Chapter 17

The Joint Works of Beaumont and Fletcher.—The Scornful Lady(actedc.1609, pr. 1616) is a farcical comedy of domestic life, in which Oliphant finds traces of alteration by a third and perhaps a fourth hand.Philaster or Love Lies a-Bleedingis assigned by Macaulay to Beaumont practically in its entirety, while Fleay attributes only three scenes to Fletcher. It was probably acted c. 1609, and was printed 1620; it was revised (1695) by Elkanah Settle and (1763) by the younger Colman, probably owing its long popularity to the touching character of Bellario. Beaumont’s share also predominated inThe Maid’s Tragedy(actedc.1609, pr. 1619), inA King and No King(acted at court December 26, 1611, and perhaps earlier, pr. 1619), whileThe Knight of the Burning Pestle(c.1610, pr. 1613), burlesquing the heroic and romantic play of which Heywood’sFour Prenticesis an example, might perhaps be transferred entire to Beaumont’s account. InCupid’s Revenge(acted at court January 1612, and perhaps at Whitefriars in 1610, pr. 1615), founded on Sidney’sArcadia, the two dramatists appear to have had a third collaborator in Massinger and perhaps a fourth in Nathaniel Field.TheCoxcomb(actedc.1610, and by the Children of the Queen’s Revels in 1612, pr. 1647) seems to have undergone later revision by Massinger. Fletcher’s collaboration with other dramatists had begun during his connexion with Beaumont, who apparently ceased to write for the stage two or three years before his death.Works Assigned to Beaumont’s Sole Authorship.—The Woman Hater(pr. 1607, as “lately acted by the children of Paul’s”) was assigned formerly to Fletcher. TheMasque of the Inner Temple and Gray’s Innwas presented at Whitehall on the 26th of February 1612, on the marriage of the Prince and Princess Palatine. OfFour Plays, or Moral Representations, in One(acted 1608, pr. 1647), theInduction, withThe Triumph of HonourandThe Triumph of Love, both founded on tales from theDecameron, are by Beaumont.Works Assigned to Fletcher’s Sole Authorship.—The Faithful Shepherdess(pr.c.1609) was ill received on its original production, but was revived in 1634. That Fletcher was the sole author is practically unquestioned, though Ben Jonson in Drummond’sConversationsis made to assert that “Beaumont and Fletcher ten years since hath writtenThe Faithful Shepherdess.” It was translated into Latin verse by Sir R. Fanshawe in 1658, and Milton’sComusowes not a little to it. InFour Plays in One, the two last,The Triumph of DeathandThe Triumph of Time, are Fletcher’s. In the indifferent comedy ofThe Captain(acted 1612-1613, revived 1626, pr. 1647) there is no definite evidence of any other hand than Fletcher’s, though the collaboration of Beaumont, Massinger and Rowley has been advanced. Other Fletcher plays are:Wit Without Money(acted 1614, pr. 1639); the two romantic tragedies ofBonduca(in which Caradach or Caractacus is the chief figure rather than Bonduca or Boadicea) andValentinian, both dating fromc.1616 and printed in the first folio;The Loyal Subject(acted 1618, revived at court 1633, pr. 1647);The Mad Lover(acted before March 1619, pr. 1647), which borrows something from the story of Mundus and Paulina in Josephus (bk. xviii.);The Humorous Lieutenant(1619, pr. 1647);Woman Pleased(c.1620, pr. 1647);The Woman’s Prize or The Tamer Tam’d(produced probably between 1610 and 1613, acted 1633 at Blackfriars and at court, pr. 1647), a kind of sequel toThe Taming of the Shrew;The Chances(uncertain date, pr. 1647), taken fromLa Sennora Corneliaof Cervantes, and repeatedly revived after the Restoration and in the 18th century;Monsieur Thomas(acted perhaps as early as 1609, pr. 1639);The Island Princess(c.1621, pr. 1647);The PilgrimandThe Wild Goose-Chase(pr. 1652), the second of which was adapted in prose by Farquhar, both acted at court in 1621, and possibly then not new pieces;A Wife for a Month(acted 1624, pr. 1647);Rule a Wife and Have a Wife(lic. 1624, pr. 1640).The Pilgrimreceived additions from Dryden, and was adapted by Vanbrugh.Fletcher in Collaboration with other Dramatists.—External evidence of Fletcher’s connexion with Massinger is given by Sir Aston Cokaine, who in an epitaph on Fletcher and Massinger wrote: “Playes they did write together, were great friends,” and elsewhere claimed for Massinger a share in the plays printed in the 1647 folio. James Shirley and William Rowley have their part in the works that used to be included in the Beaumont and Fletcher canon; and to a letter from Field, Daborne and Massinger, asking for £5 for their joint necessities from Henslowe about the end of 1615, there is a postscript suggesting the deduction of the sum from the “mony remaynes for the play of Mr Fletcher and ours.” The problem is complicated when the existing versions of the play are posterior to Fletcher’s lifetime, that is, revisions by Massinger or another of pieces which were even originally of double authorship. In this way Beaumont’s work may be concealed under successive revisions, and it would be rash to assert that none of the late plays contains anything of his. Mr R. Boyle joins the name of Cyril Tourneur to those of Fletcher and Massinger in connexion withThe Honest Man’s Fortune(acted 1613, pr. 1647), which Fleay identifies with “the play of Mr Fletcher’s and ours.”The Knight of Malta(acted 1618-1619, pr. 1647) is in its existing form a revision by Fletcher, Massinger, and possibly Field, of an earlier play which Oliphant thinks was probably written by Beaumont about 1608. The same remarks (with the exclusion of Field’s name) apply toThierry and Theodoret(actedc.1617, pr. 1621), perhaps a satire on contemporary manners at the French court, though Beaumont’s share in either must be regarded as problematical. Fletcher and Massinger’s great tragedy ofSir John van Olden Barnaveldt(acted 1619) was first printed in Bullen’sOld Plays(vol. ii., 1883). They followed it up withThe Custom of the Country(acted 1619, pr. 1647), based on an English translation (1619) ofLos Trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda; The Double Marriage(c.1620, pr. 1647);The Little French Lawyer(c.1620, pr. 1647), the plot of which can be traced indirectly to anovellinoby Massuccio Salernitano;The Laws of Candy(c.1618, pr. 1647), of disputed authorship;The False One(c.1620, pr. 1647), dealing with the subject of Caesar and Cleopatra;The Spanish Curate(acted 1622, pr. 1647), repeatedly revived after the Restoration, was derived from Leonard Digges’s translation (1622) of a Spanish novel,Gerardo, the Unfortunate Spaniard; The Prophetess(1622, pr. 1647), afterwards made into an opera by Betterton to Purcell’s music;The Sea-Voyage(1622, pr. 1647);The Elder Brother(perhaps originally written by Fletcherc. 1614; revised and acted 1635, pr. 1647);Beggar’s Bush(acted at court 1622, probably then not new, pr. 1647); andThe Noble Gentleman(1625-1626, pr. 1647). Fletcher only had a small share inWit at Several Weapons—“if he but writ an act or two,” says an epilogue on its revival (1623 or 1626),—and the play is probably a revision by Rowley and Middleton of an early Beaumont and Fletcher play.A Very Woman(1634, pr. 1655) is a revision by Massinger ofThe Woman’s Plotascribed to Fletcher and acted at court in 1621. Field worked with Fletcher and Massinger on the lost play of theJeweller of Amsterdam(1619), as on theFaithful Friends(1613-1614) andThe Queen of Corinth(c.1618, pr. 1647).The Lover’s Progress(acted 1634, pr. 1647) is probably a revision by Massinger of the Fletcher play licensed in 1623 asThe Wandering Lovers, and is perhaps identical withCleander, licensed in 1634.Love’s Cure or The Martial Maid(1623 or 1625) is thought by Mr Fleay to be a revision by Massinger of a Beaumont and Fletcher play produced as early as 1607-1608. W. Rowley joined Fletcher inThe Maid in the Mill(1623, pr. 1647), and had a share with Massinger in the revision ofThe Fair Maid of the Inn(licensed 1626, pr. 1647), based onLa illustre Fregonaof Cervantes.Nice Valour(acted 1625-1626, pr. 1647) seems to have been altered by Middleton from an earlier play;The Widow, printed in 1652 as by Jonson, Fletcher and Middleton, must be ascribed almost exclusively to Middleton.The Night Walker(1633) is a revision by Shirley of a Fletcher play.Fletcher and Jonson in Collaboration.—The history ofThe Bloody Brother or Rollo, Duke of Normandy, printed in 1637 as by “B.J.F.,” is matter of varied speculation. Mr Oliphant thinks the basis of the play to be an early work (c. 1604) of Beaumont, on which is superimposed a revision (1616) by Fletcher, Jonson and Middleton, and a subsequent revision (1636-1637) by Massinger. The general view is that the main portion of the play is referable to Jonson and Fletcher. Jonson apparently had a share in Fletcher’sLove’s Pilgrimage(pr. 1647), which seems to have been revised by Massinger in 1635.Fletcher and Shakespeare.—The Two Noble Kinsmenwas printed in 1634 as by Mr John Fletcher and Mr William Shakespeare. If its first representation was in 1625 it was in the year of Fletcher’s death. It was included in the second folio of Beaumont and Fletcher’s comedies and tragedies. If Shakespeare and Fletcher worked in concert it was probably in 1612-1613, and the existing play probably represents a revision by Massinger in 1625.Henry VIII.(played at the Globe in 1613) is usually ascribed mainly to Fletcher and Massinger, and the conditions of its production were probably similar. Fletcher and Shakespeare are together credited at Stationers’ Hall with the lost play ofCardenio, destroyed by Warburton’s cook.

