Chapter XVI: Front Matter (16)

Serious difficulties of another kind remain. Mordecai is represented as a fellow-captive of Jeconiah (597 B.C.), and grand-vizier in Xerxes's twelfth year (474 B.C.)! This is parallel to the strange statement in Tobit xiv. 15. And how can we find room for Esther as queen by the side of Amestris (Herod. vii. 14, ix. 112)? How, too, can a Jewess have been a legal queen (see Herod. iii. 84)? Then take the supposed Persian proper names. "Ahasuerus" may no doubt stand, but very few of the rest (see Noldeke, _Ency. Bib._ col. 1402). As to the style, the general verdict is that it points to a late date (see Driver, Introd.^6, p. 484). Altogether, critics decline to date the book earlier than the 3rd or even 2nd century B.C.

So far we have only been carrying on 18th-century criticism. In more recent years, however, new lines of inquiry have been opened up. First of all by the great Semitic scholar Lagarde. His thesis (seldom defended now) was that Purim corresponds to Furdigan, the name of the old Persian New Year's and All Souls' festival held in spring, on which the Persians were wont to exchange presents (cf. Esth. ix. 19). In 1891 came a new explanation of Esther from Zimmern. It is true that in its earlier form his theory was very incomplete. But in justice to this scholar we may notice that from the first he looked for light to Babylonia, and that many other critics now take up the same position. There is also another new point which has to be mentioned, viz. that, judging from our experience elsewhere, the Book of Esther has probably passed through various stages of development. Here, then, are two points which call for investigation, viz. (1) a possible mythological element in Esther, and (2) possible stages of development prior to that represented by the Hebrew text.

As to the first point. The Second Targum (on Esth. ii. 7) long ago declared that Esther was so called "because she was like the planet Venus." Recent scholars have expressed the same idea more critically. Esther is a modification of Ishtar, the name of the Babylonian goddess of fertility and of the planet Venus, whose myth must have been partially known to the Israelites even in pre-exilic times,[3] and after the fall of the state must have acquired a still stronger hold on Jewish exiles. A general knowledge of the myth of Marduk among the Israelites cannot indeed be proved. Singularly enough, the Babylonian colonists in the cities of Samaria are said to have made idols, not of Marduk, but of a deity called Succoth-benoth[4] (2 Kings xvii. 30). Nor does the Second Targum help us here; it gives a wild explanation of Mordecai as "pure myrrh." Still it is plain that the name of the god Marduk (Merodach) was known to the Jews, and the Cosmogony in Gen. i. is considered by critics to have ultimately arisen out of the myth of Marduk's conflict with the dragon (see COSMOGONY). At any rate the name Mordecai (the vocalization is uncertain) looks very much like Marduk, which, with terminations added, often occurs in cuneiform documents as a personal name.[5] Add to this, that, according to Jensen, Ishtar in mythology was the cousin of Marduk, just as the legend represents Esther as the cousin of Mordecai.[6] The same scholar also accounts for Esther's other name Hadassah (Esth. ii. 7); _hadasshatu_ in Babylonian means "bride," which may have been a title of Ishtar.

But we cannot stop short here. Unless the mythological key can also explain Haman and Vashti, it is of no use. Jensen, now followed by Zimmern, is equal to the occasion. Haman, he says, is a corruption of Hamman or Humman or Uman, the name of the chief deity of the Elamites, in whose capital (Susa) the scene of the narrative is laid, while Vashti is Mashti (or Vashti), probably the name of an Elamite goddess.

Following the real or fancied light of these names, Prof. Jensen holds that the Esther-legend is based on a mythological account of the victory of the Babylonian deities over those of Elam, which in plain prose means the deliverance of ancient Babylonia from its Elamite oppressors, and that such an account was closely connected with the Babylonian New Year's festival, called Zagmuk, just as the Esther-legend is connected with the festival of Purim.

We are bound, however, to mention some critical objections. (1) The Babylonian festival corresponding to Purim was not the spring festival of Zagmuk, but the summer festival of Ishtar, which is probably the Sacaea of Berossus, an orgiastic festival analogous to Purim. (2) According to Jensen's theory, Mordecai, and not Esther, ought to be the direct cause of Haman's ruin. (3) No such Babylonian account as Jensen postulates can be indicated. (4) The identifications of names are hazardous. Fancy a descendant of Kish called Marduk, and an "Agagite" called Hamman! Elsewhere Mordecai (Ezra ii. 2; Neh. vii. 7) occurs among names which are certainly not Persian (Bigvai is no exception), and Haman (Tobit xiv. 10) appears as a nephew of Achiachar, which is not a Persian name. Esther, moreover, ought to be parallel to Judith; fancy likening the representative of Israel to the goddess Ishtar!

Next, as to the preliminary literary phases of Esther. Such phases are probable, considering the later phases represented in the Septuagint. There may have once existed in Hebrew a story of the deadly feud between Mordecai (if that be the original name) and Haman, with elements suggested by the story of the battle between the Supreme God and the dragon (see COSMOGONY). As the legend stands, Mordecai and Esther seem to be in each other's way. In a passage (i. 5 in LXX.) only found in the Septuagint, but which may have belonged to the original Esther, reference is made to a dream of Mordecai respecting two great dragons, i.e. Mordecai and Haman (x. 7). This seems to confirm the view here mentioned. If so, however, there must also have been an Esther-legend, which was afterwards worked up with that of Mordecai. This is, in fact, the view of Erbt. Winckler takes a different line. Linguistic facts and certain points in the contents seem to him to show that our Esther is a work of the age of the Seleucidae; more precisely he thinks of the time of the revolt of Molon under Antiochus III. Of course there was a Book of Esther before this, and even in its redacted form our Esther reflects the period of three Persian kings, viz. Cyrus, Cambyses and Darius. Lastly, Cheyne (_Ency. Bib._ "Purim," S 7), while agreeing with Winckler that the book is based on an earlier narrative, holds that that earlier text differed more widely from the present in its geographical and historical setting than Winckler seems to suppose. The problem of the origin of the name Purim, however, can hardly be said to have received a final solution.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Kuenen, _History of Israel_, iii. (1875), 148-153;
Lagarde, _Purim_ (1887); Zimmern in Stade's _Zeitschrift_, xi. (1891),
pp. 157-169, and _Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament_^(3), 485,
515-520, Jensen in Wildeboer's _Esther_ (in Marti's series, 1898), pp.
173-175; Winckler, _Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament_^(3), p.
288, _Altorientalische Forschungen_, 3rd ser. i. 1-64; Erbt, _Die
Purimsage_ (1900); _Ency. Biblica_, articles "Esther" and "Purim" (a
composite article). (T. K. C.)

