I am anti-entropy. My work is foursquare for chaos. I spend my life personally, and my work professionally, keeping the soup boiling. Gadfly is what they call you when you are no longer dangerous; I much prefer troublemaker, malcontent, desperado. I see myself as a combination of Zorro and Jiminy Cricket. My stories go out from here and raise hell. From time to time some denigrator or critic with umbrage will say of my work, "He only wrote that to shock." I smile and nod. Precisely.
where the stars arose, and twinkled and disappeared behind the great umbrageous trees before she went to bed.
INGRES, JEAN AUGUSTE DOMINIQUE (1780-1867), French painter, was born at Montauban, on the 29th of August 1780. His father, for whom he entertained the most tender and respectful affection, has described himself as _sculpteur en plâtre_; he was, however, equally ready to execute every other kind of decorative work, and now and again eked out his living by taking portraits or obtained an engagement as a violin-player. He brought up his son to command the same varied resources, but in consequence of certain early successes--the lad's performance of a concerto of Viotti's was applauded at the theatre of Toulouse--his attention was directed chiefly to the study of music. At Toulouse, to which place his father had removed from Montauban in 1792, Ingres had, however, received lessons from Joseph Roques, a painter whom he quitted at the end of a few months to become a pupil of M. Vigan, professor at the academy of fine arts in the same town. From Vigan, Ingres, whose vocation became day by day more distinctly evident, passed to M. Briant, a landscape-painter who insisted that his pupil was specially gifted by nature to follow the same line as himself. For a while Ingres obeyed, but he had been thoroughly aroused and enlightened as to his own objects and desires by the sight of a copy of Raphael's "Madonna della Sedia," and, having ended his connexion with Briant, he started for Paris, where he arrived about the close of 1796. He was then admitted to the studio of David, for whose lofty standard and severe principles he always retained a profound appreciation. Ingres, after four years of devoted study, during which (1800) he obtained the second place in the yearly competition, finally carried off the Grand Prix (1801). The work thus rewarded--the "Ambassadors of Agamemnon in the Tent of Achilles" (École des Beaux Arts)--was admired by Flaxman so much as to give umbrage to David, and was succeeded in the following year (1802) by the execution of a "Girl after Bathing," and a woman's portrait; in 1804 Ingres exhibited "Portrait of the First Consul" (Musée de Liége), and portraits of his father and himself; these were followed in 1806 by "Portrait of the Emperor" (Invalides), and portraits of M, Mme, and Mlle Rivière (the first two now in the Louvre). These and various minor works were executed in Paris (for it was not until 1809 that the state of public affairs admitted of the re-establishment of the Academy of France at Rome), and they produced a disturbing impression on the public. It was clear that the artist was some one who must be counted with; his talent, the purity of his line, and his power of literal rendering were generally acknowledged; but he was reproached with a desire to be singular and extraordinary. "Ingres," writes Frau v. Hastfer (_Leben und Kunst in Paris_, 1806) "wird nach Italien gehen, und dort wird er vielleicht vergessen dass er zu etwas Grossem geboren ist, und wird eben darum ein hohes Ziel erreichen." In this spirit, also, Chaussard violently attacked his "Portrait of the Emperor" (_Pausanias Français_, 1806), nor did the portraits of the Rivière family escape. The points on which Chaussard justly lays stress are the strange discordances of colour--such as the blue of the cushion against which Mme Rivière leans, and the want of the relief and warmth of life, but he omits to touch on that grasp of his subject as a whole, shown in the portraits of both husband and wife, which already evidences the strength and sincerity of the passionless point of view which marks all Ingres's best productions. The very year after his arrival in Rome (1808) Ingres produced "Oedipus and the Sphinx" (Louvre; lithographed by Sudre, engraved by Gaillard), a work which proved him in the full possession of his mature powers, and began the "Venus Anadyomene" (Collection Rieset; engraving by Pollet), completed forty years later, and exhibited in 1855. These works were followed by some of his best portraits, that of M. Bochet (Louvre), and that of Mme la Comtesse de Tournon, mother of the prefect of the department of the Tiber; in 1811 he finished "Jupiter and Thetis," an immense canvas now in the Musée of Aix; in 1812 "Romulus and Acron" (École des Beaux Arts), and "Virgil reading the _Aeneid_"--a composition very different from the version of it which has become popular through the engraving executed by Pradier in 1832. The original work, executed for a bedchamber in the Villa Aldobrandini-Miollis, contained neither the figures of Maecenas and Agrippa nor the statue of Marcellus; and Ingres, who had obtained possession of it during his second stay in Rome, intended to complete it with the additions made for engraving. But he never