Chapter 13 of 21 · 3953 words · ~20 min read

Part 13

HERVIEU, PAUL (1857- ), French dramatist and novelist, was born at Neuilly (Seine) on the 2nd of November 1857. He was called to the bar in 1877, and, after serving some time in the office of the president of the council, he qualified for the diplomatic service, but resigned on his nomination in 1881 to a secretaryship in the French legation in Mexico. He contributed novels, tales and essays to the chief Parisian papers and reviews, and published a series of clever novels, including _L'Inconnu_ (1887), _Flirt_ (1890), _L'Exorcisee_ (1891), _Peints par eux-memes_ (1893), an ironical study written in the form of letters, and _L'Armature_ (1895), dramatized in 1905 by Eugene Brieux. But his most important work consists of a series of plays: _Les Paroles restent_ (Vaudeville, 17th of November 1892); _Les Tenailles_ (Theatre Francais, 28th of September 1895); _La Loi de l'homme_ (Theatre Francais, 15th of February 1897); _La Course du flambeau_ (Vaudeville, 17th of April 1901); _Point de lendemain_ (Odeon, 18th of October 1901), a dramatic version of a story by Vivaut Denon; _L'Enigme_ (Theatre Francais, 5th of November 1901); _Theroigne de Mericourt_ (Theatre Sarah Bernhardt, 23rd of September 1902); _Le Dedale_ (Theatre Francais, 19th of December 1903), and _Le Reveil_ (Theatre Francais, 18th of December 1905). These plays are built upon a severely logical method, the mechanism of which is sometimes so evident as to destroy the necessary sense of illusion. The closing words of _La Course du flambeau_--"_Pour ma fille, j'ai tue ma mere_"--are an example of his selection of a plot representing an extreme theory. The riddle in _L'Engime_ (staged at Wyndham's Theatre, London, March 1st 1902, as _Caesar's Wife_) is, however, worked out with great art, and _Le Dedale_, dealing with the obstacles to the remarriage of a divorced woman, is reckoned among the masterpieces of the modern French stage. He was elected to the French Academy in 1900.

See A. Binet, in _L'Annee psychologique_, vol. x. Hervieu's _Theatre_ was published, by Lemerre (3 vols., 1900-1904).

HERWARTH VON BITTENFELD, KARL EBERHARD (1796-1884), Prussian general field-marshal, came of an aristocratic family which had supplied many distinguished officers to the Prussian army. He entered the Guard infantry in 1811, and served through the War of Liberation (1813-15), distinguishing himself at Lutzen and Paris. During the years of peace he rose slowly to high command. In the Berlin revolution of 1848 he was on duty at the royal palace as colonel of the 1st Guards. Major-general in 1852, and lieutenant-general in 1856, he received the grade of general of infantry and the command of the VIIth (Westphalian) Army Corps in 1860. In the Danish War of 1864 he succeeded to the command of the Prussians when Prince Frederick Charles became commander-in-chief of the Allies, and it was under his leadership that the Prussians forced the passage into Alsen on the 29th of June. In the war of 1866 Herwarth commanded the "Army of the Elbe" which overran Saxony and invaded Bohemia by the valley of the Elbe and Iser. His troops won the actions of Huhnerwasser and Munchengratz, and at Koniggratz formed the right wing of the Prussian army. Herwarth himself directed the battle against the Austrian left flank. In 1870 he was not employed in the field, but was in charge of the scarcely less important business of organizing and forwarding all the reserves and material required for the armies in France. In 1871 his great services were recognized by promotion to the rank of field-marshal. The rest of his life was spent in retirement at Bonn, where he died in 1884. Since 1889 the 13th (1st Westphalian) Infantry has borne his name.

See _G. F. M. Herwarth von Bittenfeld_ (Munster, 1896).

