Chapter 20

HisTheophilawas reprinted by S.W. Singer; and inMinor Poets of the Caroline Period, vol. i. (1905), Mr Saintsbury reprintsTheophilaand two other poems by Benlowes, “The Summary of Wisedome,” and “A Poetic Descant upon a Private Music-Meeting.”

BEN MACDHUI,more correctlyBen Muichdhui(Gaelic for “the mountain of the black pig,” in allusion to its shape), the second highest mountain (4296 ft.) in Great Britain, one of the Cairngorm group, on the confines of south-western Aberdeenshire and south-western Banffshire, not far from the eastern boundary of Inverness-shire. It is about 11 m. from Castleton of Braemar and about 10 from Aviemore. The ascent is usually made from Castleton of Braemar, by way of the Linn of Dee, Glen Lui and Glen Derry. From the head of Glen Derry, with its blasted trees, the picture of desolation, it becomes more toilsome, but is partly repaid by the view of the remarkable columnar cliffs of Corrie Etchachan. The summit is flat and quite bare of vegetation, but the panorama in every direction is extremely grand. At the foot of a vast gully, 2500 ft. above the sea, lies Loch Avon (or A’an), a narrow lake about 1½ m. long, with water of the deepest blue and a margin of bright yellow sand. At the western end of the lake is the Shelter Stone, an enormous block of granite resting upon two other blocks, which can accommodate a dozen persons. Beautiful rock crystals occur in veins in the corries. The summit of Cairngorm, 3½ m. north of that of Ben Macdhui, may be reached from the latter with scarcely any descent, by following the rugged ridge flanking the western side of Loch Avon. The other great peaks of the group are Braeriach (4248 ft.) and Cairntoul (4241 ft.), and 6 m. to the east are the twin masses of Ben a Bourd, the northern top of which is 3924 ft. and the southern 3860 ft. high. Ben A’an, an adjoining hill, is 3843 ft. high.

BENNETT, CHARLES EDWIN(1858- ), American classical scholar, was born on the 6th of April 1858, in Providence, Rhode Island. He graduated from Brown University in 1878 and also studied at Harvard (1881-1882) and in Germany (1882-1884). He taught in secondary schools in Florida (1878-1879), New York (1879-1881), and Nebraska (1885-1889), and became professor of Latin in the University of Wisconsin in 1889, of classical philology at Brown University in 1891, and of Latin at Cornell University in 1892. His syntactical studies, notably various papers on the subjunctive, are based on a statistical examination of Latin texts and are marked by a fresh system of nomenclature; he ranks as one of the leaders of the “New American School” of syntacticians, who insist on a preliminary re-examination of all available data. Of great importance are his advocacy of “quantitative” reading of Latin verse and hisCritique of Some Recent Subjunctive Theoriesin vol. ix. (1898) ofCornell Studies in Classical Philology, of which he was an editor. Bennett’sLatin Grammar(1895) is the first successful attempt in America to adopt the method of the brief, scholarlySchulgrammatik. Besides the Latin classics commonly read in secondary courses and other text-books in “Bennett’s Latin Series,” he edited Tacitus’sDialogus de Oratoribus(1894), and Cicero’sDe Senectute(1897) andDe Amicitia(1897). He wrote, with George P. Bristol,The Teaching of Greek and Latin in Secondary Schools(1900), andThe Latin Language, (1907), and with William Alexander Hammond translatedThe Characters of Theophrastus(1902).

BENNETT, JAMES GORDON(1794-1872), American journalist, founder and editor of the New York Herald, was born at Newmills in Banffshire, Scotland, in 1794 (not in 1800, as has been stated). He was educated for the Roman Catholic priesthoodin a seminary at Aberdeen, but in the spring of 1819, giving up the career which had been chosen for him, he emigrated to America. Landing at Halifax, Nova Scotia, he earned a poor living there for a short time by giving lessons in French, Spanish and bookkeeping; he passed next to Boston, where starvation threatened him until he got employment in a printing-office; and in 1822 he went to New York. An engagement as translator of Spanish for theCourierof Charleston, South Carolina, took him there for a few months in 1823. On his return to New York he projected a school, gave lectures on political economy and did subordinate work for the journals. During the next ten years he was employed on various papers, was the Washington correspondent first of theNew York Enquirer, and later of theCourier and Enquirerin 1827-1832, his letters attracting much attention; he founded the short-livedGlobein New York in 1832; and in 1833-1834 was the chief editor and one of the proprietors of thePennsylvanianat Philadelphia. On the 6th of May 1835 he published the first number of a small one-cent paper, bearing the title ofNew York Herald, and issuing from a cellar, in which the proprietor and editor played also the part of salesman. “He started with a disclaimer of all principle, as it is called, all party, all politics”; and to this he consistently adhered. By his industry, sagacity and unscrupulousness, and by the variety of his news, the “spicy” correspondence, and the supply of personal gossip and scandal, he made the paper a great commercial success. He devoted his attention particularly to the gathering of news, and was the first to introduce many of the methods of the modern American reporter. He published on the 13th of June 1835, the first Wall Street financial article to appear in any American newspaper; printed a vivid and detailed account of the great fire of December 1835, in New York; was the first, in 1846, to obtain the report in full by telegraph of a long political speech; and during the Civil War maintained a staff of sixty-three war correspondents. Bennett continued to edit the Herald almost till his death, at New York, on the 1st of June 1872.

