Chapter X: Front Matter (10)

Bernburg is of great antiquity. The Bergstadt was fortified by Otto III. in the 10th century, and the new town was founded in the 13th. For a long period the different parts were under separate municipalities, the new town uniting with the old in 1560, and the Bergstadt with both in 1824. Prince Frederick removed the ducal residence to Ballenstedt in 1765.

BERNERS, JOHN BOURCHIER, 2ND BARON (1469-1533), English translator, was born probably at Tharfield, Hertfordshire, about 1469. His father was killed at Barnet in 1471, and he inherited his title in 1474 from his grandfather, John Bourchier, who was a descendant of Edward III. It is supposed that he was educated at Oxford, perhaps at Balliol. His political life began early, for in 1484 he was implicated in a premature attempt to place Henry, duke of Richmond (afterwards Henry VII.), on the throne, and fled in consequence to Brittany. In 1497 he helped to put down an insurrection in Cornwall and Devonshire, raised by Michael Joseph, a blacksmith, and from this time was in high favour at court. He accompanied Henry VIII. to Calais in 1513, and was a captain of pioneers at the siege of Therouanne. In the next year he was again sent to France as chamberlain to the king's sister Mary on her marriage with Louis XII., but he soon returned to England. He had been given the reversion of the office of lord chancellor, and in 1516 he received the actual appointment. In 1518 he was sent to Madrid to negotiate an alliance with Charles of Spain. He sent letters to Henry chronicling the bull-fights and other doings of the Spanish court, and to Wolsey complaining of the expense to which he was put in his position as ambassador. In the next year he returned to England, and with his wife Catherine Howard, daughter of the duke of Norfolk, was present in 1520 at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. But his affairs were greatly embarrassed. He was harassed by lawsuits about his Hertfordshire property and owed the king sums he was unable to repay. Perhaps in the hope of repairing his fortune, he accepted the office of deputy of Calais, where he spent the rest of his life in comparative leisure, though still harassed by his debts, and died on the 16th of March 1533.

His translation of _Syr Johan Froyssart of the Cronycles of England, France, Spayne, Portyngale, Scotland, Bretayne, Flaunders: and other places adjoynynge_, was undertaken at the request of Henry VIII., and was printed by Richard Pynson in two volumes dated 1523 and 1525. It was the most considerable historical work that had yet appeared in English, and exercised great influence on 16th-century chroniclers. Berners tells us in his prefaces of his own love of histories of all kinds, and in the introduction to his story of Arthur of Little Britain he excuses its "fayned mater" and "many unpossybylytees" on the ground that other well reputed histories are equally incredible. He goes on to excuse his deficiencies by saying that he knew himself to be unskilled in the "facundyous arte of retoryke," and that he was but a "lerner of the language of Frensshe." The want of rhetoric is not to be deplored. The style of his translation is clear and simple, and he rarely introduces French words or idioms. Two romances from the French followed: _The Boke of Duke Huon of Burdeux_ (printed 1534? by Wynkyn de Worde), and _The Hystory of the Moost noble and valyaunt knight Arthur of lytell brytayne_. His other two translations, _The Castell of Love_ (printed 1540), from the _Carcel de Amor_ of Diego de San Pedro, and _The Golden Boke of Marcus Aurelius_ (completed six days before his death, printed 1534), from a French version of Antonio Guevara's book, are in a different manner. _The Golden Boke_ gives Berners a claim to be a pioneer of Euphuism, although Lyly was probably acquainted with Guevara not through his version, but through Sir Thomas North's _Dial of Princes_. Berners is also credited with a book on the duties of the inhabitants of Calais, which Mr Sidney Lee thinks may be identical with the ordinance for watch and ward of Calais preserved in the Cotton MSS. and with a lost comedy, _Ite in vineam meam_, which used to be acted at Calais after vespers.

A biographical account of Berners is to be found in Mr Sidney Lee's
introduction to _Huon of Bourdeaux_ (Early English Text Society
1882-1883). Among the many editions of his translation of Froissart
may be mentioned that in the "Tudor Translations" (1901), with an
introductory critical note by Professor W.P. Ker.

