them in the bonds, however transient, of any overmastering passion. For merriment he has a generous smile, for sorrow a royal one; but the nearest he ever comes to mirth is in his dainty rhyme, “Robert of Lincoln,” and the nearest to a wail in those exquisite notes of grief for the loss of his young sister, “The Death of the Flowers,” which only draw the tear to fill it with the light of a perfect resignation. As a seer of large and noble contemplation, in whose pictures of earth and sky the presence and care of the Divine mind, and every tender and beautiful relation of man to his Creator and to his fellow, are melodiously celebrated, his rank is among the master poets of America, of whom he is historically the first.
Bryant published volumes of Poems in 1821 (Cambridge) and 1832 (New York), and many other collections were issued under his supervision, the last being the Poetical Works (New York, 1876). Among his volumes of verse were “The Fountain” and other poems (New York, 1842); The White-Footed Deer and Other Poems (New York, 1844); Thirty Poems (New York, 1864); and blank-verse translations of The Iliad of Homer (Boston, 1870) and of The Odyssey of Homer (Boston, 1871). His Poetical Works and his Complete Prose Writings (New York, 1883 and 1884) were edited by Parke Godwin, who also wrote A Biography of William Cullen Bryant, with Extracts from his private Correspondence (New York, 1883). See also J. Grant Wilson, Bryant and his Friends (New York, 1886); John Bigelow, William Cullen Bryant (Boston, 1890), in the “American Men of Letters” series; W. A. Bradley, Bryant, in the “English Men of Letters” series (1905); E. C. Stedman, Poets of America (1885); and biographical and bibliographical introductions by Henry C. Sturges and Richard Henry Stoddard to the “Roslyn edition” of his Poetical Works (New York, 1903). (G. W. Ca.)
BRYAXIS, one of the four great sculptors who worked on the mausoleum at Halicarnassus, about 350 B.C. His work on that monument cannot be separated from that of his companions, but a basis has been discovered at Athens bearing his signature, and adorned with figures of horsemen in relief. He is said to have made a great statue of Serapis for Sinope, but as to this there are grave historic difficulties. He also made a great statue of Apollo, set up at Daphne near Antioch (see E. A. Gardner, Handbook of Greek Sculpture, ii. 374).
BRYCE, JAMES (1838–), British jurist, historian and politician, son of James Bryce (LL.D. of Glasgow, who had a school in Belfast for many years), was born at Belfast, Ireland, on the 10th of May 1838. After going through the high school and university courses at Glasgow, he went to Trinity College, Oxford, and in 1862 was elected a fellow of Oriel. He went to the bar and practised in London for a few years, but he was soon called back to Oxford as regius professor of civil law (1870–1893). His reputation as a historian had been made as early as 1864 by his Holy Roman Empire. He was an ardent Liberal in politics, and in 1880 he was elected to parliament for the Tower Hamlets division of London; in 1885 he was returned for South Aberdeen, where he was re-elected on succeeding occasions. His intellectual distinction and political industry made him a valuable member of the Liberal party. In 1886 he was made under secretary for foreign affairs; in 1892 he joined the cabinet as chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster; in 1894 he was president of the Board of Trade, and acted as chairman of the royal commission on secondary education; and in Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman’s cabinet (1905) he was made chief secretary for Ireland; but in February 1907 he was appointed British ambassador at Washington, and took leave of party politics, his last political act being a speech outlining what was then the government scheme for university reform in Dublin—a scheme which was promptly discarded by his successor Mr Birrell. As a man of letters Mr Bryce was already well known in America. His great work The American Commonwealth (1888; revised edition, 1910) was the first in which the institutions of the United States had been thoroughly discussed from the point of view of a historian and a constitutional lawyer, and it at once became a classic. His Studies in History and Jurisprudence (1901) and Studies in Contemporary Biography (1903) were republications of essays, and in 1897, after a visit to South Africa, he published a volume of Impressions of that country, which had considerable weight in Liberal circles when the Boer War was being discussed. Meanwhile his academic honours from home and foreign universities multiplied, and he became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1894. In earlier life he was a notable mountain-climber, ascending Mount Ararat in 1876, and publishing a volume on Transcaucasia and Ararat in 1877; in 1899–1901 he was president of the Alpine Club.
