The king, coming up, cuts down the boots, and Bombastês "kills him." Fusbos, seeing the king fallen, "kills" the general; but at the close of the farce the dead men rise one by one, and join the dance, promising, if the audience likes, "to die again to-morrow."—W. B. Rhodes, Bombastes Furioso.
This farce is a travesty of Orlando Furioso, and "Distaffina" is Angelica, beloved by Orlando, whom she flouted for Medoro, a young Moor. On this Orlando went mad, and hung up his armor on a tree, with this distich attached thereto:
Orlando's arms let none displace,
But such who'll meet him face to face.
In the Rehearsal, by the duke of Buckingham, Bayes' troops are killed, every man of them, by Drawcansir, but revive, and "go off on their legs."
See the translation of Don Quixote, by C. H. Wilmot, Esq., ii. 363 (1764).
Bombastes Furioso (The French), capitaine Fracasse.—Théophile Gautier.
Bombas'tus, the family name of Paracelsus. He is said to have kept a small devil prisoner in the pommel of his sword.
Bombastus kept a devil's bird