Chapter BEAR to Beauty of B by Brewer's Readers Handbook

BEAR to Beauty

BEAR (The), emblem of ancient Persia. The golden lion was the emblem of ancient Assyria.

Where is th’ Assyrian lion’s golden hide,
That all the East once grasped in lordly paw?
Where that great Persian bear, whose swelling pride
The lion’s self tore out with ravenous jaw?
   —P. Fletcher: The Purple Island, vii. (1633).

Bear (The), Russia, its cognizance being a bear.

France turns from her abandoned friends afresh,
And soothes the Bear that prowls for patriot flesh.
   —Campbell: Poland.

Bear (The Brave). Warwick is so called from his cognizance, which was a bear and ragged staff.

Bear (The Great), called “Hellicê.”

Night on the earth poured darkness; on the sea
The wakeful sailor to Orion’s star
And Hellieê turned heedful.
   —Apollonius Rhodius: Argonautics.

Bearcliff (Deacon), at the Gordon Arms or Kippletringam inn, where colonel Mannering stops on his return to England, and hears of Bertram’s illness and distress.—Sir W. Scott: Guy Mannering (time, George II.).

Bearded (The). (1) Geoffrey the crusader. (2) Bouchard of the house of Montmorency. (3) Constantine IV. (648–685). (4) Master George Killingworthe of the court of Ivan the Terrible of Russia, whose beard (says Hakluyt) was five feet two inches long, yellow, thick, and broad. Sir Hugh Willoughby was allowed to take it in his hand.

The Bearded Master. Socratês was so called by Persius (B.C. 468-399).

Handsome Beard, Baldwin IV. earl of Flanders (1160–1186).

John the Bearded, John Mayo, the German painter, whose beard touched the ground when he stood upright.—Mémorial Portatif (1829).

Bearnais (Le), Henri IV. of France, so called from his native province, Le Béarn (1553–1610).

BEATRICE, wife of Ludovico Sforza.

Beatrice, daughter of Ferdinando king of Naples, sister of Leonora duchess of Ferrara, and wife of Mathias Corvinus of Hungary.

Beatrice, niece of Leonato governor of Messina, lively and light-hearted, affectionate and impulsive. Though wilful, she was not wayward; though volatile, not unfeeling; teeming with wit and gaiety, she was affectionate and energetic. At first she disliked Benedick, and thought him a flippant conceited coxcomb; but overhearing a conversation between her cousin Hero and her gentlewoman, in which Hero bewails that Beatrice should trifle with such deep love as that of Benedick, and should scorn so true and good a gentleman, she said, “Sits the wind thus? then farewell contempt. Benedick, love on; I will requite you.” This conversation of Hero’s was a mere ruse, but Benedick had been caught by a similar trick played by Claudio. The result was they sincerely loved each other, and were married.—Shakespeare: Much Ado about Nothing (1600).

Miss Helen Faucit’s impersonations are nature itself. “Juliet,” “Rosalind,” divine “Imogen,” “Beatrice,” all crowd upon our fancy.—Dublin University Magazine (1846).

Beatrice Cenci, the Beautiful Parricide (q.v., p. 100).