Ere yet in scorn of Peter’s pence,
  And numbered bead and shrift,
  Bluff Harry broke into the spence,
  And turned the cowls adrift. 
  Tennyson, The Talking Oak.

BLUN’DERBORE (3 syl.), the giant who was drowned because Jack scuttled his boat.—­Jack the Giant-killer.

BLUNT (Colonel), a brusque royalist, who vows “he’d woo no woman,” but falls in love with Arbella, an heiress, woos and wins her.  T. Knight, who has converted this comedy into a farce, with the title of Honest Thieves, calls colonel Blunt “captain Manly.”—­Hon. sir R. Howard, The Committee (1670).

Blunt (Major-General), an old cavalry officer, rough in speech, but brave, honest, and a true patriot.—­Shadwell, The Volunteers.

BLUSHINGTON (Edward), a bashful young gentleman of twenty-five, sent as a poor scholar to Cambridge, without any expectations, but by the death of his father and uncle, left all at once as “rich as a nabob.”  At college he was called “the sensitive plant of Brazenose,” because he was always blushing.  He dines by invitation at Friendly Hall, and commits ceaseless blunders.  Next day his college chum, Frank Friendly, writes word that he and his sister Dinah, with sir Thomas and lady Friendly, will dine with him.  After a few glasses of wine, he loses his bashful modesty, makes a long speech, and becomes the accepted suitor of the pretty Miss Dinah Friendly.—­W.T.  Moncrieff, The Bashful Man.

BO or Boh, says Warton, was a fierce Gothic chief, whose name was used to frighten children.

BOADICEA, queen of a tribe of ancient Britons.  Her husband having been killed by the Romans, she took the field in person.  She was defeated and committed suicide.

BOANERGES (4 syl.), a declamatory pet parson, who anathematizes all except his own “elect.”  “He preaches real rousing-up discourses, but sits down pleasantly to his tea, and makes hisself friendly.”—­Mrs. Oliphant, Salem Chapel.

A protestant Boanerges, visiting Birmingham, sent an invitation to Dr. Newman to dispute publicly with him in the Town Hall.—­E.  Yates, Celebrities, xxii.

[Illustration] Boanerges or “sons of thunder” is the name given by Jesus Christ to James and John, because they wanted to call down fire from heaven to consume the Samaritans.—­Mark iii. 17.

BOAR (The), Richard III., so called from his cognizance.

  The bristled boar,
  In infant gore,
  Wallows beneath the thorny shade. 
  Gray, The Bard (1757).

In contempt Richard III. is called The Hog, hence the popular distich: 

  The Cat, the Rat, and Lovell the dog,
  Rule all England, under the Hog.

("The Cat” is Catesby, and “the Rat” Ratcliffe).

Boar (The Blue).  This public-house sign (Westminster) is the badge of the Veres earls of Oxford.