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CAPELL, (Edward,) a dramatic critic, well known for his indefatigable attention to the works of Shakspeare, was born at Troston, near Bury, in Suffolk, in 1713, and received his education at the school of St. Edmund's Bury. In the dedication of his edition of Shakspeare, in 1768, to the duke of Grafton, he observes, that "his father and the grandfather of his grace were friends, and to the patronage of the deceased nobleman he owed the leisure which enabled him to bestow the attention of twenty years on that work." The office which the duke bestowed on him was that of deputy inspector of the plays, with a salary of 2001. a year. So early as the year 1745, as he himself informs us, shocked at the boldness of Hanmer's plan, he projected an immaculate edition of Shakspeare, to be collated and published, in due time, "ex fide codicum." He immediately proceeded to collect and compare the oldest and scarcest copies; noting the original excellences and defects of the rarest quartos, and distinguishing the improvements or variations of the first, second, and third folios. Three years after (to use his own language) he "set out his own edition, in ten volumes, small octavo, with an Introduction," 1768, printed at the expense of the principal booksellers of London, who gave him 300. for his labours. There is not, among the various publications of the present literary era, a more singular composition than that Introduction. In style and manner it is more obsolete and antique than the age of which it treats. It has since been added to the prolegomena of Johnson's and Steeven's edition. In the title-page of this work was also announced "Whereunto will be added, in some other volumes, notes, critical and explanatory, and a body of various readings entire." The Introduction likewise declared, that these

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"notes and various readings" would be accompanied with another work, disclosing the sources from which Shakspeare drew the greater part of his knowledge in mythological and classical matters, his fable, his history, and even the seeming peculiarities of his language-to which, "we have given for title, The School of Shakspeare.' Three and twenty years were employed in searching old MSS., and in examining various readings, before the publication appeared; but after all the public was disappointed in its expectations of illustrative notes and commentaries to adorn an edition of ten volumes, 8vo. The labours of Malone, Steevens, Farmer, Percy, and others, checked the ardour of Capell to finish what he had so long promised, and, after forty years, the annotations appeared as posthumous, under the editorial superintendence of Mr. Collins, in three volumes, 4to. This edition is valuable in itself, and throws great light upon the characters in Shakspeare's plays, and on the various sources from which his fables are derived. Capell died in 1781. Besides the work already mentioned, he edited a volume of ancient poems called Prolusions, and his altered play of Antony and Cleopatra, which was acted at Drury Lane in 1758.

CAPELLA, (Galeazzo Flavio Capra, better known by the name of,) a man of letters, born at Milan, in 1487. His abilities recommended him to the notice of Francis Sforza, duke of Milan, who made him secretary of state, employed him in several important negotiations, and commissioned him to write his history. He was also made orator of the emperor Maximilian, and maintained his fidelity to him when Charles V. became master of Milan. He died in 1537, from the effects of a fall from his horse. His writings are very valuable, especially his De Rebus nuper in Italia Gestis, et de