ADDITIONS TO BOOK OF ESTHER. These "additions" were written originally in Greek and subsequently interpolated in the Greek translation of the Book of Esther. Here the principle of interpolation has reached its maximum. Of 270 verses, 107 are not to be found in the Hebrew text. These additions are distributed throughout the book in the Greek, but in the Latin Bible they were relegated to the end of the canonical book by Jerome--an action that has rendered them meaningless. In the Greek the additions form with the canonical text a consecutive history. They were made probably in the time of the Maccabees, and their aim was to supply the religious element which is so completely lacking in the canonical work. The first, which gives the dream of Mordecai and the events which led to his advancement at the court of Artaxerxes, precedes chap. i. of the canonical text: the second and fifth, which follow iii. 13 and viii. 12, furnish copies of the letters of Artaxerxes referred to in these verses; the third and fourth, which are inserted after chap. iv., consist of the prayers of Mordecai and Esther, with an account of Esther's approach to the king. The last, which closes the book, tells of the institution of the feast of Purim. The Greek text appears in two widely-differing recensions. The one is supported by AB[Hebrew: alef], and the other--a revision of the first--by codices 19, 93a, 108b. The latter is believed to have been the work of Lucian. Swete, _Old Test. in Greek_, ii. 755, has given the former, while Lagarde has published both texts with critical annotations in his _Librorum Veteris Testamenti Canonicorum_, i. 504-541 (1883), and Scholz in his _Kommentar uber das Buch Esther_ (1892).

For an account of the Latin and Syriac versions, the Targums, and the
later Rabbinic literature connected with this subject, and other
questions relating to these additions, see Fritzsche, _Exeget.
Handbuch zu den Apok._ (1851), i. 67-108; Schurer^(3), iii. 330-332;
Fuller in _Speaker's Apocr._ i. 360-402; Ryssel in Kautzsch's _Apok.
u. Pseud._ i. 193-212; Siegfried in _Jewish Encyc._ v. 237 sqq.;
Swete, _Introd. to the Old Test. in Greek_, 257 seq.; L.B. Paton, "A
Text-Critical Apparatus to the Book of Esther" in _O.T. and Semitic
Studies in Memory of W.R. Harper_ (Chicago, 1908). (R. H. C.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Kautzsch, _Old Testament Literature_ (1898), p. 130.

[2] So Morier, the English minister to the Persian court, quoted by
Dean Stanley.

[3] See Zimmern, _Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Test_.^(3), p. 438.

[4] _Ibid._ p. 396.

[5] Johns, _Assyrian Deeds_, iii. 198-199; _Amer. Journ. of Sem.
Languages_ (April 1902), p. 158.

[6] So too Zimmern, in Gunkel's _Schopfung und Chaos_, p. 313, note 2.

ESTHONIA (Ger. _Ehstland_ and _Esthland_, Esthonian _Eestimaa_ and _Meie-maa_, also _Viroma_ and _Rahvama_; Lettish _Iggaun Senna_), a Baltic province of Russia, stretching along the south coast of the Gulf of Finland, and having Lake Peipus and Livonia on the S. and the government of St Petersburg on the E. An archipelago of islands, of which Dago is the largest, belongs to this government (Oesel belongs to Livonia). The area is 7818 sq. m., 503 sq. m. of this being insular. The surface is low, not exceeding 100 ft. in altitude along the coast and alongside Lake Peipus, while in the interior the average elevation ranges from 200 to 300 ft., and nowhere exceeds 450 ft. It was entirely covered with the bottom moraine of the great ice-sheet of the Glacial Epoch, resting upon Silurian sandstones and limestones. In places sands and clays overlie the glacial deposits. The principal stream is the Narova, which issues from Lake Peipus, flows along the eastern border, and empties into the Gulf of Finland. The other drainage arteries are all small, but many in number; while lakes and marshes aggregate fully 22-1/2% of the total surface. The climate is severe, great cold being experienced in winter, though moist west winds exercise a moderating influence. Nevertheless the annual mean temperature ranges between 39 deg. and 43 deg. Fahr. In 1878 the nobility, mostly of German descent, owned and farmed 52% of the land; 42% was farmed, but not owned, by the peasants, mostly Esths or Ehsts, and only 3% was owned by persons outside the ranks of the nobility. Since then one-fourth of the peasantry have been enabled to purchase their holdings, more than half a million acres having passed into their possession. Agriculture is the chief occupation, and it is, on all the larger holdings, carried on with greater scientific knowledge than in any other part of Russia. Of the total area about 16.6% is under cultivation; meadows and grass-lands amount to 41.7%; and forests cover 19%. The principal crops are rye, oats, barley and potatoes, with large quantities of vegetables. Cattle-breeding flourishes, and meat and butter are constantly increasing items of export. The manufactories consist chiefly of distilleries (over 13,500,000 gallons annually), cotton (at Kranholm falls on the Narova), woollen, flour, paper and saw mills, iron and machinery works, and match factories. Fishing is active along the coast, especially for anchovies. The province is intersected by a railway running from St Petersburg to Reval, with branches from the latter city westwards to Baltic Port and southwards into Livonia, and from Taps south to Yuryev (Dorpat). The chief seaports are Reval, Baltic Port, Hapsal, Kunda and Dago. Esthonia is divided into four districts, the chief towns of which are Reval (pop. in 1897, 66,292), the capital of the province; Hapsal, a lively watering-place (3238); Weissenstein (2509); and Wesenberg (5560). The population, which consists chiefly of Ehstes (365,959 in 1897), Russians (18,000), Germans (16,000), Swedes (5800), and some Jews, is growing fairly fast: in 1870 it numbered 323,960, and in 1897 413,747, of whom 210,199 were women and 76,315 lived in towns; in 1906 it was estimated at 451,700. Ninety-six per cent. of the whole belong to the Lutheran Church. Education is, for Russia, relatively high.