TheCoxcomb(actedc.1610, and by the Children of the Queen’s Revels in 1612, pr. 1647) seems to have undergone later revision by Massinger. Fletcher’s collaboration with other dramatists had begun during his connexion with Beaumont, who apparently ceased to write for the stage two or three years before his death.

Works Assigned to Beaumont’s Sole Authorship.—The Woman Hater(pr. 1607, as “lately acted by the children of Paul’s”) was assigned formerly to Fletcher. TheMasque of the Inner Temple and Gray’s Innwas presented at Whitehall on the 26th of February 1612, on the marriage of the Prince and Princess Palatine. OfFour Plays, or Moral Representations, in One(acted 1608, pr. 1647), theInduction, withThe Triumph of HonourandThe Triumph of Love, both founded on tales from theDecameron, are by Beaumont.

Works Assigned to Fletcher’s Sole Authorship.—The Faithful Shepherdess(pr.c.1609) was ill received on its original production, but was revived in 1634. That Fletcher was the sole author is practically unquestioned, though Ben Jonson in Drummond’sConversationsis made to assert that “Beaumont and Fletcher ten years since hath writtenThe Faithful Shepherdess.” It was translated into Latin verse by Sir R. Fanshawe in 1658, and Milton’sComusowes not a little to it. InFour Plays in One, the two last,The Triumph of DeathandThe Triumph of Time, are Fletcher’s. In the indifferent comedy ofThe Captain(acted 1612-1613, revived 1626, pr. 1647) there is no definite evidence of any other hand than Fletcher’s, though the collaboration of Beaumont, Massinger and Rowley has been advanced. Other Fletcher plays are:Wit Without Money(acted 1614, pr. 1639); the two romantic tragedies ofBonduca(in which Caradach or Caractacus is the chief figure rather than Bonduca or Boadicea) andValentinian, both dating fromc.1616 and printed in the first folio;The Loyal Subject(acted 1618, revived at court 1633, pr. 1647);The Mad Lover(acted before March 1619, pr. 1647), which borrows something from the story of Mundus and Paulina in Josephus (bk. xviii.);The Humorous Lieutenant(1619, pr. 1647);Woman Pleased(c.1620, pr. 1647);The Woman’s Prize or The Tamer Tam’d(produced probably between 1610 and 1613, acted 1633 at Blackfriars and at court, pr. 1647), a kind of sequel toThe Taming of the Shrew;The Chances(uncertain date, pr. 1647), taken fromLa Sennora Corneliaof Cervantes, and repeatedly revived after the Restoration and in the 18th century;Monsieur Thomas(acted perhaps as early as 1609, pr. 1639);The Island Princess(c.1621, pr. 1647);The PilgrimandThe Wild Goose-Chase(pr. 1652), the second of which was adapted in prose by Farquhar, both acted at court in 1621, and possibly then not new pieces;A Wife for a Month(acted 1624, pr. 1647);Rule a Wife and Have a Wife(lic. 1624, pr. 1640).The Pilgrimreceived additions from Dryden, and was adapted by Vanbrugh.

Fletcher in Collaboration with other Dramatists.—External evidence of Fletcher’s connexion with Massinger is given by Sir Aston Cokaine, who in an epitaph on Fletcher and Massinger wrote: “Playes they did write together, were great friends,” and elsewhere claimed for Massinger a share in the plays printed in the 1647 folio. James Shirley and William Rowley have their part in the works that used to be included in the Beaumont and Fletcher canon; and to a letter from Field, Daborne and Massinger, asking for £5 for their joint necessities from Henslowe about the end of 1615, there is a postscript suggesting the deduction of the sum from the “mony remaynes for the play of Mr Fletcher and ours.” The problem is complicated when the existing versions of the play are posterior to Fletcher’s lifetime, that is, revisions by Massinger or another of pieces which were even originally of double authorship. In this way Beaumont’s work may be concealed under successive revisions, and it would be rash to assert that none of the late plays contains anything of his. Mr R. Boyle joins the name of Cyril Tourneur to those of Fletcher and Massinger in connexion withThe Honest Man’s Fortune(acted 1613, pr. 1647), which Fleay identifies with “the play of Mr Fletcher’s and ours.”The Knight of Malta(acted 1618-1619, pr. 1647) is in its existing form a revision by Fletcher, Massinger, and possibly Field, of an earlier play which Oliphant thinks was probably written by Beaumont about 1608. The same remarks (with the exclusion of Field’s name) apply toThierry and Theodoret(actedc.1617, pr. 1621), perhaps a satire on contemporary manners at the French court, though Beaumont’s share in either must be regarded as problematical. Fletcher and Massinger’s great tragedy ofSir John van Olden Barnaveldt(acted 1619) was first printed in Bullen’sOld Plays(vol. ii., 1883). They followed it up withThe Custom of the Country(acted 1619, pr. 1647), based on an English translation (1619) ofLos Trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda; The Double Marriage(c.1620, pr. 1647);The Little French Lawyer(c.1620, pr. 1647), the plot of which can be traced indirectly to anovellinoby Massuccio Salernitano;The Laws of Candy(c.1618, pr. 1647), of disputed authorship;The False One(c.1620, pr. 1647), dealing with the subject of Caesar and Cleopatra;The Spanish Curate(acted 1622, pr. 1647), repeatedly revived after the Restoration, was derived from Leonard Digges’s translation (1622) of a Spanish novel,Gerardo, the Unfortunate Spaniard; The Prophetess(1622, pr. 1647), afterwards made into an opera by Betterton to Purcell’s music;The Sea-Voyage(1622, pr. 1647);The Elder Brother(perhaps originally written by Fletcherc. 1614; revised and acted 1635, pr. 1647);Beggar’s Bush(acted at court 1622, probably then not new, pr. 1647); andThe Noble Gentleman(1625-1626, pr. 1647). Fletcher only had a small share inWit at Several Weapons—“if he but writ an act or two,” says an epilogue on its revival (1623 or 1626),—and the play is probably a revision by Rowley and Middleton of an early Beaumont and Fletcher play.A Very Woman(1634, pr. 1655) is a revision by Massinger ofThe Woman’s Plotascribed to Fletcher and acted at court in 1621. Field worked with Fletcher and Massinger on the lost play of theJeweller of Amsterdam(1619), as on theFaithful Friends(1613-1614) andThe Queen of Corinth(c.1618, pr. 1647).The Lover’s Progress(acted 1634, pr. 1647) is probably a revision by Massinger of the Fletcher play licensed in 1623 asThe Wandering Lovers, and is perhaps identical withCleander, licensed in 1634.Love’s Cure or The Martial Maid(1623 or 1625) is thought by Mr Fleay to be a revision by Massinger of a Beaumont and Fletcher play produced as early as 1607-1608. W. Rowley joined Fletcher inThe Maid in the Mill(1623, pr. 1647), and had a share with Massinger in the revision ofThe Fair Maid of the Inn(licensed 1626, pr. 1647), based onLa illustre Fregonaof Cervantes.Nice Valour(acted 1625-1626, pr. 1647) seems to have been altered by Middleton from an earlier play;The Widow, printed in 1652 as by Jonson, Fletcher and Middleton, must be ascribed almost exclusively to Middleton.The Night Walker(1633) is a revision by Shirley of a Fletcher play.

