737 



KNIGHTON, HENRY. 



KNOX, JOHN. 



738 





valuable for the dessert, and so hardy as not to require the warmth 

 and shelter of walls, and consequently capable of being cultivated by 

 every farmer and cottager in the country. His seedling plums, straw- 

 berries, nectarines, and potatoes are also of great value, and an 

 important addition to the luxuries and necessaries of life. 



The great object of this distinguished man seems to have been in 

 all cases utility. It was chiefly to questions which he thought likely 

 to lead to important practical results that his attention was directed ; 

 and the numerous papers communicated by him to the ' Transactions' 

 of the Horticultural Society, in the chair of which he succeeded his 

 friend Sir Joseph Banks, have all this distinguishing feature. No one 

 who has traced the progress of horticultural skill for the last half 

 century, can be ignorant that it is very largely, if not mainly due to 

 the writings and practice of Mr. Knight : he was probably the best 

 practical gardener of his day. It is however not a little remarkable 

 that with so very extensive a knowledge of the facts of vegetable 

 physiology, he should have been so unfortunate as he certainly 

 was in many of his explanations of them. This arose no doubt from 

 his unacquaintance with vegetable anatomy, and consequently with 

 the minute means by which Nature brings about her results in 

 organised matter. Mr. Knight was also a close observer of the habits 

 of animals, and one of his last communications to the Royal Society 

 was on the subject of animal instinct. He died in London on the 

 llth of May 1838, in the eightieth year of his age. 



KNIGHTON, HENRY, an English historian of the close of the 

 14th and beginning of the 15th century, was a canon-regular of 

 Leicester Abbey. The time neither of his birth nor death is known. 

 His ' Compilatio de Eventibus Anglise, a tempore Regis Edgari usque 

 mortem Regis Ricardi Secundi,' was published by Twysden in the 

 'Decem Scriptores,' fol., London, 1652, cols. 2311-2741. (Selden's 

 notice of him, prefixed to the Decem Serif toret, pp. 46, 47; Tanner, 

 Bibl. Brit. H:b,p.458.) 



KNOLLER, MARTIN VON, a distinguished German painter of the 

 18th century, was bom in the village of Steinach, in the Tyrol, in 1725. 

 His father appears to have been a poor painter of some sort, and he 

 intended his son to follow his own pursuit. He was however in such 

 circumstances as to make it necessary for his eon to perform the menial 

 work of the house, which Martin appears to have found particularly 

 distasteful. The boy accordingly ran away from his home, and found 

 shelter in the house of Hofkammerrath von Hornrayr at Innsbruck, 

 who, when he had heard the boy's story, let his father know of his safety, 

 and placed him with a painter of the name of Pogel, who thus became 

 Kuoller's first master, though he can have had but the slightest influ- 

 ence upon him, if any at alL Martin's father however required his 

 son's services in every way, and he wag forced to return home, where 

 he divided his time between the pursuit of his art, in assisting his 

 father, and in the performance of menial domestic offices. Such was 

 the state of affairs when circumstances brought the painter Paul 

 Troger, on his return to Vienna, to the village of Steinach, where he 

 saw and admired some of the extraordinary productions of Knoller, 

 then twenty years of age. Troger perceived the lad's ability, and 

 offered to take him with him to Vienna. Young Knoller went with 

 his patron, and in eight years from that time he had not a superior of 

 his own age in the Austrian dominions. Already, in the years 1748-50, 

 he assisted Troger in the frescoes of the cathedral church of Brixen ; 

 and in 1753 he obtained the great prize of the Austrian Academy for 

 historical painting. In 1753 Knoller returned to the Tyrol, and in 

 the following year painted in fresco the church of Anrass so much in 

 the manner of Troger that it might pass for the work of that master. 

 Trover, though correct, was cramped and formal in design and sharp 

 in his outlines. In 1755 Knoller visited Rome, and greatly improved 

 hid style daring the three years he spent in that city. From Rome he 

 was invited to Naples by Count Finuian, the Austrian ambassador at 

 Naples, who employed him much in that city, and in the decoration 

 of his palace at Milan. Knoller visited Rome several times subse- 

 quently, and contracted a close friendship with Winckelmann and 

 with Mengs. In 1764 he finished one of his principal works, the 

 frescoes of the church of Volders near Hall, in the Tyrol, consisting of 

 passages from the life of San Carlo Borromeo. In 1765 he returned 

 to Milan to bis former patron, Count Firmian, whose esteem and 

 patronage induced Knoller to make Milan his head-quarters ; and he 

 there married in 1767 the daughter of a merchant, by whom he had 

 nine children. 



Knoller painted many works in Milan in oil and in fresco, the best 

 of which is a ceiling in the palace of the Prince Belgioioso, representing 

 the apotheosU of one of his ancestors. The palace of the Count Firmian 

 was rich in Knoller's works. His principal German works are tho 

 frescoes of the convent-church of Ettal in the Bavarian Alps; and the 

 even cupolas of the church of Neresheim in Wurtemberg, painted in 

 1770-75, for which he received 22,000 florins. He painted a large 

 fresco, 110 by 33 feet, in the town-hall at Munich, representing the 

 Ascension of the Virgin : and there are altar-pieces by him in several 

 churches in the south of Bavaria. He was much engaged also at 

 Vienna, but chiefly in portrait-painting : he was there ennobled, with 

 the title of ' VOD,' by Maria Theresa. There are many of his works in 

 the Tyrol, at Innsbruck, Botzen, and other places. The church of his 

 Dative place, Steinach, possesses three altar-pieces by Knoller. He 

 died in 1804. 



