601 



JANSSEN, CORNELIUS. 



JAPIX, GYSBEIiT. 



603 



which was disfiguring the literature and demoralising the stage of his 

 country, Jauin was only twenty-five yeara old ; yet even then he was 

 recognised as the leader of the defenders of the Classic school, and 

 won from llabbe the name of Prince of Critics. In 1830 he published 

 a romance, called ' La Confession ;' and in 1331 'Barnave.' But Janin, 

 though a severe critic of others, is essentially an ' improvisators ' 

 himself. A collection of short tales, contributed by him to different 

 periodicals, was published in 1832 under the title of ' Contes Fantas- 

 tiques;' and a second series followed iu 1833, called ' Contes Nou- 

 veaux,' the interest of which was much increased by an interesting 

 autobiography, of considerable length, affixed to the work. 



It was likewise in 1833 that Jules Janin began to write those 

 dramatic notices and literary reviews for the ' Journal des De'bats,' 

 which, in spite of some levity in the manner, and too much expe- 

 dition in the work, have established his reputation as the most 

 sagacious and intuitive among the living critics of France, apart from 

 the domains of science and philosophy. He has held this position in 

 the ' DSbats,' without any interruption, for twenty-three years, having, 

 during that long period, produced nearly 1200 dramatic notices alone, 

 and introduced several aspirants among others Mademoiselle Rachel 

 to fame and fortune. Nor has he confined his writing to the feuille- 

 tons or foot articles : he has written a great number of biographies 

 and not a few ' leaders' for the ' Measager des Cbambres,' the ' Quoti- 

 dienne,' and the ' Journal des De'bats.' If he writes fast, he reads 

 slowly ; and his memory, which is very active, never appears in fault. 

 His friends and intimates consider him a man of erudition ; nor would 

 it be easy to accouut for the immense variety of subjects he has treated, 

 and treated successfully, without in some degree sharing in that opinion. 

 No contemporary French author has been more frequently employed 

 by French publishers to edit the republicatious of the old masters, to 

 all of which Janin lias affixed prefuc-.s, biographies, and essays on the 

 merits of the eminent authors reissued. In all these introductions, 

 his brilliant and vivacious pen continues to annoy the reader with its 

 wonted frivolity ; yet the information contained in them is often 

 interesting and valuable. Several might be named as of considerable 

 merit, but it will suffice to name that prefixed to the illustrated edition 

 of Le Sage, which is a piece of writing of very unusual ability. 

 Janin'g romance, ' Le Chemin de Traverse,' which has since become 

 popular in France, appeared in 1841 ; ' Un Hiver a Paris," in 1842 ; in 

 which year he also produced an illustrated serial, in fifty numbers, 

 called 'La Normandie Historique.' After this lie published ' Le 

 Prince Royal,' a tribute to the memory of the Duke of Orleans, who 

 was killed by falling from his carriage, July 13, 1842. His 'Clarisee 

 Marlowe,' an absurd abridgment of Richardson's novel, reduced to two 

 volumes, came out in Is JO ; ' La Religieuse de Toulouse,' was published 

 in 1850. 



Janin, who was one of the founder! of the ' Revue de Paris," contri- 

 buted to it his racy sketches of Mirabeau and Lord Byron, besides a 

 most interesting description of Saint Etienne, his native town. His 

 extremely clever sketches of ' la Qriaette,' ' le Gamin de Paris,' and 

 ' la Devote 1 ,' in ' Les FrancaU points par cux-moines,' have been much 

 admired. By some French writers Jauin has been called the successor 

 of Duviquet and Geoffrey, critics of great note during the two preceding 

 generations ; but we think he affords a more perfect idea of Diderot, 

 a* Marmontel has described him in his 'Memoirs.' He has the 

 same variety of subject ; the same singular facility and abundance, 

 affording irrefragable proof of wide reading, if not of deep study ; the 

 same retentive memory. Like him his levity often verges on puerility, 

 yet almost every sentence he writes suggests new thoughts to the reader. 

 Jules Janin has lectured in public at the Athene'e of Paris with an 

 eloquence which most people expected, but likewise with a seriousness 

 and fulness of matter which took hia audience by surprise. In his 

 lecture*, as in his criticisms, his style is remarkable for polish and 

 neatness. 



Betides the works already named, Janin produced ' Lei Fils da 

 Rajah,' in 1834 ; ' L'Enfance et la Jeunesse de Lysis,' in 1835 ; ' Un 

 Cceur pour deux Amours,' in 1837 ; ' Lea Catacombes,' 6 vols., in 1839; 

 'Tableaux Anecdotiques de la Literature Franchise depuis Frauyois I. ;' 

 'Voyage en Italie,' 1842; 'Biographic de Mademoiselle Mars,' 1843. 

 In 1851 he visited this country, and spent the month of Kay in 

 London to study the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park; but his letters 

 on this subject were not equal to hia general reputation. His dramatic 

 feuilleton in the ' Debate ' usually appears every Monday. 



JANSSEN, CORNELIUS, was born at Amsterdam, and lived 

 several years in England. He was employed by King Jamea I., and 

 painted several fine portraits of that sovereign and of his children, as 

 well a* of the principal nobility. His colouring is very clear and 

 natural; the carnations are remarkably soft ; and except in freedom 

 of hand and in grace he was esteemed equal to Vandyck, and in 

 finishing superior to him. He generally painted on panel, and his 

 draperies are commonly black, which he probably chose because that 

 colour gives greater brightness to the flesh-tints. His pictures still 

 retain their original lustre, which is supposed to be in consequence of 

 his having used ultramarine in his black colours, as well as iu the 

 carnations. He left England soon after the arrival of Vandyck, about 

 the beginning of the civil wars, and returned tff his own country, where 

 he died in 1665. 



