Chapter XV: Part 15

BOUTHILLIER, CLAUDE, SIEUR DE FOUILLETOURTE (1581-1652), French statesman, began life as an advocate. In 1613 he was councillor in the parlement of Paris, and in 1619 became councillor of state and a secretary to the queen-mother, Marie de' Medici. The connexion of his father, Denis Bouthillier (d. 1622), with Cardinal Richelieu secured for him the title of secretary of state in 1628, and he was able to remain on good terms with both Marie de' Medici and Richelieu, in spite of their rivalry. In 1632 he became superintendent of finances. But his great role was in diplomacy. Richelieu employed him on many diplomatic missions, and the success of his foreign policy was due in no small degree to Bouthillier's ability and devotion. In 1630 he had taken part at Regensburg in arranging the abortive treaty between the emperor and France. From 1633 to 1640 he was continually busied with secret missions in Germany, sometimes alone, sometimes with Father Joseph. Following Richelieu's instructions, he negotiated the alliances which brought France into the Thirty Years' War. Meanwhile, at home, his tact and amiable disposition, as well as his reputation for straightforwardness, had secured for him a unique position of influence in a court torn by jealousies and intrigues. Trusted by the king, the confidant of Richelieu, the friend of Marie de' Medici, and through his son, Leon Bouthillier, who was appointed in 1635 chancellor to Gaston d'Orleans, able to bring his influence to bear on that prince, he was an invaluable mediator; and the personal influence thus exercised, combined with the fact that he was at the head of both the finances and the foreign policy of France, made him, next to the cardinal, the most powerful man in the kingdom. Richelieu made him executor of his will, and Louis XIII. named him a member of the council of regency which he intended should govern the kingdom after his death. But the king's last plans were not carried out, and Bouthillier was obliged to retire into private life, giving up his office of superintendent of finances in June 1643. He died in Paris on the 13th of March 1652.

His son, LEON BOUTHILLIER (1608-1652), comte de Chavigny, was early associated with his father, who took him with him from 1629 to 1632 to all the great courts of Europe, instructing him in diplomacy. In 1632 he was named secretary of state and seconded his father's work, so that it is not easy always to distinguish their respective parts. After the death of Louis XIII. he had to give up his office; but was sent as plenipotentiary to the negotiations at Munster. He showed himself incapable, however, giving himself up to pleasure and fetes, and returned to France to intrigue against Mazarin. Arrested twice during the Fronde, and then for a short time in power during Mazarin's exile (April 1651), he busied himself with small intrigues which came to nothing.

BOUTS-RIMES, literally (from the French) "rhymed ends," the name given in all literatures to a kind of verses of which no better definition can be found than was made by Addison, in the Spectator, when he described them as "lists of words that rhyme to one another, drawn up by another hand, and given to a poet, who was to make a poem to the rhymes in the same order that they were placed upon the list." The more odd and perplexing the rhymes are, the more ingenuity is required to give a semblance of common-sense to the production. For instance, the rhymes _breeze, elephant, squeeze, pant, scant, please, hope, pope_ are submitted, and the following stanza is the result:--

Escaping from the Indian _breeze_,
The vast, sententious _elephant_
Through groves of sandal loves to _squeeze_
And in their fragrant shade to _pant_;
Although the shelter there be _scant_,
The vivid odours soothe and _please_,
And while he yields to dreams of _hope_,
Adoring beasts surround their _Pope_.

The invention of bouts-rimes is attributed to a minor French poet of the 17th century, Dulot, of whom little else is remembered. According to the _Menagiana_, about the year 1648, Dulot was complaining one day that he had been robbed of a number of valuable papers, and, in particular, of three hundred sonnets. Surprise being expressed at his having written so many, Dulot explained that they were all "blank sonnets," that is to say, that he had put down the rhymes and nothing else. The idea struck every one as amusing, and what Dulot had done seriously was taken up as a jest. Bouts-rimes became the fashion, and in 1654 no less a person than Sarrasin composed a satire against them, entitled _La Defaite des bouts-rimes_, which enjoyed a great success. Nevertheless, they continued to be abundantly composed in France throughout the 17th century and a great part of the 18th century. In 1701 Etienne Mallemans (d. 1716) published a collection of serious sonnets, all written to rhymes selected for him by the duchess of Maine. Neither Piron, nor Marmontel, nor La Motte disdained this ingenious exercise, and early in the 19th century the fashion was revived. The most curious incident, however, in the history of bouts-rimes is the fact that the elder Alexandre Dumas, in 1864, took them under his protection. He issued an invitation to all the poets of France to display their skill by composing to sets of rhymes selected for the purpose by the poet, Joseph Mery (1798-1866). No fewer than 350 writers responded to the appeal, and Dumas published the result, as a volume, in 1865.

W.M. Rossetti, in the memoir of his brother prefixed to D.G. Rossetti's _Collected Works_ (1886), mentions that, especially in 1848 and 1849, he and Dante Gabriel Rossetti constantly practised their pens in writing sonnets to _bouts-rimes_, each giving the other the rhymes for a sonnet, and Dante Gabriel writing off these exercises in verse-making at the rate of a sonnet in five or eight minutes. Most of W.M. Rossetti's poems in _The Germ_ were _bouts-rimes_ experiments. Many of Dante Gabriel's, a little touched up, remained in his brother's possession, but were not included in the _Collected Works_. (E. G.)

