last prince of that house. Conradin agreed to put himself at their head; but the brief prosperity of his cause was utterly extinguished at the battle of Tagliacozzo, after which the Capece, along with many of the Ghibellines, were mercilessly slaughtered by Charles of Anjou.
CAPECE-LATRO, Giuseppe, a Neapolitan archbishop, born in 1744; died in 1836. More liberal than most of his order, Capece-Latro wrote against the hierarchical pretensions of the Roman see, as well as against the celibacy of the clergy. At the outbreak of the Revolution he advised the reformation of abuses, but without effect. Imprisoned after the Restoration, the king was soon forced to set him again at liberty. He was minister of the interior under Joseph Bonaparte and Murat.
* CAPEFIGUE, Baptiste Honore Raymond, French historian, born at Marseilles in 1801. Perhaps no writer could be named who has produced so many historical volumes as this prolific author; and although his works are not deficient in grace and vivacity of style, they have failed in creating that high reputation which such untiring labour would seem almost of itself to merit. To enumerate his writings would be to chronicle every portion of French history, from the earliest period down to the reign of Louis Philippe, which alone occupies ten large volumes. Besides general histories, he has written memoirs of modern statesmen and public characters who have figured at different times. As a critic of men and manners he has been guilty of the greatest errors. What is to be thought of a grave historian and politician, who can take for the subject of solemn eulogy that duke of Richelieu, the most notorious profligate of the infamous profligates of the reign of Louis XV., and who has attempted to raise madame de Pompadour from the mire, and place her on a par with Jeanne d'Arc, attributing to this adulteress and courtezan the purest motives of patriotism? As a political writer, Capefigue did himself much injury by the assumption of a misleading nom de plume. He who had never been in office, nor had even represented a constituency, published bulky pamphlets under the title—homme d'etat. The title in this case was unwarrantable, because it offered a voucher for the position of the writer; it was as if one who had never received a diploma should give out a treatise as the work of a physician, or a layman write under the title of a church dignitary.—J. F. C.
CAPEL, Arthur, was the son of Sir Henry Capel, sheriff of Essex. In 1640 he was chosen to represent the county of Hertford in the celebrated "long parliament," and was elevated to the peerage in 1641 by the title of Lord Capel of Hadham. When the civil war broke out he espoused the side of the king, and raised and maintained a troop of cavalry at his own expense. On the total ruin of the royal cause Lord Capel submitted to the parliament, and retired to his mansion at Hadham. When the designs of the republican party became manifest, he once more took the field; and along with Goring, Sir Charles Lucas, and other cavaliers, threw himself into Colchester, which was immediately besieged by Fairfax and Ireton. After a protracted and desperate resistance, during which the garrison were reduced to feed on putrid horse flesh, and even on more disgusting substances, they were compelled to surrender. Sir George Lisle and Sir Charles Lucas were immediately shot. Lord Capel was condemned by the commons to be banished; but some of the parliamentary leaders, judging the sentence too lenient, caused him to be committed to the Tower. After the execution of the king he contrived to make his escape, but was apprehended two days after, and brought to trial at Westminster for treason and other high crimes. He pleaded that he was a prisoner of war, and that his life was promised him by Fairfax; but the plea was rejected, and he was executed in Palace-yard on the 9th of March, 1649, displaying on the scaffold the greatest calmness and dignity. Lord Capel was the author of "Daily Observations, or Meditations Divine, Moral, and Political," to which are added "Letters addressed to several persons;" a posthumous publication, afterwards reprinted under the title of "Excellent Contemplations," with an account of his life. While lying in the Tower he wrote several stanzas, which were published in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1757.—J. T.