The Esths, Ehsts or Esthonians, who call themselves Tallopoeg and Maamees, are known to the Russians as Chukhni or Chukhontsi, to the Letts as Iggauni, and to the Finns as Virolaiset. They belong to the Finnish family, and consequently to the Ural-Altaic division of the human race. Altogether they number close upon one million, and are thus distributed: 365,959 in Esthonia (in 1897), 518,594 in Livonia, 64,116 in the government of St Petersburg, 25,458 in that of Pskov, and 12,855 in other parts of Russia. As a race they exhibit manifest evidences of their Ural-Altaic or Mongolic descent in their short stature, absence of beard, oblique eyes, broad face, low forehead and small mouth. In addition to that they are an under-sized, ill-thriven people, with long arms and thin, short legs. They cling tenaciously to their native language, which is closely allied to the Finnish, and divisible into two, or according to some authorities into three, principal dialects--Dorpat Esthonian and Reval Esthonian, with Pernau Esthonian. Reval Esthonian, which preserves more carefully the full inflectional forms and pays greater attention to the laws of euphony, is recognized as the literary language. Since 1873 the cultivation of their mother-tongue has been sedulously promoted by an Esthonian Literary Society (_Eesti Korjameeste Selts_), which publishes _Toimetused_, or "Instructions" in all sorts of subjects. They have a decided love of poetry, and exhibit great facility in improvising verses and poems on all occasions, and they sing, everywhere, from morning to night. Like the Finns they possess rich stores of national songs. These, which bear an unmistakable family likeness to those of the great Finnish epic of the _Kalevala_, were collected as the Kalevi Poeg, and edited by Kreutswald (1857), and translated into German by Reinthal (1857-1859) and Bertram (1861) and by Lowe (1900). Other collections of _Esthnische Volkslieder_ have been published by Neuss (1850-1852) and Kreutzwald and Neuss (1854); while Kreutzwald (1866) and Jannsen (1888) have published collections of legends and national tales. The earliest publication in Esthonian was a Lutheran catechism in the 16th century. An Esthonian translation of the New Testament was printed at Reval in 1715. Between 1813 and 1832 there appeared at Pernau twenty volumes of _Beitrage zur genauern Kenntniss der esthnischen Sprache_, by Rosenplanter, and from 1840 onwards many valuable papers on Esthonian subjects were contributed to the _Verhandlungen der gelehrten esthnischen Gesellschaft zu Dorpat_. F.J. Wiedemann, who laboured indefatigably in the registration and preservation of matters connected with Esthonian language and lore, published an _Esthnisch-deutsches Worterbuch_ (1865; 2nd ed. by Hurt, 1891, &c.), and in 1903 there appeared at Reval a _Deutsch-esthnisches Worterbuch_, by Ploompun and Kann.

The Esthonians first appear in history as a warlike and predatory race, the terror of the Baltic seamen in consequence of their piracies. More than one of the Danish kings made serious attempts to subdue them. Canute VI. invaded their country (1194-1196) and forced baptism upon many of them, but no sooner did his war-ships disappear than they reverted to their former heathenism. In 1219 Waldemar II. undertook a more formidable crusade against them, in the course of which he founded the town and episcopal see of Reval. By his efforts the northern portion of the race were made submissive to the Danish crown; but, though conquered, they were by no means subdued, and were incessantly in revolt, until, after a great rebellion in 1343, Waldemar IV. Atterdag sold for 19,000 marks his portion of Esthonia in 1346, to the order of the Knights of the Sword. These German crusaders had already, after a quarter of a century's fighting, in 1224 gained possession of the regions inhabited by the southern portion of the race, that is those now included in Livonia. From that time for nearly six hundred years or more the Esthonians were practically reduced to a state of serfdom to the German landowners. In 1521 the nobles and cities of Esthonia voluntarily placed themselves under the protection of the crown of Sweden; but after the wars of Charles XII., Esthonia was formally ceded to his victorious rival, Peter the Great, by the peace of Nystad (1721). Serfdom was abolished in 1817 by Tsar Alexander I.; but the condition of the peasants was so little improved that they rose in open revolt in 1859. Since 1878, however, a vast change for the better has been effected in their economic position (see above). The determining feature of their recent history has been the attempt made by the Russian government (since 1881) and the Orthodox Greek Church (since 1883) to russify and convert the inhabitants of the province, Germans and Esths alike, by enforcing the use of Russian in the schools and by harsh and repressive measures aimed at their native language.

See Merkel, _Die freien Letten und Esthen_ (1820); Parrot, _Versuch
einer Entwickelung der Sprache, Abstammung, &c., der Liwen, Latten,
Eesten_ (1839); F. Kruse, _Urgeschichte des esthnischen Volksstammes_
(1846); Wiedemann, _Grammatik der esthnischen Sprache_ (1875), and
_Aus dem innern und aussern Leben der Esthen_ (1876); Koppen, _Die
Bewohner Esthlands_ (1847); F. Muller, _Beitrage zur Orographie und
Hydrographie von Esthland_ (1869-1871); Bunge, _Das Herzogthum
Esthland unter den Konigen von Danemark_ (1877); and Seraphim,
_Geschichte Liv-, Est-, und Kurlands_ (2nd ed., 1897) and various
papers in the _Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen_.
(P. A. K.; J. T. Be.; C. El.)

ESTIENNE (or ETIENNE; the French form of the name; anglicized to Stephens, and latinized to Stephanus), a French family of scholars and printers.

The founder of the race was HENRI ESTIENNE (d. 1520), the scion of a noble family of Provence, who came to Paris in 1502, and soon afterwards set up a printing establishment at the top of the rue Saint-Jean de Beauvais, on the hill of Saint-Genevieve opposite the law school. He died in 1520, and, his three sons being minors, the business was carried on by his foreman Simon de Colines, who in 1521 married his widow.

