Bes’sus a cowardly bragging captain, a sort of Bobadil or Vincent de la Rosa.  Captain Bessus, having received a challenge, wrote word back that he could not accept the honor for thirteen weeks, as he had already 212 duels on hand, but he was much grieved that he could not appoint an earlier day.—­Beaumont and Fletcher, King and No King (1619).

  Rochester I despise for want of wit. 
  So often does he aim, so seldom hit ... 
  Mean in each action, lewd in every limb,
  Manners themselves are mischievous in him ... 
  For what a Bessus has he always lived!

Dryden, Essay upon Satire.

BETH MARCH, the third and gentlest sister in Louisa M. Alcott’s novel “Little Women” (1868).

BETSEY, the wife in Will Carleton’s farm ballad, Betsey and I are Out.  In dictating to a lawyer the terms of separation, the farmer reminds himself of the many excellent points of the offending spouse, and how “she and I was happy before we quarrelled so.”

  And when she dies, I wish that she would be laid by me,
  And, lyin’ together in silence, perhaps we will agree;
  And, if ever we meet in heaven I wouldn’t think it queer
  If we loved each other better because we quarrelled here.

  (1873.)

BETSEY BOBBET, the sentimental spinster who wears out the patience of Josiah Allen’s wife with poetry and opinions.

“She is fairly activ’ to make a runnin’ vine of herself....  It seems strange to me that them that preach up the doctrine of woman’s only spear don’t admire one who carries it out to its full extent.”—­Marietta Holley, My Opinions and Betsey Bobbet’s (1872).

BETTINA WARD, a Southern girl, poor and proud, in Constance Fenimore Woolson’s story of Rodman the Keeper.  “A little creature that fairly radiated scorn at thought of receiving charity from a Yankee” (1880).

BETTY DOXY, Captain Macheath says to her, “Do you drink as hard as ever?  You had better stick to good wholesome beer; for, in troth, Betty, strong waters will in time ruin your constitution.  You should leave those to your betters.”—­Gray, The Beggar’s Opera, ii. 1 (1727).

BETTY FOY, “the idiot mother of an idiot boy “—­W.  Wordsworth (1770-1850).

BETTY [HINT], servant in the family of sir Pertinax and lady McSycophant.  She is a sly, prying tale-bearer, who hates Constantia (the beloved of Egerton McSycophant), simply because every one else loves her.—­C.  Macklin, The Man of the World (1764).

BETTY LEICESTER, “vivacious, whole-souled girl of the period,” whose summer residence in a New England village introduces elements of fuller and sweeter life.  A home-missionary of the better sort.—­Sarah Orne Jewett, Betty Leicester (1889).

BEULAH, a poor girl taken from an orphan asylum and brought up in a family of refinement and education.  She develops strong traits of character and much intellectual ability.  Her long struggles through the mists of rationalism result in clear views of and high faith in revealed religion.  Her guardian, and long her teacher, loves her, and after years of waiting, wins her.