Chapter Barnaby to Baruch of B by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Barnaby to Baruch

Barnaby, an old dance with a quick movement.

“Bounce!” cries the port-hole; out they fly,
And make the world dance “Barnaby.”
   —Cotton: Virgil Travestie.

Barnaby Rudge, a half-witted lad, whose companion was a raven. He was allured into joining the Gordon rioters, and was condemned to death, but reprieved.—Dickens: Barnaby Rudge (1841). (See Rudge.)

Barnacle, brother of old Nicholas Cockney, and guardian of Priscilla Tomboy of the West Indies. Barnacle is a tradesman of the old school, who thinks the foppery and extravagance of the “Cockney” school inconsistent with prosperous shop-keeping. Though brusque and even ill-mannered, he has good sense and good discernment of character.—The Romp (altered from Bickerstaff’s Love in the City).

Barn-burners, ultra-radicals or destructives, who burnt the barns in order to reform social and political abuses. These wiseacres were about as sapient as the Dutchman who burnt down his barns to get rid of the rats which infested them.

Barnardine, introduced in the last scene of Measure for Measure, but only to be reproved by the duke.

Sirrah, thou art said to have a stubborn soul,
That apprehends no further than this world,
And squar’st thy life according.
   —Shakespeare: Measure for Measure, act v. sc. 1.

Barne Bishop (A), a boy-bishop. Barne = a child.

Barnes , servant to colonel Mannering, at Woodburne.—Sir W. Scott: Guy Mannering (time, George II.).

“Barnevelt (Esdras) Apoth,” the pseudonym assumed by Pope, when, in 1715, he published a Key to his Rape of the Lock.

Barney, a repulsive Jew, who waited on the customers at the low public-house frequented by Fagin and his associates. Barney always spoke through his nose.—Dickens: Oliver Twist (1837).

Barnstable (Lieutenant), in the British navy, in love with Kate Plowden, niece of colonel Howard of New York. The alliance not being approved of, Kate is removed from England to America, but Barnstable goes to America to discover her retreat. In this he succeeds, but, being seized as a spy, is commanded by colonel Howard to be hung to the yardarm of an American frigate called the Alacrity. Scarcely is the young man led off, when the colonel is informed that Barnstable is his own son, and he arrives at the scene of execution just in time to save him. Of course after this he marries the lady of his affection.—E. Fitzball: The Pilot (a burletta).

Barnwell (George), the chief character and title of a tragedy by George Lillo. George Barnwell is a London apprentice, who falls in love with Sarah Millwood of Shoreditch, who leads him astray. He first robs his master of £200. He next robs his uncle, a rich grazier at Ludlow, and murders him. Having spent all the money of his iniquity, Sarah Millwood turns him off and informs against him. Both are executed (1732).

For many years this play was acted on boxing-night, as a useful lesson to London apprentices.

A gentleman…called one day on David Ross (1728–1790) the actor, and told him his father, who lay at the point of death, greatly desired to see him. When the actor was at the bed-side, the dying man said, “Mr. Ross, some forty years ago, like ‘George Barnwell,’ I wronged my master to supply the unbounded extravagance of a ‘Millwood.’ I took her to see your performance, which so shocked me that I vowed to break the connection and return to the path of virtue. I kept my resolution, replaced the money I had stolen, and found a ‘Maria’ in my master’s daughter. I soon succeeded to my master’s business, and have bequeathed you £1000 in my will.”—Pelham: Chronicles of Crime.

Baron (The old English), a romance by Clara Reeve (1777).