Character Sketches of Romance Volume I Part 38

BELOVED PHYSICIAN (_The_), St. Luke the evangelist.--_Col._ iv. 14.

BEL'PHEGOR, a Moabitish deity, whose orgies were celebrated on mount Phegor, and were noted for their obscenity.

BELPHOE'BE (3 _syl._). "All the Graces rocked her cradle when she was born." Her mother was Chrysog'one (4 _syl._), daughter of Amphisa of fairy lineage, and her twin-sister was Amoretta. While the mother and her babes were asleep, Diana took one (Belphoebe) to bring up, and Venus took the other.

[Ill.u.s.tration] Belphoebe is the "Diana" among women, cold, pa.s.sionless, correct, and strong-minded. Amoret is the "Venus," but without the licentiousness of that G.o.ddess, warm, loving, motherly, and wifely. Belphoebe was a lily; Amoret a rose. Belphoebe a moonbeam, light without heat; Amoret a sunbeam, bright and warm and life-giving.

Belphoebe would go to the battle-field, and make a most admirable nurse or lady-conductor of an ambulance; but Amoret would prefer to look after her husband and family, whose comfort would be her first care, and whose love she would seek and largely reciprocate.--See Spenser, _Faery Queen_, iii. vi. (1590).

[Ill.u.s.tration] "Belphoebe" is queen Elizabeth. As _queen_ she is Gloriana, but as _woman_ she is Belphoebe, the beautiful and chaste.

Either Grloriana let her choose, Or in Belphoebe fas.h.i.+oned to be;

In one her rule, in the other her rare chast.i.tie.

Spenser, _Faery Queen_ (introduction to bk. iii.).

BELTED WILL, lord William Howard, warden of the western marches (1563-1640).

His Bilboa blade, by Marchmen felt, Hung in a broad and studded belt; Hence in rude phrase the Borderers still Called n.o.ble Howard "Belted Will."

Sir W. Scott.

BELTEN'EBROS (4 _syl._). Amadis of Graul a.s.sumes the name when he retires to the Poor Rock, after receiving a cruel letter from Oria'na his lady-love.--Vasco de Lobeira, _Amadis de Gaul_, ii. 6 (before 1400).

One of the most distinguis.h.i.+ng testimonies which that hero gave of his fort.i.tude, constancy, and love, was his retiring to the Poor Rock when in disgrace with his mistress Oriana, to do penance under the name of _Beltenebros_ or the _Lovely Obscure._--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, I. iii. 11 (1605).

BELVIDE'RA, daughter of Priu'li a senator of Venice. She was saved from the sea by Jaffier, eloped with him, and married him. Her father then discarded her, and her husband joined the conspiracy of Pierre to murder the senators. He tells Belvidera of the plot, and Belvidera, in order to save her father, persuades Jaffier to reveal the plot to Priuli, if he will promise a general free pardon. Priuli gives the required promise, but notwithstanding, all the conspirators, except Jaffier, are condemned to death by torture. Jaffier stabs Pierre to save him from the dishonor of the wheel, and then kills himself.

Belvidera goes mad and dies.--Otway, _Venice Preserved_ (1682).

BEN [LEGEND], sir Sampson Legend's younger son, a sailor and a "sea-wit," in whose composition there enters no part of the conventional generosity and open frankness of a British tar. His slang phrase is "D'ye see," and his pet oath "Mess!"--W. Congreve, _Love for Love_ (1695). I cannot agree with the following sketch:--

What is _Ben_--the pleasant sailor which Bannister gives us--but a piece of satire ... a dreamy combination of all the accidents of a sailor's character, his contempt of money, his credulity to women, with that necessary estrangement from home?... We never think the worse of Ben for it, or feel it as a stain upon his character.--C.

Lamb.

C. Dibdin says: "If the description of Thom. Doggett's performance of this character be correct, the part has certainly never been performed since to any degree of perfection."

BEN BOLT, old schoolmate with whom Thomas Dunn English exchanges reminiscences in the ballad, _Ben Bolt_, beginning:

Don't you remember sweet Alice, Ben Bolt?

Sweet Alice, whose hair was so brown; Who wept with delight when you gave her a smile, And trembled with fear at your frown. (1845.)

BEN-HUR, a young Jew, who, for accidentally injuring a Roman soldier, is condemned to the galleys for life. Escaping, after three years of servitude, through the favor of Arrius, a Roman Tribune, he seeks his mother and sister to find both lepers. They are healed by Christ, whose devoted followers they become.--Lew Wallace, _Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ_ (1880).

BEN ISRAEL (_Nathan_) or NATHAN BEN SAMUEL, the physician and friend of Isaac the Jew.--Sir W. Scott, _Ivanhoe_ (time, Richard I.).

BEN JOC'HANAN, in the satire of _Absalom and Achitophel_, by Dryden and Tate, is meant for the Rev. Samuel Johnson, who suffered much persecution for his defence of the right of private judgment.

Let Hebron, nay, let h.e.l.l produce a man So made for mischief as Ben Jochanan.

A Jew of humble parentage was he, By trade a Levite, though of low degree.

Part ii.

