Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/13



BES'SUS. A vainglorious and lewd captain in Beaumont and Fletcher's A King and No King. When chal- lenged to a duel_, he declares that he cannot fight for thirteen weeks, as he has already 212 duels on hand.

BEST, William Thomas ( 1826-97). An Eng- lish organist, born at Carlisle. He received his first appointment at Pembroke Chapel, Liver- pool, and in 1849 was appointed organist of the Liverpool Philharmonic Society. Subsequently he was organist of the Panopticon. London (18.52). of Lincoln's Inn Chapel (18.54), and of Saint George's Hall, Liverpool (18.5.5). Begin- ning his studies at a time when the art of organ- playing was but imperfectly developed. Best was practically his own instructor, and in the course of his long and extremely active career he suc- ceeded in carriing his art to a point of perfection unattained by any other man. His repertory is supposed to have numbered five thousand pieces. He composed numerous anthems, fugues, sonatas, prepared very many arrangements for the organ, and published The Modern HrhooJ for the Organ (18.53) and The Art of Orgnn-Plaijing (18(59).

BES'TIARIES ( Fr. hesliaires. from Lat. hesti- arius, pertaining to wild beasts, from bestia. wild beast). The name given to a class of written books of great popularity in the Middle Ages, describing the animals of creation, real or fabled, and generally illustrated by drawings. They were most in fashion during the Eleventh, Twelftli, and Thirteenth centuries. They served as encyclopa>dias of the zoiilogy of those ages, but they had also another use. The symbolism which was then so much in vogue fastened spir- itual meanings upon the several animals, until every quality of good or evil in the sou! of man bad its type in the brute world. It is in this way to the Bestiaries that we must look for explanation of the strange grotesque creatures which are found sculptured on the churches and other buildings of the Mid<llp Ages. There were Bestiaries both in prose and in verse, in Latin and in th(? vernaoilar. A few sentences from Le heslinire divin de fliiilhrime, rhrr de S'or- mandie, trouvfre. du Xllle aiicle (Caen. 1852) may help to give some notion of the class of works of which it is a fair example. "The uni- corn," he writes, "has but one horn in the middle of its forehead. It is the only animal that ventures to attack the elephant; and so sharp is the nail of its foot, that with one blow it rips up the belly of that most terrible of all beasts. The himters can catch the unicorn only by placing a young virgin in the forest which it haunts. No sooner does this marvelous animal descry the damsel than it runs toward her, lies down at her feet, and so sulfers itself to be taken by the hunters. The unicorn represents our Lord Jesus Christ, who, taking our humanity upon Him in the Virgin's womb, was betrayed by the wicked Jews, and delivered into the hands of Pilate. Its one horn signifies the Gospel truth, that Christ is one with the Father," etc. The source of the mediaeval Bestiaries is to be found in the Greek work Phijsiologus, probably written about the Second Century a.d., at Alex- andria. It immediately became very popular, but in 496 was censured by a synod. It was translated into Latin, Ethiopic, Armenian. Syri- ac. Old English. Icelandic, etc., numerous addi- tions and changes being made. The original number of s^nnbols is 49. Consult F. Lauchert, Geschiehte des Physiologus (Strassburg, 1890).

BESTTIZHEFF, be-stoo'zhef, Alexander Alexaxdrovitch (1797-1837). A Russian novelist and critic. He was captain in a dragoon regiment, and adjutant to Alexander, Duke of Wurttemberg. Having been involved with his friend, Eyieyeff, in the conspiracy of 1825. he was degraded to the ranks, and exiled to Yakutsk, but after long entreaty he was permitted to enter the Army of the Caucasus as a private, in 1829. He fell in a skirmish with the as yet unconquered mountaineers. Two years before his exile he, together with Ryleyeff, had published the Russian almanac. T/w iSo/nr Star. His later works, consisting chiefly of novels and .sketches, written under the name of Cossack Marlinski, bore the impress of his own life and adventures in the Caucasus. They excel in depicting the wilder aspects of nature and the excitements of a soldier's life, but fail in the delineation of character, and are often exaggerated and sometimes absurd. His principal works are the tale of Mullah .V«r, and the romance of Ammalat Beg, which last' relates the treachery