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

king Lot and Margawse (king Arthur’s sister). His brothers were sir Gawain, sir Agravain, and sir Gaheris. Mordred was his half-brother.—Sir T. Malory: History of Prince Arthur, i. 120 (1470)

(His achievements are given under the word “Gareth,” q.v.)

Tennyson, in his Gareth and Lynette, makes sir Kay tauntingly address Lancelot thus, referring to Gareth—

Fair and fine, forsooth! Sir Fine-face, sir Fair-hands? But see thou to it That thine own fineness, Lancelot, some fine day, Undo thee not.

Be it remembered that Kay himself called Gareth “Beaumains” from the extraordinary size of the lad’s hands; but the taunt put into the mouth of Kay by the poet indicates that the lad prided himself on his “fine” face and “fair” hands, which is not the case. If “fair hands” is a translation of this nickname, it should be “fine hands,” which bears the equivocal sense of big and beautiful.

Beaumanoir (Sir Lucas), grand-master of the Knights Templars.—Sir W. Scott: Ivanhoe (time, Richard 1.).

Beaupré [Bo-pray], son of judge Vertaigne and brother of Lamira.—Beaumont and Fletcher: The Little French Lawyer (printed 1647).

Beauseant, in The Lady of Lyons, by Bulwer Lytton [lord Lytton] (1838).

Beauté. La dame de Beauté. Agnes Sorel, so called from the château de Beauté, on the banks of the Marne, given to her by Charles VII. (1409–1450).

Beautiful (The) or La Bella. So Florence is called. France is spoken of by Frenchmen as La Belle France.

Beautiful Corisande, Diane comtesse de Guiche et de Grammont. She was the daughter of Paul d’Andouins, and married Philibert de Gramont, who died in 1580. The widow outlived her husband twenty-six years. Henri IV., before he was king of Navarre, was desperately smitten by La belle Corisande; and when he was at war with the League, she sold her diamonds to raise for him a levy of 20,000 Gascons (1554–1620).

(The letters of Henri to Corisande are still preserved in the Bibliothéque de l’Arsenal, and were published in 1769.)

Beautiful Parricide (The), Beatrice Cenci, daughter of a Roman nobleman, who plotted the death of her father because he violently defiled her. She was executed in 1605. Shelley has a tragedy on the subject, entitled The Cenci. Guido Reni’s “The Execution of the Cenci,” is one of the most interesting paintings in Rome.

Beauty (Queen of). So the daughter of Schemseddin Mohammed, vizier of Egypt, was called. She married her cousin, Bedreddin Hassan (q.v.), son of Noureddin Ali, vizier of Basora.—Arabian Nights (“Noureddin Ali,” etc.).