Character Sketches of Romance Volume I Part 45

Ctesias speaks of a people of India near the Ganges, _sine cervice, oculos in humeris habentes_. Mela also refers to a people _quibus capita et vultus in pectore sunt_.

BLENHEIM SPANIELS. The Oxford electors are so called, because for many years they obediently supported any candidate which the duke of Marlborough commanded them to return. Lockhart broke through this custom by telling the people the fable of the _Dog and the Wolf_. The dog, it will be remembered, had on his neck the marks of his collar, and the wolf said he preferred liberty.

(The race of the little dog called the Blenheim spaniel, has been preserved ever since Blenheim House was built for the duke of Marlborough in 1704.)

BLET'SON (_Master Joshua_), one of the three parliamentary commissioners sent by Cromwell with a warrant to leave the royal lodge to the Lee family.--Sir W. Scott, _Woodstock_ (time, Commonwealth).

BLI'FIL, a noted character in Fielding's novel ent.i.tled _The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling_ (1750).

Blifil is the original of Sheridan's "Joseph Surface" in the _School for Scandal_ (1777).

BLIGH (_William_), captain of the _Bounty_, so well known for the mutiny, headed by Fletcher Christian, the mate (1790).

BLIMBER (_Dr._), head of a school for the sons of gentlemen, at Brighton. It was a select school for ten pupils only; but there was learning enough for ten times ten. "Mental green peas were produced at Christmas, and intellectual asparagus all the year round." The doctor was really a ripe scholar, and truly kind-hearted; but his great fault was over-tasking his boys, and not seeing when the bow was too much stretched. Paul Dombey, a delicate lad, succ.u.mbed to this strong mental pressure.

_Mrs. Blimber_, wife of the doctor, not learned, but wished to be thought so. Her pride was to see the boys in the largest possible collars and stiffest possible cravats, which she deemed highly cla.s.sical.

_Cornelia Blimber_, the doctor's daughter, a slim young lady, who kept her hair short and wore spectacles. Miss Blimber "had no nonsense about her," but had grown "dry and sandy with working in the graves of dead languages." She married Mr. Feeder, B.A., Dr. Blimber's usher.--C. d.i.c.kens, _Dombey and Son_ (1846).

BLIND BEGGAR OF BETHNAL GREEN, Henry, son and heir of sir Simon de Montfort. At the battle of Evesham the barons were routed, Montfort slain, and his son Henry left on the field for dead. A baron's daughter discovered the young man, nursed him with care, and married him. The fruit of the marriage was "pretty Bessee, the beggar's daughter." Henry de Montfort a.s.sumed the garb and semblance of a blind beggar, to escape the vigilance of king Henry's spies.

Day produced, in 1659, a drama called _The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green_, and S. Knowles, in 1834, produced his amended drama on the same subject. There is [or was], in the Whitechapel Road a public-house sign called the Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green.--_History of Sign-boards._

BLIND EMPEROR (_The_), Ludovig III. of Germany (880, 890-934).

BLIND HARPER (_The_), John Parry, who died 1739.

John Stanley, mnsician and composer, was blind from his birth (1713-1786).

BLIND HARRY, a Scotch minstrel of the fifteenth century, blind from infancy. His epic of _Sir William Wallace_ runs to 11,861 lines. He was minstrel in the court of James IV.

BLIND MECHANICIAN (_The_). John Strong, a great mechanical genius, was blind from his birth. He died at Carlisle, aged sixty-six (1732-1798).

BLIND POET (_The_), Luigi Groto, an Italian poet called _Il Cieco_ (1541-1585). John Milton (1608-1674).

Homer is called _The Blind Old Bard_ (fl. B.C. 960).

BLIND TRAVELLER (_The_), lieutenant James Holman. He became blind at the age of twenty-five, but, notwithstanding, travelled round the world, and published an account of his travels (1787-1857).

BLIN'KINSOP, a smuggler in _Redgauntlet_, a novel by sir W. Scott (time, George III.).

BLISTER, the apothecary, who says, "Without physicians, no one could know whether he was well or ill." He courts Lucy by talking shop to her.--Fielding, _The Virgin Unmasked_.

BLITHE-HEART KING (_The_). David is so called by Caedmon.

Those lovely lyrics written by his hand Whom Saxon Caedmon calls "The Blithe-heart King."

Longfellow, _The Poet's Tale_ (ref. is to _Psalm_ cxlviii. 9).

BLOCK (_Martin_), one of the committee of the Estates of Burgundy, who refuse supplies to Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy.--Sir W. Scott, _Anne of Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.).

BLOK (_Nikkel_), the butcher, one of the insurgents at Liege.--Sir W.

Scott, _Quentin Durward_ (time, Edward IV.).

BLONDEL DE NESLE [_Neel_], the favorite trouvere or minstrel of Richard Coeur de Lion. He chanted the _b.l.o.o.d.y Vest_ in presence of queen Berengaria, the lovely Edith Plantagenet.--Sir W. Scott, _The Talisman_ (time, Richard I.).