BIOO. HIT. VOL. Ill 



Knoller was gay in colouring, and correct and vigorous in design, 

 and his works are chiefly characterised for their physical qualities 

 dramatic and 'effective composition, strong expression, and vigorous 

 and uncommon attitudes. His sphere was almost exclusively the 

 practical part of art; the true historical and sestbetieal he hardly 

 approached, but this might be said of many more eminent painters. 

 A life of Knoller was published in the ' Beitritge zur Geschichte und 

 Statistik von Tyrol,' for 1831. 



* KNOWLES, JAMES SHERIDAN, dramatist, was born in 1784 

 at Cork in Ireland, where his father, James Knowles, was a teacher of 

 elocution. In 1792 James Knowles removed with his family to 

 London. Sheridan Knowles's first attempt to construct a play was 

 made at the age of twelve years for a company of boys. At fourteen 

 he wrote an opera called ' The Chevalier de Grillon ' and ' The Welsh 

 Harper,' a ballad. These were followed by a tragedy entitled ' The 

 Spanish Story,' and by ' Hersilia,' a drama. None of these dramatic 

 works have been preserved. About this time he was introduced to 

 Hazlitt, who treated him with much kindness, assisted him in his 

 dramatic studies, and became, as Knowles expresses it, his ' mental 

 father.' About 1798 Sheridan Knowles removed to Dublin, where he 

 resided with some relatives, and having resolved to make trial of the 

 stage as a profession, came out at the Crow-Street Theatre, but was 

 not favourably received. He afterwards joined a theatrical company 

 at W'aterford, in which he became an actor and singer. In the winter 

 of 1809 Edmund Kean became an actor in this company, and Knowles 

 wrote a play in blank verse called ' Leo, or the Gipsey,' in which Kean 

 played the principal character with great success. This play has not 

 been preserved, but Barry Cornwall, in his ' Life of Edmund Kean,' 

 has given extracts from it. While at Waterford, Sheridan Knowles 

 published by subscription a small volume of poetical ' Fugitive Pieces.' 

 He afterwards removed to Belfast, where he became a teacher of 

 elocution, and produced with success at the Belfast Theatre a play 

 called ' Brian Boroihme.' This was followed by his tragedy of ' Caiua 

 Gracchus,' which was performed February 13th 1815 at the same 

 theatre with very great success. His next tragedy, ' Virginius,' was 

 brought out at the Glasgow Theatre, where it was played fifteen nights. 

 It was performed in London at Covent Garden Theatre in 1820, and 

 established bis reputation as a dramatic writer. ' Caius Gracchus ' was 

 performed at Drury Lane Theatre in 1824, and 'William Tell* at the 

 same theatre in 1825. In these three tragedies Macready acted 

 Virginius, Caius Gracchus, and William Tell. ' The Beggar's Daughter 

 of Bethnal Green' (1828) was altered and brought out at the Victoria 

 Theatre in 1834, Sheridan Knowlea himself playing Lord Wilford. 

 'Alfred the Great" was performed at Drury Lane in 1831, and 'The 

 Hunchback* at Covent Garden in 1832, the author taking the character 

 of Master Walter and Miss Fanny Kemble Julia. ' The Wife, a Tale 

 of Mantua,' was performed at Coveut Garden in 1833, with Knowles 

 himself as Julian St.- Pierre. In 1834 he revisited his native city of 

 Cork, and in 1835 paid a visit to the United States of America, where 

 he was received, as well as in Ireland, with flattering demonstrations of 

 respect. In 1836 'The Daughter' was performed at Drury Lane, and 

 in 1837 ' The Love-Chase ' at the Haymarket. Afterwards cauie out 

 'Woman's Wit,' Covent Garden, 1838; 'The Maid of Mariendorpt,' 

 Haymarket, 1838; ' Love,' Covent Garden, 1839; 'John of Procida,' 

 Covent Garden, 1840; 'Old Maida,' Covent Garden, 1841; 'The Rose 

 of Arragon," Haymarket, 1842; and 'The Secretary,' 1843. In 1847 

 he published 'Fortescue,' 3 vols. 8vo., and 'George Lovell,' 3 vols. 

 12mo, two novels, which did not add to his reputation. In 1849 the 

 government rewarded his services to literature by a pension of 2001. 

 a year. He has since published ' The Rock of Rome, or the Arch- 

 Heresy,' and ' The Idol demolished by its Own Priest," two works of 

 controversial divinity. He has also become a Baptist minister, and 

 several of his sermons have been printed. His ' Dramatic Works' 

 have been collected and published in 3 vols. small 8vo. 



KNOX, JOHN, the son of obscure parents, was born in 1505 : 

 there is some doubt respecting his birthplace, which was probably the 

 village of Gifford in East Lothian, although it has been asserted that 

 he was born at Haddington. His education was more liberal than was 

 then common. In his youth he was put tb the grammar-school at 

 Haddington, and about 1524 removed to the University of St. Andrews, 

 where the learning principally taught was the philosophy of Aristotle, 

 scholastic theology, civil and canon law, and the Latin language; 

 Greek and Hebrew were at that time little understood in Scotland, 

 and Knox did not acquire the knowledge of them until somewhat 

 later in hia life. " Alter he was created Master of Arts he taught 

 philosophy, most probably as an assistant or private lecturer in the 

 university, and his class became celebrated." " He was ordained a 

 priest before he reached the age fixed by the canons of the church, 

 which must have taken place previous to the year 1530, at which 

 time he had attained his 25th year, the canonical age for receiving 

 ordination." (M'Crie.) His first instruction in theology was received 

 from John Major, the professor of theology in the university, but the 

 opinions founded upon it were not long retained; the writings of 

 Jerome and Augustine attracted his attention, and the examination 

 of them led to a complete revolution in his sentiments. It was about 

 the year 1535 that his secession from Roman Catholic doctrines and 

 discipline commenced, but he did not declare himself a Protestant 

 until 1542. 



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