His son,James Gordon Bennett(1841- ), took over the management of the paper during the last year of its founder’s life, and succeeded him in its control. It was he who sent Henry M. Stanley on his mission to find Livingstone in Central Africa, and he fitted out the “Jeannette” Polar Expedition, and in 1883 established (with John W. Mackay) the Commercial Cable Company.

BENNETT, JOHN,one of the finest English madrigalists, whose first set of madrigals appeared in 1599. In 1614 Ravenscroft, in a collection including five of his madrigals, writes a eulogy which reads like an obituary notice. The first set of madrigals was reprinted in 1845 by the Musical Antiquarian Society. Bennett’s works consist of this set and several contributions to such collections as theTriumphs of Oriana, and to various collections of church music.

BENNETT, JOHN HUGHES(1812-1875), English physician and pathologist, was born in London on the 31st of August 1812. He was educated at Exeter, and being destined for the medical profession was articled to a surgeon in Maidstone. In 1833 he began his studies at Edinburgh, and in 1837 graduated with the highest honours. During the next four years he studied in Paris and Germany, and on his return to Edinburgh in 1841 published aTreatise on Cod-liver Oil as a Therapeutic Agent. In the same year he began to lecture as an extra-academical teacher on histology, drawing attention to the importance of the microscope in the investigation of disease; and as physician to the Royal Dispensary he instituted courses of “polyclinical medicine.” In 1843 he was appointed professor of the institutes of medicine at Edinburgh, and performed the duties of that chair with great energy till incapacitated by failing health. He resigned in 1874. In August 1875 he was able to be present at the meeting of the British Medical Association in Edinburgh, on which occasion he received the degree of LL.D., but the fatigue he then underwent brought on a relapse, and he was compelled to have the operation of lithotomy performed. He sank rapidly and died on the 25th of September at Norwich. His publications were very numerous includingLectures on Clinical Medicine(1850-1856), which in second and subsequent editions were calledClinical Lectures on the Principles and Practice of Medicine, and were translated into various languages, including Russian and Hindu;Leucocythaemia(1852), the first recorded cure of which was published by him in 1845;Outlines of Physiology(1858), reprinted from the 8th edition of theEncyclopaedia Britannica;Pathology and Treatment of Pulmonary Tuberculosis(1853);Textbook of Physiology(1871-1872).

BENNETT, SIR WILLIAM STERNDALE(1816-1875), English musical composer, the son of Robert Bennett, an organist, was born at Sheffield on the 13th of April 1816. Having lost his father at an early age, he was brought up at Cambridge by his grandfather, from whom he received his first musical education. He entered the choir of King’s College chapel in 1824. In 1826 he entered the Royal Academy of Music, and remained a pupil of that institution for the next ten years, studying pianoforte under W.H. Holmes and Cipriani Potter, and composition under Lucas and Dr Crotch. It was during this time that he wrote several of his most appreciated works, in which may be traced influences of the contemporary movement of music in Germany, which country he frequently visited during the years 1836-1842. At one of the Rhenish musical festivals in Düsseldorf he made the personal acquaintance of Mendelssohn, and soon afterwards renewed it at Leipzig, where the talented young Englishman was welcomed by the leading musicians of the rising generation. At one of the celebrated Gewandhaus concerts he played his third pianoforte concerto, which was received enthusiastically. An enthusiastic account of the event was written by Robert Schumann, who pronounced Bennett to be the most “musikalisch” of all Englishmen, and “an angel of a musician” (copying Gregory’s pun onAngliandAngeli). But it was Mendelssohn’s influence that dominated Bennett’s mode of utterance. A good example of this may be studied in Bennett’sCapriccio in D minor. His great success on the continent established his position on his return to England. In 1834 he was elected organist of St Anne’s chapel (now church), Wandsworth. In this year he composed hisOverture to Parisina, and his Concerto in C minor, modelled on Mozart. An unpublished concerto in F minor, and the overture to theNaiads, impressed the firm of Broadwood so favourably in 1836 that they offered the composer a year in Leipzig, where theNaiadsoverture was performed at a Gewandhaus concert on the 13th of February 1837. Bennett visited Leipzig a second time in 1840-1841, when he composed hisCaprice in Efor pianoforte and orchestra and his overtureThe Wood Nymphs. He settled in London, devoting himself chiefly to practical teaching. In 1844 he married Mary Anne, daughter of Captain James Wood, R.N. He was made musical professor at Cambridge in 1856, the year in which he was engaged as permanent conductor of the Philharmonic Society. This latter post he held until 1866, when he became principal of the Royal Academy of Music. Owing to his professional duties his latter years were not fertile, and what he then wrote was scarcely equal to the productions of his youth. The principal charm of Bennett’s compositions (not to mention his absolute mastery of the musical form) consists in the tenderness of their conception, rising occasionally to sweetest lyrical intensity. Except the opera, Bennett tried his hand at almost all the different forms of vocal and instrumental writing. As his best works in various branches of art, we may mention, for pianoforte solo, and with accompaniment of the orchestra, his three sketches,The Lake, The MillstreamandThe Fountain, and his 3rd pianoforte concerto; for the orchestra, hisSymphony in G minor, and his overtureThe Naiads; and for voices, his cantataThe May Queen, written for the Leeds Festival in 1858. For the jubilee of the Philharmonic Society he wrote the overtureParadise and the Periin 1862. He also wrote a sacred cantata,The Woman of Samaria, first performed at the Birmingham Musical Festival in 1867. In 1870 the university of Oxford conferred upon him the honorary degree of D.C.L. A year later he was knighted, and in 1872 he received a public testimonial before a large audience at St James’s Hall, the money subscribed being devoted to the foundation of a scholarshipat the Royal Academy of Music. Shortly before his death he produced a sonata called theMaid of Orleans, an elaborate piece of programme music based on Schiller’s tragedy. He died at his house in St John’s Wood, London, on the 15th of February 1875. See theLife, by his son (1908).

