Character Sketches of Romance Volume I Part 55

_Bruin_ (_Mrs._ and _Mr._), daughter and son-in-law to sir Jacob Jollup. Mr. Bruin is a huge bear of a fellow, and rules his wife with scant courtesy.--S. Foote, _The Mayor of Garratt_ (1763).

BRULGRUD'DERY (_Dennis_), landlord of the Red Cow, on Muckslush Heath.

He calls himself "an Irish gintleman bred and born." He was "brought up to the church," _i.e._ to be a church beadle, but lost his place for snoring at sermon-time. He is a sot, with a very kind heart, and is honest in great matters, although in business he will palm off an old c.o.c.k for a young capon.

_Mrs. Brulgruddery_, wife of Dennis, and widow of Mr. Skinnygauge, former landlord of the Red Cow. Unprincipled, self-willed, ill-tempered, and over-reaching. Money is the only thing that moves her, and when she has taken a bribe she will whittle down the service to the finest point.--G. Colman, jun., _John Bull_ (1805).

BRUN'CHEVAL "the Bold," a paynim knight, who tilted with sir Satyrane, and both were thrown to the ground together at the first encounter.--Spenser, _Faery Queen_, iv. 4 (1596).

BRUNEL'O, a deformed dwarf, who at the siege of Albracca stole Sacripan'te's charger from between his legs without his knowing it.

He also stole Angelica's magic ring, by means of which he released Roge'ro from the castle in which he was imprisoned. Ariosto says that Agramant gave the dwarf a ring which had the power of resisting magic.--Bojardo, _Orlando Innamorato_ (1495); and Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ (1516).

"I," says Sancho, "slept so soundly upon Dapple, that the thief had time enough to clap four stakes under the four corners of my pannel and to lead away the beast from under my legs without waking me."--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, II. i. 4 (1615).

BRUNETTA, mother of Chery (who married his cousin Fairstar).--Comtesse D'Aunoy, _Fairy Tales_ ("Princess Fairstar," 1682).

_Brunetta_, the rival beauty of Phyllis. On one occasion Phyllis procured a most marvellous fabric of gold brocade in order to eclipse her rival, but Brunetta arrayed her train-bearer in a dress of the same material and cut in the same fas.h.i.+on. Phyllis was so mortified that she went home and died.--_The Spectator_.

BRUNHILD, queen of Issland, who made a vow that none should win her who could not surpa.s.s her in three trials of skill and strength: (1) hurling a spear; (2) throwing a stone; and (3) jumping. Gunther king of Burgundy undertook the three contests, and by the aid of Siegfried succeeded in winning the martial queen. _First_, hurling a spear that three men could scarcely lift: the queen hurled it towards Gunther, but Siegfried, in his invisible cloak, reversed its direction, causing it to strike the queen and knock her down. _Next_, throwing a stone so huge that twelve brawny men were employed to carry it: Brunhild lifted it on high, flung it twelve fathoms, and jumped beyond it. Again Siegfried helped his friend to throw it further, and in leaping beyond the stone. The queen, being fairly beaten, exclaimed to her liegemen, "I am no longer your queen and mistress; henceforth are ye the liegemen of Gunther" (lied vii.). After marriage Brunhild was so obstreperous that the king again applied to Siegfried, who succeeded in depriving her of her ring and girdle, after which she became a very submissive wife.--_The Niebelungen Lied_.

BRU'NO (_Bishop_), bishop of Herbipolita'num. Sailing one day on the Danube with Henry III. emperor of Germany, they came to Ben Strudel ("the devouring-gulf"), near Grinon Castle, in Austria. Here the voice of a spirit clamored aloud, "Ho! ho! Bishop Bruno, whither art thou travelling? But go thy ways, bishop Bruno, for thou shalt travel with me tonight." At night, while feasting with the emperor, a rafter fell on his head and killed him. Southey has a ballad called _Bishop Bruno_, but it deviates from the original legend given by Heywood in several particulars: It makes bishop Bruno hear the voice first on his way to the emperor, who had invited him to dinner; next, at the beginning of dinner; and thirdly, when the guests had well feasted. At the last warning an ice-cold hand touched him, and Bruno fell dead in the banquet hall.

BRUSH, the impertinent English valet of lord Ogleby. If his lords.h.i.+p calls he never hears unless he chooses; if his bell rings he never answers it till it suits his pleasure. He helps himself freely to all his master's things, and makes love to all the pretty chambermaids he comes into contact with.--Colman and Garrick, _The Clandestine Marriage_ (1766).

