737 



EFFEN, JUSTUS VAN. 



EGEDE, HANS. 



738 



brandt ; and he was by far the beflt disciple of that master : on the 

 other hand, it must be allowed that he shared in his defects, being 

 incorrect in drawing, deficient in elegance and grace, and negligent 

 of costume, while he was wanting in Rembrandt's originality and 

 marvellous vigour. He died in 1674. 



EFFEN, JUSTUS VAN, a Dutch man of letters of the 18th century 

 who was connected in various ways with the literature of France and 

 England, was born on the llth of February (old style) at Utrecht, and 

 studied at that university and at Leyden, where he finally took his 

 degree as Doctor of Law. So early as at the age of fifteen he became 

 private tutor to the son of a nobleman at the university, and spent 

 the greater part of his life in the same line of occupation, for which he 

 seems to have been peculiarly qualified. It was not till he was seven- 

 teen that he became acquainted with the French language, of which 

 he made himself such a master that some of his anonymous productions 

 in it had the honour of being attributed to Fontenelle. His first work 

 of any consequence was ' Lc Misanthrope,' a series of periodical essays 

 in French on the plan of the English ' Spectator.' The original had 

 been commenced at London in March 1711, and the imitation made 

 its appearance at the Hague in May a striking proof of the rapid 

 popularity of the masterpieces of Addison. Three years afterwards 

 Van Effen visited England in the capacity of secretary of embassy to 

 the Baron Van Wassenaer Duivenwoorde, the father of his first pupil, 

 who wag sent by the States to congratulate Qeorge L on hia accession 

 to th throne. He afterwards made a second visit as secretary of 

 embawy to Count Van Welderen, who was sent on a similar occasion 

 to congratulate George II. These journeys, and one which he made 

 to Sweden as a companion to the Prince of Hesse-Philipsthal, seem to 

 have been the oily occasions of big leaving Holland. 



When he was first in London he heard so much in society of Swift's 

 'Tale of a Tub,' and of the difficulty, if not impracticability, of 

 transferring its force and humour to any other language, that he 

 resolved to make the attempt, and produced a successful French 

 translation. He afterwards rendered the same service to the 

 ' Guardian ' when it appeared, and to ' Robinson Crusoe." His most 

 important literary labours however were in connection with the 

 'Journal Littcraire," a review published in the Hague, in which Van 

 Kir n took the principal part, sometimes writing whole numbers, and 

 in which he had for a colleague, among others, Dr. Maty, who after- 

 wards resided in England, and became principal librarian of the 

 British Museum. All these works and some others, ' La Bagatelle,' 

 ' Lo Nouveau Spectateur,' &a, were in French, and Van Effen, who 

 had never been in France, was forty-seven years of age before he 

 published anything in his native language. In 1731 be commenced, 

 and, as was usual with him anonymously, ' De Hollandsche Spectator,' 

 or ' Dutch Spectator,' a fresh imitation of the English work, which ho 

 had begun his literary career by imitating. He kept it up with very 

 little assistance till the 8th of April 1735, and he died on the 18th of 

 September in the same year at Bois-le-duc, where he lad been living 

 for some time in easy competence, on the profits of a place which 

 had been secured for him by one of his patrons. 



The French works of Van Effen were collected and published at 

 Amsterdam in 1742, in five volumes, with his life prefixed. Another 

 and fuller life by Verwer is given in the second edition of his 

 ' Hollandsche Spectator,' published at Amsterdam in 1756. The 

 French works have long ceased to be reprinted; the Dutch one, 

 which is by much Vau Effen's best, is still in high repute for the 

 beauty and lucidity of its style, in regard to which Van EB'en may be 

 considered as the Addison of Holland. In the select collation of the 

 Dutch classics now publishing by Fuhri at the Hague, one volume is 

 formed by ' Jest and Earnest, from the Dutch Spectator.' The pieces 

 which have been taken in thin selection are chiefly ethical essays or 

 pictures of manners, one of which ' Kobus en Aguietje,' a sketch of 

 courtship among the middle classes, is especially popular; but to an 

 English reader some of the most interesting portions of the ' Spectator ' 

 are those which are omitted, the frequent references to English society, 

 manners, and language, which have the recommendatious of coming 

 from an enlightened foreigner who had seen the London of Addison 

 and Pope. 



EGBERT, styled the Great, king of the West Saxons, was, accord- 

 ing to the Saxon Chronicle, the ton of Alckmund, whose descent is 

 traced up through Esa, or Eata, and Eoppa, to Inigisil, or Ingild, the 

 brother of the great Ina, and the undoubted descendant of Cerdic. 

 The 'Chronicle' elates Alckmund to have reigned in Kent; but this 

 point, sa well as th j whole of the genealogy of Egbert, mut be con- 

 sidered as doubtful. All that can be certainly affirmed is, that he was 

 of the blood of Cerdic, and that he eventually came to be regarded as 

 the representative, if not the only remaining male descendant of that 

 founder of the royal house of Wessex. When Beohrtric, or Brihtric, 

 became king hi 786, Egbert, then very young, or his friends for him, 

 had claimed the throne. Brihtric is said to have soon after made an 

 attempt on his life, upon which he took refuge at the court of Offa, 

 tha powerful king of Mercia. After a short time however he lost 

 Olia's protection, on Brihtric marrying Eadburga, the daughter of 

 that king. Egbert then fled to France, where he was received by the 

 Kmperor Charlemagne, and at his court lie abode till the death of 

 Brihtric iu bOO. He was then recalled, and by the unanimous vote of 

 the witaii appointed to the vacaut throne. William of Malmesbury, 



who wrote in the 12th century, is the only authority for this history 

 of Egbert's early life. He says, that besides other accomplishments 

 he learned the art of war under Charlemagne, in whose armies he 

 served for three years. 



