The Oxford Companion to English Literature, 6Th Edition
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
B Bab Ballads, a collection of humorous ballads by W. S. lated by J. Harland in 1929 and most of his work is ^Gilbert (who was called 'Bab' as a child by his parents), available in English translation. first published in Fun, 1866-71. They appeared in Babylon, an old ballad, the plot of which is known 'to volume form as Bab Ballads (1869); More Bab Ballads all branches of the Scandinavian race', of three sisters, (1873); Fifty Bab Ballads (1877). to each of whom in turn an outlaw proposes the alternative of becoming a 'rank robber's wife' or death. Babbitt, a novel by S. *Lewis. The first two chose death and are killed by the outlaw. The third threatens the vengeance of her brother 'Baby BABBITT, Irving (1865-1933), American critic and Lon'. This is the outlaw himself, who thus discovers professor at Harvard, born in Ohio. He was, with Paul that he has unwittingly murdered his own sisters, and Elmer More (1864-1937), a leader of the New Hu thereupon takes his own life. The ballad is in *Child's manism, a philosophical and critical movement of the collection (1883-98). 1920s which fiercely criticized *Romanticism, stress ing the value of reason and restraint. His works include BACH, German family of musicians, of which Johann The New Laokoon (1910), Rousseau and Romanticism Sebastian (1685-1750) has become a central figure in (1919), and Democracy and Leadership (1924). T. S. British musical appreciation since a revival of interest *Eliot, who described himself as having once been a in the early 19th cent, led by Samuel Wesley (1766- disciple, grew to find Babbitt's concept of humanism 1837, son of C. *Wesley) and *Mendelssohn. His inadequate as an alternative to religion, and described youngest son, Johann Christian (1735-82), settled it (in an essay published in 1928 in Forum) as 'a in London in 1762 and became known as the 'English product—a by-product—of Protestant theology in its Bach': he became music-master to the family of George last agonies'. III, and though his operas for London were in the prevailing Italian fashion he also wrote various arias in BABEL, Isaak Emmanuilovich (1894-71941), Russian English and some settings of folk songs. He was Jewish writer born in Odessa, the son of a shopkeeper. painted by his friend *Gainsborough and is buried in St After an Orthodox Jewish upbringing, he arrived in Paneras churchyard. Petrograd in 1915. *Gorky published Babel's first story Back to Methuselah: A Metabiological Pentateuch in 1916. From 1917 Babel served as soldier and war (1918-20) is an infrequently performed cycle of five correspondent, taking part in the Polish campaign with plays by Bernard *Shaw, beginning in the Garden of the First Cavalry in 1920. From this came his mas Eden and reaching the year AD 31,920, which examines terpiece, the collection of stories Red Cavalry (1923-5), the metaphysical implications of longevity. Shaw which describes with harsh vigour the savagery of war revised the text and its preface, and added a postscript, and its paradoxical fascination for the intellectual in the mid-i94os when choosing Back to Methuselah to Jewish narrator Lyutov. Many of Babel's other stories represent his work in the Oxford University Press are loosely autobiographical ('The Story of My Dove *World's Classics series. cot', 'First Love'), but he also wrote a cycle of stories about a very different Jewish life, that of the Odessan Backbite, Sir Benjamin, one of the scandal-mongers in gangster Benya Krik ('The King', 'How It Was Done in Sheridan's *The School for Scandal. Odessa', and others). Neither his ornamentalist style nor his themes found favour with the Soviet author Bacon, Friar, see FRIER BACON, AND FRIER BONGAY. ities, and in the late 1920s he came under increasing BACON, Francis, first Baron Verulam and Viscount St pressure. This led to almost total artistic silence, but he Albans (1561-1626), the fifth son of Sir Nicholas was again attacked at the First Congress of the Union of Bacon, lord keeper to Queen Elizabeth 1558-79, by his Soviet Writers. He was arrested in 1939 and disap second marriage, to Lady Anne Cooke. Bacon's mother peared into the Soviet penal system: the date of his was the daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke, tutor to King death is tentative. Like other writers, Babel was Edward VI, and was an exceptionally gifted scholar posthumously rehabilitated, and editions of his and translator in her own right. One of her sisters work appeared in the Soviet Union in the 1950s married the queen's chief minister, *Burleigh. Bacon and 1960s, though his Jewishness would seem to be the was born in London, at York House in the Strand, and reason for a tacit new