Chapter Barzillai to Batavia of B by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Barzillai to Batavia

Barzillai, the duke of Ormond, a friend and firm adherent of Charles II. As Barzillai assisted David when he was expelled by Absalom from his kingdom, so Ormond assisted Charles II. when he was in exile.

Barzillai, crowned with honours and with years,…
In exile with his god-like prince he mourned,
For him he suffered, and with him returned.
   —Dryden: Absalom and Achitophel, i. 756-762.

Bas Bleu [Bah…]. A Bas Bleu is a book-wise woman. In 1786 Hannah More published a poem called “The Bas Bleu, or Conversation,” in praise of the Bas Bleu Club, which met at the house of Mrs. Montagu, its foundress. The following couplet is memorable— In men this blunder still you find, All think their little set “Mankind.”

Basa-Andre, the wild woman, a sorceress, married to Basa-Jaun, a sort of vampire. Basa-Andre sometimes is a sort of land mermaid (a beautiful lady who sits in a cave combing her locks with a golden comb). .See below.)

Basa-Jaun, a wood-sprite, married to Basa-Andre, a sorceress. Both hated the sound of church-bells. Three brothers and their sister agreed to serve him, but the wood-sprite used to suck blood from the finger of the girl; and the brothers resolved to kill him. This they accomplished. The Basa-Andre induced the girl to put a tooth into each of the foot-baths of her brothers, and, lo ! they became oxen. The girl, crossing a bridge, saw Basa-Andre, and said if she did not restore her brothers she would put her into a red-hot oven; so Basa-Andre told the girl to give each brother three blows on the back with a hazel wand, and on so doing they were restored to their proper forms.—Rev. W. Webster: Basque Legends, 49 (1877).

Bashful Man (The), a comic drama by W. T. Moncrieff. Edward Blushington, a young man just come into a large fortune, was so bashful and shy that life was a misery to him. He dined at Friendly Hall, and made all sorts of ridiculous blunders. His college chum, Frank Friendly, sent word to say that he and his sister Dinah, with sir Thomas and lady Friendly, would dine with him at Blushington House. After a few glasses of wine, Edward lost his shyness, made a long speech, and became the accepted suitor of Dinah Friendly.

Basil, the blacksmith of Grand Pré, in Acadia (now Nova Scotia), and father of Gabriel the betrothed of Evangeline. When the colony was driven into exile in 1713 by George II., Basil settled in Louisiana, and greatly prospered; but his son led a wandering life, looking for Evangeline, and died in Pennsylvania of the plague.—Longfellow: Evangeline (1849).

Basil (Count), a drama by Joanna Baillie (1802). One of her series on the Passions.

Basile, a calumniating, niggardly bigot in Le Mariage de Figaro, and again in Le Barbier dc Séville, both by Beaumarchais. “Basile” and “Tartuffe” are the two French incarnations of religious hypocrisy. The former is the clerical humbug, and the latter the lay religious hypocrite. Both deal largely in calumny, and trade in slander.

Basilia, an hypothetical island in the northern ocean, famous for its amber. Mannert says it is the southern extremity of Sweden, erroneously called an island. It is an historical fact that the ancients drew their chief supply of amber from the shores of the Baltic.

Basilikon Doron, a collection of precepts on the art of government. It was composed by James I. of England for the benefit of his eldest son, Henry, and published in 1599.

Basilisco, a bully and a braggart, in Soliman and Perseda (1592). Shakespeare has made “Pistol” the counterpart of “Basilisco.”

Knight, knight, good mother, Basilisco-like.
   —Shakespeare: King John, act i. sc. 1 (1596).