Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol 1 by The Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. (page 4)

It_ (1598).

The character of “Audrey,” that of a female fool, should not have been assumed [_i.e._ by Miss Pope, in her last appearance in public]; the last line of the farewell address was, “And now poor Audrey bids you all farewell” (May 26, 1808).– James Smith, _Memoirs, etc._ (1840).

AUGUSTA, mother of Gustavus Vasa. She is a prisoner of Christian II. king of Denmark, but the king promises to set her free if she will induce her son to submission. Augusta refuses, but in the war which follows, Gustavus defeats Christian, and becomes king of Sweden.–H. Brooke, _Gustavus Vasa_ (1730).

_Augusta_, a title conferred by the Roman emperors on their wives, sisters, daughters, mothers, and even concubines. It had to be conferred; for even the wife of an Augustus was not an Augusta until after her coronation.

1. EMPRESSES. Livia and Julia were both _Augusta_; so were Julia (wife of Tiberius), Messalina, Agrippina, Octavia, Poppaea, Statilia, Sabina, Domitilla, Domitia, and Faustina. In imperials the wife of an emperor is spoken of as _Augusta: Serenissima Augusta conjux nostra; Divina Augusta_, etc. But the title had to be conferred; hence we read, “Domitian uxorem suam _Augustam_ jussit nuncupari;” and “Flavia Titiana, eadem die, uxor ejus [_i.e._ Pertinax] _Augusta_ est appellata.”

2. MOTHERS or GRANDMOTHERS. Antonia, grandmother of Caligula, was created _Augusta_. Claudius made his mother Antonia _Augusta_ after her death. Heliogabalus had coins inscribed with “Julia Maesa _Augusta_,” in honor of his grandmother;

Mammaea, mother of Alexander Severus, is styled _Augusta_ on coins; and so is Helena, mother of Constantine.

3. SISTERS. Honorius speaks of his sister as “venerabilis _Augusta_ germananostra.” Trajan has coins inscribed with “Diva Marciana _Augusta_.”

4. DAUGHTERS. Mallia Scantilla the wife, and Didia the daughter of Didius Julianus, were both _Augusta_. Titus inscribed on coins his daughter as “Julia Sabina _Augusta_;” there are coins of the emperor Decius inscribed with “Herennia Etruscilla _Augusta_,” and “Sallustia _Augusta_,” sisters of the emperor Decius.

5. OTHERS. Matidia, niece of Trajan, is called _Augusta_ on coins; Constantine Monomachus called his concubine _Augusta_.

AUGUSTA HARE, a woman with a native genius for popularity, in Mrs. A.D.T. Whitney’s novel _Hitherto_.

AUGUSTINA, _the Maid of Saragossa_. She was only twenty-two when, her lover being shot, she mounted the battery in his place. The French, after a siege of two months, were obliged to retreat, August 15, 1808.

Such were the exploits of the Maid of Saragossa, who by her valor elevated herself to the highest rank of heroines. When the author was at Seville, she walked daily on the Prado, decorated with medals and orders, by order of the Junta.–Lord Byron.

AULD ROBIN GRAY was written (1772) by Lady Anne Barnard, to raise a little money for an old nurse. Lady Anne’s maiden name was Lindsay, and her father was earl of Balcarras.

AULLAY, a monster horse with an elephant’s trunk. The creature is as much bigger than an elephant as an elephant is larger than a sheep. King Baly of India rode on an aullay.

The aullay, hugest of four-footed kind, The aullay-horse, that in his force,
With elephantine trunk, could bind And lift the elephant, and on the wind
Whirl him away, with sway and swing, E’en like a pebble from a practised sling.

Southey, _Curse of Kehama_, xvi. 2 (1809).

AURELIUS, a young nobleman who tried to win to himself Dorigen, the wife of Arviragus, but Dorigen told him she would never yield to his suit till all the rocks of the British coast were removed, “and there n’is no stone y-seen.” Aurelius by magic made all the rocks disappear, but when Dorigen went, at her husband’s bidding, to keep her promise, Aurelius, seeing how sad she was, made answer, he would rather die than injure so true a wife and noble a gentleman.–Chaucer, _Canterbury Tales_ (“The Franklin’s Tale,” 1388).

(This is substantially the same as Boccaccio’s tale of _Dimora and Gilberto_, x. 5. See DIANORA.)

_Aurelius_, elder brother of Uther the pendragon, and uncle of Arthur, but he died before the hero was born.

Even sicke of a flixe [_ill of the flux_] as he was, he caused himself to be carried forth on a litter; with whose presence the people were so encouraged, that encountering with the Saxons they wan the victorie.–Holinshed, _History of Scotland_, 99.

… once I read
That stout Pendragon on his litter sick Came to the field, and vanquished his foes.

Shakespeare, 1 _Henry VI._, act iii. sc. 2 (1589).

AURORA LEIGH, daughter of an Englishman and an Italian woman. At her father’s death Aurora comes to England to live with a severe, practical aunt. In time she becomes a poet, travels far, sees much, and thinks much of life’s problems. She marries her cousin Romney, a philanthropist, blinded by an accident.–_Aurora_ _Leigh_, by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1856).

AURORA NUNCANOU, beautiful Creole widow in _The Grandissimes_, by George W. Cable. In her thirty-fifth year, she “is the red, red, full-blown, faultless joy of the garden. With her it will be always morning. That woman is going to last forever; ha-a-a-a!–even longer!” (1880).

AUSTIN, the assumed name of the lord of Clarinsal, when he renounced the world and became a monk of St. Nicholas. Theodore, the grandson of Alfonso, was his son, and rightful heir to the possessions and title of the count of Narbonne.–Robert Jephson, _Count of Narbonne_ (1782).

AUSTINS (_The_). _Miss Susan_, old maid resident at Whiteladies, concerned in a conspiracy to introduce a false heir to the estate.

_Miss Augustine_, saintly sister, who tries to “turn the curse from _Whiteladies_, by her own prayers and those of her almsmen.”–_Whiteladies_, by M.O.W. Oliphant.

AUSTRIA AND THE LION’S HIDE. There is an old tale that the arch-duke of Austria killed Richard I., and wore as a spoil the lion’s hide which belonged to our English monarch. Hence Faulconbridge (the natural son of Richard) says jeeringly to the arch-duke:

Thou wear a lion’s hide! doff it for shame, And hang a calf-skin on those recreant limbs. Shakespeare, _King John_, act iii. sc. 1 (1596).

(The point is better understood when it is borne in mind that fools and jesters were dressed in calf-skins.)

AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE, a mythical personage who indites Oliver Wendell Holmes’s breakfast-table conversations.

AUTOLYCOS, the craftiest of thieves. He stole the flocks of his neighbors, and changed their marks. Sisyphos outwitted him by marking his sheep under their feet.

AUTOLYCUS, a peddler and witty rogue, in _The Winter’s Tale_, by Shakespeare (1604).

AVARE (_L_’). The plot of this comedy is as follows: Harpagon the miser and his son Cleante (2 _syl._) both want to marry Mariane (3 _syl._), daughter of Anselme, _alias_ don Thomas d’Alburci, of Naples. Cleante gets possession of a casket of gold belonging to the miser, and hidden in the garden. When Harpagon discovers his loss he raves like a madman, and Cleante gives him the choice of Mariane or the casket. The miser chooses the casket, and leaves the young lady to his son. The second plot is connected with Elise (2 _syl._), the miser’s daughter, promised in marriage by the father to his friend Anselme (2 _syl._); but Elise is herself in love with Valere, who, however, turns out to be the son of Anselme. As soon as Anselme discovers that Valere is his son, who he thought had been lost at sea, he resigns to him Elise, and so in both instances the young folks marry together, and the old ones give up their unnatural rivalry.–Moliere, _L’Avare_ (1667).

AVENEL (2 _syl._), _Julian_, the usurper of Avenel Castle.

_Lady Alice_, widow of sir Walter.

_Mary_, daughter of Lady Alice. She marries Halbert Glendinning.–Sir W. Scott, _The Monastery_ (date 1559).

_Avenel_ (_Sir Halbert Glendinning, knight of_), same as the bridegroom in _The Monastery_.

_The lady Mary of Avenel_, same as the bride in _The Monastery_.–Sir W. Scott, _The Abbot_ (time, Elizabeth).

_The White Lady of Avenel_, a spirit mysteriously connected with the Avenel family, as the Irish banshee is with true Milesian families. She announces good or ill fortune, and manifests a general interest in the family to which she is attached, but to others she acts with considerable caprice; thus she shows unmitigated malignity to the sacristan and the robber. Any truly virtuous mortal has commanding power over her.

Noon gleams on the lake,
Noon glows on the fell;
Awake thee, awake,
White maid of Avenel!

Sir W. Scott, _The Monastery_ (time, Elizabeth).

AVENGER OF BLOOD, the man who had the birthright, according to the Jewish, polity, of taking vengeance on him who had killed one of his relatives.

… the Christless code
That must have life for a blow.

Tennyson, _Maud_, II. i. 1.

AVERY (_Parson_), a missionary “to the souls of fishers starving on the rocks of Marblehead.” He is wrecked with his crew, one wintry midnight, and dies praying aloud.–J.G. Whittier, _The Swan Song of Parson Avery_ (1850).

AVICEN or _Abou-ibn-Sina_, an Arabian physician and philosopher, born at Shiraz, in Persia (980-1037). He composed a treatise on logic, and another on metaphysics. Avicen is called both the Hippocrates and the Aristotle of the Arabs.

Of physicke speake for me, king Avicen … Yet was his glory never set on shelfe,
Nor never shall, whyles any worlde may stande Where men have minde to take good bookes in hande.

G. Gascoigne, _The Fruits of Warre_, lvii. (died 1577).

AVIS, a New England girl, heroine of _The Story of Avis_, by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps-Ward. She is forced by genius to be an artist, and through her art loses hope of domestic happiness (1877).

AYL’MER (_Mrs._), a neighbor of sir Henry Lee.–Sir W. Scott, _Woodstock_ (time, Commonwealth).

AY’MER (_Prior_), a jovial Benedictine monk, prior of Jorvaulx Abbey.–Sir W. Scott, _Ivanhoe_ (time, Richard I.).

AY’MON, duke of Dordona (_Dordogne_). He had four sons, Rinaldo, Guicciardo, Alardo, and Ricciardetto (_i.e._ Renaud, Guiscard, Alard, and Richard), whose adventures are the subject of a French romance, entitled _Les Quatre fils Aymon_, by H. de Alleneuve (1165-1223).

AZA’ZEL, one of the ginn or jinn, all of whom were made of “smokeless fire,” that is, the fire of the Simoom. These jinn inhabited the earth before man was created, but on account of their persistent disobedience were driven from it by an army of angels. When Adam was created, and God commanded all to worship him, Azazel insolently made answer, “Me hast Thou created of fire, and him of earth; why should I worship him?” Whereupon God changed the jinnee into a devil, and called him Iblis or Despair. In hell he was made the standard-bearer of Satan’s host.

Upreared
His mighty standard; that proud honor claimed Azazel as his right.

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, i. 534 (1665).

AZ’LA, a suttee, the young widow of Ar’valan, son of Keha’ma.–Southey, _Curse of Kehama_, i. 10 (1809).

