Guardio, a lady of good family, and from this time seems to have devoted himself for some years solely to literature, in which he had acquired apparently a high reputation. His happiness was cut short by the death of his son Carlos, at the age of seven years, and the mother shortly afterwards died in giving birth to a daughter, Feliciana, afterwards married to Don Luis de Usategui, the editor of some of the poet's posthumous works. By another lady, Doña Maria de Luxan, Lope had a daughter, Marcela (born in 1605), to whom he was passionately attached, and a son, Lope, who perished at sea at an early age. Impelled, perhaps, by these sorrows to a course not then unusual, Lope devoted himself to pious works, and in 1609 at Toledo became a priest. The next year he joined the same brotherhood of which Cervantes was afterwards a member. In 1625 he entered the congregation of the native priesthood of Madrid, and in 1628 was elected its chaplain. For the last twenty-eight years of his life, then, we are to regard him as devoted to the daily service of the church, but by no means retired from the world, or even from its pleasures. During this period his pen was more prolific than ever. It was during his married life that he gained general popularity by his poem on the life of San Isidro the ploughman; and in 1602 was published the "Hermosura de Angelica," intended as a continuation of the "Orlando Furioso." His next great poem, "La Dragontea," is on the subject of Sir Francis Drake's last expedition and death—a coarse and violent invective against England and Queen Elizabeth. Shortly afterwards (1604) we have a prose romance, the "Peregrino en su Patria." The mere enumeration of his works, however, far exceeds our limits. His friend Montalvan states that he wrote eighteen hundred plays, and four hundred autos, or dramas representing sacred subjects; of these a little more than five hundred dramas appear to have been published. He may fairly claim to be the founder of the Spanish theatre. He it was who introduced the "comedias de capa y espada," or comedies with cloak and sword, in which the scenes are taken from the life of the higher classes. A great number of his dramas are historical, and some of them relate to contemporary events. Some of them display a freedom hardly consistent with his ecclesiastical character. He wrote likewise several epic poems, of which one, the "Corona Tragica," relates to the life of the ill-fated Mary Queen of Scots. Lope, on the title-page of some of his works, styles himself a familiar of the inquisition, and it is said he took part in the burning of a heretic in 1623. He continued to receive all the honours and rewards that could be bestowed on him, until his death, which happened 26th August, 1635. He was buried in a convent of nuns, whence his remains have lately been transferred to the National Pantheon in Madrid.—F. M. W.
VEGA, George, Baron von, an Austrian military officer and mathematician, was born at Sagoritz in Carniola in 1754, and died by the hand of a murderer near Rusdorf on the Danube, in September, 1802. He studied at the college of Laybach, and entered the Austrian army, in which he rose rapidly as an officer of artillery, through his talents becoming known to Joseph II. In 1796 he was made a lieutenant-colonel, a knight of the order of Maria Theresa, and a baron of the empire. Having disappeared on the 17th of September, 1802, his body was found in the Danube some days after; but the cause of his death remained unknown till nine years afterwards, when the discovery of a mathematical instrument, known to have belonged to him, led to the detection, confession, and execution of his murderer. He was an accomplished mathematician, and published several works which are still of high authority, especially his logarithmic tables.—W. J. M. R.
VEGETIUS, Flavius Renatus, a Roman writer on military matters, who lived in the fourth century, his book being dedicated to the Emperor Valentinian II., who reigned from 375 till 392. His work bears the title of "Rei Militaris Instituta," or "Epitome Rei Militaris." Vegetius, according to his own account, derived his materials from the De Disciplina militari of Cato the censor; from the writings of Cornelius Celsus, Frontinus, Paterus; and lastly, from the imperial constitutions of Augustus, Trajan, and Hadrian. In the earlier editions it is divided into four books, but Scriverius, following some of the best MSS., published it in five; the latter portion of the fourth book, which treats solely of marine warfare, appearing to that celebrated scholar to stand more properly by itself. The "Rei Militaris Instituta," however, is a mere compilation, and one moreover of exceedingly little value. The best edition is that by Schwebelius, Nuremberg, 1767. The work of Vegetius was translated into German and French toward the close of the fifteenth century. One of the first books printed in England—The Fayt of armes and chyvalry, from Vegetius—concludes in these words: "Thus endeth this boke which Xyne of Pyse made and drewe out of the boke named Vegecius de Re Militari, which boke, beyng in frensche, was delyvered to me Willm Caxton by the most crysten kynge, henry VII., the xxiij day of Janyuere, the iiij yere of his regne, and desired and wylled me to translate this said boke, and reduce it into our english and natural tonge, and to put it in emprynte. Whiche translacyon was finysshed the viij day of Juyll the said yere, and emprynted the xiiij day of Juyll next followying, and ful fynyshed."—R. M., A.
