Chapter Bradbourne to Brandan of B by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Marinel; his horse by Guyon; Talus shaves off his beard; and his lady is shown to be a sham Florimel.—Spenser: Faërie Queene, iii. 8 and 10, with v. 3.

(It is thought that Philip of Spain was the academy figure of “Braggadochio.”)

Braggadochio’s Sword, Sanglamore.

Bragh [braw]. Go bragh! (Irish) “for ever!”

One dying wish my bosom can draw;
Erin! an exile bequeaths thee his blessing.
Land of my forefathers, Erin go bragh!
   —Campbell: Exile of Erin.

Bragmardo (Janotus de), the sophister sent by the Parisians to Gargantua, to remonstrate with him for carrying off the bells of Notre-Dame to suspend round the neck of his mare for jingles.—Rabelais: Gargantua and Pantagruel, ii. (1533).

Brainworm, the servant of Knowell, a man of infinite shifts, and a regular Proteus in his metamorphoses. He appears first as Brainworm; afterwards as Fitz-Sword; then as a reformed soldier whom Knowell takes into his service; then as justice Clement’s man; and lastly as valet to the courts of law, by which devices he plays upon the same clique of some half-dozen men of average intelligence.—Ben Jonson: Every Man in His Humour (1598).

Brakel (Adrian), the gipsy mountebank, formerly master of Fenella, the deaf-and-dumb girl.—Sir W. Scott: Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).

Bramble (Matthew), an “odd kind of humourist,” “always on the fret,” dyspeptic, and afflicted with the gout, but benevolent, generous, and kind-hearted.

Miss Tabitha Bramble, an old maiden sister of Ma tthew Bramble, of some 45 years of age, noted for her bad spelling. She is starch, vain, prim, and ridiculous; source in temper, proud, imperious, prying, mean, malicious, and uncharitable. She contrives at last to marry captain Lismahago, who is content to take “the maiden” for the sake of her £4000.

“She is tall, raw-boned, awkward, flat-chested, and stooping; her complexion is sallow and freckled; her eyes are not grey, but greenish, like those of a cat, and generally inflamed; her hair is of a sandy or rather of a dusty hue; her forehead low; her nose long, sharp, and towards the extremity always red in cold weather; her lips skinny; her mouth extensive; her teeth straggling and loose, of various colours and conformations; and her long neck shrivelled into a thousand wrinkles.”—Smollett: The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (1771).

“Matthew Bramble” is “Roderick Random” grown old, somewhat cynical by experience of the world, but vastly improved in taste.

Smollett took some of the incidents of the family tour from “Anstey’s New Bath Guide.”—Chambers: English Literature, ii.

Bramble (Sir Robert), a baronet living at Blackberry Hall, Kent. Blunt and testy, but kind-hearted; “charitable as a Christian, and rich as a Jew;” fond of argument and contradiction, but detesting flattery; very proud, but most considerate to his poorer neighbours. In his first interview with lieutenant Worthington “the poor gentleman,” the lieutenant mistook him for a bailiff come to arrest him, but sir Robert nobly paid the bill for £500 when it was presented to him for signature as sheriff of the county.

“Sir Robert Bramble” is the same type of character as Sheridan’s “sir Anthony Absolute.”

Frederick Bramble, nephew of sir Robert, and son of Joseph Bramble a Russian merchant. His father having failed in business, Frederick was adopted by his rich uncle. He is full of life and noble instincts,