while very young she made an unfortunate marriage with a member of the family of Kyme, an ancient house in Lincolnshire, whose wardship Sir William Ascough, the father, had obtained with a view that he should marry another of his daughters. But that daughter dying after the contract entered into, and probably after the betrothment, Sir William determined that his daughter Anne should become the wife of Kyme, in the stead of the elder daughter who died. Marriages thus made were not unfrequent in those times, nor necessarily unhappy; but it appears that this was an unfortunate marriage. What the precise grounds of disagreement were there are no means of knowing, nor under what circumstances it was that she left her husband's house. One party state that she was driven from it; the other that she left it voluntarily, for the purpose, as it is expressed, of gospelling and gossiping in London and the court. However, the fact seems well ascertained, that when about twentythree she left her husband, to whom she had borne one or two children; but it is not said whether they were living.

It seems also certain, that the religious controversies of the time had much to do with the determination which the lady took. The husband appears to have been a firm adherent to the ancient system, or at least an unconcerned spectator of the controversies which raged around him. Not so the wife. She entered into the full spirit of the Reformation, and became extremely zealous, especially in the point of Transubstantiation. There were in the court many persons, and especially many ladies, who were zealous favourers of Protestantism. When she left her husband's house, she repaired to London, and there entered into the society of those who encouraged the party of the Reformed, to whom she was very acceptable, being remarkable, as Fuller says, for "wit, beauty, learning, and religion."

When we read in the accounts which are preserved of her examination, the pertinency of her replies, and in all the testimonies respecting her the sincerity of her convictions, and the strength of her devotion, we see at once, that with a court in which the queen, (Catharine Parr,) and many other ladies, were inclined to Protestantism, such a person as Anne Askew must have appeared a very dangerous person to those who were bent on preserving the connexion

of England with the Roman Catholic church. And we accordingly find that she was the person belonging to the class of females of rank and education, who was selected as one that was to be made a public example of, with the vain hope of working on the fears of the rest. Her history henceforth is one of atrocious cruelty practised towards her, from which the mind turns with disgust and horror; and of heroic endurance on her part, which cannot be contemplated without exciting the highest admiration. There was no pretence for charging any treason against her; the whole was a pure case of religious belief, and though it embraced, no doubt, the other points in the great Protestant controversy, it turned principally on the question of the real presence. She was condemned to be burnt. But while lying under this sentence, she was subjected to the rack, with a view to compel her to criminate certain other distinguished ladies, her friends, whose names it may be proper to give. They were the duchess of Suffolk, (the widow of Charles Brandon,) the countess of Hertford, (wife of Edward Seymour, afterwards duke of Somerset,) the countess of Sussex, Lady Denny, and Lady Fitzwilliam. It was meant, also, that she should give information respecting others, but she behaved with almost incredible constancy and resolution, considering that she was then a woman of but fourand-twenty years of age. What she, herself, relates of this examination is scarcely credible, it is so revolting to every sentiment and feeling. She says, "Because I lay still and did not cry, my lord chancellor, (Wriothesly) and Mr. Rich, (afterwards chancellor,) took pains to rack me with their own hands, till I was well nigh dead."

Neither these terrors, nor the fair promises which were made her, had any effect upon her. She continued steady in the profession of her principles; and finally, she was put to death by burning, in the year 1546, on the 16th day of July.

ASKEW, (Anthony, 1722-1772,) was born at Kendal, in Westmoreland. His father was Dr. Adam Askew, a man held in high estimation at Newcastle, where he lived to a very advanced age, and was engaged in practice as a physician. He was consulted by all the chief families of the neighbourhood, and was regarded by them as another Radcliffe.

Anthony Askew received his education at Sedburgh school, and was thence sent

to Emmanuel college, Cambridge, and took his degree of bachelor of arts in December 1745; having received some instruction from Richard Dawes, the celebrated scholar and critic. Dawes was renowned for his unsparing use of the birch with his scholars, and Dr. Adam Askew, in presenting his son to him, is reported to have marked those parts of his back which Dawes might Scourge at his pleasure, excepting also his head from this discipline.

