1021 



BURGER, GOTTFRIED AUGUST. 



BURGOYNE, JOHN. 



1022 



which however he soon afterwards resigned. From his first entry 

 into parliament Sir Francis had followed an extreme course of popular 

 politics, opposing the government and the war, advocating a reform 

 in the representation, and especially distinguishing himself by an 

 inquiry which he got set on foot into the abuses of the Cold Bath 

 Fields and other prisons. This led to his being brought forward at 

 the general election in 1802 as a candidate for the representation of 

 Middlesex, in opposition to Mr. Mainwaring, who was chairman of the 

 County Sessions, and had been the person by whom the investigation 

 into the prison abuses had been principally resisted and impeded in 

 the House. The public excitement which this contest occasioned 

 was unexampled. It ended on the fifteenth day by giving Sir Francis a 

 majority of 371 votes over his opponent; but a committee afterwards 

 declared the election void, and the House sent the two sheriffs to 

 Newgate. A new election took place in July 1804, the other candi- 

 date being now Mr. Mainwaring's son, the father having disqualified 

 himself by an infringement of the Treating Act ; and at the conclusion 

 of the poll Burdett was left in a minority of five, the numbers being 

 2828 and 2823. But this election was also declared void by a com- 

 mittee, the report declaring at the same time that Sir Francis ought 

 to have been returned. On this his return was also attacked ; and 

 eventually another committee, on the 8th of February 1806, found 

 that Mainwaring had a majority of one, and that he ought to be the 

 member. Three of Burdett's voters, being afterwards prosecuted, 

 were sentenced to transportation to Botany Bay ; and the proceedings 

 altogether are said to have cost Sir Francis above a hundred thousand 

 pounds. At the next general election, in 1806, he was again proposed 

 for the county; but this time he only polled 1197 votes, and 

 Mr. Mellish was returned. In May 1807, a duel took place between 

 Sir Francis and Mr. James Paull, whom he had supported as the 

 popular candidate for Westminster the year before : they fought at 

 Comb* Wood near Wimbledon Common, and at the second exchange 

 of shots both were seriously wounded. While they lay ill, both were 

 put in nomination for Westminster at the new general election ; and 

 the result was that, after a contest of fifteen days, Sir Francis was 

 brought in at thj head of the poll, having obtained 5134 votes (his 

 coll.-ague, Lord Cochrane only pollinz 3708), and that Paull was left 

 fifth, and at the bottom, with only 269. At the precediug election 

 Paull had had 4365 votes, being only 277 under Mr. Sheridan, the 

 successful candidate. Sir Francis continued to sit for Westminster 

 from this time for nearly thirty years. 



The great event of his subsequent career is his committal to the 

 Tower by the House of Commons, in March 1810, for a letter to his 

 con-tituents denying the power of the House to imprison delinquents, 

 which he published iu Cobbett's ' Political Register,' and which the 

 House voti-d to be libellous and scandalous. He attempted to resist 

 the Speaker's warrant, and pome lives w<-re lost in a street contest 

 between the militiry and the people; but he eventually surrendered 

 of course, and he lay in prison from the 9th of April till the proroga- 

 tion of parliament on the 21st of June. Sir Francis continued to 

 adhere to the popular aide in politics till some time after the appoint- 

 ment of the Melbourne ministry, in April 1835, when he weut into 

 opposition against his old friends in the government, on the ground 

 principally of the court he charged them with paying to Mr. O'Connell 

 and his followers in their agitation against the Irish established church. 

 In these circumstances he declined standing for Westminster at the 

 general election in July 1837 ; but he was returned for Wiltshire, and 

 he sat for that county till his death, which took place on the 23rd of 

 January 1844. Lady Burdett had died only a few days before. 



BORGKR, GOTTFRIED AUGUST, the son of a clergyman, was 

 born at Walmserwemde, near Halberstadt, January the 1st, 1748. 

 While at school he showed no aptitude for grammatical studies, but a 

 great liking for poetry. In 1768 he went to Gottingen, where he 

 wasted his time and money in dissipation, in consequence of which 

 hi< friends withdrew their assistance from him. But having formed 

 an intimacy with several distinguished fellow-students, Voss, Count 

 Stolberg, Sprengel, and others, who had established a literary club for 

 their mutual improvement, Burger, encouraged by them, began to 

 mend his course of life, and to apply himself earnestly to the study of 

 the classics as well as the modern poets. Among the latter Shakspere 

 became his favourite. Some ballads which he wrote at that time having 

 attracted notice, he obtained a situation at Alten Gleichen, and his 

 grandfather agreed to pay his debts and to give him further assistance, 

 but through the dishonesty of a friend Burger lost the money. An 

 imprudent marriage increased his embarrassments. He however soon 

 after separated from his wife, and went to live at Gottingen, where he 

 passed the remainder of his life, first as a private teacher, and after- 

 wards as professor of philosophy, but without any fixed salary. His 

 misfortunes imparted a tinge of melancholy to several of his poetical 

 compositions. After lingering some years in bad health and poverty, 

 he died June the 8th, 1794. 