ROBERT ESTIENNE (1503-1559) was Henri's second son. After his father's death he acted as assistant to his stepfather, and in this capacity superintended the printing of a Latin edition of the New Testament in 16mo (1523). Some slight alterations which he had introduced into the text brought upon him the censures of the faculty of theology. It was the first of a long series of disputes between him and that body. It appears that he had intimate relations with the new Evangelical preachers almost from the beginning of the movement, and that soon after this time he definitely joined the Reformed Church. In 1526 he entered into possession of his father's printing establishment, and adopted as his device the celebrated olive-tree (a reminiscence doubtless of his grandmother's family of Montolivet), with the motto from the epistle to the Romans (xi. 20), _Noli altum sapere_, sometimes with the addition _sed time_. In 1528 he married Perrette, a daughter of the scholar and printer Josse Bade (Jodocus Badius), and in the same year he published his first Latin Bible, an edition in folio, upon which he had been at work for the last four years. In 1532 appeared his _Thesaurus linguae Latinae_, a dictionary of Latin words and phrases, upon which for two years he had toiled incessantly, with no other assistance than that of Thierry of Beauvais. A second edition, greatly enlarged and improved, appeared in 1536, and a third, still further improved, in 3 vols. folio, in 1543. Though the _Thesaurus_ is now superseded, its merits must not be forgotten. It was vastly superior to anything of the kind that had appeared before; it formed the basis of future labours, and even as late as 1734 was considered worthy of being re-edited. In 1539 Robert was appointed king's printer for Hebrew and Latin, an office to which, after the death of Conrad Neobar in 1540, he united that of king's printer for Greek. In 1541 he was entrusted by Francis I. with the task of procuring from Claude Garamond, the engraver and type-founder, three sets of Greek type for the royal press. The middle size were the first ready, and with these Robert printed the _editio princeps_ of the _Ecclesiasticae Historiae_ of Eusebius and others (1544). The smallest size were first used for the 16mo edition of the New Testament known as the _O mirificam_ (1546), while with the largest size was printed the magnificent folio of 1550. This edition involved the printer in fresh disputes with the faculty of theology, and towards the end of the following year he left his native town for ever, and took refuge at Geneva, where he published in 1552 a caustic and effective answer to his persecutors under the title _Ad censuras theologorum Parisiensium, quibus Biblia a R. Stephano, Typographo Regio, ex usa calumniose notarunt, eiusdem R. S. responsio_. A French translation, which is remarkable for the excellence of its style, was published by him in the same year (printed in Renouard's _Annales de l'imprimerie des Estienne_). At Geneva Robert proved himself an ardent partisan of Calvin, several of whose works he published. He died there on the 7th of September 1559.

It is by his work in connexion with the Bible, and especially as an
editor of the New Testament, that he is on the whole best known. The
text of his New Testament of 1550, either in its original form or in
such slightly modified form as it assumed in the Elzevir text of 1634,
remains to this day the traditional text. But this is due rather to
its typographical beauty than to any critical merit. The readings of
the fifteen MSS. which Robert's son Henri had collated for the purpose
were merely introduced into the margin. The text was still almost
exactly that of Erasmus. It was, however, the first edition ever
published with a critical apparatus of any sort. Of the whole Bible
Robert printed eleven editions--eight in Latin, two in Hebrew and one
in French; while of the New Testament alone he printed twelve--five in
Greek, five in Latin and two in French. In the Greek New Testament of
1551 (printed at Geneva) the present division into verses was
introduced for the first time. The _editiones principes_ which issued
from Robert's press were eight in number, viz. _Eusebius_, including
the _Praeparatio evangelica_ and the _Demonstratio evangelica_ as well
as the _Historia ecclesiastica_ already mentioned (1544-1546),
_Moschopulus_ (1545), _Dionysius of Halicarnassus_ (February 1547),
_Alexander Trallianus_ (January 1548), _Dio Cassius_ (January 1548),
_Justin Martyr_ (1551), _Xiphilinus_ (1551), _Appian_ (1551), the last
being completed, after Robert's departure from Paris, by his brother
Charles, and appearing under his name. These editions, all in folio,
except the _Moschopulus_, which is in 4to, are unrivalled for beauty.
Robert also printed numerous editions of Latin classics, of which
perhaps the folio _Virgil_ of 1532 is the most noteworthy, and a large
quantity of Latin grammars and other educational works, many of which
were written by Maturin Cordier, his friend and co-worker in the cause
of humanism.

CHARLES ESTIENNE (1504 or 1505-1564), the third son of Henri, was, like his brother Robert, a man of considerable learning. After the usual humanistic training he studied medicine, and took his doctor's degree at Paris. He was for a time tutor to Jean Antoine de Baif, the future poet. In 1551, when Robert Estienne left Paris for Geneva, Charles, who had remained a Catholic, took charge of his printing establishment, and in the same year was appointed king's printer. In 1561 he became bankrupt, and he is said to have died in a debtors' prison.

His principal works are _Praedium Rusticum_ (1554), a collection of
tracts which he had compiled from ancient writers on various branches
of agriculture, and which continued to be a favourite book down to the
end of the 17th century; _Dictionarium historicum ac poeticum_ (1553),
the first French encyclopaedia; _Thesaurus Ciceronianus_ (1557), and
_De dissectione partium corporis humani libri tres_, with well-drawn
woodcuts (1548). He also published a translation of an Italian comedy,
_Gli Ingannati_, under the title of _Le Sacrifice_ (1543; republished
as _Les Abusez_, 1549), which had some influence on the development of
French comedy; and _Paradoxes_ (1553), an imitation of the _Paradossi_
of Ortensio Landi.