Fletcher and Jonson in Collaboration.—The history ofThe Bloody Brother or Rollo, Duke of Normandy, printed in 1637 as by “B.J.F.,” is matter of varied speculation. Mr Oliphant thinks the basis of the play to be an early work (c. 1604) of Beaumont, on which is superimposed a revision (1616) by Fletcher, Jonson and Middleton, and a subsequent revision (1636-1637) by Massinger. The general view is that the main portion of the play is referable to Jonson and Fletcher. Jonson apparently had a share in Fletcher’sLove’s Pilgrimage(pr. 1647), which seems to have been revised by Massinger in 1635.

Fletcher and Shakespeare.—The Two Noble Kinsmenwas printed in 1634 as by Mr John Fletcher and Mr William Shakespeare. If its first representation was in 1625 it was in the year of Fletcher’s death. It was included in the second folio of Beaumont and Fletcher’s comedies and tragedies. If Shakespeare and Fletcher worked in concert it was probably in 1612-1613, and the existing play probably represents a revision by Massinger in 1625.Henry VIII.(played at the Globe in 1613) is usually ascribed mainly to Fletcher and Massinger, and the conditions of its production were probably similar. Fletcher and Shakespeare are together credited at Stationers’ Hall with the lost play ofCardenio, destroyed by Warburton’s cook.

(M. Br.)

1Recent research has resulted in some variation of opinion as to the precise authorship of some of the plays commonly attributed to them; but this article, contributed to the ninth edition of theEncyclopaedia Britannica, remains the classical modern criticism of Beaumont and Fletcher, and its value is substantially unaffected. As representing to the end the views of its distinguished author, it is therefore retained as written, the results of later research being epitomized in the Bibliographical Appendix at the end. (Ed.)

BEAUMONT,a city and the county-seat of Jefferson county, Texas, U.S.A., situated on the Neches river, in the E. part of the state, about 28 m. from the Gulf of Mexico and 72 m. N.E. of Galveston. Pop. (1890) 3296; (1900) 9427, of whom 2953 were negroes; (1910, census) 20,640. It is served by the Gulf & Interstate, the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fé, the Kansas City Southern, the Texas & New Orleans, the Colorado Southern, New Orleans & Pacific, the Beaumont, Sour Lake & Western (from Beaumont to Sour Lake, Tex.), and the (short) Galveston, Beaumont & North-Eastern railways. The Neches river from Beaumont to its mouth has a depth of not less than 19 ft.; from its mouth extends a canal (9 ft. deep, 100 ft. wide, and 12 m. long) which connects with the Port Arthur Canal (180 ft. wide and 25 ft. deep) extending to the sea. Situated in the midst of a region covered with dense forests of pine and cypress, Beaumont is one of the largest lumber centres of the southern states; it is also the centre of a large rice-growing region. The manufactories include rice mills, saw mills, sash, door and blind factories, shingle mills, iron works, oil refineries, broom factories and a dynamite factory. In 1905 the cleaning and polishing of rice was the most important industry, its output being valued at $1,203,123, being nearly twice the value of the product of the rice mills of the city in 1900, 25.9% of the total value of the state’s product of polished and cleaned rice, 46.1% of the value ($2,609,829) of all of Beaumont’s factory products, and about 7.4% of the value of the product of polished and cleaned rice for the whole United States in 1905. After the sinking of oil wells in 1901, Beaumont became one of the principal oil-producing places in the United States; its oil refineries are connected by pipe lines with the surrounding oil fields, and two 6-in. pipe lines extend from Beaumont to Oklahoma. Beaumont was first settled in 1828, and was first chartered as a city in 1899.

BEAUNE,a town of eastern France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Côte-d’Or, on the Bouzoise, 23 m. S.S.W. of Dijon on the main line of the Paris-Lyon railway. Pop. (1906) 11,668. Beaune lies at the foot of the hills of Côte-d’Or. Portions of its ancient fortifications are still to be seen, but they have been for the most part replaced by a shady promenade which separates the town from its suburbs. The most interesting feature of Beaune is the old hospital of St Esprit, founded in 1443 by Nicolas Rolin, chancellor of Burgundy. Though it is built largely of wood, the fabric is in good preservation. The exterior is simple, but the buildings which surround the main courtyard have high-pitched roofs surmounted by numerous dormer windows with decorated gables, recalling the Flemish style of architecture. In the interior there are several interesting apartments; the chief of these is the ample council chamber with its fine tapestries, where an important wine sale is held annually. The hospital possesses many artistic treasures, among them the mural paintings of the 17th century in the Salle St Hugues and an altar-piece, the Last Judgment, attributed to Roger van der Weyden. The principal church of the town, Notre-Dame, dating mainly from the 12th and 13th centuries, has a fine central tower and a triple portal with handsome wooden doors. In the interior there is some valuable tapestry of the 15th century, and other works of art. Two round towers (15th century) are a survival of the castle of Beaune, dismantled by Henry IV. A belfry of 1403 and several houses of the Renaissance period, some of which are built over ancient wine-cellars, are architecturally notable. There is a statue to the mathematician, G. Monge, born in the town (1746), and a monument to Pierre Joigneaux the politician (d. 1892). Beaune has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a chamber of commerce, a school of agriculture and viticulture and colleges for girls and boys. It carries on considerable trade in live-stock and cereals and in the vegetables of its market-gardens, and manufactures of casks, corks, white metal, oil, vinegar and machinery for the wine-trade are included among the industries; it is chiefly important for its vineyards and as the centre of the wine-trade of Burgundy.

Beaune was a fortified Roman camp and a stronghold during the middle ages. It was the capital of a separate county which in 1227 was united to the duchy of Burgundy; it then became the first seat of the Burgundian parlement orjours générauxand a ducal residence. On the death of Charles the Bold, it sided with his daughter, Mary of Burgundy, but was besieged and taken by the forces of Louis XI. in 1478. Its rank as commune, conceded to it in 1203, was confirmed by Francis I. in 1521. In the Wars of Religion it at first sided with the League, but afterwards opened its gates to the troops of Henry IV., from whom it received the confirmation of its communal privileges and permission to demolish its fortifications. The revocation of the edict of Nantes struck a severe blow at the cloth and iron industries, which had previously been a source of prosperity to the town. In the 18th century there were no fewer than seven monastic buildings in Beaune, besides a Bernardine abbey, a Carthusian convent and an ecclesiastical college.

BEAUREGARD, MARQUIS DE(c. 1772-?), French adventurer, the son of a poor vinegrower named Leuthraud, was born about 1772. He received the name Beauregard from a nobleman in whose service he was engaged as valet. On the outbreak of the revolution, this nobleman converted all his fortune into gold, and entrusting the bag containing the cash to his valet, fled to the frontier. For security’s sake master and man took different roads, but Beauregard turned back with the money to Paris. By speculations in provisions and military equipments underthe Directorate he amassed a considerable fortune, and styling himself the marquis de Beauregard, purchased a splendid mansion and began giving magnificent entertainments. Detected at the height of his success, the impostor was arrested and condemned to four years in irons and to be branded. He soon escaped from prison, and had the audacity to reappear in Paris and start his old life afresh. After a short time, however, he disappeared again, and is supposed to have committed suicide. It is probable that most of the information available about him is a blend of fact and fiction.