AZ’O, husband of Parisi’na. He was marquis d’Este, of Ferrara, and had already a natural son, Hugo, by Bianca, who, “never made his bride,” died of a broken heart. Hugo was betrothed to Parisina before she married the marqnis, and after she became his mother-in-law, they loved on still. One night Azo heard Parisina in sleep express her love for Hugo, and the angry marquis condemned his son to death. Although he spared his bride, no one ever knew what became of her.–Byron, _Parisina_.

AZRAEL (_3 syl._), the angel of death (called Raphael in the _Gospel of Barnabas_).–_Al Koran_.

AZTECAS, an Indian tribe, which conquered the Hoamen (2 _syl._), seized their territory, and established themselves on a southern branch of the Missouri, having Aztlan as their imperial city. When Madoc conquered the Aztecas in the twelfth century, he restored the Hoamen, and the Aztecas migrated to Mexico.–Southey, _Madoc_ (1805).

AZUCENA, a gipsy. Manrico is supposed to be her son, but is in reality the son of Garzia (brother of the conte di Luna).–Verdi, _Il Trovatore_ (1853).

AZYORUCA (4 _syl._), queen of the snakes and dragons. She resides in Patala, or the infernal regions.–_Hindu Mythology_.

There Azyoruca veiled her awful form In those eternal shadows. There she sat, And as the trembling souls who crowd around The judgment-seat received the doom of fate, Her giant arms, extending from the cloud, Drew them within the darkness.

Southey, _Curse of Kehama_, xxiii 15 (1809).

BAAL, plu. BAALIM, a general name for all the Syrian gods, as Ashtaroth was for the goddesses. The general version of the legend of Baal is the same as that of Adonis, Thammuz, Osiris, and the Arabian myth of El Khouder. All allegorize the Sun, six months above and six months below the equator. As a title of honor, the word Baal, Bal, Bel, etc., enters into a large number of Phoenician and Carthaginian proper names, as Hanni-bal, Hasdrubal, Bel-shazzar, etc.

… [the] general names
Of Baaelim and Ashtaroth: those male; These female.

Milton, _Paradise Lost_, i. 422 (1665).

BAB (_Lady_), a waiting maid on a lady so called, who assumes the airs with the name and address of her mistress. Her fellow-servants and other servants address her as “lady Bab,” or “Your ladyship.” She is a fine wench, “but by no means particular in keeping her teeth clean.” She says she never reads but one “book, which is Shikspur.” And she calls Lovel and Freeman, two gentlemen of fortune, “downright hottenpots.”–Rev. J. Townley, _High Life Below Stairs_ (1763).

BABA, chief of the eunuchs in the court of the sultana Gulbeyaz.–Byron, _Don Juan_, v. 82, etc. (1820).

BABA (_Ali_), who relates the story of the “Forty Thieves” in the _Arabian Nights’ Entertainments_. He discovered the thieves’ cave while hiding in a tree, and heard the magic word “Sesame,” at which the door of the cave opened and shut.

_Cassim Baba_, brother of Ali Baba, who entered the cave of the forty thieves, but forgot the pass-word, and stood crying “Open Wheat!” “Open Barley!” to the door, which obeyed to no sound but “Open Sesame!”

BABA MUSTAPHA, a cobbler who sewed together the four pieces into which Cassim’s body had been cleft by the forty thieves. When the thieves discovered that the body had been taken away, they sent one of the band into the city, to ascertain who had died of late. The man happened to enter the cobbler’s stall, and falling into a gossip heard about the body which the cobbler had sewed together. Mustapha pointed out to him the house of Cassim Baba’s widow, and the thief marked it with a piece of white chalk. Next day the cobbler pointed out the house to another, who marked it with red chalk. And the day following he pointed it out to the captain of the band, who instead of marking the door studied the house till he felt sure of recognizing it.–_Arabian Nights_ (“Ali Baba, or The Forty Thieves”).

BABABALOUK, chief of the black eunuchs, whose duty it was to wait on the sultan, to guard the sultanas, and to superintend the harem.–Habesci, _State of the Ottoman Empire_, 155-6.

BABES IN THE WOOD, insurrectionary hordes that infested the mountains of Wicklow and the woods of Enniscarthy towards the close of the eighteenth century. (See CHILDREN IN THE WOOD.)

BABIE, old Alice Gray’s servant-girl.–Sir W. Scott, _Bride of Lammermoor_ (time, William III.).

BABIECA (3 _syl._), the Cid’s horse.

I learnt to prize Babieca from his head unto his hoof.

_The Cid_ (1128).

BABOON (_Philip_), Philippe Bourbon, duc d’Anjou.

_Lewis Baboon_, Louis XIV., “a false loon of a grandfather to Philip, and one that might justly be called a Jack-of-all-trades.”

Sometimes you would see this Lewis Baboon behind his counter, selling broad-cloth, sometimes measuring linen; next day he would be
dealing in mercery-ware; high heads, ribbons, gloves, fans, and lace, he understood to a nicety … nay, he would descend to the selling of tapes, garters, and shoebuckles. When shop was shut up he would go about the neighborhood, and earn half-a-crown, by teaching the
young men and maidens to dance. By these means he had acquired immense riches, which he used to squander away at back-sword [_in war_], quarter-staff, and cudgel-play, in which he took great pleasure.–Dr. Arbuthnot, _History of John Bull_, ii. (1712).

BABY BELL, the infant whose brief beautiful life is given in the poem that first drew the eyes of the world to the young American poet, T.B. Aldrich, then but nineteen years of age.

Have you not heard the poets tell
How came the dainty Baby Bell
Into this World of ours?
The gates of heaven were left ajar: With folded hands and dreamy eyes,
Wandering out of Paradise,
She saw this planet like a star
Hung in the glistening depths of even,– Its bridges, running to and fro,
O’er which the white-winged angels go, Bearing the holy dead to heaven.
She touched a bridge of flowers–those feet So light they did not bend the bells
Of the celestial asphodels,
They fell like dew upon the flowers; Then all the air grew strangely sweet!
And thus came dainty Baby Bell
Into this world of ours. (1854.)

BACCHAN’TES (3 _syl._), priestesses of Bacchus.

Round about him _Bacchus_ fair Bacchantes, Bearing cymbals, flutes, and thyrses,
Wild from Naxian groves, or Zante’s Vineyards, sing delirious verses.
Longfellow, _Drinking Song_.

BACCHUS, in the _Lusiad_, an epic poem by Camoens (1569), is the personification of the evil principle which acts in opposition to Jupiter, the lord of Destiny. Mars is made by the poet the guardian power of Christianity, and Bacchus of Mohammedanism.

BACKBITE (_Sir Benjamin_), nephew of Crabtree, very conceited, and very censorious. His friends called him a great poet and wit, but he never published anything, because “’twas very vulgar to print;” besides, as he said, his little productions circulated more “by giving copies in confidence to friends.”–Sheridan, _School for Scandal_ (1777).

When I first saw Miss Pope she was performing “Mrs. Candour,” to Miss Farren’s “lady
Teazle,” King as “sir Peter,” Parsons “Crab-tree,” Dodd “Backbite,” Baddeley “Moses,”
Smith “Charles,” and John Palmer “Joseph” [Surface].–James Smith, _Memoirs, etc_.

BACTRIAN SAGE _(The)_, Zoroas’ter or Zerdusht, a native of Bactria, now Balkh (B.C. 589-513).

BADE’BEC (2 _syl_.), wife of Gargantua and mother of Pantag’ruel. She died in giving him birth, or rather in giving birth at the same time to nine dromedaries laden with ham and smoked tongues, 7 camels laden with eels, and 25 wagons full of leeks, garlic, onions, and shallots.–Rabelais, _Pantagruel_, ii. 2 (1533).

BADGER _(Will)_, sir Hugh Robsart’s favorite domestic.–Sir W. Scott, _Kenilworth_ (time, Elizabeth).

_Bad’ger (Mr. Bayham_), medical practitioner at Chelsea, under whom Richard Carstone pursues his studies. Mr. Badger is a crisp-looking gentleman, with “surprised eyes;” very proud of being Mrs. Badger’s “third,” and always referring to her former two husbands, captain Swosser and professor Dingo.–C. Dickens, _Bleak House_ (1853).

BADINGUET [_Bad.en.gay_] one of the many nicknames of Napoleon III. It was the name of the mason in whose clothes he escaped from the fortress of Ham (1808, 1851-1873).

BADOURA, daughter of Gaiour (2 _syl._), king of China, the “most beautiful woman ever seen upon earth.” The emperor Gaiour wished her to marry, but she expressed an aversion to wedlock. However, one night by fairy influence she was shown prince Camaralzaman asleep, fell in love with him, and exchanged rings. Next day she inquired for the prince, but her inquiry was thought so absurd that she was confined as a madwoman. At length her foster-brother solved the difficulty thus: The emperor having proclaimed that whoever cured the princess of her [supposed] madness should have her for his wife, he sent Camaralzaman to play the magician, and imparted the secret to the princess by sending her the ring she had left with the sleeping prince. The cure was instantly effected, and the marriage solemnized with due pomp. When the emperor was informed that his son-in-law was a prince, whose father was sultan of the “Island of the Children of Khaledan, some twenty days’ sail from the coast of Persia,” he was delighted with the alliance.–_Arabian Nights_ (“Camaralzaman and Badoura”).

BADROULBOUDOUR, daughter of the sultan of China, a beautiful brunette. “Her eyes were large and sparkling, her expression modest, her mouth small, her lips vermilion, and her figure perfect.” She became the wife of Aladdin, but twice nearly caused his death; once by exchanging “the wonderful lamp” for a new copper one, and once by giving hospitality to the false Fatima. Aladdin killed both these magicians.–_Arabian Nights_ (“Aladdin or The Wonderful Lamp”).

BAG DAD. A hermit told the caliph Almanzor that one Moclas was destined to found a city on the spot where he was standing. “I am that man,” said the caliph, and he then informed the hermit how in his boyhood he once stole a bracelet, and his nurse ever after called him “Moclas,” the name of a well-known thief.–Marigny.

BAGSHOT, one of a gang of thieves who conspire to break into the house of lady Bountiful.–Farquhar, _The Beaux’ Stratagem_ (1705).

BAGSTOCK (_Major Joe_), an apoplectic retired military officer, living in Princess’s Place, opposite to Miss Tox. The major has a covert kindness for Miss Tox, and is jealous of Mr. Dombey. He speaks of himself as “Old Joe Bagstock,” “Old Joey,” “Old J.,” “Old Josh,” “Rough and tough old Jo,” “J.B.,” “Old J.B.,” and so on. He is also given to over-eating, and to abusing his poor native servant.–C. Dickens, _Dombey and Son_ (1846).

BAHADAR, master of the horse to the king of the Magi. Prince Amgiad was enticed by a collet to enter the minister’s house, and when Bahadar returned, he was not a little surprised at the sight of his uninvited guest. The prince, however, explained to him in private how the matter stood, and Bahadar, entering into the fun of the thing, assumed for the nonce the place of a slave. The collet would have murdered him, but Amgiad, to save the minister, cut off her head. Bahadar, being arrested for murder, was condemned to death, but Amgiad came forward and told the whole truth, whereupon Bahadar was instantly released, and Amgiad created vizier.–_Arabian Nights_ (“Amgiad and Assad”).

