Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

BARBOUR-BARCELONA.

and Chaucer, is more intelligible to modern readers than either of them. He died, at an advanced age, in 1396.

BARBUDA, or BARBOUтHOS; one of the Caribbee islands, about 21 miles long, and 12 wide; lon. 61° 50′ W.; lat. 17° 44′ N.; population, 1500. The land lies low, but it is fertile, and the inhabitants are chiefly employed in breeding cattle, sheep, kids, fowls, &c., which they dispose of in the neighboring islands; they likewise cultivate citrons, pomegranates, oranges, raisins, Indian figs, maize, cocoa-nuts, pineapples, pepper, indigo, &c. The island has no harbor, but a well sheltered road on the west side. This island is the property of the Codrington family, who have done what few slaveholders can boast of-they have caused their slaves to be instructed in Christianity.

BARCA; a desert, containing only a few fertile spots, on the northern coast of Africa, between Tripoli and Egypt (88,000 square miles, with 300,000 inhabitants). Its soil is limestone, covered with quicksand. The mountain Harutsch, towards the west and the south, is probably of volcanic origin. This country is a Turkish province, under a sandgiak, in the town of Barca. Here is also Tolometa (Ptolemais), with Greek ruins. The remains of Cyrene (q. v.) are now called Cunen. The mountains of Derne, with the town of the same name, are under a bey, appointed by the bey of Tripoli. The bey of Bingazi (ancient Berenice), with the ports on the gulf of Sydra, and the small commercial republic Augila, in the interior, are also under the bey of Tripoli. In the desert, four days' journey westward from the Nile, are some inhabited oases. Such is the watered part of the republic Siwah, which acknowledges the protection of the Porte, and pays tribute to the pacha of Egypt. The capital, Siwah (the ancient Ammonium, see Ammon), has 6000 inhabitants, and a trade in dates. Frediani speaks of having found, in March, 1820, in the oasis of Jupiter Ammon, the ruins of the ancient temple. The German architect Gau, and the French consul Drovetti, in Egypt, have contradicted his account. The inhabitants are mostly of Arabian descent, Mohammedans, and partly robbers.

BARCAROLLA; a kind of song of the gondoliers at Venice, often composed by themselves, but of a very agreeable character. The most of these gondoliers know by heart a great deal of Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered, some of them even the whole, somewhat corrupted, it is true.

569

They sing stanzas of it, during the summer nights, from one gondola to another. Tasso is probably the only epic poet, besides Homer, whose writings have been so generally preserved in the memories of his countrymen. The custom above described, however, is going out of use.

BARCELONA, one of the largest cities of Spain, the capital of the province of Catalonia, is handsomely built, in the shape of a half-moon, on the coast of the Mediterranean, in lon. 2° 10" E., and 41° 21' 44" N. lat. It was, even in the middle ages, one of the principal commercial places on this sea; is well fortified, and has, on the east side, a strong citadel, built in 1715, having a secret connexion with the fort San Carlos, near the sea. On the west side of the city lies the hill of Montjouy, with a fort, which protects the harbor. B. is divided into the upper and lower town, and contains, including the adjoining Barcelonetta, 140,000 inhabitants. It has 150 cotton and many silk manufactories. Linen and laces, articles of iron and copper, particularly excellent guns, pistols and swords for the Spanish army, formerly sent, also, to Naples and the American colonies, are manufactured in great quantities. The harbor is spacious, but of difficult access, and has not sufficient depth for men-of-war. It is protected by a large mole, at the end of which are a lighthouse and a bulwark. The exports consist, besides the abovementioned articles, of wine and brandy; the imports, of French and Italian manufactures, grain, rice, timber from the Baltic, yellow wax from Barbary, Swedish iron, steel from Stiria, hemp from Riga and Petersburg, linen, copper and iron wire from Germany. An important article of import is stockfish, brought by the English from Newfoundland. amount of the imports and exports, which employ nearly 1500 ships (among them 120 belonging to B.), is computed to be more than 7,000,000 dollars. The city contains 82 churches, a university, several public libraries, a public collection of natural curiosities, a school for engineers and artillery, an academy of belleslettres, a foundling hospital, a general hospital, large enough to contain 3000 sick persons, a large arsenal, a cannon foundery, &c.

