978 



BRUN, CHARLES LE. 



BRUNE, MARSHAL. 



874 



Among all who have done honour to the Society of Jesus, both by 

 their moral character and their literary talents, Father Brumoy stands 

 pre-eminent. With the study of literature he combined that of the 

 mathematics, which he taught from 1725 to 1730, and it is to this cir- 

 cumstance that we are indebted for his discourse ' Upon the Utility of 

 Mathematics as connected with the Belles Lettres.' His works consist 

 of 'A Life of the Empress Eleonora,' Paris, 1723, 12mo, imitated 

 from the Latin of Father Ce'va ; ' An Apology for the English and 

 French, or Remarks upon the Work (by Muralt) entitled " Letters 

 upon the English and French,"' 1726, 12tno; 'Review of the Poem 

 upon Grace,' Brussels, Paris, 1723, 8vo; six volumes in 12 mo, con- 

 taining * Translations and Analyses of the Greek Tragedies, accom- 

 panied by Discourses and Remarks upon the Greek Theatre,' Paris, 

 1747, a work which, although highly and justly esteemed for the 

 great learning which it exhibits, is deficient in simplicity and precision 

 of style, and even occasionally betrays the want of a perfect compre- 

 hension of the original text : these errors have been rectified in the 

 editions of 1785-89, 13 vols. in 8vo ; 'A Collection of Various Pieces 

 in Prose and Verse," 14 vols., Paris, 1741, including discourses, epistles, 

 tragedies, comedies, ' Isaac,' ' Jonathan,' the ' Coronation of David,' 

 'Pandora's Box,' 'Plutus,' Ac. &c. In addition to the above works, 

 Brumoy made a new edition of J. Morgudi's ' Treatise upon French 

 Poetry,' Paris, 1724, 12 mo. He also translated two orations of Father 

 Por<5e, one upon public exhibitions, and the other upon the question 

 whether the monarchical or the republican form of government was 

 best fitted for forming the heroic character. Brumoy completed, in 

 conjunction with Father Rouill(5, ' The Revolutions of Spain," by 

 Father d'Orleans, Paris, 1734, 3 vols. 4 to ; assisted in compiling the 

 ' Memoirs of Trevoux ; ' and reviewed the ' History of Rienzi ' of 

 Father du Ceroeau, Paris, 1733, 12mo. 



BRUX, CHARLES LE, the son of a sculptor of Scotch extraction, 

 was born at Paris in the year 1619. The singular merit of his juvenile 

 ekctchea attracted the attention of the Chancellor Segui -r, who under- 

 took the charge of his education, and pliced him, at the age of eleven, 

 with Vouet, and afterwards with Nicholas Poussin. He remained in 

 Italy six years, studying the antique and the works of the old masters. 

 He assiduously cultivate 1 a knowledge of history and costume. On 

 his return to Paria in 1648 he was received into the Academy. From 

 this time employment and honours poured in upon him. Having 

 attained the highest rank in the Academy at Paris, In was appointed 

 principal painter to the king, was invested with the order of St. 

 Michel, and was ultimately named Priuce of the Academy of St. Luke 

 at Rome, although absent, and a foreigner. A change in the ministry, 

 which had so long favoured Le Brun, carried political animosities into 

 the painter's studio, and, although still honoured by the countenance 

 of the king, he died of chagrin and vexation at the continued annoy- 

 ances which he met with at court, in 1690, leaving a widow, but no 

 children. 



