never sufficiently to be reprobated in refined society. The waltz in France loses its objectionable familiarity, by the manner in which it is performed. The gentleman does not clasp his fair partner round the waist with a freedom repugnant to the modesty and destructive to the ceinture of the lady; but so arranges it, that he assists her movements, without incommoding her delicacy or her drapery. In short, they manage these matters better in France than with us; and though no advocate for this exotic dance, I must admit that, executed as I have seen it, it could not offend the most fastidious eye. The French toilette, too, even at this distance from the capital, is successfully attended to; an elegant simplicity distinguishes that of the young ladies, whose robes of organdé or tulle, of a snowy whiteness, well buckled ceinture, bouquet of flowers, well-cut shoes, and delicately white gloves, defy criticism, and convey the impression of having been selected by the Graces to be worn for that night only. No robe of materials too expensive to be quickly laid aside, or chiffonée and fanée by use, here meets the sight; no ceinture that betrays the pressure it inflicts; and no gloves that indicate the warmth of the wearer's feelings, or those of her partner, are to be seen. The result is, that the young ladies are simply and tastefully attired, with an extreme attention to the freshness of their toilette, and a total avoidance of finery. A much greater degree of prudery, if it may be so called, is exercised in France than in England, with regard to dress; the robes of ladies of all ages conceal much more of the bust and shoulders. They claim some merit for this delicacy, though ill-natured people are not wanting who declare that prudence has more to say to the concealment than modesty; the French busts and shoulders being very inferior to the English. Of the former I have had no means of judging, because they are so covered by the dress; but of the latter, all must pronounce that they are charming. Great reserve is maintained by the French ladies in society; shaking hands with gentlemen is deemed indecorous; but to touch a lady's hand with the lips, while bowing over it, is considered respectful. The conversation of young ladies with their partners in the dance, is nearly confined to monosyllables; and when ended, they resume their seats by the side of their respective mothers, or chaperons, only speaking when spoken to, and always with an air of reserve, which is never laid aside in public. BLOMBERG, BARBARA, A YOUNG lady of noble birth in Ratisbon, mistress of Charles V., emperor of Germany. She was the reputed mother of the natural son of Charles, Don John of Austria, who, dying in 1578, recommended her, and her son, Pyramus Conrad, whom she afterwards had by her husband, to the protection of Philip II. Accordingly, Philip sent for Barbara into Spain, and settled her with a handsome equipage at Mazote. BIBI JAND, QUEEN of Dekan in Hindostan in the sixteenth century, was a wise and able princess. She main tained her dominions in peace and prosperity, and repulsed with success the attacks of the Moguls, who wished to subjugate them. BILDERJIK, KATHARINE WILHELMINA, WIFE of the celebrated poet of Holland, died at Haarlaem, in 1831. She was herself distinguished for her poetic abilities; and, in 1816, obtained a prize offered at Ghent for the best poem on the battle of Waterloo. BILLINGTON, ELIZABETH, THE most celebrated English singer of her day, was born in England, in 1770. She was the daughter of Mr. Weichsell, a German. At the age of fourteen she made her first appearance as a singer, at Oxford; and two years afterwards married Mr. Billington, whom she accompanied to Dublin. Here she made her début in the opera of "Orpheus and Eurydice." On returning to London, she appeared at Covent Garden with great success, and rapidly acquired a high reputation. She afterwards visited the continent to avail herself of the instructions of the masters of the art in Paris and Italy. In 1796, she appeared at Venice and at Rome, receiving everywhere the loudest expressions of applause. In 1801, she returned to the London stage, and astonished the whole world by her Mandane, a performance that has hardly ever been equalled in English opera. The last exhibition of her powers was for the benefit of a charity at Whitehall chapel; the queen, the prince-regent, and most of the branches of the royal family, being present. She left England in 1817, and died soon after at an estate she had purchased in the Venetian territories. Her character as a private individual was very bad. BILLIONI, N. BUSSA, A CELEBRATED actress at the theatres of France and Brussels, died in 1783. BOCCAGE, MARIE ANNE DU, A CELEBRATED French poetess, member of the academies of Rome, Bologna, Padua, Lyons, and Rouen, was born in Rouen in 1710, and died in 1802. She was educated in Paris in a nunnery, where she evinced a love of poetry. She became the wife of a receiver of taxes in Dieppe, who died soon after the marriage, leaving her a youthful widow. She concealed her talents, however, till the charms of youth were past, and first published her productions in 1746. The first was a poem "On the Mutual Influence of the Fine Arts and Sciences." This gained