STANISLAUS STAPSS. 



377 



Lemberg, in 1677. His family name was Leczin- 

 ski, or Lesczinski, ahd his father held the impor- 

 tant post of grand treasurer to the crown. He very 

 early displayed indications of an amiable and estim- 

 able character, and at the age of twenty-two was in- 

 trusted with an embassy to the Ottoman court. In 

 1704, being then palatine of Posnania, and general of 

 Great Poland, he was deputed by the assembly of the 

 states at Warsaw to wait upon Charles XII. of 

 Sweden, who had invaded the kingdom, with a 

 view of dethroning Augustus of Saxony. (See Au- 

 gustus II.) In a conference with the Swedish 

 monarch, he so rapidly acquired his esteem, that 

 Charles immediately resolved to raise him to the 

 throne of Poland, which he effected at an election 

 held, in the presence of the Swedish general, on the 

 27th of July, 1704, Stanislaus being then in his 

 twenty-seventh year. He was, however, soon after 

 driven from Warsaw by his rival Augustus; but 

 another change brought him back to that capital, 

 where he was crowned, with his wife, in October, 

 1705 ; and the next year Augustus was compelled 

 solemnly to abdicate. (See Charles XII.) The fatal 

 defeat of his patron Charles XII., at Pultowa, in 

 1709, again obliged him to retreat into Sweden, 

 where he endeavoured to join Charles XII., at 

 Bender, in disguise ; but, being detected, he was 

 held captive in that town until 1714. Being then 

 suffered to depart, he repaired to Deux-Ponts, 

 where he was joined by his family, and remained 

 until the death of Charles XII., in 1719, when the 

 court of France afforded him a retreat at Weissem- 

 burg, in Alsace. He remained in obscurity until 

 1725, when his daughter, the princess Mary, was 

 unexpectedly selected as a wife by Louis XV. king 

 of France. On the death of Augustus, in 1733, an 

 attempt was made by the French court to replace 

 Stanislaus on the throne of Poland; but, although 

 he had a party who supported him and proclaimed 

 him king, his competitor, the electoral prince of 

 Saxony, being aided by the emperors of Germany 

 and Russia, he was obliged to retire. (See Poland, 

 and Augustus III.) He endured this, like every 

 other reverse of fortune, with great resignation, and, 

 at the peace of 1736, formally abdicated his claim to 

 the kingdom of Poland, on condition of retaining 

 the title of king, and being put in possession for 

 life of the duchies of Lorraine and Bar. Thence 

 forward he lived as the sovereign of a small country, 

 which he rendered happy by the exercise of virtues 

 which acquired him the appellation of " Stanislaus 

 the Beneficent." He not only relieved his people 

 from excessive imposts, but, by strict economy, was 

 able to found many useful charitable establishments, 

 and to patronise the arts and sciences. He was 

 himself fond of literature, and wrote some treat- 

 ises on- philosophy, morals and politics, which were 

 published under the title of CEuvres du Philosophe 

 biefaisant (4 vols., 8vo., 1765). He died in 1766. 



STANISLAUS II., PONIATOWSKI, king of Po- 

 land. See Poniatowski, Stanislaus. 



STANITZA (village, place of encampment) ; a 

 word found in numerous Russian geographical names 

 belonging to the regions inhabited by the Cossacs. 



STANNARIES, COURT OF. See Courts. 



STANZA (Italian, a stand) ; a strophe or num- 

 ber of verses connected with each other, terminat- 

 ing with a full point or pause, and forming one of 

 the regular divisions of a poem. It was formerly 

 sometimes used to denote an entire lyric poem of 

 one strophe. Thus Dante speaks in his work De 

 vulgari Eloquentia (book ii. chap. 3 et scq.) of 



cantiones (canzoni) and of stantii {slanze). Stanzas 

 are said to have been first introduced from the 

 Italian into French poetry, about the year 1580, 

 and thence passed into English. The principal 

 Italian stanza the ottava rima originated in Sicily, 

 where poets made use of it even in the thirteenth 

 century ; thence it passed into Italy, and there re- 

 ceived, in the fourteenth century, from Boccaccio, 

 that regular form which it has ever since retained, 

 as the standing division of the Italian epic. Boc- 

 caccio first made use of it in his Theseide. Poli- 

 tian improved it further. Trissino, in the sixteenth 

 century, wrote a narrative poem in blank verse, but 

 had no imitators, The ottava rima, or stanza of 

 Boccaccio (as we may call it, in contradistinction 

 to the Sicilian, which forms a continued chain of 

 alternative rhymes, without the double rhyme in 

 the two last lines), consists of eight iambic verses 

 of eleven syllables each, with female rhymes, of 

 which the six first are alternate, but the two last 

 are successive, and thus give to the whole an agree- 

 able conclusion. These two last lines, however, 

 easily seduce the poet into attempts at pointed ex- 

 pression, unbecoming a serious epic, and from which 

 even Tasso is not always free. Boiardo, and par- 

 ticularly Ariosto and Tasso, are the great masters 

 of the ottava rima. Gothe, Schlegel, Tieck and 

 others have used it with great success in German, 

 with the change required by the genius of the Ger- 

 man language, viz. that they employ male and fe- 

 male rhymes in the first six lines, but the two last 

 always end with female rhymes. For the Spenser- 

 ian stanza, see Spenser. 



STANZE. See Raphael, and Vatican. 



STAPLE ; a public market, whither merchants 

 are obliged to carry their goods for sale. Various 

 derivations have been suggested; as, 1. staples, 

 found in the Ripuarian laws, and signifying a place 

 where justice is administered; 2. the German stape- 

 len, to put in a heap : 3. stabile emporium used in 

 the civil law style of former times, and signifying a 

 fixed post. Formerly the merchants of England 

 were obliged to carry their wool, cloth, lead, and 

 other like staple commodities, to particular places, 

 in order to utter the same by wholesale. Merchants 

 of the staple was the denomination of the most an- 

 cient commercial society of England, from their ex- 

 porting the staple wares of the kingdom. It is said 

 to have originated in 1248. In 1336, the staple of 

 wool was fixed in Brabant ; in 1341, at Bruges : 

 and, in 1348, at Calais. In 1353, it was removed 

 from Bruges to several English and Irish towns. 

 Calais, however, still remained a staple. In the 

 staple towns courts of law-merchant were established 

 for determining all mercantile disputes and for 

 punishing offenders. 



STAPSS, FREDERIC, born March 14, 1792, son 

 of a Protestant clergyman at Naumburg, in Thur- 

 ingia, undertook to assassinate the emperor Napo- 

 leon, because he supposed him to be the author of 

 the misfortunes of Germany. With this design he 

 went to Vienna, remained ten days, and on October 

 23, 1809, travelled to Schonbrunn, where Napoleon 

 was reviewing his forces. The emperor stood be- 

 tween Berthier and Rapp when the youth advanced, 

 and desired to speak with Napoleon. Rapp directed 

 him to wait till after the muster. But, being struck 

 with the look, the voice and the bearing of Stapss, 

 he ordered him to be imprisoned in the castle. 

 Here a large case-knife was found upon him, and 

 the portrait of a young female. Rapp, who spoke 

 German, asked him his name, and why he carried a 



