Character Sketches of Romance Volume I Part 51

Mrs. Bellamy took her leave of the stage May 24, 1785. On this occasion Mrs. Yates sustained the part of the "d.u.c.h.ess of Braganza,"

and Miss Farren spoke the address.--F. Reynolds.

BRAGELA, daughter of Sorglan, and wife of Cuthullin (general of the Irish army and regent during the minority of king Cormac).--Ossian, _Fingal_.

BRAGGADO'CIO, personification of the intemperance of the tongue. For a time his boasting serves him with some profit, but being found out, he is stripped of his borrowed plumes. His _shield_ is claimed by Mar'inel; his _horse_ by Guyon; Talus shaves off his beard; and his lady is shown to be a sham Florimel.--Spenser, _Faery Queen_, iii. 8 and 10, with v. 3.

It is thought that Philip of Spain was the academy figure of "Braggadocio."

_Braggadocio's Sword_, San'glamore (_3 syl_).

BRAGMAR'DO (_Jano'tus de_), the sophister sent by the Parisians to Gargantua, to remonstrate with him for carrying off the bells of Notre-Dame to suspend round the neck of his mare for jingles.--Rabelais, _Gargantua and Pantag'ruel'_, ii. (1533).

BRAHMIN CASTE OF NEW ENGLAND, term used by Oliver Wendell Holmes in _Elsie Venner_ to describe an intellectual aristocracy: "Our scholars come chiefly from a privileged order just as our best fruits come from well-known grafts."--_Elsie Venner_ (1863).

BRAIN'WORM, the servant of Knowell, a man of infinite shifts, and a regular Proteus in his metamorphoses. He appears first as Brainworm; after as Fitz-Sword; then as a reformed soldier whom Knowell takes into his service; then as justice Clement's man; and lastly as valet to the courts of law, by which devices he plays upon the same clique of some half-dozen men of average intelligence.--Ben Jonson, _Every Man in His Humour_ (1598).

BRAKEL (_Adrian_), the gipsy mountebank, formerly master of Fenella, the deaf and dumb girl.--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

BRAMBLE (_Matthew_), an "odd kind of humorist," "always on the fret,"

dyspeptic, and afflicted with gout, but benevolent, generous, and kind-hearted.

_Miss Tabitha Bramble_, an old maiden sister of Matthew Bramble, of some forty-five years of age, noted for her bad spelling. She is starched, vain, prim, and ridiculous; soured in temper, proud, imperious, prying, mean, malicious, and uncharitable. She contrives at last to marry captain Lismaha'go, who is content to take "the maiden"

for the sake of her 4000.

_Bramble (Sir Robert_), a baronet living at Blackberry Hall, Kent.

Blunt and testy, but kind-hearted; "charitable as a Christian, and rich as a Jew;" fond of argument and contradiction, but detesting flattery; very proud, but most considerate to his poorer neighbors. In his first interview with lieutenant Worthington, "the poor gentleman,"

the lieutenant mistook him for a bailiff come to arrest him, but sir Roflert n.o.bly paid the bill for 500 when it was presented to him for signature as sheriff of the county.

_Frederick Bramble_, nephew of sir Robert, and son of Joseph Bramble, a Russian merchant. His father having failed in business, Frederick is adopted by his rich uncle. He is full of life and n.o.ble instincts, but thoughtless and impulsive. Frederick falls in love with Emily Worthington, whom he marries.--G. Colman, _The Poor Gentleman_ (1802).

BRA'MINE (_2 syl._) AND BRA'MIN (_The_), Mrs. Elizabeth Draper and Laurence Sterne. Sterne being a clergyman, and Mrs. Draper having been born in India, suggested the names. Ten of Sterne's letters to Mrs.

Draper are published, and called _Letters to Eliza_.

BRAN, the dog of Lamderg the lover of Gelchossa (daughter of Tuathal).--Ossian, _Fingal_, v.

[Ill.u.s.tration] Fingal king of Morven had a dog of the same name, and another named Luath.

Call White-breasted Bran and the surly strength of Luath.--Ossian, _Fingal_, vi.

BRAND (_Ethan_), an ex-lime burner in Nathaniel Hawthorne's story of the same name, who, fancying he has committed the Unpardonable Sin, commits suicide by leaping into the burning kiln.

_Brand_ (_Sir Denys_), a county magnate, who apes humility. He rides a sorry brown nag "not worth 5," but mounts his groom on a race-horse "twice victor for a plate."

BRAN'DAMOND of Damascus, whom sir Bevis of Southampton defeated.

