Character Sketches of Romance Volume I Part 56

_Buckingham_ (_Mary d.u.c.h.ess of_), introduced by sir W. Scott in _Peveril of the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

BUCKLAW (_The laird of_), afterwards laird of Girnington. His name was Frank Hayston. Lucy Ashton plights her troth to Edgar master of Ravenswood, and they exchange love-tokens at the Mermaid's Fountain; but her father, sir William Ashton, from pecuniary views, promises her in marriage to the laird of Bucklaw, and as she signs the articles Edgar suddenly appears at the castle. They return to each other their love-tokens, and Lucy is married to the laird; but on the wedding night the bridegroom is found dangerously wounded in the bridal chamber, and the bride hidden in the chimney-corner insane. Lucy dies in convulsions, but Bucklaw recovers and goes abroad.--Sir W. Scott, _The Bride of Lammermoor_ (time, William III.).

BUCKTHORNE, a conspicuous figure in _Tales of a Traveller_, by Was.h.i.+ngton Irving. He is gentleman student, dancing buffoon, lover, poet, and author by turns, and nothing long unless it be a royally good fellow (1824).

BUFFOON (_The Pulpit_). Hugh Peters is so called by Dugdale (1599-1660).

BUG JARGAL, a negro, pa.s.sionately in love with a white woman, but tempering the wildest pa.s.sion with the deepest respect.--Victor Hugo, _Bug Jargal_ (a novel).

BULBUL, an Oriental name for a nightingale. When, in _The Princess_ (by Tennyson), the prince, disguised as a woman, enters with his two friends (similarly disguised) into the college to which no man was admitted, he sings; and the princess, suspecting the fraud, says to him, "Not for thee, O bulbul, any rose of Gulistan shall burst her veil," i.e., "O singer, do not suppose that any woman will be taken in by such a flimsy deceit." The bulbul loved the rose, and Gulistan means the "garden of roses." The prince was the bulbul, the college was Gulistan, and the princess the rose sought.--Tennyson, _The Princess_, iv.

BULBUL-HE'ZAR, the talking bird, which was joined in singing by all the song-birds in the neighborhood. (See TALKING BIRD.)--_Arabian Nights_ ("The Two Sisters," the last story).

BULIS, mother of Egyp'ius of Thessaly. Egypius entertained a criminal love for Timandra, the mother of Neoph'ron, and Neophron was guilty of a similar pa.s.sion for Bulis. Jupiter changed Egypius and Neophron into vultures, Bulis into a duck, and Timandra into a sparrow-hawk.--_Cla.s.sic Mythology_.

BULL (_John_), the English nation personified, and hence any typical Englishman.

_Mrs. Bull_, queen Anne, "very apt to be choleric." On hearing that Philip Baboon (_Philippe duc d'Anjou_) was to succeed to lord Strutt's estates (_i.e. the Spanish throne_), she said to John Bull:

"You sot, you loiter about ale-houses and taverns, spend your time at billiards, ninepins, or puppet-shows, never minding me nor my numerous family. Don't you hear how lord Strutt [_the king of Spain_] has bespoke his liveries at Lewis Baboon's shop [_France_]?... Fie upon it!

Up, man!... I'll sell my s.h.i.+ft before I'll be so used."--Chap. iv.

_John Bull's Mother_, the Church of England.

_John Bull's Sister Peg_, the Scotch, in love with Jack (_Calvin_).

John had a sister, a poor girl that had been reared ... on oatmeal and water ... and lodged in a garret exposed to the north wind.... However, this usage ... gave her a hardy const.i.tution....

Peg had, indeed, some odd humors and comical antipathies,... she would faint at the sound of an organ, and yet dance and frisk at the noise of a bagpipe.--Dr. Arbuthnot, _History of John Bull_, ii. 2 (1712).

BULLAMY, porter of the "Anglo-Bengalee Disinterested Loan and Life Insurance Company." An imposing personage, whose dignity resided chiefly in the great expanse of his red waistcoat. Respectability and well-to-doedness were expressed in that garment.--C. d.i.c.kens, _Martin Chuzzlewit_ (1844).

BULLCALF (_Peter_), of the Green, who was p.r.i.c.ked for a recruit in the army of sir John Falstaff. He promised Bardolph "four Harry ten-s.h.i.+llings in French crowns" if he would stand his friend, and when sir John was informed thereof, he said to Bullcalf, "I will have none of you." Justice Shallow remonstrated, but Falstaff exclaimed, "Will you tell me, master Shallow, how to choose a man? Care I for the limb, the thews, the stature?... Give me the spirit, master Shallow."--Shakespeare, 2 _Henry IV_. act iii. sc. 2 (1598).

BULL-DOGS, the two servants of a university proctor, who follow him in his rounds to a.s.sist him in apprehending students who are violating the university statutes, such as appearing in the streets after dinner without cap and gown, etc.

BULLET-HEAD (_The Great_), George Cadoudal, leader of the Chouans (1769-1804).

BULL'SEGG (_Mr._), laird of Killancureit, a friend of the baron of Bradwardine.--Sir W. Scott, _Waverley_ (time, George II.).

BULMER (_Valentine_), t.i.tular earl of Etherington, married to Clara Mowbray.

