[1] Jerusalem and its district was Jebusite until its capture by
David (see 2 Sam. v.); for Beeroth and Gibeon, see 2 Sam. iv. 2 seq.,
xxi. 2, and note the Benjamite and Judahite names which find
analogies in the Edomite genealogies. See, on these points, S.A.
Cook, _Jew. Quarterly Review_ (1906), pp. 528 sqq.
BENJAMIN OF TUDELA (in Navarre), a Jewish rabbi of the 12th century. He
visited Constantinople, Egypt, Assyria and Persia, and penetrated to the
frontiers of China. His journeys occupied him for about thirteen years.
He was credulous, but his _Itinerary_, or _Massa'oth_, contains some
curious notices of the countries he visited and of the condition of the
Jews. Thus his work is of much value for the Jewish history of the 12th
century. It is from Benjamin that we know that the Jews of Palestine and
other parts of the East were noted for the arts of dyeing and
glass-making.
His _Itinerary_ was translated from the Hebrew into Latin by Arias
Montanus in 1575, and appeared in a French version by Baratier in
1734. There have been various English translations. One was published
by Asher in 1840; another (with critical Hebrew text) by M.N. Adler
(_Jewish Quarterly Review_, vols. xvi.-xviii.; also reprinted as a
separate volume, 1907).
BENJAMIN, JUDAH PHILIP (1811-1884), Anglo-American lawyer, of Jewish
descent, was born a British subject at St Thomas in the West Indies on
the 11th of August 1811, and was successively an American lawyer, a
leading Confederate politician and a distinguished English barrister. He
eventually died in Paris a domiciled Frenchman. After 1818 his parents
lived in Charleston, South Carolina, and he went to Yale in 1825 for his
education, but left without taking a degree, and entered an attorney's
office in New Orleans. He was admitted to the New Orleans bar in 1832.
He compiled with his friend John Slidell a valuable digest of decisions
of the superior courts of New Orleans and Louisiana; and as a partner in
the firm of Slidell, Benjamin & Conrad, he enjoyed a good practice. In
1848 he was admitted a councillor of the supreme court, and in 1852 he
was elected a senator for Louisiana, and thereafter he took an active
part in politics, declining to accept a judgeship of the supreme court.
In 1861 he withdrew from the Senate, left Washington and actively
espoused the Confederate cause. He joined Jefferson Davis's provisional
government as attorney-general, becoming afterwards his secretary for
war (1861-1862), and chief secretary of state (1862-1865). Although at
times subject to fierce criticism with regard to matters of
administration and finance, he was recognized as one of the ablest men
on the Confederate side, and he remained with Jefferson Davis to the
last, sharing his flight after the surrender at Appomattox, and only
leaving him shortly before his capture, because he found himself unable
to go farther on horseback. He escaped from the coast of Florida in an
open boat, and after many vicissitudes reached England, an exile. In
1866 his remaining property was lost in the banking failure of Overend &
Gurney.
In London Benjamin was able to earn a little money by journalism, and on
the 13th of January 1866 he entered Lincoln's Inn. He received a
hospitable welcome from the legal profession. The influence of English
judges who knew his abilities and his circumstances enabled him to be
called to the bar on the 6th of June 1866, dispensing with the usual
three years as a student, and he acquired his first knowledge of the
practice and methods of English courts as the pupil of Mr C.E.
(afterwards Baron) Pollock. Pollock fully recognized his abilities and
they became and remained firm friends. Benjamin was naturally an apt and
useful pupil; for instance, an opinion of Mr Pollock, which for long
guided the London police in the exercise of their right to search
prisoners, is mentioned by him as having been really composed by
Benjamin while he was still his pupil. Benjamin joined the northern
circuit, and a large proportion of his early practice came from
solicitors at Liverpool who had correspondents in New Orleans. His
business gradually increased, and having received a patent of
precedence, he was on the 2nd of November 1872 called within the bar as
a queen's counsel. In addition to his knowledge of law and of commercial
matters he had considerable eloquence, and a power of marshalling facts
and arguments that rendered him extremely effective, particularly before
judges. He was less successful in addressing juries, and towards the
close of his career did not take _Nisi prius_ work, but in the court of
appeal and House of Lords and before the judicial committee of the privy
council he enjoyed a very large practice, making for some time fully
L15,000 a year. The question of raising him to the bench was seriously
considered by Lord Cairns, who, however, seems to have thought that the
ungrudging hospitality and goodwill with which Benjamin had been
received by the English legal profession had gone far enough. Towards
the close of his career he was in ill health, and he suffered from the
results of a fall from a tramcar. He retired in 1882 to a house in Paris
which he had built and where he had been in the habit of passing his
vacations with his wife, who was a Frenchwoman. He never returned to
practice, but came back to London to be entertained by the bench and bar
of England at a banquet in the Inner Temple Hall on the 30th of June
1883. He died at Paris on the 6th of May 1884.
Benjamin was thick-set and stout, with an expression of great
shrewdness. An early portrait of him is to be found in Jefferson Davis's
_Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government_. His political history may
be traced in that work, and in John W. Draper's _American Civil War_ and
von Holst's _Constitutional History of the United States_. Many
allusions to his English career will be found in works describing
English lawyers of his period, and there are some interesting
reminiscences of him by Baron Pollock in the _Fortnightly Review_ for
March 1898. His _Treatise on the Law of Sale of Personal Property with
References to the American Decisions and to the French Code and Civil
Law_--a bulky volume known to practitioners as _Benjamin on Sales_--is
the principal text-book on its subject, and a fitting monument of the
author's career at the English bar, of his industry and learning. Many
of his American speeches have been published.
See _Judah P. Benjamin_, by Pierce Butler (Philadelphia, 1907, with a
good bibliography).
BEN LEDI (Gaelic, "the hill of God"), a mountain of Perthshire,
Scotland, 2875 ft. high, 5 m. by road N.W. of Callander. It is situated
close to some of the most romantic scenery in the Highlands, and is
particularly well known through Scott's _Lady of the Lake_. Its name is
supposed to point to the time when Beltane rites were observed on its
summit. A cairn was built on the top in 1887 to commemorate Queen
Victoria's jubilee. On one of the sides of the mountain is a tarn which
bears the name of Lochan nan Corp, "the little loch of the dead," from
an accident to a funeral party by which 200 lives were lost.
BENLLIURE Y GIL, JOSE (1858-), Spanish painter, was born at Valencia,
studied painting under Domingo, and showed from the first such marked
talent that he was sent to the Spanish school in Rome. He was one of the
select circle pensioned by the Spanish government for residence in Italy
and executed several state orders for the decoration of public
buildings; but he owes his chief fame to his large historical paintings,
notably the "Vision in the Coliseum." He became the leader of the
Spanish art colony in Rome, where he practised as painter and sculptor.
