Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/160

 148 K R E K E indeed a masterpiece of its kind. Kreutzer was a prolific composer, and wrote a number of operas which have dis appeared from the stage and are not likely to be revived. His life also is devoid of interesting features, and may be summed up in few words. He was born November 22, 1782, at Mosskirch in Baden, and received his musical training from Albrechtsberger, the famous contrapuntist of Vienna. For the theatre of that city he composed most of his operas, including Das Nachtlager von Granada, pro duced in 1834. For a time (1812-1816) he was chapel- master to the king of Wiirtemberg, and later on (1840) became conductor of the opera at Cologne. He died December 14, 1849, at Riga, where he had accompanied his daughter Cecilia Kreutzer, a singer of some renown. KREUZNACH, or CREUZXACH, chief town of a circle in the government district of Coblentz, Prussia, is situated on the Nahe, a tributary of the Rhine, about 40 miles south-east of Coblentz. It consists of the old town on the right bank of the river, the new town on the left, and the island Badeworth, all of which are connected by a fine stone bridge. There is an iron bridge between the island and the right bank. Kreuznach is the seat of a local court, and it has a gymnasium, a business-school, and a hospital. On the Badeworth is the kurhaus, built in 1872, with baths and gardens, and also the chief spring, the Elisabethquelle, impregnated with iodine and bromine, and prescribed for scrofulous and various other affections. The climate is mild, moderately damp, and on the whole equable. The chief industries of the town are marble- polishing and the manufacture of leather and tobacco, and various knick-knacks in agate. Vines are grown on the neighbouring hills. The population in 1875 was 13,772. The earliest mention of the springs of Kreuznach occurs in 1478 ; but it was only in the early half of the 19th century that Dr Prieger ( whose marblestatue adorns the town) brought them into prominence. Now the annual number of visitors is about seven thousand. In the 9th century Kreuzberg was known as Cruciniacum. In 1065 it was presented by Henry IV. to the bishop of Spires, from whom it passed (after becoming a town in the early part of the 13th cen tury) to the counts of Sponheim and the Palatinate. In 1814 it became Prussian. Daring the 17th century Kreuznach was more than once taken and plundered ; and in 1689 the French reduced the strong castle of Kauzenberg to the ruin which still surmounts the Schlossberg to the north-west of the town. KRILOFF, KEUILOFF, or KRYLOFF, IVAN ANDREEVITCH (1768-1844), the great national fabulist of Russia, was born February 14, 1768, at Moscow, but his early years were spent at Orenburg and Tver. His father, a distin guished military officer, died in 1779; and young Krilofi was left with no richer patrimony than a chest of old books, to be brought up by the exertions of an heroic mother. In the course of a few years his mother removed to St Peters burg, in the hope of securing a Government pension ; and there Kriloff obtained a post in the civil service, but he gave it up immediately after his mother s death in 1788. Already in 1783 he had sold to a bookseller a comedy of his own composition, and by this means had procured for himself the works of Moliere, Racine, Boileau ; and now, probably under the influence of these writers, he produced Philomela and Cleopatra, which gave him access to the dramatic circle of Knyazhin. Several attempts he made to start a literary magazine followed each other with little success ; but, along with his plays, they served to make the author known to the polite society of the capital. For about four years (1797-1801) Kriloff lived at the country seats of the prince Sergius Galitzin, and when the prince was appointed military governor of Livonia he accom panied him as official secretary. About the years which follow his resignation of this post very doubtful informa tion has been preserved, the common opinion being that he wandered from town to town under the influence of a passion for card-playing. Before long he found his place as a fabulist, the first collection of his Fables, twenty-three in number, appearing in 1809. From 1812 to 1841 he held a congenial appointment in the Imperial Public Library first as assistant, and then as head of the Russian books department. His death took place November 21, 1844. His statue in the Summer Garden is one of the finest monuments in St Petersburg. Kriloff s success as a fabulist was as rapid as it has been enduring. Honours were showered upon him while he yet lived : the Academy of Sciences admitted him a member in 1811, and bestowed upon him the same gold medal which was accorded to Karamzin for his History oj the Russian People; in 1838 a great festival was held under imperial sanction to celebrate the jubilee of his first appearance as an author ; and the emperor assigned him a handsome pension. Before his death about 77,000 copies of his Fables had found sale in Russia ; and his wisdom and humour had become the common possession of the many. Nor is the reason far to seek. He was at once poet and sage. In spite of a superficial indifference to political matters, he observed everything with keen and collected interest. His fables for the most part struck root in some actual event, and they told at once by their grip and by their beauty. Though he began as a trans lator and imitator, he soon showed himself a master of invention, who found abundant material in the life of his native land. To the Russian ear his verse is of matchless quality ; while word and phrase are direct, simple, and emi nently idiomatic, colour and cadence vary with the theme. This perfection was the result of sustained elaboration, for, though physically indolent, Kriloff was a hard intellectual worker, and had an infinite faculty of taking pains. Of his carelessness in dress, absence of mind, and general irreverence towards etiquette, the stories told are many. A collected edition of Kriloff s works appeared at St Petersburg, 1844. Of the numerous editions of his Fables, which have been often translated, may be mentioned that illustrated by Trutovski, 1 872. The author s life has been written in Russian by Pletneff, by Lebanoff, and by Grot, Liter, zhizn Kruilova, &quot; Materials &quot; for his life are published in vol. vi. of the Sbornik Statei of the literary department of the Academy of Sciences. &quot;W. R. S. Ralston has prefixed an excellent sketch to his English prose version of the Fables, 1868, 2d ed. 1871. KRISHNAGAR, town and headquarters of Nadiyd district, Bengal, India, situated on the left bank of the Jalangi river, 23 23 N. lat., 88 32 E. long. The muni cipal limits comprise an area of 7 square miles and a population in 1872 of 26,750 persons Hindus, 18,114; Mohammedans, 8076 ; Christians, 560. Besides the usual Government offices and courts, Krishnagar is also a station of the Church Missionary Society and of a Roman Catholic mission, each body having its own church and schools. The town is a seat of considerable trade, and is noted for its manufacture of coloured clay figures, carried on by a few artists of the kumbhar or potter caste. KROLEVETZ, a district town of Russia, in the govern ment of Tchernigoff, 108 miles east of the government town. Its 14,000 inhabitants live by agriculture and gardening, by linen manufactures, and by trading in agri cultural produce and salted fish imported from the province of Ekaterinoslaff, and in manufactured wares. There are two important fairs, one for horses arid manufactured wares, and the other for cattle. KROTOSCHIN (in Polish, Krotoszyn), chief town of a circle in the government district of Posen, Prussia, is situated about 32 miles south-west of Posen. It has a local court, three churches, a synagogue, steam saw-mills, and a steam brewery, and carries on trade in grain and seeds. The neighbouring castle of Krotoschin is the chief place of a mediatized principality of the prince of Thurn and Taxis, which was formed in 1819. The population of Krotoschin in 1875 was 8034.