Saxe
Saxe names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Saxe MAURICE, COUNT DE
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
MAURICE, COUNT DE, a French military officer; a natural son of Augustus II., King of Poland; born in Goslar, Prussia, Oct. 28, 1696. He entered the army at an early age, and was present with Prince Eugene at the siege of Tournay. In 1720 he went to Paris. After an unsuccessful attempt to get himself elected Duke of Courland he took service in the French army, distinguished himself in the campaign of 1733-1735, and was made lieutenant-general. In the general war which followed the death of the Emperor Charles VI., Saxe took a defended Alsace, and in 1743 was named Marshal of France. In the following year he held a command in Flanders. One of his most brilliant achievements was his victory over the English and Hanoverian forces at Fontenoy in May, 1745. He was at the time "nearly dead of dropsy; could not sit on horseback, except for a few minutes; was carried about in a wicker bed; had a lead bullet in his mouth all day, to mitigate the intolerable thirst." (Carlyle.) e.) The victories of Roucoux and Laufeldt, and the capture of Maestricht, added to his fame in two following years. Saxe was a man of great size and strength, intrepid, selfpossessed, and as a commander won fame for his ingenuity and dash; but he was one of the most dissolute men of his age. George Sand, the eminent author, was descended from an illegitimate daughter of his. He wrote a work on the art of war, called "My Reveries." Hẹ died in his palace of Chambord, near Blois, France, Nov. 30, 1750.
Saxe JOHN GODFREY, an American humorous poet
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
JOHN GODFREY, an American humorous poet; born in Highgate, Vt., June 2, 1816. In 1872 he became editorially connected with the Albany "Evening Journal," and subsequently contributed to "Harper's Magazine" and the "Atlantic Monthly." He was also well known as a lecturer. His most popular verses include "Rhyme of the Rail" and "The Proud Miss McBride"; and his published works: "The Money King" (1859); "The Flying Dutchman; or, The Wrath of Herr von Stoppelnose" (1862); "The Masquerade and Other Poems" (1866); "Fables and Legends in Rhyme" (1872); and "Leisure-Day Rhymes" (1875). He died in Albany, N. Y., March 31, 1887. SAXE - ALTENBURG, formerly a Duchy, but since 1919 part of Thuringia; a state of the German Republic. Area 511 square miles. The eastern or Altenburg division is very fertile, while the western or Saal-Eisenburg portion is hilly and wooded. The capital is Altenburg. Pop. about 216,000.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The military life Collier's set out in 1921 still stands: Maurice de Saxe won Fontenoy in May 1745, was carried in a wicker litter, and died at Chambord in 1750, and his Mes Reveries, printed posthumously in 1757, is still read as a serious contribution to military thought. The account of John Godfrey Saxe has aged differently. Collier's lists The Rhyme of the Rail and The Proud Miss McBride as his most popular verses and passes over The Blind Men and the Elephant, which is now the only poem of his most readers can name, and the one that carried the Indian parable into English-language classrooms. The third item has moved most: Saxe-Altenburg, which Collier's records as absorbed into Thuringia in 1919, ceased to exist as a unit altogether, lay inside East Germany from 1949 to 1990, and survives only as the district around the town of Altenburg in the Free State of Thuringia.
Written for this edition, 2026.