Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/620

596 ROBERT graver Girardet at the age of sixteen for Paris. He was on the eve of obtaining the great prize for engraving when the events of 1815 blasted his hopes, for Neufchatel was restored to Prussia and Robert was struck off the list of competitors as a foreigner. Having fortunately whilst continuing his studies under Girardet never ceased to frequent the studio of David, he now determined to be- come a painter, and only returned to his native country when his master himself was exiled. At Neufchatel he had the good fortune to attract the notice of Roullet de Mezerac, who enabled him by a timely loan to proceed to Rome. At Rome Robert soon struck the vein of subject destined to render his talent celebrated. In depicting the customs and life of the people, of southern Italy especially, he showed peculiar feeling for the historical characteristics of their race. All his work of this class was distinguished by an individual style : the actors bore themselves with an air of distinction and something of gravity which witnessed to their ancient lineage, and the rhythmical play of line which characterized all these compositions had a peculiar affinity to the nature of the types which figured in them. The charm of choice in these types, the beauty of this play of line, and the plastic restraint and measure which also marked Robert's treatment of his favourite subjects were the points to which he owed the wide recognition of his talent, for his command of his own powers was anything but ready and his difficulty in bringing out what he desired to produce shackled him, and especially so because paint- ing requires a sure and ready hand if its means are to be used with brilliant effect. After executing many detached studies of Italian life Robert conceived the idea of paint- ing four great works which should represent at one and the same time the four seasons in Italy and the four lead- ing races of its people. In the Return from the Fete of the Madonna dell' Arco (Louvre) he depicted the Neapol- itans and the spring. This picture, exhibited at the Salon of 1827, achieved undoubted success and was bought for the Luxembourg by Charles X. ; but the work which ap- peared in 1831 the Summer Reapers arriving in the Pontine Marshes (Louvre), which became the property of Louis Philippe established the artist's reputation, and Robert found himself with all his hopes of honour fulfilled and reckoned as one of the leading masters of his day. Florence and her autumn vineyards should now have furnished him with his third subject. He attempted to begin it, but, unable to conquer his unhappy passion for Princess Charlotte Napoleon (then mourning the violent death of her husband, Robert's devoted friend), he threw up his work and went to Venice, where he began and carried through the fourth of the series, the Fishers of the Adriatic. This work was not equal to the Reapers. Worn by the vicissitudes of painful feeling and bitterly discouraged, Robert committed suicide before his easel, 20th March 1835, on the tenth anniversary of the melan- choly suicide of a brother to whom he had been much attached. See Yillot, Notice dcs Tableaux du Louvre ; C. Blanc, Hist, des Peintres ; Feuillet de Conches, Correspondance dc L. L. Robert ; Julius Meyer, Gcsch. mod.fr. Malerci. ROBERT OF GLOUCESTER, an English antiquary and historical writer, who lived in the second half of the 13th century, was a monk of the abbey at Gloucester, and is supposed by Hearne, the editor of his Chronicle, to have been sent to preside over the foundation at Oxford (after- wards Worcester College), where the younger members of the abbey were partly educated. This, however, is mere conjecture. The evidence which establishes his claim to be the author of the Chronicle (by which he is best known) is also extremely slight. In the Harleian MS. 201 (from which Hearne printed his edition) there occurs (fol. 159b to 160) an account of the battle of Evesham. The narra- tion implies that the writer was living at that time (1265), for he describes the dark and dismal weather that pre vailed on the day of the battle, adding, " This isci Roberd, That verst this boc made," a passage, however, which may possibly have reference not to the versifier but to the original compiler of the Chronicle.^ The period at which the Chronicle was composed was evidently late in the 1 3th or early in the 14th century, as it contains a reference to the canonization of St Louis, king of France, Avhich took place on llth August 1297. From an historical point of view, however, the Chronicle is of but little value. The internal evidence shows it to have been a translation from the French and the original in turn to have been a mere compilation. The narrative commences with a description of Britain, taken from Henry of Huntingdon ; the material is next derived mainly from Geoffrey of Monmouth, and then, again, from William of Malmesbury, special informa- tion being supplied, here and there, from Henry of Hunt- ingdon, Ailred of Rievaulx, and the Annals of Winchester. On the other hand, the value of the Chronicle as an illustration of the versification and language of the period is considerable. As a writer of English verse Robert comes first in order, being prior to both Robert of Brunne and Laurence Minot, and lie has accord- ingly been styled the Ennius of English literature. His diction, again, affords many interesting points of comparison with that known as Old English on the one hand and the language of Chaucer and William Tyndale on the other. In his verses we first find the term ' ' Saxons " used in opposition to Normans (Hearne, p. 363), although "English" is the term by which, throughout the Chronicle, the original population is more generally designated. Of the English tongue itself, however, he says (ib., p. 125) that ")>e Saxones speche it was, and )>orw hem ycome yt vs." Many of the most noteworthy peculiarities of his diction will be found pointed out in Mr. Kingdou Oliphant's Old and Middle English, pp. 430-439. Other compositions attributed to Robert of Gloucester are a Life of St Alban in verse (MS. Ashmole, 43), a Life of St Patrick, also in verse (MS. Tanner, 17), a Life of St Bridget (MS. C.C.C. Carnb., 145), and a Life of St Alphege (MS. Cott. Julius, D. ix.). The only complete edition of the Chronicle is that edited by Thomas Heanib (Oxford, 1724), 2 vols. 8vo, partly from the Harleian MS. 201, and partly from the Cottonian MS. Calig. A. xi., and reprinted at London in 1810, 2 vols. 8vo. This, however, is extremely defective, Hearne's collation of the important MS. in the library of the college of Arms being very imperfect. For further information see Hardy's Descriptive Catalogue of MSS., Hi. 181-189, i. 25, 68, iii. 623. ROBERT GUISCARD (c. 1015-1085), duke of Apulia and Calabria, sixth of the twelve sons of Tancred de Hauteville, was born at Hauteville near Coutances in Normandy about the year 1015. At an early age he followed into Apulia his three elder brothers William Bras- de-fer, Drogo, and Humphrey, who had established a foot- ing there as military adventurers; and in 1053 he took a prominent part in the battle of Civitella, which resulted in the defeat and captivity of Pope Leo IX. On the death of Humphrey in 1057 Robert, who already had earned the sobriquet of "Guiscard" ("Sagacious" or "Cunning"), succeeded to the chief command of the Norman troops, and, already designated by them duke of Apulia and Calabria, was confirmed in that title in 1059 by Pope Nicholas II., who at the same time named him gonfalonier of the church. For the next one -and -twenty years he was continually engaged, along with his youngest brother Roger, in warlike operations against the Greeks and Saracens in the south of the Italian peninsula and in Sicily, the principal events being the capture of Bari in 1070, that of Palermo in the following year, and that of Salerno in 1077. In 1081 he felt himself strong enough to carry his arms abroad against Alexius Comnenus, ostensibly on behalf of the deposed emperor Michael Ducas, the father-in-law of his daughter. The defeat of Alexius under the walls of Durazzo in October 1081 was followed by the capture of that place in February 1082, 1 There were others kuowu by the same name ; see Hearne, Pref., p. 58.