See The Life and Letters of Charles Loring Brace (New York, 1894), edited by his daughter, Emma Brace.
BRACE, JULIA (1806-1884), American blind deaf-mute, was born at Newington, Connecticut, on the 13th of June 1806. In her fifth year she became blind and deaf, and lost the power of speech. At the age of eighteen she entered the asylum for the deaf and dumb at Hartford. The study of blind deaf-mutes and their scientific training was then in its infancy; but she learnt to sew well, was neat in her dress, and had a good memory. Dr S.G. Howe’s experiments with her were interesting as leading to his success with Laura Bridgman. She died at Bloomington, Conn., on the 12th of August 1884.
BRACE (through the Fr. from the plural of the Lat. bracchium, the arm), a measure of length, being the distance between the extended arms. From the original meaning of “the two arms” comes that of something which secures, connects, tightens or strengthens, found in numerous uses of the word, as a carpenter’s tool with a crank handle and socket to hold a bit for boring; a beam of wood or metal used to strengthen any building or machine; the straps passing over the shoulders to support the trousers; the leathern thong which slides up and down the cord of a drum, and regulates the tension and the tone; a writing and printing sign ({) for uniting two or more lines of letterpress or music; a nautical term for a rope fastened to the yard for trimming the sails (cf. the corresponding French term bras de vergue). As meaning “a couple” or “pair” the term was first applied to dogs, probably from the leash by which they were coupled in coursing. In architecture “brace mould” is the term for two ressaunts or ogees united together like a brace in printing, sometimes with a small bead between them.
BRACEGIRDLE, ANNE (c. 1674-1748), English actress, is said to have been placed under the care of Thomas Betterton and his wife, and to have first appeared on the stage as the page in The Orphan at its first performance at Dorset Garden in 1680. She was Lucia in Shadwell’s Squire of Alsatia at the Theatre Royal in 1688, and played similar parts until, in 1693, as Araminta in The Old Bachelor, she made her first appearance in a comedy by Congreve, with whose works and life her name is most closely connected. In 1695 she went with Betterton and the other seceders to Lincoln’s Inn Fields, where, on its opening with Congreve’s Love for Love, she played Angelica. This part, and those of Belinda in Vanbrugh’s Provoked Wife, and Almira in Congreve’s Mourning Bride, were among her best impersonations, but she also played the heroines of some of Nicholas Rowe’s tragedies, and acted in the contemporary versions of Shakespeare’s plays. In 1705 she followed Betterton to the Haymarket, where she found a serious competitor in Mrs Oldfield, then first coming into public favour. The story runs that it was left for the audience to determine which was the better comedy actress, the test being the part of Mrs Brittle in Betterton’s Amorous Widow, which was played alternately by the two rivals on successive nights. When the popular vote was given in favour of Mrs Oldfield, Mrs Bracegirdle quitted the stage, making only one reappearance at Betterton’s benefit in 1709. Her private life was the subject of much discussion. Colley Cibber remarks that she had the merit of “not being unguarded in her private character,” while Macaulay does not hesitate to call her “a cold, vain and interested coquette, who perfectly understood how much the influence of her charms was increased by the fame of a severity which cost her nothing.” She was certainly the object of the adoration of many men, and she was the innocent cause of the killing of the actor William Mountfort (q.v.), whom Captain Hill and Lord Mohun regarded as a rival for her affections. During her lifetime she was suspected of being secretly married to Congreve, whose mistress she is also said to have been. He was at least always her intimate friend, and left her a legacy. Rightly or wrongly, her reputation for virtue was remarkably high, and Lord Halifax headed a subscription list of 800 guineas, presented to her as a tribute to her virtue. Her charity to the poor in Clare Market and around Drury Lane was conspicuous, “insomuch that she would not pass that neighbourhood without the thankful acclamations of people of all degrees.” She died in 1748, and was buried in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey.
See Genest, History of the Stage; Colley Gibber, Apology (edited by Bellchambers); Egerton, Life of Anne Oldfield; Downes, Roscius Anglicanus.
BRACELET, or Armlet, a personal ornament for the arm or wrist, made of different materials, according to the fashion of the age and the rank of the wearer. The word is the French bracelet, a diminutive of bracel, from brac(c)hiale, formed from the Latin bracchium, the arm, on which it was usually worn. By the Romans it was called armilla, brachiale, occabus; and in the middle ages bauga, armispatha.