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Bello Mediolanensi Libri VIII. which has been often reprinted, and is inserted in the Thesaurus Antiquit. of Grævius. CAPELLA,(Marcianus Mineius Felix,) is the author of a work in nine books, called Satyricon, in imitation of something similar by Varro and Petronius, and of which the Consolationes Philosophicæ of Boethius is the latest specimen, where prose and verse are intermixed. The first two books contain an allegorical description of the marriage of Mercury and Philology, represented as the Nymph who presides over learning in general; and they serve as a kind of introduction to the remaining seven, that treat of Grammar, Metaphysics, Logic, Rhetoric, Geography, Geometry, Arithmetic, Astronomy, and Music. Of these the most remarkable is the one relating to Astronomy; where, since the planets Mercury and Venus are said to revolve around the sun, it has been supposed that Copernicus obtained the first idea of his system. According to Cassiodorus, the author was born at Madaura in Africa; but he has evidently confounded Apuleius with Capella, who calls himself a scion of Elissa, a name for Carthage; and hence in some MSS. he is described as a Carthaginian, and at the same time a person who had served the office of a proconsul. Although nothing is known of the time when he lived, thus much is however certain, that he flourished after Solinus and Aristides Zuiactilianus; for his geography is derived from the former, and his music from the latter; while his style is evidently modelled after Apuleius, especially in the first two books, where the description of the marriage might be taken for almost a sequel to the story of Cupid and Psyche. The work is remarkable as having been edited, Lugd. Bat. 1599, with notes by Grotius, who, when he was only fourteen years old, ventured to grapple with an author whose difficulties are such as to deter even veteran scholars from meddling with them; and after it had lain neglected for more than two centuries, it attracted the attention of Kopp, when, at the age of 50, he returned to the' studies of his youth; and after devoting twenty years to it, left his notes still in MS. to be prepared by C. F. Hermann, for the edition of Francof. ad Mon. 1836, 4to. It contains the collations of numerous MSS. and an Apparatus Criticus that Kopp himself scarcely knew how to use, but which cannot fail to be extremely valuable to some future editor, who will

find in a copy of Grotius' edition at present in the British Museum, that Bentley conceived the name of Capella to have been not Mineius, but Minucius; a fact omitted by Teder, who communicated to Kopp the collation of the Cambridge MS. which Bentley had written in the margin of that copy.

CAPELLEN, (Francis van,) a brave Dutch admiral, born in 1750. He distinguished himself in early life, and in 1793 was promoted to the rank of admiral. In 1799 he surrendered his flag to the British fleet, and was carried to England, whence in 1813 he returned with the prince of Orange, and was despatched to the East Indies, and was made governor-general of the Dutch dependencies there. In 1816 he joined with six frigates the squadron commanded by lord Exmouth at the attack of Algiers. The British admiral spoke in the highest terms of Capellen's effective zeal and energy on that memorable day. For his important services he received the decoration of the order of the Bath, and the thanks of the House of Commons; while by his own sovereign he was honoured with the Grand Cross of the order of William. He died in 1824.

CAPELLO, (Bernardo,) an Italian poet, born, of a noble family, at Venice, in the beginning of the sixteenth century. While at Padua he made the acquaintance of the celebrated Bembo, who had a high opinion of his taste and judgment, and submitted to him all his works before publication. After filling some functions of magistracy at Venice, he was banished, by the Council of Ten, for life, in 1540, to the island of Arbo, whence he contrived to escape to Rome, and obtained the protection of cardinal Farnese, who had him appointed governor of Orvietto and of Tivoli. He died at Rome, in 1565. His Rime have been often reprinted; the best edition is that of Serassi, Bergamo, 1748-53, 2 vols, 8vo. His compositions are highly commended by Tiraboschi.

CAPELLO, (Bianca,) called also Buonaventuri, (which was the name of her first husband,) was born in 1540. She was the daughter of Bartolomeo Capello, a nobleman and senator of Venice, and is represented by the French Biography as a monster of iniquity, upon the authority of the Jesuit Angiolo Galluzzi, who lived a century after her time, and whose partiality for the family of De Medici has materially impaired the value of his Istoria del Gran Ducate di Toscana,

