Character Sketches of Romance Volume I Part 54

The effigy of Britannia on British copper coin dates from the reign of Charles II. (1672), and was engraved by Roetier from a drawing by Evelyn. It is meant for one of the king's court favorites, some say Frances Theresa Stuart, d.u.c.h.ess of Richmond, and others Barbara Villiers, d.u.c.h.ess of Cleveland.

BRITISH HISTORY of Geoffrey of Monmouth, is a translation of a Welsh Chronicle. It is in nine books, and contains a "history" of the Britons and Welsh from Brutus, great-grandson of Trojan aeneas to the death of Cadwallo or Cadwallader in 688. This Geoffrey was first archdeacon of Monmouth and then bishop of St. Asaph. The general outline of the work is the same as that given by Nennius three centuries previously. Geoffrey's _Chronicle_, published about 1143, formed a basis for many subsequent historical works. A compendium by Diceto is published in Gale's _Chronicles_.

BRIT'OMART, the representative of chast.i.ty. She was the daughter and heiress of king Ryence of Wales, and her legend forms the third book of the _Faery Queen_. One day, looking into Venus's looking-gla.s.s, given by Merlin to her father, she saw therein sir Artegal, and fell in love with him. Her nurse Glauce (2 _syl_.) tried by charms "to undo her love," but love that is in gentle heart begun no idle charm can remove. Finding her "charms" ineffectual, she took her to Merlin's cave in Caermarthen, and the magician told her she would be the mother of a line of kings (_the Tudors_), and after twice 400 years one of her offspring, "a royal virgin," would shake the power of Spain.

Glauce now suggested that they should start in quest of sir Artegal, and Britomart donned the armor of An'gela (queen of the Angles), which she found in her father's armory, and taking a magic spear which "nothing could resist," she sallied forth. Her adventures allegorize the triumph of chast.i.ty over impurity: Thus in Castle Joyous, Malacasta _(l.u.s.t)_, not knowing her s.e.x, tried to seduce her, "but she flees youthful l.u.s.t, which wars against the soul." She next overthrew Marinel, son of Cym'oent. Then made her appearance as the Squire of Dames. Her last achievement was the deliverance of Am'oret _(wifely love)_ from the enchanter Busirane. Her marriage is deferred to bk. v.

6, when she tilted with sir Artegal, who "shares away the ventail of her helmet with his sword," and was about to strike again when he became so amazed at her beauty that he thought she must be a G.o.ddess.

She bade the knight remove his helmet, at once recognized him, consented "to be his love, and to take him for her lord."--Spenser, _Faery Queen_, iii. (1590).

She charmed at once and tamed the heart, Incomparable Britomart.

Sir W. Scott.

BRITON _(Colonel)_, a Scotch officer, who sees donna Isabella jump from a window in order to escape from a marriage she dislikes. The colonel catches her, and takes her to the house of donna Violante, her friend. Here he calls upon her, but don Felix, the lover of Violante, supposing Violante to be the object of his visits, becomes jealous, till at the end the mystery is cleared up, and a double marriage is the result.--Mrs. Centlivre, _The Wonder_ (1714).

BROB'DINGNAG, a country of enormous giants, to whom Gulliver was a tiny dwarf. They were as tall "as an ordinary church steeple," and all their surroundings were in proportion.

Yon high church steeple, yon gawky stag. Your husband must come from Brobdingnag. Kane O'Hara, _Midas_.

BROCK _(Adam)_, in _Charles XII._, an historical drama by J. E.

Planche.

BROKEN-GIRTH-FLOW (_Laird of_), one of the Jacobite conspirators in _The Black Dwarf_, a novel by sir W. Scott (time, Anne).

BROKER OF THE EMPIRE (_The_). Dari'us, son of Hystaspes, was so called by the Persians from his great care of the financial condition of his empire.

BRO'MIA, wife of Sosia (slave of Amphitryon), in the service of Alcme'na. A nagging termagant, who keeps her husband in petticoat subjection. She is not one of the characters in Moliere's comedy of _Amphitryon_.--Dryden, _Amphitryon_ (1690).

BROMTON'S CHRONICLE (time, Edward III.), that is, "The Chronicle of John Bromton" printed among the _Decem Scriptores_, under the t.i.tles of "Chronicon Johannis Bromton," and "Joralanensis Historia a Johanne Bromton," abbot of Jerevaux, in Yorks.h.i.+re. It commences with the conversion of the Saxons by St. Augustin, and closes with the death of Richard I. in 1199. Selden has proved that the chronicle was not _written_ by Bromton, but was merely brought to the abbey while he was abbot.

BRON'TES (2 _syl._), one of the Cyclops, hence a blacksmith generally.

Called Bronteus (2 _syl._), by Spenser, _Faery Queen_, iv. 5 (1596).

Not with such weight, to frame the forky brand, The ponderous hammer falls from Brontes' hand.

_Jerusalem Delivered_, xx. (Hool's translation).

BRONZELY (2 _syl._), a mere rake, whose vanity was to be thought "a general seducer."--Mrs. Inchbald, _Wives as they Were, and Maids as they Are_ (1797).

BRON'ZOMARTE (3 _syl._), the sorrel steed of sir Launcelot Greaves.

The word means a "mettlesome sorrel."--Smollett, _Sir Launcelot Greaves_ (1756).

BROOK (_Master_), the name a.s.sumed by Ford when sir John Falstaff makes love to his wife. Sir John, not knowing him, confides to him every item of his amour, and tells him how cleverly he has duped Ford by being carried out in a buck-basket before his very face.--Shakespeare, _Merry Wives of Windsor_ (1601).

BROOKE (_Dorothea_), calm, queenly heroine of _Middlemarch_, by George Eliot.

