SNOILSKY, CARL JOHAN GUSTAF, COUNT (1841-1903)

This article appears in Volume V25, Page 295 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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SNOILSKY, CARL JOHAN GUSTAF, COUNT (1841-1903) , Swedish poet, was born at Stockholm on the 8th of September 1841. He was educated at the Clara School, and in 186o became a student at Upsala. He was trained for diplomacy, which he quitted for

work

WORK

at the Swedish Foreign Office. As early as 1861, under the pseudonym of " Sven Trost," he began to

poems, and he soon became the centre of the brilliant literary society of the

capital

CAPITAL (i.e. capital stock or fund)
CAPITAL (Lat. caput, head)

. In 1862 he published a collection of lyrics called Orchideer (" Orchids "). During 1864 and 1865 he was in Madrid and Paris on diplomatic missions. It was in 1869, when he first collected his Dikter under his own name, that Snoilsky took rank among the most eminent contemporary poets. His
' Though this word is clearly not intended as a nickname, such as is the prefix which custom has applied to the flaw, Pie, Redbreast, Titmouse or Wren, one can only guess at its origin or meaning. It may be, as in Jackass, an indication of sex, for it is a popular belief that the Jack-Snipe is the male of the common species; or, again, it may refer to the comparatively small size of the bird, as the " jack " in the game of bowls is the smallest of the ball's used, and as fisher-men

call

CALL (from Anglo-Saxon ceallian, a common Teutonic word, cf. Dutch kallen, to talk or chatter)

the smaller Pikes Jacks.
' His account was published by Hewitson in May 1855 (Eggs Br. Birds, 3rd ed., ii. pp. 356-358).
6 The so-called Painted Snipes, forming the genus Rhynchaea, demand a few words. Four species have been described, natives respectively of S. America, Africa, India with China, and Australia. In all of these it appears that the female is larger and more brilliantly coloured than the male, and in the Australian species she is further distinguished by what in most birds is emphatically a masculine property, though its use is here unknownnamely, a complex trachea, while the male has that organ simple. He is also believed to undertake the duty of incubation.
The

Double

or Solitary Snipe of English sportsmen, S. major, a larger species, also inhabits N. Europe, and may be readily re-cognized by the white bars in its wings and by its 16 or occasion-ally 18 rectrices. It has also a very different behaviour. When flushed it rises without alarm-cry, and flies heavily. In the breeding season much of its love-performance is exhibited on the ground, and the sounds to which it gives rise are of another character; but the exact way in which its " drumming " is effected has not been ascertained. Its gesticulations at this time have been well described by Professor Collett in a communication
' Hence in many languages the Snipe is known by names signifying " Flying Goat," " Heaven's Ram," as in

Scotland

by " Heatherbleater."
s Cf. Meves, Oef vers. K. Vet.-Akad. Forte. (1856), pp. 275-277 (transl. Naumannia, 1858, pp. 116, 117), and Proc. Zool. Society (1858), p. 202 with Wolley's remarks thereon, Zool. Garten (1876), pp. 204-208; P. H. Bahr (Proc. Zeal. Soc. of London, 1907, p. 12) has given a full account of the subject, with diagrams of the modified feathers.
Sonneter in 1871 increased his reputation. Then, for some years, Snoilsky abandoned poetry, and devoted himself to the

work

WORK

of the Foreign Office and to the study of

numismatics

. In 1876, however, he published a translation of the ballads of Goethe. Snoilsky had in 1876 been appointed keeper of the records, and had succeeded Bishop Genberg as one of the eighteen of the Swedish

Academy

ACADEMY, GREEK
ACADEMY, ROYAL

. But in 1879 he resigned all his posts, and left Sweden abruptly for Florence with the Baroness Ruuth-Piper, whom he married in 1880. Count Snoilsky sent

home

in 1881 a volume of Nye Dikter (New Poems). Two other volumes of Dikter appeared in 1883 and 1887, and 1897; Savonarola, a poem, in 1883, and Hvita frun (" The White Lady ") in 1885. In 1886 he collected his poems dealing with national subjects as Svenska bilder (2nd ed., 1895), which ranks as a Swedish classic. In 1891 he returned to Stockholm, and was appointed principal librarian of the Royal Library. He died at Stockholm on the 19th of May 1903. His literary influence in Sweden was very

great

GREAT

; he always sang of joy and liberty and beauty, and in his lyrics, more than in most modern verse, the ecstasy of youth finds expression. He is remarkable, also, for the extreme delicacy and melodiousness of his verse-forms.
His Samtade dikter were collected (Stockholm, g vols.) in 1903-1904.

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