101ft 



PDTSCniUS, ELIAS. 



PYM, JOHN. 



Hi 



production of much superior interest, in which the characters of 

 Zarema and Maria, the fanner of whom has not a few trait* in common 

 with Byron'* ' Guluare,' are strikingly coutnuted. For the manuscript 

 of tbii poem, which consists of only 600 lines, the author obtained 3000 

 ruble* a degree of remuneration then almoot unprecedented. His 

 reputation wai now fixed, but he allowed an interval of nearly three 

 yean to elapee (1824-27) between writing bin ' Tzigani ' (' The Gypsies') 

 ml iU being printed ; and of his ' Evgenii, or Eugenius Outogin,' : 

 though the first chapter or canto appeared in 1825, the aixth was not 

 printe.l till 1828. The 'Tzigani' had indeed been extensively circu- 

 lated in manuscript previously to its issuing from the press, and in that 

 form had acquired a celebrity that was no doubt enhanced by the kind 

 of mystery attending it. It U a half-narrative, half-dramatic compo- ' 

 aition, constructed out of exceedingly flight materials, and gives a 

 picture of the life of the gipsy tribes in Bessarabia, one evidently 

 coloured after nature, but not calculated to render any one enamoured 

 with the simplicity of that nomadic race. The ' Ontegin," avowedly a 

 production akin to Byron's ' Beppo,' U a sort of novel in verse, 

 descriptive of Russian life and manners in the capital and the pro- 

 vinces, and it is generally understood that the hero of it, whose name 

 it bears, was intended by Pushkin for a poetical portrait of himself. 



In 1629 appeared almost the last and also the best of hU narrative 

 poems, namely, that entitled ' Pultava,' the hero of which is the same 

 person as Byron's ' Mszeppa," but here exhibited under a very different 

 aspect not as the blooming page, but as the Uetman of the Kossaks, 

 who, notwithstanding his well-matured year?, inspires a maiden, whom 

 he has carried off from her parents, with an ardent attachment. An 

 analysis of this poem, together with spirited translations of one or two 

 scenes from it, will be found in the ninth volume of the ' Foreign 

 Quarterly ; ' and the same article also contains some account of the 

 ' Fountain uf B*khtchiearai ' and the ' Tzigani.' 



Pushkin's dramatic poem of ' Boris Qodunov,' produced about this 

 period, is one of the most interesting of all his productions, since, 

 besides its historical accuracy and literary merit, it possesses no small 

 attraction as a masterly picture of national manners and feeling", 

 replete with force and truth. After this he nearly abandoned poetry 

 altogether, and applied himtelf to prose composition, having been not 

 only recalled from exile, but taken into favour by the Kmperor 

 Nicolas, who appointed him historiographer, with a pension of 6000 

 rubles. This change in his fortunes was if it did not occasion 

 accompanied by no less striking a change in his opinions, which, after 

 b> ing on the fide of liberalism, settled into the contrary extreme. 

 During the last seven or eight years of his life bis pen was almost 

 inactive, the chief thing he produced in that time being a history 

 not of 1'eter the Great as wan expected but of the rebel Pugatchev. 

 His other productions during that interval amount to no more than a 

 few tales and essays, and his articles in the 'Sovremonnik, or Con- 

 temporary,' a literary quarterly miscellany, projected by him iu 1836, 

 and afterwards continued for the benefit of his family. Several of bis 

 posthumous papers, including the ' History of the Iron Mask,' 

 ' Memoirs of Moreau de Brass*,' and fragments of various unfinished 

 tale*, romances, Ac., appeared alter bis death in that publication, which 

 also contains a circumstantial narrative of his last moments by one of 

 his friends. His death was in consequence of a wound received in a 

 duel with an officer ; and after lingering two days, at times in excessive 

 agony, be expired at St. Petersburg, January 29th (February 10th), 

 1837, in hi* thirty-eighth year. Besides paying his debts and bestowing 

 a pension of several thousand rubles upon the poet's widow and family, 

 the emperor commanded a splendid edition of all his works to be 

 published at bis own expense. 



PUTSCHIUS, KLIAS, was born at Antwerp in 1580. He became 

 early distinguished as a scholar, and at the age of twenty-one be 

 publinhed an edition of Sallust with fragments and notes. Four years 

 afterwards ho published the work by which ho is chiefly known, 

 ' Ancient Authors of Latin Grammar,' small folio, Hauau, 1605. These 

 author* arc thirty-three in number, of whom several were never before 

 printed, and the rest were so much corrected that they might seem, 

 as be say* in the title-page, to be then published for the first time. 

 This collection of ancient grammarians is of great value to all who are 

 desirous of gaining a critical knowledge of the Latin language, and it 

 also convoys indirectly many aid* to the student of the Greek. 

 PuUchius died at Stade, March 9, 1006, in his twenty-i>ixth year. 

 (Kubricius, Bibliolhtca Latina contains an ample account of the 

 trratises collected by PuUchius.) 



I'Y K. lll.Ml V JAMK.S, ws the ion of a Berkshire gentleman who 

 represented that country in parliament. Iff took the degree of M.A. 

 at Oxford in 1766. Several mi. all volumes of poenin, and a translation 

 of Aristotle's poetry, with a commentary, were held to give him, on 

 Thomas Warton's death in 1790, a claim to the office of poet-laureate, 

 to the fame of which however he added nothing either before or after 

 bis appoint ini nt. He was for a good many yean member of parliament 

 for his native county, and on the changes which took place in the 

 magistracy of Wi-tminstcr he was appointed one of the commissioners 

 of police. He died in 1813, and was succeeded in the laureateship 

 by Southey. 