BEN NEVIS,the highest mountain in the British Isles, in Inverness-shire, Scotland. It is 4406 ft. above the level of the sea, and is situated 4½ m. E.S.E. of Fort William, the meridian of 5° W passing through it. As viewed from Banavie on the Caledonian Canal, it has the appearance of two great masses, one higher than the other, and though its bulk is impressive, its outline is much less striking than that of many other Highland hills. Its summit consists of a plateau 100 acres in area, with a slight slope to the south, terminating on its north-eastern side in a sheer fall of more than 1500 ft. Snow lies in some of the gorges all the year round. The rocks of its lower half are mainly granite and gneiss; its upper half is composed of porphyritic greenstone, and a variety of minerals occur. Its circumference at the base is about 30 m. It may be described as flanked on the west and south by the Glen and Water of Nevis, on the east by the river and Glen of Treig, and on the north by the river and Glen of Spean. From 1881 till 1904 meteorological observations were taken from the summit of Ben Nevis, the observers at first making the ascent daily for the purpose. In 1883, however, an observatory, equipped at a cost of £4000 (raised by public subscription), was opened by Mrs Cameron Campbell of Monzie, who provided the site. The observatory, which was connected by wire with the post office at Fort William, was provisioned by the Scottish Meteorological Society, to whom it belonged. The burden of maintaining it, however, proving too great for the society’s means, appeal was made in vain to government for national support, and the station was closed in 1904. The bridle road up the mountain leaves Glen Nevis at Achintee; it has a gradient nowhere exceeding 1 in 5, and the ascent is commonly effected in two to three hours. There is a small hotel on the summit for the convenience of tourists, especially of those anxious to witness sunrise. From the summit every considerable peak in Scotland is visible. Observations conducted during several months have shown that, whilst the mean temperature at Fort William was 57° F., at the summit of Ben Nevis it was 41° F., and that though the rainfall at the fort amounted to 24 in., it was as much as 43 in. on the top of the Ben.

BENNIGSEN, LEVIN AUGUST,Count von(1745-1826), Russian general, of Hanoverian family, was born on the 10th of February 1745 in Brunswick, and served successively as a page at the Hanoverian court and as an officer of foot-guards. He retired from the Hanoverian army in 1764, and in 1773 entered the Russian service as a field officer. He fought against the Turks in 1774 and in 1778, becoming lieutenant-colonel in the latter year. In 1787 his conduct at the storming of Oczakov won him promotion to the rank of brigadier, and he distinguished himself repeatedly in the Polish War of 1793-1794 and in the Persian War of 1796. The part played by Bennigsen in the actual assassination of the tsar Paul I. is not fully known, but he took a most active share in the formation and conduct of the conspiracy. Alexander I. made him governor-general of Lithuania in 1801, and in 1802 a general of cavalry. In 1806 he was in command of one of the Russian armies operating against Napoleon, when he fought the battle of Pultusk and met the emperor in person in the sanguinary battle of Eylau (8th of February 1807). Here he could claim to have inflicted the first reverse suffered by Napoleon, but six months later Bennigsen met with the crushing defeat of Friedland (14th of June 1807) the direct consequence of which was the treaty of Tilsit. Bennigsen now retired for some years, but in the campaign of 1812 he reappeared in the army in various responsible positions. He was present at Borodino, and defeated Murat in the engagement of Tarutino, but on account of a quarrel with Marshal Kutusov, the Russian commander-in-chief, he was compelled to retire from active military employment. After the death of Kutusov he was recalled and placed at the head of an army. Bennigsen led one of the columns which made the decisive attack on the last day of the battle of Leipzig (16th-19th of October 1813). On the same evening he was made a count by the emperor Alexander I., and he afterwards commanded the forces which operated against Marshal Davout in North Germany. After the general peace he held a command from 1815 to 1818, when he retired from active service and settled on his Hanoverian estate of Banteln near Hildesheim. Count Bennigsen died on the 3rd of December 1826. His son,Alexander Levin, count von Bennigsen (1809-1893), was a distinguished Hanoverian statesman.

