BE’VIS, the horse of lord Marmion.—­Sir W. Scott, Marmion (1808).

Be’vis (Sir) of Southampton.  Having reproved his mother, while still a lad, for murdering his father, she employed Saber to kill him; but Saber only left him on a desert land as a waif, and he was brought up as a shepherd.  Hearing that his mother had married Mor’dure (2 syl.), the adulterer, he forced his way into the marriage hall and struck at Mordure; but Mordure slipped aside, and escaped the blow.  Bevis was now sent out of the country, and being sold to an Armenian, was presented to the king.  Jos’ian, the king’s daughter, fell in love with him; they were duly married, and Bevis was knighted.  Having slain the boar which made holes in the earth as big as that into which Curtius leapt, he was appointed general of the Armenian forces, subdued Brandamond of Damascus, and made Damascus tributary to Armenia.  Being sent, on a future occasion, as ambassador to Damascus, he was thrust into a prison, where were two huge serpents; these he slew, and then effected his escape.  His next encounter was with Ascupart the giant, whom he made his slave.  Lastly, he slew the great dragon of Colein, and then returned to England, where he was restored to his lands and titles.  The French call him Beuves de Hantone.—­M.  Drayton, Polyolbion, ii. (1612).

The Sword of Bevis of Southampton was Morglay, and his steed Ar’undel.  Both were given him by his wife Josian, daughter of the king of Armenia.

BEZA’LIEL, in the satire of Absalom and Achitophel, is meant for the marquis of Worcester, afterwards duke of Beaufort.  As Bezaliel, the famous artificer, “was filled with the Spirit of God to devise excellent works in every kind of workmanship,” so on the marquis of Worcester—­

  ... so largely Nature heaped her store,
  There scarce remained for arts to give him more.

  Dryden and Tate, part ii.

BEZO’NIAN, a beggar, a rustic. (Italian, bisognoso, “necessitous.”)

The ordinary tillers of the earth, such as we call husbandmen; in France, pesants; in Spane, besonyans; and generally cloutshoe.—­Markham, English Husbandman, 4.

BIAN’CA, the younger daughter of Baptista of Pad’ua, as gentle and meek as her sister Katherine was violent and irritable.  As it was not likely any one would marry Katherine “the shrew,” the father resolved that Bianca should not marry before her sister.  Petruchio married “the shrew,” and then Lucentio married Bianca.—­Shakespeare, Taming of the Shrew (1594).

Bianca, daughter of a noble family in “The Young Italian,” one of the Tales of a Traveller, by Washington Irving.  She is beloved passionately by the young Italian and betrothed to him.  In his absence Filippo, the false friend of her lover, weds her.  The betrayed friend on learning the truth kills Filippo, and is ever afterwards haunted by his dying face (1824).