Character Sketches of Romance Volume I Part 53

The rainbow bridge which spans heaven and earth in Scandinavian mythology is called "Bif'rost."

BRIDGE OF GOLD. According to German tradition, Charlemagne's spirit crosses the Rhine on a golden bridge, at Bingen, in reasons of plenty, and blesses both cornfields and vineyards.

Thou standest, like imperial Charlemagne, Upon thy bridge of gold.

Longfellow, _Autumn_.

BRIDGE OF SIGHS, the covered pa.s.sageway which connects the palace of the doge in Venice with the State prisons. Called "the Bridge of Sighs," because the condemned pa.s.sed over it from the judgment hall to the place of execution. Hood has a poem called _The Bridge of Sighs_.

BRIDGEMORE (_Mr._), of Fish Street Hill, London. A dishonest merchant, wealthy, vulgar, and purse-proud. He is invited to a _soiree_ given by lord Abberville, "and counts the servants, gapes at the l.u.s.tres, and never enters the drawing-room at all, but stays below, chatting with the travelling tutor."

_Mrs. Bridgemore_, wife of Mr. Bridgemore, equally vulgar, but with more pretension to gentility.

_Miss Lucinda Bridgemore_, the spiteful, purse-proud, malicious daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bridgemore, of Fish Street Hill. She was engaged to lord Abberville, but her money would not out-balance her vulgarity and ill-temper, so the young "fashionable lover" made his bow and retired.--c.u.mberland, _The Fashionable Lover_ (1780).

BRIDGENORTH (_Major Ralph_), a roundhead and conspirator, neighbor of sir Geoffrey Peveril of the Peak, a staunch cavalier.

_Mrs. Bridgenorth_, the major's wife.

_Alice Bridgenorth_, the major's daughter and heroine of the novel. Her marriage with Julian Peveril, a cavalier, concludes the novel.--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

BRID'GET (_Miss_), the mother of Tom Jones, in Fielding's novel called _The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling_ (1750).

It has been wondered why Fielding should have chosen to leave the stain of illegitimacy on the birth of his hero ... but had Miss Bridget been privately married ... there could have been no adequate motive a.s.signed for keeping the birth of the child a secret from a man so reasonable and compa.s.sionate as Allworthy.--_Encyc.

Brit._ Art. "Fielding."

_Brid'get (Mrs.)_, in Sterne's novel called _The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gent._ (1759).

_Bridget (Mother)_, aunt of Catherine Seyton, and abbess of St.

Catherine.--Sir W. Scott, _The Abbot_ (time, Elizabeth).

_Bridget (May)_, the milkwoman at Falkland Castle.--Sir W. Scott, _Fair Maid of Perth_ (time, Henry IV.).

BRIDGE'WARD (_Peter_), the bridgekeeper of Kennaquhair ("I know not where").--Sir W. Scott, _The Abbot_ (time, Elizabeth).

_Bridgeward (Peter)_, warder of the bridge near St. Mary's Convent. He refuses a pa.s.sage to father Philip, who is carrying off the Bible of lady Alice.--Sir W. Scott, _The Monastery_ (time, Elizabeth).

BRIDLE. John Grower says that Rosiphele princess of Armenia, insensible to love, saw in a vision a troop of ladies splendidly mounted, but one of them rode a wretched steed, wretchedly accoutred except as to the bridle. On asking the reason, the princess was informed that she was disgraced thus because of her cruelty to her lovers, but that the splendid bridle had been recently given, because the obdurate girl had for the last month shown symptoms of true love.

Moral--Hence let ladies warning take--

Of love that they be not idle, And bid them think of my bridle.

_Confessio Amantis_ ("Episode of Rosiphele,"

1325-1402).

BRIDLEGOOSE _(Judge)_, a judge who decided the causes brought before him, not by weighing the merits of the case, but by the more simple process of throwing dice. Rabelais, _Pantag'ruel_, iii. 39 (1545.)

BRI'DLESLY (_Joe_), a horse-dealer at Liverpool, of whom Julian Peveril buys a horse.--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

BRID'OISON _[Bree.dwoy.zong']_, a stupid judge in the _Mariage de Figaro_, a comedy in French, by Beaumarchais (1784).

BRIDOON (_Corporal_), in lieutenant Nosebag's regiment.--Sir W. Scott, _Waverley_ (time, George II.).