BOUTWELL, GEORGE SEWALL (1818-1905), American statesman, was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on the 28th of January 1818. He was reared on a farm, and at an early age began a mercantile career at Groton, Mass. There he studied law and in 1836 was admitted to the bar, but did not begin practice for many years. In 1842-1844 and again in 1847-1850 he served in the state house of representatives, and became the recognized leader on the Democratic side; he was thrice defeated for Congress, and was twice an unsuccessful candidate for governor. In 1851, however, by means of "Free-Soil" votes, he was chosen governor, and was re-elected by the same coalition in 1852. In the following year he took an active part in the state constitutional convention. He became a member of the Massachusetts Board of Education in 1853, and as its secretary in 1855-1861 prepared valuable reports and rendered much service to the state's school system. The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill in 1854 had finally alienated him from the Democratic party, and he became one of the founders of the new Republican party in the state. He played an influential part in the Republican national convention in 1860, and in 1862 after the passage of the war tax measures he was appointed by President Lincoln the first commissioner of internal revenue, which department he organized. From 1863 to 1869 he was a representative in Congress, taking an influential part in debate, and acting as one of the managers of President Johnson's impeachment. From 1869 to 1873 he was secretary of the treasury in President Grant's cabinet, and from 1873 until 1877 was a United States senator from Massachusetts. Under an appointment by President Hayes, he prepared the second edition of the _United States Revised Statutes_ (1878). In 1880 he represented the United States before the commission appointed in accordance with the treaty of that year, between France and the United States, to decide the claims brought by French citizens against the United States for acts of the American authorities during the Civil War, and the claims of American citizens against France for acts of French authorities during the war between France and Mexico, the Franco-German War and the Commune. He opposed the acquisition by the United States of the Philippine Islands, became president of the Anti-Imperialistic League, and was a presidential elector on the Bryan (Democratic) ticket in 1900. He died at Groton, Massachusetts, on the 28th of February 1905. He published various volumes, including _The Constitution of the United States at the End of the First Century_ (1895), and _Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs_ (2 vols., New York, 1902).

BOUVARDIA, a genus of handsome evergreen greenhouse shrubs, belonging to the natural order Rubiaceae, and a native of tropical America. The flowers are in terminal generally many-flowered clusters; the corolla has a large tube and a spreading four-rayed limb. The cultivated forms include a number of hybrids. The plants are best increased by cuttings taken off in April, and placed in a brisk heat in a propagating frame with a close atmosphere. When rooted they should be potted singly into 3-in. pots in fibrous peat and loam, mixed with one-fourth leaf-mould and a good sprinkling of sand, and kept in a temperature of 70 deg. by night and 80 deg. during the day; shade when required; syringe overhead in the afternoon and close the house with sun-heat. The plants should be topped to ensure a bushy habit, and as they grow must be shifted into 6-in. or 7-in. pots. After midsummer move to a cool pit, where they may remain till the middle of September, receiving plenty of air and space. They should then be removed to a house, and some of the plants put at once in a temperature of about 70 deg. at night, with a few degrees higher in the daytime, to bring them into flower. Others are moved into heat to supply flowers in succession through the winter and spring.

BOUVET, FRANCOIS JOSEPH (1753-1832), French admiral, son of a captain in the service of the French East India Company, was born on the 23rd of April 1753. He went to sea at the age of twelve with his father. Bouvet served in the East Indies in the famous campaign of 1781-83 under the command of Suffren, but only in a subordinate rank. On the outbreak of the French Revolution he very naturally took the anti-royalist side. Murder and exile had removed the great majority of the officers of the monarchy, and the services of a man of Bouvet's experience were valuable. He was promoted captain and received the command of the "Audacieux" (80) in the first great fleet collected by the republic. In the same year (1793) he was advanced to rear-admiral, and he commanded a division in the fleet which fought the battle of the 1st of June 1794 against Lord Howe. Until the close of 1796 he continued in command of a squadron in the French Channel fleet. In the December of that year he was entrusted with the van division of the fleet which was sent from Brest to attempt to land General Hoche with an expeditionary force in the south of Ireland. The stormy weather which scattered the French as soon as they left Brest gave Bouvet a prominence which he had not been designed to enjoy. Bouvet, who found himself at daybreak on the 17th of December separated with nine sail of the line from the rest of the fleet, opened his secret orders, and found that he was to make his way to Mizen Head. He took a wide course to avoid meeting British cruisers, and on the 19th had the good luck to fall in with a considerable part of the rest of the fleet and some of the transports. On the 21st of December he arrived off Dursey Island at the entry to Bantry Bay. On the 24th he anchored near Bear Island with part of his fleet. The continued storms which blew down Bantry Bay, and the awkwardness of the French crews, made it impossible to land the troops he had with him. On the evening of the 25th the storm increased to such a pitch of violence that the frigate in which Bouvet had hoisted his flag was blown out to sea. The wind moderated by the 29th, but Bouvet, being convinced that none of the ships of his squadron could have remained at the anchorage, steered for Brest, where he arrived on the 1st of January 1797. His fortune had been very much that of his colleagues in this storm-tossed expedition, and on the whole he had shown more energy than most of them. He was wrong, however, in thinking that all his squadron had failed to keep their anchorage in Bantry Bay. The government, displeased by his precipitate return to Brest, dismissed him from command soon afterwards. He was compelled to open a school to support himself. Napoleon restored him to the service, and he commanded the squadron sent to occupy Guadaloupe during the peace of Amiens, but he had no further service, and lived in obscurity till his death on the 21st of July 1832.

Tronde, _Batailles navales de la France_, vols. ii. and iii., and
James, _Naval History_, vols. i. and ii., give accounts of the 1st of
June and the expedition to Ireland. There is a vigorous account of the
expedition in Tronde's _English in Ireland_, and it is dealt with in
Admiral Colomb's _Naval Warfare_. (D. H.)

