_Belinda_, daughter of Mr. Blandford, in love with Beverley the brother of Clarissa. Her father promised sir William Bellmont that she should marry his son George, but George was already engaged to Clarissa. Belinda was very handsome, very independent, most irreproachable, and devotedly attached to Beverley. When he hinted suspicions of infidelity, she was too proud to deny their truth, but her pure and ardent love instantly rebuked her for giving her lover causeless pain.--A. Murphy, _All in the Wrong_ (1761). _Belin'da_, the heroine of Miss Edgeworth's novel of the same name. The object of the tale is to make the reader _feel_ what is good, and pursue it (1803). _Belin'da_, a lodging-house servant-girl, very poor, very dirty, very kind-hearted, and shrewd in observation. She married, and Mr. Middlewick the butter-man set her husband up in business in the butter line.--H. J. Byron, _Our Boys_ (1875). BELINE (2 _syl_.), second wife of Argan the _malade imaginaire_, and step-mother of Angelique, whom she hates. Beline pretends to love Argan devotedly, humors him in all his whims, calls him "mon fils," and makes him believe that if he were to die it would be the death of her. Toinette induces Argan to put these specious protestations to the test by pretending to be dead. He does so, and when Beline enters the room, instead of deploring her loss, she cries in ecstasy: "Le ciel en soit loué! Me voilà délivrée d'un pesant fardeau!... de quoi servait-il sur la terre? Un homme incommode à tout le monde, malpropre, dégoûtant ... mouchant, toussant, crachant toujours, sans esprit, ennuyeux, de manvaise humeur, fatiguant sans cesse les gens, et grondant jour et nuit servantes et valets."--(iii. 18). She then proceeds to ransack the room for bonds, leases, and money; but Argan starts up and tells her she has taught him one useful lesson for life at any rate.--Molière, _Le Malade Imaginaire_ (1673). BELISA'RIUS, the greatest of Justinian's generals. Being accused of treason, he was deprived of all his property, and his eyes were put out. In this state he retired to Constantinople, where he lived by begging. The story says he fastened a label to his hat, containing these words, "_Give an obolus to poor old Belisarius_." Marmontel has written a tale called _Belisaire_, which has helped to perpetuate these fables, originally invented by Tzetzês or Caesios, a Greek poet, born at Constantinople in 1120. BÉLISE (2 _syl_.), sister of Philaminte (3 _syl_.), and, like her, a _femme savante_. She imagines that every one is in love with her.--Molière, _Les Femmes Savantes_ (1672).