BERNERS, BARNES or BERNES, JULIANA (b. 1388?), English writer on hawking and hunting, is said to have been prioress of Sopwell nunnery near St Albans, and daughter of Sir James Berners, who was beheaded in 1388. She was probably brought up at court, and when she adopted the religious life, she still retained her love of hawking, hunting and fishing, and her passion for field sports. The only documentary evidence regarding her, however, is the statement at the end of her treatise on hunting in the _Boke of St Albans_, "Explicit Dam Julyans Barnes in her boke of huntyng" (edition of 1486), and the name is changed by Wynkyn de Worde to "dame Julyans Bernes." There is no such person to be found in the pedigree of the Berners family, and there is a gap in the records of the priory of Sopwell between 1430 and 1480. Juliana Berners is the supposed author of the work generally known as the _Boke of St Albans_. The first and rarest edition was printed in 1486 by an unknown schoolmaster at St Albans. It has no title-page. Wynkyn de Worde's edition (fol. 1496), also without a title-page, begins:--"This present boke shewyth the manere of hawkynge and huntynge: and also of diuysynge of Cote armours. It shewyth also a good matere belongynge to horses: wyth other comendable treatyses. And ferdermore of the blasynge of armys: as hereafter it maye appere." This edition was adorned by three woodcuts, and included a "Treatyse of fysshynge wyth an Angle," not contained in the St Albans edition. J. Haslewood, who published a facsimile of that of Wynkyn de Worde (London, 1811, folio), with a biographical and bibliographical notice, examined with the greatest care the author's claims to figure as the earliest woman author in the English language. He assigned to her little else in the _Boke_ except part of the treatise on hawking and the section on hunting. It is expressly stated at the end of the "Blasynge of Armys" that the section was "translatyd and compylyt," and it is likely that the other treatises are translations, probably from the French. An older form of the treatise on fishing was edited in 1883 by Mr T. Satchell from a MS. in possession of Mr A. Denison. This treatise probably dates from about 1450, and formed the foundation of that section in the book of 1496. Only three perfect copies of the first edition are known to exist. A facsimile, entitled _The Book of St Albans_, with an introduction by William Blades, appeared in 1881. During the 16th century the work was very popular, and was many times reprinted. It was edited by Gervase Markham in 1595 as _The Gentleman's Academie_.

BERNHARD OF SAXE-WEIMAR, DUKE (1604-1639), a celebrated general in the Thirty Years' War, was the eleventh son of John, duke of Saxe-Weimar. He received an unusually good education, and studied at Jena, but soon went to the court of the Saxon elector to engage in knightly exercises. At the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War he took the field on the Protestant side, and served under Mansfeld at Wiesloch (1622), under the margrave of Baden at Wimpfen (1622), and with his brother William at Stadtlohn (1623). Undismayed by these defeats, he took part in the campaigns of the king of Denmark; and when Christian withdrew from the struggle Bernhard went to Holland and was present at the famous siege of Hertogenbosch (Bois-le-Duc) in 1629. When Gustavus Adolphus landed in Germany Bernhard quickly joined him, and for a short time he was colonel of the Swedish life guards. After the battle of Breitenfeld he accompanied Gustavus in his march to the Rhine and, between this event and the battle of the Alte Veste, Bernhard commanded numerous expeditions in almost every district from the Moselle to Tirol. At the Alte Veste he displayed the greatest courage, and at Lutzen, when Gustavus was killed, Bernhard immediately assumed the command, killed a colonel who refused to lead his men to the charge, and finally by his furious energy won the victory at sundown. At first as a subordinate to his brother William, who as a Swedish lieutenant-general succeeded to the command, but later as an independent commander, Bernhard continued to push his forays over southern Germany; and with the Swedish General Horn he made in 1633 a successful invasion into Bavaria, which was defended by the imperialist general Arldinger. In this year he acquired the duchy of Wurzburg, installing one of his brothers as _Stadthalter_, and returning to the wars. A stern Protestant, he exacted heavy contributions from the Catholic cities which he took, and his repeated victories caused him to be regarded by German Protestants as the saviour of their religion. But in 1634 Bernhard suffered the great defeat of Nordlingen, in which the flower of the Swedish army perished. In 1635 he entered the service of France, which had now intervened in the war. He was now at the same time general-in-chief of the forces maintained by the Heilbronn union of Protestant princes, and a general officer in the pay of France. This double position was very difficult; in the following campaigns, ably and resolutely conducted as they were, Bernhard sometimes pursued a purely French policy, whilst at other times he used the French mercenaries to forward the cause of the princes. From a military point of view his most notable achievements were on the common ground of the upper Rhine, in the Breisgau. In his great campaign of 1638 he won the battles of Rheinfelden, Wittenweiher and Thann, and captured successively Rheinfelden, Fieiburg and Breisach, the last reputed one of the strongest fortresses in Europe. Bernhard had in the first instance received definite assurances from France that he should be given Alsace and Hagenau, Wurzburg having been lost in the _debacle_ of 1634; he now hoped to make Breisach the capital of his new duchy. But his health was now broken. He died on the 8/18th of July 1639 at the beginning of the campaign, and the governor of Breisach was bribed to transfer the fortress to France. The duke was buried at Breisach, his remains being subsequently removed to Weimar.