the prize from the academy of Rouen. She next attempted an imitation of Paradise Lost, in six cantos; then of the "Death of Abel;" next a tragedy, the "Amazons ;" and a poem in ten cantos, called "The Columbiad." Madame du Boccage was praised by her contemporaries with an extravagance, for which only her sex and the charms of her person can account. Forma Venus arte Minerva, was the motto of her admirers, among whom were Voltaire, Fontenelle. and Clairaut. She was always surrounded by distinguished men, and extolled in a multitude of poems, which, if collected, would fill several volumes. There is a great deal of entertaining matter in the letters which she wrote on her travels in England and Holland, and in which one may plainly see the impression she made upon her contemporaries. Her works have been translated into English, Spanish, German and Italian. The following is a specimen of the versification of Madame Boccage. These effusions may well be styled the poetry of polite life, and therefore we insert them in the language of the writer. The piquancy and grace, which give effect to the original, would be nearly lost in a translation of these pretty, sparkling French compliments into plain common sense, and unsentimental English rhyme. A. M. BAILLY, De l'Académie des Sciences, Sur son Histoire de l'Astronomie Ancienne et Moderne. O toi dont le savoir étonne, Mais qui sais, en l'ornant de fleurs, Du Musée où brillaient jadis Du vieux tenis vantent les écrits, Là, ton œil, que guide Uranie, Des fastes primitifs instruit, A voir l'avenir te conduit, Sous tes crayons, malgré l'envie, La prédiction est accomplie, BOIS DE LA PIERRE, LOUISE MARIE, A LADY of Normandy, who possessed some poetical merit, and wrote memoirs for the history of Normandy, &c. She died Sept. 14th, 1730, aged sixty-seven. BONAPARTE, RAMOLINA MARIE LETITIA, Was born at Ajaccio in the island of Corsica, in 1748. The family of Ramolini is of noble origin, and is derived from the counts of Colatto. The founder of the Corsican branch had married the daughter of a doge of Genoa, and had received from that republic great and honourable distinctions. The mother of Madame Letitia married a second time a Swiss named Fesch, whose family was from Basle. He was a Protestant, but was proselyted by his wife, and entered the Catholic church. From this second marriage was born the cardinal Fesch, half-brother of Madame Bonaparte. Letitia was one of the most beautiful girls of Corsica. She married Charles Bonaparte in 1766; he was a friend of Paoli, and a man of untarnished honour. It is idle to insist on the nobility of the Bonaparte family, since nobody can deny that the deeds of Napoleon were at least equal to those of the founders of any of the most splendid genealogies in Europe; but as no less a person than Chateaubriand has condescended to second the useless falsehoods of those who represented the emperor as springing from a low and vulgar race, it may here be stated, that from Nicolao Bonaparte, exiled as a Ghibellin from Florence, in 1268, to Charles, the Bonapartes can count seven generations of nobility. Letitia Ramolini espoused Charles Bonaparte in the midst of civil discords and wars; through every vicissitude she followed her husband, and as few persons have been placed in more difficult conjunctures, few have exhibited such strength of mind, courage, fortitude, and equanimity. The most unexampled prosperity, and most unlookedfor adversity have found her equal to the difficulties of each. Her eight children who lived to maturity were the following: Joseph, king of Naples, and afterwards of Spain; Napoleon; Eliza, grand-duchess of Tuscany; Lucien; Pauline, princess Borghese; Louis, king of Holland; Caroline, queen of Naples; and Jerome, king of Westphalia. In 1785 Charles Bonaparte being sent to France as a deputy from the Corsican nobility, was seized with a cancer of the stomach, and died at Montpelier in the arms of his son Joseph. He left a widow with eight children, and no fortune. Two of the family were educated at the expense of the government - Napoleon at Brienne, and Eliza at St. Cyr-while the others found their mother an instructress capable and energetic. Hers was a character that displayed its resources in difficulties; and she always managed to maintain her children in the position to which they were naturally entitled. She was fond of saying of Napoleon, "That he had never given her a moment's pain, not even at the time which is almost universally woman's hour of suffering." The 15th of August, Madame Bonaparte was coming out of church, when she was attacked with symptoms of an approaching event; she had barely time to enter her own house-a piece of tapestry hangings was hastily thrown on the marble pavement of the hall, and there Napoleon was born. The tapestry represented a scene from the Iliad. Madame Bonaparte was always kind and generous; in trouble she was the advocate and protectress of the unfortunate. When Jerome incurred his brother's displeasure for his American marriage, his mother restored him to favour; and when Lucien, for a fault of the same sort, was exiled to Rome, Madame Letitia accompanied him. When Napoleon became sovereign, he allotted her a suitable income, upon which she maintained a decorous