BAHMAN (_Prince_), eldest son of the sultan Khrossou-schah of Persia. In infancy he was taken from the palace by the sultana’s sisters, and set adrift on a canal, but being rescued by the superintendent of the sultan’s gardens, he was brought up, and afterwards restored to the sultan. It was the “talking bird” that told the sultan the tale of the young prince’s abduction.

_Prince Bahman’s Knife_. When prince Bahman started on his exploits, he gave to his sister Parazade (4 _syl._) a knife, saying, “As long as you find this knife clean and bright, you may feel assured that I am alive and well; but if a drop of blood falls from it, you may know that I am no longer alive.”–_Arabian Nights_ (“The Two Sisters,” the last tale).

BAILEY, a sharp lad in the service of Todger’s boarding-house. His ambition was to appear quite a full-grown man. On leaving Mrs. Todgers’s, he became the servant of Montague Tigg, manager of the “Anglo-Bengalee Company.”–C. Dickens, _Martin Chuzzlewit_ (1844).

BAILIE (_General_), a parliamentary leader.–Sir W. Scott, _Legend of Montrose_ (time, Charles I.).

_Bailie (Giles)_, a gipsy; father of Gabrael Faa (nephew to Meg Merrilies).–Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time, George II.).

BAILLY, (_Henry or Harry_), the host of the Tabard Inn, in Southwerk, London, where the nine and twenty companions of Chaucer put up before starting on their pilgrimage to Canterbury.

A semely man our hoste was withal
For to han been a marshal in an halle, A fairer burgeis is ther non in Chepe.

Chaucer, _Canterbury Tales, Prologue_.

BAILIFF’S DAUGHTER OF ISLINGTON (in Norfolk). A squire’s son loved the bailiff’s daughter, but she gave him no encouragement, and his friends sent him to London “an apprentice for to binde.” After the lapse of seven years, the bailiff’s daughter, “in ragged attire,” set out to walk to London, “her true love to inquire.” The young man on horseback met her, but knew her not. “One penny, one penny, kind sir!” she said. “Where were you born?” asked the young man. “At Islington,” she replied. “Then prithee, sweetheart, do you know the bailiff’s daughter there?” “She’s dead, sir, long ago.” On hearing this the young man declared he’d live an exile in some foreign land. “Stay, oh stay, thou goodly youth,” the maiden cried, “she is not really dead, for I am she.” “Then farewell grief and welcome joy, for I have found my true love, whom I feared I should never see again.”–Percy, _Relics of English Poetry_, ii. 8.

BAILZOU _(Annaple)_, the nurse of Effie Deans in her confinement.–Sir W. Scott, _Heart of Midlothian_ (time, George II.).

BAJARDO, Rinaldo’s steed.–Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

BAJAZET, surnamed “The Thunderbolt” (_ilderim_), sultan of Turkey. After subjugating Bulgaria, Macedonia, Thessaly, and Asia Minor, he laid siege to Constantinople, but was taken captive by Tamerlane emperor of Tartary. He was fierce as a wolf, reckless, and indomitable. Being asked by Tamerlane how he would have treated him had their lots been reversed, “Like a dog,” he cried. “I would have made you my footstool when I mounted my saddle, and when your services were not needed would have chained you in a cage like a wild beast.” Tamerlane replied, “Then to show you the difference of my spirit, I shall treat you as a king.” So saying, he ordered his chains to be struck off, gave him one of the royal tents, and promised to restore him to his throne if he would lay aside his hostility. Bajazet abused this noble generosity; plotted the assassination of Tamerlane; and bow-strung Moneses. Finding clemency of no use, Tamerlane commanded him to be used “as a dog, and to be chained in a cage like a wild beast.”–N. Rowe, _Tamerlane_ (a tragedy, 1702).

_Bajazet_, a black page at St. James’s Palace.–Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

BAKER (_The_), and the “Baker’s Wife.” Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette were so called by the revolutionary party, because on the 6th October, 1789, they ordered a supply of bread to be given to the mob which surrounded the palace at Versailles, clamoring for bread.

BALAAM (2 _syl._), the earl of Huntingdon, one of the rebels in the army of the duke of Monmouth.

And, therefore in the name of dulness, be The well-hung Balaam.

Dryden, _Absalom and Achitophel_.

_Balaam_, a “citizen of sober fame,” who lived near the monument of London. While poor he was “religious, punctual, and frugal;” but when he became rich and got knighted, he seldom went to church, became a courtier, “took a bribe from France,” and was hung for treason.–Pope, _Moral Essays_, iii.

BALAAM AND JOSAPHAT, a religious novel by Johannes Damascenus, son of Almansur. (For plot, see JOSAPHAT.)

BALACK, Dr. Burnet, bishop of Salisbury, who wrote a history called _Burnet’s Own Time_, and _History of the Reformation_.–Dryden and Tate, _Absalom and Achitophel_, ii.

BALAFRE (_Le_), _alias_ Ludovic Lesly, an old archer of the Scottish Guard at Plessis les Tours, one of the castle palaces of Louis XI. Le Balafre is uncle to Quentin Durward.–Sir W. Scott, _Quentin Durward_ (time, Edward IV.).

Henri, son of Francois second duke of Gruise, was called _Le Balafre_ (“the gashed”), from a frightful scar in the face from a sword-cut in the battle of Dormans (1575).

BALAM, the ox on which the faithful feed in paradise. The fish is called Nun, the lobes of whose liver will suffice for 70,000 men.

BALAN, brother of Balyn or Balin le Savage, two of the most valiant knights that the world ever produced.–Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 31 (1470).

_Balan_, “the bravest and strongest of all the giant race.” Amadis de Gaul rescued Gabrioletta from his hands.–Vasco de Lobeira, _Amadis de Gaul_, iv. 129 (fourteenth century).

BALANCE (_Justice_), father of Sylvia. He had once been in the army, and as he had run the gauntlet himself, he could make excuses for the wild pranks of young men.–G. Farquhar, _The Recruiting Officer_ (1704).

BALAND OF SPAIN, a man of gigantic strength, who called himself Fierabras.–_Mediaeval Romance_.

BALATSU-USUR, the name given to the captive Jew Daniel in Babylon, meaning “May Bel protect his life!”

Prostrate upon his royal face, prostrate before the court, the queen, the people–down like a pleading conscience or a suppliant faith, Nebuchadrezzar the Great lay in the dust, and worshipped him right royally.

“_Thou_ art the Master of the Magicians!” said the king. “For thou commandest the power of thy God and thou controllest the spirit of man!” …

Plain moral purity and religious fervor had done for the young man what a lifetime of political scheming had failed to do for many a
grey-headed disappointed adventurer. Then, as in all ages, intrigue regarded the success of sincerity with astonishment.–_The Master of the
Magicians_, by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps and Herbert D. Ward (1890).

BALCHRISTIE (_Jenny_), housekeeper to the laird of Dumbiedikes.–Sir W. Scott, _Heart of Midlothian_ (time, George II.).

BALDASSARE (4 _syl._) chief of the monastery of St. Jacopo di Compostella.–Donizetti’s opera, _La Favorite_ (1842).

BALDER, the god of light, peace, and day, was the young and beautiful son of Odin and Frigga. His palace, Briedablik (“wide-shining”), stood in the Milky Way. He was slain by Hoeder, the blind old god of darkness and night, but was restored to life at the general request of the gods.–_Scandinavian Mythology_.

Balder the beautiful,
God of the summer sun.

Longfellow, _Tegnier’s Death_.

(Sydney Dobell has a poem entitled _Balder_, published in 1854.)

BALDERSTONE (_Caleb_), the favorite old butler of the master of Ravenswood, at Wolf’s Crag Tower. Being told to provide supper for the laird of Bucklaw, he pretended that there were fat capon and good store in plenty, but all he could produce was “the hinder end of a mutton ham that had been three times on the table already, and the heel of a ewe-milk kebbuck [_cheese_]” (ch. vii.).–Sir W. Scott, _Bride of Lammermoor_ (time, William III.).

BALDRICK, an ancestor of the lady Eveline Berenger “the betrothed.” He was murdered, and lady Eveline assured Rose Flammock that she had seen his ghost frowning at her.–Sir W. Scott, _The Betrothed_ (time, Henry II.).

BALDRINGHAM (_The lady Ermengarde of_), great-aunt of lady Eveline Berenger “the betrothed.”–Sir W. Scott, _The Betrothed_ (time, Henry II.).

BALDWIN, the youngest and comeliest of Charlemagne’s paladins, nephew of sir Roland.

_Baldwin_, the restless and ambitious duke of Bologna, leader of 1200 horse in the allied Christian army. He was Godfrey’s brother, and very like him, but not so tall.–Tasso, _Jerusalem Delivered_ (1575).

He is introduced by sir Walter Scott in _Count Robert of Paris_.

_Baldwin_. So the Ass is called in the beast-epic entitled _Reynard the Fox_ (the word means “bold friend”). In pt. iii. he is called “Dr.” Baldwin (1498).

_Baldwin_, tutor of Rollo (“the bloody brother”) and Otto, dukes of Normandy, and sons of Sophia. Baldwin was put to death by Rollo, because Hamond slew Gisbert the chancellor with an axe and not with a sword. Rollo said that Baldwin deserved death “for teaching Hamond no better.”–Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Bloody Brother_ (1639).

_Baldwin (Count)_, a fatal example of paternal self-will. He doted on his elder son Biron, but because he married against his inclination, disinherited him, and fixed all his love on Carlos his younger son. Biron fell at the siege of Candy, and was supposed to be dead. His wife Isabella mourned for him seven years, and being on the point of starvation, applied to the count for aid, but he drove her from his house as a dog. Villeroy (2 _syl._) married her, but Biron returned the following day. Carlos, hearing of his brother’s return, employed ruffians to murder him, and then charged Villeroy with the crime; but one of the ruffians impeached, Carlos was arrested, and Isabella, going mad, killed herself. Thus was the wilfulness of Baldwin the source of infinite misery. It caused the death of his two sons, as well as of his daughter-in-law.–Thomas Southern, _The Fatal Marriage_ (1692).

_Baldwin_, archbishop of Canterbury (1184-1190), introduced by sir W. Scott in his novel called _The Betrothed_ (time, Henry II.).

BALDWINDE OYLEY, esquire of sir Brian de Bois Guilbert (Preceptor of the Knights Templars).–Sir W. Scott, _Ivanhoe_ (time, Richard I.).

BALIN (_Sir_), or “Balin le Savage,” knight of the two swords. He was a Northumberland knight, and being taken captive, was imprisoned six months by king Arthur. It so happened that a damsel girded with a sword came to Camelot at the time of sir Balin’s release, and told the king that no man could draw it who was tainted with “shame, treachery, or guile.” King Arthur and all his knights failed in the attempt, but sir Balin drew it readily. The damsel begged him for the sword, but he refused to give it to any one. Whereupon the damsel said to him, “That sword shall be thy plague, for with it shall ye slay your best friend, and it shall also prove your own death.” Then the Lady of the Lake came to the king, and demanded the sword, but sir Balin cut off her head with it, and was banished from the court. After various adventures he came to a castle where the custom was for every guest to joust. He was accommodated with a shield, and rode forth to meet his antagonist. So fierce was the encounter that both the combatants were slain, but Balin lived just long enough to learn that his antagonist was his dearly beloved brother Balan, and both were buried in one tomb.–Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 27-44 (1470).