Being destined for the medical profession, Askew went to Leyden, and studied there for one year; after which he obtained an appointment, and became attached to the suite of Sir James Porter; the English ambassador to Constantinople. He remained abroad during three years, visiting Hungary and Athens, and returned home through Italy and Paris, where he was elected a member of the academy of the Belles Lettres. Having a great taste for books, a mind wellstored with various knowledge, and being remarkable for his classical attainments, he made purchase of a great number of most valuable books and manuscripts in the classics, and various branches of literature and science, and thus laid the foundation of that extensive library for which he afterwards became so conspicu

ous.

In the year 1750 he returned to Cambridge, and commenced practice. He was soon after admitted by the College of Physicians of London, and elected a fellow of the Royal Society. Little is known of him as a practitioner. Mead bequeathed to him the gold-headed cane of Radcliffe. Askew died at Hampstead, February 27th, 1772, aged fifty years.

He published no medical works, and is scarcely known as a physician, but by the intercourse he held with his professional brethren, by whom he was highly esteemed. As a diligent cultivator of literature, and as an established friend to scholars, he will long be remembered. The catalogue of his library, the Bibliotheca Askeviana, is known to all collectors, and often referred to. The library was disposed of by public auction after his death, agreeably to his will, and the copies are known in all collections of note. Some of his manuscripts are in the library of the Medical Society of London.

Dr. Askew may, perhaps, not improperly be considered as the founder of the Bibliomania. He certainly contributed much to bring it into fashion, and created a taste for collecting fine and large paper

copies, curious manuscripts, scarce editions; and of these Askew was very careful, and is said to have preserved some of his most covetable books in glass cases, never allowing them to be touched by any visitor; but he would occasionally indulge his friends by reading various passages to them, standing on a ladder during the time. He resided in Queen-square, close to the abode of Dr. Mead, in Great Ormond-street. The sale of his books continued for twenty days, and produced upwards of 5,000l. The manuscripts, including those purchased of Mead for 500l. were sold separately in 1781.

Askew appears to have contemplated a new edition of Eschylus, for a complete collection of the various published editions of this author was found in his library, some copies of which were enriched with manuscript notes by Askew, In 1746, whilst yet a medical student at Leyden, he put forth a specimen of this intended edition, in a small quarto pamphlet, as Novæ Editionis Tragoediarum Eschyli Specimen, curante Antonio Askew, M. B. Coll. Emman. apud Cantab. haud ita pridem Socio Commensali, Lugd. Batav. 1746. This was dedicated to Dr. Mead. It embraced only twentynine lines of the Eumenides, accompanied with various readings from his manuscripts and printed books, and notæ variorum. He was very intimate with Taylor, commonly called Demosthenes Taylor, by whom he was regarded as a most excellent Greek scholar, and he left Askew his executor.

Askew's regard and veneration for Mead was very great, and he engaged the celebrated sculptor Roubiliac to execute for him in marble a bust of his distinguished friend, which he intended to present to the College of Physicians. Like Mead, Askew received a great number of visitors, and entertained them in a splendid manner. Archbishop Markham, Sir William Jones, Dr. Farmer, Dr. Lort, Rev. George North, Demosthenes Taylor, and Dr. Samuel Parr, were among his frequent guests; and it would perhaps be difficult to find a more powerful combination of literary talent, particularly in Grecian lore. Having travelled in the East, a circumstance of great rarity in the days of Askew, he was conjectured to be learned in all the Oriental tongues; and in accordance with this supposition, on one occasion a Chinese, named Chequa, was brought to him. Though ignorant of his language, he yet made him

