It may be pointed out that during the first period (1518-1587) the beylerbeys were admirals of the sultan, commanding great fleets and conducting serious operations of war for political ends. They were slave-hunters and their methods were ferocious, but their Christian enemies were neither more humane nor more chivalrous. After 1587, plunder became the sole object of their successors—plunder of the native tribes on land and of all who went upon the sea. The maritime side of this long-lived brigandage was conducted by the captains, orreises, who formed a class or even a corporation. Cruisers were fitted out by capitalists and commanded by thereises. Ten per cent of the value of the prizes was paid to the treasury of the pasha or his successors, who bore the titles of Agha or Dey or Bey. Bougie was the chief shipbuilding port and the timber was mainly drawn from the country behind it. Until the 17th century the pirates used galleys, but a Flemish renegade of the name of Simon Danser taught them the advantage of using sailing ships. In this century, indeed, the main strength of the pirates was supplied by renegades from all parts of Christendom. An English gentleman of the distinguished Buckinghamshire family of Verney was for a time among them at Algiers. This port was so much the most formidable that the name of Algerine came to be used as synonymous with Barbary pirate, but the same trade was carried on, though with less energy, from Tripoli and Tunis—as also from towns in the empire of Morocco, of which the most notorious was Salli. The introduction of sailing ships gave increased scope to the activity of the pirates. While the galleys, being unfit for the high seas, were confined to the Mediterranean and the coast, the sailing vessels ranged into the Atlantic as far as the Canaries or even to Iceland. In 1631 a Flemish renegade, known as Murad Reis, sacked Baltimore in Ireland, and carried away a number of captives who were seen in the slave-market of Algiers by the French historian Pierre Dan.
The first half of the 17th century may be described as the flowering time of the Barbary pirates. More than 20,000 captives were said to be imprisoned in Algiers alone. The rich were allowed to redeem themselves, but the poor were condemned to slavery. Their masters would not in many cases allow them to secure freedom by professing Mahommedanism. A long list might be given of people of good social position, not only Italians or Spaniards, but German or English travellers in the south, who were captives for a time. The chief sufferers were the inhabitants of the coasts of Sicily, Naples and Spain. But all traders belonging to nations which did not pay blackmail in order to secure immunity were liable to be taken at sea. The payment of blackmail, disguised as presents or ransoms, did not always secure safety with these faithless barbarians. The most powerful states in Europe condescended to make payments to them and to tolerate their insults. Religious orders—the Redemptionists and Lazarites—were engaged in working for the redemption of captives and large legacies were left for that purpose in many countries. The continued existence of this African piracy was indeed a disgrace to Europe, for it was due to the jealousies of the powers themselves. France encouraged them during her rivalry with Spain; and when she had no further need of them they were supported against her by Great Britain and Holland. In the 18th century British public men were not ashamed to say that Barbary piracy was a useful check on the competition of the weaker Mediterranean nations in the carrying trade. When Lord Exmouth sailed to coerce Algiers in 1816, he expressed doubts in a private letter whether the suppression of piracy would be acceptable to the trading community. Every power was, indeed, desirous to secure immunity for itself and more or less ready to compel Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, Salli andthe rest to respect its trade and its subjects. In 1655 the British admiral, Robert Blake, was sent to teach them a lesson, and he gave the Tunisians a severe beating. A long series of expeditions was undertaken by the British fleet during the reign of Charles II., sometimes single-handed, sometimes in combination with the Dutch. In 1682 and 1683 the French bombarded Algiers. On the second occasion the Algerines blew the French consul from a gun during the action. An extensive list of such punitive expeditions could be made out, down to the American operations of 1801-5 and 1815. But in no case was the attack pushed home, and it rarely happened that the aggrieved Christian state refused in the end to make a money payment in order to secure peace. The frequent wars among them gave the pirates numerous opportunities of breaking their engagements, of which they never failed to take advantage.
After the general pacification of 1815, the suppression of African piracy was universally felt to be a necessity. The insolence of a Tunisian squadron which sacked Palma in the island of Sardinia and carried off 158 of its inhabitants, roused widespread indignation. Other influences were at work to bring about their extinction. Great Britain had acquired Malta and the Ionian Islands and had now many Mediterranean subjects. She was also engaged in pressing the other European powers to join with her in the suppression of the slave trade which the Barbary states practised on a large scale and at the expense of Europe. The suppression of the trade was one of the objects of the congress of Vienna. Great Britain was called on to act for Europe, and in 1816 Lord Exmouth was sent to obtain treaties from Tunis and Algiers. His first visit produced diplomatic documents and promises and he sailed for England. While he was negotiating, a number of British subjects had been brutally ill-treated at Bona, without his knowledge. The British government sent him back to secure reparation, and on the 27th of August, in combination with a Dutch squadron under Admiral Van de Capellen, he administered a smashing bombardment to Algiers. The lesson terrified the pirates both of that city and of Tunis into giving up over 3000 prisoners and making fresh promises. But they were not reformed and were not capable of reformation. Algiers renewed its piracies and slave-taking, though on a smaller scale, and the measures to be taken with it were discussed at the conference or congress of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818. In 1824 another British fleet under Admiral Sir Harry Neal had again to bombard Algiers. The great pirate city was not in fact thoroughly tamed till its conquest by France in 1830.
