Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

MERLIN, PHILIPPE ANTOINE, COUNT (1754...

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 171 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

MERLIN, PHILIPPE See also:ANTOINE, See also:COUNT (1754-1838) , See also:French politician and ,lawyer, known as Merlin " of See also:Douai," was See also:born at Arleux (See also:Nord) on the 3oth of See also:October 1154, and was called to the Flemish See also:bar in 1775. An indefatigable student, he collaborated in the Repertoire de See also:jurisprudence published by J. N. See also:Guyot, the later See also:editions of which appeared under Merlin's superintendence, and also contributed to other important legal compilations. Elected to the states-See also:general as See also:deputy for Douai, he was one of the See also:chief of those wko applied the principles of See also:liberty and equality embodied in the See also:decree of the 4th of See also:August 1789 to actual conditions. On behalf of the See also:committee appointed to See also:deal with feudal rights, he presented to the See also:Convention reports on the seignorial rights which were subject to See also:compensation, on See also:hunting and fishing rights, forestry, and kindred subjects. He carried legislation for the abolition of See also:primogeniture, secured equality of See also:inheritance between relations of the same degree, and between men and See also:women, His numerous reports to the Constituent See also:Assembly were supplemented mented by popular exposition of current legislation in the See also:Journal de legislation. On the See also:dissolution of the Constituent Assembly he became See also:judge of the criminal See also:court at Douai. He was no See also:advocate of violent See also:measures; but, as deputy to the Convention, he voted for the See also:death of See also:Louis XVI., and as a member of the See also:council of legislation he presented to the Convention on the 17th of See also:September 1793 the infamous See also:law permitting the detention of suspects. He was closely allied with his namesake Merlin " of Thionville," and, after the See also:counter-revolution which brought about the fall of See also:Robespierre, Committee of Public Safety. His efforts were primarily directed to the prevention of any recrudescence of the tyranny exercised by the Jacobin See also:Club, the See also:commune of See also:Paris, and the revolutionary tribunal. He persuaded the Committee of Safety to take upon itself the closing of the Jacobin Club, on the ground that it was an administrative rather than a legislative measure.

He recommended the readmission of the survivors of the Girondin party to the Convention, and See also:

drew up a law limiting the right of insurrection; he had also a considerable See also:share in the See also:foreign policy of the victorious See also:republic. With See also:Cambaceres he had been commissioned in See also:April 1794 to See also:report on the See also:civil and criminal legislation of See also:France, with the result that after eighteen months' See also:work he produced his Rapport et projet de See also:code See also:des delils et des peines (to Vendemiaire, an. IV.). Merlin's code abolished See also:confiscation, See also:branding and imprisonment for See also:life, and was based chiefly on the penal code See also:drawn up in September 1791. He was made See also:minister of See also:justice (Oct. 30, 1795) under the See also:Directory, and showed excessive rigour against the emigrants. After the coup d'etat of the 18th Fructidor he became (See also:Sept. 5, 1797) one of the five See also:directors, and was accused of the various failures of the See also:government. He retired into private life (See also:June 18, 1799), and had no share in the revolution of the ,8th See also:Brumaire. Under the consulate he accepted a modest See also:place in the court of cassation, where he soon became procureur-general. Although he had no share in See also:drawing up the See also:Napoleonic code, he did more than any other lawyer to See also:fix its See also:interpretation. He became a member of the council of See also:state, count of the See also:empire, and See also:grand officer of the See also:Legion of See also:Honour; but having resumed his functions during the See also:Hundred Days, he was one of those banished on the second restoration.

The years of his See also:

exile were devoted to his Repertoire de jurisprudence (5th ed., 18 vols., Paris, 1827–1828) and to his Recueil alphabetique des questions de See also:droit (4th ed., 8 vols., Paris, 1827–1828). At the revolution of 183o he was able to return to France, when he re-entered the See also:Institute of France, of which he had been an See also:original member, being admitted to the See also:Academic des Sciences Morales et Politiques. He died in Paris on the 26th of See also:December 1838. His son, ANTOINE See also:FRANCOIS See also:EUGENE MERLIN (1778-1854), was a well-known general in the French See also:army, and served through most of See also:Napoleon's See also:campaigns. See M. See also:Mignet, Portraits et notices historiques (1852), vol. i. MERLIN (Welsh, Myrddhin), the famous See also:bard of Welsh tradition, and enchanter of Arthurian See also:romance. His See also:history as related in this latter may be summarized as follows. The infernal See also:powers, aghast at the See also:blow to their See also:influence dealt by the Incarnation, determine to counteract it, if possible, by the See also:birth of an See also:Antichrist, the offspring of a• woman and a See also:devil. As in the See also:book of See also:Job, a See also:special See also:family is singled out as subjects of the diabolic experiment, their See also:property is destroyed, one after the other perishes miserably, till one daughter, who has placed herself under the special See also:protection of the See also:Church, is See also:left alone. .The demon takes See also:advantage of an unguarded moment of despair, and Merlin is engendered. Thanks, however, to the prompt See also:action of the See also:mother's See also:confessor, Blayse, in at once baptizing the See also:child of this abnormal birth, the mother truly protesting that she has had intercourse with no See also:man, Merlin is claimed for See also:Christianity, but remains' dowered with demoniac powers of insight and prophecy.

