BLA’DUD, father of king Lear.  Geoffrey of Monmouth says that “This Prince Bladud was a very ingenious man and taught necromancy in his kingdom; nor did he leave off pursuing his magic operations till he attempted to fly to the upper regions of the air with wings which he had prepared, and fell down upon the temple of Apollo in the city of Trinovantum, where he was dashed to pieces.”

BLAIR (Adam), the hero of a novel by J.G.  Lockhart, entitled Adam Blair, a Story of Scottish Life (1794-1854).

Blair (Father Clement), a Carthusian monk, confessor of Catherine Glover, “the fair maid of Perth.”—­Sir W. Scott, Fair Maid of Perth (time, Henry IV.).

Blair (Rev. David), sir Richard Philips, author of The Universal Preceptor (1816), Mother’s Question Book, etc.  He issued books under a legion of false names.

BLAISE, a hermit, who baptized Merlin the enchanter.

Blaise (St.), patron saint of wool-combers, because he was torn to pieces with iron combs.

BLAKE (Franklin), handsome, accomplished, and desperately in love with his cousin Rachel.  Almost wild concerning the safety of the Moonstone which he has conveyed to her, he purloins it while under the influence of opium, taken to relieve insomnia, and gives it to the plausible villain of the book—­Godfrey Ablewhite.  The latter pawns it to pay his debts, and is murdered by East Indians, who believe that he still has the gem.—­Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone.

BLANCHE (1 syl.), one of the domestics of lady Eveline “the betrothed.”—­Sir W. Scott, The Betrothed (time, Henry II.).

Blanche (La reine), the queen of France during the first six weeks of her widowhood.  During this period of mourning she spent her time in a closed room, lit only by a wax taper, and was dressed wholly in white.  Mary, the widow of Louis XII., was called La reine Blanche during her days of mourning, and is sometimes (but erroneously) so called afterwards.

Blanche (Lady) makes a vow with lady Anne to die an old maid, and of course falls over head and ears in love with Thomas Blount, a jeweller’s son, who enters the army, and becomes a colonel.  She is very handsome, ardent, brilliant, and fearless.—­S.  Knowles, Old Maids (1841).

BLANCHE LOMBARD, girl of the period, who solaces herself for the apparent defection of one lover by flirting with a new acquaintance; registered in his note-book as “Blonde; superb physique; fine animal spirits; giggles.”—­Robert Grant, The Knave of Hearts (1886).

BLANCHEFLEUR (2 syl.), the heroine of Boccaccio’s prose romance called Il Filopoco.  Her lover Flores is Boccaccio himself, and Blanchefleur was the daughter of king Robert.  The story of Blanchefleur and Flores is substantially the same as that of Dorigen and Aurelius, by Chaucer, and that of “Dianora and Ansaldo,” in the Decameron.