Part 2 (1/2)

=Beaumont, Francis.= 1586-1615. Dramatist. Colleague of John Fletcher.

Their collected plays amount to 52, of which 14 were in part the work of B., but his separate authors.h.i.+p is not easy to trace. B. and F. in their day were more popular than Shakespeare, but none of their plays now keep the stage. Their blank verse is melodious and their wit and humor sparkling, but their plays reflect the full coa.r.s.eness of the time. Among plays written by them jointly are Philaster, Thierry and Theodoret, A King and No King, and the comedy of The Knight of the Burning Pestle. See Fletcher, John. _See Schlegel's Dramatic Lit., Hazlitt's Dramatic Lit. and Hallam's Lit. of Europe._ _Pub. Apl._

=Beaumont, Sir John.= 1582-1628. Bro. to F. B. Author Bosworth Field, a poem in heroic verse.

=Beckford, Wm.= 1760-1844. Author of Vathek, an Oriental romance.

Style luxuriant. _See Chambers' Cyc. Eng. Lit._

=Beddoes, Thos. Lovell.= 1803-1849. Poet. Author The Bride's Tragedy, Death's Jest-Book, etc. _See Ward's Eng. Poets, vol. 4._

=Bede, Cuthbert.= See Bradley, Edward.

=Bede, Beda, or Baeda, The Venerable.= 673-735. ”First among Eng.

scholars, first among Eng. theologians, first among Eng. historians.”

His whole life was pa.s.sed in the monastery of Yarrow, where he composed more than 40 Latin works, the greatest of which is the Eccl.

Hist. of the Eng. Nation. On the day of his death was finished his translation of St. John's Gospel into Eng., being the earliest example of Eng. prose. _See edition of Bede by Dr. Giles, 6 vols. 1843-4. See Green's Short Hist. of the Eng. People, also Green's Making of England._ _Pub. Dut._

=Behn= [b[)e]n], =Mrs. Aphra.= 1642-1689. Novelist and dramatist.

Known in her day as Astraea. Author of The Forced Marriage, Oronooko, etc. A lively, immoral writer. _See edition of 1871. See Miss Kavanagh's Eng. Women of Letters, and Ward's Eng. Poets, vol. 2._

=b.e.l.l.e.n.den, Wm.= fl. c. 1615. Scotch cla.s.sical writer. Author De Statu.

=Bentham, Jeremy.= 1748-1832. Philosopher and political economist.

Founder of the Utilitarian school of thought, and a valued authority upon jurisprudence. Many reforms in Eng. jurisprudence are traceable to his influence. _See edition of 1843 in 11 vols. See Edinburgh Rev.

Oct. 1843._

=Bentley, Richard.= 1662-1742. Cla.s.sical writer. Author Dissertations on the Epistles of Phalaris, works provoked by his famous controversy with Boyle, and which rank as masterpieces of argument. They display great learning, a rapid, concise style, and a sarcastic wit. _See Bentley, by R. C. Jebb, in Eng. Men of Letters._

=Berkeley, George.= 1684-1753. Bp. Cloyne. Irish metaphysician. An eccentric but pure-minded thinker, in whose Principles of Human Knowledge is denied the existence of matter. Other works of B. are Alciphron or the Minute Philosopher, Theory of Vision, Siris, etc.

Also the poem in which occurs the famous line, ”Westward the course of empire takes its way.” _See edition of Berkeley, by Fraser, 4 vols.

Oxford, 1871._

=Berners, Lord.= 1469-1532. Translator of Froissart's Chronicle. The translation is faithful and is a masterpiece of picturesque and spirited English.

=Berners, Juliana.= c. 1388-c. 1461. Author of the Bokys of Hunting and Hawking. _See Warton's Hist. Eng. Poetry._

=Besant, Walter.= 183 Novelist. Colleague of James Rice, and with him author of The Seamy Side, Ready Money Mortiboy, the Chaplain of the Fleet, Shepherds All and Maidens Fair, etc. Sole author of The Revolt of Man, Life of E. H. Palmer, etc. See Rice, James. _Pub. Har.

Rob. Dut._

=Beveridge, Wm.= 1638-1708. Bp. St. Asaph. Theologian. Thesaurus Theologicus, Expositions of the Catechism and 39 Articles, and Private Thoughts are some of his chief works.

=Bickerstaff, Isaac.= 1735-c. 1788. Dramatist. Author of Maid of the Mill, Love in a Village, etc. _See Hazlitt's Essays on the Comic Writers._

=Bickersteth, Edward.= 1786-1850. Religious writer. Author of The Scripture Help, etc. _See edition of his Works in 17 vols. 1853. See Memoir of, by T. R. Birks, 1851._

=Bickersteth, Edward Henry.= 182 Son to E. B. Religious Poet.

Author of Yesterday, To-Day and Forever, The Two Brothers, etc. _Pub.