Balthazar, servant to Romeo, in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (1597).

Balthazar, servant to don Pedro, in Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing (1600).

Balthazar, one of the three “kings” shown in Cologne Cathedral as one of the “Magi” led to Bethlehem by the guiding star.  The word means “lord of treasures.”  The names of the other two are Melchior ("king of light"), and Gaspar or Caspar ("the white one").  Klopstock, in The Messiah, makes six “Wise Men,” and none of the names are like these three.

Balthazar, father of Juliana, Volante, and Zamora.  A proud, peppery, and wealthy gentleman.  His daughter Juliana marries the duke of Aranza; his second daughter the count Montalban; and Zamora marries signor Rinaldo.—­J.  Tobin, The Honeymoon (1804).

BALUE (Cardinal), in the court of Louis XI. of France (1420-1491), introduced by sir W. Scott in Quentin Durward (time, Edward IV.).

BALUGANTES (4 syl.), leader of the men from Leon, in Spain, and in alliance with Agramant.—­Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516).

BALVENY (Lord), kinsman of the earl of Douglas.—­Sir W. Scott, Fair Maid of Perth (time, Henry IV.).

BALWHIDDER [Balwither], a Scotch presbyterian pastor, filled with all the old-fashioned national prejudices, but sincere, kind-hearted, and pious.  He is garrulous and loves his joke, but is quite ignorant of the world, being “in it but not of it.”—­Galt, Annals of the Parish (1821).

The Rev. Micah Balwhidder is a fine representation of the primitive Scottish pastor; diligent, blameless, loyal, and exemplary in his life, but without the fiery zeal and “kirk-filling eloquence” of the supporters of the Covenant.—­R.  Chambers, English Literature, ii. 591.

BALY, one of the ancient and gigantic kings of India, who founded the city called by his name.  He redressed wrongs, upheld justice, was generous and truthful, compassionate and charitable, so that at death he became one of the judges of hell.  His city in time got overwhelmed with the encroaching ocean, but its walls were not overthrown, nor were the rooms encumbered with the weeds and alluvial of the sea.  One day a dwarf, named Vamen, asked the mighty monarch to allow him to measure three of his own paces for a hut to dwell in.  Baly smiled, and bade him measure out what he required.  The first pace of the dwarf compassed the whole earth, the second the whole heavens, and the third the infernal regions.  Baly at once perceived that the dwarf was Vishnu, and adored the present deity.  Vishnu made the king “Governor of Padalon” or hell, and permitted him once a year to revisit the earth, on the first full moon of November.

  Baly built
  A city, like the cities of the gods,
  Being like a god himself.  For many an age
  Hath ocean warred against his palaces,
  Till overwhelmed they lie beneath the waves,
  Not overthrown.