BASSIANUS 
 
 
Goths.-(?) Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus 
(1593). 
  Bassi'no (Count), the "perjured hus- 
band" of Aurelia, slain by Alonzo.-Mrs. 
Centlivre, The Perjured Husband (1700). 
 
  Bastard. Homer was probably a bas- 
tard. Virgil was certainly one. Neoptol'- 
emos was the bastard son of Achilles by 
DWidamia (5 syl.). Romulus and Remus, 
if they ever existed, were the love-sons of 
a vestal. Brutus the regicide was a bas- 
tard. Ulysses was probably so, Teucer 
certainly, and Darius gloried in the sur- 
name of Nothos. 
  Bastard (The), in English history is Will- 
iam I, natural son of Robert le Diable. 
His mother was a peasant girl of Falaise. 
 
  Bastard of Orldans, Jean Dunois, a 
natural son of Louis duc d'Orldans (brother 
of Charles VI.), and one of the most brill- 
iant soldiers France ever produced (1403- 
1468). Bdranger mentions him in his 
Charles Sept. 
  Bat (Dr.), naturalist in Cooper's Prairie, 
who mistakes his faithful ass at night for a 
monster described in his note-book as Yes- 
pertilio Horribilis Americanus (1827). 
 
  Bates (1 syl.), a soldier in the army of 
Henry V., under sir Thomas Erpingham. 
He is introduced with Court and Williams 
as sentinels before the English camp at 
Agincourt, and the king unknown comes 
to them during the watch, and holds with 
them a conversation respecting the im- 
pending battle.-Shakespeare, Henry V. 
act. iv. sc. 1 (1599). 
  Bates (Charley), generally called " Mas- 
ter Bates," one of Fagin's "pupils," train- 
ing to be a pickpocket. He is always 
laughing uproariously, and is almost equal 
 
 
in artifice and adroitness to "The Artful 
Dodger" himself.-C. Dickens, Oliver Twist 
(1837). 
  Bates (Frank), the friend of Whittle. A 
man of good plain sense, who tries to laugh 
the old beau out of his folly.-Garrick, The 
Irish Widow (1757). 
 
  Bath (King of), Richard Nash, generally 
called Beau Nash, master of the ceremo- 
nies for fifteen years in that fashionable 
city (1674-1761). 
  Bath (The Maid of), Miss Linley, a beau- 
tiful and accomplished singer, who married 
Richard B. Sheridan, the statesman and 
dramatist. 
  Bath (The Wife of), one of the pilgrims 
travelling from Southwark to Canterbury, 
in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. She tells 
her tale in turn, and chooses "Midas" for 
her subject (1388). 
 
  Bath'sheba, duchess of Portsmouth, a 
favorite court lady of Charles II. As Bath- 
sheba, the wife of Uri'ah, was criminally 
loved by David, so Louisa P. Keroual 
(duchess of Portsmouth) was criminally 
loved by Charles II. 
My father [Charles II.] whom with reverence I 
    name... 
Is grown in Bathsheba's embraces old. 
        Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel, ii. 
 
  Bathsheba Everdene, handsome heir- 
ess of an English farmstead, beloved by 
two honest men and one knave. She mar- 
ries the knave in haste, and repents it at 
leisure for years thereafter. Released by 
his death, she marries Gabriel Oak.- 
Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding 
Crowd (1874). 
 
  Battar (Al), i.e. the trenchant, one of Ma- 
homet's swords. 
 
 
105 
 
 
BATTAR