Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/692

BOG volume of Lomonsoff's poems, and a visit to the theatre at Moscow, sufficed to decide him to abandon mathematics. He addressed himself to Kheraskoff, the director of the theatre, and begged to be admitted a member of his company. His personal appearance and remarkable talents so interested Kheraskoff in his favour, that he took him into his own house, and gave him the means of entering the university, where he applied himself specially to the study of modern languages and the fine arts. He was then appointed dragoman to the minister of foreign affairs, and in 1760 secretary of the embassy at Dresden. The lovely scenery round Dresden, and the noble works of art in the Dresden gallery, appear to have first revealed to him his poetical vocation. It was at Dresden that he commenced his first and best poem, "Dushenka," published in 1775. Though nominally a mere translation of the Psyches of La Fontaine, Bogdanowich has introduced so many new beauties, and so great a charm of style, that the work has a character of its own, and appears more like an original than a translation. Russian critics are agreed in considering it far superior to the poem of La Fontaine, and it is remarkable that, in an age when the so-called original Russian writers were mere imitators of the French classicist school, Bogdanowich, in a work assuming to be a simple translation, has shown himself eminently romantic. He returned to St. Petersburg in 1768, and published a translation of the Abbé Vertot's History of the Revolutions of the Roman Republic. He gained the favour of the empress, Catherine II., by adapting to her honour a canzone of Giannetti. In 1778 and 1779 he was concerned in a journal called the Indicator, published at St. Petersburg, and in 1785 he wrote several dramas at the command of Catherine, and published a collection of Russian proverbs. In 1788 he was appointed president of the imperial archives. In 1795 he retired first into Little Russia, and thence to Kursh, where he died in January, 1803. The high position to which he rose in no way altered the natural modesty and gentleness of his nature, nor the original simplicity of his habits. A complete edition of his works, in six volumes, appeared in 1809, and another, in four volumes, in 1818.—M. Q.  BOGLE,, a Glasgow miniature painter, much distinguished in his day. His portraits are beautiful, says the judicious Pilkington. "One of Lady Eglinton, to whom Allan Ramsay dedicated his Gentle Shepherd, in the possession of Mr. C. Kirkpatrick Sharpe, is in the highest finish." He died in the greatest poverty.—W. T.  BOGORIS, prince of Bulgaria, died in 896. He succeeded to Baldimir or Valdimir, having usurped the throne to which the son of that prince was the lawful heir. Having embraced christianity, he was baptized in 853. This occasioned a revolution among his subjects, which, however, was quickly suppressed, and Bogoris succeeded in introducing among them the new religion which he had embraced. After the schism between the eastern and western churches, the Bulgarians, after some hesitation, submitted to Constantinople, and Bogoris remained faithful to that church, notwithstanding the sentence of excommunication fulminated against him by Pope John VIII. A considerable time before his death he resigned his crown in favour of his eldest son, and retired into a monastery; but, having learned that his son had been attempting to reintroduce idolatry, he issued from his seclusion, and, putting himself at the head of an insurrectionary movement, seized on the person of his son, put out his eyes, and condemned him to perpetual imprisonment. He then summoned a general assembly, and, haying in their presence nominated his second son as his successor, once more retired to his monastery, where he ended his days.—G. M.  BOGSCH,, a German agricultural writer, was born in 1745 at Deutschendorf, and died at Presburg on 18th January, 1821. His works are on the art of cultivating fruit-trees and other economical plants, and on the care of bees.—J. H. B.  