ingenious imitations were highly prized, on account of their correctness and taste.—W. T.
BISCIONI, Antonio Maria, born at Florence in 1674. This literary man struggled for many years against poverty and privations, and contrived to pursue his studies at the university, maintaining himself by teaching belles-lettres to many young students, who in after life highly distinguished themselves. Giovanni Bottari, an eminent writer in mathematics, philosophy, and theology, had been his pupil. Cosimo III., grand-duke of Tuscany, presented him with two or three independent livings, which afforded him the means of taking out his degrees in theology, and of entering on the ecclesiastical career. For many years he preached in the church of St. Lawrence, where his eloquence brought always a great concourse of the higher classes of Florence, and in the year 1698, as a reward due to his talents and zeal, he was appointed prebendary of that wealthy parish. He was also well versed in Greek and Latin classics, and knew Hebrew and many oriental languages. His consummate knowledge of his native tongue, combined with a natural flow of eloquence, gained for him the reputation of being the most accomplished orator of his time. In 1741 his patron, Cosimo de Medici appointed him his librarian, and soon after created him a canon. His writings are not numerous, and for the most part still unedited. He published the memoirs of his own family, and two very satirical essays against those who opposed his election to the important office of librarian. He edited also many editions of the classics, illustrated with notes and comments of great literary merit. Large sums of money were spent by him in collecting the rarest books and most valuable manuscripts, which the grand-duke purchased after Biscioni's death, which occurred in 1756.—A. C. M.
BISET, Charles Emanuel, was born at Mechlin in 1633, and was regarded, even as a boy, as a phenomenon of a versatile and quick, though limited invention. He anticipated Watteau in ball-room, concert, assembly, and conversation scenes, though generally confining himself to in-door subjects. He excelled in the multitude of his figures, and the rarities and contrasts of natural dress. His pictures look bold at a distance, and neatly finished when closer viewed. His touch and expression were both good. His faults are a cold grey colour, neither lively nor agreeable, and an occasional indelicacy unbefitting a painter of good society. One of his best pictures is William Tell shooting the apple off his son's head, painted for the Society of Archers at Antwerp.—W. T.
BISHOP, Sir Henry Rowley, Mus. Doc, was born in London, November 18, 1786, where he died, April 30, 1855. He is conspicuous in the musical history of this country, as having produced compositions of very high merit at the period when the art was less cultivated here, in comparison with the rest of Europe, than at any other time, and when his music, consequently, alone gave consideration to the English name. He is notable, also, as being the only musician that ever received the distinction of knighthood, in acknowledgment of his artistic merit, from an English sovereign. He was a pupil of Francesco Bianchi, to whose recommendation he probably owed the opportunity to make his first public essay in composition, "Tamerlan et Bajazet," a ballet, for which he wrote the greater part of the music, and which was brought out at the King's theatre early in 1806. The merit of this led to his writing, in the same year, the entire music for the ballets of "Narcisse et les Graces" for the Opera, and "Caractacus" and "Love in a Tub," for Drury Lane. His single production of the next two years was some incidental music in the drama of "The Mysterious Bride," given at Drury Lane in 1808; but the season arrived for him to win distinction in a higher field, when his opera, "The Circassian Bride," was in preparation at the same establishment. His merited laurels were, however, untimely seared; for, after the first performance of this, his earliest opera, on the 23rd of February, 1809, the theatre was burned to the ground, and while the favourable expectation of the work was scarcely confirmed, its destruction in the flames deprived the composer of the renown its success would have brought him. In this year he wrote the music of a ballet, "Mora's Love," for the King's theatre, and of a romance, "The Vintagers," for the Haymarket. His reputation as a dramatic composer was greatly raised by the opera of "The Maniac," brought out at the Lyceum in 1810, the music of which has survived the ephemeral drama, and is still sufficiently known, to need no comment on its excellence. Bishop, having established his character