Character Sketches of Romance Volume I Part 31

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 Mitylene, 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 Irene the daughter of Barbarossa (1742).

BAR'BARA (_St._), the patron saint of a.r.s.enals. 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 h.o.m.o_.

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 princ.i.p.al 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. d.i.c.kens, _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 p.o.o.p."

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 a.s.surance 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 a.s.surance 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.

BAReRE (2 _syl_.), an advocate of Toulouse, called "The Anacreon of the Guillotine." He was president of the Convention, a member of the Const.i.tutional 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 Barere 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 n.o.ble creature compared with the Barere of history.--Lord Macaulay.

BARFuSLE, 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, _Barfusle._

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.