St. Roche, who died 1327, devoted himself in a similar manner to those stricken with the plague at Piacenza; and Mompesson to the people of Eyam.  In 1720-22 H. Francis Xavier de Belsunce was indefatigable in ministering to the plague-stricken of Marseilles.

BORS (King) of Gaul, brother of king Ban of Benwicke [Brittany?].  They went to the aid of prince Arthur when he was first established on the British throne, and Arthur promised in return to aid them against king Claudas, “a mighty man of men,” who warred against them.—­Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur (1470).

There are two brethren beyond the sea, and they kings both ... the one hight king Ban of Benwieke, and the other hight king Bors of Gaul, that is, France.—­Pt. i. 8.

(Sir Bors was of Ganis, that is, Wales, and was a knight of the Round Table.  So also was Borre (natural son of prince Arthur), also called sir Bors sometimes.)

Bors (Sir), called sir Bors de Ganis, brother of sir Lionell and nephew of sir Launcelot.  “For all women he was a virgin, save for one, the daughter of king Brandeg’oris, on whom he had a child, hight Elaine; save for her, sir Bors was a clean maid” (ch. iv.).  When he went to Corbin, and saw Galahad the son of sir Launcelot and Elaine (daughter of king Pelles), he prayed that the child might prove as good a knight as his father, and instantly a vision of the holy greal was vouchsafed him; for—­

There came a white dove, bearing a little censer of gold in her bill ... and a maiden that bear the Sancgreall, and she said, “Wit ye well, sir Bors, that this child ... shall achieve the Sancgreall” ... then they kneeled down ... and there was such a savor as all the spicery in the world had been there.  And when the dove took her flight, the maiden vanished away with the Sancgreall.—­Pt. iii. 4.

Sir Bors was with sir Galahad and sir

Percival when the consecrated wafer assumed the visible and bodily appearance of the Saviour.  And this is what is meant by achieving the holy greal; for when they partook of the wafer their eyes saw the Saviour enter it.—­Sir T. Malory, History of Prince Arthur, iii. 101, 102 (1470).

N.B.—­This sir Bors must not be confounded with sir Borre, a natural son of king Arthur and Lyonors (daughter of the earl Sanam, pt. i. 15), nor yet with king Bors of Gaul, i.e., France (pt. i. 8).

BORTELL, the bull, in the beast-epic called Reynard the Fox (1498).

BOS’CAN-[ALMOGA’VA], a Spanish poet of Barcelona (1500-1543).  His poems are generally bound up with those of Garcilasso.  They introduced the Italian style into Castilian poetry.

  Sometimes he turned to gaze upon his book,
  Boscan, or Garcilasso.

Byron, Don Juan, i. 95 (1819).

BOSCOSEL, mysterious being, who brings about a reunion on earth of friends who have long ago departed for the spirit-world.—­Francis Howard Williams, Boscosel (1888).