BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Of older works, though often uncritical, R. P. Henao's

_Averiguaciones de las Antiguedades de Cantabria_ (Salamanca, 1688) is

still valuable (new edition, 1894). For all that relates to the manners and

customs of the people, _Corografia de Guipuzcoa_, by R. P. M. de

Larramendi, S.J., is indispensable. Written about 1750, it was first

printed in Barcelona in 1882 (later edition, San Sebastian, 1896). There

are excellent chapters on the Basque Provinces in the _Introduccion a la

Historia Natural, y a la Geografia Fisica de Espana_, by D. Guillermo

Bowles (Madrid, 1775). _El Guipuzcoano instruido_ (San Sebastian, 1780), in

the form of a dictionary, gives full details of the life, the rights,

duties and obligations of a Basque citizen of that date. The _Diccionario

Geografico-Historico de Espana_, tome i., ii. _El Reyno de Navarra Senorio

de Vizcaya y Provincias de Alava y Guipuzcoa_ (Madrid, 1802), is full of

local information, but with a strong bias in favour of the central

government. The best works on the various editions of the _fueros_ are

_Historia de la Legislacion ... civil de Espana_, by A. Marichalar, Marques

de Montesa, and Cayetano Manrique; _Fueros de Navarra Vizcaya, Guipuzcoa y

Alava_ (Madrid, 2nd ed., 1868); and the _Noticia de las cosas memorables de

Guipuzcoa_, by D. Pablo de Gorosabel (Tolosa, 1899-1901), the last volume

of which by C. de Echegaray, gives the legislative acts down to May 1900.

_Las Provincias Vascongadas a Fines de la Edad Media_, by D. Carmelo de

Echegaray (San Sebastian, 1895), is excellent. There is a _Historia de

Bizcaya_, by Dr E. de Labayru, and a _Compendio_ of the same by Fermin

Herran (Bilbao, 1903). D. Carmelo de Echegaray, Cronista de las Provincias

Vascongadas, with his colleagues D. Serapio Mugica, F. Soraluce, and other

historians, has examined, catalogued and indexed the municipal archives of

all the towns, without which no true history can be written. Several

discoveries of important missing documents and MSS. were thus made. The

development of the Basque mining industry is fully described in _Las Minas

de hierro de la provincia de Vizcaya, progressos realizados en esta region

derde 1870 hasta 1899_ (Bilbao, 1900).

(W. WE.)

BASQUES, a people inhabiting the three Basque Provinces--Biscay, Alava and

Guipuzcoa--and Navarre in Spain, and the arrondissement of Bayonne and

Mauleon in France. The number of those who can be considered in any sense

pure Basques is [v.03 p.0486] probably about 600,000 in Europe, with

perhaps 100,000 emigrants in the Americas, chiefly in the region of La

Plata in South America. The word Basques is historically derived from

_Vascones_, which, written _Wascones_, has also given the name _Gascons_ to

a very different race. The Basques call themselves _Eskualdunak_, _i.e._

"those who possess the _Eskuara_," and their country Eskual-Herria.

_Language_.--The original and proper name of the language is Eskuara

(euskara, uskara), a word the exact meaning of which has not yet been

ascertained, but which probably corresponds with the idea "clearly

speaking." The language is highly interesting and stands as yet absolutely

isolated from the other tongues of Europe, though from the purely

grammatical point of view it recalls the Magyar and Finnic languages. It is

an agglutinative, incorporating and polysynthetic system of speech; in the

general series of organized linguistic families it would take an

intermediate place between the American on the one side and the Ugro-Altaic

or Ugrian on the other.

Basque has no graphic system of its own and uses the Roman character,

either Spanish or French; a few particular sounds are indicated in modern

writings by dotted or accented letters. The alphabet would vary according

to the dialects. Prince L. L. Bonaparte counts, on the whole, thirteen

simple vowels, thirty-eight simple consonants. Nasal vowels are found in

some dialects as well as "wet" consonants--_ty_, _dy_, _ny_, &c. The

doubling of consonants is not allowed and in actual current speech most of

the soft consonants are dropped. The letter _r_ cannot begin a word, so

that _rationem_ is written in Basque _arrazoin_.

Declension is replaced by a highly developed postpositional system; first,

the definite article itself _a_ (plural _ak_) is a postposition--_zaldi_,

"horse," _zaldia_ "the horse," _zaldiak_, "the horses." The declensional

suffixes or postpositions, which, just like our prepositions, may be added

to one another, are postponed to the article when the noun is definite. The

principal suffixes are _k_, the mark of the plural, and of the singular

nominative agent; _n_, "of" and "in"; _i_, "to"; _z_, "by"; _ik_, "some";

_ko_, "from," "of" (Lat. _a_); _tik_, "from" (Lat. _ex_); _tzat_, _kotzat_,

_tzako_, "for"; _kin_, _gaz_, "with"; _gatik_, "for the sake of"; _gana_,

"towards"; _ra_, _rat_, "to," "into," "at," &c. Of these suffixes some are

joined to the definite, others to the indefinite noun, or even to both.

The personal pronouns, which to a superficial observer appear closely

related to those of the Semitic or Hamitic languages, are _ni_, "I"; _hi_,

"thou"; _gu_, "we"; _zu_, "you" in modern times, _zu_ has become a polite

form of "thou," and a true plural "you" (_i.e._ more than one) has been

formed by suffixing the pluralizing sign _k--zuek_. The pronouns of the

third person are mere demonstratives. There are three: _hura_ or _kura_,

"that"; _hau_ or _kau_, "this"; _ori_ or _kori_, "this" or "that." Other

unexplained forms are found in the verbal inflexions, _e.g._ _d_, _it_, and

_t_, "I" or "me"; _d-akus-t_, "it see I" = I see it; _d-arrai-t_, "it

follows me." The demonstratives are used as articles: _gazt-en-or_, "this

younger one"; _andre-ori_, "this lady at some distance." The reflective

"self" is expressed by _buru_, "head." The relative does not exist, and in

its place is used as a kind of verbal participle with the ending _n: doa_,

"he goes"; _doana_, "he who is going"; in the modern Basque, however, by

imitation of French or Spanish, the interrogative _zein_, _zoin_, is used

as a relative. Other interrogatives are _nor_, "who"; _zer_, "what";

_zembait_, "how much," &c. _Bat_, "one"; _batzu_, "several"; _bakotch_,

"each"; _norbait_, "some one"; _hanitz_ or _hainitz_, "much"; _elkar_,

"both"; are the most common indefinite pronouns. The numeral system is

vicesimal; _e.g._ 34 is _hogoi ta hamalaur_, "twenty and fourteen." The

numbers from one to ten are: 1, _bat_; 2, _bi_; 3, _hiru_; 4, _lau_; 5,

_bortz_ or _bost_; 6, _sei_; 7, _zazpi_; 8, _zortzi_; 9, _bederatzi_; 10,

_hamar_; 20, _hogoi_ or _hogei_; 40, _berrogoi_ (_i.e._ twice twenty); 100,

_ehun_. There is no genuine word for a thousand.

The genders in Basque grammar are distinguished only in the verbal forms,

in which the sex of the person addressed is indicated by a special suffix;

so that _eztakit_ means, "I do not know it"; but to a woman one says also:

_eztakinat_, "I do not know it, oh woman!" To a man one says: _eztakiat_

(for _eztakikat_), "I do not know it, oh man!" moreover, certain dialectic

varieties have a respectful form: _eztakizut_, "I do not know it, you

respectable one," from which also a childish form is derived, _eztakichut_,

"I do not know it, oh child!"

The Basque conjugation appears most complicated, since it incorporates not

only the subject pronouns, but, at the same time, the indirect and direct

complement. Each transitive form may thus offer twenty-four variations--"he

gives it," "he gives it to you," "he gives them to us," &c., &c.

Primitively there were two tenses only, an imperfect and a present, which

were distinguished in the transitive verb by the place of the personal

subject element: _dakigu_, "we are knowing it" (_gu_, _i.e._ we), and

_ginaki_, "we were knowing it"; in the intransitive by a nasalization of

the radical: _niz_, "I am"; _nintz_, "I was." In modern times a conjectural

future has been derived by adding the suffix _ke_, _dakiket_, "I will,

shall or probably can know it." No proper moods are known, but subjunctive

or conjunctive forms are formed by adding a final _n_, as _dakusat_, "I am

looking at it"; _dakusadan_, "if I see it." No voices appear to have been

used in the same radical, so that there are separate transitive and

intransitive verbs.

In its present state Basque only employs its regular conjugation

exceptionally; but it has developed, probably under the influence of

neo-Latin, a most extensive conjugation by combining a few auxiliary verbs

and what may be called participles, in fact declined nouns: _ikusten dut_,

"I have it in seeing," "I see it"; _ikusiko dut_, "I have it to be seen,"

"I will see it," &c. The principal auxiliaries are: _izan_, "to be"; and

_ukan_, "to have"; but _edin_, "to can"; _eza_, "to be able"; _egin_, "to

make"; _joan_, "to go"; _eroan_, "to draw," "to move," are also much used

in this manner.

The syntax is simple, the phrases are short and generally the order of

words is: subject, complement, verb. The determining element follows the

determined: _gizon handia_, "man great the"--the great man: the genitive,

however, precedes the nominative--_gizonaren etchea_, "the man's house."

Composition is common and it has caused several juxtaposed words to be

combined and contracted, so that they are partially fused with one

another--a process called _polysyntheticism; odei_, "cloud," and _ots_,

"noise," form _odots_, "thunder"; _belar_, "forehead," and _oin_, "foot,"

give _belaun_, "knee," front of the foot. The vocabulary is poor; general

and synthetic words are often wanting; but particular terms abound. There

is no proper term for "sister," but _arreba_, a man's sister, is

distinguished from _ahizpa_, a woman's sister. We find no original words

for abstract ideas, and God is simply "the Lord of the high."

The vocabulary, however, varies extremely from place to place and the

dialectic varieties are very numerous. They have been summed up by Prince

L. L. Bonaparte as eight; these may be reduced to three principal groups:

the eastern, comprising the Souletine and the two lower Navarrese; the

central formed by the two upper Navarrese, the Guipuzcoan and the

Labourdine; and the western, formed by the Biscayan, spoken too in Alava.

These names are drawn from the territorial subdivisions, although the

dialects do not exactly correspond with them.

_Ethnology and Anthropology._--The earliest notices of the geography of

Spain, from the 5th century B.C., represent Spain as occupied by a

congeries of tribes distinguished mainly as Iberi, Celtiberi and Celts.

These had no cohesion together, and unless temporarily united against some

foreign foe, were at war with one another and were in constant movement;

the ruder tribes being driven northwards by the advancing tide of

Mediterranean civilization. The tribes in the south in Baetica had,

according to Trogus and Strabo, written laws, poems of ancient date and a

literature. Of this nothing has reached us. We have only some inscriptions,

legends on coins, marks on pottery and on megalithic monuments, in

alphabets slightly differing, and belonging to six geographical districts.

These still await an interpreter; but they show that a like general

language was once spoken through the whole of Spain, and for a short

distance on [v.03 p.0487] the northern slope of the Pyrenees. The character

of the letters is clearly of Levant origin, but the particular alphabets,

to which each may be referred, and their connexion, if any, with the

Basque, are still undetermined. It was early remarked by the classical

scholars among the Basques after the Renaissance that certain names in the

ancient toponymy of Spain, though transcribed by Greek and Latin writers,

_i.e._ by foreigners, ignorant of the language, yet bear a strong

resemblance to actual place-names in Basque (_e.g._ Iliberis, Iriberry);

and in a few cases (Mondiculeia, Mendigorry; Iluro, Oloron) the site itself

shows the reason of the name. Andres de Poza (1587), Larramendi (1760),

Juan B. Erro (1806) and others had noted some of these facts, but it was W.

von Humboldt (1821) who first aroused the attention of Europe to them. This

greater extension of a people speaking a language akin to the Basque

throughout Spain, and perhaps in Sicily and Sardinia, has been accepted by

the majority of students, though some competent Basque scholars deny it;

and the certain connexion of the Basques, either with the Iberians or

Celtiberians, whether in race or language, cannot be said to be

conclusively proved as long as the so-called Celtiberian inscriptions

remain uninterpreted. (See also IBERIANS.)