That dreadful battle where with Brandamond he fought. And with his sword and steed such earthly wonders wrought As e'en among his foes him admiration won. M. Drayton, _Polyolbion_, ii. (1612).

BRAN'DAN (_Island of St_.) or ISLAND of SAN BORANDAN, a flying island, so late as 1755 set down in geographical charts west of the Canary group. In 1721 an expedition was sent by Spain in quest thereof.

The Spaniards say their king Rodri'go has retreated there, and the Portuguese affirm that it is the retreat of their don Sebastian. It was called St. Brandan from a navigator of the sixth century, who went in search of the "Islands of Paradise."

Its reality was for a long time a matter of firm belief ... the garden of Armi'da, where Rinaldo was detained, and which Ta.s.so places in one of the Canary Isles, has been identified with San Borandan.--W.

Irving.

(If there is any truth at all in the legend, the island must be ascribed to the Fata Morgana.)

BRAN'DEUM, plu. _Brandea_, a piece of cloth enclosed in a box with relics, which thus acquired the same miraculous powers as the relics themselves.

Pope Leo proved this fact beyond a doubt, for when some Greeks ventured to question it, he cut a brandeum through with a pair of scissors, and it was instantly covered with blood.--J. Brady, _Clavis Calendaria_, 182.

BRAN'DIMART, brother-in-law of Orlando, son of Monodantes, and husband of For'delis. This "king of the Distant Islands" was one of the bravest knights in Charlemagne's army, and was slain by Grada.s.so.--Bojardo, _Orlando Innamorata_ (1495); Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

BRAND, a term often applied to the sword in medaeval romances.

Thou therefore take my brand Excalibur, Which was my pride-- Tennyson, _The Morte d'Arthur._

BRANGTONS (_The_), vulgar, jealous, malicious gossips in _Evelina_, a novel by Miss Burney (1778).

BRANNO, an Irishman, father of Evirallin. Evirallin was the wife of Ossian and mother of Oscar.--Ossian.

BRa.s.s, the roguish confederate of d.i.c.k Amlet, and acting as his servant.

"I am your valet, 'tis true; your footman sometimes ... but you have always had the ascendant, I confess. When we were school-fellows, you made me carry your books, make your exercise, own your rogueries, and sometimes take a whipping for you. When we were fellow-'prentices, though I was your senior, you made me open the shop, clean my master's boots, cut last at dinner, and eat all the crusts. In your sins, too, I must own you still kept me under; you soared up to the mistress, while I was content with the maid."--Sir John Yanbrugh, _The Confederacy_, iii. 1 (1695).

_Bra.s.s (Sampson)_, a knavish, servile attorney, affecting great sympathy with his clients, but in reality fleecing them without mercy.

_Sally Bra.s.s_, Sampson's sister, and an exaggerated edition of her brother.--C. d.i.c.kens, _Old Curiosity Shop_ (1840).

BRAVE (_The_), Alfonzo IV. of Portugal (1290-1357).

_The Brave Fleming_, John Andrew van der Mersch (1734-1792).

_The Bravest of the Brave_, Marshal Ney, _Le Brave des Braves_ (1769-1815).

BRAY (_Mr._), a selfish, miserly old man, who dies suddenly of heart-disease, just in time to save his daughter from being sacrificed to Arthur Gride, a rich old miser.

_Madeline Bray_, daughter of Mr. Bray, a loving, domestic, beautiful girl, who marries Nicholas Nickleby.--C. d.i.c.kens, _Nicholas Nickleby_ (1838).

_Bray (Vicar of)_, supposed by some to be Simon Aleyn, who lived (says Fuller) "in the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth. In the first two reigns he was a _protestant_, in Mary's reign a _catholic_, and in Elizabeth's a _protestant_ again." No matter who was king, Simon Aleyn resolved to live and die "the vicar of Bray" (1540-1588).

Others think the vicar was Simon Symonds, who (according to Ray) was an _independent_ in the protectorate, a _high churchman_ in the reign of Charles II., a _papist_ under James II., and a _moderate churchman_ in the reign of William III.

Others again give the cap to one Pendleton.

[Ill.u.s.tration] The well-known song was written by an officer in colonel Fuller's regiment, in the reign of George I., and seems to refer to some clergyman of no very distant date.

BRAY'MORE (_Lady Caroline_), daughter of lord Fitz-Balaam. She was to have married Frank Rochdale, but hearing that her "intended" loved Mary Thornberry, she married the Hon. Tom Shuffleton.--G. Colman, jun., _John Bull_ (1805).