GROTESQUE 



Grotesque. Ancient form of 

 decorative painting or sculpture, 

 in which nature was distorted, 



Grotesque creature worked into the 



architectural ornament of Senlis 



Cathedral, France 



By courtesy of Macmillan & Co. 



parodied, or exaggerated. Thus, in 

 one variety, human and animal 

 forms were combined in fantastic 

 fashion and interwoven with flowers 

 and foliage, partly to tone down 

 what might otherwise have been 

 merely repulsive. The idea did not 

 necessarily imply ugliness, but 

 rather something bizarre, with a 

 touch of the absurd and incon- 

 gruous, in which sense the Romans 

 often introduced it into the decora- 

 tions of their buildings. The word 

 is French, from Ital. grottesca, 

 curious painted work found in 

 grottos. See Dance of Death. 



Groth, KLAUS (1819-99). Ger- 

 man poet. Born at Heide, Holstein, 

 April 24, 1819, he was the first 

 writer of importance to use Low 

 German as a literary medium. He 

 achieved fame with Quickborn, 

 1852, poems of Dithmarschen life. 

 In 1858 he was appointed lecturer 

 in German at Kiel University, and 

 professor, 1866. He died at Kiel, 

 June 2, 1899. 



Grotius, HUGO (1583-1645). 

 Dutch jurist, known in Holland as 

 Huig van Groot. Born at Delft, 

 April 10, 1583, 

 his father was 

 a lawyer. He 

 showed extra- 

 ordinary i n - 

 tellectual abili- 

 ties and as a 

 boy acquired 

 a wide know- 

 ledge of the 

 classics. Hav- 

 ing studied at 

 Leiden and in 

 France, he be- 



AJlerM.J.MireveU came ft prac , 



tising lawyer, but found time to 

 write Latin verses and dramas. 



In 1603 he was appointed his- 

 toriographer of the United Pro- 

 vinces ; other public positions were 

 also given to him ; but his share in 

 the politics of the time led to his 

 fall. Of tolerant spirit, he wished 

 to mitigate the (fierce hostility 

 between the religious parties in 



Holland, but in this he failed. Re- 

 garding the Remonstrants (q.v.) as 

 less fanatical than their opponents, 

 he joined and assisted Barne veldt in 

 stating their case. In July, 1618, 

 however, Maurice of Orange made 

 a sudden move against Barneveldt 

 and his party, and Grotius, in 1619, 

 was sentenced to imprisonment for 

 life. He escaped from Loevenstein 

 in 1620, owing to the wit and de- 

 votion of his wife ; reaching Paris, 

 he lived for some time in poverty 

 in France. After a time his fortunes 

 mended, and having entered the 

 Swedish service in 1634 he was 

 made ambassador to France. He 

 died at Rostock, Aug. 28, 1645. 



In exile Grotius wrote his monu- 

 mental work, De jure belli et pacis, 

 published in 1625, in Paris. An 

 earlier work, unpublished until the 

 19th century, was written by him 

 on this subject in 1604. He wrote 

 other works of the kind, bringing 

 to his task an almost unrivalled 

 fund of learning. He also wrote 

 a good deal on theological ques- 

 tions, and his Annals of the Ne- 

 therlands is the best contempor- 

 ary account of tho 

 revolt against 

 Spain. 



His fame rests, 

 however, upon his 

 De jure, the foun- 

 dation of modern 

 international law. 

 It deals not only 

 with peace and 

 war, as the title 

 suggests, but with 

 the powers and 

 duties of states. 

 The main idea 

 which we owe to 

 him is that there 

 is a foundation in 

 morality for states 

 and a test in mor- 

 ality for their activities, which, 

 therefore, do not rest, as earlier 

 writers taught, on the narrower basis 

 of ecclesiastical or Biblical precepts. 

 Grotius visited England and was 

 intimate with the greatest scholars 

 of his day, Casaubon and his 

 master, Scaliger, among them. 

 More than 3,000 of his letters have 

 been published. See International 

 Law; consult De Jure Belli, Eng. 

 trans. W. Whewell, 1853; Opinions 

 of Grotius, D. P. de Bruyn, 1894. 



Grotius Society. Learned 

 society founded in 1915. Its object 

 is to discuss the problems of inter- 

 national law arising out of the Great 

 War. Unlike the Institute of In- 

 ternational Law, its membership 

 is confined to British subjects, al- 

 though foreign lawyers are admitted 

 as honorary and corresponding 

 members. It was founded to take 

 the place of the International Law 



GROTTO 



Association, the activities of which 

 were suspended by the war. Lord 

 Reay was its first president. 



Grottaferrata. Village of Italy, 

 in the prov. of Rome. It is 13 m. 

 S.E. of Rome, with which it is con- 

 nected by electric rly. A Greek 

 monastery was founded here by 

 Nilus in 1004. The llth century 

 church, rebuilt in 1754 and re- 

 stored in 1902, has frescoes by 

 Domenichino. The abbot's palace 

 contains local antiquities and art 

 treasures. Wine is produced, and 

 fairs are held on March 25 and 

 Sept. 8. Pop. 1,050. 



Grottaglie. Town of Italy, in 

 the prov. of Lecce. It is 13 m. 

 E.N.E. of Taranto and 32 m. by 

 rly. S.W. of Brindisi. Local indus- 

 tries include the manufacture of 

 pottery, chalk quarrying, cotton 

 and silk weaving, and bee-keeping. 

 Wine and oil are produced, and 

 there is trade in grain and fruit. 

 Pop. 11,851. 



Grotto (Fr. grotte ; Lat. crypia). 

 Cave or recess in the earth, parti- 

 cularly one made or enlarged arti- 

 ficially for use as a shrine or retreat. 



Grotto at Morgat, Brittany ; a natural cavern in the 

 rocks only approachable from the sea 



On July 25, the festival of S. 

 James the Great, it was formerly 

 the custom of the faithful to fasten 

 a shell in hat or coat and make 

 pilgrimage to the shrine at Com- 

 postella to which, according to tra- 

 dition, his body was translated. 

 Shell grottos with a figure of the 

 saint were set up by the wayside, 

 where those too poor to make pil- 

 grimage could make their offerings 

 to commemorate the day. Children 

 in many countries preserve the cus- 

 tom, though not its purpose, by 

 erecting little decorative shrines 

 of oyster shells and soliciting 

 money with the cry, Remember the 

 grotto. One of many notable grot- 

 tos is the Dog's grotto, Grotta del 

 Cane, by the lake of Agnano, near 

 Naples. Over the floor of this car- 

 bonic acid gas rises to a height of 

 some 18 ins., stupefying dogs taken 

 into the grotto. See Capri. 