BENNIGSEN, RUDOLF VON(1824-1902), German politician, was born at Lüneburg on the 10th of July 1824. He was descended from an old Hanoverian family, his father, Karl von Bennigsen, being an officer in the Hanoverian army, who rose to the rank of general and also held diplomatic appointments. Bennigsen, having studied at the university of Göttingen, entered the Hanoverian civil service. In 1855 he was elected a member of the second chamber; and as the government refused to allow him leave of absence from his official duties he resigned his post in the public service. He at once became the recognized leader of the Liberal opposition to the reactionary government, but must be distinguished from Count Bennigsen, a member of the same family, and son of the distinguished Russian general, who was also one of the parliamentary leaders at the time. What gave Bennigsen his importance not only in Hanover, but throughout the whole of Germany, was the foundation of the National Verein, which was due to him, and of which he was president. This society, which arose out of the public excitement created by the war between France and Austria, had for its object the formation of a national party which should strive for the unity and the constitutional liberty of the whole Fatherland. It united the moderate Liberals throughout Germany, and at once became a great political power, notwithstanding all the efforts of the governments, and especially of the king of Hanover to suppress it. In 1866 Bennigsen used all his influence to keep Hanover neutral in the conflict between Prussia and Austria, but in vain. He took no part in the war, but his brother, who was an officer in the Prussian army, was killed in Bohemia. In May of this year he had an important interview with Bismarck, who wished to secure his support for the reform of the confederation, and after the war was over at once accepted the position of a Prussian subject, and took his seat in the diet of the North German Confederation and in the Prussian parliament. He used his influence to procure as much autonomy as possible for the province of Hanover, but was a strong opponent of the Guelph party. He was one of the three Hanoverians, Windthorst and Miquel being the other two, who at once won for the representatives of the conquered province the lead in both the Prussian and German parliaments. The National Verein, its work being done, was now dissolved; but Bennigsen was chiefly instrumental in founding a new political party—the National Liberals,—who, while they supported Bismarck’s national policy, hoped to secure the constitutional development of the country. For the next thirty years he was president of the party, and was the most influential of the parliamentary leaders. It was chiefly owing to him that the building up of the internal institutions of the empire was carried on without the open breach between Bismarck and the parliament, which was often imminent. Many amendments suggested by him were introduced in the debates on the constitution; in 1870 he undertook a mission to South Germany to strengthen the national party there, and was consulted by Bismarck while at Versailles. It was he who brought about the compromise on the military bill in 1874. In 1877 he was offered the post of vice-chancellor with a seat in the Prussian ministry, but refused it because Bismarck or the king would not agree to his conditions. From this time his relations with the government were less friendly, and in 1878 he brought about the rejection of the first Socialist Bill. In 1883 he resigned his seat in parliament owing to the reactionary measures of the government, which made it impossible for him to continue his former co-operation with Bismarck, but returned in 1887 to support the coalition of national parties. One of the first acts of the emperor William II. was to appoint him president of the province of Hanover. In 1897 he resigned this post andretired from public life. He died on the 7th of August 1902.

See biographical notices by A. Kiepert (2nd ed., Hanover, 1902), and E. Schreck (Hanover, 1894).

BENNINGTON,a village and one of the county-seats of Bennington county, Vermont, U.S.A., situated in the S.W. part of the state, about 30 m. E.N.E. of Troy, New York. Pop. (1890) 3971; (1900) 5656 (965 foreign-born); (1910) 6211. The township of the same name, in which it is situated, had in 1910 a population of 8698, living chiefly in the villages of Bennington, North Bennington and Bennington Centre, the last a summer resort. The village of Bennington is served by the Rutland railway, and is connected by electric railway with North Adams and Pittsfield, Mass., and Hoosick Falls, N.Y. It is picturesquely situated at the foot of the Green Mountains, and the summit of the neighbouring Mt. Anthony (2345 ft.) commands a magnificent view. The village has woollen mills, knitting mills, stereoscope, box, and collar and cuff factories and machine shops. There are white clay and yellow ochre works in different parts of the township. Bennington is the seat of the Vermont state soldiers’ home. The Bennington Battle Monument, a shaft 301 ft. high, is said to be the highest battle monument in the world. It commemorates the success gained on the 16th of August 1777 by a force of nearly 2000 “Green Mountain Boys” and New Hampshire and Massachusetts militia under General John Stark over two detachments of General Burgoyne’s army, totalling about 1200 men, under Col. Friedrich Baum and Col. Breyman. These came up one after the other in search of provisions and were practically annihilated, Col. Baum being mortally wounded and 700 men taken prisoners. The scene of the battle is about 5 m. from the village. The victory had an important influence on Burgoyne’s campaign (seeAmerican War of Independence), weakening Burgoyne and encouraging the American militia to take the field against him. Bennington was settled in 1761 and was named in honour of Governor Benning Wentworth of New Hampshire. The township was organized in 1762. It was one of the “New Hampshire Grant” towns, both New York and New Hampshire claiming jurisdiction over it, and, being the home of Ethan Alien and Seth Warner, it became the centre of activities of the “Green Mountain Boys,” of whom they were leaders. During the fifteen years in which Vermont was an independent commonwealth, Bennington was the headquarters of the council of safety. In 1828-1829 W.L. Garrison edited here a paper calledThe Journal of the Times. The village of Bennington was incorporated in 1849.

See Merrill and Merrill,Sketches of Historic Bennington(Cambridge, Mass., 1898).