Authorities.—TheHistoire d'Algerof H. D. de Grammont (Paris, 1887) is based on original authorities. Sir R. L. Playfair'sScourge of Christendom(London, 1884) gives the history of the British consulate in Algiers. The main authorities for the early history of the Barbary states are:—Luis del Marmol Carvajal,Descripcion de Africa(Granada, 1573); Diego de Haedo,Topographia e Historia General de Argel(Valladolid, 1612); and Père Pierre Dan,Histoire de Barbarie et de ses corsaires(Paris, 1637). The readable treatises of Ad. Jurien de la Gravière, all published in Paris,Doria et Barberousse(1886),Les Corsaires barbaresques(1887),Les Chevaliers de Malte(1887), andLa Guerre de Chypre(1888), deal with the epoch of the beylerbeys and the regular wars. For American work see Gardner Weld Allen,Our Navy and the Barbary Corsairs(New York, 1905).
(D. H.)
BARBAULD, ANNA LETITIA(1743-1825), English poet and miscellaneous writer, was born at Kibworth-Harcourt, in Leicestershire, on the 20th of June 1743. Her father, the Rev. John Aikin, a Presbyterian minister and schoolmaster, taught his daughter Latin and Greek. In 1758 Mr Aikin removed his family to Warrington, to act as theological tutor in a dissenting academy there. In 1773 Miss Aikin published a volume ofPoems, which was very successful, and co-operated with her brother, Dr John Aikin, in a volume ofMiscellaneous Pieces in Prose. In 1774 she married Rochemont Barbauld, a member of a French Protestant family settled in England. He had been educated in the academy at Warrington, and was minister of a Presbyterian church at Palgrave, in Suffolk, where, with his wife's help, he established a boarding school. Her admirableHymns in Prose and Early Lessonswere written for their pupils. In 1785 she left England for the continent with her husband, whose health was seriously impaired. On their return about two years later, Mr Barbauld was appointed to a church at Hampstead. In 1802 they removed to Stoke Newington. Mrs Barbauld became well known in London literary circles. She collaborated with Dr Aikin in hisEvenings at Home; in 1795 she published an edition of Akenside'sPleasures of Imagination, with a critical essay; two years later she edited Collins'sOdes; in 1804 she published a selection of papers from the English Essayists, and a selection from Samuel Richardson's correspondence, with a biographical notice; in 1810 a collection of theBritish Novelists(50 vols.) with biographical and critical notices; and in 1811 her longest poem,Eighteen Hundred and Eleven, giving a gloomy view of the existing state and future prospects of Britain. This poem anticipated Macaulay in contemplating the prospect of a visitor from the antipodes regarding at a future day the ruins of St Paul's from a broken arch of Blackfriars Bridge. Mrs Barbauld died on the 9th of March 1825; her husband had died in 1808. A collected edition of her works, with memoir, was published by her niece, Lucy Aikin, in 2 vols., 1825.
See A. L. le Breton,Memoir of Mrs Barbauld(1874); G. A. Ellis,Life and Letters of Mrs A. L. Barbauld(1874); and Lady Thackeray Ritchie,A Book of Sibyls(1883).
BARBECUE(Span.barbacoa), originally a framework on posts placed over a fire on which to dry or smoke meat; hence, a gridiron for roasting whole animals, and in Cuba an upper floor on which fruit or grain is stored. In the United States the word means an open-air feast, either political or social, where whole animals are roasted and eaten and hogsheads of beer and other vast quantities of food and drink consumed.
BARBED WIRE,a protective variety of fencing, consisting usually of several strands of wire twisted together with sharp spikes or points clinched or fastened into the strands.
In the United States, barbed wire for fencing was originally suggested to meet conditions existing in the western states, by reason of the large cattle-raising industry in sections where timber was scarce. Prior to its introduction, a No. 9 round or oval iron wire was popular on the frontier of the United States and in South America, as a fencing material. Large amounts were used annually for this purpose, but iron lacked strength, and single wire strand was not fully satisfactory on account of stretching in warm and contracting in cold weather, and of thus being broken. Cattle would rub against a smooth fence, and this constant pressure loosened the posts and broke the wire. To overcome this defect, ingenious people—the most successful being farmers—set themselves to find a way by which wire could be used and at the same time be free from destruction by the animals it was intended to confine. This investigation resulted in the invention of barbed wire. Soon after, automatic machinery was invented for rapidly and cheaply placing the barb upon the smooth wire, so that the cost of barbed wire is much less than the cost of smooth wire when it was in general use. So immediately did barbed wire find favour with the farmers of the United States, and, in fact, all over the world, that the manufacture of wire was revolutionized.
