BELISARIUS 
 
 
not one of those burnt by the cur6 as per- 
nicious and worthless. 
  "Don Belianis," said the cur6, "with its two, 
three, and four parts, hath need of a dose of 
rhubarb to purge off that mass of bile with 
which he is inflamed. His Castle of Fame and 
other impertinences should be totally obliterated. 
This done, we would show him lenity in propor- 
tion as we found him capable of reform. Take 
don Belianis home with you, and keep him in 
close confinement."--Cervantes, Don Quixote, I. i. 
6 (1605). 
 
  Belinda, niece and companion of lady 
John Brute. Young, pretty, full of fun, 
and possessed of £10,000. Heartfree mar- 
ries her.-Vanbrugh, The Provoked Wife 
(1697). 
  Belin'da, the heroine of Pope's Rape of 
the Lock. This mock heroic is founded on 
the following incident :-Lord Petre cut a 
lock of haiv from the head of Miss Arabella 
Fermor, and the young lady resented the 
liberty as an unpardonable affront. The 
poet says Belinda wore on her neck two 
curls, one of which the baron cut off with 
a pair of scissors borrowed of Clarissa, and 
when Belinda angrily demanded that it 
should be delivered up, it had flown to the 
skies and become a meteor there. (See 
BEIRENICE.) 
  Belinda, daughter of Mr. Blandford, in 
love with Beverley the brother of Clarissa. 
Her father promised sir William Bellmont 
that she should marry his son George, but 
George was already engaged to Clarissa. 
Belinda was very handsome, very inde- 
pendent, most irreproachable, and devot- 
edly attached to Beverley. When he hinted 
suspicions of infidelity, she was too proud 
to deny their truth, but her pure and ar- 
dent love instantly rebuked her for giving 
her lover causeless pain.-A. Murphy, All 
in the Wronq (1761). 
  Belin'da, the heroine of Miss Edgeworth's 
 
 
novel of the same name. The object of the 
tale is to make the readerjeel what is good, 
and pursue it (1803). 
 
  Belin'da, a lodging-house servant-girl, 
very poor, very dirty, very kind-hearted, 
and shrewd in observation. She married, 
and Mr. Middlewick the butter-man set her 
husband up in business in the butter line. 
-H. J. Byron, Our Boys (1875). 
 
  Beline (2 syl.), second wife of Argan the 
malade imaginaire, and step-mother of An- 
gelique, whom she hates. Beline pretends 
to love Argan devotedly, humors him in 
all his whims, calls him "mon fils," and 
makes him believe that if he were to die it 
would be the death of her. Toinette in- 
duces Argan to put these specious protes- 
tations to the test by pretending to be dead. 
He does so, and when Beline enters the 
room, instead of deploring her loss, she 
cries in ecstasy: 
  "Le ciel en soit lou6! Me violh d~livr~e d'un 
grande fardeau! . . . de quoi servait-il sur la 
terre? Un homme incommode h tout le monde, 
malpropre, d~gofitant . . . mouchant, toussant, 
crachant toujours, sans esprit, ennuyeux, de 
mauvaise humeur, fatiguant sans cesse les gens, 
et grondant jour et nuit servantes et valets."- 
(iii. 18). 
She then proceeds to ransack the room 
for bonds, leases, and money; but Argan 
starts up and tells her she has taught him 
one useful lesson for life at any rate.-Mo- 
li~re, La Malade Imaginaire (1673). 
 
  Belisa'rius, the greatest of Justinian's 
generals. Being accused of treason, he 
was deprived of all his property, and his 
eyes were put out. In this state he retired 
to Constantinople, where he lived by beg- 
ging. The story says he fastened a label 
to his hat, containing these words, "Give 
an ob~us to poor old Belisarius."  Marmon- 
tel has written a tale called Belisaire, which 
 
 
BELIANIS 
 
 
115