BIG'OT (_De_), seneschal of prince John.--Sir W. Scott, _Ivanhoe_
(time, Richard I.).

_Big'ot_, in C. Lamb's _Essays_, is John Fenwick, editor of the
_Albion_ newspaper.

BIL'DAI (2 _syl_.), a seraph and the tutelar guardian of Matthew
the apostle, the son of wealthy parents and brought up in great
luxury.--Klopstock, _The Messiah_, iii. (1748).

BILLINGS (_Josh_). A.W. Shaw so signs _His Book of Sayings_ (1866).

Ef a man hezn't a well-balanced mind I _du_ admire to see him part his
hair in the middle.

Ef thar iz wun sayin' trewer than anuther it is that the devil iz
allwaies ready fur kumpany.

_Josh Billings's Alminax_ (1870).

BILLINGSGATE (3 _syl_.). Beling was a friend of "Brennus" the Gaul,
who owned a wharf called Beling's-gate. Geoffrey of Momnouth derives
the word from Belin, a mythical king of the ancient Britons, who
"built a gate there," B.C. 400 (1142).

BILLY BARLOW, a merry Andrew, so-called from a semi-idiot, who fancied
himself "a great potentate." He was well known in the east of London,
and died in Whitechapel workhouse. Some of his sayings were really
witty, and some of his attitudes truly farcical.

BILLY BLACK, the conundrum-maker.--_The Hundred-pound Note_.

When Keeley was playing "Billy Black" at Chelmsford, he advanced to
the lights at the close of the piece, and said, "I've one more, and
this is a good un. Why is Chelmsford Theatre like a half-moon? D'ye
give it up? Because it is never full."--_Records of a Stage Veteran_.

BIMATER ("_two-mother_"). Bacchus was so called because at the death
of his mother during gestation, Jupiter put the foetus into his own
thigh for the rest of the time, when the infant Bacchus was duly
brought forth.

BIMBISTER (_Margery_), the old Ranzelman's spouse.--Sir W. Scott, _The
Pirate_ (time, William III.).

BIND'LOOSE (_John_), sheriff's clerk and banker at Marchthorn.--Sir W.
Scott, _St. Ronan's Well_ (time, George III.).

BINGEN (_Bishop of_), generally called bishop Hatto. The tale is that
during a famine, he invited the poor to his barn on a certain day,
under the plea of distributing corn to them; but when the barn was
crowded he locked the door and set fire to the building; for which
iniquity he was himself devoured by an army of mice or rats. His
castle is the Mouse-tower on the Rhine.

They almost devour me with kisses,
Their arms about me entwine,
Till I think of the bishop of Bingen,
In his Mouse-tower on the Rhine.