BRONSART VON SCHELLENDORF. 537 BRONTORNIS. who prepared the measure providing for an increase of the standing army (18S7). Dur- ing his term of office tlie repeating rifle was in- troduced into the infantry branch of the ser- vice, new pension laws were enacted, and the conditions of military service were modified. He wrote the following works: Ein RucLliUrk auf die iaktischen Riickblieke (2d ed., 1870; English translation by H. A. Ouvry. London, 1871); Dcr Diciist ilcs (Icitcralstabc.i ( .'Kl edi- tion by Meckel, 1893: translated into English under the title of The Duties of the General Staff, by W. A. H. Hare, 1877). BRONT.ffi'TTS (Gk. iipovraioc, brontaios, thundering, from jipovri), bronte, thunder). An epithet of Zeus. BRONTE, bron'ta. A city in the Province of Catania, Sicily, at the western base of Mount Etna, between the sreat lava streams of 10.51 and 1843; 2G00 feet above the sea, and 34 miles north- west of Catania (ilap: Italy, J 10). The prin- cipal manufactures are paper and woolen goods; the adjacent valley of the Simeto produces large quantities of grain and wine. The town is cele- brated chiefly for its connection with Admiral Nelson, who was created Duke of Bronte by the Neapolitan Government in 1799. Poimla- tion (commune), in 1881, 16,577; in 1901, 20,366. BRON'TE, Anxe. See Bboxte, Charlotte. BRONTE, Ch.bi.otte (1816-55). An Eng- lish novelist, born at Thornton, in the West Rid- ing of Yorkshii-e. April 21, 1816. Her father, Patrick Bronte, a clergj-man of Irish descent I the name is said to have been originally Prunty ) . re- moved, with five young cliildren and an invalid wife, from Thornton to Haworth, in the same county, in 1820. Anne, the sixth and last child, was born the same year. Soon after the arrival Mrs. Bronte died : so that Charlotte, trying hard in after-life, could but dimly recall the remem- brance of her mother. Her father, eccentric and solitary in his habits, was ill fitted to replace a mother's love : and though their mother's elder sister. Miss Branwell, and later the faithful ser- vant 'Tabby,' entered the household, the children were left much to themselves. When Charlotte was eight years old she was sent with three of her sisters to Cowan's Bridge School, between Leeds and Kendal, which, whether deservedly or not. had an unfortunate notoriety conferred upon it 25 years later in the pages of Jdne hh/re. The two elder sisters — JIaria and Eliza- beth — falling dangerously ill and dying a few days after tlieir removal thence. Charlotte and Emily were taken out of the school. In 1831 Charlotte was sent to ^liss W'ooler's school at Roehead, between Leeds and Huddersfield, where her remarkable talents were duly ap- preciated by her kind instructress, and a friend- ship «as formed with some of her fellow- pupils that lasted throughout life. . few years later she returned to Miss Wooler's school as teacher there, and she had. soon after this, some sorrowful experiences as governess in one of the • two families where she foiind employment. It was with a view of better qiialifying tliemselves for the task of teaching that Charlotte and Emily went to Brussels in 1842 and took up their abode in a pensionnat. When Charlotte returned home for good in 1844. a new shadow- darkened the gloomy Yorkshire parsonage — her father's sight was declining fast, and her only brother was becoming an inebriate. It now seemed plain that school-keeping could never be a resource, and the sisters — Cliarlotte, Emily, and . ne — turned tlieir thoughts to lit- erature. Their volume of poems was published in 1846, their names being veiled under those of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell: but it met with little or no attention. Cliarlotte's next venture was a prose tale. The Professor, and while it was passing slowly and heavily from publisher to publisher, Jane Eyre was making progress. Jane Eyre appeared in 1847, and took the public by storm. It was felt that a fresh hand, making new harmonies, was thrown over the old instrument. Henceforward CharIott« Bronte had a 'twofold life, as author and wo- man.' Over the latter the clouds closed thicker and thicker. Jlr. Bronte had indeed recovered his sight ; but Emily, the sister Charlotte so in- tensely loved, died in 1848. Her only brother, Branwell, also died in the same year; and Anne, the yoimgest of the famih-, following in 1849. Charlotte was left alone with her aged father, in a dreary home among the graves. Neverthe- less, her energy never flagged. Shirley, begun soon after the appearance of Jane Eyre, was publislied in 1849; and ViUette, written under the frequent pressure of bad health and low spirits, came out in 1853. In the spring of 1854 Charlotte Bronte was married to her father's curate, the Eev. A. Nicholls. wlio had long known and loved her. It is a relief to find that a little sunshine was permitted to the close of a hitherto clouded life. It was, however, but brief. .She died March 31, 1855. All the Brontes possessed ability akin to gen- ius. — Beaxwell (1817-48), weakened by dissipa- tion, left a few poems, among which are occa- sional lines showing the Bronte spirit. — .xXE (1820-49) died too young to achieve fame, Init there is nothing commonplace about her two nov- els, Agnes Grey and Wildfell Hall. — The portrait of Emily (1818-48) is drawn by her sister in Shirley. Having in mind, doubtless, her Wiilher- iny fJeiyhts (1847) and her poems, ilatthew .rnold declared that for passion, vehemence, and grief, Emily Bronte had had no equal since Byron. Charlotte was, perhaps, less vehe- ment, but her novels come from an adiing lieart. And having seen more of the world, she possessed the greater insiglit into character, in execution the work of all the sisters is faulty: but Charlotte's is less so than that of the others. The standard Life of Charlotte Bronte (London, 1857), by Elizabeth Gas kell, has been supplemented by C. K. Shorter's Charlotte Bronte and Her Cireles (London, 1896). Consult, also: lAfe and Works of the Sisters Bronii', with preface by Mrs. H. Ward and an introduction and notes to the life l>y Shorter (7 vols., London and New York.- 1900) j Keid. Cliarlotte Bronte (London, 1877); L. Stephen, "Essay," in IJours in a Library, 3d series (London, 1879) ; A. Birrell, Life, with liibliography (London, 1887) : Robinson, Emiltf Bronlii (Boston, 1883) ; Leyland. The Bronte Eamily. with special reference to Branwell (Lon- don. 1SS6) : and the Bronte Society. BRONTOPS. See Titaxotherium. BRONTORNIS. A gcniis of gigantic fossil biril^ tmiii flic lower Tertiary rocks of Pata- gonia, related to Phororhacos and other Ste-
