Character Sketches of Romance Volume I Part 30

Book xxiii.

BALIVERSO, the basest knight in the Saracen army.--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_, (1516).

BALK or BALKH ("_to embrace_"), Omurs, surnamed _Ghil-Shah_ ("earth's king"), founder of the Paishdadian dynasty. He travelled abroad to make himself familiar with the laws and customs of other lands. On his return he met his brother, and built on the spot of meeting a city, which he called Balk; and made it the capital of his kingdom.

BALKIS, the Arabian name of the queen of Sheba, who went from the south to witness the wisdom and splendor of Solomon. According to the Koran she was a fire-wors.h.i.+pper. It is said that Solomon raised her to his bed and throne. She is also called queen of Saba or Aaziz.--_Al Koran_, xxvi. (Sale's notes).

She fancied herself already more potent than Balkis, and pictured to her imagination the genii falling prostrate at the foot of her throne.--W.

Beckford, _Vathek_.

_Balkis queen of Sheba_ or _Saba_. Solomon being told that her legs were covered with hair "like those of an a.s.s," had the presence-chamber floored with gla.s.s laid over running water filled with fish. When Balkis approached the room, supposing the floor to be water, she lifted up her robes and exposed her hairy ankles, of which the king had been rightly informed.--_Jallalo'dinn_.

BALLENKEIROCH (_Old_), a Highland chief and old friend of Fergus M'Ivor.--Sir W. Scott, _Waverley_ (time, Greorge II.).

BALMUNG, the sword of Siegfried forged by Wieland the smith of the Scandinavian G.o.ds. In a trial of merit Wieland cleft Amilias (a brother smith) to the waist; but so fine was the cut that Amilias was not even conscious of it till he attempted to move, when he fell asunder into two pieces.--_Niebelungen Lied_.

BALRUD'DERY (_The laird of_), a relation of G.o.dfrey Bertram, laird of Ellangowan.--Sir W. Scott, _Guy Mannering_ (time, George II.).

BALTHA'ZAR, a merchant, in Shakespeare's _Comedy of Errors_ (1593).

_Baltha'zar_, a name a.s.sumed by Portia, in Shakespeare's _Merchant of Venice_ (1598).

_Baltha'zar_, servant to Romeo, in Shakespeare's _Romeo and Juliet_ (1597).

_Baltha'zar_, servant to don Pedro, in Shakespeare's _Much Ado about Nothing_ (1600).

_Baltha'zar_, one of the three "kings" shown in Cologne Cathedral as one of the "Magi" led to Bethlehem by the guiding star. The word means "lord of treasures." The names of the other two are Melchior ("king of light"), and Gaspar or Caspar ("the white one"). Klopstock, in _The Messiah_, makes six "Wise Men," and none of the names are like these three.

_Balthazar_, father of Juliana, Volante, and Zam'ora. A proud, peppery, and wealthy gentleman. His daughter Juliana marries the duke of Aranza; his second daughter the count Montalban; and Zamora marries signor Rinaldo.--J. Tobin, _The Honeymoon_ (1804).

BALUE (_Cardinal_), in the court of Louis XI. of France (1420-1491), introduced by sir W. Scott in _Quentin Durward_ (time, Edward IV.).

BALUGANTES (4 _syl._), leader of the men from Leon, in Spain, and in alliance with Agramant.--Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

BALVENY (_Lord_), kinsman of the earl of Douglas.--Sir W. Scott, _Fair Maid of Perth_ (time, Henry IV.).

BALWHIDDER [_Bal'wither_], a Scotch presbyterian pastor, filled with all the old-fas.h.i.+oned national prejudices, but sincere, kind-hearted, and pious. He is garrulous and loves his joke, but is quite ignorant of the world, being "in it but not of it."--Galt, _Annals of the Parish_ (1821).

The _Rev. Micah Balwhidder_ is a fine representation of the primitive Scottish pastor; diligent, blameless, loyal, and exemplary in his life, but without the fiery zeal and "kirk-filling eloquence"

of the supporters of the Covenant.--R.

Chambers, _English Literature_, ii. 591.

BALY, one of the ancient and gigantic kings of India, who founded the city called by his name. He redressed wrongs, upheld justice, was generous and truthful, compa.s.sionate and charitable, so that at death he became one of the judges of h.e.l.l. His city in time got overwhelmed with the encroaching ocean, but its walls were not overthrown, nor were the rooms enc.u.mbered with the weeds and alluvial of the sea. One day a dwarf, named Vamen, asked the mighty monarch to allow him to measure three of his own paces for a hut to dwell in. Baly smiled, and bade him measure out what he required. The first pace of the dwarf compa.s.sed the whole earth, the second the whole heavens, and the third the infernal regions. Baly at once perceived that the dwarf was Vishnu, and adored the present deity. Vishnu made the king "Governor of Pad'alon" or h.e.l.l, and permitted him once a year to revisit the earth, on the first full moon of November.

Baly built A city, like the cities of the G.o.ds, Being like a G.o.d himself. For many an age Hath ocean warred against his palaces, Till overwhelmed they lie beneath the waves, Not overthrown.

Southey, _Curse of Kehama_, xv. 1 (1809).

BAN, king of Benwick [_Brittany_], father of sir Launcelot, and brother of Bors king of Gaul. This "shadowy king of a still more shadowy kingdom" came over with his royal brother to the aid of Arthur, when, at the beginning of his reign, the eleven kings leagued against him (pt. i. 8).