BEN LOMOND, a mountain in the north-west of Stirlingshire, Scotland. It
is situated near the eastern bank of Loch Lomond, about 9 m. from the
head and about 15 from the foot. It is 3192 ft. high, and the prevailing
rocks are granite, mica schist, diorite, porphyry and quartzite, the
last, where it crops out on the surface, gleaming in the distance like
snow. Duchray Water, a head-stream of the Forth, rises in the north-east
shoulder. The hill, which is covered with grass to the top, is a
favourite climb, being ascended from Rowardennan (the easiest) or
Inversnaid on the lake, or Aberfoyle 10 m. inland due east. The view
from the summit extends northward as far as the Grampians, with
occasional glimpses of Ben Nevis; westward to Jura in the Atlantic;
south-westward to Arran in the Firth of Clyde; southward to Tinto Hill,
the Lowthers and Cairnsmore; and eastward to Edinburgh Castle and
Arthur's Seat.
BENLOWES, EDWARD (1603?-1676), English poet, son of Andrew Benlowes of
Brent Hall, Essex, was born about 1603. He matriculated at St John's
College, Cambridge, in 1620, and on leaving the university he made a
prolonged tour on the continent of Europe. He was a Roman Catholic in
middle life, but became a convert to Protestantism in his later years.
He dissipated his fortune by openhanded generosity to his friends and
relations, and possibly by serving in the Civil War; so that he was in
great poverty at the time of his death, which occurred on the 18th of
December 1676. The last eight years of his life were passed at Oxford.
Many of his writings are in Latin. His most important work is
_Theophila, or Love's Sacrifice, a Divine Poem_ (1652). The poem deals
with mystical religion, telling how the soul, represented by Theophila,
ascends by humility, zeal and contemplation, and triumphs over the sins
of the senses. It is written in a curious stanza of three lines of
unequal length rhyming together. Until recent times justice has hardly
been done to Benlowes' poetical merits and indisputable piety. Samuel
Butler, who satirized him in his "Character of a Small Poet," found
abundant matter for ridicule in his eccentricities; and Pope and
Warburton noted him as a patron of bad poets.
His _Theophila_ was reprinted by S.W. Singer; and in _Minor Poets of
the Caroline Period_, vol. i. (1905), Mr Saintsbury reprints
_Theophila_ and two other poems by Benlowes, "The Summary of
Wisedome," and "A Poetic Descant upon a Private Music-Meeting."
BEN MACDHUI, more correctly BEN MUICHDHUI (Gaelic for "the mountain of
the black pig," in allusion to its shape), the second highest mountain
(4296 ft.) in Great Britain, one of the Cairngorm group, on the confines
of south-western Aberdeenshire and south-western Banffshire, not far
from the eastern boundary of Inverness-shire. It is about 11 m. from
Castleton of Braemar and about 10 from Aviemore. The ascent is usually
made from Castleton of Braemar, by way of the Linn of Dee, Glen Lui and
Glen Derry. From the head of Glen Derry, with its blasted trees, the
picture of desolation, it becomes more toilsome, but is partly repaid by
the view of the remarkable columnar cliffs of Corrie Etchachan. The
summit is flat and quite bare of vegetation, but the panorama in every
direction is extremely grand. At the foot of a vast gully, 2500 ft.
above the sea, lies Loch Avon (or A'an), a narrow lake about 1-1/2 m.
long, with water of the deepest blue and a margin of bright yellow sand.
At the western end of the lake is the Shelter Stone, an enormous block
of granite resting upon two other blocks, which can accommodate a dozen
persons. Beautiful rock crystals occur in veins in the corries. The
summit of Cairngorm, 3-1/2 m. north of that of Ben Macdhui, may be
reached from the latter with scarcely any descent, by following the
rugged ridge flanking the western side of Loch Avon. The other great
peaks of the group are Braeriach (4248 ft.) and Cairntoul (4241 ft.),
and 6 m. to the east are the twin masses of Ben a Bourd, the northern
top of which is 3924 ft. and the southern 3860 ft. high. Ben A'an, an
adjoining hill, is 3843 ft. high.
BENNETT, CHARLES EDWIN (1858- ), American classical scholar, was born
on the 6th of April 1858, in Providence, Rhode Island. He graduated from
Brown University in 1878 and also studied at Harvard (1881-1882) and in
Germany (1882-1884). He taught in secondary schools in Florida
(1878-1879), New York (1879-1881), and Nebraska (1885-1889), and became
professor of Latin in the University of Wisconsin in 1889, of classical
philology at Brown University in 1891, and of Latin at Cornell
University in 1892. His syntactical studies, notably various papers on
the subjunctive, are based on a statistical examination of Latin texts
and are marked by a fresh system of nomenclature; he ranks as one of the
leaders of the "New American School" of syntacticians, who insist on a
preliminary re-examination of all available data. Of great importance
are his advocacy of "quantitative" reading of Latin verse and his
_Critique of Some Recent Subjunctive Theories_ in vol. ix. (1898) of
_Cornell Studies in Classical Philology_, of which he was an editor.
Bennett's _Latin Grammar_ (1895) is the first successful attempt in
America to adopt the method of the brief, scholarly _Schulgrammatik_.
Besides the Latin classics commonly read in secondary courses and other
text-books in "Bennett's Latin Series," he edited Tacitus's _Dialogus de
Oratoribus_ (1894), and Cicero's _De Senectute_ (1897) and _De Amicitia_
(1897). He wrote, with George P. Bristol, _The Teaching of Greek and
Latin in Secondary Schools_ (1900), and _The Latin Language_, (1907),
and with William Alexander Hammond translated _The Characters of
Theophrastus_ (1902).