court. After the disasters of 1816, she retired to Rome, where she lived in a quiet and dignified manner, seeing nobody but her own connections, and sometimes strangers of high rank, who were very desirous of being presented to her. She never laid aside her black, after the death of Napoleon. She died February 2d, 1836, at the age of eighty-six. For several of the last years of her life she was deprived of her sight, and was bedridden. Madame Letitia was always honoured and respected by those who were able to appreciate her rare qualities. BONTEMS, MADAME, BORN at Paris in 1718, died in the same city, April 18th, 1768; had received from nature a good understanding, and an excellent taste, which were cultivated by a careful education. She was acquainted with the foreign languages, and it is to her that the French are indebted for the accurate and elegant translation of "Thomson's Seasons." She was the centre of an amiable and select society that frequented her house. Though she was naturally very witty, she only made use of this talent for displaying that of others. She was not less esteemed for the qualities of her heart than of her mind. BORGHESE, MARIE PAULINE, PRINCESS, originally Bonaparte, sister of Napoleon, born at Ajaccio, October 20th, 1780; went when the English occupied Corsica in 1793, to Marseilles, where she was on the point of marrying Fréron, a member of the Convention, and son of that critic whom Voltaire made famous, when another lady laid claim to his hand. The beautiful Pauline was then intended for general Duphot, who was afterwards murdered at Rome in December, 1797; but she bestowed her hand from choice on General Leclerc, then at Milan, who had been in 1795 chief of the general staff of a division at Marseilles, and had then fallen in love with her. When he was sent to St. Domingo with the rank of captain-general, Napoleon ordered her to accompany her husband with her son. She embarked in December, 1801, at Brest, and was called by the poets of the fleet the Galatea of the Greeks, the Venus marina. Her statue in marble has since been made by Canova at Rome, a successful image of the goddess of beauty. She was no less courageous than beautiful, for when the negroes under Christophe stormed Cape François, where she resided, and Leclerc, who could no longer resist the assailants, ordered his lady and child to be carried on shipboard, she yielded only to force. After the death of her husband, November 23d, 1802, she married at Morfontaine, November 6, 1803, the prince Camillo Borghese. Her son died at Rome soon after. With Napoleon, who loved her tenderly, she had many disputes and as many reconciliations; for she would not always follow the caprices of his policy. Yet even the proud style in which she demanded what her brothers begged, made her the more attractive to Napoleon. Once, however, when she forgot herself towards the empress, whom she never liked, she was obliged to leave the court. She was yet in disgrace at Nice, when Napoleon resigned his crown in 1814; upon which occasion she immediately appeared a tender sister. Instead of remaining at her palace in Rome, she set out for Elba to join her brother, and acted the part of mediator between him and the other members of his family. When Napoleon landed in France, she went to Naples to see her sister Caroline, and afterwards returned to Rome. Before the battle of Waterloo she placed all her diamonds, which were of great value, at the disposal of her brother. They were in his carriage, which was taken in that battle, and was shown publicly in London. He intended to have returned them to her. She lived afterwards separated from her husband at Rome, where she occupied part of the palace Borghese, and where she possessed, from 1816, the villa Sciarra. Her house, in which taste and love of the fine arts prevailed, was the centre of the most splendid society at Rome. She often saw her mother, her brothers Lucien and Louis, and her uncle Fesch. When she heard of the sickness of her brother Napoleon, she repeatedly requested permission to go to him at St. Helena. She finally obtained her request, but the news of his death arrived immediately after. She died June 9th, 1825, at Florence. She left many legacies, and a donation, by the interest of which two young men of Ajaccio will be enabled to study medicine and surgery. The rest of her property she left to her brothers, the count of St. Leu and the prince of Montfort. Her whole property amounted to 2,000,000 francs. Pauline was very fond of Italian poetry, and took great pleasure in listening to the melancholy verses of Petrarch. Among her accomplishments, the most remarkable certainly was her dramatic talent, which she displayed in private theatricals. Her marriage with the prince Borghese had never given anything like domestic happiness; they had long been separated, when, shortly before her death, in 1825, a reconciliation was effected, and they established their residence at Florence. She was then forty-five years old, but already felt the undermining effects of her fatal malady. Pauline had led a life of pleasure and folly, but her deathbed presented a scene that is sometimes wanting at the close of better-ordered lives. She exhibited the utmost tranquillity, resignation, and