RAY, JOHN. 



Meanwhile the granite basement was being constructed, and by the 

 beginning of 1851 the whole was finished. It was inaugurated with 

 the greatest pomp in May 1851. Of this perhaps the most elaborate 

 monumental work of recent years a small model may be seen in the 

 Crystal Palace, Sydenham, as well as casts of the colossal equestrian 

 statue of the king which crowns the monument, of the bassi-rilievi 

 which represent the chief transactions of his life, and of some of the 

 detached statues. The work is a sort of compromise between tbe 

 severity of classic and the freedom of romantic art, and will not in 

 its details stand the test of rigorous criticism; but, casting aside 

 minute criticism, it must be held to be one of the very finest as well 

 as most imposing of recent commemorative works. And we may add 

 that, even without this his master-work, Rauch would unquestionably 

 stand at the head of living portrait and monumental sculptors, though 

 far from ranking among the first in ideal sculpture. 



RAUPACH, ERNST BENJAMIN SALOMON, one of the most 

 prolific of modern German dramatists, was born at the village of 

 Straupitz, near Liegnitz, in Silesia, on May 21, 1784, He received his 

 early education at the gymnasium at Liegnitz, and in 1801 proceeded 

 to Hallo to study theology. He afterwards went to Russia, where for 

 ten years he occupied himself diligently as a teacher, and after a 

 residence in that capacity at St. Petersburg for a year and a half, he 

 was appointed professor of philosophy in the University there, to 

 which in 1818 was added the professorship of German literature. In 

 1822 he quitted Russia, and having received somewhat later the 

 solicited discharge from his professional duties, he travelled for a 

 time about Germany, visited Italy, and at length returned and settled 

 at Berlin. The result of his journey to Italy appeared in 1823 in 

 ' Hirsewenzel's Briefe aus Italien.' His dramatic productions had 

 already been numerous, ranging from 1810 downwards, though many 

 did not appear in print till long after they had been written. In 

 1837-38 he published his series of historical plays in illustration of 

 events connected with the Hohenstaufen dynasty of emperors of 

 Germany, which formed eight volumes. His dramatic works were 

 published in a collected form in two divisions, ' Dramatische Werke 

 komischer Gattung ' (' Dramatic Works of the Comic Species '), in 3 

 vols., 1826-34 ; and ' Dramatische Werke ernster Gattung ' (' Dramatic 

 Works of the Serious Species') in 18 vols., 1830-44. These works 

 display considerable inventive powers, a great command over his mate- 

 rials, a thorough knowledge of stage resources, a sense of fitness, with 

 a happy introduction of interesting situations. In his serious dramas 

 he often reaches to the expression of deep passion, and in bis comedies 

 and farces a rich vein of verbal wit. His poetic style is harmonious 

 and natural, and ho has consequently been a favourite with the 

 public. His defects are a want of poetic consistency, a weakness 

 of characterisation, and occasionally a lapse from pure morality, as in 

 his ' Robert der Teufel,' and one or two others. His series of historical 

 plays on the Hohenstaufen, by provoking a comparison with those of 

 Shakspere, appear the most defective in dramatic merit, but they con- 

 tain some fine passages. He also published two collections of tales, one 

 in 1820, another in 1833 ; but they possess little merit, and attracted 

 but little attention. In 1842 he was created a privy-councillor, having 

 previously been made a councillor. He died in March, 1852. 



RAVENSCROFT, THOMAS, was born in 1592. He received his 

 musical education in St. Paul's choir, and was admitted to the degree of 

 Bachelor in Music, by the University of Cambridge, it is supposed, when 

 only fifteen years of age. In 1611 he printed a collection of twenty- 

 three part-songs, under the title of ' Melismata, Musical Phansies,' &c., 

 in which is his justly admired four-voiced song, 'Canst thou love and lie 

 alone T In 1614 appeared his 'Brief Discourses,' &c., another collection 

 of twenty part-songs, to which is prefixed a discourse or essay on the old 

 musical proportions, a vain endeavour to rescue them from the neglect 

 into which they had deservedly fallen. In 1621 he published 'The 

 whole Book of Psalms, &c., composed into four parts by sundry authors, 

 to such several tunes as have been and are usually sung in England, 

 Scotland, Wales, Germany, Italy, France, and the Netherlands.' 

 Among the 'authors' appear the names of Tallis, Morley, John Milton 

 (father of the poet), &c. Many are by Ravenscroft, who, had he only 

 produced St. David's, Canterbury, and Bangor tunes, would have 

 ensured the respect and gratitude of his country. - The work, the 

 first of the kind, we believe, that had appeared, contains a melody 

 for each of the hundred and fifty psalms, many newly composed, and 

 all harmonised by the above-mentioned persons. Tradition ascribes to 

 Ravenscroft the merit of having been compiler of two other works, 

 similar in character to the ' Melismata ' namely, ' Pammelia ' and 

 ' Deuteromelia,' both well known to musical antiquaries, highly valued 

 by them, and now exceedingly rare ; and the tradition receives support 

 from an allusion in the ' Apologie ' to his ' Brief Discourse, to ' Har- 

 monies by divers and sundry Authors,' formerly published by him, the 

 errors in which, he says, are " corrected in this (i.e. The Discourse) 

 fourth and last work." The 'Pammelia,' comprising one hundred 

 pieces, is dated 1 609 ; the Deuteromelia/ containing thirty-two, bears 

 the same date. A selection from the four above-named secular vorks 

 was privately printed in 1822, for the use of The Roxburghe Club, 

 by the Duke of Maryborough, who unhesitatingly ascribes the whole 

 to Ravenscroft, though it might have been seen at a glance that 

 this composer was author of but a few, while he may have been 

 editor of all. 