BENNETT, JAMES GORDON (1794-1872), American journalist, founder and
editor of the New York Herald, was born at Newmills in Banffshire,
Scotland, in 1794 (not in 1800, as has been stated). He was educated for
the Roman Catholic priesthood in a seminary at Aberdeen, but in the
spring of 1819, giving up the career which had been chosen for him, he
emigrated to America. Landing at Halifax, Nova Scotia, he earned a poor
living there for a short time by giving lessons in French, Spanish and
bookkeeping; he passed next to Boston, where starvation threatened him
until he got employment in a printing-office; and in 1822 he went to New
York. An engagement as translator of Spanish for the _Courier_ of
Charleston, South Carolina, took him there for a few months in 1823. On
his return to New York he projected a school, gave lectures on political
economy and did subordinate work for the journals. During the next ten
years he was employed on various papers, was the Washington
correspondent first of the _New York Enquirer_, and later of the
_Courier and Enquirer_ in 1827-1832, his letters attracting much
attention; he founded the short-lived _Globe_ in New York in 1832; and
in 1833-1834 was the chief editor and one of the proprietors of the
_Pennsylvanian_ at Philadelphia. On the 6th of May 1835 he published the
first number of a small one-cent paper, bearing the title of _New York
Herald_, and issuing from a cellar, in which the proprietor and editor
played also the part of salesman. "He started with a disclaimer of all
principle, as it is called, all party, all politics"; and to this he
consistently adhered. By his industry, sagacity and unscrupulousness,
and by the variety of his news, the "spicy" correspondence, and the
supply of personal gossip and scandal, he made the paper a great
commercial success. He devoted his attention particularly to the
gathering of news, and was the first to introduce many of the methods of
the modern American reporter. He published on the 13th of June 1835, the
first Wall Street financial article to appear in any American newspaper;
printed a vivid and detailed account of the great fire of December 1835,
in New York; was the first, in 1846, to obtain the report in full by
telegraph of a long political speech; and during the Civil War
maintained a staff of sixty-three war correspondents. Bennett continued
to edit the Herald almost till his death, at New York, on the 1st of
June 1872.
His son, JAMES GORDON BENNETT (1841- ), took over the management of
the paper during the last year of its founder's life, and succeeded him
in its control. It was he who sent Henry M. Stanley on his mission to
find Livingstone in Central Africa, and he fitted out the "Jeannette"
Polar Expedition, and in 1883 established (with John W. Mackay) the
Commercial Cable Company.
BENNETT, JOHN, one of the finest English madrigalists, whose first set
of madrigals appeared in 1599. In 1614 Ravenscroft, in a collection
including five of his madrigals, writes a eulogy which reads like an
obituary notice. The first set of madrigals was reprinted in 1845 by the
Musical Antiquarian Society. Bennett's works consist of this set and
several contributions to such collections as the _Triumphs of Oriana_,
and to various collections of church music.
BENNETT, JOHN HUGHES (1812-1875), English physician and pathologist, was
born in London on the 31st of August 1812. He was educated at Exeter,
and being destined for the medical profession was articled to a surgeon
in Maidstone. In 1833 he began his studies at Edinburgh, and in 1837
graduated with the highest honours. During the next four years he
studied in Paris and Germany, and on his return to Edinburgh in 1841
published a _Treatise on Cod-liver Oil as a Therapeutic Agent_. In the
same year he began to lecture as an extra-academical teacher on
histology, drawing attention to the importance of the microscope in the
investigation of disease; and as physician to the Royal Dispensary he
instituted courses of "polyclinical medicine." In 1843 he was appointed
professor of the institutes of medicine at Edinburgh, and performed the
duties of that chair with great energy till incapacitated by failing
health. He resigned in 1874. In August 1875 he was able to be present at
the meeting of the British Medical Association in Edinburgh, on which
occasion he received the degree of LL.D., but the fatigue he then
underwent brought on a relapse, and he was compelled to have the
operation of lithotomy performed. He sank rapidly and died on the 25th
of September at Norwich. His publications were very numerous including
_Lectures on Clinical Medicine_ (1850-1856), which in second and
subsequent editions were called _Clinical Lectures on the Principles and
Practice of Medicine_, and were translated into various languages,
including Russian and Hindu; _Leucocythaemia_ (1852), the first recorded
cure of which was published by him in 1845; _Outlines of Physiology_
(1858), reprinted from the 8th edition of the _Encyclopaedia Britannica;
Pathology and Treatment of Pulmonary Tuberculosis_ (1853); _Textbook of
Physiology_ (1871-1872).
BENNETT, SIR WILLIAM STERNDALE (1816-1875), English musical composer,
the son of Robert Bennett, an organist, was born at Sheffield on the
13th of April 1816. Having lost his father at an early age, he was
brought up at Cambridge by his grandfather, from whom he received his
first musical education. He entered the choir of King's College chapel
in 1824. In 1826 he entered the Royal Academy of Music, and remained a
pupil of that institution for the next ten years, studying pianoforte
under W.H. Holmes and Cipriani Potter, and composition under Lucas and
Dr Crotch. It was during this time that he wrote several of his most
appreciated works, in which may be traced influences of the contemporary
movement of music in Germany, which country he frequently visited during
the years 1836-1842. At one of the Rhenish musical festivals in
Dusseldorf he made the personal acquaintance of Mendelssohn, and soon
afterwards renewed it at Leipzig, where the talented young Englishman
was welcomed by the leading musicians of the rising generation. At one
of the celebrated Gewandhaus concerts he played his third pianoforte
concerto, which was received enthusiastically. An enthusiastic account
of the event was written by Robert Schumann, who pronounced Bennett to
be the most "_musikalisch_" of all Englishmen, and "an angel of a
musician" (copying Gregory's pun on _Angli_ and _Angeli_). But it was
Mendelssohn's influence that dominated Bennett's mode of utterance. A
good example of this may be studied in Bennett's _Capriccio in D minor_.
His great success on the continent established his position on his
return to England. In 1834 he was elected organist of St Anne's chapel
(now church), Wandsworth. In this year he composed his _Overture to
Parisina_, and his Concerto in C minor, modelled on Mozart. An
unpublished concerto in F minor, and the overture to the _Naiads_,
impressed the firm of Broadwood so favourably in 1836 that they offered
the composer a year in Leipzig, where the _Naiads_ overture was
performed at a Gewandhaus concert on the 13th of February 1837. Bennett
visited Leipzig a second time in 1840-1841, when he composed his
_Caprice in E_ for pianoforte and orchestra and his overture _The Wood
Nymphs_. He settled in London, devoting himself chiefly to practical
teaching. In 1844 he married Mary Anne, daughter of Captain James Wood,
R.N. He was made musical professor at Cambridge in 1856, the year in
which he was engaged as permanent conductor of the Philharmonic Society.
