Chapter Book of Martyrs to Bors of B by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Book of Martyrs to Bors

Book of Martyrs (The,), by John Fox (1562). Also called the Acts and Monuments.

Books (The Battle of the). (See Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, p. 103.)

Books (Enormous prices given for rare). The highest price ever given was £3990 for a copy in vellum of the Mazarine Bible. Another copy was bought by Lord Ashburnham, at Parker’s sale, in 1873, for £3400. Mr. Quaritch, the bookseller, gave £2000 for one on paper in 1887; and one, slightly damaged, fetched £2000 in 1889.

At the auction of the duke of Roxburgh, Caxton’s first book, called Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, fetched £1000; and a first edition of Boccaccio’s Decameron fetched £2200.

Boone (r syl), colonel [afterwards “general”] Daniel Boone, in the United States service, was one of the earliest settlers in Kentucky, where he signalized himself by many daring exploits against the Red Indians (1735–1820).

Of all men, saving Sylla the man-slayer …
The general Boone, the back-woodsman of Kentucky,
Was happiest amongst mortals anywhere, etc.
   —Byron: Don Juan, viii. 61–65 (1821).

Booshalloch (Neil), cowherd to Ian Eachin M’Ian, chief of the clan Quhele.—Sir W. Scott: Fair Maid of Perth (time, Henry IV.).

Bootes, Arcas son of Jupiter and Calisto. One day his mother, in the semblance of a bear, met him, and Arcas was on the point of killing it, when Jupiter, to prevent the murder, converted him into a constellation, either Bötoês or Ursa Major.—Pausanias: Itinerary of Greece, viii. 4.

Doth not Orion worthily deserve
A higher place …
Than frail Bötoês, who was placed above
Only because the gods did else foresee
He should the murderer of his mother be?
   —Lord Brooke: Of Nobility.

Booth, husband of Amelia. Said to be a drawing of the author’s own character and experiences. He has all the vices of Tom Jones, with an additional share of meanness.—Fielding: Amelia (1751).

Boots of the Holly-tree Inn. (See Cobb.)

Borachio, a follower of don John of Aragon. He is a great villain, engaged to Margaret, the waiting- woman of Hero.—Shakespeare: Much Ado about Nothing (1600).

Borachio, a drunkard. (Spanish, borracho, “drunk;” borrachuélo, “a tippler.”)

“Why, you stink of wine! D’ye think my niece will ever endure such a borachio? You are an absolute borachio.”—Congreve: The Way of the World (1700).

Borachio (Joseph), landlord of the Eagle hotel, in Salamanca.—Jephson: Two Strings to your Bow (1792).

Borak (Al), the animal brought by Gabriel to convey Mahomet to the seventh heaven. The word means “lightning.” Al Borak had the face of a man, but the cheeks of a horse; its eyes were like jacinths, but brilliant as the stars; it had eagle’s wings, glistened all over with radiant light, and spoke with a human voice. This was one of the ten animals (not of the race of man) received into paradise. (See Animals, p. 45.)

Borak was a fine-limbed, high-standing horse, strong in frame, and with a coat as glossy as marble. His colour was saffron, with one hair of gold for every three of tawny; his ears were restless and pointed like a reed; his eyes large and full of fire; his nostrils wide and steaming; he had a white star on his forehead, a neck gracefully arched, a mane soft and silky, and a thick tail that swept the ground.—Croquemitaine, ii. 9.