GLAPTHORNE

glapthorne, henry (fl. 1635-1642), english poet and dramatist, wrote in the reign of charles i. all that is known of him is gathered from his own work. he published _poems_ (1639), many of them in praise of an unidentified "lucinda"; a poem in honour of his friend thomas beedome, whose _poems divine and humane_ he edited in 1641; and _whitehall_ (1642), dedicated to his "noble friend and gossip, captain richard lovelace." the first volume contains a poem in honour of the duke of york, and _whitehall_ is a review of the past glories of the english court, containing abundant evidences of the writer's devotion to the royal cause. _argalus and parthenia_ (1639) is a pastoral tragedy founded on an episode in sidney's _arcadia; albertus wallenstein_ (1639), his only attempt at historical tragedy, represents wallenstein as a monster of pride and cruelty. his other plays are _the hollander_ (written 1635; printed 1640), a romantic comedy of which the scene is laid in genoa; _wit in a constable_ (1640), which is probably a version of an earlier play, and owes something to shakespeare's _much ado about nothing_; and _the ladies priviledge_ (1640). _the lady mother_ (1635) has been identified (fleay, _biog. chron. of the drama_) with _the noble trial_, one of the plays destroyed by warburton's cook, and mr a. h. bullen prints it in vol. ii. of his _old english plays_ as most probably glapthorne's work. _the paraside, or revenge for honour_ (1654), entered at stationers' hall in 1653 as glapthorne's, was printed in the next year with george chapman's name on the title-page. it should probably be included among glapthorne's plays, which, though they hardly rise above the level of contemporary productions, contain many felicitous isolated passages. the _plays and poems of henry glapthorne_ (1874) contains an unsigned memoir, which, however, gives no information about the dramatist's life. there is no reason for supposing that the george glapthorne of whose trial details are given was a relative of the poet. glarus (fr. _glaris_), one of the swiss cantons, the name being taken from that of its chief town. its area is 266.8 sq. m., of which 173.1 sq. m. are classed as "productive" (forests covering 41 sq. m.), but it also contains 13.9 sq. m. of glaciers, ranking as the fifth swiss canton in this respect. it is thus a mountain canton, the loftiest point in it being the todi (11,887 ft.), the highest summit that rises to the north of the upper aar and vorder rhine valleys. it is composed of the upper valley of the linth, that is the portion which lies to the south of a line drawn from the lake of zurich to the walensee. this river rises in the glaciers of the todi, and has carved out for itself a deep bed, so that the floor of the valley is comparatively level, and therefore is occupied by a number of considerable villages. glacier passes only lead from its head to the grisons, save the rough footpath over the kisten pass, while a fine new carriage road over the klausen pass gives access to the canton of uri. the upper linth valley is sometimes called the grossthal (main valley) to distinguish it from its chief (or south-eastern) tributary, the sernf valley or kleinthal, which joins it at schwanden, a little above glarus itself. at the head of the kleinthal a mule track leads to the grisons over the panixer pass, as also a footpath over the segnes pass. just below glarus town, another glen (coming from the south-west) joins the main valley, and is watered by the klon, while from its head the pragel pass (a mule path, converted into a carriage road) leads over to the canton of schwyz. the klon glen (uninhabited save in summer) is separated from the main glen by the fine bold mass of the glarnisch (9580 ft.), while the sernf valley is similarly cut off from the grossthal by the high ridge running northwards from the hausstock (10,342 ft.) over the karpfstock (9177 ft.). the principal lakes, the klonthalersee and the muttensee, are of a thoroughly alpine character, while there are several fine waterfalls near the head of the main valley, such as those formed by the sandbach, the schreienbach and the fatschbach. the pantenbrucke, thrown over the narrow cleft formed by the linth, is one of the grandest sights of the alps below the snow-line. there is a sulphur spring at stachelberg, near linthal village, and an iron spring at elm, while in the sernf valley there are the plattenberg slate quarries, and just south of elm those of the tschingelberg, whence a terrific landslip descended to elm (11th september 1881), destroying many houses and killing 115 persons. a railway runs through the whole canton from north to south past glarus to linthal village (16-1/4 m.), while from schwanden there is an electric line (opened in 1905) up to elm (8-3/4 m.). in 1900 the population of the canton was 32,349 (a decrease on the 33,825 of 1888, this being the only swiss canton which shows a decrease), of whom 31,797 were german-speaking, while there were 24,403 protestants, 7918 romanists (many in nafels) and 3 jews. after the capital, glarus (q.v.), the largest villages are nafels (2557 inhabitants), ennenda (2494 inhabitants, opposite glarus, of which it is practically a suburb), netstal (2003 inhabitants), mollis (1912 inhabitants) and linththal (1894 inhabitants). the slate industry is now the most important as the cotton manufacture has lately very greatly fallen off, this being the real reason of the diminution in the number of the population. there is little agriculture, for it is a pastoral region (owing to its height) and contains 87 mountain pastures (though the finest of all within the limits of the canton, the urnerboden, or the glarus side of the klausen pass, belongs to uri), which can support 8054 cows, and are of an estimated capital value of about l246,000. one of the most characteristic products (though inferior qualities are manufactured elsewhere in switzerland) is the cheese called _schabzieger_, _krauterkase_, or green cheese, made of skim milk (_zieger_ or _serac_), whether of goats or cows, mixed with buttermilk and coloured with powdered _steinklee_ (_melilotus officinalis_) or _blauer honigklee_ (_melilotus caerulea_). the curds are brought