BRADLEY, EDWARD (1827-1889).—­Novelist, was a clergyman.  He wrote under the name of “Cuthbert Bede” a few novels and tales, Fairy Fables (1858), Glencraggan (1861), Fotheringhay (1885), etc.; but his most popular book was Verdant Green, an Oxford Freshman, which had great vogue.

BRADWARDINE, THOMAS (1290?-1349).—­Theologian, was at Oxf., where he became Prof. of Divinity and Chancellor, and afterwards Chaplain to Edward III., whom he attended in his French wars.  He was twice elected Archbishop of Canterbury by the monks, and on the second occasion accepted, but d. of the plague within 40 days.  He wrote on geometry, but his great work was De Causa Dei (on the Cause of God against Pelagius), in which he treated theology mathematically, and which earned for him from the Pope the title of the Profound Doctor.

BRAITHWAITE, or BRATHWAITE, RICHARD (1588-1673).—­Poet, b. near Kendal, and ed. at Oxf., is believed to have served with the Royalist army in the Civil War.  He was the author of many works of very unequal merit, of which the best known is Drunken Barnaby’s Four Journeys, which records his pilgrimages through England in rhymed Latin (said by Southey to be the best of modern times), and doggerel English verse. The English Gentleman (1631) and English Gentlewoman are in a much more decorous strain.  Other works are The Golden Fleece (1611) (poems), The Poet’s Willow, A Strappado for the Devil (a satire), and Art Asleepe, Husband?

BRAMSTON, JAMES (c. 1694-1744).—­Satirist, ed. at Westminster School and Oxf., took orders and was latterly Vicar of Hastings.  His poems are The Art of Politics (1729), in imitation of Horace, and The Man of Taste (1733), in imitation of Pope.  He also parodied Phillips’s Splendid Shilling in The Crooked Sixpence.  His verses have some liveliness.

BRAY, ANNA ELIZA (1790-1883).—­Novelist, dau. of Mr. J. Kempe, was married first to C.A.  Stothard, s. of the famous R.A., and himself an artist, and secondly to the Rev. E.A.  Bray.  She wrote about a dozen novels, chiefly historical, and The Borders of the Tamar and Tavy (1836), an account of the traditions and superstitions of the neighbourhood of Tavistock in the form of letters to Southey, of whom she was a great friend.  This is probably the most valuable of her writings.  Among her works are Branded, Good St. Louis and his Times, Trelawney, and White Hoods.

BRETON, NICHOLAS (1545-1626).—­Poet and novelist.  Little is known of his life.  He was the s. of William B., a London merchant, was perhaps at Oxf., and was a rather prolific author of considerable versatility and gift.  Among his poetical works are A Floorish upon Fancie, Pasquil’s Mad-cappe (1626), The Soul’s Heavenly Exercise, and The Passionate Shepherd.