Karl Friedrich Elze (22 May 1821,

Dessau Dessau is a town and former municipality in Germany at the confluence of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the '' Bundesland'' (Federal State) of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2007, it has been part of the newly created municipality of Dessau-Roßlau ...

21 January 1889, Halle) was a German scholar and

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governmen ...

Life

He was the son of Pastor Karl August Wilhelm Elze. He studied (1839–1843) classical

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...

, and modern, but especially English, literature at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...

where he obtained his PhD. He was a master for a time in the gymnasium (preparatory school) at Dessau, and in 1875 was appointed extraordinary, and in 1876 ordinary, professor of English philology at the

University of Halle Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (german: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), also referred to as MLU, is a public, research-oriented university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg and the largest and oldest university i ...

. The course catalogue for the winter 1875/76 has a four-hour lecture on the history of English literature one hour each day on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. On Wednesdays and Saturdays he publicly lectured on Shakespeare's

The Merchant of Venice ''The Merchant of Venice'' is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. A merchant in Venice named Antonio defaults on a large loan provided by a Jewish moneylender, Shylock. Although classified as ...

.History of the Institute of English studies at the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg
by Dietmar Schneider and Dorothea Sommer (August 8, 2013) Elze began his literary career with the ''Englischer Liederschatz'' (1851), an anthology of English lyrics, edited for a while a critical periodical ''Atlantis'', and in 1857 published an edition of Shakespeare's ''

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

'' with critical notes. He also edited

George Chapman George Chapman (Hitchin, Hertfordshire, – London, 12 May 1634) was an English dramatist, translator and poet. He was a classical scholar whose work shows the influence of Stoicism. Chapman has been speculated to be the Rival Poet of Shak ...

's ''Alphonsus'' (1867) and wrote biographies of

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'', ''Rob Roy (n ...

Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...

and Shakespeare; ''Abhandlungen zu Shakespeare'' (English translation by D Schmitz, as ''Essays on Shakespeare'', London, 1874), and the treatise, ''Notes on Elizabethan Dramatists'' with

conjectural emendation Conjecture (conjectural emendation) is a critical reconstruction of the original reading of a clearly corrupt, contaminated, nonsensical or illegible textual fragment. Conjecture is one of the techniques of textual criticism used by philologists w ...

s of the text (3 vols, Halle, 1880–1886, new ed. 1889). He was politically active as a member of the Dessau-ischen for many years and presented a programmatic script to the Constitution of the Duchy of 1848 and promoted the idea that "Freedom of religion should be granted without Government controls".Karl Elze
(German-English) Catalogus Professorum Halensis

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elze, Karl 1821 births 1889 deaths People from Dessau-Roßlau People from Anhalt-Dessau German literary critics Leipzig University alumni Academic staff of the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg Shakespearean scholars German male dramatists and playwrights 19th-century German dramatists and playwrights 19th-century German male writers German male poets