hereditary ally of his house. He was rewarded by Louis XIII. with the duchy of Valentinois and several other lordships, and the title of Peer of France. Onorio was valiant, prudent, and mild in his sway. He was also a man of learning, and wrote the history of his house, under the title of "Genealogica et Historica Grimaldiæ Gentis Arbor."—W. M. R.
GRIMALDI, Francesco Maria, the discoverer of the diffraction of light, was born at Bologna on the 2nd of April, 1618, and died there on the 28th of December, 1663. He entered the order of jesuits in 1632, and became a teacher at first of rhetoric, and afterwards of geometry and philosophy, in their college at Bologna. He assisted Riccioli (q. v.) in his astronomical observations and studies, turning his attention especially to the topography of the moon. Most of the names by which places in that satellite are now known, were assigned to them by Grimaldi. The results of his experiments on light, by which the phenomena of diffraction were first made known, were published at Bologna in 1665, more than a year after his death, in a work entitled "Physico-mathesis de Lumine." They have reference chiefly to the appearances which are seen near the edges of the shadows of opaque bodies exposed to light radiating from a small luminous source, and whose nature may be summed up thus—that, beyond the imaginary line, forming the edge of the "geometrical shadow" (or figure bounded by straight lines drawn from the luminous source so as to touch the edges of the opaque body), there is a series of alternately dark and bright coloured fringes parallel to that edge; that within that edge, the light, instead of ceasing altogether, fades away by insensible degrees; that when two edges of the geometrical shadow approach very near each other (as in the shadow of a very narrow body, or of a sharp corner), bright and dark fringes are produced within as well as beyond the geometrical shadow, its centre being occupied by a white streak; and that the breadths of all the fringes are independent of the nature of the opaque body, and related to its distances from the luminous source, and from the screen according to certain mathematical laws; the internal fringes seen in the shadow of a narrow body depending also on the breadth of the body. Grimaldi, by reasoning from his experiments, was led to consider the question whether (to use the scholastic terms of the time) light is a "substance," or an "accident;" that is, whether it consists in the projection of a certain sort of matter, or in the transmission of a certain state or condition, through transparent bodies; and he came to the conclusion that the probability was in favour of the Aristotelian doctrine, that light is a condition, not a body—a conclusion which all later discoveries have tended to confirm. The experimental investigation of the phenomena of diffraction was continued by Newton (who attempted to explain them according to the corpuscular theory of light), and by many other observers, amongst whom were Young, Fresnel, Fraunhöfer, and Lord Brougham.—W. J. M. R.
GRIMALDI, Giovanni Francesco, called il Bolognese, was born at Bologna in 1606. A relative, a scholar, and an imitator of the Caracci, he designed and painted with facility, both in fresco and oil, decorative pictures, in which architecture and landscape form the leading features of the composition. He was largely employed by Innocent X. and his two successors, in the decoration of the Vatican, as well as by several of the magnates of the pontifical court; and he was invited to Paris by Cardinal Mazarin, and employed by Louis XIV. in adorning the Louvre. He was twice chosen president of the Academy of St. Luke. Grimaldi was one of the most admired and liberally patronized painters of his time, and his paintings still occupy prominent places in the Borghese, Colonna, and other palaces of Rome. Among decorative artists he holds, in fact, a prominent place, but he has no claim to a higher rank. Grimaldi etched landscapes with great taste and skill. A full list of his etchings is given by Bartsch. He died in 1680.—J. T—e.