courage. Calling her husband, she begged his pardon for the causes of displeasure she had given him. She wrote, with her own hands, a will in which nobody was forgotten - even mere acquaintances were mentioned with appropriate bequests. She fulfilled all those duties the Roman Catholic church enjoins with every mark of the sincerest repentance, and warmest devotion. She spoke with the tenderest affection of her family, only one of whom, Jerome, was with her; she died clasping a picture of the emperor, and her last worldly thought seemed to be with him. Let us hope that this altered frame of mind proceeded from real penitence for the serious errors that stained her early days; for the truth of history compels the acknowledgment that this princess, beautiful, accomplished, high-minded, spirited, and generous, had deserved, by her ill conduct, the repugnance with which prince Camillo Borghese, for many years, regarded her. He appears to have entirely forgiven her, as he manifested a deep affliction at her death. ―――― BOUGNET, MADAME, Is celebrated for her humanity during the French revolution of 1793, in concealing some of the proscribed deputies, though death was the consequence of this mark of friendship. After supporting these unfortunate men for some time, and seeing them escape from her abode only to perish on the scaffold, she was herself dragged before the tribunal of Bordeaux, and suffered death with Christian resignation. BOURETTE, CHARLOTTE, WHOSE first husband was M. Curé, was a French poetess and lemonade-seller, called la Muse limonadière. She was born at Paris in 1714, and died there in 1784. Madame Bourette kept the Café Allemand, and was celebrated for her numerous productions in prose and verse. Her writings introduced her to the notice of several sovereigns, princes and princesses of the blood royal, and many of the most celebrated men of her time. Her poetry is careless and prosaic, but her prose compositions poetic and brilliant. She also wrote a comedy, "The Coquette Punished," which was acted with success in the Théatre Français. M. de Fontenelle, visiting Madame Bourette, addressed to her these two lines, "Si les dames ont droit d'introducire des modes. En prose disonnais on doit faire les odes." To this, the lady replied as follows: TO M. DE FONTENELLE. Cher Anacréon de Neustrie, Dont la rare et sage folie Joint Epicure avec Zenon, Votre visite en ma maison, Malgré le poison de l'Envie, En tout tems, en toute saison, Fera le plaisir de ma vie. Mais en ce saint tems de pardon Que nous accorde le Saint-Père, Quel compliment puis-je vous faie Qui n'ait un fumet d'oraison ? L'on ne parle que de prière, De conférence et de sermon. Vous le sçavez, fils d'Apollon, Je peux le dire sans mystère, Nous parlons tout autre jargon. Il faut donc sagement me taire, Ou vous dire avec onction: Vous m'avez fait faveur insigne; Ah! seigneur, je n'étois pas digne Que vous vinssiez dans ma maison! BOULLOUGNE, MAGDELAINE DE, Was born at Paris in 1644. She painted historical pieces, but excelled in flowers and fruits She died 1710. Her sister, Genevieve, painted in the same style, and with equal merit. She died 1708, aged sixty-three. 66 BOURGAIN, THÉRÉSE, 66 ENGAGED at the Théatre Français, in Paris, acted the parts of heroines in tragedy, and the young artless girls in comedy. She was a native of Paris. Palissot encouraged her, and the celebrated Dumesnil, then eighty years old, gave her instructions. "Pamela," (by F. de Neufchateau), "Melanie," (by la Harpe), and "Monime," (a character in Mithridat," by Voltaire), were her most successful parts in tragedy; but in comedy she was greater. She avoided the common fault of most actresses who wish to excel in both kinds, namely, the transferring of the tragic diction to that of comedy, which latter requires, in dialogue, an easy, free, and well-supported style. If she did not reach the accomplished Mlle. Mars, her graceful vivacity, sufficiently aided by study and art, had peculiar charms. She acted also male parts, and her triumph in this kind was the Page," in the "Marriage of Figaro." She was one of the members of the Théatre Français, whom Napoleon had selected to entertain the congress of kings at Erfurt; at the demand of Alexander I., she went, 1809, to St. Petersburg, where she was much applauded as Eugenia; in Königsberg, she gave recitations before the late queen Louisa of Prussia, who rewarded her liberally; and in the same year she returned to Paris, where justice has always been done to her eminent talents. BOURGET, CLEMENCE DE, A LADY born of respectable parents at Lyons. She possessed so much merit as a writer, a musician, and a poetess, that she was presented to two monarchs, who passed through Lyons, as the | she required an impossible degree of perfection greatest ornament of her native city. She died from her disciples. She is said to have been exof a broken heart, in consequence of the loss of traordinarily eloquent, and was at least equally her lover, John de Peyrat, who fell at the siege diligent, for she wrote twenty-two large volumes, of Beaurepaire, in 1561. She was the contempo- most of which were printed at a private press she rary of Louise Labbé, la belle Cordiére, and was carried about with her for that purpose. After