Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/747

BOU . The dates of his birth and death are not known, but he was living in 1513. He was a native of Bretagne, and practised as an avocat there. We find him afterwards conseiller and maitre des requêtes a l'extraordinaire under Duke Francis II. He assisted in preparing the book called "La trés Ancienne Coutume de Bretagne," 1485. Bretagne was not yet united with the kingdom, and a brother of Bouchard's, associated with him in preparing the book we have mentioned, is described as having taken an active part in resisting a French invasion. Alain Buchard published in 1514 his "Grandes Chroniques de Bretagne." He is accused of having mixed up with what is called true history the legends of the district. We regard the work as rendered by this circumstance more valuable. The style is said to be animated and picturesque.—J. A., D.  BOUCHAUD,, born at Paris in 1719, and died in 1804. In 1747 he became a member of the faculty of law at Paris, and published in the Encyclopédie several articles on juridical subjects. Whatever reputation he acquired by being associated with Diderot and D'Alembert, was more than counterbalanced by its effect on his fortunes, as it lost him an appointment to a professorship for which he was singularly well qualified. He published in the Memoirs of the Academy of Inscriptions several papers, chiefly on Roman law and antiquities. In 1774 he was given a professorship of law at the college de France, and in 1785 was named conseiller d'état. A treatise by him on the law of the twelve tables, is regarded as of some value.—J. A., D.  BOUCHER,, a French effeminate and wanton artist, was born at Paris in 1704. He studied under Le Moine, and then hastened to Rome. On his return he became court painter to the king, and was loaded with the intoxicating sweets of patronage. The brilliant, the pretty, the meretricious, were his strong points. He painted luxurious opera figures of coquettes, cupids, dancers, and nymphs. Reynolds, sturdy and conscientious, found him at work on a large picture without any drawings or models. When he painted carefully, there was grace, beauty, and skill in his compositions, but always misguided by bad taste, and followed by miserable imitators. Kugler calls him preeminently the fit painter of Dubarrydom. Gault, the German, laughs at the French for admiring a painter without truth, modesty, or delicacy, and for giving 9800 livres for his "Rising and Setting of the Sun" at madame de Pompadour's sale. Boucher, with his glib pencil at nineteen, carried off the first prize for painting. He died in 1768. Even Diderot, the shameless, says, that his debasement of morals was followed by a debasement of taste, colour, composition, character, expression, and drawing. His goddesses were strumpets, his shepherdesses ballet girls. He paints for young profligates, and is not graceful, but affected. Even if his figures are naked, you see the rouge and patches, and all the gewgaw and tinsel of the toilette. Delicacy, purity, innocence, and simplicity were unknown to him. His best pupils were Bandonin, Juliard, Leprince, Deshayes, and Fragonard. Bandonin and Deshayes married his daughters. The latter was a promising painter, who died young. His "Infant Jesus" is a bit of flimsy religion; his "Shepherd sleeping on the knees of his Shepherdess" has merit; his landscapes are false, but playful. The best works of this French Anacreon were the "Muses," the "Four Seasons," a "Hunt of Tigers," and some pastoral designs for tapesty. Boucher left a few slight etchings. His brother John was also a painter and engraver, but not above mediocrity. "Never," says M. Watelet, "was there an artist that so misused a brilliant disposition, an extreme facility."—W. T.  BOUCHER,, a French divine, famous, according to the expression of Bayle, as a trumpet of sedition in the reigns of Henry III. and Henry IV., born in Paris in 1548; died at Tournay in 1644. He was successively professor of philosophy at Rheims, doctor of the Sorbonne, and curé of the church of St. Benedict in Paris.  