“The Book of Sir Balin le Savage” is part i. ch. 27 to 44 (both inclusive) of sir T. Malory’s _History of Prince Arthur_.

BALINVERNO, one of the leaders in Agramant’s allied army.–Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

BALIOL (_Edward_), usurper of Scotland, introduced in _Redgauntlet_, a novel by sir W. Scott (time, George II.).

_Baliol (Mrs.)_, friend of Mr. Croftangry, in the introductory chapter of _The Fair Maid of Perth_, a novel by sir W. Scott (time, Henry IV.).

_Baliol (Mrs. Martha Bethune)_, a lady of quality and fortune, who had a house called Baliol Lodging, Canongate, Edinburgh. At her death she left to her cousin Mr. Croftangry two series of tales called _The Chronicles of Canongate (q.v.)_, which he published.–Sir W. Scott, _The Highland Widow_ (introduction, 1827).

BALISARDA, a sword made in the garden of Orgagna by the sorceress Falerina; it would cut through even enchanted substances, and was given to Rogero for the express purpose of “dealing Orlando’s death.”–Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_, xxv. 15 (1516).

He knew with Balisarda’s lightest blows, Nor helm, nor shield, nor cuirass could avail, Nor strongly tempered plate, nor twisted mail.

Book xxiii.

BALIVERSO, the basest knight in the Saracen army.–Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_, (1516).

BALK or BALKH (“_to embrace_”), Omurs, surnamed _Ghil-Shah_ (“earth’s king”), founder of the Paishdadian dynasty. He travelled abroad to make himself familiar with the laws and customs of other lands. On his return he met his brother, and built on the spot of meeting a city, which he called Balk; and made it the capital of his kingdom.

BALKIS, the Arabian name of the queen of Sheba, who went from the south to witness the wisdom and splendor of Solomon. According to the Koran she was a fire-worshipper. It is said that Solomon raised her to his bed and throne. She is also called queen of Saba or Aaziz.–_Al Koran_, xxvi. (Sale’s notes).

She fancied herself already more potent than Balkis, and pictured to her imagination the genii falling prostrate at the foot of her throne.–W. Beckford, _Vathek_.

_Balkis queen of Sheba_ or _Saba_. Solomon being told that her legs were covered with hair “like those of an ass,” had the presence-chamber floored with glass laid over running water filled with fish. When Balkis approached the room, supposing the floor to be water, she lifted up her robes and exposed her hairy ankles, of which the king had been rightly informed.–_Jallalo’dinn_.

BALLENKEIROCH (_Old_), a Highland chief and old friend of Fergus M’Ivor.–Sir W. Scott, _Waverley_ (time, Greorge II.).

BALMUNG, the sword of Siegfried forged by Wieland the smith of the Scandinavian gods. In a trial of merit Wieland cleft Amilias (a brother smith) to the waist; but so fine was the cut that Amilias was not even conscious of it till he attempted to move, when he fell asunder into two pieces.–_Niebelungen Lied_.

BALRUDDERY (_The laird of_), a relation of Godfrey Bertram, laird of Ellangowan.–Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time, George II.).

BALTHAZAR, a merchant, in Shakespeare’s _Comedy of Errors_ (1593).

_Balthazar_, a name assumed by Portia, in Shakespeare’s _Merchant of Venice_ (1598).

_Balthazar_, servant to Romeo, in Shakespeare’s _Romeo and Juliet_ (1597).

_Balthazar_, servant to don Pedro, in Shakespeare’s _Much Ado about Nothing_ (1600).

_Balthazar_, one of the three “kings” shown in Cologne Cathedral as one of the “Magi” led to Bethlehem by the guiding star. The word means “lord of treasures.” The names of the other two are Melchior (“king of light”), and Gaspar or Caspar (“the white one”). Klopstock, in _The Messiah_, makes six “Wise Men,” and none of the names are like these three.

_Balthazar_, father of Juliana, Volante, and Zamora. A proud, peppery, and wealthy gentleman. His daughter Juliana marries the duke of Aranza; his second daughter the count Montalban; and Zamora marries signor Rinaldo.–J. Tobin, _The Honeymoon_ (1804).

BALUE (_Cardinal_), in the court of Louis XI. of France (1420-1491), introduced by sir W. Scott in _Quentin Durward_ (time, Edward IV.).

BALUGANTES (4 _syl._), leader of the men from Leon, in Spain, and in alliance with Agramant.–Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

BALVENY (_Lord_), kinsman of the earl of Douglas.–Sir W. Scott, _Fair Maid of Perth_ (time, Henry IV.).

BALWHIDDER [_Balwither_], a Scotch presbyterian pastor, filled with all the old-fashioned national prejudices, but sincere, kind-hearted, and pious. He is garrulous and loves his joke, but is quite ignorant of the world, being “in it but not of it.”–Galt, _Annals of the Parish_ (1821).

The _Rev. Micah Balwhidder_ is a fine representation of the primitive Scottish pastor; diligent, blameless, loyal, and exemplary in his life, but without the fiery zeal and “kirk-filling eloquence” of the supporters of the Covenant.–R.
Chambers, _English Literature_, ii. 591.

BALY, one of the ancient and gigantic kings of India, who founded the city called by his name. He redressed wrongs, upheld justice, was generous and truthful, compassionate and charitable, so that at death he became one of the judges of hell. His city in time got overwhelmed with the encroaching ocean, but its walls were not overthrown, nor were the rooms encumbered with the weeds and alluvial of the sea. One day a dwarf, named Vamen, asked the mighty monarch to allow him to measure three of his own paces for a hut to dwell in. Baly smiled, and bade him measure out what he required. The first pace of the dwarf compassed the whole earth, the second the whole heavens, and the third the infernal regions. Baly at once perceived that the dwarf was Vishnu, and adored the present deity. Vishnu made the king “Governor of Padalon” or hell, and permitted him once a year to revisit the earth, on the first full moon of November.

Baly built
A city, like the cities of the gods, Being like a god himself. For many an age Hath ocean warred against his palaces,
Till overwhelmed they lie beneath the waves, Not overthrown.

Southey, _Curse of Kehama_, xv. 1 (1809).

BAN, king of Benwick [_Brittany_], father of sir Launcelot, and brother of Bors king of Gaul. This “shadowy king of a still more shadowy kingdom” came over with his royal brother to the aid of Arthur, when, at the beginning of his reign, the eleven kings leagued against him (pt. i. 8).

Yonder I see the most valiant knight of the world, and the man of most renown, for such two brethren as are king Ban and king Bors are not living.–Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 14 (1470).

BANASTAR (_Humfrey_), brought up by Henry duke of Buckingham, and advanced by him to honor and wealth. He professed to love the duke as his dearest friend; but when Richard III. offered L1000 reward to any one who would deliver up the duke, Banastar betrayed him to John Mitton, sheriff of Shropshire, and he was conveyed to Salisbury, where he was beheaded. The ghost of the duke prayed that Banastar’s eldest son, “reft of his wits might end his life in a pigstye;” that his second son might “be drowned in a dyke” containing less than “half a foot of water;” that his only daughter might be a leper; and that Banastar himself might “live in death and die in life.”–Thomas Sackville, _A Mirrour for Magistraytes_ (“The Complaynt,” 1587).

BANBERG (_The Bishop of_), introduced in Donnerhugel’s narrative.–Sir W. Scott, _Anne of Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.).

BANBURY CHEESE. Bardolph calls Slender a “Banbury cheese” (_Merry Wives of Windsor_, act i. sc. 1); and in _Jack Drum’s Entertainment_ we read, “You are like a Banbury cheese, nothing but paring.” The Banbury cheese alluded to was a milk cheese, about an inch in thickness.

BANDY-LEGGED, Armand Gouffe (1775-1845), also called _Le panard du dix-neuvieme siecle_. He was one of the founders of the “Caveau moderne.”

BANKS, a farmer, the great terror of old mother Sawyer, the witch of Edmonton.–_The Witch of Edmonton_ (by Rowley, Dekker, and Ford, 1658).

BANQUO, a Scotch general of royal extraction, in the time of Edward the Confessor. He was murdered at the instigation of king Macbeth, but his son Fleance escaped, and from this Fleance descended a race of kings who filled the throne of Scotland, ending with James I. of England, in whom were united the two crowns. The witches on the blasted heath hailed Banquo as–

(1) Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. (2) Not so happy, yet much happier.
(3) Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none.

Shakespeare, _Macbeth_, act i. sc. 3 (1606).

(Historically no such person as Banquo ever existed, and therefore Fleance was not the ancestor of the house of Stuart.)

BANSHEE, a tutelary female spirit. Every chief family of Ireland has its banshee, who is supposed to give it warning of approaching death or danger.

BANTAM (_Angela Cyrus_), grand-master of the ceremonies at “Ba-ath,” and a very mighty personage in the opinion of the _elite_ of Bath.–C. Dickens, _The Pickwick Papers_ (1836).

BAP, a contraction of _Bap’liomet, i.e._ Mahomet. An imaginary idol or symbol which the Templars were accused of employing in their mysterious religious rites. It was a small human figure cut in stone, with two heads, one male and the other female, but all the rest of the figure was female. Specimens still exist.

BAP’TES (2 _syl_.), priests of the goddess Cotytto, whose midnight orgies were so obscene as to disgust even the very goddess of obscenity. (Greek, _bapto_, “to baptize,” because these priests bathed themselves in the most effeminate manner.)

BAPTIS’TA, a rich gentleman of Padua, father of Kathari’na “the shrew,” and Bianca.–Shakespeare, _Taming of the Shrew_ (1594).

BAPTISTI DAMIOTTI, a Paduan quack, who shows in the enchanted mirror a picture representing the clandestine marriage and infidelity of sir Philip Forester.–Sir W. Scott, _Aunt Margaret’s Mirror_ (time, William III.).

BAR’ABAS, the faithful servant of Ealph Lascours, captain of the _Uran’ia._ His favorite expression is “I am afraid;” but he always acts most bravely when he is afraid. (See BARRABAS.)–E. Stirling, _The Orphan of the Frozen Sea_ (1856).

BAR’ADAS (_Count_), the king’s favorite, first gentleman of the chamber, and one of the conspirators to dethrone Louis XIII., kill Richelieu, and place the duc d’Orleans on the throne of France. Baradas loved Julie, but Julie married the chevalier Adrien de Mauprat. When Richelieu fell into disgrace, the king made count Baradas his chief minister, but scarcely had he so done when a despatch was put into his hand revealing the conspiracy, and Richelieu ordered Baradas’ instant arrest.–Lord Lytton, _Richelieu_ (1839).

BARAK EL HADGI, the fakir, an emissary from the court of Hyder Ali.–Sir W. Scott, _The Surgeon’s Daughter_ (time, George II.).

BARBARA, the widowed heroine whose vacillations of devotion to her buried husband and the living cousin who might be his twin, furnish the _motif_ for Amelie Rives’s story, _The Quick or the Dead?_ (1888).

BARBARA FLOYD, lonely-hearted wife in George Fleming’s (Julia C. Fletcher) novel, _The Head of Medusa_. The scene of the story is laid in modern Rome; Barbara, married to an Italian nobleman, has an inner and purer life with which the corruptions of the gay capital meddle not.–(1880.)