HERWEGH, GEORG (1817-1875), German political poet, was born at Stuttgart on the 31st of May 1817, the son of a restaurant keeper. He was educated at the gymnasium of his native city, and in 1835 proceeded to the university of Tubingen as a theological student, where, with a view to entering the ministry, he entered the protestant theological seminary. But the strict discipline was distasteful; he broke the rules and was expelled in 1836. He next studied law, but having gained the interest of August Lewald (1793-1871) by his literary ability, he returned to Stuttgart, where Lewald obtained for him a journalistic post. Called out for military service, he had hardly joined his regiment when he committed an act of flagrant insubordination, and fled to Switzerland to avoid punishment. Here he published his _Gedichte eines Lebendigen_ (1841), a volume of political poems, which gave expression to the fervent aspirations of the German youth of the day. The work immediately rendered him famous, and although confiscated, it soon ran through several editions. The idea of the book was a refutation of the opinions of Prince Puckler-Muskau (q.v.) in his _Briefe eines Verstorbenen_. He next proceeded to Paris and in 1842 returned to Germany, visiting Jena, Leipzig, Dresden and Berlin--a journey which was described as being a "veritable triumphal progress." His military insubordination appears to have been forgiven and forgotten, for in Berlin King Frederick William IV. had him introduced to him and used the memorable words: "_ich liebe eine gesinnungsvolle Opposition_" ("I admire an opposition, when dictated by principle.") Herwegh next returned to Paris, where he published in 1844 the second volume of his _Gedichte eines Lebendigen_, which, like the first volume, was confiscated by the German police. At the head of a revolutionary column of German working men, recruited in Paris, Herwegh took an active part in the South German rising in 1848; but his raw troops were defeated on the 27th of April at Schopfheim in Baden and, after a very feeble display of heroism, he just managed to escape to Switzerland, where he lived for many years on the proceeds of his literary productions. He was later (1866) permitted to return to Germany, and died at Lichtenthal near Baden-Baden on the 7th of April 1875. A monument was erected to his memory there in 1904. Besides the above-mentioned works, Herwegh published _Einundzwanzig Bogen aus der Schweiz_ (1843), and translations into German of A. de Lamartine's works and of seven of Shakespeare's plays. Posthumously appeared _Neue Gedichte_ (1877).

Herwegh's correspondence was published by his son Marcel in 1898. See also Johannes Scherr, _Georg Herwegh; literarische und politische Blatter_ (1843); and the article by Franz Muncker in the _Allgemeine deutsche Biographie_.

HERZBERG, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Hanover, situated under the south-western declivity of the Harz, on the Sieber, 25 m. N.W. from Nordhausen by the railway to Osterode-Hildesheim. Pop. (1905) 3896. It contains an Evangelical and a Roman Catholic church, and a botanical garden, and has manufactures of cloth and cigars, and weaving and dyeing works. The breeding of canaries is extensively carried on here and in the district. On a hill to the south-west of the town lies the castle of Herzberg, which in 1157 came into the possession of Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony, and afterwards was one of the residences of a branch of the house of Brunswick.

HERZBERG, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Saxony, on the Schwarze Elster, 25 m. S. from Juterbog by the railway Berlin-Roderau-Dresden. It has a church (Evangelical) dating from the 13th century and a medieval town hall. Its industries include the founding and turning of metal, agricultural machinery and boot-making. Pop. (1905) 4043.

HERZL, THEODOR (1860-1904), founder of modern political Zionism (q.v.), was born in Budapest on the 2nd of May 1860, and died at Edlach on the 3rd of July 1904. The greater part of his career was associated with Vienna, where he acquired high repute as a literary journalist. He was also a dramatist, and apart from his prominence as a Jewish Nationalist would have found a niche in the temple of fame. All his other claims to renown, however, sink into insignificance when compared with his work as the reviver of Jewish hopes for a restoration to political autonomy. Herzl was stirred by sympathy for the misery of Jews under persecution, but he was even more powerfully moved by the difficulties experienced under conditions of assimilation. Modern anti-Semitism, he felt, was both like and unlike the medieval. The old physical attacks on the Jews continued in Russia, but there was added the reluctance of several national groups in Europe to admit the Jews to social equality. Herzl believed that the humanitarian hopes which inspired men at the end of the 18th and during the larger part of the 19th centuries had failed. The walls of the ghettos had been cast down, but the Jews could find no entry into the comity of nations. The new nationalism of 1848 did not deprive the Jews of political rights, but it denied them both the amenities of friendly intercourse and the opportunity of distinction in the university, the army and the professions. Many Jews questioned this diagnosis, and refused to see in the new anti-Semitism (q.v.) which spread over Europe in 1881 any more than a temporary reaction against the cosmopolitanism of the French Revolution. In 1896 Herzl published his famous pamphlet "Der Judenstaat." Holding that the only alternatives for the Jews were complete merging by intermarriage or self-preservation by a national re-union, he boldly advocated the second course. He did not at first insist on Palestine as the new Jewish home, nor did he attach himself to religious sentiment. The expectation of a Messianic restoration to the Holy Land has always been strong, if often latent, in the Jewish consciousness. But Herzl approached the subject entirely on its secular side, and his solution was economic and political rather than sentimental. He was a strong advocate for the complete separation of Church and State. The influence of Herzl's pamphlet, the progress of the movement he initiated, the subsequent modifications of his plans, are told at length in the article ZIONISM.

