Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1: A Revised American Edition of the Reader's HandbookBrewer, Ebenezer Cobham
General
Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1: A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook
Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham
Allusions; Fiction -- Dictionaries; Literature -- Dictionaries
BOIS-GUILBERT (_Sir Brian de_), a preceptor of the Knights Templars.
Ivanhoe vanquishes him in a tournament. He offers insult to Rebecca,
and she threatens to cast herself from the battlements if he touches
her. "When the castle is set on fire by the sibyl, sir Brian carries
off Rebecca from the flames. The Grand-Master of the Knights Templars
charges Rebecca with sorcery, and she demands a trial by combat. Sir
Brian de Bois-Guilbert is appointed to sustain the charge against her,
and Ivanhoe is her champion. Sir Brian being found dead in the lists,
Rebecca is declared innocent."--Sir W. Scott, _Ivanhoe_ time, (Richard
I.).
BOISTERER, one of the seven attendants of Fortu´nio. His gift was
that he could overturn a windmill with his breath, and even wreck a
man-of-war.
Fortunio asked him what he was doing. "I
am blowing a little, sir," answered he, "to set
those mills at work." "But," said the knight,
"you seem too far off." "On the contrary," replied
the blower, "I am too near, for if I did not
restrain my breath I should blow the mills over,
and perhaps the hill too on which they stand."--Comtesse
D'Aunoy, _Fairy Tales_ ("Fortunio,"
1682).
BOLD BEAUCHAMP _[Beech´-am]_, a proverbial phrase similar to "an
Achilles," "a Hector," etc. The reference is to Thomas de Beauchamp,
earl of Warwick, who, with one squire and six archers, overthrew a
hundred armed men at Hogges, in Normandy, in 1346.
So had we still of ours, in France that famous were,
Warwick, of England then high-constable that was,
...So hardy, great, and strong,
That after of that name it to an adage grew,
If any man himself adventurous happed to shew,
"Bold Beauchamp" men him termed, if none so bold as he.
Drayton, _Polyolbion_, xviii. (1613).
BOLD STROKE FOR A HUSBAND, a comedy by Mrs. Cowley. There are two
plots: one a bold stroke to get the man of one's choice for a husband,
and the other a bold stroke to keep a husband. Olivia de Zuniga fixed
her heart on Julio de Messina, and refused or disgusted all suitors
till he came forward. Donna Victoria, in order to keep a husband,
disguised herself in man's apparel, assumed the name of Florio, and
made love as a man to her husband's mistress. She contrived by an
artifice to get back an estate which don Carlos had made over to his
mistress, and thus saved her husband from ruin (1782).
BOLD STROKE FOR A WIFE. Old Lovely at death left his daughter Anne
£30,000, but with this proviso, that she was to forfeit the money if
she married without the consent of her guardians. Now her guardians
were four in number, and their characters so widely different that
"they never agreed on any one thing." They were sir Philip Modelove,
an old beau; Mr. Periwinkle, a silly virtuoso; Mr. Tradelove, a broker
on 'Change; and Mr. Obadiah Prim, a hypocritical quaker. Colonel
Feignwell contrived to flatter all the guardians to the top of their
bent, and won the heiress.--Mrs. Centlivre (1717).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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