After so many centuries of close contact and interpenetration with other

peoples, we can hardly expect to find a pure physical type among the

present Basques. All that we can expect is to be able to differentiate them

from their neighbours. The earliest notice we have of the Basques, by

Einhard (778), speaks of their wonderful agility. The next, the pilgrim of

the Codex Calixtinus (12th century), says the Basques are fairer in face

(_facie candiliores_) than the Navarrese.

Anthropologists no longer rely solely on craniology, and the measurement of

the skull, to distinguish race. The researches of Aranzadi (1889 and 1905)

and of Collignon (1899) show them as less fair than northern Europeans, but

fairer than any of the southern races; not so tall as the Scandinavians,

Teutons or British, but taller than their neighbours of southern races.

There is no tendency to prognathism, as in some of the Celts. The profile

is often very fine; the carriage is remarkably upright. Neither markedly

brachycephalous nor dolichocephalous, the skull has yet certain

peculiarities. In the conjunction of the whole physical qualities, says

Collignon, there is a Basque type, differing from all those he has studied

in Europe and northern Africa. There are differences of type among

themselves, yet, when they emigrate to South America, French and Spanish

Basques are known simply as Basques, distinct from all other races.

On the origin of the Basques, the chief theories are:--(1) that they are

descended from the tribes whom the Greeks and Latins called Iberi; (2) that

they belong to some of the fairer Berber tribes ("Eurafrican," Herve) and

through the ancient Libyans, from a people depicted on the Egyptian

monuments; (3) the Atlantic theory, that they belong to a lost Atlantic

continent, whose inhabitants were represented by the Guanches of the Canary

Islands, and by a fair race on the western coast of Africa; (4) that they

are an indigenous race, who have never had any greater extension than their

present quarters.

The remains of prehistoric races hitherto discovered in Spain throw little

light on the subject, but some skulls found in southeastern Spain in the

age of metal resemble the Basque skulls of Zaraus.

The megalithic remains, the dolmens, menhirs, cromlechs and stone circles

are said to resemble more closely those of northern Africa than the larger

remains of Brittany and of the British Isles. Aristotle tells us that the

Iberi fixed obelisks round the tomb of each warrior in number equal to the

enemies he had slain (_Polit._ vii. c. 2. 6), but proof is wanting that

these Iberi were Basques.

Iberian inscriptions have been found on the so-called _toros de guisando_,

rude stone bulls or boars, on other monuments of northern Spain and in

ancient sepulchres; some of these figures, _e.g._ at the _Cerro de los

Santos_ in Murcia, recall the physical type of the modern Basques, but they

are associated with others of very varied types.

Of the religion of the Basques anterior to Christianity, little is

certainly known. The few notices we have point to a worship of the

elements, the sun, the moon and the morning star, and to a belief in the

immortality of the unburnt and unburied body. The custom of the _couvade_,

attributed by Strabo to the Cantabri, is unknown among the modern Basques.

As elsewhere, the Romans assimilated Basque local deities to their own

pantheon, thus we find Deo _Baicorrixo_ (Baigorry) and _Herauscorrtsehe_ in

Latin inscriptions. But the name which the Basques themselves give to the

Deity is _Jaincoa_, _Jaungoikoa_, which may mean lord or master, Lord of

the high; but in the dialect of Roncal, _Goikoa_ means "the moon," and

_Jaungoikokoa_ would mean "Lord of the moon." The term _Jaun_, lord or

master, _Etcheko Jauna_, the lord or master of the house, is applied to

every householder.

There is no aid to be got from folk-tales; none can be considered

exclusively Basque and the literature is altogether too modern. The first

book printed in Basque, the _Linguae Vasconum Primitiae_, the poems of

Bernard d'Echepare, is dated 1545. The work which is considered the

standard of the language is the Protestant translation of the New Testament

made by Jean de Licarrague, under the auspices of Jeanne d'Albret, and

printed at La Rochelle in 1571. The _pastorales_ are open-air dramas, like

the moralities and mysteries of the middle ages. They are derived from

French materials; but a dancing chorus, invariably introduced, and other

parts of the _mise-en-scene_, point to possibly earlier traditions. No MS.

hitherto discovered is earlier than the 18th century. The greater part of

the other literature is religious and translated. It is only recently that

a real literature has been attempted in Basque with any success.

In spite of this modernity in literature there are other matters which show

how strong the conservatism of the Basques really is. Thus, in dealing with

the language, the only true measure of the antiquity of the race, we find

that all cutting instruments are of stone; that the week has only three

days. There are also other survivals now fast disappearing. Instead of the

plough, the Basques used the _laya_, a two-pronged short-handled steel

digging fork, admirably adapted to small properties, where labour is

abundant. They alone of the peoples of western Europe have preserved

specimens of almost every class of dance known to primitive races. These

are (1) animal (or possibly totem) dances, in which men personate animals,

the bear, the fox, the horse, &c.; (2) dances to represent agriculture and

the vintage performed with wine-skins; (3) the simple arts, such as

weaving, where the dancers, each holding a long coloured ribbon, dance

round a pole on which is gradually formed a pattern like a Scotch tartan;

(4) war-dances, as the sword-dance and others; (5) religious dances in

procession before the Host and before the altar; (6) ceremonial dances in

which both sexes take part at the beginning and end of a festival, and to

welcome distinguished people. How large a part these played in the life of

the people, and the value attached to them, may be seen in the vehement

defence of the religious dances by Father Larramendi, S.J., in his

_Corografia de Guipuzcoa_, and by the large sums paid for the privilege of

dancing the first _Saut Basque_ on the stage at the close of a _Pastorale_.

The old Basque house is the product of a land where stone and timber were

almost equally abundant. The front-work is of wood with carved beams; the

balconies and huge over-hanging roof recall the Swiss chalet, but the side

and back walls are of stone often heavily buttressed. The cattle occupy the

ground-floor, and the first storey is reached often by an outside

staircase. The carven tombstones with their ornaments resemble those of

Celtic countries, and are found also at Bologna in Italy.

In customs, in institutions, in administration, in civil and political life

there is no one thing that we can say is peculiarly and exclusively Basque;

but their whole system taken together marks them off from other people and

especially from their neighbours.

_Character_.--The most marked features in the Basque character are an

intense self-respect, a pride of race and an obstinate conservatism. Much

has been written in ridicule of the claim of all Basques to be noble, but

it was a fact both in the laws of [v.03 p.0488] Spain, in the _fueros_ and

in practice. Every Basque freeholder (_vecino_) could prove himself noble

and thus eligible to any office. They are not a town race; a Basque village

consists of a few houses; the population lives in scattered habitations.

They do not fear solitude, and this makes them excellent emigrants and

missionaries. They are splendid seamen, and were early renowned as whale

fishermen in the Bay of Biscay. They were the first to establish the

cod-fishery off the coast of Newfoundland. They took their full part in the

colonization of America. Basque names abound in the older colonial

families, and Basque newspapers have been published in Buenos-Aires and in

Los Angeles, California. As soldiers they are splendid marchers; they

retain the tenacity and power of endurance which the Romans remarked in the

Iberians and Celtiberians. They are better in defence than in attack. The

failure to take Bilbao was the turning-point in both Carlist wars. In civil

institutions and in the tenures of property the legal position of women was

very high. The eldest born, whether boy or girl, inherited the ancestral

property, and this not only among the higher classes but among the

peasantry also. In the _fueros_ an insult done to a woman, or in the

presence of a woman, is punished more severely than a similar offence among

men. This did not prevent women from working as hard as, or even harder

than, the men. All authors speak of the robust appearance of the

women-rowers on the Bidassoa, and of those who loaded and unloaded the

ships in Bilbao.

_Institutions_.--In their municipal institutions they kept the old Roman

term _respublica_ for the _civitas_ and the territory belonging to it. All

municipal officers were elective in some form or other, and there is hardly

any mode of election, from universal suffrage to nomination by a single

person chosen by lot, that the Basques have not tried. The municipalities

sent deputies to the juntas or parliaments of each province. These

assemblies took place originally in the open air, as in other parts of the

Pyrenees, under trees, the most celebrated of which is the oak of Guernica

in Biscay, or under copses, as the Bilzaar in the French Pays Basque. The

cortes of Navarre met at Pamplona. Delegates from the juntas met annually

to consider the common interests of the three provinces. Besides the

separate municipalities and the juntas, there were often associations and

assemblies of three or five towns, or of three or four valleys, to preserve

the special privilege or for the special needs of each. Hence was formed a

habit of self-government, the practice of legislative, judicial and

administrative functions, which resulted gradually in a code of written or

unwritten laws embodied in the _fueros_ or _fors_ of each province, and the

_cartas-pueblos_ of the towns. In form these _fueros_ or charters are often

grants from the lord or sovereign; in reality they are only a confirmation

or codification of unwritten customary laws in practice among the people,

the origin of which is lost in antiquity. The kings of Castile, of Spain

and of Navarre were obliged at their accession, either in person, or by

deputy, to swear to observe these _fueros_; and this oath was really kept.

While the cortes were trampled upon and absolutism reigned both in Spain

and in France, the Basque _fueros_ were respected; in Spain to the middle

of the 19th century and in France down to the Revolution. The _fueros_ thus

observed made the Basque provinces a land apart (_una tierra apartada_), a

self-governing republic (_una verdadera autonomia_), under an absolute

monarchy, to which, however, they were always loyal. And this independence

was acknowledged, not only in local, but also in international and European

treaties, as in art. 15 of the treaty of Utrecht 1713. So the act of the

3rd of June 1876, which assimilated the Basque Provinces to the rest of

Spain, acknowledged the true self-government which they had enjoyed for

centuries.

The circumstances and methods which enabled the Basques to preserve this

independence were, first, the isolation caused by their peculiar language;

next, the mountainous and easily-defended nature of the country, its

comparative poverty and the possession of a sea-board. Then there were the

rights and the safeguards which the _fueros_ themselves gave against

encroachments. The rights were:--freedom of election to all offices and to

the juntas; exemption from all forced military service except for the

defence of the country and under their own officers; and payment beforehand

exacted for all service beyond their own frontiers (this did not of course

exclude voluntary service of individuals in the Spanish or French armies).

Then there was free trade with foreign nations, and especially between the

Basques of both nations. The customs' frontier of Spain really began on the

Ebro. Then no decree or sentence of the royal authorities could have effect

in the provinces except countersigned by the junta. Otherwise the resisting

and even the killing of a royal officer was no murder. But chiefest of all

the safeguards was the provision that no tax or contribution should be

levied or paid to the crown till all petitions had been heard and wrongs

redressed; that such a vote should be the last act of the junta or cortes,

and the money should be paid not as a demand of right or a tax, but as a

free gift and above all a voluntary one. It was paid in a lump sum, and the

repartition and levying were left entirely in the hands of the junta and

the municipalities.

As a further precaution against the inroads of absolutism, no lawyer was

allowed to be a deputy to the junta and all clergy were likewise excluded.

The Basques considered that men of these professions would be always on the

side of tyranny. One lawyer (_letrado_) was present at the juntas for

consultation on the points of law, but he was not allowed to vote. So

strictly was this observed that after the battle of Vitoria in 1813, when

it was difficult to get together a quorum for the reorganization of the

country, the _letrado_, though one of the most active and influential

members in consultation, was not allowed to vote.

