741 



PERGOLESI, GIOVANNI-BATTISTA. 



PERICLES. 



742 



investigation was instituted into his conduct, and the result was that 

 he was condemned to two years' imprisonment, eight years' exile from 

 court, and a heavy fine. At first his own house was assigned as his 

 place of confinement, Philip still continuing to employ him and to 

 promise him his protection and favour ; but that wily monarch having, 

 it is asserted, through threats and promises, obtained from him what 

 he most wanted, namely, all the papers that might prove his own 

 share in the murder, Perez was by his orders removed to a prison, 

 and soon after put to the rack, where he confessed his participation 

 in the murder of Escovedo, but at the same time stated that he 

 received the king's orders to that effect. Perez would undoubtedly 

 have suffered capital punishment had not his wife, Dona Maria de 

 Coello, assisted by his friends, procured him the means of escaping 

 from bis prison, and taking refuge in Aragon, his native province. On 

 arriving at Saragossa, Perez appealed, in virtue of the Aragonese laws, 

 to the protection of the Justizia, and insisted upon a fair and open 

 trial ; but Philip, regardless of the authority of the Justizia, of the 

 people's liberties, and bis own oaths to maintain them, commanded 

 the magistrates of Calatayud to seize the secretary and confine him 

 in the royal prison. At this arbitrary violation of their constitution 

 the people of Saragoasa rose in arms, and by force released the prisoner. 

 A third and last expedient was then tried by Philip. As Perez was 

 known to be in correspondence with Catherine, the sister of Henri IV. 

 of France, and a Protestant, he was accused of heresy and witchcraft, 

 and lodged in the dungeons of the Inquisition. The patriotic Justizia 

 protested against this new infraction of the people's privileges, and 

 the inhabitants of Sarngossa, infuriated to the last degree, invested the 

 palace of the Inquisition and delivered the prisoner, after putting to 

 death the Marquis de Almenera, Philip's representative, and committing 

 other excesses. No sooner did Philip hear of the revolt, than he 

 ordered a considerable army to Aragon. The Saragossians rose in 

 arms : a tumultuous body, headed by Don Martin de Lauuza, the 

 Justizia, went out to meet the royal troops; but having hastily fled at 

 their approach, the unfortunate nobleman was taken prisoner and 

 immediately executed, the forms of liberty being thus for ever 

 extinguished in Aragon. In the meanwhile Perez made his escape 

 into France, where he published the narrative of his sufferings, and 

 found protection. He also visited England, and was kindly received 

 by Elizabeth's ministers, and other illustrious men of the time, such 

 as the Earl of Essex, Lord Southampton, Francis and Anthony Bacon, 

 &c., with whom he maintained a correspondence in Latin. He seems 

 even to have entertained an idea of going to Scotland, as appears from 

 a letter of his to James VI., and another addressed to him by Thomas 

 Parry, which are preserved in the library of the British Museum 

 among the Cotton Manuscripts, Caligula, E. vii. During Perez's stay 

 in France several unsuccessful attempts were made by Philip to have 

 him assassinated. Estoile (' Journal de Henry IV.,' vol. ii., p. 253) 

 says that a Spaniard, named Kodrigo Mur, was executed at Paris in 

 1596 for attempting to murder Perez; and that, when he was put to 

 the rack, he confessed that he was sent by Idiaquez, minister of 

 Philip II. Perez died miserably poor, at Paris, on the 3rd of November 

 1610, and was buried in the monastery of the Celestina, where his 

 tomb, bearing a Latin epitaph, was still to be seen shortly before the 

 revolution. Besides his ' Helaciones,' which appeared for the first time 

 at Paris in 1598, and were afterwards reprinted there in 1624, and at 

 Geneva in 1631, 1644, and 1654, and his 'Cartas y Aphorismo,' pub- 

 lished at Paris in 1603 and in 1605, besides other subsequent editions 

 without date, Perez is said to have written a history of Philip II., and 

 tome political works. There is also a collection of letters by him addressed 

 to the Connetablc de Montmorency, preserved in the royal library at 

 Paris. Part of the former work was translated into French and also 

 into Latin, with this title, ' Institutionea Imperiales,' Ainst., 1657. 



PERGOLE'SI, GIOVANNI-BATTISTA, was born, according to 

 Dr. Burney, at Casoria, near Naples, in 1704 ; Mattel says at Pergola 

 in 1707 ; while the Marchesc di ViUarosa tells us, on the authority of 

 A baptismal register, that he waa born at Jed in 1710. All agree 

 however that PergolcM was educated at the Neapolitan Consorvatorio 

 dei Poveri in Giesu Cristo, under Gaetano Greco and Durante, and 

 that at the age of fourteen, fully persuaded that melody and true 

 taste were sacrificed to what was called learning, he was withdrawn, at 

 his own request, from school, and immediately adopted the style of 

 Vinci and Basse. His first productions, among which was Metastasio's 

 ' Olimpiade,' were coldly received both at Naples and Koine, for bis 

 new manner was not understood. But the Prince di Stigliano, dis- 

 covering bis merit, procured an engagement for him at the Teatro 

 Nuovo. There his light but elegant intermezzo, ' La Serva Padrona,' 

 which afterwards made so extraordinary a sensation in Paris, was 

 brought out in 1731. 



Though the dramatic compositions of Pergolesi mot with little 

 success during his short life, his productiona for the church were duly 

 appreciated, and received with the applause they deserved. His fine 

 mass in D, in which is the no less popular than beautiful movement, 

 ' Gloria in excelsis ! ' was heard " with general rapture," says Dr. 