This latter post he held until 1866, when he became principal of the
Royal Academy of Music. Owing to his professional duties his latter
years were not fertile, and what he then wrote was scarcely equal to the
productions of his youth. The principal charm of Bennett's compositions
(not to mention his absolute mastery of the musical form) consists in
the tenderness of their conception, rising occasionally to sweetest
lyrical intensity. Except the opera, Bennett tried his hand at almost
all the different forms of vocal and instrumental writing. As his best
works in various branches of art, we may mention, for pianoforte solo,
and with accompaniment of the orchestra, his three sketches, _The Lake,
The Millstream_ and _The Fountain_, and his 3rd pianoforte concerto; for
the orchestra, his _Symphony in G minor_, and his overture _The Naiads_;
and for voices, his cantata _The May Queen_, written for the Leeds
Festival in 1858. For the jubilee of the Philharmonic Society he wrote
the overture _Paradise and the Peri_ in 1862. He also wrote a sacred
cantata, _The Woman of Samaria_, first performed at the Birmingham
Musical Festival in 1867. In 1870 the university of Oxford conferred
upon him the honorary degree of D.C.L. A year later he was knighted, and
in 1872 he received a public testimonial before a large audience at St
James's Hall, the money subscribed being devoted to the foundation of a
scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music. Shortly before his death he
produced a sonata called the _Maid of Orleans_, an elaborate piece of
programme music based on Schiller's tragedy. He died at his house in St
John's Wood, London, on the 15th of February 1875. See the _Life_, by
his son (1908).
BEN NEVIS, the highest mountain in the British Isles, in
Inverness-shire, Scotland. It is 4406 ft. above the level of the sea,
and is situated 4-1/2 m. E.S.E. of Fort William, the meridian of 5 deg.
W passing through it. As viewed from Banavie on the Caledonian Canal, it
has the appearance of two great masses, one higher than the other, and
though its bulk is impressive, its outline is much less striking than
that of many other Highland hills. Its summit consists of a plateau 100
acres in area, with a slight slope to the south, terminating on its
north-eastern side in a sheer fall of more than 1500 ft. Snow lies in
some of the gorges all the year round. The rocks of its lower half are
mainly granite and gneiss; its upper half is composed of porphyritic
greenstone, and a variety of minerals occur. Its circumference at the
base is about 30 m. It may be described as flanked on the west and south
by the Glen and Water of Nevis, on the east by the river and Glen of
Treig, and on the north by the river and Glen of Spean. From 1881 till
1904 meteorological observations were taken from the summit of Ben
Nevis, the observers at first making the ascent daily for the purpose.
In 1883, however, an observatory, equipped at a cost of L4000 (raised by
public subscription), was opened by Mrs Cameron Campbell of Monzie, who
provided the site. The observatory, which was connected by wire with the
post office at Fort William, was provisioned by the Scottish
Meteorological Society, to whom it belonged. The burden of maintaining
it, however, proving too great for the society's means, appeal was made
in vain to government for national support, and the station was closed
in 1904. The bridle road up the mountain leaves Glen Nevis at Achintee;
it has a gradient nowhere exceeding 1 in 5, and the ascent is commonly
effected in two to three hours. There is a small hotel on the summit for
the convenience of tourists, especially of those anxious to witness
sunrise. From the summit every considerable peak in Scotland is visible.
Observations conducted during several months have shown that, whilst the
mean temperature at Fort William was 57 deg. F., at the summit of Ben
Nevis it was 41 deg. F., and that though the rainfall at the fort
amounted to 24 in., it was as much as 43 in. on the top of the Ben.
BENNIGSEN, LEVIN AUGUST, COUNT VON (1745-1826), Russian general, of
Hanoverian family, was born on the 10th of February 1745 in Brunswick,
and served successively as a page at the Hanoverian court and as an
officer of foot-guards. He retired from the Hanoverian army in 1764, and
in 1773 entered the Russian service as a field officer. He fought
against the Turks in 1774 and in 1778, becoming lieutenant-colonel in
the latter year. In 1787 his conduct at the storming of Oczakov won him
promotion to the rank of brigadier, and he distinguished himself
repeatedly in the Polish War of 1793-1794 and in the Persian War of
1796. The part played by Bennigsen in the actual assassination of the
tsar Paul I. is not fully known, but he took a most active share in the
formation and conduct of the conspiracy. Alexander I. made him
governor-general of Lithuania in 1801, and in 1802 a general of cavalry.
In 1806 he was in command of one of the Russian armies operating against
Napoleon, when he fought the battle of Pultusk and met the emperor in
person in the sanguinary battle of Eylau (8th of February 1807). Here he
could claim to have inflicted the first reverse suffered by Napoleon,
but six months later Bennigsen met with the crushing defeat of Friedland
(14th of June 1807) the direct consequence of which was the treaty of
Tilsit. Bennigsen now retired for some years, but in the campaign of
1812 he reappeared in the army in various responsible positions. He was
present at Borodino, and defeated Murat in the engagement of Tarutino,
but on account of a quarrel with Marshal Kutusov, the Russian
commander-in-chief, he was compelled to retire from active military
employment. After the death of Kutusov he was recalled and placed at the
head of an army. Bennigsen led one of the columns which made the
decisive attack on the last day of the battle of Leipzig (16th-19th of
October 1813). On the same evening he was made a count by the emperor
Alexander I., and he afterwards commanded the forces which operated
against Marshal Davout in North Germany. After the general peace he held
a command from 1815 to 1818, when he retired from active service and
settled on his Hanoverian estate of Banteln near Hildesheim. Count
Bennigsen died on the 3rd of December 1826. His son, ALEXANDER LEVIN,
count von Bennigsen (1809-1893), was a distinguished Hanoverian
statesman.
BENNIGSEN, RUDOLF VON (1824-1902), German politician, was born at
Luneburg on the 10th of July 1824. He was descended from an old
Hanoverian family, his father, Karl von Bennigsen, being an officer in
the Hanoverian army, who rose to the rank of general and also held
diplomatic appointments. Bennigsen, having studied at the university of
Gottingen, entered the Hanoverian civil service. In 1855 he was elected
a member of the second chamber; and as the government refused to allow
him leave of absence from his official duties he resigned his post in
the public service. He at once became the recognized leader of the
Liberal opposition to the reactionary government, but must be
distinguished from Count Bennigsen, a member of the same family, and son
of the distinguished Russian general, who was also one of the
parliamentary leaders at the time. What gave Bennigsen his importance
not only in Hanover, but throughout the whole of Germany, was the
foundation of the National Verein, which was due to him, and of which he
was president. This society, which arose out of the public excitement
created by the war between France and Austria, had for its object the
formation of a national party which should strive for the unity and the
constitutional liberty of the whole Fatherland. It united the moderate
Liberals throughout Germany, and at once became a great political power,
notwithstanding all the efforts of the governments, and especially of
the king of Hanover to suppress it. In 1866 Bennigsen used all his
influence to keep Hanover neutral in the conflict between Prussia and
Austria, but in vain. He took no part in the war, but his brother, who
was an officer in the Prussian army, was killed in Bohemia. In May of
this year he had an important interview with Bismarck, who wished to
secure his support for the reform of the confederation, and after the
war was over at once accepted the position of a Prussian subject, and
took his seat in the diet of the North German Confederation and in the
Prussian parliament. He used his influence to procure as much autonomy
as possible for the province of Hanover, but was a strong opponent of
the Guelph party. He was one of the three Hanoverians, Windthorst and
Miquel being the other two, who at once won for the representatives of
the conquered province the lead in both the Prussian and German
parliaments. The National Verein, its work being done, was now
dissolved; but Bennigsen was chiefly instrumental in founding a new
political party--the National Liberals,--who, while they supported
Bismarck's national policy, hoped to secure the constitutional
development of the country. For the next thirty years he was president
of the party, and was the most influential of the parliamentary leaders.
