Chapter XXII: Act 1534: , the power to grant such dispensations, which had been (4)

BENOIT, PETER LEONARD LEOPOLD (1834-1901), Flemish composer, was born on the 17th of August 1834 at Harlebeke in Flanders. His father and a local village organist were his first teachers. In 1851 Benoit entered the Brussels Conservatoire, where he remained till 1855, studying chiefly under F.J. Fetis. During this period he composed music to many melodramas, and to an opera _Le Village dans les montagnes_ for the Park theatre, of which in 1856 he became conductor. He won a government prize and a money grant in 1857 by his cantata _Le Meurtre d'Abel_, and this enabled him to travel through Germany. In course of his journeyings he found time to write a considerable amount of music, as well as an essay _L'Ecole de musique flamande et son avenir_. Fetis loudly praised his _Messe solennelle_, which Benoit produced at Brussels on his return from Germany. In 1861 he visited Paris for the production of his opera _Le Roi des Aulnes_ ("Erlkonig"), which, though accepted by the Theatre Lyrique, was never mounted; while there he conducted at the Bouffes-Parisiens. Again returning home, he astonished a section of the musical world by the production at Antwerp of a sacred tetralogy, consisting of his _Cantate de Noel_, the above-mentioned _Mass_, a _Te Deum_ and a _Requiem_, in which were embodied to a large extent his theories of Flemish music. It was in consequence of his passion for the founding of an entirely separate Flemish school that Benoit changed his name from Pierre to Peter. By prodigious efforts he succeeded in gathering round him a small band of enthusiasts, who affected to see with him possibilities in the foundation of a school whose music should differ completely from that of the French and German schools. In its main features this school failed, for its faith was pinned to Benoit's music, which is hardly more Flemish than French or German. Benoit's more important compositions include the Flemish oratorios _De Schelde_ and _Lucifer_, the latter of which met with complete failure on its production in London in 1888; the operas _Het Dorp int Gebirgte_ and _Isa_, the _Drama Christi_; an enormous mass of songs, choruses, small cantatas and motets. Benoit also wrote a great number of essays on musical matters. He died at Antwerp on the 8th of March 1901.

BENOIT DE SAINTE-MORE, or SAINTE-MAURE, 12th century French _trouvere_, is supposed to have been a native of Sainte-Maure in Touraine. Very little is known of his personal history. The _maitre_ prefixed to his name implies that he had graduated at the university, but there is nothing to show whether he was a simple _trouvere_ by profession or belonged to the clergy. He was a loyal subject of Henry II. of England, to whose court he was attached, and when he speaks of the French, it is as "they." Wace had begun a history of the dukes of Normandy in his _Roman du Rou_. This he brought down to the reign of Henry I., but here Henry II. seems to have withdrawn his patronage, and at the end of his poem Wace refers to a _maistre Beneeit_ who had received a similar commission. There is no other contemporary poem extant dealing with the subject except the _Chronique des ducs de Normandie_, and it would seem reasonable to assume the identity of Wace's rival with Benoit de Sainte-More, whose authorship of the chronicle has, nevertheless, been often disputed. But a comparison of the _Roman de Troie_, which is certainly Benoit's work, with the _Chronique_, confirms the supposition that they are by the same author. The poem contains over forty thousand lines, and relates the history of the Norman dukes from Rollo to Henry I., with a preliminary sketch of the Danish invasions and the adventures of Hastings and his companions. It has no claims to be considered an original authority. Benoit drew his information from the _De moribus et actis primorum Normanniae ducum_ of Dudon de Saint Quentin as far as 1002, following his model very closely. From that time he avails himself of the chronicle of William of Jumieges, also of Ordericus Vitalis and others. The _Chronique_ probably dates from about 1172 to 1176. In the _Roman de Troie_, written about 1160, Benoit expressly asserts his authorship. He mentions "Omers" with great respect as _li clers merveillos_, but his authority for the story is naturally not Homer, of whom he could have no first-hand knowledge. He follows the apocryphal _Historia de excidio Trojae_ of Dares the Phrygian and the _Ephemerides belli Trojani_ of Dictys of Crete. The poem runs to about 30,000 lines. The personages of the classical story are converted into heroes of romance. They have their castles and their abbeys, and act in accordance with feudal custom. The supernatural machinery of Homer is missing both in Benoit's original and his own narrative. The story begins with the capture of the Golden Fleece and comes down to the return of the Greek princes after the fall of Troy. Benoit diverges very widely from the classical tradition, and M. Leopold Constans sees reason to suppose that the _trouvere_ founded his poem on an amplified version of the Dares narrative that has not come down to us. In the _Roman de Troie_ first appeared the episode of Troilus and Briseide, that was to be developed later in the _Filostrato_ of Boccaccio, which in its turn formed the basis of Chaucer's _Troilus and Creseide_. The Shakespearian play of _Troilus and Cressida_ is also indirectly derived from Benoit's story.