BOUVIER, JOHN (1787-1851), American jurist, was born in Codogno, France, in 1787. In 1802 his family, who were Quakers (his mother was a member of the well-known Benezet family), emigrated to America and settled in Philadelphia, and after varied experiences as proprietor of a book shop and as a country editor he was admitted to the bar in 1818, having become a citizen of the United States in 1812. He attained high standing in his profession, was recorder of Philadelphia in 1836, and from 1838 until his death was an associate justice of the court of criminal sessions in that city. He is best known for his able legal writings. His _Law Dictionary Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States of America and of the Several States of the American Union_ (1839, revised and brought up to date by Francis Rawle, under the title of _Bouvier's Law Dictionary_, 2 vols., 1897) has always been a standard. He published also an edition of _Bacon's Abridgement of the Law_ (10 vols., 1842-1846), and a compendium of American law entitled _The Institutes of American Law_ (4 vols., 1851; new ed. 2 vols., 1876).

BOUVINES, a village on the French-Belgian frontier between Lille and Tournay, the scene of one of the greatest battles of the middle ages, fought on the 27th of July 1214, between the forces of Philip Augustus, king of France, and those of the coalition formed against him, of which the principal members were the emperor and King John of England. The plan of campaign seems to have been designed by King John, who was the soul of the alliance; his general idea was to draw the French king to the southward against himself, while the emperor Otto IV., the princes of the Netherlands and the main army of the allies should at the right moment march upon Paris from the north. John's part in the general strategy was perfectly executed; the allies in the north moved slowly. While John, after two inroads, turned back to his Guienne possessions on the 3rd of July, it was not until three weeks later that the emperor concentrated his forces at Valenciennes, and in the interval Philip Augustus had countermarched northward and concentrated an army at Peronne. Philip now took the offensive himself, and in manoeuvring to get a good cavalry ground upon which to fight he offered battle (July 27), on the plain east of Bouvines and the river Marque--the same plain on which in 1794 the brilliant cavalry action of Willems was fought. The imperial army accepted the challenge and drew up facing south-westward towards Bouvines, the heavy cavalry on the wings, the infantry in one great mass in the centre, supported by the cavalry corps under the emperor himself. The total force is estimated at 6500 heavy cavalry and 40,000 foot. The French army (about 7000 cavalry and 30,000 infantry) took ground exactly opposite to the enemy and in a similar formation, cavalry on the wings, infantry, including the _milice des communes_, in the centre, Philip with the cavalry reserve and the Oriflamme in rear of the foot. The battle opened with a confused cavalry fight on the French right, in which individual feats of knightly gallantry were more noticeable than any attempt at combined action. The fighting was more serious between the two centres; the infantry of the Low Countries, who were at this time almost the best in existence, drove in the French; Philip led the cavalry reserve of nobles and knights to retrieve the day, and after a long and doubtful fight, in which he himself was unhorsed and narrowly escaped death, began to drive back the Flemings. In the meanwhile the French feudatories on the left wing had thoroughly defeated the imperialists opposed to them, and William Longsword, earl of Salisbury, the leader of this corps, was unhorsed and taken prisoner by the warlike bishop of Beauvais. Victory declared itself also on the other wing, where the French at last routed the Flemish cavalry and captured Count Ferdinand of Flanders, one of the leaders of the coalition. In the centre the battle was now between the two mounted reserves led respectively by the king and the emperor in person. Here too the imperial forces suffered defeat, Otto himself being saved only by the devotion of a handful of Saxon knights. The day was already decided in favour of the French when their wings began to close inwards to cut off the retreat of the imperial centre. The battle closed with the celebrated stand of Reginald of Boulogne, a revolted vassal of King Philip, who formed a ring of seven hundred Brabancon pikemen, and not only defied every attack of the French cavalry, but himself made repeated charges or sorties with his small force of knights. Eventually, and long after the imperial army had begun its retreat, the gallant schiltron was ridden down and annihilated by a charge of three thousand men-at-arms. Reginald was taken prisoner in the _melee_; and the prisoners also included two other counts, Ferdinand and William Longsword, twenty-five barons and over a hundred knights. The killed amounted to about 170 knights of the defeated party, and many thousands of foot on either side, of whom no accurate account can be given.

See Oman, _History of the Art of War_, vii. pp. 457-480; also Kohler,
_Kriegsgeschichte, &c_., i. 140, and Delpech, _Tactique au XIII
siecle_, 127.

BOVEY BEDS, in geology, a deposit of sands, clays and lignite, 200-300 ft. thick, which lies in a basin extending from Bovey Tracey to Newton Abbot in Devonshire, England. The deposit is evidently the result of the degradation of the neighbouring Dartmoor granite; and it was no doubt laid down in a lake. O. Heer, who examined the numerous plant remains from these beds, concluded that they belonged to the same geological horizon as the Molasse or Oligocene of Switzerland. Starkie Gardiner, however, who subsequently examined the flora, showed that it bore a close resemblance to that of the Bournemouth Beds or Lower Bagshot; in this view he is supported by C. Reid. Large excavations have been made for the extraction of the clays, which are very valuable for pottery and similar purposes. The lignite or "Bovey Coal" has at times been burned in the local kilns, and in the engines and workmen's cottages, but it is not economical.

See S. Gardiner, _Q. J. G. S._ London, xxxv., 1879; W. Pengelly and O.
Heer, _Phil. Trans._, 1862; C. Reid, _Q. J. G. S._ lii., 1896, p. 490,
and _loc. cit._ liv., 1898, p. 234. An interesting general account is
given by A.W. Clayden, _The History of Devonshire Scenery_ (London,
1906), pp. 159-168.

