nd _White Hoods_.

BRETON, NICHOLAS (1545-1626).--Poet and novelist. Little is known of his
life. He was the _s._ of William B., a London merchant, was perhaps at
Oxf., and was a rather prolific author of considerable versatility and
gift. Among his poetical works are _A Floorish upon Fancie, Pasquil's
Mad-cappe_ (1626), _The Soul's Heavenly Exercise_, and _The Passionate
Shepherd_. In prose he wrote _Wit's Trenchmour_, _The Wil of Wit_ (1599),
_A Mad World, my Masters_, _Adventures of Two Excellent Princes_,
_Grimello's Fortunes_ (1604), _Strange News out of Divers Countries_
(1622), etc. His mother married E. Gascoigne, the poet (_q.v._). His
lyrics are pure and fresh, and his romances, though full of conceits, are
pleasant reading, remarkably free from grossness.

BREWSTER, SIR DAVID (1781-1868).--Man of science and writer, _b._ at
Jedburgh, originally intended to enter the Church, of which, after a
distinguished course at the Univ. of Edin., he became a licentiate.
Circumstances, however, led him to devote himself to science, of which he
was one of the most brilliant ornaments of his day, especially in the
department of optics, in which he made many discoveries. He maintained
his habits of investigation and composition to the very end of his long
life, during which he received almost every kind of honorary distinction
open to a man of science. He also made many important contributions to
literature, including a _Life of Newton_ (1831), _The Martyrs of Science_
(1841), _More Worlds than One_ (1854), and _Letters on Natural Magic_
addressed to Sir W. Scott, and he also edited, in addition to various
scientific journals, _The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia_ (1807-29). He likewise
held the offices successively of Principal of the United Coll. of St.
Salvator and St. Leonard, St. Andrews (1838), and of the Univ. of Edin.
(1859). He was knighted in 1831. Of high-strung and nervous temperament,
he was somewhat irritable in matters of controversy; but he was
repeatedly subjected to serious provocation. He was a man of highly
honourable and fervently religious character.

BROKE, or BROOKE, ARTHUR (_d._ 1563).--Translator, was the author of _The
Tragicall Historie of Romeus and Juliett_, from which Shakespeare
probably took the story of his _Romeo and Juliet_. Though indirectly
translated, through a French version, from the Italian of Bandello, it is
so much altered and amplified as almost to rank as an original work. The
on