purposes of government in detecting conspirators. In 1590 he published his "Writing Schoolmaster, in three parts," which three were the arts of swift, true, and fair writing. He died about the year 1610.—J. B.
BALESTRA, Antonio, an Italian painter of considerable name, born at Verona in 1666; died in 1734; or, according to some biographers, in 1740.
* BALFE, Michael William, a musician, was born at Dublin, May 15, 1808. He is the first English subject of modern times whose talent as a composer has been acknowledged, and whose works have been performed throughout the continent of Europe; and it will be through him, and such as him, whose merit is so justly appreciated abroad, that our countrymen will, sooner or later, be compelled to relinquish the prevalent prejudice against English musical capability. When he was four years old his family resided at Wexford, and it was here, in the eager pleasure he took in listening to the performances of a military band, that Balfe gave the first signs of his musical aptitude; struck with the boy's constant and ardent attention, Meadowes, the band-master, sought and obtained his father's leave, to teach him the violin, and at five years of age, he took his first lesson. Before the end of six months, he wrote a polacca for the band, and his progress in playing was so great as to induce his father to remove back to Dublin, in order to obtain for him better instruction. He was placed under O'Rourke (a musician of some merit, who afterwards, under the name of Rooke, settled in London, and made himself known by the production, in 1837, of his opera of Amilie), who brought him out as a violinist in a concert at the Royal Exchange in May, 1816. When Rooke quitted Dublin, Balfe continued the study of the violin under James Barton, and of composition under Alexander Lee, the popular ballad writer. 'When little more than nine years old, he composed the ballad of "Young Fanny, the Beautiful Maid," which was purchased of him by Willis, the publisher, for twenty printed copies; the melody became a great favourite, and some time afterwards, Haynes Bayley wrote to it the words of the Lover's Mistake, with which Madame Vestris sang it in the comedy of Paul Pry. Besides playing and composing, he now sang in public, and with his threefold ability, became a small celebrity. When he was sixteen his father died, and left him to depend entirely upon his own resources; he accordingly came to London, and gained no little credit by his performance of violin solos at the so-called oratorios. He then was engaged in the orchestra at Drury Lane, and when T. Cooke, the director, had to appear on the stage (which was the case in the more important musical pieces), he led the band. At this time he took lessons in composition, of C. F. Horn, the organist of the chapel-royal, Windsor, and music-master of the princesses, and the father of the popular song writer. In 1825 he met Count Mazzara. a Roman nobleman, at a party, who was so charmed with his playing and his singing some songs of his own, and so touched by his personal likeness to a son he had recently lost, that he invited Balfe to accompany him to Italy, proposing to defray his entire expenses; this generosity delighted the young artist, who accompanied his patron to the land of song, believing that he thus entered the very sanctuary of the muse to whom he was devoted. Resting at Paris on the journey to Rome, Balfe was introduced to Cherubini, who was so pleased with his talent as to offer him lessons in composition, but even this tempting offer was insufficient to check Balfe's earnest desire to reach the sunny south, and breathe the atmosphere of music. At Rome he was located in the house of his patron, and studied counterpoint under Federici, who was afterwards head of the Conservatorio at Milan. In 1826 the count's affairs called him from Rome, but he left not Balfe without giving him some valuable introductions, and depositing a sum of money at a banker's for his use. With these letters Balfe went to Milan, where he studied singing under Fillippo Galli, and wrote the music for the ballet of Perouse (transplanted from the English stage by Glossop, the manager of the Scala, and Barrymore, his pantomimist), for which he was much praised. Glossop's resignation of the management disappointed him of an appearance as a singer at the Scala, so he returned to London, but finding here no occupation, he went to Paris, where Cherubini introduced him to Rossini, who was then director of the Italian opera; the author of the Barbiere was quick to perceive his talent, and offered him a lucrative engagement as principal barytone, with the single condition that he should take a course of preparatory lessons of Bordogni; and M. Gallois, a Paris banker, presented him with a munificent sum to meet his expenses till the engagement commenced. He made his first appearance at the close of 1828 as Figaro, with success, and besides the distinction he gained as a singer, in the course of the season he did himself much credit by the composition of some additional pieces for Zingarelli's Romeo e Gialette, which was revived for Mesdames Malibran and Blasis, this being his first attempt at operatic writing.
At the close of his Paris engagement he returned to Italy, and rested for some time at the residence of a new patron, the Count Sampieri of Bologna, for whose birthday he wrote a cantata, which was so much admired that he was elected member of the Philharmonic Society. In the carnival season of 1829-30, he sung principal barytone at Palermo, and here he produced his first complete opera, "I Rivali," which was written in the brief term of twenty days, when the manager had a dispute with the chorus to enable him to dispense with that rebellious body. Passing through Bergamo, after this engagement, he first met Madlle. Rosen, a German singer, whom he married. In the autumn of this year he sung at Pavia, where also he brought out his second opera, "Un Avertimento ai gelosi." In 1831 he produced "Enrico quarto" at Milan, where he was engaged to sing with Malibran at the Scala. The following year he wrote the greater part of an opera on the subject of Hamlet for Venice; but the death of the emperor, and the consequent closing of the theatres, prevented its performance. He has, however, since appropriated the whole of the music. He continued his career as a singer in Italy until the spring of 1835, when he came to London, and appeared at several public and private concerts. He wrote his opera of "The Siege of Rochelle," for the Lyceum, where it was in rehearsal when the failure of Mr. Arnold's management closed the theatre, and it is owing to the accident of the parts having been copied, that Mr. Bunn chose it to fill up a gap at Drury Lane, where it was produced in October with brilliant success; and supported by an attractive afterpiece, it was played for more than three months without intermission. Balfe was thus established as a popular composer in London, and was straightway engaged to write "The Maid of Artois" for Malibran, at the same theatre, which was produced in the summer of 1836. "The light of other days," in this opera, has been the most popular song in England that our days have known; and the rondo finale has been almost as great a favourite in every country on the continent. In the autumn of this year Balfe appeared as a singer at Drury Lane, and produced his opera of "Catherine Grey." In 1837 he brought out his "Joan of Arc," which was rivalled by the Amilie of his old master, Rooke, at Covent Garden. In 1838 he brought out his "Falstaff" at her Majesty's theatre, the first opera written for that establishment by a native composer since the Olympiade of Arne. In 1839 his "Diadeste" was given at Drury Lane, and this year he entered the field as a manager at the Lyceum, when his wife sang for the first time in England. In 1840 he had again the direction of the same theatre, where he brought out his "Keolanthe," notwithstanding the success of which, the season terminated in bankruptcy.
He now went to Paris, and, after a long sojourn there, brought out "Le Puit d'Amour" at the Opera Comique, which was afterwards given in London under the name of "Genevieve." He came back to England to produce at Drury Lane, in the November of this year, the most successful of all his works, "The Bohemian Girl," which has proved the most universally popular musical composition which has emanated from that country. His reputation in England had, through the comparative non-success of his later operas, and through his three years' absence, greatly declined; but this opera not only re-established his popularity, but gave him a stronger position than he had yet held. It has been translated into almost every European language, and is as great a favourite on the other side of the Atlantic as on this. "The Bohemian Girl" was composed before Balfe left London, and deposited with his publisher when he went away; but he appropriated some of the music in his French opera, and had therefore to recompose several pieces when the work was to be brought out, two of which prove to be the most successful songs in the opera, whereas the original settings of the same words made no effect in the situation in which he used them. In 1844 he wrote "Les quatre Fils Aymon" for Paris, produced here as "The Castle of Aymon,"