BOVIANUM, the name of two ancient Italian towns, (1) UNDECIMANORUM [_Boiano_], the chief city of the Pentri Samnites, 9 m. N.W. of Saepinum and 18 m. S.E. of Aesernia, on the important road from Beneventum to Corfinium, which connected the Via Appia and the Via Valeria. The original city occupied the height (Civita) above the modern town, where remains of Cyclopean walls still exist, while the Roman town (probably founded after the Social War, in which Bovianum was the seat of the Samnite assembly) lay in the plain. It acquired the name _Undecimanorum_ when Vespasian settled the veterans of the Legio XI. Claudia there. Its remains have been covered by over 30 ft. of earth washed down from the mountains. Comparatively few inscriptions have been discovered. (2) VETUS (near Pietrabbondante, 5 m. S. of Agnone and 19 m. N.W. of Campobasso), according to Th. Mommsen (_Corpus Inscrip. Lat._ ix. Berlin, 1883, p. 257) the chief town of the Caraceni. It lay in a remote situation among the mountains, and where Bovianum is mentioned the reference is generally to Bovianum Undecimanorum. Remains of fortifications and lower down of a temple and a theatre (cf. _Romische Mitteilungen_, 1903, 154)--the latter remarkable for the fine preservation of the stone seats of the three lowest rows of the auditorium--are to be seen. No less than eight Oscan inscriptions have been found. (T. As.)

BOVIDAE, the name of the family of hollow-horned ruminant mammals typified by the common ox (_Bos taurus_), and specially characterized by the presence on the skulls of the males or of both sexes of a pair of bony projections, or cores, covered in life with hollow sheaths of horn, which are never branched, and at all events after a very early stage of existence are permanently retained. From this, which is alone sufficient for diagnostic purposes, the group is often called the Cavicornia. For other characteristics see PECORA. The _Bovidae_ comprise a great number of genera and species, and include the oxen, sheep, goats, antelopes and certain other kinds which come under neither of these designations. In stature they range from the size of a hare to that of a rhinoceros; and their horns vary in size and shape from the small and simple spikes of the oribi and duiker antlers to the enormous and variously shaped structures borne respectively by buffaloes, wild sheep and kudu and other large antelopes. In geographical distribution the _Bovidae_ present a remarkable contrast to the deer tribe, or _Cervidae_. Both of these families are distributed over the whole of the northern hemisphere, but whereas the Cervidae are absent from Africa south of the Sahara and well represented in South America, the Bovidae are unknown in the latter area, but are extraordinarily abundant in Africa. Neither group is represented in Australasia; Celebes being the eastern limit of the _Bovidae_. The present family doubtless originated in the northern half of the Old World, whence it effected an entrance by way of the Bering Strait route into North America, where it has always been but poorly represented in the matter of genera and species.

The _Bovidae_ are divided into a number of sections, or subfamilies, each of which is briefly noticed in the present article, while fuller mention of some of the more important representatives of these is made in other articles.

The first section is that of the _Bovinae_, which includes buffaloes, bison and oxen. The majority of these are large and heavily-built ruminants, with horns present in both sexes, the muzzle broad, moist and naked, the nostrils lateral, no face-glands, and a large dewlap often developed in the males; while the tail is long and generally tufted, although in one instance longhaired throughout. The horns are of nearly equal size in both sexes, are placed on or near the vertex of the skull, and may be either rounded or angulated, while their direction is more or less outwards, with an upward direction near the tips, and conspicuous knobs or ridges are never developed on their surface. The tall upper molars have inner columns. The group is represented throughout the Old World as far east as Celebes, and has one living North American representative. All the species may be included in the genus _Bos_, with several subgeneric divisions (see ANOA, AUROCHS, BANTIN, BISON, BUFFALO, GAUR, GAYAL, OX and YAK).

The second group, or _Caprinae_, includes the sheep and goats, which are smaller animals than most of the _Bovidae_, generally with horns in both sexes, but those of the females small. In the males the horns are usually compressed and triangular, with transverse ridges or knobs, and either curving backwards or spiral. The muzzle is narrow and hairy; and when face-glands are present these are small and insignificant; while the tail is short and flattened. Unlike the _Bovinae_, there are frequently glands in the feet; and the upper molar teeth differ from those of that group in their narrower crowns, which lack a distinct inner column. When a face-pit is present in the skull it is small. The genera are _Ovis_ (sheep), _Capra_ (goats) and _Hemitragus_ (tahr). Sheep and goats are very nearly related, but the former never have a beard on the chin of the males, which are devoid of a strong odour; and their horns are typically of a different type. There are, however, several more or less transitional forms. Tahr are short-horned goats. The group is unknown in America, and in Africa is only represented in the mountains of the north, extending, however, some distance south into the Sudan and Abyssinia. All the species are mountain-dwellers. (See UDAD, ARGALI, GOAT, IBEX, MOUFLON, SHEEP and TAHR.)

The musk-ox (_Ovibos moschatus_) alone represents the family _Ovibovinae_, which is probably most nearly related to the next group (see MUSK-OX).

Next come the _Rupicaprinae_, which include several genera of mountain-dwelling ruminants, typified by the European chamois (_Rupicapra_); the other genera being the Asiatic serow, goral and takin, and the North American Rocky Mountain goat. These ruminants are best described as goat-like antelopes. (See ANTELOPE, CHAMOIS, GORAL, ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT, SEROW and TAKIN.)

