenic songs current in Carniola (1850), and of the English poems relating to "Robin Hood" (1869). Anastasius Griin may be called the originator of the modern school of political lyric poetry in Germany. His language is sonorous and majestic, and his descriptions, though some times overcrowded with imagery, bear the stamp of great poetical originality. He loved to employ the stately "Nibelungen measure," which imparted considerable vigour to some of his productions. Of his shorter poems Der letzte Dtchter, " The last Poet," is deservedly the mont popular.