Elisabeth of Baden-Durlach
Elisabeth von Baden-Durlach (born February 6, 1620 in Durlach ; died October 13, 1692 in Basel ) was a German poet .
Life
Elisabeth was a daughter of Margrave Georg Friedrich von Baden-Durlach from his second marriage to Agathe von Erbach (1581–1621). After the death of her mother in 1629, she and her artistically talented older sister Anna Maria moved in with their father, who was living in Strasbourg during the war and whom they had hardly seen until then. The sisters were taught foreign languages, painting, and history. Isaiah Rompler von Löwenhalt, who was encouraged by her father and later by the sisters, probably instructed her to write poems . After their father's death in 1638, the sisters moved to Basel, where Elisabeth and Anna began to write down their poems. The French writer Samuel Chappuzeau gave a very flattering description of the two sisters in his travelogue. Those who returned to Durlach after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 had to flee to Basel again in 1685 before the military attacks by Louis XIV on the eve of the War of the Palatinate Succession . Elisabeth spent her last years there.
plant
The sayings written by Elisabeth in Alexandrians were printed in 1685 and were well appreciated, as can be seen from the fact that they were reprinted in 1696 and even had an edition (not widely available in bookshops) in the 19th century. The subject of the sayings are exhortations to virtue, their aim is the edification of the reader. As sources, Elisabeth used the Bible , texts by Luther , the Church Fathers , classical writers and foreign currency from well-known rulers.
Some examples of their sayings:
No. 114:
The snail crawls slowly / can reach the path:
so the old man sneaks in without a notice.
No. 307:
In this mortality one must patiently suffer
what one is unable to avoid outside of one's own strength.
No. 718:
What is a beautiful body / which is not also adorned by the soul?
A beautifully painted house / there is no host to be felt.
Fonts
- A thousand merck-worthy memorial sayings. Gathered from different authors and translated into German verse . Müller, Durlach 1685, digitized version . 2nd edition 1696. 3rd edition: Gedenck book of the high-spirited Princess Elisabeth, born Margravine of Baden-Durlach. Braun, Karlsruhe 1834.
- In the Proverbs of Solomon: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Starting in Basel AC 1647, June 21st . Manuscript, Badische Landesbibliothek , Cat.N 403.
Individual evidence
- ^ Samuel Chappuzeau: L'Allemagne protestante ou relation nouv. d'un voyage aux cours des Electeurs et des Prince Protestants de l'Empire en 1669 . Geneva 1671, digitized , p. 90.
literature
- Jakob Franck : Elisabeth, Margravine of Baden . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1877, pp. 12-14.
- Jean M. Woods: Elisabeth of Baden-Durlach . In: Wilhelm Kühlmann (Ed.): Killy Literature Lexicon . Authors and works from the German-speaking cultural area . 2nd, completely revised edition de Gruyter, Berlin 2008, vol. 3, p. 253 f.
- Jean M. Woods: ›Duty commands me / to write and to poetry‹: Three margravines of Baden-Durlach who work in literature . In: The woman from the Reformation to Romanticism , ed. Barbara Becker-Cantarino, 2nd edition, Bonn 1987, pp. 36–57.
- Karl Zell: The princely daughters of the House of Baden . Karlsruhe 1842, pp. 47-49. Passages from it and examples of sayings printed in: August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben , Oskar Schade (ed.): Weimarisches Jahrbuch für deutsche Sprache, Litteratur und Kunst , Volume 2, 1855, pp. 213-218 .
- Wilhelm Kühlmann, Walter E. Schäfer (ed.): The Isaiah Romplers von Löwenhalt first bushes of his rhyme tales . Reprint of the Strasbourg 1647 edition with afterword. Tübingen 1988.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Baden-Durlach, Elisabeth von |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German poet |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 6, 1620 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Durlach |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 13, 1692 |
| Place of death | Basel |