Alexander Schmidt (philologist)

Alexander Schmidt (born December 5, 1816 in Kashin , Russian Empire ; † June 27, 1887 in Königsberg i. Pr. ) Was a German philologist and high school teacher . The work of William Shakespeare occupied him for over 50 years . His Shakespeare lexicon is considered one of the great achievements of the 19th century , the "German Century of Philology". For the German Shakespeare Society he edited and commented on 22 of 36 pieces in the translation by Ludwig Tieck and August Wilhelm Schlegel .

Life

Schmidt was the son of a doctor and the daughter of an estate manager. The family moved to Schwetz in 1819 and to Preußisch Eylau in 1821 , where the father became a district doctor . After the city school there, Schmidt attended the Collegium Fridericianum and the Kneiphöfische Gymnasium . After Michaelis had passed an excellent Abitur in 1834 , he enrolled at the Albertus University in Königsberg for ancient languages and history . He became a member of the Scotia Corpsland Team . Of not very robust nature, "he enjoyed the often sung" Days of Roses "as a liaison boy to the full". A student watercolor portrait of him is preserved in Wilhelm Schmiedeberg's Pages of Memory .

After the excellent doctorate to Dr. phil. (1838) and the Examen pro facultate docendi he became an assistant teacher at Easter 1840 and in 1842 a permanent teacher at the St. Petri School in Gdansk . In 1855 the government in Königsberg appointed him director of the city's high school; Schmidt taught at this later Löbenicht secondary school for over 30 years until Michaelis 1885.

When he died at the age of 71, his students erected a memorial with a relief by Friedrich Reusch in the Löbenicht cemetery .

Publications

• French grammar supplements . School program Danzig 1853
• Explanatory notes on Shakespeare's dramas . Danzig 1842
• Essay on the Life and dramatic Writings of Ben Jonson (1847)
• Voltaire's Contribution to Introducing Shakespeare to France (1864)
• On Shakespeare's textual criticism . Yearbook of the German Shakespeare Society III, 1868
• Coriolanus , edition. (1878)
• King Lear , edition. (1879)
• On the textual criticism of King Lear (Anglia III, 1879)
• Quartos and folio of Richard III . Yearbook of the German Shakespeare Society XV, 1880
• The oldest editions of the Midsummer Night's Dream . Königsberg program 1881
• Shakespeare Lexicon. A complete dictionary of all the english words, phrases and constructions in the works of the poet , 2 Bde. Berlin 1874 and 1875 (2nd ed. 1885). A – L (GoogleBooks) , M – Z (GoogleBooks)
  • engl. Reprint Vol. 1 (A-M) 1971, Dover Publications, ISBN 978-0-486-22726-9
  • engl. Reprint Vol. 1 (N-Z) 1971, Dover Publications, ISBN 978-0-486-22727-6

Transfers

• Songs of ancient rome. 1853
• Essays by Thomas Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay
• Thomas Moore : Lalla Rookh . 1857, 2nd edition 1876
• Songs of the Scottish Cavaliers, a memorial stone, set the manes of the poet William Edmonstoune Aytoun . Königsberg program 1866
• Lectures by Walter Scott , 1861
• Milton's Dramatic Poetry . 1864, reprinted 2012, ISBN 978-1-248-77141-9

literature

• Karl Lentzner : A. Schmidt . In: English Studies 11,, 364–387. S.
• Ferdinand Schultz : A. Schmidt . In: Yearbook of the German Shakespeare Society 24, pp. 174–179.
• Carl Witt : Dr . A. Schmidt. A life sketch. Collected treatises by Dr. AS (1889), pp. 1–23 (with almost all articles)
• Ludwig Julius Fränkel:  Schmidt, Alexander . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 31, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1890, pp. 713-715.

Web links

• Works by and about Alexander Schmidt  in the German Digital Library
• Alexander Schmidt's personnel sheet in the BIL's personnel file in the archive database of the Library for Research on Educational History (BBF)