HENRI ESTIENNE (1531-1598), sometimes called Henri II., was the eldest son of Robert. In the preface to his edition of Aulus Gellius (1585), addressed to his son Paul, he gives an interesting account of his father's household, in which, owing to the various nationalities of those who were employed on the press, Latin was used as a common language. Henri thus picked up Latin as a child, but by his own request he was allowed to learn Greek as a serious study before Latin. At the age of fifteen he become a pupil of Pierre Danes, at that time the first Greek scholar in France. Two years later he began to attend the lectures of Jacques Toussain, one of the royal professors of Greek, and in the same year (1545) was employed by his father to collate a MS. of Dionysius of Halicarnassus. In 1547 he went to Italy, where he spent three years in hunting for and collating MSS. and in intercourse with learned men. In 1550 he visited England, where he was favourably received by Edward VI., and then Flanders, where he learnt Spanish. In 1551 he joined his father at Geneva, which henceforth became his home. In 1554 he gave to the world, as the first fruits of his researches, two first editions, viz. a tract of Dionysius of Halicarnassus and the so-called "Anacreon." In 1556 he discovered at Rome ten new books (xi.-xx.) of Diodorus Siculus. In 1557 he issued from the press which in the previous year he had set up at Geneva three first editions, viz. _Athenagoras, Maximus Tyrius_, and some fragments of Greek historians, including Appian's [Greek: Annibalike], and [Greek: Iberike] and an edition of Aeschylus, in which for the first time the _Agamemnon_ was printed in entirety and as a separate play. In 1559 he printed a Latin translation from his own pen of Sextus Empiricus, and an edition of Diodorus Siculus with the new books. His father dying in the same year, he became under his will owner of his press, subject, however, to the condition of keeping it at Geneva. In 1566 he published his best-known French work, the _Apologie pour Herodote_, or, as he himself called it, _L'Introduction au traite de la conformite des merveilles anciennes avec les modernes ou Traite preparatif a l'Apologie pour Herodote_. Some passages being considered objectionable by the Geneva consistory, he was compelled to cancel the pages containing them. The book became highly popular, and within sixteen years twelve editions were printed. In 1572 he published the great work upon which he had been labouring for many years, the _Thesaurus Graecae linguae_, in 5 vols. fol. The publication in 1578 of his _Deux Dialogues du nouveau francois ilalianize_ brought him into a fresh dispute with the consistory. To avoid their censure he went to Paris, and resided at the French court for a year. On his return to Geneva he was summoned before the consistory, and, proving contumacious, was imprisoned for a week. From this time his life became more and more of a nomad one. He is to be found at Basel, Heidelberg, Vienna, Pest, everywhere but at Geneva, these journeys being undertaken partly in the hope of procuring patrons and purchasers, for the large sums which he had spent on such publications as the _Thesaurus_ and the _Plato_ of 1578 had almost ruined him. His press stood nearly at a standstill. A few editions of classical authors were brought out, but each successive one showed a falling off. Such value as the later ones had was chiefly due to the notes furnished by Casaubon, who in 1586 had married his daughter Florence. His last years were marked by ever-increasing infirmity of mind and temper. In 1597 he left Geneva for the last time. After visiting Montpellier, where Casaubon was now professor, he started for Paris, but was seized with sudden illness at Lyons, and died there at the end of January 1598.

Few men have ever served the cause of learning more devotedly. For
over thirty years the amount which he produced, whether as printer,
editor or original writer, was enormous. The productions of his press,
though printed with the same beautiful type as his father's books,
are, owing to the poorness of the paper and ink, inferior to them in
general beauty. The best, perhaps, from a typographical point of view,
are the _Poetae Graeci principes_ (folio, 1566), the _Plutarch_ (13
vols. 8vo, 1572), and the _Plato_ (3 vols. folio, 1578). It was rather
his scholarship which gave value to his editions. He was not only his
own press-corrector but his own editor. Though by the latter half of
the 16th century nearly all the important Greek and Latin authors that
we now possess had been published, his untiring activity still found
some gleanings. Eighteen first editions of Greek authors and one of a
Latin author are due to his press. The most important have been
already mentioned. Henri's reputation as a scholar and editor has
increased of late years. His familiarity with the Greek language has
always been admitted to have been quite exceptional; but he has been
accused of want of taste and judgment, of carelessness and rashness.
Special censure has been passed on his _Plutarch_, in which he is said
to have introduced conjectures of his own into the text, while
pretending to have derived them from MS. authority. But a late editor,
Sintenis, has shown that, though like all the other editors of his day
he did not give references to his authorities, every one of his
supposed conjectures can be traced to some MS. Whatever may be said as
to his taste or his judgment, it seems that he was both careful and
scrupulous, and that he only resorted to conjecture when authority
failed him. And, whatever the merit of his conjectures, he was at any
rate the first to show what conjecture could do towards restoring a
hopelessly corrupt passage. The work, however, on which his fame as a
scholar is most surely based is the _Thesaurus Graecae linguae_. After
making due allowance for the fact that considerable materials for the
work had been already collected by his father, and that he received
considerable assistance from the German scholar Sylburg, he is still
entitled to the very highest praise as the producer of a work which
was of the greatest service to scholarship and which in those early
days of Greek learning could have been produced by no one but a giant.
Two editions of the _Thesaurus_ were published in the 19th century--at
London by Valpy (1815-1825) and at Paris by Didot (1831-1863).

It was one of Henri Estienne's great merits that, unlike nearly all
the French scholars who preceded him, he did not neglect his own
language. In the _Traite de la conformite du langage francois avec le
Grec_ (published in 1565, but without date; ed. L. Feugere, 1850),
French is asserted to have, among modern languages, the most affinity
with Greek, the first of all languages. _Deux Dialogues du nouveau
francois italianize_ (Geneva, 1578; ed. P. Ristelhuber, 2 vols., 1885)
was directed against the fashion prevailing in the court of Catherine
de' Medici of using Italian words and forms. The _Project du livre
intitule de la Precellence du langage francois_ (Paris, 1579; ed. E.
Huguet, 1896) treats of the superiority of French to Italian. An
interesting feature of the _Precellence_ is the account of French
proverbs, and, Henry III. having expressed some doubts as to the
genuineness of some of them, Henri Estienne published, in 1594, _Les
Premices ou le I. livre des Proverbes epigrammatizez_ (never reprinted
and very rare).