Under the indefinable term "antelope" (q.v.) may be included the seven remaining sections, namely _Tragelaphinae_ (kudu and eland), _Hippotraginae_ (sable antelope and oryx), _Antilopinae_ (black-buck, gazelles, &c.), _Cervicaprinae_ (reedbuck and waterbuck), _Neotraginae_ (klipspringer and steinbok), _Cephalophinae_ (duikers and four-horned antelopes) and _Bubalinae_ (hartebeests and gnus). (R. L.*)

BOVILL, SIR WILLIAM (1814-1873), English judge, a younger son of Benjamin Bovill, of Wimbledon, was born at All-hallows, Barking, on the 26th of May 1814. On leaving school he was articled to a firm of solicitors, but entering the Middle Temple he practised for a short time as a special pleader below the bar. He was called in 1841 and joined the home circuit. His special training in a solicitor's office, and its resulting connexion, combined with a thorough knowledge of the details of engineering, acquired through his interest in a manufacturing firm in the east end of London, soon brought him a very extensive patent and commercial practice. He became Q.C. in 1855, and in 1857 was elected M.P. for Guildford. In the House of Commons he was very zealous for legal reform, and the Partnership Law Amendment Act 1865, which he helped to pass, is always referred to as Bovill's Act. In 1866 he was appointed solicitor-general, an office which he vacated on becoming chief justice of the common pleas in succession to Sir W. Erie in November of the same year. He died at Kingston, Surrey, on the 1st of November 1873. As a barrister he was unsurpassed for his remarkable knowledge of commercial law; and when promoted to the bench his painstaking labour and unswerving uprightness, as well as his great patience and courtesy, gained for him the respect and affection of the profession.

BOVILLAE, an ancient town of Latium, a station on the Via Appia (which in 293 B.C. was already paved up to this point), 11 m. S.E. of Rome. It was a colony of Alba Longa, and appears as one of the thirty cities of the Latin league; after the destruction of Alba Longa the _sacra_ were, it was held, transferred to Bovillae, including the cult of Vesta (in inscriptions _virgines Vestales Albanae_ are mentioned, and the inhabitants of Bovillae are always spoken of as _Albani Longani Bovillenses_) and that of the _gens Iulia_. The existence of this hereditary worship led to an increase in its importance when the Julian house rose to the highest power in the state. The knights met Augustus's dead body at Bovillae on its way to Rome, and in A.D. 16 the shrine of the family worship was dedicated anew,[1] and yearly games in the circus instituted, probably under the charge of the _sodales Augustales_, whose official calendar has been found here. In history Bovillae appears as the scene of the quarrel between Milo and Clodius, in which the latter, whose villa lay above the town on the left of the Via Appia, was killed. The site is not naturally strong, and remains of early fortifications cannot be traced. It may be that Bovillae took the place of Alba Longa as a local centre after the destruction of the latter by Rome, which would explain the deliberate choice of a strategically weak position. Remains of buildings of the imperial period--the circus, a small theatre, and edifices probably connected with the post-station--may still be seen on the south-west edge of the Via Appia.

See L. Canina, _Via Appia_ (Rome, 1853), i. 202 seq.; T. Ashby in
_Melanges de l'ecole francaise de Rome_ (1903), p. 395. (T. As.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] It is not likely that any remains of it now exist.

BOW (pronounced "bo"), a common Teutonic word for anything bent[1] (O. Eng. _boezha_; cf. O. Sax. and O.H.G. _bogo_, M.H.G. _boge_, Mod. Ger. _bogen_; from O. Teut. stem _bug_- of _beugan_, Mod. Ger. _biegen_, to bend). Thus it is found in English compound words, e.g. "elbow," "rainbow," "bow-net," "bow-window," "bow-knot," "saddle-bow," and by itself as the designation of a great variety of objects. The Old English use of "bow," or stone-bow, for "arch," now obsolete, survives in certain names of churches and places, e.g. Bow church (St Mary-in-Arcubus) in Cheapside, and Stratford-le-Bow (the "Stratford-atte-Bowe" of Chaucer). "Bow," however, is still the designation of objects so various as an appliance for shooting arrows (see ARCHERY), a necktie in the form of a bow-knot (i.e. a double-looped knot), a ring or hoop forming a handle (e.g. the bow of a watch), certain instruments or tools consisting of a bent piece of wood with the ends drawn together by a string, used for drilling, turning, &c., in various crafts, and the stick strung with horsehair by means of which the strings of instruments of the violin family are set in vibration. It is with this last that the present article is solely concerned.

_Bow in Music_.--The modern bow (Fr. _archet_; Ger. _Bogen_; Ital. _arco_) consists of five parts, i.e. the "stick," the screw or "ferrule," the "nut," the "hair" and the "head." The stick, in high-grade bows, is made of Pernambuco wood (_Caesalpinia brasiliensis_), which alone combines the requisite lightness, elasticity and power of resistance; for the cheaper bows American oak is used, and for the double-bass bow beech. A billet rich in colouring matter and straight in the grain is selected, and the stick is usually cut from a templet so as to obtain the accurate taper, which begins about 4-1/4 in. from the nut, decreasing according to regular proportions from 3/8 in. at the screw to 3/16 at the back of the head. The stick is cut absolutely straight and parallel along its whole length with the fibre of the wood; it is then bent by heat until it is slightly convex to the hair and has assumed the elegant _cambrure_ first given to it by Francois Tourte (1747-1835). This process requires the greatest care, for if the fibres be not heated right through, they offer a continual resistance to the curve, and return after a time to the rigid straight line, a defect often observed in cheap bows. The sticks are now of either cylindrical or octagonal section, and are lapped or covered with gold thread or leather for some inches beyond the nut in order to afford a firm grip. The length of the stick was definitely and finally fixed by Francois Tourte at 29.34 to 29.528 in.

The centre of gravity in a well-balanced violin bow should be at 19
cm. (7-1/2 to 7-3/4 in.) from the nut;[2] in the violoncello bow the
hair measures from 60 to 62 cm. (24 to 25 in.), and the centre of
gravity is at from 175 to 180 mm. (7 to 7-1/4 in.) from the nut. In
consequence of the flexure given to the stick, Tourte found it
necessary to readjust the proportions and relative height of head and
nut, in order to keep the hair at a satisfactory distance from the
stick, and at the necessary angle in attacking the strings so as to
avoid contact between stick and strings in bowing. In order to
counterbalance the consequent increased weight of the head and to keep
the centre of gravity nearer the hand, Tourte loaded the nut with
metal inlays or ornamental designs.