BRUTE (1 _syl_.), the first king of Britain (in mythical history). He was the son of aeneas Silvius (grandson of Ascanius and great-grandson of aeneas of Troy). Brute called London (the capital of his adopted country) Troynovant (_New Troy_). The legend is this: An oracle declared that Brute should be the death of both his parents; his mother died in child-birth, and at the age of fifteen Brute shot his father accidentally in a deer-hunt. Being driven from Alba Longa, he collected a band of old Trojans and landed at Totness, in Devons.h.i.+re.

His wife was Innogen, daughter of Pandra'sus king of Greece. His tale is told at length in the _Chronicles_ of Geoffrey of Monmouth, in the first song of Drayton's _Polyolbion_, and in Spenser's _Faery Queen_, ii.

_Brute (Sir John)_, a coa.r.s.e, surly, ill-mannered brute, whose delight was to "provoke" his young wife, who he tells us "is a young lady, a fine lady, a witty lady, and a virtuous lady, but yet I hate her." In a drunken frolic he intercepts a tailor taking home a new dress to lady Brute; he insists on arraying himself therein, is arrested for a street row, and taken before the justice of the peace. Being asked his name, he gives it as "lady John Brute," and is dismissed.

_Lady Brute_, wife of sir John. She is subjected to divers indignities, and insulted morn, noon, and night by her surly, drunken husband. Lady Brute intrigues with Constant, a former lover; but her intrigues are more mischievous than vicious.--Vanbrugh, _The Provoked Wife_ (1697).

BRUTE GREEN-s.h.i.+ELD, the successor of Ebranc king of Britain. The mythical line is: (1) Brute, great-great-grandson of aeneas; (2) Locrin, his son; (3) Guendolen, the widow of Locrin; (4) Ebranc; (5) Brute Green-s.h.i.+eld. Then follow in order Leil, Hudibras, Bladud, Leir [Shakespeare's "Lear"], etc.

... of her courageous kings, Brute Green-s.h.i.+eld, to whose name we providence impute Divinely to revive the land's first conqueror, Brute.

Drayton, _Polyolbion_, viii. (1612).

BRUTUS (_Lucius Junius_), first consul of Rome, who condemned his own two sons to death for joining a conspiracy to restore Tarquin to the throne, from which he had been banished. This subject has been dramatized by N. Lee (1679) and John H. Payne, under the t.i.tle of _Brutus, or the_ _Fall of Tarquin_ (1820). Alfieri has an Italian tragedy on the same subject. In French we have the tragedies of Arnault (1792) and Ponsard (1843). (See LUCRETIA.)

The elder Kean on one occasion consented to appear at the Glasgow theatre for his son's benefit. The play chosen was Payne's _Brutus_, in which the father took the part of "Brutus" and Charles Kean that of "t.i.tus." The audience sat suffused in tears during the pathetic interview, till "Brutus" falls on the neck of "t.i.tus," exclaiming in a burst of agony, "Embrace thy wretched father!" when the whole house broke forth into peals of approbation. Edmund Kean then whispered in his son's ear, "Charlie, we are doing the trick."--W. C. Russell, _Representative Actors_, p. 476.

_Junius Brutus_. So James Lynch Fitz-Stephen has been called, because (like the first consul of Rome) he condemned his own son to death for murder, and to prevent a rescue caused him to be executed from the window of his own house in Galway (1493).

_The Spanish Brutus_, Alfonso Perez de Gruzman, governor of Tarifa in 1293. Here he was besieged by the infant don Juan, who had revolted against his brother, king Sancho IV., and having Guzman's son in his power threatened to kill him unless Tarifa was given up to him. Guzman replied, "Sooner than be guilty of such treason I will lend Juan a dagger to slay my son;" and so saying tossed his dagger over the wall.

Sad to say, Juan took the dagger, and a.s.sa.s.sinated the young man there and then (1258-1309).

_Brutus (Marcus)_, said to be the son of Julius Caesar by Servilia.

Brutus' b.a.s.t.a.r.d hand Stabb'd Julius Caesar.

Shakespeare, 2 _Henry VI_. act iv. sc. 1 (1591).

This Brutus is introduced by Shakespeare in his tragedy of _Julius Caesar_, and the poet endows him with every quality of a true patriot.

He loved Caesar much, but he loved Rome more.

_Brutus. Et tu, Brute_. Shakespeare, on the authority of Suetonius, puts these words into the mouth of Caesar when Brutus stabbed him.

