Benedick (ben´ē-dik).—Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare. A young lord of Padua who is gentleman, wit, and soldier. He was a pronounced bachelor, but after a courtship full of witty sayings and coquetry he marries the lovely Beatrice. From this gentleman comes the name Benedick or Benedict, applied to married men who were not going to marry.
Benengeli (ben-en-gē´lē), Cid Hamet.—Don Quixote, Cervantes. Supposed to be a writer of chronicles among the Moors and claimed as authority for the tales of adventure recorded by Cervantes. The name, Cid Hamet, has been often quoted by writers.
Ben Hur.—A novel by General Lew Wallace. Messala, the Roman playmate and young friend of Ben Hur, afterward became his remorseless enemy. Ambitious, hard, and cruel, when he came into power he made Ben Hur a galley slave, confiscated his property and imprisoned the mother and sister. Ben Hur escaped, returned later as a wealthy Roman, and entered in the famous chariot race against Messala, who had put up enormous sums in wagers. Messala recognized Ben Hur, and hoped to win the race and bring him to final ruin; but Messala himself was thrown and seriously injured. His cruelties were made known, and he was at last slain by his wife, Isas, the daughter of Balthasar.
Bennet, Mrs.—Amelie, Fielding. An improper character.
Benvolio (ben-vō´li-ō).—Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare. One of Romeo’s friends who would “quarrel with a man that had a hair more or a hair less in his beard than he had.” Mercutio says to him, “Thou hast quarreled with a man for coughing in the street.”
Beowulf (bā´ō-wulf).—The name of an Anglo-Saxon epic poem of the sixth century. It received its name from Beowulf, who delivered Hrothgar, King of Denmark, from the monster Grendel. This Grendel was half monster and half man, and night after night stole into the king’s palace, called Heorot, and slew sometimes as many as thirty of the sleepers at a time. Beowulf put himself at the head of a mixed band of warriors, went against the monster and slew it. This epic is very Ossianic in style, full of beauties, and most interesting.
Bertram (ber´tram).—Guy Mannering, Scott. The character was suggested by James Annesley, Esq., rightful heir of the earldom of Anglesey, of which he was dispossessed by his uncle Richard. He died in 1743. Bertram was also the name of the haughty and dissolute count, husband of Helena in Shakespeare’s comedy All’s Well That Ends Well.
Bianca (bi-an´kä).—(1) The youngest daughter of Baptista of Padua, as gentle and meek as her sister Katherine was violent and irritable. (2) The sweetheart, “almost” wife of Cassio, in Shakespeare’s Othello.
Biglow Papers, The.—A series of satirical poems, in the quaint Yankee dialect, ascribed to a certain Hosea Biglow, but really written by the American poet, James Russell Lowell.
Birch, Harvey.—The Spy, Cooper. The chief character of the novel.