Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1 · Chapter 10Copyright, 1892, by SELMAR HESS (10)
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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.
Aus´tria 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.
Autol´ycos, the craftiest of thieves. He stole the flocks of his neighbors, and changed their marks. Sis´yphos outwitted him by marking his sheep under their feet.
Autol´ycus, 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 Cléante (2 syl.) both want to marry Mariane (3 syl.), daughter of Anselme, alias don Thomas d'Alburci, of Naples. Cléante 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 Cléante 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 Valère, who, however, turns out to be the son of Anselme. As soon as Anselme discovers that Valère 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.—Molière, L'Avare (1667).
Ave´nel (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).
Ave´nel (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 Mile´sian 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).
Aven´ger 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).
Av´icen 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 Hippo´cratês 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, Azâzel 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
Azâzel 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.
Az´rael (3 syl.), the angel of death (called Raphael in the Gospel of Barnabas).—Al Korân.
Az´tecas, an Indian tribe, which conquered the Hoamen (2 syl.), seized their territory, and established themselves on a southern branch of the Missouri, having Az´tlan 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).
Azuce´na, a gipsy. Manri´co is supposed to be her son, but is in reality the son of Garzia (brother of the conte di Luna).—Verdi, Il Trovato´rê (1853).
Azyoru´ca (4 syl.), queen of the snakes and dragons. She resides in Patala, or the infernal regions.—Hindû 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).
aal, plu. Baalim, a general name for all the Syrian gods, as Ash´taroth 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 Baälim 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).
Ba´ba, chief of the eunuchs in the court of the sultana Gulbey´az.—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 "Ses´amê," 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 Sesamê!"
Baba Mus´tapha, 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.).
Babie´ca (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 Bacchantês,
Bearing cymbals, flutes, and thyrses,
Wild from Naxian groves, or Zantê'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).
Badou´ra, 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 Camaral´zaman 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 Khal´edan, some twenty days' sail from the coast of Persia," he was delighted with the alliance.—Arabian Nights ("Camaralzaman and Badoura").
Badroul´boudour, 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).
Bah´adar, master of the horse to the king of the Magi. Prince Am´giad 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 Parazadê (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 (Ann´aple), the nurse of Effie Deans in her confinement.—Sir W. Scott, Heart of Midlothian (time, George II.).
Bajar´do, Rinaldo's steed.—Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516).
Baja´zet, 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 Mone´ses. 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.
Ba´laam (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
.
Ba´laam, 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.
Balafré (Le), alias Ludovic Lesly, an old archer of the Scottish Guard at Plessis les Tours, one of the castle palaces of Louis XI. Le Balafré is uncle to Quentin Durward.—Sir W. Scott, Quentin Durward (time, Edward IV.).
¤¤¤ Henri, son of Francois second duke of Gruise, was called Le Balafré ("the gashed"), from a frightful scar in the face from a sword-cut in the battle of Dormans (1575).
Balâm´, the ox on which the faithful feed in paradise. The fish is called Nûn, 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." Am´adis 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).
Ba´land 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).
Balchris´tie (Jenny), housekeeper to the laird of Dumbiedikes.—Sir W. Scott, Heart of Midlothian (time, George II.).
Baldassa´re (4 syl.) chief of the monastery of St. Jacopo di Compostella.—Donizetti's opera, La Favorite (1842).
Bal´der, 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 Höder, 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.)
Bal´derstone (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.).
Bal´dringham (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).
Bald´win, 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).
Ba´liol (Edward), usurper of Scotland, introduced in Redgauntlet, a novel by sir W. Scott (time, George II.).
Ba´liol (Mrs.), friend of Mr. Croftangry, in the introductory chapter of The Fair Maid of Perth, a novel by sir W. Scott (time, Henry IV.).
Ba´liol (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).