King John
, act i. sc. 1 (1596).
(That is, "my boasting like Basilisco has made me a knight, good mother.")
Basilisk, supposed to kill with its gaze the person who looked on it. Thus Henry VI. says to Suffolk, "Come, basilisk, and kill the innocent gazer with thy sight."
Natus in ardente Lydiæ basiliscus arena,
Vulnerat aspectu, luminibusque nocet.
Mantuanus.
Basilius, a neighbor of Quiteria, whom he loved from childhood, but when grown up the father of the lady forbade him the house, and promised Quiteria in marriage to Camacho, the richest man of the vicinity. On their way to church they passed Basilius, who had fallen on his sword, and all thought he was at the point of death. He prayed Quiteria to marry him, "for his soul's peace," and as it was deemed a mere ceremony, they were married in due form. Up then started the wounded man, and showed that the stabbing was only a ruse, and the blood that of a sheep from the slaughter-house. Camacho gracefully accepted the defeat, and allowed the preparations for the general feast to proceed.
Basilius is strong and active, pitches the bar
admirably, wrestles with amazing dexterity, and