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

The fourth was that of friar Bacon. It spoke thrice. If Bacon heard it speak, he would succeed, if not, he would fail. While Bacon slept, Milis was set to watch, and the head spoke twice: “Time was,” it said, and half an hour later, “Time is.” Still Bacon slept, and another half-hour transpired, when the head exclaimed, “Time’s past,” fell to the ground and was broken to pieces. Byron refers to it, not quite correctly, in the lines—

Like friar Bacon’s brazen head, I’ve spoken,
“Time is, time was, time’s past [?]”
   —Don Juan, i. 217 (1819).

Another was made by the marquis of Vilena of Spain (1384–1434). And a sixth by a Polander, a disciple of Escotillo an Italian.

Brazen Head (The), a gigantic head kept in the castle of the giant Ferragus of Portugal. It was omniscient, and told those who consulted it whatever they desired to know, past, present, or future.—Valentine and Orson.

Bread Street (London) was the bread-market in the time of Edward I. Here Milton was born.

Breaking a Stick is part of the marriage ceremony of the American Indians, as breaking a glass is still part of the marriage ceremony of the Jews.—Lady Augusta Hamilton: Marriage Rites, etc., 292, 298.

In one of Raphael’s pictures we see an unsuccessful suitor of the Virgin Mary breaking his stick, and this alludes to the legend that the several suitors of the “virgin” were each to bring an almond stick which was to be laid up in the sanctuary over night, and the owner of the stick which budded was to be accounted the suitor God ordained, and thus Joseph became her husband.—B. H. Cowper: Apocryphal Gospel (“Pseudo-Matthew’s Gospel,” 40, 41).

In Florence is a picture in which the rejected suitors break their sticks on the back of Joseph.

Brecan, a mythical king of Wales. He had twenty-four daughters by one wife. These daughters, for their beauty and purity, were changed into rivers, all of which flow into the Severn. Brecknockshire, according to fable, is called after this king. (See next art.)

Brecan was a prince once fortunate and great
(Who dying lent his name to that his noble seat),
With twice twelve daughters blest, by one and only wife.
They, for their beauties rare and sanctity of life,
To rivers were transformed; whose pureness doth declare
How excellent they were by being what they are …
… [they] to Severn shape their course.
   —Drayton: Polyolbion, v. (1612).

Brechan (Prince), father of St. Cadock, and St. Canock, the former a martyr and the latter a confessor.

Then Cadock, next to whom comes Canock, both which were
Prince Brechan’s sons, who gave the name to Brecknockshire;
The first a martyr made, a confessor the other.
   —Drayton: Polyolbion, xxiv. (1622).