His proposals undoubtedly roused an extraordinary enthusiasm, and though he almost completely failed to win to his cause the classes, he rallied the masses with sensational success. He unexpectedly gained the accession of many Jews by race who were indifferent to the religious aspect of Judaism, but he quite failed to convince the leaders of Jewish thought, who from first to last remained (with such conspicuous exceptions as Nordau and Zangwill) deaf to his pleading. The orthodox were at first cool because they had always dreamed of a nationalism inspired by messianic ideals, while the liberals had long come to dissociate those universalistic ideals from all national limitations. Herzl, however, succeeded in assembling several congresses at Basel (beginning in 1897), and at these congresses were enacted remarkable scenes of enthusiasm for the cause and devotion to its leader. At all these assemblies the same ideal was formulated: "the establishing for the Jewish people a publicly and legally assured home in Palestine." Herzl's personal charm was irresistible. Among his political opponents he had some close personal friends. His sincerity, his eloquence, his tact, his devotion, his power, were recognized on all hands. He spent his whole strength in the furtherance of his ideas. Diplomatic interviews, exhausting journeys, impressive mass meetings, brilliant literary propaganda--all these methods were employed by him to the utmost limit of self-denial. In 1901 he was received by the sultan; the pope and many European statesmen gave him audiences. The British government was ready to grant land for an autonomous settlement in East Africa. This last scheme was fatal to Herzl's peace of mind. Even as a temporary measure, the choice of an extra-Palestinian site for the Jewish state was bitterly opposed by many Zionists; others (with whom Herzl appears to have sympathized) thought that as Palestine was, at all events momentarily, inaccessible, it was expedient to form a settlement elsewhere. Herzl's health had been failing and he did not long survive the initiation of the somewhat embittered "territorial" controversy. He died in the summer of 1904, amid the consternation of supporters and the deep grief of opponents of his Zionistic aims.

Herzl was beyond question the most influential Jewish personality of the 19th century. He had no profound insight into the problem of Judaism, and there was no lasting validity in his view that the problem--the thousands of years' old mystery--could be solved by a retrogression to local nationality. But he brought home to Jews the perils that confronted them; he compelled many a "semi-detached" son of Israel to rejoin the camp; he forced the "assimilationists" to realize their position and to define it; his scheme gave a new impulse to "Jewish culture," including the popularization of Hebrew as a living speech; and he effectively roused Jews all the world over to an earnest and vital interest in their present and their future. Herzl thus left an indelible mark on his time, and his renown is assured whatever be the fate in store for the political Zionism which he founded and for which he gave his life. (I. A.)

HERZOG, HANS (1819-1894), Swiss general, was born at Aarau. He became a Swiss artillery lieutenant in 1840, and then spent six years in travelling (visiting England among other countries), before he became a partner in his father's business in 1846. In 1847 he saw his first active service (as artillery captain) in the short Swiss _Sonderbund_ war. In 1860 he abandoned mercantile pursuits for a purely military career, becoming colonel and inspector-general of the Swiss artillery. In 1870 he was commander-in-chief of the Swiss army, which guarded the Swiss frontier, in the Jura, during the Franco-German War, and in February 1871, as such, concluded the Convention of Verrieres with General Clinchant for the disarming and the interning of the remains of Bourbaki's army, when it took refuge in Switzerland. In 1875 he became the commander-in-chief of the Swiss artillery, which he did much to reorganize, helping also in the re-organization of the other branches of the Swiss army. He died in 1894 at his native town of Aarau. (W. A. B. C.)

HERZOG, JOHANN JAKOB (1805-1882), German Protestant theologian, was born at Basel on the 12th of September 1805. He studied at Basel and Berlin, and eventually (1854) settled at Erlangen as professor of church history. He died there on the 30th of September 1882, having retired in 1877. His most noteworthy achievement was the publication of the _Realencyklopadie fur protestantische Theologie und Kirche_ (1853-1868, 22 vols.), of which he undertook a new edition with G. L. Plitt (1836-1880) in 1877, and after Plitt's death with Albert Hauck (b. 1845). Hauck began the publication of the third edition in 1896 (completed in 22 vols., 1909).