very much attached to her, but the conduct of her death, Poiret, a mystical, Protestant divine, Louise at length compelled her more exemplary and a disciple of the Cartesian philosophy, wrote friend to withdraw her friendship. her life, and reduced her doctrines into a regular system. She made numerous proselytes, among whom were many men of ability. Though wealthy, she was by no means benevolent, or even commonly charitable; and she is said to have exercised over her family and servants, "a government as cruel as that of the Sicilian court," and to have justified herself, by maintaining that anger was the love of justice and true virtue, and alleging the severities used by the prophets and apostles. BOURIGNON, ANTOINETTE, WAS a celebrated religious enthusiast, and founder of a sect which acquired so much importance that, under the name of the Bourignian doctrine, it is to this day one of the heresies renounced by candidates for holy orders in the Church of Scotland. She was the daughter of a Lille merchant, and was born in 1616; she was so singularly deformed at her birth, that a family consultation was held on the propriety of destroying the infant, as a monster. This fate she escaped, but remained an object of dislike to her mother, in consequence of which her childhood was passed in solitude and neglect; and the first books she got hold of chancing to be "Lives of the Early Christians" and mystical tracts, her ardent imagination acquired the visionary turn that marked her life. It has been asserted that her religious zeal displayed itself so early, that at four years of age she entreated to be removed to a more Christian country than Lille, where the unevangelical lives of the towns-people shocked her. As Antoinette grew up, her appearance improved in a measure, and, being a considerable heiress, her deformity did not prevent her from being sought in marriage; and when she reached her twentieth year, one of her suitors was accepted by her parents. But the enthusiast had made a vow of virginity; and on the day appointed for celebrating her nuptials, Easter-day, in 1630, she fled, disguised as a hermit. She soon after obtained admittance into a convent, where she first began to make proselytes, and gained over so many of the nuns, that the confessor of the sisterhood procured her expulsion not only from the convent but from the town. Antoinette now wandered about France, the Netherlands, Holland and Denmark, everywhere making converts, and supporting herself by the labour of her hands, till 1648, when she inherited her father's property. She was then appointed governess of an hospital at Lille, but soon after was expelled the town by the police, on account of the disorders that her doctrines occasioned. She then resumed her wanderings. About this time, she was again persecuted with suitors, two of whom were so violent, each threatening to kill her if she would not marry him, that she was forced to apply to the police for protection, and two men were sent to guard her house. She died in 1680, and left all her property to the Lille hospital of which she had been governess. She believed that she had visions and ecstatic trances, in which God commanded her to restore the true evangelical church which was extinct. She allowed no Liturgy, worship being properly internal. Her doctrines were highly mystical, and BOVETTE DE BLEMUR, JACQUELINE, EMBRACED early a religious life, and died at Chatillon, in 1696, aged seventy-eight. She wrote several theological works. BOVEY, CATHARINE, MARRIED, at fifteen, William Bovey, an English gentleman of opulence and respectability in Gloucestershire. To great beauty, she added the highest degree of benevolence, and all the gentle virtues of private life; so that she is deservedly extolled by Sir Richard Steele, in his dedication of the two volumes of his Ladies' Library." She was left a widow at the age of twenty-two, and died at Haxley, in 1728, aged fifty-seven. Her maiden name was Riches. BRACHMAN, LOUISE, BORN in 1778, at Rochlitz. She was an intimate friend of Schiller and Novalis, and contributed, in 1799, over the signature of Louise, a number of poems to the Musen-Almenach (Calendar of the Muses), a periodical edited by those two authors. She was of a very uneven temperament, and subject to long-continued fits of melancholy. Disappointed in two different affairs of the heart, and afterwards in some other expectations of minor importance, she committed suicide, in 1822, while on a visit to some friends in Italy, by drowning herself in the river Saale. She has written, "Poems," published in Dessau and Leipzig, 1800; "Blossoms of Romance," Vienna, 1816; "The Ordeal," "Novelettes," "Scenes from Reality," and "Errors." BRADSTREET, ANNE, DAUGHTER of Thomas Dudley, governor of Massachusetts from 1634 to 1650, and wife of Simon Bradstreet, is entitled to remembrance as the author of the first volume of poetry published in America. Her work was dedicated to her father, and published in 1642. The title is, "Several Poems, compiled with great variety of wit and learning, full of delight; wherein especially is contained a complete discourse and description of the four elements, constitutions, ages of man, sea |
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