The relations between Church and State among the Basques have been very

remarkable. They are a highly religious people, eminently conservative in

their religious practices. In religion alone, through Ignatius de Loyola of

Guipuzcoa and Francis Xavier of Navarre, they have left their mark upon

Europe. They have kept the earliest form of Christian marriage and of the

primitive order of deaconesses, forgotten elsewhere in the West. The feast

of Corpus Christi instituted by Pope Urban IV. (1262) still appears in

Basque almanacs as _Phesta-berria_, the New Feast. The earliest notice that

we have of them speaks of their liberality to the clergy; yet with all this

religious conservatism they have never allowed themselves to be

priest-ridden. They constantly resisted the attempts of the crown to force

upon them the authority of the Spanish bishops. When Ferdinand the Catholic

came to Biscay in 1477 to swear to the _fueros_, he was compelled to send

back the bishop of Pamplona whom he had brought with him. No strange priest

could enter the town when the junta was sitting, and in some places if a

deputy was seen speaking to a priest before a session he lost his vote for

that day. The bishops had no share in ecclesiastical patronage in

Guipuzcoa; all was in the hands of the king, of the nobles or of the

municipalities, or else the priests were chosen by competitive examination

or elected by the people. They would not allow the priest to interfere with

the games or dances, and when the drama was forbidden in all Spain in 1757

by the authority of the Spanish bishops, the cortes of Navarre compelled

the king to withdraw the order.

For a stranger coming from lands of larger farms and apparently higher

cultivation, the agriculture of the Basques seems poor, but the old

scattered homesteads show a sense of security that has been lacking in many

parts of Spain; and the Basques have shown great adaptability in suiting

their agriculture to new conditions, helped by the presence of the courts

at San Sebastian and Biarritz. When the old self-sufficient village

industries declined, in consequence of the invention of machinery and

manufacture elsewhere, the Basques entered at once upon emigration to the

agricultural parts of the Americas, and the result has been that the Basque

Provinces and the Pays Basque probably have never been more prosperous than

they are now, and perhaps a new Eskual-herria and a new Eskuara are being

built up in the distant lands to which they are such valued immigrants.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--For so restricted a literature the _Essai d'une

bibliographie de la langue basque_, by Julien Vinson (Paris, 1891), with

the volume of additions and corrections, 1898, is practically exhaustive,

and is a mine of information on the principal works. See also for the

language, A. Oihenart, _Notitia utriusque Vasconiae_ (Paris. 1638 and

1656), 4to., ch. xiv.; Fl. Lecluse, _Manuel de la [v.03 p.0489] langue

basque_ (Toulouse, 1826); C. Ribary, _Essai sur la langue basque_ (1866),

translated from the Hungarian by Julien Vinson (Paris, 1877); W. J. Van

Eys, _Grammaire comparee des dialectes basques_ (Paris, London, Amsterdam,

1879); Prince L. L. Bonaparte, _Le Verbe basque en tableaux_ (London,

1864-1869); J. Vinson, articles in _Revue de linguistique_ (Paris,

1867-1906); L'Abbe Ithurry, _Grammaire basque_ (Bayonne, 1895-1906); Dr H.

Schuchardt, _Die Entstehung der Bezugsformen des Baskischen_ (Wien, 1893);

W. J. Van Eys, _Dictionnaire basque-francais_ (Paris, 1873); R. M. de

Azkue, _Diccionario vascongado espanol-francais_ (Tours, 1906); _Monumenta

Linguae Ibericae_, edidit Aemilius Hubner, fol. (Berlin, 1893) (texts and

introduction good; analysis and interpretation faulty). Other works of

interest on various subjects are:--Wentworth Webster, _Basque Legends_

(London, 1877 and 1879); Puyol y Camps, "La Epigraphia Numismatica

Iberica," in tomo xvi. of _Boletin de la Real Academia de la Historia_

(Madrid, 1890), (for geographical distribution of the alphabets); T. de

Aranzadi, _El Pueblo Euskalduna. Estudio de Antropologia_ (San Sebastian,

1889); and the same author's _Existe una raza Euskara? Sus caracteres

antropologicos_ (1905); _La Tradition au pays basque_ (Paris, 1899), (a

collection of papers by local authorities); Julien Vinson, _Les Basques et

le pays basque_ (Paris, 1882), a sufficient survey for the general reader;

the same author's _Le Folk-Lore du pays basque_ (Paris, 1883), treats of

the Pastorales and embraces the whole Folk-Lore; _Le Codex de Saint-Jacques

de Compostella_, lib. iv. (Paris, 1882), by R. P. F. Fita and J. Vinson,

gives the first Basque vocabulary; _Les Coutumes generales gardees et

observees au pais & baillage de Labourt_ (Bordeaux, 1700); G.

Olphe-Galliard, _Le Paysan basque a travers les ages_ (Paris, 1905); Pierre

Yturbide, _Le Pays de Labourd avant 1789_ (Bayonne, 1905), (for the time of

the English domination); Henry O'Shea, _La Tombe basque_ (Pau, 1889),

(valuable for the comparison of Basque and Celtic sepulchral ornament). See

also the bibliography to BASQUE PROVINCES.

(W. WE.; J. VN.)

BASRA (written also BUSRA, BASSORA and BUSSORA), the name of a vilayet of

Asiatic Turkey, and of its capital. The vilayet has an area of 16,470 sq.

m., formed in 1884 by detaching the southern districts of the Bagdad

vilayet. It includes the great marshy districts of the lower Euphrates and

Tigris, and of their joint stream, the Shatt el-Arab, and a sanjak on the

western shore of the Persian Gulf. A settled population is found only along

the river banks. Except the capital, Basra, there are no towns of

importance. Korna, at the junction of the two great rivers; Amara on the

Tigris; Shatra on the Shatt el-Hai canal, connecting the Tigris and

Euphrates; Nasrieh, at the junction of that canal with the Euphrates and

Suk esh-Sheiukh, on the lower reaches of the Euphrates, are the principal

settlements, with a population varying from 3000 to 10,000 or somewhat

less. Along the Shatt el-Arab and the lower reaches of the Tigris and

Euphrates there are vast plantations of date-palms, which produce the

finest dates known. Here and there are found extensive rice-fields;

liquorice, wheat, barley and roses are also cultivated in places. But in

general the ancient canals on which the fertility of the country depends

have been allowed to go to ruin. The whole land is subject to inundations

which render settled agriculture impracticable, and the population consists

chiefly of nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes whose wealth consists in herds

of buffaloes, horses, sheep and goats. The principal exports are wool,

dates, cereals, gum, liquorice-root and horses. The climate is humid and

unhealthy. The population is estimated at about 200,000 almost exclusively

Moslems, of whom three-quarters are Shi'ites. There are about 4000 Jews and

perhaps 6000 Christians, among whom are reckoned the remains of the curious

sect of Sabaeans or Mandaeans, whose headquarters are in the neighbourhood

of Suk esh-Sheiukh.

The capital of the vilayet, also called Basra, is situated in 47deg 34' E.

long. and 32deg N. lat., near the western bank of the Shatt el-Arab, about

55 m. from the Persian Gulf. The town proper lies on the canal el-'Assar

about 1 1/2 to 2 m. W. of the Shatt el-Arab. There are no public buildings

of importance. The houses are meanly built, partly of sun-dried and partly

of burnt bricks, with flat roofs surrounded by parapets. The bazaars are

miserable structures, covered with mats laid on rafters of date trees. The

streets are irregular, narrow and unpaved. The greater part of the area of

the town is occupied by gardens and plantations of palm-trees, intersected

by a number of little canals, cleansed twice daily with the ebb and flow of

the tide, which rises here about 9 ft. These canals are navigated by small

boats, called _bellem_ (plur. _ablam_), resembling dug-outs in form, but

light and graceful. At high-tide, accordingly, the town presents a very

attractive appearance, but at low-tide, when the mud banks are exposed, it

seems dirty and repulsive, and the noxious exhalations are extremely

trying. The whole region is subject to inundations. The town itself is

unhealthy and strangers especially are apt to be attacked by fever. Basra

is the port of Bagdad, with which it has steam communication by an English

line of river steamers weekly and also by a Turkish line. The Shatt el-Arab

is deep and broad, easily navigable for ocean steamers, and there is weekly

communication by passenger steamer with India, while two or more freight

lines, which also take passengers, connect Basra directly with the

Mediterranean, and with European and British ports. It is the great date

port of the world, and the dates of Basra are regarded as the finest in the

market. Besides dates the principal articles of export are wool, horses,

liquorice, gum and attar of roses. The annual value of the exports is

approximately L1,000,000 and of the imports a little more. The foreign

trade is almost exclusively in the hands of the English, but of late the

Germans have begun to enter the market, and the Hamburg-American line of

steamers has established direct communication. Since 1898 there has been a

British consul at Basra (before that time he was a representative of the

Indian government). France and Russia also maintain consular establishments

at Basra. The settled population of Basra is probably under 50,000, but how

much it is impossible to estimate. It is a heterogeneous mixture of all the

nations and religions of the East--Turks, Arabs, Persians, Indians,

Armenians, Chaldaeans and Jews. Of the latter there are about 1900, engaged

in trade and commerce. Fewest in number are the Turks, comprising only the

officials. Most numerous are the Arabs, chiefly Shi'ites. The wealthiest

and most influential personage in the capital and the vilayet is the

_nakib_, or marshal of the nobility (_i.e._ descendants of the family of

the prophet, who are entitled to wear the green turban). Basra is a station

of the Arabian mission of the Dutch Reformed Church of America.

_History._--The original city of Basra was founded by the caliph Omar in

A.D. 636 about 8 m. S.W. of its present site, on the edge of the stony and

pebbly Arabian plateau, on an ancient canal now dry. The modern town of

Zobeir, a sort of health suburb, occupied by the villas of well-to-do

inhabitants of Basra, lies near the ruin mounds which mark the situation of

the ancient city. In the days of its prosperity it rivalled Kufa and Wasit

in wealth and size, and its fame is in the tales of the _Arabian Nights_.

With the decay of the power of the Abbasid caliphate its importance

declined. The canals were neglected, communication with the Persian Gulf

was cut off and finally the place was abandoned altogether. The present

city was conquered by the Turks in 1668, and since that period has been the

scene of many revolutions. It was taken in 1777 after a siege of eight

months by the Persians under Sadik Khan. In about a year it fell again into

the hands of the Turks, who were again deprived of it by the sheikh of the

Montefik (Montafiq) Arabs. The town was in the October following recovered

by Suleiman Pasha, who encountered the sheikh on the banks of the Euphrates

and put him to flight; it has since remained in the hands of the Turks.

(J. P. PE.)

BASS, the name of a family of English brewers. The founder of the firm,

William Bass (b. 1720), was originally a carrier, one of his chief clients

being Benjamin Printon, a Burton-on-Trent brewer. By 1777 Bass had saved a

little money, and seeing the growing demand for Burton beer he started as a

brewer himself. The principal market for Burton beer at that time was in St

Petersburg, whither the beer could be sent by water direct from Burton via

the Trent and Hull, and William Bass managed to secure a tolerable share of

the large Russian orders. But in 1822 the Russian government placed a

prohibitory duty on Burton ales, and the Burton brewers were forced into

cultivating the home market. William Bass opened up a connexion with

London, and established a fairly profitable home trade. A misunderstanding

between the East India Company and the London brewers who were the

proprietors of Hodgson's India [v.03 p.0490] Pale Ale, at that time the

standard drink of Englishmen in the East, resulted in Bass being asked to

supply a beer which would withstand the Indian climate and be generally

suitable to the Indian market. After a series of experiments he produced

what is still known as Bass's pale ale. This new and lighter beer at once

became popular all over India, and Bass's firm became the largest in

Burton. After William Bass's death the business was carried on by his son,

M. T. Bass, and then by his grandson, Michael Thomas Bass (1799-1884). In

1827 a vessel laden with Bass's beer was wrecked in the Irish Channel. A

large proportion of the cargo was however salved and sold at Liverpool,

where it met with great approval in the local market, and through this

chance circumstance the firm opened up a regular trade in the north-west of

England and Ireland. "Bass" was, however, little drunk in London till 1851,

when it was supplied on draught at the Exhibition of that year, since which

time its reputation has been world-wide. In 1880 the business was turned

into a limited liability company. Michael Thomas Bass, besides actively

conducting and extending the firm's operations, was a man of great public

spirit and philanthropy, and the towns of Burton and Derby are largely

indebted to his munificence. He took a keen interest in all questions

affecting the welfare of the working classes, and was largely instrumental

in securing the abolition of imprisonment for debt. On his death, prior to

which he had taken into partnership Messrs Ratcliff and Gretton, two of the

leading officials of the brewery, converting the business into a limited

company known as Messrs Bass, Ratcliff & Gretton, Ltd., the control of the

firm passed to his sons, Michael Arthur Bass and Hamar Bass (d. 1898).