His other works include _Joh. Calvin_ (1843), _Leben Okolampads_ (1843), _Die romanischen Waldenser_ (1853), _Abriss der gesamten Kirchengeschichte_ (3 vols., 1876-1882, 2nd ed., G. Koffmane, Leipzig, 1890-1892).

HESEKIEL, JOHANN GEORG LUDWIG (1819-1874), German author, was born on the 12th of August 1819 in Halle, where his father, distinguished as a writer of sacred poetry, was a Lutheran pastor. Hesekiel studied history and philosophy in Halle, Jena and Berlin, and devoted himself in early life to journalism and literature. In 1848 he settled in Berlin, where he lived until his death on the 26th of February 1874, achieving a considerable reputation as a writer and as editor of the _Neue Preussische Zeitung_. He attempted many different kinds of literary work, the most ambitious being perhaps his patriotic songs _Preussenlieder_, of which he published a volume during the revolutionary excitement of 1848-1849. Another collection--_Neue Preussenlieder_--appeared in 1864 after the Danish War, and a third in 1870--_Gegen die Franzosen, Preussische Kriegs- und Konigslieder_. Among his novels may be mentioned _Unter dem Eisenzahn_ (1864) and _Der Schultheiss vom Zeyst_ (1875). The best known of his works is his biography of Prince Bismarck (_Das Buch vom Fursten Bismarck_) (3rd ed., 1873; English trans. by R. H. Mackenzie).

HESILRIGE (or HESELRIG), SIR ARTHUR, 2nd Bart. (d. 1661), English parliamentarian, was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Hesilrige, 1st baronet (c. 1622), of Noseley, Leicestershire, a member of a very ancient family settled in Northumberland and Leicestershire, and of Frances, daughter of Sir William Gorges, of Alderton, Northamptonshire. He early imbibed strong puritanical principles, and showed a special antagonism to Laud. He sat for Leicestershire in the Short and Long Parliaments in 1640, and took a principal part in Strafford's attainder, the Root and Branch Bill and the Militia Bill of the 7th of December 1641, and was one of the five members impeached on the 3rd of January 1642. He showed much activity in the Great Rebellion, raised a troop of horse for Essex, fought at Edgehill, commanded in the West under Waller, being nicknamed his _fidus Achates_, and distinguished himself at the head of his cuirassiers, "The Lobsters," at Lansdown on the 5th of July 1643, at Roundway Down on the 13th of July, at both of which battles he was wounded, and at Cheriton, March 29th 1644. On the occasion of the breach between the army and the parliament, Hesilrige supported the former, took Cromwell's part in his dispute with Manchester and Essex, and on the passing of the Self-denying Ordinance gave up his commission and became one of the leaders of the Independent party in parliament. On the 30th of December 1647 he was appointed governor of Newcastle, which he successfully defended, besides defeating the Royalists on the 2nd of July 1648 and regaining Tynemouth. In October he accompanied Cromwell to Scotland, and gave him valuable support in the Scottish expedition in 1650. Hesilrige, though he approved of the king's execution, had declined to act as judge on his trial. He was one of the leading men in the Commonwealth, but Cromwell's expulsion of the Long Parliament threw him into antagonism, and he opposed the Protectorate and refused to pay taxes. He was returned for Leicester to the parliaments of 1654, 1656 and 1659, but was excluded from the two former. He refused a seat in the Lords, whither Cromwell sought to relegate him, and succeeded in again obtaining admission to the Commons in January 1658. On Cromwell's death Hesilrige refused support to Richard, and was instrumental in effecting his downfall. He was now one of the most influential men in the council and in parliament. He attempted to maintain a republican parliamentary administration, "to keep the sword subservient to the civil magistrate," and opposed Lambert's schemes. On the latter succeeding in expelling the parliament, Hesilrige turned to Monk for support, and assisted his movements by securing Portsmouth on the 3rd of December 1659. He marched to London, and was appointed one of the council of state on the 2nd of January 1660, and on the 11th of February a commissioner for the army. He was completely deceived by Monk, and trusting to his assurance of fidelity to "the good old cause" consented to the retirement of his regiment from London. At the Restoration his life was saved by Monk's intervention, but he was imprisoned in the Tower, where he died on the 7th of January 1661. Clarendon describes Hesilrige as "an absurd, bold man." He was rash, "hare-brained," devoid of tact and had little claim to the title of a statesman, but his energy in the field and in parliament was often of great value to the parliamentary cause. He exposed himself to considerable obloquy by his exactions and appropriations of confiscated landed property, though the accusation brought against him by John Lilburne was examined by a parliamentary committee and adjudged to be false. Hesilrige married (1) Frances, daughter of Thomas Elmes of Lilford, Northamptonshire, by whom he had two sons and two daughters, and (2) Dorothy, sister of Robert Greville, 2nd Lord Brooke, by whom he had three sons and five daughters. The family was represented in 1907 by his descendant Sir Arthur Grey Hazlerigg of Noseley, 13th Baronet.

