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 Æthelwulf 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 Æthelwulf was killed. Four days afterwards there was another more
famous battle at Æscesdun ... and king Æthelred 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 MÆVIUS.)
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'ratês 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 Béarr. (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 Dantê 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).
Dantê 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.
Dantê'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 Dantê.)
_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 _protégée_ 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).
BEAUTÉ (2 _syl_). _La dame de Beauté_. Agnes Sorel, so called from the
château de Beauté, 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
_Bibliothéque 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 Bête_'), 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'rê (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'rê, daughter of the king of Samandal, the
most powerful of the under-sea empires, but Giauharê changed him into
a white bird with red beak and red legs. After various adventures,
Beder resumed his human form and married Giauharê.--_Arabian Nights_
("Beder and Giauharê").
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).
BEDOTT (_Widow_). (See HEZEKIAH BEDOTT.)
BED'OUINS [_Bed'.winz_], nomadic tribes of Arabia. In common
parlance, "the homeless street poor." Thus gutter-children are called
"Bedouins."
BED'REDEEN' HAS'SAN of Baso'ra, son of Nour'edeen' Ali grand vizier
of Basora, and nephew to Schems'edeen' Mohammed vizier of Egypt. His
beauty was transcendent and his talents of the first order. When
twenty years old his father died, and the sultan, angry with him for
keeping from court, confiscated all his goods, and would have seized
Bedredeen if he had not made his escape. During sleep he was conveyed
by fairies to Cairo, and substituted for an ugly groom (Hunchback) to
whom his cousin, the Queen of Beauty, was to have been married. Next
day he was carried off by the same means to Damascus, where he lived
for ten years as a pastry-cook. Search was made for him, and the
search party, halting outside the city of Damascus, sent for some
cheese-cakes. When the cheese-cakes arrived, the widow of Nouredeen
declared that they must have been made by her son, for no one else
knew the secret of making them, and that she herself had taught it to
him. On hearing this, the vizier ordered Bedredeen to be seized, "for
making cheese-cakes without pepper," and the joke was carried on till
the party arrived at Cairo, when the pastry-cook prince was reunited
to his wife, the Queen of Beauty.--_Arabian Nights_ ("Nouredeen Ali,"
etc.).
BEDWIN (_Mrs._), housekeeper to Mr. Brownlow. A kind, motherly soul,
who loves Oliver Twist most dearly.--C. Dickens, _Oliver Twist_
(1837).
BEE OF ATTICA, Soph'oclês the dramatist (B.C. 495-405). The "Athenian
Bee" was Plato the philosopher (B.C. 428-347).
The Bee of Attica rivalled Æschylus when in
the possession of the stage.--Sir W. Scott, _The
Drama._
BEEF'INGTON (_Milor_), introduced in _The Rovers._ Casimir is a Polish
emigrant, and Beefington an English nobleman exiled by the tyranny of
king John.--_Anti-Jacobin._
"Will without power," said the sagacious Casimir,
to Milor Beefington, "is like children playing
at soldiers."--Macaulay.
BE'ELZELBUB (4 _syl_.), called "prince of the devils" (_Matt._ xii.
24), worshipped at Ekron, a city of the Philistines (2 _Kings_ i. 2),
and made by Milton second to Satan.
One next himself in power and next in crime--Beëlzebub.
_Paradise Lost_, i. 80 (1665).
BEE'NIE (2 _syl_.), chambermaid at Old St. Ronan's inn, held by Meg
Dods.--Sir W. Scott, _St. Ronan's Well_ (time, George III.).
BEES (_Telling the_), a superstition still prevalent in some rural
districts that the bees must be told at once if a death occur in the
family, or every swarm will take flight. In Whittier's poem, _Telling
the Bees_, the lover coming to visit his mistress sees the small
servant draping the hives with black, and hears her chant:
"Stay at home, pretty bees, fly not hence,
Mistress Mary is dead and gone."