Germany, which embraces a population of thirty-six millions of people,
has twenty-two universities. The following table contains their names
according to the order of their foundation, and the number of professors
and students:
+-------------+--------+-----------+---------+
| | When | Number of | Number |
|Universities.|founded.|Professors.| of |
| | | |Students.|
+-------------+--------+-----------+---------+
|Prague | 1348 | 55 | 1449 |
|Vienna | 1365 | 77 | 1688 |
|Heidelberg | 1368 | 55 | 626 |
|Warsbourg | 1403 | 31 | 660 |
|Leipsig | 1409 | 81 | 1384 |
|Rostock | 1419 | 34 | 201 |
|Fribourg | 1450 | 35 | 556 |
|Griefswald | 1456 | 30 | 227 |
|Bâle | 1460 | 24 | 214 |
|Tubingen | 1477 | 44 | 827 |
|Marbourg | 1527 | 38 | 304 |
|Kœnisberg | 1544 | 23 | 303 |
|Jena | 1558 | 51 | 432 |
|Giessen | 1607 | 39 | 371 |
|Kiel | 1665 | 26 | 238 |
|Halle | 1694 | 64 | 1119 |
|Breslau | 1702 | 49 | 710 |
|Gœttengen | 1734 | 89 | 1545 |
|Erlangen | 1743 | 34 | 498 |
|Landshut | 1803 | 48 | 623 |
|Berlin | 1810 | 86 | 1245 |
|Bonn | 1818 | 42 | 526 |
+-------------+--------+-----------+---------+
Of this number six belong to Prussia, three to Bavaria, two to the
Austrian States, two to the Grand Duchy of Baden, two to the Electorate
of Hesse-Cassel, and one to each of the following states--Saxony,
Wurtemberg, Denmark, Hanover, the Grand Duchies of Mecklenbergh-Schweren
and of Saxe-Weimar, and Switzerland. The total number of professors is
1055, embracing not only the ordinary and extraordinary professors, but
also the private lecturers, whose courses of reading are announced in
the half-yearly programmes. Catholic Germany, which reckons nineteen
millions of inhabitants, has only six universities; while Protestant
Germany, for seventeen millions of inhabitants, has seventeen. Of the
students there are 149 for every 250,000 in the Protestant states, while
there are only 68 for the same number in the Catholic states. It must,
however, be mentioned, that this estimate does not take in those
Catholic ecclesiastics who do not pursue their studies in the
universities, but in private seminaries.--The universities of Paderborn
and Munster, both belonging to Prussia, and which had only two
faculties, those of theology and philosophy, were suppressed; the first
in 1818, and the second in 1819; but that of Munster has been
reestablished, with the three faculties of theology, philosophy, and
medicine.
Vol. I.--5.
[Illustration: ~Colley Cibber’s youngest Daughter.~]
Last of her sire in dotage--she was used
By him, as children use a fav’rite toy;
Indulg’d, neglected, fondled, and abus’d,
As quick affection of capricious joy,
Or sudden humour of dislike dictated:
Thoughtlessly rear’d, she led a thoughtless life;
And she so well beloved became most hated:
A helpless mother, and a wife unblest,
She pass’d precocious womanhood in strife;
Or, in strange hiding-places, without rest;
Or, wand’ring in disquietude for bread:
Her father’s curse--himself first cause of all
That caused his ban--sunk her in deeper thrall,
Stifling her heart, till sorrow and herself were dead.
*
“THE LIFE OF MRS. CHARLOTTE CHARKE, _youngest daughter of Colley Cibber,
Esq. written by herself_,” is a curious narrative of remarkable
vicissitudes. She dedicates it to herself, and aptly concludes her
dedication by saying, “Permit me, madam, to subscribe myself, for the
future, what I ought to have been some years ago, your real friend, and
humble servant, CHARLOTTE CHARKE.”
