these slanderers and backbiters in the world, what doe they else but lance poison out of their black tongues, like hideous serpents. Holland's Pliny, XVII. I.

Backbiting, sb. (2 Cor. xii. 20; Wisd. i. 11). Slander,

detraction.

Of these tuo spices cometh bacbityng; and this synne of bakbytyng or detraccioun hath certein spices. Chaucer, Parson's Tale.

And many a worthy love is greved
Through backbitinge of false envie.
Gower, Conf. Am. 1. p. 175-

Backside, sb. (Ex. iii. 1; xxvi. 12; Rev. v. 1). The back part, the rear.

But what meane I to speake of the causes of my loue, which is as impossible to describe, as to measure the backside of heaven? Sidney, Arcadia, 66, 1. 47.

To the end that the points of their battell might the more easily bowe and enlarge themselues, to compasse in the Romaines on the backe side. North's Plutarch, Sylla, p. 508.

Used still as a provincialism. See 'Glossary of provincial words used in Herefordshire, and some of the adjoining counties,' by the late Sir G. C. Lewis.

Bakemeats, sb. (Gen. xl. 17). The margin renders literally, 'meat of Pharaoh, the work of a baker or cook.' Chaucer, in describing the Franklin's hospitality, says:

Withoute bake mete was never his hous

Of fleissch and fissch.

Prol. to C. Tales, 345.

And in The Parson's Tale he inveighs against the pride of the table, which consisted among other things in

Suche maner of bake metis and dische metis, brennyng of wilde fuyr, and peynted and castelid with papire.

It occurs in Shakespeare in the form 'baked meats:'

The funeral baked meats

Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.

Ham. I. 2.

Baken, pp. (Lev. ii. 4). Baked.

Band, sb. from (A.-S. bænd or bend). A bond, or cord; it is of frequent occurrence both in the Bible (Judg. XV. 14; 2 Kings xxiii. 33, &c.) and as a provincialism, literally meaning anything that binds; thus in Yorkshire, string or twine is called band.

By Abraham, I maie understande

The father of heaven that can founde

With his sonnes bloode to breake that bande,
That the devill had broughte us to.

Chester Play, I. p. 75.

For some in the daunce hir pincheth by the hande
Which gladly would see him stretched in a bande.

Barclay, Eclog. p. xxii.

But release me from my bands
With the help of your good hands.

Shakespeare, Tempest, epil.

Be thou a prey unto the house of York,
And die in bands for this unmanly deed.

Id. 3 Hen. VI. 1. 1.

The form 'band' for 'bond,' in the sense of an obligation, is common in Shakespeare.

Old John of Gaunt, time-honour'd Lancaster,
Hast thou, according to thy oath and band,
Brought hither Henry Hereford thy bold son.

Rich. II. I. I.

Band, sb. (Acts x. I; xxvii. 1, &c.). A body of soldiers. (It. banda; according to some from Med. Lat. bandus, a standard, banner); in the passage quoted, the Greek probably signifies 'a cohort.'

For amongst others, were the bandes which they called the Fimbrian bandes, men giuen ouer to selfe will, and very ill to be ruled by martiall discipline. North's Plutarch, Lucullus, p. 544.

A legion of the Romaines (as Vigetius reporteth) contained 6000. warriours or moe: which legion was deuided into tenne bandes. Stow, Annals, p. 14.

The word may however be connected with bind, G. binden; compare league from ligare.

Band, v. i. (Acts xxiii. 12). To combine.

The bishop and the duke of Gloucester's men,
Forbidden late to carry any weapon,
Have fill'd their pockets full of pebble-stones,
And banding themselves in contrary parts
Do pelt so fast at one another's pate

That many have their giddy brains knock'd out.

Shakespeare, 1 Hen. VI. III. I.

The etymology is uncertain. Mr Wedgwood is inclined to derive it from Sp. and It. banda, a side; hence 'to band' is to take sides in a faction. Bandy' is used in the same

sense.

Banquet, v.i. (Esth. vii. 1, &c.). The Hebrew in the first passage is literally 'to drink,' and 'banquet' was formerly applied not to feasting in general but to the dessert after dinner.

Bring in the banquet quickly; wine enough
Cleopatra's health to drink.