CAPEL, Arthur, son of the preceding, was, after the Restoration, created Viscount Malden and Earl of Essex. He filled the office of lord-lieutenant of Ireland from 1672 to 1677, and was subsequently made first commissioner of the treasury. He had been a prominent member of the country or whig party, but consented to take office with the view of effecting a reconciliation between that party and the throne. The perfidy of Charles, however, and his arbitrary designs against the liberties of the people, speedily produced an irreparable breach between him and the whigs. Essex was implicated in the charges brought against his friends, Lord William Russell and Algernon Sidney, and perished by his own hand in the Tower, 13th July, 1683. "He was," says Lord Macaulay, "a man of solid, though not brilliant parts, and of grave and melancholy character."—J. T.
CAPELL, Edward, a laborious commentator on the works of Shakspeare, was born near Bury, Suffolk, in 1713, and died at London in 1781. He held the office of deputy-inspector of the plays, with an annual salary of £200. In 1768 his long projected edition of the plays of Shakspeare appeared in ten volumes, with an elaborate and strangely-written introduction. In these he gave promise of some others which were afterwards published, containing notes, comments, and various readings; and also of a work named "The School of Shakspeare," containing extracts from English books in print during the lifetime of the dramatist, and from which he might have taken his fable and part of his dialogue.—J. B.
CAPELLA, Martianus Mineus Felix. The dates of Capella's birth and death have not been ascertained. He lived towards the close of the fifth century of our era. A passage from the eighth book of his poem on the "Nuptials of Philologia and Mercury," seems to prove that he was born, or at least educated, at Carthage. His biographers say that he was at one time proconsul, but the rank seems to have been given him without any evidence. Nothing is known of him but that he left a work, entitled "De Nuptiis Philologiæ et Mercuriæ," which is a kind of encyclopædic romance, partly written in verse and partly in prose, in the manner which was adopted by Boethius, and which Cowley sought to introduce into English literature, in essays mitten with such felicity that we feel surprised at his not having found many imitators. Capella's subject is the circle of the sciences, according to the views taken of them in his time. The poem consists of nine books. Mercury is weary of single life, and determines to marry. The first object of his choice is the fair Sophia (Wisdom). She has unluckily made a vow of celibacy, and so Sophia cannot be his. Psyche is next thought of, but Psyche's old engagement with Cupid interferes. At Apollo's recommendation the disappointed god looks round him again, and is attracted by a young lady of great learning, and who, it is suggested, may not be unwilling to change her name, and so he addresses Philologia, who accepts him with an absolute shout of delight. There are, however, difficulties: Mercury is the son of Jupiter, Philologia a mere daughter of the Earth, and in heaven marriages of disparagement are not approved of. The difficulties, however, are got over. Such is the subject of the first book. In the second, Philologia ascends to heaven to the circle of Mercury. She arrives at the milky way, and then her marriage is celebrated with great splendour. Seven more books follow. The first of the seven—the third of the work—tells us of Grammatica, the daughter of Mercury. Dialectica, an Egyptian woman with sparkling eyes, is the subject of the fourth book. She has a taste for argument, but gives way to her sister Rhetorica. Rhetorica reveals the secrets of her art, which are reducible to a few elements; but the fervour of her nature is expressed by her printing a burning kiss on the forehead of Philologia. Geometry, in the sixth book, commences a lecture on the science known by her name; but the subject not being adapted for prelections, she hands a copy of Euclid to the god who presides. Then comes Arithmetic speaking on her fingers, and is followed by a splendid phantom. Astronomy, a virgin with dazzling hair, limbs covered with eyes, and wings on her shoulders. She is summoned from a hollow globe by Apollo. In this book is a remarkable passage, which is said to have suggested to Copernicus his system of the universe. Capella says that Venus and Mercury do not revolve round the earth, but round the sun as the common centre of their orbits. The ninth book closes the work. In it Musica explains the theory of her art, and a hymn from her terminates all. The book was probably once popular, as few works are so often found in manuscript. It has been often printed. Grotius, when but fifteen, published an edition of some character. The best edition is Kopp's, Frankfort, 1836. Leibnitz at one time proposed publishing it.—J. A., D.
CAPELLARI, Gennaro, an Italian jesuit, celebrated as a Latinist, was born at Naples in 1655. After a sojourn at Rome,
