BYRON the wisest has reverted to what the judgment of the wisest was at the time: That nothing further need be sought than the natural incompatibility of a spoiled dandy and author of loose habits, violent temper, and pecuniary circumstances likely to produce perpetual irritation, and a spoiled heiress of exceptionally cold temperament, and of orthodox and even prim manners and notions. The blame was in all probability equally divided, but it was not equally apportioned; and Byron, after being a popular favourite for three years, was held up to such obloquy in newspapers and by society, that he left England and never returned. 597 a kind (for Byron, though a libertine, is never accused of treachery or cruelty in his libertinism) concern posterity but little. If, however, this side of his character has been more leniently judged, another side has been judged with increas ing unfriendliness, and the poet's pride and vanity of birth (displayed in a manner to which the term 'snobbishness' is almost applicable), his alternations of ostentatious prodigality and sharp business practice, his childish vanity of all kinds, have received perhaps not undue, but certainly severe treatment. For In regard to his literary genius, English critical He first went up the Rhine to Switzerland, where opinion has steadily sunk ever since his death, and he met the Shelleys, with whom he connected him- though some effort has recently been made to set self by friendship with the poet, and more question him on a higher position, the attempt has not as yet ably by a liaison with Jane or Claire Clairmont, received either critical or popular approval. Every daughter of the second Mrs Shelley's stepmother competent critic admits Byron's power. At his by her first husband. He went on in a leisurely best he could utter what he himself had actually manner to Venice, which he reached at the end of seen and felt with an energy not surpassed by any the year, and which was his headquarters for some writer of any period in any language. For passion two years. His life at this time and place has of a certain kind, and for picturesqueness of a been represented as one of wild debauchery, prin- certain kind, he is almost unequalled. But this cipally on the always untrustworthy evidence of merit of personal utterance involves almost of his own assertions and hints. It is certain, how-necessity two defects-complete failure when he ever, that at the end of 1818 he entered upon a endeavoured to portray anything besides his own comparatively regular existence by becoming the personal emotions and experiences, and not infreaccepted lover in Italian fashion of the Countess quent insincerity and theatricality when, in default Teresa Guiccioli. During 1819 and 1820 he was of actual emotion and experience, he endeavoured living for the most part in her society at Ravenna. to simulate such experience and emotion. In the summer of the latter year he removed to Pisa ; he was not a man of many-sided mind or even in 1822 he was present at Shelley's funeral, and feeling. The monotony of the Byronic hero-the engaged (an engagement which showed neither to man of dark imaginings, universal disillusion, and advantage) with Leigh Hunt in the Liberal. From general contempt of man-but especially of womanPisa a further move was made in 1822 to Genoa. It kind-is freely granted; yet the poet can write of was here, in 1823, that he received the proposals little or nothing else, and as soon as the type which enabled him to crown his life with a death ceases to be impressive it becomes ridiculous. A not unheroic. He had always been a nominal, second great objection to Byron is his extraordithough a very unclassified, Liberal, and had latterly nary weakness as regards all the formal merits of engaged in some Carbonari plots in Italy. He poetry. Hardly a long passage, certainly no long was now applied to through his friends Kinnaird poem, of his can be cited which, after brilliant and Hobhouse to join the movement for recovering images, forcible expressions, and melodious verse, the independence of Greece, and he set out for does not break down into the most commonplace Greece itself on the 14th July 1823. But many thought and phrase, the most inharmonious rhythm, weary months, spent chiefly in the Ionian Islands, even into sheer bellman's rhyme and kitchenmaid's passed before he could get into active work; nor grammar. Accordingly his most uniform strength was the delay in any way his fault. At last he is to be found in his satirical work, which of its landed at Missolonghi on the 5th January 1824; nature suffers less from these defects than serious laboured with more difficult, if less showy, heroism or romantic verse. Byron had no humour; but he than if he had been storming Turkish castles, had a most keen, abounding, and versatile wit of against bad weather, disunion among the Greeks, a somewhat Voltairian character, but richer and lack of material, and all tiresome checks; caught more poetical than Voltaire's in quality, so that Don rheumatic