The screw or ferrule, at the cylindrical end of the stick held by the
hand, provides the means of tightening or loosening the tension of the
hair. This screw, about 3-1/4 in. long, hidden within the stick, runs
through the eye of another little screw at right angles to it, which
is firmly embedded in the nut.

The nut is a wooden block at the screw end of the stick, the original
purpose of which was to keep the hair at a proper distance from the
stick and to provide a secure attachment for the hair. The whole nut
slides up and down the stick in a groove in answer to the screw, thus
tightening or relaxing the tension of the hair. In the nut is a little
cavity or chamber, into which the knotted end of the hair is firmly
fixed by means of a little wedge, the hair being then brought out and
flattened over the front of the nut like a ribbon by the pressure of a
flat ferrule. The mother-of-pearl slide which runs along a mortised
groove further protects the hair on the outside of the nut. Bows
having these attachments of ferrule and slide, added by Tourte at the
instigation of the violinist Giovanni Battista Viotti, were known as
_archets a recouvrements_.

The hair is chosen from the best white horsehair, and each of the 150
to 200 hairs which compose the half-inch wide ribbon of the bow must
be perfectly cylindrical and smooth. It is bought by the pound, and
must be very carefully sorted, for not more than one hair in ten is
perfectly cylindrical and fit for use on a high-grade bow. Experience
determines the right number of hairs, for if the ribbon be too thick
it hinders the vibration of the strings; if too thin the friction is
not strong enough to produce a good tone. Fetis gives 175 to 250 as
the number used in the modern bow,[3] and Julius Ruhlmann 110 to
120.[4] Tourte attached the greatest importance to the hairing of the
bow, and bestowed quite as much attention upon it as upon the stick.
He subjected the hair to the following process of cleansing: first it
was thoroughly scoured with soap and water to remove all grease, then
steeped in bran-water, freed from all heterogeneous matter still
adhering to it, and finally rinsed in pure water slightly blued. When
passed between the fingers in the direction from root to tip, the hair
glides smoothly and offers no resistance, but passed in the opposite
direction it feels rough, suggesting a regular succession of minute
projections. The outer epithelium or sheath of the hair is composed of
minute scales which produce a succession of infinitesimal shocks when
the hair is drawn across the strings; the force and uniformity of
these shocks, which produce series of vibrations of equal persistency,
is considerably heightened by the application of rosin to the hair.
The particles of rosin cling to the scales of the epithelium, thus
accentuating the projections and the energy of the attack or "bite"
upon the strings. With use, the scales of the epithelium wear off, and
then no matter how much rosin is applied, the bow fails to elicit
musical sounds--it is then "played out" and must be re-haired. The
organic construction of horsehair makes it necessary, in hairing the
bow, to lay the hairs in opposite directions, so that the up and down
strokes may be equal and a pure and even tone obtained. Waxed silk is
wound round both ends of the hair to form a strong knot, which is
afterwards covered with melted rosin and hardens with the hair into a
solid mass.

The head, 1 in. long and 7/16 in. wide at the plate, is cut in one
piece with the stick, an operation which requires delicate
workmanship; otherwise the head is liable to snap at this point during
a _sforzando_ passage. The head has a chamber and wedge contrivance
similar to that of the nut, in which the other end of the hair is
immovably fixed. The hair on the face of the head is protected by a
metal or ivory plate.

The model bow here described, elaborated by Francois Tourte as long
ago as between 1775 and 1780 according to Fetis,[5] or between 1785
and 1790 according to Vidal,[6] has not since been surpassed.

That the violin and the bow form one inseparable whole becomes evident when we consider the history of the forerunners of the viol family: without the bow the ancestor of the violin would have remained a guitar; the bow would not have reached its present state of perfection had it been required only for instruments of the _rebec_ and _vielle_ type. As soon as the possibilities of the violin were realized, as a solo instrument capable, through the agency of the bow, of expressing the emotions of the performer, the perfecting of the bow was prosecuted in earnest until it was capable of responding to every shade of delicate thought and feeling. This accounts in a measure for the protracted development of the bow, which, although used long before the violin had been evolved, did not reach a state of perfection at the hands of Tourte until more than a century and a half after the Cremona master had given us the violin.

The question of the origin of the bow still remains a matter of conjecture. Its appearance in western Europe seems to have coincided with the conquest of Spain by the Moors in the 8th century, and the consequent impetus their superior culture gave to arts and sciences in the south-west of Europe. We have, however, no well-authenticated representation of the bow before the 9th century in Europe; the earliest is the bow illustrated along with the Lyra Teutonica by Martin Gerbert[7], the representation being taken from a MS. at the monastery of St Blaise, dating in his opinion from the 9th century. On the other hand, Byzantine art of the 9th and 11th centuries[8] reveals acquaintance with a bow far in advance of most of the crude contemporary specimens of western Europe. The bow undoubtedly came from the East, and was obviously borrowed by the Greeks of Asia Minor and the Arabs from a common source--probably India, by way of Persia. The earliest representation of a bow yet discovered is to be found among the fine frescoes in one of the chapels of the monastery of Bawit[9] in Egypt. The mural paintings in question were the work of many artists, covering a considerable period of time. The only non-religious subject depicted is a picture of a youthful Orpheus, assigned by Jean Cledat to some date not later than the 8th century A.D., but more probably the work of a 6th-century artist. Orpheus is holding an instrument, which appears to be a rebab, against his chin, in the act of bowing and stopping the strings. The bow is similar in shape to one shown in the Psalter of Labeo Notker, Leipzig, 10th century, mentioned farther on. On Indian sculptures of the first centuries of our era, such as the Buddhist _stupas_ of Amaravati, the risers of the topes of Jamal-Garhi, in the Yusafzai district of Afghanistan (both in the British Museum), on which stringed instruments abound, there is no bow. The bow has remained a primitive instrument in India to this day; a Hindu tradition assigns its invention to Ravanon, a king of Ceylon, and the instrument for which it was invented was called _ravanastron_; a primitive instrument of that name is still in use in Hindustan[10]. F.J. Fetis[11], Antoine Vidal[12], Edward Heron-Allen[13], and others have given the question some consideration, and readers who wish to pursue the matter farther are referred to their works.

