Bel'field (Brothers). The elder brother is a squire in Cornwall, betrothed to Sophia (daughter of sir Benjamin Dove), who loves his younger brother Bob. The younger brother is driven to sea by the cruelty of the squire, but on his return renews his acquaintance with Sophia. He is informed of her unwilling betrothal to the elder brother, who is already married to Violetta, but parted from her. Violetta returns home in the same ship as Bob Belfield, becomes reconciled to her husband, and the younger brother marries Sophia.—Rich. Cumberland, The Brothers (1769).
Bel'ford, a friend of Lovelace (2 syl.). They made a covenant to pardon every sort of liberty which they took with each other.—Richardson, Clarissa Harlowe (1749).
Belford (Major), the friend of colonel Tamper, and the plighted hnsband of Mdlle. Florival.—G. Colman, sen., The Deuce is in Him (1762).
Belge (2 syl.), the mother of seventeen sons. She applied to queen Mercilla for aid against Geryon'eo, who had deprived her of all her offspring except five.—Spenser, Faëry Queen, v. 10 (1596).
"Beige" is Holland, the "seventeen sons" are the seventeen provinces which once belonged to her; "Geryoneo" is Philip II. of Spain; and "Mercilla" is queen Elizabeth.
Belial, sons of, in the Bible passim means the lewd and profligate. Milton has created the personality of Belial:
Belial came last; than whom a spirit more lewd
Fell not from Heaven, or more gross to love
Vice for itself. To him no temple stood