got beyond the stage of preparation, and the picture left by him, together with various other studies and sketches, to the Musée of his native town, remains half destroyed by the process meant for its regeneration. The "Virgil" was followed by the "Betrothal of Raphael," a small painting, now lost, executed for Queen Caroline of Naples; "Don Pedro of Toledo Kissing the Sword of Henry IV." (Collection Deymié; Montauban), exhibited at the Salon of 1814, together with the "Chapelle Sistine" (Collection Legentil; lithographed by Sudre), and the "Grande Odalisque" (Collection Seillière; lithographed by Sudre). In 1815 Ingres executed "Raphael and the Fornarina" (Collection Mme N. de Rothschild; engraved by Pradier); in 1816 "Aretin" and the "Envoy of Charles V." (Collection Schroth), and "Aretin and Tintoret" (Collection Schroth); in 1817 the "Death of Leonardo" (engraved by Richomme) and "Henry IV. Playing with his Children" (engraved by Richomme), both of which works were commissions from M. le Comte de Blacas, then ambassador of France at the Vatican. "Roger and Angelique" (Louvre; lithographed by Sudre), and "Francesca di Rimini" (Musée of Angers; lithographed by Aubry Lecomte), were completed in 1819, and followed in 1820 by "Christ giving the Keys to Peter" (Louvre). In 1815, also, Ingres had made many projects for treating a subject from the life of the celebrated duke of Alva, a commission from the family, but a loathing for "cet horrible homme" grew upon him, and finally he abandoned the task and entered in his diary--"J'étais forcé par la nécessité de peindre un pareil tableau; Dieu a voulu qu'il restât en ébauche." During all these years Ingres's reputation in France did not increase. The interest which his "Chapelle Sistine" had aroused at the Salon of 1814 soon died away; not only was the public indifferent, but amongst his brother artists Ingres found scant recognition. The strict classicists looked upon him as a renegade, and strangely enough Delacroix and other pupils of Guérin--the leaders of that romantic movement for which Ingres, throughout his long life, always expressed the deepest abhorrence--alone seem to have been sensible of his merits. The weight of poverty, too, was hard to bear. In 1813 Ingres had married; his marriage had been arranged for him with a young woman who came in a business-like way from Montauban, on the strength of the representations of her friends in Rome. Mme Ingres speedily acquired a faith in her husband which enabled her to combat with heroic courage and patience the difficulties which beset their common existence, and which were increased by their removal to Florence. There Bartolini, an old friend, had hoped that Ingres might have materially bettered his position, and that he might have aroused the Florentine school--a weak offshoot from that of David--to a sense of its own shortcomings. These expectations were disappointed. The good offices of Bartolini, and of one or two other persons, could only alleviate the miseries of this stay in a town where Ingres was all but deprived of the means of gaining daily bread by the making of those small portraits for the execution of which, in Rome, his pencil had been constantly in request. Before his departure he had, however, been commissioned to paint for M. de Pastoret the "Entry of Charles V. into Paris," and M. de Pastoret now obtained an order for Ingres from the Administration of Fine Arts; he was directed to treat the "Voeu de Louis XIII." for the cathedral of Montauban. This work, exhibited at the Salon of 1824, met with universal approbation: even those sworn to observe the unadulterated precepts of David found only admiration for the "Voeu de Louis XIII." On his return Ingres was received at Montauban with enthusiastic homage, and found himself celebrated throughout France. In the following year (1825) he was elected to the Institute, and his fame was further extended in 1826 by the publication of Sudre's lithograph of the "Grande Odalisque," which, having been scorned by artists and critics alike in 1819, now became widely popular. A second commission from the government called forth the "Apotheosis of Homer," which, replaced by a copy in the decoration of the ceiling for which it was designed, now hangs in the galleries of the second storey of the Louvre. From this date up till 1834 the studio of Ingres was thronged, as once had been thronged the studio of David, and he was a recognized _chef d'école_. Whilst he taught with despotic authority and admirable wisdom, he steadily worked; and when in 1834 he produced his great canvas of the "Martyrdom of Saint Symphorien" (cathedral of Autun; lithographed by Trichot-Garneri), it was with angry disgust and resentment that he found his work received with the same doubt and indifference, if not the same hostility, as had met his earlier ventures. The suffrages of his pupils, and of one or two men--like Decamps--of undoubted ability, could not soften the sense of injury. Ingres resolved to work no longer for the public, and gladly availed himself of the opportunity to return to Rome, as director of the École de France, in the room of Horace Vernet. There he executed "La Vierge à l'Hostie" (Imperial collections, St Petersburg), "Stratonice," "Portrait of Cherubini" (Louvre), and