Page images
PDF
EPUB

brothers followed, from which, however, Bohemond was | speedily diverted by the Crusades, which opened up a wider field for his ambition. Accompanied by his cousin Tancred, he led an army of 10,000 cavalry and 20,000 infantry, with which he would have besieged Constantinople had he been able to persuade Godfrey of Bouillon to join him. He took a leading part in the battle of Dorylæum (1097), and the other engagements of the campaign in Asia Minor. A year later he besieged and captured Antioch, of which he assumed the principality. In 1101 he was defeated and taken prisoner by the Turks. Released, after a captivity of two years, on the payment of a very heavy ransom, he returned to Europe to collect troops. In 1106 he visited France, and married Constance, a daughter of Philip I. With an army levied in France, in right of his marriage, he renewed war with Alexius, but being unsuccessful in the siege of Durazzo he was obliged to conclude a peace in 1108. He died at Canossa in Apulia in 1111. (See Gibbon's Decline and Fall, c. lviii., lx.; and Michaud's Histoire de Croisades.)

BOIARDO, COUNT MATTEO MARIA, of a noble and illustrious house established at Ferrara, but originally from Reggio, was born at Scandiano, one of the seignoral estates of his family, near Reggio di Modena, about the year 1434, according to Tiraboschi, or 1420 according to Mazzuchelli. At an early age he entered the University of Ferrara, where he acquired a good knowledge of Greek and Latin, and even of the Oriental languages, and was in due time admitted doctor in philosophy and in law. At the court of Ferrara, where he enjoyed the favour of Duke Borso d'Este and his successor Hercules, he was entrusted with several honourable employments, and in particular was named governor of Reggio, an appointment which he held in the year 1478. Three years afterwards he was elected captain of Modena, and reappointed governor of the town and citadel of Reggio, where he died in the year 1494, though in what month is uncertain. Almost all his works, and especially his great poem of the Orlando Inamorato, were composed for the amusement of Duke Hercules and his court, though not written within its precincts. His practice, it is said, was to retire to Scandiano or some other of his estates, and there to devote himself to composition; and Castelvetro, Vallisnieri, Mazzuchelli, and Tiraboschi, all unite in stating that he took care to insert in the descriptions of his poem those of the agreeable environs of his chateau, and that the greater part of the names of his heroes, as Mandricardo, Gradasse, Sacripant, Agramant, and others, were merely the names of some of his peasants, which, from their uncouthness, appeared to him proper to be given to Saracen warriors. Be this as it may, the Orlando Inamorato deserves to be considered as one of the most important poems in Italian literature, since it forms the first example of the romantic epic worthy to serve as a model, and, as such, undoubtedly produced the Orlando Furioso. Gravina and Mazzuchelli have said, and succeeding writers have repeated on their authority, that Boiardo proposed to himself as his model the Iliad of Homer; that Paris is besieged like the city of Troy; that Angelica holds the place of Helen; and that, in short, the one poem is a sort of reflex image of the other. In point of fact, however, the subject-matter of the poem is derived from the Fabulous Chronicle of the pseudo-Turpin; though, with the exception of the names of Charlemagne, Roland, Oliver, and some other principal warriors, who necessarily figure as important characters in the various scenes, there is little resemblance between the detailed plot of the one and that of the other. The poem, which Boiardo did not live to finish, was printed at Scandiano the year after his death, under the superintendence of his son Count Camillo. The title of the book is without date; but a Latin letter from Antonia Caraffa di

Reggio, prefixed to the poem, is dated the kalends of June 1495. A second edition, also without date, but which must have been printed before the year 1500, appeared at Venice; and the poem was twice reprinted there during the first twenty years of the 16th century. These editions are the more curious and valuable, that they contain nothing but the text of the author, which is comprised in three books, divided into cantos, the third book being incomplete. But Niccolo degli Agostini, an indifferent poet, had the courage to continue the work commenced by Boiardo, adding to it three books, which were printed at Venice in 1526-1531, in 4to; and since that time no edition of the Orlando has been printed without the continuation of Agostini, wretched as it unquestionably is. Boiardo's poem suffers from the incurable defect of a laboured and heavy style. His story is skilfully constructed, the characters are well drawn and sustained throughout; many of the incidents show a power and fertility of imagination not inferior to that of Ariosto, but the perfect workmanship indispensable for a great work of art is wanting. The poem in its original shape was not popular, and has been completely superseded by the Rifacimento of Francesco Berni. See BERNI.