BARBARA FRIETCHIE, heroic old woman of Frederick, Maryland, who took up the flag the men had hauled down at the command of Stonewall Jackson.–John Greenleaf Whittier, _Barbara Frietchie_ (1864).

Barbara Frietchie’s work is o’er
And the Rebel rides on his raids no more.

Honor to her! and let a tear
Fall, for her sake, on Stonewall’s bier.

Over Barbara Frietchie’s grave
Flag of Freedom and Union wave.

Peace and order and beauty draw
Bound thy symbol of light and law,

And ever the stars above look down On thy stars below in Frederick Town.

BARBARA HOLABIRD, the rattle-pate of the Holabird sisters in A.D.T. Whitney’s _We Girls_. She coins words and bakes lace-edged griddle-cakes and contrives rhymes, and tells on the last page of the book how it was made. “We rushed in, especially I, Barbara, and did little bits, and so it came to be a Song o’ Sixpence, and at last four Holabirds were ‘singing in the pie.'”–(1868.)

BARBARA’S HISTORY, story of young, untrained but bright and attractive girl who marries a man of the world. The conflict of two strong, wayward natures is long and fierce, resulting in temporary separation, and the discipline of sorrow and absence in reconciliation.–Amelia B. Edwards.

BARBAROSSA (“_red beard_”), surname of Frederick I. of Germany (1121-1190). It is said that he never died, but is still sleeping in Kyffhauserberg in Thuringia. There he sits at a stone table with his six knights, waiting the “fulness of time,” when he will come from his cave to rescue Germany from bondage, and give her the foremost place of all the-world. His beard has already grown through the table-slab, but must wind itself thrice round the table before his second advent. (See MANSUR, CHARLEMAGNE, ABTHUR, DESMOND, SEBASTIAN I., to whom similar legends are attached.)

Like Barbarossa, who sits in a cave, Taciturn, sombre, sedate, and grave.

Longfellow, _The Golden Legend_.

_Barbarossa_, a tragedy by John Brown. This is not Frederick Barbarossa, the emperor of Germany (1121-1190), but Horne Barbarossa, the corsair (1475-1519). He was a renegade Greek, of Mitylene, who made himself master of Algeria, which was for a time subject to Turkey. He killed the Moorish king; tried to cut off Selim the son, but without success; and wanted to marry Zaphi’ra, the king’s widow, who rejected his suit with scorn, and was kept in confinement for seven years. Selim returned unexpectedly to Algiers, and a general rising took place; Barbarossa was slain by the insurgents; Zaphira was restored to the throne; and Selim her son married Irene the daughter of Barbarossa (1742).

BAR’BARA (_St._), the patron saint of arsenals. When her father was about to strike off her head, she was killed by a flash of lightning.

BARBASON, the name of a demon. Amaimon sounds well; Lucifer well; Barbason well; yet they are … the names of fiends.–_Merry Wives of Windsor_, ii. 2.

I am not Barbason, you cannot conjure me.–_Henry V_. ii. 1.

BAR’BASON, the name of a demon mentioned in _The Merry Wives of Windsor_, act ii. sc. 2 (1596).

I am not Barbason; you cannot conjure me.–Shakespeare, _Henry V_. act ii. sc. I (1599).

BARBY ELSTER, sharp-tongued and sweet-hearted “help” in the Rossiter family in Susan Warner’s _Queechy_. She considers herself her employers’ more-than-equal and loses no opportunity of expressing the conviction.–(1852.)

BARCLAY OF URY, an Aberdeen laird, persecuted as a “Quaker coward” by a mob of former friends and dependents, offers no resistance and refuses defence from the sword of an ancient henchman.

“Is the sinful servant more
Than his gracious Lord who bore
Bonds and stripes in Jewry?”

J.G. Whittier, _Barclay of Ury_.

BARCO’CHEBAH, an antichrist.

Shared the fall of the antichrist Barcochebar.–Professor Selwin, _Ecce Homo_.

BARD OF AVON, Shakespeare, born and buried at Stratford-upon-Avon (1564-1616).

_Bard of Ayrshire_, Robert Burns, a native of Ayrshire (1759-1796).

_Bard of Hope_, Thomas Campbell, author of _The Pleasures of Hope_ (1777-1844).

_Bard of the Imagination_, Mark Akenside, author of _The Pleasures of the Imagination_ (1721-1770).

_Bard of Memory_, S. Rogers, author of _The Pleasures of Memory_ (1762-1855).

_Bard of Olney_, W. Cowper _[Coo’-per]_, who lived for many years at Olney, in Bucks (1731-1800).

_Bard of Prose_, Boccaccio.

He of the hundred tales of love.

Byron, _Childe Harold_, iv. 56 (1818).

_Bard of Rydal Mount_, William Wordsworth, who lived at Rydal Mount; also called “Poet of the Excursion,” from his principal poem (1770-1850).

_Bard of Twickenham_, Alexander Pope, who lived at Twickenham (1688-1744).

BARDELL _(Mrs.)_, landlady of “apartments for single gentlemen” in Groswell Street. Here Mr. Pickwick lodged for a time. She persuaded herself that he would make her a good second husband, and on one occasion was seen in his arms by his three friends. Mrs. Bardell put herself in the hands of Messrs. Dodson and Fogg (two unprincipled lawyers), who vamped up a case against Mr. Pickwick of “breach of promise,” and obtained a verdict against the defendant. Subsequently Messrs. Dodson and Fogg arrested their own client, and lodged her in the Fleet.–C. Dickens, _The Pickwick Papers_ (1836).

BARDE’SANIST (4 _syl_.), a follower of Barde’san, founder of a Gnostic sect in the second century.

BARDO BARDI, aged blind scholar, father of Romola. She is his colaborer in the studies he pursues despite his infirmity.–George Eliot, _Romola_.

BAR’DOLPH, corporal of captain sir John Falstaff, in 1 and 2 _Henry IV._ and in _The Merry Wives of Windsor_. In _Henry V._ he is promoted to lieutenant, and Nym is corporal. Both are hanged. Bardolph is a bravo, but great humorist; he is a lowbred, drunken swaggerer, wholly without principle, and always poor. His red, pimply nose is an everlasting joke with sir John and others. Sir John in allusion thereto calls Bardolph “The Knight of the Burning Lamp.” He says to him, “Thou art our admiral, and bearest the lantern in the poop.” Elsewhere he tells the corporal he had saved him a “thousand marks in links and torches, walking with him in the night betwixt tavern and tavern.”–Shakespeare.

We are much of the mind of Falstaff’s tailor. We must have better assurance for sir John than Bardolph’s.–Macaulay.

(The reference is to 2 _Henry IV_. act i. sc. 2. When Falstaff asks Page, “What said Master Dumbleton about the satin for my short cloak and slops!” Page replies, “He said, sir, you should procure him better assurance than Bardolph. He … liked not the security.”)

BARDON _(Hugh)_, the scout-master in the troop of lieutenant Fitzurse.–Sir W. Scott, _Ivanhoe_ (time, Richard I.).

BAREFOOT BOY, reminiscence of the author’s own boyhood in Whittier’s poem, _The Barefoot Boy_.

Prince thou art,–the grown-up man
Only is republican.

BARERE (2 _syl_.), an advocate of Toulouse, called “The Anacreon of the Guillotine.” He was president of the Convention, a member of the Constitutional Committee, and chief agent in the condemnation to death of Louis XVI. As member of the Committee of Public Safety, he decreed that “Terror must be the order of the day.” In the first empire Barere bore no public part, but at the restoration he was banished from France, and retired to Brussels (1755-1841).

The filthiest and most spiteful Yahoo of the fiction was a noble creature compared with the Barere of history.–Lord Macaulay.

BARFUeSLE, pretty German child, left an orphan at a tender age, and cast upon the world. She maintains herself reputably and resists many temptations until she is happily married.–Bernard Auerbach, _Barfuesle._

BAR’GUEST, a goblin armed with teeth and claws. It would sometimes set up in the streets a most fearful scream in the “dead waste and middle of the night.” The faculty of seeing this monster was limited to a few, but those who possessed it could by the touch communicate the “gift” to others.–_Fairy Mythology, North of England_.

BAR’GULUS, an Illyrian robber or pirate.

Bargulus, Illyrius latro, de quo est apud Theopompum magnas opes habuit.–Cicero, _De Officiis_, ii. 11.

BARICONDO, one of the leaders of the Moorish army. He was slain by the duke of Clarence.–Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

BARKER (.Mr.), friend to Sowerberry. _Mrs. Barker_, his wife.–W. Brough, _A Phenomenon in a Smock Frock_.

BAR’KIS, the carrier who courted [Clara] Peggot’ty, by telling David Copperfield when he wrote home to say to his nurse “Barkis is willin’.” Clara took the hint and became Mrs. Barkis.

He dies when the tide goes out, confirming the superstition that people can’t die till the tide goes out, or be born till it is in. The last words he utters are “Barkis is willin’.”–C. Dickens, _David Copperfield_, xxx. (1849).

(Mrs. Quickly says of sir John Falstaff, “‘A parted even just between twelve and one, e’en at the turning o’ the tide.”–_Henry V_. act ii. sc. 3, 1599.)

BAR’LAHAM AND JOSAPHAT, the heroes and title of a minnesong, the object of which was to show the triumph of Christian doctrines over paganism. Barlaham is a hermit who converts Josaphat, an Indian prince. This “lay” was immensely popular in the Middle Ages, and has been translated into every European language.–Rudolf of Ems (a minnesinger, thirteenth century).

BARLEY _(Bill)_, Clara’s father. Chiefly remarkable for drinking rum, and thumping on the floor.–C. Dickens, _Great Expectations_ (1860).

BARLEYCORN (_Sir John_), Malt-liquor personified. His neighbors vowed that sir John should die, so they hired ruffians to “plough him with ploughs and bury him;” this they did, and afterwards “combed him with harrows and thrust clods on his head,” but did not kill him. Then with hooks and sickles they “cut his legs off at the knees,” bound him like a thief, and left him “to wither with the wind,” but he died not. They now “rent him to the heart,” and having “mowed him in a mow,” sent two bravos to beat him with clubs, and they beat him so sore that “all his flesh fell from his bones,” but yet he died not. To a kiln they next hauled him, and burnt him like a martyr, but he survived the burning. They crushed him between two stones, but killed him not. Sir John bore no malice for this ill-usage, but did his best to cheer the flagging spirits even of his worst persecutors.

[Illustration] This song, from the _English Dancing-Master_ (1651), is generally ascribed to Robert Burns, but all that the Scotch poet did was slightly to alter parts of it. The same may be said of “Auld lang Syne,” “Ca’ the Yowes,” “My Heart is Sair for Somebody,” “Green grow the Rashes, O!” and several other songs, set down to the credit of Burns.

BARLOW, the favorite archer of Henry VIII. He was jocosely created by the merry monarch “Duke of Shoreditch,” and his two companions “Marquis of Islington” and “Earl of Pancras.”

_Barlow (Billy)_, a jester, who fancied himself a “mighty potentate.” He was well known in the east of London, and died in Whitechapel workhouse. Some of his sayings were really witty, and some of his attitudes truly farcical.