The history of barbed wire fencing is of recent date. In the United States—the real home of this industry—patents were taken out by Lucien B. Smith, Kent, Ohio, in 1867; by William B. Hunt, of Scott, N.Y., at almost the same time; and by Michael Kelly, of New York, a year later. The practical beginning of the industry, however, was in the patents issued to Joseph F. Glidden, De Kalb, Ill., 1874, on barbed fence wire, and during the same year, to Joseph F. Glidden and Phineas W. Vaughan, for a machine to manufacture the same. These inventions were the foundation of the system of patents under which barbed wire has been protected and sold. The development of the barbed wire industry would hardly have been possible without steel. Iron wire, used for fencing prior to the introduction of steel, was not suitable, seeing that iron does not possess sufficient tensile strength and lacks homogeneity, qualities which Bessemer and open-hearth steels possess in a high degree.
The advantages of galvanized barbed wire fencing are that it is almost imperishable, is no burden on the posts; does notoppose the wind with enough surface to rack the posts, thus allowing water to settle around them and rot them; is economical, not only in the comparative cheapness of its first cost but also in the amount of land covered by it; and is effective as a barrier against all kinds of stock and a protection against dogs and wild beasts. Cattle, once discovering what it is, will not press against it, nor even go near it, and thus it becomes an effective means of dividing the farmer's ranch into such fields as he may desire. It is quickly and cheaply constructed, and has the advantage of freedom from harbouring weeds. It affords no impediment to the view. A man can see across his farm, and ascertain what is going on in every portion within the scope of vision, as plainly as if there were no fences. It does not contribute to the formation of snow drifts as do other kinds of efficient fence. This makes it a favourite form of fencing for railroads and along highways. Finally, barbed wire composed of two wires twisted together, once firmly put in place, will retain its taut condition through many seasons without repair. The fact of the wire being twisted allows it to adapt itself to all the varying temperatures.
The introduction of barbed wire met with some opposition in America on supposed humanitarian grounds, but ample and extended tests, both of the economy and the humanity of the new material, silenced this objection. Now no American farmer, especially in the west, ever thinks of putting any other kind of fencing on his farm, unless it may be the new types of meshed wire field fencing which have been coming so generally into use since 1899. Generally speaking, the use of barbed wire fencing in other countries has not been as extensive as in the western United States. While it has been used on a comparatively large scale in Argentina and Australia, both these countries use a much larger quantity of plain wire fence, and in Argentina there is an important consumption of high-carbon oval fence wire of great strength, which apparently forms the only kind of fence that meets the conditions in a satisfactory manner.
It is interesting to note the largely increased demand for meshed wire field fencing in the more thickly settled-portions of the United States, and along the lines of railway. Beginning with 1899, there has been an annual increase in this demand, owing to the scarcity and high cost of labour, and the discontinuing of the building of rail fences. Meshed wire is considered by many a better enclosure for small animals, like sheep and hogs, than the barbed wire fence. Barbed wire has been popular with railroads, but of late meshed wire fencing has been substituted with advantage, the fabric being made of wires of larger diameter than formerly, to insure greater stability. The popularity of barbed wire is best shown by the following statistics:—
Approximate Production for the United States.
Year.
Tons barbed wire.
Tons meshed field fencing.
1874
5
1875
300
1876
1,500
1877
7,000
1878
13,000
1879
25,000
1880
40,000
1890
125,000
1900
200,000
50,000
1907
250,000
425,000
Barbed wire is usually shipped to customers on wooden spools, each holding approximately 100 lb or 80 to 100 rods. A hole is provided through the centre of the spool for inserting a bar, on which the reel can revolve for unwinding the wire as it is put up. After the wire is stretched in place, it is attached to the wooden posts by means of galvanized steel wire staples, ordinarily made from No. 9 wire. They are cut with a sharp, long, diagonal point and can be easily driven into the posts. On account of the rapid decay and destruction of wooden posts, steel posts have become popular, as also have reinforced concrete posts, which add materially to the durability of the fence. It is essential that barbed wire should be stretched with great care. For this purpose a suitable barbed wire stretcher is necessary.