On the strength of a certain similarity of treatment Benoit has sometimes been credited with the authorship of the anonymous _Roman d'Eneas_ and of the _Roman de Thebes_, a romance derived indirectly from the _Thebais_ of Statius. M. Constans is inclined to negative both these attributions. It is not even certain that the Benoit who chronicled the deeds of the Norman dukes for Henry II. between 1172 and 1176 was the Benoit de Sainte-More of the _Roman de Troie_.

The _Chronique des ducs de Normandie_ was edited by Francisque Michel
in 1836-1844; the _Roman de Troie_ by A. Joly in 1870-1871; the
_Eneas_, by J.J. Salverda de Grave in H. Suchier's _Bibliotheca
Normannica_ in 1891; the _Roman de Thebes_ for the _Societe des
anciens textes francais_, by M.L. Constans in 1890. See E.D. Grand in
_La Grande Encyclopedie_; L. Constans in Petit de Julleville's _Hist.
de la langue et de la litt, francaise_ (vol. i. pp. 171-225). where
the three romances are analysed at length. The prefaces to the
editions just mentioned discuss the authorship of the romances.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

His eldest son, ARTHUR CHRISTOPHER BENSON (b. 1862), was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge. He became fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and was a master at Eton College from 1885 to 1903. His literary capacity was early shown in the remarkable fiction of his _Memoirs of Arthur Hamilton_ (1886) under the pseudonym of "Christopher Carr," and his _Poems_ (1893) and _Lyrics_ (1895) established his reputation as a writer of verse. Among his works are _Fasti Etonenses_ (1899); his father's _Life_ (1899); _The Schoolmaster_ (1902), a commentary on the aims and methods of an assistant schoolmaster in a public school; a study of Archbishop Laud (1887); monographs on D.G. Rossetti (1904), Edward FitzGerald (1905) and Walter Pater (1906), in the "English Men of Letters" series; _Lord Vyet and other Poems_ (1897), _Peace and other Poems_ (1905); _The Upton Letters (1905), From a College Window_ (1906), _Beside Still Waters_ (1907). He also collaborated with Lord Esher in editing the _Correspondence of Queen Victoria_ (1907).

The third son, EDWARD FREDERICK BENSON (b. 1867), was educated at Marlborough College and King's College, Cambridge. He worked at Athens for the British Archaeological Society from 1892 to 1895, and subsequently in Egypt for the Hellenic Society. In 1893 his society novel, _Dodo_, brought him to the front among the writers of clever fiction; and this was followed by other novels, notably _The Vintage_ (1898) and _The Capsina_ (1899).

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

See A.C. Benson, _Life of Archbishop Benson_ (2 vols., London, 1899);
J.H. Bernard, _Archbishop Benson in Ireland_ (1897); Sir L.T. Dibdin
in _The Quarterly Review_, October 1897.

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

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

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

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