Character Sketches of Romance Volume I Part 47

Christopher Pea.r.s.e Cranch, _The Bird and the Bell_ (1875).

BODACH GLAY or "Grey Spectre," a house demon of the Scotch, similar to the Irish banshee.

BODLEY FAMILY, an American household, father, mother, sisters, and brothers, whose interesting adventures at home and abroad are detailed by Horace E. Scudder in _The Bodley Books_ (1875-1887).

BOE'MOND, the Christian king of Antioch, who tried to teach his subjects arts, law, and religion. He is of the Norman race, Roge'ro's brother, and son of Roberto Guiscar'do.--Ta.s.so, _Jerusalem Delivered_ (1575).

BOEUF (_Front de_), a gigantic, ferocious follower of prince John.--Sir W. Scott, _Ivanhoe_ (time, Richard I.).

BOFFIN (_Nicodemus_), "the golden dustman," foreman of old John Harmon, dustman and miser. He was "a broad, round-shouldered, one-sided old fellow, whose face was of the rhinoceros build, with overlapping ears." A kind, shrewd man was Mr. Boffin, devoted to his wife, whom he greatly admired. Being residuary legatee of John Harmon, dustman, he came in for 100,000. Afterwards, John Harmon, the son, being discovered, Mr. Boffin surrendered the property to him, and lived with him.

_Mrs. Boffin_, wife of Mr. N. Boffin, and daughter of a cat's-meatman.

She was a fat, smiling, good-tempered creature, the servant of old John Harmon, dustman and miser, and very kind to the miser's son (young John Harmon). After Mr. Boffin came into his fortune she became "a high flyer at fas.h.i.+on," wore black velvet and sable, but retained her kindness of heart and love for her husband. She was devoted to Bella Wilfer, who ultimately became the wife of young John Harmon, _alias_ Rokesmith.--C. d.i.c.kens, _Our Mutual Friend_ (1864).

BO'GIO, one of the allies of Charlemagne. He promised his wife to return within six months, but was slain by Dardinello.--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

BOHEMIAN (_A_), a gipsy, from the French notion that the first gipsies came from Bohemia.

_A Literary Bohemian_, an author of desultory works and irregular life.

Never was there an editor with less about him of the literary Bohemian.--_Fortnightly Review_ ("Paston Letters").

_Bohemian Literature_, desultory reading.

_A Bohemian Life_, an irregular, wandering, restless way of living, like that of a gipsy.

BO'HEMOND, prince of Antioch, a crusader.--Sir W. Scott, _Count Robert of Paris_ (time, Rufus).

BOIS'GRELIN (_The young countess de_), introduced in the ball given by king Rene at Aix.--Sir W. Scott, _Anne of Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.).

BOIS-GUILBERT (_Sir Brian de_), a preceptor of the Knights Templars.

Ivanhoe vanquishes him in a tournament. He offers insult to Rebecca, and she threatens to cast herself from the battlements if he touches her. "When the castle is set on fire by the sibyl, sir Brian carries off Rebecca from the flames. The Grand-Master of the Knights Templars charges Rebecca with sorcery, and she demands a trial by combat. Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert is appointed to sustain the charge against her, and Ivanhoe is her champion. Sir Brian being found dead in the lists, Rebecca is declared innocent."--Sir W. Scott, _Ivanhoe_ time, (Richard I.).

BOISTERER, one of the seven attendants of Fortu'nio. His gift was that he could overturn a windmill with his breath, and even wreck a man-of-war.

Fortunio asked him what he was doing. "I am blowing a little, sir," answered he, "to set those mills at work." "But," said the knight, "you seem too far off." "On the contrary," replied the blower, "I am too near, for if I did not restrain my breath I should blow the mills over, and perhaps the hill too on which they stand."--Comtesse D'Aunoy, _Fairy Tales_ ("Fortunio,"

1682).

BOLD BEAUCHAMP _[Beech'-am]_, a proverbial phrase similar to "an Achilles," "a Hector," etc. The reference is to Thomas de Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, who, with one squire and six archers, overthrew a hundred armed men at Hogges, in Normandy, in 1346.

So had we still of ours, in France that famous were, Warwick, of England then high-constable that was, ...So hardy, great, and strong, That after of that name it to an adage grew, If any man himself adventurous happed to shew, "Bold Beauchamp" men him termed, if none so bold as he.

Drayton, _Polyolbion_, xviii. (1613).

BOLD STROKE FOR A HUSBAND, a comedy by Mrs. Cowley. There are two plots: one a bold stroke to get the man of one's choice for a husband, and the other a bold stroke to keep a husband. Olivia de Zuniga fixed her heart on Julio de Messina, and refused or disgusted all suitors till he came forward. Donna Victoria, in order to keep a husband, disguised herself in man's apparel, a.s.sumed the name of Florio, and made love as a man to her husband's mistress. She contrived by an artifice to get back an estate which don Carlos had made over to his mistress, and thus saved her husband from ruin (1782).