BENAI'AH (3 _syl_.), in _Absalom and Achitophel_, is meant for general George Edward Sackville. As Benaiah, captain of David's guard, adhered to Solomon against Adonijah, so general Sackville adhered to the duke of York against the prince of Orange (1590-1652).

Nor can Benaiah's worth forgotten lie, Of steady soul when public storms were high.

Dryden and Tate, part ii.

BENAS'KAR or BENNASKAR, a wealthy merchant and magician of Delhi.--James Ridley, _Tales of the Genii_ ("History of Mahoud," tale vii., 1751).

BENBOW (_Admiral_). In an engagement with the French near St. Martha on the Spanish coast in 1701, admiral Benbow had his legs and thighs s.h.i.+vered into splinters by chain-shot, but supported in a wooden frame he remained on the quarter-deck till morning, when Du Ca.s.se sheered off.

Similar acts of heroism are recorded of Almeyda, the Portuguese governor of India, of Cynaegiros brother of the poet AEschylos, of Jaafer the standard-bearer of "the prophet" in the battle of Muta, and of some others.

_Benbow_, an idle, generous, free-and-easy sot, who spent a good inheritance in dissipation, and ended life in the workhouse.

Benbow, a boon companion, long approved By jovial sets, and (as he thought) beloved, Was judged as one to joy and friends.h.i.+p p.r.o.ne, And deemed injurious to himself alone.

Crabbe, _Borough_, xvi. (1810).

BEND-THE-BOW, an English archer at d.i.c.kson's cottage.--Sir W. Scott, _Castle Dangerous_ (time, Henry I.).

BENEd.i.c.k, a wild, witty, and light-hearted young lord of Padua, who vowed celibacy, but fell in love with Beatrice and married her. It fell out thus: He went on a visit to Leonato, governor of Messina; here he sees Beatrice, the governor's niece, as wild and witty as himself, but he dislikes her, thinks her pert and forward, and somewhat ill-mannered withal. However, he hears Claudio speaking to Leonata about Beatrice, saying how deeply she loves Bened.i.c.k, and bewailing that so nice a girl should break her heart with unrequited love. This conversation was a mere ruse, but Bened.i.c.k believed it to be true, and resolved to reward the love of Beatrice with love and marriage. It so happened that Beatrice had been entrapped by a similar conversation which she had overheard from her cousin Hero. The end was they sincerely loved each other, and became man and wife.--Shakespeare, _Much Ado about Nothing_ (1600). BENEDICT [BELLEFONTAINE], the wealthiest farmer of Grand Pre, in Acadia, father of Evangeline ("the pride of the village"). He was a stalwart man of seventy, hale as an oak, but his hair was white as snow. Colonel Winslow in 1713 informed the villagers of Grand Pre that the French had formally ceded their village to the English, that George II. now confiscated all their lands, houses, and cattle, and that the people, amounting to nearly 2000, were to be "exiled into other lands without delay." The people a.s.sembled on the sea-sh.o.r.e; old Benedict Bellefontaine sat to rest himself, and fell dead in a fit. The old priest buried him in the sand, and the exiles left their village homes forever.--Longfellow, _Evangeline_ (1849).

BEN'ENGEL'I (_Cid Hamet_), the hypothetical Moorish chronicler from whom Cervantes pretends he derived the account of the adventures of don Quixote.

The Spanish commentators ... have discovered that _cid Hamet Benengeli_ is after all no more than an Arabic version of the name of Cervantes himself. _Hamet_ is a Moorish prefix, and _Benengeli_ signifies "son of a stag," in Spanish _Cervanteno._--Lockhart.

_Benengeli_ (_Cid Hamet_), Thomas Babington lord Macaulay. His signature in his _Fragment of an Ancient Romance_ (1826). (See Cid, etc.)

BENEV'OLUS, in Cowper's _Task_, is John Courtney Throckmorton, of Weston Underwood.

BENJAMIN PENGUILLAN. _The Pioneers_, by J. F. Cooper. A servant in the family of Judge Temple. His sobriquet is "Ben Pump." (1823.)

BENJIE _(Little)_, or Benjamin Colthred, a spy employed by Cristal Nixon, the agent of Redgauntlet.--Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.).

BEN'NET _(Brother)_, a monk at St. Mary's convent.--Sir W. Scott, _The Monastery_ (time, Elizabeth).

_Ben'net (Mrs.)_, a demure, intriguing woman in _Amelia_, a novel by Fielding (1751).

BEN'OITON _(Madame)_, a woman who has been the ruin of the family by neglect. In the "famille Benoiton" the constant question was "_Ou est Madame?_" and the invariable answer "_Elle est sortie_" At the _denouement_ the question was asked again, and the answer was varied thus, "Madam has been at home, but is gone out again."--_La Famille Benoiton_.

BEN'SHEE, the domestic spirit or demon of certain Irish families. The benshee takes an interest in the prosperity of the family to which it is attached, and intimates to it approaching disaster or death by wailings or shrieks. The Scotch Bodach Glay or "grey spectre" is a similar spirit. Same as _Banshee_ (which see).

How oft has the Benshee cried!