In the “Introduction” to the recent reprint of this singular work, it is
well observed, that “her Life will serve to show what very strange
creatures _may_ exist, and the endless diversity of habits, tastes, and
inclinations, which may spring up spontaneously, like weeds, in the
hot-bed of corrupt civilization.” She was born when Mrs. Cibber was
forty-five years old, and when both her father and mother had ceased to
expect an addition to their family: the result was that Charlotte Cibber
was a spoiled child. She married Mr. Richard Charke, an eminent violin
player, of dissolute habits; and, after a course of levities, consequent
upon the early recklessness of her parents, she was repudiated by her
father. When she wrote her life, she was in great penury: it was
published in eight numbers, at three-pence each. In the last, which
appeared on the 19th of April, 1755, she feelingly deplores the failure
of her attempts to obtain forgiveness of her father, and says, “I cannot
recollect any crime I have been guilty of that is unpardonable.” After
intimating a design to open an oratorical academy, for the instruction
of persons going on the stage, she mentions her intention to publish
“Mr. Dumont’s history, the first number of which will shortly make its
appearance.” This was a novel she was then writing, which a bookseller
treated with her for, in company with Mr. Samuel Whyte of Dublin, who
thus describes her distressed situation:--
“Cibber the elder had a daughter named Charlotte, who also took to the
stage; her subsequent life was one continued series of misfortune,
afflictions, and distress, which she sometimes contrived a little to
alleviate by the productions of her pen. About the year 1755, she had
worked up a novel for the press, which the writer accompanied his friend
the bookseller to hear read; she was at this time a widow, having been
married to one Charke a musician, long since dead. Her habitation was a
wretched thatched hovel, situated on the way to Islington in the
purlieus of Clerkenwell Bridewell, not very distant from the New River
Head, where at that time it was usual for the scavengers to leave the
cleansings of the streets, &c. The night preceding a heavy rain had
fallen, which rendered this extraordinary seat of the muses almost
inaccessible, so that in our approach we got our white stockings
enveloped with mud up to the very calves, which furnished an appearance
much in the present fashionable style of half-boots. We knocked at the
door, (not attempting to pull the latch string,) which was opened by a
tall, meagre, ragged figure, with a blue apron, indicating, what else we
might have doubted, the feminine gender,--a perfect model for the copper
captain’s tattered landlady; that deplorable exhibition of the fair sex,
in the comedy of Rule-a-Wife. She with a torpid voice and hungry smile
desired us to walk in. The first object that presented itself was a
dresser, clean, it must be confessed, and furnished with three or four
coarse delf plates, two brown platters, and underneath an earthen pipkin
and a black pitcher with a snip out of it. To the right we perceived and
bowed to the mistress of the mansion sitting on a maimed chair under the
mantle-piece, by a fire, merely sufficient to put us in mind of
starving. On one hob sat a monkey, which by way of welcome chattered at
our going in; on the other a tabby cat, of melancholy aspect! and at our
author’s feet on the flounce of her dingy petticoat reclined a dog,
almost a skeleton! he raised his shagged head, and, eagerly staring with
his bleared eyes, saluted us with a snarl. ‘Have done, Fidele! these are
friends.’ The tone of her voice was not harsh; it had something in it
humbled and disconsolate; a mingled effort of authority and
pleasure.--Poor soul! few were her visitors of that description--no
wonder the creature barked!.--A magpie perched on the top ring of her
chair, not an uncomely ornament! and on her lap was placed a mutilated
pair of bellows, the pipe was gone, an advantage in their present
office, they served as a succedaneum for a writing-desk, on which lay
displayed her hopes and treasure, the manuscript of her novel. Her
ink-stand was a broken tea-cup, the pen worn to a stump; she had but
one! a rough deal board with three hobbling supporters was brought for
our convenience, on which, without farther ceremony, we contrived to sit
down and entered upon business:--the work was read, remarks made,
alterations agreed to, and thirty guineas demanded for the copy. The
squalid handmaiden, who had been an attentive listener, stretched
forward her tawny length of neck with an eye of anxious
expectation!--The bookseller offered five!--Our authoress did not appear
hurt; disappointments had rendered her mind callous; however, some
altercation ensued. This was the writer’s first initiation into the
mysteries of bibliopolism and the state of authorcraft. He, seeing both
sides pertinacious, at length interposed, and at his instance the wary
haberdasher of literature doubled his first proposal, with this saving
proviso, that his friend present would pay a moiety and run one half the
risk; which was agreed to. Thus matters were accommodated, seemingly to
the satisfaction of all parties; the lady’s original stipulation of
fifty copies for herself being previously acceded to. Such is the story
of the once-admired daughter of Colley Cibber, Poet Laureate and
patentee of Drury-lane, who was born in affluence and educated with care
and tenderness, her servants in livery, and a splendid equipage at her
command, with swarms of time-serving sycophants officiously buzzing in
her train; yet, unmindful of her advantages and improvident in her
pursuits, she finished the career of her miserable existence on a
dunghill.”[36]
Mr. Whyte’s account of the “reading the manuscript,” a subject worthy of
Wilkie’s pencil, is designed to be illustrated by the engraving at the
head of this article. Of Mrs. Charke, after that interview, nothing
further is known, except that she kept a public-house, at Islington, and
is said to have died on the 6th of April, 1760.[37] Her brother
Theophilus was wrecked, and perished on his way to Dublin, in October,
1758; her father died on the 12th of December, in the year preceding.
Her singular “Narrative” is printed verbatim in the seventh volume of
“Autobiography,” with the life of the late “Mary Robinson,” who was also
an actress, and also wrote her own “Memoirs.”
[36] Whyte’s Collection of Poems, second edition. Dublin, 1792.
[37] Biog. Dram.
* * * * *