BOISSIER. 243 BOITO. in a style at once clear and distinctive, and in- cluding he poite Attius (1857) ; Etude stir la rie ct Ics ouvraijes de Tercniius Varron (18(51) ; La religion romaine, d'Aiiguste aux Antonins (1883): La fi)i du paganixnw (1894); and, in particular, Ciccron et ses amis (1892) and Promenades arclieologiqiics, Rome et Pompci ( 1892). two reconstructions of antiquity remark- able lor vividness and the minute accuracy of their details. BOISSIEtJ, bwii'sye', Je.x Jacqces (1736- 1810). A French painter and engraver, born in Lyons. He studied painting under Lombard and Frontier, and engraving under Wille, and won recognition with his landscajies. He was ap- pointed a trcsoricr in the bureau of general finance, in Lyons, and subsequently became dis- tinguished as the foremost French aquafortist. .Among his paintings is "Valley with River" (1773, Berlin Museum). Ilis engravings include much original work, as well as niunerous land- scapes after Ruysdall, Winants, and others. BOISSONADE, bwa'so'nad', Gu.STA^■E-EMILE (182.5 — ). A French jurist, the son of .Jean Francois Boissonade, the Greek scholar. He was bom in Vincennes. He is best known through his important mission to Jajjan, where he went in 1873 to draw up the principal codes for the Japanese Government. JI. Boissonade is, more- over, the author of the following valuable books : Histoire des droits de Vepoux survivant (1852), Hisfoire de la reserve heridiiaire (1873) — both crowned by the Academic des Sciences Morales ; Projet recise de code de procedure criminelle (1882); Projet revise de code penal (188(i). He was decorated with the Legion of Honor in 1S>!1. BOISSONADE, Jean Fbaxcois (1774-1857). A French classical scholar. He was bom in Paris, August 12, 1774, of a noble Gascon family. He was originally intended for an administrative career, but renounced it for philology. He soon made himself known to the learned world by his contributions to the philological journals, and was appointed professor of Greek in the Uni- versity of Paris in 1812. In 1813 he was ad- mitted to the Academy of Inscriptions, and in 1S2S he succeeded Gail as professor of Greek literature in the College de France. His most important works are: Philostrati Heroica (1806); Marini Tita Procli (1814): Tiberius Uhetor de Fignris (1815): Sylloge Poetarum (Irwcorum, 24 vols. (1823-26); Babrii Fabulw (1844). He contributed in his earlier years numerous papers on philological subjects to Parisian, Eng- lish, and (ierman journals, and gave the cause of classical study in France a powerful and still jierceptiblo impulse by his eloquent and at- tractive lectures from his chair. In addition to his many and laborious works in classical phi- lology, he also signalized himself as a French lexicographer and belle-lettrist, and was one of the most copious and valued contributors to the llioriraphic i'nivcrsrlle. He died September 8, 1857. BOISSY D'ANGLAS, bwii's*' dax'glAs', Francois Axtoixe. Count (1750-1826). A French statesman, bom at Saint .lean-le-Cham- bre, in the Department of .Xrddche. In 1789 he was elected a deputy of the States-General. While a member of the Constitient Assembly, be was accused of plotting to change the French monarchy into a Protestant republic. After the e.Nccution of Robespierre, whom he helped to ovcrtlirow, he became a member of the Commit- tee of Public Safetj' (1794), and proved himself ,1 man of marked ability. He was director of the supply of provisions for Paris during the riotous and sanguinary proceedings of the I2th tierminal and 1st Prairial in the year III. of the Republic, ami in this capacity met the popular menaces with siuguhir lirmness. Subsequently he became president of the Council of Five Hiuidred ; was a Senator under Napoleon, and a peer under Louis Will. He wrote Reeherches sur la vie, les ierits et les opinions de Malesherbes (1819) and Etudes littcraires et poetiques d'un vieillard (1825). BOISTERER. The name of a sen-ant in For- tiinio. a fairy tale by the Countess d'Aulnoy. BOITO, bo-e'to, Arrioo (1842—). An Italian composer, born in Padu.T. It is an anomalous fact that Boito owes his musical fame to an opera, Mefistofcle, which has been a comparative failure, and that this work, despite its apparent lack of lasting popularity, should be considered epoch-making — one of the most important Italian musical products of the Nineteenth Century — because it forms the pivotal point on which Ital- ian opera turned from mere tunefulness to the new dramatic school exemplified in the later ^'crdi and in Ponchielli, ilaseagni, Puccini, and Leoncavallo. The writing of the libretto, the composition and remodeling of this 'remarkable failure' occupied Boito for nearly twenty years. The son of cultured parents — his father was an Italian painter, his mother a Polish woman, a parentage which is supposed to account for the blending of southern and northei-n temperament in his artistic nature — he entered the Jlilan Con- servatory in 1850. While studying there he com- posed the garden scene in Mefistofele and other portions of the work. But the score was not finished and rearranged for stage production until 1808. Jleanwhile, Boito had done much lit- erary work and had lived in France. Germany, and Poland. Mefistofele was produced on March 5. 1868. at La Scala. Milan. The performance lasted six hours, and though it had several repe- titions (amid scenes of di.soi-der, due to hissing and applause, which caused the work to be with- drawn by order of the public authorities), its failure was undoubted. Boito again remodeled the opera, among other changes making Faust a tenor, instead of a baritone, role. In 1875 the revised version was produced in Bologna with great success, which was repeated in other Euro- jiean cities. Nevertheless, it has not maintained itself as a popular opera in the repertoire. The difficulty seems to be that Boito has attempted to cover too much of the Faust legend in a single work. Gounod's Faust, especially when given without the Brocken scone, tells a consecutive story of love, betrayal, and death. In Mefisto- fele the story is episodic — delayed by a prologue, and interrupted not only by the Brocken, but by the classical scene in which Marguerite reap- pears as Helen of Troy to the utter mystification of the greater portion of an operatic audience, so that however fine they may Ix? musically, these parts of the work detract from the impression as a whole. Boito's music, though showing traces of such utterly dillerent geniuses as the early Verdi and Wagner, is, nevertheless, a notable