* VEHSE, Charles Edward, a German historian, was born on the 18th December, 1802, at Freiberg. He studied law at Leipsic and Göttingen, and was for some time employed officially at Dresden. In 1838 he went to America, whence he returned in a year, and extended his travels into several of the countries of Europe. He subsequently settled at Dresden, but he removed to Berlin in 1843, where he has since resided, employed in official and literary labours. He is author of "Geschichte Kaiser Otto's der Grossen," Zittau, 1828; "Tafeln der Welt und Culturgeschichte," Dresden, 1834; "Shakspeare als Politiker, Psycholog und Dichter," Hamburg, 1841; "Vorlesungen über Weltgeschichte," Dresden, 1842; and "Geschichte der deutchen Hoefe seit der Reformation," Hamburg, 1851, and the following years—an elaborate work in more than forty volumes.—R. M., A.
VEIT, Philipp, an eminent German painter, was born in Berlin, February 13, 1793. His father was a Jewish banker. His mother, a daughter of Moses Mendelssohn, married a second time the celebrated Friedrich Schlegel; and when he (Schlegel) embraced the Roman catholic faith, she and her son adopted it also. Philipp Veit entered as a student the Dresden art academy in 1809. He afterwards resided with his stepfather at Vienna, and in 1815 went to Rome, where he naturally became the intimate associate of the enthusiastic band of German art students who, converts to the esthetic and theological teaching of F. Schlegel, devoted themselves to the revival of the early religious asceticism in art.—(See Overbeck, Schadow, Schnorr.) Of these Veit became one of the recognized leaders. The frescoes in the Villa Bartholdy illustrating the history of Joseph were the first great embodiment of their views. Cornelius painted "The Seven Years of Dearth," Veit "The Seven Years of Plenty." Both produced a powerful impression. Veit also painted in fresco a series of scenes from Dante's Paradise in the Villa Massimi; "The Triumph of Religion" in the gallery of the Vatican; the great altar-piece for the church of Trinita de' Monti; and some easel pictures in oil. In 1830 he returned to Germany, and was appointed director of the art school of the Stadelsche Institut, Frankfort—a school which under his superintendence gave a like direction to German art with those of Munich under Cornelius, and Düsseldorf under Schadow. He held this post till 1843, when he resigned it, in consequence of the council of the Institute having shown what he regarded as undue favour to K. F. Lessing, then becoming recognized as the representative of the Neo-romantic and Lutheran school of painting, of whose principles of art Veit was a stern opponent. Veit's principal work, and that which he and his admirers regard as the most perfect realization of his views of art, is his great symbolical fresco, painted in the large room of the Institute, "Christianity bringing the Fine Arts to Germany." His other leading pictures, executed at Frankfort, were "The Marys at the Sepulchre;" "Simeon at the Temple;" a series of historical portraits; and in 1846 the "Assumption," as an altar-piece for Frankfort cathedral. For the king of Prussia he has since painted the "Darkness in Egypt;" "The Parable of the Good Samaritan;" and prepared the cartoons for a large fresco symbolizing the "Service rendered to the Church by the reigning family of Prussia," for the new cathedral of Berlin. Numerous engravings and lithographs have been made from Veit's paintings and drawings.—J. T—e.
VELAZQUEZ DE SILVA, Don Diego, or Don Diego Rodriquez de Silva y Velazquez, the great Spanish portrait-painter, was born at Seville early in 1599. After acquiring the first principles of his art from the elder Herrera, he entered the school of Pacheco, whose daughter he afterwards married. Velazquez visited Madrid in 1622, and was introduced in the following year by the Duke Olivares to the king, Philip IV., who appointed him his court painter; and when Charles I.