There is thus no absolute proof of the existence of the bow in primitive times. The earliest bow known in Europe was associated with the rebab (q.v.), the most widely used bowed instrument until the 12th century. The development of this instrument can be traced with some degree of certainty, but it is quite impossible to decide at what date or in what place the use of the bow was introduced. The bow developed very slowly in Europe and remained a crude instrument as long as it was applied to the rebab and its hybrids. Its progress became marked only from the time when it was applied to the almost perfect guitar (q.v.), which then became the guitar fiddle (q.v.), the immediate forerunner of the viols.

FIG. 1.--Earliest Bow of the Cremaillere Type (c. 11th century).]

The first improvement on the primitive arched bow was to provide some sort of handle in a straight line with the hair or string of the bow, such as is shown in the MS. translation of the Psalms by Labeo Notker, late 10th century, in the University library, Leipzig.[14] The length of the handle was often greatly exaggerated, perhaps by the fancy of the artist. Another handle (see Bodleian Library MS., N.E.D. 2, 12th century) was in the form of a hilt with a knob, possibly a screw-nut, in which the arched stick and the hair were both fixed. The first development of importance influencing the technique of stringed instruments was the attempt to find some device for controlling the tension of the hair. The contrivance known as _cremaillere_, which was the first step in this direction, seems to have been foreshadowed in the bows drawn in a quaint MS. of the 14th century in the British Museum (Sloane 3983, fol. 43 and 13) on astronomy. Forming an obtuse angle with the handle of the bow is a contrivance shaped like a spear-head which presumably served some useful purpose; if it had notches (which would be too small to show in the drawing), and the hair of the bow was finished with a loop, then we have here an early example of a device for controlling the tension. Another bow in the same MS. has two round knobs on the stick which may be assumed to have served the same purpose.

[Illustriation: Drawn from bows the property of William E. Hill & Sons.

FIG. 2.--A, B, Tartini Bows; C, Tourte Bow.]

A very early example of the _cremaillere_ bow (fig. 1) occurs on a carved ivory plate ornamenting the binding of the fine Carolingian MS. Psalter of Lothair (A.D. 825), for some time known as the Ellis and White Psalter, but now in the library of Sir Thomas Brooke at Armitage Bridge House. The carved figure of King David, assigned from its characteristic pose and the treatment of the drapery to the 11th century, holds a stringed instrument, a rotta of peculiar shape, which occurs twice in other Carolingian MSS.[15] of the 9th century, but copied here without understanding, as though it were a lyre with many strings. The artist has added a bow with _cremaillere_ attachment, which is startling if the carving be accurately placed in the 11th century. The earliest representation of a _cremaillere_ bow, with this exception, dates from the 15th century, according to Viollet-le-Duc, who merely states that it was copied from a painting.[16] Fetis (op. cit. p. 117) figures a _cremaillere_ bow which he styles "Bassani, 1680." Sebastian Virdung draws a bow for a _tromba marina_, with the hair and stick bound together with waxed cord. The hair appears to be kept more or less tense by means of a wedge of wood or other material forced in between stick and hair, the latter bulging slightly at this point like the string of an archery bow when the arrow is in position; this contrivance may be due to the fancy of the artist.

The invention of a movable nut propelled by a screw is ascribed to the elder Tourte (fig. 2); had we not this information on the best authority (Vuillaume and Fetis), it might be imagined that some of the bows figured by Mersenne,[17] e.g. the bass viol bow KL (p. 184), and another KLM (p. 192), had a movable nut and screw; the nut is clearly drawn astride the stick as in the modern bow. Mersenne explains (p. 178) the construction of the bow, which consists of three parts: the _bois, baton_ or _brin_, the _soye_, and the _demi-roue_ or _hausse_. The term "half-wheel" clearly indicates that the base of the nut was cut round so as to fit round the stick. In the absence of any allusion to such ingenious mechanism as that of screw and nut, we must infer that the drawing is misleading and that the very decided button was only meant for an ornamental finish to the stick. We are informed further that _la soye_ was in reality hairs from the horse or some other animal, of which from 80 to 100 were used for each bow. The up-stroke of the bow was used on the weak beats, 2, 4, 6, 8, and the down-stroke on the strong beats, 1, 3, 5, 7 (p. 185). The same practice prevailed in England in 1667, when Christopher Simpson wrote the _Division Viol_. He gives information concerning the construction of the bow in these words: "the viol-bow for division should be stiff but not heavy. The length (betwixt the two places where the hairs are fastened at each end) about seven-and-twenty inches. The nut should be short, the height of it about a finger's breadth or a little more" (p. 2).

As soon as Corelli (1653-1713) formulated the principles of the technique of the violin, marked modifications in the construction of the bow became noticeable. Tartini, who began during the second decade of the 18th century to gauge the capabilities of the bow, introduced further improvements, such as a lighter wood for the stick, a straight contour, and a shorter head, in order to give better equilibrium. The Tourtes, father and son, accomplished the rest.

After Francois Tourte, the following makers are the most esteemed:
J.B. Vuillaume, who was directly inspired by Tourte and rendered an
inestimable service to violinists by working out on a scientific basis
the empirical taper of the Tourte stick, which was found in all his
bows to conform to strict ratio;[18] Dominique Peccate, apprenticed to
J.B. Vuillaume; Henry, 1812-1870, who signs his name and "Paris" on
the stick near the nut; Jacques Lefleur, 1760-1832; Francois Lupot,
1774-1837, the first to line the angular cutting of the nut, where it
slides along the stick, with a plate of metal; Simon, born 1808, who
also signs his bows on the stick near the nut; John Dodd of Richmond,
the greatest English bow-maker, who was especially renowned for his
violoncello bows, though his violin bows had the defect of being
rather short.