BRYDGES, SIR SAMUEL EGERTON (1762–1837), English genealogist and miscellaneous writer, was born on the 30th of November 1762. He studied at Queens’ College, Cambridge, and was entered at the Middle Temple in 1782, being called to the bar in 1787. In 1789 he persuaded his elder brother that their family were the heirs to the barony of Chandos, being descended from a younger branch of the Brydges who first held the title. The case was tried and lost, but Brydges never gave up his claim, and used to sign himself Per legem terrae B.C. of S. (i.e. Baron Chandos of Sudeley). He re-edited Collins’s Peerage, inserting a statement about his supposed right. In 1814 he was made a baronet, and in 1818 he left England. He died at Geneva on the 8th of September 1837. Sir Egerton was a most prolific author; he is said to have written 2000 sonnets in one year. His numerous works include Poems (1785); Centura Literaria (1805–1809); The British Bibliographer (4 vols., 1810–1814), with J. Haslewood; Restituta (4 vols., 1814–1816), containing accounts of old books; and Autobiography, Times, Opinions and Contemporaries of Sir S. E. Brydges (1834). In 1813 Brydges began to supply material to a private printing press established at Lee Priory, Kent, by a compositor and a pressman, who were to receive any profits which might arise from the sale of the works published. In this way Brydges published various Elizabethan texts, at considerable expense to himself, which increased the services he had already rendered to the study of Elizabethan literature by his bibliographical works.
For a full list of his works see W. T. Lowndes, Bibliographer’s Manual (ed. H. G. Bohn, 1857–1864).
BRYENNIUS, NICEPHORUS (1062–1137), Byzantine soldier, statesman and historian, was born at Orestias (Adrianople). His father, of the same name, had revolted against the feeble Michael VII., but had been defeated and deprived of his eyesight. The son, who was distinguished for his learning, personal beauty and engaging qualities, gained the favour of Alexius I. (Comnenus) and the hand of his daughter Anna, with the titles of Caesar (then ranking third) and Panhypersebastos (one of the new dignities introduced by Alexius). Bryennius successfully defended the walls of Constantinople against the attacks of Godfrey of Bouillon (1097); conducted the peace negotiations between Alexius and Bohemund, prince of Antioch (1108); and played an important part in the defeat of Malik-Shah, the Seljuk sultan of Iconium (1116). After the death of Alexius, he refused to enter into the conspiracy set on foot by his mother-in-law and wife to depose John, the son of Alexius, and raise himself to the throne. His wife attributed his refusal to cowardice, but it seems from certain passages in his own work that he really regarded it as a crime to revolt against the rightful heir; the only reproach that can be brought against him is that he did not nip the conspiracy in the bud. He was on very friendly terms with the new emperor John, whom he accompanied on his Syrian campaign (1137), but was forced by illness to return to Byzantium, where he died in the same year. At the suggestion of his mother-in-law he wrote a history (called by him Ὕλη Ἱστορίας, materials for a history) of the period from 1057 to 1081, from the victory of Isaac I. (Comnenus) over Michael VI. to the dethronement of Nicephorus Botaneiates by Alexius. The work has been described as rather a family chronicle than a history, the object of which was the glorification of the house of Comnenus. Part of the introduction is probably a later addition. In addition to information derived from older contemporaries (such as his father and father-in-law) Bryennius made use of the works of Michael Psellus, John Scylitza and Michael Attaliota. As might be expected, his views are biased by personal considerations and his intimacy with the royal family, which at the same time, however, afforded him unusual facilities for obtaining material. His model was Xenophon, whom he has imitated with
