Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/339

dramas of " the strong voice of Ganderaheim," as Hrosvitha (possibly alluding to a supposed etymology of her name) calls herself, are by no means Terentian. They are written in prose, with an element of something like rhythm, and an occasional admixture of rhyme. In their themes, and in the treatment of these, they are what they were intended to be, the direct opposites of the lightsome adapter of Menauder. They are founded upon legends of the saints, selected with a view to a glorification of religion in its supremest efforts and most transcendental aspects. The emperor Constantine’s daughter, for example, Constantia, gives her hand in marriage to GaMicanus, just before he starts on a Scythian campaign, though she has already taken a vow of perpetual maidenhood. In the hour of battle he is himself converted, and, having on his reiurn like his virgin bride chosen the more blessed unmarried state, dies as a Christian martyr in exile. The three holy maidens Agape, Chionia, and Irene are preserved by a humorous miracle from the evil designs of Dulcitius, to offer up their pure lives as a sacrifice under Diocletian’s persecutions. Callimachits, who has Romeo-like carried his earthly passion for the saintly Drusiana into her tomb, and aniiing its horrors has met with his own death, is by the mediation of St John raised with her from the dead to a Christian life. All these themes are treated with both spirit and skill, often with instinctive knowledge of dramatic effect—often with genuine touches of pathos and undeniable felicities of expression. In Dulcitius there is also an element of comedy, or rather of farce. How far Hrosvitha’s comedies were an isolated phenomenon of their age in Germany must remain undecided; in the general history of the drama they form the visible bridge between the few earlier attempts at utilizing the forms of the classical drama for Christian purposes and the miracle plays. They are in any case tha productions of genius; nor has Hrosvitha missed the usual tribute of the supposition that Shakespeare has borrowed from her writings.

The third and last group of the writings of Hrosvitha is that of her versified historical chronicles. At the request of the abbess Gerberga she composed her Carmen de Gestis Oddmis, an epic attempting in some degree to follow the great Roman model. It was completed by the year 968, and presented by the authoress to both the old emperor and his son (then already crowned as) Otto II. This poem so closely adheres to the materials supplied to the authoress by members of the imperial family that, notwithstanding its courtly omissions, it is regarded as an historical authority. Unfortunately only half of it remains; the part treating of the period from 953 to 962 is lost with the exception of a few fragments, and the period from 962 to 967 is summarized only. Subsequently, in a poem (of 837 hexameters) De Primwdiis Cocnohii G under skeimensis, Hrosvitha narrated the beginnings of her own convent, and its history up to the year 919.

The Munich MS., which contains all the works enumerated above except the Chronicle of Gandershcim, was edited by the great Vienna humanist Celtesin 1501, and re-edited by the learned PI. L. Schurzfleisch in 1707. The comedies have been translated into German by Bendixeu (Liibeck, 1858), and into French by A. Magnin (Paris, 1845). whose introduction gives a full account of the authoress an 1 her works. A copious analysis of these plays will be found in Klein, Gcschichtc des Dramas, iii. 665-754. Gustav Freytag is the author of a treatise DC llosuitha poetria (Breslau, 1839); and at the beginning of Colm’s Shaks]icare in German)/, Shakespearean parallels are suggested to certain passages in Hrosvitha’s dramas. Her two historical chronicles were edited by Pertz among the Monumenta Germanicc (vol. iv. ); for an apprecia tion of them see Wattenbach, Gcschichtsqucllen, 214-216, and Giesebrecht, Deutsche Kaiserzeit, i. 780, who mentions a German translation by Pfund. There is a complete edition of the works of Hrosvitha by K. A. Barack (Nuremberg, 1858). J. Aschbach (1867) attempted to prove that Celtes had forged the productions which he published under the name of Hrosvitha, but he was refuted by R. Kopke (Berlin, 1869).

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HUANCAVELICA, or Guancabelica, the chief town of a department of same name, Peru, is situated in a deep ravine, of an average width of one mile, at about 12,400 feet above sea level, and 160 miles south-east of Lima. It is well and regularly built, the houses being of stone, while several stone bridges span the stream that flows through the town. Huancavelica was founded in 1572 as a mining town by the viceroy Francisco de Toledo, and mining has continued to be the principal employment of the inhabitants. Close by is the famous quicksilver mine of Santa Barbara, with its subterranean San Rosario church, cut out of the cinnabar. Population in 1876, 3937.

HUANUCO, or Guanuco, the chief town of the Peruvian department of the same name, is situated on the left bank of the river Huallaga near its junction with the Higueras, in a beautiful valley nearly 6000 feet above sea-level, and 180 miles north-west of Lima. The streets are laid out regularly, but the houses are mean-looking. As nearly every house is surrounded by a garden the limits of the town embrace a large area. Sweetmeats for the Lima market are almost the only manufacture, most of the inhabitants being engaged in mining and farming. Huanuco was founded in 1539 by Gomez Alvarado, and was shortly afterwards raised to a bishopric. In 1812 during an insurrection of the Indians of Panao it was plundered. The population in 1876 was 5263.

HUARAZ, chief town of the Peruvian department of Ancachs, and of a district to which it gives its name, is situated on the left bank of the river Santa, in a fertile valley of the Andes, about 190 miles N.N.W. of Lima. There is some export trade in cattle, wheat, sugar, and fruit; and in the vicinity considerable quantities of gold, silver, and copper are mined. A state railway 172 miles long, of which 82 miles are completed, is designed to connect Huaraz with Chimbote on the coast. Near the town there are ruins in the second or Cyclopean stj leof Inca architecture, sufficiently like the remains at Tiahnanca to allow us to assign Huaraz as the northern limit of the prehistoric Incarial empire, of which Tiahnanca w;;s the southern boundary. Population in 1876, 4851.

HUBER, François (1750–1831), an eminent Swiss naturalist, especially distinguished by the originality and reach of his researches into the life history of the honey-bee, was born at Geneva, July 2, 1750. He belonged to a family which had already made its mark in the literary and scien tific world : his great-aunt, Marie Hnber (1695-1753), was known as a voluminous writer on religious and theological subjects, and as the translator andepitomizer of The 8]>edator (Redaction du Kpectateur Anglais a ce qu il reiifenne de meilleur, Amst., 3 vols. 1753); and his father Jean Huber (1721-1786), who had served for many years as a soldier, was a prominent member of the coterie at Ferney, distin guishing himself both by the rare skill with which he could reproduce the likeness of Voltaire by clipping paper and by other unpromising devices, and by the publication of a valuable series of Observations sur le vol des oiseaiijc (Geneva, 1784). From an early age Frangois Huber displayed a dangerous ardour for study; and he was only fifteen years old when he began, in consequence of his ill-judged assiduity, to suffer from an affection of the eyes which gradually resulted in total blindness. Happily at once for his comfort and his fame he had secured the affection of Marie Aimee Lullin. Having patiently waited till she was legally of age, she married the husband of her choice, and ministered to his wants till her death with such unceasing devotion that it was only, he said, when he lost her that he really felt he was blind. For many years her efforts were seconded by Francois Rumens, a servant, whom Huber had inspired with something of his own love of nature. The results of the investigations which were conducted by this