BRIEN'NIUS (_Nicephorus_), the Caesar of the Grecian empire, and husband of Anna Comne'na (daughter of Alexius Comnenus, emperor of Greece).--Sir W. Scott, _Count Robert of Paris_ (time, Rufus).

BRIGADO'RE (4 _syl._), sir Guyon's horse. The word means "Golden saddle."--Spenser, _Faery Queen_, v. 3 (1596).

BRIGAN'TES (3 _syl._), called by Drayton _Brig'ants_, the people of Yorkshire, Lancashire, Westmoreland, c.u.mberland, and Durham.

Where in the Britons' rule of yore the Brigants swayed, The powerful English established ... Northumberland [_Northumbria_].

Drayton, _Polyolbion_, xvi. (1613).

BRIGGS, one of the ten young gentlemen in the school of Dr. Blimber when Paul Dombey was a pupil there. Briggs was nicknamed the "Stoney,"

because his brains were petrified by the constant dropping of wisdom upon them.--C. d.i.c.kens, _Dombey and Son_ (1846).

BRIGLIADORO [_Bril'.ye.dor'.ro_], Orlando's steed. The word means "Gold bridle."--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

Sir Guyon's horse, in Spenser's _Faery Queen_, is called by a similar name.

BRILLIANT _(Sir Philip)_, a great fop, but brave soldier, like the famous Murat. He would dress with all the finery of a vain girl, but would share watching, toil, and peril with the meanest soldier. "A b.u.t.terfly in the drawing-room, but a Hector on the battle-field."

He was a "blade of proof; you might laugh at the scabbard, but you wouldn't at the blade." He falls in love with lady Anne, reforms his vanities, and marries.--S. Knowles, _Old Maids_ (1841).

BRILLIANT MADMAN _(The)_, Charles XII. of Sweden (1682, 1697-1718).

BRILLIANTA _(The lady)_, a great wit in the ancient romance ent.i.tled _Tirante le Blanc_, author unknown.

Here (in _Tirante le Blanc_) we shall find the famous knight don Kyrie Elyson of Montalban, his brother Thomas, the knight Fonseca ... the stratagems of the widow Tranquil ... and the witticisms of lady Brillianta. This is one of the most amusing books ever written.--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, I. i. 6 (1605).

BRIS _(Il conte di San)_, governor of the Louvre. He is father of Valenti'na and leader of the St. Bartholomew ma.s.sacre.--Meyerbeer, _Les Huguenots_ (1836).

BRISAC' _(Justice)_, brother of Miramont.

_Charles Brisac_, a scholar, son of justice Brisac.

_Eustace Brisac_, a courtier, brother of Charles.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Elder Brother_ (1637).

BRISE'IS _(3 syl.)_, whose real name was Hippodam'a, was the daughter of Brises, brother of the priest Chryses. She was the concubine of Achilles, but when Achilles bullied Agamemnon for not giving Chryse'is to her father, who offered a ransom for her, Agamemnon turned upon him and said he would let Chryseis go, but should take Briseis instead.--Homer, _Iliad_, i.

BRISK, a good-natured conceited c.o.xcomb, with a most voluble tongue.

Fond of saying "good things," and pointing them out with such expressions as "There I had you, eh?" "That was pretty well, egad, eh?" "I hit you in the teeth there, egad!" His ordinary oath was "Let me perish!" He makes love to lady Froth.--W. Congreve, _The Double Dealer_ (1694).

BRIS'KIE (2 _syl_.), disguised under the name of Putskie. A captain in the Moscovite army, and brother of general Archas "the loyal subject"

of the great-duke of Moscovia.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Loyal Subject_ (1618).

BRIS'SOTIN, one of the followers of Jean Pierre Brissot, an advanced revolutionist. The Brissotins were subsequently merged in the Girondists, and the word dropped out of use.

BRISTOL BOY (_The_), Thomas Chatterton, the poet, born at Bristol.

Also called "The Marvellous Boy." Byron calls him "The wondrous boy who perished in his pride" (1752-1770).

BRITAN'NIA. The Romans represented the island of Great Britain by the figure of a woman seated on a rock, from a fanciful resemblance thereto in the general outline of the island. The idea is less poetically expressed by "An old witch on a broomstick."