_Mrs. Ann Bulmer_, mother of Valentine, married to the earl of Etherington during the life-time of his countess; hence his wife in bigamy.--Sir W. Scott, _St. Ronan's Well_ (time, George III.).

b.u.m'BLE, beadle of the workhouse where Oliver Twist was born and brought up. A stout, consequential, hard-hearted, fussy official, with mighty ideas of his own importance. This character has given to the language the word _b.u.mbledom_, the officious arrogance and b.u.mptious conceit of a parish authority or petty dignitary. After marriage the high-and-mighty beadle was sadly henpecked and reduced to a Jerry Sneak.--C. d.i.c.kens, _Oliver Twist_ (1837).

b.u.m'KINET, a shepherd. He proposes to Grub'binol that they should repair to a certain hut and sing "Gillian of Croydon," "Patient Grissel," "Cast away Care," "Over the Hills," and so on; but being told that Blouzelinda was dead, he sings a dirge, and Grubbinol joins him.

Thus wailed the louts in melancholy strain, Till bonny Susan sped across the plain; They seized the la.s.s in ap.r.o.n clean arrayed, And to the ale-house forced the willing maid; In ale and kisses they forgot their cares, And Susan Blouzelinda's loss repairs.

Gay, _Pastoral_, v. (1714).

(An imitation of Virgil's _Ecl_. v. "Daphnis.")

b.u.mPER (_Sir Harry_), a convivial friend of Charles Surface. He sings the popular song, beginning--

Here's to the maiden of bashful fifteen, Here's to the widow of fifty, etc.

Sheridan, _School for Scandal_ (1777).

b.u.mPPO (_Natty_), the Leather Stocking of Cooper's _Pioneers_; Hawk-Eye of _The Last of the Mohicans_; the Deer Slayer and the Pathfinder of the novels of those names; and the trapper of _The Prairie_, in which his death is recorded. A white man who has lived so long with Indians as to surpa.s.s them in skill and cunning, retains native n.o.bility of character, and in his countenance "an open honesty and total absence of guile" that inspires trust.

BUNCE (_Jack_), _alias_ Frederick Altamont, a _ci-devant_ actor, one of the crew of the pirate vessel.--Sir W. Scott, _The Pirate_ (time, William III.).

BUNCH (_Mother_), an alewife, mentioned by Dekker in his drama called _Satiromastix_ (1602). In 1604 was published _Pasquil's Jests, mixed with Mother Bunch's Merriments_.

There is a series of "Fairy Tales" called _Mother Bunch's Fairy Tales_.

_Bunch (Mother)_, the supposed possessor of a "cabinet broken open"

and revealing "rare secrets of Art and Nature," such as love-spells (1760).

BUN'CLE, messenger to the earl of Douglas.--Sir W. Scott, _Fair Maid of Perth_ (time, Henry IV.).

_Bun'cle (John)_, a prodigious hand at matrimony, divinity, a song, and a gla.s.s. He married seven wives, and lost all in the flower of their age. For two or three days after the death of a wife he was inconsolable, but soon became resigned to his loss, which he repaired by marrying again.--Thos. Amory, _The Life, etc., of John Buncle, Esq._

BUNDLE, the gardener, father of Wilelmi'na and friend of Tom Tug the waterman. He is a plain, honest man, but greatly in awe of his wife, who nags him from morning till night.

_Mrs. Bundle_, a vulgar Mrs. Malaprop, and a termagant. "Everything must be her way or there's no getting any peace." She greatly frequents the minor theatres, and acquires notions of sentimental romance.

BUN'GAY (_Friar_), one of the friars in a comedy by Robert Green, ent.i.tled _Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay_. Both the friars are conjurors, and the piece concludes with one of their pupils being carried off to the infernal regions on the back of one of friar Bacon's demons (1591).

_Bungay_, publisher in _History of Pendennis_, by W.M. Thackeray.

BUNGEY (_Friar_), personification of the charlatan of science in the fifteenth century.

[Ill.u.s.tration] In _The Last of the Barons_, by lord Lytton, friar Bungey is an historical character, and is said to have "raised mists and vapors," which befriended Edward IV, at the battle of Barnet.

BUNS'BY (_Captain John_ or _Jade_), owner of the _Cautious Clara_.

Captain Cuttle considered him "a philosopher, and quite an oracle."

Captain Bunsby had one "stationary and one revolving eye," a very red face, and was extremely taciturn. The captain was entrapped by Mrs.

MacStinger (the termagant landlady of his friend captain Cuttle) into marrying her.--C. d.i.c.kens, _Dombey and Son_ (1846).

BUNTING, the pied piper of Ham'elin. He was so called from his dress.

BUR (_John_), the servant of Job Thornberry, the brazier of Penzance.

Brusque in his manners, but most devotedly attached to his master, by whom he was taken from the workhouse. John Bur kept his master's "books" for twenty-two years with the utmost fidelity.--G.R. Colman, Jun., _John Bull_ (1805).

BUR'BON (_i.e. Henri IV. of France_). He is betrothed to Fordelis _(France)_, who has been enticed from him by Grantorto (_rebellion_).

Being a.s.sailed on all sides by a rabble rout, Fordelis is carried off by "h.e.l.l-rake hounds." The rabble batter Burbon's s.h.i.+eld (_protestantism_), and compel him to throw it away. Sir Ar'tegal (_right_ or _justice_) rescues the "recreant knight" from the mob, but blames him for his unknightly folly in throwing away his s.h.i.+eld (of faith). Talus (_the executive_) beats off the h.e.l.lhounds, gets possession of the lady, and though she flouts Burbon, he catches her up upon his steed and rides off with her.--Spenser, _Faery Queen_, v.

2 (1596).