I'YK, JOHN, an eminent landscape engraver, was born in I'.ir 

 mingham in 17-2. In his twentieth year he entered the studio of 

 James Heath, the celebrated historical engraver, and there completed 



bis professional education. Having adopted landscape a* his special 

 lino, In' gradually worked his way into notice. One of Uie first of his 

 plates which attracted much attentiou was that of ' Pope's Villa,' by 

 Turner, which he engraved in 1809, and it was by his admirable ren- 

 derings of Turner's earlier manner that Mr. Pye gained his high pro- 

 fessional rank. The largest and most celebrated of his Turner plates 

 was that of ' The Temple of Jupiter,' and it remains ono of the very 

 finest line-engravings which has up to the present time been executed 

 of this class of Turner's pictures. Mr. Pye has also of course engraved 

 numerous small engravings and book-illustrations, but his burin always 

 works more successfully on copper than on steel. He has likewise 

 appeared before the public as an author, having written a volume 

 entitled ' Patronage of British Art,' 8vo, 1845, and two or three pamph- 

 lets on the inferior position of engravers in the Royal Academy a 

 position which has been amended by recent resolutions passed by the 

 Academicians. Mr. Pye was one of the founders, and has continued 

 one of the most active supporters of that excellent institution, ' The 

 Artists' Fund,' of the history of which he has given a pretty full 

 account in hU ' Patronage of British Art.' 



PYM, JOHN, was descended from a good family in Somersetshire, 

 where he was bora in the year 1584. It appears from the abstract of 

 title to certain estates that John Pym was the lord of the manors of 

 Woolavington Pym and Woolavington Throckmorton, near Bridge- 

 water, in the county of Somerset. His son Sir Charles Pym, Bart., 

 afterwards possessed these manors, which at his death descended on 

 coheiresses, and ultimately by marriage passed into the family of 

 Hales (of Kent), who became the representatives of the Pyms. 



In the beginning of 1599 Pym became a gentleman-commoner of 

 Broadgate Hall, now Pembroke College, Oxford ; but he left the uni- 

 versity without taking a degree, and went, as Wood supposes, to one 

 of the inns of court. Pym was early distinguished for his eloquence 

 and knowledge in the common law. He served in several parliaments 

 towards the end of the reign of James I., and iu nil those held in 

 n of Charles I., as member for Tavistock in Devonshire. Ho 

 eoou distinguished himself in the House by his abilities and zeal in 

 opposing the measures of the court. 



In 1626 he was one of the managers of the articles of impeachment 

 against the Duke of Buckingham ; and in the Short Parliament, whicli 

 met on the 13th of April 1640, ho was ono of the most active mem- 

 bers. When, nfter a long intermission of parliaments, the Long 

 Parliament met (3rd of November 1640), the value of Pym's know- 

 ledge and experience in the usages of the House, as well as of his 

 talents as a speaker, was strongly felt. On the 7th of November, tin- 

 first day in which the House entered upon business, Pym made a long 

 speech respecting grievances. He classed them under three heads, 

 namely 1, privilege of parliament; 2, religion; 3, liberty of the 

 subject Each of these divisions, as was usual in that age, he again 

 divided into a great number of subdivisions. The style of Pym'b 

 oratory, as far as we can judge of it from those speeches of his which 

 were printed at the time, and have come down to us among the 

 innumerable small quartos of that age which are preserved iu the 

 British Museum, is nervous, terse, and polished. 



Upon the llth of November a motion was suddenly made by Mr. 

 Pym, who declared that he had something of importance to make 

 known to the House, and desired that the outward room should be 

 cU-aivil of strangers, and the outer doors upon the stairs locked. This 

 being done, Pym began : he alluded by way of exordium to the 

 grievances under which the nation laboured ; he inferred from these 

 that a deliberate plan had been formed of entirely changing the fraiuo 

 of government; and then, after an artfully couched preface, in which 

 he asserted that though there were doubtless many persons who 

 bad so far insinuated themselves into the " royal affections as to 

 be able to pervert his excellent judgment, to abuse his name, and 

 wickedly apply his authority to countenance and support their own 

 corrupt designs," there was one pre-eminent offender, who, from " an 

 earnest vindicator of the laws, and a most zealous, assertor and cham- 

 pion of the liberties of the people, had long since turned apostate 

 from those good affections, and, according to the custom and iiutnro 

 of apostates, was become the greatest enemy to the liberties of his 

 country, and the greatest promoter of tyranny that any age had pro- 

 duced." He then named " the Earl of Stratford, lord-lieutenant of 

 Ireland, nnd lord president of the council of York, who, he said, had 

 in both plates, and in all other provinces wherein his services had been 

 used by the king, raised ample monuments of his tyrannical nature ; 

 nii'l that he believed if they took a short survey of his actions anil 

 behaviour they would find him the principal author and promoter of 

 all t hone counsels which had exposed the kingdom to so much ruin." 

 (Clarendon, vol. i., 800, edit Oxf., lS2i>.) He then instanced some 

 imperious actions done by him in England and Ireland, some proud 

 and over-confident expressions in discourse, and coitain passionate 

 advices he had given in the most secret councils of state; adding, says 

 Clarendon, some lighter passages of hU vanity and amours ; and so 

 concluded, " that they would well consider how to provide a remedy 

 proportionable to the disease, and to prevent the further mi-chit lit 

 they wore to expect from the continuance of this great man's power 

 and credit with the king, and his influence upon bin c > K" 



It is unnecessary to detail here the impeachment of Strati'.. rd, which 

 followed, and in which Pym bore so prominent a part. On the 26th 