Barbed wire fencing is now manufactured in various patterns. The general process may be outlined briefly as follows:—The wire is made of soft Bessemer or Siemens-Martin steel, and is drawn in the wire mill in the usual way. Galvanizing is done by a continuous process. The coil of wire to be galvanized is placed on a reel. The first end of the wire is led longitudinally through an annealing medium—either red-hot lead or heated fire-brick tubes—of sufficient length to soften the wire. From the annealing furnace, the wire is fed longitudinally through a bath of muriatic acid, which removes the scale, and from the acid, after a thorough washing in water, the wire passes through a bath of spelter, heated slightly above the melting point. After coming from the spelter and being cooled by water, the wire is wound on suitable take-up blocks into finished coils. From 30 to 60 wires are passing simultaneously in parallel lines through this continuous galvanizing apparatus, thus insuring a large output. The galvanizing gives the wire a bright finish and serves to protect it from the corrosive action of the atmosphere. There is a considerable demand for painted fencing, in the manufacture of which the galvanizing is dispensed with, and the spools of finished barbed wire, as they come from the barbing machine, are submerged in paint and dried. The barbing and twisting together of the two longitudinal strand wires is done by automatic machinery. A brief description of the manufacture of 2 and 4 point Glidden wire is as follows:—Two coils of wire on reels are placed behind the machine, designed to form the main or strand wires of the fence. One of the main wires passes through the machine longitudinally. One or two coils of wire are placed on reels at either side of the machine for making 2 or 4 point wire respectively. These wires are fed into the machine at right angles to the strand wire. At each movement of the feeding mechanism, when fabricating 2 point wire, one cross wire is fed forward. A diagonal cut forms a sharp point on the first end. The wire is again fed forward and instantly wrapped firmly around one strand wire and cut off so as to leave a sharp point on the incoming wire as before, while the bit of pointed wire cut off remains as a double-pointed steel barb attached firmly to the strand wire. This wire armed with barbs at regular intervals passes on through a guide, where it is met by a second strand wire—a plain wire without barbs. The duplex strand wires are attached to a take-up reel, which is caused to revolve and take up the finished barbed wire simultaneously and in unison with the barbing machine. In this way the strand wires are loosely twisted into a 2-ply strand, armed with barbs projecting at right angles in every direction.
When once started, the operation of barbed wire making is continuous and rapid. The advantage of two strands is the automatic adjustment to changes of temperature. When heat expands the strands, the twist simply loosens without causing a sag, and when cold contracts them, the twist tightens, all without materially altering the relative lengths of the combined wires. A barbed wire machine produces from 2000 to 3000 lb of wire per day of ten hours.
In some American states, the use of barbed wire is regulated by law, but as a rule these laws apply to placing barbed wire on highways. Others prohibit the use of barbed wire fencing to indicate the property line between different owners, unless both agree to its use. In some states the use of barbed wire is prohibited unless it has a top rail of lumber.
Barbed wire is also employed in connexion with "obstacles" in field fortifications, especially in what are known as "high wire entanglements." Pointed stakes or "pickets," 4 ft. high, are planted in rows and secured by ordinary wire to holdfasts or pegs in the ground. Each picket is connected to all around it, top and bottom, by lengths of barbed wire.
In England, where the use of barbed wire has also become common, the Barbed Wire Act 1893 enacted that, where there is on any land adjoining a highway within the county or district of a local authority, a fence which is made with barbed wire (i.e.any wire with spikes or jagged projections), or in which barbed wire has been placed, and where such barbed wire may probably be injurious to persons or animals lawfully using the highway, the local authority may require the occupier of the land to abate the nuisance by serving notice in writing upon him. If the occupier fails to do so within the specified time, the local authority may apply to a court of summary jurisdiction, and such court, if satisfied that the barbed wire is a nuisance, may by summary order direct the occupier to abate it, and on his failure to comply with the order within a reasonable time, the local authority may execute it and recover in a summary manner from the occupier the expenses incurred.
BARBEL(Barbus vulgaris), a fish of the Cyprinid family, which is an inhabitant of the rivers of central Europe, and is very locally distributed in England. It has four barbels (Lat.barba, beard; fleshy appendages hanging from the mouth), and the first ray of the short dorsal fin is strong, spine-like and serrated behind. It attains a weight of 50 lb on the continent of Europe. The genus of which it is the type is a very large one, comprising about 300 species from Europe, Asia and Africa, among which is the mahseer or mahaseer, the great sporting fish of India.