period before Mohammed is popularly termed. This singular production portrays, in language the most vivid and picturesque, the manners and usages prevalent among the Arabs at the time to which it relates; their wars, forays, single combats, and feastings, are described with Homeric fire and minuteness of incident; and the high degree of courtesy, chivalry, and generosity, attributed to these rude heroes of the desert, gives weight to the supposition, that it was from their intercourse with the eastern nations, that the knighthood of Europe, in after ages, derived their appreciation of these qualities. The prowess ascribed to the various warriors, and more particularly to Antar himself, far exceeds any with which the most extravagant poets of other countries have ventured to invest their champions; whole armies are routed and fly in dismay before his single arm; and Asmaï himself relates, that on one occasion he met the incredulity of Harûn and his court, to whom he was reciting his poem, by boldly asserting that he himself was then more than 400 years old, and consequently had been an eyewitness of many of the scenes which he described! Sir W. Jones, (Poes. Asiat. Comm. ch. xvii.) who had only seen the fourteenth volume, (it is usually, according to Mr. Lane, divided into forty-five,) says that it contains every thing; that it is elegant, lofty, or varied in composition; and does not hesitate to rank it among the most finished epics. It retains to this day a high reputation in Syria, Egypt, and Arabia, where it is recited by the story-tellers in the streets and coffeehouses; but the antiquity and classical purity of its diction renders it only partially intelligible, unless to persons of education. The narrative extends over the whole life of the hero, but only the first part, from his birth to his marriage, has been translated into English, by Terrick Hamilton, Esq. London, 1820. (See ANTAR.). (Abul-Feda. D'Herbelot. Pocock. Spec. p. 382. Preface to Hamilton's Antar.)

ASMIZADE HALETI EFFENDI, the son of Pir Mohammed Effendi, who bore the cognomen of Asmi. He was born A. H. 977, (A. D. 1569,) pursued his studies under Seâdeddin, was afterwards made a judge, and was present in this capacity in Cairo, at the military revolt when Ibrahim Pasha was slain, as well as in Brussa, when this city was besieged by the rebel Kalender Oghli. He died in A. H. 1040, (A. D.

1630) when judge of the armies of Rumili. Being a poet as well as an orator, he left behind a complete divan, a collection of short aphorisms, (Rubayat,) and a collection of letters, much esteemed. Besides this, he made marginal notes to the Moghni-al-lebib, to the Hedaye and the Miftah. Amongst the property left by him, there were more than four thousand volumes with the margins filled with his annotations. (Ersch und Grüber, Encycl.)

ASMUND, the name of several early Swedish kings.

Asmund I. king of Sweden, Norway, and Gothland, the son of Suibdager. He perished in a war with Hading, a petty prince, or pirate, who had slain his father, and whom he attacked to avenge his father's death.

Asmund II. son of Ragnald, and his successor. Less is related of him than of his four sons, who are reported to have been the most renowned pirates (vikingr) of their age.

Asmund III. son of Inguar, inherited from his father the kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden, and Gothland. His first act was to revenge the death of his father, who had perished by the hand of an assassin; and when this had been done, he turned all his attention to the good of his kingdom and subjects. After a reign of twenty years, he was slain by his brother Siward, who had laid claim to the crown, and supported his pretensions by a large army, which he had raised among his partizans; he was raised to the throne by the event of the battle in which his brother perished.

Asmund IV. succeeded Biorno III., in whose reign Christianity was first preached in Sweden. Under his reign, the adherents of the new faith were treated with great cruelty, which at last impelled his people to revolt. He was deposed, and betook himself to the profession of piracy, which he exercised with the same cruelty as he had shown against his subjects.

Asmund V. surnamed Kolbrenner, the son and successor of Olaus Scotkonung, took his name from a law which he made, that if any of his subjects injured another, a part of the aggressor's house should be thrown down and burnt, proportioned to the extent of the injury; (Kolbrenner signifying coal, or charcoal burner.) He is said to have been a pious and upright prince, and a zealous supporter of Christianity.

