BELE’SES (3 syl.), a Chaldaean soothsayer and Assyrian satrap, who told Arba’ces (3 syl.) governor of Me’dia, that he would one day sit on the throne of Nineveh and Assyria.  His prophecy came true, and Beleses was rewarded with the government of Babylon.—­Byron, Sardanapalus (1819).

BEL’FIELD (Brothers). The elder brother is a squire in Cornwall, betrothed to Sophia (daughter of sir Benjamin Dove), who loves his younger brother Bob.  The younger brother is driven to sea by the cruelty of the squire, but on his return renews his acquaintance with Sophia.  He is informed of her unwilling betrothal to the elder brother, who is already married to Violetta, but parted from her.  Violetta returns home in the same ship as Bob Belfield, becomes reconciled to her husband, and the younger brother marries Sophia.—­Rich.  Cumberland, The Brothers (1769).

BEL’FORD, a friend of Lovelace (2 syl.).  They made a covenant to pardon every sort of liberty which they took with each other.—­Richardson, Clarissa Harlowe (1749).

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

BELGE (2 syl.), the mother of seventeen sons.  She applied to queen Mercilla for aid against Geryon’eo, who had deprived her of all her offspring except five.—­Spenser, Faery Queen, v. 10 (1596).

[Illustration] “Beige” 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.

BELIAL, sons of, in the Bible passim means the lewd and profligate.  Milton has created the personality of Belial: 

  Belial came last; than whom a spirit more lewd
  Fell not from Heaven, or more gross to love
  Vice for itself.  To him no temple stood
  Or altar smoked; yet who more oft than he
  In temples, and at altars, when the priest
  Tarns atheist, as did Eli’s sons, who filled
  With lust and violence the house of God? 
  In courts and palaces he also reigns,
  And in luxurious cities, where the noise
  Of riot ascends above their loftiest towers
  And injury and outrage; and when night
  Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons
  Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine.

Milton, Paradise Lost, i. 490

  On the other side up rose
  Belial, in act more graceful and humane;
  A fairer person lost not Heaven; he seemed
  For dignity composed, and high exploit. 
  But all was false and hollow; though his tongue. 
  Dropt manna, and could make the worse appear
  The better reason, to perplex and dash
  Maturest counsels; for his thoughts were low
  To vice industrious, but to nobler deeds
  Timorous and slothful.

Milton, Paradise Lost, ii. 108.