GRIMALDI, Joseph, a celebrated actor in pantomime, was born on the 18th of December, 1779, the year in which Garrick died. He was of a supple-limbed race, his father being as famed for his skill in the ballet and the pantomime as he was for his eccentricities, while his grandfather was so renowned for dancing as to obtain the soubriquet of "iron legs." Joseph commenced his theatrical career on the boards of Sadler's Wells at the infantine age of one year and four months, and afterwards played at Drury Lane with so much success that his name was at once put upon the roll of performers there, and he received a salary of fifteen shillings a week. From that time he was a great favourite both before and behind the curtain, where he acquired the name of "clever little Joe." "Joe" he remained to the end of his life. His mind was naturally active and inquiring, and was often directed to occupations other than professional. Entomology was one of these which he early pursued, forming a collection of four thousand specimens of flies. In 1798 he married Miss Hughes, daughter of the proprietor of Sadler's Wells. His performances as clown met with great success, both at the London theatres and in the provinces. Together with admiration for his histrionic talents, he enjoyed general respect on account of his kind simple nature, and his excellent moral and domestic character. In 1821 a severe illness proved the precursor of the total decay of his frame, the inevitable penalty of his overstrained efforts in his professional life. He appeared for the last time in 1828 at Drury Lane, seated on a chair at a farewell benefit. He was allowed from the theatrical fund £100 a year, upon which he subsisted till his sudden death on the 31st of May, 1837.—R. H.
GRIMBOLD, Nicholas, otherwise called Grimalde, Grimald, Grimoald, Grimbald, Grymbold, &c., an English poet of the sixteenth century, born in Huntingdonshire, and educated at Cambridge and Oxford, at which latter place he became B.A. in 1542, and M.A. in 1544. In 1547, when the college of King Henry VIII. (says Wood) was to be settled and replenished with students, he was put in there as a senior or theologist, and the rather for this reason, because about that time he read a public lecture to the academicians in the large refectory of that place. His writings were numerous and miscellaneous. In 1548 he wrote a Latin tragedy, styled "Archipropheta," which he dedicated to Dean Cox, and printed at Cologne. The arch-prophet is John the Baptist, and it is very likely the piece was acted at the college. In 1548, says Warton, "he explained all the four books of Virgil's Georgics in a regular prose Latin paraphrase in the public hall of his college." In the same way he commented upon other classic authors, and translated Cicero's Offices, as well as some Greek writers, into English. It is said he turned Chaucer's Troilus into a play, and part of Virgil at least into English verse. Grimbold appears to be the person referred to by Strype in his Life of Cranmer as having been employed to translate several works on theological subjects for Bishop Ridley, to whom he was chaplain. He is said to have been the second Englishman who wrote in blank verse. Steevens says he died in 1563. His works, both Latin and English, are curious; the English works especially deserve to be published in a collected form as far as possible.—B. H. C.
GRIMM, Friedrich Melchior, Baron de, a distinguished man of letters, was born at Ratisbon, December 25, 1723. His parents, though living in humble circumstances, contrived to give him a careful education. He showed an early taste for literature, and while yet at college wrote a tragedy, "Banise," which very naturally evoked nothing but ridicule. He then became tutor to a young count de Schomberg, whom he accompanied to Paris, where some time after he was chosen reader to the hereditary prince of Saxe-Gotha. It was in this capacity that he made the acquaintance of Rousseau, Diderot, D'Alembert, Baron Holbach, Madame D'Epinay, and most of the literary and aristocratic celebrities of Paris. His musical accomplishments, his brilliant wit, his gentlemanly behaviour, and elegant manners combined to make him a general favourite, especially in female society. At that time the arrival of a band of Italian singers (les bouffons) divided the musical world of Paris into an Italian and a French party; the former gathered round the queen's box (coin de la reine), the latter beneath that of the king (coin du roi). Grimm at once took his position at the head of the coin de la reine, and by two pungent pamphlets—"Le petit prophète de Boemischbroda" and "Lettre sur la musique française"—defeated his opponents and established the taste for Italian music at Paris. Soon after he was appointed secretary to the duke of Orleans and began his renowned literary correspondence, a series of letters in which he entertained the duke of Gotha, and some other German princes, with the novelties of French literature. Beginning in 1753 and extending over a space of nearly forty years (it was brought to a close in 1790), this correspondence forms one of the most interesting and most important contributions to the history of French literature, and Grimm is said to have been assisted in it by no less brilliant writers than Diderot and the Abbé Raynal. In 1776 he was appointed minister of