The

The tribunal of the inquisition is suppressed.-B. was, until the 12th century, governed by its own counts; but, afterwards, by the marriage of Raymond V with the daughter of Ramiro II, king of Arragon, it was united with that kingdom. In 1640, it withdrew, with all Cat

570

BARCELONA-BARCLAY.

alonia, from the Spanish government, and submitted to the French crown; in 1652, submitted again to the Spanish government : in 1697, it was taken by the French, but restored to Spain at the peace of Ryswick. In the war of the Spanish succession, B. took the part of the archduke Charles; but, in 1714, it was besieged by the troops of Philip V, under the command of the duke of Berwick, and taken after an obstinate resistance. The strong citadel on the east side of the city was then erected, to overawe the inhabitants. Feb. 16, 1809, B. was taken, by surprise, by the French troops under general Duhesme, and remained in the power of the French, until, in 1814, all their troops were recalled from Catalonia to defend their own country. In 1821, B. was desolated by the yellow fever.

BARCLAY, Alexander; an English poet of the 16th century. Very little is known concerning him, except what we learn from his writings, which inform us, that he was a priest and chaplain of St. Mary Ottery, in Devonshire, and afterwards a Benedictine monk of Ely. He survived the reformation, and obtained preferment in the church. His death took place in 1552, a short time after he had been presented to the living of All-Hallows, in London. The principal work of this poet is a satire, entitled The Ship of Fools, a translation or imitation of a German composition. (See Brandt, Sebastian.) B. also wrote Eclogues, which, according to Warton, the historian of English poetry, are the earliest compositions of the kind in our language. They are curious and interesting for the descriptions they afford of the character and manners of the age in which they were written.

BARCLAY, John, was born at Pont-àMousson, and educated in the Jesuits' college at that place. He accompanied his father to England, where he was much noticed by James I, to whom he dedicated one of his principal works, a politico-satirical romance, entitled Euphormio, in Latin, chiefly intended to expose the Jesuits, against whom the author adduces some very serious accusations. He wrote, also, several other works, among which is a singular romance, in elegant Latin, entitled Argenis, which first appeared at Paris, in 1621. It is a political allegory, of a character similar to that of Euphormio, and alludes to the political state of Europe, and especially France, during the league. Like the Euphormio, it has been several times reprinted, and has also been translated into sev

eral of the modern languages, including English. (See Reeve, Clara.) A singular story of romantic chivalry has been quoted from the Euphormio by sir Walter Scott, in the notes to his Marmion.

BARCLAY, Robert, the celebrated apologist of the Quakers, was born, in the year 1648, at Gordonstown, in the shire of Moray, of an ancient and honorable family. The troubles of the country induced his father, colonel B., to send him to Paris, to be educated under the care of his uncle, who was principal of the Scots' college in that capital. Under this influence, he was easily induced to become a convert to the Roman Catholic religion, upon which his father sent for him to return home; and, colonel B. soon after becoming a Quaker, his son followed his example. Uniting all the advantages of a learned education to great natural abilities, he soon distinguished himself by his talents and zeal in the support of his new opinions. His first treatise in support of his adopted principles, was published, at Aberdeen, in the year 1670, under the title of Truth cleared of Calumnies, &c., being an answer to an attack on the Quakers by a Scotch minister of the name of Mitchell. It is written with great vigor, and, with his subsequent writings against the same opponent, tended materially to rectify public sentiment in regard to the Quakers, as also to procure them greater indulgence from government. To propagate the doctrines, as well as to maintain the credit he had gained for his sect, he published, in 1675, a regular treatise, in order to explain and defend the system of the Quakers, which production was also very favorably received. These and similar labors involved him in controversies with the leading members of the university of Aberdeen, and others; but, notwithstanding so much engrossment, his mind was, at the same time, busy with his great work, in Latin, An Apology for the true Christian Divinity, as the Same is preached and held forth by the People in scorn called Quakers. It was soon reprinted at Amsterdam, and quickly translated into the German, Dutch, French and Spanish languages, and, by the author himself, into English. It met, of course, with many answers; but, although several of them were from able and learned pens, they attracted, comparatively, very little notice. His fame was now widely diffused; and, in his travels with the famous William Penn through the greater part of England, Holland and Germany, to spread the opinions of the

BARCLAY-BARD.

