Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 08.djvu/156

LEFT ROSSE 122 BOSSETTI among them Wilde's works and a biogra- phy of Aubrey Beardsley. He died in London in 1918. ROSSE, WILLIAM PARSONS, THIRD EARL OF, an English astronomer; born in York, England, June 17, 1800. Though a representative Irish peer, Lord Rosse's chief attention was devoted to the study of practical astronomy. In 1827 he con- structed a telescope, the speculum of which had a diameter of three feet, and the success and scientific value of this in- strument induced him to attempt to cast a speculum twice as large. After many failures, Lord Rosse succeeded in 1845 in perfecting machinery which turned out the huge speculum, weighing three tons, without warp or flaw. It was then mounted in his park at Parsonstown, at a cost of $150,000 on a telescope 54 feet in length with a tube 7 feet in diameter. A series of cranks, swivels, and pulleys enables this huge instrument to be han- dled almost with as much ease as tele- scopes of ordinary size. The sphere of observation was immensely widened by Lord Rosse's instrument, which has been chiefly used in observations of nebulae. He died Oct. 31, 1867. ROSSER, THOMAS LAFAYETTE, an American soldier, born in Campbell co., Virginia, in 1836. He entered West Point in 1856, but resigned on the outbreak of the Civil War to enter the artillery serv- ice of the Confederate army. He was afterward transferred to Stuart's cav- alry, where he became brigadier-general. He became a major-general in 1864. He refused to surrender at the close of the war, but made his escape and attempted to reorganize the Confederate forces in northern Virginia. He was captured, but was soon released. In 1871 he was ap- pointed chief engineer of the Eastern Di- vision of the Northern Pacific. From 1881 to 1886 he acted as chief engineer of the Canadian Pacific railroad. During the Spanish-American War he served as brigadier-general of the United States volunteers. He died in 1910. ROSSETTI, the name of an Italian family, the most famous members of which were: Rossetti, Gabriele, an Italian poet and critic; born in Vasto, Abruzzo Citeriore, then forming part of the kingdom of Na- ples, Feb. 28, 1783. His father, Nicola Rossetti, was engaged in the iron trade of the district; his mother was Maria Francesca Pietrocola. The parents were not in easy circumstances, and had a large family; besides Gabriele, two of the sons attained some eminence, Andrea becoming a canon in the Church, and Domenico be- ing well reputed in letters and antiquities. Gabriele gave early signs of more than common ability, and was placed by the local grandee, the Marchese del Vasto, to study in the University of Naples. He had a fine tenor voice, and was sometimes urged to try his success on the operatic stage; he drew with such precision that some of his extant pen-drawings with sepia-ink might readily be taken for steel engravings; he composed poetry, both written and improvised, and became one of the most noted improvisatori in Na- ples. The boyhood and youth of Rossetti passed in a period of great political com- motion, consequent on the revolutionary and imperial wars of France. The Bour- bon King of Naples, Ferdinand I., was ousted by the Parthenopean Republic, and again by King Joseph, the brother of Napoleon, and his successor King Joachim (Murat), the emperor's brother-in-law, and Ferdinand had to retire to Sicily. Rossetti obtained an appointment as curator of ancient bronzes in the Museum of Naples, and also as librettist to the operatic theater of San Carlo; he wrote the libretto of an opera, "Giulio Sabino," was well received at the court of the Na- poleonic sovereigns, and in 1813 acted as a member of the provisional government sent to Rome by Murat. After the res- toration of Ferdinand to Naples in 1815 he continued his connection with liberal politicians and joined the widely diffused secret society of Carbonari. In 1820 a military uprising compelled King Ferdi- nand to grant a constitution on the model of that which had recently been estab- lished in Spain. Rossetti saluted its ad- vent in one of his most celebrated odes, beginning, "Beautiful indeed art thou, with the stars in thine hair." The good faith of the king was highly dubious from the first, and in 1821 he abrogated the constitution and put it down with the aid of Austrian troops. The Constitutional- ists were proscribed and persecuted, Ros- setti among them. He escaped and about 1824 made his way to London to follow the career of a teacher of Italian. In 1826 he married Frances Mary Lavinia Polidori, daughter of a Tuscan father and English mother; soon afterward he was elected Professor of Italian in King's College, London. They had four children : (1) Maria Francesca, born 1827, died 1876 (author of "A Shadow of Dante," etc.) ; (2) Gabriel Charles Dante (see be- low) ; (3) William Michael, born 1829 (critical writer, and editor of Shelley; see below) ; (4) Christina Georgina (see below). In London Rossetti lived a stu- dious, laborious, and honorable life. In politics he was a vigorous liberal, but more inclined to a constitutional mon- archy than a republic; in religion he was