BEAUREGARD, PIERRE GUSTAVE TOUTANT(1818-1893), American soldier, was born near New Orleans, Louisiana, on the 28th of May 1818. At the United States military academy he graduated second in his class in July 1838, and was appointed lieutenant of engineers. In the Mexican War he distinguished himself in siege operations at Vera Cruz, and took part in all the battles around Mexico, being wounded at Chapultepec, and receiving the brevets of captain and major. In 1853 he became captain and was in charge of fortification and other engineer works of various points, on the Gulf coast from 1853 to 1860. He had just been appointed superintendent of West Point when the secession of his state brought about his resignation (20th February 1861). As a brigadier-general of the new Confederate army he directed the bombardment of Fort Sumter, S.C. As the commander of the Southern “Army of the Potomac” he opposed McDowell’s advance to Bull Run, and during the battle was second in command under Joseph E. Johnston, who had joined him on the previous evening. He was one of the five full generals appointed in August 1861, and in 1862 was second in command under Sidney Johnston on the Tennessee. After Johnston’s death he directed the battle of Shiloh, subsequent to which he retired to Corinth. This place he defended against the united armies under Halleck, until the end of May 1862, when he retreated in good order to the southward. His health now failing, he was employed in less active work. He defended Charleston against the Union forces from September 1862 to April 1864. In May 1864 he fought a severe and eventually successful battle at Drury’s Bluff against General Butler and the Army of the James. Later in the year he endeavoured to gather troops wherewith to oppose Sherman’s advance from Atlanta, and eventually surrendered with Johnston’s forces in April 1865. After the war he engaged in railway management, became adjutant-general of his state and managed the Louisiana lottery. He declined high commands which were offered to him in the Rumanian and later in the Egyptian armies. General Beauregard died in New Orleans on the 20th of February 1893. He was the author ofPrinciples and Maxims of the Art of War(Charleston, 1863);Report on the Defence of Charleston(Richmond, 1864).

See Alfred Roman,Military Operations of General Beauregard(New York, 1883).

BEAUSOBRE, ISAAC DE(1659-1738), French Protestant divine, was born at Niort on the 8th of March 1659. After studying theology at the Protestant academy of Saumur, he was ordained at the age of twenty-two, becoming pastor at Chatillon-sur-Indre. After the revocation of the edict of Nantes he fled to Rotterdam (November 1685), and in 1686 was appointed chaplain to the princess of Dessau, Henrietta Catherine of Orange. In 1693, on the death of the prince of Dessau, he went to Berlin and became chaplain to the court at Oranienbaum, and in 1695 pastor of the French church at Berlin. He became court preacher, counsellor of the Consistory, director of theMaison française, a hospice for French people, inspector of the French gymnasium and superintendent of all the French churches in Brandenburg. He died on the 5th of June 1738. He had strong sense with profound erudition, was one of the best writers of his time and an excellent preacher.

BEAUVAIS,a town of northern France, capital of the department of Oise, 49 m. N. by W. of Paris, on the Northern railway. Pop. (1906) 17,045. Beauvais lies at the foot of wooded hills on the left bank of the Thérain at its confluence with the Avelon. Its ancient ramparts have been destroyed, and it is now surrounded by boulevards, outside which run branches of the Thérain. In addition, there are spacious promenades in the north-east of the town. Its cathedral of St Pierre, in some respects the most daring achievement of Gothic architecture, consists only of a transept and choir with apse and seven apse-chapels. The vaulting in the interior exceeds 150 ft. in height. The small Romanesque church of the 10th century known as the Basse-Oeuvre occupies the site destined for the nave. Begun in 1247, the work was interrupted in 1284 by the collapse of the vaulting of the choir, in 1573 by the fall of a too ambitious central tower, after which little addition was made. The transept was built from 1500 to 1548. Its façades, especially that on the south, exhibit all the richness of the late Gothic style. The carved wooden doors of both the north and the south portals are masterpieces respectively of Gothic and Renaissance workmanship. The church possesses an elaborate astronomical clock (1866) and tapestries of the 15th and 17th centuries; but its chief artistic treasures are stained glass windows of the 13th, 14th and 16th centuries, the most beautiful of them from the hand of the Renaissance artist, Engrand Le Prince, a native of Beauvais. To him also is due some of the stained glass in St. Étienne, the second church of the town, and an interesting example of the transition stage between the Romanesque and Gothic styles.

In the Place de l’Hôtel de Ville and in the old streets near the cathedral there are several houses dating from the 12th to the 16th centuries. The hôtel de ville, close to which stands the statue of Jeanne Hachette (see below), was built in 1752. The episcopal palace, now used as a court-house, was built in the 16th century, partly upon the Gallo-Roman fortifications. The industry of Beauvais comprises, besides the state manufacture of tapestry, which dates from 1664, the manufacture of various kinds of cotton and woollen goods, brushes, toys, boots and shoes, and bricks and tiles. Market-gardening flourishes in the vicinity and an extensive trade is carried on in grain and wine.

The town is the seat of a bishop, a prefect and a court of assizes; it has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, together with a chamber of commerce, a branch of the Bank of France, a higher ecclesiastical seminary, a lycée and training colleges.

Beauvais was known to the Romans asCaesaromagus, and took its present name from the Gallic tribe of the Bellovaci, whose capital it was. In the 9th century it became a countship, which about 1013 passed to the bishops of Beauvais, who ultimately became peers of France. In 1346 the town had to defend itself against the English, who again besieged it in 1433. The siege which it suffered in 1472 at the hands of the duke of Burgundy was rendered famous by the heroism of the women, under the leadership of Jeanne Hachette, whose memory is still celebrated by a procession on the 14th of October (the feast of Ste Angadrème), in which the women take precedence of the men.

See V. Lhuillier,Choses du vieux Beauvais et au Beauvaisis(1896).

BEAUVILLIER,the name of a very ancient French family belonging to the country around Chartres, members of which are found filling court offices from the 15th century onward. For Charles de Beauvillier, gentleman of the chamber to the king, governor andbailliof Blois, the estate of Saint Aignan was created a countship in 1537. François de Beauvillier, comte de Saint Aignan, after having been through the campaigns in Germany (1634-1635), Franche-Comté (1636), and Flanders (1637), was sent to the Bastille in consequence of his having lost the battle of Thionville in 1640. In reward for his devotion to the court party during the Fronde he obtained many signal favours, and Saint Aignan was raised to a duchy in the peerage of France (duché-pairie) in 1663. His son Paul, called the duc de Beauvillier, was several times ambassador to England; he became chief of the council of finance in 1685, governor of the dukes of Burgundy, Anjou and Berri from 1689 to 1693, minister of state in 1691, and grandee of Spain in 1701. He married a daughter of Colbert. Paul Hippolyte de Beauvillier, comte de Montrésor, afterwards duc de Saint Aignan, was ambassador at Madrid from 1715 to 1718 and at Rome in 1731, and a member of the council of regency in 1719.

(M. P.*)

BEAUVOIR, ROGER DE,thenom de plumeofEugène Auguste Roger de Bully(1806-1866), French writer, who was born on the 8th of November 1806 in Paris. He was the son and nephew of public officials who did not approve his literary inclinations, and it was at their request that he wrote over the signature of Roger de Beauvoir. A good-looking young fellow, of independent means, an indefatigableviveur, he astonished all Paris with his ostentatious luxury and his adventures, while his romantic novels gave him a more serious if not durable reputation. Among the best of them areL’Écolier de Cluny ou le Sophisme(1832), which is said to have furnished Alexandre Dumas and Theodore Gaillardet (1808-1882) with the idea of theTour de Nesle, andLe Chevalier de Saint Georges(1840). He had married in 1847 an actress, Eléonore Léocadie Doze (1822-1859), from whom he obtained a judicial separation a year or two later after a long and notorious trial, following which his mother-in-law got him imprisoned for three months and fined 500 francs for a satirical poem,Mon Procès(1849). Ruined by extravagance and tied to his chair by gout, he spent the last years of his life in retirement, and died in Paris on the 27th of August 1866.