An See also:

infant in arms, he saves his mother's life and confounds her accusers by his knowledge of their family secrets. Meanwhile See also:Vortigern, See also:king of the Britons, is in despair at the failure of his efforts to build a See also:tower in a certain spot;' however high it may be reared in a See also:day, it falls again during the See also:night. He consults his diviners, who tell him that the See also:foundations must be watered with the See also:blood of a child who has never had a See also:father; the king accordingly sends messengers through the See also:land in See also:search of such a See also:prodigy. They come to the See also:city where Merlin and his mother dwell at the moment when the boy is See also:cast out from the companionship of the other lads on the ground that he has had no father. The messengers take him to the king, and on the way he astonishes them by certain prophecies which he became See also:president of the Convention and a member of the are fulfilled to their knowledge. Arrived in Vortigern's presence, he at once announces that he is aware alike of the See also:fate destined for him and of the See also:reason, hidden from the magicians, of the fall of the tower. It is built over a See also:lake, and beneath the See also:waters of the lake in a subterranean cavern See also:lie two dragons, a See also:white and a red; when they turn over the tower falls. The lake is drained, the correctness of the statement proved, and Merlin's position as court See also:prophet assured. Henceforward he acts as adviser to Vortigern's successors, the princes' Ambrosius and Uther (subsequently Uther-Pendragon). As a See also:monument to the Britons fallen on See also:Salisbury See also:Plain he brings from See also:Ireland, by magic means, the stones now forming See also:Stonehenge. He See also:aids Uther in his See also:passion for Yguerne, wife to the See also:duke of See also:Cornwall, by Merlin's spells Uther assumes the See also:form of the See also:husband, and on the night of the duke's death See also:Arthur is engendered. At his birth the child is committed to Merlin's care, and by him given to Antor, who brings him up as his own son.

On Arthur's successful achievement of the test of the See also:

sword in the " See also:perron," Merlin reveals the truth of his parentage and the fact that he is by hereditary right, as well as by divine selection, king of the Britons. During the earlier See also:part of Arthur's reign Merlin acts as counsellor; then he disappears mysteriously from the See also:scene. According to one See also:account he is betrayed by a See also:maiden, Nimue or Niniane (a king's daughter, or a See also:water-See also:fairy, both figure in different versions), of whom he is enamoured, and who having beguiled from him a knowledge of magic spells, casts him into a slumber and imprisons him living in a rocky See also:tomb. This version, with the See also:great cry, or Brait, which the magician uttered before his death, appears to have been the most popular. Another represents his See also:prison as one of See also:air; he is invisible to all, but can see and hear, and occasionally speak to passers by; thus he holds converse with See also:Gawain. In the See also:prose See also:Perceval he retires voluntarily to an " Esplumeor " erected by himself, and is seen no more of, man. The curious See also:personality of Merlin is now generally recognized as being very largely due to the prolific invention of See also:Geoffrey of See also:Monmouth. See also:Nennius, upon whose Historia Geoffrey enlarged and " improved," gives indeed the See also:story of Vortigern and the tower, but the boy's name is Ambrosius. Geoffrey calls him Merlin-Ambrosius, a clear See also:proof that he was adapting Nennius' story. He represents the See also:sage in his role of court diviner, his " Prophecies " being incorporated in later See also:manuscripts of the Historia. Subsequently Geoffrey enlarged on the theme, composing a Vita Merlini in which we find the magician in the role of a " possessed " See also:wood-abider, fleeing the haunts of men, and consorting with beasts. This gave rise to the See also:idea that there had originally been two Merlins, Merlin-Ambrosius and Merlin-See also:Sylvester, a view now discarded by the leading scholars.

