Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/417

Rh centuries, it was not till the 15th that the art obtained its complete mastery under the Florentine artists. In the following century, again, it is found carried with extra ordinary skill in Germany at Nuremberg, Augsburg, Munich, and Coburg. Since then, however, the higher order of sculpture in bronze may be said to have reverted to nearly its ancient limits, that is, the production of statues and groups in the round. (See Dr C. Bischoff, Das Kiipfer in der vorchristlichen Zeit, Berlin, 1SG5; and L. 11. v. Fellenberg, Analyses von antikeu Bronzen, 18G5.)  BROOCH, or, (from the French broche), an awl or bodkin. A spit is sometimes called a broach, and henco the phrase &quot; to broach a barrel.&quot; The term is now used to denote a clasp or fastener for the dress provided with a pin, having a hinge or spring at one end, and a catch and loop at the other. Brooches were universally used among the more civilized nations of antiquity. They were made of many materials, and in innumerable varieties of ornamental design, the forms varying according to the period of their manufacture, or the taste and culture of the people using them. They are unknown in the Swiss Lake settlements of the Bronze Age, though pins and bracelets are abundant. Brooches of the Bronze Age are extremely rare in Britain, although they occur in considerable numbers and of elegant forms in North Germany and Scandinavia. The simplest is similar to that which has been reproduced in modern times as the &quot; patent safety- pin, but having the ends prolonged into flat spirals and the clasp flattened and engraved with ornamental designs. Another characteristic form was produced by winding a long wire into a flat double-spiral, of which one end formed the pin and the other the catch. A third form consisted of two round ornamented plates connected by a bow-shaped centre piece. In the early Iron Age the brooches of Central Europe exhibit an immense variety of forms, which are for the most part bow-shaped or harp-shaped, with spring-pins, akin to the types found in the Etruscan cometeries of Certosa and Villanova recently explored. The Frankish group exhibits three well-defined types, viz., an imitation of animal forms, a simple disc, and a cruciform type, of which there are innumerable varieties of form. The Merovingian brooches were made in gold, silver, or bronze, adorned with precious stones, filagree-work, or enamel ; but whatever the richness of the brooch, the pin was always of iron. The Scandi navian or Northern group exhibits a similar cruciform variety more massive in form and richly chased, the ter minating knobs fashioned into the similitude of animals heads. This form occurs also in Anglo-Saxon graves in England. The Anglo-Saxon brooches were exquisite works of art, ingeniously and tastefully constructed. In Kent the circular form predominates. They are often of gold, with a central boss exquisitely decorated, the flat part of the brooch being a mosaic of turquoises, garnets on gold- foil, mother of pearl, &c., arranged in geometric patterns, and the gold work enriched with filagree or decorated with dragonesque engravings. Sometimes the brooch was cruci form and ornamented with chased work and settings of paste or precious stones. The Scandinavian brooches of the Viking time were oval and bowl-shaped, formed of an under shell of impure bronze gilt on the convex side, and covered by an upper shell of open chased-work ornamented with bosses, or open crown-like ornaments, or animals heads. The geographical distribution of these peculiar brooches indicates the extent of the conquests of the Northmen. They occur in northern Scotland, England, Ireland, Iceland, Normandy, and Livonia. The Celtic group is characterized by the penannular form of the ring of the brooch and the greater length, of the pin. They are usually of bronze or silver, chased or engraved with intricate designs of interlaced or dragonesque work in the style of the illuminated Celtic manuscripts of the 7th, 8th, and 9th centuries. The Hunterston brooch, which was found at Hawking Craig in Ayrshire, is a well- known example of this style. Silver brooches of immense size, some having pins 15 inches in length, and the penan nular ring of the brooch terminating in large knobs resembling thistle heads, are occasionally found in Viking hoards of this period, consisting of bullion, brooches, and Cufic and Anglo-Saxon coins buried on Scottish soil. In mediaeval times the form of the brooch was usually a simple, flat circular disc, with open centre, the pin being equal in length to the diameter of the brooch. They were often in scribed with religious and talismanic /&amp;lt;)?? AJP. The Highland brooches were commonly of this form, but the disc was broader, and the central opening smaller in proportion to the size of the brooch. They were ornamented in the style so common on Highland powder-horns, with engraved patterns of interlacing work and foilage, arranged in geometrical spaces, and sometimes mingled with figures of animals.  BROOKE,, a clever novelist and dramatic writer, whose maiden name was Moore, was born in the earlier part of the 18th century. Of her novels, some of which enjoyed considerable popularity in their day, the most important were The History of Lady Julia Mande- ville, Emily Montague, and The Excursion. Her dramatic pieces and translations from the French are now wholly forgotten. She died in January 1789, two days after her husband.  BROOKE,, novelist and poet, was born at Rantavan, county Cavan, in 1708. His father was rector of Killinkere ; his mother was a daughter of the bishop of Elphin. At an early age he entered Dublin University, where he was noticed by Swift, who predicted great things of him. About 1724 he proceeded to London, where he managed to gain the affection and esteem of Pope. He studied law in the Temple, and in 1728 married his ward and cousin, Catherine Meares, a girl of fifteen. His first literary venture appears to have been the poem Universal Beauty (1730), in which there is exceedingly little that can be admired or even tolerated. A much more successful venture was the drama Gustavus Vasa. The prohibition of this play induced the author to publish it, and the sale of the printed copies was enormous. Brooke is said to have cleared 1000 guineas by it. In 1740 his health gave way ; he retired to Rantavan, and never returned to his life in London. In 1745 he was made barrack-master at Mullingar, and his well-meant pamphlet, Secret History and Memoirs of the Barracks of Ireland, excited much ill- feeling against him. He spent the remaining years of his life in literary work. His dramas were numerous, and some of them kept the stage for a considerable length of time. The work by which he is best known, The Fool of Quality, began to appear in 17G8. It is the product of the matured experience of the author, and though deficient in many of the qualities that go to form the excellence of a work of fiction, it is forcibly and clearly written, and contains much sound and advanced thinking on social problems. Brooke died in 1783. An edition of the Fool of Quality was published in 1859 by the Rev. Charles Kingsley, in whose extravagantly eulogistic preface will be found all the information we have with regard to the author s life and character.  BROOKE,, Rajah of Sarawak, in the island of Borneo, and Governor of Labuan, was born at Coombe Grove near Bath, April 29, 1803. It is sometimes errone ously stated that he was born in Bengal, a mistake arising from the fact that his father a member of the Civil Service 