Yonder I see the most valiant knight of the world, and the man of most renown, for such two brethren as are king Ban and king Bors are not living.--Sir T. Malory, _History of Prince Arthur_, i. 14 (1470).

BANASTAR (_Humfrey_), brought up by Henry duke of Buckingham, and advanced by him to honor and wealth. He professed to love the duke as his dearest friend; but when Richard III. offered 1000 reward to any one who would deliver up the duke, Banastar betrayed him to John Mitton, sheriff of Shrops.h.i.+re, and he was conveyed to Salisbury, where he was beheaded. The ghost of the duke prayed that Banastar's eldest son, "reft of his wits might end his life in a pigstye;" that his second son might "be drowned in a d.y.k.e" containing less than "half a foot of water;" that his only daughter might be a leper; and that Banastar himself might "live in death and die in life."--Thomas Sackville, _A Mirrour for Magistraytes_ ("The Complaynt," 1587).

BANBERG (_The Bishop of_), introduced in Donnerhugel's narrative.--Sir W. Scott, _Anne of Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.).

BANBURY CHEESE. Bardolph calls Slender a "Banbury cheese" (_Merry Wives of Windsor_, act i. sc. 1); and in _Jack Drum's Entertainment_ we read, "You are like a Banbury cheese, nothing but paring." The Banbury cheese alluded to was a milk cheese, about an inch in thickness.

BANDY-LEGGED, Armand Gouffe (1775-1845), also called _Le panard du dix-neuvieme siecle_. He was one of the founders of the "Caveau moderne."

BANKS, a farmer, the great terror of old mother Sawyer, the witch of Edmonton.--_The Witch of Edmonton_ (by Rowley, Dekker, and Ford, 1658).

BANQUO, a Scotch general of royal extraction, in the time of Edward the Confessor. He was murdered at the instigation of king Macbeth, but his son Fleance escaped, and from this Fleance descended a race of kings who filled the throne of Scotland, ending with James I. of England, in whom were united the two crowns. The witches on the blasted heath hailed Banquo as--

(1) Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.

(2) Not so happy, yet much happier.

(3) Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none.

Shakespeare, _Macbeth_, act i. sc. 3 (1606).

(Historically no such person as Banquo ever existed, and therefore Fleance was not the ancestor of the house of Stuart.)

BAN'SHEE, a tutelary female spirit. Every chief family of Ireland has its banshee, who is supposed to give it warning of approaching death or danger.

BANTAM (_Angela Cyrus_), grand-master of the ceremonies at "Ba-ath,"

and a very mighty personage in the opinion of the _elite_ of Bath.--C.

d.i.c.kens, _The Pickwick Papers_ (1836).

BAP, a contraction of _Bap'liomet, i.e._ Mahomet. An imaginary idol or symbol which the Templars were accused of employing in their mysterious religious rites. It was a small human figure cut in stone, with two heads, one male and the other female, but all the rest of the figure was female. Specimens still exist.

BAP'TES (2 _syl_.), priests of the G.o.ddess Cotytto, whose midnight orgies were so obscene as to disgust even the very G.o.ddess of obscenity. (Greek, _bapto_, "to baptize," because these priests bathed themselves in the most effeminate manner.)

BAPTIS'TA, a rich gentleman of Padua, father of Kathari'na "the shrew," and Bianca.--Shakespeare, _Taming of the Shrew_ (1594).

BAPTISTI DAMIOTTI, a Paduan quack, who shows in the enchanted mirror a picture representing the clandestine marriage and infidelity of sir Philip Forester.--Sir W. Scott, _Aunt Margaret's Mirror_ (time, William III.).

BAR'ABAS, the faithful servant of Ealph Lascours, captain of the _Uran'ia._ His favorite expression is "I am afraid;" but he always acts most bravely when he is afraid. (See BARRABAS.)--E. Stirling, _The Orphan of the Frozen Sea_ (1856).

BAR'ADAS (_Count_), the king's favorite, first gentleman of the chamber, and one of the conspirators to dethrone Louis XIII., kill Richelieu, and place the duc d'Orleans on the throne of France.

Baradas loved Julie, but Julie married the chevalier Adrien de Mauprat. When Richelieu fell into disgrace, the king made count Baradas his chief minister, but scarcely had he so done when a despatch was put into his hand revealing the conspiracy, and Richelieu ordered Baradas' instant arrest.--Lord Lytton, _Richelieu_ (1839).

BARAK EL HADGI, the fakir', an emissary from the court of Hyder Ali.--Sir W. Scott, _The Surgeon's Daughter_ (time, George II.).

BARBARA, the widowed heroine whose vacillations of devotion to her buried husband and the living cousin who might be his twin, furnish the _motif_ for Amelie Rives's story, _The Quick or the Dead?_ (1888).

BARBARA FLOYD, lonely-hearted wife in George Fleming's (Julia C.

Fletcher) novel, _The Head of Medusa_. The scene of the story is laid in modern Rome; Barbara, married to an Italian n.o.bleman, has an inner and purer life with which the corruptions of the gay capital meddle not.--(1880.)

BARBARA FRIETCHIE, heroic old woman of Frederick, Maryland, who took up the flag the men had hauled down at the command of Stonewall Jackson.--John Greenleaf Whittier, _Barbara Frietchie_ (1864).