Burger published two volumes of poems, which were republished 

 after his death with additions by his friend Karl Reinhard : ' Burger's 

 Gedichte,' 2 vols. 8vo, Gottingen, 1796. A third volume was pub- 

 luhed by Reinhard in 1797, containing several specimens of translations 

 from the ' Iliad,' both in iambics and hexameter verse, with disserta- 

 tions by the author. Burger's ballads and romances have long been 

 popular in Germany. His ' Leonora' has been translated into English : 



'Burner's Leonora,' by Wm. Robt. Spencer, fol. London, 1796. An 

 English version by Walter Scott, of his ' William and Helen,' the 

 ' Wild Huntsman,' and some shorter pieces, was published in the same 

 year under the title of ' Translations from the German of Burger.' A 

 few more translations from Burner are contained in the ' Specimens of 

 the German lyric poets,' Lond. 1823, with a short biographical notice 

 of the author. Burger's romances are grounded upon local traditions 

 and legends, and he makes great use of the feeling of terror produced 

 by apparitions and other supernatural agency, always directed however 

 to the object of moral retribution. His ' Wilde Jiiger,' is a good 

 specimen of this sort. Burger's amatory poems are soft and pleasing, 

 and unexceptionable on the score of morality. His language is easy 

 and clear. He is altogether one of the first German lyric poets, 

 although Schiller has judged him rather severely. A. W. Sohlegel 

 however describes him accurately when he says that Burger "is a 

 poet of an imagination more original than comprehensive," and that 

 he " is more successful in the execution than in the invention of his 

 subjects, and more at home in romance than in the loftier regions of 

 the lyric muse." 



BURGKMAIR, HANS, a celebrated old German painter and wood- 

 engraver, born at Augsburg in 1472. He lived some time in Nurnberg, 

 and was the contemporary, and by some supposed to have been the 

 scholar, of Albrecht Diirer. They appear to have worked together, 

 but the scholarship is a mere conjecture, which, like many other 

 similar conjectures, has apparently arisen from a species of hero- 

 worship, or an anxiety to stew that Albrecht Diirer was directly or 

 indirectly the source of everything excellent in art that was produced 

 in his own time and country. 



There are still several excellent paintings in oil, for their period, 

 by Burgkmair, preserved in the galleries of Vienna, Munich, and 

 Schleissheim ; and there are others at Nurnberg and at Berlin. He 

 painted also in fresco and in distemper, and he illuminated manu- 

 scripts ; but he is better known for his woodcuts, or those cut from 

 his designs, which amount to nearly seven hundred, including some 

 maps. The ' Triumph of the Emperor Maximilian I.,' in 135 Urge cuts, 

 with a description by the emperor, is one of his chief works ; it was 

 executed in 1519, the year of Maximilian's death, chiefly by Burgkmair: 

 some of the prints are marked with his name in full ; others with 

 merely H. B. He executed, likewise with assistance, another series of 

 cuts in commemoration of the same emperor, entitled ' Der Weiss 

 Kunig' (The Wise King), of which there are 237 large cuts, being 

 illustrations of the deeds of Maximilian, from the description of H. S. 

 Sauerwein. Th emperor is said to have superintended the work 

 himself. The blocks are still preserved in the library of Vienna. 

 There is also by Burgkmair an equestrian portrait of Maximilian, in 

 chiaroscuro, dated 1518. He cut also an excellent portrait of Johann 

 Baumgiirtner, dated 1512, and a picture of St. George on horseback, 

 both in chiaroscuro. On Burgktnair's prints in chiaroscuro another 

 name occurs besides his own Jost de Negker, to whom probably the 

 execution of the chiaroscuro is due. Besides these and many other 

 woodcuts, there are several etchings and two engravings attributed to 

 Burgkmair. His paintings are carefully and solidly executed, but are 

 gothic in taste ; there are ten in the Pinakothek at Munich, of which 

 that of the three saints, Liborius, Eustace, and Roch, is strikingly 

 excellent in its style (Cabinet ii. No. 24). In the gallery of the Belve- 

 dere at Vienna there is a picture by Burgkmair of himself and his 

 wife, with their ages inscribed upon it, dated May 10, 1528, his fifty- 

 seventh year. The year of his death is not known, but it is supposed 

 to have been 1559. Sandrart has given a portrait of Burgkmair in his 

 ' Teutsche Academic,' &c., and there is a print by G. C. Kilian, of the 

 Vienna portrait of Burgkmair and his wife. 



(Heineken, Diclionnaire des Artistes, &c. ; Mechel, Tableaux de 

 Vienne ; Bartsch, Peinlre-Graveur ; Heller, Qcschickte der Holzsclmr.de- 

 kunsl, <kc.) 



BURGOYNE, JOHN, supposed to be a natural son of Lord Bingley, 

 but concerning whose youthful history we are without information, 

 was appointed lieutenant-colonel commandant of the 16th light 

 dragoons in August 1759. After serving at Belle Isle in 1761, he 

 joined the Portuguese army under the command of the Count de la 

 Lippe in the following year, and distinguished himself by surprising 

 and capturing the town of Alcantara. Before his return to England 

 he was promoted to the rank of colonel In 1761 he was returned 

 member of parliament for the borough of Midhurst, and he success- 

 fully contested that of Preston in 1768. The contest for Preston was 

 carried on with great virulence, and gross corruption and misconduct 

 appear to have been committed upon both sides. For excesses of 

 which his partisans were guilty Burgoyne was prosecuted in the Court 

 of King's Bench, and fined 1000Z. A presumed political connection 

 with the Duke of Grafton exposed him to the invective of Junius, by 

 whom he was treated with great severity. He partook largely in the 

 debates respecting the Falkland Islands in 1771, and in the following 

 year he directed his attention to the abuses supposed to exist in the 

 government of the East Indies. While serving as a subaltern at 

 Preston he had secretly married Lady Charlotte, daughter of the Earl 

 of Derby, with whom after a time the offending couple obtained 

 reconciliation. This connection first led him to write for the stage. 

 His earliest dramatic piece, ' The Maid of the Oaks,' was written for a 

 fete-champe'tre given at his father-in-law's seat (the Oaks), in June 