Finally, there remains the _Apologie pour Herodote_, his most famous
work. The ostensible object of the book is to show that the strange
stories in Herodotus may be paralleled by equally strange ones of
modern times. Virtually it is a bitter satire on the writer's age,
especially on the Roman Church. Put together without any method, its
extreme desultoriness makes it difficult to read continuously, but the
numerous stories, collected partly from various literary sources,
notably from the preachers Menot and Maillard, partly from the
writer's own multifarious experience, with which it is packed, make it
an interesting commentary on the manners and fashions of the time. But
satire, to be effective, should be either humorous or righteously
indignant, and, while such humour as there is in the _Apologie_ is
decidedly heavy, the writer's indignation is generally forgotten in
his evident relish for scandal. The style is, after all, its chief
merit. Though it bears evident traces of hurry, it is, like that of
all Henri Estienne's French writings, clear, easy and vigorous,
uniting the directness and sensuousness of the older writers with a
suppleness and logical precision which at this time were almost new
elements in French prose. An edition of the _Apologie_ has recently
been published by Liseux (ed. Ristelhuber, 2 vols., 1879), after one
of the only two copies of the original uncancelled edition that are
known to exist. The very remarkable political pamphlet entitled
_Discours merveilleux de la vie et actions et deportemens de Catherine
de Medicis_, which appeared in 1574, has been ascribed to Henri
Estienne, but the evidence both internal and external is conclusive
against his being the author of it. Of his Latin writings the most
worthy of notice are the _De Latinitate falso suspecta_ (1576), the
_Pseudo-Cicero_ (1577) and the _Nizoliodidascalus_ (1578), all three
written against the Ciceronians, and the _Francofordiense Emporium_
(1574), a panegyric on the Frankfort fair (reprinted with a French
translation by Liseux, 1875). He also wrote a large quantity of
indifferent Latin verses, including a long poem entitled _Musa
monitrix Principum_ (Basel, 1590).

The primary authorities for an account of the Estiennes are their own
works. In the garrulous and egotistical prefaces which Henri was in
the habit of prefixing to his editions will be found many scattered
biographical details. Twenty-seven letters from Henri to John Crato of
Crafftheim (ed. F. Passow, 1830) have been printed, and there is one
of Robert's in Herminjard's _Correspondence des Reformateurs dans de
pays de langue francaise_ (9 vols. published 1866-1897), while a few
other contemporary references to him will be found in the same work.
The secondary authorities are Janssen van Almeloveen, _De vitis
Stephanorum_ (Amsterdam, 1683); Maittaire, _Stephanorum historia_
(London, 1709); A.A. Renouard, _Annales de l'imprimerie des Estienne_
(2nd ed., Paris, 1843); the article on Estienne by A.F. Didot in the
_Nouv. Biog. gen._; Mark Pattison, _Essays_, i. 67 ff. (1889); L.
Clement, _Henri Estienne et son oeuvre francaise_ (Paris, 1899). There
is a good account of Henri's _Thesaurus_ in the _Quart. Rev._ for
January 1820, written by Bishop Bromfield. (A. A. T.)

ESTON, an urban district in the Cleveland parliamentary division of the North Riding of Yorkshire, England, 4 m. S.E. of Middlesbrough, on a branch of the North Eastern railway. Pop. (1901) 11,199. This is one of the principal centres from which the great ironstone deposits of the Cleveland Hills are worked, and there are extensive blast-furnaces, iron-foundries and steam sawing-mills in the district. Immediately W. of Eston lies the urban district of Ormesby (pop. 9482), and the whole district is densely populated (see MIDDLESBROUGH). Marton, west of Ormesby, was the birthplace of Captain Cook (1728). Numerous early earthworks fringe the hills to the south.

ESTOPPEL (from O. Fr. _estopper_, to stop, bar; _estoupe_, mod. _etoupe_, a plug of tow; Lat. _stuppa_), a rule in the law of evidence by which a party in litigation is prohibited from asserting or denying something, when such assertion or denial would be inconsistent with his own previous statements or conduct. Estoppel is said to arise in three ways--(1) by record or judgment, (2) by deed, and (3) by matter _in pais_ or conduct. (1) Where a cause of action has been tried and final judgment has been pronounced, the judgment is conclusive--either party attempting to renew the litigation by a new action would be estopped by the judgment. "Every judgment is conclusive proof as against parties and privies, of facts directly in issue in the case, actually decided by the court, and appearing from the judgment itself to be the ground on which it was based."--Stephen's _Digest of the Law of Evidence_, Art. 41. (2) It is one of the privileges of _deeds_ as distinguished from simple contracts that they operate by way of estoppel. "A man shall always be estopped by his own deed, or not permitted to aver or prove anything in contradiction to what he has once so solemnly and deliberately avowed" (Blackstone, 2 _Com._ 295); e.g. where a bond recited that the defendants were authorized by acts of parliament to borrow money, and that under such authority they had borrowed money from a certain person, they were estopped from setting up as a defence that they did not in fact so borrow money, as stated by their deed. (3) Estoppel by conduct, or, as it is still sometimes called, estoppel by matter _in pais_, is the most important head. The rule practically comes to this that, when a person in his dealings with others has acted so as to induce them to believe a thing to be true and to act on such belief, he may not in any proceeding between himself and them deny the thing to be true: e.g. a partner retiring from a firm without giving notice to the customers, cannot, as against a customer having no knowledge of his retirement, deny that he is a partner. As between landlord and tenant the principle operates to prevent the denial by the tenant of the landlord's title. So if a person comes upon land by the licence of the person in possession, he cannot deny that the licenser had a title to the possession at the time the licence was given. Again, if a man accepts a bill of exchange he may not deny the signature or the capacity of the drawer. So a person receiving goods as baillee from another cannot deny the title of that other to the goods at the time they were entrusted to him.

Estoppel of whatever kind is subject to one general rule, that it cannot override the law of the land; for example, a corporation would not be estopped as to acts which are _ultra vires_.

See L.F. Everest and E. Strode, _The Law of Estoppel_; M. Cababe,
_Principles of Estoppel_.