Michael Arthur Bass (1837-1909), after twenty-one years in parliament as

member first for Stafford, then for two divisions of Staffordshire, was in

1886 raised to the peerage as Baron Burton; by a special patent of 1897 the

peerage descended to his daughter, Nellie, the wife of Mr J. E. Baillie of

Dochfour, the baronetcy descending to his nephew W. A. Hamar Bass (b.

1879).

BASS (the same word as "base," and so pronounced, but influenced in

spelling by the Ital. _basso_), deep, low; especially in music, the lower

part in the harmony of a composition, the lowest male voice, or the

lowest-pitched of a class of instruments, as the bass-clarinet.

Bass or bast (a word of doubtful origin, pronounced _b[)a]s_) is the

fibrous bark of the lime tree, used in gardening for tying up plants, or to

make mats, soft plaited baskets, &c. Basswood is the American lime-tree,

Tilia Americana; white basswood is T. heterophylla.

The name bass is also given to a fish closely resembling the perch.

BASSA, a province of the British protectorate of Northern Nigeria,

occupying the angle made by the meeting of the Benue river with the Niger.

It has an area of 7000 sq. m., with a population estimated at about one and

a half millions. It is bounded N. by the Benue, W. by the Niger, S. by the

frontier of Southern Nigeria, and E. by the province of Muri. The province

is heavily forested, and is estimated to be one of the richest of the

protectorate in natural products. It has never been penetrated by Moslem

influence, and is inhabited in the greater part by warlike and unruly

pagans. Early in the 16th century the Igbira (Okpoto or Ibo) were one of

the most powerful pagan peoples of Nigeria and had their capital at Iddah.

At a later period the Bassas conquered the western portion of the state and

the Munshis the eastern, while the Okpoto still held the south and a

wedge-shaped district partially dividing the Munshis and Bassas. The Bassas

are a very remarkable pagan race who permeate the entire protectorate of

Northern Nigeria, and are to be found in small colonies in almost every

province. They are clever agriculturists, naturally peaceful and

industrious. The Munshis, though also good agriculturists, are a warlike

and most unruly race, as are also the Okpoto.

The districts which now comprise the province of Bassa came nominally under

British control in 1900, but up to the year 1903 administrative authority

was confined to the western half with Dekina (in 7deg 3' E., 7deg 41' N.)

for its capital. In December of 1903 a disturbance resulting in the murder

of the British resident led to the despatch of a military expedition, and

as a result of the operations the frontiers of the districts under control

were extended to the borders of the Munshi country in about 8deg E. The

western portion of the province, occupied by friendly and peaceful tribes

upon the Niger, has been organized for administration on the same system as

the rest of the protectorate. Courts of justice are operative and taxes are

peacefully collected. The Okpoto, however, remain turbulent, as do their

neighbours the Munshis. Spirits, of which the importation is forbidden in

Northern Nigeria, are freely smuggled over the border from Southern

Nigeria. Arms and powder are also imported. The slave-trade is still alive

in this district, and an overland route for slaves is believed to have been

established through eastern Bassa to the Benue. In consequence of the

natural wealth of the province, there are trading establishments of the

Niger Company and of Messrs Holt on the Niger and Benue, and colonies of

native traders have penetrated the country from the north. Roman Catholic

and Protestant missions are established at Dekina and Gbebe.

BASSANO, JACOPO DA PONTE (1510-1592), Venetian painter, was born at

Bassano. He was educated by his father, who was himself an artist, and then

completed his studies at Venice. On the death of his father he returned to

Bassano and settled there. His subjects were generally peasants and

villagers, cattle and landscapes, with some portraits and historical

designs. His figures are well designed, and his animals and landscapes have

an agreeable air of simple nature. His compositions, though they have not

much eloquence or grandeur, have abundance of force and truth; the local

colours are well observed, the flesh-tints are fresh and brilliant, and his

chiaroscuro and perspective are unexceptionable. He is said to have

finished a great number of pictures; but his genuine works are somewhat

rare and valuable--many of those which are called originals being copies

either by the sons of Bassano or by others. Bassano's style varied

considerably during his lifetime. He naturally was at first a copier of his

father, but his productions in this style are not of great value. He was

then strongly attracted by the lightness and beautiful colouring of Titian,

and finally adopted the style which is recognized as his own. Although he

painted few great pictures, and preferred humble subjects, yet his

altar-piece of the Nativity at Bassano is estimated highly by the best

judges, and in Lanzi's opinion is the finest work of its class.

BASSANO, a city of Venetia, Italy, in the province of Vicenza, 24 m. N.E.

of Vicenza and 30 m. N. of Padua by rail, at the foot of the Venetian Alps.

Pop. (1901) town, 7553; commune, 15,097. It is well situated upon the

Brenta, which is here spanned by a covered wooden bridge, and commands fine

views. The castle, erected by the Ezzelini in the 13th century, lies in the

upper portion of the town, above the river; a tower, erected by a member of

the same family, is a conspicuous feature. The museum and cathedral and

some of the other churches contain pictures by the da Ponte family (16th

and early 17th century), surnamed Bassano from their birth-place; Jacopo is

the most eminent of them. The museum also contains drawings and letters of

the sculptor Antonio Canova. The church of S. Francesco, begun in the 12th

century in the Lombard Romanesque style, was continued in the 13th in the

Gothic style. Some of the houses have traces of paintings on their facades.

In the 11th century Eccelin, a German, obtained fiefs in this district from

Conrad II. and founded the family of the Ezzelini, who were prominent in

the history of North Italy in the 13th and 14th centuries. Bassano

apparently came into existence about A.D. 1000. Its possession was disputed

between Padua and Vicenza; it passed for a moment under the power of Gian

Galeazzo Visconti of Milan, who fortified it. At the beginning of the 15th

century it went over to Venice; its industries flourished under Venetian

government, especially its printing-press and manufacture of majolica, the

latter of which still continues. On the 8th of September 1796 an action was

fought here between the French and the Austrians, in which the French were

victorious.

(T. AS.)

BASSARAB or BASSARABA, the name of a dynasty in Rumania, which ruled

Walachia from the dawn of its history until 1658. [v.03 p.0491] The origin

of the name and family has not yet been explained. It undoubtedly stands in

close connexion with the name of the province of Bessarabia, which oriental

chroniclers gave in olden times to the whole of Walachia. The heraldic

sign, three heads of negroes in the Bassarab shield, seems to be of late

western origin and to rest on a popular etymology connecting the second

half of the word with Arabs, who were taken to signify Moors (blacks). The

other heraldic signs, the crescent and the star, have evidently been added

on the same supposition of an oriental origin of the family. The Servian

chroniclers connect its origin with their own nationality, basing this view

upon the identification of Sarab with Sorb or Serbia. All this is mere

conjecture. It is, however, a fact that the first appearance of the

Bassarabs as rulers (_knyaz_, _ban_ or _voivod_) is in the western part of

Rumania (originally called Little Walachia), and also in the southern parts

of Transylvania--the old dukedoms of Fogarash and Almash, which are

situated on the right bank of the Olt (Aluta) and extend south to Severin

and Craiova. Whatever the origin of the Bassarabs may be, the foundation of

the Walachian principality is undoubtedly connected with a member of that

family, who, according to tradition, came from Transylvania and settled

first in Campulung and Tirgovishtea. It is equally certain that almost

every one of the long line of princes and voivods bore a Slavonic surname,

perhaps due to the influence of the Slavonic Church, to which the Rumanians

belonged. Starting from the 13th Century the Bassarabs soon split into two

rival factions, known in history as the descendants of the two brothers Dan

and Dragul. The form Drakul--devil--by which this line is known in history

is no doubt a nickname given by the rival line. It has fastened on the

family on account of the cruelties perpetrated by Vlad Drakul (1433-1446)

and Vlad Tsepesh (1456-1476), who figure in popular legend as

representatives of the most fiendish cruelty. The feud between the rival

dynasties lasted from the beginning of the 15th century to the beginning of

the 17th.

The most prominent members of the family were Mircea (1386-1418), who

accepted Turkish suzerainty; Neagoe, the founder of the famous cathedral at

Curtea de Argesh (_q.v._); Michael, surnamed the Brave (1592-1601); and

Petru Cercel, famous for his profound learning, who spoke twelve languages

and carried on friendly correspondence with the greater scholars and poets

of Italy. He was drowned by the Turks in Constantinople in 1590 through the

intrigues of Mihnea, who succeeded him on the throne of Walachia. The

British Museum possesses the oldest MSS. of the Rumanian Gospels, once

owned by this Petru Cercel, and containing his autograph signature. The

text was published by Dr M. Caster at the expense of the Rumanian

government. Mateiu Bassarab (1633-1654) established the first

printing-press in Rumania, and under his influence the first code of laws

was compiled and published in Bucharest in 1654. The Bassarab dynasty

became extinct with Constantine Sherban in 1658. See RUMANIA: _Language and

Literature_.

(M. G.)

BASS CLARINET (Fr. _clarinette basse_; Ger. _Bass-Klarinette_; Ital.

_clarinetto basso_ or _darone_), practically the A, Bb or C clarinet

speaking an octave lower; what therefore has been said concerning the

fingering, transposition, acoustic properties and general history of the

clarinet (_q.v._) also applies to the bass clarinet. Owing to its greater

length the form of the bass clarinet differs from that of the clarinets in

that the bell joint is bent up in front of the instrument, terminating in a

large gloxinea-shaped bell, and that the mouthpiece is attached by means of

a strong ligature and screws to a serpent-shaped crook of brass or silver.

The compass of the modern orchestral bass clarinet is in the main the same

as that of the higher clarinets in C, Bb and A, but an octave lower, and

therefore for the bass clarinet in C is [Notation: E2 B5.]; for the bass

clarinet in Bb the real sounds are one tone, and for the bass clarinet in A

1-1/2 tone lower, although the notation is the same for all three.

Sometimes the treble clef is used in notation for the bass clarinet. It

must then be understood that the instrument in C speaks an octave lower,

the bass clarinet in Bb a major ninth and the bass clarinet in A a minor

tenth lower. The tenor clef is also frequently used in orchestral works.

The quality of tone is less reedy in the bass clarinet than in the higher

instruments. It resembles the bourdon stop on the organ, and in the lowest

register, more especially, the tone is somewhat hollow and wanting in power

although mellower than that of the bassoon. In the lowest octave the

instrument speaks slowly and is chiefly used for sustained bass or melody

notes; rapid passages are impossible.

The modern orchestral model may be fitted with almost every kind of

key-mechanism, including the Boehm, and the degree of perfection and

ingenuity attained has removed the all but insuperable difficulties which

stood in the way of the original inventors who, not understanding key-work,

made many futile attempts to bridge the necessarily great distance between

the finger-holes by making the bore serpentine, boring the holes obliquely,

&c.

The low pitch of the bass clarinet (8 ft. tone) contrasted with the

moderate length of the instrument--whose bore measures only some 42 to 43

inches from mouthpiece to bell, whereas that of the bassoon, an instrument

of the same pitch, is twice that length--is a puzzle to many. An

explanation of the fact is to be found in the peculiar acoustic properties

of the cylindrical tube played by means of a reed mouthpiece characterizing

the clarinet family, which acts as a closed pipe speaking an octave lower

than an open pipe of the same length, and overblowing a twelfth instead of

an octave. This is more fully explained in the articles CLARINET and AULOS.

The construction of the bass clarinet demands the greatest care. The bore

should theoretically be strictly cylindrical throughout its length from

mouthpiece to bell joint; the slightest deviation from mathematical

accuracy, such as an undue widening of the bell from the point where it

joins the body to the mouth of the bell, would tend to muffle the lower

notes of the instrument and to destroy correct intonation.

