Chapter Balaam to Balisarda of B by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Balaam to Balisarda

Balaam, the earl of Huntingdon, one of the rebels in the army of the duke of Mommouth.

And therefore, in the name of dulness, be
The well-hung Balaam.
   —Dryden: Absalom and Achitophel, pt.i.ll.573, 574.

Balaam, a “citizen of sober fame,” who lived near the monument of London. While poor he was “religious, punctual, and frugal;” but when he became rich and got knighted, he seldom went to church, became a courtier, “took a bribe from France,” and was hung for treason.—Pope: Moral Essays, iii.

Balaam’s Ass. (See ARION, p.59.)

Balaclava, a corruption of bella chiare (“beautiful port”), so called by the Genoese, who raised the fortress, some portions of which still exist.

Balaclava Charge. (See Charge of the Light Brigade.)

Balafré (Le), alias Ludovic Lesly, an old archer of the Scottish Guard at Plessis les Tours, one of the castle palaces of Louis XI. Le Balafré is uncle to Quentin Durward.—Sir W. Scott: Quentin Durward (time, Edward IV.).

Henri, son of François second duke of Guise, was called Le Balafré (“the gashed”), from a frightful scar in the face from a sword-cut in the battle of Dormans (1575).

Balak, in the second part of Dryden and Tate’s Absalom and Achitophel (line 395, etc.), was meant for Dr. Burnet, author of the History of the Reformation. He exceedingly disliked Charles II. (“David”); but was made bishop of Salisbury by William III. in 1689. He died in 1715, in the seventy-second year of his age.

The Second Part of Absalom and Achitophel (by Tate) was published in the autumn of 1682.

Balâm, the ox on which the faithful feed in paradise. The fish is call Nûn, the lobes of whose liver will suffice for 70,000 men.

Balan, brother of Balyn or Balin le Savage (q.v.), two of the most valiant knights that the world ever produced.—Sir T. Malory: History of Prince Arthur, i.31 (1470).

Balan, “the bravest and strongest of all the gia nt race.” Amadis de Gaul rescued Gabrioletta from his hands.—Vasco de Lobeira: Amadis de Gaul, iv, 129 (fourteenth century).

Balance (Justice), the father of Sylvia, He had once been in the army, and as he had run the gauntlet himself, he could make excuses for the wild pranks of young men.—G. Farquhar: The Recruiting Officer (1704).

Baland of Spain, a man of gigantic strength, who called himself “Fierabras.”—Mediœval Romance.

Balchristie (Jenny), housekeeper to the laird of Dumbiedikes.—Sir W. Scott: Heart of Midlothian (time, George II.).

Balclutha, a town belonging to the Britons on the river Clyde. It fell into the hands of Comhal (Fingal’s father), and was burnt to the ground.

“I have seen the walls of Balclutha,” said Fingal, “but they were desolate. The fire had resounded in the halls: and the voice of the people is heard no more … The thistle shook there its lonely head: the moss whistled in the wind, and the fox looked out from the windows.”—Ossian: Carthon.

Baldassare , chief of the monastery of St. Jacopo di Compostella,—Donizetti: La Favorita (1842).