JANSSENS, ABRAHAM, born at Antwerp in 1569, was a com- 



petitor of Rubens, and was considered to be equal to him in many of 

 the most important parts of the art. In colouring he was regarded as 

 inferior to Rubens alone. His compositions are spirited, his drawing 

 correct, his pencil decided, and his draperies natural and free from 

 stiffness. He painted subjects illuminated by torchlight, and delighted 

 in the contrast of the most brilliant light with the deepest shade. Most 

 of the Flemish churches possess fiue pictures by this master. 



JANSSENS, VICTOR HONORIUS, bora at Brussels iu 1664, after 

 having been for four years painter to the Duke of Holsteiu, was sent 

 by his highness at his own request t > Italy, where he diligently studied 

 Raffaelle and the antique, and sketched the beautiful scenery iu the 

 environs of Rome. His paintiugs were soon so highly esteemed that 

 he was employed by the chief nobility of Rome. He composed his- 

 torical subjects both on a large and small scale, but, the latter being 

 most sought after, ho iu general painted iu that size. He took Albano 

 for his model, and was superior in his own style to all his contempo- 

 raries. Ou his return to Brussels his pictures were as much admired 

 there as they had been iu Italy ; but having a large family to support, 

 he found it most profitable to paint large pictures, and most of the 

 palaces and churches of his own country are adorned with his compo- 

 sitions. His invention was fruitful, and his execution rapid, as appears 

 from the vast number of his works. He died iu 1739. 



JAPIX (or JAPICX, or JAPIKS), GYSBERT, a Frisian poet, of 

 whom we are told by Dr. J. H. Halbertsma, the most eminent living 

 Frisian author, that his productions are masterpieces of artless nature, 

 with wonderful power of expression, and that "foi' any one who has a 

 feeling for true poetry, it is worth the trouble to learn Frisian to 

 enjoy the beauties of Gyabert Japix." He was born at Bolsward, a 

 town of Frieslaud, in 1603, and was the sou of a joiner named Jacob 

 Gysberts, from whom he took his name, Japix being the Frisian for 

 Jacob's, or son of Jacob. The family name was Holckama, but it does 

 not appear to have been assumed otherwise than iu official documents 

 by either father or son. Little is known of the biography of Gysbert 

 till 1637, when he became schoolmaster at Bolsward, and also clerk to 

 a congregation there, and these offices he retained to the end of his 

 life. He was married, and had six children, five of whom he lost in 

 succession by death; and the remaining one, Salves, whom he brought 

 up as a surgeon, turned out so dissipated and extravagant that his father 

 was ruined by having to pay his debts. The son died in 1666 of the 

 plague, which ravaged Friesland a year after the great plague of 

 London, and in a few days after his father and mother were carried off 

 by the same epidemic. 



Japix was noted during his life for his warm affection for his native 

 tongue, the Frisian, which at that time appeared likely to disappear in 

 a few generations before the advance of Dutch. A story is told by the 

 biographers of Francis Junius the younger, the great philologist, that 

 Juuius, ou hearing iu the course of his studies iu Anglo-Saxon that a 

 language closely akin to it was still spoken in a corner of Holland, 

 left England in search of it, and took up his residence for two or three 

 years in Bolsward to make himself master -of the idiom. The Dutch 

 investigator J. W. de Crane has disproved some of the particulars of 

 this story ; but it is well established that Junius made visits to 

 Bolsward to study the Frisian language, and that he was acquainted 

 with Japix. Among the manuscripts which Junius bequeathed to 

 the Bodleian Library, are copies of the principal poems of Japix, 

 including two or three pieces which were unpublished till discovered 

 by Halbertsma, and included in his ' Letterkundige Naoogst.' The 

 first edition of Gysbert's poems was issued after his death, in 1668, 

 under the title of ' Friesche Rymlerye,' by his friend Haringhouck, a 

 bookseller of Bolsward ; a second edition, with considerable additions 

 iu prose, edited by Gabbema, appeared in 1681. For about a century 

 it remained the only printed book in the modern Frisian language. 

 When Dr. Johnson, in 1 763, requested Boswell, who was then studying 

 at Utrecht, to procure for him a specimen of Frisian, Boswell bought 

 a Japix, and observed, in a letter on the subject, " It is the only book 

 they have ; it is amazing that they have no translation of the Bible, 

 no treatises of devotion, nor even any of the ballads and story-books 

 which are so agreeable to country-people." The literature of Friesland 

 has since considerably increased ; but it is still one of the very few 

 European languages which have no translation of any portion of the 

 Scriptures, though it possesses one of the ' Merchant of Venice ' and 

 'Julius Cesar.' Japix is still, we believe, the only author iu the 

 language who has reached a second edition. A third edition, the 

 most valuable and complete of all, was published by Epkema in 1821, 

 and was followed in 1824 by a Dictionary, compiled by the editor, of 

 the words used by Japix, many of which are now obsolete. A fourth, 

 issued at Franeker in 1855, is accommodated by the editor (Dykstra) 

 to the new system of Frisian orthography proposed by Halbertsma, 

 The poems are divided into three parts, the first and second consisting 

 of miscellaneous songs and poems, and the third of translations of 

 some of the Psalms of David. The prosa works are chiefly trans- 

 lations from the French, fragments relating to the Frisian language, 

 and familiar letters. An animated translation of several of the poems 

 into English was given by Sir John Bowring in 1829, iu an article in 

 the ' Foreign Quarterly Review." The enthusiasm for the works of 

 Japix has been wonderfully revived among the Frisians of this gene- 

 ration. In 1823 a bust of him was erected in St. Martin's church at 

 Bolsward by public subscription, and an account of the proceedings 