AUTHORITIES.--Article on Hesilrige by C. H. Firth in the _Dict. of Nat. Biography_, and authorities there quoted; _Early History of the Family of Hesilrige_, by W. G. D. Fletcher; _Cal. of State Papers, Domestic_, 1631-1664, where there are a large number of important references, as also in _Hist. MSS._, _Comm. Series_, _MSS. of Earl Cowper_, _Duke of Leeds_ and _Duke of Portland_; _Egerton MSS._ 2618, _Harleian_ 7001 f. 198, and in the _Sloane_, _Stowe_ and _Additional_ collections in the British Museum; also S. R. Gardiner, _Hist. of England_, _Hist. of the Great Civil War and Commonwealth_; Clarendon's _History, State Papers and Cal. of State Papers_, J. L. Sanford's _Studies of the Great Rebellion_. His life is written by Noble in the _House of Cromwell_, i. 403. For his public letters and speeches in parliament see the catalogue of the British Museum.

HESIOD, the father of Greek didactic poetry, probably flourished during the 8th century B.C. His father had migrated from the Aeolic Cyme in Asia Minor to Boeotia; and Hesiod and his brother Perses were born at Ascra, near mount Helicon (_Works and Days_, 635). Here, as he fed his father's flocks, he received his commission from the Muses to be their prophet and poet--a commission which he recognized by dedicating to them a tripod won by him in a contest of song (see below) at some funeral games at Chalcis in Euboea, still in existence at Helicon in the age of Pausanias (_Theogony_, 20-34, _W. and D._, 656; Pausanias ix. 38. 3). After the death of his father Hesiod is said to have left his native land in disgust at the result of a law-suit with his brother and to have migrated to Naupactus. There was a tradition that he was murdered by the sons of his host in the sacred enclosure of the Nemean Zeus at Oeneon in Locris (Thucydides iii. 96; Pausanias ix. 31); his remains were removed for burial by command of the Delphic oracle to Orchomenus in Boeotia, where the Ascraeans settled after the destruction of their town by the Thespians, and where, according to Pausanias, his grave was to be seen.

Hesiod's earliest poem, the famous _Works and Days_, and according to Boeotian testimony the only genuine one, embodies the experiences of his daily life and work, and, interwoven with episodes of fable, allegory, and personal history, forms a sort of Boeotian shepherd's calendar. The first portion is an ethical enforcement of honest labour and dissuasive of strife and idleness (1-383); the second consists of hints and rules as to husbandry (384-764); and the third is a religious calendar of the months, with remarks on the days most lucky or the contrary for rural or nautical employments. The connecting link of the whole poem is the author's advice to his brother, who appears to have bribed the corrupt judges to deprive Hesiod of his already scantier inheritance, and to whom, as he wasted his substance lounging in the agora, the poet more than once returned good for evil, though he tells him there will be a limit to this unmerited kindness. In the _Works and Days_ the episodes which rise above an even didactic level are the "Creation and Equipment of Pandora," the "Five Ages of the World" and the much-admired "Description of Winter" (by some critics judged post-Hesiodic). The poem also contains the earliest known fable in Greek literature, that of "The Hawk and the Nightingale." It is in the _Works and Days_ especially that we glean indications of Hesiod's rank and condition in life, that of a stay-at-home farmer of the lower class, whose sole experience of the sea was a single voyage of 40 yds. across the Euripus, and an old-fashioned bachelor whose misogynic views and prejudice against matrimony have been conjecturally traced to his brother Perses having a wife as extravagant as himself.