 Burney, at Rome ; where also bis grand motet, 'Dixit Dominus,' and 

 bit ' Laudate, Pueri,' were equally admired. At this time he began to 

 show decided symptoms of pulmonary disease, and removed, for 

 change of air, to Torre del Greco, at the foot of Vesuvius. Here he 

 composed bis pathetic 'Stabat, Mater,' likewise the mot;t, 'Salve, 



Regina," his latest work. He died in 1737. According to Walpole, 

 Gray the poet first made Pergolesi's works known in England. Pergo- 

 lesi's opera, ' L'Olirnpiade,' was first performed at the King's Theatre 

 in 1742 ; the 'Serva Padrona ' in 1750. His sacred compositions were 

 performed at the Academy of Ancient Music shortly after they reached 

 this country, and have never since ceased to be admired by all true 

 lovers and judges of the art. 



PERIANDER, tyrant of Corinth, succeeded his father Cypeelus 

 about B.C. 625. While towards the great body of the people his rule 

 appears to have been gentle and considerate, he seems from the first 

 to have aimed at securing in his own hands an absolute authority. 

 To this the story points, however differently told, of the indication of 

 his policy of getting rid of the more powerful nobles, by the symbolic 

 action of cutting off the taller ears of corn in passing through a corn- 

 field. He appeal's in fact to have conciliated the mass of the citizens, 

 in order that he might the more easily crush the higher orders, and 

 impoverish the wealthy, and thus consolidate the supreme power in 

 his own person. Among the domestic measures enforced by him, were, 

 the suppression of public education, of common tables, clubs, and 

 houses of resort, the establishment of a coiirt for trial of citizens who 

 wasted their patrimony, and the enforcement of certain sumptuary 

 laws : it is probable that to the enforcement of one of these edicts may 

 be traced the story of his stripping the Corinthian women of their orna- 

 ments. On the other hand he is faid to have encouraged commerce, 

 literature, the arts, and philosophy, and to have constructed many 

 splendid buildings and public works. In external affairs he was 

 careful, by maintaining a strong army and a powerful navy, and by 

 entering into alliances with the tyrants of other Grecian cities, to make 

 himself respected, and the friendship of Corinth courted. Yet he 

 seems to have engaged in few wars, his conquest of Epidaurus, his 

 subjection of Corcyra, and his engagement with the Mytilenscans 

 against Athens, being the principal. For his own security he kept a 

 body guard of 300 mercenaries. 



In his private life Periander was extremely unhappy. He is said 

 by several writers to have unintentionally committed incest with his 

 mother ; and by some it is added that on becoming acquainted with 

 the fact his disposition was suddenly changed from kindne.-s to 

 misanthropic cruelty. Later in life, in a sudden fit of jealous rage, he 

 by a violent blow killed his wife Melissa (who was far advanced in 

 pregnancy), and then on discovering her innocence caused her accusers 

 to be burned alive. Periander is said to have loved Melissa ardently, 

 and to have felt the keenest remorse for her death. She had borne 

 him two sons, Cypselus and Lycophron, and the last years of Perian- 

 der's life were embittered by the unappeasable exasperation of his 

 favourite son Lycophron at his mother's death. The anger of Lycophrou 

 was stimulated by Procles, tyrant of Epiduurus, the father of Melissa; 

 and Periander in revenge attacked Epidaurus, and made Procles 

 prisoner. Cypselus was of weak understanding, and unfit to reign, and 

 Periander finding that Lycophron persisted in refusing to be reconciled, 

 and share the sovereignty with him, proposed to abdicate in his favour; 

 but the inhabitants of Corcyra seized Lycophron, and put him to death, 

 about B.C. 586. Periander died about B.C. 585, after a reign of above 

 forty years. He was succeeded by a nephew or cousin, Psammetichus, 

 the sou of Gordias. 



Periander is usually placed among the Seven Sages of Greece. Dio- 

 genes Laertius mentions a didactic poem of 2000 verses which ho 

 wrote ; but he appears to have obtained his reputation for wisdom on 

 account of his skill in governing men, and the prudence of his policy, 

 and not on account of his philosophical discernment. Aristotle indeed 

 says, that he was reputed to be the first who reduced the policy of 

 despotic governments to a system. 



PERICLES, was the son of Xauthippus, who defeated the Persians 

 at Mycale, and of Agariste, niece of the famous Clistuenes. (Herod, 

 vi. 131.) He was thus the representative of a noble family, and he 

 improved the advantages of birth by those of education. He attended 

 the teaching of Damon, who communicated political instruction in the 

 form of music lessons ; of Ze.no the Eleatic ; and, most especially, of 

 the subtle and profound Anaxagoras. Plutarch's account shows that 

 he acquired from Anaxagoras moral as well as physical truths, and that 

 while he learned enough of astronomy to raise him above vulgar errors, 

 the same teacher supplied him with those notions of the orderly 

 arrangement of society which were afterwards so much the object of 

 his public life. But all these studies had a political end, and the same 

 activity and acuteness which led him into metaphysical inquiries, gave 

 him the will and the power to become ruler of Athens. 



In his youth old men traced a likeness to Pisistratus, which, joined 

 to the obvious advantages with which he would have entered public 

 life, excited distrust, and actually seems to have retarded his appearance 

 on the stage of politics. However, about the year B.C. 469, two years 

 after the ostracism of Themistocles, and about the time when Aristides 

 died, Pericles came forward in a public capacity, and before long became 

 head of a party opposed to that of Cimon, the son of Miltiadea. Plu- 

 tarch accuses Pericles of taking the democratic side because Cimon 

 headed that of the nobles. A popular war usually strengthens the 

 hands of the executive, and is therefore unfavourable to public liberty ; 

 and the Persian war seems to have been emphatically so to Athens, ai 

 I at its termination she found herself under the guidance of a statesman 

 I who partook more of the character of the general than of the prime 