See J.A.C. Hellfeld, _Geschichte Bernhards des Grossen, Herzogs v.
Saxe-Weimar_ (Jena, 1747); B. Rose, _Herzog Bernhard d. Grosse von
Saxe-Weimar_ (Weimar, 1828-1829); Droysen, _Bernhard v. Weimar_
(Leipzig, 1885).

BERNHARDT, SARAH (ROSINE BERNARD) (1845- ), French actress, was born in Paris on the 22nd of October 1845, of mixed French and Dutch parentage, and of Jewish descent. She was, however, baptized at the age of twelve and brought up in a convent. At thirteen she entered the Conservatoire, where she gained the second prize for tragedy in 1861 and for comedy in 1862. Her _debut_ was made at the Comedie Francaise on the 11th of August 1862, in a minor part in Racine's _Iphigenie en Aulide_, without any marked success, nor did she do much better in burlesque at the Porte St-Martin and Gymnase. In 1867 she became a member of the company at the Odeon, where she made her first definite successes as Cordelia in a French translation of _King Lear_, as the queen in Victor Hugo's _Ruy Blas_, and, above all, as Zanetto in Francois Coppee's _Le Passant_ (1869). When peace was restored after the Franco-German War she left the Odeon for the Comedie Francaise, thereby incurring a considerable monetary forfeit. From that time she steadily increased her reputation, two of the most definite steps in her progress being her performances of Phedre in Racine's play (1874) and of Dona Sol in Victor Hugo's _Hernani_ (1877). In 1879 she had a famous season at the Gaiety in London. By this time her position as the greatest actress of her day was securely established. Her amazing power of emotional acting, the extraordinary realism and pathos of her death-scenes, the magnetism of her personality, and the beauty of her _"voix d'or,"_ made the public tolerant of her occasional caprices. She had developed some skill as a sculptor, and exhibited at the Salon at various times between 1876 (honourable mention) and 1881. She also exhibited a painting there in 1880. In 1878 she published a prose sketch, _Dans les nuages; les impressions d'une chaise_. Her comedy _L'Aveu_ was produced in 1888 at the Odeon without much success. Her relations with the other _societaires_ of the Comedie Francaise having become somewhat strained, a crisis arrived in 1880, when, enraged by an unfavourable criticism of her acting, she threw up her position on the day following the first performance of Emile Augier's _L'Aventuriere_. This obliged her to pay a forfeit of L4000 for breach of contract. Immediately after the rupture she gave a series of performances in London, relying chiefly upon Scribe and Legouve's _Adrienne Lecouvreur_ and Meilhac and Halevy's _Frou Frou_. These were followed by tours in Denmark, America and Russia, during 1880 and 1881, with _La Dame aux camelias_ as the principal attraction. In 1882 she married Jacques Damala, a Greek, in London, but separated from him at the end of the following year. After a fresh triumph in Paris with Sardou's _Fedora_ at the Vaudeville she became proprietress of the Porte St-Martin. Jean Richepin's _Nana Sahib_ (1883), Sardou's _Theodora_ (1884) and _La Tosca_ (1887), Jules Barbier's _Jeanne d'Arc_ (1890) and Sardou and Moreau's _Cleopatre_ (1890) were among her most conspicuous successes here, where she remained till she became proprietress of the Renaissance theatre in 1893. During those ten years she made several extended tours, including visits to America in 1886-1887 and 1888-1889. Between 1891 and 1893 she again visited America (North and South), Australia, and the chief European capitals. In November 1893 she opened the Renaissance with _Les Rois_ by Jules Lemaitre, which was followed by _Sylvestre_ and Morand's _Izeyl_ (1894), Sardou's _Gismonda_ (1894) and Edmond Rostand's _La Princesse lointaine_ (1895). In 1895 she also appeared with conspicuous success as Magda in a French translation of Sudermann's _Heimat_. For the next few years she visited London almost annually, and America in 1896. In that year she made a success with an adaptation of Alfred de Musset's _Lorenzaccio_. In Easter week of 1897 she played in a religious drama, _La Samaritaine_, by Rostand. In December 1896 an elaborate fete was organized in Paris in her honour; and the value of this public recognition of her position at the head of her profession was enhanced by cordial greetings from all parts of the world. By this time she had played one hundred and twelve parts, thirty-eight of which she had created. Early in 1899 she removed from the Renaissance to the Theatre des Nations, a larger house, which she opened with a revival of _La Tosca_. In the same year she made the bold experiment of a French production of _Hamlet_, in which she played the title part. She repeated the impersonation in London not long afterwards, where she also appeared (1901) as the fate-ridden son of Napoleon I., in Rostand's _L'Aiglon_, which had been produced in Paris the year before. Of the successful productions of her later years perhaps none was more remarkable than her impersonation of La Tisbe in Victor Hugo's romantic drama _Angelo_ (1905).