Le Brun was an industrious and a learned artist ; his drawing is 

 bold and correct, and his design often replete with life and magnifi- 

 cence; but the passion expressed in his countenances is neither refined 

 nor elevated, and the grandeur of his pictures belongs rather to the 

 physical than the moral development of the subject. His groups are 

 well arranged and natural; the action of individual figures is also 

 n itural ; and yet both are frequently injured by an affectation of grace 

 in some part or other. His works are principally at Paris. The 

 ' Battles of Alexander,' which are so well known by engravings, are 

 very characteristic specimens of his style, and would alone entitle him 

 to be reckoned among the more eminent painters of the secondary 

 rank. The ' Passage of the Granicus.' and the ' Battle of Arbela,' are 

 works of great power and feeling. His defects of colouring have been 

 partly attributed to his neglecting to visit Venice ; but his excuaere 

 have forgotten that Giorgione and Titian had no Venice to seek fine 

 colour in. His facility in drawing was such, that having procured the 

 delay for a moment of the car which conveyed the Marquise de Brin- 

 villiers to execution, in "four strokes of the pencil," says his French 

 biographer, he sketched a likeness. With the brush he was equally 

 ready. Louis XIV., who daily spent two hours in watching hU pro- 

 gress while painting the ' Family of Darius ' at Versailles, desired him 

 to paint at once the head of Parysatis, which he executed with so 

 much Rucce-s as to extort an expression of delight from Bernini, who 

 was not among the number of his friends. 