BEAUX, CECILIA(1863- ), American portrait-painter, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she became a pupil of William Sartain. But her real art training was obtained in Paris, where she started in theatelierJulian and had the coaching of painters like Robert-Fleury, Bouguereau and Dagnan Bouveret. In 1890 she exhibited at the Paris Exposition. Returning to Philadelphia, Miss Beaux obtained in 1893 the gold medal of the Philadelphia Art Club, and also the Dodge prize at the New York National Academy, and later various other distinctions. She became a member of the National Academy of Design, New York, in 1902. Among her portraits are those of Bishop-Coadjutor Greer (exhibited at the Salon in 1896); Mrs Roosevelt and her daughter; and Mrs Larz Anderson. Her “Dorothea and Francesca,” and “Ernesta and her Little Brother,” are good examples of her skill in painting children.

BEAVER,1the largest European aquatic representative of the mammalian orderRodentia(q.v.), easily recognized by its large trowel-like, scaly tail, which is expanded in the horizontal direction. The true beaver (Castor fiber) is a native of Europe and northern Asia, but it is represented in North America by a closely-allied species (C. canadensis), chiefly distinguished by the form of the nasal bones of the skull. Beavers are nearly allied to the squirrels (Sciuridae), agreeing in certain structural peculiarities of the lower jaw and skull. In theSciuridaethe two main bones (tibia and fibula) of the lower half of the leg are quite separate, the tail is round and hairy, and the habits are arboreal and terrestrial. In the beavers orCastoridaethese bones are in close contact at their lower ends, the tail is depressed, expanded and scaly, and the habits are aquatic. Beavers have webbed hind-feet, and the claw of the second hind-toe double. In length beavers—European and American—measure about 2 ft. exclusive of the tail, which is about 10 in. long. They are covered with a fur to which they owe their chief commercial value; this consists of two kinds of hair—the one close-set, silky and of a greyish colour, the other much coarser and longer, and of a reddish brown. Beavers are essentially aquatic in their habits, never travelling by land unless driven by necessity. Formerly common in England, the European beaver has not only been exterminated there, but likewise in most of the countries of the continent, although a few remain on the Elbe, the Rhone and in parts of Scandinavia. The American species is also greatly diminished in numbers from incessant pursuit for the sake of its valuable fur. Beavers are sociable anirrals, living in streams, where, so as to render the water of sufficient depth, they build dams of mud and of the stems and boughs of trees felled by their powerful incisor teeth. In the neighbourhood they make their “lodges,” which are roomy chambers, with the entrance beneath the water. The mud is plastered down by the fore-feet, and not, as often supposed, by the tail, which is employed solely as a rudder. They are mainly nocturnal, and subsist chiefly on bark and twigs or the roots of water plants. The dam differs in shape according to the nature of particular localities. Where the water has little motion it is almost straight; where the current is considerable it is curved, with its convexity towards the stream. The materials made use of are driftwood, green willows, birch and poplars; also mud and stones intermixed in such a manner as contributes to the strength of the dam, but there is no particular method observed, except that the work is carried on with a regular sweep, and that all the parts are made of equal strength. “In places,” writes Hearne, “which have been long frequented by beavers undisturbed, their dams, by frequent repairing, become a solid bank, capable of resisting a great force both of ice and water; and as the willow, poplar and birch generally take root and shoot up, they by degrees form a kind of regular planted hedge, which I have seen in some places so tall that birds have built their nests among the branches.” Their houses are formed of the same materials as the dams, with little order or regularity of structure, and seldom contain more than four old, and six or eight young beavers. It not unfrequently happens that some of the larger houses have one or more partitions, but these are only posts of the main building left by the builders to support the roof, for the apartments have usually no communication with each other except by water. The beavers carry the mud and stones with their fore-paws and the timber between their teeth. They always work in the night and with great expedition. They cover their houses late every autumn with fresh mud, which, freezing when the frost sets in, becomes almost as hard as stone, so that neither wolves nor wolverines can disturb their repose.

The favourite food of the American beaver is the water-lily (Nuphar luteum), which bears a resemblance to a cabbage-stalk, and grows at the bottom of lakes and rivers. Beavers also gnaw the bark of birch, poplar and willow trees; but during the summer a more varied herbage, with the addition of berries, is consumed. When the ice breaks up in spring they always leave their embankments, and rove about until a little before the fall of the leaf, when they return to their old habitations, and lay in their winter stock of wood. They seldom begin to repair the houses till the frost sets in, and never finish the outer coating till the cold becomes severe. When they erect a new habitation they fell the wood early in summer, but seldom begin building till towards the end of August.

The flesh of the American beaver is eaten by the Indians, and when roasted in the skin is esteemed a delicacy and is said to taste like pork.Castoreumis a substance contained in two pear-shaped pouches situated near the organs of reproduction, of a bitter taste and slightly foetid odour, at one time largely employed as a medicine, but now used only in perfumery.

Fossil remains of beavers are found in the peat and other superficial deposits of England and the continent of Europe; while in the Pleistocene formations of England and Siberia occur remains of a giant extinct beaver,Trogontherium cuvieri, representing a genus by itself.

For an account of beavers in Norway see R. Collett, in theBergens Museum Aarbogfor 1897. See also R.T. Martin,Castorologia, a History and Traditions of the Canadian Beaver(London, 1892).

(R. L.*)

1The word is descended from the Aryan name of the animal, cf. Sanskritbabhrús, brown, the great ichneumon, Lat.fiber, Ger.Biber, Swed.bafver, Russ.bobr’; the rootbhruhas given “brown,” and, through Romanic, “bronze” and “burnish.”

BEAVER(from Fr.bavière, a child’s bib, frombave, saliva), the lower part of the helmet, fixed to the neck-armour to protect the face and cheeks; properly it moved upwards, as the visor moved down, but the word is sometimes used to include the visor. The right form of the word, “baver,” has been altered from a confusion with “beaver,” a hat made of beaver-fur or a silk imitation, also, in slang, called a “castor,” from the zoological name of the beaver family.

BEAVER DAM,a city of Dodge county, Wisconsin, U.S.A., situated in the S.E. part of the state, 63 m. N.W. of Milwaukee, on Beaver Lake, which is 9 m. long and 3 m. wide. Pop. (1890) 4222; (1900) 5128, of whom 1023 were foreign-born; (1905) 5615; (1910) 6758. Most of the population is of Germandescent. Beaver Dam is served by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul railway. The city is a summer resort, has a public library, and is the seat of Wayland Academy (1855, Baptist), a co-educational preparatory school affiliated with the university of Chicago. Beaver Dam is situated in the midst of a fine farming country; it has a good water-power derived from Beaver Lake, and among its manufactures are woollen and cotton goods, malleable iron, foundry products, gasolene engines, agricultural implements, stoves and beer. The city was first settled about 1841, and was incorporated in 1856.

BEAVER FALLS,a borough of Beaver county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on Beaver river, about 3½ m. from its confluence with the Ohio, opposite New Brighton, and about 32 m. N.W. of Pittsburg. Pop. (1890) 9735; (1900) 10,054, of whom 1554 were foreign-born; (1910), census, 12,191. The borough is served by the Pennsylvania and the Pittsburg & Lake Erie railways. It is built for the most part on a plateau about 50 ft. above the river, hemmed in on either side by hills that rise abruptly, especially on the W., to a height of more than 200 ft. Bituminous coal, natural gas and oil abound in the vicinity; the river provides excellent water-power; the borough is a manufacturing centre of considerable importance, its products including iron and steel bridges, boilers, steam drills, carriages, saws, files, axes, shovels, wire netting, stoves, glass-ware, scales, chemicals, pottery, cork, decorative tile, bricks and typewriters. In 1905 the city’s factory products were valued at $4,907,536. Geneva College (Reformed Presbyterian, co-educational), established in 1849 at Northwood, Logan county, Ohio, was removed in 1880 to the borough of College Hill (pop. in 1900, 899), 1 m. N. of Beaver Falls; it has a preparatory and a collegiate department, departments of music, oratory and art, and a physical department, and in 1907-1908 had 13 instructors and 235 students. Beaver Falls was first settled in 1801; was laid out as a town and named Brighton in 1806; received its present name a few years later; and in 1868 was incorporated as a borough.

