DWARF, in general, an appellation given to things greatly inferior in size to that which is usual in their several kinds. Thus there are dwarfs of the human species, dwarf dogs, dwarf trees, and the like.
The Romans were passionately fond of dwarfs, whom they called nani or nana, inasmuch that they often used artificial methods to prevent the growth of boys designed for dwarfs, by enclosing them in boxes, or by the use of tight bandages. Augustus's niece, Julia, was extremely fond of a dwarf called Sonopas, who was only two feet and a handbreadth in height. We have many other accounts of human dwarfs, but most of them deformed in some way or other, besides the smallness of their size. Many relations concerning dwarfs we must necessarily look upon as not less fabulous than those concerning giants. The following history, however, which there is reason to regard as authentic, is too remarkable not to be acceptable to the generality of our readers.
Jeffery Hudson, the famous English dwarf, was born at Oakham, in Rutlandshire, in 1619; and about the age of seven or eight, being then but eighteen inches high, he was retained in the service of the Duke of Buckingham, who resided at Burleigh-on-the-Hill. Soon after the marriage of Charles I. the king and queen being entertained at Burleigh, little Jeffery was served up at table in a cold pie, and presented by the duchess to the queen, who kept him as her dwarf. From seven years of age till thirty he never grew taller; but after thirty he shot up to three feet nine inches, and there remained fixed. Jeffery became a considerable part of the entertainment of the court. Sir William Davenant wrote a poem called Jeffreidos, on a battle between him and a turkey-cock; and in 1638 was published a very small book, called the New Year's Gift, presented at court by the Lady Parvula to the Lord Minimus, commonly called Little Jeffery, her majesty's servant, written by Microphilus, with a little print of Jeffery prefixed. Before this period Jeffery was employed on a negotiation of great importance; he was sent to France to fetch a midwife for the queen; and on his return with this gentlewoman and her majesty's dancing-master, and many rich presents to the queen from her mother Mary de' Medicis, he was taken by the Dunkirkers. Jeffery, being thus made of consequence, began to think himself really an important personage. He had borne with little temper the teasing of the courtiers and domestics, and had many squabbles with the king's gigantic porter. At last, being provoked by Mr Crofts, a young gentleman of family, a challenge ensued; and Mr Crofts coming to the rendezvous armed only with a squirt, the little creature was so enraged that a real duel ensued; and the appointment being on horseback with pistols, to put them more on a level, Jeffery, with the first fire, shot his antagonist dead. This happened in France, whither he had attended his mistress in the troubles. He was again taken prisoner by a Turkish rover, and sold into Barbary. But he probably did not remain long in slavery; for at the beginning of the civil war he was made a captain in the royal army, and in 1644 attended the queen to France, where he remained till the Restoration. At last, upon suspicion of his being concerned in the Popish plot, he was seized in 1682, and confined in the Gatehouse, Westminster, where he ended his life, in the sixty-third year of his age. This little hero cuts a considerable figure in Sir Walter Scott's novel of Peril of the Peak.
In the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences, a relation is given by the Count de Tressau, of a dwarf called Bebe, kept by Stanislaus, king of Poland, and who died in 1764, at the age of twenty-three, when he measured only thirty-two inches. At the time of his birth he measured only between eight and nine inches. Diminutive as were his dimensions, his reasoning faculties were not less scanty, appearing indeed not to have been superior to those of a well-taught pointer. But that the size and strength of the intellectual powers are not affected by the diminutiveness or tenuity of the corporeal organs, is evident from a still more striking instance of littleness, given us by the same nobleman, in the person of M. Borulawski, a Polish gentleman, whom he saw at Luneville, and who at the age of twenty-two measured only twenty-eight inches. This miniature of a man, considering him only with reference to his bodily dimensions, appeared a giant with regard to his mental powers and attainments. He is described by the count as possessing all the graces of wit, united with a sound judgment and an excellent memory; so that we may with justice say of M. Borulawski, in the words of Seneca, and nearly in the order in which he has used them, posse ingenium fortissimum ac beatissimum sub quolibet corpusculo latere.