Chapter Breck to Bridgenorth of B by Brewer's Readers Handbook

her till she had provided him with human hair sufficient to “purfle a mantle” with. Sir Crudor, having been overthrown in knightly combat by sir Calidore, who refused to give “the passage pay,” is made to release Briana from the condition imposed on her, and Briana swears to discontinue the discourteous toll.—Spenser: Faërie Queene, vi. 1 (1596).

Brianor (Sir), a knight overthrown by sir Artegal, the “Salvage Knight.”—Spenser: Faërie Queene, iv. 5 (1596),

Briareos , usually called Briareus [Bri-a-ruce], the giant with a hundred hands. Hence Dryden says, “And Briareus, with all his hundred hands” (Virgil, vi.); but Milton writes the name Briareos (Paradise Lost, i. 199).

Then, called by thee, the monster Titan came,
Whom gods Briareos, men Ægeon name.
   —Pope: Iliad, i.

Briareus (Bold), Handel (1685–1757).

Briareus of Languages, cardinal Mezzofanti, who was familiar with fifty-eight different languages. Byron calls him “a walking polyglot” (1774–1849).

Briboci, inhabitants of Berkshire and the adjacent counties.—Cæsar: Commentaries.

Brick (Jefferson), a very weak, pale young man, the war correspondent of the New York Rowdy Journal, of which colonel Diver was editor.—Dickens: Martin Chuzzlewit (1844).

Bride-catching. It is a common Asiatic custom for the bri degroom to give chase to the bride, either on foot, on horseback, or in a canoe. If the bridegroom catches the fugitive, he claims her as his bride, otherwise the match is broken off. The classical tales of Hippomenês and Atalanta will instantly recur to the reader’s memory.

In mythical times the savage was wont to waylay and hunt his bride; and having, as the poet says, seized her by the hair, “to nuptials rude he bore her.”

A girl is first mounted, and rides off at full speed. Her lover pursues, and if he overtakes her she becomes his wife. No Kalmuck girl is ever caught unless she chooses to be so.—Dr. Clarke.

In Turcomania the maiden carries a lamb and kid, which must be taken from her in the chase. In Singapore the chase is made in canoes.—Cameron.

Bride of Abydos (The), Zuleika, daughter of Giaffer (2syl) pacha of Abydos. She is the trothplight bride of Selim; but Giaffer shoots the lover, and Zuleika dies of a broken heart.—Byron: Bride of Abydos (1813).

Bride of Lammermoor (The), Lucy Ashton, in love with Edgar master of Ravenswood, but compelled to marry Frank Hayston laird of Bucklaw. She tries to murder him on the bridal night, and dies insane the day following.—Sir W. Scott: The Bride of Lammermoor (time, William III.).

(The Bride of Lammermoor is one of the most finished of Scott’s novels, presenting a unity of plot and action from beginning to end. The old butler, Caleb Balderston, is exaggerated and far too prominent, but he serves as a foil to the tragic scenes.)

In The Bride of Lammermoor we see embodied the dark spirit of fatalism—that spirit which breathes on the writings of the Greek tragedians when they traced the persecuting vengeance of destiny against the houses of Laius and Atreus. From the time that we hear the prophetic rhymes the spell begins, and the clouds blacken round us, till they close the tale in a night of horror.—Macaulay.