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 Korân_, 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_.

BALRUD´DERY (_The laird of_), a relation of Godfrey Bertram, laird of Ellangowan.--Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time, George II.).

BALTHA´ZAR, a merchant, in Shakespeare's _Comedy of Errors_ (1593).

_Baltha´zar_, a name assumed by Portia, in Shakespeare's _Merchant of Venice_ (1598).

_Baltha´zar_, servant to Romeo, in Shakespeare's _Romeo and Juliet_ (1597).

_Baltha´zar_, servant to don Pedro, in Shakespeare's _Much Ado about Nothing_ (1600).

_Baltha´zar_, 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, Volantê, and Zam´ora. 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 [_Bal´wither_], 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 Vishnû, and adored the present deity. Vishnû made the king "Governor of Pad´alon" 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 £1000 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 Gouffé (1775-1845), also called _Le panard du dix-neuvième 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.)

BAN´SHEE, 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 _élite_ 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 Mitylenê, 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 Irenê 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.

BARÈRE (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 Barère 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 Barère of history.--Lord Macaulay.

BARFÜSLE, 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, _Barfüsle._

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.