Quakers, he was received every where with the highest marks of respect. The strength of his understanding rendered this extraordinary man equally adequate to what is considered most important in the business of the world, as appears from an excellent letter addressed by him, on public affairs, to the assembled ministers of the various powers of Europe at Nimeguen. The last of his productions, in defence of the theory of the Quakers, was a long Latin letter, addressed, in 1676, to Adrian de Paets, On the Possibility of an Inward and Immediate Revelation. It was not published in England until 1686; from which time B., who had endured his share of persecution, and been more than once imprisoned, spent the remaining part of his life, in the bosom of a large family, in quiet and peace. He died, after a short illness, at his own house, in Uri, 1690, in the 42d year of his age. With few exceptions, both partisans and opponents unite in the profession of great respect for the character and talents of B. Besides the works already mentioned or alluded to, he wrote a treatise On Universal Love, and various replies to the most able opponents of his Apology. He left seven children, all of whom were living fifty years after the death of their father.

BARD. This name, of uncertain etymology, is applied to the poets of the Celtic tribes, who, in battle, raised the war-cry, and, in peace, sang the exploits of their heroes, celebrated the attributes of their gods, and chronicled the history of their nation. Originally spread over the greater part of western Europe, they seem to have been the heralds, the priests and the lawgivers of the free barbarians, who first occupied its ancient forests, until, by the gradual progress of southern civilization and despotism, they were driven back into the fastnesses of Wales, Ireland and Scotland, where the last echoes of their harps have long since died away. Their early history is uncertain. Diodorus (lib. v. 31.) tells us, that the Celts had bards, who sang to musical instruments; and Strabo (lib. iv.) testifies that they were treated with respect approaching to veneration. The passage of Tacitus (Germ. 7.) is a doubtful reading. Heyne does not venture to decide whether it is barditus, as some, who explain it to mean bard's song, maintain, or baritus, which, according to Adelung, is the true reading, and signifies merely war-cry. The first Welsh bards, of whom any thing is extant, are Taliesin,

571

Aneurin and Llywarch, of the 6th century; but their language is imperfectly understood. From the days of these monarchs of the bards, we have nothing further till the middle of the 10th century, when the reputation of the order was increased under the auspices of Howel Dhu. A code of laws was framed, by that prince, to regulate their duties and fix their privileges. They were distributed into three classes, with a fixed allowance; degrees of rank were established, and prize-contests instituted. Their order was frequently honored by the admission of princes, among whom was Llewellyn, last king of Wales. The Welsh, kept in awe as they were by the Romans, harassed by the Saxons, and eternally jealous of the attacks, the encroachments and the neighborhood of aliens, were, on this account, attached to their Celtic manners. This situation and these circumstances inspired them with a proud and obstinate determination to maintain a national distinction, and preserve their ancient usages, among which the bardic profession is so eminent. Sensible of the influence of their traditional poetry in keeping alive the ideas of military valor and of ancient glory among the people, Edward I is said to have collected all the Welsh bards, and caused them to be hanged, by martial law, as stirrers up of sedition. On this incident is founded Gray's well-known ode "The Bard." We, however, find them existing at a much later period, but confining themselves to the humble task of compiling private genealogies. But little is known of the music and measures of the bards: their prosody depended much on alliteration: their instruments were the harp, the pipe and the crwth. Some attempts have lately been made, in Wales, for the revival of bardisin, and the Cambrian society was formed, in 1818, for the preservation of the remains of this ancient literature, and for the encouragement of the national muse. The bardic institution of the Irish bears a strong affinity to that of the Welsh. The genealogical sonnets of the Irish bards are still the chief foundations of the ancient history of Ireland. Their songs are strongly marked with the traces of Scaldic imagination, which still appears among the "tale-tellers," a sort of poetical historians, supposed to be the descendants of the bards. There was, also, evidently a connexion of the Welsh with Armorica. Hence, in the early French romances, we often find the scene laid in Wales; and,