by the confusion of dates, misrepresentation, exaggeration, and even supposition of facts, of which the account he gives of Bianca is a very striking instance. Unfortunately the errors and calumnies of Galluzzi were copied by Siebenkees in the Life of Bianca Capello, which he published at Gotha in 1739, and would perhaps have remained, like the Istoria di Galluzzi, unnoticed, if Ludger had not translated it into English in 1804. The real facts of the case appear to have been the following:-Opposite to Capello's palace lived a young and handsome Florentine, named Pietro Buonaventuri, of a respectable but poor family, who was studying commerce at the banking house kept by the great Salviati of Florence at Venice. He fell in love with Bianca, and she listened to him so much the more easily, as she took him for Salviati himself, whose family and fortune were equal to that of Capello. On discovering her error, Bianca lost the hope of becoming his wife, but by a weakness which is but too common, she committed the fault of assenting to a final meeting. She went over to him late in the evening; and on her return, finding the gates of her palace shut, the fear of a discovery induced her to elope with her lover. The money necessary for their journey being taken by Buonaventuri from the bank of which his uncle Giovanni Battista was the manager or treasurer, the latter was consequently arrested, and died in prison. The lovers were married at Pistoja, and arrived at Florence, in 1573, at the house of Buonaventuri's father. There Bianca lived for some time in strict seclusion through the fear of her parents, who had obtained from the Venetian senate an order to pursue the fugitives, and even offered a large reward for the apprehension of Buonaventuri. By chance, however, she was seen by Francesco Maria, the first grand duke of the name, to whom at that time his father Cosmo I. a few months before his death, which happened in 1574, had given up the government; and her great beauty made so deep an impression upon him, that he took her under his protection, lodged her, not in his palace, where his wife the archduchess Jane of Austria, daughter of the emperor Ferdinand I., would not have submitted to the insult, but in another house, situated in Via Maggiore, and gave a lucrative office at court to her husband, who, a few months after, was killed by Roberto Ricci, a Florentine

nobleman, on account of Cassandra Bangiani, a beautiful woman whom he loved, and whom Buonaventuri had been imprudent enough to intrigue with; and this happened in the same year in which Cosmo died. Things remained in this state till the year 1576, when Bianca gave birth to a son, who was named Antonio, and whom the enemies of Bianca, on the authority of Galluzzi and other friends of Ferdinando de Medici, who succeeded Francesco, assert to have been a suppositious child; and this merely to charge Bianca with the assassination of a number of people who were privy to this transaction. In April 1578, the archduchess and grandduchess Jane died; and in October 1579, Francis having lost the only son he had by her, legitimated Antonio, and publicly married Bianca, whom the Venetian senate, by a solemn embassy, immediately declared daughter of their state. This marriage, and above all, this legitimation, highly displeased Ferdinand, the younger brother of Francesco Maria, then a cardinal at Rome, and next heir to the succession. From causes not known he went to Florence in 1585, and Bianca, in order to effect a reconciliation between him and her husband, induced the grand duke to invite him to their house of Poggio at Casano, a few miles from Florence, where they received him with the greatest affection; but towards the end of the entertainment, and almost at the same moment, both Bianca and Francesco were seized with violent pains, and both died of poison within a few hours of each other; and thus the most eminent cardinal Ferdinand, leaving the church, had the satisfaction of becoming grand duke of Tuscany. (Narrazione degli Amori de Bianca Capello a Documento delle Donzelle.)

CAPELLUS, or CAPPEL (Louis), an eminent French protestant divine, born at Sedan, a town in Champagne, about 1579. He was professor of divinity and of the Oriental languages in the university of Saumur; and so deeply skilled in the Hebrew, that bishop Hall calls him magnum Hebraizantium oraculum in Gallia." He was the author of some very learned works; but is now chiefly memorable for the controversy he had with the younger Buxtorf concerning the antiquity of the Hebrew vowel points. Two opinions have prevailed concerning the true date and origin of these points; both of which have been very warmly espoused. The first is, that the points are coeval with the language, and were always

