Karl August,
who had joined a Hanoverian regiment in the service of the East India
Company. The second of these poems is "Neoptolemus an Diokles" (ii. 13),
written in 1800, and dedicated to the memory of this same brother who
had died at Madras in 1789.[131] As a matter of fact, there is really
nothing Oriental in the spirit of the poem.

Aside from translations, the only poems that are connected with
Schlegel's Sanskrit studies, are the epigrams against his illustrious
contemporaries, Bopp and Rueckert. Those against the former (ii. 234) are
of no special interest here. With those against Rueckert, however, the
case is different. It is worth while noting that towards the
distinguished scholar-poet Schlegel assumed a patronizing attitude. To
Rueckert's masterly renderings from Sanskrit literature he referred
slightingly as "Sanskritpoesiemetriknachahmungen" (ii. 235). But when he
hailed the younger poet as

Aller morgenlaend'schen Zaeune Koenig,
Wechselsweise zeisigkranichtoenig! (ii. 218),

he came much nearer to the truth than he imagined at the time. For,
while it will be conceded that Rueckert did not always sing with equal
power, it also is indisputable that he is the leading spirit in the
movement under investigation. But we shall not anticipate a discussion
of this poet's work, which is reserved for a succeeding chapter.

FOOTNOTES:

[125] See Benfey, Gesch. der Sprachwissenschaft und orient. Philologie
in Deutschland, Muenchen, 1869, pp. 361-369.

[126] The _sloka_, the _tristubh_ and the _jagati_ metre are described,
the last two, however, not by name. Narada's speech, p. 236, is in
_sloka_, 16 syllables to the line; the first distich, p. 233, is in
_tristubh_, 22 syllables to the line. Quantity of course is ignored.

[127] See Benfey, op. cit. pp. 379-405.

[128] Friedr. Schlegel, Saemmtliche Werke, Wien, 1846. vol. ii. p. 82
seq.

[129] Aug. W. Schlegel, Saemmtliche Werke. Leipz. 1846. vol. iii. p. 7
seq.

[130] Ibid. i. p. 82.

[131] Friedr. Schlegel, Weisheit der Indier, pref. pp. xii, xiii. See
also prefatory remarks to the poem in question.

CHAPTER VII.

PLATEN.

His Oriental Studies--Ghaselen--Their Persian
Character--Imitation of Persian Form--Translations.

The first to introduce the _gazal_ in its strict form into German
literature[132] was Rueckert, who in 1821 published a version of a number
of _gazals_ from the _divan_ of Rumi.[133] Chronological