It was chiefly owing to him that the building up of the internal
institutions of the empire was carried on without the open breach
between Bismarck and the parliament, which was often imminent. Many
amendments suggested by him were introduced in the debates on the
constitution; in 1870 he undertook a mission to South Germany to
strengthen the national party there, and was consulted by Bismarck while
at Versailles. It was he who brought about the compromise on the
military bill in 1874. In 1877 he was offered the post of
vice-chancellor with a seat in the Prussian ministry, but refused it
because Bismarck or the king would not agree to his conditions. From
this time his relations with the government were less friendly, and in
1878 he brought about the rejection of the first Socialist Bill. In 1883
he resigned his seat in parliament owing to the reactionary measures of
the government, which made it impossible for him to continue his former
co-operation with Bismarck, but returned in 1887 to support the
coalition of national parties. One of the first acts of the emperor
William II. was to appoint him president of the province of Hanover. In
1897 he resigned this post and retired from public life. He died on the
7th of August 1902.
See biographical notices by A. Kiepert (2nd ed., Hanover, 1902), and
E. Schreck (Hanover, 1894).
BENNINGTON, a village and one of the county-seats of Bennington county,
Vermont, U.S.A., situated in the S.W. part of the state, about 30 m.
E.N.E. of Troy, New York. Pop. (1890) 3971; (1900) 5656 (965
foreign-born); (1910) 6211. The township of the same name, in which it
is situated, had in 1910 a population of 8698, living chiefly in the
villages of Bennington, North Bennington and Bennington Centre, the last
a summer resort. The village of Bennington is served by the Rutland
railway, and is connected by electric railway with North Adams and
Pittsfield, Mass., and Hoosick Falls, N.Y. It is picturesquely situated
at the foot of the Green Mountains, and the summit of the neighbouring
Mt. Anthony (2345 ft.) commands a magnificent view. The village has
woollen mills, knitting mills, stereoscope, box, and collar and cuff
factories and machine shops. There are white clay and yellow ochre works
in different parts of the township. Bennington is the seat of the
Vermont state soldiers' home. The Bennington Battle Monument, a shaft
301 ft. high, is said to be the highest battle monument in the world. It
commemorates the success gained on the 16th of August 1777 by a force of
nearly 2000 "Green Mountain Boys" and New Hampshire and Massachusetts
militia under General John Stark over two detachments of General
Burgoyne's army, totalling about 1200 men, under Col. Friedrich Baum and
Col. Breyman. These came up one after the other in search of provisions
and were practically annihilated, Col. Baum being mortally wounded and
700 men taken prisoners. The scene of the battle is about 5 m. from the
village. The victory had an important influence on Burgoyne's campaign
(see AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE), weakening Burgoyne and encouraging
the American militia to take the field against him. Bennington was
settled in 1761 and was named in honour of Governor Benning Wentworth of
New Hampshire. The township was organized in 1762. It was one of the
"New Hampshire Grant" towns, both New York and New Hampshire claiming
jurisdiction over it, and, being the home of Ethan Alien and Seth
Warner, it became the centre of activities of the "Green Mountain Boys,"
of whom they were leaders. During the fifteen years in which Vermont was
an independent commonwealth, Bennington was the headquarters of the
council of safety. In 1828-1829 W.L. Garrison edited here a paper called
_The Journal of the Times_. The village of Bennington was incorporated
in 1849.
See Merrill and Merrill, _Sketches of Historic Bennington_ (Cambridge,
Mass., 1898).
BENNO (1010-1106), bishop of Meissen, was the son of Werner, count of
Woldenburg, was educated at Gosslar, and in 1066 was nominated by the
emperor Henry IV. to the see of Meissen. In the troubles between empire
and papacy that followed Benno took part against the emperor. In 1085 he
was deposed by the synod of Mainz, but after the death of Pope Gregory
VII. he submitted, and on the recommendation of the imperialist Pope
Clement III. was restored to his see, which he held till his death. He
did much for his diocese, both by ecclesiastical reforms on the
Hildebrandine model and by material developments. He was long reverenced
in his own diocese as a saint before, in 1523, he was canonized by Pope
Adrian VI. His canonization drew from Luther a violent brochure "against
the new false god and old devil, who is to be lifted up at Meissen."
For bibliography, see Ulysse Chevalier, _Repertoire des sources hist.:
Bio-bibliographie, s.v._ "Bennon."
BENOIT, PETER LEONARD LEOPOLD (1834-1901), Flemish composer, was born on
the 17th of August 1834 at Harlebeke in Flanders. His father and a local
village organist were his first teachers. In 1851 Benoit entered the
Brussels Conservatoire, where he remained till 1855, studying chiefly
under F.J. Fetis. During this period he composed music to many
melodramas, and to an opera _Le Village dans les montagnes_ for the Park
theatre, of which in 1856 he became conductor. He won a government prize
and a money grant in 1857 by his cantata _Le Meurtre d'Abel_, and this
enabled him to travel through Germany. In course of his journeyings he
found time to write a considerable amount of music, as well as an essay
_L'Ecole de musique flamande et son avenir_. Fetis loudly praised his
_Messe solennelle_, which Benoit produced at Brussels on his return from
Germany. In 1861 he visited Paris for the production of his opera _Le
Roi des Aulnes_ ("Erlkonig"), which, though accepted by the Theatre
Lyrique, was never mounted; while there he conducted at the
Bouffes-Parisiens. Again returning home, he astonished a section of the
musical world by the production at Antwerp of a sacred tetralogy,
consisting of his _Cantate de Noel_, the above-mentioned _Mass_, a _Te
Deum_ and a _Requiem_, in which were embodied to a large extent his
theories of Flemish music. It was in consequence of his passion for the
founding of an entirely separate Flemish school that Benoit changed his
name from Pierre to Peter. By prodigious efforts he succeeded in
gathering round him a small band of enthusiasts, who affected to see
with him possibilities in the foundation of a school whose music should
differ completely from that of the French and German schools. In its
main features this school failed, for its faith was pinned to Benoit's
music, which is hardly more Flemish than French or German. Benoit's more
important compositions include the Flemish oratorios _De Schelde_ and
_Lucifer_, the latter of which met with complete failure on its
production in London in 1888; the operas _Het Dorp int Gebirgte_ and
_Isa_, the _Drama Christi_; an enormous mass of songs, choruses, small
cantatas and motets. Benoit also wrote a great number of essays on
musical matters. He died at Antwerp on the 8th of March 1901.