The origin of the bass clarinet must be sought in Germany, where Heinrich

Grenser of Dresden, one of the most famous instrument-makers of his day,

made the first bass clarinet in 1793. The basset horn (_q.v._) or tenor

clarinet, which had reached the height of its popularity, no doubt

suggested to Grenser, who was more especially renowned for his excellent

fagottos, the possibility of providing for the clarinet a bass of its own.

One of these earliest attempts in the form of a fagotto, stamped "A.

Grenser, Dresden," with nine square-flapped brass keys working on knobs, is

in the Grossherzogliches Museum at Darmstadt and was lent to the Royal

Military Exhibition, London 1890.[1] Two other early specimens,[2]

belonging originally to Adolphe Sax and to M. de Coussemaker, are now

respectively preserved in the museums of the Brussels Conservatoire and of

the Berlin Hochschule (Snoeck Collection). The tubes are of great thickness

and the holes are bored obliquely through the walls. Both instruments are

in A.

Attempts were made in Italy to overcome the mechanical difficulties by

making the bore of the bass clarinet serpentine. A specimen by Nicolas

Papalini of Pavia[3] in the museum of the Brussels Conservatoire has the

serpentine bore pierced through two slabs of pear-wood; the two halves,

each forming a vertical section of the instrument, are fitted together with

wooden pins. The outside length is only 2 ft. 3-1/2 in. and there are

nineteen finger-holes.

Joseph Uhlmann of Vienna[4] constructed a bass clarinet, also termed "bass

basset horn," with twenty-three keys and a compass from Bb through four

complete octaves with all chromatic [v.03 p.0492] semitones. These

instruments resemble the saxophones (_q.v._), having the bell joint bent up

in front and the crook almost at right angles backwards, but the bore of

the saxophone is conical.

Georg Streitwolf (1779-1837), an ingenious musical instrument-maker of

Goettingen, produced in 1828 a bass clarinet with a compass extending from

Ab to F, nineteen keys and a fingering the same as that of the clarinet

with but few exceptions. In form it resembled the fagotto and had a crook

terminating in a beak mouthpiece. The Streitwolf bass clarinet was adopted

in 1834 by the Prussian infantry as bass to the wood-wind.[5] Streitwolf's

first bass clarinets were in C, but later he constructed instruments in Bb

as well. Like the basset horn, Streitwolf's instruments had the four

chromatic open keys extending the compass downwards to Bb. The tone was of

very fine quality. One of these instruments is in the possession of Herr C.

Kruspe of Erfurt,[6] and another is preserved in the Berlin collection at

the Hochschule.

It was, however, the successive improvements of Adolphe Sax (Paris,

1814-1894), working probably from Grenser's and later from Streitwolf's

models, which produced the modern bass clarinet, and following up the work

of Halary and Buffet in the same field, he secured its introduction into

the orchestra at the opera. The bass clarinet in C made its first

appearance in opera in 1836 in Meyerbeer's _Huguenots_, Act V., where in a

fine passage the lower register of the instrument is displayed to

advantage, and later in _Dinorah_ (_Le pardon de Ploermel_). Two years

later (1838) at the theatre of Modena a bass clarinet by P. Maino of Milan,

differing in construction from the Sax model, was independently introduced

into the orchestra.[7] Wagner employed the bass clarinet in Bb and C in

_Tristan und Isolde_,[8] where at the end of Act II. it is used with great

effect to characterize the reproachful utterance of King Mark, thus:

[Illustration]

etc.

(K. S.)

[1] See Captain C. R. Day, _Descriptive Catalogue_ (London, 1891), No. 266,

p. 125.

[2] See Victor Mahillon, _Catalogue descriptif_, vol. ii. (1896), pp.

224-226, No. 940.

[3] See Captain C. R. Day, _op. cit_. p. 123, pl. v. B. and p. 123, No.

262.

[4] See Dr Schafhaeutl's report on the Munich exhibition, _Bericht der

Beurtheilungscommission fuer Musikinstrumente_ (Munich, 1855), P. 153.

[5] See _Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung_ (Leipzig, 1834), Bd. xxxvi.

March, p. 193.

[6] See Wilhelm Altenburg, _Die Klarinette_ (Heilbronn, 1904-1905), p. 33.

[7] See W. Altenburg, _op. cit._ p. 34.

[8] Orchestral score, p. 284.

BASSEIN, a district and town in the Irrawaddy division of Lower Burma, in

the delta of the Irrawaddy. The district has been reduced to 4127 sq. m.,

from 8954 sq. m. in 1871, having given up a large tract to the district of

Myaungmya formed in 1896.

A mountain range called the Anauk-pet Taungmyin stretches through the

district from N. to S. along the coast. The principal river of the district

is the Irrawaddy, which debouches on the sea at its eastern extremity

through a delta intersected with salt water creeks, among which the

Pyamalaw, Pyinzalu, Kyunton, and Ngawun Shagegyi or Bassein river rank as

important arms of the sea. Irrawaddy and Inyegyi are the only two lakes in

the district. The delta of the Irrawaddy forms, wherever cultivable, a vast

sheet of rice, with cotton, sesamum, and tobacco as subsidiary crops. In

1901 the population was 391,427.

BASSEIN, the chief town and port, is the capital of the district and

division, and is situated on the eastern bank of the Bassein river, one of

the main arteries by which the waters of the Irrawaddy discharge themselves

into the sea. It forms an important seat of the rice trade with several

steam rice mills, and has great capabilities both from a mercantile and a

military point of view, as it commands the great outlet of the Irrawaddy.

It fell before the British arms, in May 1852, during the second Burmese

war. In 1901 it had a population of 31,864. The vessels of the Irrawaddy

Flotilla Company ply between Rangoon and Bassein, &c., by inland waters,

and a railway opened in 1903 runs northeastward through the centre of the

district, to Henzada and Letpadan.

BASSELIN, OLIVIER (_c._ 1400-_c._ 1450), French poet, was born in the

Val-de-Vire in Normandy about the end of the 14th century. He was by

occupation a fuller, and tradition still points out the site of his mill.

His drinking songs became famous under the name of Vaux-de-Vire, corrupted

in modern times into "vaudeville." From various traditions it may be

gathered that Basselin was killed in the English wars about the middle of

the century, possibly at the battle of Formigny (1450). At the beginning of

the 17th century a collection of songs was published by a Norman lawyer,

Jean Le Houx, purporting to be the work of Olivier Basselin. There seems to

be very little doubt that Le Houx was himself the author of the songs

attributed to Basselin, as well as of those he acknowledged as his own.

It has been suggested that Basselin's name may be safely connected with

some songs preserved in the _Bibliotheque Nationale_ at Paris, and

published at Caen in 1866 by M. Armand Gaste. The question is discussed in

M. V. Patard's _La Verite dans la question Olivier Basselin et Jean le Houx

a propos du Vau-de-Vire_ (1897). A. Gaste's edition (1875) of the

_Vaux-de-Vire_ was translated (1885) by J. P. Muirhead.

BASSES-ALPES, a department of south-eastern France, formed in 1790 out of

the northern portion of Provence. It is bounded N. by the department of the

Hautes Alpes, E. by Italy and the department of the Alpes Maritimes, S. by

that of the Var, and W. by those of Vaucluse and the Drome. Its area is

about 2698 sq. m., while its greatest length is 89-1/2 m. and its greatest

breadth 56 m. Pop. (1906) 113,126. The river Durance passes through the

western part of this department, receiving (left), as affluents, the Ubaye,

the Bleone and the Asse (the entire course of each of these rivers is

included within the department) as well as the Verdon, the upper course of

which is within the department, while the lower course forms its southern

limit. It is a poor and hilly district, the highest summits (the loftiest

is the Aiguille de Chambeyron, 11,155 ft.) rising round the head waters of

the Ubaye. The department is divided into five arrondissements (Digne,

Barcelonnette, Castellane, Forcalquier, and Sisteron), 30 cantons and 250

communes. It forms the bishopric of Digne, formerly in the ecclesiastical

province of Embrun, but since 1802 in that of Aix-en-Provence. Its chief

towns are Digne, Barcelonnette, Castellane, Forcalquier, and Sisteron. It

is poorly supplied with railways (total length 109-1/2 m.), the main line

from Grenoble to Avignon running through it from Sisteron to Manosque, and

sending off two short branch lines to Digne (14 m.) and to Forcalquier (9

m.). It is a poor department from the material point of view, being very

mountainous and containing many mountain pastures. But these pastures have

been much damaged by the Provencal shepherds to whom they are let out,

while the forests have been very much thinned (though extensive

reafforestments are now being carried out) so that the soil is very dry and

made drier by exposure to the southern sun. From near the head of the Ubaye

valley the pass of the Col de l'Argentiere (6545 ft.) leads over from

Barcelonnette to Cuneo, in Italy; it was perhaps traversed by Hannibal, and

certainly in 1515 by Francis I.

See C. J. J. M. Feraud, _Histoire, geographie et statistique du Departement

des Basses-Alpes_ (Digne, 1861).

(W. A. B. C.)

BASSES-PYRENEES, a department of south-western France, at the angle of the

Bay of Biscay, formed in 1790, two-thirds of it from Bearn and the rest

from three districts of Gascony--Basse-Navarre, Soule and Labourd. The

latter constitute the Basque region of France (see BASQUES) and cover the

west of the department. Basses-Pyrenees is bounded N. by Landes and Gers,

E. by Hautes-Pyrenees (which has two enclaves forming five communes within

this department), S. by Spain, and W. by the Atlantic Ocean. Pop. (1906)

426,817. Area, 2977 sq. m. The whole of the south of the department is

occupied by the western and lower summits of the Pyrenees. The remainder

consists of a region of heaths and plateaus to the northeast of the Gave de

Pau, and of hills divided by numberless fertile valleys to the west of that

river. The height of the mountains of the southern frontier increases

gradually from west to east. The peak of the Rhune, to the south of St Jean

de Luz, rises only to 2950 ft.; and on the border of the Basque country the

mean height of the summits is not much greater. The peak of Orhy alone, in

the south of the valley of Mauleon, reaches 6618 ft. But beyond that of

Anie (8215 ft.), on the meridian of Orthez, which marks the boundary of

Bearn, much loftier elevations appear,--Mourrous (9760 ft.), on the border

of Hautes-Pyrenees, and the southern peak of Ossau (9465 ft.). The frontier

between France and Spain, for the most part, [v.03 p.0493] follows the

crest-line of the main range. Forts guard the upper valleys of the Nive and

the Aspe, along which run important passes into Spain. The general

direction of the rivers of the department is towards the north-west. The

streams almost all meet in the Adour through the Gave de Pau, the Bidouze,

and the Nive. In the north-east the two Luys flow directly to the Adour,

which they join in Landes. In the south-west the Nivelle and the Bidassoa

flow directly into the sea. The lower course of the Adour forms the

boundary between Basses-Pyrenees and Landes; it enters the sea a short

distance below Bayonne over a shifting bar, which has often altered the

position of its mouth. The Gave de Pau, a larger stream than the Adour,

passes Pau and Orthez, but its current is so swift that it is only

navigable for a few miles above its junction with the Adour. On the left it

receives the Gave d'Oloron, formed by the Gave d'Ossau, descending from the

Pic du Midi, and the Gave d'Aspe, which rises in Spain. An important

affluent of the Gave d'Oloron, the Saison or Gave de Mauleon, descends from

the Pic d'Orhy. From the Pic des Escaliers, which rises above the forest of

Iraty, the Bidouze descends northwards; while the forest, though situated

on the southern slope of the chain, forms a part of French territory. The

Nive, a beautiful river of the Basque country, takes its rise in Spain;

after flowing past St Jean-Pied-de-Port, formerly capital of French Navarre

and fortified by Vauban to guard the pass of Roncevaux, it joins the Adour

at Bayonne. The Nivelle also belongs only partly to France and ends its

course at St Jean-de-Luz. The Bidassoa, which is only important as forming

part of the frontier, contains the Ile des Faisans, where the treaty of the

Pyrenees was concluded (1659), and debouches between Hendaye (France) and

Fuenterrabia (Spain).

