Bernhard Egidius Konrad ten Brink (12 January 1841 in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

29 January 1892 in Strasbourg) was a German

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

Life

Born in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, he attended school at

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in ...

and

Essen Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and ...

, studied for half a year at the

University of Münster The University of Münster (german: Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, WWU) is a public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. With more than 43,000 students and over 120 fields of stud ...

, and then moved to the

University of Bonn The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine ...

, where his teachers included

Friedrich Diez Friedrich Christian Diez (15 March 179429 May 1876) was a German philologist. The two works on which his fame rests are the ''Grammar of the Romance Languages'' (published 1836–1844), and the ''Etymological Dictionary of the Romance Languages'' ...

and

Nicolaus Delius Nicolaus Delius (19 September 1813 – 18 November 1888) was a German philologist. Delius was born at Bremen; he was distinguished especially as a student of Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English ...

. After finishing his doctoral dissertation, "Coniectanea in historiam rei metricae Francogallicae," he began to lecture at the University of Münster on the philology of the English and Romance languages, and defended his post-doctoral thesis (Habilitation) on the

Roman de Rou ''Roman de Rou'' is a verse chronicle by Wace in Norman covering the history of the Dukes of Normandy from the time of Rollo of Normandy to the battle of Tinchebray in 1106. It is a national epic of Normandy. Following the success of his ...

. In 1870 he became professor of

modern languages A modern language is any human language that is currently in use. The term is used in language education to distinguish between languages which are used for day-to-day communication (such as French and German) and dead classical languages such a ...

at the

University of Marburg The Philipps University of Marburg (german: Philipps-Universität Marburg) was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Protestant university in the worl ...

, and after the reconstitution of

Strassburg University The University of Strasbourg (french: Université de Strasbourg, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. The French university traces its history to the e ...

as Kaiser-Wilhelm-Universität was appointed the very first Professor of English on the European continent. In 1874 he began to edit, in collaboration with

Wilhelm Scherer Wilhelm Scherer (26 April 18416 August 1886) was a German philologist and historian of literature. He was known as a positivist because he based much of his work on "hypotheses on detailed historical research, and rooted every literary phenomenon ...

Ernst Martin Ernst Eduard Martin (5 May 1841, Jena – 13 August 1910, Strasbourg) was a German philologist of Romance and Germanic studies. He was the son of gynecologist Eduard Arnold Martin (1809–1875). He studied at the universities of Jena, Berli ...

and Erich Schmidt, ''Quellen und Forschungen zur Sprach- und Kulturgeschichte der germanischen Völker'', a book series meant to assist the German government in the Germanizing of Strasbourg and Alsace-Lorraine. While he continued to lecture on French and English literature, he smartly focused his research on the father of English poetry, Geoffrey Chaucer. In 1877, he published ''Chaucer: Studien zur Geschichte seiner Entwickelung und zur Chronologie seiner Schriften'', a study which analyzed Chaucer's literary models and verse forms to determine the later widely accepted division of the poet's works into three periods: a first period during which he was mostly influenced by French models as well as by

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the ...

; a second period during which his main inspiration came from Italian models (

Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His '' Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: ...

Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio (, , ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so well known as a writer that he was some ...

Petrarch Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credite ...

); and a third period of mature literary production. In 1884, he published ''Chaucers Sprache und Verskunst'', the first full-fledged investigation of Chaucer's grammar and metrics and an achievement that guaranteed him a place of honor as recently as 1987, in the General Bibliography of the ''Riverside Chaucer'', the most widely used edition of Chaucer in the world. English-language publishing houses, such as Henry Holt & Company, N.Y., and G. Bell & Sons, London, published English translations of his works on Early English Literature during these years. He also published critical editions of the ''General Prologue'' of the ''Canterbury Tales'' and the ''Compleynte unto Pity''. Ten Brink's work stimulated a revival of Chaucer study in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

as well as in Germany, and to him was indirectly due the foundation of the English

Chaucer Society Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He wa ...

. In addition, he made important contributions to the study of

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 natio ...

and ''Beowulf'' and authored one of the first scholarly histories of English literature. His international scholarly reputation as well as his efforts at Germanizing the

University of Strasbourg The University of Strasbourg (french: Université de Strasbourg, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. The French university traces its history to the ...

contributed to his appointment as Rektor (President) of his institution in 1890. Together with

Julius Zupitza Julius Zupitza (4 January 1844 in Kerpen, Upper Silesia – 6 July 1895 in Berlin) was a German philologist and one of the founders of English philology in Germany. Biography Zupitza was the son of Major Andreas Zupitza and his wife, Adelhe ...

Eugen Kölbing Eugen Kölbing (1846-1899) was a German philologist, a specialist in the study of Nordic, English, and French language and literature and comparative linguistics and literature. Academic career Eugen Kölbing studied Philosophy, Classical Philolo ...

, and

Ewald Flügel Ewald Flügel (May 8, 1863, in Leipzig, Kingdom ofSaxony, - November 14, 1914, Palo Alto, California) was one of the international pioneers of the study of Old and Middle English Literature and Language and one of the founding professors of Englis ...

, ten Brink helped found modern

English Studies English studies (usually called simply English) is an academic discipline taught in primary, secondary, and post-secondary education in English-speaking countries; it is not to be confused with English taught as a foreign language, which ...

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ten Brink, Bernhard 1841 births 1892 deaths German philologists Chaucer scholars

Life

Notes

References

Further reading

External links