See Jules Huret, _Sarah Bernhardt_ (1889); and her own volume of
autobiography (1907).

BERNHARDY, GOTTFRIED (1800-1875), German philologist and literary historian, was born on the 20th of March 1800, at Landsberg on the Wartia, in Brandenburg. He was the son of Jewish parents in reduced circumstances. Two well-to-do uncles provided the means for his education, and in 1811 he entered the Joachimsthal gymnasium at Berlin. In 1817 he went to Berlin University to study philology, where he had the advantage of hearing F.A. Wolf (then advanced in years), August Bockh and P. Buttmann. In 1822 he took the degree of doctor of philosophy at Berlin, and in 1825 became extraordinary professor. In 1829 he succeeded C. Reisig as ordinary professor and director of the philological seminary at Halle, and in 1844 was appointed chief librarian of the university. He died suddenly on the 14th of May 1875. The most important of Bernhardy's works were his histories (or sketches) of Greek and Roman literature; _Grundriss der romischen Litteratur_ (5th ed., 1872); _Grundriss der griechischcn Litteratur_ (pt. i., Introduction and General View, 1836; pt. ii, Greek Poetry, 1845; pt. iii., Greek Prose Literature, was never published). A fifth edition of pts. i. and ii., by R. Volkmann, began in 1892. Other works by Bernhardy are: _Eratosthenica_ (1822); _Wissenschaftliche Syntax der griechischen Sprache_ (1829, suppts. 1854, 1862); _Grundlinien zur Encyclopadie der Philologie_ (1832); the monumental edition of the Lexicon of Suidas (1834-1853); and an edition of F.A. Wolf's _Kleine Schriften_ (1869).

See Volkmann, _G. Bernhardy_ (1887).

