=Beaumont, Francis.= 1586-1615. Dramatist. Colleague of John Fletcher. Their collected plays amount to 52, of which 14 were in part the work of B., but his separate authorship is not easy to trace. B. and F. in their day were more popular than Shakespeare, but none of their plays now keep the stage. Their blank verse is melodious and their wit and humor sparkling, but their plays reflect the full coarseness of the time. Among plays written by them jointly are Philaster, Thierry and Theodoret, A King and No King, and the comedy of The Knight of the Burning Pestle. See Fletcher, John. _See Schlegel's Dramatic Lit., Hazlitt's Dramatic Lit. and Hallam's Lit. of Europe._ _Pub. Apl._ =Beaumont, Sir John.= 1582-1628. Bro. to F. B. Author Bosworth Field, a poem in heroic verse. =Beckford, Wm.= 1760-1844. Author of Vathek, an Oriental romance. Style luxuriant. _See Chambers' Cyc. Eng. Lit._ =Beddoes, Thos. Lovell.= 1803-1849. Poet. Author The Bride's Tragedy, Death's Jest-Book, etc. _See Ward's Eng. Poets, vol. 4._ =Bede, Cuthbert.= See Bradley, Edward. =Bede, Beda, or Bæda, The Venerable.= 673-735. "First among Eng. scholars, first among Eng. theologians, first among Eng. historians." His whole life was passed in the monastery of Yarrow, where he composed more than 40 Latin works, the greatest of which is the Eccl. Hist. of the Eng. Nation. On the day of his death was finished his translation of St. John's Gospel into Eng., being the earliest example of Eng. prose. _See edition of Bede by Dr. Giles, 6 vols. 1843-4. See Green's Short Hist. of the Eng. People, also Green's Making of England._ _Pub. Dut._ =Behn= [b[)e]n], =Mrs. Aphra.= 1642-1689. Novelist and dramatist. Known in her day as Astræa. Author of The Forced Marriage, Oronooko, etc. A lively, immoral writer. _See edition of 1871. See Miss Kavanagh's Eng. Women of Letters, and Ward's Eng. Poets, vol. 2._ =Bellenden, Wm.= fl. c. 1615. Scotch classical writer. Author De Statu. =Bentham, Jeremy.= 1748-1832. Philosopher and political economist. Founder of the Utilitarian school of thought, and a valued authority upon jurisprudence. Many reforms in Eng. jurisprudence are traceable to his influence. _See edition of 1843 in 11 vols. See Edinburgh Rev. Oct. 1843._ =Bentley, Richard.= 1662-1742. Classical writer. Author Dissertations on the Epistles of Phalaris, works provoked by his famous controversy with Boyle, and which rank as masterpieces of argument. They display great learning, a rapid, concise style, and a sarcastic wit. _See Bentley, by R. C. Jebb, in Eng. Men of Letters._ =Berkeley, George.= 1684-1753. Bp. Cloyne. Irish metaphysician. An eccentric but pure-minded thinker, in whose Principles of Human Knowledge is denied the existence of matter. Other works of B. are Alciphron or the Minute Philosopher, Theory of Vision, Siris, etc. Also the poem in which occurs the famous line, "Westward the course of empire takes its way." _See edition of Berkeley, by Fraser, 4 vols. Oxford, 1871._