ESTOUTEVILLE, GUILLAUME D' (1403-1483), French ecclesiastic, was bishop of Angers, of Digne, of Porto and Santa Rufina, of Ostia and Velletri, archbishop of Rouen, prior of Saint Martin des Champs, abbot of Mont St Michel, of St Ouen at Rouen, and of Montebourg. He was sent to France as legate by Pope Nicholas V. to make peace between Charles VII. and England (1451), and undertook, _ex officio_, the revision of the trial of Joan of Arc; he afterwards reformed the statutes of the university of Paris. He then went to preside over the assembly of clergy which met at Bourges to discuss the observation of the Pragmatic Sanction (see BASEL, COUNCIL OF), finally returning to Rome, where he passed almost all the rest of his life. He was a great builder, Rouen, Mont St Michel, Pontoise and Gaillon owing many noble buildings to his initiative.

ESTOVERS (from the O. Fr. _estover_, _estovoir_, a verb used as a substantive in the sense of that which is necessary; the word is of disputed origin; it has been referred to the Lat. _stare_, to stand, or _studere_, to desire), a term, in English law, for the wood which a tenant for life or years may take from the land he holds for repair of his house, the implements of husbandry, and the hedges and fences, and for firewood. The O. Eng. word for estover was _bote_ or _boot_ (literally meaning "good," "profit," the same word as seen in "better"). The various kinds of estovers were thus known as house-bote, cart or plough-bote, hedge or hay-bote, and fire-bote respectively. These rights may, of course, be restricted by express covenants. Copyholders have similar rights over the land they occupy and over the waste of the manor, in which case the rights are known as "Commons of estovers." (See COMMONS.)

ESTRADA, LA, a town of north-western Spain, in the province of Pontevedra, 15 m. S. by E. of Santiago de Compostela. Pop. (1900) 23,916. La Estrada is the chief town of a densely-populated mountainous district; its industries are agriculture, stock-breeding, and the manufacture of linen and woollen cloth. Timber from the mountain forests is conveyed from La Estrada to the river Ulla, 4 m. N., and thence floated down to the seaports on Arosa Bay. The nearest railway-station is Requeijo, 7 m. W., on the Pontevedra-Santiago railway. There are mineral springs at La Estrada and at Caldas de Reyes, 11 m. W.S.W.

ESTRADE, a French architectural term for a raised platform (see DAIS). In the Levant the estrade of a divan is called Sopha (Blondel), from which comes our "sofa."

ESTRADES, GODEFROI, COMTE D' (1607-1686), French diplomatist and marshal, was born at Agen. He was the son of Francois d'Estrades (d. 1653), a partisan of Henry IV., and brother of Jean d'Estrades, bishop of Condom. He became a page to Louis XIII., and at the age of nineteen was sent on a mission to Maurice of Holland. In 1646 he was named ambassador extraordinary to Holland, and took part in the conferences at Munster. Sent in 1661 to England, he obtained in 1662 the restitution of Dunkirk. In 1667 he negotiated the treaty of Breda with the king of Denmark, and in 1678 the treaty of Nijmwegen, which ended the war with Holland. Independently of these diplomatic missions, he took part in the principal campaigns of Louis XIV., in Italy (1648), in Catalonia (1655), in Holland (1672); and was created marshal of France in 1675. He left _Lettres, memoires et negociations en qualite d'ambassadeur en Hollande depuis 1663 jusqu' en 1668_, of which the first edition in 1700 was followed by a nine-volume edition (London (the Hague), 1743).

Of the sons of Godefroi d'Estrades, Jean Francois d'Estrades was ambassador to Venice and Piedmont; Louis, marquis d'Estrades (d. 1711), succeeded his father as governor of Dunkirk, and was the father of Godefroi Louis, comte d'Estrades, lieutenant-general, who was killed at the siege of Belgrade, 1717.

See Felix Salomon, _Frankreichs Beziehungen zu dem Scottischen
Aufstand_ (1637-1640), containing an excursus on the falsification of
the letters of the comte d'Estrades; Philippe Lauzun, _Le Marechal
d'Estrades_ (Agen, 1896).

ESTREAT (O. Fr. _estrait_, Lat. _extracta_), originally, a true copy or duplicate of some original writing or record; now used only with reference to the enforcement of a forfeited recognizance. At one time it was the practice to extract and certify into the exchequer copies of entries in court roils which contained provisions or orders in favour of the treasury, hence the estreating of a recognizance was the taking out from among the other records of the court in which it was filed and sending it to the exchequer to be enforced, or sending it to the sheriff to be levied by him, and then returned by the clerk of the peace to the lords of the treasury. (See RECOGNIZANCE.)

ESTREES, GABRIELLE D' (1573-1599), mistress of Henry IV. of France, was the daughter of Antoine d'Estrees, marquis of Coeuvres, and Francoise Babou de la Bourdaisiere. Henry IV., who in November 1590 stayed at the castle of Coeuvres, became violently enamoured of her. Her father, anxious to save his daughter from so perilous an entanglement, married her to Nicholas d'Amerval, seigneur de Liancourt, but the union proved unhappy, and in December 1592, Gabrielle, whose affection for the king was sincere, became his mistress. She lived with him from December 1592 onwards, and bore him several children, who were recognized and legitimized by him. She possessed the king's entire confidence; he willingly listened to her advice, and created her marchioness of Monceaux, duchess of Beaufort (1597) and Etampes (1598), a peeress of France. The king even proposed to marry her in the event of the success of his suit for the nullification by the Holy See of his marriage with Margaret of Valois; but before the question was settled Gabrielle died, on the 10th of April 1599. Poison was of course suspected; but her death was really caused by puerperal convulsions (_eclampsia_).

See Adrien Desclozeaux, _Gabrielle d'Estrees, Marquise de Monceaux,
&c_. (Paris, 1889).

ESTREMADURA, or EXTREMADURA, an ancient territorial division of central and western Portugal, and of western Spain; comprising the modern districts of Leiria, Santarem and Lisbon, in Portugal, and the modern provinces of Badajoz and Caceres in Spain. Pop. (1900) 2,095,818; area, 23,055 sq. m. The name of Estremadura appears to be of early Romance or Late Latin origin, and probably was applied to all the far western lands (_extrema ora_) bordering upon the lower Tagus, as far as the Atlantic Ocean. It is thus equivalent to _Land's End_, or _Finistere_. In popular speech it is more commonly used than the names of the modern divisions mentioned above, which were created in the 19th century. As, however, there are many racial, economic and historic differences between Portuguese and Spanish Estremadura, the two provinces are separately described below.