BEAWAR,orNayanagar, a town of British India, the administrative headquarters of Merwara district in Ajmere-Merwara. It is 33 m. from Ajmere. Pop. (1901) 21,928. It is an important centre of trade, especially in raw cotton, and has cotton presses and the Krishna cotton mills. It was founded by Colonel Dixon in 1835.

BEBEL, FERDINAND AUGUST(1840- ), German socialist, was born at Cologne on the 22nd of February 1840; he became a turner and worked at Leipzig. Here he took a prominent part in the workmen’s movement and in the association of working men which had been founded under the influence of Schultz-Delitzsch; at first an opponent of socialism, he came under the influence of Liebknecht, and after 1865 he was a confirmed advocate of socialism. With Liebknecht he belonged to the branch of the socialists which was in close correspondence with Karl Marx and the International, and refused to accept the leadership of Schweitzer, who had attempted to carry on the work after Lassalle’s death. He was one of those who supported a vote of want of confidence in Schweitzer at the Eisenach conference in 1867, from which his party was generally known as “the Eisenacher.” In this year he was elected a member of the North German Reichstag for a Saxon constituency, and, with an interval from 1881 to 1883, remained a member of the German parliament. His great organizing talent and oratorical power quickly made him one of the leaders of the socialists and their chief spokesman in parliament. In 1870 he and Liebknecht were the only members who did not vote the extraordinary subsidy required for the war with France; the followers of Lassalle, on the other hand, voted for the government proposals. He was the only Socialist who was elected to the Reichstag in 1871, but he used his position to protest against the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine and to express his full sympathy with the Paris Commune. Bismarck afterwards said that this speech of Bebel’s was a “ray of light,” showing him that Socialism was an enemy to be fought against and crushed; and in 1872 Bebel was accused in Brunswick of preparation for high treason, and condemned to two years’ imprisonment in a fortress, and, for insulting the German emperor, to nine months’ ordinary imprisonment. After his release he helped to organize, at the congress of Gotha, the united party of Social Democrats, which had been formed during his imprisonment. After the passing of the Socialist Law he continued to show great activity in the debates of the Reichstag, and was also elected a member of the Saxon parliament; when the state of siege was proclaimed in Leipzig he was expelled from the city, and in 1886 condemned to nine months’ imprisonment for taking part in a secret society. Although the rules of the Social Democratic party do not recognize a leader or president, Bebel subsequently became by far the most influential member of the party. In the party meetings of 1890 and 1891 his policy was severely attacked, first by the extremists, the “young” Socialists from Berlin, who wished to abandon parliamentary action; against these Bebel won a complete victory. On the other side he was involved in a quarrel with Volmar and his school, who desired to put aside from immediate consideration the complete attainment of the Socialist ideal, and proposed that the party should aim at bringing about, not a complete overthrow of society, but a gradual amelioration. This conflict of tendencies continued, and Bebel came to be regarded as the chief exponent of the traditional views of the orthodox Marxist party. He was exposed to some natural ridicule on the ground that the “Kladderadatsch,” which he often spoke of as imminent, failed to make its appearance. On the other hand, though a strong opponent of militarism, he publicly stated that foreign nations attacking Germany must not expect the help or the neutrality of the Social Democrats. His book,Die Frau und der Socialismus(1893), which went through many editions and contained an attack on the institution of marriage, identified him with the most extreme forms of Socialism.

See also Mehring,Geschichte der deutschen Social-Demokratie(Stuttgart, 1898);Reports of the Annual Meetings of the Social Democratic Party, Berlin Vorwarts Publishing Company (from 1890); B. Russell,German Social-Democracy(London, 1897).

(J. W. He.)

BECCAFICO(Ital. for “fig-pecker”), a small migratory bird of the warbler (Sylviidae) family, which frequents fig-trees and vineyards, and, when fattened, is considered a great delicacy.

BECCAFUMI, DOMENICO DI PACE(1486-1551), Italian painter, of the school of Siena. In the early days of the Tuscan republics Siena had been in artistic genius, and almost in political importance, the rival of Florence. But after the great plague in 1348 the city declined; and though her population always comprised an immense number of skilled artists and artificers, yet her school did not share in the general progress of Italy in the 15th century. About the year 1500, indeed, Siena had no native artists of the first importance; and her public and private commissions were often given to natives of other cities. But after the uncovering of the works of Raphael and Michelangelo at Rome in 1508, all the schools of Italy were stirred with the desire of imitating them. Among these accomplished men who now, without the mind and inspiration of Raphael or Michelangelo, mastered a great deal of their manner, and initiated the decadence of Italian art, several of the most accomplished arose in the school of Siena. Among these was Domenico, the son of a peasant, one Giacomo di Pace, who worked on the estate of a well-to-do citizen named Lorenzo Beccafumi. Seeing some signs of a talent for drawing in his labourer’s son, Lorenzo Beccafumi took the boy into his service and presently adopted him, causing him to learn painting from masters of the city. Known afterwards as Domenico Beccafumi, or earlier as Il Mecarino (from the name of a poor artist with whom he studied), the peasant’s son soon gave proof of extraordinary industry and talent. In 1509 he went to Rome and steeped himself in the manner of the great men who had just done their first work in the Vatican. Returning to his native town, Beccafumi quickly gained employment and a reputation second only to Sodoma. He painted a vast number both of religious pieces for churches and of mythological decorations for private patrons. But the work by which he will longest be remembered is that which he did for the celebrated pavement of the cathedral of Siena. For a hundred and fifty years the best artists of the state had been engagedlaying down this pavement with vast designs incommessowork,—white marble, that is, engraved with the outlines of the subject in black, and having borders inlaid with rich patterns in many colours. From the year 1517 to 1544 Beccafumi was engaged in continuing this pavement. He made very ingenious improvements in the technical processes employed, and laid down multitudinous scenes from the stories of Ahab and Elijah, of Melchisedec, of Abraham and of Moses. These are not so interesting as the simpler work of the earlier schools, but are much more celebrated and more jealously guarded. Such was their fame that the agents of Charles I. of England, at the time when he was collecting for Whitehall, went to Siena expressly to try and purchase the original cartoons. But their owner would not part with them, and they are now in the Siena Academy and elsewhere. The subjects have been engraved on wood, by the hand, as it seems, of Beccafumi himself, who at one time or another essayed almost every branch of fine art. He made a triumphal arch and an immense mechanical horse for the procession of the emperor Charles V. on his entry into Siena. In his later days, being a solitary liver and continually at work, he is said to have accelerated his death by over-exertion upon the processes of bronze-casting.

BECCARIA, GIOVANNI BATTISTA(1716-1781), Italian physicist, was born at Mondovi on the 3rd of October 1716, and entered the religious order of the Pious Schools in 1732. He became professor of experimental physics, first at Palermo and then at Rome, and was appointed to a similar situation at Turin in 1748. He was afterwards made tutor to the young princes de Chablais and de Carignan, and continued to reside principally at Turin during the remainder of his life. In May 1755 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London, and published several papers on electrical subjects in thePhil. Trans. He died at Turin on the 27th of May 1781. Beccaria did much, in the way both of experiment and exposition, to spread a knowledge of the electrical researches of Franklin and others. His principal work was the treatiseDell’ Elettricismo Naturale ed Artificiale(1753), which was translated into English in 1776.

