BLIND, KARL, revolutionist and journalist, born at Mannheim; took
part in the risings of 1848, and sentenced to prison in consequence of a
pamphlet he wrote entitled "German Hunger and German Princes," but
rescued by the mob; found refuge in England, where he interested himself
in democratic movements, and cultivated his literary as well as his
political proclivities by contributing to magazines, and otherwise; _b_.
1826.
BLIND HARRY, a wandering Scottish minstrel of the 15th century;
composed in verse "The Life of that Noble Champion of Scotland, Sir
William Wallace."
BLINKERT DUNE, a dune near Haarlem, 197 ft. above the sea-level.
BLOCH, MARCUS ELIESER, a naturalist, born at Anspach, of Jewish
descent; his "Ichthyology" is a magnificent national work, produced at
the expense of the wealthiest princes of Germany (1723-1799).
BLOEMÆRT, a family of Flemish painters and engravers in 16th and
17th centuries.
BLOIS, capital of the deps. of Loire and Cher, France, on the Loire,
35 m. S. of Orleans; a favourite residence of Francis I. and Charles IX.,
and the scene of events of interest in the history of France.
BLOMEFLELD, FRANCIS, a clergyman, born at Norfolk; author of
"Topographical History of the County of Norfolk" (1705-1751).
BLOMFIELD, bishop of London, born at Bury St. Edmunds; Greek
scholar; active in the Church extension of his diocese (1785-1857).
BLONDEL, a troubadour of the 12th century; a favourite of Richard
Coeur de Lion, who, it is said, discovered the place of Richard's
imprisonment in Austria by singing the first part of a love-song which
Richard and he had composed together, and by the voice of Richard in
responding to the strain.
BLONDIN, CHARLES, an acrobat and rope-dancer, born at St. Omer,
France; celebrated for his feats in crossing Niagara Falls on the
tight-rope; _b_. 1824.
BLOOD, THOMAS, COLONEL, an Irish desperado, noted for his daring
attempts against the life of the Duke of Ormonde, and for carrying off
the regalia in the Tower; unaccountably pardoned by Charles II., and
received afterwards into royal favour with a pension of £500 per annum.
He was afterwards charged with conspiracy, and committed to the King's
Bench, and released.
BLOODY ASSIZES, the judicial massacres and cruel injustices
perpetrated by Judge Jeffreys during Circuit in 1685.
BLOODY BONES, a hobgoblin feared by children.
BLOODY STATUTE, statute of Henry VIII. making it a crime involving
the heaviest penalties to question any of the fundamental doctrines of
the Romish Church.
BLOOMFLELD, ROBERT, an English poet, born in Suffolk, by trade a
shoemaker; author of the "Farmer's Boy," a highly popular production,
translated into French and Italian; spent his last days in ill-health
struggling with poverty, which brought on dejection of mind (1766-1823).
BLOUNT, CHARLES, a deist, born in London; assailant of revealed
religion; was involved in all the controversies of the time; died by his
own hand (1654-1693).
BLOWPIPE, a contrivance by which a current of air is driven through
a flame, and the flame directed upon some fusible substance to fuse or
vitrify it.
BLÜCHER, Prussian field-marshal, familiarly named "Marshal
Forwards," born at Rostock; served first in the Swedish army, then in the
Prussian; distinguished as a leader of cavalry, and met with varying
fortune; at the age of 70 commanded the centre of the Allied Army in
1813; distinguished himself at Lützen and Leipzig; pursued the French
across the Rhine; pressed forward to Paris at the time of Napoleon's
abdication; defeated by Napoleon at Ligny, 16th June 1815; arrived on the
field of Waterloo just as the French were preparing to make their last
charge, and contributed to decide the fate of the day (1742-1819).
BLUE MOUNTAINS, a range of thickly wooded mountains traversing
Jamaica from E. to W., from 5000 to 7000 ft. in height; also a chain of
mountains in New South Wales of two parallel ranges, with a deep chasm
between, and full of gloomy ravines and beetling precipices, the highest
4100 ft.
BLUE NOSE, a nickname given to an inhabitant of Nova Scotia or New
Brunswick.
BLUEBEARD, a wealthy seigneur, the owner of a castle; marries a
beautiful woman, and leaves her in charge of the keys of the apartments
in his absence, with injunctions not to unlock any of the doors, an
injunction which she fails to respect, and finds to her horror the
remains of his former wives locked up in one of them; her disobedience is
discovered, and she is to prepare for death, but is rescued, as she lies
with her head on the block, by the timely arrival of her brothers, who at
once despatch the husband to his merited doom.
BLUE-BOOKS, Parliamentary documents bound in _blue_ paper, as the
corresponding documents in France are in _yellow_; they have been
published regularly since the beginning of the 18th century, those of a
single session now forming a collection of some 60 folio volumes.
BLUE-COAT SCHOOL, a name given to Christ's Hospital, London, founded
in the reign of Edward VI., from the blue coats worn by the boys.
BLUE-GOWN, in Scotland a beggar, a bedesman of the king, who wore a
blue gown, the gift of the king, and had his license to beg.