BOLD STROKE FOR A WIFE. Old Lovely at death left his daughter Anne 30,000, but with this proviso, that she was to forfeit the money if she married without the consent of her guardians. Now her guardians were four in number, and their characters so widely different that "they never agreed on any one thing." They were sir Philip Modelove, an old beau; Mr. Periwinkle, a silly virtuoso; Mr. Tradelove, a broker on 'Change; and Mr. Obadiah Prim, a hypocritical quaker. Colonel Feignwell contrived to flatter all the guardians to the top of their bent, and won the heiress.--Mrs. Centlivre (1717).

BOLDWOOD (_Farmer_), one of the wooers of Bathsheba Everdene. He serves for her seven years and loses her at last, after killing her husband to free her from his tyranny. He is sentenced to penal servitude "during Her Majesty's pleasure."--Thomas Hardy, _Far from the Madding Crowd_ (1874).

BOLSTER, a famous Wrath, who compelled St. Agnes to gather up the boulders which infested his territory. She carried three ap.r.o.nfuls to the top of a hill, hence called St. Agnes' Beacon. (See WRATH'S HOLE.)

BOL'TON (_Stawarth_), an English officer in _The Monastery_, a novel by sir W. Scott (time, Elizabeth).

BOLTON a.s.s. This creature is said to have chewed tobacco and taken snuff.--Dr. Doran.

BOMBA _(King)_, a nickname given to Ferdinand II. of Naples, in consequence of his cruel bombardment of Messi'na in 1848. His son, who bombarded Palermo in 1860, is called _Bombali'no_ ("Little Bomba").

A young Sicilian, too, was there...

[_Who_] being rebellious to his liege, After Palermo's fatal siege, Across the western seas he fled In good king Bomba's happy reign.

Longfellow, _The Wayside Inn_ (prelude).

BOMBARDIN'IAN, general of the forces of king Chrononhotonthologos.

He invites the king to his tent, and gives him hashed pork. The king strikes him, and calls him traitor. "Traitor, in thy teeth,"

replies the general. They fight, and the king is killed.--H. Carey, _Chrononhotonthologos_ (a burlesque).

BOMBASTES FURIOSO, general of Artaxam'inous (king of Utopia). He is plighted to Distaffi'na, but Artaxaminous promises her "half-a-crown"

if she will forsake the general for himself. "This bright reward of ever-daring minds" is irresistible. When Bombastes sees himself flouted, he goes mad, and hangs his boots on a tree, with this label duly displayed:

Who dares this pair of boots displace, Must meet Bombastes face to face.

The king, coming up, cuts down the boots, and Bombastes "kills him."

Fusbos, seeing the king fallen, "kills" the general; but at the close of the farce the dead men rise one by one, and join the dance, promising, if the audience likes, "to die again to-morrow."--W. B.

Rhodes, _Bombastes Furioso._ [Ill.u.s.tration] This farce is a travesty of _Orlando_ _Furioso_, and "Distaffina" is Angelica, beloved by Orlando, whom she flouted for Medoro, a young Moor. On this Orlando went mad, and hung up his armor on a tree, with this distich attached thereto:

Orlando's arms let none displace, But such who'll meet him face to face.

In the _Rehearsal_, by the duke of Buckingham, Bayes' troops are killed, every man of them, by Drawcansir, but revive, and "go off on their legs."

See the translation of _Don Quixote_, by C. H. Wilmot, Esq., ii. 363 (1764).

_Bombastes Furioso (The French)_, capitaine Fraca.s.se.--Theophile Gautier.

BOMBAS'TUS, the family name of Paracelsus. He is said to have kept a small devil prisoner in the pommel of his sword.

Bombastus kept a devil's bird Shut in the pommel of his sword, That taught him all the cunning pranks Of past and future mountebanks.

S. Butler, _Hudibras_, ii. 3.

BONAS'SUS, an imaginary wild beast, which the Ettrick shepherd encountered. (The Ettrick shepherd was James Hogg, the Scotch poet.)--_Noctes Ambrosianae_ (No. xlviii., April, 1830).

BONAVENTU'RE _(Father)_, a disguise a.s.sumed for the nonce by the chevalier Charles Edward, the pretender.--Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.).

BONDU'CA or BOADICE'A, wife of Praesutagus king of the Ice'ni. For the better security of his family, Praesutagus made the emperor of Rome co-heir with his daughters; whereupon the Roman officers took possession of his palace, gave up the princesses to the licentious brutality of the Roman soldiers, and scourged the queen in public.

Bonduca, roused to vengeance, a.s.sembled an army, burnt the Roman colonies of London, Colchester [_Camalodunum_], Verulam, etc., and slew above 80,000 Romans. Subsequently, Sueto'nius Paulinus defeated the Britons, and Bonduca poisoned herself, A.D. 61. John Fletcher wrote a tragedy ent.i.tled _Bonduca_ (1647).

BONE-SETTER _(The)_, Sarah Mapp (died 1736).