At the date of Egbert's accession the Saxon states in England were 

 reduced to three independent sovereignties : Northumbria, compre- 

 hending what had occasionally been the separate kingdoms of Deira 

 and Bernicia ; Mercia, which had reduced to subjection Kent, Essex, 

 and East Anglia ; and Wessex, with which Sussex had become incor- 

 porated. Of these three powers, Northumbria was torn by internal 

 dissensions, and probably was indebted for the preservation of its inde- 

 pendence chiefly to the rivalry between the other two. The conquests 

 and the able rule of Offa however had raised Mercia to a decided pre- 

 eminence over Wessex ; and at this time the Mercian throne was 

 occupied by Cenwulf, who was well qualified to wield the sceptre of 

 Offa, and who had even extended the territory which he had inherited 

 from that king. The two states were at war when Egbert became 

 king ; but a peace was soon concluded between them ; and so long as 

 Cenwulf lived Egbert made no attempt at conquest over any part of 

 Saxon England. For the first nine years of his reign indeed he seems 

 not to have drawn his sword. He then (809) engaged in war against 

 the alien tribes that still remained unsubdued in the west ; and 

 between that year and 814 he is recorded to have subjugated, or at 

 least overrun and reduced to temporary submission, all Cornwall 

 (including Devon) and South Wales. But soon after the death of 

 Cenwulf in 819 we find him entering upon a new career. In 823 a 

 dispute about the succession to the Mercian crown raised the East 

 Angles in revolt. Egbert's aid, upon beiug applied for, was readily 

 given to the insurgents ; and a great battle took place at Ellenduue 

 (supposed to be Wilton), which ended iu the complete defeat of the 

 Mercians. Essex and Kent were immediately seized by Egbert, or 

 voluntarily submitted to him. The East Angles iu the meantime he 

 professed to leave independent ; and Mercia itself lie did not think 

 yet sufficiently weakened to be attacked with effect. A continuance 

 of the dispute about the succession however, and another revolt of 

 the East Angles, soon produced the state of things he waited for. Iu 

 827 he marched against Mercia; Wiglaf, the king, fled on his approach 

 to the monastery of Croylaud, but soon after made his submission, 

 and was permitted to retain his kingdom as the vassal or tributary of 

 Egbert. Egbert appears to have now taken East Anglia under his own 

 immediate government. He is affirmed by Bede to have subjected to 

 his rule all England to the south of the Humber. Without loss of 

 time also he led his army against the Northumbrians ; their king, 

 Eanred, offered no resistance ; but meeting Egbert at a place called 

 Dore, to the north of the Humber, acknowledged him as Bretwalda. 

 He is the eighth Saxon king who is stated to have acquired this 

 dignity ; the last was the Northumbrian king Oswio. 



In the last year of the reign of Egbert several of those descents of 

 the Danes or northern pirates were made upon the English coasts, 

 which produced so much public confusion and calamity when renewed 

 in the times of hia sou and his grandsons. In 832 they ravaged the 

 Isle of Sbeppey ; and next year, appearing with a fleet of five-aud- 

 thirty sail in the river Dart, they landed and defeated a force that 

 Egbert sent against them. When they returned however in 835, and 

 landed in Cornwall, they and a number of the people of that district 

 whom they had induced to join them, sustained a decisive overthrow 

 from the king of Wessex in person. Egbert died the next year (836), 

 after a reigu of thirty-seven years and seven mouths, leaving his 

 dominions between his eldest son Ethelwulf and Athelstune, who 

 appears to have been the son of Ethelwulf. [ETHELWULI'.] 



Egbert is commonly said to have been the first Anglo-Saxon king 

 who culled himself ' King of the Angles,' or of England ; but though a 

 charter exists iu which he is styled Rex Anglorum, in general both he 

 and h j successors down to Alfred inclusive call themselves only kings 

 of the West Saxons. And although Egbert asserted a supremacy over 

 the other states, which remained ever after with his kingdom of 

 Wessex, it is to be recollected that he did not incorporate either 

 Mercia or Northumbria with his own dominions. It does not appear 

 that he even assumed to himself the appointment of the kings of thoso 

 states. The reigning families seem to have continued in possession, 

 with merely an acknowledgment of his supremacy as Bretwalda. 



EGEDE, HANS, the apostle of Greenland, from whose arrival iu 

 that country the Greenlanders date a new era, wus by birth a Norwe- 

 gian. His father, a sorenskriver, or village judge, at Harstad, in the 

 district of Nordlandene, in Norway, was the son of a Dane, the parish 

 priest of Vester-Egede in Siselland, who was the first of the family to 

 assume the surname of Egede, which he took from hiss parish. Hans 

 Egede was born at Harstad on the 31st of January 1686, studied at 

 Copenhagen, which, before the foundation of the University of Chris- 

 tiauia, was the only university open to the natives of Norway ; and iu 

 1707, at the age of twenty-one, was ordained priest of Vaagen iu 

 northern Norway, and married a neighbour's daughter, Gertrude 

 Rask, of the age of thirty-four. He had been married about a year 

 when his mind began to dwell on the circumstance which he had seen 

 mentioned iu a description of Norway, that formerly there had been 

 Christians in Greenland, where now there were only heathens, and he 

 could not help considering with interest if it were possible that some 

 descendants of the old Norwegians who had colonised the country 



