Part 98 (2/2)
BYBLIS, in the Greek mythology a daughter of Miletus, in love with her brother Caunus, whom she pursued into far lands, till, worn out with sorrow, she was changed into a fountain.
BYNG, GEORGE, VISCOUNT TORRINGTON, admiral, favoured the Prince of Orange, and won the navy over to his interest; commanded the squadron that took Gibraltar in 1704: conquered the Spaniards off Cape Pa.s.saro; was made First Lord of the Admiralty in 1727, an office he held till his death (1663-1733).
BYNG, JOHN, admiral, fourth son of the preceding; having failed to compel the French to raise the blockade of Minorca, was recalled, in deference to popular clamour, and being tried and condemned as guilty of treason, was shot at Portsmouth, a fate it is now believed he did not deserve, and which he bore like a man and a Christian (1704-1757).
BYROM, JOHN, poet and stenographer, born near Manchester; invented a system of shorthand, now superseded, and which he had the sole right of teaching for 21 years; contributed as ”John Shadow” to the _Spectator_; author of the pastoral, ”My Time, O ye Muses, was Happily Spent”; his poetry satirical and genial (1692-1763).
BYRON, GEORGE GORDON, SIXTH LORD, an English poet, born in London, son of Captain Byron of the Guards, and Catherine Gordon of Gight, Aberdeens.h.i.+re; spent his boyhood at Aberdeen under his mother, now a widow, and was educated at Harrow and Cambridge, spending, when at the latter, his vacations in London, where his mother had taken a house; wrote ”Hours of Idleness,” a poor first attempt, which called forth a severe criticism in the _Edinburgh Review_, and which he satirised in ”English Bards and Scotch Reviewers,” and soon afterwards left England and spent two years in foreign travel; wrote first part of ”Childe Harold,” ”awoke one morning and found himself famous”; produced the ”Giaour,” ”Bride of Abydos,” ”Hebrew Melodies,” and other work. In his school days he had fallen in love with Mary Chaworth, but she had not returned his affection, and in 1815 he married Miss Millbank, an heiress, who in a year left him never to return, when a storm raised against him on account of his private life drove him from England, and he never came back; on the Continent, moved from place to place, finished ”Childe Harold,” completed several short poems, and wrote ”Don Juan”; threw himself into revolutionary movements in Italy and Greece, risked his all in the emanc.i.p.ation of the latter, and embarking in it, died at Missolonghi in a fit, at the age of 36. His poems, from the character of the pa.s.sion that breathed in them, made a great impression on his age, but the like interest in them is happily now pa.s.sing away, if not already past; the earth is looking green again once more, under the breath, it is believed, of a new spring-time, or anyhow, the promise of such. See ”Organic Filaments” in ”Sartor Resartus” (1788-1824).
BYRON, HENRY JAMES, dramatist, born in Manchester, wrote ”Our Boys”
(1834-1884).
BYRON, JOHN, naval officer, grandfather of the poet, nicknamed from his misfortunes ”Foul-weather Jack”; accompanied Anson in his voyage round the world, but was wrecked in his s.h.i.+p the _Wager_; suffered almost unexampled hards.h.i.+ps, of which he wrote a cla.s.sical account on his safe return home; he rose to the rank of admiral, and commanded the squadron in the West Indies during the American war; died in England (1723-1786).
BYRSA, a celebrated citadel of Carthage.
BYZANTINE ART, a decorative style of art patronised by the Romans after the seat of empire was removed to the East; it has been described by Mr. Fairholt as ”an engraftment of Oriental elaboration of detail upon cla.s.sic forms, ending in their debas.e.m.e.nt.”
BYZANTINE EMPIRE, called also the Eastern, the Lower, or the Greek Empire; dates from 395 A.D., when, by the death of Theodosius, the Roman empire was divided between his two sons, Arcadius and Honorius, the Eastern section falling to the share of the former, who established the seat of his government at Byzantium; the empire included Syria, Asia Minor, Pontus, Egypt in Africa, and Ancient Greece, and it lasted with varied fortune for ten centuries after the accession of Arcadius, till Constantinople was taken by the Turks in 1453.
BYZANTIUM, the ancient name of Constantinople; founded by Greek colonists in 667 B.C.
C
CAABA, an ancient Arab temple, a small square structure in the grand mosque of Mecca, with a mysterious black stone, probably an aerolite, built in it, on which all pilgrims who visit the shrine imprint a kiss; ”the Keblah of all Moslem, the eyes of innumerable praying men being turned towards it from all the quarters of the compa.s.s five times a day.”
CABAL', a secret intriguing faction in a State, a name applied to a junto of five ministers of Charles II. in power from 1668 to 1673, the initials of whose names go to make up the word; their names were Clifford, Ashley, Buckingham, Arlington, and Lauderdale; derived from CABALA (q. v.).
CAB'ALA, a secret science alleged to have been divinely imparted to Moses and preserved by tradition, by means of which the Rabbis affected to interpret the pretended mystic sense of the words, letters, and very accents of the Hebrew Scriptures, a science which really owes its existence to a dissatisfaction in the rabbinical mind with the traditional literal interpretation, and a sense that there is more in Scripture than meets the ear. The name comes from a Hebrew word suggesting ”to receive,” and denotes ”that which is received” or tradition.
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