BARBÉ-MARBOIS, FRANÇOIS,Marquis de(1745-1837), French politician, was born at Metz. He began his public career as intendant of San Domingo under the old régime. At the close of 1789 he returned to France, and then placed his services at the disposal of the revolutionary government. In 1791 he was sent to Regensburg to help de Noailles, the French ambassador, in the negotiations with the diet of the Empire concerning thepossessions of German princes in Alsace and Lorraine. Suspected of treason, he was arrested on his return but set at liberty again. In 1795 he was elected to the Council of the Ancients, where the general moderation of his attitude, especially in his opposition to the exclusion of nobles and the relations ofémigrésfrom public life, brought him under suspicion of being a royalist, though he pronounced a eulogy on Bonaparte for his success in Italy. At thecoup d'étatof the 18th Fructidor (September 4) 1797, he was arrested and transported to French Guiana. Transferred to Oléron in 1799, he owed his liberty to Napoleon, after the 18th Brumaire. In 1801 he became councillor of state and director of the public treasury, and in 1802 a senator. In 1803 he negotiated the treaty by which Louisiana was ceded to the United States, and was rewarded by the First Consul with a gift of 152,000 francs. In 1805 he was made grand officer of the legion of honour and a count, and in 1808 he became president of thecour des comptes. In return for these favours, he addressed Napoleon with servile compliments; yet in 1814 he helped to draw up the act of abdication of the emperor, and declared to thecour des comptes, with reference to the invasion of France by the allies, "united for the most beautiful of causes, it is long since we have been so free as we now are in the presence of the foreigner in arms." In June 1814, Louis XVIII. named him peer of France and confirmed him in his office as president of thecour des comptes. Deprived of his positions by Napoleon during the Hundred Days he was appointed minister of justice in the ministry of the duc de Richelieu (August 1815). In this office he tried unsuccessfully to gain the confidence of the ultra-royalists, and withdrew at the end of nine months (May 10, 1816).
In 1830, when Louis Philippe assumed the reins of government, Barbé-Marbois went, as president of thecour des comptes, to compliment him and was confirmed in his position. It was the sixth government he had served and all with servility. He held his office until April 1834, and died on the 12th of February 1837. He published various works, of which may be mentioned:Réflexions sur la colonie de Saint-Domingue(1794),De la Guyane, &c.(1822), anHistoire de la Louisiane et la cession de cette colonie par la France aux États-Unis, &c.(1828), and the story of his transportation after the 18th Fructidor inJournal d'un déporté non jugé, 2 vols. (1834).
BARBER(from Lat.barba, beard), one whose occupation it is to shave or trim beards, a hairdresser. In former times the barber's craft was dignified with the title of a profession, being conjoined with the art of surgery. In France the barber-surgeons were separated from the perruquiers, and incorporated as a distinct body in the reign of Louis XIV. In England barbers first received incorporation from Edward IV. in 1461. By 32 Henry VIII. c. 42, they were united with the company of surgeons, it being enacted that the barbers should confine themselves to the minor operations of blood-letting and drawing teeth, while the surgeons were prohibited from "barbery or shaving." In 1745 barbers and surgeons were separated into distinct corporations by 18 George II. c. 15. The barber's shop was a favourite resort of idle persons; and in addition to its attraction as a focus of news, a lute, viol, or some such musical instrument, was always kept for the entertainment of waiting customers. The barber's sign consisted of a striped pole, from which was suspended a basin, symbols the use of which is still preserved. The fillet round the pole indicated the ribbon for bandaging the arm in bleeding, and the basin the vessel to receive the blood.
See alsoBeard, andAnnals of the Barber Surgeons of London(1890).
BARBERINI,the name of a powerful Italian family, originally of Tuscan extraction, who settled in Florence during the early part of the 11th century. They acquired great wealth and influence, and in 1623 Maffeo Barberini was raised to the papal throne as Urban VIII. He made his brother, Antonio, a distinguished soldier, and two nephews, cardinals, and gave to a third nephew, Taddeo, the principality of Palestrina. Great jealousy of their increasing power was excited amongst the neighbouring princes, and Odoardo Farnese, duke of Parma, made war upon Taddeo, and defeated the papal troops. After the death of Urban in 1644 his successor, Innocent X., showed hostility to the Barberini family. Taddeo fled to Paris, where he died in 1647, and with him the family became extinct in the male line. His daughter Cornelia married Prince Giulio Cesare Colonna di Sciarra in 1728, who added her name to his own. On the death of Prince Enrico Barberini-Colonna the name went to his daughter and heiress Donna Maria and her husband Marquis Luigi Sacchetti, who received the title of prince of Palestrina and permission to bear the name of Barberini. The fine Barberini palace and library in Rome give evidence of their wealth and magnificence. The ruthless way in which they plundered ancient buildings to adorn their own palaces is the origin of the saying, "Quod non fecerunt barbari, fecerunt Barberini."
See A. von Reumont,Geschichte der Stadt Rom(Berlin, 1868), iii. b. 611-612, 615, 617, &c.;Almanach de Gotha(Gotha, 1902); J. H. Douglas,The Principal Noble Families of Rome(Rome, 1905).
BARBERRY(Berberis vulgaris), a shrub with spiny-toothed leaves, which on the woody shoots are reduced to forked spines, and pale yellow flowers in hanging racemes, which are succeeded by orange-red berries. It is a member of the botanical natural orderBerberidaceae, and contains about 100 species in the north temperate zone and in the Andes of South America extending into Patagonia. The order is nearly allied to the buttercup order in having the parts of the flowers all free and arranged in regular succession below the ovary which consists of only one carpel. It is distinguished by having the sepals, petals and stamens in multiples of 2, 3 or 4, never of 5. The berries ofBerberisare edible; those of the native barberry are sometimes made into preserves. The alkaloid berberine (q.v.) occurs in the roots.