BECCARIA-BONESANA, CESARE,Marchese de(1735-1794), Italian publicist, was born at Milan on the 15th of March 1735. He was educated in the Jesuit college at Parma, and showed at first a great aptitude for mathematics. The study of Montesquieu seems to have directed his attention towards economic questions; and his first publication (1762) was a tract on the derangement of the currency in the Milanese states, with a proposal for its remedy. Shortly after, in conjunction with his friends the Verris, he formed a literary society, and began to publish a small journal, in imitation of theSpectator, calledIl Caffè. In 1764 he published his brief but justly celebrated treatiseDei Delitti e delle Pene(“On Crimes and Punishments”). The weighty reasonings of this work were expounded with all the additional force of a clear and animated style. It pointed out distinctly and temperately the grounds of the right of punishment, and from these principles deduced certain propositions as to the nature and amount of punishment which should be inflicted for any crime. The book had a surprising success. Within eighteen months it passed through six editions. It was translated into French by Morellet in 1766, and published with an anonymous commentary by Voltaire. An English translation appeared in 1768 and it was translated into several other languages. Many of the reforms in the penal codes of the principal European nations are traceable to Beccaria’s treatise. In November 1768 he was appointed to the chair of law and economy, which had been founded expressly for him at the Palatine college of Milan. His lectures on political economy, which are based on strict utilitarian principles, are in marked accordance with the theories of the English school of economists. They are published in the collection of Italian writers on political economy (Scrittori Classici Italiani di Economia politico., vols. xi. and xii.). In 1771 Beccaria was made a member of the supreme economic council; and in 1791 he was appointed one of the board for the reform of the judicial code. In this post his labours were of very great value. He died at Milan on the 28th of November 1794.

BECCLES,a market town and municipal borough, in the Lowestoft parliamentary division of Suffolk, England; on the right bank of the river Waveney, 109 m. N.E. from London by the Great Eastern railway. Pop. (1901) 6898. It has a pleasant, well-wooded site overlooking the flat lands bordering the Waveney. The church of St Michael, wholly Perpendicular, is a fine example of the style, having an ornate south porch of two storeys and a detached bell tower. There are a grammar school (1712), and boys’ school and free school on the foundation of Sir John Leman (1631). Rose Hall, in the vicinity, is a moated manor of brick, of the 16th century. Printing works, malting, brick and tile, and agricultural implement works are the chief industries. Beccles was incorporated in 1584. It is governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. Area, 2017 acres.

BECERRA, GASPAR(1520-1570), Spanish painter and sculptor, was born at Baéza in Andalusia. He studied at Rome, it is said under Michelangelo, and assisted Vasari in painting the hall of the Concelleria. He also contributed to the anatomical plates of Valverde. After his return to Spain he was extensively employed by Philip II., and decorated many of the rooms in the palace at Madrid with frescoes. He also painted altar-pieces for several of the churches, most of which have been destroyed. His fame as a sculptor almost surpassed that as a painter. His best work was a magnificent figure of the Virgin, which was destroyed during the French war. He became court painter at Madrid in 1563, and played a prominent part in the establishment of the fine arts in Spain.

BÊCHE-DE-MER(sometimes explained as “sea-spade,” from the shape of the prepared article, but more probably from the Port,bicho, a worm or grub), orTrepang(Malay,tripang), an important food luxury among the Chinese and other Eastern peoples, connected with the production of which considerable trade exists in the Eastern Archipelago and the coasts of New Guinea, and also in California. It consists of several species of echinoderms, generally referred to the genusHolothuria, especiallyH. edulis. The creatures, which exist on coral reefs, have bodies from 6 to 15 in. long, shaped like a cucumber, hence their name of “sea-cucumbers.” The skin is sometimes covered with spicules or prickles, and sometimes quite smooth, and with or without “teats” or ambulacral feet disposed in rows. Five varieties are recognized in the commerce of the Pacific Islands, the finest of which is the “brown with teats.” The large black come next in value, followed by the small black, the red-bellied and the white. They are used in the gelatinous soups which form an important article of food in China. They are prepared for use by being boiled for about twenty minutes, and then dried first in the sun and afterwards over a fire, so that they are slightly smoked.

BECHER, JOHANN JOACHIM(1635-1682), German chemist, physician, scholar and adventurer, was born at Spires in 1635. His father, a Lutheran minister, died while he was yet a child, leaving a widow and three children. The mother married again; the stepfather spent the tiny patrimony of the children; and at the age of thirteen Becher found himself responsible not only for his own support but also for that of his mother and brothers. He learned and practised several small handicrafts, and devoting his nights to study of the most miscellaneous description earned a pittance by teaching. In 1654, at the age of nineteen, he published an edition of Salzthal’sTractatus de lapide trismegisto; hisMetallurgiafollowed in 1660; and the next year appeared hisCharacter pro notitia linguarum universali, in which he gives 10,000 words for use as a universal language. In 1663 he published hisOedipum Chemicumand a book on animals, plants and minerals (Thier- Kräuter- und Bergbuch). At the same time he was full of schemes, practical and unpractical. He negotiated with the elector palatine for the establishment of factories at Mannheim; suggested to the elector of Bavaria the creation of German colonies in Guiana and the West Indies; and brought down upon himself the wrath of the Munich merchants by planning a government monopoly of cloth manufacture and of trade. He fled from Munich, but found a ready welcome elsewhere. In 1666 he was appointed teacher ofmedicine at Mainz and body-physician to the archbishop-elector; and the same year he was made councillor of commerce (Commerzienrat) at Vienna, where he had gained the powerful support of Albrecht, Count Zinzendorf, prime minister and grand chamberlain of the emperor Leopold I. Sent by the emperor on a mission to Holland, he there wrote in ten days hisMethodus Didactica, which was followed by theRegeln der Christlichen Bundesgenossenschaftand thePolitischer Discurs vom Auj- und Abblühen der Städte. In 1669 he published hisPhysica subterranea, and the same year was engaged with the count of Hanau in a scheme for settling a large territory between the Orinoco and the Amazon. Meanwhile he had been appointed physician to the elector of Bavaria; but in 1670 he was again in Vienna advising on the establishment of a silk factory and propounding schemes for a great company to trade with the Low Countries and for a canal to unite the Rhine and Danube. He then returned to Bavaria, and his absence bringing him into ill odour at Vienna, he complained of the incompetence of the council of commerce and dedicated a tract on trade (Commercien-Tractat) to the emperor Leopold. HisPsychosophiafollowed, and “An invitation to a psychological community” (Einladung zu einer psychologischen Societät), for the realization of which Duke Gustavus Adolphus of Mecklenburg-Gustrow (d. 1695) offered him in 1674 a site in his duchy. The plan came to nothing, and next year Becher was again busy at Vienna, trying to transmute Danube sand into gold, and writing hisTheses chemicae veritatem transmutationis metallorum evincentes. For some reason he incurred the disfavour of Zinzendorf and fled to Holland, where with the aid of the government he continued his experiments. Pursued even there by the resentment of his former patron, he crossed to England, whence he visited the mines of Scotland at the request of Prince Rupert. He afterwards went for the same purpose to Cornwall, where he spent a year. At the beginning of 1680 he presented a paper to the Royal Society,De nova temporis dimetiendi ratione et accurata horologiorum constructione, in which he attempted to deprive Huygens of the honour of applying the pendulum to the measurement of time. The views of Becher on the composition of substances mark little essential advance on those of the two preceding centuries, and the three elements or principles of salt, mercury and sulphur reappear as the vitrifiable, the mercurial and the combustible earths. When a substance was burnt he supposed that the last of these, theterra pinguis, was liberated, and this conception is the basis on which G.E. Stahl founded his doctrine of “phlogiston.” His ideas and experiments on the nature of minerals and other substances are voluminously set forth in hisPhysica Subterranea(Frankfort, 1669); an edition of this, published at Leipzig in 1703, contains two supplements (Experimentum chymicum novumandDemonstratio Philosophica), proving the truth and possibility of transmuting metals,Experimentum novum ac curiosum de minera arenaria perpetua, the paper on timepieces already mentioned and alsoSpecimen Becherianum, a summary of his doctrines by Stahl, who in the preface acknowledges indebtedness to him in the wordsBecheriana sunt quae profero. At Falmouth he wrote hisLaboratorium portabileand at Truro theAlphabetum minerale. In 1682 he returned to London, where he wrote theChemischer Glückshafen oder grosse Concordanz und Collection van 1500 Processenand died in October of the same year.

