Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/19

Rh R O T B T though unequal, is in parts very fine. Rotrou's death and its circumstances are known to many who never read a line of his plays. He was in Paris when the plague broke out at Dreux; the mayor fled, and all was con- fusion. Rotrou, reversing the conduct of Montaigne in somewhat similar circumstances, at once went to his post, caught the disease, and died in a few hours. Rotrou's great fertility (he has left thirty-five collected plays besides others lost, strayed, or uncollected), and perhaps the uncertainty of dramatic plan shown by his hesitation almost to the last between the classical and the romantic style, have injured his work. He has no thoroughly good play, hardly one thoroughly good act. But his situations are often pathetic and noble, and as a tragic poet properly so called he is at his best almost the equal of Corueille and perhaps the superior of Racine. His single lines and single phrases have a brilliancy and force not to be found in French drama between Corneille and Hugo. A complete edition of Kotrou was edited in five volumes by Viollet le Duo in 1820. In 1882 M. de Ronchaud published a handsome edition of six plays Saint Genest, F~enceslas,Uon Berlrand de Cabrere, Antigone, Hercule Alourant, and Cosroes, the latter Rotrou's last play and a remarkable one. Venccslas and Saint Genest are also to be found in the C'kefs-d'osuvre Tragiqucs of the Collection Didot. ROTTERDAM, a city of the Netherlands in the pro- vince of South Holland, situated in 51 55' 19" N. lat. and 4 29' 7" E. long., on the right bank of the Nieuwe Maas at the point where it is joined by the Rotte, a small Plan of Rotterdam. 1. Groote Markt and Statue of Erasmus. 2. Bourse. 3. Post Office. 4. Boymans Museum. stream rising near Moerkapelle. By rail it is 14^ miles south-east of The Hague and 44| south of Amsterdam. As defined by its 17th-century fortifications the town was an isosceles triangle with a base of 1^ miles along the river, but in modern times it has spread out in all direc- tions beyond the limits of its own commune (which was increased in 1869 by the island of Fijenoord and part of the south bank of the river) into those of Delfshaven, Kralingen, and Hillegersberg. A huge dyke on which stands Hoog Straat or High Street divides the triangular portion into nearly equal parts the inner and the outer town ; and the latter is cut up into a series of peninsulas and islands by the admirable system of harbours to which Rotterdam owes so much of its prosperity. The central part of the river frontage is lined by a broad quay called the Boompjes from the trees with which it is planted. From the apex of the triangle the town is bisected by a great railway viaduct (erected about 1870, and mainly con- structed of iron), which is continued across the river to Fijenoord and the south bank by a bridge on a similarly grand scale, the line being the Great Southern Railway which connects Belgium and Holland and crosses the Hollandsch Diep by the Moerdijk bridge. Parallel with Environs of Rotterdam. the railway bridge the municipality, in 1873, built a road- bridge, and apart from their ordinary function these con- structions have proved a sufficient barrier to prevent the ice-blocks of the upper part of the river from descending so as to interfere with the seaward navigation. Tram- ways, introduced in 1880, are being gradually extended to various suburbs. While some nine or ten Protestant sects, the Roman Catholics, the Old Roman Catholics, and the Jews are all represented in Rotterdam, none of the ecclesiastical buildings are of primary architectural interest. The Groote Kerk or Laurenskerk is a Gothic brick structure of the fifteenth century with a tower 297 feet high ; it has a fine rood screen and an excellent organ, and contains the monuments of Lambert Hendriks- zoon, Egbert Meeuweszoon Kortenaar, Witte Corneliszoon de Witt, Johan van Brakel, Johan van Liefde, and other Dutch naval heroes. Among the more conspicuous secular buildings are the Boymans Museum, the town-house (restored in 1823-1827), the exchange (1723), the Delft Gate (1766), the court-house, the post and telegraph office (1875), the corn exchange, the seamen's home (1855), the hospital (1846), and the theatres. The Boymans Museum is mainly a picture gallery, which became the property of the town in 1847. When the building, originally erected in 1662-63 as the assembly house of Schieland, was burned down in 1864, most of the pictures perished, but the museum was restored by 1867, and the collection, steadily recruited, is again rich in the works of Dutch artists. The ground floor also contains the city archives and the city library. The maritime museum, established in 1874 by the Yacht Club, is a remarkable collection of ship models, and the Society of Experimental Philosophy has a considerable collection of instruments, books, and specimens. At the north-west corner of the town an area of several acres is occupied by the zoological garden, which dates from 1857. Besides the Erasmus Gymnasium the XXI. 2