the "Petite Odalisque" for M. Marcotte, the faithful admirer for whom, in 1814, Ingres had painted the "Chapelle Sistine." The "Stratonice," executed for the duke of Orleans, had been exhibited at the Palais Royal for several days after its arrival in France, and the beauty of the composition produced so favourable an impression that, on his return to Paris in 1841, Ingres found himself received with all the deference that he felt to be his due. A portrait of the purchaser of "Stratonice" was one of the first works executed after his return; and Ingres shortly afterwards began the decorations of the great hall in the Château de Dampierre, which, unfortunately for the reputation of the painter, were begun with an ardour which gradually slackened, until in 1849 Ingres, having been further discouraged by the loss of his faithful and courageous wife, abandoned all hope of their completion, and the contract with the duc de Luynes was finally cancelled. A minor work, "Jupiter and Antiope," marks the year 1851, but Ingres's next considerable undertaking (1853) was the "Apotheosis of Napoleon I.," painted for the ceiling of a hall in the Hôtel de Ville; "Jeanne d'Arc" (Louvre) appeared in 1854; and in 1855 Ingres consented to rescind the resolution, more or less strictly kept since 1834, in favour of the International Exhibition, where a room was reserved for his works. Prince Napoleon, president of the jury, proposed an exceptional recompense for their author, and obtained from the emperor Ingres's nomination as grand officer of the Legion of Honour. With renewed confidence Ingres now took up and completed one of his most charming productions--"La Source" (Louvre), a figure of which he had painted the torso in 1823, and which seen with other works in London (1862) there renewed the general sentiment of admiration, and procured him, from the imperial government, the dignity of senator. After the completion of "La Source," the principal works produced by Ingres were with one or two exceptions ("Molière" and "Louis XIV.," presented to the Théâtre Français, 1858; "Le Bain Turc," 1859), of a religious character; "La Vierge de l'Adoption," 1858 (painted for Mlle Roland-Gosselin), was followed by "La Vierge Couronnée" (painted for Mme la Baronne de Larinthie) and "La Vierge aux Enfans" (Collection Blanc); in 1859 these were followed by repetitions of "La Vierge à l'Hostie"; and in 1862 Ingres completed "Christ and the Doctors" (Musée Montauban), a work commissioned many years before by Queen Marie Amélie for the chapel of Bizy. Entry: INGRES
David's character must be judged partly in the light of the times in which he lived and partly in connexion with the great truths which he represents, truths whose value is not impaired should they prove to be the convictions of later ages. Accordingly, David is not to be condemned for failing to subdue the sensuality which is the chief stain on his character, but should rather be judged by his habitual recognition of a generous standard of conduct, by the undoubted purity and lofty justice of an administration which was never stained by selfish considerations or motives of personal rancour,[30] and finally by the calm courage which enabled him to hold an even and noble course in the face of dangers and treachery. His great sin in the matter of Uriah would have been forgotten but for his repentance: the things at which modern ideas are most offended are not always those that would have given umbrage to early writers. That he did not reform at a stroke all ancient abuses appears particularly in relation to the practice of blood revenge; to put an end to this deep-rooted custom would have been an impossibility. But it is clear from 2 Sam. iii. 28 sqq., xiv. 1-10, that his sympathies were against the barbarous usage. Nor is it just to accuse him of cruelty in his treatment of enemies. As it was impossible to establish a military cordon along the borders of Canaan, it was necessary absolutely to cripple the adjoining tribes. From the lust of conquest for its own sake David appears to have been wholly free. Entry: DAVID
FOLLEN, KARL (1795-1840), German poet and patriot, brother of A.L. Follen, was born at Romrod in Hesse-Darmstadt, on the 5th of September 1795. He first studied theology at Giessen, but after the campaign of 1814, in which, like his brother August, he took part as a Hessian volunteer, began the study of jurisprudence, and in 1818 established himself as _Privatdocent_ of civil law at Giessen. Owing to being suspected of political intrigues, he removed to Jena, and thence, after the assassination of Kotzebue, fled to France. Here again the political murder of the duc de Berry, on the 14th of January 1820, led to Follen being regarded as a suspect, and he accordingly took refuge in Switzerland, where he taught for a while at the cantonal school at Coire and at the university of Basel; but the Prussian authorities imperatively demanding his surrender, he sought in 1824 the hospitality of the United States of America. Here he became an instructor in German at Harvard in 1825, and in 1830 obtained an appointment as professor of German language and literature there; but his anti-slavery agitation having given umbrage to the authorities, he forfeited his post in 1835, and was ordained Unitarian minister of a chapel at Lexington in Massachusetts in 1836. He perished at sea on board a steamboat which was totally consumed by fire while on a voyage from New York to Boston, on the night of the 13th-14th of January 1840. Follen was the author of several celebrated patriotic songs written in the interests of liberty. The best is perhaps _Horch auf, ihr Fürsten! Du Volk, horch auf!_ of which Johannes Wit, called von Dörring (1800-1863), was long, though erroneously, considered the author. It was published in A.L. Follen's collection of patriotic songs, _Freie Stimmen frischer Jugend_. Entry: FOLLEN