The other works of Boiardo are-1. Il Timone, a comedy, Scandiano, 1500, 4to; 2. Sonnetti e Canzoni, Reggio, 1499, 4to; 3. Carmen Bucolicon, Reggio, 1500, 4to; 4. Cinque Capitoli in terza rima, Venice, 1523 or 1533; 5. Apulejo dell' Asino d'Oro, Venice, 1516, 1518; 6. Asino d'Oro de Luciano tradotto in volgare, Venice, 1523, 8vo; 7. Erodoto Alicarnasseo istorico, tradotto di Greco in Lingua Italiana, Venice, 1533 and 1538, 8vo; 8. Rerum Italicarum Scriptores. (See Panizzi's Boiardo, 1830-31.)

BOIELDIEU, FRANÇOIS-ADRIEN, is the chief representative of the national school of comic opera in France, a branch of art in which everything that is most lovable and at the same time most national in the French character has found its full expression. He was born at Rouen in 1775, and received his first musical education from M. Broche, the organist of the cathedral of that city. It is said that, when quite a youth, in order to escape the punishment of a severe master for a slight offence, he went off to Paris on foot, but was discovered and brought back by his parents. He began composing songs and chamber music at a very early age, his first opera, La Famille Suisse, being produced on the stage of Rouen in 1795, where it met with an enthusiastic reception. Not satisfied with his local success he turned his eyes to that loadstar of youthful ambition, Paris. He went to the capital in 1795, full of hope and expectation. The score of his opera was submitted to the leading musicians of the day, such as Cherubini, Méhul, and others, but met with little approbation. Altogether the time was not favourable for the comic muse. The heroic passions roused by the revolutionary events of the preceding years required commensurate efforts of musical art; the grand opera was the order of the day. Boieldieu had to fall back on his talent as a pianoforte-player for a livelihood, and to wait for a chance of higher success in the meantime. This success came at last from a source whence it was little expected, and, perhaps, less desired. Garat, a fashionable singer of the period, admired Boieldieu's touch on the piano, and made him his accompanyist. He also sung in the drawing-rooms of the Directoire the charming songs and ballads with which the young composer supplied him but too willingly. In this manner Boieldieu's reputation gradually extended to wider circles. In 1797 his abovementioned opera appeared for the first time on a Paris stage, and was well received. Several others followed in rapid succession, of which only the last, Le Calife de Bagdad (1799), has escaped oblivion. It tends to show Boieldieu's true artistic vocation, that, after the enormous success of

this work, he felt the want of a thorough musical training, and voluntarily descended from the position of a successful maestro to that of a humble pupil. He took lessons from Cherubini, and the influence of that great master is distinctly discernible in the higher artistic finish. of Boieldieu's later compositions. In 1802 Boieldieu, for the second time in his life, took to sudden flight, on this occasion in order to escape the domestic troubles caused by his marriage with a celebrated ballet-dancer of the Paris Opera. The frightened husband went to Russia, where he was received with open arms by the Emperor Alexander. During his prolonged stay at St Petersburg he composed a number of operas which it is unnecessary to name. He also set to music the choruses of Racine's Athalie, one of his few attempts at the tragic style of dramatic writing. In 1811 he returned to his own country, where the following year witnessed the production of one of his finest works, Jean de Paris. The charming coquetry of the queen of Navarre, the chivalrous verve of the king, the officious pedantry of the seneschal, and the amorous tenderness of the page all this rendered in the finest touches that music, and only French music, is capable of, will not soon be forgotten. We pass over a number of other operas of lesser value, partly written in collaboration with other composers, and turn at once to the second and greatest masterpiece of Boieldieu's genius, his Dame Blanche (1825). The libretto, written by Scribe, was partly suggested by Walter Scott's Monastery, and several original Scotch tunes cleverly introduced by the composer add not a little to the melodious charm and local colour of the work. La Dame Blanche marks the highest development of the French school of comic opera. Grétry stood at the head of this school; Cherubini with his Deux Journées followed in his wake; Boieldieu, greater than both (in this particular branch of art), reached a perfection which was to some extent sustained by the works of Auber. Boieldieu's pupil, Adam, has in his Derniers Souvenirs d'un Musicien left a charming sketch of the genesis of Boieldieu's masterpiece. The chief characteristics of his style are an easy flow of graceful melodies, a refined though occasionally somewhat meagre instrumentation, admirable phrasing, and a most distinct enunciation of the words. The outer events of Boieldieu's career may be summed up in few words. For a long time he occupied the position of professor of composition and pianoforte at the Conservatoire; in 1817 he was made a member of the Institute. The Dame Blanche was his last opera but one. Soon after its production he was seized with a violent attack of pulmonary disease. To stop the rapid progress of the illness he travelled in Italy and the South of France, but fell a victim to it on October 8, 1834.