The climate of the department is mild and it has an abundant rainfall,

partly due to the west wind which drives the clouds from the gulf of

Gascony. The spring is rainy; the best seasons are summer and autumn, the

heat of summer being moderated by the sea. The winters are mild. The air of

Pau agrees with invalids and delicate constitutions, and St Jean-de-Luz and

Biarritz are much frequented by winter visitors.

Despite extensive tracts of uncultivated land, the department is mainly

agricultural. Maize and wheat are the chief cereals; potatoes, flax and

vegetables are also produced. Pasture is abundant, and horses, cattle,

sheep and pigs are largely reared. The vine is grown on the lower slopes

sheltered from the north wind, the wines of Jurancon, near Pau, being the

most renowned. Of the fruits grown, chestnuts, cider-apples, and pears are

most important. About one-thirteenth of the department consists of woods, a

very small proportion of which belong to the government, the rest to the

communes and private individuals.

The department furnishes salt, building-stone, and other quarry products.

There are mineral springs at Eaux-Bonnes, Eaux-Chaudes, Cambo-les-Bains

(resorted to by the Basques on St John's Eve), St Christau, and Salies. At

Le Boucau, 3 m. from Bayonne, there are large metallurgical works, the

_Forges de l'Adour_, and chemical works. The manufactures of the department

include woollen caps and sashes, cord slippers, chocolate, and paper, and

there are also tanneries, saw- and flour-mills. "Bayonne hams" and other

table delicacies are prepared at Orthez. There is a considerable fishing

population at Bayonne and St Jean-de-Luz. Bayonne is the principal port.

Exports consist chiefly of timber, mine-props, minerals, wine, salt and

resinous products. Coal, minerals, phosphates, grain and wool are leading

imports. The interior commerce of the department is, however, of greater

importance to its inhabitants; it takes the form of exchange of products

between the regions of mountain and plain. The railway lines of

Basses-Pyrenees, the chief of which is that from Bayonne to Toulouse via

Orthez and Pau, belong to the Southern Company. The Adour, the Nive and the

Bidouze are navigable on their lower courses. The department has five

arrondissements--Pau, Bayonne, Oloron, Orthez and Mauleon, divided into 41

cantons and 559 communes. It constitutes the diocese of Bayonne, comes

within the educational circumscription (_academie_) of Bordeaux and belongs

to the district of the XVIII. army corps. Pau, the capital and seat of a

court of appeal, Bayonne, Oloron, Biarritz, Orthez, Eaux-Bonnes, and St

Jean-de-Luz are the principal towns. The following places are also of

interest:--Lescar, which has a church of the 12th and 16th century, once a

cathedral; Montaner, with a stronghold built in 1380 by Gaston Phoebus,

count of Foix and viscount, of Bearn; and Sauveterre, a town finely

situated on the Gave d'Oloron, with an old bridge, remains of a feudal

castle, and a church in the Romanesque and Gothic styles.

BASSET, or BASSETTE, a French game of cards played by five persons with a

pack of fifty-two cards. Once very popular, it is now practically obsolete.

It is said to be of Venetian origin and to have been introduced into France

by Justiniani, the ambassador of Venice in the second half of the 17th

century. It resembles lansquenet (_q.v._) in a general way, in that it is

played between a banker and several punters, the players winning or losing

according as cards turned up match those already exposed or not.

BASSET HORN (Fr. _Cor de Basset_, or _Cor de Bassette_; Ger. _Bassethorn_,

_Basshorn_; Ital. _Corno di Bassetto_), a wood-wind instrument, not a

"horn," member of the clarinet family, of which it is the tenor. The basset

horn consists of a nearly cylindrical tube of wood (generally cocus or

box-wood), having a cylindrical bore and terminating in a metal bell wider

than that of the clarinet. For convenience in reaching the keys and holes,

the modern instrument is usually bent or curved either near the mouthpiece

or at the bell, which is turned upwards. The older models were bent in the

middle at an obtuse angle, and had at the bottom of the lower joint, near

the bell, a wooden block, inside which the bore was reflexed, and bent down

upon itself.[1] The basset horn has the same fingering as the clarinet, and

corresponds to the tenor of that instrument, being pitched a fifth below

the clarinet in C. The alto clarinet in Eb is often substituted for the

basset horn, especially in military bands, but the instruments differ in

three particulars:--(1) The basset horn has a metal bell instead of the

pear-shaped contracted bell of the alto clarinet. (2) The bore of the

basset horn is wider than that of the alto clarinet in Eb, or of the tenor

clarinet in F. (3) The tube of the basset horn is longer than that of the

clarinet, and contains four additional long keys, worked by the thumb of

the right hand, which in the clarinet is only used to steady the

instrument. These keys give the basset horn an extended compass of two

tones downwards to F [Notation: F2.] whereas the Eb clarinet only extends

to G [Notation: G2.] and the F clarinet to A [Notation: A2.] (actual

sounds). This brings the compass of the basset horn to a range of four

octaves from [Notation: C3 to C7.], actual sounds [Notation: F2 to F6.].

[v.03 p.0494] [Illustration: FIG. 1. (From photographs lent by M. Victor

Mahillon.)]

Like the clarinet, the basset horn is a transposing instrument, its music

being written a fifth higher than the actual sounds. The treble clef is

used in notation for all but the lowest register. The technical

capabilities of the basset horn are the same as for the clarinet, except

that the extra low notes from A to F (actual sounds) can only be intoned

slowly and _staccato_; the notes of the upper register being better

represented in the clarinet are seldom used in orchestral music.

The tone of the basset horn is extremely reedy and rich, especially in the

medium and low registers; the tone colour is similar to that of the

clarinet without its brilliancy; it is mellow and sensuous, but slightly

sombre, and therefore well adapted for music of an elegiac funereal

character.

The basset horn flourished mainly in Germany, where at the end of the 18th

century it was the favourite solo instrument of many celebrated

instrumentalists, such as Czerny, David, Lotz, Springer, &c. Among the

great masters, Mozart seems to have been foremost in his appreciation of

this beautiful instrument. In his _Requiem_, the reed family is represented

by two basset horns having independent parts, and two bassoons. Mozart has

also used the instrument with great effect in his opera _La Clemenza di

Tito_, where he has written a fine obbligato for it in the aria "Non piu di

Flori"; in _Zauberfloete_; and in chamber music, viz. short adagio for two

basset horns and bassoon, and another for two clarinets and three basset

horns (Series 10 of Breitkopf & Haertel's complete edition). Beethoven

employed it in his _Prometheus_ overture. Mendelssohn used it in military

music, and in two concerted pieces for clarinet and basset horn with

pianoforte accompaniment, in F and D min., opp. 113 and 114, dedicated to

Heinrich and Carl Baermann.

The archetypes of the basset horn are the same as those of the clarinet

(_q.v._). The basset horn was the outcome of the desire, prevailing during

the 16th and 17th centuries, to obtain complete families of instruments to

play in concert. The invention of the basset horn in 1770 is attributed to

a clarinet maker of Passau, named Horn, whose name was given to the

instrument;[2] by a misnomer, the basset horn became known in Italy as

_corno di bassetto_, and in France as _cor de basset_. In 1782, Theodore

Lotz of Pressburg made some modifications in the instrument, which was

further improved by two instrumentalists of Vienna, Anton and Johann

Stadler, and finally in 1812 by Iwan Mueller, a famous clarinettist, who

invented the alto clarinet in Eb from the basset horn, by giving the latter

a construction and fingering analogous to those of the clarinet in Bb,

which he took as his model, instead of the clarinet in C.

See J. G. H. Backofen, _Anweisung zur Klarinette, nebst einer kurzen

Abhandlung ueber das Basset-Horn_, with illustration, p. 37 (Leipzig,

Breitkopf & Haertel, 1803); Iwan Mueller, _Anweisung zu der neuen

Clarinette und der Clarinette-alto, nebst einigen Bemerkungen fuer

Instrumentenmacher_ (Leipzig, Freidrich Hofmeister, 1826, with

illustrations); Gottfried Weber, "Ueber Clarinette und Bassethorn,"

_Cacilia_, Band xi. pp. 35-37 (Mainz, 1834); Wilhelm Altenburg, _Die

Clarinette, ihre Entstehung und Entwickelung bis zur Jetztzeit in

akustischer, technischer u. musikalischer Beziehung_ (Heilbronn, 1904), pp.

16-32; good heliogravures of early basset horns in _Descriptive Catalogue

of the Musical Instruments at the Royal Military Exhibition, London_, 1890,

compiled by Capt. C. R. Day (1891), pl. v.

(K. S.)

[1] An instrument of this type, stamped "H. Grenser, S. Wiesner, Dresden,"

is in the collection of the Rev. F. W. Galpin, of Hatfield, Broad Oak.

[2] _Cantor Lectures on Musical Instruments, their Construction and

Capabilities_, by A. J. Hipkins, p. 15; Henri Lavoix, _Histoire de

l'instrumentation depuis le seizieme siecle jusqu'a nos jours_ (Paris,

1878), on p. 123 the date is given as 1777.

BASSI, LAURA MARIA CATERINA (1711-1778), an Italian lady eminently

distinguished for her learning, was born at Bologna in 1711. On account of

her extraordinary attainments she received a doctor's degree, and was

appointed professor in the philosophical college, where she delivered

public lectures on experimental philosophy till the time of her death. She

was elected member of many literary societies and carried on an extensive

correspondence with the most eminent European men of letters. She was well

acquainted with classical literature, as well as with that of France and

Italy. In 1738 she married Giuseppe Verrati, a physician, and left several

children. She died in 1778.

BASSI, UGO (1800-1849), Italian patriot, was born at Cento, and received

his early education at Bologna. An unhappy love affair induced him to

become a novice in the Barnabite order when eighteen years old. He repaired

to Rome, where he led a life of study and devotion, and entered on his

ministry in 1833. It was as a preacher that he became famous, his sermons

attracting large crowds owing to their eloquence and genuine enthusiasm. He

lived chiefly at Bologna, but travelled all over Italy preaching and

tending the poor, so poor himself as to be sometimes almost starving. On

the outbreak of the revolutionary movements in 1848, when Pope Pius IX.

still appeared to be a Liberal and an Italian patriot, Bassi, filled with

national enthusiasm, joined General Durando's papal force to protect the

frontiers as army chaplain. His eloquence drew fresh recruits to the ranks,

and he exercised great influence over the soldiers and people. When the

pope discarded all connexion with the national movement, it was only Bassi

who could restrain the Bolognese in their indignation. At Treviso, where he

had followed Guidotti's volunteers against the Austrians, he received three

wounds, delighted to shed his blood for Italy (12th of May, 1848). He was

taken to Venice, and on his recovery he marched unarmed at the head of the

volunteers in the fight at Mestre. After the pope's flight from Rome and

the proclamation of the Roman republic, Bassi took part with Garibaldi's

forces against the French troops sent to re-establish the temporal power.

He exposed his life many times while tending the wounded under fire, and

when Garibaldi was forced to leave Rome with his volunteers the faithful

monk followed him in his wanderings to San Marino. When the legion broke up

Garibaldi escaped, but Bassi and a fellow-Garibaldian, Count Livraghi,

after endless hardships, were captured near Comacchio. On being brought

before the papal governor, Bassi said: "I am guilty of no crime save that

of being an Italian like yourself. I have risked my life for Italy, and

your duty is to do good to those who have suffered for her." The governor

would have freed the prisoners; but he did not dare, and gave them over to

an Austrian officer. They were escorted to Bologna, falsely charged before

a court martial with having been found with arms in their hands (Bassi had

never borne arms at all), and shot on the 8th of August, 1849. Bassi is one

of the most beautiful figures of the Italian revolution, a gentle unselfish

soul, who, although unusually gifted and accomplished, had an almost

childlike nature. His execution excited a feeling of horror all over Italy.

Countess Martinengo gives a charming sketch of his life in her _Italian

Characters_ (2nd ed., London, 1901); see also Zironi, _Vita del Padre Ugo

Bassi_ (Bologna, 1879); F. Venosta, "Ugo Bassi, Martire di Bologna," in the

_Pantheon dei Martiri Italiani_ (Milan, 1863).