BENNO(1010-1106), bishop of Meissen, was the son of Werner, count of Woldenburg, was educated at Gosslar, and in 1066 was nominated by the emperor Henry IV. to the see of Meissen. In the troubles between empire and papacy that followed Benno took part against the emperor. In 1085 he was deposed by the synod of Mainz, but after the death of Pope Gregory VII. he submitted, and on the recommendation of the imperialist Pope Clement III. was restored to his see, which he held till his death. He did much for his diocese, both by ecclesiastical reforms on the Hildebrandine model and by material developments. He was long reverenced in his own diocese as a saint before, in 1523, he was canonized by Pope Adrian VI. His canonization drew from Luther a violent brochure “against the new false god and old devil, who is to be lifted up at Meissen.”

For bibliography, see Ulysse Chevalier,Répertoire des sources hist.: Bio-bibliographie, s.v.“Bennon.”

BENOIT, PETER LEONARD LEOPOLD(1834-1901), Flemish composer, was born on the 17th of August 1834 at Harlebeke in Flanders. His father and a local village organist were his first teachers. In 1851 Benoit entered the Brussels Conservatoire, where he remained till 1855, studying chiefly under F.J. Fétis. During this period he composed music to many melodramas, and to an operaLe Village dans les montagnesfor the Park theatre, of which in 1856 he became conductor. He won a government prize and a money grant in 1857 by his cantataLe Meurtre d’Abel, and this enabled him to travel through Germany. In course of his journeyings he found time to write a considerable amount of music, as well as an essayL’École de musique flamande et son avenir. Fétis loudly praised hisMesse solennelle, which Benoit produced at Brussels on his return from Germany. In 1861 he visited Paris for the production of his operaLe Roi des Aulnes(“Erlkönig”), which, though accepted by the Théâtre Lyrique, was never mounted; while there he conducted at the Bouffes-Parisiens. Again returning home, he astonished a section of the musical world by the production at Antwerp of a sacred tetralogy, consisting of hisCantate de Noël, the above-mentionedMass, aTe Deumand aRequiem, in which were embodied to a large extent his theories of Flemish music. It was in consequence of his passion for the founding of an entirely separate Flemish school that Benoit changed his name from Pierre to Peter. By prodigious efforts he succeeded in gathering round him a small band of enthusiasts, who affected to see with him possibilities in the foundation of a school whose music should differ completely from that of the French and German schools. In its main features this school failed, for its faith was pinned to Benoit’s music, which is hardly more Flemish than French or German. Benoit’s more important compositions include the Flemish oratoriosDe ScheldeandLucifer, the latter of which met with complete failure on its production in London in 1888; the operasHet Dorp int GebirgteandIsa, theDrama Christi; an enormous mass of songs, choruses, small cantatas and motets. Benoit also wrote a great number of essays on musical matters. He died at Antwerp on the 8th of March 1901.

BENOÎT DE SAINTE-MORE,orSainte-Maure, 12th century Frenchtrouvère, is supposed to have been a native of Sainte-Maure in Touraine. Very little is known of his personal history. Themaîtreprefixed to his name implies that he had graduated at the university, but there is nothing to show whether he was a simpletrouvèreby profession or belonged to the clergy. He was a loyal subject of Henry II. of England, to whose court he was attached, and when he speaks of the French, it is as “they.” Wace had begun a history of the dukes of Normandy in hisRoman du Rou. This he brought down to the reign of Henry I., but here Henry II. seems to have withdrawn his patronage, and at the end of his poem Wace refers to amaistre Beneeitwho had received a similar commission. There is no other contemporary poem extant dealing with the subject except theChronique des ducs de Normandie, and it would seem reasonable to assume the identity of Wace’s rival with Benoît de Sainte-More, whose authorship of the chronicle has, nevertheless, been often disputed. But a comparison of theRoman de Troie, which is certainly Benoît’s work, with theChronique, confirms the supposition that they are by the same author. The poem contains over forty thousand lines, and relates the history of the Norman dukes from Rollo to Henry I., with a preliminary sketch of the Danish invasions and the adventures of Hastings and his companions. It has no claims to be considered an original authority. Benoît drew his information from theDe moribus et actis primorum Normanniae ducumof Dudon de Saint Quentin as far as 1002, following his model very closely. From that time he avails himself of the chronicle of William of Jumieges, also of Ordericus Vitalis and others. TheChroniqueprobably dates from about 1172 to 1176. In theRoman de Troie, written about 1160, Benoît expressly asserts his authorship. He mentions “Omers” with great respect asli clers merveillos, but his authority for the story is naturally not Homer, of whom he could have no first-hand knowledge. He follows the apocryphalHistoria de excidio Trojaeof Dares the Phrygian and theEphemerides belli Trojaniof Dictys of Crete. The poem runs to about 30,000 lines. The personages of the classical story are converted into heroes of romance. They have their castles and their abbeys, and act in accordance with feudal custom. The supernatural machinery of Homer is missing both in Benoît’s original and his own narrative. The story begins with the capture of the Golden Fleece and comes down to the return of the Greek princes afterthe fall of Troy. Benoît diverges very widely from the classical tradition, and M. Léopold Constans sees reason to suppose that thetrouvèrefounded his poem on an amplified version of the Dares narrative that has not come down to us. In theRoman de Troiefirst appeared the episode of Troïlus and Briseïde, that was to be developed later in theFilostratoof Boccaccio, which in its turn formed the basis of Chaucer’sTroilus and Creseide. The Shakespearian play ofTroilus and Cressidais also indirectly derived from Benoît’s story.