BECHUANA,a South African people, forming a branch of the great Bantu-Negroid family. They occupy not only Bechuanaland, to which they have given their name, and Basutoland, but are the most numerous native race in the Orange River Colony and in the western and northern districts of the Transvaal. It seems certain that they reached their present home later than the Zulu-Xosa [Kaffir] peoples who came down the east coast of the continent, but it is probable that they started on their southward journey before the latter. It would appear that the forerunners of the movement were the Bakalahari and Balala, who were subsequently reduced to the condition of serfs by the later arrivals, and who by intermingling to a certain extent with the aborigines gave rise to the “Kalahari Bushmen” (seeKalahari Desert). The Bechuana family may be classed in two great divisions, the western or Bechuana proper, and the eastern or Basuto. The Bechuana proper consist of a large number of tribes, whose early history is extremely confused and involved owing to continual inter-tribal wars and migrations, during which many tribes were practically annihilated. Further confusion was produced by subsequent marauding expeditions by the coast “Kaffirs.” An ingenious attempt to disentangle the highly complicated tribal movements which took place in the early 19th century may be found in Stow’sNative Races of South Africa. One migration of particular interest calls for mention. In the early part of the 19th century a number of Basuto, led by the chief Sebituane, crossed the Zambezi near the Victoria Falls, and, under the name Makololo, established a supremacy over the Barotse and neighbouring tribes on the upper portion of the river, imposing their language on the conquered peoples. After the death of Sekeletu, Sebituane’s successor, the vassal tribes arose and exterminated their conquerors. Only a few escaped, whom Sekeletu had sent with David Livingstone to the coast. These established themselves to the south of Lake Nyasa, where they are still to be found. Sesuto speech, however, still prevails in Barotseland. The chief Bechuana tribes were the Batlapin and Barolong (the last including the Baratlou, Bataung, Barapulana and Baseleka), together with the great Bakuena or Bakone people (including the Bahurutsi, Batlaru, Bamangwato, Batauana, Bangwaketse and Bakuena). The clans representing the southern Bakuena were in comparatively recent times welded together to form the Basuto nation, of which the founder was the chief Moshesh (seeBasutoland). The Basuto have been not only influenced in certain cultural details (e.g.the form of their huts) by the neighbouring Zulu-Xosa [Kaffir] peoples, but have moreover received an infusion of their blood which has improved their physique. They are good riders and make considerable use of their horses in war and the chase.

The Bechuana, though not so tall as Kaffirs, average 5 ft. 6 in. in stature; they are of slender build and their musculature is but moderately developed except where a Kaffir strain is found. Their skin is of a reddish-brown or bronze colour, and their features are fairly regular, though in all cases coarser than those of Europeans. One of their chief peculiarities lies in the fact that each tribe respects (usually) a particular animal, which the members of the tribe may not eat, and the killing of which, if necessary, must be accompanied by profuse apologies and followed by subsequent purification. Many of the tribes take their name from theirsiboko, as the animal in question is called;e.g.the Batlapin, “they of the fish”; Bakuena, “they of the crocodile.” Thesibokoof the Barolong, who as a tribe are accomplished smiths, is not an animal but the metal iron; other tribes have adopted as their particular emblem respectively the sun, rain, dew, &c. Certain ceremonies are performed in honour of the tribal emblem, hence an inquiry as to the tribe of an individual is put in the form “What do you dance?” In certain tribes the old and feeble and the sickly children were killed, and albinos and the deaf and dumb exposed; those born blind were strangled, and if a mother died in childbirth the infant was buried alive in the same grave. With the extension of British authority these practices were prohibited. Circumcision is universally practised, though there is no fixed age for it. It is performed at puberty, when the boys are secluded for a period in the bush. The operation is accompanied by whipping and even tortures. Girls at puberty must undergo trials of endurance,e.g.the holding of a bar of heated iron without crying out. The Bechuana inhabit, for the most part, towns of considerable size, containing from 5000 to 40,000. Politically they live under a tribal despotism limited by a council of elders, the chief seldom exercising his individual authority independently, though the extent of his power naturally depends on his personality. They have their public assemblies, but only when circumstances, chiefly in reference to war, require. These are generally characterized by great freedom of speech, and there is no interruption of the speaker. The chief generally closes the meeting with a long speech, referring to the subjects which eachspeaker has either supported or condemned, not forgetting to clear his own character of any imputation. These public assemblies are now, except in Basutoland, of very rare occurrence. The clothing of the men consists of a leather bandage; the women wear a skin apron, reaching to the knee, under which is a fringed girdle. Skin cloaks (kaross) are worn by both sexes, with the difference that the male garment is distinguished by a collar. The hair is kept short for the most part; women shave the head, leaving a tuft on the crown which is plastered with fat and earth, and adorned with beads. Beads are worn, and various bracelets of iron, copper and brass.

The Bechuana are mainly an agricultural people, the Bangwaketse and Bakuena excelling as cultivators. Cattle they possess, but these are used chiefly for the purpose of purchasing wives, especially among the Basuto. At the same time they are excellent craftsmen, and show no little skill in smelting and working iron and copper and the preparation of hides and pottery vessels. The most efficient smiths are the Barolong and Bamangwato (the latter were spared by the Matabele chief Umsilikazi on this account); the Bangwaketse excel as potters; the Barolong as wood carvers, and the Bakuena as hut builders. The huts, with the exception of those of the Basuto who have adopted the Kaffir model, are cylindrical, with clay-plastered walls and a conical roof of thatch. In spite of the constant tribal feuds dating from the beginning of the 19th century, the Bechuana cannot be classed as a warlike people, especially when they are compared with the Zulu. Their weapons consist of the throwing assegai, usually barbed, axes, daggers in carved sheaths, and, occasionally, bows and arrows, the last sometimes poisoned. Hide shields of a peculiar shape, resembling a depressed hour-glass, are found except among the Basuto, who use a somewhat different pattern. Hunting usually takes the form of great drives organized in concert, and the game is driven by means of converging fences to a large pitfall or series of pits. Their religious beliefs are very vague; they appear to recognize a somewhat indeterminate spirit of, mainly, evil tendencies, calledMorimo. The plural form of this word,Barimo, is used of themanesof dead ancestors, to whom a varying amount of reverence is paid. There is universal belief in charms and witchcraft, and divination by means of dice is common. Witchdoctors, who are supposed to counteract evil magic, play a not insignificant part, and the magician who claims the power of making rain occupies a very important position, as might be expected among an agricultural people inhabiting a country where droughts are not infrequent. They have a great dread of anything connected with death; when an old man is on the point of expiring, a net is thrown over him, and he is dragged from his hut by a hole in the wall, if possible before life is extinct. The dead are buried in a sitting position with their faces to the north, in which direction lies their ancestral home. Under the influence of missionaries, however, large numbers of the Bechuana have become Christianized, and many of the customs mentioned are no longer practised.

Polygamy is the rule, but, except in the case of chiefs, is not found to the same extent as among the Zulu-Xosa [Kaffirs]. The woman is purchased from her father, chiefly by means of cattle, though among the western Bechuana other articles are included, many of which become the property of the girl herself. The wives live in separate huts, and the first is given priority over those purchased subsequently. Chastity after marriage is the rule, and adultery and rape are severely punished, as offences against property. Cannibalism is found, but is rare and confined to certain tribes.

The Bechuana language, which belongs to the Bantu linguistic family, is copious, with but few slight dialectic differences, and is free from the Hottentot elements found in the Kaffir and Zulu tongues. The richness of the language may be judged from the fact that, though only oral until reduced to writing by the missionaries, it has sufficed for the translation of the whole Bible.

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