ELZE

elze, karl (1821-1889), german scholar and shakespearian critic, was born at dessau on the 22nd of may 1821. having studied (1839-1843) classical philology, and modern, but especially english, literature at the university of leipzig, he was a master for a time in the gymnasium (classical school) at dessau, and in 1875 was appointed extraordinary, and in 1876 ordinary, professor of english philology at the university of halle, in which city he died on the 21st of january 1889. 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_ with critical notes. he also edited chapman's _alphonsus_ (1867) and wrote biographies of walter scott, byron and shakespeare; _abhandlungen zu shakespeare_ (english translation by d. schmitz, as _essays on shakespeare_, london, 1874), and the excellent treatise, _notes on elizabethan dramatists with conjectural emendations of the text_ (3 vols., halle, 1880-1886, new ed. 1889).