BERNI, FRANCESCO (1497-1536), Italian poet, was born about 1497 at Lamporecchio, in Bibbiena, a district lying along the Upper Arno. His family was of good descent, but excessively poor. At an early age he was sent to Florence, where he remained till his 19th year. He then set out for Rome, trusting to obtain some assistance from his uncle, the Cardinal Bibbiena. The cardinal, however, did nothing for him, and he was obliged to accept a situation as clerk or secretary to Ghiberti, datary to Clement VII. The duties of his office, for which Berni was in every way unfit, were exceedingly irksome to the poet, who, however, made himself celebrated at Rome as the most witty and inventive of a certain club of literary men, who devoted themselves to light and sparkling effusions. So strong was the admiration for Berni's verses, that mocking or burlesque poems have since been called _poesie bernesca_. About the year 1530 he was relieved from his servitude by obtaining a canonry in the cathedral of Florence. In that city he died in 1536, according to tradition poisoned by Duke Alessandro de' Medici, for having refused to poison the duke's cousin, Ippolito de' Medici; but considerable obscurity rests over this story. Berni stands at the head of Italian comic or burlesque poets. For lightness, sparkling wit, variety of form and fluent diction, his verses are unsurpassed. Perhaps, however, he owes his greatest fame to the recasting (_Rifacimento_) of Boiardo's _Orlando Innamorato_. The enormous success of Ariosto's _Orlando Furioso_ had directed fresh attention to the older poem, from which it took its characters, and of which it is the continuation. But Boiardo's work, though good in plan, could never have achieved wide popularity on account of the extreme ruggedness of its style. Berni undertook the revision of the whole poem, avowedly altering no sentiment, removing or adding no incident, but simply giving to each line and stanza due gracefulness and polish. His task he completed with marvellous success; scarcely a line remains as it was, and the general opinion has pronounced decisively in favour of the revision over the original. To each canto he prefixed a few stanzas of reflective verse in the manner of Ariosto, and in one of these introductions he gives us the only certain information we have concerning his own life. Berni appears to have been favourably disposed towards the Reformation principles at that time introduced into Italy, and this may explain the bitterness of some remarks of his upon the church. The first edition of the _Rifacimento_ was printed posthumously in 1541, and it has been supposed that a few passages either did not receive the author's final revision, or have been retouched by another hand.

A partial translation of Berni's _Orlando_ was published by W.S. Rose
(1823).

BERNICIA, the northern of the two English kingdoms which were eventually united in the kingdom of Northumbria. Its territory is said to have stretched from the Tyne northwards, ultimately reaching the Forth, while its western frontier was gradually extended at the expense of the Welsh. The chief royal residence was Bamburgh, and near it was the island of Lindisfarne, afterwards the see of a bishop. The first king of whom we have any record is Ida, who is said to have obtained the throne about 547. Aethelfrith, king of Bernicia, united Deira to his own kingdom, probably about 605, and the union continued under his successor Edwin, son of Ella or Aelle, king of Deira. Bernicia was again separate from Deira under Eanfrith, son of Aethelfrith (633-634), after which date the kings of Bernicia were supreme in Northumbria, though for a short time under Oswio Deira had a king of its own.

See Bede, _Hist. Eccles._ ii. 14, iii. 1, 14; Nennius, S 63; Simeon of
Durham, i. 339. (F. G. M. B.)

BERNICIAN SERIES, in geology, a term proposed by S.P. Woodward in 1856 (_Manual of Mollusca_, p. 409) for the lower portion of the Carboniferous System, below the Millstone Grit. The name was suggested by that of the ancient province of Bernicia on the Anglo-Scottish borderland. It is practically equivalent to the "Dinantien" of A. de Lapparent and Munier-Chalmas (1893). In 1875 G. Tate's "Calcareous and Carbonaceous" groups of the Carboniferous Limestone series of Northumberland were united by Professor Lebour into a single series, to which he applied the name "Bernician"; but later he speaks of the whole of the Carboniferous rocks of Northumberland and its borders as of the "Bernician type," which is the most satisfactory way in which the term may now be used (_Report of the Brit. Sub-committee on Classification and Nomenclature_, 2nd ed., Cambridge, 1888). "Demetian" was the corresponding designation proposed by Woodward for the Upper Carboniferous rocks.

BERNINI, GIOVANNI LORENZO (1598-1680), Italian artist, was born at Naples. He was more celebrated as an architect and a sculptor than as a painter. At a very early age his great skill in modelling introduced him to court favour at Rome, and he was specially patronized by Maffeo Barberini, afterwards Pope Urban VIII., whose palace he designed. None of his sculptured groups at all come up to the promised excellence of his first effort, the Apollo and Daphne, nor are any of his paintings of particular merit. His busts were in so much request that Charles I. of England, being unable to have a personal interview with Bernini, sent him three portraits by Vandyck, from which the artist was enabled to complete his model. His architectural designs, including the great colonnade of St Peter's, brought him perhaps his greatest celebrity. Louis XIV., when he contemplated the restoration of the Louvre, sent for Bernini, but did not adopt his designs. The artist's progress through France was a triumphal procession, and he was most liberally rewarded by the great monarch. He left a fortune of over L100,000.

