Chapter Belford to Bells of B by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Belford to Bells

Belford, a friend of Lovelace. They made a covenant to pardon every sort of liberty which they took with each other.—Richardson: Clarissa Harlowe (1749).

Belford, in The Clandestine Marriage, by George Colman and Garrick (1760). Hazlitt says of this play, “it is nearly without a fault.”

Belford (Major), the friend of colonel Tamper, and the plighted husband of Mdlle. Florival.—G. Colman the Elder: The Deuce is in Him (1762).

Belfry of Bruges (The), a poem by Longfellow. It begins thus—

In the market-place of Bruges stands the belfry old and brown, Thrice consumed and thrice rebuildèd, still it watches o’er the town.

Belge, the mother of seventeen sons. She applied to queen Mercilla for aid against Geryoneo, who had deprived her of all her offspring except five.—Spenser: Faërie Queene, v. 10 (1596).

“Belge” is Holland; the “seventeen sons” are the seventeen provinces which once belonged to her; “Geryoneo” is Philip II. of Spain; and “Mercilla” is queen Elizabeth.

Belgrade, the camp-suttler. So called because she commenced her career at the siege of Belgrade. Her dog’s name was Clumsey.

Belial, last or lowest in the hierarchy of hell. (See Rimmon.) Moloch was the fiercest of the infernal spirits, and Belial the most timorous and slothful. The lewd and profligate, disobedient and rebellious, are called in Scripture “sons of Belial.”

Belial came last, than whom a spirit more lewd
Fell not from heaven, or more gross to love
Vice for itself (i. 490, etc.) … though his tongue
Dropt manna, and could make the worse appear
The better reason … but to nobler deeds
Timorous and slothful.
   —Milton: Paradise Lost, ii. 112 (1665).

Belial means “the lawless one,” that is, one who puts no restraint on his evil propensities.

Belianis of Greece (Don), the hero of an old romance of chivalry on the model of Amadis de Gaul. It was one of the books in don Quixote’s library; but was not one of those burnt by the curé as pernicious and worthless.

“Don Belianis,” said the curé, “with its two, three, and four parts, hath need of a dose of rhubarb to purge off that mass of bile with which he is inflamed. His Castle of Fame and other impertinences should be totally obliterated. This done, we would show him lenity in proportion as we found him capable of reform. Take don Belianis home with you, and keep him in close confinement.”—Cervantes: Don Quixote, I. i. 6 (1605).

(An English abridgment of this romance was published in 1673.)

BELINDA, niece and companion of lady John Brute. Young, pretty, full of fun, and possessed of £10,000. Heartfree married her.—Vanbrugh: The Provoked Wife (1697).

Belinda, the heroine of Pope’s Rape of the Lock. This mock heroic is founded on the following incident: Lord Petre cut a lock of hair from the head of Miss Arabella Fermor, and the young lady resented the liberty as an unpardonable affront. The poet says Belinda wore on her neck two curls, one of which the baron cut off with a pair of scissors borrowed of Clarissa; and when Belinda demanded that it should be delivered up, it had flown to the skies and become a meteor there. (See Berenice, p. 112.)

Belinda, daughter of Mr. Blandford, in love with Beverley the brother of Clarissa. Her father promised sir William Bellmont that she should marry his son George, but George was already engaged to Clarissa.