Chapter Brunenburg to Brutus and Cicero of B by Brewer's Readers Handbook

is arrested for a street row, and taken before the justice of the peace. Being asked his name, he gives it as “lady John Brute,” and is dismissed.

Lady Brute, wife of sir John. She is subjected to divers indignities, and insulted morn, noon, and night, by her surly, drunken husband. Lady Brute intrigues with Constant, a former lover; but her intrigues are more mischievous than vicious.—Vanbrugh: The Provoked Wife (1697),

The coarse pot-house valour of “sir John Brute” (Garrick’s famous part) is well contrasted with the fine- lady airs and affectation of his wife. [Surely this must be an error. It applies to “lady Fanciful,” but not to “lady Brute.”]—R. Chambers: English Literature, i. 598.

Brute Green-Shield, the successor of Ebranc king of Britain. The mythical line is: (1) Brute, great-great- gr andson of Æneas; (2) Locrin, his son; (3) Guendolen, the widow of Locrin; (4) Ebranc; (5) Brute Green-Shield. Then follow in order Leil, Hudibras, Bladud, Leir [Shakespeare’s “Lear”], etc.

…of her courageous kings, Brute Green-Shield, to whose name we providence impute
Divinely to revive the land’s first conqueror, Brute.
   —Drayton: Polyolbion, viii. (1612).

Brute’s City, London, called Troynovant or Trinovant (New Troy).

The goodly Thames near which Brute’s city stands,
   —Drayton: Polyolbion, xvi. (1613).

(Of course Trinovant is so called from the Trinovantês, or Trinobantês, a Celtic tribe settled in Essex and Middlesex when Cæsar invaded the island.)

Bruton Street (London), so called from Bruton, in Somersetshire, the seat of John lord Berkeley of Stratton.

Brutus (Lucius Funius), first consul of Rome, who condemned his own two sons to death for joining a conspiracy to restore Tarquin to the joining from which he had been banished. This subject was dramatized by N. Lee (1679) and John H. Payne, under the title of Brutus, or The Fall of Tarquin (1820). Alfieri, in 1783, wrote an Italian tragedy on the same subject. In French we have the tragedies of Arnault (1792) and Ponsard (1843). (See Lucretia.)

The elder Kean on one occasion consented to appear at the Glasgow Theatre for his son’s benefit. The play chosen was Payne’s Brutus, in which the father took the part of “Brutus” and Charles Kean that of “Titus.” The audience sat suffused in tears during the pathetic interview, till “Brutus” falls on the neck of “Titus,” exclaiming, in a burst of agony, “Embrace thy wretched father!” when the whole house broke forth into peals of approbation. Edmund Kean then whispered in his son’s ear, “Charlie, we are doing the trick.”—W. C. Russell: Representative Actors, 476.

Funius Brutus. So James Lynch Fitz-Stephen has been called, because (like the first consul of Rome) he condemned his own son to death for murder; and, to prevent a rescue, caused him to be executed from the window of his own house in Galway (1493).

The Spanish Brutus, Alfonso Perez de Guzman, governor of Tarifa in 1293. Here he was besieged by the infant don Juan, who had revolted against his brother, king Sancho IV.; and, having Guzman’s son in his power, threatened to kill him unless Tarifa was given up to him. Guzman replied, “Sooner than be guilty of such treason, I will lend Juan a dagger to slay my son;” and so saying tossed his dagger over the wall. Sad to say, Juan took the dagger, and assassinated the young man there and then (1258–1309).

Brutus (Marcus), said to be the son of Julius Cæsar by Servilia.

Brutus’ bastard hand
Stabb’d Jullus Cæsar.
   —Shakespeare: Henry VI. act iv. sc. 1 (1591).

This Brutus is introduced by Shakespeare in his tragedy of Julius Cæsar, and the poet endows him with every quality of a true patriot. He loved Cæsar much, but he loved Rome more.