On the strength of a certain similarity of treatment Benoît has sometimes been credited with the authorship of the anonymousRoman d’Énéasand of theRoman de Thèbes, a romance derived indirectly from theThebaïsof Statius. M. Constans is inclined to negative both these attributions. It is not even certain that the Benoît who chronicled the deeds of the Norman dukes for Henry II. between 1172 and 1176 was the Benoît de Sainte-More of theRoman de Troie.

TheChronique des ducs de Normandiewas edited by Francisque Michel in 1836-1844; theRoman de Troieby A. Joly in 1870-1871; theÉnéas, by J.J. Salverda de Grave in H. Suchier’sBibliotheca Normannicain 1891; theRoman de Thèbesfor theSociété des anciens textes français, by M.L. Constans in 1890. See E.D. Grand inLa Grande Encyclopédie; L. Constans in Petit de Julleville’sHist. de la langue et de la litt, française(vol. i. pp. 171-225). where the three romances are analysed at length. The prefaces to the editions just mentioned discuss the authorship of the romances.

BENSERADE, ISAAC DE(1613-1691), French poet, was born in Paris, and baptized on the 5th of November 1613. His family appears to have been connected with Richelieu, who bestowed on him a pension of 600 livres. He began his literary career with the tragedy ofCléopâtre(1635), which was followed by four other indifferent pieces. On Richelieu’s death Benserade lost his pension, but became more and more a favourite at court, especially with Anne of Austria. He provided the words for the court ballets, and was, in 1674, admitted to the Academy, where he wielded an influence quite out of proportion to the merit of his work. In 1676 the failure of hisMétamorphoses d’Ovidein the form of rondeaux gave a blow to his reputation, but by no means destroyed his vogue with his contemporaries. Benserade would probably be forgotten but for his sonnet on Job (1651). This sonnet, which he sent to a young lady with his paraphrase on Job, having been placed in competition with theUraniaof Voiture, a dispute on their relative merits long divided the whole court and the wits into two parties, styled respectively theJobelinsand theUranists. The partisans of Benserade were headed by the prince de Conti and Mile de Scudéry, while Mme de Montausier and J.G. de Balzac took the side of Voiture.

Some years before his death, on the 19th of October 1691, Benserade retired to Chantilly, and devoted himself to a translation of the Psalms, which he nearly completed.

BENSLEY, ROBERT,an 18th-century English actor, of whom Charles Lamb in theEssays of Eliaspeaks with special praise. His early life is obscure, and he is said to have served in America as a lieutenant of marines; but he appeared at Drury Lane in 1765, and at that house and at Covent Garden, and later at the Haymarket, he played important parts up to 1796, when he retired from the stage. He appears then to have been given a small post under the government, a paymastership, which he resigned in 1798. He is stated in various quarters to have died in 1817, but Mr Joseph Knight shows in his article in theDict. Nat. Biog.that this is due to a confusion with another man named William Bensley, who possibly belonged to the family of printers of whom Thomas Bensley (d. 1833) was the chief representative. On the stage he was simply “Mr Bensley,” but though he is named William and even Richard in some accounts, Mr Knight shows that his name was certainly Robert. The actual date of his death is unknown, though it was probably later than 1809, when he is said to have inherited a fortune. His great character was Malvolio, but Charles Lamb’s fervent admiration of his acting seems to have outrun the general opinion.

BENSON, EDWARD WHITE(1829-1896), archbishop of Canterbury, was born on the 14th of July 1829, at Birmingham. He came of a family of Yorkshire dalesmen, his father, whose name was also Edward White Benson, being a manufacturing chemist of some note. He was educated at King Edward VI.’s school, Birmingham, under James Prince Lee, afterwards bishop of Manchester, and amongst his school-fellows were B.F. Westcott and J.B. Lightfoot, both of whom preceded him to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was elected a sub-sizar in 1848, becoming subsequently sizar and scholar. The death of his widowed mother in 1850 left him almost without resources, with a family of younger brothers and sisters dependent upon him. Relations came to his aid, and presently his anxieties were relieved by Francis Martin, bursar of Trinity, who gave him liberal help. Benson took his degree in 1852 as a senior optime, eighth classic and senior chancellor’s medallist, and was elected fellow of Trinity in the following year. He became a master at Rugby, first under E.M. Goulburn, and then (1857) under Frederick Temple, who became his lifelong friend; he was also ordained deacon in 1854 and priest in 1856. From Rugby he went to be first headmaster of Wellington College, which was opened in January 1859; and in the course of the same year he married his cousin, Mary Sidgwick. The school flourished under his management and also developed his administrative abilities, but gradually his thoughts began to turn towards other work. In 1868 he became prebendary of Lincoln and examining chaplain to Bishop Christopher Wordsworth, an office which he also held for a short time in 1870 for Dr Temple, just appointed to the see of Exeter. In 1872 his acceptance of the chancellorship of Lincoln opened a new period of his life. As chancellor, the statutes directed him to study theology, to train others in that study and to oversee the educational work of the diocese. To such work Benson at once devoted himself; and did more perhaps than any other man to reinvigorate cathedral life in England. He started a theological college (theScholae Cancellarii), founded night schools, delivered courses of lectures on church history, held Bible classes, and was instrumental in founding a society of mission preachers for the diocese, the “Novate Novale.” Early in 1877 he was consecrated first bishop of Truro, and threw himself with characteristic vigour into the work of organizing the new diocese. His knowledge, his sympathy, his enthusiasm soon made themselves felt everywhere; the ruridecanal conferences of clergy became a real force, and the church in Cornwall was inspired with a vitality that had never been possible when it was part of the unwieldy diocese of Exeter. A chapter was constituted, the bishop being dean; amongst its members was a canon missioner (the first to be appointed in England), and theScholae Cancellariiwere founded after the Lincoln pattern. Moreover, the bishop at once set to work to build a cathedral. The foundation-stone was laid on the 20th of May 1880, and on the 3rd of November 1887 the building, so far as then completed, was consecrated. On the death of Dr Tait, Benson was nominated to the see of Canterbury and was enthroned on the 29th of March 1883. His primacy was one of almost unprecedented activity.