The Vita was so successful that Geoffrey obtained as See also:

reward the bishopric of St See also:Asaph. Welsh See also:vernacular literature has preserved a small but interesting See also:group of poems, strongly See also:national and patriotic in See also:character, which are attributed to Merlin (Myrddhin). A few years after Geoffrey's death Merlin's adventures were amplified into a romance, the first draft of which is attributed to See also:Robert de Borron, and which eventually took the form of a lengthy introduction to the prose See also:Lancelot and cyclic redaction of the Arthurian See also:legend. The romantic, as distinguished from legendary or See also:historical Merlin, exists in the following forms: (a) a fragmentary poem pre-served in a unique See also:manuscript of the Bibl. nat. (this gives no more than the introduction to the story) ; (b) a prose rendering of the above, of which a See also:fair number of copies exist, generally found, as in the original poem, coupled with a version of the .See also:early history of the See also:Grail, known as See also:Joseph of Arimathea, and in two cases followed by a Perceval and Mort Artus, thus forming a small See also:cycle; (c) the See also:Ordinary or See also:Vulgate Merlin, a very lengthy romance, of which numerous copies exist (see Dr See also:Sommer's edition) ; (d) and (e) two continuations to the above, each represented by a single manuscript—(d) the " Huth " Merlin, which was utilized by See also:Malory for his See also:translation, and also formed a part of the compilation used by the See also:Spanish and Portuguese translators, and (e) a very curious manuscript, 337, Bibl. nat. (fonds See also:Francais), which Paulin Paris calls the Livre See also:Arius, containing much See also:matter not found elsewhere. M. La Villemarque's " See also:critical study " (Myrdhinn, ou l'enchanteur Merlin, i86i) cannot be regarded as much more trustworthy than Geoffrey himself. The story of the tower, and the Boy without a Father, has been critically examined by Dr Gaster, in a See also:paper read before the Folk-See also:lore Society and subsequently published in Folk-lore (vol. xvi.). Dr Gaster cites numerous See also:Oriental See also:parallels to the See also:tale, and See also:sees in it the germ of the whole Merlin legend. See also:Alfred Nutt (Revue celtique, vol. See also:xxvii.) has since shown that Aengus, the magician of the Irish Tuatha de Daman, was also of unknown parentage, and it seems more probable that the Boy without a Father theme was generally associated with the See also:Celtic magicians, and is the property of no one in particular. Some years ago the See also:late Mr See also:Ward of the See also:British Museum drew See also:attention to certain passages in the life of St See also:Kentigern, See also:relating his dealings with a " possessed " being, a dweller in the See also:woods, named Lailoken, and pointed out the See also:practical identity of the adventures of that personage and those assigned by Geoffrey to Merlin in the Vita; the See also:text given by Mr Ward states that some See also:people identified Lailoken with Merlin (see Romania, vol. xxvii.).

Feed. See also:

Lot, in an examination of the See also:sources of the Vita Merlini (Annales de Bretagne, vol. xv.), has pointed out the more original character of the " Lailoken " .fragments, and decides that Geoffrey knew the Scottish tradition and utilized it for his Vita. He also comes to the conclusion that the Welsh Merlin poems, with the possible exception of the See also:Dialogue between Merlin and See also:Taliessin, are posterior to, and inspired by, Geoffrey's work. So far the researches of scholars appear to point to the result that the legend of Merlin, as we know it, is of complex growth, combined from traditions of See also:independent and widely differing origin. Most probably there is a certain substratum of fact beneath all; there may have been, there very probably was, a bard and soothsayer of that name, and it is by no means improbable that curious stories were told of his origin. It is See also:worth noting that See also:Layamon, whose translation of See also:Wace s See also:Brut is of so much See also:interest, on account of the variants he introduces into the text, gives a much more favourable form of the " Birth " story; the father is a glorious and supernatural being, who appears to the mother in her dreams. Layamon lived on the Welsh border, and the possibility of his variants being drawn from genuine British tradition is generally recognized. The poem relating a dialogue between Merlin and his See also:brother bard, Taliessin, may also derive from genuine tradition. Further than this we can hardly venture to go; the See also:probability is that anything more told of the character and career of Merlin rests upon the imaginative powers and See also:faculty of See also:combination of Geoffrey of Monmouth. See also G. Paris and See also:Ulrich (Societe des anciens teeter francais, 1886); Merlin, ed. See also:Wheatley (Early See also:English Text Society, 1899); Arthour and Merlin, ed.

Kolbing. (J. L.

End of Article: MERLIN, PHILIPPE ANTOINE, COUNT (1754-1838)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
MERLIN, ANTOINE CHRISTOPHE (1762-1833) 		[next]
MERLON

Site © 2006 - Net Industries