JOHANNES CARSTEN

HAUCH (1790-1872)  , Danish poet, was born of Danish parents residing at Frederikshald in Norway, on the 12th of May 1790 . In 1802 he lost his mother, and in 1803 returned with his father to Denmark . In 1807 he fought as a volunteer against the English invasion . He entered the university of Copenhagen in r8o8, and in 1821 took his doctor's degree . He became the friend and associate of Steffens and Oehlenschldger, warmly adopting the romantic views about poetry and philosophy . His first two dramatic poems, The Journey to Ginistan and The Power of Fancy, appeared in 1816, and were followed by a lyrical drama, Rosaura (1817); but these works attracted little or no attention . Hauch therefore gave up all hope of fame as a poet, and resigned himself entirely to the study of science . He took his doctor's degree in zoology in 1821, and went abroad to pursue his studies . At Nice he had an accident which obliged him to submit to the amputation of one foot . He returned to literature, publishing a dramatized fairy tale, the Hamadryad, and the tragedies of Bajazet, Tiberius, Gregory VII., in 1828-1829, The Death of Charles V . (1831), and The Siege of Maestricht (1832) . These plays were violently attacked and enjoyed no success .

Hauch then turned to novel-

writing, and published in succession five romances—Vilhelm Zabern (1834); The Alchemist (1836); A Polish Family (1839); The castle on the Rhine (1845); and Robert Fulton (18J3) . In 1842 he collected his shorter Poems . In 1846 he waS appointed professor of the Scandinavian languages in Kiel, but returned to Copenhagen when the war broke out in 1848 . About this time his dramatic talent was at its height, and he produced one admirable tragedy after "another; among these may be mentioned Svend Gratlze (1841); The Sisters at Kinnekulle (1849); Marshal Stig (1850); Honour Lost and Won (1851); and Tycho Brahe's Youth (1852) . From 1858 to 186o Bauch was director of the Danish National Theatre; he produced three more tragedies—The King's Favourite (1859); Henry of Navarre (1363); and Julian the Apostate (1866) . In 1861 he published another collection of Lyrical Poems and Romances; and in 1862 the historical epic of Valdemar Seir, volumes which contain his best work . From 181, when he succeeded Oehlenschlager, to his death, he held the honorary post of professor of aesthetics at the university of Copenhagen . He died in Rome in 1872 . Rauch was one of the most prolific of the Danish poets, though his writings are unequal in value . His lyrics and romances in verse are always line in form and often strongly imaginative . In all his writings, but especially in his tragedies, he displays a strong bias in favour of what is mystical and supernatural . Of his dramas Marshal .Stilt is perhaps the best, and of his novels the patriotic tale of Vlhelm Zabern is admired the most .

See G .

Brandes, " Carsten Ifauch " (1873) in DanskeDigtere (1877) ; F . R6nning, J . C . Rauch (189o), and in Dansk Biografssk-Lexicon, (vol. vii . Copenhagen, 1893) . Winch's novels were collected (1873–18774) and his dramatic works (3 vols., and ed., 1852–1859) .