BERNIS, FRANCOIS JOACHIM DE PIERRE DE (1715-1794), French cardinal and statesman, was born at St Marcel-d'Ardeche on the 22nd of May 1715. He was of a noble but impoverished family, and, being a younger son, was intended for the church. He was educated at the Louis-le-Grand college and the seminary of Saint-Sulpice, Paris, but did not take orders till 1755. He became known as one of the most expert epigrammatists in the gay society of Louis XV.'s court, and by his verses won the friendship of Madame de Pompadour, the royal mistress, who obtained for him an apartment, furnished at her expense, in the Tuileries, and a yearly pension of 1500 livres (about L60). In 1751 he was appointed to the French embassy at Venice, where he acted, to the satisfaction of both parties, as mediator between the republic and Pope Benedict XIV. During his stay in Venice he received subdeacon's orders, and on his return to France in 1755 was made a papal councillor of state. He took an important part in the delicate negotiations between France and Austria which preceded the Seven Years' War. He regarded the alliance purely as a temporary expedient, and did not propose to employ the whole forces of France in a general war. But he was overruled by his colleagues. He became secretary for foreign affairs on the 27th of June 1757, but owing to his attempts to counteract the spendthrift policy of the marquise de Pompadour and her creatures, he fell into disgrace and was in December 1758 banished to Soissons by Louis XV., where he remained in retirement for six years. In the previous November he had been created cardinal by Clement XIII. On the death of the royal mistress in 1764, Bernis was recalled and once more offered the seals of office, but declined them, and was appointed archbishop of Albi. His occupancy of the see was not of long duration. In 1769 he went to Rome to assist at the conclave which resulted in the election of Clement XIV., and the talent which he displayed on that occasion procured him the appointment of ambassador in Rome, where he spent the remainder of his life. He was partly instrumental in bringing about the suppression of the Jesuits, and acted with greater moderation than is generally allowed. He lost his influence under Pius VI., who was friendly to the Jesuits, and the French Revolution, to which he was hostile, reduced him almost to penury; the court of Spain, however, mindful of the support he had given to their ambassador in obtaining the condemnation of the Jesuits, came to his relief with a handsome pension. He died at Rome on the 3rd of November 1794, and was buried in the church of S. Luigi de' Francesi. In 1803 his remains were transferred to the cathedral at Nimes. His poems, the longest of which is _La Religion vengee_ (Parma, 1794), have no merit; they were collected and published after his death (Paris, 1797, &c.); his _Memoires et lettres 1715-58_ (2 vols., Paris, 1878) are still interesting to the historian.

See Frederic Masson's prefaces to the _Memoires et lettres_, and _Le
Cardinal de Bernis depuis son ministere;_ (Paris, 1884); E. et J. de
Goncourt, _Mme de Pompadour_ (Paris, 1888), and Sainte-Beuve,
_Causeries du lundi_, t. viii.

BERNKASTEL, a town of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine province, on the Mosel, in a deep and romantic valley, connected by a branch to Wengerohr with the main Trier-Coblenz railway. Pop. 2300. It has some unimportant manufactures; the chief industry is in wine, of which Berncastler Doctor enjoys great repute. Above the town lie the ruins of the castle Landshut. Bernkastel originally belonged to the chapter of Trier, and received its name from one of the provosts of the cathedral, Adalbero of Luxemburg (hence _Adalberonis castellum_).

BERNOULLI, or BERNOUILLI, the name of an illustrious family in the annals of science, who came originally from Antwerp. Driven from their country during the oppressive government of Spain for their attachment to the Reformed religion, the Bernoullis sought first an asylum at Frankfort (1583), and afterwards at Basel, where they ultimately obtained the highest distinctions. In the course of a century eight of its members successfully cultivated various branches of mathematics, and contributed powerfully to the advance of science. The most celebrated were Jacques (James), Jean (John) and Daniel, the first, second and fourth as dealt with below; but, for the sake of perspicuity they may be considered as nearly as possible in the order of family succession. A complete summary of the great developments of mathematical learning, which the members of this family effected, lies outside the scope of this notice. More detailed accounts are to be found in the various mathematical articles.