down from the huts on the pastures, and, after being mixed with the dried powder, are ground in a mill, then put into shapes and pressed. the cheese thus produced is ripe in about a year, keeps a long time and is largely exported, even to america. the ice formed on the surface of the klonthalersee in winter is stored up on its shore and exported. a certain number of visitors come to the canton in the summer, either to profit by one or other of the mineral springs mentioned above, or simply to enjoy the beauties of nature, especially at obstalden, above the walensee. the canton forms but a single administrative district and contains 28 communes. it sends to the federal _standerath_ 2 representatives (elected by the _landsgemeinde_) and 2 also to the federal _nationalrath_. the canton still keeps its primitive democratic assembly or _landsgemeinde_ (meeting annually in the open air at glarus on the first sunday in may), composed of all male citizens of 20 years of age. it acts as the sovereign body, so that no "referendum" is required, while any citizen can submit a proposal. it names the executive of 6 members, besides the landammann or president, all holding office for three years. the communes (forming 18 electoral circles) elect for three years the _landrath_, a sort of standing committee composed of members in the proportion of 1 for every 500 inhabitants or fraction over 250. the present constitution dates from 1887. (w. a. b. c.) glarus (fr. _glaris_), the capital of the swiss canton of the same name. it is a clean, modern little town, built on the left bank of the linth (opposite it is the industrial suburb of ennenda on the right bank), at the north-eastern foot of the imposing rock peak of the vorder glarnisch (7648 ft.), while on the east rises the schild (6400 ft.). it now contains but few houses built before 1861, for on the 10/11 may 1861 practically the whole town was destroyed by fire that was fanned by a violent _fohn_ or south wind, rushing down from the high mountains through the natural funnel formed by the linth valley. the total loss is estimated at about half a million sterling, of which about l100,000 were made up by subscriptions that poured in from every side. it possesses the broad streets and usual buildings of a modern town, the parish church being by far the most stately and well-situated building; it is used in common by the protestants and romans. zwingli, the reformer, was parish priest here from 1506 to 1516, before he became a protestant. the town is 1578 ft. above the sea-level, and in 1900 had a population of 4877, almost all german-speaking, while 1248 were romanists. for the linth canals (1811 and 1816) see linth. the district of glarus is said to have been converted to christianity in the 6th century by the irish monk, fridolin, whose special protector was st hilary of poitiers; the former was the founder, and both were patrons, of the benedictine nunnery of sackingen, on the rhine between constance and basel, that about the 9th century became the owner of the district which was then named after st hilary. the habsburgs, protectors of the nunnery, gradually drew to themselves the exercise of all the rights of the nuns, so that in 1352 glarus joined the swiss confederation. but the men of glarus did not gain their complete freedom till after they had driven back the habsburgs in the glorious battle of nafels (1388), the complement of sempach, so that the habsburgers gave up their rights in 1398, while those of sackingen were bought up in 1395, on condition of a small annual payment. glarus early adopted protestantism, but there were many struggles later on between the two parties, as the chief family, that of tschudi, adhered to the old faith. at last it was arranged that, besides the common _landsgemeinde_, each party should have its separate _landsgemeinde_ (1623) and tribunals (1683), while it was not till 1798 that the protestants agreed to accept the gregorian calendar. the slate-quarrying industry appeared early in the 17th century, while cotton-spinning was introduced about 1714, and calico-printing by 1750. in 1798, in consequence of the resistance of glarus to the french invaders, the canton was united to other districts under the name of canton of the linth, though in 1803 it was reduced to its former limits. in 1799 it was traversed by the russian army, under suworoff, coming over the pragel pass, but blocked by the french at nafels, and so driven over the panixer to the grisons. the old system of government was set up again in 1814. but in 1836 by the new liberal constitution one single _landsgemeinde_ was restored, despite the resistance (1837) of the romanist population at nafels. authorities.--j. babler, _die alpwirtschaft im kant. g._ (soleure, 1898); j. j. blumer, article on the early history of the canton in vol. iii. (zurich, 1844) of the _archiv f. schweiz. geschichte_; e. buss and a. heim, _der bergsturz von elm_ (1881) (zurich, 1881); w. a. b. coolidge, _the range of the todi_ (london, 1894); j. g. ebel, _schilderung der gebirgsvolker d. schweiz_, vol. ii. (leipzig, 1798); gottfried heer, _geschichte d. landes glarus_ (to 1830) (2 vols., glarus, 1898-1899), _glarnerische reformationsgeschichte_ (glarus, 1900), _zur 500 jahrigen gedachtnisfeier der schlacht bei nafels_ (1388) (glarus, 1888) and _die kirchen d. kant. glarus_ (glarus, 1890); oswald heer and j. j. blumer-heer, _der kant. glarus_ (st gall, 1846); j. j. hottinger, _conrad escher von der linth_ (zurich, 1852); _jahrbuch_, published annually since 1865 by the cantonal historical society; a. jenny-trumpy, "handel u. industrie d. kant. g." (article in vol. xxxiii., 1899, of the _jahrbuch_); m. schuler, _geschichte d. landes glarus_ (zurich, 1836); e. naf-blumer, _clubfuhrer durch die glarner-alpen_ (schwanden, 1902); aloys schulte, article on the true and legendary early history of the canton, published in vol. xviii., 1893, of the _jahrbuch f. schweiz. geschichte_ (zurich); j. j. blumer, _staats- und rechtsgeschichte d. schweiz. demokratien_ (3 vols., st gall, 1850-1859); h. ryffel, _die schweiz. landsgemeinden_ (zurich, 1903); r. von reding-biberegg, _der zug suworoffs durch die schweiz in 1799_ (stans, 1895). (w. a. b. c.)