BLUE-STOCKING, a female pedant or _femme savante_, a name derived
from a learned coterie, formed in the 15th century, at Venice, who wore
blue stockings as a badge.
BLUFF HAL, or HARRY, Henry VIII. of England.
BLUM, a German politician, born at Cologne; tried by court-martial
and shot for abetting a political movement in Vienna in 1848, a
proceeding which created a wide-spread sensation at the time all over
Europe; _b_. 1807.
BLUMENBACH, JOHANN FRIEDRICH, a distinguished German naturalist and
ethnologist, born at Gotha; studied at Jena; became professor at
Göttingen, an office he filled for 60 years; his works gave a great
impulse to scientific research in all directions; the chief were
"Institutiones Physiologicæ," "Manual of Natural History," "Manual of
Comparative Anatomy and Physiology"; he made craniology a special study;
was a great advocate for religious liberty (1752-1840).
BLUMENTHAL, LEONARD VON, field-marshal in the Prussian army;
distinguished in the wars with Denmark, Austria, and France; an eminent
strategist; _b_. 1810.
BLUMI`NE, the siren that Calypsowise in "Sartor" seduced
Teufelsdröckh at the commencement of his career, but who opened his eyes
to see that it is not in sentiment, however fine, that the soul's
cravings can find satisfaction.
BLUNT, JOHN HENRY, D.D., born at Chelsea; wrote largely on
theological and ecclesiastical subjects (1823-1884).
BLUNTSCHLI, JOHANN KASPAR, a distinguished jurist, born at Zurich;
an authority in international law; a liberal conservative both in Church
and State; founder and president of the Protestant Union called the
_Protestantenverein_ (1808-1881).
BOABDIL, or ABU-ABDALLAH, surnamed "The Unfortunate," the last
Moorish king of Granada, from 1481 to 1492; expelled from his throne by
Ferdinand of Castile and Aragon; as he rode off he halted on a hill
called "The Last Sigh of the Moor," and wept as he looked back on the
Alhambra, while his mother added to his bitterness with the cutting
sarcasm, "Weep as a woman for a throne you have not been able to defend
as a man"; died shortly after in Africa, recklessly throwing away his
life on a field of battle.
BOADICE`A, a British heroine, queen of the Iceni, who occupied
Norfolk and Suffolk; roused by indignity done to her and her people by
the Romans, gathered round her an army, who, with a murderous onslaught,
attacked their settlements and destroyed them; but being attacked and
defeated in turn by Suetonius Paulinus, the Roman governor, she put, in
her despair, an end to her life by poison, A.D. 61. Cowper made her the
theme of one of his poems.
BOANERGES (i. e. Sons of Thunder), applied by Christ to the sons
of Zebedee for the vehemence of their zeal.
BOAZ and JACHIN, two pillars of brass at the entrance of
Solomon's Temple, signifying respectively strength and stability.
BOB`ADIL, CAPTAIN, a braggadocio in Ben Jonson's "Every Man in his
Humour."
BOBÈCHE, a French theatrical clown, under the Empire and the
Restoration, son of an upholsterer of the St. Antoine faubourg, the type
of the merry-andrew at country fairs.
BOCCACCIO, GIOVANNI, the celebrated Italian _raconteur_, born near
Florence; showed early a passion for literature; sent by his father to
Naples to pursue a mercantile career; gave himself up to story-telling in
prose and verse; fell in love with Maria, a beautiful woman, daughter of
the king, styled by him Fiammetta, for whom he wrote several of his
works, and his great work, the "Decameron"; early formed a lifelong
friendship with Petrarch, along with whom he contributed to the revival
and study of classic literature; lectured on Dante in Florence;
Petrarch's death deeply affected him, and he died the year after
(1313-1375).
BOCCHERINI, LUIGI, a celebrated Italian musical composer, born at
Lucca; was associated with Manfredi, the violinist; his works were
numerous; appears to have lived in poverty and obscurity (1740-1805).
BOCHART, SAMUEL, a Protestant divine, born at Rouen; pastor at Caen;
a geographer and an Orientalist; wrote a treatise on sacred geography;
celebrated for a nine-days' discussion with the Jesuit Verin (1599-1667).
BODE, JOHANN ELERT, an astronomer, born at Hamburg; was professor of
Astronomy and director of Observatory at Berlin; produced a number of
astronomical works, one of his best, "An Introduction to the Knowledge of
the Starry Heavens;" gave name to the law of the planetary distances,
called Bode's Law, although it was observed by Kepler long before his day
(1747-1826).
BODEL, a celebrated troubadour of the 13th century, born at Arras.
BODENSEE, another name for the Lake of Constance, well called the
filter of the Rhine.
BODIN, JEAN, a publicist and diplomatist, born at Angers; author of
"The Republic," in six books, published at first in French and then in
Latin, which summed up all the political philosophy of his time, and
contributed to prepare the way for subsequent speculations; was the
precursor of Hobbes and Montesquieu (1530-1596).
BODLEIAN LIBRARY, the university library of Oxford, founded, or
rather restored, by Sir Thomas Bodley in 1593; enlarged from time to time
by bequests, often munificent. It possesses 400,000 printed volumes and
30,000 MSS.