BAR’MECIDE. Schacabac “the hare-lipped,” a man in the greatest distress, one day called on the rich Barmecide, who in merry jest asked him to dine with him. Barmecide first washed in hypothetical water, Schacabac followed his example. Barmecide then pretended to eat of various dainties, Schacabac did the same, and praised them highly, and so the “feast” went on to the close. The story says Barmecide was so pleased that Schacabac had the good sense and good temper to enter into the spirit of the joke without resentment, that he ordered in a real banquet, at which Schacabac was a welcome guest.–_Arabian Nights_ (“The Barber’s Sixth Brother”).

BAR’NABAS _(St.)_, a disciple of Gamaliel, cousin of St. Mark, and fellow-laborer with St. Paul. He was martyred at Salamis, A.D. 63. _St. Barnabas’ Day_ is June 11.–_Acts_ iv. 36, 37.

BAR’NABY _(Widow)_, the title and chief character of a novel by Mrs. Trollope (1839). The widow is a vulgar, pretentious husband-hunter, wholly without principle. _Widow Barnaby_ has a sequel called _The Barnabys in America, or The Widow Married_, a satire on America and the Americans (1840).

BARNABY RUDGE, a half-witted whose companion is a raven. He is enticed into joining the Gordon rioters.–C. Dickens, _Barnaby Budge_ (1841). (See RUDGE.)

BARNACLE, brother of old Nicholas Cockney, and guardian of Priscilla Tomboy of the West Indies. Barnacle is a tradesman of the old school, who thinks the foppery and extravagance of the “Cockney” school inconsistent with prosperous shop-keeping. Though brusque and even ill-mannered, he has good sense and good discernment of character.–_The Romp_ (altered from Bickerstaff’s _Love in the City_).

BARNADINE, malefactor, condemned to death, “who will not die that day, upon any man’s persuasion.”–Shakespeare, _Measure for Measure_.

BARNES (1 _syl_.), servant to colonel Mannering, at Woodburne.–Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time, George II.).

BARNEY, a repulsive Jew, who waited on the customers at the low public-house frequented by Fagin and his associates. Barney always spoke through his nose.–C. Dickens, _Oliver Twist_ (1837).

BARN’STABLE (_Lieutenant_), in the British navy, in love with Kate Plowden, niece of colonel Howard of New York. The alliance not being approved of, Kate is removed from England to America, but Barnstable goes to America to discover her retreat. In this he succeeds, but being seized as a spy, is commanded by colonel Howard to be hung to the yardarm of an American frigate called the _Alacrity_. Scarcely is the young man led off, when the colonel is informed that Barnstable is his own son, and he arrives at the scene of execution just in time to save him. Of course after this he marries the lady of his affection.–E. Fitzball, _The Pilot_ (a burletta).

BARNWELL (_George_), the chief character and title of a tragedy by George Lillo. George Barnwell is a London apprentice, who falls in love with Sarah Millwood of Shoreditch, who leads him astray. He first robs his master of L200. He next robs his uncle, a rich grazier at Ludlow, and murders him. Having spent all the money of his iniquity, Sarah Millwood turns him off and informs against him. Both are executed (1732).

[Illustration] For many years this play was acted on boxing-night, as a useful lesson to London apprentices. BARON (_The old English_), a romance by Clara Reeve (1777).

BAR’RABAS, the rich “Jew of Malta.” He is simply a human monster, who kills in sport, poisons whole nunneries, and invents infernal machines. Shakespeare’s “Shylock” has a humanity in the very whirlwind of his resentment, but Marlowe’s “Barrabas” is a mere ideal of that “thing” which Christian prejudice once deemed a Jew. (See BARABAS.)–Marlowe, _The Jew of Malta_ (1586).

_Bar’rabas_, the famous robber and murderer set free instead of Christ by desire of the Jews. Called in the New Testament _Barab’has_. Marlowe calls the word “Barrabas” in his _Jew of Malta_, and Shakespeare says:

“Would any of the stock of Bar’rabas Had been her husband, rather than a Christian.”

_Merchant of Venice_, act iv. sc. 1 (1598).

BARRY CORNWALL, the _nom de plume_ of Bryan Waller Procter. It is an imperfect anagram of his name (1788-1874).

BARSAD (_John), alias_ Solomon Pross, a spy.

He had an aquiline nose, but not straight, having a peculiar inclination towards the left cheek; expression, therefore, sinister.–C. Dickens, _A Tale of Two Cities_, ii. 16 (1859).

BARSIS’A (_Santon_), in _The Guardian_, the basis of the story called _The Monk_, by M. G. Lewis (1796).

BARSTON, _alias_ captain Fenwicke, a jesuit and secret correspondent of the conntess of Derby.–Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

BARTHOL’OMEW (_Brother_), guide of the two Philipsons on their way to Strasburg.

–Sir W. Scott, _Anne of Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.).

_Bartholomew (St.)._ His day is August 24, and his symbol a knife, in allusion to the knife with which he is said to have been flayed alive.

BARTLEY HUBBARD, the “smart” newspaper-man in _A Modern Instance_, by William Dean Howells (1883). He also plies his trade and exhibits his assurance in _The Rise of Silas Lapham_ (1885).

BARTOLDO, a rich old miser, who died of fear and want of sustenance. Fazio rifled his treasures, and on the accusation of his own wife was tried and executed.–Dean Milman, _Fazio_ (1815).

_Bartoldo_, same as _Bertoldo_ (_q.v._).

BARTOLI (in French _Barthole_, better known, however, by the Latin form of the name, _Bartolus_) was the most famous master of the dialectical school of jurists (1313-1356). He was born at Sasso Ferrata in Italy, and was professor of Civil Law at the University of Perugia. His reputation was at one time immense, and his works were quoted as authority in nearly every European court. Hence the French proverb, applied to a well-read lawyer, _He knows his “Barthole” as well as a Cordelier his “Dormi_” (an anonymous compilation of sermons for the use of the Cordelier monks). Another common French expression, _Resolu comme Barthole_ (“as decided as Barthole”), is a sort of punning allusion to his _Resolutiones Bartoli_, a work in which the knottiest questions are solved with _ex cathedra_ peremptoriness.

BAR’TOLUS, a covetous lawyer, husband of Amaran’ta.–Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Spanish Curate_ (1622).

BARTON (_Sir Andrew_), a Scotch sea-officer, who had obtained in 1511 letters of marque for himself and his two sons, to make reprisals upon the subjects of Portugal. The council-board of England, at which the earl of Surrey presided, was daily pestered by complaints from British merchants and sailors against Barton, and at last it was decided to put him down. Two ships were, therefore, placed under the commands of sir Thomas and sir Edward Howard, an engagement took place, and sir Andrew Barton was slain, bravely fighting. A ballad in two parts, called “Sir Andrew Barton,” is inserted in Percy’s _Reliques_, II. ii. 12.

BARTRAM, the lime-burner, an obtuse, middle-aged clown in _Ethan Brand_ by Nathaniel Hawthorne. When he finds the suicide’s skeleton in the kiln, the heart whole within the ribs, he congratulates himself that “his kiln is half a bushel richer for him” (1846).

BARUCH. _Dites, donc, avez-vous lu Baruch?_ Said when a person puts an unexpected question, or makes a startling proposal. It arose thus: Lafontaine went one day with Racine to _tenebrae_, and was given a Bible. He turned at random to the “Prayer of the Jews,” in Baruch, and was so struck with it that he said aloud to Racine, “Dites, donc, who was this Baruch? Why, do you know, man, he was a fine genius;” and for some days afterwards the first question he asked his friends was, _Diles, done, Mons., avez-vous lu Baruch?_

BARZIL’LAI (3 _syl_.), the duke of Ormond, a friend and firm adherent of Charles II. As Barzillai assisted David when he was expelled by Absalom from his kingdom, so Ormond assisted Charles II. when he was in exile.

Barzillai, crowned with honors and with years,… In exile with his god-like prince he mourned, For him he suffered, and with him returned.

Dryden, _Absalom and Achitophel_, i.

BASA-ANDRE, the wild woman, a sorceress, married to Basa-Jaun, a sort of vampire. Basa-Andre sometimes is a sort of land mermaid (a beautiful lady who sits in a cave combing her locks with a golden comb). She hates church bells. (See BASA-JAUN.)

BASA-JAUN, a wood-sprite, married to Basa-Andre, a sorceress. Both hated the sound of church bells. Three brothers and their sister agreed to serve him, but the wood-sprite used to suck blood from the finger of the girl, and the brothers resolved to kill him. This they accomplished. The Basa-Andre induced the girl to put a tooth into each of the footbaths of her brothers, and lo! they became oxen. The girl crossing a bridge saw Basa-Andre, and said if she did not restore her brothers she would put her into a red-hot oven, so Basa-Andre told the girl to give each brother three blows on the back with a hazel wand, and on so doing they were restored to their proper forms.–Rev. W. Webster, _Basque Legends_, 49 (1877).

BAS BLEU, nickname applied to literary women in the days succeeding the French Revolution, made familiar in America by J. K. Paulding’s _Azure Hose_.

BASHABA, sachem in J. G.L. Whittier’s poem, _The Bridal of Pennacock_. His beautiful daughter, scorned by the chief to whom Bashaba gave her in marriage, and detained against her will by her angry father, steals away by night in a canoe and IS drowned in a vain attempt

To seek the wigwam of her chief once more.

BASHFUL MAN (_The_), a comic drama by

W. T. Moncrieff. Edward Blushington, a young man just come into a large fortune, is so bashful and shy that life is a misery to him. He dines at Friendly Hall, and makes all sorts of ridiculous blunders. His college chum, Frank Friendly, sends word to say that he and his sister Dinah, with sir Thomas and lady Friendly, will dine with him at Blushington House. After a few glasses of wine, Edward loses his shyness, makes a long speech, and becomes the accepted suitor of Dinah Friendly.

BASIL, the blacksmith of Grand Pre, in Acadia (now _Nova Scotia_), and father of Gabriel the betrothed of Evangeline. When, the colony was driven into exile in 1713 by George II., Basil settled in Louisiana, and greatly prospered; but his son led a wandering life, looking for Evangeline, and died in Pennsylvania of the plague.–Longfellow, _Evangeline_ (1849).

BASIL MARCH, a clever, cynical, and altogether charming man of letters who takes one of the leading parts in William Dean Howells’s _Their Wedding Journey. A Chance Acquaintance_, and _A Hazard of New Fortunes_.

BA’SILE (2 _syl_.), a calumniating, niggardly bigot in _Le Mariage de Figaro_, and again in _Le Barbier de Seville_, both by Beaumarchais. Basile and Tartuffe are the two French incarnations of religious hypocrisy. The former is the clerical humbug, and the latter the lay religious hypocrite. Both deal largely in calumny, and trade in slander.

BASILIS’CO, a bully and a braggart, in _Solyman and Perseda_ (1592). Shakespeare has made Pistol the counterpart of Basilisco.

Knight, knight, good mother, Basilisco-like.

Shakespeare, _King John_, act i. sc. 1 (1596).

(That is, “my boasting like Basilisco has made me a knight, good mother.”)

BASILISK, supposed to kill with its gaze the person who looked on it. Thus Henry VI. says to Suffolk, “Come, basilisk, and kill the innocent gazer with thy sight.”

Natus in ardente Lydiae basiliscus arena, Vulnerat aspectu, luminibusque nocet.

Mantuanus.