fever, and died on the 19th April. His Juan ranks far above the Pucelle. He attempted body was brought to England, and buried in the no serious prose; but his letters, though somewhat church of Hucknall-Torkard, near Newstead. His artificial, are of singular excellence; indeed they literary activity since he left England had been are perhaps of their kind the best in English. very great. The stimulus of his wife's desertion produced almost immediately two short poems, The Dream and Darkness, which were, perhaps, his poetical high-water mark. In the course of the seven years he completed Childe Harold, wrote a series of dramas or dramatic poems (Manfred, Cain, Marino Faliero, Sardanapalus, and others), which contain much of his most characteristic work; and produced, besides the wonderful bravura of Mazeppa, the cleverness of Beppo, and other things, the vast satiric medley of Don Juan. The character of Byron, his genius, and the history of his literary reputation, are all subjects of great interest. In his own day, and immediately afterwards, his 'morality,' in the limited sense in which that word is popularly used, was the principal subject of discussion, and was most harshly judged. Recently it has been admitted: (1) That his education and circumstances supply a large palliation for faults of this kind; (2) that his own habit of fanfaronade exaggerated his moral delinquencies; and (3) that all faults of such His poetical influence in his own country for a time swept all before it, but it gradually abated its force, and is now almost non-existent. Abroad, on the contrary, it has maintained itself at the full, if it has not actually increased, and the dictum attributed to Mazzini, that Byron made English literature European,' has received ever-increasing confirmation in a certain sense. This phenomenon, though curious at first sight, is susceptible of easy explanation. Few foreigners are in a position to seize the subtle formal defects, which, for all but the most uncritical English readers, mar every page of Byron's work. All are able to appreciate the strong points noted above, points in which, as has been said, Byron has few, if any, rivals in his strength. It must be added that some at least of his weaknesses as they strike his own countrymen, appeal to continental opinion nearly as much as his strength. His irreverence, his contempt for propriety, his open-mouthed egotism, his language about women, his theatricality, may not now shock all Englishmen as they once did; but the very persons who find them least 'shocking,' despise them most as puerile and unreal. To Frenchmen and Italians, to some Germans even, though in a less degree, these things usually seem virtues. Political causes assisting, and a considerable literary movement breaking out in all European countries at the beginning of the second quarter of the century, Byron attained the surest of all positions of influence, that of influencing those who influence their own countrymen. The whole Romantic school in France, Heine to a certain extent in Germany, Pushkin and Lermontoff in Russia, Espronceda in Spain, Byronised ad libitum; while the poet was a main if not a sole inspiration to many Italian writers, and shared with the classics the credit of producing Leopardi. Perhaps also Byron's ostentatious affectation of being unEnglish (though at heart he was very much of a John Bull) has done not least to create and preserve his popularity with the world from which Englishmen are still so sharply divided. The editions of Byron's works are innumerable, but all those which have any authority have proceeded from the publishing house of Murray, whose possession of the poet's manuscript has enabled it by fresh issues of a little new matter from time to time to preserve copyright of the works in their entirety. The final edition of his Works, Letters, and Journals by Rowland E. Prothero and Ernest Hartley Coleridge was begun by Mr Murray in 1898. The history of the Life by Moore (2 vols. 1830) is curious. Byron gave his own Memoirs to Moore, and that poet sold them in 1821 to Mr Murray for £2000. Objections on the part of Lady Byron and others were raised to their publication, and in 1824 the manuscript was burned, Moore refunding the purchase-money, but receiving a still larger sum for the Life, in which such of the matter of the Memoirs as was deemed prudent was worked up with letters and personal reminiscences. Writings on Byron are extremely numerous: a good account of his life and work is that of Professor Nichol in the English Men of Letters' series (1879); works also by Lady Blessington (1834), Medwin (1824), the Countess Guiccioli (1868), and J. C. Jeaffreson (1883) may also be noted; and among essays, an irregular threehanded discussion in various reviews between Mr Swinburne, Mr Matthew Arnold, and Mr Alfred Austin may be mentioned. Only two children of Byron are known. Allegra (1817-22), his illegitimate daughter by Claire Clairmont, died before him to his great grief. His daughter Ada (1815-52) married in 1835 Lord