Yon are the beautiful Bertha the Spinner, the queen of Helvetia; ... 
  Who as she rode on her palfrey o’er valley, and meadow, and mountain,
  Ever was spinning her thread from the distaff fixed to her saddle. 
  She was so thrifty and good that her name passed into a proverb.

  Longfellow, Courtship of Miles Standish, viii.

Bertha, alias AGATHA, the betrothed of Hereward (3 syl.), one of the emperor’s Varangian guards.  The novel concludes with Hereward enlisting under the banner of count Robert, and marrying Bertha.—­Sir W. Scott, Count Robert of Paris (time, Rufus).

Ber’tha, the betrothed of John of Leyden.  When she went with her mother to ask count Oberthal’s permission to marry, the count resolved to make his pretty vassal his mistress, and confined her in his castle.  She made her escape and went to Munster, intending to set fire to the palace of “the prophet,” who, she thought, had caused the death of her lover.  Being seized and brought before the prophet, she recognized in him her lover, and exclaiming, “I loved thee once, but now my love is turned to hate,” stabbed herself and died.—­Meyerbeer, Le Prophete (an opera, 1849).

BERTHA AMORY, wife of Richard Amory and used by him in political intrigues, in Through One Administration, by Francis Hodgson Burnett.  Secretly, and against her will, in love with Trevannion, an army officer whom she has known from childhood (1883).

BERTHE AN GRAND-PIED, mother of Charlemagne, so called from a club-foot.

BERTIE CECIL, noble young Englishman who assumes his brother’s crime to save the family name, and exiles himself as a soldier in the French army of Algiers.  Eventually his fame is cleared and he returns to England as lord Royalieu.—­Ouida, Under Two Flags.

BERTIE THE LAMB, professional dude, with a heart yet softer than his head, in The Henrietta, a play of New York life, by Bronson Howard.  Stuart Robson’s impersonation of “Bertie” is without a flaw (1887).

BERTOLDE (3 syl.), the hero of a little jeu d’esprit in Italian prose by Julio Caesare Croce (2 syl.).  He is a comedian by profession, whom nothing astonishes.  He is as much at his ease with kings and queens as with those of his own rank.  Hence the phrase Imperturbable as Bertolde, meaning “never taken by surprise,” “never thrown off one’s guard,” “never disconcerted.”

BERTOLDO (Prince), a knight of Malta, and brother of Roberto king of the two Sicilies.  He was in love with Cami’ola “the maid of honor,” but could not marry without a dispensation from the pope.  While matters were at this crisis, Bertoldo laid siege to Sienna, and was taken prisoner.  Camiola paid his ransom, but before he was released the duchess Aurelia requested him to be brought before her.  As soon as the duchess saw him, she fell in love with him, and offered him marriage, and Bertoldo, forgetful of Camiola, accepted the offer.  The betrothed then presented themselves before the king.  Here Camiola exposed the conduct of the knight; Roberto was indignant; Aurelia rejected her fiance with scorn; and Camiola took the veil.—­Massinger, The Maid of Honor (1637).