HARIOT HARMATTAN. 



635 



man who is allowed to appear without a veil ; none 

 oi the others, even when sick, are permitted to lay 

 aside the veil, in the presence of any one except the 

 sultan. When visited by the physician, their bed 

 is covered with a thick counterpane, and the pulse 

 felt through gauze. The life of the ladies of the 

 imperial harem is spent in bathing, dressing, walking 

 in the gardens, witnessing the voluptuous dances 

 performed by their slaves, &c. The women of other 

 Turks enjoy the society of their friends at the baths 

 or each other's houses, appear in public accompanied 

 by slaves and eunuchs, and enjoy a degree of liberty 

 \vliich increases as they descend in rank. But those 

 of the sultan have none of these privileges. When 

 transferred to the summer residences on the Bos- 

 phorus, they are removed at break of day, pass from 

 the garden to the boats between two screens, while 

 the eunuchs, for a considerable distance round, warn 

 every one off, on pain of death. Each boat has a 

 cabin covered with cloth, and the eunuchs keep the 

 boatmen or bostandjis at a distance. It is, of course, 

 only the richer Moslems who can maintain harems ; 

 the poorer classes have generally but one wife. 



HARIOT, or HERIOT, in law ; a due belonging 

 to a lord at the death of his tenant, consisting of the 

 best beast, either horse, ox, or cow, which he had at 

 the time of his death ; and, in some manors, the 

 best goods, piece of plate, &c., are called harlots. 



HARLEIAN LIBRARY. See Harley. 



HARLEM. See Haarlem. 



HARLEQUIN (arlecchino, Italian). It is not in 

 our power to determine the etymology of the name 

 of this dramatic personage. Menage derives it from 

 a comedian, who was so called because he frequent- 

 ed the house of M. de Harlay, in the reign of Henry 

 III. of France. Batteux derives it from the satirical 

 drama of the Greeks. Riccobini conjectures (His- 

 tory of the Italian Theatre) that the dress of the har- 

 lequins is no other than the centunculus of the old 

 Roman mimi, who had their heads shaved, and were 

 called planipedes (barefooted), To the reasons ad- 

 duced by Riccobini, we may add the ridiculous sword 

 of the ancient mimi, which, with the harlequin, has 

 been converted into a stick. Harlequins and buf- 

 foons are also called zanni, by the best Tuscan writ- 

 ers, probably from the Latin sannio, of which Cicero 

 (De Oratore, ii. 61) gives a description applying so 

 strongly to the harlequin, that it places his deriva- 

 tion from the planipedes almost beyond a doubt. The 

 character of the ancient harlequin was a mixture of 

 extravagant buffoonery with great corporeal agility, 

 so tliat his body seemed almost constantly in the air. 

 He was impudent, droll, satirical, and low, and often 

 indecent in his expressions. But, in the middle of 

 the sixteenth century, his character was essentially 

 changed. The modern harlequin laid aside the pecu- 

 liarities of his predecessor. He became a simple, 

 ignorant servant, who tries very hard to be witty, 

 even at the expense of being malicious. He is a 

 parasite, cowardly, yet faithful and active, but easily 

 induced, by fear or interest, to commit all sorts of 

 tricks and knaveries. He is a chameleon, who assumes 

 all colours, and can be made, in the hands of a skil- 

 riil actor, the principal character on the stage. He 

 oiust excel in extempore sallies. The modern har- 

 lequin plays many droll tricks, which have been 

 handed down, from generation to generation, for cen- 

 turies This account applies more particularly to the 

 Italian harlequin. Italy, in fact, particularly in the 

 commedia dell'arte, is his natural scene of action. 

 He can only be properly appreciated when seen in 

 that department of the drama, and distinct from all 

 other similar personages. He has found an able ad- 

 vocate in Moser (Harlequin, or Defence of the Gro- 

 tesque-Comic). (See Mask.) The gallant, obsequious 



French harlequin is an entirely national mask. In 

 the Vaudeville theatre, he is silent, with a black half 

 mask, and reminds one, throughout the representa- 

 tion, of the grace and agility of the cat. (See Carlin.) 

 In Britain, he became a lover and a magician ; and, 

 in exchange for the gift of language, of which he 

 was there deprived, he was invested with the wonder- 

 working wand, from the possession of which, Mr 

 Douce pronounces him to be the " illegitimate suc- 

 cessor of the old Vice" (On Shakspeare, i. 458). 

 (See Punchinello.) A standing grotesque character, 

 on the German stage, was called Hanswurst (Jack- 

 Pudding), and answered to the Dutch Pickled-Her- 

 ring, the French Jean-Potage, the Italian (more 

 properly Neapolitan) Maccaroni, and the English 

 Jack-Pudding. This family was a race of gourmands, 

 clowns, coarse and rude in their wit. 



HARLEY, ROBERT; earl of Oxford, and earl Mor- 

 timer, a distinguished minister of state, in the reign 

 of queen Anne. He was born in London, in 1661, 

 and was the son of sir Edward Harley, a Hereford- 

 shire gentleman, who had been an active partisan of 

 the parliament during the civil war. The subject of 

 this article, though of a Presbyterian family, adopted 

 tory principles in politics, and joined the high church 

 party. In the reign of William III., he acted with 

 the whigs ; but, after the accession of Anne, he, as 

 well as his more celebrated colleague, St John, after- 

 wards lord Bolingbroke, deserted the party with 

 which they had acted, and became leaders of the 

 tories. Harley was chosen speaker of the house of 

 commons in 1702, and afterwards was secretary of 

 state. He resigned his post in 1708. The cabals of 

 their political opponents having effected the removal 

 of the duke of Maryborough and his friends from 

 office, Harley was nominated a commissioner of the 

 treasury and chancellor of the exchequer, in 1710. 

 In 1711, Harley was raised to the peerage, and con- 

 stituted lord high treasurer. After the peace of 

 Utrecht, in 1713, the tory statesmen, having no longer 

 any apprehensions of danger from abroad, began to 

 quarrel among themselves ; and the two chiefs, Ox- 

 ford and Bolingbroke, especially, became personal 

 and political foes, actuated by different views and 

 sentiments. The former resigned the treasurership 

 just before the death of the queen in 1714. Whatever 

 projects may have been formed by others of the party, 

 there seems to be no ground for believing that lord 

 Oxford had engaged in any measures to interrupt the 

 Protestant succession. Early in the reign of George 

 I., he was, however, impeached of high treason by 

 the house of commons, and was committed to the 

 Tower. He remained in confinement till June, 1717, 

 when, at his own petition, he was brought before the 

 house of peers, and, after a public trial, acquitted of 

 the crimes laid to his charge. The rest of his life 

 was spent in adding to his literary stores, in the col- 

 lection of which he expended a considerable portion 

 of the wealth which his public employments had 

 enabled him to accumulate. He died May 21, 1724. 

 His patronage was extended to Swift, Pope, and 

 other literary men. Lord Oxford published an Essay 

 on Public Credit ; an Essay upon Loans ; and a Vin. 

 dication of the Rights of the Commons of England. 

 He was succeeded in his titles by hie son Edward, 

 who augmented the collection of printed books and 

 manuscripts formed by his father. On the death of 

 the second earl of Oxford, in 1741, the library of 

 printed books was sold to Osborne, a bookseller, who 

 published a catalogue of them, compiled by William 

 Oldys and Samuel Johnson (4 vols., 8vo, 1743). The 

 MSS. are preserved in the British museum, where 

 they form the Bibliotheca Harleiana. 



HARMATTAN ; a wind which blows periodically 

 from the interior parts of Africa, towards the Atlan- 



