Ali,"
etc.).

BEDWIN (_Mrs._), housekeeper to Mr. Brownlow. A kind, motherly soul,
who loves Oliver Twist most dearly.--C. Dickens, _Oliver Twist_
(1837).

BEE OF ATTICA, Soph'ocles the dramatist (B.C. 495-405). The "Athenian
Bee" was Plato the philosopher (B.C. 428-347).

The Bee of Attica rivalled AEschylus when in
the possession of the stage.--Sir W. Scott, _The
Drama._

BEEF'INGTON (_Milor_), introduced in _The Rovers._ Casimir is a Polish
emigrant, and Beefington an English nobleman exiled by the tyranny of
king John.--_Anti-Jacobin._

"Will without power," said the sagacious Casimir,
to Milor Beefington, "is like children playing
at soldiers."--Macaulay.

BE'ELZELBUB (4 _syl_.), called "prince of the devils" (_Matt._ xii.
24), worshipped at Ekron, a city of the Philistines (2 _Kings_ i. 2),
and made by Milton second to Satan.

One next himself in power and next in crime--Beelzebub.

_Paradise Lost_, i. 80 (1665).

BEE'NIE (2 _syl_.), chambermaid at Old St. Ronan's inn, held by Meg
Dods.--Sir W. Scott, _St. Ronan's Well_ (time, George III.).

BEES (_Telling the_), a superstition still prevalent in some rural
districts that the bees must be told at once if a death occur in the
family, or every swarm will take flight. In Whittier's poem, _Telling
the Bees_, the lover coming to visit his mistress sees the small
servant draping the hives with black, and hears her chant:

"Stay at home, pretty bees, fly not hence,
Mistress Mary is dead and gone."

BEFA'NA, the good fairy of Italian children. She is supposed to fill
their shoes and socks with toys when they go to bed on Twelfth Night.
Some one enters the bedroom for the purpose, and the wakeful youngters
cry out, "_Ecco la Befana!_" According to legend, Befana was too busy
with house affairs to take heed of the Magi when they went to offer
their gifts, and said she would stop for their return; but they
returned by another way, and Befana every Twelfth Night watches to see
them. The name is a corruption of _Epiphania_.

BEG (_Callum_), page to Fergus M'Ivor, in _Waverley_, a novel by sir
W. Scott (time, George II.).

_Beg (Toshach)_, MacGillie Chattanach's second at the combat.--Sir W.
Scott, _Fair Maid of Perth_ (time, Henry IV.).

BEGGAR OF BETHNAL GREEN (_The_), a drama by S. Knowles (recast and
produced, 1834). Bess, daughter of Albert, "the blind beggar of
Bethnal Green," was intensely loved by Wilford, who first saw her
in