Frequent communications passed between him and the heads of the Eastern Churches. With their approval a bishop was again consecrated, after six years’ interval (1881-1887), for the Anglican congregations in Jerusalem and the East; and the features which had made the plan objectionable to many English churchmen were now abolished. In 1886, after much careful investigation, he founded the “Archbishop’s Mission to the Assyrian Christians,” having for its object the instruction and the strengthening from within of the “Nestorian” churches of the East (seeNestorians). An interchange of courtesies with the Metropolitan of Kiev on the occasion of the 900th anniversary of the conversion of Russia (1888), led to further intercourse, which has tended to a friendlier feeling between the English and Russian churches. On the other hand, with the efforts towards arapprochementwith the Church of Rome, to which the visit of the French Abbé Portal in 1894 gave some stimulus, the archbishop would have nothing to do.

With the other churches of the Anglican Communion the archbishop’s relations were cordial in the extreme and grewcloser as time went on. Particular questions of importance, the Jerusalem bishopric, the healing of the Colenso schism in the diocese of Natal, the organization of native ministries and the like, occupied much of his time; and he did all in his power to foster the growth of local churches. But it was the work at home which occupied most of his energies. That he in no way slighted diocesan work had been shown at Truro. He complained now that the bishops were “bishops of their dioceses but not bishops of England,” and did all he could to make the Church a greater religious force in English life. He sat on the ecclesiastical courts commission (1881-1883) and the sweating commission (1888-1890). He brought bills into parliament to reform Church patronage and Church discipline, and worked unremittingly for years in their behalf. The latter became law in 1892, and the former was merged in the Benefices Bill, which passed in 1898, after his death. He wrote and spoke vigorously against Welsh disestablishment (1893); and in the following year, under his guidance, the existing agencies for Church defence were consolidated. He was largely instrumental in the inauguration of the House of Laymen in the province of Canterbury (1886); he made diligent inquiries as to the internal order of the sisterhoods of which he was visitor; from 1884 onwards he gave regular Bible readings for ladies in Lambeth Palace chapel. But the most important ecclesiastical event of his primacy was the judgment in the case of the bishop of Lincoln (seeLincoln Judgment), in which the law of the prayer-book is investigated, as it had never been before, from the standpoint of the whole history of the English Church. In 1896 the archbishop went to Ireland to see the working of the sister Church. He was received with enthusiasm, but the work which his tour entailed over-fatigued him. On Sunday morning the 11th of October, just after his return, whilst on a visit to Mr Gladstone, he died in Hawarden parish church of heart failure.

Archbishop Benson left numerous writings, including a valuable essay onThe Cathedral(London, 1878), and various charges and volumes of sermons and addresses. But his two chief works, posthumously published, are hisCyprian(London, 1897), a work of great learning, which had occupied him at intervals since early manhood; andThe Apocalypse, an Introductory Study(London, 1900), interesting and beautiful, but limited by the fact that the method of study is that of a Greek play, not of a Hebrew apocalypse. The archbishop’s knowledge of the past was both wide and minute, but it was that of an antiquary rather than of a historian. “I think,” writes his son, “he was more interested in modern movements for their resemblance to ancient than vice versa.” His sermons are very noble though written in a style which is over-compressed and often obscure. He wrote some good hymns, including “O Throned, O Crowned” and a beautiful version ofUrbs Beata. His “grandeur in social function” was unequalled and his interests were very wide. But above all else he was a great ecclesiastic. He paid less attention to secular politics than Archbishop Tait; but if a man is to be judged by the effect of his work, it is Benson and not Tait who should be described as a great statesman. His biography, by his son, reveals him as a man of devout and holy life, impulsive indeed and masterful, but one who learned self-restraint by strenuous endeavour.

His eldest son,Arthur Christopher Benson(b. 1862), was educated at Eton and King’s College, Cambridge. He became fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and was a master at Eton College from 1885 to 1903. His literary capacity was early shown in the remarkable fiction of hisMemoirs of Arthur Hamilton(1886) under the pseudonym of “Christopher Carr,” and hisPoems(1893) andLyrics(1895) established his reputation as a writer of verse. Among his works areFasti Etonenses(1899); his father’sLife(1899);The Schoolmaster(1902), a commentary on the aims and methods of an assistant schoolmaster in a public school; a study of Archbishop Laud (1887); monographs on D.G. Rossetti (1904), Edward FitzGerald (1905) and Walter Pater (1906), in the “English Men of Letters” series;Lord Vyet and other Poems(1897),Peace and other Poems(1905);The Upton Letters (1905), From a College Window(1906),Beside Still Waters(1907). He also collaborated with Lord Esher in editing theCorrespondence of Queen Victoria(1907).