BENOIT DE SAINTE-MORE, or SAINTE-MAURE, 12th century French _trouvere_,
is supposed to have been a native of Sainte-Maure in Touraine. Very
little is known of his personal history. The _maitre_ prefixed to his
name implies that he had graduated at the university, but there is
nothing to show whether he was a simple _trouvere_ by profession or
belonged to the clergy. He was a loyal subject of Henry II. of England,
to whose court he was attached, and when he speaks of the French, it is
as "they." Wace had begun a history of the dukes of Normandy in his
_Roman du Rou_. This he brought down to the reign of Henry I., but here
Henry II. seems to have withdrawn his patronage, and at the end of his
poem Wace refers to a _maistre Beneeit_ who had received a similar
commission. There is no other contemporary poem extant dealing with the
subject except the _Chronique des ducs de Normandie_, and it would seem
reasonable to assume the identity of Wace's rival with Benoit de
Sainte-More, whose authorship of the chronicle has, nevertheless, been
often disputed. But a comparison of the _Roman de Troie_, which is
certainly Benoit's work, with the _Chronique_, confirms the supposition
that they are by the same author. The poem contains over forty thousand
lines, and relates the history of the Norman dukes from Rollo to Henry
I., with a preliminary sketch of the Danish invasions and the adventures
of Hastings and his companions. It has no claims to be considered an
original authority. Benoit drew his information from the _De moribus et
actis primorum Normanniae ducum_ of Dudon de Saint Quentin as far as
1002, following his model very closely. From that time he avails himself
of the chronicle of William of Jumieges, also of Ordericus Vitalis and
others. The _Chronique_ probably dates from about 1172 to 1176. In the
_Roman de Troie_, written about 1160, Benoit expressly asserts his
authorship. He mentions "Omers" with great respect as _li clers
merveillos_, but his authority for the story is naturally not Homer, of
whom he could have no first-hand knowledge. He follows the apocryphal
_Historia de excidio Trojae_ of Dares the Phrygian and the _Ephemerides
belli Trojani_ of Dictys of Crete. The poem runs to about 30,000 lines.
The personages of the classical story are converted into heroes of
romance. They have their castles and their abbeys, and act in accordance
with feudal custom. The supernatural machinery of Homer is missing both
in Benoit's original and his own narrative. The story begins with the
capture of the Golden Fleece and comes down to the return of the Greek
princes after the fall of Troy. Benoit diverges very widely from the
classical tradition, and M. Leopold Constans sees reason to suppose that
the _trouvere_ founded his poem on an amplified version of the Dares
narrative that has not come down to us. In the _Roman de Troie_ first
appeared the episode of Troilus and Briseide, that was to be developed
later in the _Filostrato_ of Boccaccio, which in its turn formed the
basis of Chaucer's _Troilus and Creseide_. The Shakespearian play of
_Troilus and Cressida_ is also indirectly derived from Benoit's story.
On the strength of a certain similarity of treatment Benoit has
sometimes been credited with the authorship of the anonymous _Roman
d'Eneas_ and of the _Roman de Thebes_, a romance derived indirectly from
the _Thebais_ of Statius. M. Constans is inclined to negative both these
attributions. It is not even certain that the Benoit who chronicled the
deeds of the Norman dukes for Henry II. between 1172 and 1176 was the
Benoit de Sainte-More of the _Roman de Troie_.
The _Chronique des ducs de Normandie_ was edited by Francisque Michel
in 1836-1844; the _Roman de Troie_ by A. Joly in 1870-1871; the
_Eneas_, by J.J. Salverda de Grave in H. Suchier's _Bibliotheca
Normannica_ in 1891; the _Roman de Thebes_ for the _Societe des
anciens textes francais_, by M.L. Constans in 1890. See E.D. Grand in
_La Grande Encyclopedie_; L. Constans in Petit de Julleville's _Hist.
de la langue et de la litt, francaise_ (vol. i. pp. 171-225). where
the three romances are analysed at length. The prefaces to the
editions just mentioned discuss the authorship of the romances.
BENSERADE, ISAAC DE (1613-1691), French poet, was born in Paris, and
baptized on the 5th of November 1613. His family appears to have been
connected with Richelieu, who bestowed on him a pension of 600 livres.
He began his literary career with the tragedy of _Cleopatre_ (1635),
which was followed by four other indifferent pieces. On Richelieu's
death Benserade lost his pension, but became more and more a favourite
at court, especially with Anne of Austria. He provided the words for the
court ballets, and was, in 1674, admitted to the Academy, where he
wielded an influence quite out of proportion to the merit of his work.
In 1676 the failure of his _Metamorphoses d'Ovide_ in the form of
rondeaux gave a blow to his reputation, but by no means destroyed his
vogue with his contemporaries. Benserade would probably be forgotten but
for his sonnet on Job (1651). This sonnet, which he sent to a young lady
with his paraphrase on Job, having been placed in competition with the
_Urania_ of Voiture, a dispute on their relative merits long divided the
whole court and the wits into two parties, styled respectively the
_Jobelins_ and the _Uranists_. The partisans of Benserade were headed by
the prince de Conti and Mile de Scudery, while Mme de Montausier and
J.G. de Balzac took the side of Voiture.
Some years before his death, on the 19th of October 1691, Benserade
retired to Chantilly, and devoted himself to a translation of the
Psalms, which he nearly completed.
BENSLEY, ROBERT, an 18th-century English actor, of whom Charles Lamb in
the _Essays of Elia_ speaks with special praise. His early life is
obscure, and he is said to have served in America as a lieutenant of
marines; but he appeared at Drury Lane in 1765, and at that house and at
Covent Garden, and later at the Haymarket, he played important parts up
to 1796, when he retired from the stage. He appears then to have been
given a small post under the government, a paymastership, which he
resigned in 1798. He is stated in various quarters to have died in 1817,
but Mr Joseph Knight shows in his article in the _Dict. Nat. Biog._ that
this is due to a confusion with another man named William Bensley, who
possibly belonged to the family of printers of whom Thomas Bensley (d.
1833) was the chief representative. On the stage he was simply "Mr
Bensley," but though he is named William and even Richard in some
accounts, Mr Knight shows that his name was certainly Robert. The actual
date of his death is unknown, though it was probably later than 1809,
when he is said to have inherited a fortune. His great character was
Malvolio, but Charles Lamb's fervent admiration of his acting seems to
have outrun the general opinion.