(L. V.*)

BASSIANUS, JOANNES, Italian jurist of the 12th century. Little is known of

his origin, but he is said by Corolus de Tocco to have been a native of

Cremona. He was a professor in the law school of Bologna, the pupil of

Bulgarus (_q.v._), and the master of Azo (_q.v._). The most important of

his writings which have been preserved in his _Summary on the Authentica_,

which Savigny regarded as one of the most precious works of the school of

the Gloss-writers. Joannes, as he is generally termed, was remarkable for

his talent in inventing ingenious forms for explaining his ideas with

greater precision, and perhaps his most celebrated work is his "Law-Tree,"

which he entitled _Arbor Arborum_, and which has been the subject of

numerous commentaries. The work presents a tree, upon the branches of which

the various kinds of actions are arranged after the manner of fruit. The

civil actions, or _actiones stricti juris_, being forty-eight in number,

are arranged on one side, whilst the equitable or _praetorian_ actions, in

number one hundred and twenty-one, are arranged on the other side. A

further scientific division of actions was made by him under twelve heads,

and by an ingenious system of notation the student was enabled to class at

once each of the civil or praetorian actions, as the case might be, under

its proper head in the scientific division. By the side of the tree a few

glosses were added by Joannes to explain and justify his classification.

_His Lectures on the Pandects_ and the _Code_, which were collected by his

pupil Nicolaus Furiosus, have unfortunately perished.

[v.03 p.0495] BASSOMPIERRE, FRANCOIS DE (1579-1646), French courtier, son

of Christophe de Bassompierre (1547-1596), was born at the castle of

Harrouel in Lorraine. He was descended from an old family which had for

generations served the dukes of Burgundy and Lorraine, and after being

educated with his brothers in Bavaria and Italy, was introduced to the

court of Henry IV. in 1598. He became a great favourite of the king and

shared to the full in the dissipations of court life. In 1600 he took part

in the brief campaign in Savoy, and in 1603 fought in Hungary for the

emperor against the Turks. In 1614 he assisted Marie de' Medici in her

struggle against the nobles, but upon her failure in 1617 remained loyal to

the King Louis XIII. and assisted the royalists when they routed Marie's

supporters at Ponts-de-Ce in 1620. His services during the Huguenot rising

of 1621-22 won for him the dignity of marshal of France. He was with the

army of the king during the siege of La Rochelle in 1628, and in 1629

distinguished himself in the campaign against the rebels of Languedoc. In

1615 Bassompierre had purchased from Henri, duc de Rohan (1579-1638), the

coveted position of colonel-general of the Swiss and Grisons; on this

account he was sent to raise troops in Switzerland when Louis XIII. marched

against Savoy in 1629, and after a short campaign in Italy his military

career ended. As a diplomatist his career was a failure. In 1621 he went to

Madrid as envoy extraordinary to arrange the dispute concerning the seizure

of the Valteline forts by Spain, and signed the fruitless treaty of Madrid.

In 1625 he was sent into Switzerland on an equally futile mission, and in

1626 to London to secure the retention of the Catholic ecclesiastics and

attendants of Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I. The personal influence of

Henry IV. had deterred Bassompierre from a marriage with Charlotte de

Montmorency, daughter of the constable Montmorency, afterwards princesse de

Conde, and between 1614 and 1630 he was secretly married to Louise

Marguerite, widow of Francois, prince de Conti, and through her became

implicated in the plot to overthrow Richelieu on the "Day of Dupes" 1630.

His share was only a slight one, but his wife was an intimate friend of

Marie de' Medici, and her hostility to the cardinal aroused his suspicions.

By Richelieu's orders, Bassompierre was arrested at Senlis on the 25th of

February 1631, and put into the Bastille, where he remained until

Richelieu's death in 1643. On his release his offices were restored to him,

and he passed most of his time at the castle of Tillieres in Normandy,

until his death on the 12th of October 1646. He left a son, Francois de la

Tour, by the princesse de Conti, and an illegitimate son, Louis de

Bassompierre, afterwards bishop of Saintes. His _Memoires_, which are an

important source for the history of his time, were first published at

Cologne in 1665. He also left an incomplete account of his embassies to

Spain, Switzerland and England (Cologne, 1668) and a number of discourses

upon various subjects.

The best edition of the _Memoires_ is that issued by the Societe de

l'Histoire de France (Paris, 1877); see also G. Tallemant des Reaux,

_Historiettes de la princesse de Conti, et du marechal de Bassompierre_

(Paris, 1854-1860).

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Bassoon with 17 keys. Savary Model. (Rudall, Carte

& Co.)]

BASSOON (Fr. _basson_; Ger. _Fagott_; Ital. _fagotto_), a woodwind

instrument with double reed mouthpiece, a member of the oboe (_q.v._)

family, of which it is the bass. The German and Italian names of the

instrument were bestowed from a fancied resemblance to a bundle of sticks,

the bassoon being the first instrument of the kind to be doubled back upon

itself; its direct ancestor, the bass pommer, 6 ft. in length, was quite

straight. The English and French names refer to the pitch of the instrument

as the bass of the wood-wind.

The bassoon is composed of five pieces, which, when fitted together, form a

wooden tube about 8 ft. long (93 in.) with a conical bore tapering from a

diameter of 1-3/4 in., at the bell, to 3/16 in. at the reed. The tube is

doubled back upon itself, the shorter joint extending to about two-thirds

of the length of the longer, whereby the height of the instrument is

reduced to about 4 ft. The holes are brought into a convenient position for

the fingers by the device of boring them obliquely through the thickness of

the wood. The five pieces are:--(1) the bell; (2) the long joint, forming

the upper part of the instrument when played, although its notes are the

lowest in pitch; (3) the wing overlapping the long joint and having a

projecting flap through which are bored three holes; (4) the butt or lower

end of the instrument (when played) containing the double bore necessitated

by the abrupt bend of the tube upon itself. Both bores are pierced in one

block of wood, the prolongation of the double tube being usually stopped by

a flat oval pad of cork in the older models, whereas the modern instruments

have instead a U-shaped tube; (5) the crook, a narrow curved metal tube

about 12 in. long, to which is attached the double reed forming the

mouthpiece.

The performer holds the instrument in a diagonal position; the lower part

of the tube (the butt joint) played by the right hand resting against his

right thigh, and the little bell, turned upwards, pointing over his left

shoulder; a strap round the neck affords additional support. The notes are

produced by means of seven holes and 16, 17, or 19 keys. The mechanism and

fingering are very intricate. Theoretically the whole construction of the

bassoon is imperfect and arbitrary, important acoustic principles being

disregarded, but these mechanical defects only enhance its value as an

artistic musical instrument. The player is obliged to rely very much on his

ear in order to obtain a correct intonation, and next to the strings no

instrument gives greater scope to the artist.

The bassoon has an eight foot tone, the compass extending from Bb bass [1]

[Notation: B1b.] to Ab treble [Notation: A4b.], or in modern instruments by

means of additional mechanism to C or even F [Notation: C5 or F5.]. These

extra high notes are from their extreme sweetness called _vox humana_. The

pitch of the bassoon apparently lies two octaves below that of the oboe,

since the lowest note of both is B, but in reality the interval is only a

twelfth, as may be ascertained by comparing their fundamental scales. On

the bassoon the fundamental scale is that of F maj., obtained by opening

and closing the holes; the notes downwards from F to Bb [Notation: F2 to

B1b.] are extra notes obtained by means of interlocking keys on the long

joint, worked by the left thumb; they have no counterpart on the oboe and

do not belong to the fundamental scale of the bassoon. The fundamental

scale of the oboe is that of C, although the compass has been extended a

tone to Bb [Notation: B3b.]. Therefore the difference in pitch between the

bassoon and the oboe is a twelfth. In the first [v.03 p.0496] register of

the bassoon, seven semitones [Notation: B1b to E2.] are obtained, as stated

above, by means of keys in the long joint and bell; the next eight notes

(holes and keys) each produce two sounds--the fundamental tone, and, by

increased pressure of the breath, its harmonic octave. The remaining notes

are obtained by cross fingering and by overblowing the notes of the

fundamental scale a twelfth as far as Ab [Notation: A4b.] which forms the

normal compass. From A to Eb the _vox humana_ notes are produced by the

help of small harmonic holes opened by means of keys at the top of the wind

joint; exceptional players obtain, without additional keys, two or more

higher harmonic notes, which, however, are only used by _virtuosi_. This

then forms the intricate scheme of fingering for the bassoon, and in order

to appreciate the efforts of such instrument makers as Carl Almenraeder in

Germany, Triebert and Jancourt in France, Sax in Belgium, Cornelius Ward

and Morton in England, to introduce improvements based upon acoustic

principles, it is necessary to understand what these general principles

are, and why they have been disregarded in the bassoon. In all tubes the

note given by the vibrating air column is influenced directly by the length

of the tube, but very little, if at all, by the diameter of the bore. The

pitch, however, is greatly affected by the diameter of the opening, whether

lateral or at the bell, through which the vibrating column of air is again

brought into communication with the outer air. The tube only sounds the

normal note in proportion to its length, when the diameter of the lateral

opening is equal to the internal diameter of the tube at the opening. As in

most of our early wood-wind instruments the holes would in that case have

been too large to be stopped by the fingers, and key-mechanism was still

primitive, instrument-makers resorted to the expedient of substituting a

hole of smaller diameter nearer the mouthpiece for one of greater diameter

in the position the hole should theoretically occupy. This important

principle was well understood by the Romans, and perhaps even by the

ancient Greeks, as is proved by existing specimens of the aulos (_q.v._)

and by certain passages from the classics.[2]

Another curious acoustic phenomenon bears upon the construction of wind

instruments, and especially upon the bassoon. When the diameter of the

lateral opening or bell is smaller than that of the bore, the portion of

the tube below the hole, which should theoretically be as though

non-existent, asserts itself, lowering the pitch of the note produced at

the hole and damping the tone; this is peculiarly noticeable in the A of

the bassoon [Notation: A2.] whose hole is much too high and too small in

diameter.[3] To cite an example of the scope of Carl Almenraeder's

improvements in the bassoon, he readjusted the position of the A hole,

stopped by the third finger of the right hand, boring lower down the tube,

not one large hole, but two of medium diameter, covered by an open key to

be closed by the same finger from the accustomed position; one of these A

holes communicates with the narrower bore in the butt joint, and the other

with the wider bore. The effect is a perfectly clear, full and accurate

tone. Almenraeder's other alterations were made on the same principle, and

produced an instrument more perfect mechanically and theoretically than

Savary's, but lacking some of the characteristics of the bassoon. In

Germany Almenraeder's improvements[4] have been generally adopted and his

model with 16 keys is followed by most makers, and notably by Heckel of

Biebrich.[5]

The unwieldy bass pommers of the 15th and 16th centuries led to many

attempts to produce a more practical bass for the orchestra by doubling

back the long tube of the instrument. Thus transformed, the pommer became a

fagotto. The invention of the bassoon or fagotto is ascribed to Afranio, a

canon of Ferrara, in a work by his nephew, Theseus Ambrosius Albonesius,

entitled _Introductio in Chaldaicam Linguam ... et descriptio ac Simulacrum

Phagoti Afranii_ (Pavia, 1539). The illustration of the instrument, showing

front and back views (p. 179), taken in conjunction with the detailed

description (pp. 33-38), at once disposes of the suggestion that the

phagotus of Afranio and the fagotto or bassoon were in any way related; the

author himself is greatly puzzled as to the etymology of the word. The

phagotus in fact, resembles nothing so much as the musical curiosity known

as _flute-a-bec a colonne_[6], but double and played by bellows, assigned

by G. Chouquet to the 16th century. This flute consisted of a column, with

base and capital, both stopped, the vent and the whistle being concealed

within perforated brass boxes, in the upper and lower parts of the column.