I'.liUNCK, RICHARD FRANQOIS PHILIPPE, was born at Stras- 

 bourg on the 30th of December 1729. He was educated by the Jesuits 

 in ttie college of Louis le Grand at Paris. He entered early into the 

 engagements of active life, and was for sornj time employed as military 

 commissary. He had attained his thirtieth year when, during a resi- 

 dence in winter-quarters at Giessen, in one of the campaigns in Hano- 

 ver, he happened to lodge in the house of a professor, who revived iu 

 him a love for letters. On his return to Strasbourg he devoted himself 

 to study, to which the possession of an easy fortune allowed his eutire 

 application ; and the professor of Greek, whose lectures he attended, 

 b-ing a profound grammarian, Brunck quickly became well versed in 

 that language. No sooner did he feel his own strength than he dis- 

 tinguished himself by his criticisms ; but his emendations, which ate 

 sometimes happy, are always hazardous ; and acting under a confirmed 

 belief that the errors of the text iu all cases proceeded from the fault 

 of copyists, he corrected with a more ' slashing hook ' than even Bentley 



himself ventured to employ. His first work was an edition of the 

 Greek Anthology, published under the title of 'Analecta veterum 

 poetarum Grsecorum,' Strasbourg, 3 vols. 8vo, 1776 ; which contains, 

 besides the epigrams usually given in an anthology, several of the 

 minor Greek poets, Auacreon, Callimachus, &c. entire. Anacreon 

 appeared in a separate edition in 1778. In 1779 he edited some Greek 

 plays, which excited a great desire for the appearance of a complete 

 edition of Sophocles which he had announced. His favourite author, 

 Apollonius Rhodius, employed him in 1780, and was followed iu 1783 

 by an Aristophanes, which superseded all its predecessors, and has 

 since in turn been entirely superseded by other editions. In the year 

 following he prepared the fragments of Theognis, Solon, Simonides, 

 and other didactic and moral Greek poets, under the title of "HSixii 

 noiTjo-is,' sive ' Gnomici Poetae Grseci,' 1 vol. 8vo. In 1785 he issued 

 an edition of Virgil, in which he was by no means sparing of the 

 established text. His ' Sophocles ' at length attracted the attention of 

 scholars in 1786, and may be considered as the work upon which his 

 reputation is chiefly founded. Subsequent critics however have found 

 it necessary to restore the manuscript readings which Brunck had 

 replaced by his conjectures. It appeared at first magnificently printed 

 in 2 vols. 4to ; a limited impression in 3 vols. 8vo, followed in 1788, 

 and there is a third edition, under his own eye, in 4 vols. 8vo, in 

 1736-89. He prepared a copy of Plautus for the Bipont edition of 

 the classics in 1788. On the breaking out of the Revolution he 

 embraced the popular side with ardour; and notwithstanding 

 Louis XVI., in return for a presentation copy of the quarto Sophocles 

 superbly printed on vellum, had conferred on him a pension of 2000 

 francs, Brunck enrolled himself among the earliest members of a revo- 

 tionary society established at Strasbourg. During the Reign of Terror 

 he was imprisoned at Besanyon, and did not obtain his release till the 

 fall of Robespierre. Reverses of fortune, produced by the public 

 troubles, obliged him in 1791 to dispose of part of his library, and in 

 1801 of the remainder. His cultivation of Greek literature ceased with 

 the loss of the first portion of his books ; and he afterwards confined 

 his labours to the Latin classics. In 1797 he printed an edition of 

 Terence in quarto ; and at the time of his death, which occurred on 

 the 12th of June, 1803, he was engaged in superintending an edition 

 of Plautus. His diligence was most remarkable. Instead of referring 

 the printer to any former edition, he always transcribed the entire 

 text of the author upon whom he was engaged. Thus, he twice copied 

 Aristophanes, and Apollonius at least five times. Many of these copies, 

 together with several other manuscript papers, are still preserved in 

 the Bibliotheque Royale at Paris. Brunck was a member of the 

 Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres, and also of the French 

 Institute. 



BttU'NE, MARSHAL, was born at Brives, in the department of 

 Correze, in 1736. His father was an advocate, and Brune studied the 

 law at Paris. When the revolution broke out he entered the army, 

 and served under Dumourier. He was quickly promoted, and was 

 general of brigade in the army of the interior under Bonaparte in 1795. 

 The following year he joined the army of Italy, and served in the 

 division of Massena. After the peace of Campoformio he was sent 

 by the Directory as Commander-in-chief of the army which invaded 

 Switzerland. After the fall of Bern he took the command of the 

 army iu Italy, and obliged the king of Sardinia, who was the forced 

 ally of France, to deliver into his hands the citadel of his own capital, 

 Turin. Brune was next sent into Holland, where in 1799 he defeated 

 the Russians on the Helder, and obliged the Duke of York and the 

 English army to evacuate tha country. In the following year he 

 returned to Italy, when, in conjunction with Macdonald, ha forced the 

 passage of the Mincio in December 1800, and afterwards concluded an 

 armistice with the Austrian general Bellegarde, preparatory to the 

 peace of Luneville. Brune, on his return to Paris, was appointed 

 councillor of state, and was afterwards sent by Bonaparte as ambassa- 

 dor to Constantinople, where he succeeded in establishing new rela- 

 tions between France and the shah of Persia, He returned to France 

 in 1805, being appointed one of the marshals of tin French empire. 

 He commanded for awhile the camp at Boulogne. B^ing sent to 

 Hamburg in 1807 as governor of the Hanseatic towns and coinmauder 

 of the reserve of the grand army, he had a long interview with Gus- 

 tavus, king of Sweden, near Anklam, iu Pomerania, which seams to 

 have given rise to suspicions on the part of Napoleon. In the sur- 

 render of th-) island of Rugen by tha Swedish general Toll, agreeably 

 to a convention with Marshal Brune, the latter omitted in the text 

 of the convention the titles of the Emperor Napoleon, and mentioned 

 simply the French army and the Swedish army as parties to the 

 agreement. Napoleon, who was highly offended, sent Brune his recal, 

 styling his conduct "a scandal never seen since the time of Pharamond." 

 From that time Brune lived retired and iu disgrace, till Napoleon's first 

 abdication, when he made his submission to Louis XVIII., who gave 

 him the cross of St. Louis. During the 'Hundred Days' he joined 

 Napoleon, who sent him to command a corps of observation on the 

 Var. After the battle of Waterloo he proclaimed the kin, and leaving 

 his corps, was travelling from Toulon to Aviguou on his way to Paris, 

 wheu he found himself in the midst of the reaction that took place in 

 the southern provinces at that time. A furious mob forced its way 

 iuto the inn at Avignon where Brune was, and after insulting him, and 

 upbraiding him with having been a terrorist, and having taken part in 