BENSON, EDWARD WHITE (1829-1896), archbishop of Canterbury, was born on
the 14th of July 1829, at Birmingham. He came of a family of Yorkshire
dalesmen, his father, whose name was also Edward White Benson, being a
manufacturing chemist of some note. He was educated at King Edward VI.'s
school, Birmingham, under James Prince Lee, afterwards bishop of
Manchester, and amongst his school-fellows were B.F. Westcott and J.B.
Lightfoot, both of whom preceded him to Trinity College, Cambridge,
where he was elected a sub-sizar in 1848, becoming subsequently sizar
and scholar. The death of his widowed mother in 1850 left him almost
without resources, with a family of younger brothers and sisters
dependent upon him. Relations came to his aid, and presently his
anxieties were relieved by Francis Martin, bursar of Trinity, who gave
him liberal help. Benson took his degree in 1852 as a senior optime,
eighth classic and senior chancellor's medallist, and was elected fellow
of Trinity in the following year. He became a master at Rugby, first
under E.M. Goulburn, and then (1857) under Frederick Temple, who became
his lifelong friend; he was also ordained deacon in 1854 and priest in
1856. From Rugby he went to be first headmaster of Wellington College,
which was opened in January 1859; and in the course of the same year he
married his cousin, Mary Sidgwick. The school flourished under his
management and also developed his administrative abilities, but
gradually his thoughts began to turn towards other work. In 1868 he
became prebendary of Lincoln and examining chaplain to Bishop
Christopher Wordsworth, an office which he also held for a short time in
1870 for Dr Temple, just appointed to the see of Exeter. In 1872 his
acceptance of the chancellorship of Lincoln opened a new period of his
life. As chancellor, the statutes directed him to study theology, to
train others in that study and to oversee the educational work of the
diocese. To such work Benson at once devoted himself; and did more
perhaps than any other man to reinvigorate cathedral life in England. He
started a theological college (the _Scholae Cancellarii_), founded night
schools, delivered courses of lectures on church history, held Bible
classes, and was instrumental in founding a society of mission preachers
for the diocese, the "Novate Novale." Early in 1877 he was consecrated
first bishop of Truro, and threw himself with characteristic vigour into
the work of organizing the new diocese. His knowledge, his sympathy, his
enthusiasm soon made themselves felt everywhere; the ruridecanal
conferences of clergy became a real force, and the church in Cornwall
was inspired with a vitality that had never been possible when it was
part of the unwieldy diocese of Exeter. A chapter was constituted, the
bishop being dean; amongst its members was a canon missioner (the first
to be appointed in England), and the _Scholae Cancellarii_ were founded
after the Lincoln pattern. Moreover, the bishop at once set to work to
build a cathedral. The foundation-stone was laid on the 20th of May
1880, and on the 3rd of November 1887 the building, so far as then
completed, was consecrated. On the death of Dr Tait, Benson was
nominated to the see of Canterbury and was enthroned on the 29th of
March 1883. His primacy was one of almost unprecedented activity.
Frequent communications passed between him and the heads of the Eastern
Churches. With their approval a bishop was again consecrated, after six
years' interval (1881-1887), for the Anglican congregations in Jerusalem
and the East; and the features which had made the plan objectionable to
many English churchmen were now abolished. In 1886, after much careful
investigation, he founded the "Archbishop's Mission to the Assyrian
Christians," having for its object the instruction and the strengthening
from within of the "Nestorian" churches of the East (see NESTORIANS). An
interchange of courtesies with the Metropolitan of Kiev on the occasion
of the 900th anniversary of the conversion of Russia (1888), led to
further intercourse, which has tended to a friendlier feeling between
the English and Russian churches. On the other hand, with the efforts
towards a _rapprochement_ with the Church of Rome, to which the visit of
the French Abbe Portal in 1894 gave some stimulus, the archbishop would
have nothing to do.
With the other churches of the Anglican Communion the archbishop's
relations were cordial in the extreme and grew closer as time went on.
Particular questions of importance, the Jerusalem bishopric, the healing
of the Colenso schism in the diocese of Natal, the organization of
native ministries and the like, occupied much of his time; and he did
all in his power to foster the growth of local churches. But it was the
work at home which occupied most of his energies. That he in no way
slighted diocesan work had been shown at Truro. He complained now that
the bishops were "bishops of their dioceses but not bishops of England,"
and did all he could to make the Church a greater religious force in
English life. He sat on the ecclesiastical courts commission (1881-1883)
and the sweating commission (1888-1890). He brought bills into
parliament to reform Church patronage and Church discipline, and worked
unremittingly for years in their behalf. The latter became law in 1892,
and the former was merged in the Benefices Bill, which passed in 1898,
after his death. He wrote and spoke vigorously against Welsh
disestablishment (1893); and in the following year, under his guidance,
the existing agencies for Church defence were consolidated. He was
largely instrumental in the inauguration of the House of Laymen in the
province of Canterbury (1886); he made diligent inquiries as to the
internal order of the sisterhoods of which he was visitor; from 1884
onwards he gave regular Bible readings for ladies in Lambeth Palace
chapel. But the most important ecclesiastical event of his primacy was
the judgment in the case of the bishop of Lincoln (see LINCOLN
JUDGMENT), in which the law of the prayer-book is investigated, as it
had never been before, from the standpoint of the whole history of the
English Church. In 1896 the archbishop went to Ireland to see the
working of the sister Church. He was received with enthusiasm, but the
work which his tour entailed over-fatigued him. On Sunday morning the
11th of October, just after his return, whilst on a visit to Mr
Gladstone, he died in Hawarden parish church of heart failure.
Archbishop Benson left numerous writings, including a valuable essay on
_The Cathedral_ (London, 1878), and various charges and volumes of
sermons and addresses. But his two chief works, posthumously published,
are his _Cyprian_ (London, 1897), a work of great learning, which had
occupied him at intervals since early manhood; and _The Apocalypse, an
Introductory Study_ (London, 1900), interesting and beautiful, but
limited by the fact that the method of study is that of a Greek play,
not of a Hebrew apocalypse. The archbishop's knowledge of the past was
both wide and minute, but it was that of an antiquary rather than of a
historian. "I think," writes his son, "he was more interested in modern
movements for their resemblance to ancient than vice versa." His sermons
are very noble though written in a style which is over-compressed and
often obscure. He wrote some good hymns, including "O Throned, O
Crowned" and a beautiful version of _Urbs Beata_. His "grandeur in
social function" was unequalled and his interests were very wide. But
above all else he was a great ecclesiastic. He paid less attention to
secular politics than Archbishop Tait; but if a man is to be judged by
the effect of his work, it is Benson and not Tait who should be
described as a great statesman. His biography, by his son, reveals him
as a man of devout and holy life, impulsive indeed and masterful, but
one who learned self-restraint by strenuous endeavour.