BOUCHER,. This eminent scholar and divine was born on the 1st March, 1737-38, at Blencogo in the parish of Bromfield and county of Cumberland, and was educated at a little free school in his native parish. At the early age of sixteen, he had commenced a small school of thirty-two boys, at 10s. per annum each, and out of this scanty sum he was enabled to spare one-fourth for his parents. He was shortly after engaged by the Rev. Dr. James, the head of St. Bees' school, to assist in the duties of that establishment, and there he continued two years. At the close of that period he was recommended as a private tutor in a gentleman's family in Virginia, and accordingly in 1759 he proceeded to America. In 1762 he came to England for the purpose of procuring holy orders, and again returned to his adopted country, where he obtained considerable preferment, which he continued to hold till the unhappy disturbances in that country once more drove him back to England. We wish that our limits would permit the insertion of Mr. Boucher's own narrative of those stirring days. His influential position, his intimate acquaintance with General Washington, and his own personal adventures, give a peculiar and graphic vividness to the record he has left of that period. In 1775, Mr. Boucher finally quitted America, compelled to leave behind him the accumulated savings and property of many years. Shortly after his return to this country, he was appointed to the curacy of Paddington, and was nominated assistant-secretary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel; and in 1785 was presented to the vicarage of Epsom in the county of Surrey, where, on the 27th of April, 1804, he closed his eventful life. Mr. Boucher published "A View of the Causes and Consequences of the American Revolution," in one vol., 8vo, and was an ample contributor to Hutchinson's History of Cumberland. But his great and chief work, the preparations for which occupied the last fourteen years of his life, was "An Archæological and Provincial Dictionary," intended to be completed in 2 vols., 4to. His researches were continued with an activity and perseverance that promised a speedy termination, and he had reached the letter T when death arrested his labours—thus almost on the very threshold of completion. The introductory "Essay on the Origin and History of the English Language," and two numbers of the work—reaching, however, only to BLA—have been published, and fully justify the expectations that the literary world had anticipated from the known learning, deep research, and patient investigation of their author, and the regret so widely felt that the labours of so many years were prematurely brought to an end.—B. B.  BOUCHER,, a French prelate, bishop of Verdun, born of poor parents at Cernai in 1528, was professor of philosophy at Rheims, and afterwards rector of the university. After his elevation to the episcopate he joined the party of the League. He left "Caroli Lotharingii cardinalis et Francisci duels Guisii Litteræ et Anna," 1577.  BOUCHER DE LA RICHARDERIE,, born at St. Germain-en-Laye in 1733, and died at Paris in 1810; received as avocat in the parliament of Paris in 1759, in which profession he continued to practise, in one capacity or other, for the greater part of his life. He was the principal editor of the Journal General de la Literature de France. He published several tracts on the Roman law, but is most known by his "Bibliothèque Universelle des Voyages," Paris, 1808; 6 tomes, 8vo.  * BOUCHERIE, A., a French medical man, has devoted much attention to the preservation of timber, and has patented a process by which wood is made to absorb various solutions, such as pyrolignite of iron, sulphate of copper, and other salts, which preserve it from decay. Railway sleepers are prepared by this process by the Permanent Way Company in London.—J. H. B. <section end="747H" /> <section begin="747I" />BOUCHET,, a French surgeon, was born in 1785 at Lyons, where his father, Pierre Bouchet, had attained some distinction as a surgeon. C. A. Bouchet studied at Paris; and while still very young was appointed to the post of surgeon-in-chief to the Hôtel-Dieu at Lyons. He was the first to introduce into surgery the method of healing by first intention after amputation. He died at Lyons in 1839.—W. S. D. <section end="747I" /> <section begin="747J" />BOUCHET,, a French litterateur and bookseller, born at Poitiers in 1526; died in 1606. Little is known of his life, which was passed entirely among men of business. He is best known by his "Serées," a work intended for after-dinner amusement, and which the author praises as some of the best stuff in his shop. Miserable stuff, indeed, though perhaps a faithful picture of the manners of his age; full of the most indecent pleasantries and revolting obscenity, for which its curious and erudite details but poorly compensate.—J. G. <section end="747J" /> <section begin="747K" />BOUCHET,, born at Poitiers in 1476, and died in 1550. He practised in some department of the law at Poitiers, and published a number of poems, chiefly allegorical. He also published " Annals of Aquitaine," still referred to occasionally.—J. A., D. <section end="747K" /> <section begin="747Zcontin" />* BOUCHITTÉ,, professor of history at Versailles, born at Paris in 1795. The once gorgeous town of Versailles, which is now as quiet as a monastery, can yet boast <section end="747Zcontin" />