[blocks in formation]

on the other hand, many fictions have passed from the Troubadours into the tales of the Welsh.-In the Highlands of Scotland, there are considerable remains of many of the compositions of their old bards still preserved. The most wonderful of these are the poems of Ossian, collected and translated by Macpherson. Their genuineness has been doubted; but the report of a committee of the Highland society, published in 1805, of which Mackenzie was editor, proves, as they contend, that a part of them is authentic, and that the greater portion of the remainder was really obtained from traditionary sources. "These poems," says Warton (History of English Poetry, diss. 1.), "notwithstanding the difference between the Gothic and the Celtic rituals, contain many visible vestiges of Scandinavian superstition. The allusions, in the songs of Ossian, to spirits who preside over the different parts, and direct the various operations of nature; who send storms over the deep, and rejoice in the shrieks of the shipwrecked mariner; who call down lightning to blast the forest or cleave the rock, and diffuse irresistible pestilence among the people, beautifully conducted and heightened under the skilful hand of a master bard, entirely correspond with the Runic system, and breathe the spirit of its poetry."

BARDESANES the Gnostic, a Syrian who lived, in the latter half of the second century, in Edessa, and was a favorite of the king Abgar Bar Maanu, is memorable for the peculiarity of his doctrines. He considered the evil in the world only as an accidental reaction of matter, and all life as the offspring of male and female Eons. From God, the inscrutable Principle of all substances, and from the consort of this first Principle, proceeded Christ, the Son of the Living, and a female Holy Ghost; from these, the spirits or creative powers of the four elements; thus forming the holy eight, or the godlike fulness, whose visible copies he found in the sun, the moon and the stars, and therefore attributed to these all the changes of nature, and of human destiny. The female Holy Ghost, impregnated by the Son of the Living, was, according to him, the Creator of the world. The human soul, originally of the nature of the Æons, was confined in the material body only as a punishment of its fall, but not subjected to the dominion of the stars. He considered Jesus, the Eon destined for the salvation of souls, only a feigned man, and his death only a feigned death,

but his doctrine the sure means to fill the souls of men with ardent desires for their celestial home, and to lead them back to God, to whom they go immediately after death, and without a resurrection of the earthly body. B. propagated this doctrine in Syrian hymns, and is the first writer of hymns in this language. His son Harmonius studied in Athens, and strove, also, by means of hymns, to procure the reception of his doctrine. Yet the Bardesanists did not formally separate themselves from the orthodox Christian church. They maintained themselves until the 5th century. Valentinus the Gnostic approached the nearest to B., without being his follower. A fragment of the work of B. upon destiny is preserved in the Greek language, by Eusebius (Præpar. Evangel. lib. 6, cap. 10). He led an irreproachable life. Fragments of his Syrian hymns, which display a rich and ardent fancy, are to be found in those hymns which the Syrian patriarch Ephraim composed against his doctrine.

BAREFOOTED FRIARS; monks who do not use shoes, but merely sandals, or go entirely barefoot. In several orders of mendicant friars, é. g., among the Carmelites, Franciscans, Augustins, there are congregations of barefooted monks and barefooted nuns, but nowhere a separate order of this kind.

BARETTI, Joseph, an Italian writer, was the son of an architect of Turin, where he was born in the year 1716. He received a good education and some paternal property, which, according to his own confession, he soon gamed away. In 1748, he repaired to England. In 1753, he published, in English, a Defence of the Poetry of Italy against the Censures of M. Voltaire. About this time, he was introduced to doctor Johnson, then engaged in the compilation of his Dictionary, of which B. availed himself to compile an Italian and English Dictionary, in 1760, much more complete than any which had before appeared. In this year, he revisited his native country, and published, at Venice, a journal under the title of Frusta Literaria, which met with great success, but, owing to the severity of its criticisms, subjected the author to unpleasant if not dangerous consequences. After an absence of six years, he therefore returned, through Spain and Portugal, to England, and, in 1768, published an Account of the Manners and Customs of Italy. Doctor Johnson, whose friendship to him was always warm and cordial, soon after