BOGUE,, D.D., an eminent dissenting minister, was born in the parish of Coldingham, Berwickshire, February 28, 1750. He was the fourth son of John Bogue, Esq. of Halydon, one of the justices of the peace for that county. He was one of the founders, and continued through life one of the main directors and advocates of the London Missionary Society; and when that body resolved to establish a college for the education of persons whom they had elected to go out as missionaries, it was to Dr. Bogue that they intrusted the conducting of that institution. For such a task he was eminently fitted, not only by natural endowments, but by large and valuable acquirements in theological and biblical science, the fruit of protracted and well-directed study for many years. Constantly engaged in his ministerial or tutorial duties, he had little time for authorship; the only works, besides occasional sermons which he published, were an essay "On the Divine Authority of the New Testament," intended as an introduction to an edition of the christian scriptures in French, and which has been translated into French, Italian, Spanish, and German, and a volume of discourses on the Millennium. He also produced in conjunction with Dr. Bennett, a "History of Dissenters" in two vols., octavo. In all his writings the marks of a clear vigorous intellect, a solid judgment, and a manly candour predominate. He died at Brighton, whither he had gone to attend a missionary meeting, on the 25th of October, 1825, in his seventy-sixth year.—W. L. A.  BOGUPHAL, a Polish chronicler, died in 1253. Author of "Chronicon Poloniæ," printed in the Scriptores rerum Silesiæ of F. G. Sommerberg, Leipzig, 1729.—J. G.  BOGUSLAWSKI,, an admired dramatic author of the time of the renaissance of Polish literature in the reign of Poniatowski, last king of Poland. Boguslawski was of an ancient Polish family, but he fell into poverty in early youth, and was obliged to earn his own livelihood as a comic actor. The exact date of his birth is uncertain, from his having always shown great unwillingness to speak of his past, but it must have been in or near the year 1750. He was not naturally inclined to the stage, but gifted with great determination of character and energy of mind, he applied himself with great earnestness to his profession, and became distinguished not only for his talent as an actor, but as a dramatic writer. In 1780 the theatre of Varsovia, where he had introduced an Italian opera, was closed, and for three years he devoted himself to writing and translating for the stage. From 1784 to 1789 he travelled with his dramatic company to the cities of Wilna, Grodno, Dubno, and Lemberg. The king then appointed him director of the national theatre of Varsovia, and by his excellent selection of the plays performed, and intelligent direction of the representations, he greatly elevated the taste and tone of the Polish stage. His undertaking, however, was repeatedly interrupted by the continual wars in which Poland was engaged. In 1812 he retired from the theatre, and occupied himself in literature until his death in 1829. Although he cannot be classed among writers of the first rank, Polish literature is under great obligations to Boguslawski. He did much to improve the public taste, to purify the language from the various Latinisms, Germanisms, and Gallicisms with which it had become corrupted, and to restore its national originality and vigour.—M. Q.  BOHADSCH,, a German physician and naturalist, died at Prague in 1772. He was professor of botany and natural history at Prague, and published descriptions of Bohemian plants, and of their uses and advantages; on the use of wood in domestic economy; besides dissertations on electricity, on fevers, &c.—J. H. B. <section end="692H" /> <section begin="692I" />BOHA-EDDIN,, a distinguished Arabic historian, was born at Moussul in 1145. He fixed his abode at Bagdad, where he soon acquired a high reputation as a scholar, and especially in theology and jurisprudence. He subsequently visited Jerusalem, after it had fallen into the hands of Saladin, and that monarch made him cadi of the city, and employed him upon several important missions. Boha-eddin remained in the service of Saladin till the death of the latter, when he attached himself to his third son, under whose auspices he founded a college. Boha-eddin is known by two works of great historical interest—the one a history of the wars of the sultans in the propagation of Islamism, which he calls "The Holy Wars;" the other the "History of the Life of the Sultan Saladin," containing all that we know of that sovereign. This history has been translated into Latin. Died 1232.—J. F. W. <section end="692I" /> <section begin="692J" />BOHAIRE-DUTHEIL, a dramatic and satiric author, born at Reuil about 1750; died in 1825. Author of "La Nouvelle Heloise," a tragedy.—J. G. <section end="692J" /> <section begin="692Zcontin" />BOHEMOND, the crusader, son of Robert Guiscard, first Norman duke of Calabria. He was of age to bear arms when his father entered on his ambitious strife with the Greek empire. At the famous battle of Durazzo, where the magnificent design of overwhelming in one campaign the dynasty of the Eastern empire, with which Robert Guiscard entered the dominions of Alexius, was all but consummated, Bohemond gained his first laurels as a skilful captain. On his father's return to Calabria <section end="692Zcontin" />