Chapter BRIDGET to Britannia of B by Brewer's Readers Handbook

BRIDGET to Britannia

BRIDGET (Miss), the mother of Tom Jones, in Fielding’s novel called The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1750).

It has been wondered why Fielding should have chosen to leave the stain of illegitimacy on the birth of his hero … but had Miss Bridget been privately married … there could have been no adequate motive assigned for keeping the birth of the child a secret from a man so reasonable and compassionate as Allworthy.—Encyc. Britannica (article “Fielding”).

Bridget (Mrs.), in Sterne’s novel called The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gent. (1759).

Bridget (Mother), aunt of Catherine Seyton, and abbess of St. Catherine.—Sir W. Scott: The Abbot (time, Elizabeth).

Bridget (May), the milkwoman at Falkland Castle.—Sir W. Scott: Fair Maid of Perth (time, Henry IV.).

Bridgeward (Peter), the bridge-keeper of Kennaquhair (“I know not where”).—Sir W. Scott: The Abbot (time, Elizabeth).

Bridgeward (Peter), warder of the bridge near St. Mary’s Convent. He refuses a passage to father Philip, who is carrying off the Bible of lady Alice.—Sir W. Scott: The Monastery (time, Elizabeth).

Bridgewater Treatises (The), founded by the right hon. and Rev. F. H. Egerton, eighth earl of Bridgewater. The subject of these treatises is to show the “power, wisdom, and goodness of God in creation.” There have been eight treatises published (1833–1836). A ninth (by Babbage) was published in 1837,

Paley’s Evidences was for many years a standard book in the University of Cambridge; but it will not bear the test of modern criticism.

Bridle. John Gower says that Rosiphele princess of Armenia, insensible to love, saw in a vision a troop of ladies splendidly mounted, but one of them rode a wretched steed, wretchedly accoutred except as to the bridle. On asking the reason, the princess was informed that the lady on the wretched horse was disgraced for cruelty to her lovers, but that the bridle had been recently given her because she had for the last month shown symptoms of true love. Moral: Hence let ladies warning take—

Of love that they be not idle,
And bid them think of my bridle.
   —Confessio Amantis (“Episode of Rosiphele,” 1325–1402).

Bridlegoose (Judge), a judge who decided the causes brought before him, not by weighing the merits of the case, but by the more simple process of throwing dice.—Rabelais: Pantagruel, iii. 39 (1545).

Beaumarchais, in his Marriage of Figaro (1784), has introduced this judge under the name of “Brid’oison.” The person satirized by Rabelais is the chancellor Poyet.

Bridlesly (Joe), a horse-dealer at Liverpool, of whom Julian Peveril bought a horse.—Sir W. Scott: Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).

Bridoison [Bree-dwoy-zong], a stupid judge in the Mariage de Figaro, a comedy in French, by Beaumarchais (1784).

Bridoon (Corporal), in lieutenant Nosebag’s regiment.—Sir W. Scott: Waverley (time, George II.).

Briennius (Nicephorus), the Cæsar of the Grecian empire, and husband of Anna Comnena (daughter of Alexius Comnenus, emperor of Greece).—Sir W. Scott: Count Robert of Paris (time, Rufus).

Brigadore , sir Guyon’s horse. The word means “Golden-bridle.”—Spenser: Faërie Queene, v. 3 (1596).