in use among the Jews: the second, that the points were not known to the Jews before their dispersion from Jerusalem, but were invented afterwards by modern rabbins to prevent the language, which was every day declining, from being utterly lost; in short, that they were invented by the Masoreth Jews of Tiberias, about 600 years after Christ. This opinion of their late invention was taken up by Capellus, who defended it in a learned treatise entitled, Arcanum Punctuationis Revelatum, &c. which, after being refused a licence in France and at Geneva, was printed in Holland, and caused much disquiet among the protestants, as if it had a tendency to hurt their cause. They looked upon Capellus's theory as making too great a concession in favour of the Vulgate; which, having been written before the Masoretic punctuation, on Capellus's hypothesis, had been applied to the text, might now claim to stand on higher ground, and was not to be judged by these innovations. It is, however, certain that Luther, Calvin, Zuinglius, and others, had espoused the same notion, as well as the Scaligers, Casaubons, Erpenius, Salmasius, Grotius, and the Heinsii; and Capellus only more solidly defended an opinion, which had been approved of by many learned and judicious protestants. The true reason, perhaps, why the German protestants in general so warmly opposed Capellus's opinion, was, that they had been accustomed to follow that of the two Buxtorfs, whom they considered as oracles in Hebrew learning. Buxtorf the father had written a little treatise in defence of the antiquity of the points; and as Buxtorf's credit was justly great among them, they chose rather to rely upon his authority, than to examine his arguments. in so abstruse an inquiry. Buxtorf the son wrote against Capellus, and maintained his father's opinion. Capellus, however, has been generally supposed to have put the matter beyond any farther dispute; on which account his scholars Bochart, Grotius, Spanheim, Vossius, Daillé, and almost all the learned in Hebrew since, have very readily acceded to his opinion. Capellus composed another work, entitled, Critica Sacra, folio, which so highly displeased the protestants that they hindered the impression of it; till John Capellus, his son, who afterwards turned papist, got leave of the king to print it at Paris, in 1650. This work is a collection of various readings and errors, which Capellus thought had crept into the copies of the

Bible through the carelessness of transcribers; and it must have been a work of prodigious labour, since the author acknowledges that he had spent thirty-six years upon it. The younger Buxtorf wrote a learned answer to it, and some English protestants have also appeared against it: but Grotius, on the other side, very much commends it in an epistle to the author; in which he says, "Contentus esto magnis potius quam multis laudatoribus.' Father Simon quotes a letter which Morinus wrote to cardinal Francis Barberini on the subject of the Critica Sacra, in which he intimates that they would do Capellus a kindness in condemning his book, because it had procured him the hatred of his own party; but that at the same time it would be prejudicial to the Roman catholic cause, which the work was thought to support. This letter was printed in England, and added to a collection of letters entitled, Bibliotheca Orientalis. Capellus died at Saumur, June 16, 1658, aged almost eighty. He has given a short account of his life in his work De Gente Capellorum. Capellus visited Oxford in 1610, and resided for some time at Exeter college, attracted by the fame of the rectors of that house, Drs. Holland and Prideaux. In 1612, out of gratitude for the assistance he had enjoyed in his studies, he presented some books to the library; and it was after his return from Oxford that he was appointed Hebrew professor at Saumur. Capellus's other works are;— 1. Historia Apostolica illustrata, Genev. 1634, 4to, inserted afterwards in vol. i. of the Critici Sacri, London, 1660, fol. 2. Spicilegium post Messem, a collection of criticisms on the New Testament, Gen. 1632, 4to, and added afterwards to Cameron's Myrothecium Evangelicum, of which Capellus was the editor. 3. Diatribæ duæ, also in the Spicilegium. 4. Templi Hierosolymitani Delineatio triplex, in vol. i. of the Critici Sacri. 5. Ad novam Davidis Lyram Animadversiones, &c. Salmur. 1643, 8vo. 6. Diatriba de Veris et Antiquis Ebræorum Literis, Amst. 1645, 12mo, in answer to Buxtorf. 7. De Critica nuper a se Edita, ad rev. Virum D. Jacob. Usserium Armacanum in Hibernia Episcopum, Epistola Apologetica, in qua Arnoldi Bootii temeraria Criticæ Censura refellitur, Salm. 1651, 4to. His correspondence with the learned Usher may be seen in Parr's collection of letters to and from the archbishop, pp. 559, 562, 568, 569, and 587. S. Chronologia Sacra, Paris, 1655, 4to, reprinted