TELLEZ
478
TELMESSUS
date from the fifteenth century b. c. They consist
mostly of letters and State records sent to Kings
Amenhotep III and Amenhotep IV of Egypt, by
rulers of Western Asia (Babylonia, Assyria, ISIittani)
and provincial governors of Araurru (Northern
Syria) and Canaan (Palestine). All these documents
throw considerable hght on the conditions of Western
Asia from about 1500 to 1300 b. c; they contain most
precious information concerning the history, geog-
raphy, religion, and language of the predecessors and
contemporaries of the Hebrews in Palestine, and, in
many cases, illustrate and confirm what we already
know from the Old Testament.
The bestworkon the Teli el-Amama tablets (transcription, Ger- man translation, glossary, and notes) is that of Knudtzon. Die El Amarna Ta/etn in Hinrichs* Vorderasiatische Bibliothek, II (Leipzig, 1907-9). The Berlin and Cairo tablets were edited by Abel and Winckler, Der Thontafelfund ton El Amarna (1889- 90) , and those in the British Museum by Bezold, The Tell el- Amania Tablets in the B. M. (London, 1892). For all tablets known in 1896 see also: Winckler, Die Thontafeln von Tell-el- Aniama (transcription, German translation, and glossary); ScHRADER, Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek (Berlin, 1896); English translation by Metcalf (Berlin and New York, 1896); Conder, The Tell-Amarna Tablets (2nd ed., London, 1894); Niebchr, The Tell-el-Amarna Period; Relations of Egypt and Western Asia in the lath century B. C. according to the Tell-el-Amarna tablets (The Ancient East), (London, 1901) ; Flanders Petbie, Tell el-Amama (London. 1894); Idem, Syria and Egypt from the Tell el-Amama Letters (London, 1898) ; Idem, A Hist, of Ancient Egypt, II (4th ed., London. 1904) ; Jeremias. Das Alle Testament im Lichte des Alien Orients. (Leipzig, 1906) ; Weber, Die Literalur der Baby- lonier u. Assyrer (Leipzig, 1907) ; Dhorme, Les Pays Bibliques au temps d'el Amarna in Revue Biblique (1908-9).
A. A. Vaschalde.
Tellez, Gabriel, Spanish priest and poet, better known by his pseudonym of Tirso de Molina, b. at Madrid, c. 1571; d. at Soria, Arag6n, 21 March, 1648. Little is known of his early years except that he studied at Alcald, de Henares. The exact date of his ordination to the priesthood is not known, but the earliest notice of him in that connexion is in 1610 when he is mentioned by Andres de Claramonte y Corroy in his "Letania Moral", as Padre Fray Gabriel Tellez of the Order of Nuestra Senora de la Merced. He ap- pears to have devoted the last years of his life to the afi'airs of his order and occupied responsible offices in it. In 1619 he was superior of a convent at Trujillo in Estremadura; in 1620, and for several years follow- ing, he lived in the monastery of the order in Madrid; and in 1645 he became prior of the monastery at Soria where he died three years later. It has been stated that he adopted his nom de plume on account of his Holy orders, but this theory is apparently disproved by the fact that both names appeared on the same title-page.
Tirso's first printed volume, " Los Cigarrales de To- ledo, " appeared in Madrid in 1624 and Barcelona, 1631. The name is taken from cigarral, a Toledian word meaning a country house. The work is patterned after Boccaccio's "Decameron" and is a collection of tales and poems and three comedies, supposed to be recited and played by a 'company of ladies and gentlemen who meet at a cigarral for the purpose of diversion. A second collection, entitled " Delcitar aprovechando, " appeared in Madrid in 1635, and con- tains essays, autos sacramcntales, and three religious tales. As a dramatic writer, Tirso was very prolific. He is credited with having written four hundred plays, but only about eighty are now available. During his life his comedies were published in five parts, the first in Seville, 1627, the third in Tortosa, 1634, the second and fourth in Madrid, 1635, and the last in Madrid, 1()36. These contain fifty-nine plays. The play which h:us given Tirso his fame is his "Burlador de Sevilla y Convidadu de I'iodra", in which he created the character of 1 )(iii Juan, afterward immortalized by Mozart in his ()pcr;i of that name and by Lord Byron in his poem. Hs is at his best in his comedies and his secular nom-las. He excels in wit, originality of dia- logue, and ingenuity of plot.
DeOchoa, Tesarodel Teatro Espaflol (Paris, 1838); Hartzen-
BDSCHE, Teatro Escogido de Fr. Gabriel Telle; (Madrid. 1839-42) •
MuNOZ Pena, El Teatro del Maestro Tirso de Molina (Valladolid
1889); Blanca de los Rigs. Tirso de Molina (Madrid, 1900).
Ventura Ftjentes.
Tellier, Michel Le, b. 19 April, 1603; d. at Paris, 30 Oct., 1685. He w:is commissioned by Cardinal Maz- arin to organize the royal army, and ha\'ing helped to appease the troubles of the Fronde, he left to his son Louvois in 1666 his duties as secretary of war. After h i s appointment
as chancellor bv ' -!-»-.-, _^,„^^-=-^_.
Louis XIV in 1677 he had a decisne share in the revo- cation of the Edict of Nantes, which he signed, 2 Oct 1685, a few da^s before his deatli Before expiring he sang the canticle of Simeon "Nunc dimittis". H( shared LouisXIV's illusion that there were almost no Protestants left in France, and that the act suppressing the liberty of Prot- estant worship was no more than the public recogni- tion of an accom- plished fact, the disappearance of
Engra\mg b\ DeqiuM
painting by Charle;
Champagne
Protestantism. His eldest son,
Michel Le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois (b. at
Paris, 18 Jan., 1641; d. 16 July, 1691), noted
for the remarkable expedition with which he or-
ganized the armies for the wars of Louis XIV, was
partly responsible for this false idea, for he led the
king to believe that the dragonades, miUtary expedi-
tion which Louvois sent into Protestant villages, had
finally overcome all resistance. The youngest son of
Michel Le Tellier was Charles-Maurice Le Tellier.
Michel's funeral oration was dehvered by Bossuet and
Flechier.
Andr6. Michel Le Tellier et V organisation de Varmie monar- chique (Paris, 1906); RoussET, Hist, de Louvois (4 vols., Paris, 1861-1863).
Georges Gotau.
Telmessus, titular see in Lycia, suffragan of Myra. Telmessus (or incorrectly Telmissis) was a flourishing city west of Lycia, on a bay of the same name (also called Glaucus sinus). It was famed for its school of diviners, consulted among others by Croesus, prior to declaring war against Cyrus, and by Alexander, when he came to the town after the siege of Halicar- nassus. It must not be confounded with a city of the same name in Caria. Telmessus was also called Anastasiopolis in honour of the emperors of that name. Its ruins are located at Makri (1500 inhabitants, half of them Greek), the capital of a caza in the vilayet of Smyrna, and situated upon a rather important harbour. The acropolis is still in existence sur- rounded by walls erected by the Knights of Rhodes and the Genoese. The ruins include the remains of a theatre and a curious tomb cut in the rock. Makri derives its name from the Macra of the ancients — the Isla Longa of the medieval Italians, which lay at the entrance to the gulf. Le Quien (Oriens Christ., I, 971) mentions two bishops of Telmessus: Hilary (370) and Zeiioilotus, at the Council of Chalcedon (451). The latter is <;illed •' Bishop of the Metropolia of Telme.s.sii>i and the Isle of Macra". The "NotitisB episcopatuum " mentions 'J'ehnessus among the suf-.
