Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/295

Rh  1em  {{ti|1em|{{larger|BALES}}, {{sc|Peter}}, a famous caligraphist, and one of the first inventors of short-hand writing. He was born in 1547, and is described by Anthony Wood as a &quot;most dexterous person in his profession, to the great wonder of scholars and others.&quot; We are also informed that &quot;he spent several years in sciences among Oxonians, particularly, as it seems, in Gloucester Hall ; but that study, which he used for a diversion only, proved at length an employment of profit.&quot; He is mentioned for his skill in micrography in Holliugshed s Chronicle, anno 1575. &quot; Hadrian Junius, says Evelyn, &quot;speaking as a miracle of somebody who wrote the Apostles Creed and the beginning of St John s Gospel within the compass of a farthing : what would he have said of our famous Peter Bales, who, in the year 1575, wrote the Lord s Prayer, the Creed, Decalogue, with two short prayers in Latin, his own name, motto, day oJ the month, year of the Lord, and reign of the queen, to whom he presented it at Hampton Court, all of it written within the circle of a single penny, inchased in a ring anc borders of gold, and covered with a crystal so accurate!} wrought as to be very plainly legible ; to the great admira tion of her majesty, the whole privy council, and severa ambassadors then at court 1 &quot; Bales was likewise very dexterous in imitating handwritings, and about 1576 was employed by Secretary Walsingham in certain politica manoeuvres. We find him at the head of a school near th Old Bailey, London, in 1590, in which year he publishec his Writing Schoolmaster, in three Part*. In 1595 he hac a great trial of skill with one Daniel Johnson, for a golden pen of 20 value, and won it ; and a contemporary autho further relates that he had also the arms of caligraphj given him, which are azure, a pen or. Pales died about th year 1610.}}  BALFE,, was born, in 1808, at Limerick in Ireland. His musical gifts became apparent t an early age. The only instruction he received was rom his father, and a musician of the name of Horn ; and t seems to have been limited to a superficial training of he voice, and to some lessons on the pianoforte. At ono ime Balfe also practised the violin, and was even bold enough to play in public one of Viotti s concertos, but, eemingly, without much success. He never seems to have tudied systematically the fundamental principles of his irt, and this want of rudimentary training has left the stamp of imperfection on all his works. Being in pos- ession of a small but pleasant barytone voice, he chose he career of an operatic singer, and made his debut n Der Freischiitz, at Drury Lane, at the early age of sixteen. The following year he was taken to Borne by a wealthy family. In Italy he wrote his first dramatic work, a ballet, Perouse, first performed at the Scala theatre, Milan, in 1826. In the later part of the same year he appeared as Figaro in Rossini s Barbiere, at the Italian Opera in Paris, at that time the scene of the unequalled vocal feats of such singers as Sontag, Malibran, Lablache, and others. Balfe s voice and training were little adapted to compete with such artists ; he soon returned to Italy, where, during the next nine years, he remained singing at various theatres, and composing a number of operas, now utterly and justly forgotten. During this time he married the prima donna, Mdlle. Luisa Roser, a lady of German airth, for whom one of his operas was written. He even made bold to disfigure, by interpolated music of his own, the works of Rossini, Donizetti, and other masters of estab lished reputation. Fetis says that the public indignation, roused by an attempt at &quot; improving &quot; in this manner the opera II Crociato by Meyerbeer compelled Balfe to throw up his engagement at the theatre La Fenice in Venice. He returned to England where, in 1835, his Siege of Rochelle was produced, and rapturously received at Drury Lane. Encouraged by his success, he produced a series of operas which for some time made him the most popular composer of the day. Amongst the works written for London we mention Amelia, or the Love-test (1838) ; Falstaf (with the incomparable Lablache as Sir John) ; Keolanthe; and the Bohemian Girl (1844). The last-mentioned work IB generally considered to be his chef tfwuvre ; it carried its composer s name to Germany, where it was performed with considerable success at various theatres. Balfe in the meantime also wrote several operas for the Op^ra Comique and Grand Ope&quot;ra in Paris, of which we may mention those called Le Puits T Amour, Les quatre Fils Aymon, and L etoile de Seville. After a short period of success his popularity began to decline, and at the time of his death in 1870, most of his music had become antiquated. A posthumous work of his, The Talisman, the libretto of which is taken from Walter Scott s novel, was performed at the Italian Opera, Drury Lane, in 1874, with consider able success. The chief charm of his works consists in a certain easy, not to say trivial, melodiousness, such as may be readily accounted for by the composer s Irish nationality without the addition of individual genius of a higher kind. He had also a certain instinct for brilliant orchestration, and for the coarser effects of operatic writing. Musical knowledge of a higher kind he never possessed, nor did he supply this want by the natural impulses of a truly refined nature. &quot; To speak of Balfe as an artist is either to misuse the word or to permit its meaning to depend on temporary success, no matter how acquired.&quot; Such is the stern but not unjust verdict of the late Mr H. F. Chorley, whose opinion of the detrimental effect of Bulfe s success &quot;on the chances of establishing a real national opera&quot; also appears to be correct. Balfe s claim to particular notice rests, 