Protestant Exiles from France/Book First - Chapter 13 - Section XII
XII. Captain Breval.
John Durant Breval was the only surviving son of the Rev. Francis Durant de Breval, D.D., S.T.P., Prebendary of Westminster. He entered the famous school of Westminster in 1693, and was in 1697 elected from it as a student of Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1698 he was one of the young poets who welcomed King William on his return after the peace of Ryswick. In 1704 he was M.A. and Fellow of Trinity College. The renowned Dr. Richard Bentley had become the Master of the College in 1700; and before many years of office he began and maintained a series of quarrels with the Fellows. Unfortunately, too, in the Lower House of Convocation the Master of Trinity and Prebendary de Breval had a violent altercation. The Prebendary’s death in January 1708 (n.s.) did not mitigate Dr. Bentley’s animosity. Mr. John Breval became at that time embroiled in the case of a lady maltreated by her husband. So active was his interference in a special instance of ill-usage, that the husband raised an action against him for assault. Breval was advised that the summons was illegally framed, and did not appear before the court, and he was outlawed for non-appearance. Such a case raised a great deal of talking; and, of course, some one made a scandalous insinuation against the gallant Fellow. Acting upon this insinuation, and without further enquiry, Dr. Bentley deprived him of his Fellowship on 5th April 1708. The Senior Fellows formally and energetically protested against “this clear case of malversation” (as Bentley’s right reverend biographer admits it to have been). They declared that Breval might raise an action of damages because “his father was just dead, in poor circumstances, and all his family were beggars.” The ex-Fellow did not risk an expensive lawsuit, but left Cambridge, and joined our army at Flanders as a volunteer. The talents which he had shown in old academic learning were now displayed in acquiring modern languages with extraordinary facility. The Duke of Marlborough, who took notice of him, soon discovered his aptitude for high-class work, and employed him in negotiations with several German princes. He gave him a commission as Captain in the army.
After the peace Captain Breval became a great traveller, his companion or pupil being Lord Malpas. His first attempts in literature were in the form of plays and rhyming essays. One of these, published in 1717, was a burlesque upon Pope and his friends Gay and Arbuthnot, entitled “The Confederates, a farce by Joseph Gay.” Such being its theme, it was — without any disparagement to its intrinsic merits — the occasion of his receiving a place in The Dunciad. Pope certainly succeeded in recording the true pronunciation of his satirist’s surname,
’Twas chatt’ring, grinning, mouthing, jabb’ring all,
And noise and Norton, brangling and Breval.
In 1734 Captain Breval published “A History of the House of Nassau, especially of the Orange Branch of it.”
But his best and truly great works were his four folio volumes of Travels in Europe, handsomely printed and profusely illustrated. Bernard Lintot was his publisher, and issued in 1722 “Proposals” for printing Captain Breval’s Remarks on several parts of Europe, illustrated with several maps, plans, and above forty copperplates. Volume i. was published in 1722, volume ii. in 1723, and a second edition of the complete work appeared in 1728. He continued his visits to various parts of Europe, and two new folios were produced. I have these two additional volumes before me; they are entitled, “Remarks on several parts of Europe, relating chiefly to their antiquities and history, collected upon the spot in several tours since the year 1723. By John Breval, Esq., author of the former Remarks;” London, 1738. The plates, engraved by Fourdrinier from original drawings, are forty-two in number, and illustrate Italy, Sicily, and the south of France. Among the subscribers are Moses Amyrault, Esq., Colonel Batareau, James Bonnel, Esq., Mr. John Charron of Leghorn, late Sir Edward Desbouverie, Bart., Major Foubert, Isaac Lehup, Esq., and Lord Viscount Primrose. To transcribe the names and titles of members of the peerage who subscribed for the work would fill two or three pages. This was his last work; he died in Paris in January 1739 (n.s.).