1. Portuguese Estremadura is bounded on the N. by Beira, E. and S. by Alemtejo, and W. by the Atlantic Ocean. Pop. (1900) 1,221,418; area, 6937 sq. m. The greatest length of the province, from N. to S., is 165 m.; its greatest breadth, from E. to W., is 72 m. The general uniformity of the coast-line is broken by the broad and deep estuaries of the Tagus and the Sado, and by the four conspicuous promontories of Cape Carvoeiro, Cape da Roca, Cape Espichel and Cape de Sines. The Tagus is the great navigable waterway of Portuguese Estremadura, flowing from north-east to south-west, and fed by many minor tributaries, notably the Zezere on the right and the Zatas on the left. It divides the country into two nearly equal portions, wholly dissimilar in surface and character. South of the Tagus the land is almost everywhere low, flat and monotonous, while in several places it is rendered unhealthy by undrained marshes. The Sado, which issues into Setubal Bay, is the only important river of this region. North of the Tagus, and parallel with its right bank, extends the mountain chain which is known at its northern extremity as the Serra do Aire and, where it terminates above Cape da Roca, as the Serra da Cintra. This ridge, which is buttressed on all sides by lesser groups of hills, and includes part of the famous lines of Torres Vedras (q.v.), exceeds 2200 ft. in height, and constitutes the watershed between the right-hand tributaries of the Tagus and the Liz, Sizandro and other small rivers which flow into the Atlantic. On its seaward side, except for the line of sheer and lofty cliffs between Cape Carvoeiro and Cape da Roca, the country is mostly flat and sandy, with extensive heaths and pine forests; but along the fertile and well-cultivated right bank of the Tagus the river scenery, with its terraced hills of vines, olives and fruit trees, often resembles that of the Rhine in Germany. The natural resources of Portuguese Estremadura, with its inhabitants, industries, commerce, communications, &c., are described under PORTUGAL; for on such matters there is little to be said of this central and most characteristic province which does not apply to the whole kingdom. Separate articles are also devoted to Lisbon, the capital, and Abrantes, Cintra, Leiria, Mafra, Santarem, Setubal, Thomar, Torres Novas and Torres Vedras, the other chief towns. The women of Peniche, a small fishing village on the promontory of Cape Carvoeiro, have long been celebrated throughout Portugal for their skill in the manufacture of fine laces.

2. Spanish Estremadura is bounded on the N. by Leon and Old Castile, E. by New Castile, S. by Andalusia, and W. by the Portuguese province of Beira and Alemtejo, which separate it from Portuguese Estremadura. Pop. (1900) 882,410; area, 16,118 sq. m. Spanish Estremadura consists of a tableland separated from Leon and Old Castile by the lofty Sierra de Gredos, the plateau of Bejar and the Sierra de Gata, which form an almost continuous barrier along the northern frontier, with its summits ranging from 6000 to more than 8500 ft. in altitude. On the south the comparatively low range of the Sierra Morena constitutes the frontier of Andalusia; on the east and west there is a still more gradual transition to the plateau of New Castile and the central plains of Portugal. The tableland of Spanish Estremadura is itself bisected from east to west by a line of mountains, the Sierras of San Pedro, Montanchez and Guadalupe (4000-6000 ft.), which separate its northern half, drained by the river Tagus, from its southern half, drained by the Guadiana. These two halves are respectively known as Alta or Upper Estremadura (the modern Caceres), and Baja or Lower Estremadura (the modern Badajoz). The Tagus and Guadiana flow from east to west through a monotonous country, level or slightly undulating, often almost uninhabited, and covered with a thin growth of shrubs and grass. Perhaps the most characteristic feature of this tableland is the vast heaths of gum-cistus, which in spring colour the whole landscape with leagues of yellow blossom, and in summer change to a brown and arid wilderness.

The climate in summer is hot but not unhealthy, except in the swamps which occur along the Guadiana. The rainfall is scanty; dew, however, is abundant and the nights are cool. Although the high mountains are covered with snow in November, the winters are not usually severe. The soil is naturally fertile, but drought, floods and locusts render agriculture difficult, and sheep-farming is the most important of Estremaduran industries. (See SPAIN: _Agriculture_.) In the 19th century, however, this industry lost much of its former importance owing to foreign competition.

Immense herds of swine are bred and constitute a great source of support to the inhabitants, not only supplying them with food, but also forming a great article of export to other provinces--the pork, bacon and hams being in high esteem. The beech, oak and chestnut woods afford an abundance of food for swine, and there are numerous plantations of olive, cork and fruit trees, but a far greater area of forest has been destroyed. For an account of commerce, mining, communications, &c., in Spanish Estremadura, with a list of the chief towns, see CACERES and BADAJOZ. In character and physical type, the people of this region are less easily classified than those of other Spanish provinces. They lack the endurance and energy of the Galicians, the independent and enterprising spirit of the Asturians, Basques and Catalans, the culture of the Castilians and Andalusians. Their failure to develop a distinctive local type of character and civilization is perhaps due to the adverse economic history of their country. The two great waterways which form the natural outlet for Estremaduran commerce flow to the Atlantic through a foreign and, for centuries, a hostile territory. Like other parts of Spain, Estremadura suffered severely from the expulsion of the Jews and Moors (1492-1610), while the compensating treasure, derived during the same period from Spanish America, never reached a province so remote at once from the sea and from the chief centres of national life. Although Cortes (1485-1547), the conqueror of Mexico and Pizarro (c. 1471-1541), the conqueror of Peru, were both born in Estremadura, their exploits, far from bringing prosperity to their native province, only encouraged the emigration of its best inhabitants. Heavy taxation and harsh land-laws prevented any recovery, while the felling of the forests reduced many fertile areas to waste land, and rendered worse a climate already unfavourable to agriculture. Few countries leave upon the mind of the traveller a deeper impression of hopeless poverty.