Uniform ed. of Works (17 vols. 1888-90); Furnivall’s Browning Bibliography (1883), Lives by Mrs. Sutherland Orr (1891); Gosse (1890); Dowden (1904), G.K.  Chesterton (English Men of Letters), etc.; Poetry of Robert Browning by Stopford Brooke, 1902, etc.

SUMMARY.—­B. 1812, pub. Paracelsus 1835, Sordello 1840, Bells and Pomegranates 1841, m. to E.B.B. 1846, lives chiefly in Italy till her d., 1861, when he returned to England and continued to write until his d., pub. Dramatis Personae, Ring and Book 1868-9, Asolando 1889, d. 1889.

BRUCE, JAMES (1730-1794).—­Traveller, was b. at the family seat of Kinnaird, Perthshire, and ed. at Harrow.  After various travels in Europe he set out in 1768 on his expedition to Abyssinia, and in 1770 reached the source of the Blue Nile.  He returned to England in 1774, and in 1790 pub. his Travels in 5 quarto vols.  His notorious vanity, the singular adventures he related, and the generally embellished character which he imparted to his narrative excited some degree of scepticism, and he was subjected to a good deal of satire, to which, though much annoyed, he did not reply.  It is, however, generally allowed that he had shown great daring, perseverance, and zeal in his explorations, and that he made a real addition to the geographical knowledge of his day.

BRUCE, MICHAEL (1746-1767).—­Poet, s. of a poor weaver at Kinnesswood, Kinross-shire, as a child herded cattle, but received a good education, including 4 sessions at the Univ. of Edin., and for a short time kept a school.  His longest poem, Loch Leven, shows the influence of Thomson.  His best is his Elegy.  His promising career was cut short by consumption in 1767.  The authorship of the beautiful Ode to the Cuckoo beginning “Hail, beauteous stranger of the grove” is contested, some authorities claiming it for B. and others for the Rev. John Logan (q.v.), who ed.  B.’s works, adding some of his own, and who claimed the Ode as his.

BRUNTON, MARY (BALFOUR) (1778-1818).—­Novelist, dau. of Col.  Balfour of Elwick, and m. to the Rev. Dr. Brunton, Prof. of Oriental Languages in the Univ. of Edin., was the authoress of two novels, Self-Control (1811) and Discipline (1814), which were popular in their day.

BRYANT, JACOB (1715-1804).—­Scholar, ed. at Eton and Camb., wrote learnedly, but paradoxically, on mythological and Homeric subjects.  His chief works were A New System or Analysis of Ancient Mythology (1774-76), Observations on the Plain of Troy (1795), and Dissertation concerning the Wars of Troy (1796).  In the last two he endeavoured to show that the existence of Troy and the Greek expedition were fabulous.  Though so sceptical on these points he was an implicit believer in the authenticity of the Rowley authorship of Chatterton’s fabrications.  He also wrote on theological subjects.