BARBERTON,a town of the Transvaal, 283 m. by rail (175 m. in a direct line) E. of Pretoria and 136 m. W.N.W. of Delagoa Bay. Pop. (1904) 2433, of whom 1214 were whites. Barberton lies 2825 ft. above the sea and is built on the side of a valley named De Kaap, from a bold headland of the Drakensberg which towers above it. The chief town of a district of the same name, it owes its existence to the discovery of gold in the Kaap valley, and dates from 1886. There are several fine public buildings grouped mainly round President Square. The town is connected with the Lourenço Marques-Pretoria trunk railway by a branch line, 35 m. long, which runs N.E. through fine mountainous country and joins the main line at Kaapmuiden. During the war of 1899-1902 the Boers were driven out of Barberton (13th of September 1900) by General (afterwards Sir John) French.
BARBETTE(Fr. diminutive ofbarbe, a beard), a platform inside a fortification raised sufficiently high for artillery placed thereon to be able to fireen barbette,viz.over the top of the parapet; also in warships a raised platform, protected by armour on the sides, upon which guns are mounteden barbette.
BARBEY D'AUREVILLY, JULES AMÉDÉE(1808-1889), French man of letters, was born at Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte (Manche) on the 2nd of November 1808. His most famous novels areUne Vieille Maîtresse(1851), attacked at the time of its publication on the charge of immorality;L'Ensorcelée(1854), an episode of the royalist rising among the Norman peasants against the first republic; theChevalier Destouches(1864); and a collection of extraordinary stories entitledLes Diaboliques(1874). Barbey d'Aurevilly is an extreme example of the eccentricities of which the Romanticists were capable, and to read him is to understand the discredit that fell upon the manner. He held extreme Catholic views and wrote on the mostrisquésubjects, he gave himself aristocratic airs and hinted at a mysterious past, though his parentage was entirelybourgeoisand his youth very hum-drum and innocent. In the 'fifties d'Aurevilly became literary critic of thePays, and a number of his essays, contributed to this and other journals, were collected asLes Œuvres et les hommes du XIXesiècle(1861-1865). Other literary studies areLes Romanciers(1866) andGoethe et Diderot(1880). He died in Paris on the 23rd of April 1889. Paul Bourget describes him as a dreamer with an exquisite sense of vision, who sought and found in his work a refuge from theuncongenial world of every day. Jules Lemaître, a less sympathetic critic, finds in the extraordinary crimes of his heroes and heroines, his reactionary views, his dandyism and snobbery, an exaggerated Byronism.
See also Alcide Dusolier,Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly(1862), a collection of eulogies and interviews; Paul Bourget, Preface to d'Aurevilly'sMemoranda(1883); Jules Lemaître,Les Contemporains; Eugène Grelé,Barbey d'Aurevilly, sa vie et son œuvre(1902); René Doumic, in theRevue des deux mondes(Sept. 1902).
BARBEYRAC, JEAN(1674-1744), French jurist, the nephew of Charles Barbeyrac, a distinguished physician of Montpellier, was born at Beziers in Lower Languedoc on the 15th of March 1674. He removed with his family into Switzerland after the revocation of the edict of Nantes, and there studied jurisprudence. After spending some time at Geneva and Frankfort-on-Main, he became professor of belles-lettres in the French school of Berlin. Thence, in 1711, he was called to the professorship of history and civil law at Lausanne, and finally settled as professor of public law at Groningen. He died on the 3rd of March 1744. His fame rests chiefly on the preface and notes to his translation of Pufendorf's treatiseDe Jure Naturae et Gentium. In fundamental principles he follows almost entirely Locke and Pufendorf; but he works out with great skill the theory of moral obligation, referring it to the command or will of God. He indicates the distinction, developed more fully by Thomasius and Kant, between the legal and the moral qualities of action. The principles of international law he reduces to those of the law of nature, and combats, in so doing, many of the positions taken up by Grotius. He rejects the notion that sovereignty in any way resembles property, and makes even marriage a matter of civil contract. Barbeyrac also translated Grotius'sDe Jure Belli et Pacis, Cumberland'sDe Legibus Naturae, and Pufendorf's smaller treatiseDe Officio Hominis et Civis. Among his own productions are a treatise,De la morale des pères, a history of ancient treaties contained in theSupplément au grand corps diplomatique, and the curiousTraité du jeu(1709), in which he defends the morality of games of chance.
BARBICAN(from Fr.barbacane, probably of Arabic or Persian origin), an outwork for the defence of a gate or drawbridge; also a sort of pent-house or construction of timber to shelter warders or sentries from arrows or other missiles.