BLON'DINA, the mother of Fairstar and two boys at one birth. She was the wife of a king, but the queen-mother hated her, and taking away the three babes subst.i.tuted three puppies. Ultimately her children were restored to her, and the queen-mother with her accomplices were duly punished.--Comtesse D'Aunoy, _Fairy Tales_ ("Princess Fairstar,"

1682).

BLOOD (_Colonel Thomas_), emissary of the duke of Buckingham (1628-1680), introduced by sir W. Scott in _Peveril of the Peak_, a novel (time, Charles II.).

BLOODS (_The Five_): (1) The O'Neils of Ulster; (2) the O'Connors of Connaught; (3) the O'Brians of Th.o.m.ond; (4) the O'Lachlans of Meath; and (5) the M'Murroughs of Leinster. These are the five princ.i.p.al septs or families of Ireland, and all not belonging to one of these five septs are accounted aliens or enemies, and could "neither sue nor be sued," even down to the reign of Elizabeth.

William Fitz-Roger, being arraigned (4th Edward II.) for the murder of Roger de Cantilon, pleads that he was not guilty of felony, because his victim was not of "free blood," _i.e._ one of the "five bloods of Ireland." The plea is admitted by the jury to be good.

b.l.o.o.d.y (_The_), Otho II. emperor of Germany (955, 973-983).

b.l.o.o.d.y-BONES, a bogie.

As bad as b.l.o.o.d.y-bones or Lunsford (_i.e._ sir Thomas Lunsford, governor of the Tower, the dread of every one).--S. Butler, _Hudibras_.

b.l.o.o.d.y BROTHER (_The_), a tragedy by Beaumont and Fletcher (1639). The "b.l.o.o.d.y brother" is Rollo duke of Normandy, who kills his brother Otto and several other persons, but is himself killed ultimately by Hamond captain of the guard.

b.l.o.o.d.y BUTCHER (_The_), the duke of c.u.mberland, second son of George II., so called from his barbarities in the suppression of the rebellion in favor of Charles Edward, the young pretender. "Black Clifford" was also called "The Butcher" for his cruelties (died 1461).

b.l.o.o.d.y HAND, Cathal, an ancestor of the O'Connors of Ireland.

b.l.o.o.d.y MARY, queen Mary of England, daughter of Henry VIII. and elder half-sister of queen Elizabeth. So called on account of the sanguinary persecutions carried on by her government against the protestants.

It is said that 200 persons were burned to death in her short reign (1516,1553-1558).

BLOOMFIELD (_Louisa_), a young lady engaged to lord Totterly the beau of sixty, but in love with Charles Danvers the embryo barrister.--C.

Selby, _The Unfinished Gentleman_.

BLOUNT (_Nicholas_), afterwards knighted; master of the horse to the earl of Suss.e.x.

--Sir W. Scott, _Kenilworth_ (time, Elizabeth).

_Blount_ (_Sir Frederick_), a distant relative of sir John Vesey. He had a great objection to the letter _r_, which he considered "wough and wasping." He dressed to perfection, and though not "wich," prided himself on having the "best opewa-box, the best dogs, the best horses, and the best house" of any one. He liked Greorgina Vesey, and as she had 10,000 he thought he should do himself no harm by "mawy-wing the girl."--Lord E. Bulwer Lytton, _Money_ (1840).

_Blount_ (_Master_), a wealthy jeweller of Ludgate Hill, London. An old-fas.h.i.+oned tradesman, not ashamed of his calling. He had two sons, John and Thomas; the former was his favorite.

_Mistress Blount_, his wife. A shrewd, discerning woman, who loved her son Thomas, and saw in him the elements of a rising man.

_John Blount_, eldest son of the Ludgate jeweller. Being left successor to his father, he sold the goods and set up for a man of fas.h.i.+on and fortune. His vanity and sn.o.bbism were most gross. He had good-nature, but more cunning than discretion, thought himself far-seeing, but was most easily duped. "The phaeton was built after my design, my lord," he says, "mayhap your lords.h.i.+p has seen it." "My taste is driving, my lord, mayhap your lords.h.i.+p has seen me handle the ribbons." "My horses are all bloods, mayhap your lords.h.i.+p has noticed my team." "I pride myself on my seat in the saddle, mayhap your lords.h.i.+p has seen me ride." "If I am superlative in anything, 'its in my wines." "So please your ladys.h.i.+p, 'tis dress I most excel in ...

'tis walking I pride myself in." No matter what is mentioned, 'tis the one thing he did or had better than any one else. This conceited fool was duped into believing a parcel of men-servants to be lords and dukes, and made love to a lady's maid, supposing her to be a countess.

_Thomas Blount_, John's brother, and one of nature's gentlemen. He entered the army, became a colonel, and married lady Blanche. He is described as having "a lofty forehead for princely thought to dwell in, eyes for love or war, a nose of Grecian mould with touch of Rome, a mouth like Cupid's bow, ambitious chin dimpled and k.n.o.bbed."--S.

Knowles, _Old Maids_ (1841).