ban on publication of his work. In with his brother Antony went up to Trinity College, the rest of the world his reputation as a master of the Cambridge, between 1573 and 1575; they were tutored short story continues to grow. Red Cavalry was trans by the master, John Whitgift, subsequently archbishop 57 BACON I BACON of Canterbury. As part of his grooming for high public presents to sway his judgement, and at this point both office he spent from 1576 to 1579 with the queen's James and Buckingham abandoned him as scapegoat ambassador to France, Sir Amias Paulet, studying for their own unpopular policies. Bacon's career was statecraft and performing diplomatic duties. Bacon's ruined: he was given a huge fine, imprisoned in the public career suffered two serious setbacks. His father Tower, and forbidden to come within 10 miles of the died suddenly, in Feb. 1579, having settled estates on court. But the fine was never collected; the imprison his first four sons, and in the process of doing so for his ment lasted three days, the whole affair being cynically youngest. Deprived of an inheritance, Bacon returned intended to placate the reform party, while the real to England to become a lawyer, entering Gray's Inn in abuses continued. Deprived of power, Bacon was 1579, graduating in 1582. His abilities were soon vulnerable to Buckingham's greed, and was made recognized, and he was appointed a lecturer in law and to sell York House in the Strand. Out of office, he invited to sit on government legal committees while devoted himself fully to writing, producing in quick still in his twenties. In 1581 he became an MP (for succession A History of the Life and Reign of King Bossiney, Cornwall) and served in every parliament *Henry VII (1622), the De Dignitate & Augmentis until 1621, first in the Commons, then in the Lords. He Scientiarum (1623, a Latin expansion of * The Advance achieved recognition as a parliamentary speaker, but ment of Learning), the *Essays (1625), and the post his boldness in the 1593 session in opposing the humously published * New Atlantis (1627). Until his unusually heavy taxes that the queen wanted led to his downfall, Bacon's writings were the product of the being expelled from royal favour, promotion to higher vacations or other leisure time in a busy public career. legal office going to his rival, *Coke. The queen Simultaneously a Protestant or moderate Calvinist (as continued to employ Bacon in various legal offices, his Confession of Faith shows) and a humanist, sharing severely testing his loyalty to the Crown by appointing that movement's emphasis on the individual's duty to him one of the prosecutors of his former patron the earl take part in a vita activa for the common good, all of *Essex, whose increasingly headstrong behaviour Bacon's intellectual activities were directed towards led him eventually to the scaffold. Under King James, practical ends, from which the whole of society would Bacon achieved the public offices for which he had so benefit. He outlined many schemes for reforming the long been preparing. Knighted in 1603, he became laws, making them easier to understand and more king's counsel in 1604, solicitor-general in 1607, coherent; he wanted the universities to widen their attorney-general in 1613, a privy counsellor in curriculum from the three traditional professions 1616, lord keeper in 1617, and lord chancellor in (theology, law, medicine) to take in the 'arts and 1618. Having more than emulated his father in public sciences at large'; and he was ahead of his time in office, he excelled him in rank, being elevated to the realizing that a continuous growth of knowledge was House of Lords as Baron Verulam in 1618, and created possible. Bacon's plan to reform the whole of natural Viscount St Albans in 1621. Although remarkable, the philosophy (or science), outlined in the fragmentary promotion was well deserved, for Bacon impressed Instauratio Magna (1620), of which the * Novum everybody with his forensic skills, intellectual pene Organum was the only more or less complete part, tration, and ability to present complex issues clearly. aimed to effect a new union between 'the mind and the But the higher reaches of state office carried their own universe', from which would spring a range of inven dangers, and Bacon increasingly found that his care tions to 'overcome the necessities and miseries of fully worked out advice and counsel were ignored both humanity'. (See also BACONIAN THEORY.) by James and by the court favourite, the first earl of Bacon's writings inspired the founding of the *Royal *Buckingham. In the absence of a proper salary Society in 1662, and had a considerable influence on structure, government officials under James depended *Hobbes, *Boyle, *Locke, *Defoe, and many others.