BARBIER, ANTOINE ALEXANDRE(1765-1825), French librarian and bibliographer, was born on the 11th of January 1765 at Coulommiers (Seine-et-Marne). He took priest's orders, from which, however, he was finally released by the pope in 1801. In 1794 he became a member of the temporary commission of the arts, and was charged with the duty of distributing among the various libraries of Paris the books that had been confiscated during the Revolution. In the execution of this task he discovered the letters of Huet, bishop of Avranches, and the MSS. of the works of Fénelon. He became librarian successively to the Directory, to the Conseil d'État, and in 1807 to Napoleon, from whom he carried out a number of commissions. He produced a standard work in hisDictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes et pseudonymes(4 vols., 1806-1809; 3rd edition 1872-1879). Only the first part of hisExamen critique des dictionnaires historiques(1820) was published. He had a share in the foundation of the libraries of the Louvre, of Fontainebleau, of Compiègne and Saint-Cloud; under Louis XVIII. he became administrator of the king's private libraries, but in 1822 he was deprived of all his offices. Barbier died in Paris on the 5th of December 1825.
See also a notice by his son, Louis Barbier, and a list of his works prefixed to the 3rd edition of theDict. des ouvrages anonymes et pseudonymes.
BARBIER, HENRI AUGUSTE(1805-1882), French dramatist and poet, was born in Paris on the 29th of April 1805. Inspired by the revolution of July he poured forth a series of eager, vigorous poems, denouncing, crudely enough, the evils of the time. They are spoken of collectively as theIambes(1831), though the designation is not strictly applicable to all. As the name suggests, they are modelled on the verse of André Chénier. They includeLa Curée,La Popularité,L'Idole,Paris,Dante,Quatre-vingt-treizeandVarsovie. The rest of Barbier's poems are forgotten, and when, in 1869, he received the long delayed honour of admission to the Academy, Montalembert expressed the general sentiment in hisBarbier? mais il est mort!It was even asserted, though without foundation, that he was not the real author of theIambes. He died at Nice on the 13th of February 1882. He collaborated with Léon de Wailly in the libretto of Berlioz's opera,Benvenuto Cellini, and his works include two series of poems on the political and social troubles of Italy and England, printed in later editions ofIambes et poèmes.
See also Sainte-Beuve,Portraits Contemporains, vol. ii.
BARBIER, LOUIS,known as theAbbé de la Rivière(1593-1670), French bishop, was born of humble parents in Vaudelaincourt, near Compiègne. He entered the church and made his way by his wit and cleverness, until he was appointed tutor, and then became the friend and adviser, of Gaston d'Orléans, brother of Louis XIII. He thus gained an entrance to the court, became grand almoner of the queen, and received the revenue of rich abbeys. In March 1655 he was named bishop of Langres, but he spent his time at court, where his wit was always in demand, and where he gained great sums by gambling. He died very rich.
BARBIERI, GIOVANNI FRANCESCO(otherwise calledGuercino, from his squinting), (1591-1666), Italian historical painter, was born at Cento, a village not far from Bologna. His artistic powers were developed very rapidly, and at the age of seventeen he was associated with Benedetto Gennari (1550-1610), a well-known painter of the Bolognese school. The fame of the young painter spread beyond his native village, and in 1615 he removed to Bologna, where his paintings were much admired. His first style was formed after that of the Caracci; but the strong colouring and shadows employed by Caravaggio made a deep impression on his mind, and for a considerable period his productions showed evident traces of that painter's influence. Some of his latest pieces approach rather to the manner of his great contemporary Guido, and are painted with more lightness and clearness. Guercino was esteemed very highly in his lifetime, not only by the nobles and princes of Italy, but by his brother artists, who placed him in the first rank of painters. He was remarkable for the extreme rapidity of his execution; he completed no fewer than 106 large altar-pieces for churches, and his other paintings amount to about 144. His most famous piece is thought to be the St Petronilla, which was painted at Rome for Gregory XV. and is now in the Capitol. In 1626 he began his frescoes in the Duomo at Piacenza. Guercino continued to paint and teach up to the time of his death in 1666. He had amassed a handsome fortune by his labours. His life, by J. A. Calvi, appeared at Bologna in 1808.
His brother,Paolo Antonio Barbieri(1603-1649), was a celebrated painter of still life and animals. He chose for his subjects fruits, flowers, insects and animals, which he painted after nature with a lively tint of colour, great tenderness of pencil, and a strong character of truth and life.
