Artevelde, Von., Jacob v. A. and Philip, his son, led the people of
Flanders in their revolt against Count Louis and his French supporters
(fourteenth century)
Ascham, Roger, and Aylmer, John, tutors of Queen Elizabeth and Lady Jane
Grey respectively
Athalie, Saul, Cinna, dramas by Racine Alfieri, and Corneille
respectively
Atticus, Sporus, i.e. Addison and Lord John Hervey, satirized in Pope’s
Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot
Attila, King of the Huns, the “Scourge of God” who overran the Roman
Empire but was finally beaten by the allied Goths and Romans (d. 453)
Aubrey, John, an eminent antiquary who lost a number of inherited
estates by lawsuits and bad management (1624-97)
BADAJOZ and St. Sebastian, towns in Spain captured from the French
during the Peninsular War
Bastiani, was at first one of the big Potsdam grenadiers; Frederic made
him Abbot of Silesia
Bayes, Miss, with reference to the name used in The Rehearsal, by George
Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, to satirize Dryden, the poet-laureate
Bayle, Pierre, author of the famous Dictionnaire Historique et Critique;
professor of philosophy at Padua and at Rotterdam (1647-1706)
Beauclerk, Topham, Johnson’s friend, “the chivalrous T. B., with his
sharp wit and gallant, courtly ways” (Carlyle), (1739-80)
Beaumarchais, see Carlyle’s French Revolution. As a comic dramatist he
ranks second only to Moliere. He supported the Revolution with his money
and his versatile powers of speech and writing. He edited an edition de
luxe of Voltaire’s works (1732-99)
Behn, Afra, the licentious novelist and mistress of Charles II.
(1640-89), who, as a spy in Holland, discovered the Dutch plans for
burning the Thames shipping
Belle-Isle, French marshal; fought in the Austrian campaign of 1740 and
repelled the Austrian invasion of 1744 (d. 1761)
Beloe William, a miscellaneous writer, whose version of Herodotus, so
far from being flat, is, while “infinitely below the modern standard
in point of accuracy, much above modern performance in point of
readableness” (Dr. Garnett), (1756-1817)