BASILIUS, a neighbor of Quiteria, whom he loved from childhood, but when grown up the father of the lady forbade him the house, and promised Quiteria in marriage to Camacho, the richest man of the vicinity. On their way to church they passed Basilius, who had fallen on his sword, and all thought he was at the point of death. He prayed Quiteria to marry him, “for his soul’s peace,” and as it was deemed a mere ceremony, they were married in due form. Up then started the wounded man, and showed that the stabbing was only a ruse, and the blood that of a sheep from the slaughter-house. Camacho gracefully accepted the defeat, and allowed the preparations for the general feast to proceed.

Basilius is strong and active, pitches the bar admirably, wrestles with amazing dexterity, and is an excellent cricketer. He runs like a buck, leaps like a wild goat, and plays at skittles like a wizard. Then he has a fine voice for singing, he touches the guitar so as to make it speak, and handles a foil as well as any fencer in Spain.–Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, II. ii. 4 (1615).

BASRIG or BAGSECG, a Scandinavian king, who with Halden or Halfdene (2 _syl_.) king of Denmark, in 871, made a descent on Wessex. In this year Ethelred fought nine pitched battles with the Danes. The first was the battle of Englefield, in Berkshire, lost by the Danes; the next was the battle of Beading, won by the Danes; the third was the famous battle of AEscesdun or Ashdune (now _Ashton_), lost by the Danes, and in which king Bagsecg was slain.

And Ethelred with them [_the Danes_] nine sundry fields that fought … Then Reading ye regained, led by that valiant lord, Where Basrig ye outbraved, and Halden sword to sword.

Drayton, _Polyolbion_, xii. (1613).

Next year (871) the Danes for the first time entered Wessex…. The first place they came to was Reading…. Nine great battles, besides smaller skirmishes, were fought this year, in some of which the English won, and in others the Danes. First, alderman AEthelwulf fought the Danes at Englefield, and beat them. Four days after that there was another battle at Reading … where the Danes had the better of it, and AEthelwulf was killed. Four days afterwards there was another more famous battle at AEscesdun … and king AEthelred fought against the two kings, and slew Bagsecg with his own hand.–E. A. Freeman, _Old English History_ (1869); see Asser, _Life of Alfred_ (ninth century).

BASSA’NIO, the lover of Portia, successful in his choice of the three caskets, which awarded her to him as wife. It was for Bassanio that his friend Antonio borrowed 3000 ducats of the Jew Shylock, on the strange condition that if he returned the loan within three months no interest should be required, but if not, the Jew might claim a pound of Antonio’s flesh for forfeiture.–Shakespeare, _Merchant of Venice_ (1598).

BAS’SET _(Count)_, a swindler and forger, who assumes the title of “count” to further his dishonest practices.–C. Cibber, _The Provoked Husband_ (1728).

BASSIA’NUS, brother of Satur’nius emperor of Rome, in love with Lavin’ia daughter of Titus Andron’icus (properly _Andronicus_). He is stabbed by Deme’trius and Chiron, sons of Tam’ora queen of the Goths.–(?) Shakespeare, _Titus Andronicus_ (1593).

BASSI’NO _(Count)_, the “perjured husband of Aurelia” slain by Alonzo.–Mrs. Centlivre, _The Perjured Husband_ (1700).

BASSANIO, a youth of noble birth but crippled fortunes, whose desire to win the hand of Portia, a rich heiress, is the moving spring of the action of Shakespeare’s _The Merchant of Venice_. Portia’s father has left three caskets, and has ordered in his will that his daughter is to marry only the man who chooses the casket that holds her portrait. That Bassanio may enter the list of Portia’s suitors, his friend Antonio borrows money of Shylock, a Jew, who, out of hatred to the merchant, entraps him into pledging a pound of his flesh as surety for the loan. Bassanio marries Portia, but misfortune overtakes Antonio, he forfeits his bond, and his life is only saved by a quibble devised by Portia.

BASTARD OF ORLEANS, in Shakespeare’s _Henry VI_ Part 1, is Jean Dunois a natural son of Louis of Orleans, brother of Charles VI.

BAT (_Dr_.), naturalist in Cooper’s _Prairie_, who mistakes his ass at night for a monster described in his note-book.

BATES (1 _syl_.), a soldier in the army of Henry V. He with Court and Williams are sentinals before the English camp at Agincourt, and the king disguised comes to them during the watch, and talks with them respecting the impending battle,–Shakespeare, _Henry V_.

_Bates (Charley)_, generally called “Master Bates,” one of Fagin’s “pupils,” training to be a pickpocket. He is always laughing uproariously, and is almost equal in artifice and adroitness to “The Artful Dodger” himself.–C. Dickens, _Oliver Twist_ (1837).

_Bates (Frank)_, the friend of Whittle. A man of good plain sense, who tries to laugh the old beau out of his folly.–Garrick, _The Irish Widow_ (1757).

BATH (_King of_), Richard Nash, generally called _Beau_ Nash, master of-the ceremonies for fifteen years in that fashionable city (1674-1761).

_Bath (The Maid of_), Miss Linley, a beautiful and accomplished singer, who married Richard B. Sheridan, the statesman and dramatist.

_Bath (The Wife of_), one of the pilgrims travelling from Southwark to Canterbury, in Chaucer’s _Canterbury Tales_. She tells her tale in turn, and chooses “Midas” for her subject (1388).

BATHSHEBA in Dryden’s _Absalom and Achitophel_ is Louisa de Queronailles, a young French lady brought into England by the Duchess of Orleans, and who became the mistress of Charles II. The King made her Duchess of Portsmouth.

My father [_Charles II._] whom with reverence I name … Is grown in Bathsheba’s embraces old.

Dryden, _Absalom and Achitophel_, ii.

BATHSHEBA EVERDEIIE, handsome heiress of an English farmstead, beloved by two honest men and one knave. She marries the knave in haste, and repents it at leisure for years thereafter. Released by his death, she marries Gabriel Oak.–Thomas Hardy, _Far from the Madding Crowd_ (1874).

BATTAR _(Al), i.e. the trenchant_, one of Mahomet’s swords.

BATTUS, a shepherd of Arcadia. Having witnessed Mercury’s theft of Apollo’s oxen, he received a cow from the thief to ensure his secrecy; but, in order to test his fidelity, Mercury re-appeared soon afterwards, and offered him an ox and a cow if he would blab. Battus fell into the trap, and was instantly changed into a touchstone.

When Tantalus in hell sees store and starves; And senseless Battus for a touchstone serves.

Lord Brooke, _Treatise on Monarchie_, iv.

BAU’CIS AND PHILEMON, an aged Phrygian woman and her husband, who received Jupiter and Mercury hospitably when every one else in the place had refused to entertain them. For this courtesy the gods changed the Phrygians’ cottage into a magnificent temple, and appointed the pious couple over it. They both died at the same time, according to their wish, and were converted into two trees before the temple.–_Greek and Roman Mythology_.

BAUL’DIE (2 _syl._), stable-boy of Joshua Geddes the quaker.–Sir W. Scott, _Red-gauntlet_ (time, George III.).

_Baul’die_ (2 _syl._), the old shepherd in the introduction of the story called _The Black Dwarf_, by sir W. Scott (time, Anne).

BAVIAN FOOL (_The_), one of the characters in the old morris-dance. He wore a red cap faced with yellow, a yellow “slabbering-bib,” a blue doublet, red hose, and black shoes. He represents an overgrown baby, but was a tumbler, and mimicked the barking of a dog. The word Bavian is derived from _bavon_, a “bib for a slabbering child” (see Cotgrave, _French Dictionary_). In modern French _bave_ means “drivel,” “slabbering,” and the verb _baver_ “to slabber,” but the bib is now called _bavette_. (See MORRIS-DANCE.)

BAVIE’CA, the Cid’s horse. He survived his master two years and a half, and was buried at Valencia. No one was ever allowed to mount him after the death of the Cid.

BAVIUS, any vile poet. (See MAEVIUS.)

BAWTRY. _Like the saddler of Baivtry, who was hanged for leaving his liquor_. (_Yorkshire Proverb_.) It was customary for criminals on their way to execution to stop at a certain tavern in York for a “parting draught.” The saddler of Bawtry refused to accept the liquor, and was hanged, whereas if he had stopped a few minutes at the tavern his reprieve, which was on the road, would have arrived in time to save him.

BA’YARD, _Le chevalier sans peur et sans reproche_; born in France in 1475. He served under Charles VIII. and Louis XII.; bore a gallant part in the “Battle of the Spurs,” and died in 1524 of wounds received while in action.

_The British Bayard_, sir Philip Sidney (1554-1584).

_The Polish Bayard_, prince Joseph Poniatowski (1763-1814).

_The Bayard of India_, sir James Outram (1803-1863). So called by sir Charles Napier.

_Ba’yard_, a horse of incredible speed, belonging to the four sons of Aymon. If only one mounted, the horse was of the ordinary size, but increased in proportion as two or more mounted. (The word means “bright bay color.”)–Villeneuve, _Les Quatre fils Aymon_.

_Bayard_, the steed of Fitz-James.–Sir W. Scott, _Lady of the Lake_, v. 18 (1810).

BAYAR’DO, the famous steed of Rinaldo, which once belonged to Amadis of Gaul. It was found in a grotto by the wizard Malagigi, along with the sword Fusberta, both of which he gave to his cousin Rinaldo.

His color bay, and hence his name he drew– Bayardo called. A star of silver hue
Emblazed his front.

Tasso, _Rinaldo_, ii. 220 (1562).

BAYES (1 _syl._), the chief character of _The Rehearsal_, a farce by George Villiers, duke of Buckingham (1671). Bayes is represented as greedy of applause, impatient of censure, meanly obsequious, regardless of plot, and only anxious for claptrap. The character is meant for John Dryden.

[Illustration] C. Dibdin, in his _History of the Stage_, states that Mrs. Mountford played “Bayes” “with more variety than had ever been thrown into the part before.”

No species of novel-writing exposes itself to a severer trial, since it not only resigns all Bayes’ pretensions “to elevate the imagination,” … but places its productions within the range of [general] criticism.–_Encyc. Brit._ Art. “Romance.”

BAYNARD (_Mr._), introduced in an episode in the novel called _Humphrey Clinker_, by Smollett (1771).

BEA’CON (_Tom_), groom to Master Chiffinch (private emissary of Charles II.).–Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

BEA’GLE (_Sir Harry_), a horsy country gentleman, who can talk of nothing but horses and dogs. He is wofully rustic and commonplace. Sir Harry makes a bargain with lord Trinket to give up Harriet to him in exchange for his horse. (See GOLDFINCH.)–George Colman, _The Jealous Wife_ (1761).

BEAK. Sir John Fielding was called “The Blind Beak” (died 1780). BEAN LEAN (_Donald_), _alias_ Will Ruthven, a Highland robber-chief. He also appears disguised as a peddler on the roadside leading to Stirling. Waverley is rowed to the robber’s cave and remains there all night.

_Alice Bean_, daughter of Donald Bean Lean, who attends on Waverley during a fever.–Sir W. Scott, _Waverley_ (time, George II.).

BEAR (_The Brave_). Warwick is so called from his cognizance, which was _a bear and ragged staff_.

BEARCLIFF (_Deacon_), at the Gordon Arms or Kippletringam inn, where colonel Mannering stops on his return to England, and hears of Bertram’s illness and distress.–Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time, George II.).