BROO'KER, the man who stole the son of Ralph Nickleby out of revenge, called him "Smike," and put him to school at Dotheboy's Hall, Yorks.h.i.+re.--C. d.i.c.kens, _Nicholas Nickleby_ (1838).

BROOKS OF SHEFFIELD, name by which Murdstone alludes to David Copperfield in novel of that name.

BROTHER JON'ATHAN. When Was.h.i.+ngton was in want of ammunition, he called a council of officers; but no practical suggestion being offered, he said, "We must consult brother Jonathan," meaning his excellency Jonathan Trumbull, the elder governor of the state of Connecticut. This was done, and the difficulty surmounted. "To consult brother Jonathan" then became a set phrase, and "Brother Jonathan"

became the "John Bull" of the United States.--J. R. Bartlett, _Dictionary of Americanisms_.

BROTHER SAM, the brother of lord Dundreary, the hero of a comedy based on a German drama, by John Oxenford, with additions and alterations by E. A. Sothern and T. B. Buckstone.--Supplied by T. B. Buckstone, Esq.

BROWDIE (_John_), a brawny, big-made Yorks.h.i.+re corn-factor, bluff, brusque, honest, and kind-hearted. He befriends poor Smike, and is much, attached to Nicholas Nickleby. John Browdie marries Matilda Price, a miller's daughter.--C. d.i.c.kens, _Nicholas Nickleby_ (1838).

BROWN (_Hablot_) ill.u.s.trated some of d.i.c.kens's novels and took the pseudonym of "Phiz" (1812-).

_Brown (Jonathan)_, landlord of the Black Bear at Darlington. Here Frank Osbaldistone meets Rob Roy at dinner.--Sir W. Scott, _Rob Roy_ (time, George I.).

_Brown (Mrs.)_, the widow of the brother-in-law of the Hon. Mrs.

Skewton. She had one daughter, Alice Marwood, who was first cousin to Edith (Mr. Dombey's second wife). Mrs. Brown lived in great poverty, her only known vocation being to "strip children of their clothes, which she sold or p.a.w.ned."--C. d.i.c.kens, _Dombey and Son_ (1846).

_Brown (Mrs.)_, a "Mrs. John Bull," with all the practical sense, kind-heartedness, absence of conventionality, and the prejudices of a well-to-do but half-educated Englishwoman of the middle shop cla.s.s.

She pa.s.ses her opinions on all current events, and travels about, taking with her all her prejudices, and despising everything which is not English.--Arthur Sketchley [Rev. George Rose].

_Brown (Tom)_, hero of _Tom Brown's School-Days_ and _Tom Brown at Oxford_, by Thomas Hughes.

_Brown (Vanbeest)_, lieutenant of Dirk Hatteraick.--Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time, George II.).

BROWN, JONES, AND ROBINSON, three Englishmen who travel together.

Their adventures, by Richard Doyle, were published in _Punch_. In them is held up to ridicule the _gaucherie_, the contracted notions, the vulgarity, the conceit, and the general sn.o.bbism of the middle-cla.s.s English abroad.

BROWN OF CALAVERAS, a dissipated blackleg and ne'er-do-weel, whose handsome wife, arriving unexpectedly from the East, retrieves his fortune and risks his honor by falling in love with another man, a brother-gambler.--Bret Harte, _Brown of Calaveras_ (1871).

BROWN THE YOUNGER (_Thomas_), the _nom de plume_ of Thomas Moore in _The Two-Penny Post-Bag_, a series of witty and very popular satires on the prince regent (afterwards George IV.), his ministers, and his boon companions. Also in _The Fudge Family in Paris_, and in _The Fudges in England_ (1835).

BROWNE (_General_), pays a visit to lord Woodville. His bedroom for the night is the "tapestried chamber," where he sees the apparition of "the lady in the sacque," and next morning relates his adventure.--Sir W. Scott, _The Tapestried Chamber_ (time, George III.).

BROWNLOW, a most benevolent old gentleman, who rescues Oliver Twist from his vile a.s.sociates. He refuses to believe in Oliver's guilt of theft, although appearances were certainly against him, and he even takes the boy into his service.--C. d.i.c.kens, _Oliver Twist_ (1837).

BROWNS. _To astonish the Browns_, to do or say something regardless of the annoyance it may cause, or the shock it may give to Mrs. Grundy.

Anne Boleyn had a whole clan of Browns, or "country cousins," who were welcomed at court in the reign of Elizabeth. The queen, however, was quick to see what was _gauche_, and did not scruple to reprove them for uncourtly manners. Her plainness of speech used quite to "astonish the Browns."

BROX'MOUTH (_John_), a neighbor of Happer the miller.--Sir W. Scott, _The Monastery_ (time, Elizabeth).

BRUCE (_Mr. Robert_), mate on a bark trading between Liverpool and St.

John's, N.B., sees a man writing in the captain's cabin, a stranger who disappears after pencilling certain lines on the slate. These prove a providential warning by which the vessel escapes certain destruction. The story is told by Robert Dale Owen in _Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World_, and vouched for as authentic (1860).

_Bruce (The)_, an epic poem by John Barbour (1320-1395).

BRU'EL, the name of the goose in the tale of _Reynard the Fox_. The word means the "Little roarer" (1498).

BRU'IN, the name of the bear, in the beast-epic called _Reynard the Fox_. Hence a bear in general.

The word means "the brown one" (1498).

_Bru'in_, one of the leaders arrayed against Hudibras. He is meant for one Talgol, a Newgate butcher, who obtained a captain's commission for valor at Naseby. He marched next to Orsin [_Joshua Gosling_, landlord of the bear-gardens at Southwark].--S. Butler, _Hudibras_, i. 3.