WHEN the great Liberal movement of 1847 and 1848 in Germany was defeated, Gervinus, who had hoped much from it for Germany and humanity, was so despondent that he withdrew from politics and concentrated his energies on the study of Shakespeare. The result was his celebrated “Shakespeare Commentaries,” published (1849–50) in four volumes.

  It established his reputation as one of the greatest Shakespearean critics of the nineteenth century, and gave him a place in every important library in England and America. He was born at Darmstadt, Germany, May 20th, 1805. In 1835 he became a member of the faculty of Heidelberg University, but, withdrawing after a few years, he became professor of Literature and History at Göttingen. Expelled from Göttingen in 1837, for protesting against Royal attacks on constitutional government, he supported himself by literary work until 1844, when he returned to Heidelberg. In 1855 he published his “Introduction to the History of the Nineteenth Century” which led the authorities of Baden to imprison him for several months as a “traitor.” He was of a sensitive disposition, and the result of such persecution was apparently his permanent retirement to his study. He retired only to intrench himself, however, and in one great work after another he appealed to posterity in behalf of the higher civilization which the princelings and squirelings of his day regarded as treasonable. His greatest works are his “Shakespeare,” “History of German Literature,” and “History of German Poetry.” He died March 18th, 1871.