ANZENGRUBER, LUDWIG (1839-1889), Austrian dramatist and novelist, was born at Vienna on the 29th of November 1839. He was educated at the Realschule of his native town, and then entered a bookseller’s shop; from 1860 to 1867 he was an actor, without, however, displaying any marked talent, although his stage experience later stood him in good stead. In 1869 he became a clerk in the Viennese police department, but having in the following year made a success with his anti-clerical drama, Der Pfarrer von Kirchfeld, he gave up his appointment and devoted himself entirely to literature. He died at Vienna on the both of December 1889. Anzengruber was exceedingly fertile in ideas, and wrote a great many plays. They are mostly of Austrian peasant life, and although somewhat melancholy in tone are interspersed with bright and witty scenes. Among the best known are Der Meineidbauer (1871), Die Kreuzelschreiber (1872), Der G’wissenswurm (1874), Hand und Herz (1875), Doppelselbstmord (1875), Das vierte Gebot (1877), and Der Fleck auf der Ehr’ (1889). Anzengruber also published a novel of considerable merit, Der Schandfleck (1876; remodelled 1884); and various short stories and tales of village life collected under the title Wolken und Sunn’schein (1888).
Anzengruber’s collected works, with a biography, were published in 10 vols. in 1890 (3rd ed. 1897); his correspondence has been edited by A. Bettelheim (1902). See A. Bettelheim, L. Anzengruber (1890); L. Rosner, Erinnerungen an L. Anzengruber (1890): H. Sittenberger, Studien zur Dramaturgie der Gegenwart (1899); S. Friedmann, L. Anzengruber (1902).
ANZIN, a town of northern France, in the department of Nord, on the Scheldt, 1½ m. N.W. of Valenciennes, of which it is a suburb. Pop. (1906) 14,077. Anzin is the centre of important coal-mines of the Valenciennes basin belonging to the Anzin Company, the formation of which dates to 1717. The metallurgical industries of the place are extensive, and include iron and copper founding and the manufacture of steam-engines, machinery, chain-cables and a great variety of heavy iron goods. There are also glass-works and breweries.
AONIA, a district of ancient Boeotia, containing the mountains Helicon and Cithaeron, and thus sacred to the Muses, who are called by Pope the “Aonian maids.”
AORIST (from Gr. ἀόριστος, indefinite), the name given in Greek grammar to certain past tenses of verbs (first aorist, second aorist).
AOSTA (anc. Augusta Praetoria Salassorum), a town and episcopal see of Piedmont, Italy, in the province of Turin, 80 m. N.N.W. by rail of the town of Turin, and 48 m. direct, situated 1910 ft. above sea-level, at the confluence of the Buthier and the Dora Baltea, and at the junction of the Great and Little St Bernard routes. Pop. (1901) 7875. The cathedral, reconstructed in the 11th century (to which one of its campanili and some architectural details belong), was much altered in the 14th and 17th; it has a rich treasury including an ivory diptych of 406 with a representation of Honorius. The church of St Ours, founded in 425, and rebuilt in the 12th century, has good cloisters (1133); the 15th-century priory is picturesque. The castle of Bramafam (11th century) is interesting. Cretinism is common in the district.