His eldest son, ARTHUR CHRISTOPHER BENSON (b. 1862), was educated at
Eton and King's College, Cambridge. He became fellow of Magdalene
College, Cambridge, and was a master at Eton College from 1885 to 1903.
His literary capacity was early shown in the remarkable fiction of his
_Memoirs of Arthur Hamilton_ (1886) under the pseudonym of "Christopher
Carr," and his _Poems_ (1893) and _Lyrics_ (1895) established his
reputation as a writer of verse. Among his works are _Fasti Etonenses_
(1899); his father's _Life_ (1899); _The Schoolmaster_ (1902), a
commentary on the aims and methods of an assistant schoolmaster in a
public school; a study of Archbishop Laud (1887); monographs on D.G.
Rossetti (1904), Edward FitzGerald (1905) and Walter Pater (1906), in
the "English Men of Letters" series; _Lord Vyet and other Poems_ (1897),
_Peace and other Poems_ (1905); _The Upton Letters (1905), From a
College Window_ (1906), _Beside Still Waters_ (1907). He also
collaborated with Lord Esher in editing the _Correspondence of Queen
Victoria_ (1907).
The third son, EDWARD FREDERICK BENSON (b. 1867), was educated at
Marlborough College and King's College, Cambridge. He worked at Athens
for the British Archaeological Society from 1892 to 1895, and
subsequently in Egypt for the Hellenic Society. In 1893 his society
novel, _Dodo_, brought him to the front among the writers of clever
fiction; and this was followed by other novels, notably _The Vintage_
(1898) and _The Capsina_ (1899).
The fourth son, ROBERT HUGH BENSON (b. 1871), was educated at Eton and
Trinity College, Cambridge. After reading with Dean Vaughan at Llandaff
he took orders, and in 1898 became a member of the Community of the
Resurrection at Mirfield. In 1903 he became a Roman Catholic, was
ordained priest at Rome in the following year, and returned to Cambridge
as assistant priest of the Roman Catholic church there. Among his
numerous publications are _The Light Invisible, By What Authority?, The
King's Achievement, Richard Raynal, Solitary, The Queen's Tragedy, The
Sentimentalists, Lord of the World_.
See A.C. Benson, _Life of Archbishop Benson_ (2 vols., London, 1899);
J.H. Bernard, _Archbishop Benson in Ireland_ (1897); Sir L.T. Dibdin
in _The Quarterly Review_, October 1897.
BENSON, FRANCIS ROBERT (1858-), English actor, son of William Benson of
Alresford, Hants, was born at Tunbridge Wells on the 4th of November
1858. He came of a talented family, his elder brother, W.A.S. Benson (b.
1854), becoming well known in the world of art as one of the pioneers in
the revival of English industrial craftsmanship, especially in the field
of the metallic arts; and his younger brother, Godfrey Benson, being an
active Liberal politician. He was educated at Winchester and New
College, Oxford, and at the university was distinguished both as an
athlete (winning the Inter-university three miles) and as an amateur
actor. In the latter respect he was notable for producing at Oxford the
first performance of a Greek play, the _Agamemnon_, in which many Oxford
men who afterwards became famous in other fields took part. Mr Benson,
on leaving Oxford, took to the professional stage, and made his first
appearance at the Lyceum, under Irving, in _Romeo and Juliet_, as Paris,
in 1882. In the next year he went into managership with a company of his
own, taken over from Walter Bentley, and from this time he became
gradually more and more prominent, both as an actor of leading parts
himself and as the organizer of practically the only modern "stock
company" touring through the provinces. In 1886 he married Gertrude
Constance Cockburn (Featherstonhaugh), who acted in his company and
continued to play leading parts with him. Mr Benson's chief successes
were gained out of London for some years, but in 1890 he had a season in
London at the Globe and in 1900 at the Lyceum, and in later years he was
seen with his _repertoire_ at the Coronet. His company included from
time to time many actors and actresses who, having been trained under
him, became prominent on their own account, and both by his organization
of this regular company and by his foundation of a dramatic school of
acting in 1901, Mr Benson exercised a most important influence on the
contemporary stage. From the first he devoted himself largely to the
production of Shakespeare's plays, reviving many which had not been
acted for generations, and his services to the cause of Shakespeare can
hardly be overestimated. From 1888 onwards he managed the
Stratford-on-Avon Shakespearian Festival. His romantic and intellectual
powers as an actor, combined with his athletic and picturesque bearing
and fine elocution, were conspicuously shown in his own impersonations,
most remarkable among which were his Hamlet (in 1900 he produced this
play without cuts in London), his Coriolanus, his Richard II., his Lear
and his Petruchio.
BENSON, FRANK WESTON (1862- ), American painter, was born in Salem,
Massachusetts, on the 24th of March 1862. He was a pupil of Boulanger
and of Lefebvre in Paris; won many distinctions in American exhibitions,
and a silver medal at the Paris Exhibition of 1900; and became a member
of the "Ten Americans," and of the National Academy of Design, New
York. Besides portraits, he painted landscape and still life; and he was
one of the decorators of the Congressional library, Washington, D.C.
BENSON, GEORGE (1699-1762), English dissenting minister, was born at
Great Salkeld, in Cumberland, on the 1st of September 1699, of a family
which had distinguished itself in church and state. He studied at a
school at Whitehaven and later at the university of Glasgow. In 1722, on
Calamy's recommendation, he was chosen pastor of a congregation of
dissenters at Abingdon, in Berkshire, where he continued till 1729,
when, having embraced Arminian views, he became the choice of a
congregation in Southwark; and in 1740 he was appointed by the
congregation of Crutched Friars colleague to the learned Dr Nathaniel
Lardner, whom he succeeded in 1749. His _Defence of the Reasonableness
of Prayer_ appeared in 1731, and he afterwards published paraphrases and
notes on the epistles to the Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus and Philemon,
adding dissertations on several important subjects, particularly (as an
appendix to 1 Timothy) on inspiration. In 1738 he published his _History
of the First Planting of the Christian Religion_, in 3 vols. 4to, a work
of great learning and ability. He also wrote the _Reasonableness of the
Christian Religion_ (1743), the _History of the Life of Jesus Christ_,
posthumously published in 1764, a paraphrase and notes on the seven
Catholic epistles, and several other works, which gained him great
reputation as a scholar and theologian even outside his own communion
and his own country. Owing to his undoubted Socinianism his works
suffered neglect after his death, which occurred on the 6th of April
1762.