BODLEY, SIR THOMAS, born at Exeter; employed on embassies by
Elizabeth on the Continent, where he collected a number of valuable
books; bequeathed them and his fortune to the university library of
Oxford, named after him (1545-1613).
BODMER, JOHANN JACOB, a distinguished Swiss critic, born near
Zurich; the first, by study of the masters in literature of Greece and
Rome, France, England, and Italy, to wake up Germany to a sense of its
poverty in that line, and who aided, along with others, in the
inauguration of a new era, which he did more by his republication of the
Minnesingers and part of the "Nibelungen Lied" than by his advocacy
(1698-1783).
BODMIN (5), the county town of Cornwall, supersedes Truro as
capital; an important agricultural centre; has large annual fairs for
cattle, horses, and sheep.
BODONI, an Italian printer; settled at Parma, where his press was
set up in the ducal palace, whence issued magnificent editions of the
classics, Horace, Virgil, Tacitus, Tasso, and, last of all, Homer. He was
often tempted to Rome, but he refused to quit Parma and the patronage of
the ducal house there (1740-1813).
BÖDTCHER, LUDWIG, a Danish lyric poet, born at Copenhagen; lived
chiefly in Italy (1793-1874).
BOECE, HECTOR, a humanist and Scottish historian, born at Dundee;
professor of Philosophy at Paris; friend of Erasmus; was principal of
university at Aberdeen; wrote "History of Bishops of Mortlach and
Aberdeen," and "History of Scotland" in excellent Latin (1465-1536).
BOECKH, PHILIP AUGUST, classical antiquary, born at Carlsruhe;
professor of Ancient Literature in Berlin; a classic of the first rank,
and a contributor on a large scale to all departments of Greek classical
learning; was an eminently learned man, and an authority in different
departments of learning (1785-1867).
BOEHM, SIR JOSEPH EDGAR, sculptor, born in Vienna, of Hungarian
parentage; settled in England; executed a colossal statue of the Queen at
Windsor, a seated statue of Carlyle on the Thames Embankment, a statue of
Bunyan at Bedford, &c.; patronised by the Queen and royal family; buried
in St. Paul's by the Queen's desire (1785-1869).
BOEHME, JACOB, a celebrated German mystic, born at Görlitz; of an
imaginatively meditative turn from boyhood as a neat-herd, and afterwards
in his stall as a shoemaker; spent his whole life in meditation on divine
things; saw in the Bible a revelation of these as in no other book;
seemed to have eyes given him to see visions of these things himself, for
which he felt he had no organ to express, and which he conveyed to others
in mystical, apocalyptical speech; a thinker very fascinating to all
minds of the seer class. He was subject to persecution, as all of his
stamp are, by the men of the letter, and bore up with the meekness which
all men of his elevation of character ever do--"quiet, gentle, and
modest," as they all are to the very core, in his way of thinking; and
his philosophy would seem to have anticipated the secret of Hegel, who
acknowledges him as one of the fathers of German philosophy. He left
writings which embody a scheme of mystical theology, setting forth the
trinity in unity of the Hegelian system, that is, viewing the divine as
it is in itself, as it comes out in nature, and as it returns to itself
in the human soul (1575-1624).
BOEHMER, a German historian, born at Frankfort; author of works on
the Carlovingian period of history (1795-1863).
BOEO`TIA, a country of ancient Greece, N. of the Gulf of Corinth;
the natives, though brave, were mere tillers of the soil under a heavy
atmosphere, innocent of culture, and regarded as boors and dullards by
the educated classes of Greece, and particularly of Athens, and yet
Hesiod, Pindar, and Plutarch were natives of Boeotia.
BOERHAAVE, a great physician, born near Leyden, and son of a pastor;
ultimately professor of Medicine and Botany there, as well as of
Chemistry; chairs of which he filled and adorned with the greatest
distinction; his reputation spread over Europe, and even as far as
China--a letter from which bore the simple address, "To M. Boerhaave,
Europe," and found him; his system was adopted by the profession, and
patients from far and wide came to consult him--among others, Pope
Benedict VIII. and Peter the Great; his character was as noble as his
abilities were great; his principal works were "Institutiones Medicæ,"
"Aphorismi de Cognoscendis et Curandis Morbis," "Libellus de Materia
Medica," and "Institutiones Chemicæ" (1668-1738).
BOERS (i. e. peasants engaged in tillage), Dutch colonists of an
independent republican temper, who in the 17th century squatted in S.
Africa; gave themselves to agriculture and cattle-rearing; settled at
length in the Transvaal in a self-governed community by themselves.
BOËTHIUS, ANICIUS MANLIUS SEVERINUS, a Roman statesman, born at
Rome, of Consular rank, a profoundly learned man, held the highest
offices, Consul among others, under Theodoric the Goth; his integrity and
opposition to injustice procured him enemies, who accused him of treason;
he was cast into prison, and finally put to death; wrote in prison his
"De Consolatione Philosophiæ," in five parts, employing verse and prose
alternately, which King Alfred translated into Anglo-Saxon; he was
canonised as a martyr, and his influence was great during the Middle Ages
(470-524).