* RAWLINSON, SIR HENRY CRESWICKE, was born at Chad- 

 lington, in Oxfordshire, in 1810, the son of Abraham Tysack Rawlinson. 

 He was educated at Ealing, and entered the East India Company's 

 military service in 1826. He served in the Bombay presidency till 

 1832, when he was appointed to the Shah of Persia's army, in which 

 he remained till 1839. On January 1, 1833, he wrote his first letter 

 to the secretary of the Asiatic Society, announcing that he had copied 

 and read the Behistun inscription in Kurdistan, enclosing a specimen of 

 his reading. At this time he knew nothing of what Lassen, Buruouf, 

 and Rask had done in Europe regarding this inscription, which is in the 

 cuneiform character. He continued to make occasional communica- 

 tions on the subject to the Asiatic Society till July 1839, when he sent a 

 precis of the whole inscription, which was read at one of their meetings, 

 and the first portion, containing the fac-similes and translations of tbe 

 whole of the Behistun inscriptions, was published in September 1846, 

 and the Babylonian version, alphabet, and analysis of part of it was pub- 

 lished in December 1851. The Afghan war occasioned his recall, and he 

 was political agent at Candahar throughout that struggle, from 1840 to 

 1842. He was removed in 1843 to Baghdad as political resident, and 

 here he studied the inscriptions of Nineveh. In 1844 he was appointed 

 British consul there, and consul-general in 1851. He retired from the 

 East Indian service, in which he had attained the rank of major, 

 and of lieutenant-colonel in Turkey, was appointed a director of the 

 East India Company in 1856, and was created a K.C.B. He has 

 received Persian and Turkish orders of knighthood, and is a member 

 of many learned foreign societies as well as a Fellow of the Royal Society 

 of London. Since his residence in London he has been zealously 

 deciphering and investigating the character of the languages used ill 

 the cuneiform inscriptions, with great success and with important 

 results, assisted by Mr. Edwin Norris [NoRRis]. Besides numerous 

 papers in the journals of the Asiatic and Geographical Societies, he 

 has published ' Outline of the History of Assyria, as collected from the 

 Inscriptions discovered by A. H. Layard in the Ruins of Nineveh. 

 Printed from the Journal of the Asiatic Society,' London, 1852; and 

 'Memorandum on the Publication of the Cuneiform Inscriptions,' 

 1855. He is now preparing, at the cost of the government, copies of 

 the most interesting inscriptions found at Nineveh and Babylon, 

 chiefly from the originals in the British Museum. 



RAY, JOHN, or WRAY (as he at one time spelt his name), who 

 may be considered as the founder of true principles of classification 

 in the vegetable and animal kingdoms, was the son of a blacksmith, 

 and was born at Black-Notley, near Braintree in Essex, on the 29th of 

 November 1627. He received a good education, being sent first to 

 the grammar-school at Braintree, and afterwards to the University of 

 Cambridge, where he entered at Catherine Hall, but subsequently 

 removed to Trinity College, of which he was elected a fellow in 1649, 

 together with Isaac Barrow. At the age of twenty-three he was 

 appointed Greek lecturer, and two years afterwards mathematical 

 tutor to his college. He was also private tutor to several gentlemen 

 of rank, and among others to one who possessed a kindred spirit to 

 himself, and whose name afterwards became closely associated with his 

 own in the paths of science, Francis Willughby. Ray was always fond 

 of the study of natural history ; but his cultivation of the science of 

 botany is said to have been owing to an illness, which compelling him 

 to remit his drier studies, he collected and investigated the different 

 wild plants which he met with in his walks about Cambridge. In 

 1660 he published a 'Catalogus Plantarum circa Cantabrigian! 

 nascentium,' 1 vol. 8vo, which he says took him ten years to compile. 



During his residence at the university he travelled over the greater 

 part of England, Wales, and Scotland, in the pursuit of botanical and 

 zoological information, and was generally accompanied in these 

 excursions by his friend and pupil Mr. Willughby. At the Restoration 

 he took orders, but never held any church preferment, nor performed 

 regular parochial duty ; and two years afterwards he was obliged to 

 resign his fellowship in consequence of the passing of the Act of 

 Uniformity, to which he could not conscientiously subscribe. After 

 leaving the university he resided chiefly with Mr. Willughby at 

 Middleton Hall in Warwickshire, and devoted the remainder of his 

 life solely to the pursuit of natural histoiy. In 1663 he embarked for 

 the Continent with Mr. Willughby, where they remained for three 

 years travelling through the Low Countries, Germany, Italy, Switz-r- 

 land, and France ; and collecting information respecting the animals 

 and plants which inhabit these different countries. Willughby attended 

 chiefly to zoology, and Ray to botany. An account of this tour was 

 published by Ray in 1673 in 1 vol. 8vo. in 1667 he was elected a 

 Fellow of the Royal Society, to the ' Transactions ' of which learned 

 body he contributed some valuable papers. In 1672 he had the mis- 

 fortune to lose his friend Mr. Willughby, who died at the age of 

 thirty-seven, leaving him guardian to his two sons (the younger of 

 whom was afterwards created Lord Middleton), and a legacy of QQL 

 per annum. After superintending the education of Mr. Willughby'a 

 children for some time at Middleton Hall, he removed to Sutton 

 Coldfield in Warwickshire, and then to Falkbourn Hall, Essex ; and 

 lastly he settled in 1679 at Black-Notley, his native place, where he 

 remained till his death, which took place on January 17, 1704-5, at the 

 age of seventy -seven. 



Ray left many works, among which the botanical and zoological 

 hold such a conspicuous place in the history and literature of those 