The defects of this system from a monarchical point of view soon became evident. It did not give the power of either the purse or the sword to the sovereign. The revenues of the administrative districts continued to be collected and disbursed by the former feudatories, who also retained the control of the troops, the right of appointing and dismissing officials, and almost complete local autonomy. A further radical step had to be taken, and the leaders of reform, seeing nothing better than to continue the method of procedure which had thus far proved so successful, contrived, first, that several of the administrative districts should send in petitions offering to surrender their local autonomy and be brought under the direct rule of the central government; secondly, that a number of samurai should apply for permission to lay aside their swords. While the nation was digesting the principles embodied in these petitions, the government made preparations for further measures of reform. The ex-chief of Satsuma, who showed some umbrage because the services of his clan in promoting the restoration had not been more fully recognized, was induced to take high ministerial office, as were also the ex-chiefs of Choshu and Tosa. Each of the four great clans had now three representatives in the ministry. These clans were further persuaded to send to Tokyo--whither the emperor had moved his court--contingents of troops to form the nucleus of a national army. Importance attaches to these details because the principle of clan representation, illustrated in the organization of the cabinet of 1871, continued to be approximately observed for many years in forming ministries, and ultimately became a target for the attacks of party politicians. Entry: IX
From that moment Cromwell's fate was sealed; the Lords loathed him as an upstart even more than they had loathed Wolsey; he had no church to support him; Norfolk and Gardiner detested him from pique as well as on principle, and he had no friend in the council save Cranmer. As lay viceregent he had given umbrage to nearly every churchman, and he had put all his eggs in the one basket of royal favour, which had now failed him. Cromwell did not succumb without an effort, and a desperate struggle ensued in the council. In April the French ambassador wrote that he was tottering to his fall; a few days later he was created earl of Essex and lord great chamberlain, and two of his satellites were made secretaries to the king; he then despatched one bishop to the Tower, and threatened to send five others to join him. At last Henry struck as suddenly and remorselessly as a beast of prey; on the 10th of June Norfolk accused him of treason; the whole council joined in the attack, and Cromwell was sent to the Tower. A vast number of crimes was laid to his charge, but not submitted for trial. An act of attainder was passed against him without a dissentient voice, and after contributing his mite towards the divorce of Anne, he was beheaded on Tower Hill on the 28th of July, repudiating all heresy and declaring that he died in the Catholic faith. Entry: CROMWELL
GEFFCKEN, FRIEDRICH HEINRICH (1830-1896), German diplomatist and jurist, was born on the 9th of December 1830 at Hamburg, of which city his father was senator. After studying law at Bonn, Göttingen and Berlin, he was attached in 1854 to the Prussian legation at Paris. For ten years (1856-1866) he was the diplomatic representative of Hamburg in Berlin, first as chargé d'affaires, and afterwards as minister-resident, being afterwards transferred in a like capacity to London. Appointed in 1872 professor of constitutional history and public law in the reorganized university of Strassburg, Geffcken became in 1880 a member of the council of state of Alsace-Lorraine. Of too nervous a temperament to withstand the strain of the responsibilities of his position, he retired from public service in 1882, and lived henceforth mostly at Munich, where he died, suffocated by an accidental escape of gas into his bedchamber, on the 1st of May 1896. Geffcken was a man of great erudition and wide knowledge and of remarkable legal acumen, and from these qualities proceeded the personal influence he possessed. He was moreover a clear writer and made his mark as an essayist. He was one of the most trusted advisers of the Prussian crown prince, Frederick William (afterwards the emperor Frederick), and it was he (it is said, at Bismarck's suggestion) who drew up the draft of the New German federal constitution, which was submitted to the crown prince's headquarters at Versailles during the war of 1870-71. It was also Geffcken who assisted in framing