being a very frugal man, and making also the most of his money for a length of years, Mr. Bedford died rich at Compton, in Feb. 1773, where he was well respected. Having a sister married to George Smith, esq. near Durham (who published his father Dr. John Smith's fine edition of Bede), Mr. Bedford went into the north, and there prepared his edition of " Symeonis monachi Dunhelmensis libellus de exordio atque procursu Dunhelmensis ecclesiæ;" with a continuation to 1154, and an account of the hard usage bishop William received from Rufus; which was printed by subscription in 1732, 8vo, from a very valuable and beautiful MS. in the cathedral library, which he supposes to be either the original, or copied in the author's life-time. He was residing at Ashbourne in 1742, when he published an Historical Catechism, the second edition, corrected and enlarged. The first edition was taken from abbé Fleury; but as this second varied so much. from that author, Bedford left out his name.

1

BEDLOE (Capt. WILLIAM), better known on account of his actions than his writings, having been a principal and useful evidence in the discovery in the popish plot, in the reign of Charles II. See the Eng. Hist. for that period; and the "Life of capt. Bedloe," which contains nothing extraordinary but the aforesaid discovery, written by an unknown hand, and published 1681, 8vo. He was an infamous adventurer of low birth, who had travelled over a great part of Europe, under different names, as well as disguises. Encouraged by the success of Oates, he turned evidence, and gave an account of Godfrey's murder, to which he added many circumstances of villainy. A reward of 500l. was voted to him by the commons. He is said to

have asserted the reality of the plot on his death-bed; but it abounds with absurdity, contradiction, and perjury; and still remains one of the greatest problems in the British annals. He died Aug. 29, 1680. Jacob informs us, he wrote a play called the "Excommunicated Prince," printed 1679, but Wood says it was written by one Thomas Walter, M.A. of Jesus college, Oxford.'

BEDRASCHI, the rabbi JEDAIA, son of Abraham, called also HAPPENINI AUBONET-ABRAM, but better known by the name of Bedraschi, is supposed to have been a na

1 Nichols's Life of Bowyer.-Cole's MS Athenæ in Brit. Mus.

Biog. Dram.-Jacob's Lives.

tive of Languedoc, and flourished in Spain towards the close of the thirteenth century. He left several Hebrew works, the principal of which, written at Barcelona in 1298, is entitled "Bechinat-Olem," or an examination. or appreciation of the world, and was printed at Mantua, in 1476, at Soncino in 1484, at Cracow in 1591, at Prague in 1598, and at Furth in 1807, with a German translation. Uchtmann also published a Latin translation at Leyden in 1630, and a French translation was published at Paris in 1629, by Philip d'Aquino. M. Michel Berr, a Jew of Nanci, published at Metz in 1708 another translation, on which M. Sylvestre de Sacy wrote many valuable remarks in the "Magazin Encyclopedique." Bedraschi's work is a mixture of poetry, theology, philosophy, and morals. His style is somewhat obscure, but the numerous editions and translations of his work form no inconsiderable evidence of its merit.'

BEEK. See BEK.

BEGA (CORNELIUS), an artist, the son of Peter Begyn, a sculptor, was born at Haerlem, in 1620, and was the disciple of Adrian Ostade. If he did not equal his master, he was at least the best of his disciples. He set out in his profession with credit, and proceeded in it for some years with sufficient success; but he grew too fond of a dissipated life, and at last his morals were so depraved, that his father, after many ineffectual remonstrances, disowned him. For this reason he cast off his father's name, and assumed that of Bega; his early pictures being marked with the former, and his latter works with the other. He had a fine pencil, and a transparent colour; and his performances are placed among the works of the best artists. He took the plague from a woman with whom he was deeply enamoured; and he shewed so much sincerity of affection, that, notwithstanding the expostulations of all his friends and physicians, he would attend her to the last moments of her life, and imbibed from her the same fatal distemper, of which he died in a few days after her, Aug. 27, 1664. He is also classed among engravers, having etched several drolleries, and a set of thirty-four prints, representing alehouse scenes, &c.2

BEGER or BOEGER (LAWRENCE), the son of a tanner, was born at Heidelberg, April 19, 1653, and received an

1 Dict. Hist.

2 Pilkington.-Strutt.-Descamps, vol. II.

education suitable to his promising talents. In compliance with his father's request, he studied divinity, but after his death indulged his own inclination, by studying law. In 1677, when he was twenty-four years of age, Charles' Louis, elector palatine, appointed him his librarian, and keeper of his museum. Beger retained those stations until 1685, when Charles, the son and successor of Charles Louis, being dead, the library passed into the hands of the landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, and the museum went to the elector of Brandenburgh. The latter, Frederick William, engaged Beger in his service, gave him the rank of counsellor, and appointed him to the care of his library and medals, a post which he likewise filled under his successor, until his death, April 21, 1705. He had been a member of the society of Berlin from its foundation. He left a great many works, the principal of which are: 1. "Thesaurus ex Thesauro Palatino selectus, seu Gemmæ,” Heidelberg, 1685, fol. 2. "Spicilegium antiquitatis," 1692, folio. 3. "Thesaurus, sive Gemma, Numismata," &c. 1696, and 1791, 3 vols. fol. 4. " Regum et Imperatorum Romanorum Numismata, à Rubenio edita," 1700, fol. 5. De nummis Cretensium serpentiferis," 1702, fol. 6. "Lucernæ sepulchrales J. P. Bellorii," 1702, fol. 7. "Numismata Pontificum Romanorum,' 1703, fol. 8. "Excidium Trojanum," Berlin, 1699, 4to, &c. Beger composed a work to authorise polygamy, at the request of Charles Louis, elector palatine, who was desirous of marrying his mistress in the life-time of his first wife; but he refuted it after the death of that prince. The refutation, however, never appeared. The book that gave occasion to it was entitled "Considerations on Marriage, by Daphnæus Arcuarius," in German, 4to.1