Shakespeare, Ant. and Cl. 1. 2. 'Feasts' and 'banquets' are distinguished in Macbeth,

III. 6:

Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights;
Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives.

And as verbs in 1 Hen. VI. 1. 6:

Dauphin, command the citizens make bonfires,

And feast and banquet in the open streets.

The word is derived from It. banchetto, the diminutive of banco, a bench.

Barbarian, sʊ. (1 Cor. xv. 11). A foreigner.

The word here used in the original is in all other passages of the N. T. rendered by 'barbarian' and is in every instance used in its strictly classical sense of foreigner, one who speaks a different language, without any idea of bar

barism in the modern sense necessarily attaching to it. This is curiously illustrated in the Translators' Preface to the A. V.

The Scythian counted the Athenian, whom he did not vnderstand, barbarous: so the Romane did the Syrian, and the Iew, (euen S. Hierome himselfe calleth the Hebrew tongue barbarous, helike because it was strange to so many) so the Emperour of Constantinople calleth the Latine tongue, barbarous, though Pope Nicolas do storme at it: so the Lewes long before Christ, called all other nations Lognazim, which is little better then barbarous.

Barbarous people, sb. (Acts xxviii. 2). Barbarians, foreigners.

Then he returned from the chase, and found the Macedonians sacking and spoiling all the rest of the campe of the barbarous people. North's Plutarch, Alex. p. 727.

Bare, Bore; past tense of 'bear' (Gen. iv. 1, &c.).

For the loue that Vortiger bare to Rowen the Saxon, he was diuorced from his lawfull wife. Stow, Annals, p. 55.

Base, adj. (1 Cor. i. 28; 2 Cor. x. 1). From Fr. bas, low, humble, not necessarily worthless or wicked. So in Polyd. Vergil: 'which the baser sorte doe som time superstitiouslye note as signs and wonders' (1. 70); and again (I. 24), schaddes...being veri base bothe in relishe and estimation.' And Shakespeare (Rich. II. III. 3):

My lord, in the base court he doth attend

To speak with you.

I cannot range in a lower degree vnto these, the three Charities or Graces, which are to bee seen in the Basse court before the citadell of Athens. Holland's Pliny, XXXVI. 5.

And 'Lower Egypt' is called 'Base Egypt' in Holland's Pliny, XVIII. 18.

Battlebow, sb. (Zech. ix. 10; x. 4), Simply means 'the bow used in battle.'

Bdellium, sb. (Gen. ii. 12; Num. xi. 7). According to Celsius (Hierobotanicon) the white, transparent, oily gum, which flows from a tree about the bigness of an olive. It is brought from the East Indies and Arabia.

The right Bdellium when it is in the kinde, should be cleare, as yellow as wax, pleasant to smell vnto, in the rubbing and handling fatty, in taste bitter, and nothing soure. Holland's

Pliny, XII. 9.

Be, I and 3p. pl. ind. of the substantive verb 'to be.' A.-S. beon; O. E. ben; as doon becomes do, and goon, go. It frequently occurs in Latimer, e. g. :

Which works be of themselves marvellous good and convenient to be done. Serm. p. 23.

Voluntary works be called all manner of offering in the church, except your four offering-days and your tithes. Id.

In Judg. xvi. 9, &c. 'the Philistines be upon thee,' would be less ambiguous if are had been inserted by the translators instead of be, and so made it unmistakeably a simple announcement of fact, and not, as it is now often understood, as if it were a wish for Samson's enemies to prevail over him.

Be. The subjunctive mood of the substantive verb (A.-S. beó). In that sentence in the Litany, 'That those evils...be brought to nought,' modern usage would require the insertion of 'may' before 'be.' The usage is not at all uncommon in old authors. Other instances occur in both the Bible itself, and in the Prayer Book. "That he maintain the cause of his servant' (1 Kings viii. 59). 'Speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me' (Luke xii. 13); 'That we shew forth thy praise not only with our lips but in our lives' (Gen. Thanksgiving). Unto which he vouchsafe to bring us all' (Commination).

And after this short and transytorye lyf he bring hym and va into his celestyal blysse in heuene. Amen. Caxton, Mirrour of the Worlde.