BOII, a Celtic people, who at an early date crossed the Alps and established themselves between the Po and the Apennines to the south of the Insubres and Cenomani. On the defeat of their neighbours the Senones by the Romans they joined the Etruscans against the conquerors, and were involved in the disastrous results of the battle at the Vadimonian Lake in 283 B.C. Equally unsuccessful in the following year, they formed a treaty of peace with the Romans, which they kept for a considerable time, till the encroachments of their conquerors led them to engage in the Great Gallic war of 225 B.C. From that period they continued to indulge their hostility on all occasions, and on the outbreak of the Punic wars gave valuable aid to the Carthaginians from time to time. At length their strength was broken by Scipio Nasica in 191 B.C.; a large proportion of their territory was appropriated and secured by the colonies of Bononia, Parma, and Mutina; and before long the whole race seems to have been constrained to recross the Alps. They betook themselves to that

district of country which is still called in consequence Bohemia; but before many centuries they were expelled by other hostile tribes and their separate existence as a people was lost.

BOILEAU-DESPREAUX, NICOLAS, was born at Paris on the 1st November 1636. Crône, not far from the capital, has been frequently stated to be his birthplace, but the matter seems to be pretty nearly settled by the researches of M. Labat (Recherches historiques sur l'Hôtel de la Préfecture de Police), who has discovered the very house in the Rue de Jérusalem where the poet was born. He was educated at the College of Beauvais, and was at first destined for the legal profession. From this, however, after a short trial, he recoiled in disgust, complaining bitterly of the amount of chicanery which passed under the name of law and justice. To escape such a course of life he began to study for the church, and actually received a priory of a small annual value, but his wishes soon turned in another direction. He gave up his clerical profession, and, his father having left him a small provision sufficient for his wants, thenceforward devoted himself to letters. Such of his early poems as have been preserved hardly contain the promise of what he ultimately became. The first piece in which his peculiar powers were displayed was a satirical poem, Adieus of a Poet to the City of Paris, published in 1660. This was quickly followed by eight others, and the number was at a later period increased to twelve. A twofold interest attaches to the satires. In the first place the author skilfully parodies and attacks writers who at the time were placed in the very first rank, such as Chapelain, Cotin, Quinault, and Scudéri; he openly raised the standard of revolt against the older poets. But in the second place he showed, both by precept and practice, what were the poetical capabilities of the French language. Prose, in the hands of such writers as Descartes and Pascal, had proved itself a flexible and powerful instrument of expression, with a distinct mechanism and form. But except with Malherbe, there had been no attempt to fashion French versification according to rule or method. Boileau for the first time appeared terseness and vigour of expression, with perfect regularity of verse structure. His fame was quickly established; he received a pension, and was made historiographer along with his friend Racine. In 1664 he composed his prose Dialogue des heros de roman, which is a refined satire on the elaborate romances of the time. It may be said to have once for all abolished them. From 1669 onwards appeared the Epistles, graver in tone than the satires, maturer in thought, more exquisite and polished in style. In 1674 his two master-pieces, L'Art Poetique and Le Lutrin, were published. The first, in imitation of the Ars Poetica of Horace, lays down the code for all future French verse, and may be said to fill in French literature a parallel place to that held by its prototype in Latin. On our own literature the maxims of Boileau, through the translation revised by Dryden, and through the magnificent imitation of them in Pope's Art of Criticism, have exercised no slight influence. Boileau does not merely lay down rules for the language of poetry, but analyses carefully the various kinds of verse composition, and enunciates the principles peculiar to each. Of the four books of the Art Poetique, the first and last consist of general precepts, inculcating mainly the great rule of bon sens; the second treats of the pastoral, the elegy, the ode, the epigram, and satire; and the third of tragic and epic poetry. Though the rules laid down are of value, their tendency is rather to hamper and render too mechanical the efforts of poetry. Boileau himself, though a great critic in verse, cannot be considered a great poet. The Lutrin, a mock heroic poem, of which four cantos appeared in 1674,

In

is by French critics considered the best of Boileau's works. It has furnished the model for the Rape of the Lock, but the English poem is superior in richness of imagination and subtilty of invention. The fifth and sixth cantos, afterwards added by Boileau, rather detract from the beauty of the poem; the last canto in particular is quite unworthy of his genius. In the same year which saw the Art Poetique and the Lutrin was published his translation of Longinus On the Sublime, to which were afterwards added certain critical reflections. His later publications were chiefly occasional poems, in which his better powers did not shine. He died 13th March 1711. Boileau was extremely delicate in youth, and his constitution seems never to have been very strong. He was a man of warm and kindly feelings, honest, outspoken, and benevolent. Many anecdotes are told of his frankness of speech at court, and of his generous actions. He holds a well-defined place in French literature, as the first who reduced its versification to rule and who taught the value of workmanship for its own sake. His influence on English literature, through Pope and his contemporaries, was not less strong, though less durable. Editions of Boileau's works are very numerous. Perhaps the best is that published by Garnier in 1860, Euvres complètes, with copious notes, an essay by Sainte-Beuve, and Bolauna.