Lovelace, and left two children, Lord Wentworth and Lady Anne Blunt. Byron, HENRY JAMES, dramatist, born in Manchester, January 1834, entered the Middle Temple in 1858, and was for many years a prolific and popular writer of burlesques and extravaganzas. He wrote extensively for periodicals, was the first editor of Fun, and leased several theatres, where he produced more ambitious plays, in which he himself occasionally appeared. These were less comedies than domestic dramas, enlivened by the smart dialogue and brisk incidents of farce. The best was Cyril's Success (1868); the most successful, Our Boys, which had an unprecedented run in London from January 16, 1875, to April 18, 1879. Byron died in London, April 11, 1884. He excelled in depicting Cockney vulgarity, and his dialogue is clever and amusing, but overladen with repartee and puns, for which he readily sacrificed probability and appropriateness. His plots are, however, original and ingenious, and are always healthy and full of human interest. Byssus (Gr., a fine flaxen or silky substance'), a genus established by Linnæus to include some of the lowest and most obscure forms of vegetation, and defined as having a substance like fine down or velvet, simple or feathered. Botanists have sometimes ranked it among Alga, sometimes among Fungi; it has been made the type of a group Byssaceæ, and placed among Lichens. Some were BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE wont to regard this group as entitled to the rank of a distinct order, comprehending the filamentous fungi found in cellars, and similar plants;' others again have rejected the genus as altogether spurious. It is still retained by some systematists, but as a mere provisional limbo to include a number of gossamer-like mycelial forms of moulds which occasionally appear in damp places, and disappear without showing any signs of fructification by which to determine their true nature and affinities. The progress of research has greatly reduced this vague alliance, some forms having been recognised as algal, others as fungal in nature; and its disappearance from our lists may thus be regarded as a mere question of time. Byssus, an old name for silk-like threads secreted by the 'foot' or muscular ventral protrusion of many bivalve molluscs. The secretion is manufactured by a gland opening in a median posterior furrow, is at first fluid, but soon hardens into silky threads. The process may be readily watched in an aquarium. Its occurrence in the common mussel is very familiar. There, as in most other cases, the tufts of spreading threads serve to anchor the mollusc temporarily or permanently to its base of attachment. In other cases, however, it may be employed in binding together a rude nest (Crenella discors, Modiola vestita, Lima hians). In young forms also, as in the common fresh-water mussel, a byssus gland may be present weaving silken threads of attachment, but this does not appear to be exactly comparable to the adult organ. The silk of the very large Pinna nobilis is finer and more abundant than that of any other mollusc. It has been woven into small articles of dress, in early times for royal personages, now for lovers of curiosities. At Taranto, Reggio, and Cagliari in Italy, the byssus is still woven along with real silk into gloves, stockings, purses, and the like, but both demand and supply appear to be falling off. See BIVALVES, MOLLUSCA, MUSSEL, PINNA. Byström, JOHANN NIKOLAS, a Swedish sculptor, was born in 1783, and died at Rome, 13th March 1848. Bytown, till 1854 the name of Ottawa (q.v.). cal order of thalamifloral dicotyledons, closely allied Byttneriacea, a chiefly tropical or subtropiSterculiaceae (q.v.). to Malvacea and Tiliacea, and frequently including They are chiefly trees or shrubs, and often have beautiful flowers. The most important product of the order is Cocoa (q.v.). The fruit of Guazuma ulmifolia (Brazil) is eaten. G. ulmifolia was introduced into India, and at one time cultivated in Madras, as Bastard Cedar, its foliage being used as fodder. This, and numerous kindred species, yield excellent bast, used for making cordage, &c., Abroma angustata being specially recommended. Byzantine Architecture is the style practised in Byzantium and the Eastern empire from BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE the time of Constantine till the taking of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453, and of which the traditions are still preserved in the buildings of the Eastern Church. This style of architecture possesses considerable interest from its being one of the branches which grew out of the classic styles of Greece and Rome. Owing to the long continuance at Constantinople of part at least of the power and sovereignty of the Roman empire, and to the comparative exemption of the eastern capital from the invasions of the barbarians who overran and destroyed the monuments of the West, the transition from the classic forms of construction and design can be more clearly traced in the former than in the latter. When