BARBITON,orBarbitos(Gr.βάρβιτονorβάρβιτος; Lat.barbitus; Pers.barbat,barbud), an ancient stringed instrument known to us from the Greek and Roman classics, but derived from Persia. Theocritus (xvi. 45), the Sicilian poet, calls it an instrument of many strings,i.e.more than seven, which was by the Hellenes accounted the perfect number, as in the cithara of the best period. Anacreon,[1](a native of Teos in Asia Minor) sings that his barbitos only gives out erotic tones. Pollux (Onomasticoniv. chap. 8, § 59) calls the instrument barbiton or barymite (fromβαρύς, heavy andμίτος, a string), an instrument producing deep sounds; the strings were twice as long as those of the pectis and sounded an octave lower. Pindar (in Athen. xiv. p. 635), in the same line wherein he attributes the introduction of the instrument into Greece to Terpander, tells us one could magadize,i.e.play in two parts at an interval of an octave on the two instruments. The word barbiton was frequently used for the lyre itself. Although in use in Asia Minor, Italy,Sicily, and Greece, it is evident that the barbiton never won for itself a place in the affections of the Greeks of Hellas; it was regarded as a barbarian instrument affected by those only whose tastes in matters of art were unorthodox. It had fallen into disuse in the days of Aristotle,[2]but reappeared under the Romans.
In spite of the few meagre shreds of authentic information extant concerning this somewhat elusive instrument, it is possible nevertheless to identify the barbiton as it was known among the Greeks and Romans. From the Greek writers we know that it was an instrument having some feature or features in common with the lyre, which warranted classification with it. From the Persians and Arabs we learn that it was a kind ofrebabor lute, or a chelys-lyre,[3]first introduced into Europe through Asia Minor by way of Greece, and centuries later into Spain by the Moors, amongst whom it was in the 14th century known asal-barbet.[4]There is a stringed instrument, as yet unidentified by name, of which there are at least four different representations in sculpture,[5]which combines the characteristics of both lyre and rebab, having the vaulted back and gradual narrowing to form a neck which are typical of the rebab and the stringing of the lyre. In outline it resembles a large lute with a wide neck, and the seven strings of the lyre of the best period, or sometimes nine, following the decadent lyre. Most authors in reproducing these sculptures showing the barbiton represent the instrument as boat-shaped and without a neck, as, for instance, Carl Engel. This is due to the fact that the part of the instrument where neck joins body is in deep shadow, so that the correct outline can hardly be distinguished, being almost hidden by hand on one side and drapery on the other.
Barbiton.Barbiton, from a bas-relief in the Louvre, "Achilles at Scyros."
Barbiton, from a bas-relief in the Louvre, "Achilles at Scyros."
The barbiton, as pictured here, had probably undergone considerable modification at the hands of the Greeks and had diverged from the archetype. The barbiton, however, although it underwent many changes, retained until the end the characteristics of the instruments of the Greek lyre whose strings were plucked, whereas the rebab was sounded by means of the bow at the time of its introduction into Europe. At some period not yet determined, which we can but conjecture, the barbat approximated to the form of the largelute(q.v.). An instrument called barbiton was known in the early part of the 16th[6]and during the 17th century. It was a kind of theorbo or bass-lute, but with one neck only, bent back at right angles to form the head. Robert Fludd[7]gives a detailed description of it with an illustration:—"Inter quas instrumenta non nulla barbito simillima effinxerunt cujus modi sunt illa quae vulgo appellantur theorba, quae sonos graviores reddunt chordasque nervosas habent." The people called ittheorbo, but the scholar having identified it with the instrument of classic Greece and Rome called it barbiton. The barbiton had nine pairs of gut strings, each pair being in unison. Dictionaries of the 18th century support Fludd's use of the name barbiton. G. B. Doni[8]mentions the barbiton, defining it in his index asBarbitos seu major chelys italice tiorba, and deriving it from lyre and cithara in common with testudines, tiorbas and all tortoiseshell instruments. Claude Perrault,[9]writing in the 18th century, states that "les modernes appellent notre luth barbiton" (the moderns call our lute barbiton). Constantijn Huygens[10]declares that he learnt to play the barbiton in a few weeks, but took two years to learn the cittern.
Thebarbatwas a variety ofrebab(q.v.), a bass instrument, differing only in size and number of strings. This is quite in accordance with what we know of the nomenclature of musical instruments among Persians and Arabs, with whom a slight deviation in the construction of an instrument called for a new name.[11]The wordbarbudapplied to the barbiton is said to be derived[12]from a famous musician living at the time of Chosroes II. (A.D.590-628), who excelled in playing upon the instrument. From a later translation of part of the same authority into German[13]we obtain the following reference to Persian musical instruments: "Die Sänger stehen bei seinem Gastmahl; in ihrer Hand Barbiton(i.)und Leyer(ii.)und Laute(iii.)und Flöte(iv.)und Deff (Handpauke)." Mr Ellis, of the Oriental Department of the British Museum, has kindly supplied the original Persian names translated above,i.e.(i.)barbut, (ii.)chang, (iii.)rubāb, (iv.)nei. The barbut and rubab thus were different instruments as late as the 19th century in Persia. There were but slight differences if any between the archetypes of the pear-shaped rebab and of the lute before the application of the bow to the former—both had vaulted backs, body and neck in one, and gut strings plucked by the fingers.
(K. S.)