BARETTI-BARILLA.

introduced him to the Thrale family. Not long after his return from Italy, an incident occurred to him of the most distressing nature. Accosted in the Haymarket by a woman of the town, he repulsed her with a degree of roughness which produced an attack from some of her male confederates, and, in the scuffle, he struck one of the assailants with a French pocket dessert-knife. On this, the man pursued and collared him; when B., still more alarmed, stabbed him repeatedly with the knife, and he died of the wounds on the following day. He was immediately taken into custody, and was tried for murder at the Old Bailey, but acquitted. On this occasion, Johnson, Burke, Goldsmith, Garrick, Reynolds and Beauclerk gave testimony to his good character; and, although he did not escape censure for his too ready resort to a knife, his acquittal was generally approved. In 1770, he published his Journey from London to Genoa, through England, Portugal, Spain and France-a work replete with information and entertainment. He also continued to publish introductory works, for the use of students in the Italian and other modern languages, and superintended a complete edition of the works of Machiavel. The latter part of his life was harassed with pecuniary difficulties, which were very little alleviated by his honorary post of foreign secretary to the royal academy, and an ill-paid pension of £80 per annum under the North administration. In 1786, he published a work with the singular title of "Tolendron: Speeches to John Bowles about his Edition of Don Quixote, together with some Account of Spanish Literature." He died in May, 1789. B., although rough and cynical in his appearance, was a pleasant companion; and of his powers in conversation doctor Johnson thought highly. He was deemed a latitudinarian in respect to religion; but his integrity was unimpeached, liis morals pure, and his manners correct. He had, also, a high sense of the value of independence, and often refused pecuniary assistance when he most needed it.

BAREZZI, Stefano, painter in Milan, has made himself known by the mode which he invented of taking old fresco paintings from walls, by fixing upon them a piece of linen, covered with a certain cement, which loosens the colors; they are then transferred upon a board prepared for the purpose, upon which, after removing the linen, they remain perfectly firm. In the hall of exhibition of the palace Brera is to

573

be seen a painting of Aurelio Luino, representing the torture of St. Vincent, which he has safely transferred to a board in this manner.

BARFLEUR; a sea-port of France, in the department of the Channel; 12 miles east of Cherburg. Lon. 1° 15′ W.; lat. 49° 40′ N. Pop. 900. It was, at one time, the best port on the coast of Normandy; but, in the year 1346, it was taken and pillaged by Edward III, king of England, and the harbor destroyed. William the Conqueror fitted out at B. the expedition which effected the conquest of England.

BARGAIN AND SALE, INSTRUMENT OF, is an indenture whereby lands and tenements are granted. By the stat. 27 Hen. VIII, c. 16, it was enacted that an estate of freehold should not pass by bargain and sale, unless by indenture enrolled in one of the courts of Westminster, or in the county where the lands lie. This statute would have introduced the general practice of enrolment of deeds in England, had it extended to leasehold estates. To remedy this defect in some measure, the statute of 29 Charles II, c. 3, was enacted; which provides against conveying lands or hereditaments for more than three years, or declaring trusts otherwise than in writing. conveyance by bargain and sale, in England, is very similar to the conveyances by deed, most generally in use in the U. States.

The

The

BARILLA; the term applied, in commerce, to a product obtained from the combustion of certain marine vegetables. This word is the Spanish name of a plant (salsola soda), from the ashes of which is produced the above substance, which affords the alkali (soda). This is also procured from the ashes of prickly saltwort, shrubby saltwort (salsola fruticosa) and numerous plants of other tribes. plants made use of for burning differ in different countries; and the residue of their incineration contains the soda in various states of purity. The barilla derived from the abesembryanthemum nodiflorum of Spain, and the M. copticum of Africa, contains from 25 to 40 per cent. of carbonate of soda; whereas that from the salsola and the salicornia of other districts affords about half this quantity; and the particular variety known under the name of kelp, procured by burning various sea-weeds, is a still coarser article, not yielding above 2 or 3 per cent. of real soda. To obtain the carbonate of soda, it is only requisite to lixiviate the

« AnteriorContinua »