Constantine, in the beginning of the 4th century, removed the seat of the imperial court and government from Rome to Byzantium, he created in his new capital a fine field for the practice of the arts, and especially of architecture. Many new and splendid edifices were required, and every encouragement was given to those familiar with the constructive and decorative arts to come to Byzantium, and lend their aid in making the new city more splendid even than the old capital. At this time Roman art was in its decadence. The classic forms and ornaments were debased and decrepit, and new features derived from the constructional elements of Roman building were beginning to supersede them. Thus, in the palace of Diocletian at Spalato, the horizontal classic entablature began to be carried round the arches, and the latter to spring directly from the capitals of the columns. În its transference to Constantinople this decaying Roman art came into contact with new elements, which inspired it with fresh life. The Romans were distinguished as constructors, and had elaborated the scientific use of the arch and vault on a great scale in their large edifices. These vaults were of several different kinds, comprising both the dome and the intersecting barrel vault. It is remarkable how the adoption of these forms of vaulting, the first by the Eastern and the last by the Western peoples, led to the development of the two great styles of the middle ages-the Byzantine and the Gothic. It seems certain that the Sassanians in Persia had practised the use of the dome for a considerable time, and it is probable that their vicinity to the meeting-point of East and West at Constantinople may have had an important in fluence in determining the final adoption and development of the domical form as the leading feature of Byzantine architecture. The same in fluence no doubt tended greatly to modify the classic details into those characteristic of the Byzantine style. The former being debased and worn out, the new ideas derived from the East were gladly seized upon, and in their turn inspired the artists with fresh vigour. The Greek element in the population also no doubt contributed to produce a strong influence on the taste and refinement displayed in this style. 599 forms examples exist (although rebuilt) at Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and in both the ancient classic entablature and details are retained, while the arches spring from the capitals. By the time of Justinian, in the 6th century, the new style had been formed and fully developed in its main features. As above mentioned, the dome constituted the ruling element in the construction. The difficulty with this form was so to enlarge it as to give sufficient space for a great church. At first an aisle was placed round the central part (immediately under the dome), the latter being supported on eight pillars or piers. But these encumbered the floor and impeded the view, and after a time this inconvenience was obviated by the discovery that the dome might be supported on four pillars by corbelling out the angles between the circle and the square. This important invention enabled the design to be extended indefinitely by a number of domes, just as is the case with the groined arches of the West. The grandest example of this design is the church of St Sophia at Constantinople, built under Justinian, in the first half of the 6th century. There the interior is composed of a great central dome, 107 feet in diameter and 182 feet in height, carried on four piers, and length is given to the church by the addition of a semi-dome at either end. These also serve to sustain the pressure of the upper dome. The lower part of the building is Section of St Sophia, Constantinople. The churches built by Constantine seem to have been on the same plans as those of Italy-viz. either round or basilican in form. Of these two divided up with small pillars and arches, which have the effect of enhancing the size and grandeur of the simple dome. The latter is pierced with a row of windows round its base. This feature became afterwards a constant one in Byzantine churches. Externally the sloping apertures looked awkward, and a series of upright arches was substituted, with a dome resting above them. This being a weak form of construction, it tended to limit the size of the domes used in later examples. One striking characteristic of the Byzantine style is the extensive use of coloured decoration. This is a notable feature in St Sophia, where the pillars are formed of and the walls are lined with the richest marbles, while the domes are adorned with splendid mosaics. Byzantine ornament differs considerably from the classic as well as the Gothic of the West, being always flat and incised, while the latter is bold, and apparently applied to or projected from the structural form, as, for instance, in the cups. A curious reminiscence of the classic entablature is preserved in the block which usually intervenes in Byzantine architecture between the capital of the |