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40

BRIBE-BRITTLE.

Bribe. Formerly, to rob or steal. In Shakspeare

a buck and cygnets are 'bribed.'

Who saveth a thief when the rope is knet,

With some false turn the bribour will him quite.

LYDGATE.

Fox, in the first half of his political career, while Lord North was losing America, and in the latter half while Mr. Pitt was ruining Europe, the creatures of the government were eternally exposed to the attacks of this discerning, dauntless, and most powerful speaker. Folly and corruption never had a more terrible enemy in the English House of Commons-one whom it was so impossible to bribe, so hopeless to elude, and so difficult to answer.-SYDNEY SMITH.

Brief. A letter.

Hie, good Sir Michael, bear this sealed brief
With winged haste to the Lord Mareshal:
This to my cousin Scroop, and all the rest
To whom they are directed.

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How cold and dead a figure in comparison of these Greek orators does a man make at the British bar, holding his brief and stroking the sides of a long wig that reaches down to his middle. The truth is, there is nothing more ridiculous than the gestures of an English speaker. You see some of them running their hands into their pockets, others looking with great attention on a piece of paper that has nothing written on it.ADDISON.

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And when this letter was forth sent, anon,
And knew how brittle and how false he was,
She for despair fore-did herself alas !-CHAUCER.

BULK-BUSY.

Into the brittle port, where anchor hold doth fail.

SURREY.

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Aristocratic Wife. Upon her first coming into my family she turned off a parcel of very careful servants, and introduced in their stead a couple of Black-a-moors and three or four genteel fellows in laced liveries. Besides her Frenchwoman, she next set herself to reform every room in my house, planting every corner with such heaps of china that I am obliged to move with the greatest caution, for fear of hurting our brittle furniture.— Spectator.

Bulk.

Once synonymous with 'body.'

Long stood I in a dumpe,

My hart began to ake:

My liver leapt within my bulck,

My trembling hands did shake.-TURBERVILLE.

He raised a sigh so piteous and profound,

That it did seem to shatter all his bulk,

And end his being.-SHAKSPEARE, Hamlet, ii. 1.

His gait and walking was very upright and graceful, becoming his well shapen bulk.-Description of Fuller.

Statesmen of George III. It remains to be explained why the dialogue upon Monarchical and Republican Government should be omitted in the present publication after being announced in the advertisement. Besides the inconvenience of increasing its bulk, it would have given the book a controversial aspect.-Brougham.

Busy. Steady, careful: now used rather in the sense of being occupied.

The moon. That like as her desire

Is to be quick'd and lighted at your fire,

For which she followeth you so busily.-CHAUCER.

And he sent him into Bethleem, and said, go ye and axe ye bisily of the childe, and whan ye han founden tell ye it to me.— WICLIF'S Bible, Matthew ii.

Whilst my mind grows more independent of the world, the ideas of friendship return oftener--they busy me, they warm me

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more. Is it that we grow more tender as the moment of our great separation approaches, or is it that they who are to live together in another world begin to feel more strongly that divine sympathy which is to be the great band of their future society? There is no one thought that soothes my mind like this.— BOLINGBROKE to Swift.

Buxom. Formerly, yielding, obedient.

Verste

gan says that buxomness is 'pliableness or bowsomeness, to wit, humbling, stooping or bowing done in sign of obedience.' Afterwards, joyous, comely.

That unto him which the head is,

The members buxom shall bow.-GOWER, Prologue.

The nere this hill was on chance
To taken his deliverance;
The more unbuxomly he cried,
And every man was fled aside
For dreed, and left his owne hous,
And at the last-it was a mous!

Id., Confessio Amantis, Bk. vi.

That thee is sent receive in buxsommeness,
The wrastling of this world asketh a fall;
Here is no home, here is but wilderness.
Forth, pilgrim, forth, O best out of thy stall
Loke up on high, and thank thy God of all.

So buxsom and so virtuous is she
They mosten need live in unité.-Id.

CHAUCER.

And they with humble heart ful buxomely
Kneeling upon their knees ful reverently.

Id., The Clerk's Tale.

So wild a beast so tame ytaught to be,

And buxom to his bands is joy to see.-SPENSER.

He with broad sails

Winnowed the buxom air.-MILTON.

So buxom, blithe and debonair.-Id.

BY AND BY.

The crew with merry shouts their anchors weigh,
Then ply the oars, and brush the buxom sea,
While troops of gather'd Rhodians crowd the quay.

Sturdy swains

In clean array for rustic dance prepare,

Mix't with the buxom damsels hand in hand.

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DRYDEN.

AMBROSE PHILIPS.

The first I encountered were a parcel of buxom bonny dames, that were laughing, singing, dancing, and as merry as the day was long.-Tatler, No. 273.

Where buxom Ceres bade each fertile field

Spontaneous gifts in rich profusion yield.

FALCONER'S Shipwreck, c. 3.

By and by. Like anon, once 'immediately,' but gradually came to imply a more remote future.

So passed he the sea by barge

To Greece, there to say his charge,
The which he said readily

Unto the Lords by and by.-GOWER.

Withouten oar or pilot it to guide,

Only she turn'd a pin, and by and by

It cut away upon the yielding waves.-SPENSER.

Now a sensible man, by and by a fool, and presently a beast.-SHAKSPEARE, Othello, ii. 3.

For the life of man comes upon him slowly and insensibly, but as when the sun approaching towards the gates of the morning, he first opens a little eye of heaven and sends away the spirits of darkness and calls up the lark to mattins, and by and by he gilds the fringes of a cloud and peeps over the distant hills, thrusting out his golden horns like those which decked the brows of Moses; and still, while a man tells the story, the sun gets up higher, till he shows a full face and full light, under a cloud often, and sometimes weeping great and little showers, and sets quickly, so is a man's reason and his life.-J. TAYLOR.

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CALENDAR-CANDID.

C.

Calendar. Once used, as well as in its present sense, generally for 'a guide.'

That thou foregat her in thy song to set,

Syn that thou art so greatly in her debt,

And wost well that kalender is she

To any woman, that wol louer be.

CHAUCER, Prologue of Cleopatra.

The old year being dead and the new year coming of age, which he does by Calendar Law as soon as the breath is out of the old gentleman's body, nothing would serve the young spark but he must give a dinner on the occasion to which all the Days of the Year were invited. All the Days came to their days; covers were provided for 365 guests, with an occasional knife and fork for the 29th of February. Well, they all met at last, but old Lent and his family were not yet out of mourning, rainy Days came in dripping, and sun-shiny Days help'd them to change their stockings. Wedding Day was there in his marriage finery. Pay Day came late, as he always does, and Doom's Day sent word he might be expected.-C. LAMB.

Candid.

Formerly meant 'white,' generally of Candidate. a pure and dazzling colour. A candidatus was so called from wearing a robe of the purest white.

Titus Andronicus, the people of Rome,

Whose friend in justice thou hast ever been,
Send thee by me, their tribune and their trust,
This palliament of white and spotless hue;
And name thee in election for the Empire,
With those our late deceased Emperor's sons,
Be Candidatus then and put it on,

And help to set a head on headless Rome.

SHAKSPEARE, Titus Andronicus, i. 2.

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