Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/581

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BARD.
507
BARDESANES.

it and over the railway tunnel towers Fort Bard, which conmiand'i the road over the Great and Lit- tle Saint Bernhard into the plains of Piedmont. It was seized by the French during the W'ar of the Spanish Succession in 1704, and in 1800 was destroyed by them after it had held Napoleon in check "for a week; it was afterwards rebuilt. Population (comnnuie), in 1881, 437; in 1901, 42.5.


BABD (Irish bard, Welsh bardd, Breton tor^). A name connnonly given to poets and singers among the Celtic peoples, and mentioned by classical historians as early as the Second Century B.C. The bards disappeared early among the (ia'uls of the Continent; at all events, not much is known to us of their activity. But among the insular Celts they formed an important social class throughout the Middle Ages, and under modified conditions, the order exists to this day.

In the old Welsh laws, bards were recognized as important members of the community, with special rights and duties. They were organized in some fashion into a separate order, and it is traditionally lielieved that Grufl'ydd ap Kynan, King of Cwynedd, made rules for their govern- ment. But on this last point there is no satis- factory proof. It should be also said that there is no evidence at all for the claim that the bardic organization of the Twelfth Century was a sur- vival of the ancient Druidie hierarchy. Mr. Stephens, in his Literature of the Ki/mry. has niiide it clear that the Druidism of the Middle Ages was contined to the bards, and Avas of very recent origin ; and the Druidism of the modern Gorsedd appears to be a later development still. The writings of the Welsh bards, which dealt with a large variety of subjects, both secular and religious, are treated elsewhere in the article on Welsh Language a.»^d Lttebatube. The order of bards is still regularly maintained in Wales in connection with the Druids and ovatcs. In Ireland, the rank and privileges of poets were not dissimilar to those established in Wales. But the name bard was at first applied in Irish only to the lower order of popular rliymesters, while the poets of the schools were known as filid (singular fiU). This distinction disap- peared, however, in the course of time, and the name bard came to be applied to all poets in Ireland as it was in Wales. Professional bardic schools were maintained down through the Seventeenth Century, and the old classical metres were taught in them to the end. (See the article on Irish Literature.) But English rule was always unfavorable to the bards, and they prac- tically disappeared in the course of the Eigh- teenth Century.

In Scotland, the name 'bard' has been applied freely to poets down to the present time, but there docs not appear to have been any regular bardic organization in the modern period.

Bibliography. Classical citations are brought together in Holder's Alteeltischer Spraclisehatz (Leipzig, 18'Jfl). Consult also, for' the Welsh hards: Walter, Da.i alte Wales (Bonn, 18.59) ; Stephens, Literature of the Kt/mrij (London, 1873). For the Irish bards: Thurneysen, Mittel- irischen Verslehren, in Stokes and Windisch's Irische Texte, Vol. III. (Leipzig, 1880-1000) : Douglas Hyde, A Literary Bistort) of Ireland (New York, 1899). Among older treatises, .Jones, Relics of the Welsh Bards (London, 1784), and Walker, Memoirs of the Irish Bards (London, 1780), may be cited.


BARD, or BARD'ING (Sp., Port, albarda, pack-saddle, from xr. al-barda'ali, a woolen pad placed under the saddle) . The armor used for the protection of a hor.se. See Cii.mfbon.


BARD, Samuel (1742-1821). An American physician. He was born in Philadelphia and was educated at Columbia College and the Edinburgh Jledical School. He organized the medical school at Columbia College, and became dean of the faculty. 'hile Kew York was the seat of the Federal Government, he was Washing- ton's family physician. In 1813 he became presi- dent of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. His published works comprise a study of the diseases of sheep. The Shepherd's Guide (1807) ; a treatise on Angina Suffocativa, and a Manual of Midwifery (1807).


BARDAISAN, biir'di-siin'. See Bakdesanes.


BARDELEBEN, bar'de-la'ben, Adolf von (1819-95). A German surgeon, born at Frank- fort-on-the-Oder. He studied medicine in Ger- many and in France, and in 1849 became pro- fessor of surgery at the University of Greifswald. During the Aar of 1S06, he acted as surgeon- general, and in 1808 became jirofessor of surgery in the University of Berlin. In 1870 he ag-ain acted as consulting military surgeon. His published works include an e.Kcellent Lehrbuch der Chirurt/ie und Operationslehre (8th ed., 4 vols., 1879-82).


BARDELL', Mrs. A widow in Dickens's Pickwiek Papers (q.v. ). She is plaintiff in the famous case of Bardell i Pickwick. After the trial, she is thrown into the Fleet Prison for inability to pay her lawyer's fees. See Dodson and Fogg.


BARDESANES, biir'de-sa'nez, or BARDAISAN (son of Daisan— a river) (154-C.223). A Syrian Christian poet and theologian. He was born at Edessa, of a good family, and lived for a time at the court of the Abgars. Our informa- tion concerning him is not extensive, and only fragments of his many writings have survived, but we know that he was a very influential figure in the Syrian Churcli. He died at Edessa in A.D. 223. It was chiefly through his efforts that Christianity was first introduced into Edessa, which soon became an important theological cen- tre. He fled into Armenia when Edessa was taken by Caracalla (a.d. 217), but returned soon afterwards. Vriters like Eusebius and .Jerome refer to Bardesanes in high terms, although the former represents him as having lieen for a time a Valentinian Gnostic (see Valentinus; Gnosti- cism). He popularized his views in the form of hymns, 150 in jiumber, which were widely used and which justify us in regarding Barde- sanes as one of the fathers of Christian hym- nology. It is uncertain how much his son, Har- monius, contributed toward this enrichment of worship, but some ancient authorities rate hia services very high. Ephraim, the Syrian, an orthodox writer of the Fourth Century, was alarmed at the influence these hymns still ex- erted in his day, so he composed others in their place, using Bardesanes as a model, but inserting nothing that was not strictly Catholic. It is difficult to decide just how- far Bardesanes's teachings diverged from orthodoxv. He himself