Milanese; in the 15th century it was the scene of a famous battle, in which the Swiss were defeated; and it finally passed into the hands of the three cantons of Uri, Unterwalden, and Schwyz after the battle of Marignano in 1515.
Population in 1870, 2051.BELLMAN, Karl Mikael, the greatest lyrical poet of Sweden, was born at Stockholm on the 4th of February 1740. His father, who held a responsible official position, was descended from a family that had already distinguished itself in the fine arts; his mother, a gifted and beautiful woman, early instructed him in the elements of poetry and music. When quite a child he suddenly developed his extraordinary gift of improvising verse, during the delirium of a severe illness, weaving wild thoughts together lyrically, and singing airs of his own composition. From this time he gave himself up to the poetic art, and received great encouragement from the various eminent men who met round his father's table, among whom was Dalin, the favourite poet of the day. As early as 1757 he published a book of verse, a translation of Schweidnitz's Evangelical Thoughts of Death, and for the next few years wrote a great quantity of poems, imitative for the most part of Dalin. In 1760 appeared his first characteristic work, The Moon, a satirical poem, which was revised and edited by Dalin. But the great work of his life occupied him from 1765 to 1780, and consists of the collections of dithyrambic odes known as Fredman's Epistles and Fredman's Songs. These were not printed until 1790. Tht mode of their composition was extraordinary. No poetry can possibly smell less of the lamp than Bellman's. He was accustomed, when in the presence of none but confidential friends, to announce that the god was about to visit him. He would shut his eyes, take his zither, and begin to improvize a long Bacchic ode in praise of love or wine, and sing it to a melody of his own invention. The genuineness of these extremely singular fits of inspiration could not be doubted. The poems which Bellman wrote in the usual way were tame, poor, and without character. The Fredman's Epistles glow with colour, ring with fierce and mysterious melody, and bear the clear impress of individual genius. These torrents of rhymes are not without their method; wild as they seem, they all conform to the rules of style, and among those that have been preserved there are few that are not perfect in form. The odes of Bellman breathe a passionate love of life; he is amorous of existence, and keen after pleasure, but under all the frenzy there is a pathos, a yearning that is sadder than tears. The most dissimilar elements are united in his poems; in a bacchanal hymn the music will often fade away into a sad elegiac vein, and the rare picturesqueness of his idyllic pictures is warmed into rich colour by the geniality of his humour. He is sometimes frantic, sometimes gross, but always ready, at his wildest moment, to melt into reverie. A great Swedish critic has remarked that the voluptuous joviality of Bellman is, after all, only “sorrow clad in rose-colour,” and this underlying pathos gives his poems their undying charm. His later works, The Temple of Bacchus, a journal called What you Will, a religious anthology entitled Zion's Holiday, and a translation of Gellert's Fables, are comparatively unimportant. He died on the 11th of February 1795. Several statues exist of Bellman. One represents him naked, crowned with ivy, and striking the guitar; the best is the splendid colossal bust by Byström, which adorns the public gardens of Stockholm, which was erected by the Swedish Academy in 1829. Bellman had a grand manner, a fine voice, and great gifts of mimicry, and was a favourite companion of King Gustavus III. The best edition of his works is one lately published at Stockholm, edited by J. G. Carlén.
BELLONA, in Roman Mythology, the goddess of war, corresponding to the Greek Enyo, and called now the sister or daughter of Mars, now his charioteer or his nurse. Her worship appears to have been promoted in Rome chiefly by the family of the Claudii, whose Sabine origin, together with their use of the name of “Nero,” has suggested an identification of Bellona with the Sabine war goddess Nerio. Her temple at Rome, founded by Appius Claudius Cæcus, 296 B.C., stood in the Campus Martius, near the Flaminian Circus, and outside the gates of the city. It was there that the senate met to discuss the claims of a general to a triumph, and to receive ambassadors from foreign states. In front of it was the columna bellica where the ceremony of declaring war was performed. From this native Italian goddess is to be distinguishad the Asiatic Bellona, whose worship was introduced into Rome from Comana, in Cappadocia, apparently by Sulla, to whom she had appeared, urging him to march to Rome and bathe in the blood of his enemies. For her a new temple was built, and a college of priests (Bellonarii) instituted to conduct her fanatical rites, the prominent feature of which was to lacerate themselves and sprinkle the blood on the spectators. To make the scene more grim they wore black dresses from head to foot.
BELLOT, Joseph René, one of the heroes and victims of Arctic exploration, was born at Paris, March 18, 1826. At the age of fifteen he entered the Naval School, in which he studied two years, and earned a high reputation. He distinguished himself in the French expedition of 1845 against Tamatave in Madagascar; and although he was not yet twenty he received the cross of the Legion of Honour at the close of that year. He was afterwards attached to the staff of the station, was promoted to the rank of Enseigne de Vaisseau in November 1847, and in 1851 obtained permission to join the English expedition then preparing to go out, under the command of Captain Kennedy, in search of Sir John Franklin. On this occasion he displayed great courage, presence of mind, andself-devotion, rendered important services, and made the discovery of the strait, which bears his name, between Boothia Felix and Somerset Land. Early in 1852 he was promoted lieutenant. In the same year he accompanied, as a volunteer, the expedition sent out by the English Government under Captain Inglefield on the same quest. His intelligence, his devotion to duty, and his courage won him the esteem and admiration of all with whom he was associated. While making a perilous journey with two comrades across the ice, for the purpose of communicating with Captain Inglefield, he was overtaken by a storm, August 21, and being blown into an opening between the broken masses of ice was seen no more. A pension was granted to his family by the Emperor Napoleon III., and an obelisk was erected to his memory in front of Greenwich Hospital.
BELLOWS and BLOWING-MACHINES are machines for producing a current of air, chiefly in order to assist the combustion of a fire.
The common bellows now in use probably represents one of the oldest contrivances for this purpose. It consists of two flat boards, of oval or triangular shape, connected round their edges by a piece of leather so as to form an air chamber. The leather is kept from collapsing, on separation of the boards, by two or more hoops, which act like the ribs in animals. The lower board has a hole in its centre covered inside by a leather flap or valve opening inwards; it has also fastened to it a metal pipe or nozzle, of smaller aperture than the valve. On raising the upper board, the air from without lifts the valve and enters the cavity; then on pressing down the top board, this air is compressed, shuts the valve, and is driven through the pipe with a velocity corresponding to the pressure.