Shakespeare's drama was written in 1607, and probably he had seen _The True Tragedy of Richard duke of York_ (1600), where these words occur; but even before that date H. Stephens had said:

Jule Cesar, quand il vit que Brutus aussi estoit de ceux qui luy tirient des coups d'espee, luy dit, _Kai sy tecnon_? c'est a dire....

Et toy mon fils, en es tu aussi.--_Deux Dial. du Noveau Lang. Franc_ (1583).

BRUTUS AND CICERO. Cicero says: [Latin: "Caesare interfecto, statim, cruentum alte extollens M. Brutus pugionem _Ciceronem_ nominatim exclamavit, atque ei recuperatam libertatem est gratulatus."]--_Philipp_.

ii. 12.

When Brutus rose, Refulgent from the stroke of Caesar's fate,... [_he_]

called aloud On Tully's name, and shook his crimson steel, And bade the "father of his country" hail.

Akenside, _Pleasures of Imagination_, i.

BRY'DONE (_Elspeth_), or Glendinning, widow of Simon Glendinning, of the Tower of Glendearg.--Sir W. Scott, _The Monastery_ (time, Elizabeth).

BUBAS'TIS, the Dian'a of Egyptian mythology. She was the daughter of Isis and sister of Horus.

BUBENBURG (_Sir Adrian de_), a veteran knight of Berne.--Sir W. Scott, _Anne of Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.).

BUCCA, goblin of the wind in Celtic mythology, and supposed by the ancient inhabitants of Cornwall to foretell s.h.i.+pwreck.

BUCEN'TAUR, the Venetian state galley used by the doge when he went "to wed the Adriatic." In cla.s.sic mythology the bucentaur was half man and half ox.

BUCEPH'ALOS ("_bull-headed_"), the name of Alexander's horse, which cost 3500. It knelt down when Alexander mounted, and was thirty years old at its death. Alexander built a city called Bucephala in its memory.

_The Persian Bucephalos_, s.h.i.+bdiz, the famous charger of Chosroes Parviz.

BUCK CHEEVER, mountaineer and "moons.h.i.+ner" in Charles Egbert Craddock's _In the Stranger People's Country_.

He had been a brave soldier, although the flavor of bushwhacking clung to his war record; he was a fast friend and a generous foe; what one hand got by hook or by crook--chiefly, it is to be feared, by crook--the other made haste to give away (1890).

BUCK FANSHAWE, a popular Californian in the days when Lynch Law was in vogue in mining districts. He dies, and his partner seeks a clergyman to arrange for the funeral, which "the fellows" have determined shall be the finest ever held in the region. The divine questions in his professional vein and the miner answers in _his_, each sorely puzzled to interpret the meaning of his companion.

"Was he a--ah--peaceable man?"

"Peaceable! he jest _would_ have peace, ef he had to lick every darned galoot in the valley to git it."--Mark Twain, _Buck Fanshawe's Funeral_, (1872).

BUCK GRANGERFORD, a spirited son of the Grangerford clan, who pays with his life for fealty to family and feud.--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens], _Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_ (1885).

BUCK'ET (_Mr._), a shrewd detective officer who cleverly discovers that Hortense, the French maid-servant of lady Dedlock, was the murderer of Mr. Tulkinghorn, and not lady Dedlock, who was charged with the deed by Hortense.--C. d.i.c.kens, _Bleak House_ (1853).

BUCKINGHAM (_George Villiers, duke of_). There were two dukes of this name, father and son, both notorious for their profligacy and political unscrupulousness. The first (1592-1628) was the favorite of James I., nicknamed "Steenie" by that monarch from his personal beauty, "Steenie" being a pet corruption of Stephen, whose face at martyrdom was "as the face of an angel." He was a.s.sa.s.sinated by Fenton. Sir Walter Scott introduces him in _The Fortunes of Nigel_, and his son in _Peveril of the Peak_. The son (1627-1688) also appears under the name of "Zimri" (q.v.) in Dryden's _Absalom and Achitophel_.

He was the author of _The Rehearsal_, a drama upon which Sheridan founded his _Critic_, and of other works, but is princ.i.p.ally remembered as the profligate favorite of Charles II. He was a member of the famous "CABAL" (q.v.), and closed a career of great splendor and wickedness in the most abject poverty.

_Buckingham_ (_Henry de Stafford, duke of_) was a favorite of Richard III. and a partic.i.p.ator in his crimes, but revolted against him, and was beheaded in 1483. This is the duke that Sackville met in the realms of Pluto, and whose "complaynt" is given in the prologue to _A Mirrour for Magistraytes_ (1587). He also appears in Shakespeare's _Richard III._ His son in _Henry VIII._