[Browne, Robert], founder of the Brownists, born in Rutland; the first seceder from the Church of England, and the first to found a Church of his own on Congregational principles, which he did at Norwich, though his project of secession proved a failure, and he returned to the English Church; died in jail at Northampton, where he was imprisoned for assaulting a constable; he may be accounted the father of the Congregational body in England (1540-1630).
[Browne, Sir Thomas], physician and religious thinker, born in London; resided at Norwich for nearly half a century, and died there; was knighted by Charles II.; "was," Professor Saintsbury says, "the greatest prose writer perhaps, when all things are taken together, in the whole range of English"; his principal works are "Religio Medici," "Inquiries into Vulgar Errors," and "Hydriotaphia, or Urn-Burial, a Discourse of the Sepulchral Urns found in Norfolk"; "all of the very first importance in English literature,..." adds the professor, "the 'Religio Medici' the greatest favourite, and a sort of key to the others;" "a man," says Coleridge, "rich in various knowledge, exuberant in conceptions and conceits, contemplative, imaginative, often truly great, and magnificent in his style and diction.... He is a quiet and sublime enthusiast, with a strong tinge of the fantastic. He meditated much on death and the hereafter, and on the former in its relation to, or leading on to, the latter" (1605-1682).
[Browne William], English pastoral poet, born at Tavistock; author of "Britannia's Pastorals" and "The Shepherd's Pipe," a collection of eclogues and "The Inner Temple and Masque," on the story of Ulysses and Circe, with some opening exquisitely beautiful verses, "Steer hither, steer," among them; was an imitator of Spenser, and a parallel has been instituted between him and Keats (1590-1645).
[Brownie], a good-natured household elf, believed in Scotland to render obliging services to good housewives, and his presence an evidence that the internal economies were approved of, as he favoured good husbandry, and was partial to houses where it was observed.
[Browning, Elizabeth Barrett], née Barrett, poetess, born at Carlton Hall, Durham; a woman of great natural abilities, which developed early; suffered from injury to her spine; went to Torquay for her health; witnessed the death by drowning of a brother, that gave her a shock the effect of which never left her; published in 1838 "The Seraphim," and in 1844 "The Cry of the Children"; fell in with and married Robert Browning in 1846, who immediately took her abroad, settling in Florence; wrote in 1850 "Sonnets from the Portuguese," in 1851 "Casa Guidi Windows," and in 1856 "Aurora Leigh," "a novel in verse," and in 1860 "Poems before Congress"; ranks high, if not highest, among the poetesses of England; she took an interest all through life in public affairs; her work is marked by musical diction, sensibility, knowledge, and imagination, which no poetess has rivalled (1806-1861).
[Browning, Robert], poet, one of the two greatest in the Victorian era, born in Camberwell; early given to write verses; prepared himself for his literary career by reading through Johnson's Dictionary; his first poem "[Pauline]" (q. v.) published in 1833, which was followed by "Paracelsus" in 1835, "Sordello" in 1840; after a time, in which he was not idle, appeared, with some of his "Dramatic Romances and Lyrics," in 1855 his "Men and Women," and in 1868 "[The Ring and the Book]" (q. v.), his longest poem, and more analytic than poetic; this was succeeded by a succession of others, finishing up with "Asolando," which appeared the day he died at Venice; was a poet of great subtlety, deep insight, creative power, and strong faith, of a genius and learning which there are few able to compass the length and breadth of; lies buried in Westminster Abbey; of Browning it has been said by Professor Saintsbury, "Timor mortis non conturbabat, 'the fear of death did not trouble him.' In the browner shades of age as well as in the spring of youth he sang, not like most poets, Love and Death, but Love and Life.... 'James Lee,' 'Rabbi Ben Ezra,' and 'Prospice' are among the greatest poems of the century." His creed was an optimism of the brightest, and his restful faith "it is all right with the world" (1812-1889).
[Brown-Séquard], physiologist, born in Mauritius, of American parentage; studied in Paris; practised in New York, and became a professor in the Collège de France; made a special study of the nervous system and nervous diseases, and published works on the subject; b. 1818.
[Bruant], a French architect, born in Paris; architect of the Invalides and the Salpétrière; d. 1697.
[Bruat], a French admiral, commanded the French fleet at the Crimea (1796-1885).
[Bruce], a family illustrious in Scottish history, descended from a Norman knight, Robert de Bruis, who came over with the Conqueror, and who acquired lands first in Northumberland and then in Annandale.