The third son,Edward Frederick Benson(b. 1867), was educated at Marlborough College and King’s College, Cambridge. He worked at Athens for the British Archaeological Society from 1892 to 1895, and subsequently in Egypt for the Hellenic Society. In 1893 his society novel,Dodo, brought him to the front among the writers of clever fiction; and this was followed by other novels, notablyThe Vintage(1898) andThe Capsina(1899).

The fourth son,Robert Hugh Benson(b. 1871), was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. After reading with Dean Vaughan at Llandaff he took orders, and in 1898 became a member of the Community of the Resurrection at Mirfield. In 1903 he became a Roman Catholic, was ordained priest at Rome in the following year, and returned to Cambridge as assistant priest of the Roman Catholic church there. Among his numerous publications areThe Light Invisible, By What Authority?, The King’s Achievement, Richard Raynal, Solitary, The Queen’s Tragedy, The Sentimentalists, Lord of the World.

See A.C. Benson,Life of Archbishop Benson(2 vols., London, 1899); J.H. Bernard,Archbishop Benson in Ireland(1897); Sir L.T. Dibdin inThe Quarterly Review, October 1897.

BENSON, FRANCIS ROBERT(1858- ), English actor, son of William Benson of Alresford, Hants, was born at Tunbridge Wells on the 4th of November 1858. He came of a talented family, his elder brother, W.A.S. Benson (b. 1854), becoming well known in the world of art as one of the pioneers in the revival of English industrial craftsmanship, especially in the field of the metallic arts; and his younger brother, Godfrey Benson, being an active Liberal politician. He was educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford, and at the university was distinguished both as an athlete (winning the Inter-university three miles) and as an amateur actor. In the latter respect he was notable for producing at Oxford the first performance of a Greek play, theAgamemnon, in which many Oxford men who afterwards became famous in other fields took part. Mr Benson, on leaving Oxford, took to the professional stage, and made his first appearance at the Lyceum, under Irving, inRomeo and Juliet, as Paris, in 1882. In the next year he went into managership with a company of his own, taken over from Walter Bentley, and from this time he became gradually more and more prominent, both as an actor of leading parts himself and as the organizer of practically the only modern “stock company” touring through the provinces. In 1886 he married Gertrude Constance Cockburn (Featherstonhaugh), who acted in his company and continued to play leading parts with him. Mr Benson’s chief successes were gained out of London for some years, but in 1890 he had a season in London at the Globe and in 1900 at the Lyceum, and in later years he was seen with hisrépertoireat the Coronet. His company included from time to time many actors and actresses who, having been trained under him, became prominent on their own account, and both by his organization of this regular company and by his foundation of a dramatic school of acting in 1901, Mr Benson exercised a most important influence on the contemporary stage. From the first he devoted himself largely to the production of Shakespeare’s plays, reviving many which had not been acted for generations, and his services to the cause of Shakespeare can hardly be overestimated. From 1888 onwards he managed the Stratford-on-Avon Shakespearian Festival. His romantic and intellectual powers as an actor, combined with his athletic and picturesque bearing and fine elocution, were conspicuously shown in his own impersonations, most remarkable among which were his Hamlet (in 1900 he produced this play without cuts in London), his Coriolanus, his Richard II., his Lear and his Petruchio.

BENSON, FRANK WESTON(1862- ), American painter, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, on the 24th of March 1862. He was a pupil of Boulanger and of Lefebvre in Paris; won many distinctions in American exhibitions, and a silver medal at the Paris Exhibition of 1900; and became a member ofthe “Ten Americans,” and of the National Academy of Design, New York. Besides portraits, he painted landscape and still life; and he was one of the decorators of the Congressional library, Washington, D.C.

BENSON, GEORGE(1699-1762), English dissenting minister, was born at Great Salkeld, in Cumberland, on the 1st of September 1699, of a family which had distinguished itself in church and state. He studied at a school at Whitehaven and later at the university of Glasgow. In 1722, on Calamy’s recommendation, he was chosen pastor of a congregation of dissenters at Abingdon, in Berkshire, where he continued till 1729, when, having embraced Arminian views, he became the choice of a congregation in Southwark; and in 1740 he was appointed by the congregation of Crutched Friars colleague to the learned Dr Nathaniel Lardner, whom he succeeded in 1749. HisDefence of the Reasonableness of Prayerappeared in 1731, and he afterwards published paraphrases and notes on the epistles to the Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus and Philemon, adding dissertations on several important subjects, particularly (as an appendix to 1 Timothy) on inspiration. In 1738 he published hisHistory of the First Planting of the Christian Religion, in 3 vols. 4to, a work of great learning and ability. He also wrote theReasonableness of the Christian Religion(1743), theHistory of the Life of Jesus Christ, posthumously published in 1764, a paraphrase and notes on the seven Catholic epistles, and several other works, which gained him great reputation as a scholar and theologian even outside his own communion and his own country. Owing to his undoubted Socinianism his works suffered neglect after his death, which occurred on the 6th of April 1762.

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