Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1 · Chapter 12Copyright, 1892, by SELMAR HESS (12)
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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 Pré, 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 Séville, 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 Lydiæ 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 Æscesdun 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 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.
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).
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."
Befa'na, the good fairy of Italian children. She is supposed to fill their shoes and socks with toys when they go to bed on Twelfth Night. Some one enters the bedroom for the purpose, and the wakeful youngters cry out, "Ecco la Befana!" According to legend, Befana was too busy with house affairs to take heed of the Magi when they went to offer their gifts, and said she would stop for their return; but they returned by another way, and Befana every Twelfth Night watches to see them. The name is a corruption of Epiphania.
Beg (Callum), page to Fergus M'Ivor, in Waverley, a novel by sir W. Scott (time, George II.).
Beg (Toshach), MacGillie Chattanach's second at the combat.—Sir W. Scott, Fair Maid of Perth (time, Henry IV.).
Beggar of Bethnal Green (The), a drama by S. Knowles (recast and produced, 1834). Bess, daughter of Albert, "the blind beggar of Bethnal Green," was intensely loved by Wilford, who first saw her in the streets of London, and subsequently, after diligent search, discovered her in the Queen's Arms inn at Romford. It turned out that her father Albert was brother to lord Woodville, and Wilford was his truant son, so that Bess was his cousin Queen Elizabeth sanctioned their nuptials, and took them under her own conduct. (See BLIND.)