BEGON (MICHAEL), born at Blois in 1638, of a family of distinction, in the former part of his life filled some of the first offices of the law, and soon distinguished himself by the acuteness of his penetration, and his attention to method. The marquis de Seignelei, his kinsman, having induced him to enter the marine, he successively filled the place of intendant of the French West India islands, of the gallies of Havre, and Canada, and of those of Rochefort and la Rochelle, till 1710, when he died, the 14th of March, much regretted. The people loved him as a dis

1 Moreri,-Dict. Hist.-Saxii Onomast..

their use.

interested officer, and the citizens as their friend and benefactor. The learned were not less warm in their praises of one who protected and encouraged them, took a lively interest in their prosperity, and kept his library open for He had an excellent taste in the choice of his books. He possessed a rich cabinet of medals, antiques, prints, shells, and other curiosities, collected from the four quarters of the world. His books were generally marked in front with the words " Michaelis Begon et amicorum." His librarian having once represented to him, that by letting every body have access to them, he would lose several of them he very liberally replied, "I had much rather lose my books, than seem to distrust an honest man." He caused to be engraved the portraits of several celebrated persons of the seventeenth century, and collected memoirs of their lives; from which materials Perrault composed his history of the illustrious men of France.1

BEGUILLET or BEGUILLER (EDMUND), an advocate of the parliament of Dijon, and afterwards a notary, and a corresponding member of the French academy of belles-lettres, derived considerable reputation from some works which he published on domestic economics and agriculture. He is also the author of some historical pieces, but they have been thought inferior to the others. We have no other memoranda of his life, than that he died in May 1786. He published: 1. "Des principes de la vegetation et de l'agriculture," 1769, 8vo. 2. "Memoire sur les avantages de la mouture economique, et du commerce des farines en detail," 8vo. 3. "Enologie, ou Traité de la vigne et des vins," 1770, 12mo. 4. "Dissertation sur l'ergot, ou blé cornu," 1771, 4to. 5. "Traité de la connoissance generale des grains," 1775, 3 vols. 8vo, and 4to. Among other curious things in this work, which is accompanied with cuts well coloured, there is a memoir, transmitted from Pekin, relative to the Chinese method of preserving corn, and the laws of their police with respect to that article. It contains also many useful remarkson the subject, although not always happily or concisely expressed. 6. "Manuel du meunier et du charpentier des Moulins," 1785, 8vo, taken in a great measure from the memoirs of Cesar Bucquet. 7. "Traité general des subsistances et des grains," 1782, 6 vols. 8vo. Beguillet

1 Moreri.-Dict. Hist.

17

wrote also "Histoire des guerres des deux Bourgognes,' under the reign of Lewis XIII. and XIV, 1772, 2 vols. 12mo. "Precis de l'Histoire de Bourgogne," Svo. "Description generale du duchè de Bourgogne," 6 vols. 8vo, written in part by the abbé Courtépée; and several articles in the Encyclopedia. In conjunction with Poncelin, he also published "Histoire de Paris, avec la description de ses plus beaux monumens," Paris, 1780, 3 vols. 8vo.1

He was

BEHAM (HANS or JOHN SEBALD), an engraver of Nuremberg, who flourished about the middle of the sixteenth century, was either instructed, or became an imitator of Henry Aldegrever, and Albert Durer, and like them, engraved on wood as well as copper, and also etched some few plates; but these last, by far the most indifferent, are also the smallest part of his works. If his style of engraving be not original, it is at least an excellent and spirited imitation of that which was adopted by the preceding masters of the country in which he resided. His pictures, for he was a painter, as well as his engravings, were held in such high estimation, that the poets of that age celebrated him in their poems, calling him in Latin, Bohemus. certainly a man of much genius, and possessed great fertility of invention. But the Gothic taste which so generally prevailed in Germany at this time, is much too prevalent in his works. His draperies are stiff, and loaded with a multiplicity of short, inelegant folds. His drawing of the naked figure, which he is fond of introducing, though mannered, is often very correct, and sometimes masterly. His heads, and the other extremities of his figures, are carefully determined, and often possess much merit. Of his numerous works, the following may be mentioned as specimens; on wood, a set of prints for a book entitled "Biblicæ Historiæ artificiossissimæ depictæ," Francfort, 1537; and on copper, "History of the creation and fall of man:" "The labours of Hercules:" "The virtues and vices," &c. He had a brother, Bartholomew Beham, who resided principally at Rome. He was also an engraver, and from such of his prints as have been ascertained, which is somewhat difficult, he appears to have been a very excellent artist, and one of the superior scholars of Marc Antonio, whose style of engraving he imitated with great success. His drawing is correct and

1 Dict. Hist.-Month. Rev. LIV. p. 395.