The violoncello bow is a little shorter than those used for violin and
viola, and the head and nut are deeper.

The principal models of double-bass bows in vogue at the beginning of
the 19th century were the _Dragonetti_, maintaining the arch of the
medieval bows, and the _Bottesini_, shaped and held like the violin
bow; the former was held over-hand with the hair inclining towards the
bridge, and was adopted by the Paris Conservatoire under Habeneck
about 1830; the great artist himself sent over the model from London.
Illustrations of both bows are given by Vidal (_op. cit._ pl. xviii.).

Messrs W.E. Hill & Sons probably possess the finest and most
representative collection of bows in the world. (K. S.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] "Bow," the forepart or head of a ship, must be distinguished from
this word. It is the same word, and pronounced in the same way, as
"bough," an arm or limb of a tree, and represents a common Teutonic
word, seen in O. Eng. _bog_, Ger. _Bug_, shoulder, and is cognate
with Gr. [Greek: paechus], forearm. The sense of "shoulder" of a ship
is not found in O. Eng. _bog_. but was probably borrowed from Dutch
or Danish. "Bow," an inclination of the head or body, though
pronounced as "bough," is of the same origin as "bow," to bend.

[2] See F.J. Fetis, _Antoine Stradivari_, pp. 120-121 (Paris, 1856).

[3] Fetis, _op. cit._ p. 123.

[4] J. Ruhlmann, _Die Geschichte der Bogeninstrumente_ (Brunswick,
1882), p. 143.

[5] Fetis, _op. cit._ p. 119.

[6] Antoine Vidal, _Les Instruments a archet_ (Paris, 1876-1878),
tome i. p. 269

[7] _De Cantu et Musica Sacra_ (1774), tome ii. pl. xxxii. No. 18;
the MS. has since perished by fire.

[8] See, for an illustration of the bowed instrument on one of the
sides of a Byzantine ivory casket, 9th century, in the Carrand
Collection, Florence, A. Venturi, _Gallerie Nazionali Italiane_, iii.
(Rome, 1897), plate, p. 263; and _Add. MS. 19,352, British Museum_,
Greek Psalter, dated 1066.

[9] See Jean Cledat, "Le Monastere et la necropole de Baouit," in
_Mem. de l'Inst. franc. d'archeol. orient. du Caire_, vol. xii.
(1904), chap. xviii. pl. lxiv. (2); also Fernand Cabrol, _Dict.
d'archeol. chretienne, s.v._ "Baouit."

[10] For an illustration, see Sonnerat, _Voyage aux Indes orientales_
(Paris, 1806), vol. i. p. 182.

[11] _Op. cit._ pp. 4-10.

[12] _Op. cit._ vol. i. p. 3 and pl. ii.

[13] Edward Heron-Allen, _Violin-making as it was and is_ (London,
1884), pp. 37-42, figs. 5-10.

[14] MS. 774, fol. 30. For an illustration of it see Hyacinth Abele,
_Die Violine, ihre Geschichte und ihr Bau_ (Neuburg-a-D., 1874), pl.
5, No. 7.

[15] See CROWD for fig. from the Bible of Charles le Chauve; and also
King David in the Bible of St Paul _extra muros_, Rome (photographic
facsimile by J.O. Westwood, Oxford, 1876).

[16] See _Dictionnaire raisonne du mobilier francais_ (Paris, 1871),
vol. ii. part iv. pp. 265 D. and 266 note.

[17] Marin Mersenne, _L'Harmonie universelle_ (Paris, 1636-1637), pp.
184 and 192.

[18] Vuillaume's diagram and explanation are reproduced by Fetis, op.
cit. pp. 125-128.

BOWDICH, THOMAS EDWARD (1790-1824), English traveller and author, was born at Bristol in 1790. In 1814, through his uncle, J. Hope-Smith, governor of the British Gold Coast Settlements, he obtained a writership in the service of the African Company of Merchants and was sent to Cape Coast. In 1817 he was sent, with two companions, to Kumasi on a mission to the king of Ashanti, and chiefly through his skilful diplomacy the mission succeeded in its object of securing British control over the coast natives (see ASHANTI: _History_). In 1818 Bowdich returned to England, and in 1819 published an account of his mission and of the study he had made of the barbaric court of Kumasi, entitled _Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee, &c._ (London, 1819). His African collections he presented to the British Museum. Bowdich publicly attacked the management of the African committee, and his strictures were instrumental in leading the British government to assume direct control over the Gold Coast. From 1820 to 1822 Bowdich lived in Paris, studying mathematics and the natural sciences, and was on intimate terms with Cuvier, Humboldt and other savants. During his stay in France he edited several works on Africa, and also wrote scientific works. In 1822, accompanied by his wife, he went to Lisbon, where, from a study of historic MSS., he published _An Account of the Discoveries of the Portuguese in ... Angola and Mozambique_ (London, 1824). In 1823 Bowdich and his wife, after some months spent in Madeira and Cape Verde Islands, arrived at Bathurst at the mouth of the Gambia, intending to go to Sierra Leone and thence explore the interior. But at Bathurst Bowdich died on the 10th of January 1824. His widow published an account of his last journey, entitled _Excursions in Madeira and Porto Santo ... to which is added.... A Narrative of the Continuance of the Voyage to its Completion, &c._ (London, 1825). Bowdich's daughter, Mrs Hutchinson Hale, republished in 1873, with an introductory preface, her father's _Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee_.