BOILER. See STEAM ENGINE.

BOIS-LE-DUC, 's HERTOGENBOSCH, or 's BOSCH, a city of Holland, capital of the province of North Brabant, 28 miles S.S. E. of Utrecht. It stands at the confluence of the Dommel and the Aa, and is strongly fortified, being defended by a citadel and two forts. The city is handsome and well built, and is intersected by several canals. It contains seven churches, among which is that of St John, founded in the beginning of the 14th century, and one of the finest ecclesiastical edifices in Holland. It has also a handsome town-hall, surmounted by a tower containing a fine set of chimes, a court-house, Government buildings (formerly a Jesuit monastery), an episcopal palace, an orphan asylum, a grammar school (once attended by Erasmus), a prison, two hospitals, an arsenal, and barracks. The trade of Bois-le-Duc is very considerable; it has several distilleries, breweries, and glass-works, and manufactures linen, needles, cutlery, &c. It is the seat of a vicar-general, and has tribunals of primary instance and commerce. Originally a hunting-lodge of the Brabant dukes, 's Hertogenbosch, or "Duke's Wood," gradually increased, and in 1184 was raised to the rank of a town and surrounded with walls. In 1453 it was greatly enlarged. Successive attempts made by the Netherlands in 1585, 1594, 1601, and 1603 to get possession of the town were futile; but at length, in 1629, it was captured after a five months' siege. In 1794 it was taken by the French, and in 1814 by the Prussians. Population in 1869, 24,395.

BOISSARD, JEAN JACQUES, a classical antiquary and Latin poet, was born at Besançon in 1528. He studied at Louvain; but, disgusted by the severity of his master, he secretly left that seminary, and after traversing a great part of Germany reached Italy, where he remained several years, and was often reduced to great straits. His residence in Italy developed in his mind a taste for antiquities, and he soon formed a collection of the most curious monuments of Rome and its vicinity. He then visited the islands of the Archipelago, with the intention of travelling through Greece, but a severe illness obliged him to return to Rome. he resumed his favourite pursuits with great ardour, and having completed his collection, returned to his native country; but not being permitted to profess publicly the Protestant religion, which he had embraced some time before, he withdrew to Metz, where he died, October 30, 1602. His works are—

Here

1. Poemata, Epigrammatum libri tres, Elegia libri tres, Epistolarum libri tres, Basel, 1574; 2. Emblemata, Metz, 1584; 3. Icones Virorum Illustrium, 1597, sqq.; 4. Vitae et Icones Sultanorum Turcicorum, &c., Frankfort, 1596; 5. Theatrum Vita Humana, Metz, 1596; 6. Romana Urbis Topographic et Antiquitatum, quibus succincte et breviter describuntur omnia quæ tum publice quum privatim videntur animadversione digna, partes VI., Frankfort, 1597-1602, folio, six volumes in three, with plates, and now very rare; 7. Icones et Vito Virorum Illustrium, Frankfort, 1592 to 1599; 8. Parnassus Biceps, Frankfort, 1601; 9. De Divinatione et Magicis Præstigiis, Oppenheim and Hanau, rare and curious; 10. Habitus Variarum Gentium, Metz, 1581, ornamented with seventy illuminated figures.

BOISSONADE, JEAN FRANÇOIS, French classical scholar, was born at Paris, 12th August 1774. In 1792 he entered the public service during the administration of General Dumouriez. Driven from it in 1795, he was restored by Lucien Bonaparte, during whose time of office he served as secretary to the prefecture of the Upper Marne. He then definitively resigned public employment and devoted himself to the study of Greek, for which he had always a strong inclination. In 1809 he was named professor of Greek at the faculty of letters at Paris, though he did not assume the title till the death of Larcher, who held the chair, in 1812. In 1828 he succeeded Gail in the chair of Greek at the Collége de France. He also held the offices of librarian of the Bibliothèque du Roi, and perpetual secretary of the Academy of Inscriptions. He died 12th September 1857. Boissonade's works consist mainly of editions of several less known classical writers, such as Philostratus, Marinus, Eunapius, Aristænetus. Perhaps his most widely known editions are those of Babrius (1844), and of Tzetzes (1851). The Anecdota Græca, 5 vols. (1829-33), and Anecdota Nova (1844) contain many interesting and comparatively unknown writings. Boissonade was a contributor to the Journal des Débats and other critical journals, and a selection of his papers has been published by M. Colincamp, Critique littéraire sous le premier Empire, 2 vols., 1863.

END OF VOLUME THIRD.

NEILL AND COMPANY, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.

[graphic]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA, NINTH EDITION.

« EelmineJätka »