BEARDED (_The_). (1) Geoffrey the crusader. (2) Bouchard of the house of Montmorency. (3) Constantine IV. (648-685). (4) Master George Killingworthe of the court of Ivan _the Terrible_ of Russia, whose beard (says Hakluyt) was five feet two inches long, yellow, thick, and broad. Sir Hugh Willoughby was allowed to take it in his hand.

_The Bearded Master_. Soc’rates was so called by Persius (B.C. 468-399).

_Handsome Beard_, Baldwin IV. earl of Flanders (1160-1186).

_John the Bearded_, John Mayo, the German painter, whose beard touched the ground when he stood upright.

BEARNAIS (_Le_), Henri IV. of France, so called from his native province, Le Bearr. (1553-1610).

BEATON, the artist of _Every Other Week_, the story of which periodical is told in W. D. Howells’s _A Hazard of New Fortunes_ (1889).

His name was Beaton–Angus Beaton. His father was a Scotchman, but Beaton was born in Syracuse, New York, and it had taken only three years to obliterate many traces of native and ancestral manner in him. He wore his thick beard cut shorter than his moustache, and a little pointed; he stood with his shoulders well thrown back, and with a lateral curve of his person when he talked about art which would alone have carried conviction, even if he had not had a thick, dark bang coming almost to the brows of his mobile gray eyes, and had not spoken English with quick, staccato impulses, so as to give it the effect of epigrammatic and sententious French.

BE’ATRICE (3 _syl_.), a child eight years old, to whom Dante at the age of nine was ardently attached. She was the daughter of Folco Portina’ri, a rich citizen of Florence. Beatrice married Simoni de Bardi, and died before she was twenty-four years old (1266-1290). Dante married Gemma Donati, and his marriage was a most unhappy one. His love for Beatrice remained after her decease. She was the fountain of his poetic inspiration, and in his _Divina Commedia_ he makes her his guide through paradise.

Dante’s Beatrice and Milton’s Eve Were not drawn from their spouses you conceive. Byron, _Don Juan_, iii. 10 (1820).

(Milton, who married Mary Powell, of Oxfordshire, was as unfortunate in his choice as Dante.)

_Beatrice_, wife of Ludov’ico Sforza.

_Beatrice_, daughter of Ferdinando king of Naples, sister of Leonora duchess of Ferrara, and wife of Mathias Corvi’nus of Hungary.

_Beatrice_, niece of Leonato governor of Messina, lively and light-hearted, affectionate and impulsive. Though wilful she is not wayward, though volatile she is not unfeeling, though teeming with wit and gaiety she is affectionate and energetic. At first she dislikes Benedick, and thinks him a flippant conceited coxcomb; but overhearing a conversation between her cousin Hero and her gentlewoman, in which Hero bewails that Beatrice should trifle with such deep love as that of Benedick, and should scorn so true and good a gentleman, she cries, “Sits the wind thus? then, farewell, contempt. Benedick, love on; I will requite you.” This conversation of Hero’s was a mere ruse, but Benedick had been caught by a similar trick played by Claudio, don Pedro, and Leonato. The result was they sincerely loved each other, and were married.–Shakespeare, _Much Ado about Nothing_ (1600).

BEATRICE CENCI, the _Beautiful Parricide (q.v.)._

BEATRICE D’ESTE, canonized at Rome.

BEATRICE GIORGINI, an Italian contessa whose parents contract a secret marriage, an unequal match as to birth and fortune, and, dying young, one by violence, leave their child in charge of Betta, a faithful nurse, who takes her to her mother’s mother, an old peasant. At her grandmother’s death she becomes companion to a relative of her father; marries don Leonardo, her father’s cousin and one of the witnesses to the secret marriage, and uses him to prove her legitimacy and his own treachery.–Mary Agnes Tincker, _Two Coronets_ (1889).

BEAU BRUMMEL, George Bryan Brummel, son of a London pastry-cook, who became the fashion at the court of George III. and reigning favorite of the Prince of Wales. His story has been made the foundation of a brilliant American play by Clyde Fitch, in which Richard Mansfield takes the part of Brummel (1890).

BEAU CLARK, a billiard-maker at the beginning of the nineteenth century. He was called “The Bean,” assumed the name of _Beauelerc_, and paid his addresses to a _protegee_ of lord Fife.

BEAU FIELDING, called “Handsome Fielding” by Charles II., by a play on his name, which was Hendrome Fielding. He died in Scotland Yard.

BEAU HEWITT was the original of sir George Etherege’s “Sir Fopling Flutter,” in the comedy called _The Man of Mode or Sir Fopling Flutter_ (1676).

BEAU NASH, Richard Nash, called also “King of Bath;” a Welsh gentleman, who for fifteen years managed the bath-rooms of Bath, and conducted the balls with unparalleled splendor and decorum. In his old age he sank into poverty (1674-1761).

BEAU D’ORSAY _(Le)_, father of count d’Orsay, whom Byron calls “_Jeune Cupidon._”

BEAU SEANT, the Templars’ banner, half white and half black; the white signified that the Templars were good to Christians, the black, that they were evil to infidels.

BEAU TIBBS, in Goldsmith’s _Citizen of the World_, a dandy noted for his finery, vanity, and poverty.

BEAUCLERK, Henry I. king of England (1068, 1100-1135).

BEAUFORT, the lover of Maria Wilding, whom he ultimately marries.–A. Murphy, _The Citizen_ (a farce).

BEAUJEU (_Mons. le chevalier de_), keeper of a gambling-house to which Dalgarno takes Nigel.–Sir W. Scott, _Fortunes of Nigel_ (time, James I.).

_Beaujeu_ (_Mons. le comte de_), a French officer in the army of the Chevalier Charles Edward, the Pretender.–Sir W. Scott, _Waverley_ (time, George II.).

BEAUMAINS (“_big hands_”), a nickname which sir Key (Arthur’s steward) gave to Gareth when he was kitchen drudge in the palace. “He had the largest hands that ever man saw.” Gareth was the son of king Lot and Margawse (king Arthur’s sister). His brothers were sir Gaw’ain, sir Agravain, and sir Gaheris. Mordred was his half-brother.–Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 120 (1470).

[Illustration] His achievements are given under the name “Gareth” (q.v.).

Tennyson, in his _Gareth and Lynette_, makes sir Key tauntingly address Lancelot thus, referring to Gareth:

Fair and fine, forsooth!
Sir Fine-face, sir Fair-hands? But see thou to it That thine own fineness, Lancelot, some fine day, Undo thee not.

Be it remembered that Key himself called Gareth “Beaumain” from the extraordinary size of the lad’s hands; but the taunt put into the mouth of Key by the poet indicates that the lad prided himself on his “fine” face and “fair” hands, which is not the case. If “fair hands” is a translation of this nickname, it should be “fine hands,” which bears the equivocal sense of _big_ and _beautiful_.

BEAU’MANOIR (_Sir Lucas_), Grand-Master of the Knights Templars.–Sir W. Scott, _Ivanhoe_ (time, Richard I.).

BEAUPRE [_Bo-pray_’], son of judge Vertaigne (2 _syl_.) and brother of Lami’ra.–Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Little French Lawyer_ (1647).

BEAUTE (2 _syl_). _La dame de Beaute_. Agnes Sorel, so called from the chateau de Beaute, on the banks of the Marne, given to her by Charles VII. (1409-1450).

BEAUTIFUL CORISANDE (3 _syl_). Diane comtesse de Guiche et de Grammont. She was the daughter of Paul d’Andouins, and married Philibert de Grammont, who died in 1580. The widow outlived her husband for twenty-six years. Henri IV., before he was king of Navarre, was desperately smitten by La belle Corisande, and when Henri was at war with the League, she sold her diamonds to raise for him a levy of 20,000 Gascons (1554-1620).

(The letters of Henri to Corisande are still preserved in the _Bibliotheque de l’Arsenal_, and were published in 1769.)

BEAUTIFUL PARRICIDE (_The_), Beatrice Cenci, daughter of a Roman nobleman, who plotted the death of her father because he violently defiled her. She was executed in 1605. Shelley has a tragedy on the subject, entitled _The Cenci_. Guido Reni’s portrait of Beatrice is well known through its numberless reproductions.

BEAUTY (_Queen of_). So the daughter of Schems’edeen’ Mohammed, vizier of Egypt, was called. She married her cousin, Bed’redeen’ Hassan, son of Nour’edeen’ Ali, vizier of Basora.–_Arabian Nights_ (“Nouredeen Ali,” etc.).

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (_La Belle et la Bete_’), from _Les Contes Marines_ of Mde. Villeneuvre (1740), the most beautiful of all nursery tales. A young and lovely woman saved her father by putting herself in the power of a frightful but kind-hearted monster, whose respectful affection and melancholy overcame her aversion to his ugliness, and she consented to become his bride. Being thus freed from enchantment, the monster assumed his proper form and became a young and handsome prince.

BEAUTY OF BUTTERMERE (3 syl.), Mary Robinson, who married John Hatfield, a heartless impostor executed for forgery at Carlisle in 1803.

BEAUX’ STRATAGEM (_The_), by George Farquhar. Thomas viscount Aimwell and his friend Archer (the two beaux), having run through all their money, set out fortune-hunting, and come to Lichfield as “master and man.” Aimwell pretends to be very unwell, and as lady Bountiful’s hobby is tending the sick and playing the leech, she orders him to be removed to her mansion. Here he and Dorinda (daughter of lady Bountiful) fall in love with each other, and finally marry. Archer falls in love with Mrs. Sullen, the wife of squire Sullen, who had been married fourteen months but agreed to a divorce on the score of incompatibility of tastes and temper. This marriage forms no part of the play; all we are told is that she returns to the roof of her brother, sir Charles Freeman (1707).

BEDE (_Adam_ and _Seth_), brothers, carpenters. Seth loves the fair gospeller Dinah Morris, but she marries Adam.–George Eliot, _Adam Bede_.

_Bede (Cuthbert_), the Rev. Edward Bradley, author of _The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, an Oxford Freshman_ (1857).

BED’ER (“_the full moon_”), son of Gulna’re (3 syl.), the young king of Persia. As his mother was an under-sea princess, he was enabled to live under water as well as on land. Beder was a young man of handsome person, quick parts, agreeable manners, and amiable disposition. He fell in love with Giauha’re, daughter of the king of Samandal, the most powerful of the under-sea empires, but Giauhare changed him into a white bird with red beak and red legs. After various adventures, Beder resumed his human form and married Giauhare.–_Arabian Nights_ (“Beder and Giauhare”).

BED’IVERE (_Sir_) or BED’IVER, king Arthur’s butler and a knight of the Round Table. He was the last of Arthur’s knights, and was sent by the dying king to throw his sword Excalibur into the mere. Being cast in, it was caught by an arm “clothed in white samite,” and drawn into the stream.–Tennyson, _Morte d’Arthur_.

Tennyson’s _Morte d’Arthur_ is a very close and in many parts a verbal rendering of the same tale in sir Thomas Malory’s _Morte d’Arthur_, iii. 168 (1470).

BEDLOE (_Augustus_), an eccentric Virginian, an opium-eater, and easily hypnotized, in Edgar Allan Poe’s _Tale of the Ragged Mountains_ (1846).