the famous document which the emperor Frederick, on his accession to the throne in 1888, addressed to the chancellor. This memorandum gave umbrage, and on the publication by Geffcken in the _Deutsche Rundschau_ (Oct. 1888) of extracts from the emperor Frederick's private diary during the war of 1870-71, he was, at Bismarck's instance, prosecuted for high treason. The Reichsgericht (supreme court), however, quashed the indictment, and Geffcken was liberated after being under arrest for three months. Publications of various kinds proceeded from his pen. Among these are _Zur Geschichte des orientalischen Krieges 1853-1856_ (Berlin, 1881); _Frankreich, Russland und der Dreibund_ (Berlin, 1894); and _Staat und Kirche_ (1875), English translation by E.F. Fairfax (1877). His writings on English history have been translated by S.J. Macmullan and published as _The British Empire, with essays on Prince Albert, Palmerston, Beaconsfield, Gladstone, and reform of the House of Lords_ (1889). Entry: GEFFCKEN
The prince of Wales, it is clear, gave much umbrage to his father by his eagerness to direct the policy of the crown ere yet it had fallen to him by inheritance. The king suspected, and with good reason, that his son wished him to abdicate, and resented the idea. It seems that a plot with such an object was actually on foot, and that the younger Henry gave it up in a moment of better feeling, when he realized the evil impression that the unfilial act would make upon the nation. At this time the prince gave small promise of developing into the model monarch that he afterwards became. There was no doubt of his military ability, which had been fully demonstrated in the long Welsh wars, but he is reputed to have shown himself arrogant, contentious and over-given to loose-living. There were many, Archbishop Arundel among them, who looked forward with apprehension to his accession to the throne. Entry: IV
Damião de Goes was a man of wide culture and genial and courtly manners, a skilled musician and a good linguist. He wrote both Portuguese and Latin with classic strength and simplicity, and his style is free from affectation and rhetorical ornaments. His portrait by Albrecht Dürer shows an open, intelligent face, and the record of his life proves him to have been upright and fearless. His prosperity doubtless excited ill-will, but above all, his ideas, advanced for Portugal, his foreign ways, outspokenness and honesty contributed to the tragedy of his end, at a time when the forces of ignorant reaction held the ascendant. He had, it may be presumed, given some umbrage to the court by condemning, in the _Chronicle of King Manoel_, the royal ingratitude to distinguished public servants, though he received a pension and other rewards for that work, and he had certainly offended the nobility by his administration of the archive office and by exposing false genealogical claims in his _Nobiliario_. He paid the penalty for telling the truth, as he knew it, in an age when an historian had to choose between flattery of the great and silence. The _Chronicle of King Manoel_ was the first official history of a Portuguese reign to be written in a critical spirit, and Damião de Goes has the honour of having been the first Portuguese royal chronicler to deserve the name of an historian. Entry: GOES
The supremacy of intelligence in the political world was, for the time, represented in Pitt. In 1784 he passed an India Bill, which left the commerce and all except the highest patronage of India in the hands of the East India Company, but which erected a department of the home government, named the board of control, to compel the company to carry out such political measures as the government saw fit. A bill for parliamentary reform was, however, thrown out by the opposition of his own supporters in parliament, whilst outside parliament there was no general desire for a change in a system which for the present produced such excellent fruits. Still more excellent was his plan of legislation for Ireland. Irishmen had taken advantage of the weakness of England during the American War to enforce upon the ministry of the day, in 1780 and 1782, an abandonment of all claim on the part of the English government and the English judges to interfere in any way with Irish affairs. From 1782, therefore, there were two independent legislatures within the British Isles--the one sitting at Westminster and the other sitting in Dublin. With these political changes Fox professed himself to be content. Pitt, whose mind was open to wider considerations, proposed to throw open commerce to both nations by removing all the restrictions placed on the trade of Ireland with England and with the rest of the world. The opposition of the English parliament was only removed by concessions continuing some important restrictions upon Irish exports, and by giving the English parliament the right of initiation in all measures relating to the regulation of the trade which was to be common to both nations. The Irish parliament took umbrage at the superiority claimed by England, and threw out the measure as an insult, though, even as it stood, it was undeniably in favour of Ireland. The lesson of the incompatibility of two coordinate legislatures was not thrown away upon Pitt. Entry: X