BERTULPHE (2 syl.), provost of Bruges, the son of a serf.  By his genius and energy he became the richest, most honored, and most powerful man in Bruges.  His arm was strong in fight, his wisdom swayed the council, his step was proud, and his eye untamed.  He had one child, most dearly beloved, the bride of sir Bouchard, a knight of noble descent.  Charles “the Good,” earl of Flanders, made a law (1127) that whoever married a serf should become a serf, and that serfs were serfs till manumission.  By these absurd decrees Bertulphe the provost, his daughter Constance, and his knightly son-in-law were all serfs.  The result was that the provost slew the earl and then himself, his daughter went mad and died, and Bouchard was slain in fight.—­S.  Knowles, The Provost of Bruges (1836).

BER’WINE (2 syl.), the favorite attendant of lady Er’mengarde (3 syl.) of Baldringham, great-aunt of lady Eveline “the betrothed.”—­Sir W. Scott, The Betrothed (time, Henry II.).

BER’YL MOL’OZANE (3 syl.), the lady-love of George Geith.  All beauty, love, and sunshine.  She has a heart for every one, is ready to help every one, and is by every one beloved, yet her lot is most painfully unhappy, and ends in an early death.—­F.G.  Trafford [J.H.  Riddell], George Geith.

BESO’NIAN (A), a scoundrel.  From the Italian, bisognoso, “a needy person, a beggar.”

Proud lords do tumble from the towers of their high descents; and be trod under feet of every inferior besonian.—­Thomas Nash, Pierce Pennylesse, His Supplication, etc. (1592).

BESS (Good queen), Elizabeth (1533, 1558-1603).

Bess, the daughter of the “blind beggar of Bethnal Green,” a lady by birth, a sylph for beauty, an angel for constancy and sweetness.  She was loved to distraction by Wilford, and it turned out that he was the son of lord Woodville, and Bess the daughter of lord Woodville’s brother; so they were cousins.  Queen Elizabeth sanctioned their nuptials, and took them under her own especial conduct.—­S.  Knowles, The Beggar of Bethnal Green (1834).

BESS O’ BEDLAM, a female lunatic vagrant, the male lunatic vagrant being called a Tom o’ Bedlam.

BESSUS, governor of Bactria, who seized Dari’us (after the battle of Arbe’la) and put him to death.  Arrian says, Alexander caused the nostrils of the regicide to be slit, and the tips of his ears to be cut off.  The offender being then sent to Ecbat’ana, in chains, was put to death.

  Lo!  Bessus, he that armde with murderer’s knyfe
  And traytrous hart agaynst his royal king,
  With bluddy hands bereft his master’s life. 
  What booted him his false usurped raygne. 
  When like a wretche led in an iron chayne,
  He was presented by his chiefest friende
  Unto the foes of him whom he had slayne?

  T. Sackville, A Mirrour for Magistraytes
  ("The Complaynt,” 1587).