as a musician, now reaped the best reward of his talent, in an engagement as composer of Covent Garden theatre, which gave him constant occasion to exercise it. The engagement was the beginning of a series, which continued from the autumn of this year till the summer of 1824 and which combined with its artistic oportunities the temporal advantage of a lucrative salary; and, added to this, a very liberal annual contract for the copyright of all his productions, made it that our composer received, during an extended course of years, a larger amount of payment for his music than has been realized by any other in England. The opera of the "Knight of Snowdoun" (in which the popular tramp chorus is a favourable specimen of its dramatic character), was the first labour of his new office, and it was given with great success in February, 1811. "The Virgin of the Sun," remembered for its admirable scene of the earthquake, and two other operas which were less successful, "The Ethiop" and "The Renegade" were all produced in 1812. The reproduction, with alterations, of "The Ethiop," under the name of "Haroun Alraschid," in the following January, did not give it a more permanent standing, and the comparatively unimportant pieces of "The Brazen Bust," "Harry le Roy," and "For England, ho!" have equally passed out of memory; but the still very popular "Miller and his Men" (first played in October of the same year, 1813), shows that the composer's genius was at this time in its fullest vigour. It was now that the Philharmonic Society, for many years the most important musical institution in England, was first established. Bishop was one of the original members, was often in the direction, and took his turn with others as conductor of the concerts, until, in 1842, this office was made permanent on the engagement of Mendelssohn. The year 1814 gave birth to the opera of "The Farmer's Wife," one act of the spectacle of "Sadak and Kalasrade," the melodramas of "The Wandering Boys" and "The Forest of Bondy," the ballet of "Doctor Sangrado," some additional music for the old opera, "The Maid of the Mill," and a spectacle in celebration of the peace called "The Grand Alliance." In this busy year, too. Bishop made the first of those mongrel adaptations of foreign operas, which may be supposed, if not to have vitiated, certainly to have retarded the progress of public taste; for, it was his mangled versions of "Jean de Paris," "Don Giovanni, Figaro," "Il Barbiere," and "Guillaume Tell" (under the name of "Hofer"), that indisposed English audiences to listen to complete musical works, and thus induced the long delay in the manifestation of the loftiest dramatic pretensions by English composers. The entertainment of "Brother and Sister," the o peras of the "Noble Outlaw" and "Telemachus," and the melodramas of "The Magpie" and "John du Bart" were produced in 1815, as also additional music for Michael Arne's "Cymon," and for "Comus." Two of his most familiar works, "Guy Mannering" (of which Whittaker wrote a portion), and "The Slave," gave interest to the following year, in which also Bishop wrote the musical interpolations in A Midsummer Night's Dream, the first of the series of Shakspearean spoliations that even the beauty of some of his introduced pieces has happily not preserved upon the stage. The melodrama of "Who wants a Wife?" and the interlude, in celebration of the marriage of the Princess Charlotte, "The Royal Nuptials," were likewise given in 1816. The operas of "The Humorous Lieutenant," "The Heir of Verona," and "The Duke of Savoy," and the melodrama of "The Father and his Children," were Bishop's productions in 1817. He wrote a portion of the opera of "Zuma," the melodrama of "The Illustrious Traveller," and the opera of "December and May," in the year following. In 1819 he brought out the operas of the "Heart of Mid-Lothian" and "The Gnome King," the musical interpolations in A Comedy of Errors, and the smaller pieces of Fortunatus, Swedish Patriotism, and A Roland for an Oliver. Bishop had this year, in partnership with the proprietor of the theatre, the direction of the heterogeneous performances miscalled oratorios; and, the following season, undertook the speculation on his own account, which he relinquished, however, before the commencement of another year. "The Antiquary," "The Battle of Bothwell Brig," "Henri Quatre," and the interpolations in The Twelfth Night, were produced in 1820. On visiting Dublin during the recess of his theatrical duties, our composer was publicly presented with the freedom of the city, and received every mark of honour that could be paid to his talent. In the next year Bishop only wrote the interpolations in The Two Gentle-
