ELIZABETH [PAULINE ELIZABETH OTTILIE

See also:

• LOUISE [AUGUSTE WILHELMINE AMALIE LUISE] (1776-1810)

LOUISE] (1843– )  , consort of King Charles I . (q.v.) of Rumania, widely known by her literary name of " Carmen Sylva," was born on the 29th of December 1843 . She was the daughter of Prince Hermann of Neuwied . She first met the future king of Rumania at Berlin in 1861, and was married to him on the 15th of November 1869 . Her only child, a daughter, died in 1874 . In the Russo-Turkish War of 1879-1878 she devoted herself to the care of the wounded, and founded the Order of Elizabeth (a gold cross on a blue ribbon) to reward distinguished service in such work . She fostered the higher education of women in Rumania, and established societies for various charitable objects . Early distinguished by her excellence as a pianist, organist and singer, she also showed considerable ability in painting and illuminating; but a lively poetic imagination led her to the path of literature, and more especially to poetry, folk-lore and ballads . In addition to numerous original works she put into literary form many of the legends current among the Rumanian peasantry . Carmen Sylva " wrote with facility in German, Rumanian, French and English . A few of her voluminous writings, which include poems, plays, novels, short stories, essays, collections of aphorisms, &c., may be singled out for special mention . Her earliest publications were Sappho and Hammerstein, two poems which appeared at Leipzig in 1880 .

In 1888 she received the Prix Gotta, a

prize awarded triennially by the French Academy, for her volume of prose aphorisms Les Pensees d'une reine (Paris, 1882), a German version of which is entitled Vom Amboss (Bonn, 189o) . Cuvinte Suflelesci, religious meditations in Rumanian (Bucharest, 1888), was also translated into German (Bonn, 1890), under the name of Seelen-Gesprache . Several of the works of " Carmen Sylva " were written in collaboration with Mite Kremnitz, one of her maids of honour, who was born at Greifswald in 1857, and married Dr Kremnitz of Bucharest; these were published between 1881 and 1888, in some cases under the pseudonyms Dito et Idem, and includes the novel Aus zwei Welten (Leipzig, 1884), Anna Boleyn (Bonn, 1886), a tragedy, In der Irre (Bonn, 1888), a collection of short stories, &c . Edleen Vaughan, or Paths of Peril, a novel (London, 1894), and Sweet Hours, poems (London, 1904), were written in English . Among the translations made by " Carmen Sylva" are German versions of Pierre Loti's romance Pecheur d'Islande, and of Paul de St Victor's dramatic criticisms Les Deux Masques (Paris, 1881–1884) ; and in particular The Bard of the Dimbovitza, a fine English version by " Carmen Sylva " and Alma Strettell of Helene Vacarescu's collection of Rumanian folk-songs, &c., entitled Lieder aus dem Dimbovitzathal (Bonn, 1889) . The Bard of the Dimbovitza was first published in 1891, and was soon reissued and expanded . Translations from the original works of " Carmen Sylva " have appeared in all the principal languages of Europe and in Armenian . See RUMANIA: History; also M . Kremnitz, Carmen Sylva—eine Biographic (Leipzig, 1903) ; and, for a full bibliography, G . Bengescu, Carmen Sylva—bibliographie et extraits de ses csuvres (Paris, 1904) .