Afranio's phagotus consisted of two similar twin columns with base and

capital containing finger-holes and keys; between the columns in front was

a shorter column for ornament, and at the back of it another still shorter

whose capital could be lifted, and a sort of bellows or bag-pipe inserted

by means of which the instrument was sounded. The first instrument was

made, we are told, by Ravilius of Ferrara, from Afranio's design.[7]

Mersenne[8], who does not seem to have any difficulty in understanding the

construction of Afranio's phagotus, does not consider him the inventor of

the fagotto or bassoon, but of another kind of fagotto which he classes

with the Neapolitan _sourdeline_, a complicated kind of musette[9] (see

BAG-PIPE). Afranio's instrument consists, he states, of two _bassons_ as it

were interconnected by tubes and blown by bellows. As in the _sourdeline_,

these only speak when the springs (keys) are open. He disposes of Theseus

Albonesius's fanciful etymology of the name by showing it to be nothing but

the French word _fagot_, and that it was applied because the instrument

consists of two or more "flutes," bound or _fagotees_ together. There is no

evidence that the phagotus contained a reed, which would account for

Mersenne calling the pipes flutes. Mersenne's statements thus seem to

uphold the theory that Afranio's phagotus was only a double _flute a

colonne_ with bellows. Evidence is at hand that in 1555 a contrabass wind

instrument was well known as fagotto. In the catalogue of the musical

instruments belonging to the Flemish band of Marie de Hongrie in Spain, we

find the following: "Ala dicha princesa y al dicho matoto dos ynstrumentos

de musica contrabaxos, que llaman fagotes, metidos en dos caos redondas

como parece por el dicho entrego."[10] Sigmund Schnitzer[11] of Nuremberg

(d. 1578), a maker of wind instruments who attained considerable notoriety,

has been [v.03 p.0497] named as the probable author of the transformation

of pommer into bassoon.

We learn from an historical work of the 18th century, that he was renowned

"almost everywhere" as a maker of _fagotte_ of extraordinary size, of

skilful workmanship and pure intonation, speaking easily. Schnitzer's

instruments were so highly appreciated not only all over Germany, but also

in France and Italy, that he was kept continually at work producing

_fagotte_ for lovers of music.[12]

An earlier chronicler of the artistic celebrities and craftsmen of

Nuremberg, Johann Neudorfer, writing in 1549,[13] names Sigmund Schnitzer

merely as _Pfeifenmacher und Stadtpfeifer._ Had he been also noted as an

inventor of a new form of instrument, the fellow-citizen and contemporary

chronicler would not have failed to note the fact. If Schnitzer had been

the first to reduce the great length of the bass pommer by doubling the

tube back upon itself, he would hardly have been handed down to posterity

as the clever craftsman _who made fagottos of extraordinary size_;

Doppelmaier, who chronicles in these eulogistic terms, wrote nearly two

centuries after the supposed invention of the fagotto, the value of which

was realized later by retrospection.

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Old English double curtail (before 1688). (From

Harl MS 2034 in Brit. Mus.)]

An explanation may perhaps be found in Eisel's statement about the

_Deutscher Basson_, which he distinguishes from the _Basson_ (our bassoon).

"The _Deutsche Bassons_, Fagotte or Bombardi, as our German ancestors

termed them, before music was clothed in Italian and French style, are no

longer in use" (Eisel wrote in 1738) "and therefore it is unnecessary to

waste paper on them."[14] This refers, of course, to the _bombard_ or bass

pommer, the extraordinarily long instruments which Schnitzer made so

successfully. From this it would seem that our bassoon was not of German

origin. In the meanwhile we get a clue to the early history of the pommer

in transition, but we find it under a different name in no way connected

with _fagotto_. In order to shorten the unwieldy proportions of the tenor

pommer in C, and to increase its portability, it was constructed out of a

block of wood of rather more than double the diameter of the pommer, in

which two bores were cut, communicating at the bottom of the instrument

which was flat. The bell and the crook containing the double reed

mouthpiece were side by side at the top. This instrument, which had six

holes in front and one at the back as well as two keys, was known as the

_dulceian, dolcian, doucaine_, and also in France as _courtaud_ and in

England as the _curtail_, _curtal_,[15] _curtoll_, &c., being mentioned in

1582--"The common bleting musick of ye Drone, Hobius (Hautboy) and

Curtoll." The next step in the evolution produced the double curtail, a

converted bass pommer an octave below the single curtail and therefore

identical in pitch as in construction with the early fagotto in C. The

instrument is shown in fig. 2, the reproduction of a drawing in the MS. of

_The Academy of Armoury_ by Randle Holme,[16] written some time before

1688. At the side of the drawing is the following description: "A double

curtaile.[17] This is double the bigness of the single, mentioned ch. xvi.

n. 6" (the MS. begins at ch. xvii. of bk. 3) "and is played 8 notes deeper.

It is as it were 2 pipes fixed in on(e) thick bass pipe, one much longer

than the other, from the top of the lower comes a crooked pipe of brass in

which is fixed a reed, through it the wind passeth to make the instrument

make a sound. It hath 6 holes on the outside and one on that side next the

man or back part and 2 brass keys, the highest called double _La sol re_,

and the other double _B mi_."

We may therefore conclude that the satirical name _fagotto_, presumably

bestowed in Italy, since the French equivalent _fagot_ was never used for

the _basson_, was not necessarily applied to the new form of pommer at the

outset, but in any case before 1555; that the very term _Phagoto

d'Afranio_, by which the instrument was known during its short fabulous

existence, with its pretended Greek etymology, presupposes the

pre-existence in Italy of another _fagotto_ with which Afranio was

acquainted, perhaps imperfectly. Afranio's was the age of ingenious

mechanical devices applied to musical instruments, many of which, like

Afranio's, being mere freaks, did not survive the inventor. A document

selected from the valuable archives published by Edm. van der Straeten[18]

suggests a satisfactory clue. In 1426 Louis Willay, a musical instrument

maker of Bruges, sold to Philippe le Bon a triple set of wood-wind

instruments, _i.e._ "4 bombardes, 4 doucaines and 4 flutes," to be sent as

a gift to Nicolas III., marquis of Ferrara. The new instrument, the

doucaine, we may imagine, by its unusual appearance provoked the satirical

wit of some courtier, and was henceforth known as _fagotto_. Just a century

later Ravilius of Ferrara made Afranio's first phagotus from the inventor's

design.

The bassoon has been a favourite with all the great masters, excepting

Handel. Beethoven uses the bassoon largely in his symphonies, writing

everywhere for it independent parts of great beauty and originality. Bach,

in his mass in B min., has parts for two bassoons. Mozart wrote a concerto

in Bb for bassoon, with orchestra (Kochel, No. 191). Weber has also written

a concerto for bassoon in F (op. 75), scored for full orchestra.

See also Etienne Ozi, _Nouvelle Methode du Bassoon_ (Paris, 1788 and 1800);

J. B. J. Willent-Bordogny, _Gran Methodo completo per il Fagotto_ (Milan,

1844), with illustrations of early bassoons (English edition, London, J. R.

Lafleur & Son); Joseph Froehlich, _Vollstaendige Musikschule fuer alle beym

Orchester gebrauchliche wichtigere Instrumente_ (many practical

illustrations) (Cologne, Bonn, 1811); article "Bassoon," by W. H. Stone and

D. J. Blaikley in Grove's _Dictionary of Music and Musicians_ (2nd ed.);

article "Fagott" in Mendel's _Musikalisches Conversations-Lexikon_; for the

history of the instrument, and of its prototypes, see OBOE and BOMBARD.

(K. S.)

[1] At Wagner's instigation, the wind-instrument-maker, W. Heckel of

Biebrich-am-Rhein, made bassoons with an extra key, extending the compass

downwards to A.

[2] Macrobius in _Somn. Scip._ lib. ii. cap. 4. 5.

[3] Gottfried Weber, "Verbesserungen des Fagotts," in _Cacilia_ (Mainz,

1825), vol. ii. p. 123.

[4] See _Traite sur le perfectionnement du basson, avec 2 tableaux, par

Charles Almenraeder_ (Mayence, Schott), and also the above mentioned

article by Gottfried Weber in _Cacilia_, whose explanations are clearer

than those of the inventor.

[5] For a description of the modern instrument see Victor Charles Mahillon,

_Catalogue descriptif et analytique du musee instrumental du Conservatoire

Royal de Musique_ (Bruxelles, 1896), vol. ii. pp. 275-276, No. 999.

[6] As far as is known only three of these curious instruments are in

existence; two in the museum of the Conservatoire, Paris, and one in

Brussels; all three bear a trefoil as maker's mark; the smallest, in F, is

reproduced in the _Catalogue of the Musical Instruments exhibited at the

Royal Military Exhibition, London_, 1890, by Capt. C. R. Day (London,

1891), pl. iv. F. It is also described (without illustration) in Mahillon's

_Catalogue_, p. 201, No. 189. The two flutes in Paris, measuring 73 cm. and

94 cm., are described by Gustave Chouquet, _Le Musee du Conservatoire

National de Musique--Catalogue descriptif et raisonne_ (Paris, 1884), Nos.

409 and 410, p. 106.

[7] An Italian translation of the description is given by Count L. F.

Valdrighi in _Musurgiana_, No. 4 (Milano, 1881), "Il Phagotus di Afranio,"

p. 40 et seq. (without illustration). An illustration of the phagotus is

given by W. J. von Wasielewski in _Gesch. d. Instrumentalmusik im XVI.

Jahrh._ (Berlin, 1878), pl. v. and vi., text p. 74.

[8] See _L'Harmonie universelle_ (Paris, 1636), part ii. p. 305.

[9] Ibid., illustrated and described, bk. v. p. 293.

[10] See Edm. van der Straeten, _Hist. de la musique aux Pays-Bas_, vol.

vii. pp. 433, 436, 448.

[11] J. J. Quantz, Frederick the Great's flute-master, gives France the

credit of transforming the bombard (pommer) into the bassoon, and the

schalmey into oboe, see _Versuch einer Anweisung die Flote traversiere zu

spielen_ (Berlin, 1752), p. 24 and again p. 241, s. 6.

[12] J. G. Doppelmaier, _Historische Nachricht von den Nuernbergischen

Mathematicis und Kuenstlern_ (Nuernberg, 1730), p. 293.

[13] See "Nachrichten von Kuenstlern und Werkleuten Nuernbergs aus dem

Jahre 1549," in R. Eitelberger von Edelberg's _Quellenschriften fuer

Kunstgeschichte und Kunsttechnik des Mittelalters_ (Vienna. 1875), vols.

viii.-x.

[14] See J. J. Eisel, _Musicus autodidactus oder der sich selbst

informierende Musicus_ (Erfurt, 1738), pp. 104 and 100, and also J.

Mattheson, _Das neu-eroeffnete Orchester_ (Hamburg, 1713), "Basson," from

whom Eisel borrowed.

[15] See the _New English Dictionary_, and Bateman upon Bartholinus, 423,

1, margin.

[16] British Museum, Harl. MS. 2034, fol. 207_b_, a reference communicated

by Augustus Hughes-Hughes from his valuable appendix to part iii.

(Instrumental Music and Works on Music) of a _Catalogue of MS. Music in the

British Museum_ (London, 1908-1909). The Appendix contains a list of

typical musical instruments represented in illuminated MSS., or described

in other MSS. in the British Museum, with a brief description and full

references.

[17] Compare Randle Holme's _double curtail_ with the dolcian in C, pl. vi.

H. of Capt. C. R. Day's catalogue, and with a dolcian or single curtail by

J. C. Denner in Paul de Wit's _Katalog des Musikhistorischen Museums von

Paul de Wit_ (Leipzig, 1903), p. 127, No. 380, and illust. p. 121

(Collection now transferred to Cologne). Consult also Mersenne, _op. cit_.,

and Michael Praetorius, _Syntagma Musicum_ (Wolfenbuettel, 1618), both of

whom describe and figure these forms of early bassoons.

[18] _Op. cit_. vol. vii. p. 38.

* * * * *

Corrections made to printed original.

page 340, "exceed, at any time, the sum of L10,000.": 'at ant time' in

original.

page 370, "thirty-five years of uninterrupted service": 'thrity-five' in

original.

page 456, "all the chief military events": 'imlitary' in original.