Asmund VI. (Slemme, or Gammel,) the

son of the preceding, but very unlike him in character. He neglected the interests of Christianity which his father had so zealously defended, and appears to have been equally regardless of the temporal interest of his subjects. He agreed to a partition between his states and those of Denmark, in which the limits of the former were contracted; and thus incurred so much odium, that he engaged in a war with Denmark to repair his error, and perished in the attempt. He takes the name of Gammel (old) from his great age, and that of Slemme (the vile,) from his consent to the abovementioned diminution of his territories.

ASMUND, (Tycho,) a priest of Copenhagen, and afterwards bishop of Lunden, died in his sixty-fourth year, in 1586. ASNE. See L'ASNE.

ASNER, the name of three engravers, born at Vienna, father, and two sons. The father, John Asner, was the pupil of Dietel, and principally engraved devotional subjects, but they were of little merit. He died at Vienna, in 1748. Francis Asner was born in 1742, and learnt engraving under his step-father, Adam Napert. He, likewise, engraved devotional subjects, and worked for the booksellers, and greatly surpassed his father, as appears by a piece which represents the Creation of the Sun and Moon, large octavo, with the inscription, Fecitque Deus, &c. He also engraved a half figure of a boy with a dog, after Paul Veronese, quarto. Leonard Asner also took to engraving, and studied under Jean Manveld. He engraved a view of the Castle of Konigsburg, near Presburg, after a drawing by Ignacio de Muller. (Heinecken, Dict. des Artistes, &c.)

ASNIER. See L'ASNIER.

ASOPH-ED-DOULA, nabob of Oude, succeeded his father, Shuja al Dowla, in 1775. He is well known from his having been nabob during the time of the government of Warren Hastings, and from his having been, during a part of his reign, so much under the control of the governor-general, that in every act of his goverment, the English were supposed to have interfered. The treatment of the princesses of Oude, the mother and grandmother of the nabob, and to which no objection or remonstrance was offered by the nabob, forms the subject of the fourth article drawn up by Mr. Burke against Hastings, and the abuses which were attributed to him in

Oude generally are contained in the sixteenth article. Asoph died in 1799. He was a weak, frivolous, and fantastic prince. From hatred to his own family, he caused a vast number of pregnant women to be conveyed into his seraglio, and their children, as well as a number of other children that were bought, were adopted and brought up by him. It is said, that his successor Ali was the son of a poor artizan, and cost 500 rupees. He spent prodigious sums on jewels, rich furniture, and curiosities. (Biog. Univ. Suppl. Burke's Works. Mills' History of India.)

ASOPODORUS, a statuary, probably born at Argos, was pupil of Polycletus. (Plin. 34. 8, 19.

ASP, (Matthias,) doctor of theology, and archdeacon at Upsal, was born at Norrköping in 1696; he studied at Lund and Upsal, at which latter university he took his degree, and afterwards travelled through Holland, England, France and Germany. On his return to Upsal, in 1719, he was appointed professor of Greek, in which language he even pronounced discourses; afterwards he was honoured successively with the Hebrew professorship, and those of poetry, of eloquence, and of theology, in the same university. He died in 1763. His works consist of some disputations, chiefly on antiquarian subjects, and of some funeral orations.

ASPAR, patrician and general of the Roman armies during the reign of Theodosius II. and his successors. He and his father, Ardaburius, were sent into Italy in 425, to defend Valentinian III. and his mother, Placidia, against the rebel John, who was taken and killed. Three years after, Aspar procured the submission of Aëtius, who, with a large army of Huns, had appeared to revenge him. In 431, Aspar went to Africa, to assist count Boniface against Genseric, king of the Vandals; but the Roman army was cut to pieces, and he was obliged to fly to Constantinople. On the death of Marcian, he placed on the throne Leo, who was his steward, hoping to maintain his authority over him as well in that station as in the inferior one. Leo, however, soon showed that he was determined to act independently, which irritated Aspar and his son, and they began to intrigue against him. Leo attempted to conciliate them; but being unsuccessful, he inveigled them into the palace, and caused them to be slain by the eunuchs, in 471. (Biog. Univ. Gibbon.)