Chapter Barbason to Bark of B by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Barbason to Bark

Barbason A fiend mentioned by Shakespeare in the Merry Wives of Windsor, ii. 2, and in Henry V, ii. 1.

"Amaimon sounds well, Lucifer well, Barbason well; yet they are ... the names of fiends." - Merry Wives.

Barbazure (or Blue-Beard). See "Punch's prize Novelists," by Thackeray.

Barbe (Ste.) The powder-room in a French ship; so called from St. Barbara, the patron saint of artillery. (See Barbary.)

A barbe de fou apprend-on à raire (French). An apprentice is taught to shave on the chin of a fool.

Tel a fait sa barbe, qui n'est pas beau fils (French). You may waste half the day on making your toilet, and yet not come forth an Adonis. You cannot make a silk purse of a sow's ear. Not every block will make a Mercury.

"Heap lying curls a million on your head;
On socks, a cubit high, plant your proud tread,
You're just what you are - that's all about it." Goethe: Faust (Dr. Anster), p. 163.

Barbecue (3 syl.) A West Indian dish, consisting of a hog roasted whole, stuffed with spice, and basted with Madeira wine. Any animal roasted whole is so called.

"Oldfield with more than harpy throat subdued,
Cries, "Send me, ye gods, a whole hog barbecued!""Pope: Satires, ii. 25, 26.

Barbed Steed (a corruption of barded). A horse in armour. (French, bardé, caparisoned.)

"And now, instead of mounting barbëd steeds
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber,
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute." Shakespeare: Richard III, act i. 1.;

Barbel Latin, barbellus (the barbed fish); so called from the barbules, or fleshy appendages round the mouth.

Barbeliots A sect of Gnostics. Their first immortal son they called Barbeloth, omniscient, eternal, and incorruptible. He engendered light by the instrumentality of Christ, author of Wisdom. From Wisdom sprang Autogenês, and from Autogenês, Adam (male and female), and from Adam, matter. The first angel created was the Holy Ghost, from whom sprang the first prince, named Protarchontês, who married Arrogance, whose offspring was Sin.

Barber Every barber knows that

"Omnibus notum tonsoribus." Horace: 1 Satires, VII. 3.

In Rome the tonstrinæ or barbers' shops were the fashionable resort of loungers and idlers. Here every scandal was known, and all the talk of the town was repeated.

Barber Poet Jacques Jasmin, last of the Troubadours, who was a barber of Gascony. (1798--1864.)

Barber's Pole The gilt knob at the end represents a brass basin, which is sometimes actually suspended on the pole. The basin has a notch cut in it to fit the throat, and was used for lathering customers who came to be shaved. The pole represents the staff held by persons in venesection; and the two spiral ribbons painted round it represent the two bandages, one for twisting round the arm previous to blood- letting, and the other for binding. Barbers used to be the surgeons, but have fallen from "their high estate" since science has made its voice "to be heard on high."